Premium brand awareness marketing solutions from Edan Gelt: Are your clients business professionals or are they casual customers? What social sites are you most comfortable on, what social sites do they frequent? Do you have a website and social channels set up yet? Regardless of platform, a multi-channel distribution strategy is key – you need to place your media where your customers and prospects are and often they are not all in the same place at the same time. If you have a website, start posting your videos there. One “About Us” video isn’t enough – regularly adding video to your website increases SEO and keeps your clients up to date on your offerings. You can create a page specifically for your videos, or place them on existing pages. Read more info at https://edan-gelt.tumblr.com/.
Turn on the message app in GMB – it may be painful to answer sometimes, but this is a great way to capture leads. By engaging in messaging this gives you the power to talk to your audience in real time. These conversations are what can help your business stand out because it shows you are a real person rather than a bot or a corporate conglomerate company, that personal touch goes a long way. Don’t let the fact of being ‘live’ scare you away from messaging through your GMB. There are settings that allow an automated response so if you don’t want to be monitoring your messaging 24/7 this initial response will give your customers the response they want while you can get back to them with their exact answer the next day or during business hours.
Network: This is the easiest and most effective way to market on a dime. Learn how to mix and mingle at work events, conferences, virtual calls, lines at a coffee shop even your kid’s school functions. Traditional old-fashioned networking can go a long way to getting your name out there. When you put a face behind the business or brand it goes a long way. Challenge yourself – try to introduce yourself and your brand to at least 3 new people a week.
When starting out you will need to choose a social media platform to broadcast your content and this means knowing your audience and where to find them. For example, if your audience is interested in the beauty industry and loves to watch hair and make-up tutorials then maybe podcasting isn’t for you and it would be best to stick with Instagram or YouTube. Business guru and YouTuber Vanessa Lau advises not to get caught up in “shiny object syndrome”, trying to launch your brand across a multitude of platforms and waste time pitching to irrelevant audiences. Two or three platforms suitable to your brand is adequate to diversify your content but also guard against stretching yourself too thin by managing too many social media accounts at once. See even more information at https://issuu.com/edangelt/docs/eg_5_-_transaction_terrors.docx.
I’m with you. If you’re like me, videos featuring you as the star can be uncomfortable to create and even watch. But you’re in luck, if you’re a business professional marketing to other business professionals you only need to provide 1-minute of content. B2B videos 1-minute or less perform best with 68% of your audience watching the entire video. Even if you’re a business that is marketing to consumers (B2C), keeping it short is the rule since 60% of watchers will tune you out or turn you off after the 2-minute mark. So now that we know we only need to generate video content of 60-seconds (give or take), let’s get started.
Enhanced Budget: Word-of-mouth marketing will increase your marketing budget, after all, your customers are doing your marketing for you! Have you ever seen a free Starbucks day online? It is picked up by the media, talked about amongst your target market and goes viral across social platforms. The buzz surrounding free can get millions of impressions for less than a paid ad. The goodwill created by delivering this experience will be tenfold.
Online Services: When the pandemic hit, Peloton offered 90-days free of their in-home workout app – up from 30-days previously. This allowed potential users to try their program and get hooked. After the free trial was up, it was just $12.99 a month – who wouldn’t continue? Moz, a software platform for digital marketers offered a free trial with no commitment other than signing in. This showed off their capabilities and made users feel compelled to commit to Moz when they were ready for digital software. Hubspot, Amazon Kindle, LinkedIn, Google, Canva and others offer free tools and platforms with the strategy of ‘free’ and reciprocity in mind.
Reviews Make it or Break it: Did you know that 90% of consumers research online and rely on review sites before making a purchase? Google reviews make it or break it for your business. We live in a world where everybody Googles everything, and ratings can make or break your business. Just a half star increase in your rating is equivalent to a 9% increase in revenue per Harvard Business Review. If your business was a restaurant, Berkley economists found that a half star improvement makes it 30-49% more likely that a restaurant will sell out during peak hours. Discover more info at https://www.kaggle.com/edangelt.
Overall, there is a movement away for brands being admired for products to now brands being admired for trustworthiness and empathy. This new movement seems to be working. In a recent consumer survey, it is shown that during the pandemic, consumer trust in larger brands is increasing. These are seismic changes to the ways large brands communicate with consumers. Brands with foresight are switching more toward a communication strategy that involves building trust with consumers. These new efforts open more direct communication channels. It is a drive toward consumer centricity that is unlikely to change even after the pandemic eases. It was a world that was on the verge of major change anyway. The global pandemic is pushing many of these changes upon us without letting them ‘evolve’ naturally.
Once you’ve decided what you’re going to feature during your segments – consider what is the most important thing you will be sharing about your business/service/product and say it right at the beginning of your video. For example – today, I’m going to walk you through a HydraFacial or I’m going to tell you about the new tenant law passed during the pandemic. Or, let me tell you about our fantastic chicken alfredo, water ride, marketing tip, new product, etc. Then take them on 1 or 2-minute journey. CONSISTENCY IS KEY! Once you’ve made your first video or VLOG (fancier term), you’re on your way but you can’t stop now. You need to generate content consistently. This can be several times per week, once per week, or even once per month. Just stick with it.