The Video Marketing Advantage

Content marketers are claiming 2016 to be the year of the video. As marketing strategies continue to embrace the hot new trends in the online community, video marketing has risen above the fray in terms of reach and impact on target markets.  Videos can be used in a multitude of ways – from comedy to educational, to reach customers at critical points along the buying life cycle and build ongoing relationships with users. In addition to this, there are many other reasons why video marketing can be beneficial to your business.

The Age of Information Overload

These days, most people who frequent the internet are bombarded with information from social media, and mixed in with it is advertisers trying to cut through the noise to get their products and

services noticed. With the rise of 140 character tweets and 10 second Snap Chats, it’s hard to get users to pay attention to anything for any length of time. Videos are way to get your information out there in short bursts so that users get relevant information without too much effort on their part. It’s easier for brains to consume and process visual content rather than taking in a wall of text, so making a video visually appealing with audio enhancements will take your message to the next level. Your videos can range from customer testimonials and product demonstrations, to funny and creative ads that showcase your business.

Social Media Reach

Most internet users have at least one social media account that they check regularly, so social media is the best place to be for advertisers online.  While YouTube is the most well-known website for video watchers, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have enhanced the way videos are watched on their apps and websites to keep up with the video trend by enabling videos to be played directly in news feeds so users can easily watch without being directed away from the platform.

Posting videos on social media pages can reach thousands, and potentially millions, of people and it costs nothing to do so. If you’re a small business with only a small social media following, paid social media campaigns can broaden your reach very inexpensively. You’ll get more people watching your videos, which can translate into more followers and, potentially, more business.

The Viral Potential

We’ve all seen the work of viral videos – they appear seemingly out of the blue on your Facebook timeline and subsequently get continuously shared across all social media platforms. There’s no magic potion in making a video go viral, most times it’s just a mix of creativity, engaging content, and luck. But the potential is there for anyone to make a video that catches on and becomes a trending topic and, even if it only lasts for a day, a viral video can do wonders for your business. Users are more likely to share a video over any other content on social media, so it’s a great tool to get your business noticed.

While you may have to invest some time and money into video production, the result are videos that highlight your business and can be shared across social media, and have a permanent place on YouTube and your website as a way for users to get quick insight into what makes your business special. 

Tips On Making a Video Go Viral

In the realm of online marketing, few objectives are more desirable or downright elusive than the viral video. Like the vicissitudes of the stock market, the popularity of any online video depends on the personal tastes and sentiments of millions of unique individuals, and is thus difficult to predict. However, there are a few tactics you can employ to improve your chances of achieving virality.

Insights from past viral video trends

According to research by marketing technology company Unruly, some of the most important factors that drive video sharing are

1)  social motivations, including the desire to start a conversation, seek friends’ opinions,  offer useful information, or support a good cause;

2)  a positive emotional response to the video;

3)  the participation of “super sharers”—a minority of internet users who are responsible for around 80 percent of total shares; and

4)  timing.

On average, the greater the total volume of shares a video receives in the first two days of its existence, the higher its viral peak, which typically arrives 48 to 72 hours post-launch. Unruly’s data suggest that most sharing activity occurs in the latter half of the work week, and that Wednesday is the optimal sharing day. Marketers hoping to ride this weekly wave should post their video by Wednesday or sooner. Avoid posting on weekends or holidays.

Combine entertainment with a message.

Mekanism, an advertising agency with offices in New York and San Francisco, has produced and marketed several viral videos. Among the most famous was the 2012 offering Hovercat, designed to encourage adoption of cats on behalf of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

Mekanism sums up its philosophy on viral videos with the phrase “candy with the medicine”—in other words, entice viewers with the promise of entertainment, and complement that with a substantive message. In the case of Hovercat, Mekanism’s creative team began by identifying a theme they figured would make people smile (a zany cat often does the trick), and then developed their own creative take on a classic viral video genre. (Your feline companion may humorously knock items off tables or fend off alligators, but can it hover in the air like Superman?)

Hovercat concludes by noting that the cat in the video was adopted from the ASPCA, and links to the organization’s website.

Market and distribute the video actively

To achieve virality, you must fulfill two conditions: 1) content that viewers find engaging and worth sharing; and 2) widespread exposure.

Before you go through the technical process of recording a video, you should develop a clear marketing strategy, and consider how the video will help you reach your goal. Immediately after you post the video, intensify your marketing efforts.

Writing in Medium about her first big hit Girl Learns to Dance in a Year (TIME LAPSE), viral video specialist Karen X. Cheng explains: “I did a ton of marketing, and it started before the video was released. Going viral was not an accident—it was work.”

Cheng started by posting the video on Facebook and Twitter, then submitted it to Reddit and Hacker News. She asked friends and acquaintances to share it, and reached out to dancers and dance bloggers. Shortly thereafter, writers at Kottke, Mashable, Jezebel, and Huffington Post penned articles about the video. By day three, Girl Learns to Dance in a Year (TIME LAPSE) appeared on the front page of Youtube, and had achieved nearly 2 million views.

Cheng emphasizes the importance of a brief, catchy title, and—modern attention spans being what they are—recommends keeping the video short and sweet, preferably under two minutes.

What is Growth Hacking, and Could it Work For You?

Growth hacking is a term that originated in the tech industry—coined by entrepreneurs Sean Ellis, Hiten Shah, and Patrick Vlaskovits in 2010—and remains popular in Silicon Valley. In effect, it describes a non-traditional approach to marketing, wherein expansion of the business is the primary focus. Many growth hackers (some of whom have even adopted that title) would describe themselves as more-or-less analogous to the VP of Marketing at a conventional firm. Historically, growth hackers have tended to work with small- and medium-sized enterprises rather than major established companies—although there are indications that growth hacking is now making inroads into the corporate mainstream.

You needn’t be an IT wizard—or even a self-identified growth hacker—to take advantage of growth-hacking techniques.

A common perception of growth hackers is that they are mostly associated with the dot com sector, and as such, possess extraordinary technical knowledge and skill, including the ability to code at an advanced level. While this is undeniably true of many in the field, technical expertise is not necessarily a precondition for growth hacking. Marketing and expansion techniques familiar to growth hackers can be adopted by traditional marketers, entrepreneurs, managers—in fact, just about anyone in the business world. And now that website design templates are widely available, non-techies have ample opportunity to establish a profitable online gateway.

Growth hackers’ approach to marketing resembles more conventional marketing strategies in some respects, but principally revolves around the online medium. Like traditional companies, firms that adopt growth-hacking principles aim to attract customers, facilitate sign-ups, and retain clients over the long term, in part, by offering innovative products and services. But under a growth-hacking framework, the effectiveness of the website (and online pathways thereto) take precedence.

A simple, elegant website, with an easy sign-up process

Modern society is characterized by short attention spans, and a rule of thumb for business website design is that there is roughly a ten-second window in which to attract a prospective customer’s attention and pique h/er interest. In your initial user interface, aim for short but clear descriptions, understandable options, and visible (but not gaudy) links and portals. Allow visitors to navigate to some areas of your site without registering, and give them the option of signing up for additional services.

Another vital consideration is the process of registration itself: You’ll want to collect relevant data from your prospective clients, but it’s also important to ensure that they know exactly what they’re signing up for, and don’t feel daunted by the duration and/or arduousness of the endeavour. Many would-be customers will simply give up and move on rather than endure even a few seconds of unnecessary inconvenience.

 

Tools of the trade

Among the devices in the growth hacker’s tool kit are search engine optimization (SEO), data analytics, viral video, guest blogging, mailing lists, and a wide range of specialized survey and marketing software. A fairly extensive list of utilities for marketing and metrics is available here.

Some common objectives growth hackers emphasize in the development of a new product or business are virality, effective distribution, and ease of access and use of the business’s website (from the customer’s perspective). The purpose of metrics, surveys, and other data is to provide feedback as to the success of those efforts.

Start with your networks to drive traffic. Use “calls to action” to generate sign-ups.

Online advertising can get expensive, and virality can be a difficult and time-consuming ambition. For start-ups with low cash flow, the cost and challenge of driving traffic to a website can be especially prohibitive. One of the ways around this problem is to start with your social network. Let your friends on Facebook know about your business, send e-mails to your contacts, call up friends to gauge their level of interest.

Create a landing page separate from the website’s home page, and direct visitors toward it. Once they arrive, the next goal is to promote registration. An approach that many businesses find effective is the Call to Action—usually in the form of a prominent icon that visitors can click on in order to “learn more”, “get started”, etc. This is where registration kicks in, which you can then measure, analyze, and, in turn, identify ways to improve.

Of course, there is no shortcut to a robust level of growth. But a growth hacker’s mindset can help to propel your business toward that goal.

A wealth of additional information is available online. Check out QUICKSPROUT’s Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking, GrowthHackers, growth-hacker.com, and the personal blogs of growth-hacking specialists Aaron Ginn and Andrew Chen.     

15 Great Guerilla Marketing Ideas for Startups

The term ‘guerilla filmmaking’ refers to creating a film or video with the barest of resources. That same principle applies to guerilla marketing. This is where a small business can latch onto a simple idea to get the word out about their goods or services. Startups benefit the most from a positive guerilla marketing campaign because of their potential to generate a “big splash” without huge marketing dollars. Here are 15 great guerilla marketing ideas for startups:

1) Put Themes to Work: Anything from special sales to in-store displays can attract more attention when you apply a theme to the event. While the seasons and holidays are good starting point, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box like a “Christmas in July Sale.”

2) Reward Loyal Customers: Handing out a discount coupon to loyal customers will not only generate more of their business but will help get the word out to other potential customers.

3) Start a Blog with Unique Content: If you’re in business, you need a website and that website has to be refreshed with great content. Start a blog and give visitors something new to read or comment on every day.

4) Go with a Viral Video: If you can find a way to get the word out about your product with a video that can go viral you’ll be in a strong position to capitalize on that. Try hiring a young team of college film students and make it funny.

5) Pass out Swag: Sure you can print your company logo on a pen and pass those out but that’s also a bit of a cliché. Today, you can print your logo on just about anything. What can your customers really benefit from? Cup cozies? Cupcakes? Remember you want to create a buzz.

6) Build up your Twitter Network: Encourage customers to follow your company on twitter then use that network to advertise special sales or deals.

7) Switch out your Phone Message: Forget the boring, “We’re not here right now”, swap it out for something fun like, “We’re unpacking product for our next sale.” Make it personal.

8) Ask for Testimonials: If you’ve got happy customers ask them to share their experiences on your website or Facebook page (yes, get one of those too!). New customers like reading positive reviews.

9) Improve Customer Relations: Offer your employees incentives for the most positive customer reviews. When you create a great experience for customers they will keep coming back.

10) Sponsor an Amateur Sports Team: You can’t ask for better community relations than sponsoring a local sports team or two. Just make sure you get your company logo on all the team uniforms.

11) Support a Local Cause: Another way to make a positive impact in the community is to sponsor a local cause. Keep your giving in the neighborhood where you’re customers will see the efforts directly.

12) Use Texts: As with other forms of social media networking, text messages are a great way to remind your customers of special sales or a pick up appointment.

13) Flyers: A slick looking flyer is a great way to generate business. Make sure you have a coupon on the flyer to track their effectiveness and give the person a reason to hold onto that.

14) Make it Personal: If you can find a way to tell your family business story through a local newspaper profile or video then you’ll reach a lot more potential customers by relating to their own struggles.

15) Create a Publicity Stunt: Don’t go too overboard, but even having someone dress up in a chicken outfit to pass out coupons in front of your store can draw attention. It would be especially funny if your store had nothing to do with chickens!

Do the Super Bowl Ads Work?

Since its inception, baseball has been dubbed America's favorite past time. However, Major League Baseball doesn't even come close to pulling in the kinds of audience numbers that the Super Bowl does every year. Based on the ratings the network, which has the rights to air the game, can charge exorbitant amounts of money for a 30 and 60 second spot. For Super Bowl XLVI, NBC was able to lock down prime positioning for commercials at a whopping $4 million per spot. Keep in mind that those spots sold well before the final two teams were picked for the game.

Do Super Bowl ads really work? If you consider that this year's audience topped 110 million viewers then clearly those advertising dollars were money well spent. A small business might not have that kind of revenue resources to pour into a single commercial. However, were they to create a compelling ad becomes "buzz worthy" a small business could turn into a very big business overnight.

Building a Brand

While it is hard to tie specific sales figures to a particular Super Bowl commercial, it is easy to measure improvements in a company’s brand name. A strong brand name can have consumers searching out those particular products when shopping time rolls around. In other words, no one will rush out to buy a Chevy pickup right after the Super Bowl. But something might have resonated with a potential car buyer that increases the awareness of Chevy. Because of that, when they're ready to hit the auto dealerships they might just give Chevy a look.

Advertisers want to create a positive experience about the products or companies they are producing commercials for. This is how a small business selling a product or service can gain a foothold in a competitive marketplace. One of the most effective ways of doing this is to have a commercial that is so popular that it demands increased viewings.

Going Viral

In 1984, long before social media and viral videos, Apple bought air time for one spot during the Super Bowl for their “1984” Macintosh ad, introducing the first personal computer. The ad ran only once on a major network, but has become one of the most influential commercials of all time. It actually managed to go viral through news program, even before the concept of viral was popularized!

The viral phenomenon has changed the advertising landscape greatly. By now you’ve had enough time to watch, re-watch, share and discuss the best (and worst) ads from last week’s game. Today, buying just one ad spot during the Super Bowl can translate into thousands or even millions of views on social media websites. 

With the advent of sites like YouTube and Facebook Super Bowl ad viewings have greatly increased. More folks will re-watch the Super Bowl commercials and send links to them than ever before. This means that the typical 60 second spot watch by 110 million viewers will have that number increase over time. The more someone watches a commercial the more entrenched that brand name will become. Last year's Super Bowl spot featuring a diminutive Darth Vader trying to use the force to turn on a Volkswagen Jetta was one of the most-watched commercials of all time. That was a big help to Volkswagen.

Sex and Humor Sells

A common theme that runs through many Super Bowl ads are sexy spokesmodels and lots of laughs. This brings up the issue of GoDaddy.com In 2005, Go Daddy.com aired their first Super Bowl spot featuring a sexy model in a revealing tease that encouraged viewers to head over to their website to see the rest of the commercial. This was a brilliant piece of marketing that had the viewers scrambling to get to the Internet! As a result, GoDaddy.com was able to instantly establish its brand name even though a sexy model had nothing to do with the product it was selling. Since then the GoDaddy.com commercial has become an annual favorite that viewers look forward to during the Super Bowl. They went from a small business pulling in 16% of the market share to an online giant now capturing 50% of the market share all based on that first Super Bowl commercial. They are just one of the many examples proving that Super Bowl ads do work.

Memorable Advertising

The great thing about Super Bowl ads is that they can be so creative and memorable that the ads can easily be associated it to the brand. The Budweiser clydesdales. The E-Trade talking babies. The Geico cavemen. Marketers know that when brands are easily associated with their commercials, they’ve made a good ad. But this isn’t always the case.  Sometimes brand association can backfire if the ad content is too good, making the brand become lost in the story line. Conversation may be spurred about the content of the ad, but can fail to create buzz around the brand itself. For instance, can anyone remember what brand the ‘Ferris Beuller’s Day Off’ ad was for? Anyone? Anyone?

There was a time, before the popularity of the internet and social media, when most people would call advertisers crazy for shelling out millions for one ad spot during the Super Bowl. But now that people have the ability to easily re-watch and share their favourite ads, it makes spending such large amounts actually seem worth it in the end for the branding, memorability and buzz that are afforded to the Super Bowl big spenders.