Online Video Marketing: 3 Tips You Need To Know

1st, the Facts

• 4Xs as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.
• 50% of Internet users look for videos related to a product before visiting a store.
• Men spend 40% more time watching videos on the Internet than women. Videos no more than 2 minutes long get the most engagement.
• 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.
• Video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more.
  

Now, the 3 Tips

1) Strategically Plan
This will help you leverage the powerful marketing path of video. Determine what type of video you will need and why. For example, should you create a video that showcases your product, builds awareness, publicizes a special event, or educates your customer? Then ask why one or the other will make a difference? Outline your goals, objectives, target, budget, due date, and other requirements for each individual video in order to track your success.

2) The Story Is Always First. Always.
Center around the value your product/service offers your potential client instead of the sale. Always speak to their desires and needs. You’ve only got :08 seconds to capture their attention before they click away, so make it the best, most interesting short/long form video possible. Use your money wisely, because boring is for losers.

3) Don’t Play Hide 'N Seek
Help your target find you online by implementing the following SEO recommendations.

• Be sure to create a video interface on your website (limits disk usage), and also post it on all your social media pages.
• Make sure it is easily sharable by adding the correct tags and SEO requirements.
• Make sure it has detailed written descriptions of its content and relevant key words. This will help search engine spiders categorize and catalog your campaign.

Video best practices suggest that strategy and creativity go hand-in-hand. And besides that, evidence shows that customers love to ride the video train!

So, if you want your video(s) to continue to get results, then you must plan, tell your story, broadcast your product, engage your customer, and repeat. If done correctly, you’ll continue to stay on track, stop-after-stop along your journey.

For more information on how to get on board, contact info@hornsbybrandesign.com.

Source: 
https://www.facebook.com/bufferapp/posts/-85-of-facebook-videos-are-watched-without-sound-93-of-twitter-videos-are-watche/1425000810905695/

How to assassinate your brand: 5 hacks that will KILL it dead.

Brands are alive. They breath. They require attention and nourishment. In fact, your brand is the driving life force of your business. The healthier it is, the more trust it has, the more loyal brand evangelists you’ll gain, and the more enhanced your bottom-line will become.

However, there are those who think they can achieve great branding by learning to do it themselves. (You know, read some articles, copy someone whom you think is “doing it right,” etc.) But the reality is that bargain-basement branding is a surefire way to erode trust with your customers, decrease your customer base, turn away prospects, and…well, you get the picture.

5 Brand-Killing Hacks:

1. Shoot from the hip with your messaging.
   Who needs strategy, right? Don’t waste your time or money researching and planning. Why would you want to cultivate a relationship with your customer? Disregarding this will save you a lot of time.
2. Tell the same story as everybody else.
   “We’re the best!” “Quality is our middle name!” “New and improved”. Whatever you do, don’t make it meaningful or significant. Resist the temptation to cultivate one brand voice. Keep mute on how it’s different from your competitors. Hide the passion behind your business’ launch and refrain from demonstrating and promoting this passion anywhere at any time. And by all means, don’t ever discuss how it benefits the consumer and their community.
3. Don’t bother trying to connect with a prospect.
   You just want to sell a product not really talk with them. You’re not interested in relationship anyway. So keep any shared values and vision to yourself. Stay away from engaging with them where they live, especially on social media. Resist spending energy and resources sharing your story and educating and involving your customer in the process.
4. Hire your friend’s nephew who’s in college.
   This will go a long way in helping him with his senior project and getting his degree...at your company’s expense, of course. The nephew can help you with all sorts of marketing projects like “designing” and building your own website, collateral, planning, and more. Don’t be baited into hiring a professional, who can get to the heart of your story, target your prospect, and convey your unique message and shared values. Understand that professional brand marketing skills—discovering, researching, analyzing, planning, executing, and supporting—and all the marketing tools of the trade, are waaaay over-rated. Besides, you’re helping a future marketing professional that some day may help other businesses actually reach their potential. Don’t linger on that irony.
5. Ignore social media.
   It’s a time sucker anyway and kind of gets back to that whole relationship/trust thing. You don’t need to listen to your targets and what they are saying, they need to listen to you. After all, you’ve got something fantastic to sell them. Remember it’s not about them, it’s about you. It’s a monologue NOT a dialog. They need to help you out...you’ve got bills to pay. Don’t be burdened with the hassle of trying to figure out what they want. They should know.... It’s your product. Besides, they know where to find you.

Obviously this is all tongue-in-cheek to make a point: Successfully targeted branding is not just about price, it’s also about the quality of the brand product boosted by the quantity of effort put behind its development. Just like you wouldn’t hire a football player to perform surgery on you, a branding professional can offer a wealth of knowledge and experience toward marketing and building your brand. They have the skills to plan, develop, influence, engage, and evolve your brand successfully.

5 Benefits of a Powerful Press Release

No matter what industry you're in and no matter how small or big your company or organization is, you will benefit from press release distribution. You have stories that can get you coverage in trade journals, magazines, blogs, podcasts, and other publications that cover your industry. But of course, you can't get it, if you don't tell it.

1. Press releases are inexpensive.
   Whether you write your own or hire a professional with a distribution service, it's always less than paid advertising.


2. Press releases boost your company's visibility. This is especially important for small businesses, but even large corporations need to fight for consumer mind share. By sticking to a long-term press release distribution strategy, you let customers know who you are, what you do, and why they need you. You also gain the attention of journalists, and over time, they start to trust you more and give you more media coverage.


3. Press releases can establish you as an industry expert.
   Why is it important to be seen as an expert? First, expertise helps you gain the trust of your customers. Once they trust you, they're likelier to buy from you. But being an expert is also good for media relations. Whenever the media needs someone to comment on a story related to your industry, you want to be the first person they call.


4. Press releases spread your name far and wide.
   However, target smaller local media outlets first. One of the reasons is that most major media outlets receive a significant percentage of their stories from local media outlets throughout the world. That's how the news industry works. One reporter picks up a story, and then it spreads from one publication to the next.


5. Press releases keep potential customers and investors up-to-date.
   Press releases highlighting the successes and advancements made by your company or organization can be powerful tools for attracting customers, investors, and advocates.

Letter from the Editor: Tell Your Story

Dear Friends,

In previous SweetSpot newsletters, we featured the five branding disciplines…differentiation, collaboration, innovation, validation, and cultivation. While we could expound on each of these very important aspects of branding more, the bottom-line is always about storytelling.

From birth, children of every culture hear stories told by parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors, books, and more. Why? Because stories connect us together. Sharing them bridges generations, all the while teaching, entertaining, and bonding. It's even been said that the importance of stories in our lives ranks somewhere between nourishment and shelter. 1

Because stories are easy to remember and illustrative, they build stronger emotional bonds between people and parties. This is true of branding stories as well, which is a viable marketing method, proven to build customer loyalty.

An authentic brand story...

• makes the brand memorable,
• differentiates it as desirable,
• breathes life into it,
• creates a distinctive competitive advantage,
• motivates the target market, and
• positions the company as visionary.

So, the question we always ask our clients is, "What is your brand story?" (Take a look at our article "Brand Legend: Do you have it?" for inspiration and successful brand lores.) Ultimately, our goal is to help them emotionally connect with their customers and provide a memorable experience that will build loyalty. 

Here's to telling great stories!

Bridget Hornsby
Principal
Hornsby Brand Design

1: Price, Reynolds (1978). A Palpable God, New York:Atheneum, p.3.