7 Eye Opening Video Marketing Stats

When it comes to video marketing, we know that it’s the coolest kid on the block. Sure blog posts like this one are super useful, but countless studies show that people prefer to view videos than read text because it’s visually engaging and really easy to consume.

But as with everything else in content marketing, the world of video is changing. 

#1. 77% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product after watching a video

Product videos are the very best way to educate your customers on what your product can do for them, which will ultimately increase your ROI.

And the great thing about a product video is that you can create any kind that you like.

For example, you could hold a webinar and educate people about your product in-depth, create an animated video to show the benefits of a service in a fun and engaging way, or produce a screen-recorded walk through instructing a user on how to use your product. The choices are endless!

#2. 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video

So the good news is, those videos that you create for social don’t go to waste! You’ve probably already noticed more and more videos popping up on your social feeds, and most of them are from brands.

But the key to a shareable video somewhat differs to that of a product video. You should aim to see this as a brand awareness goal, rather than trying to hit your conversion goals. That’s not to say that you won’t increase your conversions, but it’s important to understand that videos on social should be more focused towards the initial attraction stage of the buyer’s journey.

So what does it take to get a person to share your video on social…?

#3. 76% of consumers would share a brand’s video if it was entertaining

When it comes to social media, the aim of the game is to get people to hit that share button. But if you’re struggling to see many shares then it could be to do with the type of content you’re trying to promote.

Does it keep your audience entertained? Getting weighed down in trying to push your product onto your viewers is why most people will switch off. Think about what you can do to make it fun, interesting and entertaining.

#4. 61% of consumers were put off buying a product after watching a bad explainer video

Yikes! This is an important statistic to take note of. If you’re going to create a video to explain what your product or service does then you need to make sure that it’s done right. And by right, we mean quality scriptwriting, illustrations and animation — the whole package.

Interestingly many respondents told us that they were put off buying a product because the messaging was so unclear. Rather than trying to squeeze in every single feature that your product does, think about using the video as the hook rather than the manual.

The very best explainer videos follow a very similar formula in that they connect with the problems of the viewer, they then go on to show how that business solves those problems by highlighting the product benefits, and they close with a killer CTA.

#5. 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate

Do you have a video on your website? If you don’t then you could be losing out on a huge opportunity to increase your conversion rates.

The Crazy Egg video is the perfect example of this. The reason they wanted to create an explainer video was because they discovered that their customers found it difficult to justify paying so much for their service. By creating an animated explainer video and featuring it on their homepage, they grew their conversions by 363%.

The reason it worked so well is because not only does it use a fun character to keep it super engaging, it drills right down to the core and shows viewers the benefits of how they can actually use their product to increase their own web conversions.

#6. 53% of businesses struggle to promote their video content

Promoting any content can be tricky, let alone a video. But if you want it to be a success then you need to ensure that you have a promotion strategy in place.

So where do you start?

Once you’ve created your video and sourced a hosting platform, first step is to put it on your website — so that could be your blog, your product pages, or your homepage. Next, share it on social and pay to promote it so that you can attract your target audience. Once you’ve got that covered, email your database, leverage influencers and set up an ad campaign so that you can drive plenty of viewers to your video.

#7. 91% of businesses say they plan to increase or maintain their spending on video in 2016

If there’s one thing we can say for certain it’s that video isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. We learnt that in 2015 on average, marketers intended to spend up to $5,000 on video, and this looks set to increase for 2016.

After looking at the stats it’s clear to see that the future is bright for video marketing. With more and more businesses using it to educate their audience, raise their brand awareness, and increase their ROI, isn’t it about time you jumped on the video bandwagon?

  Source : http://bit.ly/1Ym64je

7 worthwhile ways to automate social media

Social media is an essential part of 21st century life. And, that’s especially true for business owners who are looking to connect with customers, influencers and even potential investors.

While having a social media marketing strategy is a necessity, it can become extremely time consuming. Between updating your profile, responding to customers, coming up with content and sharing content, managing your social media accounts can become a full-time job.

Over the past six months I've really been dialing in my social media efforts for minimal time effort and maximum output. Thankfully, there are a few tools and strategies I've found that help automate social media so I can focus on growing my business. If that sounds like a plan, then give these seven techniques a try.

1. Social media automation software and apps

The easiest way to automate social media is by using automation software and apps. These include Hootsuite, Buffer, SproutSocial, HubSpot, Social Oomph and Social Flow. Each tool may have unique features of their own, but essentially they all allow you to schedule social media posts in advance and monitor your accounts when someone mentions your brand or leaves a comment.

If you’re just starting out, select just one tool and experiment with it by scheduling a couple of updates. I personally use Buffer and really like it. Most of the tools above have apps so that you can stay up-to-date with your social media accounts while on the go.

I also like using Brand24 to find out who is talking about my company online. This is a social listening tool that shows me every person that mentions my brand both on social media or a blog post. They don't do any social posting but the social listening feature is amazing. You can then acknowledge these mentions and thank people publicly.

2. Fill in the gaps

Automation tools like Hootsuite can be a real timesaver. But, you can take that automation to the next level by using tools like Zapier and IFTTT. Basically, these resources make it possible for apps, systems and websites to talk to each other. For example, you could create a "zap" that automatically posts new WordPress posts into your Facebook page.

IFTTT gives you the ability to create "recipes" so that you can sync your online profiles or Google Calendar with social media so that you never forget a birthday. The possibilities are endless. Check out this Buffer post to help you get started with IFTTT.

3. Sync your blog

You’ve worked pretty hard on that blog post or creating that infographic. Why not ensure that it’s going to be seen by your friends and followers on social media? If you use WordPress, this is pretty easy to do since there are more than enough plugins that allow you to add social share buttons onto your page or automatically post on social media whenever you publish a new article.

However, you can also sync your blog content and social media updates in advance with a tool like CoSchedule. This handy service lets you plan out your editorial calendar in conjunction with the social media channel that you want the content to be shared on. Remember not all types of content will work on all social media channels. Share content on the channels where you know your fans will see it. I find that the content that does super well on Twitter doesn't do as well on Facebook for my audience. My Google+ audience likes more in depth articles while my Twitter likes short nuggets of advice. Test out and see what your audience likes and then automate it as much as possible.

4. Recycle evergreen content

Unless you literally started a blog last week, there’s a very good chance that you have some old blog posts in your archives. While it wouldn’t make much sense to share an article that discussed the hottest marketing trends of 2010, you could share evergreen content.

Evergreen content is timeless content that is still relevant. You could go through your archives, or you could also use a WordPress plugin like Revive Old Posts to simplify the process. There is also a killer tool that I use called MeetEdgar that allows you to publish a post and then automatically recycle your top posts several times on a schedule.

5. Tweet multiple times

While you don’t want to be the person who is flooding your fans' feeds with the same link to a recently published article, there’s also no rule saying that you can’t post that multiple times. In fact, the most effective Twitter users tweet 3 times per day. Even if you only send out the same content, you’re increasing your chances of it getting noticed by a different audience.

If you look at your audience and get to know them you'll find that they are from all over the world. This means that whenever you tweet, you'll have followers online. I like to setup a schedule for tweeting several times a day at specific times. I then go online and find the best content (mainly motivational quotes as they do super well as you can and schedule them out over the coming months. This allows me to spend two to three hours once every three months finding good quotes. Keep in mind that you can always post something important to social media whenever you want. This is just scheduling out so when you get busy, you don't look inactive.

6. Curate content

Social media isn’t just about sharing content that you’ve created. It’s also about sharing other people’s content. Thankfully, curating is easier than ever with the help of those automation tools that you’ve been using. For example, Hootsuite gives you the option to discover suggested content that you’re interested in based on keywords. Buffer allows you to create a posting schedule based on updates from within your network.

Newsfeeds like Feedly, dlvr.it and Scoop.it can also be used to curate and share relevant content. But, if you need a more robust content curation tool, there’s no better option than Curata.

7. Focus on one task when you have down time

Finally, you have to realize that you can’t automate 100% of your social media activity and have it be exactly what a dream account would look like. If you want to have a huge strong following, automation won't ensure this. There needs to be moments when you have an actual interaction with customers, fans or followers. And, trust me, people can easily notice when an account is basically a robot. Instead of getting overwhelmed, focus on accomplishing one task whenever you have some down time.

This could be anything from responding to or leaving comments, personally sharing updates or refreshing your profile. You don’t necessarily have to do this every 30 minutes, but try finding a little bit of time each day or each week to give your account a human touch. I find that the more personal touch I give my account the more real I am to my followers. This gains their trust and with their trust you can make a more powerful impact online.

Source : http://on.mash.to/1PqKt3x

4 Web Design Trends for Ecommerce in 2016

Web design  is constantly evolving, especially in the ecommerce arena where most retail companies heavily rely on online sales as their major revenue source.

The need to constantly innovate, adapt and stay on top of the most recent web design and online marketing trends is what makes the ecommerce space so fierce and competitive. The top preforming ecommerce sites for 2016 will be the ones that take advantage of the latest online trends, including the rapidly growing mobile sales market (mCommerce).

Here are a 4 emerging web design trends that will become more and more popular among eCommerce websites for the 2016 year.

1. Simple & Standard Site Designs

When it comes to ecommerce web design, simpler is always better. Just take a look at some of the most successful online retail giants Amazon and Walmart. Both retail sites are nearly identical in design. A simple site frame with a basic header, search bar, featured web banner, and popular product listing is all that’s really needed in a homepage.

The reason for this isn’t a lack of creativity, but rather a strong focus onconversion rate optimization (CRO). Successful ecommerce sites know what works and doesn’t when it comes to generating more sales online, and will most likely continue to stick with their same winning formula with a few design tweaks here and there.

2. A Focus on Mobile Commerce

With mobile commerce (mcommerce) sales continually on the rise, more online retailers will continue to come up with new innovative ways to create more mobile friendly sales experiences online.

With mobile sales conversions still relatively low, there exists a huge potential to tap into this still young and growing mobile commerce market. Expect to see many innovative web design trends focusing on improving and further integrating mobile friendliness and user phone experience.

3. More Pop-ups

Although pop-up ads are extremely annoying for many online users (myself included), they are still highly effective in converting sales. Otherwise, why would so many eCommerce companies still be using it?

Pop-ups are a highly underrated web marketing and design tool for converting customers in all steps of the online sales process. Adding in a quick coupon pop-up might entice a potential online customer to buy your product or at the very least sign up to your newsletter and return to your website at a later time.

4. Images Sell, Not Text

Ever heard of the saying “A picture speaks a thousand words”? Well it couldn’t be truer for eCommerce, and online in general. Think of Instagram. In a social media-dominated Internet, images rule – and ecommerce is definitely no expectation.

By incorporating high quality images that promote your product effectively, you can quickly grab a customer’s attention, and hopefully their checkout too.

Source : http://bit.ly/1S5zz9j

Top Trends in Marketing for This Year

At the start of every year, many inbound marketers like to take a glimpse into what the future holds. It’s exciting to see what new software, hardware, and strategies are at the forefront, and make predictions about what will become the next best thing … and what will fizzle out.

The marketing trends for this year will not disappoint, so here’s a look at what to expect and how to plan for what’s ahead.

Video and images are essential.

Much like the last two years, imagery will continue to drive traffic, generate leads, and convert sales. However, some marketers are still getting on board to use video and images, so you’ll be competing with many more companies for customer attention. Plus, Google is now incorporating in-SERP video ads, giving your content much more exposure.

Virtual reality and 3D are the next major shift.

Video and images will continue to be essential–even more so as developers launch products enabling virtual reality and 3D technology for marketing. While the market will generally focus on gaming, there are opportunities marketers must seize. Integration with social media and video channels will lead to more direct messaging for users.

Make sure you’re optimized for mobile.

Users of portable devices will become even more reliant on mobile usage as compared to desktops, so your pages must be developed accordingly. Use responsive design techniques or create a separate app for users to ensure smooth, glitch-free navigation.

Marketers must embrace the omnichannel approach.

Marketing has always been about reaching your potential customers in the places they’re hanging out. In 2016, they’ll be all over and expect you to be there with them. An integrated approach to the customer experience is important–one that blends interactions for a seamless encounter, instead of a series of connections through your website, social media, and app separately.

This is especially important for businesses with a brick-and-mortar location in addition to online marketplace. If there’s a disconnect between the two experiences, there will be a disruption in your messaging.

Social media is a channel, not a strategy.

For years, marketers have used social media as a strategy for reaching customers. However, these platforms aren’t an approach on their own; rather, your social media profile is a part of your comprehensive marketing strategy–it’s a channel for messaging, not a separate tactic. Think of it as a microphone that supplements and amplifies your content.

Wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) will dominate.

Wearable technology means your customers are never without their smart device; the IoT is turning everyday objects into network connections. These solutions gained some traction in 2015 and you can expect them to boom in the coming months. The landscape of local marketing will see the most impact as the lines between online and traditional marketing become blurred.

The 2016 Outlook

If there’s one common theme tying together all of these sales and marketing trends, it’s that marketers must focus on the customer experience in their efforts. Your content must meet the desires of demanding customers, delivering relevance and context through the channels they want. They have high expectations and limited patience, so your strategies must meet their needs and expectations to get a leg up over the competition.

Source : http://bit.ly/1PIPq7o

7 Skills Your Social Media Manager Should Have

The past ten years have brought us incredible developments in the field of social media – developments which have irrevocably changed the DNA of digital marketing; provided content marketers with a limitless landscape in which to showcase their efforts; and created a new profession of individuals who pretty much live and breathe social.

The beauty of social is that you don’t need to be a big name brand with an astronomical marketing budget in order to harness its power – even a modest-sized business can reap the benefits of connecting with and engaging consumers. In fact, it can even be argued that the smaller-sized business lends itself even better to social media as it tends to operate via informal, open communication – just the sort of style that works exceptionally well in the social sphere.

Brands have had to sit up and take notice of the fact that properly handling the social side of their business is becoming more important than ever. The role of social media management is no longer simply seen as an add-on duty i.e. the aptly named Joe Bloggs penning the odd, whimsical post to publish to Facebook as and when he thinks of it before hurrying back to his ‘real’ job.

However, hiring the right social media manager can be something of a minefield. In the dynamic and constantly evolving landscape of social media, it can be hard to figure out what the key skills are that you should be looking out for. So, to help you make the right call, we’ve compiled a little list…

1. Passion for social media

Bit of a no-brainer you might think, but just having a top-notch personal Facebook page doesn’t necessarily put your candidate above the rest. A great social media manager will be able to not only demonstrate expertise across a range of social channels but also show an understanding of what type of content best suits each platform and a passion for interacting within these online communities.

2. Customer service skills

An ability to communicate with customers and prospects from all demographics as well the organisational skills to provide timely and appropriate responses to queries or issues are essential attributes in order to gain and secure customer loyalty.

3. SEO expertise

SEO, content and social media all go hand-in-hand. Forbes once described a social media manager as “the gatekeeper and promoter” of content. This content needs to be properly optimised to grow your audience, drive traffic to your website and hopefully attract a fair few sales as a result.

4. Drive to learn

This is a landscape that is ever-evolving and consequently, your social media manager needs to be evolving along with it. To stay on top of the game in this fast-paced world, the ideal candidate needs to be reading as much as possible about social media and technological advancements and be able to discuss trends, tools and potential opportunities for the future.

5. Persistence

It takes patience, dedication and drive to achieve social media success. Growing an audience, building trust and establishing your brand as an authority in your industry takes time and the best social media managers maintain realistic expectations along with their big dreams – they are not afraid to experiment, make mistakes and come back stronger than before.

6. A top-notch toolkit

There is a vast array of useful social media tools at your disposable – do you really have the time to learn about them all as well as run your business? A social media manager should be able to show you their favourite features for tasks such as: monitoring mentions on social media activity; keeping track of and interpreting analytics; collaborating with a team on social projects; and scheduling activity.

7. An eye for words and pictures

As the majority of communications will be in writing, it goes without saying that a social media manager should have clear, concise and on-brand writing skills. However, in the digital world, particularly as the age of video dawns, a picture can be worth a thousand words – the right candidate will have an eye for great images and video when they see it and know when it is worth sharing.

Source : http://bit.ly/1JOZbnF

7 Ways For Startups To Build A Strong Social Media Following

If you’re a startup, operating on a limited budget, it becomes essential to focus your marketing on low-budget marketing strategies that are proven to work. You need to make every penny count.

Social media is essential to any new startup’s marketing plan because it offers free and low cost ways to promote a new website. Social can work better than techniques like SEO to build traffic in the initial states of promoting a startup.

Here are seven ways that startups can build a strong following on social media.

1. Create buyer personas

Buyer personas are an inbound marketing strategy that help you hone in and focus on the right target audience. With a limited marketing budget, the last thing you want to do is to throw money away on marketing to an audience that is not interested in your products or services.

Creating a buyer persona will help you focus only on those people that are likely to purchase what you have to offer. When creating your buyer personas for potential customers, you need to list:

• Their job and demographic information
• What a day in their life looks like
• Their challenges or pain points
• Places where they access the information they want
• Their most common objections to making a purchase

Understanding all these aspects of your buyers will help you focus your marketing and content to appeal to the right buyers at every stage in the sales funnel.

For example, this is what a buyer persona might look like for a startup like BigBasket.com.

2. Create a responsive website

With a majority of internet users now accessing the web from their mobile devices, your startup website needs to have responsive web design and be easily accessible on all mobile devices.

Google’s “Mobilegeddon” update made having a mobile-friendly site a ranking factor in the Google search results. That means, if you hope to use SEO to get traffic to your website, your design needs to be responsive, so it adapts to any mobile device that it is viewed on.

The alternative is creating a mobile app, which is an expensive proposition for a startup, and not really necessary if your website is responsive. If you use WordPress to build your website, it is easy to download a free or low-cost theme to make your website mobile friendly.

3. Create a social presence on select channels

One of the biggest misconceptions startups have is that they need to build a presence on every social network. This only means you’ll spread yourself thin and remain unfocused in your marketing strategy.

While I would recommend creating an account on all social networks, just to make sure no one else takes charge of your brand name, you need to focus your efforts only on those networks that your buyer persona is spending the most time on.

For example, for the Busy Mom Persona above, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram might be the best networks to focus on because these are thenetworks most frequently accessed by women. The more focused your efforts, the mbore successful your social media marketing campaign will be.

4. Invest in social advertisements

The fastest way to build a strong following on a network like Facebook is with paid advertising. Facebook Like ads can grow your following, while Promoted post ads can boost engagement on your best content.

Facebook advertising is still relatively low-cost, especially if you’re advertising to an audience in India. For just a few rupees a click, you can grow your network to thousands of targeted fans and followers.

On Twitter and Pinterest, it is still easy to build a following without advertising. But if you’re in a hurry to grow your numbers and get your startup in front of more people, explore Twitters follower ads and Pinterest’s Promoted Pinsoptions.

Set aside a budget for social media advertising and you will be able to build a strong social media follower base in a much shorter time.

5. Start a blog and post regularly

While your social media profiles are your outreach posts, I highly recommend that you make your blog the hub of your social presence. Publishing a regular blog is great for SEO, and also provides you with original content to post on your social networks.

Make sure your blog is setup to capture leads and emails from blog subscribers. There’s no point sending traffic to your blog, if you’re not generating targeted leads that you can add to a follow-up email campaign.

Your blog is an essential component of your sales funnel, so invest some time and effort in publishing posts that target the challenges and pain points of your buyer personas.

Publish content in multiple formats, like video, infographics and PPT (Slideshare) to reach those customers who prefer consuming content in these formats. Spend some time learning how to make your content stand out from the clutter.

6. Invest in social customer service

Social customer service is such an important aspect of social media today, that it’s no longer an option whether you should invest in it or not.

On average, 40 percent of customers complaining on social media expect a response within an hour, and 32 percent expect a response within 30 minutes. It would be wise to hire a dedicated social media manager to answer queries immediately.

Social networks like Facebook have even introduced features that display how quickly customers can expect a response from their favorite pages. If you respond to 90% of messages and maintain a median response time of 5 minutes for all replies sent, your page will qualify for a “very responsive to messages” icon.

As a new startup, you can build an advantage over more established competitors if you show your fans that you are super responsive to their queries and concerns.

Facebook also allows Page admins to reply to comments left on their Page with private messages. This can help you respond to personal requests and handle customer-specific information more effectively.

Facebook’s “Saved Replies” feature gives you the ability to use canned messages when communicating with potential customers on your page. This can help you cut down on the time you spend responding to frequently asked questions.

On Twitter, response times have to be quick, or else customers are likely to complain and spread negativity about your brand. To learn how to create a social customer service program that gets results, read the 2015 Definitive Guide to Social Customer Service.

7. Hold contests and promotions

The best way for a new startup to build visibility and buzz on social media is with the help of contests and promotions. Offering free versions of your products, discounts, or prizes, can help you get a lot of new followers and fans in a short amount of time.

Spend some time coming up with a creative idea for your contest. Use videos to announce your contest, and upload your videos directly to Facebook, so you can benefit from the viral nature of Facebook shares.

Use social ads to advertise your contests and promotions to a targeted audience of buyers. Contests and promotions can create a lot of positive publicity and word of mouth for your brand on social media. 

Source : http://bit.ly/1m7mazL

5 of the Biggest Obstacles Facing Entrepreneurs

When you first decide to make the big leap and become an entrepreneur, you will face many hurdles along the way. However, if you know what these hurdles will be, then you can begin to take steps to overcome them. Here are five major issues that you will face once you have decided to become an entrepreneur and start your own business.

Financing Your Business

This is probably the greatest hurdle you will face. The great thing about this is that once you overcome this problem, everything else will be much easier. Some of the obvious solutions for this problem would be small business loans and crowdfunding campaigns; however, you can also get funds from friends and family. It is also important to realize that there are many other ways to get funding, including various business competitions and government grants.

Building a Customer Base

Once your business is up and running, you will need to attract customers. Social media is the first solution that you should start using right away because it is free. This tool also allows you to perform valuable research about individuals who need your products and services. In addition, you can promote your business with various marketing campaigns, such as topbargains.com.au offering online coupon codes and deals once you have a strong enough web presence. However, if your business is a local brick and mortar organization, then you also have other options, including flyers, word of mouth, phone calls, and door to door solicitation.

Quitting Your Day Job

This is a major factor to consider when you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. You need to make sure that you can pay your bills while you are starting your journey. The best solution is to have a nest egg tucked away that will give you the freedom to pursue your dream. However, if you can get financing rather quickly, then you might be able to deal with this problem a little more easily.

Building Your Team

This is one the most important issues you will face when starting your own business. You need to locate and hire quality employees that will be highly dependable and able to quickly adapt to any situation rather quickly. It is also important that your very first employees remain loyal to you because in the beginning stages of your operations, replacing them will be extremely difficult.

Creating Your Network

You need to begin building relationships with suppliers, sellers, and all of the other various entities that you will need to associate with in order for your business to function properly. You will probably have many choices, so you need to be well informed about the prices and the quality of the goods and services that they offer.

In Conclusion

When dealing with many of the troublesome situations that you may encounter, one of the best things you can do is examine your competitors and see how they overcame these problems. You can also look to other similar businesses and find out what they did or didn’t do in order to deal with any of the obstacles you might be facing in the near future.

Source : http://bit.ly/1YHfczt