https://socialfixmedia.wistia.com/medias/c6ghwyow4b

Maddy Connolly, Managing Director of Increase Group was kind enough to share a few thoughts on the company’s collaboration with Socialfix.

We helped Increase Group shoot the highlights of their first post-Covid live event, and create social and website content to promote their brand. 

Increase Group is an excellent company that delivers executive-level, bespoke, invitation-only roundtable events globally. Their events are focused on specific industries and job functions that aim to bring business leaders together and facilitate transformation. 

After two years of mandatory virtual events, Increase Group was looking forward to kicking off their live events once again. They needed a professional video production agency to help them capture key moments from the event, so they turned to Socialfix!

Socialfix’s expert videographers were on-site to record attendees’ testimonials, networking sessions, presentations, and some off-script memorable moments during the event. 

We were happy to assist Maddy and her team with:

• On-site video coverage of event
• Logo animation, custom motion graphics
• Video post-production
• Website banner
• Promo videos

The event’s wrap-up videos found their place in the Increase Group marketing strategy, specifically on their social media and website. The brand also needed a web design boost, and videos to embed in their website banners. 

Servicing Increase Group video needs from start to finish, quickly and precisely was a priority for us, and we’re glad our efforts paid off. 

Socialfix always tries to dedicate the necessary resources and focus on bringing our client’s visions into reality.  We’re happy that our partnership ended up being a success for Maddy too, and that she would recommend Socialfix to partners! 

If you’re too looking for a timely and hands-on approach to complement a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, Socialfix can help! 

Get in touch today with our team today! Let’s turn your project into another success story! 

Live-Action

Animations

Event Productions

Podcast Videos

Crowdfunding Videos

https://socialfixmedia.wistia.com/medias/yyst8nclha

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a non-profit established in 1998, that connects people to places. They are an organization that strives to engage the community and make our shared landscape heritage visible and important to more people.  

To reflect their goals of educating and empowering us to become the shepherds of our shared land and history, they need to reach out to as many people they possibly can. 

What better way than producing and broadcasting a series of videos that help the audience learn and engage with TCFL’s mission?   

Video is one of the most effective ways to tell stories and educate people on significant issues. 

Fortunately, TCFL understands the importance of this type of content in a visually-driven world, and they turn to Socialfix to aid them in delivering their message through professionally-produced videos.

Eager to help, Socialfix’s video team got to work!

We helped the non-profit document their New York “Courageous by Design” conference through:  

• Thorough planning of series of videos, shot in just one day

• Collaborating and coordinating with the on-site sound team
• Shooting multi-camera videos that fitted the non-profit’s social media strategy, YouTube included.
• Editing & delivering 15 fully produced conference videos that showcase TCFL’s mission  

Our video team was met with full trust and openness by TCFL and supported throughout the whole process of the video creation.  

We were excited to partner with a non-profit organization with such an extraordinary dedication to its vision and goals.  And were pleased to learn that our work was well-received and fully covered TCFL’s needs. 

 Special thanks to Aileen Beringer, TCFL’s  Public Engagement Coordinator, who was a delight to work with. Thank you for the kind words, Aileen, we were happy to work with you too!

“Be stubborn about your goals and flexible about your methods.”  

If you too are looking for a partner that can understand and execute your goals, look no further!  Socialfix has the expertise to help you turn your vision into action and build the digital strategy that works for you! 

Tell us about your project, let’s excel at delivering your brand’s message together! 

For more on the services  we provide check out the links below:

Live-Action

Animations

Event Productions

Podcast Videos

Crowdfunding Videos

https://socialfixmedia.wistia.com/medias/akhtvven9m

“If you do makeup, you have to come to the Makeup Show, it’s everything you need. ” J.D Kraemer, Web Director, Alcone Company.

If you’re looking for brand exposure, increased audience reach, and improved customer relationships, then event marketing is the strategy you need to invest in. 

Creating leadership and industry credibility is undeniably one of the most impactful results the Make Up Show has managed to establish.  

The event and its organizers have been bringing together industry leaders for over 18 years, educating  50,000 people with more than 60 shows,  that gather a kaleidoscope of artists, marketers, and company executives.

Our recent work on producing and filming their event promo video was not only a fun job to do, but also an incredible opportunity to gain insight into the beauty industry. 

The video team at Socialfix got the opportunity to speak with some of the most influential and creative individuals at the event and learn, what the Make Up Show meant to them. 

Hearing makeup artists and brand ambassadors of every part of the world share the things they’ve learned at the Make Up Show,  once again confirmed that industry events remain the most effective marketing tactic. 

We were happy to collaborate with Shelly Tagger, co-founder of the Make Up Show, and her team in creating content that will help them attract the attention of industry professionals, leaders, and trendsetters for their upcoming shows. 

Professionally produced and executed video content is one of our specialties and we’re always ready to help brands highlight their products and services through meaningful, visual storytelling. 

We thank the Make Up Show for the opportunity to collaborate and combine our efforts in spreading the word and demonstrating how video production can add an edge to the marketing efforts of such a valuable event. 

Thank you for the kind words! We look forward to working with you again! 

If you too are on the lookout for marketing services focused on professionalism,  speed and autonomy get in touch with Socialfix today.

Socialfix Media is a dedicated technology and digital marketing agency that aids businesses succeed within the online landscape. An established reliable team since 2005, we provide out-of-the-box digital marketing strategies to our partners that elevate their brand presence and visibility. We pride ourselves on being the bridge between our clients and better content marketing.
In our mission to lead our partners toward digital excellence, we’re excited to announce that we’ve been recognized as a top service provider by Clutch. According to their 2021 research, Socialfix Media is among the top 1000 vendors that demonstrate the highest caliber of service quality worldwide!

For the uninitiated, Clutch is an established B2B reviews platform that helps firms across the globe connect with the solution providers that they need to improve effectiveness and increase productivity.

Take a look at our overall rating on our Clutch profile:

Currently, we hold a near-perfect overall rating, and it’s all thanks to our previous and current partners for leaving their honest and unfiltered feedback! Here are some excerpts from the verified reviews we recently received:

“It was obvious from the beginning how professional Socialfix Media is.”
— Dima Ghawi, Owner, Dima Ghawi, LLC

“They are always present, and they have an amazing energy about them.”
— Diane Nicolo-Pocino, VP of Events & Programs, New Jersey Builders Association

“Their unique approach to measuring success has been very helpful and insightful.”
— Vice President of Development, Performing Arts Company

For more information about our work, check out the case studies on our Clutch profile.

Interested in working with an award-winning digital marketing team? Connect with us and tell us more about your project.

Videos have become an essential tool for marketers in promoting products or services. This content format is so popular that it’s estimated to account for 82% of internet traffic in 2022. With this in mind, producing videos for product campaigns can benefit companies as more internet users love watching videos.

Video content plays an important role in attracting more viewers to visit a website as 83% of marketers believe that incorporating videos have increased the average time their visitors spend on a page. Moreover, 84% agree that videos help generate more leads than other content marketing formats, such as blogs and whitepapers.

Therefore, many marketers use a video marketing strategy to leverage their product campaigns, especially social media and other platforms. Since videos are easy to understand, incorporating this marketing strategy can help you achieve goals rather quickly. 

What is Video Marketing?

Video marketing is quickly becoming one of the most important and effective content forms on the internet. It’s the method of using videos to promote a brand, product, or service in marketing campaigns. 

Videos are insanely popular compared to other content formats. Ultimately, there are two major reasons why they are so popular on the internet. First, more people turn toward online media to find information and entertainment so that they can understand faster. Videos are easy to digest—no matter how diverse viewers’ backgrounds are, people can watch and grasp the message from videos more easily than reading blog posts.

Second, as most internet users love watching videos, many businesses are trying to provide content in a video format to attract an audience. Hence, resulting in so many creators and brands making videos for their marketing purposes. 

In addition, the second-largest website in the world is YouTube, a video hosting platform. That means there’s a very high probability your audience will be searching for new information and viewing the content in a video format. 

 Therefore, it’s undisputed that using a video marketing strategy can help businesses build an audience as well as make conversions out of it. 

The Benefits of Using Video Marketing

Since 68% of customers prefer watching video content to reading articles, making videos for a marketing campaign will help you convince the audience to make a purchase. In fact, about 64% of viewers decide to buy a product right after watching branded videos on the internet. 

There are more benefits you can get from using this marketing strategy, including:

Videos Improve Social Engagement

Watching videos is the easiest way to get information across. What’s more, they are easy to access and distribute to multiple social media platforms. Viewers can quickly send videos right at their fingertips, making it even easier for the content to trend overnight. 

When your videos are shared repeatedly, you’ll have a high chance of getting new audiences beyond your reach. Since people can share the content with anyone on the internet, you can expect a new surge of engagement that you had never imagined before. 

Videos Eliminate Language Barriers

There are over 7 billion people worldwide, and more than 4.88 billion of them own a smartphone or device with internet access. That’s roughly 61.85% of all connected devices used by potential consumers looking for your products or services. As you can imagine, it would be nearly impossible to develop an effective marketing campaign aimed at these numbers that consider different languages, cultures, and more. 

Videos, however, can represent the message well in the form of visuals and sounds to your audience. No matter what language they speak, they can understand your brand’s messages effectively through video content. 

Videos Improve SEO and Page Rank

Google announced that video content would be one of their top ranking factors, and the search engine giant is sticking to its word. If you want to enjoy a fairly stable traffic flow to your website, you need to start uploading videos on your blog.

Videos allow your website to get easily discovered when users type specific keywords. With videos, people can quickly recognize your blog among others because it stands out the most. 

Videos Help You Establish Credibility

There is something extra special about personally interacting with a brand or even an individual through video rather than simply reading their written words. One of the most immediate ways for any business owner to show they are trustworthy is by broadcasting live video sessions where viewers can ask questions about your product or service offerings. 

Videos Increase Conversions

Videos help your audience to consider making a purchase on a product they barely know. Compared to written descriptions, product demo videos can help people understand product benefits and features quickly.

More importantly, it’s exciting to watch product demonstrations in a video format rather than reading a long list of features they are less likely to imagine. Therefore, it increases your chance of getting more conversions as people will always prefer watching videos before buying the product. 

9 Common Types of Video Marketing For Business

Although videos can be used for many purposes, marketing campaigns and promotional content require different videos that allow companies to convince customers. The following are a few marketing videos that work best for every business. 

1. Explainer Video Marketing

An explainer video is one of the most used marketing content for promotional purposes. This video marketing tactic is all about bringing a concept or process to the forefront by explaining it concisely and straightforwardly. 

The goal of explainer videos is to sell your concepts through visuals and narration, so you have to be careful when planning this type of video content, especially if you are doing it from scratch. Make sure that you give out just enough information without leaving any crucial points for your prospects to ponder later.

2. Direct Response Video Marketing

This type of video content may not be as common as explainers but still significantly influences your target market’s purchasing decisions. A direct response video must grab attention immediately and provide enough information for people who want more details about a product or service before making a purchase.

3. Product Demo Video Marketing 

This is the type of video that you would most likely find on a product or company website. A demo video showcases the best parts of your product and service with visual aids like screenshots, screencasts, images, and text within the first few seconds. If your prospects are interested in what they see, they might be encouraged to buy your product.

4. Testimonial Video Marketing

Testimonial videos are one of the most powerful ways to get people to trust your brand, especially since it comes from someone already purchased from you before. This type of video leaves a positive impression for both customers and search engine bots alike, improving your rankings for specific keywords relevant to your business. 

The only problem is finding customers who are willing to take time to leave a review on your product. However, you shouldn’t be too worried if you’ve offered the best customer service to your customers as they will do it voluntarily.

5. How-to Video Marketing

How-to or tutorial videos are the best ways to explain using your product or service if it is too complicated. You can also show potential customers how easy it is to use your product or service through a video instead of reading an article full of technicalities that they may not understand. 

A guaranteed bonus with testimonial videos is that you will have more SEO authority because people are proven to read fewer articles than watching videos, which increases their chance of ranking higher on search engines.

6. Live Video Marketing

You can use live videos to build your brand’s reputation. Live videos will attract more attention because they are happening at that moment. Therefore, having them recorded and uploaded into your YouTube channel means they can live forever and reach out even to those who couldn’t make it to the event.

Incorporating live videos in one of your marketing campaigns allows you to connect with your audience in real-time. You can listen to their feedback and give them solutions they need regarding your product or service. By actively engaging with your audience, you’ll increase your chance of getting more potential customers who like your broadcast.

7. Sales Pitch Video Marketing

Sales pitch videos let your clients know about what to expect from your product or service. Instead of describing the benefits of a certain product, you can do it through a 2-minute video that will help them to form an opinion on whether they should buy the item or not.

If your company is based in a remote location, you can make sales pitches through video conferencing with local customers. Using sales pitch videos will help you create rapport since customers believe what they see through visual representation instead of believing what they hear.

8. Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) Video Marketing

This type of video content effectively provides information to your customers since it’s much easier to watch a video rather than read through an FAQ blog. This video particularly comes in handy when you are not physically present at the moment, or perhaps you do not wish to speak over the phone to answer similar questions.

Frequently asked question videos also help you better cater to your audience, and determine what kind of information they find useful. As a result, you can make a greater approach for new customers and improve the credibility of your brand. 

9. Brand PR Video Marketing

This may be a step in a different direction from the typical marketing tactic, but it can sometimes be the best way to create brand awareness and loyalty with your target market. If you want to give a certain idea or value about your product or service that will help build trust between you and your customers, then video content may just be the vehicle for doing so. 

After all, people are visual creatures by nature which makes us more inclined to notice this type of content. Video is also an ideal format to grab attention for events such as grand openings or launch parties. 

Tip: Hundreds of growing businesses use Socialfix to leverage successful video marketing strategies and showcase their products and services. Try us for a free consultation

7 Tips to Use Video Marketing in Generating Leads

While video marketing strategies can form in different video formats, each is great for collecting leads and nurturing them down into your marketing funnel.

This article will help you improve your video marketing tactics in order to gain leads and close more deals. 

1. Use Videos As Gated Content

Videos, once done, tend to be very useful for many businesses. However, most businesses don’t know how they can generate more leads with a video marketing strategy. There is so much information available with this one media that it’s often difficult to come up with a shortlist of tips and tricks on how video marketing can generate more leads.

Once you have created a video, why not try to combine it with your blog posts? You can then offer it as an added value for subscribing to your newsletter. If the prospect values the information you are sharing in your videos, he would love to get more of it by subscribing to your newsletter. This is an excellent method of generating leads.

2. Include Videos In Email Messages

Videos are visual mediums of communication, which means they are more engaging than plain text. If you handle email marketing campaigns for your business, consider adding videos alongside images or infographics to your emails. 

Nowadays, it has become easy to do so with the help of email marketing software. You can upload your videos and include them in the template design. Or, you can also add a screenshot of your video footage and drop the link in your email messages. Not only will this tactic increase the engagement rate, but it also brings better CTR rates for your business.

3. Add Videos On Landing Pages

If you want to attract more visitors to your website, adding videos and written content might do wonders for you. Make sure that your videos are short and sweet. They shouldn’t exceed 2-3 minutes long as they may bore your audience midway.  

It’s also crucial to A/B test your videos (and pages) using heat maps testing software tools to let you know the areas of improvement on your landing pages by recording user behavior such as clicks. This will also help improve the user experience on your website. 

4. Incorporate Video Retargeting On Social Media

You can target users based on their interests, allowing you to offer the right product for your target audience. Take a look at Facebook ads, for example. 

As far as social media is concerned, video retargeting allows you to find the right people to promote your products or services. The video retargeting option on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter helps you reach out to your target audience more effectively and efficiently.

5. Use Video Case Studies

Video case studies help prospective customers relate to and identify with what you’re offering because it doesn’t feel like some fancy ad but rather an honest endorsement from someone who has used your product or services successfully. 

You can create these videos by asking current customers if they’ll agree to record themselves sharing their stories on how they use your product or service to improve their lives and find solutions to their problems. 

6. Incorporate Video Testimonials

Firstly, you can’t expect all your prospects to talk on camera about how well they have used your product or service. Luckily there are other ways for potential customers to relate to what you offer through video testimonials. 

You can easily create a compelling video testimonial by asking one of your existing customers if they agree to record themselves sharing their thoughts on why people should choose your brand over the others out there.

7. Insert a Clear Call to Action in Your Video Marketing Content

Call to action plays an important role in generating leads from your video content. If you want to generate leads from your videos, make sure to create a clear call-to-action asking viewers to do something after watching the video. It could be subscribing to your channel, visiting your website, following your social media handles, and many more. 

Make sure not to keep viewers wondering what they should do next when watching your marketing videos. You should tell them what to do in a concise manner. However, don’t ask your viewers too many questions in one go. Instead, ask just one specific question at the end of your video and provide multiple ways for them to respond.

The bottom line is that your video should help viewers visit your website or purchase your products easily.

Bottom Line

Business owners have used a video marketing strategy for the past few years, agreeing that this tactic has brought more sales to the company. As more internet users are familiar with consuming online videos daily, incorporating this marketing strategy should have never been easier than before. 

You can make different marketing videos and promote your product or service while still entertaining your viewers. There are lots of marketing videos that you can produce. Make sure to create one that fits your sales funnel to convince your prospects better.

Don’t forget to apply a few tips from this post to optimize your reach. You may find obstacles along the way, or your videos don’t work well; however, you should keep in mind to strive for a better campaign in the future as video content isn’t going anywhere soon.

Author

Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order). 

Clutch Award Recognizing Socialfix as a Top Content Marketing Agency

Visions, strategies, and creativity — those are just some of the requirements needed to make it in the digital space. Here at Socialfix Media, we offer more than 16 years of priceless digital marketing expertise and knowledge to help clients shine bright in their market. Located in Clinton, New Jersey, our company triumphs in the space, and that’s evident in our recent win from Clutch.

During the prestigious Clutch Leaders Awards for 2021, Socialfix was crowned as the top dog for New York’s content marketing industry!

We are very grateful to be recognized as a top-rated marketing agency in NY/NJ. There are so many great agencies with talented people contributing to the success of hundreds of businesses and being a part of the Clutch community of professionals has been invaluable to Socialfix over the years. Thank you for choosing us and glad to be part of your circle.”
— Teresa Tateossia, Founding Partner, Socialfix Media

Known for its huge collection of client reviews, Clutch is the go-to resource for browsers navigating through the IT marketing, and business service industries. Clutch helps corporate buyers connect with the leading companies from different locations worldwide.

Our Clients Love Us

In light of this milestone, we thank our clients who showed their overwhelming support to our team. It is a great pleasure for us to work with all of them. This award is the fruit of the strong relationships and successful projects we’ve had with our clients. Cheers to this win and to our clients!

Need help with your digital marketing efforts? Want an app or website? Allow us to surprise you and show you the way towards building a stronger online brand as compared to your competition.

Learn more about what we can do for you. Don’t hesitate to drop us a message and we’ll get back to you ASAP!

Social media is a powerful channel that we can use to convey our brand message to our target audience. Nowadays social media marketing strategies focus on tasks that go way beyond simple account management activities like post publishing. We have learned to actively listen to our audience, accept and respond to their feedback, deliver the content that is of high demand, entertain, educate, and above all create a strong bond between the brand and our followers. 

However, in order to succeed in this tough endeavor, we are to know the do’s and don’ts of the game.

We need to learn what turns our followers off and how to avoid such unfavorable tone of voice, attitude or kind of mistakes and nourish a positive long-term relationship with them instead. 

Posting too much, too often

Being too active on social media may make you appear as an “attention-craver” to your online audience. Your followers can get overwhelmed with the amount of content you’re publishing and they could get annoyed to a point that they will hit the “unfollow” button.

It’s important that you understand that your followers may see everything you post. A post a day gives your audience enough time to digest and enjoy your content. Posting more than a couple of times a day will crowd your follower’s newsfeed. Remember, your followers have a variety of interests that are not limited to your brand only.

Make sure you are aware of which is the best time of day to post on social media platforms. This would vary depending on your location and audience specifics, so do your research thoroughly. Check at your social media analytics page and search for the times your business page got the highest number of impressions and engagement.

Plan your social media calendar ahead of time and work on your posting schedule. Optimize the number of your weekly posts so that your followers would have something to look forward to. If you stick to a stable weekly schedule, your followers will know when to check up your page for updates. 

Too much promotion and sales talk

Sales talk has flooded our everyday interactions. We use sales talk practically every day in all aspects of our life: whether you’re convincing a child to eat his veggies in exchange for ice cream or you tell your dog to roll over for a treat – it all comes down to selling an idea, right?

Nevertheless, just like we warned you about the risks of high posting frequency, we are drawing your attention to the danger of pitching your followers way too persistently.

Give your audience the chance to absorb what you’re offering them and to consider whether your product/services are a good fit for them. Forcing your followers into making a purchase when they’re not ready will not turn them into repeat customers.

If you’re posting product images, explain what kind of solution those products offer to a common problem and how your target audience will benefit from using them. Add a call to action at the end. 

Post a video, a product demo, or a customer testimonial – this is a great way to convince your target customers to make a purchase without actually ‘begging’ them to buy your product/service. Use an online video editor to add captions or subtitles alongside a call to action at the end of the video.

Improper use of hashtags

Hashtags could be really helpful in drafting a successful social media strategy. They give you the opportunity to reach out to a specific group of people who follow a relevant to your campaign subject. If you’re posting from your personal account, you don’t need to worry about the number of hashtags you use: add as much as you want. The more you can squeeze into your post, the better.

But that’s not the case with business profiles. Use a limited number of hashtags and make each of those counts. Choose hashtags that are relevant and appropriate to your type of business or industry.

Never use trending hashtags just for the sake of reaching a wider audience, especially if they have nothing to do with the content you’re publishing. 

Avoid using hashtags for natural or social tragedies unless you’re expressing your concern or sympathies to those affected. Using such hashtags on promotional posts is simply unforgivable.

Not responding to comments and direct messages

No matter how regularly you may post on social media, if you don’t respond to comments and direct messages, people may be reluctant to follow you or like your page. 

Think of it this way: imagine you compliment someone on the beautiful bag they’ve crafted and that person just ignores you. Won’t you feel offended? Your followers need to feel that they’ve been heard and appreciated.

You should always reply to the comment addressed to your business/brand. If someone is asking a question, give them an answer. The same goes for your followers’ comments: both positive and negative. As long as they are referring to your brand and business name: get in touch, show them that you listen and that you care about their customer satisfaction and feedback. But please do not react to your own post and comment. 

Whether you like it or not, there will be negative feedback, no matter how good your product or service is. Whether your product/service has been publicly disliked by an online troll, a critic, or a complaining customer, be ready to respond in a relaxed manner. Use short answers and offer personal assistance via a phone call, email, or direct message.

If you neglect negative comments, people will start mistrusting you. If you address them, however, your audience will see that you’re being proactive, that you are listening to your audience, and that you are concerned about their positive experience with your brand. 

Some social media platforms offer you the opportunity to create an automated response. Although this option is rather convenient and helpful, do not rely on it completely. Your followers will know when they get an automated response and will expect a real response soon after. Humanize the interaction with your audience by having a real person address their questions or queries.

Not utilizing YouTube or social media polls to get instant feedback

Polls are a great way to find out what your audience wants. If you have a YouTube channel for your business, use their free polls feature to get instant feedback from your followers. This feature is only available if your channel has over 1000 subscribers. 

The great thing about YouTube polls is that you won’t have to create a survey on a third-party website to be able to gain knowledge about the opinions, requests, or feedback of your audience. Right there at your channel, you can create poll cards for your followers to click and comment on.

Here are some of the benefits of using the free poll feature at YouTube:

• You can ask your audience what videos they want to see. This will help you come up with great content ideas that are in high demand.
• Think of it as a conversation starter between you and your potential customers. The more comments you get, the more likely it is that YouTube will put your videos on the recommended list.
• You can share valuable information and knowledge with your audience. If there are things about your product/service like features, pricing, etc., a poll would be a great place to tap into those.
• Polls can help you get a glimpse of what your viewers’ preferences are. Aside from asking them what type of content they want to see, you can also ask them what day or time they prefer to have the new content released.
• The comment section of your poll is a great place to just have fun talking and mingling with your audience. Customers are more likely to patronize your product or service if they feel comfortable with your brand.

Sharing half-truths or false statistics 

The quickest way to lose your credibility is to post hoaxes and false news on social media. Authenticity is a huge factor in building your brand and keeping your followers. If your viewers catch you posting things that are based on false data, they could feel misled and lied to.

Sharing news or posts that are relevant to your business or to the areas you serve can help boost engagement but you have to be very careful about what you share. Even if it comes from a source you trust, you should still double-check the credibility of the post. It’s even worse if you know that certain content is fake but you go ahead and share it anyway.

One effective way to verify if a post is based on actual facts or not is by checking it online. The damages caused by posting fake news can be detrimental to your business.

Posting content irrelevant to your target market

Your posts, combined with the hashtags you use, will more or less determine the type of audience you‘d reach with your content. Posting on topics that have nothing to do with your product, service, target location, and target audience won’t really give you much traction. Your existing followers will get confused and may stop clicking on your posts or following you altogether.

Not posting the right types of sales videos

Videos that are too salesy often don’t result in converting a lot of people. 

If you want to make sales videos that work, don’t make the sale the focal point of your message. Instead, tell your audience a story that will make them believe in your product/service. 

Stories will bring you and your target audience together, ultimately, people will start trusting you. When they trust you, it would be much easier to channel them down the sales funnel. 

You’re probably wondering, why video? Video content is a great medium for reaching out to a broader online audience. It gives your audience a glimpse of who you’re. Videos humanize your brand, making it easier for people to trust and follow.

Here are some examples of sales videos that you can post on your social media business page:

Brand origin story

Telling the story of how your brand came to being. This is a great way to win the trust of your followers. It’s like sharing an important part of your journey with your audience. If you are being honest and transparent often your target audience will respect you for it and will reciprocate.

The video script can include a reenactment of how you originally came up with the final business concept; the struggles that your team faced throughout your journey; the company grew from a garage-based startup to a large firm in the city. 

People love rags to riches stories. They give them hope and inspire them to pursue their dreams. Plus, if your audience realizes how hard you worked to get where you’re now, they’ll conclude that you are good at looking after your customers, and thus they’ll be confident in trusting your brand.

If you have old recordings of how your company got started, all the better – share it with your audience. 

If you have changed many logos and slogans throughout your business journey, share them with your audience, too. Especially if there’s a good story behind their creation.

Customer testimonials

Videos are the best form of sharing your customers’ testimonials. Similar to word-of-mouth, hearing a review straight from a customer’s mouth makes it easier to believe. According to online reviews statistics, Over 90% of online consumers would trust a video testimonial as much as they would a recommendation from a friend.

Make sure to choose customers to whom your target audience can easily relate. Make short and meaningful videos. Add good background music that won’t distract the online users from the actual review.

As much as possible, avoid scripted customer testimonials. Remember, your customers are not professional actors and your audience will immediately know that the dialogues are memorized or being read. 

Instead, record the customer’s testimony in their own words then just trim it down during video editing. Not only will this make the video shorter, but it’ll also highlight the important bits that you want your audience to see or hear.

Product explainer videos

Explainer videos are similar to product demo videos. They are short but powerful, with a strong call to action.

There are different types of explainer videos to choose from. You can go for an animated version since they’re visually appealing to a wide range of audiences. You can add infographics to explain the key features of your product or service.

Crowdfunding explainer videos are also popular. They can be live-action or animated or even both. These are great video formats for startups or small businesses who are looking for investors to back up their ideas and concept products. 

Product explainer videos should not be all salesy. They attempt to introduce a product, explain its applications, and list its benefits. A perfect example of an effective and entertaining product explainer video is that from Dollar Shave Club. 

It successfully communicates their offer, reveals their company background, culture, and it’s super funny and relatable.

Final thoughts on winning over social media audiences

Social media is a great platform to showcase your products and services. In order to make it work you have to post high-quality content, especially videos. 

Remember to always back up the claims you make. Make sure that each product/service specific and characteristic you mention on social media is valid. Regardless of how amazing your videos may be, your audience will stop following you if they’re not satisfied with their first purchase.

As long as you consider your audience first, personalize your content, foster the connections you build with your audience, and avoid the mistakes mentioned above, you can expect loyal followership, converting customers, and ultimately, well-deserved ROI.

Last year, programmatic advertising accounted for 85% of total US digital ad spending which is a huge increase as compared to the 76% back in 2019. 
This trend is expected to grow steadily in the upcoming years and there is a good reason for that. Buckle-up, because if you are still aware of the benefits of programmatic advertising, we’re about to reveal a whole new world before you.

What Is Programmatic Advertising

The term programmatic advertising was first introduced back in 2009 and was used to describe an advertising strategy that greatly focused on personalization. 

In essence, new ad-buying platforms appeared that relied on complex computer algorithms. Programmatic advertising helps brands automatically reach their target audience with relevant ad content. 

With programmatic advertising, you are charged for a targeted impression instead of being required to pay for ad placement on certain fixed inventory. But first, you need to set the parameters of the audience to which you are going to serve your ads. 

ML and AI algorithms are used to automate the media buying process. The advertising automation aims to improve the targeting precision by strictly complying with the defined target audience parameters. 

Back in 2010 advertisers used to negotiate a price with multiple ad networks and thus their advertising efforts were limited to serving fewer ads. Modern programmatic technology now automates the targeting process, while still offering full transparency to the advertiser. 

The automated process of buying ad placements is made possible thanks to the online bidding option set in the platform. Let’s have a more detailed look at those.

RTB (real-time bidding) is the actual mechanism of buying online placement via a programmatic auction of sorts, and it all happens in real-time. During such auctions, advertisers compete for the right to serve ad impressions. The system decides who wins the right to serve an impression.

How Does Programmatic Auction Work?

1. A person visits a website connected to an advertising network.
2. The network transmits data about this user to the buying platform.
3. The buying platform analyzes the received data.
4. Based on the data about the website/app visitor, the buying platform concludes whether it makes sense to bid to serve an ad for this particular user.
5. If the algorithm deems the online user eligible for the ad, it enters into the real-time bidding auction. 
6. The ad with the highest bid wins the impression contest and it gets rendered to the online user.

Credits: www.centro.net

Who are the key players in programmatic buying?

Usually, DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, are the main players in the programmatic buying environment. Let’s study them closely:  

1. The demand-side platform (DSP) offers advertisers and agencies to buy ad impressions (inventory). DSP manages the ad campaigns, analyzes the results of those campaigns and optimizes ad placements.
2. The supply-side platform (SSP) helps publishers to monetize their website inventory and optimize ad impressions. Usually, SSPs work through RTB (real-time bidding), but they can also work on a direct sales model.
3. The data management platform (DMP) collects and processes different types of data about the online users. It helps advertisers identify their target audience and reach out to them with a relevant message. DMPs are an important mediator between advertisers and DSPs.  
4. Ad Server is a web server that stores various ad creatives (banners, videos) and their data. It delivers ad content to its users. The server is also responsible for targeting ads, tracking the number of impressions and monitoring campaign performance.

The programmatic ecosystem is simple one once you have a hold of it. Just remember: DMPs provide information about the audience to DSPs, and SSPs are responsible for selling inventory in real-time. The Ad exchange maintains an RTB auction among DSPs and defines the winner. As a result, advertisers can show ads to the selected audience on appropriate sites.

Ad Formats Used in Programmatic Advertising

The most popular formats in programmatic advertising are banners, videos and native ads. However, it is also possible to use audio advertising if you are targeting music services and radio. Advertisements show in mobile, desktop, inside apps and connected TV environments.

Are Programmatic and Contextual Advertising the Same?

Some people are convinced that contextual and programmatic advertising are the same thing; however, the two are rather distinct concepts. 

Contextual advertising focuses on what the online user shows interest in. The online user types in keywords to express their needs and the publisher’s ads are served based on those keywords.

Programmatic advertising, on the other hand, works at the top of the funnel. It creates a need and leads the client to a purchase decision. If the online user has left the site, the platform will tempt them back to the site via retargeting advertising.

Where does the target user information come from?

Any user action on the Internet leaves digital traces. Cookies are used to collect and store online user data.  Web browsers and online profiles (like gmail) could keep a user’s search engine history.

Nowadays it is easy to draft a full-fledged digital profile of the online users: their age, social status, interests, tastes and preferences. In programmatic advertising it is essential to apply privacy standards so that in the digital environment algorithms don’t cause problems with personal data misuse.

What Are the Benefits of Programmatic Ad Buying

Why is programmatic ad buying better than classic display ad buying? There are several reasons for that. Obviously, programmatic advertising is more convenient, it’s faster, it renders high ROI, and it’s quite efficient. But there is more to it:

1. Better online user targeting

Advertisers’ ads are served to the right people at the right time. The system processes huge amounts of information. It selects the right person to promote the advertisers’ message from within a crowd of billions of online users.

1. No intermediaries

You don’t have to undergo any price negotiations with ad sellers and publishers. The programmatic approach allows the advertiser to get unlimited access to a large amount of inventory from all over the Internet.

1. Increased ROI 

While the user waits for a web page to load, the ads on that page are being auctioned by the programmatic ecosystem. The whole process takes a few milliseconds. It takes significantly less time to reach a higher-quality audience, which inevitably leads to an increase in ROI.

1. Flexible process

Programmatic ad buying is a flexible advertising approach – it allows you to change strategies and reallocate a budget in real-time. The system analyzes the campaign for its effectiveness and, based on the data received, selects the most favorable price per  impression. The algorithm automatically determines how much to pay to reach a specific user at a given time.

1. A cost-saving approach

The system will offer the optimal price per impression for a particular prospect.

1. Quality Filters

Ad will only appear on relevant websites. Programmatic advertising consists in ignoring websites with negative reviews and questionable content.

Proper Targeting with Programmatic Advertising

The targeting process in programmatic ad buying starts with analyzing layers of data. The main ones are used to find and customize audience segments for each ad campaign. The better the advertiser knows the specifics of their target audience, the more precisely they’ll be able to fine-tune the ad-buying algorithm. Respectively, having greater insight and control over the process will also positively affect the campaign revenue. 

But let’s discuss each layer of data separately:

Location data

Location data is the backbone of any solid targeting process. Location history as well as online users’ live feeds often reveal valuable data on where your customers ацтуаллъ live and work. You’d be able to conclude whether your audience resides in the suburbs and whether it commutes to work? 

It’s a good idea to use location data on the DSP platform for your campaigns to target users who are in close proximity to your store. It’s also possible to conduct campaigns for users in specific states or even neighborhoods.

Demographic & psychographic data 

A fundamental element of a targeting strategy would be to assess your customers’ age, income, marital status, whether they own a home, whether they have children, etc. This kind of data will help you understand your target customers’ needs, priorities and future predispositions to your brand.  For instance, if you represent a brand offering baby toys you’d be much interested in targeting newly-wed couples or such that have already announced the birth of their first child.

Device usage & IP address

When trying to understand your audience,  it’s important to use cookies and thus gather some additional data on their online footprint.  If you want to be extra diligent in gathering data about your customers you should consider tracking their IP addresses as well. This will also make it possible for you to conclude on device preferences.

Will programmatic replace direct media buying?

Programmatic ad buying is definitely a fine alternative to direct buying methods.  Advertisers and publishers are seeing more and more benefits of buying and selling ad space through AI processes. The trend shows that large companies and corporations are gradually shifting their budgets in favor of this approach.

What is the future of programmatic?

Due to the technological boost, advertising methods are changing at a fast pace. New advertising platforms are constantly emerging. Marketers have to catch up with new ad format trends and approaches and it all starts to get pretty exhausting. 

With programmatic, the entire campaign could be automated to the slightest detail. New technologies are constantly being introduced to make the ad campaign management process even more effective. With the increase of the data that marketers should keep in mind to strategize their activities, programmatic gradually establish itself as a reliable and indispensable tool they could hardly go without.

Given that programmatic ad buying allows for real-time campaign optimizations, brands could take advantage of new opportunities and step up on their omnichannel marketing planning.

AI and ML

The importance of artificial intelligence in advertising will only grow to respond to the rising demand for fast data processing. Artificial intelligence combines audience search, targeting, campaign optimization and results measurement. Marketers are already seeing the AI algorithm analyzing audience behavior in real-time and are taking full advantage of this revolutional competitive advantage.

Omnichannel vs integrated programmatic

Nowadays, people use various types of devices to connect to the Internet (smartwatches, smartphones, tablets, TVs) as compared to the previous decade. In addition, there are a number of online channels that marketers could use to address those online users, including gaming applications, podcasts, videos and other entertainment content.

Only by using an omnichannel approach can advertisers increase the number of touch-points with their audience and thus maximize the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. Programmatic ad buying makes it possible to optimize advertising processes and customize it for different devices and channels. It helps advertisers to achieve maximum performance by placing ads on the right device at the right time and by tailoring a relevant message for each of those channels and target audience segments.

Stats for 2020 show marketers who’ve been using three channels or more earned a 287% higher purchase rate (compared to those who used a single-channel campaign).

Credits: www.omnisend.com

DOOH (digital out of home) media

Outdoor digital advertising, combined with mobile phone location data, is also a popular trend in programmatic advertising. A 2019 study reveals that the industry revenue from billboards grew approximately 0.6%, amounting to $8.6 billion in advertising revenue for that year alone. The introduction of LED billboards tied up to the programmatic ad buying method is surely a solid factor that influenced that abrupt rise. 

Programmatic audio

Programmatic audio is gaining momentum as well. Online users enjoy listening to music on their mobile or desktop. According to the 2021 Report on Digital Marketing Listeners Trends by eMarketer, 65.3% of Americans listen to digital audio on a monthly basis. 

How to start a programmatic campaign?

Here are the main steps you should consider when drafting your programmatic ad buying campaign:

Determine the campaign goals and toolset

If your goal is to increase brand awareness among a new target audience, you should pay special attention to online user targeting. 

First define the main characteristics of your target audience, including gender, location, income, age, education, marital status and all the demographic attributes that will help you narrow down your reach. 

Then draft your creative and make sure it can really grab the attention of your target audience. Go for an intriguing headline and a high quality visual.

Use the retargeting method whenever applicable to reach out to people who have already visited your site but haven’t converted yet.

Choose the optimum ad platform

To choose the right platform for your campaign, pay attention to the following criteria:

1) Reach (media coverage)

2) Targeting accuracy

3) Impression cost

4) Flexibility in pricing

5) Analytics capabilities

Set specific KPIs and a tracking system

The effectiveness of programmatic advertising is measured by some standard performance metrics like CTR, CPA, ROI, etc. To quickly receive information about the effectiveness of your ad placements, set up end-to-end analytics at the very beginning of your campaign launch.

Choose an appropriate ad format

Programmatic advertising is not limited to banner formats. You can also run video ads, embed video in a banner, create an interactive advertising message or use rich-media banners. 

Statistics reveal that customers usually interact with a brand up to 13 times  before they make a purchase. 

Set your targeting options

Targeting can be configured:

•   By content, where you decide on which website your display ads actually show; ; 
•   By audience, where you divide the audience into segments and send your message only to those falling into the right social, demographic, behavioral group;
•   By technology, where you reach out to online users that show preferences in a particular web browser, device, etc.

To wrap it up

Although programmatic advertising has been around for a while now, it is still an emerging technology. With programmatic, media buyers can easily reach their target audiences utilizing super-precise targeting. 

This helps brands to avoid overspending and deliver a smooth and relevant experience to their target online users. AI and ML are continually evolving, so the share of non-targeted impressions resulting from programmatic ad buying is expected to decrease over time. As a result, there is a high opportunity that programmatic will become one of the best advertising tools for marketers. 

Running a striving e-commerce business isn’t an easy task. In order to successfully lunch and grow your brand, you need a solid strategy.  

You might have shortlisted your inventory, partnered up with the right suppliers, selected the web design of your e-commerce website, you might have even set your paid ad camping, but your journey just begins.  

In today’s increasingly competitive e-commerce world, where new sites launch on a daily basis, it’s become a challenge to keep your visitors engaged at your site. Studies show that more than 90% of prospective customers leave an online store without having purchased anything. This kind of stats might sound quite alarming to an e-commerce owner, but let’s face it: you need to optimize your website for conversions.

What’s E-Commerce CRO?

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is a strategic process that focuses on increasing your site vistiors’ engagement rates. A successful conversion rate optimization strategy would translate in more newsletter sign-ups, higher number of content downloads and flourishing sale rates. 

As it comes to e-commerce websites people think that the CRO technique should focus on product pages only. Nevertheless, we believe in taking a more integrative approach where checkout pages, blog & FAQ pages, as well as other internal pages are also taken into account and adapted to boost site vistor’s engagement. 

Why Is e-commerce CRO Important?

Are you still wondering why you should invest in CRO? Here is a list of the top 4 reasons why you should move the CRO steps to the top of your marketing plan:

Growing Sales

E-commerce websites are all about generating sales, so CRO is exactly the strategy you need to boost your site performance in terms of ROI. 

Conversion rate optimization improves shopping experience and naturally this translates in increased customer satisfaction and higher engagement with the site, respectfully – higher number of purchases made.

Increased Savings

As compared to paid advertising campaigns on Google and Social Media, the CRO process does not require additional investment. Often CRO involves web design and development tweaks, as well as specific content improvements. As long as you have such specialists in-house you’d be able to minimize your CRO budget to a minimum.

Better Understanding of Your Customers

In order to optimize conversion rates you need to start paying closer attention to your site visitors and to their actual needs and preferences. Conducting a variety of A/B or Multivariate testing should be an on-going exercise for you in your attempt to optimize for user’s clicks. 

Once you are well-aware of how your target audience thinks and reacts to certain stimuli you’d be more equipped not only to improve your conversion campaign but also to optimize a number of aspects of your online marketing strategy. 

Boost in Google Rankings

Smooth user experience is highly appreciated by Google. Conversion optimizations could increase your dwell time on the site; they could minimize your site’s bounce rate and those are all metrics monitored by Google. By optimizing your site for conversions you are also increasing your chances to rank high in Google and that’s something worth keeping in mind. 

5 Key CRO Techniques to Boost your Site Conversions 

But how are you to actually optimize your site for conversions? Below follow the five CRO methods that can instantly boost your e-commerce site conversion rates:

Add а Site Seal

Few are the e-commerce websites that are as popular as EBay or Walmart. So you have to pay attention to all those little things that would make a difference, like for instance e-commerce website site seals. Those are highly effective tools that you can consider.

For instance, the Norton Site seal powered by Digicert with a respected SSL/TLS certificate works as a visual indicator that your company website takes security and privacy seriously. 

The site seal offered by CA (Certificate Authorities) helps brands build trust by communicating to their site visitors that their browsing sessions are secured by SSL connection.

It would be great if you go for the champion of all site seals, namely “Norton Secured”. It is well-recognized and trusted site seal by online users and it will definitely help you build trust in the eyes of your audience. 

Don’t Force Your Site Visitors to Create an Account

Nowadays, the majority of e-commerce sites offer a seamless user experience. If you wish to remain competitive in your market, it’s highly recommended to offer a guest checkout.

For instance, Baymard Institute’s study shows that about 31% of users abandon their cart within the checkout process as customers don’t want to walk through the tedious process of creating an account from scratch.

Think about it: if you do not account for your site visitor’s specific preferences, then someone else will, right? Many e-commerce websites offer guest checkout options that are easily implemented via simple plugin integration. 

For instance, Magento provides guest checkout by default:

Consider taking your site visitors directly through your guest checkout process instead of asking them to log in or create an account. Of course, keep the link to the login page at a click distance and at plain sight (usually at the top of your pages page) so that they could sign in, in case that’s what they prefer. 

But save them the time and efforts towards making a purchase. Make it easier for them to give you their money and your conversions will grow!

Fast Shipping 

Nowadays, most e-commerce websites offer same day or next day delivery. For instance, getting your order delivered within the same day or a couple of days later isn’t a revolutionary approach. Nevertheless, fast shipping is a serious competitive advantage that you should definitely explore.

Back in the days a delivery period of three to seven days was considered the norm, but that no longer sounds tempting to impatient online users. Fortunately, small businesses are quite capable to appease the fast delivery demand. 

For instance a two-day delivery period to ship your products throughout the US via air mail would really make your company stand out. Try to optimize your shipping time for it definitely affects your onsite conversion rates!

Live Chat Support

In today’s e-commerce driven world, live chats play a significant role in lead conversions. Sites with live chat support can enjoy up to 73% higher customer satisfaction rates as compared to their competitors that don’t offer this real-time service. 

Being able to attend to each and every question and concern your site visitors may have makes them feel comfortable with your brand. They start trusting your company and team and are more inclined to choose you above the rest of the competition.

Instant live chat solutions save time and help convert your potential customers. 

Shopping Cart Recovery

Shopping cart recovery is a wise conversion booster that you should not overlook. It is a good solution to the cart abandonment issue that we’ve discussed earlier. Yes, there is a great chance that your site visitors will like products from your portfolio. They will even add them to their carts. But then they’ll leave – at least some of them will. 

Well, we could start regretting it, of course, but it would be much wiser to strategize your next move instead. What if that site visitor that you thought you’ve lost revisits your site? What do you think they’d prefer – to greet them as an old acquaintance or as a new site visitor?

Always remember that the personalization in your communication with your target audience makes all the difference. The shopping cart recovery feature will remind your returning visitors what they most liked about your site. Maybe this time they are more determined to make a purchase, why not “fill their cart for them” with their favourite products. Well, not resetting it since their last visit is more like it, but the result is the same: your returning visitors are once again facing the temptation of cashing in on their wishlist. Will they resist the temptation? 

One thing is for sure, the shopping cart recovery tactic will drastically increase your onsite conversions. 

There are 2 ways that you can approach the shopping cart recovery strategy:

Abandoned Cart Retargeting

Retargeting ads are a powerful tool to account for cart abandonment. Reminding your site visitors that they have “unfinished business” on your site could make them come back and see that their selected products are still waiting for them in their virtual shopping cart. 

You need simply to insert ad pixels on your checkout page and you’d be able to remarket it to users on Google and Facebook. You can take advantage of this retargeting method even if the user doesn’t provide you with an email address. How great is that?

Abandoned Cart Email

Suppose your site visitor has filled in their email address at checkout, but then he changed his mind and left your website without making purchase. You should recognize that you are offered an excellent opportunity to try to convert that lead with a follow-up email, reminding them that their selected products are still waiting for them in their shopping cart at your site. 

You can offer them a special coupon code or limited discount to encourage them to finalize their purchasing process. 

Wrapping Up

You’ve already learned some of the essential CRO methods that will help you make your e-commerce site a striving one. Being aware of how your site visitors engage and interact with your website is really essential when optimizing your site’s conversion rates. And while we listed great insights that can get you started with conversion optimization you need to keep in mind that good UX, quickly loading product pages, amazing visuals and engaging content are areas that you should also pay close attention to.

Experiment and see which of the above-listed tactics move the needle for you. We’d appreciate it if you decide to share our experience or questions with us in the comments below. 

Are you ready to reinvent your e-commerce marketing strategy? The race is long and you should pace your efforts and prioritize your goals accordingly. 

Below you can go over our Ultimate E-commerce Marketing Strategy List for 2022!

Check out these useful tips: 

• Video Production 
• TikTok Campaigns
• Online referrals
• Customer testimonials
• And more

Ready? OK, great, let your knowledge quest begin: 

Managing an e-commerce site requires much flexibility and innovativeness. There are a lot of things to keep in mind when it comes to: 

• Planning the on-site UX and site visitor’s journey;
• Actively promoting the brand online;
• Optimizing the site structure and content to appeal to search engine requirements.

It’s an intricate science to go over each one of those three stages, but one should start from somewhere, right?

What about cashing in on a great content creation idea first!

Video Production at Scale

Ready, Set, Rolling!

If you tend to catch up with online trends you’ve most certainly stumbled upon a number of video-related stats that overpraise videos as the content format you simply cannot ignore in 2022. Plenty of industry researchers compete with each other to prepare marketers for the nearby video revolution:

• Videos are by far the preferred content format on Social Media. They generate more shares and overall engagement as compared to plain text or images;
• Videos are proven conversion boosters, especially if embedded on landing pages; 
• Videos increase site traffic and dwell time on site;
• Videos help increase brand awareness, generate leads, and boost sales.

But let’s explore the full potential of video marketing. There are so many things that you could try out when you invest in video production campaigns. The sky’s the limit, really. Do you wish to brainstorm together? Let’s go: 

• Live streaming is a top engagement video format that has gained huge popularity, especially during pandemic times. Its innovative outlook where viewers can instantly order the broadcasted product becomes a real hit for e-commerce brands.

L’Oreal is proud to have introduced 300 digital services within the year 2020 alone. In the example above you can see their Virtual try-on during Livestream and LiveShopping

• Create an animated explainer video for your YouTube audience. According to Animoto back in 2019 YouTube replaced Facebook as the #1 platform that affects consumer behavior
• Video record your customer testimonials to show them off on your company website and positively affect conversions;

• Create video series where you answer customers’ and followers’ questions;
• Embed How-to videos on your sales pages to better illustrate product usage;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh2_s53my2M

How to use Pampers pants is an endearing video following in the How-to category. Simple, sweet and short – what more you’d like from a baby brand commercial?

• Pimp up your Case Study landing page with an actual video of your project development and customer’s feedback;

• Repurpose stale blog content – turn a grabbing article topic into your next video piece that you can share on Social Media. A good idea would be to split it into several short consecutive videos. You could also replace old pdf files uploaded on your website with videos.
• Interviews with industry experts, influencers or celebrities are a well-acknowledged marketing tactic that boosts site traffic and user engagement. Why not have a video interview and enjoy the fruits of your labor to the fullest?
• Behind the scenes videos are great for introducing your team, your company culture and internal processes. They will help you make your brand look more human in the eyes of your target audience;

Ikea’s behind the scene video on their Thisables commercial reveals the company’s focus on people with disabilities and how they attempt to address their specific needs  with their products

• Encourage the creation of user generated content by reaching out to influencers and inviting them to do a product review video or an unboxing video for you;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e8cBt_xz20

This Garbage truck unboxing video is definitely a winner. The joy on this kid’s face playing with his new recycling and garbage trucks would surely help a number of parents quickly draft their next  Christmas shopping list. 

• Ensure high open rates of your emails with embedded video content. If video usage results in increased engagement rates, you surely would find them handy in your prospect outreach. 
• Before and after videos are great for product promotion. Think about the beauty or apparel industry, they use before & after videos all the time. However, you could adapt this video format to almost any product: even a home tool kit could be promoted with a home renovation (before & after) video, right?

Revlon’s transformation video show us how a before-after concept could inspire and amaze the target audience.  

• Time lapse video production requires a lot of patience, but they are fantastic attention grabbers, don’t you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7TCTf38ARM

Budweiser time lapse video is a fun way of illustrating how beer is a good companion of those who are having fun.

You are out of inspiration? See what your competitors are on to. Maybe their video creation efforts will give you fresh ideas on what can work for your own brand. 

TikTok Virality Exercise 

Challenge accepted!

You are doing a great job on Facebook and Instagram at engaging your peers, I am sure, but have you tried out TikTok already? Well, you should!

TikTok offers great opportunities to brands. As compared to FB and IG, TikTok makes it possible to reach out to new potential customers for free. TikTok renders content to its users based on people’s interests. Good news is that your content could end up on the “For You” pages of people who are not even following you and that’s simply because your content is trending or matches their set of interests. 

And while on FB you’re bound to pay in order to reach out to new audiences, on TikTok you simply need to create a really valuable video that corresponds to the current community demand. 

There are video formats on TikTok that are particularly liked, but you can always experiment and come up with a custom approach of your own. For starters just consider going mainstream and do something of the following: 

• Pick up a trending challenge and create a video for it. You could come up with your own branded challenge, of course, just make sure to take time to popularize it among a few influencers, in order to gain that viral push you need at first. And remember to come up with  a unique hashtag for your campaign.

@robbijanWait for the end… 😅 @alexcosta #robbijan #attentionplease #attentionchallenge #fyp #foryou #couple #funny #levelup♬ Boys – Lizzo

Many of the challenges accent on humour thus are so well in their virality, maybe you could gather some interesting insights from hashtags like #attentionchallenge, #coupleschallenge,  #getupchallenge #siblingchallenge.

• TikTok dancing videos could also be considered as challenges, yet they are worth a bullet on their own! Given that the music beat is often an essential element of a TikTok video, short dancing performances are particularly trending among the younger audience.

@charlidamelio#duet with @andiesjourney ! i love you!!! 💕💕♬ Better When I’m Dancin’ – Meghan Trainor

Building up  your dancing TikTok videos on a solid cause will really make them a valuable content worth sharing andreplicating.

• Lip Synch videos are another video type you could invest in. If you wish to make your audience laugh, this is surely a good way to achieve your goal!

@julesleblanc#eyeslipsface♬ Eyes. Lips. Face. (e.l.f.) – iLL Wayno & Holla FyeSixWun

Eyes Lips Face viral campaign that Elfcosmetics commissioned a song for is an absolute hit on TikTok. Thousands of girls are doing their own lip sync on its lyrics and are indirectly promoting the brand on a daily basis. 

Video tutorials are particularly useful and liked at TikTok. Help your target audience imagine the different applications of the product you offer. 

@starbucksrecipeswithmThe “IT” Frappuccino!! Order a vanilla bean Frappuccino with strawberry purée in the cup #fyp #starbucks #foryou♬ original sound – maya

This original Starbucks recipe for IT Frappuccino got 5.6 likes and thousands of comments on TikTok! 

• Creating your own branded filter is a nice way to spread the word for your product. If you have the expertise and time to invest in such a type of brand awareness campaign, your efforts would surely be rewarded accordingly.
• Song imitation videos are simply hilarious. Promote your brand with a sense of humor. Be careful with the lyrics – let those correspond with your company culture and voice.

• Dialogue reenactment videos are another idea where you could shine with your sense of humor. Keeping your audience entertained is the right path towards their hearts.

@chipotleSometimes the hardest decisions are the most necessary 😁💔 via @mattactorgordon #chipotle #comedy #trending #funny #viral #fyp♬ original sound – Chipotle

Chipotle is making a real breakthrough on TikTok. Check one of their sketches of a real-life conversation between a couple that’s wondering where to have a bite. 

• Animal or baby videos – no one could resist the cuteness of endearing animals and babies. If you wish to add some natural sweetner to your TikTok marketing cocktail – animal and baby videos will do the trick. 

What’s the best way to create an interesting TikTok content – to combine two winning content types (a challenge and a puppy video), of course, and back them up with a fun idea, which in this case is the: puppuccino!

@espressobarredA birthday puppuccino for my sweet pup Taco! Wish him a HBD! 🎉🐾 #puppuccino #puppuccinochallenge #cavapoopuppy #dogsoftiktok #DontSweatIt♬ Cute Puppies – Mark Ross

• Science experiments would be great video formats for brands that are in the food and drink industry. 
• Makeover videos are the preferred type of content produced by the beauty and fashion industry.

@charlidamelio#ad 🔥 #takistransformation #sweepstakes #ad♬ GONE – DannyBoyStyles

In this case an influencer has made a makeover video in order to promote a product. Going for a different look to express the feel of tasting the product is a creative way to shoot a natural video ad.

• Freeze frame videos are fascinating to watch. Often they are used for optical illusions and humorous effect and are opportunities worth exploring. 

@azzylandNow I have all the fairy dust I’ll ever need ✨😈 #freezeframe #disney♬ Supalonely (feat. Gus Dapperton) – BENEE

This TikTok is a great call to Disney – a freezeframe shot of a girl holding Tinkerbell in a glass.

• Live videos are also a thing on TikTok and you could use them accordingly to communicate company news or a product launch. Live videos deserve a noteworthy piece of info to be shared, so make it count!

Onto the Quest for Online Mentions

Let them talk!

Stepping back from social media campaigns, let’s continue our 2022 E-commerce Marketing Checklist with some PR techniques. 

How can you attract the public’s attention to your e-commerce business in a way that it will also positively affect your online presence?

First let me help you define your goals. You need to get the chatter going, but not every online media outlet will do. The best-case scenario would be to have your business mentioned on relevant industry blogs and news sites. If you are targeting potential customers within a specific area rather than addressing the national audience, location-specific websites are another fine referancel choice. 

Search engines and Google in particular relies greatly on backlink signals in their ranking algorithm. The more authoritative your links are – the stronger the signal you send to Google that your website and brand are note- and trustworthy one. 

Here are some pointers that could help you draft your own strategy towards accumulating valuable online mentions: 

• Trace down your unlinked online mentions and turn them into backlinks. Now there are a lot of ways you can approach this, the easiest one being using Google Alerts. Set specific keyword alerts associated with your brand, company and product and monitor them on an ongoing basis. As long as you are a seasoned brand with some kind of publicity work done before, there is a great chance that you have been mentioned without having been credited link-wise. 
• Research where online your competitors got mentioned and reach out to those media outlets. There is no guarantee that each of the competitors’ backlinks would be valuable, so do a prospect assessment instead of blindly replicating their links. There will be websites that wont agree on featuring you next to your competitors, but don’t despair. Try to find similar websites and reach out to those instead. 
•  Co-market your brand with other companies. It may sound difficult of an endeavour, but in fact the positives of such a campaign exceed greatly the initial efforts invested. Think of a Coca Cola and Burger King partnership – food and beverage companies that finely complement each other. What about BMW & Louis Vuitton partnership – sounds like two luxury brands have raised the bar to team up their audiences for higher reach and conversions. Working on a project together with a partner who addresses the same target audience would help you rule the headlines in your industry.
• Content your way to journalists and bloggers. Create innovative, provoking, and/or amazing content for the online community. It would be easily picked up and, maybe, if you get lucky, it could go viral and the backlinks to your site will start pouring in. 
• Publish fresh content on your company website. Blog sections are the best place to do that. Whether you’d post articles with industry surveys & research or podcast recordings, videos and infographics – they all have the power to move the needle for you. By continuously updating your website with valuable and industry-relevant content, sooner or later your work will get noticed and referred to by other bloggers and media experts. 
• Share your opinion on a trending topic. If people are showing increasing interest in a specific type of content you should address their demand. 
• Get featured in consumer guides – this is an alternative to the blogger outreach idea from above. Make sure you trace down any buyer guides that cover your niche and request a place in it. Do it not only for the ranking perks the backlink gives you, but for the targeted traffic that you may get.
• Popularize your clients’ user-generated content 
• Sponsor industry events, causes related to your local community, etc. Sponsorship could take a number of forms from helping out a charity group to financing a local kids soccer team. The most important thing is to align your sponsorship strategy to your company culture and communication campaign.
• By setting an affiliate campaign you’d have a number of online references, hopefully many of those would be from credible and established sources. Bloggers are on the lookout to monetize their websites, so as long as an affiliate program fits your business model, then you’d definitely find people to sign up for it.

Let Your Customers Do the Job

Word-of-mouth praise!

Often the best and most natural promotion strategy is to let your customers become your brand advocates. Word-of-mouth marketing is by far the most amazing marketing approach though it requires great involvement, planning and, of course, outstanding product and customer service. 

The power of honesty and passionately sharing your personal experience with a given company is what tempts other potential customers to try out the brand’s product line. The desire to catch up with the novelty and/or to become part of the crowd is what really helps WOM to work on a mass scale and to result in high ROI.

WoM is a great way to promote your brand and grow your sales without facing the ad spend. 

Let’s see how you could start building your WOM strategy:

• Organic WOM is a process that companies are rarely planning. The positive company buzz spreads due to the utter customer satisfaction of the company’s products and service and is not artificially stimulated in any particular way. If your brand gets associated with such buzz, then congrats! You got it right!;
• Hashtag campaigns are another way to make a WoM buzz. If you go for a completely new and unique hashtag campaign you’d see how it gradually gets picked up and more and more people start using it in their own content. Don’t fear starting small WoM has a wave effect, if done properly. 

The following example of a hashtag campaign introduced by BurgerKing during the Super Bowl faced huge traction. Of course, #eatlikeandy campaign was backed up with amazing content – a 45-second video of the late pop celebrity Andy Warhol, who ate a Whooper.

• WOM based on content creation – having an amazing idea and creating fresh content behind it is the best way to start a WOM buzz. In the example below you can see how Wendys adapted a word-famous meme to their brand needs and the result is pretty obvious: 36,540 likes, a number of people tagged and comments posted under it.
• WOM based on user-generated content – if we pay enough attention to our audience, we could get amazing feedback that we could not only use to improve our service and overall performance, but we could incorporate in our Social Media Content Creation strategy to boost engagement and WOM buzz;

Dunkin’ Donuts are getting UGC on Social Media on a daily basis and utilize it in their marketing campaigns. The mantra they run by reads:

”We don’t own our social media channels, our fans do!”

• WOM based on influencer marketing – once you get an influencer on your marketing team their content starts a WOM life of its own. Just check the influencer’s post from below: 

Her followers are excited with the recommended mix and are eager to explore this opportunity. Some are admitting they are “drooling”, others can wait to try it out: “Ohh never thought to add the garbanzos to a mix! Love this idea!”

• WOM based on customer reviews – popularize your customer reviews, brag with those and reshare those on your social media to get the buzz going ;

• WOM based on a referral program – customer referrals should definitely be encouraged to trigger WOM buzz. You wonder how to approach this properly? In the example below you can see a state-of-art execution of such Embassador Invitation made by Hustle:

Hustle’s Ambassador Program aims at triggering WOM buzz. Ambassadors are tempted with a list of rewards and the special perks of belonging to a private community.

• WOM based on Social Media Marketing – encouraging retweets/shares is the way to start a WOM campaign. Here’s a great example on what occasions brands tend to employ this particular technique: 

• WOM based on giveaways and freebies – is there a person who doesn’t like to take part in a contest with good prizes? Giveaways are an easy way to grab your target audience’ attention, especially if you are offering concert tickets. Below you can see a great example of a giveaway collaboration between Heinz and Burgerfi:
• WOM based on games, contests, quizzes – we all know that entertainment posts like these get a lot of engagement and shares or friend tags. But let us show you a different approach to this. CostaCoffee comes up with a game on how to create your own Costa Recipe. Their approach is quite creative and in the end it is not the reward that makes their content a WOM material but the idea that by having some fun you can boost your mood. Costa’s FeelGoodFix series are a great example of how quality content presented in a game-like form could do miracles for user engagement.