Boost SEO x53 - and other great reasons to use animation in your marketing
There are all sorts of names for it – explainer videos, corporate video, marketing videos, animated web videos…. cartoons for your company - I prefer to call them animated videos! But, whatever you call them, their popularity in digital marketing strategy is growing.
Once animation was limited to those with massive six figure production budgets, but current technology means you no longer need a big studio or access to television broadcast channels to create and distribute animation.
In theory, anyone can have one written, designed, storyboarded and produced tailored to your marketing needs.
Four major reasons to use animation in your marketing
Increased conversion rates – 64%- 85% of people are more likely to purchase after watching a product video. And, on average, people will stay 2 minutes longer on…
What are the implications of Microsoft’s So.cl?
Importance: [rating=1] (currently)
Recommended link: Previous announcement of So.cl launch
So.cl was launched over the last weekend. It's a strange time to launch a product, particularly following the big Facebook IPO announcement. Apparently Microsoft wasn’t looking to make a big bang and are still refining their new service and how to position it.
Still, Microsoft is still a major provider of search, so we think it warrants an alert since you may be asked about it by colleagues or clients. You may need to say “it’s not relevant to our digital strategy”. This post explains why.
What is So.cl?
So what is So.cl? Is it a social network? Well no, not really, despite the headline that's what it will be called... The main welcome page carousel doesn't clearly show any differentiation - we have many ways to "connect…
A checklist of 7 questions for the perfect brief
If you have decided to go to a production company to bring your corporate video to life, it is important that you clearly communicate to them what it is you want. You need them to understand your concept and buy into it so that they become as passionate as you are about making a success of the video.
As background, see these examples of B2B corporate videos and different formats compiled by Rene Power.
Based on my experience of what is sometimes missing, here's a checklist of questions that will help you write a great corporate video brief:
1. What’s the purpose of your video?
You need to communicate the goal of your video to the company. Is it to launch or support a specific campaign? Is it an attempt at solving a…
How to create an inbound marketing strategy - some case studies of tools and tactics
I've found setting up and running a small business is both daunting and exciting in equal measure.
The combined economic downturn and increasingly crowded competitive landscape mean the need to promote your business and get your message ‘out there’ is as important as ever.
The small business marketing challenge
Marketing is a huge challenge for small businesses, particularly start-ups with no established customer base or community around them.
Traditional advertising is an absolute necessity to let people know who you are.
But if you’ve limited money and resources, what other options do you have to get your message about your fantastic new business out there?
Inbound marketing is one strategy I would highly recommend.
An introduction to inbound marketing - ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’
For any business, large or small, there are three key media types you can use to connect with consumers;…
21 reasons to persuade yourself or your colleagues you need to blog, blog more or blog better
Are you needing a bit of ammunition to justify the time and energy to invest in a blog? Or perhaps you have a blog and you're looking to increase the frequency or quality of your posts. At Musicademy, blogging is core to what we do to engage existing customers and attract new customers, so this is how we justify our efforts and it certainly is a lot of effort!
So, here are 21 good reasons to get blogging or blog better. And rule number one of good blog writing – blog readers love lists! (As long as they're useful or inspire)
Because blogging drives traffic to your website. The blog can feed a stream of tweets, Facebook updates and newsletter content as well as leaving…
How the ‘7 fascination triggers’ will help viewers engage with your brand
Video is a great new way to communicate your business to the world.
Imagine you have found a great production company to help you create shiny, amazing video content. And you have set a filming date and allocated a reasonable budget to make sure you get it right.
But you have no idea what message you want to get across - or what you’re going to film.
The ‘7 fascination triggers’ is a useful tool to help you work out how best to tailor your strategy to elicit the desired response from your target markets.
So what does it take to be fascinating?
How can you grab your audience’s attention and hold it long enough for your message to be heard loud and clear?
The key, according to Sally Hogshead, is to have an understanding of…
A tutorial on reviewing consumer search behaviour in the 2nd Largest Search Engine in the World
As you'll know, YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google in many countries. It's the number one ranked entertainment site and 3rd most visited in the UK by Hitwise. Given this and since popular videos are displayed in the "one-box" of blended search results for some queries it's worth investigating how YouTube can be used to reach a wider audience.
In this post I'll give a short tutorial on how to find out it's relevance in your market by finding out the number of searches. I'm not suggesting it will give instant results or as Forrester misguidely advised that it's the Easiest Way to a First-page ranking on Google. It may even help you "push back" against colleagues who are asking why you're not doing more work in YouTube.
It's an enormous site…
Integrating blogging with other communication tools – an integrated approach
Although blogging is far from new, I find that relatively few organisations have really started using blogs effectively. Where they have, they have found a tool that delivers on multiple fronts because it's integrated into all their communications.
When used effectively, the blog is a place for you to develop newsletter content, integrate with other social media tools, showcase your expertise, play with ideas, research a topic and discover customer views. Of course, blogs also yield dividends in terms of SEO as other sites pick up your content giving you invaluable back links, and customers will get on with the job of tweeting and liking your work.
The Blog Central model
Below is a model I’ve developed to use when explaining the concept to colleagues and on my training courses. To make the point of how blogging must be at the heart of your communications,…
How to promote your company blog to reach a larger audience
Writing a blog doesn't end when you hit the publish button. Far from it. In this third part of our series on business blogging, René Power reviews the best approaches to seeding and distributing your blog content - giving it the best chance of being seen by the people you're targeting.
1. Promote it on your website
Add a snippet to your home page. It provides a sign post for visitors and also offers some additional search engine optimisation benefits if you have considered your keywords carefully.
2. Index your blog with major blog directories
Ensure your blog is listed in as many blog directories as possible, particularly those with specialist sections. Why? Backlinks to your blog are still one of the most important factors in determining how visible your blog (and…
8 key issues to review to make sure your blog supports company goals
This is the second in a series of blog posts aimed at helping business bloggers. The first post explored getting started and avoiding writer's block, sometimes an issue at this time of year. In this post, René Power examines the key elements of a successful business blog.
If you're running a business targeting other businesses in 2012, it is likely you have either read about or been advised to introduce a blog to your website. The benefits of business blogging are much chronicled - Dave and Chris both covered it from a commercial and SEO viewpoint.
But with a bewildering choice of over 250 million websites and 130 million blogs (with five million new ones coming online every year), your customers don't have a lot of time or attention. How does a corporate blog attract and retain readers? (Statistics…
