Location-based marketing creates many opportunities to reach consumers based on the specific geographic area they are physically present in. Geofencing is a type of location-based marketing that establishes a virtual fence around a pre-defined geographical area to attract mobile users. Today, geofencing is used in social media, human resources, telematics, cybersecurity, and marketing.
How does geofencing work?
Geofencing uses a combination of technologies to track customers’ locations:
-GPS
-Bluetooth
– Beacons
Once the virtual boundary is dawn around a physical location and a user enters that set location, a triggered response is distributed. Dependent upon the device and technology, marketers can prompt mobile push notifications, send targeted ads on social media, initiate text messages (SMS) and deliver location-based marketing data. Ever notice the food recommendations you receive once you enter a certain location? That is geofencing.
The Intertwined benefits of geofencing for marketing
Increase local sales
If one of your marketing goals is to drive foot traffic to your store and increase local sales, geofencing is your answer. In fact, it was reported by salesforce that fifty-three percent of shoppers visited a specific retailer after receiving a location-based alert. Therefore, it is an extremely effective way to target users while they are at the set target location. In addition, this is a valuable tool for driving customer loyalty by targeting individuals who have previously visited your business with promotional and loyalty offers.
Tracking Conversions and measuring ROI
Local sales can be difficult to measure. However, with geofencing, there are a number of metrics you can measure, including sales, how long they were in the store, and how often they visit. Reports also indicate the performance of the campaign for each geofence, so you can see which one garnered the highest CTR or the lowest CPA, for example. All this insight can be valuable information that adds depth to your analytics.
Customer Personalization
Another benefit of geofencing is the data you obtain in order to personalize customer offers. It gives you demographics about the local population, including what kind of offers interest them and got them in your store. If you look at the purchase history provided and realize customers’ wants and needs, you can alter your promotions accordingly.
Increase brand awareness with concentrated spends
Better engagement leads to more effective marketing spend. With geofencing, you can reach the audiences most likely to take action, which means less budget spend on less relevant consumers.
The holiday shopping season is upon us and with the right strategy in place, it can bring in as much as 30% of a retailer’s total sales in just one season. One of the biggest misconceptions about holiday marketing is that you need to get your ads up and running just in time for Black Friday. In reality, a recent study showed over 40% of US consumers plan to begin their holiday shopping before November, and a solid 31% plan to start before September or earlier.
Start early
Campaigns that start in October see a 7% increase in impressions, a 12% decrease in average cost-per-click (CPC) and a 20% decrease in average cost-per-impression (CPM) compared to other holiday months. These stats prove that by starting early, you’ll be able to reach both new and existing customers with strategic holiday messaging at a lower cost, which will positively impact your total ROI. It is also important to remember that the earlier you run your holiday campaigns, the better because of the less competition you’ll likely see. As the holiday season ramps up, so will the competition. However, you’ll be ahead of the game and can focus your budget on bringing your new high-intent users down the funnel to convert.
Keep them running
While October is the best time to start running your campaigns, this doesn’t mean that you should skip out on other holiday months. In fact, engagement is highest in November and December. Last season, advertisers saw a 9% increase in click-through-rate (CTR) in November and a 15% increase in CTR in December. This means during the two months, your brand needs more meaningful, engaging content and a clear understanding of your customer’s journeys.
The rise of mobile marketing
As content consumption habits shift further online and into mobile, so do shopping habits, and it’s crucial to build omnichannel engagement programs that meet consumers where they spend their time. Based on a recent study, this year consumers are planning to spend a majority of their holiday budgets online and via mobile devices this year. For the five-week holiday period from Nov. 21st- Dac. 26th in 2017, mobile shopping accounted for 41% of purchases. In fact, on Thanksgiving, mobile shopping accounted for more purchases than those that came from a standard desktop computer. Beyond that, cross-device campaigns feature some of the best performance when compared to regular desktop or social media campaigns. Plus the average CPC is 63% cheaper on mobile than it is on a desktop for the average holiday campaign.
Tapping into social media for success
One of the best ways to take advantage of a mobile audience is to make sure that you’re running your ads across social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. In fact, AdRoll customers saw a 400% increase in CTR on Instagram when compared to their display campaigns, and a 54% increase in CTR on Facebook.
Personalize the holiday shopping experience
Make sure you are planning your social media strategy around a user-centric approach. Try to think like your customers, figure out the platforms they use, and produce content they want to see and engage with. It’s not a secret that video marketing is a major trend to exploit. Providing something of value is often the key to success, and 77% of consumers are more likely to watch an online video ad if they would receive a discount off a holiday purchase.
Vary your promotions/sales
If you want to keep consumers interested, you’ve got to add variety to holiday promotions. Start by deciding how many different types of sales or promotional events you want to offer during the holiday shopping season. Here are a few ideas that you can use for different types of promotional offers during the holiday shopping season:
Provide early access to those on your email list.
Offer “VIP” shopping opportunities to your most loyal customers.
Create a sale for different product or category of products each week.
Ramp up your sales percentages as it gets closer to the holidays.
What are you doing today in order to increase your visitor to sale conversion?
E-commerce business is changing faster than ever before, along with customers taking more time to think about their purchases. Shopping cart abandonment is an online retailers’ biggest challenge due to potential lost revenue, but luckily marketers can help solve this problem with cart abandonment emails. According to SalesCycle, approximately 75.6% of online shopping carts were abandoned in 2018. Cart abandonment is when online shoppers on your e-commerce site add items to their shopping cart, and then leave your site before converting (completing the purchase). The thing is, ¾ of people who abandon their carts usually plan to come back, so if you’re not reminding shoppers with abandoned cart emails, you’re missing a huge opportunity to recover lost sales.
How to Create Abandoned Cart Emails that Convert
Timing
The time distribution of your abandoned cart email is crucial if you want prospects to complete their purchases. The sooner you send it, the easier people will remember who you are and why they added the items into their cart. If you wait too long, you lose that shopping urge that caused the shopper to add the item to their cart in the first place. So make sure to distribute your email within 24 hours of them exiting your checkout so the prospect’s near purchase is still fresh in their mind.
Use Converting Subject Line
Subject lines have the potential to grab the attention of the customer and increase open and click rates. It’s the first thing prospects will see, so if your subject line isn’t well thought out, all your hard work won’t be read. The most effective subject lines are those that are straight to the point and evoke emotion like excitement, humor, fear of missing out, etc. So have fun and be creative with winning back customers. Another important factor in grabbing attention is to make it feel personal. You can play around with subject lines to see which have the highest open rates by using A/B testing in your campaign. Here are a few great subject line suggestions:
“Hey Joe, you forgot something.”
“Baby come back!” (the song)
“Don’t let your favorite items sell out”
Include Abandoned Product
In your email’s content, make sure to include the exact product along with the product image, size, color, pattern, etc in the hero of the email. This is a great way to remind them of what they are missing out. Using visual marketing to show interested shoppers which items they’ve abandoned makes the email more personal and immediately grabs their attention again.
Eye-catching CTA button
Bold and easy-to-see CTAs can direct the attention of the shopper towards the desired action you want them to pursue. In this particular situation, the action is to finish buying the product, so make it easy for them to complete the action a button text like: “Continue Shopping” or “Snatch it!”
Present an Incentive
Who doesn’t love discounts or free shipping? One of the most common reasons users abandon their shopping carts is because of extra costs like shipping, tax, and fees. With that in mind, try offering an incentive in your abandoned cart emails that are only exclusive to them. This could be the final push they need to complete their purchase.
Effective emails that convert can also include scarcity that informs readers of the items they placed in the shopping cart have a high risk of selling out if they continue to wait. When deciding on your incentive, it’s recommended to test two incentives in your emails to find out what your audience responds to best.
Offer Customer Support
Another common reason for abandoned shopping carts is because of a failed/poor website or checkout flow experience. This includes long/complicated checkout process, website errors, slow delivery, not enough payment methods, or couldn’t see total order cost up-front. So, with each cart abandonment email, give the opportunity to provide customer assistance or guidance.
Include Customer Reviews and Testimonials
If visitors are in doubt when completing their purchase, a credible and honest review might influence a conversion. Go through your testimonials and place them at the bottom of your email.
At Spectruss, our powerful abandoned cart automation workflows implement these tips and more to remind your customers what they’ve left behind and encourage them to complete their purchase. With this abandoned cart messaging system, our retail clients reconnect with customers who navigate away from their shopping carts, recapture sales, and generate more revenue.
Instagram has more than 400 million users that share 80 million posts daily, making it a compelling platform for advertisers. The platform itself says its ads can help drive awareness and increase customers among a highly engaged audience. Instagram offers photo ads, video ads, carousel ads, and stories ads.
Reasons to Use Instagram Ads
Audience Growth
The key reason brands advertise on Instagram is the efficiency of this marketing channel. It’s one of the fastest growing social media platforms, with over 250 million daily active users in June 2017 according to TechCrunch.
Constantly Adapting
In Instagram’s monthly updates, you will find that the platform is updated regularly to provide a better user experience and making advertising even more efficient.
Attention
Instagram is a highly engaging social media platform that helps your brand receive a lot of attention and engage with new users. According to Pew Research, 51% of Instagram users access the platform daily, and 35% say they look at the platform several times a day.
Additional Instagram advertising stats: – 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram per day. – Currently, Instagram has 1 million monthly active advertisers—up from just 200,000 in March 2016. – eMarketer projects that Instagram’s global mobile ad revenues will reach $2.81 billion this year, accounting for over 10 percent of parent company Facebook’s global ad revenues.
Targeting
Instagram ads use Facebook’s advertising system, which most likely has the most powerful targeting ability. You can specify your target audience’s location, demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. You can even target people who have bought from you or interacted with you and others similar to them.
Instagram Feed Ad Formats
Carousel Ad
Carousel ads bring another layer of depth to campaign where people can swipe to view up to 10 additional photos or videos in a single ad. They are a great way to accomplish business goals by highlighting several products and specific details to give them a considerable boost. You can recognize these ads by the small dots under the image, indicating that there is more than one image.
These ads provide an excellent opportunity to: -To create a step-by-step illustration of how to use your product -Tell a story about your brand in several images or videos -Give a good sense of the essence of your promoted offer -Lower your Instagram ads cost
Specs: Caption: up to 125 characters Media type: image or video Recommended image/video resolution: min. 600 x 600 pixels, max. 1080 x 1080 pixels Image format: .jpg or .png Minimum number of cards: 2 Maximum number of cards: 10 Image ratio: 1:1 Video aspect ratio: 1:1 Minimum video length: 3 seconds Maximum video length: 60 seconds Video thumbnail image ratio: Should match the aspect ratio of your video. If not, thumbnail auto resize is available.
Single Ad
Exactly how it sounds, these are ads with a single image in landscape or square format. This is the most widely used ad type and consists of an image, ad copy, and a call-to-action button.
Specs:
Caption: up to 125 characters Media type: image Recommended image size: 1080 x 1080 pixels or 1200 x 628 pixels (the typical Facebook ad image size) Image format: .jpg or .png Max. file size: 30 MB
Video Ad
Instagram used to have a 15-second limit for video, but now videos can be up to 60 seconds long and shot in landscape or square format. They are an effective way to explain how your product or service works or simply share a fun and engaging message. Overall, this type of ad is known to catch users attention as they scroll through their feed.
Specs: Caption: up to 125 characters Media type: video Recommended video resolution: 600 x 600 pixels (square) or 600 x 315 pixels (landscape) Aspect Ratio: 1:1 (square) or 1.9:1 (landscape) Minimum resolution: 600 x 600 pixels Maximum resolution: 1080 x 1080 pixels Minimum length: 3 seconds Maximum length: 60 seconds Maximum size: 4GB Frame rate: 30fps max File type: .mp4 container Video: H.264 video compression, high profile preferred, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan Audio: Stereo AAC audio compression, 128kbps + preferred
Slideshow Ad
Slideshow ads are looping video ads with up to 10 images and music. It’s almost like a carousel ad that scrolls on its own, with music. You can upload an existing slideshow or create a new slideshow. Facebook Ads Manager has an easy-to-use slideshow creator where you can select the images, music, video captions, and a thumbnail for your Instagram ad. You can also choose whether you’d like to images to transition or fade while changing.
Specs: Caption: up to 125 characters Media type: images + soundtrack Image duration: up to 50 sec per image Image size: min. 600 x 600 pixels, max. 1080 x 1080 pixels. If you use images of different sizes, your slideshow will be cropped to be square. Music file format: WAV, MP3, M4A, FLAC, and OGG. You must have all legal rights necessary to use the song.
Lead Ads
Instagram lead ads help to collect valuable information from prospects without leading them off the Instagram platform. As someone clicks on your Lead Ad, they’ll be guided to a new page with a lead form that asks for their name and contact details (e.g. the person’s full name, email address, phone number, etc.)
Tip: When you create this form, there are several fields to fill in. Once you hit “Finish, you won’t be able to edit the lead form. You can use the “Save” button to save a draft of the lead form if you wish to edit it afterward.
When setting up Lead Ads, you’ll also need to include your company’s privacy policy (As you will be collecting user information).
Specs: Caption: up to 125 characters Media type: image Recommended ad image size: 1080 x 1080 pixels or 1200 x 628 pixels (the typical Facebook ad image size) Image format: .jpg or .png Max. file size: 30 MB Other requirements: Privacy policy
Stories Image Ad
In 2017, Instagram opened up Instagram Stories ads to businesses globally and people appear to be highly engaged while watching the stories from their followers. You can create image stories ads that contain up to six images to share your brands messaging in a fun and engaging way. There is not much customization you can do with these ads, making them very straightforward and simple to create.
Specs: Caption: not currently available. Any text must be part of the image file Format: Full-screen vertical ad (9:16) Recommended Resolution: 1080 x 1920 Minimum Resolution: 600 x 1067 File types: .jpg or .png Max. image size: 30MB Photo content: visible for 5 seconds
Story Video Ad
Instagram stories video ads is a great way for your brand to stand out among all its peers’ advertising. With this format, you can upload a video or GIF of up to 15 seconds in length. Simply upload your video or GIF and choose a video thumbnail. The thumbnail you choose will be what people see before your video plays. It can influence a user’s decision to watch the ad. It’s an amazingly engaging way of showcasing your product, building your brand’s personality, and engaging your audiences by reminding them of your offers.
Specs: Caption: not currently available. Any text must be part of the image file Format: Full-screen vertical ad (9:16) Recommended Resolution: 1080 x 1920 Minimum Resolution: 600 x 1067 File types: mp4 or .mov Max. video size: 4GB Max. video length: 15 seconds Recommended Video Codecs: h.264, VP8 Recommended Audio Codecs: AAC, Vorbis
Key performance indicators (KPI) for marketing tells you how well you’re doing in relation to your overall marketing and business goals. Marketers use KPIs to understand what is selling, who’s buying, how they’re buying, and why they’re purchasing. They give you enough insight to make better decisions to prove and improve the ROI of your marketing efforts. Column Five Media recently reported how to measure five important KPIs and how improve each one.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
CLV is the net profit that a customer will generate for a business during the entire relationship with that customer. It can be calculated historically, over specific time periods, or it can be predictive. One of the most effective ways to boost LTV is by focusing on two areas: retention and upselling (add-ons and complementary products). The longer a customer continues to purchase from a company, the greater their lifetime value becomes. Incorporating a customer loyalty program can help you keep achieve this, increasing average purchase frequency (APF) and Average customer lifespan (ACL).
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
CAC is the cost of convincing a potential customer to buy a product or service. The online traffic you generate must be converted into sales, so make sure you’re focusing on boosting conversion rates to lower your CAC. When you try to improve your conversions, you need to optimize the landing pages you are directing traffic to. Construct A/B testing on the content, CTA layout, structure, testimonials, emails, etc. The other way is to retarget potential customers and receive attention through email and ad targeting. Referral programs are also a great way to lower CAC and grow revenue. When a customer refers two friends who then make a purchase, you’ve just gained three customers for the price of one.
Marketing ROI (MROI)
Marketing ROI is exactly what it sounds like, a way of measuring the return on investment from the amount a company spends on marketing. There are several benefits associated with using this measurement including justifying marketing spend, deciding what to spend on, comparing marketing efficiency with competitors and accountability. Analyze your data before, during, and after every marketing activity for every part of the marketing mix. Also, use the insights you derive to focus on efforts that bring the greatest returns.
Traffic-to-lead Conversions
This simple KPI is how many subscribers, leads, or users you are generating from your top-of-funnel efforts. The goal is to increase both traffic and conversion rate. Here are some common places a business might get visitors: email marketing, social media, blog post, etc. Once you identify where your leads are coming from, you want to make sure the pages they’re landing on are doing everything they can to capture a visitor’s interest.
Lead-to-Customer Conversions
Once you have leads, you need to turn them into customers. You’ll need a lead-nurturing system to guide leads through each stage of the sales funnel; Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. Make sure to segment your leads so you can offer more targeted content. Create content that solves specific issues for specific buyer personas. Lastly, engage with your leads often, 10 times on average to make the sale.
In the fast-changing world of search marketing, technology search engines have drastically improved its interpretation and serve results activated via voice and it’s becoming an important piece of a search marketing strategy. According to SEO Tribunal, it’s predicted by 2020 50% of all searched will be voice searches. So as it continues to grow, brands need to know how to implement a strategy that focuses on optimizing voice search.
What is voice search?
Voice search uses speech recognition technology to enable human speech into text. It analyzes the text to detect questions comments while connecting to external data sources such as search engines to find the relevant information. As a result, it translates that information into a list of results and fulfills the user’s intent.
What does this mean for marketers?
Use natural language.
When determining target keywords and content, keep in mind the conversational nature of voice searches. Voice-activated searches can be longer than 10 words so it matches with consumer searches more, and increases your rank. You need to be aware of how your audience speaks about your business, products, and services.
Incorporate Q&A.
Voice searches are more often in the form of a question, so it’s important to look at keywords in questions form as a part of your content strategy. Develop questions that searches may ask and make sure you have content that answers those questions.
Consider local.
Twenty-two percent of voice queries are for local content. Since users have local intent when searching on their mobile phones, you need to incorporate effective keywords. Research the phrases people use to describe the community around your location, landmarks around your business location, and titles of local institutions that are relevant to your business.
Use “near me” queries.
Eighty-eight percent of all “near me” searches are done on mobile. Incorporate “near me” in your title tags, meta descriptions, internal links, and anchor text to optimize local sources as mobile voice searches.
Using the 5 W’s to provide memorable experiences for shoppers
Global e-commerce sales are expected to eclipse $2.8 trillion. While this statistic confirms online shopping is on the rise worldwide, this growth is dependent upon a new finding from a recent Episerver report: Reimaging Commerce: Global Findings. Only 17% of people say shopping is their primary purpose when they visit a brand’s website for the first time. So, online shoppers log on to do more than purchase. The finding reveals a new modern definition of “commerce”, which no longer means making a purchase, but rather encompasses the entire journey from research to final sale. This suggests business should look beyond transactions and focus their efforts on other powerful engagement opportunities that are present throughout the entire online customer journey. Investing in all aspects of the online shopping experience and providing memorable experiences sets businesses up for long-term success.
Brands that focus on optimizing for experience over conversions win sales by knowing:
When a brand personalized experiences, a quarter of shoppers are more likely to purchase from the brand again, 20% are more loyal and 20% trust the brand more.
Fifty percent look at the product they came for first when visiting a brand’s website or mobile app. Consumers mirror in-store behaviors online and are loggings on to find information regarding deals, shipping information, payment options, returns, and more.
Businesses can identify future investments opportunities within their e-commerce experiences by determining where online shopping has disappointed consumers in the past.
The top 10 reasons for site abandonment:
1. Shipping was too expensive
2. Couldn’t find what they were looking for
3. Price concerns
4. Just browsing
5. Not enough info
6. Found a better product
7. Looking for store or brand info only
8. Shown irrelevant products/services
9. Checkout too long
10. Digital content wasn’t personalized
Most important content:
Product descriptions
Customer Reviews
Images of Products in Use
Company Information
Images of Products Not in Use
The increasing popularity of smartphone browsing indicates that brands must offer mobile-responsive websites and should start exploring location-based marketing strategies. Brands that can best satisfy shoppers’ diverse device desires position themselves to earn sales when shoppers are ready to purchase.
Adding new tech functions to activities like browsing and research can help shoppers see new technology as helpful partners along the path to purchase.
Findings based on an analysis of 18,639 landing pages
Landing pages are an essential tool in helping inbound marketers generate more leads and convert them into prospects and customers. A landing page is a web page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead-capture form (ads, social media, email link, etc.). It’s an effective way to target your audience, offer them something of value and convert a higher percentage of your visitors into leads. While also capturing analytics on demographic information and what they’ve converted on. The value and relevance of this offer has a major impact on the conversion rate, so it’s important to know what makes up a high performing landing page. Recently, Unbounce conducted a study of 18,639 lead gen and click-through landing pages to discover proprietary findings of specific attributes related to conversions.
What makes up a high performing landing page?
1. One Call-to-Action (CTA)
Pages with one call-to-action, meaning there’s only one place to click on your landing page, has an average conversion rate of 13.50%. While landing pages with 5+ links have an average conversion rate of 10.50%. This confirms landing pages that focus a visitor’s attention on one main call-to-action(or link) are more likely to earn conversions. CTAs are the most important element of a landing page, as it’s the best way to get users to take the action. They can use all different types of messaging to attract attention such as “Start a free trial”, “Contact us to learn more”, or “Get a free quote”.
2. Fast Page Speed
It’s mandatory for your landing page to load within a few seconds. Efficient and speedy landing pages are more likely to earn conversions. While landing pages with an image are more visually appealing, oversized images can cause the page to load slowly. This can lead to visitors bouncing and fewer conversions. In fact, 82% of landing pages have at least one image that needs compressing. Landing pages that have no images that require compressing have an average conversion rate of 11.40%. Pages with over 1MB of potential image compression have an average conversion rate of 9.80%. For more suggestions on how to reduce your page loading time, visit Google PageSpeed Insights.
3. Social Proof
Social proof (like photos of customers, testimonials, social media posts) establishes trust and ultimately persuade visitors to convert. Pages that have indications of social proof in the form of copy have an average conversion rate of 12.50%. In comparison to pages without that only convert at 11.40% on average.
4. Email Traffic
Marketers can drive traffic to a landing page from a variety of sources like social media, paid media, direct, etc. However, specifically, emails produced the highest average conversion rate at 13.0%. One survey shows that email marketing is 40 times more successful at acquiring new clients than Facebook or Twitter.
5. Mobile Responsiveness
As of the first quarter of 2018, 51.77% of global web traffic originated from mobile devices, meaning a mobile responsive landing page is guaranteed to boost conversions. Mobile responsive landing pages are pages that are designed to display on mobile devices with minimal resizing, panning and scrolling. It’s re-arranging the elements of the page to comfortably fit within the confines of a smaller screen. Landing pages with a mobile page have an average conversion rate of 11.70%, in comparison to those that don’t have a mobile page which converts on average at 10.70%.
6. Lower Word Count
It’s reported that 29.5% of landing pages have too much copy, with an average conversion rate of 11.10%. Landing pages that are word-count-conscious convert on average at 14.30%. The content on a landing page should briefly explain the value of offer clearly, simply, and in a compelling way.
Today, video marketing usage is rising rapidly among brands and marketers. Having a strong video marketing strategy plays a crucial role in the success of your outreach and branding efforts. It’s one of the most effective ways to thrive in your industry and attract more clients. This is mainly because it’s the fastest and easiest way to learn and retain information. Hubspot recently reported that 99% of those who already do use video, say they’ll continue to do so in 2018 and 65% of those who don’t currently use video, say they plan to start in 2018. What does this mean? That video is here to stay. Think about this: A Facebook executive predicted that the platform will be ALL video in less than five years, and we already see that coming true.
Other reasons why marketers rely on video:
97% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
76% of businesses say it helped them increase traffic.
83% of consumers would consider sharing it with their friends.
80% of marketers say video has increased dwell time on their website.
85% of people say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018.
How to use it to your advantage:
Live Video/ Live Streaming
82% of consumers prefer live video from a brand instead of social posts.
Live videos give a unique perspective on the behind-the-scenes of our company. Here you can live stream interviews, internal and external events, Q&As, presentations, and encourage engagement with viewers by commenting with questions.
Video Tutorials/ Demo
91% of customers have watched a tutorial video to learn about a product or service.
79% of customers would rather watch an explainer video to learn about a product than read text.
Showcase how your product or service works. Here you can take someone who is unfamiliar with your products and walk them through how it works to allow prospects to fully grasp its value and potential.
Brand Video
81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
A solid brand video is the best way to increase relatability and trust by showcasing your company’s vision, mission, value, or products and services. You can even display your employee’s individual passions to allow viewers to connect. The ultimate goal is to build awareness around your company and attract your target audience. Check out the Spectruss video.
Case Study and Customer Testimonial Videos
The top three most effective video types are product demo videos (49%), tutorial videos (50%), and customer testimonial videos (51%). (Forbes)
One of the most effective ways to build trust is by showcasing your happy and loyal customers. Describe the challenges and how your company helped them meet their goals.
Expert Interviews
94% of marketers who use influencer marketing find it an effective practice, and can generate up to 11x the ROI of traditional advertising.
Find the influencers or thought leaders in your industry and conduct short interviews on camera. This is a great way to build credibility and establish authority with your target audience.
360-Degree/ VR Video
90% of Americans believe that content will be better in 360-degree video than in a traditional one.
59% of businesses that used VR video for marketing purposes said that is was an effective marketing tool.
Virtual reality allows viewers to navigate and control their experience. Brands should consider leveraging virtual reality at conferences and industry tradeshows.
When creating your video, think about these questions:
As the content manager, editing is an integral part of my job and is expected to meet high standards. At first, this role was intimidating because I know everyone makes mistakes. After editing hundreds of pieces and learning from past mistakes, my fear turned into confidence. Within this process, I discovered ten editing tips below from hard-learned lessons that can improve your editing skills.
1. Start with technical errors
Here is where you extensively check for spelling and grammar. I recommend using grammar-checking apps like Grammarly.
2. Pick up some of the proofreading tricks below:
Switch up the time and setting you’re reading in
Isolate each sentence
Have someone else read it
Read out loud
Change up font type, size, or color
Point at the screen as you read
3. Check consistency
Overall, your content messaging should be consistent throughout your piece. Read through your content and eliminate any unnecessary words that don’t make sense. Sometimes these words are used to express a thought or used repeatedly.
4. Have style manual handy
Having your preferred style manual by your side is extremely helpful during uncertainty. I personally use the Associated Press Stylebook as a reference guide.
5. Double check EVERY name, link, fact, stat, etc.
You never want to misspell someone’s name, especially a client’s name. Incorrect information can be misleading and audiences will question your credibility. The only way to uncover these preventable mistakes is to question and check everything.
6. Look for passive voice
This is commonly known as a bad writing habit. You always want to try writing in active voice. Eliminate passive voice by making the subject do the action. For example, “Tickets may be purchased at the gate.” is passive. To be active, say, “Purchase tickets at the door.”
7. Cut down the number of words, but not ideas
Check to see if you’re using words exactly the way you intended. Start cutting down words with adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.
8. Keep a list of past mistakes
A list of your editing mistakes isn’t there to remind you of failure. It’s there to remind you not to make those same mistakes again. A successful writer can identify their editing weaknesses, and having this list in front of you can help reinforce them.
9. Use Command + F (Mac) or Control + F (PC)
This simple feature can save you from making a mistake at the hit of a button. All you do is press Command or Control + F, type in your problem word or phrase, let your browser take you to the word in your piece, and swap it out with the correct one.
10. Finish where you started
Check spelling, grammar, and confirm names one last time before publishing. And again. And again.
What are your favorite editing tips? Share them in the comments section below.
