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Four Ways to Engage Customers with Mobile Video

4/20/2012

4 Comments

 
Reposted from:  Cory Gaddis is a regular contributor to the 60 Second Marketer  

Are you using mobile video to grow your business and increase sales?

If not, there’s never been a better time to start. EMarketer reports that over 25% of mobile phone users are expected to watch video on their device at least once per month this year, and that percentage will jump to over 40% in 2016.

Adding mobile video to your marketing strategy doesn’t have to be costly or overly complex – here are four ways to begin using mobile video today.

1. Mobilize your videos on YouTube and Vimeo.

The Idea: You may already be using these popular video-hosting sites to deliver product/service overviews or tutorials, but are your videos optimized for mobile? Consider that YouTube is a powerful search engine in its own right, and its mobile views tripled in 2011, so an optimal mobile presence on the property should be a priority for any business.

The Challenge: Given the screen size, context and data speeds of mobile devices, it is important to keep visuals big and data output small. Check out this concise and informative post from TourSphere for more tips.

2. Deliver video using QR codes.

The Idea: QR code adoption is on the rise – ScanLife reports that barcode scans increased by 300% in 2011. Delivering video from QR codes is a great way to add value to print advertising or provide store visitors with more information about a product.

The Challenge: Like all forms of marketing, it is important to track your progress. Fortunately, there are lots of companies and free tools that can help with that – check out our how-to guide for tracking your QR code marketing.

3. Run a tap-to-video mobile ad campaign.

The Idea: A tap-to-video ad is a mobile banner that, as the name implies, links or expands to deliver a 15- or 30-second video. These ad units are relatively unintrusive, and allow advertisers to deliver a richer, more engaging experience than that of the standard landing page.

The Challenge: Whether you’re creating a video ad from scratch or repurposing something from television/desktop, you’ll need to convert it to a file format acceptable for mobile. A good mobile ad network partner can help – try Google Mobile Ads or Millennial Media.

4. Dive into in-stream video.

The Idea: “In-stream” describes a video ad that runs within streaming video content, most often before it starts (called a pre-roll). Pricing models are surprisingly flexible, and these ads can deliver exceptional performance – Videology recently released a case study that showed conversion lift of 45% for an advertiser using in-stream video!

The Challenge: In-stream video is dominated by companies that cater to advertisers with very large budgets, but check out SpotXchange, a video ad marketplace with innovative mobile offerings for businesses of all sizes.

Whether you’re a novice or a web video pro, there is a range of options to help you engage your customers using mobile video. So, spend ten minutes thinking of a killer video concept for your business, then try one of the ideas above!

About the Author: Cory Gaddis is a regular contributor to the 60 Second Marketer and helps Mobilize Worldwide create mobile marketing campaigns for a wide variety of clients.

4 Comments

15 Email Tips for Businesses

4/20/2012

5 Comments

 
reported from: 60 Second Marketer (15 Additional Email Marketing Tips for Small- to Mid-Sized BusinessesinShareRecently, the 60 Second Marketer posted 25 email marketing tips for small to mid-sized businesses. There were so many, we couldn’t fit them all in one post. Here are an additional 15 tips, tricks, and secrets to help you out in your email marketing ventures:

  1. Don’t Forget the Preview Pane in Your Campaign: The preview pane should be filled with the unique selling point of your campaign, with your most intriguing benefit or your best offer. Unsubscription instructions, long introductory copy, and disclaimers should be moved down the page so that they’re not the first thing people see in the preview pane.
  2. Get Subscribers by Partnering with Other Websites: Turn to Web sites that people who might be interested in your newsletter are likely to visit and cooperate with the owners of these sites in some way that can profit both of you, such as exchanging sign-up forms.
  3. Make Sure Unsubscriptions are Effective Immediately: Avoid a spam-like impression by making sure unsubscriptions from your newsletters or email marketing lists go into effect immediately.
  4. Choose the Right Day of the Week to Send Newsletters: The best way to figure out when to send your email is to test your way into success by deploying on a variety of days and seeing which day is best for your specific audience. If your newsletter is business-oriented and read at work, you might start by sending it on Wednesday or Thursday. If your newsletter is primarily read at home and focuses on spare-time activities, try sending it on Saturday or Sunday. (For more information on this topic, read“What Are the Best Days of the Week to Send an Email Campaign?” on the 60 Second Marketer blog.)
  5. Send Newsletters on Time:People love consistency. If part of your email marketing involves sending a weekly newsletter, send it out at the same time each week
  6. Successful Email Marketing is 1-to-1 Permission Marketing: Truly successful email marketing consists of personalized messages being sent to customers individually. Tailoring your communication to the needs of the individual customer is only possible if you know a lot about them. You can learn about your subscribers by analyzing the data in the sign-up form or by sending them a survey after they sign up.
  7. Test the Layout of Your Newsletter with Email Clients: Make sure your email marketing message looks good not only in your email program but in your recipient’s, too. You can do this by signing up for AOL, Google, HotMail and other free services, then testing the look-and-feel by sending yourself an email to your AOL, Google and/or HotMail accounts.
  8. Decide whether to use Opt-In or Double Opt-In: Email addresses on an opt-in list are not confirmed. On a double opt-in list, all email addresses must be confirmed by the user before they are added. A request for confirmation is sent to the submitted address, and the address owner must take some action to confirm that. At the 60 Second Marketer, we’ve found that a double opt-in list ensures a very high degree of engagement with our readers and a very low complaint rate.
  9. How to Get the Names of Anonymous Subscribers: Send a letter to those who have signed up for your newsletter but haven’t submitted their name periodically and tell them you’d love to greet them with their name instead of the stale “Dear Subscriber.” Chances are lots of them will be more than willing to reveal their name.
  10. Know Your Competition: Sign up for your competitors’ emails.  It will give you insight into what types of emails they send and what they are offering to their subscribers.  This can help you with promotional ideas as well as improvements to your own email campaigns.
  11. Monitor Reply-to Addresses: The “reply-to” address for your email campaigns should be closely monitored by a member of your team.  It is important that email remain a two-way street, and by having a valid reply-to address that is monitored and acted upon, your customers will know you are listening to them.  Don’t make the mistake of allowing the replies to pile up in your inbox and never looking at them.
  12. Remind the User how they Signed-up: People register for email subscriptions at different sources (store, point of purchase, co-registration, etc.). As a result, they may not always remember what they did to start receiving communications from your brand. By personalizing the copy based on the registration source, you can provide them with a gentle reminder of where they signed up, which can eliminate any confusion that might cause them to hit the unsubscribe link.
  13. Do Not Include Attachments in Your Emails: Some people will not open an email with an attachment for fear of getting a computer virus, so it is best not to include any. If want to share an image or coupon with your subscribers, it is more effective to incorporate it within the body of the email.
  14. Don’t Say it All in One Message: If you have a lot to tell the subscriber, say it over a series of communications. The user is more likely to retain information given in small batches than a lengthy email that requires them to “page-down” through multiple paragraphs. A well-integrated welcome series works wonders.
  15. Include a Sign-Up Banner at the Bottom of Your Blog Posts: See the e-newsletter sign-up banner at the bottom of this blog post? Steal the idea. Seriously, take the idea and incorporate it into your own blog posts. We’re all in this together, aren’t we?
5 Comments

Four Ways to Boost SEO Results With Social Media

7/11/2011

6 Comments

 
Reposted fSEO experts have spent the last decade preaching a gospel of optimized page-level elements and inbound links. "Those things are still important today," Jonathan Lawoyin writes in an article at MarketingProfs, "but getting real SEO results these days requires not only a technically optimized website and relevant inbound links but also a strong, vibrant Web presence that supports your overall brand. Which is where social media comes in."

Lawoyin offers tips like these for using social media to improve your organic search rankings:

Promote your content at sites like Facebook and Twitter. Search engines use shares and tweets as a factor when ranking content—so be sure to publish your most recent how-to articles and blog posts where readers can express their approval.

Interact with your fans and followers. You can't just dump content in social networks and expect it to go anywhere. "If you don't have many engaged followers on these social media sites," Lawoyin says, "there won't be anyone to help promote your content via shares and re-tweets."

He also suggests driving engagement with tactics like these:

Use keyword research to drive content development. The keywords that visitors use to find your site provide a good indication of the content they want to read. "Look for areas of high search volume, and develop content around those subjects," he advises.

Use historical keyword data to exploit seasonal trends. Lawoyin noticed that a client's traffic spiked on the term "motorcycle safety" in May. After discovering May was Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, he prepared content ahead of time so it would rank well during that period.

6 Comments

SEO - think long-term

5/17/2011

6 Comments

 
"White hat search engine optimization (SEO) principles that apply to B2B online marketing also apply to B2C, but B2B is otherwise a different animal," writes Nick Stamoulis in an article at MarketingProfs.

In other words, SEO is simply not the same strategy for B2B as it is for B2C. And to get the most from your B2B SEO, you'll need to:

Understand your sales cycle. "SEO is a long-term effort," Stamoulis says. "If it takes six months to ramp up your SEO program, you have to wait that long, plus your sales cycle time, to be able to determine ROI." Without knowing the right timeframe, you might end up killing an SEO program before you have the chance to measure its success; be patient.

Mix up your keywords. Potential B2B customers will search for a variety of terms, so optimize for each of these categories:
  • Branded. Some of customers will search for specific model names, spec sheets and instructions; be sure your branded terms rank well. 
  • Nonbranded. "These are the highly searched, competitive, and relevant keywords that someone who has never heard of your company can use as a search perimeter and still find your company," he explains. 
  • Demand Generation. Don't forget niche keywords used within your industry—especially those you yourself have coined. "If you develop specific keywords for your products that no one is searching for, you have the opportunity to build a whole new set of keywords that you own," Stamoulis notes. "For instance, HubSpot created the term 'inbound marketing' and built a successful business around it."


6 Comments

How to Search-Optimize Your Press Release

5/2/2011

0 Comments

 
reposted from Marketing Profs:
Do you optimize all of your online content? Before you say yes, here's a question: When was the last time a press release received your SEO treatment?

"All communications, including press releases, can be 'tagged' with key words to receive priority placement in organic searches and therefore drive users to your message and content," writes Kimberly Schmitz at the CaliberPulse blog.

And it's not as tricky as you might think: "A press release can be optimized for searches by including key words and phrases and adding relevant links to the text," Schmitz notes. Here's how:

Incorporate keywords. Schmitz suggests placing your keyword once in the headline and three times in the body of your text. If the press release has more than three paragraphs, she also recommends inserting your keyword in a subhead. As with any other keyword placement, it should look natural to human eyes. "Do not use the word or phrase so much that it becomes redundant or clutters the messaging," she advises. "Ensure that key words and phrases are used logically and strategically."

Include relevant links. An online press release must provide links for follow-up, so be sure they're optimized, too. "Use keyword-rich anchor text to link target websites that incorporate non-branded keywords," Schmitz recommends. "For example, it's best not to use 'Caliber Group' as the anchor text for the link to the CaliberGroup.com website. Using 'PR and marketing firm' as the anchor text would offer a more searchable option for the link."

The Po!nt: PR needs optimization, too. Don't forget to optimize your press releases for improved SEO results—but be sure to use a light touch.

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10 Tips to Improve Email Marketing

4/27/2011

2 Comments

 
“Be more concerned about people listening to you than worrying about them stealing from you.”

That’s from Ross Kimbarovsky, co-founder of crowdSpring, encouraging Spark & Hustle attendees to share more of their ideas without fear of having them ripped off. 

Ross also gave everyone 10 tips for improved email marketing results based on his company’s experience after sending hundreds of thousands of emails:

1) Tuesday is the best day to send a newsletter between 10am and 2pm.  Wednesday and Thursday are the next best days.  Monday and Friday not ideal.

2) Short subject lines are best.  This is the only thing between people opening your email or not.  

3) Limit self-promotion. Don’t sell too much in your newsletter. A soft sell or special offer is more valuable.  If the only thing you do is sell, people will unsubscribe.

4) Have the email come from a person, not a company.   More people will open a personal email than a company email.

5) Use an online service.  Don’t use your personal email program to do your email marketing.  (Mail Chimp, Campaign Monitor and Constant Contact are just three options.

6) A/B test subject lines.  Test them to know what works better for your audience.

7) Put your best content on top.  If you have something great, say it early. Not at the end.

8) Keep a regular schedule.  Don’t be sporadic.

9) Make it look pretty.   Professional, too.


10) Overnight success takes 10 years.  

That last one applies to lots of stuff way beyond email marketing, but as you build you list of subscribers, fans, friends, followers, don’t expect instant miracles.  Invest the time to build real connections.   

2 Comments

Four Great Perks of a Facebook Brand Page

4/25/2011

4 Comments

 
When managed well, Facebook's community of 500 million (and counting!) global users is an ideal place for brands to get the message out. But before you start developing dazzling social campaigns, start by taking a small foundational step in the right direction.

If you're using Facebook to promote a brand, be sure to create a dedicated Brand Page (not to be confused with an individual profile). Brand Pages let companies promote wares while giving multiple admins access. A skinny on the perks, kindly listed by The Social Path:

  • Vast reach. Brand updates are broadcast on the newsfeeds of fans—which can hit unlimited numbers. (A personal profile is limited to 5,000 "friends.")
  • Admin privacy. Fans can't see page administrators, ensuring no distraction from brand engagement.
  • Customization. You can create custom tabs for applications, coupons or special offers.
  • Analytics. You can measure fan growth, engagement and traffic.
When wading into Facebook's volatile social space, give yourself the solid foundation of a well-managed Brand Page equipped with the tools you'll need for more complex social marketing down the line. It doesn't sound like a grand gesture, but it's an integral step in ensuring the success of your engagement strategy.



Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2099/four-great-perks-of-a-facebook-brand-page#ixzz1KXlDYaYD
4 Comments

Increasing Online Conversions Is as Easy as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

4/15/2011

0 Comments

 
 A guest post by Alexandre Sagala of Alsamarketing.

Your business probably spends a good deal of time and money on driving people to your website using different marketing channels. Now, having massive amounts of visitors every day is good—but if you can’t convert them into customers, then what’s the point?

Would you prefer 100 visits a day with a 10% conversion rate or a 1,000 at 0.1%? I would pick the first. So how do you increase your online conversion rates?

  1. Make it easy. Be sure it’s easy for visitors to respond to your call to action or your offering. If you are trying to get visitors to fill in a form for a trial or a demo, make sure the form is simple and easy. You don’t need all 30 fields. Get the ones you need and then fill in the rest during further communications with your visitors. They shouldn’t have to work to provide you with their information.
  2. Test, test, test. This is a surefire way to increase online conversions. Test everything—forms, landing pages, anything. Testing will give you information that you can use to improve rates. Over time, this will guarantee higher conversion rates. One thing to keep in  mind when testing: Go slowly, and test only one or two thing at a time, so you know what worked and what didn’t.
  3. Offer multiple communication channels. Not everyone likes to use the same communications tool. Some people prefer phone, some choose email, and others might like filling in forms and getting a call-back. Make sure you have the tools in place to handle your prospects’ preferred way of communicating.
  4. Know your visitors. Understand who your potential customers are. Understand how they speak, what matters to them, how they prefer to make decisions. Make your content and offerings relevant to them. To provide value, you need to understand what your visitors value.
  5. Provide a clear call to action. Make sure visitors know what you want them to do—and that they can actually find your call to action! This means make sure you call to action message is clear and direct, and that your call-to-action placement is prominent.
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Email marketing - do you really have permission?

4/14/2011

1 Comment

 
In a post at Deliverability.com, Dennis Dayman tells the story of receiving a spam message that pitched—ironically enough—anti-spam products. He decided to investigate, and discovered it had come from a familiar email service provider. "I contacted a friend there and asked them to look into how this company [the author of the email] got my email address since it was not an opt-in email or a company I'd ever done business with," he recounts.

The answer: At an anti-spam conference in 2008, Dayman had entered a contest by putting his business card in a fishbowl. "Yes," he notes, "it took them three years to send me the first email." Even without that strange delay, however, he would have taken issue with being added to the list, he says.

"Not once did I hear: 'By registering for this free item you will get an email from us,'" he explains. "What I heard was: 'Drop your business card in here to win an iPod.'"

His wife offered an alternative perspective: "You didn't think they would ever spam you when you tried to win the Apple product by dropping your business card into the fishbowl?" she asked.

This goes to the heart of the opt-in debate. If you add people to your list without their explicit permission, some—like Dayman's wife—will see it as a natural outcome and opt out if they don't want your messages. But others won't be so generous, and they're rarely shy about hitting the spam button.

The Po!nt: Assume permission with care and caution. "[U]nderstand that when I give y



Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2256/do-you-really-have-permission-to-send-that-email#ixzz1JWqigkMo
1 Comment

SEO and the Sales Cycle

4/14/2011

6 Comments

 
The sales cycle begins the moment you get a sales lead. How long is it going to take to close a deal from that point? If a B2B company sells very expensive technical or complex equipment, its sales cycle is probably going to be much longer than that of a B2B company that sells office supplies.

Why is the sales cycle important to SEO? It's simple: SEO is a long-term effort. If it takes six months to ramp up your SEO program, you have to wait that long, plus your sales cycle time, to be able to determine ROI. You can't kill your SEO program if you don't see immediate results; that's because it already takes time for your sales cycle to go from "new lead" to "closed."

If your typical sales cycle is 12 months, it could be 18 months before you could attribute that sale to your SEO.



Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2011/4838/the-top-three-b2b-seo-recommendations-to-consider#ixzz1JWnxCBVq
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