8 Video Marketing Strategies for Small Business
There are umpteen ways to use video for business, ranging from stylish, high-priced ad campaign commercials to complex landing page pieces fashioned to pull someone into a sale. What are the best types of video for Small Business owners that can be created cost-effectively and published rapidly and produce leads? Here are the Top Eight.
Intro Advert
Well-known and regularly underused, the video Intro to the Business is a short, 5 minute or less (2-3 works well) homepage introduction that tells who you are, what you do and why customers should care. This can be done using a description in a commercial packed with lots of movement shots of the shop floor, the office, and products; a talking head of the CEO to a blank camera; or use the 3rd party point of view of a genuine Video interview (see below) Business FAQ. Development fees can vary from FREE (CEO riffing into a webcam) through a few hundred dollars to thousands for a videographer shot commercial. Google doesn’t care; either will index well given the suitable keyword tags. The question you have to answer is, what is going to be quickly informational, interesting, and referable (as in Re-tweeted).
The Demo
Specific to demonstrable merchandise, especially ones that move, like machines, toys, electronic devices, and, considering the medium, software. These again should not run on too long but can be lengthier than an introductory commercial. A software-based demonstration may take up to 8 minutes, but you should be able to say it in less time than that. When it comes to demos, in some cases less is more. Most often either a narrative led demo showing only products or a spokesperson paced demo (think QVC or Home Shopping Channel) works the best. Just be sure to show the BEST features of your product and lay out consistently (3x) how this solves an issue for your customers.
Professional Abilities
This is very similar to a product demonstration and works best for suppliers, especially those in developed countries, trying to demonstrate their remarkable technology will in reality cost less money or offer better quality product for a customer engaging them with a contract for recurring services. Machine shops and laser houses prefer this stuff, showing automated machinery cutting steel while a dude with a hardhat and safety goggles oversees the process. This can run 5-10 minutes max. The key here is, make sure that your capability really is something special (as in a True Competitive Advantage that others don’t have) and that your video captures its uniqueness.
Company Spotlights
This is more of a tug on the heartstrings video that features either what your company has achieved that is remarkable or what your employees have done for your company. If it’s about the company, it MUST be validated by 3rd party reference, as in an accolade won from a prominent registrar (Best in Class, Malcolm Baldridge quality), a status attained (ISO 9001 certification, etc.) or a cat saved from a tree on the news. When talking about employees, the old Employee of the Month style headline adds a nice human factor and speaks to what your company values in its people, and that can make a big difference to customers with the same value system. For these types of videos, keep them short (2-4 minutes) and keep them current, specifically for the employee notoriety videos. An Employee of the Month presupposes that next month, we’ll see another.
Video Landing Page Combo
I could write pages on this and to be truthful, I’m not a professional at it, but I am sure you’ve experienced pages that have these videos. These are designed to be hands-free on the part of the vendor of a product or service, meaning, don’t call me, take the steps explained on the video. That means enter your email address to get something for FREE in exchange for authorization to advertise to you, or register for the thing (whatever it is) right now! Just like text-only sales landing pages, these are long-form videos, with Squeeze Pages (get the email address) videos varying from 3-7 minutes, and Sales Pages running all the way up to 30 minutes (that is too long in my opinion, with 10-12 being adequate). The most important stuff here: curb options to only this with no other on-page interferences and make multiple calls to action to the viewer.
Vlogs
All about providing information this one is. It comes in the form of a training video, which is easily done for things like software applications using screen capture software, or talking head explaining something she knows, and typically is the Expert Interview (I’ve done a bunch of these in my blog, see sample). The objective is expert positioning for your company while giving real value for the view. These videos can run from 5-30 minutes or longer (think of a book author interview), but I prefer to keep them between 7 and 15 minutes (Youtube has a 15 minute max until you are a recurring video poster). Keys to success are to set the subject matter to avoid rambling, don’t provide fluff with a sales pitch to get more, and include some written text fore and aft of the video to set it up and summarize.
Testimonies and Personal Examples
Very self-explanatory here, this is 3rd party Reliability Building 101. Take the same things that marketers value about written examples and testimonials and put them on steroids. This definitely MUST be a person unrelated to the business telling about what the company did for him or her, and it can NOT be anonymous (just like those absurd made up reviews you see, “JL from Tampa says …”). Use discretion if the person doing the talking is not good on camera. It shouldn’t make a difference but it does. He doesn’t need to be Ben Affleck, but he can’t be a stiff either. These run no more than 3 minutes in length and follow my rules for great reviews. Quality can’t be second-rate, but a webcam with acceptable quality can be used properly, as the subject matter of the person’s referral is the crucial piece.
Video Interview
I saved this one for last and, as you surely know by now, Smart Company Growth does these in bundles for the right type of clients. Video dialogues work well for any business that wants to put a human face on its product, so consider if that is you. They work incredibly well when your organization has these three qualities:
- No physical merchandise– That’s right consultants, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, IT people and anyone else offering professional services, I’m talking to you. You sell intellectual property and that is hard to show by showing a video shot of your report (although you can show results charts, but the people who can use this method the most, financial advisors, usually have rules preventing it).
- Trust is the key to business– Same group, right? If you’re an attorney, how can you start to break the trust hurdle down without ever meeting someone? Show some face time with the 3rd party credibility that comes from being interviewed.
- Sameness in Brand– If you look at your rivals’ websites and they look like yours does– competent yet non-distinguishable– you’re a good candidate for a video interview to set yourself apart. Again, this is why professional service firms fall so nicely into video interview candidates.
For advertising purposes the longest video interview (we call them SmartVu) we do is about 12 minutes. That’s pretty thorough. The shortest you can reasonably do with any bona fide dialog is about 2-3 minutes. The crucial success variables here are that the interviewer is good and that the structure of the content is planned beforehand. An unconvincing interviewer will lead to a lame interview and weak video. A sound interviewer with planned content will create genuine questions that represent you in the very best light. Although I cannot convince all of my clients of this, DO NOT READ FROM A SCRIPT! If you’re a subject matter specialist on your product or topic, a good interviewer’s questions will lead to natural responses with you looking right into the camera. Script readers have their eyes averted to wherever the script is located and come across as wooden, with only the skilled few able to fool people into believing they are responding ad hoc.
There is a time and place to use any of the 8 best types of video promotion for your small business video. The information here should serve to generate ideas on what type of video you can produce for your own video marketing and video SEO crusade to turnout excellent results.
About the Author: Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness. He is author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the SmartShop. Get your FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization eBook & Video Course, Video Marketing video and course, or Mastermind Groups e-course & video now.
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Photo Credit: Denim Dave
Online Marketing for Small Businesses – a Social Media Primer
Small businesses that use online marketing have a number of tools at their disposal, including blogs, search engine optimization, review websites and other inbound marketing techniques. However, what may end up being the Internet’s most important contribution to advertising and brand awareness is social media networking platforms. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Yelp! are wonderful devices that make reaching out to customers simple and, most importantly, cheap.
Unfortunately, not every small business owner is internet-savvy enough to instantly capture a broad and deep customer base. This can make engaging with users on these services intimidating. With a little bit of practice and some clear guidelines, such efforts can actually be quite successful. Here are some of the most important lessons for using these social platforms to garner leads and additional business.
Establish a Policy
No two companies use social media in exactly the same way. For instance, some may choose to simply make Facebook posts and tweets messaging tools that inform customers about the latest promotions and discounts that an organization is running. Others may choose to use these services to actually contact customers and offer them deals and savings. Either way, be sure to set up some guidelines that will keep an organization’s tone consistent throughout a campaign.
Designate Users
In keeping with a consistent feel, it is a good idea to establish which employees will actually generate content for a social media website. The importance of these services is making it so that some organizations choose to hire full-time networkers to maintain their various profiles. However, this may not be necessary, depending on a business’ intent. Either way, choose an employee who is somewhat tech-savvy, grammatically sound and can maintain a level of professionalism that won’t sully a company’s good name.
Coordinate With Other Efforts
The odds are good that a business using social networking websites will have at least some other efforts ongoing in the online world. If this is the case, coordinate social media messages and profiles with them. Blogs and Facebook posts can link to one another, while promotions being held should be advertised as much as possible on these platforms. Even something as simple as the images and fonts used in traditional advertising should match those used on Twitter feeds and blogs.
About the Author: Guest Post by Myron Corp. Located in Maywood, New Jersey, Myron is a global provider of imprinted promotional products and works closely with businesses to integrate these products into their marketing mix. Myron manufactures quality items such as promotional calendars, personalized pens and other giveaways and corporate customized gifts designed to build brand awareness and customer loyalty.
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LinkedIn Publicity: How Online Press Release Distribution Can Help You with Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts
Online press release distribution has not lost its power to create buzz and brand awareness. In fact, in speaking with many business professionals who have used our distribution partner’s press release services, we’ve been told:
- Their press releases were picked up by 40+ online sites and media news stations.
- Their press release placement brought additional credibility to the launch of their new books, products and services.
- They started to dominate the search engines – and “own” their keywords as search engines love optimized press releases
- They doubled and tripled their website traffic
- Multiple reporters and media professionals contacted them for additional interviews and media opportunities that give them more exposure.
- Their website now ranks higher on Google – because online press release distribution is a powerful link building too.
Here’s an additional benefit of online press release distribution that no one else is talking about…Online press release distribution will help you with your overall LinkedIn marketing efforts.
6 Ways Online Press Release Distribution Can Help You With Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts
1) The press release generated publicity can provide you with instant credibility with your LinkedIn profile visitors.
For example my client Sara LaForest’s headline reads like this: “Top Management Consultant Featured in Business Week, Fast Company & WomenEntrepreneur.com – Connect and Find Out Why”. This shows readers immediately why they should trust her and why they should trust what she has to say.
Here are some of the other ways you can highlight your publicity on your LinkedIn profile:
- Create a quoted media positions
- Showcase your media mentions within your summary
- Add the publications section to your LinkedIn profile
- Create a media kit on your LinkedIn profile using Box.net
2) Showcasing your press release generated publicity will prove to journalists that you are media worthy.
On LinkedIn you should be looking to connect with journalists, editors, online radio show hosts and other media professionals. Now for those media professionals to accept your invitation, you have to prove you are credible and newsworthy. When your press release is published by a top publication, you have completed half the battle because you have given yourself expert status. Now, you just have to build a relationship with the media professionals you connect with and show them that your information is relevant to their audience.
3) Use press releases to promote your LinkedIn group and community.
We recently created and distributed a press release that promoted Skip Weisman’s Workplace Communication Strategies group – and it was published on CNBC.com. This helped him:
- Increase his LinkedIn group membership by making more people aware of his group.
- Give him a reason to re-announce his group again to his email list as well as any LinkedIn connection that were not already members of his group. Any time you have a success, you should be letting your connections know.
- Give new connections a reason to join his LinkedIn group when we sent out group invites.
4) Your press release placements can position you as a thought leader in your LinkedIn group – and those other groups you belong to.
I like to create discussions around a topic and link the discussion to a press release or article I’ve written that gives more information on the topic and is featured on a top website. This automatically gives me a third party endorsement which offers more credibility than if the information was just placed on my own website or blog.
5) Use your press release placement as a springboard for discussions.
For example, I distributed a press release titled “More Journalist on LinkedIn Than Any Other Social Network, Study Shows”. I then created this discussion within LinkedIn group: “How are you using LinkedIn to get you more publicity?
In the LinkedIn discussion summary I put “In the press release below, I reveal that 82% of journalist are on LinkedIn and that is more than any other social network. So now I am asking you, how are using LinkedIn to build and maintain relationships with media professionals to get you more publicity?”
I then linked the discussion to my press release on Yahoo News.
This helped me:
- Get more exposure for my press release
- Create a discussion among publicity professionals as they provided their insights. I then responded to their feedback with other ideas and explained to them how I can help them with their LinkedIn publicity efforts
- Start a discussion among small business owners and other business professionals who wanted to learn how to get more publicity by using LinkedIn
6) Getting published or featured all over the Web on top websites and blogs will give you access to more people who will want to connect with you on LinkedIn.
You will have people coming to you seeking your advice. They will see your press release and then look you up on LinkedIn wanting to connect with you. For example, as I was writing this article, I received an invitation to connect that said, “Hi Kristina, I just read your tips in Canadian Advisor’s Edge Magazine – I’d like to connect with you and learn more.”
Your Next Steps
Now that I have shown you how online press release distribution can help you with your LinkedIn marketing efforts, it’s time you take action and start writing your press releases. If you need help, check our my Instant Press Release Templates at http://www.40InstantPressReleaseTemplates.com
About the Author: LinkedIn marketing expert Kristina Jaramillo helps small businesses and organizations get more publicity, prospects and profits using effective LinkedIn. Now, at http://www.HowtoGetMorePublicitywithLinkedIn.com, you can gain full access to her FREE 14-Day LinkedIn Publicity E-course that shows you how to create an expert LinkedIn profile the media will love, how to build relationships with the media plus sneaky ways to get more PR using LinkedIn.
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Internet Video Formats: Which is best for your Video Marketing?
OK, so you’ve decided that getting some web video on your site and social media profiles is a great idea to make you more eye-catching to customers and put your SEO (search engine optimization) on HGH. You understand that video marketing is a fundamental part of your overall search engine marketing and social media strategy. Bully for you! Now on to the tech stuff. Video formats can be overwhelming and vary depending on the equipment the video was shot with, the kind of computer you use, and the final destination where you want to host and serve up your on-demand video as part of your video marketing plan.
So which is best for you?
Lorraine Grula offers these tips from her years of experience as a top shelf video photographer and producer in ReelSEO.
Web Video Guidelines
Depending on whether you are doing research to get started with web video or if you are making use of existing equipment and software, you may be limited to formats as follows:
- Raw Video Format — As determined by your camera or, currently, your recording software. For instance, the software I record SmartVu Video Interviews with processes raw video optimally when stored as Windows Movie (. wmv). I have a PC based application. Your camera or software may have a different standard, particularly if you are using a MAC.
- Editing Basics — Your editing software may also have a limitation on formats of video it will accept and types that it works the best with. My videos are substance related, not glitz and glamour, so I use programs like Corel Video Studio and Windows Live Movie Maker. Most video editors will accept almost all the standard raw video formats, but you’ll want to confirm.
- Video Platform– What type video format works best with your online video platform that will work as your host? Will you host it on your site? Take into account Adobe Flash for speed reasons of loading without buffering. YouTube? They convert your incoming video to Flash (.flv) for display. If you’re using a 3rd party, ask about their preferred video format.
Obviously if you have a mismatch in your video camera output and your editor, for example, you’re up a creek without a paddle and will need to convert your raw video to be accepted by the editor. Avoid this, as every conversion results in quality loss for the video. Limit too many conversions.
High Quality or File Size?
Look, with internet video marketing, you are looking at a tradeoff between two things when recording, editing and finishing videos: resolution and file size. Lorraine talks about compatibility too in the ReelSEO piece, and we talked about that already. The greater the quality, the larger the file size (usually), and that means the longer the buffer when loading the video on your player upon demand (particularly if uploaded straight from your site server). If you want super-clear quality, the first thing you need is a work-horse computer loaded up with RAM and an uber-fast processor. I am a PC guy and I had to get an I-7 Dell to accommodate recording Hi-Def video. My old PC (5 years old) could not manage the large files without Japanese Monster Movie style mis-tracking between voice and image and I was forced to record at lower resolutions until upgrading.
The Main Video Formats for Web Video
If you ‘re trying to find the best of both worlds and your hardware can handle the recording and editing, see this brief (did I say brief?) summary of web video formats you’ll be utilizing:
Windows Media Video (. wmv)
This is the basic PC video file format that comes with Windows set up for Windows Media Player. It is well-known, delivers acceptable quality and a fairly small file size. Want higher quality? Record or finish-edit at a higher resolution and the file size increases accordingly. The advantage of .wmv is that it’s standard with all Windows PCs and, if shot in low enough resolution, can actually be small enough to share via email. I use this format for SmartVu Video Interviews and then stream them on Youtube, and they convert without much issue with good finish quality.
Audio-Video Interlaced (. avi)
This is the original video format from Microsoft and has a tendency to create very large files unsuitable for sharing, but of good quality for master files. For sharing, most videographers finish-edit the file in another format to lower file size. According to Grula there is some inconsistency with the codecs (tech video term here) depending on the recording device, making. avi not a great choice for small business video and novice producers.
Motion Picture Experts Group MPEG-4 (. mp4)
Increasing numbers of video producers online are loving .mp4 as the format of choice. It has the H-264 compression codec which is considered top drawer, and is quickly becoming the basic output of camcorders and video cameras. For online sharing the .mp4 format is moving toward the universal preference and in fact is recommended by Youtube, the big fish in the platform market.
Apple Quick Time (. mov)
This format has been around a while and is standard from Apple Quick Time, but is not restricted to Macs. File sizes are big and quality is high. If super-tight quality is your concern, this may be your format.
Flash Video (. flv)
This is the most popular file format on the web today, usable in the Adobe Flash Player which is standard on 99 % of all computers. Video sharing websites like Youtube, Vimeo, etc. take your existing videos and convert to flash for streaming to watchers of the site. File sizes are small, it streams fast, and the flash player can start playing the videos while they are still loading which is fantastic for longer videos (5 min or more). If you host video on your own server, converting to. flv is almost a requirement for user experience. I have used the Riva converter to convert some. wmv files to flash and noticed quality degradation in exchange for the file size and speed issue; nevertheless, Youtube conversions seem to be very clear.
Tips
Here is my recommendation to small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to get into video marketing on their websites and social media profiles.
Record raw footage in the best possible format for your device. If that is .mp4, you’re one step ahead of the game.
When editing, finish the video in. mp4. Test to see if your quality is acceptable with no degradation. MPEG-4 is much simpler to upload and move around. If you see a quality reduction, save finish edits to the same file format as your raw footage.
Upload your videos to a video sharing platform. I recommend Youtube. It is the most popular, gets the most traffic by far, and let’s face it. Google now owns Youtube. If you’re streaming video on your site from Youtube or another site, which one do you think will get the greatest SEO results and page 1 positioning? Youtube will convert to either .mp4 or .flv and do a fine job with it, taking that off your plate.
Now you just need to learn how to use Youtube without providing 100 options for people to leave your video and go view something else. I’ll tell you more on that in a later article.
About the Author: Want better results from Video Marketing? Smart Company Growth helps business SEO by Video Interview Marketing to generate site traffic and build trust with prospects to spike inbound leads. President Karl Walinskas works with companies on Growth Strategy and LinkedIn Marketing for brand building, and has authored Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership and been published in AOL, SiteProNews, Selling Power and a million more.
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8 Key Strategies For Successful Gift Certificate Marketing
Gift certificates work. As more and more small businesses find out, they enable you to make more sales and improve customer loyalty towards your business. And it’s not only for spas or massage therapists: virtually every service provider under the sun would gain by offering gift certificates (also called gift vouchers or gift cards) to their customers. So if you haven’t started to offer them, why don’t you try it out and see what the impact on your business is? The returns on investment can be great provided you focus on effective marketing strategies. Read more
Small Business Marketing Through Your Online Blog
Promoting your business is one of the most important things that you can do if you want for the business to succeed. It is not always easy to capture the attention of the public these days. Whereas advertising was pretty straightforward, now you have to market online if your company is going to get any recognition at all from the public. Marketing online is not always as easy as you might imagine it to be. There are some tricks which will allow you to be more successful with online promotions than with others. It pays to know about the tricks so that you can enjoy a more successful business.
The online blog has emerged as one of the greatest informal ways to grab more attention from the public at large. Not only do they get to know about your company, but they get to connect in a more personal way. You can connect the blog to your social media sites. You can also provide outstanding content which people can enjoy and will bring them back again and again. Additionally, you can offer free tools like eBooks and more for only an email address. By marketing through these means, your blog will turn from a simple way to tell people about your business to a great marketing tool.
Connect to Social Media Sites
Social media sites are the most popular sites on the internet these days. More people spend more time on them these days rather than any other location. They meet with their friends, learn about companies and play games. Most any business has a profile on these sites. If you do not, you are considered to be out of touch with the modern age. Linking to the sites through your blog will allow people to follow your blog and other info about your company in a way that they are familiar with.
Use the Right Content
Content is one of the most important things you can put on a blog. After all, without content the blog is nothing other than an information tool. Loading the blog with SEO content and other marketing devices will help to attract attention to the blog in the first place as well as help in making sure that the blog will allow you to market correctly in the future as well. Write content which is not only effective in grabbing attention, but that is useful enough to make people want to return simply to see what else you have to offer in terms of content.
Gather Email Addresses
Gathering email addresses is extremely important to be able to contact clients later. Offer information on everything from the VoIP business phone system to marketing information. Offer the ability to get even more information through a free eBook when they sign up for a free subscription with your site. The only thing they will need to do is to provide you with their email address. Once you have the email address you can use it to commit to a direct marketing program.
About the Author: Resource Nation provides free tools, tips, and purchasing advice for business owners and entrepreneurs in over 100 business categories ranging from VoIP business phone system to credit card processing. Whether it’s connecting businesses with local and national pre-screened vendors, or offering easy service comparisons on a VoIP service, Resource Nation empowers business decision makers by providing the information they need to make smart choices.
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Using Greeting Cards to Market after the Holidays
Most marketing-savvy business owners know that holiday greeting cards make a great way to market to clients and prospective customers, but did you know that the holidays aren’t the only time when you can use this method to your advantage? Greeting cards enable you to keep up the lines of communication with your prospects, to promote a healthy business relationship and to make them more likely to think of you when they have need of your products or services. Once the holidays are over, it may seem like the season for greeting cards has gone, but that simply isn’t true. Here are a few ways to use greeting cards to market to your prospects after the holidays have passed.
Ringing in the New Year
If you missed the boat for Christmas cards, or if you just want a way to incorporate greeting cards into your post-holiday marketing campaigns, the New Year makes a great reason to send greeting cards to your prospects. Thank them for their business during the previous year, and wish them health and prosperity in the coming year. This reason for sending greeting cards is great because you can easily send your cards in late January, or even later if your company operates on a different year-end schedule. For instance, if you do business in the education industry, your year ends in May or June, making summer a great time to send out year-end cards.
Birthdays
It’s a good idea to keep track of all your customers’ birthdays. Sending cards on customer’s birthdays promotes a good relationship with them, plus you can take advantage of the opportunity to send them special offers or discounts in honor of their birthday. Ask for this information when they set up an account with you or via friendly conversation, and always remember their special day with a greeting card.
Warm Spring Wishes
Many people greet spring with relief and joy as winter being over means more daylight and warmer days, and often brings with it a sense of lightened mood, too. “Happy Spring” cards are a great way to remind your customers of your products and services, and may work especially well if you have a seasonal business, such as a landscaping business or even an online retailer that sells gardening supplies or other seasonal products.
Back to School
If it fits in with your type of business, sending out greeting cards in celebration of going back to school can provide an effective way to keep in touch with your customers. Families with kids and adult students often buy clothes, office and school supplies, computers, and other things just before the school year starts. Other businesses might see a surge in popularity once the kids are back in school — summer-wearied mothers might like to treat themselves to a massage or a day at the spa, for example. Sending out cards to wish everyone well in the new school year can make for a very timely reminder of the products and services you offer.
There are many different ways to market your business with greeting cards, and no, you don’t need Christmas — or even an official holiday — in order to do so effectively. Your type of business may even suggest some good reasons to celebrating with a card.
About the Author: Vern Marker is a freelance writer on several different topics including customer relationships. Business greeting cards are a great way to enhance customer relationships.
Photo Credit: Lauren Manning
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Does Online Group Buying Hurt Small Business?
There is a recent consumer craze sweeping the internet in the form of social media coupon sites. These group buying sites harness the power of group buying in order to drive prices down for consumers and, supposedly, to drive new business to small businesses and large businesses alike. The idea is that businesses will benefit from the attention such deals give them, even if they take a slight loss in selling their products and services at reduced prices.
Impact on Business
However, research reported on by The Christian Science Monitor shows that these group coupon plans don’t actually drive new customers to businesses. In fact, most customers use the coupon once, and then never return for repeat purchases.
Essentially, those who use group buying programs and deals aren’t in it to find new businesses to patronize, but rather just want a good deal. The author of the study, Utpal Dholakia, a professor at Rice University, told The Christian Science Monitor, “Because the Groupon customer base is made up of deal-seekers and bargain shoppers, they might not tip as well as an average customer or be willing to purchase beyond the deal.” That customer base does not make for a very loyal one.
Extreme Example
The greatest example of how group buying can harm businesses comes from the Gap and Groupon mega-deal that swept the nation this summer. Although Groupon deals are usually smaller, the company and Gap partnered to offer the deal concurrently in many different cities. This led to over 400,000 sales of Gap merchandise at half-price. Groupon looked to take half that revenue, but Mashable suggested that Gap may have lost nearly $8 million on the deal due to the above characteristics of an extremely unloyal customer base.
Buyer Beware
So what does this mean for small business owners? Ultimately, it means that small business owners should be wary of entering into any program that would make them a part of group buying deals. If such a program offers you membership, and you choose to do it, insist that there be some way to protect your business. For example, if there isn’t a clause in the contract that allows you to cap the number of discount sales, then a sudden run on your business could spell disaster.
Track Your Results!
If you still decide to go through with a group buying program just to try it out, be sure to track your customers. If they make a purchase with a group coupon, ask them if they are a returning customer or a new customer. Ask them if they would return in the future. Track the amount of money they spent on the purchase. Was it above the coupon price? If so, how much? If not, then you can count that as a loss. Above all else, having good records will help you decide as to whether or not such a partnership could help or harm your business in the future.
About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Kate Willson, who writes on the topics of best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katewillson2@gmail.com.
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Eight Great Video Marketing Tips to Help Your Video Go Viral
There are tens of thousands of new videos uploaded to the Internet every week. Competing with these for a slice of viewers’ attention is difficult, but if you market your video properly, you can take advantage of huge viewer interest. Many companies ignore video marketing because they’re intimidated by the thought of filming a video or they don’t have the experience, but this is a mistake. More than 150 million people view videos online every year, most of them ripe to hear your business’s pitch if you produce and market your video effectively.
Tip #1: Prepare your video properly
You may have the world’s funniest video, but if no one can find it, it’s useless. Be sure to create a great meta description and title tag. Remember, you want to get their attention, not announce that your video is an advertisement. Use catchy, funny or even slightly misleading phrases that will intrigue visitors to YouTube and other video portals. Keeping it short also helps – 30 seconds or less is ideal.
Tip #2: Don’t advertise
Yes, the end result should garner interest in your product or company, but the initial goal of your video is simply to capture attention. Either educate your viewers or entertain them. Funny and shocking videos tend to go viral quickly, so produce content that will capture the imagination. You can blatantly tout your brand at the end, but don’t start off that way.
Tip #3: Take the time to submit your video to lots of video sites
YouTube may be the Holy Grail, but it isn’t the only site that can pump up the number of views for your creation. Submit to several sites, including heavy hitters like YouTube, Hulu, and Vimeo as well as smaller, niche sites.
Tip #4: Visit social media sites and generate interest
Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are famous for generating viral video marketing, but don’t neglect social media that are also business related, such as BetterNetworker or LinkedIn. Target your demographic and post comments with a link to your video to get people excited about the video. People visiting social media sites tend to forward and share quickly.
Tip #5: Post your videos on your company blog
If you don’t have a company blog, it’s time to start one. A properly maintained blog allows you to create your own content, creating buzz for your videos and giving you a platform to shape customer opinion on your own turf. It’s also a great way to create links to your website.
Tip #6: Visit other blogs and leave comments with a link to your video
This is a great way to quickly generate interest if done properly. Don’t simply post comments that say, “Check out this cool video!” on random sites; you could be removed by the blog’s moderator, or visitors may feel cheated when they click through and find something that’s of no interest to them. Choose blogs, post wisely, and keep the comments timely and relevant. If even one in twenty visitors to a blog click through after reading your comment, you’ll see an impressive spike in video views. You may also benefit from more incoming links to your blog when other blog owners check out your site. It’s a beautiful thing when your marketing efforts get your noticed on more than one front.
Tip #7: Generate controversy
This can take a bit more time, but the potential payoff is impressive. Create multiple accounts on video websites so that you, your coworkers, and friends can post comments, and then get a lively discussion going. Everyone loves a bit of controversy. Criticize the video or post a provocative observation and viewers will quickly want to join the fray, naturally leading them to check out your video marketing creation.
Tip #8: Get creative with visuals and sound
If your video makes viewers think, “Cool! I wonder how they did that?” it will quickly take on a life of its own, which is, after all, the goal of video marketing.
About the Author: Vern Marker has been in the marketing industry for more than 10 years. He is also a freelance writer for a HD camera company. When he is not working or writing, he loves to travel around the world.
Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks
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