In recent years, creating videos and posting them online has become increasingly easier for marketers and business owners (as well as anyone else who uses apps such as TikTok on a daily basis) - but it still takes up time and energy. In this blog post, we discuss if the pros and cons of using video in marketing activities, whether that's on your website, in social media posts or even digital advertising. Do you need videos in your marketing?The instant response from marketers (including anyone focused on video marketing) to this question would be a resounding ‘yes!’ followed by ‘why wouldn’t you use video in your marketing?’ - but there are various factors to consider before jumping in to use video marketing with both feet. Benefits of using video in your marketingFirst of all, let’s consider some of the benefits of using video in marketing:
There have been various sources showing how much higher engagement and conversion rates are when using video and while the numbers vary, they are still big. In 2017, Wordstream reported (amongst other data) that: 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users. Sixty-four per cent of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos Video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more According to Optinmonster (2019), 'video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year' We aren’t going to cover the benefits listed above in detail here but it’s sufficient to say that using video marketing is a MUST for many businesses. The concerns? The main issue with video marketing is the time it takes to create good quality, relevant videos (and if you are outsourcing to an agency then time is money!). Writing content, whilst not as effective as video, takes very little time to do and while using images on your website, in email campaigns and on social media may take longer than simple text, it’s still a lot quicker than creating videos and can still be effective. The issue with time and effort spent creating videos depends on how many videos you use in your marketing. If you are posting on social media everyday then you can easily find yourself running out of time creating videos to get more attention rather than doing other things in your business. Instead of making all content into video, you might find that creating occasional videos for social media posts, having a single video on key landing pages and videos for well thought out marketing ads campaigns is a better way to manage your budget and time. Another concern when it comes to video marketing is knowing what sort of video you want and how the script will go. There are various types of videos ranging from animation (dynamic illustrations or explainer videos) to testimonial, advertorial and even storyboard style videos that are more simplistic and consist of a combination of images, moving words and sound to create a video (according to uscreen there are 15 different types of video that you should be aware of). Video marketing can make marketing a lot more complicated if you don’t have the knowledge and experience to succeed. Things are getting better! The good news is that video-making apps are becoming easier to use, more powerful and can help you create videos quicker than ever before (and although some have free versions, great features at an extra cost). There is also a growing number of skilled video marketers who can help create the perfect videos for your marketing. It still remains time-consuming to create videos but selectively investing time and money in video marketing is the right way to grow your business. At Think Twice Marketing, we offer solutions such as explainer videos and converting blog posts into videos (just like the one below) that can be posted on social media and on YouTube. If you would like to find out more about how to use video marketing then get in touch.
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In my book ‘Psychology in Marketing and Sales’, I talk about the power of fear and how it can be used to generate sales - but before we answer the question as to whether you should sell based on fear, let's first understand what we mean by the word fear itself. Fear probably sounds worse than it is and we aren't talking about scare tactics, threats or anything unethical (sorry horror movie fans - this isn't’ for you!). Fear is about demonstrating what somebody might be missing or losing out on if they don't have your product or service. An example of this could be how you can avoid becoming unhealthy or ill by buying a fantastic range of branded healthy foods. This contrasts to selling products based on the positive benefits. Using the last example you could promote the brand of health foods by saying ‘get fit, be healthy and have a great active life’ by buying this great brand of healthy foods. Should you sell based on fear?When it comes to promoting the benefits of your product or service, selling based on fear has been proven to be more successful but if it isn't done correctly then it could backfire and damage a brand reputation or least be seen as being too negative. Here are some examples of effective positive and fear-based messages for different types of businesses. How do you feel when you read the two versions? Do the different statements impact the way you feel differently? Enjoy a happy retirement by investing in a pension now Don’t lose out on a happy retirement with limited money to live on, invest in a pension now Protect your PC from viruses with antivirus software Avoid losing data and precious time recovering your PC with antivirus software Beat the queues with fast-pass Make sure you don’t waste hours queuing up. Grab your fast-pass now There are benefits to using both styles and a mixture of both is usually the best option. Selling based on fear is used more widely than you might think, from the shortage of seats left when booking a flight (only 2 seats left, don’t miss out!) to pensions, investments and car breakdown cover (don’t get stranded on your own with your car broken down…) to the range of every day offers you see telling you that if you don’t take advantage of the offer in the next 2 hours then you will miss out. In fact, there has even become a widely used term we now use to describe one of our biggest fears - FOMO (fear of missing out). The next time you work on your marketing, consider how you can develop your messaging and the benefits by pointing out both what’s great about what you offer AND what your potential customer could be missing out on. If you would like to learn more about how to promote your products and services based on the way the human mind works then why not grab a copy of my very affordable book Psychology in Marketing and Sales - but be quick, it’s so good I might have to put the price up soon! 😃 Want a recap? The video below is a summary of this blog post. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel on YouTube for more videos! When it comes to online advertising, it doesn't get any bigger than the two tech giants Google and Facebook. But, which one is best for advertising your business? The aim of this blog post is to discuss the pros and cons of using Facebook Ads and Google Ads (previously Google Adwords). We won't be discussing the in-depth details of the various ways you can advertise on the two platforms. Facebook Ads or Google Ads?While both platforms allow you to advertise on third party websites as sponsored ads, Google stands out in one important way - Google search. Adverts created with Facebook that appear on Facebook, Instagram and other sites can be considered to some extent as 'speculative'. Yes, you can define your target audience including their interests, their age, location etc but someone seeing the advert is less likely to be in 'buying mode'. A seller of training equipment for playing hockey might be able to target people such as 'anyone who lives within 25 miles of New York, has an interest in hockey and is aged 25-44' but that doesn't mean that person who sees the advert is interested in, or wants to buy what's on offer. They might not play hockey and only have an interest in watching it. With Google, you appear when people are actively searching for what you sell. Using the above example, a person who wants to buy a hockey stick has already made a conscious decision to find out more about the various types or is ready to buy. They are already further into the decision making sales process and are likely to search specifically for 'hockey sticks' or 'buy hockey stick'. This means you are appearing to people who are genuinely interested and are closer to buying. With Facebook you might need to reach out to more people to generate sales. That doesn't mean Facebook isn't worth considering. Is Google Ads better than Facebook Ads?Set up correctly, Google Ads can be highly effective but that doesn't make it an outright winner compared to Facebook Ads.
Facebook Ads has many advantages. It tends to be lower cost pay per click, it has access to an audience that's in the billions and there's the opportunity to educate people who may don't think they need your product... but they do. Facebook Ads, like Google, also allows you to do re-targeting so that your ad will appear when you have visited a similar website - although recent privacy changes by Apple have made this harder. If you had to decide which platform to use then it will depend on your budget, objectives and industry you are in. You may, for example, have the objective to raise awareness of your new product during a product launch and decide that Facebook is best for that. Facebook is also great for short-term promotions, allowing you to reach a lot of people in a short period of time. If you would like to know more about Google then consider our online course Getting to to the top of Google. This course covers Google Ads as well as SEO (getting found on Google without spending money on adverts). Personally, I prefer Google but that doesn't mean it will always be the right solution for your business. Consider your objectives and what you want to achieve before making a decision. You may want to use both platforms to be more effective. If you need help with online advertising, contact Think Twice Marketing. To be clear, I'm not endorsing launching poor products to grow sales and this story isn't about any product Think Twice Marketing has launched! I'm a great fan of reading books that help to understand and develop marketing as well as around personal development and this story is from a book titled Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.
The story is about a company that launched a breadmaker which, at the time, was a relatively new concept. When Williams-Sonoma first launched their breadmaker for $275, sales were poor and despite their best marketing efforts, consumers didn’t get the concept of making bread at home and found it even harder to understand why they should pay $275 for such a device. Williams-Sonoma needed a plan B. More thought into improving the solution, it seemed was needed. So what did Sonoma do? They launched a larger, heavier and less attractive breadmaker at a 50% premium to the original version (although at the time it was considered to have more features the new breadmaker couldn't really be justified at a 50% premium). What happened was unexpected. Sales started to grow rapidly - but not for the premium priced product, it was for the original machine priced at $275. Why had this happened? The answer, it seems is - in one word - relativity. This is less about Einstein and more about how people compare your solutions relative to each other, relative to the competition and relative to the idea of not purchasing anything at all. On its own, the $275 bread maker had nothing to compare against. Possibly a cheaper coffee maker or some other kitchen appliance? Or maybe the idea of keeping $275 in your pocket? Once the new bread maker was launched consumers were saying “wow, this bread maker is much better value for money and is smaller, I think I’ll take that one” rather than “a bread maker? Not sure why I want to pay over $200 for that!”. The conversation in their mind had shifted from whether to buy at all to which one should I buy. Relativity plays a big role in marketing and decision making. If you are looking to launch a poorer or inferior product or service we can't help but If you would like to learn more about how relativity can be used to improve your marketing activities and grow your sale then my book 'Psychology in Marketing and Sales' is a recommended read. Head over to the Resources page to find out more. And why does it matter? I always find it interesting how salespeople and marketers differ on this, especially in larger corporate businesses where sales and marketing teams are separated but need to communicate closely.
'Marketing do advertising and create fluffy nice looking brochures' you might hear the salesperson say 'while we go out and get the business in and close the deals'. The Marketer might retort that their efforts to show social proof of a great brand with great products have already done the hard work while the sales guy just needs to turn up, have a chat and walk away with the order... and the credit. These thoughts might be harsh, but the good news is they are both wrong. The majority might argue that marketing and sales are separate but in reality, the two functions are (or in practice should be) very closely aligned. The job of the marketer amongst other things is to look after the customer but in a slightly different way to the salesperson. While a sales person can be more personal they can only reach out to so many people with phone calls or face to face visits. Similarly, a good marketer should know how to drive customers online to sales pages (or landing pages) and should know how to create those pages in a way that converts visitors into paying customers. The marketer's job is to work with sales to generate opportunities and help close sales where the salesperson doesn't have the bandwidth. Sales and marketing should work together in many different aspects to drive a business forward. Here are some examples: - Participating at exhibitions needs marketing to support efforts in using email marketing, social media and other ways to drive visitors to the event where salespeople can build relationships and generate more qualified leads - Sales teams can provide valuable customer and market feedback to help marketers create more effective solutions that in turn generate more sales and more easily - Online advertising and landing pages should be designed to generate leads that salespeople can call, visit or email to qualify further and convert into sales So, are sales and marketing the same? In theory, they are different but both roles share the common objectives to generate profitable sales, possibly through slightly different activities but always with the customer in mind. In smaller businesses, one person may look after and manage the whole sales and marketing process (as well as run the business) so the lines are blurred between the two functions. Whether you believe that sales and marketing are the same or not, it's important that the two functions are as closely integrated as possible for a business to succeed. You could argue that marketing IS selling and selling IS marketing. After all, in his book 'To Sell Is Human', Daniel Pink argues that everybody is a sales person and every day of our lives we are constantly selling something, whether it's convincing friends to go out for a drink, telling the kids how important homework is or asking the boss for a pay rise. What are your thoughts? Do you agree? For a free review of your sales and marketing activities, contact Think Twice Marketing. Let me share a quick story with you... I've been looking for a replacement garage door recently and whenever a reasonable amount of money is to be spent then I've always believed in getting 3 quotes from different suppliers. After calling 3 companies that could help, one tried to close the sale while on the phone doing another job (without turning up to see us), we left a message for one that didn't call back and a third one turned up and gave professional advice and followed up with a written quote. How to increase conversion ratesNot happy with this, we called some more businesses and out of another 4 calls, only one turned up and gave some great advice but failed to send a quote as promised. You may be wondering why I'm telling you this story but consider this: Out of 7 local businesses, only 1 has actually fully responded to the needs of their customer while one has wasted time turning up, only to not finish the sales lead generation process of sending a quote as promised. Could closing a sale be as simple as responding efficiently and professionally to a sales opportunity? When I refer to 'conversion rates', this is the percentage of opportunities that are converted into s sale. If you receive 10 enquiries and 6 of them become customers then the conversion rate is 60%. From my experience selling on third party sites I have found that sales conversions are much higher when I respond within hours to an enquiry. Even responding a couple of days later has resulted in responses such as 'thanks, but I've decided to go with someone else'. Frustratingly this even applies at the weekend if someone makes an enquiry on a Saturday but they don't get a response until Monday. Regardless of what the quality of the service or the price might be, it seems that many customers quickly lose interest if they don't get a prompt response. The perfect lead generation? We are all human and nobody is perfect when it comes to responding to enquiries. It's easy to forget to respond or to be too busy and if we are too busy with too much business being generated then we might let the odd sales opportunity go but if we look back to my story - that's 6 out of 7 businesses that failed in their lead generation process. And it's not for a small order of pennies and pounds, it's much more. You might be reading this thinking 'yes, but this is tradesman/they have limited capacity/my industry isn't like that etc' (delete as appropriate) but this isn't the first time I have experienced this - and I guess it's the same for you. Failing to respond and an ineffective lead generation process is common across almost any industry. How to improve conversion rates A solid lead generation process should consist of a clear, well working process from raising awareness of your services, attracting interested customers and closing down the sale. An opportunity should remain in the pipeline until it is either closed - lost, closed - won or closed because the customer has decided to either go ahead at a later date or not at all. If you plan to spend a lot of money on advertising but are unlikely to chase leads until it's converted or lost then don't waste your time or money. It's possible to automate parts of your lead generation using, for example, automated email marketing and this is something to consider seriously in your business as it can save time and money AND lead to higher conversion rates and sales. However, there will always be times when the personal touch is needed that can't be fully automated and the level of personal touch depends on the type of business. Facebook and Google Ads, business networking and email marketing are great tools to generate leads but they cannot be highly ineffective if you don't respond to potential or qualified opportunities properly. It might sound simple but responding professionally and timely to enquiries can make a huge difference when it comes to winning an opportunity. Now you know how to improve your conversion rates. Contact Think Twice Marketing to get help with your lead generation process. Why not watch the video summary for this blog post with the video below? You may also want to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos to help you with marketing! I've always been a staunch advocate of great customer service and many great business books - especially from the 80s and 90s such as 'The Pursuit of Wow' by Tom Peters - talk about how great customer service is key to success. Worryingly I get the feeling the drive for short term profit means businesses are not paying attention. If you are fed up of waiting for hours on the phone or chasing a company that has over charged you will understand.
Here are my arguments why great customer service is an invaluable marketing tool: Customer loyalty is CHEAPER than customer acquisition It's proven that it's cheaper to keep customers with loyalty schemes than it is to spend money finding new customers. If you neglect customers they go elsewhere meaning you have to spend money finding new business but if you do a great job, show you care and deliver a great overall service then customers will stay. Happy customers generate new customers by recommending you When Think Twice Marketing started, our main source of customers was through social media, business networking and other routes. Now, our biggest lead generation is our existing customers. Sometimes it's good to prompt customers by asking if they would or could refer or by offering an incentive but the key point is that if they will only recommend your services if they are happy. Credibility and ratings are critical in today's online world Ever looked at a place to go in the summer and despite having lots of 4 or 5-star reviews you have decided not to go there because of a single poor 1-star review? Every business no matter how good has an unhappy customer from time to time, for whatever reason, and it sucks to lose business like this. But that's the way we operate. Bad reviews put us off buying. Great reviews make us want to buy. It's worth pointing out that if you do have an unhappy customer, it's important to do what you can to correct the situation and make sure you respond so other people can see. Responding to a bad review online and showing you are doing what you can to improve the situation will make a difference. You can command a higher price Having a reputation for great customer service means that you might be able to command a higher price than your competition. Added to this, pretty much any business has a group of target customers who want premium products and are willing to pay for them. A chance to stand out Imagine a customer receives 3 quotes. One from you and two from similar businesses. There are many ways to stand out but arguably one of the best ways is to send a clear message to the customer that you offer unrivalled customer service. It could just be that one thing that's enough to persuade a customer to work with you. So, in summary... At Think Twice Marketing, we like to challenge the way businesses do their marketing and we believe that customer service is critical to marketing success. That's why we have built our business on long-term happy customers with great reviews. We understand that delivering great service might not be in the hands of the marketer but we should argue the case for great service. For small businesses this may be easier to implement as business owners often have to do a lot of the marketing and sales. At the end of the day, we are all customers and we expect good customer service. There's on reason why we should treat customers the way we would like to be treated. For great customer service with your marketing, get in touch. |
written byThe opinions in these blog posts are those of marketing expert and book author Darren Hignett. Categories
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