Archive for January, 2011

Internet marketing with video content is about more than just setting up your own video channel. To be successful, and achieve the search marketing boost you’re after, you really need an online marketing strategy that uses internet video as a driver for other platforms. Think Social Media, Blogs, Podcasts … even mobile marketing.

Social Media

No internet marketing strategy is complete without social media. The fact is social media is the fastest growing segment on the internet. You just can’t ignore that if your business needs web traffic.
Social media has a number of advantages, not the least of which are:

• Communication level

  enables you to interact directly with your customers and create a real life rapport that simply isn’t possible with a traditional website

• Brand extension

  we all know word of mouth is the best sort of referral, so imagine the brand value of your customers chatting with friends about your business

Apart from just chatting, the other thing members tend to do is share media. Not just with anyone. Photos and video are something that belongs in the inner sanctum. So most users only allow their media to be shared and viewed by people they know. Whether that’s photographs or video content, the value of piercing friendship and social groups to your online marketing can be enormous.

Blogs

Blogging isn’t just popular … it’s a revolution! Successful bloggers gain literally thousands of followers simply by venting about their field of interest. In many cases blogs don’t even pretend to offer an expert view. They’re simply a way for authors to express and opinion. It’s possible to do that a number of ways:

• by chatting about topical subjects (news, photography, PC games are all popular choices)
• by offering a content feed (RSS) so that others can stay up-to-date with the latest posts
• by referring to other online content that attracts their interest for one reason or another
• by posting engaging images to illustrate a point, their skills or just for interest
• by using online video content

Search engines like blogs because the content is mostly nice and fresh. So they visit often and rank accordingly. If you take all this into account when formulating an internet marketing strategy, you’ll be taking a firm step in the right direction.

Podcasts

Podcasting is possibly the most underutilised online marketing tool of them all. People love to pick up the content they like … or missed with this easy tool. And you can make it part of your marketing strategy too.
Working your video content hard means taking your marketing to the next level. Podcasting is just one way you can harness the power of the internet as part of your own marketing mix.

Mobile

Any next gen marketer will tell you the way to go is mobile. And plenty of businesses have already gone down the path of creating an online presence that mobile viewers can access quickly and easily. But that’s just taking existing technology and plonking it somewhere else.
Video content is by far the most engaging media you can present users with. And effective mobile marketing takes that right to their mobile cell phone. No downloads, no navigation. Just point, click, play and you’ve moved from a local to global business. Now that’s internet marketing innovation.

Copywriting is one of the most important elements to setting your business marketing on track.  Which makes choosing a copywriter pretty important.  Often individual writing services have different fields of speciality, like web content for instance.  So how do you go about finding the right copy writer for your business communication?

Search online

Possibly the fastest way to find yourself a writer is to begin with an internet search.  The good thing about this approach is, given it’s a copy writing service, there’s a fair chance any website you find will be populated by their own writing work.

If you are looking for SEO copywriting, a quick search can indicate how well your prospective writer has optimised their own site.  That’s important if you would like them to do that for you.

When you arrive at the online hub of a writing operation, there’s a few things you’ll be interested in.  For instance, is the web content engaging enough to get your interest and keep you reading?  What is it actually talking about and how does that relate to your particular marketing needs.  And, possibly most important of all, are the real life writing samples available for you to take a look at?

Ask for references

It’s an old chestnut, but you can’t beat word of mouth.  If you belong to a business network or perhaps you have colleagues who have used copy writing to improve their business marketing … ask them about the copywriter they chose.  Far from the upsell and hype of a self-promoting website, this way, you will get a real picture of how professionally the writing service handled their account and the quality of work delivered by their copy writer.

Meet & greet

There’s nothing better than a real life meeting to get a feel for how comfortable you are trusting your marketing communications to a particular copywriter.  These days, that’s been made a lot simpler with methods like online meetings and mobile communication.  You can choose and use a copywriting business anywhere in the world, especially if you’re happy to communicate via email.

The thing you are really looking for when you meet a possible copy writer isn’t whether they look (or smell) great.  The important thing is whether they grasp what your offer is and what your business is about.  You really do not want communication that could have been written for any company in your field of business.  So you need to feel comfortable this writer will produce custom marketing content with some personality … and your brand identity.

View portfolio

When you view the work of a copywriter, you will get a feel for the style of copy writing they are most familiar with.  Web content, for example, needs a particular approach that is not usually suitable for printed media.  So be sure your copywriting service can handle a range of business marketing initiatives.

Don’t get too caught up in the fabric of colour schemes and styles.  A good copy writer should be able to switch the tone of their writing to suit your target market precisely.  What you are really interested in is just that.  Whether the writing seem to have a good feel for the prospects it is directed at.

Remember your business marketing is riding on this.  Only once you’ve completed these four important steps, should you proceed with a quote for your web content or copywriting needs.

Flyers can be sensational lead generators … if you get it right.  Plenty of businesses get gun-ho printing thousands of brochures, flyers or postcards that go straight in the bin.  What’s the secret then?

Well there’s not much space on a DL flyer or postcard.  So to begin with, your copywriting needs to be spot on.  Make sure you choose a copywriter with experience writing punchy and convincing messages.  Then go hard by:

• copywriting a topical, attention grabbing headline
• strenghtening your message with imagery customers relate to
• ensuring your copywriter produces solution-driven content and a compelling reason to act

If you’d prefer your brochure or flyer out of the recycling and into the business plan, ask a Cluey copywriter to help.

Make your own video ad and you’ll have next gen internet advertising with engaging video content. Make your own video ad in the right place and you can take your online video advertising mobile.

Online advertising is supposed to be a great leveller.  But what if you can’t afford a big budget internet video advertising production?  No problem.  Make your own video ad instead!

DIY video advertising

You’ll be surprised how many tools you already have that can easily be turned into an internet video.  If you’ve got some time or an in-house resource, try some of these ideas:

• Presentations

  Even if you aren’t a regular public speaker, most businesses have at least one sales presentation.  You might not think of them like this, but each page is actually a slide.  This process is super easy for Powerpoint users.  All you need do is open your presentation, SAVE AS *.jpg and … presto … you’ve got images to import into Movie Maker.  From there, it’s as simple as pie to make a video ad from your very own presentation.

• Stock shots

  Unless you’ve got the dullest website on earth (in which case you probably aren’t considering internet video marketing anyway) you’ll have some images.  You might even have a product image library, or at least photos of your business, staff, logo images etc.  Any or all of these are fodder for creating an online video.  In exactly the same way as you can with presentation images, just import to Movie Maker and away you go.

• Webcam

  If you own, or have a built-in webcam, it’s pretty simple to make a video.  You don’t even need to get dressed up nice.  Although, depending in who you’d like to watch, that might be pretty important.  If you’re making a webcam video for the internet, there are a few things you need to be aware of.  Firstly, most people who find your video online won’t know who you are.  So get to the point quickly or they won’t stick around.  Also, the quality of a webcam video is usually low and the audio can be poor quality.  So take that into account when you decide if a webcam internet video is the best way to represent your business.

• Online video maker

  If you prefer to end up with a more professional looking video, try visiting a video maker site.  There’s a few of these around that can take your image files or video grabs and turn them into an internet video for you.  For example, Vuitlive is an online video advertising centre that provides the features you’d find in a professionally produced TV commercial.

If you make your own video ad at Vuitlive, you’ll also be able to run a multi-media campaign.  These ads come with mobile marketing add-ons like an IV barcode and SMS ready short URL.  It’s even possible to take your internet video to the next level with Podcast marketing.  This popular format is still quite underutilised for marketing purposes.  But that’s another article!