Unlock the Power of Streaming TV Ads: How They Can Revolutionize Your Advertising Strategy

July 2022 was the first time ever more people watched streaming TV than cable. This jump in viewership to internet based TV viewing is going to revolutionize your businesses advertising strategy and here’s why.

OTT ads stand for “Over-The-Top” advertising. It is delivered to viewers of internet-connected devices that stream TV content on smart TVs, streaming boxes, and mobile devices. OTT advertising offers many advantages over traditional TV advertising. Targeting options include the ability to reach specific audiences based on demographics, interests, behavior, and type of device they use to stream TV content. OTT advertising is now evolving to include the ability to track your audience on your website using tracking pixels that collect data on your website visitors. This info optimizes your advertising campaigns. These tracking pixels have become commonplace to use if you are advertising on platforms from the likes of Meta (Facebook) and Google.

The advantage of OTT ads for your business includes targeting, engagement, reach and measurement. Targeting a specific audience based on demographics, interests, and behavior will increase engagement and brand recall. Reach larger audiences because streaming content is consumed on many different devices, including TVs, computers, mobile devices, and tablets connecting you to users anywhere, anytime. OTT ads also offer robust measurement and analytic tools compared to traditional TV advertising to helping the performance of your ad campaigns. 

Combining a tracking pixel on your company’s website with the power of OTT ads will supercharge your audience segmentation and retargeting capabilities of your advertising strategies. The data you can collect from OTT ads and website pixels allow advertisers to segment audiences to tailor advertising to specific groups which in turn increase the delivery of more relevant, personalized, and effective messages to their targeted audience. Additional savings can be had by using tracking pixels to retarget users who have visited your website. By showing relevant ads to users who have already expressed an interest in your brand, product, or service advertisers can improve their click-through rates, conversion rates, and overall campaign performance which results in lower costs. 

Nielsen Media Group and The Hershey Company have found OTT Ads and website tracking pixels to be a benefit in their marketing strategies. Nielsen found that OTT advertising was effective in increasing brand recall for a healthcare brand by 20%. The Hershey Company was able to achieve a 50% increase in online sales when using website pixels to retarget users who have already expressed an interest in their brand. 

At Five Towers Media we encourage our clients to include OTT Advertising and Website Tracking Pixels in their marketing strategy to make significant improvements in their own advertising campaigns. Book a call today with a marketing strategist.

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A Case for Stock Video

As a content creator and videographer, I really want to tell you that your video inbound marketing efforts need only custom video creation. As a business owner, I definitely want to tell you that you need custom video creation. The thing is, that is not always the case. On some occasions, stock video is the perfect solution, regardless if it is for television, social media, YouTube or your website. Let me lay out the pros and cons for you. Let’s use the video above as an example. 

You can possibly save a ton of time.

In the video above, we had a limited amount of time to shoot, edit and deliver the product. Finding the right actors, choosing locations, scheduling and all the myriad details that go into producing footage can sometimes take weeks or months. By using stock footage, we were able to forgo all of that and get right to finding clips and editing. 

You can save a ton of money.

In the world of video, time equals money. If we had to shoot custom footage to line up with what we had for stock video clips, it would have cost thousands of dollars. When I say thousands, I mean closer to ten than two. 

You have many options.

There are so many clips available that you can cover almost every scenario imaginable. In some cases, you are able to find clips that you could not create without considerable time and cost. Stock video clips give you seemingly never-ending possibilities. Need a drone shot of Norway or footage like the one below but don’t want to expend resources to get one? No problem. Stock video is here. Don’t want to wait for a solar eclipse but want one in your video? Stock video is the answer. 

I am sure there are other points we can make for the use of stock video, but I think you get the gist. 

The stock video clips are not unique to your video.

Because everyone has access to them, there is a very good chance that you may see some of the clips in your repertoire in other people’s videos. 

You lose social engagement.

If you are using these videos for social media or television and you and your people are not in the video, you will possibly miss out on engagement. As people recognize you, they begin to comment, share and discuss. This is exactly what you want to help gain traction organically, especially with inbound marketing. Using stock video can drastically reduce this prospect and have a negative effect on your marketing efforts.

Sometimes there just are not stock videos clips that line up with your message the way you would want.

This is one of the times that stock video is limiting, and the only thing you can do is shoot custom video unique to your situation. 

As you can see, there are some reasons for and some reasons against using stock video clips. There are situations in which you will absolutely want to use stock video for your top-of-the-funnel marketing assets. This does not mean you should automatically go for stock videos that you just throw your logo on. There are also situations in which you will want to create custom videos perfectly suited to your needs—lead-generating machines that will give you an amazing ROI. Not sure when to use them and when not to? Shoot us an email, and we can help you figure it out.

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Why Do I Need a Podcast?

I don’t want to spend too much time on the issue of “how to.” There are plenty of articles and blogs out there on how to create and publish podcasts. Here is a link to a great one that I think spells it out pretty clearly.

This blog can help you go from zero to hero in no time at all.

1. It can position you as an expert and leader in your field. 
2. It is a great top-of-the-funnel asset for inbound marketing efforts.
3. It gives you the opportunity to showcase your products and services.
4. It can be an amazing way to open doors for sales opportunities. 

Let’s take a quick look at each item.

To clarify: I am not advocating the whole “fake it till you make it” thing. I am not saying that it will position you as an expert and leader if you are not already that. What I am saying is that currently you are an expert and leader in your field, but no one knows this because you are not providing them that information. You need to move from where you are—unrecognized and unknown—to someone who is recognized and known. People you have never heard of will know who you are—that is what I mean by positioning. A podcast is a great way to introduce content to the marketplace that helps move you from unknown to known.

Here’s the deal: A podcast episode does not give you just one piece of content. At a minimum, it should give you three pieces of content. There is the podcast itself, the blog you write about the podcast (or, at the very least, a written description listed on your website), and then the video of the podcast. That makes three pieces of content that can be key pieces of your inbound marketing strategy. They can be used on social media, your website and in your email campaigns. And the video, of course, can be uploaded to YouTube. If tagged properly and with the right description, that video can help boost your organic SEO as well as help get more views natively on YouTube. 

I don’t mean that each podcast should be a commercial, but you can organically work into the conversation different points about what you do. This helps define your expertise and why people should listen. You also have the opportunity to throw in something at the beginning and ending of the production that can serve as a 30-60-second commercial about your business. Listeners will not be turned off by this. 

You have to be very careful with this, so let me explain a little more in depth. Let’s pretend you own a business whose target market is retail stores in your downtown area. That is something we have a lot of in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Rather than kicking down doors looking for sales opportunities, why not create a podcast that tells the story of downtown Saratoga Springs and how it has changed over the years? You invite guests such as city leaders, real estate agents and—you guessed it!—downtown business owners in Saratoga Springs. You must remember that this is not a sales call or a sales opportunity. This is simply a chance to meet someone who represents your target market by taking the first step in forming a relationship. Don’t get me wrong: It very well may lead to business opportunities. But don’t force it.  All you need to worry about is having an interesting show, helping the business owners highlight what they do and how amazing their stores are, and then waiting for things to blossom. It’s a no-pressure strategy that can pay big dividends if done correctly. Don’t screw it up by trying to get into a sales conversation. If done correctly, when the participants are ready, they will reach out to you. After all, now they know you and (probably) like you, and you have had the chance to build some trust. 

This, hopefully, has shed some light on why you should have a podcast. I am sure you have questions, and I would be glad to chat. To do so, just shoot me an email. 

Wondering how you should start a podcast? Contact us.

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DIY Video Shooter

As someone who shoots a significant amount of video for clients every week, I really want to make this point: Put down your cell phone and hire us to produce your video. Two years ago, there was little thought given to cell phone videos if you wanted to use them for anything other than Facebook. Today, however, given the improvements in cell phone cameras, it simply is not the case. So instead of telling you to stop shooting video on your cell phone, I say, “Go ahead and do it—but hire us to do the editing instead.” Editing is where the artistic part comes in, and it is the difference between a good video and a great one. 

After constantly wincing as we viewed DIY shooters make some pretty basic mistakes, we put together a simple “cheat sheet” to help you shoot video we can edit. 

For my videographer friends, obviously there are exceptions to everything stated here.

ALWAYS:

• Shoot with the phone horizontal. The exception to this is if you are shooting TikTok or Instagram stories.
• Upload footage directly from the device or SD card to Google Drive. Emailing, texting, and using AirDrop degrades footage and images.
• Shoot in 4K.
• Shoot interviews at 24 FPS (frames per second).
• Shoot B-roll footage at 60 FPS (this allows you to use the slow-motion feature).
• Shoot interviews with the subject looking off camera (instead of into it).

OTHER FACTORS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT:

• Device. You should shoot with a newer phone, such as an iPhone 10 or newer model (the iPhone 12 is best right now) or any of the Samsung Galaxy phones produced in the last couple of years. The rule of thumb: If it is older than a 2018 model, it’s probably not the right device. 
• Tripod. Interview videos should be shot from a tripod, if you have one, to produce stable footage.
• Stabilization. B-roll footage should use some sort of stabilization. (Those handheld stabilizers for phones are so inexpensive, it is ridiculous.)
• Distance. Get closer to your subject, especially when taking B-roll footage. 
• Planning. Shoot to edit. It is very easy to overshoot, which adds additional time to the editing process.
• Aspect ratio. Use 16:9, not 4:3.

AUDIO ISSUES:

Audio quality is probably more important than video quality when it comes to interviews. You need to either upgrade sound equipment, shoot somewhere very quiet, or both. Sound pollution will ruin your video, making it unwatchable, and you will have wasted a lot of time. 

For conducting interviews, shotgun mics are OK, but a lapel mic is best. You’ll need to do a little research to find the best audio-capture device for your phone.

Final thoughts:

These are not all the issues, but for most of you who are shooting videos for your website or social profiles, it should help. 

The two biggest sins I see are incorrect orientation (holding your phone vertical when it should be horizontal) and audio problems. Audio is so important. People will watch a video that has shaky footage, but audio that is muffled, has a ton of hum, or is nonexistent will lead to instant click-aways. 

Have a question or comment? Shoot us an email. If you want to download this little cheat sheet, click below. 

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4 Must-Have Top-of-the-Funnel Videos

The conversation I constantly have with most business owners, marketing managers and salespeople is that they are struggling with one of three problems—and sometimes all three.

The first problem is that they are struggling to find ways to fill the top of their sales and marketing funnel. They want to connect with prospects that are not just tire kicking, but actually interested in making a buying decision. They are frustrated with traditional methods of prospecting such as cold calls and networking, finding the results are not what they used to be. Many of them are spending time, money and resources on organic social media or paid ads, only to be disappointed with conversion rates.

This leads to thin pipelines, desperate salespeople and saying yes to the wrong customers at the wrong price point.

What they want are ways for folks who are actively going through the buying process to find them, to be at least somewhat aware of their brand, and to make a buying decision. It’s this last one that has them scratching their heads or throwing their hands up in frustration.

The second problem they are battling with is filling their hiring pipeline. It’s a common problem. They want to grow their business and need talent to do it. They are sometimes using traditional methods such as newspapers or radio, and some of them are looking to other digital strategies including recruiting websites, social media and more. Even with these New Age techniques, they are still disappointed with the results. Just like they struggle to find prospects for sales, they are also struggling to find potential new hires.

This leads to problems such as being over capacity—unable to fill orders or perform work, and in the end watching their numbers slowly slide.

They want talent to search them out, high employee retention and overall growth of the business because they have the best team in the business.

The third problem is that they are confused about how to show differentiation in the market. They constantly find themselves competing on price, and they struggle to find ways to help buyers and potential hires understand why they should work with them. Their messaging sounds like that of everyone else: “We are the best. We have great customer service. We are not the cheapest, but we are worth it.” The thing is, their competitors are saying the same things and also have the reviews to prove it, just like you.

In the end, they are forced into commodity-based selling, competing on price and often saying yes to work that is not worth it in the long run. A friend of mine used to call this suicide selling—you are slowly killing your own business by saying yes to work you shouldn’t.

All three of these problems have similar solutions: You need a way to attract qualified buyers or attract the best talent. You need a compelling way to tell your story that helps differentiate your business. You need a way to market your business that is cost-effective and gets results.

So here are four must-have videos for filling the top of the funnel:

This video has a few different uses. It is a prospecting tool that can be sent to people or businesses that are in your target market as a way to pique their interest. It can be used as a digital leave-behind after an initial meeting or even with a networking partner to help them better understand how you help your clients and customers. It can be a top-of-the-funnel piece for marketing purposes, content for your social media and website, and even a cross-selling piece for current clients. It can be used to help new talent understand your selling propositions. It’s a short video, around 1-2 minutes in length, that not only explains what you do, but why choosing you over your competitor would be important to someone who is a qualified buyer. The amount of use you can get out of just this one video is vast and, considering the price point, extremely valuable. It, just like the other three videos we will discuss, is the Swiss Army knife of your sales, marketing and communication efforts.

We follow a very specific format to ensure you get the right messaging. You may be asking, “Well, what is it?” That’s our “secret sauce,” so I cannot just give it to you, but I will say that it is a formula successfully used by many companies around the world. We didn’t create it; we just employ it diligently. 

For this video, we look at three things that have been used by organizations all over the world in order to come up with the content needed to create a video that will generate results.

Every business has a unique story that not only details what it is but also helps prospects understand reasons outside of sales as to why its people may want to work with you. A company’s story helps make it relatable to you and your business and forms a sense of simpatico that is often missed or overlooked during the sales process. Every business owner has faced hardship and adversity; we are all very similar in that regard. Helping your prospects understand how their struggle and yours are similar can really help form a solid relationship. Again, we follow a very specific format for this video that guarantees we tell a compelling, emotional story that humanizes your business and relates a narrative beyond the technical aspects. (More secret sauce here, but let’s chat about how to tell your story.)

One of the biggest challenges facing every employer is hiring and recruiting. We all struggle with finding and retaining top talent that is exactly what we need to help our businesses perform at a top level. Being able to communicate the kind of environment and culture someone would be walking into if they worked with your company is paramount. This can help you not only fill your labor force, but may also get potential rock stars reaching out to you with a desire to join your team. 

Nothing—and I mean nothing—sings your praises louder than when it comes from other people. Having videos of your loyal client base telling how they helped you can attract prospects and top talent as well as help make the difference in whether you close. There is no secret sauce here, just emotional-based content that engages. This goes beyond that 140-character-based review and really delves into real-world examples of who you help and how much it meant to them on a personal level. 

If you still aren’t sure if this is possible for your business or how to make these four videos happen, we would love to chat with you. Our job is to find the story even when you think there may not be one; believe me, there is a story there. It is just a matter of asking the right questions to help peel back the layers to get from the surface to the emotion behind it.

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Video Inbound Marketing

It is no secret that in today’s digital age, and especially during and post pandemic, growing your customer base is no easy feat. We are all frustrated that organic social media is not giving the results it used to, paid ads are still yielding impressions but not giving us conversions, and we are left wondering where to spend our time, money, and resources. Facebook? Instagram? LinkedIn? Twitter? Pinterest? We are all wandering around aimlessly hoping we will find prospects, and when we do, we find out too late that they are not qualified or they are just kicking the tires. Our bounce rates are high, conversions are low and our frustration and disappointment on budget allocation is at an all-time high. We want ways to spend our marketing budgets wisely on methods that will fill the top of the funnel with qualified, interested buyers. Maybe it’s time to consider video inbound marketing.

Perhaps this is the first time you have heard of video inbound marketing; perhaps it is not. You may be somewhat familiar with inbound marketing, but the “video” part of the phrase might be new to you. According to the folks over at Crisp Video, “Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads than traditional outbound marketing.” That’s impressive. In case you are not familiar with inbound marketing, it is a method of directing organic traffic back to one’s website and landing pages utilizing well-done high-quality content. What are those types of content? Well, blogs, of course, as well as webinars and—you guessed it!—video. Of course, shooting a quick video on your phone and throwing it on your website is not enough. Everyone seems to agree that your content needs to be of high quality and well-produced. This does not mean you need to hire a Hollywood production crew and spend tens of thousands of dollars. It means that if you do not have the skillset to produce quality content, then you may want to hire someone who does—wink, wink.

According to a blog by HubSpot, “2018 and 2019 transformed video from a singular marketing tactic to an entire business strategy.” 

Video assets attached to an effective inbound system give us video inbound marketing.

The aforementioned blog from HubSpot also states: “Today, video is a holistic business approach, meaning video content should be produced by all teams in a conversational, actionable, and measurable way.”

The HubSpot blog even has a great graph showing that video leads the charge over email, social media and blogs. Not sold yet? 

The fact that Google is now including video in search results tells us that adding quality video assets to your inbound strategy can significantly increase organic SEO, which can lead to a higher number of inbound leads for your team. And because these leads were searching for your type of content, took the time to watch your video, and are now on your website, there is a great chance that they are interested in what you have to offer. They could also be in the throes of their initial research on your types of products and—guess what?—your site is one of the first they are finding. First is a nice place to be for brand recognition, lead generation and fattening that sales pipeline. 

By now, you may be wondering what those videos should be. You should check out this article on our site: “4 Must-Have Top-of-the-Funnel Videos.” These are low-hanging fruits that are simple, effective and tell a relevant story to potential prospects about your business. Still not sold? No worries. We can always set up a no-pressure call to discuss the ins and outs of video inbound marketing. It is not a sales call; it’s simply a discovery session designed to figure out if video inbound marketing is something that can help your business and keep your sales and marketing efforts from falling behind. 

Too often, people think, “I just need a website so I look credible.” I think that is great, and I agree 100%, but you should take that thought a step further. How do you plan to integrate your website into your sales process? How are you integrating it into your marketing? How are you using your website to automate operations or customer service? I know what you are thinking: “I don’t have that type of budget just yet.” I get it, and I agree that you need to work within your budget. I also know that a well-built, functional site can save you time and make you more efficient. If you are trying to run lean, you need to hire the right website development team. 

We will take care of creating those top-of-the-funnel video assets. When it comes to the rest of the inbound process, we are strategically partnered with local marketing agencies that are HubSpot partners and experts at what they do. As a team, we will meet with you to discuss your inbound strategy and what you need to effectively cultivate a solid pipeline of inbound leads. This means strategically placed video and audio assets that fill the top of your funnel with interested and qualified prospects. No more grinding it out to find customers. With inbound, they come to you.

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Video – Video – Video

“Video informs and entertains people and, good or bad, people would rather watch a video than read a page of text.”

Lisa Lubin, media professional

You have heard or been told that you need video for your marketing efforts. It’s true; in our current environment, everyone could use video. Attention spans are short, so writing blogs, while helpful for SEO, is not always useful in filling your sales and marketing funnel. Posting photos—even using custom photography—on social media channels has proved to be less effective than it has been in the past. You are looking for ways to connect with prospects, boost your hiring and recruiting efforts, and hopefully grow your business. Video is a necessary part of these efforts. 

You have options. You do not always need to hire a company such as ours and potentially spend thousands of dollars. If you are creative and have the time, you are very capable of creating videos using your cell phone and perhaps an app such as TikTok. Doing it yourself may work for some people, but you have to remember that even DIY costs something in time, money or resources. Not everyone has the time, desire or creativity to do the work themselves.

In these situations, we can be the solution. We have shot videos for television commercials, websites, social media and email campaigns. We can do simple interview cut-away-style videos or full-on animated videos. We have the ability to write scripts and shoot and edit video that can be creative, funny or emotionally compelling. 

We have drone capabilities, stabilization equipment and cameras that can capture just about anything. 

We often shoot videos such as 4 Must-Have Top-of-the-Funnel Videos. 

We have also shot television commercials that have aired on Spectrum networks that have absolutely gotten our clients business. 

So whether it is drone video-editing software, GoPro, dslr, or other video equipment, we are confident that we can help you with your next project.

Of course, everyone’s needs are different, and we are all trying to accomplish different things with video. We all have a different look and feel that goes with our messaging, and we want to help you tell the story the way you want to tell it. So let’s connect. It’s easy to get started. Shoot us an email to get the dialogue going, and we can identify what some of those first steps are without any commitment or pressured conversations.

• Want to shoot a cool promo for your podcast? We can do that.
• Want to create a compelling video for your hiring and recruiting efforts?
  We love ‘em. 
• Want to do some training videos for your business that do not put your new hires to sleep? We can help. 
• Looking for a short sales video that can be used as a prospecting tool or a digital leave-behind? That’s our specialty.

Our approach is simple: We begin with the end in mind. From here, we create a story that fits the narrative you want. Sometimes the story is funny, or sad or exciting, but it is always an emotional one. Emotion, after all, is what engages and sells.

• Consultation and Advisement
• Script Writing
• Video Storyboarding
• Video Creation
• Drone

Below are some examples of videos we have done for clients. Feel free to check out our Video Inbound Marketing page for a few more. You can also connect with us to discuss your project and see if we have more in our portfolio that might help you.

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Top Reasons to be on Social Media

Today’s COVID-plagued economy has really hit home that if you are not digital, you are dying. In order to survive and thrive, we all need to find ways to be virtual for all aspects of our businesses. Zoom meetings, video conferences, FaceTime, and so many other digital tools have now become the norm for conducting day-to-day business. In this environment, social media has become even more relevant. So, disregarding sales and marketing, here are my top reasons why your business should be on social media: 

As you probably know, the hiring and recruiting process starts long before you put that posting on Indeed. It starts with a strong company culture and helping those outside of your organization learn more about that culture. Social media gives you more bandwidth to broadcast what you are as a company and what is important to you. Are you a fun, ultra-professional, competitive organization that people want to be a part of? If so, how will people know that? The answer: social media.

When you finally do post that hiring ad on Indeed (or wherever), rest assured that today’s workforce is looking you up on social media to see what you are about. After all, this is how things work these days. If the wrong message, or no message, is there, you may be missing out on the right hire. You may be viewed as antiquated or dismissed as not being a credible organization. 

Lastly, social media gives you more choices for posting hiring ads and offers. In addition, organic posting is free, so why wouldn’t you get some content out there about that open position in your company? 

If you are not telling your story, someone else is. It could be ex-employees, competitors, or just some random stranger that you don’t even know exists. The bottom line is that people are talking about you and your company. Who do you want controlling that narrative? 

Help bring awareness to the things outside of your business that are important to you. You are donating to charities, sponsoring golf outings, and volunteering time. I know you do not want to make these things about you, but by posting about these events and causes, you are also bringing attention to them. They want attention! They need attention. It’s how they get more donors and more sponsors. Help them by amplifying their voice, and, in return, you get good press. It’s a win-win.

Yes, I know this article has to do with marketing, but it also has to do with every other facet of your business as well. Circle back to the whole hiring and retention process. How people feel about your brand extends far outside of sales and marketing. How people think and feel about your brand is directly related to what they know about it. As I said earlier, if you are not telling your story, someone else is. You want folks to know who you are, but fewer people are turning to traditional media to find out. So where will you educate people on your rand? Answer: social media.

Name recognition is something we all want. But how often do you think of this when it comes to hiring? When someone mentions your firm, does a potential applicant know who you are? Are they excited about the idea of working for such an amazing organization because they hear so much about you? Or do they dismiss you because they have never heard of you?

Sharing others’ content and posts = gaining goodwill. One of the easiest things to do is share someone else’s content. Think about it: It takes two clicks. If you are sharing the content of your current customers—especially those businesses and people who really pay attention to their social media channels—they will notice. They may even return the favor by sharing your content and commenting about what a great company you are. Consider the principle of social proof. It means this: You can say you are great all you want, and people may believe it. But once someone else says it, it’s true. 

You need to keep yourself (business) in front of your current customers in case your competitors come lurking. Back when I was a full-time salesperson, we used to say, “Your biggest client is someone else’s biggest prospect.” You need to protect your accounts and make sure that your relationship with your client is solid. Solid relationships do not come from a single approach; social media gives you an easy way to add to your client retention arsenal. 

It’s a digital world, and it’s time to start updating your strategies. I know many of you have avoided social media up to this point. I know it is an added expense of time, money, and resources. I also know it would be harmful to avoid joining the conversation that is happening out there on digital channels every single day. Not sure where to begin? Well, we would love to chat with you about how we can help. 

Someone is telling your story. Shouldn’t it be you?

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Getting Results: Why Social Media and Paid Ads Are Not Cutting It

You aren’t alone. It’s no secret that the results emanating from social media and paid ads are not delivering the way they used to. We have been fighting to get engagement, and it just seems like it is a losing battle. The few likes, comments, and shares we get are great, but they are clearly not converting to closed business. We are getting thousands of impressions on paid ads only to see high bounce rates and, again, low conversions. Brand recognition is great, but if it does not turn into actual money in the bank, we are just wasting our time. 

Social media feeds are overflowing with wish posts about COVID-19, conspiracy theories, Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, Trump, Biden and a myriad of other political-based articles, and your posts are getting lost in all the noise. 

People are turning away from social media and outbound marketing efforts. People are no longer finding you on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Interruption marketing is becoming a dinosaur, and people are wondering how to put their brand assets in front of qualified and interested buyers. So what is working? That is the million-dollar question. Fortunately, we have an answer. 

1. Organic search.
2. The Google My Business app.
3. Inbound marketing programs.

Organic search has been an effective strategy for a long time, but because of the effectiveness of social media and the ability to drive website traffic through paid ads, it is something we all let go by the wayside. Staying on top of search was sometimes confusing, sometimes elusive, and oftentimes expensive. With folks turning away from social media, we are now finding it absolutely necessary. Buyers are starting their search for most products and services with a quick Google Search. Yes, some other search engines have a piece of the action, but if you look at these numbers provided by StatCounter, you see that Google Search equates to 87.61% of the market share, with Bing at 7.02% and Yahoo at 3.38%. I don’t know about you, but I think I would rather place my time, money and resources by fishing in the right pond: Google. Wondering how to increase your chances of being at the top of Google pages for your keywords? We will get to that shortly.

One more note on search: We are seeing a large increase in video at the top of many search results, especially in categories such as reviews, how-to videos, tutorial videos and videos that are fitness- or sports-related. The trick is finding a way to adopt these types of videos for your business. 

Google My Business is highly underused by businesses. We tend to have a “set it and forget it” mentality when we should be spending as much time working on this as on our social media channels. Think about your own behavior when you run a search and someone’s Google My Business page shows up. All the information you see on that page can in many cases pre-empt the need for others to visit your website. Wondering what are the best practices for optimizing your GMB page? I have included a link to a great article below. 

Outbound and interruption marketing are quickly being replaced by systems that are not only automated but effective. Having a system that attracts, educates and sends interested qualified buyers to your site is what is winning the game these days. That system? Inbound marketing—specifically, video inbound marketing. VIM is becoming a paramount system. As mentioned earlier, Google is frequently placing videos at the top of its search results. More on that in a bit.

Inbound marketing-utilizing systems such as HubSpot can tie into all of your marketing efforts to produce results. You don’t need to take my word for it, though. Check out HubSpot for everything you need to know on why inbound marketing is effective.

At the top of that inbound funnel is content, content, content. Leading the charge in content right now is video. Video is replacing blog content for the simple reason that people will watch a 1-2- minute video before taking the time to read anything. You know it’s true because you do the same thing. If a video is tagged properly, named correctly, has a good thumbnail image and has a description that quickly tells you it is relevant, you will pick that over written content more often than not. 

So what do you do? You have options, but the first thing you should do is allocate time, money and resources to creating content. Content creation gives you the top-of-the-funnel asset you need to run a successful inbound marketing program. Videos and blogs are the key. That does not mean you should skip the blogging. We suggest a combination of both video and blog creation. Creating videos that people will watch and posting them on YouTube is only part of the game. While video can be more effective than blogs, it is not simply creating a video and placing it on YouTube. You need to be sure that titles, tags, thumbnails and descriptions are on point for what your prospects will be searching for. We recommend embedding these videos into a written blog that discusses the video and maybe encourages a reader to watch it. This allows two pieces of content from every video asset created. It also helps you show up in both video search results and keyword search results. When done properly, you can really get great results just with organic search from these efforts.

Well, I think you should reach out to us for a conversation, but my guess is that you are going to do some searches first, probably on Google. A search may even be what led you here in the first place. This in and of itself showcases what we just discussed. 

Looking for that link to optimize your Google My Business page? Here it is.

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Who Is Your Target Market?

One of the bigger mistakes I see businesses making with their marketing is not clearly identifying their target market. When asked, “Who is your target market?” they will typically respond with some version of “anyone”.

You cannot feasibly market to “anyone” or “everyone” –  the cost alone would be astronomical. “Anyone” and “everyone” spend their time and attention in different places. This means you would have to spend time, money, or resources to be on facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Radio, Television, Billboards, Newspapers, the list goes on and on. Don’t get me wrong, there are businesses that do all of these things – and you have heard of them. Coke, Pepsi, Target, Walmart, I am sure those names ring a bell. So if you have a similar marketing budget as they do then disregard this totally. If you do not have their budget please keep reading. 

If “everyone” wanted and was able to buy your stuff you would not need marketing. We know this is not the case and we can immediately narrow down the field with two qualification criteria: Want and Able. Isn’t that really our job when it comes to defining our Target Market? To identify reasons people might want to buy our products and services? Isn’t this just another way to qualify prospects? We have fancy tricks for this that I will outline below. Every business owner I know says that they want to talk to people that are qualified buyers, not tire kickers, and not those that are not in the position to actually buy. So start the qualification process with your marketing by clearly identifying your target market.

Use your sales qualifiers to identify your target market. As we said, your potential buyer needs to want your product/service and be able to buy it. What other criteria do you use to qualify?

• Our clients are in the Capital Region and New England.
• Our clients can invest between $1k and $5k in their marketing programs.
• Our clients have capacity and can take on more clients and customers. 
• Our clients believe in marketing and what it can do for them.
• They have a positive outlook on marketing.
• They want to have fun creating content.
• They are receptive to changing what they have done previously.
• They are willing to communicate with our team. 

Now while some of those are negotiable, some are not. We use these to help determine if a client is a good fit for us or if it is going to lead down a road we do not want to go down. I am sorry to say we have not always done this. There have been more occasions than I like to admit where we had to cut ties with a client. Because of those occasions, we now spend more time qualifying so we can say yes to the right business and no to the wrong business. 

So write down 7-10 criteria that when met would help identify the perfect client. If you are stuck here, think about your favorite clients and right down the reasons they are your favorites. These very well could be qualifying criteria. 

Another useful method for determining your target market is to identify the Demographics, Geographics, and Psychographics of the people you want to work with.

• Demographic – Age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education, and employment are easy examples. You might also consider things like lifestyle, interests, hobbies, and other identifiers that will help you define who your target is and where they spend time and attention. 
• Geographic – Where they are physically located.
• Psychographic – Possibly a less recognizable term. Psychographics are the psychological reasons why a prospect would buy your product or service. These are typically emotionally based reasons and manifest in words like frustrated, upset, concerned. The folks over at Sandler training have a great acronym, FUDWACA. Frustrated, Upset, Disappointed, Worried, Angry, Concerned, Anxious. 

So what do we do with all of that? The 7-10 qualifying criteria and the Demo, Geo, and Psychographic info? We can use this to create a buyer profile. This buyer profile tells us everything we need to know to figure out what our messaging should sound like, where to place ads, which social media channels to spend time on, and so much more. Every ad or post you make should be based on what your buyer profile tells you will work. It will work because they will identify with the imagery chosen, and the text used, and where it was placed. They will identify with it because…. it is specifically for them! They are your target market!

I know many of you are reading this and saying (or thinking) that being too specific with your marketing will cause you to miss out on opportunities that fall outside of your target market. This is not the case and I typically explain it like this: If you are playing darts and aiming at the bullseye you will inevitably miss and hit the areas around the bullseye. The same is true for marketing. Aim for your target market always, knowing that others will see the ad, video or read the blog. Even though it was not built specifically for them they will still identify with some of it enough to take action. If they do not identify with any of it then they just are not qualified to begin with, and you do not want to spend what little time you have with the wrong people.

And of course, give us a call if this sounds like something YOU identify with.
We can help.

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