by admin | Oct 13, 2017 | Tips
As the most emotive form of communication, video is the ultimate medium for grabbing the attention of any audience; you can convey a multitude of messages, in an interesting, visually appealing yet informative way.
But for many companies and organisations who haven’t previously invested in video, it is sometimes hard to justify the cost, or appreciate the true value of video – to your brand, products and services. So how can you justify investing some of your marketing budget on video content?
A well produced video will not only allow you to significantly extend your ability to reach and engage with new audiences, but also deliver a measurable return on your investment, if distributed correctly. Your video should be researched and professionally produced to evoke the desired response from your audiences. If done correctly this will not only enhance and shorten the lead generation process, but will also significantly improve the quality and value of the lead generated or outcome achieved.
Basically – the more video content that you can produce, the better! Here are some suggestions for how you can capitalise on our continued and growing love for video!
Online video is a very valuable piece of collateral particularly for both B2B and B2C marketers; simply because today’s audiences love to watch video online. It adds true value to your proposition, can set you head and shoulders above your competitors, plus it provides a platform which allows them to get to know more about you, at the click of a mouse. Independent studies including Forrester, show that online web-video improves SEO rankings, click through rates and ultimately sales conversions.
- Repurpose existing collateral
If you have existing collateral, that is still relevant and does not look old or can be aged by dress, functionality of products, changes in laws etc, then you can re-edit, freshen, update and repurpose for a new online environment. By launching online, via your website but also via the most popular and appropriate social media networks i.e. YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook etc, you are showcasing content that may not have been seen by the wider public.
- Viral and Social Media Marketing
Video is portable! You can prompt viral activity by producing an interesting, amusing, visually appealing or informative clip, which can be emailed from recipient to recipient. In our busy world, having the choice of watching a 3 minute video clip or reading a whitepaper, the vast majority would choose to watch the video. By adding one click sharing tools, such as LinkedIn, Twitter etc you can share content easily and quickly.
Create video case studies – we have found these can be extremely powerful, when carefully produced to tell an interesting and engaging story that brings to life how your skills, expertise and solutions have made a lasting and significant impact.
Produce Webinars: film collateral which can then be utilised online, by subscription but also reedited into shorter video clips, by topic if appropriate. You could also tease your audience by producing a brief video teaser, flagging the forthcoming webinar, product launch etc which should help to stimulate registrations.
Promotional loop video for Tradeshows and Conferences: collate or produce promotional loop videos for use at relevant events, tradeshows and conferences which can act to attract visitors to your stand, but also reinforce key brand messages, values and propositions to a captive audience.
“Vox Pop” testimonials from existing clients: Filming of testimonials can be organised independently or for an unusual twist. Why not film at your events and conferences and post clips on your website, social media marketing sites, or a specific micro site relevant to the event itself. Vox Pop testimonials will serve to position your company as a leading organisation within your sector, prompt viewing and advocacy from existing clients, whilst providing you with the opportunity to interact within social media networks, in real time.
Q&A, Roundtable or Forum: Another idea would be to organise a Q&A, roundtable discussion or forum, specific to your products and services, which would discuss key industry specific issues and film the discussion. This would then provide bespoke topical pieces, which are relevant to your specific client base, optimising your exposure, whilst allowing others to benchmark you vs. your competitors. According to Forrester: “..Marketers recognise the power of video for creating emotional, engaging connections with prospects, most struggle to make this medium personal and persuasive. As production costs drop, capturing buyer attention with video requires Marketers to step outside their comfort zone and replace lacklustre corporate collateral with live-action demonstrations and stories.”
Video Executive Summaries – create short video executive summaries, highlighting new initiatives, legislation or processes, or simply an overview of the Annual Report for your Company.
Create a video micro site: A micro site is ideal for videos and video clips. If you can commit to producing real, visually appealing content in line with your marketing strategy, then producing a micro site will provide the idea platform to publish and showcase your new collateral.
So, to summarise, by conveying the human face of your company, products, services and your existing client-base, you establish an identity and personality for your company, enabling you to capture the attention of your target audience whilst projecting credibility to a wider audience.
iQ Media has been producing effective videos for a wide range of clients for over 25 years. We have extensive, state of the art in-house facilities which allows us to provide a complete service; over which we have complete control from script, through filming, editing and 2d or 3d graphics through effective social media distribution and upload onto your website.
Our aim is to provide a creative, value for money service of the highest quality service, that delivers results and to help us achieve this we have a number of cost effective video production packages which include the IQ-video bulletin, the IQ-infomercial and the IQ-video brochure.
To learn more about how investing in video can work for you, please do get in contact by calling +44 1625 418666, visit our website or email simonpoyser@iqmediagroup.co.uk. We can then discuss requirements and ideas to meet your needs and provide you with comparative proposals.
Please take a look at the IQ Media video showreel for some recent examples of our work.
Please refer to this article for further tips on how to Improve Your Exhibition Success with digital communications
by admin | Sep 15, 2017 | Tips
All the brand guidelines, content and images are in place, the project plan is on target but inevitably, the run up to the launch of a new website can be sometimes prove to be stressful, for the client and to a lesser extent, the design agency. But, it shouldn’t be like that. Here are some tips on what you can do, to ensure a smooth and successful launch.
As part of the production process, it is important to think about how you will drive traffic to your new site, as part of the overall project plan. The more competitive your industry and the most established your existing website; then the more work that will be required to attract traffic, retain and increase traffic levels.
Within the website itself, there are many “in-situ” things that can be done to attract visitors and search engines. Without question, the website needs to be built in an SEO friendly manner, the content on the site should be informative, well written, relevant and keyword rich.
Unless you have internal or external SEO trained resources available, then the most effective method of ensuring SEO-Optimisation of your new site, is to use a premium content management system, such as iQ Core. With iQ Core, the content is automatically optimised for search engines, ensure the efficiency of your content throughout.
Content – Content – Content
The content on the site should also be informative, well-written and keyword rich. To collate, identify and target a range of broad range of relevant keywords for your products or services, then a blog is an extremely beneficial tool.
A blog offers a great opportunity to publish keyword-rich content – content that search engines thrive upon. However, a blog shouldn’t just be written for the benefit of Google or other leading search engines. It should be written for the reader. Information on your website should always be interesting and informative and hopefully, will prompt readers to revisit for further news and updates.
Depending on the sector within which you do business, then pay-per-click campaigns can be effective for buying traffic to your website. Obviously there is a cost involved but it can be a sound initial investment to drive visits, especially if you are launching an ecommerce website. As your website becomes recognised by search engine optimisation activity, by natural search then you can reduce your pay per click activity. However, all website data should be reviewed, to ensure that you are achieving a return on your spend and the required level of traffic and ultimately enquiries or sales via your website, on a regular basis vs. original targets set.
In the hectic lead up to a new website being launched, the importance of measurement can very easily be overlooked. Before launching a new website or redesigning and restructuring an existing site, you must clearly define what your objectives are, how will the new website be judged to be a success – in terms of traffic, enquiries, newsletter sign ups, or time on the site itself.
5-4-3-2-1 – Blast off!
Once your site is live, there are a number of ways to announce this. There is not a one size fits all approach, as ultimately it depends upon who your audience is and as part of your overall marketing communications strategy. And of course, budgets available to support the launch of your new website.
In simple terminology, in order to herald the launch of your new website, you need to think about the people who you want to tell, your audience and what you want to tell them. By further segmenting your target audience, for example in relation to buying patterns, geographical location, age etc, you will reach the right people, in the right way. You could let your existing customer base know by using a targeted email newsletter, which is branded in the same style as the new site, such as iQ Media’s iQ Mail e.campaign platform. Wherever possible, you need to ensure that there is synergy; recognisable brand elements across all marketing communications activities. This way, you achieve optimum brand awareness, via utilising your existing brand palette. Plus, this type of activity is traceable, so you can see who has received your newsletter and more importantly, who has opened and read it.
Other platforms which can be used are promotional giveaways highlighting the new website url or work with your PR agency, to produce a launch story and rationale behind the new website.
It’s good to link!
Natural back-links or reciprocal links are a good way of promoting your website, within relevant websites. This also has a positive effect on search engine visibility.
Once your website is “up and running”, it is important to continue and build on the initial launch momentum. The range of marketing communication activities undertaken will have formed a sound foundation on which to continue. Good quality search engine friendly content, with continued back-linking will help to maintain and improve upon your rankings and visibility online.
As with all marketing or promotional activities and campaigns, evaluation is key! Post launch, you should continue to refer back to your objectives for the launch of your new website, to identify your performance, achievements or areas where improvement is needed.
By continuously testing new content, refining existing and evaluating the website performance as a whole, you will continue to improve your websites performance, and its ability to achieve bigger and better results.
For more information regarding iQ Core and iQ Mail, please contact iQ Media.
by admin | Sep 5, 2017 | Tips
Is your business using social media effectively?
Here are some thoughts and suggestions we hope you find useful based on some recent campaigns we have undertaken for clients, which has sighnificantly enhanced their use of social media.
- All social media platforms should ideally be professionally branded the same as the website to reinforce the branding and have a consistent, familiar approach.
- Social media channels are an opportunity to engage with and build a following with a wider audience of influencers, as well as key decision makers.
- Use social media to drive traffic to your website
- Build an audience of useful followers who can be targeted directly through social media communications . i.e. announcements of new cranes and their features, prestigious project, business successes etc
- it is worth considering methods to incentivise users to contribute content e.g.. best photo competitions with a prize – in our experience this doesn’t have to be an expensive prize, we have used branded t shirts with a natty / appropriate message, umbrellas and iPad for clients who were feeling particularly generous. Competitions should be promoted by other channels – website news, e marketing and e signatures etc
- It is important to develop a clear plan of how the social media channels are to be used, in terms of what the content is going to be and how will you engage the audiences. Consider carefully what are the desired outcomes, share the responsibility of generating content but provide clear guidelines.
- Encourage and ideally incentivise your followers to generate useful content that you can use and recycle – for example photos and videos of projects entered into a competition – these can be retweeted and recycled , plus used on the main website for case studies etc.
- Make sure you follow your followers back – monitor what they are publishing and tweeting on a regular basis – so that you can like and retweet, link to etc.
- Related to the above point it is important to follow you major customers and suppliers – so that you can recycle and use their content , which help to reinforce your market credibility .
- You need to monitor the different channels on a regular basis – typically this requires 30 mins a day.
- The website will be linking to these, and social media has a big impact on search engine performance now, if you link back to the website.
- In addition to twitter and facebook, it is important to have a good presence on You Tube with video content as this is the second largest search engine after Google and greater weight is placed on video content than image and text on website.
We often say to clients there are now 3 important pillars for good search engine performance – website content , video and social media.
We hope you find these ideas on how to improve your social media performance useful.
IQ Media is an experienced marketing communications agency, which focusses on digital media content and applications to deliver significant and measurable results.
If you would like to find out more and explore how we could assist your business to improve your online marketing please do get in touch.
+44 1625 4188667 or email simonpoyser@iqmediagroup.co.uk
