Key components of successful marketing videos

When it comes to marketing, staying current on the latest trends has a vital impact on successful lead generation.

Whether it involves a new social media app, a trending topic or an online marketing campaign, a business grows when it stays up-to-date.

Video marketing continues to grow exponentially for online in particular. There are more video posts online now than ever before, and video shares are only expected to increase. If your business wants to stay current on the latest marketing trends, put video to good use.

Interested in getting started? Check out these five key components of how to make a strategic video script which will set your marketing campaign apart and boost lead generation.

1. Get ‘Em Hooked

Like most aspects of marketing, the initial hook of a video script should catch viewers’ attention and draw them in. Let the audience know you are talking to them specifically by addressing them directly. Identify the target audience and brainstorm how you would want to be addressed from their perspective. By giving your video script a strong, attention-grabbing intro, it will draw viewers and set the tone for the rest of a successful marketing video.

2. Connect Emotionally

After hooking the viewer’s attention, establish a personal connection with them. An emotional connection makes viewers feel your company cares for them and the community, thus encouraging them to take immediate action after viewing. As human beings, strong feelings impact our decisions, logic and mindsets; your business can take advantage by connecting with consumers on a deep personal level.

3. Tell a Story

Once you’ve grabbed the viewer’s interest and connected with them, get down to the point. Every successful video marketing campaign should tell a story—the company’s story, the service’s story and benefits or a customer’s story. Use the time to expand and go in-depth on the narrative’s focal points. The goal should be to gain the viewer’s trust and empathy, but take time to give details surrounding the story and lead viewers into the next big point.

4. Share Your Values

When you’ve established a story basis, the time has come to drop a value bomb for viewers. This is the most important part of a marketing video and should be restrained to one short, concise sentence. Until this point, the entire video should be leading up to this moment. The value statement is the main takeaway viewers should get. Keep it values-driven, short and powerful to gain viewers’ attention and make them remember your product or service.

5. Reel ‘Em In

After your business has established its value statement, wrap up with an influential outro. The goal of a video close involves viewers doing something after watching—a call to action.

Depending upon the video’s focus, the call to action could be centered on buying a specific product, trying a service or just stopping in to take a look. Be sure to include information for a website, social media or any upcoming events.

Video marketing is a current and useful option to take advantage of for your business.

A strong video script consists of five key components, each one with a specific purpose, working together to produce a video and generate successful leads.

By utilizing these component strategies, your company can create engaging, successful marketing videos, which will help promote your product or service.

Try it out and see how your business grows.

Guerrilla marketing is not dead

Like guerrilla warfare, guerrilla marketing offers low-cost tactics that include an element of surprise. Your business meets potential customers where they stand, while generating leads and saving you money.

So how can your business take advantage of the guerrilla marketing phenomenon? Here’s six ideas to get you started.

1. Personal Invitation

Can you remember the last time you received a personalized letter in the mail? They’re rare, which means they’re a valuable guerrilla marketing tactic.

Try writing letters to current and potential clients, telling them about your small business. Don’t let it be cookie-cutter, though. If you can, include a little message in each letter specific to the customer.

2. Testimonials

A solid testimonial will drive respondents to your store front. Utilize people involved with your business—managers, employees and clients. Ask what they love about the business and how it has benefited their lives. Unconventional testimonials which highlight the importance of your products or services will demonstrate business capabilities.

3. Social Media

There’s no question social media exists everywhere nowadays, and with a strong guerrilla marketing focus, so can your business. Utilize platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to post interactive content with followers. Set up a content plan to educate users on your services and engage with followers by encouraging “likes” and “shares”.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is simple to do and cost-effective. Keep emails brief and impactful with up-to-date info on products and services. Include links to videos and interactive media for a user-friendly experience. Be sure the subject line compels the reader to open and always end on a call to action which will grab your viewer’s attention and link to your website.

5. Video Production

Videos marketing doesn’t have to be expensive and time-consuming. In fact, with the social media craze, many users feel more connected to businesses which don’t follow the conventional, unrealistic road of video production. Create your own video to post on social media, share on your website or send out via email.

6. Creative Ads

When all else fails, try guerrilla marketing for your business through creative advertisements. Guerrilla ads spring up in unsuspecting places and draw attention.

They can be inexpensive to produce, but still draw a following. Come up with ideas for ads which can promote your business in the community and generate leads.

Guerrilla marketing offers a cost-effective way for your business to increase its exposure and raise earnings. By making an effort towards a proactive marketing strategy, your small business will generate customer leads and increase revenue.

Eight Tips for Designing Your Small Business Logo

An eye-catching logo gives your business an image and appeals to the target audience.

It shows a visual representation of everything an organization stands for, enhancing potential customers’ first impressions, building loyalty among consumers and demonstrating a professional standard. Think of your logo as an ambassador to potential supporters.

And while logos exist literally everywhere in today’s society (think golden arches, black swoosh or silver apple), they’re not necessarily easy to develop. Start the process by checking out these top 8 tips about designing your small business logo.

1. Hire a professional.

Professional designers have the experience and expertise to design an effective logo. While not hiring a designer may seem like a sound fiscal idea initially, it results in more time loss and headaches for you eventually. Graphic designers in your field have the expert skills to take your business’s vision and make it a reality, while saving you the hassle.

2. Stand out from the crowd.

A lot of logos exist out there, so look at other logos in your field and develop a strategy to make yours stand out from the crowd. When your brand has a fresh and unique design, viewers will be more attracted to it and more likely to get involved with your cause. Conduct research and work with your designer to create a logo which fits your needs while still unique.

3. Focus on your vision.

When developing ideas for your nonprofit’s logo, focus on a specific vision. Consider focal points like what you do, what products or services you provide, what customers like about your group and what you want future consumers to think. If your business works in a variety of different areas, choose a focus topic and target the logo towards it.

4. Develop a tagline.

A tagline incorporates into the logo and sums up your services in 3-7 words. While not necessary, it adds an extra dose of intrigue and interest to a logo design. If your business has a significant phrase which fits in well with your logo as a tagline, work through it with your designer and use it to your advantage.

5. Consider your options.

Once you have an idea to focus on for your logo, consider your options. There are three main types of logos: font-based, icon or symbol logos and a combination logo. No matter which type of logo design your business chooses to utilize, be sure it represents your vision and products or services well.

6. Keep it simple.

When coming up with design ideas for your logo, remember: the simpler, the better. Excessively complex logos can overwhelm viewers and have a negative effect. Choose easy-to-read fonts, crisp colors and a clear design. A creative yet simple logo demonstrates your business credibility, while catching viewers’ eyes and generating more leads.

7. Choose your colors.

Your logo’s color scheme has importance. Color production costs can be excessive and too many colors overwhelm viewers, so keep the colors in your logo to a maximum of three-four. Subconsciously, different colors affect our brains in different ways. Choose colors which represent your organization, but consider different emotions colors can evoke.

8. Remember adaptability.

Adaptability is key in reaching out to a variety of different audiences. Your business logo should adapt to all sorts of different mediums—online, in print or on merchandise. It needs to look crisp and clean whether printed on a business card or plastered on the side of a truck. This means the logo can be scaled and easy to produce, so keep this in mind while working with a designer.

The logo your business chooses takes the first step in marketing your brand and growing your company. A well-crafted logo makes your business or organization stand out from the crowd.

So try it out and see everything a creative logo can do for your marketing.

Click on the the image to download our PDF with pricing for holiday bags.

How Your Business Can Utilize Pokémon Go

If you’ve recently seen people out wandering the streets with their faces in their phones, then you may have heard of the latest digital craze sweeping the nation: Pokémon Go. Developed by Niantic, Pokémon Go is the newest member of the Pokémon franchise.

Working in conjunction with a phone’s camera and Google Maps, the mobile app uses augmented reality to transform the player’s world into a real-life Pokémon universe. Since its release, Pokémon Go has been the most downloaded app in U.S. history.

With more than 60 precent of its players using the app daily, it has surpassed social media giant Twitter in user engagement.

Needless to say, businesses and organizations are jumping on the opportunity to ride the mobile app into marketing heaven. So how can your small business get in on the action? Check out these tips on how to utilize Pokémon Go so your business can catch ‘em all!

Use Pokélocations.

If your small business has a physical location, then it’s likely there is a PokéStop or PokéGym nearby in the game—an incredibly useful tool to take advantage of when marketing to Pokémon Go users. Pokélocations are physical buildings or areas such as museums, parks and historical markers that users can go to and fill up on supplies or meet other players.

Find the PokéStop or PokéGym nearest to your location, then share it with your social media followers. This offers an incentive to lure players to the area for more foot traffic, introducing your product/service and possible lead generation. And while still not possible to create your own Pokélocation, Niantic says it’s in the works, so keep watch for new game developments.

Offer social media challenges.

Your small business can take advantage of Pokémon Go by offering prizes to customers who get involved in social media challenges. Post a picture on social media of Pokémon at the location and ask consumers to do the same.

Set a specific end time for the challenge, then pick a winner from those who submitted pictures using a hashtag created by your business.

The business will grow its social media presence while marketing its products/services, engaging with customers and increasing potential lead generation.

Drop a lure.

For businesses that want to really drive Pokémon Go traffic, consider dropping a lure on the game. You can bring in cheap foot traffic by purchasing through the game either with PokéCoins or with real-world money. Lures attract Pokémon to the location (the geolocation of your smartphone) for 30 minutes, in turn attracting users to find the Pokémon.

Choose a specific time to market the lure, then spread it across all social media platforms. For example, “Hey Pokémon Go players! We’ve got Pokémon all over the place! We’ll be dropping a lure tonight at 7:00 at our Pokéstop. Stop in & catch ‘em all!”

Talk about Pokémon Go.

If your business doesn’t have a physical location to drive traffic to, it can still be involved! The most important rule of marketing is stay current, and Pokémon Go is current. So take advantage and talk about it.

Encourage players to share their pictures with your business on social media, coax users to come to events with Poké-incentives and get involved with the action.

Talk about Pokémon Go on social networking platforms like Facebook or Twitter, but try taking advantage of other outlets as well, such as Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest.

Pokémon Go offers a new and exciting opportunity for your small business to capitalize on. With an incredibly diverse user base, marketing options are limitless.

Leverage Pokémon Go for your business and you can be the very best, like no one ever was. Gotta catch ‘em all!

-- Minuteman Press 

Back-to-School marketing 101

The month of August is upon us, which means it’s time to start packing up the swimsuits and breaking out the backpacks.

Soon enough kids will be heading to the storefronts to buy all new pencils, markers and notebooks for school.

Back-to-school shopping is an eventful time of the year, full of consumers looking for products that fit their needs. So how can your business use this time to market itself? Simple.

Check out these easy tips to take advantage of for your back-to-school marketing 101.

Utilize social media

Social media is a simple and free way to market your small business during the back-to-school season. Kids have an enormous amount of influence on purchase decisions, and social media is an effective tool to reach both them and their parents for back-to-school shopping.

Demonstrate what product or service you have that could benefit their experience heading back to school this month. Get creative and make it fun to stick in both kids’ and parents’ memories.

Host a back-to-school sale

One classic marketing technique is hosting a back-to-school sale. Get students and parents excited for the new school year by offering timely discounts and promotions.

Examples of this could include offering a mystery special to customers, a free item to the first number of customers in the door or giving discounts for customer referrals.

Take time to promote your business and its products or services while fitting seamlessly into back-to-school season.

Offer contests and sweepstakes

If your company is able, try offering back-to-school contests or sweepstakes to gain potential consumers’ attention. Sweepstakes have the broadest reach of any promotion type. Their easy admission ability results in lots of entries for your business and encourages social sharing.

You’re able to gain marketability and promotion, while customers have the potential to win a new and exciting prize for their back-to-school shopping.

Get involved in the community

Show your school spirit by using local schools to market your business. Offer sales on items connected with community high schools or colleges, promote local schools in advertisements or use them in online marketing campaigns.

You can even offer a referral campaign for students to gain discounts and save money if they refer a friend. Remember that back-to-school isn’t just for elementary school students, and broaden your marketing campaign to all ages.

This August, your business can take advantage of back-to-school season by creating a strategic marketing campaign.

By utilizing these back-to-school marketing 101 tips, your business will grow its sales and gain relevance for the upcoming school year. So go ahead, get to studying!