Producer Nikkhil Advani has revealed a shocking detail at a press meet at Jio MAMI 2017 about marketing people. His statement hinted that Kangana Ranaut’s controversial interview on Aap Ki Adalat was a promotional strategy for Simran.
Kangana’s Simran had a box office clash with Farhan Akhtar’s Lucknow Central. However, the actress grabbed attention due to her interview and AIB video, which overshadowed Lucknow Central.
Though Simran didn’t work at the box office, the interview managed to keep Kangana in the limelight. Lucknow Central’s producer Nikkhil revealed at the event that the marketing people wanted Farhan to create a scandal like Kangana for the movie’s promotion.
« I got a call from a marketing person saying Kangana’s scandal is going on, tell Farhan to create a scandal. This is an actual conversation! ‘Farhan has to have a scandal otherwise our buzz won’t go up’. I said ‘but what scandal?’ and they were like ‘any scandal but we need it, » Nikhil said.
« I don’t understand it at all. How can I approach Farhan and say ‘hey let’s have a scandal, otherwise no one will watch our film, » he added.
Isn’t it shocking? This very well proves that Simran’s team was OK with Kangana’s interview or it was their promotional strategy?
In fact, Kangana didn’t stop at the interview, she went ahead and made a video with the AIB team. In the video, she took a dig at Aditya Pancholi, Hrithik Roshan, Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan.
Since then, Kangana has become the controversial queen and her issue with Hrithik is still the talk of the town.
And the best part is – even after so much drama, Simran flopped and Lucknow Central did a decent job. Audience praised Farhan’s performance and the movie.
Watch Kangana Ranaut’s Bollywood Diva song with AIB:
Netflix on track to hit $11bn in revenue this year
Netflix added more subscribers than expected during Q3 and is now on track to make more than $11bn in revenue this year, according to its latest earning report.
The streaming giant added 5.3 million subscribers during the quarter, a 49% rise year on year, meaning it beat its own target to add 4.4 million.
Netflix now has 109 million subscribers globally, however this means many more viewers in reality given eMarketer estimates roughly 2.5 viewers for each paid subscription.
In a statement, the brand said: “We continued to benefit from a strong appetite for our original series and films, as well as the adoption of internet entertainment across the world.”
Video is the fastest growing digital ad format, with advertisers now spending more on video than banner ads for the first time, according to the latest Digital Adspend report from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK and PwC.
Advertisers spent £699m on video ads during the first half of 2017 – a 46% year-on-year increase. Spend on banner ads, meanwhile, rose by just under 2% to £685m.
The rise means video now accounts for 35% of all display advertising spend.
The IAB’s CEO Jon Mew says: “The time people spend watching online video has grown tremendously over the last few years, so it’s little wonder that video is now the fastest-growing ad format as advertisers look to tap into the changing way people consume content.”
Sports Direct owner to sell Newcastle United
Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley has put Newcastle United up for sale, with hopes to have it off his hands by Christmas.
Ashley has reportedly been open to offers for the Premier League club but has now made his intentions official after instructing St James’ Park to issue a public statement clarifying his intentions.
He is understood to be looking for £380m for the club he bought 10 years ago and has stated he would accept staggered payments but made it clear he wants out rather than a partnership with new investors.
World Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua has joined forces with Lynx to launch a limited edition fragrance and give fans the opportunity to win tickets to his next fight.
As part of the launch, the Unilever-owned brand is running a two-week campaign encouraging people to take part in a mobile game to track down the limited edition product – five of which are hand signed by Joshua and will grant the winner access to his next fight.
To encourage fans to participate Lynx has worked with TMW Unlimited and LandMrk to set up a microsite with geo-locked content. The campaign is also being supported by Joshua on his social channels.
Dilraj Athwal, Lynx brand manager at Unilever UK, says: “Anthony Joshua has long been a fan of Lynx so we thought it would be a brilliant idea to give his fans the opportunity to see him in action with this innovative campaign.”
IBM eyes blockchain opportunity
IBM has launched a blockchain network designed to reduce the time it takes banks to settle cross-border payments, as well as lowering the cost for businesses and consumers.
The technology will allow banks to clear and settle global payment transactions on a single network almost instantly.
“With the guidance of some of the world’s leading financial institutions, IBM is working to explore new ways to make payment networks more efficient and transparent so that banking can happen in real-time, even in the most remote parts of the world,” said senior vice-president of IBM Industry Platforms Bridget van Kralingen.
Blockchain technology presents huge opportunities for brands, from ad delivery verification to the safe and transparent storage of data, so it’s something marketers should be looking to get to grips with.
CoppaFeel! shows first full-frontal boobs on daytime TV
Breast cancer health and education charity CoppaFeel! has been given permission to show full-frontal breasts on daytime TV for the first time ever to encourage women to check themselves regularly for unusual changes.
The #TrustYourTouch campaign, created in partnership with Fold7, looks to highlight the importance of using your touch to ensure early detection of lumps or bumps.
ClearCast cleared the ad for daytime TV and cinemas, but the only condition is that the ad isn’t shown around children’s programming. There are otherwise no timing restrictions on the ad due to the importance of its message. It will run both 60 and 40-second ads.
A spokesman told Marketing Week the ads are booked via pro bono media relationships – ITV’s a confirmed partner – and will go live from today (16 October).
Research by CoppaFeel! found that the vast majority of young women do not check their boobs regularly. The main barrier was uncertainty, with six in 10 saying they lacked the confidence to know how to check. The majority of 18 to 29-year-old women believe there is a specific method to check their breasts, thinking it is much more complicated than it really is.
UberEats on course for reaching $3bn in sales
While Uber might have had a bad year filled with crises, Uber’s sister company UberEats seems to be doing just fine. The food delivery service made up nearly a tenth of the company’s global gross bookings in the second quarter, according to the FT.
This implies the division is on track to exceed $3bn in gross sales this year. The service only launched two years ago as a standalone app.
During the second quarter of this year, UberEats accounted for eight to 10% of global gross bookings, which implies $700m-$870m of gross turnover for the unit. Uber’s total gross bookings were $8.7bn for the period.
By comparison, competitor GrubHub, which is valued at $4.1bn, reported $880m of gross food sales during the second quarter.
Facebook looks to tackle online bullying with digital safety ambassadors
The US social media giant is offering every UK secondary school the chance to train up “digital safety ambassadors” to stop online bullying.
It will look to tackle the problem by partnering with youth charities Childnet International and The Diana Award, and offer every UK secondary school dedicated digital safety ambassadors: young people trained to provide peer-to-peer support and lead online safety initiatives in the classroom.
Tens of thousands of pupils in 4,500 secondary schools could be trained as ‘digital leaders’ or ‘anti-bullying ambassadors’, and will be provided with face-to-face training, dedicated online resources and forums.
New research from Researchbods shows 13 to 17-year-olds are more likely to confide in a peer (72%) than a parent (60%) or teacher (34%) should they experience online bullying.
And with estimates that between 6% and 25% of children have experienced online bullying, Facebook’s commitment will look to scale the charities’ existing work in schools to improve child safety and well-being through peer-to-peer support.
Government launches investigation into Airbnb’s effect on communities
Airbnb has long struggled with local authorities in different markets, and has even been banned or scaled back in cities such as Berlin and Barcelona. The British Government is now also looking to take action.
It is launching a push to understand how peer-to-peer accommodation websites such as Airbnb affect local communities, which could pave the way for regulation of such “sharing economy” websites.
The Open Data Institute) an independent body set up by World Wide Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has been handed a £6m grant to pursue projects that include studying the impact of property-sharing sites.
It opens up the possibility that Airbnb, which has been accused of exacerbating housing shortages and disturbing neighbourhoods, could face new rules designed to limit its impact.
British retailers will be outstripped by their European rivals next year as disposable incomes are squeezed by slowing wage growth and a return of inflation, analysts have warned.
Despite robust retail sales growth this year credit rating agency Moody’s has warned it expects high street bellwethers Next and Marks Spencer to suffer from “anaemic growth or even a contraction of earnings” next year.
In its study of European retailers, seen by The Daily Telegraph, only the UK retail names are listed as losers for next year. Debenhams, House of Fraser, BQ owner Kingfisher, Marks Spencer, New Look and Next are all predicted to have negative earnings.
“The looming prospect of interest rate rises will mean UK consumers continue to search for value and it will also curb any meaningful growth in discretionary spending,” said Moody’s.
The future of video marketing is on Facebook. According to an article at BusinessBacker, “videos uploaded directly to Facebook outperform YouTube and other third-party providers by getting 100% more views and 200% more shares.” It is clear that small businesses looking to get an edge in video marketing can do so with Facebook.
The article itself is an eleven step guide on how to produce, edit, and market videos on Facebook. This information is invaluable to any small business looking to expand their business and brand. By publishing videos on Facebook, small businesses can allow video engagement directly with potential customers in an ever-growing market. It is no surprise that the top 10,000 publishers on Facebook are doubling their video content output.
The eleven step guide offers tips from the best length a video should be to how filming the video in the right angle gains maximum appeal. For example, a study found that “viewer engagement begins to drop off after 2 minutes.” It is best that a video doesn’t last longer than 120 seconds. When filming a video, it is best to film it vertically because “vertical videos show up better on mobile devices.” These are just a couple of tips found in the guide.
It is important that videos be uploaded directly to Facebook rather than Youtube or other third party video streaming websites. Videos that are uploaded to Facebook directly “receive twice as many views and three times the shares of those coming from Youtube or other third parties.” No wonder businesses are flocking to Facebook and putting out their video content there. The article sums up this point perfectly by stating “Between July 2015 and June 2016, the top 10,000 publishers on Facebook more than doubled their video output. They spotted value in video content so follow their lead.”
The internet is constantly growing and with it, demand for video content. Any small business can use these tips to their advantage in expanding their business or just getting their brand out there for people to see. Amazingly, this video streaming service on Facebook is free. So what is stopping you from using it?
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Pivot To Video
LinkedIn is finally selling video ads: native, autoplay and sound-off. Because LinkedIn has a subscription revenue stream, it hasn’t launched ad products as aggressively as other platforms. But video is increasingly seen as a core social feature. And for LinkedIn the move supports its broader “sell” to marketers. “We know that viewers, when they watch video, the message is much more likely received when compared to just text,” says Sudeep Cherian, head of product marketing for LinkedIn’s ads business. “It’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.” More at Recode.
View From The Top
Today’s platform giants – Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon (GAFA) – have consolidated power and growth to an unprecedented degree. “Wintel” (a portmanteau of former duopoly members Windows and Intel) had less than $50 billion in annual sales during its peak in 2001. GAFA cleared $450 billion last year. Microsoft and Intel have grown too – nowadays Wintel annual revenue is more like $150 billion – but there has been a “fundamental change in what it means to be a leading tech company,” according to Andreessen Horowitz partner Benedict Evans. In a blog post, Evans argues this change is good for consumer choice. “If I want a smart speaker, I can choose from two with huge, credible platforms behind them today, and probably four in six months, each making them for different reasons with different philosophies,” Evans writes. “No-one applied that kind of pressure to Microsoft.” Read the blog post here.
Walking The Line
As “branded content” becomes common, publishers are under pressure to stand out. Vox is betting on a new branded content format that mimics its trademark “explainer” style of reporting. A new team, called the Explainer Studio, is an extension of Vox’s 40-person branded content team. The New York Times T Brand Studio, a similar internal team run like a branded content studio, has grown to over 150 employees and is expected to represent more than a fifth of the publisher’s overall digital ad revenue. But writing stories “designed to have the look and feel of a publisher’s editorial content has provoked concerns from industry watchdogs who say that the advertisements blur distinctions between news and advertising.” More at The WSJ.
Marketing Alliance Inc. has moved its creative team to 110 Sullivan St., Suite 112, Punta Gorda.
Specializing in economic development, tourism and real estate marketing, Marketing Alliance’s creative services include comprehensive digital marketing strategies, branding, website development, interactive mapping, 3-D animation, video production and aerial drone video services.
The company had four locations across the South but now plans to centralize the creative team in Florida and operate a business development office in Mississippi, according to John Abbate, Marketing Alliance president.
Marketing Alliance plans to build a new office in the Punta Gorda City Center District.
Marketing Alliance was established in 2001 in Jackson, Mississippi, and has worked with over 200 communities in 18 states.
Integrity Wealth Management Inc., after providing financial services in the Sarasota area for 13 years, has opened a new office in Palmer Ranch, at 6561 Palmer Park Circle, Suite C.
The firm was founded by Sam Cione with the goal of bringing family-oriented financial advice to the Sarasota area.
« We are a passionate team of professionals dedicated to helping our clients live and retire well, » Cione said in a news release. « That strong sense of community and generational planning is still at the center of our core values. »
The firm specializes in conservative investment strategies, tax-efficient plans for distributions, life insurance and annuities. It also has relationships with accountants, attorneys and other specialists to ensure that its clients receive the right advice for their specific situation.
Are you using marketing videos in your social media strategy?
Interested in getting them ranked higher on the most popular video search engine?
In this article, I’ll show you first-hand pieces of advice to grow your reach on YouTube by optimizing your video content, your SEO efforts and your channel.
I’ll start by stating a few facts: videos have become marketer’s no. 1 choicebecause they’re visually compelling, great for wrapping up complex ideas and also easily shareable. Besides, they’re perfect to use to increase audience retentionand conversion rates.
Now, when dealing with video content, I think we all know that YouTube is without a doubt the best place to host your videos. YouTube is the world’s second largest social media siteand search engine (right behind Google, who actually owns it). So I don’t need to tell you why you have to host your videos there.
However, getting to YouTube’s front page (the one that matters) is not easy as pie: you’ll need to carefully optimize your videos and everything around them.
With that goal in mind, let me give you 12 useful tips to increase your YouTube ranking position, using a real case study in this short animated explainer video that now ranks no. 1 under its main industry keywords:
1. Make it short
When I first started working on video marketing I realized that there’s a commonly known golden rule: your marketing videos shouldn’t be over three minutes long.
Why is that? Well, because video engagement is strictly linked to video length. And so is the possibility for your potential customers to watch the whole video and understand what you’re trying to sell to them.
This graph (made by video marketing experts Wistia) gives you a quick glance at this problem:
Video views vs. video length
As you can see, average video views drop drastically after the first 2.5 minutes. The first tip is then to craft a neat cut-to-the-chase marketing video. Otherwise, you won’t get anywhere near the first YouTube pages with a boring lengthy video.
Explainer videos are the best types in the engagement field: they use a short introduction to present the problem during the first few seconds, then they offer a possible solution to that problem and finally introduce the brand and explain why people should choose this product among the competition to solve their problem.
2. Make it highly educational
Let me give you a second golden rule: you won’t stand out with a ‘salesy’ marketing video on YouTube. You need to be educational and help your potential customers solve their problem, because educational and how-to videosare among the best types of videos to be shared in social media.
People are looking for a solution to their problems on the web, so it’s always a great idea to craft a useful educational video about the problem your business is solving instead of a simple promotional video about your product or service. This way, people will be more attracted to your proposal and so will YouTube’s search algorithm.
3. Aim for the highest quality
Your marketing video needs to be a quality one to beat the competition in the race towards YouTube’s front page.
People run away from crappy and poorly-crafted videos, especially if they’re looking to spend their money on that video company, in the form of buying a product or service. That’s a real problem, because YouTube really cares about complete video views in order to rank its video search results.
Bear in mind that most of the time these marketing videos are the first encounter between your potential customers and your brand (they probably haven’t visited your website or Facebook page yet), so you need to look sharp. That’s why you should probably consider a video production company that can help you create a high-quality video and add some top-of-the-line storytelling techniques.
4. Keep your headline relevant
Now for the video production tips; let me take you through some SEO advice.
The headline of your YouTube video has to present your video’s message in only a few words, so be extremely careful. Make sure to include your most relevant keywords in it. You can take our case study as a clear example:
YouTube video headline
Also, you need to keep your headline short: that means no more than 55 characters. Any headline longer than that number will be truncated in any search, especially for mobile searches.
And please be careful to avoid misleading headlines! It might seem like a good idea at first, but it’ll damage your rates eventually. Any headline that tricks the viewer into watching a video results in an inevitable drop-off that negatively impacts your video’s performance in YouTube’s results pages.
5. Write your description accurately
The YouTube video’s description box is the best spot for using your main keywords and climb up to the top search results.
Always be accurate and precise in what you write in your description. Write down the basic information included in your video and, just as with the headline, keep it short (under two or three lines tops).
Don’t forget to include a link to your website and to your other social media sites.
You can also add a transcription of the video script below. This will give you the space to place more relevant keywords to aim for your potential customers.
YouTube video description
6. Add an eye-catching thumbnail
Apart from the headline, the other key element to making your video stand out on any YouTube search is the thumbnail, which also has to be chosen carefully.
Make sure your thumbnail accurately represents the content of your marketing video. As with the headline, if the image displayed on the thumbnail is a blatant click-bait, you’ll see how viewers drop off from the very beginning of your video.
Always use high-res images in your thumbnails (ideally 1280×720px). You already know what happens if videos are perceived as a low quality productions: people just won’t play them.
Also, the foreground must stand out from the background! Don’t choose a thumbnail where the background blends in with the foreground, because you may confuse your potential customers.
Here are four different high-quality thumbnail options from our case study. The current thumbnail on YouTube is the first one:
YouTube video thumbnails
Thumbnails must look good everywhere you see them, both in small and large sizes: mobile phones, TVs, tablets, and desktop computers. Bear in mind that thumbnails are also the preview image shown in the embedded YouTube player.
7. Add a few long-tail keywords
As a marketer, I found out that it’s really hard to fight to get to the top using the most popular keywords of a particular industry on YouTube and Google. The solution? Use long-tail keywords instead.
Long-tail keywords, as their name implies, contain longer phrases including your main keyword. By using long-tail keywords, they can drive specific search terms from potential customers in a more accurate way and, at the same time, help your video to rank under your main keyword too.
In our case study, instead of just using “explainer video” (which is the main keyword of this particular niche), the long-tail keywords “best explainer videos,” “animated explainer videos,” and “explainer video production company.”
Google keyword planner example
Once you find your business’s long-tail keywords (you may use Google Keyword Plannerto do that) apply them in your YouTube titles, descriptions, tags, etc.
8. Don’t forget a clear call-to-action
Ok, new let’s leave SEO tips aside for a bit to focus on the benefits of video marketing.
After your potential customers watch your video, you need them to take an action that leads to actual marketing results, such as downloading an app, subscribing to a newsletter, visiting a landing page, etc.
The thing is, most of them won’t do that unless you ask them to. And that’s why you need to encourage them to perform that action by adding a call-to-action in your video.
YouTube offers three interactive features(each with a different type of call-to-action) to choose from, according to your marketing goal. You have overlays, end screens and cards, which is the feature of choice in our case study:
YouTube video cards feature
9. Use paid promotion (only after checking all of the above)
The folks at YouTube say: “video advertising on YouTube works.” That’s true, but let me add something to that statement: it will work if your video passes the quality, engagement, and SEO controls. Otherwise, they would surely have a mild performance in the search engine results.
Advertising your marketing video is the best way to prove if your video works at a large scale by exposing it to a wider audience.
The great news is that YouTube offers all the goodies for hungry advertisers: they have built-in Analytics to track your videos’ performance, they allow you to customize your target audience, and also to run video A/B tests.
10. Optimize your YouTube channel
Your YouTube channel is a part of your brand’s ecosystem and plays a major role in the search engine rankings.
Tune up your channel profile and description in each one of your videos. Carefully choose your colors, layout, profile pic, and background. Your channel needs to be a consistent extension of your brand, such as your website or your Facebook and Twitter pages.
YouTube video channel
Don’t take your YouTube channel for granted as it’ll definitely help you boost all your video marketing efforts.
11. Encourage your audience to engage
Don’t ever forget that YouTube is, first and foremost, a social network. That means you need to be social to grow your online presence, and consequently your videos’ YouTube position.
Be active with your YouTube videos and also with other people’s videos. Ask people to like and comment on your video and subscribe to your channel. Then, take the time to write genuine replies and moderate those comments.
Help others promote their videos and channels and you’ll see how they, and others, will promote yours.
12. Share it everywhere you can
Finally, don’t hesitate to share your video in other online communities, like Linkedin, Reddit, and Quora. Use your videos in blog posts, guest articles and, when available, on any type of branded content.
Also, it’s pretty effortless and always helpful to add a link to your YouTube channel on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, on your website and in your email signature.
Wrapping Up
Ranking higher in the YouTube search results with your marketing videos can be a daunting task, but applying these 12 tips to your strategy will definitely smooth the way and clear a few things up.
It’s all about crafting a brief quality video, tuning up your YouTube SEO strategy (paying special attention to headlines, thumbnails, descriptions, keywords and branding assets on your channel), adding a few marketing tactics (such as call-to-actions and advertising) and then be social about it.
What do you think? Are you already following some of these tips? Do you have an extra piece of advice for video marketing and YouTube optimization? Let us know in the comments!
A lot of my friends barely read physical books or newspapers.
One of my brothers prefers to watch a documentary video about a topic of his interest than read a book or an article about it. He says he is more of a visual person, and that he can receive all the information he requires about a subject within an hour, as opposed to reading a book about it that could take a few days depending on its length.
There has been a lot of debate about whether print will become obsolete. A survey conducted by Pew Research last year found that half of American adults now own a tablet e-reader. When Kindle launched 10 years ago, the idea was revolutionary. Environment activists and tree lovers applauded it as that would mean more trees would be spared.
My mentor is a fan of the digital device, as he travels a lot and loves to travel light. “But if I like a book or a movie based on a book, I make sure to buy a hard copy to add it to my library,” he says.
With the enhancement of digital devices and platforms, what does that mean for marketing? Will video be the dominant marketing tool? You bet.
YouTube receives more than 1 million unique visitors every month, which is more than any other social media channel. Cisco, a leading American networking solution provider, published a study that predicted that in two years, 80 per cent of internet traffic will be online video, including everything from short social media videos, YouTube videos, and internet-to-TV videos. Just three years ago, that figure was 64 per cent.
That is not surprising. From personal work experience, I have also found from my marketing and branding consultancy that including a video in a social media marketing campaign is one of the best tools to get our message out there.
Many of Instagram’s GCC influencers have also started YouTube channels where they document their lives or discuss a topic of interest.
It does not stop only at influencers; many users have also started travel channels, or enjoy documenting their daily lives and sharing it with the world -as in the case of two of my teenage cousins.
SnapChat is one of the tools that is making the job more simple with its easy to add filters and video upload. The fact that the video will be deleted in 24 hours, one of SnapChat’s perks, has also encouraged many to upload silly videos that they know would not live in the internet forever and nor would they want them to.
But to predict whether video content will make written content obsolete and video become dominant is difficult, as much research online reveals.
Although e-books and videos are increasing in popularity, physical books have become popular again. The hashtag on Instagram – #bookstagram, for instance, – is gaining a growing following, where users share beautiful covers of books.
Penguin has republished classic books with a new artistic look, which have been very trendy mainly due to their own beautifully designed covers and how they have been marketed as collectibles.
Two of my friends are big fans and are always on the lookout for new, special editions by publishing houses, which they can add to their library, and decorate their social media feed with.
Still, as you market your brand, and especially if you are active on social media or if you want to raise awareness about your brand through its many channels, discounting video as a marketing tool is a huge mistake.
Video is not only more instantly engaging, especially for those on the go, it is also easy to share, via Whatsapp for instance, or other messenger tools. In the GCC, Whatsapp messages are mainly delivered in video format. GCC nationals are also very visual, and like concise information especially when it is consumed online.
According to Global Media Insight, the top active social chat apps and messengers in Saudi Arabia, for instance, are Whatsapp, followed by Facebook messenger and Skype. In addition the kingdom has the highest penetration of Twitter users in the world. The per capita consumption of YouTube is also the highest in the world.
Video marketing will not go away anytime soon. The availability of different video sharing platforms has made it easier than ever to share your story.
Manar Al Hinai is an award-winning Emirati writer who manages her branding and marketing consultancy in Abu Dhabi.
New technology, trends and techniques are likely to have an impact on how you do business in 2018. These changes can vary depending on your business or industry. But members of the online small business community have lots of experience updating their online marketing and other operations. Here are some tips to help your small business do the same.
Pay Attention to the Key Drivers of the Coming Digital Transformation
Technology is constantly transforming the methods businesses use to run their everyday operations. So if you want to keep up, you have to pay attention to the factors that drive that change. This post by Blair Evan Ball of Prepare 1 includes a rundown of some of those key drivers.
Don’t Believe These Myths About Video Social Media Marketing
Video has become a huge part of the social media strategy for a lot of businesses. But you can’t believe everything you hear about video social media marketing. In this Marketing Land post, Jordan Kasteler debunks some common myths about using video on social media.
Learn These Trends Regarding the Future of Content and SEO
Content marketing and SEO are two concepts that constantly change due to evolving trends, tools and technology. To learn more about the trends that could impact the future of content and SEO, check out this Content Marketing Institute post by Andy Betts.
Use These Techniques to Grow Your Business in 2018
Looking forward to 2018, you’ll need to grow your business in ways that are going to resonate with modern consumers. This post by Valentine Belonwu on Just Money Web includes some key tips for growing a business in 2018. And BizSugar members share thoughts on the post too.
Steer Clear of These Content Marketing Best Practices
There are some common tips and best practices for content marketers that might actually do more harm to your business than good. To avoid any negative impact from those marketing myths, check out the list and explanations in this post by Neil Patel.
Remember These Three Essentials for New Websites
A website is an essential part of any online marketing strategy. And there are some essential ingredients that go into making an effective website, as Ivan Widjaya of Noobpreneur reviews in this post.
Keep Your Core Values in Mind
As technology and trends change, your methods are likely to change as well. But one thing that shouldn’t change is your business’s core values. This Strella Social Media post by Rachel Strella includes a discussion on seeking clarity regarding those values. And members of the BizSugar community chime in here.
Improve Page Speed for More Traffic and Conversions
No matter what kind of fancy online marketing methods you use, all of your efforts can be derailed if your site loads too slowly. That’s why improving page speed can lead to more traffic and conversions for your small business. Jeremy Knauff elaborates in this Search Engine Journal post.
Follow This Legal Guide for Bloggers
There’s more to blogging than just throwing a few quick posts together. You need to consider legal issues like copyright and fair use images. This Process Street post by Ben Mulholland includes a guide you can use to navigate these legal issues for bloggers.
Use These Business Tools for Entrepreneurs
The tools you use to run your business can make a big difference in how you reach customers. The tools listed in this post by Vartika Kashyap on Onaplatterofgold.com can go a long way for your business. You can also see commentary on the post over on BizSugar.
If you’d like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to: [email protected]
With more than a billion users now on YouTube, according to the company’s statistics page, it has never been more important for trucking companies to up their game on video marketing. “When you have videos on your website, you don’t have to knock on customers’ doors — they click on yours,” said Joe White, owner of CostDown Consulting, a trucking consultancy. “Effectively produced, written and [search engine] optimized, web videos provide 24/7 access to potential new clients.”
Joe Dysart
Kris Rzepkowski, executive director of marketing at Bennett International Group, agreed: “Trucking and logistics are inherently visual, which makes for great video. People just love to watch big jobs with big equipment. So I think there will continue to be opportunities to get lots of viewers.”
David Anderson, vice president of business development at Black Horse Carriers, said: “Video allows us to convey a lot of information in 20 to 30 seconds or less and does very well with mobile audiences, and we work very hard to make sure that our website, application process and marketing initiatives are mobile friendly — since a large percentage of our social media audience and our applications come from mobile users.”
Moreover, given that most video these days is consumed on the web in informal digital hangouts such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, truckers often can get away with releasing a promotional video with low production costs — as long as it packs a powerful emotional punch.
“There are thousands of well-produced, high-dollar videos that only have a few hundred views — we’ve got some of those ourselves,” said Rob Hatchett, vice president of communications and recruiting at Covenant Transportation Group. “But our No. 1 video of all time had basically no editing and cost us nothing to produce except for 30 minutes of filming. Still blows our mind to this day — but we gave the viewer what they wanted to see.”
Other industry executives also cited the unique value of video.
“In terms of testimonial messages from satisfied employees or customers, nothing is as valuable as being able to directly hear a person telling of their experience in their own voice on video,” said Pat Hightower, CEO of The Hightower Agency, a driver recruiting firm.
Greg Koepel, vice president of Roehl Transport, noted: “Our videos work in concert with all other forms of communications and marketing we employ to provide a holistic view of Roehl’s success.”
Fortunately, there has been an onslaught of new video marketing tools cropping up on the market, which can ensure your trucking business stays a step ahead of the competition when it comes to dazzling current and prospective customers with your message.
Here’s a representative sampling of some of the newest and most innovative tools:
• Windows Story Remix: Promised for release late this year, Remix will be one of the first video editing tools driven by artificial intelligence.
With Remix, you can create a video from scratch, or you can tap its AI tools to create a video for you. Essentially, the tool is designed to sense the kind of video you want after you input raw video — still photographs, animations, soundtracks and the like. After you’ve dropped in all your raw media, Story Remix automatically whips up a finished video, which you can use as is or tweak with its editing tools.
Story Remix also has pen and ink support, so you can handwrite a message over your video, or doodle over it. And it offers collaboration tools, which allow a number of users to work on a video together.
Remix is slated to pop up as a Windows app in the Windows store in late 2017. It also will be available on iOS and Android.
• Wochit:This is a video editing tool truckers can use with an interesting spin: Simply feed Wochit an article or other piece of text, and it will automatically roam the web to find licensed photos, videos and graphics that go with that text.
Currently used by a number of global news outlets to quickly generate videos for their articles, Wochit also offers a drag-and-drop canvas you can use to quickly drop in the photos, videos and other graphics it finds, so you can finish a video in record time.
• VideoScribe:Instead of spending hours trying to animate a still image, VideoScribe does all the animating for you. Indeed, any image placed on its canvas is instantly animated. And your video project can be finished with other tools in VideoScribe’s arsenal, including voiceover recording, soundtracks and calls-to-action elements.
• Microsoft Video Indexer:A work in progress, Video Indexer is designed to automatically analyze your video library and make it instantly searchable.
With Video Indexer, you can use a few keywords to find videos in your video library of certain words spoken in a video, images of a certain person or images of two people who have appeared together, for example. The analytics are not perfect yet. And you’ll need an IT person to get it working for you. But this tool — part of Microsoft Cognitive Services — is well worth monitoring.
• GoAnimate:This is a perfect program for trucking marketers looking to tell a story with animated characters. Enabling you to create animated videos with simple drag-and-drop tools, the program can automatically sync narration to go with the animated characters you pick for your video.
GoAnimate also has access to tens of thousands of animatable images that can be used in hundreds of industries and occupations. And it offers you the ability to import your own audio, image and video.
Similar animation products include PowToon, Animaker, Animatron, Moovly, Renderforest, Google Web Designer and Explee.
• StoriesAds.com: If you’re having trouble getting videos up on Instagram, StoriesAds.com can help. It’s specifically designed to make producing videos for distribution on Instagram a snap and is equipped with easy-to-use, drag-and-drop tools.
• Avid Media Composer First:AMC First is the light version of the already existing — and extremely high-powered — Avid Media Composer video editor. It’s a tool regularly used by TV shows and other video producers in Hollywood.
The light version is still plenty powerful, featuring four video tracks you can play with, along with eight audio tracks and a host of built-in visual effects, transitions, color correction presets and titling templates.
Essentially, the light version is designed to enable you to quickly cut together layers of video, dialog, music and sound effects to produce captivating, professional-quality video content.
“I’ve worked with other tools, but Avid’s model is the most efficient by far,” said Stuart Bass, a video editor at “The Office,” “Arrested Development” and other TV shows. “Learning Avid’s industry-standard tools has been essential in making me the successful editor that I am today.”
• YouTube Editor: Regularly updated, YouTube Editor is a basic video editor that enables truckers to automatically upload video clips, put together those clips to create new videos and publish them on YouTube quickly and easily.
You also have the option to make your videos more SEO-friendly by adding annotations and transcripts. And the editor has the ability to combine multiple videos, trim the clips, add music from a library of approved tracks and customize with special tools and effects.
Similar, regularly updated basic video editing products include Corel Video Studio, Adobe Premier Pro, Nutshell, Magisto, Animoto, Videoshop, Renderforest and iMovie.
• Vidyard:Another video creation and editing tool, Vidyard is different from others by emphasizing analytics tools, which can provide deep insight into who’s looking at your videos. Among the tools is an e-mail gate, which you can use to capture viewer e-mail addresses before they can view a video.
• HighTail:A trucking marketing team looking for a quickly assembled online space for collaborating on a video should consider HighTail. It allows you to effortlessly post a raw video, which team members can comment on via text to critique the creation process and move the video along to a finalized production. Essentially, HighTail is great for team-effort videos that need phase-by-phase approvals and creative input from multiple team members.
Joe Dysart is an internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan. Voice: (646) 233-4089. E-mail: joe@joedysart.com. Web: www.joedysart.com.
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