Like any mom on social media, Leeann Dearing and Michelle Fortin’s Facebook inboxes are flooded with messages from well-meaning acquaintances, asking them to try the latest multi-level marketing (MLM) product.

The hilarious moms behind Leeann and Michelle Think They’re Funny came up with a unique way to ask their friends to stop the madness — a catchy parody video called, « If You’re My Friend Then You’ll Buy This. »

« This video is for real, » Fortin told TODAY Parents. « I get solicited quite frequently and repetitively — some people just don’t know when to stop…it was getting out of hand, and that’s how the idea was born. »

The song, a parody of the Coldplay and the Chainsmokers hit, « Something Just Like This, » features Fortin as a pushy salesperson, who pressures Dearing to purchase everything from lip gloss to essential oils, even convincing her to sell the products herself.

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« My friend from years ago just went and sent me this, » Dearing sings in the video. « ‘I’m selling LulaRoe. Girl, you don’t wanna miss.' »

The chorus of the parody calls out direct sales products by name, comically referencing Stella Dot, Origami Owl, and Gold Canyon Candles, to name a few.

Dearing says the parody is not making fun of MLMs as a whole, but rather the annoyance of constant product pitches.

Leeann and Michelle Think They’re Funny

« We’re comedians, so the primary objective is to make people laugh…we believe that comedy is unifying and I love that we can laugh at ourselves together, » said Dearing. « Direct sales are here to stay and that’s not a bad thing…I know lots of women doing it right now, and I’ve purchased products from them actually. Our video was talking about the women who pretend to be friends to make a sale. »

The parody depicts a scene in which Dearing arrives at a coffee date with a potential friend, only to be pressured to sell body wraps. The comedy duo says it’s this part of the direct sales world that they take issue with.

« Motherhood is hard, and it’s really hard to find time for friendship honestly, so when someone you think is a friend is actually trying to sell you something — that hurts, » said Fortin. « Our MLM friends legit love the products they sell and need to make money. We get that, but let’s please be genuine about our intentions with one another up front. »

« There’s this idea that women are all very relational and make friends around every corner, but that’s not always true, » said Dearing. « Some women struggle to make new friends. If you think you’ve found one and then discover they wanted to sell you lip gloss, that can sting a little. »

David Lee, CEO of Shakr elaborates, as vertical video-based social media grows, businesses face a new world of marketing opportunities. However, it can be difficult to develop vertical videos. In three key steps, businesses can begin to easily incorporate vertical video content into marketing efforts

Social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram have boosted video content’s popularity to incredible heights. Because these apps are used on mobile devices, videos designed for social media must adapt to the vertical format. Just as any content shared on these apps must be vertical, video advertising has followed suit. The future of video ads is vertical. Vertical videos are gaining traction because their increased use of screen space creates a more immersive experience, but businesses find themselves without the resources to properly adapt their marketing to this new format.

As video-based social media continues to proliferate, combined with consumers’ increased engagement with vertical video, businesses are facing a new world of advertising and marketing opportunities. However, developing vertical video assets and incorporating them into marketing plans can be a heavy lift for many companies, particularly small-to-medium sized businesses – but it doesn’t have to be. Below are three steps businesses should take to begin incorporating vertical video assets with ease.

Establish your goals

The main appeal of vertical video is the opportunity to reach audiences in a new and engaging way. However, not all audiences are using vertical video platforms. Therefore, businesses must determine if their target audiences are using vertical video before making an investment in it. Once you’ve determined that vertical video is the right fit for their marketing plans, you must then decide what you want vertical video to accomplish.

Vertical video marketing is a powerful tool, but it must be implemented with a plan in mind like any other marketing campaign. Questions like “where do we want users’ clicks to land?” and “how will we re-target after the video is viewed?” can be helpful in developing an informed campaign and creating more targeted videos for the right platforms.

Plan your content

Once you have established goals, the video content must be compelling enough to execute them. Although the brand is top of mind when creating a video, the most effective videos put the viewer first. Videos should be brief and tell a story. Viewers are much more likely to watch a video in its entirety if it is 90 seconds or under. That goes by quickly, but it is all the time you need to tell a compelling story that sticks with audiences long after they’ve watched it.

To complement a strong narrative, choose compelling visuals that will keep viewers interested. Images are the backbone of videos, but they should be chosen carefully with the vertical orientation in mind. The classic wide frame shots won’t convert the same to vertical videos. Instead, the video should mainly be comprised of tighter shots with only one subject in focus that fit better on vertical mobile screens.

Develop your videos

Videos can be a large commitment of time and resources, so you should carefully consider how you can create the highest quality content at the lowest cost. When it’s time to create the content for videos, take photos, shoot videos, and create graphics in abundance so that they’re readily available for future videos and the business can avoid paying more for new shoots each time a video must be made. Previously, the typical approach was to produce only one video, leaving b-roll and cut footage unused. However, in a video-first world, this footage provides a great resource to keep content fresh and address growing ad fatigue and narrower target audiences.

Working with freelancers can be one way to create your videos on a tighter budget, but there are specific tools that you can leverage in the process as well – some may even be on your computer already like iMovie or Adobe Premiere Clip. In addition, my company, Shakr, allows businesses to easily create vertical videos with templates and built-in features. Technology has democratized the video creation process, and businesses of all sizes should leverage the many options now available for creating vertical videos on a budget.

Vertical video advertising on social media is a huge opportunity for companies to engage directly with their target audiences. The decision to prepare for vertical video creates a worthwhile, long-term vision for the business’ marketing efforts. Doing so will allow the business to keep up with technology as it continues to evolve. With careful planning, vertical video can be your business’ secret to engaged audiences, higher conversion rates, and more successful marketing campaigns.

Real estate video marketing is possibly the most effective marketing method available to agents; it’s definitely one of the cheapest.

Katharine Loucaidou

Marketing-savvy agents are able to generate tons of new business with videos while spending next to nothing on advertising.

Recent guest Katharine Loucaidou has done it, and you can too.

During her interview with Pat Hiban, Loucaidou shared exactly how she creates, edits and markets her videos.

Read about three of the ways Loucaidou uses video to generate and convert leads in this post. You can hear all the details on her methods, including how she boosts her videos on Facebook, by listening to the podcast below.

Monthly market snapshots to capture local leads
The first way Loucaidou started marketing her real estate business with video was by creating monthly market snapshots.

After uploading her market snapshot vi…

According to surveys, 43% of people want to have more video content. In fact, videos are the most powerful marketing tool at the moment. 4 out of every 5 consumers think that product/service demo videos are helpful. Most people (exactly 4 times more than the other) prefer to watch product videos to reading product descriptions. The list could go on, but all it boils down to is that video marketing rocks today and Social Media Daily embraces this.

Social Media Daily is a marketing company with many years of experience in helping businesses progress. They are always looking for new ways to boost their customers’ online presence. From now on, they can do this using an efficient video marketing service. It has a particular focus on YouTube, the leading online video platform.

Why Launch a Video Marketing Campaign on YouTube?

The obvious answer to this question is that YouTube has over a billion users. On average, 8 out of 10 people aged between 18 and 49 watch videos on this platform at least a few times a month. YouTube videos are actually beating prime-time television today and many people go as far as to watch them via their TV sets. Should the trend continue, there is a chance that cable networks will become obsolete sometime in the next decade.

One thing is for sure today, establishing a business’s presence on this platform is an essential marketing step. In fact, over 70% of businesses with more than 100 employees already have their own YouTube channels. Smaller companies still lag behind, but companies like Social Media Daily help change this situation.

Video marketing is both complex and simple. On one hand, a business must invest some resources to make high-quality presentation videos. However, the so-called ‘live’ unprofessional videos are also very popular today. There is also a great number of tools that help even non-professionals make pretty decent short clips.

What this means for a small business is that they can use the power of video marketing even with a limited budget. They will only need to invest into professional product/service presentations. In the meantime, the company can keep their channel ‘alive’ by posting short vlogs. This approach will also help them connect with their audience.

The new video marketing service from Social Media Daily is focused on boosting the efficiency of videos for business promotion. The company utilizes a variety of tools to provide their clients’ clips with the recognition they deserve. Social Media Daily has also recently started offering their service packages in a variety of languages.

Visit https://www.socialmediadaily.com for more details.

Media Contact
Company Name: Social Media Daily GmbH
Contact Person: Mr. Constantin Oesterling
Email: contact@socialmediadaily.com
Phone: +49 30 39 406 4112
Address:Brunnenstr. 181
City: 10119 Berlin
Country: Germany
Website: www.socialmediadaily.com

The advent of technology and the Internet have positively changed the world and businesses that are operating in it today. Geographical barriers have opened up and even small brands can now compete with larger names. Every business has a niche and when you are trying to attract the targeted audience of that niche, it is crucial for you to hand over the responsibility to specialists. Many dental businesses are now turning to video marketing as a part of their SEO strategy for generating better traffic and returns on investment.

Several business websites are showcasing their services and products through the power of audio-visual means. Videos are an effective means to connect with the audience and strike an emotional chord with them. Your targeted audience are able to retain the information you present to them. Video marketing helps you to rank a video webpage top on the search engine results. When this video page is seen in the search results, it will display a small thumbnail.

When businesses resort to video marketing they catch the attention of the targeted audience faster. Video marketing today has taken over traditional SEO as the thumbnail for the video catches the attention of the audience to make them click on the URL and get introduced to the business. Video marketing helps to counter the fierce competition that online businesses face today say SEO experts.

Boost Your Conversions Sales

If you really wish to make a positive impact on your business, you can effectively boost the sales and conversion of your dental business with the aid of video marketing. Customers both present and future get a first hand picture of the services and products you provide. Dental SEO experts state that you can also increase your sales if you have videos for your business. Notable dental SEO expert Sand Crest says that you should make short and crisp videos for your business. The message should be conveyed to the targeted audience within 2-3 minutes.

Create A Direct Impact On The Audience

Visuals can boost customer engagement and do wonders for your business as moving images are able to create a positive impact on customers who are searching for credible dental services. You can give them an accurate glimpse into your business in just a few minutes so that they contact you for further business. Online dental websites who are using the power of video marketing have effectively been able to progress better over their counterparts that are still using traditional SEO techniques.

Therefore, if you are really looking for success for your online dental business, it is time for you to turn towards the power of video marketing. You can get special SEO experts to help you make high resolution videos for your business. With them you are able to connect with the targeted audience and strike a direct chord with them. Moreover, when it comes to lead conversions and sales, you can increase them multi-fold with this simple yet powerful SEO strategy.

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Compliance is a growing concern for marketers but risks can be minimised with good marketing operations, according to Jon Williams, senior vice president international, Aprimo.

“Most marketers work under some form of compliance, and really what we try and do with good marketing operations is to make that as easy and as simple and straightforward as possible,” he told Which-50 in an interview.

Once only a major concern for certain industries like finance and pharmaceutics, the compliance issue is now on most marketing leaders’ horizons, Williams said. Marketing operations can help both marketers and regulators with improved transparency, according to Williams.

“You’re looking to make the marketer’s job easier in that respect so that compliance isn’t something that they’re concerned about, that takes up headspace and they have to think about, but it’s just something that’s a natural part of what they do as efficiently and easily as possible,” Williams explained.

A good marketing operations platform gives regulators improved transparency, which is important when marketers are pushing the boundary, Williams said.

“It gives the regulators confidence to say, yeah this is new ground and it’s acceptable ground. And it’s new value for that business as well.”

About the author

Sean Campbell is a solutions consultant for Aprimo. He has worked with leading brands in the US, Europe, and APAC, helping them to transform their marketing operations. Andrew Birmingham is the director of the Which-50 Digital Intelligence Unit, of which Aprimo is a Corporate Member. Our members provide their insights and expertise for the benefit of the Which-50 community. Membership fees apply.