Name: Smart Cow Marketing
Price range: $$$

Why include subtitles & captions in video

08/19/202209/21/2021 by scmarketing

You may be forgiven for thinking that with video content if you record someone speaking to the camera then the jobs done. Let’s face it, as a digital marketing agency, we constantly go on about the benefits of imagery especially video as part of your marketing strategy and how it helps improve engagement on your website and reach on social media. In fact, 87% of marketers say that video has increased website traffic.

So, surely recording yourself talking to the camera or interviewing someone is enough as we can all listen to what’s being said? Well…sort of.

This is where you have to think of your target audience.

For starters how do they like to receive their information. Will people be viewing videos on their mobile? In which case, they are likely to be out and about and therefore the sound may be off as they commute to work or sit in a coffee shop. And, you should cater for everyone so those that are hard of hearing can also enjoy the content you are producing.

Boost your rankings in search

We recently wrote a blog about whether video can help with SEO – and this is another key reason that you should be considering subtitles and captions.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is about helping to improve your website ranking in search engine results pages. We recommend writing scripts before you record so that you can incorporate your keywords which are important for SEO. Even the name of the video file is useful for SEO so think about this when you upload to the video channels as it should contain keywords.

We also recommend having accounts on channels such as Vidyard, Vimeo and YouTube. This all helps with your rankings in search.

On YouTube you can add an SRT file to enable you to add subtitles and closed captions rather than burn them onto the video file.

Digital marketing agency

We are a Croydon based digital marketing agency offering SEO services including video creation, blog content writing, keyword research, local SEO, Google Ad campaigns to help improve your online presence and visibility online as your SEO experts.

Complete our business growth scorecard for personalised results

08/19/202209/15/2021 by scmarketing

Are you looking to grow your business? We know that the top priority for marketing is generating leads using activity such as ads and audience targeting as one of the top ways to drive demand, but before you get to this stage of implementing or refreshing your marketing plan, perhaps it is time to review your future goals and get a plan in place that will attract your target audience.

Being focused with the tactics you use and being targeted to the audience you want to reach is key to business growth.

Attracting and retaining business

Attracting leads and retaining clients is imperative to your business growth plan. So, how do you obtain leads in the first instance?

Essentially there are 4 stages to win new clients. In a nutshell, here’s the path to gaining leads and ongoing client retention:

Attract people who are unaware of your business but have the attributes you suspect will be interested in your product or services.
Engage with these leads to see if they are a good prospect that you can help and do business with.
Convert these leads to clients.
Deliver a good service on an ongoing basis by providing regular insights that will help your clients. Not only is this about sharing regular emails, social media or blogs, it’s also about regular calls to impart knowledge and help your client overcome any business challenges.

Gaining a clearer understanding of where your business is right now in terms of lead generation will help you to create a tailored marketing plan that’s right for your business.

Complete our Business Growth Scorecard for your personalised results.

Book a free consultation

Once you’ve taken a moment to review the results of the scorecard you may be keen to understand how inbound marketing can help to grow your business. Get in touch as we can provide feedback and we can advise on the types of digital marketing tactics suited to your goals and business.

Our Free consultation should be between 15 and 30 minutes. The goal is to provide you with thoughts on how to start an effective marketing campaign and for us both to see if it would benefit your firm. No obligation at all, we just want the best for you.

Lead generation tips

08/19/202205/10/2021 by scmarketing

Your website should be the main focus of all your digital marketing strategies. Everything you do online should lead back to your website and to the services or products you offer.

This not only improves your ranking in search engine results pages, it also supports your lead generation strategy. This is vital to consider when looking to grow your business and in gaining high quality leads.

What works for your business may be different to another, but we have rounded together a few tips to help your lead generation campaign.

Website landing pages

Firstly, a word about your website design. Whilst wanting to encourage website visitors, the aim is to keep them on your website as long as possible. So, make sure that your landing page is relevant to the links that people will be clicking on. So whether you distribute email marketing or social media posts, your landing page needs to be relevant to the offer that has interested the website visitor in the first place which is an effective way of capturing leads.

A good landing page will include a clear headline and brief description of the offer (see our blog on creating compelling offers for more on this topic). You should have a relevant image and perhaps a bullet point summary.

What’s vital though is the inclusion of a form for your website visitor to complete. This will capture the information to convert your web visitors into leads.

Your content on the landing page should be consistent to the details of the call-to-action that people clicked on in the first place. Ideally your headlines should be the same.

Get your social on!

Utilise social media as much as you can but also be cautious as not all channels may be relevant to your business and target audience.

Create snappy engaging content with links back to your website. This helps with search engine optimisation (SEO) as the link is from a reputable source, as well as generating leads.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Just utilise snippets of content from your latest blog for a social media post with URL links to ‘Find out More’.

Gather quality data

Just because a website visitor does not choose your services or buy your products straight away, does not meant they never will. The fact they are on your website in the first place means thy are interested and so are a warm lead for future offers or insightful information.

So, set up a pop-up box on your website to ‘sign-up’ to the latest news. This means you can obtain their email address and be able to send future email marketing news and offers.

Keep testing

Keep tabs of what works and what does not. There is no point putting time and effort into something which does not reap rewards.

Check out more of our resources below which cover social media, email campaigns, and lead generation in more detail!

Digital Marketing Croydon

As a digital marketing agency, we specialise in helping Croydon business owners with a range of solutions to help improve online presence and generate leads.

Whether it’s website development, SEO services including content marketing, organic social media management, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, such as Google ads or email marketing, talk to us about your business needs and we’ll create a focussed online marketing campaign for you.

Resources for lead generation

Key to success – focus on one thing

08/05/2020 by scmarketing

In a recent interview with the BBC the co-founder of LinkedIn gives insight into the secret to success for start-ups – “focus on one thing”.

Allen Blue said: “Focus your team. Your team can be tremendously creative and innovative, but only if you define the problem they’re trying to solve as narrowly as possible.”

This is invaluable advice for companies wanting to grow their business. It’s important to harness the expertise of the whole team when brainstorming. By constantly looking at ways to solve a problem you will bank other ideas that will help your firm in the long run. So, be open to suggestions but all the time remember that keeping focus on what you are trying to achieve will help you reach a solution faster and improve efficiency.

Solving problems is also about growing your network, which is what LinkedIn is all about and why it came about. This business social media platform is a great way to debate, share and solve solutions. Whether that’s to engage with people you meet at networking events or through the myriad of groups available on LinkedIn. Or perhaps you want to use it to share your tips and advice as part of your marketing strategy to improve your SEO, LinkedIn increases your network and therefore your expertise as you have a knowledge base at your fingertips.

Social media for your business

If you haven’t already explored LinkedIn for your business, perhaps now is the time.

There’s over 700 million LinkedIn members so it’s a significant social platform to tap into and a great way to continue conversation with a new business lead by asking if you can connect on LinkedIn.

But when you are on this social platform and you’re completing your profile or sharing posts, just remember Allen’s advice to focus on one thing. This is a great reminder to target your marketing communication to your audience for successful brand awareness of your products and services.

Watch the full interview with Allen Blue on the BBC.

Digital marketing mix

We’re a digital marketing agency based in London and Croydon. If you need support for your online marketing plan, encompassing your social media strategy, then book a free consultation with us.

The aim is for your business to become a lead generation magnet which is why we recommend a mix and match approach to digital marketing. Following a review of your current marketing activity we’ll look at ways to improve SEO to help you rise in search engine rankings, work on your content marketing for your website and social media as well as implement any paid search as and when deemed necessary.