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5 tips for creating video for your business

08/18/202202/02/2022 by scmarketing

A great video isn’t just the result of luck, they’re made by taking a strategic approach to your audience and what you want to get out of it.

Every business is different and there’s no one size fits all for what works best in terms of content or style. So, we’ve decided to share some tips for producing high-quality videos that people will want to watch.

Tip 1: Tell a story

People like stories, so why not structure your video content around an engaging story? Think about what you are trying to achieve through your video – are you simply looking to keep viewers informed about an upcoming event or new product. Or would you rather have a more thought leadership video that helps you build your brand ‘personality’?

Tip 2: Keep it short and sweet

Although people will always have time to watch longer videos, you need to get them interested in the first place. Sometimes less is more.

A great way to create plenty of content is to conduct a Q&A style interview with 5-10 questions. Then you can break down each answer so that you have bite size snippets of content. You can still host your full interview on your website but perhaps use the shorter videos on social media to then push traffic back to your website for the full-length version.

Tip 3: Get personal

Show the human side of your business. So, become the face of your videos to add some personality. It is a great way to connect with people that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach out to.

Tip 4: Storytelling through images

A photo slideshow is a great way of telling a story, giving viewers context with engaging visuals that can help them understand what is being said without having to sit through lengthy voiceovers or explanations. It can also help to break up a video into different segments, allowing your audience to select which parts they want to watch.

Tip 5: Keep it interesting

Make sure you mix up the tone of your content and add some humour or fun elements where appropriate. This will help engagement and keep people watching your video through to the end.

Video as part of your digital marketing

For years now we’ve talked about the importance of video and integrating it into your marketing strategy. It creates stand out on your social media channels and engages with people who visit your website. People want an easy way to absorb information so video with captions is ideal.

If you need a hand with video content, we can help you factor these into your overall marketing plan from ideas and script creation through to video production and editing.

Tips for image and video creation

08/19/202212/02/2021 by scmarketing

Having a consistent look and feel for images or video you produce provides the perfect solution for a digital marketing campaign. You can repurpose imagery across channels from website through to social media channels and email marketing campaigns. It helps to build your brand identity and therefore awareness and importantly trust.

With 62% of B2B marketers rating video as an effective content marketing tactic, here’s some top tips for optimising your images for your website and social media.

Website design

Imagery helps create an engaging website. Images can break up the text on a page maintaining interest and importantly helping to keep a visitor on your website for longer.

Social media

Maintain consistency with your website and create a header image to be used across all social channels, this is certainly relevant for Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. However, resize them for the respective channel. Here’s a summary of image sizes for the popular social channels:

Facebook
- Profile picture – 180 x 180 pixels
- Cover photo image – 820 x 312 pixels
- Social post image – 1,200 x 630 pixels
Twitter
- Profile picture – 400 x 400 pixels
- Header image – 1,500 x 500 pixels
- Social post image – 440 x 220 pixels
LinkedIn
- Company logo – 300 x 300 pixels
- Cover image – 1536 x 768 pixels
- Shared image – 1104 x 736 pixels
Instagram
- Profile picture – 110×110 pixels
- Photos – 1,080 x 1,080 pixels

Best to use all in either jpeg or PNG file format.

Video

Smart phone technology allows you to create short and snappy videos that are ideal for sharing on social and placing on your website.

We find that doing face to camera at events is a nice informal way to chat to your audience. Keep it simple, it’s what you’re saying that’s important. If you attend a regular networking event and feel your audience would benefit from joining themselves, then tell them why they should attend. Give stats on the number of people who attend, how many businesses are signed up to the group and give an overview of what to expect from the event. All this done in a short face to camera video that can be easily uploaded to social media.

If you create a YouTube channel you can add all your videos here and use it to share links.

Content to post

If you have blogs create short videos focussing on key elements as part of your script to help bring these to life on your web page and social media channel.

You could also create unique images utilising quotes from a case study to help create stand out on social media which can help encourage people to click the link and read the full story.

Ultimately the goal is to attract people to your website and images help create standout.

Be aware of copyright

Do not use images from Google for any marketing campaign. Images come with copyright and you will not have permission to use them if you take them from anywhere online. Either take pictures or video yourself. Or, use a reputable stock library to source these from such as Adobe, Shutterstock or Envato.

Digital marketing strategy

If you need a hand with imagery and video content, we can help you factor these into your overall marketing strategy from ideas and script creation through to video production and editing.

The importance of video content

08/19/202211/10/2021 by scmarketing

Video content can provide a great deal of value in your overall business strategy and it’s worth considering how best to incorporate it into your wider marketing plan.

For businesses, it makes sense to take advantage of this trend and create videos for your customers or clients. If you, don’t have much experience with digital marketing, no worries! This post has some tips on how to get started with creating video content and some helpful pointers on making videos work for you.

Why video content is important

With almost nine out of ten people wanting to see more videos from brands, this makes for a strong case for utilising video in your marketing strategy in the year ahead.

Video content should be treated just like any written blog, Google ad or social media post. It’s a key part of your overall digital marketing strategy and should provide information of relevance to your target audience, position you as a thought leader and help to generate leads to your website.

With so much noise online, video helps to create stand out from your competitors. It’s a well-known fact that having imagery on your social media feed or website can help engagement.

Explainer videos have been extremely popular, with the majority of people (94%) watching explainer videos to learn more about products, with 84% swayed to make a purchase.

These stats highlight a huge benefit to utilising video in your marketing plan.

Types of videos you can make for your blog

It’s all very well saying you should utilise video but where do you start with what to create?

As you would with any blog you’re writing, think about your target audience and what you can say that will help them overcome any challenges. What are your customers pain points and how your products or services help them.

So, initially work through your products and services and think about creating a product explainer video whilst remembering to highlight how you can make their life easier.

Effective content is always about keeping things simple. Here’s a few areas you can cover in videos:

Product focussed videos – what are the USPs of your products
Educational/Tutorial
Interview with a key client
Testimonials
A walk through your office / footage of products on shelves
Create a live video on social media
About you & your business – how did you set up your business? Bring your brand to life showcasing your story

You can create a simple video with your smartphone these days. Most importantly it’s about being natural if you opt to put yourself in front of the camera. You can also do a simple presentation style video with graphics, captions and a voiceover which, when edited together, you can create a simple and factual video.

Digital marketing Croydon

Video has quickly become one of the most effective ways to reach your target demographic.

It’s also a great way to show off what makes you different from other companies in your sector.

If you’re not doing it already, now is the time for video marketing! Whether you want funny or informative content, video provides an opportunity for SEO optimisation and engagement with customers that can’t be found anywhere else online. We can help you get started by providing consultation services – contact us today!

Improving email marketing open rates

08/19/202210/04/2021 by scmarketing

With 4 billion daily email users, is it time you considered email marketing as part of your overall strategy to get new clients and engage with prospects?

Here we look at a few tips that can help your email open rate. What’s important to remember is to make your emails personal with engaging and relevant content.

Email content to encourage open rates

Over 8 out of 10 people will open a welcome email, generating 4x as many opens and 10x as many clicks as other email types (GetResponse, 2020)
60% of retail, e-commerce, and consumer goods and services companies are personalising emails based on past purchases (Litmus, 2020)
99% of email users check their inbox every day – some check it 20 times a day (OptinMonster, 2020)

Once you take on board some of these email marketing stats, you can begin to get a picture of just how much your prospects and customers use email. So, with usage high, is now the time for your business to tap into this potential market?

If you’re ready to take the plunge, here’s a few tips for your content.

Keep content relevant, original and regular.
People are less inclined to read lots of content so nice imagery with bold calls to action can really help the reader navigate and engage well with your content.
Add video content into your emails.
Make sure your emails are mobile responsive and all devices considered when you create your email template.
With many emails received by people daily – what’s the purpose of yours and why should your recipient read it? Remember to be clear in your subject line about the point of your email and don’t forget personalisation is key. Be clear about what you want your readers to do, for example download a report or claim a special offer.
Try and make sure that any email you distribute points back to your website blog, offer or download. In fact, you can save time by re-purposing your blog content.

The best time to send an email

Once you’ve got the email set up, send it at an optimal time. According to Hubspot the highest click-to-open rates for an email are 10am midweek. For B2B clients, we would also suggest Tuesday and Thursday mornings as a good option.

Database

Before you can set up any of this you need a n email database. Wherever you have the opportunity to capture email addresses, legitimately, then do so. Build your list and segment it into groups. You must follow GDPR rules and regulations, so always be transparent when you capture an email address, if it’s for your e-newsletter then that’s what you say it’s for. A pop-up box on your website asking for people to sign-up to your e-newsletter is a good way to encourage people.

Email marketing agency Croydon

If you need a helping hand building an email marketing strategy, get in touch with us at Smart Cow Digital Marketing for expert advice on how to conduct an effective digital marketing campaign! As email marketing experts in Croydon, we can create your initial email template, write content and distribute to your database.

Other digital marketing tactics we offer include web design and development, SEO services, Pay Per Click (PPC), social media management through to CRM and marketing automation.