It may be a surprise to realize that people can have trust in someone who is unethical or even criminal. Having trust is more about believing in another person. However, the degree to which one person trusts another is a reflection of belief in the other person’s honesty, fairness, and benevolence. Important for establishing initial trust in business is that fact that a failure in trust is more easily forgiven if it is due to a failure in competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty. As a result, sometimes a business providing inferior services may fare better with their customers than a company providing superior services – at least temporarily – if people feel the first company is honest and means well.

The phenomenon of trust is summed up in the following definition. It is described as a “heuristic decision rule, allowing the human to deal with complexities that would require unrealistic effort in rational reasoning.” Lets break this definition down. Heuristic processes are trial and error approaches to problem solving which begin with the most accessible solution and go on to another solution, only if the first solution doesn’t solve the problem. In terms of business, if a customer finds himself interacting with a business owner that he intrinsically wishes to trust because the owner appears benevolent, good-natured, and well meaning – then the customer will prefer to trust the owner and do business rather than get involved into complex rational thought about what might go wrong in the business relationship.

So, what does this have to do with putting a video on page ONE of your website have to do with trust?. When a surfer goes onto your website and thinks about doing business with you – someone he’s never met – he can rapidly be won over by a short online video of you talking with him. If he is engaged by your story and connects with your personality then he will immediately wish to trust you and do business you – because that will be the easiest solution for him to take.

And this leaves us with one more important take-away lesson. A front page video needn’t trouble itself with a description of company features and benefits. It simply needs to provide a relevant reason for the user to trust the owner / business. A short 1 to 2 minute story, passionately told by the owner saying that he established the family potato chip business 30 years ago because he wanted to provide people with a crispy chip that wouldn’t lose its favor in the package is a fine example that will win trust right away.

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As of the beginning of 2010, do you know how many websites are live on the internet? The figure has now surpassed one hundred million. If you have a small business that operates on the internet then it is fundamental to keep ahead of the competition. The potential to make money online is vast, but not without keeping up to date with the newest trends in marketing.

The following tips are vital if you are going to maximize the number of hits your site receives:

1. Now some of the most popular sites on the internet are video sharing portals. There isn’t a net user in the world that has never visited You Tube. To increase your traffic you will need to enhance your visibility. If the customers aren’t coming to you then you need to go to them. By putting together a fun and interesting clip for You Tube you will be able to reach a wider audience.

2. Understand the target audience. If you are offering a service or selling products online then you should identify the market demographic in which you expect to receive the greatest number of sales. When designing the video be sure to cater to their specific tastes.

3. Grab attention. Today with so much choice when it comes to browsing the net it is important to be able to keep the attention of surfers. Any video you make needs to be short and snappy. Do not make it overly promotional; if possible try to advertise your message subliminally.

4. Put together informative videos such as guides. Many people use the net to look up information. For example if you have a website selling cookery products you could put together a short step by step video of how to bake a cake or make a pizza. This will attract visitors who then may be interested in your products. Also, such pages will stand a better chance of receiving high search engine placement.

To be sure to maintain a strong foothold in the online world in these times of increased competition and economic uncertainty then video marketing is a must. Please take action now and implement these tips I just gave you. The life of you business may depend on it.

The post 4 Online Video Marketing Survial Tactics For Your Small Business appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

Children ask their parents to tell them stories because they like to fit the pieces of the story into a picture they can understand. It is the same with adults. Audiences at seminars and conferences don’t want to be overwhelmed with data and figures. They prefer stories – relevant stories – with emotional impact that hold their interest and convey meaning. One of the most powerful ways to get your message across is by telling a story. One of the reasons that Christianity took hold is that Jesus conveyed his message not in sermons or theological discourses but in parables – he told stories that people could easily understand and repeat to others. Stories involve people, emotions, feelings, consequences and outcomes. They hold our interest because we want to find out what happens to the people in the stories.

Be prepared to tell stories in social and business contexts. You can tell a personal story on all sorts of occasions – on a date or when giving a keynote talk. The stories that only you can tell are the best. However, interesting stories about other people are also worth retelling if they are really amusing or make a relevant point for your audience. Keep a file or notebook with interesting stories and think creatively about how you can weave them into your work and conversation.

So, how do you tell a story? Here are a few simple steps to follow:

1. Introduce the characters. Stories involve people so describe them.

2. Set the scene. This often involves some challenge or difficulty that has to be overcome.

3. Explain what happened next and how the situation resolved itself.

4. Draw out any conclusions or lessons learned.

E. M. Forster illustrated this very simply. A fact is ‘The queen died and the king died.’ A story is, ‘The queen died and the king died of a broken heart.’ When your goal is to convey a message, don’t think just in terms of giving information. Ask yourself how you can illustrate the message with both examples and tales. Use fewer facts and more stories. You’ll capture your audience and that’s good for business!

The post Tell More Stories: It’s Good for Business. appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

Seven predictions from eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey. Ad dollars will continue to accelerate their move from traditional to digital, though aggregate media spending will fail to return to former levels. Marketers will be emphasizing deeper engagement and earned media.

Video. More marketers will increasingly embrace online video advertising, supported by the twin boom of video streams and video ad networks. Further support for video ad growth will come from sites that offer a deeper catalog of professional, premium video content, which will need to introduce hybrid plans that combine subscription fees with advertising.

See the remainder of this article here.

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Be sure to understand the implications of these changes before pitching your next Facebook project.

1. Email is now a supported channel
Facebook has long hidden user emails, but soon Facebook will provide developers access to a user’s verified email address. For brands that are serious about engaging in an ongoing dialogue with their fans, email becomes a powerful communication method. Email will allow brands to better reconnect with users who have interacted with them on Facebook. This becomes important given that…

2. Status updates are no longer guaranteed
Previously users’ streams included everything their friends and pages (including brand pages) published. Now the news feed has returned to a default view showing select highlights that Facebook’s algorithm thinks are most relevant to the user, which may or may not contain your brand’s message. There’s still a live feed view, but it’s no longer default, so only brand posts that fans interact with will appear in most users’ streams.

3. Other communication channels are consolidating
Many brands rely on application-to-user and user-to-user notifications to reconnect with users, and this communication channel is disappearing. That means in order to remarket to users to let them know about new product launches, sales, events, or promotions, you’ll need to acquire users’ email addresses or send popular posts (per above).

Source: iMedia Connection. Click here for full post.

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“I like the show,” says Janine Popick at the Vertical Response blog, “because he gets down into the inner workings of a small business and peels away the onion to find any issues that might be hampering the business from growing.”

She finds six business lessons in the story arc of each episode. Here are some:

– Ramsay starts with an honest assessment of the situation. You cannot fix something until you know what’s wrong, and he always begins by observing a typical lunch or dinner service. Most are, predictably, disastrous. “He also takes to the streets,” notes Popick. “[I]n many shows he walks the streets of the town to observe other restaurants and he’ll stop people and ask what they think about the restaurant he’s trying to help.”

– He then identifies, and tries to rectify, fundamental problems. A strong business is built on a strong foundation. Disturbingly, almost all of the restaurants on Kitchen Nightmares share one failure in common: filthy kitchens that must be cleaned before anything else can happen. Beyond that, Ramsay addresses the unique mix of issues challenging each restaurant—everything from poor leadership to overambitious menus to subpar chefs.

Whatever you think of Gordon Ramsay, you just might benefit from his simple formula for jumpstarting a struggling business.

Source: Vertical Response. Click here for the full post.

Thanks also to Marketing Profs.

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In October 2009, Eyeblaster reported that creative was the key to more engaging rich media ads. Based on the research firm’s “Online Video Advertising: Doubles Engagement, Boosts ROI” bulletin, video grabs attention and has a lasting impact.

Rich media ads with video had a higher dwell rate than those without, and almost double the dwell time.

This translates to fewer impressions needed for the same results. For example, Eyeblaster found that two exposures to a video ad campaign produced the same dwell rate as three exposures to nonvideo rich media ads.

Unsurprisingly, in-stream banners were most likely to be fully played. They far outpaced the start rate and fully played rate of all other video ad formats.

Other creative decisions also influenced effectiveness. Video ads initiated on rollover performed best, followed by auto-initiated ads. Ads that only began playing when a user clicked did worst.

The performance of video ads also varies according to the content it appears with. Video ads did best when placed next to e-mail, news, finance, sports and music, but fell behind in social network and gaming environments.

The post How Engaging Is Online Video? VERY appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

SUMMARY: Your marketing content library can be an incredible resource in lean economic times. You have opportunities to repurpose, reformat and reuse that content for new lead generation campaigns.

We’ve collected five examples of clever content repurposing strategies that B2B marketers shared with us over the years. Includes tips on generating audio and video from text and finding new content for nurturing emails. Tight budgets require marketers to stretch every dollar they spend. Fortunately, few investments are as elastic as the content you create for lead-gen campaigns.

Every white paper, webinar, client case study, video, podcast or other piece of content you create can work for multiple campaigns. The process can be as easy as recording your webinars, then using links to archived versions in lead-nurturing campaigns. Or, it might require a bit more work, such as by developing a Q&A podcast with the author of a white paper.

The key is to examine your marketing content and find the best opportunities to repurpose and reuse what’s already available. Here are five examples from past Sherpa case studies to inspire you:

Strategy #1. Use past media coverage as content in nurturing emails

Staying in touch with prospects in your nurturing funnel doesn’t necessarily mean developing a new white paper, case study or other piece of content every time you want to send an email.

You can build friendly, low-pressure, lead-nurturing emails simply by sharing a link to media coverage you’ve generated from public relations efforts:

– Executive interviews or by-lined articles in trade publications typically cover relevant industry topics that demonstrate your industry leadership.

– Sharing an article you believe prospects would find interesting gives them a break from repeated calls to register for content or provide contact information.

For example, Matt Barker, Director, Marketing, TeleHealth Services, made the most of his team’s PR strategy by recycling bylined articles they had previously written for trade publications.

Barker and his team used nurturing emails to follow up on a direct mail campaign touting one of the company’s health information products. The first nurturing message offered a recap of the product line the DM campaign had been promoting, but also included a link to a bylined article citing the value of those products in a healthcare setting.

The result: A 12.5% open rate on the email — a key step in a campaign that generated more than 20 warm leads for the sales team. One deal from those leads would be enough to cover the entire cost of the program.

Strategy #2. Create podcasts from in-person speaking engagements

Here’s a quick, low-hassle approach to creating podcasts: Record and edit any public speaking engagements by company executives, or by clients describing your products or services.

Michael Williams, Marketing Director, Global Management Technologies Corp. made the most of his speaking gig at a major industry event. He obtained permission to record the presentation (using an inexpensive digital recorder) and turned the raw audio into a podcast using free digital editing software.

Through promotion via email and PPC ads, the podcast was heard by more than nine times as many people as there were in attendance at the event. Additionally:
o 16.7% of the podcast listeners were deemed sales-ready leads
o Those additional leads reduced the average cost-per-lead from the trade show by 71%

Strategy #3. Supplement white papers with audio highlights

White papers can also be a source for new audio content. Interviewing an expert author on the paper’s top findings, providing an audio summary of key takeaways, or simply excerpting a portion of the paper are all ways to turn text content into a podcast.

When Paul Dunay was a marketer at the management consulting firm BearingPoint, his team developed podcasts to use as related offers for their financial services white papers:

– The team wrote and recorded six- to eight-minute audio summaries of the white papers.

– They used active titles, such as “How to Avoid the Seven Pitfalls of…”

– They added podcast offers on the white paper download page to serve as content previews.

– They promoted the podcasts by emailing their house list and posting them to audio sites like iTunes.

The results:
– Conversion rates tripled when podcasts were added to the white paper landing page
– Podcast listeners were just as qualified as other leads
– 18% of listeners downloaded more than one podcast

Strategy #4. Recycle testimonials and case studies for advertising campaigns

It takes a lot of time and effort to find clients willing to share their testimonials. It then takes your team just as much effort to shape those stories into suitable case studies for your marketing campaigns.

Why not use as many channels as possible to drive prospects to that collateral?

Here’s one approach: Angela Sanders, Director, U.S. Marketing Operations, Aon, recruited several clients to share their success stories for use in the company’s booth at an annual trade show.

To prepare for the event, the team developed:
– Video testimonials from the clients
– Case studies that provided in-depth descriptions of the client/company relationship

The event was a huge success for Sanders and her team. But afterwards, they realized the marketing collateral could form the basis of a new print advertising campaign:

– They created a series of client-focused advertisements for one of their regular trade magazine ad placements.

– The ads provided a brief description of how the company helped a particular client, and included a URL for a dedicated website where prospects could view the video testimonials and case studies.

Strategy #5. Turn boring-but-necessary documents into video

Technical specifications and other product details play an important role in the later stages of the buying cycle — but they can make for pretty dry reading. Breathe new life into old docs by converting them into videos.

Brian Ellefritz, Sr. Manager, Customer Relationship Marketing, Cisco Systems, created five-minute videos of product managers guiding prospects through the company’s two- to three-page product data sheets.

Within six months, video files accounted for 21% of all product data downloads.

The post Reformat, Reuse, Recycle: 5 Strategies to Stretch your Marketing Content appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

An overwhelming majority (83.5%) of brand and agency marketers in a recent study say they currently are using some type of online video in their marketing efforts, and most expect their use of the medium to grow in the coming years, according to a survey by TurnHere.

The study, which measured marketers’ current use and future plans for online video, found that branded content is the preferred online video content type among respondents. Branded content has the highest current use among video formats, the highest overall satisfaction levels and the highest likelihood of future use.
Additional research findings:

* 57.3% of respondents have created branded video content for the web while 38.7% have created editorial video content.
* 40% of respondents have used video for product or service demonstrations and 37.3% have used video for customer or employee testimonials.
* The top reasons for video use are: branding (60%), gaining exposure on video sites such as YouTube (54.7%), and creating viral content (48%).
* 90.7% are likely (>50%) or highly-likely (>75%) to use online video in their marketing efforts in the next 12 months.
* Marketers overwhelmingly prefer professionally produced content 4-to-1 over user generated content.
* In most companies, the internal marketing team is responsible for making decisions about use of online video (81% of respondents). Internal PR teams and internal digital teams are second with 15.5% each.

The survey results support the conclusion that branding on the web through video is and will continue to be an important tool in marketers’ online arsenals.

“Businesses of all sizes consider online video to be an integral part of their marketing mix,” said Bud Rosenthal, CEO of TurnHere. “Online video is the number-one priority among all online marketing tools for 2010, and that finding directly ties into the high satisfaction levels for video implementation and its return on investment (ROI).”

About the study: The study of both brand and agency marketers was conducted in Q309 across a variety of industries. The sample included 116 respondents from Fortune-500 and regional brands, as well as digital, PR and traditional agencies. Surveyed companies had annual marketing budgets ranging from $100K to $5 million.

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Product Demos

Replacing the initial in-person demo or online meeting presentation keeps your salesforce more available to focus on ripe opportunities. Giving your prospects the opportunity to watch product demos whenever they want, allows them to become better informed more quickly. There’s no need to schedule a time to walk through the same canned demo; prospective customers can watch just what interests them. The result is that prospects will already understand your product during initial sales calls, resulting in more meaningful questions being answered earlier in the process.

Customer Testimonials

Giving a prospect access to a happy customer is one of the most effective ways to gain trust and ultimately close deals, and yet one of the most difficult things to scale. Your customers may love your product but they’ve still go their own job to do and life to live. Interviewing your customers for testimonials on video can help you to harness one of the most effective (and underutilized) marketing and sales techniques.

Cold Calling

Cold calling is a polarizing issue. It draws “w00ts” from those seeing success and “@%!#’s” from almost everybody else. Many companies still use cold calling effectively but it’s at the expense of the 90% of people who never wanted to hear from them in the first place.

Fortunately we’re seeing a positive shift… turning cold calling scripts into video. Taking your message and putting it into a video format allows you to improve the quality of the message, annoy less people, and focus on communicating with those people that are actually interested. The goal of most cold calling is to gauge interest and qualify potential leads. Letting people receive your message when it is convenient for them lowers barriers and makes it easier for the person to demonstrate interest. By tracking what a potential lead watches you can spend more time following up with meaningful conversations and less time playing phone tag.

In Person Training

Keeping your customers, employees, and prospects well educated about your company and products is crucial to keep your business moving forward. When there weren’t technological options, it was common to ask people to fly in from around the country and spend an afternoon learning about all the new whizbang products and services your company has been cooking up. Today, we’re seeing people in the same company, sometimes even the same office opting to educate each other using video instead of meeting in person. Using online video to educate means that there’s no travel to schedule, venue to book, or documents to print out. It allows people to learn on their own time when it fits into their schedule. Just as you knew how many people came to your event, you can track how many (and which) people watched the video to get a sense for the impact.

Help & Support

Providing a solid line of defense for customer support is key to keeping customers happy and prospects engaged. Some customers will tweet questions @you, others while be satisfied with a FAQ or forum, but others want more in-depth explanations. As expectations have shifted we’ve found an increasing number of people expect that they can find the solution to their problem without having to pick up a phone or send an email. This is great, but it puts the onus on you to make sure that you can help answer even the most complex solution to problems on-demand. We’re seeing more and more businesses embracing video to get this job done right. Over time every business will include videos to explain many of their complex processes.

What’s next?

While even a few years ago it would have been a pipe dream to use online video to make all of the above business processes more efficient and scalable, today it’s a reality. As technology advances and high quality video becomes easier and cheaper to produce, what will be the next generation of things in your business to be replaced with video?

Thanks to WISTIA.

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