April 2015

Facebook Video Advertising SMB

Facebook Video Advertising on the Rise. Big time!

in Social Media Marketing  by paulalbee

According to the latest Mixpo survey, Facebook is set to seriously challenge Youtube for video advertising spend by agencies and individual businesses alike this year.  According to its survey, more advertisers, both independent and agency, plan to target their video production budgets for online video advertising or promotional type content on Facebook vs. YouTube this year.

Related: What is Business Video marketing

It’s all about engagement.  In commenting on the survey, Andy Smith at ReelSEO said:

Not surprisingly fan engagement was the winner when it comes to most important metrics for video ads on social. Shares, conversions, time spent watching and views were the next most important categories (in that order) but the respondents showed that social marketing is more than just getting exposure, it’s about creating buzz and building relationships with fans.

Check out Andy’s post here.  Great food for thought if you’re considering internet video marketing this year.

Email Marketing works for Syracuse businesses.

Email Marketing Continues to Lead in Effectiveness

in Digital Marketing / email marketing  by paulalbee

Almost every business we talk to has had really good results with email marketing.  And this is no surprise since almost every survey on the subject has found that business of every size and in almost every niche have found email marketing to be one of the most effective digital marketing strategies in their arsenal, delivering consistent ROI time and again.

In a recent Gigaom survey, 86% of marketers surveyed said that email marketing is the most reliable “workhorse” digital marketing tool for lead acquisition and re-engagement and conversion, and that email marketing continues to lead in effectiveness.  In second place was social media marketing and effective search engine optimization for organic search results.

Email Marketing leads in popularity

Email marketing has been consistently rated as the least difficult to do and one of the most effective. According to another study conducted by Forrester Research, 42% of adults don’t open email advertising and just delete it.  This is actually down from 44% in 2012 and 59% in 2010. There was also a strong sentiment that most email ads didn’t offer the recipient anything of interest (38%).

The takeaway here, of course, is that you need to be thoughtful and use email marketing wisely.  Email marketing is most effective when you specifically target your audience with a message that customized specifically to them.  This can be especially easy when you have a list of cold sales leads that you want to re-engage.  There is nothing like email (and direct mail) for lead re-engagement and conversion.

 

Generating sales leads online.

Generating and Converting Sales Leads

in Digital Marketing  by paulalbee

Which Channels Work Best for Generating and Converting Sales Leads?

According to a 2014 marketing research study conducted by DialogTech (download link), a survey of marketers by a sizable plurality said that offline methods still converted best and were the source of highly qualified and high value sales leads.

In terms of actually generating those leads, several digital marketing methodologies rose to the top of the list in terms of marketer’s preferences based on actual ROI.  In terms of generating high-value sales leads, email led all channels, with a 57% overall preference over other methods. Closely behind email marketing at 55% was Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and PPC or pay per click advertising.

Business owners said that while SEO was a long term investment that takes cultivation and patience, it seems to have the higher long term ROI in that people tend to look at organic search results as more trustworthy than PPC ads.

All channels showed an overall increase in preferential share among respondents from the prior year.

Social Media garnered a 44% preference rating among respondents, with a wide variety of preference for specific platforms, with YouTube leading the way.  In the B2B category, LinkedIn was “highly influential,” while Facebook skewed to an older demographic, and Twitter was the preferred platform for younger, tech-savvy audiences.

Richard Branson on Maintaining Good Customer Service

in Customer Service  by paulalbee

In a fascinating article in Business Insider, Richard Branson, chairman of the massive Virgin Group, talks about what he’s learned about providing good customer service:

To ensure that his customer service employees are maintaining his vision for the company, he’ll sometimes reach out to customers or pretend to be a customer himself, he says in his new book “The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership.”

Richard Branson on Maintaining Good Customer Service. In his book, Mr. Branson writes that in all his years of experience in business, he has found an extraordinarily interesting fact: that unhappy customers who have their problem, whatever it may be, handled effectively, quickly and knowledgeably, more times than not end up being long term customers who are more loyal than if they had never had a problem in the first place.

Youtube connected account Facebook.

YouTube: No More Connected Account to Facebook

in Social Media Marketing  by paulalbee

Youtube creators can no longer automatically post their content to Facebook via a ‘connected account’ integration between the two services.

Youtube to Creators: No More ‘Connected Account’ Option.

Any long-term effects of this move, apparently made by Google/Youtube, have yet to be determined, but for those content creators who rely on the ability to auto-share their content to their facebook page or timeline could see a silent hit to their Facebook video engagement from their Youtube channel.  We say “silent” since this disconnect was not announced.

The silver lining may be that this might be a good time to test out posting videos on Facebook itself.  For those who may not have noticed, the video wars are heating up between Google, the owner of Youtube, and the folks over at Facebook.

Millenial brand attributes that matter most

Millennials: Brand Attributes That Matter Most

in Digital Marketing  by paulalbee

Over 40% of millennials (ages 25 to34) in the USA and England have a cynical outlook when it comes to the ways brands across all spectrums try to market and sell to them, according to a new study by Initiative. According to the study, with such a level of general skepticism, brands need to demonstrate a commitment to authenticity, trustworthiness and social causes.

The survey as reported at MarketingCharts, is based on a survey of nearly 10,000 men and women aged 25-34 years old across nineteen countries.

According to the survey, the top brand attributes that matter most to Millennials are:

  • Trustworthiness (31%);
  • Creativeness (29%);
  • Intelligence (23%);
  • Authenticity (22%); and
  • Confidence (21%).

Digital Marketing and Social Media. The survey reinforces the fact that Millennials appreciate and reward brands they perceive as personally useful, and with which they can connect emotionally and authentically.

Read the full story at MarketingCharts