Author Archives: stormnetmedia-admin

Simple Ways to Boost Your Conversion Rates

Increase your conversion rates by understanding your customers and enhancing their shopping experience!

If you have ever worked on a shop floor, you may have heard the phrase ‘conversion rates’ and ‘customer conversion’ from your boss way more than you’d have cared to, after all, what does it even mean? Say a customer had come into that shop, had a browse and then looked at a product they liked, surely they are going to buy it, right? Wrong. Just because you may have a handsome face and the witty charm to help sell that product, it doesn’t mean that your customers are definitely going to go for it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t depend on you as a person or the product in question. Converting your customers into ‘buyers’ rather than ‘lookers’ is dependent on a whole host of things. Even though purchasing online and/or instore has its similarities, the process of conversion varies widely in terms of process. We look at how to boost your conversion rates to get the most out of your E-Commerce business.

ECOM

The idea of increasing conversion for your online business is ultimately down to the shopping experience. For example, let’s look at our ‘real-life’ customers on the shop floor, imagine you’re walking into a store in search of a new pair of trainers and when you step into the shop it’s absolutely sweltering (the shoddy air-con has broken and it’s the middle of a blazing record summer!). Once you’ve sweated your way through the first few isles and finally reach the trainers, you find that all the sizes are completely muddled up. Eventually, you find the trainers you like, but lo and behold… they have a thick mark all along the bottom of the right trainer (you rub this mark off yourself as you realize it is the only pair in your size). You decide to go for the slightly-marked pair of trainers you’ve just about fixed up and reach the till, only to be greeted with a grumpy, snotty, unwelcoming retail assistant who refuses to release even a meek ‘hello’ as you approach. Now, if you have stuck around this far into your trainer purchasing experience, I commend your will (or question your sanity…), nonetheless, you’re are now part of the 1-2% of customer converts that exist online. All seems a little dramatic, doesn’t it? However, you get the picture. At each turn, your experience as a customer was tarnished by the environment that the shop have created. It is the experience that you create for your customer that will encourage them to stay longer and hopefully up your conversion rates.

CRO

What Women (and Men) Want

No, we’re not encouraging you to electrocute yourself in order to be able to read your customers minds (like the noughties Mel Gibson rom com) in order to up your conversion rate. We do, however, encourage you to understand the minds of your customers through smart technology. Something as simple as Google Analytics will help you to understand where your visitors are coming from, how long they visit each page, where they are clicking through from, if they are returning customers and what words they are searching in order to find your site. This will help you gage where the glitches lie and therefore how to improve them directly. You never know, but something like this could help you understand something about your website that could never have known, such as the language in which you are using to drive people to your site or through each page. Simply changing one or two words to help customers reach their destination could help increase your conversion rate massively.

What Women Want

Be Business Savvy

Once you’ve understood where, what and why your customers are clicking on to reach the end destination you can work on how to get them to take the plunge and click ‘buy’ with a few savvy tips and tricks. This is not to say that customers aren’t interested in the product, of course they are, and sometimes they just need a little nudge to get them onto that long-awaited confirmation page. Unlike the experience of a physical shop, the customer can’t touch, try-on or try-out the product in front of them. It is your job to make sure the product you are selling is as detailed as possible, whether this is putting as many images or different angles of the product as is possible, detailing the description with size, dimensions and types of textile or maybe even adding customer reviews (providing you have enough content and are confident in the quality!). If your customer feels as though they have all the necessary details in order to make an informed decision, they’ll be more likely to want to buy.

 

Straight to the Point

With online shopping giants such as Amazon making the purchasing process for customers that one step easier with features such as ‘One-Click’, we have no choice but to step-up our Shopping Cart game. Though it may not be suitable for your site to have such a thing as a ‘one-click’ button, it won’t hurt to make the whole process shorter with smarter features to help nudge the customer to the final purchasing page. There are a few simple ways you can do this;

Adjust your P&P
How many times have you looked at a product online and thought ‘what a steal!’ because of the low price of your purchase, only to find that the postage and packaging costs almost double the actual product? It therefore makes the product seem less ‘worth it’… you may as well go to the shop and get one for cheaper WITHOUT postage fees. The idea here is to adjust the price of your products slightly higher so that the postage seems as minimal as possible. People are more inclined to pay more if they feel as though the product is worth it and priced well, even it is a little higher than they’d like. Who wants to spend all their money on stamps anyway!

P&P

Upsell, upsell, upsell!
Flashbacks to those earlier staff meetings, back in the day of your shop floor retailing days, clutching a large coffee with the piercing sounds of your manager (once again) exclaiming that, today, you must ‘UPSELL!’. Easy on the shop floors, but how do you do this sat at your desk all day? Well, offering your customers the opportunity to purchase things in bundles. For example, game stores do this well. Selling consoles on their own at a high price or offering the customer to purchase the same console and for only a little extra they have the opportunity to receieve a selection of games. This type of upsell works a treat as the customer feels as though they’re getting the best deal. Offering smaller items on the way to the checkout page that could be of interest to them and the products they are currently purchasing are a good way to shift things that may not be able to sell by themselves.

A Penny for Your Thoughts
What a difference that little penny makes… Trust us when we say, making a sale at £99.99 will sell far better than the same product at £100.00. Customers want to believe that they’re not spending too much, so to take your product down to the next bracket of 10’s will most definitely contribute to your customers shopping experience.

Penny

App-ify it

If it is suitable for you and your business, moving into the world of apps or even online shopping is a sure-fire way to make this process easier for your shoppers on the go. However, make sure your viewing layout and action buttons are just as mobile friendly as they are desk top friendly. Follow the same processes as you would with your online version!

Safe, Clear and Easy

If customers are new to your sight, they may be dubious as to your credibility. Assuring your customers checking out are secure with their purchase, whether that’s giving them the option of money transfer services such as PayPal or working with secure money payment services will allow the customers to go through with that payment with their minds at ease. Finally, keeping your final stages extremely simple is crucial in reducing the dreaded ‘cart abandonment’. Clearly display actions such as ‘Go To Cart’, ‘Checkout’ and ‘Pay’ with areas marked in bold such as billing and delivery addresses. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised in the amount of sites with uneasy and complicated paying processes and how easy it is to lose customers because of it. Going back to our beloved ‘real shop’ customer experience, if the shop is windy, muddled and complicated and every corner you turn you can’t seem to find that blasted paying desk, you’re probably more likely to dump the contents of your basket there and then and storm out (okay, maybe a little dramatic, but infuriating nonetheless…).

Secure

With this list threatening to never end, there are so many more ways in which you can increase and improve your conversion rate. As a wise Grasshopper once said ‘to understand the customer, one must check over its analytics, have smart layouts in place and BECOME the customer’. Well, maybe not all of that, but relevant all the same. If you would like more advice from some of our ‘wise grasshoppers’, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or drop us an email so we can help you to improve your conversion rates!

The Future of Online Marketing and Curated Content

How to get the most out of your social media tools

As technology progresses, the growth of new generation video, messaging and social media services are becoming more and more crucial to the development of marketing. The importance that we place on our devices is not only consuming our everyday personal lives but spilling over into the running of our businesses. Think about it. How many times do you use messaging services such as Whatsapp to contact a colleague on a daily basis? Or perhaps you use Facebook as a platform to grow mailing lists and/or connect with future clients or partners? Now these technologies will not be for all of us, but I could bet my bottom dollar that if you’re reading this article, then it probably does. At Storment Media, we are always looking for new and innovative ways to produce content that will appeal to all demographics, no matter the size or type of your business. Understanding your demographic is the most crucial information you will need before you decide on the outlet you will choose to focus on.

Here is a quick guide to the ‘big 5’ social media apps, how to use them to your advantage and how they can benefit you, no matter what your business is.

 

Facebook

Facebook Logo

Over the last couple of years, this social media platform has taken on many faces and progressed into a heavily video based streaming and image sharing platform. While the younger demographic (16-24 yrs) are losing momentum and turning to more instant forms ways to reach and connect with the world more instantaneously (see Snapchat and Instagram), it is still a great way to reach out to a mass consumer database and getting to know your customers. For example, even the comments section allows you to get immediate feedback from your key demographic market. Being so involved and heavily inundated with video marketing content it may be hard to get your voice heard, but it does have its perks – don’t underestimate the power great content and it’s ability to gain popularity quickly.

Twitter

Twitter Logo

Ah, Twitter. Another one of the social media heavy-weights. Twitter is usually home to celebrity feuds and sharp controversial opinions. However, Twitter can be a fantastic way to gain a rapport with your clients and customers. Depending on what type of business you are, it can be a way to share news, distribute links to exciting offers, news and content and show the world your wit and charm through snappy punch lines. If you choose Twitter to represent your business online, make sure to keep content updated. The danger of not updating your tweets can lead to a loss of interest in what you have to say and a potential lack of faith in your business. Because, if you can’t keep up to date with your socials, how can your ‘followers’ expect you keep up to date with your business and customers?

Snapchat

Snapchat Logo

If you haven’t yet ventured into the new world of Snapchat yet, then get going. It is a fantastic marketing opportunity that you cannot afford to miss. It’s original intention was to allow users to send ‘snap’ shots of their daily lives to their friends, whether that’s an image or a short video, only for it to be erased as soon as it is seen. The beauty of this new app was a refreshing alternative to the seemingly permanent nature of Facebook. Out of this grew opportunities for online-based businesses (such as online publications, music company’s, news sites and much more). Much like Facebook, it is very dependent on demographic. Used primarily by the younger age group of 16-24, however, if you’re business is that way inclined, it is the perfect way to reach out and keep your customers up to date using visual curated media that shows a level of authenticity and personality.

Instagram

instagram-logo

Instagram is a very visually stimulating social media and so it is primarily more useful for those with businesses in creative industries where the curators are able to show their work like an online portfolio. It is a lot glossier than sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat. For larger businesses such as online magazines, for example, it is great to share snippets of content that will lead people to a website. But also for smaller self-made businesses such as make-up artists, independent shops or designers, to name a few, it can be a great way to gain followers and interest in their business and/or brand which will lead to further exposure. For example, rather than appealing directly to potential customers, they use a following to seek out potential partnerships, for example, brand partnerships and sponsorships. This is not to say that it can’t be useful for more corporate led endeavors. Using Instagram to showcase new products or services can also be a great portfolio and create traffic to your website.

Whatsapp

Whatsapp Logo

This may seem like a strange one, considering it is the only non-social media app included in this range of useful apps. It is a growing phenomenon and can benefit you immensely. Used as more of an internal sharing application, it can be operated as an organisational tool between you and your colleagues. Gone are the days of unread texts, missed calls and mountains of emails, this app can be used to share media, mobile numbers and put dates in your phone calendar within a click of a button. With the accessibility ranging over both android and iOS it is a good tool to share marketing ideas by simply making a ‘group’ of your contacts, book meetings and get a fast track response. Though not directly a marketing app, it can be a great aid in helping you organise your team to get those creative juices flowing in an instant.

So, whether your creative business is the perfect fit for Instagram or if Facebook’s heavily video sharing focused platform is the one rocking your boat, we have the services to help you utilise this media to benefit you. Contact one of our friendly experts today to find out how!

 

6 Reasons Why You Should Make Video Marketing a Priority

In the age of social media and content sharing, we explore why video marketing should be at the top of your to-do list 

In the days of dial-up, you wouldn’t dream of trying to load up a 10 second video of a cat playing a piano, let alone a 2 minute long video just to watch the ethos of somebody’s business. Nowadays, we scroll through our social media feeds at lightening speed, watching video after video just to fill our tube, train or bus journey. This is not a mere phase of technology boom; instant video sharing is here to stay. As we saw from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014, the power of viral video can be global and really spread the word about your business or cause.

 

1. Utilise Your Resources

 

It is no secret that ‘YouTubers’ earn a shed load of money for uploading 5-minute videos of putting on make-up, playing video games, or simply showing off their daily life. These unlikely stars have had a helping hand in making video content a key way for people to access information quickly. A lot of these young entrepreneurs found a rising gap in the market and latched on to it by creating interesting content for their viewers by tailoring content into bite size, well-produced chunks that keep people engaged. However, we are not here to talk about these curators of content, this was just the catalyst of things to come. Now, we have so many video sharing apps and websites that there is simply no excuse not to utilise them. YouTube is just one outlet to market and keep your consumers interested, whatever your business may be. Apps such as Vine, Instagram and Snapchat – where the users can create videos only seconds long – pushed for social media users to focus on short, punchy and engaging videos. Facebook shortly followed in these footsteps, offering a heavily weighted timeline of videos with many of those being sponsored explainer and corporate videos. If you came here wanting just one good enough reason to utilise video marketing and content sharing for your business, this would be it.

 

2. Sharing is Caring

 

When someone finds something funny, engaging or emotional, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will want to share that with their friends, family or colleagues. Whether this is an interesting article, a picture of puppy or an incredible business idea that they can’t wait to explore, people want to show this to others to create a reaction. This is exactly what you want the viewers of your content to be thinking. A good way to challenge this theory before you put your content out to the masses is to show it to one of your friends, family or co-workers and ask them honestly if they would share this after watching it.

 

3. Brand Recognition

 

You want the style of your video to reflect the brand that you are. Putting together a video with dark colours and clean lines may not be appropriate for a children’s clothing company, however, it may be really engaging for the customers of a technology company. Getting the potential consumers to instantly recognise your brand seconds into your videos will allow people to remember your business and be more likely to return to it in the future.

 

4. SEO

Not only does brand recognition help drive traffic to your website, but it also increases your SEO. It helps to push you to the top of the search engines and is likely to increase the click rate from video to webpage. Including relevant tags and web links to your content will help to also improve this.

 

5. Suitable for all devices

Making sure that any of your video marketing is, including (and probably most importantly) your explainer video, is suitable for all devices is a very key detail. Is your video suitable for all types of smart phones, such as iOS and Android? Can you watch this in high definition on a laptop or desktop as well as a phone or tablet? Is the content suitable to watch on a smaller screen, such as a phone, as well as a large screen, such as a desktop computer? These are all details that need to be thought about from the very early stages of creation right to finalizing the finished production.

 

6. Content, content, content!

Finally, it would be silly to not mention content. Of course all of the resources and tips above will help you to tailor your use for video marketing, but your video will not make an impact if it is uninteresting, inappropriate for your business or produced poorly. You may have great ideas for your next marketing video, but creating and executing that content is crucial. Is it engaging? Is it relevant? Does it make you want to re-watch and share? Conduct your own research and look at other businesses similar to your own. Have they utilised video marketing? If so, how long are the videos? How are they designed? What social media have they used to place their video marketing? Have their consumers taken interest and ‘liked’ or shared their video? These types of questions will help you to understand how to curate your own content and how best to exploit it.

 

Ranging from explainer videos to promotional videos and corporate videos to animation, we can help guide you in your journey to creating and producing great content. Contact our team of experts today and get your video marketing on a roll!

The ‘App-Conomy’

Why you should get involved and utilise applications for an ‘appier business or career

 

Apps

 2017: arguably, the age of the online revolution. Amazon, Google or Apple (the top grossing businesses in world, and all tech companies) are the proof that the online economy will soon be the only economy.

That is not to say that businesses ruling in tangible products or services will be ruled out of the equation, but the way they are delivered to the consumer is changing rapidly before our eyes. It is time to get on board with the ‘App-conomy’.

 

Have a look at your smartphone (from an educated guess and assuming that this is your mode of communication) and check out the applications that you currently have. The likelihood that you have a mixture of music streaming services (Spotify, Apple, Tidal), social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and/or other interactive apps ranging from eBay, Uber and TripAdvisor, for example, is extremely high. No, I am not psychic, nor is this a mere coincidence; it is the future of consumer interaction.

 

The Proof is in the Pudding

By now you will have heard of Mark Zuckerburg, the genius mind behind the multimillion phenomenon that is Facebook, but have you ever heard Garrett Gee? In 2013, Gee sold his revolutionary QR scanning mobile application, whilst still studying at university, for $54 million. Yes, you read that correctly… To this day, he travels the world with his wife and two young children whilst not even making a small dent in their earnings. As you can see, there is big money in the application building world, so get your thinking hats on, because who doesn’t want to travel the world for a living?

Facebook Logo 

How Can These Apps’s Benefit You?

So, you may not be the next Garrett Gee, however, there are plenty apps to increase your productivity at work. Whether you’re part of a large corporation or a small start-up, there are so many ways to organise your day with simple swipe of your smartphone or tablet. There are many ways to test and trial which apps suit you and potentially your business. Whether it’s Adroid or iOS, if you click onto the application store you are sure to find categories specific for your needs. From creating documents, analysing and tracking or even using social media to launch your business ideas, there are categories for everything. So decide what your goal is for using a certain app, get browsing in that category and test a few out over a few days or weeks.

 

Global Company Based Apps

It is not just social apps that can assist us in both day to day life and business ventures, whether its getting connected through LinkedIn or showcasing your business with Instagram. These apps have created an online database that allows us to monitor everything we are doing at all times: there is simply no excuse not to utilize this technology to its full potential. Whether it is Uber, a taxi service that offers cheaper journey’s in most major cities to take us too and from work, or Trip Advisor, which encourages us to compare hotels and restaurants, allowing us to make sure we are in the right place when taking a potential client out and Skyscanner, which allow us to compare and book any flight at a moments notice. You don’t have to have your own app or business in mind to take full advantage, you can utilise the app world through your current job or career by simply using it to organise your workday or load.

App connection

Your Own App Based Business

Whether you already have an idea or app based business in mind, or you tried browsing for an app that simply doesn’t exist (and it should!) there is no reason why you could follow in Gee’s footsteps of permanent holidaying in the Caribbean. Treat your app like a business you would as though you had a team on payroll behind you. If this is a new business, rather than creating an app for an already existing business, you need to think about the finer details.

Create a business plan, have a brand or image in mind and think of the level of usage and how much you can offer it to the consumer, as though it is a tangible product on the market. Don’t forget to utilise social media. For example, fitness mogul Kayla Itsines, who became an online sensation with her ‘Bikini Body Workouts’ and meal plans, grew her business through social media. She grew a consumer database through apps such as Instagram and Facebook to promote her fitness routines. Once she had a strong following of people interested in investing their time and money into her brand, she launched her own app, at a price, so that people could gain access to more detailed and effective work out plans. This is one example of a sure fire way to get the most out of your own app based business by utilising others to grow a consumer database.

There's an App

So, whether it is an app to brighten up your day or lighten the workload, the use of applications in any small or large business is a sure fire way to bring you to the 21st century. So, if you need an ‘appily ever after and you aren’t sure where to start, give one of our experts a call today. We’re ‘appy to help!

 

(Disclaimer: we apologise profusely for the terrible puns we have inflicted upon you throughout this article)

How to Utilise Social Media For Your Business

Just a Way to Keep in Touch or a Great Business Tool?

Whether you use social media to keep in touch with your family and friends, follow celebrity gossip or to watch endless videos of cats playing piano, it is no doubt that social media has taken over our lives. I don’t mean this in a ‘Terminator’ sense where social media has turned against us, ready to eliminate the human race (although, never say never…). I am talking about the constant use of these media platforms by billions of people all around the world, every day. With the fast paced world that we live in today, it is clear to see that when things go ‘viral’ they can launch anyone’s career into an overnight success. So, as a business how can you use that to your advantage and push your business marketing to its full potential using some simple online strategies?

 

Forget the build up

Back in the days where VHS presentation videos ruled, we had time to build up our customer’s expectation and create an atmosphere. Now, it couldn’t be more different. Due to such high volume of and saturation of videos on the net, we need to make sure ours starts with a bang. You want to make sure that the person watching the video doesn’t scroll past at first glance. Opening up with a bang will keep them watching on. This could be anything from an amusing image, shocking statistic or a rhetorical question that leaves them needing answers. As soon as they are hooked, you then have time to explain yourself in more detail.

Facebook Logo

Don’t Patronize

When sending a message to your potential consumers, the last thing you want to do is to patronize them.  Especially when using social media to portray your message. Having a conversation with your consumers that makes them realise you both have the same goal and you have the means to get there will ensure people take more notice. Social media now means that everyone has the platform to express themselves, talking at people will only stifle their own creativity, belittle their thoughts and make them lose interest.

140 Characters or Less

Twitter may be onto something here. As previously mentioned, the sheer volume of information on the net can cause people to just keep scrolling out of boredom until they find something that hooks them in on first glance. Keeping your message short and punchy will be a sure fire way to grab hold of the viewers attention and remember it afterwards. Don’t leave the important bits out until the end or until you believe your consumers are hooked. Give it to them right away.

Twitter Logo

Think in Images

Today’s world is a visual one. It is one that encourages us to look at get instant gratification from a simple image that illustrates a thousand words. Whether it is a thought provoking image of recent struggles within the world politics, luxurious goods placed in a grainy filter or, again, a cat playing piano, anything can be shared or liked by millions. Take sites such as Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest. These social media platforms are used solely to share images with millions of people around the world: with some of the biggest names on sites such as Instagram having millions of people ‘following’ their business and/or every day lives.

instagram-logo

Sharing is Caring

Lets take a step back. Before you have hooked your audience with your short punchy message, eye catching image or thought provoking short video, it is time to think about how, you as the audience, would want to feel while watching this video and whether it is worth ‘sharing’ with your friends or colleagues. Ask yourself, if your video isn’t worth sharing on whichever platform you release it on, is it even worth making? Can it be represented clearly among all the platforms in which your business is relevant (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.…)? Before you release it, ask unbiased friends or colleagues how it makes them respond. Does it make them want to show their friends? Does it make them want to send it to their boss? Does it make them glance over it and go ‘meh, next video’?

Stay Pinterested

Whenever you have a bit of time spare in your working day, try scrolling through your own social media pages to see what people are sharing, saving and ‘liking’. It may open up your mind a little to how the people’s mind around you work and help you to develop ways to confidently put forward your business ideas. It’ll help you understand what is ‘trending’ and why, which is important when gaging interest as people generally want to share and keep up to date with the most recent piece of news or ideas. Ultimately, it will help you start to mould your own ideas in a way that relates to the type of audience you want to engage online.

pinterest

Using social media as a way to market yourself and your business is most definitely one of the most crucial ways to engage your consumers. If you would like more ideas and advice on how to use these tools to its full potential, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our experts today!

How to keep your web content fresh for 2017

The Year of the Rooster

Happy New Year to you all! It is now the turn of the Chinese New Year; the year of the Rooster. The Rooster symbolises time keeping, organisation and reliability amongst many of its qualities. With a little inspiration drawn from chaos that was 2016 (year of the Monkey – allegedly erratic and unpredictable) we thought we would smoothly draw a line under it all and start afresh. And what perfect way to begin a new chapter than to be inspired by rooster qualities? We delve into some ideas on how to keep your web content both fresh and innovative, whilst allowing you to provide your customers with efficient and reliable services.

 

Think… Clean Layout

This may seem like an obvious one, but not everyone gets this right first time. There is nothing worse than going on to a website, whether it was just a simple search into a search engine or you’ve gone straight to the site you desire and not being able to navigate it. Particularly with the fast paced and instant world we live in today, people get bored. Consumers are less likely to continue to search through your website if it feels awkward and difficult. Your site also represents your business so you want people to think that by choosing to work with you that it will be a smooth and effortless transition. It is vital that you keep website looking clean with smooth lines and simple drop down menus that allow people to get to their destination with ease.

 

Keep Updated

Without content, your website is just a few drop down menus that lead to empty pages with headings. Obviously, your website is not going to just lead into nowhere, so why would you only update or add new content to your site just once, or even twice? The rule above applies to many aspects of your business, not just the layout or design: don’t let people become bored of your site when all you need to do is keep it updated regularly. You can do this by adding new content, such as interesting blog posts, comments from customers or even keeping a dashboard to your business’ social media page so that customers, new or existing, can see what you’re up to regularly. Not to mention, keeping your content fresh will help keep your website relevant and boost your SEO.

 

Make Sure to do your FAQ’s

Many companies, especially smaller ones, may not see the need for an FAQ page. This page is such a vital, yet fairly easy page to create. You may not be able to always reply to potential customers questions so it is important that any questions they may have are easy to reach. This may be a question about shipping and delivery, or warranties or how to reach a certain member of your team. It helps potentially frustrated customers feel accounted for and inadvertently looked after.

 

50 Shades of Grey (or blue, or purple or green)

Now this may not work for everyone, however, a sometimes effective way to freshen up your website if you are wanting a full overhaul or whether you are thinking about your first site. Colour schemes help to set the tone of your site and give it a clean-cut finish. Unless you already have a colour scheme or design layout set in stone, a really simple and effective way to look more professional is to pick one colour, maybe that of your company logo, and using variations of that colour throughout your site. However, if you do use this technique, make sure that your using one shade of that colour and altering it from light to dark so not to clash and cause your customers to have sore eyes after looking at your site.

 

Stay Balanced

Keeping the balance between professionalism but making sure to be friendly and talk to your customers on a friendly level is important when doing business and you should keep this in mind when going through your website. Look through your site; does it look informative but not condescending? Does it read well and easy to understand? Making sure to keep the levels of jargon down (unless your business requires it) will help people not to feel alienated when understanding what they will get from you and your business.

 

Add Some Pizazz

Finally, although you want your website to be clean, easy to navigate and free of jargon, you also want it to have the type of flair that represents you and your business. This can be something as simple adding images or embedded videos to certain pages to add a bit of visual excitement. Even adding a link to a page that directs you to a ‘Meet the Team’ page with a picture of each member of staff and a fact about each one could be an icebreaker for your customers. Think of something that sets you and/or your team/business apart from everyone else within your field of competition and add it in! People love to feel like they’re unique, so if they’re using a company that has a quirk about them it will be more likely that they will remember you and attract them to your business.

 

We hope that your business prospers through 2017! If you would like any information or advice on keeping your website fresh or any of our other services, please contact our team today.

Let’s Talk About SEO

A few simple steps to help you move your website up the search engine ladder

First thing’s first, for anyone that is new to all the online business jargon, SEO simply stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ and its function is to help push your website to the top of any search engine. However, with your help provided, you can help push your website further to the top of search engines so whenever someone uses certain words and phrases to search for businesses like yours, you can make sure to be that users first click!

SEO Search Engine Optimisation Text

 A search engines’ job is to simply act upon the request of the user and provide the best match to what they are searching, based on popularity and relevance. The way search engines provide this information is based on a series of links from your website to the database that the search engine holds. This database is found by ‘crawlers’: imagine tiny people running through a network of imaginery wires inside the search engine, looking for useful keywords and information to determine the relevance and popularity of links on your website that will help to push your site to the top of search enquiries. Whether you are building your own website or if someone is doing it for you, it is important to understand how to create a site rich with information that helps users and consumers find you easily.

search engine optimization

 There are several ways to help your website climb to the top. One way search engines determines the popularity and relevance is based on what the user is typing into the search engine to look for specific services, products and information. So, keeping the titles and subtitles of each page of your site is accurate and descriptive is a good place to start. Adding text links to each page will help people navigate people through your site, whilst also allowing search engines to understand how relevant you are in relation to certain searches.

Text Links Image

 Keep your URL simple and keyword rich. This will not only help users to find you quicker but will help keep you near the top of search engines. Speaking of key words, make sure to not keep key words (i.e. your company name or the service you offer) hidden from the search engine ‘crawlers’ in different forms of media, such as images or videos.

Keeping it simple and clear for the purpose of your URL and key words and links n your site are very useful for SEA to understand the relevance of your site, however, annotating your website in a way that someone would actually describe images or videos could help SEO recognise the content of what you are presenting. For example, rather than just writing ‘Building a Table’ as a How-To video for DIY beginners, you may elaborate on the content to something someone would actually search ‘How to build a large kitchen table for beginners’. This helps both the SEO and user find and understand your content before clicking.

Drive Web Traffic to your website

 Keeping your content fresh and updated is also key to keeping it near the top. Sites that haven’t been updates in years may lose its relevance and popularity so will lose traction and fall down the list searches. Keeping your site updated is not only a must for your current customers but to also attracting new ones and gaining popularity on all search engines.

Understanding what people are searching for is key to organizing your site and tailoring it for the user. Is your typical user searching for your specific page? (i.e. typing in your company name or something similar?) Are they searching for a product or service that you, or anyone else, are providing? Or, are they searching for information that could relate to your product?

Write content that people what to read image

Being visible for your customer in the first few suggestions on their search could be crucial to you gaining business. Being a top result on a search page results in the highest amount of traffic to your website, which will ultimately gain you a higher volume of potential customers. So, be smart about your SEO and the rest will be history! If you need any more tricks and tips or would simply like to talk to one of our experts, give us a call today, we would love to hear from you.

Generation Now

THE POWER OF THE ONLINE BLOGGER

10 years ago, if you muttered the words ‘blogger’, ‘vlogger’ or ‘YouTuber’ in the presence of a business professional, you would probably be greeted with a bemused look upon their face. 20 years ago, those words merely didn’t exist, let alone become a valid stream of income. YouTube, the main platform for the 21st Century ‘blogger’, has enabled people to connect with the rest of the world by simply using home-recorded videos created by someone with a hobby. A savvy blogger filming themselves doing a simple review on a product or a tutorial on how to create ‘the perfect red lip’ has now snowballed into creating some of the highest earning, self-employed, influential people all over the world. We delve into the lives of these savvy business men and women, and how it can help you.

How do they make money?

To begin with, YouTube was just a platform to give people the outlet they wanted to show off their talents or hobbies, expanding from written online blogs. The more views a video would receive and interest it gained would entice advertisers to place their commercial on said video. For example, an advert with the latest type of lipstick may be shown on a bloggers video of a make-up tutorial, providing that blogger attracted a substantial amount of viewers. Advertisers then pay YouTube, who take some of the cut and then pass on the rest to the video blogger who created the tutorial. However, these types of earnings may look like pennies compared to the impact these ‘YouTubers’ are making.

Branding and Merchandise

Many YouTubers have moved on from the traditional income stream of advertising (although, don’t get me wrong, some of the biggest names online get a hell of a lot from one major company advertising on their video). Some of the most popular bloggers are now a household name and create bigger income streams from the likes of branding and merchandise. This can include partnering with big brands to creating their own brand. Some have gone on to release sell-out books, make-up lines, fashion labels/brands and even just branding their own imaging on merchandise can earn them a big buck. Some partner with major brands in order to promote themselves and sell a product and most of them create videos with a certain product to talk about, in which case, they have to label the video as an ‘#AD’ (by law).

 

Stars of the show

You think we’re joking? Well, just to make you more familiar with the process, we present to you some of the ‘stars’ of the show…

Zoella (Zoe Sugg)

One of the most influential YouTubers on the internet. With a whopping 11.2 million subscribers to her channel and over 840 million views on her videos, anything she promotes, sells. She has more followers than Barack Obama and had an invite to have tea with Prince Harry, but this isn’t merely enough. Some of her accolades include a sell out beauty collection with Superdrug in 2015 and her own book ‘Girl Online’ selling over 80,000 copies in the first week, making her the fastest selling debut novelist since records began. She began her blog in 2009, sat in her bedroom of the family home, because of this she is now known as one of the biggest influencers for young people in Britain with an estimated net worth of £3m.

Alfie Deyes

Or ‘Mr. Zoella’ is the other half to Zoe Sugg. Both popular YouTubers in their own right before becoming a couple, Alfie commands a subscribing audience of 5.4 million and over 435 million views to his channel ‘PointlessBlog’. For young viewers, this channel is about fun challenges, games and… eating candy on camera (Yep, you heard us correctly, this particular ‘candy eating’ video, that was uploaded less than a month ago, boasts almost 2 million views to date).

Pixiwoo

In 2008, Samantha Chapman, previously a make-up artist, sat in front of her webcam, ‘bored one day’ and decided to start filming make-up tutorials online. Her sister, Nicola, then joined her in the venture and together they produced the channel (and now brand name) ‘Pixiwoo’. Aside from their YouTube channel creating a sizable stream of income, they also have their own range of cosmetic brushes and worked with some big names within the fashion and celebrity industry, whilst also running a five-day make-up course from their studio in Norwich.

These are just a mere few of the hugely successful Bloggers/Vloggers/YouTubers/Influencers, whatever you want to call them! Below are some of the rest that are extremely powerful in their own right.

Samantha Maria

Subscribers: 1.8M

Views: 151M

Formerly known as ‘beautycrush’, this influencer began creating fashion, styling and make-up videos and now, with her boyfriend, run a sell-out fashion label ‘Novem & Knight’ and still earn off creating personal and sponsored videos.

Patricia Bright

Subscribers: 955k

Views: 84M

Previously working in finance, Patricia now runs a hair extension brand alongside her blogging as well as being a brand ambassador for Loreal.

Tanya Burr

Subscribers: 3.6M

Views: 311M

Alongside Zoella, she has been a ‘cover girl’ for one of the best selling glossy magazines in the UK and has a sell-out make up range in Superdrug.

In The Frow

Subscribers: 522k

Views: 28M

‘Inthefrow’ is a brand created by Victoria, a writer, photographer and editor. She is now an ambassador for Loreal alongside Patricia Bright whilst running a successful written blog and online YouTube videos. Known as a ‘lifestyle’ blogger, she talks about high-end fashion, make-up, food and travel.

 

What does this mean for you?

The above are some of the most sought after names within the online industry – and outside. So making this work for you and your business could really prove difficult. However, we are just demonstrating the sheer scope of media and culture that these names possess. It is these people that are the future of advertising and how, you, as a business owner, could be able to connect with your costumer in the most efficient way.

Reaching Out

We are a big supporter of producing great quality content and videos for any business. Connecting with the blogging community now has a huge advantage in many ways. You could start your own blog, depending on what type of business you have. Creating an authentic way to connect to your target market and making that translatable through both yourself and your products could be a double win for you and your company. If you aren’t as fond of the idea of creating your own blog or you dealing with a business that is on a much more grand scale, then doing your research and reaching out to the influencers of today could seriously win you big interest from consumers you didn’t even know existed.

Authenticity

More often than not, some YouTubers won’t agree to advertise something that they haven’t tried or they are not passionate about. Sending out products to relevant and popular Bloggers that talk to your target audience could lead to an unsponsored ‘ad’ with them talking about your product simply because they love it. Free. Advertising. What more could you want? It could consist of paying for one of your ads to appear at the beginning of their videos (depending on the popularity of the blogger, this could be a costly affair), or even paying for a sponsored ad where you partner up and/or pay the blogger to advertise your product or service on their channel. But remember, keep it authentic, only target people you think will understand the product and love it as much as you do!

Happy to help!

Want to create your own professional video or learn more on other great marketing ideas? Please contact us today! We look forward to helping you get the most out of your business.

Best Viral Ad Campaigns of All Time

How the Admen get your money

Have you ever wondered how businesses create ad campaigns that become viral? Or more to the point, how they BECOME viral. Well, unfortunately, there isn’t much science to it, although many of the viral campaigns tend to have one thing in common – a good old case of the feels. Often it is the poignant, silly or downright outrageous campaigns that take over our social media feeds in a matter of hours. It is also often the best one’s that have people thinking about, talking about and/or humming along too (you can’t deny that you have never had Phil Collins ‘In the Air Tonight’ stuck in your head for months after Cadbury’s ‘Gorilla’ ad campaign). Getting your brand out there and raising awareness via social media is becoming increasingly more difficult with the excessive amount of content being shared every second of the day. So, we hope to inspire you and get your creative juices flowing by compiling a list of, what we think are, the 10 best ad campaign of all time.

 1. Dairy Milk (gorilla & eyebrows)

YouTube View Count to Date ‘Eyebrows’: 1.5m 

Cadbury Eyebrows

YouTube View Count to Date ‘Gorilla’: 8.5m

Gorilla Cadbury

If it is one thing Cadbury has managed to achieve, it is a string of super successful (and creative) ad campaigns. Their aim? To create adverts that would spark both conversation and reaction. Using nostalgia as a tool to engage the older consumers and an utterly silly concept to connect with their younger viewers. Simply genius.

2. Old Spice

YouTube View Count to Date: 53m

Old Spice

The genius for the Old Spice advert that famously declared “I’m on a horse” lies with the fact that they filmed the whole advert in one take! They cunningly recorded this advert in one take by simply moving backdrops, and using a very well rehearsed horse, of course. The ability to offer a product to the male consumer whilst also appealing to their female counter parts with the tag line “This is what your man could smell like” is sheer brilliance.

3. Think! Don’t Drink and Drive

YouTube View Count to Date: 119k

Think Don't Drink and Drive Image

This ad campaign may have only had 119k views on YouTube to date, but that does not reflect the impact that this particular advert, and other similar to it, have had. It seems that the most effective road safety adverts are those that communicate with the viewer in the most simple, real and, sometimes, shocking way. This advert in particular focuses less on the graphicness of how damaging drinking and driving can be and instead emphasizes the impact that drink driving can have on your life. It shows a man behind the bar responding to a customer, who is about to buy a drink, with a series of consequences of drink-driving. This includes a driving ban, which leads to job loss, which can lead to jail time and not being able to support your family. Powerful stuff.

4. Dove Evolution

YouTube View Count to Date: 18.7m

Dove Evolution Image

Dove have been ambassadors for ‘Real Women’ for a long time, so their long standing campaign stays true to its ethos and uses women of all shapes, sizes and colour to represent their brand in each of their adverts. Their campaign aims to not only support women’s bodies, but also celebrate them. This brand connects with their target audience by showing the viewer that most ad campaigns that promote beauty and skin care products use technology to achieve an unattainable and unrealistic standard of what we believe, as a society, is deemed as ‘beautiful’. Using this method ultimately aims to gain trust from the viewers and ‘expose’ other skin care and beauty companies.

5. Three #DancePonyDance

YouTube View Count to Date: 12.5m

Dance Pony Dance Image

Using a similar method to the Cadbury campaign, mobile company, Three, intend on engaging their viewers with an advert that supplies a catchy song and an utterly ridiculous concept of a pony moonwalking. Three also tap into the need to connect through social media platforms by adding the hashtag #DancePonyDance. The result of this hashtag is a way to spark conversation over social media that advertise their product whilst making people laugh and not take it too seriously. Ultimately, this leads to the video being shared through various online platforms multiple amounts of times and sparking interest in the product itself.

6. Evian Baby and Me

YouTube View Count to Date: 130m

Evian Baby and Me Image

I don’t know about you, but I know many adults who dreams of a simpler time. A time where we didn’t pay bills; a time where we could pull silly faces and dance in public and no one would bat an eyelid; A time where we could let loose and be ourselves. That time for many people is their childhood. This is probably why this advert has had a whopping 130 million views, because we simply can’t get enough of how relatable it is. A bunch of adults walking past a large mirror through a busy street and spot there reflections, but their reflections being their former self as a baby. They start to dance and make silly faces and it is the connection with their childhood. The tagline ‘Pure and Natural’ that Evian hope to show us that being our young and unassuming self is not a bad thing. Quite the opposite.

7. Carrie coffee shop

YouTube View Count to Date: 66.4m

Carrie Telekentic Coffee Shop Image

In recent years, hidden camera pranks have become one of the most likely to go viral videos on the Internet. It gathers viewers due to its intrigue of its outcome and desire to know why the prank has been carried out. Whether it is a friend pranking an old friend, a stranger making someone in their path jump or a guerilla ad campaign, we love to see people shocked. This ad campaign doesn’t reveal its true agenda until the end of the set of pranks to reveal it was, in fact, an advert for the upcoming cinematic horror remake of ‘Carrie’. The original was a 70’s classic that was being remade for the likes of us 21st century folks, so they had to catch our attention some how. Using a group of actors in a seemingly normal setting of a coffee shop to trick the unassuming public that someone amongst them had telekinetic powers that can throw another human being across the room is was had us hooked and watching right through to the end.

8. Always #likeagirl

YouTube View Count to Date: 62.2m

always-like-a-girl

Always have used an ad campaign that touches on the strength of women and how, no matter what their bodies are going through, they should never be underestimated. They asked a group of young boys and older girls how they would do certain things as ‘a girl’, such as ‘run like a girl’ and ‘throw like a girl’. They all responded with meek and flimsy actions. Then they asked a series of young girls, that are seemingly unaware of the certain pressures put on them as a female, the exact same questions. The result? They acted out the same actions just as strong and fast as the boys when asked to carry out the same actions. They aim to show that women are conditioned into thinking they aren’t as physically capable as men and illustrate that this is not the case, especially when using their product.

9. John Lewis Christmas Ads

YouTube View Count to Date: <50m

John Lewis Christmas Advert Image

Ah, The John Lewis Christmas Advert. It is one we wait for, as a nation, all year long. We don’t expect anything less than a good old tug of the heart-strings and an emotional song to boot. Each year they do not fail to disappoint, from a little boy befriending a penguin, to snow people falling in love, it uses a little bit of magic with the theme of love to show us that John Lewis are the people to go to in order to get your loved ones the best at Christmas time. And don’t we all know it.

10. O2 ‘Be More Dog’

YouTube View Count to Date: 181k

Be More Dog O2

What is more adorable than a fluffy fat cat wearing a headset, telling a room of people that they can be whoever they want to be, even if they feel like they are a completely different species? Nothing! That is why we have come together to enjoy this advert in all its glory. O2 have managed to capture motivation using the most lethal weapon possible to advertise their product. This genius move shows us that you don’t have to live your life with tedious routine, but in fact you can take enjoyment from every day activities like running and jumping (and catching sticks). Of course this is a metaphor for inspiration to grab life by the… Well, you know what we’re trying to say. Either way, we love this little fur ball and everything he represents.

As you can see, each advert is incredibly different and creative, yet each one of them has the ability to capture our hearts’ and minds in many different ways, and we love them for it. If this has simply not provided you with enough inspiration for your next video marketing venture, then our experts at Stormnet Media would love to help you.

 

How to build a killer website

Make your website a traffic magnet

There are many reasons as to why consumers want to come back to you and your business for your services; great products/service, wonderful customer service and efficiency, just to name three.

However, you need to be able to grasp that consumers’ attention in the first place, in order to attract them to use your services. You could offer the most spectacular services, but if you cannot display these qualities through a professional and clear website, then you might as well forget it! We want to make sure that you can make the most of your website with tips and ideas from design, to multimedia, to the technical stuff that encourages your customers to click back to your website.

The Content

In order to start layering and building your website, you need to have the content ready, or at least concrete ideas of how you want your website to look and the information that will go into it. This information may include a brief overview of your business alongside images or videos and links that you would like to appear on your landing page. It should also include any necessary information that you need to add to your website, such as, cost of services and/or products, images of products and links to relevant social media sites. Without this, you will merely have a domain name!

The Knowledge

Do your research on competing businesses. Have a look at other websites for similar businesses, both successful and unsuccessful. This way you can educate yourself on what looks appealing to you if you were their consumer and what to avoid, if you think it looks clunky and unappealing. This is also a useful tactic during the creation of your website and build of your business, so you can keep up to date on who is on top on how they are attracting customers to their site. However, be careful not to plagiarise other designs or information, use the research information as a helpful guide of ‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’ts’.

The Design

Going from research on competing websites that you may have looked through, what do you notice of the more popular or successful ones? Generally, they will have a more clear and clutter-free landing page, clear titles and a clear navigational system to guide you through their site. Making sure you have a clean, brand recognizable and professional looking logo is crucial as it is what the customer first sees when they hit your landing page for the first time and how they will recognize you in the future.

If it is your first time building a brand or logo then you may benefit from spending that little bit extra on a professional to help design your logo – it is the attention to detail that will be worth it in the long run. Depending on the type of business you are, not all styles and designs of logos will have the same effect, so make sure it fits the theme of your business, for example, neutral colours and simple lettering may be used for a modern interior design company, however, bright colours with a bubble style logo will be more appropriate for a kids toy shop site. Either way, make sure it encompasses the feel and style of your business!

Note: As said previously, attention to detail is crucial! Make sure you look at every single button on your website in order to create the most appealing links to other desired pages.

The Multimedia

Having a vast variety of multimedia for your consumers to feast on is all the more appealing and encourages people to look into more depth of your website out of curiosity for what you have to offer– as Aristotle once said “All men have the desire to know”!

In the ages where social media is king, having more interesting and cryptic-at-first-glance images and short concise videos across your website will encourage your consumers to click on to your site in order to view them in greater detail, so we suggest, much like your logo and brand, that you do not skimp on these. Investing in a professional videos and photos shows will illustrate to customers that you really take care of all aspects of your business.

The Technical

We know what you’re thinking… ‘Technical’ = Boring. Things such as making sure all your links work and getting yourself to the top of search engines is the sort of stuff that makes the world that is your website spin with greatness, however, it can often be the most time consuming and frustrating part of the process.

Checking all of the finer details and all of the more technical aspects of moving your website through the ranks and to be the top choice of service in your particular field. It is also important to make sure your site has many links to and from it for many reasons; having a larger amount of links going to and from your website is important to show how active it is, however, you want those links to be trustworthy and coming from a quality source.

Having 100 links from spam websites that are linked to yours won’t install trust in your site and users, which in turn, reflects in your business; having 50 links that go back to your website through trusted sources, i.e. non-profit organisations, government websites, etc. will create trust in your domain. Keep your links as fresh as possible! Keeping up to date and making sure that the links going to and from your website are still popular and relevant is important on keeping your site up to date.