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Simple Tips on How to Drive Traffic to Your New Website

Whether it’s the interview of your dreams or the date of your dreams, here at Stormnet Media, we believe that first impressions are crucial. We cannot stress enough how important it is to have that first step polished. Whether it is your new website or you are launching a new app, it is important to make sure that it is not only ready to impress your consumers, but it is finished and launched with a cherry on top. It is that extra ‘je ne sais quoi’ that takes a mediocre pop record to a legendary hit, so with that in mind, we have put together some simple tips that will take your website from ‘one-hit-wonder’ to ‘hall-of-fame’ chart topper!

Content, content, content!

No article on our website would be complete without discussing our favourite topic, and that is… Content! We love content. However, it is no good just thinking about the initial launch and beginning processes. Even if you have the most incredible content to launch with your new site and you have your target audience hooked, it would not maintain its credibility if it was not nurtured and developed. This means making sure that you have enough ideas for new content as possible, in order to keep your consumers updated as consistently as possible. If you upload new videos, blogs or images to your website every Wednesday, stay committed. It is important that your audience sees you are passionate about growing your business by keeping them informed, and will make customers more likely to want to come back to your site or app in order to check out the new content.

Research

Before you can upload the wonderful content that you have waiting and ready to go, make sure that you have thoroughly done your research. Searching the latest trends on social media, website forums relating to your business or similar topics and keeping track of changes within your business world with email alerts will help to consistently develop your business. Keeping up to date with the latest news and social goings on surrounding the business that you are trying to launch will open your eyes to both the competition and help you to judge better on predicting what might be the next step forward for your business. It depends what type of new business you are launching, but sometimes it is even worth asking, what the savvy social world call ‘social influencers’. These are the people on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that are known for having the most followers, simply for tapping into niche markets and turning them into trends. In the creative industries, such as fashion and music, it can be a massive leap in popularity and drive for your website if associated with these online forces.

Bold, Bright and Social

In world where now communicate through text, video and imagery, whether it is for business or pleasure, you would be correct in thinking that it is an important part of the western culture. No matter what business you are, it would be silly not to keep your website or app updated with new images and videos to catch the consumers interest. Keeping the multimedia content on your site user friendly is super important; it is simple things such as keeping the images on your website ‘pinterest-friendly’ to encourage your potential customers to do a little bit of advertising for you by ‘re-pinning’ your most recent images. It may not have to be an image either, if your company is a lot more keen on spreading a message, then attaching ‘memes’ to your site with ideas such as inspirational quotes or interesting info graph’s that link back to your website, will drive in more and more people. However, be sure to keep video content short and sweet. With the culture of social media, it is that instant gratification that people are now used too, videos on Instagram and Vine are often between 6-15 seconds long! Yet, it is these short videos that seem to go viral on the web within minutes of them being posted online.

Stay Interactive

As we have mentioned earlier on in this article, keeping your content updated is important, in order to show customers that you are developing as a business in order to tailor to their needs. This is also true with looking at, discussing and changing with feedback. There is nothing worse than feeling as though a business you have recently bought into has, not only not lived up to the customer’s expectations, but then also, not taking on their feedback positively or even at all. As long as it is appropriate for the style of business that you are creating and ensuring that you have the man power for it, it may be worth taking advantage of all the fantastic platforms within your reach in order to get in touch with your customers. People like to know that their voice is being heard, so being able to assist people and further their experience with your company, it may lead to free advertising in the form of ‘Word of Mouth’ from your most loyal customers.

SEO

Many people shy away from the, often mammoth, task of making sure that you have effective and working links to and from your website. Your site should be SEO friendly in order to optimize the amount of traffic that you could potentially be driving to your site, should you be doing it correctly. As long as you have both on-line and off-line link backs to your website with titles that incorporate the most popular search terms relating to your site, then the more people you will be attracting and help you to climb the rankings on search engines such as Google. Be careful with your link backs and ensure that the sites that are linking your audience to you website are reputable and trusted sites, because as we said, first impressions count, therefore, people won’t want to click on your site if you are linked to a dodgy or untrusted site. Simple things such as using relevant terms and phrases attached to the images on your site; using key words in the titles and headers on your page or simply creating shareable content that is of high quality using key words and interesting headings will ensure the click-count becomes higher.

There are many more things that we would love to advise you on, so if you would like more information on how to maximize the potential of your website or app then please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Animation Vs. Live-Action: What is best for your business?

Don’t know whether to go for animation or live action – let us help you decide.

There are many things to consider when thinking about the best way to create, produce and market your start up or advertising video. As you well know, it comes down to your budget and your audience, but how do you utilise both of these factors to benefit your business in the most successful way? We want to look at the pros and cons of using animation versus live action video techniques in order to help you decide exactly what your business needs.

Budget

No matter what style of video or website, this is always our number one priority when considering the project that we are getting involved with. You have to have a realistic outlook of how much you are willing to spend on your start up or advertising video. By creating a reasonable budget, it allows you to have a better idea of how to create a suitable video without over or under doing it.

Audience

It may sound blaringly obvious, but when creating your start up video, the most important thing to think about is your audience. Who is going to be watching this video? How will this video make create more clicks for your website? These are important things to think about when you are deciding between whether you want to use live action or animated video. It is not enough to think, “I’d love to have an animated video of a dog running through a garden!” or “we need to have a live action shot of a man standing by a river” without thinking about the appropriateness for the demographic and the different effects that they have (Although, I’m not sure what this particular business would be marketing, to be honest with you!) However, what we are trying to say is, appropriateness is key and the decision between animated and live action could make or break the barrier between you and your desired audience, so think carefully.

Appropriateness

We are not trying to say that animated videos are not effective, as we at Stormnet Media love a good animated video and they can be very informative, concise and fun. But sometimes, depending on the message you want to convey and considering the audience, some videos may benefit more from a human touch. Having a well-known face to bring a message alive can really instill trust in your business, as it can illustrate certain professionalism to your campaign.

Resources

So, you have considered your budget and thought about which type of video is better for your business and how you would like to market it. But before you start putting the final touches to your mood board of ideas, have a think about your resources, as this can ultimately effect your decision about the use of animated versus live action. If you are outsourcing in order to produce your video, there is often not much difference in price, but of course costs will vary depending on the style of your video, production time and length, etc. If you are wanting to do a DIY job or you know someone that may be useful to talk or appear in your video then it is possible to do a live action video without outsourcing, however, this is much more difficult when it comes to animation.

DIY and live action

With a greater quality of affordable technology at our fingertips, it is no surprise that you can see and endless amount of ‘vloggers’ running businesses from their bedrooms using smartphones and cameras. With this in mind, there are so many pieces of technology that make it much easier for you to produce your own live action videos using things such as GoPro’s, iPhone’s and Drones. However, the devil is in the detail, and often it is the professional touch of a seasoned video producer that creates that final touch to your video. DIY can be truly magnificent when utilised and put together in the right way, and for many of these vloggers we have spoken about, it is endearing because it is very personal and conversational. However, if you seek a more professional look for your video then there is often no replacing the experience of a good video production team to advise and guide you.

Animation

Animation can be a great tool for a concise but fun start up or advertising video. We are big fans of the use of animated videos as there are no limits of what you can create because there are so many possibilities. DIY animation can be much more difficult to create at home unless you are knowledgeable in all aspects that come with it. There are many things to consider when creating an animated video, such as voice-overs, sound effects and illustrations. Unless you know what you are doing with animations, it can be very time-consuming and often less cost effective than outsourcing the talent to do it for you. A film such as Disney favourite, ‘Up’, is a great example how to use animation in a way that touches the audience and creating an invaluable emotional connection between the audience and the characters (the animation and a great storyline of course!). Due to the advanced animations that we can now create, it shows that you don’t always have to use live action to truly connect with your audience emotionally.

As you can see, both techniques can be very effective but there are may things to think about when considering how to use them. So, if you cannot decide between whether to use live action or animation for your start up, advertising or promotional video, or if you need an advice or quote then we would love to help you.

5 Things to Consider when Creating your App

Headache Free App Development

With smartphone users completely bypassing the Internet in favour for the mobile app, it has drastically changed how businesses run their marketing strategies; deal with customer habits and monitor data more closely. It has allowed businesses, whether small or large, to interact more personally with their consumers in order to keep growing their company, simply based on the habits of customers usage times and how they use certain apps. With the global usage of smartphones taking over desktops in 2014, it is certainly the time to make sure you are thinking wisely about how you will utilize this area of your business.

So, lets talk about you for a moment. Your business idea is taking off in spectacular fashion and you have got so many queries about how to book, how to get hold of you, look at what you have to offer and more, so you decide to create the perfect application to represent your company whilst letting customers interact with your business whenever they need too. You have spent a considerable amount on your website and making sure that the content is just right, so why would you skimp on the app? (You wouldn’t!) To make things a little easier for you, we have suggested a few things to think about when creating your new app.

Budgeting

This is the first thing on everyone’s mind when doing anything for his or her business. How do you prioritize and know how much you should be spending on certain aspects of our company in order to receive the best outcome in the long-term. Unless you are highly skilled at the application making process, the chances are you will need someone to help you design and create your app, so you can create a professional finish. With this in mind you will need to choose this person (or people) carefully and make sure that they know exactly what you have in mind and what your budget is. You may have many extravagant ideas about how you want this too look, but there is nothing worse than building up your dream app then realizing it will cost an arm and a leg to create it.

Access

It not is only about the design of your app, but you will need to think about who can access it. The professional dealing with the creation of your app should talk with you about this, but you will need to think where it will be more appropriate – The App Store and/or Android – and how much you will set the at pricing for your customers; will they pay to download it? Or can they download it for free but then pay for the content they use once it has been downloaded? You will need to think about what is more appropriate for the type of service that you offer.

How to use it

The worst thing you could do is alienate your consumer with a difficult to use app. As you can imagine, in this day and age, technology is moving so quickly and much more advanced, which means people are becoming more and more accustomed to instant gratification with the use of their smartphones and desktops. If you believe that your app has the perfect design and looks exactly how you want it to, but it is confusing to navigate, chances are, you won’t keep your clients interests engaged for long.

Maintenance

Your business is like a tree, ever growing and changing flawlessly with its surroundings. This is how you want your app to represent your company. You can do this by making sure that your app is constantly being updated, refreshed and renewed with new content and developing your app every time your company makes another step or simply just needs a refreshing new face. If your app is left alone and never developed, you will notice a drop off of loyal consumers, this is because we get bored and want to know that your business has always got something new and fresh to offer. Even the smallest changes make the biggest differences. If you have create a good relationship with your app developer, the chances are, they will be happy to help you grow your app and will grow to know the best techniques to help drive your cliental straight to it.

The Finer Details

Finally, this may seem like a blaringly obvious point to make, but it has to be said… Make sure the quality of your app is of a high standard. This application will, most likely, end up becoming the face of your business, so you want to treat it with love, care and respect. Making sure that every little detail is considered and you know exactly what your customers want to achieve from your app is crucial to keeping them engaged in the long run. The app has to represent your business and the amount you care for the customers needs. If your app is slap dash and just out there for the sake of it, then it might look as though you aren’t genuine about your intentions and could ultimately effect the way your business is viewed.

We hope that this has helped you become more aware of applications and how important they are becoming to every business, anything from a small fitness and nutrition one woman/man show, to a large media empire. No matter the size and aspirations of your business, there is always place within the market for you to make YOUR mark with a fantastic and engaging app. If you have any queries and would like to contact us about your app ideas, please get in touch with us today.

Important Things to Think About Before Creating Your Start-Up Video

Whether you are just starting out or you have long been in the game and looking for fresh ideas, we all know how important it is to have a start-up video with gusto! It is there to represent your company in a nutshell, so it is imperative to keep it authentic, engaging and informative. Here are some tips to help you tidy loose ends and, ultimately, create a fantastic investment.

Plan in Advance

It seems trivial, but this is one of the most important things you can do for any aspect of your business. Knowing your targets and what results you want to see from your video is a good place to start. If you have someone helping you out with the production side of it, make sure to be clear on your vision and be specific.

Budgeting

Whilst it is difficult to know how much it will all cost to begin with, make sure you know how much you are wanting to, and have, to spend on your video whilst leaving yourself some wriggle room. It is smart to do your research before you begin so you know exactly how to deal with each stage of the process. You want to make sure your start-up video has some staying power, but you don’t want it to break the bank. This is why planning in advance is so important, you want to be able to budget whilst having the best quality video you can produce within it.

Presentation

Whether this is a new venture or you’re just looking to re-vamp your business model, it is easy to believe that the most coverage of your user interface the better for your business’ brand. However, it is very likely that your website and/or app will change as your company grows, so avoid over-sharing in order to avoid confusion from your customers. The same goes for your logo. You want it to be recognizable to your customer-base, but you also want it to be updateable without too much of a drastic impact. Sure, you want people to know and understand your brand but be aware that over-using your company logo may make it harder to change or update in the future without consequences of alienating your customers.

First Impressions count

You want your customers to be impressed with your work so far, so sometimes it can be hard to avoid voicing your achievements and important cliental. We understand that you want to shout these things from the rooftops, however, it can make your start-up video seem boastful and can put people off. Including the names of existing clients (in order to boost your company’s profile) may change over time and cause a lack of authenticity to your business, so keep things like your cliental to your testimonials, then you can really big it up!

Get Involved

Having a strong and savvy team behind your company can really have an impact on how your company is portrayed. It shows your customers that your passionate about your business and care for the people who have helped you build it, which breeds a sense of loyalty, trust and security. So get your team involved in the start-up and video marketing! You might tell people you have a strong team behind you, but seeing it for themselves will really give your videos a strong message.

Think About Your Future Customers

It can be easy to get wrapped up in the culture that surrounds your business and have a great influence from the area in which it will be based, but consequently, it can have a limiting effect on your customer base. Whilst you want to have a clear demographic in mind, don’t be too specific on the area that surrounds you by using language that is too colloquial. Be open and universally understood so that your potential future customers can connect to you.

Be Proud!

Ultimately, you want your company to be a roaring success, and your start-up video is a big part of getting your business out there to the masses, so be proud! Show it off and stay focused. Being connected through online platforms such as social media has swiftly become the most important way of promoting yourself and reaching your customers, so it is crucial that you present your video, not just on your website but through social media and apps to get as much coverage as possible.

If you would like to know more about how to create a successful start up video, or you need some inspiration to get the most out of your video marketing techniques, then please contact us today. We look forward to helping you create something that you will be proud to show off!

5 Tips to Help Create the Ultimate Explainer Video and Script

Picture this: It’s Monday morning, you have beaten the mad rush to the office, finally made it to your computer, coffee in hand, you take a breath in and you eventually feel ready to create that killer content that will completely transform your business, and then… You end up staring into the white abyss that is a blank word document for a good 10 minutes, rifling through your thoughts for ideas? Well, at Stormnet Media, we understand that, when creating the perfect script for your explainer video, it can be hard to encapsulate the best of your business and put it into just a short few minutes’ worth of content. Here are some handy tips to help you get the best out of your creativity (and beat the Monday morning blues)!

1. First Impressions Count

The best way to keep your potential future customers interested is to explain to them what you are about, as a business, in the very first part of your video. You want to get your message across within the first 30 seconds of the video, and decorate with extra content later, in order to keep them watching on. There is nothing worse than vague intentions and may make your company look like it doesn’t know what it is about.

Our Advice: Take a piece of paper and a pen and write down your company’s tag line or ‘motto’ in the middle, then create a spider diagram around it, writing short notes down on what you think this means to you as a the business and to the consumer. This is a good way to find out what you think is the most important thing that customers should know about you within the first 30 seconds.

2. Short but Sweet

Now, we have spoken about this plenty of times before, but we simply cannot stress it enough! Keeping your video precise yet informative shows the customer that you are not there to waste there time, but to provide a helpful service.

Our Advise: Similar to our first tip, you want to make sure that your video is full of content before you add the flowery decorations that make your video and company sound that little bit different. So make sure you know what content it is that you need to include and separate these points into a ‘definitely’, ‘maybe’ and ‘unnecessary’ columns. It will help you decipher what is really important to the consumers and what you need to focus on.

3. Picture It

Okay, you’ve got the important stuff done. Now it’s time to be a little more creative! Since you know what you want to say to your customer, it’s imperative that you know how to want it to look when portraying it through video. You want to have an appropriate animation or live scene and you want to engage your viewers.

Our Advice: Tell it like a story. Think of it like starting a new book, the first chapter is crucial. It has to be engaging from the first word that is read or spoken and then it has to hold its gusto! One way to keep your viewers happy and excited by your content is to tell it like a tale. Getting together facts and statistics and throwing it out to people shows that, yes, you have done your research, however, it can often come across as clinical, non-personal and a bit dry. So, make sure to create a storyline that keep your viewers hooked until the end!

4. Pick the Right Storyteller!

Now we have got it sussed and you’re on your way to create a killer story for your content, having the right storyteller for your video is key and needs to match the energy of your company and it’s values. For example, a company promoting toys for toddlers is probably going to have a different tone to one that is promoting meditation apps!

Our Advice: Keep the Pace. You want to make sure that this video is a winner and really draws attention to your business in a good way. If it is a relatively straightforward, fact heavy video then you probably want it to be bold and clear but friendly, whereas, if it you are promoting an online game or app then you want it to be upbeat and animated. Either way, the audience needs to relate to the tone of your video, so make sure to keep the pace whilst explaining clearly and rhythmically, to not lose attention from the viewer.

5. Keep it Personal

When telling a story, you want the viewer to feel involved and connected. Ultimately, you want them to feel as though your company is the best to provide this particular service because you care about them, personally. We believe that this is the most crucial role that your video has to portray.

Our Advice: Always address the customer directly and never speak down. You don’t want to be re-telling people what they already know or over-explaining your company. The customer wants to feel as though what you are offering is special and helpful to them, rather than ‘talking up’ your own business needs or how well you’re doing, you want to show them that you are there for them. You can speak directly to customers by simply addressing the audience as ‘you’ and ‘your’ needs rather than ‘them’ or ‘their’ needs.

We hope that this has inspired you to create that Ultimate Explainer Script, however, if you are ever in doubt or may need a little more inspiration then we would love to hear off you. You can contact us via our website or call 01527 910050.

New Year, New strategies using Video Marketing!

Get the results you need with video.

A new year requires a new attitude towards your business. Keeping your team motivated and positive after the festive season can be hard, but being sure to keep up the spirits will mean more creative flowing ideas. When customers genuinely value your hard work, it can illustrate to potential clients or users just how passionate, friendly and innovate your team are without deviating from your main aim of business, whilst simultaneously rewarding your team by showing how much their work is valued. Here are some simple, friendly and positive video marketing tips to get you started and show your customers just how great your team, products and/or services, really are!

About ‘Us’

Problem? The section that is designed to explain to customers what you do and why you do it should be professional but passionate. If you are not passionate about what you do then no one else will! Sometimes, dealing with businesses, even small, home-run businesses, it can feel daunting to your customers and come across as ‘corporate’ and icy.

Solve it! Creating a video of you and your team together can show customers exactly who they dealing with and puts a friendly face to the name of who they’re talking to directly. If you are not the best at talking to a camera it can really show, so choosing the most passionate and enthusiastic person on your team to talk ‘about’ your company concisely can really boost customer attitudes towards your brand.

FAQ’s with a Difference!

Problem? If your business requires a customer service team who answer questions about your service or product then they probably come across a lot of similar questions and often writing them down in an FAQ page can sound awfully robotic and non-sympathetic to possibly frustrated customers.

Solve it! Making a fun FAQ page may sound like an oxymoron, but we assure you, its not! Taking your top 10 frequently asked questions and using (possibly the same enthusiastic employee you used for your ‘About Us’ page) to create a short video describing the solution to each question shows the customer you have taken time to look at their problems and think carefully about how to answer it.

Keep Your Customers Informed

Problem? Often these days, newsletters and emails get overlooked or even sent straight to the ‘Junk’ section.

Solve it! To avoid your customers skimming through your fantastic deals, latest offers or news, try sending a more personal message using a video with an eye-catching thumbnail about your product. Adding spirit, enthusiasm and creativity into your videos will catch anyone’s eye! It’s far more appealing than reading through emails…

Get Everyone Involved!

Problem? Each business, large or small, have their own way of recruiting new people to their team, however, it generally consists with an online application followed by an interview. This traditional hiring method has its downfalls; it is rigid and more often than not, the application’s can seem very similar to one another.

Solved! Get your future employees involved by getting them used to your innovative business methods. Try getting the applicants to submit a one minute answer video with possible ice breakers such as; ‘Tell us 3 things you have achieved in your life time that your most proud of and why’ or ‘You have been given a selection of products (possibly name 3 mundane items). You have 1 minute to select one and sell it’. Many companies have used this method of video recruitment in order to catch a glimpse of whom they’re hiring before inviting them to a face-to-face interview. It’s an effective way to cut down on valuable time for interviews by selecting the right people for your business. It also gives the applicants incentive to use their initiative, be creative and be innovative in order to get the job!

Review’s That Stand Out

Problem? You’ve had some great feedback from your customers but often they only leave you with a short quote about your performance and/or the ‘feedback’ email often gets ignored.

Solved! Give your customers an incentive to come back to your company in the future by offering them exclusive deals to use in return for a short video testimonial. Whether this can be done by a member of your team as an ‘in-store’ recording or a link online that the customer can submit a video straight from their phone/laptop, it can be an effective and thoughtful way to show future customers that you care about the people you serve. It gives customers an idea of how your company rates by the enthusiasm shown by your current customers and increase conversion rate. Often reading testimonials doesn’t convey the sincere passion that your existing customers may feel towards your services as well as their voice and body language.

Want to get started, but need a little help? Look no further! Contact one of our team for expert advice on your video marketing ideas and how to create effective marketing videos.

How Social Media changed video and marketing forever

SETTING THE SCENE

The turn of the century brought on massive changes in the social media industry. You could argue that MySpace was the catalyst for this domino affect of social web services that allowed us grow closer, not only as a community or country, but the world. Although it was essentially a music-streaming platform for musicians to share with friends, it grew into much more than that, allowing people to connect in a way that had never been seen before. The demise of this type of interactive media was slowly taken over by the likes of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and more recently, Instagram and Vine.

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER

Stores such as HMV did not take the power of these media platforms and soon recognised their mistake after shutting down over 300 stores across the UK. With the ability to share content so quickly over the Internet, it is easy to imagine why music, video and technology stores were shutting down left right and center. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine are now collectively worth billions in their status of social media content sharing.

SO HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO VIDEO MARKETING?

Good Question. In a world with so much at our fingertips and so many home-created videos going viral and easier ways to share it all on platforms like YouTube, it has spurred the industry of advertising and marketing to be more creative and personal to its target audience. It is not the case of simply using your content to reach one mass market over TV or radio; it has to feel as though it is reaching to each individual member of the audience in its own specific way.

GOING VIRAL

With millions of videos going viral every year, it is not hard to understand why so many companies are using this ‘DIY’ platform to create content easy for viewers to share instantaneously. So many videos that have gone viral started from the simplicity of someone capturing an emotionally accessible piece of footage, whether its funny, moving or informative in this home created setting to being recreated by corporate companies in order to look like their large conglomerate are just as accessible and heartwarming as those who are using a home-video system, whilst cleverly marketing their product or services.

WHAT HAS IT TAUGHT US?

Be Creative. Tailoring your videos online is the most crucial way to reach out to your demographic. Although creating and making a video to go viral might not necessarily be your aim, it is important to have the content there that makes it accessible, emotive and individual in order for people remember it and want to come back to it.

TIMING

You could have a 10 minute video explaining every little thing that goes on inside your business or a 30 second video with just an animation, but which one do you think the viewer is most likely going to want to come back to and possibly share with their friends, family or colleagues? In this social media dominated world with such fast access to newer and better things on every scroll, the answer is most likely to be the latter. Over the last decade we have been conditioned into lowering our attention spans, so you want to keep your video short, but sweet.

CREATING GOOD CONTENT

Content is key. This is what social media has taught us, most recently over the past 5 years with video streaming apps such as Instagram and Vine. The videos posted on these apps have to be a maximum of 15 seconds for Instagram and a much shorter 6 seconds for Vine. Therefore, the content is most definitely, key. It is about capturing someone’s attention in the first few seconds of a video with creative, original and emotive content. This includes the appropriate visuals, using animations, real-life or storyboards to put your business across in the best light possible as an accessible, friendly but professional service. As soon as you do this, you are onto a winner!

If the 21st Century has taught us anything, it is to think far more creatively as a business in our marketing ideas, which can only be a good thing! So if you want your videos to stand out and do much more than just sit alongside the millions of other videos out there, then contact our skilled and friendly team today on 01527 910050 or use our contact form to get in touch.

How to Keep Customers Engaged with Video

As the world becomes more visual, technology grows around us faster than we could ever imagine and media being at the instant touch of our finger, we show you why it is important to have the most effective videos on your website.

Instant Credibility

Having more people visit your website via a video has become incredibly important over the last decade, it can increase your conversion rates whilst, in turn, boosting your sales. This is why it is important to get the most out of your website video and how to keep customers engaged and interested in your business with the simplest of things attracting potential viewers at first glance.

Peak Their Interest First

Have you ever heard it when someone talks about a book or a film, “the first chapter/10 minutes didn’t spark my interest” or “didn’t engage me”? Although your video is a different form of media entirely, these words still apply. People often get bored very easily if you don’t offer them something to hang on to in the first few moments of what they’re watching, reading or listening too. This is why it is crucial to be conscious about what message you want to put across in the first 20 seconds of your video. Think about what message you want to put across or what service you are offering and be sure to include these key points at the beginning of your video to ensure people continue to watch in order to get a better grasp of what you are offering them.

Short But Sweet

In a world with such fast technology, it is a wonder how anyone can sit and look at one thing for so long when there are so many other videos and images offered to us. This is why you should keep your video concise and sharp. As well as looking professional, you don’t want to bore your customer and possibly turn their attention away with the dauntingly long video. Studies have shown that people’s attention starts to wander off course after just 60 seconds of watching one video.

Talk To Your Targeted Demographic

Whenever someone is visiting a website, no matter what service or product is being offered to them, they want to feel special. Your targeted customers and viewers are the reason this video will be on your page, so it needs to speak to every one in your demographic in a personal way. Vague and undirected videos can lead to turning people away from your website, never to return. Targeted videos are the key to increasing your success because it is important to resonate with your customers in a way that makes the viewer feel like your product or service is bespoke to fit their needs.

Details Are Key

An eye for detail and placement is key. Where your video is placed on your website and what surrounds it is very important to visitors to your website as a clean, professional and well thought out lay out can impact whether people want to stay on your page or not. It shows that you are thinking about what the potential customer should see first and what the necessary information surrounding the video is. Your video should have a concise description and a carefully chosen thumbnail is order to catch attention.

Remember, it does not matter if what you are offering is of the upmost spectacular quality, if the video on your website does not reflect that, then you will have less and less potential customers attracted to engage with you in the first place. So keep it engaging, short and targeted and you are sure to be onto a winner!

Written By Ian Stainton. Ian is the CEO and Founder of Stormnet Media Ltd, an award winning video production and digital media agency based near Birmingham in the UK. He is trusted by global brands, SMEs and start-ups to help them engage and interact with their customers - ultimately selling more stuff. You can check him out on Google+.

12 Big Video Marketing Numbers You Can’t Afford To Ignore

If you haven’t jumped aboard the video marketing train yet, it could be time to revise your marketing strategy.

Whether you work for yourself, manage a medium sized business or run a large multinational corporation, there is plenty of compelling evidence that suggests video marketing is the next big thing.

Here are 12 big numbers that suggest that video marketing is taking off in a big way, and a nice retro Sesame Street video to go with them, just for fun.

1.8 Million

According to Dr. James McQuivery at Forrester Research, that is the value of a 60 second video.

1.8 million words is the equivalent of around 3,500 typical web pages. Do you really have that amount of time on your hands, and what’s more, would your visitors have the patience or inclination to wade through that much information? Even if you wrote one page every hour, it would still take you 150 days to make the same impact as a one minute marketing video.

100 Million

That’s the amount of web users who watch video online every day. Okay, so many of those people are going to be watching the latest funny cat video or hilarious footage of people falling over, but they still have the desire and capacity to watch video.

45.4%

That’s the number of Internet users who look at least one video over the course of a month. On average, web users are exposed to 32 videos each month and they are becoming more and more receptive to this type of advertising.

90%

This is the percentage of people who find video useful when they are looking for products or services or just casually browsing the web. Video can persuade in a way that other media cannot. It engages more of the senses and takes viewers on a journey. For 60 seconds or more, they are captivated (if your video is good) and much more likely to take positive action. Reports show that products and services accompanied by a video are much more likely to sell.

16 Minutes And 49 Seconds

That’s how much time web users spend on average watching video ads. However, it’s the reason why people watch video that is important rather than the time they spend watching them. People generally watch a video because it grabs their attention, but in the case of marketing, it can also save them time. A video saves a busy executive or a consumer on the move from wading through pages of text. They can grab what they need about your company, product or service in one easy hit.

Video is a great way to harness the power of the elevator pitch in a much more effective way.

80%

80%, according to the Online Publishers Association, is the percentage of web users who remember a video they last watched in the past 30 days. Even better, out of that 80%, 46% took action after the video ended. Here are some interesting numbers:

26% sought out more information about the video subject
22% visited the website that was named in the ad
15% personally visited the store that was presented in the ad
12% bought the product that was presented in the ad

64%

This is where things really get interesting. 64% is how much more likely your visitors are to make a purchase or make an enquiry after watching your ad. 64%! Additionally, visitors who view video ads tend to stick around for 2 minutes longer than they would on a website without a video.

403%

A real estate group in Australia, reported that property listings featuring video receive 403% more enquiries than listings without.

59%

According to a study carried out by Forbes Insight, 59% of senior execs would rather watch a video than read text. Further studies also showed that 65% of the execs who watched a video were likely to click through to the respective website. 45% of those execs reported that they got in touch with the vendor to find out more about their services. 50% of those who viewed the video went on to make a purchase.

96%

And it’s not just online videos that make an impact. A recent study carried out by Implix showed that a video included in an introductory sales email could increase click-through rate (that’s the amount of people visiting your website from a link) by 96%.

200%

A survey carried out by Forrester Marketing Group found that explainer videos could increase click-through rate by 300%.

10 Seconds

That’s how long you have to hook somebody in with your video. Consumers and busy execs – they don’t have time to hang around. They want to dip in and dip out and you need to keep them around long enough to be compelled to make a sale or get in touch. According to research carried out by Visible Measures, 20% of your potential customers will click away from your video in 10 seconds or fewer.

Want 403% More Engagement? Let’s Talk.

Effective video marketing means engaging your target audience from the very start. At Stormnet Media, we work with the magic 10 second window of opportunity to ensure you keep your audience interested and compelled to take action.

Sharpen your business message with a marketing video that will put you leaps ahead of your competition. Speak to our video marketing experts today. There is nothing to lose and 403% more profit waiting!

How to avoid the biggest pitfall that will ruin your video

One of the most valuable skills that I’ve acquired over the almost 30 years of being in the ‘video business’ is that of scriptwriter. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of great skills to be gained in this industry such as cameraman, animator or editor but without a good script or creative idea the whole thing is a non-starter.

Now, while I’m not likely to be composing any prose that will be studied for eternity by school children or writing the next Hollywood block buster, clients appreciate the friendly, direct and conversational tone that I try to achieve. When writing for video one of the biggest challenges that I always face when putting together a script is avoiding the use of jargon.

Headache inducing words

Jargon is defined as “special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand” and this is the whole problem – most people want to be able to understand what you are saying in the easiest and most simple terms – especially when it comes to video.

In a recent survey by the BBC the biggest thing that puts people off buying technology is high tech babble and jargon. Unfortunately this cuts across most industries with almost all having their own special words for things.

Here’s a very funny spoof video that I love that’s overloaded with jargon:

The upshot of all this that people simply don’t buy stuff if they don’t understand it. I’ve seen lots of videos for things that I’m genuinely interested in but don’t understand the benefits because the person who wrote the script focused on jargon packed features instead of telling me what it could do for me.

Let’s look at a (real) BAD example:

“[XYZ Product] analyses disparate data streams into market equipped opportunities by amalgamating data from numerous feeds. By then purging, supplementing and evaluating it the [XYZ Product] will deliver business intelligence, insight and a set of key performance indicators to allow you to expose mission critical opportunities for growth and development”.

Amazingly, this is a genuine line from an online product video (that shall remain nameless) that almost gives you a headache hearing it! This is the sort of utter nonsense that’s like have a full time ‘sales prevention officer’!

Instead, this is what it should have said:

“[XYZ Product] works with your data, wherever you have it to help you make better decisions, offer better products and sell more of them.”

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and just ask “what can you do for me?” – it’s a simple idea but trust me it works. If this is central to your thoughts and you steer clear of jargon then you’ll be heading in the right direction.

Unfortunately some phrases I’ve heard all too often in videos offer nothing but a barrier to understanding. Typically, they sound quite impressive but don’t mean anything. Here are a couple of the worst culprits:

Customer Focused – This is a meaningless phrase as by definition all companies are ultimately customer focused because that’s where the money is. What’s usually meant by this is to provide a good service. While you can’t just say this you can use testimonials to provide the social proof you need to prove it.

Full-Service – this is another phrase to avoid. Firstly, no company is ‘full-service’ and secondly it often confuses people as to what you actually mean. Phrases that are obviously not true don’t endear you to an audience.

We Give 110% – We know that this means that you’ll go above and beyond the level required but again it’s just meaningless jargon. It’s so overused that it can have the reverse affect and give a negative and untrustworthy signal to a buyer – so don’t do it.

If only it was this simple…

Also think benefits – people don’t (mostly) care if your product has an ‘overhead grimble thruster’ of if you are the ‘market leader’ – they just want to know how they will benefit. So don’t be afraid to ditch the Jargon and be a simple script-writer… your audience (and your bank manager) will thank you for it.