Strategise before you pull the trigger.

What is the goal of this exhibition? Is the intent to further establish company branding, increase consumer facetime, or improve overall business profits? It could also be a little mix of all three. Are you releasing a new product? Maybe this exhibit will contribute to market surveys? Or perhaps it is an opportunity to dole out promotional offers to drive traffic to the business.

Bottom line, determining the purpose for attending this exhibition will assist in tailoring the marketing framework to that respective intent.
Determine the design approach.

Stands. Widgets, gadgets, and gizmos. Audience interactions. Giveaway opportunities. Marketing brochures. All of these ideas are individually lucrative, but when each approach is coupled with another the opportunity for success is amplified substantially.

Consider each of the options for promoting the business at the exhibition. However, it is wise to review the event overview information prior to completing the design ensuring that all necessary equipment is available and allowed for use at the event. Also, when designing visual displays, keep the message brief and to the point. Too many words complicate the design and the intent of the presentation.

Show me the money!

Obviously if a company could give away free cars like Oprah Winfrey then everyone in the world would probably be driving new Mercedes on the streets. Unfortunately, reality is a harsh factor and forces businesses to become a little more creative…on a budget.

Lay out design considerations prior to producing material and determine the upfront costs implicit to preparing for this event with respect to your design approach. Additionally, consider the backend financial opportunity as well. It may be worth the initial cost to increase consumer traffic and drive profits higher.

Publicise. Broadcast. Announce. Expose.

What is the point of preparing for an event, smiling all evening long, and handing out a few marketing materials if the event only brings in a few individuals? Obviously the event planners will advertise and promote the occasion to some extent but this shouldn’t limit you to just their strategy.

Reach out on your company’s social media channels, print and post flyers, and tell every joe blow you come in contact with about this exhibition. Increasing the foot traffic for the event is inherently mutually beneficial for both the organisers and your company.

Distribute free recognisable and memorable material

On the day of the event, it is always advisable to be personable and relatable to the audience members. However, is it guaranteed they are going to remember your company and products? No. Not the slightest.

Be smarter than the average company and ensure marketing material is passed out on the day of the event. As an example, rocket fuel companies have been known to imprint their logo onto solid fuel material used for space shuttles. It goes without saying, but be as creative as possible…and keep flammables away from combustibles.

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Now that we’re beyond that moment of ignorance, lets tackle this topic. Exposure is the number one reason companies utilise social media networks. Social network channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope, and Twitter allow direct contact to a company’s consumer base with a simple post. Now what is the perceived conundrum here with jumping into the deep end and signing up for one (or more) of these accounts?

You need a consumer base. Here is where the “efficiency” factor comes into play. Follow the guidelines below outlining how to effectively and “efficiently” generate a following thus creating the exposure desired.

Don’t post pictures of kittens…focus on valuable content

Yes, kittens are adorable. Will they create one million LOYAL followers? Arguably not. So what should you focus on when creating content? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the golden question. Perceived expertise, whether valid or not, is the number one factor in driving traffic to a social media account. Content quality is one crucial method for producing perceived expertise.

Quality content revolves around the customer. Before creating a post, ask yourself whether or not this is information desired by those interested in the industry. If not, go back to the drawing board and rehash the content.

Customer interaction leads to invaluable insights

How do you know what a customer desires? Interact with them! Online forums exist where people rant and rave over products, information quality, services, etc. Dive into the internet and discover what a consumer base needs. For instance, articles simply clarifying information can have a significant impact if it simplifies someone’s life. Additionally, consider posting relevant trends in your company’s particular industry. This demonstrates knowledge and command of the field.

Timing is everything

What time do most people go to work? What time do they typically have lunch? Ever thought about when they leave work or have dinner or go to bed? Human beings are naturally consistent people, each with their own individual routines. What is interesting is that society itself has general trends and routines as well. Why is this important?

Submitting a post in between particular hours of the day will generally prove beneficial by maximising viewing exposure or detrimental due to limited viewing exposure. Timing of each post is a critical component when attempting to generate the most exposure. Consider societal trends and determine what timeframe best works for your industry. Hint: don’t forget about time zones in other countries!

Quickly create exposure with flash promotions

Have you ever seen the advertisements saying something to the effect of “share this link and earn a chance to win X product”? That is a flash promotion. Activities such as these, with a well chosen prize, can generate quick (but TRANSIENT) exposure for any company. Ensure your social media account’s account has established quality content to review otherwise customers won’t be interested beyond the promotion.

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Long gone are the days where companies can simply post photos of products with elaborate (and lengthy!) details. Instead, a new wave of product videos are being released and are shaking things up. Why are these types of videos successful? A short video displaying various angles of a product combined with genuine narration about the product’s features engages customers on a more personal level. Plus, instead of taking 5 to 10 minutes reading a product overview, customers are able to watch a short clip, say 2 to 3 minutes which visually hits the important highlights.

How-to videos

These types of videos are phenomenal for indirectly driving traffic to a company’s products. The purpose of this video category is to solve a customer’s problem via detailed how-to content. Instead of selling a product to the audience, focus on solving their particular conundrum via the use of your own products. This will pay remarkable dividends in your conversion rates.

Walkthrough product videos

Change is inevitable in life and business. Company’s release new products regularly as well as upgrade and reinvent old products. Visual layouts may be altered. Service capabilities might be removed or added. Along with these types of changes generally comes confusion, uncertainty, and oftentimes frustration.

A neat method to minimise any impact from frustration as well as quickly educate your customer base on new products is to product a walkthrough video of the new product and features. When creating these types of videos, customer perspective is the key to a successful approach. Think of common case scenarios that a customer might face and record that scenario while slowly narrating the step-by-step process.

Social proofing with testimonials

Trust is a necessary ingredient in developing a brand with a loyal customer base. Once created though, company’s can move mountains. But how do you move a potential customer to a loyal customer category? This process is commonly referred to as social proofing. When a customer lands on a website for the first time, there is no loyalty. Video content with loyal customer testimonials is an ideal option to boost the probability of further enlarging your loyal customer base.

Forget text FAQ, use screencasts

Nowadays FAQ pages have become rather lengthy attempts to minimise trending customer service complaints. Changing settings, updating passwords, and unsubscribing are all examples of typical questions. Additionally, these pages are peppered with basic screenshots attempting to remedy the situation.

Instead of following the same playbook as every other company, create screencasts to answer each FAQ. These visual solutions are more creative and present a personable approach to an already frustrated customer. Plus, quite frankly, most people learn better visually anyways.

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Around 75 percent of adults use two or more devices—computers, tablets, smartphones—to search online, and will often visit the same page from all of those devices.

Not only do Google and other search engines give priority to websites that are mobile friendly, but once someone finds your website on their smartphone or tablet they need to be able to navigate. If your website appears distorted, unorganised, or if the print is tiny on a mobile device, visitors will leave, and you lose potential business.

Consumers expect your site to be mobile friendly.

Someone else’s shoes

You have spent the time to create high-quality content on your website. Good job.

Now take some time, or perhaps even do extensive research, to determine exactly what content your potential customers will be seeking when on mobile devices. Put yourself in their shoes. What are they likely searching for if they access your site from a mobile device?

Typically people are not doing looking for in-depth information on mobile devices. They are looking for quick answers, entertainment, easy purchases and other simple information.

Does your website make this information easy to find? Can someone purchase your products or find your blog posts or videos with just a few simple clicks?

Templates for success

If you build and manage your own website, choose a template within your content management system (CMS) that uses what’s called Responsive Web Design (RWD). Your template should have the ability to adjust the content on your website depending on what sort of device the visitor is using.

If your template is responsive, the same content will appear in slightly different formats on different devices. For example, your navigation bar may appear on the left side of your website when accessed form a computer, but it is condensed and moves to the top of the page when accessed from a smartphone.

Especially if you are using a common CMS such as WordPress, the CMS will clearly indicate whether or not a template is mobile friendly.

Start with your most important content—your contact information, purchase pages for your most important products, your “About Us” page, etc.

If you are working with a web designer, they should already be aware of the importance of mobile access, but make sure that you emphasise this is a priority for your business. You should work together to map out the typical experience you want your customers to have, as you will have a better understanding of what your customers are like.

Whether working with a designer or on your own, do not set up your mobile website to operate under a different URL. Spend the extra time and money to map out a website that can serve the dynamic needs of customers using different devices. In most cases, this can be done simply and for free by choosing an appropriate RWD-enabled template.

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Enter Snapchat and the uncharacteristic, yet unsurprising, success of this business. Thankfully many businesses can leverage this product to grow their bottom line and consumer base as well. Outlined below is an explanation of why video marketing has taken off as well as a few recommendations on how to integrate Snapchat into a company’s marketing strategy.

Why video marketing?

Research demonstrates that videos are 50 times more likely to be receive comments and reviews compared to text-based articles and websites. This simple statistic captures the benefits of incorporating videos into a marketing strategy. Simple photos only display snapshots in time whereas videos allow viewers to become encapsulated in the moment, visually and audibly.

Capture the moment

Integrating Snapchat into a marketing strategy allows companies to provide insight into the presence of the moment. Generally speaking, marketing is about content surviving the test of time, but Snapchat is different – in actuality it is downright contradictive to this very notion. Normal videos will remain persistent on the Internet for years down the line. Snapchat, on the other hand, allows companies to capture that fleeting moment in time. For instance, take snaps of product release parties, athletes preparing for a game, and even setup activities for events.

Leverage visibility with promotional opportunities and coupons

Coupons are one of the best methods to drive traffic to a company. Snapchat provides an avenue to release coupons and promotions with a twist though. The self-destruction feature can be a unique way to get customers to interact and remain up-to-date with company accounts. For example, post a coupon opportunity advertising 10 %, 30 %, or even 100 % off for any customer who shows a cashier the Snapchat coupon before it self-destructs. It almost becomes a game at that point…

Release teaser videos on upcoming products

This activity is fairly self-explanatory but needs to be foot stomped. Snapchat offers another avenue for promoting new products and offering sneak peaks of upcoming merchandise. Consider truly teasing customers by slowly revealing a few aspects of a product before releasing the full visual. An example would be a car manufacturer showing tires rolling down a sunny road in one snapchat, displaying a sleek engine revving in another, and then releasing the final product image. This will definitely generate buzz!

Advertise upcoming events

Snapchat is the ultimate tool to release flash sales outside the normal sale cycle (e.g., holidays). A company can even tailor who receives exclusive sales offers via Snapchat. This ensures that only the most loyal and avid customers have access to these special opportunities.

Highlight behind the scene activity

Printed magazines have finally caught on to this idea. Everyone has seen photographs that appear to be so picturesque it makes you wonder whether it has been edited or not. A unique and interesting aspect to these sessions is the ability to capture behind the scene activity highlighting the amount fun (and work!) associated to a product. Snapchat is the perfect means for incorporating this aspect via the short video capability. Snap a few shots or videos capturing photographers and models in action advertising your products!

To find out how we can help with your video content call on 0117 9666 448.

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Though the gym will become less crowded within two months subsiding to its usual attendance level of dedicated weight lifters and many folks will become too busy to take a life changing holiday, this doesn’t mean a business shouldn’t adjust their goals and participate in the new year buzz. This is the moment to recognise upcoming opportunities and challenges in 2016 to grow its market share and truly personalise its consumer content. Below are a few trends to consider when tailoring your market strategy for the new year.

Messaging Platforms vs. Broadcast Social Media Networks

Gone are the simple days of blasting advertisements and promotional videos to a customer base via Facebook feed posts and Twitter handles. A growing trend in digital marketing is the desire for personalised one to one messaging content. Facebook has marked a significant decrease in the number of feed posts occurring daily while the growth of messaging platforms is expected to grow even further than the typical social media markets.

The difficulty with this trend arises in the form of balancing genuine ways to fit a company’s brand into a messaging platform strategy without becoming overbearing on the consumer base. It is a fine line to walk even more complicated by the fact that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, the two largest western messaging platforms, don’t afford any options to advertise via their platforms.

Ad-blocking is gaining momentum

Nothing is more annoying than watching a video or reading an article when halfway through you’re interrupted by an advertisement. Recognising this frustration, Apple has recently joined the fight against disruptive advertisements by adding momentum to the ad-blocking movement. As a byproduct of this movement, ad-blocking software has increased significantly in an attempt to remedy the annoyance.

What does this mean for digital advertising? Simply pushing advertisements will most likely become a thing of the past. Instead, digital marketing strategies will need to consider a more finessed approach taking into consideration the consumer experience on that platform.

Integrated digital marketing strategies are critical

There are so many platforms to choose from when developing an online marketing strategy. YouTube. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Vine. Tumblr. Not only does a company need to decide on which platforms are appropriate for their use, arguably more importantly it needs to decide how the advertising will flow AMONGST each platform. Companies can no longer view each platform as a separate marketing niche, but instead needs to focus on an integrated approach.

Advertisements should flow from each platform easily without any compatibility issues which complicates the entire process. What starts as a formatted YouTube video will need to expand to Facebook and remain compatible for optimal effectiveness. A single video needs to traverse the social media platforms with ease to reach an optimum level of consumer base.

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Simplicity > Complexity

What is the best advice for presenting any new material? Great question. “Keep it simple, stupid”, a quote fondly dubbed KISS, is a phenomenal methodology in conveying fresh information. Frankly, a complicated logo is very challenging to identify in a sea of advertisements. Focusing on a clean and uncluttered design is crucial to enhancing your brand’s memorability, especially during the time sensitive window when a customer first comes in contact with your logo.
Colour…is your logo eliciting the right emotions?

Did you know there is actually a legitimate science behind colour schemes? Humans are tremendously impressionable to the point that if a business wants to evoke a particular emotion it simply needs to lay subtle cues in the colour scheme. During the design process, spend time pondering what feelings your business wants to induce.

Are you in the lingerie product line? Consider using tones of red to portray a bold, sexy character. Work in the financial market? Perhaps a shade of green or blue will display a trustworthy and professional demeanour. Bottom line, research the array of emotions associated to each colour and master the science behind ROYGBIV.

Versatility is crucial

Remember that logos are no longer just signs suspended outside the company headquarters. Expect to do more than simply print this symbol on the front of magazines and flyers. Logos are everywhere and are accessible by nearly everyone on the planet. This obviously ranges from physically printed documents to digital devices to smatterings across social media.

With this in mind, reflect on how the logo will be utilised for advertising in the future and apply design considerations accordingly. Run through every possible permutation ensuring the design is malleable to each scenario without sacrificing value.

Here is a short list of common advertising possibilities to get the juices flowing:

• Clothing: T-shirts, caps, wristbands
• Size: Large and small
• Backgrounds: Range between extremes (black to white)
• Writing: Banners, flyers, display signs

Take it to the board

One of the best techniques to generating creative and effective designs is simply brainstorming a large assortment of possibilities. For a moment, gather the design team (or just yourself!) and allow all prospects fifteen minutes of fame. Write every idea down. Yes, that means the good, the bad, and the horrendously ugly.

This design methodology is rather common in business yet extremely powerful. Instead of eliminating candidates at first blush, this provides an environment for a design idea to grow, expand, and perhaps even combine with other ideas. Don’t sell an idea short until it has been fully investigated! Remember…NIKE is only a checkmark.

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When you are building a website it is tempting to include all of these eye-catching features to make your website “cool” or memorable. But is that what is best for business?

Well, it depends, but most of the time the answer is NO!

A graphic feature of a website that may seem appealing to the business owner or person building the website may be distracting to someone visiting the website in search of important information. Highly complex sites are likely to lose visitors quickly if they cannot easily access the information they are seeking.

Perhaps most importantly, search engines such as Google are favoring more and more sites with simple, yet high quality content. Websites with lots of ads and fancy features are appearing further and further down in the search results.

Free yourself!

Pop-ups? Get rid of them. More than two or three of the most important social media “share” buttons? Get rid of those, too. Obtrusive prompt to “subscribe,” “follow,” or any other action? You get the point…

You should seek to get rid of anything that does not contribute to the very simple function of your website or to the content itself.

People are spending less and less time on websites, so make sure that when they visit yours, they are digesting the content rather than closing pop-ups and ads and navigating other distracting features.

KISS your website

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Yes, your computer has hundreds of fancy fonts. Cursive. Calligraphy. Many others.

More important than looking unique is being readable. Make your font is simple, large, and stands out from the background.

Speaking of backgrounds, minimise the number of colours on the website, period. The majority of the page should be one colour or one non-distracting background image. Other colours should only be used to highlight important things such as your navigation bar or contact information.

Your navigation bar should be easily found and used. The most effective style and location is a horizontal bar at the top right of the page where it does not get in the way of the important content. A vertical bar on the left side of the page is also a good option.

Is the empty space on your page driving you crazy? Good!

Don’t succumb to the urge to fill all of the space on your page. Negative space actually helps direct the website visitor’s attention to the most important thing, the content. Features such as side bar images, quotes, links or other features distract the reader from the main article or information.

Give your audience the information they need in the simplest, most effective manner possible. Make sure that Google not only can find you, but also that it wants to find you. And Google likes simple.

What simpler website is there than Google itself?

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