123 eGuides

1 Minute Advice: How Video Gives You the Marketing Edge

Remember the days when emails were just plain text? Now the majority of emails sent for informational and marketing purposes are enriched with graphics, photos, and -- increasingly -- video.

Video has, in fact, become something of a "secret weapon" for marketers who want to make a lasting impression. There is strong evidence that videos grab more attention than text and photos, and unlike elaborate television commercials, Internet videos of good quality can be produced inexpensively.

Small businesses in particular can make excellent use of video as a marketing medium. As small business marketing expert Gail Goodman points out, writing for Entrepreneur, there are many effective ways to use video, including product demonstrations, customer testimonials, staff introductions, and video tours. "Video engages people in a way that photos and text alone can't," writes Goodman.  "For small-business owners, using video in your marketing can bring faces, voices, personality and heart to your operation, while also demonstrating your authenticity." Goodman also shares some valuable video production tips in her article.

Once a video is produced, it can be posted for free on platforms such as YouTube and embedded in web pages, blogs, and emails. Some of the most successful videos reach thousands of viewers when they "go viral," particularly across social networks.

Another smart use of Internet video technology for small business is the online seminar, often called a "webinar." Webinars can be presented live, or on-demand to be viewed at any time. Webinars are gaining in popularity as a way for marketers to engage customers and prospects in an extended discussion about a particular topic.

For additional small business marketing insights, check out the new online course by brand marketing expert Barry Silverstein here: www.bigbrandstrategiesforsmallbrands.com

1 Minute Advice: Why Blogs Still Matter for Brand Marketers

With the dramatic growth of social media networks, blogs have taken a back seat for some brand marketers. But a blog can still play a key role in marketing your brand in a number of ways:

1. A blog is a messaging platform that you completely control, so you can say exactly what you want when you want. You can also use a blog to encourage feedback and interaction with customers and prospects.
2. Search engines like blogs for their fresh, relevant content and frequency of publication, so a blog can help drive up website rankings.
3. A blog post can easily and automatically be linked as a feed to such social media networks as Facebook and Twitter, so the blog content becomes relevant to your fans and followers.
4. Promoting a blog to a target audience can help build a valuable subscriber list, which you can then use to further promote your brand.
5. Publishing a blog can position you as a thought leader in a particular area, which adds to your credibility and further enhances your brand's image.

If you're a B2B marketer, read more about the benefits of blogging in this article from HubSpot.

For more insights about brand marketing, purchase the eGuide, Branding 123, for just $2.99, or take branding expert Barry Silverstein's online course, Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands.

1 Minute Advice: Don't Neglect Your Website

Some marketers get so amped up about Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media that they begin to neglect their websites. Yes, social media should be an integral part of your marketing and customer contact strategy, but your website is still likely to be the best online medium for promoting your brand.

In a recent study of 2,000 consumers, 90 percent said a company’s website – not a social network – "is the preferred place to research products and find information that leads to purchasing decisions."

Websites are important for other reasons: You have complete control over the messages communicated, you can be assured of direct analysis of response vs. analysis through a second party, and websites still carry weight in search engine rankings.

Don't neglect your website -- make it the central hub of all of your online activities:

• Link all social media posts to appropriate website pages. 
• Maintain an active blog as part of your website. 
• Prominently promote and link from your website to all the social media you use. 
• Employ special landing pages on your website for social media campaigns so you can track response. 
• Collect email addresses by offering something of value on your website.

For additional branding insights, including ways to make the best use of online media, check out the new online course by branding expert Barry Silverstein here: www.bigbrandstrategiesforsmallbrands.com

1 Minute Advice: How Small Brands can Use Packaging to Break Through

Brand packaging has become increasingly important in brand marketing. Effective packaging makes a brand stand out on store shelves and on websites.

Even a small brand can break through with differentiated packaging. Consider "5 Hour Energy," an energy drink brand competing with much bigger brands, such as Gatorade, Monster and Red Bull. 5 Hour Energy's maker, Living Essentials, packaged the product in tiny bottles, so consumers knew they didn’t have to drink a lot to get a “shot” of energy. In fact, the packaging was part of a pretty shrewd distribution strategy: The size of the bottle allowed the company to get their product placed on store counters instead of on shelves – so they were more visible and often available at the front of the store, in a location other than its competitors.

5 Hour Energy upset the apple cart in the energy drink marketplace as competitors scrambled to come up with their own “shot-sized” packaging. The brand was named one of “America’s Hottest Brands” for 2009 by Advertising Age, the magazine of the advertising industry.

Unique packaging works over and over again in brand marketing. Sometimes, the package becomes the brand. In 1969, for example, Hanes Corporation introduced "L'eggs," a new low-cost pantyhose packaged in a plastic egg. It became a best-selling sensation.  

If you market a small brand, think about new and novel ways you can package your product. It could make all the difference in the world. 

For more insights about how small brands can succeed, sign up for the new on-demand online course, "Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands," taught by brand expert Barry Silverstein. Learn more about it here. 

1 Minute Advice: Test Your Way to Success

One of the ways smart brand marketers make dramatic improvements in program results is testing. You can test almost anything: brand names, slogans, promotional offers, pricing strategies, the media you use, creative approaches, and so on. 

While there are numerous ways to test, a simple way that can help you make quick decisions about what's working is the "A/B" test. The basic premise of an A/B test is to test only one thing at a time, keeping everything else the same, so you can analyze the difference in response, if any.

With an A/B test, you randomly divide an audience down the middle and test one variable against another. For example, suppose you want to test a product's price in an online ad. Set two different prices and create two different versions of an online ad, keeping everything the same except the price and a call to action, which is specific to each price (it could be a unique promotional code, for example). Tell the online media provider you are running a test and you want to randomly run the ads with the same number of impressions for each.  Then analyze the response to the ad codes to see which price worked best. If you have a clear winner, you can then consider "rolling out" the winner to a larger audience.  

You can use the A/B strategy to test just about any variable in any medium. It will help you learn what's working; in fact, it will allow you to minimize your risk by testing something across a small segment of your audience and then rolling out the winner to a larger audience segment. 

For more insights about how small brands can succeed, sign up for the new on-demand online course, "Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands," taught by brand expert Barry Silverstein. Learn more about it here.