If Your Company isn’t Using Video, it’s Time to Hit Record

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There’s no doubt, communication and marketing have been constantly changing and evolving since the creation of the internet, and it can be hard to keep up. But one thing is for certain, the popularity of video content is on the rise and it isn’t going to slow down.

To be clear: video content is more than just a trend. It’s becoming foundational to the way brands and people communicate online. Every minute, over 500 hours of video content is being uploaded to YouTube. Every minute! That’s a staggering 720,000 hours every day, just on YouTube.

There isn’t any getting around it: video content is here to stay. If your company hasn’t already embraced video as a key communication tool, it’s time to get onboard.

It’s what people want

Any good marketing strategy is based around giving people what they want. It’s just common sense. Video is a lot more popular than any other form of online content. You are much more likely to grab attention and engage visitors with video content than you are with text. 80% of people visiting a site are going to watch a video over reading the text on your page.

It’s the same with social media. Your posts are much more likely to get liked and shared if they have video content. People just find it more engaging to watch video. Period.

Get remembered

Viewers are also more likely to remember visual content. People are able to remember 65% of visual content they are exposed to days after seeing it. Talk about a good brand recognition strategy! The more people remember and recognize you, the more likely they are to trust your brand, which helps build authority and attract the type of employees you want within your community.

This is what good marketing is all about. Creating a brand that people recognize, trust, and want to engage with.

But using video marketing isn’t just about making content people will like and remember, it’s about growing your business and producing results. Any successful marketing strategy should have the goal of educating, engaging, and selling. And what form of content do you think is successful at driving sales? You guessed it.

Drive engagement with your product

You’ve probably heard that people want to watch a video before buying a product or filling out a form. It’s true! Using video to encourage people to engage with your content offer or product greatly increases their final decision.

Here’s what the statistics say:

It’s Not Just About Your Customers

While customers are the obvious target for using video marketing content, there’s a whole community of job seekers out there looking for the company that’s right for them. Using video content—the type of content that grabs the most attention and sticks in people’s brains—to promote your company culture and values to prospective employees is just plain smart.

Imagine you create a video that showcases your employee community and company values. Maybe you even include a recent charitable event you participated in or sponsored. Then think of everyone who comes across the video. You’re not only giving prospective customers a chance to build a personal and emotional connection to your company, but you’re giving job seekers a chance to get a feel for what it might be like to work for you.

Use video content to create a reason for people to want to work for you (and to buy from you!) by showcasing your strengths, your values, and your vision.

Aaand, action!

So there you have it. Your company can raise brand recognition, increase website visits, engage new customers, drive sales, and attract top talent. All by using video content. Don’t think you have the funds to do it? You may be surprised! There are many ways to create fun, engaging video content on a budget. Plus, if you invest in video marketing, you’re almost guaranteed to be happy with your ROI.

If you’re looking for the next best way to improve your company’s marketing strategy, look no further. It’s just a video away.

 

Content provided by Q4iNetwork and partners

Photo by Maxim Lupascu

Getting Online Reviews: How It’s Done

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Online reviews – we all check them out, whether it’s for a restaurant, a new car purchase, or a medical professional. We know how valuable they are when we read them. But are you taking the time to cultivate that type of experience for your customers? Creating that advantage for your business? 

More reviews mean better SEO, more social credibility, and more usable data for your company to source. But how do companies get reviews? Making a one-time push for reviews is common. Brick and mortar retail stores and restaurants will solicit reviews after a grand opening or event. Online companies will get reviews after rolling out a new product or service.  

Having current customer reviews makes a huge difference as most people consider reviews that are a few months old irrelevant. So what are ways your company can keep the reviews rolling in consistently?  

Just ask 

A great way to get customers to leave reviews is by directly asking them. The challenge here is doing so in the right way, at the right time. Here are some ideas.  

  • Set up an automated email asking for a customer review. Schedule it to go out a week or so after a customer has made a purchase. Make sure you give them enough time to receive and use the product before scheduling the email to send. 
  • A social media campaign is a great way to get people to engage with and review your company. You can roll out a marketing initiative that asks people to follow your account and leave a review in return for a coupon code, gift card, or other opportunity. 
  • Send out a social media post asking for loyal customers to give back. This can be done in a friendly, personal tone that encourages people who care about your company to come forward and show their support. Be sure to express your gratitude and make it cheerful—you don’t want to appear desperate! 
  • Asking one–to–one is also a great way to get reviews. Consider setting up a wrap-up meeting after completing a project for a client. Use this time to ask them about their experience, make sure they have everything they need, and request a review from them. This is a great practice when your business offers services that require in-person or video meetings. People respond well to being asked personally—happy customers want to give back! 

Make it easy 

Optimize the pathways your customers can take to leave reviews by creating multiple avenues for them to do so. The easier it is to leave a review, the more likely people are to take the time to leave you one. You can do this by: 

  • Creating easy, direct routes from your website to pages like Facebook, Yelp, and Google Review by adding badges to your menu bar and footer 
  • Making sure you add a link asking for a review to your email signature 
  • Adding a link for reviews to your product pages and conformation emails 

What NOT to do  

An important rule to getting reviews: Never pay anyone for a positive review. It is not only illegal but can be very obvious to anyone reading them. When customers come across fake reviews they immediately lose trust in the company. If your company is getting fake positive reviews, it will backfire and undermine the social credibility and legitimacy of your company. 

Ready for takeoff! 

Make sure you keep your eyes out for new ways of engaging customers and bringing in reviews. The internet is constantly changing and staying on top of current trends is critical to maintaining relevance. Any way you look at it, reviews are going to help your company get visibility, credibility, and informative, usable data.  

Talk with your team, create a plan for asking for reviews, and then stick with it! Consistent reviews can give your business the social proof you need for a boost in both SEO and credibility. And unlike so many other activities, it doesn’t require a line in your budget! 

 

Content provided by Q4iNetwork and partners

Photo by: melpomen

3 Reasons Why Your Company Needs Online Reviews

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In the age of social media and free access to information, consumers have more power over their buying decisions than ever before. Not only do they have a vast number of similar products to choose from, but they have the ability to gauge the experiences of past customers, research specific products, and compare everything they find with competitors. Often reviews are the first interaction someone has with a company—even before they check the website.  

People tend to trust each other more than they trust the business they are researching. Imagine you went to research a company before purchasing from it and you found that Google Reviews awarded the company a two-star average. Would you still decide to buy from that company? Probably not.   

1. The legitimacy factor 

Most people trust online reviews the as much as they would personal recommendations. Taking this, and the fact that the majority of people check online reviews, into account, you’d be crazy not to see the value in getting online reviews for your own company.   

People want reassurance that the product they are about to buy is, in fact, worth their money. If your company doesn’t have any online reviews, you lose legitimacy in the face of competitors who do. The lack of reviews makes your company seem small and unreliable because no one has backed you up or taken the time to say anything about you. By garnering reviews, you gain social credibility and perceived legitimacy and increase the likelihood by 68% that customers will buy from you. 

2. Boost your SEO: More mentions, more traffic, better visibility  

Google favors sites with more mentions and links. When a customer reviews a company, Google picks that up as a legitimate transaction, recognizes that your business is, in fact real, and boosts your visibility.  

Reviews also widen the amount of material Google has to read and associate with your business. This means that the more you get reviewed, the more Google will be able to associate new keywords and content with your business, which increases the likeliness that your company will appear in related searches.  

The bottom line here is that the more you get mentioned on the internet and the more your company interacts, the more likely you are to show up in a search and the more visibility you have.  

3. Opportunities for growth 

Tracking the way people are talking about your company online is a great tool for other things as well. By keeping up to date on your company’s reviews, you can:  

  • Gain a better understanding of your company’s online reputation and use this information to inform your marketing campaigns. 
  • Discover trends in customer experiences and identify areas of improvement. Do your customers regularly complain of bad packaging or delayed email responses? This is a great resource for discovering where you can improve on your customer experience. 
  • Collect clear data on your customer experience and incorporate it in a scalable way to review how your business has improved over time. 
  • See areas where you already shine and use this as a way to encourage and recognize your team’s accomplishments.  
  • Reviews can also give job seeking employees a glimpse before they join your team. 

Reviews can be just as helpful to your company as they are to customers. It’s up to you to capitalize on this free access to important and informative data.  

Replying to reviews is also an important part garnering customer trust, whether they’re positive or negative. Leaving responses to negative reviews can help temper a customer’s bad experience. It is also an opportunity to show readers how your business handles these situations. You can use this to show that you are respectful and care about your customers—even if they had a bad experience with you.  

It’s a big job, but you’re not alone! 

Reviews can come from many different sources such as Yelp, Google Reviews, Facebook and Amazon, to name just a few. Tracking and maintaining online reviews can be a big, time intensive task. Luckily there are great reputation management systems where you can keep track of all your reviews in one place. You don’t have to do it by yourself! 

Whether you are just starting or are already established, reviews can make all the difference when it comes to meeting this year’s revenue goal. Remember, reviews aren’t just for your customers, they are there for you too!  

 

Content provided by Q4iNetwork and partners

Photo by Ivan Kruk