The Internet is bursting at the seams with content and information. It is important to stand out so you are getting the most out of your B2B marketing strategies.

I recently read a book called Contagious by Jonah Berger, Professor of Marketing at The University of Pennsylvania. Berger spent decades researching (so you don’t have to) exactly what it takes to make something go viral. He used these same principles while writing this book to prove that it works. I can confirm that they do, in fact, work because I couldn’t stop reading it. Here is what I learned.

Social Currency

With the rise of social media and the multitude of social tools available to us, we are constantly sharing information. We share information with one another to appear knowledgeable, important, or just generally appealing to others. Social currency is the belief that value can be earned from social participation as a means to make us look good.

Jonah Berger identified three ways to get consumers talking about their favorite brands and to share this information with others in order to earn social currency among their peers.

A. Identify what’s remarkable about your brand

When people discover something remarkable, they can’t wait to be among the first to tell everyone else about it. Berger uses the example of Blentec Blenders. Blenders on their own seem standard and fairly unremarkable, we can all agree. You put in a bunch of ingredients and voila, you have a nice jug of mush. It does what it needs to do. So, how do you make everyone go bananas about a blender? Blend up an iPhone, golf balls or just about anything really. Blendtech gave us high entertainment value by blending unconventional items while showing how powerful their blenders are and in the process created a trigger. So, next time you think about blenders, Blendtech will be top of mind and you’ll have a great story to tell your friends. By identifying what’s remarkable about your brand or product, you will create social currency among viewers and get people talking about your product.

B. Utilize game mechanics

People love playing games. They like to be the best among their friends and they like to win in order to earn bragging rights. A good example of this is the “Challenge” feature of the popular activity tracker, Fitbit. You can challenge other friends with Fitbits to weekly challenges with a set goal. The first person to reach this goal, wins. These achievements can be shared with friends on social media. This is not only a way for Fitbit to encourage users and to become more active, but to increase the popularity of their devices and bring awareness to those who don’t currently have one. Others who don’t have a Fitbit see these updates and want to join in on the competition, so they are more inclined to go out and buy a Fitbit of their own.

C. Make people feel like insiders

When Google launched their social network platform Google+, it was by invite only. You had to be invited by someone who already had an account. What was Google’s secret? Probably nothing. They likely just wanted to limit the number of people using the website while they were still in beta, however, they essentially put up a wall and let the curiosity fester. Whether it be intentional or not, Google, and those already on the inside created a lot of buzz and intrigue and people wanted to know what was going on behind that wall. When people finally got their invite, it made them feel like insiders.

Triggers

Emotion

Happiness makes us want to share. Sadness makes us want to connect and empathize. Fear makes us want to cling to something, and anger makes us stubborn. Emotions are tied to experiences. For example: Since the beginning, Coca-Cola has associated its brand and product with very positive and happy experiences, the same way they want you to feel when drinking their beverages. Red Bull’s brand identity has always revolved around extreme sports. From dropping a man off the edge of the atmosphere to hosting the coolest bicycle stunts, their commercials always instill a sense of awe and adrenaline. Whenever we watch these videos, we feel like we can conquer anything. By focusing on igniting emotions, like Coca-Cola and Redbull, your audience will be motivated to share it.

Public

Monkey see monkey do. If you were walking down the street looking for a bite to eat, you would most likely avoid the empty restaurant and go for the one with more customers. Everyone else is there so it must be better than the other place. This is because we base a lot of our actions on those we see around us. If a lot of people buy something, it must be good. It is the same reason Livestrong bracelets were so popular; everybody had one, they supported a good cause, and they were easily identifiable. If people see others using your product, they will be encouraged to check it out for themselves.

Practical value

By providing some kind of practical value, you help your customers get better at what they’re doing. Whether it be FAQ’s, blog posts, infographics, tips and tools, or resources, the practical value not only helps them get better; they might want to share it with people they think might benefit from it.

Stories

We tell stories to gain social currency, share emotions, and to pass on helpful tips or advice. By creating or sharing stories you provide a way for customers to connect with the product or company on an emotional level and it will become easier to share that information with others. Stories are what people remember, even when they forget names and faces, they rarely forget the story and how it made them feel.

Conclusion

Being contagious will help you reach out to the consumers who are interested in your product or brand and who need your service. By providing messaging that makes consumers want to talk about, and share, your product and brand, you will get the highest return on your marketing goals.

The post Make Your Content Contagious With These 6 STEPPS appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

Last year we saw the importance of visual content, such as video, emphasized by the changes that took place across almost every major social network such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Most notable were the launch of Facebook and Instagram’s live feature, Facebook’s pre-roll video ads, and Instagram stories. We have all experienced it by now. It’s obvious that videos have become powerful tools for brands looking to communicate efficiently with their target audience. With more than 60% of marketers and small business owners saying that they plan to increase investment in video marketing in 2017, you’re going to have to keep up. If you’re not including video marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy, you’re likely missing out on some serious leads.

Here are some key reasons to include video in your marketing strategies:

Higher Retention Rates

By creating quality videos you can increase overall viewer retention. According to Animoto, 1 in 4 consumers actually loses interest in a company if it doesn’t have video content. That means a quarter of all possible leads will be lost, simply because you don’t have a video. Furthermore,  BrainShark suggests that the information retained in one minute of online video is equal to about 1.8 million written words. That’s a lot of information relayed in a small amount of time considering the average human can only read about 300 words per minute, It’s important to take advantage of that opportunity.

Higher Engagement

Animoto says that four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. And according to Syndacast 74% of all internet traffic in 2017 will be video. We must give them what they want. We must give them video.

Google Loves Video

SEO is an important factor when trying to stand out among your competitors. Adding a video to your website can increase the chance of a front page Google result by 53 times. Of course, that’s when you do it right. Check out these tips from Moz CEO Rand Fishkin to learn more about how to properly optimize your videos for search. You’ll notice that he has a video at the top of the page.

Increased conversions

Video converts more customers than traditional methods. Four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it, and 85% of customers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video.

Hopefully, you have been convinced to use more video to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Here are some tips on how to get the best possible quality with what you’ve got:

1. Use a good quality camera

With displays becoming higher and higher in resolution It’s important to shoot at the highest possible quality so your video looks crisp and clear on any screen. A video camera works best but high-quality smartphone cameras will do the trick it used properly.

2. Shoot in landscape

In order to get the best shot and help maintain your viewer’s attention, make sure you shoot your videos in landscape orientation. By shooting in portrait orientation (or upright) you are not only missing out on the background of the subject which can help provide context but you are losing out on valuable real estate which can be used to display supporting content such as text, pictures, and other information. Shooting in portrait orientation will also make video appear small on wide screens such as computers and TV’s, and leave the viewer looking at large, distracting black bars on the sides of the video and contribute to a very amateur feel.

3. Good lighting

There are a lot of cameras that do well in low light, and there’s some that don’t do so well. Try to locate a light source to light up your subject and make sure your subject isn’t backlit or lit so much that they are forced to squint. Wistia has an excellent guide on how to create a great, low-cost lighting kit.

4. Keep them short

According to Hyperfine Media, 5% of viewers will stop watching after 1 minute and 60% will stop watching after 2 minutes. Keep you videos short and to the point to ensure you are getting any important information across before your viewer loses interest.

5. Include text or subtitles

When 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound (Digiday), you’re going to want to ensure viewers are taking in information while watching your video. By including the option for subtitles or adding engaging text, you not only are lending a hand to those who are hard of hearing but you are getting your information to those who either, choose not to listen to your video, or are in the middle of class scrolling through their Facebook feed with the sound off. It’s not your responsibility to know if someone is on Facebook in class, however, it is your responsibility to make sure they are receiving that information.

Conclusion

You can’t escape the year of the video, so embrace it. There’s still plenty of time left in the year to get in on the video marketing game. But remember, poor production quality may have the reverse effect on a consumer and actually drive away prospective business. However, with these tips, you should be you on your way to creating great videos, whether it’s an interview, or a how-to video to share with your readers. You just have to get started.

The post Video Will Dominate The Marketing Landscape This Year appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

Achieve Marketing stardom.

The biggest killer for any marketing department, marketing campaign, or marketing professional can best be described using one word — complacency.

I’m guilty of it. If you’re honest with yourself, so are you. There is just so much going on in our day-to-day lives, not to mention the non-stop meetings, social posts, networking events, coffee talk, and general gossiping, that we don’t have time to learn something new. After all, if we’re honest with ourselves, that’s why we become complacent. I mean, nobody intentionally wants to be complacent. We all want to be trend-setters and ninjas of the marketing world. We want to see our Klout score rise dramatically, not to mention our LinkedIn influence. We want the corner office with the mega salary. And we all know that the only way to achieve all of our professional hopes and dreams are to be recognized as the great marketers we are by the success our strategies and tactics will surely generate. Right?!

So, why do we all stink at being innovative? Why do we only offer feeble excuses for not doing what we know needs to be done? It’s simple. We don’t make time to try new and bold tactics. We’re scared. New technology, and new approaches, are intimidating. We don’t re-prioritize our time to develop the necessary skills to enable ourselves to execute our vision and our plan. We resign ourselves to our own ineptitude by denying the issue even exists.

We become complacent.

Welcome to the club.

Alright, today we’re going to change this. You and I are going to discuss what you need to learn, and do, to take your skill set, your career, and your success to the next level. Are you with me?

Here we go.

Be the internal change agent

Change starts with you. It’s a mindset. You need to influence the culture within your team, your department, or your company to embrace change. Educate those around you that you’re going to experiment. Some of what you do will be amazing. Other aspects of your efforts…well…not so much. In fact, you might fail. You might spend stupid crazy sums of money and outright bomb. But, you’re doing it for the right reasons. You’re going to learn what works and what doesn’t. You’ll eventually have a competitive advantage over your industry peers. Your prospects and customers will recognize you as the leader you are and will reward you with more business. However, before the Hollywood ending, you’re going to endure hardship and frustration as you devote yourself to learning your craft and refining your campaigns. Like a Hollywood blockbuster, it will take time for the story to play itself out. And you will need the support of those in power. You need to be transparent. You need to get people excited and supporting you. If you do not set expectations now, you will fail at the first sign of a challenge. You need the organization to buy-in to your initiative. So, before you do anything to overcome your complacency, ensure you’ve got the support necessary to succeed.

Video is where it’s at

Are you doing video? Please tell me you’re doing video. I mean, like, really, really, really doing video? No? Why not? Oh right…complacency. Okay, let’s talk about why the heck you need to do video.

• 65 % of executives have visited a vendor’s site after watching a video
• 59% of senior executives prefer to watch video over reading
• 52% of marketers name video as the content with the best ROI
• Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates 19%, CTRs by 65% and reduces unsubscribes by 26%
• Including video in introductory emails reduces subscriber opt-outs by 75%
• 70% of marketing professionals report that video converts better than any other medium
• Video increases people’s understanding of your product or service by 74%

So…that’s why you should be doing video. Let me ask this: why haven’t you been doing video more (beyond complacency)? Is it because you’re scared and don’t know how to do video well? Do you think it has to be expensive and you assume you can’t afford it? Don’t worry. You’re not alone. What would you say if I told you that you could use your own smartphone to make world-class video content? I’m serious. You can. The tools, apps, and online tutorials available are crazy good and easily accessible.

Do you mind if I make a confession? Don’t tell anyone, but almost everything I know about video I learned from Wistia. And they’re just one amazing resource. Check out YouTube, the original video innovator. There are hundreds (actually, probably thousands) of video experts who’ve already posted how-to videos about video. And, best of all, get this…it’s free! Crazy, eh?!

So, the next question you should be asking yourself is how can you use video to your advantage. That’s a great question. There are so many ways. I’ve used video for all of the following reasons:

• Customer testimonials
• Live event capture and playback
• Product demonstration
• Case studies
• Explainers for difficult concepts
• Webinar capture and playback
• Website greetings
• Character profiles for VIPs or key advocates
• How-to guides
• Third-party expert endorsements

Assuming you have a content strategy (we will talk more about that later in this article), part of that strategy should be the medium your content will utilize. You need to ensure video is a huge part of your content medium mix moving forward. By doing so, you’ll engage your audience so much more you’ll be amazed. And, best of all, we haven’t even talked about the uptick you’ll get in your SEO rankings as a result.

One final thought around video. While YouTube is a great place to find as many cat videos as you can consume, it shouldn’t be the only host of your corporate videos. Use a video hosting service such as Wistia or VidYard or Vimeo. The ability to professionally embed your player, match your branding, and analyze the video plays, not to mention the ability to incorporate gates or calls-to-action, more than justify the investment these services require. If your’e going to do video, then all I can say is “do it right”.

Make your content consumable

This one is easy. All I’m saying here is that you need to package your content the same way you like to consume it. If you’re like me, and supposedly I’m like the masses, I like to skim. I don’t have time to read lengthy white papers or watch videos that are longer then films like Logistics. So, before you lose me and I start checking out your competition, make sure your content is quickly and easily consumable.

There are a handful of ways to do this. One, of course, is a short video. That works well. Other ways that are also effective include infographics and listicles.

Like video, infographics can be overwhelming. Again, the objection about having the skills, budget, or resources to create them will come up. However, if you recall, this article is about squashing those lame excuses that keep us complacent and instead kick some serious marketing butt by accomplishing the very things that scare us. So, for infographics, if you do not have the in-house abilities then I simply say outsource it. A good example of an affordable option would be Fiverr. They’re just one option of thousands of vendors that will do it for you. If you prefer to use somebody local then simply get on LinkedIn and ask your network of fellow marketers who they use and you’ll be inundated with incredible graphic designers who will turn your napkin concepts into works of art that even Banksy would be proud of.

Alternatively, if you are feeling adventurous, you can use a variety of services to create your next infographic. Some examples include:

• Venngage
• Piktochart
• Infogr.am
• Canva

What I would suggest you do is determine where, in the Buyer’s Journey, are some areas that need help in moving the conversation along. Maybe you’ve difficulties engaging the prospects at the start of the dialog. When you determine those challenges, rest assured that is a great opportunity to use an infographic.

Similar to infographics, as mentioned above, are the delightful listicle. Keeping it simple, a listicle is simply the process of taking a complex or beefy topic and breaking it down into a series of bullets, or lists, to convey the key talking points you’re trying to convey. Have you noticed how many bullets I’m using in this rather lengthy blog post? It’s not an accident. I’m trying really hard to keep you here, reading, skimming, perusing, and engaging with me. If I’m successful, you’ll get the information you require and you might even reach out to me to help you along the way.

Engage your audience in a dialog

This is an easy one but it will have a huge impact. Are you ready? Hold on because it’s going to rock your marketing world.

Stop posting every press release, company news, and boring factoid about your product, service or firm on social media. Nobody cares. You’re a vendor. You’re biased. You have an agenda. And, frankly, you’re annoying and cluttering up my social media feed.

Instead, be the expert you are. Nobody knows what you know better than you. Others are desperately wanting to learn from you. They’ve followed you for that very reason. They’ve sought you out for your expertise. They really want to leverage your expertise because they have pain themselves and they’re hoping you can help them out.

You know what’s interesting about that last statement? It tells you that your followers have pain. It tells you that you can help them out. I’m pretty sure that’s the start of a purchase decision. It may even result in a sale. Whoa! That’s crazy!

Okay, I know I’m being cheeky but the fact of the matter is that you need to engage in conversation with your audience.

• Be humorous. Share the moments that make you smile.
• Be transparent. Share your own challenges and personal anecdotes.
• Be encouraging. Help them overcome their issues by giving advice and pep talks.
• Be an expert. Your followers are going to find the answers they seek from somebody. It might as well be you. Hence, don’t horde your answers like a prepper hordes meals that are ready-to-eat. Instead, share your knowledge without hesitation. All it does is build up your credibility and causes your followers to trust you, eventually leading to followers becoming customers.
• Be real. The key word in social media is “social”. It’s all about relationships. Talk to them the same way you open up with your favourite pet, except maybe without all of the cutesy pet names and baby talk.

This tactic really isn’t new, or innovative, nor does it cost a lot of money. What it does take is time. Make the investment. The traction you will get will blow your socks off.

Brag, educate, inform and spread the word

You’ve heard about how content is king. While it is a bit of a cliche, it truly is the best tactic out there to drive new leads. However, with such an explosion of content now available to the masses, you need to make good content, consistently.

If you stumbled a bit on my usage of the phrase “good content” I’ll tell you that you should have instead stumbled on the term “consistently”. Content quality will vary from piece to piece, and author to author. However, it truly is the consistency of your publishing that will make the biggest difference. Search engines will reward a consistent publication schedule. Opt-ins will grow dramatically on a predictable rhythm of new content. Sales cycles will continually have something new to engage the prospect and move them through the sales funnel with an ongoing supply of new content.

Creating content is a challenge. Nobody seems able to craft content. Everybody is too busy. Nobody prioritizes it within your firm even though you’ve tried to tell them how critical it is. Let me tell you how to overcome these challenges.

• Identify your personas. Who will be the people reading your content? Once you know that, you can create content, and source subject matter experts, that can appeal to that audience.
• Plan your publishing schedule. If you have two key personas you’re appealing to, then schedule one blog post, per persona, per month. Some will say that publishing frequency is not enough. I say you gotta crawl before you can run. We can always increase the frequency in the future once we hit our publishing schedule consistently. The bottom line is that you need to create a schedule and hit your dates without exception.
• Make it easy. If your subject matter experts don’t have time to write the content, then simply grab your handy-dandy voice recorder and sit in from of them with it turned on. Ask them all of the questions your readers will have on a particular issue. Encourage them to provide examples and to be specific. Steer the conversation to match how you envision the content piece will be written. For example, if I need a case study I’ll ask my subject matter expert questions like: what issue were they having, what options did they consider, why did they select us, how did the implementation go, what challenges did they need to overcome, what successes did they experience, what was the reaction of the stakeholders after the process was complete, and what would you do differently next time. Like a good lawyer, these leading questions will ensure your jury hears what you want them to hear and they’ll decide in your favour when it comes to a buying decision.
• Segment your lists. If you decide you want to promote your new content to your audience by using a massive email blast once per month, take my advice and don’t do it. Instead, segment your audience by job title, or industry, or product, or service and create multiple emails — one for each segment. I typically advise people to identify four industries to start. Send your email out once per week, with each week targeting one of your four industry segments. That means we have four emails going out per month utilizing the same piece of content, but with language and calls-to-action in each email that resonate with that focused audience. It also means you have a continual feed of new leads instead of those monthly spikes that sales hates.
• Mix the mediums. Don’t rely on email only, or just blog posts. Instead, have a mix of video, and infographics, and listicles, and webinars, and live events, and blog posts, and case studies, and so on. Keep it interesting. Not everybody likes the written word. The variety ensures your content will appeal to somebody, and that there is a collection of content that will appeal to everybody.
• Design for re-use. In other words, be smart about what you produce. When I produce a webinar, I identify a key topic, and then break that topic into five talking points. During the webinar, we tackle each talking point one at a time. The entire webinar is recorded. I now can publish the webinar, or I can break the webinar recording into five segment-specific videos, thus giving me six pieces of content. I can then take each of those five segments and write a blog post using what was discussed during each talking point. Now I have eleven content pieces. I can then create listicles or infographics from the content discussed. That may give me one to three more pieces of content. I then post them on Buffer and suddenly that one webinar has given me a whole lot of fresh content that will be published over the next year and it all started with one original piece of content — the webinar. With this approach, you quickly learn that you do not need to have 365 new topics per year but can instead leverage your effort across mediums and topics and segments while still retaining your sanity and your production schedule.

Finally, and this is the biggest aspect of content marketing, you need to syndicate your content. Get it out there in the hands of the influencers. In fact, get them involved in its creation; this way they’re invested in it and ultimately your success. Submit it to a variety of content sites. Submit it for publication by any associations you may belong to. Use it in your search engine marketing campaigns. Issue a press release about it. Cross reference your content in your blogs and your social posts. Talk about your content, and include links to it, in the various forums and discussion you participate and comment in. While Google can be a great friend when it comes to getting your content found, it can’t be your only source of distribution. If you’ve gone to this much trouble to make it, then be sure to cross the finish line in your content race and get it out there with the other winners.

Build up your groupies

You probably thought I was going to talk about building up your social media followers with that headline but you would be wrong. Instead, I’m talking about building up your opt-in lists. Every chance you get, you need to be asking people to opt-in to hear from you. You need to ensure you are Can-Spam, or CASL, compliant. You want them wanting to get your content. The only way you can syndicate like Rupert Murdoch is to ensure you have the subscriber base to receive your publications.

This needs to be a relentless, non-stop pursuit. You need legal opt-ins and you need clean data. You need to gate your content so that they will share their contact information. You need to ensure your forms link back to your master lists, whether you use email services like MailChimp or Constant Contact, or you use marketing automation solutions like Marketo, Pardot, or HubSpot to manage those lists and trigger follow-on nurture campaigns.

When I say you need clean data, I mean it. At the submission of each form, you need to immediately clean the data and ensure compliance with standard nomenclature and formats. There are several tools out there that can help you with this including Data.com from Salesforce.com. Make that investment. If you don’t, you’ll spend more than double what you’d spend cleaning it at the time of form submission to clean it after the fact.

Closing Thoughts

Complacency is a killer. It sneaks up on you despite your objections that you suffer from it. If affects your success and your job satisfaction. Fixing it can be hard. But, like that diet you started on New Years Day, the payoff will be there just like the first time you wear that new swim suit on your summer vacation and realize you did it! When you get frustrated, simply reach out to your friends. They’ll encourage you. They want you to succeed. After all, if you do ultimately get that professional athlete’s salary because you’re now the world’s greatest marketer, your friends will gladly let you express your gratitude by showering them with gifts. That’s what friends do. Now…go forth and slay the complacency dragon.

The post How complacency is killing the Marketer appeared first on Virtual Causeway.