Importance of Facebook Video

| October 20, 2016
Business Coaching

 

Have you noticed more videos in your Facebook newsfeed? This is because video has become the content with the best ROI. Nearly 75% of consumers are watching videos before making a purchase. On a daily basis more than 100 million hours of video is watched on Facebook alone. Going forward the importance of video will only increase, leaving those not using it behind in their digital marketing strategy.

Native Facebook video, videos that are directly uploaded to Facebook, get 30% more views than videos that are linked to other sites such as YouTube or Vimeo. Generally Facebook’s algorithm prefers content that people consume and share the most. So make sure that the videos you create are informational, to the point and answer your customers and clients questions directly.

On the other hand Facebook Live video gives you the ability to stream in real time. Enabling you to show your customers a behind the scenes view of the work you do, run real time Q&A’s, or show off new products. Instantly you can create stronger relationships between your brand and your clients, customers, and future customers. Facebook Live video appears even higher in news feeds than native Facebook videos do. People spend 3 times more time watching live video than video that is not live because it is more interesting in the moment.

Facebook is also evolving as an advertising platform as well. Facebook Ads allow you to drive awareness and increase sales. You can reach more people who matter to you by creating Ads with your Facebook videos. They allow you to target people based on their interest, behaviors, age, gender and location. This gives you a lot of power because you can select your perfect customer and get in front of their eyes–something that cannot be done with traditional content.

Giving video a try will never hurt and it doesn’t have to be perfect. Get in front of a camera using a smart phone or a webcam to start with native Facebook video or Facebook live. People will appreciate your voice and look up to you as an authority in your industry.

Next time we will be going over specific ways to master your Facebook Videos. Thanks for learning with us and feel free to contact us at John@thebusinesssourcellc.com for any questions or future content ideas that you would like to see!

5 Reasons to Use Video for Your Business

| October 11, 2016
Business Coaching

 

It’s no secret that video content can be very a powerful part of a marketing strategy to grow a brand or business. Today’s technology has made the creation of video extremely easy and attainable to anyone with a smart phone. Yet, video content is still often an afterthought for many, but should be a no-brainer in your marketing plan.

Search

This is the most valuable part of making video content, specifically YouTube content. Google, being the largest search engine in the world, owns YouTube and they give a lot of value to video content. Having a video on your business’s website can lead to a much higher ranking with search engines as opposed to an equivalent website with no video. Also, YouTube ranks videos on how well they answer questions that people are asking about.

How do you make quality educational content on YouTube? Think about the reasons you use YouTube. For most people, it is as general as trying to find an answer to questions or a problem. Look at the biggest problems or questions that your clients or customers have and make video content around it in the form of how-to’s and tutorials. All of the content that you create doesn’t have to be exactly related to your niche or industry. For example, If you’re a small business in the lawn industry you could possibly create a video about what it takes to get your lawn growing or maybe even how to start your own lawn care business. So think about your industry, things that are related and the amount of tutorial based videos you could create around that. Doing so will help others find you when searching on YouTube.

Reach

If you want almost immediate engagement with your content create a Facebook live video or upload a video directly to Facebook, which is referred to as a native Facebook video. With this, you will get two times the reach and seven times the engagement over all other content because Facebook’s algorithms rank video as the top performing kind of content.

This type of content doesn’t have to be fancy; you can take videos on the go with a smart phone with no prior planning. It’s all about creating content that will engage your audience in an interesting and real way. You are also able to automatically remarket to anyone that has watched your native Facebook videos if you decided to create a Facebook ad.

Authority

Being willing to go on camera or live video–Facebook Live or Periscope–to talk about your industry makes you look like an authority in your area. It is very different than a blog post. Putting yourself on camera builds a level of trust with your audience that is hard to create with other forms of content. Your audience gets to know you on a deeper level with video, visually seeing your face and hearing your voice. It makes them feel as if they already know you personally, which can’t be done with other mediums of content. Just as it is easier to be found in search with video content, the more videos you create around your industry, the more you will be seen by your audience. This enables you to develop yourself into a thought leader in your area of expertise.

Build Relationships

Once you’ve been discovered on YouTube or Facebook you need to nuture the relationships with your viewers and people that have engaged with your content. Become personal with these people by answering questions they may have in comments or even creating videos answering peoples question to content with them one on one. The possibilities are endless and it can be used to show great customer service to answer questions or complaints. Be creative on how you use video whether it is native Facebook videos, Facebook live or YouTube. It will show your customers and clients how much you care about their input and give you and them a chance to get to know each other on a personal basis.

Conversions

Once you have the optimization of search engines that adds value to your website ranking you higher, the reach that Facebook provides, and the relationships that you have nurtured because of video content, you are in the position to turn your viewers into customers. You do this by inviting them to your website, getting them to your contact page, giving them your contact info, or getting them on your email list. They will either become immediate customers if you are sending them to an ecommerce store that you have or they become a lead that you can convert down the road with more content and continued social engagement.

Thanks for learning with us and feel free to contact us at John@thebusinesssourcellc.com for any questions or future content ideas that you would like to see!

Streamline Social Media Marketing

| October 4, 2016
Business Coaching

 

Social media marketing is a time consuming process no matter what industry you’re in. Things have changed; no more is it all about sharing great content. You have to spend time monitoring and analyzing what is working and not working in your efforts as well as engaging with your followers. Your efforts on social media should be daily. But as a small business it can be very challenging to dedicate time every day.

We have three tips for you that can make your social media efforts more efficient and successful by streamlining the process.

Share Content that is already trending in your industry. Nothing on social media takes more time than creating your own content. And even before that, deciding what subject will catch the attention of your customers is very difficult and take a lot of research in itself. Social mention is a tool you can use to search what is trending around different industries, which cuts out the guessing when it comes to wondering what people are interested in. And if people are already buzzing about a certain subject matter your followers will probably care to and be more likely to share and engage with your content.

Engage with influencers in your industry or customers you have that have a strong presence on social media. You can make the most out of your marketing efforts by targeting these types of people. If their following is large or they are highly active there is more potential for them to stretch out your content to a larger audience. Often times these people have a strong voice that is heard as an authority in social media communities. However, all of your followers matter so don’t leave any one out but proactively reaching out to influencers can speed up your efforts.

The creation of a content calendar can allow you to have more time to be engaged with your followers. Rather than always researching and writing content or logging into your social media account every time you want to share a post. Streamlining your marketing efforts can be done by compiling your content into a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly schedule. Posts such as testimonials, blog content, product or employ highlights and photos can be scheduled way in advance with a social media-marketing tool such as Hootsuite.

Thanks for learning with us and feel free to contact us at John@thebusinesssourcellc.com for any question or future content ideas that you would like to see!

Good or Bad, Why is Social Media Important to Your Company

| September 29, 2016
Business Coaching

 

The Internet has changed the way we communicate and interact with one another on so many levels. Social media has grown from being a channel for socializing into one of the most powerful digital marketing tools for brands and businesses. Although social media can come with it’s positives and negatives, it has proven to be a cost effective way to grow businesses.

The explosion of social media over the years has lead to 78 percent of Americans becoming active users. Within this number people spend on average just under five hours per day on the platforms. As you can see it is where the public spends a lot of its time. Almost 1/3rd of the time people are awake is spent on social media. This gives you so many opportunities to gain attention from the public right from their mobile devises or PC’s.

The way to gain their attention is by creating content relevant to their needs. Content is a very important part of any social media marketing strategy. It can make or break a reputation very easily which can lead to an increase in business or unfortunately a bad status on social media.

Having a social media platform and creating content are not the only two parts that make a whole social media strategy strive. Being active on the platform, liking, sharing and commenting, may be the most important part in the whole process. Presenting your voice and showing you care about your customers and prospective customers will build the trust and relationship you and your customers are looking for. This in turn will keep their business with you without ever second-guessing to go with a competitor.

Not until you have created the full circle in your social media marketing campaign will you see the results you’re looking for. Not only that, but your current customers will do your marketing for you by referring others to your business and sharing your work on social media platforms. But even when this occurs doesn’t mean you should holdback on your own marketing efforts.

Don’t be left in the dust. Social media is an ever-growing business in itself and is becoming one of the strongest marketing tools for communicating, interacting and catching the attention of customers. Your competitors WILL being moving forward with social media don’t be left out!

Thanks for learning with us and feel free to contact us at John@thebusinesssourcellc.com for any question or future content ideas that you would like to see!

Sales Conversion

| August 22, 2016
Business Coaching

 

The final step in our series on the Sales Marketing Process for Small Businesses is the sales conversion.

You have created attractive content and built relationships with consumers for a loyal following, but do these fans actually mean business?

With social media you usually reach potential customers earlier in the sales process. It also provides more opportunity to convert prospects than with other traditional sales.

In the attention economy we are in, you have to optimize your conversion path, making it really easy for potential buyers to buy. Consumers tend to be less motivated to buy early on in the process and if they have to search to buy from you, they are less likely to convert.

Take a look at your Facebook page, does a potential buyer have to search to find your website, then figure out how to buy your product or service? If so, you are missing out on converting your Facebook fans.

As we know success in social media relies on sharing strong content on social platforms. Most times this content resides in a blog on your website. With this in mind make sure your blog has conversion points. These will ultimately make every post a landing page. Test out different calls to action to find out what works best for you.

With social media prospects entering the sales process earlier, they may not be ready to make a purchase right away; but you can convert interested social media fans into email subscribers. These are people that are willing to provide an email address for valuable and relevant information. They are interested but have not yet actually said yes. You will have a better opportunity at this point because they will see a larger range of content, which will pull them through the sales process.

Treating social media leads differently is crucial to drive the marketing process. If you approach them with traditional email sales campaigns it will likely kill the sale. It all comes back to providing the value through content such as answering common questions to help them solve their problem. Through these efforts you have been able to develop trust by showing you’re a thought leader, making their decision process easier. As a result they will likely purchase from you rather than a competitor they don’t have a relationship with.

The education process on social media is a very powerful tool that should be implemented into every business. Publishing your content online where people can find it will build you audience. Over time build a relationship with this audience and the sales conversion will become a byproduct of your valuable content.

Thanks for learning with us through this series on the Sales Marketing Process for Small Businesses. If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at john@thebusinesssourcellc.com.