Does your business need digital and video marketing?
If you are reading this article, you are probably as certain as I am that marketing is what really defines the success of your business. Virtually, every aspect of your business depends on your marketing strategy (successful or not). You may have the best product in the world. You may have invented a unique service that would make the whole world a better place. All this is meaningless unless your potential clients find out about your great product/service.
Except for getting the word out, though, marketing also defines your company’s reputation, it makes your product recognizable on the market, and it gets you higher sales once your clients discover the beauty of your product. In this article I’ll make an overview of marketing’s history, present and future. Grab a pen and start making notes as any minute that’s spend not thinking about marketing your business, is a minute spent in vain.
Inbound Marketing Vs Outbound Marketing
Marketers just love this war. Once you pop the question, they all take out their best weapons and start shooting pros and cons as to which form of marketing is best for you and your business. Do not be surprised if the answers heavily depend on the type of marketing the company offers, though! Here’s a brief explanation of both:
Inbound Marketing
The term inbound marketing includes the traditional marketing forms like TV commercials, trade shows, radio commercials, newspaper ads, flyers, cold calls, etc. It is basically a form of marketing in which it is the company that starts the conversation with the potential client. It is also known as “interruption marketing” as it interrupts what you are doing to (unwillingly) get your attention on the subject that the company has paid for to be marketed.
Outbound Marketing
The term outbound marketing refers to the contemporary marketing forms like SEO, blogging, YouTube, Social Media, and content creation. This is a form of marketing in which it is the potential client that starts the conversation with the company. It earns the attention of the clients organically (without having to interrupt them).
What’s better?
The main problem with most business owners (and everybody else, for that matter) is that they are usually stuck with the traditional and don’t want to try anything new. Their logic is that everything that’s worked till today will probably work tomorrow. This would be totally OK if it wasn’t for the extremely rapidly changing world we live in. Traditional marketing counts on TV, magazines, and newspapers. How many of us watch TV today? How many of us buy paper issues like newspapers and magazines?
The other major problem with outbound marketing is targeting (or lack thereof). Once upon a time there was a notion called mass market. Forget about it. That’s not happening again any time soon. Today’s market is a web of tiny niche markets intertwined together, forming a diverse rainbow of individuals rather than a grey mass of people. You’d better start using your brightest colors or you may get washed away by someone who has already started.
The new reality is online. As absurd as this statement sounds, it’s true. In this reference, relying on outbound marketing today is like looking for customers on a deserted island. There’s nobody there. That ship has sailed. Inbound (digital) marketing gives you unprecedented audience reach. The sky is (literary) the limit. Do you want to get your potential customers’ address book? It starts with www.
“If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.”
Guy Kawasaki
The future of video marketing
Now that we’ve explained the main mechanisms of marketing, let’s move on to the trending video marketing strategies you will find online and how to best apply them to your business. With everybody having a smartphone, a tablet, or another digital device with a camera, it is no wonder that online video is the future of content marketing. Whether it is YouTube, Social Media or Viral Video Marketing, here’s how you can get the best of your online video marketing:
Tell a story
Being consistent when it comes to your business applies to your video marketing strategy as well. Don’t fall in the trap of posting just one video once in a while. Think of a whole video campaign you can run and divide the video content in small series that are both more easily digested and look better when scheduled in time.
Maximizing through minimizing
Everybody’s busy today and with so many channels fighting for our attention, it’s no wonder that there have emerged micro video apps that shorten any video to less than 10 seconds so that it’s short and sweet and right to the point. Make use of this mini video format to convey your message without boring your audience.
Teach your clients
Many business owners believe that revealing their secrets will have a negative impact on their success. What is actually does, however, is establish you as an expert in your field (leading to more trust in your company and brand). Tutorials, tips and tricks are always welcome when it comes to online video marketing.
Don’t forget what it’s all about
A lot of small start-up companies go too deep in the quest for customers’ attention that they forget to include the most important part of content in their videos regarding the marketing aspect – the call to action. Keep it short and sweet – just a flash of a coupon code or a sales message at the end of the video will be enough for your customers to get the idea of what to do after they watch it.
What are the marketing strategies that you use for your business?
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-statistics
