The secret to “knowing why” is powerful. In fact, for the most part, sales and engagement are strongly driven by knowing the “why”.
The Secret To Scientific Marketing
We’re creatures of habit and studies of human nature strongly suggests that some people still replace unknowns with what they “feel” sounds right to them, rather than accept that it is just unknown. The anxiety of the unknown drives our feelings-centre in our brains and this is why some people say, “I feel [whatever].” when looking to make a decision about what the choose to believe. It is well-known amongst the scientific community that in human nature, we replace info, logic and reason (a.k.a. research and facts) with the info that may not be correct.
I mention all this as this is not psychological, but biological. Our brain has regions that do certain & specific things. One region, the NeoCortex, only understands info, logic and reason; it has zero emotional capacity. Another region, the AlloCortex (a part of the brain’s limbic system) has zero capacity for info, logic and reason and only understand emotions; this is why we use the verbiage “feel” when describing why we did something. “…I felt it was right…”, “…this purchase feels right…”, “…no thanks, that does not feel right…”, etc.
And while our NeoCortex can influence our actions, 100% of all decisions are from the limbic system or predominantly, the AlloCortex region.
I have covered this before but in this post-factual world — whether you are dealing with the politics of a debate on social media or a marketing campaign — it is important to know the secret of what will influence and eventually convert a person to engage you.
The Secret Of Target-Awareness In Marketing
A place to start (always) is understanding the awareness of your target audience. Awareness is key to producing the right message at the right time, as without your target knowing that they have a problem, your solution holds zero value. This holds true for every stage of the awareness funnel.
In that awareness-funnel, there are five stages, the last being that your target is ready to buy from you. Those stages are:
Not Aware
Problem-Aware
Solution-Aware
Provider Aware
Fully Aware
If you want to learn more about how to create conversion-driven copy for your marketing collateral or website, sign up for my limited-time complimentary one-on-one “Start Your 2019 Marketing Off Right Master Class”. This offering is only being offered in January this year, so hurry as there is less than 30-days to go! Reserve your time slot here!
We’ve seen big updates such as the Panda and Penguin updates, which had a massive impact.
And yet still, the frequency and complexity of the Google algorithm updates we’ve seen this year are unparalleled.
2. It’s Google’s World – We Just Live in It
Everyday Google dictates the kind of SERP we see, and what it contains.
And we have to deal with that.
We’re all just test subjects in Google’s massive, continuously updating tests.
This article was borrowed from Search Engine Journal. To read the full article, click here!
3. Google’s Mobile-First Index Hasn’t Had Much of an Impact (Yet)
Over the course of the year [while content was the ruler of the land], the mobile-first index rolled out, and… actually nothing much happened.
Back in November 2016, Google said they’d roll out the mobile-first index slowly and monitor its impact closely —and that has turned out to be the case.
Even though the mobile-first index shift only changed how they gather their data, not how they rank sites, I still expected to see a lot more fluctuations.
4. SEO Pros Are Creatures of Habit & Dislike Change
Even though we’re part of a fast-moving industry, many SEO professionals are creatures of habit who dislike change.
They don’t like to change how they audit websites, the way they report, the tools they use, and so on.
I know, SEO pros are human, too — and humans generally don’t like change.
But if you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to innovate.
This article was borrowed from Search Engine Journal. To read the full article, click here!
5. DuckDuckGo’s Growth Has Picked Up, by a Lot
While they’re still a small player in the world of search engines, DuckDuckGo’s growth has surprisingly picked up by a lot.
As of November 26, they’re processing 33.6 million direct queries per day, compared to 19.1 million a year before.
6. Search Intent Is Extremely Important
I think a lot of the Google updates we’ve seen recently help Google serve the right results for the right search intent.
Google has loads of user data, and they’re continuously testing whether searchers are happy with the results that they’re shown.
Never before has search intent been as important as it is now.
7. Google’s Far from Perfect
Google employs the smartest engineers and they’re using the most advanced algorithms to determine:
What your content is about.
What their users’ search intent is.
What results satisfy people’s complicated search queries.
And much more.
So, What Does 2019 Have in Store for Us?
Obviously, for the foreseeable future, Google will keep on dominating the lives of us SEOs. They’ll try to become even more dominant, possibly by leveraging AMPand the WordPress partnership.
This article was borrowed from Search Engine Journal. To read the full article, click here!
YouTube is not only a social platform, but it’s also THE video social platform. On top of that, it is the second largest search engine. If we match those statements with the rise of video as the most engaging type of content around, optimizing every video to rank on YouTube is a no-brainer.
Video content is the most successful type of content on social media.
Every company should consider video as the main focus of its media strategy. If you’re still not convinced, here are some statistics that can change your mind.
For starters, YouTube has over 30 million active users daily. Not just that, more than 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and processes more than 3 billion searches a month.
YouTube Videos are not only the most watched type of content.
it’s also shared more times than text posts, images, podcasts and links combined! If you want to talk about sales, almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store.
These statistics are also reflected on the ROI results, as 52% of marketing professionals worldwide claim that video is the type of content with the best ROI.
Keyword research
Let’s start by explaining what keyword research is: A Keyword is a word or phrase that potential users utilize to find a specific type of content. Finding the right keywords is a basic element of every SEO Strategy. Think about how you, as a user, find something online.
You basically type keywords that help display useful content.
If you’re a beginner in the world of keyword research, Google AdWords Keyword Planner is a useful resource for building strong keyword lists and helping to get your PPC campaign off to a running start. We must add that there are two types of keywords: broad keywords and long-tail keywords. In the following table from WDR, you can find out why the latter is recommended:
Optimizing Video Elements
Tags: Tags are another basic compound for an effective SEO strategy. As Keywords, tags help your audience with understanding what your video is all about and they should be arranged and selected strategically by relevance. Also, every tag should be directly related to your video content and to your keywords.
Despite what the competition is up to, there are 3 types of tags that you should consider using: 1) specific tags; 2) compound tags: and 3) generic tags.
Also, creating Default Tags increases your chances for showing up in the suggested results.
YouTube Video Description
Writing a solid video description leads to valuable information that helps viewers find your videos in the search results and understand what they’ll be watching. Well-written descriptions are a key to boosting views and watch time, as it helps your video to be searchable for YouTube’s search engine.
Video descriptions allow you to add playlists, time stamps and creator credits which are valuable elements for your viewers. you can even add links to your Facebook, Instagram, blog or website so that viewers can discover your content on other platforms. As with your Titles, you should add your keywords to your video description.
It´s also convenient to add a link to your website within the first few lines. So if a user watches the video and wants to know more, or goes to your site, they can find it quickly. This video from YouTube Creators Academy describes tips to write effective descriptions:
YouTube Title
Your title selection will help YouTube understand what your video is all about, and at the same time, help users find what they’re looking for. Each one of your titles should describe your video, be clickable and catch users attention. It is important to use keywords in your title and it should always be related to your content.
Think about it, your title and thumbnail is the very first element that viewers are going to see before clicking on your video, and it’s the main potential factor which is going to help your channel attract more subscribers and viewers.
In the following video you can learn how to write attractive titles on YouTube:
Thumbnails
Thumbnails are small clickable images for your YouTube videos. Thumbnails should work side-by-side with your title and video description to reflect your content so that viewers can find what they’re searching for. If you don’t do so, then you’re not committing on showing viewers what they wanted to watch in the first place, and you’re going to lose credibility, audience retention and subscribers.
When you start making your thumbnails, consider that the custom resolution is 1920px*1080px. The image that you should use for your thumbnail should be from the actual video or something that represents what the video is about. You can also add text to your thumbnail, which should be related to your video content, title, keywords and video description.
What are the best types of marketing videos to rank on YouTube
To rank better on YouTube, some videos work better than others. Some examples of the best types of videos to rank on YouTube are educational videos, explainer videos, how-to-videos, company story videos, product videos and testimonial videos. If you have different products for distinct audiences you’re going to develop specific content adapted to their needs.
You can’t expect to use the same video for different users and expect brilliant results in all cases. So, the first step is selecting your goals and strategy, secondly, identify your audience and then select the best types of videos according to your analysis. At last, we must say that the most shared videos are those that trigger emotions from viewers.
Think about what you usually share, most of those videos are funny or emotional. So always keep in mind that the most shared videos are those that generate empathy with users.
Whether it is a funny, inspiring or emotional video, it will always rank better than a video that only talks about a product or service.
How long should the video be?
Did you know that humans have short attention spans? If you didn’t, you should take into account two basic statistics:
65% of video viewers watch at least two-thirds of a video; and
Only 20% of users read an article from start to finish.
This means that video still wins over text content, but this doesn’t mean that you can make a 20-minute video.
You should also be strategic when it comes to video length. We can confirm that videos up to 2 minutes long have the most engagement as it shows on the statistic chart below:
Which means that if you make a video shorter than 2 minutes, it’s going to hold viewers attention more than a 3-minute video. If you even have a 1-minute video, and you can make it shorter, don’t doubt on making that video even shorter and more effective!
How to hook the audience
Although you already know how long your video should be, this doesn’t mean that it’s going to be effective. Your main goal is to hook your audience to maximize the watch times. Explaining what the video is all about from the start can help users understand what they’re going to get, and stay around for it. You should do this in the first 10 seconds.
10 seconds is the average amount of time it takes for a YouTube viewer to decide whether or not they want to watch the rest of your video. It also gives users a reason to watch a video until the end.
For example, If your video is a recipe, you can tell your viewers to keep watching because at the end of the video you’re going to reveal a secret ingredient. On the other hand, engagement depends on the impact and quality of your content. All of your videos should have the ultimate audio and video quality.
Nowadays, no one is willing to watch a low-quality video. High-quality videos are the most viewed, they are therefore the most shared. And whoever is in the video, should be charismatic, expressive and cheerful. If you’re not a fan of live-action videos, don’t worry, you can use animated videos to talk about your business. In the following video you’re going to find 7 tips for audience retention:
What’s the most important segment of the video?
The first 10 to 15 seconds is the most important segment of your video. So your key message should be in the first few seconds of the video. This is your opportunity to hook viewers, as you should introduce them to what the video is all about and still keep their attention. If you’re making video ads, keeping viewers attention is quite a challenge.
Think about the skip button, it takes 5 seconds to activate, so think wisely when using those first few seconds to attract users to prefer your content over the video that they initially wanted to watch.
The following statistic from Wistia shows that the average 1 or 2-minute video was viewed 70% of the way through, while the average 10-minute video was viewed on average 50% of the way through.
How to create a video for audience retention
Audience retention is the measurement of how much of a video someone watches on YouTube. To identify which of your videos have the highest audience retention and why YouTube offers the Audience Retention Report.
For effective audience retention, you should consider using playlists, cards, and end screens on your videos. These are a great way to drive traffic from one video to another and keep viewers watching by suggesting relevant content.
Playlists are a great resource to keep your videos in order by arranging them by theme.
And, lastly, audio quality, video quality and the narrator’s personality are also relevant aspects when it comes to audience retention.
Call to Action
A call to action is an opportunity to incorporate new subscribers to your channel or lead to other videos from your channel. It has to be present on all of your videos, and it should be at the beginning or middle of your video. As we said before when analyzing audience retention, most drop-offs happen after the first 15 seconds, so don’t leave your call-to-action at the end of your video.
Playlists
Playlists are a vital element of your content strategy and organization of your video content.
There are two types of playlists: series playlists and ordinary playlists. Series Playlists are used for sequential videos, and ordinary playlists are used for organizing your videos based on a specific theme.
Channel Branding
Branding doesn’t end on your video thumbnails or descriptions, your channel must also reflect your business identity. This can help attract potential users and help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. So start by making your YouTube Channel Trailer, develop playlists and design your thumbnails according to your business personality.
It is also important that you share your videos to promote traffic to your channel. You should share your videos on your own blog, website and social media channels. More distribution and places where your video appears means a better YouTube video ranking. There is no better promoter of your company than yourself!
Final Thoughts
Users around the world watch over one billion hours of video every day, this is more than Netflix and Facebook video combined! YouTube also has 1.5 billion monthly active users.
More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
With that said, we can confirm that video is the most effective content for marketing, as it has the highest click-through rate and generates more shares than text and images combined!
So don’t wait any longer and start your video marketing campaign on YouTube. Call Cortex to start the conversation 1-888-502-3523 or set aside some time by booking it here!
This blog was guest written by Victor Blasco, CEO of YumYum Videos. He is also an audiovisual designer and video marketing expert. Aside from running the
business, he loves studying Chinese Philosophy and is a real geek for science fiction
films and comics!
Yum-Yum Videos connect brands and people through customized video content marketing; for every step of the buyer’s journey.
23 Email Subject Lines guaranteed to get opened — from our friends at Hubspot!
“Your prospects’ and colleagues’ email inboxes are inundated with ordinary subject lines all day, every day.
“Hope you’re doing well,” “Just checking in,” and “Wanted to follow up” fill their screens faster than Gary Vee drops the F-bomb.
Thirty-five percent of email recipients report opening emails based on the subject line alone. And headline experts at CoSchedule recommend hitting on people’s curiosity to get that magic click.
So how do you pique a prospect’s interest? Humour. When using funny email subject lines, it’s important to know your audience. If you’re following up with a CEO after a conference, you probably don’t want to lead with a humorous subject line.
However, if a prospect you’ve been speaking with for a few weeks suddenly goes dark, these witty subject lines can restart the conversation.
Funny Email Subject Lines
“Need a day at the beach?”
“Since we can’t all win the lottery …”
“3 bizarre steps to being better at your job”
“Pairs nicely with spreadsheets”
“Revised policy regarding jean shorts at work”
“HBO GO Password?”
“Don’t invite Steve to that meeting. He’ll dress like a ghost.”
“Dad jokes. I’ve got ‘em.”
“You can’t buy this on Amazon …”
“You have this in common with Steve Jobs”
“Swipe right on us.”
“I like you better than my nephew right now.”
“What’s your Uber rating?”
“How to organize your VHS collection”
“Mom’s gonna love this”
“C’mon, it’s Friday and you’re killing time anyway …”
“Is Twilight the best movie ever made?”
“Coffee for closers”
“Confession: I watched Harry Potter 1-4 this weekend”
Social Media scams and hoaxes come around every year and unfortunately, unsuspecting Social Media users are perpetuating and helping spread these erroneous tales.
Who Are Creating These Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?
Unfortunately, with tremendous popularity, also comes a dark side. Virus writers and other cybercriminals go where the numbers are and the most popular Social Media sites are Twitter, LinkedIn, and the biggest, Facebook.
Why Are Social Media Scams and Hoaxes Created?
By empowering users to share and connect, social media platforms open the door for a variety of different security and privacy concerns.
Make no mistakes about it, Social Media scams and hoaxes can do damage. If not direct damage to your pocketbook, it can do damage to your reputation — both personally or professionally. In fact, one of the fastest ways to get singled out by your employer is falling for these tricksters.
“As any security professional will tell you, allowing your employees to use social media sites on corporate networks could make your system increasingly vulnerable.” ~ SecurityIntelligence.com
So, How You Can Protect Yourself Against Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?
According to several consumer protection agencies, most scams start with an approach through contact you weren’t expecting. If someone contacts you out of the blue – whether over the phone, through the post, by email, on a website, in person or on social media – always consider the possibility that it may be a scam.
Beyond the basics above, I suggest keeping your personal information “locked-down” and not exposed to public view. In fact, because some sites, e.g. Facebook, like to prompt you to secure your account with your contact information (usually your cell phone), I would go one step further and make your settings so that only you (and not even your friends) can see your details. If your friends need to contact you, they will have all the info needed, and as such, there is no need to share it on Social Media.
What To Do If You Suspect Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?
The #1 thing to do if you suspect you are the target of Social Media cams and hoaxes is to change your password(s)and sign out of all devices!
The Seven Biggest Social Media Scams And Hoaxes Of 2018!
According to SecurityIntelegence.com, the seven biggest hoaxes and scams of 2018 have been as follows:
1. Catfishing Catfishing is an internet scam in which a cybercriminal creates a fake online profile to seduce a victim into a fictitious online relationship — usually to get money or other benefits from the victim.
2. Profile Hijacking The Facebook profile hijack is another take on using a fake profile for nefarious means. In this case, cybercriminals often use the attributes and details of real people — like their photos, hometown and occupation — to set up profiles pretending to be that person.
3. Lottery Schemes A ruse emerged earlier this year involving fake profiles that appeared to belong to top Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg. The cybercriminals sent messages to other users informing them that they’d just won lottery prize money.
4. Quizzes That Mine Your Information Which “Stars Wars” character are you? What city were you meant to live in? Which celebrity is your soulmate? Sound familiar? These are all popular quizzes that have been widely shared on Facebook, imploring users to take a few minutes for what seems like harmless fun.
5. URL-Shortening Cons While URL shorteners are very useful for sharing a website link within a tight character limit, such as Twitter, they can also be used to mask a malicious page
6. Chain Message Hoaxes Social media app Snapchat has run into a problem with chain message hoaxes, according to Tech Advisor. The ruse here involves trying to alarm users about something terrible that is going to happen to their data within the app.
7. Money-Flipping Money-flipping is a growing financial scam on Instagram and other social media channels. Criminals seek to extort money from users by convincing them to make a bum investment.
Lastly, on this subject, reach out to me directly. Nothing beats “peace of mind” like a good phone call. Go to my contact page and send an email or, if you are within North America, call me direct at 1-888-502-3523.
A place to start (always) is understanding the awareness of your target audience. Awareness is key to producing the right message at the right time, as without your target knowing that they have a problem, your solution holds zero value. This holds true for every stage of the awareness funnel.
Optimizing Video Elements
Call to Action
Why Are Social Media Scams and Hoaxes Created?
So, How You Can Protect Yourself Against Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?