Encouraging engagement, of some type, is what every marketing campaign is ultimately about. Unfortunately, many campaigns miss the mark by forgetting that the message should be less about the information of your features, and more about the emotional relevance and benefit of your widget or service to your target audience.
As such, when you are writing to your audience — e.g. a prospect or someone who is higher up the food chain and who is extremely busy — it is important to engage with your best storyline.
This can easily be done with a simple exercise and if you are reading this, you are in luck; sign up here for an online complimentary mini-coaching session on copy-boarding. This is for new clients only and is about 1-hour in length.
That said, it is often a challenge to develop what you want to say without is sounding like a cold-form-letter.
Encouraging Engagement Like A Professional
Tim Ferriss (the number one business podcaster) shared this simple template in an interview:
1st paragraph: “I know you are very busy and get a lot of emails so this will only take 60 seconds.”
2nd paragraph: 1 or 2 sentences about who you are and how that’s relevant to the person you’re contacting.
3rd paragraph: 1 or 2 sentences with a specific question the recipient can answer quickly.
4th paragraph: “I totally understand if you’re too busy to reply. Even a 1-to-2-line response will make my day.”
Encouraging Engagement Old-School Style
Note this could also work if you picked up the phone and called. This seems to be a dying art as many would rather sens an email or text message.
I believe it is because people like to think things through before they speak. Additionally, they like to hear from other thinkers. Certainly, they want other people to know what they think, but doing that via a call can be scary for some.
So off to the email engagement campaign, and HubSpot’s Barry Feldman suggests “prompting your audience with one of the following ‘What do you think?’ strategies:
Probe their personality. Post a question that invites people to share their opinion or weigh in on something.
Play the “test your knowledge” game. It’s irresistible.
Post a poll. It’s easy to create polls on Twitter and Facebook. In addition to engaging your followers, you stand to learn meaningful things about them too.
Respond to my email. Email from brands are bound to ask you to click-through to read, watch, and try or buy something, but how often do they simply ask you to write back? I find this be an enormously engaging strategy and have seen it work for my brand and many others. Notice I wrote, “Respond to my email,” not “our email” or “this email.” A human-to-human first-person approach will be the engaging way to call this play.
Just ask. Interactivity 101: simply post a question. Whether done so in a social stream, blog post, online group or community, or on a Q&A site such as Quora, I’ve witnessed asking followers relevant, provocative, and timely questions create some of the most engaging and thought-provoking social media activity of all.
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!
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.
“A salesman’s mistake may cost little. An advertiser’s mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.” ~ Claude C. Hopkins in Scientific Advertising
Here Is Another Top 5 List To Help Your Business Grow!
Okay, this will be a bold statement: “Marketing professionals are the unsung heroes of the business world.” There I said it. There is no glory, no fanfare, and no one — for the most part — understands what we do to help their business.
I am hoping to change some of that with this post!
So, Why Do Marketing Professionals So Often Get Ignored?
In today’s world, the act of marketing often gets confused with sales, and while the act of sales is important and ultimately the end result, they are two very different methodologies.
Many businesses operate based on “sales-out-the-door” — and they should — as, without sales, there would be no business. However, what is driving the lead conversions to the sales team is the creative methodologies of your marketing team.
That all said, here in the information age — as it has been for hundreds of years before — the way business marketing is done can be the difference between success and failure in bringing in quality prospects to whom to sell your service or widget.
Marketing Professionals Know That It Has Always Been This Way!
In fact, today’s funnel has been completely flipped on its head, finally giving validity to the power of not only the deliverance of leads but the deliverance of good, qualified leads that allow you to close the sales process faster.
That said, the biggest fault has also fallen upon the shoulders of your marketing team.
“A salesman’s mistake may cost little. An advertiser’s mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.” ~ Claude Hopkins in Scientific Marketing
Click For Larger Image
Today’s purchasing funnel is now 75% marketing and 25% sales, whereas even as recent as 15 years ago — circa 2002 — ‘sales’ was the dominant focus to drive business at 60% sales and 40% marketing.
Here is my Top-5 list for how we marketing professionals can help your business.
#1 – We Know Why People Make Decisions…
Trendsetters like Claude Hopkins or Simon Sinek know that when you market to the “emotional-why”, you are marketing directly to the part of the brain that makes a decision. This ‘direct response marketing’ methodology is used by 100% of today’s successful businesses such as Apple, Inc..
#2 – We Focus On The Perspective Of The Buyer…
There have been many times when I have seen marketing that is all about the features. Unfortunately, it is little about the benefit. You have the best widget or service, or you claim to have a low price, you may even claim to have all the right colours & all the right sizes — and within your message, it was forgotten that all the prospective buyer wants to know is how you will solve their problem or fix their need. Remember, benefits sell; features don’t!
#3 – We Deliver Better, More Qualified Leads…
The shorter the cycle, the faster you can grow. Good marketers deliver leads to your business. The ones that are qualified can then be given an offer from the sales team. Quite often businesses have their sales teams out there trying to market, but they do it like salespeople. Some will be successful, but the majority will falter. Today’s discerning customer has more direct access to your competition, and the bigger the impact, the deeper the relationship must be! Simply, driving better/more qualified leads to your sales team will bring in your profits faster.
#4 – Brand Continuity…
All us marketers say that consistency is important, but “why” is it important? Brand continuity affects what people think about your company. People are emotionally driven to buy and as such, an inconsistent brand will not drive confidence. The more consistent your messaging, the more consistent your branding — whether via words, design, offerings or perspective. That’s why it’s so important to develop standards for brand consistency in your business.
#5 – We Are Professionals At Showing Value…
Price is often pitched as value and just as often, they are not related. There are two aspects to the definition of value: ‘desired value’ and ‘perceived value’. Desired value refers to what customers desire in a product or service. Perceived value is the benefit that a customer believes he or she received from a product after it was purchased. One-hundred percent of all generated value is delivered by your marketing team before they even talk to a salesperson.
And there you have it. If you found value in this post, please share it.
Are you looking for some quick insight and/or need some help? Phone calls are always free. Call Toll-Free throughout North America 1-888-502-3523
Optimizing Video Elements
Call to Action
Okay, this will be a bold statement: “Marketing professionals are the unsung heroes of the business world.” There I said it. There is no glory, no fanfare, and no one — for the most part — understands what we do to help their business.
In today’s world, the act of marketing often gets confused with sales, and while the act of sales is important and ultimately the end result, they are two very different methodologies.
