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7 ways entrepreneurs can use video for their new business

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Video for new business|7 ways entrepreneurs can use video for their new businessIf you’re an entrepreneur, there’s a good chance you’re always looking for new ways to promote your business. And what better way to do that than to make a video?

Video is one of the most powerful marketing tools available, and it’s only getting more popular. Unlike text, which the brain’s language processing centre reads, video engages both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The left hemisphere processes verbal information while the right hemisphere processes nonverbal information such as images, colors, and movement.

In addition to engaging more of the brain, the video has several other advantages over traditional marketing methods.

Video is more likely to be shared than text or images, making it an excellent way to build brand awareness and reach new audiences. Video is also more engaging than text alone, making viewers more likely to remember your message.

It is an excellent way to connect with customers and promote products or services and can be used to create brand awareness, show off company culture, or even entertain.

All in all, video can be a powerful marketing tool that helps you reach new audiences and achieve your business goals. That’s why ensuring you’re using video the right way for your business is important.

7 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Use Video For Their New Business

Use Video to Introduce Yourself and Your Business

If you don’t enjoy the idea of being in front of a camera, the good news is that you don’t have to be an on-camera pro to make videos that will help promote your business!

An easy way to use video is to create a short introduction to yourself and your company. This can be a great way to connect with potential customers and give them a sense of who you are and what you do.

Here are some tips for creating an effective video introduction:

  • Keep it short and sweet: Your video should be no more than two minutes long – any longer, and you risk losing your viewer’s attention
  • Focus on your message: Keep your message about yourself and your business clear and concise
  • Be natural: Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Be authentic and let your personality shine through
  • Smile: This may seem like a small thing, but it makes a big difference as smiling conveys warmth and approachability, both of which are important when you’re trying to connect with potential customers


Use Video To Show Off Your Products Or Services

A video is a great option if you’re looking for ways to show off your products or services. You can create a promo video to give potential customers a tour of your facilities, show off your products in action, or even just introduce yourself and your team.

There are a few things to keep in mind when creating a promo video for your business:

  • Use strong visuals: People are more likely to remember what they see than what they hear, so make sure your video is visually engaging
  • Make it easy to share: include social sharing buttons on your video page or make sure the video file can be easily emailed or downloaded
  • Use an attention-grabbing thumbnail image: This will be the first thing people see when they come across your video, so make sure it’s something that will grab their attention and make them want to watch

Use Videos To Create Tutorial Videos Or How-Tos

Creating a tutorial video is a great way to show off your knowledge and skills while helping others learn something new. There are many different ways to make this type of video, and it is one of the best ways to ensure that your tutorials are clear and easy to follow.

Here are some tips on how to use video to create great tutorial videos:

  • Plan your video before you start recording: This will help you ensure that you cover all of the necessary information and that your video flows smoothly
  • Use a quality microphone and camera: This will help improve the audio and visual quality of your video, making it more enjoyable for viewers to watch
  • Edit your video carefully: This will help remove any unnecessary footage and make sure that your video is clear and concise
  • Add background music or sound effects: This can help set the mood for your video and make it more engaging for viewers

Use Video To Share Customer Testimonials

It means a lot when customers give positive feedback about your product or service. But when that feedback is shared as a video testimonial, it can have an even greater impact on your business.
There are several benefits to using video to share customer testimonials:

  • It allows you to showcase your products or services in use to your potential customers
  • A video testimonial is more personal than written feedback and can be more persuasive
  • Videos can be shared easily online and are more likely to be watched than reading
  • Customer testimonials add social proof to your marketing efforts and help build trust with potential customers
  • Video testimonials can be used again and again, giving you a long-term asset to promote your business

Use Video To Announce Special Events Or Promotions

Video is an extremely powerful medium that can capture attention and convey emotion in a way that text and images cannot match. When done well, a video announcement can grab people’s attention and get them excited about what’s coming.
By releasing a short teaser video in advance, you can generate a lot of excitement and interest that will carry over into the actual event or promotion itself.

It is also an excellent tool for post-event or post-promotion follow-up. By making a recap video after the fact, you can keep the momentum going and ensure that people stay engaged with your brand.

Reaches A Wide Audience

Video is one of the most popular forms of content on the internet. By creating engaging and informative content, businesses can attract new customers and build trust with existing ones.
They can be shared easily across social media platforms, email, and website pages, making them an ideal tool for marketing and communication.

Video Allows Entrepreneurs To Add A Personal Touch To The Announcement

Video is a powerful medium to help entrepreneurs add a personal touch to their announcements. By including a video in their announcement, entrepreneurs can introduce themselves and their business in a more personal and engaging way than text alone.
Including a video in your announcement can also be a great way to build interest and excitement about your business. You can generate buzz and get people talking about your business by giving people a glimpse of what you do and who you are.

Conclusion

Overall, video is an extremely powerful marketing tool that can help new entrepreneurs achieve their goals in several ways. If you’re not already using video for your new business, now is the time to start.

6 Proven Content Strategies that Hook Millennials and Gen Zers (and Tools for the Job)

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Content Strategies|6 Proven Content Strategies that Hook Millennials and Gen Zers (and Tools for the Job)It’s official: Millennials and Gen Zers are all grown up.

Millennials, in particular, now hold the most buying power in the modern world. Gen Zers, which have striking similarities with Millennials, are slowly but surely catching up.

Long story short, it’s time for your business to build your content marketing strategy around these audiences.

Here are six proven content marketing strategies that will help you get their attention:

1. Use short-form videos

Short-form videos can fill the younger generation’s appetite for quick entertainment and information.

That’s why platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are all the rage—garnering billions of monthly viewers.

TikTok, in particular, is loaded with tools that can help brands reach their target audience and establish their authority.

Here’s a quick rundown of its features:

  • Business integration: TikTok now lets brands showcase their website and business category on their profiles. In addition, they’re set to benefit from other features that TikTok will include in future updates.
  • Built-in analytics: To optimize your TikTok strategy, the platform comes with built-in audience analytics. This covers content engagement, audience growth, demographics, and follower activity.
  • Creator and business learning resources: Not sure how to convert your brand’s messaging into short-form videos? TikTok offers a library of learning resources along with tons of video examples for inspiration.
  • Comprehensive video editing: TikTok’s very own video editor is packed with features like video effects, voiceovers, text overlays, and filters. Thanks to its popularity, there are also dozens of cost-effective TikTok tools to spice up your videos so you get more TikTok views after you publish.

Automating short-form video scheduling with Vista Social

It’s also worth noting that TikTok is equipped with its own post scheduling tool, which is accessible using a desktop browser. But if you want to promote short-form videos on YouTube or Instagram, you need a third-party post scheduling tool.

Vista Social, for example, is a comprehensive social media management platform. Apart from building an automated posting schedule, it can help you measure social media analytics, manage online reviews, monitor for brand mentions, and more.

2. Invest in influencer marketing

Looking for strategies to win your target audience’s trust? You should consider getting into influencer marketing.

Here’s the thing: influencer marketing and Millennials go hand in hand. In fact, 82% of Millennial and Gen Z social media shoppers trust influencers when making purchase decisions.

It doesn’t matter if you want to steal the young audience’s attention on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. There will always be influencers who can give your brand’s credibility and authoritativeness a much-needed boost.

The good news is, you don’t need a sizeable budget to work with influencers.

Micro-influencers, for instance, can promote your brand for only up to $500 per post on Instagram. That should be enough to put your company in front of around 50,000 followers.

Vetting influencers with the Upfluence Chrome extension

Upfluence is a well-known influencer marketing platform that can help you through every step—from influencer discovery to payments. Your business can invest in their services to streamline the entire influencer marketing process.

Alternatively, you can take the DIY route using the official Upfluence Chrome extension. This works by revealing crucial metrics whenever you visit an influencer’s profile, like audience engagement and suggested price per post.

3. Get employees involved

Millennials and Gen Zers respond positively to relatable and authentic content experiences. And that’s exactly what you can give them through an employee advocacy campaign.

In employee advocacy, your workforce becomes your core brand ambassadors. All you have to do is encourage them to post social media content with your brand front and center.

Some ideas include posting about a company event, live streaming team-building activities, or uploading “behind-the-scenes” photos. You can also launch full-blown employee takeovers of your brand’s official social media channels.

Accelerating employee advocacy with Nectar

Nectar is one of the best employee recognition platforms that can help foster a positive work culture. It empowers companies with features like point-based rewards, employee recognition, and brand alignment challenges.

Elevating employee recognition through Nectar works perfectly for employee advocacy. Not only does it provide employees with activities to post about, it also allows companies to incentivize their duties as brand ambassadors.

4. Align value propositions with a cause

It’s no secret that Millennials and Gen Z are huge supporters of causes that involve global issues. This includes diversity, inclusiveness, and environmental awareness.
That’s why more and more brands are launching marketing initiatives that align with these causes.

While there’s no right way to do this, it should be achievable by any brand that’s creative and resourceful enough. The only unmissable step is getting everyone in your organization aboard your initiative.

For example, if you want to show your support for diversity in the workplace, employees will be more than happy to share about it through advocacy.

Getting everyone on the same page with Monday.com

Monday.com is widely recognized as one of the top project management software on the web. It has heaps of features that enable teams to strive towards a single vision, like task management, time tracking, and collaboration tools.

Monday.com makes it easy for brands to share files and guidelines around specific initiatives. This is incredibly useful if you’re launching a collaborative campaign to showcase your support of a particular cause.

5. Modernize your SEO with mobile keywords

The majority of Millennials and Gen Zers use mobile devices to browse the web. Whenever they’re after reliable information, a considerable chunk heads straight to Google using mobile-friendly search terms.

A good example would be question-based keywords, which are on the rise due to the growing popularity of virtual assistants. Rather than typing words using a mobile keyword, users are more inclined to use their device’s dictation features to run searches.

If you want recurring organic traffic, your SEO strategy should keep up with the times. Whether you plan to buy SEO articles or handle SEO in-house, be sure to make room for mobile-friendly keywords.

Find question-based keywords with AnswerThePublic

Over the years, AnswerThePublic has remained the most convenient tool for finding question-based keywords.

All you have to do is head to their site, type in a broad keyword, and watch the tool at work. Within seconds, it will provide you with a web of question-based keyword ideas that can bolster your mobile SEO efforts.

6. Implement performance-focused content tracking

Lastly, no brand can come up with a perfect content marketing strategy overnight.

You can only refer to the known “best practices” to create a foundation for your content marketing. Beyond that, you need to rely on performance tracking to make data-driven decisions to improve your content strategy over time.

Find out what works with Google Analytics

If you want all-around content tracking, it can’t get any better than Google Analytics.

Despite the free price tag, Google Analytics will help any brand analyze multiple layers of their website’s performance. It can reveal your top-performing content, measure scroll depth, assess your problematic “exit” pages, and more.

Conclusion

Millennials and Gen Zers present new challenges for brands that want to stay relevant. Fortunately, they’re not exactly closed books when it comes to their content consumption preferences.

The strategies above should help elevate your content marketing strategy to a level that newer audiences will appreciate. Just remember to experiment with one tactic at a time, find out what sticks, and double down on your efforts.

How To Choose The Right Digital Marketing Agency

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Digital Marketing Agency|How To Choose The Right Digital Marketing AgencyThe public’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and as they do it’s important to acknowledge and pivot to fit the needs of your consumer base. Your marketing tactics need to be short, sufficient, informational, and entertaining, all while also ensuring your brand is distinguishable and digestible to the public.

Partnering with a great digital marketing agency can help you accomplish all of this and be game-changing for your business; but with new marketing agencies popping up every day and anyone being able to fake a good review or two online, how can you ensure the digital marketing agency you partner with is the best fit for you and your business?

More and more digital marketing agencies are marketing themselves as “full-service” firms, meaning they’ll work with businesses on any kind of marketing project. However, with a little digging, you can usually figure out the one or two areas of expertise the company has the most history with.

You want to hire experts in your field to help take your marketing to an exceptional level. With that in mind, here are five ways you can guarantee to choose the right digital marketing agency to help your business’s marketing campaign flourish.

Ask To See Their Portfolio

Digital marketing agencies should be proud to show off their completed projects. When you’re searching for a digital marketing agency to work with, be sure to ask to see their portfolio or any samples of their past work they have available. This will give you better insight into the types of jobs they’ve done and you can see if their work style aligns with what you’re looking for.

Asking to see their previous client list can be helpful in cases where their work may not be conducive to portfolio presentation; for example, their SEO services or their content marketing campaigns may not be housed in a portfolio but still give great insight into their capabilities.

Check Into Their Reputation In The Industry

Good news travels fast. Therefore if the marketing agency you’re interested in is that good, talk of their work must be happening somewhere. Ask around your industry to see if any of your peers have insight into the digital marketing agency you’re looking to work with.

Or, if you’re still looking for suggestions, ask around to see if companies in your network have worked with any digital marketing agencies and see if they would recommend them. Your community can help give you insight into the firm you may not be able to find online or through your conversations with them.

They Have A Well-Designed Website

A well-designed website is usually a sign of a digital marketing company that cares. It should be updated, easily navigated, and have all the key elements about their company present for you to peruse. A good way to gauge the digital marketing company’s SEO practices is to search for their website with keywords that match their geographical location and services offered. If they are not one of the first search results, you may want to go with another company that knows how to optimize its search results.

Their Values Match Your Own

Working with external teams can be hard. People can buttheads, there are different work styles, problems occur and deadlines get pushed. You never know what can happen in the middle of a project. That’s why working with a digital marketing agency with a team that values the same things as yours can make the experience that much better all around.

When interviewing the digital marketing agencies, ask what the culture at their company is like, see what their problem-solving techniques are, and lastly see if you get along with the people you may be working with.

Their Team Members Are Well-Versed And Experienced

Businesses turn to digital marketing agencies for help. They want experts who can execute successful campaigns. When selecting a digital marketing agency, ask to see the resumes and backgrounds of everyone on the team you’ll be working with. The last thing you want is to realize you’re paying to work with a team of fresh college graduates or with a team leader who has never worked on a project in your field.

LinkedIn is a great place to look into the background of digital marketing agency employees as well, you can see how long they’ve been with the business, in the field itself, and their specialties before meeting with them.

What Are The Best Ways To Improve A Company Video?

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StrategyDriven Business Communications Article |Company video|What Are The Best Ways To Improve A Company Video?Corporate videos can sometimes be creatively pigeonholed. Some may assume them to be dull and dreary.

Still, the best businesses defy people’s expectations with their offerings. They create compelling opportunities in impossible situations. The same frame of mind should be applied to creating corporate videos, which can play a crucial role in accelerating business growth and increasing brand awareness.

There is plenty of room for creativity and innovation here. Instead of producing bland and generic content, your company has the chance to develop something insightful and unique by exploring unique video ideas. Not only this, but your firm can keep improving its video content offerings over the years, developing it all alongside the evolution of your brand.

Here are some of the best ways to improve your corporate videos today.

Keep it Short and Sweet

Nobody wants to sit through lectures today, irrespective of format. Information is also cherry-picked and more likely to be shared when it does not inconvenience people’s time. Short-form videos can generate more interest.

People’s attention spans are becoming shorter. Many companies are hurriedly developing short-form content, with ‘YouTube Shorts’ paying creators to create this content to lure in audiences. Firms will increasingly explore these newer channels to appeal to their respective markets.

Even if you do not have a presence in these digital spaces, recognizing that people are increasingly gravitating to this content is key. You can then spend every second wisely and make an impactful impression as soon as you can with your company videos.

Truth tends to be more straightforward. Any content that meanders may be interpreted as misleading or embellished in certain respects. Others may interpret company videos as more legitimate and authoritative when concise and to the point.

Utilize Free Subtitle Software

Subtitles cannot be treated as an afterthought. They are an essential component of a corporate video, promoting inclusivity and emphasizing and reaffirming points being audibly made.
You can implement these features for free with the right tools. Some will have varying features that afford more creative control. You can mix and match at your leisure as no costs are involved.

There are many ways to add captions to video, and they are each worth exploring further. For example, web-based Fastreel enables users to add subtitles in SRT format. Others like MySubtitle can be downloaded on App Store, allowing users to add text to shorter videos from their smart devices. Both options can be downloaded for free and favor different modes of working.

Subtitle Workshop and Jubler are also free. The former has advanced features, and the latter makes quicker subtitle implementation possible. Whether you need speed or precision, you will get results with your subtitles with no costs or stress.

Perfect Storyboards

Do not focus on a script alone. Think about storyboarding your company video, too.

Visual references are key. Each frame should progress logically with compelling imagery. There should be no sudden changes in theme, tone, or pacing. Structure your ideas and develop a throughline for your content. Use the right digital tools for that job.

There are many great programs firms can use to storyboard their video content. Price models range from $10 to $799 one-time fees, which means you have suitable options for any budget. Some of these services also have iPhone and Android versions to enable flexible creation conditions and techniques as well.

Each panel of your storyboard should pop with a distinctive flair, and planning programs make that possible. You will also avoid production errors and give a clearer creative vision to the directors, cinematographers, and editors of the company videos. Everything you produce will be more likely to be on schedule, and big creative ideas can be concentrated and focused.

Develop Working Relationships with Actors

Actors are more than a mouthpiece for your business. They are also representative of it. If your brand becomes well-known, these performers can also become an integral part of your brand.
Remember that your audience needs to connect with the person seen or speaking. Make sure you hire someone that can match the charm and warmth that your company presumably has. Your working relationship will get off to a better start after a competent casting process.

Learn how to work with actors. Create a character alongside them. Encourage improvisation if your short-form video has a lighter or comedic tone. Do not confine them to dryly reading scripts, and instead collaborate to create something heartfelt and unique.

Pay an equal amount of attention to your voice talent. Gain an understanding of what the voice acting process is like for the performer and director both. Refine skills in banking audio reels, improve line readings, and have the knowledge to create a professional sound in a home studio or office. Improve techniques to get your voice actors in the proper headspace to perform.

Gauge Social Media Reactions

Professional analytics can provide useful insights into how well your video is performing. It is also useful to look at a broader picture and see what louder, individual voices say about your content.

The best or worst ads draw the biggest reactions online, with middling results rarely discussed. It is to be hoped your content will fall into the former category. While analytics can show how many people watched your video, only social media can help you understand their emotional, visceral reaction to what you created.

Short-form videos need to create an impact, so make sure you learn about how to create and promote them. Many people will stumble across it and watch the video in its entirety if it is only a few seconds long. There may be a stronger urge to reshare it on public profiles if it is something worth seeing. Analytics will not reveal much in this situation, but honest feedback will be found on social media.

Social media users often have their guard down, too. People may be polite in test screenings and surveys, but in the safety of their online profiles, they may be more inclined to express their thoughts and feelings honestly. After all, that is what many people use social media for. Place value on constructive feedback and ignore any ruder remarks you encounter.

To conclude, you should use these tips to improve your chances of success with business videos. The video marketing sector is highly-competitive and ever-evolving, so keep doing your research to ensure that you’re always ahead of the curve.

How to Use Video Content to Grow Your Business

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Video Content|How to Use Video Content to Grow Your BusinessVideo has taken over the online marketing space. It is one of the easiest ways to connect with an audience and to grow your business. If you are not currently maximizing video usage then you are not using a valuable marketing strategy that can help to grow your business quickly and efficiently.

Using video is one of the best ways to make an emotional connection with your audience that will lead them to purchase your products and services. Here are some of the key benefits your business can derive from using video as part of your marketing strategy.

Increase Brand Awareness

With so many of the major online platforms emphasizing short-form video content you no longer have to produce long overly optimized videos to make an impact. YouTube has introduced shorts, Instagram has reels, Pinterest has introduced idea pins, and TikTok is also a great place to post short-form content.

This is not to say that you should not use long-form videos as well to get your message across, you can create these yourself or use a video production company to help.

Whether you produce long form or short form content it is now easier than ever for you to create videos quickly and easily.

Introduce Yourself

People like to buy from people they know and trust. If you are running a business you need to start using video to connect with your audience.

You can use video content to share the story of your brand. Talk about why you started it and what you hope to achieve.

Show people behind the scenes footage of how things work in your office space to get your products and service out of them. Share with them the hardships or struggles that you are experiencing as a business.

Talk to them about your triumphs, future hopes, and expectations for your business. Sharing in such a personal way will help you to make an emotional connection with your audience. When people start feeling as if they know you, they are more likely to purchase your products and services.

Show How Your Products Work

Often people are hesitant to purchase a product because they’re not exactly sure how it will work for them. You can use video to show your products being used.

You can have customers make videos showing others how they are using a product that they have bought from you. Seeing people just like themselves using your products to make their life better is a great way to push those who are hesitant about purchasing to do so.

Start Filming

There is little doubt that video is an extremely effective way of getting your message out to potential customers and even your present ones. If you have been hesitant to use videos in the past, now is the time to conquer your fears and get on board.

You will not regret it, because you will see exponential growth in your business as you embrace video to get your message across to your target audience.