What is stopping your business from using social media, video, and humor to your advantage? You asked, we answered!
Social Media Concerns
Not understanding how the platforms work and how to get the most out of them.
The best way to learn is just to dive right in. You’re not going to break the platform! Begin by building your own personal social page and spending some time being a user on the platform first. There are many tutorials available, but it’s our opinion that discovering it for yourself is the best way to start.
A lot of business owners simply don’t have the time to spend on social media, which is why we suggest working with a team who can manage your social media accounts on a daily basis. It’s not a one-person job. It takes a team to make sure your audience is properly looked after on social media.
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Just start with pictures: When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retain 65% of the information three days later. (Source)
Thinking not getting a lot of likes/comments/shares means you’re failing (views are most important).
It’s not about getting likes; it’s about creating community and engaging that community on a consistent basis.
As in-depth as social media analytics are, we believe every social media user has their own personal way of interacting with brands. Yes, there is a lot of crossover, but it really does come down to each user's individual experience. In other words, the way any one person desires to be marketed to differs from person to person, though there may be some similar themes.
To combat this, we suggest looking at your overall engagement and specific call-to-action results. This requires fully understanding your client and always testing against that knowledge.
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Many users who have Liked your page will never actually engage with the content.
With Timeline, Facebook users who have not liked your page are still exposed to its content through friend activity. (Source)
Thinking you don’t have a story to tell.
Every person has a story, every brand has a story and every person has a brand story.
Not knowing how to identify and communicate your story effectively is completely normal. Partner with a professional who can help draw out your story with you.
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As an experiment, Refinery29 tested Facebook ads that were sequenced like stories. Overall, the experiment yielded a 56% conversion lift and an 87% rise in view-throughs. Refinery29 also saw a 7% increase in in-store purchases and a 10% increase in online purchases. (Source)
Thinking you won’t be able to interact with your customers regularly.
We must communicate with our customers regularly if we want to keep them as customers. Bad customer service kills brands. Lack of communication kills businesses. Brand loyalty requires work.
That being said, create realistic expectations for your customers to have with your brand.
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Operating hours
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Time to reply
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Platforms for communication
Make it very simple for your customers to communicate directly with the person in your brand that they need.
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90% of people surveyed have used social in some way to communicate directly with a brand. What’s more, social surpasses phone and email as the first place most people turn to when they have a problem or issue with a product or service, according to Sprout’s consumer survey. (Source)
The Q3 2016 Sprout Social Index shows that 1 in 4 people get annoyed when you don’t respond to them. (Source)
Not a lot of activity when starting out can be discouraging.
Social media marketing is not a quick fix. Think of it as a relationship. You have to date your client first before you can ask them to marry you. Expect it to take time and make sure you put in the work. It will pay off exponentially!
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Results will vary, but you should see results within six months of starting your content marketing efforts. (Source)
“Only middle aged moms are on Facebook.”
Facebook users consist of far more than middle aged moms. The numbers don’t lie. Check out some of these statistics:
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44% of Facebook users are female, 56% are male. (Source)
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88% of online users of age 18-29 are on Facebook. (Source)
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84% of online users of age 30-49 are on Facebook. (Source)
There’s too much competition/it’s hard to stand out.
We do an in-depth study of our clients’ competitors. Understanding what the customer likes and dislikes about your competitors will help you determine exactly what matters to them (the customer). From there, you need to identify how your brand answers those likes and dislikes, as well as what differentiates your brand.
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The platforms used the least for ads over the past year are Pinterest and Snapchat. A startlingly high percentage of marketers (90% for Pinterest and 94% for Snapchat) say they didn’t use ads on either platform. Using platforms that other businesses aren’t using can help you stand out. (Source)
How to not come off as pushy/only focused on money. It’s hard to seem genuinely personal and interested in connecting with your audience.
If the only way you are ever communicating to your customers on social media is through advertisement posts or paid ads, then yes, you will only ever be perceived as a brand. But, if you spend a lot of time “being human” as a brand on social media, and engage in the conversations your customers are having, in the places your customers go, you will gain their trust. Eventually you will have their permission to market to them through ads, but still only periodically if all these other items are consistently being done.
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While 86% of social media users follow a brand, almost 60% of them are annoyed with too many promotions. You can’t always be selling. In order to increase brand loyalty, you need to focus on developing a rewarding, humanistic relationship with your audience. (Source)
“That’s not how my grandparents used to do it.” Traditional methods of marketing cause people to be stuck in the past.
Bob Dylan said it best, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” Blockbuster was told years before they folded that digital downloaded video would be the next big thing. Unfortunately for Blockbuster, they chose to ignore the natural shift in the marketplace and, well...you know the rest of the story. Blockbuster is no more. Don’t be a Blockbuster.
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Adobe Digital Insights’ 2018 State of Digital Advertising Report also reveals that 50% of Gen Z (18 and 19-year-olds) and 42% of Millennials (20- to 36-year-olds) think social media is the most relevant channel for ads. (Source)
Gives out free information for other companies to steal or to public (like giving out recipes or business tips to followers).
The idea is to figure out what you can give away and what you need to charge for. If you have an irresistible free offer, this helps create a sense of reciprocity with your customers. It also shows that you are not afraid to “give away the sauce.” We say do it! Even if your competitors steal the idea, they will never be able to deliver in the way that your brand can and does!
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An article in the Journal of Marketing found that people who got a product for free talked about it 20% more. Getting a freebie related to the product prompted them to talk about it 15% more, while coupons and rebates didn’t make a difference. (Source)
What if you make a mistake and people see it?
We all make mistakes. It’s not about the mistakes we make, but how we take responsibility for them. Do we own up to our mistakes, or do we deny and blame others?
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Positive feelings create memories. Research has shown that just 42% of positive experiences were forgotten, while 60% of negative experiences faded from memory. (Source)
Additional Sources:
https://purplecowagency.com/4-common-problems-for-businesses-on-social-media-and-how-to-fix-them/
Video Concerns
How much does it cost to make a video?
Depends on the size of the production, location, cast and crew.
Determined by goals, distribution, optimization, etc.
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We’d love to give you a quote for your video project! CONTACT US to begin!
The video has to be professional with the best equipment, a studio, etc./is too much work, time consuming, and expensive to create.
Yes, high value productions look amazing and can be very expensive. It is not about how much or little money you spend, or the type of equipment you use. It all depends on the quality of the story and message.
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You don’t need to spend a lot on high-end camera gear and equipment for your studio to create top-notch social media videos. (Source)
People don’t want to watch long ads.
If your story is engaging and if it speaks to the direct need of the viewer and hooks them, they will watch the whole thing. It’s not about length, but about story.
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The average length of ads on the YouTube Ads Leaderboard in 2014 averaged three minutes—an increase of 47% vs. 2013. And none of the top ads in 2014 and 2015 were under a minute. (Source)
People won’t always be able to watch a video if they’re in public, at work, etc., so they can’t listen.
That’s a thing of the past! Subtitles coupled with engaging imagery can combat this. Your visuals need to attract the customer to keep viewing the video and the script needs to be clear and concise so they don't exhaust themselves reading.
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Due to Facebook’s default viewing setting, 85% of users watch video without sound, meaning subtitles can help ensure that your message is shared—even if the volume is off. (Source)
YouTube videos that have subtitles can see up to 40% more views. Integrating copy into your video can help improve your engagement and ensure your audience is aware of your message. (Source)
Stage fright/you don’t think you have a good online presence, you’re not funny.
Send in the clowns...ok so we’re probably not using that phrase correctly, but we do recommend getting talent who can deliver the message in a professional and entertaining way. This does not have to be the CEO or anyone on the team. It can be however, and certain videos lend themselves to that (About Us videos are an example).
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It is okay to be quirky and unique on camera. You can tell jokes and laugh! We want to inform and educate the viewer, but you can still be yourself while doing that. Viewers appreciate getting to know the person on camera, and their personality. (Source)
If you can’t be “ha-ha” funny, at least be “aha!” funny. Cleverness is sometimes good enough. (Source)
Afraid of/hate bad press.
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'There's no such thing as bad publicity.' Phineas T. Barnum.
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“All publicity is good if it is intelligent.” The Atlanta Constitution, January, 1915
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“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” Oscar Wilde
We are dealing with a publicity issue when it comes to bad press. Similar to how we respond when we make a mistake, we must respond well in the face of bad press. There will always be bullies, just don’t let the bully be the one staring back at you in the mirror.
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“A lot of times, when we lean into fear, we end up doing our best work!” (Source)
After the movie Borat made relentless fun of the nation of Kazakhstan, Hotels.com reported a 300% increase in requests for information about the country. Well-known brands have more at stake, researchers admit. For well-established companies, bad press often means tumbling stock prices, customer boycotts, and increased regulatory scrutiny. McDonald’s saw sales drop by more than 25% when a rumor circulated that it used worm meat in its hamburgers. (Source)
You don’t need video to be successful.
While you may not share the same convictions about the use of video, your consumers are using videos to get the information that they need about the products they purchase. If you choose not to produce videos for your brand, you will get lost in the sea of other companies who have chosen to embrace this medium.
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92% of marketers who use video say that it's an important part of their marketing strategy — the highest percentage of any year since 2015. (Source)
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Close to 50% of online users search for product videos before they make a purchase. (Source)
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Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. (Source)
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A third of all the time people spend online is dedicated to watching videos. (Source)
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54% of consumers want to see videos from brands they support. (Source)
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90% of viewers say product videos are helpful in the decision-making process. (Source)
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Viewers retain 95% of a message when watching it in a video compared to only 10% when reading it via text. (Source)
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Video content is 50 times more likely to drive organic search results than plain text. (Source)
How much does it cost to get 1 million views on YouTube or Facebook?
The Facebook algorithm is constantly changing, as is the pricing on ad-spend. It will cost significantly less now than in a couple of years. This is because bigger brands are starting to catch on to the cheap pricing. Soon, the price will get inflated due to the high demand. The same happened with Google. It used to be very cheap to advertise on Google; now, not so much.
Alternatively, it is possible to get 1 million views without spending a dime on advertising. This is much more about the community you create and the influence your brand has. Are you engaging consistently?
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Facebook: reality is averaging 3–5 cents ($0.03-$0.05) per view which would be $30,000-$50,000 in total ad spend. (Source)
YouTube ads have an average cost-per-view of $0.010-$0.030, and the views that you generate will count towards your overall YouTube viewer count. The average cost of reaching 100,000 viewers is around $2,000. (Source)
Can a video campaign make a lot of money for my business?
The potential for this is YES! But, you need to make sure that your video is successful in hooking your customer, identifying their problem, presenting your solution and calling them to action.
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Video marketing revenue is expected to keep growing by 14.6% each year.
With nearly 28 billion dollars in revenue in 2018, video marketing is well on its way to becoming one of the most lucrative global industries. (Source)
How long should I run a video campaign for?
We like running A/B tests to further discover the right messaging before we fully launch any campaign. After that, we continue monitoring and measuring the ad to make sure it's as successful as it can be.
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For most campaigns, you’ll see something happening within a week. That means you should at least try for a week, but my recommendation for most ad campaign durations is two weeks. So, two weeks. Give any campaign at least two weeks to see if it’s going to work or not. But (yes, there’s a big but), you don’t want to allocate only $5 in a two-week span. A minimum of $10 per week should be allocated to trying for two weeks and that’s entirely dependent on what you’re advertising. (Source)
How do I ensure my video campaign works well?
Understand your customer, know your competition, create a strategy, execute on that strategy, measure what works, repeat! Obviously there is much more that goes into all these items, but in essence, preparation is key!
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Four tips: (Source)
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Center Your Video Around the Story, Not The Sale
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Make your Video Feature the Best 10 Seconds Ever
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Use Humor in Your Video. Stop Being So Boring!
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Optimize Your Video for SEO – Tag it Up
What do I do if my video campaign does not work well?
The early stages of planning and strategizing should mitigate a complete and total disaster. That being said, it is important to know and test your work before you launch. Should there be any fault in your campaigns, honesty and taking responsibility is always best.
We suggest going back through each phase of the strategy to see if you can identify where improvements could be made.
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Assess what went wrong: (Source)
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Is it not creative?
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Is it low quality?
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Is it optimized for every platform it’s on?
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Does it have a poor CTA or no CTA at all?
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Is it designed well with text and graphics?
How long should my video(s) be?
This is one of the biggest debates when it comes to digital video marketing. Here’s where we stand: Your video should be as long or as short as it takes to hook your customer, identify their problem, present your solution and call them to action. Do whatever it takes to communicate this efficiently and effectively.
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For Facebook and Instagram, viewing just 3 seconds of a video of any length is considered a view. For YouTube Trueview ads, it’s around 30 seconds. (Source)
Most marketing videos should be two minutes or less. (Source)
What key performance indicators (KPIs) should I consider with my video(s)?
The ultimate KPI is whether or not people are responding to your call-to-action. Beyond that, you can check all the analytics that the social platforms provide.
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Click numbers, viewer duration and bounce rate, view through rate, comments and interaction, recurring users, referral traffic, conversion rate, embeddings in other websites. (Source)
What are the chances that my video will go viral?
Getting a video to go viral should not be the top concern. Plenty of businesses have made lots of money without ever producing a viral video. On the other hand, you may have a video with tons of views, but the customers are not driven to purchase.
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1 in a million. (Source)
How do I get people to see my videos?
While paid ads are always going to be the quickest way to get people to see your videos, word-of-mouth, social sharing and previous customer engagement play a role in getting your videos seen. Make sure your videos address the customers’ problems, present the solution and call them to action.
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More than a billion people log into Facebook daily, and Americans spend 40 minutes of their day, on average, on the social network. These two statistics prove Facebook video ads have huge potential for businesses that want to grow. YouTube also has more than a billion active users every month. Again, YouTube can potentially fuel your growth. On YouTube, your goal is to get more people to view the videos you've already uploaded. The best YouTube ads are memorable; they are surprising, stimulate emotions, or inspire action.
Like Facebook, Twitter's Promoted Video Ads are native videos that play on Twitter. If your business relies on a lead generation, video ads on Twitter can be a great way to engage existing customers and get potential customers familiar with your brand. (Source)
What social media platforms should I put my videos on?
if your brand stands to benefit from sharing industry-related news, engaging (short-form) videos, graphics and other visually appealing content—especially if your primary audience is above the age of 30—then consider having a presence on Facebook
Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms for teens and young adults, especially in the US. Use of the app slowly drops off with age but stays consistent across both men and women, so if your customers are under 40, then Instagram can’t be ignored.
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You Should Prioritize Instagram if: Your target audience is under the age of 40, you run a lifestyle, ecommerce, or photography business.
YouTube
73% of US adults report regularly using YouTube, with a heavy concentration in the age range of 15 to 34 years olds. YouTube is broadly popular among both men and women, and usage tends to go up alongside income and level of education.
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You Should Prioritize YouTube if: Your audience is below the age of 50 and consumes video content as a means of either education or entertainment.
63% of Twitter users are between the ages of 35 and 65, with males making up nearly two-thirds of those people.
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You Should Prioritize Twitter if: Your audience skews toward the demographic of mature males between the ages of 30 and 60. Experiment with a combination of content types ranging from educational videos, to gripping visuals and discussion threads that offer advice and opinions.
TikTok
Around 50% of TikTok’s audience is under the age of 35 in the US, with the majority of that audience concentrated among those between the ages of 16 to 24.
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You Should Prioritize TikTok if: You want to reach (and entertain) a young audience with fun video-based content that doesn’t often have a direct connection to your products or services. Being overly self-promotional on this platform won’t build you a loyal following, so be prepared to take the approach of entertaining first.
With over 320 million monthly users, Pinterest boasts one of the most concentrated audiences of women amongst all social media sites. Nearly 80% of their users are female, with a heavy concentration among Millennials.
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You Should Prioritize Pinterest if: Your audience consists predominantly of adult women, your business is related to lifestyle, fashion, decorating, or DIY.
Snapchat
Young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 make up a massive 78% of active users who partake in the platform’s over 14 billion daily video views.
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You Should Prioritize Snapchat if: You want to reach a young audience and have an affinity for creating bite-sized, engaging video content. Like with TikTok though, don’t expect to flip on your camera and talk about your products all day, as most Snapchat users are here to be entertained.
What kind of video(s) should I create?
We recommend keeping a variety of videos and video styles in your brand’s arsenal.
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6 are essentials, but you should always make more videos: (Source)
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Humor / Entertainment
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Most ad-based videos
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Educational
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The Company Mission Statement Video
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The Product Video
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The How-To Video
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The Tips and Tricks Video
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Candid
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Behind the scenes
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Live Videos
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The Customer Testimonial
Humor Concerns
People may be offended.
Rise of the trolls! There will always be people who err on the side of negativity. While we are not responsible for their opinions, we are responsible for the content we produce and the way we present ourselves. A good team can help you tell your story in a way that resonates with your core audience!
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Andrew Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee's and Carl's Jr., said that if his ads aren’t offensive, he asks the marketing department what went wrong. He says that sales remain high and these ads are clearly working, so he sees no reason to change them. (Source)
Can be cringey/unrelatable/come off as trying too hard.
Avoiding this requires an understanding of how to create content that is native to the platform you are using. Example: If you make a video that is more likely to do well on Facebook, but instead you try to post it on Instagram, it will come off as weird or different. Make sure you have a social media team that fully understands the platforms and how to best create versions of your videos for those specific platforms.
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11% of marketers have used Snapchat video, and only 27% found it to be an effective strategy. Digital marketing trends show that most marketers haven’t succeeded in their Snapchat video-based campaigns, as users tend to find them obnoxious and annoying, especially if brands try to appeal to younger generations by using memes or other cringe-worthy methods. However, some marketers, such as the Washington Post, have managed to get the best out of this platform and use the video function in order to maintain and improve their brand’s status as an authoritative news source. (Source)
Makes your business seem unprofessional or like you don’t care or can’t be trusted because you’re not serious.
Being funny does not mean you are unprofessional. While there are certain topics most would find difficult to find humor in, we know that humor is a part of being human. Find the human element of your product or service and lean into that. What’s important is to show honesty, humility and empathy.
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No one remembers a dull Facebook post or boring YouTube video, but we all remember Kmart’s “I Shipped My Pants” commercials, even if we’d forgotten that Kmart was around. (Source)
Seems off brand to start using humor.
We would bet that most businesses have a variety of topics that can be communicated in a humorous way. The key is working with a team that can help identify those stories and deliver on the humor.
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Dollar Shave Club struggled initially as a small business, but when they introduced humor, their popularity grew. (Source)
Can get repetitive/hard to keep being creatively funny.
Just be consistent with whatever you do. Obviously, the more often you post, the more frequent your interaction will be with your customers. That being said, even if you only do one great video per month, make sure people can rely on that video being released on time every time. Inconsistency is confusing and, we believe it makes your brand seem unreliable. Digital marketing is hard, but it's worth doing, and it’s worth doing well.
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Four in ten (40%) respondents say that the source of the content is not important as long as it is interesting. Similarly, content volume is not a deal breaker: only 7% of those surveyed cite too much volume as the most off-putting content they see. (Source)
Additional Sources:
https://hbr.org/2014/05/leading-with-humor
https://www.businessknowhow.com/growth/humor.htm
http://andersonom.co.za/4-reasons-you-shouldnt-be-afraid-to-be-funny-on-social-media/
Pricing FAQ
Do you offer refunds?
We do not offer refunds for our services.
Do I have to pay ahead?
For all jobs we ask for 50% down. Once the job is completed, we collect the remaining 50%. Then we deliver the final files.
Do we have to sign a contract?
While we do not do contracts, we do send out proposals, estimates and invoices. We also require an agreement signed by both parties listing the scope of the work and the expected deliverables. As a courtesy, we ask that you give us 30 days notice before discontinuing the use of our services. This is for our benefit, and the benefit of the client in making sure that we can have enough time to off board any and all assets, etc.