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Are these the best campaigns? Can you make money from them?

The article below shows some ways you use to add to your campaigns.

As it says online video accounts for 50% of mobile traffic.

In a recent Facebook campaign I ran I was expecting the target audience to come from PCs due to the age group. To my surprise , it was 67% mobile and an older demographic (women aged 45 and over). So video and mobile are taking over whatever the target and product.

Source: Top 5 Video Marketing Campaigns

Burnout is something we all need to be aware of.

I know this is not about Video Marketing directly. It is , however, something that can occur in any business or work venture and can creep up on you without knowing it. Burnout can have many symptoms including loosing the edge in your creative abilities and a loss of interest in your business. I experienced this in the corporate world and did nor recognise it at first. In me it expressed itself in boredom as the tasks became too easy and routine. 

Now I amount of the corporate world and have new challenges that have let me work at a higher energy level again. 

Source: How to Avoid Entrepreneurial Burnout, without Losing Business, or Your Health – Copyblogger

Take some advice if you are feeling close to burnout as shown by the article above. Not doing this can have serious consequences, no matter what your age.

Are These Ways of Promoting Facebook Pages Really New?

The article below cover 6 ways to promote your Facebook Pages. It includes such things as using infographics or other quick eye catchers and tagging an influencer to get them to interested in you. It all includes cross publishing Facebook and blog posts. 

Source: 6 Smarter-Than-Average Ways To Promote Your Facebook Page

After reading the article you should gain some ideas to try. I think some are not really new, such as cross publishing, but it is still good advice.

eCommerce and the Impact of the Changes

The Infographic below shows how eComerce is seen from the Customer point of view. To me it also shows how retail fulfilment may well be a limiting factor. Customers are expecting an Omni channel approach more and more. We are now getting to the level of high impact high cost logistics. You can already see retailers wanting to charge for instantaneous services . Amazon Prime is a case in point. Networked delivery systems require investments and the providers will not be interested in delivering if there is no chance of a profit. I will be interested to see how the trade off between over-delivery based on service and under-delivery based on cost will turn out this year. 

Source: The Future Of eCommerce [Infographic]

Some Video Marketing Tips

Many small businesses now recognize that it would benefit them  to make YouTube videos for for their own website. However,  many also have little understanding concerning  what type of videos to create. The following information will hopefully give some video marketing tips that can be used by small  business owners.

1- Give valuable information & content to your customers

Ensure that your target customers  get to know your products and services. Let them see details on  features. In all cases focus more on the  “value add”  benefits they can get from your product or buying from you. Include at least one  unique selling proposition in your video script.  In other words, show what customers or clients will receive from working with you instead of your competition.

2- Create ? video for Customers Questions

Small businesses will  often know their customers well and the questions that clients or customers will  frequently ask. Create Videos  to answer those FAQs and then post them on your own website or a  video sharing site.

3- Have extras and gifts to expand client base

Make ? video which promotes an Irresistible offer and create an an opt-in list. This will enable you to get potential customers to provide you with their email address and name to get an opportunity to win ? valuable product. You could offer ? desirable product, tutorial video, eBook or anything else that would be of value to your customers.

4- Make video with case studies

This is a good selling point for any business. When you have verifiable written case studies it is a highly effective promotional tool to market your business. This type of video will significantly boost your business. It offers statements via audios and visuals of previous clients or customers who have good news to tell about your product or service. This video should be a subtle selling feature to show potential customers how they could also get help from your service or product.

5- Product Review

Just about every business has a targeted market that would be fascinated with product reviews for merchandise directly linked to your service or product. You can make ? video that will cover benefits and features in depth for the product and also give expert evaluation or opinion to your customers.

Comments on Viral Marketing via Videos and Websites

Diet Coke and Mentos geyser.

Diet Coke and Mentos geyser. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Below is an article written about the use of Videos and , more specifically, viral videos, in advertizing and marketing campaigns. As stated in  the introduction the goal and dream of a successful campaign is to get reach via a viral video. It is one of the most cost effective ways to get eyes on the products. It is not easy and in many cases it is the least intended videos that will go viral.
Introduction and Background

Viral marketing is the holy grail of marketing. The goal of any successful marketing campaign is to generate buzz and awareness about the product or service being offered. If done correctly, the campaign will generate expansive reach, strong brand-building, strong sales, all at a relatively low production and distribution cost.

Viral marketing can occur through many mediums, but the Internet is currently the reigning champion. Cheap resources (always-on internet access), efficiency in building contact networks (email, messengers, blogs, websites, etc.), and an abundance of new content (think Youtube.com) means that there is always something interesting and easy to share. Videos and websites are probably the most effective internet platforms for internet viral marketing.

The caveat of viral marketing is that since you are leveraging other people’s resources (their time and effort, their email lists, etc.), they will be on the lookout for signs of commercialism. A person will not spread a company’s message because there is no benefit for him. He actually suffers because he is losing credibility among friends. On the other hand, if the same person told his friends to give to an orphanage or other charity, he will be well received and appear magnanimous.

So assuming that your target viral marketer ” the person who sees your ad and must spread the advertisement to his acquaintances ” falls somewhere in between the extremes of shamelessly plugging a company and expounding upon the virtues of charity, you must balance the inherent commercialism with his desire to spread your message. You must produce something so interesting and compelling that your target marketer has no choice but to share it, marketing message payload and all.

So here is where we strike upon the most difficult challenge of creating a successful viral marketing campaign ? finding the balance of creativity and uniqueness while not diminishing the purpose of your marketing in the first place. The challenge is stiff: too commercial and it will not spread beyond the first marketer, too radical and your brand image may no longer match the content of the advertisement. However, do not despair. It has been done with impressive success, and as long as there is an audience of willing consumers, many more impressively successful campaigns will manifest.

Examples of Successful Commercial Viral Videos

The Superbowl is the largest television event in America. Every year, 40 percent of America households, or approximately 80-90 million Americans, are tuned into the Superbowl at some time. The 30 second Superbowl commercial, the most revered spot in American broadcasting, sold for a reported $2.5 million in the 2006 Superbowl.

With viral marketing, the same level audience can be reached, but at a fraction of the cost. The best viral marketing is not blasted at once to a large audience, but once seeded to a few individuals, will grow until many millions of people will have heard of it. Importantly, these people are not just receiving a television broadcast, but they are telling their friends about it, discussing it, joking about it, and making a mental impression of it. One person who tells others about a video he saw is more valuable than 10 who see your video and forget about it.

One successful viral video shows 2 men dressed in lab coats demonstrating the befuddling Diet Coke and Mentos chemical reaction. Apparently, if you drop Mentos breath mints into Diet Coke, it creates a reaction akin to mixing baking soda and vinegar. Many videos were produced, but this particular video was probably the best produced, including a musically choreographed demonstration of over 100 Diet Coke and Mentos fountains. After being featured on CNN, it was revealed that the video’s creators had already made several tens of thousands of dollars selling the advertisements at the beginning and end of the video.

– Coca Cola and Mentos

The Diet Coke video is an example of how viral videos can make money. But a company that wishes to get exposure needs a different approach. One way is for the company to sponsor the creation of a new video (or the sequel of a previously popular video), and then intersperse the company’s logo and website throughout the video. A good example of this is Stride gum’s commission of “Where the Hell is Matt” ? a video that shows Matt dancing for a few seconds at dozens of places around the world, all set to funny music. The video is novel and ridiculous at the same time ? just how many airports, customs, and taxis did Matt and his crew have to go through just to shoot a few seconds of Matt’s dancing? Anyways, the video took off, and Stride cannot be disappointed with their return on investment.

– Where the Hell is Matt?

However, the Matt video still only straddles the line of balancing commercialism and content. The perfect video would both integrate the company’s product with content so compelling that the commercial aspect is no longer a concern. To remove the commercial aspect would destroy the very fabric of the commercial. Below, I have included the links of 2 successfully circulated videos, one for Coca-Cola and one for Carlton Draught. These ads are classics of viral marketing because of their power, their persuasiveness, and elegance in weaving together commercialism and content.

– Carlton Draught Big Ad
– Coke Happiness Factory

A Case Study for Successful Web Marketing

Viral videos excite on a visual and auditory level, but have limitations in spreading your company’s message. Unless you are making a branding video, and can pull of something like Coke or Carlton Draught, the user may not even know what your company does unless he goes to your website or otherwise tries your product. A website can be a successful viral platform that not only generates visitors, but can also deliver your company’s message. In this case study, we will look at a service called AdCubes that combines all the elements of successful viral web marketing.

– AdCubes

The first element that of a successful viral website is to have an idea that is at once unique and creative. The website must offer something the visitor and the visitor’s friends will need. In the case of the AdCubes, the product is mundane ? it is an advertisement that is sold to anybody who wishes to purchase it. However, the concept is unique. Each ad cube costs $1 more than the previous one. As more and more people visit the site, the ads become more valuable, and the price is naturally driven up by purchases made by the same visitors.

The payoff for buying an ad is huge ? the person who purchased the first ad for $1 has received hundreds of clicks for his investment. As the value of the ads increase, people will return to the site often, morbidly curious how much advertisers would pay for the same cube that others have purchased for less. Will the price top out at $100 per cube? Or will it be nearer $100,000?

The beauty of this system is that it is self-reinforcing. People will come and buy ads, and tell their friends about the site. As more and more buzz builds, traffic increases, advertisers increase, and the price of the ads increases. The increasing price drives more buzz, and eventually will garner media attention. Then when buzz is peaking, the price of ads will peak as well, driving higher and higher interest in the concept. In the end, the payoff to the site’s owners could be millions of dollars. The payoff to advertisers could be millions of impressions and thousands of clicks. The payoff to visitors would be to witness a web phenomenon in action.

Of course, there is a lot of seeding that must be done before a site can successfully become a viral property. However, once the seeding process begins, a well-planned site will grow closer and closer each day toward critical mass. Once the critical mass is satisfied, then the site truly becomes viral, growing more and more popular without any input from the creators. This process can be facilitated by improving distribution channels. In the case of AdCubes, a links page allows webmasters and blogs to easily post about the site. Each sales confirmation email also contains a request for the advertiser to tell his acquaintances about his new AdCube.

There are many approaches to making a successful viral web site, but the basics are the same. You must have compelling content, it must be accessible for free or at low cost, and it must be easy to transmit. Once the basics are in place, the only thing left is seeding the first visitors until you reach the critical mass.

Additional Successful Web Marketing

– The Subservient Chicken from Burger King
– I Love Bees for Halo2
– The Million Dollar Homepage

Conclusion

It is essential for marketers to understand viral marketing. Why spend resources on getting your company message out when you can recruit others to do it for you? You will need to have creativity in spades to find that all-compelling idea that people cannot help but spread, but find that idea, and you will be well on your way toward profiting from the holy grail of marketing.

Resources Referenced
– Youtube Videos
– International Business Times

I hope this article , supplied unedited with rights,  gives some basic ideas on some of the campaigns ,that have  impact. If you take some of these as examples  it will be possible to build on the ideas presented to formulate your own video campaigns. Video can be a very powerful medium. The sheer size of the internet video population means there is a potential to gain new customers. Even a partial success canbring profits. However,  to the inexperienced with limited funds it could be hit and miss.

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