8 Reasons you should be using video on your website

A well-known marketing strategy is to add fresh content to your site regularly, but you may wonder what type of content is the most effective. Most people think of written content, which they can pepper with keywords, so various search engines can find and index their website. Although this is one way to get your website noticed, the effectiveness of video has increased exponentiallydue to the growing popularity of mobile media. More and more people are accessing the Internet via smart phones, e-readers and tablets. Recent studies show that the majority of web traffic driven by video will dramatically increase over the following months, reaching an all-time high by the end of 2013. Here are eight importantreasons why you should use marketing videos:

1. Video is cost-effective.You get the most bang for your buck when you use marketing videos, because they are relatively inexpensive to create. It is a known fact that more website viewers are attracted to sites that feature videos and once there, they stay much longer. Video translates over a variety of devices, unlike text. If you have ever attempted to read a large block of text over a cell phone, you know that it can be frustratingly difficult.

2. Video engages your website visitors. Video allows your customers to become familiar with you and your business quickly, which helpsthem form a personal connection that translates into sales. Online video is an easy way for peopleto learn about your business while in a comfortable environment. This is a no-brainer. Ask yourself this: As a consumer, would you rather sort through several paragraphs of text and web pages to learn more about a business, or would you rather watch a short video that is interesting and entertaining?

3. Spreading the word with video is simple, yet effective. Have you ever heard of an article going viral? In most cases, you can only publish your written content in one place; however, you can share your marketing video in many venues. You may want to syndicate your video in various websites, such as YouTube and Blip, for example. You should also embed the link to your video on your own website and Facebook pages. You even can ask others to add your video or the link to your video to their own websites and social media pages, like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, for example.

4. Video marketing makes you stand out from all the rest. Adding video to your content engages people quickly, therefore your site will not only attract more viewers, they will stay longer and be encouraged to return. A good marketing video helps your visitors get to know you faster and easier, making them have much more trust and confidence in you and your business. Video is a tool that sparks excitement about your business and that excitement is not only contagious, it helps your business grow.

5. Video produces superb search rankings. According to the latest research, web pages containing videos have an advantage over text when it comes to search engines. In addition, studies show that when searched on the web, video gets three times the clicks as articles without videos. Search engines find and index video more efficiently than plain text.

6. Video enhances email-marketing strategies.When you add your marketing video to your customer emails, you can engagethem as much as 200 to 300 percent more than text emails. The simplicity of clicking on your video inside the email makes it easier for people to visit your site. Once on your website, video encourages them to stay longer and purchase your product or services.

7. Video is the gift that keeps on giving. Once people have viewed your video, you can then ask them to upload their own videos showing them using or describing your product. Invite your visitors to embed your videos on their web pages, too. You can also increase links back to your main website by using multiple video sharing sites. Trust is a strong factor when consumers need to choose one business over another. Consider using customer testimonials, but not with text, with video showing real people talking about their experience using your business. This creates a solid trust factor, giving your business a definite advantage over others.

8. Video Production is extremely versatile. The ways you can use video to market your product or services are innumerable. Create a video that tells your visitors about your business and what it can do for them. Use an online video as a virtual tour, showing viewers what is available on your website or what your physical location looks like. Make a video that demonstrates how to install, set up or use your product. Videos can be a great way to display new products or services, and to announce special offers.

Adding effective marketing videos to your website increases traffic, keeps visitors there longer and encourages them to return often. This, in turn, raises your search engine rankings, which helps to get the word out about your product or service, increasing sales. You do not have to invest a large sum of money and there are varieties of ways to share your video, so you get the best results from producing it. Adding marketing videos can become habit forming – but you can rest assured, using video to market your business is a good habit that produces great results.

We work closely with the Pros at JP Video Production, if you are interested in adding video content to your website, we would be happy to help set-up a consultation meeting and discuss the benefits of adding video to your website.

read more

Is your company “with it”?

A new job description has been popping up over the last several years.It may be called Social Media Manager /Specialist/Coordinator. Whatever the position is called, it’s important to have someone who is well versed in social media. If you have the resources you could hire an in-house specialist for the position, but realistically, you have a smaller budget. Outsourcing the position is probably a better strategy. How do you find the right consultant for this task?

If you want to attract the best people available, you need to make it seem like your company is “with it.” NOTE: using phrases like “with it, hip, and THE Facebook” automatically give you away.

So what is a business to do? Give us a call, we’d be happy to schedule a one-to-one session to show you the basics of starting and utilizing social media platforms like Facebook and how you can integrate them into your current marketing chain. It really is easy!

read more

Need of Facebook Page Designers for your Business Profile

Creating a Facebook account is as easy as anything it can be on the earth. Even a small kid wants to update his profile over this social networking site to stay connected with other people around the world. With the increasing popularity and demand of this social media platform, businesses are also leaving no stone unturned in bridging the gap with their potential customers online.

But this is also true that businesses have to put extra effort in order to create an exceptionally unique Facebook page design that is attractive and professional in its own way. If you are running a business and want to give a professional yet attractive look to your Facebook business page, then you need the assistance of an experienced Facebook page designer.

If you are thinking designing a Facebook page is easy, then you can turn everything miserably wrong. FB page designers have knowledge of coding HTML pages to load the pages correctly over Facebook. Improper and incorrect coding will not allow the page to load or work the way you desire it to. If you will hire an experienced Facebook page designer, then you will be benefitted by the following:

1. Custom-made designs to meet your specific business needs

2. Designs are unique and impressive to catch-hold the attention of Facebook users

3. Proper coding skills ensure that the pages will work properly

4. On-time delivery of Facebook business pages

5. Cost-effective packages to meet your varied requirements

The benefits are not limited to the above list; they are also experienced in creating amazing themes to encourage Facebook users to ‘Like’ and become genuine fans of your business profile.

By creating a unique FB page design for your profile, it can prove to be an exciting marketing strategy for businesses to connect with potential customers. If you are interested in using a FB page design pro, then give us a call at Bolder Design or contact us through our website.

read more

Your Company Facebook Page

Have you heard that Facebook is a good way to promote your business at little to no cost? I bet you’ve also heard that if you don’t have a Facebook page you’re missing out on all kinds of business. Well, the answer is maybe. I have seen many good companies approach social media outlets like Facebook with little to no thought on their strategy for how they will utilize it.

The biggest mistake I see businesses make is setting their page up as a person/individual rather than a business. Why is this bad? First, it is a violation of the Facebook user policy to start. If you have a profile it is simply a matter of adding a page for your business, service or product. There are a lot more advantages to having this kind of set up but that isn’t for this post.

“Facebook profiles are meant to represent a single individual. Organizations of any type are not permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization. If you create a profile for your business, your account may be disabled …for violating our Terms of Use. If you have questions about how to best leverage your Facebook Page, please check out our Insider’s Guide or FAQ.”

Additional mistakes to avoid:

FB Mistake: Fail to include your business information or link on your page. A lot of businesses don’t know that you can include a link in the sidebar of their Facebook page so people can simply click right over to your website (and you can add an application to move your visitors over to your Facebook page too.)

Please don’t make the mistake of using your Facebook business page as a website–because like anything that is not on your domain–you don’t own it.

FB Mistake: Fail to find ways to bring people into your fold outside of Facebook. It is possible to customize your business page so you can collect email addresses and build your relationship with people off of Facebook. This is vital for any business owner.

FB Mistake: Forget that social media pages are public. One of the things that people tend to forget is that social media interactions and sites are public! Always be professional online because your brand is always out on the web and reflects on you and your business.

I’ve only included a few common Facebook mistakes, and I know you could probably share a few more so why not leave a comment now?

Share read more

The PROOF is in the pudding!

Yikes, My printed piece has the WRONG phone number!

Finally…After several meetings and many tweaks, we’ve finally come up with the perfect design for your company brochure. We’ve got your beautiful 4-color logo, several elegant fonts, the text wraps in just the right way…click, save, put it on a disk, and rush to the printshop before it closes.

A few days later you get a call…your proofs are ready to be reviewed. Hurray!

In a rush, you zip over the proof and neglect to pay CLOSE attention to details like phone numbers, dates or other information that may be incorrect. Not misspelled, because we have spell check for that right? It’s still a good idea to double check spelling especially uncommon words. But anyway, I digress, at this point you give the designer the go-ahead to have the piece printed. The day the brochures come in, you are so excited, you now have full color glossy brochures showing off just how cool your business really is and then WHAM, you notice the phone number is incorrect. Actually it’s been incorrect since the first proof, but no one noticed. At this point you have an invoice for the design work, another one for a few thousand worthless brochures, you are ready to throttle the designer or blame the printer.

Who can you blame but yourself. You did not spend the appropriate amount of time double checking information you felt was obvious and here it comes back to haunt you.

This scenario is played out all to often. Sometimes we need to just slow down and pay attention to the little things. We are all guilty of it. We expect everything instantly, and with undo buttons and back-ups in the virtual world we have to remember once the piece is printed there’s no UNDO, just a REDO. An expensive one at that.

Share read more

Big Impact. Small Price Tag.

We recently had the pleasure of creating some banners for Swiss Valley Ski & Snowboard Area located in Jones, MI. We have been providing our graphic design services to Swiss Valley for the last five seasons. When a business is so weather dependent and limited to a single season, sometimes budget for marketing can be tight. When asked how they could make some impact at promotional events and have an easy to setup solution, we came up with the idea of doing some full color banners with a recurring layout and different topic on each banner.

With three banners and easily collapsible banner stands their display needs were met, and they have a high impact low cost graphic solution to a common problem. Mission Accomplished, Big Impact, Small Price Tag.

What could your business be doing with large format graphic like banners?

Share read more