Effective and low-cost marketing tips every marketer should consider
Many marketers have found themselves in a situation where they are spending a lot of money in advertising and marketing but end up wasting their money. According to Forbes, almost 50% of advertising is wasted. That is a lot of money, considering the fact that companies spend billions of dollars to gain customers. So how do you ensure that your marketing efforts are strategic, practical, and low-cost? Here are some tips you need to consider.
Know your market
It is imperative to have a clear understanding of your market if you are to succeed in online marketing. Before you even start spending on marketing, you need to figure out your market. That invariably entails knowing your product very well. Once you know your product and how it can help solve your clients’ needs, it will be easier to identify your target market. Once you can identify your target audience, it easy to design a winning marketing strategy without even having to hire an expensive marketing agency.
Your advertising decisions should be based on research
No one goes into the battlefield without designing a winning plan. The case is no different when it comes to marketing and advertising. It is essential to come up with a well-researched and well-thought-out marketing plan.
The plan you come up with will help you to determine the best and most effective marketing channels to reach your audiences.
Things like demographics, bounce rate, conversion rate, acquisition, and audience should be familiar to you. It is important to know how each marketing channel will contribute to your overall growth if you want to make a difference and reap big from your efforts.
Networking
Did you know that networking is one of the most effective marketing tools you can use without the need to break the bank? Join a local business community and be an active participant. If they like your brand, they will tell their friends, colleagues, and relatives without even your knowledge.
People are your greatest assets. Do not underrate what they can do for you.
Content marketing
One of the most effective forms of marketing is content marketing. It is not only cheap but a very effective way of building relationships among people who are genuinely interested in your products. Serious marketers and small business owners have a blog. When writing your blog (or using video and/or podcast) try to offer genuine information to your audience.
It shouldn’t always be about advertising your product because you don’t want to come across a salesman who is only interested in selling his/her products.
Leverage social networks
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all popular networks that you can take advantage of to market your products and services. They can be a great source of traffic if you share interesting stuff.
By creating and sharing great content, you will grow your audience. However, it would be best if you were patient as it can take years before you build a strong following.
Country Mouse filming Bach
New York City. The past three days I have been filming in New York City. Don’t get me wrong I have filmed here a lot but normally it’s in Manhatten. This trip I filmed in Brooklyn and let it be known I had a different picture of Brooklyn in my mind. Rough, tough, dangerous lol. Instead, I found a hipster, upscale community that I really enjoyed staying in.
Hundreds of restaurants and corner stores each corner had it’s own unique charm and quality. I was filming at studio Stillman and right around the corner was a corner deli, that corner deli was amazing. so amazing in fact that after filming I went back and just interacted with the employees and people who came into the shop, picture the sitcom Cheers and that’s what you have, everybody knew everybody the food was amazing and the conversation was out of this world. I look forward to going back. (I’m filming in June in Manhattan, I will make my way back there).
I have gotten into a routine of video, and documentaries. It was great to be able to film BACH, multiple days of great music and creativity is why you do this type of thing. If you ever have time play some back and close your eyes, relax and enjoy.
How to film Bach: 4 cameras, a slider, a gimbal, an H6zoom, 2, shotgun mics, 1 lav mic, 2 instrument mics, 8 LEDs and four spot lights…..and one monitor for the client
A MjrVisuals Documentary travel series - This is America.
About two years ago I was hired to film a commercial for RMA, Randolph Macon Academy. It’s a school in a part of Virginia that is actually not known for its diversity. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that the school was a US Air Force Academy and very diverse. It made me think that all the thoughts I had about the area were wrong because how can there be such a diverse campus in the middle of a town that is rumored to be extremely racists. That understanding of thea area was given to me not just from passersby but actual work colleges that lived in the town. It wasn’t unheard of to see an upside flag or the Confederate flag in yards, on cars and on the back of trucks driving through town.
Fast forward a year, I wanted to do a travel show on small-town America and the first town I wanted to tell a story on was this small town. The history was amazing and the fact that it was close enough to the nation’s capital that people communted to Washington DC for work but lived here made it an interesting location because of the revitalization that was happening due to the influx of those government employees.
MjrVisuals has done to date 9 documentaries for a number of executive producers, now we are normally left alone with telling the story but given the topic. I was told the even though all the documentaries that we have produced for clients have won awards, we are not considered a top tier production house because we have not entered a festival directly. This show idea changed that.
We won the first festival we entered this season, lets hope for more.
The Feature Trailer of "the SixTripleEight" movie
In February 1945, the U.S. Army sent 855 black women from the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) to England and France to clear the backlog of mail in the European Theater of Operations. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the SixTripleEight, was the only all-black female battalion to serve in Europe during WWII. Confronted with racism and sexism from their own leadership and troops, they served with honor and distinction completing their mission in six months. By war’s end, the SixTripleEight had cleared over 17 million pieces of backlogged mail ensuring the troops stayed in touch with their loved ones back home. The last of the women returned home in March 1946. They were never fully recognized…until now.
5 Reasons to Stop Using Stock Videos (and to use a Videographer instead
Using video for marketing content is becoming increasingly popular. Simply put, stock videos lack the soul that an original videographer can give your marketing content. Often companies spend a lot of time developing an original look and feel of their brand personalities and their owned media, such as their websites. However, in my experience the same level of attention to detail to originality isn’t placed on making marketing materials that are unique to you. Here are the 5 reasons why I would avoid using stock videos and rather focus on hiring a videographer instead.
Reason 1: Lack of Originality
Despite the fact that there are huge amounts of stock content on the Internet, you’d be surprised by how little there is that’s relevant to your specific product or service. The window of stock videography is often quite small for companies that have unique offerings. This means that there can actually be an embarrassing overlap between the stock video content you use and the video content your competitors use.
Reason 2: Lack of Authenticity:
I believe that real video footage creates a real sense of authenticity between a company and potential customer. I feel there’s a level of wariness when they don’t see genuine content created by the company.
Reason 3: Never the Perfect Fit
While stock videos can be okay sometimes for limited use, there is rarely a stock video for every occasion. If you use stock videos for long form content, your finished piece will look like a patchwork quilt of disconnected and unrelated video slots.
Reason 4: Editing Time
Often if you use stock videos your editing time will be substantial and your finished product may not even be one worth the investment. This is why it’s better to use actual recorded video that allows better editability.
Reason 5: Expensive
Good stock is rarely cheap, and it’s easy to spend several hundred on just a short video for the stock you need, as well as the video distribution rights. While it may be costlier initially to get a videographer, it’s well worth the investment when the finished product is a long-term piece of content you can use over and over on various platforms.
Next Steps:
While it may seem like you’re saving money on your marketing content by using stock videos, you might be doing so at the price of your brand respect and potential customers. I believe that people crave authenticity and respect a company that is willing to put time and effort into their marketing content.
We are a boutique production company; we create creative and imaginative visual solutions.
MJRvisuals is ignition defined.
4 Costless Inbound Marketing Ideas You Should Try in 2018
Are you just getting started with inbound marketing? Have you been doing inbound marketing for sometimes now? How long do you think it should take one before they start seeing results? If you are getting started with inbound marketing, you will definitely find it very challenging. Many marketers wonder how much it could cost to regularly generate content, improve social media outreach and all aspects of inbound marketing.
The good news is that there are countless ways you can increase your inbound marketing activities without having to break the bank. In other words, the basics are not out of your reach. From writing your own content to utilizing thousands of available website tools to help you reach your potential customers, here are 10 no-cost inbound marketing ideas you can try.
- Create high quality free content
Publishing high quality content remains the key to successful inbound marketing. If you want to attract customers to your website, you must publish high quality, valuable content. Content can be in the form of blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, white papers or tweets, among others.
At the very least, dedicate a few minutes of your time to create well-written content that is relevant and useful to your audience. of course if you are unable to produce the content yourself, you can contract a marketing agency or freelance content producers to help you publish the right content that will not only be right for the search engines but also one that your users will love.
- Create a loyalty program
You can develop a simple strategic partnership with your prospects through loyalty programs. A good example is B2B referral software known as Advocate Hub. This software allows users to build a loyalty program so that the firm can trigger customer enthusiasm and boost referrals of qualified leads.
Loyalty programs are done by incentivizing partners, customers and employees so that they become brand ambassadors of your target audience. Incentives can range from discounts to reward for content created such as guest posts and online reviews and testimonials.
- Use social media networks
Social media networks have become the cornerstone of inbound marketing, thanks to their global outreach. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Google++ can be used to promote and share content, products as well as special offers. Social media also allows you to not only interact with your customers, but also create brand loyalty.
Remember to keep track of your social media interactions both on your website and on your social media profiles/fan page.
- Lead nurturing
Lead nurturing is the process of ensuring that your prospects are ready to buy before directing them to your sales team. Sometimes your sales department can waste valuable time and resources on leads that are not qualified. Here are some tips on how to ensure successful lead nurturing:
- Ensure the timing is right: do not rush your prospects such that you start bombarding them with your sales emails soon after they hit the subscribe button or like your page. It is important to take your time to bring them closer to wanting to open their wallets
- Constantly and consistently refine your messaging: know the kind of information your prospect wants to hear based on the data you have collected. By ensuring that you keep giving them the right and relevant information, you will be building rapport and trust with your customers.
- What do you want to give them? State what you want to provide them and what they stand to gain from your offer.
- Videoproduction on demand or VPD can be one of the brightest ideas of 2018. VPD gives you the ability to produce broadcast quality visual imagery for your business. We provide Video Production, Graphic Design and Audio Video services. Instead of being left with the question of how much does it costs, you now can ask the questions when, where, and why. Mjrvisuals invites you Get started today ! Click here to learn more. Video production on demand by Mjrvisuals