How to Advertise your Event, Service or Product with Video
You don’t know how often I receive a phone or email inquiry requesting an advertising video. Well, more specifically, a video to highlight an upcoming event. The first thing I’m told is that they want a three to a five-minute video highlighting the event with the goal of having people come to the event. Their thought process is; they will post the video on youtube, Facebook, or their website, pay for advertising or not, and people will watch the full video and immediately come to their event.
My first question to you is, when was the last time you watched a full three to five minute video of an event, activity, or conference that you had no idea about and/or just popped up in your feed on your phone.
If you’re like most people, the chances of you watching that video is very slim.
Now, with that same thought process, how often would you watch a fifteen to thirty-second video that caught your attention and you no previous knowledge of it? If you’re like most people, you watch just enough of that commercial to understand what it is, what they are offering, and do you want to know more.
When you do any advertising, you want to get the most bang for your buck and drive traffic.
How do you do it?
Produce a short-form video clip with the idea of driving traffic to your website, landing page, or IG page where you have the longer video. With that strategy, you do two things: 1. You will have more engagement with your short-form video because, as I said above, more people will watch it, and in turn, more people will see what you have to offer. 2. That increased number of eyes on your promotion will turn into an increased number of people going to your longer video, which will turn into more engagement with your offering and more sales.
The one thing I like to tell people is that to increase your sales you have to have more eyes on the item you are promoting. You can have the best product, be announcing the best ideas, be doing the most fantastic work, but if no one sees it, then no one can comment, purchase, or engage with it.
Just How Important is Email Marketing for Small Businesses?
With a Return on Investment of a staggering 4,300%, email marketing is about the most effective marketing tool, small business owners and entrepreneurs can leverage.
Have you ever come across those junk emails that do nothing but irritate you, and the next thing you do is to look for the ‘unsubscribe’ link? Well, the senders of those emails hardly have any email marketing strategy in place. Gathering hundreds or thousands of emails, by whichever means, and sending sales pitches while hoping some customers will respond or purchase a product from you is by no means email marketing. If anything, using this method will guarantee you a spectacular failure regarding click-through and conversion rates. It would be best if you were more strategic in your email marketing campaigns. In other words, success in email marketing is not a function of trial and error or chance; it is a result of precision in terms of content and timing.
Here are three tactics you can use in your email marketing campaigns for higher ROI.
Timing is cardinal: Target the senses and consider the time you send your emails
Your customers don’t have all the time in the world to read every email that hits their inbox. It is estimated that the average number of emails that hit the inbox of an average busy person daily is 97. How many of these emails do you think can be read? With that in mind; if you are lucky, your email might be opened.
For an email campaign that is untargeted and/or sent at the wrong time, the most likely place it will end up is in the trash bin.
No matter how big your brand, most consumers will not spend more than a few seconds trying to figure out whether the email before them is worth opening and reading. You only have a small window of opportunity to seduce your subscribers to open your email.
Unfortunately, many marketers and small business owners squander this golden opportunity by sending their emails at the wrong time and using generic texts and images. Your success hinges on reaching and resonating with the recipient at the right time and delivering the right message.
When is the right time to send emails?
The long-standing advice to email marketers about the best time to send email has always been, “Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, between 8.am and 10 a.m.” the logic behind this notion is that people tend to open their inboxes in the mornings. However, that may not always work as much as you would like. As it turns out, there are other unconventional times to unleash your campaigns.
Let us look at some important email marketing trends and stats. This will give us an idea of when the best time to send email would be.
- According to an Experian study, most emails are opened at night with unique open rates averaging 21.7% between 8 p.m. and 11.59 p.m. and 17.6% between 12. a.m and 4 a.m. Moreover, click-through rates during these times are 4.2% and 3.2%, respectively. Return on investment per email is also highest between 8.00 p.m and 11:59 p.m.
- Experian quarterly email marketing benchmark release also showed that emails sent on Monday have the highest ROI even though emails sent on Fridays have a higher click through rates. Ironically, fewer emails are sent on Saturday and Sunday despite the fact that these days experience higher click-through and conversion rates. According to Experian, unique open rates for Saturday and Sunday is 17.8%, which is higher than any other day of the week.
Based on these findings, you should send your emails at unconventional times, such as on weekends and during late hours (between 8: p.m and 11:59 p.m). You can also capture the early birds by sending your emails between (12:00 a.m and 5: a.m).
While this is not a blanket ban on conventional email sending time, it would be a brilliant strategy to counter the competition and stand out from the crowd.
In other words, try not to send your email campaigns when most others are sending.
Mjrvisuals can help you increase your reach out of that content through our expertise. We run the gambit of visual imagination, including video production, digital marketing, video editing, print design, advertising, graphic design, graphic animation, motion graphic and media design.
We believe everyone has a story; the question is; who is telling yours?
The Documentary "440 Negroes"
Press Release
440 Negroes – one event seemingly the epicenter of inequality and injustice in America.
440 Negroes is a documentary film that tells the story of a series of events in US history that prompted the current social norm of injustice, disparity, and inequality. Directed by Malcholm Reese in association with MjrVisuals and Lincoln Penny Films.
The documentary film focuses around “the weeping time” and Savannah Ga with interviews of specialists that describe the forgotten historical facts while relating those facts to present-day America. Interviewees include Kristopher Monroe; Vice-Chair Savanah-Chatham County Historic Commission / Author “The Weeping Time” -the Atlantic, Shannon Browning-Mullis; Curator Telfair Museum, Otis Johnson; Mayor City of Savannah Ga., Dr. Amir Jamal Toure; Professor Southern History, Savannah University, Patrik Garland esq, James Jordan; Author and Historian.
440 Negroes is the detailed account of the people who were sold on March 2-3, 1859, their families cruelly separated forever. In some cases, babies ripped from the arms of their mothers, as told by the eyewitness account of New York Times journalist, Mortimer Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Q. K. Philander Doesticks. As I dove deeper into the story, I learned that the sad plight of these 440 people was much larger. Their story begins with the founding of the country, the grandfather of Pierce Butler, who insisted that a specific clause concerning fugitive slaves was inserted into the Constitution. Then after the Civil War, freedom spawned new hope for the four million in the South.
“By the law of war and the order of the President of the United States, the negro is free and he shall be treated as such.” To assist the free persons, General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders No. 15, a promise made by the United States government for agrarian reform to aid formerly enslaved black farmers. “40 Acres and a Mule” was a phrase echoed throughout the South asserting the right of newly freed African Americans to redistributed lands, particularly those plantations where they were enslaved. By the 1870s, blacks had abandoned hope of federal land redistribution and the phrase “40 acres and a mule” came to symbolize that broken promise. In Savannah, and all through the South, economic justice for African Americans was lost.
Great Qualities for Marketers to Have in 2020
Marketing is the engine of any business. Whether you are a small business owner or the Chief Marketing Officer of a big corporation, you need to have the right mix of traits to stay successful.
The foundation of responsibility is, no doubt, the most critical component of any success in business. In this article, I am going to talk about some touchpoints around this necessary quality in your life in order to help you achieve your business goals.
Get motivated
The renowned author and speaker Zig Ziglar said that motivation is,” just like taking a bath, doesn’t last.” One should continuously recharge their batteries of motivation to stay motivated.
The only way to keep your momentum is to stay motivated. This is like a muscle that needs to be exercised daily, if you want to stay on top of your game. Of course, there are days you wake up and feel like you would rather stay in bed and abscond your obligations. So many people give in to the temptation and end up wasting a lot of time.
One way to build motivation is to form daily rituals where you perform a certain set of actions, every day, which get you ‘in the zone.’ If you establish a routine that puts you in the path to maximum productivity early in the day, your body and mind will learn that it is time to get going.
For instance, if you are a runner, you may choose to wake up, put on your shoes, and start running every time you wake up from bed. In the office, the ritual could be visualization, meditation before going for a meeting, or making a sales presentation.
Our bodies and minds are like engines; they must be kept in optimum working conditions to function correctly.
The engine must first be fired before it can start working. Get yourself motivated first thing before you start doing what you planned.
Assume responsibility
If anything is to be, it is up to you.
There are no accidents. Responsibility is the hallmark of successful entrepreneurs and is a way of being, not just what you do. When you are truly responsible, you accept the fact that success or failure is in your hands no matter what. Blaming outside forces or people for your failures shows that you are irresponsible.
Great leaders claim responsibility even when things go wrong, not just when they are buzzing. Being responsible means not blaming anyone or anything for the things that go wrong — being responsible means taking an introspection approach and looking at what you could have done differently to produce better results.
You should be aware at all times the impact you are creating around you and the examples you are setting for others. You have the power to create the circumstances you want. No one prevents you from creating the business you desire.
Accept no excuses
If you are personally accountable to your business or quality of life, you should be honest with yourself; you should face reality and accept no excuses.
Acknowledge where you have made mistakes in the past and commit to improving things in the future.
You really need to be honest with yourself about where you are slaking and resolve to honor your commitments. Do not break promises. Every time you break a commitment or a promise to yourself, your self-worth is eroded and eventually, your inner self’s worth is destroyed.
As a serious entrepreneur, you should choose accountability as your minimum standard in everything you do. If you do so, you will find that your business will have more meaning and you will experience more success.
Emotional Branding and Building a Lasting Customer Base in 2020
Emotional branding is defined as the successful attachment of a specific emotion to a brand.
At one of the Business Marketing Association (BMA) conferences in Chicago, Jay Baer asked a room full of roughly 1,000 B2B marketers, “Are you more interesting than my wife?”
Can you think of the people you have had an emotional connection within your life?
How did they impact your life?
Now think about brands and see the common threads among them.
It is true for brands as it is for people: to breakthrough marketing, businesses need to be more interesting and relevant at the moment.
Brands need to connect with people in the way a close friend would—through emotion—to build, long-lasting, and quality relationships. There are enormous opportunities for companies to take advantage of emotional branding.
According to one research, smell is powerful when it comes to persuading someone to buy a product. Brick and mortar locations using certain scents in their stores have been found to have a 30% increase in sales.
A study by University of Wollongong and Murdoch University in 2012, emotional branding is becoming used globally. According to Dr Steve Bellman of Murdoch University’s Audience Labs, marketers are tapping into customer’s feelings to market their brands. Another study shows men who show love for their brand beer purchase 38% more beer than the average.
Therefore, emotional branding can lead to substantially more sales without companies having to rely on discounts and promotions. On the flip side, however, creating that emotional connection can be a difficult task.
How brands can connect emotionally
- By telling a story that inspires an emotional connection: according to Beth Comstock, General Electric Chief Marketing Officer, you can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything. Every brand has stories to tell.
- Allow your audience to be the real hero: imagine how emotionally connected your brand would be by showcasing how your product has changed lives. Simply give your audience a voice, a platform, and a face to be heard.
- By being authentic: don’t be afraid to embrace your inner geek. Remain who you are and don’t try to be like who you are not. At Bizify, we try to remain true to ourselves. We try to help startups find their feet and we intend to remain true to that mission.
- By embracing the opportunity to surprise and delight: surprising and delighting customers can be an effective marketing strategy. Use social media and mobile to spark moments of happiness in customers and you will be surprised at its effectiveness. Coca-Cola has really perfected this art.
Other Important Branding Tips
Creating an irresistible value proposition
A value proposition is a statement that explains what value you provide to your customers and how you do it uniquely. Establishing a substantive value proposition is critical if you want to stand above the crowd. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs lose out because they fail to articulate a unique value proposition.
Be clear on what your business stands for. What is your promise? How will you put out consistent and passionate messages that attract the right candidate? This will also help you to hire the right people and develop products and services that are aligned with your unique value proposition.
Be careful with launching too many brands
The big problem for many businesses is they think more brands will make them more successful, but they have neither the architecture nor the capacity to manage a multiplicity of brands well. Businesses can increase profits by deleting none-performing brands. Even though revenue may fall in the process, reducing the number of brands will be beneficial in the long run.
Multiband strategies are likely to suffer from diseconomies of scale because of the hidden costs. By letting go of weak, declining, and marginally profitable brands, you will be freeing resources to make your few remaining brands better and more attractive to customers. Thus, killing some brands in your portfolio may sometimes be the best way for your business to serve the customers.
Package your products
The packaging is an important element when it comes to marketing. How you package your products can attract or repel customers. Is your packaging visually attractive through shape, color, design, and does it communicate the right brand ideals? If not, it might be time to revamp the way you package your products.
Create a slogan
Let us consider Apple for example. As they became big, they adopted the tagline “Think Different.” This was a perfect fit for their marketing strategy because a large portion of their customers didn’t want to use PC’s like everybody else. Choose a slogan that is consistent with your brand and fits your market slogan.
Take care of your staff
You need to build your reputation to attract the right team and customers. So treat your team well because they are one of the most influential people in your business. Ex-employees are important for leads and new business. Also, reward them for not only making sales but for being great ambassadors for your business.
Increasing your online branding in 2020
This is Malcholm Reese the Creative Director for MjrVisuals, and in this podcast, I’m going to talk about Ideas that will help online branding.
You probably know this, but I am going to say it just in case you do not. A strong identity helps your customers remember you and makes you stand out in the marketplace.
You hear the experts, other business owners, marketing people, and your extended family talking about branding and how you need, and if you had it, your business would be doing that much better. By now, you and I know that branding is more than just shiny logos and a fancy name. Branding mainly involves helping customers to have a sense of belonging and attachment to your products, your service, your culture, and your values.
If you want to create an unforgettable brand online, it needs to be consistent, recognizable, and should appear across all aspects of your online and sometimes real-world presence.
Here let me give you ideas that will help your branding endeavors.
Are you prepared to spend some money?
When it comes to online branding, you cannot avoid spending some money. If you want to make more money, you have to spend more money. It means you will have to spend in things like social media, Ad Words, and content creation. A mentor told me once that “the one thing the separates hobbyists from business owners is the willingness to spend money on advertising.” He continued, “everyone out there can do marketing for free; it’s not the new frontier, so if you think your the first one to try it and it’s free, your probably wrong.”
Identify and convey your purpose.
In order to create a powerful online brand, you need to create a defining purpose that will act as your compass. Sometimes it is good to go back to the basics. Why are you in this business in the first place? Does your mission and purpose translate into your online presence?
Keep it real.
Small businesses suffer into oblivion because of their insistence on looking ‘big’ and corporate-like. The truth of the matter is that you don’t have to.
If you want your brand to stand out online, put your personality behind it. People are more receptive to people. For instance, try to include your picture in your company profile. You could also infuse some humor into the content. Authenticity should be your goal regardless of whether you are new in the market.
Be passionate, and you will attract passionate clients.
Revisit your target audience.
Do you know who your target audience is? Yeah, I know 18 – 55, male and female, making X amount a year, but do you really know who your brand is talking to? You need to know who your target audience is and where they are and where you can find them.
Conduct yourself professionally.
Whatever you do, remember that this is business. So you should pay attention to how you conduct yourself. Avoid being remembered for the wrong reasons by ensuring you post or publish credible and factual content. Go for quality over quantity.
You have probably heard the saying, “it is not what you say, but how you say it, “that is essential when it comes to marketing.
Final thought; your personality reflects on your business at the beginning, as your business grows that character will become an integration of voices that will represent your brand.
Mjrvisuals can help you increase your reach. We run the gambit of visual imagination. Be part of our portfolio of clients, and let us tell your story to the world. Visit our website: mjrvisuals.com/
Inbound Marketing Ideas You Should Try
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 before seeing results? Many marketers wonder how much it could cost to regularly generate content, and improve social media outreach. 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 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 Instagram, 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.
Do you need help? Video production on-demand or VPD can be one of the brightest ideas of 2020. VPD gives you the ability to produce broadcast quality visual imagery for your business. Click here to learn more. Video production on demand by Mjrvisuals