Monthly Archives: July 2016

In-Person Marketing: Video and Audio

It may seem odd to include video and audio among in-person techniques.  The chances are you will feature them on websites or in social media as the main point of access.  However, recordings can be used locally in various ways:

  • Recording videos and audio can be an excellent way of building relationships. I have written about testimonials elsewhere but they are only one approach.  People may be willing to speak about problems they face or issues that concern them.  They may be able to illustrate your product or service in action.
  • Recordings of live events can be a way of sharing ideas locally, beyond those who are able to attend.
  • Whilst podcasts, downloads, websites and social media have become the most frequent ways of accessing recorded material, DVDs still have some utility. This is particularly true of audio recordings that can be listened to whilst the listener does other things such as driving or jogging.  Podcasts and downloads are taking on some of this role but longer material might still benefit from being recorded on static media.
  • Recordings can be used for presentations. Short illustrative recordings are perhaps best for talks, so the speaker can pick up issues and develop them from the recordings or open discussion about them.

Of these the possibilities of recording material that can be used online may be most attractive to local businesses and organisations.  Such recordings are opportunities to build relationships between the people involved.

YouTube is the most popular site for storing videos.  You can create a channel for your organisation and keep all your videos there.  Members, customers and other interested people can be encouraged to subscribe to the channel.

The search engine in YouTube is the second most powerful after Google (who own YouTube).  So, if you can highlight keywords for your video, you can use YouTube to publicise your organisation and point viewers to your website.  If you have a lot of relevant videos, you can build your list through this route.  Maybe show videos on your premises or during presentations and offer people the url for the video or your channel.

There are options for storing your recordings online that enable you to restrict access to selected groups.

Recording Video and Audio

The first step is to decide why you want to make a recording and what you need to record to meet your purpose.

Types of Recording

You will have a number of options.  Live videos are perhaps the easiest to record, although some people find speaking to camera daunting.  The head and shoulders shot is popular and if you are using an editing suite, such as Camtasia, you can illustrate a talk by adding animations.

The same person can talk over a PowerPoint presentation.  This can be a better approach for those who are nervous of cameras.  There are alternatives to PowerPoint, such as Prezi and it is also possible to film MindMaps, using applications such as xmind.  You can in fact film any screen on your computer and zoom in on details.

You can also film events, where people are working or talking together.

Equipment

You don’t really need any equipment in addition to the camera in a mobile phone or tablet.  Videos from these are usually adequate.  Obviously if you use a purpose-built camera you may produce a higher quality video but it depends on how important quality is.  For example, a video intended for the home page of your site might benefit from additional attention to quality.  Teaching videos, hidden deep within your site, perhaps do not need to be such high quality.

Sound is absolutely crucial, if viewers cannot hear your video, they will switch off.  Most video cameras have good microphones, so the main problem is external noise.  Be aware of this particularly if you are filming outside.  Traffic or people talking in the background can drown out the sound you are seeking to record.  Also wind can overpower a speaker and you may not be aware of this whilst recording.

Lighting is also important but less so than sound.  You can usually see if the image is ridiculously dark.  If you want a particularly sharp image or the film includes whiteboard images, then you may need to invest in lighting.  This is not terribly expensive.

Editing

It is worth spending some time editing your film.  This can be cutting and splicing, especially if you have a number of takes to consider.  Camtasia and other video editing suites offers a massive range of special effects that are not hard to include.

It is always worth offering a transcript of the video.  This is easy if you film a speaker reading from a script and may take more time if you need to transcribe it yourself.  Some listeners like to follow a transcript, especially if they are hard of hearing.  Also, Google likes transcripts because the words, if they are on the site and not in a pdf, can be picked up by search engines.  You can sometimes include these in sections that open out at the viewer’s request.

Perhaps this is the least in-person of these in-person techniques but I’m sure there’s still plenty to explore about the potential of recordings for building community groups and businesses.

Do you have examples of recordings that have helped build community?

Understanding Your Offer

Making your offer readily understood by your target market is not always easy.  There are several barriers to your prospects understanding your offer.  Your task is to find out what they are and address them.

Why Prospects May have Difficulty Understanding Your Offer

Your offer may be difficult to understand.  Even though you are describing your offer very clearly, there may still be barriers to understanding.  Where you have a specialist market, it is possible your prospects will understand your offer.  It doesn’t matter if other people don’t because they are not your prospective market.

You may have difficulty because you approach a problem from a unique perspective.  This can mean your prospects make assumptions and read your offer according to those assumptions.  So, they may have difficulty grasping your unique perspective.

Again, you may have an offer that addresses a problem many people have but do not recognise as a problem.  So, many people who are overweight do not see it as a problem.  You will need to persuade them not only that they are overweight but also it is a problem they need to take seriously.

And of course, you may find your explanations are not compelling for one reason or another.  You may provide too little or too much information, poorly expressed, too technical or too simple.  You may inadvertently put people off by expressing something that has a negative impact.  A common mistake is to attempt to market your offer on features, neglecting its benefits.

How to Help Prospects Understand Your Offer

Be clear about the distinction between features and benefits.  If your offer is technically complex, does your prospect really need all the detail?  They are going to pay you for your knowledge of the technical complexities.  Initially everyone will want to know the benefits and that’s where you should start.

Some customers will want a lot of technical detail, while others won’t.  Be prepared if they ask and have technical explanations to hand.  But usually, even those who ask are not seeking all the details.  They are most likely seeking reassurance you understand what you are doing for them and how they can make best use of it.

Use case studies where prospects may have difficulty grasping your offer.  A story may be more effective than a theoretical account.  You can back up your story with testimonials, providing social proof.

Illustrations, diagrams, tables and statistics may help convey information more effectively than a written account.  Of course, it depends on what your offer is.  A product is something you can photograph whilst a service may be harder to convey visually.

Where you have a lot of information to impart, remember marketing is educational; there is a significant overlap between marketing and education.  If your marketing material includes ideas your prospects can apply immediately, it will enhance your offer’s credibility.  These are the ideas behind the product launch.

Which Media Should You Use to Communicate Information?

We have far more media available to us today to communicate information about our offers and so it is important to think about the best ways you have to market your offer.

If you market locally, you can meet prospects and explain your offer, picking up when things are unclear and answering questions as they come up.  This may be the best way to market a complex offer.  However, you still have to find your prospects and persuade them to meet you.  Also, this can be more difficult if they are too far away for you to meet face-to-face.  Skype and similar services, can be almost as effective as meeting face-to-face.

Some Other Options

  • A single sales page on a website or in a letter. Paper-based marketing is rare these days; a few years ago we all received several long sales letters a week.  Most long sales letters are found online these days and they are still an effective marketing approach. Structure the letter properly and know how to use it online. People who understand the benefits are actually likely to read a relevant long sales letter, so don’t knock it.  Think of the times you have read a long sales letter and how you responded to it.
  • I would not normally send a long sales letter by email; a short email with a link to a long sales page is probably more effective.  Once the reader is on the web page, they are more likely to respond by signing up to your letter.  If they are on your email list, you can keep track of whether they open your email and follow the link to your website.
  • Video and audio can convey a lot of information effectively. Normally a 10 minute video is ample.  I find very short videos, especially if there are a lot of them, somewhat irritating.  Longer videos can work but you need more experience to convey a compelling idea over perhaps 25 minutes or longer.  If you want to go for length, it may be worth considering audio.  Some people will listen in the car or out jogging and so be able to set aside the time.
  • White papers, DVDs and books – are physical means of getting your ideas across. There are online equivalents of these and they are worth considering as less expensive alternatives.  An ebook for example might be all you need to find the space to explain your offer.  However, physical media can be compelling in their own right.

Conclusion

You will note this is a mix of online and physical resources.  Remember, the Internet is relatively recent and many marketers are still experimenting with approaches to getting their message across.  So, join in the experiments and persist until you find an approach that works for you.

How have you successfully marketed a complex idea?  Are there ideas you have struggled to market effectively?

The Power of Fascination

Everyone in business wants to draw their market’s attention and hold it.  For the small business person, stories are a powerful way of doing this.  They’re not the only way but perhaps the most accessible approach to promoting a distinctive offer.  But perhaps stories are not enough.  To draw attention is a start but you want to hold attention and turn it into action.  This is the power of fascination.

There are some ethical considerations here.  The world of marketing is full of attempts to manipulate markets.  The goal is sales and where sales are the sole aim, manipulation appears to be the only option.  This may seem to be a harmless irritant but actually a powerful story can become dangerous.  History is full of brilliant rhetoricians who became tyrants.

However, sales are a small part of marketing.  It is legitimate to have a good product or service, find your market and draw their attention to it.  We’ve all experienced the pushy salesperson who we have repeatedly to tell “No”.  Good marketing should avoid that by making a genuine offer that will really help  with some problem the prospect cannot solve on their own.

With a complex offer you need to draw and hold your prospect’s attention .  This allows for a conversation that will sometimes lead to a sale.  I have recently found public speaking can be a powerful way of doing this.  I’ll report back on how I followed up on this experience and the results at a later date but I’m hoping to build some good working relationships from this experience.  My aim is to have the marketing conversations and arrive at a decision to work together or else a positive “No”.

Fascination

Anyway, my aim today is to focus on fascination by reviewing a book by Sally Hogshead, “Fascinate: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist“.  This is a revised edition of a book that has been around for a few years.  The revision is significant and took about 3 years.

The book is a good read and the real power in the writing comes from the way it deploys stories, dozens and dozens of them!  These stories alone are worth the price of the book.  They are not just entertaining but show many tactics businesses use to place their offers in the minds of the public.

As a result this is a book that will repay re-reading a few times to not only understand Hogshead’s principles of fascination but also to get a feel for how they might work for your business or cause.

Seven Advantages

Hogshead suggests there are seven advantages available to businesses.  These are strategies you can use to market your offers.  Some are approaches that immediately capture your market’s attention.  You can be innovative or passionate about your offer.  Here you, as it were, make a lot of noise and make sure everyone hears about you and your offer.

Alternatively, you may be more interested in a quiet, apparently unassuming approach.  You may have an old trusted brand or believe attention to detail.  Most people seeking insurance are not really that interested in razzmatazz – they want to trust you or believe you will exercise due diligence.

And quiet brands can be alluring; a little mystery can actually draw in customers who like that sort of thing.  Mystery can add prestige to a product or service.

You will note some things work better for established businesses, such as trust or prestige, while others might work better for new businesses.

Seven Tactics

The power of this approach lies in the ways you can combine the seven advantages.  So, if you are innovative you might use tactics inspired by trust to show how your innovations do not mean you will be here today and gone tomorrow.

Now, if you have seven advantages and they can each be combined with tactics inspired by the other six, you have 42 different approaches to branding your business.  This may be good news if you are looking for an approach that’s right for you, the chances are you might find one.  However, they can be somewhat daunting.

I recommend this book because it opens up a distinctive dimension to marketing, written by someone with significant experience in brand promotion.  However, it will leave you wondering where to go from here.  There is a supporting website and the option, I suppose, of contacting the author.  For my part I plan to read it again and work out how to digest it and apply it in my business.

What are the positive reasons for using fascination in marketing?  How can fascination help business owners enjoy their marketing?

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