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Archives for August 2014

Brand Video Content Converts Better than Other Content

video cameraNearly three out of four brand marketers (71%) who use video as a form of marketing content agree that brand video content converts better than other content, such as text and image content, sales, and downloads.

That comes from the Video Content Marketing: Identifying Metrics and Measuring Impact study conducted by Demand Metric for Vidyard. Of the 235 B2B marketers who responded to the study survey, 86% are actively measuring the effectiveness of their video marketing efforts, and more than two out of three are producing more than 100 content marketing videos per year.

A key finding from the study reveals those brands that distribute their videos through multiple channels are getting the best results. The report explains that 63% of B2B respondents are hosting their brand video content on their own sites as well as on at least one external site such as YouTube or Vimeo. Nearly half (43%) distribute their brand videos only through third party sites, and just 11% host their videos only on their own websites. ROI is reportedly higher for respondents with a multi-channel distribution strategy.

Just nine months ago, I discussed a different brand video content study here on the Corporate Eye blog that showed how much the use of video content marketing has grown in recent years. At the time, the 2013 Online Video Marketing Survey and Business Video Trends Report had just been released by ReelSEO, the Web Marketing Council, and Flimp Media. Of the 600 marketers surveyed as part of the study, 93% of those marketers were using brand video content (up from 81% in 2012) with 82% reporting that video content had a positive effect on their businesses.

Compare those statistics to brand video content data from 2011 and earlier, and there is no doubt that video content has become a critical part of brand marketing strategies. For example, research from Content Wise and the Custom Content Council, which I wrote about here on the Corporate Eye blog in April 2012, found that only 52% of marketers who responded to the study were creating branded video. Back in 2009, only 37% were creating branded video.

Key Takeaways for Brand Marketers

Today, branded video is an integral part of a content marketing strategy, and this new study from Demand Metric and Vidyard sheds light on the importance of diversifying your distribution channels to maximize ROI. As with all content marketing, consumers like to consume content in different ways and in different places. Brand marketers must provide a variety of opportunities for consumers to self-select how they want to interact with the brand’s content. Don’t try to force consumers to watch your branded videos on your website or on YouTube. Give them options to find and consume your video content, and they’re more likely to watch it and share it.

Image: Pawe? Zawistowski

12 Principles to Win People to Your Brand

handshake persuadeHow do you win consumers to your brand?

Winning people to your brand is based significantly on emotion and persuasion. With that in mind, let’s see how Dale Carnegie’s famous 12 principles to win people to your way of thinking apply to branding.

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

Brand consistency is critical to brand success. All brand communications and experiences must be consistent with the brand promise or consumers will become confused and potentially push back against the brand. Avoid the push back by exercising brand restraint!

2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say “you’re wrong.”

The customer is always right. What do consumers want from your brand? That is what you need to deliver—even if it’s not the same thing that you want.

3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

This principle is particularly relevant in today’s world of social media and online brand reputation.

4. Begin in a friendly way.

This principle reminds me of something a colleague used to always tell me when she entered into negotiations with vendors. She would say, “I always start from a good place.” Never put your audience on the defensive from the start.

5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.

Your brand communications must affirm and support your audience’s wants, needs, and emotions. Try to promote a brand to an audience with irrelevant messages, and your ROI will be nonexistent.

6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.

Consumers build brands, not companies. Let your target audience experience your brand in the ways they choose and make it their own. That’s how you build brand loyalty and brand advocacy.

7. Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.

Create marketing messages that tap into consumers’ emotions and allow them to feel like they’re in control of their purchase decisions. Give them something of value, and they’ll choose to purchase your brand without you demanding that they do so.

8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of you.

It’s not about you. All that matters is what consumers want and need from your brand.

9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.

Research your consumers and develop buyer personas so you understand what matters to the customers within each market segment. Create messages that are relevant to each segment’s ideas and desires, and your brand marketing results will improve.

10. Appeal to the nobler motives.

Building brand trust is essential to brand growth. Determine your brand’s core values and consistently live them and communicate them in all interactions that consumers could have with your brand.

11. Dramatize your ideas.

Brand storytelling is extremely effective in building emotional connections between consumers and your brand. Leverage social media and content marketing to spread your brand stories.

12. Throw down a challenge.

Use marketing campaigns to engage consumers with your brand. Social media and crowdsourcing open the doors to creative ways to challenge your customers. From challenging consumers to upload pictures using your brand to your Facebook Page to challenging consumers to design their own product packaging for your brand, there are a myriad of ways you can engage consumers in an emotionally challenging way.

Image: Laura Glover

Nearly 2 out of 3 Consumers Have Unfollowed Brands on Social Media

brand unlike thumbs downConsumers follow brands on social media. However, consumers also unfollow brands on social media. In other words, getting social media followers is often the result of short-term, tactical efforts rather than long-term, sustainable, and strategic initiatives to build consumer brand loyalty.

This data comes from a recent survey by 140 Proof of U.S. mobile users between the ages of 18 and 59. Specifically, 61% of respondents reported that they had unliked or unfollowed a brand that they had previously followed on a social media site while another 29% reported that they had liked a brand but never unfollowed a brand. The final 10% of respondents had never followed a brand on social media at all.

The study also found that consumers use specific social media platforms to engage more frequently about different topics. Here is an overview of the top three social networks for the ten topic areas that were researched:

  • Food and Dining: Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter
  • Celebrities and Gossip: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
  • Business and Industry: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter
  • Home Decor: Pinterest (by a wide margin), Facebook, and Instagram
  • Family and Parenting: Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter
  • Brands and Companies: Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
  • Fashion, Style, and Beauty: Pinterest (by a wide margin), Facebook, and Twitter
  • Personal Finance: LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook
  • Technology: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
  • Hobbies: Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter

Consumers were least engaged on social media about personal finance and technology. Furthermore, LinkedIn ranked last for engagement for all but three topics (business and industry, personal finance, and hobbies). On the other hand, Facebook ranked in the top two for engagement for all but one topic (personal finance) where it ranked in a close third place. Twitter ranked in the top three for engagement for all but one topic (home decor) where it ranked fourth. Instagram ranked in the bottom half in all topics while Pinterest ranked very well in some topics (food and dining, home decore, family and parenting, brands and companies, fashion, style, and beauty, and hobbies) but very low in others (celebrities and gossip, business and industry, personal finance, and technology).

For brands, the survey results show where target consumers are more likely to spend time and be willing to consume and engage with branded content, but for direct brand and company engagement, consumers are willing to interact on social media platforms in this order: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Consider these research results as you develop your social media marketing plans for the future. Location matters as much on the social web as it does in person.

Image: J. Henning Buchholz

Twitter Ranks #1 for Best Company Culture and Values in the U.S.

glassdoor top 25 companies for culture and values previewTwitter has been ranked as the top U.S. company for culture and values according to the 2014 ranking of the top 25 companies for culture and values by Glassdoor. The ranking is based on insights from company employees. Twitter employees calle the company, “the best place I have ever worked,” and described it as having an “amazing culture.”

What makes the culture so amazing at Twitter? According to one employee, “I love how the 10 core values drive the company to always be better,” while another explained, “Collaboration – everyone here is pushing towards a common goal, we all want to see the company grow and become more successful.” And yet another employee shared that Twitter has, “Great people, great food, great compensation, great learning opportunities, great opportunities. You get to do what matters to the world. Great work/life balance as well.”

The full list is dominated by tech companies with 12 of the 25 companies on the list coming from the tech industry. Twitter, Google, and Facebook all ranked in the top 5 (#1, #3, and #5, respectively). Employee insights about these companies explain exactly why these companies attract and retain the best talent. They truly live their values and create a company culture that makes people want to work for them and deliver their best efforts.

About Facebook, an employee explained, “The amount of power entrusted to employees is huge. You are empowered to go explore and find data, build things, and generally chose the course of action you think will have the most impact.” Another Facebook employee praised the company saying, “Managers force you to go home if you’re not feeling well. Miss your kid’s all star game to stay at work and you’ll get weird looks. Perform your core function well and you have so much leeway in how you spend your time – (how it should be, right?)”

For Google employees, praise is a bit different. While employees report working longer hours than other companies, they tout the company’s focus on customers as top-notch. An employee described Google as a company that, “Embraces innovation. Singularly focused on the end user. Go big or go home.”

Coming in at #2 on the list of the top 25 companies for culture and values is Edelman, a global public relations agency. In a field where work/life balance is typically nonexistent and high stress is the norm, Edelman stands out as the exception to the rule. An employee elaborates, “Unlike other agencies that say they support work-life balance and value their employees as their top asset, Edelman actually does both of these things in practice. Through the actions of middle to senior management, you are truly made to feel valued and appreciated. Opportunities are everywhere and the culture is laid back and fun.” This stands to prove that companies can survive and thrive by going against the expected company culture (particularly when the expected culture has a reputation for being toxic).

Follow the link above to view the full list on the Glassdoor website where you can read insights from employees at each company. There is much to learn from these companies! Today, culture is critical to every company. From recruiting and employee productivity to minimizing costs and building your brand, company culture plays a part in pushing your company toward success or failure.

Image: Glassdoor

Evolution of the Annual Report

evolution-annual-report

 

One year in, what lessons are there to learn about implementing the new strategic report?

At Communicate’s next conference in London, Evolution of the Annual Report, which will take place in early October, attendees will hear from a variety of speakers to find out how the first year of the new-style report has gone, and to hear best practice advice for next year’s reporting cycle.

We love to discover new best practice, and the topics that catch my eye first are those which discuss how to go about creating the report, and what the benefits might be of this new approach:

  • Creating an annual report contents list
  • Board engagement and perceptions
  • Distilling the DNA of a company
  • Benefits of a clear and concise report
  • Fresh perspectives on the business through reporting
  • Lessons from a first strategic report

There are other subjects to be covered too, such as the technological implications of the changes – and at the final session, FutureValue will confer the Strategic Report Accolades on the winners for 2014.

Speakers come from the full range of organisations – corporates, agencies, government, journalists, professional bodies and regulators – including Rio Tinto, National Grid, the ICSA and Board Intelligence.

Sounds interesting? If this event would be useful to you, find out more on the Communicate website.

10 Steps to a Brand Disaster Response Plan that Works

disaster fireAre you prepared to face a brand disaster? If your brand reputation is disparaged and word is spreading quickly, what will you do?

Every business needs to have a brand reputation monitoring process in place as well as a plan to act if content and conversations start spreading that could hurt the brand, sales, and profits.

If you don’t have a brand disaster response plan, follow the 10 steps below to ensure you create one that will work.

1. Define roles.

Who will do what when a brand disaster strikes? Document it in your disaster recovery plan.

2. Educate everyone.

Every person on the marketing team needs to fully understand the entire disaster recovery plan. Every employee needs to understand the basics of how the plan works and what they are and are not allowed to say and do following a brand disaster. Furthermore, every vendor and business partner who could be affected by a brand disaster should be educated as well. For example, if your company outsources social media management to an agency, that agency needs to understand what you want them to do if disaster strikes.

3. Cross-train your team.

Disasters won’t wait until a slow day when everyone is in the office. They can happen at anytime, and key employees could be on vacation, in an airplane, or somewhere else that makes them inaccessible. It is critical that you cross-train your team so the disaster recovery plan can be executed seamlessly, even if one or more team members are at home with the flu.

4. Communicate with all stakeholders.

Prepare language to communicate with employees, media, shareholders, vendors, business partners, etc., and document how you will communicate with them. Don’t scramble after disaster strikes to put together email messages, online notices, and so on. Have them ready to go in advance, so you can send them out quickly with minor tweaks to address the specific disaster.

5. Invest in technology that supports your response.

Your response requires ongoing communication and message distribution. Make sure you have the technology that you need to ensure your messages get to the appropriate audiences quickly.

6. Put the tools in place to keep communication lines open.

How will your team communicate with each other when you’re in the midst of a brand disaster? Not only do you need technology to respond to external audiences, but you also need tools to communicate effectively with internal audiences, particularly with your team members.

7. Document steps to notify and update executives.

Communicating updates to executives should happen separately from your other internal communications, so document the steps that will be used to get these updates to executives in a timely manner when you’re in the middle of a disaster (and after the disaster). Share this plan with your executives, so they know what to expect from you and your team.

8. Prepare for all media distribution and communication channels.

It doesn’t matter where the brand disaster happens. A negative news story printed in a local newspaper could get shared in a Faceboook conversation and go viral very quickly. Therefore, your brand disaster response needs to reach audiences anywhere they get information—online, offline, and mobile.

9. Measure the disaster and respond accordingly.

All disasters are not created equal. Therefore, you need to have a process in place to analyze the threat potential of each disaster and respond accordingly. In other words, every negative comment about your brand on Twitter isn’t a threat to the future of your brand and company, but your employees need to know how to “rank” threat levels.

10. Stick to your code of ethics, mission, and vision.

Your response to brand disaster should be rooted in your company’s code of ethics and core values. Always match your actions and messages to your brand promise and your customers’ expectations of your brand.

Image: Brad Harrison