An Inside Look At How To Market Online With The Needls Co-Founder
We can all agree on one thing. Pizza is amazing. OK, so actually two things. That and that online marketing is not easy. It’s certainly gotten easier and pretty darn fun now that you can create your own professional videos in a matter of minutes. But with so many places to brand your business and so much content to stay on top of, it’s an ever-changing gig we all need to continue to work at.
To give us new and unique insights into the world of advertising with video and branding we decided to interview Michael Koral, the Co-Founder, and COO of needls. Their tool determines the perfect target audience for your video ads by monitoring social media conversations in real time. With a team of professionals monitoring ads and business growth around the clock, let’s see what they have to say on the world of marketing.
Here are the big questions you’ve been waiting to ask a marketing guru, and we just did:
What are your top marketing tips for sharing your brand online?
Many people try and embellish a tad (or A LOT) when trying to market their brand online. You probably see this all the time, the ad boasting that Company X has hundreds and thousands of customers, or the “Forbes” icon under the featured section on a website when Company Y wasn’t actually featured. It’s so easy to follow the path of fake it until you make it, but don’t take your customers for fools. They can see right through it. For a small business just starting out or new to online marketing, I’d highly suggest to keep it real and keep it honest…and to do the following:
Be true to your brand
Well, before you stay true to your brand, it’s important to first know what your brand is – and I don’t mean your logo, I mean your identity. All marketing material, external communication, pretty much everything you do, should embody and represent your brand’s voice and image. It’s easy to get lost in the whirlwind of marketing techniques and trends, but if the “hard sell” webinar craze doesn’t match your brand, then you’re doing more harm than good.
Be consistent
This goes hand in hand with staying true to your brand. Your messaging, brand, image and so on, should stay consistent, from your flashy new Facebook ad, to your first point of contact sales team. But consistency isn’t limited to your brand’s harmony. You also need to remain consistent with the frequency, delivery of your content. We’re all victim too being busy – things pile up and before you know it, you haven’t written a new blog post in a month, or you haven’t responded to your ad comments in two days. But keeping consistent is the name of the game, and will make you look reliable and accountable to your audience.
Be relevant
Are you still referencing last year’s hot meme? Or are you sharing last season’s hottest fashion trends on your Facebook page? Yikes! That’s one way to be laughed out of the ball…and your audience’s pocket! Being relevant is crucial in all aspects of your business (no one likes outdated sales techniques or a website that isn’t mobile friendly), so it’s important to stay up to date with everything.
What are the best pieces of content you’ve seen for sales? For lead generation?
Social proof is by far the most relevant piece of content you can create for sales & lead generation. You’d be 100% right to assume that people are turning to Google before deciding to work with you, and that’s exactly why you should be giving them what they want directly from the source. A showcase of your happy clients can go a long way in convincing others to buy your product or service. But take it one step further than the “Testimonials” page on your website; in-depth case studies and blog posts can help you position your business in the best light possible! And why not leverage the power of video to do a short interview with one of your clients? You’ll be surprised how engaging your content becomes when you talk more about how real people use your product or service rather than the benefits or features that you offer.
Regardless, if you’re looking for new leads, or trying to get your audience to make a purchase, social proof works.
What are the metrics every business should be measuring? How? What are they looking for?
Engagement. Engagement. Engagement. It comes in many forms, but being able to track engagement on your blog, your website, your online store, etc. is so important.
One key metric to track is Time on Site or Time on Page.
The longer people stay, the more relevant your content is, the more likely they will become a customer or even an advocate. You can also use this metric to isolate what content is working for you and what isn’t. Use a tool such as Google Analytics that automatically track how long people stay on your website.
Another key metric would be your Shares. If your content is relevant, catchy and share-worthy, you’ll get your visitors doing the hard work for you (expanding your reach) and get your brand the exposure you want. This metric isn’t limited to your website content and should be monitored closely when it comes to your social content, ads, media mentions and more.
What are two examples of split testing every business can do to improve advertising?
It is getting easier and easier to split test any number of things when it comes to improving advertising. Most of our clients take advantage of our automatic split testing of creative elements (images, videos, headlines, etc.) to see what provides the best engagement and ROI from their advertising. It could be as simple as split testing two different media types, like a video vs. a static image, or two different videos all together. Personally, I think split testing video content is something every advertiser should do. Your videos will naturally get better results versus a static image, but by testing two videos against each other, you can isolate what messaging does the best for you (and at a larger scale because more eyes will be on your content).
An example: test one video that showcases features/benefits of your service against another one that showcases social proof.
The other easy thing to test is your landing page. Now, you may be thinking, how can I create two different websites easily? It was hard enough to make one.
Luckily, there are many different services that offer simple landing page creation; Leadpages and Clickfunnels are two that come to mind. You can easily duplicate an existing landing page and tweak any number of things to test. That said, one aspect you’ll want to test is your Call to Action (CTA).
You always want a visitor to take an action when on your landing page, whether it’s to buy your product or fill out a form to request more information or join your newsletter mailing list. By playing around with the text on your call to action button, like swapping out “Buy Now” for “Shop Today’s Deals” or “Get the Deal”, you can see what CTA results in higher ROI.
As we have discovered from the immense amount of helpful information from Michael, there is no time to waste when it comes to boosting your business with exceptional video ads. That said, there’s also a whole lot to the task to make your video ads work in your favor. If you’re ready to take your videos to the next level, you need to perfect your targeting and campaigns. Using needls for automated SM advertising, simple reporting and metric optimization can cut your time-spent in half (if not more) and get you the traffic you’re looking for. Also, perfecting your video creation technique can also help boost your bottom line! Learn how to make a slideshow and more in minutes with Promo.com.
