Archive for January, 2010
Using Video To Inspire Confidence In Your Brand
Posted by: | CommentsI want you to try something — a little social experiment.
Take a look at two different websites, both with equal years in their respective industries, both delivering the same quality of products and services, with one crucial difference: one uses a personal video greeting from the “face behind the business” and the other uses only static images and text.
Click on the images or the company names to see the difference:
Website #1: Rhode Island Kitchen & Bath
Website #2: Ocean State Kitchen & Bath, Inc.
Were you compelled to click on the video on Rhode Island Kitchen & Bath’s landing page? If you were looking for a remodeling company, which of these two businesses would you feel most comfortable with?
Rhode Island Kitchen & Bath knows the value of using web video to enhance their image as a trusted remodeling company. Visiting a website without a personal video greeting is akin to walking into a showroom or store and finding no one there to greet you. If your visitors don’t see what they want right away, and there’s no one there to greet them and welcome them, they turn around and walk out the door.
However, when a friendly, confident business owner greets a potential customer immediately, the visitor is inclined to stick around and go deeper into the showroom — and perhaps become a customer.
On the internet, the same principle of human interaction applies. Your website is your showroom, and a polished web video greeting gives your visitor a virtual experience of interaction with you, the spokesperson for your brand. Delivering a friendly personal greeting and information about your company via a well-done web video inspires trust by putting a face to the name of your brand, and allowing you, the face of the business, to speak directly to the customer.
Watch our company’s landing page video to see how to incorporate the owner’s greeting, the right music, a customer testimonial, and text for a video greeting that delivers several confidence-building elements to website visitors:
Your eyes, your body language, your voice, and your surroundings all raise your “human factor” and give your web visitor greater confidence in you. They immediately get a sense of whether or not you’re trustworthy and confident, and by seeing the corporate image you portray, will judge whether or not you’re a person they feel comfortable doing further business with.
Even the music bed — the background music you choose — helps to set a mood and tone that can dramatically enhance the image you want to convey to those tentative first-time customers.
In addition to the human factor, studies have shown that web video keeps visitors onsite longer and inspires them to act upon what they’ve seen and heard. According to recent studies and surveys, online video dramatically increases the probability of turning a visitor into a customer.
If you’re ready to put your best face forward on your website, consider hiring a professional videographer to shoot your video. His expertise, camera, microphone, and lighting will deliver an image that portrays you in your best light, with the image your business needs to compete in your industry. A home-produced video tends to convey the image of less-than-quality products or services, and depending on your brand, won’t inspire the confidence you want your web visitors to have in doing business with you.
Talk to your web designer about embedding video into your website, or hire a multimedia company proficient and experienced at audio, video and web, to get everything you need in one place. That first impression on your website could mean the difference between a visitor choosing your company or your competition’s.
Note: Because I want your comment to stand, please read our simple comment policy before replying! Thank-you!
Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.
How A Pest Control Company Got My Attention
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday I was deliberately plodding through a stack of business cards, checking out their associated websites and looking for signs of Social Media integration, when I happened upon a website that grabbed my attention. It at once amused me, interested me, and got me to stay on their site for much longer than I had the time to, even though I had absolutely no interest in their services. And now that company’s name and brand is in my head, in my memory, waiting for a future moment when I will need their services (and hopefully I won’t).
What was it that kept me on New England Pest Control’s website for a good ten minutes?
They made me laugh. First, they have a unique and fun landing page that seized my attention, and secondly, they’ve incorporated fun, quirky audio sound effects into their menu.
The sound I heard when the Big Blue Bug dropped into the page made me smile, and then I looked around the page for social media information.
Having Too Much Fun To Leave
Nothing there. But the menu items were quirky, with a retro style, and the next thing I knew, my mouse headed for one of them. As my cursor approached the cartoon image of a woman standing on a chair screaming, she — well, she screamed!
Now I started hovering over each link to see what sounds they had associated with them, and then I started playing games with myself, hovering over the links in different succession. Maybe I’m easily amused. But what I did next is what they hoped for:
I clicked a link.
In this case, I clicked “About Us.” Then they had me, and the wooing began. Their “About Us” was interesting enough to keep me on the site even longer, poking around until I realized I had spent too much time already and went back to work.
New England Pest Control’s web designer used Flash on their website to get the audio effects that entertained me.
Scott explains, “New England Pest Control’s website uses Flash to create a more interactive multimedia experience than just text and images can produce. Flash allows you to animate graphics and embed audio (including sounds, music, voiceover, etc.), and gives your overall brand a unique approach to design. It’s like a standard website on steroids.”
To increase conversions (visitors who become customers), there are several ways to implement audio on your website besides what New England Pest Control has done. We’ll cover those in later blogs.
By the way — I only remember one other website from the whole stack of business cards I went through.
Good job, New England Pest Control. You made me look!
Note: Because I want your comment to stand, please read our simple comment policy before replying! Thank-you!
Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.
Playing the Fame Card for Buzz
Posted by: | CommentsMost people love the idea of having a taste of fame, even if only for a short time, and Fame-by-Association is almost as exciting. You can harness this common desire in people and use it to drive traffic to your website in a lot of fascinating ways.
We’re going to share one “Make ‘em famous” trick to get some serious buzz for your brand.
"Do you secretly wish you were...?"
Have you ever been in the right place at the right time and been interviewed by a local news anchor who just happened to be on the scene for some bit of breaking news? What did you do as soon as you got home? You called your friends and family and excitedly told them, “I’m going to be on the news!” Then you made SURE you were sitting in front of the TV when the news came on, even if it started at 4 pm, and you didn’t MOVE until you saw your mug on the screen at 6:24 pm, right before the weatherman gave his final wrap-up.
Afterward, the phone would ring with friends and family on the other end gleefully exclaiming, “I saw you on the news!” You’d laugh about how stupid you looked, how ridiculous you sounded, or how different the anchor looks in person. And you loved it.
Ahhh. Sweet fame, so fleeting.
The novel buzzmarketing idea we’re about to share with you takes its cue from the desire most of us have to get just a taste of fame. And if you have a video camera, a computer, business cards and a website, it’ll cost you less than $20.
Step One: Go to Zazzle.com or a similar personal designing website and design a simple T-shirt with a quirky, interesting slogan on it like “What Do The Neighbors Think?”, “Tricky Questions” or “Man On The Street.”
Put your website’s address on the T-shirt in a very large font. You want “observers” who gather around or walk by to remember your website!
Step Two: While you’re waiting for your T-shirt to arrive in the mail, start thinking of interesting questions to ask people on camera. Think of questions whose answers will either get people heated, excited, or puzzled, or questions that will make them laugh. Make them controversial, or questions that test their knowledge of current events. Most recently, for example, is the Lady GaGa phenomenon or the sudden appeal of vampire movies — those topics make for great questions, if you target your questions to your audience.
Step Three: Once you get your T-shirt in the mail, put it on and hit the streets for your “Fleeting Fame” participants. Take your video camera and business cards to a populated area like the town square, the local grocery store, or the mall. For the most bang for your buck, think of places where you know there will be people who would actually USE whatever you sell on your website. For example, if you sell medical supplies, don’t go to the mall on a Friday night and talk to teens if you want your buzzmarketing campaign to have the most payoff.
Step Four: With the video camera running, ask random people for permission to ask them a simple question. When you get their “Yeah, sure,” ask your pre-planned question and record their answer.
Tell each participant that they can log on to your website in the next couple of days to see the final video, and if they make the final cut, they’ll see themselves and others answering the same question. Give them two of your business cards, one for them and one for a friend. To cover your bases, have them sign a simple release form.
"I can't believe she said that!"
Step Five: As soon as you can, edit your video to get the best video clips, or just upload the whole thing to your website. Draw attention to the video by placing it next to a picture of you wearing your T-shirt, holding your video camera.
Put the video on your homepage, or embed it on a page that you think will drive sales. If you choose that route, place a colorful banner or link on your website’s homepage, and next to the picture of you wearing your snazzy new T-shirt.
Note: If you want to get even more exposure and you have the money, get extra T-shirts made, but this time with “I was on [insert name of your program]” — again, with your website address prominently featured.
Either give a T-shirt to everyone who answers a question on camera, or send them to the people who end up being featured on your website. They’ll wear those T-shirts with pride, because they want people to go to your website and see them “on camera.”
Step Six: Sit back and wait for the buzz — and hopefully, for all the potential clients you just gave a reason to visit your website.
Note: Because I want your comment to stand, please read our simple comment policy before replying! Thank-you!
Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.
