A deeper look at the benefits your customer receives from WinWin Videos

You might already know about how WinWin Videos turbocharges your marketing. You might already know how it wins over new customers, and builds trust with your current customers through the benefits you provide them. But how well could you explain WinWin Videos to those current customers when you want to propose the idea to them? Would it be easier if we gave you an article to help explain (in simple language) how much they benefit from working with you on this? If so, read on.

The WinWin Video concept is new enough that you may have some difficulty explaining it to your customers at first. How does it work? What’s in it for them? What’s in it for you? This article is your reference to answer these questions and more.

Preparations

While we won’t charge your customer for any of what you’re about to read, what we ask from them in return is a bit of their time and cooperation in making these videos. Upon confirmation that you’ll be doing a shoot with us, we send them an outline of the shoot schedule, explaining any information we need from them beforehand. This outline also explains anything they’ll need to know to get the most out of the shoot.

We also send a document of frequently asked questions, which shows what to expect from start to finish when working with us.

But the most important part of pre-shoot preparation is the shoot outline, which helps us streamline the process and get the best possible results for the final products. It includes who will be in each video, and gives your customer time to consider the questions we’ll ask in the videos. This gives them time to arrange for someone to take over individual employee responsibilities during the brief part of the workday when they’ll be busy recording with us. Your customer can also tell us of any specific requests, such as proper pronunciation and branding, or how to best target your ideal market, so we can plan accordingly.

On an agreed date, we’ll arrive at your customers’ business in the morning, and shoot for about half a day. We understand they are running a business while we’re there. While we have a clearly defined schedule and want to adhere to it, we also realize they may have interruptions and can work around their schedule.

So what do these videos look like? What can you expect? Below we detail what each video will provide your customer.

1. Business Overview

As mentioned, we send all questions beforehand so the customer has plenty of time to consider their responses before the shoot. The business overview presents who they are and the unique value they offer their customers. What makes them stand out? What keeps their customers coming back? What do their star employees do that serves the business and its customers?

This type of video is great for website landing pages, emails, adding to YouTube and other video sites, and anywhere they’d like to offer people a quick way to get a sense for who they are and what to expect from them. And because this video focuses more on who they are as a business, your customer can keep on using it for years to come.

2. Staff Recruiting Video

In this video, we highlight why their industry — and more specifically, their business — is a great career choice. We show potential new employees why they should consider a job with the organization. What can your customer provide them that other employers don’t? This provides an effective hiring tool, giving their online presence the professional edge to win more high-performing employees.

3. Customer Success Story

In this video, we interview one or two of their satisfied end customers to produce a video showing why they keep coming back, and ask these end customers about the things they like best about working with your customer. We get their endorsement for the business, so other end customers know who to rely on.

Supplier Case Study

This is the video your customer produces for you. It’s similar to the previous one, only they’re the customer now, and you, the sponsor, are the business in the spotlight. You receive this video in return for sponsoring the above videos. In it, your customer explains how working with you and using your products has helped their business grow and thrive. It also includes questions provided by you about their experience working with you, allowing you to hone in on preferred talking points. This video will highlight the ways you stand out against the competition.

To learn more about how this all works, check out our video “What We Do and How We Do it” on Vimeo by following this link.

Professional Quality

WinWin means production value you can count on. While on the property, we’ll also collect B-roll, gathering a series of quick shots to give all of these videos a professional touch. This might include shots like customers entering your shop, wide shots of your building exterior, shots of your employees at work, interactions with customers, drone footage, and more. You can see examples of this in the video above.

This type of footage also serves to help potential customers easily imagine themselves visiting your shop and buying your products, which is much more effective at converting new customers than the interviews alone. Any sensitive information can be blurred or edited out.

Conclusion

Remember: this is all free for your customer, paid for by you in exchange for your video. All we require is a small amount of their time and cooperation. You and your customer can request up to 2 rounds of edits before any charges are incurred, though we try to deliver your videos in a final form that does not require edits. Beyond that, there are only a few bonus requests that may incur costs (to divide as you see fit), such as substituting different types of video, or doing one expanded video in the place of multiple shorter ones.

All we need from your customer is their cooperation in preparation, and a person on-site to help show us around and direct us where they’d like the videos to be shot. They need to show us the important areas of their business. For example, they may have just purchased a new machine that’s next to several others and want us to showcase that particular machine. We need their help identifying which is which.

If this type of digital marketing content sounds like something you could add to your marketing toolkit, contact us today. Simply call 800.272.7222 or email info@media272.com to get started. Talk to your customers and let them know you’d be willing sponsor the WinWin Video package for them.

By Drew Estes, September 2019

Read more popular Media272 posts by Drew Estes:

• How to Get Free Marketing Videos from Your Suppliers
• 5G Networks are Coming. Is Your Business Ready?
• This Tool Converts Leads Into Clients – Now Faster and More Affordably
• Increase Digital Conversion with this Proven Strategy
• How to Turn Your Best Customers into Your Best Marketers
• The B2B Marketing Channel Your Competitors Aren’t Using

Visit Media272.com or WinWinVideos.com to learn more.

You’ve invested millions into your facility in hopes of a high return. Perhaps you just finished a major remodel. You’ve taken steps to improve the experience not just for your customers, but your staff as well. But what if you’re leaving money on the table?

If an organization like yours cares about its people, enough to invest in improving the quality of their experience, this can actually turn into a major asset for you. 

So how are you showing off the end result to pay for your investment?

Many people turn to 15- and 30-second TV commercials from their manufacturers. But if you’ve done much research, you know these videos don’t cut it. They’re enough for the product maybe, but not enough for you. In other words, their content is focused on the product, not the people.

Nothing is wrong with these videos, of course: they still need to be a part of your marketing mix. But like many approaches, they’re only a fraction of the whole picture.

The question to ask is why should your customers come to you, rather than your competitors? The answer? Because you care. You’ve shown this with your investments, and with your commitment to quality and service. But the thing is, simple product videos won’t show it. 

These days, it’s not enough just to make the investment: you need to spread the word, too. Otherwise, how are new customers supposed to know what you have to offer? To know what sets you apart?

Using Videos That Work

Consider how you use video to showcase your staff or facility, and how well these serve the customer.

When creating a video, it’s certainly less expensive to use green screens, animated still images and other tricks to show what you’ve done. But how will this set you apart, or show your commitment to your customers?

Your videos need to show your store and your staff. So show what you’ve done with the place. Reward your top performers by featuring them. No need to use a spokesperson who can only try to represent you. Your people can do it, and you’d be surprised to see how many would jump at the opportunity, if you properly present it. Not to mention it demonstrates the authenticity that customers want to see. It helps them trust you. 

But this means you can’t settle for canned topics. Sure, vendors have their recommended lists, so it’s easier and less expensive for them to steer your towards their menu. But your product isn’t just a deli club sandwich. It’s a customized and delicious meal, prepared by a chef to create a memorable, mouth watering experience.

Your marketing, like your work, demands special focus and attention.

Your video can and should be customized for you and your organization. The more customized it is, the more your staff will feel valued, and the more you’ll stand out against your competition. Be professional, though: it’s okay to have some candid social media videos, but that’s not going to give your investment the polish and presentation you deserve and should demand. It’s only part of the equation, as it doesn’t convey the skill and professionalism of a genuine marketing video.

Get Custom Marketing Videos: Sponsored by your Suppliers

Many suppliers are starting to partner with their dealerships to subsidize video content (in full and in part) to showcase the dealerships’ unique value. Working with WinWin Videos, they will actually send a video crew to your location to showcase your facility and staff, and how their product helps you realize your vision. 

Your suppliers benefit from your stories of success with them, and you benefit from the staff-centric marketing videos they sponsor for you.

Call it shared video production — a win-win arrangement. Your suppliers are willing to create content both of you can use. They’re willing to sponsor a video production crew for you if it helps you and them. Typically, these shoots yield several videos: videos specific to the dealership, and another one or two the supplier can use to solicit other dealerships. With this setup, everybody wins.

And remember: this is a collaborative effort with your staff and suppliers. Consider your suppliers as partners in this video production. They’re under your umbrella, and dependent upon your success. They are also aware of video’s value, and anxious to use every opportunity they can to leverage its value. They know it can be crafted to speak to the unique characteristics of a wide variety of customer. This means your unique dealership and yourunique customers. 

We’re helping dealerships and suppliers leverage this concept. Dealerships can register with us and list their suppliers. We play the matchmakers and production team. We connect suppliers looking for new content with the dealerships who use the supplier’s products or services. Many suppliers don’t even know who their end customers are. They sell through distributors and never see the final sale. So it’s important the link is made between dealership and supplier without having to depend on a distributor.

Of course, many distributors have become aware of this opportunity and are helping to facilitate these projects. However, why wait and hope for a match? The distributor benefits either way, so if your company is suited for it, it’s time to get started.

So consider how you would showcase your shop with video. What do your customers need to know? Which hardworking staff members would you like to highlight? When the time comes to show your customers who they should turn to and you’re looking for a video production service to help, look no further than WinWin Videos. 

By Drew Estes, August 2019

Read more of the most popular Media272 posts by Drew Estes:

• - 5G Networks are Coming. Is Your Business Ready?
• - This Tool Converts Leads Into Clients – Now Faster and More Affordably
• - Increase Digital Conversion with this Proven Strategy
• - How to Turn Your Best Customers into Your Best Marketers
• - 5 Data-Backed Strategies to Use Videos In Your Marketing Mix
• - A Lesson in Successful Marketing from Rytec High Performance Doors
• - The B2B Marketing Channel Your Competitors Aren’t Using

A BG Products Marketing Story

When you visit the BG Products website, you’ll read how they are the recognized global leader in transportation maintenance services and related industries, and how their products are sold through a close-knit global network of independent distributors. BG’s certified service advisors and technicians are people you can trust, trained to know what a vehicle needs. They know the importance and effectiveness of automotive maintenance. But as a potential client of BG, how do you know if it’s the right decision?

At WinWin Videos, we’ve worked with BG long enough to know they have the results to back up these statements. But what if you were an auto shop, weighing your options, and not yet sure whether to believe the claims a potential supplier makes? Smart buyers want to see some evidence before making a purchase. This was a challenge that Danielle Wallace, Content Strategy Manager at BG, wanted to minimize.

The Idea: Let your other clients do the talking

Wallace, with her experience in both B2B and B2C marketing within the automotive industry, has a deep understanding of digital media and content marketing. She saw the potential of WinWin Videos’ customer success story videos as a powerful cross-platform marketing tool, one capable of increasing customer engagement and driving conversions. So she hired WinWin to produce video packages for some of BG’s best clients, and to capture their stories about BG in the process.

The Results: What did the clients say?

In short, the clients WinWin visited explained many reasons why joining the BG team was such a smart decision, and talked at length about how much their customers love and trust BG’s products. In the examples below, notice how real customers prove much more persuasive when talking about a business, compared to a business talking about itself — even when they make similar assertions. 

Baker Cadillac:

Bob Berfield of Baker Cadillac has worked with BG for nearly a decade, at multiple dealerships. He notes how BG representatives are always helpful and attentive to his needs. It can prove a major challenge to gain and keep the trust of customers, and while it helps that BG provides some of the best products in the industry, their TruVideo app in particular increases trust and communication with customers by helping them understand what’s really happening with their car. BG’s maintenance tools also allow Baker Cadillac to provide low-cost maintenance up front, which eliminates the risk of costly repairs for the customer.

Win-Win Videos – Baker Cadillac – BG Products Testimonial

Tasca Automotive:

As the Quick Lane Manager of Tasca Automotive, some of the biggest challenges John Stone faces involve keeping up with the demand for Tasca’s services. It may not be the worst problem to have, but it’s a legitimate one nonetheless. To avoid falling behind, Tasca turned to BG. In videos like this, WinWin Videos uncovers multiple benefits that customers find in our clients’ products. Not only do BG products help maximize efficiency and streamline Tasca’s workflow, but BG representatives thoroughly trained their employees on BG products, meaning Tasca advisors now feel confident and informed when selling these products to customers.  

Tasca Automotive – BG Products Testimonial

Barber-Dyson Ford:

At Barber-Dyson Ford Lincoln of Elk City, owner David Dyson has done business with BG for well over a decade. He considers BG a part of the dealership’s team. They’ve learned to trust BG to provide superior products that customers request by name, and employees like how BG’s training lets them take better care of customers. He explains for WinWin Videos that BG not only makes a great partner, but also how it makes economic sense to work with them. To illustrate, he brings up the way BG machines allow his employees to work on multiple parts of a vehicle at the same time, cutting service time in half. So while BG’s products obviously keep customers satisfied, they also allow Dyson’s staff to work faster, more efficiently, and with greater productivity than ever.

Barber-Dyson Ford Lincoln – BG Products Testimonial

Conclusion

Remember, unlike many forms of marketing content, Wallace can now use these videos for BG’s marketing for years to come. Rather than explain to potential new clients why they should trust BG for their auto maintenance needs, she can provide them with high-quality video content of BG’s current clients, talking about how BG helped their business. Shop owners don’t want to hear a sales pitch from a supplier: they want to hear real feedback from fellow shop owners who have tested the products already.

Call today or schedule an informational call here and let your clients do the talking. Be sure to ask about our quarterly shoots with monthly billing.

WinWin Videos (a Media272 service): 800.272.7222

By Drew Estes

Digital Marketing & Content Strategist for WinWin Videos

How CUDL Video Producer Shandin Fisher Saves Time and Money by Hiring an External Video Team

Credit Union Direct Lending, or CUDL, is a system developed by CU Direct to provide easy access to credit union financing for local dealers. The CUDL team prides itself in bringing innovation and expertise to indirect lending, and they’re widely considered the best at what they do.

However, despite a strong product and a talented internal video production team for marketing, CUDL video producer Shandin Fisher couldn’t ignore the unnecessary costs and inefficiencies of flying videographers to clients in different states. When you have clients across the country, travel expenses add up fast, and your employees’ time is valuable.

Fisher seized the opportunity to outsource some of his video production needs to WinWin Videos. WinWin has a nationwide network of videographers who shoot multiple videos while on location. This maximized Fisher’s return on investment while freeing up his hands for other work.

The Plan

With the WinWin service, he sponsored a set of professional videos for some of his best clients around the country to help them with their marketing and recruiting. In return, each client provided feedback about CUDL, explaining how CUDL helped their business. The uniformed videographers at WinWin Videos captured these customer success stories and turned them into a valuable marketing videos for CUDL.

These videos cut through the noise of standard corporate jargon and advertising, and allow your customers to become an essential partner in promoting your business. You can tell a potential customer how great your company is, but this is a bit like bragging to a stranger about how good-looking you are: it’s not your opinion that matters. That’s why customer success stories are so powerful. Anyone can advertise, but when you have videos of customers sharing how you helped their business thrive, you become much more persuasive.

The Results

If you’re anything like Fisher, your win-win attitude toward your team and clients will shine through in the way they talk about you. CUDL’s clients provided WinWin’s videographers with plenty of great feedback for CUDL’s marketing.

WinWin Video Production – CUDL Testimonial by Shawnee Mission Ford
 
Their relationship with CUDL provides an “in,” with better access to more credit unions, and the customers they in turn have access to. This is why Shawnee Mission Ford was able to develop so much more business with the Spanish-speaking community in Kansas City, which they wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.

WinWin Video Production – CUDL Testimonial by Regal Auto Group
 
Regal Auto Group of Lakeland praised the simplicity of the CUDL financing platform. They love the way it allows them to build and improve relationships to credit unions, and have access to a wide variety of different lenders. 

WinWin Video Production – CUDL Testimonial by Morrie’s Automotive Group
 
Morrie’s Automotive Group of Minnesota loves the access CUDL gives them, allowing them to develop strategic relationships with local credit unions. The simple interface makes it easy for employees to use, and makes for faster and more efficient transactions. The greater access to credit unions afforded by CUDL has substantially increased their profitability.

Conclusion

These stories serve to highlight some of the key benefits that matter to CUDL’s customers: the simplicity of the system, and the strategic benefits it provides in terms of new business development and growth. So cut through the corporate adspeak and let your customers do the talking. 

Let the people you serve become your most powerful asset, with WinWin Videos.

By Drew Estes

Digital Marketing & Content Strategist for WinWin Videos

When your key product has such a wide range of benefits, marketing can become a challenge. Not that a great product is more difficult to sell, but because a diverse customer base means a diverse range of needs, these segments must often be addressed in different ways. Even if your product would help the customer in question, how are they supposed to figure that out if you’re pitching them on benefits that don’t apply to their needs?

If there’s one company that excels in this area of marketing, it’s Rytec High Performance Doors. But how?

While at first glance, a high-performance door might strike you as a product without much variation, where one door is as good as the next, no matter the industry. With a wide range of quality products, Rytec has proven just how much more a door can be, and have created a specificity in their marketing that addresses the diverse needs of their growing customer base.

Their customers in the auto dealership industry, for instance, recognize the benefits of a door that makes a great first impression and contains a “wow” factor. A responsive automatic door that opens and closes quickly creates the image of professionalism and tech-forwardness that dealerships want to convey. Not to mention that the speed of the door allows cars to move fluidly between areas while keeping employees and customers in a comfortable environment. In this example, Watkins thoughtfully leverages an auto dealership customer to provide testimony of Rytec’s value to prospective dealerships.

Watkins shifts this angle for residential high-rise buildings where residents park their vehicles. Security is their priority. In this market he emphasizes the strength and safety of the doors. Watkins also understands how owners of large buildings have numerous tenants with busy schedules. They’re not happy if they must wait in a line to enter or exit their building. In this example, a customer’s building facility management highlights the safety, security, aesthetic, and speed of Rytec doors.

While these first examples might make Rytec doors seem like a simple commercial-use door company, their market segments extend into industries like restaurants, offering doors that look great, function smoothly, are easy to maintain and provide customers with ample natural light. In this example, Watkins features a hip pizza restaurant customer talking about how Rytec doors enhance their atmosphere.

Take a moment to look at your customers. See how they use your product or service. Ideally, they demonstrate your value proposition in a video your prospects can easily understand and identify with. Media272’s WinWinVideo program provides your customer with three free videos in exchange for your video testimonial. The three free videos quickly convert busy customers into eager participants. These videos are shot on location, through Media272’s national network of videographers.

If you’d like to learn more, please follow this link, or call 800.272.7222 and mention this article.

Sales and marketing change quickly these days. The strategies and tactics that seemed cutting-edge only yesterday seem to have become obsolete overnight. At the core of every successful and resilient strategy though lies a timeless concept: the importance of building trust. Why is trust so important to grow a successful business? How do you build trust with customers? Why are there so often gaps between how you view your trustworthiness, and how you customers do? Read on to find out.

Any salesperson or marketer worth their salt can tell you that earning loyal customers (and more importantly, retaining them) has little to do with the tactic of the day, and everything to do with your ability to create a genuine connection with them as a person. So why is it that North American consumers say they trust only about a fifth of brands? Part of the reason is our tendency to overestimate how trustworthy we appear.

Amanda Slavin, CEO & Founder of CatalystCreativ, defines sales as “a meaningful transaction between two human beings, so before asking for anything, a customer’s trust must be earned. Brands need to build narratives that align with their organization’s values and then communicate those values to their customers.” Values must not only be clearly expressed by your company, but consistently acted upon. 

This leads not only to loyal customers, but people who advocate for your brand. “Look at the passion of Beyoncé fans or Harley Davidson riders — those brands have created an identity that makes people feel like they’ve added value.”

So building trust with your customers not only helps you increase your customer base and retain current customers, but it motivates those customers to send their friends and family your way as well. And don’t just brush this aside: 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision, and 91% of B2B buyers say the same.

Clearly, trust is a powerful aspect of building mutually beneficial relationships with your customers and thus running a successful business. But how do you build it?

Tips for Building Trust

Trust grows in a variety of places, so there’s no one simple formula to build it. However, we can examine the key parts that make up a trusting relationship and work from there.

1. Show Capability and Dependability

The most obvious component of trust in the business world: do clients see you as reliable? Can they depend on you? This comes down to honoring your commitments to the best of your ability, and setting clear expectations for how you operate and what you will deliver. Overpromising may help get the sale now, but it earns you a bad reputation, and people will talk about it.

We can look at this from two angles: existing customers and potential customers.

2. Demonstrate Integrity

• For your current customers, increase trust by doing what you do best: consistently deliver excellent results, while remaining honest and transparent about your business practices.
• For your potential customers, honesty and transparency are still paramount, but you also need to prove the value you offer. This might mean demonstrations of how you do your work, but it could also mean how-to videos for your products, or even how-to videos for anything related to your industry, which will establish you as a trustworthy expert. Finally, testimonials from previous clients go a long way in showing your dependability to future customers. 

A big mistake many salespeople and marketers make is to think “I’m a trustworthy person, so buyers will be able to tell.” This is simply not the case. Remember, most buyers have been ripped off, lied to, or otherwise burned by any number of shady businesses. It’s up to you to demonstrate you have integrity, because buyers won’t assume so.

To do this, you must demonstrate moral principles. This means you should always do the right thing, even in morally ambiguous situations, and even if it means losing the sale. It could mean suggesting alternative solutions that are less profitable for you, or even referring a customer to a different business better suited to their needs. Buyers trust sellers who have their best interests in mind, and they won’t forget your integrity.

A great recent example of this is Patagonia, a company whose brand is strongly aligned with the environment. Due to recent corporate tax cuts (which they publicly opposed), the clothing company was about to save $10 million, but CEO Rose Marcario said the company won’t be keeping the money. Instead, they pledged the entire sum to an assortment of nonprofit environmental groups “committed to protecting air, land, and water, and finding solutions to the climate crisis.” This move demonstrates a commitment to their values even in the face of lost profits, and it has already earned the company a great deal of good will across the nation.

3. Be Human

What Patagonia did may have ruffled some feathers for those who disagree with what many consider to be a political move, but their decision also won them much deeper trust from the many people who agree with it. If you’ve been indoctrinated into the worlds of sales or marketing, you can easily forget that people don’t like to be sold to – they prefer to feel understood and connected with. Business people are often pressured to fit into the most non-threatening, agreeable mold possible, in order to avoid getting into trouble. We’re told not to talk about politics, or anything personal, and to keep things small and surface level. 

Now we’re not saying this doesn’t carry a certain level of risk, but if you want to connect to people on a personal level and build trust, this is often what it takes. Building trust means establishing an emotional connection both in person and in the content you publish. Once your client feels comfortable enough to express what drives them, you can help them figure out the best solution for their needs. Be willing to help, even when that help doesn’t immediately benefit you. This way people will be much more willing to listen to your advice in other areas.

Conclusion

Trust is the key component to building and maintaining a customer base, as well as maintaining a positive reputation in your industry. To build trust, you need to show your clients, current and future, that you are dependable and capable. Demonstrate integrity by placing the customer’s needs above getting the sale. And finally, show your human side: don’t be afraid to let down your professional shell so you can connect with customers on a personal level. Ultimately, if you seek to build and maintain trust first and foremost, 

As many of our readers know, Media272 specializes in producing high quality videos for marketing nationwide. From testimonials to business overviews, our experience shows us these videos work to build trust with buyers, whether on the consumer side or B2B. If you’d like to learn more, please follow this link, or call 800.272.7222 and mention this blog post.

– Drew Estes, December 2018 – 

Other popular posts by Media272 content strategist Drew Estes:

• - The B2B Marketing Channel Your Competitors Aren’t Using 
•  
•  
• - Expert Tips to Improve SEO with Video 
•  
• - How to Use Targeted Advertising for your Video on Facebook 
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• - 5 Video Marketing Tips to Attract More Customers Than Ever

As a marketer or decision maker in your company, you’d love to find a lucky break. Something your competitors aren’t taking advantage of. So what if there were a platform hiding in plain sight, broadly overlooked within your industry? Here’s the thing: there is.

To examine this situation, let’s meet Jeff. Jeff is a B2B marketer at Hypothetical Business Corporation of America (HBCA). Like nearly two out of three marketers these days, he spends a significant amount of time on social media each week – over six hours, to be precise. Countless ads appear in front of him during this time, and he understands that targeted ads from social media sites like Facebook can bring in many new customers. However, as a B2B marketer, he’s hesitant to invest there. LinkedIn and email seem like better bets for connecting with other businesses.

This makes sense: LinkedIn is a great place to engage with other businesses and like-minded professionals, in theory. But how many people are logging onto it multiple times a day just to browse? What Jeff doesn’t consider at first is that he’s not the only marketer using Facebook. As he looks at his newsfeed though, he realizes another business could just as easily advertise to him there. So with some research, he’s surprised to learn business decision makers each day spend 74% more time on Facebook than other people on the platform. That is to say, they’re using Facebook more often than end-consumers, and yet most the marketing community believes otherwise.

As he continues his research, Jeff learns how Facebook has become the preferred social channel for B2B decision makers. In fact, 1 in 4 B2B executives in a study cited Facebook as their preferred social media platform when seeking information on a purchasing decision, ranking it ahead of LinkedIn and Twitter. Facebook seems like the way to go, yet somehow almost a third of marketers do not plan to use Facebook in their own B2B marketing.

Jeff concludes that his ads on Facebook would have less competition and would perform better than those on his normal marketing channels.

Jeff knows he can’t ignore information like this, so he gets to work. As a savvy marketer, he knows video ads perform better than images or text online and are thus more likely to catch the attention of an executive scrolling down his or her newsfeed. He compares the costs to his other marketing efforts, and realizes he can put video ads on Facebook for a fraction of the price per thousand impressions, compared to other methods:

According to Lyfe Marketing, the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) on social media can be as low as $2.50.

Jeff finds a company to produce videos for him at a competitive rate, and hires them to produce a range of marketing videos to use on Facebook. He also realizes there are other places he can use the videos and get more for his money, and decides to leverage this content as much as possible. Between his social media advertising and clever placement of video content across other digital platforms, his slow trickle of new clients increases to a steady flow, and all for a fraction of what he might have paid elsewhere.

Conclusion

For B2B companies, Facebook doesn’t seem like a place to find customers, and while you’re not alone in this type of thinking, it turns out this is a huge misconception. Firstly, social media can help improve your search engine rankings, which means more qualified customers will stumble onto your site while on Googling business solutions. (Read our article on SEO for more information about improving your ranking in search results). Further, business decision makers spend more time on Facebook than most end-consumers and often use it to research a business, meaning your marketing dollars can go a lot further than you or your competitors think. To learn more about how to advertise your business on Facebook, check out this articleon targeted Facebook ads.

If you’re like Jeff, you want a variety of branded videos, but you want professional quality shooting and editing from a company that won’t break the bank. So when you find a national video production company like Media272 that offers just that, you can solve your marketing problems right then and there.

Jumpstart your marketing today, with Media272.

– Drew Estes, November 2018 –

Marketing your business these days may seem less straightforward than the TV ads of the past, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be easy. In fact, with the right mix of video content you can attract customers more effectively and more economically than ever before. Read on to learn the best ways to use video content in your marketing.

1. Ads on Social Media

As we covered in a recent article on Facebook advertising, social ads can be an powerful way to utilize your videos. Now, if you are a B2B company you may be thinking “should we really be on Facebook? It seems like a poor use of time and money.” For B2B companies, Facebook doesn’t seem like a place to find customers, and while you’re not alone in this type of thinking, it turns out this is a huge misconception:

• + The median amount of time spent on Facebook by business decision makers each day is 74% higher than other people on the platform.
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• + Business decision makers also engage with a wider variety of Facebook content. 40% of the users surveyed said that they use it to message their co-workers. This means that B2B marketers have an opportunity to reach decision makers throughout the day.
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• + Marketers have found that Facebook has become the preferred social channel for B2B decision makers: 1 in 4 respondents in the study cited Facebook as their preferred social media platform when seeking information on a purchasing decision, ranking it ahead of LinkedIn and Twitter.
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Regardless of whether your target customers are businesses or end-consumers, people use Facebook for a multitude of reasons. They list “researching new products to buy” as one of the top ten reasons they use Facebook, so it’s not something to ignore. With targeted advertising online, you can maximize your marketing effectiveness by putting your content in front of the people most likely to respond to it.

Whether you choose to promote your business with video testimonials, showcase your unique value through explainers and how-tos, or put a spotlight on your best employees with digital business cards, videos are a great way to capture attention in your online ads, and do so much more effectively than mere photos or text.

2. Emails (for both marketing and sales)

One reason videos make such effective marketing tools, aside from their increased conversion rates (achieving 6x more conversions, according to Vidyard), is their flexibility. Sure, we all know the “videos as ads” concept, but have you ever used videos in your emails? This strategy works wonders in both large scale email marketing campaigns and for smaller-scale targeted sales emails, and has been shown to increase clickthrough rates by 200-300%, according to Hubspot.

For marketing campaigns this might mean some introductory videos about your business, or samples of upcoming products and deals. For sales emails, you can use a more careful selection of videos tailored to the customer as well, depending on where you are in the sales process.

3. How-To Videos on Your Website

If you want to make it easier for a potential customer to understand and visualize using your product, a how-to or how-it-works video is the right move, with as many as 1 in 3 consumers purchasing a product directly as a result of a how-to video in some markets. You can attach these to your product listings on your website, or anywhere else you sell the product. You can also put them in your emails and social ads, as mentioned above.

How-it-works videos like this are especially helpful if you have a product or service that isn’t immediately intuitive for everyone.

4. Event Promotion

The web is a great place for video, but don’t limit yourself to online promotion with your videos. Whether at trade shows or on the premises of your business, videos help capture attention and promote your product. Make your booth stand out and catch the eye of passerby without cheesy gimmicks or “salesy” approaches.

Videos at trade shows can also do the job of introducing your product in a clear and concise manner, so you don’t need to give the same explanation all day, allowing interested customers to make better use of their time (and yours) by asking you key follow-up questions instead of the same introductory questions each time. And don’t limit yourself to a certain type of video: these could be how-to videos, testimonials, or any number of styles to meet your goals and convey your value as a business.

Videos make great displays at trade shows

5. Landing Pages

Last but definitely not least, we have one of the most underrated used of video: landing pages. A video on your landing page can increase conversions by 86%, and increase SEO as visitors spend more time on your page, which will in turn drive more organic, qualified traffic to your website. A video on your landing page can make your site appear more professional, and gives customers a quick idea of what you’re all about. Additionally, using a testimonial video by clientsor customers on your landing page gives your business quick social proof, demonstrating that your customers can count on you.

Conclusion

You want to stand out. You want stellar SEO. You want conversions. In summary, you want customers. But without video in your marketing mix, you’re shooting yourself in the proverbial foot. So take your videos and put them in your social media ads, emails, about sections, trade show booths, and landings pages. Don’t have videos yet? You’re in luck: follow this link for professional videos at competitive rates.

– Drew Estes, October 2018 –

Other popular posts by Media272 content strategist Drew Estes:

• - Expert Tips to Improve SEO with Video
•  
• - How to Use Targeted Advertising for your Video on Facebook
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• - 5 Video Marketing Tips to Attract More Customers Than Ever
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• - How To Keep Customers Away from Your Business

How is the shared economy is making video testimonials more accessible?

You may already be familiar with the idea of the “shared economy,” or “sharing economy.” Odds are, you’ve participated in it. Airbnb, Lyft, Uber, TaskRabbit, or SideCar, to name a few, have succeeded in similar business strategies, where people can offer their homes, cars, time, or space to those who want affordable rates and better choices. These companies offer competitive prices and more customized services due to their strategy. So how can you make this work for your company?

Let’s say you want to hire professional videographers to record a testimonial from the client about their experience with you. A request like this can often come across as unprofessional, so you want to do it right. Paying them for one seems a bit tacky as well, and by the way, is it even legal?

Picture this instead: You finish some work for a client of yours. You did a great job, they’re happy. You send a crew of professional videographers to your client’s business. These videographers film high-quality testimonials for you and capture what your client thinks about your business. While there, the videographers also film a multi-video set of marketing materials for the client, free of charge.

With a video production service like Win-Win Videos, this benefits everyone: you receive video testimonial to use for your marketing, as well as stronger relationships with your client for providing them with this service. Your client receives complimentary marketing materials in exchange for their time, and Media272 demonstrates for the client just how useful Win-Win Videos can be, which often earns us another satisfied customer.

Common Questions

While this video marketing arrangement works wonders and benefits everyone involved, it may sound complicated at first, and you probably have questions. Read on for answers to some common questions.

1. Why Bother with this “Shared Economy” Angle?

The Shared Economy strategy proves itself most valuable in its efficiency. Its key advantage lies in eliminating excess costs and wasteful practices: by capturing video for both you and your fellow business simultaneously, Win-Win Videos effectively cuts travel and labor costs, which in turn saves you money. 

2. How Can Testimonials Benefit My Business?

You can leverage testimonials as a powerful and persuasive marketing tool: rather than trust traditional advertisements, people would much rather listen to what other customers have to say. Customers who trust your business are much more likely to buy from you, and building customer trust is one of the major strengths of testimonials. While text-based testimonials can help with this, video offers a much more personal way for people to hear about a company from a “real” person, as opposed to text on a page.

3. When is the Best Time to Ask for Client Testimonials?

Right after you’ve finished work for them, when they are happy with the results and the memory is fresh in their mind. People will remember more small details during these periods, which make for much more compelling testimonials. Plus, the genuine enthusiasm will show through!

Happy customers make for great testimonials

4. How Should I use Video Testimonials in My Company’s Marketing?

The great part about video testimonials is their versatility: you can use them almost anywhere. Use them in your emails, on your website, on your social media platforms, at trade shows — the list goes on! For more info, learn how to leverage your videos more effectively, or if you have plan to advertise directly with them, check out how to use Facebook targeted ads to promote your business with video!

Whether showcasing your best customers and clients through testimonials, or walking a customer through your services and products, Media272 works with you to create all the video marketing materials you need.

Follow this link to get started.

– Drew Estes, October 2018 – 

Other popular posts by Media272 content strategist Drew Estes:

• - Expert Tips to Improve SEO with Video

• - How To Keep Customers Away from Your Business

• - 4 Strategic Insights from the Evolution of Advertising

Let’s say you’ve worked with Media272 and produced some great video content, and now you want to use the content to promote your business online. You’ve heard Facebook offers a powerful advertising platform that helps you find the best potential customers in a fast and cost-efficient manner. But where do you begin?

This article explains how to create a video ad campaign on Facebook. If you don’t have video content yet, worry not! You can find the next step for video solutions at the end of the article.

1. Go to the Ad Creation page.

Facebook has streamlined this process to make it easy for beginners to start here. The first important question ask yourself is: what is your goal with this ad? Obviously, you’d like more sales overall, but you need to consider what your current video will be most effective for. There are around a dozen options to choose from, so we’ll keep it simple for this example and go with Video Views (this will deliver your ads to the right people and help you get the most video views at the lowest cost).

Before you click continue, there are two options to toggle below:

(Option 1) A/B testing will show two or more versions of your ad to similar but distinct audiences to test their effectiveness and help guide your strategy for future ads. This tool can provide useful insights to increase conversions, with the downside that your potential reach for a given ad variation is divided by the number of ad variations you test. The larger your targeted audience, the better idea this will be.

(Option 2) If you aren’t using A/B testing, you may want to use budget optimization. If you have two ad sets and one doesn’t perform well (i.e. doesn’t use the entire allocated budget due to lack of opportunities), the budget provides extra exposure to your better-performing ads.

2. Choose your Audience, Placement, Budget and Schedule. 

Audience – The audience selection is a powerful feature for advertising on Facebook. Here are the traits you can adjust, as listed on their site:

- Locations. Target ads to people based on locations (ex: country, state, province, city, congressional district, zip or post code). Most objectives let you target worldwide (type in “worldwide”), by region (ex: “Europe”), by free trade area (ex: “NAFTA”, the North American Free Trade Agreement) or by app store availability (ex: “iTunes app store countries”).

- Age. Target ads to people within an age range.

- Gender. Target ads to women, men or people of all genders.

- Languages. Target ads to users of certain languages. This is generally useful if you want to capture audience members who speak a language other than the most common language of your target area.

- Detailed Targeting. Include or exclude people from an audience based on demographics, interests and/or behaviors. This is an incredibly useful feature, as you can make very specific choices. For instance, if you sell cars, you can select “new car buyer,” or “used car buyer” to target someone currently in the market. Or, if you’re in B2B sales or marketing, you can target corporate executives. Targeting based on behavior is much more effective than targeting based on demographics like Age or Gender.

- Connections. Include or exclude people from your audience based on connections to your Pages, apps or events. This helps capture a tighter niche, often people who are more qualified leads.

- Custom Audiences. Custom Audiences are target audiences of people you already know created from information you provide or from information generated on Facebook’s products. You can create Custom Audiences from customer files, the Facebook pixel, the Facebook SDK and engagement on Facebook.

- A subset of Custom Audiences is Lookalike Audiences. A Lookalike Audience is a target audience you create from a “source.” It finds other people on Facebook who are the most similar to the people in the source. If your best customers have common interests and behaviors, Facebook targets a new set of potential customers who share these, as they are more likely to purchase your products. 

Placements – The default selection here will be Automatic Placements, which will show your video ads across multiple networks (Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network.) Generally, Facebook algorithms are advanced enough that they will do a better job at this than a person will, so it’s probably best to leave this as-is. 

Budget & Schedule – Select between a Daily Budget or a Lifetime Budget. These are fairly straightforward, with the difference that the second option will make larger adjustments each day, depending on which days make the most effective use of your overall budget. The Schedule option lets you set the start and end dates for the ad, so you won’t need to worry about forgetting to end it.

3. Uploading, Finishing, Publishing 

In the next section, upload your video and format your ad. A Slideshow is pretty self-explanatory, just a looping video ad with up to 10 images. For this we will choose Single Video. If you’d like, select Full Screen Experience below to create a more immersive ad experience when customers interact with the ad.

Click Upload Video to upload the video or videos you want to use in your ad. If you want to use a video you’ve already uploaded, click Browse Library to select it from your library. Select the aspect ratio settings of your choice (Facebook offers helpful recommendations for the best types of ads along the side). 

Set your thumbnail, and make sure it’s a clear image that makes users want to click! A good thumbnail can drastically improve your ad effectiveness. If you aren’t sure which to use, this could be something you experiment with through A/B testing, as mentioned above. Moving forward you would then have a better idea of which thumbnails appeal most to your customer base.

Be sure to add a compelling headline and an interesting description. Add the URL you want to promote, such as your website. Select an appropriate call to action message that matches your goal, such as subscriptions to your mailing list or visitors to your site. Tweak the rest of the setting here to your liking, depending on what works best for your particular ad.

When you’re done, Review Order, check your settings, and publish it!

And now, patience!

Don’t expect a flood of customers right away. While this can happen, it can often take some time for Facebook’s algorithms to test which audiences your ad works best with, and gradually optimize for better results.

One way to increase your ad’s odds of success is to use professional quality videos. Customers respond to quality, as it shows you to be reliable and trustworthy. If you need quality videos before you get started, contact Media272 and see for yourself what we can do for your marketing. 

Whether showcasing your best customers and clients through testimonials, or walking a customer through your services and products, Media272 works with you to create all the video marketing materials you need.

Follow this link to learn more and get started.

– Drew Estes, August 2018 –

Read other popular posts by Media272 content strategist Drew Estes:

- Expert Tips to Improve SEO with Video

- Is it Legal to Use Paid or Fake Testimonial Videos?

- 5 Video Marketing Tips to Attract More Customers Than Ever

- How To Keep Customers Away from Your Business