The proven and successful inbound marketing strategy is a great way to generate high quality leads.

Therefore inbound marketing is known as the “riskless” marketing strategy because of the activities done which are long lasting and bring an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.

Why is this inbound marketing such a great way to generate leads?

Inbound marketing offers you a strategic and smart approach to be and to stay several steps ahead of your competition.

Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer.

With inbound marketing businesses “earn” their way to the customer and his loyalty, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.

Inbound marketing includes: Content creation like blogging, video, photo, whitepapers, eBooks, podcasts, press releases, comments in social media and other blogs and forums, Social media two way communication, lead generation, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

How can Inbound Marketing help you?

A. It saves you up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes you stand out of your competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of leads
D. Gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increases your customers and sales

Infographic: Inbound Marketing Rising

TOP 42 Reasons to Jumstart your Inbound Marketing NOW!

2. Marketers dedicate 34% of their department budgets to inbound tactics, but only 11% to outbound.

3. 48% of marketers will increase spend on inbound marketing in 2013.

4. 34% of all leads generated in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources.

5. Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound leads.

6. 17% of marketers say traditional advertising and direct mail are less important than they were 6 months ago.

7. Traditional advertising and PPC deliver the least leads of any form of marketing.

8. Only 6% of marketing leads originate from advertising or PPC campaigns.

9. 34% of businesses cannot or don’t calculate overall inbound ROI in 2013.

10. Adopting a marketing/sales agreement saves companies with more than 200 employees $195.84 per new customer.

11. Only 24% of companies have a formal process for marketing/sales handoffs.

12. Companies who test are 75% more likely to show ROI for inbound marketing.

13. Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate, from 6% to 12% total.

14. The average website conversion rate is 10%.

15. 81% of companies integrate inbound marketing with larger marketing goals.

16. Marketers spend 55% more of their time than their money on blogging.

17. 82% of marketers who blog on a daily basis have acquired a customer through blog content.

18. 57% of marketers who only blog once a month have acquired a customer through blogging.

19. Inbound marketers plan to hire an average of 9.3 people this year.

20. Only 18% of marketers are purely focused on developing quality content in 2013.

21. 25% of marketers cite reaching the right audience as their top priority for 2013.

22. Only 5% of marketers have no integration between inbound marketing and overall marketing goals.

23. 50% of marketers consider their companies primarily customer-focused.

24. 17% of sales teams and 11% of executives fully support inbound marketing efforts.

25. 73% of marketing agencies are implementing inbound strategies.

26. Only 41% of nonprofits report adopting inbound tactics for 2013.

27. Just 21% of enterprises assimilate inbound marketing with their overall marketing strategy.

28. 47% of CEOs and CMOs ignore formal marketing/sales agreement development.

29. Marketing is 125% more likely than sales to provide inbound resources.

30. Increasing total lead volume is the top priority for 21% of marketers.

31. Customers average a total of 9,100 leads after 1.5 years of inbound marketing.

32. 67% of marketers produced a blog last year.

33. Only 20% of marketers without a blog reported a positive ROI for 2012.

34. 27% of marketers report that both social media and email marketing produce the lowest total average lead costs.

35. 15% of marketers say SEO leads have the highest sales conversions.

36. Social media delivers 14% of all leads and 13% of all customers.

37. 52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook.

38. 43% of marketers have found a customer on LinkedIn.

39. 36% of marketers have found a customer on Twitter.

40. 41% of marketers have adjusted their budget due to the success of inbound marketing.

41. 41% of CEOs report inbound delivered measurable ROI.

42. Marketers with more than 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 leads per month.

Source: HubSpot 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Annual Report. FREE Executive Report on Inbound Tactics and Strategy – Insight from 3,339 Marketers

When creating content, it pays to think big. Publishing online gives us access to a readership that’s almost too large to imagine.

While a global readership might seem like something most of us dream of, with a little know-how it’s something that you too can achieve.

Decide Who You Are Talking To

When you write for the web, you aren’t just pushing out content at random. You are engaging with others, convincing them to buy into your idea or product. With this in mind, it helps to know who you are trying to reach and which parts of the world you want to expand to.

For example, your ideal reader could be a female entrepreneur, or you might want to address a young music lover. Going global makes your pool of readers much larger, so your female entrepreneurs might include women in Brazil, and your music loving youth could be reading in East Asia.

Keeping a tight focus on your target demographic as you go global will let you reach more of the kind of people that interest you. It also helps your budget go further. Are you looking to connect with female entrepreneurs in South America but less so with similar women in China? Then make your content culturally and linguistically suited to the South American readers, instead of spending time and money trying to reach everyone.

Embrace the Multilingual Web

Forget the idea that everyone online speaks English. Although English is often used in the corporate world as a linguistic go-between, internet users are a far more diverse crowd. The web is also more informal and driven by social connections.

Even people in countries who have strong English skills as a second language will prefer to engage with others in their native tongue. In fact, a 2011 survey by the European Commission found that although 48% of non-English speaking Europeans occasionally read English-language content, 9 out of 10 users preferred to visit sites in their own language.

This makes translation of your content a priority. Make good use of your budget by first figuring out which languages need to be top of your list. In our South American example, Spanish and Portuguese would be essential for getting your message across. If Europe is your key market, you’re likely to find German or French better languages to start with.

Take Languages Seriously

If you don’t get serious about translation, your foreign-language readers won’t get serious about your content. They will be too busy laughing at your language slips, if they stick around at all.

We all know of corporate giants who managed to offend or became a laughing stock thanks to poorly-translated slogans. The rest of us needn’t think we will do any better. Unless you are genuinely bilingual and up to date with current usage, you will miss hidden meanings. It’s also easy to opt for what seems the right word choice, when in fact it means something entirely different (for example, in German the word Gift means poison).

Native speaker knowledge will make sure you don’t sound out of touch or leave readers confused. Accurate linguistic choices will also help your SEO by keeping your keywords relevant. Cutting corners here, on the other hand, could leave search engines as confused as your foreign-language readers.

Understand Cultural Differences

The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that while people worldwide are becoming less trusting of what they read, ‘a person like yourself’ has become the most trusted source of information. Your job is to be that trusted person to your reader, no matter where in the world he or she is.

Localization is an essential part of becoming ‘one of us’ in another culture. Using words and expressions that local people use makes your content more accessible. Being in touch with important cultural events or hot topics can be useful too. Of course, offending people is never a good idea and cultural knowledge also can guide us around dangerous topics or inappropriate language.

Show You Care

Now that you’ve opened up your content to overseas readers, make them feel welcome. Avoid anything that places your English speaking crowd above foreign-language speakers. For example, aim to respond to all comments, not just those in English. If you offer a way for people to contact you, make sure it doesn’t exclude certain time zones or languages. Showing you care about all your readers helps you to build a good online reputation.

Write with other cultures and languages in mind and you’ll be saying Wilkommen, bienvenido and yōkoso to international readers in no time!

About the author:

Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, Inc., one of the world’s fastest growing translation services. Launched in 2001, Lingo24, Inc. now has over 180 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 60 million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Lingo24, Inc. on Twitter: @Lingo24.

In today’s world, we face constant demands for our attention — from social media to news alerts and loyalty programs. Wang asserts that companies must find ways to cut through this clutter if they want to compete in the future. To do this, they need to create a true engagement strategy based on authentic, natural and trustworthy interactions.

A lot of organizations think they know what this means: sending a coupon on a customer’s birthday, or liking a post about you on Facebook. But most don’t look at the big picture, or they just end up coming off as “creepy” in their engagements.

Instead, he suggests following the “9 C’s of Engagement” when building your interaction strategy. These fall into one of three categories:

• People Centric Values: Culture, Community, Credibility
• Delivery and Communication Styles: Channel, Content and Cadence
• Right Time Drivers: Context, Catalyst and Currencies

In this video, Wang describes how companies can use these three pillars to build an effective engagement strategy.

About the author:

Ashley Verrill is a Market Analyst for research firm Software Advice. Her professional experience spans journalism, sales, advertising and SEO marketing. She’s a seasoned writer having produced copy for business journals, a sports magazine, daily deals advertising and industry blogs. She can be contacted at ashleyverrill[@]softwareadvice.com, or by calling 512-582-2314. LinkedIn – Twitter – Google +

I rallied some of the biggest names in staffing to help me come up with roles they see in emerging in the future support organization. Experts from Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, SimplyHired and other staffing sites chimed into the conversation. The biggest change affecting these roles they see involves the shift in how customers contact a company. Forrester released a report earlier this showing customers increasing usage of communities by as much as 25 percent, live chat by 24 percent and self-service by 12 percent. Additionally, customers are increasing their use of social customer service and mobile, which will require new talent and technologies.

So without further adieu, here’s five roles we see becoming part of the customer service team of the future:

Self-Service Content Strategist

The individual in this role would continually mine for popular topics in call center notes, as well as review Web analytics data to assess which articles in the self-service community garner the most traffic. At the same time, they would also moderate content created by the customer community and facilitate the sharing of this user-generated material. Their goals would be two-fold:

• Deflect tickets from the call center by encouraging more customers to resolve problems on their own with self-service options; and,
• Drive customer retention and return purchases by creating a loyal community of brand advocates.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) Developer

The person in this role would help ensure the right answer is found no matter how or where the question is asked–whether it’s typed in a search box on a webpage, in a chat session, or spoken to an interactive voice response (IVR) system. This requires sophisticated algorithms that can process natural language to find the answer.

While most companies will deploy off-the-shelf or open-source NLP technology, the NLP Developer will need to make substantial configurations to apply it to their company’s specific use cases and content. I see this role as important for making the most of your content. All the effort creating it is meaningless if the customer can’t find it–fast.

Social Service Success Coordinator

The Social Service Coordinator would ensure social customer service efficiency, while keeping an eye out for opportunities to market support interactions. In order to respond effectively, companies have to use social listening technology. This person would work to refine keyword identifiers that tell these systems what signals a customer service message.

If the contact center suddenly gets an influx of calls about a particular product, for example, the coordinator would want to start listening for combinations of that word and “help,” “broken,” “angry” and so on. If a Twitter user responded with a glowing “thank you, I will tell my friends!” that person might handoff the interaction to marketing for promotional uses.

Mobile Customer Service App Manager

The Mobile Customer Service App Manager would act much like a product manager exclusively for the customer service mobile application. They would work with internal or external developers to optimize the user experience for all of the company’s customers.

If analytics showed one feature is used more than another, for example, they might try featuring it more prominently on the app home screen. Or maybe they’d work with the NLP Developer to refine speech recognition for that function. Optimizing content in this way can increase customer satisfaction as much as 60 percent, one report showed.

Virtual Call Center Director

The individual in this role would oversee the virtual call center — a network of customer service agents that work off-site (typically from home). This person would decide when and how to interact with these individuals, monitor their performance, and adjust the size of the team as needed. During peak communication cycles, for example, the Virtual CSR Manager might increase the number of agents on duty.

The Virtual Call Center Director would also consistently comb through key performance metrics to identify weak spots. If they noticed one remote agent lagging behind their cohorts, they could start monitoring calls and provide additional training.

These are just a few of the potential job titles our experts see emerging in the future. What changes do you see? What’s missing from this list? Join the conversation by commenting here.

About the author:

Ashley Verrill is a Market Analyst for research firm Software Advice. Her professional experience spans journalism, sales, advertising and SEO marketing. She’s a seasoned writer having produced copy for business journals, a sports magazine, daily deals advertising and industry blogs. She can be contacted at ashleyverrill[@]softwareadvice.com, or by calling 512-582-2314. LinkedIn – Twitter – Google +

It’s also one that needs some careful planning to get the best return on your investment. Foreign markets involve not only different languages but different cultures. That sure-fire strategy for your home market won’t always win customers overseas. In fact, in this world of social media, getting it wrong can be a business disaster.

Let’s take a look at some things you can do to make your international launch a success – and what went wrong when others failed to pay them enough attention.

Look Before You Leap

There’s no such thing as too much research for an overseas marketing campaign. Your target demographic in a foreign market might appear similar to your home one, but could have very different buying habits. For example, in Russia 65% of consumer electronics were bought at a physical store, according to a 2012 Accenture study. Japan and China showed a similar preference. On the other hand, in Germany only 36% were purchased in this way.

The more research you can do into the habits and mindset of consumers in a particular country, the better informed you will be. On the other hand, even the best ideas can fall flat if the marketing campaign doesn’t appeal to your potential clients or customers. British supermarket giant Tesco discovered this when launching as ‘Fresh & Easy’ in the US. The supermarket spared no expense on a social media campaign, but failed to take into account the importance of TV, radio and print advertising. From the design of its stores, to its self-pay checkouts, the stores failed to meet American shoppers’ expectations.

Language Matters

Tesco’s example shows the difficulties that exist even with markets that share a common language. Bring a foreign language into the equation and overseas marketing can turn into a minefield.

The more care you give to the translation of your campaign, the better your chance of avoiding the dangers. Pay attention not only to translating the actual words but to phrasing them in ways that make sense to native speakers. Professional translators can help you to use appropriate idioms as well as find the right tone. Just as importantly, they can help you to sidestep slang or crude terms that wouldn’t be immediately obvious to an outsider.

Fail to spot these and you can end up with the same problem that Mazda had with the Laputa. The minivan’s name sounds like a term for a prostitute to speakers of Latin languages and had to be renamed in Chile. Clairol also ended up creating the wrong impression when launching its hair curling iron, the Mist Stick, in Germany. Not only does Mist mean manure, but when used with stick sounds like the insult “Miststück” (similar to ‘bitch’ and definitely not the best choice for a women’s product).

Cross the Cultural Divide

Culture is more than religion or festivals, it’s a whole way of living. It can influence everything from product branding to the formality of language used in marketing. The greater the cultural differences between your target country and your home country, the more carefully you will need to adapt your campaign. Those who neglect to do this risk coming across as insensitive or ignorant. It only takes a single cultural faux pas to undo months of good work, destroying trust in your business.

Most of us know that certain animals hold religious taboos, or that some hand gestures change their meaning from one country to another. Other cultural symbolism can be less obvious, such as the associations with certain numbers or colors. Take time to find these out beforehand if you don’t want a marketing disaster on your hands. This is exactly what happened to Pepsi in Southeast Asia when they rebranded their dark blue vending machines. The pale blue they chose was associated in the region with death, with the unfortunate result that their regional sales died too.

A Tourism Australia campaign is a good example illustrating the fine line between what’s culturally acceptable and what isn’t. Its tagline, ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ combined with beer references hit the wrong note in several countries. The down-to-earth Australian hospitality they thought they were offering to overseas tourists came over as boorish and hard drinking.

There’s simply no substitute for local knowledge when launching in a foreign market. Even though some of the biggest companies have found this out the hard way, you don’t have to follow in their footsteps. Instead, arm yourself with the benefit of research and insider knowledge and you’ll be well-prepared to win friends and customers worldwide.

About the author:

Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, Inc., one of the world’s fastest growing translation services. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 180 employees spanning four continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 60 million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Christian on Twitter: @l24ca. Cont@ct Christian here.

Did you asked yourself what future customers will find when they research your industry for products and services you also have to offer, will they find you or your competitor?

Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.

Content and social media have become successful ways to get attention from future buyers.

On the web you are what you publish… What are you?

–David Meerman Scott

Original content builds you trust, customer loyalty and can position your business as trusted experts in your field.

Content marketing has established as a powerful way to engage customers. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers to their products and services.

There is no question content is king! And Remarkable and helpful content brings customers and business direct to your front door the smart and cost effective way, this is for sure!

New studies show that companies utilizing the content marketing strategy in a serious manor report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue!

Infographic: A Brief History of Content Marketing

Moreover remarkable and helpful content is also a great way to build trust and customer loyalty. It offers the so called value ad for customers.

An open minded communication culture and authenticity mixed with credibility beats any old school – yesteryear nonsense marketing and saves your business a truckload of marketing cash!

The great success of content marketing is the result of giving away valuable information – remarkable content for free to attract the RIGHT people to your business like a magnet in an ongoing and steady growing stream.

Content marketing works 100% for any industry and business!

Content marketing can also work for you to attract new customers to your business like a magnet is you are willing to do it right!

The best way to start content marketing for business is to start a corporate blog.

But how and where to get the ideas to write remarkable blog articles who drive visitors to your business?

Here are five ways you should use to get blog content ideas:

1. Set up Google Alerts with your industry keywords
2. Search Blog Directories for your industries topics
3. Subscribe to other industry related blogs and on articles there
4. Go through your customers email communication, especially service, product and support questions
5. Participate in industry related social media groups and forums

These five points will bring you a ton of content ides to write helpful articles for your recent and future customers.

And yes, this is additional work but it is worth every minute you invest in your content marketing.

By taking this challenge you can expect these advantages for your business:

- Blogging companies get up to 55% more Traffic
- Blogging companies get up to 97% more Inbound Links
- Blogging companies get up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines
- Blogging companies get up to 25x times more business leads

…and more LEADS mean more revenue! It’s up on you.

WRONG!

Increasingly prospects shift from traditional to the digital media.

They research about products and services on search engines, forums, and blogs and in social media to get the best products and services for their money!

To get found online when future prospects are looking for products is one of the major challenges businesses are facing today.

Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.

Trust is a major factor when it comes to get new customers acquired.

Companies need to understand that they need be there before they ask for a sale. They need to establish themselves as an authority and trusted source in their industry.

Social media platforms are today serving as a great inbound marketing tool for building credibility, brand awareness as well as community of people with same interests. These people than become aware of the businesses products and services and can become paying customers.

The most popular channel to share content is social media, the advantages of platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for business and to win customer loyalty are known. About 76% of marketers say they used a social network as the main channel for content distribution.

Successful companies use every possible communication channel to get in touch with their target audience. They are interested in what their recent and future customers are thinking and communicating about them.

In a recent survey conducted, 72% of the marketing consultants have agreed that they are using social media marketing for their businesses online.

This tells the importance of social media marketing tactics and inbound market solutions for businesses online.

A new research of Pew Research Center shows that 69% of adults use social media!

What do you think how are the chances that none of your prospects are included in that majority of adults using social media?

If you still have doubts that your prospects are active in social media feel free to try the advertising targeting platforms of any of those social networks. There you can segment your target audience at no cost. Then you will see by yourself.

Social media is a powerful communication channel to get and to stay in touch with prospects, future and current customers and to build relationships with industry influencers. You can also connect with reporters who are looking for industry experts on upcoming stories like you to interview them. This could improve your credibility and bring you additional free exposure, prospects, leads and customers for your business!

As simple as that!

Infographic: Lead Generation

What do you think about social media for business? Let me know your toughts in the comment section below!

Read also these related articles:

1. Why marketers Increase their Social Media Marketing Budgets?
2. How to Track and Follow Up on Social Brand Mentions
3. 5 Ways How To Gain A Huge Profit From Facebook Sponsored Stories
4. B2B Marketing Social Networks for more Business Leads
5. How to grow your revenue through Social Customer Support

In the past years Pay per click marketing has been a quick and easy solution for businesses to generate leads. But to do paid advertisements is no long-lasting and holistic marketing strategy to depend on!

When you do PPC than you generate leads as long as you pay. When you stop your PPC campaign then you will not generate leads anymore! As simple as that!

Nevertheless PPC are still a great vehicle to get the word out but only when they are incorporated within a smart and holistic marketing strategy.

The proven and successful inbound marketing strategy is a great way to generate high quality leads. Therefore inbound marketing is known as the “riskless” marketing strategy because of the activities done which are long lasting and bring an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.

Why is this inbound marketing such a great way to generate leads?

With inbound marketing businesses earn their way to the customer, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.

Inbound marketing includes Blogging, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.

How can Inbound Marketing help you?

A. It saves you up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes you stand out of your competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of leads
D. Gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increases your customers and sales

Example: The backbone of successful inbound marketing is the content creation strategy. To create outstanding in a corporate blog improves the trust, visibility and traffic to a business online. Published articles once done are literally online forever, are indexed through search engines and can be found from future customers.

The more articles you publish the more „digital outposts“which you build for your business and you get an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.

Businesses brand them self by creating and publishing original content. Businesses that create and publish remarkable content on the web and in social media:

• Establish thought leadership
• Elevate brand visibility and buzz
• Boosts SEO

Blogging has great advantages and here are the most important:

Blogging companies get up to…

1. …55% more Traffic
2. …97% more Inbound Links
3. …434% more indexed pages in search engines
4. …25x times more business leads

A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!

Infographic: The Rise Of Content Marketing

PCC can’t deliver such results!

But you can incorporate Pay per Click Marketing into your Inbound Marketing Strategy.

Some thought how you could use PPC to increase your visibility:

PPC drives you quick results and you can use it to bridge over the time until your content marketing starts to show effect.

To get a better idea of what your audience is looking for before they hit your website and to adjust you’re SEO, you could start a PPC campaign. Look at the initial keyword data in your Google AdWords account and see which keywords have the highest click through rate (CTR). So you get the most popular keywords and custom tailor your content and your next PPC advertising.

You should bid on your own corporate terms, for example your business name or the names of your products. So when a interested person is researching online for your business, products and services the chances are good even if you are not in the top five Google Search result they will find you through your PPC ads.

Especially for local businesses PPC is a great way to get a targeted location based positioning to attract locals to the business front door. Local businesses can do advertising for a very specific location and do bidding on keywords related to this location. So they get laser targeted traffic from people who are maybe living around the corner in the next street.

There is not only Google AdWords where PPC campaigns can be done to reach the buyer persona in a great way.

Businesses can also do PPC ads on Twitter, Facebook and for B2B on LinkedIn.

One more thing to keep in mind when doing paid adverting!

You should direct your traffic to dedicated landing pages to convert those prospects into leads.

Take care to prepare a great offer on your landing page to motivate those prospects to leave their contact to follow up with them later and to get them into the lead nurturing process to convert them to sales.

What exactly are infographics?

Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly.

Infographics can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends and this is what made them a powerful marketing tool for businesses.

Infographics are shared on the web, Twitter and Facebook more often than other content online.

Infographics are easy to understand, to consume and to share. On Twitter, LinkedIn und StumbleUpon Infographics get more retweets than other content.

Marketers love Infographics because they offer an easy and powerful viral marketing tool to spread the word about the company’s products and services.

B2C and B2B also love infographics as they explain sophisticated facts in a very easy understandable way.

 “A picture is worth a thousand words”

The most popular Infographics are about business with about 12.7%, technology with about 10% and social media with about 9%.

As infographics are able to explain sophisticated topics in an easy way they are very popular for technology.

Infographic: The State of Infographics

What are your experiences with infographics? Tell me in the comment box below.

So what sets them apart ?

I would say the key factor in attracting Buyers on the Internet, is in the Marketing Techniques + Strategies they use + implement. Being one step ahead of the pack is key, as well as being up to speed with all that Technology has to offer

In addition, they should also be aware of where things are headed

And where are things headed ? VIDEO + MOBILE – It’s that simple !

Facts :

· Google loves Video !
· Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video over the next 5 years
· Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet
· People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
· Video is the single, most effective form of Communication
· Additional creative marketing platforms are constantly being sought
· ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective

Let’s look at two effective marketing tools the Real Estate market would do well to consider implementing in their marketing mix -

A VIDEO CONFERENCING / WEBINARS :

What is a Video Conference / Webinar ?

1. This online technology is often misunderstood by ‘newbies’ to technology, as it is called by many names – a Video Conference, a Web Conference, an Online Video Meeting or a Webinar – The are all the same thing

2. Simply put, it is an highly effective, browser based, simple to use virtual Video Meeting Room, where, at the click of a button with a link, you are able to host large or small online meetings with people locally or globally, to connect, communicate and collaborate

3. Many have not yet fully embraced the power of this technology, perhaps for fear of losing ‘the personal’ touch or the ‘face to face’ meeting scenario. However, we cannot stop progress and this is where things are headed if you want to see it

The Benefits of using Video Conferencing

1. This technology could be perceived as an adjunct marketing platform, or an additional marketing tool to what is already in place

2. The marketplace has become global and this technology enables purveyors to go global with ease

3. ‘Going green’ is what the world is advocating + what better way to save on time, energy, airfares, hotel accommodation, increase productivity and ultimately save money, than by hosting meetings, trainings, launches etc online

4. Access to Online Video Meetings is now available on most ‘smart phones’, Pads + Iphones, so meetings + negotiations can conveniently be held from a coffee shop, the beach – What a bonus !

5. Some are saying it is the ‘new’ Business Card

General features of Video Conferencing :

1. Showcase, Attract + drive more people to your business
2. Share Powerpoint presentations, Ideas, Videos, Photos, your Desktop
3. Show Websites
4. Review Contracts or Documents in a safe and secure environment
5. Use the White boarding feature, with interactive tools, like drawing + highlighting, to make it simpler for your attendees to collaborate with you

Creative Uses of Video Conferencing

1. Webinar Series
Develop a series of Webinars pertinent to your industry over a number of weeks, with content relevant to your clients or prospects. In this space, you can educate and demonstrate the value of your products or services. Specialist Guest Speakers always add value

2.Announcements, New Mandates or Property Developments
Using this technology as a broadcasting platform, invite your contacts, industry analysts, clients + prospects. Elevate the level of conversation by inviting specialists in your audience to answer questions + provide input

3.Guest Speakers
People perceive you differently when they know where you are coming from – let’s look at one example

o Reducing your carbon footprint

Attract people by hosting a Video Conference, selecting a relevant + current ’green’ subject matter, with the added attraction of a Guest Speaker, who should be a well-known expert or specialist in that particular field. Your Guest Speaker will – in their own right add value + easily attract a large audience – Everyone benefits

Now let us look at the second effective OnLine Marketing Tool

B Vmail – The new Email

Extraordinary results can be achieved using this technology. Video Email can change the world + the way we communicate Vmail by Vmail

1. People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
2. Video is the single, most effective form of communication
3. Additional creative marketing platforms are constantly being sought
4. ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective
5. People spend 8 seconds reading a static text email, but retain 85% of what they see in a Video
6. Static text emails are easy to ignore, and at their best give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business really values
7. People simply don’t have the time today to read screeds of text and barely get past the third line, before deleting, without ever grasping the gist of the message that is trying to be conveyed

So what is a Vmail ?

· It is simple to use, online, browser based technology, which enables you to create your own personal Vmails
· Most technology platforms allow 20 minutes of talktime, which is more than adequate to impart your message
· Additional videos may also be uploaded into the Vmail
· No software downloads are necessary
· VMail opens on the Internet at the click of a button
· Most Vmail purveyors allow full integration with the social networks to share on YouTube, Facebook, etc

Creative uses of Vmail

1. Develop professional VIDEOS on virtual tours of all your mandates + developments – Make this ongoing – It’s powerful
2. Prospects get to see + get a feel of what you have on offer
3. Integrate your various Videos into Vmails + include your virtual tours + send to your select niche markets – This will give you the edge

Why use Video Email ?

VMail –
1. Is the new Email !
2. Is the future + where things are headed
3. Goes hand in hand with Online Video Meetings
4. Is Different, more Powerful, Personal, Effective +Creative
5. Has more Impact + grabs the Customer’s Attention
6. Enables you to literally look into your contact’s eyes + develop a relationship with that person, engaging them on a level that is simply not possible with a static text email
7. Enables voice resonance on a subliminal level
8. Can replace static text emails, which are easy to ignore and, at their best, give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business or craft really values

Vmail USES are endless :
Vmail can be used for – All aspects of Business, Product launches, Company Profiles, Product or Service info, Invitations, Responses, Announcements, Special Occasions

Creating a Vmail is simple+ great fun !
1. Using a Webcam or Video Camera, record your message
2. Incorporate your own marketing Videos or appropriate Video content from YouTube or other
3. Use the Template feature available in most Vmail systems –
o Most Vmail systems will allow you to create your own personal template, using your own art or photos, or
o Choose a template from 100’s of designs available with most systems
4. Most VMail systems will automatically add your contact information
5. You can also add images or hyperlinks to other websites
6. Use a Contact Manager, available in most Vmail systems, to manage all your Contacts –
o Import all your contacts from your phone, email and PC into one spot
o Organize your Contacts alphabetically or in Groups
o Select + send to any number of your contacts using a Contact Manager
7. Use the campaign scheduling feature, if available in your selected system, to send right away, or schedule for a time + date in the future

The future is here – Embrace it !

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR.  She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• SKYPE : heather.de.wit
• Mobile +27824907143
• Website
• EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

Content and social media have become successful ways to get attention from future buyers.

Content creation, marketing and content distribution in social media are proven ways to make interested people aware of your business.

Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.

When people want to buy products and services they turn to the web, to search engines like Google, Yahoo, social media and their friends and relatives to get information and recommendations about products and services.

Original content builds you trust, customer loyalty and can position your business as trusted experts in your field. It offers the so called value ad for customers

Content marketing has established as a powerful way to engage customers. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers to their products and services.

By publishing interesting and remarkable content other blogs, news sites and content curators will link to you which increases your Page Rank and improves your search engine visibility also!

So when you publish expert content on the web you will be recognized as an expert in your field.

On the web you are what you publish… Think a minute what do you publish on the web and in social media? … Exactly! That’s what you are on the web!

If you miss the opportunity which content marketing offers to you, your business will vanish in the dust.

The best way to start content marketing for business is to start a corporate blog.

Recent and future customers can interact this way with your business. You show expertise and offer valuable information to solve your audience’s problems. This gains trust.

Blogging has great advantages and here are the most important:

• 1. Blogging companies get up to 55% more Traffic
• 2. Blogging companies get up to 97% more Inbound Links
• 3. Blogging companies get up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines
• 4. Blogging companies get up to 25x times more business leads

A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!

Most Medical Aid Funds do not support, nor include most of the Wellness industry in their Medical Aid Cover, so these costs need to be born directly by Patients / Clients / Students – Really tough for most in these tough economic climes !

They would do well to seek other marketing tools + platforms to get themselves into the world globally

So what should Practitioners consider in this economic climate ?

1. I believe it is to seek out alternative + additional marketing tools + platforms + really embrace the Internet + Online Technology + all it has to offer !

2. VIDEO + MOBILE is the future, which opens up huge possibilities for Healing Practitioners, to use these tools as an adjunct to their one on one healing sessions, face to face workshops + trainings/healings they facilitate

3. Embracing the future + what is, would be something to consider, to grow their business + go Global with ease ! Millions globally have access to the Internet + many have Mobile smartphones today

4. Many Practitioners in the Healing fraternity industry are still resisting Online technology as an adjunct vehicle, to do their work Online, as HEALERS / TRAINERS / MEDIUMS / DOCTORS, etc – aside from using their therapy rooms, clinics or outside venues

5. The big move into technology, the Internet + Mobile is hugely daunting

6. However, those willing to take the leap would be well advised to start with the energy of Desire

7. They should be open + receptive to change, followed by a Mindset shift + the ability + willingness to embrace the power of it all, a new language, new knowledge, do the work to achieve new learning – to really embrace the Internet + all it has to offer to assist them in marketing their Brand, their Products, Healing Modalities, Psychic Readings + Training modalities, etc

8. Now is the perfect time for folk to solicit the services of Wellness Practitioners, who have much to offer, but at the right price of course !

9. Having said that, Wellness Practioners need to take a long hard look at their marketing etc costs + how best to serve their target audience in the most cost effective way ?

Where are things headed ?

· MOBILE
· VIDEO and
· Marketing on the Internet + Social Media sites

1. Practitioners are assured that, as long as eye to eye contact + voice resonance is achieved, Online meetings / healings / readings / trainings are totally feasible !

2. By moving away from hosting live ‘face to face’ Workshops/Training/Coaching at specific venues + hosting meetings online, Practitioners can, using this technology, save fortunes doing the ‘green thing’, reach a bigger audience, growing their business + consider passing on their savings to their Clients / Patients / Students

3. The ‘GOING GREEN’ here would be to consider integrating a Video Communications suite, into their marketing mix, such as –

· Video Email and
· Video Conferencing/Webinars

Using Video Conferencing / Webinars

· With the advent of web conferencing, coaching/teaching/readings etc can now be done 100% online from the ‘home office’ to easily reach a worldwide audience of potential + existing clients

· Going this route, they save on time, energy, airfares, venues, hotel accommodation – ultimately saving money themselves, which they can pass on to their clients

Using Vmail – the new Email

Practitioners would do well to market using Vmail – Extraordinary results can be achieved using this technology

· People spend 8 seconds reading a static text email, but retain 85% of what they see in a Video
· Static text emails are easy to ignore – and at their best – give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business really values. People simply don’t have the time today to read screeds of text + barely get past the third line, before deleting, without ever grasping the gist of the message that is trying to be conveyed
· Video Email is simple to use, online, browser based technology, which enables you to create your own personal Vmails
· Most technology platforms allow 20 minutes of talk time, which is more than adequate to impart your message
· Additional videos may also be uploaded into the Vmail
· No software downloads are necessary
· Bandwidth is not compromised, as the VMail opens on the Internet, for folk with Internet + Bandwidth challenges
· Most Vmail purveyors allow full integration with your social networks to share on Youtube or Facebook, etc.

This is highly recommended + both Video Conferencing + VMail can be accessed on most Pads, Android + select Smartphones

More tips for Wellness Practitioners –

1. Consider coming into the future + really upping their game in terms of the marketing tools they use to attract, capture + maintain new Clients / Patients / Students etc
2. Have Hope for a successful Career + Business, to enable Thriving + Surviving in this global economy
3. Explore all other positive cost cutting possibilities for themselves + their Business + to pass this on to their Clients / Students etc
4. Get really Specific in their marketing approach
5. Think hard about speaking Generically to everyone, as trying to appeal to everyone doesn’t cut it anymore
6. Be highly Targeted in their marketing to people with problems

Facts to consider :

· Google loves Video !
· Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video over the next 5 years
· Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet
· People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
· Video is the single, most effective form of communication
· Additional creative marketing platforms are constantly being sought
· ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR.  She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• SKYPE : heather.de.wit
• Mobile +27824907143
• Website
• EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

In turn, Job Seekers would do well to present their credentials on the Internet with up to the minute creative marketing tools

Some interesting FACTS :

· Using Video Communications, you are making eye contact + experiencing voice resonance + seeing body language – This is hugely powerful + not possible to achieve in an audio interview

· Using a Video Conferencing suite, erases geographical boundaries + lowers costs. More + more companies are using this technology today, immediately eliminating hard costs

· Companies not utilising this technology right now, will find themselves at a huge competitive disadvantage down the line

· The future is MOBILE + VIDEO – it’s that simple !

Video Conferencing has become a popular choice for Recruiters enabling them to recruit globally with ease

1. RECRUITERS can up their game entirely using a Video Communications suite, such as Video Email + Video Conferencing

1.1 RECRUITERS showcasing in a Video Conference/Webinar :

· Recruiters can easily showcase their Business + Specialities globally reaching a huge + targeted audience in a Video Conference, using Power Point + Videos.

· In the Meeting Room, they could present short videos featuring tours of their company, interviews with executives, open chats with employees + day-in-the-life scenarios of what people in particular positions do all day

· They could also include videos about the local area or videos that have been made by news or other agencies about their company

1.2 RECRUITERS showcasing using Video Email/Vmail :

Recruiters can generate personally or pre-recorded Video Emails/VMaiils on :
· Different facets / specialities of their business
· Separate Vmails on specific Jobs available

All Vmails can easily be integrated into the Social Media

1.3 RECRUITERS recruiting in a Video Meeting Room :

Communicating with + interviewing Job seekers worldwide in a Video Conference meeting room, enables Recruiters to gain a deeper perspective on a candidate in a shorter space of time

1.4 BENEFITS of VIDEO Interviews :

· Greater consistency is allowed in Video interviews by the use of a pre-determined script + format, where all candidates are asked the same set of questions
· Video captures the moment permanently, as videos can be replayed reviewed, compared + rated online
· Recruiters can better remember their candidates having the visual material at hand – especially true when compared with audio interviews
· Video interviews provide a more personal touch
· Time is money. This is always a factor for most Recruiters. Video Conferencing allows a large number of interviews to be carried out in a short space of time + right across the globe

JOB SEEKERS need to be ahead of the pack in their online marketing techniques + Video is highly recommended

2. Some creative ideas integrating VIDEO for JOB SEEKERS :

2.1 CV integration into Video Email/VMail :

2.1.1 Job Seekers would do well to create a Video Email/Vmail of themselves to add impact to their CV’s + credentials. Here again, making eye contact + voice resonance registering on the subliminal + body language is key

2.1.2 Recruiters have a far better insight into the quality + capabilities of their prospective candidates when viewing them on their Vmails, as they can see + hear their them

2.2 Advantages of using VIDEO Interviews

2.2.1 Time is money. Job Seekers can save a fortune using Online Video interviews. There is no need to stress about being late for interviews because of traffic + no need to travel to another city/country, as it all happens online

2.2.2 A job interview can be a lot less stressful if conducted from your own home

2.2.3 Job Seekers can prepare for Video interviews, by recording themselves answering typical interview questions, so they are prepared + confidant on the day

2.2.4 Ideal for Job Seekers already employed, but looking to move elsewhere. They don’t have to take days off, but can be interviewed in the privacy of their own homes after hours

The age of VIDEO is here – Embrace it !

According to Gartner, Inc, the world’s leading information technology research + advisory company, more than 25% of the content that workers view each day, will be dominated by pictures, video or audio by 2013

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR.  She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• SKYPE : heather.de.wit
• Mobile +27824907143
• Website
• EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

Life + Business Coaches

Many companies are tightening their belts + Coaches are a luxury to maintain + engage. Many organizations are in ‘rethink’ mode

I wonder –

· How many Life + Business Coaches are really bringing in the business + putting food on the table in the present economic climate ?
· Are people as likely to solicit the services of a Life or Business Coach at this time ?
· Are Life + Business Coaches an essential service in these economic times ?

Choosing NOT to be a preacher of doom + gloom is a tough act to follow right now –

· We are living in a fragile world
· No one knows what’s around the next corner – war, strikes, killings, violence, business closures, job losses, home foreclosures, a time of uncertainty + fear ?
· What are the answers really – where does one run to in a time of strife, chaos + not knowing ?

I would say this is the perfect time for People + Business to solicit the service of Life + Business Coaches, but at the right price of course !

Having said that, Coaches need to take a long hard look at their marketing etc costs + how best to serve their Clients in the most cost effective way ?

So what are the answers ?

1. ‘GOING GREEN’ – Moving away from hosting live ‘face to face’ Workshops/Training/Coaching at specific venues + hosting meetings online
· With the advent of web conferencing, coaching can now be done 100% online from the ‘home office’ to easily reach a worldwide audience of potential + existing clients
· Going this route, they save on time, energy, airfares, venues, hotel accommodation – ultimately saving money themselves, which they can pass on to their clients

Life + Business Coaches need to –

2. Really up their game in terms of the marketing tools they use to attract, capture + maintain new Clients ?
3. Have Hope for a successful Career + Business, to enable Thriving + Surviving in this global economy
4. Explore all other positive cost cutting possibilities for themselves + their Business + to pass this on to their Clients
5. Get really Specific in their marketing approach
6. Think hard about speaking Generically to everyone, as trying to appeal to everyone doesn’t cut it anymore
7. Be highly Targeted in their marketing to people with problems

So where are things headed ?
· MOBILE + VIDEO + Marketing on the Social networking sites – It’s that simple !

Doing the ‘green thing’ + integrating a Video communications suite, such as Video Email and Video Conferencing/Webinars is highly recommended + can be accessed on most Pads, Android + select Smartphones

Facts :
· Google loves Video !
· Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video over the next 5 years
· Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet
· People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
· Video is the single, most effective form of communication
· Additional creative marketing platforms are constantly being sought
· ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR.  She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• SKYPE : heather.de.wit
• Mobile +27824907143
• Website
• EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

More + more institutions worldwide are realizing + embracing the value of utilizing this technology, which is now becoming more easily accessible as Mobile + access to the Internet continues to grow across the globe.

Timing + the effectiveness of the initial response is crucial in assuring a positive outcome for patients.

Video Conferencing is playing a major role today  :

SAVING LIVES + Money  :

1. Where Specialists are in short supply, they can be tapped into remotely, administering a diagnosis + recommending emergency, life-saving treatment at significant cost savings

2. Emergency Medical Personnel in ambulances with access to the internet in their vehicles, can use this technology while on the road to communicate with specialists/doctors/their destination hospital or other facility, giving them prior warning as to the prognosis + status quo

3. Healthcare institutions can provide patients with access to Global Specialists, enabling an improved level of care + patient outcome, by for example, creating a central monitoring station to link up with all other institutions in their network

4. Rural areas with access to the internet, can also use this technology for diagnostic + other purposes, saving lives + making more efficient use of health care money, where funding is limited

5. Reduce the need to transfer patients + thus retaining revenue for that institution

TRAINING :

It has always been a logistical nightmare to train staff in this industry, as most work different shifts + there exists the crucial need to keep stations staffed at all times. Web Conferencing is proving an ideal solution for staff to receive ongoing training without leaving their posts –

1. Recruiting top Physicians + Specialists. Web Conferencing, has proven to be an important element in recruiting Physicians + Specialists globally

2. Recruiting + Training Nurses. Video conferencing helps address the nursing shortage in many hospitals by enabling them to recruit globally

3. General Staff training in the medical fraternity. New employees can be trained across multiple locations.  In addition, new information can be presented to several locations in a single session

4. Emergency Medical Personnel – can also be trained across multiple locations

5. Reduction of meeting overload.  Conducting regular scheduled management + staff meetings makes it easier for staff to attend, saving time, reducing travel costs + thereby increasing patient care + staff productivity

6. ‘Going Green’   Reducing the amount of travel, cost of accommodation, etc saves time + ultimately money, increasing staff productivity + thereby addresses the associated carbon footprint

FEEDBACK from Doctors/Specialists :

Doctors/Specialists can host live Video feedback sessions, sharing final x-rays + conduct Q + A sessions, so that nurses + paramedics can see the diagnoses + outcomes of the patients under their care + learn lessons for future responses, especially bone fractures, spinal injuries + trauma.

MOBILE :

Most Web Conferences can now also be accessed on Pads, Android + select Smartphones

Infographic: Mobile Cloud

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR.  She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• SKYPE : heather.de.wit
• Mobile +27824907143
• Website
• EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

Research firm Software Advice moderated the event earlier this month with a panel of call center and customer service technology experts from IntelliResponse, Drumbi, Avaya Inc. and Etech Global Services.

The 45-minute discussion was hosted in a Google+ Hangout where the panel answered a list of scripted questions before fielding queries from the digital audience of 40. The group talked about trends in customer contact channel utilization, technology and the future call center.

The speakers offered advice for consumer contact strategy and ways companies can prepare for the future.

The speakers agreed first of all that customer contact channel utilization for non-traditional channels – such as virtual agents – is growing. This is primarily the result of better technology that can finally deliver on the promises from six years ago. So customers are now empowered with a choice of how they want to contact you. But this doesn’t mean they are using these contact avenues instead of phone – it just means by the time they get there they are likely at a critical point.

“The company needs to be smarter when they get there,” Avaya Director of Customer Experience Management Laura Basset said. This means knowing whether the customer interacted with self service, and what they looked at. Did they ask a question to a virtual agent? Did they log into their online account?

Ultimately, the debate ended with the agreement that the call center won’t disappear because of technology – it’s already gone. The reborn contact center is a different environment where agents are increasingly expected to handle interactions from myriad channels. This will continue to change the skill set and expectations from these facilities. Watch for more changes to come, they warned.

Click here to watch the entire recording.

Read also: Will Technology Kill the Call Center?

About the author:

Ashley Furness is a Market Analyst for research firm Software Advice. Her professional experience spans journalism, sales, advertising and SEO marketing. She’s a seasoned writer having produced copy for business journals, a sports magazine, daily deals advertising and industry blogs. She can be contacted at Ashleyfurness[@]softwareadvice.com, or by calling 512-582-2314. LinkedIn – Twitter – Google +

What is ‘The Arts’ ?

1.    The Arts is a group of disciplines, comprising many genres, endeavours or art forms, all united by their employment of the human creative impulse, to express and communicate through various art forms.
2.    New and additional genres are being added daily.
3.    Let us put them all in one box for ease of understanding. This may be contentious to some globally, who have different perceptions of The Arts.
4.    The many forms of expression create an adequate or enormous income for many players, but for others, sadly it must just be perceived as a pastime, due to lack of funds or infrastructures.
5.    The Arts are dying in many countries, which are not getting sufficient financial support from their governments or other and so it is time to seek other means of exposure and marketing platforms.

What do The Arts enable ?

1.    Imparting a message
2.    Telling a true story
3.    Education
4.    Imparting own gifts
5.    Creating mindset shifts
6.    Enabling interactive conversation
7.    Enabling enjoyment, laughter, sadness, joy etc
8.    Self expression
9.    Enabling escape from real life – and so on

Let’s look at some players in ‘The Arts’

• MUSICIANS – all genres from jazz to rap
• ARTISTS – all mediums, including sculptors, potters, etc
• DANCERS – al genres, from ballet to hip hop
• COMEDIANS
• MAGICIANS
• SINGERS -  from OPERA to RAP – including producers, choreographers
• FILM/THEATRE – actors, directors, writers, producers, choreographers
• WRITERS/AUTHORS – all genres, including poets, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, etc

Players in ‘The Arts’ need to up their marketing game + would do well, by using the Social networking sites + incorporating VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS into their marketing mix

Adding VIDEO CONFERENCING / WEBINARS into the marketing mix :

More and more of The Arts genres are embracing this powerful technology as an adjunct marketing, training, collaboration, communication and exposure platform. Due to budget and time constraints, people cannot always travel far distances to attend an event/training etc..

• DISTANCE Training/Workshops

• Globally teaching, learning + rehearsing dance routines, orchestral music arrangements + scores, scripts etc in advance before show time
• Creating a global environment for creative research across diverse disciplines, where all players can collaborate, experiment and enjoy artistic exchange and learning, exploring the boundaries of synthesizing art and technology
• In this global environment, students can actively explore their creativity and develop, using their own creative gifts through active engagement, reflection and collaboration
• More and more music teachers world wide are embracing this technology to teach pupils to play various instruments in remote areas

• SHOWCASING

Virtual shows can be created in a global Video Meeting Room, where interested parties can participate in interactive sessions, with people interested in learning more about their particular genre of Art.

• BOOK LAUNCHES

o       Authors can save a fortune by hosting a virtual book tour.

o       This can be co-marketed with e-commerce book companies, online communities and off-line bookstores, that want to drive traffic to their stores and sites.

• MEDIA INTERVIEWS

o       Invite reporters or editors to an online web interview.

o       These web events can be conducted with the media, through relevant websites and e-commerce sites.

o       Online web interviews enable interviewing all relevant journalists at once, with the promotion of their stories on Movie, TV, Radio, Theatre, Music, Dance, Arts etc.

o       Webinars enable you to expose large groups of people at once to interviews with actors, singers, dancers, poets, playwrights, producers, choreographers, directors etc..

• ART EXHIBITIONS

o      Artists across all art form mediums, can use Video Conferencing to go global, communicate and show their art to the world.

o      They could even stream a pre-recorded video on a virtual tour of their art from their own studio or gallery.

o      Inviting a well known art expert as a guest speaker to a Webinar, who in their own rights, will attract numbers to the web event, would be an added bonus.

Adding VMail – The new EMAIL – into the marketing mix

What is a Vmail ?

o      Video Email is simple to use, online, browser based technology, which enables you to create your own personal Vmails.

o      Most technology platforms allow 20 minutes of talk time, which is more than adequate to impart your message.

o      Additional videos may also be uploaded into the Vmail, e.g. a virtual tour of an Artist’s gallery or studio, a Singer or Dancer’s debut or demo, etc.. 

o      No software downloads are necessary.

o      Bandwidth is not compromised, as the VMail opens on the Internet.

o      Most Vmail purveyors allow full integration into your social networks to share on Youtube or Facebook, etc..

WHY use VMAIL ?

Video Email is the new Email ! It is a perfect adjunct marketing tool to incorporate into your Video Communications suite –

Why ?

• It’s Different
• More powerful
• More Personal
• More Effective
• Is Creative
• Seeing is Believing
• Has more Impact
• Grabs the customer’s Attention
• Enables you to literally look into your contact’s eyes and develop a relationship with that person, engaging them on a level that is simply not possible with a static text email
• Enables your voice to resonate on a subliminal level
• Static text emails, are easy to ignore, and at their best, give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business or craft really values

Facts :

• - Google loves Video !
• - Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video over the next 5 years
• - Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet
• - People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
• - Video is the single, most effective form of communication
• - Additional creative marketing platforms are constantly being sought
• - ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR.  She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• SKYPE : heather.de.wit
• Mobile +27824907143
• Website
• EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.

The customer chooses by himself through research on search engines like Google, with the help of friends, relatives and his social networks which product to buy and which not.

Did you asked yourself what future customers will find when they research your industry for products and services you also have to offer, will they find you or your competitor?

How many people hit your site and how many business leads do generate daily?

Businesses who publish and share content on the web do not only increase the number of “digital outpost” but moreover increase their visibility and build trust with the future customers. Trust is the main motivation to buy. When your audience trusts you, then you they are willing to do business with you.

Actually the best way to increase visibility is content marketing. With content marketing businesses demonstrate thought leadership; prove themselves Trustworthy and Boosts SEO by increase Backlinks to their website.

Remarkable and helpful content is also a great to build customer loyalty. It offers the so called value ad for customers

Content marketing has established as a powerful way to engage customers. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers to their products and services.

A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!

With great content you position your business and the people of your business who create the content as trusted experts in your field. Content Marketing is great to build your online reputation.

Here are some marketing tips you can use right away.

Give away free content

Give away free content in form of a corporate blog where you write about topics your audience is most interested in. You can get great ideas for blog articles when you go through email and support requests. This will give you a ton of possible blog article topics.

You can also take a camera and explain a task, for example how to use one of your machines and what to take care of. Or you can use photos and testimonials of satisfied customers and publish them too.

You need to invest time/ money to produce content

To find the time to produce remarkable content is the most common problem business face. But as you need to spend time for your business you also need to understand that marketing and content creation is an important part of your lead generation. Therefore you need to set time free to produce remarkable content which will attract new customers to your business.

No matter if you do it by your own or you hire an Inbound Marketing Agency, content marketing is not free. You have the choice, do you want to invest your time or do you want to set a marketing budget and hire a professional Inbound Marketing Agency.

Give away GREAT content

Great content is valuable. It is worth reading and sharing it. Therefore you need to be specific with information which should benefit your future customers. Don’t be afraid to give away “secrets” because this kind of content attracts the most people. And be the end you are the professionals and the future customer will turn to you when he is ready to buy.

But these days the majority of people have tired of extended holding, automated prompts, unhelpful agents and getting lost in a sea of transfers. Couple this with new technologies for better, faster self-service and you’ve got a change a brewing in the consumer support industry.

Later this month, I will host a Software Advice live debate on this topic called, “Will Technology Kill the Call Center?” The event will begin at 1 p.m. Central on September 27 in a Google+ Hangout. To watch the event and chime in with your own questions, visit my Google+ page that day and comment in the feed. Add me to your circle on Google+ and I’ll send you an event reminder.

I will run the event similar to a political debate. A panel of four experts will answer a set of questions one by one, with opportunities for a rebuttal after each response. I will also close with a few questions from the audience, collected via comments in the feed on my Google+ page. To watch, just go to my profile page and click the round play button in the “Hangouts” box.

Here’s a list of the speakers:

Jim Iyoob is the senior vice president of global development for Etech Global Services. He has more than 15 years contact center outsourcing experience in domestic and offshore inbound, outbound, and live chat operations.

Shervin Talieh is the founder and CEO of Drumbi–a technology startup focused on mobile and social customer service. Drumbi leverages voice and data synchronization to streamline call routing and phone customer service. Previously, he also served in leadership positions for Goldeneye Solutions and Accenture.

Laura Bassett is the director of customer experience management and emerging technologies for Avaya Inc. Avaya designs, builds and manages business communications applications for more than one million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500 companies.

Mike Hennessy is vice president of marketing for IntelliResponse. His company provides “Virtual Agents” and other customer self-service offerings. Previously, he worked for Truition and as a communications consultant for Amazon.com, Dell, The Royal Bank of Canada, Hewlett-Packard, and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

See you there!

About the author:

Ashley Furness is a Market Analyst for research firm Software Advice. Her professional experience spans journalism, sales, advertising and SEO marketing. She’s a seasoned writer having produced copy for business journals, a sports magazine, daily deals advertising and industry blogs. She can be contacted at Ashleyfurness[@]softwareadvice.com, or by calling 512-582-2314. LinkedIn – Twitter – Google +

The traffic to your offers online decides about the value and the volume of your business leads.

Are you in control of your traffic and the volume of your business leads? Do you think you can be in control of your business leads and revenue?

I have a message for you: You can be in control of your business leads and revenue!

There is a way how you can increase qualified traffic, business leads and revenue. Content marketing!

Content marketing has become a powerful way to engage customer’s right where they stand.

To share published content in social media is not enough. Content creation and content marketing as a holistic strategy must be performed on regular basis to gain measurable and profitable results on the long term.

Businesses brand them self by creating and publishing original content. Businesses that create and publish remarkable content on the web and in social media:

• Establish thought leadership
• Elevate brand visibility and buzz
• Boosts SEO

Content marketing improves the search engine rank and the content has more chances to get shared on social networks, which also improves brand reach and direct more future customers to landing pages where they can convert to qualified leads.

By generating interesting and remarkable content other blogs, news sites will link to the businesses website and blog which increases the Page Rank and improves the search engine visibility.

Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.

Infographic: The Anatomy of Content Marketing

The best way for businesses to start with content marketing is blogging!

Companies who operate a corporate blog on frequent base get up to:

• 55% more Traffic than companies who do not blog
• 97% more Inbound Links than companies who do not blog
• 434% more indexed pages in search engines than companies who do not blog
• 25x times more business leads than companies who do not blog

In a March 2012 poll of more than 400 US marketers and agencies content curation services provider Curata found that 95% had curated content in some way over the past six months by sharing a link, blog post or other content type with their target audience.

Curata results also showed that 85% of those marketers focus their main objective of content creation to establishing a thought leadership, 80% of those marketers see also brand building and buzz as a goal of their content creation strategy.

The most popular channel to share content is social media. About 76% of marketers say they used a social network as the main channel for content distribution.

Content marketing has become a powerful way to engage customer’s right where they stand.

To share published content in social media is not enough. Content creation and content marketing as a holistic strategy must be performed on regular basis to gain measurable and profitable results on the long term.

But what is more powerful curated content or original content?

A business brands its self by creating and publishing original content on. It establishes thought leadership, elevates brand visibility and buzz and boosts its SEO by creating and publishing original content the web and in social media.

This improves the search engine rank and your content has more chances to get shared on social networks, which also improves brand reach and direct more future customers to your offers.

By generation interesting and remarkable content other blogs, news sites and content curators will link to you which increases your Page Rank and improves your search engine visibility also!

The biggest challenge for marketers when doing content creation is the time investment!

Research results show that about 70% of marketers say they did not have enough time to devote to the process of content creation and content marketing. Also the marketers stated that is difficult for them to create original content to share with their audience.

Infographic: A Brief History of Content Marketing

Increasingly consumers shift from traditional to the digital media.

To get found online when future customers are looking for products is one of the major challenges businesses are facing today.

Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.

A recent research from media and marketing services firm Valassis shows that 12% of the surveyed grocery retail executives go from usage of 12% social media in 2012 to a 65% usage in the next five years. They also plan to increasing investments in online marketing in general. The have understood the advantages of facebook for business and other networks to build customer loyalty.

An increasing number of B2C marketers are faced with the challenge to attract buyers to their offers.

This problem can be solved with Content marketing which has established as a powerful way to engage customers in social media.

Also an increasing number of B2C marketers are faced with the challenge produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers on the web and in social media to their products.

The most popular channel to share content is social media, the advantages of facebook for business and to win customer loyalty are known. About 76% of marketers say they used a social network as the main channel for content distribution.

Successful companies use every possible communication channel to get in touch with their target audience. They are interested in what their recent and future customers are thinking and communicating about them.

Infographic: How Brands Listen in the Digital Age

This communication ability helps them to better understand and to serve their audience, which sets them apart from their competition and gives them wide advantages in their business field.

Businesses which are willing to communicate with their audience in blogs and social media show that they care about the people who spend their money with them.

Read also:

How to Generate Business through Content Marketing
How to Increase Backlinks and Customer Loyalty through Content Marketing

Here are some numbers to try to compare the effectiveness of Twitter and Facebook for marketing:

An average Facebook user has an average of 130 friends compared with a Twitter user and his average 300 Followers. Twitter users share 1.5 more times tweets than compared with Facebook users which share wall post messages 0.65 on average. Massages shared on Facebook reach 45k of people there on average compared with 105k reach on Twitter.

These numbers give you a small idea of marketing effectiveness of booth social media platforms.

How can you profit from Twitter’s great opportunity to reach your target audience and increase business leads, sales and profits without spending a truck load of ad money on Twitter?

Twitter is a great tool to do real time communication with your audience. Users expect companies to response quickly to their requests. The quick response and serious reaction to requests or events on which happen is an essential part to profit from Twitter communication which breaks out.

Customers often reach out to brands to learn more about new products and services. If a brand is able to publish important product and services related news exclusively to their Twitter network first, this would help to improve loyalty with their network. This can also result in an improvement of revenue in the long term.

4 Reasons why companies should leverage Twitter:

• Increase brand awareness
• Humanize B2B companies
• Establish as thought leader
• Connecting easy and effortless with customers and prospects

7 Steps how can you profit from Twitter?

1. Start a Twitter presence and complete your profile
2. Research for industry related Tweets, discussions and people. Follow those people
3. Listen to their discussions. If you have something valuable to contribute than do it, otherwise go on listening
4. Start a corporate blog. Write about topics your audience is interested in. Share your blog articles in Twitter and ask for feedback and opinion for your publication
5. Build landing pages and offer Twitter exclusive and valuable content for download. So you generate laser target high quality industry related leads from Twitter
6. Measure your activities
7. Improve your activities and repeat

Infographic: Twitter Marketing

When I communicate in Facebook and Twitter, then I like to share interesting and valuable content.

Sometimes there are users in my network who make the impression they are bothered through this information. Social media is for connection and for communication. People who don’t want to be “bothered” by information which they don’t like for this moment should take into account that maybe this information they don’t like at this moment can benefit other people.

Social media is a democratic way of communication and this means that everybody is free to publish any information which can benefit others.

Not each piece of content which a business or a private person publishes in the social media channel is of interest or value for all. But the more content and information is published the higher are the chances that under this mass of content parts exist which benefit other people.

To publish and to share content is a sign of generosity. And if there is content or any information you don’t like than you are free to express your personal opinion on this, but keep in mind your opinion must not be universally applicable.

Content sharing is an essential part of knowledge and communication and improves the online reputation.

Infographic: Social Sharing Trends

What do you think, how does content sharing in social media benefits you?

As a follow-up to that, the folks at CRMSoftware.TV sent over another interview where Joe offers some advice to those just getting started with content marketing

You’ll have to watch the video to learn all of his tips, but we’ve highlighted our three favorites below.

— Develop “buzzword-free” writing skills. At the risk of offending the PR crowd, it is important for content marketers to know how to write in a non-PR way. What that means is ditching the buzzwords and using language that people can understand and ultimately connect to. This is an area where new graduates have a leg up. Their language hasn’t been corrupted by industry jargon, so they are more inclined to communicate ideas in a more straightforward way.

— Display good business judgement. Many young marketers pride themselves on their web savvy. They are on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+ and myriad other online networks. However, it is important to remember that your activity on those networks is a reflection of you as a professional. Joe suggests that you approach your activity with this mindset: “If Google is your resume, what does that say about you?”

— Keep it brief. An oft heard phrase is, “Brevity is the art of lingerie,” but it’s also the art of content. Joe addressed this somewhat in the last video, but it begs being mentioned again – keep it short and sweet! Just because you use 100 words to explain something doesn’t mean you should. It’s far more impressive to do it in 10. Content marketers should keep this in mind when creating content, remembering that today’s buyer consumes information at a much more rapid pace and doesn’t have time (or patience) to sit through a 10 page whitepaper.

For the rest of the tips, check out the video below.

Lauren joined Software Advice in 2010 as the CRM Market Manager. Currently, she is the Producer and Content Manager for CRMSoftware.TV, a new site designed to be like Hulu for CRM Software. She writes about various topics related to CRM software, and often reports live from major industry events. She has particular interest in marketing automation and social CRM, and her work has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times. When she isn’t covering the software industry, you can find her running at Town Lake with her dog, Sophie, and singing at local Austin venues. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Get in touch with Lauren:

• Google+
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Site/blog

]]> http://inblurbs.com/blog/tips-for-new-content-marketers-an-interview-with-joe-chernov/feed/ 2 http://inblurbs.com/blog/businesses-are-lagging-behind-their-customers-in-the-digital-age/ http://inblurbs.com/blog/businesses-are-lagging-behind-their-customers-in-the-digital-age/#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:00:37 +0000 Dragan Mestrovic http://inblurbs.com/?p=5589 Read more →]]> Recent stats show that those marketers spend less than 20% of their marketing budgets on social media which includes the outreach to target audience on social sites, advertising and maintaining a social media presence.

Most marketers have or plan to increase their budgets for social media marketing by up to 25% in 2012.

Content marketing has established as a powerful way to engage customers in social media. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers on the web and in social media to their products and services.

The most popular channel to share content is social media. About 76% of marketers say they used a social network as the main channel for content distribution.

Successful companies use every possible communication channel to get in touch with their target audience. They are interested in what their recent and future customers are thinking and communicating about them.

This communication ability helps them to better understand and to serve their audience, which sets them apart from their competition and gives them wide advantages in their business field.

Businesses which are willing to communicate with their audience in blogs and social media show that they care about the people who spend their money with them.

Businesses which avoid an open and authentic communication in blogs and social media show exactly the opposite. Why should the customer than care about to make any further business with them?

Successful businesses in B2C and B2B have embraced the wide opportunities which blogs and social media offers to them to spread the word and to reach their audience where there are around.

Infographic: How Brands Listen in the Digital Age

In the past marketing has depending on campaigns. Because of its inflexibility this model does not fit anymore into this Real Time world we live.

Today businesses need to react in real time with their audience.

Business can gain a massive competitive advantage when they become able and are willing to communicate with their audience in Real Time.

The most frequented Real Time Communication Channels are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn only to name some of them.

Here is the audience which demands brands to communicate in real time and show they care about their recent and future customers.

Real Time Communication is a powerful way for businesses to learn more about the demand their audience has and this sets them into the position to custom tailor products and service for the price their audience want.

As business recognizes the Real Time Mindset and the importance of speed they can set them self apart from their competition the smart way for a fraction of the cost of old school campaigns but with much more better results.

A Real Time Mindset ads an smart additional way of marketing to the businesses marketing arsenal, which means that business still can go forward with the marketing activities they still do and then compare investment, effort and results with this new Real Time approach.

Numbers do not lie and every business owner will go on to use the marketing strategies which bring him the most for his buck and cancel those one who do not.

The size of an organization can make real time communication difficult. Because of the simple question who does what.

But great examples like ZAPPOS have proven that even organization with 300 people can communicate in real time for example on Twitter which has set them massively apart from their competition. They became so successful that AMAZON acquired them and let them work further as ZAPPOS without changing anything inside, especially not the successful way of real time communication.

Sure size matter, but when you want it and you understand the benefits, than you can do it no matter how big or small your organization is.

The secret to get Real Time Communication successfully achieved so that it brings your business huge profits is to lower control which needs to hand over a high amount of trust to your employees. If you see them as responsible adults and demand for their responsibility they will react this way.

You will need to set flexible rules about communication which leaves your employees enough space to breathe and to react in your favor.

Let me know what you think about Real Time Communication!

We live in a customer centric time powered through social media and the rules of marketing and PR has dramatically changed.

The customer chooses by himself through research on search engines like Google, with the help of friends, relatives and his social networks which product to buy and which not.

Then it counts what and if he can find your business on the web.

Marketers need to understand that most people do not go online to buy something. The primarily go online to research for products and services. This is valid for B2C and B2B!

Businesses who publish and share content on the web do not only increase the number of “digital outpost” but moreover increase their visibility and build trust with the future customers. Trust is the main motivation to buy. When your audience trusts you, then you they are willing to do business with you.

Trust can only be build with a long term approach, because what you publish reflects what and who you are.

With great content you position your business and the people of your business who create the content as trusted experts in your field. Content Marketing is great to build your online reputation.

Here are some marketing tips you can use right away.

Give away free content

Give away free content in form of a corporate blog where you write about topics your audience is most interested in. You can get great ideas for blog articles when you go through email and support requests. This will give you a ton of possible blog article topics.

You can also take a camera and explain a task, for example how to use one of your machines and what to take care of. Or you can use photos and testimonials of satisfied customers and publish them too.

You need to invest time/ money to produce content

To find the time to produce remarkable content is the most common problem business face. But as you need to spend time for your business you also need to understand that marketing and content creation is an important part of your lead generation. Therefore you need to set time free to produce remarkable content which will attract new customers to your business.

No matter if you do it by your own or you hire an Inbound Marketing Agency, content marketing is not free. You have the choice, do you want to invest your time or do you want to set a marketing budget and hire a professional Inbound Marketing Agency.

Give away GREAT content

Great content is valuable. It is worth reading and sharing it. Therefore you need to be specific with information which should benefit your future customers. Don’t be afraid to give away “secrets” because this kind of content attracts the most people. And be the end you are the professionals and the future customer will turn to you when he is ready to buy.

Infographic: The Rise of Content Marketing

Six great reasons to consider content marketing to generate more business

Companies who operate a corporate blog on frequent base get …

…up to 55% more Traffic than companies who do not blog
…up to 97% more Inbound Links than companies who do not blog
…up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines than companies who do not blog
…up to 25x times more business leads than companies who do not blog

Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.

Every businesses which ignores these facts will vanish in the dust of today’s networked and quick economy and that’s good.

Extraordinary results can be achieved using this technology. Video Email can change the world and the way we communicate Vmail by Vmail !

Facts :

• - Google loves Video !
• - Cisco  predict –
  • There will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video over the next 5 years
  • By 2015, there will be nearly 3 Billion Internet users – more than 40% of the world’s projected population
  • Internet Video traffic is now 40% of the consumer internet
• - People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
• - Video is the single, most effective form of communication
• - Companies continue to look for additional creative marketing platforms
• - ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective
• - People spend 8 seconds reading a static text email, but retain 85% of what they see in a Video
• - Static text emails are easy to ignore, and at their best give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business really values. People simply don’t have the time today to read screeds of text and barely get past the third line, before deleting, without ever grasping the gist of the message that is trying to be conveyed.

Practical research has been able to demonstrate the power of video over other forms of communication:

1.  ‘Video email marketing reaps 280 percent higher returns than direct mail.’ – Gartner Research
2.   ‘63.9% of 5,000 people watched a video sent via email to completion. The average email viewer will only spend 8 seconds reading an email’ – Marketing Vox
3. ‘Good service is not enough. A customer who is ‘emotionally connected’ to your place of business is likely to spend 46% more money than a customer who is merely ‘satisfied’, but not emotionally bonded.’ – Gallup Survey
4. Increased market interest. According to an August 2011 Forrester Research survey: 50% of interactive marketers believed that marketing’s effectiveness will increase with online video over the next 3 years; while 43% said it would with E-mail marketing.
5. Increased clicks. According to David Daniels, former VP and Principal Analyst for Forrester Research, “Video in email can increase click-through rates as much as 2x-3x.”
6. According to a video email case study by Holland America Lines, in-email video produced a 2x higher CTR versus a static image, and 2x higher CTR than their average campaign.”

So what is a Vmail ?

Video Email is simple to use, online, browser based technology, which enables you to create your own personal Vmails.  No software downloads are necessary. Bandwidth is not compromised, as the VMail opens on the Internet. Vmail allows full integration with your social networks to share on Youtube or Facebook, etc.

Creating a VMail

• 1. Use your Webcam to record your message or upload a video from your computer, IPhone, Android or any Smartphone.
• 2. Incorporate marketing Videos or something from You Tube.
• 3. Use the Templatefeature –
  • Create your own personal template, using your own art or photos, or
  • Choose a template from 100’s of designs available
• 4. The system automatically adds your contact information.
• 5. You can also add images, such as printable coupons or hyperlinks to other websites.
• 6. Use the Contact Managerto manage all your contacts –
  • Import all your contacts from your phone, email and computer into one spot.
  • Organize your Contacts alphabetically or in Groups.
  • Select and send to any number of your contacts using the Contact Manager.
• 7. Use the campaign scheduling feature to send right away, or set the day and time that you’d like it to go out.

Why use Vmail ?

Video Email :

• - Is different
• - More powerful
• - More effective
• - Is creative
• - Seeing is Believing
• - Has more impact
• - Grabs the customer’s attention
• - Enables you to literally look into your contact’s eyes and develop a relationship with that person, engaging them on a level that is simply not possible with a static text email.
• - Enables your voice to resonate on a subliminal level.
• - Will replace static text emails, which are easy to ignore, and at their best, give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business really values

Infographic: Video EMail

Vmail USES are endless e.g. :

1. All aspects of Business
2. Product launches
3. Product or Service info
4. CV’s
5. Training/Skiling
6. Teaching
7. Invitations
8. Vacations
9. Special events
10. Weddings
11. Anniversaries
12. Responses
13. Birthdays
14. Announcements

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR.  She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• SKYPE : heather.de.wit
• Mobile +27824907143
• Website
• EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

Facts :

· Google loves Video !

· Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video Conferencing/Webinars over the next 5 years

· Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet

· People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see

· Video is the single, most effective form of communication

· Companies continue to look for additional creative marketing platforms

· ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective

What is a Video Conference / Webinar ?

Called by many names a Video Conference, a Video Meeting or a Webinar – all meaning the same thing. It is an highly effective, browser based, simple to use virtual Video Meeting Room, where, at the click of a button with a link, you are able to host large or small online meetings with people locally or globally, to connect, communicate and collaborate.

Access to online meetings is now available on most ‘smart phones’.

Some are saying it is the ‘new’ business card.

Many have not yet fully embraced or grasped the power of this technology, perhaps for fear of losing ‘the personal’ touch or the ‘face to face’ meeting scenario. However, we cannot stop progress and this is where things are headed if you want to see it.

‘Going green’ is what the world is advocating and what better way to save on time, energy, airfares, hotel accommodation, increase productivity and ultimately save money, than by hosting meetings, trainings, launches etc online.

This could be perceived as an adjunct marketing platform, or an additional marketing tool to what you already have in place.

The marketplace has become global and this technology enables you to go global with ease.

General features –

· Attract and drive more people to your business

· Share Powerpoint presentations

· Share ideas

· Share Videos

· Show websites

· Share photos

· Review contracts or documents in a safe and secure environment

· Share your desktop

· Use the white boarding feature, with interactive tools, like drawing and highlighting, to make it simpler for your attendees to collaborate with you.

Creative Uses :

· WEBINAR SERIES

Develop a series of Webinars over a number of weeks, with content relevant to your clients or prospects. In this space, you can educate and demonstrate the value of your products or services. Guest specialist speakers always add value.

· ANNOUNCEMENTS, NEW PRODUCTS or CAMPAIGNS

Invite your media contacts, industry analysts, clients and prospects. Elevate the level of conversation by inviting specialists in your audience to answer questions and provide input.

· GUEST SPEAKERS

People perceive you differently when they know where you are coming from – eg, reducing your carbon footprint. Attract people ‘through the back door’ by hosting a Video Conference, selecting a relevant and current ’green’ subject matter, with the added attraction of a guest speaker, who should be a well-known expert or specialist in that particular field. Your guest speaker will, in their own right, easily attract a large audience – Everyone benefits.

· BOOK LAUNCHES

A book tour can be very costly. Authors can save a fortune by hosting a virtual book tour. This can be co-marketed with e-commerce book companies, online communities and off-line bookstores, that want to drive traffic to their stores and sites.

· The ARTS

For Movie/TV/Radio/Theatre/Music/Dance Promotions, use Webinars to reach large groups of people to interview actors, singers, dancers, poets, playwrights, producers, choreographers, directors etc. These web events can be conducted with the media, through relevant websites, e-commerce sites, TV, newspaper or magazine, radio web sites.

· ART EXHIBITIONS

Artists across all art form mediums, can use Video Conferencing to go global, communicate and show their art to the world. They could even stream a pre-recorded video on a virtual tour of their art from their own studio or gallery. Inviting a well known art expert as a guest speaker, who in their own rights, will attract numbers to the web event, would be an added bonus.

· MEDIA INTERVIEWS

To better assist journalists with their stories, invite reporters or editors to an online web interview to discuss issues, show products, present information and data.

· MARKET RESEARCH

Focus groups can view and research products through audio, chat or text-based questions. Polls and online surveys are also a popular feature in these focus groups and are available features with this technology.

· SPECIAL EVENTS/TRADE SHOWS/EXHIBITIONS

Create a virtual show in a Video Meeting Room, where different companies can participate in interactive sessions, with people interested in learning more about your company’s products and services. Due to budget and time constraints, people cannot always travel far distances to attend an event. CUSTOMER SERVICE

Give E-Commerce customers live assistance when choosing products. Invite them to a product knowledge session. The Video Meeting Room can feature a live individual or be a pre-recorded session.

• CUSTOMER SERVICE

Give E-Commerce customers live assistance when choosing products. Invite them to a product knowledge session. The Video Meeting Room can feature a live individual or be a pre-recorded session.

· DEMONSTRATING PRODUCTS

Web conferencing is a great way to demonstrate the uses of products.

· EDITING on the fly

Edit on the fly in a safe and secure environment, with people from different geographic regions. Everyone can view the same document simultaneously, so edits can be made quickly and efficiently, without costly delays.

· Editing WEB SITES

This is a highly efficient way to review web pages with a group of people.

· SKILLING, TRAINING

Webinars are becoming increasingly popular and convenient as a training tool.

· RECRUITMENT

Companies can easily go global and hire the best from anywhere in the world, using Video Conferencing as an interviewing tool, inviting prospective employees to interact and collaborate. Here they can upload their resumes and review same with them, together with others, who are part of the hiring process, but are located in other regions.

· CONTACT US

Video Meeting Rooms can be used as a ‘Contact Us’ feature. People can request an instant meeting to talk with you and learn more about what you do.

· INVESTOR RELATIONS

Invite analysts, media and shareholders to a Web Conference for quarterly reviews, announcements and appointments.

· COMMUNITY

A great tool for Community forums and groups to connect, collaborate and communicate on :

o Community issues, problems

o Neighbourhood watches can have a better handle on crime and policing

· COMPANY STAFF, COMMITTEE, SALES or BOARD MEETINGS

More and more businesses are seeing the value of using this technology to communicate and collaborate with employees and management nationally or globally on a more regular basis, saving time, energy, travel, communication bills, accommodation bills, etc, increasing productivity and ultimately saving money.

· DISTANCE EDUCATION

More and more institutions are embracing this technology for :

o Distance learning

o Extra mural classes moderated by Teachers

o Students can ‘study together’ without ‘being together’

o School board meetings

o Teacher training

o Academic contests e.g. debates, with other institutions

· CHURCHES, NGO’s (Charities), CLUBS

Institutions using Webinars can :

o Interact with members and constituents

o Conduct remote study with exchange groups

o Conduct Church meetings

o Conduct Board or Committee meetings

o Host Fundraising campaigns

o Host Planning sessions

o Host Remote counselling

Infographic: Video Conferencing

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR.  She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• SKYPE : heather.de.wit
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