10 Reasons to Include Video in your Marketing Mix

Video is hot, really hot, however, many businesses are reluctant to add video into their marketing mix. The reasons are pretty simple. Most businesses that are avoiding video think that video marketing is too expensive, hard to figure out, takes too much time, and doesn't result in ROI. All of these things are far from the truth! Creating video may seem difficult, however, it’s really not. With some careful planning, a business can generate ideas that produce many hours of video content.

So, why consider video content? Here are 10 reasons:

1. Stats show that video is growing in usage year-over-year and not just for companies with a large ad budget. 
2. Videos are proven to attract and engage your audience
3. People want more video! Guess what the #2 search engine in the World is... yup, it's YouTube! 
4. Memorable videos are engaging and create trust.
5. Video is an extremely powerful medium to assist in making a decision to buy
6. Adding a video front and center on your homepage or landing page is a proven strategy.
7. Video helps reduce your website bounce rate and thus helps build Google page ranking
8. Video also indexes in search - think SEO!
9. Videos are easily repurposed over many of your marketing channels (Youtube, facebook, live feeds, web)
10. Share your best content in video. If you spend hundreds of hours creating a case study, article, or putting on an event, be sure to generate video around that content. If it worked once it will work again in video format! 

Bonus Tip - videos have been proven to be more easily shareable. Facebook and LinkedIn have been upgraded with added support for embedding video.

Example. In the past, I've created articles about creating and distributing your PR (for example, this one on tips for creating a PR). An article or blog is great, however, I've also provided these tips using video (See https://youtu.be/-m5_aR5-kF4). This is an efficient and fun way to share the same materials, however, it is much more engaging!

Master Your Marketing & Design in One Slide

Here's some amazing Infographic inspiration. If these marketing stacks don't inspire you then nothing will. Enjoy the top 48 marketing stacks from the Stackie awards - these decks have been designed by the best in graphic design from all over the planet. What is a stack? Simply put, each slide illustrates a “stack” - the collection of marketing technology tools they use and how they conceptualize them together. The entire marketing channel process is conceptualized and visualized in just one amazing slide. (see slide deck above from Stackie winner, Esri)

ABinBev, Airstream, Alliant Credit Union, Artemis Health, BraunAbility, Esri, G Adventures, Juniper Networks, Lola, Nationwide Advisory Solutions, Paychex, Racing Post, Sargento Foods, The Telegraph, Tennant, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha were some of the non-martech brands who participated this year. Plus many wonderful entries from companies within the marketing tech industry.

Learn more and see all the winners HERE

Why you Should Include Video in Your Marketing Mix

Video is hot, really hot, however, many businesses are reluctant to add video into their marketing mix. The reasons are pretty simple. Most businesses that are avoiding video think that video marketing is too expensive, hard to figure out, takes too much time, and doesn't result in ROI. All of these things are far from the truth! Creating video may seem difficult, however, it’s really not. With some careful planning, a business can generate ideas that produce many hours of video content.

So, why consider video content? Here are 10 reasons:

1. Stats show that video is growing in usage year-over-year and not just for companies with a large ad budget. 
2. Videos are proven to attract and engage your audience
3. People want more video! Guess what the #2 search engine in the World is... yup, it's YouTube! 
4. Memorable videos are engaging and create trust.
5. Video is an extremely powerful medium to assist in making a decision to buy
6. Adding a video front and center on your homepage or landing page is a proven strategy.
7. Video helps reduce your website bounce rate and thus helps build Google page ranking
8. Video also indexes in search - think SEO!
9. Videos are easily repurposed over many of your marketing channels (Youtube, facebook, live feeds, web)
10. Share your best content in video. If you spend hundreds of hours creating a case study, article, or putting on an event, be sure to generate video around that content. If it worked once it will work again in video format! 
11. Bonus Tip - videos have been proven to be more easily shareable. Facebook and LinkedIn have been upgraded with added support for embedding video.

Excellence in Advertising & Journalism - The Folio Awards

Get Recognition... if you’re producing content, there’s a home for you in the Eddie & Ozzie Awards! It's time for the Folio Awards! Each year, Folio recognizes excellence in publishing & journalism. This could be a great opportunity for bloggers, journalists, and even your own corporate marketing team. There's a number of categories recognized for design excellence including creative advertising campaign, newsletter, blog, podcast, articles, video and more. Perhaps your marketing time created a campaign that killed it or, perhaps you produced a campaign or award-winning content for a client. Folio is a fabulous way to get National recognition. Note, Folio also puts on an amazing marketing event each fall in New York, we attended several years ago and it was fantastic!

• Learn more about the awards HERE
• Be sure to check out Folio Mag for everything marketing & advertising

A smart way to wrap up a GIS user mobile!

This one is for the "recently spotted" category. As I pulled in to a parking for lunch at a local sushi restaurant the other day I notice a cool little "smart" car in the stall next to me. The car is "wrapped up" in a 3D terrain map design and has a sign on it promoting a local GIS consulting firm. I have to be honest, I never heard of the firm but the paint job on the car was way cool... I've often said I want to paint up the Expedition as the GISuser Mobile - when I get to Fort Collins you may infact see this! - but for now, this was a great source of inspiration. Do you have a GIS themed company car? If so blast me a photo... you may wind up on the blog like this guy! Photos is from the Little Earth GIS Consulting Inc, Nanaimo, BC - photos is also posted on my GISuser flickr stream