The Power of Personalizing Your Brand

Check out this video from the Social Media Examiner that interviews Mari Smith, author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. Mari talks about the Brand of You and how to monetize your personality on social media.


SME Blogworld 2010 Mari Smith from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

Are you involved in your own personal branding?

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Facebook Explains Sponsored Stories Marketing

Facebook released this video recently that explains it's new "Sponsored Stories" ad product.  Brands on Facebook can now use location and tagged posts as part of their ads.



For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Introduce Your Business To New Customers

Why not let your customers get to know a bit about your business when they land on your home page?

It increases SEO, and keeps customers on your site longer.

 

This video was produced for Scott Homes in Olympia to let customers know more about their business and building practices.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Small Businesses Are Ready To Embrace Online Video

From "Small Businesses Plan to Embrace Online Video in a Huge Way" by Jeremy Scott

45% of small business owners are going to increase their resources alloted for online video, up from 2010's 28%. That's huge.  Huge.  We've been saying that video is where it's at for years now, and despite its incredible popularity with major brands as a form of advertising, it's still only just now beginning to take hold with the millions and millions of small business owners out there.
C. Lee Smith, the president and CEO of Ad-ology Research, had this to say:

"Small businesses are becoming increasingly savvy on how to market online, and their plans for increased spending on video and mobile show they are ready to try new ways to reach the customer.  They may not have the resources of big businesses, but things like online (video) and social media help level the playing field."

Read More -Small Businesses Plan to Embrace Online Video in a Huge Way for 2011

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com. 

Use Video To Explain Processes

This video was produced for Scott Homes in Olympia, WA to help explain their building process.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Video On Home Page Increases SEO

The evidence has been there for a couple of years now, and thanks to the relationship between Google & YouTube it's even more clear that your website will benefit from video on your home page.


From "The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google" by Forrester Research

...on the keywords for which Google offers video results, any given video in the index stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index.

Best of all, so few interactive marketers focus on video optimization that most of the videos in Google's index aren't very well optimized -- so if you optimize your videos well, your chances of success will increase even further.

So how can you optimize your online videos? The agencies and search engines I've talked to offer a number of different tips:

• Insert keywords into your video filenames.
• Host your videos on YouTube, and embed those YouTube videos into your own site. Google says its algorithms consider how many times a video is viewed, and any views embedded videos receive on your own site get added to the 'views' tally on YouTube. (And yes, nearly every video we saw Google blend into its results came from YouTube.)
• Optimize your YouTube videos by writing keywords into your videos' titles, descriptions, and tags.
• Embed videos into relevant text pages on your site. The context provided by the text on those pages (which is hopefully already optimized for search as well) will help the search engines figure out what your videos are about.
• Also create a video library on your site, so Google knows where to find your video content. (Google Video Sitemaps can help with this too.) Write keyword-rich annotations for each video in the library."

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Web Video Advertising To Grow 55% Annually - Faster Than Any Other Ad Format Online

From "Web Video Advertising To Grow 55% Annually - Faster Than Any Other Ad Format Online"

Kevin Nalty

"Online video advertising spending looks to be growing again in 2011, even after an impressive 40% growth from 2009 to 2010."

“Video advertising is set to become the most dynamic format in the online ad market, propelled by technical advances in the field and an “explosion” of online video consumption (source: UTalk)."

Click below to check out the whole article.
Web Video Advertising To Grow 55% Annually - Faster Than Any Other Ad Format Online

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Promote Your Non-Profit with Video

Recently we produced this video for the local chapter of the Rally Foundation.



This type of video is great to promote your organization on a website, through social media, or at a fundraising event.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Pardiman Productions is sponsoring:

 OMB's Monthly Associates'

Networking Breakfast!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

7:15 a.m. at The Viewpoint
 (below Tugboat Annie's)

at 2100 West Bay Drive, Olympia

The program this month is Response Oriented Advertising: Creating Effective Ads with Margo Fengler-Nunn from The Olympian.

  

Cost to attend is $15/person with an RSVP or $20 at the door.
Find out more about the event here

For marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672, or info@pardimanproductions.com, or online at www.pardimanproductions.com.

Web Video - Overcome Your Fears

The number one reason most people don't produce a video for their website or social media, is because of the fear of being in front of the camera.  Even more than the fear of public speaking, the fear of the camera seems to make people weak in the knees, and can turn the most eloquent speaker into a stumbling apologizer.

In order to help you overcome your potential fear of being in front of the camera, let's look at the 3 most common fears that people have.

• Fear of how they look
• Fear of how they sound
• Fear of what they'll say

For most people how they look on, and off camera is very important to them.  Everyone is concerned about the camera adding extra weight, or a wrinkle or crease that they would like to erase.  One of the great ways to remove the fear of the camera is to remove the camera from the equation.  At Pardiman Producitons we often use an interview style for shooting videos that focuses the on camera clients attention to an interviewer, and not on looking into the camera.

Some people feel compelled to deliver from a script verbatim, either off a teleprompter, or cue cards, or from memory to try overcoming the fear of how they sound on camera or what they'll say.  However, for people who aren’t experienced being in front of a camera, this can make them sound very unnatural, and will still often mess them up to the point of being very dissatisfied with their performance.  You don't have to memorize everything that you want to say in a video. In fact memorizing ISN’T a great idea.  It's good to be prepared, and have a bullet list of things you want to talk about, but even the best of actor's don't deliver their lines exactly as written.

If you're going to have us edit your video at a later time, we can easily record each of your points and then pause.  This gives you time to think about what you want to say next, and then we record your next thoughts. We almost always go through the material from at least two different angles so we can edit out any mistakes and give the viewer the most interesting video possible.

For the most self consious of business owners we can create a video where you let your customers do the talking, or we can shoot an on camera introduction and then use your voice over other images to illustrate your message.

Video is a very effective way to attract new clients, generate traffic to your website, and increase the likelyness of being found on search engines.  Don't let the fear be paralyzing.  Let Pardiman Productions - "Put motion in your promotion."

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Writing A Better Profile Script

Ever wonder why no one is watching your profile video?

The profile video is unique among promotional videos.  This is typically the first video a customer will see introducing them to you or your company.  It's like a "Digital Elevator Speech" as Jeffrey Hayzlett calls it, or you might know it as a 30 second introduction if you belong to a leads group.

Customers might find it as a link on your email, or while searching YouTube, or looking at your social media profile.   What you put in the video, however, is vitally important in catching their attention and getting them to take action.  The following outline will help you to create a better script to use on video or at a networking event.


Step 1 - The Bait
This is where you grab the viewer's attention.  This isn't where you introduce yourself, talk about your accomplishments, or list what your business does.  This is where you spend 10-15 seconds painting a mental picture of how you can solve the customers known or unknown problem.  This is where you offer a solution to what ales them.

Step 2 - The Taste
Here is where you introduce who you are, and what you do.  Don't just list your name and services.  This is where you spend 15-30 seconds talking about your knowledge and passion for what you do.  Don't waste time name dropping, let them hear about who you are.

Step 3 - The Tug
Spend another 5-15 seconds describing your uniqueness in your industry, and why you're the best choice to solve this particular problem for the customer.

Step 4 - Reel 'Em In
The last 10-30 seconds should be your call to action.  Your audience needs to know what to do next, or they will move on and forget about you.  Be specific and instruct them to call your phone number today, click on a particular link on your web page, or direct them to a web page designed to move them through to the next buying process.  This is the most important part, and often forgotten, part of your script.

Forgetting to include the call to action is like cutting your line, and letting the fish swim away.  They're probably not going to bite again.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

The Digital Elevator Speech

We've been talking about web profile videos for several years now, but Author Jeff Hayzlett now calls them the Digital Elevator Speech.

Here's a video from the Social Media Examiner that talks about the Digital Elevator Speech.


sme_bw2010_jeff_hayzlett_v2 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

How Online Video Can Reach the Business Audience

Even busy executives want to do more than just read on the web.  In a recent survey from Forbes Insights 80% of executives said that they watch videos on YouTube.


Courtesy of emarketer.com

And most of them that watch business related videos engage with the brands they view.

Check out the whole article here.   How Online Video Can Reach the Business Audience - eMarketer

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

People Searching on YouTube

According to comScore YouTube is now the second largest search engine with 50% more searches than Yahoo! and 180% more searches than Bing.  YouTube has 300 million visitors every month who watch more than 12 billion videos.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Optimal Video Ad Length

*from Online Video Report 2010 by TubeMogul.com

When length is factored in, medium length (1:00 – 1:30) video ads outperform both longer and shorter videos in terms of completion rates, regardless of production format, length or industry category. This sample includes 100 major brand video ad campaigns, spanning 19,759,430 streams.

In short, when making content custom for the Web, one minute to 1:30 is the sweet spot in terms of length -- longer or shorter loses viewers faster.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Consumers Searching Online

According to BIA/Kelsey's ongoing consumer tracking study nearly all consumers (97%) now use online media when researching products or services.  There is a perception that very few people use online search for shopping, but nearly all of the buying public use them now.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Audiences Appreciate Videos for Awards Events

One of the greatest things about a video produced for an awards event, is that in just a couple of minutes your audience will get to hear exactly what it is that makes the recipient deserving of the recognition.

Video is a great way to be considerate of your audience's time, by keeping the presentation short and engaging.

Here is a video we produced for the Thurston County Chamber's Boss of the Year Award's 2010 presented by Express Employment Professionals.


(for best viewing quality choose 720p)

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

10 NEW YEARS MARKETING RESOLUTIONS

With the coming of a new year most people take the time to make some personal resolutions. Are you doing that for your business as well? The following are 10 Marketing Resolutions that you can make in your business, that will help to increase sales and visibility.

1. I will create a marketing budget – Putting no money aside for marketing, is like putting no money aside for retirement.
2.  I will create a marketing plan – Having a clear plan will make the most of your marketing dollars.
3. I will explore new marketing options – Nothing is worse than the same stale message going to the same people who have heard it before.
4. I will define my brand – What makes the business unique, exceptional, and beneficial to customers.
5. I will perfect my 30-second introduction – You never know when you might be asked to pitch your business, and successful marketing includes networking.
6. I will join a local business organization – It’s a great way to build new customers, allies, and friends.
7. I will attend a weekly networking group – Who doesn’t want 20-30 other individuals out selling your business on a regular basis?
8. I will share my expertise with the world – Use blogs, emails, newsletters, articles, and videos to spread your message to the masses.
9. I will dedicate 15 minutes a day to social media – interact with your customers, and participate in online networking.
10. I Will Never Be Caught Without a Business Card – it’s the easiest of marketing materials to produce, and the most likely item to be kept by the recipient.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.