Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Can Video Help Your Retail Business?

Curious if video can help your retail business?

Check out this recent article from emarketer.com.

How Retailers Can Make Video Efforts More Effective


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

Monday, February 7, 2011

Tastless TV Ads - How To Lose Your Market

I don't normally make a point of critiquing the work of others, but during yesterday's Super Bowl one ad stuck out that really rubbed me the wrong way.  The spot involved Timothy Hutton downplaying the plight of the people of Tibet in order to plug Groupon, an online coupon company that has been getting a local following.

You can watch the ad here:
 
 
And when I looked for more details about this blatant marketing misstep I came across the fact that the Super Bowl ad was actually one of three produced with similar themes. One mocking the distinction of whales, and another comparing Brazilian Rain Forest Deforestation to bikini waxing.

Groupon founder and CEO Andrew Mason doesn't seem to get the tastelessness in his blog response.

"Since we grew out of a collective action and philanthropy site (ThePoint.com) and ended up selling coupons, we loved the idea of poking fun at ourselves by talking about discounts as a noble cause," he wrote on the company's blog.

At SaveTheMoney.org, Groupon is fundraising for Rainforest Action Network, buildOn, and the Tibet Fund and plans to match up to $100,000 in donations to each charity. It's also soliciting contributions to Greenpeace.

But nowhere in the spots was there any information about these charities, or how someone might donate.

I truly find it hard to believe that these spots starring Hollywood Celebrities, and directed by Christopher Guest, made it past everyone's best judgment and onto such a national stage.

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

Friday, February 4, 2011

Getting the Most Out of a Networking Group

If you've been looking for a way to boost the effectiveness of your online marketing and social media efforts you should really look at joining a local networking group.  If you are not familiar with what a networking, leads, or referral group is; it's a group that usually meets weekly to build relationships with other business people and to pass leads and referrals.  These types of groups come in all shapes and sizes from corporate run groups to chamber of commerce groups to free coffee clubs.  Whether you are new to this type of marketing or have been going for years, the following tips should make your experience much more enjoyable and profitable.

1. Build Relationships First - Your first goal in joining a networking group shouldn't be to gain new business.  If you join the group with the only intention of finding a new stream of potential customers, you are missing the point.  Just like you shouldn't engage in social media just to spam others with your latest offers (another topic by itself), you shouldn't join a networking group just to snatch up business cards to add to the pile (yet another topic for another post).  By focussing on building relationships, you ensure that you are not only a trusted member of the group, you prepare yourself to do a better job with step 2.
    2. Give First, Then Get - Once you've got a good feeling for who the members of your networking group are, what makes them different from others in their field, and what would make a good referral for them it's time to start actively looking for ways to get them some business.  First look within your immediate group of family and customers for opportunity to generate some business for the members of your group.  After a few successful referrals to others, you can start to look to generate referrals for the members of your group no matter where you are.  As the other members of the group start to receive referrals from you, they will start to pass them back in return.  

    3. Be Ready to Refer - It's always a good idea to have a few cards from each of the members in the group with you at all times.  You never know when you might have the opportunity to pass along their card to a prospective customer.  This can also be a good way to get your card in the hands of others, as they see you as a connector, and someone beneficial to be connected with.

    4. Give & Get Quality Referrals - Passing unqualified referrals, and not following up on the referrals given to you, are guaranteed ways to lose the trust of others.  If you pass a referral to another member of your group, make sure to give them as much information about the referral as possible.  Also, make sure that the person whose referral you are giving is expecting this person to contact them.  The last thing you want is a member of your group calling on the referral and having the person they are calling on be upset or caught off guard that they are calling.

    Joining a referral group can be a great way to connect with people in person to strengthen relationships built online, or to create new social networks.  Just make sure to be social and respectful of the other members, and you might just have 20-30 other people selling your services for you.

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

    Thursday, February 3, 2011

    LinkedIn Now Has Company Pages

    LinkedIn now has company pages similar to Facebook fan pages.

    Pardiman Productions on LinkedIn

    If you haven’t yet created your LinkedIn company page just click on companies in the top bar, and then just click Add Company.

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

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011

    Where Are Social Media Marketers Seeing the Most Success?

    According to eMarketer a majority of the companies surveyed are using Facebook, but Twitter usage is also on the rise.


    Check out the full article here.

    Where Are Social Media Marketers Seeing the Most Success? - eMarketer

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

    Tuesday, February 1, 2011

    Blog Gets New Name - Clearer Focus

    As part of my 2011 New Years Resolutions for Pardiman Productions I wanted to be more consistent in my efforts to make this blog useful and engaging for customers.

    Having been fairly consistent with posting in January I wanted to start off February with refocusing and re-branding the blog.

    For some time now the focus of the blog has been to offer any tips I can on marketing video, social media, and networking.  "Promotional Media News" was too vague and old fashioned of a title.  (And it really did help in the whole SEO game.)  So...Welcome to "Pardiman Small Business Marketing Tips"

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

    Monday, January 31, 2011

    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.

    Friday, January 28, 2011

    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.

    Thursday, January 27, 2011

    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.

    Wednesday, January 26, 2011

    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. 

    Tuesday, January 25, 2011

    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.

    Monday, January 24, 2011

    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.

      Friday, January 21, 2011

      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"

      "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.

      Monday, January 17, 2011

      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.

      Friday, January 14, 2011

      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.