business marketing plan

ON24 Appoints Callan Younger as Chief Advertising Officer

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ON24 (NYSE: ONTF) at this time introduced Callan Younger as its subsequent chief advertising and marketing officer. She joins ON24 with deep expertise in enterprise B2B software program and constructing demand technology fashions that drive income progress. Younger will spearhead the group’s go-to-market technique, persevering with to broaden the momentum and adoption of the corporate’s digital engagement platform.

“We’re thrilled so as to add Callan to the management staff to additional our income progress technique,” mentioned Sharat Sharan, CEO of ON24. “Callan is an completed govt in scaling progress with a confirmed observe file of getting outcomes. Below her management, we imagine we won’t solely improve our personal gross sales and advertising and marketing groups, but additionally additional our mission to assist enterprises innovate their gross sales and advertising and marketing in a digital-first world.”
Younger has held international gross sales and advertising and marketing management roles at a number of enterprise B2B know-how firms. Most not too long ago, she was Government Senior Vice President of Advertising (CMO) at Experity, the place she guided the corporate towards a profitable exit. Previous to Experity, Younger led Demand Era for Anaplan the place she was chargeable for their international progress group together with enterprise growth, demand technology, account-based advertising and marketing, built-in campaigns and install-based advertising and marketing groups. Earlier in her profession, Callan held administration degree positions with Nice Bay Software program (acquired by Plixer), IDeaS Income Options and Siteimprove.
“ON24 has an impressive tradition of innovation excellence, and I’m excited and honored to be working alongside a staff that’s trusted for delivering a number one digital engagement platform,” mentioned Callan Younger. “ON24 is uniquely positioned to remodel how companies energy digital engagement throughout the enterprise.”
Join with Callan Younger on LinkedIn. To learn the way ON24 helps firms drive engagement, generate first-party information, and ship income progress with its main gross sales and advertising and marketing platform for digital engagement, go to ON24.com/platform.
About ON24
ON24 is a number one gross sales and advertising and marketing platform for digital engagement, delivering insights to drive income progress. ON24 serves greater than 2,000 clients worldwide, together with 3 of the 5 largest international know-how firms, 3 of the 6 largest US banks, 3 of the 5 largest international healthcare firms, and three of the 5 largest international industrial producers. Via interactive webinars, digital occasions, and customized content material experiences, ON24 offers a system of engagement powered by AI for companies to scale engagement, conversions, and pipeline to drive income progress. The ON24 Platform helps thousands and thousands of pros a month who’re totaling billions of engagement minutes per 12 months. ON24 is headquartered in San Francisco with international workplaces in North America, EMEA, and APAC. For extra info, go to www.ON24.com.
Ahead-Wanting Statements
This doc comprises “forward-looking statements” below relevant securities legal guidelines. In some instances, such statements might be recognized by phrases resembling: “count on,” “convert,” “imagine,” “plan,” “future,” “might,” “ought to,” “will,” and comparable references to future intervals. Ahead-looking statements embody specific or implied statements concerning our skill to attain our enterprise methods, progress, or different future occasions or situations. Such statements are primarily based on our present beliefs, expectations, and assumptions about future occasions or situations, that are topic to inherent dangers and uncertainties, together with the dangers and uncertainties mentioned within the filings we make occasionally with the Securities and Change Fee. Precise outcomes might differ materially from these indicated in forward-looking statements, and you shouldn’t place undue reliance on them. All statements herein are primarily based solely on info at present out there to us and communicate solely as of the date hereof. Besides as required by legislation, we undertake no obligation to replace any such assertion.

Causes To Focus On Interactive Content material

Shane Barker is a digital advertising and marketing marketing consultant who focuses on gross sales funnels, focused visitors and web site conversions.

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Let’s face it: There may be an excessive amount of content material on the market. It doesn’t matter what matter you are desirous about, yow will discover an countless provide of content material on that topic. The web has grow to be a go-to supply for every little thing from the newest information to tips about fixing a clogged sink. This is the reason an overload of content material is among the largest challenges dealing with entrepreneurs as we speak.

With a lot noise on-line, it may be tough to make your voice heard. And even if you happen to handle to get seen, there is no assure that folks will stick round lengthy sufficient to listen to what it’s important to say. With a lot competitors for consideration, it is particularly powerful on the market for small companies desirous to make their content material stand out.

I’ve typically seen small enterprise house owners marvel how they’ll compete with bigger companies on the subject of content material advertising and marketing. In any case, bigger companies have the assets to create high-quality content material often.

A method you possibly can degree the enjoying subject is through the use of interactive content material. Here is why: Those that can create really partaking and memorable experiences would be the ones who succeed. If you wish to stand out from the group, interactive content material is the way in which to go in 2022 and 2023.

Understanding Interactive Content material

Your web site is your digital storefront, and also you wish to be sure that it is partaking and welcoming for potential clients. That is the place interactive content material can are available. Interactive content material is a sort of content material that requires the reader to take part indirectly, fairly than simply passively devour it.

This may embrace something from quizzes and polls to video games and movies. Interactive content material is an effective way to maintain customers engaged along with your web site or weblog, and it will also be used to gather information or suggestions from customers. There are numerous several types of interactive content material, so there’s certain to be one thing that may suit your wants. In case you’re unsure the place to start out, listed here are some concepts:

• Quizzes: Quizzes are an effective way to check customers’ data or collect information about their preferences. You should utilize quizzes to generate leads and even only for enjoyable.

• Polls: Polls are a fast and straightforward strategy to get suggestions from customers. They can be utilized to gauge person opinion on a wide range of matters or to make selections about web site content material or design.

• Interactive Video games: Video games are an effective way to interact customers and preserve them coming again for extra. They will also be used to advertise your model or product or to generate leads.

• Movies: Movies are an effective way to interact customers and supply them with data in an simply digestible format. You can also make movies extra interactive by including calls-to-action (CTAs) or inquiries to them.

• Interactive Emails: By including interactive parts to your emails, you may give subscribers a strategy to have interaction along with your content material on their very own phrases. Some interactive options you can add are hyperlinks, movies, polls, animated GIFs and quizzes.

Interactive Content material To Drive Progress

Interactive content material is efficient as a result of it permits customers to interact along with your content material on a deeper degree. By permitting folks to work together along with your content material, you possibly can preserve their consideration for longer and supply them with an immersive expertise that may depart a long-lasting impression.

Moreover, interactive content material can be extra shareable than conventional types of content material, that means that your message is extra more likely to attain a wider viewers.

Finally, interactive content material is a wonderful strategy to have interaction and join along with your viewers whereas additionally selling your model or product. In case you’re searching for methods to make your content material extra partaking, take into account incorporating some interactive parts.

Listed below are a couple of concepts:

• Create a quiz or ballot on a given matter associated to what you are promoting or area of interest. Whether or not you create a trivia quiz or an opinion ballot, be sure that the quiz or ballot is simple to grasp and use. Nobody desires to waste their time filling out a posh type. There are numerous free and reasonably priced instruments you need to use to make interactive quizzes and polls.

• Design an infographic that customers can discover and work together with. They’re additionally extremely shareable, which can assist you attain a wider viewers. You should utilize interactive infographics in your web site to showcase your organization historical past, educate your viewers and even narrate your model story.

• Construct an interactive instrument or calculator that enables customers to enter information and see personalised outcomes. You’ll find a artistic strategy to embrace this technique no matter your area of interest. You probably have a health-centric weblog, you would embrace a calorie-intake calculator. Alternatively, if you’re in actual property, you would add a mortgage calculator.

• Create an interactive recreation or problem that encourages customers to finish duties or obtain objectives. Guarantee that the sport you create is related to your model. You may ask questions associated to your organization or product or take a look at guests’ data of basic details in your area of interest.

There are countless potentialities on the subject of creating interactive content material, so get artistic and experiment to see what works greatest for you and your viewers. With the correct strategy, you possibly can take your content material technique to the subsequent degree with interactive content material and really have interaction along with your viewers like by no means earlier than.

The Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only neighborhood for main enterprise and profession coaches. Do I qualify?

Digital advertising and marketing boot camp open to native companies

Native companies can improve their on-line presence with skilled recommendation being supplied at an upcoming digital advertising and marketing boot camp.

The Brantford-Brant Enterprise Useful resource Enterprise Middle , in partnership with Enterprise Brant and the Chamber of Commerce Brantford-Brant, is internet hosting the occasion on Oct. 19 from 11:30 am to five pm on the TownePlace Suites Marriott, 30 Fen Ridge Crt., Brantford.

Audio system are: Tim Campbell-Smith, digital advertising and marketing coach and advisor; Samantha Gernhart, founding father of Readability Advertising and Design; Adam Hislop, founder and inventive director of Atomic Spark; and Lucas Duguid, proprietor and inventive director of Octopus Purple.

“Our aim is to supply companies with the instruments and sources wanted to excel within the digital age,” mentioned Mae Legg, useful resource middle supervisor. “We’re additionally trying ahead to listening to from our 4 visitor audio system who’re native enterprise success tales.”

The boot camp supplies their greatest practices and strategies to construct small enterprise on-line.

Tickets price $50, which incorporates lunch and networking with business specialists and group members. Register or be taught extra at bit.ly/BRCBootcamp

The useful resource middle is presenting the occasion in partnership with the Federal Financial Improvement Company for Southern Ontario, Enterprise Brant; Fed Dev Ontario Small Enterprise Companies, Chamber of Commerce Brantford-Brant, Metropolis of Brantford and Brant County.

Halloween Charcuterie Board – Eat Your self Skinny

Construct the spookiest Halloween Charcuterie Board excellent to your subsequent celebration! Stuffed with an assortment of your favourite cheeses, meats, crackers, recent fruits, nuts and different enjoyable ghoulish treats!

Oh how I really like this time of yr and I had a lot enjoyable making this festive Halloween charcuterie board! Whether or not you’re throwing a celebration or simply entertaining a small gathering at house, this spooky unfold is bound to be a success with everybody! A scrumptious candy and savory combo of your favourite cheeses, meats, crackers, recent fruit, nuts and different enjoyable additions. Add spooky decorations and you’ve got the final word themed board prepared for Halloween!

Why I Love this Charcuterie Board

Tremendous simple to customise and enjoyable to make!
A scrumptious candy and savory combo with one thing everybody will get pleasure from.
Spooky decorations make this board further festive.
The right addition to your Halloween celebration, after college snack board for teenagers or a easy appetizer to share with buddies!

Tips on how to Make a Halloween Charcuterie Board

The Cheeses

I all the time wish to have all kinds of cheeses as a result of everyone seems to be completely different in what they like, however I wish to serve not less than 3 differing kinds on my board – agency, mushy and semi-soft cheeses. Here’s what I used:

Cheddar cheese – that is all the time a traditional favourite and the intense orange appears nice consistent with the Halloween theme. I used these tremendous cute Halloween cookie cutters to chop pumpkins out of the cheese after which reduce all of the remaining cheese “scraps” into cubes as a result of we do NOT waste cheese round right here!
Brie – I wish to have a wide range of agency and mushy cheeses on my board and creamy brie is all the time a winner! I reduce little ghosts out of the brie utilizing these small cookie cutters and you can even high them with some honey or jam. You simply need to ensure the brie is actually chilly and agency earlier than utilizing the cutters as a result of in any other case the cheese will likely be too mushy. I additionally discovered it useful to slice the brie in half earlier than utilizing the cookie cutters as a result of not solely do you get double the ghosts, nevertheless it’s a lot simpler to push the cookie cutter by means of!
Jalapeo pepper jack – I really like a spicy cheese choice and that is one I all the time have on my boards. I reduce the cheese up into cubes so as to add peak and dimension, however you can do cheese slices and even depart it entire. Smoked gouda and goat cheese are different scrumptious choices!
Mozzarella balls – so mozzarella is just not a cheese I sometimes add to my boards, however they made excellent “eyeballs” for my spooky Halloween unfold! I positioned these enjoyable sweet eyeballs over high the balls and organized them in a bowl so as to add some selection on the board.

The Meats

Together with the cheeses, I all the time wish to have a wide range of cured meats on the board as nicely. Arranging them in enjoyable methods is an effective way to fill in any gaps you’ll have whereas additionally including completely different textures and dimension to the general board. Here’s what I used:

Prosciutto – that is all the time a favourite on cheese boards and since I used to be working with a skeleton I assumed it could be enjoyable to fill the chest with a few of this prosciutto! I did this by rolling the meat then chopping the rolls in half, inserting them reduce aspect within the skeleton.
Genoa salami – you may’t go flawed with this alternative and I like that this salami is simple to work with when styling your board. I wish to both fold them up and organize them across the cheeses or bowls, or you may pile the salami up in sure areas to fill in any gaps and add some dimension.

Recent and dried fruit

When constructing this Halloween-themed board, I needed to stay with fruit that’s plentiful throughout this season. Fruit is all the time a success and the sweetness pairs so nicely with the salty and savory flavors on the board. Here is what I used:

Grapes – I LOVE including grapes to my board any time of the yr! They all the time look wonderful when displayed and the inexperienced colour appears actually good with the Halloween colours we’re going for.
Blackberries – the deep attractive colour of blackberries simply scream “spooky” to me! Figs are one other nice choice.
Apple slices – consistent with the autumn season recent apples are the place its at! I used inexperienced apples to go together with the colours of the board, however any sort of apples will work.
Dried apricots – I wish to have a combination of recent and dried fruit on my charcuterie boards and this orange colour simply saved with the theme.

Assortment of crackers

Your cheese wants a car, proper?? I like to make use of an assortment of various kinds of crackers so as to add a pleasant selection and choices that everybody will love. Strive getting completely different dimension and form crackers as nicely. I discovered some nice ones at Dealer Joe’s! To show them, you may unfold them out across the cheeses, fan them out in numerous locations and even pile them in any gaps you’ll have in your board. The probabilities are countless and providing a superb selection is all the time a plus!

Spooky Extras!

Right here is the place you add all of the little enjoyable objects and garnishes that not solely make your board tremendous festive to take a look at, however a lot extra plentiful!

I added some walnuts, chocolate coated peanuts and a few pimento stuffed inexperienced olives which added a superb spooky factor.
Different enjoyable choices embody marcona almonds, spiced pecans or cashews, different salty objects like pickles, and even scrumptious spreads like jam, honey and even hummus.
I additionally adorned it with some faux plastic spiders to make the board look creepy and these enjoyable skeleton palms which added the proper of entirety! Oh, and remember the cobwebs!
You may additionally add some enjoyable Halloween sweet like traditional sweet corn or

What Form of Board Ought to I Use?

So relying on the place I am displaying this platter, I often all the time go for a medium sized board, however that is the place you will get inventive! Do not feel like you must persist with only a traditional cheeseboard, you need to use a chopping board, a spherical or sq. picket pizza board, various kinds of serving platters, slate or stone boards or you may even use a big baking sheet. Any flat floor will work actually. You possibly can even place some brown paper down and construct it proper there in your desk! Discuss concerning the final centerpiece. Be at liberty to make use of no matter you will have at house, however THIS board is a private favourite for on a regular basis entertaining and the handles make it simple for transporting!

Suggestions and Methods for Creating this Cheese Board

When assembling your Halloween cheese board, you may need to begin off by inserting the most important objects on first equivalent to any small bowls you may be utilizing for spreads alongside along with your cheeses. Working from giant to small makes your board a lot simpler to construct as you may simply drop any little objects like nuts and dried fruit in piles to fill in any gaps.
Slicing your cheeses in numerous methods, crumbling, and leaving some entire creates nice texture and dimension!
If you’re utilizing a smaller board, go for solely 2 cheeses and unfold them out elsewhere across the board. This offers the phantasm of your board being extra full and plentiful! Alternatively, utilizing an additional giant board means that you can add extra textures, bowls and different enjoyable objects.
Strive including completely different spreads like fig or apricot jam, honey mustard, hummus or honey that you could place in several bowls. Simply remember the spreaders and cheese knives!
Cheese tastes finest at room temperature so I all the time wish to assemble the cheeseboard about an hour or half-hour earlier than, holding it wrapped in order that the cheese does not dry out.
Do not forget the wine!

Extra Charcuterie Boards You may Love

Hope you all get pleasure from this Halloween Charcuterie Board and in the event you love this recipe as a lot as we do, please depart me a five-star ranking beneath and remember to tag me on Instagram utilizing the hashtag #eatyourselfskinny! I really like seeing all of your scrumptious recreations!

Components

Cheese:

16 oz sharp cheddar cheese
8 oz creamy brie cheese spherical
8 oz jalapeo pepper jack cheese
8 oz recent mozzarella balls (ciliegine) with ornamental eyeballs

Meats:

4 oz prosciutto
4 oz genoa salami

Fruits:

Blackberries
Inexperienced grapes
Inexperienced apple slices
Dried apricots

Crackers:

Every little thing bagel seasoned crackers
Fig and olive crisps

Different Additions:

Directions

Begin by including the most important objects first like several bowls (together with the skeleton if you’re utilizing that) after which add all of the cheeses.
Subsequent add the meats and fruits.
Then fill in all of the gaps with the numerous crackers, nuts and chocolate coated peanuts. Prime with spooky little spiders and different enjoyable additions. Take pleasure in!

9 Methods Memes Can Change Your Enterprise

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.

The so-called “creator economic system” spans a vastly various area with merchandise together with dance movies on TikTok, crocheted doilies on Etsy and eye-popping memes on iFunny. It’s turning into a formidable power. In 2021 alone, the creator economic system raised a document $1.3 billion in funding, underscoring the funding group’s vote of confidence in its future. Quick ahead to 2022, and memes are clearly not only for laughs.

The sector’s trailblazers — behemoths like Meta and extra specialised leisure tech gamers like FunCorp, whose group I used to be privileged to hitch in 2021 — had been lucky to be on the forefront of many trade modifications, together with the explosion of memes into popular culture.

Associated: The Secret to Constructing Model Devotion is Not a Loyalty Program. Here is What Buyer’s Actually Need.

Revolutionary gamers throughout industries are harnessing their energy to construct communities and encourage sturdy sentiment round their model for the advantage of the enterprise. Listed below are some thrilling new methods during which memes will help you obtain your strategic aims, each as they relate to your clients and your groups:

Attain a youthful viewers. Memes do not have a goal age, however in case you are eager to seize a bigger a part of the youthful demographic, they could be the simplest medium of short-form communication. Roughly 54% of Gen-Zs, 41% of Millennials, and 21% of Gen-Xers search for new memes every single day, in response to GlobalWebIndex information, whereas 75% of customers aged 13-36 repeatedly share memes. Contemplating these stats, utilizing memes to assist your company messages attain youthful clients and potential companions looks as if a no brainer.
Mount a low-cost advertising and marketing marketing campaign. When completed proper, a meme that takes a restricted price range to create can leverage the ability of social media to go viral, which implies your meme advertising and marketing marketing campaign has the potential to go viral as properly. Firms throughout sectors, from grocery supply gamers to luxurious retailers, are already utilizing this to their benefit, with Gucci’s meme-based advert marketing campaign “#TFWGucci” (“That Feeling When Gucci”) representing one of many firm’s highest participating advert marketing campaign, producing over 21,000 feedback and a pair of million likes. Apps like Yepp have built-in enhancing instruments that simplify meme creation, even for a novice, serving to take the artwork of meme-making into the mainstream.
Improve engagement along with your social media pages. When you get pleasure from memes, you understand the web will get flooded with intelligent takes on trending information. You may hold observe of well-liked memes and share those which are topical and well-aligned along with your company picture to gas better engagement along with your viewers on-line. A latest analysis report highlighted the advantages of this technique, revealing that whereas millennials usually eschew industrial and sponsored content material, 84% of them are influenced by user-generated content material, together with memes on firm pages.
Assist your model stand out. Given the short-form nature of meme content material and its punchy messaging type and visuals, memes can keep in your reminiscence lengthy after you have clicked on them. There’s a technique to leverage this by incorporating memes into your branding, guaranteeing higher model recall than different communication codecs. It is a crowded house, and memes assist break by means of the wall of indifference and seize shopper consideration. One firm nailing that is Barkbox, an organization promoting canine toy subscription packing containers. Barkbox has racked up a powerful 1.8 million followers on its Instagram web page by virtually completely sharing memes. It now surpasses the follower depend of the nation’s largest pet retailer — PetSmart — by a cool 1 million folks.
Construct model loyalty. Whereas conventional advertising and marketing could alienate some shoppers by being overly aspirational (assume seaside physique advertisements, reels for the newest eating regimen dietary supplements), memes are inclined to unite folks by reminding them that they aren’t alone of their ideas and emotions. In doing so, memes develop into a strong device for community-building, serving to foster a way of belonging amongst shoppers that interprets into model loyalty.
Align your onboarding along with your office tradition. Beginning a brand new job is usually a daunting expertise, and deciphering the work tradition at your new workplace could be tough. When you pleasure your self on fostering a novel working setting removed from the stuffy, hierarchical places of work of the previous, then utilizing memes to welcome new staff could be a great way to focus on this. Memes, when chosen appropriately, will help your new group members perceive the brand new office higher and simply match into it.
Encourage group constructing. Memes have the ability to encourage sturdy emotions, which laugh-out-loud content material tends to do. Whereas memes are most frequently used for exterior advertising and marketing in enterprise, company tradition gurus at the moment are additionally trying to memes, searching for extra methods to unite and encourage staff. Creating work channels for sharing your favourite memes or holding company competitions for one of the best memes created by staff on a selected subject of relevance could be an uncommon and enjoyable technique to encourage group constructing. They usually can definitely assist boost a presentation when used successfully.
Boost inner communications. Deploying a mixture of topical memes in inner communications will help you drive your key factors dwelling and even inject some enjoyable into the driest of matters. It’s nice to listen to the group break down into real laughter throughout an inner new product presentation or a weekly group assembly, and memes are a fast and easy technique to obtain this, inserting a little bit of enjoyable into the on a regular basis. Considering past inner comms, company and investor shows would possibly profit from memes in the identical method as properly.
Assist break up monotonous duties. Not each job can at all times be thrilling, as monotonous duties are sometimes a obligatory a part of a job and can’t be averted. On the similar time, feeling engaged is a key part of worker satisfaction and retention. Take into account making small modifications for large impacts, like inserting a “meme of the day” into your group’s workflow and even ask the group to recommend their very own appropriate memes for a little bit of enjoyable and to encourage social interactions to assist break up the monotony of some tedious duties that can not be reduce from the work routine.

Associated: Tips on how to Use Memes To Rework Your Advertising Technique

Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy names Calvin Renfroe new head football coach

Calvin Renfroe was named new head football coach at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy after seven years as an assistant coach at Olivet Nazarene University in the NAIA.

Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy has hired Calvin Renfroe as its new head football coach.

Renfroe is currently the offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator at Olivet Nazarene, an NAIA school in Bourbonnais, Illinois. He has been there for seven years.

Prior to that, he was offensive coordinator and QB coach for five seasons at Johnson Ferry Christian Academy, a private high school in Georgia. He helped that team to one state championship and two state runner-up finishes.

He graduated from Trinity International University (Illinois) with a bachelors degree in business marketing in 2006. He helped TIU reach the NAIA playoffs once and get two top-20 national rankings.

He also received a Masters degree in organizational leadership from Olivet Nazarene in 2019 while coaching there.

He took over a CHCA program that went 5-6 last season. He replaced KC Woods, who went 12-17 in his three seasons at CHCA, leading the Eagles to a pair of playoff appearances. Woods moved to Florida to take an assistant principal and head football coaching job there.

Renfroe and his wife Lisa have three children.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy names new head football coach

An In-Depth Guide For Every Business Owner Today

Marketers have used videos since the 1940s, but the term “video marketing” has gained momentum in the last decade.

Google’s purchase of YouTube in 2006 can be considered a critical turning point in the growth of video marketing.

Video marketing is a hot discussion topic and a focus area for every marketing team, regardless of the industry or size of the organization.

So, for readers still confused about the term video marketing, here is a standard definition that explains it: Video marketing is leveraging videos to educate, entertain, and engage the audience to achieve your business or personal goals.

These can be short how-to videos, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, YouTube videos, and more.

Why Video Marketing?

Video marketing has gained so much traction over the last decade that almost every business is exploring it now.

There are several reasons behind the increased adoption of video as a content format for marketing. Here are some of them:

Humans love visuals more than words: Our brain processes visuals much faster than words, and an MIT study found that we can identify images we’ve seen for as little as 13 milliseconds. With the dwindling attention span of your audience, videos are the best bet to grab their attention.
Videos evoke emotions: Through impactful storytelling, videos can evoke the right emotions in viewers. Creators can plan their storytelling based on the goals they are trying to achieve with their content.
Videos engage multiple senses of viewers: A video can engage a viewer’s senses, like sight and hearing. This helps evoke emotions and persuade.

Key Business Goals Videos Can Help You Achieve

Video content can help businesses achieve several of their goals and objectives. Some of these goals include:

Boosting website traffic & engagement: Video is an effective medium for driving quality traffic to your website and increasing engagement with your brand.
Building a social media community: Video can act as both an entertaining and an educational resource for audiences. By providing this type of value to people, video content can help you engage with social media users and grow your social community.
Customer acquisition and retention: Video can be used to educate potential prospects on your brand, your product, and your value proposition. In this sense, it is often helpful in converting people into customers and, ultimately, boosting your bottom line.
Raising content consumption: There’s no doubt that video is one of the most popular and highly-consumed content formats today – so leveraging it on the right platforms to tell the right stories can help you reach more people.
Gaining thought leadership: Provided you follow best practices and focus on unique storytelling, videos can help you stand out in a crowded marketplace and tell your story.
Improving customer experience: Video content can augment your efforts to deliver the best experience for your customers, whether that’s through product explainers, how-tos, and tutorials, or customer case studies.

Statistics Proving The Rise Of Video Marketing

To understand the power and dominance of video in the world of marketing, we need to look at some of the latest statistics from Wyzowl’s 2022 State of Video Marketing report:

86% of businesses used video as part of their marketing strategy in 2022.
81% of marketers said videos have helped them increase sales in 2022.
94% of viewers have watched explainer videos to learn more about products or services in 2022.
87% of marketers say videos have helped them increase traffic in 2022.

It’s clear from these statistics alone that video has become an integral part of the average company’s marketing strategy, irrespective of size and industry.

And while, in the past, marketers faced challenging barriers to entry with video content, such as high costs, inadequate tools, and lack of access to talent, the advent of affordable plug-and-play tools has made video content doable for any business today.

Video Formats Dominating Marketing Now

If you are exploring videos as part of your content strategy, this is the best time to research and think about how you’ll approach video content.

There is a wide range of platforms and formats available for marketers and business owners to experiment with when it comes to telling your brand story.

Questions To Ask Before Building Your Video Marketing Strategy

With the various formats available for your video marketing, you’ll need to ask yourself a few critical questions before kicking off your video marketing efforts.

Please answer the following questions honestly, so they can help you build an authentic and powerful video content strategy for your business.

Do you know your audience well? Knowing your audience well is the cornerstone of your video marketing success.
Does your audience consume video content? If you answer “no” here, there is no point wasting your energy or resources on video marketing.
Do you have a compelling story (or stories) to tell your audience? Every business must have an interesting story to tell its audience. If you don’t know yours, it’s time to go find it!
Do you have the time and resources to run a video marketing strategy? This critical question will help you decide what gaps you might need to fill to make your program successful.
How committed are you to successfully running a video marketing program? Video marketing, like any other marketing tactic, will demand your long-term commitment to bring results to your business.

All these questions will deliver the right answers to build a successful video marketing program.

Building A Powerful Video Marketing Strategy

A well-designed video marketing strategy can do wonders for your business or personal brand.

Video content can be leveraged for various goals for your business, like improving brand awareness, increasing website traffic, generating leads, booking demos, and much more.

Since videos can often pique an audience’s attention quickly, they can help you achieve your goals if executed correctly.

Here are the basic steps you can follow to build an effective video marketing strategy for your business:

Audience Research (Including A Buyer Persona Exercise)

The first step in building an effective video strategy is researching your audience.

Your goal during this step is to understand your audience’s demographics, challenges, and content preferences.

This exercise will help you determine whether video content will be useful in solving your target audience’s challenges.

Determining The Themes For Video Storytelling

Once you are clear on your audience’s preferences, you can move on to identify some key themes you can use in your content strategy.

These themes will help you decide on content types and stories you can tell using videos.

These themes can be educational, holidays, events, regular updates, and more.

Identifying The Right Tools For The Program

Once the theme is clear, you can move on to identify the right tools needed for your video marketing strategy.

These can be tools for the creation, topic research, SEO, content distribution, and performance tracking of videos.

Choosing The Right People For The Program

The most critical element for the program’s success is the people running it.

If you are a small business owner, this could be you! Or, if you are strapped for time, you may have to hire or identify the right people for the job.

Putting The Right Measurement Mechanism In Place

The success of your video content strategy depends on how to monitor and measure performance.

Identify the crucial metrics for your goals, and put mechanisms in place for measuring them consistently.

Improving The Video Strategy Consistently

Constant monitoring will help you determine the changes needed to increase the effectiveness of your video marketing.

Keep improving the program by incorporating timely modifications to enhance the performance of your content.

Storytelling Tips For Effective Video Marketing

As a business owner, you might be faced with some questions, such as:

What stories can I tell using videos?
Will my stories even appeal to my audience?
How will I consistently tell stories using video content?
Can I sustain this journey of video marketing?

Let’s get real for a moment.

Video storytelling is not a simple task. It requires dedication, commitment, and continuous focus from the creator.

Here are some storytelling tips for every business owner who is building their video strategy:

Be authentic: Authentic stories are more likely to strike a chord with your audience – so try to keep your content original and depict a true-to-life representation of your brand.
Be consistent: Video marketing, like any other marketing tactic, will demand consistency more than anything else. Be consistent with your video content and stay on course.
Experiments: Always be experimenting with your video content. As new formats appear regularly, you should be agile to test them and find what resonates with your target audience.
Be customer-centric: Customer-centricity will be a critical element for the success of your video marketing strategy. Align your content to your customers, their challenges, and how you will solve them for the best results.
Be thick-skinned: With highly visual content like videos, you will always run into feedback and criticism. Make sure to take constructive notes on the board, but also develop the resilience to ignore the rest and keep at it.

Tools To Support Your Video Marketing

Many tools are available to help you execute an effective video marketing program.

Here are some cost-effective and user-friendly options for every business owner:

Animoto: A video creation software that provides readymade templates to help you create various videos for social media and other marketing purposes.
Canva: A graphic design and video platform with the largest collection of templates to support your video marketing.
TubeBuddy: Your go-to tool for managing and growing your YouTube video marketing.
StreamYard: A tool that helps you schedule and run live streams and webinars for your business.
Lumens5: Enables faster video creation for business owners from blogs and written content.
looms: Powerful screen recording software for creating educational and promotional videos on the go.
inVideo: A video creation platform with handy templates to suit your video content needs.
YouTube: The perfect platform to upload your video content for your target audience.
Speechelo: An easy-to-use tool for creating professional voice-overs for your videos.
Vyond: A video platform for creating impactful animated and whiteboard explainer videos.

Some Content Ideas For Kickstarting Your Video Marketing

To help you kickstart your video marketing, here are some content ideas for you to test, depending on your appetite and resources:

An intro video for your business: Create a video explaining your business, the unique value it provides, and who it serves.
An animated video for your product/service: Develop an animated video explaining your product and highlighting its top features.
A live streaming show with stakeholders: If you’re feeling brave, try launching a live streaming show for social media with guests like influencers and your customers.
Behind-the-scenes live content: Similarly, you could use tools like Instagram Stories to broadcast ad-hoc live sessions that showcase the behind-the-scenes of your business and team.
Demo videos for your product: Prepare screen recording videos of your product and its features for your customers.

In conclusion

To conclude, video marketing can be a game-changer for your business in 2023.

All you need to do is understand your customers and their challenges and plan video content that focuses on solutions to those challenges.

Dedicate time and resources to create video content per your strategy – and keep it consistent.

And as James Wedmore says,

“Stop thinking of video marketing as this separate entity that is optional for your business.
Videos are an effective form of communication that needs to be integrated into each and every aspect of your existing marketing efforts.”

Happy video marketing!

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Featured Image: vichie81/Shutterstock

Who’s the viral Masters Girl? We found her in Lubbock

LUBBOCK, Texas– Texas Tech University freshman, Aaliyah Kikumoto, made headlines at the Masters Tournament Easter Weekend as the “The Masters Girl” as determined by the internet.

Prior to becoming a viral sensation, Kikumoto enrolled as a Business Marketing major and a proud member of the TTU Pom Squad.

She told EverythingLubbock.com she’s always wanted to be famous on social media for what she’s “best at.” Talking about dance and being ‘The Masters Girl” was a great start to that.

“I can continue all of this and continue growing and becoming…[a] really good dancer that also is the Masters Girl.”

Kikumoto explained that the viral video came to be when she was waiting on a golfer to make his putt. She started laughing with her dad when she realized the cameras were on her.

She said golf has been an activity she and her family have done together since she was a child and started tagging along to the Masters with her father and grandfather last year.

Her parents showcased their pride for their daughter’s viral moment in a social media post that said “YAY!!! Repping Texas Tech!!! Go TTU Poms!!!! So proud of my hubby [Charles Kikumoto] and TTU Poms daughter Aaliyah!!!!”

Aaliyah Kikumoto at the Texas Tech vs West Virginia 2022 football game in Lubbock (Nexstar/Jason Davis)
Aaliyah Kikumoto at the Texas Tech vs West Virginia 2022 football game in Lubbock (Nexstar/Jason Davis)

She also said her friends on the pom squad wasted no time reminding her that she is in fact an internet celebrity when she returned to campus on Tuesday.

“All my friends [were] coming up like getting on a knee. They’re like, oh my goodness, it’s [the] Masters Girl. My friends were like flashing flashlights to like, pretend to be like paparazzi like it was just so funny.”

One of Kikumoto’s friends, Ava, told EverythingLubbock.com that she and some of the other girls have not given her a break since returning to campus after Easter weekend. She also said Kikumoto was one of the nicest and most upbeat people you could ever meet.

Kikumoto said she plans to spend the next four years on the TTU Pom Squad and working towards her degree.