The Benefits of Video Marketing for Business

“The Benefits of Video Marketing for Business written for the Milton Chamber of Commerce Newsletter”

A few years ago I read an interesting article in the Globe and Mail that left a lasting impression on me. The article explains how presidents and business owners in this fast pace economic climate consume information; in short snippets of written text and online videos. The article detailed that preference is given to watching online videos. Video engages more senses than written text which only uses one medium.

The fact that there is somewhat of a video revolution going on is not new. You Tube has now become the second largest search engine on the internet; it has become so popular that it receives more visitors every day than the company that owns it, Google. There are literally billions of daily views of videos online and there not just videos of furry puppies chasing their tails. Businesses are leveraging the power of this tool to educate their audience.

In fact, this summer was a perfect personal example of the power of this media. We were at the cottage for the Canada Day Long Weekend, on beautiful Lake Temagami. My sister bought a tent for my nephew. On the day of the camping trip the instructions did not do justice to the task of assembling this monster in the 3 easy steps that were recommended. She surfed over to You Tube and there was a step by step video from the manufacturer on how to assemble the tent. 1-2-3 Done!

The Milton Chamber of Commerce recently launched a Video Profile Program in partnership with Creative Bube Tube offering a web commercial for member only businesses. This unique way of marketing not only provides a visual experience of your business to other Chamber members and local online customers but it also opens your business to a national and international marketplace. Take advantage of this program by calling the Chamber for details today!

Here are a few of the many benefits of online video marketing for your business today:

• People Like Viewing Videos: As I mentioned above, people are watching billions of videos every day, it’s today’s preferred method of communication. Businesses are now using this media for; providing helpful advice and product demonstrations, client video testimonials, sale and event promotion, how-to -videos and product reviews, store front walk- through and online commercials etc. Remember, online audiences are more excited about watching than they are about reading content. Video offers a better quality experience to your prospective customer.
• Search Engine Optimization Benefits and Website Stickiness: When posting a video on You Tube, a website or blog and properly tagging (keyword labelling) it increases your internet search ranking. Videos now appear in Google search results or SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page).  Video can also cause prospective online customers to spend more time on your website or sticking to your site longer reducing your bounce rate (The more compelling your website the more visitors will stay on your site and convert to customers or clients).
• Increase Branding and Credibility:  By uniquely branding your videos you can increase your business visibility and reach by displaying your logo and website on the video. Videos can also position you and your company as thought leaders or experts in your field giving you more online credibility.
• Global Audience Reach: If you’re looking for a way to expand your business outside of Milton to an international marketplace a video on YouTube can open your business to the world. Imagine the possibilities if your video went viral across the internet!

These are but a few of the many reasons to look into posting video for your business. Grab your digital video cameras or call the Chamber today and take advantage of the Video Profile Program.

See you online!

Richard Bolton

Centricity360 Consulting

VP Milton Chamber of Commerce

How fortunate we are! A Wealth of Hosted CRM

by Lauren CarlsonCRM Analyst, Software Advice
Jul 12, 2011

Read more:http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/crm/salesforce-alternatives-5-systems-to-consider-1052011/#ixzz1V6MVTvEc

15 Key Elements All Top Web Sites Should Have | FreelanceFolder

15 Key Elements All Top Web Sites Should Have | FreelanceFolder.

This is a dated article from 2008, but I believe these points still hold true for a website today.

Richard – Centricity360

Social Media – Leads via LinkedIn Groups Most Likely to Convert : MarketingProfs Article

When assisting clients with LinkedIn strategies to drive traffic to blogs, websites or landing pages, I try to make certain that they are positioning thought provoking content within LinkedIn groups to drive traffic from a targeted audience. This MarketingProfs article highlights some interesting statistics on this very subject: 

 Social Media – Leads via LinkedIn Groups Most Likely to Convert : MarketingProfs Article.

Richard Bolton – Centricity360

Optimizing Performance for CRM Online 2011 – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog – Site Home – MSDN Blogs

Internet Connectivity Bandwidth and Latency

Depending on how you configure CRM Online 2011, the application may need to make a number of round trips to the server to retrieve forms and data. This can have a real effect on performance especially when you consider the internet connectivity for a user or location. Even a high bandwidth connection can appear slow if the connection has a high degree of latency. Satellite links are an excellent example of this. A typical broadband Internet connection has latency of less than 100 ms, and 25 ms is desirable. A satellite Internet connection normally suffers from latency above 500 ms. When you have a lot of latency in your connections, you rarely “fill the pipe” with the amount of data it could theoretically handle. We have designed CRM Online to work best on networks with latency under 150 ms. There are a number of simple tools out there to measure bandwidth and latency. A common tool used is the ping command, but pinging the URLs used for CRM Online 2011 will not respond because we have disabled this for security reasons. You may also want to consider Visual Round Trip Analyzer , Fiddler, and httpwatch as alternative tools to measure network latency.

Internet Browser

The latest Internet Explorer 9 is available from Microsoft. With the enhancements to the browser, the performance can be enhanced when using CRM 2011 with this browser. IE 9 is not a requirement to run CRM 2011 however. It is recommended to run the “Fix It” after install, for more details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282402

System Customization and Design

1.  Consider your use of Javascript. A few lines of Javascript can greatly enhance the user experience by automatically updating data as a form loads or as data is changed. This can also cause a performance issue if there is a lot of javascript code running on a form. If you are using any jscript on your forms, make sure that code is optimized. It really can affect form load times, for example. There are a few good posts about this at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jscript/archive/tags/javascript+performance+ie/default.aspx.

Note: To test if Javascript is an issue with performance, we recommend removing all Javascript from a form to test the performance with and without Javascript to determine the extent to which the javascript customization may be affecting things.

2. Consider your use of iFrames. More iFrames on a form will result in slightly longer form load times. If your iFrame is not on the form’s primary tab, use onClick Jscript for the tab on which the iFrame resides. This way the iFrame isn’t loading every time a record is opened, only when a user clicks that tab.

3. Consider the number of Sub-Grids added to the form. Each sub-grids used in a form is querying the CRM Online system in the background for a set of data to load into the grid. While the query executes in the background, each sub-grid control adds more HTML to the page and will take slightly longer to load as a result.  With the recent update sub-grids are now loaded asychronously for better performance, however still keep in mind the more you have can still effect load time.

4. Consider using Role Based forms, CRM 2011 allows personal forms to display fields necessary pertaining to a user’s security role. This will auto hide certain fields that may not be necessary for all users.

5. Consider adjusting security roles to only allow users the functionality they need for specific records. The ribbon will update displaying the allowed functionality for the user for the specific records they are currently viewing. The less options displayed, may allow the ribbon to load faster.

6. Remove extraneous fields. Configure the form to only display fields needed for that record.

7. Check your machine. Be sure that your computer is suitable meeting the system requirements for CRM 2011. Note that the system requirements are minimal requirements needed to run CRM 2011 successfully (CRM 2011 Implementation Guide). However, increasing performance of a user’s machine based on hardware specs can increase performance as well.

Optimizing and Maintaining Microsoft Dynamics CRM White Paper

This link currently is focused on CRM 4.0, but still has relevant content that can help. An updated version will be released soon with two documents one for client and one for server.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=ba826cee-eddf-4d6e-842d-27fd654ed893&displaylang=en

Optimizing Performance in CRM Online Blog

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dynamicscrmonline/archive/2010/05/24/optimizing-performance-in-crm-online.aspx (this has been directed towards CRM 4.0, however many of the tips are related to the latest release CRM 2011).

CRM Online Update Release 1 Information

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=2466084

Optimizing Performance for CRM Online 2011 – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.

Article – eMarketer – Posting Strategies that Encourage Engagement on Facebook

APRIL 11, 2011

Companies should consider the day, time and content when writing posts.

Buddy Media analyzed the Facebook posts and engagement rates for more than 200 clients over the course of two weeks in January and February 2010. The agency measured engagement by looking at comments and “likes,” and factored in fanbase size.

According to Buddy Media, 60% of posts were published between 10am and 4pm. However, many Facebook users prefer to log on to the site before or after work, and their engagement with company posts is higher during those times.

By timing content to post when consumers are poised to be on Facebook, companies have a greater chance of being seen in a fan’s newsfeed. Additionally, the study found that engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursday and Friday than the other days of the week.

But that isn’t to say that marketers should only post on those days. Amy Morgan, public relations and social media manager at ConAgra Foods, is part of the team that oversees a Facebook page for Chef Boyardee’s Club Mum program targeting moms. The company posts several times a day.

“When you talk about building a community and building engagement, you need to have a consistent conversation,” Morgan said in an interview with eMarketer on February 22. “As far as Facebook, we post usually once or twice a day. It ebbs and flows, but once or twice a day is usually good.”

While the timing of posts often determines how engaged fans will be, their content is also important. Buddy Media found that shorter is better, as posts with 80 characters or less have a 27% higher engagement rate. Certain words also encourage engagement, particularly those that are instructions such as “like,” “post,” “take” and “comment,” as does asking a question at the end of a post.

For the Club Mum Facebook page, Morgan said that asking fans about their children is an easy way to get them to comment on a post. She said, “It’s about making this personal and really allowing the community to help build that conversation.”

Article – eMarketer.

Simple Marketing Formula…

I was reading a blog posting last week that I thought I’d share. Sometimes a really simple marketing formula can make a big difference in how to anticipate business growth for a new year.

It’s really important for small businesses owners to understand lead conversion. Lead conversion rate is basically the percentage of leads closed or converted to customers out of the total number of leads in a given year. The higher the lead conversion rate the faster you meet your business/revenue targets for the year.

Here is the excerpt from the posting on the Pollock Marketing Group website:

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