Animated Short Films are the Way to Go for Online Video Marketing

animated video, Social Media Marketing, Video marketing, Viral marketing, , , ,

Animated videos have become a mainstay in online video marketing but not many companies have gotten it right.  Chipotle is an exception! If you haven’t seen these videos by Chipotle then you’ve missed, not only a great marketing campaign, but emotionally charged videos with a great message behind them. This is exactly what people want to share online, something that’s short, gets a point across, emotional and thought provoking.  Chipotle is leading the way with online video marketing but they’re also taking a step in the right direction by taking a moral and eco-friendly stand by utilizing locally based and minimally processed foods.

Here is the first one they made in 2012 called “Back to the Start” which won the 2012 Cannes Grand Prix:

Here is the follow up animated short film called “Scarecrow” which I believe will win another award:

Both videos were made in conjunction with CAA Marketing.

By Peter Marino, the owner and CDO of reelWebDesign.com and SocialMediaMarketing.co, both of which are website development and social media marketing companies in NYC.

Sales Coach, Business Coach, Executive Coach; Which should I Choose?

Blogging, Business Tech, Small Business Marketing

Small business coachLooking for a business coach is a process that no entrepreneur or manager should take lightly. Choosing the right coach can mean a significant difference in the company’s bottom line as well as the business owner’s satisfaction with his or her company. Selecting the wrong coach can lead to wasting money on advice that isn’t particularly helpful. Sales coaches, business coaches, and executive coaches all are people who can assist business owners, but each has pros and cons that should be considered carefully.

Looking for a business coach is a process that no entrepreneur or manager should take lightly. Choosing the right coach can mean a significant difference in the company’s bottom line as well as the business owner’s satisfaction with his or her company. Selecting the wrong coach can lead to wasting money on advice that isn’t particularly helpful. Sales coaches, business coaches, and executive coaches all are people who can assist business owners, but each has pros and cons that should be considered carefully.

Sales Coaches

A sales coach’s job is to help people learn to sell. Often business owners believe very much in their company’s mission and product or service but are unable to determine the best way to convince others to make the purchase. A good sales coach is someone with a background in sales and marketing and the ability to teach others how to work on their pitch and how to deal with clients. The downside of working with a sales coach is they are focused solely on how to make a sale and cannot provide information about other aspects of business. Someone who is not entirely sales-focused may not be a good fit for a sales coach.

Business Coaches

A business coach can aid business owners in making their business ideas work. An entrepreneur who is having trouble putting together a solid business plan or executing ideas can use a business coach to flesh out those issues. The primary benefit of a business coach is as a sounding board. Business coaches can help to put an idea into motion. The downside of using a business coach is that many of these coaches dictate the way that a person starts his or her business. If a business coach is not intimately familiar with the industry in which an entrepreneur’s idea is situated, he or she may give advice that is not beneficial to that person. A medical supply company has significantly different needs from a software company, for example, and the wrong business coach could lead to poor advice for the business owner.

Executive Coaches

The executive coach is in many ways the “advanced” level coach for business owners. Once a company is up and running, the needs of the company change. The business owner, whose true interest likely lies with the company’s initial mission, has to switch gears to working on staffing, networking, and maintaining the company’s assets. An executive coach is able to work with business owners to help them transition their thinking to these issues and understand how best to organize the company in order to   succeed. Executive coaches work only for people who want to adopt a specific management style. People who are still evolving their companies would not do well with an executive coach because the goal is to learn to manage a business, not to build it.

Conclusion

Before committing to a specific type of coaching for business owners, be sure to consider exactly what your needs are and then how each type of coach can provide help for you as you grow your business.

Peter Marino, is a business consultant  for SocialMediaMarketing.co, a full service creative coaching and social media training company based in NYC.

A Surefire Plan For Web Success Using YouTube

Video marketing, YouTube Marketing, , ,

There’s no such thing as a sure thing when it comes to online success and you never know what’s going to happen after you’ve released your site into the world. For all you know, someone else might release a mega-site targeting exactly the same keywords as you as soon as you release yours. Or you may find that the niche you’re writing for suddenly becomes incredibly unpopular… anything could happen. So sorry if the title here was a little bit bombastic, but it got you here didn’t it?

And while this strategy might not actually be sure fire, it’s certainly one that is pretty effective and which many webmasters could use to great effect. It involves using YouTube. Let me show you why you’re not getting the most out of the video sharing site…

Why YouTube?

Many webmasters will focus on targeting keywords in Google and will completely forget the power of YouTube. Actually, YouTube is a great way to promote your site and a lot of people click those links in the descriptions: especially if you mention them in your articles. YouTube is after all the second most used search engine in the world after Google, and the best thing about this is that it doesn’t have anywhere near the competition. If you want to rank for ‘make money online’, then you have a much better chance of doing that on YouTube and you’ll benefit from almost all the same results.

Also important to bear in mind is just what an impact a YouTube video can make. People like getting information through videos because it lets them do other things while they listen/watch. I will only rarely read a review if there’s the option of watching one on YouTube.   And in the time I spend watching that video, I’ll get a much better idea of that site’s style and approach and will be made far more aware of the branding. Plus the subscription feature means that I can very easily find my favourite sites again which isn’t an option when you use Google – that’s almost like free advertising.

How to Use YouTube

How to use YouTube

So how do you use YouTube effectively? Well first of all you need to think about the videos you could make to add value to your site. For a tech site for instance this might mean making video reviews, or demonstrating how to do certain things. For a fitness site it might mean making videos of different training plans. You could do Q&As, music videos, ‘let’s play’ videos or anything else.

Now make sure that the videos are made well and with high production values. Making your video in HD will make all the difference to the way people see your site and to how often they end up watching you. Include your links in the description and make as many of these videos as you can – volume will help you to get noticed and to luck upon hit.

Now watch as your subscribers swell, and as more and more people start visiting your site to see what it’s all about. There you have, web success through YouTube.

Today’s feature writer, Keith Terrell, enjoys sharing his knowledge with those who could benefit from it. He owns a link removal company called Orp Media, which specializes in Google penalty recovery services.

5 Best SEO Software Tools

content marketing, SEO, SEO tools, Small Business Marketing, ,

5 best seo toolsBehind every SEO company that is doing well, there is a good SEO software tools set. There are many both premium and free resources to assist everybody from do-it-yourself webmasters to the seasoned SEO professionals to optimize websites. Below is a look at the 5 best SEO software tools that will help you get the full benefit of your SEO campaigns.

1. SEOmoz Pro

SEOmoz, the world’s biggest SEO community produces SEO software tools obtainable with their SEOmoz Pro membership like the well-liked Open Site Explorer Tool. There are many resources available to assist you with on-page analysis, link analysis, competitor analysis and keyword analysis as well as monitoring and tracking SEO campaigns all in a single user-friendly management platform.

2. Google Analytics

This is among the most influential SEO software tools when you comprehend the usage of every report to get the ability to take out web metrics that are relevant and useful to your site. You may learn valuable insights regarding your visitors which you can use for tweaking and improving campaigns. The Google Webmaster Tools is currently integrated with Google Analytics. Among the standard free SEO software reports are tools are: Content Analytics, Analysis Tools, Advertising Analytics, Conversion Analytics, Mobile Analytics and Social Analytics.

3. SEOBook

This is a leading SEO training tool and it offers a variety of free as well as premium SEO software tools for SEO newbies as well as the optimization gurus. These tools will prove very helpful with your off-page as well as on-page optimization from assisting you to set goals that are realistic for your campaigns through to following up and monitoring campaigns. Particular SEO resources that are produced by SEOBook include Premium Web-based SEO software tools, Premium Firefox Extensions, Free Firefox Extensions and Free Web-based SEO tools.

4. CopyScape

This is a simple and handy free tool used for checking duplication of published content on your website as well as on external websites. With the CopyScape Premium, you are able to check if content has been duplicated prior to having it published on your website. CopyScape Copysentry additionally protects your site against content theft and plagiarism by monitoring the web as well as emailing you incase the application sports any content duplication.

5. Whitespark Local Citation Finder

Among the main factors to high rankings in the local searches are ‘local citations’. The Whitespark Local Citation Finder is an amazing tool to find citation chances. Citations, also referred to as web mentions occur when a site ‘cites’ a business’s name, address as well as telephone number (NAP). A website address doesn’t have to be included so as to be considered a citation. The citation sources can be searched for by a phone number or a keyword phrase.

Conclusively, learning the usage of SEO tools can help you make adjustments to your site as well as give you a better perceptive of the procedures being used by your SEO Company to boost your Search Engine rankings. However, when choosing an SEO company, you have to be careful to choose a good one. There are some companies in the market that offer very cheap prices but their services are of a poor quality. Ensure to get a reliable company with high quality services and reasonable rates.

Our guest post, by Mathew, is a blogger interested in software development, SEO, Google AdWords and digital marketing. He works for INX, a FIFO Software developer in Perth, Western Australia.