March 2016

Video for Small Business
There are two BIG reasons small business needs to start taking video seriously.
1) Facebook and 2) Frugality
The Explosion of Mobile On Facebook

“Mobile today equals mass media, a trend that offers brand marketers unprecedented opportunities to connect with people in incredibly personal ways on devices that are by their sides nearly 24/7.” – Rebecca Lieb of Altimeter Group
Last year Facebook announced that its video viewership doubled from 4 billion views per day to a staggering 8 billion views per day in just seven months. Facebook now lets users watch video while browsing the news feed and is testing a dedicated video feed stream to let viewers only watch videos shared by their network.
“Facebook has added features in the last few months that point to the fact that they are increasing the amount of attention they give video: view count, embedding options, video for website conversions. This means there is more to come.” writes Gary Vaynerchuk
The Special Scaleability of A Video Investment

It’s frugal. One video (investment) can be embedded in all your social platforms, website and newsletter. One cost multi-tasking your brand!
There are other factors boosting the popularity of video:
SEO Benefits
Videos have a direct impact on search results. It is common knowledge that rich media, which includes videos, is favored by search engine algorithms.
Viral Potential
Users are more likely to share and re-share video than other forms of content. It is a great tool for businesses and professionals to showcase their vision, expertise, products, services, company news and announcements for maximum outreach.
Kills Many Birds With One Stone
Whether you are educating, entertaining, inspiring or increasing brand awareness, they can all be achieved through videos. More and more people today educate themselves through product reviews and blog updates before making a purchase decision.
Video is one medium above all others that requires professionalism. A second-rate video on your website will do more harm than good.
Introducing … My Videography Partner
For all your video projects I heartily recommend Darin Perron at Digital Motion Studios in Stuart, Florida, servicing Vero Beach, Port St. Lucie and the West Palm Beach area, and nationwide. Darin provides video product services for commercials, web marketing video, corporate presentations, documentaries, realty TV, training videos, infomercials, product videos. The company also features a Green Screen Studio for in-studio shooting.
Check out Darin’s new “Explainer Video” below!

Resources:
What the Growth of Video on Facebook Means for Businesses
How Video Marketing Will Change the Game for Marketers in 2016

The Rise of Video Marketing on Social and How It Affects Your Business

Get in touch with Marcia at 561.906.3436 to get started with video marketing for your business.
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia @ 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign

testing your contact form
Michelle Martello, digital strategist and web designer at Minima Designs, reminded me today of phone calls I have occasionally received from panicked clients. “My contact form isn’t working! I’m not getting any emails. What to do?” Here are her suggestions …
1. Go test your contact form right now.
When was the last time you tested your contact form? The settings and services running your site can change – and you will never know until someone tells you that you failed to respond to their message.
Two of my favorite WordPress plugins for contact forms (Gravity Forms and Contact Form 7) have undergone various changes in the last few months so you may need to update your settings to make sure you’re getting your messages. The biggest issue? Trying to send your contact form to a gmail address instead of a domain related address (such as me @ gmail.com instead of me @ mysite.com).
The Test: Send yourself a message through your website contact form and have a friend try this as well.
The Fix: If you aren’t getting the message, change the email address that the form is sent to. Still having issues? Test another form plugin. Caldera Forms is another great option. If you’re still having issues, get in touch with your web host and see if they’ve made any mail server changes.
2. Have you added your site to Google Search Console?
Most business owners with a website are aware of Google Analytics and what that tool provides them – all the traffic that comes to their website is tracked, graphed and charted in Google Analytics.
But have you added your site to Google Search Console (formally known as Google Webmaster Tools?) This “sister” tool to Google Analytics opens up a banquet of useful information about your site (such as the detailed search terms people are using to get to your site).
Google Search Console lets you learn a great deal of information about your website and the people who visit it. You can use it to find out things like how many people are visiting your site and how they are finding it, whether more people are visiting your site on a mobile device or desktop computer, and which pages on your site are the most popular.
I like to find out the terms people are using to find my site to help me with tweaking content on a regular basis. If you have any questions about all this, please get in touch.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia @ 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign

Why Video is A Big Sales Tool for Small Business

Is Your Contact Form Still Working?

Archives for March 2016