6 Reasons for Implementing Video into Your Online Business Strategy
Posted by SiMedia | Filed under Digital Strategy, Online Marketing
It’s no secret that video is still one of the most effective forms of communication but with the advent of Internet video, a host of additional benefits and uses were born.
1. Make your site more interesting: Video is a lot more interesting than plain text and images because it contains motion and sound. People are drawn to it and are more likely to watch a three-minute video than read an entire web page or blog post. Multimedia implementation (including video) is one aspect of a successful website.
2. It’s On Demand: Unlike a television commercial people can watch an internet video whenever and where they want. It’s always ready to be played and can be viewed on multiple devices such as computers, laptops, cell phones and portable media players.
3. Increase your search engine ranking: Google and other search engines index videos. Pictures and videos add interest to your web pages and search engine rankings recognize and reward this feature. Sites with images and videos are placed higher than those without. Videos also appear in search results.
The Screen-shot below shows the search results for “a lesson in wining” The first hit is a video from eZshop.tt’s YouTube channel:
Google Search: " A lesson in Wining"
4. Raise your brand image: Video can add to your credibility, create awareness of your company and help build your brand. Video can convey a depth of information that text documents or still image cannot possibly deliver. This level of communication lets your voice be heard above all the noise.
5. Provide a gateway from other sites: Uploading videos to popular video sharing sites such as Youtube can provide links to your website. You can add your URL to the description of the video or in the video itself. Internet videos that go viral can help increase traffic to your website.
6. Simplify something difficult: Complex ideas, concepts and instructions can be easily simplified with an instructional video or screencast. It’s much easier to visually show someone how to do something than to try and explain it using just words.
In this age of new media the platforms for old tools of communication are rapidly changing. Prices are down and the world is connected like never before. Competition is stiff and there is a lot of noise. For business success, it is time you add video to your digital arsenal. To find out more about video implementation and viral marketing of videos, please contact us at sales@simplyintense.com.
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Tags: internet video, screencast, search engine, video, viral video, YouTube
Tips for Online Branding Success
Posted by SiMedia | Filed under Digital Strategy, Online Marketing
At Si Media, we understand brands and how online branding efforts can achieve the results our clients expect. Using these tips to build and execute a branding strategy will ensure success for your organization.
Engage Them
Provide an engaging online environment that attracts your audience and rewards them for their time. Avoid providing too much mundane information about your company; instead draw them in by focusing on their needs and interests and educate them on the benefits of your product or service.
Consistency is Key
Make sure your online initiatives are consistent with your offline campaigns. Your branding message and approach should speak the same words in all of your channels. Consistency is key to build a trustworthy brand that your target audience can rely on.
Open Communication Barriers
There are several online media platforms that enable companies to quickly and efficiently share branded company information and build customer trust such as social media websites, blogs, and eNewsletters.
Social Media Networks
Social networks are the perfect web tool to communicate with your audience. Popular social media networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook allow you to connect with your market, share information and respond to their feedback to build consumer trust. One notable company that has been sharing information, responding to feedback and actively communicating with their audience is eZshop Caribbean. This progressive company has set up an eZshop Trinidad Facebook page as well as a Twitter profile to help open communication barriers and keep their target market informed about new products and promotions.
Company Blogs
Having a blog allows you to provide company information, product updates, and events information to your audience. A blog differs from your corporate website because it gives you the opportunity to be less formal, yet speak directly to your customers on a regular basis. Blogs also allow your customers to interact with your Blog posts by providing feedback and sharing information with other users.
eNewsletters
Relying on your audience to visit your website for news and updates is not always practical. eNewsletters allow you to build a database of client information and update your audience via branded emails. It gives you control of who sees your information and in what timeframe.
Banner Advertising
Banners ads are the perfect tool to build web visibility. There are several advertising platforms and local websites that offer advertising space. The type of website you chose to advertise on will depend on your company’s location and industry. Simply Intense offers advertising opportunities on several Microsoft platforms including MSN Home, Hotmail, and MSN Messenger. The beauty of advertising on Microsoft is that you can target your ads to be viewed based on the online users age group, gender, and location so the right person sees your branded message. These online spaces offer high visibility to your audience to build brand awareness and encourage viewers to visit your website.
Providing engaging content in the right web spaces is key to building you brand. The above tips will help any organization spread information and get your customers talking. Good luck!
Tags: banner advertising, blogs, Branding, branding strategy, online branding, Si Media, Social Media
How Google Analytics Can Help You
Posted by SiMedia | Filed under Digital Strategy, SEO
Web tracking tools allow you to plan and redefine your business strategy and make appropriate changes for the purpose of continuous improvement – a necessary practice for any business. Si Media offers Tracking and Reporting Management services helping to save our clients time and preparing data for easy reading and analysis.
Although there are a number of tools available in the market, here we focus solely on the Google Analytics Tool; our web performance tool of choice. Google Analytics offers an array of features that enable companies to achieve their short-term and long-term objectives by measuring key performance indicators via graphs and website traffic data.
Benefits of Google Analytics:
1. Free Service – Google Analytics is a free service that offers the same features compared to other website performance tools that are provided at a cost.
2. Site Comparison – Google Analytics allows you to compare the performance of your website with sites of comparable size.
3. Website Optimization – The data provided in your web analytics reports allows you understand what pages your visitors are visiting the most and plan ways in which you can to better optimize the less popular pages (copywriting, incoming links, etc.). This allows you to plan your marketing strategy to enhance incoming traffic and sales.
4. Measure Traffic – With Google Analytics you can compare whether your website traffic has increased or decreased over different periods of time. This data gives you valuable insight for optimization purposes and helps to measure the impact a marketing/PR campaign had on your traffic.
5. Track Visitor Activity & Behavior - You gain the ability to track the pages and links that your visitors clicked on and measure whether optimization is needed for the less popular web pages on your site.
6. Measure Bounce Rate – According to Wikipedia, “bounce rate is a term used in web site traffic analysis. It essentially represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site. The formula used to calculate bounce rate is: Bounce Rate = Total Number of Visits Viewing One Page ÷ Total Number of Visits.”
7. Track How Visitors Find Your Site – Google Analytics allows you to find out how visitors find your website (via a search engine, link on another site, typing your URL into their browser, etc.). You can also view keywords that online searchers used to find your website on search engines. This data also provides insight for website optimization purposes.
8. Measure KPI’s – Google Analytics allows you to measure success indicators of your website including increased/decreased visits, sales, and conversions. These key performance indicators provide valuable insight to website owners and marketing professionals enabling them to tweak their website for better performance ratings and search engine rankings.
9. Visitor Segmentation – Google Analytics reports allows you segment your traffic by location/geography, new or returning visitors, and how they found your website, enabling you to plan and coordinate targeted marketing strategies around the trending of your website.
Tags: analytics, conversions, google analytics, Si Media, web reporting, web tracking, website perofmance, website traffic
The 7 Key Aspects of a Successful Website
Posted by SiMedia | Filed under Digital Media, Digital Strategy
The Seven Key Aspects of a Successful Website include:
1. Design
2. Development
3. Search Engine Optimization
4. Content & Copywriting
5. Social Media Marketing
6. Digital Advertising
7. Multimedia
Clean web development, engaging design, and quality content are important from the birth (or rebirth) of your website. Search engine optimization (SEO) plays an important role in most key aspects, but especially when it comes to content and design. SEO content is created in a way that allows online searchers to easily find your website via search engines.
SEO must be applied when writing the Title, Description and Keywords Tags of your website. Each web page on your site should have a unique title and description that clearly illustrates the content of the page. This shows up as the text on a search engine results page and explains to online searchers what your website has to offer.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) refers to the use of social media websites and networks as well as blogs, online communities and other internet media platforms for the purpose of sales, marketing, PR and customer relations. Popular Social Media platforms include Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Si Media offers a Social Media Marketing Management Program (SM3P) that combines knowledge of marketing, the Internet, social media and interaction design to generate ROI for clients and help them achieve their goals in the digital space.
Whether you are advertising on Facebook, Google, or your local newspaper website, your Ad content and graphics must also utilize the concept of SEO to attract visitors. PPC or Pay per click advertising is now a popular and affordable form of Internet advertising being adopted by companies of all sizes. PPC allows the advertising company to pay only when an online user has clicked on their ad making it an attractive advertising option.
Finally, the use of web-based multimedia such as video, sound, and animation can make a huge impact on a visitor’s experience. Multimedia helps to create a memorable and engaging experience for online users, which positively influences your site traffic, which includes new and returning visitors.
Following the above mentioned tips will truly make an impact on your audience and provide the results you desire to achieve your business objectives. Feel free to visit our website for more information on our products and services that can boost the performance of your website.
Tags: content, copywriting, digital advertising, multimedia, PPC, search engine optimization, Si Media, social media marketing, Web Design, web development, web traffic
6 Steps to Create Your Digital Strategy
Posted by SiMedia | Filed under Digital Strategy, Online Marketing
As your company evolves, your online strategy will also grow accordingly. Therefore, a digital strategy is a continuous cycle that needs to be revisited and revised time and time again. The marketing and development team at Si media specializes in assisting clients to implement a successful digital strategy. We offer a number of web solutions and digital strategy initiatives to help your company hit the ground running.
Digital Strategy Initiatives
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Internet marketing
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Content development
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Social media management
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Website development and design
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eCommerce solutions
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Online branding
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Tracking and reporting
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Ongoing support
6 Steps to Creating Your Digital Strategy
Digital strategies come in all shapes and sizes, but here are 6 simple steps to help you discover and implement a digital strategy that is compatible with your business model.
1. Consumer Profile: Analyze your target audience along with their needs and expectations. What does your customer want to be able to do on your site? What key functions do you want to offer on your site?
2. Key Opportunities and Challenges: Determine how you can make better use of your website and online properties to achieve your short-term and long term objectives. Acknowledge the opportunities and unmet needs existing in your business environment and strategically plan ways to benefit from them [or overcome them]. You can conduct a competitor analysis and financial analysis to facilitate this process.
3. Online Branding: How familiar are consumers with your brand or your website? Explore areas such as your logo and the design of your site to help increase brand recognition. Internet marketing and social media campaigns can also greatly influence your reputation and online brand.
4. Vision: Develop a clear and concise plan of how your company can use its online properties to achieve its objectives and satisfy business and consumer needs. Try to focus on two or three key functions and objectives to avoid confusion.
5. Budget and Process Priorities: Determine a reasonable budget and organize a tentative timeline or schedule. List your online initiatives in order of importance to have a clear picture of the priorities within your overall digital strategy.
6. Tracking and Measurements: Determine how you are going to measure the success of your digital strategy. Do you want to measure the number of leads, the number of visitors/hits, or revenue growth? There are several online tools that can help you track and measure different aspects of your strategy, such as the Google Analytics tool.
To find out more information about formulating a digital strategy for your company, be sure to see our case studies on our website or you may also contact our digital strategy contact strategy team here.
Tags: Digital Strategy, internet marketing, online branding, online marketing, online strategy
