Expertise on Tap | Email & Video Marketing...made easy

How to use YouTube ‘annotations’ as a marketing tool

A YouTube annotation is a caption that is added after you've uploaded your video. It could be a promotional message or a link to another of your videos. If used wisely and sparingly, annotations can work as a great marketing tool. For advice on how to set up annotations on your YouTube videos please contact me Here's an example I recently set up for East Glos Club. They've had a promotional video on their site for some time and the club is holding an open day in May. I've simply added an annotation which appears on the video at 00:12 seconds and again at 00:50. It appears this quickly to ensure people see the message soon after video has started. In this case the annotation is quite large but it's only going to be on the video for a month so we're not too bothered about this! It is possible to make the annotations smaller to avoid the viewer becoming distracted. You can also link the annotation to another YouTube video. Here's a good example on the viral video "Charlie Bit my Finger". They're promoting a new video and also an iPhone app. For advice on how to set up annotations on your YouTube videos please contact me

Now we can all make money on YouTube! Or can we?

Until recently only producers of the most popular videos were eligible for YouTube's Partner Program. This program enables producers to serve ads during their videos and take a cut of the revenue generated. For example, Howard Davies-Carr the father of the two boys in the "Charlie Bit my Finger" viral video has reportedly earned £100,000 from it. Mind you, it has had 444 million views! Now YouTube has opened up its Partner Program to everyone. So could you make money from your videos and how do you go about it? And what are the potential pitfalls for businesses and brands? You can enable monetization for one or more of your videos in account settings. You also need to have a Google Adsense account set up. For detailed advice on how to do this please contact me. Hold your horses! Before you rush off and start monetising your videos here are a few things to bear in mind. 1 For your videos to be eligible for monetization, you must own all the necessary rights to commercially use all visuals and audio, whether they belong to you or a third party. By commercial use rights, this means the rights to make money from the video. Read more about this.     2 To make real money you're going to need tens or even hundreds of thousand of views. This is not a get rich quick scheme.     3 Consider the impact that adverts will have on the enjoyment of your videos and more importantly the perception of your brand. You can choose whether to display "pre-roll" ads before your video starts playing or you can choose display ads which will appear superimposed over your video. Or you can choose both. If you opt for monetisation on your YouTube account, banner ads measuring 300 x 250 will be shown by default to the right of the feature video and above the video suggestions list.     4 The adverts might be related to your video content. This means adverts for competing businesses may well appear. So what's the verdict? If you think you've got a video which is going to go viral like "Charlie Bit My Finger" then definitely consider monetising it. However if you're using YouTube for videos relating to your business then it might be best not to bother due to the potential adverse impact on your brand. If you're not sure, you could trial monetisation of your videos and assess what types of adverts are being displayed. Oh, and if you're one of the few people on planet Earth who hasn't seen "Charlie Bit my Finger" here it is...

More common e-newsletter mistakes and how to fix them.

I subscribe to a lot of email newsletters and whilst many of them are very good, some senders are making simple but easily corrected mistakes. Here are some recent examples I've seen in email newsletters along with some tips. 1. The name of the sender is not well known to the recipients Several e-newsletters I've received recently have been from "John Smith" or "Jane Brown" or whoever. The problem with this is if that name is not known to most of the recipients then they're unlikely to regard the email as being from a trusted sender and therefore less likely to open. That said, adding a person's name give the email a personal and less corporate touch so where possible I recommend including a person's name and the business name. I recently did this when sending out an e-shot for my client 4Networking. The e-shot was a regional event in Yorkshire so the email came from "Tom Lawrence - 4Networking". We achieved good results because Tom is a trusted and well-known figure to many of the recipients. 2. The unsubscribe process is not tested I recently unsubscribed from a newsletter and received the confirmation email below. The text "Repeating customers - didn't finish registration" is actually the list name in Mailchimp, which they're using to send out their e-shots. Unortunately this looks clumsy and is meaningless to recipients. So, make sure you test your unsubscribe process and if possible stop the list name from appearing in your unsubscribe confirmation emails. 3. The font size is so small it's almost illegible Subscribers need bright bold headlines to draw them in. And the main body text must be large enough to avoid them squinting to read it. Here's a newsletter I received recently and even though my eyesight is pretty good it's hard work to read this. If you make it difficult for your subscribers to read your content many won't bother. ACTUAL SIZE (COMPANY NAME MASKED) Does your e-newsletter text look a bit small? If so consider increasing your font by a point or two. And don't forget smart phone users. On those small screens tiny fonts are almost impossible to read without a lot of zooming.

Why email marketing is not dead. It's just changing

Email marketing is dead! That's what various web articles in the past year would have you believe.  They argue that the growth of social networking will eventually mean people abandon email and start communicating using tools like Facebook messaging and Twitter. Presumably brevity will become the norm as we all attempt to converse in 140 characters or less (!). What I, and others in the email marketing industry are saying is email is not dead. It's just changing. Discover how it's changing and read my 5 point plan on how to adapt your own email newsletter.

E-Newsletters - Common mistakes from 2010 and how to avoid them

End of Term Report 2010 - Email Newsletters I subscribe to a lot of email newsletters and although many of them are excellent some make fundamental mistakes, even those sent by very large companies. At the end of the article are some blog links which will help you avoid such errors. Here's my list of this year's common mistakes 1 Failure to include an unsubscribe link or where they have included one they have made it difficult to locate. Making it easy to unsubscribe will improve your list quality. 2 Contact details are not prominent. Subscribers will not go hunting for your phone number or email address. 3 The call to action is not clear and not prominent. What is it you want the subscriber to do? Call a number? Book now? Register here? 4 The subject line is poor. Subject lines should sell as well as tell what's inside. 5 The layout is poor with no clear distinction between articles and sometimes no prominent headlines. 6 The layout contains a large proportion of images to text or is entirely made up of images. This will trigger spam filters. 7 The e-newsletter width is too wide. I recommend 600px if possible and 630px as a maximum. This is because more emails are being read on smartphones these days. 8 There is too much content. I received one recently which was five pages long! 9 The content is dull, often because the author is wrapped up in their own world and fails to consider what will be of relevance to subscribers. Write it then sleep on it. I guarantee you will change your content the next day! 10 Business to business (B2B) emails being sent overnight or at the weekend.  B2B emails need to land in subscribers' inboxes during the working day to have more chance of being read. 11 The e-newsletter has not been tested across the main email clients and therefore doesn't display correctly in Outlook, GMail and/or Hotmail. 12 Broken links. Ensure you send yourself a test email and check that all links are working. Help is at hand!  Here are some previous blog posts which address some of the points raised above. • Why sending your B2B email newsletter overnight is a bad idea • Why you should make it easy to unsubscribe • Why your newsletter may no longer look right in Hotmail and how to fix it • Why your e-newsletter subject line is important • How to generate great content for your e-newsletter

How we used video to help 360 degree feedback company promote its services

CASE STUDY Lumus™ is one of the UK's leading suppliers of 360 degree feedback surveys - leading the way in technical excellence, feedback report quality, latest thinking and client support. Lumus had a business challenge which was how to convey their unique and cost effective approach quickly and effectively to potential clients and website visitors. There were three stages to the process: 1. Planning discussion We discussed what type of video would work best for Lumus. Following our input they decided on a "1 way interview" technique We recommended this technique because the resulting video ends up looking more conversational and less like a hard sell. It's also easier for the interview participant to appear more natural than talking direct to camera. 2. Story board development We worked with Lumus to develop this. It was vital to ensure we didn't just turn up for the shoot with no ideas on the structure and content. 3. The Shoot Although we had built a story board as we got into the shoot we realised some elements of it could be improved. A key point here is just because there is a story board it need not be cast in stone and if there is an opportunity to improve upon it during the shoot don't be afraid to do so. Mike Cooper of Lumus comments: "Working with  Expertise on Tap was a pleasure – they provided lots of great advice and steered us through the development and filming process in a very professional and skilled way – I’m overjoyed with the finished product" Here's the video...

Why sending your B2B email newsletter overnight is a bad idea

I see far too many businesses sending B2B* emails overnight. By overnight I mean after normal office hours. *Business to business Here's why it's a bad idea: 1. If you send after 5pm your email will most likely land in their inbox the next morning. That means it won't be fresh. It will be stale. It will be stale because when the user downloads it the next morning it will appear amongst all the other emails that have come in overnight, including spam. It will also be amongst non actioned emails from the previous afternoon. There's more chance of a busy recipient missing the email whilst he/she settles into the day's work. Ok you could argue that some people work beyond 5pm so what's the problem? But many do not. 2. An even worse scenario is to send your email over a weekend. When it's downloaded on Monday morning it's even less likely to be read. What's the solution? Simply send your email to arrive during working hours, ideally between 10 and 4pm so it's not too close to the start or end of the day. That way there's more chance of the email dropping into the recipient's inbox whilst at their desk. In other words it's a fresh email and more likely to be read. It's also worth avoiding lunchtime from 12-2. I could quote numerous studies that state the best time of day for B2B emails, however they all contain conflicting advice which is why I recommend the above broad time window. It's easy to pre-schedule your delivery time If you use a mailing service provider such as Mailchimp you do not even need to be present when you send your email. You can pre-schedule it to send at any time and date in the future.

How to get more subscribers for your e-newsletter

Here are our TOP 10 TIPS to get more subscribers 1 On every contact with customers take the opportunity to ask for their email address. Ensure you explain what you will use it for. 2 Add a subscribe form to your website. Place it on all the key landing pages. Right hand side of page and 'above the fold'. 3 Sell the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter. What will subscribe receive and how often? Why will it benefit them? 4 Give something away for free in return for subscribing. For example a tips sheet, a white paper or similar. 5 Add a link to your subscribe form in your email signature. 6 Promote your newsletter on blogs and forums. 7 Take hard copies of your newsletter to networking events and include details of how to sign up. 8 Archive your newsletter on your website along with details of how to sign up. 9 Include a forward to a friend link in your newsletters. 10 Include a subscribe link in every newsletter for people who have received a forwarded copy. Above all take every opportunity to collect email addresses. If you take the above steps your list will grow organically over time. You'll have a high quality list and will be communicating with people who have asked to hear from you.

How to easily produce stunning photo montage videos

Great photography, nice music and some Animoto magic! We've produced this photo montage video for our client The Stuart Holmes Hair & Beauty Spa, Cheltenham who recently won Salon of The Year 2010. Using some excellent photographs by Bullit Photography we added some copyright free music, sequenced the photos and logos and then let Animoto work its magic! See the result below. If you'd like to know more about using the power of video in your business let's talk.

HOW TO unleash the power of auto responders

We're now offering auto responders to clients. Auto what? Autoresponders go by a few different names like triggered emails and drip campaigns, but essentially they are an automated email, or sequence of emails sent when a subscriber meets a condition you set. Here are just 4 great examples of auto responders: 1 A user subscribes and receives a series of tips, spread across a number of days or weeks. We recently did one of these for a client called '17 Days to Better Grammar' . 2 A customer is getting married. They subscribe on your website and enter their wedding date. They receive 10 weekly tips and things to do in the countdown to the big day. 3 A house owner wants to prepare their house for sale in order to get the best price.. They subscribe on an estate agent's website and receive weekly tips on what changes they should make. 4 A business wants to add a personal touch by sending an email birthday card to clients along with a special offer. OK, but why set up auto responders? The key benefits are customer acquisition and retention. By providing tips and advice like the examples above you are adding value for clients and at the same time building trust and credibility by imparting knowledge and expertise. OK, I'm interested. How can you help? As our existing clients will testify, our aim is to make it easy for you. We'll ask you some questions about what you want to achieve and work with you to develop the content. Then we'll sort out all the tecchie bits so that your auto responder works automatically, as if by magic! And we'll give you access to some simple reports so you and we can monitor the results. Please drop me a line or call 01242 696728 for a chat about how auto responders could benefit your business.