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Boost Your Video Marketing Strategy

video marketing

Are your video marketing efforts falling flat? Do you feel like you are putting in a lot of work for little to no reward? Videos are a unique and effective tool you can use as a component in your digital marketing plan, but it’s important you do it the right way. If you aren’t seeing much success with it, maybe it’s time to rethink your approach.

One reason why your video marketing strategy may not be very effective is because you haven’t identified your target audience yet. If you are marketing to the wrong people, even the best, highest quality videos won’t be very effective. You need to identify who is most likely to buy your product or benefit from your services.

Your videos should be a way to tell your brand and company’s story. Videos can be informative, but if they feel like an obnoxious product pitch or boring lecture, most people won’t receive them very well. You can blend a data- or facts-driven approach with success stories, behind-the-scene glimpses into your business and personal experiences.

To succeed in video marketing, it is also important to optimize your videos. Figure out which keywords work best, keep titles short, add links to your website and make sure your videos are optimized for mobile users. The more thoughtful you are with your videos, the more likely you will be to have success with your overall digital marketing strategy.

Video marketing requires you to be intentional and specific with how you use your content. If you are struggling with this particular part of your marketing plan, you may want to consider working with an experienced professional who can help you take your video strategy up a notch. With the right help, you can use videos to reach a larger audience, boost your following and grow your business.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Success During The Holiday Season

holiday

To say that 2020 has been an unusual year would be an understatement. This year has seen many people working remotely, going to school online and drastically reducing what they do outside the home. Your small business may not be an exception to this. Perhaps you’ve adjusted your operations to accommodate the changing needs of your customers, and you’ve managed fairly well despite the challenges. What do these changes mean for your business during the upcoming holiday season?

There will likely be no business as usual this year during the holidays. Things will continue to look different, and you will have to continue to make necessary adjustments to keep your business running smoothly. Some of the things you may want to implement include the following:

• Personalize your offerings: Treat each customer or client individually, giving him or her product selections, personalized package suggestions and more. Try to make each customer experience unique and pleasant, personally connecting whenever possible.
• Serve your community: This is going to be a difficult holiday season for many, and your business or staff may be a place where you can reach out and improve the circumstances of others.
• Reconsider what you offer: Perhaps you need to implement curbside pickup, online ordering, new products or updated services to match the needs of your clients during this time of year.

You can succeed during the holiday season if you understand that it will require adjustments and additional effort. This is not an easy year for anyone, but you can reach a place where you are able to look past the discomfort and frustration and find ways you can continue to achieve success. Things are difficult for small businesses of all kinds, but they are not impossible. You’ll just have to be flexible and remember that things will be “normal” again one day.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

How To Serve Your Customers Well

serve

If you want to establish strong relationships with your customers, you must identify what they want and how you can meet their needs. This goes well beyond good customer service and competitive pricing – you have to learn how you serve your customers or clients well. When you are serving your current and potential customers with genuine concern and efficiency, you’ll establish a base of return business and develop a level of trust with those who patronize your company.

First, to serve your customers well, you should be meeting their needs with efficiency. Quick responses to orders, concerns, requests and questions show that you care. Whether it’s a fast reply to an email or promptly solving a problem, you are demonstrating that you truly want your customer or client to have a good experience.

Another thing you can do is empower your team to serve your customers well. Train employees on how to treat your clientele, and give them authority to resolve problems quickly and efficiently. When your entire team has a customer-first mentality, it will be a better experience for your client from start to finish.

Clients and customers expect your business to have closely monitored and active social media accounts. It’s critical to watch for posts, comments and questions, while responding quickly to anything one of your followers does on one of your pages. This demonstrates a certain level of customer care, and it also will help keep your posts in your followers’ newsfeeds.

Serving your customers well means showing that you truly care about their needs. People are looking for genuine connection now more than ever, and prospective customers are more likely to patronize your business if they feel your company puts customers first. This mentality will win you the trust and the support of your previous customers as well as prospective business.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Ways You Can Silence Your Critics

critics

You will experience some type of criticism at some point, no matter what type of job you have, career path you’ve chosen or choices you’ve made. It’s not pleasant to receive criticism, especially if you’ve worked hard and believe you’ve done nothing to deserve a harsh response. Whether your critics are right or wrong, what really matters is how you respond to them.

First, you have to adjust to the fact that you will not be popular with everyone. You can do everything right, and some people will still manage to find fault with you. Don’t be surprised when someone is critical. Instead, understand that you wouldn’t have critics if you weren’t getting people’s attention. It is also helpful to remember that the ones who have the loudest and rudest voices are often those who need empathy.

It can be difficult to have empathy for the individuals who have been critical of you, but by doing this, you are the bigger person. Rising above criticism means you understand that you can’t make everyone happy all the time – and that’s okay. You also have to acknowledge that sometimes criticism is real, valid and important. It’s helpful to develop the skill of learning when to listen to your critics and when to ignore those voices.

You have to be confident in what you know. When you’re knowledgeable, well-researched and skilled, criticism will land differently. You will be able to tell when you should listen to the feedback or when to rise above negativity. As you grow, succeed and gain more exposure, you may notice more critics. This is often a price you have to pay for success, but you don’t have to let it bring you down or become a problematic source of negativity you constantly have to battle.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Avoiding Common Small Business Mistakes

mistakes

No one is perfect, and no one has the perfect formula for running a perfect business. If you are a entrepreneur, you know that there will be times when things do not go as expected. You may even make a mistake or two that sets you back and leaves you frustrated. While you can’t expect perfection, you can do things that will help you avoid certain common business mistakes.

Business mistakes can lead to financial loss, frustration and other complications. The good news is that when you make a mistake, you can learn from it and come out better because of it. They don’t necessarily have to dictate the direction of the future of your business, as long as you choose to implement what you’ve learned. Some of the most common business mistakes include the following:

• You do not use social media as a tool for marketing, expansion and reaching your target audience.
• You have not drafted a complete and thorough business plan that gives you a blueprint as you make your way forward.
• You did not do the proper research on your market, and you are not getting your products and services to the right people.
• You underpriced yourself, and now you do not have enough of a profit margin for necessary expansion.
• You did not listen to advise or research, and things are not going as you hoped they would.

There are few mistakes so big you can’t recover from them. While missteps and mistakes are normal, it’s how you react after them that really matters. If you are making any of the above mistakes or are struggling with a choice that did not work out as you hoped, there is a way forward. Identify the problem, work on a solution and evaluate your actions – these are steps that can help you avoid repeating the same mistake.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Feel More Confident, Become More Confident

confident

Confidence is key no matter what you do for a living, but it is especially critical in some types of public-facing jobs. Even if you aren’t in sales, you need to be a confident person and feel good about your skills and knowledge. The problem is that you may not be a naturally confident person, and that’s okay. Thankfully, when you practice feeling more confident, you will eventually become a more confident person.

One thing that may help in boosting your confidence levels is to pay attention to what you are wearing. Wear things that make you feel strong and assured, and choose professional outfits that communicate you feel good about yourself. If you aren’t a naturally fashionable person, you may want to ask for help. The right clothes can go a long way toward changing how you feel.

Another thing you can do to boost your confidence is to do things that make you feel confident in your skills and capabilities. This doesn’t necessarily have to relate to your job, but it can be anything that makes you happy. Self-assurance in one area of your life can spill over into how you feel about your abilities in other areas.

Regular exercise can be a helpful step for someone who is looking to boost his or her self-confidence. This does not have anything to do with your weight or how you look, but it has to do with how you feel. Exercise releases certain hormones that make you feel good, and over time, you will feel better and stronger physically and mentally. Exercise is good for the body and mind.

You don’t have to be born with a significant amount of self-confidence to cultivate it. If you practice being more confident, you will find that over time, you will become that way. Do things that make you feel good and assured in yourself, and you will find that you will actually be a more self-confident individual.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Complaining Is Bad For Your Brain

complaining

If you spend a lot of your time complaining, chances are that people will probably not want to spend a lot of time with you. Negative people don’t attract other people, and eventually, you will drive others away if you spend much of your time complaining. In addition to the social implications of being a complainer, you may actually be risking your health as well. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that complaining can affect the way your brain and body works.

Complaining can feel good. In the moment, venting may be gratifying. A habit of complaining can actually cause the neurons in your brain to rewire. Over time, it can also cause damage to areas of the brain responsible for critical thought and problem solving. Expressing negative thoughts will lead to elevated levels of cortisol in your body, affecting everything from oxygen, blood and energy flow in the body

Cortisol can also weaken your immune system, making it more difficult to fight off sickness. You can also face an elevated chance of heart disease, high blood pressure and even stroke. Your body is not made to deal with excessive levels of cortisol for an extended amount of time. Being negative all the time is simply not worth it for many reasons – physically, mentally and emotionally.

Fortunately, you can do something about it if you have a habit of complaining. If you can rewire your brain toward negative thinking, you can do the opposite as well. It will take time and effort, but it is possible change your perspective. It starts with building new, better habits, such as practicing gratitude.

Do you complain too much? Do you see everything from a negative perspective? It may be time to think about how you can build better habits. Not only will you be more pleasant to be around, but you will be taking steps to protect your health as well.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

You Need More Than A Good Idea

good idea

Do you have a great idea for your company or for a new business? It’s great to have a good or novel idea, but that’s only half of the overall battle. You also need to be able to sell it. It’s no good having a good idea if you are the only one who thinks it’s a good idea. You also have to learn how to persuade others to think in the same way you do. In a very real sense, you have to be able to sell your ideas if you want them to go anywhere.

To make your ideas work, you’ll have to get multiple people on the same page as yourself. This could be more challenging than you may think. Not only will you need to outline your idea, but you’ll have to cast a vision for why it’s good or necessary. It’s critical to be able to explain how your idea fleshes out long-term, not just how it will work in the initial stages.

Additionally, you have to establish yourself as someone who knows what they are talking about. You can have a great idea, but it’s worthless if people don’t believe that you have credibility in the field. Don’t be afraid to mention your education and experience as well as be ready to provide evidence that establishes your right to speak about the subject matter.

Finally, be willing to listen to feedback, questions and criticism about your idea. Be open to continuing to develop your thoughts about it and adjusting things that don’t work. There is no such thing as a perfect idea, but there is such thing as a good idea that gets even better with continual development.

If you have a good idea, don’t just shout it to the world and expect amazing things to happen. Treat your idea with care, taking steps to make sure your voice is heard by the right people. Persuasion and persistence are key factors in getting a good idea off the ground and running.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC