Proliferation

Apr 30
0

9 Convincing Reasons for Replacing Your Site’s Digital Text With Online Videos

By | video production | No Comments

It seems that Internet enthusiasts simply can’t get enough of digital videos. For example, in February of 2013, over two years ago, 178 million Americans had watched just over 33 billion videos on the World Wide Web. Though the consumption of information by way of written means will never fully disappear, both the popularity and need for brands to have a sound video production strategy will only increase with time.

Currently, video traffic accounts for 78% of all Internet traffic. Furthermore, written content dominates most websites; however, before long, most homepages will be creatively dotted with instructional, advertorial and entertaining videos for potential clients.

The SEO Impact of Internet Videos

Not only are web videos useful in that users prefer to obtain knowledge through them, but they also help a business in one of marketing’s most popular subsets: search engine optimization (SEO). Regardless of the industry in which your company is seeking to excel, client access through the world’s largest search engines—namely Google and Bing—is paramount in improving market reach.

Simply put, video does nothing but help strengthen an existing SEO blueprint. Still struggling to make the leap? Presently, video results appear in about 70% of the top 100 search engine results. Additionally, it’s 53% more likely that a web page appear on Google’s first page if video is present.

The ROI Factor

For all business owners, capital is the most precious of commodities and is to be dealt with carefully. To them, the only thing that truly matters, and rightfully so at that, is a healthy return on investment (ROI). For many of a more traditional marketing background, pumping money into a video production campaign might seem like a bit of a waste.

In reality, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Digital product or service pushers, were you aware that online shoppers are 144% more likely to make a purchase after viewing a video? It’s no wonder that retail sites with videos increase conversion rates by up to 30%. Even more impressive is the fact that visitors who watch product videos are 85% more likely to buy than those who’ve viewed nothing of the sort.

Arguably, what’s best about video production comes from the heightened focus on a given audience. At the end of the day, each individual customer is a company’s biggest concern. Your target demographic feels more comfortable about investing in what you’ve got to offer when videos are part of the shopping process.

In fact, 52% of consumers claim that videos help them make smart buying decisions. Realistically, with 66% of consumers watching the same product video two or more times, it’s hard to go wrong. Whatever your business’ marketing situation looks like, it stands to benefit from what video production has to offer.

Fusion 360 - 9 Reasons Why Online Videos Trump Text (Fusion 360 Video Production)

Apr 29
0

5 Steps for Maximizing Content Marketing Efficiency In the Digital Age of Communication

By | content marketing | No Comments

Relatively speaking, digital content marketing is a new advertorial practice. While it’s true that brands have been producing favorable brochures, magazines and tutorials for decades, what was once of a traditional nature is currently undergoing an extreme transformation.

In order for you and your clients to avoid the haze of confusion that often surrounds industry-wide adaptation, you’ll want to streamline your content marketing process. With years of experience under our proverbial belts, we’ve got a few helpful suggestions for those who find themselves confused by the complex process:

1) In-Depth Research

If anything meaningful is to be produced, in-depth research is going to be required. Initially, seeing as how nearly all digital marketing endeavors fall under the canopying service of search engine optimization (SEO), be sure to use Google Keyword Planner or any other SEO-driven program to discover relevant keywords and phrases for effective content production.

Though you’re certainly not well-versed in all fields and your clients’ respective areas of expertise may vary greatly, it’s the job of any well-seasoned content marketer to make certain that his or her content-guided research corresponds appropriately with groundbreaking happenings. Through Twitter or Google News, trending topics, newsworthy articles and reliable sources can all be discovered.

2) Creative Writing

The most important skill for any successful content marketer is creativity. With that in mind, however, it’s key that a series of rudimentary bullet points be checked off as written content makes it’s way down the production line.

First and foremost, paragraphs should break every two to three lines or every 75 to 100 words. If appropriate, use subheadings to allow for easier readability. Truthfully, much of your audience wants nothing more than to consume specific bits of information as quickly as possible. Subheadings make the skim all the more easy.

Additionally, look to scatter images in an organized manner throughout the body each piece. Lastly, each informative article, compelling story or enlightening how-to post must come with a compelling headline, about 55 characters in length.

3) Search Engine Optimization

As previously mentioned, a sound SEO strategy should always be at the forefront of any content marketing scheme. While the powers of top-notch PR publications and a wide variety of content hosting sites are wonderful for link-building, Google’s recently placed a great deal of emphasis on owned media; this means that booming blogs are now the real stuff of content marketing genius.

With respect to the specifics, blog posts should almost always be between 1,000 and 1,500 words in length. Remember that “compelling headline” of which was previously made mention? Well, an SEO keyword should be placed in a piece’s featured title. Finally, add an SEO keyword in at least one H2 header. If possible, include keywords near the front of titles.

4) Shareable Formatting

Obviously, in this—the digital age of communication—social media has taken the Internet by storm. In order to fully take advantage of what social media can do to boost content marketing’s product- or service-pushing capabilities, accompanying custom-made images, infographics or SlidShare presentations make social shareability skyrocket. Also, make social share buttons easily accessible at the bottom of a post.

5) Proper Promotion

While content marketing’s SEO value is innate, the power of embedded links is further enhanced when information is consumed, liked, shared, retweeted or anything else of the sort. After a link has been formally established, consider pushing said links on popular social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+.

Furthermore, call upon the help of social sharing plugins like Digg Digg or Flare. You can even go as far as funneling your clients’ links through reputable sites like StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg or any forum/online community which your target audience might frequent.

Regardless of whether you’ve spent years working in content marketing or merely a handful of weeks, there’s always room for improvement. When followed closely, and augmented with a bit of marketing ingenuity, the aforementioned steps are guaranteed to produce real, concrete content marketing results.

Fusion 360 - 5 Steps for Maximizing Content Marketing Efficiency In the Digital Age of Communication (Fusion 360 Content Marketing)

Apr 24
0

5 Facebook Marketing Tips for Frustrated Social Media Strategists Looking to Improve

By | digital marketing, Social Media | No Comments

Seeing as how Facebook is easily the world’s most popular and efficient media marketing tool for social media strategists and marketing agencies, it’s key that said platform be mastered and tapped for digital product- or service-pushing excellence. While the importance of Facebook is easily recognizable, the booming site can cause headaches from time to time.

User engagement, for example, is much more difficult to activate than it is with other social media outlets such as Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram. Likes, shares and comments can be difficult to come by. That being said, if you and your team of social media gurus find themselves in a creative rut of sorts, there are a few helpful measures which should be considered to get the proverbial ball rolling, yet again.

1) Use a Bit of Cash to Boost a New Product or Service Announcement

Though costing money and seen by many social media experts and marketing agencies as an easy out, boosted posts on Facebook are still effective, especially for small businesses and startups. Recently, a party equipment rental service in Gatesville, Texas boosted a post announcing the purchase of a new inflatable water slide. The $20 boost resulted in a reach of 4,490 people with over 1,000 likes. Furthermore, the friendly advertorial nudge generated 8 reservations at $300 a pop in just a little over 7 days. That’s $2,400 of total revenue for just $20 through Facebook.

2) Give Audience Insights a Gander

Understanding an audience allows for the sound optimization of an entity’s content strategy, resulting in a sturdier return on investment. Facebook’s Audience Insights allows brands and agencies to better see what their respective target demographics most actively engages with, be it custom-made images and photos, shared videos or promotional contests. Additionally, Audience Insights also allows social media specialists to see which specific topics of interest generate more user interaction.

3) Employ the Powers of ActionSprout for Email Acquisition

Few Facebook users visit company pages. Instead, the social marketing battle is either won or lost on an audience’s News Feed. Nearly all Facebook apps require that a user leave their News Feed to interact with a brand. ActionSprout places a specific acquisition action directly in the News Feed. All that’s required is an email address and News Feed comfort is allowed to continue.

4) Adopt Website Custom Audiences as a Means of Potential Client Identification

Simply put, creativity with targeting leads to better customers. As opposed to simply targeting specific fans through Facebook, use Website Custom Audiences to not only run Facebook ads through Power Editor, but to locate people who’ve already visited your website. After all, they’re much more likely to get in contact with your company. Their web history proves it and all of America’s advertising agencies know it.

5) Consciously Make Public Relations a Worthwhile Pursuit

Figuratively speaking, Facebook is a Rolodex of PR contacts with over 1 billion reporter profiles in its digital archives. Through Facebook Graph Search, it’s easy to discover who works where and what publications/websites they cover. Whether it’s a groundbreaking article share or a comment on an issue related to your brand, your company can position itself as a reliable source for newsworthy knowledge. As this and the aforementioned methods are put into play, Facebook engagement is bound to improve.

5-Facebook-Marketing-Tips

Apr 20
0

The 3 Most Common Website Design Blunders Which Visitors Simply Can’t Accept

By | web development | No Comments

The Internet is a massive place. So massive, in fact, that—according to research conducted by Netcraft in March of 2012—there are over 644 million active websites. Considering how large the Internet is, however, that number is relatively small. Case in point, there’s plenty of territory left to be claimed out on the endless frontier that is the World Wide Web.

Regardless of whether you consider yourself an expert of website design or not, in order to build and maintain virtual audiences, there are a handful of website design errors which must be avoided at all costs. Simply put, digital audiences consider them completely and utterly inexcusable.

1) An Absent Search Box

In theory, any given website should be an archive of valuable information. Whether you’re dealing with a Fortune 500 website or simple blog, a visible search box couldn’t be more important. More often than not, visitors already have a general idea of what it is that they’re looking before your page has even loaded.

With a search box properly in place, site frustration is greatly minimized as users are quickly directed to what it was that they were originally hoping to find. In order to make certain that site searches take place in a neat, effective manner, consider using Google Custom Search or similar programs.

2) Subpar Navigation

Poor website navigation is one of the biggest turnoffs for users. Like any well-designed community, navigability shouldn’t be much of an issue. Though there aren’t many website design norms for seamless navigation within a site, it’s key that transfers from page to page occur in an intuitive and consistent manner.

Says Hongkiat.com in the ways of navigational advise, “If text is used as navigation, it should be concise. Visual metaphors should not be re-invented. If hyperlinks are used, then they should stand out from the body of the text. Dead links should have no place on any web page whatsoever.” As a canopying rule of thumb, structure navigation so that it works closely with the widespread theme of the website. By so doing, prevailing confusion is avoided in its entirety.

3) Cumbersome Registration Forms

This is by far one of the most annoying of unforgivable website design mistakes. Before a site’s design is completed, it can be helpful to take a figurative step back to see how much information you’re requiring of your guests. How many fields are present? How many mandatory fields are required? Could what’s being solicited be interpreted as intrusive or overbearing in any way?

Furthermore, it’s important to keep automated validation filters in check. If users are unable to comply with your registration standards after a few tries, they’ll most likely opt for one of your competitors instead. Registration for a site should require little to no information and encourage the consumption of information, not the giving of it. Needless to say, as proper website design tactics are put into practice, real results can be expected.

Apr 17
0

5 Robust, On-Page SEO Factors That Both Search Engines and Web Enthusiasts Love

By | SEO | No Comments

As the world of traditional marketing gradually begins to be absorbed by strategists of the digital realm, the need for search engine optimization (SEO) becomes all the more necessary. However, with more and more marketers being thrust into Internet product and service pushing, the ways in which businesses can separate themselves from their competitors have become fewer in number.

Whether here in Utah with us or practicing your mastery search engines in another location, we invite you to consider how you might more effectively enhance your SEO game plan.

1) Deposit an Anchoring Keyword Within a Page’s First 100 Words

Placing a headlining keyword or keyword set in the first few sentences of a site’s content helps a search engine better understand the generics of a page’s purpose and intent. Your designated, relevant keyword should appear in the first 100 to 150 words of an article, case study, white paper or blog post. By so doing, according to most SEO experts, both search engines and users will show favor towards your content by way of a higher PageRank and increase in social media interaction.

2) Harness the Power of SEO-Receptive Permalink URLs

Though common knowledge deep within America’s ever-growing SEO community in Utah, many forget that it’s important to keep URLs concise and keyword-rich. In fact, Google has even gone as far as stating that the first 3 to 5 words of a URL are given the most weight when being pumped through its innovative algorithm.

3) Post Long Content When Possible

The old SEO adage goes as follows: “Length is strength.” From Utah to New York, even in 2015, there’s a great deal of accuracy with such a statement. Recently, a study conducted serpIQ.com found that longer content ranked significantly higher with Google. When targeting highly competitive keywords, shoot for content with at least 1,500 words.

4) Make Social Sharing Buttons a Real Priority

As time passes, social signals are becoming a larger, more critical part of search engine algorithms. A study by BrightEdge found that prominent social sharing buttons can increase social sharing by up to 700%. While there may not be a need to make them a focal point of your site’s overall layout, they’re more than helpful for gaining rapport with both Google and your company’s featured audience.

5) Optimize a Website’s Loading Speed

Google has stated that page loading speed is a crucial SEO ranking signal. A web page should load in 4 seconds or less. In the ways of evidence. MunchWeb reports that 75% of users wouldn’t re-visit a site that took longer than 4 seconds to load. In this, the digital age of communication, patience clearly isn’t the most fundamental of virtues.

Whether you’re here in Utah or anywhere else in the country, don’t forget to take a good hard look at your on-page SEO strategy to increase overall marketing efficiency on the World Wide Web.

Fusion 360 - 5 SEO Factors Search Engines + Web Users Love (Fusion 360 SEO)

Apr 14
0

Spin Doctors: the Top PR Campaigns In Yankee History

By | public relations | No Comments

On July 31, 1993, “Two Princes,” a song by the New York City-based band Spin Doctors, reached no. 7 in the United States. After the song’s initial release, however, it was all downhill for the one-hit-wonder of a band. In fact, Blender magazine gave the song its no. 21 spot on its “50 Worst Songs Ever” list. Fortunately, when people mention the term “spin doctors” in today’s day and age, rarely are they referring to the gosh-awful 90s band; moreover, they’re speaking of one of the world’s fastest growing industries: public relations.

Public relations firms and—in many instances, marketing agencies—have the task of maintaining a favorable public image for their respective clients. Currently, that’s primarily accomplished through digital means: social media, content marketing, top-tier digital publications, etc. With respect to public relations, seeing as how things are drastically different now than they’ve ever been before, it’s interesting to take a peek into the past to see what’s worked.

Fusion 360 - The Top PR Campaigns In History (Fusion 360 Agency)

Apr 13
0

Social Media: the Perfect Platform From Which Digital Audiences Can Be Found

By | Video, video production | No Comments

Let’s be honest: words are boring. Sure, you might be one of those people who can sit down and consume the wordiest of Charles Dickens’ novels in a matter of hours, but that’s a rarity at best. Video, on the other hand, couldn’t be sexier. Since the 1950s, television has been frying the brains of Americans from right here in Utah to the more boring parts of the country on a regular basis.

In today’s day and age, however, things have been made even more enticing with Internet videos quickly becoming all the rage for the common consumer. Where the mammoth black and white television with a grand total of one or two channels once excelled, YouTube — working in conjunction with a wide variety of social media networks — now provides entertainment for all.

Looking for an eager audience to whom your product or service can be pushed? Forget the typical living room. Your brand’s video production needs can now conveniently be met through social media.

Fusion 360 - The Perfect Platform From Which Digital Audiences Can Be Found (Fusion 360 Video Production)

Apr 11
0

‘With Eyes Wide Open’: Visual Audiences In the Digital Realm

By | Video, video production | No Comments

Alright, so we might’ve changed the title from Scott Stapp’s “With Arms Wide Open” to better fit the needs of our attached infographic, but can you really blame us? Whether you’re from here in Utah or elsewhere, it’s impossible to deny that song was just gosh awful. Anyway, getting back on track, it’s insane how important video production is for both brands and digital consumers.

Not only do most of them have exactly two eyeballs, but the vast majority of the global population prefers visual stimulation as a means of obtaining information. While that most certainly applies in the classroom and at work, it also plays an important role for digital marketers looking to appeal to a larger audience through infographics and Internet videos.

With-Eyes-Wide-Open-In-the-Digital-Realm

Apr 09
0

Pinterest’s Popping Past

By | Social Media | No Comments

Okay, so the “clever title” juices weren’t flowing as much as they usually do. Please forgive the sorry attempt to bring alliteration into today’s topic of discussion: Pinterest. Anyway, in the past, we’ve hammered home the importance of the digital bulletin board for marketing agencies with clients from all types of industries, but there’s more to the booming social media platform than meets the eye.

As is generally the case with most success stories, what occurred long before public fame and glory were ever present laid the building blocks of today’s explosive success. As demonstrated by our newest infographic, Pinterest was certainly no different.

Fusion 360 - The Past of Pinterest (Fusion 360 Agency)

Apr 07
0

You Are Now Entering the Twilight Zone: an Infographic on Infographics

By | content marketing | No Comments

In Rod Serling’s series “The Twilight Zone,” the weirdness of psychological thrill meets suspense and horror to keep audiences captivated for hours. Though our area of expertise lies within the content marketing realm here in Utah and elsewhere, we’re more than open to spicing up our craft through the building of Serling-esque intrigue.

Currently, at least with respect to content marketing, the importance of visual stimulation can’t be overstated. Written content can only do so much. With 90% of information coming to the brain being of the visual variety, it’s no surprise that the simple act of seeing requires about half of the brain to fully get involved.

For content marketers, this means that—while written content is certainly still important—infographics must must make themselves a mainstay of any sound digital marketing platform. Mr. Serling, in your honor, we present our own wacky, mind-twisting thriller: an infographic on infographics (insert eerie theme jingle).

Fusion 360 - An Infographic About Infographics (Fusion 360 Content Marketing)