Proliferation

Aug 15
0
social media marketing companies

Why We Love Instagram Stories

By | digital marketing, Social Media, Utah SEO | No Comments

Whether you’re a 15-year-old girl or a 35-year-old father, we are willing to bet that when you get on Instagram, you watch at least some of the stories posted by those you follow. It doesn’t matter if it’s for the simple update you hope to see or the enjoyment you get from polls, there’s something interesting about Instagram stories.

As a social media marketing company, we can tell you that we LOVE Instagram Stories, but our reasons might be different from the typical Instagram users. More than showing followers what we’ve been up to, we like using stories because of the increased visibility, linkability, creativity and lack of penalty that comes with posting a story for 24-hours.

Increased Visibility

From the companies or influencers you follow, have you noticed the consistency in which they post content to their stories? There is a reason for this. As you may well know, the most recently published stories usually show up at the top of your timeline — there is an algorithm that affects whose story you will see, but we won’t get into that. In other words, by post periodically throughout the day, the more people will see your content.

It may be difficult to understand, but think about it… If you post stories at 2:13, 2:45, 2:47, and then at 7:07, the story posted at 7:07 will make your day’s ENTIRE story more relevant. Let us explain: when you post at 2:13, maybe a handful of people on the app around that time will see your story, but they will miss the next two if they get off before you start posting. However, if those same individuals get back on around 7:30, they will likely see your two earlier posts from 2:45 and 2:47, AND THEN your 7:07 post. Additionally, if someone gets on at 6:20 and then again an hour later, they might miss your first three stories because they are not as relevant, but once they get back on the next hour, your story becomes relevant again, and they might see all four stories.

Social media marketing companies understand this and will advise individual companies to post throughout the day for more visibility.

Linkability

Beyond what posting throughout the day can do for a company’s visibility, social media marketing companies also love Instagram Stories for their linkability. An excellent feature that Instagram recently added to their arsenal of features for their stories is linking the story to a website. Companies selling shoes, t-shirts, headphones, home decor, etc., can get people to their catalog by merely sliding upon an embedded story that features their product. Not only will a story navigate the viewer to a website, but it can also take them to a post within their Instagram account. And the more eyes you get on your product or account, the better the branding.

No Penalty for Posting

Last of all, when you post stories, they are no repercussions. Yes, you might need to be careful not to post so much that your followers get annoyed with you, but, unlike regular posts, posting a lot of stories won’t affect the algorithm. Social media marketing companies see Instagram Stories as a threat-free way to help get more eyes on their clients’ products and webpages.

To get help from a reliable social media marketing company, contact us at Fusion 360 agency.

Aug 14
0
video production companies

Why Your Company Needs a Brand Video

By | advertising, content marketing, Social Media, video production | No Comments

Asking why your company needs a brand video is essentially asking why your company needs branding — you need to tell the world (or your community) who you are and how they will identify your brand! Some reasons support this claim, and we can tell you what exactly those reasons are.

As an expert video production company that produces a wide variety of films and videos for ma-and-pa businesses or more giant corporations alike, we know why your company needs a brand video. Essentially, through a brand video, your company will be able to share its story, communicate its values, build trust and leave consumers wanting more. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Telling Your Story

People love authenticity, and highlighting things like how your company was established and how it functions is something everyone appreciates. The first thing producing a brand video will do lift the blinds and open the doors to others trying to learn more about your company. Doing this creates transparency, something today’s consumers are looking for (and something a video production company can help you with). Consumers want to know they are working with an honest business, and by telling raw stories from within the walls of your company, you will be able to show everyone who your company really is.

Communicating Your Brand’s Values

Next to people’s appreciation of authenticity is their admiration for depth. What we mean here is, whether you are getting to the heart of an individual or the core of a particularly juicy story, people love details. Getting to know more about how someone tics or how something works makes people feel a deeper connection with whomever or whatever they are learning about. A brand video that communicates the brand’s values allows viewers to get past surface levels and create a stronger relationship with the company. Depending on how well the video production company executes the video, consumers should know who your company is and what to expect for years to come.

Building Trust

It’s excellent to help consumers (and clients) know who they are buying from (or working with), but without building trust, why would they want to? Telling your company’s story and communicating its values is only useful if it evokes the right kind of emotions in the viewers. Video production companies should know how to make your company’s unique characteristics compelling. When a brand video is made right — when it opens the blinds and tells an original story and communicates who your company is — you are essentially building a bridge between your company and your consumers. This bridge is what allows consumers the ability to trust and connect with the brand, forming a stronger relationship.

Leaving Your Audience Wanting More

By telling a raw story and building trust with the viewers of your brand video, they are going to be ready for more! The more your audience connects with your brand, the more loyal to your company they will be, and the more loyal they are, the more they’ll anticipate the next release from your company.

In the end, a brand video made by a professional video production company will help your current consumers better identify with your company, and help build up your brand recognition among those who do know you. For help creating your brand video, contact us at Fusion 360.

May 06
0

Latest Social Media Trends

By | content marketing, digital marketing, marketing, Social Media, Utah | No Comments

Just like all forms of technology, social media is constantly changing and evolving. As the platforms continue to change, so do the current social media trends. Popular social media tactics from three years ago are now outdated, and with social media users being such a trend-following audience, your social media marketing strategies need to be trendy as well. Here are some of the latest social media trends that social media marketing companies have been following.

Stories

Snapchat was the original creator of the “Stories” feature, but platforms like Instagram and Facebook have adopted this feature, and have done a fantastic job with it. Stories started as basic 15-second videos showing funny moments or behind-the-scenes content, but have now evolved to branded storytelling snippets. A recent study found that stories are growing 15 times faster than feed-based sharing, and in the next year could surpass feeds as the primary way social users share content with their followers. Because of this, social media marketing companies suggest that every brand be actively making some type of story, as it is a great way to engage with your audience and let them get an inside look at your brand.

Creative Advertising

With so many brands participating in the social ads trend, social media marketing companies have found that in order to successfully advertise on the platforms, you need to increase your ad budget. In addition to just increasing your ad budget, your social ads need to be as creative and engaging as possible.

Companies like Spotify and Netflix have done a great job with their social ads, as they feel more personal and entertaining. Their ads help generate user discussion and engagement, instead of placing a boring banner ad into user’s news feeds just to create awareness. The more creative your advertisement is, the more successful it’s going to be.

Private Communities

Many brands are choosing to create private communities for their audience and customers. These private communities primarily exist on Facebook, as you can create Facebook Groups and even Secret Groups for members to chat with one another. Social media marketing companies have found that creating a Facebook Group can help your brand address niche interests and target superfans of your brand. You can facilitate conversations that are related to your brand and industry, however, don’t advertise or pitch products to these private communities.

Video Content

Posting video content on social media has been a trend for a little over the past year, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Video content has been characterized as a “super-trend”, and for good reason. Video content can be posted in a few different ways, but some popular video formats include live videos, stories, native videos and interactive videos. If you choose to post videos (which you should), try to make the first ten seconds as interesting and entertaining as possible. This is where you have the opportunity to capture as many user’s attention as possible.

By following these social media trends, you can be incredibly successful with your social media marketing and build up your audience. For more tips on social media marketing, contact a social media marketing company near you.

May 05
0

Can a Marketing Company Supplement an In-House Marketing Team?

By | content marketing, digital marketing, SEO, Social Media, Utah | No Comments

Every company markets its product and service somehow, but the way they do that differs from place to place. A small bakery might leave signs outside their door or post things on their website, both tactics are a form of marketing. Other companies might turn to marketing companies that specialize in a specific type of marketing. Then, there are the larger companies that can support their own in-house marketing team in order to carry out their needs. However, is there ever a time for companies (big or small) that have their own in-house team to rely on a marketing company?

The answer is — YES! — and you can find out why from the sections included below.

The Effect of Marketing Varieties

When a company builds up its own marketing department, they are going to take care of the companies immediate marketing needs. Depending on the company, these immediate needs are going to differ from company to company. To some, the first thing they will look to establish in an online presence and a solid public relations effort, but another might want to focus on their point of purchase and branding. After that though, they may not have the budget or constant need to fill positions that focus on any other marketing need.

A company may have marketers focusing their day to day work on direct marketing and point of purchase marketing aspects, but might not be doing anything to advertise their product or help their social and online presence. Marketers that know about product placement, brand recognition and how to sell their company’s product directly may not know how to make their company look good on social media. Maybe they do, but what about SEO and content marketing? These other marketing aspects may not be critical enough for the company to hire full-time employees for the work but might be important enough to outsource to a marketing company.

Knowledge and Experience

Perhaps the company has found a handful of marketing gurus that have a vast understanding of all common marketing concepts, but do they have the experience? When a company outsources a certain part of their marketing efforts, they have the assurance that the marketing company they hire specializes in what they need. This gives the company new insight and results that they wouldn’t see otherwise.

Timing

We have a separate blog post that lays out other reasons marketing companies are used by in-house teams and two of the reasons found there have to do with timing. There are stints during which a company suffers at the hand of turnover, and during these hard moments, a company can turn to a marketing company for help. Further, there are periods in which there is a surge of work for the company. Whenever there is a time where it is hard to accomplish all the work, companies can definitely benefit from the help of a marketing firm.

Summary

There are multiple reasons in-house teams still utilize the resources that come from a marketing company, and these are just a few. If your company needs any marketing help with SEO, social, branding, film or web, contact us at Fusion 360.

May 03
0

Path to a Career in Video Production

By | advertising, content marketing, digital marketing, Social Media, Utah, video production | No Comments

If you are wanting to pursue a career in video production, you might be wondering where you should start. Video production is a highly technical profession that requires a lot of practice and experience. As it has become an increasingly growing field, your video skills need to be top notch in order to make it in the video industry. This means that you should consistently be practicing and improving your video production skills. Video production companies are looking to hire the best of the best, so if you are wanting to work with a production company, here are some steps you should follow.

Degree in Film or Communication

Most colleges offer film programs, so if you choose to attend college, think about pursuing a degree in Film or Communication. Depending on your university, the film program might be part of a specific major, so do some research to figure out the best way to get the film education you need. While at school, do your best to volunteer or help out on amateur or student film sets. This will help give you more experience and get used to what a video production set is like. You can also find mentors who are more experienced to help guide and teach you everything you need to know.

Teach Yourself

Although video production companies recommend getting a degree in Film, it is also possible to teach yourself everything about video production. With so many online resources available to you (some even for free), teaching yourself video production is very doable. If you choose to teach yourself, make sure you familiarize yourself with many aspects of production. This includes cameras, lighting, editing and more. Try to find as many opportunities to go out and shoot as possible. A lot of freelance video producers were self-taught, and their skills are just as good as some of the professionals who received film degrees. What matters most is your experience, not your degree.

Internships

Internships are a great way to get more experience in video production. A lot of video production companies offer internships. By taking an internship, you can get real-world experience and learn how professional production companies run. In addition, taking an internship could lead to making connections in the video industry as well as full-time work opportunities with that production company.

Career

Once you have gained all the necessary experience, you can settle down with either a production company or work freelance. With freelance work, you probably won’t have a consistent schedule, and you will most likely work on smaller projects. With a video production company, you could be working on content ranging from commercials to big movie productions. Both freelancers and production companies are in high demand, so it’s up to you to decide which path you want to take.

Video production is constantly shifting and evolving, so you must always be willing to learn new things. Overall, a career in video production is obtainable if you are willing to put in the work! For more information on careers in video production, contact a video production company like us here at Fusion 360 Studios.

Apr 29
0

The Largest Marketing Budgets in the U.S.

By | content marketing, digital marketing, marketing, Social Media, Utah | No Comments

Marketing has become such a crucial aspect when it comes to a company’s success. As the marketing world continues to evolve, it comes as no surprise that marketing budgets are also on the rise, leaving many people across the nation wondering the same thing: what are the largest marketing budgets in the United State? It’s human nature to be curious, and today we’re going to explore that curiosity.

In this blog, we’re going to take a look at which brands are spending the most money on marketing efforts and how that budget is affecting their success. These large budgets are without a doubt what keeps marketing companies in business. We’ll see what these budgets are and what marketing companies are able to accomplish for established brands.

Samsung Electronics

Samsung electronics is a name you’ve probably heard a thousand times. This electronic manufacturing company has their brand littered across several different varieties of electronic devices; from cellphones to TV’s, Samsung is a household name. However, all of their success doesn’t come cheap. Samsung has shelled out $2.14 billion in the United States alone to market just their Galaxy S8 phone during their #DoWhatYouCant campaign.

Although the brand is headquartered in South Korea, they managed to make it into the top ten spenders in the United States. Further, they were able to win creativity awards for their “Ostrich” commercial that showcased a VR simulation app.

General Motors

General motors has held the title as the country’s largest auto manufacturer for decades, but their success is due to more than just their quality engineering. The company owns brands such as GMC, Buick, Cadillac and Chevy, so you can probably already guess that they’re going to be spending insane amounts of money on marketing and advertising efforts. In fact, they spend about $10 for every American, to be exact. GM has to run various campaigns at any given time in order to cover all of the brands that they own. You can find that they paid advertising and marketing companies $3.24 billion for just one year of campaigns.

Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble might not be a name that you’re super familiar with, but you have probably heard of brand like Charmin, Tide, Gillette, Downy and Febreze — Procter & Gamble owns them all. You can already imagine how much this company spends on advertising in order to market all of their products successfully. Procter & Gamble spent a whopping $4.39 billion on ads for their brands, with one of their most successful campaigns being their “The Talk” ad campaign, which was aimed at stopping racism. The campaign went viral, garnering millions on views on YouTube.

Comcast

Comcast is known for owning Xfinity cable, which is the leading TV and internet service provider in the nation. They also own brands like NBC, Telemundo, E! and USA Network. You’re probably wondering how much they spend on advertising, and the answer may not surprise you. Comcast put down $5.75 billion to promote top-grossing movies such as Get Out, The Mummy, The Fate of the Furious and Despicable Me 3. They also rely on marketing companies to help them promote the globally recognized amusement parks that they own, Universal and Islands of Adventure parks and resorts in Orlando, Florida.

These mammoth companies lead the world in their marketing budgets, and their success shows that it must be paying off. Smaller companies can also take advantage of marketing tactics by hiring a marketing company to promote their brand. If you’re looking for help with your marketing — on a much smaller scale in comparison to these Goliath companies — give us a ring here at Fusion 360 Studios. Our award-wining team is ready to take your brand to the next level.

Apr 28
0

Why You Need a Brand Film

By | content marketing, digital marketing, marketing, Social Media, Utah | No Comments

Might we just say, the fact that you are trying to learn more about brand films is a sign that you are doing something right. Also, you came to the right place! This video production company knows everything you need to know about brand films and how they can help your company. What it all really comes down to is building trust with your target audience, telling a story, communicating your brand’s values, and leaving the viewers wanting more from your company. We are going to expand on all of that below — Take a look!

Building Trust

Video production companies understand that when they create a brand film for another company, they are supposed to display that company’s unique characteristics so that their audience will be able to identify with. When we make a brand film, we aim to deliver a professional video that evokes the right emotions that will help viewers connect with the brand. You want this in order to construct a strong relationship built on trust with your consumers. The more they are able to connect with your brand, the more loyal they will be to your company.

Tell Your Story

A large part of building trust with your target audience is giving your viewers an inside look at your company. A video production company can help open up and show the bones of your company, and the more that happens, the more likely people will see your company as an honest one that does good for the world. By telling a raw story from within the walls of your company, you will be able to show everyone who your company really is.

Leaves Your Audience Wanting More

By telling a raw story and building trust with the viewers of your brand video, they are going to be ready for more! As mentioned before, the more your audience connects with your brand, the more loyal to your company they will be, and the more loyal they are, the more they’ll anticipate the next release from your company.

Communicating Brand Values

The trust and anticipation that you build with this brand film is great, but a brand film can also help your company emphasize certain values that are important to your brand. You need to express the company’s values so that people know what they can expect from your company. Showing your audience what your values are is just another way to staple down who you are as a company, and, years down the road, people will see the consistency of your brand and its values.

Closing Thoughts

Along with stapling down who you are as a company, the points we’ve made in this blog all comes back to helping your target audience build up trust and connect with the brand. Is there any more reason as to why you need a brand video? The key to making a brand film is authenticity — you don’t want your video feeling too much like an advertisement.

The video production company that helps you shoot your brand film is probably going to have experience making other types of videos (commercial, corporate, etc.) and will know how to keep your brand film true in purpose. If you are still trying to find the right video production company, consider working with us, Fusion 360! We have the knowledge and experience you need.

Apr 27
0

The Average Lifespan for a Social Media Video

By | content marketing, digital marketing, marketing, Social Media, Utah | No Comments

Video production companies are constantly pumping out content for their client’s social media accounts. From short videos to longer, more detailed ones, it’s important to know just how long these videos will last online. That’s why you want to prioritize both time and manpower accordingly, to benefit your brand best in the long run. Knowing the lifespan of a social media video also helps video production companies gauge how much content they should be creating and how often they should be posting that content.

Anyways, you’re probably here simply to find out those magic numbers… well, we here at Fusion 360 Studios want to give the people what they want. Here is what we’ve found for each major social media platform.

Facebook

Videos on Facebook have an average lifespan of five hours. This number represents the amount of time on average that a post stays relevant on other people’s newsfeed. If your video doesn’t do well, you can expect the life of the video to end after those five hours. Most social media videos receive 75 percent of their total impressions at the two-and-a-half-hour mark, but algorithms can always impact these statistics.

Twitter

Twitter is a platform that revolves around quick posts. This platform is constantly pushing new content to users, so unless your video manages to garner mad likes and retweets, the average lifespan of a social video on Twitter is a measly 18 minutes. Twitter is designed to feed you new content throughout the day, so this platform is best if you have shorter videos that can grab the viewers’ attention within the first few seconds.

Snapchat

Snapchat users can probably already tell you what the average lifespan of a social video posted on Snapchat is. Snaps sent directly to other users have an average lifespan of 10 seconds, while a video posted to your account’s story has an average lifespan of 24 hours before disappearing. Snapchat isn’t ideal for high-quality content and should instead be used to advertise the content that you have on other platforms; no one needs to hire a video production company for their Snapchat videos.

Instagram

Social media videos posted to Instagram have the highest average lifespan, mostly because Instagram is a visual-heavy platform, and it doesn’t “move” as fast as Twitter does. Most content receives around 75 percent of its total comments within these 48 hours, but engagement tends to drop after the six-hour mark. Some really high performing posts take around 12 hours to pick up momentum. With these numbers, it’s no surprise that content on Instagram tends to have a higher lifespan and is, therefore, more important in comparison to content on other platforms. This is why some people are starting to look to video production companies for help with their Instagram videos.

Content needs to offer value if you want it to perform well, and if you can’t rake in engagement within the average lifespan window, your content may not be helping your brand grow at all. If you need help creating content that will thrive within its average lifespan, and even surpass the average, give us a call here at Fusion 360 Studios. When it comes to successful video production companies, we’re the go-to.

Apr 26
0

Why SEO is the Most Helpful Way to Market

By | content marketing, digital marketing, Social Media, Utah | No Comments

SEO is a necessity for businesses today, and if you’re not taking the necessary steps to create effective SEO strategies build your brand, you’re going to find yourself falling behind your competitors online. Marketing companies across the nation know that companies might not be fully aware of how SEO works. This is why digital marketing companies exist, to help businesses increase their online presence.

Going back to businesses that might not fully understand SEO, we here at Fusion 360 have written this blog to show you why SEO is a helpful and effective way to market your brand.

SEO Increases Traffic

Marketing companies implement SEO tactics to increase traffic to their clients’ websites. This increased traffic leads to more business and more potential customers for those clients. The way that marketing companies do this is by creating informative and keyword relevant written pieces to rank their clients on search engines such as Google. Whether this content is in the form of blogs or meta descriptions, the goal of any marketing company is to make sure that their client ranks first, or at least on the first page, on search engines so that they can improve click-through rates and web traffic.

Increased Site Functionality

Aside from increasing traffic to your site, marketing companies use SEO strategies to rearrange the site’s architecture and links to make pages on the website easier to navigate. SEO is crucial in making your website easier to browse, which helps customers and potential customers find information across your website more easily.

It’s Cost Effective

SEO targets users who are searching for a specific product or service online, making it a cost-effective strategy. Unlike outbound strategies, like cold-calling, SEO’s inbound nature saves businesses money; outbound methods cost businesses around 61 percent more than an SEO strategy.

SEO Creates Brand Awareness

When your website starts to rank high on search engines and starts bringing in an increased amount of online traffic, you’re going to start seeing a significant rise in impressions. Marketing companies that can successfully get their clients to rank higher on search engines will help them create brand awareness, and that’s one of the most important aspects of a successful strategy.

SEO plays a crucial role in a company’s success, and the best businesses work with professional marketing companies to ensure that proper techniques are implemented for everything to go smoothly. If you’re wanting to market your brand and tap into new markets, make sure to contact us here at Fusion 360 — we’ll help you get started on creating the best SEO technique for your company.

Apr 25
0

How Streaming Companies have Changed the Television and Movie Landscape

By | content marketing, digital marketing, Social Media, Utah, video production | No Comments

Streaming companies are doing a lot of things for their consumers, but they are also doing a lot of things to affect the business world. Do you remember Blockbuster or Hollywood Video? Yep. Thank Netflix and Hulu for forcing their unforeseen close. What about going home and turning on your favorite TV program? Unless it’s a live event, there’s a good chance that any program you turn on when you get home is going to be one that you can access without any commercials. These streaming companies have changed the very landscape in which marketing companies, advertising companies, and even video production companies work in.

TV marketing and advertising have yet to dig the grave that Blockbuster did, but the methods and tactics have evolved entirely. Not to mention, video production companies are utilized now more than ever before. All of this is because streaming companies have forced television companies and motion picture companies to give their viewers access to their shows, events and movies from anywhere, at any time.

Accessibility to Movies and TV Shows

We all fell in love with Netflix when they initially gave us a library of movies to watch whenever we wanted (even though we struggled finding what we wanted to watch), but then they started to include TV shows. At that point, Netflix figuratively made a sign that said, “Property of Netflix from 9:00 to bedtime,” and staked it into our heads. While consumers love it, network executives are still brooding over how they can make the needed adjustments.

As Netflix and Hulu continue to not only give subscribers — a keyword we’ll come back to — access to hit TV series but also their own original series, they are pulling millions of viewers away from traditional TV programs. Right now, there are still plenty of traditional TV shows, but that could change. Traditional TV still has a leg up on streaming companies because of live events, but considering the serious competition that’s coming from streaming companies, that could change. As a result, traditional commercial advertising is not what it once was.

Subscriptions and Traditional Advertising

Before the conception of streaming companies, TV programs relied heavily on their rating — the higher the ratings, the more money companies paid for their ads and the more success a network received. However, if a TV series is successful now on a streaming platform, you can be assured that the consumers are going to stick with their subscription. In other words, as long as the streaming companies provide good content, subscriptions are replacing traditional advertising.

Nowadays, companies are having to find different avenues to advertise their products and services. Thankfully, the same abilities that give companies the opportunity to stream movies and TV series are being used to create other content online. This is the new field where advertising is turning to. A big part of the content being creating is in the form of video, and now, as a side-effect to the advertising evolution, video production companies are at an all-time high.

Summary

To review, we see that streaming companies are the reason for the following:
Blockbuster and other similar companies going out of business entirely
The subscription model forcing traditional advertising to make way for its reign
Advertising evolving more and more into content and digital marketing
The increased business for video production companies
There are other effects, but for the sake of keeping things short, this is all we will say on the matter. For more on digital content and new marketing tactics, or even video production inquiries, contact us — Fusion 360!