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If you’ve been advertising exclusively on Radio over the years and are experiencing a decline in leads and sales, this information is for you. For the purposes of this article, I’ll be focusing on local Broadcast Television Advertising on stations i.e. local ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX TV stations as opposed to Cable TV. I’ll address Cable TV in a future article.

The first thing you must do is open your mind to the fact that local Broadcast Television advertising rates can be as low Radio ad rates in your market.

EXAMPLE: Research Morning Drive (Mon-Fri 6am-10am) :30 second rates on the top 3 Radio stations in your market. Then research Morning News (Mon-Fri 6am-9am, or 6am-10am) :30 second rates on your local ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX TV stations. What you will find, in many markets, is a couple of the TV stations will have the same cost per :30 second commercial as the top Radio station’s morning drive. Plus, the TV station Morning News will have greater audience size than Morning Drive, in many cases.

Television Advertising Process

Write the script- Decide on what you want the viewer to do once they’ve finished viewing your TV commercial. Your call to action result may be; a click, a telephone call or a stop in to your local business. Tailor your script toward that goal. Make sure your :30 second script contains; Attention, Interest, Social Proof, and a Call To Action. Write so that your commercial can be understood with audio off. In addition, write a :15 second promotion/sale script and a :15 second branding script.

Produce the scripts- To keep costs down, you may want to shoot all of the scenes yourself with your 1080p or 4k enabled smart phone. You may also add professionally shot scenes by purchasing them on various sites like videohive.com. The voice of the commercial can either be “voice-over” scenes. Or, shooting an employee or spokesperson on camera.

Airtime- Save money by advertising in Morning News, Midday News, Weekend rotators, and Overnights. You may also want to buy “:15 second/:15 second bookends”. Gives you twice as many commercials for the same budget.

If you advertise on Radio, you will be pleasantly surprised with the results when you make the switch to advertising on your local television stations. Contact us to discuss how you can cost effectively use video marketing in the television advertising space. 

Video Marketing is quickly becoming the most powerful form of marketing, online and offline, period. 90% of customers report that product videos help them make purchasing decisions (Hubspot). 59% of executives agree that if both video and text are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video (MWP) 52% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI (Brainshark) Before you produce a video marketing clip and post it on your website and social media pages, here are a few tips you’ll want to keep in mind.

1. Tell it, don’t sell it.
Appeal to your customers’ wants and hidden desires, (not “needs”). Your video should be centered around your story and not the sale. Your story is a way to gain valuable real estate in the minds of potential customers with any interesting, educational or emotional story. Once established, your video marketing can then develop that real estate with more specific features and benefits of your product or service over time.

2. Make the first :07 seconds count.
One fifth of your viewers will click away from a video within 10 seconds or less. Grab your viewer by the eyes and ears right away, give them your best stuff first. Be short and to the point. Your video must answer this question every one of your viewers is asking: “what’s in it for me”.

3. Have fun. Don’t be boring.
Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO of HubSpot says: “The worst thing to do is make a completely boring video. Videos that are pure marketing puff pieces don’t spread.” You don’t have to be a stand up comedian, but do try to have some fun. Poke fun at some of the misconceptions people have about your business or industry.

4. Optimize for Search
Host your video on your own domain first, before uploading it to YouTube and the 40 other video sharing sites out there. Enable embedding on your video. This will help you increase your chances of receiving inbound marketing links. Video sitemaps are much overlooked, but do take the time to set one up. Descriptions and Tags help Google’s search spiders understand the content of your video. Make sure your video is tagged with relevant keywords and unique titles.

5. Educate & Social proof
One of the most powerful benefits of video marketing is the ability to quickly educate your audience. Teach your customers how to use your product or service and provide useful tips on how to make the most of it. Create a webinar to showcase your industry knowledge, position your brand as a thought leader. Video can also provide social proof for your product or service. According to WebDam, customer testimonials have the highest effectiveness rating for content marketing at 89%. When creating video success stories focus on the story of your customer and the success he/she achieved from using your product/service.

The results are in. The number one selling product during Amazon Prime Day 2018  in the United States, and the world, was a video device; the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote. Think about it. Of all the products available on Amazon, consumers chose a product that makes it even easier for them to watch video! They didn’t choose a product to make it easier to read print, or easier to listen to audio. Video is where the action is.

What that means, in my opinion, is that if you’re not adopting a“video first” marketing strategy you’re falling behind in attracting new customers to your business. Consumers today spend more time than ever watching video on their television sets in home via broadcast, cable, satellite, streaming devices and OTT (over the top television).

NOW IS THE TIME to embrace video and tell your story to potential customers. Not tomorrow, or next month or next year. Right now.

Here’s how to get started:

Now get started!  Much success to you. If you feel like you need some assistance feel free to reach out to us to set up a consultation

5 Types of Video

Video is the most important marketing method for any small business.  Here are 5 basic videos to start your video marketing strategy and attracting new customers to your small business.

Video #1: Introduction Video

This is a Video-Story Marketing must have.  It’s a simple video that tells your story and shares your mission. Why do you do what you do? Share it on your website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Shoot in in “square” orientation. Remember that most visits today to your website are from mobile devices and they love square video orientation.

Video #2: The Stats Video

A Stats Video is video that combines music and text that share important statistics about your industry!  

Find an emotional song on www.premiumbeats.com and assemble a list of facts and figures about your industry. People love facts and these videos are great for sharing.

Video #3: The Customer Success Story Video

Share victories your past customers achieved with the help of your business. Make them the heroes.  Capture them explaining the problem they had and how your business helped them solve it. Make sure they quantify the result in terms of number of new customers, or revenue increase etc… Bring their stories to life.

Video #4: The Q & A Video

Become the authority in your field by giving the best answers to questions. People turn to the internet looking for answers, so give them answers in quick to digest videos.   Deciding on what questions to answer is easy. You know your customers well. Take the top 3 questions potential customers have about your business, then answer them! To gain more questions, just ask your customers… you’ll have endless content!

Video #5: Reviews Video

What is the first thing people do when they first become familiar with your business? They Google your name followed by the word “reviews”. Many of you have 1 or 2-star reviews. The best way to counteract that, and to make sure people are exposed to your 5-star reviews, is to create a video with the title, “(your business name) + reviews”.  Simple take a 5-star review from Google, Facebook and Yelp and create a video that highlights these reviews.