Vlogging sets a new tone for Word of mouth marketing: 5 key ideas for business vlogs.

In the last two decades, technological advancement has progressively penetrated several industries such as health, education and business. The current shift towards technology is very visible within business sectors such as production and marketing. This brings the focus on how the various marketing strategies have inculcated digitization into operational systems. Word of mouth marketing is no exception to this trend as vlogging has changed the dimension of this strategy. Word of mouth marketing is arguably considered as the most effective marketing strategy. Indeed, a study by Bughin et al. (2010) suggests that word of mouth generates more than twice the sales of paid advertising within dynamic industries such as cosmetic and telecommunication. Word of Mouth marketing can be defined as actions taken by a company that ends up motivating people to talk about their products, services, or brand spontaneously (Mosley, 2018). With this in mind, this strategy can be more effective when it is fused with visuals. This explains the significant input vlogging introduces to word of mouth marketing. According to a research by Brasel et al. (2008) visuals advertising have higher tendency of registering in the memories of target audience. Organizations that have harmonized technology and word of mouth marketing are currently able to reach potential customer effectively. These hybrid strategies are in the form of forums, vlogs, blogs and others. This article will be focusing on identifying 5 key ideas for business vlogs and its limitations.

Chart 1: Data on word of mouth marketing

Source: referralrock.com 2017

Step#1: Introduce your company

As a brand do you want to establish connection with your existing and potential customers? Vlogging can help. For starters, you can tell the story of your brand by introducing the “brains” behind the company with videos showing off the staff membership. This allows your customers get to know the work force in charge of production. This ‘behind the scenes’ footage looks into your company as it shows the entire production line and also relates the human faces  behind your brand which eventually helps to exhibit the relation side of your company.

Step#2: Feature Interviews

In the process of introducing your company, you can decide to take vlogging to the next level by interviewing industry experts, CEO, regulatory bodies and managers. These astute people can indicate interesting findings and observations about your brand and the industry in general. These interviews give credibility to your company, establish your company as an industry giant and further humanizes your brand.

Step#3: Vlog Blogs

Blogs are still one of the effective ways of reaching target audience as it focuses on a topic at a given period. However, some customers will prefer to ‘watch’ their information rather than read it. The needs of such customers can be fulfilled by a narrating the content of blogs through visual displays in the form of vlogs. This expands your vlogging portfolio and also provides a wider range of content for customers to choose from when engaging with your brand.

 

 

Step#4: Vlog a day at the office

Vlogs can provide customers with a ‘day in the life’ experience which is a walk around the office and exposure to what it’s like to work in the company. Customers develop love and loyalty for the brand when they are exposed to such exclusives.

 

Step#5: Feature Customer Testimonials

Vlogs can increase customer loyalty through testimonials. An effective vlogging strategy should have a slot for customer testimonials to ensure that new and potential clients get the opportunity to watch reviews from existing customers. This establishes authenticity and a great trust for your brand.

 

Awareness of Limitations

As I have dispassionately discussed the key ideas for business vlogs, it is fairly appropriate to highlight some limitations of vlogging. These few limitations should be taken with a grain of salt. It should be noted that vlogs are prone to copyright infringement, vulgar language and sexual revelations (Nelson, 2020). However, the limitation does not outweigh the benefits of implementing vlogging in business operations. In summary, the key to successful vlogging is consistency. Frequent vlogging improves with consistent posts and in turn increases customer acquisition. You should  be creative in contents or outsource experts who can execute your vlog strategy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference.

Brasel, S. A. and Gips, J. (2008) ‘Breaking through Fast-Forwarding: Brand Information and Visual Attention’, Journal of Marketing, Vol 72, No 6, pp. 31–48.

Bughin, J., Doogan, J., & Vetvik, O. (2010) ‘A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing.’ [Online] Mckinsey.com. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/a-new-way-to-measure-word-of-mouth-marketing  [Accessed 2 Feb 2020]

Mosley, M. (2018) ‘Why is word of mouth marketing so incredibly important?’ [Online] Referralrock.com. Available at https://referralrock.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing/  [Accessed 2 Feb 2020]

Nelson, E. (2020) ‘Top Ten Biggest Problems with Vlogging’ [Online] Thetoptens.com Available at: https://www.thetoptens.com/biggest-problems-with-vlogging/  [Accessed 2 Feb 2020]

 

Facebook Ads a “Power House” to digital marketing: 8 Inevitable Steps for creating an effective Facebook Ad.

            In the mid 90’s, most organizations strategically channeled a chunk of their marketing campaigns through television due to its impeccable reach as far as advertisement during prime hours was concerned. In recent times, the dominance of TV viewing has been registering a sharp decline as internet usage gradually gains popularity with over four billion users worldwide (Pensworth,2019).  Pondering over this figure triggers your awareness that, just about half of the world’s population has access to internet which also explains the 1.6 billion daily active users of Facebook. Therefore, there is an assurance and possibility of reaching targeted audience through Facebook ad. Facebook has been able to establish itself as a hub for all market segmentation (Iannelli, L. et al. 2018). However, there has been some chatter about how Facebook Ads are less effective during B2B activities as compared to B2C activities. In order to assess the scope of Facebook ads and at the same time focus on the substantive issue which is how to create an effective Facebook ad, I will avoid discussing various arguments surrounding the operations of Facebook ads and move straight to the 8 inevitable steps needed to create an effective Facebook ad and further highlight some limitations of Facebook ads.

Chart 1:  Global Digital growth as at January 2019

Source: We are social, 2019

 

 

Step #1: The type of Facebook Ad

The first step to take into account is to acquire sufficient knowledge about the various types of Facebook ad that exist. There are several Facebook ads such as carousel ads, image ad, video ad, messenger ad, canvas ad etc. I must say being knowledgeable about the features of the various Facebook ads aids an organization to select the appropriate and most effective advertising tool. These Facebook ads can be very beneficial to an organization if the appropriate type of ad is implemented, about 53% of users that view Facebook canvas ads are likely to view at least half of the full advertisement (Donnelly, 2000). This shows the high engaging rate of Facebook ads.

Step #2: Choose your Objectives

In the process of creating an ad, you will be requested by Facebook to categorize the marketing objective of your ad under awareness, consideration and conversion. This classification by Facebook really answers the client’s dilemma which is finding the purpose of their ad. These classifications are based factors such as sales, reach, engagement and traffic.

 

Step #3: Select your Audience

 At this step Facebook presents three dimensions of target audience to its clients namely core audiences, custom audience and lookalike audience. In terms of core audience, clients have the luxury to direct ads to their target audience through selective functions based on demographics, location, interest and connections. The custom audience category also allows clients to engage with their existing customers. The next category which is the lookalike audience creates the avenue for clients to reach potential customers with similarities of existing customers.

Step #4: Decide where to run your ad

At this stage of creating your ad, you will have the option to select either automatic or manual ad placement. Facebook allows you to run the ad in four different places namely: Facebook’s mobile and desktop newsfeeds, Instagram, audience network and messenger. The aforementioned placements provide you with the option to choose the type of device (i.e. mobile only, device only and all devices) that your ad will be operating.

Step #5: Set your budget

This stage deals with the financial obligations and time periods of the ads. You get the chance to advertise within your budget and at your preferred schedule by sending a budget and bid to Facebook ad. Facebook broadcast client ads based on the budget and schedule specifications  through their Facebook ad auction. You can also benefit from Facebook frequency buying function as it provides predictable and controlled ad delivery. This function selects the sequence and number of people that can see your ad.

Step #6: Pick a format

After assigning the appropriate payment plan to your ad, the next step is to select the right layout that effectively exhibits and corresponds to your marketing objectives. These layouts are in the form of image, video, stories, messenger, carousel, slideshow and playable. The variety in layout will ensure that a client’s story is communicated through the most efficient and effective channel.

Step #7: Place your order

At this phase, your ad is ready to be submitted to Facebook’s ad auction which is responsible for assigning ads to each  client’s target audience.  This operation runs on the combination of three major factors namely: bid, estimated action rates and ad quality.

Step #8: Measure and manage your ad

 This final step serves as the checks and balances for tracking ad performance. This feature will allow you to edit your ineffective campaigns. The adjustments and tweaks are made based on the report delivered by Facebook’s report.

Awareness of Limitations  

As I have dispassionately discussed the steps on how to create an effective Facebook ad, it is fairly appropriate to also raise the awareness of clients about Facebook’s ad limitations. There are few limitations that I think clients should take with a pinch of salt.  It should be noted that facebook ads are prone to negative comments. In addition, there are copyright restrictions in regards to contents of ads. The level of competition from competitors is high and the responsibility of producing content for the ads rests on the shoulders of clients, therefore clients face the challenges of producing the right content in order to attract their target audience. In conclusion, the limitations certainly doesn’t debunk the advantages of utilizing Facebook ad since it is currently one of the most efficient and effective ways digital marketing.

 

Reference

Donnelly, G. (2020) ‘21 Facebook Advertising Tips to Try Right Now’. [Online] Wordstream.com. Available at: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/01/30/facebook-advertising-tips  [Accessed 2 Feb 2020]

Iannelli, L., Giglietto, F., Rossi, L., & Zurovac, E. (2018) ‘Facebook Digital Traces for Survey Research: Assessing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of a Facebook Ad–Based Procedure for Recruiting Online Survey Respondents in Niche and Difficult-to-Reach Populations’, Social Science Computer Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439318816638

Pensworth, L. (2019) ‘Why digital marketing is killing TV Advertising’. [Online] Hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/why-digital-media-is-killing-tv-advertising [Accessed 2 Feb 2020] 

We are social, (2019) ‘Global internet use accelerates’.  [Online] wearesocial.com Available at: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/01/digital-2019-global-internet-use-accelerates [Accessed 2 Feb 2020]