Creative Profit Pros | Marketing Agency | Las Vegas

Boost Profits Not Just Sales

Why Use Online Video

by Leave a Comment

STORY #1-

I was getting out of the elevator and entering a Casino in Las Vegas that I had never been to.  As I walked through the Palazzo I heard, “Kenny?”

I turned my head to see an attractive young woman and I replied, “Yes, that’s me.” 

She said, “I am Robert’s wife, Suzy.” 

Suzy said it in a way that made me feel embarrassed because I couldn’t remember when we met.  As I started to sweat she must have noticed and said, “We’ve never met in person but I saw your video when Robert was watching it.” 

Robert was watching a video on one of my websites and his wife had peeked over his shoulder and said I was a friend of his.

STORY #2-

I answered my office phone, “This is Kenny.” 

The man on the other end enthusiastically said, “How ya doin’ Kenny!  This is Charles.  I’ve been meaning to call you and I am so glad I got you on the phone…”  He continued for several minutes and the more he spoke the more I felt like I should know him well.  He certainly knew me well.  He almost seemed like an old friend or family member with how personal and open he spoke to me.  Finally he said, “Kenny I just watched a few more of your videos and wanted to see if I could finally speak to you personally.”

Then I realized.  We never spoke before and I didn’t know him…but he knew me.  We had a great conversation and although I had something to sell, Charles was never defensive and HE initiated the phone call and extended conversation.  Then he expressed how interested he was in working with me and buying my product. 

Now that is Online Video Marketing at it’s best.

What is the point?

Both of these stories and many others I could share with you point to the importance of using video on your website.  In the first story the young lady never would have recognized me without online video but more importantly our conversation would have been completely different.  In the second story Charles called after he already made the decision to buy.  He was just calling to see if I was the same person in the video and he wanted to meet me.  Now that is a great sales call.  Imagine your phone ringing every day with someone wanting to buy and treating you as if you are doing them a favor by making a great recommendation.

Important information for you about online video:

  • According to eMarketer Daily, 147.5 Million people watch online video every month
  • Online Video Marketing is the fastest growing media platform in history
  • Over 100 Million videos are watched daily on youtube
  • Youtube is the #2 search engine in the world after Google and before Yahoo
  • Your video is four times more likely to be remembered than some other forms of marketing
  • Video is personal and invokes trust
  • Videos online are shared more between users than any other form of content

Start using video immediately but create it with the mindset of using it online.  It is much different than television.  If you want to be sure and get it right, call us.  We can:

  • Develop ideas
  • Script it
  • Create it
  • Film your communication
  • Upload
  • Give you or your team the training to do it yourself

Learn more about Online Video Advertising.

Is Your Website For Show Or Dough?

by Leave a Comment

There is a multi-million dollar a year company with 14 restaurants in 7 different cities that just had a website built for over $7,000.  The restaurant owner met with me to discuss some marketing because he knew I was into that, “online marketing stuff.”

The first question I asked was, “Now that you have this fancy flashy website, how are you going to get traffic to it?”

He responded even before words came out of his mouth with a somewhat confused look, then he said, “Traffic?”

This is a smart man with a multi-million dollar operation and an expensive, fancy website…but he doesn’t know what website traffic even means.  Before we continue let me offer you a brief explanation of traffic if you don’t know either.  If you’re chuckling because you do know…just hang on.  I may have something for you.

Website traffic is the people that find their way to your website.  Just like foot traffic walking up to your store and inside your store…except this is online.  Potential customers find their way to your website through word of mouth, social media, PPC, SEO, and links primarily.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand the meaning of all of those terms or even how to do it.  That’s not the point.  The point is,

“If you don’t have a plan to get traffic, you don’t need a website.”

If you were the person laughing because someone else didn’t know what it was, I hope you are getting traffic to your site because if you’re not then it does not matter if you know what it means.

Unfortunately many business owners spend thousands having a website created but spend next to zero on getting traffic.  That’s like building a beautiful store out in the middle of the desert and not having any roads to it.

According to Alexa.com as of today, Craigslist is the 6th most visited site in America.  Have you seen it?  As simple as it gets.  Maybe for your industry your site needs to be a touch prettier but remember,

“Better to have a simple website with loads of traffic (potential customers) than an expensive, flashy website, with next to no traffic.

Flashy Web Graphics or Simple Marketing Design

by Leave a Comment

Is your website designed by a flashy web graphics person or a marketer?

Are there a lot of moving parts flying all over the screen?  Maybe some hoppin’ music?

Which is better for business?
It depends what your website is for. Is it for increasing your profits or to get oooohhhs and aaahhhhs like on Wheel of Fortune?

Let’s assume for this article that the purpose of your website is to increase profits.  There are technical considerations then there are human considerations.

Technical– Most marketers agree that Search Engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) have difficulty reading Flash intros.  In other words, they may not know your site exists or what it is about.  Search engines send out these robot spiders that crawl the internet and when they get to your Flash intro and can’t read it, they leave.  If not for the Flash intro the spider crawls your website and reads it to determine who to send to your site based on the keywords they typed into the Search bar.

Human-One of your friends or even you might look at your newly designed fancy website with moving parts and media and say wow!  That’s cool!  You got your moneys worth…but the person searching the internet for information is looking for information.  Not flashy moving parts.  You have 3 seconds or less to get their attention and if things are still zinging around the screen before they can click on the next button…guess what they are going to click on?  That’s right. the “X” at the top right of the screen to get out of your website and to the next one.

Don’t get me wrong here.  Video is my favorite addition to a website and video marketing may be the most powerful.  However, too many moving parts that automatically start when first getting to your webpage is distracting and annoying to your viewers. 

Let’s go over some examples.

  1. While designing a website for marketing purposes for a restaurant I was showing examples to the owner.  We found a site that looked like the owner got his/her moneys worth.  When we first clicked on the page the owner comes in from the side of the screen and introduces himself.  He talks about the product and he obviously has a passion for it.(I like this because it’s personal.)While the guy is talking there is a rolling slide show off to the right.  Music is playing the whole time.  His website is designed technically right and it is recognized by the search engines.  However, for the viewer it’s distracting.  I didn’t know what to pay attention to-the owner talking, the slide show, or the music.  If there was a unique selling proposition in his message, I missed it because I was too busy watching the slide show and trying to turn down the music. 
  2. I reviewed a photographer’s website and found that it was also, “cool dude.”  It started with a Flash Intro slide show of some of his work.  It makes sense that as a photographer the focus should be on his photographs…but the slide show took up the entire first page.  It was difficult to find information. 

I could review numerous examples so let’s just get to the main points:

  • Simple is good 
  • Flash intros should be re-evaluated
  • Media is a good add-on to a website for human viewing but search engines read text
  • Give your viewer what they want-Information
  • When hiring someone to create a website ask them about their marketing skills.  If they don’t have any, hire someone that does or hire an online marketing consultant to work with the web designer because those are Two Different Things.  If you can hire both that’s great but if money is an issue and you have to choose between a web graphic flashy person or a marketer, choose the marketer.  Your profits will reflect that decision.

Inbound Marketing Versus Outbound Marketing

by Leave a Comment

People love to be sold but hate to buy.

Oops.  I got that backwards.

People love to buy and hate to be sold.
It’s important not to get those backwards.

Remember the time you were watching Monday night football and your wife asked you if you wanted to go out to dinner with the neighbors next Monday and you said, “yeah sure.”

Then next Monday rolls around and you are getting ready for the biggest game of the year and your wife asks, “Why aren’t you getting ready for dinner?”

Your thinking…go out to dinner!  This is the biggest game of the year.

You weren’t listening when she asked you about dinner because you were so  into the game and she interrupted your activity and thought process. 

This is similar to interruptive outbound marketing.  You’ve interrupted someone’s thought process or activity with your advertisement. 

What if she had said, “Next week why don’t we fly to Green Bay
and watch the Monday night game in person?”

Then you would pay complete attention.  Her communication relates to what you are already doing.  However, as much as you would love to go, you have to work that morning and won’t be able to get to the game in time.  You only have time to go home and watch it on television.

This is similar to target marketing but still interruptive.

Now what if you wanted to go to the Monday night game so you mentioned it to your wife and she pulls two tickets out of her pocket and says, “Let’s go to the game.”

That is similar to inbound marketing.

The difference.

Inbound– Make it easy to “get found” by customers wanting to buy what you have.  Put yourself in front of customers that are actively looking for your product or service.

Outbound– Push your advertisements and let them compete with 2,000 other ads that humans are exposed to daily. Humans that have made it clear they don’t want to be interrupted and they use TIVO, Satellite Radio, Do-Not-Call Lists, Do-Not-Mail Lists, SPAM filters, etc.

More examples:

Someone is reading the zip code magazine about cooking for the holidays and there is your ad off to the side with your puppy store.

Someone is reading the community magazine about the dog park and there is an ad for your puppy store.  The only problem is this person is allergic to dogs and can’t have one.

Someone goes to the internet and types in, “dogs that don’t irritate human allergies”.  This person finds a blog post you wrote about short haired dogs that don’t irritate allergies.  You just happen to sell these dogs at your store.

Considering that inbound methods also lead to a higher form of database and permission marketing(maybe the best of all)…

What would you rather do?