All posts by Jay

What Are The Best Practices Of Web Video?

eMarketing, Starting Out

We’re developing a greater online focus of content marketing. This will include online video in hopes that it will generate a positive experience by adding value to the user’s business.

I’m trying to find some research or specific best practices as to what format is best for the web experience. What is driving my search is there is a preference within the powers that be for well produced segments – almost a news report style – for our video. I suspect this is unnecessary and may even hinder the user experience. My thought is video should rarely be over 2 minutes and should be relentless on its focus on the content, not the production.

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Jay’s Answer:  If you’re thinking of video, make sure you have a visual message.  Not all messages are visual (some are better in writing, some simply spoken) and not all spokespersons are video-friendly.

#1 – make sure you have great audio. People will put up with a grainy visual if the sound is crisp.

#2 – make sure that the video plays quickly for casual viewers. If it takes “too long” to load/play, people won’t wait.

#3 – shorter = better. If you have a lot of information to convey, try doing smaller chunks that string together (but could be played out-of-sequence).

#4 – closed captioning support for people with hearing difficulties

#5 – as in all forms of communication, keep the message simple (and easy to follow). Tell what you’re going to talk about, talk about it, and summarize. Too much information = overload.

#6 – if you have to choose between (for budget reasons) a great looking video and a well-scripted video, choose the well-scripted. While eye candy is sexy, it’s also easily forgotten.

#7 – great results don’t require big budgets, but do require a creative team who understands your message, your needs, your budget, and the technology.

How To Increase Private School Enrollment?

Clubs + Associations

How does one increase private school enrollment from 60 to an added 90 students?  The school is infant to K, and before and after school.  The capacity is at a stand still for quite some time now.  The capacity should be 150.

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Jay’s Answer:

You can increase enrollment four basic ways:

1) Convince 90 students that are planning to attend other private schools to come to yours. This means you need to show why your school is better than others for the price you’re charging. “Better” could mean: better historic results for your students, better access to teachers/curriculum, better price, better location, etc.

2) Convince 90 students that are planning to attend public school to come to your private school. This will no doubt involve scholarships to cover the difference in cost between your school and public school. Once you cover the price, then you’ll still have to show the competitive edge your school offers.

3) Convince 90 students that aren’t in your area to come to your private school. This may involve busing them, setting up a remote campus, creating a virtual (i.e., online) school option, etc.

4) Convince another school to share students with you (1/2 day in one school, 1/2 in other, etc.).

Obviously, increasing your enrollment by 150% won’t happen overnight, and will require some understanding of why your enrollment is “stuck”, studying your competition (are they “stuck”?), and interviewing prospective families to better understand why/how/when they choose a school.

Teaser Campaign For New Course

Names + Taglines

The professional association I work for is launching a new class and certification, but needs to start building the buzz with a teaser campaign. The course is for a Certified Project Manager. The benefits of the class is that people who complete it will become better project managers for the construction industry, saving their company money, giving better customer service, and develop better communication skills. Any ideas?

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Jay’s Answer:  “Constructing Better Leaders”

3’s Company – We Need A Tag Line!

Names + Taglines

Starting a new business venture retailing assorted gift lines including plush animals, costume jewelry, ladies resort style shoes, handbags etc. None of the products we will market are available in our city – so quiet unique.
Business name is – 3’s Company (The number 3 refers to our address – the company refers to numbers of people visiting our store. We also plan to implement a coffee shop into the mix to make it more of a social outing. ) – so wanting to appeal to group customers – i.e. friends or work colleagues out shopping together. Any direction you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Ladies Who Shop Together Have More Fun
  • Exclusive Gifts For Special People

Painting Business Changing Directions

Services

I have a painting business, prime painting..focused more on high end customers right now..would like to get into commercial n public works as well..haven’t set up website yet..would like some help in expanding business and would like some ideas on a tagline. I work with builders and homeowners with vacation homes and 2nd homes..

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Jay’s Answer:  It sounds like you need to create a strategy to attract more/different clients. Before you do so, you need to do a couple of things:

  • Investigate your competition. Who are they? How do they attract clients? What is their pricing model?
  • Understand your clients. You understand high end customers, but not the needs of commercial / public works. Where are they located? How often do they hire? How do they choose a contractor? What problems do they continually face in hiring people?

That’ll help you understand “the lay of the land”. Next, you need to determine how you are better/different from your competition and what you can offer that your competition doesn’t/can’t (and that your clients need or would pay for).

With this understanding, you can begin to create a marketing plan to focus on your new customers. This will include: advertisements, website, business cards, licensing, taglines, etc.

The clearer you are in who exactly you’re targeting and how you’re unique, the easier you’ll be able to spread your marketing message.

Speak With Passion: It Starts With 3 Questions

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity, Speak With Passion

3 Targets For Speaking Goals

Photo by R e t o

You’ve just been asked to give a speech for an upcoming event. How do you prepare to give the speech for maximum benefit? You start by asking yourself these 3 questions.

What is it you want from your speech? Besides giving a speech that everyone loves, what are your underlying goals for giving the speech? Is it to get booked for other speaking opportunities, sell your latest video or book, get over a fear of public speaking, or impress someone? These goals can be as selfish as you wish. For example, if you’re trying to sell something, you’ll want to refer to it in your talk. Or, if you’re trying to look good for a publicity video, you’ll want to ensure that you’re comfortable talking into microphone.

What is it you want your audience to get from the speech? What specific piece of knowledge are you trying to impart? If you can’t concisely state this goal in a sentence (or two), then you don’t have a coherent message to share. Don’t assume your audience will figure out what you’re trying to share, or fall back and say, “everyone will get something from my speech”. If you can’t concisely articulate your message, how will you be able to tell if you’ve succeeded? By figuring out your clear message, you’ll be able to create both a powerful title and abstract for your speech that sets the stage for your presentation.

What is it you want the organizer to get from the speech? Speakers often forget to incorporate the organizer’s needs into their speech planning. Questions to ask the organizer: Is my speech part of a larger event? From the audience’s perspective, what will come before and after my speech (how can you smoothly transition to what came before to what follows)? What topics will other speakers be covering (you don’t want to repeat, but you may wish to echo their message)? What is the experience you want your attendees to get from the “larger” event? By incorporating the organizer into your goals, you’ll be making the organizer look good, which will later be helpful in getting referrals and future bookings.

When building your speech, refer to these 3 questions often. If you’re not satisfying these three goals, then rewrite you speech to incorporate them. As a speaker, you want to present a clear message, easily repeated, that creates synergy with your audience.

Good Marketing Cents

Creative Business Ideas

Marketing Cents (Sense)

Photo by Steven Depolo

A local business made headlines for doing something small – eliminating pennies from their cash register. The store rounds all transactions to the nearest nickel – in their customer’s favor. They computed that the cost of the the lost income was balanced by the lost employee time of counting out pennies as change.

How can this help your own business marketing? Do something unexpected with your business to attract attention (and it doesn’t hurt to mention it to local media after you’ve been doing it for awhile – you never know when they’re having a slow news day). Here are a list of  ideas to inspire your own unexpected business actions:

  • Instead of shipping a package locally, hand-deliver it to your customer yourself.
  • Support 1% For the Planet
  • Give everyone a free cut flower on their birthday
  • Have your customers each month vote for a local non-profit to support
  • Pay for their parking meter
  • If you’re a repair facility – return the product cleaner than when your customer brought it in (shine their jewelry, wash their car, polish their knives, etc.)
  • Hire a concierge to welcome everyone to your store, offer coffee, keep on eye on the meter for them, or even bring water and treats for their dog that’s tied up outside. Even better – hire local homeless people to act as a concierge – it’ll improve their skill set as well.
  • Make your business pet-friendly – encourage your customers to bring their pets into your office.

When marketing your business, instead of only focusing on your unique benefits to people, also consider the human experience of working with you. A great customer experience is often more remarked upon than a simple great business transaction.

A Tagline For My Food/Wine Blog/Journal?

Names + Taglines

I’m launching my blog next month. ‘The Skinny Pig’.  I hesitate to use the term ‘foodie’, because there are so many food and wine blogs already.  Mine is more of an online journal that documents my obsession with food, wine, travel and just my lust for life.  My favorite recipes, restaurants, cities….  sex and pastrami sandwiches, empanadas and matadors, creative meat loafs… just a casual silly look food and life through my eyes.   I’m trying to come up with a tagline that lets people know that this is just a fun whimsical blog about a single girl’s quest for good food!… and fun, and love and wine… etc..

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Jay’s Answer:  How about “Sex, Food, And The Single Girl” or “Eating. Loving. Dreaming.”

Request For Tag Line For The Nail Experts Spa

Names + Taglines

The nailxperts spa offer classic orly manicure and pedicure, body massage, depileve waxing, cool and unique footspas and hand spa, hand paraffins, nail art, nail xtension at a very affordable price. price comparision is about 50-40% cheaper, but with the same services.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Relax. Refresh. Rebeautify.
  • The Touch That Beautifies

Atlanta Boutique Name Suggestions

Names + Taglines

I will be opening up a Boutique soon, and I need some suggestions/ideas on names… It would be good to have one that could be branded. It will be based in Metro Atlanta, It will carry women’s clothing, a small selection for men, gifts, art, unique items and gifts, hats, purses, shoes, accessories, jewellery, 30+ , From clothing that’s dressy casual, to grown and sexy, cute and chic to a special night out warm inviting atmosphere. I liked the butterfly boutique, and could see a very fancy B merged with half of a very fancy butterfly, with the butterfly having a very sexy eye with cute long lashes in the middle of it… ( I saw an artist draw a similar butterfly and it was awesome.). So I liked “Butterfly Boutique” …But many have this name. Then I thought “B’s Butterfly Boutique” ( since B is my moms nickname ). I liked “Plush” but that was taken as well… As well as ” The Red Door ” But its taken as well… I would like something that can stand the test of time, be a good brand name and appeal to the majority no matter age/race/etc…

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Jay’s Answer: Instead of “Butterfly Boutique”, why not pick a type of butterfly and add boutique to the name, such as: “Swallowtail” or “Xerces Blue” or “Painted Lady”?