Author: Storm Bennett CEO

E-VO-lution: Why Brands Have Moved Away from “Announcer Voice”

For years, the “announcer voice” was the go-to for commercials, televised events, radio ads, and of course movie trailers. You know the voice: deep, clear, almost inhuman, but authoritative. When an announcer voice showed up you knew to pay attention because, well, you didn’t have much of a choice with that booming voice going on.

Now, you don’t hear the announcer voice too much. It’s fallen to the wayside in favor of other types of voiceovers, particularly the conversational tone. If you’ve ever wondered why that might be, keep reading to find out!

How Did Announcer Voice Start?

Announcer voice makes a lot of sense on paper. If you’re trying to be heard, talking in a loud and overpowering voice ensures that people will listen and put some sort of priority on your voice. If we go way back to the days of town criers, newspaper boys, and circus announcers, the voice makes a lot of sense as the speaker is trying to get their message out over the sounds of a crowd.

The exact origins of announcer voice aren’t well known, but the trend seems to go a long way back. The Mid-Atlantic accent is one place to look. It is a blended English and American accent used by actors in the early 20th century for its mixture of poshness and accessibility.

This made up accent became the norm in many films, used by people such as Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. From there it became desirable and was taught to aspiring actors in schools. Now, it seems the industry wants nothing to do with it.

Move Aside, Announcer Voice

One problem with the announcer voice is its tone, often described as “parent-child” read. When someone talks in an announcer voice they’re placing themselves above you, telling you what you should think about something, and demanding that you listen to them. This worked fine in the beginning, but now it comes off as condescending and untrustable.

Nobody likes to be talked at, which is the main reason that announcer voice has died. Another reason is that the announcer voice saps all humanity out of the speaker.

If you’ve heard any number of movie trailers from the 90s and before, you’ll notice that all the announcers sound nearly identical. The voice ends up being cast in our minds as being “corporate” and “cold”, like some sort of company robot. Humans identify more with other human voices and respond better to a more conversational tone rather than one that’s not only telling us how to think but telling us how to think in a strange voice.

Some companies still choose to go with a more conventional narrator, such as car commercials, and even a lot of radio ads for things like furniture stores. These companies may be following an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality or may be paying homage to these old-school narrators that once dominated the field. There’s a certain nostalgic quality to hearing a booming narrator now that will work for some people.

The Rise of Conversational Speech

Nowadays, people want an announcer or narrator that they can relate to. People don’t want someone whose voice is stiff, overly-rehearsed, and booming like those radio announcers of old. Instead, they want someone they can imagine having a conversation with, and maybe a little jingle to top it all off.

These more approachable and conversational announcers are sometimes known as non-announcer announcers. They’re a lot easier for a listener to connect with, and much more approachable. When the announcer speaks like an actual human, it makes the listener feel less like they’re being advertised to or told what to do, and more like they’re being informed or spoken to by a person rather than some machine.

The two things a company should strive for in advertising is trustability and relatability, and a non-announcer voice makes this much easier.

How to Talk Conversationally

While the announcer voice is commonly referred to as parent-child read, the more conversational side can be referred to as peer-to-peer. The perfect voice-over actor will sound like they’re speaking to a peer and telling them about something. Keep the voice and tone relaxed, don’t use words that are too fancy or “industry deep”, and above all else don’t come across as condescending.

The conversational announcer is still able to speak loud and clear without sacrificing the conversational tone. They can use simple, relatable language and allow subjectivity into their delivery. As a voice-over actor, don’t tell the listener what they should be thinking, rather tell them what you think about a product you’re announcing, as if you’ve tried it yourself.

Put some emotion in your speech and try to relate with the listener, don’t try and sell to them so explicitly.

The last thing people want now is an announcer that sounds like they’re reading from a script. This is unavoidable at times, but the more the voice sounds like real human speech — being made up on the go — the more the listener will be able to relate. Script-read announcing just brings people back to the corporate robot and makes them all-too-aware they’re being advertised to.

Get Conversational

The announcer voice is dead, and it probably won’t be coming back any time soon. Times change and so do peoples’ preferences. Nobody wants to be talked at by their television sets or radios anymore.

People want deeper connections and trustable announcers behind their products. Using a conversational tone is the best way to achieve this.

If you’re looking to hire a voice actor, check out our product page and find out how you can do just that. Feel free to contact us with any comments or concerns.

How to Make Brand Videos That Enhance Your Company’s Message

While developing their marketing strategies for 2020, more companies have decided to add brand videos to the mix. In fact, marketers who use video in their branding grow revenue 49% faster than non-video branding. However, you need to make sure your videos properly portray your brand first.

Don’t rush it. Instead, make a plan and stick to it!

Here are eight tips to help you improve your brand videos this year. With these tips, videos can communicate your brand and help you connect with customers.

Ready to give your brand a boost? Get started with these eight essential tips for the best brand videos!

1. Determine Your Goals

The first step to creating the best brand videos is to determine what you’re hoping to achieve in the first place.

For example, are you trying to increase brand awareness for your company or a new product? Maybe you want to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Either way, video marketing can help you get there!

Knowing your goals will help you determine what type of content to include.

If you want to expand your brand, create videos that are entertaining or inspiring. Make your videos so engaging that viewers can’t help but share them.

If you want to establish yourself as a thought leader, consider sharing your expertise. For example, you can create an educational how-to video or provide product demonstrations. You can also create a complication of facts and stats that are relevant to your industry.

Maybe you want to inspire people to visit your website. If that’s the case, create a teaser to pique your audience’s interest. Then, you’ll entice them to click over to your website for the full content.

Brand videos can help you drive sales as well. For example, you can use videos to demonstrate new products or provide customers with helpful tips. You can also create branding videos that include a limited-time offer to encourage purchases.

Determining a goal for your branding videos can keep your videos focus.

Then, you’re more likely to achieve your goals!

2. Know Your Audience

In order to create videos that resonate with your audience, you need to know your audience first.

What problems do your customers face each day? What solutions can your product or service provide them? What videos will pique their interest?

Consider creating buyer personas for your customers. Separate them by:

Age
Gender
Marital status
Location
Income
Shopping behavior
Interests

Then, determine what your audience is already searching for. You can explore the videos your competitors have already created to see what works—and what doesn’t. What video elements do viewers respond to the most?

Maybe you’re addressing an audience that doesn’t know a lot about your industry. In that case, you’ll need to create branded videos that explain the basics. If you’re talking to experienced customers, on the other hand, you can focus on providing them with additional value.

Your messaging will differ based on your target audience. By catering your content to a specific audience, you’re more likely to attract them to your brand.

3. Use Your Voice

Your company brand consists of different elements, including your voice, tone, personality, color scheme, and logo. Since your brand videos are an extension of your company brand, they need to include some of these elements. This includes your voice and tone.

Take a look at your website copy. How do you speak to your customers? What words and phrases do you often use?

Keeping a consistent voice in your brand videos will show people your brand is consistent, too.

As a result, customers are more likely to recognize your content on different channels.

4. Visualize Your Brand

Remember, your brand is composed of visual elements as well. Try adding your brand colors to your videos. This tip can help people recognize your company’s content.

You can incorporate your company colors in the background of your video. If your office walls are painted with your company colors, try filming there! You can add photos, text, or other visual elements to your videos as well.

Adding elements that match your overall brand will help you tie various brand materials together.

Don’t forget to add your logo as well! Some companies include their logo as a watermark in the corner of their video. This can help improve brand recognition even as people continue watching your video.

5. Choose a Style

There are many video styles you can choose from. These include:

Culture
Interviews
Events
Product reviews
Tutorials
Presentations
Vlogs
Webinars
Testimonials/reviews
Animations
Behind-the-scenes
Live streaming

Consider your target audience and goals. Then, choose the type of video style that will best help you achieve those goals.

6. Shoot & Edit

Once you have a plan in place, start shooting! Consider creating a script beforehand so you can make sure to keep on track.

Don’t forget to end your video on a strong call-to-action (CTA). A compelling CTA can help you increase conversions and sales. According to this report:

Mobile video consumption grows by 100% each year
90% of customers report videos help them making purchasing decisions
87% of online marketers are using video content
Adding a video to marketing emails can increase clickthrough rates by 200 to 300%
Embedding videos on your landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%

After creating your video, edit it thoroughly. Take this time to create a transcript, which can improve your search engine optimization. That way, more people find you and your brand videos!

7. Get It Out There

Once it’s perfect, start sharing your new video. Consider where your customers spend their time. This can include social media platforms, YouTube, or your own blog.

Don’t forget to optimize your videos with target keywords to expand your reach.

8. Analyze & Optimize

After a while, review your data. Which videos are your viewers responding to? Study each video’s analytics, including views, shares, and other metrics.

Then, use this data to optimize your future videos! That way, you can expand your viewership each time you film.

Enhance Your Company’s Image: 8 Tips for Making Brand Videos

Expand your brand! With these eight tips, you can make brand videos that resonate with your customers.

Ready to stand out from the competition? Contact us today to get started!

10 Commandments for Crafting Compelling Radio Ads

Radio is an old-fashioned medium that has both retained and grown its reach. Public station revenue has leaped from 624 million to 900 million in the last ten years. The popularity of online streaming means the numbers will only increase.

The radio audience is a devoted one, listening for an average of 106 minutes a day, but the vast majority of this time is spent during commutes.

How can a business make sure that no one changes the channel while their ad is on? A carefully crafted message is all it takes.

Discover the 10 commandments for crafting compelling radio ads below. Obey them to create something listeners will never be able to forget.

First Commandment: Thou Shalt Choose the Right Person for Thy Radio Ads

Unlike television, radio doesn’t have the benefit of visual elements to add interest. It’s all about the audio, which makes choosing the correct people to voice the ad an essential part of the planning process.

It is common for a company leader to provide the voice talent, and doing so has numerous benefits. It creates a sense of authority while increasing trust.

At the same time, it can be dangerous not to hire a professional. There is a risk of ending up with dialogue that sounds artificial or fails to portray a character effectively.

In the end, deciding who should voice a radio ad is one of the most important choices to make. It is also dependent on other elements such as content and audience.

Second Commandment: Thou Shalt Record Thy Audio Well

The best radio ad in the world will be ineffective if the sound quality is subpar. A poorly recorded ad will quickly make listeners change the channel.

Using effective equipment and taking your time are two ways to ensure the ad sounds great. Check out our article on best audio recording practices for more tips.

Third Commandment: Thou Shalt Use Appropriate Timing

Time is at a premium in the oversaturated world of radio advertising. This doesn’t just mean to keep ads short; it’s also important to consider when to air it.

Radio stations measure success in terms of listener numbers like television stations measure viewers. However, a radio listener must listen for at least 5 minutes in a quarter-hour period for their contribution to count. An effective radio ad must air during a time when the station’s audience will be listening. It must also keep them from changing the channel for as long as possible.

Fourth Commandment: Thou Shalt Elicit the Necessary Emotion

Many of the most effective ads in any format work so well because they manage to make their audience feel something. Touching the heart of an audience is wonderful, but it is also important to create the correct emotion. Determine what listeners should feel before creating the ad or risk sending the wrong message.

Fifth Commandment: Thou Shalt Cater to Thy Audience

Increasing listener numbers is great, but it is also important to ensure that the right people are tuning in. Getting someone with no interest in the product or service being advertised to listen is not a great way to encourage sales.

The first step of catering any message is to determine who the audience is. This is done by analyzing their demographics, habits, and other identifying factors. The next is to find out what they want or need, which is as simple as sending out a survey or poll. Lastly, figure out how to make an ad that speaks to both these elements and is relevant to the right people.

Sixth Commandment: Thou Shalt Mention the Product (But Not Too Often)

A commercial that doesn’t showcase a product or service won’t translate into profit. It’s important to clearly indicate what is being offered but not overwhelm listeners with branding.

A study on radio commercial retention showed that while mentioning a brand does help listeners remember an ad, doing so too often can have the opposite effect. Work the product naturally into the message of the ad to achieve the right balance.

Seventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Maintain Attention

There are thousands of radio stations available to listeners today. Keeping them from tuning to another channel while a radio ad is on is a matter of holding their attention.

There are numerous effective methods to keep listeners. An attention-grabbing opening line, relevant message, appropriate emotional appeal, limited-time offer, and other hallmarks of effective content will help ensure potential customers don’t touch that dial.

Eighth Commandment: Thou Shalt Provide an Enticing Offer

Radio commercials usually only have 15-30 seconds to grab a listener’s attention and prevent them from turning the channel. It’s essential to get to the point quickly and show listeners why they should care about the message being conveyed.

A sale or special promotion is a great time to run radio ads, as they entice customers to buy before the offer goes away. However, there are other ways to turn listeners into customers, such as appealing to their emotions or telling an entertaining story in the ad.

Ninth Commandment: Thou Shalt Use the Correct Format

Researchers found that, while the old-fashioned announcer-style ad is the most common, a more relatable, slice-of-life story is usually more effective. Just like a picture looks better in a beautiful frame, a radio ad becomes more effective when it uses the appropriate format.

Tenth Commandment: Thou Shalt Write Effective Scripts

All the commandments come together when it is time to create a script for a radio ad. A script serves as the blueprint for a story, and if it doesn’t convey the right message, the ad will fail.

See an example of how to format radio commercial scripts and more tips on how to write them effectively here.

Are You Ready to Start?

Has learning how to make a radio ad inspired you to use this effective outreach method in your own business? Ready to air radio ads that increase your profit and customer base?

Then check out our radio advertising services and contact us to request a quote today!

Landing Page SEO Checklist: 9 Things You Can’t Forget

So, you’re looking to make some improvements to your business website’s SEO strategy. More specifically, you want to make sure your landing page is SEO optimized.

The basic concepts behind SEO don’t change much, regardless of what page on your site you’re working on. With that being said, there are a few things to keep in mind when dealing with landing page SEO that differs from other pages on your site.

But how do you make SEO improvements to your website’s landing page? And what are some things you can do today to make your landing page more SEO-friendly? If you’re asking yourself these kinds of questions, wonder no longer, because we’re here to help!

In this article, we’ll give you 9 SEO tips and tricks that you can use to help you make your landing page rank higher on search engines. Now then, let’s get started!

1. Simplify Your Navigation

One of the best ways to make sure your landing page is SEO-friendly is to keep your site’s navigation simple and easy to use. The last thing you want to do is to make it hard for users to find whatever it is they’re looking for on your site.

A good rule of thumb is if it takes more than three clicks to find something on your website, it’s too complex.

2. Check Your Page Speed

One of the biggest things that search engines are looking for is websites with short loading times.

Remember, the last thing a site like Google wants to do is recommend a user to a site that takes forever to load. It makes them look bad and can lead to them losing users, which isn’t what they want. So make sure your site loads fast without any delays.

Not sure if your site is fast enough?

Google offers a neat speed checker tool that is easy to use and will tell you if your site is up to par. And if you get a bad grade, don’t worry. Google will even give you a few tips on how you can speed up your site!

3. Go with a Single Column Layout

Remember, poor user experience is going to lead to users closing your site and going to another fast. And if that happens too often, Google will flag your site, which means you can’t rank as high for your desired keywords.

Next to website speed, layout issues are the next most common reason as to why folks close out of a site after a few seconds. So keep it simple, and go with a single-column layout so users can find what they’re looking for in seconds.

4. Make Sure You’re Mobile-Friendly

Did you know that over 50% of all web traffic in 2018 came from mobile devices? That’s a stat that is expected to rise over the next five years as people continue to use mobile devices more. Because of this, search engines will no longer rank sites that aren’t mobile-friendly.

Not sure if you’re site’s mobile-friendly? Use Google’s mobile-friendliness checker to see if you check that important box!

5. Don’t Go Overboard with Media

One of the quickest ways to slow your site down is to overload it with media like pictures and videos. And again, if your site doesn’t load fast, search engines aren’t going to rank it near the top search results.

So keep it simple and use media when necessary, like to break up large walls of text. Make sure that all images and videos you use are cropped and compressed for optimal loading speeds.

6. Use Whitespace Design

Legibility is a huge part of having an SEO-friendly website. One of the best ways to keep all of the content on your website easy to read is to use whitespace design.

Whitespace design is less about color choice and more about making sure there’s plenty of negative space between page elements. This helps the content flow well and is easy on your user’s eyes, which is what you want.

7. Format Your Text Properly

Another way to make your site more legible and easy to read is to format bodies of text properly.

A few tips on how to do this? Use paragraphs, break up your text with media and don’t write too much, especially on your landing page. It may also help to emphasize important information with a large, bold print.

8. Use Legible Fonts

When it comes to legibility, the last tip worth remembering revolves around fonts. While it may be tempting to try and be different from everybody else with your fonts, it’s important to pick fonts that are easy to read.

This will help keep users around for longer, which is again, something search engines care about. So whether it’s various headings or your base content, pick fonts that are easy to read.

9. Use Your Keywords the Right Way

When it comes to SEO on your site’s landing page, keywords play a huge part in helping you reach your goals. By placing your keywords in the right spots, you can boost your rankings for those keywords.

So where do you need to put your keywords? In the content on your landing page, in alt tags for your images, and in your website’s description. That way search engines can identify your site and that landing page with those right keywords.

Keyword stuffing is bad, however, and should be avoided. Only use the same keyword a few times, and try to make things sound natural. Search engines are smart and will flag you for keyword stuffing.

Landing Page SEO Strategies and Techniques

There you have it—a few landing page SEO strategies and techniques that you should keep in mind for your business website!

As you can see, user experience is a huge emphasis. So try to put yourself in your user’s shoes and make decisions that you think will improve their experience on your site.

A good place to start is to make sure your site’s navigation is simple and easy to use and confirm that your site is both fast and mobile-friendly.

Use a single-column layout, white space design, and legible fonts. Also, format your text well and break things up with media, but don’t go overboard with the media, either.

Looking for more website design tips and tricks? Check out our blog!

Social Media Calendar Planning: 7 Tips to Stay Organized

According to recent findings, over 3.5 million people use the internet, and roughly two-thirds of those people spend some of their online time logged in to social media. It’s crucial that your business takes advantage of these established online communities by making their presence known across platforms. Why? So that social media users take the time to navigate away from Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and over to your business’s website – which is why calendar planning is important.

As a business owner, you may feel that you don’t have any time to spare to run multiple accounts. However, with a little bit of calendar planning, it doesn’t have to cost you much in time!

We’re here to give you some pointers on how to utilize social media calendar planning to keep your online presence streamlined, organized, and geared for success. Read on for 7 tips that will change the way you think about social media!

1. Post Consistently

For your social media presence to be effective, you need to have followers and continue to grow that fanbase. But when social media users come across accounts that rarely post, they have a tendency to move on.

Dumping a ton of content periodically won’t work, either. In fact, this will likely come across as spam for the followers you do have.

Use your calendar planning time to decide how frequently you want to post and on what days you want your new content to go live. This doesn’t have to be every day, but it should be a few times a week if you want to draw attention!

2. Have Fun with Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to tap into the social media hivemind and find out what’s trending. Plus, having fun with trending content is a great way to humanize your business and show that you have a silly side!

One way to take advantage of hashtags is to tap into the always-growing National Days phenomenon. We’ve seen everything from National Dogs Day to National Broadcast Traffic Professional’s Day. Take a glance at the official National Days website and map out a few that you can create some fun and relevant content for—and don’t forget the hashtag!

3. Think Beyond the Business

Of course, you want to drive up your sales with your social media, but not every post needs to link to a product or service directly. Find topics that generally relate to your business and create content surrounding those topics. The goal is to attract attention, show off your expertise, and avoid boring people with a constant stream of strictly promotional content.

Optimize your results with these kinds of posts by hiring SEO professionals to help you generate ideas. They can uncover the most sought after information within your niche so that you answer the internet’s most burning questions!

4. Know Your Creatives

As you’re planning your social media content calendar and taking notes from social media professionals, you’ll notice that social media content tends to be very diverse. We mentioned SEO-fueled articles, which will be best handled by a content writer. There are also high-quality pictures, videos, infographics, and more.

Don’t expect that one person in your office will be able to perfect all of these content styles. Take stock of your employees’ strengths and delegate types of content accordingly.

5. Know Your Platforms

Don’t expect that you can upload the same content across all of your social media platforms. Social media experts will tell you that different types of content perform better on some platforms than others, and you should cater your content to each platform.

For example, longer videos tend to do well on Facebook, in part because they won’t get cut off in the middle and require viewers to navigate elsewhere to watch the rest (which they probably won’t). Stylized photos and short clips do well on Instagram. Twitter is designed for short-form blurbs, especially of the humorous variety.

Don’t start your calendar planning before you know what works best and where!

6. Hold on to Old Calendars

One of the best things about social media content calendars is that they can prevent you from repeating old content. However, with consistent and frequent posting over a number of months or even years, you’re bound to forget that you already made a certain joke or posted about a certain topic awhile back.

When it’s time to draft up a new content calendar, break out the old ones to cross-reference. It’s okay for posts to bear some similarities, but you don’t want to post content that appears stale to your longtime followers.

7. Adjust When Necessary

Calendar planning isn’t meant to be rigid. It saves you the headache of coming up with new ideas on the fly every few days, but be prepared to adjust your plans when it seems necessary.

Let’s say you roll out a hashtag that you’ve planned to incorporate into the rest of your posts for the foreseeable future. After the first few months, it isn’t gaining steam. Or perhaps you’ve decided on a series of online contests, but people don’t seem to engage with them and it’s not worth the money you’re investing in the prizes.

Allow yourself the flexibility to change directions, even if you’ve planned heavily around a certain style of content. Social media can be a very trial-and-error-based process, especially when you’re in the early stages!

Boost Your Business with Calendar Planning

Social media calendar planning is a great way to set your business up for success. It gives you the opportunity to do a bit of research and find new ways to reach new customers in the digital age. It also saves you the time and stress of coming up with things on the fly, which can lead to inconsistency and incoherency.

If you’ve read through these tips on calendar planning and still don’t feel up to the task, don’t hesitate to invest in a professional social media team. At Killer Spots Agency, our social media team is ready to come up with a strategy for you and even manage your social media interactions!

Contact us for help with your marketing and outreach strategies, whether you want to take them the internet, the television, or even the radio!

9 Video Advertising Trends of 2019

Television commercials and traditional advertisements are becoming a thing of the past.

As the next generation of tech-focused consumers saturates the marketplace, keeping up with these advertising trends is important. You either adjust your strategies or you risk having to close your doors for good.

So, where are consumers getting their information these days?

90% have said that they discover new brands through YouTube ads. 80% of shoppers say that they tend to switch between online search and video when deciding what to buy.

Set yourself and your brand up for success by plugging into the “show don’t tell” mindset. Keep up with current trends in advertising and generate quality video for the greatest potential of return on ad spend.

Here are 9 advertising trends for 2019 to get you started!

1. Web-Based Video Content

Focusing on optimizing your advertisements for web users gives you great potential for organic traffic.

More than ever, people are leaving behind paid television programming to switch to web-based streaming entertainment.

Reach them here by providing high-level, professional videos that give the best view of your products or services.

2. Full-Funnel YouTube Advertising

One of the best features of video advertising is that it offers you the chance to cater to the full advertising funnel.

Reach your target customers at the brand awareness level with lighthearted, catchy videos.
Generate interest by showing them how much better or easier their lives will be with your product or service.
Compare your product with similar products to help answer questions they may have in the evaluation phase.
Get them committed to your product by offering incentives, guarantees, or support.
Finally, reel them in by offering special sales and deals at the purchase level.

By offering specialized content at each level, you will be optimizing this marketing strategy in full force.

Bonus: Take advantage of this structure by shooting all of your material at once. Tell your whole story and then chop it up and distribute it where it fits in the buyer’s journey.

3. Over-The-Top and In-Stream Advertising

OTT advertisements refer to those short, 5-15 second ads that play on streaming platforms that a viewer can’t skip.

This style of advertising allows you to lump viewers together into different groups so that you can target them based on their user profiles.

More and more people are switching to streaming alternatives for entertainment. Every platform requires the viewer to create an account or profile. This gives you access to their personalized data information like their region, age range, and viewing trends.

With over 70% of in-stream ad impressions on Facebook viewed to completion with the sound on, this is a valuable way to get your information out.

Additionally, you can control what sort of content shouldn’t be appearing alongside your ads. For example, if you’re running an ad to help people quit smoking, you won’t want a cigarette brand’s ad running alongside it.

4. Mobile-First Advertising Trends

Customers are more likely to shop online with their phones over any other means. It is vital that video advertising (and online shopping platforms) be compatible with this format.

Keep social media formatting in mind when producing video content. Many shoppers rely on clickable and shop-able social media ads. If you are showing them content, make sure they can click through to make their purchase, otherwise, you run the risk of losing them.

5. Customer-Made Content

Customers are more likely to trust the information or opinions of their peers on the Internet over those of a mega-corporation.

Take advantage of this by encouraging opinionated customers to share their experiences. This can be an actual video testimonial or a rave review they left on your site.

6. Influencer Content

Are you a new company or perhaps an established one looking to generate some positive feedback? Buy into social media influencers!

Depending on your product, this can be a powerful way to get your brand in front of a lot of people in a short amount of time.

For a current customer, you can offer them a gift card or free merchandise to introduce new products. Encourage them to focus on their continued business with you!

For new customers, focus on your brand and key products or services. Offer the influencer free product or services that they can review and explain.

Generally, it’s best to establish an agreement for how long your product review needs to stay on their platform. It’s also important to make sure they know you may use their images and video in your advertising campaigns.

7. Graphic or Animated Videos

Blend graphics, text, or animated characters in your video ads. This can be an easy way to tell a story for anew or online exclusive brand people may not have heard of yet.

Bring your blueprints or digital layouts to life in anticipation of a grand opening, use text or customer reviews to tell a story, or animate with generic characters to give viewers a chance to imagine themselves in their place. This creates a much more inclusive branding statement.

8. Cinemagraph Advertisements

Cinemagraphs are cool photo and video hybrid advertisements. Set the tone in your static advertisements by catching the viewer’s eye with some motion.

Some examples are a few strands of hair blowing in the wind, a single blinking streetlight, waves crashing on the sand, or sparks from a campfire.

Generally, a viewer will spend more time looking at a Cinemagraph ad than a photo because they want to see what else is moving. This means greater absorption of your messaging and higher potential for ROAS.

This advertising trend brings life and variety into your messaging, without distracting away from it.

9. Television Commercials

That’s right, television should still be on your radar folks! Don’t alienate or ignore your more traditional customers by forgetting to occasionally advertise on TV.

Think about the types of ads you are working on for the digital market and play to those trends for TV as well. Delight your viewer with ads that they won’t want to leave the room for or fast-forward through. Hit them right away with exciting content so they stick around for your messaging.

Where to Start

For newer, smaller, or more traditional companies, video advertising trends like these may be daunting.

But depending on your customers’ age, lifestyle, region, and shopping habits, video production could be a game-changer for your business! Learn more about your customers and decide what would be the most beneficial avenue to get them your information.

If you’re ready to get started on your video marketing strategy, contact us today.

7 Simple Tips to Create the Perfect On Hold Message

Everyone hates being placed on-hold. Especially when time is short and your customers are busy. If you run a popular company but you care about your employees, you know the importance of an excellent on-hold message.

Your on-hold message can be the difference between a hang-up and a customer that stays in it for the long haul. What’s more, on-hold customers present you a unique opportunity in today’s world– a highly engaged audience.

Marketing experts fork out millions every year to target engaged audiences. But you’ve got an entire queue-full for free. That’s why we’re here to make sure you don’t mess up this incredible opportunity by presenting out top tips for engaging on-hold messages.

Want to know how to keep customers on the line, satisfied, and excited to engage with your business? Keep reading for the 7 things you need to create the perfect on-hold message every time.

1. Start With a Greeting

To set the stage for your customer’s on-hold experience, you need the perfect greeting. Any good business greeting should include the business name. And if you have the right call-in software, you may also prefer personalizing the greeting to include the customer’s name.

But many companies also enjoy creating short slogans to highlight their business expertise.

For example, companies that are a local staple might mention how long they’ve been in business. Similarly, if your company has won awards for your products or services, you can mention it in your greeting.

2. Set Your Customers’ Expectations

Once you’ve greeted your incoming caller, it’s time to let them know what to expect from the call-in experience. Are queues full and will there be wait time? If so, make sure to tell the customer how long they can expect to wait or even what number they are in line.

Does the customer have other options aside from speaking with a representative? Then it’s time to list those other options now. And one of those options should always be the next tip on our list: an FAQ on-hold message.

3. Offer FAQs to Save Time

One of the most useful options in your on-hold message is a list of frequently asked questions. Your customer’s question may be on this list, saving them from having to wait in a long queue just to discover the answer is more simple than they might’ve thought.

Common FAQs include:

Company business hours
Business location or address
Your website

Including directions to your website is an excellent idea for companies that offer services that can also be done online. Is your customer calling to schedule an appointment? Direct them toward your website where they can set up a time online.

4. Make Wait Times Worthwhile

Once a customer is well-informed about their options, you may want to offer something useful to them. After all, the number 1 reason people hang up while on-hold is because they have better things to do than wait. Make their wait time worth it to avoid premature hang-ups.

Include details on upcoming promotions, sales, or exclusive offers. This may also be a good time to plug new services or products your customer may not be aware of. That way, your call-in customer will feel less like they’re wasting time and more like they’re getting something in return for waiting patiently.

5. Educate While They Wait

While on-hold messages can be an excellent time to up-sell, don’t make your customers think it’s all about your business. Take the time to remind your customer you care with short educational content in your on-hold message.

Gone are the days of playing boring and monotonous elevator music while they wait. Instead, customers want to be educated through your on-hold message.

One of the best ways to do this is by offering little tips and tricks that pertain to your business or industry. For example, a credit card company might offer advice on how to improve credit scores or find the best deals on interest rates.

6. Remind Customers to Leave a Review, Like, or Comment

In today’s totally online world, a review can be one of the most valuable customer interactions for a business. Not to mention getting customers to engage with you online. These things build your social proof with prospective customers and go a long way to help improve your business’ visibility in the community you operate in.

But don’t just plug your social media pages and ask for a review full stop. Make sure to let customers know that you value their opinion. Use this time to also let them know if they’ve had a negative experience in the past, you’re more than happy to speak with them about it and resolve your negative feelings.

And when possible, offer customers something in return for leaving a review or following your social media accounts. For example, many companies offer future discounts or free items in exchange for a review on Google or another popular review platform. This will not only incentivize the process but it will also show your customers you really do value their opinion.

7. Be Gracious– Say Thank You

Just as you should never begin an on-hold message without a warm greeting, you should never end a customer’s experience with anything but profuse gratitude. No one likes wasting time on hold. But when you let your customers know you recognize their time sacrifice, they’re more likely to feel like waiting is worth it.

Get a Custom On-Hold Message For Your Business

Searching for an affordable, custom on-hold message to start engaging customers at your business? Killerspots is here to help. Check out our On-hold Message Services and find out you can start improving customer satisfaction while on-hold today!