Why should brands consider short videos as part of their content strategy?

What is video marketing?

Using videos to promote and market whatever you are offering is video marketing. As with all other marketing facets, video marketing also boosts customer engagement, enhances customer retention, and informs the targeted groups about the latest launch, upgrades, offers, and more, besides increasing sales.

The growth of video marketing

Video is excellent at influencing consumer choices, immensely effective at engaging audiences and thus a powerful tool for brands to garner more business volume. Create a piece of content, one in text form and one in video form. If the latter is engaging, informative and helpful, you can bet it will triumph.

Today, more than 80% of the companies worldwide are using video marketing to give their brands a voice, gain trust and enhance their authentic appeal. Since videos are visually appealing, you can play them in a loop, save and refer to them anytime; they are an excellent asset for your marketing efforts.

Want to start video marketing this year? Here are 135 Video Marketing Statistics You Can’t Ignore in 2022!

Here are some other interesting stats about video marketing:

Quite an eye-opener, right?

Next, let’s find out which types of videos you can use.

Which are the different types of promotional videos you can use?

While there are several types of videos you can use, the most common types are explainer and corporate videos.

Other types you can use are:

Video ads
Tutorial videos
Video interviews
Animated videos
Vlogs (video blogs)
Video testimonials
Presentation videos
Product demos and reviews

By now, you have seen what video marketing is and what are the different types of videos you can use. But still, why should you use them in your content marketing strategy?

That’s up next!

Why should you include video marketing in your content marketing strategy?

If you have seen the stats we have included above, it is evident that using videos for content marketing is essential. Down the line, it will become even more so.

But what is it that makes videos important for your content marketing?

Here are the 8 most important reasons that will explain to you its importance!

What is a short-form video?

Short-form videos are those that are between 1 to 10 minutes long. While customers of all ages respond positively to short videos, it is significantly more appealing to people between 25 and 34. Interestingly, for consumers below 24 years, short videos are their primary source of information.

How short should videos be?

The more you look for a piece of advice on this, the more differing views you will get. The result? You won’t know how long your videos should be! That’s why we won’t give you any definite length, but we can suggest you make your videos “snack size.” Make it long enough to explain a straightforward concept without boring your viewers.

Then the attention span of your customers is getting shorter, so take that into account as well. Blame the constant barrage of AV content all around us. But how long should your videos be? It can be between 10 seconds to 10 minutes. Generally, the smaller it is, the better, is the case. You still need to provide information and have an effective, compelling Call to Action.

What type of content can you include in these videos?

You can mix, match and create any short video. Either way, you have to be creative to stand out. Here are some ideas!

Explainer videos
Behind-the-scenes clips
Customer testimonials and interviews
Subject matter expert interviews
Teasers of upcoming products, services and new centres
Live-streams of events

They are great, but the point is, what will you get by using short-form videos?

We’ll look at that next.

Benefits of short-form videos

Short videos can work wonders for you.

Having YouTube videos can land you in higher ranks on Google results
Google looks kindly and can reward websites with videos with higher ranking
Adding videos to your marketing email and adding “video” in your subject line increases opening rates
Videos are great at engaging customers and creating and enhancing brand identity. It engages audiences with your products, services and marketing campaign, increasing your conversion rates.

Short-form video marketing can indeed be powerful. It is flexible in terms of time and monetary investment, and you can personalize videos according to your needs. Before creating videos, get clarity about your goals, target audience, and what you want them to do after watching the videos.

February 17, 2022March 31, 2022

Why do brands jump to NFT trends?

Bitcoin has been making headlines for some time now. It is hugely popular around the world and many governments are making laws to regulate crypto trading. However, there is another digital asset that is rising simultaneously. This new asset is NFT, which looks like it will be here for a long time!

NFTs, or Non-fungible tokens, have a lot to offer to the world and work in tandem with blockchain. We’ll get to that in a bit, though.

In this article, we are going to tell you:

– What NFT is

– How it is used

– How brands are using it (with real examples!)

Now, let’s begin.

What is an NFT?

NFT, or non-fungible tokens, are non-interchangeable units of data. These are stored on the blockchain in digital ledgers. Thus, NFTs can be sold and traded. There are several NFT digital assets like photos, audio and video. However, NFTs are different from crypto-currencies since each of these tokens are individually identifiable.

Why are brands using this technology?

It is because of NFT’s versatility. You can use them to represent virtual creative works in fashion, virtual world-building, virtual real estate, virtual vehicles, virtual apparel, and so much more.

Before studying how different brands are using NFTs, know why they do so.

How can brands use NFTs?

The use of NFTs brings a number of benefits for a brand. Here are some of them:

– Create hype about the ownership of a virtual item

– Leverage the existing fan base to increase sales, hype or goodwill

– Allows you to create a larger market by reselling

– Create excitement among viewers about the pre-launch of events and products

– It opens a new revenue stream for you. You can earn by selling digital products or associated products that complement the physical item.

Here are how some brands are using NFTs.

How are brands using NFTs all over the world?

Below you’ll see how some of the top brands use NFTs?

Taco Bell’s Taco-llectables

Taco Bell – a fast-food brand popular in the USA and beyond, recently introduced its taco-llectables on Rarible. Rarible is an online marketplace. What happened was that Taco Bell sold out its first batch of virtual collectables quickly!

Here’s what the company did!

They created five distinct NFTs and sold them in five batches.

On Twitter, the brand said, “Our Spicy Potato Soft Tacos can now live in your hearts, stomachs, and digital wallets.” For all their troubles, the company will get 0.01% of all sales in the future. All of the earnings will go to the Taco Bell Foundation, an institution that helps people in pursuing their careers.

Smart, right?

Certainly, but wait to see how the following brand is using NFT.

Nike

Nike has been one of the first few prominent brands that understood NFTs significance. The company has been silently observing the growing desire for digital sneakers for some time. It even received a patent for tokenizing digital sneakers.

Here’s what happens:

Whenever customers buy a physical shoe, they unlock NFT tokens from Nike. The company gives them a digital copy of the purchase, which collectively represents CryptoKick. These tokens are assigned by blockchain to properly verify the authenticity and ownership of privileges assigned to those digital shoes.

The great thing about these assets is that the owners remain in complete control. For instance, they can sell rights to third parties who can mix show designs. They can also limit how many times the asset can be copied or cloned. NFTs record essential information about the product, such as its design, color and style. Thus, owners can mix and match to create their custom type. You can monetize this indefinitely as long as they have the ownership.

This idea from Nike is similar to CryptoKitties, but is a bit better than that! Owners get their unique shoe pairs which are secured forever through blockchain. They can see the ancestral tree of their digital footwear’s development as well.

Cool, isn’t it?

Yes, but wait till you see what the next brand did.

Louis Vuitton

The fashion industry is another entity with a keen interest in NFTs. Various fashion houses worldwide are studying this technology, and its use in the industry. They believe that NFTs natural scarcity, coupled with its ability to accrue value over time, can bridge the gap between the real and virtual fashion.

By collaborating with League of Legends from Riot Games, Louis Vuitton created a special skin. This skin is named the True Damage Qiyana Prestige Edition. It showcases the gaming champion’s weapon covered in the unique Louis Vuitton pattern.

We have seen how some brands are using this revolutionary technology.

Let’s now see how Augmented Reality is used in NFTs.

Augmented Reality & NFTs

Till now, we have seen what NFTs are and how we can interact with them.

We have also seen how brands are using them.

However, this is not the only way NFTs exist in the world. Right now, people are taking baby steps in using this technology. There’s a lot more potential, but that’ll come in time as brands start discovering more benefits.

Due to the lockdowns over the past two years, artists had more time to develop unique and creative digital products. For instance, in 2021, there were AR NFTs. These are interactive 3D visual items, can be used in virtual environments, and are cooler than traditional NFTs. You can experience AR NFTs in a virtual world like multiverses, but traditional ones are little more than the items on your desktop.

The virtual designs of Andrés Reisinger, an Argentinian designer, are an excellent example of this. He created and sold at an NFT auction ten pieces of surrealist furniture.

But what’s great about that?

Here’s what: if you own one of them, you can use them anywhere in the multiverse forever. These 3D models thus work through virtual and augmented reality. These can be used by gaming platforms like Unreal Engines and Unity to develop animations, games and even CGI movies. The developer, Andrés Reisinger, will also turn certain virtual items into physical ones!

As you can see, VR, AR and the avatar economy are trending now. And who knows, in the future, NFT may well be one of the ways to conduct business in the metaverse.

For brands, it means that those who take the jump early may benefit faster. Those who don’t may fall behind.

How will you know if your brand should use NFTs?

Virtual worlds shall only continue to grow from here on. The opportunities to build, use and sell virtual assets shall also grow. With more people coming into metaverses, demand for these assets shall continue to grow.

Your brand must act now. Acting later may mean losing the initiative against your competitors. The metaverse is big enough for both buyers and sellers. The clock is ticking!!

May 4, 2021September 29, 2021

Augmented Reality(AR) in the Marketing World

The new kid on the block

In our day-to-day lives, we may overlook the rapid developments of technology. Since the turn of the century, our lives have changed drastically with countless new devices and systems. Even in the world of marketing, modern technology has been implemented and used to significant effect.

With an ever-growing list of companies vying for your precious attention and, more importantly, your money, marketers have turned to the latest innovations for help. Today, the shiniest tool in a shed is Augmented Reality (AR).

AR in marketing

AR in marketing brings endless possibilities and solutions to a wide range of industries. These benefits are countless, especially for creative brands that choose to use this frontier technology in attracting and engaging their target audience. With the ease of application, AR can demonstrate to potential customers how to make full use of specific products and services without spending time on user manuals.

AR technology has been used on particular social media such as Instagram and Pinterest. On those platforms, brands can use the AR filter feature to showcase their product. But when brands want to start their AR campaign on Instagram for example, they need a particular strategy, so they can reach their goal.

Furthermore, AR creates a semblance of ownership of the product for its users before they purchase it. It enables users to see how they would look in a t-shirt or a pair of pants through their smartphone or laptop screen without having to be in the physical store itself.

This process is already occurring with brands like Ikea enabling AR technology in their app whereby users can place pieces of furniture in their room to gain a better feel for how the product would fit.

With AR now being possible on virtually all web browsers, the entry barriers for users are incredibly low. They do not need to purchase expensive equipment or have the deep technical know-how. All a user requires is their smartphone’s camera, and they are ready to step into the world of AR.

AR in Pizza

The explosive growth in AR-capable devices has revolutionized how companies can promote their customers’ goods and services. The latest example of that would be Pizza Hut’s brand new campaign dubbed “Newstalgia”. Pizza Hut has launched its new brand campaign to bring back nostalgic memories to its customers.

They partnered with PAC-MAN to offer a limited-edition PAC-MAN box, which features an augmented reality version of the iconic game printed directly on the packaging that fans can play using their smartphones.

To participate, one must order a large pizza from Pizza Hut. First, they need to scan the QR code on the limited-edition PAC-MAN box and play the retro Augmented Reality (AR) PAC-MAN game. Next, to enter the competition, follow the instructions on their mobile device to share their score with @PizzaHut on Twitter using #PizzaHutARcade #Sweepstakes. Making it all the more tempting, regardless of your high score, you have a chance to win if you shared it.

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This is just the latest example of companies employing cutting-edge AR technologies in their marketing campaigns. In 2014, Pepsi installed AR technology in a London bus stop, making it seem like a lion, UFOs, flying saucers, or other objects were headed straight for Londoners.

This illustrated Pepsi’s playful personality and left the audience with a memorable and fun experience. Through this campaign, Pepsi demonstrated that they thoroughly understood their audience by trusting them to appreciate the demonstration and thus created excitement around the brand.

Where is AR Marketing in Singapore?

Right now, you may be thinking, AR sounds fantastic, but it is not very popular in Singapore. That’s true. Companies in Singapore, albeit creative, have still not completely embraced the use of technology in their advertising and marketing campaigns. Sure, there are countless creative and memorable marketing campaigns like, for example, Shopee Singapore introducing Phua Chu Kang as their brand ambassador in 2020.

However, we have not yet seen marketing campaigns like that of Pizza Hut’s Newstalgia. Currently, one of the rare uses of AR is at NUS’s Lee Kong Chian Museum, where they have blended this technology into part of their museum where stories are shown through AR.

That being said, the change could soon be on the horizon. With the implementation of AR growing easier and cheaper day by day, Singaporean companies could soon be joining the bandwagon.

How you may ask.

AR technology in marketing tends to be personal and engaging. In Singapore’s case, our companies would probably integrate it into something that’s part of our daily lives.

With companies doing their best for viral content generation, AR could be a means to this end. Local companies could create an exceptional AR experience for the user that could be easily spread on social media. These experiences are highly personalized by helping users add virtual objects to their faces or environment. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Imagine being able to visualize Bubble Tea falling from the sky when you are stuck at the bus stop waiting for the rain to stop.

Future of AR

AR technologies in marketing and advertising continue to develop along with technological infrastructure. Companies will continue to adopt AR into their marketing efforts to provide potential customers with an immersive experience and feel of their goods and services. With the potential to dominate in E-Commerce, companies striving to improve their digital marketing will hopefully one day introduce this mode of advertising to Singapore, enabling us to view the world in a new dimension.

March 4, 2021September 29, 2021

How to Update and Refresh Your Website

Technology and information are being transmitted at such high speeds nowadays due to how accessible the internet is. Consumers are all flocking to the online sphere to learn the latest updates and news on their interest topics. What you know today may be outdated tomorrow.

This is why it is important to update your website with the latest technology and information continuously. As online presence is becoming a necessity for most brands, businesses need to change their market.

Consumers turn to the internet, social media, and search engines to search for things they need. As a business, developing your website is a significant part of reaching out to these consumers. It makes your business look more professional and reliable to consumers and helps to create more brand awareness.

So how can you effectively create a useful website that’s both informative and credible? Here are some tips you can follow to refresh your website — something you should do at least once every year.

Develop and review your content

Of any brand, website, or industry, the most important (and necessary) thing is content. Without content, your brand is essentially just a blank sheet of paper.

While content is necessary for all websites, it doesn’t mean that any random piece of content will get you what you want. High-quality content is what will distinguish you from the rest. Remember, in this day and age, information is continuously changing and evolving. To keep your content useful and engaging, you need to stay on top of the times.

Anyone can put content out there, but your content must be valuable for your brand to stand out. One way to add value to your audience is not only to update it regularly but also to optimise your SEO. Better yet, you can add a content management system to help you keep track of all your content.

Google’s search engine will only detect and put forth the websites with the most relevant information to its users. This is a surefire way to increase consumer engagement, increase your rankings on a search engine, and boost your website’s traffic. Without fresh and informative content, your website will likely fall behind your competitors and be forgotten.

Optimise your website for mobile devices

While we’re on the topic of creating content for your website, don’t forget that an increasing number of people are surfing the net from their mobile devices. Therefore, it’s crucial to optimise your content for mobile devices as well.

Google has also updated its search engine to focus on websites that have also developed a mobile-friendly version. Make sure to check how your website looks on different browsers and different devices to ensure the best functioning version.

Improve user experience

User experience is one very huge factor in how your website does. A user-friendly website will keep its homepage tidy and its menu organised for easy navigation. With a clean webpage, visitors are more likely to stay on your site longer to browse.

You also want to adapt to the times and avoid chasing visitors away. Just as technology and information are changing rapidly, so are we. Such fast-paced lifestyles have become the norm for us city folks where efficiency is everything. Enhancing load time is one of the best ways you can ensure that visitors would want to browse your website again.

As unique as your website is, if the load time is slow, most people probably will not bother to wait around to find out just what you have to offer — even if your content is excellent. Avoid losing potential customers by testing the load time on your website and improving your interface!

There are plenty of companies that can provide you with services to update and improve your website. What you want to do is find one that understands your needs the most — as a brand and in your industry.

MIU, of course, offers this service as well, but don’t just take our word for it! Check out IT’s blog post on 11 of the best design agencies to help you figure out your webpage needs, and see the numerous projects we’ve worked on for our clients to get a sense of our style.

March 2, 2021September 29, 2021

7 Content Writing Tips for Your Marketing Strategy

A huge part of any digital marketing strategy is to first create content for it. However, to create good content that will do well, especially in the online sphere, isn’t easy. There’s already a sea of content out there — so how do you make yours stand out?

To start off with, there are in fact plenty of things you can do to boost your content. In all content marketing strategy, these are necessary steps to take if you want your content to perform well. There is no doubt that your competitors are already engaging these in their strategy — so make sure you don’t fall behind!

1. Do keyword research

Keyword research is an important step in creating all content. In fact, it’s the first step you should take. Before you even begin writing a single word, start checking what are the hot and trending topics on Google.

By doing a quick search, you will be able to know what are the most relevant keywords you should adopt in your content. Not only that, but you will be able to tell what keywords perform the best on different search engines — which is the key to getting your content out there.

However, keep in mind not to overuse your keywords as this will actually affect your page ranking. Google’s algorithm is smart enough to recognise that a webpage with too many of the same words may mean a potential spam website — and therefore it would not place it at the top rankings or recommend it to its visitors.

Similarly, visitors to your webpage would not like the excessive and unnatural use of too many a specific keyword and will bounce quickly. Over time, this will translate and search engines will mark down your domain.

2. Incorporate a powerful CTA

When creating your content, keep in mind the call-to-action (CTA) you want your readers to take at the end of it. Think about how you can get your readers to take that action. Want your readers to purchase something? Sign up for your newsletter? Or just to share your content on their social media? Either way, give them a reason to take these actions.

Perhaps you could offer something of value to them. Give them a 20% discount off your product with a unique link, if your goal is to get them to buy your product. Offer information and resources to get them to subscribe to your newsletter. Or even provide a free e-book for sharing around your content and getting others to click on it!

A CTA is one of the most vital aspects of any content marketing strategy. It is how you link content writing to marketing goals, ROIs, and KPIs.

3. Engage your readers with your choice of words

One great way to make your content interesting and engaging is to use the active voice instead of the passive voice. Generally, the subject is the one performing the action when you use the active voice. In the passive voice, the subject becomes the one the action is being performed on.

For instance, compare “The brave knight rescued the princess from the dragon.” with “The princess was rescued from the dragon by the brave knight.” The first sentence sounds a lot more exciting as it emphasises the action that is happening.

Similarly, you can also make your content sound more interesting with your choice of diction. Instead of “sales increased”, you can use “sales rocketed”. See the difference? By adopting more interesting verbs, you can highlight important actions while still making it engaging for the reader.

4. Keep sentences short and paragraphs brief

Keep in mind that attention spans online are a lot shorter. Not only that, but minimising your paragraphs helps you to optimise your content for mobile. With more readers consuming content from their mobile devices these days, it is ever so important to take this aspect into consideration as well.

Your sentences and paragraphs need to be optimised for both mobile devices and the short attention spans that people have online. So, keep their attention locked onto you by making bite-sized content and paragraphs!

5. Always hyperlink

Hyperlinks sound counterintuitive since you’re potentially sending your visitors to another website, but they can actually help you get backlinks! More often than not, the sites that you reference will reciprocate with a nod to you via a mention or a link. Win-win!

If you’re still concerned about sending your web traffic to another site, you can always set your page up to open links in a new tab or a new window. This will effectively keep your traffic on your page while still allowing you to practise good internet etiquette by hyperlinking your sources.

Linking to other pages also helps to boost SEO on your site and increase page view over time. It also makes your content more credible and gives your readers useful information.

6. Provide added value

One of the best ways to keep your readers coming back is to leave them with a parting gift. It can be a free digital guidebook, a link to a webinar, or some collated statistics in a Google sheet. Either way, it doesn’t have to cost a thing.

Not only will your readers appreciate this, but they might recommend it to their contacts too! This word-of-mouth marketing will lead to higher search engine rankings as well as some repeat traffic. Now you’ll be sure your content marketing will see a huge leap in improvement!

7. Keep your old posts updated

The last step of any content marketing strategy is to keep your content updated. As time passes and events unfold, content — no matter what it’s about — ages. Information goes out of date as the market changes.

A good strategy is to keep your content constantly updated and relevant. By doing so, your content will gain value over time. This means that even an old post could very well keep traffic coming in, as pages continue to link to your content and social media accounts continue sharing it.

Speaking of, it is a good idea to also update your old content with new and fresh links. For example, if your post is talking about a good digital marketing strategy for 2020, you can update it for 2021 — and improve on it by giving recent statistics! This not only boosts your search results but keeps your content useful and relevant to any visitors passing by.

Remember, a great marketing strategy will know how to maximise the most value out of its content possible. Be it using relevant keywords, links, or CTA, all these tiny steps go a long way in boosting your content. So start optimising your content by implementing these tips into your marketing strategy today!