Tuesday, 8 July 2014

How to Use Vine to Promote Your Business

Are you looking for an inexpensive way to market your business? If so, then you should get on board, Vine, Twitter's video sharing service. Television commercials can cost an arm and a leg but it's free to use Vine. Furthermore, the reach is quite vast.

How to Use Vine
To use Vine you will need to download the app which is available to iOS and Android devices. You can record your video using the in-app camera. To activate the recording, you will have to touch your device's screen for the entirety of the recording. The app enables you to edit or create stop motion effects. Once you are satisfied with your video, you can place it in a category which most describes your clip. Your video is now ready for release and you can either post it to Vine, Twitter, FaceBook or all three platforms.

How Vine Compares to Regular Ads
A typical television or radio commercial has an average length of about 30 seconds. However, videos made for Vine has to be 6 seconds long. Needless to say, you have to get to the point quickly while engaging your audience.

What to Include
It's near impossible to include all the tenets of advertising in a six-minute clip but the clip should at least capture your audience's attention and stimulate desire.  The desire should be strong enough to cause them to want to seek out your product or service.

Businesses that have used Vine
Even large businesses have taken advantage of Vine. In fact, the first company to use this platform for an entire advertisement was Dunkin' Donuts. Other brands that have used Vine to promote their products include:

·         *Taco Bell
·         *Red Mango
·         *Pepsi
·         *Wheat Thins
·         *General Electric
·         *PBS
·         *Urban Outfitters


 So, do you think you can get your message across within six seconds?  Take the challenge and promote your products or services using this incredible app. Who knows you may get more exposure that you bargained for. Do you hear that?  Vine is calling.  Ready? Set. Go! 

Friday, 4 July 2014

3 Ways Blogging Can Boost Your Business

Many businesses owners overlook blogging as a meaningful tool to boost their business. However, whether you are just launching your business or have been at it for many years, a blogging platform is an inexpensive way to gain traction in your field and expose your products or services to your target group. If you've ever doubted the power of business blogging, here are 3 ways blogging can boost your business.

1. Increases Your Ranking in Search Engines
Many individuals only check the first two pages of search results. Therefore, if you are on page 5 or 7 of the search results, you are less likely to be found by consumers. Blogging is however a fool-proof way of increasing your search engine rankings. This is because search engines favour websites that add content to their page on a regular basis. Therefore, if you are not blogging, your business is lagging.

2. Increases Traffic to Your Website
What's the use of having a website if no one ever visits it? Well, if you want more traffic to your website, business blogging is one of the best ways to achieve this. Statistics revealed by HubSpot in 2013, showed that businesses that have between 51 and 100 pages get more traffic to their website than those with less pages. Even, if you do not like to write, 51 or more pages can be easily achieved by posting a blog on your site each week.

3. More Sales
Another interesting blogging statistic is one published by Social Media today, which showed that 61% of consumers in the US, made a purchase based on a blog post. This means that you are missing out on a whole lot of business by not hosting a business blog. It is also important to note that 81% of consumers also trust information that is provided within blog posts and take action as a result of the information provided.

If you do not already have a blog, you need to start one. Poor writing skills is not an excuse for not hosting a blog. You can get a skilled copywriter to do it for you. That way you can give your undivided attention to optimising other areas of your business.  If you need help creating blog posts, please visit my website at www.loritascottcopywriter.com

4 Common Advertising Mistakes

 

Advertising is an important element to the performance of any business. Many business owners understand this and invest a lot into their advertising budget. Nevertheless, regardless of how large or small your advertising budget is, your investment will be wasted if your advertisement does not contain the right elements. Here are 4 common advertising mistakes that many businesses make.
1. Not Using an Attention Grabbing Headline
If your headline doesn't stand out, then chances are, your ad is going to be overlooked by readers. The best way to draw attention is using headlines with bold type letters with a large fonts. However, the headline should still be interesting. For example, if you are advertising your dance school, you can use” Learn to Dance Like a Pro!” for your headline, instead of just using the name of your dance school.
2. Using Irrelevant Photographs
Have you ever seen an advert with lady wearing a fabulous outfit, only to discover that the ad is selling a lotion or some other product? Not only is this disappointing, but it is also confusing. When running an advertisement, you want to be remembered for the right reasons and using an irrelevant photograph will have the opposite effect of whatever you intended.
3. Listing Features Instead of Benefits
While your target audience may be impressed with the features of your products, it will hardly motivate them into buying. Having said that, you need to tell readers how your product or service will improve their situation. Listing the benefits of your products or services will enable readers to imagine themselves using it. And if they you can trigger their imagination, they there is a greater possibility that they will buy your product.
4. No Call to Action
Having a call to action is very important element in effective advertising. Yet so many advertisements make this mistake. Even big brands are guilty of it. A call to action asks the target group for the sale. And, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Your call to action should make it clear what you want the reader to do and also give them a reason why they should act immediately. If you need them to book dancing lessons, tell them why they should do it now? Are you offering a 20% discount or are you a free session to the first ten persons? If so, you need to include it in your call to action.
If your current advertisement is not producing the desired results, then you should check if you are making any of the above mistakes. Making the necessary adjustments may well increase the response rate. If you need help crafting an effective advertisement, then you may visit my website (loritascottcopywriter.com)and complete the contact form. I will get in touch as soon as possible.