DigitalMark

Fit Fingers launches on La Petite Store with the help of DigitalMark

Mark Connor — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 09:28:53 +0000

After much planning and hard work, the Fit Fingers product is now available for purchase at LaPetiteStore.com. DigitalMark has been critical to this process by developing the website and eCommerce platforms for launch.

Fit Fingers is an innovative product that aims to address a growing phenomenon where children enter their foundation years of kindergarten and school with weak fine motor skills. Among other symptoms, it is believed that overuse of screens and devices such as tablets and smartphones from these digital natives significantly contributes to the issue.

While occupational therapy (OT) is a treatment option for children with weak fine motor skills, it is expensive and is typically only taken up by those with the more severe cases fine motor delay.

Until now there have been very limited options for the majority of children who may not require occupational therapy intervention, but still need assistance with their fine motor development.

At $49.95 AUD + shipping, the team at Fit Fingers believe that every child now has the opportunity to start school and keep up with their peers in learning life long skills such as writing, drawing, cutting, tying shoe laces and dressing themselves.

At DigitalMark we wish the Team at La Petite Store the best of luck in taking the Fit Fingers product to market.

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Is your content hurting your brand?

Mark Connor — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 10:04:59 +0000

It has never been easier to produce online content and while this can provide countless benefits to an organisation, it must also be asked, what risks does this present to a brand and its customer story?

Published in 2005, Seth Godin released his book All marketers ~~are liars~~, tell stories, which explains how marketers are in fact storytellers and that the profitable stories for companies are the ones in which consumers choose to believe and adopt. Fundamental to a good story is the organisation’s commitment to and consistent delivery of this story, (or subset of stories) to consumers.

For example, there are many BMWs being driven by people who truly believe the narrative that they own the ‘ultimate driving machine’. Similarly many creative minds have chosen to buy Apple devices, which they believe is the key tool to help them ‘think differently’. Whether this is true or not isn’t really the point. The point is that the customer has chosen to believe these stories and made a purchase decision based on this view.

If Godin were to release a follow up to this book today, one would suggest the title: All managers tell stories. Why? Because while it once might have been only a marketing department or advertising agency that would create and deliver customer narratives, today customer content is being produced by all corners of an organisation.

If you let just anyone tell a story on behalf of your brand, the chances are that they might just get it wrong and fragmenting your story is likely to impact your customer experience and revenue.

If we accept the importance and influence of a story for each brand, we must also recognise how important content production is as a driver of these narratives today. Therefore the key to ensuring that a brand conserves its story lies with its content governance structures.

This is where things can become political…as for many departments its own objectives may be in conflict with the requirements of maintaining its brand’s story. It’s impossible to think that the average manager would even think twice when it came to deciding between achieving its goals or preserving a ‘marketing story’.

So in order for content governance to work effectively, the buy-in needs to start right at the top of an organisation and filter its way down. This is simply because the organisation’s goal should be to preserve its story. After all, Godin explains that a good story that satisfies customers is the source of a company’s growth and profit.

So if you find that your customer content is becoming disjointed and that many stakeholders across your organisation are producing content without checks and guidelines, the chances are it’s actually hurting your brand where it counts.

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The influence of video content for brands

Mark Connor — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 08:18:51 +0000

Over the past five years in particular, the use of video on social media platforms and within website content has exploded. While this can be partly attributed to increased data limits and download speeds that have been made widely available during this period, more and more statistics are highlighting the increased customer engagement that occurs online with video content.

As I mentioned in my recent blog article Video Marketing, it just feels right, video content is perhaps the most powerful tool at marketer’s disposal with its multisensory appeal that connects with the parts of our brain that are responsible for decision making.

It’s therefore unsurprising to read that over 80% of people say they are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it and 9 out of 10 people say that watching a product-related video is helpful in the decision making process.

Video content is also quite versatile and able to increase customer engagement with a brand through a variety of methods. For example, organisations that use video within their email campaigns have seen an increased click through rate of up to 96%. Adding video content to a landing page can also increase conversions by up to 80%.

Video content is also becoming increasingly prominent in search engine rankings. Statistics show that 70% of the top 100 search listings on Google are video results. In addition, achieving a page 1 ranking on a Google search is 53 times more likely with video content.

Video content is highly searchable and engaging and is currently a very popular way for many people to research and interact with brands. There is also little doubt that video will have a very strong influence in the digital strategies of most organisations moving forward. With this in mind, could your company ‘do’ video better?

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Why should I use video marketing?

Mark Connor — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 00:51:27 +0000

Video marketing is perhaps the most valuable engagement resource at an organisation’s disposal today.

Video can be utilised to tell your story, increase awareness, sell the benefits of your cause and increase engagement with your audience.

Video engages with its audience instantly and begins a conversation with the viewer that appeals to the visual and emotive senses and will often spark a call to action.

Publishing and sharing your videos on popular social media platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo instantly places your content on the some of the most frequently visited websites in the world.

Video marketing initiatives also support the organisation in a number of key business areas. For example, video can walk a customer through the benefits of the product or service in much the same way that a member of a sales team could over the phone or face-to-face. In addition, video is also often used to demonstrate and teach customers how to use a product, which can reduce the number of support requests that the organisation will receive from it customer base.

Video enables an organisation to provide both prospective and existing customers with on-demand, easy-to-digest content about its product or services.

Video content can also be introduced into existing marketing strategies and campaigns.

Think of the how video might improve the engagement of your existing email and social media campaigns for example? Perhaps you can now see how video might improve your customer’s online research and purchase experience?

In an era of unprecedented online research and consumption, video content makes its point with much more noise and vigour than the written word.

Is your brand making enough noise in the marketplace?

Also read our blog article, video marketing it just feels right. Watch our YouTube video on applying SEO to your video content.

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What is video marketing?

Mark Connor — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:53:02 +0000

Video marketing is a contemporary form of online marketing where video content is used to promote either product and service offerings, or a particular cause or belief.

Video content is typically hosted on an individual or organisation’s own social media channel, such as YouTube or Vimeo. Once uploaded to its channel, the video can then be utilised as part of a wider marketing campaign. For example, videos are commonly shared in social media posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, embedded into webpage or blog content or linked to as part of an email campaign.

Video content is also becoming more prevalent in search engine results, which is subsequently driving more traffic to an organisation’s social media, blog and website pages.

Also read our blog article, why should I use video marketing? Watch our YouTube video on applying SEO to your video content.

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Video marketing, it just feels right

Mark Connor — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 10:00:23 +0000

Robert McKee, one of the most influential screenwriters of our time famously said ‘storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today’. This statement could not be more pertinent in today’s digital world. Storytelling through video establishes a connection with the hearts and minds of viewers. A good story evokes emotion, persuades and even compels. More importantly, people who have felt something whilst being lost in a good story want to share and experience the feeling over and over again. Almost half of our brain is involved in visual processing. Considering that the average person takes three to eight seconds to loose or gain attention, it is no wonder that businesses around the world are using emotive storytelling to capture their audience’s attention.

Why video is so successful in engaging viewers is due to its ability to answer one question very well…why? Simon Sinek’s internationally acclaimed TED talk how great leaders inspire action succinctly explains that a key section of the human brain is stimulated when understanding why a company or business does what it does. If we as marketers could create content that connects to this part of our brains, then wouldn’t more people buy our products?

Sinek speaks about the neocortex part of our brain being responsible for our rational and analytical thoughts and language (the what), and the limbic part of our brains, which focuses on the important why level. Our limbic brain is responsible for our feelings like trust, loyalty and most importantly for businesses – decision making. Consequently, the limbic brain has no capacity for language and is based purely on emotion and feelings. When we create a video that tells a story and evokes a feeling, we connect to the limbic part of our brain and are more likely to form a connection to the product or brand. On the contrary, have you ever been relayed numerous facts and figures about a product or brand yet you don’t purchase the product because it ‘just doesn’t feel right’? This is because the advertisement has not connected to the limbic part of your brain. Communicating the ‘what’ level about a product does not drive human behaviour. Communicating the ‘why’ level does.

So I guess that’s why we feel inclined to share some videos or advertisements more than others. It is fundamentally linked to videos that we feel a connection with, videos that tell a story and provoke emotion.

If we look at Budweiser’s Best Buds video that featured in the top 10 most viewed and shared YouTube clips of 2014, this clip not only tells a story, but it also it evokes feelings of friendship and loyalty. Through clever story telling this clip will have you believe that Budweiser is not just a beer, but it is also a key ingredient in the ongoing relationship with some close to you.

Similarly, Qantas’ current feels like home campaign portrays the company’s existence as one that connects people with their families and not just an airline seat to sit on as one makes their way back home this festive season. It’s difficult not to think about your own my family while watching this clip and associate familiarity, confidence and trust with the Qantas brand at the same time.

It’s important that organisations understand the value in creating video content that tells a story and evokes emotion. Video is widely considered to be the most powerful tool at marketer’s disposal. It is unique in its ability to be multifaceted in appealing to the viewer’s senses through storytelling. Emotion drives consumer behaviour and therefore we must create video’s that connects to our feelings and trust in our brands. It has been proven that our brains are not hard-wired to understand logic or retain facts for very long, they are wired to understand and retain stories. Video marketing; it just feels right.

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Applying SEO to your videos on YouTube

Mark Connor — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 22:00:58 +0000

https://vimeo.com/115236396

Stand out on the world’s biggest stage for video sharing.

Being part of Google’s Empire, YouTube has become the world’s second most powerful search engine and hosts over 1 billion visitors each month. With millions of videos available to watch, optimising your video content through SEO is the only way to be seen. And there are plenty of reasons to optimise your content. Receive more video views, acquire more subscribers, drive more traffic to your website and most importantly, start more conversations with more people.

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