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Productive marketing communications is a key element for a business owner to expand their reach into the marketplace. There are many mediums that marketers can use to inform customers, prospective customers of new products, services, and discounts available to them. In this blog post, I will be discussing email.

Email is a cost-effective way for business to get their message out to their audience. Before the advent of the internet and email, businesses used direct mail to reach their customers and many still use this costly method. Email used is to find new customers, maintain an interest from existing customers, and introduce new offerings.

Direct mail marketing first made an appearance 1681 in the American colonies by the founder of Pennsylvania William Penn. Penn published a flyer which stimulated many northern Europeans to settle in Penn’s Woods.

Just like any other type of media advertising email should follow the same format for results.
Headline
Must touch people that read it. (30% Read)
Short & Cleaver / Affect Emotions (laugh, angry, curious, think)

Subhead
Use to break up your copy to make it more interesting

Body (Copy)

Follow the headline – create visual continuity

Compelling, persuasive, clear, precise
Two strong points, two columns, justify
Serif Typeface …. easy to read

Image (Visual) (70% Look)
Photo, Drawing, Graphic
Draws attention to the ad
I/2 your ad when possible
People relate to realistic photographs

Call to Action
———————————————
$5.00 off any purchase of
$25.00 or more
Offer Expires on August 15, 2020
———————————————
Contact Information
Address, Phone #, Website, Logo
Offer  Placement

Before sending emails you need to create a list of email addresses that should be segmented by groups. Your core customers are your primary audience, by keeping them informed you create loyalty and increase sales. The next segment is your target market, these are prospects you want to raise awareness and engage them into becoming customers. Most platforms give you feedback as to which emails have not been opened. If you continue to send them emails they will consider your communications as junk mail and you will alienate them. You could follow-up and send them a personal email asking why they did not read your emails.

As I have stated in previous posts I prefer to discuss products that I’m familiar with using. At this time at Keystone Business Brokers, we are implementing an email program to reach out to clients and prospects. There are at least 20 email platforms with varying features and for our specific use we are reviewing several providers and we expect to be operational within the next two weeks. If you would like to receive our emails with our current listings of businesses available please send your email address to nick@kbizbrokers.com

Post-Production Stage 3 (Editing)

In this week’s installment of producing a promotional video, we will go over the techniques of editing the photos, the optional video clips and creating a slideshow promotional video. If you haven’t read the previous posts of this serialized tutorial, please read blog posts dated March 16, 2020, Video Marketing for Small Business, March 22, 2020, Pre-Production and March 29,2020 Production (Shooting Images).

The shooting is complete, and you’ve got some great images. Now the trick is assembling your shots into a coherent message that will bring you more customers. In this segment, we will explain how to take all the hard work you’ve done and mold it into a great promotional slideshow video.

Editing your commercial can seem like a daunting task when you begin. With tons of footage and a simple script, the first step is to organize your clips. If you’re using a removable media based camera, you can copy the files onto your computer, watch each image, and rename the files. Remember to use the shot log as a reference to help speed up the process.

Give the names of the images that represent the shots so that you can find them easily when you’re editing. Also, note the best shots as you review them. You may find that what you thought was your best take during shooting might have a customer looking directly into the lens or a bump in your camera move. Remember to choose the shots that best represent your business or product.

Many commercials have a narrator giving information that re-enforces the visual message that your footage and graphics are conveying. This narration is called a Voice-over or V.O. Whether you’re doing the voice-over yourself, using a local personality, or an online voice-over service, It’s important that the tone of your voice-over matches the commercial. You don’t want a monster truck voice-over on a relaxing spa commercial.

When it comes to choosing music, you’ll need to make sure to secure the rights to whatever you choose. Using popular music in a promotional video without it is illegal and could potentially put you at risk for big trouble, followed by big fines.

Finally, be sure to select music that matches the mood and tone of the spot you’ve created. This becomes even more important if the spot doesn’t contain a voice-over and relies solely on music. Once you’ve got your voice-over and music ready, you can finally start editing the footage.

Typically, you can create the initial cut using your footage, and then add any supporting graphics that you need. Remember that with local commercials, the viewer needs to know where the business is, and how to contact them, so be sure to include information such as the address, phone number, and website in your spot.

Once the footage and graphics are looking good, you can easily create many sound effects on your own. The real trick is balancing the voice over, music and so they don’t interfere with each other. When in doubt, just make sure that the message of the commercial isn’t getting trampled on by guitars and swoosh sounds. So, you’ve got the perfect blend of footage, graphics, and the concept you thought up is now a tangible piece of finished work.

After reading this information you may feel that you don’t have the skills necessary to edit. Do not fret, with modern computer technology there are apps and programs that do the editing for you and give you the recommended editors to make this easy for the non-photographer/videographer.

Starting with editing your images with Photolemur – https://photolemur.com
One-button automatic photo utility for Mac and Windows that perfect your photos using artificial intelligence, smart tech and a bit of magic. Estimated cost $30.00
Youtube: https://youtu.be/4gg2_GL5SDE        Video 59 seconds                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The online video editor is Animoto – Animoto.com

You can create impressive videos in minutes with this drag-and-drop video maker. No video editing experience necessary. Free trial.
Youtube https://youtu.be/s2Sl4Xb8qzU                    Video 27 seconds

Good luck with this project and if you have any marketing questions, please feel free to contact me at Keystone Business Brokers.
                                                  Nick Santarone, Marketing Director, nick@kbizbrokers.com

Production Stage 2 (Shooting)
In this week’s installment of producing a promotional video, we will go over the techniques of shooting the photos and the optional video clips. If you haven’t read the previous posts of this serialized tutorial, please read blog posts dated March 16, 2020, Video Marketing for Small Business and March 22, 2020, Pre-Production.

Production Stage 1.
As I stated in a previous post this is a simplified way for an entrepreneur with little or no photographic or video background to create a promotional video. You can use your smart-phone to shoot images and video clips. My first recommendation is that you take a lot of images so that when you start editing you have a very large selection of photos to choose from. Try taking shots from different angles and distances. Today, with digital technology you can take ten images for each picture needed. In the post-production phase, it’s better to have an abundance of images to choose from.

Establishing Shot
The first picture in your photo essay is the establishing shot which is a wide-angle view of the subject that sets the scene. An example would be the front of a retail establishment with distinctive identifying features. For you Seinfeld Show fans you may remember at the beginning of each episode the first image you saw was either the front of the coffee shop or the apartment house where Jerry lived. This told the viewers where the first scene was going to take place.

The body of your offer
Show the products or services that you are offering the prospective customer. Consumers relate to realistic photographs. This is where you will insert a persuasive text which we will cover next week in stage 3. You should have many visuals that will draw and maintain attention.

Closing Shot
This is the last shot in your gallery of photos and should be strong enough to support your comments to close the deal.
When shooting take a variety of pictures wide-angle, medium distance, close-ups, and action shots.

If you have any marketing questions, please feel free to contact me at Keystone Business Brokers.
Nick Santarone, Marketing Director, nick@kbizbrokers.com

Next week’s topic is post-production (Stage 3)

This is a link to a video that was produced for a local restaurant by my advertising students at Penn State University, Abington PA.                           https://vimeo.com/100336918

The Pre-Production Stage 1
In this week’s installment of creating a promotional video (commercial), I will cover the first of the three steps of video production. This tutorial will take the stages of production using simple tools such as a smart-phone camera and your business computer. The three Stages of Production are 1. Pre-Production (Planning), 2. Production (Shooting Video), 3. Post-production (Editing).This week I will cover stage 1.
These videos will consist primarily of photos and possibly some short video clips.

Pre-Production — The planning stage of your shoot occurs before the camera starts rolling. By creating a plan, and figuring out the budget ahead of time, your video will be free of unnecessary worry.

Define Goals (Strategy) — Goals are general statements about the direction that you would like to take your business. Example: 1. Expanding into a new market, 2. Reaching a new customer base, 3. New product or service.
You can use these general goals, supported by specific objectives, as a platform for creating a marketing action plan that targets the growth of the business.

Objectives (Tactics) — Once your goals are set, refine them with measurable, concretely defined objectives. These are the steps that you will take to meet your goals.
Example: Each goal should have a set of associated objectives that allow you to logically and effectively work toward the growth you need.

Audience (Target Market) — In advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which a product or marketing message of a product is aimed. The target market and the marketing mix variables consist of Product, Place (distribution), Promotion, Price. These are the four elements of a marketing mix strategy that determine the success of a product in the marketplace,

Outline (Pre-script) — Break it into transitions. Prepare an outline of the points you want to make. If you’re promoting a business, your outline may consist of identifying the mission, background, products or services provided, how you can help solve your audience’s problems or meet their needs, testimonials from satisfied customers, costs, distinctions between your products and the competition, and any other factors that will convince your target audience to patronize your company.

Goals and Objectives —Describe what you expect the ad campaign to accomplish. Be specific and tailor statements to the focus of the campaign. For a sales ad campaign, set a goal of increasing sales by 10 percent within six months.

Script — Make sure your commercial’s script times out to 30 to 50 seconds (interest wanes at 54 seconds). Use short sentences that grab your potential customer’s attention. You’ve got a very limited time frame to capture your audience and you need to get your message across quickly. Don’t get wrapped up in long sentences. Keep them short and punchy. Your audio should also tell the customer what your advertising confirming what they are viewing.

Storyboard & Shot-list — I have combined both the storyboard and shot-list into one form. The storyboard follows the chronology of the script in a pictorial form. It helps you visualize the sequences of your video. You can use pencil sketches in the form when creating the chronology.
The shot-list is under the sketch boxes on the form. The shots are determined by what action is happening within a given scene and how to best capture that action.

You can download the forms previously listed in this blog from Dropbox. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p62v52g4pf31y0s/AADlql9m66CnvWoUxyzAsEeIa?dl=0

If you have any marketing questions, please feel free to contact me at Keystone Business Brokers.
Nick Santarone, Marketing Director nick@kbizbrokers.com

Next week’s blog will discuss stage 2 producing the video.

Video Marketing for Small Business
The internet has democratized advertising strategy making it cost-effective. In the past, only large companies could afford the huge expenditures charged by advertising agencies and mass media such as television commercials and print ads. Today, small business has access to digital marketing on their websites and through the many social media sites.

Approximately 90% of individuals have internet access and most people are computer literate. If you’re a B2B marketer it’s safe to assume that practically all of your viewers have computer skills. The best way to engage your customers is to tell your story by using an entertaining video.
Videos also can be used for presentations to clients, trade shows, training, and direct email marketing. Your viewers can watch your videos 24-7. Marketing research has shown that consumers are more likely to make purchases after viewing a recording as opposed to print ads.

There are various levels of producing promotional videos, ranging from a simple slide show to a full-blown commercial using actors. During the next few weeks, I will go through the process of creating a business video using very basic methods that most people have the skills to produce.

If you have any marketing questions, please feel free to contact me at Keystone Business Brokers.
Nick Santarone, Marketing Director,  nick@kbizbrokers.com