Episode 89: Making TV Media Buying Easier with Michael Beach at Cross Screen Media

Episode 92: Enhancing Your Online Visibility with SEMrush

If you are an online marketer and want to know how to increase your visibility online, you should take a listen. don’t go away. Our guest on this episode is from the world's leading competitive research service for online marketing. Fernando Angulo, head of communications at SEMrush talks about its tools and strategies for getting its clients noticed online.

About SEMRush

SEMrush was a startup in 2008 with about 12 software and a great idea. Headquartered in the Czech Republic, its first product was a called SEOquake, a free toolbar to use in a browser that measures metrics like website traffic, domain authority, website owner, number of external links and other KPIs for SEO. Today, SEMrush is global with 1,000 employees in four countries and three offices in the U.S., one in Russia and one in Cypress.

According to Fernando, anyone who has a website and wants to earn an exposure online needs tools like SEOquake and the services at SEMrush. The company can help marketing agencies, corporations, brands, small businesses, even freelancers, in developing four strategies: SEO, Social Media Channels, Content Marketing, and knowledge about competitors using the business intelligence that SEMrush offers. Its tools provide added value with more information, easier reporting tools and the ability to implement more campaigns and strategies at the same time daily. Its newest platform, Traffic Analytics, can provide intelligence about a competitor’s every move on every search engine, including traffic sources, social media, paid traffic and more.

While keyword research is still important, it has gotten much more complex. As a leader in competitive research services, SEMrush has a large database of more than 60 billion keywords in 150 countries.

Understanding How People Search Online

If you are just getting started online, Fernando recommends that you look at what topics are more popular in your industry. SEMrush can help by giving you insights into how people are searching for your products or services. For instance, today people are conducting more longtail searches. They are using longer phrases and sentences to find what they want. So, once you’ve picked your topic, choose those longtail keywords and create content for it.

Fernando says Google changed its search features and the way it is working with results two years ago. If you are looking for nearby gas stations, for example, you will usually get a Google map and a list of gas stations.

Google’s search results sometimes show listings where thesnippetdescribing a page comes before a link to a page, not after. Results displayed this way are called "featured snippets."

Featured snippets are triggered by keywords used with a question, or comparisons like “what is a betters, this or that?” This is, again, because of the popularity of voice search and longtail searches. The third way to trigger a featured snippet is by using prepositions, such as, “like,” “for,” “with” and “without.”

About 80% of the featured snippets typically use Google products, so brands are seeing a dramatic reduction in the number of clicks coming to their websites. Fernando says you can change this by creating original content that follows guidelines. Google is looking for descriptions that are either 42 words or 262 characters in length. There can be an image or video with it or not. Also, adding lists to content can help you in Google search. Booker.com has been successful using lists with content that includes “the top 10 vacations in Spain” or “the most beautiful beaches in Greece.

SEMrush has recently added Content Marketplace, where brands can order content with all the structures required for a featured snippet.

SEMrush Pricing

Semrush offers three pricing tiers:

• Pro Package for $99.95/mo. It includes full access to the database and SEMRush tools with the exception of the Traffic Analytics tool.
• Guru Package for $199.95/mo. It includes everything in the Pro Package, plus seven years of historical data of your competitors’ PPC, prices, types of ads, positioning and more.
• Business Package for $399/mo. Full access to the above and the Traffic Analytics tool.

Connect with SEMrush

A very transparent company, SEMRush connects with people on almost every platform. It has Groups for Support, open discussions every week in Chats and offers certification programs with its SEMrush Academy

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.semrush.com

Episode 91: Enhancing Your Visibility Online with Global Leader SEMRush

It’s a new decade and a new year, but some things remain constant. Content is still king, and its followers are growing. What’s changing is the way we consume content. In the past, content creation has been primarily text-based. Thanks to smartphones, however, more and more people prefer different ways to learn about brands. We’ve seen an explosion in podcasting and video is likely to be the next boom as it becomes more affordable and easier to do.

Companies like Vidyard have seen the trends. They’ve developed a platform to help your videos do much more. On this episode, Vidyard’s Customer Outcomes Manager, Jacob Fernandes, talks about its capabilities and features.

About Vidyard

Vidyard is a video hosting platform that identifies, scores and tracks engagement with viewers. It specializes in identifying who is watching your video. Vidyard can track engagements manually with custom forms that have to be filled out before you can watch a video. Or, the platform can integrate your data with Hubspot, a CRM or any other marketing automation.

Using the platform to upload and distribute videos is free. Hosting your video requires a monthly subscription. It can be as low as $20 per month or cost literally thousands of dollars depending on your brand’s needs.

With a paid subscription, brands can also empower its video content using several features, including:

• Call-to-Actions
• Annotations
• Thumbnails that transcribe videos for accessibility and to aid in SEO
• Choose your own adventure guides that enable viewers to watch a video on a website’s homepage, and then pinpoint where they want to go on a website for more insight about a topic they saw in the video.

Brands can also create video content using Vidyard’s free Chrome extension. The Vidyard Pro feature lets you record a selfie-style video and or take a screenshot from a web page and then email it to prospects or customers.

Getting Started

Jacob says there is very little to invest to get started with video. Most cell phones can shoot in 4k. All you need to buy is a wireless microphone and a basic lighting kit.

Lots of videos can be done in-house. These videos can be used for education purposes, as tutorials, invitations or even as a marketing tool for a brand’s sales team and any other customer-facing employee. In fact, Jacob says there are 6 must-have videos that brands should consider.

• Explainer video content with information about the brand, the products or services offered and the benefits of those products or services.
• How-to video assets to educate clients or customers on how to use your products or services.
• Thought Leadership video using executives who have expertise in a certain area and empowering them to create video content that can promoted online and on social media.
• Webinars for prospecting.
• Case studies on how your others are winning using your products or services.
• Demo Content

Jacob says brands that use video extraordinarily well include Hubspot and Marketo. And if you are a Hubspot listener, you can get an entire video suite right now for free.

Connect with Jacob

Email:[email protected]

Website:https://www.vidyard.com

Twitter: @jacobsaidthings

LinkedIn: @jacobfernandes93

Episode 90: Is Influencer Marketing Right for Your Brand with Kerry Perse

What is influencer marketing? It’s basically a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from people with influence – they have a large social media following or they are viewed as experts in their industry. Our guest today is an expert on this very topic. Kerry Perse is the founder of Influence & Inspire Consulting. She’s here to tell us how to get started in Influencer Marketing.

About Kerry Perse

Kerry has a diverse background in advertising and marketing. She started her career in advertising here at Platypus, before moving to New York to work with other ad agencies in web design, creative, media buying, social media and technology. Her interest in influencer marketing came about while working in social media. In her newest venture as the founder of Influence & Inspire Consulting, Kerry helps brands identify what role influencers can play in their marketing mix, how to find influencers and set up a partnership, develop KPIs, create content and execute programs.

Getting Started

The first step in planning an influencer marketing program is determining a brand’s key messages. What does the brand want to communicate? Can the company communicate the messages alone? Could an influencer help enhance what the brand is communicating, or can the influencer handle the brand’s communications?

Next, who does the brand need to communicate to? How are they influenced? What are their interests and how do they consume their content? And who are the influencers in this niche that the brand would like to work with?

Kerry says there are tools available that can help brands find these influencers. There are influencer networks that provide managed services with technology dashboards that help brands streamline their communications with influencers. With these dashboards, companies can negotiate specific terms and help streamline the review and approval of content. Kerry has worked with Influential, a company that partners with IBM Watson to provide AI and machine learning, Captivate and FameBit, a company owned by Google which includes YouTube influencers.

Another way to find influencers is through Search Engine-only providers like Tagger. With Tagger, you can input the criteria for what kind of influencer you are looking for or you can also search using hashtags.

Connecting with influencers can be done using the managed service providers, going through the agents of celebrities or by direct messaging the influencers on their platforms.

Risky Business

Kerry says influencer marketing can be risky, but that you can mitigate those risks with careful planning on the front end and by using technology to help you on the back end.

It’s important to have a solid vetting process during the planning process to determine if there is a good brand fit, to get to know the influencer’s personality, visual style, tonality, language, subject matter and expertise. Some of the managed service providers also have historical performance data in their dashboards so you can tell if the influencer has a high engagement rate, what brands the influencer has worked with, and acquisition patterns with followers to make sure there are no artificial spikes that show the influencer is paying for robots.

And once your influencer is live, Kerry says you can use companies like Sylo, a third-party verification company to make sure your reporting data is accurate. The managed service providers can also help brands by having the influencers submit content in advance for approval.

Influencer Expectations

Most influencers do expect to be paid and the amount is typically mentioned in their profiles. They also are required to disclose they are being paid. Some influencers also accept product seeding. They will talk about your product, but you must also be prepared for the fact that if they don’t like your product, they will talk about that as well.

From the brand’s side, it is important to do your homework, pick the influencers you know you want to work with first. Communicate with your top choices and then let your budget determine how many influencers you can work with.

ROI

Your return-on-investment is always a big challenge when it comes to influencer marketing. If you don’t have a big budget, your can measure reach, engagement and even the number of visits to your website.

Brands with larger budgets also use paid media to measure ROI. You can either boost posts on platforms like Facebook or Instagram or use managed service providers to put real money behind an influencer’s post and serve the content to your target audiences.

Want to be an Influencer?

Knowing that you can make good doing what you like to do is attractive to individuals who want to be successful in this space. Kerry says influencers need to know what their personal brand is and their unique point-of-view. What kind of content do they want to create and on which platform? Instagram and YouTube are currently the favorites, but Tik Tok is gaining in popularity. Also, you need to take pride in your content. Some influencers will spend an entire week creating one piece of content. And lastly, you are going to need to gain a lot of followers by discovering, following and engaging with others.

Connect with Kerry

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.influenceandinspire.com

LinkedIn: @kerryperse

Twitter: @KerryPerse

Phone: 917.282.3365

Episode 89: Making TV Media Buying Easier with Michael Beach at Cross Screen Media

With so many ways to watch video content these days, it’s a great time for the consumer, but it has also become an increasingly difficult time for the local media buyer. On this episode of Brandstorm, Michael Beach, CEO at Cross Screen Media, talks about his video advertising platform, which helps media buyers take some of the challenges out of buying broadcast, cable, connected TV, desktop mobile and social video content.

About Cross Screen Media

Cross Screen Media is a spinoff of a political agency called Target to Victory that Michael worked at in Washington, D.C. Frustrated by their own efforts to do audience targeting with video content, Michael and his team began investing in set top boxes from cable and satellite TV providers and other data sources, including media consumption habits from MRI and Scarborough, and even more recently, Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) from the data that is captured from Smart TVs. It was now possible to buy video content based on audience attributions and impressions, which is the same way advertisers currently buy digital advertising. By putting television and digital in the same audience-based currency, it was easier to compare and buy video content. Focusing only on video content, they launched their first television advertising platform in 2013. By 2016, they knew they had a platform that catered to media buyers’ needs and could be sold in local television markets. They closed the agency’s doors and created Cross Screen Media in 2017.

The Challenges for Local Advertisers Buying TV

Most TV stations sell their inventory based on ratings points. In smaller markets, however, about 70 percent of the video content doesn’t have a big enough audience sample to get a rating point. The ratings are so low for some programs, the ratings look like no one is watching.

Buying on impressions, however, allows advertisers to buy against digital and do some audience targeting. Michael believes the future for the ad seller will be to make impressions more valuable by tailoring them to the audience. Advertisers who know their target audience will be more willing buy programming that can deliver the audience they want. That’s good news for TV providers. They will be able to, at least in the short term, sell more inventory. Television will be more affordable for the advertiser who wants to by those programs with lower viewership because they deliver the right audience target.

Another challenge is that the way things are trending, there will be fewer impressions on average to sell. Video content has grown by more than 300 percent over the last 10 years. Back then, there were about 200 scripted shows on television. This past year, there were more than 600 shows and this trend isn’t expected to change. There will be more programming in 2020 than 2019. In fact, while social media and digital has seen substantial growth the past 10 years, Michael says video content is about to explode.

Right now, TV has low targeting, but high attention. Digital is the opposite, high targeting, low attention. Connected TV is really exciting to Michael because it has the potential to be both.

All this will change over the next 5 years, according to Michael, and it will happen in three phases. In Phase 1, which is where we are now, about 50 percent of the video content is bought using age and gender demos. along with some audience targeting. In about three years, in Phase 2, there will be more audience targeting and audience attributions will grow in importance. By Phase 3, in 5 years, audience attribution will be the key component of the video spend and will be driven by how much foot traffic is generated or how many transactions are made.

How Cross Screen Media Makes Media Buying Easier

Michael says pricing for the Cross Screen platform varies and is primarily based on the number of markets bought. Onboarding is pretty quick for ad agencies, and usually takes less than two weeks. Cross Screen takes an advertiser’s customer data or information from a CRM and uses its national consumer file with more than 1500 attributes. The attributes can be used to build out a strategic audience. The platform provides different buying options and allows for cross-screen comparisons in broadcast, cable, connected TV, desktop mobile and social video content.

Buyers can then target consumer content and figure how to balance it across the various screens. With one place to bring everything together buyers can figure out who the target is, how that target consumes video content, what it will cost and then tweak the buy from there.

It will take some time for buyers to become screen-agnostic, where they won’t care about what content they are watching and only buy content that delivers their audience.

Mike believes eventually impression-based selling will make it easier for TV media buyers to buy more digital and vice versa, but it will also come in phases. Right now, the ad agency may still have a TV media buying team and a digital buying team planning and buying separately. Eventually, those two teams will work together, and ultimately the same team will understand both video and digital content.

Connect with Michael

Website: https:///www.crossscreen.media

Newsletter: https://www.stateofthescreens.com

Email: [email protected]

Episode 88: Drone Photography Considerations with Frank Datzer

Could your brand benefit from getting some spectacular aerial footage? If the answer is yes, what exactly do you need to know about drone photography? On this episode, Frank Datzer, director of photography and licensed drone pilot for DCP Video, shares his expertise.

About Frank Datzer

Frank has been involved in videography and video production for 35 years. He spent most of his career at U.S. Bank and later G.E. Medical. He owned a DVD Duplication Service before getting back into video shooting and production with his own company, DCP Video. He’s also done two, feature-length, independent films on Amazon called “Mister Scrooge to See You” and “The Return.”

Commercial Drone Photography Requirements

A drone license is required for anyone interested in making any money shooting drone footage. According to Frank, the test is not as easy as you would think. It is not about your skill as a drone pilot, but rather your knowledge of weather, how to read a Tack Chart and how airport traffic is handled. In the U.S, the test is a standardized FAA test, which is basically a junior pilot’s license consisting of 600 questions. You only need to answer 60 of the 600 questions, but you never know what those 60 questions will be. You must have knowledge of everything on the test, if you hope to pass. Frank says there are some background pieces available online that can help you prepare for the test. Internationally, licensing varies greatly, so you need to do your homework before doing anything outside the U.S.

Drone hobbyists do not need a license, but there are still some rules to follow. There can be no monetization of any kind without a license and if caught, fines can be as high as $10,000.

Things to Consider Before Scheduling Drone Photography

• Ask for credentials from drone pilots
• Every location is different so do your homework before setting anything up
• Get permission wherever you are shooting
• Allow two weeks’ notice for permissions
• Make allowances for inclement weather conditions
• Drones are typically not allowed to fly near airports
• Drones can’t fly above 400 ft. (Frank says low-level drone shots at 20-to-25-ft. can be very dramatic and beautiful, especially in a warehouse)
• Drones must be kept in your line of sight
• Night flying can be done one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset
• Flying over people, sporting events, emergency response teams and stadiums are prohibited
• No drugs or alcohol are allowed while flying

Why Hire Pros?

Four reasons: safety, quality, experience at getting the best shots and ultimately, the end product.

If you are concerned about price, drone photography is less than hiring a helicopter. And, you may want to consider hiring someone like Frank who uses drone photography as a value-add. His drone camera is just another tool he uses like lighting or a second camera.

If you are considering getting into drone photography, Frank recommends purchasing a DJI Mavic Mini at around $300. Cheaper models typically don’t handle as well. Then, go to a park with no trees, start by flying low and keep practicing.

Connect with Frank

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: @frankdatzer

Instagram: DCP_Video