This year I was the marketing sponsor for Sterling Women, a business networking group based in Northern Virginia. In this video, leader Cindy Battino and I chat about what Kurtz Digital Strategy does.
This pandemic year has brought highs and lows both personally and professionally. But, I am grateful for my business network for helping make it all work!
Guest Post by Anna Davalos, Owner, Alejo Media
If you haven’t already realized, we are officially a video-centric world. The pandemic didn’t make this so, it just accelerated what we video producers have known. Video reaches the world.
Of course, before Covid we did everything in person – we filmed you, we interviewed you, we invited you in to sit with our editors as we worked on your project.. But just because it’s tougher to do this now doesn’t mean we can’t create beautiful videos just for you!
To name a few:
Graphics! Motion and animated graphics are a great way to illustrate exactly what you want. These 3-D images come alive to create your vision, especially the “what ifs”. If you can imagine it, we can create it with graphics.
The images you envision may already exist! In stock footage. We pros often turn to stock images when we can’t film ourselves. This can be a great option when filming in person just can’t be done. It’s professional, can be very high resolution, and help fill in gaps in projects. We also have the option of previewing these images before buying them. So you don’t have to pay for images you don’t want.
Maybe we can’t film your employees on their computers. But you can. User Generated Content (or UGC) is all over YouTube. And while you aren’t a professional videographer, our team can give you tips on how to film what we need. We can give you the audio equipment and our editors can give it that very professional finished look and sound. We will walk you through the filming process. Given this pandemic the public wants to see authenticity. We are all in this together. And employees helping their companies succeed is very authentic. It will give your clients a sense of inclusiveness.
Let’s talk photos. A good editor can create miracles with a beautiful still photo; make them move, sparkle, even rain. With creativity, artists posing as editors and powerful software photos take on new life.
Life is different now, the way we create has to be different too. And it can be just as impactful, creative and unique as you.
About the Author
Anna Davalos is an award-winning video producer. She started her career as a television news producer and has traveled the globe covering everything from politics to the Olympics to climate change.
Her true love (besides her family) is storytelling. Everywhere she goes Anna learns something new, and she brings that experience to your project, to create unique, one of a kind video just for you!
Anna also hosts a podcast with her PR partner Ashley Bernardi. It’s called 2 Girls Talking. She lectures at universities and delivers video training workshops.
Your website is your online home base. How’s it holding up? Is it time for a redo or a refresh?
Your website is your most valuable marketing asset. It has a significant impact on your online visibility and user experience. If your website design isn’t generating marketing results, it may be time to change things up.
If you can’t update your site regularly and easily it is time for a new site! You can’t market effectively with stale content. You just can’t.
Every one-second delay in page load time reduces usability. People are impatient! They will leave before they ever see a word of your content. Search engines know this and actually down-rank slow sites. Speed matters.
Does your website design reflect your current brand? Color, typography, logos, and images communicate a brand’s values and leave a lasting impression on visitors. Does the design reflect modern aesthetics? Your site design visually communicates the “freshness” of your brand.
Everyone uses their phones to do everything. If your site doesn’t work well on small screens, your business will suffer. Again, search engines down-rank sites that don’t render properly on mobile devices.
If you aren’t ranking for important search phrases, it is time to update your site. The cause can be stale content or stale development. Whatever the cause, you need to fix it. If you aren’t visible on search, you aren’t marketing to anyone online.
“Important” varies by industry, but if your site does not have the tools your clients expect, it needs an update. This could be an appointment tool or a chat feature. It could be the ability to make purchases or reservations online. If you don’t have what your customer expects, you are losing business.
We are all done with too much navigation. We expect few choices and streamlined surfing. Users today expect to scroll, not click. If you still have multiple menus and lots of drop down choices, you need to streamline.
These items may indicate a need to refresh your existing site or develop a completely new site. Your budget may also impact how much you can do at once or whether incremental changes are best.
What you can’t do is ignore your site. Make a plan to make the changes you need. Likely, the effort will pay for itself.
Let me know if I can help you determine the best way to get your website working at top performance for you.
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