The 5 Best eCommerce Platforms to Start an Online Store in 2019

The eCommerce industry is flourishing across the globe.

According to statistics from Statista, the number of digital buyers in 2017 was 1.66 billion and the number will rise to 2.14 billion by 2021.

eCommerce giants such as Amazon, Alibaba and eBay have changed the face of the eCommerce industry. Not only big brands but many small online eCommerce stores serving local towns and cities are also growing.

Image Source: Shopify

However, starting an eCommerce store is more than simply buying a domain and choosing a hosting partner. Picking the right business niche, technology platform, better customer service, and marketing strategies, all contribute significantly to the success of an online store.

In this post, I’ll share with you which business niche to start, how to choose the right technology partner, and the marketing strategies that will help your eCommerce store grow.

The eCommerce businesses that you can start in 2019-2020

Online Grocery Industry: In the USA, one-third of all shoppers are buying groceries online and by 2022, online grocery business in the USA is expected to be a $100 billion business. However, compared to other industries (apparel, homewares), the online penetration of the grocery industry is only 3-5%. So it shows the online grocery industry is still in its early stages and a viable business option.

Online Food Delivery Industry: The online food ordering and delivery trend is certainly overtaking the trend of the traditional phone ordering service. As per the stats shared on the CNBC website, online delivery is currently representing 43 percent of all delivery orders and investment firm Cowen is forecasting a massive 79 percent surge in the total U.S. food home delivery market over the next 5 years.

A comparison chart of the online food delivery market with the offline food delivery market.

Image Source: Mckinsey

Online Travel Industry: With internet penetration growing around the world, the online travel market is touching new heights. According to a report published by Allied Market Research, the online travel market is expected to grow 11% in the next 3-4 years. Hotels and flights, online travel activities, and car rentals are just some online businesses that investors or aspiring entrepreneurs can consider to start.

Online Fashion and Luxury Industry: Growing at 6-8% a year, the online luxury goods industry is expected to reach €390 billion globally in sales by 2025. The growth of the fashion and luxury market is especially emerging in Asian countries. China is the fastest growing region in this market and India’s fashion and luxury market is expected to cross $30 billion by year-end.

Online Health and Wellness Industry: The multi-trillion dollar online health and wellness industry is providing a bundle of opportunities to earn money online. Nowadays, many people prefer to book an online consultation with their doctors and also like to buy supplementary and other health-related products online. So being an entrepreneur, investing in the online health and wellness industry seems to be a profitable business idea.

However, these business models are not the end of the world. There are many other business models that you can consider to start, like an online rental business, car booking website, or on-demand services marketplace. Choose your business niche with extreme caution as the dream of a successful eCommerce business begins with the choice of the right niche.

Factors that are contributing to the success of the eCommerce industry

In my study, I wanted to know the important factors that help a successful online eCommerce business. I have found several factors that help an eCommerce business grow online. I share the most important ones here:

Mobile Friendly Website and Apps: According to Statista, the number of mobile users worldwide is expected to exceed 5 billion by 2019. 72.9% of eCommerce sales will be made by mobile in 2021. These statistics are sufficient to explain the importance of mobile devices for an eCommerce business. Optimizing your website on mobile devices is not going to be enough; you need dedicated apps for your mobile users.

Multi-Channel Selling: The rise of social media and digitalization has made multi-channel sales easy. You can now integrate your online store with Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Amazon to sell your products on multiple channels at the same time.

User Experience: There is a popular quote from designer Samadara Ginige, “Good design is the most important way to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.” Your website speed, easy navigation, descriptive product pages, are all things defined as good user experience.

Easy Checkout Pages:  To increase conversion rate, many sites now give their users a guest checkout option, one step checkout, and one-page checkout choice. However, check out page speed, calls to action, text fields and labels on a checkout page are also important factors for better conversion rates.

Quick Delivery: The same day or next day delivery service by companies such as Amazon and eBay has changed the face of the eCommerce industry. Many small retailers now offer next day delivery at a reasonable cost to stay ahead of the competition.

Online Multi-Seller Marketplaces: During my study, I also found that many aspiring entrepreneurs prefer to start a multi-seller online marketplace similar to Amazon, Airbnb, and Flipkart. The reasons are many, but the main reason for this is because it takes half of a business owner’s headache to maintain inventory management as sellers take care of inventory-related complications.

The best eCommerce platforms to start an online business in 2019

#1. Shopify

Shopify is a Canadian company which started in 2006. It is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in the market. Starting an online store with Shopify is very easy because you can set up your online store successfully in just 15 minutes without the help of any web developer.

Shopify Pros:

• Shopping stands high in terms of multi-selling channels. You can easily integrate your store with Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon.
• A website built in Shopify usually has fast loading speed.
• Shopify helps you build a responsive design website and also offers Android and IOS user mobile apps.
• The platform offers guest checkout, one page checkout, and a one-step checkout option.
• Dropshipping, free SSL certificate, and 24/7 support are some of its other most popular features.

Shopify Cons:

• You have to pay a transaction fee for every sale.
• Not n good option to start a multi-vendor marketplace.

Pricing:

Shopify offers 4 monthly packages starting at $9, $29, $79 and $299. For more details on pricing, visit: https://www.shopify.in/pricing

#2. Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is also a Saas based eCommerce platform and is a direct competitor of Shopify. The platform was founded in 2009 and now has thousands of online stores running on their platform. The platform is known for its high-end features and low pricing.

Bigcommerce Pros:

• No transaction fee.
• Upload an unlimited number of products.
• Responsive design and search engine friendly.
• A number of payment gateway options.
• You can integrate your online store with Amazon, Instagram, and Facebook

Bigcommerce Cons:

• As written on many third-party sites, Bigcommerce customer support is not that effective.
• The Bigcommerce website’s speed on mobile is not high.

Pricing:

As Bigcommerce doesn’t have any transaction fee, the platform charges you as your store grows and you need to upgrade it. Bigcommerce monthly package starts at $29. For more details, visit:  https://www.bigcommerce.com/pricing/

#3. YoKart

YoKart is a popular eCommerce platform that allows you to start a multi-vendor website like to Amazon, Etsy, or Alibaba, at a reasonable cost. If you want to start any kind of multi-vendor stores such as a grocery multi-seller store, retail store, fashion store or a sports marketplace, YoKart is the ultimate choice.

YoKart Pros:

• The platform is specifically designed to build an online multi-seller or multi-vendor marketplace.
• Mobile Apps, responsive design, and sleek user interface.
• One-time payment means no recurring fees.
• Fully customizable and easy to set up.
• Multilingual and Multicurrency.
• Free demos, FAQs and 12 months of free technical support.

YoKart Cons:

• Partially encrypted script.
• Not good for multi-channel selling, however, you can customize it.

Pricing:
YoKart offers flexible payment options. The packages startatm $999. Visit here for more details: https://www.yo-kart.com/multivendor-marketplace-packages.html

#4. Magento

Magento is a popular open source eCommerce platform launched in 2008. If you want to start a large scale enterprise, Magento is one of the best options you have. Magento is a huge community with lots of benefits.

Magento Pros:

• Mobile Apps, Responsive Design, and Highly Secure.
• Customizable and Scalable.
• Multi-Language and Multi Currency.
• You can integrate your store with Facebook, Instagram, Ebay, and other platforms.
• Easy checkout pages like guest checkout, one-page checkout, and one-step checkout options.

Magento Cons:

• High in pricing especially not an ideal choice for small merchants.
• Programming skills required to maintain a Magento store.

Pricing:

The Magento basic version is free; however, the Enterprise version can costs you a minimum of $20,000 per year. For more details, visit here: https://magento.com/products

#5. Prestashop

Prestashop is also an open source eCommerce platform and thousands of web-based online stores have been built in Prestashop. The platform was designed to meet the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Prestashop Pros:

• A free solution.
• User-friendly interface.
• Mobile and Search Friendly.
• Guest Checkout and One Page Checkout.
• You can connect your Prestashop store easily with Facebook, Amazon, and Rakuten.

Prestashop Cons:

• No official customer support team.
• Not ranked high on customization and scalability.
• You need to pay heavily to convert your eCommerce store into a marketplace.

Pricing:

Prestashop is totally free. The free version is only a basic solution, so you need to buy additional modules that cost between $50 and $150 per module on average. More details can be found here: https://www.prestashop.com/en/prestashop-ready/pricing

From the above list, you can choose the eCommerce platform according to your business needs, technical acumen, and budget.

Guest author: Ankush Mahajan works as a senior digital marketer at FATbit Technologies, one of India’s leading custom web design/development & ready-made e-commerce solutions company. His expertise lies in branding and formulating marketing strategies for business of a number of industries. Follow him on twitter: https://twitter.com/ankushmahajann

The post The 5 Best eCommerce Platforms to Start an Online Store in 2019 appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

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3 Life and Marketing Success Resolutions for 2019



This text and the accompanying 30-minute video comes from my Content Marketing World 2018 keynote presentation. On Dec. 31, 2017, I “retired” from marketing and took a sabbatical for 2018 (which, as of this publishing, I’m still happily on).

I’ve given over 400 keynote speeches in 18 countries, but this one was the most personal. The team at CMI is nice enough to publish this so the entire CMI audience can watch and read it. I hope there is something here that will help you in your life or your marketing (hopefully both).

Yours in Content,  

Joe

Hello Cleveland. It’s fantastic to be back here at Content Marketing World. Some of you may not know this, but I’ve been on a sabbatical for the last nine glorious months since leaving CMI.

In January, I spent 30 days electronics free. In February, I took my father to Sicily to see 60 cousins we’ve never met before, and the last six months, I’ve literally spent more time with my two boys than in the previous six years.

Disclaimer

The Pulizzi family is notorious for using disclaimers. So for this speech, here’s my disclaimer. I’ll cover some marketing, but this is much more about you and your success. I care about each of you way too much to just give you marketing advice … I want to give you more. That said, you may not like it. I’m willing to live with that. So here goes.

Tabula rasa

I first came across the term “tabula rasa” in 1995 while studying rhetoric at Penn State University. Tabula rasa or “clean slate” is found in the writings of Aristotle, and is the belief that we are each born with a blank slate and everything we learn … our habits … our behaviors … comes from our experiences.

What if, right here and now, you had a clean slate? You could do or be anything you wanted. Nothing in this world could hold you back from your accomplishments.

Now I want you to fast forward exactly one year to this time in 2019. What’s different? What did you accomplish in the last 365 days?

What about five years from now?

• Are you rich?
• Did you get the guy or the girl you wanted?
• Did you have another child?
• Did you travel the world?
• Did you prevent your kids from growing up to be idiots?

Would you consider yourself a success? Have you made a positive impact on the world?

I’ve been studying success and successful people as long as I can remember … easily 30 years. As a young adult I kept a journal with me of all the things I wanted to do and accomplish, and listened to success audio tapes from Brian Tracy and Zig Zigler.

Even as I’ve been on this year-long sabbatical, I’ve kept this obsession about success.

Here’s the question: Why are some people successful and others are not? Is there a formula for success that put the odds in your favor?

What I’ve found is that most of us have conditioned our brains and have formed habits that preclude us from success. That means if we don’t change what we are doing, right now, the things you want to accomplish in 2019 or 2023 and beyond, both marketing and personal goals, will never happen.

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Most of us have conditioned our brains & formed habits that preclude us from success, says @JoePulizzi.
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Three Re’s

• Record
• Repeat
• Remove

Not just me, but the most successful people in the world use this formula as well … which is, sadly, a very small percentage of people.

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Record. Repeat. Remove. That’s the success formula for personal & professional success, says @JoePulizzi.
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And here’s the bonus … the same actions and behaviors that will make your personal dreams come true, will also define your success in marketing.

Record

What does record mean? This means you document your desire. Depending on what research study you look at, less than 10% of all people write down and record their goals. And, those that do, accomplish more in their lives than the other 90% combined.

Let’s say you were going to build a house. If we treated building this house like we do building our lives, we would just call the contractors, the electrician, the plumber, the concrete guy, the drywall team, the roofers … have them get in a huddle and figure it out.

Can you imagine the chaos to building a house without a plan? But that’s what we do. We don’t plan for our desires to come true.

Our mental houses are falling down. Over the past 20 years I’ve asked hundreds of people what their success plan is. How they are going to get what they want out of life? Most people do not have any idea what they really want. And if they do, they certainly don’t write it down or believe they can achieve it.

Bruce Lee case study

In January of 1969, very few people ever heard of a man named Bruce Lee. Today, Bruce Lee is probably the most famous martial arts movie star who ever existed. Bruce had some major ambitions … and he penned this letter to himself:

My Definite Chief Aim

I, Bruce Lee, will be the first highest paid Oriental super star in the United States. In return I will give the most exciting performances and render the best of quality in the capacity of an actor. Starting 1970 I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980 I will have in my possession $10,000,000. I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness.

Bruce Lee – Jan. 1969

Unfortunately, Bruce passed away just four years later, but not before accomplishing everything and more from this letter. Every day Bruce got out of his bed and had a crystal image of what success was to him, and what he needed to do that day to move the needle forward.

Think and Grow Rich case study

When I was in college, I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. In the 1930s, Mr. Hill interviewed 500 high achievers like Ford, Roosevelt, and Carnegie to find out why they were so successful. He found, actually, that the key similarity for these high achievers was incredibly simple. They wrote down their desires.

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The common thread among high achievers? They write down their desires, says Napoleon Hill & @JoePulizzi.
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But what kind of goals and desires?

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says, “If you are going to try to bat 1,000%, you won’t accomplish many things of importance. If you’re willing to strike out a few times, you can change the world.”

So I’m not talking about small goals here … we are talking about I’m Gonna Change the World goals.

We do this remembering three components. Let’s look at Bruce Lee’s desire. First, it’s totally unreasonable. This is a Big Big Goal. No person had ever brought martial arts to the mainstream.

Second, we need specifics. He wants to make $10 million by 1980. He had a specific amount and a specific year.

And the best goals ALSO serve others. He wanted to thrill audiences with his performances. And in exchange for delivering this value, he became a superstar.

Well, would you know that the exact same things hold true for your content marketing plan?

• Big – If you take your content marketing plan into your CMO and they approve it the first time around … guest what? It’s not big enough. You need to go in there and make their heads spin. It needs to be big!
• Unreasonable – No other company should have this goal. This is what I call your content tilt or differentiation point. Are you building something for your audience that has never been done like this before?
• Other-serving – What’s in it for the audience? Are you first and foremost helping them get better jobs and live better lives or is your goal about you getting more leads or money?

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If your CMO approves your #contentmarketing plan the first time, it’s not big enough, says @JoePulizzi.
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: This Goal-Setting Activity That Made All the Difference

Repeat

What do we mean by repeat?

Every day in the morning, and every night in the evening, we are going to review this goal. We are going to take about 1% of our day – less than 15 minutes a day – to review our desires. The plan for our mental house.

In a 2009 study published by Dr. Phillipa Lally in the European Journal of Psychology, 96 people over a 12-week period were analyzed about changing behavior and habits. Each chose one new habit and reported each day on whether or not they did the behavior … and … when the behavior became automatic.

Some people chose simple habits like “drinking three bottles of water a day” or “no desserts.” Others chose more difficult tasks like “exercising for 15 minutes before dinner.” At the end of the 12 weeks, the researchers analyzed the data to determine how long it took each person to go from starting a new behavior to automatically doing it.

On average, it took 66 days before a new behavior became automatic. The range was 18 to 254 days.

This is exactly why you have to review your success goal every day over a long period of time. You have to condition your mind to believe that the goal is attainable. Remember … tabula rasa, clean slate … we have to reprogram our mind to accept that our goal is possible.

And here’s the big idea most people just don’t get: The MOST important thing to accomplishing your goal is to BELIEVE that it is possible. You don’t need more money, or skills, or abilities, or a better job or Robert Rose. The most important thing – as George Michael knew so well – is having faith.

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The MOST important thing to accomplishing your goal is to BELIEVE that it is possible, says @JoePulizzi.
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Once you can condition the mind to your goal, your day starts to shape itself.

Let me give you an example … email. How many people checked email this morning? Most people do. But if you had a totally unreasonable success goal that you reviewed this morning, the same goal you reviewed the night before, you might start to believe that digging into email first thing in the morning won’t at all help you accomplish your goal.

Now let’s go back to our marketing fundamentals again.

There are two main reasons why content marketing programs fail. The first, is that the goal isn’t truly big enough … it doesn’t really affect the lives of the audience in a unique way.

The second comes down to this idea of repetition. If it takes 66 days to change a personal behavior, how many times are you going to need to consistently deliver your content to your audience to change their behavior?

In researching for my book Content Inc., we found that minimum time from start to driving revenue for content marketing was nine months. The average was 18 months of consistent delivery. Why? Because it takes time to build an audience.

If you aren’t delivering consistently to your audience, you are not content marketing.

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If you aren’t delivering consistently to your audience, you are not #contentmarketing, says @JoePulizzi.
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Remove

In high school I read the book Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, which still to this day is my favorite book. Toward the beginning of the book Valentine Michael Smith, who was born on Mars, is learning to understand humans. Three of his caretakers were women, and each was practicing kissing Mike. Every time any of them kissed Mike, they fainted, out cold.

Jubal Harshaw, Mike’s main caretaker, asked one of the women why she fainted. She said this to Jubal:

Mike gives a kiss his total attention. I’ve been kissed by men who did a very good job. But they can’t give kissing their whole attention. No matter how hard they try parts of their minds are on something else. Missing the last bus – or their chances of making the gal … maybe worry about a job, or money … but when Mike kisses you he isn’t doing anything else. You’re his whole universe … just kissing you. It’s overwhelming.

I must confess that as a young man in high school I tried this technique, but the results were inconclusive.

This is all about focus. Clearing away all the clutter and just being focused on accomplishing something.

In order for record and repeat to work, we have to clear away all the garbage that is stopping us from accomplishing our desires.

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Clear away all the garbage that stops you from accomplishing your desires, says @JoePulizzi.
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Bill Gates and Warren Buffett

Microsoft founder Bill Gates didn’t really want to meet Warren Buffett. He didn’t think they’d have anything in common. But at the urging of Meg Greenfield, Washington Post editor, they met on July 5, 1991. Gates was nervous and he was dreading the meeting.

Greenfield gave both men a sheet of paper and asked each to write down the one word that is their key to success. Both, as it happened, wrote down the same word: Focus.

From that day, the two became best friends.

To be successful … we need focus, we need discipline … and we need to remove the distractions around us.

Put away your phone

A few months ago, someone asked me to take a coffee meeting with them. He said he had some very important business model questions for me and thought I could help. We met at Panera Bread on the west side of Cleveland.

I sat down, put my coffee on the table. He sat down, put his coffee on the table, and his phone just on his left side face up. Throughout our chat, he kept looking at his phone. Instagram, Twitter, Messenger … all kinds of notifications. Clearly, he was not paying attention to me.

Obviously, what I was saying wasn’t very important to this person. Whenever I see someone with a phone face up or face down next to them during a meeting, I already know they have a focus problem.

After a bit of back and forth he asked me “What’s the first thing I should do?” I told him to take his smartphone and throw it in the garbage.

Lack of time?

“I don’t have time to accomplish my goals.” I hear this all the time.

Did you know that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American still watches three hours of television per day?

That’s 1,100 hours watching TV per year. Let’s say you’re blessed enough to reach 80 years old and that was you. That means almost 10 years of total time, nonstop, is dedicated to watching TV.

That’s like turning the TV on when you’re 30 and never moving until you are 40. A lost decade.

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t watch TV or YouTube videos or surf Facebook. I personally enjoy watching the Cleveland Browns lose most Sundays. But to be successful, you have to change your behavior and make time to do the great things.

I have one friend that says she doesn’t have time to do anything, and yet she hasn’t missed an episode of Big Brother in 20 years. If you’re curious, that’s 550 hours of watching time.

Now let’s go back to our marketing fundamentals again.

When Robert Rose and I go into consulting engagements, besides not having the BIG goal and delivering consistently, do you know what else we find? Content run amok.

Content is being created everywhere … blogs and podcasts and videos with no discernable strategy.

Great media and product brands that have loyal audiences start by doing one thing amazingly well to one audience … a newspaper, a podcast, a blog, a video series, Instagram, an email newsletter.

So you most likely need to go back and start killing some things and just do one thing amazingly well before you diversify into other content types. In this case, less is more.

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Do one thing amazingly well before you diversify into other #content types, says @JoePulizzi.
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Record. Repeat. Remove – a simple formula that’s hard to execute. A marathon if you will … not a sprint.

This formula got me to this place, but I almost lost it all by not following it.

My story

In 2007 I left an executive job in media to start a business. I had this great vision of a content marketing matching service between agencies and brands, that we dubbed the eHarmony of content marketing.

Now don’t laugh … at the time I thought it was brilliant.

My written desire was to have 100 paying customers by the end of 2009.

Over the next two years, we were struggling … burning through cash to pay for programming and marketing, increasing our debt. I was having doubts. Late summer 2009 was critically important. That was the time when we were approaching agencies in our system to see if they would pay for another year.

Most agencies were not re-signing to the $5,000 annual fee, and one in particular, our best case study where we delivered a multimillion-dollar client, still hadn’t signed up yet.

So I called the CEO on the phone. Let’s call her Paula. I said, ”Hey, hey Paula … for some reason your auto renew isn’t turned on in our system. Just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a problem.”

She said, “Oh yeah, about that … we decided not to renew.”

I said, “really … why is that?”

She said, “Well, we can get better ROI by doing some other things.”

And I said, “You can get better than 1,000% ROI somewhere else? What is it and I’ll sign up.”

There was silence for a bit … and she just said, “Sorry Joe, we’re not going to renew.”

And that was that.

I hung up the phone, went into my backyard, and just lost it. I couldn’t even close our best customer. I felt completely sorry for myself. A complete failure.

I couldn’t believe I had left a great job for nothing. I had an amazing wife and two small boys that I couldn’t take care of.

It took me a couple weeks to pull myself together. Secretly I’d already been peeking around to see if any full-time jobs were available, which actually made me feel even worse.

And then I went back to the success formula. I then noticed that all my goals were around selling a small product to help just a few people. Actually, my goals were quite small. They were also very “me” centric. There was nothing about adding value to others. Honestly, who cares if we reached 100 customers by 2009? No one. It was a terrible primary goal and didn’t follow any of what we are talking about here.

My career goal actually came to me while I was reading feedback from our blog subscribers. The requests were all around “our group needs training,” “are there other content marketing pros I can meet,” and “my CMO needs convincing.”

And I finally got it. Our audience needs education, not a hookup.

So we set the goal to be the world’s leading educational resource for content marketing to solve those audience issues. And we wanted to do this by the end of 2013.

And then I worked the formula. Recorded it … read and reviewed that goal first thing in the morning and before I went to bed and stopped doing everything else to focus on that.

My friends and loved ones thought I was crazy before. Now they thought I needed to be committed. I mean, still no one even knew what content marketing was and I was going “all in” with it?

Content Marketing Institute was born exactly nine months later in May of 2010 and the most amazing people in the world helped to join this new cause. The first ever Content Marketing World took place in Cleveland at the Renaissance Hotel in September 2011. We were hoping for 100 people to show up. Maybe 150 if we were really lucky. That year, 660 attendees showed up.

And by 2012, we accomplished our big, unreasonable goal. And today, here we are at Content Marketing World with 4,000 attendees.

There was no logical reason that we should have succeeded. There were dozens of other companies that should have created Content Marketing World. But we set the goal and worked the formula … just like Bruce Lee, like Warren Buffett, like Oprah.

You will do amazing things. You will change the world. But it’s a choice, and there is a process for making it happen.

Too many talented people I know decide to just swim down. It’s easier, it’s safe, it’s comfortable, and it’s seductive. But it doesn’t make the world a better place.

And one final thought … this odd quote from Bull Durham sums everything up:

If you believe you’re playing well because you’re getting laid, or because you’re not getting laid, or because you wear women’s underwear, then you are!

This means, whatever you believe you are doing for whatever reason is true.

And if you believe you are failing because of … your education, your skills, your job, your significant other, then you are!

But if we can reprogram our minds for success, we will be successful.

Tabula rasa … today you have a clean slate … and you can choose to reprogram your brain … your lives …or not.

Just like content marketing is a new muscle for most organizations, success planning is a muscle we have to build and work on every day.

So, in 2019 …

• Document your desires.
• Review them consistently every day.
• Remove the clutter in your life so you can be successful.

Thank you!

Is your goal to become a better content marketer for your brand and your audience this year? Enroll in the winter semester of Content Marketing University and register for Content Marketing World 2019.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 3 Life and Marketing Success Resolutions for 2019 appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

The Top 10 Attributes to Look For in Job Candidates

Hiring a new employee represents a significant expense and risk for any business.

Paying recruiters, funding an interview process, vetting candidates and providing onboarding and training are all part of the costs of hiring a new employee. And, there’s no guarantee that a new hire will stick around long enough for the company to create a return on that investment!

So how can companies ensure that they hire the right person for the job the first time?

Pay attention to these 10 key attributes shown by the top job candidates during your next interview process and you’ll know exactly when you’ve found a great candidate for a role at your organization.

1. Creates a good first impression

Image Source

You shouldn’t always judge a book by its cover, but a job interview can be a time to do just that.

The goal of any candidate interviewing for a job they want is to create a good impression – if they fail to do so, that should be setting off some red flags.

What will happen when they need to create a good first impression for a client? Will they know what to do?

If they greet you in a warm and professional way, and you like them in the first seven seconds, that’s a good indicator that they’ll be able to make a good first impression on your customers and colleagues.

This certainly doesn’t mean you should only use that “gut feeling” to evaluate candidates, but for many roles, polish and professionalism are important competencies.

2. Displays a strong work ethic

Great applicants can easily demonstrate their ability to work hard. Ask about their work background and a time they felt overwhelmed or over-worked and how they coped with it.

A candidate with a strong work ethic will have no problem telling you about a time where they stayed up late to get the job done. At ClearCompany, we specifically evaluate candidates against willingness to go above and beyond. Building these attributes into the scorecard allows us to ensure that we have a consistent eye for these important behaviors.

Ask them: “Tell me about a time where you had a large list of projects and needed to prioritize. How did you manage the workload?”

3. Communicates clearly and effectively

Listen to how the candidate speaks and observe how they listen.

If they listen and understand well, that means they’ll take directions and collaborate effectively in the workplace. If they can communicate clearly with you and they’re easy to understand, that will also translate into their customer interactions.

Look for body language indicators like eye contact, unfolded legs and a forward posture to see if they are an engaged listener.

4. Takes ownership for past results

Always ask candidates about a time they made a mistake and had to correct it or a time when they failed to meet a target or goal. Coming up short can be a healthy part of any career. A-Players learn from their failures and will readily tell you the mistakes they made that contributed to the mishap without blaming anyone else.

Ask them: “Tell me about a failure you experienced in the past. What happened? Why?”

5. Shows self-starting initiative

Someone with a history of entrepreneurship or independent projects has shown self-starting initiative – they can apply the skills they know without being supervised and guided by someone else. These are people that you can trust to work hard with minimal oversight. They know how to take ownership in a project and will do what’s required to get it done.

Ask them: “Tell me about a project that you started on your own. Why did you start it? What was the result? What did you learn?”

6. Functions effectively in a team

An effective team-worker is someone who understands how to play a specific role in a group, rely on others, collaborate effectively and act cohesively in pursuit of an end goal. Applicants with great team-working skills are an asset to any organization.

Ask candidates how they completed or managed a group project in the past to get a sense of their team-working skills.

Ask them: “Tell me about a recent project where you had to work inter-departmentally or with a group outside of your team. How did you ensure the project was successful?”

7. Exudes a positive attitude

If a job applicant walks into your interview with all the qualifications in the world and a negative attitude, would you still hire them?

If a job applicant is less than enthused about starting in a new role at your organization, imagine how they’ll feel after six weeks. Negative attitudes are toxic to the workplace – always try to hire a candidate who is genuinely excited to get the job. You can always train and mentor them into success in the role if they have the right attitude.

8. Exhibits an ethical compass

Ethical questions can tell us a lot about the values that an employee is bringing to your organization. Do their values match yours? Would they report bad behavior by a colleague to their manager? When a customer makes a complaint, will they side with the customer or the business?

Ask how they responded to an ethical dilemma at a previous workplace and try to understand their reasoning – you’ll see exactly what they’re made of.

9. Shows a willingness to learn

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Candidates that display curiosity are a huge asset in the workplace. They are easily engaged, constantly learning new things, and become a source of knowledge for others at your organization. Applicants who are pushing outside of their comfort zone and are eager to learn something new are more likely to stay engaged at work and look for opportunities to develop new competencies.

10. Demonstrates drive for results

Candidates that can demonstrate goal-setting and a drive for results are successful across organizations. They are easy to motivate, respond well to incentives, and are competitive performers who strive to be the best. Offering these candidates a path to advancement based on their performance is a great way to create long-term retention.

Ask them: “What are your current goals or KPIs and how are you performing against them?”

Conclusion

Now that you know the top 10 attributes to look for in a job candidate, how do you make sure you hire the right person?

Use an applicant tracking system to keep notes on each interview and identify candidates with the most important attributes for success in your organization. When you’ve found someone with all the attributes to succeed, invest in them and make them an offer!

Guest author: As the Head of Marketing at ClearCompany, Sara has spent hundreds of hours interviewing, hiring, onboarding and assessing employees and candidates. She is passionate about sharing the best practices she has learned from both successes and failures in talent acquisition and management.

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4 Content Marketing Gems to Inspire You and Your Strategy

Every week, I have the privilege of editing a column from CMI Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose. Each one contains a gem of wisdom – sometimes more than one. Giving each a final polish is one of my favorite tasks.

That’s because Robert’s columns challenge me to think beyond how to do a content marketing task and even beyond how to do things better. Instead, he makes me think about why we content marketers do what we do and about the role of content, the job of content marketing, and what success really feels like.

Here are some of the lessons that resonated with me long after the newsletters hit people’s inboxes. (Robert’s column is only available in CMI’s Weekly Alert. If you’re not subscribed, you can sign up here.)

Slow your content roll

Robert jets around the world, speaking at conferences, teaching master classes, leading workshops, and, it seems, writing columns while 30,000 feet over a different continent or body of water every week.

Despite (or maybe because of) his own busyness, he gives the side-eye to the notion of “the hustle” – hurrying to get ahead, rushing to try something different because it’s new, and always striving to reach unprecedented heights:

“By definition, no one can be remarkable every single day. If you were, the sheer uniformity of your remarkableness would make it unremarkable. Likewise, you can’t exponentially hustle more tomorrow than you hustled today: If you hustled only one hour on Monday, and then doubled your hustle every day thereafter, you’d be out of hustle hours by Thursday.”

A conversation with one of Robert’s clients prompted his observations about stepping out of the race. While talking about how to return joy to her work, she made this confession: “My favorite moment of the last week was sitting on my porch watching it snow,” she said in Robert’s recounting. “I savored every moment of that quiet, ordinary scene.”

Where some might have encouraged the client to come up with a work-related moment of joy, Robert saw something different. “It was her slowed-down absorption of the ordinary that gave her access to the extraordinary,” he wrote.

And, in fact, he found a lesson for all content marketers in that simple moment of reflection.

“We can access the extraordinary through the quiet, ordinariness of our work, too – if we’re willing to give up feeling superior (or inferior) to those around us. If we’re willing to be comfortable with ourselves. If we’re willing to find the ‘special’ inside ourselves, rather than solely in some external measurement of validation.”

When you find yourself daunted by the push to be remarkable all the time, try Robert’s suggestion:

“… do the equivalent of going outside and sitting on your porch to watch it snow: Give your full, unencumbered attention to your work in all its ordinariness. That’s when the extraordinary can emerge.”

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Appreciate the ordinary so the extraordinary can emerge, says @Robert_Rose
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Slow Your Content Marketing Down

When it comes to content and technology, simple is smart

In the drive to automate everything. Robert says, we run the risk of unnecessarily complicating both our lives and our work.

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In the drive to automate everything, we risk unnecessarily complicating things, says @Robert_Rose
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For examples from everyday life, he pointed to a New York Times article that listed analog products – like wristwatches, alarm clocks, and paper – that can outperform their digital equivalents.

For an example from the content world, he relayed the story of a conversation with a conference attendee. The man had spent months trying to redesign his content management system’s workflow so only certain people could push content live. The new tech solution would, he hoped, prevent the product team from publishing content before it was approved.

But when Robert suggested the attendee simply ask the team to stop publishing unapproved content, the conference-goer admitted he hadn’t thought of that simple approach.

Robert’s take?

“Sometimes we outsmart ourselves with our smart technology”

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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Content Tech Overload? 3 Questions to Ask Before You Buy

To be believed, you must earn your stories

“Your brand can be authentic, and still be distrusted.” That truth bomb grew from Robert’s work with a team at a large, well-known brand. The brand’s content team had found the audience didn’t trust the brand’s efforts to tell stories through its magazine and social channels.

It’s a struggle many brands (and people) face.

Robert brought up the “brew”-haha that arose when Starbucks introduced its #RaceTogether initiative in 2015. However well-intentioned, the decision to have baristas write “Race Together” on cups to encourage discussions about race just didn’t work. Starbucks simply hadn’t earned its audience’s trust on race relations.

People and brands who are trusted for one thing (coffee, for example) find they’re not automatically trusted for other things, Robert explained. To underscore the point, he gave examples of storytellers known for their authenticity who nevertheless struggled to earn an audience when they switched genres or formats. Think Garth Brooks’ alter ego Chris Gaines or YouTube star Casey Neistat’s failed digital news and opinion initiative for CNN.

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A brand trusted for one thing is not automatically trusted for another, says @Robert_Rose
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The reason they struggled, Robert wrote, comes down to this:

“If your audience doesn’t believe in the storyteller, the story itself won’t matter.”

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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
You Must Win Every Moment of Trust to Win the Moment of Truth

For better content, hit the eject button

In mid-2018, Robert traveled to South Korea to teach a content marketing master class. To prepare, he researched the differences in content marketing approaches, attitudes, and channels in Asia compared with Europe and North America.

Looking at his familiar presentation material with an eye toward a new audience stirred “lots of new ideas for the way we can demonstrate value with content marketing.” And those new ideas weren’t limited to the class in Korea. Instead, they stretched to other CMI classes, Robert’s consulting, story ideas, and more.

The change in perspective proved so inspiring, Robert suggested we all try it.

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Change your perspective to inspire freshness in your editorial strategies, @Robert_Rose
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Of course, you might work in the same location day after day. But that doesn’t mean you can’t experience the benefits of a perspective shift. Robert offered suggestions for activities that might show your editorial strategies in a new light:

• Read magazines and journals from other industries.
• Review the history of content marketing to look for repeating patterns.
• Test your story with people who know nothing about your business.

The key, Robert wrote, is to find new stories in the different.

“Let’s occasionally and purposely eject ourselves from our regular patterns and set down among the completely unfamiliar. We might be surprised at how good the stories we find there really are.”

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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How These Unusual Sources Make Your Content Stand Out

What moves you?

Do you have a favorite Robert Rose column? Maybe it’s the one about the purple duck. Or the one about the blue stripe. Or one that helped you and your team think about your content differently than before. I’d love to hear which ones stood out to you. Let me know in the comments.

Make sure you receive Robert Rose’s weekly gems of wisdom – subscribe to the Friday newsletter today. 

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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3 Valuable Lessons We Learned From Influencer Marketing Campaigns in 2018

As 2018 quickly comes to a close, many marketing teams are reflecting on everything that happened over the past year. Trends came and went, new technology emerged, and many brands taught us what to do (and what not to do) in today’s quickly changing marketing space.

Of course, one of the biggest trends that seems to only be getting more and more popular is influencer marketing. According to Linquia’s report on the State of Marketing in 2018, 39% of businesses increased their budget specifically for influencer campaigns this year, and the majority of teams ran more than five influencer programs per brand throughout the year.

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We know that influencer marketing can boost your website traffic and increase the number of brand conversations happening on social media. But just because a lot of brands are using this type of strategy doesn’t mean that they are all getting it right. Being that social media has taken center stage of this tactic, and it’s changing at such a fast pace, there is a lot left to learn about how and why it works.

While 2018 hopefully taught you many things, there are three clearly valuable lessons that we can take from some of the year’s most successful influencer campaigns.

Let’s discuss.

1. Cause marketing has never been more powerful

Today’s consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with not just what they are buying, but where their money is being spent. More and more customers are reporting they would be willing to switch to a brand that supports a good cause, such as a non-profit, one that uses sustainable manufacturing practices, or even one that takes a strong political or social stance. However, it is important to note that 58% of consumers agree that they want to see the tangible impact that the brand is making – rather than just being told that a percentage of their payment is going towards a charity.

Influencers play huge roles in shaping the perception that both businesses and consumers can work for something greater than themselves. They can provide this link between the brand and the consumer to show the actual positive effects that the business is making, and they can build audience awareness about specific campaigns or causes that the brand is supporting.

Pedigree’s “Buy a Bag, Give a Bowl” campaign did a great job of linking influencers to their good cause. Pedigree partnered with several micro-influencers including lifestyle blogger Amanda Blakeman who shared a blog post and Instagram picture talking about her work with local shelters and how Pedigree donated food supplies. The brand also encouraged shelters and dog owners to include the branded hashtag #PedigreeGives to share their own personal stories.

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Creating a community around a cause marketing hashtag is an excellent way to get more Instagram followers and generate more engagement with your influencer campaigns. You can also follow in Paul Mitchell’s footsteps with their #GivingIsMyStyle campaign that donated $1 to a charity for every single Tweet that included the hashtag. They partnered with some style influencers to get the ball rolling, and the campaign resulted in $16,000 being donated.

2. Authenticity is EVERYTHING

Building trust with your customers is incredibly important, especially with increasingly skeptical consumers. Generally speaking, people are getting really good at spotting when brands are not being totally honest, especially on social media. However, consumers are far more likely to trust people who they can relate to, such as their friends, colleagues, or influencers that share similar interests and values.

Choice Hotels recently launched an influencer campaign revolving around authentic reactions to their brand. The hotel chain was re-branding to connect with younger travelers and wanted to focus more on how their hotels offered amenities that would make them stay fun and productive. Choice Hotels encouraged a number of known travel bloggers and lifestyle influencers to document their stays and offer a genuine review of their experiences. Lifestyle blogger Chelsea Foy shared her weekend getaway details with a vlog post and a special giveaway to her viewers. Overall, the campaign created 40 million impressions through this authentic influencer content.

When you use this tactic, it is very important that you are connecting with influencers that have a strong sense of authenticity in everything they tie their name to. They should actually be fans of the product (or at least have tried it for themselves) in order to make their promotion genuine. If possible, you may want to invite the influencer to write the copy for their post themselves, rather than giving them a script to follow.

3. The bond between brands and lifestyle is crucial

Social media has brought branding and lifestyle VERY close together. Many of us now look to Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for inspiration for outfits, hairstyles, home décor, fitness routines, and what we want to eat that day. Social influencers have been key elements in helping brands turn their products into strong symbols that embody lifestyles.

Marketers understand that they must show customers how their product or service will positively affect their everyday lives. Influencers are the perfect tool here to not just tell, but actively show how a specific product improves their daily lives and how easy it can be to use.

Lenovo did a great job of building this connection when they partnered with a well-known mommy blogger and influencer Kileen to promote their new YOGA PRO 3 Ultrabook laptop. Kileen had recently given birth and shared stories of how she was able to keep her blog and business running easily by using the Lenovo Ultrabook while balancing life with a newborn. She noted the features that she appreciated most, like its pivot mode that allowed her to use it handsfree while cooking, nursing, or doing yoga. She shared how this could be used practically by new moms so that they could try new recipes, answer emails, or start a new fitness routine with a small lightweight laptop that would easily slip into their diaper bag.

This campaign showcased the product’s versatility and practicality for this specific niche audience. As you look for opportunities to connect with influencers, make sure your product meshes with the lifestyle of both the influencer and their audience.

Wrapping up

As 2019 rolls in, we can expect to see even more influencer campaigns from big and small brands alike. Clearly, this strategy is working to build amazing connections between businesses and their customers when executed correctly. Take these lessons into the new year and see what new trends will make your influencer campaigns even better.

Guest author: Manish Dudharejia is the President and Founder of E2M Solutions Inc, a San Diego Based Digital Agency that specializes in Website Design & Development and eCommerce SEO. With over 10 years of experience in the Technology and Digital Marketing industry, Manish is passionate about helping online businesses to take their branding to the next level.

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How to Avoid the Battle of Boring in Your Videos

Both B2B and B2C marketers continue to increase their use of audio/video content, including videos and livestreaming. It’s no surprise. The question is are you creating video content good enough to move the needle for your organization?

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Are you creating #videos that move the needle for your organization? @AmandaSubler
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As we are working through these issues at CMI, it’s a great time to look for some inspiration and best practices for quality videos. What better place to mine for ideas than some of the best video-related sessions at Content Marketing World. From creating videos that people want to watch to finding ideas for those videos to following best practices for social media, here are some of the key takeaways from my favorite sessions about video.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The 5 New Rules of Video Marketing Success

Curiosity Factor: The Psychological Phenomenon Creative Content Marketers Employ to Earn and Own Attention in a Noisy World

Andrew Davis, Author, Brandscaping & Town, INC.

In the way that only he can do, Andrew offered a high-energy, entertaining keynote presentation that was all about creating curiosity in your content. While this concept can be used for all types of content, he focused on video.

Andrew’s premise is that while we’re told that our audiences don’t have time to consume our content so we need to create shorter, snackable content, those same people will spend a Saturday binge-watching their favorite Netflix show like Stranger Things. He argues that by making our content (videos) shorter we eliminate the elements that make it interesting.

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Forget snackable videos. That eliminates elements that make #video interesting to your audience. @DrewDavisHere
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Andrew’s solution? Create content that will grab and hold the audience’s attention. Create content like Stranger Things. Think like a reality show editor when creating videos. How do you do this? By creating what he calls a “curiosity gap” – the gap between what your audience knows and what they want to know.

Andrew took his advice and showed a video (originally a live event on Facebook and YouTube) in which BuzzFeed staffers decked out in full hazmat gear spent over 40 minutes putting rubber bands one at a time around a watermelon. They created a curiosity gap – hundreds of thousands tuned in (and stayed) to watch how long it would take for the melon to explode. Why? The staffers built tension with each rubber band. Viewers couldn’t wait to see what would happen and they stayed to watch because of their innate, psychological need for closure.

But, there’s one caveat and it’s a big one. As Andrew explains, the payoff must be proportional to the tension you build. In the watermelon case, the payoff was worth it. But don’t create tension – if your payoff is a dud. That’s like writing a clickbait headline for a story that you can’t deliver on as Andrew explains in this clip from his presentation:

My takeaway

How do you do this with your videos? First, stop creating tons of testimonials and case study videos with absolutely no tension, no curiosity gap. Many times, even the title is boring, with labels like “customer testimonial.” Create videos that spark curiosity and remember that your headlines should do the same. Don’t waste or squander that opportunity.

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Create #videos that spark curiosity & remember your headlines should do the same, says @AmandaSubler.
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As Andrew says, raise the stakes in your videos. I love his suggestion to think like a reality TV show editor. Watch some reality TV and observe how they build tension throughout the episode. (Andrew used an example from Ice Road Truckers, but any reality TV show would work.)

Show the audience something they desire and then threaten it for as long as possible. For example, in his presentation, Andrew took a boring testimonial video by a B2B accounting software company and re-edited the testimonial to create tension and curiosity. You can see the original video and Andrew’s edited version at DelaytheReveal.com. In the edit, instead of giving away the name of the company and how the customer uses its product at the beginning, Andrew uses sound bites to show the audience (entrepreneurs and small-business owners) something they desire (more money and more time) and threatens it for as long as possible (by explaining all the obstacles the testimonial subject faces that keep her from making money and saving time). These small but important changes create a curiosity gap. So even if you think you’re in a boring B2B industry, you can (and should) create a curiosity gap in your videos.

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• Shouldn’t Every Piece of Content Be Clickbait?
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Think Like a Filmmaker: Learn How Documentary Films and Their Storytelling Techniques Can be a Powerful and Captivating Way to Tell Your Brand Story

Denise Roberts McKee, COO, About Face Media Inc.

Documentaries seem to be all the rage these days. As Denise explains, the rise of streaming services has made documentaries more accessible. People love documentaries because they are compelling and authentic stories.

She shares some great techniques of documentary-style storytelling that marketers can use to tell their stories. Many marketers, especially in the B2B space, struggle with how to find and then tell compelling stories about their organization. As I touched on above, many think their industry or product is too boring and aren’t sure how to tell their stories in an interesting, even powerful way. Using a documentary-style video can be a compelling way to do this.

Before you get started, as Denise points out, you need to have a strategy behind your video project. Here are three questions you need to ask:

• Determine your objective (the what) – What is it you want this video to accomplish?
• Identify your audiences (the who) – Who is this content for? (It’s likely for more than one audience.)
• Assess the audience vs. the objectives (the why) – Why would your audience watch it?

The key, according to Denise, is the AUDIENCE. If you don’t reach your audience, you will never reach your objectives. If you don’t see a connection between your audience and your objective, then you need to start over.

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If you don’t reach your audience, you will never reach your objectives, says @drmckee.
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: A Step-by-Step Guide to Audience Development

Story landscape

Once you know your audience and your objectives, where do you find stories? Denise suggests figuring out your setting or “story landscape.” On one side, look at the issues, values, and expertise your company cares about or can offer. On the other side, consider the issues, values, and expertise your audience cares about. The cross-section is your story landscape. That’s where you can find stories to produce.

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Finding stories

If you need inspiration, Denise suggests checking existing materials, like archival video footage, photos, voice recordings, etc. Go through those materials to find stories that already exist or even the beginnings of stories. Or the archives may just act as inspiration for another idea.

Below is an example from Capital Group Denise used in her presentation. Part of the footage and inspiration for the video came from CapitalSpeaks, existing TEDx-like talks the company presents with employees. Capital Group expanded on existing footage from an employee presentation, adding interviews and b-roll to make this extremely compelling video for recruiting purposes.

TIP: Note what the video is NOT. It’s not Capital Group talking about how great it is. It’s not an employee talking about how great the company is. It’s a great story showing you how the subject’s job helps her achieve the work-life balance she needs.

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Don’t talk about how great your company is. Do tell a great story to motivate audience. @AmandaSubler #video
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Hero’s journey

Now that you have a story, how do you tell it? Denise offers up a classic technique at the heart of any good documentary – the hero’s journey. You need to find a “hero” to base your story around. That hero then must go on a “journey,” facing and overcoming an obstacle(s). What makes a good hero? The person needs to have a clear goal. Something must be at stake – a need to overcome some obstacle (did I mention that?). That hero must be relatable and interesting and the best voice to connect with your audience. That hero may not be your CEO or your HR person who always does your company videos. Denise suggests you take the time to figure out who is the best voice for the story you want to tell.

Think genres

Another great tip is to think genres when trying to determine what kind of video to create. You know how you go to Netflix and search categories for something to watch? Think in those terms when creating a video. You could make a video using a historical, underdog, cult (your fans/customers), adventure, sci-fi, and even comedy genre. Denise explains in this clip:

My takeaway

All of Denise’s suggestions are helpful for those who want to create videos but don’t know where to start. Once you determine your video’s objectives, research content you may have in-house. Think about who could be your hero. Follow her or him on a journey to overcome obstacles (think curiosity gap). Thinking about genres also can really help you focus on the type of video content you may want to create.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

• Video Marketing Strategy: What Marketers Need to Know
• Documentary Storytelling: 6 Examples From Brands That Nail It

Session: How to: 0 to 1 Million LinkedIn Video Views in 6 months

Allen Gannett, CEO, TrackMaven

Allen did something amazing over this last year. He started posting short videos on LinkedIn almost every day and racked up 3.5 million views. In his session, Allen shares practical tips he learned along the way, like how to increase your views on LinkedIn by working the algorithm. But I want to focus on the tips he offered specific to creating the video content.

Here’s an example of one of his LinkedIn videos:

B2B YouTube is what Allen calls LinkedIn, and I love that. As he says, now is the time to jump on the LinkedIn video bandwagon because not many organizations are doing it (or at least doing it well). Figure out LinkedIn video before your competitors do. He offers these suggestions:

• Find a novel yet familiar idea. A lot of people post videos just like other videos on LinkedIn. Your videos should be familiar but novel. Put your spin on an idea or framework for a video that people are familiar with. Allen would love to see a company do an MTV Cribs-like video for its startup office.
• Center on an individual. Someone in your organization should be the main character or star of your videos. People don’t really follow companies on LinkedIn, they follow people. Authenticity is important on social media. Make your videos with and about people and their stories.

Equipment.

This is what I really love about Allen’s videos. He uses basic equipment – his phone, an app (Deshake), and a window (for light). That’s it. Allen debunks the myth that video is complicated or expensive. He stands in front of the window when filming and doesn’t even use a microphone. (I like to use the Ampridge MMSP MightyMic S+ Shotgun Cardioid Video Microphone when recording on my phone.)

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Now is the time to jump on the #LinkedIn #video bandwagon because not many orgs are doing it, says @Allen.
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Use LinkedIn as a Brand Publishing Platform

My takeaway

Now is the time to start experimenting with video on LinkedIn. What Allen has found, and I agree, is that you need to personalize your company or brand. You need a face for your company. (Think hero’s journey.) People are more likely to connect with a person than a brand.

Allen also offers good advice about where to post the videos – he says they should be posted from personal profiles. You also can recruit other employees to post personal videos as well. You can post the video from your company profile, but it likely won’t get as many views or engagement as if it came from a person.

How to Develop a Loyal YouTube Audience

Tim Schmoyer, founder, Video Creators

Finally, one of my favorite sessions was Tim’s. I’ve followed him for some time and have learned a lot about how to effectively use YouTube. He’s worked with many big companies like Disney, HBO, Time Warner, and Budweiser, but also with smaller creators to help them succeed on YouTube. I’m not going to go into his presentation because we did an extensive blog post on him here. Tim talks a lot about the importance of authenticity in your videos. If you need help on how to grow your YouTube audience, I highly you suggest read the post.

That’s a wrap

I learned a ton from these video presentations at Content Marketing World. I’m definitely going to be thinking about the curiosity gap, hero’s journey, and authenticity as we think about our video strategy at CMI.

And one of my biggest tips to anyone who is thinking about video is to get started. Don’t let fear hold you back. Use the equipment you have now and see how it goes. You can always invest more if it’s going well.

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Don’t let fear hold you back from creating #video content, says @amandasubler. #CMWorld
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Video-Phobic Marketers: It’s Time to Get Over Your Fear of Producing Video

I’d love to know how your video plans are going for your organization. What have you found that works? Or doesn’t work? What do you plan to try new in 2019?

Want to get really meta? Subscribe to watch the presentations mentioned above and dozens of others with Content Marketing World video on demand.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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