With video representing roughly 82% of web traffic as of the time of this writing (and only growing), more and more businesses are turning to the medium for their own content marketing strategies. The video production industry has exploded as a result. Of course, if you’re looking to hire a video production company in Colorado Springs, we at NURV would be glad to have a conversation with you about your project.

Hiring professionals is always a great choice if your budget allows it. However, if you’re creative and have an eye and ear for what looks and sounds good, DYI video can be a good option—particularly if you’re videos are mostly planned for web viewing such as YouTube.

Here are 10 things that you can do to start making quality videos right now, even if you’re on a budget.

1. Invest in a decent microphone

In my opinion, poor audio is the biggest indicator that an amateur produced a video. If you’re capturing audio from your on-camera microphone, you’ll get all kinds of ambient room echo. With the growth of web video in recent years, audiences are becoming more sophisticated and expecting higher quality than simply on-camera audio. Even if you’re shooting on your smartphone, there are plenty of microphone options that will work for you.

Here’s a simple video we shot for new donors for a non-profit client of ours. Note the simple lavalier mic. This particular location had an HVAC system that couldn’t be disabled during the shoot, but the lavalier mic (and a little work in post) allowed us to capture the audio properly and create an ideal listening experience.

2. Invest in a decent lighting kit

If you can’t afford a nicer lighting kit, at least spend $100-$200 on a simple three-light kit. It will add significant depth to your video. While not quite as important as audio, lighting is one of the key factors in conveying professionalism with your videos. The difference between a video shot with room lights only and one shot with properly placed three-point lighting can be enormous.

The room in which this commercial was shot had several lighting challenges that we were able to overcome with a simple three-light setup.

3. Get comfortable on camera, or hire somebody who is

You can have the greatest audio and the greatest lighting, but if your on-camera talent is mumbling or visibly nervous, you’re going to lose your audience quickly. Post a local ad for a casting call. If you live near any decent size city, you won’t have to wait long before aspiring actors come out of the woodwork—eager to showcase their on-screen personality in your video. If you have more of a budget, call a local talent agency and they’ll be glad to recommend their vetted and experienced talent for your project.

While I don’t personally mind being on video, I’m not the biggest fan of interviewing people on camera, so I hired somebody when the opportunity came for another brand I manage to interview a singer during his tour stop in Colorado. Note that $150 mic setup vs. just capturing this audio from the camera’s (or in this case, the iPhone’s) built-in mic.

4. Take the time to write a great script

Not everyone can afford to hire a professional scriptwriter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come up with something compelling on your own if given the right tools. If your video is more of a commercial where a voiceover is required, don’t just assume that any quick script will be fine. It will be a quick script. Take some time to study copywriting. Read a book or two. At least watch other videos and commercials from successful companies in your space (and similar spaces), especially if the goal of your video is to convert sales or inspire the viewer to take action.

Here’s an example of a script I wrote for one of our internal videos promoting 3D logo animation services.

5. Hire a composer outright instead of using stock music

Stock music has earned a reputation as being the cheaper option, and in many cases, it is. At least it feels that way. But in many instances, you have to subscribe to an entire service just to get the music. And even if you’re able to buy just one track, there are still many potential hidden costs to consider. The biggest challenges I’ve faced when it comes to using stock music in videos for myself and for clients are the dreaded DCMA copyright takedown claims that you’ll inevitably get. And you probably won’t just get them once. I’ve had the same videos taken down periodically year after year for the exact same copyright claim. Sure, I can keep refiling the paperwork proving I paid for a license, but at what cost? Remember, time is money. You’ll be amazed at the affordable (and talented) musicians you can find just by spending some time on freelance gig websites such as Fiverr or even Craigslist. Just make sure your contract provides you with the necessary music ownership rights (always check with a lawyer if you aren’t sure about this).

Here’s a video I produced that included completely custom background music that my company owns the rights for exclusively.

6. Invest in a static color backdrop

Sometimes, less is more. A static color backdrop can communicate professionalism as well as keep the viewer’s eyes focused on your subject. It also works wonders if you don’t have a place to shoot your video (or if your office is too cluttered at the moment—hey, no judgment, we’ve all been there). You can pick up a solid white backdrop for under $100. With proper lighting, you’ll have that simple corporate look in no time.

Here’s a comedy video I shot several years ago on an iPhone XR with barely enough budget to cover even the donuts in it.

7. Shoot on your smartphone

Sure, fancy cameras are nice, but depending on the intended use of your video, shooting on your smartphone can be a decent option. Just remember to shoot in 4K (if your phone supports it) and then downsample to 1080p to achieve a better picture than if you were to just film in 1080p natively. Also, don’t forget a decent external microphone and a three-light kit to give your smartphone videos that extra edge of your budget-conscious competition.

Not only was the above video (in #6) filmed on an iPhone, but so was this other comedic short I produced. You may not always have access to a nicer camera. Don’t let that stop you from producing quality content. This video was filmed as a spur-of-the-moment idea while on vacation. Sometimes you just have to capture your creativity when inspiration strikes.

8. Go with an animated explainer video instead of filming

If the thought of figuring out cameras and lighting and audio is starting to stress you out, another great way to get the video you need on a budget is to have an animated explainer video produced. While this format is more often associated with presentations, it’s also becoming more commonly used to produce 30 and 60-second commercials. You can find companies all over the world willing to produce high-quality explainer videos for as low as a few hundred dollars.

This is also something that we offer here at NURV. Here’s an example of this style of video that we produced from scriptwriting to artist and voiceover talent direction, all the way through to animation and even custom music composition. If you’d like something similar and don’t know where to start, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

9. Hire a good editor

The saying “we’ll fix it in post” can be true for some projects, but it’s honestly not going to save poorly captured media. That’s why it’s not ranked higher on this list. Without quality footage to work with, you’re better off refilming than bothering to get an editor to resurrect your project from the grave. That said, a good editor can take a project that has decent audio and video and turn it into a great video. The same can’t be said about a good editor and poor audio and video.

While not the perfect example, here’s a “just for fun” project I edited to show what the movie Dumb & Dumber could have looked like had it been a thriller. Good editing saving a bad project? I’m not so sure about that. I did like the movie, after all. Editing is important though, and a good editor can sometimes work miracles with the right source footage.

10. Shoot concept footage before shooting the real thing

Ok, so this example may be met with mixed reactions due to its fairly large budget compared to what many of our readers may be looking to spend. But compared to what it costs to make a Hollywood movie, we were able to shoot and produce the following video for what a room full of stars might spend on lunch before attending the Oscars.

In two days, we shot the majority of the footage required for this passion project intended to pitch to Hollywood investors. While good inroads were made initially, ultimately the project was shelved due to similar concepts such as Wreck-It-Ralph being produced by much bigger studios than those we had been in touch with.

And even if you’re working with a smaller budget, taking the time to get some practice shots and flesh out your concept a bit before going all-in can be a great money saver.

In closing…

Whatever it is you’re producing, you should be able to use the above tips to create something that looks more expensive than one might think, given your budget.

But just because you can DYI your videos doesn’t mean that you should. As you can see from the above projects, we love working in different genres and tackling any challenge thrown our way. If you’re looking to have a video produced in or around Colorado Springs, CO, we’d love to work with you (of course, we can travel too if you have the budget).

We help position our clients’ videos for ongoing success in today’s ever-changing world of digital media. Contact us for a free video production consultation or to schedule a strategy session to learn how we can help your videos stand out for years to come.

The post 10 Tips for Producing Fantastic Videos on a Budget appeared first on NURV.

While many of us were either going on dates or wallowing in our loneliness this past Valentine’s Day, a groundbreaking new social media platform began to crack open its doors. Voice, the $150 million dollar social media network endeavor backed by the blockchain pioneers at Block.One, is now live for a select group of beta testers, and as the owner of a social media and digital marketing agency, I’m excited to have been invited to it.

How often do you have the chance to be a part of witnessing the future of social media before just about everybody else in the world?

Count me in.

To me, this is how I imagine it would have felt like being one of Mark Zuckerberg’s college classmates when he first launched Facebook in 2005. Except, college student Mark didn’t have a spare $150 million dollars to develop his prototype.

Upon openings its doors to the first wave of beta testers, I signed up immediately and introduced myself. I had several questions, given my profession, and before long, found myself being welcomed to the platform by Block.One’s very own CEO, Brendan Blumer. Brendan was kind enough to take the time to talk with me directly and answer many initial questions I had going into the beta.

Here are the main questions I had, along with Brendan’s answers as well as my own observations and speculations as Voice enters this high-competitive social media space.

1. What Does Such an Ambitious Social Media Platform Look Like, Big Picture?

For starters, Voice is based on the EOS blockchain. For those who haven’t quite caught up on your big-tech lingo in recent years, blockchain technology is what makes digital currencies possible, among many other uses (expanding by the day) outside of finance.

According to Wikipedia, a blockchain “is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data.”

Still lost? That’s ok. Basically, Voice is built on the stuff of science fiction and is basically the same as the memory storing tree networks in James Cameron’s Avatar franchise.

Instead of just storing information in a standard database where new and changed data lives independently from one another, all of the data is linked together and grows upon each other as it is updated, changed, etc.

But I digress. You don’t have to be a blockchain enthusiast or Bitcoin miner to appreciate what Voice is doing.

Essentially, because of their infrastructure, Voice is opening doors that all other previous social media platforms don’t even have.

It’s difficult to speculate what this could all mean for the future of the platform and social media as a whole, but one thing is for certain; Voice is going to change the norm of what future generations expect in social media.

2. Which Current Social Platform is Voice Poised to Replace or Challenge?

On the question of where Voice fits in the current world of social media, Brenden said “We’re really focused on creating something different as opposed to replacing a specific platform. Required KYC and identity [verification] for example, already changes the dynamic greatly and may even limit the number of people that are interested in it, but should yield a very different experience and outcome.”

After using Voice for a few days, I’d agree that it doesn’t quite feel like a drop-in replacement for any current platform, which is a good thing. It feels similar to several, but the dynamics of earning (and spending) Voice tokens (more on those later) put it soundly in a league of its own in the area of user experience.

As Brendan mentioned, KYC, which stands for Know Your Customer, is something that immediately separates Voice from its bot and troll-prone predecessors. Voice is a platform for real people and has zero tolerance for bots and fake accounts. As such, they require identity verification for all individuals using the platform.

If you want an account, Voice needs to know that you are who you say you are. Be prepared to pull out your driver’s license or passport when signing up—much like becoming verified on Instagram or Twitter, except this goes for every user on the platform, not just celebrities.

3. How Will Privacy be Handled?

If you’ve had a social media account in recent years, you’re probably well aware that user privacy has become quite a hot topic.

Users are growing more and more wary of big tech knowing everything about them and the implications that having accounts on major websites may have on their privacy.

Will their data be sold?

Who will have it and how will it be used?

Brendan said this on the issue of privacy: “On Voice there are things you share, and things you don’t. The monetization of the platform isn’t predicated on accessing and soliciting private information that wasn’t intended for circulation.”

He also referenced Voice’s official privacy notice, which you can read here if you’re interested.

Worth noting is the phrase “accessing and soliciting private information that wasn’t intended for circulation.” Traditional social networks’ primary ad revenue comes from companies wanting to target people based on information that said social networks have collected on them over the years. i.e “People interested in knitting” or “People who are fans of the Chicago Bulls” (to greatly simplify the concept of interest-based targeting).

Since Voice’s monetization model is structured differently (more on this later), the platform won’t need your private information to make money—a breath of fresh air for many privacy-conscious users open to exploring new social media platforms.

4. Will Brands Be Given a “Voice” or Will it Be Limited to Individuals?

As the owner of multiple companies and as somebody who is heavily invested in social media marketing both for my own brands and for clients of mine, I was naturally curious about the potential for brands to benefit from this new platform.

What Brendan said in response to this question left me wide-eyed.

“Brands and companies will be able to eventually sign up. Unlike traditional [platforms] where they are able to advertise or promote content by paying the platform operator cash, brands marketing on Voice are intended to purchase Voice tokens from other users in order to have an influence beyond what they earn…”

If you didn’t quite catch that, Voice isn’t going to be the only one earning money when you use the platform. Which leads me to…

5. What Are Voice Tokens and Why Do You Want Them?

On Voice, you earn digital currency (backed by blockchain technology) called Voice Tokens when you create content that others engage with. There are many ways that users can engage with content (some old, some new exclusive to Voice), and those engagements now mean more than a quick rush of dopamine to the head. Now, likes, comments, etc. are as good as cash, in a sense.

Every new post on Voice has a leaderboard at the top called “Top Voice”, a proprietary system exclusive to Voice and not yet seen before on other platforms.

Well, except for maybe the way bidding works on eBay.

The way Top Voice works is that you (or anybody) can spend Voice Tokens to “Voice it” and become Top Voice on any given piece of content. If the same person remains Top Voice for 24 hours, they essentially “win” and are crowned the Winning Top Voice.

While bidding is open, every new Top Voice contender has to pay an increasingly higher price to claim that spot. And each time somebody does, that post gains traction in the algorithm and is promoted to more prominent positions on the site.

The best part? Your Voice Tokens are returned to you and then some when somebody outbids you, so you earn points by essentially “upvoting” content that is likely to continue to be appreciated by others. And becoming the Winning Top Voice will ultimately allow the winner some self-promotion on posts they win (this feature was not rolled out yet at the time of the beta launch, but speculation has already begun within the beta group for how brand logos will ultimately find their way into this covetable Top Voice spot on popular posts).

Where do brands come in? Well, here’s what Brendan said about Voice Tokens:

“Voice tokens are the platform currency that are used for all forms of engagement and promotion. Those that want more influence than they have earned will need to purchase them from other users who are willing to sell them.”

Since Brands will likely fall into the category of those who “want more influence than they have earned”, they will need to purchase that influence.

That means if you’re an influencer on Voice—or even just an everyday user who creates great content from time-to-time—you can sell your earned Voice Tokens for actual money.

We already spend a lot of time on social media.

Why not earn some cash while doing it?

6. What Will Advertising Look Like on Voice?

Ok, so brands can buy influence from users. Got it.

But will that come at a detriment to the user’s experience over time? Brendan and the team behind Voice doesn’t think so.

“On Voice, we’re focused on creating forms of content promotion that don’t come at a detriment to the user experience. “Voice it” is an example of this and will eventually afford the top Voice the top comment spot. Over time there will be more ways to spend tokens that increase content visibility and offer forms of unique engagement.”

I may be reading into that a bit, but it sounds to me like ads on the platform are going to done more along the lines of “promoted content” or even “sticky posts” that forum users may be familiar with.

Ad locations common to traditional social platforms may be non-existent on Voice, replaced instead with engaging content that better blends with the type of content people are already reading on the platform.

Will Brands be able to bid to become Top Voices on popular posts? While the feature is not currently available, it would almost feel like a miss if this isn’t already on Voice’s radar.

7. Will Voice Be Useful for People Already on Everything Else?

According to Brendan, when asked this question, “If [users are] looking to take back control over their information, earn from their content creation, and interact exclusively with real users, then yes.”

There will certainly be people who are going to stick to the platforms they’ve already amassed great influence on, and there will be others who use their influence to expand their influence to Voice.

And why wouldn’t they? By flipping traditional social media advertising monetization on its head, Voice is a platform made for users first and brands second.

8. With a Name Like “Voice”, Will Audio Play a Role in the Platform?

Brendan played his cards more closely to his chest when asked this question, but he did confirm that “audio and video are on the agenda.”

What exactly that means could be anyone’s guess.

Personally, I’d like to see advanced text to speech, voice identification, voice navigation, and voice narration throughout the platform. And of course, I fully anticipate Alexa, Google, and Siri to get in on the action.

The name “Voice” is at least a reference to “giving users a voice” in the metaphorical sense, but I’d love to see Voice stand out from the competition even more by running with the idea of “Voice” in all areas.

And video should go without saying. While native video uploads aren’t currently supported, YouTube and Vimeo embeds are both encouraged.

9. What Type of Content Will Do Well on Voice?

Personally, in the few days that I’ve been a Voice user, I’ve noticed a few early trends for different types of content that is doing well.

First of all, Voice is somewhat the anti-Twitter in the sense that all posts are required to be a minimum (yes minimum) of 160 characters. That means if you have something short and quippy to say, you can either keep it to yourself, save it for Twitter, or expound upon it.

The platform is built with quality in mind from the ground up, and Voice expects that principle to extend to the users and the content posted on the network too.

Long-form content aimed at a public audience tends to do well, but so does shorter content that invites users into a conversation—again, just don’t make it too short or the character limit gods will smite you.

Currently, you can follow—er listen to—other users, but there are no privacy settings for limiting specific people and groups of people to view your content. There may be plans to change this in the future, but for now, I expect the very personal posts currently popular on Facebook (updates on kids, pictures of you and bae out to dinner, etc.) to see less engagement on Voice than on other networks more focused on personal connections.

And of course, since Voice is still in beta, all of this may change as Voice continues to roll out new features and evolve as a platform.

Brendan himself said of the type of content that will do well on Voice: “That’s up to you and the rest of the users.”

10. How is Voice Going to Shake Up the Social Media Industry?

As I jumped into the platform last Friday and through the weekend, I found the experience to be a pleasant mix between surreal and awe.

Surreal because as I navigated the few pieces of content currently available on the platform within mere hours of the beta launch, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that one day, most likely in the not-so-distant future, Voice would be the new social platform of choice for millions, tens of millions, and ultimately billions of users (I really do think they’ll pull this off).

And awe, because as somebody who’s somewhat of a futurist myself and has followed many highly-funded tech startups through the years, I realized that the exciting, albeit minimal version of the platform that I was currently experiencing was only the tip of a very big iceberg.

Brendan narrowed down a few key areas that will separate Voice from other platforms are:

• Transparency
• Verified user identity
• User value creation
• Alignment between the users and the Voice platform

In many ways, Voice is a platform by the people and for the people. It may not feel entirely different on the surface, but once you dig in and start using it, you just might find yourself feeling like you are a part of Voice and not just a user of Voice. And most importantly, you won’t feel like a product of Voice.

With Voice, users will directly benefit when the platform grows, so what are you waiting for?

Request access to the private beta here.

Once you get in, don’t forget to follow me.

If you represent a brand or company looking to grow your influence through social media, contact me through my digital marketing company NURV and let’s have a conversation.

And, last but not least, share this article and Voice with your friends so they can have a Voice too.

Are you looking to grow your brand’s influence through social media marketing? Are you interested in staying ahead of the curve by being an early adopter for new platforms like Voice?

We help position our clients for ongoing success in today’s ever-changing digital market. Contact us for a free digital marketing audit or to schedule a strategy session to learn how we can help your brand cut through the noise.

The post Why “Voice” is the Future of Social Media in a Privacy-Conscious, “Own Your Content” World appeared first on NURV.

Yes, we’re talking “Go straight to the spam folder, do not hit the inbox, do not collect $200” type of bad sender reputation stuff.

A company I was working with found themselves faced with a daunting situation where 99% of their emails sent to GMail accounts were going to spam. Numbers that high are too high regardless of what percentage of your list uses GMail, however, in this particular case, they were sending several hundred thousand emails a month and more of those subscribers used GMail than anything else (not surprising, since at least 1.5 billion people use GMail according to a year-old stat available on Wikipedia).

After deep-diving into the issue with their team, implementing email deliverability monitoring tools, and drinking a lot of coffee, we began to see some major improvement with their inbox placement rate. It took 6-12 months of fine-tuning emails, waiting for results, repeating the entire process, and ultimately going back to the drawing board on many aspects of their email marketing, but we got it done. Gmail inbox placement as of the time of this writing is hovering around 90% (that’s 90% inbox placement vs. 99% spam folder placement initially).

TLDR: So, what was the quick answer for those who don’t want to read this entire article?

There was no quick answer. This took real work and anybody looking to climb out of a similar situation should expect to take a serious step back, take a hard look in the mirror, and then roll your sleeves up and dig in.

If you pressed me for a quick answer, I’d say it was to send better emails. Send the kinds of emails that you yourself would want to read. If you’d prefer some elaboration on that, then you’re in luck. Keep reading.

Here are 10 questions you should ask yourself as you attempt to improve your email deliverability. I’ll add a disclaimer here. Email deliverability is a complex animal. In the same way that there’s no short answer to solving this type of problem, there’s honestly not a perfect top 10 list that will do so either. What works for some audiences won’t work for another and vice versa.

Here’s my best attempt at some key things to keep in mind if you’re trying to stop your emails from going to spam folders. These tips are based on my own real-world experience and past successes in this area.

Looking for more digital marketing insights like this? Like us on social media.

1. Are you maintaining a healthy list or sending to just anyone?

Bigger is not better when it comes to email list size. In fact, if you’re having email deliverability issues, it’s probably linked to the fact that you are sending to too many people—often times people who are simply marking you as spam and moving on with their lives. A simple action that we all take every week, but one that can be detrimental to the reputation of those sending the emails.

The key is maintaining an engaged list, which means deleting names of inactive, problematic, or unengaged subscribers.

In simple terms, the more people who mark you as spam, don’t open your emails, or even outright bounce, the more prone Google and other ESPs are to automatically mark your emails as spam. The more people who open your emails and don’t mark them as spam (i.e. they actually engage with your content), the more Google will trust that you’re a reputable sender who sends things that people actually want to read.

Create protocols in your company for cleaning, validating, and sunsetting names based on a few key criteria. Here are a few categories to get you started in your validation efforts:

Known Abusers: Did you know that we all (as individuals) have reputations with our own email providers based on how we interact with our emails? In this case, “known abusers” refers to people that are known to be the type of person who frequently marks bulk mail as spam. More sophisticated validation tools can spot these people and remove them before they cause harm to your sender reputation.

Non-Receiving Addresses: If an email address can’t accept email for whatever reason, there’s no reason for you to be emailing them. Emails are deactivated all the time. Others were never meant to receive emails in the first place, and yet they still somehow end up on your list. There’s not much sense in emailing abuse@xyz.com or noreply@xyz.com. By cleaning these names from your list, you’re not losing anything of value.

Role-Based Addresses: Addresses like admin@xyz.com, support@xyz.com, etc. are not typically worth keeping around. Most likely, somebody opted in at one point just to get a download of yours, but it’s unlikely that role-based email addresses are actively being monitored by somebody who reads the bulk email that’s being sent to them.

Spam Traps: If you’re not already doing so, you need to also be validating your lists against known spam traps, a.k.a. email addresses that are known by ESPs to be dead, but re-registered in an effort to see whose still sending to them (i.e. not maintaining proper list hygiene). Sending to these types of addresses is one of the fastest ways for you to get your emails flagged as spam.

Typo Addresses: Validation software can usually detect if there are clear typos in an email address. i.e. john@gmali.com or jane@yhoo.com. There’s not much sense in keeping these and other typo addresses. They’ll bounce anyway and be removed by your ESP automatically, however, it’s healthier for your sender reputation if you catch bad emails before they bounce.

Unengaged Subscribers: This one is fairly straightforward. If somebody hasn’t opened your emails in a while, remove them from your list. Maybe send them one last “Do you still want to hear from us?” email if they’re more recently unengaged, but be ready to remove them if they don’t engage with that email.

That’s not an exhaustive list, however, it does touch on the main categories worth considering when you’re looking to drop some dead weight from your list.

If you report to somebody for decisions like this, having this information will help you when it comes time to present your ideas for improving your company’s email reputation. Many executives treat their email list subscribers as if they were high scores in a video game—the bigger the list, the bigger the ego of Mr. or Ms. Marketing Director. Ironically enough, executives who aren’t well-versed in the vast landscape of email deliverability idiosyncrasies will truly be those bosses you have to fight to beat the level here (yes, that super cheesy video game pun was intended), but that’s a battle you simply must take on and win if you want to have a healthy list.

2. How advanced is your email infrastructure, technically speaking?

Depending on the size of your list and the volume of email that you’re sending out, you may want to consider switching to using your own IP and fully-authenticated sending domains for mailing to your list.

While most of the top email marketing platforms out there actively manage the reputations for their shared IPs and sending domains, you’re still ultimately at the mercy of whether or not hundreds or even thousands of fellow customers are on good behavior with the emails they are putting out.

If in doubt, look into getting a dedicated IP address and locking down your sending domain (with DMARC configured to reject mail not authenticated).

If you’re looking to be on the extra-safe side, use a domain (or subdomain) that is different from your corporate email domain. This is a precaution many won’t feel is necessary (and oftentimes, they are right), but it’s a good way to silo your corporate email reputation from your email marketing reputation. Of course, if you’re going to adhere strictly to best practices for email marketing, this should be less of an issue, but still remains a worthwhile option that many companies opt to go with.

Additionally, your ESP should be able to help you properly configure things like DMARC,  DKIM, BIMI, and SPF (beyond the scope of this article). These DNS records can be key in authenticating emails sent from your domain while ensuring that any spoofed emails sent “from” your domain (by hackers and cybercriminals) won’t negatively affect your sender reputation.

3. Are you emailing your subscribers on a regular basis?

Sending too many emails could upset your subscribers, but if you’re like most companies struggling with email marketing, sending too many emails is not your problem. Your challenge is that you’re sending too little or too infrequently.

The less frequently people see emails from you, the more likely they are to forget who you are by the time you send your next one.

There’s no magic number for how often you should email your list. The only way to find out how often is too often is to email your list and do it frequently. Some companies email once a day. Others a few times a week to even a few times a month or less. Then there are those who email 8-10 times a week or more.

And the crazy part is, somebody who sends 10 emails a week might have a much higher engagement rate and a much lower unsubscribe rate than somebody who emails a few times a week or a few times a month.

It entirely depends on what you’re sending, who you’re sending to, how engaged they are, and other context specifics of your unique situation. Determine for yourself what an acceptable unsubscribe rate is for your company and then email as often as you can while maintaining par.

The key here is to provide value. If you’re sending a “daily joke” or “daily inspiration” style email, be sure that you or your team is monitoring unsubscribes and maintaining good list hygiene. People usually like these types of emails at first, but oftentimes will get sick of them eventually and look for that spam button.

After all the emails have been overanalyzed and sent, though, as long as your list is growing, your emails aren’t going to spam (or bouncing), and you’re not losing too many people to unsubscribes, keep calm and email on.

But speaking of unsubscribes…

4. Are you making it stupid easy for subscribers to unsubscribe?

Why do so many email marketers try so hard to keep people on their list who don’t truly want to be there?

It’s almost like we forget that all (and let’s be honest—in this day and age, it really is all) email service providers have an overly accessible “report spam” button.

It’s actually pretty scary thinking about how easy it is for somebody to make it so our emails never hit their inboxes again.

So why the aversion to holding the door open for people who want to unsubscribe?

Including the standard unsubscribe information at the bottom of an email is an obvious first step (and just ask your lawyer—there’s legal reasons for doing this too).

As I pointed out earlier, when people mark your emails as spam, it damages your sender reputation.

If somebody wants out, make it painless for them. Make sure the unsubscribe language is clear and easy to find. Some people even put a link right at the top of their email so it’s literally the first thing people see when they open it.

And you know what? If those subscribers are used to getting quality-packed emails from such senders, they’ll skim past that blatant unsubscribe link every time.

Should everyone put unsubscribe links at the top of their emails? No, but if you’re having trouble with spam complaints, it might not be a bad idea to at least try this strategy on for size. Or at the very least, offer an “update email preferences” link in a visible place where people can change their preferred email frequency and configure other settings.

One last thought here. If your company uses unsolicited email to reach out to potential customers directly, it’s wise to include clear opt-out language in these one-on-one emails as well. I consulted with a company once who engaged a considerable amount of prospects this way. It wasn’t long before they realized that all of their emails were now going to spam. Remember, users can mark direct emails sent from your personal email address as spam too (and with an easy click of a button at that). If you’re going to attempt this type of cold marketing, tread carefully and brace yourself for potential spam complaints even if you include opt-out language.

But enough about unsubscribing. One way to limit opt-outs is to be more restrictive in how you confirm who you’ll be sending to in the first place, which leads us to…

5. Are you using double optin for your lists?

If people truly want to hear from you, they’ll gladly take one extra step to do so.

Not only will enabling double optin for your list help lower your spam complaints (hey, they said TWICE that they wanted to hear from you, right?), but it will put you ahead of the curve on several consumer privacy-related laws that have either recently passed or are in the works at the time of this writing (discuss GDPR and CCPA with your lawyer as we can’t offer legal advice).

Yes, if you enable double optin, fewer people who signed up to hear from you will ultimately make it to your active list, but if somebody changes their mind within an hour or two of opting into your list, why hold them hostage? Are they really that warm of a lead? As stated earlier, let them go and make it easy for them—or in this case, don’t pull them all the way onto your list in the first place if they haven’t even put both feet in the door yet.

Now, double optin can be challenging when the confirmation email itself is going to spam, granted, but honestly, if the confirmation email is going to spam, there’s a high likelihood that subsequent emails are too.

Which, of course, brings me back to the entire point of this article.

Solve your spam issue so you can benefit from double optin. Don’t use your spam challenges as a justification for continuing practices that will keep your emails going straight to spam.

6. Are you growing your list through gimmicks or by providing value?

Have you ever signed up for somebody’s email list in order to qualify for a contest, raffle, or something equally as gimmicky?

Of course you have. We all have.

And then, if you’re like everybody else, you wait and see if you won and then mark future emails as spam.

This isn’t a marketing tactic exclusive to email either. Brick and mortar shops do this all the time.

Why?

Because honestly, it works. And the truth is, as email marketers, we all do mark these types of emails as spam (or unsubscribe). But, non-marketers don’t always do this. That’s why marketers continue to grow their lists using these methods.

Now, I’m actually not entirely against employing this strategy to grow a list. With the right product and the right crowd, these strategies can work very well.

Just, for the love of all that is proper in email marketing, at the very least, use a double optin for new subscribers and make that unsubscribe button big and bold at the top of your emails. If you’re going to engage in an activity that is known to get high spam complaints, let people opt-out the moment they start to ask themselves, “Where’s that spam button?”

Instead of using gimmicks to grow your list, you will likely find more luck in promising high-quality relevant content and then actually sending content that delivers on that promise.

Who knew email marketing could be that simple, right?

7. Do you have an onboarding sequence to properly introduce yourself to your new subscribers?

I can’t tell you how many lists I’ve joined only to seemingly never hear from those companies or individuals again. Sure, they might email me a month or two later, but by then do I always remember who they are or why I joined their list?

No.

The best way to stay relevant with your new subscribers is by emailing them fairly frequently after they first signed up. This can be time-consuming if done manually (and unrealistic in most cases), so unless you have some ultra-personalized requirements in your business, I’d suggest going with automation here as much as possible.

Build out a welcome series that consists of at least a few emails.

There’s no limit on how many emails you can pre-load here either. You could build a welcome series that loads people into one or several alternate nurture campaigns as a result of the actions they took (or didn’t take) while being sent your initial series.

These granular automated email journeys could go on for months or even years.

It takes a substantial time commitment to build out something that will still be sending automated content to subscribers a year later, so don’t worry about anything at that level right now.

Just focus on that first month or two. Send a few emails a week and change the frequency based on how people are interacting with your emails.

8. Do your emails look and read like marketing emails?

Before the days of fast Internet, it was harder to spot marketing emails because it was less common for emails to contain images.

Nowadays, that has changed. Look at any sampling of marketing emails in your inbox. Chances are good that many of them are loaded with images and other stimulating visuals.

This may not be an automatic red flag to Google and other popular email providers, however, it doesn’t always communicate the right message to your subscribers. Why? Because, even if we like the email content, we know we’re being marketed to.

Try sending emails with less (or no) images and see if you get better engagement. We’ll still know we’re being marketed to, but we might feel a bit more of a personal connection to the sender if the email feels more organic and less like it came from a marketing agency.

Some companies do just fine with full image emails that look fantastic and represent their service well (here’s looking at you, Redbox), but many companies have toned the visuals down significantly or gotten rid of them altogether.

Even if your emails are in good shape visually, you still need to watch what wording you choose to use in your emails. While it should be obvious, there are plenty of people still sending emails with words such as FREE, giveaway, order today, $$$, etc. in their emails. And don’t even get me started on obvious grammatical errors, typos, and keywords specific to medicinal and health-related industries.

If you’re not sure which words are red flags, take a few minutes and dive into your spam folder (assuming your ESP handles spam for you). Look at the types of emails in there.

Read them.

This will give you real-world examples of what not to do. Ask yourself if your emails read or look like these emails.

For an exhaustive list of words and phrases to generally avoid in your emails, check out this list from our friends over at HubSpot (no affiliate link, just some love for a great service). Sure, you’ll have to use some of these words from time to time, but at least be aware that you’re doing so.

9. Do your emails render correctly on all devices?

This is listed here under bullet 9, but honestly, this should be one of the first and most obvious things to check if you’re experiencing challenges with your email deliverability.

There are many tools online that offer email rendering testing and previewing. If your ESP doesn’t already have a quality tool for doing this (many of the better ones do), just do a search for “email render testing” or something similar. While we don’t necessarily recommend any specific services, there are many out there that can help ensure your emails look the way you intended them to look when delivered to people using all sorts of different devices, browsers, apps, screen sizes, Internet speeds, etc.

This is more important if you’re building your emails manually with HTML and CSS, however, if you don’t know what you’re doing with visual builders (quite common with major ESPs nowadays), it’s still possible to design emails that don’t render well in different scenarios. It’s also worth mentioning that not all visual builders are created equally, and that if you’re using a cheaper service with a mediocre builder, your emails may still have rendering issues.

To summarize, don’t let your subscribers be the first ones to see how your email looks on their device. If you do, they might not be subscribers for long.

10. Are you meeting subscriber expectations with the content you are sending out?

Last, and honestly one of the most important aspects to preventing your emails from going to spam folders is another one of the simplest.

Send better emails. Period.

Stop sending people emails that you would send to your own spam box.

In the world of smart spam filtering, more and more ESPs are automatically sending emails to spam folders simply because they determine through AI that people aren’t interested in reading them. Using great titles that are relevant to your subscribers is the first step to tacking this challenge. When people open your emails more often, they are inadvertently telling GMail (and others) that “this is an email that I want to keep receiving.”

And once they open the email, make sure you aim to provide value before you ask for any sale. That doesn’t always mean you can ask for the sale in every email either.

Take yourself out of the drivers’ seat for a minute and realize that while you and your team are all about your company and what you do, not everyone will be—at least not right away. Sometimes it’s best to simply provide value for the sake of providing value and growing trust in your brand.

Make sure subscribers know what your company is about before you ask them to get excited with you about an accomplishment you’re about to share with them.

Even when it comes time to ask for the sale, don’t hard sell.

If you have active, engaged, and passionate subscribers, when it comes time to sell your product or services, they won’t need to be convinced.

They’ll just need to be invited to take part in an opportunity that will benefit them in some way.

And by the time that happens, they’ll believe you because you’ve already provided more than enough value for them to have made up their mind in advance; They want what it is that you are offering.

If you do your email marketing right, your best closes will happen long before the opportunity is even presented to your potential buyers.

And for those people—your inner circle, if you will—unsubscribing is the last thing they are thinking about when they hear from you.

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What other tactics and techniques have helped you with your email marketing? What have you found to be detrimental? We’d love to hear what you thought of this article. Let us know your experiences in the comments sections below.

Do you need help with your email marketing? Are you struggling to improve your email deliverability?

We help position our clients for ongoing success in today’s ever-changing digital market. Contact us for a free digital marketing audit or to schedule a strategy session to learn how we can help your brand cut through the noise.

The post 10 Often Overlooked Ways to Stop Emails from Going to Spam and Improve Email Deliverability appeared first on NURV.

Big Hollywood studios have been animating their iconic logos for years, and for good reason. Short, yet memorable logo animations help solidify brands in the minds of consumers.

The 20th Century Fox spotlight sequence.

The “Universal” letters orbiting the globe as the camera pulls back smoothly.

Cinderella’s castle (or a clever yet relevant replacement, such as in the new live-action Beauty & the Beast) before every Disney movie.

Pixar’s jumping desk lamp and ball.

The list goes on, and in this video dominated age where YouTube is now the #2 search engine in the world, animated logo intros and outros are no longer limited to big movie production studios (see BuzzFeed and basically every booming online media publisher out there).

The software required to make 2D and 3D animated logos has become much more mainstream in the past few decades. In fact, if you don’t already have a 3D-animated logo intro for your company, there’s never been a better time to get one.

A) You need one, and B) you don’t have to spend a million bucks to get one.

Depending on your budget, technical expertise, and unique logo animation requirements, here are three ways to get an animated logo for your videos. Full disclosure—We’re a little biased towards #3 because custom 3D logo animation is just one of the many things we do well.

1. Do it Yourself With Free Online Logo Animation Software

There are several online tools and mobile apps that help you make quick animations. Here are several that offer online interfaces and editing experiences (some free and some paid) aimed at providing the novice animator a do-it-yourself approach.

Animaker Animated Logo Maker

Official site: https://www.animaker.com/logo-animation

Not only is Animaker helpful in creating animated logo intros and outros, but it can also be used to create animated marketing videos of many different purposes.

Biteable

Official site: https://biteable.com/animated/logo/

Biteable is another great option to animate your logo quickly and for free. It’s not just for creating animated logos either—you can make entire marketing videos with their platform.

Renderforest

Official site: https://www.renderforest.com/logo-animations.html

Like other tools on this page, Renderforest isn’t built specifically for logo animation, but it is marketed as a free logo animation tool for people who want to quickly animate a logo intro or outro.

2. Do It Yourself With Professional Motion Graphic Templates

Free online logo animation software may sound nice, but that look and feel isn’t always suitable for all brands. If you’re creative and technically inclined, there are several more professional options for creating both 2D and 3D logo animations while still sticking to a budget—mainly pre-built template projects for professional motion graphics software.

You’ll need some skills and expertise in order to customize these template files to work with your logo, brand colors, etc, but using a template will save you a lot of time while still allowing you to achieve a professional look that’s somewhere in between the than a novice cookie-cutter approach and a completely custom approach.

Envato Market

Official site: https://videohive.net/search/logo%20animation

Envato Market, or specifically its Video Hive sub-brand, is a great place to purchase templates for animated logos for use in professional tools software such as Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D, and other specialized software. Envato is one of the best platforms for finding stock motion graphic project files and is constantly being updated with fresh new content from creative professionals all of the world.

Pond5

Official site: https://www.pond5.com/collections/2042680-after-effects-logos

Pond5 is another great site for stock resources, including After Effects templates. Again, this isn’t the ideal solution for the novice creative, but if you’re able and willing to sift through tutorials and put your After Effects knowledge to use, they have a great constantly-updated selection of motion graphic templates perfect for creating animated logo stingers.

Videoblocks

Official site: https://www.videoblocks.com/videos/templates/logo+reveal

Videoblocks is a sub-brand of Storyblocks, another company specializing in stock everything. From sounds and music to images and video, Storyblocks has you covered from A-Z. They also feature a diverse selection of motion graphics templates for After Effects just waiting to be customized with your brand and logo.

3. Hire Professional Logo Animators for a Custom Experience

If you don’t want the cheaper do-it-yourself approach of the online tools we listed above and you’re not really cut out for customizing existing templates or building complicated motion graphics from scratch, you can always pay to have a high-quality professional logo animation produced for your brand.

We offer custom 3D logo animation services in-house and would love to work with you if we’re a good fit for each other. We can’t show you all of our work due to NDAs and other agreements in place, but here’s a demo reel of some of our favorite animated logos and motion graphics that we’re allowed to promote.

If you’d like to work with us, we invite you to contact us. We’d love to help set you apart from your competition with a fantastic 3D-animated logo.

We’re not the cheapest provider out there and we understand we may not be a perfect fit for everyone in need of 3D logo animation services—especially if you’re not ready to include this type of expense in your marketing budget. Regardless, our goal is to help you achieve the results you desire for your business, even if that means pointing you elsewhere if another company could be a better fit for tackling specific challenges you may face.

While we are confident we can provide you the best logo animation at our various price points, here are some alternate options worth exploring if you’re looking for professional animation on a tighter budget:

Envato Studio

Official Site: https://studio.envato.com/explore/logo-animation

While also providing downloadable logo animation templates that can be purchased (as mention above under #2), Envato connects individuals and companies to multimedia professionals via their Envato Studio brand. Prices tend to range from the low to mid $xxx range on average.

Fiverr

Official site: https://www.fiverr.com/

Originally promoted as a place to get any and every type of creative service for only $5 each, Fiverr has evolved into a marketplace for professionals looking for projects of a wide variety of scopes and budgets. While primarily still tailored to the budget crowd (we checked and you can still find logo animation services for as little as $5), you’ll also find some higher ticket service providers if you’re looking to spend some real money.

Guru

Official site: https://www.guru.com/d/freelancers/q/logo-animation/

Guru helps connect you to freelancers with all sorts of expertise. While certainly not exclusive to visually creative services, they offer a large selection of talent that is ready and willing to tackle your logo animation project. A quick skim down the above page of search results shows minimum pricing as low as $25 for a few hours of work. This might not be enough to set off fireworks above Cinderella’s castle, but with a little creativity, a small budget can go a long way.

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Whatever it is you are looking for in terms of 3D logo animation services, as you can see from this list, you have plenty to consider. Contact us if you’d like to discuss a more specialized 3D solution for your animated logo intro/outro. Otherwise, if you’re on a budget or just wanting to keep your costs down and try your hand at DIY logo animation, we encourage you to check out some of the above options.

Even if we don’t end up working together to animate your logo, we’d love to help optimize your online branding and digital marketing efforts so you can spend more time doing what you do best—dreaming up new ways to change the world.

We help position our clients for ongoing success in today’s ever-changing digital market. Contact us for a free digital marketing audit or to schedule a strategy session to learn how we can help your brand cut through the noise.

The post 3 Ways to Get an Animated Logo Intro For Your Videos appeared first on NURV.

With the recent explosion in gTLD (generic top-level domains) by ICANN (the entity that basically controls the Internet), domain registration options have never been more plentiful. Starting a spa? You can register yourbrand.spa. Want something that happened in Vegas to make it straight onto the Internet? yourexperience.vegas can tell your story (just keepit.kosher).

But with as much excitement as there is behind these new domain name extensions, is it ever worth going through the trouble of not owning the .COM as well (as a redirect at the very least)?

Going with a non .COM domain name might save you money in the short term, but there are many reasons why you should try to own the .COM for your brand, even if you plan to market it under a different domain extension.

1. 46% of websites use a .COM domain name

Make no mistake about it, the overwhelming majority of websites use .COM for their Internet presence. The extension dates back to 1985, when it was originally foreseen as the domain extension of choice for brick and mortar companies seeking a website (.net was anticipated to be used by Internet-only companies, but this never really panned out as expected). With the advent of the Dotcom boom, .COM as an extension quickly skyrocketed ahead of all other alternatives.

Today, over three decades later, it has become the go-to for nearly all major brands. In fact, investors and companies alike continue to pay tens of thousands and even well into the millions for premium .COM domain names.

2. Most people will assume your website ends in .COM

Because of the overwhelming market share of .COM, particularly with major corporations, most of the Internet-using public (including your would-be customer-base) has grown accustomed to assuming a company’s website is their brand name followed by .COM. Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google—the list goes on.

In fact, according to this list of Fortune 500 companies from 2016, 495 of them use a .COM for their domain name. Only 4 used a .net and 1 used a .org.

There are over 134 million .COM registrations at the time of this writing. The next closest is .net with 14 million, which puts the extension soundly in second place.

There are a few companies, such as Nissan, who don’t own their brand as a Dotcom, but those are the extremely rare exceptions. If you ever wanted to find Nissan’s website, for example, chances are you’ve had to backtrack to Google to learn that their website is actually https://www.nissanusa.com.

Back before it went out of business, Twitter’s popular video app Vine existed on Vine.co. Vine.com itself appears to be registered to Amazon. The domain simply redirects to their homepage.

3. Owning a .COM domain lends credibility to your brand

The Internet has embraced over a thousand alternative domain extensions by now, but many people still aren’t familiar with the new ones. Of course, this is in some ways due to such a disproportional amount of the big business being done online through a select few top level domains such as the Dotcom.

When you see .COM next to somebody’s brand, it relays a sense of credibility. Arguably, this supposed credibility is entirely misguided and largely superficial, as there are plenty of .COM websites that are used for less than credible purposes, however, the stigma remains: “Dotcom is more legitimate and others are the cheaper knockoffs.”

4. Owning a .COM implies that you are more established

Segueing off of the credibility point in #3, it’s no secret that .COMs can be worth substantial money. If a business is willing to fork out the money required to purchase a .COM (perhaps from an existing smaller company or from a domain investor who bought it years ago), it can be assumed on some level that they’ve had some success financially. On the other hand, if a company has been around long enough to have hand registered their .COM back before they were harder to come by, longevity is also noteworthy.

Of course, these are perceived implications of owning a .COM. From a technical standpoint, using a .net or even .xyz is just as secure and just as reliable. But as marketers and branding experts know, perceived value is often times even more important for making money than actual value.

Is it possible to go register a .COM today for $15 and have no reputable history at all as a company? Of course. Owning a .COM doesn’t mean a company actually is more established, but again, due to it’s overwhelming use, the familiarity of a .COM can mean the difference between a customer visiting your website or not.

5. Search engines can sometimes favor .COM domains over others

This is definitely not always true, however, search engines like Google have been known to rank non-country-specific domain names better in universal search results than specific country code domains, which are sometimes assumed to be more specific to certain regions of the world.

The domain extension .io, for example, is an exception. It’s growing in popularity in the app and tech world due to its input/output abbreviation, but it’s technically the country code domain for the British Indian Ocean Territory. In this case, however, Google understands that many website owners are using this ccTLd generically and not specifically to the British Indian Ocean Territory, but it’s important to keep in mind that certain extensions will be ranked differently if the majority of their use is region specific.

6. The .COM has no TLD specific rules tied to it

While this fact is also true for many TLDs including gTLDs (again, generic top-level domains) and ccTLD (country code top-level domains), some TLD’s come with strings attached. For example, if you wanted to register a .us or .ca, you’d have to actually live in the United States or Canada, respectively. If you wanted to register a .nyc, you’d have to prove your residency in New York City. Other domain extensions have Acceptable Use Policy agreements that you must abide by. These can include content restrictions or limitations. Always research your desired TLD rules (if any) before making a major brand decision around it.

7. The fact you’re even reading this article proves .COM is King

Why are you reading this article? Is it because the .COM for the domain you wanted was available, but you’d rather register it only as a .BIZ? Of course not. You’re reading this article because you searched for your brand name as a .COM and came up with nothing available. Now you’re trying to talk yourself into buying a non-dotcom domain and you’re looking for reasons to either talk yourself into it or out of it.

Typically, .COM is the first search people do when shopping for a new business domain name.

The truth is, there’s a reason for that. Whatever that reason is for you, that reason is why .COM is still king—and that’s not expected to change anytime soon.

In closing…

Some argue that .COM feels old or outdated. They claim that the newer TLD extensions are more trendy. This is, of course, a strict matter of personal opinion. But even if a company chooses to operate their website from a non-dotcom domain extension, why not just buy the .COM as well and redirect it?

In some cases, we realize that buying a .COM can be cost-prohibitive and this very advice can conjure up frustrating comparisons to “Let them eat cake”, but honestly, there really are still many great options available under the .COM extension. With some time and creativity, you can come up with a great name for your business that is either still available to register or at least available for purchase at a reasonable aftermarket price.

And if you just can’t justify spending the money, you have to ask yourself this question. After reading the points in this article and looking at the facts, how much money will you have to spend in branding to overcome the pitfalls of not owning a .COM? That’s not a hypothetical question. It’s something really worth pondering for your specific situation.

You can argue that there are several successful companies that don’t use .COM and you’d be right. There absolutely are. But would owning the .COM (even as a redirect) have made growing their business easier or more difficult? HINT: It sure wouldn’t have hurt.

There are also always exceptions to the rule and outliers. For example, Google’s parent company Alphabet, while leading the charge into the non-Dotcom era with their official domain name of abc.xyz, does not own its Dotcom counterpart abc.com. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably assumed (and rightfully so) that this domain is owned by Disney’s ABC.

Regardless, does Google wish they owned that .COM domain name? You better believe it.

We help position our clients for ongoing success in today’s ever-changing digital market. Contact us for a free digital marketing audit or to schedule a strategy session to learn how we can help your brand cut through the noise.

The post 7 Reasons Why .COM Domain Names Are Still Best For Your Brand appeared first on NURV.