Here are several ways to improve your meetings to make them more effective:

1. Make sure everyone prepares for the meeting and has a part to play, to make sure they are actually engaged.
2. Create an agenda early, distribute it before the meeting and follow it during the meeting.  Make sure times are on the agenda and do everything in your power to follow that agenda.
3. START ON time and END ON-time.  If anyone is missing, start anyway.  They won’t be late again!
4. Make sure someone takes notes and assigns action items.  How many times have you sat through a meeting knowing that you already covered the same topics in previous meetings, but NO ONE had any documentation from the previous meeting?
5. End the meeting with a recap and make sure everyone knows their assigned action items, as well as expectations on the delivery of those action items.
6. Lastly, do a meeting audit and make sure it truly was an improved and efficient meeting.  Was it worth the time and money spent?

If you need help with operational efficiencies that will create a structure for your organization to grow, call the team at Unity!

The post Effective Meetings appeared first on Unity.

If you ARE using video, are you using it most effectively? Here are some tips on making your videos more effective.

How long is your video? You can always have a 5 minute video for your organization, but the shorter your video, the better!  While desktop viewers tend to stick with videos for 2 minutes or less, mobile users seem to have a longer attention span. iPhone users tend to watch for about 2.4 minutes. Android users give a video three minutes to engage them and Symbian users stick around for just over 4 minutes. iPad users have the longest attention spans of all, sticking with a web video for an average of 5 minutes.

In fact, according to research conducted by Jun Group (2011), videos that are 15 seconds or shorter are shared 37 percent more often than those that last between 30 seconds and 1 minute. If you make your video longer, that stat goes down. Those shorties are only shared 18% more often than videos of longer than 1 minute.

The reason these shorter videos are so popular is because you really only have 10 seconds to grab the attention of your viewers. According to research by Visible Measures, 20% of your viewers will click away from a video in 10 seconds or fewer.  And it doesn’t get a lot better than that. You’ll lose about 1/3 of your viewers by 30 seconds, 45% of them by 1 minute and almost 60% by 2 minutes. And those numbers remain the same no matter how long the video is.

If you want to get a big bang for your buck on social media, try removing audio. Many Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users view videos without any audio whatsoever. Think about it: If you don’t have headphones, but you’re scrolling through your news feed in public, you’re not likely to grab earbuds to watch a 30-second video.  Consider approaching videos as moving images. A solid goal is to grab the viewer’s attention without using audio. Experiment with removing audio from your clip entirely to test the strategy on your own.

Understand the importance of SEO.  Your video should be easily searchable so your audience can find it. If you’re posting video content on other social networks, be sure to use popular and relevant hashtags.

I hope these tips help you produce a top notch and effective video.  Remember, no matter how long or short or flashy or simple, all experts agree your videos should have some sort business goal or objective besides apart from selling a product or boasting a website.  Make sure to use the tips above and if you need more help, call Unity today and we can help produce YOUR videos!

The post Making YOUR Video More Effective appeared first on Unity.

According to the Online Publishers Association, 80% of Internet users watched a video ad on a website they visited in the past 30 days. It gets even better. Of that 80%, 46% took some action after viewing the ad.

In fact:

• 26% looked for more information about the subject of the video
• 22% visited the website named in the ad
• 15% visited the company represented in the video ad
• 12% purchased the specific product featured in the ad

Website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video. In addition, visitors who view videos stay on the site an average of 2 minutes longer than those who don’t view videos, comScore says.  These videos are NOT just for retailers either.  In fact, an Australian real estate group reports that real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without videos. In other words, real estate ads with videos generate quadruple the leads of those without videos.

According to Forbes Insight, 59% of senior executives would rather watch a video than read text. About 65% of those who view a video click through to visit the vendor website, 50% look for more information and 45% report that they contacted a vendor after seeing an online video ad. About 50% of those who viewed an online marketing video went on to make a purchase for their business.

Video is NOT just for your website either!  In 2010, an Implix email marketing survey found that including a video in an introductory email increased the click-through rate by 96%. That’s nearly twice as many people clicking through to your website when you include a video in your marketing emails.

The Forrester Marketing group surveyed businesses in 2010 and found that when marketers included a marketing video in an email, the click-through rate increased by 200% to 300%. Eloqua, an automated email marketing provider, also noted that including video in an introductory email reduced the number of subscriber opt-outs by 75%. Maintaining that contact is a vital part of establishing a relationship with prospects.  One online marketer reported a 51% increase in subscriber-to-lead conversion rates when video was included in an email marketing campaign.

Why would you leave all that value sitting on the table?  Contact UNITY today and get started on YOUR video project!

The post Video Marketing by the Numbers appeared first on Unity.

I read a great book lately that really helped me to more self-aware of how I am looked at as a leader.  I would highly recommend reading Leadership and Self Deception, Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute. Self-awareness will help you be a better leader AND is the root of all great storytelling. The more you understand your own humanity, the more you can appreciate the humanity of others and draw them into your story and help them make it their own. I would argue that the great leaders that author Jim Collins describes in his book Good to Great are people with a great deal of self-awareness. Great storytellers, as well as great leaders are generally humbled by trials of life and that humility makes people want to follow them. They see the humanity in others and deal with them in a compassionate yet realistic way. That duality makes for a wonderful leader and a wonderful storyteller.

As a successful leader, are YOU ready to rethink YOUR story and how to tell it to engage those you lead?  Unity can help!

The post Storyteller and Leader appeared first on Unity.

Stories have been implanted in you thousands of times since you were a kid.  It’s how we are programmed to learn. You’ve read good books, seen movies, attended plays. What’s more, human beings naturally want to work through stories. Cognitive psychologists describe how the human mind, in its attempt to understand and remember, assembles the bits and pieces of experience into a story, beginning with a personal desire, a life objective, and then portraying the struggle against the forces that block that desire. Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.

So how does a business leader become a great story teller? Businesspeople not only have to understand their companies’ past, but then they must project the future. And how do you imagine the future? Using a story. You create scenarios in your head of possible future events to try to anticipate the life of your company or your own personal life. So, if a businessperson understands that his or her own mind naturally wants to frame experience in a story, the key to moving an audience is not to resist this impulse but to embrace it by telling a good story.

So, what is YOUR story?  Unity can help shape yours!

The post What is YOUR story? appeared first on Unity.

The bottom line is that a big part of your job as a leader in your organization is to communicate and motivate people to reach certain goals. To do that, you MUST engage their emotions, and the key to their hearts is to draw them into YOUR story and make them part of it. There are two ways to reach this goal.  The first is by using conventional rhetoric, which is what most leaders are trained in. It’s an intellectual process, usually consisting of a PowerPoint slide presentation in which you say, “Here is our organization’s biggest challenge, and here is what we need to do to prosper.” And you build your case by giving statistics and facts. But there are two problems with this type of rhetoric. First, the people you’re talking to have their own set of authorities, statistics, and experiences. While you’re trying to persuade them, they are arguing with you in their heads from their perspective. Second, if you do succeed in persuading them, you’ve done so only on an intellectual basis and not an emotional one. That’s not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone.  The other, more powerful way to persuade people is by uniting an idea with an emotion. The best way to do that is by telling a compelling story. In a story, you not only weave a lot of information into it, but you also arouse your listener’s emotions and energy. Communicating your vision in a story is not easy though. Believe me, most people can sit down and map out a plan and make a list of tasks to reach a goal, but that simply does not inspire anyone to follow! Often times, this strategic planning process takes rationality, but little creativity. On the other hand, the creative process demands vivid insight and storytelling skill to present an idea that packs enough emotional power to be memorable, while moving the needle with potential and current clients and team members. If you can harness imagination and the principles of a well-told story, then you get people to enthusiastically follow your vision, instead of yawning and ignoring you.

If you need help capturing and telling your story, the team at Unity can help!  This is where we start our engagement.  YOUR story is the key to YOUR success and it is the rallying point to build a strong strategic growth plan that will help YOUR organization soar!

Contact us TODAY!

The post Inspire with YOUR Story! appeared first on Unity.

There’s nothing to lose and about 403% more profit just waiting for you. Here are some metrics about video marketing that should make you sit up and take notice:

1.8 Million Words…That’s the value of one minute of video, according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research.  Do you have the time and energy to write 1.8 million words? That’s the equivalent of 3,600 typical web pages. If you write an average of one web page an hour, it would take you 150 days of writing to achieve the impact of one minute of video.  When you look at it that way, online video marketing is the single most practical use for your marketing time and energy.

In fact, according to comScore, which measures online engagement and use, that’s the percentage of Internet users who view at least one video online over the course of a month. The average user is exposed to an average of 32.2 videos in a month, increasing the chances that your marketing message will be seen. But what does that work out to in real numbers?

100 Million…That’s the number of Internet users who watch online video each day. Granted, a lot of those are watching the latest viral video with a goofy cat or a cute kid, but an awful lot of them are looking for advice on how to do something or how to make something work better. And a whole of them are looking to buy a service or product.

90% of online shoppers said they find video helpful in making shopping and buying decisions. Retailers who provide online video to show off their products report that the products with video sell a lot more than products with no video.

75% of executives told Forbes that they watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week. The results breakdown:

• 50% watch business-related videos on YouTube
• 65% visit the marketer’s website after viewing a video

According to comScore, the average user spends 16 minutes and 49 seconds watching online video ads every month.

If you’re not using video marketing, you’re missing out on a huge market opportunity. It’s not just the number of people who are watching videos that’s important – it’s the reasons why they watch it. When you post an online marketing video to a business website, you’ve got a great chance of engaging with a busy executive who is specifically looking for your services but might not have reached out to schedule a meeting for a presentation.

Your marketing video is a great way to get your digital elevator pitch out, while it evoking more leads.

The post Marketing with Video appeared first on Unity.

1. Just modify what you did last year. Yes, it’s smart to shift dollars toward what has worked. But what about tactics you haven’t tried – like content marketing, social media or local search?  These fresh tactics might actually outperform what you’ve done in the past. Plus, “marketing as usual” could tie your growth to tactics that are starting to fade.  Look at AdWords. Does PPC still make sense with studies showing that only 3% of online searchers ever click on paid listings?
2. Copy what works for others. Marketing plan software can be a good starting point. So can using a sample plan from an industry Association. Word of mouth on what colleagues are doing can also be good. The problem is that you are you, not someone else.  You have your own strengths, vulnerabilities, differentiators and messages. You also have your own budget and business goals. It’s unlikely that someone else’s marketing plan is the right fit. Plus, will using the marketing plan “everybody uses” ensures that the money you invest in marketing will make you sound exactly like every other business in your space.

Bottom line: You need a written marketing plan that’s built to harness today’s best tactics and tailored for your brand, differentiators, and goals. If you can do it yourself, that’s great.  If you don’t have the bandwidth, outsource it to a group like Unity. The point is to do it. Because every day you’re operating without a plan or with a one-size-fits all plan, you’re spending more than necessary on results that are lower than necessary.

The post Marketing Plan Mistakes appeared first on Unity.

What’s the Point…Developing a customer journey is best achieved when you understand the outcome of the journey.  If for example, the goal is to have a visitor subscribe for a monthly newsletter or sign-up for a workshop, there is a clear outcome to the engagement.  

While this may appear to be obvious, it is as critical as the paper map in the opening illustration.  Once the goal is clearly defined you can begin to consider the waypoints of interest (content, call to action and conversions) – all measurable elements of the visitor journey.  

Gauging the effectiveness of the journey by measuring the travelers engagement can validate or justify tweaking the journey map for greater effectiveness.

Clear the Fog…Understanding the potholes along the way on the path to conversion (subscription, sign-ups or purchase) using measuring tools like Google Analytics, and others can help you achieve greater operational effectiveness.

For example, if users are dropping off at one particular point along the path – that is an indication the traveler has lost a clear direction.  Perhaps the user navigation is not optimized for mobile devices, or a call to action button falls too deep on the page – fact is the journey became a chore.

Over time and with enough user traffic you should begin to recognize lapses in the customer path.  Correcting the course, or clearing the debris will help you retain visitors and help them reach the objective.

Measuring Success…The cliché in part goes – it is the journey not the destination…well in the case of creating a customer journey we could not agree more.  In all forms of digital engagement you can gain insight on how effective the pitstops along the trip will help further the traveler reach the objective.

For instance, serving the proper content at the proper time in the journey.  Think of content in a broad sense: user experience, video, chat support and clear call to action(s).

Objective Reached…With a clear path and plan any road trip (with or without GPS) can be a rewarding and enriching experience.  Plotting the path, the pitstops and scenic overlook visits all enhance the journey.  It is up to the marketer (or navigator) to research and fully appreciate the customer journey.

Consider the customer journeys you have taken in the past few days.  Was it full of distractions and hurdles, or was it painless and elegant?  The answer will show-up in reviews, referrals and retention.  All of which are measurable objectives, which leads to another journey! 

The post Digital Marketing, A Customer Journey  appeared first on Unity.

I would guess that 20% (or more) of meeting time could be eliminated by having this type of intentionality.  Instead of rehashing tasks and projects that should have had been assigned ownership weeks (or even months) before, you can focus on NEW business while keeping the old tasks & projects moving ahead!

Is your team ready to be more productive?

The post Forcing Ownership appeared first on Unity.