As a professional in web design and business marketing, I have spoken to many entrepreneurs about various ways they might effectively promote their businesses. The best methods vary depending on the type of business, but a professionally made website is one marketing tool that is essential for all businesses. This establishes credibility for the business and provides many opportunities for it to connect with customers.

A website is a key communication tool between a business and its customers and prospects. Best of all, it’s available to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In essence, having a website means your doors are never closed to someone who is interested in doing business with you. At the very least, your website should contain relevant information about your company, its products and/or services, its location, and contact information. These things will give visitors basic information they need to know about your company. Beyond that, you can increase the effectiveness of your website as a communication tool by adding a “Frequently Asked Questions” page, a blog, an email sign-up form, special announcements, and a place for customers to send feedback to you.

 Consumers are engaging in online shopping in record numbers.

Another important reason for having a company website is e-commerce, which is the researching, buying, and selling of goods and services online. Statistics show that online consumer shopping is strong and rising steadily. It is estimated that approximately 70% of web users engage in online shopping, including researching products, comparing prices, and purchasing goods and services. In fact, many of them do so while shopping in a brick-and-mortar store. Without a website, your business has very little chance of reaching this large segment of consumers who rely on the Internet to make their purchasing decisions.

Keep in mind that while it’s important to have a website, it’s just as important for your website design to be professional. For many people, your website will be the first encounter they have with your business, so you want to make sure that it reflects the same level of professionalism you want associated with your company. In fact, it would be better to have no website at all than one that looks like it was thrown together by an amateur. Poor grammar, misspelled words, and disorganization will lead the visitor to believe that they can expect the same level of substandard goods and services from your company.

There are many online services available today that advertise template-based, fill-in-the-blank websites. While these may look attractive on the surface and cost less than a website design created by a professional, they are usually not a good investment because they are not optimized for search engines. For a website to be truly effective, it must be easily found by search engines, the primary means of accessing relevant information. There are many things that must be done to a website to make it search engine friendly, and a good website design professional knows what they are.

In this digital age, the Internet has made powerful marketing tools just as available to small businesses as they are to large ones. It has truly leveled the playing field between them. If your business does not have a website designed by a professional, it’s losing to a company that does.

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Mobile technology is one of the fastest growing aspects of American culture today, and smartphones are a major part of it. In 2011, the number of people in the United States who owned a smartphone rose from 63.2 million to almost 98 million. Now, smartphones make up 40% of the total mobile phone market in the U.S. This shows that consumers are becoming increasingly more dependent on them for many tasks in their daily lives. Businesses, especially those involved in retail sales, can capitalize on this trend to strengthen their position in the marketplace.

A recent study done by comScore showed that two-thirds of all smartphone owners use them for a variety of shopping activities. These include comparison shopping, finding stores, reading reviews, downloading coupons and more. Consumers are quickly realizing that they can save themselves a lot of time and money by employing their smartphones while shopping, and they are gravitating towards the businesses that accommodate them. As smartphone technology continues to develop and the number of Americans using them increases, retailers that don’t have a mobile strategy in their marketing plan will find themselves alienated from a very large group of consumers.

There are many things your business can do related to mobile marketing, but the most important place to start is with a mobile website. Most businesses appreciate the value of an attractive, user-friendly website, but it’s surprising how many of them never consider all of the ways it’s accessed by consumers.

To make your website completely user-friendly, it’s important for it to be optimized for mobile phones.

If you have a smartphone, look up your website on it. Now, navigate through it and look for information you think customers would find important. Is it easy or frustrating to do this on a small smartphone screen? If your website is not optimized for mobile phones, this is likely frustrating to you. Now imagine that you’re a customer who is shopping for the goods or services your company sells. Would you stay on this website with your smartphone, or would you find another business with one that is mobile-friendly?

The good news is that your mobile website does not have to be a watered down version of your regular one. It can incorporate video production, testimonials, product information, and just about everything else. If your current web host cannot create your mobile website, then search online for a company that specializes in internet marketing, web design and search engine optimization.

Keep in mind that mobile websites are important for all businesses and not just retailers. Your type of business will largely determine the type of mobile website you have, but all businesses should have one. After all, you want your customers to have a good experience visiting your website regardless of how they access it.

If you would like more information about getting a mobile website for your business, please call Morrison Video Productions at 336-226-0006. We serve Burlington, Greensboro, Chapel Hill and many other areas in North Carolina.

The latest news from Video Production | Video Editing | Internet Marketing | Burlington Greensboro NC

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We have had the pleasure to work with The Peterson Agency on several projects over the years. They are a full-service insurance agency with offices in Burlington and Goldsboro, NC. Earlier this year, founder John Peterson told us that he wanted to more aggressively market his company, and video and web marketing were the areas he wanted to concentrate on. This was a very wise decision on his part.

 Web marketing can be done in many different ways, and, if done right, it can be very effective in reaching a lot of prospective customers. Furthermore, many studies done over the years have proven that video is the most effective web marketing strategy. There are many reasons for this, but here are just a few. First, people much prefer to get their information through video than written text. It’s faster, often entertaining, and employs several of their senses at once. Second, search engines love videos and give a lot of weight to them in their search results. Google is by far the most powerful and widely used search engine in the world, and YouTube is second. Guess who owns YouTube? That’s right- Google does. So, it should come as no surprise that Google favors YouTube videos when it crawls the web.

The first part of The Peterson Agency’s new campaign is the commercial you see above. We produced it so that it could be aired on television and also put it on their YouTube Channel, website, and Facebook page. In the future, we will post more videos like this one as well as other types such as testimonials and videos offering insurance advice.

So how will all of this help The Peterson Agency? It’s simple:

• Each video creates another point through which customers can find them.
• The videos increase the number of backlinks pointing to their main website, and these strengthen their site in search engine rankings.
• The Peterson Agency further establishes itself as an insurance expert in the community.

If you would like to know how Morrison Video Productions can help your business through video production and web marketing, please contact us at 336-226-0006.

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Montgomery Community College sits on the edge of the Uwharrie National Forest in Troy, NC. It is not a densely populated area, so it would be easy to assume that the college would be limited in the number of people it serves and the types of courses they offer. However, this is definitely not the case.

MCC offers many of the traditional programs found at most community colleges- nursing, law enforcement, business, etc. But among these offerings are three programs that have earned the school a solid reputation not only across the state of North Carolina, but also nationally. These three programs are gunsmithing, pottery, and taxidermy.

Morrison Video Productions was privileged to work with MCC to produce a series of video brochures that would help the school to showcase these special programs. The videos will be placed on their new website to enhance their Internet marketing, and they will also be distributed to prospective students through an interactive CD-ROM. By employing these two solid marketing strategies, MCC is taking very positive steps to make these very popular programs even bigger.

While shooting interviews and scenes at Montgomery Community College during the production, it became evident right away that the students there appreciate the unique opportunity the school provides them. In fact, many of the students we spoke to said they could have gone to a school closer to home, but they chose MCC because of the quality of their program. In fact, one student drives a camper from Jacksonville, NC to MCC each week so he can study taxidermy there. This is a four hour trip each way, so he stays in the camper during the week and drives back home for the weekend. There’s no doubt in his mind that the extraordinary taxidermy program at MCC is worth it!

The gunsmithing and pottery programs are also well known and very popular. Most North Carolinians know that Seagrove is where everyone goes to find some of the best pottery the state (and even the country) has to offer. What they don’t know is that many of the potters who work in Seagrove were trained at MCC. The connection is no coincidence, either. As for gunsmithing, there are only a few colleges in the United States that offer this program, and MCC is one of them. They literally have students come from all over the United States to study gunsmithing at MCC.

Morrison Video Productions is very proud of the work we’ve done with Montgomery Community College, and we’re certain that the promotional videos will serve them well. If you’d like more information about MCC, you can visit their website at www.montgomery.edu.

The latest news from Video Production | Video Editing | Internet Marketing | Burlington Greensboro NC

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Doing business in the 21st century is quite a bit different than how we did it in the 20th century. Consumers’ tastes are always changing, and businesses have done a good job of changing along with them to meet demand throughout the decades. However, the 21st century has seen more than just a change in what consumers want; it has also seen a dramatic change in how they choose to get it. The Internet and mobile technology have created a Technological Revolution that one could argue rivals the importance of the Industrial Revolution in its time.

Since my company, Morrison Video Productions, specializes in corporate video production and Internet marketing, I obviously try hard to keep up to date on successful marketing trends. This requires constant vigilance because changes come rapidly. While I don’t expect every business owner and decision maker to be well-versed in all areas of marketing, I continue to be surprised at how many I encounter who know very little about mobile and web marketing. What’s more, many of them are actually resistant to employing these strategies because they’ve adopted an attitude of “If I don’t regularly use the Internet or a smart phone, myself, then these things must not be relevant to my business”. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It’s important for business owners  and managers to remember that their marketing efforts need to be focused on connecting with customers and prospects in the places where they are most likely to be found. One does not have to read a lot of research (although there is plenty out there to be found) to realize that most consumers now rely on the web and mobile phones for information about the products and services they want. If it’s difficult or impossible to find your business using these technologies, chances are it is seeing a steady decline in sales. If you continue to ignore them, then you’re virtually guaranteeing that your business will not survive over the next few years.

Does all of this mean that your entire marketing budget should be spent on mobile and Internet marketing? Absolutely not. It simply means that you need to find a good balance between the types of marketing you do, and that will vary depending on your type of business. Keep in mind, however, that you simply cannot find that balance without having mobile and web marketing on one side of the scale. And, since video continues to dominate all other forms of online marketing in terms of its effectiveness in reaching customers and improving search results, it’s imperative that you add this to your scale as well.

If your business has been suffering in the last few years, don’t take the easy way out and blame it all on the economy. Take a hard look at how you’ve been marketing your business and ask yourself if what you’ve been doing has been a realistic approach to reaching customers. The results of your marketing should make the answer clear to you. If you see the need for improvement, then make a commitment to start turning things around now! After all, the world will not change to accommodate you, so you must learn to adapt to it to survive.

If you have comments or questions about this article, please direct them to Ken Morrison, Managing Partner of Morrison Video Productions, LLC in Graham, NC, at info@morrisonvp.com. Morrison Video Productions serves the cities of Burlington, Chapel Hill, Mebane, and Greensboro as well as Alamance, Guilford and Orange counties in North Carolina.

The latest news from Video Production | Video Editing | Internet Marketing | Burlington Greensboro NC

Image Apparel & Marketing is the trusted authority in the Burlington, Greensboro, and Chapel Hill area of North Carolina when it comes to promotional products for businesses. Of course, they know that successful corporate marketing requires more than just promotional products. That’s why they’re using a viral video campaign as the basis for their search engine optimization plan to reach more customers. Morrison Video Productions started this campaign for them in 2010, and we are now entering phase two since we launched their brand new website this past April. This video is the first of many that will be rolled out in the next few months for Image Apparel & Marketing. The results are showing that web marketing, video and promotional products work great together for promoting business!

The latest news from Video Production | Video Editing | Internet Marketing | Burlington Greensboro NC

Twin Lakes Community is a non-profit, Continuing Care Retirement Community in Burlington, NC. They have a beautiful campus with many happy residents who truly enjoy living there. Because Twin Lakes attracts residents from all over the country, they know how valuable a promotional video is to their marketing strategy. Potential residents can take a virtual tour of the campus by watching the video on the Twin Lakes website, or they can have a DVD sent to them if they prefer. The video brings out the beauty of the campus, shows the variety of homes, and highlights the amenities residents enjoy. Best of all, there are testimonials from current residents who happily share their feelings about living at Twin Lakes. Their enthusiasm make this promotional video an invaluable tool for Twin Lakes!

Twin Lakes Community is located at 3701 Wade Coble Drive in Burlington, NC.

The latest news from Video Production | Video Editing | Internet Marketing | Burlington Greensboro NC

Marketing: Web Design, Video Production & SEO for Businesses

Ken Morrison is the Managing Partner of Morrison Video Productions in Graham, NC. MVP serves Alamance County, Burlington, Greensboro and the Triad area of North Carolina. You may send questions or comments to Ken by email at ken@morrisonvp.com. or by phone at 336-226-0006.

The latest news from Video Production | Video Editing | Internet Marketing | Burlington Greensboro NC

The latest news from Video Production | Video Editing | Internet Marketing | Burlington Greensboro NC

Here’s the scenario: You attended a networking function, met a lot of people, gathered a pocketful of business cards, and brought them back to your office with the intention of following up with your new contacts. Later, as you’re flipping  through the business cards, you realize that you don’t really remember a lot about most of these people. “What did he look like? I can’t remember.” “What does she sell at this company? Her card doesn’t say and I didn’t write it down.” At that point, the card gets tossed in the trash can and the result is a lost opportunity for both you and your new contact. How many times has this been your experience? Now, look at it from the other perspective: How many times has someone tossed your business card in the trash can? It’s probably more often than you think.

Video Business Cards are a unique solution to this common problem. If you haven’t done so already, take 30 seconds to watch the example above. When Yvonne’s new contacts see this video in their email inbox and watch it, what are the chances now that they will not only keep both her printed card and video business card but also remember her for a long time? Experience shows that the chances are very good!

One of the most important things businesses try to do is to set themselves apart from their competition, and a video business card is a giant leap forward in that direction. They are unique, memorable and leave a positive lasting impression. What’s more, they contain your unique selling proposition so that your contacts will always know exactly why they should buy from you. Imagine having a small  version of yourself sitting on your prospect’s computer desktop ready to speak to him any time he wants! What an advantage!

If you’d like more information about how you can get a video business card of your own or your entire sales staff, please call Morrison Video Productions at 336-226-0006.

The latest news from Video Production | Video Editing | Internet Marketing | Burlington Greensboro NC