Covid-19 and Business

Are you going to let a virus kill your business!

Seriously, are you going to let covid-19 kill your business?

Ok, it may seem that there is nothing you can do about it now… But you would be wrong! 

It will come to an end, perhaps sooner than you think. What matters then is whether you will be ready to get back into business. Before somebody else takes what business that remains. 

Are you going to waste time bemoaning your bad luck, or are you going to prepare to hit the ground running when the time comes?

There are things that businesses can be doing right now, to prepare to make the best of any or all opportunities when they come their way. Regardless of an economic crisis or a global pandemic businesses must still look to the future.

Even in the best of times, we hear complaints that there just isn’t the time to do this or do that! Followed by complaints that someone has stolen their best clients, their business. 

But now there is time, are you going to waste it? Or are you going to plan and prepare to tell the world that you are still here, ready and willing to do business?

So if you are want to find out how you can maximize your potential for when we come out of this crisis. You had better talk to us, or your usual Ad Agency soon. Remember that extraordinary measures are required to deal with extraordinary times.

Gavin Bryan-Tansley
Vid-FX+ Advertising

connect@vidfxplus.com

+44(0)131-208-3326

Testimonials & Endorsements

Testimonials & Endorsements

An essential tool of business or a potential disaster?

Most businesses do not set out to trick or deceive potential customers. However the inappropriate use of testimonials and endorsements can easily come across as such.

Testimonials from satisfied customers are often hard to come by or sound just not quite right. The urge to make your own or edit the ones you already have to be a little more favourable, can often be to tempting to resist.

Many businesses have fallen into a habit of using logos from prestigious customers as an implied endorsement, in place of a formal testimonial.

The former can lead to accusations of false and misleading advertising. The later is!

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All testimonials must be freely given, be able to be substantiated and relate to your current business.

You are required to hold documentary evidence that a testimonial or endorsement used in marketing communications is genuine and hold contact details for the person who, or the organization that, gives it (UK. Code of Advertising Practice rule 3.45). 

·     You must have documented permission to use that testimonial/endorsement publically. 

·     That it is relevant to that business, service or product. 

·     That the review has not been incentivized (paid for in anyway).

·     Testimonials or endorsements must also be recent and up to date.

·     You cannot use former employers or previous businesses clients or testimonials as your own.

Once you have been accused of trying to trick or mislead your reputation will be very hard to recover.

Have you testimonials made professionally by a competent advertising agency and all this can be taken care of for you. It can be easier for customers to talk freely to an independent third party. Than to the person or business that they have been asked to review.

All reviews do not have to be good. The odd neutral or poor review can often help validate the good reviews. Nobody is perfect all the time!

Gavin Bryan-Tansley - Vid-FX+ Advertising

Is communication an illusion?

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw. 

"The biggest single problem in social media marketing is the illusion that communication has actually taken place."

How do you judge the success of your communications? 

Clicks, hits, views, likes, etc. Do not indicate that communication has taken place. The whole purpose of social media is to build a dialogue. For that dialogue to happen there must be someone there to respond to enquiries and most importantly make the sale.

Too often I see ad's vlog's blog's or even hear a podcast that piques my interest, I need to know more. I make further enquiries to find a website that is down and no one to answer my enquiries. By then I am talking to someone else who can answer my questions and convinces me that I really do need what they are offering and can negotiate a good deal. 

So, your advertising and marketing has worked, congratulations. Yet without someone there who can take the calls, field the enquiries, to make the sales. You have just given business away to your competitors.

Before embarking on an advertising or marketing campaign you MUST ensure that you have the infrastructure in place to handle the enquiries and sales that it will generate. If you don't someone else will.

Without effective communication, you have no sales. Without sales, you don't have a business.

Gavin Bryan-Tansley

VidFX+ Advertising.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing

On the 9th March 2017, the United Kingdoms Code of Advertising Practice. Published new guidance from the Advertising Standards Authority about recognising marketing communications. 

That is rules on how affiliate marketing must identifiable as an advert. 

Affiliates, need to ensure that consumers know that what they’re looking at is advertising. That means making sure it’s clear BEFORE consumers engage with it. Often, the context alone will make this clear. But sometimes the content might need to make it obvious that it is an advert.

This is often the case in social media, Vlogs, Blogs, news sites and voucher sites etc. Businesses, or individuals, who create content or websites that give an impression of independence. Must take extra steps to highlight content that is advertising for a third party. 

This new guidance, provides some suggestions, tailored to different platforms. Giving affiliate marketers some inspiration, but the key principles to bear in mind are;

• Where a piece of content wholly relates to affiliated products. It needs to be clear that the whole piece is advertising. Thus it may be necessary to use an identifier (such as ‘Advert’ or similar) in the title;
• If only some of the links and content to affiliated products. It is those aspects, that must be identifiable as advertising. By for example, labelling the relevant links/sections;

The guidance is also to remind businesses. That allowing their affiliates free rain over the content and targeting of ads. Does not absolve them of the responsibility for ensuring that marketing communications. That they reap the benefits from, must follow the advertising rules.

If you are an affiliate marketer. Or a brand that uses affiliate marketing. You can get up to speed with the new guidance shown here.

Is tourism only for holidays?

While in St Andrews the other week, I noticed the vast number tradesmen vans in the town. All the shops that had been closed a few weeks earlier, were being refurbished. 

This was undoubtedly in response to the Open Golf Championship coming to the town. With retailers and hoteliers wanting to make the most out of this event and the visitors who will be coming to their town in during that period. Some of these tradesmen's vans came from Manchester, some 300 miles away!

Tourism is as much about Business as Holidays.

It struck me, that tourism should become a major concern for many businesses and trades that don't currently don't think that it applies to them. If there were plumbers, from Manchester working in St Andrews. Why was there a plumber in from less than a dozen miles away from the town complaining about a lack of work?

The answer? 

From a quick survey, I found that the Manchester plumber is actively advertising in various trade papers and websites, while the local lad relies solely on word of mouth.

The moral of this story is, “if you are not advertising, you are not in business!”

If this strikes a cord with you, I suggest that you contact me at Vid-FX+Advertising. So that, we can discuss how you can make the most of your advertising opportunities.

Gavin Bryan-Tansley - Vid-FX+ Advertising

Christmas! It's the hight of summer!

If your are in business, it could already be to late!

If you are thinking as a consumer, this could appear as a rather stupid time to be promoting Christmas and NewYear. Yet as a Business person it could already be to late.

I hope that this will be a rather fortuitous message, reminding some businesses that the time to act is now, not when the event is already upon us.

'In the advertising industry we plan and work months and years ahead. When you see someone elses adverts you are already playing catch up, plan and prepare ahead of time and steal the market.'

That if you are a tourism based company that wants to get into neext years catalouges the closing date for submissions is only weeks away. If you are aiming for seasonal press or TV adverts you have a little over a month. Web and leflet drops have a little more time but not much, your adverts have to reach you target audience in November at the latest. You will be fighting for space at the printers and time from overworked web designers and will have to pay a premium for last minute services, even if it appears that there are months left. 

Isn't this to early? no in some cases this is to late. We already have our first booking to shoot material for Christmas 2015 adverts. We are in the process of finishing adverts for next years tour guides. This year in Scotland the referendum on the 18th of September has caused some problems as the submission for some of these catalogues and guides close at the end of September. So have had to prepare adverts that reflect both a Yes and a No vote. We also have a client who is planning for a campaign that will not come to fruition until 2016. 

'Planning for next week, next mouth, next year, now. means that you will not have to worry about tomorrow, today.'

Though I do admit to some frustration in having to turn customers away telling them that they are to late to advertise for this season, when it is still weeks away. Far far far to many businesses lose out because they are to focused on current events or trying wrapup previous events to think clearly about what will happen tomorrow. One recent conversation ended with "I'm to busy worrying about how I'm going to pay my bills next week to worry about Christmas!" Take out a retainer with your local advertisng agency or consultant, let them get your advertisng and marketing material out there when it will be most effective while you concentrate on doing what you do best. 

  -Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+