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News releases and articles relating to the history, development and latest innovations by Constello Digital Intelligence.

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Streamlining Success: How Constello Provides Simplified Marketing Solutions

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TLDR: Marketing is hard, but Constello exists to provide simplified marketing solutions.

Marketing is a challenge. Even for seasoned professionals, the unending lists of decisions to make, with a sea of metrics to consider for each can be daunting. Marketing is both a science and an art, requiring an understanding of psychology, design, data analytics, budgeting, and project management. Moreover, we have to keep our fingers on the pulse of current political, economic, and social events, and understand how our specific audiences feel and are affected by them.

The job of a marketer is to take all of that information and find our business’s unique position and proposition in the midst of it. Like all things in life, some days it’s easy and the direction flows naturally. On other days, it can feel like an impossible riddle to solve.

Enter Constello, a marketing analytics tool designed to remove the guesswork and make your marketing strategies the most efficient and effective they can be.

How Constello Makes Marketing Easier

Constello was made by marketers for marketers (and the people they report to) to make life easier. Our digital marketing audit was born out of a need to simplify and streamline our client assessments with absolute certainty in our results.

Our reports are designed to be a health checkup for your marketing strategies. They’re clear and accessible to stakeholders at many levels within the business sector, but detailed enough to provide constructive direction and insight for seasoned marketers.

Constello audits focus primarily on internal practices, strategies, and content, and reveal how they stack up against your top competitors. Many companies can benefit significantly from simply updating their methods and assets. A great example is improving webpage loading speed, which can impact conversion rates by up to 22%. But if you’re looking for a full strategic overhaul, we can help with that too.

Constello provides simplified marketing solutions in three ways:

Insight: We analyze your digital marketing footprint to help you understand exactly how effective your current strategies are. Our reports focus on your website structure and performance, as well as any tactics you’ve employed to attract and engage your audiences.

Clarity: You’ll gain context for your digital position with an analysis of up to five of your top competitors. By performing the same analysis on their marketing strategies, you can understand who is setting the standards in your industry, and where you can find your unique advantage.

Direction: Constello reports include tailored recommendations for items that should be urgently addressed, areas of improvement to boost your performance, and avenues to explore that could lead to significant growth.

Marketing will always be a challenge, and at the end of the day, that’s what makes it just as exciting as it can be frustrating. Whether you’ve been stuck in the same old rut for a while or you’re looking for a whole new approach, Constello is here to make your work easier and more effective.

Want to know more about how the reports can help you? Click here to book a demo today.

What is a marketing audit?

What is a Marketing Audit (and why do I need one?)

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The number one question I get when I tell people what I do for a living is “What’s a marketing audit?”

Admittedly, it’s not a particularly exciting phrase. In fact, it combines two words people love to avoid.

Yet for a small business owner looking to get ahead in their industry, or for a CMO hunting for a new advantage, it could be the best thing you hear all day.

So, what is a marketing audit?

As the name suggests, a marketing audit is a full assessment of your marketing assets, initiatives, and endeavours. Or, as ChatGPT more boringly describes it, it’s a comprehensive evaluation of all marketing activities, strategies, and processes within an organization.

An effective audit should have three critical components:

  1. Defined objectives. Just like it’s impossible to make progress without clear goals, it’s impossible to measure it without understanding what you’ve set out to achieve. Best practices will vary based on what a successful conversion looks like to you, so your audit should take your unique business objectives into account.
  2. Quantifiable results. You need to be able to compare apples to oranges. In order to clearly understand the results of the audit, each component should be given a numerical score against current best practices.
  3. Unbiased findings. This is difficult to achieve from an internal position, as the time and effort you’ve invested can cloud the reality of your results. Conversely, for the high-achieving CMO, a sense of perfectionism can overshadow achievements.

And a bonus item:

  1. Competitive analysis. Data without context can lead to huge gaps in your decision-making process. Understanding your competitor’s position relative to your own allows you to navigate your market strategically.(Hint: Constello’s digital marketing audit evaluates up to five competitors with 362 data points.)

If an audit has these three (or preferably four) elements,

Why do you need one?

Marketing audits are obviously a large undertaking, particularly when a competitive analysis is involved. However, they can be used to give your company or organization a significant strategic advantage in your market.

So why do you need one?

You need one because you’re spending too much for too few results. You’re focusing your spending on channels that don’t need it or aren’t performing well, while overlooking strategies that your competition has barely touched.

You need one to identify and strengthen weak points in your funnel. Maybe you’re seeing a lot of likes on social media, but those numbers aren’t reflected in your conversions. A digital marketing audit can reveal where your systems of customer engagement and attraction are breaking down.

You need one because you have goals, but no clear way to reach them. You’re great at monitoring your KPI’s but getting an understanding of your overall efficacy is difficult to calculate. And although your team has lots of good ideas, it’s difficult to prioritize what needs to be accomplished first.

You need one because you’re on a bootstrap budget and you can’t afford to spend on areas that aren’t going to bring in the best possible results. An audit could reveal that your competition is leading you significantly in PPC, but you have a big opportunity to overtake them in terms of email marketing.

You need one because you outsource a lot of your marketing work to contractors, and the more specific your strategy and instruction, the more value you get back. An audit can clarify your tactics and trim the fat from your budget.

You need one because you got one done a year or two ago, and you need to know what’s changed. We aren’t the first to say that today’s market is constantly evolving. A reassessment will reveal how your strategies have improved and how your competitive landscape has changed.

If any of the above situations sound familiar, consider scheduling a consultation with one of our experts to discover what a digital marketing assessment can do for you.

A woman demonstrates best practices for video marketing.

Video as Marketing Part II: Best Practices for Video Marketing

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Best Practices for Video Marketing

Video has become a valuable component of marketing strategies across industries, but what are the best practices for video marketing? What makes a high-quality video? And how do you start using it effectively?

We had the pleasure of speaking with Lance Johnson, founder & CEO of Amplomedia and host of the podcast Amplify Your Business, who provided us with some valuable insights on the best practices for video marketing.

How to Get Started with Video

“Typically when I talk to a small business about video, I tell them you want to be very strategic about how you tackle it,” Lance states. He goes on to recommend that if you’re new to video, your best bet is to begin by considering your sales funnel.

If you need a refresher, the sales funnel looks like this:

 

A visual depiction of the Sales Funnel, with Awareness as the widest section at the top, leading to Consideration, then Analysis, and ending with Conversion.

 

Potential customers enter the funnel at the top as leads with an awareness of your brand, move through the stages of considering your product as an option, analyzing if you’re the best option for them, and finally come out the other end having converted and bought your product or service.

If you’re looking to just dip your toes in the world of video, you should start by analyzing what stage of your funnel needs the most strengthening. Maybe you’re struggling to get leads; you may want to invest in a video that focuses on brand awareness and positioning. If you have lots of leads but low conversions, you may want a video that focuses on your product’s benefits and features or something that addresses objections.

Testimonial Videos

“If [the client] says, ‘You know what, we don’t really know where our biggest challenges are,’” Lance explains, “then the first thing I would recommend is a testimonial video because it’s so versatile.”

Testimonial videos can hit multiple levels of the sales funnel in one go, as they provide powerful social proof that someone else has had the same problem your audience has and that your product or service has been a great solution for them. Not only that, if produced right, the testimonial can pre-emptively overcome a potential objection that you audience may have.

“A testimonial video is extremely powerful because it can accomplish two things at once. Beyond the social proof, and even more importantly, it can also deal with common objections,” explains Lance.

“For instance, it’s great if someone were to say something like ‘I’d buy product x again because I love the product,’ but think about how much more valuable it would be if they said ‘Product x wasn’t the cheapest version I found, but when you look at the workmanship there is no doubt that it’s going to hold up longer than the others and you can’t put a price on saving us the downtime that a failed alternative would result in. We won’t consider buying from another supplier because of this.’ Now, that’s pure gold because it handles the price objection at the same time!” adds Lance.

Testimonial videos can also be used as an ad to create brand awareness, or even be sent alongside a proposal to boost credibility with a prospect.

The Markers of Quality Video

Lance notes that there are several best practices for video marketing you can implement to optimize the strategy’s performance.

Messaging

“A well-crafted video has good content that is targeted to the audience and targeted to whatever their problems are.” Your video’s message should be aligned both to your audience’s needs and your own objectives.

Make sure you’re communicating your ideas in a way that is clear, motivating, and memorable. If it’s appropriate, keep your content engaging with humour.

Conciseness

“Another point of quality is that you’re keeping it as concise as possible because our audiences today typically want brevity.” Keep to the following structure as you’re writing your script: hook, content points, call-to-action. Focusing on this formula will help keep your videos concise and to the point.

Visuals

Video is obviously a visual medium, so it’s important that your visuals make sense and clearly connect to the message you’re trying to send.

The visual elements of your video should also be well-paced to keep the audience engaged. “You usually want to have some sort of movement every three seconds for animated video, and every five to ten seconds for live videography,” Lance advises. For interview-style video live videography, this could be accomplished by switching to alternative camera angles or b-roll footage.

Audio

Is the audio clean, clear and audible? Bad audio can kill a video a lot faster than bad videography. Lance explains that people will usually tolerate a clip that’s a little out of focus if they find the content interesting or valuable. However, if the audio is poor quality, they’ll likely turn it off even if they really wanted to know what the video was about.

Watch out for loud or echoing background noise, mics that give a lot of static, or simply if someone is speaking too quietly. Do a sound check before you start recording to avoid wasted time and work.

Conclusion

Still wondering if video is worth the work? Check out the first half of our discussion with Lance to learn all about the benefits of video marketing for business.

Once again, we want to thank Lance for sharing his time and expertise with us! To learn more about his work in marketing and video production, visit amplomedia.com.

Wondering if there are other ways you can strengthen your digital marketing efforts? A Constello digital marketing assessment gives an overview of how effectively your strategy utilizes video and other avenues. If you’re looking for information, clarity, and direction for your digital marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our experts today.

Check out Part One of this series: The Benefits of Video Marketing for Business.

A man holds a video camera infront of his face - The Benefits of Video Marketing for Business

Video as Marketing Part I: The Benefits of Video Marketing for Business

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In today’s world, it’s impossible to ignore the role that video plays in marketing. From social media ads to website content, it seems like video is everywhere. But what makes it so valuable? Why should businesses invest in this medium?

We had the chance to sit down with Lance Johnson, founder & CEO of Amplomedia to get the inside scoop on video as a marketing tool. In this first part of two posts, we’ll explore why video is worth the investment.

So, what are the benefits of video marketing for business?

“It really goes back to brain science,” Lance says, “With a caveman out in the wild, they were constantly scanning the environment for both noises and movement. This was a life-saving necessity as they were always trying to avoid any potential predator threats or trying to find food for themselves. So, this constant scanning of their environment both auditorily and visually has pre-programmed our brains in such a way that that’s the kind of content that we notice and engage with, more so than any other kind of content.”

This means that when we consume information through video, we’re more likely to pay attention and retain it. Every aspect of video- from the movement on the screen to the auditory elements- contributes to processing and retaining the information we receive faster and more effectively.

“So, the value [of video] becomes that you’re actually communicating to the brain in the most impactful way possible,” Lance notes.

Video is also a highly efficient way to communicate information. You can pack a lot of information into a video, yet keep it brief, because you can replace words with visuals.

“When we’re trying to create as concise of a video as possible, we replace words in a script with visuals. And that’s something that you can’t do with other mediums,” Lance explains. “We can use visuals to replace the words spoken because intuitively we understand [what we’re seeing].”

For example, a tutorial on how to change the chain on a bike would likely be much easier to understand in video format than in a written instruction manual.

Facts + Figures

Lance isn’t the only one who sees video as a powerful marketing tool, however. There are thousands of studies and surveys that demonstrate its efficacy as a medium, but here are five statistics that we found interesting:

  • Companies using video content experience 41% more web traffic from search than non-users. (SmallBizTrends)
  • Adding a video to a landing page can increase conversion rates by up to 80%. (Unbounce)
  • 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service through video. (HubSpot)
  • 64% of customers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video about it. (Animoto)
  • Marketers who use video see 49% faster revenue growth than those who don’t. (Aberdeen Group)

Wrap Up

Overall, the benefits of video marketing for business are undeniable. Its ability to grab attention and efficiently communicate information makes it worth the investment.

If you want to know more about how to start integrating video into your digital marketing strategy, stay tuned for part two of our discussion with Lance, where we’ll explore how to begin and what to look for in a quality video.

We want to extend a big thanks to Lance for sharing his time and expertise with us! Visit amplomedia.com to learn more about his work in marketing and video production, as well as his podcast Amplify Your Business for a daily glimpse into the business tactics, challenges, and successes of entrepreneurs.

Wondering if there are other ways you can strengthen your digital marketing efforts?

A Constello digital marketing assessment gives an overview of how effectively your strategy utilizes video and other avenues. If you’re looking for information, clarity, and direction for your digital marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our experts today.

Check out Part Two of this series: Best Practices for Video Marketing

Digital marketing assessment

Can Constello Solve Your Problem?

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This week we were asked, “What problem does Constello’s digital marketing assessment solve?” It’s a simple question that could have many answers, but we’ve landed on this:

Constello reduces uncertainty and risk by providing information, clarity, and direction.

The Original Problem.

Constello was created to solve a problem – our problem. Years before the name Constello came to mind, our founders Gerry and Jason were digital marketers.

They believed firmly in data-driven strategies and results. When a client came to them looking for a digital revamp, Gerry and Jason knew they needed clear and reliable information to set the tone for their client’s new direction.

However, despite the use of tracking links, cookies, and data input, it was difficult to reconcile all of the metrics they were following to gain a complete picture of their digital marketing efforts. It was harder still to compare their outcomes to their competitors and understand how they were competing in the digital marketplace.

Gerry and Jason needed a digital marketing audit tool they could use to comprehensively understand their client’s digital marketing position. They did some digging, but nothing existed that took every aspect of digital marketing into account. So they set to work developing an audit process.

They applied their findings to the client they were revamping, and over four years of exercising and refining their strategies, Gerry and Jason were able to bring their client’s marketing spend ROI up to $44.60 on the dollar. Not only that, they were able to bring their rankings to 9/10 or higher in 14 of the 17 data categories, with the other three in continued development.

After their initial trials with the first client, Gerry and Jason applied that same process to the next client, refining as they went, with equally impressive results. And the next, and the next.

This digital marketing assessment process became part of Gerry and Jason’s regular tool set, a way to ground their strategies in reality and clearly set a path forward.

After helping almost a dozen clients improve their digital position through their digital marketing assessment, they realized that this tool was too effective to keep to themselves, and thus Constello was born.

How We Solve It.

As previously stated, Constello solves for uncertainty and risk by providing information, clarity, and direction. We do this by providing comprehensive, unbiased, and contextualized data on the key elements of a digital marketing program.

Our digital marketing assessments dive into our clients’ websites, measuring structure, integration, performance, and content. We examine their customer engagement in the form of branding, thought leadership, and conversions. Finally, we analyze their customer attraction through their use of social media, paid advertising, SEO, and more.

We then perform the same analysis on up to five of our clients’ top competitors and chart the results for a quick, at-a-glance understanding of their digital position. From there we dive deeper, expanding on each data category’s findings and comparing them to current standards of practice.

Our reports conclude with recommended courses of action based on our clients’ unique market positions and business objectives.

Information.

Clarity.

Direction.

Constello in Action.

Because of the thorough and unbiased nature of Constello’s reports, our services have a wide breadth of applications to a number of clients, but let’s use Joe as an example.

Joe owns a mid-size metal fabrication business that brings in about $1.5 million a month. Lately, he’s noticed a notable drop in new leads coming in off his website, which had been performing well until recently.

After a brief meeting with his marketing manager, Joe realizes that since their practices haven’t changed, something in the market must have. He knows he needs to pivot his strategies to get leads generating again, but in what direction? He doesn’t have time for guesswork, but he does need to act quickly.

A digital marketing assessment from Constello makes the source of Joe’s problems clear:

A year ago, Joe was alone in his market as a digital leader. However, he didn’t develop his marketing any further after his website launch beyond the occasional social media post. Now, two of his top five competitors rank above him in several categories, having made substantial changes in light of the pandemic.

It isn’t all bad news though, the Constello assessment also shows that no one in Joe’s market has made meaningful use of video integration, and only one has invested in thought-leadership-driven content to a limited extent. These two areas offer significant opportunities for Joe to press into as he reconsiders his marketing tactics.

These insights give Joe a clear list of priorities to address in order to recover his position in the marketplace. Three months later, he’s not only regained his leads, but he is able to completely revamp his marketing strategy to grow his business with confidence.