Communication Archives - Indigo Blue Productions

Making your videos work for you…

Posted on 11th September 201916th October 2019 by indigoblue

As with your website, a video is just a tool in the tool-kit. It’s how you make it and what you do with it that will bring you real success and a return on your investment.

You will no doubt have heard by now that video is an essential communication tool, in marketing and other areas. However, there are so many platforms, styles of video and even shapes and sizes of video that really should be considered before you begin to storyboard your ideas.

Anyone making a film for you, should be helping you to imagine how that film could be used inside a wider communications campaign.

Making films can be a big investment and, as with all investments, you want it to give you a return. So let’s take a look at some of questions you should be considering.

What issue am I addressing with this film: Is it a sales tool, a learning tool, an information tool?
Who is my audience for this film: Customers, Employees, Partners?
Where and how do they connect with us: On our website, on social media, face-to-face?
Does this film convey a compelling story that engages your audience?
How do they receive and assimilate communication?
Can this film be used effectively on multiple channels, or can it be produced in a way that can be broken up into different clips for different channels?
Does this film have longevity, or will we need to be updated regularly?
Can we take the themes of this film and grow that into a wider comms campaign; perhaps a print, web or experiential campaign, maybe?
How does this film fit into our wider communications with this audience?
Is the film on brand, in our tone of voice and does it connect with our audience?

Of course, there are plenty more questions we would ask and plenty more answers too. Our intention in this short piece is simply to help you imagine this film in a wider context, delivering a greater ROI than most corporate films.

The tools in your tool-kit are only as good as the craftsman or woman using them.

For more information on how to develop a wider communications campaign, take a look at the website and give us a call.

Influencing your ‘Influencers’

Posted on 2nd August 201912th September 2019 by indigoblue

Influencer marketing is on the rise with your potential customers now 60% more likely to believe your current customers (usually a complete stranger) more than your own marketing or online presence.

Peer reviews are becoming more and more important. It sounds obvious, but your employees are customers as well and if you aren’t paying attention to the power of your own team to influence your customers, then this is the blog for you.

Your own internal team are right there and ready to engage with the world on your behalf, if you give them the opportunity and motivation to do it. In fact, they are probably already doing so, whether you like it or not. So, as with everything to do with social media, it’s better for your business to engage with it than let it go on without you.

So these are just a few ideas to help you give your team reasons to start promoting your business on your behalf.

Ask your employees to write blogs, create vlogs and podcasts

Ask everyone in your business to help create the outward messaging. They’ll connect with it more and are far more likely to share it on their own social channels. Give them advice and support in doing it. Give them the time and facilities to make it happen. Give them the authority to write and produce commentary that they feel appropriate. We’re assuming here that you have already created a culture where your employees want to write and say nice things about the business. If not, then we have a blog for that too!

Ask your junior team members to ‘interview’ your senior leaders

This connects to the previous idea. Again, the key is to allow for open and honest discussion. If your leaders are not willing to be honest, your junior members of the team will spot it immediately – and if they can, so will your customers. Again, if it’s a piece of work that your team members are helping to create, they will be more willing to share it themselves.

Consult your employees on business decisions

OK, so maybe not every decision, but getting your teams invested in the company and in its intellectual leadership, will create a powerful connection, This will give them the sense that they are helping to influence the direction of the business and their own future. Actively listen to your colleagues and staff

This sounds obvious, but it’s so rarely done well. Leadership is difficult and time is very precious, but one of the most important things a leader can do is to ‘actively listen’ to their people. That means, putting the phone on silent, being present in the room with the other person and engaging with them. They are representative of your whole company and your customers – without them, your business dies.

Create and engage two-way communication with your people

This is a whole topic in itself. The key is to open up channels of communication so your colleagues can feel like they have a means to connect with the senior team, at a time that suits them. To complete the circle, your leaders need to respond, fully and compassionately.

Create a ‘reverse mentoring’ scheme

We recently ran an event where a speaker had talked about a successful ‘reverse mentoring’ scheme they had set up in the business. Simply put, as you would imagine, a junior team member was mentoring a senior leader. It was so successful, the business renamed it – ‘Mentoring’! This kind of engagement

If you haven’t already done so, try and get an intranet that mimics Facebook!

Again, this is an entire blog in itself. In a sentence – your teams have every communication platform at their fingertips 24/7. If your internal communications platforms don’t match up, then they might as well not be there! The days of ‘push’ communication are gone!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this and all our other blogs, so please do let us know what you think!

10 Great Reasons for using video in your marketing!

Posted on 6th August 201525th October 2016 by indigoblue

In an age when everyone has something to say and a host of global communications channels they can use, you need to stand out, if you want to get customers to notice you.

Let’s start with video:

1. Retention rate for visual information is roughly 65% Vs 10% for written info

2. Social users are 5 times more likely to click on videos and photos

3. Consumers are 78% more likely to buy if they come from a social media channel into your website

4. Videos help increase sales conversion by an average of 43%

5. Brand recall increases 9 times with ad campaigns on multiple screens (Tv, Online Video etc.)

6. Websites are 53 times more likely to reach page one on Google if they use on page and off-page videos as part of a search strategy

7. This year, 50% of all internet traffic will be generated as a result of video. In 2017, it is predicted to be over 90%

8. 92% of B2B customers watch video before making a purchase or an enquiry

9. Consumers are 63% more likely to buy after watching an ‘explainer’ (‘How to..’) video

10. Video Results have a 41% higher click through rate than standard text entries

Was your conference worth it?

Posted on 5th August 201525th October 2016 by indigoblue

Whether you’ve attended a conference as a delegate or you’ve been involved in organising an event, one question must resonate more than any other:

Was it worth it?

As a delegate, of course, your time is valuable and you want it to be rewarded.
As a business, you’re asking your guests to spend time away from their busy working day to spend time with you at your event. So, we always like to know;

– What are your guests going to do differently as a result of attending your
conference?
– Did your event create momentum?

We’re also very keen for your event to create value and for your guests to gain something from your investment and we are not only talking money here.

We’re sure you’ll expect us to be all in favour of running conferences. Of course we are and we love delivering amazing events for our clients.

Over the many years of delivering conferences we have seen some corkers!

We have experienced everything from;

Speakers that lecture for hours with no interaction
Powerpoint presentations that are so complex, you need a magnifying glass to read them
Speakers that didn’t put the slides together themselves and hadn’t bothered to read them before they went on stage. (By the way, it was obvious to the audience!)
Delegates falling asleep during sessions
Speakers sounding so monotone they even looked bored themselves!

This short list barely even scratches the surface!

Now, we’re sure you are keen to make your events effective and so, we created a short list of helpful strategies to keep your conferences interactive and meaningful. Some may seem obvious to you although sadly, we do not always see them in practice…yet!

Your ‘Magnificent Seven’ strategies for creating momentum at your next conference!

Make the talks short – 18 minutes is the ideal length – anything longer than that, needs to go into a ‘handout’. There’s science behind this! Thinking is hard! And researchers, from Texas University, have discovered that ‘Cognitive Backlog’ prevents the effective transmission of ideas beyond this point. If your topic needs to go on for longer than 18 minutes, build in ‘soft breaks’ (videos, discussion groups, Q&A etc.) around every 10 minutes.
Connect emotionally with your talks, tell stories and deliver quality, ‘new’ information.
Give the audience at your event time to connect personally – If your delegates aren’t given enough time to connect personally during breaks, they might as well be watching you present videos on the company’s intranet.
Use the timetable effectively –Productivity is key at work
and in the same way so is your conference. Do the ‘brain work’ early, when we are more likely to think creatively. Tell stories as their energy levels drop and create plenty of time for interaction using Q&A and breakout sessions to reflect and discuss.
If you have to use powerpoint – use images or very simple words or phrases. If it’s an essay, put it in a handout and give your delegates 10 minutes to read it through before you speak. Then use your session to talk around it. Remember, a proportion of your audience wants to have the information some time before, so they have time to digest it.
Make it relevant – Does your conference cover topics that relate well to your audience? Avoid going over topics your guests are already aware of. Now, technology exists in simple forms, it’s always worth considering electronic feedback that gives you ‘live’ information around your schedule. Not only can you address topics that your audience find interesting, you can also track levels of activity with your delegates to see where they are engaged and where they are not.
Make it fun! People learn better when they’re enjoying themselves.

It has been said…

“Delivering a conference is like raising a child. Every single interaction is a learning opportunity”

For more insights and helpful tips on how to run an effective event, please contact one of our team.

Sue Coles
Senior Learning & Development Consultant
Indigo Blue Productions Ltd

Organising a company meeting? Try these tips…

Posted on 1st August 201525th October 2016 by indigoblue

One of the common issues we find with businesses trying to hold meetings and events is that they believe that they need to get the date and the venue right first, before they really clarify the message that they are trying to get across.
So, our advice is to take a moment and read the tips below:

1.Content

Get your content right first. Before you even think about the venue, the food, the delegates. You need to understand the message you’re trying to get across. You’re about to take a lot of people and time out of your business. This message must be important, right?

2.Venue

Once you know what it is you’re trying to say, now you can take a look at the kind of space you need in which to deliver the message. This tip ties in nicely with the delegate experience, because in the end it’s all about that experience. But, for now, take a look at the way in which you want to get you message across and the kind of ‘spaces’ you need to do it.

It doesn’t have to be the same hotel room that you’ve always used. We know a lot of interesting spaces that could really enhance your experience. Details of how we can help are just a couple of clicks away!

3.Delivery

The delivery of the message is vital – again tying in with the delegate experience. Think of this about crafting a story to give to your audience. We live our lives in a succession of short stories in a longer book. However, we hear, see or experience those stories, the common thread is still the same. Engage your audience on a journey and they’ll engage with you.

4.Delegate Experience

Now, we come to the most important part of the whole project; the people you’re inviting! Get them on your side by making the venue accessible, the timing appropriate, the food enjoyable and the delivery of the message engaging!

Is the seating comfortable? Is the audio visual production engaging? Have you made the message as easy as possible to understand? Is the environment comfortable (temperature, no drafts, no distracting noise etc.) If your veue finding agent isn’t talking to you about the delegate experience, you might want to ask yourselves why not? Is your event as important to them as it is to you?

5.Professional Host

To help keep your event running smoothly and on time, you should absolutely consider bringing in a professional host, who has experience and knowledge of the conference market. They will be able to keep your sessions to time and interact with your speakers and panellists to help them engage effectively with the audience.

6.Follow-up

Once you’ve delivered your message, your task doesn’t end there. There is almost always some form of follow-up: Did the delegates get the message? Were they engaged by the way it was delivered? Are they doing something different as a result? Are you? Always have your goal in mind throughout the process.

You might even want to capture feedback live whilst the delegates are engaged with your message. We can take you through a range of options that are easy to work and fit most budgets.

Graham Wadsworth

Creative Director