Today was the first day of INBOUND 2021 – and my first time attending INBOUND ever! The first session I attended, “Creativity Thrives in Constraint: How Successful Brands Create Video Content,” was very insightful. Carly Potock and Charlene Tassinari from the company Canvas+Co discussed video trends for every large social platform (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok), and how we can all be successful in creating and utilizing video on these platforms.
Here are some key takeaways:
Attention is everything. You can’t expect customers to interact with or care about your brand without first getting their attention.
Be intentional with your video content. Think about the constraints each media platform has, i.e. no sound, time constraints, size constraints, etc. before posting.
Utilize videos for ecommerce. Streaming is the preferred way to view content. Ecommerce on social platforms has grown to be mainstream, so use that growth and video creation to get your brand and product in front of your customers.
Nearly 50% of a campaign’s effectiveness is driven by the creative. They are your experts for understanding the constraints of whichever stage you are using (social media, billboards, email, etc.)
50% of your key messages should happen in the first 3 seconds of the video. Stories cannot be told using the traditional story arc. We must use the new story arc with all the action upfront.
Here are the five universal creative best practices that were discussed:
Timing: Capture attention fast! You have 1-3 seconds to make the customer care.
Pacing: Keep it quick. Fast pacing in terms of cuts, audio, music will make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your video.
Mobile: 75% of the time, videos are seen on phones. Design under the assumption that the video will be displayed on mobile devices.
Text: Use text to highlight key messaging.
Call to action: Close the video with a clear, crisp action.
My second session was “Email Myths Busted! What’s REALLY Working Now!” The host Jay Schwedelson, President and CEO Worldata, and Founder of SubjectLine.com, took a deep dive into what subject lines are getting emails opened.
Note: Trends change quickly. What is working well now may not be working in six months, so take heed.
Use brackets, parentheses, asterisks in your subject lines.
Send a “mistake” email with “oops” “uh oh!” “yikes!” in the subject line to imply a mistake. This trend has the most open rates. However, consumers may pick up on the behavior, which will change this statistic in the future.
Use comparisons and “VS.” in the subject line. Consumers love comparisons.
Add ellipses (“...”) at the end of the subject line. It creates anticipation and increases the open rate for emails.
Bookend emojis at the front and end of your subject line. Example “🔔Sale ends at midnight tonight! Don’t wait 🔔”.
Promote lists. Create lists like “The top 6 reasons” or “The top 9 fashion looks”. This increases open rates because consumers know exactly what they’re getting when they open the email.
Do not use vague subject lines. Subject lines like “Trust Your Instincts” or “Smell Your Flowers” confuse consumers, so they bypass the email altogether.
Another discussion point worth noting is a new update from Apple’s iOS 15. Apple is instituting a “Mail Privacy Protection” option for users to prevent marketers from accurately tracking email open rates. This will affect 40% of databases moving forward. Apple will send inflated open rates, so in order to continue tracking open rates, divide your non-Apple and Apple mail users into two categories so you can still track open rates on those non-users. Marketers can use SubjectLine.com to help determine inflated open rates from Apple mail.
My first day at INBOUND was very informative and thoughtful. I’m looking forward to joining more sessions over the next two days. I’m excited to learn more about digital trends that I can bring into my daily creative life and career.
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Edited by Kelly Moynihan // Originally published on imarc.com