How to be a trusted Help expert

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Hook them and ‘pull’ them in

Few brands take the time to anticipate and address the real frustrations their customers experience. In many cases, Google (and increasingly, YouTube) is the first point of call for consumers to find quick answers.

Help content aims to capture viewers searching for key terms and build a reputation of reliability and trust for your brand. In many cases, this could be the first point of engagement between you and your audience, so it pays to invest time and money into content that addresses their concerns.

Help content provides value to your target demographic through evergreen pieces of content that won’t get old fast. It can include product demos and tutorials, how-to guides, featured blogs and FAQs.

The overall goal of Help content is to ‘pull’ consumers in through search in a slower, more steady way then Hero content. Once captured, these searchers are more likely to move on to become consumers of your Hub content and remain within easy reach of your calls to action.

Supermarket giant Tesco answers viewers’ searches for online recipe guides with a series of quick-fire videos. Their 30-second recipe below has 42,000 views and, at the time of writing, comes up as the second hit on a Google video search for ‘how to make a broccoli pasta bake’.

The business networking site LinkedIn recently reworked their blog to distribute better Help content. Through identifying their audience’s needs, they have grown their blog subscribers by 21x in the last year.

‘Developing content at the crossroads of relevant user topics and search engine data is a prime example of our data-driven approach to blogging.’
– LinkedIn Blog Masterplan

Becoming the authority

  • Use Google or YouTube trends to discover the keywords and phrases your customers are using
  • Create content that empowers as well as informs by helping your audience visualise success and reach that ‘aha’ moment
  • Avoid any overt self-promotion or branding
  • Optimise your content for search by working the keywords into your:
    • Title – Clear, action-based titles work best. Short titles will also perform better when it comes to SEO
    • Description – Brief text that clearly defines what the article contains and how it can help. Keep short and to the point (approx. 140 characters)
    • Use bullet points or clearly defined sections to help customers seek answers in your content
    • Help content is all about understanding what your customers are interested in and what information and expert insight they need. If you get this right, your audience will do the hard work for you and share, comment and promote your content to their followers, increasing your brand influence and authenticity.

Get in touch to see how we can help you help your core audience.

GDPR – Are your websites going to land you a big fine?

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The incoming European Union General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) mean you’ll need to have a firm understanding of how you obtain, transfer, store and handle personal data by the compliance deadline of 25 May 2018.

What’s changing?

Data protection isn’t just about keeping information safe. It’s about recording changes and offering appropriate access for people to keep their data updated.

There’s been a considerable amount of discussion about what GDPR will mean for businesses. If you have websites, intranets or mobile applications, you will need to pay particular attention to your inquiry forms, online processing, cookies and privacy policies. You’ll also need to ensure your processes are as safe and secure as possible.

Protecting your websites and apps

We recommend constructing a data flow map to understand precisely what data you store, transmit and collect from your customers. This will give you an overall view of where there might be vulnerabilities and ideas for upgrades or firewalls.

You’ll also need to be sure any data moving point to point is encrypted and secure. This could include contextual information, like the user’s location or connected accounts.

Once you’ve decided which information is appropriate for you to store, consider:

  • Updating your privacy and cookies policies.
  • Making sure your web forms have ‘unbundled’ consent and terms & conditions.
  • Encrypting your data end to end – as it moves, as it’s stored and as you back it up.
  • Making sure all data can be ‘forgotten’. This also applies to any third-party integrations that you might use to add functions to your website. People can revoke your permission to handle their data at any time, so you’ll need a way of managing those requests as quickly and effectively as possible.
  • Presenting individual consent requests for everything you want to do with people’s data (such as sending promotional updates, contacting by email, contacting by phone and so on.) These can’t be pre-filled. You may also need to contact anyone whose information you already have to update their permissions on each specific point.
  • Ways for people to find out what data you hold about them. Ideally, they could submit their email address and find out exactly what you have or don’t have, in an easy-to-understand format.
  • Ways for consumers to edit the data you have collected about them if it’s incorrect. Ideally, without needing to contact you first.

Some of these provisions are considered web development best practice, so you may already have some or all of them in place. If you don’t, or you find gaps, you have until 25 May 2018 to make changes.

The benefits of GDPR

GDPR compliance doesn’t need to be a chore. With good advice and a solid plan, it puts customers in the driving seat and builds trust and engagement, all while enhancing your reputation. If your digital presence could do with a shakeup, get in touch.

Boosting social engagement with great video

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Not all video is created equal

Whether you’re using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat, each platform treats video a little differently. You’ll need to consider their social context and whether your content fits the needs of the users.

Generally, your goal when creating shareable video content will be to either provide information, sell a product or raise your brand awareness. That means you’ll need to explain your point clearly and be solid on your message.

Video can boost your SEO and traffic

YouTube is seen as the benchmark when it comes to sharing online video, but the reach of Facebook means it’s the king of pushing information into communities around the world. The News Feed algorithm gives a lot of weight to videos, so when you add audiovisual materials natively, instead of linking out, you have a much higher chance of your video being seen by interested people.

People are more likely to share videos with their friends or connections than any other type of static content, making it worth the investment. And in Facebookland, the more engagement your video creates, the more visibility the algorithm gives it. This amounts to more potential customers finding and engaging with your page.

Google’s search rankings also give preference to websites with video content. And if you are moving pictures to your written content in the right way, you can achieve high-quality backlinks that boost your search engine rankings. Meanwhile, since videos tend to keep customers engaged for longer, people are likely to stay on your web pages longer than a few seconds, which is also good for your search rankings.

To maximise the impact of your video, you need to make sure that the titles you use are short and accurate. The message needs to be clear, concise and, more importantly, interesting. The ideal length of any videos you share is between 10 seconds and 2 minutes long.

Integrate infographics and motion graphics

One of the big trends in creating a successful video for social marketing is the rise of motion graphics or video infographics. These take a combination of interesting facts or figures and visually attractive moving elements to create a video that explains (sometimes complicated) data in an engaging way.

Video infographics are more shareable than static infographics and more likely to catch people’s attention. When good content is shareable content, put the time and effort into a great video and it can serve you and your business well.

Maximise the value of your event

If you’re planning a live event, video can maximise your investment in your event by extending the shelf life of your content. Our live event capture service means you can share your talks, messages and content with your wider online community through the use of existing online channels.

Generate event hype online before and during the event with strategically released video, and share multiple optimised edits of your footage for greater social engagement and return on your investment.

How Outlook can help

Get in touch to find out how we can help you create a video that boosts audience engagement.

Is your agency limiting your agility?

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Many prominent and expensive creative agencies struggle with responding to their clients’ demands quickly and within budget. That’s why we work differently.

We understand and engage with your business’s challenges. In today’s punishing commercial and corporate environment, we’re more committed than ever to being agile.

The importance of agility

Organisations need to move with the times and the needs of their people, places and business goals. Agile firms can adapt to fast-moving and ambiguous environments to achieve what they set out to. When the core of your business changes, or your market shifts, your structures must flex.

The path to organisational agility means transformation for most companies. It’s overcoming inefficiency and regrouping around what is vital to success. It requires two clear abilities in your business and partners:

1. Responsiveness – Think speed, think flexibility.

2. Stability – A foundation that won’t shift under the pressures of hard work and hard-won success.

Innovative and well-managed projects capture the spirit of who you are and what you do – even when your business goals are changing. Reliable and flexible support from us becomes a springboard for brilliant ideas that push your business forward.

The knowledgeable and steady support we provide for our clients is down to our unwavering dedication to our four fundamental values: creativity, commitment, collaboration and motivation.

Driving useful change

We know you may be under enormous pressure from both inside and outside your organisation. We can help you use that pressure to thrive on change and make it a source of real competitive advantage.

  • Cut down on excess spending, so the resources you do invest in are well-used and good value. These smart decisions are essential during times of stress, but also set you up for longer-term growth.
  • Maximise collaboration between your teams to share information better and align your project goals with the overall strategy.
    Integrate knowledge-sharing into your normal processes. This helps with problem-solving, improving decision-making and converting information into insight.

Creative solutions

Talk to us today about embracing creative change that makes your company stronger. We pride ourselves on delivering exceptional service and great products that go beyond a simple working relationship, making a valuable contribution to both our business and yours.

We create great solutions — designed, flexed and built just for you.

How to be a community Hub

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Get to the hub of your brand

Whether your audience found you through your show-stopping Hero campaign or your informative Help content, you’ll need to stop them from moving on and forgetting you by turning that initial interest into a passion for your brand.

Hub content gives your audience a reason to visit your channel or website on a regular basis. Where Hero and Help are ‘pull’ content that draws people to your website or channel, Hub content cultivates an engaged community through scheduled ‘push’ content targeted to your prime audience.

Hub content can be anything that incentivises people to ‘subscribe, like and follow’, including blog articles, live streams, Q&A sessions, behind-the-scenes footage and pop-up events, centred on shared interests, new product launches and your Hero messages.

A great example of successful Hub video content (and a personal favourite) is Blendtec’s Will It Blend? Series. The small Utah-based manufacturer proved that you don’t need a huge budget to make an impact with Hub content. By blending items such as iPhones, marbles and golf balls, they raised their brand awareness and created a YouTube following. This resulted in real-life payoff, with increased sales to 500% in 2008 and up to 700% in 2009.

Other notable examples of Hub content include IMDb Live (IMDb’s live-streaming companion show to award shows such as the Oscars) and the hugely popular Etsy blog. Both appeal strongly to the brand’s core users, are relevant to their interests and create opportunities for engagement.

How to get started

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel and spend a lot to produce Hub content. Cost-effective distribution systems and affordable production technology mean that you can begin creating Hub content now. It just has to be regularly scheduled and relevant to your audience.

The YouTube Brand Playlist, which pioneered the Hero, Hub, Help strategy, also emphasises the importance of consistency for Hub content success:

  • Create an editorial voice with a distinctive style.
  • Consider casting a single identifiable personality to be the focal point across all your content (like Tom Dickson in Will It Blend?).
  • Maintain a consistent visual language.
  • Communicate a regular and clear release schedule in channel art, descriptions, calls to action in your videos and digital collateral.
  • Develop an active promotion strategy that includes social media, cross-promotions and incentives for subscribers to share your videos.
  • Consistency compels your audience to return again and again to what they like and is familiar with. Creating a structured format that will prevent you from having to reinvent every video.
  • This makes planning for costs, means of production and creative resources much more straightforward.

We can help you produce the content that makes your brand the hub of your community. Get in touch to start the conversation.

Working with a proactive agency

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By staying focused on the solution and not on the problem, we create imaginative, versatile solutions for a whole range of communications challenges, including:

  • Developing new services
  • Winning tenders
  • Working under pressure
  • Just standing still

Plan A, B and C

We work hard to deliver your vision to your exact deadline that considers the skills of our team and the demands of your project. That way, you can plan for the development of your future goals because you’ve chosen a creative team who can walk the walk.

We’ll guide you on the best use of materials, suggest new and innovative solutions and ask the right questions to inspire your next great idea.

Great value means you can do more with your budget

Even though the work we create is of the highest standard, we don’t think this necessitates the highest prices. Our tenacity and desire to deliver exceptional results means we aim to exceed expectations consistently, and part of this is surprising clients with great value for money on the services we offer.

Through working collaboratively, creatively and with commitment, we can help you reduce your work stress, keep better control of costs and deliver great results that make you stand out from the crowd. Get in touch to find out what we can do for you.

Top 10 tips to maximise your brief

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Avoid stress, unnecessary costs and wasted time in your projects by following our top 10 tips to get the best results from your brief.

1. Collaborate

Your agency won’t know everything about your culture, business, products and objectives. Likewise, they will have a great deal of industry and practical knowledge that you may not be aware of. Working collaboratively on the brief from the very beginning will make a big difference in the outcome and experience of delivering a project.

2. Agree on delivery schedules

All agencies offer creativity, but great agencies deliver creativity on time and on budget. Agreeing on deadlines, stakeholder sign-offs and implementation schedules from the outset means adequate time and resources can be allocated.

3. Give creativity some room to breathe

We’re in an on-demand world but asking someone to do something in half the time means you should expect half the result. Creativity needs some time to come to life.

4. Share your motivation

Explain why you’re doing it, what you want to avoid and what your desired outcomes are. Your agency will help accommodate this and support improved results.

5. If you have a budget, be clear about it

If you have a budget in mind, share it. A good agency will find a solution that best satisfies the objectives for that budget. Not sharing the budget will impact on your valuable time, cause frustration and not provide you with the information you need to make informed decisions.

6. Tell your agency if you’re pitching for budget

If you don’t have a budget and you need to base it on the strength of a proposal, tell your agency. A good one will provide alternative solutions at different cost points, alongside presenting the pros and cons, allowing you to make informed decisions.

7. Think about the creative output you need

Wide briefs will give you a creative idea, but they are likely to go back and forth through revisions. A detailed tight brief will get you exactly what you need quickly. Different projects will need varying amounts of creative thinking.

8. Ensure alignment

It’s crucial that your agency understands what you want and need. Have the awkward conversation to review the concepts and be clear about the output you need. Open, candid communication is always best in the fast-paced world.

9. Consolidate feedback

We know how difficult it is to manage stakeholders and we appreciate the stress and hassle that comes with it. However, a little less haste brings more speed in the long run. Ensure the feedback is final and reduce the versions, frustrations and most importantly your cost.

10. Invest in the brief

The better the brief, the better the output – we promise! We’ve all heard the ‘cheap, fast, good’ equation. Let’s be honest, it is true (with the very, very rare exception).

Here at the Outlook Creative Group, we proactively work with our clients to ensure they always get great results with minimal stress on their time and budget.

Get in touch to work with us on your next project.

Speed and flexibility with on-demand video capture

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Whether it’s enhancing a live audience event or part of how you respond in a crisis, our new cost-effective on-demand video service captures and distributes your content quickly and securely, no matter where your wider community are.

Create engagement and authenticity

Video helps to bring energy and honesty to your communications. Through existing distribution channels, your videos can be instantly accessible to employees or your external audience on all their devices and are perfect for saving in a shared location for repeat viewing.

  • Creatively explain internal announcements and changes in company structure or direction to increase awareness and feeling of engagement and inclusion.
  • Share interviews with CEOs and senior management on corporate policies, financial performance and crisis management.
  • Learning and development teams can take full advantage of video with inductions for new starters, full progression training programmes and refresher courses.
  • Increase team morale with peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, weekly team updates and company events highlights.
  • Maximise your investment in your live event by extending the shelf life of your content.
  • Next-day or same-day edits mean messaging can be circulated quickly to change.
  • Share multiple optimised edits for greater social engagement, including highlight videos, full presentations and audience interviews.
  • Give us direct feedback during the event filming and editing.
  • Generate event hype online and on location before and during the event.

Live stream and share your content with any phone, tablet or remote location. Get in touch to find out how you can incorporate video into your communications strategy.

Is it time to rebrand your workspace?

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We’ve been instrumental in bringing new and well-established brand guidelines to life across buildings of different shapes and sizes.

We’re your creative environment partner

Our Design team is highly skilled and passionate about design-led branding projects for both the inside and outside of your business’s buildings. This includes:

  • Use of materials
  • Flow of imagery
  • Interactive product displays
  • Branded colour schemes
  • Textures
  • Introduction to technology
  • How people come into and out of your space

We know it’s important to get these details right. Your building is, after all, a physical representation of what you do.

As well as impressing and cementing your brand with your customers, an expertly branded workspace has an impressive effect on your staff. Energetic, positive company culture is one of your most essential assets, and through physical branding that widely communicates and reinforces it, employees will feel connected, proud and engaged.

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression

We’ll work with you to make your buildings reflect your corporate values and mission. We’ll explore what makes you who you are and the best ways to let your customers experience that.

We specialise in attractive projects delivered at an attractive price. By working with us, you’ll also enjoy:

  • A dedicated contact to support you throughout the process
  • Full transparency and control of costs
  • Regular feedback on the project’s process
  • The insight and experience of a multiskilled creative team
  • Take a walk around your building today. Open your eyes wide and take a deep breath. Does your workspace reflect your culture, values and potential?

We can bring your vision to life – talk to us today.