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1. Discovery Process

Before creating content, we take the time to understand and know your brand. This means a series of collaborative sessions so we can learn your brand inside and out. We ask questions like:

• How would you describe your brand to someone who has never heard of you?
•  What does your sales process look like?
• What do you want to be known for?

This is where our relationship starts so we can begin building or supplementing your brand that never sleeps. Our approval process then comes in with creating content.

2. Internal Review

Regardless of what marketing material you’re putting out in the world, it needs to be perfect. That’s why Frozen Fire has a rigorous internal review process before materials even reach your eyes.

Anything created by a Frozen Fire content creator is reviewed by at least two other team members, checking specifically for:

• Brand alignment
• Spelling and grammar
• Strategy alignment

This allows our whole team to understand who you are, and ensure a smooth approval process.

3. Approval Process

Whether it’s graphic design, social media content or email marketing (to name a few), we will not go public with content without your approval or prior consent. We take all of the working knowledge from our discovery sessions to create customized content specific to your brand and input it into an easy-to-use review software. This is then sent to you for revisions. As we learn to understand your brand, we work together to hone in on the perfect tone and look.

As our long-term relationship grows, we will become experts in your brand and industry. Once we know your brand backward and forward, Frozen Fire becomes an extension of your business rather than just a partner. We will create a process flow that works for your business and level of involvement.

Are you looking for a customizable digital marketing partnership and extension of your business? Contact us today to learn how we can enhance your online presence and garner real results today!

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Brand Narrative

Stories create personal connections because they are relatable and provide an avenue to persuade and move people to action. Storytelling allows you to provide your business with human attributes and characteristics, making your brand more approachable. You are building brand trust organically by producing empathetic and relatable content. This will tie directly in with brand loyalty, as many repeat customers will build a relationship with your business over time. The importance of storytelling needs to be put at the forefront of your marketing efforts, such as social media, television commercials, website copy and more.

Memorability

Remember when you first watched your favorite movie or read your favorite book? You remember the feeling of finding out a huge plot twist or that your favorite couple made it out together at the end. While storytelling in marketing is not focused on “once upon a time,” it is a way to stand out against your competition. We hardly remember every detail of a story, but we do have the ability to recognize precisely how specific stories made us feel. Like in books or television, marketing can evoke certain emotions in your audience. It is all about using content that is engaging and resonating.

The Importance of Storytelling with Frozen Fire

The importance of storytelling can be seen in every aspect of your brand. Not only is it essential to incorporate storytelling into your marketing, but it is crucial to create a unified message across all platforms. This will ensure that your story is clearly defined. The messaging should align with your company’s mission, vision, values and goals. Consistent messaging allows your audience to gain a real understanding of your company, therefore increasing reach and engagement. While it may be challenging to develop stories that stick, it is something that sets you apart from everyone else. Frozen Fire can give you the tools to launch your brand storytelling strategy. Contact us today.

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The Story

It doesn’t matter how good your visuals and audio cues are if there is no substance to back it up. Every great movie, tv-show, and ad starts with a story. As a business, ask yourself, who do we want to be known for? What unique story can we tell that is different from our competitors? How do we present a story that will make people stop and listen?

Once you have answered those questions, it is time to flesh out the details. When it comes to video marketing, it is vital to do two things within the first 8 seconds of your video: introduce your company/product and create a hook. Why? Research shows the human attention span is dropping. In the year 2000, the average attention span was 12 seconds. Now, it has decreased to 8 seconds. As short-form videos, such as TikTok and Instagram Reels, become increasingly popular, get creative with your video content. By creating a hook, an attention-grabbing introduction that intrigues your audience, and an introduction to your company, you can maintain a viewer for more than 8 seconds and increase brand recognition.

While hooks are an essential component of your story, the remaining portion of your video, whether 30s or 5 minutes, must be engaging and provide value. Here’s one of our video marketing tips: make a human connection with the viewer on an emotional level. Crafting a story that encourages users to sympathize or even celebrate with your brand will help them personally connect, no matter what the product or service is.

Video Marketing Tips: Best Practices in Production

Video is often not as simple as picking up a phone and pressing the record button. Use these steps to ensure that your content is stellar from start to finish.

Film on well-maintained equipment with the correct settings.

Not all cameras are built the same. From older camcorders to GoPros to professional-grade equipment, there are many options to set you up for success. Today, iPhones can do the trick if you don’t have a DSLR. Keep in mind that digital cameras are still best for capturing moving subjects in low or difficult lighting.

Next up in the video marketing tips: ensure the settings are correct for your project to improve the quality of content no matter what device you are using. For extreme action, shooting in 4K at 60fps will give you the highest quality footage and allow for easy editing. For standard video, shooting in at least 1080p at 24fps will provide a natural motion blur for your subjects while still capturing video at a high resolution.

Film in natural light in a quiet space.

Did you know that the color white can appear differently on video based on the color of light being used? The most common forms of light in offices, homes and stores are daylight and tungsten light. Daylight is generally a cool blue, while tungsten is a warm yellow/orange. Knowing the temperatures of light and adjusting your camera settings to match will help your content look natural and avoid the need for heavy color correction in editing.

Working in a well-lit space also helps your subjects appear better on camera and is often more flattering. If you work in a dark setting with few lights or windows, you will likely see grain or “noise” in your footage. In other words, your content will look almost static-like or fuzzy rather than a sharp, clear image.

While cameras and even iPhones have better internal microphones than ten years ago, an external microphone is always the better option. Many production houses and camera shops will have used ones for purchase or rent if you cannot purchase new ones. No matter what type of mic you use, a quiet, controlled space is best for capturing high-quality audio. Street noise, people talking in the room next door, or even an ice machine running can cause extra noise that will compromise your audio. It is best to pick a space where you can control what is running, who is passing by, and what external noise you hear. Something like a quiet conference room or isolated office are great options. A bonus to our video marketing tips: if you can clear out everyone unnecessary during filming, this will eliminate extra sound and movement!

Get comfortable with the camera.

One of the best video marketing tips is to make your talent, or the person on camera, more comfortable with the camera. More often than not, you want each person you are filming to almost ignore the camera and forget that it is there. This is very daunting for people who are not used to being filmed. It is best to make your talent as comfortable as possible by giving them time to adjust before you start filming and making the space comfortable to encourage relaxation.

Utilize Short-Form Video

TikTok as a platform has taken the digital world by storm. In less than a decade, this platform gained over one billion users and is a preferred platform among Gen Z. Social media is one of the top influences in purchase decisions among Gen Z. As a business, it is critical to use these platforms to directly engage consumers. As the popularity of these platforms grows, companies need to take advantage of the new and growing capabilities such as short-form video.

Share Your Videos

One of our favorite video marketing tips is to share the work you have created. After spending time and money on video content, let it do what it was designed for – attracting attention. For short-form videos (under 60s), you can share these directly on your website and social media. With long-form videos (over 60s), you’ll likely run into a file size issue. To combat this, create a YouTube channel, Vimeo account, or somewhere else to house the videos that you can publicly link back to. This helps you grow your presence, share work that you are proud of, and engage your audience.

Video Marketing Tips: Hire Professionals

Creating video content and maintaining a consistent presence can be challenging to take on yourself. Digital marketing and video production agencies specialize in helping businesses stay on top of their online presence by developing strategies and utilizing content most effectively. At Frozen Fire, our experts are ready to help if you are looking for assistance in growing your online presence or implementing new video content.

Check out our entire list of services, or connect with us today to spark your next project.

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The Discovery Meeting  

Our initial meeting with a client centers on understanding their current branding and preferences to develop a strategy. During this meeting, we go through each element and how it fits the client’s specific needs.

We work with our clients to determine a framework for messaging by asking thought-provoking brand and service-oriented questions. Then, we can make final decisions about the direction and develop the content strategy.

The Content Strategy

At Frozen Fire, we have served and continue to work with a wide variety of businesses. Our experiences with different industries, sizes, and audiences allow us to create a B2B digital marketing strategy for After the initial meeting, we take the data collected and synthesize the information to ensure the messaging document establishes the brand mission, style of communication, and core brand ideas. 

Target Audience

Next, this document details the target audience. For a business-to-consumer client, we build a profile of who these customers are – their age, economic brackets, family status, and interests. In the case of a business-to-business client, we build a profile of who their ideal business partner would be – size, product or service, industry, ideals, and core values. A specific target market allows us to craft efficient and effective communication.  

Market Position

Part of the importance of consistent messaging is understanding market position. We are intentional and strategic about influencing the consumer perception of the brand relative to the perception of competing brands. We look at our client’s market position and ensure they occupy a clear, differentiated, and advantageous position in the minds of consumers.

Tagline

The tagline is a strategic communication tool designed to condition the target market on what the brand offers in a short, memorable, and concise statement. This often accompanies the client’s name and is a part of the logo. A tagline should help maintain message consistency and effectiveness.

Mission and Vision Statements

The mission and vision statements are a tool that communicates what a brand is at its core. These statements establish why a brand exists and what it wants to be known for. These tools emphasize the importance of consistent messaging because a consumer must understand what the brand does, outside of offering a product or service, to engage and ultimately become a customer or client themselves.

Key Points of Difference and Value

Not only is setting the brand apart important, but also differentiating the product or service. This is where the importance of consistent messaging is critical. By identifying uniqueness and relevancy to the customer, we can align it to the overall brand messaging. We have the opportunity to craft a voice to sell the product or service and the brand as a whole.

Brand Personality and Voice

Most of the digital marketing world exists on social media. We may prioritize other tactics, but this does not exclude social media or other forms of digital marketing, such as emails, from a B2B digital marketing At the core of every consumer is a need to be seen and heard by the brands they engage with. A brand personality and voice help achieve a connection, even in the digital space. We work to develop a set of human characteristics attributed to a brand name that a customer can relate to. Each trait describes the emotion expressed by the brand and the intended response from each audience, including customers, employees, and vendors.

Brand Story

Once we establish a personality and voice, it is time to tell the story. We take the content outlined in the preliminary sections and turn it into a narrative. This story gives the brand purpose and establishes a connection with the consumer. Ultimately, this should reflect human truths and values that allow consumers to see themselves reflected in the mission the company serves. 

Brand Guidelines

The brand guidelines are the tangible assets: a logo, color palette, and font style. We strategically choose each to reflect who the brand is. Visuals are an important piece of consistent messaging that ties the brand voice, story, mission, market position, and values together. Once we reach this point, it should be clear who the brand is and what it aims to achieve.

The Importance of Consistent Messaging: The Follow Up

Once the content strategy has is complete, we work with our clients through secondary meetings to walk through this document, emphasize the importance of consistent messaging, and discuss feedback. From here, we implement revisions and fine-tune the strategy to tie up loose ends. Through this strategy, we can implement consistent messaging on all platforms. We take pride in our process to establish a brand and set them up for success. Contact us today to fire up your business.

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The more we understand our clients’ business, their needs, their desires, their challenges and their opportunities combined with the more our client understands Frozen Fire, our capabilities and our approach, the greater chance we have in achieving collaboratively defined marketing goals.

Mutual involvement is a key foundational piece of the Frozen Fire / Client relationship from day one.  In order to accomplish “understanding each other,” there needs to be an agreed upon plan for consistent and intentional communication.

Throughout the relationship, when Frozen Fire and the client communicate, there should always be a clearly stated expectation on when the next communication will take place, what actions each party will take and a defined timeline.

Although there will periodically be exceptions, the desired goal is Frozen Fire and the client will be available and on time for the next communication and will have completed what was previously planned to be done for this next interaction.

Here are some examples of problems Frozen Fire has faced with previous clients, negatively impacting the ability to accomplish defined marketing goals:

• Does not reply to a phone call, email or text within an agreed upon timeframe
• Does not complete planned task by the deadline
• Does not provide immediate feedback on concerns with the Frozen Fire service being provided
• Does not provide thoughts on any specific ideas that could be beneficial to the relationship

Frozen Fire fosters mutual relationships because it is our desire to accomplish the collaboratively defined goals, while making sure our client is satisfied with Frozen Fire.

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What is content marketing? Content marketing is building and executing a strategy focused on relevant, meaningful, timely, consistent content. When showcasing authenticity and targeting a specific audience, this strategy connects consumers to a brand on a deeper level. Once connected, the goal is to convert the audience to active, loyal consumers. In the simplest of terms, it is telling the brand story in a digestible, honest way.

Content Marketing: Authenticity is Key

When asked “what is content marketing” a decade ago, the answer would have been very different. Nowadays, according to PwC’s Preparing for Tomorrow’s Consumers Today: The Future of Consumer Markets Report, “Traditional marketing channels will continue to blur as retailers and manufacturers embrace a direct-to-consumer model.” This means today’s consumers want more organic content from brands themselves rather than sales pitches on paid ads and TV commercials. Consumers want to know who brands are and what they stand for, not just what they sell.

Content marketing thrives in the digital space because of social media. Social media helps consumers to stay up to date on world events, gather information about social issues, and even interact directly with their favorite brands. The PwC report predicts that “the world of social media will increasingly influence brand perception and reputation.” Therefore, effective content marketing on these platforms can increase positive perception and build strong reputations.

But, what is content marketing in terms of execution? There are many ways to execute this strategy in the digital space! Here are a couple of examples to get you started!

Create an Engaging Instagram Feed

Instagram is one of the most highly used social media platforms in the current marketplace, especially for younger audiences. Create posts 2-3 times a week with personal testimonies, Instagram takeovers, or simply short stories about what the brand values. Whatever you post about to connect with consumers, make sure to have an aesthetically pleasing, cohesive feed.

Produce an Online Video Series

Video is one of the most engaging mediums available and is easily accessible by brands and consumers alike. Pick a compelling trait or practice about your brand and develop a series. Discuss why this trait or practice is key to employees, your brand, and the world around you. Feature your series on Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, or Instagram to reach your consumers!

Content Marketing with Frozen Fire

Now that you know the basics, let us help you engage and connect with consumers in the digital space! Not only do we offer marketing services, but we also have an in-house video production team. Check out our process in developing effective marketing strategies and contact us today for more information on how we can help your brand with content marketing!

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Creates Recognition

There are so many brands that are recognized instantly simply by their logo. This goes to show the importance of branding in marketing. A majority of customers instantly recognize a bitten apple, a swoosh, or a double G as Apple, Nike, and Gucci’s brands. By designing a recognizable brand, companies are building recognition for their product – even with people who haven’t made a purchase!

Establishes Trust

After a potential customer sees a brand that they can identify over and over again, it establishes trust. Trust is a powerful driver for future business, but this trust starts with branding. According to PwC’s Consumer Insights Survey, 14% of respondents put trust as their number one reason for choosing a retailer, not to mention that “trust in brand” was the second most frequently cited reason for purchase decision-making. Your brand trust relies on what you say to your customers and how you say it. It’s important to inject your personality into your brand and prioritize relationships over sales. This is the key to developing and maintaining trust.

Initiates Loyalty

Another factor in the importance of branding in marketing is that it initiates loyalty. Once a customer has become satisfied with a company product, their loyalty will often become one of your most valuable sales tools. Not only will they continue to buy products, but they’ll also spread the word to anyone who will listen. However, branding must be cohesive across all points of a company to forge this loyalty.

Generates Customers

Recognition and established trustworthiness through strategic branding are key factors in generating customers, which shows the importance of branding in marketing. Consumers today aren’t interested in your sales pitch or marketing lingo. They want to know who your brand is. Telling a story to your customers allows you to inject your brand’s DNA into the narrative and establish a strong brand presence.

Enhances Employee Satisfaction

The importance of branding in marketing is not only beneficial to customers, but it’s also critical for your employees. Belonging to a company with strong branding is more enjoyable and satisfying than working for a company that no one has ever heard of. In addition, employees take pride in working for companies that hold steady to their values throughout their company in their branding, product offerings, etc.

Do You Need Help with Branding?

At the end of the day, branding is easier said than done. The many components that create successful branding can be overwhelming to manage when running a company. Luckily, Frozen Fire is here to help! Contact us today for more information on how you can become an established and recognizable brand.

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What is an infographic?

You have been told you need to use infographics, but what is an infographic? Simply put, an infographic is an image used to represent information or data. Infographics can be short or long, visually complex or very simple. Regardless of the format, or intended use, a great infographic is effective! In fact, high quality infographics are 30X more likely to be read than text articles. Now that you know what an infographic is, it’s time to learn how to use an infographic for your business.

What are infographics used for?

There are several reasons you may decide to make an infographic, but the 4 primary purposes of infographics are to:

1. Simplify a concept
2. Demonstrate instructions
3. Create comparisons
4. Share important data

Infographics make abstract concepts and the metaphors you use to explain your services understandable in an instant. Pairing your how-to text instructions with imagery removes confusion from the equation by showing your customers what to do instead of just telling them. Comparisons and important data pop out from your messaging to create a visual summary for people who prefer to read by skimming text.

How can making an infographic help my business?

Infographics can improve your communication with customers across almost any platform. Consider incorporating infographics into your

• Social media
• Email marketing
• Website
• Presentations and reports
• Press releases

Not sure how to get started? Here are a few suggestions from our marketing experts on how different types of businesses can leverage infographics.

Restaurants

• Use infographics on social media to share information about customer’s favorite dishes, ingredients, specials and accolades that separate you from other restaurants in the area.
• Call attention to your specials in your email marketing campaigns.
• Create infographic how-to instructions showing how easy it is to order online. Share this infographic with your customers through email marketing, link to it on your website and share through social media.
• Finally, draw your customers’ eyes to your important call to actions such as online ordering and vital information such as locations, phone numbers and delivery options on your website.

Service providers

• Use infographics to quickly explain what your company provides and why your services are important. Share these infographics on social media and include them in sales assets like proposals, brochures and presentations.
• Break up your email marketing content with infographic visuals that highlight your most important points.
• Use infographics to tease your audience into reading the rest of your email copy.
• Do you have online platforms or tools that your customers use to communicate with you properly? Create infographic how-to documents that clearly show your customers how to use these tools.
• Create infographic how to documents for customers that show how to engage with your customer support properly. Often a customer’s biggest frustration is figuring out how to contact their service provider about a problem.
• Use infographics on your website to highlight changes in service and new programs or services that you have available.
• Are you trying to get media attention from online news sites, magazines or televised news? Consider incorporating infographics in your press releases and news pitches. Reporters are always looking for visuals to pair with their stories. Including infographics can catch their attention, separate your pitch from others and make it easier for a reporter to complete the story.

Product-based companies

• Use infographics to highlight the unique aspects of your products or highlight product reviews on social media.
• Make an infographic that helps illustrate your story and encourages more conversions from your email marketing campaigns.
• Place infographics on your website to highlight important call to actions and new products.
• Include infographics in your sales presentations to large businesses or wholesalers.
• Use infographics to help illustrate your return policy or customer support options on your website. This approach may help reduce the number of negative reviews you receive.
• Create infographics that show how easy your online shopping process is and to encourage website sales!

Contact Us Today

We hope some of these ideas are helpful as you consider how your company will utilize infographics in your marketing efforts. If you are in the healthcare industry, take a look at our infographics for healthcare blog to learn more about how making an infographic can help you communicate with your patients. If you are interested in more specific ideas, contact us today!

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