2020 has been, to put it bluntly, a disastrous year for many businesses. With offices and retail locations forced to close, millions of people placed on furlough and hundreds upon thousands of redundancies, it has undoubtedly been a year focused on consolidation and survival rather than growth.

However, though 2020 has been a year full of struggles and challenges, it has also presented an opportunity for business owners to rethink their approach in a bid to not only adapt to the changing business environment, but to thrive going forward.

Video is becoming an increasingly important part of modern business - it can play a part in your marketing strategy, sales strategy and customer service strategy. At JDR, our video platform of choice is Vidyard which allows us to host videos on our website, blog and landing pages - but it also allows our team to send personalised, one-to-one videos.

Vidyard allows us to quickly record our screen or a video via our webcam (or a combination of both) and easily embed that video in an email or on a web page.  We have been finding more and more uses for this technology and are constantly sent messages from prospects and customers who are impressed and surprised at receiving video emails.

Marketing and business success go hand-in-hand, so it is vital to have a good agency in your corner. Marketing agencies all promise similar results — higher search engine rankings, increased ROI and extra revenue — and they often present a professional image. Occasionally though, they exaggerate the impact of their services, or overlook the needs of their clients. Although there is no 'one size fits all' solution to this problem, there is some basic guidance worth following. Here are three signs that might indicate when an agency is not up to the job.

Content is still king when it comes to making sales. However, all the blog posts, social posts, and landing pages your business produces are just dry words unless they tell a meaningful story about your brand, and how it relates to your target customers. The difference between companies that are successful at converting leads and those that struggle often comes down to how compelling their stories are, and how they are able to apply this approach to their digital content, sales, pitches, and marketing messages. Let’s look a bit deeper at what storytelling means in practice in marketing and sales.

Many businesses need to improve the conversion rate of their websites. Your site might attract lots of visitors, but that counts for little if this does not translate into revenue. As far as online sales goes, there are a range of factors that determine why, when and how people purchase things. Nonetheless, upon closer inspection of the data, you may discover reoccurring issues with your site or sales approach that keep holding you back. More specifically, there are four significant areas that will help you make the most of your website leads and improve your conversion rate. Let’s look at each of them:

The big question for companies considering online marketing in today’s flexible working world is whether to invest in having a marketing function in-house, or whether outsourcing the role to an agency, such as JDR, offers better value for money.

As a marketing agency ourselves it is fair to say that we have an angle on this question! However, there are pros and cons to consider for both sides of the in-house/outsourcing argument before any decisions are made. If they have the budget to spare, some businesses simply like the convenience of having one or more marketing professionals employed in-house. Whereas for other businesses the choice to outsource is clear-cut; both in terms of cost-benefit and in the skills they can access for a comparatively small investment.

At JDR, we have been using one-to-one video for several years - and in the increasingly virtual post-COVID world, we have been using it more and more. These are quick videos where we record a video of our screen, or using our webcam, or both, and embed these into emails.

In this article we will share 11 ways you can use video emails as part of your sales and customer service process.

It is a little known fact that new customer acquisition is five times more costly than retaining existing customers. Moreover, your current customers will outspend your new customers by up to 31%, and they are 50% more likely to buy your new products. Whether you presently use a loyalty programme to generate repeat business, or you have yet to try this promotional technique, the data just mentioned highlights the value of a good customer loyalty scheme.

Spooky season is upon us, and in any normal year kids old and young would be brushing up their fancy dress costumes for a fun evening of trick or treating, parties, and apple bobbing. Not so in 2020, and with a ‘trick’ already spring on us all in the shape of lockdowns across much of the country, grab yourself a slice of pumpkin pie, and let us treat you with five frightfully good (lockdown-proof) tips to help your business get more sales this autumn.

Most businesses are not like Apple, Tesco or Sky, with huge advertising budgets available to them each year. This is why, particularly in today's uncertain times, it is vital for businesses to identify their marketing goals and calculate a budget to support them. The money you set aside for marketing should cover all the related costs, like your marketing materials, agencies, staff and any trade shows or events (virtual or otherwise!) you organise or plan on attending. Here are the key steps to determine the right marketing budget for your business: