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.

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.

If you're an SME, there's a good chance that your marketing budget has come under scrutiny since the coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, during crisis periods, businesses that have viewed marketing as a revenue facilitator - rather than an expense - have done well historically. These businesses tend to acquire and retain more customers, while their competitors flounder. Here's three reasons why it is important to keep spending on marketing, even though your gut instinct might be telling you otherwise right now:

Over the past week our development team have been fending off a significant cyber security attack on a number of websites we host, part of a worldwide hack attempt affecting over a million websites. In light of the scale and sophistication of this attack, we are no longer recommending WordPress as a website platform.

So what is this hack, why did it affect WordPress websites and what are the alternatives to WordPress?

Every company needs to be forward-thinking in order to grow. What this means in practice is adopting and maintaining a mind-set for growth, proactively seeking out opportunities and embracing change as an opening for improvement. If you'd like to take your B2B business to the next level in 2020 – and yes, it is possible, despite Covid-19 and whatever else – here are the essential steps to take.

It is crucial to respond to your customers and where their needs are at this point in time. This might sound too obvious to repeat, but, still, many business owners compare their companies against what their competitors are attempting to offer, rather than aligning with their customers' goals. Customer metrics can all too easily become an abstract calculation, but without a deeper understanding of what drives their behaviour, it is difficult to know how best to serve them personally.

It is hard to overestimate the value of word-of-mouth recommendations for businesses. People trust recommendations by their friends and associates much more than they do the claims of marketers. Testimonials, the recorded experience of real customers, step beyond informal referrals to give what marketing experts call the 'social proof' of a business's offering. Unsurprisingly, a glance at the websites for any number of industry sectors indicates the value placed on testimonials.

While things aren't back to normal for the UK's businesses yet, many companies are ramping up their operations again – and the good news is that the economic hit hasn’t (so far) been as bad as many people had feared. Therefore, if you want to strengthen your hold in the marketplace, you need to show people that you're ready to do business today. Whether you've continued, reined in, or even halted your marketing activities during the Covid-19 lockdown, you should increase your efforts now. Read on to find out why.