More Answers to the Question: “Why Video?”

Jul 21, 2011 by  RBergen

If you weren’t already aware, we here at DreamLife have realized what a fantastic tool video can be for adding value to your marketing, branding, and online traffic. We’ve seen the potential video has in taking a great online idea and turning it into a major event that gets attention and creates buzz, but there are still skeptics out there. Why video? Where’s the value in it? How does it help me achieve my objectives? This post should help address some of those questions.

Use Video Because…

Video marketing is still a relatively new medium, and by taking advantage of it, you are already generating more interest in your website or business than those who aren’t. And what if your competition is onboard with video? Well, that’s where DreamLife comes in, developing the kind of stand-out content that will make even the most casual of web-surfers stick to your page and see what’s going on.

Video adds a deeper level of creativity and flexibility to online branding and marketing. Got a new product that consumers haven’t heard of? Why not start with an educational, “How To” video. Looking to add support to your products or services? Video documentation and guides are great at helping customers appreciate your business and the customer service you offer. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

The Purpose For Using Video

Create Buzz – Video is what people are looking for. YouTube is the second most popular search engine on the Internet, with almost 90 million online videos being watched daily¹.
Engage – Video helps people feel connected and interactive with what they’re seeing. Help people feel like they’re a part of what your business and your brand, by showing exactly what your doing and how it’s done.
Tell A Story – Once you’ve established that connection with your audience, keep building on it. Whether it’s the next step in an instructional video series, the incorporation of video with other promotional tools, or just giving people a chance to see the friendly face behind what’s being marketed, video helps expand the message you’re sending and ties your story together.

Video and SEO

The last step in putting your video online is making sure it’s properly titled and tagged, using keywords and metadata that will help bring you the web traffic your seeking. Done properly, adding video can increase your chances of a front-page Google result by 53 times², so take the time to optimize your video properly for the web, and it will be an investment that pays for itself many times over again.

¹ – Comscore, February 2011
² – Forrester, January 2010

Track your Social Media with Google Analytics

Jun 23, 2011 by  RBergen

Ever wonder how effective your social media efforts are in directing traffic to your website?  If you could measure which social media channels are driving the most traffic to your website, you’re one step ahead in taking this data and prioritizing your social media efforts.  You may evaluate this data and decide to allocate more efforts into a specific channel and maybe even abandon others.  Knowing where your traffic comes from will help you better strategize.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to set up your Google Analytics account to better provide you with refined traffic data.

Begin by setting up a Google Analytics account for your website. Next, create a Custom Segment within Google Analytics.

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1. Navigate and Click Traffic Sources which is located on the lefthand column under Dashboard.
2. Click on drop down menu on top right hand corner labeled “All Visits” which will open up Advanced Segments dialogue box.
3. This is where you will click on “Create a New Advanced Segment”.
4. Define the parameters for our new Custom Filter (this case Social Media filters).
5. Click on “Traffic Sources” from the available options on the left column.
6. Select “Source” and drag & drop into the dotted “Dimension or Metric” box.
7. Define the “Condition” to “Contains” by clicking on the dropdown menu.
8. Under Value, select the specific social media channel.
9. Repeat steps 6 to 8 until you have listed all of your desired social media channels you’d like to track.
10. To ensure that all is functional, click on “Test Segment” located on the top right hand corner.  You will notice that Google Analytics will report level of traffic beside the specified social media source.
11. Name your segment: ie. Social Media Segment, and save.

Now, apply the Custom Segment to your analytics

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1. Return to your Analytics Dashboard and click on “Advanced Segments: All Visits”
2. You will see your newly created Custom Segment.  Simply check off this segment, “Social Media Segment” and click apply.
3. Tada!  You now have a direct view (additional layer of the dashboard) of traffic sources from your social media channels.

Welcome to the new DreamLife! We’ve Re-Launched!

Apr 21, 2011 by  Jieun Yi

Some of you may already be aware that we’re no new kids on the block. Yea, we’ve been around the neighbourhood and even humbly accepted an award for Best New Business in 2008.

Today, we’re very excited to announce the relaunch DreamLife Design. Outfitted with a new snazzy look (www.dreamlifedesign.ca) and a new vision, Dreamlife will now offer various services within 3D Visuals, Interactive, Video and Graphics services. Our vision is to continue building Partnerships with our clients to provide a fully integrated and engaging Visual Experiences.

Digital media is evolving at lightspeed and with the advent of social media, there are so many touchpoints where a brand can interact with their customers. We partner with our clients to ensure that at every one of these touchpoints, a story is told and this message is not only Visually Engaging but integrated with all other marketing and sales efforts.

We’re currently working to complete some amazing web and really cool 3D video projects. In the meantime, check out our featured client Laptop Depot under our Case Study section and see how DreamLife provided a Visual Experience to aid in their sales and marketing strategy.

Check us out now and check us out more often as we will soon be launching some more videos in weeks to come.

Let us know what you think! We’d love to hear your feedback.

Laptop Depot Launch

Apr 19, 2011 by  Jieun Yi

It seems like just yesterday that our friends at Laptop Depot approached us and asked to become Mobile Revolutionists.

With a new transformed look, LaptopDepot.ca recently launched with a functioning eCommerce platform that is currently being used as a catalogue system.

This project is near and dear to our hearts as we had the opportunity to provide a fully integrated visual experience; from graphics, 3D visuals, interactive (including mobile web) to videos.

We wrote a case study on this project detailing the scope.  Check out the before & after and tell us what you think! www.dreamlifedesign.ca/casestudy

We’re not done yet!  Soon to come, a real-footage franchise video! Stay tuned…