Data, Video and the Battle for Attention with Hila Shitrit Nissim from Promo.com
The internet today is a fierce battleground. As millions of companies fight for attention, just getting the first two or three seconds from a user is getting harder and harder.
In this interview, Hila Shitrit-Nissim, the VP Communication at Promo.com and former marketer at Viola shares how they turn internal data into media pitches, how finding internal attention grabbers – whether it’s data or videos – drives brand recognition, the big picture vision that needs to complement short videos of men in tutus and more.
Links:
- An amazing example of data-driven marketing, via a 2018 Promo.com report on video viewing trends. This specific example got pickups in Forbes, SmallBizTrends, Search Engine Journal, and more.
- An example of a 2019 data survey Hila and her team created, and the video they created to share it.
- Two favorite marketing tools:
- Hootsuite for social media distribution
- Brand24 for media monitoing
- Brands that do video right:
Episode Transcript
Eytan Buchman
I don’t know the exact number but while I was recording this, about four trillion podcasts were probably also recorded. And it’s a challenge. Because in a busy media environment – the kind we’re all playing in – just getting the attention you need to communicate a story makes all the difference. That’s one of the central themes I touched on in this interview with Hila Shitrit Nissim, who runs communications at Promo.com. But it’s not the only thing. We also talked about implementing a video advertising strategy, how to get anyone at your company – even smelly Mike from DevOps – to cooperate with press initiatives, who should run video advertising at your company, and more.
But lest you forget, my name is Eytan Buchman, you’re listening to another delightful episode of Marketers in Capes with GCMO, a community of Israel’s top CMO’s, and today we’re putting the multi in media by talking video on an audio podcast. But first, meet Hila.
Hila Shitrit Nissim
Hi, my name is Hila Shitrit Nissim and I’m the VP of communications at Promo.com. Promo.com is the leading platform for video creation. We serve SMBs and brands from all over the world, over 1 million users from all verticals.
..I spent 12 years with the Viola Group, the leading technology focused investment group in Israel, working on marketing for the group’s funds and they work working closely with the portfolio companies, lots of startups. For the last two and a half years. I’m with promo.com, responsible for communications, branding, PR partnerships and much more…
Eytan Buchman
As far as I see it, there’s three reasons why media engagement works:
- It’s a one-to-many effort. By getting one journalist on board and you have a force-multiplying impact
- It’s a really big many – the right publication has already gone through the effort of aggregating the right audience
- You get to push your message out with the third-party credibility that your own puny little blog can probably only dream of.
But it’s a nonstarter if you can’t get your message out. Hila combines insight with data to make it happen.
Hila Shitrit Nissim
I really like to do PR like to focus on valuable news or stories that can really help our users. Just as an example, yesterday we released a report, a study we did to measure or to explore how way consumers interact with videos, what are their video watching habits, preferences? Where do they like to watch videos? How do they like to watch it. And we use this data to actually help our users which are mainly SMBs. A better a tailored or video marketing strategies better interact with our users. So we took these insights and package them as actually something that is valuable for them to to, you know, to improve their video marketing strategy. And I also a big believer of data, I think reporters like that and when you include that points or information in your PR in your press releases, so it really helps getting the exposure. It so this was only yesterday, but the last year survey that we released was published in over 30 outlets. And it was being quoted six months after the report was out, which is a for me a sign of success.
Eytan Buchman
Take a look at the headlines in the business section of any paper and you’ll see how important data is. And while this is where some companies get stuck, because they feel like stye don’t have data, the truth is that data is everywhere. We’ve picked up Wall Street Journal mentions by just aggregating academic research or core trade pickups by scraping Amazon career listings. But like Mr Miyagi in Karate Kid, Hila believes it starts within…
Hila Shitrit Nissim
So I think every company has tons of data, the hard part is to find the data and to analyze it, of course, for us, since we have such a large database of users, which at the end of the day, all of them are also consumers, we leverage this database to run surveys and sometimes we ask questions from the point of view of the business but in this case, we asked these questions from the point of view of the consumer. I would start by thinking, What am I looking for and then exploring within the organization. It can be the product team, it can be bi, in our case, we have a large, be it. Marketing can also bring lots of insights.
But the hard part is to find the right pieces of content and to analyze it in a way that will make sense or be attractive for the readers for your audience
Eytan Buchman
In other words, it’s not just about the data. It’s where the data meets your customers. And the best best way to get non-marketing colleagues to cooperate? Market the vision.
Hila Shitrit Nissim
From my experience, whenever I talk to them and they understand once they understand that these these insights are these data that they can help me find will or might become a headline in for in a Forbes or Inc. article, they are really much a you know, they are really excited to help and they really want to be a active in this process and take part of this campaign.
Eytan Buchman
One reason brand is hard, especially for ROI guided marketers – is that brand rarely appears as a core revenue channel. but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Hila Shitrit Nissim
So we try to measure the exposure, we try to measure the social engagement of all these content to increase the engagement and to measure the traffic and even the even the sales that get to the to the websites through the seven pieces of content, but I can tell you that it’s not easy and it’s not our major channel for growth. We are still a very much dependent on paid campaigns and Facebook and YouTube of course but the I think it helps to increase the awareness. People remember hearing about you, reading about you, when we go out to a conference we can see that from one year to the other people are more aware of the brand and the company but it’s it’s very hard to measure it’s not something easy, but I really believe in it and I think you should do it alongside your other marketing efforts. It’s also great for SEO.
Eytan Buchman
So let’s talk video. all, it’s what Hila lives and breathes. So how does a video company use video?
Hila Shitrit Nissim
I’m trying to create a video almost for every announcement or news that we have. I am adding a video to our media features and I think many other companies that are not so familiar with video, or if the access to the For, I think people do it less. And I think it’s helpful because sometimes it attracts the attention that it’s, it’s very hard to attract va all these email features that these reporters get every day….When we go to a big conference or an exhibition, we try to interact or create a, an engagement with the influencers or speakers at the conference by creating videos for them that they can share on social media. So we try to put them in the center and create a video for them to promote their participation in the same conference. And that’s how we start engaging with them.
Eytan Buchman
This is important. Sticking out in today’s media environment is hard. A good marketer tries to identify a low-cost way to grab attention. For me, we really on a lot of on-demand unique data. For Hila, it’s about leveraging Promo for incredibly low-cost videos at scale. Find the unique assets – internal or external – and scale them.
And how do you test if video might be the right channel to scale?
Hila Shitrit Nissim
So I would start by saying that it has to be a consistent and serious effort. So if you start doing videos, you should be committed to the process and be prepared to create as many videos as possible to support your goals. Making one all for making just one is not enough. …
Eytan Buchman
I’ve stumbled into this problem enough myself to want to emphasize it. When you test something without really investing, all you really prove is that it doesn’t work at the cost you paid. When you experiment, make sure you invest enough to at least ensure that you’re getting decisive results. What does a plan to test video look like? Mostly consistency.
Hila Shitrit Nissim
Of course, start with goals you want to ahceiven and have plan. Like everything else in Marketing, we are ere to serve the organization or the company goals and videos is a great way to achieve this goals. So once you know what your goals are, what is your target audience where to find the target audience, you can build this plan of marketing video strategy and You should execute the in a consistent way like ongoing can be for one company, it can be daily, for another one it can be monthly, but just keep creating them and experimenting with them to find the right ones and to find out what works best for your brand.
Eytan Buchman
And who does it take to pull that off within a marketing organization?
Hila Shitrit Nissim
So, the thing with the platforms like promo.com is that everyone can create a video it’s not like you need to have a special surgeon skis a it’s really, really easy.I think the person that is doing the videos should have some sort of creative thinking and some capabilities to write short copy or captions and mix and match visuals with text and sound. It can be the Social Media Manager, it can even be the acquisition manager, the PPC campaign manager, obviously content people are doing it in a very good way. Anyone in marketing can do it I think so.
Eytan Buchman
But, of course, Hila doesn’t advocate dancing men in tutus and high-fiving groups of forcibly diverse colleagues. From her experience at Viola and Promo, she sees successful marketing departments – and startups – as those who envision their company as representing a shift in the way people operate, not just stupid little tutus.
Hila Shitrit Nissim
They have to be ready with the talking about the problem they’re solving and not only focus on the features that they’re building. So focus about the value they bring to the world – why are they here and not the way. And whenever I hear a pitch of a startup, and I used to look for the bigger picture, the bigger story. Even in an elevator pitch, you can you can start with the the features but you can also focus on the bigger revolution that your company’s brining to the world so I like to see them thinking about the bigger story….
Eytan Buchman
This can sound corny when you say it to the mirror. but it works. Listen to Promo’s big picture vision –
Hila Shitrit Nissim
So our big picture is that we would like to make creative more accessible for SMEs or business owners. They are so busy with managing their business running a business and it’s hard to begin with and then they also need to become digital marketeers. So we want to make them excellent marketeers without becoming marketeers.
Eytan Buchman
For me, a good episode of Mad Men is the best marketing school in the world. But Don Draper isn’t for everyone. How does Hila stay on top of marketing developments?
Hila Shitrit Nissim
So I try to you know, keep myself updated by reading and listening to podcast like yours, but I think the network of GC mo is an amazing platform to help me see Stay up to date. …
So having someone to share the challenges with and to see that we are all facing with similar situations is very, very helpful. And it helps me to keep updated as well because we we share tons of content, it can be presentations, thought leadership basis. I find these amazingly cool.
Eytan Buchman
There’s one theme that runs through this interview – how do you grab attention in this wild wild world. Depending on the medium, attention grabbers take different shape. Sometimes it’s a silly video to earn two seconds of attention. Other times it’s a huge mission statement about changing the world. And the rest of the time it’s an insightful piece of data, gathered by Mike in DevOps. You can learn more about creating on-demand videos at promo.com or read up about GCMO at g-cmo.com. And, yes, even though I didn’t need to put on a pink tutu to grab your attention, I’m willing to for a quick review on Apple Podcast. Heck, I might just wear one anyway. Until next time, my name is Eytan Buchman, you’ve been listening to Marketers in Capes with GCMO, and Mike in DevOps, I’m sorry. You’re pretty cool.