Marketing for Good: Social Marketing

This style of marketing is sometimes called “marketing for good.” This style of marketing promotes a positive societal transformation that tries to influence positive actions instead of selling a product. Social marketing attempts to change behavior for the benefit of consumers or society. Commercial marketing, on the other hand, will attempt to change behavior for the benefit of the brand, such as sales. Typically, social marketing is used by nonprofits, charities, government organizations, emergency services, police, and fire groups. So, what is involved in social marketing and how do you go about creating a campaign? Here are some things to consider.

1.     What behavior is it that I’m trying to change?

2.     What benefits are there from this behavior change?

3.     Who is the audience?

4.     Are there any barriers preventing this change?

5.     How can I reduce those barriers if so?

Make sure that you test your ideas on smaller groups before “going live” and see how it does. Some benefits of social marketing are promoting greener, more sustainable living, promoting health consciousness, reducing social issues, allowing you to reach a larger audience, and it is cost-effective. If a brand uses social marketing then they will benefit from taking a stance on a topic because people now want to buy from socially and environmentally responsible businesses. In short, some things should happen to have an effective social marketing campaign: create interest/awareness, change attitudes, motivate people to want to change, incite that change, and sustain it. It could take some time to see if the change happened and when we some time, we mean years. It’s not uncommon for social marketing campaign measurements to happen slowly, over time. You will have to be patient but following the right guidelines will almost certainly help you succeed.

Creating a Marketing Strategy That Stands Out

We all know how to create a marketing strategy but with every brand out there doing the same things, how do you make your marketing stand out from all the rest? With advertising overload, it is very important to make your brand stand out. Every brand will start out with the same with usual 7 step guide to create their marketing strategy: 1. Build a marketing plan. 2. Create buyer personas. 3. Identify goals. 4. Select the right tools. 5. Review media. 6. Audit and plan. 7. Create it. Great! Now, you’ve got that same start as every other company out there. So now, let’s talk about some extra things that will help give you that extra push to be different in a sea of similarities.

1.     Mobile Friendly Everything! We’re all on the go a lot nowadays and that means looking at things from our phone most of the time. Your sites must be mobile friendly. If I can’t read it from my phone, I don’t want to read it. Period!

2.     Be Unexpected: put your ads somewhere exciting and new. Think outside of the box. Where do your potential customers hang out?

3.     Hook Em’ & Reel Em’ In: we all know that people have short attention spans. You have to hook the audience in immediately and keep them interested if you want your campaigns to succeed. You can get as creative as you want here. Use UGC, interactive ads, etc. Make your campaigns so temping that someone stops what they are doing just to see what it’s all about!

4.     Flaunt Your Differences: we push everyone to celebrate their difference outside the workplace, so doing this for your brand should be no different. What makes your brand stand out from the rest? Be proud of this and show it off. Why are you the best? Be confident but not cocky. You want your message to be seen as genuine but nobody likes vanity.

5.     Be an Innovator: know what’s happening at the forefront of your respective field. What’s the newest topic that everyone is buzzing about. For example, since we’re in the business of social media to grab good user-generated content, we focus on trending challenges and the like. This helps us stay ahead in our niche about what’s going on in the social world.  

6.     Lead with Creative: leading with overly data driven insights will kill your campaign. People tend to, “prioritize the experience of buying and using a product over the performance of the product itself” (McKinsey & Co.) Focusing on the creative aspects of your marketing campaign will, in turn, lead to good metrics down the line.

7.     Ask Experts: don’t be afraid to ask for help! Ever! Have brainstorming sessions with experts in your company or from outside sources. Find out who has the most knowledge of the product, concept, theme, etc. for your new marketing strategy. Ask: What are the challenges I need to solve? What are 1-3 benefits of the product/service? Any special things to consider when creating the campaign?

8.     Use Emotions: UGC really comes in handy here! When you elicit an emotional response from the audience they are compelled to like and share it, which in turn will increase your engagement. It also humanizes your brand.

9.     Personalization: your audience should come first always. Use their first name in marketing emails, etc. Make sure that they feel seen as a person and that they’re not just another number on your papers.

Lastly, you will want to test and use data to always improve on your campaigns. We say create with the message in mind but always follow the data afterward. If something isn’t working be ready to pivot at any given moment in order to reach the right people in the right ways! It takes a village to create an amazing marketing campaign so be open to new ideas from the team and most importantly, have fun!

Marketing to Older Populations

Did you know that older generations 50-years and above make up 51% of consumer spending? They also spend more time online than most people think. They are not much different than other groups to market to honestly, but they do have some qualities that differ and it will require some adjustments on the brands marketing strategy. Since they take up half of the consumer spending it’s important you get it right or you’re losing out on some big moola. Here are some ways to ensure that your senior marketing strategy will not be lost.

1.     Use language they understand: don’t use catchy, trendy jargon when trying to market to them. They won’t understand it and they won’t care. They just want to know how your product/service is going to improve their life or solve a problem they have.

2.     Make it easy: although a large portion of seniors are online that doesn’t mean they’re really tech savvy. Confusing choices when making purchases online or even while scrolling your website is a great way to frustrate and lose them. Make the process easy and clear.

3.     Personalization is a must: these groups of individuals remember a time when buying was between the merchant and the customer personally. They like to be regarded as an individual. Not only should your message speak to their age group, if you can get a person on the phone with them or name them directly in emails that’s even better.

4.     This generation is LOYAL AF: they are very unlikely to change brands if you get there first. Research shows that actually, “90% of seniors will keep you as their digital go-to if you provide them with their informational needs first“ (Search Engine Journal).

5.     Use multichannel marketing: although this generation is online they still respond well to offline marketing efforts, such as catalogs, T.V. commercials, billboards, etc.

These are our top five but there are so many more ways to effectively market to the senior populations. It should also be noted that there are different categories of seniors and each must be treated slightly different. There is the group of 50-62, 63-74 and 75 and over. Now, everywhere you look these will be divided slightly differently but as long as they’re similar the grouping won’t matter much if it’s a year or two off. This makes sense though if you think about it, you won’t market to your mom the same way you would market to your grandmother, right? Exactly. If your brand involves selling to the senior population it will require a competent amount of research into the best marketing strategies in order to reach them.

SMS Marketing

Do you know what marketing type will get you a 98% open rate and a 90% engagement rate? Yep, that’s right. SMS marketing. Otherwise known as text messages. This style of marketing is one that often gets overlooked yet has powerful results. This is a great way to personalize promotions, offer discounts specific to SMS participants, purchase reminders and conduct surveys. There are a couple of things that a brand must know before getting started. 

1. Get permission. Your brand MUST HAVE permission to get numbers and send out text messages. 

2. Set up short code. This is a number that is 5 to 6 digits to send messages at scale. This is easier to remember than normal numbers and can send more messages per minute. 

3. Create a great welcome message. Identify yourself first and foremost. Include the customer’s name. You MUST let them know how to opt out, what types of messages they’ll be getting and how often they’ll be sent. 

4. Know your character count. Most max out at 160 words. You should be able to get the message across without going over. 

SMS marketing is a great addition to your marketing efforts. I mean, think about it. Most people have their phones with them at all times. It makes sense that they would respond faster and more often to text messages than emails. This list should help you get started but there is much more to consider when adding SMS marketing into your marketing strategy so make sure to do your research.

Email Marketing Stats 2022

We recently did an article on The Power of Email Marketing. We thought it only fitting to follow up with some recent statistics for 2022 to back it up. We like to talk the talk and walk the walk. Here is a list of some of what we consider to be most important. 

1. 77% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months (Not Another State of Marketing, 2021)

2. Nearly 55% of global website traffic is generated from mobile devices (Statista, 2022)

3. 59% of people say that marketing emails have influenced their purchases (Salecycle, 2022)

4. 99% of people who have email check their inbox every day, some doing so 20x’s daily. Of those people, 58% check their email first thing in the morning (OptinMonster, 2020)

5. Audiences will reward brands with higher open and CTR if there are no. more than 5 newsletters send per week (GetResponse, 2020). And honestly, who is sending more than 5 newsletters per week?!?! That’s insane! 

6. Nearly 1 in 5 email campaigns is not optimized for mobile devices (SuperOffice, 2020). Don’t be that guy. Seriously… we’re living in the 21st Century. 

7. That being said, 41% of emails are viewed on mobile devices (HubSpot Research, 2021). 

8. 64% of B2B marketers said that their email marketing strategy was effective for meeting business goals in 2021 (HubSpot Research, 2021). 

9. 37% of brands are increasing their email budget and just 1.3% are making cuts (Litmus, 2021)

Well there you have it folks. Email marketing trends in a nut shell. There are millions of email users. Millions of opportunities to connect with your brand’s audience. Finding that sweet spot for your business will take some trial and error. You don’t want to bombard them with unnecessary email marketing if you want to keep your CTR’s high but you want to have them see your logo just enough to purchase your product or service. 

Topical Content

Fan doing the Megan Rapinoe stance from her celebrating her team's first goal during the 2019 Women's World Cup quarter-final match between France and the U.S.

There are so many types of content out there nowadays so, what in the world is topical content? Topical content is relevant to current events or timely topics. Think about things that are currently trending. Writing, vlogging, news stories, videos or even advertisements can be done on trending topics. These would all be considered topical content pieces since they focus on current news/trends. So, let’s talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages of writing topical content.

ADVANTAGES:

1.     Authority in your field: by staying current with trends and news in your field you set yourself up as a brand who has authority. It shows your brand researches relevant subjects often. This will help build trust with your B2B and B2C audiences.

2.     Requires less work: all it takes is a quick glance at sites and news stories to give you the ideas you need to produce topical content. This can save time and money when creating content. It can also help with creativity when at a loss for fresh ideas.

3.     Drives seasonal traffic to multiple channels: this can increase your audience reach because your topical content can gain traction over multiple points: social media, website, emails, etc.

DISADVANTAGES:

1.     Others are posting too: your competitors are probably posting on trending topics too, all the while spinning their own take on it. This can make it harder to stand out from the crowd. It can require a lot of time, effort and money to make yourself stand out, so if this is something you can’t commit to, then you may want to shift your strategies.

2.     It doesn’t benefit the long run for SEO: it can get you more traffic to your site in the short game but trust is built over time. This is where evergreen content comes into play, which we will talk about in our next blog.

Topical content has its place in the marketing and advertising world. It can provide relevant information on current affairs and can be a way to switch it up from the mundane. Ultimately, your marketing and advertising strategies should be a mix of topical and evergreen content. How much you choose to create topical content will also depend on what your business goals are and the audiences’ you’re trying to attract. Industry standard states that a mix of 1:4 is the general rule of thumb for the topical to evergreen content ratio. The first being topical content to every four evergreen content posts. Topical content definitely has its place but evergreen content is what’s needed to keep your audience behind your brand in the long haul.

Ways to Incorporate UGC Into Your Marketing Strategy

It’s no secret that we love UGC. It’s what we do and we’re passionate about it! We deal with UGC in the advertising campaign spaces mostly. However, there are some other areas of marketing that you can use this powerful tool. First, let’s talk about UGC in advertising since that’s what we specialize in. This is a great way to get consumers to trust your brand seeing real people in real-life situations that your audience can relate to. This type of UGC marketing will increase your ROI immensely. Let’s dive in to the other ways your brand can use it for marketing strategies.

1.     Promote your next product launch. UGC influences purchases so using it promote a new product is a great way to get new customers.

2.     Highlight your customers. Everyone likes to be appreciated. Highlighting your top customers through UGC photos and videos will not only make them feel great but it will increase your brand awareness through reposts and reshares. This is great for increasing brand awareness.

3.     UGC in advertising. As we listed above, UGC is one of the best ways to create an emotional connection with your audience. People trust real people in real-life situations that they can relate to.

If you’re interested in learning more about how UGC can help your brand grow contact us today. The benefits of UGC marketing and advertising just keep growing. Every campaign that we’ve ever done for advertising agencies has been successful to say the least. Don’t wait to get UGC into your marketing and advertising strategies. Trust us. We know a little something about this one.

Content Marketing: The Why, The How and The Where

What in the world is content marketing exactly? What makes it different than traditional marketing? Well, “it’s a strategic approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience” (Content Marketing Institute). Think of it this way. It’s much less spammy than traditional ads and doesn’t really pitch your product or services. Instead, it presents your audience with content that helps them solve their issues through the use of videos, blogs, social media, infographics, etc. with the intention of stimulating interest. But why is this type of marketing more prevalent now than it was 20 years ago? Well, for one thing, the internet has changed the market drastically since the 90’s, but another reason is that people cannot stand pop up advertising anymore on the web. Today, over 200 million people have installed pop-up blockers that, in turn, reduces the number of eyes on paid advertisements online, according to The Content Marketing Institute. Content marketing gets your brand out there without having to produce online pop-up ads. Here are some other key reasons why content marketing is on top today.

1.     Higher website traffic. Content marketing leaders get 7.8x’s more site traffic than non-leaders (Neil Patel)

2.     Increased Brand Recall. 56% of marketers believe that personalized content promotes higher engagement rates (IMB Digital Experience Survey) High-quality content that is relevant will increase the amount of time that consumers spend on their sites. Thusly, increasing engagement as well.

3.     Cost effective! Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates 3x’s as many leads (Demand Metric)

4.     Higher conversion rates. It’s nearly 6x’s higher than traditional marketing, according to Julia McCoy.

Now that it is obvious why content marketing has taken a seat in the front row, let’s talk about where your content marketing strategy fits into your business plan. Try to think of content marketing as something that sits alongside your other tactics, not separate from them. Therefore, there is no place that content marketing does not fit in. Some examples of what I mean are social media, inbound marketing, outbound marketing, pay-per-click, PR and even SEO.  All of these strategies should include high-quality content marketing that is relevant for your audience.

We’re sure you’re starting to understand why and where content marketing fits in, so let’s now talk about how to develop your content marketing strategy. According to The Content Marketing Institute there are 3 key questions to ask yourself before you begin.

1.     Who will be viewing the content?

2.     What benefits does the content give the viewers?

3.     What content experience can we consistently deliver?

Once you have the answers to these questions, it’s time to set your SMART goals and determine Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). For your goals, are you trying to increase brand awareness or boost engagement? There are so many goals to choose from so your brand will need to determine the main reason why you’re creating this content. This will also determine what KPI’s will be important to track based on the initial goals of the content. For example, if your goal is to increase engagement, then a good KPI would be looking at the engagement numbers for the campaign. Now that you’ve set your goals & KPI’s, it’s time to decide what type of content to create. What does your audience need from you and what problem are you trying to solve for them? After you have determined this, you must decide where you want your content to go: social media, print, etc. Most importantly, what is the budget for this content marketing campaign? This can alter what you create. For example, if your budget is smaller, then you may consider using a user generated content ad to save money while still getting a great connection with your audience. Once this has all been determined it is time create, distribute and track the analytics. Some things to look out for in a good campaign are:

1.     It receives a lot of engagement

2.     It provides worth within the framework of your field

3.     You haven’t lost your brand voice

With an effective content marketing campaign, you can increase your conversation rates through building lasting relationships with your customers. Providing value with something other than just your service or products will create a sense of trust with your audience and will engage them with your brand. Also, using this inbound way of marketing are much more effective as a more organic way to gain new customers. And let’s face it, natural is always better!

Marketing Myopia

You might be asking yourself right now, what in the world is myopia let alone marketing myopia. The term originated at Harvard Business School by Theodore Levitt who was a professor there in the 1960’s. The term, coined by Levitt, is defined as a short-sighted and inward approach to marketing that has little imagination, foresight, intellectual insight while focusing on the needs of the business rather than on the needs of the customer. There are a few key reasons why this happens within a business. First, there is a disconnect between the brand and their customers. A business can get so caught up in what they’re doing that they forget why they are in business in the first place. What you do for your customers is what keeps you in business. Second, a brand will focus too heavily on the past instead of the future (short-sighted) and are unwilling to change when their audiences’ needs’ have changed. A good example of what “not to do” would be the locomotive industry. They thought they were in the train business and not the transportation business and fell into steep decline when their travelling customers went elsewhere for their transportation needs, such as cars. So, how does a brand stay away from the pitfalls of marketing myopia? First, they should stay away from these unreliable ideologies:

·      That an increasing population means increase growth industry

·      That their products cannot be threatened by competition

·      Mass producing because they think the supply will lead to demand

·      Lack of proper research that can cause them to misjudge the quality of the product/service

Now that we’ve discussed what ideology to steer clear of, let’s talk about some ways to avoid marketing myopia all together.

1.     Prioritize customers' needs!!!!! We cannot stress this point enough no matter what industry you are in! Never forget why you are in business and what you have to offer your customers. Your customers’ needs will not always remain the same so it’s important to constantly do brand research to meet them where they are.

2.     Research research research!! Review data and take the time to gain insights. This can help you come up with ways to improve and see what is also going well. Don’t get too comfortable! You can always optimize and grow. The use of first party data will come in very handy here.

3.     Know your competitors. Like we stated above, if you believe that your brand is not at risk from your competitors, you are really at risk for marketing myopia. There is always someone out there who is trying to be newest and next best thing! Understanding your competitors will keep you on top of your game!

4.     Innovation. To be doing something just because that’s the way it has always been done is an outdated mindset. It’s important to create innovation within your company. Don’t be afraid of failure and taking risks. If you stay open-minded as a leader, you can create an innovative team that helps lead your brand to success.

If you’re a business, chances are you want to be successful. I mean, isn’t that the point? Avoiding marketing myopia is one way to help your brand stay on top in its industry. Will it happen overnight? Probably not. Will it happen without mistakes? Most definitely not. But if you keep an open mind and strive for greatness, then your company will overcome any obstacles. In time, it will be an innovative leader!

The Power of Email Marketing

Here’s a question for you… do you think that most people check social media or their email first in the morning? We’ll give you a second to think about what it is that you do…

If you said check your email you are correct. Most people check their email first in the morning before anything else. This is one of many reasons why email marketing has the top ROI of any marketing strategy or channel. A study done in 2015 showed that for every $1 spent an email has an ROI of $38 according to DMA. Therefore, it’s important to draft a great email campaign for your readers. Not only can it be great return on investment it can help your business grow. Here are just a few ways that it can do just that.

1.     Increase your brand recognition and awareness. Every time someone sees your brand logo in their inbox their recall will improve. Talk about things that your company values, its products/services, its mission. Help your audience understand who you are. Help them connect with you as a brand.

2.     Customer engagement and retention. Add interactive content such as videos, infographics, etc. Feature some of your customers in your email marketing. For example, perhaps you have worked with an influencer or done an affiliate program. Extend your thanks by featuring them in your email marketing campaigns.

3.     Customers are enticed to act. Put call to actions in the emails. Make them stand out with brightly lit colors. Keep them short and send them to a landing page rather than your home page.

4.     It’s personal and builds relationships with customers. Everyone hates mass emails. They feel spammy. Personalizing emails to your customers so that it resonates with them. Create connections that will build relationships that last by giving them information they want.

5.     Increased website traffic. This one is a given. Your email should have links to your website listed for a number of reasons. It could be to a blog on your site. Some work you’ve recently done. A sale you have going on. You get the idea. People may not always be looking at your site so this is a way to drive traffic.

6.     Optimized time and budget. As stated above, ROI is insane for email marketing. Email marketing is cheap and some is even free. By putting effort into the emails and using the 80:20 rule you will increase your revenue with little budget spent. The 80:20 rule states that roughly 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients. Focus your energy on that 20%. This is where personalization can come into play as well.

Now that we know why email marketing is a powerful marketing tool, do you have the proper criteria to create a stand out email marketing campaign? Here are some basic rules of thumb to follow to create a killer email.

1.     Personalize, personalize, personalize! Same as we stated above and this couldn’t be more important.

2.     Make it visual! This increases engagement and motivates people to take actions.

3.     Promote action! Make sure there are plenty of calls to action in your email. This will also allow you to track how the email is doing.

4.     Write a catchy subject line. We would say that this is second most important next to personalization. This is where you have one chance to hook your audience into reading. Also, email marketing should have short excerpts so make every word count!

Email marketing is one of the most efficient ways to grow your business and see great returns. It can help build your audience and increase sales if done correctly. To sum it up, don’t slack on your email marketing. The benefits far outweigh any cons.

Performance Marketing vs Affiliate Marketing

A hot topic right now is performance marketing. It’s somewhat similar to affiliate marketing but has a lower risk involved and encompasses a wider umbrella that includes affiliate marketing as its sub category. It’s not something that is new but is now rising to the top as a new way to market. Let’s define each for some more clarity. Affiliate marketing is where a relationship is set up between a brand and an individual or organization where partners will receive a percentage commission of the sales they help create. Performance marketing where brands only pay when a certain objective has been met, such as clicks, leads or a sale. Here, advertisers connect with agencies, publishers or influencers to design and place ads on their company channels. Similar to that with affiliate. This is done instead of traditional advertising and now the advertisers pay based on how their ad performs and is measurable in number of impressions, clicks, shares and sales. It’s “performance based,” hence the name. Let’s now talk about the ways in which your brand’s performance-based marketing can be tracked. Here is where you see the difference in payment structure from that of affiliate marketing.

1.     Cost Per Click (CPC): as the name implies, advertisers only pay when their ad is clicked on.

2.     Cost Per Sale (CPS): the advertiser only pays when the sale was driven by the ad. This is what is used for affiliate marketing.

3.     Cost Per Impression (CPM): advertisers pay for every one thousand views. For example, if your ad gets 30K views then they pay their base rate 30x’s.

4.      Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): advertisers pay when consumers complete a specific action, such as giving their contact information, getting a sale, etc.

5.     Cost Per Lead (CPL): advertisers pay when someone signs up for something such as an email newsletter, webinar, etc.

Now that we’ve discussed the ways that advertisers pay for performance marketing let’s talk about some of the benefits. The most important one is that is tends to be lower risk since advertisers only pay after a desired action takes place. This will leave more budgeting wiggle room. Second, it’s very trackable. Performance marketing can be measured to where advertisers can watch the entire journey of their audiences’ buying path. It shows which channels are showing better results. Lastly, it increases brand awareness and increased ROI. This is a way to reach new audiences’ brands have not already tapped into. The pros are the same for affiliate marketing. However, there are some down sides to this style of marketing. Brands will have less creative control, they risk putting their brand’s reputation at jeopardy with an affiliate and most programs rely on third party cookies to measure performance, which will no longer be available when Google phases out 3rd party cookies. In summary, having both marketing strategies in your brand’s back pocket is good. Both have benefits but with the phase out of 3rd party cookies soon performance marketing will be taking a front seat. It’s honestly surprising that it took this long to come to the forefront with all the pros it produces. They both assume the risk of overpaying versus how much sales it generates but with performance marketing the risk is lessened. Could performance marketing be the marketing strategy of the future?