Four factors are shaping dramatic shift in buyer behaviour. What the C-suite needs to do in response
We are at the dawn of a new reality driven by personal and professional change. The pandemic has overhauled nearly every aspect of life, from how people make payments to how doctor’s visits are conducted, where people choose to live, and how workplaces operate. It’s not a new normal, it’s an entirely new reality in a new world.
Dramatic shifts in buyer behaviour
Rapid change is not limited to organizations–it’s equally impacting the way customers buy. The modern buyer is autonomous, independent, and digitally driven. Our research at Vistage shows 78 percent of CEOs report dramatic shifts in buyer behaviour as the result of Covid, led by four main factors:
Shift to digital buying: Buyers are taking their shopping online and conducting far more research on their own, prior to purchase.
Virtual selling replacing in-person: Virtual selling is increasingly replacing traditional face-to-face interactions; customers may be more interested in setting up a video than meeting in-person.
Slower sales cycle: After initial periods of panic-buying subsided, customers are more cautious and measured, and less likely to take risks, creating a slower sales cycle.
Covid market dynamics: Everything from a lack of trade shows to supply chain issues and inflation have greatly impacted the buying experience.
Supply chain issues and inflation may cycle with time, but how buyers acquire, source, and utilize information to make purchases has changed forever. CEOs must be willing to meet customers where they are, or risk falling behind.
Re-imagine marketing and sales strategies
Every step of the customer journey should be smooth and consistent, no matter the digital platform or human interactions.
Virtual – Buyers first became unable to meet with salespeople in-person during the pandemic and now have grown accustomed to purchasing virtually. While some degree of face-to-face selling will re-emerge eventually, it will never return to pre-pandemic levels. Digital is here to stay, and subsequently, the significance of the digital buying experience has increased tenfold.
Website is king – Today’s buyer has unlimited research available at their fingertips. They are more informed, more empowered to shop around, and more comfortable acting without the help of a salesperson. The digital customer experience can no longer be a simple shopping cart; it must cultivate and maintain a robust relationship with customers, at scale. Business leaders should focus on providing an engaging virtual experience. The company website is a company’s digital storefront, engaging potential buyers at all phases and helping satisfy their search for information, from capabilities to price. The website must be the CEO’s primary focus area when it comes to customer engagement.
Customer touch points – Social media should be the second most highly regarded area of digital investment for CEOs. It helps create and grow the customer relationship, beyond sales, and has the power to drive links to purchase. It’s critical that social media echoes the same messaging provided on other platforms, from online search to advertising campaigns and virtual help desks.
Customer service– When customers finally find themselves requiring human assistance, it’s increasingly imperative that sales and marketing act in alignment. Customer service should serve as product experts and brand ambassadors–they must be able to provide more information than a Google search would yield. Customers spend less time interacting with sales, and meet them later in the journey, so the touch points must be focused and value-driven.
Takeaways
A cross-industry shift to digital was already in progress, but the pandemic greatly accelerated our progression toward a digital future. Business leaders who are able to quickly embrace and adapt to change will have a significant competitive advantage over those who try to return to their previous models.
CEOs must make a mindset shift to digital, from rethinking marketing strategy, to re-inventing customers’ digital experience, and realigning sales and marketing teams to create a world in which digital buyers can thrive. The buyer has spoken: Modern customers want to be empowered to self-inform, self-educate, and self-purchase. CEOs who successfully pivot to address customers’ changing desires and reinvest their sales and marketing strategies accordingly will be primed for success in the years to come.
Email marketing is a powerful way for you to communicate with potential customers, and persuade them to buy from your small business. People on your email list have already signed up to get more information from you, and now you’ve got their details saved with the best CRM software.
So how do you capitalize on that interest and turn them into paying customers? It’s a delicate process. You need to balance your email marketing strategy with the right campaigns and messaging, so you can keep people engaged. We can help.
In this article, we’ll explore some proven marketing email examples and techniques that you can use to drive leads through your marketing funnel, and get them to buy. You’ll be able to create strong email campaigns, understand the types of emails you need to send, hone your messaging, and discover the best marketing tools and software to reach your goals.
Let’s get into it.
Understanding the context for your email marketing
Before we get into the specifics, it’s helpful to understand how email fits into your overall marketing strategies and campaigns. We recommend reading through our previous guides, as they’ll provide useful context and understanding.
Email marketing is a great addition to your other marketing channels, like ads and organic marketing. Start with a grounding in marketing 101, and learn what those other channels are. Next, it’s helpful to create some overall marketing strategies, as they will inform your email marketing approach.
Marketing funnels are a critical part of connecting with potential customers and persuading them to buy, and we outlined how to do that with each of the main marketing channels. Email is very much a mid- and bottom-of-funnel marketing channel.
Here, we’ll assume you already have techniques for getting people to sign up to your email list, through lead magnets, incentives, and other means.
Email marketing campaigns and examples
Email marketing campaigns allow you to communicate to the customers you want, how you want, and when you want (Image credit: Unsplash)
An email marketing campaign brings together several factors so that you can communicate to the right people in the right way at the right time. Here are some of the areas you’ll want to cover, together with some examples.
Define the purpose of your email marketing campaign
Each email marketing campaign should have a distinct purpose, normally based on what you want the campaign to achieve. This purpose should be closely aligned with your overall business goals and marketing strategies. One email campaign can serve multiple purposes, but be careful not to try to do too much with each campaign.
Examples of email marketing campaign purposes
Raise awareness of your business and brand to create positive associations
Share helpful information and educational content with your audience to build trust
Generate traffic to your website by pointing readers to useful resources
Nurture leads over time to drive them towards buying your products and services
Incentivize purchases through special offers, discount codes, and other techniques
Decide what success looks like and track your email metrics
Once you have a campaign purpose in place, you can define how you’ll measure its success. You can use this information to set baselines and make improvements to optimize your campaigns further.
Examples of email metrics
Email open rate: The number and percentage of people who opened and read your email
Email click-through rate: The number and percentage of people who clicked on a link in your email and arrived at your website
Email conversion rate: The number and percentage of people who took a desired action on your website after clicking through
Email automation software will help you track all of these factors, and can be integrated into your website analytics to track areas like conversion and revenue.
Understand who your audience is and the right approach and tone of voice
You need to identify your audience so that you can communicate with them in the right way. This involves analysing who you’re trying to appeal to and creating marketing personas. Then, you can choose an approach for your email messaging that communicates with your audience in an engaging way.
As you’re considering the right approach, try and put yourself in the mind of your reader. Think about what would most appeal to them. Look at the previous and future email messages they’ll receive, and choose the style of email to complement the overall campaign.
Examples of email approaches and styles
Visual: Heavy use of images to enhance visual appeal and build your brand
Interactive: Built-in links to audio, video, and other interactive content
Informational: Helpful information that informs and educates the reader
Supportive: Guides the audience through possible solutions using your products and services
Authoritative: Positions your business and brand as leading experts in your industry
Promotional: Incentivizes customers to purchase your products and services
Create an email campaign schedule for the messages you will send
Most email campaigns are known as “drip” campaigns, because they send out messages over time. This drip-feed of information keeps you front-of-mind with your readers, and lets you build on previous messages, branding, and goodwill.
This means you should schedule the messages you want to send, at an appropriate frequency for your audience. You’ll want to vary the content so that you’re not over-emphasizing any one particular thing, but you’re still supporting your overall campaign goals.
Think about the right combination and timing of your emails to drive readers toward your desired actions, and set the schedule accordingly.
Write the specific email messages you will send to your audience
Finally, you’ll want to create your email messages, which we’ll cover in detail below.
Email marketing messages and examples
You can take multiple approaches to email campaign writing, but ensure you’ve chosen the right ones for the right aims (Image credit: Unsplash)
Your email messages are at the heart of a successful campaign. There are dozens of different approaches you can use to optimize your messages, and we’ve listed some of the more common examples below.
Example email approaches to create emotion
Provoke curiosity and intrigue the audience by using questions and suggestions in email subject lines
Make your readers laugh by using wit and humour in your messaging
Personalize messages and create authenticity based on information in your email list and CRM
Example email approaches to drive recognition
Strengthen brand recognition by developing strong and unique imagery that you can share in your emails
Theme your emails around specific events and seasons
Share news and updates in your industry that affect your products, services, or customers
Use different layouts, designs, images, and interactive elements for messaging
Try out animation and other techniques for an eye-catching result
Example email approaches to build trust
Show contemporary knowledge by using pop culture to put a different spin on your emails
Build trust through providing best-in-class guides and resources that answer questions and solve problems
Follow up on successful purchases, providing additional information, support, and guidance
Example email approaches to drive sales
Encourage readers to buy your products by using discount codes and incentives
Inspire urgency in sales emails through limited-time offers
Vary your “calls to action” to see what leads to the most click-throughs and purchases
Example email approaches to optimize all messages
Test out different headlines through split-testing and other techniques to optimize open rates
Open your emails on various devices to ensure they read and display well
Try out various tones of voice and approaches to your messaging, to see what lands
Experiment with different parts of your audience’s “buyer journey”, and tailor messaging to each stage
Once you’ve developed your campaign, experimented with your messaging approaches, and written your messages, it’s time to automate your email marketing.
The best software and tools for automating your email marketing
By taking advantage of the best automation tools and software, you can improve email marketing and save time (Image credit: Pexels)
Automating your marketing will save you enormous amounts of time, allow you to schedule your campaigns and messages, and track responses and metrics. Marketing automation will work alongside your CRM software to manage all of your marketing campaigns, via email and other channels.
HubSpot: HubSpot provides a complete suite of CRM, sales, customer service, and marketing software, including email automation, workflows, and tracking.
Mailchimp: Mailchimp offers a wide range of email and automation features that will engage customers and drive interaction with your business. You can design engaging emails, build your email list, manage your campaigns, and implement your strategy.
Constant Contact: Constant Contact is one of the staples of email marketing services, enabling business owners to create unique email marketing campaigns to reach their customers.
Zoho Campaigns: Zoho Campaigns provides a wide range of newsletter templates that are very visually appealing for both clients and customers alike.
All of these tools provide lots of great email templates and examples to help you create the perfect marketing messages and campaigns.
We hope this guide provides you with some helpful techniques and inspiration to connect with your email lists, engage with leads, and drive sales.
Paul is a professional writer who creates extensively researched, expert, in-depth guides across business, finance, and technology. He loves the challenge of taking complex subjects and breaking them down so they are easy to understand. He can quote ‘The Princess Bride’ in its entirety and believes the secret to good writing is Earl Grey tea.
I’m one of those truly weird marketing geeks who loves planning, simply because I can’t stand just doing “stuff” without having conviction around whether or not it’s the right stuff.
So how do we approach marketing planning with the greatest chance of success? Here’s how I’ve worked with my teams on planning, along with a few tips for planning during these hybrid times.
Start With the Customer
As with most things in marketing, good planning starts with the customer. This typically means revisiting your ideal customer profile (ICP) and customer segmentation. Has anything changed? What is your data showing — is one segment far outperforming another? Has your ICP changed, or (for enterprise) has your buyer’s committee expanded to include more influencers? Ask yourself these critical questions before you start formulating those brilliant marketing ideas. It’s also helpful to look at the market and see if any outside factors have had a significant impact on your customers’ businesses. For example, how has the global pandemic affected your businesses? What changes have you made as a result?
Don’t Ignore Your Competitors
Unless you’re working for one of those huge tech companies that have few (if any) competitors, it’s also a good idea to take a look at what your competitors have been up to. Have they launched new features that they’re promoting? Have they changed their pricing strategy? Have they updated their website with new messaging that makes you think a little differently about your own?
While I think it’s smart to stay more focused on your customers’ needs vs. playing chicken with your competitors, it’s helpful to stay current on what they’re up to so you don’t find yourself scrambling to compete one month into your new marketing plan. I find it particularly helpful to create SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) grids for each competitor as well as my company. Doing this can help you define where to place your bets. If you go this route, be sure that you don’t make assumptions about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses — rely on objective facts you gather from actually using their product(s), from customer reviews on third party review sites, and from your competitors’ websites.
A List Is Not a Plan (and an Objective Is Not a Goal)
One of the biggest mistakes I see marketers make is jumping right to the fun stuff: that list of marketing ideas they want to try! No matter how creative or even how data-driven that list is — and even if it’s a timeline or calendar view — it’s still just a list of stuff unless you’ve started with an idea of what you’re trying to achieve. In other words, what is your objective? It’s important to understand that an objective is not the same as a goal. For example, an objective might be: Grow business from the Retail segment. Whereas your marketing goal would be: Deliver 1,500 MQLs from Retail by June 30, 2022.
The objective helps set the stage for the marketing strategies you’re going to employ. Whereas the goal is simply a measurement of whether or not you achieved the objective.
Strategy … the Hardest (and Most Critical) Part
I’ve seen great marketing plans that started with an objective, had a great list of creative marketing tactics … and still failed. Typically when this happens it’s because there was no clear glue between the objectives and the tactics. The “glue” that’s missing is the strategy, and it’s often missing because it’s the most misunderstood word in business. I guarantee that if you Google the word “strategy,” you’ll likely find multiple different but somewhat overlapping definitions. I think of strategy as the way you define at a high level how you’re going to achieve your objective.
The first step is often the hardest. New undertakings can feel complicated and intimidating before one dives in and gets a feel. At LinkedIn, we recognize that this can be the case with Campaign Manager. When investing in your brand’s success, no marketer wants to miss a step or get off on the wrong foot.
Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to setting up your first campaign. Through these straightforward instructions, you can square away your targeting, ad format, budget, and more. Plus, we’ve included some insider tips to maximize your success right off the bat.
(Note, the guidance below covers the setup process after you click “Create Campaign.” For specifics on creating your account and campaign groups, we recommend checking out our LinkedIn Learning course, Marketing on LinkedIn: The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide, which walks you through everything.)
Setting Up Your First LinkedIn Campaign in 5 Easy Steps
1. Choose your objective
We believe it’s important to build your entire campaign around what you hope to achieve, which is why this is the very first step. You’ll want to decide whether your goal is awareness, consideration, or conversions. Then, you can select from subcategories to get more specific. If you’re unsure which one to choose, this blog post explains how to select the best objective for your LinkedIn ad campaign.
Tip: We highly recommend balancing your objectives across the awareness, consideration, and conversions category, as part of a full-funnel marketing approach.
2. Choose the right audience
As a preface, we strongly suggest saving an audience once you’ve created one, so you can use it again. This will enable you to frequently skip much of this process in the future.
First up: profile language. This is a basic yet critical step in personalizing your ads for their recipients. LinkedIn offers 19 different language options!
Next you’ll want to customize your location settings — the only other required targeting facet for building an audience. Start at the continent level, then country, etc. In addition to choosing regions you wish to include, you can pick exclusions as well.
From here you can start exploring the more specific and granular targeting criteria, which are organized across five different categories: Company, Demographics, Education, Job Experience, and Interests.
Tip: You can use the Matched Audiences feature for more precise targeting, enabling you to combine your own first-party data with LinkedIn’s robust professional data. Options within Matched Audiences include Email Contact Targeting, Lookalike Targeting, Website Targeting, and Account Targeting.
3. Choose your ad format
Based on your objective, a certain set of ad formats will populate here. Some of the ad types available to advertisers on LinkedIn are:
Text Ads: Consist of a headline, brief text, and an optional image. This format may be placed at the top of the page or on the right rail on desktop pages.
Single Image Ads: Allow you to promote your message directly in the LinkedIn feed. This ad format can be targeted to a specific audience across desktop and mobile
Carousel Ads: Allow you to tell an interactive story with a swipeable series of cards in the LinkedIn feed. You can customize the content and link for each card.
Video Ads: Allow you to engage your audience with interactive content directly in their feed. These ads show up on desktop and mobile.
Dynamic Ads: Personalized ads that appear on the right rail of desktop pages and allow you to acquire followers, showcase your product, and share thought leadership.
Message Ads: Direct personalized messages delivered through LinkedIn messenger with a single call-to-action. Messages are only delivered when members are active on LinkedIn to ensure higher conversion. This format is available on desktop and mobile.
Conversation Ads: Allow you to create a choose-your-own path experience for your audience. This allows for deeper engagement with your audience and more conversions. This format allows you to include multiple call-to-action buttons.
Tip: Creative best practices across all ad formats include showcasing value, making every word count, featuring eye-catching imagery, and having a clear call-to-action.
4. Set your budget and schedule
You can select either daily or total budgets, depending on your preferred spending structure.
The start date for your campaign will automatically set itself to the current date, unless you select otherwise.
When it comes to bidding, the automated bid option is what we generally recommend, because the tool will most efficiently use your budget without stringent oversight required. For best results, we advise going with the recommended bid or higher.
With the objective, audience, format, and budget all squared away, it’s time to push your campaign live! Note that new ads are reviewed by LinkedIn before being served to members, but this process usually takes less than 24 hours. (Learn more in our advertising guidelines.)
Once the ad is active on the platform, you’ll start gathering data and insights, which can help you optimize and improve results. We recommend letting ads run for seven consecutive days before making optimizations, but at that point, you can begin drawing conclusions and tweaking campaign elements based on what you’re seeing in these performance categories.
Tip: A little attention and oversight can go a long way when it comes to maximizing the value of your ad spend on LinkedIn. Evaluate campaigns each week to check bid ranges, make sure the daily budget is properly allocated, and more.
Now You’re Ready to Rock Your First Campaign
With these five simple steps, you’ve launched a LinkedIn ad campaign and checked all the necessary boxes. Remember: all of the above steps will become more efficient after you’ve gone through once and saved your audience for future use.
For a more in-depth walkthrough of all this information, including videos, interactive exercises, and knowledge checks, we invite you to experience our LinkedIn Marketing Labs course, Introduction to LinkedIn Ads. It’s free and, dare I say, even kind of fun?
Marketers sell you the solution to your problems. A good marketer will make you desire their product, even if you didn’t want it in the first place.
However, your target customer needs to relate to your business on some level. Otherwise, no amount of sugar coating will compel them to buy your product. Therefore, connecting a product to a story is an effective way of marketing as more people will find it relatable.
‘Storytelling’ Marketing has become an effective trend in recent years. Marketers love to present narratives that convince the customers to invest in their products. However, storytelling is an art, and many professionals get it wrong. If you are an aspiring marketer, here’s how you can make your brand’s storytelling more compelling.
Connect to customers with effective brand storytelling
Impressing clients and generating leads are the two main goals of successful marketing. An attractive brand story can achieve both easily. However, coming up with a good enough concept to build your brand’s story is a whole different task altogether. Check out these tips to improve your brand storytelling skills:
1. Understand What Your Target Audience Wants
While marketing their product, many brands’ biggest mistake is ignoring their target audience’s wants. Instead, they’re so invested in the features and attributes of their product they forget about the needs and demands.
Therefore, before you work on any marketing idea, identify the target audience and their needs. Launching your product without planning won’t get you the best results. For example, one audience group might care about what you’re offering, but the other won’t even bat an eye. So, instead, create a brand story that relates to your product’s expertise without forgetting your target audience’s requirements.
2. Emotionally Connect With Your Audience
Boring statistics or data does not attract most consumers. Instead, they want to see an advertisement they can relate to. Naturally, this will eventually lead to better sales. However, if you have to add data to your advertisement, why not fit it into a compelling narrative?
You have to present your data to your target audience so they can get emotionally attached to what you’re offering. For that, you have to be creative and think out of the box instead of simply throwing stats at your clients. For example, brands like Netflix use data to suggest and develop content according to popular demand. The bottom line is, you have to lure your target audience into buying your product or service. Consequently, an emotional brand narrative can increase conversions significantly.
3. Know Your Brand
Besides knowing your target audience, it’s also highly essential to know your brand, its offering, its objectives, and what it believes in. You should know your products’ most significant selling points and give high importance to the features your target audience cares about.
Moreover, it’s also important to analyse your competition and adapt to market trends. Also, it’s important to take the input of all your employees for creative, relevant, and authentic ideas. You can do this by organizing a survey for your employees to ask for suggestions on the product’s launch.
4. Keep it Simple
In marketing, you should never over-complicate things. It’ll only make matters worse. You don’t want to fend off potential customers by presenting a complex and overly-informative narrative. Instead, you should present your brand’s story in a simple, creative, and precise manner.
Only discuss features and details your target customers are interested in. Have you ever seen Apple over-complicating a product launch? No! They keep everything simple and discuss what needs to be discussed. In your launch, you should discuss the problem your product is addressing, its significance, and how your product can turn out to be the best solution.
5. Add Interesting Visuals
Video is the most common medium brands use to market their product through storytelling. Most customers prefer visual media instead of written media. Here’s an interesting trivia; the human brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than text-based content. However, videos are extremely common these days. Stand out from the rest of the marketing by using original and unique approaches.
For example, you can use attractive animations and visual effects to capture your audience’s attention. You can also use audio advertisements as they’re quite effective as well. Many brands promote their products through podcasts and audio advertisements on audio-streaming platforms like Spotify and Soundcloud. Use interesting creative taglines in your audios or videos as well.
Furthermore, stay updated on modern trends, technology, and media. For example, many professionals use recent sports competitions to market their products. Similarly, you will find popular instances of companies creating memes on social media with creative and humorous product placement.
6. Keep Your Business Model Transparent
Have you ever imagined why Apple is so successful? Whatever they do turns out to be successful. They are so good at selling they might even sell an ordinary piece of rock for hundreds of dollars in their stores. Apple makes so much money because its clientele blindly trusts its quality. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Apple has converted its customers to its brand ambassadors. They present their product with utter transparency and authenticity.
Therefore, you have to make your business model more transparent to your target customers to sell your product. By ensuring authenticity and transparency, you convince your audience to try your services instead of already established brands. Don’t try to scam your consumers by showing something and providing something else. Such gimmicks won’t last long in the current era of social media.
7. Present an Attractive Brand Personality
Last but not least, to captivate your audience, you are required to have an attractive brand personality. Therefore, you need to keep a strong, confident, and persuasive mindset while promoting your product. If you are having difficulties developing such a personality, you can seek the help of a brand communication coach. They’ll help you understand the science behind developing a brand personality that sells.
You should have a persuasive tone while discussing your brand’s story. To this end, share many cases where your product provided customers with an effective solution.
8. Value Your Customers
Customers’ requirements always come first. To sell your product effectively, prioritize your customers in your brand story. Show them how you value their problems and how your product can provide them with the desperately needed solution. Put forward customers’ testimonials where your brand solved their concerns. Be transparent and don’t fool anyone, as trust is one of the biggest factors deciding your brand’s longevity. Once your customers feel valued and respected, they will trust your business and might ditch already established brands for your product.
The Verdict
Marketing techniques can make or break the sales and success of a product. Therefore, telling a brand story that attracts and inspires your consumer base is extremely crucial. Therefore, try to produce a relatable brand story. Furthermore, present it in such a way your consumer has no choice but to go for your product.
Guest author: Muhammad Jazib Khan works as the Digital Marketing Manager for British Assignments Help, where he creates creative content and ideas to promote educational platforms in the market. As well as aligning the company’s goals with online marketing activities. He contributes articles on digital and content marketing regularly.
He is the owner of jeffbullas.com. Forbes calls him a top influencer of Chief Marketing Officers and the world’s top social marketing talent. Entrepreneur lists him among 50 online marketing influencers to watch. Inc.com has him on the list of 20 digital marketing experts to follow on Twitter. Oanalytica named him #1 Global Content Marketing Influencer. BizHUMM ranks him as the world’s #1 business blogger.
Learn which marketing strategies for small business to use
You’re ready to market your small business, and you have several strategies available to you. Will you market yourself through Facebook or Twitter, pay for ads on Google Search, invest in great website content, or start to build out your email list?
When you’re developing your marketing strategy and funnel, and utilizing the best CRM software to keep track of your project, it can be helpful to split your approaches into two broad areas:
Organic marketing strategies for small business, which help your website, articles, and other content appear on search engines and arrive in people’s inboxes
Paid promotion, where you pay for ads to be shown next to search engine results, on websites, and in social media feeds
Getting a foundation in small business marketing
Below, we’re going to discuss organic marketing strategies for small business, and how these can become an essential part of your overall marketing strategy. We’ll dig into the three main organic channels, and look at the best resources, software, tools, and platforms for each one.
We’re building on topics we’ve explored in our previous guides, specifically:
What is a marketing funnel and how does it work?, where we pour ourselves into the idea of the marketing funnel, and discuss why it’s such an important approach to attracting and persuading customers
We recommend you scan through the above posts to get a good grounding on the concepts we’ll be exploring in this guide.
Let’s get into it.
The basics of organic marketing
Utilizing Google Search is just one part of organic marketing strategy (Image credit: Unsplash)
Organic marketing is about promoting your business in three main ways:
Website content marketing that you post on your website or other sites that will attract people to your online business
Social media content that you share into various social media networks, so that your followers and fans can see and react to that content
Newsletter and email content that you send to people who have joined your mailing list
Organic marketing is distinct from paid advertising, because you don’t pay for your content to be shown to your audience. You may still need to pay for the original content creation, but once you’ve done that, you’re relying on organic search, social media feeds, and emails to promote your business.
Website content marketing strategies
Website content marketing can come via your own site, social media, and a range of other third-party mediums (Image credit: Unsplash)
You can use website content marketing in several ways:
Create content that you publish on your own website, so that your pages show up in organic search when people are looking for keywords related to your industry, products, and services
Create content that you publish on other websites, with a link back to your website to help boost the likelihood of appearing in search (by creating backlinks)
Create content that you publish on third-party platforms like YouTube, Medium, Reddit, and so on, which drives interest in your business
Create organic social media content (we’ll get into that a little later)
How to create website content marketing
Here’s a breakdown of the steps you can follow to develop excellent website content marketing:
Develop a content strategy: You don’t just want to be creating content at random – it should all be part of a cohesive marketing strategy. That means building a marketing plan, and aligning your content and channels so you’re communicating in the right way, to the right people, at the right time.
Decide on the type of content you want to create: You have plenty of options here, including: blog articles; videos; explainers; landing pages; images and illustrations; podcasts and audio; branding and graphic design; website design; and more.
Define the content and create instructions: Decide on what you want the content to be, how it should look, the approach it should take, and other key factors.
Find someone to create the content: Depending on your skills and abilities, you can create the content yourself, get an employee to do it, or bring in outside freelance help. For example, the author of this article is a freelance writer who specializes in business and technology.
Work together to create the content: Go through a content draft, creation, review, and feedback process, so that you get the content you want.
Decide where you will publish the content: You might choose to publish on your own website, on a related site as guest content, or on a third-party platform.
Publish the content and track results: Use analytics and other tools to see how your content does, so you can tweak, refine, and create high-performing content in future.
Best content marketing software and tools
Project and content tracking: GatherContent, Monday.com, Clickup, Asana
Tracking visitors to your sites, how they got there, and what they did: Google Analytics
Content marketing keywords and tracking: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, HubSpot, SEMRush, and other tools
Best freelance content marketer hiring platforms and companies
The best platforms and companies to find and hire freelance content creators from include Fiverr, Fiverr Pro, Upwork, Toptal, 99Designs, LinkedIn, and individual job websites.
Social media organic content marketing strategies
Social media marketing takes multiple forms, including content creation, forums for discussion, and much more (Image credit: Shuttestock/Bloomicon)
You can use social media marketing through several different methods:
Building an overall social media strategy of what you’re going to post and when
Setting up pages, groups, and accounts that your audience can like and follow
Creating and sharing content on your favourite social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn
Managing groups and discussions on social media
Engaging with customers, comments, and other interactions with your brand
How to manage your social media organic marketing
You’ll follow some of the same steps with organic social media marketing as you would with regular website content marketing, so we won’t get into too much of that detail here. Instead, it’s helpful to focus on content marketing approaches that are specific to social media. You will want to:
Develop an organic social media content strategy: As per website content marketing, but with a focus on the social networks where your customers are likely to hand out.
Decide on the type of social media content you want to create: As per website content marketing.
Define the social media content and create instructions: As per website content marketing.
Find someone to create the social media content: As per website content marketing, except you’ll want to find someone who specializes in social media content creation, as it’s a very specific skill set.
Find someone to manage your social media: Hire a social media marketing manager/coordinator who can monitor, manage, and communicate through your social media accounts.
Work together to create the social media content: As per website content marketing.
Decide where you will publish the social media content: As per website content marketing, except you will need to match the content with the social media channel: for example, very visual posts for Instagram and Pinterest, professional posts for LinkedIn, short posts for Twitter, and so on.
Publish the social media content and track results: As per website content marketing.
Best social media marketing software and tools
Social media content creation: Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, Premier, etc), MS Office, Google Office Suite, Canva
Tracking visitors to your websites, how they got there, and what they did: Google Analytics
Social media marketing, monitoring, and tracking: Google Analytics, HubSpot, Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social
Email and newsletter organic content marketing strategies
Creating marketing strategies for email and newsletter campaigns means promoting yourself to existing leads (Image credit: Unsplash)
Email and newsletter marketing are slightly different from the other methods we’ve mentioned, as you’ll be marketing to people who have already signed up for your email list. This does mean a slightly different approach, as you’ll be sharing information with leads who already know about your business. The process tends to work as follows:
Encourage people to sign up to receive emails from you, normally by incentivizing them through a lead magnet or similar marketing
Build an email list of interested leads
Create an email marketing campaign that sends out helpful news, guides, and information about your products and services
Setup email automation to send out your emails
Track the effectiveness of your email campaigns
How to create emails and newsletters
You’ll follow some of the same steps with newsletter and email marketing as you would with regular website content marketing. We’ll cover that briefly, but focus more on the aspects that are unique to email and newsletters.
Develop an email and newsletter marketing campaign: You’ll want to put together a step-by-step marketing strategy and campaign for the specific mix of emails you send out, together with a timeline for emailing after a customer has signed up.
Decide on the type of email content you want to create: As per website content marketing.
Define the email content and create instructions: As per website content marketing.
Find someone to create the email content: As per website content marketing, except you’ll want to find someone who specializes in email and newsletter content creation; also consider the other parts of the email campaign, as these emails will “drip” out and build on each other.
Work together to create the email content: As per website content marketing.
Use email software to automate your drip campaign: We’ve listed some helpful software below.
Send out your emails and track results: You will want to measure open rates and how often people click through.
Marketing automation software can be incredibly helpful for managing your organic channels. From scheduling social media posts to sending out emails on the right timeline, here’s a guide to creating an automated marketing flow that works for you.
Organic marketing is incredibly useful for businesses. Used well, it can create powerful connections, share helpful information, and build trust—which are great starting points for selling your products and services.
Paul is a professional writer who creates extensively researched, expert, in-depth guides across business, finance, and technology. He loves the challenge of taking complex subjects and breaking them down so they are easy to understand. He can quote ‘The Princess Bride’ in its entirety and believes the secret to good writing is Earl Grey tea.
(NewsUSA) – It wasn’t that long ago that Infographics were the “It” tool for public relations and marketing – until they weren’t.
To understand why infographics should still be a viable campaign strategy for clients, we need to understand the history behind them.
In 2012, everyone was producing infographics — usually of low-quality design, although as agencies became more versed in how effective these could be as a sales to market a client’s product, more high-design infographics began emerging. In fact, according to one experienced UK-based SEO and content provider says he was creating 200 to 300 infographics per year in 2014.
In 2016, the industry became flooded, and journalists began rejecting pitches that included, to date, these time-tested marketing strategies.
Fast forward four years, and there remains an argument for keeping infographics as a viable marketing tool in your stable of resources that you pitch to clients. Here’s why:
They have a visual appeal. It’s no surprise that visually presented information is more appealing to the eye than a mountain of text, which means that a graphically-told story will usually pique a reader’s interest before any information is processed.
They are easy to comprehend. The brain is wired in such a way that visual are able to be processed much faster than language. In fact, according to studies, people can follow visual instructions more than 323 percent better than written instructions.
They are easily recalled. If you’re trying to make an impression on a would-be customer, know this: according to studies people can recall only about 10 percent of written content three days after reading it versus 65 percent of information presented in visual form.
They are shareable. Infographics can break down potentially complex information into the bite-size pieces that we have become accustomed to in a visually-appealing format that has the ability to be recalled. In this way, people are more likely to share the content of the infographic.
They can help to increase sales. Go back to the bullet point on recall because it’s worth repeating: the human brain is better at retaining visuals more than text. This means that if you have a complex product or service (think an IT company such as Oracle), it would stand to reason that presenting processes and benefits of using a company’s product might be better presented visually in an infographic, rather than a block of text. This in turn, will help you to stand out from your competition.
They aren’t being promoted as heavily today. There’s no better time than today to start using a tool that has, for many been shelved at worst, and been put on the back burner at best. Think of it this way: if your competitors aren’t using this sales tool, why wouldn’t you? As long as you use a format that is visually appealing to tell your client’s story or present a product or service, it remains a great way to not only attract attention, but for potential customers to remember you.
The bottom line is that infographics continue to be a solid tool when used correctly and can potentially add fantastic benefits as part of a wider content marketing strategy.
Brand reputation is the determining factor that decides whether consumers will pay and recruits will apply.
“I don’t know why you are. I don’t know your company. I don’t know your company’s product. I don’t know what your company stands for. I don’t know your company’s customers. I don’t know your company’s record. I don’t know your company’s reputation. Now, what was it you wanted to sell me?” – McGraw-Hill
The quote is from one of the most famous advertisements in which McGraw-Hill brings forward the thought that a company’s reputation is a requirement for the successful selling of a product or service. Sales must start before the salesperson calls on the would-be customer. That is possible only when the brand has an admirable and first-rate reputation in the market. A brand having a good reputation contributes to the enhancement of its products and services’ value. Likewise, a bad reputation devalues products and services and brings in further decline. Furthermore, if a brand is consistently projecting a lucid image of itself, it is more likely to build a more substantial reputation and be remembered in the future.
Brand reputation is the determining factor that decides whether consumers will pay and recruits will apply. A poor and weak reputation will negatively affect a company, while on the other hand, a good reputation will help a company both operationally and financially. In contrast to corporate image, brand reputation is owned by the public.
Reputational strategy
Whether the reputation of the brand will be strong or weak will depend on the quality of the strategic model adopted. As the profession of public relations moves more and more toward being a reputation-managing function within organizations and is less often considered an exclusive part of the marketing mix, strategizing becomes an increasingly important tool for brands.
A brand’s strategy model affects the nature of its corporate reputation. A market-oriented understanding of strategy will produce market-oriented PR. A reputation-and-relationship-oriented knowledge of strategy will build reputation-and-relationship-oriented PR. It is at the moment of strategizing that crucial and defining choices must be made about the range of people who are essential to the brand, the balance of one-way and two-way communication in a campaign, the emphasis that will be placed on reputation-building and relationship-building outcomes, the values or critical ethical principles, the general timeframe within which goals will be measured and what kind of entity the brand sees itself as being.
Brand reputation consists of four crucial factors: reliability, responsibility, credibility and trustworthiness. Many theorists also argue that a brand’s culture hugely influences strategy implementation, reputation and performance. As such, brands should concentrate on building a magnificent culture. The strategy should address reputation weaknesses through evolution, not revolution — aiming to achieve understanding rather than adoration from the public.
Protecting reputations and relationships
The legal and communication environments in which practitioners operate have been globalized — or at least internationalized. Communication techniques are moving away from mass-market campaigns to targeted activities that depend on relationships and reputations.
Information exchange and storage are now integral to forming effective relationships and allowing brands to ‘individualize and personalize’ messages. The increasing reliance on computer-stored information to target communication strategies has seen information privacy emerge as a critical legal risk for public relations practitioners. Consumers are more willing to trade their personal information with those brands which have a good reputation. In addition, there are strong commercial reasons for brands implementing effective privacy policies. However, a targeted approach is recommended to address privacy concerns that take account of a wide range of problems relating to privacy. Brands must investigate the patterns of consumer sensitivity regarding information privacy, incorporate these concerns into existing databases and align communication strategies (including direct marketing).
Four key segments
Companies should consider the following four key segments to analyse a rising concern that may threaten their brand reputation:
1. The elements of the brand
Positioning of a brand in the marketplace: A problem that becomes more dangerous if the situation gets weaker — for example, market shares or favourability in the corporate sector.
Strengths or weaknesses of a brand: If a brand can be distinguished at an extreme level, the better it is for the company affected unless the vital demarcation element is the subject of concern.
The fundamental meaning of the brand.
2. Situation of crisis
The intensity of the situation from the beginning: If a problem affects many people, or if it is an alarming issue. For example, finding salmonella in food products leads to severe health problems or even death.
3. Initiatives taken by a company
Effect on brand: All activities carried out by a company influence the brand, especially communications.
4. Evaluation of results
Measuring efficiency: In terms of recuperation/reopening, rebranding or shifting market share.
To manage the reputation of a brand, PR practitioners must operate in a legal framework. Legal advice must be interpreted from a PR perspective to ensure that quality decisions are made. Working with legal input, PR practitioners can move towards a systematic approach to dealing with the law. Brands should develop a legal strategy for their specialty area, setting best practice benchmarks in potential areas, such as contract law, intellectual property, defamation, contempt and consumer protection law. Developing a legal strategy and compliance systems will not eliminate legal problems, but it will go a long way towards minimizing the harm that may arise from these problems.
Litigation public relations
Sometimes parties to litigation or brands charged with offenses look to public relations to “control the damage” of proceedings. Communications strategies adopted during the litigation process to manage the effect/impact of proceedings on a brand’s reputation are commonly referred to as “litigation public relations”. Litigation PR aims to counteract negative publicity, present a client’s viewpoint, ensure balanced media coverage, help the media and the public understand complex legal issues, defuse a hostile environment and help resolve conflict. Any practitioner engaged in litigation public relations must be aware of the legal status of any case and factor the contempt of court laws into any advice offered to brands seeking strategies to minimize potential harm. Liaising with court public information officers will help practitioners to keep track of proceedings.
The public relations duty of care
Many brands establish contracts with PR agencies, in which particular standards of care are specified. If these standards are not met, then the brands have a right of action in the contract. Professionals are obliged to give skilled advice based on the possession of a body of knowledge. In public relations, a duty of care will arise where advice is provided on a brand matter; the adviser knows or ought to know that a brand will rely on the advice given. A practitioner’s obligation to exercise proper care also extends to third parties who can reasonably be expected to rely on this information and advice, including shareholders and investors.
Public relations has a vital function in developing various corporate activities, which results in promoting brand reputation. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the schemes opted by PR for targeted audiences to boost corporate reputation. Ultimately, it would be safe to say that PR practitioners cannot build and maintain a good reputation for a lousy brand; it will not last. Practitioners must bring appropriate policies and ensure good quality of products or services. If asked to do so, PR professionals should be transparent to the management of the brand by revealing its reality and proposing new favourable policies.
A recipient of numerous leadership and innovation awards, Krishna Athal has a BA in business and enterprise, an MBA in leadership and management and is currently a PhD candidate in leadership and entrepreneurship.
Guggenheim analyst sees signs of continued weakness on user trends
Pinterest Inc. shares have lost roughly half of their value over the past 12 months, and a snapback may have to wait.
While the social-media company proved popular early in the pandemic as stir-crazy internet users looked for inspiration online, Pinterest PINS, +0.86%had trouble maintaining that momentum once COVID-19 conditions improved and people started leaving their homes more. The company saw disappointing user trends in its two most recent quarters, and Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris is concerned that the company is still suffering from weak dynamics.
Morris downgraded Pinterest shares to neutral from buy Tuesday, while also cutting his estimates on user trends. He now expects the company to report 438 million monthly active users for the fourth quarter, whereas his prior estimate was for 447 million.
Shares of Pinterest were down 9% in Tuesday trading.
Morris looked at data from Pinterest Ads Manager, which indicated to him a decline in “aggregate global audience reach” from November to December and marked the second straight month of sequential drops, though October admittedly saw the “largest total audience reach of 2021.”
He also looked at third-party data from Apptopia, which pointed to a fourth consecutive month of sequential declines in average daily app downloads through Dec. 15.
“With shares under consistent pressure since reporting below-consensus user trends in 2Q21, we have been hesitant to downgrade in front of potential user stabilization,” Morris wrote, but the “data indicating continued usage weakness and another quarter of below-consensus” prompted his most recent call.
He still sees opportunities for Pinterest to capitalize on its “high-purchase-intent user behaviour” but has concerns as well about the company’s positioning: “[W]e don’t see the platform’s use case as developing as rapidly as peers, creating risk that competitors improve their social commerce offerings more quickly than Pinterest capitalizes on its position.”
Let’s face it, today’s retail landscape is pretty confusing. Some brands are closing brick and mortar locations while others are reopening after a multiple-year hiatus, all while having to provide solid customer experiences regardless of where they’re taking place. Today, we’ll take a closer look at the role technology plays amid all of this chaos and bring to light some solutions for brands to apply as we kick off the new year.
In this Q&A, we’ll hear from Marcel Hollerbach, chief innovation officer at Productsup, an ecommerce data integration company, on why this industry in particular is faced with constant anarchy and how brands can learn to cope.
Gary Drenik: It’s no secret the retail landscape is evolving. Can you outline some of the most common challenges brands are facing today?
Marcel Hollerbach: In 2021 alone, our industry received a complete makeover. Digital natives like Amazon expanded their in-store presence, supply chains were strained, shopping on social platforms moved mainstream, and the metaverse took on a new level of prominence – 32% of US consumers are interested in shopping in the metaverse, according to Raconteur’s Future of Retail report. Ecommerce is booming, and brands are realizing more than ever that they need a long-term strategy to seamlessly integrate online and in-person selling channels to maintain a competitive edge.
The hybrid shopping experience requires brands to cultivate enjoyable customer experiences at every consumer touchpoint that the ‘shopping’ takes place – ranging from social channels like TikTok to marketplaces like Google Shopping, retargeting platforms, price comparison sites, and more. But this is easier said than done, as the path between a company and its customers has become significantly complex with thousands of marketing and selling channels.
To complicate matters more, companies have been using a piece-meal approach, adding on a tech solution here and there to ‘optimize’ their omnichannel strategy. But new research shows business decision-makers are concerned with the consistency of product information passing through their tech stack. Inconsistent, inaccurate, and incomplete product information across channels prevents brands from creating a compelling presence on the various platforms their consumers spend time on.
Without a firm strategy to navigate this chaos, also known as commerce anarchy, brands are susceptible to slowly losing credibility and distinctiveness. Brands can thrive in the chaos by embracing this concept with a clear understanding of the problem and developing comprehensive solutions that tackle it head-on.
Drenik: You mention ‘commerce anarchy’ as a term that accurately describes the daily struggle brands experience as they navigate omnichannel B2B, B2C, and D2C processes. What are some current, real-life examples of commerce anarchy in the industry?
Hollerbach: Commerce anarchy is everywhere. We see it in our everyday lives but often don’t realize these results from mismanaging product information value chains. You can identify commerce anarchy through inaccurate product descriptions, low-resolution images, or price errors, which can cost brands money and customer loyalty. Keep in mind, product information is usually handled by an average of four systems in each organization, creating data silos and the potential for a misinformation disaster.
Even some of the most prominent players have fallen victim to commerce anarchy, like Nike messing up the use of Greek letters on one of its shoes. Or on the micro-level, someone accidentally sold a Bored Ape NFT for $3,000 instead of $300,000 because of a misplaced decimal point.
Drenik: Thanks for outlining some examples of the chaotic retail industry. I think it’s safe to say every brand has experienced commerce anarchy in some form! In fact, recent Prosper Insights & Analytics data found only 13.6% of US adults had an ‘excellent’ in-store shopping experience this holiday season. How do you propose we fix this problem? In other words, what can brands do today to get ahead of the commerce anarchy issue?
Prosper – In Store Shopping Experience. Prosper Insights & Analytics
Hollerbach: I mentioned that organizations use four systems on average to manage product information. This inefficient operation is a perfect opportunity to streamline communications and tackle commerce anarchy head-on.
To address the need for a fresh approach, Constellation Research recently identified a new category of technology solutions, product-to-consumer (P2C) management, that aims to simplify the process for companies to reach consumers with their products. Many brands are missing opportunities to expand into new channels, like social media, because not only do they lack a comprehensive understanding of the product data requirements to sell in those channels, but they also don’t have the human resources or technology to tailor product experiences. P2C enables companies to manage a two-directional flow of product information across more than 2,500 marketing and selling channels in a single, centralized system. Cutting a straight path for data to flow between suppliers and buyers can eliminate up to 50 different categories of applications inside organizations.
Drenik: We’re familiar with B2B, B2C, and D2C strategies. You mention P2C management as a winning strategy for brands looking to tackle new and established retail challenges. Can you share more about what a P2C strategy looks like and how brands can adopt them effectively?
Hollerbach: A successful P2C management strategy helps brands of all sizes maximize the information flowing throughout their commerce ecosystem to enhance customer experiences and minimize miscommunication. There are three crucial components of this strategy necessary to yield the results brands need to drive sales and maintain long-lasting customer relationships.
First, it is imperative to optimize consumer reach by implementing real-time product content syndication to every channel customers use to find inspiration, browse, compare, make decisions, and ultimately complete transactions.
Then, ensuring the information communicated across these platforms is up-to-date, consistent, and accurate requires regular improvements. This process happens through automated tracking, analytics, reporting, data mapping of system flows, and syndication.
Finally, brands need the complete picture of every information source involved – including sellers, manufacturers, and customers. A successful P2C approach allows companies to incorporate all key messaging, product data, and customer feedback into one streamlined portal that distributes one clear, consistent story.
Drenik: According to a recent Prosper Insights & Analytics survey, new consumer shopping trends are taking flight, with over 40% of US adults regularly using ‘shop now’ features to buy products advertised on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Can you share a few predictions you have for the 2022 retail landscape? How long are we likely to see commerce anarchy progress, and does it have the potential to transform into something else?
Prosper – Regularly Shop Now On Social Media Platforms. Prosper Insights & Analytics
Hollerbach: 2021 was a preview for what we’ll see more of in 2022 – both as it relates to commerce anarchy and the transformation of brands. I see this being the year of customer experiences – a time where brands are forced to implement strategies like P2C management that work with them rather than against them. We know this evolving landscape is ripe with opportunities, so the brands who gain control over their current tech stacks will be in a good position to explore new technological advancements, thus staying ahead of the competition. For example, moves toward a metaverse future will be the big plays to watch in 2022. While it isn’t clearly defined yet, the development of the metaverse is moving rapidly, prompting brands to take it seriously. Think back to the rise of ecommerce or the internet – many organizations are still paying for the mistake of not adopting these trends early on.
What’s certain is that more and more consumers will immerse themselves in digital environments this year, and they will be eager to see how their favorite brands get involved. This migration to digital is already happening in the form of NFTs, where brands can leverage digital products to fuel a more exhilarating customer experience. Some major brands are already doing this. For example, Asics introduced collections of digital sneakers to the NFT marketplace, and Adidas Originals followed suit. Cavalry Ventures also recently launched an NFT collection using Productsup’s Metaverse enablement solution. But commerce anarchy will only heighten as digital assets become mainstream, so brands wanting to take the leap into the virtual world need to get their P2C strategies in check.
Drenik: Thanks, Marcel, for giving us the lowdown on today’s retail landscape. There are certainly a lot of moving parts, but with some of the tools and solutions you named, brands can feel prepared to tackle commerce anarchy in 2022.
I cover consumer-centric insights and analytics that provide executives with solutions needed to drive strategy. I am the CEO of Prosper Business Development where, for more than 20 years, we have provided market leadership and developed contemporary solutions to help Fortune 500 companies navigate change that impacts their business. I got my start in the radio industry.
