Unsure of your next marketing strategy? Here’s why nostalgia never fails.
In one of the most iconic scenes from the Emmy-winning television series Mad Men, advertising executive Don Draper pitches the name “Carousel” for Kodak’s slide projector. “[An old colleague] told me the most important idea in advertising is ‘new.’ Creates an itch–you simply put your product in there, as a kind of calamine lotion,” Draper says. “But he also talked about a deeper bond with the product: nostalgia. It’s delicate–but potent.”
As he flips through old photos of his family on the slide projector, Draper further describes nostalgia as “a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.” While Kodak’s (fictional) marketing executives were insistent that the word wheel be used to brand their futuristic piece of technology, Draper sells the device as a time machine, rather than a spaceship.
That scene is set in the 1960s. But if you fast-forward to today, Draper’s message still resonates. This is partially because the message still stands out–many marketing strategies remain focused on the “new,” for understandable reasons. Particularly in the world of tech, consumers want to know what unique benefit your product brings to their life, often requiring a fresh set of features to unlock that value.
But there will always be new, newer, and newest. That’s the fleeting nature of technology–Draper called it a “glittering lure.” Distinct memories, on the other hand, are unique and irreplaceable. Using nostalgia is the trigger that brings those memories and emotions back.
Research shows that people are 22x more likely to remember a story over a fact. And that’s just any story–nostalgia prompts people to recall their own stories. When watching the ’80s-inspired TV series Stranger Things (and the surrounding marketing assets around the show), folks from that generation–consciously or unconsciously–recall memories from that era and associate that positive experience with their viewing.
Spotify cleverly used the ’80s song “Never Ending Story” and the original actor from the movie to say that the song is still streamed today, with the tag line “Stories end. Songs are forever.” Uber used Wayne’s World actors Michael Myers and Dana Carvey to connect with the show’s fans from the early ’90s, making their message to “Eat local” that much more compelling.
And those are examples that romanticize the past. A recent commercial from CarMax relives parts of our past that “we don’t ever need to experience again,” including wearing headgear, renting movies from a physical store, running with a CD player, and–to pay it all off–having only one way to buy a car. While these behaviours now seem ridiculous, they were, at the time, part of normal life. With the song selection of “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips for the commercial, the brand is sending a clear signal of nostalgia, even if they’re poking fun at it.
My team and I wanted to evoke a similar emotion with our latest brand campaign at Yext. Our search platform is intended to replace keyword search, a technology that hasn’t changed since the ’90s and yet is still widely used. And so we personified Keyword Search and juxtaposed “him” with three other technologies from the era that have evolved (Cellphone, Internet, and Storage) at a faux high school reunion. As Cellphone, Internet, and Storage reminisce about how far they’ve come since the ’90s, Keyword Search stands out as an over-the-top character who’s stuck in that time period, right down to his frosted tips. For viewers who grew up in the ’90s, we’re hoping they connect with the struggles of dial-up internet or clunky cellphones–and realize how absurd it is to be using an unchanged technology from that era in the present day.
Of course, all of the brands mentioned above eventually bring users into the present and explain their product’s value proposition. Focusing on “new,” in some form or another, is here to stay. But what’s also timeless are real, human connections with our past, and that’s where nostalgia marketing can serve as an effective and memorable way to capture your audience’s attention.
Analytics give an important way for businesses to track and measure whether they are meeting their goals. We have analytics to track online marketing efforts, finances and many other aspects of business. Now, analytics technology is being used for human resources (HR), especially in the recruitment of employees but also in much broader company applications. This type of technology is known as people analytics, or you may hear it referred to as HR, workforce or talent analytics.
What is people analytics? How can it be used by HR professionals, including those in hospitality?
Definition of People Analytics
People analytics uses technology to determine insights about potential employees by collecting and analysing data about each candidate. This method combines both quantitative and qualitative data taken from a collection of sources, including social media, psychometric or game-based assessments, applications, profiles and others. It often relies on the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI), which can help to quickly collect and analyse data from many sources.
It can be applied to many business decisions relating to employees, which makes it ideal for use by human resources managers and departments. This method works for any type of business, and hospitality businesses could find it particularly useful for recruiting and onboarding employees with the mix of hard and soft skills that are important for their roles.
Why is People Analytics important?
This type of analytics is not exactly new, as large organizations have been using it for years. But as technologies and capabilities for this purpose are becoming more accessible, more businesses are able to use it. Also, more brands are developing their own versions of this type of analytics as technology advances at a fast pace.
It is important that technology is making employee data more prevalent for recruiters and managers because the modern world has made it increasingly difficult for them to make hiring decisions. Now, more and more people are working remotely, by necessity or by choice. This may mean working from home, yet it can also mean that professionals work from afar when it fits a role, sometimes from another country.
It is not always possible for managers to conduct in-person interviews or get to know a candidate as they could in the past, even the same way they did just a few months to a year ago. The work world has changed, and most likely many people will continue to work from home even as society resumes in-person activities over time.
Also, technology allows managers to understand a lot more about candidates than they could through past methods. They gain access to a much greater amount of data, allowing them to find the best candidates and know as much as possible about each one, including factors such as:
Work performance
Personality
Strengths and weaknesses
Reasoning skills
Employer and customer satisfaction
Turnover rate
Level of engagement
They get better information, rather than relying on instincts, first impressions and a candidate’s answers to standard questions during an interview. These kinds of old-fashioned measures can be deceptive. People analytics brings more legitimacy and data-driven methods to a human resources department. Technology can take data from various sources and bring it together in helpful formats like graphs and charts. This helps give a better picture of a candidate to inform decisions. Having better data and insights to share can help human resources keep up with other departments that are using high-tech capabilities. HR professionals become better able to show their processes and results compared to past HR methods. They can more easily answer questions on employee turnover and related workforce information that helps the company overall.
Yet the role of people analytics is not just for recruitment. Executives can also use it to make management and organizational decisions related to their employees and their companies. Let’s go over some many benefits of using people analytics. Management can use it to:
Understand their workforce and find the best potential in their employees by better developing and managing them.
Improve their employee satisfaction and performance; in turn, this can reduce turnover and improve retention rates.
Gain information to inform broader business decisions and goals.
Learn more about top-performing staff and use the knowledge in training efforts for those who are performing at a lower level.
Grow their workforce.
Inform workforce planning.
Reduce bias and increase diversity within the workforce.
Improve speed and accuracy within recruitment measures.
Create more business productivity.
It’s clear to see how these benefits can have a significant positive impact on any company, including those in hospitality.
We talked about how management can look at individual employee characteristics through people analytics. Yet they can also use it to look beyond individual employees and see wider patterns. For instance, management can see collective data on performance throughout the company. They can better understand factors that lead to successful employees and better performance, as well as where there is room for improvement. They can use this information to improve their current workforce and also to have better recruitment and development practices for new hires. They can have a better idea of the right characteristics to seek going forward.
The data can even go beyond the organization to include the whole industry. People analytics technology is able to collect publicly available information on an industry to show a company how it is measuring up. In addition to showing a company’s place compared to industry competitors, it can provide helpful industry-specific information on the best sources for recruiting top talent and the best characteristics for roles within this field.
People Analytics can even help companies adapt as the world changes, such as the way COVID-19 changed the way business was carried out. Businesses who use it and have data at their fingertips are better able to change the way they use their employees as the company needs to change its methods. For instance, they could identify roles that are able to switch to remote work and identify employees who could shift into different work roles as needed.
Using People Analytics well
It’s not enough for businesses to have the technology and collect data on their workforce. Instead, they need to properly understand and use the data. They need to put it into action. This is where many organizations fall off track. What helps is to:
Develop a data-driven organizational culture.
Collect accurate information.
Make sure the information is current.
Have an experienced analytics team to analyse the data and create effective insights.
Share the insights in real time with decision-makers.
People analytics can also be incorporated into relational analytics, explains an article in the Harvard Business Review. This type of analytics shows how people interact with one another, and it can use a range of data like email exchanges and file transfers. Looking at both individual characteristics and employee relationships together can show an employee’s effectiveness. It can also help identify an employee’s hard and soft skills to further develop their talent and role within the organization. For example, it can be used to find employees who excel at ideation, efficiency or leadership.
Conclusion
The information gathered through people analytics can improve an organization on every level. Employees are the heart of every company. This is especially true of hospitality companies, where employees work directly with guests and have a direct bearing on their experience. Even employees who are behind the scenes need to be effective at influencing the company’s processes and guest experience. People analytics offers a great way to find the right employees, use a workforce in a better way and improve a company overall.
In recent years, the word authenticity has become the smart marketer’s approach to building customer loyalty, and with good reason.
The truth is — people are fed up with companies churning out perfectly polished brand images, well-crafted press releases, and corporate statements that sound like a publicist wrote them. They’re tired of some corporations turning a blind eye to the reality of their business (toxic workplaces, unfair wages, and poor working conditions for factory workers), or for that matter, lying about it all.
In reality, customers have become savvier, sassier, and more vocal about what they expect (and often demand) from brands these days. That’s one of the compelling reasons why smart brands are leading with authenticity, rather than relying on it as a last resort.
As Jeff Bezos, the Founder of Amazon says, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” To help create a more influential brand that people rave (instead of rant) about, here are some helpful tips to think about when planning marketing and communications campaigns.
Whether you’re just starting a company or have been in business for decades, here are three ways to use authenticity to build customer loyalty in today’s times.
Engender trust from customers
To start with, authenticity inherently breeds trust. When customers get a better sense of the types of people who run a company, they begin to trust them more. Whether the message is coming from a brand founder or a social media marketing team, one of the keys to engendering trust amongst your customer base is to be open, honest, and transparent with them. Express your values, show your integrity, and share your beliefs in a way that reflects your brand identity.
For example, if you produce goods, consider posting Instagram stories that take your audience on a “behind the scenes” tour of your factory. Show your customers that the factory has undergone a social accountability audit and meets standards (for fair treatment of workers and safe working conditions). These are just some of the things that consumers care about, as human rights have become an aspect that customers consider when deciding which brands to support.
Create deeper connections
Another way to use authenticity in your marketing approach is to think about the human-to-human interaction.
Whenever your brand launches a marketing campaign, posts on social media, or engages with customers online, focus on creating deeper connections with them. They want to know that you care about their needs, are listening to their complaints and value their feedback.
In previous decades, companies would market to consumers like a one-way street. More often than not, their executive teams would hide behind FAQ pages on websites and rely on call centres shielded by 1-800 numbers. But, nowadays, everyone is essentially a click away. This means the power has shifted to give customers a louder voice (which can either be an asset or a liability to you, depending on what they’re saying about your brand).
Smart brands use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to actively engage with their audience. Instead of just constantly promoting and selling, their teams make sure to reply to comments and questions, to answer disgruntled complaints, and to even spotlight raving fans (which make them feel valued and recognized). Just like any relationship, both parties need to feel valued and heard. So, think about your online marketing approach as a two-way dialogue, which will create deeper connections and more loyal customers.
Evoke a sense of humanity
Finally, when you focus on authenticity as a core part of your marketing efforts, you evoke a sense of humanity. Whether your company donates funds to charities or actively supports worthy causes, brands that show care for humanity often go further in the eyes of consumers than those that are only profit-oriented. A perfect example of this is TOMS, the shoe brand that has earned strong brand loyalty through its philanthropic business model.
Authenticity has become one of the most important aspects to incorporate into any marketing and communication strategy. The more effectively that you can connect with, listen to, and relate to your customer base, the more loyal they’ll be. And, that, we know – is one of the keys to a lasting business.
My first real marketing job was at a law firm with about 40 attorneys. It was their first marketing role, too, so we learned together how to do this marketing thing.
One of the sayings I used over and over again when working there was, “Marketing is more than posters and parties.”
Yes, marketing can and may always have a bit of party planning and sign making. It’s part of the territory. But what elevates marketing to become a strategic partner with leaders in your organization is moving beyond these conversations to key questions and imperatives for the success of your business.
Let’s break down what I believe are the key components of marketing in 2021.
1.Digital-First Strategy
Whether your business is B2B or B2C, your customers are likely finding you and interacting with you digitally. But how do we change the ways we market in a digital environment to increase our lead generation?
The first place many often look is through a better optimized, modern website. A client asked me the other day if websites are even relevant anymore. I answered yes, because while new media has come about to connect consumers with brands, company websites still are a primary way leads in your sales funnel learn about you and travel through their decision-making process. The better your website keeps them engaged, the more apt they may be to buy your product or service.
I also recommend focusing on a variety of digital activities, such as email automation, pay-per-click and landing page campaigns, and social media advertising. You may find that a different mix suits you, but regardless of your industry, think critically about the intersection of your sales and marketing functions and how strategic digital marketing can efficiently capture leads to hand to your sales team.
2. Holistic
Marketing cannot operate in a silo. To make your marketing effective — which means to do activities that lead potential customers to become customers — your marketing team should be welcomed into your sales and operations. Marketers can tell a good story, if we know the story to tell. Empower your marketing person or teams to really learn the business so they can adequately communicate your unique value proposition to potential customers.
For example, at my law firm job, this meant meeting with the practice area leaders and attending practice group meetings regularly. I had a weekly habit to make “rounds” to learn what the attorneys were working on, ask questions and understand how they communicated. This habit allowed me to delve into an industry that was foreign to me when I started and to craft messaging that would speak to their potential and current clients.
3. Goal-Oriented
Marketing often comes under fire because it’s been historically hard to measure. Digital-first strategies have changed that because we have data to understand how our marketing efforts are reaching (or not reaching) consumers. How we measure marketing, then, should be a function of the data available to us. Ensure your goals are tied to your overall company strategy and that there is a person in your organization who is held accountable to meet them.
As your business grows, you can seek out more sophisticated marketing metrics. If you’re just hopping onto the measurement bandwagon, I’d suggest starting small with only a few metrics. Be sure to optimize your website to track conversions. You can also track contact forms and conversions on your website. Measure your email open rate. Keep an eye on engagement and bounce rate.
At the end of the day, marketing is a strategic driver for new and returning customers. Can posters and parties bring you that outcome? Yes. But only if you are also considering a digital, holistic and goal-oriented marketing approach.
Today, content marketing is important because it can easily take a business to the next level. Especially when a business has to operate on a budget and grow exponentially, the reliance on content marketing is justifiable and for that, you have to learn how to Create a Content Marketing Strategy. Gone are the days when firms had to invest in conventional marketing tools such as pamphlets, flyers, television or ads. Now, content is king and it can easily expand the horizons of the business in a defined time. Here, in this feature, we will guide you through a few steps to grow your business through a content marketing strategy:
Carve a Plan
Before you sit back, grab a cup of coffee and invest in a certain strategy, you need to do a little bit of homework first. How do you want to expand your business? What are your business goals? Where do you wish to publish your content? What channels will be responsible for the distribution of your content? You need to answer each and every one of these questions before moving towards carving a certain strategy for your content.
Secondly, when you carve a content marketing strategy, you need to ensure that it is measurable. In simple words, if you can’t measure it, you won’t be able to manage it either. However, when you have a plan in place, you can achieve your marketing and business goals easily.
Always Work on Original Contents
Sharing an article or a retweet might work for a while but your target audience is always looking for something that will bring a change in their lives. This is where your brand can assume the opportunity and work with unique content to grab more attention. Remember, you can never make the most out of somebody else’s perspective.
So when you have an opinion of your own, it will stand out to the customers. For example, if a customer wants to learn about the Aluminum laser cut by ACT Laser and applications of laser cutting technology, they will only swoon over a website that has something unique to educate them about. So if your website provides them with an educational article about this topic, you will easily get more traffic on your platform.
Distribute Your Content
Now that you have carved a plan and have identified the targeted audience, it’s time for you to share your content. Bear in mind, your content is a means to finding ways to the hearts of more audience, so you better stick to your plan instead of making any changes. Create an engaging blog post for your website and keep updating it every month. This will improve the quality of your website and get it ranked at a higher position in the search engine.
Keep a Track of Results
This is probably the part, you’ve been waiting all this while. So did the content marketing strategy help you accomplish the goals you wanted to achieve? You can make sure of the Google Data Studio and the Google Analytics to keep a track of the results and see how everything has been done. This will enable you to keep on investing in content marketing because it is the most powerful marketing tool out there right now.
But what if someone else developed that content for you? That’s the idea behind user-generated content. Put it to work for you and it could elevate your brand to new levels — but there is no guarantee of success.
By now, most entrepreneurs are familiar with the tenets of content marketing. You write, record or produce content from scratch, promote it, then reap the rewards of higher brand visibility and traffic.
But what if someone else developed that content for you?
That’s the idea behind user-generated content. Put it to work for you, and it could elevate your brand to new levels — but there is no guarantee of success.
What is user-generated content?
In case you aren’t familiar, user-generated content is any content that’s created by your users (including customers, fans and followers).
These include things like:
Social content. If someone makes a comment about your brand, posts a review or shares a video of them interacting with your product, it’s a form of user-generated content.
Forum posts. Some brands explicitly try to cultivate a brand community by launching forums, where users can ask questions, make comments and talk to one another. Sometimes, this is to solve issues. Other times, it’s just to engage about the brand in some way.
Blog comments. If you write new blog posts regularly, this is a great opportunity to collect comments and facilitate more discussions in thread form.
Photos, videos, etc. Visual forms of content, including photos and videos, can be used to promote your best products.
Reviews and testimonials. Of course, even user reviews and testimonials can count as user-generated content — and provide you some of the best benefits.
Why is user-generated content valuable?
So why is this strategy so valuable to brands?
Minimal manual effort. For starters, if users are generating this content, you won’t have to do the dirty work. Instead of paying a full-time employee or hiring a content agency, you can recruit your users to do the work for you. Obviously, this is a bit of oversimplification — but user-generated content is still highly cost efficient.
SEO benefits. User-generated content also carries SEO benefits. Any content you produce for your blog and website will serve as a way to boost your authority and get new pages ranking in search engines. Assuming the content is high-quality, new and relevant, its SEO ranking power can be substantial.
External trust. Customers are much more likely to trust the word of an existing customer or fan than they are the word of a company they’re unfamiliar with. Reading a review posted by a previous purchaser is going to be much more persuasive than reading advertising copy. Accordingly, user-generated content can help you build external trust.
New voices. If you have an in-house content team, even if they’re extremely talented, eventually their work can become stale. The voice they’ve created can get repetitive and uninteresting to recurring followers. Allowing user-generated content can help you get an influx of new voices and perspectives, adding to the diversity of your blog, website or social media platform.
Brand community development. This is also an opportunity to develop a brand community from the ground up. If you nurture your top content generators and get involved in conversations, you can improve public perceptions of your brand and increase customer loyalty simultaneously.
Tips for cultivating more user-generated content
What steps can you take to cultivate more user-generated content?
This is arguably the most important element of your strategy, because users don’t typically generate content for your brand on their own.
Ask. One of the easiest ways to get more content is to directly ask for it. Ask your followers to leave reviews or write testimonials for your brand. Open up your blog to accept new guest submissions. Tell your fans you’re eager to see their best photos of your product in action.
Run a contest. You can also attempt to run a social media contest, incentivizing participation further. For example, you can ask followers to post a photo or video of themselves that enters them in a drawing for a $100 gift card in exchange for their submission. It’s only a mild form of bribery.
Incentivize with other rewards. It’s also possible to incentivize user participation with other rewards. For example, you can have a kind of loyalty program or rewards program for your forum participants.
Promote your best examples. When you come across a piece of user-generated content that rises above the rest, such as an interesting video or an excellent guest post, make sure you promote it. The increased visibility might motivate other users to follow suit.
Get involved. Finally, get involved in conversations and engage your users directly. It will build stronger brand-consumer relationships and make people more comfortable providing submissions.
With the right user-generated content strategy, you can get more visibility, develop a better reputation and generate more traffic for your brand. It takes time to build momentum, but with the right investment and enough patience, you’ll stand to benefit enormously.
The invite-only, audio-based social network launched in April 2020 and now has over 10 million weekly active users. Here’s how participating in Clubhouse can boost your business’s sales.
By now, you’ve probably heard about Clubhouse—the invite-only, audio-based social network where users create or join “rooms” and have conversations about various topics.
Just like any social media platform, participating on Clubhouse can be a time waster, but it can also be helpful if you’re a small business. In fact, you can even get new business from it. The key is finding ways to offer value to clients in this new platform. Here are some real-life examples of businesses that have done just that.
Giving value first
Books ranging from The Bible to The Go-Giver tout the importance of giving first, receiving later. This strategy works in many areas of life, and in Clubhouse, as well.
“From participating in Clubhouse discussions, we were able to sell 15 LLCs and 3 corporations, which led to around $15,000 in sales for our firm,” says Zachary Hanby, client relations manager for Fisher Stone, P.C., a business and real estate law firm in Brooklyn, NY.
“Our business attorney, Greg Stone, and I joined Clubhouse and found groups that were interested in entrepreneurship, sales, business ideas, marketing and finance,” says Hanby. “We listened to the conversations, and then spoke to some of the points people were making, and were able to teach some people about business law in the U.S.” After giving business advice and value to the people listening, we would do a shameless plug of our free 15-minute consultation, he said.
Small business expert and Smart Hustle founder Ramon Ray says, “Consultants, coaches and speakers make money on Clubhouse by providing lots of value and then encouraging folks to direct message them to connect further.”
Ray shares that the connections he has made on Clubhouse led to the following sources of revenue: working with brands who pay him to host Clubhouse rooms and getting booked as a speaker, including at the Listening and Beyond Summit.
Personally, I believe that the most legitimate transactions are the ones that begin as legitimate social interactions.
James Surrey, founder and chief editor, Review Home Warranties
Hosting and moderating rooms in clubs
Terri Holley, of Spencerville, Maryland, is the founder of the Flip The Script After 50 Club on Clubhouse, and is the owner of Holley Creative, a digital marketing firm. In her club, she leads discussions about online marketing. She is also a regular co-moderator for three rooms, including one for Womxn in Business, one of the largest clubs on Clubhouse, that focus on helping current and soon to be entrepreneurs work through challenges and roadblocks.
This exposure has brought Holley new business in the areas of online marketing consulting and website design.
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey-based dermatologist Naana Boakye, MD hosts the “Holistic Acne Specialists Hangout Club,” on Clubhouse. Each Friday at 2 p.m. experts discuss skincare, acne and beauty. Providing free, useful information has provided exposure for her business.
“I have gained several new patients through Clubhouse,” says Dr. Boakye.
Michele Bellisari, a realtor with Real Broker in Boca Raton, Florida, founded two clubs on Clubhouse: Club Real #REALTORLIFE and The South Florida Network | #SoooBoca. By leading and participating in conversations in these clubs and other clubs on the app, she has built relationships that have led to real estate referrals and listings.
Connecting through shared interests
“Personally, I believe that the most legitimate transactions are the ones that begin as legitimate social interactions,” says Raleigh, North Carolina-based James Surrey, founder and chief editor at Review Home Warranties, which examines the differences of each home warranty and assists clients who need guidance.
Surrey explains, “I spent some time in a gardening room at Clubhouse and introduced myself, and what I do. I mentioned how I reviewed home warranties as a living and did gardening on the side. I was delightfully surprised to get queries about home warranties. A lot of the people in that room (and there were around 60) were confused by the concept, and I told them to hit me up on email so I could write up a quote and get back to them soonest.”
To date, Surrey has successfully closed 16 deals and counting, all because of a shared love for gardening.
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
Traditionally, brands advertised in the mediums of the day, namely print (newspapers and magazines), television and radio. While those mediums are still used today, the digital marketplace has opened up a multitude of new digital marketing opportunities, including:
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Social Media Marketing
Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Influencer Marketing
Mobile Marketing
Viral Marketing
In this article we are going to take a close look at the 8 most popular digital marketing mediums, and tell you how they can be used to your advantage.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a digital advertising model that is used to drive traffic to websites. An advertiser typically pays a search engine (Google Ads, Amazon Advertising, or Microsoft Advertising) when the ad is clicked. You have likely seen PPC in action when you search for something on Google.
In the image above you can see the first two results of a search for “CRM platform” are ads. In fact, the first four results are PPC ads.
Brands bid on a chosen keyword or search phrase, which then puts the ad into one of four ad spaces offered by Google, for example. The cost per click (CPC) is based on the quality score of the site and the competition of the chosen keyword. Brands typically use the tools provided by Google Ads to determine their keywords and the CPC.
Nate Tsang, founder and CEO at WallStreetZen, a stock market analysis service provider, said that pay-per-click marketing can be a very powerful digital marketing strategy when it is done by those who truly understand the practice. “You should only do this strategy if you are familiar with it or hire someone who is an expert in this field. Doing it on your own without the proper knowledge can be a waste of money,” said Tsang. “I have seen many brands waste thousands on pay-per-click campaigns because they are leading them to the wrong webpage or not being specific on what the visitor must do on the page. A successful PPC campaign must have a great and straightforward landing page so you can convert your visitors and not waste your budget.”
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art, as it were, of optimizing a website so that when a potential customer searches via Google, or to a lesser degree, Bing or other search engines, the web page will show up at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP). If a brand sells monitor speakers for recording artists, and they have a local store in Cleveland, Ohio, then SEO could be used to bring the website up in the listings by using appropriate keywords throughout the website, in the titles of the pages, in the meta keyword and description tags, and in the various headers throughout the page or site.
This is not to say that the site or page should be keyword spammed, that is, stuffed with keywords without relevant content. Content is still king, and long gone are the days when black hat SEO tactics can be effectively used. Tactics today should include backlinks to the site from all of the brand’s social media presences, and web pages should include relevant content. Content can be created about the topic, as in our example, a page that discusses the various types of monitor speakers and their use, with links to the various monitor speakers the brand sells scattered throughout the page (this is Content Marketing, which we will also discuss). Keyword and Description meta tags are still used, but content relevance is more important today. Also, especially for localized businesses, having a Google business page, which puts a brand on Google Maps, as well as a Yelp business page, will help to pull a brand up to the top of the listings.
Below the PPC ads are the organic (non-paid) results, which also include the “People also ask” section, which features pages in which a specific question is answered by the content of the page (search engine gold — this tactic is heavily used by SEO marketers).
PHOTO: CMSWire
Often, SEO is done through a third-party company that specializes in SEO, rather than an in-house SEO team or the marketing department. SEO used to be fairly simple, but continual changes in Google’s algorithms have made it more of a precise practice that involves specialization.
Ian Sells is founder and CEO of RebateKey, an online rebate provider, and like many marketers we spoke with, SEO is at the top of his list, because if customers cannot find your website, no business can occur. With so many websites out there on every possible topic, it’s challenging to get on top of the search engine results pages. “Being on top of SERPs, that is, being on page one, gives you a lot more traffic since your site gets seen by more eyes. The advantage of this is, while it takes a lot more effort initially, once your site gains the momentum, you don’t have to spend so much on it, unlike in ads where you have to continuously spend,” explained Sells.
Social Media Marketing
As one would imagine, social media marketing is when brands use their social presences, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter, among others, to target their customers. This is accomplished through targeted marketing ad campaigns, “like” campaigns, and posts offering special offers and discounts. Detailed demographic information about gender, ages, locations, times on the site, and more can be used to target specific demographics and groups of people.
“This is actually very powerful since a lot of people are on social media. We’re actually revamping our Instagram strategies as well as our Facebook strategies because we’re seeing the potential of the traffic they bring to our site,” said Sells. “The disadvantage of social media marketing is, sometimes, the engagement stays there. That’s totally useless, if your conversions happen on your site. So you have to make the effort to bring the traffic from your social media handles to your site.”
Content Marketing
We briefly discussed content marketing in the SEO section of this article, when we spoke about creating pages that do not directly sell products or services, but provide information and details about specific subjects that are related to the products or services a brand sells. By providing relevant content that appeals to a brand’s target audience, brands can attract customers to their website, and this content also helps improve SEO for the website.
“Content marketing is broad. In our case, we use several kinds of videos on YouTube, primarily informative ones,” said Sells. “These are helpful to increase awareness about your brand and help people who are interested to get to know your brand, product, or service even more. Sometimes, just a little explanation is enough to convince people to try your service.”
Brad Touesnard, founder and CEO of SpinupWP, a cloud-based server control panel designed for WordPress and he can attest that the right content can be a gamechanger. “We are in the server industry and our most popular blog post compares five of the top server providers. Our experts ran tests on each provider and we shared our results in our blog post. The blog post generated a lot of interest from industry professionals who were eager to see our data,” Touesnard said. “Currently this blog post generates 23.4% of the total search engine traffic to our site and ranks on the first place of Google’s search results for its primary keyword.”
Email Marketing
While many marketers might believe that email is a dying marketing channel, the opposite is true — email marketing is still one of the most effective channels a brand can use. This really shouldn’t be surprising, given the number of email users worldwide. According to a report from Statista, in 2020, approximately 306 billion emails were sent and received each day, with 3.9 billion people using email every day. That’s half the global population! Marketers should take note that according to the DMA Marketer Email Tracker, for every dollar that’s spent on email marketing, the average expected ROI is $42.
Unlike other marketing channels, marketing emails are only sent to those customers who have given permission for the brand to do so — which means they are actually interested in what brands are offering, unlike ads on social media where they do not have a choice but to see ads.
Typically, marketers use email marketing software which allows them to automate the process, send personalized emails, and often includes performance optimization and analytics functionality. By tracking key performance metrics, brands are able to determine which email marketing campaigns are effective, and which ones are not.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is still relatively new, and relies on people who have gained a following on social media either for being entertaining, informative, or being an expert in their field. Influencers typically promote themselves through blogs, videos, and social media posts. Brands look for influencers that are connected to their customers in some way. Perhaps the influencer has a cooking show on YouTube, such as Sam the Cooking Guy. Not only does he sell his own line of cooking utensils and books, but he is sponsored by Catalina Offshore Products and Lars Remodeling and Design. In the case of Sam the Cooking Guy, these two brands recognized that Sam, who has 2.93 million YouTube subscribers, reaches many people who are likely to be interested in their products or services.
“Majority of the videos we have on YouTube by other people are not sponsored. A lot of sellers and buyers really enjoy our products. And to be honest, this is really more powerful than paid ones. People trust other people’s reviews. Videos from influencers or at least people with a following are also helpful. If influencers say your product or service is cool, people who are following them are more likely to try your product primarily because the influencer said so,” explained Sells.
Dave Herman, president of EZ Surety Bonds, told CMSWire that thanks to the constantly changing digital landscape, there are many different types of digital marketing to take advantage of, but not all of them are appropriate or effective for every business. “Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular these days as more and more people gain fame and recognition on social media platforms. This is why a lot of businesses are taking advantage of it. While it really helped many brands grow, not every business can get the growth they need from this type of marketing. It is also not as easy as most people think it is. You need to research the right influencer that will represent your brand and ensure that they get the engagement you need to market your products or services.”
Mobile Marketing
It makes sense for marketers to focus on mobile marketing, given the vast number of mobile users. A report on mobile usage from Statista indicated that in the third quarter of 2020, mobile devices accounted for 50.81% of global website traffic. With those kinds of statistics, it’s pretty obvious that mobile marketing can be used to reach millions of customers.
Seth Lytton is chief operating officer at The Detroit Bureau, an automotive industry news publication, thinks mobile is a big opportunity for marketers. “Millions use their phones every hour. Mobile marketing gives you access to millions at once, and many customers have their phones with them at multiple times during the day. You can accurately determine your audience with mobile marketing,” said Lytton.
That said, as Lytton explained, brands must be careful not to overuse mobile marketing, at the risk of losing their customers completely. “On the other hand, many find ads annoying on their phones,” said Lytton. “Some people go out of their way to avoid some advertisements by using ad blockers, and more still get so annoyed with advertisements that they may blacklist the company entirely.”
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing typically relies on social media networks, but unlike social media marketing, the marketing is done by customers themselves, as they spread information on various social media networks about a product, service, or brand with other people. Marketing is thought to be “viral” when it reaches the point where it’s being shared by the general public, not just the brand’s target audience.
An example of viral marketing is memes, which may include funny text written above an image. Crazy Nate created a meme that features the character Nemo swimming in the ocean, next to a box of McDonald’s fries, with the words “Watching Finding Nemo; Why I Want McDonalds” superimposed on the image. McDonalds obviously had no part in the creation of this meme, but one can be fairly certain that they definitely do not mind that it went viral.
Brands such as Wendy’s, Dennies, and McDonalds will often create funny, light-hearted videos, Tweets, or memes themselves, and post them on social media such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other sites. They will then be shared by people who found them to be humorous, and those they shared them with will also share them with others, causing the video or meme to go viral. Here is an example of a Tweet from Wendy’s roasting McDonalds:
Keep in mind that viral marketing is never a certainty — one cannot force something to go viral. Either it goes viral, or it doesn’t. Whatever the case, social listening should be used to monitor mentions of the brand on social media.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are many digital marketing strategies that are available to market a brand. Brands are able to take advantage of their social media presences, and use influencers to spread their message, or they can use the more traditional email marketing and content marketing techniques. PPC and SEO are still extremely useful marketing strategies, and mobile marketing has never played as large a role as it does today. Using a combination of these strategies, digital marketers are able to promote a brand’s products and services, and turn leads into customers.
Social media ROI is one of the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) in marketing. It is often expressed as a percentage. KPIs allow you to compare and contrast different marketing channels to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of each channel.
Unlike measurements such as likes or shares, which are specific to social media, you can easily compare the ROI of all your social networks to that of your search engine advertising or email campaigns. This is because analysing your ROI across various channels allows you to rationalize the impact of all your marketing efforts with one clear concise single measurement. This analysis helps you identify immediately which social networks are most profitable as well as cost-effective for your business.
How do you measure customer engagement on social media?
Engagement is often considered to be one of the most valuable metrics for measuring lead generation on social media. However, you need to consider a multitude of factors when it comes to customer engagement. For example, are you addressing the right audience, how will your audience interact with your brand, and what does your audience do to engage with your brand and spread your content? A large follower base and many quality posts mean nothing if users are not genuinely interested in what you are offering.
To measure engagement, you need to measure user reactions. The reality of modern social media is that people see a lot of news and fresh content every day. If a consumer is interested in a piece of content, they will take a moment to comment on or like a post. Customer engagement on social media is a one-time thing. In effect, it shows that the user is interested in your brand’s publication in a well-filled community.
Measuring customer engagement
Retweets, likes, bookmarks and time spent watching your stories or videos can be monitored in real-time. To do this, you need to use social analytics software and web tools. You can also measure customer engagement using a specific formula: customer engagement = (amount of interactions/reach of posts) x 100.
Measuring negative customer engagement
Negative feedback is another form of customer engagement. You can know how a customer feels about your company, even with a negative comment. By taking the time to express themselves, the consumer is in a way showing that they expect a correction, which in turn can improve their experience.
How to measure the success of social media marketing?
As stated above, KPIs help in your company’s decision-making process. There are a few indicators that will be discussed in turn below. Each indicator should be monitored according to the objectives you have set yourself. For ease, we will group them into four sub-categories.
Reach
The reach metric lets you know how far your content reaches in terms of audience. In other words, it is an indication of the number of people who have seen your publication once. However, using reach as a metric for success should be done with caution. This is because the reach metric is often an estimated figure. However, the benefit of this is that it allows you to quantify the size of your potential audience. For example, a reach of 10,000 means that 10,000 people will see your publication at least once in their news feed.
Impressions
The impressions metric should be distinguished from reach. It corresponds to the number of times your publication has appeared on the screen. This content can be seen several times by the same person. For example, if your reach is 1,000 as in the previous example and the number of impressions is 10,000, it could be assumed that users have seen the publication 10 times.
Mentions
Mentions are the number of times your content has been mentioned by a person or influencer. This is one way to reach more people. Being mentioned often can mean that your content is liked for its quality. For example, when a person or influencer mentions you in a post or shares your content, they use the @personname feature. You will receive a notification that they have mentioned you.
Community
This indicator corresponds to your number of subscribers. You can follow its evolution. Its increase or decrease should be closely observed as it is directly correlated to the quality of your content. This indicator also allows you to learn more about the profile of your community (for example, their gender, age or location).
To measure the reach of your posts, impressions, mentions and your community, you can use social media tools such as Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights and Twitter Analytics. Each platform has its specificities. For example, with LinkedIn Demographics, you can learn more about the professional characteristics of your site visitors. Facebook Insights will allow you to know the hours of activity of your community.
There are alternatives to the integrated tools for knowing the results of your actions on social networks. This is the case of tools such as Hootsuite or CX Social, to name but a few.
How do I optimize content for social media marketing?
Ensuring an effective presence on social networks is a marketing challenge for all companies. Global login statistics show that potential customers are online more than elsewhere. This means that companies need to get involved in digital, which is now at the heart of marketing strategies.
Methods for social media and optimizing your marketing strategy
While all companies are now present on social media, not all have the same results. Information with high added value for internet users is needed, but the publication medium plays an equally important role. Even when communicating about your products, the approach must be designed to arouse the curiosity of the user.
Adjusting your brand to your audience
On social networks, you must adjust to the sensitivities of your community, depending on the medium on which you are communicating. As a rule, long texts are not welcome. The preferred format on social networks is images and videos, which may explain the growing success of TikTok and Instagram Reels.
When should I post on social media?
The timing, frequency and target audience of each post should be carefully considered.
Some platforms help you to automate your communication on social networks. From one interface you can control all your social media pages, plan and schedule up-to-the-minute posts, and analyse your marketing strategy.
One of the main advantages of such a tool is of course the possibility to synchronize your posts on all social networks. In addition, you can track your audience in real-time to measure and analyse the reach of each action.
Communicating on social networks to make money is a more demanding and complicated process than you might think. Having innovative tools at your disposal to automate and professionalize this communication can only help the company to achieve its objectives.
Conclusion
In conclusion, when approaching your social media strategy, it’s important that when considering all of the factors mentioned above that they are always considered in light of your brand’s marketing KPIs to determine the success of your campaigns.
50% of people are more interested in a brand when they see its ads on Instagram. Take advantage of it!
If you have a company or want to boost your personal brand, using Instagram can be the difference between having more or less presence and above all, sales. In Mexico alone, a potential ad viewing of 32 million people is reported .
50% of people are more interested in a brand when they see its ads on Instagram and 90% of users follow at least one business, which shows the potential of this social network. If you want to promote Instagram in favour of your business, I share 15 keys that will make your company grow, will make you known and will increase your sales in the long run.
1. Create ads. Ads on Instagram really reach those people who have already visited similar pages or who have a real interest in products and services like yours, so don’t hesitate to use them.
2. Make the most of local reach. If you have a local business, Instagram allows you to reach people who are nearby through ads, you just need to optimize them correctly and set a perimeter around your location. Optimize and attract those interested in similar products or services.
3. Make sure your account is a business one. Do not miss the wide variety of free tools that the social network makes available to businesses, such as the possibility of accessing traffic statistics or generating ads. Set up your account to be a company account and take advantage of them.
4. Make an unforgettable profile description. Create a phrase that reaches your customer’s heart, always giving priority to the benefit that your consumers will obtain from buying from you and the use of keywords relevant to them. Also, use emojis and include your website address.
5. Capture new leads. Do it through an exchange: in the web link of the profile offer some digital asset, be it an e-book, free course, video or tutorial in exchange for the name and email. This list of leads that you will create is ground gold to create a long-term relationship of trust with them.
Optimize and attract those interested in similar products or services / Image: Depositphotos.com
6. Use #hashtags. They work as bookmarks to find specific content, as well as being a way to stay on top of topics of interest. So look for relevant hashtags and use them in your posts. This way, new potential clients will find you organically.
7. Answer your clients. This, in addition to increasing their interaction, will help you learn what they are looking for and how you can satisfy them.
8. Post a good profile picture. If you are looking to enhance your personal brand, use a professional photo of yourself and if you have a logo, use it. The objective is that among thousands of accounts, your clients begin to relate your profile image to your brand.
9. Take advantage of statistics. Every good strategy requires a measurement of results, so take advantage of the statistics that Instagram offers you for free. So you can know the age, interests and location of whoever follows you. This is key information for when you make announcements.
10. Use the stories. While 86% of users use this functionality, only 36% of companies use it. Use them and if you have more than 10 thousand followers, direct them to a website, you will make them visit you and buy from you organically.
11. Generate video content. It is advisable to create between one and two videos per week of at least 30 minutes each. Use them for IGTV and cut them to offer them for 10 minute instalments on your profile.
12. Question your followers. Create posts that invite questions to be answered in the comments. With this, while you get to know your customers more, your publications will have a good reach because the Instagram algorithm will favour this type of content.
13. Make live videos. The algorithm also benefits this type of content, plus it is proven that people like and share it, so take advantage of it!
14. Use Creator Studio. It is Instagram’s own platform that brings together all the tools to effectively publish, manage, monetize and measure the content of your account. Get organized with her and once a month schedule the publications for the next 30 days, so you will optimize your time.
15. Be consistent and persistent. Post daily or at least twice a week. Take care to start with good momentum and maintain it, it is the key to success. Do not despair that you will constantly see your account grow.
