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6 Common Business Challenges Solved with Creative Social Media Strategy

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There are 3.8 billion active social media users. For context, world population is 7.8 billion. So, when nearly half of the world’s population is using social media, it stands to reason that a social media strategy to engage customers is important, right?

It makes one wonder why so many companies skip over social media strategy and focus on tactics. They use the tips, tricks and hacks they learn via how-to articles or free webinars and then wonder why they aren’t getting the results they expected.

Setting goals greatly increases the chance of achieving them, but so many companies jump into social media without determining what their goals should be.

Others bring their goals to the table with wide-eyed enthusiasm but get attached to problematic tactics. When those don’t work, they give up and say, “Social media doesn’t work for us.”

The challenge of making social media perform doesn’t vanish when you give up.

It’s important to remember that the company is on social media (whether you’re participating or not). Conversations happen concerning the company and a growing number of consumers are joining in that conversation, preferring to communicate via social media.

If you’re not engaging with customers in a meaningful way, your competitor will be.

With a well-defined social media strategy, which includes a plan to distinguish your brand/company, things begin to fall into place more readily.

  • Everyday problems that seemed unfixable suddenly become an afterthought.
  • There’s no wasting of valuable assets on efforts of little value.
  • Worthwhile tactics come into focus and begin to pay off.

A real-time example to illustrate how creative social media strategy clears the path for success.

A large company reached out to Kruse Control for help getting traction with a new product via social media. The company leadership was admittedly in the dark about how social media works but they recognized its importance and wanted expert guidance.

Most leaders have a preliminary plan of how their operations need to shift with the launch of a new product. Where things get murky is how best to present the product into the social space, what metrics to track, and how to budget for it.

With all the players in place, including data, we were able to provide them with a social media strategy that delivered the right message, reached the right people at the right time, and exceeded their goals by 35%.

As social media becomes even more complicated, and as skeptical consumers have growing disinterest in run-of-the-mill brands and offers, the need for social media strategy gets more intense.

If you don’t have the expertise in-house to determine actionable goals and integrate a social media strategy that works for you, contact a qualified expert to help remove the guesswork and establish the best course of action…

Creative Social Media Strategy…For The Win!

Here are 6 common business challenges that can be solved with a data-driven, creative social media strategy.

1. Challenge: Weak Brand Awareness

Social media is ideal for reaching a broader audience, however, why you post is central to success. Every post creates an impression in users’ minds.

Social media strategy to solve this challenge: Steps must be taken to identify what makes the company and its products valuable. Identify internally why people choose you rather than your competitor, then craft content to support that differentiation.

Refrain from promotional sales content when the challenge is strengthening brand awareness. Approach as though you’re meeting users in person for the first time. No one likes to be greeted with a sales pitch so focus on more meaningful content that personifies why customers choose you.

2. Challenge: Slow Sales

Social advertising is one of the most powerful tools to increase sales. By publishing engaging content you lay the groundwork for further engagement. The next natural step is to target would-be buyers with offers.

Social media strategy to solve this challenge: Facebook’s ads platform is highly adept at identifying and reaching your ideal customers. A successful Facebook Ads strategy has the following components:

  • Define your target audience.
  • Choose the right ad placement – Awareness, consideration, conversions.
  • Strategic ad design is crucial – ads must attract attention and compel buyers to click.
  • Use landing pages with lead forms to track conversions.
  • Test and track your campaigns.

3. Challenge: Declining Customer Retention

It costs 5 to 8 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Social media is excellent for staying in touch with current customers…and it’s fairly cost effective!

Social media strategy to solve this challenge: Treat your social channels as communities where like-minded people come to hang out. Appoint a “community manager” or who engages and supports your community by listening and being responsive to questions, needs and concerns.

A good social media relationship with customers improves perceptions and fosters offline relationships.

4. Challenge: Poor Online Reputation

Reviews are insanely influential.

  • 90% of consumers read online reviews.
  • 88% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
  • 86% will hesitate to purchase from a business that has negative reviews.
  • Customers are likely to spend 31% more with a business that has positive reviews.
  • 92% will use a local business if it has at least a 4-star rating.

Don’t give online ratings sites the power to control your business. If what’s being said about you doesn’t mirror the true customer experience delivered, take action now to turn things around.

Social media strategy to solve this challenge: Remove the obstacles that stymie reviews.

Create a review funnel. Systematically drive customers to one conversion funnel that routes them to the review sites you care about.

  • Automatically ask, remind and guide happy customers through the funnel.
  • Recover unhappy customers before they vent online.

5. Challenge: Declining or Nonexistent Connection with Customers

We’ve been witnessing a massive shift in what it means to be effective on social media. The pandemic has shaken things up, further driving the wedge between companies and their customers. It’s time to think differently.

The big challenge that companies face is connecting with customers on an individual and personal level. Connecting with customers in meaningful ways humanizes your brand and builds genuine relationships.

Social media strategy to solve this challenge: Monitor all social media channels and respond authentically (aka: like a human!). Ask questions, provide insights, or offer help with problems.

Note: In the road to the car sale, this strategy is crucial because more and more customers are preferring some or all of the transaction be conducted digitally.

6. Challenge: Low Search Visibility

Nearly every buyer starts her or his purchase journey online. Your website is the virtual storefront of your business and not being found in search means fewer customers and decreased revenue.

On Google and Bing, and now Facebook, it’s super important to be visible when people are searching for what you sell.

Social media strategy to solve this challenge: To improve search visibility on Google and Bing, focus tactics on publishing links to content that go directly to your website. Although social media is not a ranking factor, it has a link to search engine optimization. These “social signals” will increase a site’s authority, thereby indirectly improving search rankings.

To improve search visibility on Facebook, promote those links with Facebook ads. A well-researched, data driven Facebook Ads strategy is an integral part of your over all social media strategy.

A Facebook page with high engagement shows up in search more prominently and positions your company as a trusted resource.

Take action, improve business with social media strategy.

Today’s challenges must be met with today’s solutions.

Companies must develop a strong foundational social media strategy to meet customers where they are and help them buy.

If you would like advice or help with creating your company’s social media strategy, please reach out to me here. I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

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Sourced from Kruse Control Inc.

 

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B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy: 5 Questions to Ask First

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By Lee Odden

It’s no mystery that we’re big fans of influencer marketing where B2B brands engage with industry experts and key opinion leaders to drive conversations, consideration and conversions.

Marketing leaders at B2B companies large and small are realizing how much influence can play a role in virtually every customer communication. As 2021 picks up steam, the practice of influencer marketing presents unique opportunities to optimize digitally transformed B2B marketing.

That said, while the role of influence can be universally present in content and communications, the approach that will work for any given B2B brand is by no means cookie cutter. Influencer engagement is not simply an advertising buy or some kind of programmatic marketing tactic. It’s simultaneously dynamic and open to certain kinds of optimization and scale through process, operations and expertise.

Before embarking on a pilot, campaigns or an evolved always-on influencer program, it’s important for B2B marketers to answer a few key questions to make sure the rationale is sound, the approach has merit and the expectations line up with resources and goals.

At TopRank Marketing we’ve helped numerous B2B brands run their very first influencer marketing pilot projects and campaigns. Our work with B2B brands like LinkedIn, SAP and Dell over the past 9 years has taught us that there are many key questions to be answered in order to ensure

  • Influencer marketing makes sense for a particular B2B brand
  • That a specific approach matches goals, resources and expectations
  • The tactics of identifying and engaging influencers are appropriate to content formats, channels and audience
  • The program reaches expected KPIs and drives value both for the business and influencers
  • Early efforts set the stage for future success

To help B2B brands thinking about launching an influencer marketing initiative, here are 5 of the most important questions to answer:

1. What is a B2B influencer for our brand? Our customers?

Success with B2B influence means avoiding falling into the popularity trap and thinking that all influencers must have a massive following.

An influencer in the B2B world is someone that has domain expertise, is recognized by peers for that expertise, creates content or communicates about that expertise, and has attracted the attention and trust of a network.

B2B influencers are also often called subject matter experts, key opinion leaders, or simply experts about a certain topic. This differs than in B2C where popularity and being able to publish influencer-created content on their own channels to a large audience reigns supreme. B2C influencers are most often very self aware of their actual or aspirational influence and bring content creation, personality, persuasion and publishing skills to the situation.

For B2B influencers, the idea of being an “influencer” may not be a priority, so B2B brands need to find ways to activate and engage them in ways that might be new to the influencer. Fortunately, there are best practices around how to nurture both external and internal subject matter experts to collaborate with marketing in ways that can drive authentic conversations amongst a desirable audience.

There are several key characteristics to look for in a B2B influencer: Proficiency, Popularity, Personality, Publisher, Promoter.  For a deeper dive into what top B2B influencers look and sound like, check out Season 3 of Break Free B2B in progress.

Understanding that everyone has some degree of influence is as important for a new influencer marketing effort as is understanding that B2B brands need to be clear about what topics they want to be influential about. Finding B2B influencers for a specific brand means identifying the topics that matter to customers in the context of the B2B brand’s marketing narrative. Topics of importance to customers relative to the B2B brand’s key messages, products and solutions helps us understand whether a particular influencer has the attention and ability to influence their network. We do that by using software that helps evaluate a given influencer’s audience for topical relevance, resonance and reach.

There are different types of influencers to engage according to the type of influencer marketing project being implemented. Some programs might call for celebrity level “brandividuals“, others might focus more on those with industry analyst level expertise, or niche influencers that have deep product expertise and specific media creation skills that align with the content preferences of a B2B brand’s audience. At the same time, some influencers might already be fans of your B2B brand and others might be strong advocates of ideas that align with your brand but not be advocates yet.

The opportunity in identifying what a B2B influencer looks like for your brand starts with understanding the topics of influence that matter to your customers and that are most relevant to your solutions. That topic understanding can be extended to the creation of an ideal influencer profile and the matching of influencer types to the expectations and experiences created for customers.

To answer, “Where can I find B2B influencers?” marketers need to look beyond their own opinions and experiences and towards data. Influencers that create evidence of their expertise through digital content can be identified with influencer marketing software or social media software. However, keep in mind that many B2B influencers do not focus solely on social media to proclaim their expertise and more in-depth research into industry associations, special interest groups, events, publications, email newsletters and emerging formats like Clubhouse should be conducted.

2. What can we expect to achieve working with influencers?

Virtually all B2B brand communications with customers is a consideration for including 3rd party expertise for credibility and help with distribution.

Fundamentally, influencers can create value for B2B brands in a few different ways:

  • Add credibility to brand content
  • Help brand content reach new audiences through promotion
  • Provide B2B brands with advisory services
  • Perform as a brand advocate through ongoing content engagement
  • Help create content for thought leadership and demand gen purposes
  • Add signals of credibility to content for SEO
  • Facilitate content distribution and brand social network growth
  • Provide expertise for earned media, events and marketing content

In our research as reported in the State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, we found that the measurable benefits for B2B brands to work with influencers included:

benefits working with B2B influencers

What’s important for B2B marketers to understand when it comes to what’s possible with influencers is that we’re talking about partnering with people, not simply using them to some brand end. Rather than thinking of influencers only as a means to an end or a tool for content creation and distribution, it is more valuable for all when B2B brands think of influencers as partners they can work with to achieve mutual goals. That partnership can turn to authentic and enthusiastic brand advocacy more quickly than a transactional approach.

For more specific ideas, check out this list of 25 B2B influencer marketing campaign and engagement ideas.

3. What are some good influencer engagement models?

Many early stage influencer programs start with micro-activations as part of a nurturing effort to develop relationships between brand and influencer. In many cases, an agency is tasked with creating these connections because they have unique expertise at influencer outreach and/or may already have the desired influencers in the agency network.

The right engagement model really depends on the approach.

For a pilot influencer content marketing campaign designed to create a business case for potential expansion of an influencer marketing program that has some lead time, it might be best to develop quick rapport with influencers by recognizing their expertise publicly. Then follow up and invite them to collaborate on small asks with great exposure. Through these early micro-activations, the right influencers can be sorted for a larger contribution to the pilot content project. See this case study on how LinkedIn has taken a relationship building approach to their always-on influence program working with sales and marketing influencers.

Alternatively, if there is not much lead time for organic relationship building with a pilot, then professional influencers can be engaged for their services to contribute to the pilot. The cost and perceived authenticity of content disclaimed as sponsored may be worth it to get a pilot out quickly. Or some combination of organic relationship building and paid influencer engagement might be most appropriate.

Understanding the right engagement model can be helped in part by reviewing solid B2B influencer marketing examples and case studies to understand what goes into successful B2B influencer marketing campaigns.

Also, it’s important to understand that working with influencers for an industrial or manufacturing business might be a bit different than how influencer marketing for tech companies might work. The topics of interest to customers and of most relevance to influencers and the brand will help identify the right influencer program approach, influencer identification and engagement.

Many pilots lead to sequences of campaigns which may engage the same influencers or different influencers each time. Lack of engagement in between campaigns will make securing influencers more difficult. B2B brands that are more mature in their influencer marketing efforts engage in always-on influencer programs. In fact, the State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report found that 12X more B2B marketers using an always-on approach were very successful with their influencer marketing compared to those marketers that implementing periodic campaigns.

Working with a small group of influencers can be a great place to start, but that small group should be backed by a much larger list of researched candidate influencers. As relationships develop through the course of different collaborations, B2B marketers will refine and find the right influencers. A VIP group of influencers might be created as Adobe has with its 60+ Adobe Insiders being activated at individual, small group or large group levels depending on the situation.

4. How does “dark influence” fit in our mix?

Understanding the channels where customers are spending time discovering, consuming and engaging with content is central to identifying sources of influence. But not all B2B influencers are social media rockstars. To understand where and how the right experts are influential to the customers of a B2B brand, thoughtful research must be conducted to identify customer preferences for content and people that they trust, subscribe to and are influenced by.

In some cases, the social media connection to B2B influence is indirect. While many business people are doing business during their 9-5, increasing numbers of business people are following industry experts on social channels. They access those channels before and after work as well as periodically during the day.

For those influencers and customers that are not engaging via social media, content discovery, consumption and engagement preferences research will reveal the email newsletters, publications, associations, events, groups and even search terms they use to connect. These non-social media channels are opportunities for influence as well. B2B marketers need to do the research to map these sources of engagement and identify influencers that might be good partners for those channels.

Another consideration is the role that LinkedIn plays in terms of influencer performance tracking. Since the vast majority of LinkedIn is not public nor do they provide easy access via API, the social data cannot be crawled in the way that Twitter, some Facebook content and other social networks are. Influencer engagement on LinkedIn may require use of tools made available from LinkedIn like Sales Navigator. Here are some ideas on how to engage influencers on the LinkedIn platform.

Working within the world of dark social for influencer marketing means connecting with influencers that use these channels and engaging them on collaborations where they exert influence.

5. What are the most important operational considerations for a B2B influencer marketing program?

For large enterprise organizations, there is often a debate about how much influencer marketing should be centralized in the organization vs. with business units, divisions and regions. When influencer marketing is new to an organization, there is centralization and programs are dictated as such. Some influencers may be universally relevant across and organization but within each market where a B2B brand operates, there will likely be more niche influencers specific to those markets.

How an influencer marketing program is defined will often include both the universal truths that are relevant for the brand overall and specific programs with unique goals, topics and measures of success.

Some of the most important operational considerations for an influencer marketing program include:

  • What department owns influencer marketing?
  • What processes will be used to to perform the functions of influencer marketing to ensure consistency and quality?
  • What software will be used to identify, engage, communicate with and measure influencers?
  • What budgets, staffing and external resources will be needed short and long term?

Beyond measures of success, software and ownership with the B2B brand of an influencer program is how to work with a specialist B2B influencer marketing agency to help develop strategy and planning, influencer identification and recruitment, collaboration and creation of influencer / brand content assets. In the State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report that surveyed hundreds of B2B marketers, the top tasks handled by agencies included:

  • Identifying influencers 79%
  • Managing influencer relationships 76%
  • Developing the strategy 71%
  • Measuring effectiveness 66%
  • Integrating with other marketing efforts 63%
  • Implementing campaigns 60%
  • Managing influencer marketing technology 44%

While there are many B2B marketing resources out there to help brands with everything from research and strategy to planning, implementation and measurement, there are simply not that many B2B influencer marketing agencies that have:

  • Established influencer marketing strategy frameworks based on years of experience
  • Extensive relationships with a network of B2B influencers in various verticals
  • Tried and true tactics for accelerating B2B brand and influencer relationships
  • Content creation and repurposing capabilities that are unique to influencer collaborations
  • Influencer marketing measurement and reporting expertise
  • Savvy on how to maintain ongoing influencer relationships in between campaigns

The good news is that the number of B2B influencer marketing agencies with legitimate skills and experience is growing as awareness grows around the role of influence across the entire customer lifecycle for business customers.

There are certainly more questions than these to be considered as well as variations on the questions that have been listed in order for B2B marketers to gain confidence that their particular approach to an influencer marketing effort creates the expected value for all involved. In many cases, marketing missteps can be avoided by ensuring the fundamentals are solid and that’s what this list of questions is meant to do – cover the bases that are essential for a thoughtful, meaningful and productive influencer marketing effort.

Influencer marketing is a relationship focused business and that means it’s dynamic and there are no silver bullet answers.

Remember, influencer marketing is a relationship focused business and that means it’s dynamic and there are no silver bullet answers. B2B brands that stumble blindly into an influencer engagement effort may experience disappointing results without the “been there, done that” and “we do this every. single. day.” type of expertise that is rare, but available through specialist agencies and consultants.

By Lee Odden

@LeeOdden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing and editor of TopRank’s B2B Marketing Blog. Cited for his expertise by The Economist, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, he’s the author of the book Optimize and presents internationally on B2B marketing topics including content, search, social media and influencer marketing. When not at conferences, consulting, or working with his talented team, he’s likely running, traveling or cooking up something new.

Sourced from TopRank Marketing

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Seven Elements Of A World-Class Personal Brand

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By Jane Anderson

It’s easy to be distracted by all the things that are expected of a business owner or expert when they are building their personal brand. And doing those things is important. That’s why podcasts are on the rise. Blog creation is growing, with over 70 million new posts appearing each month on WordPress alone. And online courses are thriving, with the global online learning market projected to be $325 billion by 2025.

But now, those people who have begun their personal brands, created content, and built engagement and impact are wondering how to take this to the next level. They want to know the next steps to elevate their brand to a world-class personal brand.

Seven Elements Of A World-Class Personal Brand

To become a world-class personal brand, you need to focus your attention on the most important elements.

1. Brand Identity

To become a world-class brand, you must have world-class branding. This means branding that is customized to who you are and what you want to be known for. Of course, this includes logos and a style guide, but it’s also about all the other parts that define the brand’s value across the website and other platforms. This includes your LinkedIn profile, YouTube channels, social media, business cards, photography, signature blocks, podcasts, webcasts and thought leadership.

2. Marketing

World-class brands have a cadence in their communications with their customers and clients. They offer value and tailor their marketing to give their potential leads what they want and need when they want and need it. And they ensure this works across their marketing avenues with search engine optimization, social media, white papers, content and books.

3. Sales

World-class brands also have proposal and sales documents. The best of these — and the most forward-thinking — are digital versions that include video elements to capture interest and share what is possible.

They also have customer management systems to enable them to move their potential leads down the sales funnel. Interestingly, they tend to sell at a premium price point because they are industry leaders.

4. Delivery

The delivery of your services and intellectual property is vital. World-class brands have a superior delivery system. This includes slide decks, virtual experiences and project management delivery systems such as Asana or Monday. Storytelling allows the brand the opportunity to deliver its own message in its own voice. Each of these things makes delivery seamless and effortless for the recipient and, therefore, world-class.

5. Personal Presence

World-class personally branded businesses have leaders with world-class presence. This comes down to things like their appearance, of course, though it’s also more than that.

World-class leaders do have a way of dressing and composing themselves, but it’s not necessarily a three-piece suit. Consider Steve Jobs, who wore a sort of uniform, with his black turtleneck, jeans and sneakers, throughout his tenure at Apple. This gave him presence.

Personal presence goes beyond how you look and dress, however. It’s also that thing that shows the world that you are the leader in the room. Often called gravitas, but so much more than that, it’s what draws people to you.

6. Mindset

Personally branded businesses that are world-class have a leader with a strong mindset. They have their own sense of optimism, enthusiasm and grit that comes from inside themselves, not from external factors that may change day to day. These types of people get a lot done. They know how to move through their work efficiently and productively and they know when it’s better to delegate.

7. Support

Mindset leads directly to support. World-class brands have a strong team around them, and their leaders trust them to contribute to the brand, despite the personal nature of it. Both their network and their inner circle have been carefully crafted to align with the brand values and build on that day by day. And they support their own teams with the implementation of efficient and workable technology.

To truly become a world-class brand, you need to think of it as a five-star hotel. I had always wanted to visit the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas. It’s award-winning and widely touted as one of the best hotels in the United States. In 2012, I was able to do just that, and I was impressed with the proactive and helpful staff, the attention to detail, and the experience of great service. And this is exactly what you need to be in order to elevate your personal brand to world-class status.

Each of the elements — brand identity, marketing, sales, delivery, personal presence, mindset and support — is vital to elevating your personal brand. But in each case, you also need to make sure that you’re implementing those elements to a world-class standard with attention to detail, proactivity and extraordinary service.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Jane Anderson

Jane Anderson works with Thought Leaders and Industry Experts to help them build their Personal Brand, Content Creation and Tribe Building. Read Jane Anderson’s full executive profile here

Sourced from Forbes

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‘The transformation of banks into lifestyle brands is the transformation of the card into a lifestyle product’: Challenger banks turn to custom packaging as next step in customer journey

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By Rivka Abramson

  • With so many challenger banks popping up, digital banking solutions are struggling to stand out.
  • How challenger banks package their cards could be key to staying memorable and top of wallet.

As of December 2020, there were 256 active challenger banks worldwide according to data by Exton Consulting.

With so many digital banking solutions, standing out is challenging.

As a solution, many challenger banks are putting extra focus on how they package their cards.

Packaging, it seems, helps challenger banks express their brand’s tone and personality, make users feel special, and turn card activation into a shareable event instead of a mundane chore.

Dane Whitehurst is the creative director at Burgopak. Burgopak is a packaging company that in the past decade has worked closely with challenger banks in finding the best way to uniquely differentiate and present their products. For him, old-fashioned cardboard packaging causes customers to classify their new cards as boring rather than brag-worthy.

A plain envelope doesn’t highlight its content as something desirable. Instead, what’s inside becomes just another item in your home, like a toothbrush or socks — something you use daily, but not something you’d boast about on Instagram.

A unique unpackaging experience, though, can make the user feel like they’re now a part of something special.

“Part of the transformation of banks into lifestyle brands is the transformation of the card into a lifestyle product,” said Whitehurst. “Bank cards are moving from being this thing that’s hidden away in your wallet to being this hugely desirable celebrated object. it’s not something you hide away anymore. It’s something that gets waved around and photographed in countless locations.”

Packaging can also help challenger banks present the use of their banking products as a trendy experience, rather than just another way to pay for stuff.

“I think a big part of the reason behind why these companies became hugely successful is because there were some very clever people in marketing who fundamentally rewrote what a bank is and how it behaves,” said Whitehurst. “They moved perceptions away from these large corporate institutions to something young, exciting and vibrant. And they’re connected much more closely with people’s lives this way. Banks feel much more like lifestyle brands today than they probably ever did.”

Then there’s the fact that through the packaging, challenger banks have been able to express their brand identities and personalities, differentiating themselves not only from incumbent banks but also from other challenger banks.

“It can embed the spirit of brands in a different way through cheeky little tones and things like that,” said Whitehurst.

The real takeaway though is that activating a new card holds the risk of being a pretty dull, forgettable event. And since card activation is often the first physical contact the user has with a chosen challenger bank, it’s important that it becomes memorable.

“If you reward customers, and they feel very good when they receive this thing that welcomes them into the club, there will be emotional investment immediately,” said Whitehurst. “But if you bury the card in an instruction manual, or in a written piece of text, it gets lost, it looks boring, and people often don’t pay much attention to it.”

Not to mention that in the age of social media, once an event becomes worth remembering, it becomes worth sharing. And that can help the challenger bank catch more people’s attention.

“Packaging is even more powerful as a shareable asset through social media. It seems to have become this personal billboard for influencers,” said Whitehurst. “If you Google ‘unboxing videos’ right now, you’ll get over 100 million hits, which is crazy. But it shows that people care about this stuff. They care about how the products are packaged, and how they received their needs, and the experience of receiving them.”

Ultimately, packaging seems to have helped challenger banks present their products not only as something you have to have, but as something you want to have.

As contactless pay continues to rise though, the question is whether the experience we get from opening a cool package can be translated to a digital setting.

“Digital absolutely is where everything’s going. It’s convenient and some of the experience is very useful. But I think you lose some of the feeling that you get with real physical stuff,” said Whitehurst. “I think there’s huge value in brands crafting products and packaging. You can build a really strong brand experience around that, which you can never quite simulate digitally.”

By Rivka Abramson

Sourced from TEARSHEET

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Founder of Beast Media, Jourdain Bell, Discusses the Power of Developing Your Story and Building Your Presence Online

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Not everyone knows how to leverage it to build their personal brand and become an authority figure in their industry.

In today’s world everyone is trying to build a personal brand online; however, not everyone succeeds at building their tribe. Those who succeed tend to have a great reputation and are known as an authority figure in their industry. Everyone has a story, but not everyone knows how to leverage it to build their personal brand and become an authority figure in their industry.

Jourdain Bell, co-founder of Beast Media, is helping solve this issue for professional athletes, entrepreneurs, founders and influencers by helping them become authority figures through personal branding and PR. Aside from building brands, Jourdain also works for one of the most active Venture Capital Firms in the world, Alumni Venture Group.

Public Relations is one of the most effective ways to get your story out there and create a solid online reputation. It’s all about getting the right messages to the right platforms with the right audience. Anyone who wants to build their brand needs to develop their story and get it in the media. Jourdain Co-founded Beast Media after working at another Start-Up that focused on building audiences for individuals online. Those who had an online presence and mentions in the media always performed the best when it came to growth and sales. Jourdain says that due to having press, it automatically made people an authority figure in their space.

Developing Your Story

A great story is what builds trust between you and your audience. It builds a connection without ever having to meet someone in person. Your story is not a place for you to make a pitch or try and sell something. This is your chance to truly captivate people and bring your tribe together. There are always 4 tips Jourdain likes to use when creating a story:

  1.  Figure out what your mission is and what lead you to it
  2.  Figure out how to make it emotional
  3. Use case studies/examples in your story
  4.  Invest in a copywriter

Once you have these four things you can start making a list of all the places your audience “hangs out”. From there, you can start to pitch yourself to writers, editors, contributors of platforms and publications that cover unique stories similar to yours. All you need is one person to say yes and then it becomes a snowball effect. It’s a lot easier to get on publications once you have been featured somewhere before.

Well established PR companies can be expensive but if you’re on a budget and know how to create a story you should be able to successfully tell your story in different publications. To learn more about master storytelling we also recommend that you check out this article on Becoming a Master Storyteller With Rob Dyrdek and Lewis Howes

To learn more or connect with Jourdain you can find him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin.

Jourdain also writes about Start-Ups, VC, Tech, Founders, and Entrepreneurs. His work can be found in The Hustlers Digest, Kivo Daily, Future Sharks, Thrive Global, Awaken The Greatness Within, On Mogul and Disrupt Magazine.

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13 Crucial Roles You Should Consider Hiring First When Building a Marketing Department

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By The Young Entrepreneur Council

Marketing is a crucial element of any successful business, and even small business startups will need to begin building their marketing department as soon as possible. However, some marketing roles are more critical to your business’s success than others. To help you determine which role you need to hire for first, 13 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) answer the following question:

“When building a marketing division for your company, what’s one important role/position you should hire first, and why?”

Consider their suggestions to help determine the right first marketing hire for your company.

1. Data Analyst

“The first important position that I would hire for my marketing team is a data analyst. This position is like the core of the marketing department and can help us gather insights into the current marketing scenario. Knowing this will help us understand what’s happening in the marketing world and come up with a more powerful strategy to combat our competitors.” ~ Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

2. SEO Analyst

“For my marketing team, I would definitely hire an SEO analyst first. This is one important position that can work closely with the rest of the team to get our business to the top search results of Google and bring in more traffic to our websites.” ~ Josh Kohlbach, Wholesale Suite

3. Graphic Designer

“All roles within marketing represent an important element to starting the process effectively. However, a graphic designer would be my first choice, because that is who will give shape to the main ideas that you have for the development of a brand. Later, hire a person who will be in charge of the content. These are two basic aspects of marketing and they must be perfectly combined to achieve success.” ~ Kevin Leyes, Leyes Media & VVS, by Leyes Empire

4. Product Manager

“A product manager is a useful position to hire first for your marketing department. A product manager is in charge of product strategy, including vision and development. They work with other departments to ensure that the products your brand creates have market demand and will do well with customers.” ~ Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

5. Branding Expert

“I think that one of the first people to hire for a marketing department is someone with solid branding experience. A person who understands how branding works can take your goals and clearly but broadly inform the direction your brand takes. Then, when you hire content writers, social media specialists and others, they’ll have guidelines that direct their work and also keep them consistent.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

6. Creative Lead

“I suggest hiring a creative lead to help you chart the direction of your marketing. This role is essential to fill first because you might not need as many people in your marketing division as you thought. A creative lead can help you figure out how many people you’ll need to turn your marketing plan into a reality, which makes filling other positions easier.” ~ Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

7. Editorial Director

“It’s important to have an editorial director on board as the head of content. An editorial director ensures that your brand has a content plan that will boost traffic, grow your email list and produce sales, among other things. Hiring them first allows your company to start from the top and work its way down.” ~ Jared Atchison, WPForms

8. Content Marketing Expert

“If you are running a bootstrapped startup, your first marketing hire should be a content marketing and organic promotions expert. You want someone who is an amazing storyteller. You want someone great at earning free press. If, on the other hand, you have a bigger budget and ambitious goals to match, you want to hire someone who has proven they can build, manage and lead a team.” ~ Ben Landers, Blue Corona

9. Demand Generation Marketer

“The first marketing hire any business should make is a demand generation marketer. Demand gen marketers understand that marketing needs to carry a bag and deliver revenue to the bottom line. The first marketing hire sets the tone between the marketing and sales teams, and a demand gen professional will set the role of marketing appropriately — to drive leads that convert to the bottom line.” ~ Kara Brown, LeadCoverage

10. Marketing Generalist

“Your first marketing hire should be a marketing generalist, someone who knows their way around all the marketing channels. They don’t need to be an expert in a specific channel, but someone who can at least operate in those channels. As you continue to grow, then you can hire specialists who can optimize those specific channels.” ~ Jared Brown, Hubstaff Tasks

11. Marketing Strategist

“One important role or position to hire first when building a marketing division is a marketing strategist. It’s important to have a very clear target audience for your business, channels of communication that will be used and key messages. From then on, you can build a team around the marketing strategist so you can build what you and your team have planned.” ~ Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME

12. Marketer With Sales Experience

“Hire a marketer who knows how to sell and can think backward from the close. Effective marketing is about understanding and reverse-engineering the customer journey toward your product or service, and then generating awareness and opportunity pathways to that end. Any cornerstone marketing position must balance and build both brand growth and sales activation initiatives.” ~ Magnus Simonarson, Consultwebs

13. Marketing Director With Management Experience

“I would look to hire a marketing director with previous experience managing a team. Make sure they have hands-on experience with the areas you want them to focus on. For example, if you are going to focus on paid media to grow, then hire someone with previous experience managing large budgets on Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Then task this person with hiring the team, with your input and involvement.” ~ David Boehl, GoLastMinute

By The Young Entrepreneur Council

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LinkedIn Adds New Tools for Company Pages, Including Content Recommendation and Lead Gathering Options

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LinkedIn is adding some new tools for brands to help boost their organic promotion efforts on the platform, while also facilitating more connection with colleagues within the LinkedIn experience.

As you can see in the video, the first addition is a new ‘My Company’ tab on LinkedIn company pages, which will include ‘Recommend’ and ‘Content Suggestions’ listings, enabling businesses to facilitate direct sharing of relevant posts, and increase internal engagement with such among employees.

As explained by LinkedIn:

“Page admins can now curate organic content through a new “Recommend” tool and suggest trending articles for employees to reshare through “Content Suggestions”. We’ve also added a new Analytics feature that allows you to measure the reach and impact of your employee advocacy program.”

These tools were originally a part of LinkedIn’s Elevate employee advocacy program, which LinkedIn has been gradually expanding into its other offerings. In 2019, LinkedIn integrated Elevate functionality into Sales Navigator, enabling Sales Navigator users to get alerts from Elevate within their Navigator dashboard, then last January, LinkedIn announced its plans to bring more of Elevate’s employee advocacy platform into its regular company pages experience.

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Can Out of Home ads really create PR fame – or will high expectations hurt the industry?

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By John McCarthy

Rarely a week goes by without an inspired billboard, bus-shelter poster or bus livery going ‘viral’ on social media. You’d almost think the work was made for that purpose. Social media’s provided somewhere for impactful out of home ads to further resonate but is the congratulatory feedback loop blinding marketers to the true value of the medium – reaching real people?

If you are in the smallish circle of social-media active marketers who gleefully share nice ads with captions like “clever that”, you’ll have noticed last week a clever exploding ‘dynamite’ Marmite ad, complete with a huge scattered lid, and a mocked-up ad for KitKat from One Minute Briefs contestant Sam Hennig, who was absolutely struck by the warm reception for his idea.

Both ads drove applause and debate. Only one ran in the real world.

Some onlookers questioned whether you even needed to run the physical OOH ad. Why not just mock it up and tweet it? More questioned whether the top of class OOH executions are supposed to reach real people – or merely awards juries.

In the last decade, the medium’s purpose has evolved, The Drum explores why.

Pain with gains

UK out of home ad spend was 61.5% of 2019 levels, even buoyed by a huge government comms drive, according to the IPA. Meanwhile, industry body Outsmart said the revenue decline in the first half of 2020 sat at 44.8% year-on-year. Lockdowns swallowed OOH footfall and strangled marketing budgets. Similarly, marketers were obsessed with finding at-home screens however they could.

Alistair MacCallum, chief executive of out-of-home specialist agency Kinetic Worldwide says footfall didn’t fall as low as many assumed. Only 30% of people could actually work from home, for example. “19 million people still went to work every day, 30% of school kids were still in school. Many of us went to supermarkets once or twice a day just to talk to someone.”

Not all regions locked down equally. Anonymised mobile data tracked population activity to offer helpful heat maps and work out worthwhile sites. Meanwhile, OOH networks worked to digitise their networks and buying platforms. Buyers can now run hyper-local campaigns within the hour without even lifting a phone. And digital out of home sites, have doubled in number in the last four years in the UK. They also account for a third of spend in the US. Marketers are also excited about the creative opportunities afforded by the outdoor screen.

There’s more incentive to show off, too. Over the last two decades, most people acquired phones, with cameras, linked to mass audiences through social media. People on ’active journeys’ could suddenly, and immediately, share good outdoor creative. In the moment they could be promoted to search a homepage or buy something. Some sites even had QR codes to encourage camera activity.

MacCallum says: “The role of out of home is far more multifaceted than it was. The ways you can utilize the channel is increasingly much more varied.”

Stunted growth

As we saw from last week’s examples, good OOH creative can inspire PR fame.

Real people engage with and share good OOH ads. They interact with said brand on social and even inspire earned media. If people are talking about a billboard, there’s a news story there.

MacCallum says: “There is no other channel that has the level of creativity and innovation. Nobody is taking pictures of banner ads are they?”

Kelly Taylor, head of new business and marketing at creative agency Creature, believes tighter budgets forced marketers to be more effective with the medium. But with the closure of the real world, marketers “finally grasped that social and digital are not add-ons to campaigns, but intrinsic parts of the comms, reach and amplification.“

Any outgoing’s on quality OOH would need to resonate beyond the street. Taylor says: “With the amount of time people are spending online up by 32mins compared to pre-lockdown, there are plenty of eyes looking for content to get them through the groundhog days. And OOH and social is the perfect pairing. Both rely on the ability to tell a story in a single impactful post and both want to grab as many eyes as possible.”

One example that cropped up several times was The Drum Out of Home Awards Grand Prix winner ’#MyHeroes’. It gave the public a platform to thank the NHS, bringing social content onto the big screens, and sometimes, back on to social.

It is a modern opportunity that understands that OOH, like memes have to resonate with a mass audience in a single frame. But Taylor warns: be wary of “viral success,“ and be wary of “brandter”.

“There’s a fine line between nurturing engagement and forcing it”, she says pointing to Marmite’s try-hard social team, which she says unfortunately “diminished the original work”.

An OOH campaign “must be able to work in isolation and deliver real results for the client to be successful, not just fame”.

BBC Creative’s award-winning Dracula placement evolves as day becomes night. It won headlines and drove a halo effect around a wider, multi-faceted campaign. It was more than a billboard.

Great ideas

Nick Ellis, creative partner and founder of brand agency Halo believes that OOH is the “pinnacle of the advertising craft, a single idea, executed with the acuity of message and creativity.” The best work is appreciated even outside of industry circles.

He talks up executions that create unmissable moments like Carlsberg’s beer tap billboard. Few people may have seen it in the flesh, but on social, we felt the reactions by proxy.

“These moments transcend what we expect from advertising. And advertising itself becomes art. Instead of being intrusive, it reaches people in a truly creative and disruptive way.“

McCann’s Fearless Girl may be the ultimate example, he says “part of the fabric of a city and a significant cultural moment”.

It is because the idea was executed in real life that it “gives the brand a tangible solidity in a way social channels can’t“.

Jay Young, head of creative solutions at Talon, says the “the world literally is your oyster with OOH. You’re not confined to a certain number of pixels on a page”.

He’s used to thinking outside the box with the medium. He says it is big, unskippable, and real. It has power. And impact. And it reaches 98% of the British public (usually).

Extra love on social or adds value and “boosts the credentials” of OOH. In another broadcast media, TV, extra reach is sometimes wrongly called waste. Young’s sector clearly has a form of that too now.

He’s not worried that marketers will be photoshopping up billboards any time soon.

“You really do need to create something in real life for it to achieve the ‘Wow, that’s clever’ moment and escape our industry echo-chamber. People care far more about things that actually happened. They want brands to be honest and authentic.“

To show the impact of great work, he referenced the reaction to his Pepsi Max ‘Unbelievable Bus Shelter‘ campaign (we‘ll allow it). He acknowledges that bespoke builds are “tricky” to get right. They have to be bold and impactful, and people need to live with them. More often than not, they‘re worth the sleepless nights.

“We’re not working on a closed movie set. We’re likely working on the side of a busy road, in the middle of the night with multiple stakeholders to please.”

This old-school movie magic might clash with the industry‘s new hope, a reinvention around real-time buying for a generation of marketers raised on Facebook ads rather than 48-sheets.

But even in DOOH, PR and reactive marketing could play a larger part.

Young says: “You can see a cultural moment blow up on Twitter at 9am. You‘ll get a reactive ad on DOOH across the country by the time you log off for the day. I still love the Specsavers campaign we ran in reaction to the Moonlight Oscars blunder. We could never have achieved the same impact with static OOH going live days later.”

Marketers are giving real thought to optimising OOH creative based on location, time and the weather – there’s more opportunity for impact ahead. But they‘ll need to remember, real business outcomes are more important than LinkedIn shares.

 

Feature Image Credit: The Drum explores the relationship between social, PR and OOH. Above: Playstation‘s own OOH effort

By John McCarthy

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Why You Should Become An Expert in Google Analytics

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By The Cheddar Shop
Google Analytics has become a powerhouse in recent years. The ultimate web tracking tool, it’s utilized by everyone from entrepreneurs to big businesses, providing users with the data they need to measure the effects of their web and marketing efforts. In fact, this report shows that Google Analytics is used by 84.2% of all the websites whose traffic was analysed (representing 54.9% of all websites).
Being skilled in Google Analytics can be a major draw to employers and can also help individuals build their businesses and determine just how well their marketing efforts are doing. But while the tools might be very powerful, the more the user understands the platform, the meaningful the data and the deeper the insights. As such, right now is a great time to learn the ins and outs, with the Google Analytics Master Class Bundle available for just $35.
With over 3,891 enrolled students, this bundle is highly-rated for a reason. Through five expert-led courses, you’ll learn everything from the fundamentals to advanced techniques. A good place to start is the hands-on training course on Google Analytics for beginners. The 4.4-star-rated course covers the basics, such as how to load demo data from an online store as well as analyse audience, acquisition, and behaviour reports.
Once you start tinkering in Google Analytics, you’ll notice there’s quite a lot of data to comb through. Through this course pack, you’ll learn how to navigate through all this information and how to make smart business decisions using that data. Get a deep understanding of all the methods and techniques necessary to measure, monitor, and analyse your web traffic. Take your expertise a step further when you learn how to set up an Analytics Dashboard in Google Data Studio, unveiling key insights that can directly affect marketing and sales decisions.
The bundle includes a 4.5-star-rated Google Analytics exam prep course. The course features practice questions and feedback on your wrong answers, so you’ll be ready to ace the exam and get this industry-recognized certification, not to mention grow your business or career.
More than half of the world’s websites are running Google Analytics. Don’t get left behind. Get the Google Analytics Master Class Bundle for $34.99 (Reg. $995).
Prices subject to change. 

By The Cheddar Shop

Cheddar is partnering with StackCommerce to bring you the Cheddar Shop. This article doesn’t constitute editorial endorsement, and we earn a portion of all sales.

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You Need to Start Converting Your Social Media Followers Now. Here’s How.

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If you want your business to thrive rather than merely survive 2021 and beyond, seize the spotlight you have.

Social media followers are cool and all, but if you’re not converting those fans to customers, your efforts and investments are futile. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the world can, and will, change overnight. So, if you want your business to thrive rather than merely survive 2021 and beyond, you have to be prepared for the worst to happen.

Imagine if TikTok had been banned in the U.S. last year as nearly happened? A lot of people would have lost these leads. What if the same threat looms over us for Instagram or other platforms in 2021? If you don’t want to be caught with your proverbial pants down, you need to start converting your followers to customers now.

Why, though?

Unless you purchased fake followers, most of your social media fans like your products or services, making them hot leads. Failure to implement a strategy to convert these fans to customers means you are missing out on sales that are there for the taking.

An increasing number of individuals and organizations have lost their Instagram accounts to hackers, unable to ever re-access their former accounts. What happens to all of those followers if you weren’t already converting them to customers? They are lost forever, and all the time and energy you invested in building your online presence is flushed down the drain.

The how

Most brands only pay attention to their post-engagement analytics. Yes, likes and comments per post are important so that you can adapt your content strategy accordingly, but what if your account gets hacked tonight? Kiss those leads you had on ice, waiting to be reeled in like little fishes on a hook goodbye. Read on to discover how to convert fans to customers.

1. Activate email subscription. Most site visitors will not subscribe to your emails unless there’s something in it for them. Entice visitors to share their information with you by offering limited-time discount codes, giveaway entry or free ebook downloads in return for their information. Offering 20-40% off a visitor’s first purchase from you is one of the most effective ways to push newbies across the finish line of your sales funnel. To get ahead of the competition, you have to cut through the online noise by offering consumers value for money over competitors. That’s the holy grail of influencing purchasing decisions.

2. Retarget, retarget, retarget! I know you’re busy and overwhelmed, but another essential step in successful conversion is retargeting those who share their information with you. It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many social media users, including some of the biggest powerhouse brands in the world, are culprits of dropping the ball at this level of marketing Jumanji.

Your email-subscription set-up should be connected to the email platform of your choice, whether that be a basic MailChimp account or a more advanced platform, so that all of your new contacts are automatically added to your email database. The more advanced your platform, the easier it will make your life, as a lot of the actions, such as segmenting, are automated. (The importance of email segmentation is a separate topic for another day.)  An email database you don’t utilize is as pointless as social media fans you’re not converting. Aim to send out at least one email per month to your contacts, preferably with special offers or new products or services rather than just company news (which everyone deletes).

Case in point….

Here’s a quick summary of a case study for you. The year is 2019, and the biggest concern for brands was probably the rumours about Instagram potentially being shut down and disappearing over night. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but we were hit with a global pandemic that no one was prepared for either.

Anyway, with the Instagram rumours in full swing, I reached out to a fashion powerhouse brand to collaborate on a giveaway with a prominent entrepreneur I was working with at the time. The result? Nearly 1,000 emails within 24 hours, and a 23% increase in sales within three weeks as I retargeted these leads via weekly email marketing.

If that doesn’t demonstrate how valuable converting your fans to customers is, then I can’t help you.

Feature Image Credit: Witthaya Prasongsin | Getty Images

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