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Every Brand Has Three Target Audiences

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By John Gumas

Brand marketing is complicated—not only because it has many moving parts but also because most marketing professionals continue to confuse it with other marketing activities.

Brand marketing is not the same as advertising. It’s also not the same as direct marketing. Brand marketing encompasses something bigger and more nebulous. One way to approach brand marketing in such a way that you have focus is to think about the three audiences for any brand:

1. New potential customers (acquisition).

2. Existing customers (retention).

3. Internal team members and stakeholders (inspiration).

As you develop your marketing program, keeping these three target audiences in mind will help you define a brand marketing campaign.

What We Mean By Brand Marketing

When we talk about brand marketing, we are talking about building your brand by exposing it to as many people in your target audience as possible. Brand marketing builds your reputation and recognition, and it helps establish relationships with your target audiences.

Branding relates to how you talk about yourself and your image as well as how you drive value for customers and stakeholders. In many ways, brand marketing is about storytelling—explaining your brand story, what makes you different and how your brand makes people feel.

Your brand sets you apart from your competition—expressing your company’s personality, identity, values and value promise to your stakeholders. Your brand is an abstract that exacts an emotional response and a tangible response. For example, your brand could be a sense of refreshment that comes with the red label (Coca-Cola).

Once you have a brand story, you can use different marketing strategies to deliver the message. For example, brand marketing for Coca-Cola projects an emotional brand promise of joy, happiness and a consistently refreshing experience. In fact, in Mandarin, Coca-Cola can be translated as “Tasty Fun” or “Delicious Happiness.”

The brand message is delivered using other marketing strategies. The Coca-Cola advertising campaign, “The Pause That Refreshes,” exacts the emotional brand response of refreshment and associates it with the more tangible Coke logo and packaging.

Once you have defined your brand message, your brand marketing strategy needs to translate that brand promise for each of your three target audiences.

Matching The Brand To The Target

Matching your brand message to your target audiences can be one of the most challenging aspects of brand marketing. As you develop your brand, you should keep your target audiences in mind. The deeper you understand your audiences’ informational needs and emotional responses, the more you can focus your marketing programs and the more efficiently you can allocate your marketing budget.

1. New Potential Customers

Marketing programs are primarily designed to drive sales, and the number of new leads measures the success of most marketing campaigns. In fact, marketing professionals often use the number of qualified sales leads as the key performance indicators (KPIs) that dictate promotions and bonuses.

At the same time, customer acquisition costs (CAC) rose 60% between 2013 and 2019. Much of that increase can be attributed to the rising cost of content marketing. Online content through blogs, videos, social media posts, downloadable guides and other sources is expensive but highly effective. Content is proving to be the best way to deliver the brand message to prospects, enabling companies to help prospects make the connection between the brand promise and the value they get from the brand.

Using content to package your brand’s value proposition enables you to present your brand message where your target audience is most likely to see it, thus raising awareness. Once you have awareness, you can focus on moving prospects to consideration by showing them how your brand benefits them, ultimately allowing you to land them as customers.

2. Customer Retention

Too few organizations dedicate sufficient resources to customer retention. Customer retention costs five times less than customer acquisition, and increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%. The average customer retention rate for the top five companies in most industries is 94%, and the probability of upselling an existing customer is between 60% and 70%. That’s why reaching out to existing customers is more important than finding new customers.

Your current customers need to be reminded why they love your brand and are important to you. Use your brand message to forge an emotional connection with customers through e-newsletters, social media campaigns, promotions, contests, special offers only for customers and other means. Promote brand recognition by keeping current customers informed and entertained.

3. Internal Stakeholders

Don’t neglect your internal team members. They need to be kept informed and inspired as well. As J. Willard Marriott once said: “Take care of associates, and they’ll take care of your customers.” Keep your team updated on customer promotions and company news through internal newsletters, emails, posts in the lunchroom, etc. Remember that your team members are the bearers of the brand message, so they are vitally important.

Your internal team extends beyond the staff. Develop communications strategies for partners, board members, suppliers, friends and family. They are all part of the organization and carry the brand message in their own way.

Brand marketing is a collaborative effort—not only with your internal team but also with customers and prospects. Everyone who receives your brand message can become an evangelist in one way or another. That’s why it’s essential to be clear about your brand identity and the value it presents to each of your audience targets.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By John Gumas

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

John Gumas is CEO of Gumas Advertising based in San Francisco and co-author of Challenger Brand Marketing. Read John Gumas’ full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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Ecommerce is at a nascent stage and I welcome new players entering the sector: Amazon’s Manish Tiwary

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By Delshad Irani

The global ecommerce juggernaut’s VP and country manager for India, Manish Tiwary, on how Amazon plans to unlock growth.

“As we move towards this goal of the $5 trillion economy, I think we have a few things which make me personally very optimistic. One is the age profile, the income profile and, more importantly, the spirit of entrepreneurship and the resilience which all of us, as consumers and as professionals, have,” says Amazon’s Manish Tiwary

“We spent over nine years here. Internally we always say it’s still Day Zero because we have hardly scratched the surface.” Manish Tiwary, who is the country manager and vice president of Consumer Business at Amazon India, shares his views on the India market, old and new competition, and emerging disruptive trends redefining how consumers shop on the Internet.

Edited excerpts.

What is your view on this festive season or Fifth Quarter, as it’s informally known, and the Indian market in the next few months?

The last few years have been very difficult for everyone personally, professionally and on the income front. In some ways this festive season will unlock our next level of customers and consumption and that’s how we are looking at it. In Amazon, we have a saying: Focus on the input. You can’t control the output. That’s what we’re focused on.

At this stage, the country is sort of leapfrogging and in every way – you look at the digitization, the payment industry, the startup culture, the digital culture. As we move towards this goal of the $5 trillion economy, I think we have a few things which make me personally very optimistic. One is the age profile, the income profile and, more importantly, the spirit of entrepreneurship and the resilience which all of us as consumers and as professionals have.

What is the next big thing coming down the line for the ecommerce Industry? What do you have your eyes on?

To tell you the truth, I think a lot has been spoken about e-commerce but it’s still a very small sector. It will likely be 2-3 percent of the overall retail industry. We spent over nine years here, internally we always say it’s still day zero because we have hardly scratched the surface. We have 100 million plus customers, suppliers all over, but a lot more needs to be done. And I think that’s where our focus is at the customer front.

We are trying very hard to create an experience which will appeal to our customers, which is shopping in regional languages, voice shopping, visual shopping, making the entire services like pay on delivery, enabling every time you deliver not only a box, but the related services around it. So that’s been a focus as far as the customer journey is concerned.

How do you reach out to the next 100 million?

We feel good about the progress we are making. We often speak about the three things which matter: selection, pricing and convenience. While we feel good about the fact that we have 12 crore plus products, there are such good manufacturers and producers of unique products across the country. Again, there also we just scratched the surface. So we’re driving a lot of initiatives like local shops on Amazon, digital kendras to get people online.

I think the customer flywheel and the seller flywheel is one flywheel as you get more selection and more and more customers come – so that’s where I think we feel humbled by the progress we’ve made in the first nine years. But there’s a long way to go and that’s what the focus is on – the next 100 million customers and the next lot of sellers.

You mentioned voice and visual shopping. There’s live commerce, influencer-led commerce and social commerce, which is also leading the charge. And there are old players and new, younger and aggressive players. So what else will we see coming up in terms of how Amazon will capture more of that growth away from its competition?

The industry right now is at a really nascent stage and therefore I do welcome new players entering the sector. Innovation is what will drive growth. That is what has happened over the last decade or so. And that is what is going to happen.

We’ve anchored ourselves around some areas which we believe we can sustainably make a difference to the customer. The first one which is very important is we provide an ecosystem of services. It’s not just about shopping. Think of a Prime member who can experience the best content in terms of Prime video, the best reading in terms of Kindle and the best music in terms of Amazon music, and the best payment options in terms of the identical branded credit card and of course shopping sitting at the base of it. So I think our intent has always been to delight our customers by making this ecosystem of services. We are very focused on that and what differentiated us.

The second one, which we believe we are quite good at, is how we leverage technology. Alexa is something which Amazon has invested heavily in and today it works in several local languages. We worked quite hard to integrate some of these new services into a normal flywheel of shopping and selling. And we believe we have that expertise.

Similarly, if we look at machine learning which is critical as you reach out the next 100 million. People would want far more personalized services. So the way you will see your Amazon homepage will be different from others and AI and machine learning is at the heart of how to achieve this. And finally, in order to make an impact we always talk about the fact that our vision is to change the way India buys and sells. We have to take every ecosystem partner and that’s how you can actually make an impact.

This entire thought of leveraging the ecosystem is something which is very powerful. So as we go through the next decade, we will continue to anchor around customers and around leveraging that ecosystem for them. Technology which will be at the heart of what we do and working with the ecosystem of stores, suppliers and manufacturers.

By Delshad Irani

Sourced from Storyboard 18

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The ‘Big Idea’: Five Keys To The Future Of Brand Marketing

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By Tracey Santilli

In a data-driven world, measurement and performance reign supreme. And that shouldn’t change. But in an increasingly fragmented communications landscape where it’s harder and harder for brands to break through the clutter, the “big idea” is more important than ever.

For brands, the big idea can unify and become the roadmap for more powerful storytelling and consumer engagement. And when executed well, the big idea can help a brand cut through the clutter, engage consumers and inspire brand loyalty. So, while performance media, AI, and other data will continue to be important in helping brand marketing teams show how they are driving results, they should also double down on the big idea. But where does the big idea come from, and what makes it successful? Here are five qualities your idea should have to achieve success.

1. Connected To Culture

According to a 2019 Magna and Twitter study, “The Impact of Culture,” a brand’s cultural involvement makes up a full 25% of a consumer’s purchase decision. So for any consumer brand, it’s ideal if the big idea is connected to culture. Think about Major League Baseball’s Field of Dream’s game inspired by the film or how the movie Black Panther ignited conversations about Black culture and heroes. On the business side, consider REI’s decision to close stores on Black Friday to encourage consumers to #OptOutside. Culturally relevant brands are likely to be more relevant to consumers, and the big idea is how you inspire and engage them.

2. Committed To Doing Good

While I’ve found that quality products and quality of service remain key drivers of consumer satisfaction, the impact of “doing good” as a brand cannot be understated. According to an IBM study (via The Chronicle of Philanthropy—registration required), 71% of U.S customers believe “corporations have a responsibility to prioritize their employees, the environment, and their community as much as shareholder returns.” Think about powerful consumer brands like Patagonia or Tom’s, whose products are inextricably linked to their brand mission of doing good in the world around them, or Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and his wife’s $5 million commitment to help Philadelphia students close the digital divide during the pandemic. (Full disclosure: Comcast is a Tierney client.)

3. Authentic To The Brand

Of course, when you look at those brands, you can see that the big idea is successful and connects with consumers because it is rooted in brand purpose and authentic to who they are as organizations. In a Gartner survey, 62% of consumers say brands should only express support for issues that are consistent with the company’s values, and 45% of consumers say brands should only take a stand on issues directly related to their business, products or services.

4. Grounded In Strong Brand Messaging:

If the big idea is authentic to the brand, then it should be easy to develop strong brand messaging or a brand narrative. This isn’t traditional corporate messaging or talking points about the business. Brand messaging today is cantered around powerful storytelling, and it should aid a brand in differentiating itself from competitors. It should also be understandable, inclusive, accessible and easy for anyone who touches the brand or talks about it—be it the CEO, a customer service rep or a TikTok creator. The development of a strong brand narrative should involve internal, and whenever possible, external stakeholders and brands should tap their agencies, strategists, internal and external communicators, channel experts and creative voices from across the organization.

5. Fully Integrated

Once the brand narrative is established and fully embraced across an organization, marketers should then thread it throughout all channels to reach consumers at every touch point in an integrated and interconnected way. On average, 2020 data from Doubleverify (via Forbes) found that consumers spent seven hours a day consuming content (compared to about three hours pre-pandemic), and brands are challenged to feed that content machine meaningfully empathetically—every day. I’ve seen them turning away from expensive campaigns and polished productions and increasingly sharing content that feels more real and authentic to consumers. Brands and agencies can create that content via in-house content studios to meet the 24/7 nature of content marketing today more quickly and efficiently. They can also turn to influencers.

Marketing teams shouldn’t be intimidated by trying to find the big idea that will break through the clutter and fully engage consumers. Embrace the opportunity that comes with the big idea. Connect it to culture or doing good. And most importantly, make it authentic to the brand, grounded in strong messaging and fully integrated across all channels.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Tracey Santilli

Tracey Santilli is President at Tierney, a full-service marketing communications agency. Read Tracey Santilli’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes
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The ‘Flippening’ will usher in a Golden Age of B2B marketing

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By Peter Weinberg & Jon Lombardo

Brand marketing creates more financial value than short-term performance marketing – the sooner B2B marketers flip their perspective and start allocating budgets accordingly, the better it will be for everyone in B2B.

Should you be optimistic about the future of B2B marketing?

We are optimists, believe it or not. We believe B2B marketing is on the cusp of a Golden Age, a glorious revolution that shall be ushered in by a momentous event.

And we call this event…the Flippening.

To understand the Flippening, first you must understand the three numbers that explain everything that’s wrong with the B2B marketing industry.

80%, 95% and 8%.

First, 80%. If you talk to a financial analyst, they’ll tell you something like 80% of your share price is based on cash flows that are 10n years out into the future. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Wall Street is not short term. The market values businesses on their future cash flows.

Second, 95%. According to our research with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, something like 95% of buyers are not ‘in-market’ to buy your products right now. That means effective marketing works primarily by reaching the 95% of customers who are not yet in-market, increasing the odds your brand gets remembered when those customers do enter the market in some future period.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, delivering short-term sales isn’t the most important job for B2B marketers, because only 5% of customers are ready to buy today. The most important job is influencing the 95% of future buyers who generate future cash flows.

And finally, 8%. According to LinkedIn data, B2B marketers spend around 8% of their budgets on brand awareness objectives. Something like 92% of B2B budgets are dedicated to short term, bottom funnel objectives like lead generation.

This so-called performance marketing may capture sales from in-market buyers, but it has little to no effect on future buyers. Brand marketing is much better at building the lasting memory structures that determine future sales.

85%. 95%. 8%.

One of these numbers makes 0% sense. If 80% of your stock price is based on future cash flows and 95% of your buyers are future buyers, why would you spend only 8% of your budget on brand marketing, which increases future sales from future buyers? Why would you spend 92% of your money chasing after 5% of your customers? Isn’t that a massive misallocation of capital?

Yup!

But don’t worry, the correction is coming.

Brace yourself for the Flippening.

The Flippening: When 8% brand becomes 51% brand

So what the flip is the Flippening?

The Flippening is that magical moment when B2B businesses realise that brand marketing creates more financial value than short term performance marketing, and B2B CMOs begin to allocate at least 51% of their budgets to brand marketing.

The Flippening will spark a positive chain reaction, which will be good for everyone in B2B.

The shift to brand will benefit businesses, since brand 1) increases long- and short-term sales, 2) improves pricing power, 3) reduces talent acquisition and retention costs, 4) unlocks growth in new categories, and much more.

Sales does not share power. The bottom of the funnel is the land of Mordor, where sales torments marketing for all eternity.

By creating more commercial value, marketing will enhance its status within B2B organisations. Instead of sitting in the basement, colouring in our whitepapers and sales collateral, marketing will get back to the boardroom with the decision makers.

Moving up the funnel will also make the job of B2B marketing a million times more enjoyable. The problem with the bottom of the funnel is that marketing has to ‘share’ its success with sales. And as Gandalf once said to us: “There is only one Lord of the Rings, and he does not share power.”

There is only one department that will ever get credit for delivering short-term sales, and it’s the sales department. Sales does not share power. The bottom of the funnel is the land of Mordor, where sales torments marketing for all eternity. The top of the funnel is the Shire, where marketers can frolic like happy little hobbits. Marketing has a monopoly at the top of the funnel. Only we can influence future buyers at scale through brand advertising.

The Flippening will even benefit performance marketers, both by lowering their precious cost-per-leads and by increasing their budgets. That’s right – we don’t believe brands’ growth will come at the expense of lead generation. It’s incremental. Businesses need to both influence ‘out-market’ buyers and capture in-market buyers. The Flippening will grow the overall marketing budget. Performance marketing will receive a smaller slice of a much bigger pie.

Yum!

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

By Peter Weinberg & Jon Lombardo

Sourced from MarketingWeek

 

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9 Good Reasons to Consider Out-of-Home Advertising

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Many people think they know what OOH advertising is, but some perceptions are still very much stuck in the past.

As marketing has increasingly moved in a digital direction over the past two decades, a lot of myths and misconceptions have prevailed about “traditional” media channels. This is especially true for out-of-home (OOH) advertising. Many people think they know what OOH advertising is, but some perceptions are still very much stuck in the past.

The truth is, OOH has changed a lot over the past few years.  So here are nine reasons you should consider allocating more budget to OOH advertising in the coming year. Hopefully, you’ll come away with an entirely new appreciation of outdoor advertising, including its ability to amplify your other traditional and digital marketing efforts in a big way.

1. OOH goes way beyond brand marketing

In the past, OOH advertising was primarily used for brand marketing campaigns — think Times Square or Sunset Boulevard, where the billboards dwarf everything around them with the splashiest possible brand advertising. However, the original focus of OOH was to drive an immediate, direct response that viewers could perform even before returning home, and it still has the power to do that. In addition, OOH can also drive offline-to-online responses, because prospects can immediately take action on their phones. A study from Nielsen found that OOH is the most effective offline medium in driving online activity – delivering four times more online activity per dollar spent than TV, radio and print. This factor gives OOH huge potential to be included in any marketing mix, not just brand advertising.

2. OOH is much more than just billboards

While billboards play a substantial role in OOH, the medium is much bigger than this particular ad format. Outdoor advertising includes a range of ad formats from murals to transport wraps, branded food packaging and street furniture such as park benches. OOH can use practically any real-world surface available, and companies employing the full range of opportunities can increase their chances of reaching an audience at multiple touchpoints during a day.

3. OOH is affordable

OOH advertising has the reputation of being expensive, but it actually offers the lowest cost per thousand impressions (CPM) of all traditional media. With an average CPM of around $5, it’s a steal compared to other options available. The belief that OOH is expensive stems from the cost of billboards in places like Times Square, but it’s the location, not the medium, that determines the price. And it’s possible to uncover high-value placements even in popular locations like Times Square if you have the right data and technology at your fingertips. For advertisers looking to drive real results in a specific geographical area, there are multiple ways to do so on any budget.

4. OOH is accessible for everyone

In the past, buyers had to have close, 1-to-1 relationships with OOH media owners to get the advertising real estate they wanted at a reasonable price. Now, with OOH buying platforms, tools that offer real-time inventory availability, historical pricing data and historical performance data, buyers can access the information they need to determine which placements will give them the best return on their ad spend. The best platforms also offer pre-negotiated, low rates, so buyers can forego the hassle of haggling with media owners.

5. Local expertise is not necessary

Before OOH data tools existed, media buyers needed local expertise to uncover OOH ad placements. However, now that advertisers can search, target and measure 98% of available inventory with OOH buying platforms, the need for local expertise is obsolete. Additionally, with the data and insights built into these new tools, any media buyer has the information at their fingertips to plan and buy effective OOH placements that deliver a stellar performance.

6. OOH is easy to execute

In the past, executing OOH advertising was a long, laborious process that included sourcing, RFP-ing, haggling over price, creative development, approval, production, proofing and eventual installation. Today, some OOH buying platforms have shortened this process, even for static OOH. And since the rise of programmatic digital OOH, brands can buy and launch campaigns in 48 hours. Buyers and managers can modify, pause and resume their ads in real-time. The OOH tools available allow advertisers to perform ad buying and execution faster than ever before.

7. OOH is data-driven

One of the most powerful aspects of the newly tech-savvy OOH world is that advertisers can target audiences precisely. Ad buyers use data to pinpoint the exact OOH units most likely to reach their target audiences, and can even layer in first-party data to build accurate lookalike audiences.

Third-party, anonymized foot traffic and mobility data help advertisers understand consumer movement patterns at a granular level and identify areas with the highest densities of specific customer segments. This means companies can buy OOH ad units in areas where they will have the best possible chance of being seen.

8. OOH is measurable

Every advertiser wants to know what return they’re getting on their ad spend. With the right tools, today’s ad buyers can track, isolate and compare performance for both digital and static OOH media. They can accurately assess offline-to-online conversions, measure ROI and optimize their campaigns in real time to produce excellent results.

9. There’s lots of inventory

Many people mistakenly believe that OOH advertising operates within a highly consolidated marketplace. This couldn’t be further from the truth. OOH buying platforms make it possible to reach the many independent media owners in every market, opening doors to one-stop negotiations for strategically located placements.

OOH advertising has changed tremendously over the last few years. With the latest technology, OOH offers advertisers excellent opportunities to plan, buy and execute ad campaigns that deliver results across every objective and campaign KPI. Don’t make the mistake of thinking OOH is outdated. Take a step into the future to see how this advertising option can impact your company’s bottom line.

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Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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5 reasons to use Instagram for brand marketing

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Sourced from BOSS Magazine

A social media platform like Instagram is undeniably one of the most influential platforms out there. A strong marketing strategy should include Instagram as part of it, regardless of whether you manage social media for your business or personal brand.

Approximately 500 million people were active users of Instagram stories as of January 2021. Close to 35% of the global audience is between the ages of 25 and 34, making it a popular target audience for marketers. Close to 80% of users follow at least one business. Each day, about 200 million Instagram users click on one or more business profiles. Instagram users search for products and services on Instagram 81% of the time. More than 90% of Instagram users follow businesses. Instagram has been a source of new products for 60% of customers. Considering its popularity, ease of use, and brilliant statistics, Instagram has proven to be an invaluable marketing tool for businesses that wish to expand their visibility and reach. Hence, here are 5 reasons why every brand should make use of Instagram to grow their business.

Visual content

Visual content is absorbed by the brain faster than the textual content; more than half of all information transmitted to the brain is visual. You can, therefore, create a visual representation that is suited for whatever brand product you have. Instagram is the perfect platform to share images related to your brand. This is a great way to express your brand’s identity creatively. You can make use of infographics, animations, gifs, and more as you provide value to your customers through the use of pictures and videos. Instagram Marketing can be used in a variety of ways. Here are some ways to create content for social media:

  • Use infographics to educate your customers and provide them with useful information.
  • Get to know your customers by asking them how they use your product or how it benefits them. You will gain more credibility and be more relatable to your customers if they are in the spotlight.
  • Does the process you use to develop your product seem complicated? You can post a video or photo of the entire process behind the scenes.
  • By using stories, you can stand out from the crowd and have a greater impact on your audience.
  • Establish an aesthetic style and colour scheme for your brand. Your brand’s identity will be reinforced in your feed, which will also help you gain more real Instagram followers.
  • Increases engagement

Apart from increasing brand awareness, Instagram is also a great platform for increasing engagement with your audience. A number of Instagram’s new features are available to users, including polls, Q&As, countdowns, hashtags, and quizzes. By taking advantage of any of these options, the brand can interact with the audience more personally. As an alternative, you can execute brand campaigns around special events like popular sporting events, Mother’s Day, etc., by offering giveaways, scholarships, and more. more. Instagram’s average engagement rate is much higher than that of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Gaining Instagram likes on your photos and videos is one of the easiest ways to engage with your audience.

Unique hashtags can be used by brands to start conversations. Gaining more Instagram followers and engagement is easy with a successful Instagram contest. You should remember that in addition to marketing your products, you are trying to connect with your audience. It can be tempting to use bots to respond to comments and likes, but it lacks a personal touch. Real engagement from the brand would be necessary in order to create real customers, leads, or sales. 

Generate leads 

A consumer’s purchase decisions can be strongly influenced by social media. Through Instagram’s direct messaging feature, your audience can easily get in touch with you. With Instagram, you can easily link to your products in your posts and stories. This makes it easier for a customer to purchase your products. The content you put in your bio has become more important to generate sales. You can achieve better conversion rates by using a paid ad campaign, which allows you to reach a broader audience.

With Instagram, you can emphasize the human aspect of your brand and interact with individuals while increasing the value of your brand. Besides increasing engagement, you can access current customers and buy Instagram followers at the same time. Additionally, studies have demonstrated that the response rate of social media leads to conversions is 100 percent higher than that of outbound marketing. You can interact with your audience through every post, whether it is a blog, infographic, or video. It is a gateway for future conversions. Gaining Instagram likes and followers is a great way to prove your credibility as a source. In turn, this increases the chances of improving conversions. Partnering with a reputable influencer can also lead to increased business leads.

Wide reach/ Increases blog traffic 

Increased blog traffic is another reason why you should leverage Instagram Marketing. You can reach a large number of people using social media platforms like Instagram. Each new user who joins the platform daily can potentially become a customer. It is likely that without Instagram, your blog will only attract people who know about your brand or are already familiar with your website. Instagram helps you reach an entirely new group of prospective clients. It is an excellent way of driving traffic to your blog or website. You will gain more Instagram likes if you post regular content and engage with your audience.

You can do this by including attractive visuals in your Instagram posts. Participate in their social media activities by conversing with them. Consider conducting contests that require the contestants to visit your blog or website. You should also include a link to the blog in the post. Take advantage of Instagram Stories and share ‘behind-the-scenes’ clips that highlight the faces and personalities behind your brand.

Valuable customer insights

As a marketer, you know that you need to monitor the conversation about your brand and products on various platforms. You should monitor mentions on other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or blogs. However, tracking similar metrics on Instagram is just as necessary. Your business will still be discussed on this platform whether you are on the platform or not. Users could make use of it to publish pictures of products they bought or to make videos. It is important to not ignore this since it can provide valuable information.

Instagram Analytics also provides information such as how many times your story has been viewed, the age group of your audience, and which posts have gained more Instagram likes. Conduct tests and campaigns to track metrics and determine which content performs best on your platform. There are endless possibilities.

Conclusion 

Instagram is a highly popular social media platform for sharing photos and videos. You can share photos and videos through the app; use temporary stories which are available for 24 hours; use Reels, which are short-form videos that can be produced in 15 seconds; and find IGTV videos. You can even shop directly from e-commerce brands.

Instagram was designed from day one to be an application, instead of being a browser-based site like Facebook and Twitter. In addition to having a cleaner feed than Facebook, Instagram tends to be a favorite among smartphone users. It is also possible to buy Instagram followers in order to gain more Instagram followers and hence, more exposure. The reasons mentioned above should push you to include Instagram in your marketing strategy right away.

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

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Doubling Down On Digital: Pivots For Brand Marketing In Q2

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By Kelly Ehlers

We’re facing a time like never before — and that’s no exaggeration. The majority of the U.S. workforce has been interrupted, and for the foreseeable future, gatherings and live events have been canceled or postponed. With such drastic changes, innovators must reconsider their digital practices and, although counterintuitive, invest even more heavily into reaching their audiences online.

As an experienced marketer, I know the worst thing brands can do is go dark. Even while we face the challenge of creating appropriate, relevant content in the midst of a worldwide emergency, removing ourselves from the conversation entirely threatens our relationships with customers — one we’ve spent our entire careers developing.

Not to mention that doing so creates an uphill climb of re-establishing reach and engagement after returning online. By implementing a few strategic measures, we can protect and even strengthen this connection to consumers in a now-mysterious digital environment.

Increase (Yes, Increase) Your Digital Visibility

According to a recent Gartner survey, consumers want to hear from brands at this time. The only catch? They want to hear from the companies that are most relevant to their lives in the current situation. Grocery stores, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, household goods, and food and drink vendors are at the top of the list.

The obvious relationship between these industries is their place in everyday life since COVID-19. If your brand doesn’t fit into this category of “necessities,” establish an alternative metric of relevance, such as a strong community, worthwhile information and engaging entertainment. Doing so can establish your brand’s place in the conversation and permit continued content creation throughout our new normal.

In addition to your regular social media strategy, redistribute time and resources to ensure your brand is found at every stage of the purchasing lifestyle — from exploring to evaluating offerings. One way to do this is to call on your connections to other respected experts. By partnering to introduce your clients in one another’s networks, you can increase visibility within a larger audience pool, as well as leverage the authority of your peers in a cost-effective way.

Dive Into Digital Channels And Leverage Them Strategically 

Content creators should be at the forefront of your strategy. As an essential ingredient for tactical marketing campaigns, harness the full potential of content production as a tool to keep in touch with your existing customers.

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Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Kelly Ehlers

Founder and President of Ideas That Evoke, an influencer and social media agency focused on the beauty, lifestyle and luxury markets.

Sourced from Forbes

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Brand Marketing Through the Coronavirus Crisis

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By Janet Balis

In times of crisis, it may be hard for marketers to know where to begin. In just a few short weeks, people have shifted into protection mode, focused on themselves, their families, their employees, their customers, and their communities. Social media reflects this, with pleas for fellow citizens to follow government safety guidelines. People have crossed partisan lines to build bridges within their neighborhoods and communities and unify against an invisible force.

With social distancing keeping many people at home, we’re also seeing major shifts in behavioral trends. Consumers have returned to broadcast and cable television and other premium media sources for credible information. They are also seeking more in the way of escapism and entertainment — downloading gaming apps, spending even more time on social media, and streaming more movies and scripted programming. And between remote working arrangements and live-streamed workout classes, college lectures, and social engagements, we are testing the bandwidth of our homes in a largely pre-5G world.

Meanwhile, the need for physical goods is placing pressure on new channels, with demand for e-commerce rising to new levels. For those who do venture out, grocery and convenience stores are the source for essentials, but supply is inconsistent. Health and safety concerns are driving more customers toward frictionless payment systems, such as using mobile phones to pay at check-out without touching a surface or stylus.

Some of these behavior changes may be temporary, but many may be more permanent. As people move beyond the current mode of survival, the momentum behind digital-experience adoption is unlikely to reverse as people are forced by circumstances to try new things. With so much changing so fast during this difficult time, what actions can brands take to serve and grow their customer base, mitigate risk, and take care of their people ?

1. Present with empathy and transparency

People feel vulnerable right now. Empathy is critical. Many banks, for example, have moved to waive overdraft fees, recognizing the hardship on their customers. SAP has made its Qualtrics Remote Work Pulse platform free to companies who might be rapidly transitioning to new ways of working. Such instances show humility in the face of a force larger than all of us.

The nuances of brand voice are more delicate than ever. Brands that use this time to be commercially exploitative will not fare well. Better to do as Guinness did in the period surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, when the company shifted its focus away from celebrations and pub gatherings and instead leaned into a message of longevity and wellbeing. In these moments, we don’t have all the answers, and we need to acknowledge that. If you make pledges, even during uncertain times, you have to be able to deliver on what you say.

2. Use media in more agile ways

To quickly pivot creative messages as circumstances change, marketers will want to build more rapid-response operating models internally and with agencies. Access to remote production and creative capacity will become particularly important as the crisis evolves. Nike, for example, immediately moved to adopt a new message: “Play inside, play for the world.” And in order to promote social distancing and show a commitment to public safety, Chiquita Brands removed Miss Chiquita from their logo. “I’m already home. Please do the same and protect yourself,” its Instagram caption read.

Beyond creative, as the mix of actual media platforms used by consumers changes quickly, marketers should consider modifying their media mix. For example, with digital entertainment spiking, marketers may want to amplify their use of ad-supported premium video streaming and mobile gaming. Similarly, as news consumption peaks while consumers jostle to stay informed, brands should not fear that adjacency, given the level of engagement and relevance. News may simply be an environment that requires more careful monitoring of how frequently ads appear to avoid creative being over-exposed, which can damage brand equity.

3. Associate your brand with good

People will remember brands for their acts of good in a time of crisis, particularly if done with true heart and generosity. This could take the form of donating to food banks, providing free products for medical personnel, or continuing to pay employees while the company’s doors are closed. Adobe, for example, immediately made Creative Cloud available to K-12 institutions, knowing this was a moment to give rather than be purely commercial. Consumers will likely remember how Ford, GE, and 3M partnered to repurpose manufacturing capacity and put people back to work to make respirators and ventilators to fight coronavirus. And people appreciate that many adult beverage companies, from Diageo to AB InBev, repurposed their alcohol-manufacturing capabilities to make hand sanitizer, alleviating short supplies with their “It’s in our hands to make a difference” message.

Feel-good content that alleviates anxiety and promotes positive messaging will go a long way to enhancing the brand. However, companies need to show that their contributions are material and not solely for commercial benefit. Consumers recognize authenticity and true purpose.

4. Track trends and build scenarios

Frequent tracking of human behavioral trends will help marketers gain better insights in real time. Marketers will want to measure sentiment and consumption trends on a regular basis to better adapt messaging, closely observing the conversation across social-media platforms, community sites, and e-commerce product pages to look for opportunities and identify looming crises more quickly. Companies should consider quickly building dashboards with this kind of data to fuel the right decisions.

Marketers will also want to consider building deeper connections with their C-suite colleagues to provide insights to executives who, increasingly, will be involved with marketing choices. The marketing team should work closely with finance and operations to forecast different scenarios and potential outcomes, depending on how long the crisis lasts.

5. Adapt to new ways of working to keep delivering

It’s encouraging how quickly many companies were able to transition to remote working arrangements. Deploying collaboration technologies can seamlessly provide chat, file sharing, meeting and call capabilities, enabling teams to stay connected and remain productive. Already, virtual happy hours are emerging as the new normal to build team morale. Partners are “pitching” remotely, recognizing that an in-face sales call is unlikely to transpire for weeks to come. Leaders have to do their best to transition each element of the operating model—from marketing, to sales, to service—to this new normal. New sources of innovation and even margin improvement will emerge out of our current discomfort.

How we can plan for the next and the beyond

We are in the acknowledge-and-adapt phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. But we also have to plan for life beyond the crisis. As we navigate what we know, marketing leaders must work externally to keep their brands and customer journeys as whole as possible, while working internally to do three things:

  1. Understand the impact of business interruption and continue to triage the unexpected.
  2. Lean into digital ways of working and connecting with customers, knowing that this will likely have lasting effects.
  3. Mitigate risks to the customer experience by thinking realistically from the outside-in.

Unquestionably, there is a forced acceleration of the digital transformation agenda as we recognize how quickly customers and employees have embraced digitally enabled journeys and experiences.

Brands are all having to think, operate, and lead in new ways during these uncertain and unprecedented circumstances, and we will all have to learn together with both confidence and humility.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the authors and don’t necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.

Feature Image Credit: zakokor/Getty Images

By Janet Balis

Janet Balis is a principal with Ernst & Young LLP, where she serves as Global Advisory Leader for Media & Entertainment and Americas Marketing Consulting Leader. She has also served as a partner at Betaworks, publisher of The Huffington Post, and EVP Media Sales and Marketing at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Balis is on the global board of the Mobile Marketing Association and the International Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she is also an advisor to the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative. You can follow her on Twitter: @digitalstrategy.

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Marketers Must Reshape How They Build Trust And Loyalty For Their Brands

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By Benjamin Herrmann

Customer trust and brand loyalty are inextricably linked, essential to long-term business success, and tougher than ever to gain and retain. With all the breaches, hacks, and misuses of customer data in recent years, customer trust is low. And with the proliferation of digital channels making upstart competitors a mere millisecond-click away, loyalty is precarious, as well.

This reality, along with digital channels becoming the norm in buying from and interacting with both B2C and B2B customers, means that it’s mission critical to reshape the way you’re building customer trust. In the digital landscape, brands need to focus on tapping into the right customer data in a way that is mindful and doesn’t cross boundaries of privacy, while also prioritizing transparency and individualized support tailored to each customer.

Here are three best practices you can use in your marketing strategies to build customer trust and lasting loyalty in the digital age.

1. Respect privacy and avoid “creepiness” when personalizing experiences

“Customers are done with creepy; don’t be creepy,” Alex Atzberger, president of SAP customer experience, said at the 2018 SAPPHIRE NOW conference. “Without consent, don’t personalize.” He couldn’t have been more right.

Personalization plays a major role in thoughtfully engaging customers, but when it isn’t handled with care, brands can lose favor with customers who suspect their privacy isn’t being prioritized. New laws around data governance, such as GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act, help give customers an extra layer of security, but the responsibility still lies with brands to create personalized experiences without being creepy or crossing any lines with the consumer.

The challenge is that we have access to more data than ever, especially customer data around specific behaviors and preferences. It’s natural as a brand to want to make use of any and all data you can access to create a better user experience, but respecting customer privacy must be the top priority. Plus, the better results will come from identifying and acting on the right data, rather than trying to make everything you can get your hands on into something actionable.

Mastering personalization is about showing each individual customer that you’re committed to and respect the relationship they have with your brand.

2. Maintain transparency and keep it consistent across your organization

Transparency should span across every aspect of business, but when it comes to building digital trust with your customers, price transparency is always an important practice. It supports a connected customer experience, adding long-term value by giving your customers the ability to explore pricing options before making purchasing decisions. Be upfront about costs throughout the buyer journey (e.g., taxes, service fees), so customers aren’t seeing them only at the end when it’s time to make a purchase. This way your customers can understand exactly what they’ll be buying and for how much before heading into the final transaction.

Giving your customers trial periods with products also plays an important role in transparency. Many consumer products are set up in this way, from cars to clothing to even food – these items are set out in a way that lets customers view them and try them before they buy. Apply the same principle to B2B products, such as software.

When implementing digital purchasing options into your customer journey, always include trial options. Your customers can use this opportunity to properly evaluate whether or not a product meets the challenges or needs they are seeking to address without needing to make a purchase first. They can then make better, more confident purchasing decisions, which also supports long-lasting trust in your brand.

3. Be helpful along the entire customer journey

Support – especially with digital sales that lacks face-to-face interaction with a sales or service representative – should always be ready and available before, during, and after purchases are made. Customer service takes many shapes: sometimes it’s in-person, other times it’s over the phone or via online chat, and sometimes it’s simply in the background, providing support without the customer realizing it’s there.

B2C companies already focus on support as part of the entire customer journey and experience, infusing the same customer support systems they have in person into their digital platforms. This is a model that B2B companies can use for digital sales and e-commerce, as well. In fact, B2B brands should be held to a higher standard in supplying customer support from a digital perspective, as these customers are used to the high-touch services of a vendor’s field sales team.

Even though your customers want quicker, more seamless online options, you shouldn’t let service levels drop because the customer is no longer working with someone directly. Your customers will still expect your guidance and support throughout their digital journey, through the transaction process and beyond. It’s important to show your customers your commitment to their experience along this path, allowing trust to take shape as you do this.

Customer trust is gained – and kept – by aligning goals. Your customer’s goal is to solve a problem, improve a process, transform their business, etc., and your top goal should always be to support customers along their path to achieving their goals. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to building trust, especially in digital interactions, but incorporating these best practices into your overall marketing strategy is a great starting point.

By Benjamin Herrmann

Connect with Benjamin Herrmann at @bherrmann81 and on LinkedIn.

As head of digital commerce for SAP, Benjamin Herrmann is responsible for developing the digital direct sales channel at SAP across products, professional services, and education. Dedicated to helping customers become best-run businesses, Herrmann has established himself as a leader in B2B digital business models. Prior to his current role, Herrmann was senior director of strategy for SAP Portfolio & Pricing, where he ran board-level change programs. He also worked as an enterprise business architect and lead business architect in the Business Transformation Office for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and served as a lecturer on Information Systems at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

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Include The Right Instagram Hashtags For Your Brand Marketing

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Sourced from Business 2 Community

Having a well-planned mobile marketing strategy is an important part of building your personal brand on social media. Leveraging hashtags to their fullest potential is also important for visibility and growth.

Instagram is near the top of the networks today, which makes this a must-engage platform for brands. Posting relevant images and videos that your audience will love is just one part of the success formula. The other is to include the right keywords for your posts for the most likes and engagement.

Utilizing the right captions can be very effective in getting your brand noticed on Instagram, and this involves careful attention to the right message and focus without appearing like spam. Here are several ways your posts can help your business stand out from the rest:

  • Avoid using broad terms – Hashtags that are too broad and in use by a large number of users can easily get lost in the feeds and not make it into the all-important discovery section. Do a search to find the most relevant words for each post with less competition. The most successful keywords pertain directly to the content and do not contain large strings or phrases.
  • Keep the number to a minimum – It’s good practice to leave the bulk of your hashtags for your comments section and only few in your description. Around 15 to 20 is a good number to follow if you don’t want to appear too spammy or be in violation of Instagram’s terms of service. Do your research first to discover which ones will be most effective for your brand’s post topic.
  • Do your due diligence in editing – It’s important that your post is free from spelling and grammar errors when scheduling it or posting directly. Editing or even deleting your images can cause your content to decrease in visibility. Before you hit share read it first!
  • Make a list of common hashtags for your brand – Put together in your notes a list of hashtags that you use the most, and mix these up for each one according to what is being posted. Including the same ones over and over will put your profile at risk of being banned and not seen.

Instagram is a great tool to bring more visibility to your personal brand as well as a place to attract new subscribers to your website. There are many tools and apps available to help you create and schedule your content, most of which are free to use. Use this visual social network to show a more personal side of your company and build a loyal fan base.

Author: Personal Branding Blog

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