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Clubhouse shows us how businesses can save millions on marketing

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By Kirsty Sharman.

After launching in April 2020, Clubhouse has already been downloaded 10 million times and has around two million weekly active users. In the grand scheme of things, this might sound like a small amount — especially if you consider that Facebook has 2.7 billion active users on its platform, Instagram 1 billion, Twitter 330 million, and Snapchat 301 million.

But the amount of hype that Clubhouse has generated in its relatively short lifetime is oddly disproportionate to the number of users it had acquired. I’ve heard and seen Clubhouse references every single day for the last few weeks, which would usually be expected for an app that just hit 100 million downloads… not 10 million! What gives?

Although Clubhouse is a social network where all members can do is talk (and listen), a remarkable amount of the conversation (and attention) is actually happening beyond the app itself.

While this could be down to the fact that it has several high-profile members — I’m talking about Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Kanye West, and Drake, for example — its clout is being driven by the fact that it’s so hard to get into.

The FOMO is real!

[Read: Oh no… ‘Senior Clubhouse Executive’ is now a thing]

Clubhouse might have opened its doors around a year ago, but there’s always been a burly bouncer standing outside. A digital queue that feels like it never ends. And if your name’s not down – you’re not coming in. Even now, if you download the app, the best you’re going to do is be put on the waiting list… unless you are directly invited.

Clubhouse has got everyone wanting to get inside, without blowing a fortune on marketing. This kind of hype usually costs millions of marketing dollars to achieve. 🤑

How exactly has Clubhouse achieved this?

By modernizing the oldest marketing channel in the book — word of mouth — or referral marketing as we call it these days.

 

 

Word of mouth works, just ask Google 

We can go all the way back to 2004 for a great example of word-of-mouth marketing in action. Gmail is obviously now a Unicorn with 1.8 billion users around the world, but 17 years ago the name Google was not in any way one that would have been associated with email.

When it was first launched, Google only allowed a few people access to the service, offering each of these ‘beta’ users the ability to invite a few more friends and family. The referral program was so successful that invites to Gmail were up for auction on eBay at the time.

 

 

FOMO is a potent human emotion, and it can be engineered 

Exclusivity might not seem like the best way to build a business. Common sense surely dictates that you want to get as many customers as possible. But this isn’t necessarily true — it’s no good tempting millions of people onto your platform all at once if they don’t stick around.

Clubhouse’s reliance on referrals also means it’s able to attract the right kind of members in the right kinds of circles — a key ingredient to create FOMO.

It really is this simple: if a product or service is worth talking about, people want to tell their friends. By growing its membership through a referral-based model, Clubhouse is tapping into existing networks of friends, families, and colleagues. People who already trust each other and know each other’s tastes, likes, and dislikes.

This means that when your friend recommends a product, you find yourself wanting it even before you’ve clicked that link.

Referrals can save you millions 

If a company has a good product or service, customers will want to refer their friends. You just have to give them a reason to refer and make it easy for them to do so. If you get this right you could save millions on marketing. 🚀

To me, Clubhouse’s incredible success showcases the true power of referral marketing and also its simplicity. By contrast, countless businesses have spent millions on ads attempting to build that kind of trust (and noise), when all they needed to do was ask their customers to refer their friends…

It’s now easier than ever to follow the likes of Clubhouse and Google — so go for it! Easy-to-use marketing tools have made launching a referral program simple and affordable, so there really is no reason not to give it a try!

By Kirsty Sharman

Kirsty founded Referral Factory, a leading referral marketing platform that makes it incredibly easy for any business to build their own referral program. Besides being an entrepreneurial powerhouse, she acts as a growth marketer, product builder and was Listed in M&G as one of 200 Young South Africans to watch.

Sourced from TNW

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5 Ways to Make Your Marketing More Memorable

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By Martin Zwilling

Traditional marketing and media are just not enough to attract and excite today’s generation of customers.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Martin Zwilling

Sourced from Inc.

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Should Your Small Business Hire a Marketing Agency or Build a Marketing Team?

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By Tanner Simkins

Which marketing plan works best for the modern entrepreneur: outside or in-house? Here are four important factors to consider.

As your small business grows, at some point you’ll need to take your marketing strategy to the next level. While many leaders of new and small businesses are used to taking on a variety of roles, there will come a time when it makes sense to pass marketing roles on to the experts. Doing so is vital for making sure that your business continues to develop new customers, build its brand, and stay competitive in its industry.

For many leaders the realization that they need to work with marketing professionals leads to questions of whether to turn to a marketing agency or hire an in-house marketing team. There is no right answer to this question, as it depends on the business’s resources and needs. That said, there are a few issues that leaders should consider when determining whether to hire a marketing agency or to develop an in-house team. Here are a few key factors to think about.

Type of expertise

What type of expertise do you want? An in-house marketing professional offers in-depth knowledge of your business. This person (or these people) will know exactly what your team does and exactly what your team is about. Additionally, every moment will be spent on your business, and they’ll be fully invested in your business’s success.

In contrast, when working with a marketing agency, you’ll get access to an entire team of marketing professionals with an array of expertise. While you might not get the same level of knowledge and investment in your business, you will get a team on the cutting-edge of the industry with a variety of applicable skill sets. In addition, you’ll get a fresh perspective and a new look at what your business is doing. Finally, marketing agencies have the benefit of working with a variety of businesses, which means they bring a wealth of industry knowledge to each client.

In-house marketing professionals and marketing agencies both bring unique areas of expertise. When determining what’s best for your business, it’s important to consider the type of expertise your business wants and needs.

Budget

Budget is an important factor to consider as it’s generally more expensive to hire your own marketing professional than it is to work with a marketing agency. When you hire a marketing expert, you need to keep in mind that you’re not only going to have to pay their salary but also all of the additional expenses that come with hiring quality employees including recruitment costs, payroll taxes, pensions, benefits and training.

As a result, while you might think the salary of one employee is equivalent to the retainer for a marketing agency, it’s also important to factor in all of the additional costs. In most cases, the reality is that working with an agency is less expensive than having in-house marketing experts.

Timeline

Timeline is another key factor to consider. In some cases, small businesses find themselves pressured to develop a marketing strategy. This can happen if customer growth plateaus, competitors begin gaining market share, or new products are not taking off as anticipated.

In these situations, businesses need immediate action and should consider a market agency.

Marketing agencies can jump in immediately and quickly develop a marketing strategy. It takes much longer to recruit, hire and train your own marketing professional.

Communication style

Another factor to consider is what sort of communication you’d like to have with your marketing team. Having someone in-house means that you are working side-by-side, have regular communication, and can get ongoing, immediate updates.

You won’t have this sort of access if you work with a marketing agency. Generally, when working with an agency, there are a lot of in-person meetings in the beginning as a strategy is developed. After that, things shift to primarily e-mail and phone communication, and you won’t have the same sort of constant communication and access. For some leaders, this is fine, for others, it’s a major negative for working with an agency. Either way, it’s important to think through this difference and determine what’s best for you and your team.

Working with marketing professionals to develop an effective marketing strategy is an important part of sustaining and growing your business. While marketing is something that most leaders take on in the beginning, it’s a consuming job that at some point will need to be delegated to maximize results and to effectively manage your team’s time.

Marketing is never done, it is a long haul. With that in mind, it’s important to turn to marketing professionals who are fully dedicated to growing businesses. Determining whether to work with an agency or to build your own team can be tricky, but weighing the right factors will enable your business to make the right choice and to move forward with the right team.

Feature Image credit: golero | Getty Images 

By Tanner Simkins

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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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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Programmatic: Why building a curated marketplace should be a priority for buyers in 2021

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By Michael Feeley

Anyone working within programmatic advertising is likely to hear the phrase ‘curated marketplace’ a lot in 2021 – but what does ‘curation’ really mean in this context and why should it be a key priority for media buyers over the next 12 months?

Michael Simpkins, Marketplace Commercial Lead at Xandr explains, as the programmatic landscape has become increasingly cluttered and complex over the past decade, many people now assume that media buyers operating their own ‘curated marketplace’ are simply looking to work with fewer partners in the advertising supply chain. However, this is only the first step and barely scratches the surface of how curation can help improve the effectiveness of a media strategy.

Going back to basics

With the rapid growth of the programmatic industry, the supply chain became fragmented, resulting in a loss of control and transparency for both buyers and sellers. Buyers are also facing increasing pressure to justify return on ad spend, but siloed spending, rigid metrics and a convoluted supply chain make it hard to prove marketing impact on business outcomes.

As a collective, the industry has matured in the past few years to take a step back and simplify the complex landscape. Direct relationships between buyers and sellers are being rebuilt and big steps are being taken to improve supply chain transparency. Marketers, now more understanding of the supply chain, are seeking to regain control not just over their ad spend but over their campaign performance too and, with the deprecation of the third-party cookie, these objectives take on even greater importance. On the other hand, with the proliferation of header bidding, publishers want to make sure their most important media buyers are still able to reach and value their inventory effectively. It is important for companies to deliver unique value across the advertising ecosystem from consumers, buyers and sellers. One of the ways we at Xandr are able to do this is through our curation offering, which brings buyers and sellers together on our platform, offering buyers a simplified and dedicated workflow to easily build out their own curated marketplaces from the supply available on our premium advertising marketplace.

Regaining control of the supply chain

By building out a curated marketplace, buyers gain control within the SSP (sell-side platform) and can apply macro business rules to supply before it hits the DSP (demand-side platform) for targeting, significantly reducing risk in a diverse supply chain.

Through curation, buyers are able to maximise their investment by having full control over supply decisioning and ensuring all media is run across brand safe environments and eliminating non-essential pass throughs in the supply chain. Costs can also be reduced as buyers streamline supply sources, campaign workflows and operational complexity while also having the ability to negotiate price and priority within publishers. Buyers are able to receive regular reports on supply-side fees and auction dynamics, strengthening cross-industry relationships and supporting our industry’s quest for supply chain transparency.

As collaboration becomes even more important in 2021 and beyond, curating a marketplace on a single platform can reduce the risk even further. With fewer partners you’re able to work together on market and regulatory changes, niche audience targets and specific campaign needs together.

What is curation?

Today, we are used to a two-party transaction with a buyer using a DSP to purchase inventory and a seller using an SSP to surface their inventory to the buy side. Curation moves us to a three-party transaction where we now have a curator that sits between the SSP and DSP and works alongside the publishers to decide what inventory is allowed into their marketplace and then packages and merchandises that inventory via a curated multi-seller private marketplace (PMP) to make it available to the buy side to trade in their DSP.

Creating your own curated marketplace does not have to be a huge undertaking – in fact, it involves just four key steps:

  • Identify what you want to get out of the curated marketplace. Is it fee and auction dynamic transparency? More control on your supply paths? Performance gains? Setting a clear objective and strategy for the curated marketplace will make the process clearer for all parties involved.
  • Establish who you want to partner with to build out the curated marketplace. Pick a technology partner that has the supply coverage, tools, expertise and service models to implement a successful curated marketplace.
  • Work with your technology partner to understand what supply to bring into your marketplace and how to work with the publishers to do so. A curated marketplace should bring buyers and publishers closer together, not act as a blocker.
  • Optimise your curated marketplace. These marketplaces shouldn’t be static and should constantly be optimised based on performance, market changes and pricing.

As consumers continue to access media content across numerous devices, their attention becomes increasingly difficult to capture and hold. To catch their audience wherever they are viewing content means marketers are having to reconsider their strategies for planning, buying and measuring advertisers. We have to introduce an option for those who want to buy advertising and access to consumers on all devices and formats in one place, and that option is curation.

By Michael Feeley

Sourced from The Drum

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A master’s in marketing: why advocates say courses offer ‘unlimited opportunities’

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By David Benady

The world of marketing is changing rapidly, but a postgrad degree offers a route to more senior roles.

From commissioning TV ads to analysing sales data, marketing is a discipline that combines science with creative magic. Perfecting skills such as branding, digital promotion, creative engagement and consumer psychology requires both in-depth study and on-the-job experience. A master’s degree in marketing offers a chance to learn these skills and helps students plan their career path.

“The opportunities are limitless,” says Beverly Wagner, department head of marketing at the University of Strathclyde. Graduates from Strathclyde’s marketing MSc degree can go into classic marketing roles, such as becoming brand managers or they can use the course to broaden their business skills base.

“As well as the typical marketing jobs, our marketing MSc graduates are employed in businesses to support innovation, undertake market research, analyse industry trends, carry out strategic planning and create social media strategies,” she says.

Students learn about areas such as consumer behaviour, customer service and digitalisation. “Every class includes guest speakers from industry and students are appraised of industry trends and how their degrees can support a variety of career choices. Assignments are often based around real-life business problems,” she says.

One of the big attractions of a master’s in marketing is that it offers a wide-ranging perspective of the field. This was part of the appeal for Lily Garefalaki, who has just completed a one-year MSc in strategic marketing at Cranfield School of Management. The course was interrupted by the pandemic lockdown, though teaching shifted seamlessly online. She says the MSc has provided her with a comprehensive understanding of marketing strategy from concept to implementation. She was also glad to receive training in two distinct areas, marketing to consumers (B2C) and marketing to businesses (B2B).

“We were taught a range of modules covering both B2B and B2C, from key account management and digital marketing to branding. We were able to create strategic plans because the curriculum was structured as a journey, it connected everything together at the end. I liked this course because we were able to get a holistic view of marketing,” she says. In the first term, students worked on key account management – managing a company’s most important clients – with a real business. “Each team had a real live client for whom they did a key account management plan and we had meetings with the actual executives. So it was really hands-on from day one,” she says.

Her ambition is to work in film and TV distribution, so she focused on areas such as subscription TV services and online video during the course. For her 16,000-word dissertation, making up 35% of the assessment, she conducted a literature review on the use of video games to conduct market research.

Meanwhile, Maggie Jones, director of qualifications at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, advises candidates to check whether their chosen master’s offers a high level of digital training, as there is a shortage of digital skills in the industry. Another consideration is whether fellow students are pursuing careers in marketing or more general areas of business. “You pay a lot of money for a master’s, but many of the people who join it may not be marketing related. That can affect the whole experience, so it’s worth knowing what you are going into,” she says.

Playstation Takeover Of London Tube Stops For PS5 Launch
Marketing innovations have continued throughout the pandemic, such as Sony’s PS5 Underground campaign. Photograph: Alex Davidson/Getty Images

Media and marketing: what you need to know
Media and marketing remain popular choices for postgraduate study, offering either a route to academic study or a practical career boost. Those looking to work in news and reporting can take an MA in journalism at a number of universities – and there are a variety of media studies courses combined with subjects such as sociology, film studies and cultural studies.

Most UK universities offer marketing master’s courses. These can either be MA degrees that focus on advertising, retail and public relations or MSc degrees that lean towards data and market research.

The skilled marketer needs the ability to blend the two areas together. A master’s typically requires a bachelor’s degree, which can be in any subject. A master’s is especially useful for those with a number of years’ experience working in the field as a potential foot in the door for more senior roles.

The qualification can aid promotion to a senior marketing role such as board-level marketing director. While many students self-fund their degrees, there are employers who are prepared to help with tuition fees. More than 10,000 students took postgraduate studies in marketing in 2018/19, according to HESA.

Meanwhile, more than 5,000 students took media studies postgraduate courses and 2,000 studied journalism at postgraduate level. Some universities also offer marketing as part of an MBA course.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing offers a variety of auxiliary training options that can prepare students for a master’s. Students can take a diploma in professional marketing or a diploma in digital marketing ahead of a master’s.

A master’s can also be helpful when applying for chartered marketer status, recognised as the highest level of marketing in the profession.

Feature Image Credit: A master’s in marketing offers a wide-ranging perspective on the field. Photograph: Victor Torres/Stocksy United

By David Benady

Sourced from The Guardian

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5 Secrets of Successful YouTube Marketing

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Check these effective ways for successful YouTube Marketing!

Making a YouTube channel is a child’s play. Nowadays, almost every other person has a YouTube channel. However, using the correct tools and methodology to market the content is not everyone’s cup of tea. Thus, to buy YouTube views and buy YouTube subscribers, you must seriously consider to up your game in the YouTube marketing field.

Read on the five secrets about successful YouTube marketing that every YouTuber should have on their fingertips.

Advertisements

Advertising on YouTube is often ignored and not valued. However, that is one huge mistake you do not want to be making as a YouTuber. Advertising on YouTube can make you reach a greater number of views and gain more subscribers.

There are four types: in-stream, in-search, in-slate, in-display. With the help of these options, you can curate your content and put it on display regarding contextual keywords, demographics, video interests, etc. YouTube advertisements will help you determine where which type of content is fruitful. For instance, if your channel is about cooking, your videos that deal with rice and noodles will work better in the Asian subcontinent than in the Western countries. Thus, this is one way to market and promote your content to the right audience. Do keep in mind, that YouTube advertising works best when integrated with a strategic video. However, that is not necessarily important.

Social Media Promotion

To increase engagement on your YouTube channel and your views, sharing your YouTube content on other social media platforms is the best way to go! Creating a strong social media presence be it Twitter, Instagram or Facebook can go a long way to make your life as a content creator easy. Moreover, YouTube makes it all the easier to share videos on other social media sites. All you need to do is just click on the “share” icon underneath your video and choose your desired platform. You can also add your YouTube channel’s link or recent YouTube video’s link to your profile bio. This way you can attract potential subscribers from other platforms apart from YouTube.

However, when you promote your YouTube content on social media, make sure it is attractive and interesting. Do not just let people scroll past your content by simply announcing your new video. Make sure you promote it, by talking about it. You can even prepare small teasers to release on social media platforms to attract people to your YouTube videos.

Call-to-Action Overlay

Call-to-Action overlay works as a tool that helps you to brand your YouTube videos. The CTA overlay helps you to direct your crowd over what would interest them on your channel. For example, if you run a Fashion & Beauty channel and someone who is watching a makeup tutorial on your channel is a likely audience who would want to watch makeup product reviews instead of fashion trends. With the presence of a CTA button, you can put in a display URL in the video that will lead them to another video of their liking. Call-to-Action is the literal button that can help you tell your audience what to do next.

Therefore, it is important to include the CTA in every video. You can avail of this feature by clicking on the “info and settings” and the Call-To-Action overlay appears. CTAs have become the open secret of every successful YouTube channel. Using a CTA is just as important as asking people to subscribe to your channel by the end or beginning of every video. Hence, missing out on this feature is a big mistake.

Video title, description & thumbnail

The ABC of marketing your video successfully and organically on YouTube is to optimize your video title and description and create an alluring thumbnail. YouTube is a platform that has 50 videos on the same topic, so why should someone decide to watch your video over the others? This deciding factor hugely lies in what you write in your headline, how precisely you describe your video and how attractive is your thumbnail looks. Thus, it is crucial to construct all these based on the intent of the viewers.

The best way to do it is to use Google. Just type in the keywords that describe your video and look at the sponsored ads that appear. These videos are the ones that are the most popular and they are ones whose titles and descriptions will help you build a similar one for your video. Furthermore, for building quality thumbnail applications like Canva are the best pick. Make sure that your thumbnail correctly represents your video content.

Put yourself out there!

The prime way to attract people to your YouTube channel is to put yourself out there. People love watching videos with real faces in them compared to the ones that only use camera rolls and voice overs. Even when your content doesn’t need you specifically to introduce yourself to people, still take the first 10 seconds of your video and introduce yourself in person and ask people to subscribe to your channel. Additionally, you can also collaborate with YouTubers and feature them in your video and increase your views.

You need to build a community of engaged users and regularly put out your content. On top of that using these five brilliant ways of YouTube marketing can give your channel the boost it has been waiting for.

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Sourced from INFLUENCIVE

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19 Must-Read Newsletters for Marketers

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By Hal Koss

Some think we’ve already reached peak newsletter, but signing up for a few more couldn’t possibly hurt, right? Especially if they help you save time or do your job better.

So we rounded up some of the best newsletters that marketers should consider subscribing to right now — whether they want to get inspired, stay on top of industry news or gain actionable insights from colleagues in the trenches.

The best part? All of them are free (or have a free version, at least).

This list is by no means exhaustive — and not every entry is applicable to every kind of marketer — but it should offer a solid starting point.

2PM

About: 2PM’s newsletter provides curation, summary and analysis of the most important stories at the intersection of media and commerce. It also includes original essays and data insights by Web Smith, an investor and advisor of several companies.

Audience: 2PM says it’s for “deep generalists and the intellectually curious.” Start-up founders (especially those in e-commerce), brand marketers and brand strategists would like it.

Frequency: Once a week for regular subscribers, three times a week for paying members.

Sample: No. 390: Enter MrBeast

The B2B Bite

About: Jason Bradwell is on a mission to change the way people think about B2B marketing. It doesn’t have to be boring or buttoned-up, declares his newsletter’s about page. He proves it by curating and breaking down a few stories each week meant to inspire B2B marketers.

Audience: B2B marketers and startup leaders.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Why Every B2B Org Should Be Selling T-Shirts

BrandStreet

About: If you’re trying to grow your brand into a household name, BrandStreet offers a community to guide you on that path. Readers can subscribe to its weekly email, which rounds up several items “to help you build smarter and better,” along with its two additional newsletters, one from each of its co-founders, communications veterans Ari Lewis and Chris Berry.

Audience: Anyone building a brand through earned media, content marketing and social media.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: The articles on BrandStreet’s site provide a taste of its point of view.

The Brief

About: The Brief provides a quick-to-read digest of the day’s most essential stories about digital marketing, strategy and social media. It’s written by Junction, a digital strategy agency, and hits inboxes every Monday to help readers start their weeks up to date with industry news.

Audience: Marketers who want to keep up with news and trends.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Subscribe to read.

Chantelle’s Marketing Newsletter

About: Written by marketing strategist Chantelle Marcelle, this newsletter spotlights emerging ideas and trends, curates interesting marketing articles and surfaces research and case studies that marketers should be paying attention to.

Audience: Brand marketers.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Subscribe to read.

The Daily Carnage

About: If you want to start each morning with a quick read that curates a handful of the biggest marketing headlines of the day, you’ll want to check out The Daily Carnage. It also includes a shot of analysis and fun stuff, like a vintage ad and a quote of the day.

Audience: Marketing leaders, people who open too many browser tabs.

Frequency: Daily.

Sample: One Condiment to Rule Them All

First 1000

About: This one’s niche. Each issue explains how a different tech start-up got its first thousand customers, providing a quick history lesson on companies like Snapchat, Doordash and Etsy, and the various marketing strategies they employed to grow into success stories. Much more fun than Wikipedia.

Audience: Startup founders, growth marketers, brand builders.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Spotify

Geekout

About: Whether you run your company’s social media strategy or just want to keep up with the latest Facebook or Twitter news, Geekout provides a weekly digest to keep you in the know. It’s written by Matt Navara, a social media strategist, and he provides original, succinct analysis in every issue.

Audience: Social media marketers.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: TikTok Needs to Stop Doing This

ReadShould Your B2B Company Start a Podcast?

The Growth Newsletter by Demand Curve

About: This newsletter curates marketing insights and growth tactics from members of the Demand Curve community, which is made up of growth marketers and start-up founders. Each issue is bite-sized, actionable and features new voices from people in the trenches.

Audience: Startup founders and growth marketers.

Frequency: Twice a month.

Sample: The Growth Newsletter — #010

Lenny’s Newsletter

About: Lenny Rachitsky, previously a growth product manager at Airbnb, writes a weekly advice column for leaders in tech. He addresses reader questions and shares his perspective on topics like growth, product and people management.

Audience: Growth marketers, product managers, start-up founders.

Frequency: Weekly (paid) or monthly (free).

Sample: How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business

Market Mix

About: If you’re a current — or aspiring — marketer in the cryptocurrency space, Market Mix is aimed squarely at you. Brad Michelson’s newsletter tackles subjects such as brand building, performance marketing and influencer strategy — all written by someone who’s helped build fintech and crypto brands.

Audience: Marketers in crypto and fintech.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Referrals Are the Ultimate Growth Hack for Crypto Marketers

Marketing Brew

About: Written with the trademark smirk of its parent newsletter, Morning Brew, this thrice-weekly newsletter highlights the biggest news items in the advertising and marketing world — along with fly-by commentary and big-picture context — to help busy marketers stay oriented in a fast-moving industry.

Audience: Marketing and advertising professionals, especially those who are Millennials or Gen Z.

Frequency: Three times a week.

Sample: The Driest January

The Marketing Mind Meld

About: Marketing is really all about tapping into human psychology, which is why The Marketing Mind Meld explores the relationship between human behavior and successful marketing. Written by growth marketer Kushaan Shah, the newsletter answers questions like what makes memes sticky, and how scents can influence what we buy.

Audience: Brand marketers, curious people.

Frequency: About every week or so.

Sample: #21: What Can Pollination Teach Us About Branding?

Raisin Bread

About: This newsletter, “baked” by freelance marketer network MarketerHire, curates relevant news, discusses up-and-coming trends and features exclusive Q&As and interviews with some of marketing’s top leaders, such as Cameo’s Greg Caplan and ShipBob’s Casey Armstrong.

Audience: Brand marketers.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Mafia Marketing

#SEOFOMO

About: Whether you’re a newcomer to SEO or a veteran who likes to keep up with ever-evolving best practices, this newsletter offers resources and tools designed to help build out your skills. It also includes an SEO job board if you’re looking for a change of scenery or trying to break into the industry.

Audience: SEOs and digital marketers.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Subscribe to read.

The Sociology of Business

About: Written by executive strategist Ana Andjelic, the Sociology of Business is intended to help marketers see the big picture over time, rather than give them tips and tricks to start using today. Each issue explores new consumer trends and evolving tastes, and how brands can keep up and position themselves for success.

Audience: Brand strategists, culture observers.

Frequency: About three times a month.

Sample: The Taste Map

This Week in AdTech

About: Adtech is a notoriously confusing and rapidly changing industry. This newsletter, from Canadian adtech consultancy AdProfs, attempts to make it just a little bit easier to keep up. Each week, it rounds up and summarizes relevant articles.

Audience: The busy ad tech professional.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Subscribe to read.

Total Annarchy

About: This newsletter, written by Ann Handley of MarketingProfs, is written in the style of an old-fashioned, snail-mail letter: It’s personal, voicey and reads like it’s actually addressed to you. It’s also full of marketing and writing insights from someone with decades of experience.

Audience: Brand storytellers and copywriters.

Frequency: Every other week.

Sample: Brand Storytelling Template; My 2 Proven Ways to Increase Open, Click Rates

VeryGoodCopy

About: Leave it to a copywriting newsletter to be extremely compact yet still effective enough that you learn something every time you read it. VeryGoodCopy provides short articles dispensing nuggets of copywriting wisdom and occasional interviews with successful marketers and writers.

Audience: Copywriters and content marketers.

Frequency: Weekly.

Sample: Subscribe to read.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

By Hal Koss

Sourced from builtin

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Most CMOs expect role to change as a result of Covid-19, finds LinkedIn

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By John Glenday

Almost three-quarters of chief marketing officers (CMOs) expect their role to change as a consequence of the global pandemic, according to a survey of 300 senior executives conducted by LinkedIn.

The report found that 58% believe they will have to devote more time towards employer branding, internal communications and learning and development as priorities change.

The evolution of the CMO role

  • A survey of over 300 executives, authored by the business networking platform, found that a majority of CMOs expect to increase reliance on data and technology.
  • On top of this, 48% expect to wield greater influence in the boardroom as their roles evolve
  • The need for greater agility emerged as a fault line between respondents, with 87% pointing to the need for greater fleet-footedness to navigate the recession as 60% fret that agility is being favoured at the expense of strategy.
  • Tom Pepper, head of marketing solutions at LinkedIn UK, Ireland and Israel, commented: “Covid-19 has caused severe business turbulence and CMOs have been called upon to navigate the challenges ahead and fuel the return to growth.“

Marketers turn to tech to close the skills gap

  • Addressing the need for training to equip businesses with the skills they need, Pepper added: “CMOs have always required a diverse skill set, but it appears they’ll be taking on even more responsibilities in 2021. Upskilling will be an important focus for CMOs this year as they look to redeploy employees and plug potential skills gaps, but the savviest will also know when to bring in extra talent.”
  • LinkedIn’s prognosis finds echo in a CMO Council survey from last week, which established that 70% of marketers were embracing automation as the key to higher efficiency.
  • Marketers are in a race to improve ROI, efficiency and revenue optimization by leveraging the potential of digital marketing and customer data to drive engagement.
  • This digital drive is driven by a rise in marketing spend, which is expected to gain ground throughout 2021 as sentiments brighten with 65% expecting to loosen the purse strings this year according to the same report.
  • Despite widespread uncertainty, a scant 10% of CMOs are preparing to implement further cuts and 24% are holding out until the mists clear.

By John Glenday

Sourced from The Drum

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In no-spectators era, digital platforms are turning sports sponsorship on its head

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By Caroline Parry.

Nothing beats the thrill of watching live sporting events unfold. Those impossible acts, the surprise results and glorious victories – there is nothing else like it. Sport is emotional, it is engaging and it has the power to unify.

There is a huge global appetite for sport and, after the Covid-19 pandemic forced many spectator sports to shut down for much of 2020, fans became hungrier than ever for the excitement of live events.

While many rescheduled tent-pole sports events are due to take place over 2021, all eyes will be on the Tokyo Summer Olympics, set to launch on 23 July. Although organisers are working tirelessly to ensure the Games go ahead, there is still a real possibility that fans will be unable to attend in person.

For brands, this presents the challenge of connecting with fans without them being physically in the stadium. However, it also creates new opportunities for brands to engage fans at home and enhance their mobile and digital experience.

Without a doubt, it will be a different experience for sports fans, but new viewing patterns and behaviours were already evolving. Live sports broadcasting is being disrupted by digital devices and online platforms, meaning it is no longer a linear TV experience.

This change was already apparent in the viewing figures for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, where 3.2 billion people watched on a combination of TV and digital devices. Today, according to the research firm GlobalWebIndex’s (GWI) data from Q3 2020, 54% of global sports fans watch coverage or highlights online.

Digital viewing for the Olympics Games has been soaring since Beijing in 2008. According to e-Marketer’s Sports OTT Landscape report from January 2019, it was expected to hit new heights in 2020 with video views predicted to top 3.5bn. TV views were projected at around the 3bn mark.

Fans are also taking their conversations online as highlighted by GWI (Q3 2020) showing that two-thirds of sports fan use social media while watching TV. With duel-screening now almost universal, brands should note that mobile sports consumption is increasing multi-faceted. According to Facebook data, there are 700 million sports fans on Facebook and 400 million fans on Instagram.

The 2016 Summer Games in Rio also demonstrated how the behaviour of sports fans is changing. Facebook saw 1.5bn interactions during the games from 277 million unique users, while Instagram registered 916m interactions from 131 million unique users. The last Football World Cup generated 5.3bn interactions.

More than half of viewers are also chatting with friends via platforms such as WhatsApp sharing key sporting moments, while a third is reading the news, playing games or searching for products related to what they are watching. What does this mean for marketers, particularly sponsors?

Sports sponsorship has long been big business for brands, offering a vast, often international, reach, and a culturally relevant audience. According to the research and data company Kantar, sports sponsorship will account for 10% of all global advertising spend in 2021, hitting nearly $50bn.

Tracking the performance of those campaigns and measuring success has always proved tricky for brands. At the same time, sponsorship properties have often only been available on long-term contracts. It is no surprise then that Kantar research also found that 44% of marketers believe sponsorship is the least understood media channel in terms of return on investment.

However, digital and online platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, are turning the sponsorship model on its head. The opportunities for bespoke content and agile and trackable campaigns allow brands to target their campaigns more accurately and assess their success more quickly.

Andy Childs of Facebook’s Central Europe Connection Planning unit explains: “Sports sponsorship is in transition, with brands all vying for consumer share of mind and share of wallet. With our platform and analytics, Facebook and Instagram offer brands a unique opportunity to grow – to reach mass audiences, enhance the fan experience, trigger relevant purchases and importantly measure the business impact of sport sponsorship.“

It means not only are brands seeking shorter, more targeted sponsorship opportunities than are the market norm, but there are more ways for non-sponsoring brands to get involved in tent-pole sporting events.

With more opportunities for brands to get involved in the 2021 Summer Games, the need for creative campaigns that cut through the noise will be more critical than ever. To do this, marketers should consider these creative thought starters:

Amplify brand association

A brand should develop a meaningful link with its chosen sports event among its audience, and cut through the clutter by demonstrating its interest and reason for getting involved with the sport. Where fans are aware of the link between sponsor and property, there is a 30% uplift in commercial effects compared to where fans are unaware of the correct linkage.*

It is vital to identify a different emotional space to other sponsors, particularly close competitors, while also targeting a broad audience with content such as snackable video. Use in-stream advertising to build a stronger association.

Enhance the fan experience

To reinforce the connection between the brand and the event, offer fans something exclusive or innovative that enriches and deepens that emotional connection. Where fans are aware of the linkage and further believe that there is benefit to the property and to the fan experience (arising from the sponsorship), there is a 71% uplift in commercial effects.*

Meanwhile, offer fans a 24/7 experience through branded content and increase relevance through contextual and geo-targeting. Sponsors can also seek to augment and gamify sports consumption.

Trigger consumption opportunities

The third way to grow with sports is through sales – generating a commercial return is the most important overall objective for sponsors or non-sponsors alike. The best way is to Integrate a brand’s product or service into the fabric or experience of the event. By focusing on products connected to an event that are a natural fit or can be enjoyed during the event. Campaigns should promote relevant products or services at relevant moments, including athlete participation, home matches or weather triggers. This strategy will help improve understanding of sports event ROI.

The whole sports community from the fans and sportspeople, athletes and teams through to leagues and associations, media and influencers to advertisers and brands have all embraced this brave new world of sports. It is an evolution that has the potential to enrich the experience for everyone.

Even when fans are allowed to return to live sports events, online platforms and brands will continue to enhance and build on that experience. The potential, the reach and the creativity that online platforms can offer are only beginning to be realised.

* Professor Tony Meenaghan, Jamie Macken and Mark Nolan, Core Ireland, 2018

By Caroline Parry

Sourced from The Drum

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