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Why And How To Jumpstart Your Brand Strategy With The Power Of PR

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By Lydia Vargo

“What is the difference between branding, marketing and PR, anyway?” People regularly ask me this question, and although the lines have been blurred in recent years, there is an easy way to differentiate between the three:

Branding: Who am I?

Marketing: What am I telling my customers about myself? (This could be through ads, bulletin boards and marketing materials.)

PR: What are other trusted sources saying about me?

Although all elements are key to securing brand success, I’ve found that the one that speaks the loudest to those looking to invest in your brand (like a customer, retailer or investor) is a third-party endorsement. That includes awards, testimonies, a genuine social community and press. In other words: PR.

Although branding is the foundation of any company, people confuse marketing and PR the most and frequently question their purpose.

Large enterprises are often guilty of siloing PR and marketing teams, which makes it more difficult to unify the brand’s real message. That is why PR and marketing have to work together using a holistic approach that keeps both teams on the same page. When done right, the synergy between PR and marketing can give your brand a lot of horsepower.

The digital world makes the differences between PR and marketing less clear; however, there are two sides to every coin, and they need to coexist in order to build a balanced and longstanding business.

The Differences Between PR And Marketing

So, how is PR different from marketing? It comes down to three major points.

1. Press Versus Consumer Relationships

Traditionally, PR was about forming relationships with journalists and media outlets. Marketing, on the other hand, focused more on product promotion, ads and a brand’s relationship with shoppers.

But we have to keep in mind that PR has evolved quite a lot over time. It’s not uncommon for a PR team to oversee influencer marketing, social media and customer-facing content. This is where PR and branding teams tend to overlap and need to collaborate.

2. Reach

Marketing is the art of creating an identity: It’s your logo and colors, as well as the mood and feeling behind your brand. Good branding, however, can’t bring in customers by itself.

PR is where brands actually increase their reach by putting the product or service in the hands of their consumers with well-placed messaging. In an ideal world, branding and the way you market yourself attracts customers to you. PR, on the other hand, entices them to stay.

3. Identity Versus Perception

Marketing creates your business’s identity, but PR shapes public perception of that identity. When you need to create, maintain and protect your perception in the public eye, it’s PR you need.

Three Ways PR And Marketing Should Work Together

PR and marketing are separate disciplines that often bleed together. But good PR can give a big boost to marketing, remove obstacles and solidify your presence in the market.

Even if you’re a small business, you can create a strong, unique brand with a little help from PR. Score more coverage, amplify your efforts and spend very little money doing it with these three brand-boosting PR strategies.

1. Audience Amplification

Who are you speaking to? Audience is everything when you’re trying to make a name for yourself, and who you’re engaging with matters. Your audience should dictate everything from your content format to your language choices.

Your marketing is your message; PR gives your story a stage, a microphone and “puts butts in the seats.”

Your PR strategy should ensure your brand stands out to the right people in the right place. It is the foundation that the brand is built on and the reputation that makes you proud and trusted.

2. Perception And Image

You’ve created a brand, but how do your customers really feel about your brand identity? After all, there’s a reason why some shoppers adore brands like Trader Joe’s and feel lukewarm about big box stores.

Your PR should tell the right story — the one that showcases your values and sets the right tone with shoppers. Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping your audience loves your brand, create a PR strategy that gives you more influence over your place in the market with powerful storytelling.

3. Brand Authority

Authority is hard to measure, but it’s still incredibly important. Make sure your PR strategy boosts the authority behind your brand. It should establish you as a thought leader and trusted investment.

Marketing alone isn’t necessarily strategic and thoughtful. PR, however, is all about strategy and creating a communication plan and playbook to grow your influence methodically. Brand authority will not only net you more press and boost trust with shoppers, but it can also prevent image issues before they happen.

The Bottom Line

PR and marketing make it possible for businesses of all sizes to compete in a dog-eat-dog world. While marketing makes your identity and values clear, you still need a solid PR strategy behind it to boost your influence. Understand the three ways branding and PR should work together so you can forge a positive image in the public’s mind from the start.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Lydia Vargo

Lydia is a key contributor to brands’ ongoing success as VP of Global Strategic Accounts at ChicExecs. Read Lydia Vargo’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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How do you solve a problem like… at-home staff’s skills getting rusty?

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By Sam Bradley

We ask readers of The Drum from brands, agencies and everything in between for their advice on real problems facing today’s marketing practitioners.

Since the first lockdowns of last year, self-improvement projects have seen many of those liberated from their commute pick up new tricks. But while many were trying their hand at breadmaking or portrait-painting, time away from the hubbub of the office has made it harder to keep professional skills as sharp. And efforts to train and develop staff at agencies and brands face many more hurdles when delivered remotely.

So, with working-from-home the comfy default for many more months yet, how have marketing leaders worked to keep their team‘s skills from getting dull?

How do you solve a problem like staff skills going rusty away from the office?

Tamara Littleton, chief executive officer, The Social Element

When lockdown #1 first hit, we were all in ‘coping’ mode and learning took a backseat as we made sure morale and day-to-day work were sustained. As ‘temporary lockdown’ has transformed into a new way of life, we have made sure there’s still ways to learn.

One such route for us has been through virtual roleplay with actors so the team refresh their people skills in new and varying situations (we can all admit to feeling like we haven’t flexed this muscle enough). In this way, we try to create the elusive ‘osmosis’ learning so important in early careers simply by giving people practice.

Perri Grinberg, vice-president of human resources, Rapp

Agencies must advocate, and allow space for, self-guided learning, focused on industry and career related subjects that individual employees are most passionate about, and timed at their own pace.

Rapp has partnered with an online platform where our employees can access a variety of content from anywhere – flexibility has proven particularly valuable during this extended period of remote working. As a complement to this foundational layer of always-on, we’ve crafted content, personal training, or partnered with vendors and experts for webinars focused on development in areas such as DE&I and detecting and tackling unconscious bias, working remotely, empathetic leadership and overall wellbeing.

Feedback that we historically heard from our employees is that they want to attend training, but just don’t have the time. We’ve seen that, when the time is available, employees are more eager than ever to focus on their own development.

Victoria James, director, Great State

Apart from internal training around resilience, line management and productivity, we wanted to combat screen fatigue, which often leads to decreased mood and performance. So, we started learning book clubs with physical or audio copies. It’s a mix of individual offline learning with collaborative online discussions that focus on team building and workshop actions.

Our personal development projects programme consists of short learning projects with dedicated R&D time for each employee, who develops a presentation to showcase. Everyone has access to LinkedIn Learning and can work independently or with their line manager to set up their own learning path. We also improved our mentoring program by connecting people who wouldn’t necessarily work together and have an action learning project for a three-month period. Additionally, we focused on wellness, bringing in external experts to talk on a range of topics like childcare and mindfulness, available for one-to-one individual support if needed.

What have we learnt? Our company thrives on contact, collaboration and growth – a lot of which happened naturally when we were all together in an office – but lockdown made us think differently about learning. By investing in our employees’ progression and development, engagement and productivity have risen.

Cathy Butler, chief executive officer, Organic

One lesson learned while being remote is to over-communicate via online tools. Weekly all-staff meetings via Zoom, using Teams for fun/messaging and Miro for co-creating together were the best ways to create bonds that best captured the camaraderie of being in the office.

We know empathy is also incredibly important in business, so we launched ’Everyday Leadership’, our EQ-skills development program, back in February. Its value was proven in spades during the pandemic. We also learned that small discussions, via small break out rooms, are really effective. They ensure that people are engaged and able to ask questions.

Teresa Fernandez-Ruiz, head of organisational development, Future

Agility and creativity are vital in this climate, where changes can be rapid and unexpected. Therefore, investing in our own talent has never been more important. We’ve created over 150 new roles across our editorial team and recently recruited 20 trainee news writers with no prior experience as part of our bespoke training programme.

The initiative needed quick restructuring when the first lockdown hit, from revamping day-long inductions into snappier half day meetings with plenty of breaks to introducing virtual icebreakers and breakout rooms to encourage online interaction. Supporting individuals to build a successful career in the digital media industry is vital, and ensuring new employees feel supported as well as learning the ropes remotely is crucial to our long-term success.

Sanka Kangudi, vice-president of talent experience and workplace innovation, Hivestack

Professional development is a top priority in the current climate due to its positive impact on employee attitude and wellbeing. I joined Hivestack after the first lockdown to ensure we continued to educate and motivate our staff as the business scaled globally.

With courses and events now online, training is more flexible and we can offer a variety of opportunities, whether through industry-led organisations or global online learning platforms. We always ask employees what they need and how they feel about these initiatives, to nurture a sense of trust and security. We encourage them to commit to individual learning goals and offer rewards to maintain motivation.

Amber R Zent, partner, vice-president and director of social media, Marcus Thomas

In the constantly evolving world of social media, it’s hard for even dedicated social practitioners to keep up. So each year we host a social media training event designed to share knowledge about what’s happening in the social space across our agency disciplines. We don’t expect everyone to become a social expert, but we believe fostering these exchanges makes the work better and makes us better counselors to our clients.

Due to coronavirus, we transitioned to a virtual bootcamp event where members of our social, analytics, media and production teams discussed everything from social commerce to virtual influencers in digestible 10-minute presentations – perfect for video conferences. This virtual format also allowed for easy recording and sharing of the information with our clients, so that they, too, could benefit directly from the valuable sessions.

Ginny Leigh Braun, director of creative operations, McKinney

When the virus hit, we were already remarkably busy, so adding an increased volume of work became a challenge for many employees and their families. Development opportunities needed to be frequently offered and bite-sized. Luckily, in 2019 we established a training series, ’Tap’, that allowed us to employ our amazing talent to host 30-minute trainings aimed at helping us better tap into agency resources across our North Carolina, New York and LA offices. Our teams adapted to new technology, honed skill sets, learned emerging trends and discovered more about their industry and company. These sessions are now an on-demand learning library and double as an orientation resource for new hires.

Sophie Vale, HR and talent director, Zeal Creative

When we set up in our home offices and kitchen tables, there were a few weeks where we all rode the wave of productivity. This was fantastic – no commute, no distractions, no conversations. Until we realised that conversations are the lifeblood of Zeal’s culture. Too much time alone means that work and effort may go unseen, and development appears to have been halted. As a leadership team, our focus quickly turned to not just maintaining the day-to-day, but working out how we drive forward, with three key themes.

We prioritised onboarding to make sure that everyone felt part of the real team from day one. Setting Zeal-ers up for success was even more important. We stayed closer to everyone, no matter their seniority. We scheduled meetings for them, entrusting the team to make them happen, and held regular check-ins. We’re also updating our up-front information, so that new starters can read everything about our culture and practices at their convenience.

Secondly, we overhauled our performance process – leaders now hold career conversations with their teams every 12 weeks. These are future focused, easy and quick to prepare. We then look at themes and individual needs to decide where to focus energy and development budget. Finally, we enlisted brilliant partners to work on our people’s mental toughness, giving them the tools they needed to thrive in lockdown and a post-coronavirus world. Through one-on-one sessions, workshops and action learning groups, individuals are held accountable to do, rather than just listen.

Ron Edwards, global head of commercial development, learning and development, Technicolor

To support development and enable remote learning, we launched virtual academies and provided cross training and upskilling across studios. We’ve re-engineered our onboarding courses to support learning from home so new hires can start practicing and working without having to be in a physical studio, and we now have an end-to-end remote learning and working culture globally.

Lessons we’ve learned along the way include recording live virtual sessions so people can review if needed or they missed a session in a series, and to ensure engagement and understanding by having instructors do virtual ‘rounds’ formally so questions get answered that might not get asked in a virtual class.

Tim Duncan, founder, TDC PR

Maintaining a training programme throughout lockdown has required both flexibility and creativity. For our juniors in particular, not being in the office has removed a whole layer of learning that would happen through osmosis – hearing the leadership team on the phone, wrestling with client challenges over a cuppa, all of which can’t be replicated over Slack or Zoom.

To compensate, we’ve created a much more fluid internal training system that can respond to on the ground needs on a week-to-week basis. Led by different team members each time, it’s also a great way to celebrate excellent work or insight within the company – if someone has done something well, why not share that knowledge immediately? This has helped plug the gap of informal office learning, and supports our existing investment in formal training programmes run by the likes of the PRCA.

Lori Meakin, founder, Joint

After those early weeks in survival mode, helping our people grow and thrive despite lockdown became essential. That meant adapting principles that drive our culture in ‘normal’ times.

Like pooling knowledge. From sharing tips on how to get the best out of Google hangouts when running a 25-person creative workshop, to sharing insights and inspiration.

Making time for learning and growing matters, so everyone should protect time in diaries to take advantage of webinars and formal training that’s shifted online.

Most of all, we keep encouraging different perspectives, actively working to avoid unconscious biases and grow diversity of thought and experience.

By Sam Bradley

Sourced from The Drum

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How Your Business Can Succeed With Email Marketing

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Sourced from IssueWire

Jeremy McGilvrey Gives Tips for How Small Business Owners Can Grow Their Customer Base with Email Marketin

If you’re among those who think that email marketing is past its prime, then think again. Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is still one of the most successful digital marketing strategies used by companies such as Amazon and HubSpot.

Statistics have revealed email marketing is a lot more successful than SEO, paid search (PPC), social media marketing, and affiliate marketing.

Many successful small business owners use email marketing to grow their customer base. You can either choose to outsource your email marketing or select a staff member to execute it for you.

With the right techniques and the correct use of the data, you can achieve success with email marketing. Let’s dive into some tried and tested email marketing strategies.

I’ll also discuss how these methods can drive leads to your small business.

3 Email Marketing Strategies:

Some businesses are unable to succeed with email marketing because of their lack of segmentation. Segmentation allows businesses to put different customers and prospects into different categories and send email messages that are tailored to their subscribers. When you segment your email list you exponentially increase your odds at succeeding with email marketing.

Segmentation can provide benefits of email marketing as it allows you to create more targeted campaigns for audiences in different phases of their consumer cycle.

According to HubSpot, segmentation works wonders as email marketing KPIs work better when segmented.

Let’s look at an example to understand this better. An email with the same subject line and the same content sent to two different groups (different consumer cycle phases) will result in different outcomes. That is why it is important to segment your mailing list and then create email marketing campaigns that target each list individually to get better results.

  • Personalized Messages

For a consumer named Tom, an email starting with Hey customer and an email with Hey Tom is going to resonate differently. A carefully curated email will give the consumer the right impression. Make them feel that you care about them and that they aren’t receiving randomly generated emails.

Amazon uses this strategy, and the success of the company is in itself is evidence of the success of personalized messaging.

According to Experian marketing services, personalized emails have a 6X higher transaction rate, but 70% of brands fail to use them. This is where many businesses don’t properly gauge the importance of personalized email and gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.

Additional research I discovered stated personalized emails can result in a higher ROI, up to $20 for every $1 invested. As I’ve mentioned above, the most basic yet easy route to email personalization is to address the reader by their given name. You can request the first name in your opt-ins to gain this information and start doing something that 70% of the brands aren’t – using personalized emails.

  • Automated Email Campaigns

With a high number of subscribers to your mailing list, automation becomes a necessity. Knowing when to automate your email campaigns is going to give you an edge over others. The most basic form of automated emails are confirmation emails or welcome or thank you emails.

These are also more commonly known as trigger emails. Interestingly, research shows that trigger emails perform much better than traditional emails. These emails have higher open-rates when compared with conventional emails. Forrester reports that trigger emails-based email marketing strategies can generate 4 times more revenue and 18 times more profit.

Benefits of Email Marketing

I’ve shared some strategies that can be useful for creating effective email marketing campaigns. Now, let’s further solidify those strategies by stating the benefits of email marketing.

Email is still one of the most commonly used platforms of communication. Did you know that during the year 2020 alone, 306.4 billion emails were sent and received each day?

Add in the fact that there will be 4.3 billion email users in 2023. This staggering growth can be communicated as a growing benefit of email marketing as well.

Low Costs

One of the benefits of email marketing is its low costs. You don’t have to pay a premium to have your message appear on a billboard or in a magazine.

All you have to do is invest in software that will automate your emails and track and analyze the data gathered. However, the cost would be significantly less when compared with traditional marketing.

Effective and Easy Communication

Email marketing is your self-curated platform to communicate with your audience and engage with them.

This communication can also result in your targeted audience getting closer to your brand and becoming more loyal. It’s an easy way for your audience to keep in touch with you and stay updated with your latest updates and offers.

Targeted Messaging To the Right Audience

A good email marketing solution is a timely one. And with email marketing, not only can you reach your targeted audience with a personalized message but also target them at the right time.

Segmentation, as mentioned above, can prove to be beneficial in targeting the right audience. Add in the right timing, and your email marketing strategy is fool-proof.

Revenue Generation

The bottom-line of all marketing campaigns is to generate revenue for your company. Email marketing does that, and with lower costs. Add an excellent copywriter to your team and see your call to action resulting in significant revenue for your brand.

According to marketing week – for Virgin Airlines – email marketing was the second largest revenue driver for them after PPC.

Self-Promotion

Promotion is not an easy feat to achieve. That is why brands have to come with unique and new ways to keep promoting themselves. But self-promotion can easily be a part of an email marketing strategy.

It is undoubtedly a tried and tested method of reminding consumers of your presence. And with email marketing, you have a low-cost platform to do so.

Source : Jeremy Mcgilvrey Digital Marketing Services

Sourced from IssueWire

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2021 is the year branded content will come into its own – here’s how CMOs can embrace it

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By Ottavio Nava

Though it got a good start in 2020, 2021 is the year branded content will truly come into its own according to Ottavio Nava, co-founder and chief executive at We Are Social Italy and Spain. To make a success of the medium, he says marketers should glean lessons from the likes of Ben & Jerry’s, Lavazza and Circles.Life.

Branded content reached new heights in 2020. Long seen as a valuable add-on to marketing campaigns, and particularly effective when combined with traditional paid-for models, we are at now seeing just how powerful the medium can be as a strategic brand building tool.

With all the smartest marketers paying attention, I feel safe predicting that 2021 is going to be a memorable year for this highly creative marketing technique.

The pandemic has forced more people then ever consume content digitally at home, which has let brand content has come into its own in recent months. This shift can be put down to the crisis accelerating a number of important on-going trends, just as much as it can be attributed to brands having access to a more captive audience.

Pre-2020, consumer habits were already changing as a result of the ubiquity of smartphones with content available to read, watch, listen to and interact with via a great choice of applications and in a wider array of different contexts than ever before. Brands, meanwhile, were seeking ways to engage in the face of declining engagement by many viewers in live TV advertising – just one result of growing fatigue with traditional media.

Both of these drivers have been significantly uplifted by behavioural changes spurred by Covid-19. People’s digital activity increased significantly, resulting in more eyeballs coming into contact with more brands online. In turn, this has cemented the increasingly central role branded content is now playing in the advertising ecosystem – a role which – when you consider how peripheral it once was – has now changed significantly and irreversibly.

Here are three lessons learned from those brands who have used branded content most effectively in recent months point to how branded content can, and will, evolve further.

The first is a mindset shift to creating content from the get-go to thrive in a more organic, long-term way, irrespective of platform or format. Ben & Jerry’s is a great example of this. It recently launched ’Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America’ – a podcast series comprising six 30-minute episodes about white supremacy in America, developed in partnership with Vox Media.

The SuperSimpleStuff app for Pfizer, which uses a series of micro games where players can fight coronavirus while finding out the best ways to prevent the virus spreading, is just another example of creative content execution. It’s also proof impactive brand content doesn’t just mean video. Elsewhere, Australian mobile network Circles.Life recently paraded a 1.2m sculpture of a hand giving 2020 the middle finger around Sydney as part of its ’Unfuck 2020’ campaign; showing how paid-for content can be funny, engaging and generate organic headlines of its own.

The second lesson for brands is to think and create like entertainers by embracing the rules of publishers and media companies, instead of simply working to a marketing playbook.

Publishers understand who their audiences are and create a product for them. To make effective branded content, CMOs must do the same. The best marketers understand what kind of brand they have and what needs to happen for it to grow.

The ambition here is to create campaigns on the same level as the entertainment people consume, as we did for Lavazza with Coffee Defenders: A Path from Coca to Coffee, which tells the story of a Colombian farmer from a region devastated by civil war who turns land formerly used to cultivate cocaine into a coffee plantation.

This 30-minute video documentary blends the sustainability and communities work championed by the Lavazza Foundation with top entertainment production values. And it was distributed through a carefully considered strategy built to extend brand reach beyond TV ad audiences by focusing on long-form content platforms.

The third, and final, lesson for brand content’s further evolution lies in the growing use of the ‘creative newsroom’ – an approach that allows a brand to blend brand marketing needs with what’s happening in the world and in pop culture.

For our film for Barilla, The Roof Top Match with Roger Federer, a creative newsroom approach informed the idea of bringing together Roger Federer with two girls from a Ligurian village whose rooftop tennis matches during lockdown had become a viral phenomenon. It also shaped a creative strategy that allowed what happened next to naturally unfold, rather than attempting to control it.

These last two examples of successful branded content, in particular, obeyed another publishing rule. For as well as helping to generate profits and hitting KPIs, both – like the best brand content – add real and tangible value to their audience.

While much of 2020 is best left behind us, this revitalised approach to branded content is something that marketers should embrace longer term.

Feature Image Credit: Australian mobile network Circles. Life recently paraded a 1.2m sculpture of a hand giving 2020 the middle finger around Sydney 

By Ottavio Nava

Sourced from The Drum

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7 Executives Share Marketing Predictions For A Post-Covid 2021

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By Kimberly A. Whitler

I typically ask executives to share annual predictions as we head into a new year. For 2021, I sought insight regarding how marketing will change after Covid. Below is their insight.

Brands will be expected to be clear on their values. Amy Vale, CMO at Dosh

“In 2021, vocalizing your values will no longer be the exception for brands, it will be the rule, and marketers need to be prepared to stretch their authenticity muscle. We have increasingly seen brands this past year speaking up for what they believe in — from showing their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, to companies encouraging their users to vote, to increased transparency on sustainability practices. Consumers are reaching a tipping point in voting with their dollars, holding brands accountable to higher ethical standards. However, marketers absolutely must balance communicating values while avoiding a tactless stunt, especially when supporting a cause. Any social impact initiative should have one or all of the three following pillars: money (are you putting forward a meaningful donation behind your support?), time (are your brand’s executives volunteering for this initiative?) and knowledge (helping to increase awareness of the initiative).”

Brands will focus even more on expanding customer lifetime value. Bernardo de Albergaria, CCO at Airship

“For the last few years, we as an industry have focused a lot of chatter on how B2B marketing has converged with B2C — it’s just as likely for Deloitte to have apps as it is Disney. Recently, the opposite is true, where the 1:1, data-based, account-based marketing that we have often seen in B2B is becoming a focus in B2C. Personalized, even individualized, digital interactions with customers have been everything in this pandemic — no matter whether they are consumers or businesses. In 2021 we will see a much stronger B2C marketing emphasis on contextual and relevant in-the-moment customer interactions and an overt shift to focus on expanding customer lifetime value — qualities that currently are more reminiscent of B2B.”

“In 2021, businesses that sell high-stakes goods or services (auto, insurance, home improvement, etc.) will invest more in their digital experiences, but will need to be extra thoughtful about how to permeate those experiences with human touch points to make a shopper’s online experience as seamless as possible. Like many shopping behaviors, making high-stakes purchases has moved online for most consumers during COVID, despite the complexity of these purchases. What’s more, 46% of shoppers are likely to continue making these purchases online, even after stores open up widely. However, high-stakes purchases still rely heavily on human interaction. With this in mind, the most successful high-consideration business will be those that give online shoppers access to expert assistance via phone or live chat exactly when they need it — not before or after — and equip their sales reps with the data they need to provide a world-class human / automation hybrid experience.”

Brands should focus on authentic, data-driven storytelling. Scott Holden, CMO at ThoughtSpot

“The COVID-19 crisis has put pressure on every marketer’s budget. So it’s critical we shift our focus to only the most pressing needs of our customers. Now more than ever, storytelling is critical for linking the value of your product to the challenges your customers are facing. But it must be done authentically and supported by data. In this environment, you can’t make up a narrative and hunt for data to justify it. With COVID-19, data is changing so fast, we must use it to lead and shape our narratives from the outset. Every person on the frontlines of your company, whether a marketing manager, account exec, or sales engineer must be armed with data in the moment. Only then is it possible to craft narratives that reflect what’s happening in the world and are supported by evidence that will connect authentically with your customers. This marriage of data and fact-driven storytelling should be a priority for every marketer in 2021.”

Industry conferences will be online-offline hybrids in 2021 and for years after. Penry Price, VP of Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn

“Industry conferences will be online-offline hybrids in 2021 and for years after, serving people who don’t want to travel away from home as well as those who wish to attend in person. We’ve learned during this pandemic that we can communicate over digital platforms better than we thought. Whether it’s been colleagues and clients working from home, friends and family socializing during off-hours or public figures chatting it up, this once-in-a-century pandemic has inadvertently proven live video can achieve intimacy even when we cannot be together. And companies that have hosted large events in the past can be much more cost-effective and achieve better ROI because digital entails less overhead.”

Be transparent about your purpose-driven business strategy. Kevin Seller, CMO at Ping Identity

“As we look to 2021 and beyond, a main priority for CMOs is to authentically establish purpose-driven brands. Companies that clearly articulate a vision for doing good as a part of the delivery of their goods and services are ones that will succeed. We’ve seen the pandemic shift users’ preferences in more ways than one and as a result, consumers are more inclined to transact with brands that stand for societal issues that make the world a better place and are not just motivated by profits. Social goals will become table stakes for organizations that are looking to engage with consumers on a more meaningful level and establish more seamless and memorable user experiences.”

Embrace the benefits and team comradery virtual events bring. Lynn Ledwith, CMO at Ansys

“Marketing has always been about cutting through the clutter, differentiating and delivering seamless, frictionless customer experiences. The pandemic hasn’t changed that — if anything I believe it has pressured marketers to be nimble, embrace digital-only initiatives and think more creatively. Looking toward 2021, I’m focused on making marketing more of a team sport, mobilizing cross-functional teams across the company, particularly with events. This past year we hosted our first-ever virtual event, which resulted in higher levels of customer engagement and renewed purpose from employees, all at reduced costs. Physical events will not become extinct and undoubtedly will experience a resurgence, however, this still seems a ways away. Next year, I’m anticipating additional gains from this virtual event setting and will be investing in producing a steady stream of digital-content like augmented reality experiences and virtual booths to better this experience.”

Feature Image Credit: Crystal ball, Getty

By Kimberly A. Whitler

Sourced from Forbes

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4 reasons why marketing should drive your company’s digital evolution

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By Shade Vaughn

The days of just counting clicks are gone; more effective dollars are being spent on buyer intent and propensity-to-buy tools, data and analytics, search marketing, digital campaigns, and social selling.

For some, digital transformation may seem like a traditional business project that has a distinct beginning and end. However, the savviest organizations know that it has no defined starting point, and there is no true finish line. Digital transformation will continue to evolve and scale with the business, and it will require building consensus across numerous functional silos.

It also isn’t something that naturally happens—companies need to make the conscious decision to proactively define and manage their own digital transformation objectives, especially as spending on digital transformation increases each year. In fact, according to IDC, global spending on digital transformation technologies and services will grow 10.4 percent in 2020 to $1.3 trillion.

The investment is paying off. Those that had already begun executing against a digital transformation strategy were able to navigate the dramatic changes that resulted from the current pandemic.

Digital transformation excellence begins with marketing

While it might feel natural to look to the IT department to shepherd a digital transformation effort, marketers have specific skill sets that make them well-equipped to take on a leadership role. Marketers can help their companies use transformative technology to strengthen engagement between brands and customers, improve business performance and operations, and increase employee engagement.

According to Gartner consulting, 87%  of senior business leaders say digitalization is a company priority, however only 40% of organizations have brought digital initiatives to scale. To address this gap, marketers can tap into one of their many areas of expertise and showcase their value to the project:

Marketers are communicators

Marketers can use their communications skills to help energize and educate employees about the benefits of undergoing a digital transformation effort. More than six out of 10 respondents consider culture as the number one hurdle to digital transformation, according to Capgemini’s Digital Transformation Review 12th Edition, and marketers can help push the needle with effective communication strategies. When the pandemic disrupted the restaurant industry, Friendly’s Restaurants rapidly transformed their technology strategy to include contactless options. Friendly’s CIO recognized the strength of its culture as a key factor in the company’s success–they embraced the new processes and rose to the occasion.

Marketers understand the customer journey

Marketers have the insight and perspective to shape digital transformation efforts to maximize the value to the customer. After all, they are well-versed in the customer journey and how to establish strong connections across all touchpoints. To build a relevant roadmap, organizations need to take a long view of what they want a digital transformation strategy to accomplish–across people, performance, operations, and customers.

Marketers know the organization

By nature of the role, marketers have acquired a vast amount of knowledge about their organization–its strengths, its weaknesses, and how it operates day-to-day. They are able to have a bird’s-eye view of the business and build an ecosystem of trusted partners who are willing to put skin in the game and ensure value. This type of foresight will go a long way when executing against a digital transformation strategy as it requires strong talent in development and technology-related areas.

Marketers welcome digital disruption

Advances in marketing technology have changed drastically over the past 10 years–and so has the role of the marketer. The days of simply generating impressions and clicks are mostly gone; now, more effective dollars are being spent on buyer intent and propensity-to-buy tools, data and analytics, search marketing, digital campaigns, and social selling. Many marketers have embraced this digital-forward world and welcomed the many opportunities it presents to connect with customers in new and exciting ways. They are usually on the forefront of innovation and strive to inspire others in their quest for marketing excellence and fueling business growth.

Where marketing and IT meet

While marketing can confidently take charge, it still needs to be in lockstep with the IT department. After all, there is no digital transformation without a technology evolution, and that requires a heavy lift from IT. The two teams should work together to solve business problems, implement systems that support the larger goal, and find new ways to create value for customers.

For example, IT and marketing teamed up to create an improved fan experience for the San Francisco 49ers. Innovative technology was implemented to ensure football fans stay connected throughout the season, and the new site (IGYB) incorporates different aspects of digital and social media marketing to provide the latest updates and resources.

Marketers are creative and nimble, constantly on the lookout for new ways to innovate. By putting them in prominent leadership positions within a digital transformation overhaul, there will be an immediate shift in communication effort, diligence, and culture.

Feature Image Credit: [Source images: fad1986/iStock; Rawf8/iStock; OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay] 

By Shade Vaughn

Shade Vaughn is Chief Marketing Officer for Capgemini North America.

Sourced from Fast Company

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Ask the Future 50: what qualities will make the marketer of the future?

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By Sam Bradley

This week we reveal the Future 50 for 2020, our list of the best new brand-side talent from across the industry. But while celebrating the milestones our phenomenal 50 have already achieved in their careers, we also wanted to pick the brains of these marketing leaders of tomorrow.

And so, as the industry moves forward after a tumultuous year, the first question we put to our Future 50 is…

What qualities does the marketer of the future need to possess?

Harriet Lowe, portfolio marketing executive, ITV

They need to be inquisitive and never afraid to ask why. I think it’s really important that marketers of the future recognise they might have a different opinion or point of view to others in the room, and often by sharing this point of view great work can come from it. Although we can all learn a lot from people around us, we should never lose our own curiosity to challenge the status quo and be the most authentic versions of ourselves.

Mazen Mroueh, global digital manager, Friesland Campina

Marketers need to adapt and have an open-minded approach towards new market and technology updates. As a start, they need to be technically proficient, hybrid, agile, flexible to changes, creative, and disruptive. But also, they need to be socially responsible, honest, ethical, fair, transparent and direct with consumers.

Chad West, director, global marketing and communications, Revolut

Technical skills: you need to be able to source your own data, build your own dashboards and set up your own departmental processes. This involves learning to code basic languages and familiarising yourself with all the latest software in the market. Also, business acumen. Simply bringing customers into the funnel is not enough. You need profitable customers, which means you need to build a process to monitor and report on customer engagement and customer lifetime value.

Benson Mensah-Bonsu, sports partner manager, Twitter

Being agile is key in the long run. It’s hard to consider taking risks during the pandemic when many businesses have folded and people are furloughed/unemployed. Prior to Covid-19, I’ve seen marketers bet big on things that led to underwhelming results with minimal pivoting options to reach their target. Being agile with a minimal viable product allows you to continuously build and optimise your marketing strategy in response to the current fragile yet ever-changing state of the economy.

Elena del Boca, brand manager, GHD Italy

A modern, post-Covid marketer should have a strong ability to manage at 360° the engagement with consumers. The omnichannel model is a real challenge for brands and consumers today are used to navigating from online to offline and vice versa through new and different platforms. And their expectations keep increasing. We may call it the ’fusion marketing’ era, where the key is to follow the consumers, stay along with them in whatever space they are. The enormous availability of data is crucial today to execute this 360° strategy – it is mandatory for each marketers today.

Elizabeth Stone, marketing manager, for brand partnerships, John Lewis & Partners

Above all, marketers need curiosity. As customer champions, we should be constantly evaluating our environment and our customers’ evolving needs. We need to examine the wider world so we can identify trends, seek opportunities, spot risks and ask ’why?’ By doing this, we’ll generate better and more original ideas. Second to this is taking (calculated) risks to create bold marketing and obtain an advantage. You’re not going to make your brand famous by playing it safe. The qualities marketers need don’t change, only knowledge and skills. If you stay curious, you’ll pick those up along the way.

Shannon Ross, associate creative director, Spotify

The marketer of the future will need to possess compassion. We are now of an age where superficial ideas are so easily seen through, with the pandemic and social media holding a mirror to brands. The future marketers are people who will set the right tone for the world they wish to live in. The future marketers are those who identify the human truth in their target audience, zeroing in on people first and numbers second. That is how you move the needle on a brand. That is how you mould the future.

Brianna Foster, social editor, Pinterest

The main quality a future marketer possesses is the ability to authentically connect to culture. Marketing is all about connections – connections to a feeling, a friend, an aesthetic or even an avenue to the impossible. It’s not just one thing, but rather an evolving, fluid entity. When you think of marketing in a box, you don’t see the whole picture. A marketer of the future can take any preconceived notion of what marketing is and completely throw it out the window to create new concepts based on their own experiences, ideas and desired outcomes.

Sean Cook, senior social media manager, News UK

Innovation for me is particularly key when tackling marketing. At News UK, we pride ourselves on being first to new industry platforms, and being from a social media background, spotting new tools and trends in the market – and being first to test them within the company – is key for me to market our game in new ways. Over the last year, Dream Team was the first News UK brand to trial TikTok, quickly expanding to over 65,000 followers in a matter of months. This gave us a new, younger audience to push to our product.

Maeve Delahunt, business marketing lead, Snap

I truly believe adaptability will be the most important quality for a marketer, or indeed any professional. Living in such unknown territory, we need to stay flexible and nimble. We learnt so much in the first few weeks of lockdown alone when we were forced to completely reshift and strategize our marketing efforts almost overnight. By remaining adaptable and open to fresh perspectives, marketers can react to unforeseen challenges and capitalize on opportunities, future-proofing themselves and the organisations they work for.

Jack Mackie, social media manager, News UK

Adaptability. Markets and audiences are constantly developing, with new, innovative ways to communicate springing up almost every day. It’s essential to stay on top of trends and find out exactly what works for both you and your audience. While it’s always worth trying out new methods and strategies, don’t be afraid to move on when something isn’t working. Equally, never allow yourself to become too comfortable – just because something is working, doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

Franny Goldberg, associate director, content growth strategy and analytics, SiriusXM

A willingness to fail. As the digital landscape continues to grow, with new platforms popping up daily and algorithms changing constantly, we have to be willing to sometimes fail first, before we find true success. I believe testing is more important than ever, whether it be creative, targeting, messaging etc, and in order to gain significant insight, we must be comfortable with the idea that we may not hit our goals on the first try. Often you learn more from why something didn’t work versus knowing why it did.

Chris Lu, regional head of communications and marketing, AnyMind Group

There is an increasingly blurred line between PR and marketing, and the future marketer will need to play on both sides of the equation by finding a balance. Effective PR can become effective marketing for a business, while effective marketing can also become effective PR for a business – for example, the content marketing push were doing for influencer marketing in Asia (since June 2020) has not just driven customer interest, but also greater product branding, clarity and audience perception.

Amanda Walker, senior campaign advisor, Sydney Water

Be brave. My biggest challenge is getting people to see value in challenging ideas and doing things differently. I don’t believe in doing things just because it’s the way they’ve always been done. I’m not saying throw everything out, but having a brave mindset and the courage to look at things in a different way. To test and learn, have an ear to the ground, try new things – this is what inspires me. It definitely requires passion and a strong gut-level instinct but sometimes we need to set aside just examining the data and take a leap.

Rachel Flynn, brand awareness executive, Worldwide Cancer Research

Emotional intelligence. We treat everyone like we would ourselves. Since March 2020, we’ve checked in with our friends, assured them that their money’s well looked after and that there’s a light at the end of this dark tunnel, helping them imagine a world free of the ’two Cs’. But to do this successfully, we had to put ourselves in their shoes and put our fears aside so we could serve our friends better. We cared, and it worked; empathy and sensitivity will cure our friends’ anxiety and uncertainty.

Laura Scott, brand customer strategy manager, Lloyds Banking Group

I started my journey with the group in customer-facing roles and every job I have gone into since I have been told the strength I bring to the team is my ability to truly put myself in the customer’s shoes and champion on the customer’s behalf. It is important now more than ever to truly understand and empathise with our customers, building on our experience and understanding to get as close to the customer as possible. The skill to truly understand and cater to customers’ changing needs is the core quality any marketer will need going forward.

You can see the full list of our fantastic Future 50 and read about just why we think they’re the future of the industry here.

By Sam Bradley

Sourced from The Drum

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In these hard times, drive growth with RoI-driven marketing

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By M Muneer

By M Muneer

M Muneer is the managing director of CustomerLab Solutions, an innovative consulting firm delivering measurable results to clients.

Sourced from moneycontrol

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Marketing Is Expensive. Is It Really Worth It?

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By Timothy Carter.

Sooner or later, most entrepreneurs have to face the reality that marketing is expensive. In the course of planning a new marketing campaign or trying to grow the business organically, you discover that to execute a strategy could cost thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars, and to keep it going will cut into your bottom line.

Why is marketing so expensive? And is it really worth the cost?

What you’re paying for

Let’s start by explaining why marketing is so expensive. Generally, marketing costs account for things like:

  • Salaries and human labour. According to Glassdoor, the average marketing manager’s salary is $65,834 per year. Most marketing strategies require extensive planning and execution, requiring many people coordinating together. Many of these people are highly skilled and highly paid.
  • Limited resources. Some marketing campaigns depend on the use of finite resources, and at least some of these resources will be in high demand. For example, there are only so many billboards on the side of the highway; if a bidding war starts, it could drive up the price of advertising considerably.
  • Risk, failure, troubleshooting and support. Some marketers build in the cost of risk and failure; if their original efforts fail, they’ll need to double down and try again. We also need to consider costs for ongoing troubleshooting and support in addition to core marketing campaign costs.

Differences in price

It should also be obvious that different types of strategies will differ in price. Depending on your approach, marketing could end up being very cheap or ridiculously expensive, often based on variables that include:

  • Strategy choice. Some strategies are more expensive than others. TV ads are often expensive because of finite supply and high demand. By contrast, search engine optimization (SEO) is often less expensive because there are unlimited opportunities for development; that said, even SEO can be pricey under the right conditions.
  • Scale. Most marketing campaigns vary in scale; a small mom-and-pop business and a large corporation aren’t going to use the same tactics or the same number of resources. The larger your campaign is and the more people you’re trying to influence, the more you’re going to pay.
  • Freelance, in-house or agency. To execute a marketing campaign, you can do the work yourself, hire a freelancer, hire someone in-house or work with a professional agency. Each of these options has different costs, as well as different strengths and weaknesses. For example, working with a freelancer can help you save money, but it might be hard to find individuals who fit your needs, and they might not be reliable. An agency is more expensive, but it’s often worth the money because of its reliability.
  • Quality and experience. In marketing, you get what you pay for (at least most of the time). Individuals and agencies who have more experience and skill tend to charge more because of their abilities. Accordingly, in many cases, an expensive campaign is a good sign; it means you’re getting the quality work you need. Of course, there are exceptions, and it’s possible for high costs to be excessive.

The nature of ROI

One of the most important factors you’ll need to consider when budgeting for and planning your marketing campaign is your return on investment (ROI). In other words, how much value are you getting out of your campaign compared to what you’re putting into it?

In many cases, you won’t be able to concretely measure your ROI until you actually launch the campaign. However, you might be able to come up with a reasonable estimate that’s based on your past experience and the knowledge and experience of the professionals you’re working with.

Your ROI matters more than the absolute dollar amount you’re spending. For example, let’s say in campaign A, you spend $500 and generate $1,000 in revenue. But in campaign B, you spend $1,500 and generate $5,000 in revenue. Campaign B is objectively more expensive, but it also yields a much higher ROI, both proportionally and in total amount.

Because of this, you should never rule out the possibility of a campaign just because it’s expensive.

Operating with no marketing

We also need to consider the prospect of running a business without a marketing campaign. There are examples of businesses that have gotten successful without traditional marketing or advertising (including famous examples like AriZona Iced Tea). However, without marketing, you’ll be exclusively growing your business through word of mouth and reputation, which can take a long time and can be extremely unreliable. For most businesses, marketing and advertising are practically necessary for steady growth.

Is it worth it?

Is an expensive marketing campaign worth the seemingly excessive costs? The issue is far too complicated to reduce to a simple answer. However, in many cases, there are plenty of justifications for the high cost of marketing, and if you execute a reasonable campaign, you should be able to get a high ROI and more than make all your money back. Although some types of businesses can get away with little to no marketing, most companies will strongly benefit from a marketing investment — even if it looks costly on paper.

Feature Image Credit: Reggie Casagrande | Getty Images

By Timothy Carter.

CRO of SEO.co

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

 

 

 

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What is the future of programmatic media buying?

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By Mike Nutley

Programmatic media buying is on the verge of a new era built on collaboration.

This was the key thread in the panel session on the future of programmatic run in association with digital advertising technology provider PubMatic at The Drum’s Agencies 4 Growth Festival. Watch the fascinating panel here.

Although advertising as a whole has been battered by the pandemic, the use of programmatic media buying continues to increase. At the beginning of October, IAB Europe published its 2020 Attitudes to Programmatic survey, which showed that the number of advertisers spending more than 41% of their display budget through programmatic channels had increased from 55% in 2019 to 77% in 2020. Similarly, the number spending more than 41% of their video advertising budget programmatically grew from 50% in 2019 to 54% in 2020.

As programmatic grows, the way it’s being managed continues to change. The IAB survey found that the number of advertisers using hybrid models, where brands bring some elements of programmatic buying in-house, supplemented with agency expertise, had doubled since 2019 to almost a third. In-housing of programmatic, meanwhile, fell from 38% of advertisers in 2019 to 20% in 2020.

Speaking on The Drum panel, Richard Kanolik, programmatic lead at Vodafone, put this change down to the growing level of programmatic expertise. Programmatic used to be a “black box” tended by the agency, he said, but now advertisers want more visibility and control of their media buy, and they can hire in the people to deliver that.

But he argued that there’s still a need for agencies to fill in the gaps.

“Advertisers can underestimate what’s required to bring programmatic in house,” he said. “Hence the hybrid model.”

This view was backed up by Chris Camacho, chief performance officer at Mindshare. He pointed out that in-housing involves more than just a deal with a DSP provider.

“You also need to think about the set-up, data, tools and talent,” he said. “It’s not easy, but with the right infrastructure, the right support and the right agency, it can be done. There’s a lot of value to having a guide.”

Lisa Kalyuzhny, senior director, advertising solutions, EMEA at PubMatic agreed that working together is crucial, both across the business and between the business and its agencies.

“It’s about knowing what your strengths are as a brand, and being able to use the people you have on the ground internally as well the agency, and being able to really collaborate. That’s where we’ve seen the most success,” she said.

But brands and agencies working together isn’t the only form of collaboration that’s changing programmatic buying. Kalyuzhny pointed out that the introduction of header bidding revealed to advertisers that they could be using 20 or 30 different partners to buy the same inventory, and they started asking themselves what the benefit was.

“Supply Path Optimisation has become a catchphrase for many different adtech initiatives. At the core, it’s about buyers understanding and optimising supply. To deliver better media buying and selling strategies, the collaborative relationships and understanding of both buyers’ and sellers’ goals are a must have,” she said. “In digital advertising, brands and publishers are ultimately working towards the same goal: creating a transparent programmatic set-up that optimises consumers’ ad experiences and values inventory at a fair price for all.”

Kanolik argued that programmatic’s transparency problems were self-inflicted, the result of an infant industry prioritising technology and innovation at the expense of clarity. But he also said that buy and sell sides know that transparency is crucial to programmatic maturing as a medium, and that awareness is bringing the two sides together.

“For programmatic to evolve into a trusted medium, transparency is key,” he said. “We’re moving towards that, and it will kick off a new era of programmatic advertising.”

To watch the entire panel discussion on the future of programmatic media buying, presented in partnership with PubMatic, click here.

By Mike Nutley

Sourced from The Drum

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