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Modern tools & techniques to bolster top-funnel, 3rd-party demand gen

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Inbound marketing has dominated many brands’ strategies recently, but contributor Scott Vaughan explains how technological advances are enabling better outbound efforts.

The B2B marketing world is shifting, and that means we must look for new strategies and techniques to adapt to changing customer, selling and marketing requirements.

A generation of marketers has grown up on inbound-driven demand strategies and tools. You know the process: buy and drive traffic; put up a landing page on your website; get somebody to fill out a form; and then nurture, score and send to sales once they’re qualified. Things have progressed from our days as pure brand marketers, and this has been a solid way for marketing to contribute to revenue.

Digging deeper

As B2B marketing and sales organizations prioritize more precise ideal customer profile (ICP) targets and account-based marketing (ABM) strategies, traditional inbound marketing tactics alone aren’t generating the demand needed to hit increasing pipeline and revenue goals for many B2B teams.

We simply can’t expect all our target decision-makers to find our website and fill out a form. Nor can we keep buying “lists” to populate our expensive databases, especially in a permission-based marketing world. And we can’t direct endless amounts of precious budget at media to drive low-converting website traffic just to have sales and marketing resources chasing down unqualified “leads.”

“In today’s reality, it’s crazy to think all your target accounts are just going to show up to your website,” Jennifer Pockell-Dimas, CMO at Egnyte, told me when I spoke with her earlier this year. “With ABM and the precision that’s required, you must go where your prospects are.”

To meet today’s mandate, we need to get our content and messages in-market where our audiences (ICP and target-account decision-makers) are doing their research.

One marketing strategy that is being re-imagined, modernized and used more aggressively is third-party demand gen — top-funnel contacts generated by third-party channels or sources, rather than through your own website or landing pages or your own social profiles.

A few examples are:

  • Content syndication: Distributing your content (typically branded) to target audiences via third-party sites and social networks; purchasing leads on a cost-per-lead (CPL) basis.
  • Product- or service-review sites: Buying leads on a CPL basis from product-focused or crowd-sourced sites that capture contact info from individuals researching relevant products and/or services.
  • Shared-lead campaigns: Running lead gen campaigns with partner brands/channels where leads are captured on third-party landing pages and provided to multiple companies.
  • External webinars: Sponsoring webinars organized by a third party to acquire audiences and generate contacts that fit your ICP.

Many of these approaches may look familiar. The difference today is the modern techniques, tools and data that are providing smarter ways to generate more precise top-funnel, third-party demand that works in tandem with your inbound effort.

Here are a few ways marketers can modernize their top-funnel, third-party strategies, as well as the tools needed to make these strategies work.

Use tools to manage multiple providers and tap into fresh audiences with precise targeting

Many B2B marketing teams have applied a “set and forget it” mindset to third-party demand. You sign a contract with a provider, and you use the same providers every quarter or even sign an annual contract. This approach rarely works in the mid- to long-term because there’s no way to quickly vet low-performing partners nor adapt your plan as business needs dictate.

With today’s top-funnel automation and demand orchestration solutions, you can use tech to manage multiple providers at the same time, continually testing each to identify the sites, providers and programs that deliver the quality you need. And you can validate the data and fix any bad lead data before it hits your marketing automation or CRM systems.

With accurate data, you can route to the right nurture track or sales pro for immediate follow-up. These modern tools allow you to scale by using and measuring multiple top-funnel providers and sources at the same time.

Rescript the follow-up and follow-on process

One of the biggest mistakes when using third-party demand providers is the follow-up. It’s critical we don’t follow up on third-party leads with the proverbial, “I saw you downloaded x white paper, attended y webinar” or, worse, “are evaluating z solution.”

This is not engaging. It simply provides a sure-fire way to turn your prospect off — on the phone, via email or on chat. (By the way, the same applies for inbound leads.)

Rather, marketers report finding more success using a different approach that uses program data and taps into contact or account data in their MA or CRM systems. For example, you may adapt the follow-up script to something more conversational, such as: “It looks like you and your team may be doing some research around x; how is that going? …”

This approach drives a more meaningful dialogue and leads naturally to a discovery conversation about your prospective account and the buyer’s needs and pains. It will also quickly tell you if they fit your ICP.

From here, you can learn more about their initiatives and share additional educational content in the right context. This approach also allows you to qualify the buyer and the account for next steps, including sending the lead to sales with actionable information.

Apply intent data monitoring to identify and prioritize accounts in the market

Increasingly popular is the use of intent data monitoring with these top-funnel programs. These solutions allow you to prioritize and target those companies that are showing increased activity around a given topic across the web. An emerging group of martech and third-party media providers are monitoring their sites and the broader B2B web to understand which companies — in aggregate — are interacting with which content/subjects by topic. For example, if you sell cloud storage solutions, it’s valuable to see which companies are doing research on these solutions.

With a list of active companies — identified by domain — you now have a more targeted list to reach out to with top-funnel programs. You can then prioritize your outreach efforts, targeting the right personas and roles at these companies using your branded content. These techniques increase the effectiveness of your investment when working with third-party providers and sites.

Third-party demand generation is an effective top-funnel marketing strategy when done right. It requires planning, management and more precision, which in the past has caused some marketers to shy away from it. However, the recent advent of several key marketing techniques and technologies has helped with all this, making third-party demand gen far more efficient and effective than it was just five years ago, especially for today’s ICP and account-based approach.

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Scott Vaughan is CMO of Integrate, a marketing technology software provider automating top-of-funnel marketing for B2B marketers to enable demand marketing orchestration. Scott leads the company’s go-to-market and growth marketing strategy. He’s passionately focused on unlocking the potential of marketing, media, data and technology to drive business and customer value.

Sourced from MARTECH TODAY

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Push or Pull Marketing – Which Drives Better Brand Consideration? [Infographic]

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Research recently undertaken by Mention Me in conjunction with OnePoll discovered that consumers have a clear preference for certain types of marketing when it comes to discovering new brands.

By a significant margin, consumers prefer “pull” types of marketing over “push” methods – in fact, 71% expressed this preference. In simple terms, “pull” marketing are those methods which enable a consumer to discover the brand for themselves, such as search engines or recommendations, while “push” techniques seek to create consumer demand by advertising directly to the individuals through methods like email and direct mail.

In addition, the research highlights a mismatch in terms of the newly emerging marketing channels, such as Influencer marketing, and consumer trust. While many retailers are spending considerable time and effort building influencer strategies, it appears that those efforts could be better placed focusing on other forms of endorsements – namely, reviews and referrals.

According to respondents, these options are trusted 3x more than endorsements by bloggers and YouTubers.

The media preference varied by sector, but showed similar patterns, as shown in this infographic – Push vs Pull Marketing.

Push vs Pull Marketing

 

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Follow Angela Southall on Twitter

Sourced from Social Media Today

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P&G – not the first brand to attempt WTF trademarking

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By Katie Deighton

P&G has filed to trademark LOL, WTF, NBD and FML

Procter & Gamble’s attempt to connect with a millennial audience by trademarking acronyms such as WTF, LOL and NBD has raised eyebrows, but the practice of laying brand claim to everyday slang is not as unusual as it may seem.

P&G has filed to trademark LOL (laugh out loud), WTF (what the fuck), NBD (no big deal) and FML (fuck my life).

Initially reported in AdAge, the news has drawn the attention of global outlets such as the BBC and Bloomberg, which have questioned if owning such colloquialisms will really end entice a younger customer base.

However, the conglomerate is not the first company to attempt to brand everyday slang.

“Trademarking colloquial language is nothing new – McDonald’s somewhat depressingly trademarked Maccy D’s, for one – and other than it being an interesting headline, I’m not sure there’s not much to see here,” said Rich Leigh, founder of Radioactive PR.

“A quick search of the US Patent and Trademark Office shows that there are multiple other live trademarks for the term ‘WTF’, for instance, across a handful of goods and services categories, including hand tools and fashion.”

Indeed, there have been 246 trademarks filed for LOL or phrases containing LOL, 147 for WTF and its offspring, 71 for NBD and 61 for FML. Many of the files have been labelled as ‘dead’, meaning the application was ‘refused, dismissed, or invalidated by the office’ – all potential outcomes of P&G’s attempt.

Leigh added: “I can understand that the suits at a big corporate entity like P&G even being aware of slang is jarring, like when your mum asks if you’d like to be in a selfie (and then asking somebody else to take the ‘selfie’), but bless them, they’re trying. Whether it helps them hoover up all that sweet, sweet MilleXZial cash remains to be seen, but that’s no doubt their intent.”

David Born, director of entertainment licensing firm Born Licensing, agrees that P&G’s interest in the acronyms is driven by a millennial targeting strategy that a number of brands are actively undertaking.

“This also appears to be the reason why we are seeing emojis almost everywhere we turn, whether on product or in advertising,” he said. “We recently worked with Just Eat who licensed emojis as part of their Real Reviews campaign, and have a number of other advertisers that have shown interest in using emojis as a way to communicate with their target audience.”

Melissa Robertson, chief executive of Now, is cynical that the tactic will work, however: “WTF P&G! They must have a GSOH if they really think they can claim ownership of generic text language IMO. WTF is going on when marketeers become that greedy? Are they going to sue our Whatsapp groups for using their owned language?

“FWIW, I think it’s ridiculous. Don’t make me LOL.”

Feature Image Credit: P&G has filed to trademark LOL, WTF, NBD and FML

By Katie Deighton

Sourced from The Drum

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Let’s Keep Influencer Marketing Accountable

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One of the top challenges facing influencer marketing is one common across the entire arena of digital marketing: brand safety.

At this year’s Cannes Lions, Unilever’s Chief Marketing Officer Keith Weed warned that influencer marketing has an integrity issue. The proliferation of fake followers, aided and abetted by a lack of transparency and proper measurement reporting, threatens to destabilize the entire industry.

Weed warned that the industry must take “urgent action now to rebuild trust before it’s gone forever,” and he pledged that Unilever’s brands will never buy followers nor work with influencers who buy followers.

Any brand conducting influencer marketing programs should heed the call to ensure greater transparency and integrity.

The relationship between social media and influencer marketing is at a crossroads. To be clear, the challenge is not one of growth: According to a recent study by the Association of National Advertisers, 75% of brands use influencer marketing, and almost half are planning to increase budgets in the next year. However, in order for influencer marketing to continue to thrive, brands will need to improve their campaign strategies.

Brand safety is of paramount importance in the development of influencer marketing tools and in ongoing campaign monitoring and management. Campaigns – and the technologies that support them – should be designed to track telltale signs of suspicious activity such as sudden bursts in followers or suspicious letter replacements in profile names, such as the use of “1” to replace the letter “I.” More sophisticated algorithms can flag dramatic shifts in performance and unanticipated engagement patterns.

In addition to ensuring transparency and integrity, influencer marketing campaigns should focus on authentic engagement. Influencer marketing is inherently social; when implemented well it can be an open (but directed) conversation that is amplified to the masses. This is why it is vital to focus on follower engagement.

While metrics like volume are of course important (e.g., follower count, posts per day/week, etc.), engagement may have the biggest impact on meeting or even exceeding KPIs. One of the highlights of influencer marketing is the opportunity for a brand to leverage an influencer’s unique voice. That unique voice has a big impact on the type of content an influencer can produce for brands — and it is that unique, authentic voice that ultimately drives consumer engagement with the branded content.

For brands, a trusted environment is one of the most effective places to engage consumers. Passionate influencers who authentically weave branded stories into social platforms that consumers trust are the ones who deliver powerful results.

Whether it is a story told through a blog post, video, a picture, or any combination of these, working with influencers can bring brands and products to life with engaging, custom content delivered to the right audience — amplified through the channels that has the potential to make the greatest impact.

But to help ensure that this marriage between influencer marketing and social not only survives, but thrives, it is up to everyone in the industry to work to ensure that engagements remain authentic, honest, transparent, and measurable.

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By Katie Paulsen, Vice President of Influencer Marketing, RhythmOne

Sourced from MediaPost

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RIP Snapchat: Marketing Experts Reveal What Works in Social Media — And What Doesn’t

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By Jennie Bell

Snapchat is over. Influencers are oversaturated. And content is everything.

Those were some of the takeaways from a panel discussion about social media marketing held Tuesday at the FN Platform trade show in Las Vegas.

The participants included Rollie founder and CEO Vince Lebon, Sam Edelman marketing director Lizzi Bickford, Chinese Laundry marketing manager Alle King and Karen Bueno, Blowfish Malibu’s VP of marketing. FN’s women’s editor, Nikara Johns, moderated the conversation.

FN Platform Social Media Panel
(L-R): Karen Bueno, Alle King, Nikara Johns, Vince Lebon and Lizzi Bickford.
CREDIT: Jim K. Decker

All four executives agreed that the strongest social platforms for brand marketing right now are Facebook and Instagram — particularly Instagram, thanks to its highly visual format.

“With Instagram, we focus on brand awareness and engagement, and there we’re able to build a visual around who the brand is,” said Bueno. “With Facebook, it’s more of a VIP feel, and with those people, they give us their true feelings about [Blowfish Malibu]. That’s been helpful for us in finding out what customers like about the brand and what they don’t.”

Bickford added that gauging the effectiveness of the programs is twofold: “We measure success through engagement, and conversion is also optimal. We’re seeing a rise year over year of about 170 percent on a swipe or click-to-shop [tool]. Those features have definitely enhanced the platforms for us from a brand side.”

As for platforms that don’t work, the executives said they have all abandoned Snapchat completely and use Twitter sparingly. “The biggest result we’ve had with Twitter is if a celebrity or influencer is wearing our shoes and tweeting about it,” said King. “For me as a consumer, I only pay attention to big people and what they’re saying.”

When it comes to working with online influencers, the marketing experts recommended a careful and strategic approach. “Go in with a plan and make sure you’re aligning with the right people. Influencers are great, but the market has become really saturated,” said Bickford, who noted that she likes to meet — or at least speak with — every influencer who works with the Sam Edelman brand. “I want make sure that we vibe and they understand our messaging.”

King noted that microinfluencers have proved to be highly effective at driving online buzz for Chinese Laundry.

But Blowfish’s Bueno advised always checking the numbers before signing a partner. “Look at the engagement of their followers. They may have 2,000 likes on an Instagram photo but no comments,” she said.

For Rollie, while the label does work with social influencers, Lebon and his wife have become increasingly visible in its marketing. “When I first launched the brand, I tried to keep myself separate. But a brand is not what you say it is; it’s what they say it is,” said Lebon. “We found that people connected with our story. So now we’re putting up more photos of me and my wife, and we’re starting to document us living our bucket list. Because we want to empower our community, and the only way is by living what you say. We’ve become the face of it — not by choice, but it feels honest.”

Overall, the executives stressed that in today’s environment, it’s challenging to keep up with changing technologies and to stand out in a noisy digital landscape. But what is essential is having a strong identity.

“Make sure you have a voice, your tone is consistent, and make sure you have a story to tell,” said Bickford. “People want authenticity and content that they can learn from.”

And in the end, brands also need to be realistic about expectations, explained Lebon. “There’s no quick fix,” he said. “We would look at these big influencers and think, ‘If only we could work with them.’ And then you’d get them, and it wasn’t massive. Accept that and stop chasing. Just work on great content and add value to people’s lives. Instead of looking for that one influencer, create something where everyone you touch is inspired and they retell it and then become your brand advocators.”

FN Platform Social Media Panel
(L-R): Alle King, Karen Bueno, Nikara John, Vince Lebon and Lizzi Bickford.
CREDIT: Jim K. Decker

Sourced from FN

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Making the most of a post privacy world

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By Tom Goodwin

A generation of people have now grown up seemingly constantly broadcasting their lives on Instagram, sharing their innermost thoughts on Twitter, intimate details of life on Facebook and yet the world seems shocked that we’ve lost any sense of privacy. We now live in an age when it seems every Instagram user wants to be an influencer, to be popular and envied and to not have anyone know anything about them.

Ever more apps continuously ask us to share location data, software updates ask us to share our personal details, messaging apps want to scan the most personal communications we can imagine and access our friends lists too. And all in an era where security breaches are common, where nefarious companies seek to sway elections, where our data seems to be used to target us with ads that are designed to be as personal as possible, but never creepy, and yet haunt and chase us in on online lives.

Our homes are now wire tapped, not secretly and against our will, but we pay money and eagerly await delivery of connected smart speakers. We now volunteer all manner of information to Google, our location, photos, our calendar invites, our intentions are known by a global sentient network, more than our own selves.

It’s easy to think this is all a relentless march towards the dreadful future where our personal lives are invaded, where privacy is dead, where we can’t escape the filter bubble, where personalized ads follow us around like Minority Report, with few marketers aware it was a film about a dystopian future, not what should be done.

While we may hate personalization, the only thing we dislike more is irrelevance. We hate it when we phone up credit card companies and they don’t immediately know it’s us. We can’t imagine a world without Google offering us better search results based on our browsing history, we like that our weather is automatically shown in our location. Most people would happily swap mesothelioma class action lawsuit TV ads for a well-made commercial for some trendy new jeans.

The marketing and business world has long tip toed around the edge of the privacy debate. We take as much data as we can, whenever we can, we store it badly and hope to never awake the beast that is the customer. If we were to work around earning data from people, by giving them trust that we will use it wisely, not sell it, keep it massively securely and offer clear value in exchange, then life would be very different.

I’d love to see the world embrace privacy trading. How do we maximize the value offered to people in return for storing limited and intimate data about people in a transparent and trusted manner?

Uber knows that the only way for the app to work is to know where you are precisely and in real-time and we understand that and allow it. We know Google Traffic knows our location but uses it anonymously to process all traffic conditions and we’re fine with the net benefit. Dating apps track our location because sharing that is a small price to pay for life or evening long romance.

I like the thought experience of a post privacy world. Maybe I’m naive but if my airline knew exactly where I was at all times then it would be able to serve me better, to come and find me if I’m in the lounge and keep the plane from leaving without me. If my credit card company knew the same could it stop declining payments because I’m abroad and didn’t tell them? If my TV set knew I was in the market for a new car, new auto insurance and I liked leather manbags, is that a terrible world to live in? What if retailers had my face stored on file and I could pay for things with a smile? What if Uber could access my calendar and offer me cars when I’m running late? What if a hotel company could tell from my voice on phone calls I’m stressed and suggest a spa for me? What if a burger joint could tell I was hungry and not been there and entice me in with a special offer? What if a clothing retailer knew my size?

It’s easy to use the slippery slope argument against this and to assume that we can’t control a precise level of privacy. A company knowing you’ve bought a TV is one thing; knowing your blood test results or genetic code is absolutely another. If health insurers, for example, could ever access some of this information, we’d have absolute mayhem.

Yet the privacy debate is rooted in paranoia. It assumes companies want to know everything and not merely enough and likely in an anonymous way. It assumes advertisers want to build rich personal files and harass customers near endlessly. And given this has been so far how we’ve acted it’s easy to see why.

I’d love a discussion driven less by technology and language like targeting, and one driven by empathy and about serving people better. I’d love to see how we can start the process of asking permission, clear opt ins, clear trust, world class security protocols, and above all else a way to maximize the value exchange over a lifetime for all. Privacy is a recent invention, it’s perhaps the ultimate luxury for the future, but will it matter. Will our kids miss something like privacy, a concept they’ve probably never known.

Feature Image Credit: online information being given freely – picture from Pexels

By Tom Goodwin

Tom Goodwin is head of innovation at Zenith Media. A writer and speaker, Goodwin is the author of Digital Darwinism: Survival of the Fittest in the Age of Business Disruption. Previously, he has spoken at leading conferences and industry events around world, including Cannes Lions and CES.

Sourced from The Drum

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Amazon crashes just minutes into Prime Day

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By Kyle O’Brien

Amazon Prime’s extended Prime Day (really 36 hours), didn’t get off to the start the online retail giant may have expected. According to several reports, the website either crashed or had trouble loading pages.

DownDetector.com reported over 24,000 problems just minutes into the sale. It noted that website problems accounted for 46% while log-ins affected 34% of those reporting, and check out had a 19% problem. The site said stated that problems started at 3:04 pm ET, four minutes into the sale.

TechCrunch reported that the landing page for Prime Day didn’t work correctly, and that when some links were clicked users were sent to error pages, which sent them back to the main landing page.

While direct links to product pages worked correctly, some users reported errors when completing a purchase as well.

As of 45 minutes into Prime Day, most problems seemed to be fixed, though the pages loaded slower than usual, but it’s still a problem for a retailer that has hyped the day for weeks and received plenty of media coverage.

Social media was on fire with people reporting the issues, with many noting that cute dogs won’t solve the problems or frustrations.

Prime Day also encountered several problems last year, including issues with Alexa, and web slowdowns.

The latest news also came on a day that found that research on Prime Day launched by global eCommerce consultancy Salmon, a Wunderman Commerce Company, showed Amazon’s retail domination (particularly over Google), where they start and finish the consumer’s shopping journey.

Amazon’s retail dominance, particularly over Google, found these stats: 35% of all UK online spend goes through Amazon, 52% in the US; 51% of shoppers start their journey on Amazon (compared to 16% on Google) and 55% purchase their goods on Amazon, showing where you start is usually where you finish your shop. Also price (64%) and free delivery (54%) is considered more important than brand (39%) for consumers.

Feature Image Credit: Amazon Prime Day has technical glitches in first 15 minutes

By Kyle O’Brien

Sourced from The Drum

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5 things that can influence affiliate marketing

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By Maria Jones

Affiliate marketing is an online market where advertisers or merchants pay the individuals or companies who do the task of promoting the services and products on the basis of their performance.

It is fundamentally a profession of referring the products to clients by utilization of effective marketing strategies and skills. The people or company who carry out the task of promoting these commodities are known as affiliates. They range from blog writers to content post makers who execute the promotion business by writing or by making videos.

It is a great passive source of income for people desiring to be a part of this online money earning pursuit. The major reason why affiliate marketing has the possibility of providing enormous money-making contingency is that of the income credited based on the work performance of the affiliates. This is an exceptional feature that differentiates it from the rest of the businesses prevalent on the market. The commission received on the affiliate marketing business depends on various factors and is largely influenced by:

1. Rational program:

The commission paid by the affiliate marketing program to the affiliates depends on the scale of the program. It also depends on the type of services offered to the affiliates with many of them ranging from less demand driven to more demand driven. It is similar to selecting a supplier for a service that is available through multiple resources. The niche picked up for affiliate marketing program has a great impact on the prosperity of the affiliate marketing. If the affiliate marketing program does not have enough sufficient followers, income generated through it will be very less.

The profitability and success of a particular niche should be estimated prior to making the decision. The nature of opportunity provided by the affiliate marketing program will predominantly determine the amount of revenue generated out of it. The choice of the program has a great impact on the monetary gains achieved through it.

2. Selection of equitable product:

The success rate in affiliate marketing is directly proportional to the amount of wealth accumulated through marketing. The type of services and products offered by affiliate marketing program will largely determine the sales generated through it. Some products may have a large amount of sale irrespective of the type of crowd drawn towards it while the sale of certain products will be highly saturated which destroys the opportunity of earning money out of it.

The potential of the product can be determined by analysis of its past performance and accordingly, the decision can be made. Another way in which reputed products can be ascertained is by visiting different affiliate marketing websites which offer a fair picture of the present profitable scenario.

3. Proficiency and expertise:

Provision of online sources for gaining knowledge and training about affiliate marketing is widely available which helps get background knowledge about the business. Education about the subject and skills for execution are crucial for being successful in creating a proficient working space in the business. They play a significant role in shaping up the work experience as an affiliate for any marketing program. The necessary expertise can be harnessed through the means of various affiliate marketing tutorials, videos, and podcasts which are available online.

Along with a good working culture, a good client-customer relationship is also needed to bring about success in marketing. There are a lot of affiliates in the market but if the work and services provided are customer driven, it can actually make a drastic difference.

4. A vast expanse of network links:

Becoming a member of different market networks can prove to be beneficial from a future perspective as it increases opportunities for learning, sharing of knowledge and understanding various marketing associations and professionals. It provides an occasion of becoming accessible to all the related data and information about affiliate marketing. Having good network links can also help acquire additional knowledge about the products and sales which will eventually help in framing up sound marketing strategies. Although strong network connections do not directly influence affiliate marketing, it cannot be denied that it can specifically bring about substantial transformation in the quality of performance.

5. Authentic discernment:

Affiliate marketing can prove to be a boon for earning enormous amounts of income if genuine business and marketing strategies are adopted instead of unrealistic ones. A clear perception about the objective to be carried out is very essential to give money-making outputs. To get a clear perception and insight about the marketing business, thorough research on the persistent market requirements needs to be done.

Apart from these, there are certainly other factors like the type of market chosen to carry out marketing and conversion time for the customers to perform the desired action can play a defined role in influencing the affiliate marketing either positively or negatively. Even though these factors are minor in nature, their direct or indirect impact on affiliate marketing cannot be denied.

By Maria Jones

Sourced from Digital Doughnut

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How PepsiCo Targeted an Audience That Will Transform Your Marketing

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By Dave Kerpen

Teachers are the latest demographic marketers want to reach. Use these 5 strategies to successfully connect with this influential audience.

PepsiCo has had its share of marketing mishaps in recent years–perhaps most notably the widely vilified ad featuring Kendall Jenner handing a Pepsi to a cop during a protest. The 2017 commercial spawned such an internet backlash that it was pulled from programming one day later.

But Pepsi has also had some major successes, namely with the PepsiCo Recycling Rally campaign launched in 2010. This project has been so successful that it earned the company a Gold Honor in the MarCom Awards in December 2017.

For this award, PepsiCo created a campaign to teach K-12 students about recycling in their schools. They focused on marketing to educators and reached a new demographic via a program that is still going strong more than eight years later.

Educators are increasingly being recognized as a valuable audience to target. They make up a significant portion of the general population, have high participation rates in a number of sectors, and are sophisticated shoppers who respond to marketing that includes independent research and facts.

There are several marketing strategies brands can employ to effectively connect with educators.

1. Join forces for an important cause.

Many companies already include corporate social responsibility as a major part of their marketing strategies, and teachers are more willing to support brands that will add value to their students’ lives. PepsiCo used recycling and sustainability efforts to teach children about how to protect the environment. To follow PepsiCo’s lead, find a cause that represents a common interest between your company and educators.

2. Make it a competition.

Stir up educators’ competitive spirit with a contest in which classes or schools go head to head for a good cause. Everyone loves a little competition to make things interesting. A contest builds unity and teamwork within a class or school and gives teachers something concrete to work with as they attempt to get their students excited about school projects.

A great example of this is the Box Tops for Education program, which lets students collect box tops from food and other products and turn them into money and prizes for their schools.

3. Give them some extra incentive.

To encourage students to participate in these competitions, it’s important to provide teachers with incentives they can use to entice students to get involved. These could include tickets to an amusement park, a class pizza party, or a movie day in class. A great example is Pizza Hut’s Book It! program, in which kids earn free pizza for hitting a reading goal each month.

Motivation plays a huge role in how a student engages (or not) with a subject. These extrinsic motivators are especially powerful in changing student behavior and engagement, emphasizing skills, or encouraging certain behaviors. When used properly, they can be powerful tools for winning a child over to a school subject like reading or a civic activity like recycling.

4. Ease the lesson-planning burden.

Teachers are always looking for new materials to incorporate into their classrooms, so providing an educational component to your program or partnership will increase the chances of teachers wanting to take advantage of it. This aspect can also teach students how business and community service go together.

A major element of CSR is looking beyond the company’s bottom line and engaging in causes that further the social good. In the end, these efforts serve as good PR for a brand and encourage sales, but that’s not the main point. Companies tend to have resources that individuals lack, giving them the capacity to fund charities, sponsor community athletics or arts programs, and support local cultural or educational initiatives. Educators are eager for this support, especially when it comes with additional classroom tools and strategies.

5. Be selective with your audience.

First-grade teachers need different lessons and incentives than high school English teachers. Research what your demographic wants, as it will be challenging to find an overarching theme for different age ranges. Determine what type of teacher your company can most effectively connect with, and focus your efforts there.

Educators are a powerful force in society, and their influence is far-reaching. (I’m proud to say I’m a former public school math teacher myself!) Joining forces with teachers can elevate your marketing strategy, but you need the right methods to connect in a meaningful way. The tactics above will help you effectively partner with people who play an important role in shaping the minds of future generations.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Dave Kerpen

Founder and CEO, Likeable Local@davekerpen

Sourced from Inc.

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4 Tips For Millennials Who Want to Succeed In Marketing (And Everywhere Else)

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Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. workforce today, according to Pew. And yet they seem to be the ones who struggle most to find and keep the jobs they really want.

As digital natives, Millennials have a lot going for them. With a little patience, discipline and some humility, Millennials can have the marketing careers they dream about — and be the star employees growing companies need them to be.

Here are few useful tips for Millennials hoping to break into the marketing world.

Want the job? Do your homework first.

Your contacts are more important than your resume, which is likely to be pretty light straight out of school. If you want to work at a big agency and know someone connected to that agency, make plans to meet up with them. Do your research first to learn everything you can about the company. Visit their social, read their press pages, About Us sections and any recent news. When you meet up with that contact, ask about their job, what the culture of the office is like, what skills they value and need most. In these informational interviews, you should do the least amount of talking and the most listening.

Even if you don’t have any contacts, you can use LinkedIn wisely. You can learn a lot about a company – including the head of the department in which you’d like to work. Take the time to write a personalized cover letter to that manager and explain how your interests line up with the company’s mission and vision. If you’re from a creative field, use that imagination to help you stand out. Build an infographic or a microsite, record a video or a song, make something tangible to help you stand out and showcase your value.

Don’t just answer questions at your interview.

Interviewing for jobs is a lot like dating — and no one enjoys a date that talks about themselves all evening. Ask original questions. Show the hiring manager you’re interested in the company and that you’ve taken the time to really learn about it. Even more important, listen and take notes.

Always follow up with a thank-you note — within 48 hours. Whether you want the job or not. You never know when you’ll cross paths with this person again in your career so leave the best impression. Email is easy (i.e., lazy) so try putting an actual pen to paper and mailing that thank you. It might seem old school but guess what gets saved, passed around, and displayed on someone’s desk — and acts as a reminder of you? Not that formulaic email.

Mind your online presence.

Your prospective employer will look you up on Google. What do you think they’ll learn about you? Take the time to build your personal brand. Make sure your profiles are up-to-date and that the values you reflect dovetail with your dream company. If you’re aiming for a role that’s focused on social media, your profiles had better reflect how savvy you are.

Now that you’ve got the job, hold onto it for a while!

Millennials have a reputation for demanding promotions early on. Your job is an opportunity to learn what you don’t know. Be patient. You may feel ready to take on more, and the best way to demonstrate that to your manager is to end every one-on-one with “What can I help you with?”

Stay hungry and don’t be afraid to fail. Guess what? Everyone fails at some point. What’s more important is learning from your failures and taking accountability for them. You’ll gain some of the best lessons of your career from missteps. Take it from a Gen X who’s been there.

 

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Sourced from The Marketing Insider

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