Modern Marketing Archives - Page 2 of 3

In News

How PRs guided brands (and saved some from themselves) after The Queen’s death

September 20, 2022 No Comments

In exchange for anonymity, communications specialists spill the tea on what it was really like being on the front line navigating brands through this historic moment.

For 48 hours following the death of The Queen, comms teams and PR professionals were the first port of call for companies unsure how they should respond.

Uncertainty had been brewing since the Thursday morning, with one PR telling The Drum how he had been spending the morning with the media, facilitating filming for a charity campaign due to launch the next day, when the journalists around him began to receive alerts.

The Palace had issued a landmark statement saying that doctors were concerned for The Queen’s health and that she was being kept comfortable. “The journalists warned us this was going to take over the news. They knew what was coming.”

Sure enough, by the time he got back to the office the decision had been taken to pause the campaign. The press launch was axed and social media influencers were told to hold off on promotions. “They shut it down.”

Across town, another PR exec within an ad agency had just hit ‘send’ on a press release announcing the launch of a client’s major new TV ad campaign. “We had literally got the release signed off that morning and issued it that lunchtime,” she explains. “Then came the news that The Queen was ill.“

She says that the agency’s account director then spent the next few hours going back and forward between the client, the media agency and the media owners, debating whether to go ahead with the launch that night.

‘It was the CEOs, CMOs and CFOs ringing me personally’

As the world’s media hastily set up on the periphery of Buckingham Palace, clients began making frantic calls asking what they should do if the worst happens, explains the owner of an agency that specializes in crisis comms. “The phones were ringing off the hook from about 3pm onwards and didn’t stop for two days.”

What surprised him, he says, was that brands’ internal communications departments were being shut out. “I usually deal with those teams on crisis comms, but this time it was the CEOs, CMOs and CFOs ringing me personally. I found myself saying ‘trust your team’, but they wanted an agency opinion.”

Many of those calls from the C-suite were to ask what other big brands had planned. “I was taken aback at the size of some of the companies that had clearly put no thought into this. There were global brands that had nothing in place, no plans for these situations.”

A PR agency owner with almost three decades of experience running her own business, handling multiple clients across different sectors, tells us how she moved early to hit the brakes on planned activity for the remainder of that week. “It was obvious the direction things were moving.“

With a couple of big campaigns due to break, she says: “We started telling clients ’have a think about what you want to do before the morning’. We were trying to be front-of-foot. Some heard us, but others chose to ignore and were steadfastly plodding on.”

‘Most got it, but some were tone deaf’

Of course, the decision on what action to take came much sooner. By 6.30pm that day, Buckingham Palace confirmed The Queen’s death. Unlike brands, most broadcasters, publishers, media owners and platforms had processes in place for the passing of the nation’s longest-serving monarch. They went into mourning mode and immediately paused all advertising on commercial stations, out-of-home and online media for two days.

At media agencies that had been primed to release big new campaigns, retractions were swiftly being issued. An exec at one tells how his client felt it would be more appropriate to pause its new spot until later in the month. “But then they came up against a problem with media owners in that some were unwilling to pull the ads for any longer than their 48-hour blackout unless they were in direct conflict with the royal family.”

The brand CMO and the media agency are still in negotiations with certain media owners about what happens to the significant ad budget they’ve invested, but not all clients have been so attuned to the situation.

The PR agency owner that we spoke to tells us how, “once the penny dropped on the enormity of this moment and the tsunami of reaction across the world on social media” her agency started advising all clients to stop all activity until at least September 20, the day after the funeral. “Most got it, but some were tone deaf and have continued, regardless of how crass, naff or disrespectful it is. Some turned it into an opportunity.“

She reveals that one client – despite all her emails and calls beseeching it not to – went ahead with a big comms push that will “at best have no response, but at worse will have negative impact on the brand“. “It has been very revealing about the kind of organization we’ve been working with and how they see the world,“ she says. “There has been a big misread.“

Now, she is diligently recording every interaction with said client in anticipation that, three months from now, she’ll be faced with complaints about why the activity didn’t achieve the KPIs they’d agreed. “I’m keeping it all in writing and recording everything. Response rates will not be anything like what it wants. Unfortunately, apart from covering ourselves in that way and putting every bit of advice in bold and underlined, there’s little we can do.”

‘Consumers don’t give a crap about an FMCG brand commenting on societal affairs’

As we saw in the hours following the Palace’s announcement, too many brands – from Playmobil to Pizza Express and The British Kebab Awards – were too quick to share their ill-judged messages of condolence. So what guidance would these trusted PRs and crisis comms specialists offer corporate giants on paying their respects on social media?

Without fail, all of the experts we spoke to say that, unless your brand is one of the 800 or so with a royal warrant or well-recognized connection to The Queen, it is strongly advised to simply stay silent. They stand by that advice for comms on the day of her funeral.

“If you have a royal warrant then it’s fine to put something out there, but otherwise just shut the fuck up,” stresses our crisis comms specialist. “Brands were worried that by not saying something they’d be seen to be disrespectful. Consumers don’t give a crap about an FMCG brand commenting on societal affairs. And no brand that hasn’t put out a statement has had feedback from customers saying they really should have.”

At the downright bizarre end of the spectrum, one ad agency tells The Drum they had a brand (not UK-based, it is important to note) brief them to create a tactical stunt. “We told them to fuck off.“

Aside from talking brands down from ridiculous ideas of how to insert themselves into this seminal moment, most PRs are expecting the next seven days to be quiet. Clients are actively avoiding PR opportunities, they say, declining interviews that are likely to run before the funeral and continuing to put major news releases on hold. “We need to wait until the mood changes,“ they all agree.

By Jennifer Faull

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Ads on Maps shows Apple ‘not afraid to scorch the earth’ to grow revenue

September 15, 2022 No Comments

By Chris Sutcliffe

With ad units coming to some of Apple’s most-used apps next year, experts ponder what the ad buying platform will look like and whether its core audience will accept the interruption.

Apple brings in an estimated $4bn a year from advertising revenue, but its ambition is to scale that up to achieve greater revenue stability. As such, ads are set to show in its Maps app from early next year, in addition to select spots in the App Store’s ’Today’ tab and at the bottom of app listings.

Mike Woosley, chief operating officer at data management platform Lotame, says: “Apple is diversifying its revenue streams to smooth out economic shocks, and its services segment – where it hides its advertising business – has grown 12% this year.“ He likens its emphasis on advertising in the face of hardware saturation to Netflix’s ongoing pivot to an ad-supported version of its streaming service as paid subscriptions reached saturation.

“And if Apple wants growth in advertising, it’s not afraid to scorch the earth to get it,“ he says. “When it was ready to get serious about ad revenue, it locked down its device-related advertising ID, stripping developers of the ability to identify users across sessions and domains, leaving Apple as the sole king of identity on its phones.“

To date, Apple has been more selective than the majority of its competitors when it comes to advertising on its owned and operated platforms. Google has long included ad slots in some of its own tools, with Google Maps offering paid-for results at a local level. By contrast, Apple has focused on providing more streamlined products and making the ad-free nature of its services part and parcel of its appeal to users.

Paul Dimmock, head of demand EMEA at Alkimi Exchange, explains that even though it has long derided advertising, this is not Apple’s first attempt to make ads a core part of its appeal to brands: “iAds, which launched in 2014, was essentially a programmatic network of Apple inventory only. This lasted two years, being closed down in 2016 due to a lack of demand.

“Based on that failure, I would expect that a new Apple buying platform would activate across its owned and operated properties, as well as third parties, as this would – in theory – better justify the inevitable significant costs of building adtech from scratch.”

But while consumers are habituated to ads across those other platforms, it remains to be seen whether Apple’s core audience will accept the introduction of ads into services that have previously been ad-free. Dr Paul Hayton, the founder and chief technology officer of mobile DSP Dataseat, which is part of Verve Group, says that Apple tends to avoid intrusive ads that interrupt the user experience, “so we’re unlikely to see a promotion for something irrelevant like a mobile game in its maps app“.

He goes on: “I expect ads to be highly targeted and entirely based on the search a user makes and the location they’re in when using the app. For example, a search for directions in a seaside town like Poole might prompt an ad for a business that does fishing trips. This format won’t come as a surprise to consumers who’ve been accustomed to Google Maps since 2016. If Apple can present ads in a seamless and relevant way as it does for its search ads within the App Store, users will be unlikely to be put off by them and, in many cases, will probably not even notice that they’re ads.”

Reports suggest that Apple will include Google Search-like results in its Maps app, rather than banner ads, and that it is aiming to broaden its ad network to include its books and podcast apps, in which publishers could pay to appear higher in search results. As Dimmock argues, the likelihood is that Apple will emulate Amazon’s recent approaches to its DSP, offering buyers the ability to buy programmatically both on and off its platform. This allows it greater control over the ecosystem on its own services, while also making a play to increase market share elsewhere.

Ultimately, though, the transition from ad-free to ad-laden experiences is tough to navigate, even for a company with as large a market share for smartphones as Apple. Nailing the user experience will determine whether Apple’s ad ambitions will come to pass.

By Chris Sutcliffe

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Who has more power in marketing: brands or influencers?

August 5, 2022 No Comments

By Simone Morris

For decades, brands have held the power and had their say over the creative direction of their advertising. But with the rise of influencer marketing, is the tide turning? Simone Morris of GottaBe Marketing considers this phenomenon, and looks at how brands can make successful work using influencers.

Have you ever wondered who has the power when you are putting together a campaign? Some might say the brand does; others might say it rests with those who have the purchasing power. Either way, it’s time to break down this complex relationship. Within this post we will discuss whether brands are representing or assuming, why brands must make the change, and why it is beneficial to recognize minority ethnic influencers.

GottaBe! consider the usefulness of influencers today and why brands need to reprioritise diverse representation in campaigns.

GottaBe Marketing considers why brands need to reprioritize diverse representation in campaigns

Are brands representing or assuming?

Millennials and gen Z are the reason for the rise and demand of influencer marketing. Influencers have the power to help consumers decide whether to buy a product. As we mentioned in The power of ethnic influencers for brands, influencers are key to a successful campaign.

It is imperative that you consider the ethnicities of your brand’s audience and how you can market to each one. If your audience is predominately white, ask yourself what you need to do to attract others, as your brand will only attract those it represents. Gone are the days of ‘one size fits all’ marketing; campaigns need to be tailored to break through and reach cross-sections of society.

At GottaBe Marketing our goal is to create campaigns that fill these gaps. So, no matter whether you are trying to bridge the gap between South East Asians, Muslims, Africans, Christians, English speakers or other groups, we can help create a campaign that breaks these ‘traditional’ barriers.

Power brands must make the change

As the field of marketing has changed, there is more inclusion of different backgrounds, and there is a need for this to be reflected within all marketing campaigns. Eric Toda, former marketing executive at Gap Inc, Airbnb and Nike, mentioned in Diversity In Influencer Marketing: Why Representation Matters: “As marketers we continue to be one of the only industries in the world that can influence large masses of people; we can do that in the effort of good, or we can choose the other route. We need to put value-driven messages out there, show real life versus a sterilized mirage, and instil purpose.”

To overcome these obstacles, it is important to think about the target demographic and bring into the campaign a diverse mix of influences and cultures. Select influencers from all backgrounds who will champion the brand and the values that your brand represents.

The content that you produce and your relationship with influencers should be authentic. Arthur Altounian, vice-president of Inca’s APAC, said in a recent article: “Many consumers, particularly those in the younger generation, expect more from brands and won’t engage with content that they deem as ‘too polished’ or ‘too fake.’”

Having this authenticity allows influencers to have some creative freedom as they know their audience best and will be able to tell your brand’s story in a way that will connect with their followers.

The other key aspect to being successful is representation. As mentioned by Sonia Thompson in her article: “Representation in marketing matters now more than ever, and to some groups more than others.”

In her research, she found that 74% of consumers say representation in marketing is important to them and determines which brands they engage with and buy from. When Thompson asked the question, ‘What do you wish more brands knew about representation?’ to consumers, the responses show how crucial it is. They included:

‘The damage they do by underrepresentation’
‘How much it can affect someone and their feelings about themselves when they never see themselves represented. Like they are not important’
‘Representation doesn’t hurt anyone. It only helps’

Those responses from consumers are why it is key to include minority ethnic influencers in your marketing campaigns. Very few products or services are created for one race, gender or viewpoint, therefore your marketing should not be aimed at one single sector of consumers.

Why is it beneficial to recognize minority ethnic influencers?

Having your audience feel represented by your company’s campaign has an impact on the revenue as it increases factors such as brand purpose. Studies have been done in the US that show the power consumers have if they feel the brand is representative of them – or if the brand is not. In Why diversity in ads is more important than ever for revenue [2020] it details this effect, saying: “Not only do minority groups have huge spending power, but these tightly-knit communities” have a huge impact on pop culture and mainstream media.

A 2016 report by Nielson said that African-American millennials are 25% more likely than all millennials to say they are among the first of their friends/colleagues to try new products, echoing the fact that minorities are pivotal in creating trends and ultimately influencing purchase decisions. These are big word-of-mouth opportunities, and the most powerful marketing tool for raising brand awareness and loyalty.

This power can have a massive impact on the success of not just the campaign or product, but the brand as well. We all want to see ourselves reflected in the brand that we are supporting; we are buying into that brand as well as buying the product. And millennials and gen Z aren’t afraid to use their voice in regard to brands.

These generations appreciate and want transparency from companies. They want to see campaigns that feature influencers with whom they associate and will hold brands accountable as they make changes.

By Simone Morris

Sourced from The Drum

In News

How to find blog topic ideas that improve SEO

July 27, 2022 No Comments

By Stas Pamintuan

Not enough companies dedicate time and effort to blogging, which is a great way of promoting services and connecting with users – new and old. Stas Pamintuan, junior SEO executive at Digital Ethos, shares some fool proof techniques for blogging in style to ensure that posts engage readers.

As Google becomes increasingly sophisticated at determining user search intent, it’s evident that content writing answering your customers’ questions is one of the key ways to develop a powerful SEO blog strategy. Creating topics that address the queries and concerns of your customers allows you to take advantage of Google’s algorithm and searchers’ trends toward longer search strings.

Here’s a little secret – the information you need is readily available for free. All it takes is a few searches, as well as knowing where to look. And if you can figure out what your target audience is searching for, the process of finding blog topic ideas comes quite easily. Not only that, but there are also various tools and resources to help you generate ideas and streamline this process.

Use medium- and long-tail keywords for SEO

When you focus on writing blogs that answer specific questions, you’ll attract buyers who are after what you offer. This is where medium- and long-tail keywords come in as they improve click-through rates and conversions because they answer questions from customers who are in specific stages of the buyer’s journey.

In essence, you’re pre-qualifying your audience. Even if you end up receiving fewer site visits, those that do click through to your site will be more likely to convert into buyers because of this. It’s better to target users who are searching for your products or services and convert, rather than getting more visitors who immediately bounce off of the site.

Check Google Analytics

Reviewing your analytics can help you discover what pain points customers are looking to solve. Are more people clicking on a specific product or service page? Is there a specific blog people are looking at on your site? How many times are they downloading your resources?

Understanding these behaviours can help you find what’s working. You can also find gaps in the content you release, so you can generate more copy to help you resolve your audience’s pain points.

Practice social listening

With so many conversations happening on social media, it can definitely be a challenging space to maneuver if you’re not sure what you’re after. But if you’re able to identify their presence on socials, social listening becomes a tool you can leverage to find interesting blog topics to write about.

Follow hashtags, like pages or join groups that are related to your products and services. This way, you’ll be able to find out about the conversations your audience is having and even their pain points; but regardless, there is an abundance of blog topic ideas as people will always be having conversations, old and new.

Rather than connecting with one person, when you optimize your content correctly you have the ability to connect with everyone in a group.

Keyword tools to help you generate blog topic ideas

To help you get started, here are some keyword research tools you can use to generate blog topic ideas that people are searching for online.

Ahrefs: Ahrefs is a free keyword generator tool that helps you to find relevant keywords from their database of over 8bn queries. You can enter up to 10 words or phrases and even choose from one of six keyword ideas reports. What’s even more useful is that search query relevance can be divided between Google, Bing and Amazon and queries from seven other search engines.

Semrush: Semrush is one more tool that helps you to find keywords based on search queries and questions.

AnswerThePublic: AnswerThePublic is a tool that generates a visualization of questions people are asking about a topic. The good thing here is that there are so many topic clusters you’re definitely bound to find popular blog topics to suit you.

Google Keyword Planner: If you have an existing AdWords account, Google Keyword Planner allows you to find keywords along with their stats and their popularity in your choice of region.

Quora: When you enter a word or phrase on Quora, it generates a list of questions that its users are asking about a particular subject. You can even dig deeper by filtering By Type and selecting Questions or Topics. When you filter by Topics, you’ll see how many times questions about that topic have been asked.

We’re always ahead of the game

As a specialist in content marketing, the team at Digital Ethos can make your business worth discovering. We can work with you to deliver truly consumable content that magnifies your brand and everything it’s about.

By Stas Pamintuan

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Web3 101 for brands: here’s your cheat sheet

July 12, 2022 No Comments

By Lauren Griewski

Web3 could revolutionize the relationship between brands and their customers. Here’s an introduction to what marketers need to know.

When the internet first went live, publishers would create content and users would consume it – a period known as web1. A decade or so later, web2 took over with the emergence of web apps and social networks, which made it easy for everyone to create, share and engage with content.

Fast forward to today, and the novelty of web2 has largely worn off. Some of the most impactful web2 companies – such as Meta (Facebook), Google and Apple – have made a killing by leveraging user-generated content (UGC) to engage consumers and create unique profiles for each of them, only to turn around and ultimately sell that data to third parties for advertising purposes.

The worst part? The vast majority of those users had no idea this was taking place – and none of them gave their permission to allow it to happen.

If advertisers want to rebuild trust with consumers, they need to take an open, transparent approach and ask their audiences for their permission to collect data. And this is exactly what the web3 opportunity – a new era of the internet characterized by decentralization, transparency and autonomy – enables.

What are the core principles of web3?

Ask 10 people to define web3, and you might get 10 different answers. But at a high level, web3 is a new iteration of the internet powered by blockchain technology and token-based economics, and it’s also governed by three central tenets:

Decentralization. In web2, companies own platforms. In web3, platforms are decentralized. No organization has control over any content; users do
Transparency. Thanks to blockchain technology, all users on peer-to-peer networks and decentralized apps (dApps) will share open, unalterable databases that they can verify with their own eyes
Autonomy. Ultimately, users will be able to control their own digital destiny and have the final say in whether their data is collected and how it’s used

According to a recent study, 96% of consumers don’t trust advertisers. This is exactly why brands should be incredibly excited about the web3 moment.

With the right approach, digital advertisers can rebuild the trust they’ve lost during the web2 era – connecting with consumers on a meaningful level and in an open and honest way.

Web3 is here – it’s time to prepare for the tectonic shift

Though we’re still early, the web3 moment has already arrived. Unfortunately, advertisers that wait to adapt to this reality will learn the lesson the hard way.

In the not-too-distant future, users will demand a cut of the revenue generated from the data they create. As an internet-native currency that is incredibly divisible, crypto is the easiest mechanism to deliver incentives that users can immediately put to use.

As the world gravitates toward the web3 standard, user data will increasingly be held on the blockchain or in decentralized storage solutions, which will give users more power over their data than ever before. As a result, they will be able to choose exactly which brands they consent to share data with, what data they wish to share, and for how long.

Advertisers that don’t prepare for this tectonic shift and adapt their methods to offer a real value proposition in exchange for interacting with user data will be left behind.

By offering tokenized rewards – whether that’s fungible crypto coins or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), an on-trend, blockchain-based, one-of-a-kind digital asset – advertisers can tap into the web3 ethos while exciting users about what they have to offer. Plus, they get to take advantage of the magnificent properties that come with blockchain technology, such as:

Immutability, or the permanent, unalterable nature of a blockchain ledger
Validation, or the way in which users can verify transactions are legitimate
Disintermediation, or the absence of intermediaries between advertisers and users
Profound security, made possible by cryptography and decentralization
Ease of transfer, which makes it simple and quick to send and receive tokens

How crypto can help advertisers thrive in web3

One of the easiest ways to reward users when they give their permission to share their personal data or perform specific actions is by issuing crypto rewards. For example, you can give them rewards when they watch videos, view personalized ads and opt to receive content from brands.

By offering an opt-in value exchange – where they’re willing to part with their data or their attention for tokens – advertisers can begin building long-lasting customer relationships and regain trust while ensuring regulatory compliance.

Though cryptocurrency remains in its infancy, adoption continues to increase; today, some 27 million Americans own crypto. With steady growth over the last decade, it’s only a matter of time before crypto usage reaches critical mass. The sooner advertisers embrace the inevitably of crypto, the faster they’ll be in a position to capitalize.

Since the future of digital advertising will be fuelled by permission and digital rewards, brands need to start looking for a purpose-built crypto-rewarded advertising platform that will guide the journey ahead. Strategies that enable aligned incentives – where all participants, including users, advertisers and the platform, benefit from the permissioned sharing of data – will lead to victory in the web3 era.

With the right approach, the lopsided relationship between brands and consumers suddenly evens out, and both parties engaging with each other is more of a partnership than anything else.

Feature Image Credit: Adobe Stock

By Lauren Griewski

Lauren Griewski is chief revenue officer at Permission.io.

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Fiverr launches Togetherr: ‘It’s fantasy football meets advertising’

June 30, 2022 No Comments

By Audrey Kemp

Fiver’s new launch, Togetherr, leverages AI to build optimized “dream teams” of creative talent for brands on individual projects.

For brands and agencies, putting together a dream team of talent has never been easier—at least, that’s the idea behind Togetherr.

Popular freelancer platform Fiverr teamed up with Tel Aviv-based advertising veteran Amir Guy to launch Togetherr. The platform’s algorithm, called the Creative Genome, builds virtual teams of highly skilled, independent talent and connects them with brands and agencies on an individual project basis.

Togetherr’s creators have compared its interface to fantasy football. “Togetherr allows brands to build creative teams that are tailored specifically to their needs… They are getting access to world class talent for any project they can imagine,” Guy told The Drum. “Togetherr gives brands what they need, faster, and with exceptional quality.”

The platform also provides freedom and flexibility to creatives by allowing them to choose the types of projects they want to partake in.

In addition to 30 micro-independent agencies, Togetherr’s growing portfolio counts over 1,100 vetted, award-winning creatives and ad industry leaders, who have worked on campaigns for Nike, Coca Cola, Apple and Netflix. The site launches today at Cannes.

Guy has spent over 25 years at creative agencies. Starting out at Young & Rubicam, he eventually climbed the ranks to take the helm of agency Grey, Israel, where he led regional accounts for P&G,Volkswagen and other brands.

It was here, Guy said, where the idea for Togetherr was born. After pitching the idea to Fiverr’s founders, they were happy to make it a reality.

How Togetherr works

When a client uses Togetherr, they’re immediately asked what they need, be it brand strategy and identity, creative concepting or something else. After making that choice, they can specify the channels they’re interested in, such as video, social or experiential.

Finally, the client inputs their industry, budget and brands that inspire them. That data helps Togetherr’s Creative Genome to quickly match the client to three teams of creatives best suited for their project.

Each team at least one creative lead and freelancers who have worked together previously, which ensures compatibility and punctuality among members.

A “dream team” built via Togetherr’s algorithm / Image credits: Fiverr + Togetherr

Togetherr’s future milestones

Guy has big dreams himself for this dream team model. Togetherr could also replace the advertising industry’s agency-of-record (AOR) model, which has gone stale over the past 25 years, he says.

“[AOR’s] hefty retainers, bloated head-count and overheads, combined with complex processes, is not meeting today’s client needs,” he saidsays. “Clients need a lot more for less, and faster. Trying to meet these needs without changing our industry’s complex system resulted in broken spirits and a lack of excitement.”

Although the site is officially live, Fiverr plans to continue to build out Togetherr’s platform and improve its AI, as well as add new talent that specializes in different areas, such as media buying and production.

“It’s also important to us to have talent from all over the world We want every team to be as diverse as possible.”

Feature Image Credit: Amir Guy, General Manager, Togetherr / Fiverr + Togetherr

By Audrey Kemp

Sourced from The Drum

In News

The future of digital marketing isn’t what you think: 5 trends

June 21, 2022 No Comments

By Stas Pamintuan

The landscape of digital marketing solutions changes so frequently that it’s almost impossible to imagine its future. For entrepreneurs and businesses, it’s become even more of an opportunity to gain a competitive edge in the market. Stas Pamintuan of agency Digital Ethos looks into this future, looks at five trends every marketer should keep abreast of.

As many companies transitioned to remote work throughout the pandemic, digital marketing became essential to most businesses’ survival.

This is still the case, as many have stayed remote or moved toward hybrid working. Fast-growing means ever-changing and evolving, so in order to venture into the future of digital marketing, keeping with the times is essential for adaptation to your target market’s wants and needs.

1. Expanded reach in generation Z

As generation Z starts to mature, businesses must reconsider their marketing strategies. That generation wants memorable experiences, and digital marketing solutions have to be more precise in their purpose.

One way to do this might is leveraging user-generated content to create a sense of exclusivity for your product or service. This will make it something they can relate to and more likely to side with, especially if they have FOMO.

2. Omnichannel and integrated approach

As consumers become more aware of what they want, market expectations have become more specific. This is evident on digital platforms and channels. It’s even more important in the way you market to your target audience. Whether that’s through social channels, PR or content, there are plenty of opportunities to maintain a unified omnipresence.

A unified omnichannel marketing strategy enables you to create an irresistible online presence for your brand – collectively, that’s the goal of digital marketing.

3. Personalization

Make sure your campaigns are personalized. While it’s obvious that most consumers value privacy, they also favour personalization. You can see this in appreciation for tailor-made Spotify playlists and Netflix recommendations.

Each element of the campaign is essential, allowing you to deliver value via storytelling. Personalized campaigns see higher rates of engagement, conversions and reviews from customers. The first step in obtaining this data is allowing customers to opt-in for data tracking and analysis, so they are aware of how their data is being used, before analysing it.

4. Micro-influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has hugely grown in recent years, with top influencers on Instagram, YouTube and Twitter attracting millions of followers and making a decent income from brand deals. While this offers great ROI compared to traditional advertising channels, there are still some issues.

From fake followers to big-name influencers losing their power as they take on more and more sponsored posts, consumers perceptions of authenticity (and the relevance of influencers’ recommendations) can be affected. As consumers continue to value individual recommendations over being marketed at, it makes sense to invest in micro-influencers – social media users who have a smaller but dedicated audience who are trusted to deliver authentic content. Influencers’ power will be measured not by the number of followers they have, but by their personal relationships with their followers.

5. Video to overtake digital channels

Savvy marketers have recognized the power of using online video in their digital marketing solutions for years. We’re not quite at the peak yet, but video is proving itself as a powerful medium; we’ve seen a massive rise in live streaming video, especially over the last year or so.

From social media to SEO, digital marketing continues to impact billions of people. And with more advanced tools and changes in best practices, digital marketing solutions will continue to propel businesses to step up their competitive drive in the market. That’s the beauty of this space. It’s about adapting and delivering tailor-made marketing strategies to keep your online presence flowing.

By Stas Pamintuan

Sourced from The Drum

In News

The messy middle and infinite choice: hacking the complex new consumer journey

June 20, 2022 No Comments

By Annie Little

With the Covid-19 pandemic transforming shopping habits, journey orchestration matters now more than ever before. Digital commerce has shifted the journey stage balance. Annie Little, strategy director at agency Initials, asks whether there is, now, such thing as ‘the’ consumer journey for any given category and explains the complex maze of touchpoints that brands must carefully navigate.

The stakes have never been higher.

Brands need to get a firm grip on how the consumer journey has evolved and update traditional linear purchase funnels from their marketing agenda as a strategic priority.

Here, we’ll look at the evolution of the purchasing journey, the impact this has on consumer behaviour, and how to ensure that (in a sea of endless consumer choice) your brand gets chosen first.

Decision paralysis

The ease with which consumers can access product information has changed the landscape forever.

Gone are the days of a linear purchase journey. With more options and far greater accessibility than ever before, consumers today are spoiled for choice.

While this new world offers countless benefits for brands and retailers, it also adds a new layer of complexity to consumer decision-making. When this complexity reaches a tipping point, it can spiral into ‘decision paralysis’: too much choice, too many options, too hard to decide.

Such an overwhelming wealth of information for consumers to wade through has done the opposite of streamlining the consumer journey. In many ways, these extra touchpoints and decision-factors have created a more complex and cumbersome path to purchase.

A new model for the consumer journey

Some of the savviest brands and retailers have quickly pivoted their consumer engagement strategies, adopting prevailing shoppable touchpoints to remove any immediate friction or pain points for their target audience.

Creating a high-converting omnichannel purchase journey can’t be a checkbox exercise. A more holistic and strategic approach is required, spanning the entire consumer journey and incorporating reciprocal actions at every experience encounter.

This requires, first, an understanding of how the consumer journey has evolved; and, second, insight into how consumers are navigating their way through it.

Let’s start with the former. The ‘messy middle’, coined by Google, is a space of abundant choice and unlimited content. Here, consumers explore and evaluate product information, research brands, and weigh up their options. This is happening across an ever-expanding digital ecosystem, from online channels to social media to search engines, aggregators, review website and much more.

This exposure is not a stage or step in the buying process, but an ‘always-on’ experience. Consumers will traverse the loop between exploration and evaluation many times before making a purchasing decision.

So, how can brands show up at the right moment and win consumer preference?

How to address cognitive biases and win consumer preference

While the initial trigger and purchasing moments still stand in today’s journey, the middle area between the trigger and purchase has become messy and complex.

Due to the constant bombardment that consumers now face, they are turning to a range of coping mechanisms (including cognitive biases) to shortcut indecision and make purchase conclusions.

Cognitive biases are often a result of the brain’s attempt to simplify information processing. In this case, they help consumers make sense of the world and reach decisions with relative speed.

These cognitive biases shape shopping behaviour and influence why we choose one product over another.

By responding to the cognitive biases at play intelligently, responsibly, and at the right moment in the consumer journey, brands can effectively shorten the gap between trigger and purchase and emerge victorious at the point of conversion.

But how do brands pinpoint which biases are at play during a typical purchase journey in their category?

At Initials, we’ve developed a strategic model to help brands hack the consumer journey and win the moments that matter. Since the path to purchase is no longer linear, we can’t afford to think in linear terms.

Our Consumer Journey Hacker is a data-driven and behavioural science-based strategy that helps brands plan for the right stimuli that will impact buyers in key moments.

Understanding behavioural biases does more than just increase advertising effectiveness; it can encourage a deeper psychological understanding of consumers and their cultural norms and nuances. It can inspire new business strategies and products.

These behavioural science principles (and the behavioural and informational needs they align with) are powerful tools for winning and defending consumer preference in the new complex consumer journey.

The goal is close the gap between trigger and purchase. This means consumers spend less time exposed to competitor brands and transition to your basket faster and with greater confidence.

In a sea of overwhelming choice, this is how your brand can emerge victorious.

By Annie Little

Sourced from The Drum

In News

The 6 biggest mistakes made by newbie digital marketers

June 17, 2022 No Comments

By Tom Welbourne

Digital marketing is an ever-changing world, with new platforms and algorithms constantly shifting the goal posts. Tom Welbourne, founder and director at agency The Good Marketer, tells us how to avoid rookie mistakes.

The constantly-shifting digital marketing landscape is exciting and full of opportunities. But this presents room to make costly mistakes, from underestimating the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) to lacking clarity about social media marketing goals. Gaps in your marketing plan can make otherwise promising strategies fall at the first hurdle.

To avoid making mistakes, the key is knowledge. We’ve compiled the six biggest mistakes that newbie digital marketers make to equip you with the knowledge of what to avoid – and how to do things the right way.

1. No clarity on audience

Think you know who your audience is? It’s time to rethink your assumptions and get more specific. Most people have an idea of who their audience is, but this is useless if you don’t clearly define their age, gender, and interests as well as broad audience categories.

For example, a mortgage provider will have multiple audiences, from first-time buyers looking for their first mortgage to more mature homeowners who have had mortgages before but are looking for a new agreement.

Use analytics tools like Google Analytics to find out who your audience really is, rather than who you think they are.

2. Lack of clear goals

You won’t get to where you’re going if you don’t know exactly where that is. Clear goals give you a clear destination and help to map where you need to hit along the way. If you establish that you want to reach 10,000 followers on Instagram, you can break this down into what you need to achieve month-on-month to achieve that overall goal.

Digital marketers use the ‘Smart’ (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goal framework to create well-defined growth goals that will give a direction to take and the basis to measure your campaign’s success.

3. Setting unrealistic goals

Perhaps the most important aspect of Smart goals is the ‘achievable’ aspect. Having clear goals is important, but you will always end up falling short if your goals aren’t realistic.

If you currently have 500 followers, setting a goal to gain 10,000 followers organically in six months is always going to leave you disappointed and feeling like you’ve failed.

To ensure your goals are realistic, evaluate based on past experience; do some research about similar businesses; or speak to other people in your industry about what could be achievable.

4. Ignoring SEO

Everyone loves an aesthetically-pleasing website, but how many people prioritize SEO when building their site?

SEO is an essential digital marketing strategy used to increase the online brand visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). When someone searches a keyword related to your business, SEO improves the likelihood of making it to the top of those results.

When newbie digital marketers hear about SEO, they can mistake the acronym as something too technical for your average marketer, but they’d be wrong. SEO is something that even a beginner can do comfortably when equipped with the right knowledge.

5. Overlooking quality content

You’ve heard it over and over and will continue to: content is king. Your marketing strategy is nothing if you haven’t taken the time to create quality content that works for your audience.

Ultimately, your digital marketing strategy will succeed if your content can provide value to your audience. Whether you’re solving a problem or providing valuable insight, take time to reflect on how your content conveys value.

6. Lack of recorded strategy

Often, newbie marketers have a strategy in mind for how to reach their goal, but leave it undocumented and not fully developed. A written strategy gives you a clear outline of how to grow your brand or business, and how to leverage your USPs to achieve your vision of success.

Being a digital marketer is a learning curve. The mistakes will probably be plenty, so the best you can do is equip yourself with a solid framework that provides a path to follow. The best marketers are able to use the same process of goal-setting, strategizing and implementation no matter the project. Once you get to grips with how these stages can benefit you and your work, the world is your oyster.

By Tom Welbourne

Sourced from The Drum

In News

How brands can stand out in the customer experience economy

May 3, 2022 No Comments

By Morgan Mitchell

Online customer experience is changing like never before. So, brands need to decide: adapt or die, writes BOSCO™’s Morgan Mitchell.

The new customer experience economy is set to be the making or the breaking of not just newer brands but established ones too. Since 2020, the customer experience (CX) online has evolved dramatically. The need for a winning online CX is essential for success and is proving to be one of the most important and fundamental elements of marketing in today’s digital landscape.

With 81% of retailers increasing their investment in CX over the past two years, what does that mean for brands, consumers and the long-term relationship between the two?

The BOSCO™ index measures the online footprint of brands and benchmarks how effective they are with their paid and organic media channels. Using third-party data, BOSCO™ generates a score between 0-1,000 to determine how successful brands are in the digital space.

What is online CX and what does it include?

Online CX refers to the digital customer experience of your brand. It includes every stage of the consumer buying journey, including pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase.

Online CX is a huge part of brand perception as it encompasses every interaction a customer has with you digitally. That could be from first finding your Instagram page to using your online chat function to troubleshoot an order problem. While that may sound overwhelming, online CX is really just about providing a persona to your brand and carrying this through every customer-facing element of the business. And as we’re sure you know, consistency is key.

Why is online CX changing?

Unsurprisingly by now, the online and digital space is changing. Major steps have been brought forward by the Covid-19 pandemic as the world moved solely online as a result of international lockdowns. The need for online customer support skyrocketed and brands that previously didn’t have a digital-first approach scrambled to catch up.

Plus, it’s getting even more difficult for brands to retain consumers. 94% of sales and marketing professionals say that their business is effective at nurturing newer relationships during the ‘interaction’ and ‘awareness’ stage of the buyer journey. But that all changes at the advocacy stage, where professionals feel they are only 77% effective. What that tells us is that it’s harder to sustain long-term consumer relationships. This is where online CX comes into play.

So, how are brands adapting and strategizing to fit this new customer experience economy? What can we learn from these insights and consumer behaviour patterns?

Instant messaging & online chat functions

As the pandemic hit in 2020, consumers moved their lives entirely online in a way that hadn’t been seen before. We couldn’t pop into a shop to see a product, make a return, or just speak to an employee. Phone lines became jammed, so consumers turned instead to online messaging.

Since then, brands and retailers alike have amped-up their online messaging capabilities. Whether that be a live chat function on their site or through their social media, messaging became the go-to way to interact with brands online. In fact, between 2019 and 2020, social messaging rose in popularity by 110% – that’s huge.

Implement an omnichannel CX approach

Businesses fail to form meaningful, positive relationships with consumers when processes become tricky to navigate. For example, support tickets are passed from department to department without proper follow-up.

Let’s put that into context. A consumer messages you on social media with a complaint. The social team pass this on to customer service where the consumer has to explain the issue again. This then gets passed on to a complaints department and once again, the consumer must explain the problem. This could go on and on, meanwhile, the consumer is becoming more and more annoyed at the lack of communication within your business.

Instead, an integrated omnichannel CX system is seamless. Agents can easily transfer customer messages between apps and departments without the need to start from the beginning every time. This creates an easy, problem-free interaction that solves problems quickly, efficiently and, most importantly, leaves the consumer with a positive experience.

It’s not just about problem-solving either. Great online CX is more about being proactive rather than reactive. A great example of omnichannel CX is Zara’s (BOSCO™ score: 731) use of ‘Store Mode’ in its app. This allows users to only see products available in their local Zara store which they can then buy online and pick up in that store on the same day. This real-time shopping perfectly blends both online and offline channels using GPS and QR technology to its advantage.

Be open and responsive to feedback

When it comes to consumer feedback, there tends to be only two options: incredibly positive or incredibly negative. No one bothers to leave feedback or a review for an average experience, but they have plenty to say when everything has either gone right or wrong.

Being open to and receiving feedback is a huge part of uncovering valuable insights into your consumer base. While you may think your online CX is bulletproof, your consumers are the people who can really put that to the test. What they have to say is a massive part of the digital evolution of your brand. Plus, that open-ended communication helps you to build that relationship further and patch up damaged ones. Often, your next clever CX move will be the result of real-time feedback directly from the consumers themselves.

Uber (BOSCO™ score: 738) is a leading example of using customer insights to improve its online CX. The business makes around 22,000 tweaks to its app every month to customize it in every city it operates in. It does this using incident and reliability reports to tailor how the app operates based on where its user is. This eliminates data problems early and lets users know it is listening and adapting.

The key to digital transformation

Standing out in the digital space isn’t easy, and with the rapidly changing online CX expectations of consumers, brands need to fast decide their strategy.

The first step is to stay up to date with changes and developments as they happen. Take note of other brands that are adapting their online CX well and look at how you can implement something similar. With 58% of consumers expecting more from services than they did pre-pandemic, the need for integrated, omnichannel CX with room for personalization is key to digital transformation.

BOSCO™ is an AI learning platform that integrates your cross-channel digital marketing data into one personalized dashboard. The data allows marketers to make better digital marketing spend decisions with the help of data-driven insights, forecasting and mapping tools. Unlock your BOSCO™ score, today.

By Morgan Mitchell

Sourced from The Drum