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8653cbf02200b35f514940d4d3de7c0e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/08/10/how-healthcare-practices-can-use-digital-marketing-to-retain-patients/?sh=35e661183e61 | How Healthcare Practices Can Use Digital Marketing To Retain Patients | How Healthcare Practices Can Use Digital Marketing To Retain Patients
Ajay Prasad is the CEO of GMR Web Team, a full-service healthcare digital marketing agency focused on patient acquisition and retention.
getty
It's crucial for healthcare practices to retain patients and establish long-lasting relationships with them. Focusing on retention can help you establish a loyal patient base that can further grow your practice. It can cost businesses anywhere from five to 25 times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. And by boosting your retention rates by 5%, you may be able to increase your profits by more than 25%.
In the current digital age, when it is generally easier for healthcare professionals to interact and connect with patients, digital marketing strategies are critical to retaining patients and increasing practice growth. A robust online presence offers patients the resources they are looking for and creates opportunities to engage with your medical practice.
Drawing from my experience working with clients in the healthcare sector, I've compiled the following tips for using digital marketing to effectively retain patients:
Establish Effective Multichannel Engagement
If you are creating several touchpoints to connect with your patients and retain them, multichannel engagement will be important. Multichannel marketing involves using various direct and indirect channels — such as websites, emails, SEO, social media, mobile marketing and more — to communicate with patients. Most importantly, it gives patients a choice about when and how they want to interact with you.
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In simple terms, multichannel marketing lets you act across multiple channels to reach your patients at the right time and in the right place. Therefore, it is vital to understand each channel's strengths and weaknesses and connect with your patients at the right time to build a strong relationship with them.
Implement A Retention-Focused Digital Marketing Strategy
I've found that the following digital marketing strategies are the most effective when it comes to retaining patients.
• Patient satisfaction monitoring: Gather patient feedback after their appointments to monitor their satisfaction. You can do this using automated text message and email surveys. By tracking the patient experience, you can understand exactly how your patients felt about their visit and identify areas for improvement.
• Social media marketing: Posting to social platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, allows you to engage with your current patients and remind them of your practice. Share health-related information across social platforms to build your credibility and further educate patients.
• Email marketing: Many patients check their email regularly. Send personalized emails like newsletters, appointment reminders, birthday cards and holiday cards to strengthen your relationships with your patients and show that you are thinking of them.
• Content marketing: Publish quality content that's relevant and valuable to your patients not only to educate them but also to establish your practice as a reliable source of information.
Promote Patient Portals
Patient portals play a very prominent role when it comes to the relationship between patients and healthcare providers. These portals give patients access to lab results, secure messaging services, discharge summaries, immunization records, medication lists, prescription renewals and much more.
Research has shown that patients who interact with their healthcare providers through a patient portal are more likely to continue with the same providers. So focus on promoting your patient portals and their benefits via channels like email and social media to encourage more patients to use them.
Efficiently Map The Patient Journey
The patient journey comprises the patient’s entire experience with the healthcare provider, from when they contact the healthcare system, attend an appointment and receive a diagnosis and care to when they've recovered. Patient mapping helps healthcare providers gain insight into the patient’s experience and interactions with the health system throughout their journey.
By mapping this journey, you can also identify drawbacks and gaps in the patient's experience. You can use these insights to fill the gap with various digital tactics like emails, paid advertising and interaction via social media.
Digital marketing is key for retaining and growing your patient base. After all, patient retention is about providing excellent care and keeping your team engaged with your patients to win their trust.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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9722490bacd1340d58c70b17c813f15a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/08/19/is-influencer-marketing-on-the-decline/?sh=1d20a92a198e | Is Influencer Marketing On The Decline? | Is Influencer Marketing On The Decline?
Vice President, Digital at Clearbridge Branding Agency, overseeing clients' digital and social media efforts.
getty
Despite reports on the growth of influencer marketing last year, it appears that this marketing channel could be becoming less effective. Some research found that influencer engagement rates dropped significantly from 2019 to 2020. And some marketers reported seeing a consistent downward trend in conversion rates last year.
Pandemic budget cuts certainly aren't helping influencer marketing either; one report noted that fewer brands are working with influencers now and that we're seeing fewer sponsored posts by Instagram influencers.
So what's causing these changes in the effectiveness of influencer marketing, and where do marketers go next?
Influencer marketing was a buzzword in marketing for a number of years. It fostered the invention of new terms like "nano-influencers," "micro-influencers," "macro-influencers" and even "mega-influencers." Think along the lines of a popular YouTuber from a local college to a major celebrity like Kim Kardashian, and you will have a general idea of the range of influencers that sprang up to help marketers push their brands and their products and services.
While many influencers are dedicated to showcasing honest, authentic and positive online personas, the controversial actions of some, like PewDiePie and Logan Paul, have certainly damaged the credibility of influencer marketing as a whole. Besides that, the luxury lifestyles of some influencers have been exposed as facades (think pretending to be on planes or in Paris when they're really at home). Some influencers have also been known to purchase fake followers and engagement to increase their salability to marketers.
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From what I've seen, many consumers are beginning to realize that influencers aren't necessarily authentic product users; they are spokespeople who are paid to pitch products on social media instead of on TV. Thus, influencers are more often being seen as insincere. And many consumers are being put off by what they see as influencers' overly inflated lifestyles that don't match up with consumers' real lives and experiences.
So with influencer marketing perhaps not offering the ROI it once was, what can you turn to? I think user-generated content is one option. Research by Nielsen has shown that "consumers continue to trust the opinions of other consumers (either people they know or consumer opinions posted online) more than paid advertising." Who wouldn't trust their mom, grandma or best friend over an Instagram influencer being paid to tell them how great a product is?
User-generated content comprises photos, videos and reviews from actual customers and brand advocates who have spent their hard-earned money to purchase products and then have taken time to post content on social media about those products.
Utilizing user-generated materials not only provides fresh content for brands but also creates a level of excitement for the consumers who shared it. I've found that these consumers are often more likely to reshare their content and discuss their moment in the spotlight with their friends and family.
You can find user-generated content organically through social listening (be sure to ask for permission to use their content), or you can run a campaign asking consumers to submit their content. Simply ask consumers to show how they use your product or services in their everyday life, and have them post it on social media with a hashtag or on your brand's social pages.
While influencer marketing has primarily been used for business-to-consumer verticals, business-to-business entities haven't shied away from it. And they should not ignore user-generated content. If you manufacture or produce goods that are components of another product, facilitating strong relationships with your clients can encourage them to create and share feedback and testimonials. This not only provides your business with content, but it's also free promotion for the companies you supply.
At our agency, we rely primarily on user-generated content rather than influencer marketing because we have seen the impact that it can have on companies' bottom lines. If your advertising budget is decreasing, consider how employing user-generated content can give you more bang for your buck. Consumer brand advocates talk about their favorite products because of their affinity for them, not because they are getting paid to talk about them. However, even when creating a program where consumers may receive a discount or free products, the costs can be relatively modest compared to the large fees that some influencers request.
If you are a proponent of influencer marketing, think of user-generated content as its evolution, and use it as a complement to your current influencer strategy. Your influencer marketing strategy does not have to end, especially if your analytics and sales results make a strong argument for it, but as it becomes harder for influencers to effectively engage consumers, it may be time to consider at least a small pivot into user-generated content.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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cd2bb3973d7f8223e91720200111a6f0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/08/19/measuring-success-how-to-key-in-on-meaningful-digital-marketing-kpis/?sh=556a340312e4 | Measuring Success: How To Key In On Meaningful Digital Marketing KPIs | Measuring Success: How To Key In On Meaningful Digital Marketing KPIs
Tom Hileman leads an award-winning agency to deliver high-touch, data-driven marketing solutions for leading organizations nationwide.
Success can be measured in many different ways. For some, it's the size or location of their home. For others, it's the kind of car they drive. For digital marketers, success — both short- and long-term — is measured by key performance indicators (KPIs).
In an age of data and technology, practically everything is quantifiable. KPIs are measurable values that inform actionable insights about what is and isn't working with your digital marketing. Good KPIs can help you track and measure success in everything from click-through rates to lead conversion.
But not every KPI is valuable. With so many to choose from, it's best to focus on the ones that actually and directly affect the success of your business.
Looking Good Vs. Performing Well
The reality is that calling a metric a "KPI" doesn't make it key. Vanity metrics, like impressions, page views, likes and follows, all look good on a digital dashboard. But those alone don't offer actionable insights. These metrics are merely data points. They're missing a backstory and the big picture they belong to. It's like being told you have a beautiful logo — that's better than an off-putting logo, but how is it effective?
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The metrics that truly matter are the ones directly tied to your organization's goals and objectives. For the sake of simplicity, let's call them meaningful metrics. These metrics reveal a strength or weakness you can build upon or address to move your business closer to its goals. Unlike vanity metrics, meaningful metrics provide actionable insights — the intel you need to adjust your marketing strategies in real time and ultimately grow as an organization.
Deciding What To Measure
The only KPIs worth having are the ones with meaning. So what should you measure? Here are seven KPIs to focus on:
1. Bounce rates: This metric helps tell you whether people are substantively engaging with your content or simply passing by. It represents the percentage of visitors who arrive and then leave rather before viewing other pages. A high bounce rate (over 60%) is one of the most common conversion killers. Providing consistent, customer-centric content using optimized images, engaging videos and clear calls to action can help improve this metric.
2. Landing page conversion rates: Whether your website has one landing page or dozens, you want to know how well each is performing. Your landing page conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take the desired action — whether that's downloading a guide, subscribing or scheduling a demo. To improve your conversion rates, make sure the user experience on these pages is easy, the call to action (CTA) is clear and what you're offering is compelling.
3. Click-through rates: More telling than an email open rate, click-through rates measure how many recipients clicked on a CTA button or other link within an email. This is usually an email's total number of clicks divided by its total number of opens. Benchmarks can vary by your industry but even more based on whether you are sending emails to clients or prospects.
4. New visitor and return visitor conversion rates: New visitors and returning visitors interact with sites very differently, so improving your first-time visitor conversion rate requires separating this metric from your return-customer conversion rate. Take note of what new visitors engage with and where you might be losing them to bounces, as well as what content returning visitors need to engage with before they convert.
5. Mobile traffic conversion rates: Why track mobile conversions separately? Consumers are now accessing more websites from mobile devices than from desktops, meaning if your website is losing visitors on mobile at a higher rate than on desktop, you have a problem. This can be an indicator of whether users find your website to be properly optimized for smartphones and tablets — or it can illustrate something important about user behavior and your buyer's journey so you can adjust your marketing appropriately.
6. Cost-per-conversion (CPC): Also known as cost-per-action, this metric shows how much it costs to get a customer to take a final desired action. You can calculate it by dividing the total ad spending on a campaign by the total number of conversions attributed to that campaign. This is where the rubber meets the road: Sure, your campaign did something — but was it worth it? Did it do enough, and when you compare it to your other efforts, would you run it again?
7. Return on investment (ROI): Finally, ROI is your bottom line when it comes to measuring a marketing effort. Everything needs to come back to what the actual return is for the hours and dollars you put into it. However successful a campaign may appear to be according to any other measure, it needs to be accountable to the revenue it's responsible for generating through effective conversions.
Marketing That Measures Up Is Measurable
Converting leads isn't an exact science — but make no mistake, it is a science. Today, we have far too much ability to measure marketing to think that the art is all that matters. We want our efforts to be successful, to be effective and to have a high return. The way to make sure that they do is to make sure that we are valuing the right metrics of success and to measure, measure, measure.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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a773585f2fb9baea6b92ecaf1d172c29 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/08/21/15-ways-agencies-can-encourage-diversity-in-the-industry/ | 15 Ways Agencies Can Encourage Diversity In The Industry | 15 Ways Agencies Can Encourage Diversity In The Industry
Many companies in the digital advertising and marketing space have taken the first step toward a more diverse workforce and opened up their hiring strategies. However, diversity should exist for more than just its own sake. Agencies that have a diverse workforce have a better opportunity to connect to individuals of different backgrounds.
Agencies and executives need to take the initiative to promote more diversity within the industry, for both the social and economic gain of the field. Below, 15 contributors to Forbes Agency Council look at what changes agencies and executives could make to promote a more diverse advertising industry.
Members explain how agencies can encourage more diversity within their industry. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Start From The Top
Diversity must start from the top. It’s so important that agency leadership and key company decision-makers represent the diversity we look for on our teams, in our work and in the industry at large. Additionally, encouraging open dialogue and having everyone’s voices heard as new talent is hired will help create a domino effect that will ultimately lead to positive, ongoing change. - Jessica Reznick Martin
2. Include Diverse Candidates In Every Round
Diversity needs to start with hiring and end with culture and client base. Every hiring round should include diverse candidates. Agencies need to get out of their own networks and attract diverse talent. On the HR and culture front, D&I needs to be woven into the fabric of the company with the understanding that, as a unit, we are always doing the work to be better and more inclusive. - Evie Smith, Rebellious PR & Consulting
3. Proactively Seek Out Diversity Hires
Agencies need to proactively seek out diversity hires. It's no longer acceptable to say "nobody of color applied" when it's been made blatantly obvious that people of color have not been granted the same opportunities. It becomes the agencies' responsibility to outreach to colleges and others to begin training and educating proactively. - Michael Hubbard, Media Two Interactive
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Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
4. Establish Zero-Tolerance Policies For Discrimination
Diversity for the sake of saying an organization is diverse enables what I refer to as corporate tokenization. It essentially serves as a checkbox that adds little to no meaningful value. Organizations must nurture a corporate culture of inclusiveness by establishing zero-tolerance policies for all forms of discrimination. Then, they must intentionally build diverse teams and executive leadership. - Don Dodds, M16 Marketing
5. Advocate Open Conversations About Diversity
Advocate open conversations about diversity and inclusion, establishing group settings to spark free dialogue and share experiences and perspectives, so that education can be mutual. Include employees of all levels, building a culture of D&I from the ground up rather than the top down. Employees will feel more connected and invested in other D&I initiatives if they truly are part of the conversation. - Maura Smith, pepperjam.com
6. Leverage Technology For Blind Assessments
Unconscious bias is real, but it can be eliminated by technology. We use an AI platform that allows us to evaluate candidate potential based on blind behavioral assessments. Our decisions are not based on names, ages, genders, ethnicities — they are based on real capacities. It’s one important step toward true diversity and inclusion. - Andrew Au, Intercept Group
7. Change The Makeup Of Your Recruiting Team
Change the makeup of your talent acquisition team to include people of color. It's human nature to hire someone who is like you, similar background, similar education, etc. When the talent acquisition team is all white, it's no wonder we get the usual trope of "no one of color applied." - Robert Finlayson
8. Get Actionable Feedback From Diverse Employees
Have a diverse member of your team be the leader of initiatives, not just a participant. Ask diverse members how they define success in D&I in your company/agency. What does success look like to them? Don't thrust your answers or beliefs on them. - Elonide Semmes, Right Hat, LLC
9. Create Support Networks, Industry Communities
One thing that often emerges in conversations on diversity in the workplace is the struggle that underrepresented minorities have in finding role models and mentors with similar life experiences. If agencies do not have enough diverse members in their own ranks to create their own support networks, they should try and establish suitable industry-wide communities for their diverse employees. - Gjoko Muratovski, The Myron E. Ullman, Jr. School of Design
10. Have A Diversity/Inclusion Officer
In today's climate, the need for diversity is paramount. In order to ensure that diversity is met in agencies, the need for a diversity/inclusion officer should be championed. This individual will help develop strategies to ensure hiring practices encourage diversity, while cultivating a work environment and incorporating inclusion initiatives to support diversity. - Michael Broughton, Capital Brand
11. Vet And Hire Outside Recruitment Firms
Agency leaders must first acknowledge the importance of diversity and commit to making it a priority in both hiring practices and work culture. Many agencies leverage outside recruitment firms to manage the bulk of the hiring process. Stop to fully evaluate your recruiting partner’s practices for screening candidates to be sure they reflect your own agency’s diversity and inclusion standards. - Keri Witman, Clever Lucy
12. Remove Ethnicity And Birth Date From Applications
Companies should not include ethnicity and birth date on their application. The most important quality that a candidate should have is their experience. Also, gather feedback from employees, hold trainings and communicate the values of the organization. Be receptive to feedback and listen intently. These are two qualities employees need to feel safe in a company. - Kurt Kaufer, Ad Results Media
13. Adjust Requirements To Widen The Talent Pool
We realized that a college degree requirement reduces the pool of qualified applicants significantly, especially minority candidates. We removed the college degree requirements and found several great minority employees who are as smart as any of our employees and bring a different perspective given their life experience. This approach has made our agency effective overall. - Ajay Prasad, GMR Web Team
14. Recruit From Outside Of Your Discipline
In communications and PR, it's a college major and industry made up of predominantly white females. By continuing to only recruit from within this discipline, we are doing little to increase the qualified pool of diverse candidates. To start, forge relationships with minority groups at universities and show up at diversity events unrelated to your industry. - Lindsey Groepper, BLASTmedia
15. Create Internships And Scholarships
We have identified a few things to help our organization and our industry become more diverse. We are looking at offering scholarships and internships to students interested in market research that will bring diverse opinions to their future companies. Also, we advertise our job openings in nontraditional ways to try and attract candidates that might not be in established networks. - Rebecca Brooks, Alter Agents
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b02488ccefbe69a06064c055f4a8de58 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/09/04/new-marketing-strategies-for-cpg-brands/?sh=5af895c5538f | New Marketing Strategies For CPG Brands | New Marketing Strategies For CPG Brands
CEO of Pluris Marketing and innovator and forward-thinker behind the company's marketing enablement, analytic, and optimization solutions.
getty
So far, 2020 has upended almost every aspect of our lives. We're all wearing masks and avoiding people at socially accepted distances, and by now we all know the drill. But something has happened to CPG (customer packaged goods) brands that no amount of hand sanitizing can erase. Companies that used to confidently own their positions in the consumer marketplace are faced with eroding customer satisfaction, dramatically altered shopping behaviors, diminished employee productivity and supply chain disruption.
The New Normal Of Consumer Shopping
Retail stores and groceries now offer more customer-focused services than ever before. You can get almost anything you want delivered to wherever you are. Craving Mexican at midnight? Just contact Grubhub, DoorDash or Postmates. Need some new pajamas before your next Breaking Bad marathon? Amazon and other online retailers can get them to you before the opening credits of the show.
The pandemic has changed how we interact in the world and that also means shopping. How do you market to target audiences still sheltering at home? How can CPG brands find their customers and provide relevant solutions? These companies will be forced to continually review how they have marketed in the past as well as their messaging and creative executions going forward.
Consumers gravitate toward purpose-driven marketing right now.
The social impact of Covid-19 has leveled the playing field for all of us. As we hear so many times from social and health care brands, "We're all in this together." And while that's true for the most part, there's no denying that some are taking greater risks because they are essential workers or health care providers. Those sheltering in place don't share that same risk, but most are compassionate about the risks that others are taking on their behalf.
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That's partly why right now more people are drawn to purpose-driven marketing. You see it with major CPG brands, such as P&G, financial companies and even automotive brands. There is a sense of compassion and unity that their messaging evokes, and they are building strong brand positioning.
Savvy CPG brands need to fortify their brands as quickly and effectively as possible to withstand the potential economic meltdown and the end of panic-buying everything from toilet paper to liquor.
CPG brands find marketing strength in new partnerships.
Many CPG companies are taking full advantage of our being "in this together" by aligning with other companies to provide timely solutions for customers. Airlines and hotels have been extremely hard hit by the virus effect, but they're gaining some brand points for reaching out to other companies for dual marketing messaging.
Think about United Airlines partnering with Clorox to present clean, safe travel experiences. Hilton has done something similar by partnering with the maker of Lysol and other cleaning products to promote its conscientious approach to worry-free guest experiences. It may take some time for consumers to feel completely free to travel, but these companies are banking on messaging that positions them as leaders in customer safety.
Whatever you do, stay top of mind.
Some companies are adopting a wait-and-see position regarding Covid-age marketing strategies, but this is no time to go off the grid. Consumers are still skittish about entering retail stores, so brands need to focus on their safety and health procedures. In time, I think the message will get through and be remembered when people feel more confident about shopping.
Some brands have gone beyond their typical offerings in order to meet new customer needs. Take Panera restaurants, for example. Not only do they offer more than one contactless method for orders, but they now sell grocery items such as bread, milk and fruit, clearly in an effort to reduce interactions for their customers while increasing sales/service for Panera. Anticipating customer needs and stepping out of the usual product offerings not only increases sales but also strengthens customer loyalty.
Think local; work local.
The effects of the pandemic have emerged differently in different parts of the country. Metropolitan areas have higher virus case statistics and have to manage differently than those in more remote areas. Direct-to-consumer products in quarantined areas require different messaging and offers from those in more remote areas, where customers are able to shop in retail stores.
The concept of projecting messaging based on location is the perfect scenario for digital tactics. The key is to target appropriately and craft messaging that is relevant locally.
No one really knows the trajectory of Covid-19 and its full impact on consumers and CPG brands, but one thing is certain: Anticipating customer needs and delivering helpful solutions will win the day. Consumers need a lifeline, and those brands that can deliver with purpose-driven messaging as well as tangible solutions that go above and beyond typical offerings will position themselves favorably as our new normal continues to evolve.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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f4851cffe824fee6b69a4df090c54ae9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/09/08/walk-the-talk-brands-need-more-than-lip-service-in-2020/?sh=eb53fbf67589 | Walk The Talk: Brands Need More Than Lip Service In 2020 | Walk The Talk: Brands Need More Than Lip Service In 2020
Founder and CEO of Sway Group, an influencer marketing agency in the SF Bay Area.
getty
The novel coronavirus. National and state lockdowns. Black Lives Matter. Police protests. Corporate diversity (or more often, the lack thereof) landing in the spotlight. Suffice to say that 2020 has been through no shortage of major historic events so far, including a growing demand for brands to do more than offer lip service when it comes to their stance on some of the major issues confronting consumers today.
If 2020 is the year of (fill in the blank with your crisis of choice), it's also becoming the year of companies being asked to communicate their ethical positioning — and more importantly, how they actually match their actions to their words.
Not only are brands faced with the ongoing challenge of keeping up with ever-shifting market conditions and consumer buying behaviors, but more and more consumers (particularly Gen Z and millennials) also want to know where brands stand on social issues.
For many consumers, it's not enough for brands to issue a statement, share a hashtag or promote a one-time donation. Many want to know that the brands they support embody a purpose that reflects their own views and principles, and these consumers will reward their loyalty to brands who put action behind their stated values.
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The Power Of Taking A Stand
At my influencer marketing agency, we often help our clients demonstrate their brand activism through influencer outreach. Influencers have the trust and credibility that audiences are drawn to, and can share corporate initiatives within their own like-minded views on social, environmental or political issues.
While influencer campaigns can be an extremely effective way to connect with targeted consumers, many businesses rely on their brand-owned social channels to get the word out. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently announced via Twitter that they have launched Apple's Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, with a $100 million commitment.
What's particularly powerful about Apple's initiative is that it doesn't just pay lip service (or the $100 million) toward the need for making a lasting change: The company followed up with a guide for parents and teachers who are helping students address complex issues surrounding race.
More than ever before, customers expect the companies they buy from to stand up for issues that matter, but corporate social responsibility needs to go beyond statements. Without action, brands run the risk of being perceived as performative — or worse, expressing solidarity while continuing to contribute to systemic inequality.
What's Wrong With Staying Silent?
Brands that opt to stay silent on pressing issues may choose to do so out of the belief that neutrality is the safest route to avoiding criticism. However, silence has been increasingly seen as complicity from cause-focused consumers.
As Aaron Sherinian, CMO and communications officer at the United Nations Foundation, recently told The Drum, "Silence on social issues could be the kiss of death for brands, especially [if you look at] the way that young customers are engaging with them right now. They're going to vote at the cash register...Customers, clients and constituents are not going to read silence anymore as safe. They're going to read silence from brands [and ask]: 'Why weren't you working on it? Why weren't you telling your story? Why weren't you being accountable?'"
Of course, it's not as simple as making a statement and calling it good. Even as more people demand public engagement from businesses on social justice issues, brands must overcome consumer skepticism. One recent survey revealed that four in 10 U.S. consumers say that brands are "trying too hard to appear as if they care about anything beyond sales."
Communicating Real Action (Not Just Lip Service!)
While the Black Lives Matter movement has spurred many brands to chime in with their support, some of the reaction has been less than positive. For some brands, the perception is that their posts have been a calculated response more than a true commitment to purpose-driven company values.
Brands need to go beyond token public statements to sharing what they're doing as a business to implement meaningful change. However, it's critical that any brand-shared statement or declaration of action be authentic. Not only is brand lip service something that consumers see right through these days, but also informed consumers are not hesitant to call out businesses for their past actions that do not align with their statements.
Don't Wait For Consumers To Force Your Hand
In the wake of global sustained protests and movements against racism and prejudice, some consumers have specifically been calling for companies to reveal their commitment to diversity. For example, Uoma Beauty founder Sharon Chuter launched the #PullUpOrShutUp challenge via Instagram, which gave major beauty brands 72 hours to "release the number of black people they have employed in corporate roles, as well as leadership roles."
Other advocates have been asking businesses to get specific about how they're supporting anti-racism causes, down to the dollar amount of donations as well as accountability and transparency around hiring practices and other internal policies.
In other words, brands that choose silence may face getting publicly called out — and brands with statements that feel empty or disingenuous can expect the same.
The Final Word
When it comes to brand responsibility and communicating values, it's no longer enough to put out a social media post and call it a day. Even the most beautifully crafted positioning statement is meaningless when true corporate solidarity isn't happening behind the scenes.
Brands that are making real and lasting commitments to the social issues they support don't need a PR-approved party line to share with consumers. Instead, it's time to show, not just tell, by transcending bland corporate statements with initiatives that demonstrate specifically what brands are doing to walk their talk.
The brands that put action behind their words right now are the ones that stand to build deeper bonds and loyalty among existing consumers, as well as win new business. There's always the risk of alienating consumers who disagree with a stance, but ultimately, brands should be willing to do so in the grander pursuit of doing the right thing.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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9abd40c8c58023724c565edb52b846e1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/09/10/how-to-optimize-your-social-media-marketing-strategy/?sh=68294bf21377 | How To Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Strategy | How To Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
Serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, and founder / CEO of SEO and top 5 digital marketing agency LSEO.
I don't need to tell this audience about the importance of SEO for your business. However, one area of the digital marketing realm that I do feel could use some building up is social media marketing. Social media can accomplish so many things for your business if you leverage it in the right ways.
From building your brand to generating cold, hard sales, social media has a lot going for it. Here are some tips for optimizing your social media marketing strategy.
Establish Goals
Just as in SEO, you will need to know what you want to accomplish from the outset of your social media marketing campaigns. Your goals will determine how you should approach everything going forward.
For instance, your goals might be one or any combination of the following:
• Grow brand awareness.
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• Drive new leads.
• Increase website traffic.
• Make new sales.
• Boost customer relations.
Which goal will be right for your business will depend on where you are in your growth. A new business will probably want to focus first on building brand awareness before devoting too many resources to the other goals.
Once you have a good foothold in that, you will of course want to go after leads and sales, and when you've done that, keeping your social media-based customer relations on track will be vital.
Find Your Audience
Your chances of getting conversions from social media marketing increase with every interaction with a potential or existing customer. Communicating directly with people on social media helps you find and grow your audience. Through that process, you will learn what people want and how you can give it to them.
One way to do it is to take a look at your social media analytics and other data that indicates which types of audiences tend to use which platforms. For instance, slightly more men than women use YouTube, while you will find a much larger female audience on Pinterest. You can then tailor your social media outreach based on who you are targeting.
Knowing your audience will primarily help you accomplish your next goal.
Target Your Content
The numbers and analytics are obviously important parts of the planning stage of your social media marketing strategy. Once you know who you're targeting and what you want them to do, you will need to devise a content strategy that matches that.
Instagram, for instance, is a visual platform used primarily by teenagers and those in their 20s, 30s and 40s. If you want to reach people on Instagram, your content should feature eye-popping visuals that really stick out in a user's feed.
If you struggle with creating visuals, particularly when you need daily content, you may want to make it less challenging by keeping to a theme or series of themes. Those themes could focus on color schemes or certain post types, but the revolving nature of themed posts should keep your content scope from getting out of control.
Whether it's Instagram or any other social platform, your content can take more than one approach. You can convert quite a number of leads with infographics, well-written copy, interactive content, blog posts or professionally shot video. People tend to like content that appeals to emotions, features information in lists or contains a number of images and videos.
Social posts that can be digested quickly while still communicating vital information about your brand are going to be a win basically always. Know your audience, and this part should actually be fun.
Promote Your Content
Your analytics research is done, you know your audience and you've crafted the perfect content. But guess what? So has every other business on social media.
What I'm saying is that you now need to stand out on social media, and you can do that with the right kind of content promotion. Your industry and the type of content you have will determine where you spend money on pay-per-click advertising.
The good news is that you have a ton of options. Facebook ads allow advertisers to get quite granular with audience targeting. You can use all you learned previously about your audience to laser-target your Facebook ads. Some patience and a willingness to learn from mistakes will be required here, but it will likely be worth it to promote your content on the largest social media network in the world.
YouTube and Instagram should be up next for you. Each enjoys huge audiences for whom you can run video ads, as in the case of YouTube, or sponsor a recent post, as with Instagram. PPC advertising obviously costs you money with every click, but you will likely more than make up for what you spend on ads when your social media marketing starts picking up and earning you those elusive conversions.
Conclusion
Winning the social media marketing game is no easy feat, just like SEO. It takes time, research, patience and trial and error to get everything right. Even when you've optimized your campaigns, you must always keep up with audience changes and tweak your advertising accordingly. Social media is a branch of your digital marketing that should never be neglected, but once you have it down, the rewards can be incredible.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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b57fcd2893a7747b3c1b9365dbaa88a7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/09/10/the-2020-guide-to-inbound-marketing-versus-outbound-marketing/ | The 2020 Guide To Inbound Marketing Versus Outbound Marketing | The 2020 Guide To Inbound Marketing Versus Outbound Marketing
HubSpot Platinum Partner helping brands grow faster with predictable and repeatable streams of new leads and customers.
getty
Technology is continuously pushing the marketing industry to new extremes. The old-school marketers watched it happen decades ago with the invention of the telephone, followed by the rise of television and then the complete takeover of the internet. Some would say the last couple of decades have held some of the most memorable advancements in the digital space throughout all of human history.
As the internet evolved to become so deeply integrated into our day-to-day lives, outbound marketers had a field day. They discovered a multitude of new ways to advertise. Those big ideas led to even bigger ideas. Outbound marketing, which was once confined to billboards, TV/radio ads and direct mail, could now be placed directly into the hands of potential customers via their personal devices.
The traditional methods of outbound marketing that once worked so well to capture the attention of audiences and drive traffic to a product or service have lost their effectiveness in recent times. They are now considered too disruptive, invasive or downright annoying. Plus, consumers are finding more ways to easily avoid or block them.
My agency is a HubSpot Platinum Partner that specializes in inbound sales and marketing. I've seen firsthand the impact inbound marketing can have on an organization's marketing initiatives in 2020.
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What Is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing, introduced to the industry back in 2005 by HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, is a collection of digital strategies that focus on bringing the customer to you, instead of you going out to find them. Outbound marketing concentrates all of your efforts on pushing out ads, cold calling and reaching out to inactive customers to see if they’re interested in what you have to offer. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, develops a buzz around your brand so that the customers looking for what you have to offer can easily find it and trust in it enough to make a purchase.
The driving force behind inbound marketing is creating compelling content and positioning that content so that it reaches your target audience and offers value. By developing content that speaks to the interests of your ideal customers, you can organically attract a steady flow of quality leads and nurture them with the proper amount of engagement to convert them into delighted customers.
While outbound marketing tactics attempt to find customers by pushing your message out, inbound marketing strategies home in on messaging that actually brings ideal customers in.
The Advantages of Inbound Marketing Versus Outbound Marketing
Inbound marketing strategies work smarter to align with how customers want to be treated. They conform to the different stages of the buyer’s journey so that you can better understand how to engage with each lead and build stronger, lasting relationships with them. This is only one of the advantages that inbound marketing offers that outbound strategies do not. What else differentiates the two methodologies?
1. The Flywheel Versus The Marketing Funnel
The flywheel paradigm puts customers at the center of your efforts and focuses on improving the customer experience to accelerate the growth of your business.
The marketing funnel is a structure for generating leads and moving them through the sales cycle. It has been used alongside outbound marketing strategies for many years. However, its linear archetype does not take into consideration the way in which consumers shop today.
HubSpot’s flywheel was designed based on the realization that consumers can do their own research before ever even speaking with a representative and, therefore, can enter the sales process at any stage of their buyer’s journey. It also takes into account the modern-day customer’s ability to share their buying experience instantaneously. When you put emphasis on delighting the customer throughout their journey, you help them to become active promoters of your brand and generate more customers.
Inbound marketing goes hand in hand with the flywheel, while outbound strategies fall more in line with the marketing funnel — that is, driving as many leads as possible (no matter the quality) to the top of your funnel, hoping to end up with sales.
2. Permission Versus Interruption
As I mentioned above, outbound marketing can be perceived as disruptive and somewhat annoying. That’s because it is designed to “interrupt” the content that potential customers are viewing in order to gain their attention and speak to their interests. Outbound strategies involve procuring placements for ads on certain mediums and publications that have substantial followings. The hope is that with some strategic planning, some of the viewers will convert into customers.
On the contrary, inbound marketing tactics are permission-based, meaning consumers are already seeking your content or have opted in to receive information from the channels on which your content is published. Strategic content will work to anticipate and answer the questions your potential customers are searching for about your solutions or industry. Keyword targeting leads them straight to your product or service as the best solution.
Permission-based marketing allows you to build trust and offer value to potential customers. Interruption-based marketing is less likely to be effective and has a tendency to work against your efforts by turning the consumer off.
3. Measurable Results
The ability to track and measure your results is a critical aspect of any marketing strategy. Outbound marketing may bring you some quick wins, but those wins are difficult to measure and trace back to a specific tactic or effort. Because of the broad and linear nature of an outbound campaign, there is too much room for error.
Inbound marketing is all digital, which means you can track and measure your efforts to evaluate their effectiveness. Detailed reporting and analysis allow you to assess whether your content is converting leads into customers so that you can continuously optimize and achieve better results.
Takeaways
Outbound marketing is outdated and ineffective. Inbound marketing allows you to generate higher-quality leads, establish longer-lasting relationships with your customers and transform all of your marketing initiatives into momentum-building, customer-converting machines.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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9781a3dcfabd6958c6c4d6b00e38d591 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/09/11/six-ways-to-step-up-your-marketing-in-2021/ | Six Ways To Step Up Your Marketing In 2021 | Six Ways To Step Up Your Marketing In 2021
CTO at Zero Gravity Marketing, a full-service, industry-leading digital marketing agency.
getty
At my company, we're certainly no strangers to how technological changes impact buyers' decisions. We’ve seen digital marketing connect to buyers in new ways thanks to advances in tech. However, this year has been particularly interesting. So far, 2020 has changed the way businesses operate. This year has introduced an entirely new world of thinking when it comes to working remotely, attracting audiences and engaging with customers.
Of course, things will eventually go back to normal — or, more likely, a new normal — but that doesn't mean you should set your content strategy goals aside for the time being and wait for something great to happen. Now is the time to tackle the rest of this year and get your 2021 strategy in place. My team and I have thought about approaches to strategy for the upcoming year and put together a few ways for you to create your own approach.
1. Start Selling Your Products And Services Early
A magic button isn’t going to bring more people to your storefront on January 1, 2021. You need to be working toward your goals long before the new year arrives. While you might have different strategies for 2021, the foundation of your marketing practices should build upon existing trials and errors. Start planning your sales, campaigns and social posts now so you can be ready to hit the ground running when the calendar pages flip over.
2. Understand The Need For E-Commerce
It's no secret that e-commerce businesses have seen an influx in traffic — even as many other types of organizations have taken huge hits to their bottom line. If one thing remains almost certain in our new normal, it's that people are more likely to continue to purchase goods and services online even after public areas have opened.
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For a marketer, it's in your best interest to set up an e-commerce shop on your website so your customers can easily access your products and services when browsing online. When you put the power of search engine optimization (SEO) into your company's campaigns, your audience will soon follow. Your job is to make the purchasing experience as simple as possible for them once they arrive.
3. Embrace The Power Of Nonlinear Journeys
Digital channels are becoming savvier, which means the days of linear click paths — or those situations in which a customer would see an ad and head to the store to buy that product — are long gone.
Today's consumers are being offered ads that fit exactly what they're looking for. This is because the algorithms of current technology understand when they're searching for camping gear, apartments near a certain area code, or anything else they might need or want. The internet isn't a mind reader; it simply harnesses the power of data to unlock the mysteries of your customers' thoughts and behaviors.
In 2021, I see nonlinear journeys continuing to go well beyond social media, incorporating traditional TV and radio advertisements alongside ads on voice-driven devices. To stay on top of the game, you should embrace the power of nonlinear journeys and everything that comes with them.
4. Include Marketing Automation
You might have already incorporated marketing automation into your company's strategy. If you did, that's good on you because the coming year will bring even more technologies to which organizations will need to adapt. New tools will enable better personalization and customization of advertising, allowing you to speak to a prospect's interests or actions using cost-effective yet highly strategic and targeted messaging. A 2017 study conducted by Salesforce indicated that 67% of successful marketers were using a marketing automation platform, while another 21% planned to use one in the coming years.
5. Employ Google Tag Manager
Google is renowned for offering free tools that help marketers make the most of their efforts, and Google Tag Manager is the next thing to hop on that bandwagon. With Google Tag Manager, you can leave your developers alone to do what they do best while still getting your hands on the data that will matter most to your team. Tag Manager integrates with Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Business Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager and a ton of other third-party advertising platforms where you can share the wealth of knowledge that your company has to offer.
6. Create Content For Humans
Once upon a time, the search engines looked for exact keywords and phrases, which often meant that the content produced for websites was bland and hard to follow. Key phrases often missed prepositions or placed words that didn't flow to human readers. Thankfully, those days are gone. Today's search engines are smart enough to understand what searchers are looking for, and they can gather context clues from your writing even if you insert a preposition into a key phrase. In other words, write for humans, not bots.
With 2021 just around the corner, now is a great time to build your marketing strategy. If you're struggling to get your strategy on point, try the suggestions on this list. However you prepare for the upcoming year, remember the changes 2020 has brought and the new normal emerging as a result.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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b6c0431f25bf5c74cc2ac0ca9aa66e4d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/09/21/the-role-of-emotions-in-uxui-understanding-emotional-design/?sh=56bc4d7825be | The Role Of Emotions In UX/UI: Understanding Emotional Design | The Role Of Emotions In UX/UI: Understanding Emotional Design
Partner and President at E-Cubed Media Synthesis Inc.
getty
Humans are rational beings. But we are also driven by emotions. How many times have you picked up a bag of chips or a chocolate bar at the convenience store just because they looked appealing? It is not just physical products that can make us feel a certain way. It can happen in the digital world, too.
What is emotional design in websites and apps?
Emotions are how humans make sense of the reality around them. Instinctively, we tend to repeat positive experiences, because they make us feel good, and avoid negative ones. Our brains are wired to learn from negative experiences to keep us from repeating our mistakes.
In other words, emotional design is how a certain digital product makes users feel. It can drastically impact the success of an app or a website, and hence directly impact an enterprise's bottom line. Don Norman, a contemporary design visionary, in his book Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things breaks down people's emotional responses into three stages:
• Visceral: This is the most basic level of emotional response, what you would call "first impressions." Good UX design is one that makes users feel good or excited right off the bat.
• Behavioral: At the behavioral level, users evaluate the functionality of your product. They subconsciously gauge how easy it is to find solutions they are looking for. In visual design, that could mean how cluttered or uncluttered your interface looks. Ease of use translates to positive emotions.
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• Reflective: This is the highest cognitive level, where users consciously weigh the pros and cons of a product. It is at the reflective level that we form the overall impression of a design.
No level is more important than the other. In fact, very often, the reflective level can undermine the initial reaction to an app or a website. As a UX designer, you need to satisfy all three cognitive levels in order to form an emotional, long-lasting bond with your audience.
How do you use emotional design in UX/UI?
Humor is the most obvious way to strike a bond with your users. ASOS and Dollar Shave Club do it pretty well on their product pages. Loading screen pages and error pages are prime real estate for injecting humor into your visual design. Make sure you keep your audience in mind, though. You don't want to come across as distasteful or annoying.
Here are some other ways to apply emotional design to your website or a mobile app:
Use microgestures to establish a connection.
Apple's screen shake for incorrect passwords is one of the best examples of micro-gestures that help establish a connection with users. It mimics humans' shake of the head to refuse something. The use of emojis and sounds is another way to make your app more personable. Facebook Messenger does it with sounds for certain emoticons.
A sliding meter for user feedback with animated emoticons is another example of including micro-gestures in your UX. Calm, a breathing app, is another example that incorporates microgestures to mimic humans. The brand's UI has a balloon that inflates and deflates to guide users' breathing rates.
Make bad experiences more tolerable.
Google Chrome has the dinosaur game to keep users engaged when their internet connection is interrupted. It is an example of creating a positive experience out of a negative one. Offering your users small rewards on 404 pages is another way to alleviate negative experiences. The reward could be as simple as a free e-book on a topic of your domain expertise.
Use microcopy to be more relatable.
Mailchimp is one of the best examples of brands that use microcopy to engage users. Your welcome screens, contact forms, search bars and even 404 error messages are all opportunities to infuse some personality in your brand with microcopy. Grammarly, Airbnb, and Dollar Shave Club are some brands you can look to for inspiration on contextual, relatable microcopy.
Personalize the experience.
Take a cue from the mindfulness app MyLife by Stop, Breathe & Think. The mobile app's welcome screen checks with the user on how they are feeling. Based on the user's response, it delivers personalized, guided meditations. You can apply the same principle to your website, showing users content based on their browsing behavior and past engagement patterns. Some of the biggest brands, such as Netflix and Amazon, use personalization to create positive, memorable experiences for users.
However, make sure you have a solid foundation first.
In his book Designing for Emotion, Aarron Walter argues that user expectations from a product (including digital products such as websites) can be seen as a four-tier pyramid. Starting from the bottom, Walter's pyramid for user expectations is how functional, reliable, usable and pleasurable a product is.
Based on these elements, I recommend you begin by asking yourself the following questions:
• Functionality: How well does the product work? Make sure you design something that solves your users' pain points.
• Reliability: How reliable is the product in delivering its functions? Consistency is your best friend here. Stick to web design conventions, and avoid making drastic changes to your UI too often.
• Usability: How easy is it to use the product? Test your website or app across devices and user groups to make sure it passes the usability test.
• "Pleasurability" (or emotional response): How does it make the users feel? This is where the tiny details, such as smart microcopy, complete the picture.
If your foundation is weak, even the cleverest emotional design won’t stick with users.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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b294e0a5b704ba4719f59b39f2b12b45 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/09/30/streaming-into-a-diverse-entertainment-future/ | Streaming Into A Diverse Entertainment Future | Streaming Into A Diverse Entertainment Future
President & CEO of Pinta, multicultural marketing firm with clients such as Carnival, Dr. Seuss, Heineken, Microsoft, NFL Tecate & T-Mobile.
getty
One of the most ubiquitous trends at the intersection of media, entertainment and technology is content streaming. It's no secret that "over-the-top" services, also known as OTT, have been moving in a diametrically opposed direction to traditional media. As print newspapers and broadcast networks experience precipitous declines, streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and others are enjoying exponential growth.
There's a famous saying that goes something like "never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel," which refers to the immense power of reporters and publishers. Today, the more accurate refrain might be "never compete with someone who has low-cost structure, unlimited inventory and provides consumers with total flexibility." Interestingly, this trend is even more prevalent in the U.S. Hispanic market, where Latinos are over-indexing on all things digital.
According to a 2018 Nielsen research study, 52% of Latinos spend at least one hour per day on social media, compared to only 38% of non-Hispanic whites; and 24% of Latinos spend three or more hours per day on social, as compared to 13% for the broader general market. Furthermore, Latinos share social content at a rate five times greater than the general market. And this is not limited to younger generations, as Latinos older than 50 over-index the general market by 36% on owning several electronic gadgets.
According to a separate 2020 study by digital media firm H Code, 85% of Latinos listen to digital audio content and 90% stream music. Clearly the trendlines point to a bright future for technology companies engaging this captive and growing audience.
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There are several platforms that have noticed and capitalized. Telemundo, owned by Comcast NBCUniversal, has a long history of competing in open-air broadcast with its flagship network, as well as a series of cable offerings. More recently, it's begun winning big in streaming, with its own app Telemundo Deportes en Vivo, which offered over 1,500 hours of content for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and helped it break Spanish-language streaming records.
Combate Americas, a mixed-martial-arts league focused entirely on Latinos, has experienced great streaming success and generated millions of viewers for prelims, weigh-ins and post-fight commentary through Facebook Watch. (Full disclosure: Combate is a client of my marketing agency).
Lastly, Fanatiz is an OTT subscription service that carries exclusive streaming and on-demand rights for many soccer leagues across the globe, including fan-favorite LaLiga, and last year secured $10 million in Series A funding.
Given the data and thriving streaming platforms available, there are many opportunities for brands and agencies to capitalize on these trends:
• Advertise on them. Some OTT services are purely subscriber-based, but others are advertiser-friendly and allow brands to leverage their platforms to capture a truly engaged audience.
• Partner with them. In other cases, content creators now have an entirely separate revenue stream to exploit. Brands that create ownable content, or media companies that previously only had linear distribution, can now explore OTT companies as a second or third home for their intellectual property.
• Think like them. Most importantly, every business generation is defined by its most disruptive segments. The advent of radio embattled print newspapers; television replaced radio in the driver's seat; cable threatened the three broadcast networks; and ultimately online media took its pound of flesh. Streaming appears to be the new wave of innovation that others would be wise to learn from.
According to an ancient Chinese proverb, "many a false step was made by standing still." Legacy media and entertainment companies would be wise to heed this advice, and rapidly pivot to a world streaming into this diverse future.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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9508c83f907e34cd2cc3f9cb9bf7dc77 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/01/14-innovative-ways-to-win-over-new-customers-with-content-marketing/ | 14 Innovative Ways To Win Over New Customers With Content Marketing | 14 Innovative Ways To Win Over New Customers With Content Marketing
By now, the evidence is clear: Compelling content is a crucial part of any marketing strategy. Sharing valuable content that your target audience craves boosts the chances of new customers finding your company organically as they search online for the information they need before making a purchase. However, there’s more to content marketing than posting frequently to social media. You can win their business if you can show how your offerings will serve their needs better than your competition’s can.
Grabbing consumers’ attention with content that then tempts them to look further into your company’s product or service takes some finesse. To help you develop a plan that ensures your content will stand out above that of others in your industry, we asked 14 members of Forbes Agency Council to share innovative strategies for bringing in customers through content marketing. Read their expert suggestions below.
Forbes Agency Council members offer strategies for attracting customers through content marketing. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Hyper-Define Your Target Audience
First, hyper-define your target audience. Then, create hyper-curated content for that audience segment. Generic messaging and generic content targeted at a large pool of customers will not lead to results. When creating content, the more focused the messaging, the better the results will be. Create a funnel specific to your audience segment, from top-of-funnel ads to landing page copy to email campaigns. - Krishan Arora, The Arora Project
2. Get Into The Mindset Of Your Audience
It's never about you; it’s all about your audience! Get into the mindset of your audience. What do they value? Who are their enemies? What do they need to know to get closer to getting what they want? Having trouble articulating the above? Speak to your customers and audience and ask them directly. Posting polls, taking surveys and sharing open questions via social media are great ways to elicit values and pain points. - Dee Deng, Right Hook Digital
3. Focus On The Human Element
People work with people. People buy from people. Yes, technology, process, features and benefits are all major parts of the mix, but businesses that truly stand out do an incredible job of connecting with people. Break away from stuffy marketing and tell stories from the perspective of the people that run your organization as well as those that your organization serves. Watch what happens. - Tyler Farnsworth, August United
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4. Create A Topical Pillar Page
Create a topical, long-scrolling pillar page on your website, grouping various content pieces related to the same theme. Add short descriptions of each and call-to-action buttons to “Read more.” By linking related topics, you'll not only help prospects find the information they need along the buyer's journey, but you'll also perform better with search engines by demonstrating your expertise in the subject. - Wendy Covey, TREW Marketing
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Mix In High-Level Marketing Language
My strategy is oriented a bit differently than that of most of the digital agencies. We have mixed our content for both sides: digital marketers and people who are business-strategy-oriented. We notice that talking in high-level marketing language is much more valuable in acquiring customers than being viewed as a technical adviser. - Nikolay Stoyanov, Influence Vibes
6. Qualify Leads By Educating Readers
Content should always educate the reader and drive them one step (or several steps) up the customer journey to your solution. Truly educate your users and tell them exactly when this is the solution and when it’s not; this is called demarketing, and it helps qualify your leads. Then, tell them exactly what to do to take the next step and what the benefits are by ending with "Call us" or "Book an appointment." - Timon Hartung, True Impact Consulting
7. Take A Performance-PR Approach
At our company, we take a performance-PR approach. Before we even begin a PR campaign, we analyze current sentiment, topics of conversation and opportunities around those conversations. We then optimize our media outreach strategy to align with topics that we want to rank for through search, and we find outlets that have a high domain authority so that we can increase our search opportunities. - Abbi Whitaker, The Abbi Agency
8. Write ‘Skyscraper’ Content
We've found that writing “skyscraper” (highly researched, long-form) pages on a value term, supported by user FAQs, has been great for our client rankings. Creating an informative, long-form page of content with a minimum of 1,500 to 3,000 words has been ideal for highly valued terms like "car accident lawyer" or "tort." - Alex Valencia, We Do Web Content
9. Optimize Content For The Human Mind
We spend so much time as an industry talking about how to optimize content marketing from a tool perspective—the best time of day to post or the optimal word count for Instagram versus Facebook versus LinkedIn, for example. However, it is when we optimize content for the human mind, and further still, for how the unconscious mind makes decisions, that we measure the most lift because our message is more intuitively appealing. - Elizabeth Edwards, Volume PR & Engagement Science Lab
10. Target Keywords That Are Driving Traffic
Target keywords that are already driving traffic to the top pages in Google's organic search results. You should target a primary keyword for each content piece. Beyond that, though, be sure to confirm what's already ranking on page one of Google’s search results, and then confirm the ecosystem of keywords that are driving traffic to those pages. Incorporate some of those keywords to improve your organic performance. - Tom Shapiro, Stratabeat
11. Carefully Craft A User Interface
Experience combined with a carefully crafted user interface is typically the missing puzzle piece in content strategy. Content only works well if it is developed to complement the experience, is presented contextually and contains the brand's story. Content strategy needs to work hand in hand with visual storytelling and brand narrative to connect consumers and create impact. - Goran Paun, ArtVersion
12. Drop Your Competitors' Names
Drop your competitors' names into your owned content pieces. It may sound counterintuitive, but mentioning companies or brands that your target customers are already looking for is one way to optimize your content based on keywords related to your business or product. - Carm Lyman, Lyman Agency
13. Utilize Paid Content Distribution
One innovative strategy to attract potential customers is utilizing paid content distribution. Focus on distributing quality content across social media channels and search engines such as Google to attract qualified potential customers and increase revenue. - Jonathan Durante, Expandify Marketing Inc
14. Curate Content From Trusted Sources
Don't just share your own content. You should also curate content from trusted sources that are related to your areas of expertise. By curating and sharing, you can further showcase your desire to deliver value to your audience and grow trust. Curation also leads to great ideas for original content, and it creates more reasons for people to come back to your brand time and again. - Amith Nagarajan, rasa.io
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b06af02802c220f5951ff356765b7dbc | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/06/the-disruption-era-the-future-of-coworking/?sh=36c160443850 | The Disruption Era: The Future Of Coworking | The Disruption Era: The Future Of Coworking
Yanie Durocher; founder of POMPOM Creative focused on lifestyle brands for China's marketplace for PR/Social/Content. IG @YanieYanson
The pandemic was a total unforeseen surprise, taking us unprepared to face what was about to come. Here one of the biggest world shifts happened: We started working from home.
The concept of remote working isn't new. Still, even though some people were already used to a home office, most weren't. Living rooms became the new workspaces, dining tables became the new desks, pajamas became the new suits while Zoom and Tencent became the new conference rooms.
Companies are slowly beginning to think about how they are going to reopen and while some companies are sticking to the work from home model for the foreseeable future. However, working 100% remotely seems unlikely, since human connection is one of our most important needs, along with safety according to Buffer.
My firm is based in China, and from my perspective, China took a commanding role in the global business disruption, but are we ready for what's coming?
Shifting To Shared Areas
Coworking spaces are becoming fast-growing realities, and China is the leader in the shared economy movement, from Mobike, Didi, Mobile Chargers, PingDuoDuo and so on. The speech of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang calling for "mass entrepreneurship" in 2015, probably contributed in the rising of startups in China, which created a steady demand for flexible small-office spaces, making the Chinese coworking culture grow quickly over the last years.
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Open offices were about to turn into normality even in the rest of the world, as Covid-19 accelerated remote working. Covid-19 just accelerated this progress. Still, many of us don't like them.
So, Why Do We Still Need Offices?
Before the pandemic, millions of people worked in offices on a daily basis. Yet things have changed. New platforms allow us to access almost all the tools we need as well as to work remotely through different-time-zoned teams.
Some say it's because of the human need for connection that offices are a physical manifestation of the company and the brands' embodiment. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, 20% to 30% of the working population is already engaging in some form of independent work. Besides, having no (or less) offices can help save a lot of money.
What The Pandemic Has Taught Us
Data encouraging remote working has been going around for years. Nine-month research from Stanford showed remote workers are 13% more productive, along with a recent Gartner study (March 2020), which suggested that 74% of CFOs "plan to permanently shift to more remote work post Covid-19."
In September 2020, M Moser, one of the leading architecture firms for office space creation in APAC, announced during the exhibition launch of Shanghai Smart Technology at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC), that shared areas should be a definitive solution, but we need to rethink the spaces for an innovation culture, designed to meet everyone's needs via diverse departments. The time when we all do the same things has come to an end: More than ever, the demand for a new ecosystem is increasing.
If there's one thing that the pandemic taught us, is that we all need to be part of a community where one of the main human needs is connection and belonging.
Coworking spaces are incredibly valuable for community building, as they can host networking events and workshops, and provide an area for people to meet and brainstorm. At the Material Experience Centre (MEC) in Santoni's facility based in China, one of the companies my agency is collaborating with, 70% of its office space is open floor. People can network and attend events dedicated to leadership, diversity and advocacy, bringing different industry professionals together who have the same aim of developing innovative textiles.
What Will The New Workplace Will Look Like?
Indeed, technology is unquestionably going to be a crucial point. A short report from CBInsights shows the "office of the future" will probably have voice tech systems to avoid touching, as well as autonomous cleaning solutions; air-improving systems to make us more productive; sensors to count people in rooms, along with a wellness check at the entry.
One other important point is sustainability.
Since workers spend most of their time indoors, it's crucial to make that environment livable and sustainable. According to Accenture, just 11% of the employees are completely satisfied with their workspace.
Also, many governmental initiatives plan to cut carbon footprints down by developing nearly zero-energy consumption buildings. Some companies also have come up with different solutions to reduce energy usage, such as solar panels, systems that use rain or water energy as well as some innovative solutions like converting workers' footsteps into data and energy.
According to the global coworking community GCUC, while the U.S. and Europe are expected to grow slowly, China is catching up fast and is expected to step over within the next few years, as the global number of coworking spaces increases by over one-third by 2022.
Like any big step out of the past, we have to be aware that things are going to change and be ready to ride the wave of an inevitable global upgrade.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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e0134f9931938915e8619a08a64d9794 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/08/11-clever-ways-to-capitalize-on-the-popularity-of-short-video-platforms/ | 11 Clever Ways To Capitalize On The Popularity Of Short-Video Platforms | 11 Clever Ways To Capitalize On The Popularity Of Short-Video Platforms
As attention spans grow shorter, social media users will often bypass longer, three-minute video ads in favor of microvideos that are less than a minute long. Instagram and TikTok have helped the microvideo trend explode, but how can marketers capitalize on the popularity of these platforms to boost brand awareness and sales?
Using these new tools to reach younger demographics isn't as complicated as you might think. Below, 11 members of Forbes Agency Council look at potential ways marketers can tap into the popularity of very short videos on social media feeds to expand their brand’s reach.
Members give tips on using platforms for very short videos for marketing. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Bring Hashtag Campaigns To Life
These platforms are perfect to launch marketing campaigns that mobilize users by making them feel like a part of something big—think #ShareaCoke campaign with an upgrade. If done right, they can one-up hashtag campaigns by bringing them to life. They also give brands the opportunity to target regional niches through local influencers. - Osama Khabab, MotionCue
2. Develop A Platform-Specific Strategy
Develop a platform-specific strategy. User-generated content works because of its authenticity. By definition, it is created and uploaded by a “user.” Brands can either collaborate with a creator or be their own creator. The content can't just be retrofitted, existing advertising; it needs to be authentic, not overly produced and feel organic. - Marc Becker, The Tangent Agency
3. Post User-Generated Videos
Posting user-generated videos on social media platforms gives your audience the opportunity to interact directly with your staff and get a better understanding of who the people are. TikTok and Instagram Reels give you the chance to respond directly, and with your face, which makes the interaction more personal and gives your audience a better understanding of what makes your staff stand out. - Katie Schibler Conn, KSA Marketing
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4. Keep Up To Date With Trending Content
The trend toward short, digestible video content means that content is easier to create and share than ever before. Marketers now have access to target audiences that allows them to engage instantly at little or no cost. Marketers need to stay in the know with trending content so that they can create relevant videos that engage audiences while these trends are at the peak of their popularity. - Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Create A Platform-Appropriate Format
For professional services, viral trends can be tricky to navigate. Put your focus on creating a platform-appropriate format to deliver your content, not on creating content specifically for these platforms. Use Instagram Reels to tease long-format content that appeals to your target audience. If you're a realtor, film a TikTok dance in a new listing that has a 3D-tour available on your website. - Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
6. Partner With Influencers
Partner with influencers who have mastered the medium to boost awareness and drive action with fun, attention-grabbing content. We’ve seen great success with both before-and-after and how-to videos centered around fashion inspiration, makeup tutorials, food prep and recipe content, home makeovers, workouts and more. Truly, the sky’s the limit when the alignment between brand and influencer is a strong, organic fit. - Danielle Wiley, Sway Group
7. Leverage Artificial-Intelligence And Machine-Learning Tools
There are some new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools that create short video output. One type takes long videos and cuts them into bite-sized pieces for posts. Another type takes text content and creates short videos for social posts. User-generated content might be free from intellectual property restrictions, so you can also repurpose parts of it that work for your brand. - Jim Caruso, M1PR, Inc. d/b/a MediaFirst PR - Atlanta
8. Tap Into Your Humorous Side
Marketers can capitalize on short-form video content platforms such as TikTok by tapping into their entertaining, humorous and experimental side. TikTok is the perfect place to experiment with content you wouldn't normally post on behalf of your brand. - Garrett Atkins, VIE Media
9. Show The Lifestyle Behind The Brand
Instagram Reels and TikTok need quick, 15-second, compelling videos that provide entertainment, education and humor. The audiences need to see a lifestyle behind your brand through your Reels and TikTok videos. The forum is excellent to let your customers get to know you and feel a personal connection to your story and brand. - Sherri Nourse, Ambition Media
10. Encourage Your Teams To Participate
Encourage your teams to participate in trending TikTok content and give it your own company spin. Include the products you sell, services you provide and, if it applies, even the uniforms your team wears. Give your team the freedom to add their own flavor and permission to tag your company in their videos. This lets you show off the personalities that make your brand what it is. - Bernard May, National Positions
11. Use Them If You're Getting A Good Cost Per Acquisition
If you're getting a good cost per acquisition, use them. The medium doesn't matter; the message does. If you're chasing likes and vanity metrics, your strategy changes. But if you're trying to drive revenue and purchases, the medium doesn't matter. Perceived value and high-quality creative do, just as they always have. - Josh Sample, Drive Social Media Saint Louis
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c6f89cc2111edc5ebcd1511bd4efb40e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/08/digital-marketing-best-practices-for-startups/ | Digital Marketing Best Practices For Startups | Digital Marketing Best Practices For Startups
Mandeep Singh is the Founder of SEO Discovery. He helps businesses with 360 Digital Marketing Services.
getty
New and innovative brands are launching every day, but the path of success isn't easy for them because of the rapidly growing competition. Not every new startup can plan for full-fledged marketing (above the line and below the line) as it often requires a significant investment. Startups often have limited budgets, which means they have to make the most of their money to market themselves and generate revenue.
That's why digital marketing has become such a savior for many startups. Digital marketing allows startups to reach audiences at a much lower cost than traditional marketing. Here are some of the advantages of digital marketing for startups:
• Exponential reach
• Precise targeting
• The ability to establish brand awareness across channels
• Greater visibility
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• Better tracking (everything is trackable)
• The ability to generate sales/leads at a lower cost
• Access to real-time data
Although many startups have adopted digital marketing, it's important to develop your own strategy if you want the best results. Drawing on my experience as the founder of a digital marketing company, I've compiled some best practices for promoting your company across digital channels.
Select The Right Channels
There are many facets of digital marketing, and finding the right channels is crucial for meeting your business goals. Your marketing mix can include the following channels:
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Pay-per-click (PPC)
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Influencer marketing
The selection of channels depends upon your target audience, your location and your business goals.
One of the best ways to start is by looking at your competitors. There are some good tools like SEMrush, SpyFu, SimilarWeb and Ahrefs that can help you see what's working for your competitors. Once you know what marketing channels they're using, start with test campaigns to determine the engagement you get for each channel. Messaging is also an important element in marketing, so try A/B testing with your messaging to see what resonates with your target audience.
Focus On SEO
Whether you are a service-based company or a product-based company, your customers' journey often starts from search results. Your potential customers are probably looking for similar services/products on search engines; therefore, it's critical to have top rankings in search results. If your website is optimized for search results, you can get relevant traffic (i.e., people with the right intent) to your website organically.
You can boost your search engine rankings with the following do-it-yourself SEO techniques:
• Search for profitable keywords. There are many tools (free and paid) that can help you find the best keywords for your business. Google Keyword Planner is one example.
• Optimize your meta tags. Well-written meta tags (title and description) will not only help you build keyword relevancy, but they also can help you improve your click-through rate in search results.
• Optimize your content. Include targeted keywords in your content. Add more content pages on your site, and use long-tail keywords as such keywords are easier to rank for then more competitive ones.
• Build backlinks. Backlinks are still an important factor in improving rankings. Getting quality links from relevant and high-authority websites can help boost your search engine rankings. See where your competitors have backlinks (using tools like Ahrefs and Majestic) and try getting similar links.
Optimize For Mobile
Smartphone usage is on the rise. The number of smartphone users in the United States is predicted to exceed 290 million by 2024, according to Statista. Subsequently, businesses are getting a lot of traffic from mobile devices, and consumers' journeys often start there. As a result, Google has started using the mobile version of websites for indexing and ranking.
I believe it's time for micro-moment marketing. Micro-moments are small, intent-rich moments when people turn to their mobile device to discover something, to get DIY tips or to buy something online. We call people in these scenarios "in-market audiences," and you can target them on Google and partner networks. Run hyperfocused campaigns to show your ads to people who are in your market looking for products/services similar to yours. For instance, if a person is looking for the best mountain bikes on Google, a bike brand can show them a banner ad when they are reading through a blog post during a break.
Final Thoughts
In this day and age, when your audience is scattered across many different digital channels, it's essential to have an omnichannel approach. There are so many channels out there, so test them out and see what works best for your business.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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c06739f2a509b4b80041da5aa6ae2ebc | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/09/13-ways-to-leverage-the-trust-building-power-of-company-and-personal-accolades/ | 13 Ways To Leverage The Trust-Building Power Of Company And Personal Accolades | 13 Ways To Leverage The Trust-Building Power Of Company And Personal Accolades
Having the hard work that you and your company do acknowledged feels great. What’s more, testimonials, awards, honors and other forms of recognition you receive provide opportunities to build credibility and trust with both current and potential customers.
You can proclaim your value proposition in emails, ads and owned media, but leads will find few things more persuasive than the praise of happy consumers or recognition from industry leaders and peers. Here, 13 members of Forbes Agency Council look at ways of leveraging accolades to maintain customer loyalty while winning new business.
Members explore the best ways to leverage company and personal accolades. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Activate A ‘Hype’ Team Of Loyal Fans
Activate a “hype” team of loyal fans by making it easy for them to share the news for you. It’s always most impactful when accolades are delivered for you, not by you. First, educate them on who must learn about the honors. Then, make it as easy as possible by providing links, artwork and content. Always remind them how valuable their support is to you, both personally and professionally. Also, return the favor! - Stephen Rosa, (add)ventures
2. Utilize Recognition In Your Content Marketing Strategy
When we receive an award, we think through how we are sharing it on our blog and in our email newsletter, how we will be mentioning it in our next webinar and other ways of integrating it. Get the most mileage out of recognition by incorporating it into your other content marketing initiatives. - Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co.
3. Tell The Story Behind The Award
The biggest thing most agency owners miss is the story behind the award. Don’t just publish that it happened. Show how you got there, how the client got there, who was involved and what the process was like. The best way to build street credibility is to tell the story in a way that prospects can relate to and understand. It didn’t just appear on your doorstep. Show how it got there. - Paul E. Benninghove, Pavone Marketing Group
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4. Use Authentic And Specific Messaging
Prospects are looking for guidance. If you’re an award-winning agency, don’t limit yourself with generic messaging. Reemphasize what makes you the ideal partner, whether it be data-driven initiatives, white-glove support or deep knowledge of a vertical. “Award-winning” is a buzzword; make the honor truly impactful for your business by being authentic and specific. - Sarah Bird, Moz
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Create A System For Collecting Video Testimonials
Simply put, more trust equals more profitability. However, here’s the thing: When it comes to direct-to-consumer selling, there is a lot of mistrust, and many consumers do not know which company to turn to when it comes to purchasing a product. Here’s what you can do: Develop a system for having your customers create video testimonials after purchasing. Then, strategically place them on your social media and website. - Justin Richard, Loyal Pandas
6. Use Accolades For Recruiting And Employee Retention
Recruiting and employee retention are among the most powerful and underutilized benefits of sharing recognition. Of course, every company should include awards and client accolades in their outreach and inbound efforts, but high-achieving employees (current and prospective) are the ones who want to work with best-in-class companies. Whether it is an industry award or a workplace award, make sure your employees know about it! - Simms Jenkins, BrightWave - North America’s Leading Email Marketing Agency
7. Show How The Recognition Is Tied To Solving A Problem
We are all in the business of solving problems. Demonstrate how the recognition you received is directly tied to solving a specific problem. More than just the testimonial, share the backstory. What problem were you able to solve? And what was the impact? If you’ve been recognized for innovation, what problem does the innovation solve? Show how your recognition is really a benefit to your clients. - Lori Paikin, NaviStone®
8. Let Your Clients Shine
Creative awards are a team effort between agency and client, and they can strengthen relationships and goodwill. Make sure to let the clients shine when awards come in; after all, they made a winning decision in choosing to work with you, and ideally, the awards will validate that decision and keep the work coming. - Scott Kellner, GPJ Experience Marketing
9. Highlight Benefits For The Client
I’ve found the best way to make the most of an award or accolade is to highlight how it benefited the client, putting the client first and your company in a secondary role that supports the overall narrative. This reinforces your company’s client-first philosophy while building trust and credibility at the same time. - Ajay Gupta, Stirista
10. Post About The Recognition Everywhere
Post about it everywhere the morning after. Add the new quotes or updates to correspondence and digital platforms. Run ads about it. Use it as an excuse to thank customers and employees to increase loyalty and raise morale. Use it as an excuse for a new offer. - Abigail Hirschhorn, Human Intelligence | H.I.
11. Show Others How To Succeed
It’s completely acceptable to showcase awards throughout your marketing game plan, whether it be via blogs, ads or social posts. But one key to setting yourself apart is to show others how to achieve the same result. Don’t just write a blog post boasting about your award; that’s tacky. Instead, write a post where you lay out a roadmap to show how others can achieve the same success. - Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH
12. Add The Award Logo To Your Email Signature
I recommend placing the award logo or badge in your email signature with a link to content that explains why you or your company received the honor. And always announce any important awards or recognition on your blog or with a press release. Then, socialize that content across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and any other channels where your customers and target customers spend time. - Paula Chiocchi, Outward Media, Inc.
13. Include The Accolade In Directories, Profiles And Bios
While it is useful to share the accolade on social media and express personal pride in the recognition, don’t forget to include it in online directories, business profiles and bios on social media. This makes it a permanent fixture when prospects research you or your company. - Stefan Pollack, The Pollack Group
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929348b3c5c74f209d23eee9ff6288d1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/12/digital-marketing-tactics-all-businesses-should-use/?sh=2e0842d42f7e | Digital Marketing Tactics All Businesses Should Use | Digital Marketing Tactics All Businesses Should Use
Zohaib Hassan is the CEO/Founder of SnapWeb Services, an ROI driven, data-obsessed full-services digital marketing agency.
getty
If you're a business owner, people have probably been talking to you about digital marketing for ages — whether it's a well-meaning friend or an ad agency on the prowl, you've heard endless suggestions on everything from SEO to PPC and every other three-letter acronym. And all that was in a pre-pandemic world. The sudden, jarring shift to an audience more frequently online will leave behind many lasting effects on how businesses reach their target audience.
In a post-pandemic world, 56% of business leaders that utilize digital tools report that at least half of their sales occur online. While many businesses plan on decreasing spend, depending on the channel anywhere from 40-59% of large national brands intend to increase their ad spends across digital channels. That's just the big guys.
But with all the financial stress facing small business owners, you may be worried about adding yet another cost to your budget. And marketing agencies can often seem like sharks circling businesses.
However, you don't need a dedicated agency or a large advertising budget to make your mark in the digital realm. Here are some digital marketing tactics that all businesses, regardless of size, can benefit from:
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Update Your Google My Business Listing
To some, this suggestion may seem obvious; in fact, if you otherwise don't do anything else on the digital front, you most likely still maintain your Google My Business listing. But how quick are you to update your listing when you make changes to your business?
Of course, if you've changed your hours of operation, address, phone number or website, you need to update your listing right away. Google My Business is also a great place to show off your menu (for restaurants) or products and services. And don't forget to update your photos. If you don't maintain your photo section, your listing will be at the mercy of uploads from random visitors.
Bolster Your Social Media Presence
Everyone, even B2B companies, stands to gain from an involved social media presence. Of course, it's important to utilize the correct platform. For example, a Main Street clothing boutique might find little use for a LinkedIn profile, while a steel bar fabricator might feel out of place on Pinterest. Make sure your message is appropriate to the platform you're using and the audience you're reaching.
Much like with your Google My Business listing, you need to keep your social media accounts current with any changes in your operations. You also need to be sure to have quality, high-resolution imagery for logos, banners and other photos.
And if you're in a visually driven industry such as food, cosmetics or clothing, or have a younger target audience, you may want to experiment with platforms like TikTok or Instagram.
Respond To Reviews — Properly
Reviews are crucial to a small business's existence, and a stream of poor reviews can be crippling to an upstart business. Conversely, positive reviews are one of the best ways for a business to organically grow their clientele. But there are a few things you should keep in mind when responding to reviews, including timing and messaging.
When you receive a positive review, you should respond right away. An immediate response shows your customers how much you truly appreciate their patronage, and reinforces the quality of their experience.
On the other hand, when you receive a negative review, you need to respond soon — but not too quickly. While you can't let it linger and give off the impression that you're ignoring the customer's experience, you still need to give it enough time to show that you've considered their feedback. You also need the time to craft your message properly; too much emotion is off-putting, but a generic response is insulting. About 24 to 48 hours is an appropriate length of time for a negative review response.
And whatever you do, do not incentivize positive reviews. That may seem like an easy way to generate a large swath of positive feedback, but you'll find that platforms like Yelp, Google and Facebook penalize accounts that are reported for incentivizing reviews.
Digital Marketing Is Here To Stay
While social distancing will eventually relax and foot traffic will pick back up in stores, digital marketing will have a lasting place in the business world. If you want to keep up with your competitors or even remain an active part of your community, you must maintain an active, involved digital presence. If you intend to hire a firm to manage your marketing, that's fine — but by using these simple tips to improve your online presence, you'll have a better understanding of what a firm brings to the table and will be more prepared to take the next step.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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e95423a62d34e65542f989e58c5fe48e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/14/what-you-should-know-before-starting-a-telehealth-business/?sh=62e9b52b2017 | What You Should Know Before Starting A Telehealth Business | What You Should Know Before Starting A Telehealth Business
Partner, Director of Strategy & Insights at RUNNER Agency
The calls began to trickle in around May this year. What started as a few leads here and there has grown into a steady stream of physicians and entrepreneurs looking to start telehealth businesses across many different specialties.
I began to notice some common themes around patient acquisition in these conversations. In many cases, there was a false expectation that the current groundswell of patient and industry enthusiasm was enough. What we could observe, as marketing experts, was increased competition, investment and exploration in a rapidly growing industry. Without an unlimited budget, the way to win in this climate is to market smarter.
So here are six key strategies I'd recommend for someone starting a new telehealth business.
1. Understand Your New Competition
Telehealth does level the playing field. If you're a medical practice, you're no longer competing against just the other specialists and physician groups in your city.
• Established Telehealth Companies: Factor in the telehealth companies dominating the current telehealth landscape — companies like Teladoc, Amwell and PlushCare have been active in telehealth well before the pandemic. They have built solid brands and in many cases are already spending significant marketing budgets.
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• Practices In Other Locations: If a fertility practice in Florida can now offer telehealth services to a patient in Texas, then you are now competing against any other practice that wants to provide telehealth services. This practice-to-practice competition will likely grow.
• At-Home Testing: One category that's also getting a boost from the recent telehealth boom is remote diagnostics. Many of these are supported by telehealth or competing against both virtual and in-person office visits. Examples include at-home testing for sleep apnea and at-home fertility testing.
2. Differentiate Your Model And Messaging
The rise of so many new telehealth companies means there are a lot of different business models out there. Make sure to do your research to understand the positioning and messaging you're competing with.
Here's an example. In a simple search for "online doctor visit," I found each of the following messages:
• $15 per month membership
• $39 for an online consultation
• $39 for non-members ($25 for members via phone or video, or a $19 chat and subscription $2.50 per month)
• $49 virtual visits
• Free 30-day trial
• $20 copay with insurance accepted
Imagine how difficult it will be for potential patients to sort between these options. Make sure the business model and messaging you choose will stand out in this competitive environment.
3. Show, Don't Tell, The Patient Experience
For traditional practices, telehealth reviews are already beginning to show up for these practices in places like Google My Business reviews. Bad reviews come from places where the patient expectations didn't meet the experience. Complicated account creation processes and excessive virtual wait times both can impact how a telehealth offering is perceived.
Clearly show how the process works upfront. Help people understand if there will be a correlating app, if their system is compatible and what happens before and after a virtual appointment.
A great telehealth experience could be your key differentiator — in fact, a patient may be willing to pay a bit more out of pocket for the peace of mind and clarity you provide on the experience.
4. Make Sure Physicians Are Front And Center
You may want to build a brand, but the patient wants to see a doctor.
Many new telehealth brands are making a mistake by not providing visibility into the quality of their physicians. As a patient, I don't need to know the exact physician I'm going to see, but if you're going to ask me to try an appointment or sign up for a subscription, I need to know you have competent docs.
Until you build awareness and trust for the brand, build confidence in your physicians.
5. Be Prepared To Spend On Advertising
As a telehealth brand, you have no geographic restrictions. While this can be an advantage, it now also means that your total potential market is huge. While you may have advertised in only a single city or state, you're now essentially a national advertiser, which means you need a larger budget to reach that very large audience.
Remember that established telehealth competitors are already spending heavily. Amwell, one of the largest telehealth providers, disclosed in their recent IPO filing that in 2019 they spent $47 million on marketing and advertising.
6. Start With Low-Hanging Fruit
Unless you have a huge budget to spend on advertising, start by targeting those most likely to convert — patients specifically looking for telehealth.
Once you're able to consistently reach and convert those patients, you can then expand to convert those who are looking for treatment but not specifically telehealth. Remember, while many more patients have experience with telehealth in the last six months, there are still many who haven't or those who don't yet realize that telehealth is an option for a particular specialty.
A strong marketing campaign will include budget and messaging for both.
Whatever Your Approach — Test, Test, Test
I recommend adopting a testing mentality for marketing any new telehealth business. The variety of pricing models alone warrants experimentation.
• Don't have the budget to advertise nationally? Start with a single city or state.
• Providing acute care? Should you target sprains, blood pressure issues or insect bites? Divide them each up into tests and see what kind of return you can get.
A well-designed test will start with an educated guess of the two or three areas you believe you can attract the most patients or compete the best.
We're still early in the telehealth boom. The businesses created now will chart the path ahead. By following the few strategies above, you can build a patient acquisition strategy to introduce your brand to the world and begin to grow patient revenue.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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8dbf913b70141df41c3114b72f7ed959 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/15/what-advertisers-need-to-know-about-programmatic-30/ | What Advertisers Need To Know About Programmatic 3.0 | What Advertisers Need To Know About Programmatic 3.0
Jeremy Fain is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cognitiv, the first neural network technology available for marketers.
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Marketers invest a great deal of time, revenue and resources to face the increasingly unsolved challenges of today's advertising landscape. In the past, due to the antiquated practices of traditional programmatic advertising, marketers spent excess dollars and wasted energy on reaching customers, often without success or confidence that success was real.
Now, by leveraging deep learning technology, marketing can use algorithms to best determine where their advertising dollars are being allocated. I lead an ad tech agency focused on neural network technology for marketing, and I have seen how these advances in technology have the power to optimize programmatic advertising. This new transformation in ad tech, or programmatic 3.0, uses deep learning intelligence and custom algorithms to optimize buying decisions in real time, ultimately increasing transparency, delivering measurable ROI and enabling superior performance at scale.
To understand programmatic 3.0, one must explore the evolution of programmatic from its inception. The first iteration, programmatic 1.0, set out to fix the existing inefficiencies of ad networks; in traditional media buying, digital ads are manually traded. With the introduction of programmatic, both advertisers and publishers automated media buying, no longer needing to manually manage their inventory and "waterfall" of ad networks, and advertisers could purchase ad placements quickly and at low cost. Most importantly, programmatic 1.0 intended to provide both parties with transparency into the buying and selling process by cutting out any middlemen.
Unfortunately, advertisers soon discovered that this system was ineffective in increasing transparency. In fact, programmatic 1.0 sometimes facilitated fraud while limiting advertisers' ability to see and control where specifically they were advertising. On top of that, brands and publishers were frequently hit with hidden tech fees, which further impacted their ROI. This state of affairs was clearly not sustainable, so evolution to programmatic 2.0, the self-service platform, was created to give advertisers oversight into the ad buying process.
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While self-service platforms allow buyers and traders to see exactly where their advertising spend is allocated, there are still several key challenges. First, self-service by its very name requires large teams of traders to manage the day-to-day. In addition, self-service programmatic fails to automate at scale, forcing advertisers to participate in many iterations of manual trial and error as they attempt to optimize their campaigns. The combination of these adversities makes self-service programmatic a tedious, inefficient process that fails to provide advertisers with scalable, consistent results.
Programmatic 3.0 is adaptive algorithmic advertising in action. Through advanced machine learning, better known as deep learning, that uses artificial neural networks to sift through large amounts of data in search of customer patterns in real time, this new standard of performance marketing aims to address all of the problems of programmatic 2.0. Advertisers can create a custom algorithm based on their first-party data that will automatically optimize media buying and ad placement, thus allowing human traders to be more strategic and effective. Training these algorithms on real human outcomes, such as purchases, allows the deep neural networks to automatically weed out fraudulent signals and avoid them.
In addition to allowing advertisers to use their teams in more strategic ways, adaptive algorithmic advertising enables businesses to use large amounts of data to make real-time decisions and reveal insights quickly. These algorithms enable each impression opportunity to be evaluated individually, without a set of bulk rules that try to bucket millions or billions of impressions into an arbitrary commonality. This then allows very discrete and dedicated analysis during and after the campaigns are run, and allows results to be built into real-time, actionable insights. In other words, there is nowhere to hide poor performance.
Manual optimization has been made even more complicated by the vast quantities of data, which increases decision-making needs and exacerbates the lack of consistency. With deep learning's data processing abilities, custom algorithms can take thousands of inputs at once, determine the best possible course of action instantaneously, and evolve over time as they receive more information about customer response to their advertising and market conditions.
The first two iterations of programmatic were, respectively, too opaque and too inefficient. Programmatic 3.0 aims to solve those issues by automating media buying while targeting unified optimization based on whatever goals or KPIs advertisers wish to achieve, thus freeing up time to focus on more strategic and creative marketing initiatives. Adaptive algorithmic advertising allows advertisers to drive performance at scale and get consistent results, all while providing a high level of transparency.
The adoption of any new technology can result in growing pains. In the case of programmatic 3.0, there are several challenges that advertisers should be aware of.
Firstly, DSPs are not currently set up to enable the use of deep learning algorithms, so brands looking to make the transition will either have to build the plugs that will allow them to implement their algorithms or work with a partner with the means and expertise to do so. Secondly, advertisers need to be cognizant of the fact that these algorithms need time to learn, and they will occasionally make the wrong decisions; however, their accuracy will improve the longer they are allowed to run. Finally, a deep learning algorithm is only as good as the data it is trained on, so advertisers must ensure they have a large, clean amount of deterministic consumer data on hand to ensure that the algorithm will be able to produce the desired results.
Instead of requiring human traders to manually optimize ad buying strategies, programmatic 3.0 is capable of optimizing on its own, which means that brands and agencies will have to fundamentally rethink the structure of their marketing teams. On a more practical level, unless brands themselves have data science teams to guide them through the transition, they will need to either build one internally or find a partner capable of building and training deep learning algorithms on their behalf.
Brands that take the latter route should ensure that their own customer data and desired KPIs are used to build the algorithms, as that will ensure that the algorithm's actions are more closely aligned to the brands' goals and customer base.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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97a9111840e21ab14ba3ec1869b82a4f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/21/five-tips-for-success-on-social-media/?sh=3e78644f4226 | Five Tips For Success On Social Media | Five Tips For Success On Social Media
Co-Founder of Y Not You Media, helping businesses and brands grow with content, strategy and attention.
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Consumer attention and marketing have moved online, specifically to social media. No matter what industry you are in, what product you sell or what service you offer, social media can help you grow your business. Navigating the intricacies of what works when it comes to generating more business and growing your brand on social media takes knowledge. It is not enough to just be on social media going through the motions in confident hopes that it will generate business and build a brand. Just as an attorney isn't likely to be the ideal candidate to create an amazing Michelin-star-quality meal, it is not realistic for every business owner, entrepreneur and brand to have a blueprint for success on social media.
After several years of trial and error and output, I’ve compiled a list of the five things any business owner, entrepreneur or brand can do on social media to generate business and grow their brand.
1. Post With Purpose And Provide Value
To succeed on social media, you cannot just post for the sake of posting. Make sure you have a specific purpose. Before publishing any piece of content on any social media platform, ask yourself, “What is the purpose of this post?”
Every post you publish should have a purpose that will help you generate more business or build your brand. Your purpose can be:
• Adding value through educating people, explaining past experiences and sharing stories.
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• Creating brand awareness by telling people why you started your business and why you’re different.
• Getting feedback on what you’re offering.
• Generating leads.
2. Provide Unique Content
Consumers are continually consuming content all day, every day. I've noticed that businesses, entrepreneurs and brands often publish boring, unengaging content such as graphics, flyers, reposts and screenshots. You need to create to separate.
The foundation of any brand on social media is content — ideally, quality branded content in both video and photo form. The content you put out should be new and refreshing; it should provide value to your audience and provide insight into you, your business, your story and your team. If you do not want to be like everyone else, then your content should not be like everyone else’s. Content has become so crucial to success on social media; if you are not taking this aspect seriously, do not expect success.
3. Engage Others
Most businesses, brands and entrepreneurs want more engagement on social media. Engagement does not just happen overnight. You can encourage more engagement on social media by engaging others. The more you do that, the more engagement you will get. Social media platforms reward activity, so the more active you are in liking, commenting and messaging people, the more of that you will probably receive.
4. Show Some Personality
Yes, you should touch on different things that you or your business offers; however, it is important to add personality into what you put out on social media. People buy from people and businesses that they like, but if they don’t know you, they won’t be able to make the decision to like you. Let people get to know things about you and your business, such as why you got started, what your goals are, things you like, what your company culture is like and more.
5. Be Consistent
The previous four tips are important for succeeding on social media; however, if you do all of the above inconsistently, then your efforts will be in vain. Consistency on social media is what will generate business and build your brand. Consistency on social media will keep you front and center for your audience and let them see how committed you are, which will translate into them understanding the dedication you will have to delivering the best product or service to your customers. Consistency on social media also can help separate you from your competitors.
Social media can help you take your business and brand to the next level. Implementing the tips above can help ensure your success.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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1942a3fbb7b785d08fa09031905a9e64 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/22/how-to-bring-a-brand-to-life-14-lessons-in-effective-storytelling/?sh=659499eb43cc | How To Bring A Brand To Life: 14 Lessons In Effective Storytelling | How To Bring A Brand To Life: 14 Lessons In Effective Storytelling
An agency doesn’t just sell a product; it builds a story around the item that gives it a life of its own. Effective storytelling is one of a marketer’s most critical skills, and while practice can help you improve your ability to craft a compelling narrative, learning from the masters is an important part of excelling at any art.
The key is to help audience members see themselves as protagonists in your brand story. Below, 14 experts from Forbes Agency Council discuss how lessons they’ve learned about storytelling have informed their approach to the process.
Members share their best lessons in effective storytelling. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Be Yourself
In other words, remain authentic. I realize this may sound as though I have personified the brand, and that was purposeful. Brands need to have their own identities, and the story behind each brand has to not only be believable, but also true. If a brand is shrouded by mistruths or misleading claims, it will likely not survive, and it will definitely not thrive. - Dave Wendland, Hamacher Resource Group
2. Aim To Inspire And Motivate
Stories should inspire and motivate. A story simplifies complex messages and helps a viewer or listener feel more connected. We have seen a 20% to 30% increase in brand engagement through storytelling marketing. - Mandeep Singh, SEO Discovery Pvt Ltd.
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Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
3. Make Sure The Timing Is Right
It doesn’t matter how good a story is, if the timing is wrong, especially in times of turmoil, it will come across as tone-deaf. Keep in mind what is going on in the world and assess whether it will impact how people respond to your message. If you don’t, you run the risk of losing the opportunity—and your audience—completely. - Valerie Chan, Plat4orm PR
4. Incorporate Trust Signals
When telling a story, it’s important to send trust signals that communicate your story’s authenticity. That’s what makes your narrative relatable and believable to buyers. Trust signals include customer testimonials, verification of your story by third-party experts or data and many other forms of validation. Your story simply won’t have the impact you’re seeking if people don’t believe it. - Scott Baradell, Idea Grove
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Focus On Creating An Emotion
Great storytelling is focused around creating an emotion, and brands need storytelling to create an action toward purchase, sharing, awareness or recall. During the creative process, make sure that the desired action is the focus of the creative, then test and measure prior to launch. Creating a great story without a desired response in mind will usually be a waste of time, resources and money. - Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint
6. Make It Compelling For The Audience
The most valuable lesson I have learned about storytelling is that, when it is done well, it makes others want to retell the story. The story can’t be about the person telling it; the story should be compelling for the audience. If the audience members (employees, customers, etc.) are moved, they will carry the story on to others. - Chris Wallace, InnerView Group
7. Remember That Great Stories Are True
Over the years, we’ve learned that understanding what matters, combined with being honest about what you can deliver, creates brand value. The day a brand starts to follow trends that don’t align with it or makes changes to make customers happy is the day its story starts to become hollow. And, sadly, the brand begins to die. - Bo Bothe, BrandExtract, LLC
8. Reflect Your Brand’s Purpose And Values
Stories that are disconnected from purpose and values will backfire because they won’t be authentic or believable. But when an audience sees a clear connection between your story, values and purpose, the storytelling will be more credible, and your audience will feel an emotional connection with your brand. - Don Scales, Investis Digital
9. Be A Problem-Solver Rather Than An Expert
Being a problem-solver rather than an expert has paid off immensely. People are not interested in digging through archives of information. Tell the story, provide immediate value and help with a challenge your prospect is facing. It’s no different with brand marketing. Position your brand to serve your customers, focusing heavily on creating a buyer-centric experience. - Melissa Chang, PureB2B
10. Don’t Go Out Of Your Way To Reinvent The Wheel
Stories have conventions, and audiences are familiar with those conventions because we have been telling each other stories for thousands of years. Also, high production values are nice to have, but they won’t matter if your narrative is not compelling or emotionally engaging. The content matters much more than the sheen. - Tripp Donnelly, REQ
11. Immerse Yourself In Your Client’s World
The best way to be successful as a storytelling agency is to immerse yourself in your client’s world before choosing words to create their narrative. I’ve spent time on the campuses of education clients, sat in classrooms and been a fly on the wall at staff meetings, and those experiences have helped me understand what truly makes my clients’ hearts beat. - Lynne Golodner, Your People LLC
12. Don’t Make The Brand The Hero
Do you know the most common mistake some brands still make? They make the brand the hero of the story: “Our product does XYZ. It’s amazing; look how many people use it.” This is the wrong approach. What they want to do instead is put the limelight on the potential buyer: “You have XYZ problems, and here’s how you can solve them using our product.” - Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
13. Provide Value Or Entertainment
When it comes to effective storytelling, a brand needs to realize that, before selling to an audience, it must provide one of two things: value or entertainment. The most valuable lesson I learned about storytelling is to make sure we create a strong foundation for our brand’s persona and the right framing prior to pushing our content. A strong plan will create a strong result. - Garrett Atkins, VIE Media
14. Tell Stories Of Real People
Telling stories of real people whose lives have been positively impacted by a brand or product continues to be one of the most authentic ways to bring a brand to life and reach consumers on an emotional level. Consumers can relate to another consumer’s story and see for themselves how a brand can also enhance their own lives. - Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne LLC
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b321dc8408c6554c65e1d7609fe8cada | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/22/why-creating-a-safe-and-meaningful-digital-life-is-a-global-issue/ | Why Creating A Safe And Meaningful Digital Life Is A Global Issue | Why Creating A Safe And Meaningful Digital Life Is A Global Issue
Innovator and Founder of Vertic, a digital agency that services the world’s largest brands including Microsoft, SAP, and GE.
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The United Nations commemorated its 75th anniversary in a virtual summit this September, in the midst of what it called “a time of great disruption for the world.” In the summit, world leaders debated pressing issues and reinforced their commitment to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), designed to address global challenges including health, poverty, climate change, inequality, peace and justice by 2030.
Volkan Bozkir, President of the UN General Assembly, called for solidarity among members, particularly in the context of the pandemic: “No other platform in the international calendar has this convening power. No other Organization can bring so many global leaders together. No other body has the potential to address global challenges, like this United Nations.”
I completely agree. The SDGs represent the most urgent problems facing our planet, and they require collective action on a global scale. But I noticed that there is a critical issue missing from the UN’s agenda: not one of the Sustainable Development Goals addresses our digital lives.
One of my favorite sayings — we don’t go online, we live online — rings especially true in 2020. Before the pandemic, we spent hours a day on our devices; screen time has increased even more now that many of our daily activities have moved into a virtual setting.
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Why then is this digital reality left out of the UN’s goals? I don’t believe it’s possible to build a more just and livable planet without an 18th goal that focuses on creating a safe and meaningful digital life.
Imagining The 18th Sustainable Development Goal
So what exactly does a safe, meaningful digital life look like, and how can we approach it on a global level? The first step is acknowledging that we spend a lot of our time connected online.
Of the world’s population of 7.81 billion people, 4.66 billion are internet users (nearly 60%) and 4.14 billion use social media each month (a number that has increased by more than 12% in the past 12 months). The typical user spends around 15% of their waking hours on social platforms.
We are entangled with the companies that allow us to work, play, learn, shop and communicate virtually. What would we do if we could no longer collaborate with coworkers on Microsoft, Slack or Zoom, or chat with loved ones on Facebook or FaceTime, or get necessary information and products on Google or Amazon? How would we fill our many hours at home without Netflix, YouTube and other streaming entertainment platforms? It’s hard to differentiate between our digital lives and our “real” lives because they are one and the same.
The recent documentary, The Social Dilemma, sounds the alarm about the dangers of this entanglement. It brings up valid questions about how companies are manipulating and monetizing our personal data and what we should do to stop abuses. But the fact remains that these technology companies are important in our lives, and they’re not going away any time soon. Going backward isn’t an option; wishing to disentangle ourselves from tech companies is about as useful as wanting to return to a time before cars or electricity. We can wring our hands and worry about their ubiquity — or we can look at the issue from another angle.
We have already decided to share our lives with these companies, and we continue to do so because we see more benefits than drawbacks. Let’s have a discussion about how they can use their powerful data and influence to help solve the other 17 SDGs.
A Global Issue Needs A Global Approach
The internet has erased boundaries and blurred borders. When we live online, we can access the same information and tools whether we are in Cape Town, Singapore or Chicago, yet we don’t have any established global laws for data privacy.
Regional governments have been rolling out new regulations, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), but this is an international issue that requires international cooperation.
An 18th Sustainable Development Goal would make it mutually beneficial for companies and governments to join forces. Companies could deepen their entanglement with users and explore new technological developments, while committing to responsible privacy and security standards that protect personal data from misuse.
An Opportunity To Create A Safe And Meaningful Digital Life
I believe it’s in the best interests of tech companies to get behind an 18th goal. People are already talking about The Social Dilemma and the risks of intrusive technology. Companies can spend time defending themselves or arguing against their detractors, or they can take control of the discussion and pledge to uphold standards of a safe and meaningful digital life:
• Safe: Not operating a digital environment polluted by “smart” advertising, not selling data without permission to third parties, not manipulating citizens by spreading misinformation
• Meaningful: Continuing to democratize information and communication and open up professional, personal and educational opportunities
We live on one planet, and we need to give the same consideration to our digital existence as we do to our physical world. If companies dedicate a fraction of their vast resources to developing an 18th Sustainable Development Goal, they can be part of a solution that benefits everyone.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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952ce7dd2e75756dc90c94b2a390374b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/27/covid-chaos-a-springboard-for-innovation/ | Covid Chaos: A Springboard For Innovation | Covid Chaos: A Springboard For Innovation
Founder and Principal of Plat4orm, a strategic communications agency.
getty
The coronavirus pandemic has put us on a break with life as we knew it. Deprived of our commutes, fitness classes, vacations or whatever passes for normal in our lives, we’re overfamiliar with our own four walls and bombarded every day by mostly unpleasant news.
Scientists have found that deprivation of the senses impacts the neuroplasticity of the brain. We also know that culture shock — an overload of too much newness all at once — throws our emotions and logical processes out of kilter. All this sounds like an unlikely cradle for business innovation, but the upheaval caused by Covid-19 has created a perfect petri dish for us to reinvent the way we live and work.
Simon Sinek, author of The Infinite Game and Start With Why, says one of the things that helps us to be resilient in the face of a struggle is to engage with it rather than shut ourselves down.
I’ve seen firsthand, as the CEO of a small company, how catastrophic change can lead to new thinking that helps reshape life and business for the better. After a traumatic accident a few years ago left me struggling to be active, speak and frame a coherent thought, I worked with coaches, doctors and therapists to rehabilitate myself using a combination of movement, music, mindfulness, visualization and memorization. These practices spilled over from my personal life into all aspects of my company, which ended up going through a similar process of reinvention. Our revenue has since tripled, and today we’re a far more harmonious organization.
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One positive about Covid-19 is that it has slowed most of us down, giving us all space to think, observe and be deliberate about how we take our next steps. Every one of us is at the starting block for post-pandemic life. As we enter a period of post-traumatic growth, we have a chance to reinvent ourselves in a fashion more suited to the changed future.
My experience, backed by volumes of research, showed me that mind and body connectedness techniques can be used together or separately to recharge individual and team focus, energy and creativity, which can put organizations on the path to delivering better results.
For example, movement has long been associated with workplace and personal well-being. A 2008 study found that 72% and 74% of participants, respectively, reported improvements in time management and productivity on days when they exercised.
One study found that 90% of workers perform better in various ways when listening to music. Music can be particularly helpful when we are working on anything that requires concentration. For example, study participants completed data entry tasks 58% faster when listening to pop music compared to not listening to music at all.
This can partly be explained by the fact that music stimulates a part of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens and as a result triggers improvements to the immune system, memory and cognitive performance. Research suggests that music may help the brain create new connections between nerve cells.
I certainly found that music did a great deal of good for my recovery, and subsequently my company. Now, I encourage my entire team to get out their headphones when writing or performing administrative tasks, and to use music as a mnemonic when they’re trying to learn a new technology or prep for public speaking. It’s also a great mood booster. This is not just nice to have; the personal happiness of every individual in an organization can make a big difference to the bottom line. One research study showed that being happy makes people about 12% more productive.
How can you make employees happier? Well, workplace exercise and movement are a proven method that companies like Google and Aetna have used. Whether you're working on-site or virtually, any organization can crank up the music for a five-minute deskside stretch, set regular reminders to get up and walk around or encourage lunchtime exercise routines.
Imagery and visualization — long used in sports psychology — can also be powerful business tools. Imagining yourself flexing a muscle may help you achieve actual physical strength gains. Any successful business leader will likely acknowledge the role of visualization in helping make things that seem impossible possible. Allowing a scenario of success to play out in your mind is the starting point for transforming it into action.
Memorization through repetition is used to help traumatized individuals heal their brains. Constantly repeating the same phrase also is a classic advertising technique. Perhaps it can help employees repattern their business practices ("Reply to emails within five minutes") or others to prepare for difficult discussions ("Your product will be X weeks late due to problems outside our control"). At heart, it’s a rehearsal- and repetition-based approach to being prepared.
Mindfulness sounds a bit New Age. But companies like Aetna, General Mills and Target, as well the U.K. Parliament and the U.S. House of Representatives, have used it. Aetna saw an annual improvement in productivity that's worth an estimated $3,000 per employee. Further, a study of a chemical company calculated that mindfulness saved it up to $22,000 per employee thanks to decreased burnout and increased productivity. It’s simple to start a program: You can bring in a facilitator to train a few employee volunteers, allocate time for regular workplace sessions or host a mindfulness page on your website.
The pandemic has forced all us to hit reset on our businesses. Now is the time to become more deliberately focused on making what we do a good experience for all our constituents.
We have a chance to make new decisions that will help us thrive through to the other side of the pandemic. The key is making the choice. The time is now.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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ec83cdc7786092d377186c5e57883362 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/11/03/why-its-invaluable-when-people-say-ive-heard-of-you/?sh=6308c8de37e8 | Why It's Invaluable When People Say 'I've Heard Of You' | Why It's Invaluable When People Say 'I've Heard Of You'
The PR Maven®, CEO & Founder, Marshall Communications, creating & implementing marketing/PR/personal branding strategies.
Ezra Bailey
What does it mean when someone says, “I’ve heard of you”? It means that your brand has value, and hearing that only adds more positive capital to your brand (unless you’re known for the wrong reasons).
If people have heard of you, then the power of “word of mouth” is working in the background, on your behalf. The sales pitch is already on its way. You are not starting from ground zero.
Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight. Building and cultivating a brand can take years, if not decades. Perhaps you may even have to re-brand, which takes even more time. The talking points have to change. As Warren Buffet famously said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
Truer words have never been spoken. So, the question becomes: What do you need to do for people to “hear about you” and recognize your brand?
Here are 10 ways to get yourself heard:
1. Build your online profile. The first place to start is LinkedIn, where professionals come to connect. Set up a LinkedIn profile that engages others, and make sure that you have a robust summary section with keywords related to your target audience. Consider writing weekly blog posts on your area of expertise to engage that audience.
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2. Build out your connections. Connect with as many people as possible, on LinkedIn and otherwise, who are current and prospective customers and clients, vendors, neighbors and supporters. Even if they are just friends, it never hurts to make your social web as large as possible. Who knows what could come of it.
3. Engage with those connections — daily. Reach out to others by liking, sharing or commenting on the content they are posting. This will help raise your profile among your target audience, but it needs to be done on a daily basis. If you do it too sporadically, people are more likely to forget about you.
4. Personalize your outreach. When you send an invite to connect with someone else, personalize that invite and let the other person know how you know each other. You want to come across as warm, and not just a hustler in search of personal or professional gain. Tailor your message, and keep it friendly.
5. Leverage your organizations. Everyone belongs to an organization, if not more than one. Tap into those networks, even if it’s just the alumni association of your college or other schools you’ve attended. Share your news with their monthly or annual newsletters. Education is a bond for life.
6. Correspond with local news. You can also share your news with your local newspaper, whether you secured a new job or a promotion, or you’ve won an award that deserves recognition. Local news outlets always seek out content that has to do with people in their backyard, and corresponding with them proactively can set you apart.
7. Write an opinion piece. Write an op-ed column or a letter to the editor that has to do with current events or new developments in your industry. This can go to a local newspaper or even a national one, such as the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. If your news isn’t interesting to a reporter, the opinion section is a viable option.
8. Don’t forget about handwritten notes. Whenever you meet a new person, either professionally or personally, send a note in the mail telling them how pleased you were to catch up, and make plans to follow up. In today’s day and age, handwritten notes have fallen by the wayside, but people will appreciate you for going to the trouble.
9. Set up coffee meetings with leaders. You can never go wrong with coffee, and cafe or virtual meet-ups are fun ways to get to know people who are leaders in your community or a given industry. Engage in conversation and really listen to their story, so you understand what they care about. People love a good listener.
10. Volunteer for a local nonprofit. Link up with an organization that interests you, whether it’s the local library, a sports team or your town’s historical society. Not only will you be able to network and make connections, but it’s also just the right thing to do. Give and you shall receive.
Once you start applying these tips, you will find other ways to raise your profile and become more well known for what you do. Clients will be willing to pay a premium for your services and they will be more likely to know, like and trust you. Having that kind of brand equity is priceless.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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069421ed14880aead0217f9b8c6c4d54 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/11/06/the-importance-of-page-speed-optimization/?sh=7c2a3359324c | The Importance Of Page Speed Optimization | The Importance Of Page Speed Optimization
Charles Kim is COO and Co-Founder of Executive Digital.
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Many website owners are so preoccupied with what they think users want that they overlook the fundamentals of what makes using the internet so popular — speed. While some business owners are creating elaborate user interfaces (UIs) full of large graphical elements, slides, music, etc., their customers are bouncing elsewhere because the sites took too long to load. Do not let this happen to you.
Web Page Speed Optimization
Web page speed optimization should be a top priority for any website owner. The speed of your site dramatically impacts your site's SEO (search engine optimization) and bounce rate. Bounce rates are calculated as the number of single-page sessions of zero-second duration divided by the total number of page sessions on your website. As you can see, a high number of zero-second page hits means that people aren't waiting for your site to load before they leave.
Google provides a tool called PageSpeed Insights that allows you to see how it regards your website's page optimization speed. It doesn't matter what other tools may indicate (such as those provided by your web host) because it's these results that determine how Google calculates page rank for SEO.
Page Load Speed Optimization
For successful page load speed optimization, you should review the following factors:
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• Unoptimized images
• File size minification
• Web host efficiency
• The use of apps, such as Flash
• Overly complicated themes and designs
• Embedded media such as videos being pulled from another site
• Heavy widget usage
All of the above can negatively impact your page speed, especially embedded media and unoptimized images. Where you host your website matters as well since all hosts are not created equal. Cheap web hosting can cost you money in terms of speed.
Mobile Page Speed Optimization
Since many people use their phones exclusively for web browsing, mobile page speed optimization is very important. Remember, mobile pages are considered separately for SEO results. Your site's mobile pages do not automatically inherit the main site's SEO ranking. Users searching on mobile devices have their page rank calculated separately based on the site's mobile page speed rather than the main website's page speed.
This means that website owners need to pay just as much attention (if not more) to their mobile site's speed. As the use of mobile search continues to grow at an exponential rate, the consumer demand for information at the blink of an eye also increases. Searchers demand instant gratification, and to deliver that, your mobile website's pages must be optimized.
These requirements for mobile optimization are not new. Google introduced penalties for mobile responsiveness back in 2016, yet many companies have continued to ignore this very crucial element of SEO. All the elements listed above are just as important for the mobile version of your site as they are for the main version. In fact, altering the theme or design of your mobile site might just be key to improving its performance.
Website Page Speed Optimization
A website page speed optimization strategy should be developed and adhered to as additional pages are added to your company's website. There should be standards in place that guide your designers on how to optimize images, the rules for using embedded media, and widget and plug-in use.
If you host your own site, your website developers should pay careful attention to server speed, API usage and caching. These factors are often referred to as "technical SEO" because they exist behind the scenes and are not part of the visually apparent parts of your website.
Page Speed Optimization Test
In my experience, the only page speed optimization test you should care about is Google's PageSpeed Insights test. You want your pages to all show green on this test. The good news is that Google will tell you why your pages are not performing well on this test, but it offers little in the way of explaining how to fix it.
Google's ultimate goal is to create the best user experience that it can for searchers. This means providing relevant and up-to-date information. However, the tech giant also knows that users are unlikely to stick around waiting for a page to load. Getting something, anything, loaded for a user to begin to look at while the rest of the page loads can be a key to this.
Bottom Line
Think about your own browsing habits. If you would not wait around for a page to load, why would you expect your customers to do so? They would not either. That's why it's vital to understand that every customer who bounces from your site is potentially a lost sale.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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b56b686aecd8b00041a4b689724a61ec | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/11/23/we-need-better-design-thinking/ | We Need Better Design Thinking | We Need Better Design Thinking
Director of the Ullman School of Design, America's oldest university-based design school.
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We are currently experiencing events and situations that a year ago we could not even imagine, let alone predict. Many of the things that we knew or have come to expect no longer apply. As a result, social constructs and patterns of human behavior are now changing in ways that we do not quite understand yet. No doubt, the effects of what we are experiencing today will have profound consequences for many years to come. One thing is for sure: Our lives will never be quite the same again. This means that we need to rethink and reimagine many of the things that we used to take for granted. All of the issues that we are facing today are bringing the need for creative problem-solvers forward, more than ever before.
New Challenges, New Opportunities
Covid-19, the fight to end racial injustice, climate change and the rise of citizen activism are forcing us to reimagine the world as we know it today — and designers can help. In recent years, design has emerged as a field capable of addressing highly complex and often intangible problems that defy conventional solutions. Nevertheless, the new world that we are experiencing now is still largely undefined. Leading positive change under such ambiguous terms requires a great deal of confidence, adaptability and resilience. But with no set rules, protocols and processes in place to follow, designers today will also need to create a new body of knowledge to be successful.
As the director of a design school, I often contemplate what all of these changes and developments mean for the future of design education, the profession and the field of design itself. What kind of new skills will designers need to learn to act as agents of positive social change in this new reality that we are facing? Which of our existing practices will we need to leave behind, and what kind of new ways of work will we need to embrace?
Why Change?
Non-routine situations such as the ones that we are facing today need more than just creative thinking; they also call for critical thinking. The abilities to research, reason and analyze are equally important for designers as they enable us to separate our personal biases from the design process. For most people, design thinking is synonymous with Post-it notes, brainstorming, imaginary personas, empathy maps based on assumptions and ideation. There are some benefits to these exercises, such as introducing empathy into the process and placing the human at the center of the solution. However, when applied on a basic level, design thinking can also be a highly subjective process. In most cases, this is a rule-of-thumb process primarily driven by intuition that is only vaguely informed by a rudimentary form of research.
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This way of working is no longer good enough. Solutions created under the influence of implicit or cognitive biases instead of insights derived by empirical research and real data can often be misleading or detrimental. While under normal circumstances, such end results can be somewhat inconvenient; in a state of crisis, the effects of this kind of work could be dire.
In Research We Trust
Being a designer today means working in far more demanding environments than ever before. Cross-disciplinary empirical research allows us to put aside our own personal biases, beliefs and preconceptions. It also allows us to see the world from other perspectives and to imagine solutions that are relevant, sustainable, meaningful and appropriate. This is why teaching designers how to conduct research will likely become increasingly important.
I’ve observed that designers who use empirical research to inform their work are often better equipped when it comes to providing real solutions to real problems. When designers are trained to use research to frame complex problems, ask the right questions and co-create solutions while working with real people, then every moment of change becomes a new moment of opportunity. Designers trained in this way also often command a greater degree of credibility and feel more empowered to lead in uncertain times. For the new generation of designers, evidence-based research will not be an afterthought; it will be a starting point.
How To Have Better Design Thinking
While learning new research methods and methodologies takes time, here are three basic suggestions that can help you introduce an evidence-based design thinking approach:
1. Before you act, read. Don’t jump into solving the problem without understanding it. Not every problem is a new problem. Start by learning as much as you can about the issues at hand before you start brainstorming solutions. You may find valuable information that can inform your work. Learn from the works of others first.
2. Work with real people. Don’t rely on imaginary personas to create an understanding of your end users and stakeholders. There are plenty of real people with whom you could work on understanding their problems. The problem with personas is that they always agree with you. They will never tell you that you have misunderstood them, or that your solution doesn’t suit them. Your persona should be a real person.
3. Don’t jump to conclusions. Validate your work by testing your concepts with real people dealing with real problems. Do this before you decide on the final solution. It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to justify your solution after the fact. Your design decisions need to be informed by real data, not by convenient assumptions.
To remain relevant, design thinkers need to become design scientists. Learn how to study people and the socio-cultural and economic factors that define them, in order to make informed design decisions. These are all skills that you can develop by learning how to do evidence-based research.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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3c0aa5eedc518e3f9eced2750df8489d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/01/why-social-media-matters-for-google-seo/ | Why Social Media Matters For Google SEO | Why Social Media Matters For Google SEO
The PR Maven®, CEO & Founder, Marshall Communications, creating & implementing marketing/PR/personal branding strategies.
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I tend to spend a lot of time on social media. And, in the back of my mind, I justify it by saying to myself, “I need to do this for my business.”
Of course, I’m not alone. Americans spend an average of over two hours per day on social media, and I'd guess many of them are small business owners who want to stay “current.” Entrepreneurs like me want to learn more about the latest trends and techniques, such as Instagram Reels (which replicates TikTok). However, I also enjoy connecting with friends old and new as well as meeting friends of friends. I find it’s a great way to remember people I’ve met along the way and to reconnect with old friends from school. I am naturally a social person, so much so that it feels like social media was invented just for me.
This got me thinking: How can social media be used constructively for PR purposes? While recent news stories have linked the use of social media platforms to anxiety, depression and loneliness (and that is certainly a concern), I believe social media can do unprecedented good for American society.
Recently on my PR Maven Podcast, I interviewed Anne Stefanyk, who owns the web marketing company Kanopi Studios. We discussed how social media engagement can help with search engine optimization (SEO), since in my experience Google Search prefers to promote engaged, social human beings behind a website, rather than nameless, faceless entities. Because of this and other algorithms, we need to stay on top of what Google is doing and saying — whether you work in PR or not.
Bing has always admitted to using “social signals” as a ranking factor in SEO. While Google has not conceded as much in the past, recent studies have shown that social media engagement could be one of Google’s ranking factors. There is certainly some correlation between sharing content on social media and how that content performs in search results. In my experience, the more engaged you are, the more likely you are to see the first page.
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So what does any of this have to do with PR, which is my strong suit? It has everything to do with PR.
After all, public relations boils down to getting you and your clients found. Generating earned media achieves that goal, but it is not the only tool at our disposal — not anymore. Billions of Google searches are recorded every day, so Google SEO is now an indispensable component of publicity. Whatever PR professionals can do to boost Google SEO should be done, based on daily traffic metrics.
This means engaging on social media. You don’t want Google’s algorithm to perceive you as dormant. If you come across as unengaged, you could be bumped down in Google Search.
Before the internet changed business forever, things were very, very different. If I was able to secure a top-tier result for a client (in a newspaper or magazine), I would literally photocopy that news story and send out a mailing to people who would want to read it. Now, we can share those results on a Twitter feed or in a LinkedIn post. People can and will read it on social media platforms. I usually include a link to the story in my monthly e-newsletter as well.
Social engagement is easier now than ever before, and we should take advantage of it —especially during a pandemic. If you care about Google SEO, then I recommend you take a good look at your organization's presence on social media.
Who would have ever thought that there is a connection between PR, SEO and social media?
There is — and I, for one, am determined to prove it. But first let me check what's happening on my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and let's not forget Pinterest!
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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1099b6c4864c79f39452c87735203f25 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/03/how-small-business-leaders-can-leverage-digital-marketing-to-drive-growth/?sh=134074247256 | How Small Business Leaders Can Leverage Digital Marketing To Drive Growth | How Small Business Leaders Can Leverage Digital Marketing To Drive Growth
Zohaib Hassan is the CEO/Founder of SnapWeb Services, an ROI driven, data-obsessed full-services digital marketing agency.
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Covid-19 hit the world by surprise and left more than 14 million Americans unemployed with 31% of small and medium-sized businesses having to shut down their doors. Consumer confidence drives the U.S. economy and with uncertainty still on the horizon, business owners should consider the value of their advertising expenditures.
The Current State Of Affairs
According to Facebook’s State of Small Business Report, the hospitality and service industry took the hardest hit across all sectors (43%) and wellness, fitness, and other professional services followed close behind (41%). Surprisingly the retail industry wasn’t nearly as affected with 23% of businesses not operating.
When asked about their cash flows within the past 30 days it was clearly evident that cash outflow is greater than their inflow. This has led many business owners to turn digital in order to interface with their customers, ranging from digital ordering tools to curbside delivery.
Every form of traditional marketing can be translated into a digital setting. The only difference is that with digital marketing you’re able to identify exactly who your target audience is and what interests they have beyond the scope of your business. Additionally, the tracking capabilities are virtually limitless. Meaning that every dollar you spend can be directly attributed to your campaign(s).
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Cost
The cost of running digital ads can be far less than running your traditional ads. Take billboards, for example. Depending on where your placement is, I've seen that the cost can range anywhere between $1,200 to $12,000+ per month. Given that you’re targeting the city you’re operating in, you could easily run display ads with far more reach and trackability than billboards. Bear in mind that you still haven’t included the cost of printing and installation. Since one of the current biggest issues with cash flow is that outflow is greater than inflow you can see how cost plays a bigger role now more than ever. Overall, if used correctly, digital marketing can help your business acquire and retain customers with a significantly lower cost per acquisition than your traditional marketing efforts.
Where To Start?
The best place to start is to do your own research into what different tactics you can use in order to fulfill your goal(s). Sometimes you don’t even have to pay, it could be as simple as creating and optimizing your Google My Business page. You can also:
• Set-up your Google Webmasters
• Fix website issues based on Google PageSpeed
• Put your business in your local and national online directories
Those are just a few ideas for your SEO, and there are still many other avenues such as e-mail marketing, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and so on. Once you’ve identified what platforms are needed you can then utilize these tactics and develop your overall strategy. You can either do this in-house or hire an agency to do it for you, but before you look at hiring out, you would do well to educate yourself on the basics of digital marketing first.
Two of the most frequently used platforms, Google and Facebook, have endless free resources available to help business leaders and marketing professionals alike get up to speed on the latest advances in the digital landscape. Setting up and updating profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Yelp or Google My Business doesn’t take a marketing background to figure out.
When it comes to leveraging your website, you may not have the know-how or budget to develop a state of the art site — but if you can get your web developer to help you install a few simple bits of script, you can learn so much more about how people interact with you digitally. You may think you know your audience, but Google Analytics will enable you to truly know everything about their age, gender, location, interests and even the journey they tend to take through your website. And if you’re interested in moving into paid advertising, free demographic analysis tools from Google and Facebook will help you build audiences that are already aware of and engaged with your brand.
Finally, you should always benchmark yourself against your competitors. Look at what they’re doing with their digital presence — Facebook will even let you see your competitor’s ads. By observing how your competitors operate in the digital sphere, you can use their presence as inspiration and a jumping-off point for your own digital marketing. And if your competitors have a lackluster digital presence, that means you have a wealth of untapped potential available in your local market.
Even if you don’t intend on personally executing your company’s marketing strategy, education on digital marketing fundamentals is paramount in finding the right candidate or agency to help you fulfill the role. Because if you don’t take the initiative to know what you’re interviewing candidates or auditioning companies for, you will get taken advantage of.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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383b157332024c70592e7a5a15f04026 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/03/is-a-cold-chain-e-commerce-breakthrough-coming-for-cpg-food-brands/?sh=43de07d11331 | Is A Cold-Chain E-Commerce Breakthrough Coming For CPG Food Brands? | Is A Cold-Chain E-Commerce Breakthrough Coming For CPG Food Brands?
Patrick Nycz is President of NewPoint, a full-service CPG food marketing firm, and author of Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain.
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Up until March, ordering groceries online was mainly a growth segment driven by millennials. There's nothing like the threat of a potentially deadly airborne virus, a nationwide shutdown of brick-and-mortar retailers and government-imposed lockdowns to incentivize consumers, from baby boomers to Generation Z, to move from occasionally ordering items online to converting their browser search bar into the front door of their personal mall or supermarket.
According to a report by Adobe, the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly increased the growth of e-commerce. As of May, total online spending was up 77% compared to last year. Adobe's digital insights manager went as far as saying that the pandemic has accelerated e-commerce growth by about 4 to 6 years.
Look no further than Amazon for validation. The company has reportedly doubled its net profit this year.
While e-commerce continues to explode across many sectors, one category holds full-scale food delivery back: cold-chain delivery of consumer packaged goods food brands.
The 'Amazon-ification' Of Retail
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Retailers from big to small across all categories are taking notice of the explosive e-commerce growth. Smaller retailers that have not moved to online sales got hit the hardest, and we will most likely see a larger percentage die out instead of rebounding in the post-pandemic world.
The more nimble smaller shops pivoted to take advantage of plug-and-play e-commerce platforms like Square and Shopify to stay connected with their current customers. New Shopify storefronts exploded by 62% between mid-March and the end of April. The more entrepreneurial-minded retailers and CPG brands leveraged the new normal and executed marketing strategies to maintain sales — with an eye on growing them.
CPG Brands Are Poised To Capitalize On A Captive Audience
CPG brands across categories have spent the last decade honing their digital presence and cultivating engagement. Integrated digital marketing and advertising programs have been maturing and proliferating across all platforms. The integration extends from social media platforms to loyalty cards to the brick-and-mortar aisles, with shopper marketing programs designed to keep a brand top-of-mind and drive sales velocity while building brand affinity.
Engagement with consumers is more critical than ever as consumers reach for their laptops instead of their car keys. While this integrated marketing programming supports folks who still go to the supermarket, it is perfectly suited for the consumer taking advantage of supermarket order and pick-up services. The interaction is more seamless than ever as one can locate the desired recipe online and add items to a grocery order without leaving their laptop.
But while heading to Kroger, Walmart or Giant Eagle to wait in one's car for their weekly grocery order, this process falls short of e-commerce's real promise: home delivery of our produce and pork chops.
Are Drones The Cold-Chain Breakthrough?
Options are limited for cold-chain CPG brands. Short of setting up a costly and often logistically impractical direct-to-consumer platform and overnight shipping small orders in dry ice, every cold-chain CPG brand is locked into the retail distribution model.
The apex of the home delivery model is (of course) driven by Amazon Fresh. The model is seamless in brand trust, representation and availability of many top CPG food brands — from center-of-store items through produce and proteins that require refrigeration. But Amazon Fresh is limited in scope — it's only available in select cities.
While Amazon has famously pushed for drone delivery, it appears to lack the nationwide local distribution network to make good on the cold-chain home delivery promise.
Mega-retailers that seem to check all the boxes for a nationwide local distribution network are Walmart and Kroger. Both have made huge leaps forward with their digital presence in the past few years. Kroger is partnering with Ocado to build a nationwide e-commerce automated fulfillment program. Meanwhile, Walmart is making moves to catch up with Amazon by partnering with drone services providers and exploring drone delivery of at-home Covid-19 tests. The retailer also has been conducting drone trials to deliver select grocery and household items. It's not a big leap of logic to see what these efforts could lead to: Walmart could be poised to deliver every product on-demand, including cold-chain food products.
The Promise Of E-Commerce Fulfilled?
Given the current retail climate, I think Walmart's drone delivery efforts have the potential to be the catalyst that drives multiple changes in the supermarket — and retail — home-delivery landscape. While drone delivery of anything still seems like a storyline worthy of a good science fiction tale, so does a global pandemic.
No matter what the scale, if Walmart's drone home-delivery program moves beyond the trial phase, it could be a defining moment in the retail food sector, and we will likely see other mass retailers following suit.
To prepare, cold-chain CPG food brands need to start planning integrated digital marketing programs to build awareness of drone delivery. Those that do will be a step ahead of the pack. Shopper marketing and load-to-card programs also may play an important role in channeling sales as consumers add cold-chain items to their grocery delivery.
The day we see an e-commerce home delivery that not only includes center-of-store items like bread and mayo but also traditionally cold-chain products like bacon, lettuce and tomatoes will mark the true fulfillment of the e-commerce promise.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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4590f4d7fdedc8450bc6c8b8f87c2ea2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/04/six-marketing-musts-for-2021/?sh=1dc2f06813e5 | Six Marketing Musts For 2021 | Six Marketing Musts For 2021
President at Paulsen, a marketing agency that moves rural America. paulsen.agency
Everyone I know wants to happily turn the page on 2020 and set their sights on making up lost ground in 2021. But let's consider a few lessons from this year that will make our comeback even stronger in the year ahead.
1. Prepare for future virtual opportunities.
Someday soon we will all get back to in-person events — and personally, I can't wait. However, even then, if you make an investment in an event, record and provide access to that content to pick up an extra audience that you may otherwise miss. Virtual fatigue is a real thing, so keep content pithy (think TEDx) and provide it on-demand to maximize viewership. Here are some tips for a strong video presence:
• Project energy in your voice and movements.
• Smile when you speak.
• Keep eye contact with your audience by looking into the camera and not at the faces on the screen.
• Have an interesting, but not distracting backdrop.
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• Use the right equipment for good audio quality.
• Invest in stable internet access.
• Test out your technology ahead of time — every time. Upgrades to systems can catch you off guard.
2. Prepare for virtual trade shows, too.
Maybe your organization is not holding an event, but you are preparing for more virtual trade shows. Here's how to stand out:
• Add multimedia elements to your virtual booth specific to the event. Short videos targeted to the show audience are best.
• Use sponsorship opportunities to elevate your visibility and don’t be afraid to ask for a format or placement that doesn't currently exist.
• Give a reason to stop by your virtual booth (like a giveaway) and provide a high-value exchange to build your email database.
• Drive traffic through direct marketing ahead of the event. Use the event list or sponsor existing outbound communications.
3. Amplify your content.
Video and podcast content consumption exploded this year. What can we learn from that? With so much more content available, it's become a very competitive space. Even though technology's availability has lowered expectations for quality, your brand expectations still need to be met. One poorly-produced video or phoned-in podcast can lose an audience that won't return.
The best content is:
• Audience-specific
• Relevant
• Timely
• Consistent
• On-brand
Use your existing audiences to cross-promote the different mediums you are creating. If you have a strong email database, be sure to promote your podcast every time you send out an e-newsletter. On your podcast, let listeners know how to subscribe to your newsletter.
Longer format content, such as a video or podcast episode, can be transcribed and turned into an article or series of articles. Any broadcast medium should always be paired with a text version for search engine optimization purposes.
4. Update your Google Ads.
Google Ads' most recent release uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve the relevance of your search ads. They've even added "Ad strength," a feedback tool that critiques your ad elements as you create them. Update your ads to this new format and take advantage of more efficient uses of your search budget.
5. Engage in hyper-targeted retargeting.
Marketing automation platforms, such as SharpSpring, can retarget banners to users in their system. While this is not a volume play, it is as specific as you can get when reaching an individual. The CRM side of the platform then attributes interactions with the retargeting to that user, which is another important data point for your sales team to understand when they follow up with a call.
6. Don't forget old-school media relations.
You know your industry is in rough shape when a webpage tracking layoffs is updated daily. Make sure your press release distribution list is up to date before you hit send. Better yet, work on building relationships with the remaining media that is respectful of their situation:
• Be brief in outreach.
• Pitch stories to be in line with their editorial calendar.
• Prepare multimedia assets that are simple to download and clearly organized.
• Be a pro and make their job as easy as possible.
A little empathy will go a long way in getting client stories published. Put yourself in an editor's shoes and consider what ethical steps you can take that will still make their jobs easier.
The new year ahead will bring opportunities that we can prepare for now. Building on what we know from this year will give your team the bandwidth to take on the newest opportunities in 2021.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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84e326ca17f71ea5d3c6800f3e36ea16 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/04/the-essentials-skills-for-publicity-success/?sh=1c307b5423c2 | The Essentials Skills For Publicity Success | The Essentials Skills For Publicity Success
CEO of Wasabi Publicity, Inc., out to change the world through conversations.
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With everything going on today, you're likely doing your best to adapt in business. We're all navigating uncharted territory to find the best path forward, and marketing is one of the biggest challenges companies and organizations face during these uncertain times. As I've written about previously, we certainly can't operate as if it's business as usual. I've talked about the importance of not being tone-deaf. It's more important now than ever before to be present with what's happening in the world and what people are dealing with, and then, to explore creative opportunities and solutions.
This new way of business might mean trying new tools, moving services in-house or even doing your own marketing. New strategies and structures may seem a little overwhelming at first, but in the long run, it might be exactly what your business needs.
What should you focus on? It probably doesn't surprise you that as CEO of a publicity company, my go-to answer is public relations. Why? I truly believe that PR is the most powerful tool to creatively present who you are and the value you bring to the world. But you might be surprised to know that I don't always recommend hiring a PR company. Why not? Well, I believe that with a little support, anyone can be successful and land PR results for themselves. And in these turbulent times, this might make the most sense for you and your company.
So how do you know whether tackling PR yourself is a good idea? The answer comes down to two things:
• What do you love to do?
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• Do you have the required skills?
There's a lot of information online about how to handle PR. But it wasn't until recently that I saw how the answers to these two questions are a very powerful indicator of whether PR is a good choice or not. What clued me in was this: Since the pandemic hit, we started giving away our "21-Day PR Action Guide." It's our way of giving back. In addition, I've been doing a lot of free PR calls to make sure that the people who download our guide are pointed in the right direction. The thing I noticed is there are common roadblocks for people doing their own PR.
Just as with any facet of business, there are certain things we just don't love to do (or, let's face it, don't have the time to do). Those things are the roadblocks. This is no surprise, really. This is the case with most things in life. I just hadn't heard many business owners break it down that way.
If you're looking at handling PR yourself, my recommendation is to start by assessing your ability to do the things you really love to do. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Do you have the skills you need to do the things you love about PR? Do those things, and then consider finding someone to support you with the things you don't love.
So what are the essential skills you need to handle PR?
Creative Thinking
Branding and positioning yourself can be challenging. As a business, expert or cause, sometimes it's hard to see the water you swim in. Are you really clear about how you're unique and the value you bring? Do some self-reflection to get clear about your key messaging. This is where the magic happens. Your intention will get amplified with PR, and you'll be making the difference you're truly committed to making.
Content Development
Developing content for a PR campaign means having the ability to communicate with words in various ways. Writing your online press kit, which includes your bios, interview questions and story ideas, is very different from writing website copy, which is different from writing media pitches, articles, blog posts, press releases and social media content. You get the idea. Is your writing style adaptable?
Building Relationships
Do you love diving deep to find who you should be in a relationship with? You know how to position yourself, and you can write, but do you know who you should actually pitch? This is a question we get asked frequently. Relationship-building is a skill set, and it means doing the research to figure out what media serves your target market and exactly who you want to know about you.
Organization
To handle PR, you need to be organized and structured. That's why an online press kit can be so helpful. An online press kit keeps the media organized by immediately providing everything they need, and it keeps you organized at the backend by having all of your media materials in one place. What are the essential elements? In addition to a media-ready home page, we recommend including these pages: bios (byline, broadcast and full), media coverage, news and story ideas, suggested interview questions, images and contact information. When the media comes knocking, simply send them a link. No delays. No attachments. No need to even be in the office.
Look, we're all trying to find creative ways to navigate these uncharted waters. No matter where you are in business, one of the most valuable tools you can learn to use is PR, but you don't need to hire a publicist. You can create a successful, cost-effective PR campaign by figuring out what you love to do. For the things you can't (or don't want to) do, you may want to consider hiring someone.
Being adaptive in the current business landscape is essential. Now's the time to take an honest look at yourself and your team so you can identify the skills that are missing and get the support you need so you can enjoy the ride.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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6b19399fc1888e01237ee6945236e07a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/09/15-marketing-strategies-to-make-the-most-of-customer-testimonials/?sh=6a43609c341f | 15 Marketing Strategies To Make The Most Of Customer Testimonials | 15 Marketing Strategies To Make The Most Of Customer Testimonials
It’s often said that the best form of marketing is word-of-mouth praise from happy customers. People are more likely to buy products or services if they hear a positive review from another consumer in their position.
Your company can promote its offerings and leverage peer-to-peer trust by amplifying customer testimonials and mobilizing organic brand ambassadors. To help, we asked members of Forbes Agency Council how marketers can make the most of testimonials from satisfied customers. Here’s what they had to say.
Forbes Agency Council members offer strategies to leverage customer testimonials. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Collaborate With Your Customer Advisory Board
Generate these from your customer advisory board. Your CAB members are likely not only your biggest fans, but also invested in your products, having helped shape and improve them over time. The CAB members may have extensive networks to tap into and may also write blogs or speak on industry webinars where your product can be included. - Eyal Danon, Ignite Advisory Group
2. Leverage Testimonials To Humanize Your Brand
Share them on social media and on your website and weave them into blog posts. Customers respond best to others’ stories. And be sure to respond to testimonials to show your commitment to the customer experience. - Laura Cole, Vivial
3. Retarget Warm Audiences
One great way to leverage customer testimonials is by using them as creatives in ad campaigns, especially when retargeting warm audiences. Oftentimes users visit a website or social profile and leave without taking action, and that is a perfect time for brands to stay top of mind and retarget those users with customer testimonials, giving them the last push they need to convert. - Jonathan Durante, Expandify Marketing Inc
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4. Share New Product Lines With Brand Ambassadors
Customer testimonials are gold. When those customers are truly engaged, they are the best brand ambassadors and marketers for your product. By supporting them with additional or new product lines within your brand, you can encourage them to naturally push out organic social content that supports the features and benefits of your brand. - Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne LLC
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Nudge Prospects Down The Sales Funnel
Leverage customer testimonials to abet your prospects who are in the consideration phase. Showing testimonials is an effective way to push your prospects down the funnel. - Mandeep Singh, SEO Discovery Pvt Ltd.
6. Incorporate Testimonials Into Social Media Ads
One of the most effective ways to leverage testimonials is to create social media ads promoting the product. The experience customers had using that product, not the product itself, is the main focus. - Stefano Mongardi, TheWebMate
7. Rotate Testimonials On Your Website
The best way is to feature testimonials on your website, rotating them so that they don’t get stale. Another very effective way is to use them in publicity efforts by either quoting happy customers in a press release or by steering reporters their way to talk about your company. - Jeff Bradford, the Bradford Group
8. Empower And Incentivize Ambassadors
Don’t tell ambassadors what to do; empower them. The key to a successful testimonial is authenticity—not just of the testimonial, but also of the action. Create opportunities and incentives for others to act, but make sure both the action and the message, while on brand, are theirs. Top-down doesn’t work. Empowerment does. - Craig Greiwe, Rogers & Cowan
9. Encourage Customers To Record Video Testimonials
Make heroes out of your existing customers and put them at the center of your marketing and communication strategy. The most powerful way is to get them to record a video explaining their challenge and how they resolved it (hint: with your help), and then provide that to sales to put into a pitch deck or to share with prospects by email. Video is incredibly powerful and easily shareable. - Mike Boogaard, MOI Global
10. Target Your Brand Ambassadors’ Networks
The most effective way to leverage testimonials from customers and organic brand ambassadors is to identify and locate the social audience for those individuals. Then, share the testimonial feedback within an organic structured campaign directed at their family, friends and followers. - Greg Carney, Freedom United Social
11. Embrace Customer Review Tools
There are great tools for B2C products, such as Yotpo and Bazaarvoice. Then, there are tools and sites like Clutch.co, where you can ask for reviews. Public reviews go a long way in building credibility. - Michael McFadden, eAccountable
12. Provide Social Proof In Facebook And Instagram Ads
The best way to leverage customer testimonials or organic brand ambassadors is to use them for retargeting ads on Facebook and Instagram. This provides social proof and a great visual to let your prospective customers see others using your product or service. Also, featuring them on your website will help to establish credibility and trust with your visitors. - Jonas Muthoni, Deviate Agency
13. Fold Great Reviews Into Other Content
The great thing about reviews and testimonials is that usually they’re public, so we can repurpose them into other content, emails and social posts. If we have a great review regarding the SEO results we achieve for a client, then folding this review into our own SEO content makes it that much more valuable. Positivity from a client will almost always speak louder. - Bernard May, National Positions
14. Create Assets To Engage With New Clients
Customer testimonials are fantastic content assets for web and social platforms as well as case studies, brochures, proposals and any other asset that you might use when engaging with new clients. If you can get those reviews on video, that is marketing gold! - Jason Wilson, Strategy, LLC
15. Place Video Testimonials Up Top On Your Website
Many times, when customer quotes are used on websites, the testimonial sections appear at the end of the home page, and consumers do not scroll down far enough to see the quotes in that section. Video testimonials are much better tools. An explanation of a problem that was solved by a brand or a campaign that was successful is a great way for customers to organically endorse a company. - Sherri Nourse, Ambition Media
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eb7fc4ab7d858a08de2ad7070ae21a0a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/09/account-based-marketing-in-2021/?sh=54a48bc164b3 | Account-Based Marketing In 2021 | Account-Based Marketing In 2021
Founder of Momentum, growth consultancy and pioneers of account-based marketing, transforming how teams grow their most valuable customers.
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Selling and marketing have clearly changed. Marketers have had to adapt, recalibrate their activities and lean into more collaborative interactions with sales teams in a way they've not done before. With events and direct channels removed, sales teams have become a primary marketing channel to reach accounts.
Sales have largely reciprocated. They've pivoted to compensate for the lack of water cooler conversations by accessing marketing data, digital signals and analytics on how their customers are interacting with content. In turn, they're using these insights to decipher what customers are thinking.
It's not working, though. The latest wave of data from our own body of proprietary research tells us that vendors don't understand their customers as well as they did before, with only 14% giving their vendors 5/5 for understanding their business.
The fundamental challenges come from the same reasons data has tied marketeers in knots for years. The data lacks context and the complexity and color that comes with buying teams made up of 20-plus people.
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It's getting harder to buy.
The single biggest challenge for marketers today is not the marketing itself, it's how your customers are struggling to buy. According to our most recent data, any enterprise business looking to invest $3 million-plus in IT finds the process more difficult, with 42% of firms citing the buying process is becoming much harder to navigate.
What can sales and marketing teams do to drive growth in 2021?
These teams can start by only creating content that's relevant to your customers. Having studied thousands of buying cycles in enterprise over the past decade, the best performing and most successful type of content has been customized for the account.
Data from this wave of research confirms it is the single most valuable content at every single stage of the buying cycle, from awareness of a problem through to making the purchase (72%).
Custom content is more than jarring personalization where you add their name to a landing page — it's about doing the legwork for your accounts so they don't have to sift through your content and information to figure out where you can add value to their business. Start by understanding your customers either through conversations or research — what's important to their business and how can your organization help them?
Take this information and either create specific content that talks to what you can bring to the table, or for existing content, call out the areas most relevant to accounts, for example, through a bespoke executive summary.
Have a regular rhythm for communicating timely and relevant information.
The data almost contradicts itself — your customers want to hear from you more than ever but don't want to be sold and marketed to, with 74% of customers saying their vendors aren't communicating with them frequently enough.
I've seen so many marketing teams run generic opt-in campaigns only to wonder why their opt-in rates are so low. If your communications are of real value to the recipient, your customers will welcome you back to their inboxes and social apps. A great business-to-consumer (B2C) example here is taxi services: You provide a car service with your location data, and as a value exchange you'll get picked up in the right place. Find an equivalent for your business, create a compelling use case to strengthen the customer relationship and move from the old opt-in/opt-out to a personalized value exchange.
Alignment isn't enough for the new decade.
So much has been said about aligning sales and marketing teams for successful account-based marketing (ABM) programs, but getting everyone facing the same direction or sharing the same objectives on a set of accounts isn't going to cut it.
It's the job of marketing and sales to facilitate the buying process, and a huge part of this is enabling customers to get everyone on board and be confident in the decisions made. A strong focus on enabling your customers isn't just a cornerstone of a winning ABM strategy. How well you do it will become the defining factor to your own growth.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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4cac25af70e703d8f5f0eb6ca2ce6a93 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/10/the-k-shaped-recovery-for-brands-heres-what-will-separate-winners-from-losers/?sh=f7dbb327b6b4 | The K-Shaped Recovery For Brands: Here's What Will Separate Winners From Losers | The K-Shaped Recovery For Brands: Here's What Will Separate Winners From Losers
Michael Kalman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MediaCrossing Inc., a leading, award-winning digital advertising agency.
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The ongoing pandemic has set the stage for what many people are calling a "K-shaped recovery" in which there are clear winners and losers — not just at the individual level, but at the corporate level as well. According to Investopedia, "a K-shaped recovery occurs when, following a recession, different parts of the economy recover at different rates, times or magnitudes. This is in contrast to an even, uniform recovery across sectors, industries, or groups of people." From a brand standpoint, the ability to emerge successful during the economic recovery period may have everything to do with strategic positioning and strong marketing.
Within a K-shaped recovery, some brands will naturally succeed while others inevitably falter. However, other brands — the majority, from what I've seen — won't fall into clear-cut winner and loser buckets. For these companies, success or failure will likely be determined by their agility and innovation in the coming months.
Positioning For Success Amid The Pandemic
Certain companies were at a fundamental disadvantage going into the pandemic. Brands built around the concept of bringing people physically together, particularly indoors, saw business inevitably grind to a halt. Movie theaters, restaurants, concert halls and similar businesses might find ways to stem the bleeding and outlast competitors in the coming months, but they'll be hard-pressed to soar into the recovery without a fundamental overhaul of their business concepts, operations and real estate investments.
At the same time, other companies were predisposed to success going into the pandemic. Brands that filled a need for people who were suddenly spending more, if not all, of their time at home have become the new household names in 2020 — names like Zoom, DoorDash and Disney+. Digital-first business models were already on an upward curve back in February, and Covid-19 catapulted them onto a new accelerated growth trajectory. Their success will likely continue throughout the pandemic and beyond, and their competition will probably grow larger in the coming years.
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But what about the legions of brands whose business realities exist somewhere between those of AMC Theatres and Netflix? For most, success during the global economic recovery will hinge on the ability to pivot quickly, both in services and marketing.
Getting Into The New Consideration Set
The big question for brands right now is whether they're doing what they can to be a part of the consideration set when people are ready to spend. Brands must analyze where they fit on the recovery curve — and how to maximize their operations to be at the highest position possible. This phenomenon has caused an acceleration in digital adoption by brands that may have traditionally been slower to adapt. We will see the brands that fail to adapt phase out.
For example, we are seeing increasing innovation within the luxury sector. The key for manufacturers in this luxury segment has been to reinvent how they're getting in front of their narrow band of target consumers. Luxury brands, such as high-end watches, have doubled down on more digital-savvy marketing, reaching consumers directly via social platforms. "Globally, Covid-19 has contributed to modifying the mindset for luxury brands that were not keen on using e-commerce so intensively," Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin reportedly shared earlier this year. As a result, luxury companies that have adapted may be well-positioned to ride the upper trajectory of the K into the economic recovery and beyond.
We see similar tales of agility across the business landscape. Uber, for example, has quickly turned its focus to its suddenly in-demand food delivery service, Uber Eats, even as its rideshare revenue plummeted during the pandemic. It's precisely this type of agility — both in focus and in marketing — that brands must emulate in order to gain a foothold going into the economic recovery.
Aim For The Top Of The K With Agile Marketing
In the above example, we see that while some companies or industry sectors have fortuitously been positioned to ride out the top of a K-shaped recovery, others, such as the luxury sector, can harness the energy of an agile marketing strategy to adapt quickly, innovate and survive.
Traditionally a concept applied to rapid product development and technical innovation, agile is now being increasingly applied to marketing strategy to ensure operational excellence. According to an in-depth agile marketing guide by McKinsey, "Agile, in the marketing context, means using data and analytics to continuously source promising opportunities or solutions to problems in real time, deploying tests quickly, evaluating the results, and rapidly iterating."
This framework operates on the ability for brands to plan for the unplanned: Refine a hypothesis, deploy tests, iterate and evolve. The crux of the strategy is to be nimble, adaptive and data-driven.
Steps For Implementation
1. Look at your existing processes. Identify areas in your current review process where the timelines can be adjusted to account for more frequent (typically weekly) reviews, internal adjustments and execution.
2. List out your stakeholders — operational, strategic and leadership. Identify areas for the facilitation of communication.
3. Ensure there are clear project managers at each step of the process and clearly identify responsibility. Use a workflow tracker or system to manage operations, execution, review and iterations.
4. Review your campaigns on a weekly basis, maintain clear KPIs, and ensure each review is viewed within the framework of the changing political, economic, social and technological changes. Consider a macro PEST analysis review at the end of each month or quarter to ensure campaigns align with audience behavior and societal changes.
Planning For The Increasingly Complex Future
Adopting an agile marketing strategy is a key part of ensuring a reliable, flexible backbone is built to support changing market conditions within the increasingly complicated conditions of marketing to a digitally connected world. The agile marketing framework can help brands cater toward evolution and efficiency over time as waves of technological and social trends fluctuate.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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3f3c5062c464b23cdb3f1fdd0362a6d7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/14/build-your-2021-medical-practice-marketing-strategy-with-10-questions/?sh=6b1d76eb5bdc | Build Your 2021 Medical Practice Marketing Strategy With 10 Questions | Build Your 2021 Medical Practice Marketing Strategy With 10 Questions
Partner, Director of Strategy & Insights at RUNNER Agency.
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Now is the time to radically rethink how you market your medical practice. This year, the digital landscape grew by what seems like decades within a matter of a few months. Technology adoption accelerated rapidly across nearly every industry. For medical practices, we saw not only a rush to provide telehealth solutions, but also increased competition and spending in digital media channels.
Simply put, many of your patients have become more digitally savvy, and your competition probably has too.
One of the keys to success in 2021 is a well-built digital marketing strategy. It can provide alignment with your team, clarity in your messaging and prioritization of your marketing tactics.
To help with your planning, here are 10 questions that can help you build the foundation of any digital marketing strategy.
1. What are our practice goals?
Think of your goals as your overall desires and consider your strategy for how to get what you want. Don't overthink your goals, and don't set too many, or you may not achieve any of them.
Example: "Get enough new patients to add another physician to the practice."
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2. What are specific, measurable outcomes to reach those practice goals?
Your objectives should have measurable results. Objectives that are too lofty aren't really objectives; they're goals.
Example: "Add 15 patients per month."
3. Who's our competition?
While this may seem like a straightforward question, telehealth has changed this dramatically. You may no longer be competing against only the physicians and practices in your area — telehealth competitors from other locations or national brands are now likely going after the same patients.
In addition, for some medical specialties, if you have expanded lines of service — like orthopedics and pain management — you're really competing in multiple categories.
4. How is our practice really different?
This is perhaps the most difficult question to answer. Many medical practices don't answer it at all, or they rely solely on physician credentials to differentiate themselves. While physician credentials are key, many patients said they would switch providers because of factors like safety and access (download required).
Don't fall into the "better" trap when thinking about differentiation. Think about the treatments you offer, your patient experience and even the point of view you have on the category.
5. Who is our ideal patient?
Ensure that you have a clear picture of your ideal patients and build your marketing for them. Document it so you can create alignment across your teams and partners. Examples include the specific conditions your ideal patients have, the treatments they may need and what types of insurance they have.
This is particularly important to understand for your paid advertising efforts, as well as focusing your content creation efforts to impact SEO. You don't want to waste any of these efforts on the wrong patients.
6. What problems do we solve for them?
Your patients may stop paying attention if you stop talking about their problems. Yet many medical practices talk only about their own expertise or the services they provide.
Don't forget about the services you provide, but focus on the issues your patients are grappling with. Your practice has an opportunity to get more patients to choose you by empathizing with their problems. Spend some time reading through your practice reviews to get an understanding of the problems you're solving and how it makes patients feel. You may be surprised.
7. What are our key messages?
Take the time to outline your key messages. Some of the answers above — the problems you solve and what makes your practice different — should absolutely be a part of those messages. If your practice is self-pay, think about any offers you want to include in your marketing.
Most importantly, think about the call to action that's in your key messages. Are you trying to drive calls, online appointment scheduling or something else?
8. What content should we create?
The content you create for your practice should be directly related to your ideal patient definition, as well as the problems you solve. All content for a medical practice will generally fall into a couple of categories — educational content such as research on conditions and treatments, and decision-making content such as information about your practice. Be sure to address both types.
Perhaps the most important decisions are the format of your content and how you distribute it. Don't get stuck on blog posts alone. Make sure you're distributing content to your practice and physician listings, for example. Leverage video content as much as possible — we've found that it's more noticeable and does a better job of showing empathy.
9. What platforms are we prioritizing?
Focus on doing a good job on one channel before you diversify. One of the biggest mistakes a medical practice can make is spreading their investment of time and advertising dollars across too many channels. The foundation for most medical practices should be pay-per-click search advertising and Facebook remarketing. Why? Because search engine advertising captures those actively seeking treatment, and remarketing ensures that you stay in front of those who are looking. Stay focused on nailing these channels before expanding.
10. How will we measure success?
Lastly, don't get distracted by vanity metrics like traffic or click-through rates. Focus on the six essential key performance indicators for medical practices that include new patient leads, cost per lead, conversion rates and cost per patient.
The Foundation Of Your Practice Marketing Strategy
In the new healthcare digital marketing landscape, you can't afford to continue winging it or buying cookie-cutter marketing solutions from partners that don't understand your business.
Answering these 10 questions can provide you with the foundation of a digital marketing strategy that allows you to put together meaningful plans for 2021. They can help you position your practice, develop key messages and content, decide how to reach new patients and measure the impact of your efforts. Questioning the way you've always done things may be the key to getting the growth you deserve.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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7d12ae5894d7d01ec673f1f78cd5183c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/14/how-to-start-a-social-monitoring-program-14-tips-for-companies/?sh=79c0886a3b39 | How To Start A Social Monitoring Program: 14 Tips For Companies | How To Start A Social Monitoring Program: 14 Tips For Companies
While related, social monitoring and social listening are two distinct strategies to improve the customer experience. Social listening allows companies to take a broad look at the discussions occurring on social media around their brand. They then collect data and analyze it to find useful insights.
Through social monitoring, however, social media managers actively monitor their companies’ social accounts and newsfeeds, acting in a one-to-one capacity to address issues and engage with customers. In this way, companies can respond directly to the questions and comments customers post online for them.
We asked a panel of experts what important things companies should keep in mind when setting up social monitoring programs. If you’re considering implementing one, check out these tips from 14 members of Forbes Agency Council.
Forbes Agency Council members share tips for companies setting up social monitoring programs. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Have A Well-Defined Social Strategy
The customer makes the first move by reaching out to the brand, tagging them or mentioning them. Then, it’s up to the company to respond appropriately. It’s crucial to have a well-defined social strategy that helps your team know how to interact with your audience. Brands often have multiple audiences, and what you share, comment on or like differs, depending on the audience. - Tim Sellers, Inferno
2. Start With Intention
Have clearly stated expectations and goals, then share those with key stakeholders as well as the people executing the social media monitoring. If everyone is on the same page in regard to the intent behind the financial and time investment, you will better understand the key performance indicators and the value the investment will bring to the organization. - Korena Keys, KeyMedia Solutions
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3. Give The Team Flexibility To Customize Responses
While brands should anticipate common questions and their answers, give the team flexibility to customize a response. Cut-and-paste answers make things worse. Your team needs marketing awareness, as their answers are read by others beyond the original poster. Also, take the conversation out of the news feed as quickly as possible on the way to resolving the issue. - Jim Tobin, Carusele and Ignite Social Media
4. Develop A Messaging Grid
Developing a messaging grid is key so that community managers are empowered to monitor and respond to mentions in real time. Account leaders should tap social, creative and PR teams and have them role-play potential responses. Community managers will be aware of frequent topics from past social listening, creative will provide the right tone of voice, and PR can play out any possible crisis scenarios. - Elliott Phear, Night After Night
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Leverage Social Monitoring Tools
Social media is a sea teeming with brand mentions. Trying to monitor and respond manually will burn out even the most passionate marketer. Use social monitoring and management tools, such as Talkwalker, Google Alerts, Hootsuite and Reputology, to save time that you can spend on social media strategy and tactics to garner your audience’s attention. - Mary Ann O’Brien, OBI Creative
6. Highlight Positive Mentions
Social media has transformed the customer service experience. It’s become a public forum. Highlight your positive brand mentions as a part of your social media messaging campaign. Boost posts on social media to support positive interactions and foster community. - Michael Kalman, MediaCrossing Inc.
7. Address Negative Mentions
Reaching out to your fans is great, but remember that negative attention can also offer a chance to engage and show off your customer-service muscles. If you’re able to correct the situation and make the customer happy, they’re likely to share that experience as widely as they shared the first interaction. - Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions
8. Learn How To Anticipate
My No. 1 tip is to anticipate. Before starting the program, define common workflows around who will answer the questions or comments. Determine ahead of time what common answers and approvals will be, if needed, so that all stakeholders are aware of what is happening. Social media responses go quickly, so we want to be ready to react versus waiting for approvals so that the program accomplishes the goals at launch. - Gavin Baker, Baker Labs
9. Work Backward From Your Goals
If you want sales, for example, you need to measure traffic to the site where you sell. If you want awareness, then you might want to measure reach and engagement. If you measure just for the sake of measuring, you risk not getting the whole picture. Many software solutions currently available offer far more metrics than you’ll ever need to know. - Christine Wetzler, Pietryla PR
10. Understand What The Numbers Mean
The No. 1 tip is to first understand what the numbers that you are seeing mean. How interactive are people on the platform you’re using? What age are they? What other demographics do they fill? Your program will give you a number that represents how many people mention your company, but unless you know who those people are, it won’t do you any good in the long run. - Jason Hall, FiveChannels Marketing
11. Don’t Be Creepy
Everyone knows that the things we do online are being tracked and codified. But how companies use that information can make all the difference in how their brands are perceived. Most people on social media appreciate or will at least tolerate engagement from brands as long as it feels above-board and not as if they’re being stalked. - Randy Shattuck, The Shattuck Group
12. Be Consistent Across The Board
When you begin the process of social monitoring and responding to individual brand mentions, make sure you are consistent across the board with responses. Consumers are very smart and will see if a brand responds to some comments and not others. Consistency is key to ensuring that consumers continue engaging with the brand on social channels. - Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne LLC
13. Find Balance Between Responding And Observing
I’ve found that the key to social monitoring is finding a balance between responding and observing. Some believe that responding to every single mention of their product is a good idea, but you can easily get lost in the weeds and not really see the big picture. Take the opportunity to step back and see the broader trends of reactions, and then use the perspective you gain to create your marketing and PR strategies. - Adrian Falk, Believe Advertising & PR
14. Don’t ‘Farm It Out’
It’s understandable to want to hire a freelancer to monitor and engage on your behalf in an attempt to save costs. To keep your brand voice on-point, to hear what is actually being said on social and to engage effectively, you need a dedicated team member. Without this, you won’t be able to formulate engagement strategies around any possible PR issues, should any arise. - Bernard May, National Positions
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816ed1a04dd3912415cab30b2ebf6cab | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/14/the-minimum-viable-content-marketing-campaign/?sh=51abba07c20b | The Minimum Viable Content Marketing Campaign | The Minimum Viable Content Marketing Campaign
Aaron Agius is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of the award-winning global marketing agency Louder.Online.
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As our digital marketing agency, Louder.Online, has grown, we’ve been fortunate to work with many well-known companies, including businesses on the Fortune 500 and Global 2000 lists.
Seeing the strategies executed by companies at this level has been an incredible experience. But it’s clear that their approach is so inaccessible to those who are new to content marketing that they’re practically a different species.
Imagine you lead a young startup or a small company. You don’t have dozens of writers, designers or videographers at your disposal — let alone the budget to adequately support multiple channels simultaneously. How are you supposed to compete with worldwide enterprises that can commit seven figures (or more) to their campaigns?
The good news is that you don’t actually need to compete with them — or achieve their level of maturity right out of the gate. Content marketing allows you to form direct relationships with your target customers. So as long as you can get in front of their faces with compelling content, it doesn’t matter if your company boasts a staff of two or 2,000.
Here’s how to do it with a minimum viable content marketing campaign:
Who are you trying to reach?
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Before you plan any content strategies or create any content, you need to know who you’re trying to reach. If you have buyer personas in place, use them as your starting point. If you don’t, try to answer the following questions:
• What pain points do your customers share?
• What problems are they trying to solve?
• What questions are they asking?
• What topics or trends are top of mind for them?
• Where do they like to hang out online?
Your sales, customer success or customer service departments can be invaluable resources in answering these questions. My somewhat-controversial three-question buyer persona hack might also give you enough insight to develop a working understanding of your target customers to feel comfortable investing in content.
What resources do you have access to?
When it comes to content creation, you have two options: You can free up internal resources or you can find support externally.
Take a quick survey around your office. Who at your company has creative talent? Of those people, who has the free time or available bandwidth to allocate to a content marketing project?
If you don’t have internal talent, how much can you budget for external resources? Keep in mind that both quality and content type will affect how much you pay for content creation. A decent writer, for example, will cost far less to work with than a top-of-the-line video production company.
What does content marketing need to achieve for you?
You shouldn’t be creating content just because someone told you that you need to invest in content marketing. Ideally, the content you create and the way you deploy it will be aligned with your company’s larger business goals.
For example, imagine that your primary goal is to increase the number of visitors coming to your company’s website from the organic search results. Your ideal content marketing approach is going to be very different from a business that’s trying to generate B2B sales leads for its salespeople to follow up with.
Ideally, your understanding of your goals will lead you to at least two to three key performance indicators (KPIs) or target metrics you’ll track. Your minimum viable content marketing plan is only a starting point. You’ll need to continually iterate it to become more successful — and you can only do that if you’re capturing and measuring performance data.
What is the smallest number of content pieces you can create to achieve your goals?
At this point, you should have insight into:
• Who your content will target
• What resources you have access to (and what that means in terms of the content types you can create and the strategies you can execute)
• What you need your content to do to be successful
Your next step is to figure out a campaign structure that’s as lean and efficient as possible. Let’s use the two examples below to explore what this might look like in the real world.
Let’s say your goal is to generate SEO traffic. You’ll need on-site content to achieve this goal, but that doesn’t mean you have to jump into pillar pages or lengthy resources to succeed. As an alternative, you could start with several shorter blog posts targeting long-tail, low-competition keywords. Over time, you could measure the performance of each post and scale up those that get some traction in the search results.
On the other hand, consider the B2B lead generation campaign example. Here, at a minimum, we’re going to need a lead-capture mechanism, a desirable offer and a content strategy that gets the offer into the right people’s hands.
Setting up the lead-capture mechanism may require creating a landing page, building out an opt-in form and implementing an email program to capture addresses. Your desirable offer could be anything from a one- to two-page content upgrade to an hour-long webinar — though in the spirit of the minimum viable plan, you’ll want to start with whatever content type requires the lowest possible investment while still demonstrating sufficient value to your audience in exchange for their opt-in.
Finally, there’s promotion. Every content marketing strategy needs attention paid to getting the right content in front of the right people. If your goal is SEO traffic, optimizing your content is its promotion. By contrast, generating attendance for a webinar might require additional strategies and investment.
Bringing all of these elements together will make it possible to get your first content marketing campaign together without overthinking or overcomplicating the process. But treat it as a one-time campaign — something that lets you dip your toes in the content marketing waters. As soon as possible, look for opportunities to deepen or change your approach, based on the initial data you’re seeing.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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b7e840358253911cbbf57542ec4ca39a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/15/five-conversion-domination-strategies-for-2021/?sh=7ad567784395 | Five Conversion Domination Strategies For 2021 | Five Conversion Domination Strategies For 2021
Bernard May is the CEO of National Positions, a 5-time Inc. 500 company, award-winning marketing agency and Google Premier Partner.
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Brands, businesses and marketing agencies alike have a habit of living in a world of data-driven abundance. Drive more traffic, get more clicks, attract more attention. This continuous echo of "more" as the only real goal has resulted in many acting as the Sisyphus of the digital world.
But what if more (of everything) is not the issue? After all, what you are able to do with all of this attention is just as important, if not more, than a never-ending mission for a greater volume of it.
How are you converting this attention? What are you measuring and strategizing in order to convert attention into interest into revenue into profits, and into a scalable plan for your brand? You could be driving 10 times more traffic, getting 5 times your average session duration, and 20 times more views on your blog or product pages...but if none of this is converting, what is it really worth?
To grow, scale and expand your brand, you must focus on optimizing your conversion rates (CRO) across SEO, PPC, social media, email and beyond. It may be time to transfer the crown from content to conversion, as conversion just might be the actual king.
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With that, let's uncover what you can do to put conversion at the center of all your marketing campaigns in 2021.
Learn to Love the Data
To improve conversions, you need to get comfortable with the data. The best place to start is by diving into Google Analytics (GA) to find your conversion opportunities. Check out where (and how) your visitors are entering your site, bouncing off your site, and spending the most and least amount of time on your site.
The pages with the most consistent traffic should be your starting points. Do you have goals set up in GA for these pages? Do you have calls to action on these pages? Is your content keeping users on these pages and driving them further along the customer journey?
Understand these benchmarks so you're able to effectively measure your conversion success when you begin to make changes or updates.
Give Every Page a Goal
Before you create any new pages on your site, ask yourself: What do I want my customer to do? Do you want them to fill out a form? Download an e-book? Schedule an appointment? Not every conversion needs to be a sale, but there does need to be a goal to convert against so you can measure.
As mentioned previously, whatever the goal is — even if it's a link click — track this goal so you can measure its success.
Pretend that whatever page you are creating — from a blog post to a product overview — is the only page a visitor will see, and give them an action to take (goal) that you can track, measure and optimize over time.
Reduce Conversion Friction
Generally, there are many friction points along the path to conversion. This is most common on landing pages, which you should consider most pages on your website to be. Once you have your goal in mind, you want to reduce or eliminate any friction a customer may have in reaching that goal: a misplaced button, a site that is not viewable on mobile, a link that doesn't work, or even unclear messaging.
Make the conversion, micro-conversion or goal you're measuring as straight a line as possible; guide a visitor's focus to exactly where you'd like it to go.
Ask yourself: Do my images or video assets build trust and add clarity to the words on the page? Does each section of my page build upon the preceding section? Are my tone and messaging consistent from page title to footer? Do I have clear calls to action in place?
Build each page with an obvious purpose and be sure you get a second (and third) set of eyes on it for some unbiased feedback.
Remember, Audience Context Matters
If you're trying to talk to everyone, you will end up speaking to no one. A huge part of driving conversions is inspiring trust, and, assuming all technical friction is eliminated, the only way to build trust is with the content on the page (and the context within that content).
For example, if you uncover that a large majority of your site or landing page views are coming from women aged 24-44, then the context of your page copy, imagery and videos should reflect this.
Using context, language and messaging that connects emotionally and resonates with this audience can make a huge difference when it comes to conversions. So, whoever your audience may be, make sure the context of your content across the board is following suit to build trust and connection and improve conversion rates.
Add More Steak and Less Sizzle
In short, get to the point and don't try too hard to be "cute" with your page content. If the visitor is already on your page, they are already interested. They've checked out the menu. Now you need to give them something to sink their teeth into.
Show them your solutions, connect it to their pain points, prove your value with examples or reviews, give them an offer they can't refuse and ask for action. You don't need to be pushy but strive to be concise with everything that is on your page while making it just meaty enough so they want more. What is more? That final conversion.
To keep with this food metaphor, the content on your dinner plate (site page) will encompass and be driven by all the buffet of data points we have discussed. So make sure the entrée you make is being prepared for the right customer.
Convert…or Bust!
No matter the kind of campaign you are running, conversion should be at its core. It doesn't matter if you have a nonprofit or a billion-dollar enterprise. If people aren't taking action, they aren't converting, and without conversion, growth is an impossibility. So, let's strive to convert more, not just attract more attention for attention's sake.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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22401cb266e9fbebe9ba5368b77130ce | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/16/how-to-advertise-on-streaming-video-platforms-14-essential-tips/?sh=1c88226b13c7 | How To Advertise On Streaming Video Platforms: 14 Essential Tips | How To Advertise On Streaming Video Platforms: 14 Essential Tips
The pandemic has seen many people camping out in front of their televisions and other streaming devices. More individuals than ever before now spend large amounts of time binge-watching their favorite streaming video content. In an environment so ripe for reaching target audiences, streaming ad spend has increased this year and is still on the rise.
Advertising on streaming services, also known as over-the-top advertising, is distinct from its television counterpart in many ways. Taking the same, standard approaches to creating ads for this space may not be as effective.
We asked members of Forbes Agency Council to give us their No. 1 piece of advice for brands thinking about OTT advertising on streaming platforms. Here, 16 agency professionals weigh in on what businesses should keep in mind when investing in this marketing channel.
Forbes Agency Council members offer essential tips for advertising on streaming platforms. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Be Bold And Disruptive
Disrupt—don’t use the traditional advertising approach. With so many advertisers moving to the streaming platforms, you need to instantly win the audience’s attention. Keeping your ad the same as your network television buy is not the best idea. Think out of the box and really get bold. - Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency
2. Create Ads That Feel Native To Viewers
Get your advertising creative to look and feel as native as possible to the person viewing it. If it looks and feels like a continuation of what they are binge-watching, it’s going to speak to them in their language and will be more likely to drive them to action. Using the levers of personalization and contextualization will increase conversion. - Gavin Baker, Baker Labs
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3. Make It Concise And Engaging
Make it short, simple and concise but still engaging. People hate ads, especially before videos that they are streaming. If you can keep your ad between five and 10 seconds long, get your point across and still engage with your audience in a way that they will remember, your ad will stick in their minds. More importantly, it won’t anger them that they have to sit through a long, non-skippable ad. - Jason Hall, FiveChannels Marketing
4. Make Sure Your Audience Is There
Make sure your target audience is consuming those streams. Advertising on a platform that streams movies or TV shows is expensive. Before you do that, you want to be certain that’s where your customers are. Then, double-check your content. We’ve had clients that made this work for them. They went through nine different versions of an ad. - Danny Star, Website Depot
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Speak To People’s Current Emotions
Speak to the emotions that people are feeling. Comment on the moment at hand. Don’t shy away from what is real right now and what drives viewers to constant streaming. We are in unprecedented times, and content must acknowledge, reassure and offer support for whatever audiences are feeling right now. - Lynne Golodner, Your People LLC
6. Use Geotargeting And Build Dynamic Content
Advertising on streaming platforms is a far cry from traditional broadcast advertising. Streaming offers enhanced targeting, so brands should develop a strategy that’s similar to what they might implement on other digital channels, such as display or social. Determine your target audiences, use geotargeting and build dynamic content that speaks directly to each of your audience’s interests. - Carey Kirkpatrick, CKP
7. Make Bespoke Creative For The Platform
If you’re placing media within a streamer for a captive audience, take advantage of that opportunity. Beyond strategic media planning, creative can break through. Your creative can lean into storytelling and entertainment, drafting off of the themes this target customer clearly enjoys. - Marc Becker, The Tangent Agency
8. Leverage Attribution Tracking
If you do not have a way to measure and value top-of-the-funnel awareness, you need to put attribution tracking in place. This should be done ahead of advertising on OTT platforms, as it will be a wasted investment without measurement. - Megan Cunningham, Magnet Media, Inc.
9. Make Your Advertising ‘Binge-Worthy’
If your audience is on a content binge, your advertising needs to be “binge-worthy” as well: engaging, addictive, funny or emotional. The bar to grab someone’s attention on streaming platforms is higher than it might be elsewhere, so be careful that your story is worth the consumer’s time. - Craig Greiwe, Rogers & Cowan
10. Don’t Be Too Intrusive
Don’t be too intrusive and be more exclusive when you are considering streaming services for advertising. Pick the proper audience demographics for your market and don’t just approach the biggest names on the internet. Research to find out which exclusive streaming services your audience subscribes to. Do a survey or conduct focus groups so that you get to know your audience even more. - Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
11. Know Where Your Content Is Shown
One of the most important things is to make sure that you are aware of all of the places that your content is going to be shown. The main reason for that is that you do not want to have your brand represented in a place you do not approve, and you need to specify all of this. Speaking to all of the managers out there, you need to ensure that you will know where your content appears. - Jon James, Ignited Results
12. Be Ready To Compete With High Production Quality
Consider that movies and TV shows have significant production budgets. Your video content has to compete with that professionally produced content. Make sure your budget and team can compete with the streaming content and deliver to your audience. - Jim Caruso, M1PR, Inc. d/b/a MediaFirst PR - Atlanta
13. Clearly Direct Viewers Back To Your Website
When advertising on streaming platforms, always make sure that you are still clearly directing viewers back to your website. This method of advertising differs from traditional digital marketing because users can’t just click through to your site and aren’t able to leave the screen to do this. - Spencer Hadelman, Advantage Marketing
14. Don’t Think Of Streaming Platforms As Broadcast Media
Consumers might be watching your ad on a TV, but the beauty of streaming services is the ability they offer advertisers to get very granular in their media placements. Have an extremely clear picture of your target audience in mind before placement, and then buy OTT spots that align with content your audience consumes. - Mary Ann O’Brien, OBI Creative
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fd0df0ac5bd26a52cc437a183da874c7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/16/how-to-grow-your-business-with-social-media/ | How To Grow Your Business With Social Media | How To Grow Your Business With Social Media
Amy Osmond Cook, Ph.D., is the Chief Marketing Officer for Simplus.
Organic social media traffic is really struggling right now. Reach and engagement numbers are low. For example on Facebook, it's estimated that the average reach for organic content is roughly 5%. One of the reasons is that there is so much content out there.
Using social media is an excellent way to expand your client list, but you have to make sure you approach it in the right way to stand out from the pack. Here are three steps you can start with to put your best digital foot forward and build the connections that will help your business grow.
Choose Your Channels
When looking for new clients, first consider where your target audience spends their time online. One way to do this is to look at demographic data for the large social media sites. For example, Twitter is a hub for international connections, particularly among journalists. In 2019 it was estimated that about 262 of the 330 million global monthly users were outside the U.S. If you want to break news from around the world, Twitter is an important channel to use.
If you want to reach the business world, building your presence on LinkedIn is an obvious choice. Many professionals connect on LinkedIn to network and investigate leads. In fact, according to a 2017 LinkedIn marketing guide, 91% of executives go to LinkedIn first for relevant content. On the other hand, if your focus is on consumers, you might want to build up a presence on Facebook. Facebook is the second most used social media platform in the world, and according to Pew Research, 69% of U.S. adults use Facebook. Choosing your channels is critical when trying to grow your client list and is the first step in successful social media lead generation.
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Build Your Brand
Once you figure out which virtual water coolers you want to have conversations at, it's time to build your brand presence. To make successful connections, prospective contacts must trust your company's online persona because your page is all they can see of your business. This usually means that you should focus first on creating engagement with your page and content. The more content, likes, comments and shares you have, the more trustworthy you become to prospective and current customers.
There are several components to building a brand. One easy way is to post photos and videos that feature your employees and their accomplishments. Seeing their faces will help page visitors get to know the great people at the company and trust their expertise. Another important way to build your brand is to establish thought leadership with blogs and articles in your field of expertise.
A LinkedIn marketing survey found that more than half of decision-makers (55%) used thought leadership to vet companies. Thought leadership shows that you have a clear grasp of your business and a strong vision for the future of your industry, which is very attractive to decision-makers. In the same study, 45% of decision-makers said thought leadership they reviewed caused them to invite companies to participate in RFPs or other bids when they weren't previously considering them, and 57% said thought leadership directly led to them giving their business to the company. Thought leadership, including blogs, articles, visual and multimedia content, gives you the ability to carve out your niche on social media.
Find Your Leads
Once you have established yourself as a thought leader with a great company culture on the right social media channels, then it is time to start focusing on getting leads for your business either organically or through advertising spend.
Organic growth is what it sounds like — the natural spread of your content between people already in your network. The best way to encourage this is to produce interactive content for those who follow you and that you follow on a consistent schedule. Of the 20,000 marketers surveyed by the Content Marketing Institute, 77% agreed that interactive content provides elevated value through multiple engagements resulting in repeat visitors. Consumers also like visual content. In 2019, Inc.com reported that nine out of 10 marketers were planning on making visual content a central part of their marketing strategy. Once you create the content, encourage people in your close network to share, and boom, your content is being seen by hundreds of new eyes.
The other form of growth is growth by advertisement. This avenue costs a little money, but when used strategically, paid advertising boosts your content beyond the scope of what you could do on your own. One tip to maximize the benefit of advertising without going over budget is to only pay for advertising boosts on the platforms most used by your targeted industry.
Paid advertising also automatically tracks consumer response, so for maximum efficiency, you can see which of your posts results in the most conversions, and produce more of that type of content in the same place.
When trying to make progress on social media, lead generation and brand building are intertwined. You need both to be successful on social media, so don't stress too much if your content lends to one over the other. The real measure of your success is the response you get (i.e., your reviews). Stay tuned for another article about how to optimize and utilize your reviews once you have a strong social media presence.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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64114e947db8912c0b55a41a1868ec76 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/21/five-creative-ways-intent-data-can-drive-b2b-saas-growth-into-2021/?sh=7e6bf32015a9 | Five Creative Ways Intent Data Can Drive B2B SaaS Growth Into 2021 | Five Creative Ways Intent Data Can Drive B2B SaaS Growth Into 2021
Founder and Principal of Scratch Marketing + Media.
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Like everything else, the pandemic upended plans for marketing and sales this year, forcing every team to adapt their tactics to a remote-first world. Trade shows became virtual, cell phones became work phones and reverse IP lookups became ineffective for account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns.
As 2020 nears its end, many marketing and sales executives are wondering how they can focus resources to drive growth in 2021.
Intent data — behavioral information collected about an individual’s online activities — may not be the holy grail, but it can certainly add some spice to the season. Here are some tried-and-true — and unexpectedly clever — ways you can up your marketing, sales and PR game with help from intent data insights.
Segment, Prioritize and Target ABM Efforts
Consider this the time-tested use case for intent data. Most of us marketers agree (87%, according to ISMA) that ABM outperforms traditional lead generation tactics. However, what some of us have realized is that first-party intent data — data you can capture from your site visitors, email engagements or banner click-throughs — is no longer cutting it.
To adapt, some of us have ventured into less charted waters — using second- and third-party data. This approach leverages someone else’s first-party data to drive more targeted insights on who’s in the market for what, where buyers are in the funnel, which competitors are in their consideration and what topics resonate with each segment.
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The trick is in the combination of first-, second- and third-party data to segment, prioritize and target specific accounts and the buying committees within them. This data includes reverse IP lookups and cookies (first- or second-party), DSP data (third-party data based on banner clickstream activity) and a new entrant to the mix: public activity data, which can track public signs of research and engagement for your funnel-specific keywords. The interaction of these intent data sources is where the magic of ABM comes to life.
Remember, ABM is an opportunity for sales and marketing alignment; ABM is really target account sales.
Get Ahead of Customer Churn, Flip Your Cross- and Up-sell Game
Churn is inevitable in this economy. Intent data can help customer success teams anticipate this churn and get ahead of it — especially with renewal season in full swing.
With your first-party data — your quarterly business reviews with customers, NPS scores and even in-app usage data — you can track your customers’ pulse. With second-party data, you can track which customers are researching your competitors — on G2Crowd or TechTarget, for example. Add in third-party data and you can monitor which customers are engaging with competitors’ virtual events, following competitors on social media, or asking questions related to your product category on open forums.
Combine all three and you can get comprehensive intelligence on potential churn to prioritize your retention efforts. You’ll be able to synthesize key messages in response to what your customers have already seen to keep them engaged. You can even discover up-sell and cross-sell signals along the way.
Accelerate Your Sales Pipeline
Intent data can help sales teams finish the year strong and build next year’s pipeline early by reaching prospects before your competition does. Instead of waiting for prospects to join a webinar or download a white paper, intent data lets you infer what prospects are thinking and monitor who they’re engaging with.
With intent data, you can also tailor your outreach to your prospects’ seniority, function, stage in the buying journey and knowledge of the competitive landscape, taking the guesswork out of relationship building and cold calling. And if your data provides contact level information, your sales team will have an even deeper understanding of the dynamics of your prospects’ buying team and how to adapt your outreach accordingly.
Drive Targeted Thought Leadership
High-level market trends are hard to spot while they’re unfolding. But what if you knew what content your target segments at every decision level are engaging with, say, on a quarterly basis? You could flex your content marketing to address the buyers’ journey head-on. How valuable would it be to know what’s trending on the mind of CISOs (chief information security officers) at, say, fintech, retail or manufacturing companies? You could not only target your content strategy to address changing demands, but you could also drive insightful research reports that get wider media pickup while positioning you as the emerging thought leader.
With intent data, you can analyze what personas at different seniority levels are engaging from quarter to quarter. You’ll also gain perspective on how the buyer journey unfolds across different industries. By mining public activity data, you could have your own “think tank” with quarterly research on the biggest challenges, pain points and opportunities facing your buyer personas. This insight can help you develop more original and impactful content that resonates with your target audiences’ experience and builds on or challenges their assumptions.
Predictive PR
If you’re a PR pro working in tech, you’ve probably been asked this question more than once: “Can you get us in the Wall Street Journal?”
Usually, the answer is no. But there’s a clever way to use intent data to predict what coveted reporters will write about next, increasing your chances of landing coverage in top-tier publications.
As reporters write their stories, some post on HARO, others react to articles on forums or social media. If you can harness that reporter activity data, would you go back to emailing or calling for coverage?
Intent data can help you track what content and topics specific reporters at your target publications are engaging with online, so you can create proactive and contextual media and influencer pitches. It’s a win-win: PR pros waste less time on mismatched pitches, and reporters gain information relevant to their stories in progress.
As the year is coming to an end, let’s all add one wish to our list for 2021 list: to go beyond first-party data and embrace its interaction with second- and third-party data. Not only will you get the marketing and sales creative wheel churning, but you will also get ahead of the pipeline game.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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c207a5d3677609fd60b7a57eb51102f3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/22/insights-on-the-top-marketing-trends-for-2021/?sh=6111e8461fc9 | Insights On The Top Marketing Trends For 2021 | Insights On The Top Marketing Trends For 2021
Janét Aizenstros is the CEO of Ahava Digital, which provides corporations with ethically-sourced verified data on American consumers.
getty
This year has been a roller coaster of unprecedented changes as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc around the globe. During the first quarter of the year, we witnessed significant shifts in consumer spending as the uncertainty caused people to stock up on essentials. Lockdowns forced people to rely on online services for work, entertainment, shopping and other matters. These changes have paved the way for new marketing trends, which I will highlight in this article, but first, let's review the factors that affect marketing trends and how companies respond to them.
Factors Affecting Marketing Trends And Responses
Internal factors
All the essential parts of a business, including production and finance, can significantly impact a company's marketing strategy and how it responds to trends. For example, a business with a limited marketing budget may not leverage multiple channels to reach a wider audience.
External factors
Four external factors influence marketing trends and how companies respond:
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1. The Economy
The economy helps shape marketing trends as it has a direct effect on consumption. Expansion, peak, contraction and trough are the four stages of the economic cycle, and they all greatly affect marketing campaigns, prices and products.
2. Competition
Competitors offering similar products and services can influence marketing trends and strategies. Although competition is a business challenge, it can also help you strategically plan your marketing campaign to gain an advantage over your competitors.
3. Demographics
Demographics play an important role in an organization's marketing strategy. Age, gender, race and ethnicity, marital status, income, etc., can significantly impact customer spending behavior.
4. Sociocultural Factors
Sociocultural factors significantly impact marketing trends, and these factors often call for different marketing campaigns. Successful marketing campaigns leverage these sociocultural factors to build a connection with customers and encourage consumption.
The Top Marketing Trends For 2021
Now the moment of truth: Deloitte has identified the top global marketing trends for 2021. Here's my take on them based on what I've seen happening in the marketing industry.
Defining And Highlighting Purpose
Businesses that know why they exist, whom they serve and their purpose have successfully navigated through these uncertain times. When many businesses are struggling to find their feet, CMOs who understand their company's purpose and know how to highlight it are the drivers of this navigation.
Recently, Burger King put its long-standing rivalry with McDonald's aside and asked people to order from its biggest competitor. Similarly, Nike announced that it was donating merchandise worth $5.5 million to front-line healthcare workers. Other major brands, including Timberland, Reebok and Adidas, donated to Sneakers for Heroes, an initiative to provide comfortable footwear to healthcare workers. From what I've seen, many CMOs around the world are taking note of examples like these, and I believe many will be implementing a similar marketing approach in the future.
Achieving Agility
Agile marketing isn't just a beneficial strategy now; it is a means of survival. Throughout this year, marketing experts that practiced agility during the pandemic ran successful campaigns. Nike's "Play Inside, Play for the World" campaign is a fitting example of an agile marketing campaign in which the company leveraged its digital ecosystem to encourage social distancing during the pandemic. I think similarly agile marketing campaigns will become more common next year.
Making Human Connections
Businesses that focus on making authentic connections instead of focusing just on efficiency and speed to market remained successful during the pandemic. The children's apparel brand Carter's launched a family-centric campaign called "Stay Home & Make Memories," starring employees and their children. The ad focused on embracing time with family and friends at home. The brand also pledged to donate $1 million worth of products to families affected by the pandemic. Research has shown that a company's charitable donations affect over 70% of U.S. consumers' purchasing decisions. As reported by Harvard Business Review, "emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers." They are more loyal and buy more with less price sensitivity. Such practices are likely to become more common next year.
Building Trust
E-commerce reached new heights this year as people stayed home. Although this growth is circumstantial, e-commerce companies may be able to sustain it by building trust among consumers. Marketing practices that help brands build trust, such as providing customer testimonials, will likely prevail next year as they are known to provide fruitful results.
Strengthening Customer Participation
I think the future of customer participation will go beyond joining discussions, writing online reviews, and suggesting services or products to other consumers. Businesses that strengthen customer engagement will likely be able to run more successful marketing campaigns. This strategy revolves mostly around the timely creation of relevant content; however, businesses can leverage advanced technology to personalize content and further strengthen customer engagement.
Establishing Innovative Partnerships
Although establishing innovative business partnerships is a business strategy, it can still benefit your marketing campaigns. For instance, Ford partnered with 3M, the United Auto Workers, and GE Healthcare to manufacture ventilators for Covid-19 patients. Similarly, Siemens AG opened its Additive Manufacturing Network to support those who want to produce medical equipment. Such practices are typically well received, and I think we'll see more of these kinds of partnerships next year.
Transforming Talent
The exponential evolution of the digital landscape due to the pandemic has forced many marketing teams to develop new talent models. Those who have been successful in doing so can differentiate themselves from their competitors. The new talent models I've seen revolve around earned and owned media, data insights, and dynamic content creation.
A Lesson For All
Brand loyalty and trust have always been interconnected, but during these uncertain times, their connection is becoming stronger as consumers expect brands to maneuver through hard times efficiently. Executives who fail to make a strategic impact and influence people aren't likely to gain consumer confidence. This year, many executives and brands that responded positively to the pandemic have successfully increased brand loyalty and sustained or gained consumer trust. The pandemic didn't only affect consumer confidence, though; it also affected executives' confidence in their ability to make an impact. However, by aligning yourself with the marketing trends mentioned above, you'll be better positioned to run successful marketing campaigns.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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bc2980dd6f424373b5df8ca80e46327f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/22/the-case-for-seo-content-in-2021-and-beyond/?sh=19669155573a | The Case For SEO Content In 2021 (And Beyond) | The Case For SEO Content In 2021 (And Beyond)
President and Director of Business Development at We Do Web Content.
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As we approach the end of 2020 — a wild year of pandemic proportions, indeed — it becomes time for businesses to consider how they plan on adapting their marketing strategy after the new year. Many of the best practices — write great content, engage on social media, invest in SEO — still ring true, but what, if anything, do we expect will change in 2021?
Well, we know for certain that a strong case can be made for SEO content creation and content marketing. Original, engaging content is in high demand and presents massive potential for businesses to reach even more customers in the remaining months of 2020 and beyond.
In this article, I present tangible evidence that makes the case for SEO content and why it should remain a high priority for forward-thinking brands.
Content As a Competitive Difference Maker
Entering this practice area likely means overcoming some fierce competition.
Based on the success we’ve seen with our clients, SEO content creation — ranking organically for highly competitive search terms and generating leads through high-value, search engine optimized content — can help you meet goals like shifting your brand recognition (and, therefore, your marketing strategy).
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Before starting with this approach, one of our client’s websites ranked for 675 keywords and had an estimated traffic value of $14,800. Nine months after implementing it, however, they were ranking for over 15,500 keywords, with a monthly traffic cost of $2.5 million, while their Google organic traffic increased by a whopping 2,076%.
Brand Recognition & Visibility
For businesses that have brand recognition already, they must maximize their visibility for both branded and non-branded keywords. This means creating content for not just their branded company pages, but also service-related, location-related or product-related keywords. Content creation for branded webpages and informative blog articles is essential for greater brand recognition and visibility.
For example, one of our clients, a nationally recognized civil rights attorney, had bigger plans to expand his law firm into all things personal injury law. His business was already raking in a decent amount of traffic for its branded terms, but they needed to expand or risk tapping out on their traffic potential. By targeting broader, non-branded terms (such as “personal injury lawyer”), they were able to cast a wider net and reach even more clients.
Google Rankings & Traffic
While technical and on-page SEO are important pieces of the SEO pie, content creation is tantamount when it comes to targeting a wider range of keywords and driving organic traffic. Brands looking to generate more Google traffic in 2020 and beyond should continue to invest in SEO content creation and marketing.
In our opinion, when it comes to content, FAQs are a must and a highly rankable opportunity. With the growth of voice search, FAQs lend a brand or company the opportunity to answer the questions a user may be searching for.
Backlinks & Website Authority
Another difference-maker with SEO content is identifying new backlink opportunities for media outreach. Find semantic gaps and map out an SEO content strategy for the next 6 to 12 months. This can allow you to attract high-quality backlinks, which improves overall site authority.
With the creation of national pages and geo-targeted content, our client (mentioned above) improved their rankings for a wider range of terms. That’s the power of search engine optimized content.
For brands that invest strategically in content creation, they can improve their PR, increase website authority, generate more referral traffic and improve Google rankings all in one.
Organic Leads & Revenue
The results of SEO content creation don’t just stop with Google. By targeting the right terms for the right audience, brands can generate more leads and improve conversions on site. The key is in identifying the terms your target audience is using to find brands, services or products like yours.
Fortunately, there are many success stories that make a strong case for SEO content creation. Beyond keyword rankings and traffic, great content can make all the difference when it comes to generating more, better quality leads and increasing a brand’s bottom line.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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c6657b1cd0964e78379655eecff292d6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/23/live-shopping-and-social-retail-are-the-future-for-e-commerce/ | Live Shopping And Social Retail Are The Future For E-Commerce | Live Shopping And Social Retail Are The Future For E-Commerce
Steve is the Founder & CEO of MuteSix, a leading performance marketing agency that has scaled the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce brands.
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Brick-and-mortar retail was a significant revenue-driver as recently as 2019 — even digitally native brands, like Everlane and Allbirds, moved to open storefronts over the past few years. But Covid-19 has changed everything, accelerating levels of e-commerce growth not previously expected until at least 2022.
This next phase of retail lies in "live shopping" — interactive content from which a consumer can directly make a purchase — spurring a shopping experience starkly different from the days when HSN and catalogs once dominated.
The opportunity for brands to reach and convert more customers is unprecedented, and recent shopping updates from social media giants like Facebook and TikTok signal this is only the beginning. Here's what's new and what it means for the future of e-commerce.
Instagram's new checkout feature will make it easier than ever to sell products through the app.
Shopping is becoming increasingly convenient, and consumers appreciate it. People want a simple user experience, and Facebook is providing that through their various owned platforms — most notably via Instagram.
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Instagram Checkout allows users to quickly buy a product without ever leaving the app. Their payment details are then saved for future orders — creating a seamless purchase process and another valuable touchpoint to convert more customers and increase sales fast.
Not only will users be able to shop directly from brands' posts, but the update also allows access to other features like "Shopping from Creators" and "Live Shopping." People can buy products straight from an influencer's feed and stories, while companies are provided tools to better attribute revenue to those posts.
It's no secret the impact influencers have on the Instagram ecosystem. For example, they've single-handedly shifted the popularity and value to stories and away from in-feed posts. These new shopping updates signal that it will be more important than ever to strengthen your brand's influencer relationships. Consumers will continue to expect more authentic content from brands as social retail increasingly becomes the norm, and there's no better way to create that content than with an influencer.
TikTok announced its first commerce partnership with Shopify.
TikTok is one of the most downloaded apps with global downloads reaching beyond 2 billion, with Q1 of 2020 marking 315 million downloads in a single quarter. The platform generated $115.3 million from user spending in 2019, yet only about 4% of U.S. social media marketers were using the platform at that time.
What may be marginalized as a Gen Z-only platform has a surprising audience that marketers can (and should) leverage to grow their brand. While most users fall between the ages of 16 and 24, it's worth noting that about 40% of TikTok profiles belong to users over 25.
TikTok has found itself in the position to be a leading revenue-driver for brands, and Shopify was the first to step in and fill the void. The pair announced their commerce partnership last month; merchants can now deploy in-feed, shoppable video ads on TikTok, directly within their Shopify store.
This partnership is just the start of what is sure to be a domino effect on TikTok as more brands look to interact with Gen Z. Businesses will, in tandem, start to gain the ability to directly attribute revenue to specific content and actions as the platform continues to grow and evolve.
As it stands, there are very few sponsored posts that live on TikTok, combined with a disproportionate amount of daily users versus brand accounts. This presents an immense opportunity to drive brand awareness on a platform with little competition — but expect these circumstances to change quickly.
TikTok understands its advantage, and they will likely soon deliver a better solution for marketers to track ROI. The Shopify integration is the first significant step toward a more profitable business model, and brands should be paying close attention to how the partnership plays out.
Amazon Live has taken on live shopping, too.
Arguably the most dominant selling platform in existence, Amazon could very well move into the social media space as the lines between social networking and e-commerce continue to be blurred. As Facebook and TikTok ramp up their shoppable features, Amazon is simultaneously working on weaving influencers and organic-looking content into its selling strategy.
The retail giant has taken cues from both QVC and Instagram to create its own live shopping experience: Amazon Live. Here, hosts and guests promote and interact with shoppable products. They've also introduced lifestyle videos spanning topics like "Recipes" and "Getting Fit" to provide use-case examples and content for promoted products and brands.
Like Amazon's Twitch.tv platform, streamers can actively chat about what they are watching on Amazon Live, adding social commentary between brands and potential customers. This level of interaction, content and interconnectivity between Amazon and its shoppers adds a new element of bringing reviews, videos, and purchasing together to benefit brands, advertisers and consumers alike.
The takeaway: Be agile.
It's crucial for brand owners to stay informed and aware of the changing online ecosystem as they invest in making social platforms profitable channels for their business. The shift toward live shopping and social retail will only continue to intensify; social media has undoubtedly become an integral part of our society, and advertising best-practices are known to follow consumer behavior.
Brands that are quick to pivot and adapt to new features and platforms will likely be those that succeed in performance marketing and in turn help shape this newly forming trend.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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662e9269b4a0a97c38181a222738f720 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/23/social-media-trend-chasing-can-damage-your-brand/?sh=16fccbe34098 | Social Media Trend Chasing Can Damage Your Brand | Social Media Trend Chasing Can Damage Your Brand
Christopher is the co-founder, head strategist and CEO of The Go! Agency, a full-service digital marketing agency.
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Recently, Hootsuite released its annual report predicting some of the hottest new social media trends for 2021, including a new focus on the baby boomer generation and a reevaluation for some brands where their social media presence is concerned. In the rapidly expanding digital frontier, it can be frustrating trying to keep up with all of the latest fads. Here’s the good news: You don’t have to. In fact, you probably shouldn’t.
Trend chasing is a dangerous game. It can be very hard to master every emerging trend, and even if you do, your audience will likely be aware of what you’re doing. Struggle and desperation are not good looks for a brand, and ironically, nothing drives an audience away more than when a business is trying too hard to appeal to them.
That said, sometimes taking a risk by jumping on a social media trend can be worth it, if you do your homework and go about it in the right way.
The Key To Trend Success: Audience Research
Not every new trend is going to apply to your brand or audience. For instance, thanks to social media, many brands are becoming increasingly connected to their specific audiences and getting personal with them, but there’s a risk in going after a too-narrow audience.
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Several years ago, Gatorade released its “Sweat It to Get It” campaign, which advertised that you need to sweat to “earn” a bottle. Setting conditions for buying your product is a nontraditional marketing technique, to say the least. To me, it seems as if Gatorade was trying to appeal specifically to athletes and gym junkies. However, Gatorade is readily available in supermarkets and convenience stores, not only in specialized health and supplement stores. So even if its ad was speaking to its desired audience, the way the product is distributed is not.
Let’s imagine that this campaign had launched yesterday. In today’s social media climate, “Sweat It to Get It” probably would have faced harsh backlash and accusations of body-shaming. Social media has evolved, and many users expect an empathetic tone, whether it is the best fit for the product or not.
Ultimately, whether this campaign was successful depends on how Gatorade measures things, but if I were an executive at PepsiCo, I might have brought the media team to task for potentially alienating many of the brand’s customers.
Conducting audience research is a critical first step in succeeding at online trends. By knowing the makeup of your audience — race, gender, age, locations where heavy clusters of your followers live — you can more easily follow the trends proven to appeal to your core demographic.
An easy way to get a feel for what your audience is thinking is to start by asking internally. For new content, run it by members of your organization who didn’t have a hand in crafting it. It helps to get direct, in-person feedback before you decide to post something. If you have members of your company who fit into one or more of the demographics you’re targeting, make sure you pay special attention to their answers. What are their concerns? Why do they and people in their circle interact with your brand? What kind of content are they interacting with that you aren’t producing?
If you don’t have anyone from the audience you’re trying to appeal to, take your questions directly to the customers. Ask your social media followers what they want to see from your brand. Customers aren’t shy when they’re talking to a faceless brand on the internet; if there’s a demand for something or a tone they’d like to see you adjust, you’ll likely hear about it.
Chasing A Moment Could Cost You
It’s healthy, to a certain extent, to embrace taking a risk with your brand, but reinvention is a tightrope. Taking too much of a risk by banking too heavily on a new trend could damage your standing with your audience and make your business appear desperate, “salesy” or disconnected.
Social media is the ground where you get to test new and bold ideas, but be sure to keep a close eye on the response you’re getting. Think of your social media presence like open mic night at a comedy club: If you’re performing well and the audience is laughing, you can stretch out your routine. If all you hear are crickets, change topics and never look back. When people aren’t biting, you need to start putting different bait on the line.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when people were rapidly losing their jobs and the future of the economy was looking grim, there was no shortage of sympathy-posting across many brands’ social media channels. I found Coca-Cola’s approach to be noticeable. While everyone else hopped on the same two trends that emerged on social media early in the pandemic — self-care advice and irreverent memes — Coke appears to have focused more on answering the question that all businesses eventually had to consider: In these trying times, how do we still get customers to buy our products?
In July, Coke released the results of its practical planning. The company revolutionized its online interface, extending the purchasing and marketing facets of its online platform. It did this not by trying to make hollow connections with its audience, but by putting front and center the thing customers really cared about: its products.
Meanwhile, do you remember any one of the barrage of companies telling you to have a safe quarantine?
It is incredibly tempting to jump in on the latest social media trend. However, remember that it’s tempting and popular because it’s easy. Always keep this in mind before posting: Not all trends are beneficial to all brands, and just because you can do it doesn’t mean you can do it well. Be bold and take risks, but don’t forget that a failed experiment could cost you your audience.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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aa1cfb0946802542922b5837654f0d63 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/04/using-consumer-data-to-drive-marketing-14-risks-to-be-aware-of/?sh=64af224672df | Using Consumer Data To Drive Marketing? 14 Risks To Be Aware Of | Using Consumer Data To Drive Marketing? 14 Risks To Be Aware Of
To make the best decisions about strategy, marketers today largely depend more on data than on their gut instincts. While data is valuable and can reveal important insights, there are risks involved in betting on consumer data alone.
What are some caveats that companies need to be aware of when using consumer data to inform their marketing initiatives? Here, members of Forbes Agency Council discuss 14 potential risks for businesses relying on consumer data to drive their marketing strategy.
Forbes Agency Council members explore potential risks of using consumer data to drive marketing strategy. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Not Finding The ‘Why’
Data is an effective tool for finding out “what” consumers are doing. Where data falls short is in explaining “why” they are doing it. Smart marketers would be wise to take an “outside-in” approach by connecting with and listening to consumers to humanize the data and fully understand the motivations behind their behaviors. - Camille Nicita, Gongos, Inc.
2. Lacking Focus On Actual Buyers
Shopper insights are readily available and often tapped to inform marketing direction, messaging and overall strategy. I would argue that a more valuable group to tap would be the “purchasers” rather than the shoppers. Brands would be well-served by focusing on who is actually buying their items, then enhancing brand loyalty by targeting others who are of a similar mind and creating a dialogue with these purchasers. - Dave Wendland, Hamacher Resource Group
3. Relying On Hindsight
Too many times, people use data to look in the rearview mirror. This narrows action moving forward and leaves sales on the table. Instead, use data that helps predict what your target is looking for. Then, develop content that is valuable on their terms and start them down the consideration path. - Leonard Cercone, CerconeBrownCompany
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4. Examining Numbers Rather Than Behaviors
The problem with consumer data is the way many brands analyze it. The data isn’t a bunch of numbers; it represents real people who are telling you something. Brands need to examine the behaviors behind the numbers. Only then can they maximize the data’s potential. - Roger Hurni, Off Madison Ave
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Uncontrollable Variables Interfering With Collection
When relying on consumer data to help market, you’re relying heavily on pure online data. The data can lack quality due to many uncontrollable variables that could be interfering with its collection. To counteract these variables, research on the psychological data of consumers can be paired with online data to best market effectively. - Tony Pec, Y Not You Media
6. Failing To Consider The Data’s Context
You need to make sure that you’re thinking through the context of the data and any external factors that may cause shifts in consumer behaviors. For example, when planning for 2021, will you go off of 2019 consumer habits? Or will you look at 2020 and what happened during the pandemic? - Spencer Hadelman, Advantage Marketing
7. ‘Analysis Paralysis’ Leading To Indecision
When there is so much data, “analysis paralysis” can often cause advertisers to avoid making critical decisions. With Facebook ads, for example, we’ve actually seen an improvement recently with broad audiences versus highly targeted audiences because the AI and machine learning is processing and using that data at a faster and more efficient rate than an individual could. - Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint
8. Being Misled By Self-Reported Data
There’s always a chance that consumer data, and especially self-reported data, is misleading. Ultimately, if you are relying on consumer data to fuel your marketing, make sure that the value exchange for them providing good data is substantial. In other words, if you can offer users something useful and/or improve their experience, the likelihood of accurate data collection increases. - Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
9. Not Accounting For Inherent Bias
Be sure to understand and account for any inherent bias in the respondents. For example, if the research data is generated by online panels, then you are likely to have respondents who skew younger in age and are more comfortable using technology. If you are not aware of this, unadjusted insights may misinform your strategies. - Brian Handrigan, Advocado
10. Data Quickly Becoming Obsolete
Relying on data rather than instinct helps marketers develop much more effective strategies and results. One factor to always keep in mind when relying on consumer data is that you have to make sure it’s up to date. With rapidly changing times, data can become obsolete rather quickly. One way to avoid this is to narrow down and combine several data points to ensure the highest quality audiences and results. - Jonathan Durante, Expandify Marketing Inc
11. Being Careless About Data Collection
One of the main risks is not being careful enough about the information you are collecting and how you are collecting it. Many new laws have been put in place recently, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR) in Europe, to ensure that standards of privacy are followed. These standards include things such as how long you can retain someone’s data as well as what you can do with it in the long term. - Jon James, Ignited Results
12. Being Misinformed By Imperfect Data
Consumer data should be used knowing that the data is not perfect. The collected data could come from another member of the household who was using the device the data was collected on instead of from the intended consumer. Keep the halo effect in mind because one person could influence the purchasing decisions of another member of the household. - Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne LLC
13. A Resulting Lack Of Innovation
Did people know they wanted an iPhone before Apple created it? All the consumer data in the world can’t replace innovative thinking when it comes to developing great ideas. If you take a color-by-numbers approach to marketing based on what customers say they want, you will never produce an original work of art that inspires them in ways they had never imagined possible. - Scott Baradell, Idea Grove
14. Not Seeing The Full Picture
You need to understand that the data doesn’t always give the full picture. I watch a lot of people make decisions with the data they have, assuming that is all the information there could be. You need to take a step back and understand the ecosystem in which the data sits so that you can use it to make informed decisions—but don’t solely rely on it. - Erik Huberman, Hawke Media
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be0b1d11d392392577315dd3624164a4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/06/bending-the-rules-innovation-in-the-world-of-decentralized-content/?sh=3d77bfb81336 | Bending The Rules: Innovation In The World Of Decentralized Content | Bending The Rules: Innovation In The World Of Decentralized Content
Ricky Ray Butler is CEO of BEN, an entertainment AI company that places brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music, and film content.
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The media and entertainment industry is experiencing massive change by way of decentralization, or the shifting of power from a few large companies to niche platforms and content creators. The explosion of streaming services and social media platforms is just the first wave of decentralization. In this wave, individuals and companies are creating and monetizing content in new ways. With more creative power in the hands of everyday people, influencers and producers, content creation has become an accessible, generational expression of art that millions participate in every year.
But while decentralization has tremendous power, it also comes with its share of pain points. One of the biggest challenges has been recognizing the need for technology like AI. The simple truth is that the growing rate of content creation and distribution far exceeds what any human can feasibly process. AI is a North Star that can guide us through an endless sea of content and analyze it in a humanlike fashion. AI is already the underpinning technology for viewer recommendations and user experience; it’s time that behavior extends across the ecosystem to brand support of creators.
For brands specifically, navigating a decentralized entertainment landscape can be overwhelming. How do you decide where to invest marketing dollars in a world of content options, cross-pollination, exclusivity and waning viewer attention? Below, we’ll explore how traditional film, streaming and social media are changing the rules of content creation and distribution — and how brands can find loyal and engaged audiences.
The Roma Effect: Changes In Film Production And Distribution
Covid-19 has forced the film industry to reimagine many aspects of traditional production and distribution, but it’s not all bad news: A lot of these changes afford brands more monetization and integration opportunities. One of the biggest distribution shifts is the transition away from movie theaters and toward limited theatrical runs or direct-to-streaming releases. This method has proven successful (Trolls World Tour was released online on the same day as in theaters and made close to $100 million), setting the stage for a future where streaming services will overtake traditional distribution methods.
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Decentralization has also enabled smaller filmmakers to gain international exposure without the backing of large production companies. Last year, for example, Netflix acquired the distribution rights to Roma, an independent film with a low production budget. It went on to receive 10 Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Similarly, Manchester by the Sea had a meager budget and went on to receive six nominations and 2 wins, including one for Best Picture.
For brands, there are plenty of opportunities to invest early in a decentralized film landscape, whether it’s through product placement, co-marketing initiatives or more traditional methods of advertising. Whatever route a brand chooses, using AI to vet the opportunity is a crucial step for ensuring that the brand and film are a genuine fit for one another. With audiences more discerning than ever, brands need to steer clear of integration opportunities that are deemed forced or opportunistic. When done correctly, brands and productions can form a symbiotic relationship: productions are allocated more money to use in the creative process while the brand has a shot at getting exposure with a large, relevant audience.
The Emergence Of Niche Platforms
Streaming has revolutionized our access to and consumption of TV and film and, in many ways, acted as the impetus for decentralization. But the streaming wars are far from over. While generalists like Netflix and Hulu will continue to provide a wealth of short- and long-form content for consumers, we’ll see an increased investment in niche experts that can master a specific genre. These platforms — like Crunchyroll for anime and Shudder for horror — offer more targeted opportunities for brand involvement as well.
Livestreaming has bolstered the popularity of these niches with more ways to interact with a particular genre of content. These livestreams capitalize on the content type — like iFit or Peloton in the fitness space, for example — but can also offer a way to replicate live concerts and comedy shows in a socially distant world. Spotify and Twitch have already embraced this model, signaling a shift toward virtual events where consumers can remotely watch brand-sponsored concerts with a ticket fee or for free.
For brands, livestreaming and niche platforms offer great advertising opportunities thanks to hyper-relevant audiences. A more focused audience means more eyes on branded integrations and advertisements. Whether you’re a clothing brand looking to sponsor a specific fitness instructor or a brand looking to advertise against a specific livestream, you have the advantage of a truly engaged, targeted audience.
User-Generated Content For The Win
Traditional social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube are ideal examples of decentralization due to the monetization opportunities afforded by user-generated content. These spaces have become dominated by an array of influencers with followings of all sizes, creating seemingly endless opportunities for brands to participate. And with the emergence of new platforms and content types like TikTok and YouTube Live, it’s even easier for anyone to achieve relevance or virality, regardless of the size of their following. The amount of content available in the overall social media ecosystem is exponentially growing, creating a confusing yet fruitful landscape for brands.
In order for brands to appropriately prioritize the content that will generate the most ROI, AI is nonnegotiable. It’s the only compass brands can use to guide them through a trove of content and creators. By taking in massive amounts of structured and unstructured data — follower count, authentic engagement, type of content, aesthetics, consistency, and more — AI can make a recommendation that serves any brand’s goals. AI couches these goals in guaranteed ROI and success metrics, arming brands with the confidence to put their energy into the creative process with influencers, allowing for more effective partnerships in the future.
Decentralization will continue to break down the barriers between content creation and consumption, allowing for more creation and innovation from film, streaming platforms and social media. These innovations will open the door for new monetization opportunities for brands, while still providing meaningful moments for audiences along the way.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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3c07203a6caa5cbe8301b9139f8d9be9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/06/communications-has-its-day-in-the-sun-never-a-more-relevant-or-important-practice/?sh=3be29389784b | Communications Has Its Day In The Sun: Never A More Relevant Or Important Practice | Communications Has Its Day In The Sun: Never A More Relevant Or Important Practice
Founder & Principal of SmartMouth Communications, a consulting, coaching and training firm that creates better messages and messengers.
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I think it’s fair to say that folks like me, who have spent part or all of their careers in the communications field, have occasionally had a chip on their shoulders. Communications — or public relations — departments within a company or organization have traditionally been internal agencies, serving the reputation needs and public information desires and requirements of the powers that be. They tend to be cost, versus profit, centers and staffed by a preponderance of women (to wit, President-elect Joe Biden’s appointment of an all-female communications team probably was not newsworthy to anyone in the communications business). In fact, back in the day, these departments were considered part of the pink-collar ghetto of corporate America.
The gender issue aside (because that’s its own saga), communications professionals have struggled for a seat at the table for as long as I can remember. While the decisions and strategies adopted at the top of the organization can have serious reputational and bottom-line repercussions, the very professionals who can help anticipate and sidestep those troubles often are not included in the discussion that leads to the decision making. Communications professionals who are well-attuned to stakeholders’ needs, biases and inclinations for behavior — appreciative or retaliatory — tend to be brought in when it’s too late. Hence the discipline of crisis communications. Communications is not simply another promotional tool in the MarComm arsenal for an organization and its leadership. Rather, used properly, it can have a 360-degree impact on all audiences — employees, customers, communities, shareholders and even regulators.
That brings us to this moment — a moment that is shining a glaringly bright light on the relevance and importance of communications. We find ourselves, of course, in the midst of a public health crisis and on the precipice of a mitigating solution: vaccines that, so far, many Americans are not willing to get. This is a moment for communicators. This is a moment that calls for effective, credible and sound communications. It’s a moment to inform, educate, persuade and reassure.
We live in a culture of influencers. And our various media worlds talk incessantly about messaging. This moment calls for communications professionals to come up with their best messaging yet and deploy it through the best influencers to help folks through this situation and toward a healthier outcome — for people and the economy. We regularly hear public health experts agree on this and say that it will require a good communications plan.
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I hear them and couldn’t agree more. But first, communications professionals must be at the table. Thankfully, it appears that they will be regarding matters of the pandemic and vaccine. But what about the rest of the proverbial tables? What can communicators do to advance their positions and participation?
Here are three reminders to communications practitioners who may be watching this moment and seeking to solidify their seats at the table:
1. Take a team approach and know what position you play. Neither problems nor their solutions are within the purview of one person or one department. When an organization has an issue, there’s a field of play, lots of players and sometimes various game plans or strategies. Communications is always a key component or strategy, but it may be just one of several. So in other words, respect the other players and their roles, and at the risk of mixing metaphors, stay in your lane.
2. Listen well and use empathy. You’re a counselor. Your value to your leadership is in your counsel to them. To deliver on that, you need to do two things: listen well and empathize. By “listen well,” I mean quiet your brain and all of the reactive impulses and ideas your brain is trying to push through your mouth (I know because I’ve been there), so you can truly listen to learn and understand the complete picture of a situation. And by “empathize,” I mean be aware of and demonstrate that you understand your leaders’ other pressures — the demands on their time and the people they have to answer to, including their board, their families, environmental groups, you name it.
3. Present recommendations with a balance of command and flexibility. Be confident in your knowledge and recommendations, but not so confident that you can’t, or are unwilling to, pivot. You’re not the owner of the problem or the solution; you’re a trusted advisor. To that end, you want to take command when it comes to your area of expertise, but you also want to remain open and agile when there’s new information, an interesting slant that someone offers to enhance your suggestion or a question that reveals a gap. Good solutions and good communications often come from good teamwork.
I look forward to watching the rollout of communications about the new Covid-19 vaccines, much like a football fan looks forward to watching on Monday nights — as an eager, curious spectator. I look forward even more to seeing whether this helps change how communications is valued or whether it changes the dynamic between leaders and their communicators/advisors in other settings. It should.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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726fad1274de87b311ecfb73dbdbe6eb | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/07/scalable-design-why-wordpress-is-a-viable-solution-for-enterprise-businesses/ | Scalable Design: Why WordPress Is A Viable Solution For Enterprise Businesses | Scalable Design: Why WordPress Is A Viable Solution For Enterprise Businesses
Creative Director of ArtVersion, a Chicago design consultancy. We craft ideal user experiences for the world's most innovative companies.
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In the business world, we often discuss the idea of scalability in reference to growth strategy. While the concept encompasses the overall adaptability of an enterprise, it can also relate to specific aspects of the business, such as its technologies and resources.
Businesses rely on growth to survive. In order to remain competitive year after year, it has to continually meet market demands. The caveat, however, is that market demands are variable — as technologies and preferences change, so too does demand. Consequently, businesses need a scalable strategy that gives them the flexibility to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.
At my agency, we frequently talk about scalability in terms of web platforms and digital technologies. When selecting a platform with which to build an enterprise website, we understand how important it is to ensure that it is able to accommodate the business’s current needs as well as its long-term goals. This means that the site should be scalable enough to handle the complex requirements of the enterprise and allow for future expansion.
Although we pride ourselves on being platform-agnostic when it comes to building websites and applications for our clients, we have found WordPress to be a preferred content management solution (CMS). With over a decade of active development to back it up, it is adequately suited to manage the requirements of enterprise businesses.
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Accommodating for Expansion
Digital technologies are constantly evolving, and as such, it is important for businesses to keep pace with the latest trends and standards. This is where a scalable web presence comes into play. When considering a digital property for a website, choosing a platform that is scalable gives the business greater flexibility to adapt and expand when necessary.
That’s one of the great things about WordPress; it can be fully customized to meet the needs of the enterprise. With the ability to extend the platform using a myriad of plugins as well as custom coding, WordPress provides a framework for enterprises to build upon the base platform in order to accommodate their needs. This is also beneficial for administrators of the site because it gives them total control over what gets added to the platform.
Optimized for Performance
Because an enterprise business is generally larger in size, its website typically receives a significant amount of traffic on a regular basis. This means that in order to provide a better user experience, the site needs to be scalable in order to handle higher volumes of web traffic at the most optimal speed. To that end, how the site is coded really does impact how quickly it loads and functions. As the platform powers almost 40% of the world’s websites, WordPress is more than up to that task. With a containerized hosting approach, it is designed to manage large-scale websites and have it be optimized for the best possible performance.
Another advantage to using WordPress as the site’s CMS is that it’s built with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. As enterprises often have large amounts of content hosted on their sites, this is a desirable feature. There are additional plugins you can install to go more in-depth with SEO, but WordPress’s base platform naturally functions well in this regard.
Emphasis on Usability
The technical capabilities of a platform are critical when it comes to scalability. But those functionalities wouldn’t amount to much if the people responsible for maintaining the site struggled to use them. That is where WordPress stands out against other CMS platforms. Its admin interface is completely user-friendly; navigating the backend is not only intuitive for all levels of users, but the frequency of updates and other notifications ensures that the site always functions smoothly.
A scalable web presence is critical to the longevity of any enterprise. New technologies, trends and standards emerge constantly in the digital space, so it is fundamental to select a solution that can accommodate the shifting needs of the business. While there are various CMS platforms to choose from, and each has their own advantages and disadvantages, WordPress has proven itself to be a major contender.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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f442d7a6209da2d708f36694698804c3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/07/six-influencer-marketing-trends-to-watch-in-2021/?sh=4e7c26907a6a | Six Influencer Marketing Trends To Watch In 2021 | Six Influencer Marketing Trends To Watch In 2021
Founder and CEO of Sway Group, an influencer marketing agency that generates exceptional content with guaranteed results.
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If there's one thing we can probably agree on about 2020 and its impact on brands and consumers, it's that last year was extraordinary — unprecedented even, although I think most of us are over that particular term. At my influencer marketing agency, we spent the last weeks of 2020 wrapping up end-of-year programs while also turning our attention ahead to the new year.
It's become a tradition for me to dedicate some time at the end of each year to share our predictions for how influencer marketing will evolve during the next year. Back in 2019, we certainly didn't see a global pandemic coming, but our best guesses for influencer trends and tactics to keep an eye on turned out to be fairly accurate — down to the importance of diversity and the rise of the nano-influencer.
While forecasting what the future will hold is no easy task during this shifting cultural moment, here are six major influencer marketing trends that I believe will become increasingly important in 2021.
1. 'Influencer' Versus 'Creator': Terminology Is In Flux
While influencer marketing as an industry isn't going anywhere (it's been predicted that brands will spend up to $15 billion on it by 2022), the term "influencer" has undergone something of a sea change in recent years. Initially used to describe anyone with a following on social media, the word is now strongly associated with monetizing through sponsorships and other brand deals.
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The perception of influence and clout has appeal for some, but many are beginning to prefer the term "content creator," or more simply, "creator." We've noticed that those who self-identify as creators tend to put more value on their creative worth and the quality of their content. Content creators are more than social media celebrities; they're photographers, performers, creative directors, writers and videographers, and many of them would rather be recognized for their high-quality content than their follower count.
2. Paid Amplification Will Be Critical For Broad Outreach
It may seem counterintuitive to include paid advertising in an influencer campaign, since influencer marketing is all about, well, not being anything like a traditional ad. However, paid amplification of influencer content is becoming increasingly valuable in terms of reaching larger qualified audiences. Thanks to extremely granular ad targeting provided by social media platforms, not only can brands ensure that their high-performing influencer content gets seen despite tricky algorithms, but they also can greatly amplify their overall campaign impact.
3. Short-Form Video Will Continue To Skyrocket
Short, digestible video content has been extremely popular for a few years now, and 2021 will most likely be no different. Short-form video is the style of brief, instantly engaging video content that has become a nearly ubiquitous trend on nearly every platform, particularly as less curated "disappearing content" options like Instagram Stories have gained in popularity.
At our agency, we've seen huge success with branded, influencer-created short-form video for before-and-afters, short tutorials of all kinds (makeup, food prep and recipes, DIY projects), workouts, fashion inspiration and more. It's safe to assume that this type of video will continue to appeal in 2021, given the production challenges of creating traditional-length video content, the need for on-trend and time-sensitive messaging and, of course, our ever-dwindling attention spans.
4. Social Commerce Features Will Boost Sponsorship Opportunities
As more platforms offer e-commerce features for users, new shopping behaviors and related influencer marketing opportunities for brand sponsorships will likely continue to emerge. Shoppable posts and videos, seamless transitions from influencer content to brand-owned channels, deeper integrations between platforms and e-commerce solutions/storefronts — we foresee all of these trends being on the rise in 2021. These social commerce innovations are quickly leading to wider consumer acceptance, and brands would be wise to start including shoppable content in their influencer campaigns.
5. Authenticity Will Continue To Be Key For Generation Z
Believe it or not, the oldest members of Generation Z will be turning 24 in 2021. These digital natives have grown up with smartphones and social media, and nearly half of them have made a purchase based on an influencer's suggestion.
Generation Z is shaping up to be quite the consumer powerhouse, with spending already estimated at close to a whopping $100 billion. With older members of Gen Z in the workforce and some even starting their own families, this is a group whose interests and needs are rapidly shifting — and brands should be paying attention. When it comes to marketing to Gen Z, they should be recognized for their unique characteristics: They tend to be drawn to quality over quantity in social media, they value individual expression, and above all, they greatly prefer brand authenticity and companies that are transparent about their stances on social causes.
6. Taking A Stand (And Backing It Up With Action) Will Be Crucial
2020 brought a seemingly endless list of historic events, many of which had a profound effect on the consumer landscape. Pandemic lockdowns and economic uncertainties changed how we work, how we shop and what we choose for entertainment, while social justice movements like Black Lives Matter rose to the forefront of the national conversation.
In the past, most brands have largely avoided hot-button political and social justice topics, but this is no longer a safe bet: Silence is increasingly seen by many as tantamount to complicity.
More consumers than ever are demanding that businesses speak up on topics of racial inequality and other important issues affecting the country. However, it's not enough for a brand to issue a statement or even promote a donation. Many consumers today — particularly millennials and Gen Z — are looking to support the brands that put real action behind their stated values.
While all of the trends above are important, I think it's the last one that matters most. Brands truly need to show how they are walking the walk in 2021, particularly when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Representation matters, and this year, every influencer marketing campaign should drive positive audience connections by authentically reflecting the range of human differences.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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2ba45cdc6cf02df0776190d07314a62a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/11/i-wear-a-rolex-to-win-business-and-i-refuse-to-apologize-for-it/ | I Wear A Rolex To Win Business, And I Refuse To Apologize For It | I Wear A Rolex To Win Business, And I Refuse To Apologize For It
Founder and CEO of Media Bridge Advertising®
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When I started my business in 2010, I soon noticed an interesting pattern: It was easy to get a first meeting with a potential client, but it was nearly impossible to get a second one.
Was it because I was young and inexperienced?
No.
I was in my early 30s. I had bought and sold media for a decade. And I had a roster of big national clients.
Yet men in these new-business meetings didn’t give me their full attention or respect.
Why?
I was still at a loss to solve this mystery when I lost my watch. Actually, it was stolen from a bag in my car one night while I was playing rugby (I chased the thieves in my cleats — and in vain — for over a mile, as my Achilles still reminds me).
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And then a strange thing happened that changed my business and my life: When I mentioned to one of my clients that I was in the market for a new watch, he said, “If you want to get a male client’s attention, get a Rolex.”
Wait, what? I thought. You think men will change their attitudes toward me based on something that superficial?
I didn’t want to buy into that “old boy” stereotype. Plus, I could barely afford a mattress for my son at that time, let alone a watch that cost as much as a car. But the advice stayed with me. Heck, I’ve always loved nice watches. So I made a deal with myself: I would buy a Rolex when I hit my first million in revenue.
A year later, it was time.
Without overthinking it, I bought myself a beautiful Rolex — a men’s version, because I felt the women’s models were too dainty. And I have to admit: From the moment I slid it on my wrist, I fell for it hard. I even took it to bed with me because Rolexes wind themselves when you’re in motion, and I was afraid mine would stop if I ever took it off. At least that’s what I told myself.
For my next pitch meeting, I framed the watch with a three-quarter-sleeved jacket. And as soon as I entered the conference room, I saw it: The men looked at my watch, looked at me and their body language changed.
It was like no other meeting I’d ever experienced. No one looked at their phone. People hung on my every word. I got the second meeting, and I got the business.
Media Bridge is nearly 50 times bigger today, and this pattern repeats itself all the time.
Before a new-business meeting, my director of business development will text: “Don’t forget the Rolly!” The men in the meeting will glance at my wrist, then lean forward to hear me better or backward in that “you’re in” kind of way.
After that initial meeting, I never have to wear the watch again. It’s a passport that gets me over an invisible hurdle and allows me to be judged on performance.
Naturally, people have different reactions to this story. Most are surprised. Some totally get it and share similar experiences of assimilation and survival. Others think I’m enabling a sexist situation and accuse me of selling out to The Man.
I get it.
But at the very least, it brings up an important issue: The “second meeting” challenge symbolizes the tougher time women entrepreneurs face across the board in getting their businesses off the ground. That sucks. But if we’re honest, we all judge people based on their hair, teeth and tats.
As a fellow business owner, I understand why a CMO might seek someone who’s no stranger to money to manage their multi-million-dollar media budget. Would a man also benefit from wearing a Rolex? A male colleague of mine just started wearing expensive suits to meetings because he realized that other men take him more seriously when he does. It’s complicated.
The truth is, every situation you face as an entrepreneur requires you to adapt or resist. In this case, I chose — and continue to choose — to adapt. I’m in marketing, after all, and marketing starts with knowing your audience.
That’s the bigger takeaway. I’m not telling you to go out and buy a Rolex and all your problems will be solved. It’s really about finding the intersection between what holds symbolic value for your audience and what’s authentic to you. In my case, the men in a male-dominated industry see expensive watches as a seal of approval, and I like watches. Perfect.
In a different industry, the equation will be the same, but the numbers will change. In the nonprofit or education world, it might be more important to dress down instead of up. You might find a particular culture where your dry sense of humor plays well, or the fact that you’re a vegetarian or a hunter. The point is, sometimes, to get to a level playing field — to secure that second meeting and beyond — you need to do a little marketing.
The key is to keep everything aligned with your core values — not against them. Trust me, I have no problem firing clients when their values conflict with mine. I’ve done it many times.
Does my example expose some sexism? Yes. The Rolex trick shines a spotlight on the pressure women feel to avoid the appearance of “splurging” in any way. I’ve always felt an expectation to be totally devoted to my family at the expense of myself as if it’s a zero-sum game. Many women I know feel the same way. For my female colleagues out there, it’s time to reject that idea and invest in ourselves in any way that gives us an edge.
There’s also another strategy at play here. Now that some of my women employees are taking new-business meetings themselves, I loan my Rolex out to them. Why? Because the more women do this, the more likely they’ll end up sitting on the other sides of all those tables.
And then we won’t need so many Rolexes.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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6e7cdffad073c94981a3d0e5a26ac4e2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/12/transformation-set-expectations-but-deliver-experiences/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=Sendible&utm_campaign=RSS | Transformation: Set Expectations But Deliver Experiences | Transformation: Set Expectations But Deliver Experiences
Douglas is a recognized leader in digital transformation. He's Co-Founder of Highbridge, a Salesforce Partner.
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Within the digital transformation realm, the use cases out in the marketplace for platforms and services is so outlandish that I often find most of my time is tempering impressionable clients. If you've never worked at an enterprise software company or service provider, you should understand how the process works.
While working on hundreds or even thousands of clients, an account manager, support representative, or business development representative will come across a company or campaign that delivered exceptionally well. The news floats immediately through internal meetings and ultimately makes it to a marketer's inbox, where they immediately interview the client, gain permission, and write up a use case on how their software or implementation enabled the transformation.
It's neither untrue nor false advertising, but it's also not a typical scenario. Unfortunately, while the small print may declare such, the use case is widely promoted, shared and then cited with every new prospect. Expectations are being set that the client has finally found their silver bullet. Unfortunately, with a prospect that may not be savvy, the use case is enough to sway their purchase decision. They sign, and the trouble begins.
Every company has a combination of factors that will impact its digital transformation success — budget, timeline, people, consultants, integration capabilities, features, migration, end-customer, competitive landscape, economy...the list goes on and on. I tend to focus on the big three that can be controlled within a company to some extent: people, processes and platforms.
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More often than not, my consultants are brought in after the sale is complete and the client is looking to migrate, implement or integrate the platform. It's often a delicate balance of tempering expectations and still providing hope that the purchase decision was an appropriate one. At times, we see customers invest in platforms that are incapable. Other times, we see customers invest in platforms that can accommodate anything, but the cost to do so is beyond their budgets.
Setting Expectations
Setting expectations isn't a matter of disillusioning the client on their digital transformation. Setting expectations is almost always asking the client the right questions and allowing them to come to their own realization of how challenging the transformation will be. It's also important to let the client know what derails projects — from employee turnover, third-party delays, and bureaucratic impediments, to decisions, seasonality that impacts resource availability, etc.
Expectations can be set with a prospect by always qualifying the expectation. For example, the project timeline is expected to take X months. This is immediately followed by the assumptions on the resources necessary to make that timeline become a reality. Of course, we leave room in timelines for expected delays. However, you can't always accommodate every possibility.
A few examples from a current implementation:
• In the migration phase, a key employee left because their expertise was on the original platform and they had no interest in learning a new platform. They moved to a company where they could continue working on the platform they were certified and familiar with.
• In the implementation phase, the staff was overworked due to some additional demands and could not meet their deadlines for the project.
• In the operational phase, the staff never had the time to do basic training, never scheduled it, and then was expected to deliver.
Each of these challenges had a dramatic impact on the delivery of the overall project. It easily could have derailed the implementation if it weren't for our expertise in assisting companies like this over the last two decades.
Delivering Experiences
While expectations had to be reset, the transformation can still be successful by delivering a superior experience. Consumers and businesses alike will forgive missed expectations, but they won't forgive a poor experience. Delivering an experience is a critical aspect of every company's products and services. It's arguably the biggest between the success and failure of a business. Don't believe me?
A study by the Temkin Group found that the average company with annual revenues of $1 billion can expect to earn an additional $700 million within three years of investing in customer experience. And SaaS platforms can expect to increase revenue by $1 billion.
So, just as we define assumptions on our project success and timeline, as a partner in our clients' success, we also have to ask ourselves: How we will respond when the assumptions made fall short?
• If key employees are lost during the transformation, do we have a plan to bring in additional resources and experts who can assist?
• If the staff is overworked, have we provided the client with a plan where we can assume more of the operational roles to alleviate the pressure on their internal employees?
• If the staff goes without training, can we identify the key process resources internally and do rapid one-to-one training to get them capable? Or could we even augment our own staff by recruiting and training new employees for their company on their implementation?
• Can we reprioritize deliverables and schedules to increase internal automation capabilities to reduce the workload internally? Sometimes the solution may even be purchasing a third-party tool to assist in the migration process.
Communication Is Critical
According to an Everest Group study, "73 percent of enterprises failed to provide any business value whatsoever from their digital transformation efforts" and "78 percent failed to meet their business objectives." Not meeting expectations is always going to be an issue — transformation is challenging.
In any scenario, communication and transparency between the vendor, the consultant and the company is absolutely critical. While we document all exceptions and communicate challenges transparently to the client, we also provide them with alternative solutions. At times, those may not cost anything as we shift deliverables or resources. At other times, we communicate the additional cost.
Missed expectations can be overcome by delivering experiences.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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bbab5df7fd21131157be7a902f5a1369 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/13/five-marketing-strategies-for-coming-out-of-the-recession-stronger/?sh=499c80cf6d4b | Five Marketing Strategies For Coming Out Of The Recession Stronger | Five Marketing Strategies For Coming Out Of The Recession Stronger
Managing Partner at Price Benowitz and CEO of BluShark Digital (blusharkdigital.com), a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO.
getty
Covid-19 has caused an ongoing recession and has caused the United States to enter into an economic crisis. Experts have said that this crisis is worse than the impact of the Great Depression and can have lasting effects on the American economy. Recessions impact all businesses and bring forward unprecedented challenges. There are, however, a few marketing strategies that businesses can implement to help them come out of the recession stronger.
1. Do Not Immediately Cut the Marketing Budget
Most businesses will cut their marketing budget when faced with an economic downturn, which is exactly why not cutting the marketing budget is a smart marketing strategy. If all of your competitors are cutting their budgets, and your business is taking the time to fine-tune and continue with marketing efforts, then your business could see an increase in revenue and take over a larger market share.
When competitors slash their budget, consumers will be less likely to see their marketing efforts and instead will see your company’s presence more frequently. Prospective customers will be able to more easily see the services or products your business offers. In a way, keeping your marketing budget the same, or even slightly increasing the budget, will quiet the buzz of the competition, bringing your business to the forefront.
2. Conduct New Market Research
It is common knowledge that having accurate market research is vital for successful marketing campaigns. Market research can give a business a better understanding of its customers and better knowledge about how to approach its target market. That being said, the market research needs to be accurate and reflect the current customer — so market research from February (pre-Covid) would be inaccurate now.
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During financial hardships, a person’s available income and discretionary income changes. This, in turn, changes the way consumers shop and make purchasing decisions. New data needs to be collected, and while it might seem like a smart idea to cut costs and use historical data from previous recessions, it is not a good idea. People change as their environment changes, and each economic downturn is caused by different factors, so no recession is the same. By doing expansive market research on your target audience, your business will be able to get insights that can be used as a competitive advantage. A business can align itself with its customers’ needs through market research, which allows for the business to thrive during and after the recession.
3. Focus on Retaining Existing Customers
Customer retention is always an important business strategy, but especially during a recession. A majority of a business’s profits come from existing customers, and the costs of retaining customers are much lower than the costs of trying to attract new customers. One thing I've noticed during this recession firsthand is that new customers aren't as likely to give unfamiliar products or services a try, which is why the focus should be on existing customers and keeping them satisfied.
Shifting the focus to existing customers will cut down on spending without slashing the marketing budget. Keeping customers satisfied will only benefit the business in the long run, because these customers are more likely to leave positive reviews and recommend your business to their friends, which gives your business free word-of-mouth marketing. Retained customers could be the reason your business survives the recession and comes out ahead.
4. Analyze Past and Current Performance Metrics
Performance metrics can indicate whether your business is meeting your goals or is on the right track to reaching your goals. These metrics can help improve strategy and can be early indicators if things are not going as they should be. During a recession, tracking metrics is even more important as one mistake could lead to the business’s downfall.
Businesses should look at their past performance metrics to help guide decisions. Tracking current performance will also allow for the business to see how the marketing campaigns are doing in this unusual landscape and time. The combination of past and current data will allow businesses to invest their time in areas that have proven to work in the past and see if what was working is still working today.
5. Remain Consistent
Now is not the time to rebrand yourself or your business. While you might think doing a rebrand will differentiate your business and bring in new customers, that is unlikely to happen and most likely will result in a loss of profits. Businesses should remain consistent in their name, branding, marketing and customer interactions. Your business should not go from sending bi-weekly emails to bi-monthly emails, nor should it go from weekly blog posts to monthly blog posts. These efforts of staying consistent will also keep costs down, which, in a recession, is vital.
While the recession is going to impact your business in some way no matter what strategies are used, these strategies can help you come out the other side stronger. Businesses have taken hits because of the Covid-19 crisis, but the recession is not forever, and the reevaluation of a marketing strategy can help businesses survive this uncertain time. Businesses should study the market and make decisions that will benefit them.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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4e215c002443fda85c74e7537413f09d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/15/15-ways-to-build-positive-emotional-connections-with-consumers/ | 15 Ways To Build Positive Emotional Connections With Consumers | 15 Ways To Build Positive Emotional Connections With Consumers
Consumers will give their business to brands they trust, and emotions are at the heart of this trust. When people identify with a brand, it’s easy for them to support the company. Marketers work hard to build and strengthen emotional ties to help consumers feel they have a vested interest in the brand’s success.
If your messaging resonates with your audience’s core values, it can create emotional connections and deep, positive associations with your brand. Below, 15 experts from Forbes Agency Council look at different ways to create this critical bond between your brand and your customers.
Forbes Agency Council members discuss ways to create emotional connections between brands and consumers. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Accept The Concept Of Vulnerability
Marketing is becoming more about being transparent and personal. Resonating with customers relies on grounded, frank tones and real shared values. Customers use social media and online reviews to unmask any overpromising claims. It’s time to accept the concept of vulnerability, which is actually a great topic and a powerful tool to drive innovation and improvement for everyone involved. - Niraj Patpatia, Aumcore
2. Look To The Brand’s Past
An easy and authentic way to create a connection with consumers is to look to the brand’s past (if it’s lucky enough to have one). Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, and a tasteful throwback campaign can often pay dividends. - Ben Butler, Top Hat
3. Make Real People Visible
Tell stories that make real people visible to the audience. Every brand that is currently in business exists because it touches people’s lives in a positive way. Leveraging that impact is the best way to convey the promise of the brand to others. Executives are commonly featured, but you can have more impact by highlighting real customer stories or the stories of frontline workers. - Alex Herder, Duke & Duck
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4. Focus On Shared Values
Humans crave connection. They want to feel connected to life, to a positive future and to other people. The most meaningful brand experiences focus on the shared values that unite us and remind us that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. Create an experience that celebrates the heart of your audience; invite them to be part of your brand story rather than just consumers of it. - Christian Lachel, BRC Imagination Arts
5. Join The Conversation
Brands have to play an active role in social media. Listen to what matters most to consumers in the moment and identify trends. In this way, you will humanize the brand by consistently taking part in the social conversation. - Paula Bruno, Intuition Media Group d/b/a Blissful Media Group
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
6. Highlight Social Impact
Brand authenticity and stories are all-important, but in 2021, stories are articulated by sharing the highlights with consumers. Brands need to have a social focus that displays the impact of those consumer dollars. Consumers want to see how their purchases are helping to fuel social initiatives, not just brand stories in the form of product reviews. Stories of social impact show that companies are listening. - Janét Aizenstros, Ahava Digital Group
7. Personalize The User Experience
While people often focus on creating positive emotional connections, marketers should be more concerned about avoiding negative ones. Consumers will remember the frustration of a poor user UX. This means making the buying journey frictionless through personalization is key. Websites and apps should remember customer preferences; nobody wants to fill in the same form twice. - Lora Kratchounova, Scratch Marketing + Media
8. Make Your Customer The Hero
The one thing most companies do wrong is to make the company itself the hero of the story. This is a bad idea. If you really want to create strong emotional bonds between consumers and your brand, you must make your customer the hero of the story. Then, communicate how your company will be their guide, solving their problems and leading them to realize their goals and dreams. Good luck! - Tim Rath, YOYABA GmbH
9. Offer Consumers Real Help
Consumers have had enough marketing messaging about this “unprecedented” year. What consumers need is real, solid help. Offer layaway plans, discounts, incentives, improved warranties, assurances—anything to actually reduce the financial load on a customer. This will not only improve the likelihood of a sale, but also put money where the messaging is and build long-term trust with audiences. - Rebecca Brooks, Alter Agents
10. Be The ‘Stress-Free’ Brand
With stress and mental health being the top wellness concerns for consumers, brands who help alleviate stress win consumers’ loyalty. Navigate between the points of convenient, on-demand and “worry-free” products and services and slow, experiential “rituals,” in accordance with the brand values, industry and competition. - Hamutal Schieber, Schieber Research
11. Show Off Your People
Your website should have a place where customers can see the people behind your work. Use features and showcases to put real employees front and center in your marketing. It should tell a story. If you sell organic dog food, for example, you could highlight your employees’ pets or favorite stories about their animals. Seeing friendly faces and information about them creates shared bonds. - Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
12. Leverage Video Content
Research shows that consumers will retain 95% of a message presented to them via video, according to an infographic that I read recently. Marketers who use video to capture their audience’s attention and build instant rapport can elicit a better response from clients, promote an item and sell it far better than marketers using a static image with a bit of text alongside it can. - Lee-Ann Johnstone, AffiliateINSIDER
13. Use Sonic Branding
Music can create long-lasting emotional associations with brands. To connect with consumers’ most intimate feelings, memories and emotions, brands can use sonic branding to create a recognizable, consistent and effective sonic ecosystem around the entire customer journey. If brands use sound and voice according to a strategy, they can create positive associations and connections everywhere, always. - Michele Arnese, amp
14. Leverage Personality-Driven Media
Personality-driven media is the perfect way to connect with consumers emotionally. Specifically, brands should partner with show hosts on podcasts and radio to create genuine connections between them, brand products and consumers. Brands can work with endorsers to onboard them to their brand, create mutual equity in the product and tell a personal, positive and emotion-based brand story. - Kurt Kaufer, Ad Results Media
15. Create A Sense Of Belonging To A Community
Aspirational brands often serve a special psychological purpose for consumers: They make people feel that they can belong to the “tribe” the brand represents by purchasing or engaging with the brand. The need to belong is a powerful one. Brands who create a sense of belonging to a community have the power to create strong emotional connections with their customers. - Gjoko Muratovski, The Myron E. Ullman, Jr. School of Design
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f702a088fbea852da46da6e52a50bc8d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/15/brands-need-a-renewed-focus-on-their-brand-ambassadors-for-2021/ | Brands Need A Renewed Focus On Their Brand Ambassadors For 2021 | Brands Need A Renewed Focus On Their Brand Ambassadors For 2021
Founder, CEO, and Community Powered Marketing pioneer, leading the company vision and SaaS platform innovation.
Every brand has its best customers. The definition of ride-or-die buyers could look a little different depending on the organization. Most commonly it is the people who spend the most money or who are the most consistently loyal, but it should also be the people who share the brand with all their friends. Identifying your VIP brand ambassadors and interacting with them in an intentional way is an essential ingredient in not only new customer acquisition but also customer retention, which is the big objective right now.
A revitalized focus on your brand ambassadors in 2021 could be the key factor that maintains your wallet share and drives innovation, even in an unpredictable economy.
Here are three ways I've found to create a successful, sustainable and profitable brand ambassador marketing strategy.
1. Rally ambassadors in a dedicated engagement channel.
2020 required a paradigm shift in how brands approach building consumer relationships. Digital channels are no longer just communication channels, but rather connection channels. Consumers are seeking a sense of belonging. You are in a unique position to offer a nexus for like-minded people to connect, exchange ideas and interact on topics that are important to them.
Ambassador outreach is a familiar concept for most, but identifying them is often half the battle. Many ambassador efforts have been relegated to social media channels, where marketers play a game of hide-and-seek. They try to organize engagement efforts but are often stuck with manual and disjointed processes that ultimately are gated by third-party social media sites.
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Sometimes brand ambassadors are parked inside traditional loyalty and rewards programs. Unfortunately, transactional programs often limit your ability to create a genuine connection, a critical component in fostering relationships with ambassadors. Corralling your ambassadors inside your loyalty program is not only a missed opportunity, but it could also eventually lead to them translating your brand’s value based solely on the incentives you offer.
Building an owned engagement channel — whether through an online community, support forum or rich content hub — can benefit you not only by solidifying emotional bonds with ambassadors, but also streamlining the grouping of them into a central place that’s not a behind-the-scenes database or an Excel spreadsheet but an online home alive with conversation.
When Microsoft had the goal of rewarding passionate Xbox gamers, it created an inclusive, community-led, positive ecosystem with its highly successful Xbox Ambassadors program. Today, the community services millions of gamers and saves the brand innumerably in support costs, and it fosters a sense of connection and emotional belonging to its users. Ambassadors are engaged with challenges and missions, surveys, new feature rollouts, and the opportunity to chat with like-minded gamers.
2. Ambassador engagement must be personalized for the consumer but scalable for the brand.
Marketers know personalization is important to consumers. For emotionally engaged consumers like brand ambassadors, it’s even more relevant. For example, to help differentiate itself from competitors, bourbon brand Maker’s Mark launched its Maker’s Mark Ambassador program, which rewards ambassadors through merch, exclusive invites, and tips and tricks around bourbon. But perhaps one of the best draws of the program is that all new ambassadors have a barrel named after them. Ambassadors are regularly updated on its maturation progress, and after seven years of Maker’s Mark ambassadorship, they can taste their own whiskey and buy a bottle of it. This type of long-term and personalized engagement makes the consumer feel special and invested, driving lasting emotional loyalty.
According to research, "Consumers with high emotional engagement have significantly higher expectations of the brands toward which they feel loyalty ... 80% of consumers with high emotional engagement said they expect the brand to know their individual preferences on a personal level." That's compared to just over 20% for the less engaged.
Brand ambassadors often know that they are VIPs and expect to be treated as such. This can be a challenging feat for marketers in terms of scalability. Ambassadors can’t be lumped together and offered the same benefits. It is important to have a channel with a well-oiled machine of data collection, segmentation and relevant digital experiences.
My best advice for brands would be to collect firsthand data — such as motivations, preferences, beliefs and lifestyle behaviors — on your brand ambassadors. Based on this information, you can be proactive in offering brand experiences aligned with an ambassador's emotions rather than demographics. Making this effort scalable also allows you to grow your base of ambassadors easily without the stress of spreadsheets and manual tracking.
3. Use brand ambassadors to derive actionable insights and attract new consumers.
Unpredictability is likely to be a repeated theme for 2021. You can’t wait for time-consuming and expensive research panels to help navigate decisions. Having easy, quick access to engaged consumers with a vested interest offers a key market advantage. Brand ambassadors are great guinea pigs. They provide you with valuable feedback and are heavily invested, both emotionally and financially.
Your ambassador community can serve as an easy access point to deliver surveys, host online focus groups, cultivate member discussions, deliver quick polls, and much more. Ambassadors also like to feel like they are contributing to the brand’s success. Seeing their feedback be put into action and highlighting their contribution is an excellent way to make them feel valued and special without having to offer discounts or promo codes. Ambassador groups are also often rife with early adopters who are socially connected and primed to share about your brand. Nurturing them with exclusive experiences and prompting them to share will amplify their collective sharing power, driving awareness and new customer acquisition.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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95dc035a541d2c291296746ca57439ac | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/15/got-a-client-whos-stuck-on-the-minutiae-how-to-break-them-of-the-habit-or-break-things-off/?sh=329e009032f2 | Got A Client Who’s Stuck On The Minutiae? How To Break Them Of The Habit Or Break Things Off | Got A Client Who’s Stuck On The Minutiae? How To Break Them Of The Habit Or Break Things Off
Christopher is the co-founder, head strategist and CEO of The Go! Agency, a full-service digital marketing agency.
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Clients are the definition of the old “can’t live with them, can’t live without them” idiom. Literally speaking, you cannot operate your business without a base of clients, but anyone in the marketing game has had the misfortune of taking on a client that was more trouble than they were worth.
There are a variety of specific reasons why some clients can be so dreadful to work with, but it seems almost every reason falls under the same umbrella: they ignore the big picture in favor of the minutiae. Instead of focusing on the goals or end results of their marketing campaign, they get fixated on small, usually meaningless changes that won’t impact the success of the project.
How can you spot a client who’s too focused on the minutiae? More importantly, how can you deal with them before they demoralize your team and tank your project?
Micro-Management
Does the client send you back a laundry list of edits for every little thing you send them? Do they have thoughts on the color of the font in a specific image? They’re a micro-managing type, and that will not bode well for you.
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The superpower of a micromanager is sucking time and resources away from the project as a whole to draw attention to something that, ultimately, doesn’t matter very much. Unless you have a real stroke of genius and post something that goes viral, audiences will not be thinking about your posts once they scroll past them. A social media presence establishes your business and reminds customers that you’re out there, but individual posts are really just decor. The only reason a client should be focusing on a post is if there’s money behind it.
Try to retrain them to look at the more important content: long-form stuff like blogs, videos and podcasts. These are the elements of your brand that your audience is going to attach themselves to, not a post from Facebook.
Negativity
Unless they’re working hand in hand with you on the campaign, you should not be hearing from your clients multiple times a day. If they’re constantly sending you requests for meetings to talk about your “approach” or demanding to know why they aren’t getting the results they imagined, they’re burdening your work with unnecessary negativity.
We’ve all had to sit through a meeting that could have just been an email. Often, clients will call meetings not to actually discuss furthering the project, but rather to impress upon you the same talking points they had at the beginning. They want a face-to-face meeting as a way of making you subservient because it puts you on their time. Always take clients’ suggestions into account, but don’t let a constant stream of negativity weigh down your team — especially if the complaints are invalid.
If a client is bemoaning certain posts as underperforming, don’t be afraid to spit facts back at them. It’s impossible for every post to reach ideal numbers, and just because they aren’t doesn’t mean the campaign is failing. Hyper-focusing on such things is exactly what we’re talking about when we say they’re “fixated on minutiae.” Watching the reactions to a single tweet is like checking your weight from day to day; it’s not a good indicator of success. You could fluctuate as much as three pounds from one day to the next, but at the end of the month still end up having lost weight. Gauging a six-month campaign by individual elements is silly and unfair to the work you and your team are doing.
What to Do About a Bad Client
Before we get into how to be the “mean parent,” let’s sympathize a little with their position. When a client signs on with a marketing company, they’re leaving their brand and business in someone else’s hands — a business they or someone in their family probably built from the ground up, a brand they feel protective over and responsible for. To them, it will feel a little bit like having their baby ripped out of their hands. This feeling will manifest itself as one of the most toxic traits bad clients can have: the need for control.
They will want to constantly remind you that they are the boss, but they aren’t. They brought you on to help bring their marketing campaign into the modern-day, something you won’t be able to do if the client needs to assert their dominance at every turn.
Never acquiesce in the face of a client who’s obviously just trying to take control of your campaign. If you give them an inch, most of them will take a mile. The best way to ease their concerns and get them to play ball is to show them cold, hard facts. Show them the metrics of how well your content is performing. Sit them down and do a cost/benefit analysis of how much the changes they’re clinging to will actually make a difference. And if that doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to end the relationship.
If a client insists on acting unprofessional, it won’t just impact them. A client who is ungrateful, dishonest, unreasonable or demotivating has been the iceberg that sank many outstanding campaigns. So cut them loose. You may hesitate to let go of that income, but in all honesty, they were probably taking up more of your time than they were paying for anyway.
A good way to avoid dedicating too much time to a bad client is to remember this: you aren’t working for them, they’re working with you. They came to you because you have the skills and experience they don’t. Their bad habit of focusing on the minutiae will not result in a beneficial partnership for either of you. Work with them for as long as you’re able, but never be afraid to sever the relationship if it goes sour. At the end of the day, you need to do what’s best for your business, not your client’s ego.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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280e401d89601302d1c19be879762687 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/19/11-valuable-data-points-to-be-gleaned-from-clients-google-analytics/?sh=1f8fcb3836e0 | 11 Valuable Data Points To Be Gleaned From Clients’ Google Analytics | 11 Valuable Data Points To Be Gleaned From Clients’ Google Analytics
Some agency clients aren’t able to address important questions their marketing partners need answered in order to devise the best strategy to meet their needs. Luckily, analytics tools can help agencies uncover illuminating data points that clients can’t provide up front.
The key to informing a strategy that will achieve a client’s marketing goals is to identify which specific types of data you’re looking for before diving into the analysis. Below, experts from Forbes Agency Council share 11 of the most valuable pieces of information you can glean by analyzing your clients’ Google Analytics.
Forbes Agency Council members explore the most valuable data agencies can glean from their clients' Google Analytics. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. What Attracts Versus Repels
As communications experts, we love reviewing Google Analytics to better understand how customers are engaging with a brand and what’s attracting them versus repelling them. This establishes information that allows us to develop more compelling content strategies. You’re able to see the level of leads coming from media relations and placed articles, which is a strong indicator of campaign success. - Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
2. The Client’s Audience
At the end of the day, the most valuable element of successful marketing is understanding the consumer. Google Analytics can provide some insight into a client’s audience. Combining this with other data sets and marrying the research with strategic analysis can inform an insight-driven marketing strategy. This can inspire consumer targeting, creative, media and more. - Marc Becker, The Tangent Agency
3. ROI On Marketing Investments
No matter what, you want to make sure that you are getting ROI on any marketing investment. Even if your Google Analytics are telling a positive story, if you aren’t getting actual ROI, there is data that either is not accurate or needs to be looked at holistically. There should always be a system of checks and balances, and all touch points should be telling the same story. - Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne LLC
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4. Return On Ad Spend Performance
The most important piece of data you can glean from Google Analytics is the ROAS performance of your clients’ media buying across the various websites they are advertising on. By tracking where the users are coming from and tracking their activity on your clients’ sites, you can determine their ROAS. You can then shift media investment to the top-performing websites. - Dennis Cook, Gamut. Smart Media from Cox.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. The Source Of Relevant Traffic
Analyzing their clients’ Google Analytics allows agencies to see where relevant traffic is coming from, identify trends and target opportunities. Additionally, optimizing your campaigns based on the data feedback will lead to higher conversion rates. - Jordan Edelson, Appetizer Mobile LLC
6. Time On Page
Time on page is the most important Google Analytics statistic. Once you get traffic to your site, do they stay? What content do they consume? How much mindshare do they give you? What pages are sticky and not transactional? Time on page tells you what prospects value and where they give your ideas credence. Know this, and you’ll know your audience. - Randy Shattuck, The Shattuck Group
7. Where Viewers Leave The Website
The pages where viewers are leaving the client’s website at abnormally high rates is where to focus. By finding out what pages are causing website viewers to drop off the most, clients can analyze these pages and make necessary adjustments to better grab the attention of future visitors. - Stefan Pollack, The Pollack Group
8. Behavior Flow
Behavior Flow is still my favorite feature offered by Google Analytics. Studying the flow of the visitors and the path they take while interacting with a website helps business owners understand what a page means to the customer. This information helps business owners understand how to prioritize and optimize pages to offer visitors a better user experience. - Ahmad Kareh, Twistlab Marketing
9. Goal Conversion Data
Google Analytics can be overwhelming, so a great place to start is by looking at a client’s goal conversions (the number of visitors that took the action your client intended for them to take). This one area can give quick insight into how and why a website was built, as well as whether or not the site is performing the way it’s meant to. If goals have not yet been set up, this is a great opportunity to start a conversation with your client about short- and long-term objectives. - Carey Kirkpatrick, CKP
10. The Most Popular Content
Simply looking at your website’s most popular content can tell you if that website really serves your target customer. All too often, content serves another purpose or user. My agency’s example is that the bio I wrote for our vice president was the most popular piece of content, which proved that web visitors came to copy that bio rather than to hire our agency. - Jim Caruso, M1PR, Inc. d/b/a MediaFirst PR - Atlanta
11. Device Usage
One often overlooked piece of data in Google Analytics is device usage. All clients basically have two websites: a desktop site and a mobile site. Understanding what visitors are doing on both sites is critical, especially when it comes to advertising and landing pages. - T. Maxwell, eMaximize
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511900fab386214a1dad9b08736d0daa | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/19/account-based-marketing-can-help-law-firms-gain-a-competitive-edge/?sh=27bff1d2479a | Account-Based Marketing Can Help Law Firms Gain A Competitive Edge | Account-Based Marketing Can Help Law Firms Gain A Competitive Edge
Guy Alvarez is the CEO of Good2BSocial, a digital marketing consultancy that helps law firms & companies in the legal industry grow.
getty
Account-based marketing (ABM) is becoming increasingly important in the business-to-business sector. But while many types of professional service firms have found it to be an effective, efficient growth strategy, law firms have been slow to hop on the ABM bandwagon. They need to get on board soon or risk being left behind.
What is ABM?
With ABM, companies identify key accounts or types of accounts that they would like to target and then direct their marketing campaigns at key decision-makers in those companies. An ABM strategy combines marketing and business development functions and requires that the client teams have a keen understanding of what their clients or prospective clients care about.
Once they identify a narrow group of high-value customers, they need to research what these key people care about and get relevant content in front of them. A relatively new concept, ABM has been around for a couple of decades, but has taken off in recent years as new tools and technologies have made it easier and more efficient to implement.
Why law firms have largely not entered the ABM fray
Lawyers tend to think of themselves as professionals — as trusted advisers — first, and as business people second, if at all. That mindset prevents most law firms from focusing on sales and operating like a business in the same way that companies in other sectors do.
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Professional service firms like the Big Four accounting firms and B2B tech firms have gained a competitive edge by adopting an ABM strategy. In countries outside the U.S., global firms like EY and PwC have made inroads into the legal industry, establishing legal divisions and becoming alternative legal service providers. While they are currently not allowed to do that in the United States, many believe the trend is headed that way, which is another compelling reason for law firms to get in front of competitive marketing strategies like ABM.
Making a list
As law firms know, not all clients are created equally. Certain categories of clients are more lucrative for the firm, while others bring in considerably less revenue while draining resources. Some law firms have a stable of clients in one or two industries that are very dependent on the economy and would like to diversify into more recession-proof sectors. Whatever your business goals, your business development team should identify companies or types of companies that you would most like to target, along with their decision-making personnel.
Keep in mind your targeting efforts should focus on two groups: new clients and existing clients. The latter involves cross-selling your services to different departments or divisions, something law firms struggle with. For example, a law firm may have a relationship with Walmart in which it handles mergers and acquisitions or draws up purchasing and licensing agreements. But there might be other areas where Walmart could use the firm’s help, such as with intellectual property or tax litigation. What happens often is that the other stakeholders of the client will not know that the law firm has strengths in those areas. With ABM, law firms can target other decision-makers at the client and show their acumen in different practice areas.
Developing targeted messages
The message that you show target audiences should be specific to what business issues or challenges they are facing. For instance, if your target audience is technology companies that are concerned about privacy compliance on a global basis, you may show them your latest global privacy compliance report or invite them to attend a webinar on that topic.
Fortunately, there are several online tools available to help you get specific content and messages in front of your targets.
Paid LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s account targeting tool allows marketers to upload their target list and cross-reference it against a database that includes more than 13 million company pages. The platform then generates a targeted list based on the cross-referenced matches. You can also use LinkedIn’s account targeting tool to identify similar companies and contacts to those on your list based on criteria such as industry or company size. Laser-targeted ads, blogs, podcasts, videos, infographics and other marketing messages can then be shown to selected recipients.
Programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising allows marketers to show ads to targeted users based on their behavior. For instance, if a user downloads your whitepaper on workplace anti-sexual-harassment training, the system can put a targeted ad about your training program in front of that person within seconds. Based on artificial intelligence, programmatic advertising involves “intent data,” a topic that is generating increased interest. When someone intends to buy a service, they tend to visit websites, download whitepapers and attend webinars, among other actions. Getting targeted information in front of them quickly can give a law firm an edge over competitors.
The takeaway
Keep in mind that ABM is not exclusively about digital communications; research may uncover that some targets do not spend a lot of time online, and good old-fashioned direct mail may be the best way to reach them. Rather, the crux of ABM is quality over quantity — narrow marketing to key accounts or targets rather than broad marketing to many.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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cbe974cc36eaeb7799b4531c878e8052 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/19/why-a-reliable-team-is-the-most-important-piece-of-a-successful-agency/?sh=79373e3e68ed | Why A Reliable Team Is The Most Important Piece Of A Successful Agency | Why A Reliable Team Is The Most Important Piece Of A Successful Agency
Solomon Thimothy is the Founder of Clickx, where he works with agencies and clients to develop predictable and scalable growth strategies.
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When building my agency, I was hyper-focused on one thing: customer growth. I wanted to grow quickly, so I did everything I could to get as many new customers as possible. While I was able to land some new deals, I quickly realized I had taken on more than I could handle.
At the time, I was the owner of a small agency. While my team was great at what they did, we just didn’t have enough manpower for the work that needed to get done. This is when I realized customer growth wasn’t the most important part of a successful agency — having the right team was.
Without the right people on my team (and enough of them to handle the growing workload), we’d never get far. At that moment, I made building a reliable team my number one priority. Here’s why.
1. Without a reliable team, your customers will churn and burn.
Your agency is in place to give your customers the best products, services and campaigns they can hope for. But how do you make that happen? With the right team behind you.
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When your team isn’t reliable or they’re unable to get all the work done that they need to, your customers are the ones who suffer for it. Either they’re not getting the work they paid for on time or it’s not up to their standards. And when the customer is unhappy, you’ll lose business.
In order to reduce churn, you need a great team that delivers every single time.
2. Without a reliable team, you’re stuck doing the minimum.
When you can’t depend on your team to get things done, you don’t have a lot of time for innovation and creative thinking. Instead, you’re spending your time putting out fires and making sure the minimum standards are met.
If you have a strong team you can depend on, you spend less time worrying if customers will be happy with what you deliver. Instead of stressing or working in overdrive to get things done, you can get creative about what you offer.
Thinking of new ways of doing things can help you wow customers and even increase employee engagement.
3. Without a reliable team, you’ll struggle to scale.
Sure, you can solve the problem of not having enough people tackling your campaigns by adding more people, but is that really the most efficient way to grow? If you’re just adding more unreliable players to your team, you’re building a bigger problem.
Creating a reliable team doesn’t necessarily mean a bigger team. Instead, it’s about having the right people on your team. People you can rely on and depend on, and that you know will get the job done. When you have reliable people, you can grow efficiently.
Having a team you can scale with can make it easier to build your agency in the most efficient way possible.
Building Your Most Reliable Agency Team
Your team is the backbone of your agency. If you don’t have the right people supporting you, all your hard work is going to collapse. Whether you’re just getting started or you need to reevaluate who you have working for you, building a reliable team should be your top priority.
When hiring new people for your agency, don’t just look for manpower. You need to look at how that person can grow with you — not just what they can do for your brand now. How are they willing to invest in themselves and the agency as a whole? What do they bring to the table that you can’t find anywhere else?
If you can build your agency around people who are invested in your brand and willing to do the work, you’ll create a strong, successful agency that stands the test of time.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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01d121ea084d166197c0d6045cd58da2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/20/how-much-should-your-company-budget-for-content-marketing/ | How Much Should Your Company Budget For Content Marketing? | How Much Should Your Company Budget For Content Marketing?
Aaron Agius is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of the award-winning global marketing agency Louder.Online.
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Content marketing is one of the most powerful tools you can employ for your business. Contributing to everything from brand awareness to customer acquisition, the right content can help you scale your company in significant ways. In fact, the Content Marketing Institute reports that "content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less."
Whether you're new to content marketing or looking to optimize your strategy, establishing an optimal budget is a great way to streamline your efforts and maximize your returns. Below are three things to consider as you establish a budget that works for you.
1. Setting Your Budget
As the owner of a global marketing agency, I've seen firsthand how important it is to align your content strategy with your spending. This means having a clear sense of your overall marketing budget and knowing how much of it to allocate to content to create high-impact campaigns.
Although these figures will vary across industries, a good rule of thumb that many marketers recommend is to designate 25% to 30% of your marketing budget to content marketing. So if you currently have a marketing budget of $100,000, that translates to around $25,000 to $30,000. If you're just starting out, I recommend aiming for the lower end of this range and increasing your spending as you continue testing and you determine what works best for your brand.
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It's also worth noting that content marketing is on the rise as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it may play an even bigger role in the years to come. This is especially true for medium- and large-sized B2B organizations. According to a survey by the CMI and MarketingProfs, 28% of medium-sized company marketers and 28% of large-company marketers said they had shifted paid advertising dollars to content marketing over the past year.
While you don't need to completely pivot your strategy to adopt a more content-focused approach, keeping this trend in mind is important as you assess your media mix and decide what's working — and what can be improved.
2. Allocating Your Budget
Once you've established a budget you're comfortable with, it's time to focus on which allocations make the most sense for your needs. A good way to do this is to ask yourself the following questions:
• What are the main goals I'm hoping to achieve with my content?
• How will I distribute the content once it's created?
• What tools do I need to execute the content plan I've developed?
• How will I measure the success of my campaigns?
The answers you come up with will help you define your key performance indicators and determine what types of strategies can maximize your return on investment.
It's also worth noting that different types of content have vastly different price tags. I've found that blog posts are usually one of the least expensive options — they tend to range from $100 on the low end to $1,000 on the high end. Case studies, infographics and videos usually require more work to develop, and they generally cost upward of several thousand dollars.
Selecting the right type of content is only part of the equation. You also need to determine the best budgeting strategy for creating and promoting that content. In previous years, the 80/20 rule was considered the gold standard, whereby you'd focus 80% of your budget on content promotion and only 20% on creation.
Social media has significantly changed the way content is amplified, and I've noticed that marketers have increasingly moved away from the 80/20 rule in recent years. Instead, I recommend designing an approach that's specific to your marketing plan and your particular industry. You may find that 60/40 or even 50/50 is a more impactful option.
A good starting point is to look at what's getting the most traction on your social channels. This will help you understand what content resonates with your audience, and allow you to allocate promotional dollars where they matter most.
3. Measuring Your Results And Adjusting Accordingly
Analyzing how your content is converting is another way to ensure that your budget allocations are as effective as they can be. This is a great way to increase your return on investment and develop content that directly impacts your bottom line.
Many of the top marketers tend to use this approach to continually refine their campaigns. In fact, the CMI and MarketingProfs found that 94% of the most successful B2B marketers surveyed use metrics to measure the performance of their content, while only 60% of the least successful B2B marketers surveyed do. If you’re not currently measuring your content's performance, you may be missing out on crucial opportunities to evolve your strategy and test new ideas.
For example, if you're promoting a white paper using Facebook ads, you may be seeing high engagement through likes and comments, but that doesn't necessarily translate into conversions. If you're not actively tracking performance on the back end, you may miss out on the chance to optimize your strategy and bring new customers into your marketing funnel.
While analyzing and testing new ideas is important, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. If you're still in the startup phase of your business, focusing on budget-friendly content and social campaigns can be a powerful way to increase brand awareness and grow your audience. If your company is more established, a robust mix of tactics can help you take your efforts to the next level.
Whether you're just getting started with content marketing or looking to make it a bigger part of your road map, it can be hard to know the best budget allocations right off the bat. This is where a flexible approach comes into play.
By outlining your goals and creating a testing plan, you can determine which strategies are most helpful for growing your client base and your revenue. Once you’ve established what's best for your business, work on scaling it up and reducing spending on less effective channels to truly maximize the impact of your content marketing budget.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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ff514cc0536c60c00ba94b06b51f9010 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/20/three-reasons-you-should-stop-freaking-out-every-time-google-updates-its-algorithm/?sh=651b1b35408b | Three Reasons You Should Stop Freaking Out Every Time Google Updates Its Algorithm | Three Reasons You Should Stop Freaking Out Every Time Google Updates Its Algorithm
Founded SEO National in 2007, helping NBA teams, INC & SharkTank featured websites show higher on search engines without paying for ads.
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Every time Google pushes out an update to its search engine algorithm, which is a lot, your rankings can fluctuate — sometimes for the better, sometimes sending you into a panic. This is understandable, considering that Google dominates the search engine landscape, driving 86% of all search engine traffic. The higher your website shows up in Google’s search results, the more likely it is for people to visit your site. And that extra traffic can translate into more sales.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in owning an SEO company for 14 years, it’s that you should stop getting distracted by new, shiny SEO strategies.
“But SEO is always changing,” I hear. Not really though. If you think about “new” things that have impacted SEO in the past, they all back into core SEO fundamentals:
1. Value-Added Content
• Fresh, unique content
• Not copied and pasted from other websites
2. Good User Experience
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• Fast-loading website
• Mobile-friendly design
3. External Credibility
• “Backlinks” (more on this in a moment)
Let’s look at Google’s 2015-16 “Mobilegeddon” update. Some SEOs and online businesses thought the sky was falling. But if you take a step back, Google was simply asking websites to have fast, mobile-friendly websites — a core SEO fundamental of good user experience.
“But what about voice search?”
I’m glad you asked.
With the growing popularity of digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana and Google Assistant, demand for voice-initiated searches is at an all-time high. Yet no SEO or webmaster is on the other side of the search request outputting voice recordings. Where do answers to voice search queries come from then? Regular ol’ websites. The ones that have the freshest, most unique content that Google can fetch the fastest and is a trusted website. Again, core SEO fundamentals.
Since a lot of money is up for grabs at the top of search engine results, some bad SEO companies try to game the system. To minimize that manipulation, Google continually updates its algorithm.
It doesn’t matter if you are handling your own SEO or have a qualified, good SEO company do it for you; it is important to know SEO basics to understand why you’re ranked the way you are.
SEO Basics
Let’s explore ways that you can tackle some of these core SEO fundamentals on your own.
• Value-Added Content
Google released an algorithm update in 2011 called Panda. Its goal? To stop content spamming. No longer would ripping off content from Wikipedia or a competitor’s website work.
To see if old content is doing damage on your website, use a tool like Copyscape.com. Copyscape will check your website’s content against others to make sure you don’t have content sourced from other websites, or it will help you identify websites that may have stolen yours.
Copyscape’s sister website, Siteliner.com, is another content checking tool. The difference? Siteliner checks your site against itself to make sure you don’t have mass-produced, duplicate style pages hidden throughout your website, diluting the value of your website.
• Good User Experience
Google basically wants you to treat it like a regular customer. Regular customers don’t like slow websites, and I’d be willing to bet you don’t either, so Google rewards faster loading websites. The same goes for websites that are easy to use on smaller, mobile devices. Desktops have a lot more viewing space on the screen, but not so much on mobile. Make sure you use the screen area well so your customers can easily navigate your pages.
To help you, Google has two free tools to address page speed and mobile-friendliness: Google’s PageSpeed Insights and its Mobile-Friendly Test.
• External Credibility
Ah, backlinks — SEO’s schoolgirl crush. A backlink is when another website hyperlinks to yours. However, all backlinks are not equal.
Since Google rolled out its Penguin algorithm update in 2012, spammy backlinks or backlinks from irrelevant websites can actually hurt your visibility. Quality over quantity. Google puts a high value on quality backlinks because it indicates that you are trusted and well-known enough that other websites find you worth discussing.
How do you get backlinks? Let’s start with how not to get backlinks.
• Not via Fiverr
• Not by spamming forums
• Not by spamming social bookmarking websites
Fiverr is great for some things, but backlinks are not one of them. The logistics behind what it takes to acquire a good backlink puts the value way beyond $5. And the other types of backlinks may have worked in the past but are long dead since that Penguin algorithm. In fact, the wrong kind of backlinks can do you more harm than good.
The cleanest way to get good backlinks is -drumroll- by having a good website that loads quickly and provides value-added content. Gah, yes, a bit anticlimactic. But it’s true. So true that for many of my clients, we lean entirely on content for backlink building. That’s correct — no intentional backlink-only strategy. Good content attracts good engagement, which encourages sharing and linking, taking care of backlinks itself and with no worry of a penalty.
There is no shortage of tips that sound too good to be true to boost your rankings quickly and effortlessly. Be wary. Watch out for these SEO myths. The problem with historically well-written SEO content is that it was optimized, causing it to still show well in search engines. However, the content may be outdated by now. And some of these old strategies that used to work then may get you penalized now.
Quality search engine optimization takes time. Avoid shiny objects. SEO is a marathon — not a sprint. As the tortoise taught us, slow and steady wins the race.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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1f16a186d7c49bac162e0d1b8ffb1752 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/20/why-sms-is-the-marketing-tool-of-the-future/?sh=1f21e8be7012 | Why SMS Is The Marketing Tool Of The Future | Why SMS Is The Marketing Tool Of The Future
Steve is the Founder & CEO of MuteSix, a leading performance marketing agency that has scaled the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce brands.
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This past year, when the pandemic mostly kept us apart from friends and family, we maintained those relationships via social media, video calls and, probably most often, texts. The average American adult spent more than three hours per day on a smartphone in 2020.
While people have been notably surprised by their screen time reports, they’re not putting their phones down as a result. Consumers are making more mobile purchases than ever, with shopping apps reaching 14.4 million downloads in the U.S. between March and April 2020.
Tapping into SMS — Short Message Service, or simply texting — provides brands the opportunity to meet customers where they are spending the most time. It’s the fastest and most logical way to interact with shoppers. Here’s why SMS is the marketing tool of the future and how to leverage it now.
Consumers engage with SMS faster than any other marketing channel.
It takes approximately 90 seconds for someone to answer a text message. Compare that to the 90 minutes it takes, on average, to respond to an email. SMS has proven efficiency when it comes to abandoned carts, customer service inquiries and promoting new product launches and seasonal sales. It is one of the most effective ways to recover lost revenue.
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The channel’s early success means it will likely continue to progress before reaching its full potential as an independent e-commerce platform.
Consumers are hungry for convenience and often don’t want to be bothered with steps like re-entering credit card information at checkout. As many as 97% of shoppers have abandoned a purchase because the checkout process was not seamless enough.
In the future, I predict we’ll see texting become its own distribution channel where users can complete their entire purchase journey quickly via SMS, stored card details included.
Texting is uniquely personal, making it an ideal channel for DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands.
As inboxes and social media feeds become increasingly inundated with ads and branded content from department stores and big-box retailers, SMS is a more personalized method for companies to engage with their audience.
DTC brands are frequently the first adopters of new marketing channels. Many are already capturing phone numbers through their checkout flows on Shopify. They then segment users based on their prior behavior and use that data to send them targeted messages.
In general, digitally native brands lack the advantages of a heavy brick-and-mortar presence, such as face-to-face customer service and hospitality. SMS provides a moment to level the playing field and facilitate a two-way conversation between the brand and the consumer.
The SMS marketing model’s simplicity also means it’s incredibly cost-efficient for small businesses — there’s minimal need for creative and management tools.
To see tangible results and prolonged engagement, a thoughtful strategy is essential.
While the concept of SMS seems reasonably straightforward, marketers should view it in the same manner as any other performance marketing strategy and take a thoughtful approach.
It’s crucial to personalize messages based on real customer data and behavior and make those messages conversational. Texts from brands shouldn’t feel starkly different from friends or colleagues.
Companies can use pop-ups to offer perks for opting into receiving SMS messages, and then take it a step further and continue giving incentives to avoid losing subscribers. The real opportunity with SMS lies in prolonged engagement and a chance to create lifelong customers.
The takeaway: SMS is the next phase of e-commerce.
As e-commerce grows at an impressive rate and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) rises, companies have to nurture their customer relationships to succeed in a crowded space.
SMS will continue to evolve and has the power to become an entirely shoppable experience; everything a customer can do on a Shopify site will be achievable via text. Live, timely, person-to-person messaging will become the norm as we get further into 2021, and it’s in a brand’s best interest to get started now.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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dd700f85a3933eaab6c96f19e7ddf1c7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/21/12-ways-super-bowl-ads-may-evolve-in-2021/ | 12 Ways Super Bowl Ads May Evolve In 2021 | 12 Ways Super Bowl Ads May Evolve In 2021
Millions of viewers tune into the Super Bowl every year for the famously good advertising, and brands leverage this fact by spending big to reach a huge portion of the public with a 30-second clip. At turns spectacular, humorous, poignant and sometimes controversial, Super Bowl advertising gets more innovative every year to capture the attention of fans between plays and others who are watching solely for the ads.
The ads that will run before and during the broadcast of the 55th Super Bowl this February promise to be as evolutionary as any other year’s, if not more so, given the continuing impact of the pandemic. Below, the experts of Forbes Agency Council share their predictions about what they expect to see in Super Bowl ads this year.
Forbes Agency Council members share predictions for how Super Bowl ads might evolve in 2021. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. The Appearance Of Pandemic-Related Buzzwords
There will be a stronger focus on online businesses, and companies that don’t offer online shopping will emphasize the latest buzzwords: “contactless,” “touchless” and “delivery.” We can all probably play “Super Bowl bingo” by listening for phrases such as “unprecedented,” “in these challenging times” and “the new normal.” It should be interesting. - Chelsey Pendock, Innovision Advertising
2. Themes Of Lightheartedness, Hope And Warmth
It’s no secret that the general theme of 2020 was “everyone can’t wait for it to be over.” To kick off 2021, we expect to see the typical funny ads, but with more empathy, unity and hope sprinkled in. It’s clear that this is what the country needs right now with Covid-19 and division over the election, so it’ll be interesting to see how ads reflect this. - Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH
3. Greater Advertising Accountability
Advertising accountability via specific performance metrics will start replacing “water cooler” creative impact and social virality as measures of success and ultimate ROI for such an enormous ad buy. Advertisers will also demand greater transparency into how that impact is calculated, as they need every media dollar driving positive outcomes on the bottom line. - Brian Handrigan, Advocado
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4. Smaller Companies Spending Less To Compete With Bigger Brands
With the Super Bowl being made available for live streaming on numerous channels, apps and platforms, the advertising possibilities are nearly infinite. This will allow smaller companies to better compete without having to spend millions (though still likely a profuse amount of money) on advertising. - Larry Gurreri, Sosemo LLC
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. More Interactive Ads
The ads are going to have to be more creative or interactive. More people than ever are going to watch the game on mobile devices, so that will make them less likely to actually sit through ads. More than ever, the ads will have to grab people immediately—not in 30 seconds, not in 10 seconds and maybe not even in five seconds, but immediately. - Danny Star, Website Depot
6. A Focus On Real-Time Experiences
There is a huge opportunity to focus on real-time experiences during the game. Think “Touchdown Deals” on social media and in-commercial calls to action such as “Text XYZ before halftime to be entered.” The real winners will be those creative brands that do low-budget, user-generated content campaigns showing real people. Customers need to feel connected to a brand now more than ever, so immersive experiences could be game changers. - Bernard May, National Positions
7. Brands Leaking Ads Focused On Covid-19
Super Bowl ads will evolve in two ways this year. First, there will be a creative focus on Covid-19, especially as no one will be watching the game in-stadium. Some ads will be heartfelt and some funny, but also watch for ads that rally for a cause (such as donations), making it easier to measure their impact. Second, more brands will likely leak ads prior to their game day spot as they battle for consumer attention. - Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
8. Impacts Of Potential Postponement On Creative
Due to an uptick in Covid-19 cases among players and teams, media buyers are saying there is a contingency plan in place to potentially play the Super Bowl later in February if needed. A change in timing will make it difficult for some advertisers to plan their creative. That said, it isn’t stopping most advertisers from making commitments, as nearly 80% of CBS’s commercial slots reportedly sold out. - Dennis Cook, Gamut. Smart Media from Cox.
9. More Conscientious Messaging
All of the top ad spots have already been purchased for this year’s Super Bowl, so demand has not changed. What will change is the message. Typically, these spots are dominated by beverage and snack companies (Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Doritos, etc.). These ads will need to reflect social distancing for the first time. Showing large Super Bowl celebrations could land you on the wrong side of viral. - T. Maxwell, eMaximize
10. More Integrated Mobile Marketing
My prediction is that many of the ads will address the commonalities of 2020: Unemployment or working from home, Zoom calls, food and grocery deliveries, political exhaustion and important social causes. Since all fans will be watching from home, expect to see a higher rate of integrated mobile marketing where viewers can instantly engage with the brand via their phones. - Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint
11. Actors Wearing Masks
Super Bowl ads will most likely include people who wear masks and highlight the convenience of shopping at home and pick-up services. The ads that will stand out will highlight strength in adversity, creating a common goal of compliance and a “see it through to the end” mentality. - Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions
12. Brands Illustrating How They Fuel Human Connection
We will see a heavy emphasis on human connection and how people can use a brand’s product to maintain or improve valued relationships with their family and friends. As the Covid-19 pandemic prevents many from physically being with the important people in their lives, brands must step up and illustrate how they can help fill the void. - Stefan Pollack, The Pollack Group
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05e8dcf464339786caa36d8b6969b2bb | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/21/four-ways-a-strong-mission-statement-can-guide-your-digital-marketing/ | Four Ways A Strong Mission Statement Can Guide Your Digital Marketing | Four Ways A Strong Mission Statement Can Guide Your Digital Marketing
Digital marketing expert at NUVEW, helping businesses expand their online presence through custom website design and development & SEO.
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In the information age, and especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it may seem like every tried-and-true business standard of the past has been replaced or updated in some way. But there are a few conventions that remain, usually for good reason, and one of those is the mission statement. Here we’re going to look at why crafting a strong, effective mission statement for your organization is just as important as ever, and four ways digital marketing can nurture your client connection by putting your mission at the forefront.
Build a Unified Brand Voice
According to the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary, a mission statement is “an official statement of the aims of a company or an organization.” Your company’s mission is the foundation of all you do. It’s what distinguishes your company from your competitors and provides a glimpse at how you value your client base. Beyond simply stating what you do, a well-written mission statement helps humanize your company and make connecting to clients easier.
Consumers are flooded with advertising online, and it can be challenging to connect organically with prospective clients and new leads, especially while social distancing. When you use your mission statement to guide your marketing strategy, you can create and maintain consistent messaging more easily, because you’ll have a clear directive at all times. By building a voice for your company that feels familiar, you can provide clients with that down-to-earth feel they crave when interacting with a business. Fortunately, once you’ve established your messaging, digital marketing offers much in terms of building a loyal client base that is emotionally connected to your business and its services.
Inspire Marketing Innovation
One incentive of digital marketing is the ability to shift your strategy along with ongoing developments. But constant change can present challenges, too — it can be tough to know whether a marketing trend is right for your business. With your mission as a virtual guidepost, it’s easier to select new tactics confidently and stay atop the latest technological advancements without losing sight of your goals. Rolling with the punches can make change more bearable and help you keep up with your competitors — or even surpass them.
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For example, a trendy social media tactic is to call attention to successful or well-known persons during celebrations of particular groups, such as Black History Month or LGBTQ Pride Month. In a time where social activism is on the rise, posts like this can be a great way to connect with your audience while highlighting your mission indirectly.
Identify a colleague or executive you look up to whose story you can share. What makes this business leader so admirable? Think of the qualities or traits that this individual possesses. For instance, what do you envision in a good leader? What makes someone stand out to you? It could be compassion, empathy, patience or honesty. Understanding what you appreciate in other leaders can help you identify your company’s core values and better emphasize them through digital marketing.
Give Structure to Your SEO Strategy
As you build a digital presence, search engine optimization (SEO) is the gateway to furthering your mission and helping your company grow. Whether you add new services or would just like to gain clients in different geographical locations, SEO can help you increase impressions and achieve your goals by helping online searchers find your website more easily. Here, too, your mission can inform your approach — from determining which search terms you want to target to which back-end updates to prioritize. SEO has much to offer in terms of getting your mission noticed and appreciated.
Google algorithm updates and other search engine changes are inevitable, and fluctuations in website traffic happen to even the most well-developed sites. But with a consistent, mission-driven approach, your website can maintain a relatively steady number of impressions and new leads despite the changes and build a diverse client base to reach more people who need your services.
Create and Organize Content Wisely
Many business leaders underestimate the power of quality content. Content isn’t just there to fill up space on your website. When used correctly, content has the power to emphasize what’s important to your company. Blogs and other media, such as videos, have enormous potential to convey your company’s values. For instance, posting regular blogs about topics relevant to your company’s core values — even if they don’t relate directly to your services — is how you can show, not just tell, your audience that you actively carry out a mission.
And speaking of content, after putting so much effort into building a great mission statement, you’ll want to feature it where your clients can easily see it. Every reputable business should have a clean, accessible website, and that’s the perfect place to convey what’s important to your company. Consider making a separate page for your mission statement or include snippets of it throughout your homepage. No matter what style you choose, clearly defining your company’s values is essential and can guide your design choices, too.
Put Your Mission Statement to Work for You
Communicating your mission to your audience is key to maintaining long-lasting customer relationships. With your values at the forefront, clients will have no problem recognizing what your company stands for and the service that prospective clients can expect. And even better, a strong mission statement can take much of the guesswork out of your marketing strategy, opening an entire world of possibilities.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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22167b18135e588413fc008e82782955 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/21/how-brands-can-employ-visual-storytelling-to-engage-target-audiences/ | How Brands Can Employ Visual Storytelling To Engage Target Audiences | How Brands Can Employ Visual Storytelling To Engage Target Audiences
Founder & CEO at Deviate Agency, full-service creative marketing and software agency helping brands increase and dominate their market share
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For brands and marketers, one of the most crucial aspects of campaigns is connecting with target audiences. If a brand can provoke emotion and engage people through marketing, it will directly correlate to business growth. The ability to form emotional connections separates the great companies from the ones that settle for meeting targets.
One way to create deeper connections with a target audience is through visual storytelling. Psychology professor Albert Mehrabian famously broke down communication into 7% spoken words, 38% tone of voice and 55% body language. This gives weight to the cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words. By 2024, mobile video ad spending in the U.S. is expected to grow to $9.26 billion. In 2020, 63% of mobile time is video traffic, giving a clear indication of the type of content people want to consume, and businesses should strive to support it.
If brands want to engage target audiences, they need to produce the visual content in such high demand.
Visual Storytelling
Visual storytelling refers to the strategy of using visual content to communicate a narrative. The objective is to inspire an emotional response, guide and educate the audience. Sometimes, a visual story is a single item of content (i.e., infographic, video, image), but it is often a campaign comprising several pieces.
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For example, Chipotle created a four-episode web series called Farmed and Dangerous. The show had a website featuring music, behind-the-scenes clips and trivia about the show.
If you don't have the luxury of an existing customer base or a large budget, there are plenty of other visual storytelling tactics to try.
Video Marketing
We could probably write an entire article about how crucial video marketing is today. Consider that TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020, and video content typically generates more engagement than any other type of content on social networks. As a brand, you need to be part of the video marketing trend.
The NBA knows that TikTok users want short-form content that engages audiences quickly, hence the brand uses the platform primarily for comedy and memes featuring players. As far as other platforms go, the NBA focuses on game highlights for Instagram, and news and updates are shared on Twitter.
If you want to start video marketing today, the first and most crucial step is to research, find and understand your target audience — their favorite media channels and the type of content they expect to see when visiting them. Each video should have a clear objective. Even with the best-produced video, you won't get an ROI if it is not relevant to your audience.
When creating a video, a few things to consider are:
1. What is the objective of the video?
2. Where will the audience see the video?
3. Is the video solving a problem for our audience?
4. What is the budget for our video?
If you can comprehensively answer all of those things, you are on your way to a robust video marketing campaign.
Anti-Branding
To engage target audiences, some brands step back from talking about themselves in what is known as anti-branding. This comes from the school of thought that customers are fed up with sales pitches or self-indulgent posts and want something they can easily relate to.
To create compelling anti-branding visual novels:
1. Create content that powerfully illuminates your brand values by interviewing your most loyal customers.
2. Credit the greatness of your company to your employees. Focus on them by looking inward and tapping them for great stories that resonate with your target audience.
3. Find unique and out-of-the-box ways to tell your brand story. Run wild with your creativity to increase your target audience's engagement.
User-Generated Content
Images and videos submitted by your customers are an excellent way to create stories and increase engagement. For example, in December, Starbucks released a "red cup contest," which asked fans to submit photos of their coffee to have a chance of winning a gift card. The campaign generated thousands of photos, showing an exceptional amount of audience engagement.
Fans captured their own story of the cups before submitting them to social media with the #redcupcontest hashtag. Every cup tells its own story, and users who generate content are credited on the Starbucks social media page. There is genuine excitement seeing how different people in the community interpret the holiday season through story art.
According to research, 90% of consumers surveyed said that user-generated content influences their buying decisions. The beauty in these stories is that they are unbiased and genuinely represent people with similar interests who share a common passion for a brand.
The advantage of user-generated content for visual storytelling is that it can change the customer perception of you being an out-of-reach corporation to an authentic and caring brand name.
Animation
One of the most popular marketing trends over the last couple of years is animated videos and graphics. Animated videos can promote brands and educate customers in ways that standard video content cannot. The animation is subconsciously not seen as a promotional pitch but more like a fun cartoon. Stories become more like entertainment and can engage different target audiences.
That doesn't mean you can throw a set of graphics together, and people will connect with it because it looks fun. Before starting your animation, plan a full synopsis, even if it doesn't have a voiceover or text. If you can't talk through what it is saying, the animation most likely won't work.
Summary
This article highlights some of the most popular ways to introduce visual storytelling into your marketing strategy. The critical takeaway is to think about the end customer and what they want to see if you're going to engage and connect with them. Experiences with brands are becoming more critical in the growing digital landscape, with those prioritizing visual storytelling likely to win the day.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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33712637851e9e2d623416142a05f86f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/22/seo-in-2021-five-trends-that-you-need-to-know-and-master/?sh=3af41e623623 | SEO In 2021: Five Trends That You Need To Know (And Master) | SEO In 2021: Five Trends That You Need To Know (And Master)
Founder & CEO of Soderman SEO, a master SEO company specializing in SEO services that are 100% data-driven for maximum ROI.
If there's one thing we know that is certain and constant about SEO, it's change. There were close to a dozen or so Google algorithm updates in 2020. In 2021, we predict roughly the same.
So what does this tell us for SEO in 2021? It tells us that Google continues to refine and tweak its algorithm to incorporate new technologies and user behaviors. This is why it continues to dominate the search industry and currently has 92% market share.
As Google's algorithm evolves and grows, so do its patents. Google has over 50,000 patents, with many going to protect its precious algorithm. Within these patents, you can get a solid look at what the big G is trying to accomplish. It still amazes me that some SEO companies haven't even read one of Google's algorithm patents, let alone all of them.
As the founder of a company that focuses only on SEO, each December, I dive headfirst into recent Google patents and a year’s worth of data that we pull from thousands of properties we manage each month.
Below, I give you five trends that I believe you'll want to know and master for your business so you can dominate SEO in 2021.
1. UX Becomes a Top Ranking Factor
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UX is short for user experience, which means, with regard to SEO, how a customer or user goes through your website. UX will be an extremely strong ranking factor in 2021 and beyond.
Google can measure UX, and if your site doesn't cut it, then according to Google, you don't deserve the top spots — and it's right.
Think about it.
User Mike navigates to Google, types in a query and clicks over to website A. After a few seconds, Mike hits the "back" button and returns to Google. After being back on Google, Mike clicks over to website B, which he stays on and never returns back to Google.
Website B was a better result for user Mike and Google saw it. This action is known as pogo sticking. Pogo sticking is when a user visits a few sites until they find a result that satisfies their query. Pogo sticking is an extremely strong signal to Google that a user isn't happy with the results.
And guess what? If users aren't happy, Google isn't happy. When it comes to SEO in 2021, the last thing you want is Google unhappy with your site.
Here are some quick wins that can increase your website UX optimization:
• Get your site loading fast, and then make it faster. This will be the No. 1 reason someone clicks back to Google. Check your site speed here.
• Make sure your site is mobile-friendly. If your site doesn't display correctly for a mobile user, they'll bounce off and back to Google. Check your mobile-friendliness here.
• Test links and buttons to make sure they work.
• Leverage analytics and heat maps to dive deep into your users' behaviors. See what they are doing on your site and why they are leaving.
This should get your UX started off right in 2021. Get on it.
2. You Still Need Backlinks
This might be an obvious one, but it still needs to be in your playbook for SEO in 2021. With all things being equal, evaluating backlinks is the only way for Google to differentiate between two sites.
According to a study, backlinks were the No. 1 contributing factor to high rankings. I believe backlinks will continue to be a major ranking factor in 2021 and for years to come.
Here are two tactics that you can use to incorporate into your link-building in 2021.
• Explore competitors' backlinks. Leveraging tools like Ahrefs.com, you can see who is linking to your competitors and not you. Export that list, and reach out to those sites to try to gain a link from them.
• Build relationships. As an agency with over 200 clients, I've found that this is by far the best way to generate and build amazing and high-authority backlinks. Start now, and over time you can build your relationship infrastructure to site owners who will be willing to send you a quality backlink any time.
Go get some backlinks to dominate in 2021.
3. EAT Continues to Grow
EAT stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google wants to make sure it's giving its users accurate information that is written by experts, and EAT is the answer.
If anything can start to eat (no pun intended) away at the importance of backlinks, it's EAT. One easy way to optimize for EAT is to find a credible author who has expertise in the topics your site will be covering. Have them write well-researched and in-depth content. It's really that easy.
4. Mobile Searches Soar Again
Google moved to mobile-first indexing for all websites back in September of 2020, and a little earlier, it was made crystal clear that mobile was now king — and a king that won't be dethroned anytime soon.
Mobile continued to grow in 2020 with a 55% market share worldwide and will continue at a higher rate in 2021.
Mobile seems to be caught up in two SEO trends for 2021 and rightly so. Both are critically important for 2021 SEO.
5. Voice Search Gets Moving
This is a love-hate relationship for me. I cringe when hearing the dreaded, "Hey Google, blah blah blah," from people around me. But the reality is more people are using voice search every day. It's just easier at times. Add in the smart home devices like Amazon’s Alexa that are becoming more popular, and voice search is moving up the ranks.
The good news is that it's no different than regular searches in terms of optimizing for SEO. You really don’t have to do anything different to keywords, UX, backlinks, etc.
There you have it — five trends for SEO in 2021 that should give you a headstart in dominating the search results.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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b50bed16565eadba1354ed04cafa13d5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/22/shared-hosting-vs-a-dedicated-server-which-is-better-for-seo/?sh=3d05aeada7d7 | Shared Hosting Vs. A Dedicated Server: Which Is Better For SEO? | Shared Hosting Vs. A Dedicated Server: Which Is Better For SEO?
Founder and CEO of FiveChannels, specializing in creating brand awareness, traffic and lead gen, marketing funnels, social media and more.
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Ranking high in SEO is important for any website as it can help users find you easily within the search engine results pages.
However, did you know that shared hosting and a dedicated server to host your website could affect your SEO?
The two hosting choices have their merits, but they have their detriments as well. Since SEO is one of the lifelines of any website, this decision could impact how you do business moving forward, specifically with digital marketing.
What Is Shared Hosting?
Servers aren't much different than your home computer. They contain a processor, hard drive and memory.
Shared hosting means that multiple users from multiple companies will be on the same server. Typically, shared hosting is done through a third party. They have a server large enough to accommodate more than one company and allow for the separation of companies (or different departments in companies) within the server.
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One advantage of shared hosting is that the cost per user is relatively low because you and others are buying into the server and splitting the costs.
The downside is that the resources available will be limited and could even be affected by the actions of others on the same server. For example, if one user on the server gets a virus, it can put everyone else at risk.
What Is A Dedicated Server?
Having a dedicated server is exactly the opposite of shared hosting. It is when an entire server is dedicated to a single website or business.
When using a dedicated server, you can choose to split the server up into segments. You even have the option to share it with others, use the entire server for a single website, or split it between a couple of your own websites.
Dedicated servers can also be split into a number of smaller accounts. Doing this can help users have a web hosting account while being in a collective, making it affordable.
On the flip side, dedicated servers are a much more costly option than shared hosting. Furthermore, if you aren't familiar with how a server works, you might run into some big trouble when it comes to usability and ensuring the safety of your server.
Does Shared Hosting Affect The SEO Of Your Website?
Many factors can affect the SEO of a website and the ranking Google gives it. This can include the quality of your content, the time it takes your page to load, whether your content is relevant to the user's search and your website's reputation in the eyes of Google.
Shared hosting does affect the SEO of your website. Your choice of a web hosting provider will affect the SEO of your site in regards to the Google webmaster quality guidelines. With this in mind, make sure to check the reputation of the shared hosting company you choose to work with, even if it's more expensive to go with the more reputable option. A lower price could cost you big in the SEO world if they do not follow the guidelines of Google.
It's important to remember that Google isn't evil and understands that not everyone has the bandwidth for a dedicated web hosting provider or even a dedicated web hosting plan. This is true for all big-name search engines. Since there can be millions of websites on shared hosting plans, they understand your site may not be one of the spammy ones.
To be safe, I believe that going with a shared hosting website isn't the best when it comes to your SEO — mostly because you will be sharing a server with sites that could be practicing “black hat” SEO techniques, sending mass email spam, or are associated with adult content. These “bad neighborhoods” could affect your rankings.
How Do Dedicated Servers Affect SEO?
When push comes to shove, I believe that dedicated servers are better for your website than shared ones. Some might disagree, and this is not to say that dedicated servers are perfect, but I believe the good outweighs the bad in this situation.
In truth, having a dedicated IP address, which can only be had with a dedicated server, can greatly enhance your website’s speed. It isn’t the only factor, and you will still need to be on top of other determining factors, but website speed is hugely important to SEO.
Furthermore, a dedicated IP address is more effective in keeping your website safe from viruses and hackers, as it is easier to monitor, and you won’t have to worry about other people’s mistakes.
Which Hosting Has The Most SEO Power?
The truth is, your real SEO strength comes from the time and effort you put into your site to make it rank high.
However, using a shared hosting server with other spammy sites can damage your website's credibility. Sharing can also lead to slower website speed and even more downtime.
With that being said, I believe dedicated servers will be your best bet to positively impact your SEO rankings. Shared hosting has too many variables you cannot control.
There are benefits to both shared hosting and dedicated servers. While shared hosting is a good way for startups to save money, you will eventually want to make the switch over to a dedicated server.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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9f9b70b53533ca5950229812575b6386 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/25/12-effective-ways-to-use-infographics-for-marketing/?sh=466a732a6da1 | 12 Effective Ways To Use Infographics For Marketing | 12 Effective Ways To Use Infographics For Marketing
As content marketing continues to rise in popularity, more and more businesses are creating original content to engage and educate their audiences.
Infographics are an especially popular way for people to consume content because they are visually appealing and make complex information easy to read and digest. However, an infographic will only be effective if its content and context are aligned to reach the target audience and deliver the knowledge they need and want.
What is the best way to ensure the success of infographic content? Below, the members of Forbes Agency Council explore specific marketing purposes that infographics serve particularly well, along with tips for creating the most impactful infographic content.
Forbes Agency Council members discuss effective ways to use infographics for marketing. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Keep It Simple And To The Point
Simple, to-the-point infographics are a type of content that we constantly utilize with the majority of our social media clients. I find that they are best used for sharing information about a service, facts about a business or product highlights. Essentially, they allow viewers to access key information without the fluff. Infographics can still be fun and animated. Get creative! - Olivia Ormos, OO & CO
2. Amplify True Customer Stories
Focus on great storytelling while amplifying true customer stories. Video infographic case studies focused on the customer journey and real stories about their positive experience with your brand, product or services will generate indispensable brand recognition and value. - Cagan Sean Yuksel, GRAFX CO.
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3. Explain Complex Concepts
Infographics are great for explaining complex business concepts or processes. Creators are forced to compartmentalize each concept into distinct units or steps; and the ability to visualize it enables the reader to gain a better understanding of the concept or process. - Guy Alvarez, Good2bSocial
4. Showcase The Strength Behind Numbers
Numbers are how we measure value, and the magnitude of their meaning is often underrated. Infographics are powerful tools for showcasing the strength behind these numbers for visual audiences. We see that infographics are particularly effective on equity crowdfunding pages, as reflected by a stronger conversion rate from a retail investor audience with no offline connection to the brand. - Jason Fishman, Digital Niche Agency (DNA)
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Start From Scratch
Don’t start with an infographic template and retrofit your information. Start with a blank screen. Be original and creative with your infographic. Use a visual hierarchy. Your most important idea should jump out as an obvious takeaway when you’re staring at the infographic; the rest of the ideas build toward it. Try creating small and simple infographics instead of making one, big, complex composition. - Kashif Zaman, Uptok
6. Focus On Transmitting Intelligence
Infographics are one of the most powerful tools marketers have to rapidly and clearly convey complex data sets. Two of the biggest mistakes made with infographics are cramming too much information into a single visual and confusing the key point. When a laser-focused, simple, eye-catching infographic accurately transmits intelligence, its impact on engagement and memorability is extremely high. - Trish Thomas, TEEM
7. Make Complicated Topics More Digestible
Infographics have a variety of uses, but we find they work best when accompanying a complicated topic. When something has many steps, components or facets to it, an infographic can be a great way to break it down into digestible chunks. We made one recently where we were able to visually organize, explain and break down each of the “eight key components of a sales page.” - Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH
8. Include Precise Messaging
Business impact, client solutions, research, case studies—the opportunities to use an infographic as a marketing tool are endless, but it must tell a story visually. Infographics with precise messaging that have a clean, intriguing look will best serve your company. Don’t make an infographic just to have one; really put the energy into creating a piece that can do some heavy lifting. - Simms Jenkins, Ansira
9. Visually Represent Trends
Images work better when it’s difficult to show certain trends or results through text. Therefore, infographics are better for comparative charts or graphs, such as those showing growth over the year or month, or anything where visual elements make it easier to illustrate a trend or comparison. - Dmitrii Kustov, Regex SEO
10. Weave Smaller Ones Into Blog Posts
Infographics are a great way to present complex ideas, charts and processes, among other things, and they can be very valuable to the consumer in that type of application. To provide value to you, as the marketer, use smaller infographics that are interwoven into your blog posts to improve engagement metrics and boost SEO value. Additionally, use your graphics in social media and ads to stretch the impact. - Danny Shepherd, Titan Growth
11. Turn Data Into A Visual Story
I find that infographics work best for a piece of content with a lot of data and research within it. By visually breaking the data points into sections and telling a story this way, it makes it easy for the reader to digest. Infographic stories made up of data can be easily told as a trend pie, and our readers love trends! - Lori Paikin, NaviStone®
12. Optimize Your Image Data For Search Engines
Infographics allow both search engines and users to see a piece of your website as unique, and that helps your content stand out in a sea of available information. It’s important to allow this unique content to shine by ensuring that it is optimized with alt tags and an image filename and not so dense as to slow down the page. Ensure that the page it lives on is optimized and primed for visibility and that other channels are promoting it. - Larry Gurreri, Sosemo LLC
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e134361dc5fdbc4abaf020f689957e82 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/25/eight-ways-to-position-yourself-as-a-go-to-expert-for-the-media/ | Eight Ways To Position Yourself As A Go-To Expert For The Media | Eight Ways To Position Yourself As A Go-To Expert For The Media
The PR Maven®, CEO & Founder, Marshall Communications, creating & implementing marketing/PR/personal branding strategies.
For better or worse, the Covid-19 pandemic has thrust crisis communications into the spotlight.
In the midst of a national emergency, Americans are being exposed to all kinds of new spokespeople with deep expertise in public health, small business trends, economic growth and other issues. For many of these experts, they could never have imagined being interviewed by CNN or The New York Times about a novel virus, but here they are. Here we all are.
Now more than ever, we are witnessing the impact of thought leaders who can communicate important messages to the general public. But the importance of thought leadership, when it comes to media interviews, transcends even the pandemic. Whether you're an expert on public health or wild blueberry picking in Maine (one of my favorite activities), the time may come when you will be called upon to be a spokesperson. You need to be ready.
This begs the question: How do you position yourself as a go-to expert for the media? Here are eight useful tips:
1. Connect with media members on social media. From LinkedIn to Facebook and Twitter, there are numerous platforms that attract potential media contacts, such as reporters and producers. Introducing yourself to them and demonstrating your grasp of a given topic will go a long way in garnering interest. In today's world, networking online is a surefire way to get noticed.
2. Update your LinkedIn profile. For professional interactions, there is no better social media platform than LinkedIn, where people go to "check out" their colleagues and the competition. Neglecting your LinkedIn page does nothing to convey thought leadership. Remember to keep it updated with your specific area of expertise so media members can identify you as topical and newsworthy.
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3. Carve out your own niche. Speaking of subject matter expertise, you need to figure out what exactly that means for you. Don't make your expertise too broad, since it may come across as unbelievable. However, you shouldn't make your expertise too specific either, since media members appreciate versatile interviewees. Identify your top strengths and promote them.
4. Write bylined articles. From op-ed columns to letters to the editor, publishing articles under your name is a surefire way to get noticed by the local and national media. There is a sense of legitimacy that comes with writing bylined articles, especially when they have to do with your specific area of expertise. Media members may even stumble across them organically and reach out, without your even lifting a finger.
5. Pitch stories to relevant media. In addition to publishing articles, you need to find the media members who are on your "beat," covering stories that are directly relevant to your specific area of expertise. Point them in the direction of breaking news, proving that you are attuned to their interests. Show that you care and that you can help.
6. Follow HARO for free daily leads. HARO refers to Help A Reporter Out, the free daily service that media members use to identify potential sources for interviews. Don't be afraid to take advantage of it. Being active on HARO ingratiates you with journalists in need, especially when they are on a deadline. Prove yourself once, and you may create a connection for a lifetime.
7. Share "As Seen In" news outlets on your website. If you've done interviews before, you need to promote them online. A track record of media appearances validates you in the eyes of media members, who never want to interview the wrong person. Like attracts like — the more interviews you do, the more comfortable media members will be reaching out in the future.
8. If you get a call, call back immediately. Media members are often scrambling on deadline, and they don't like to be kept waiting. Being responsive shows that you are reliable. And, of course, say thank you after the fact! The little things matter: Kindness and gratitude go a long way, and you will become popular in media circles by nurturing those relationships.
Unlike the early days of my career, we can now post our own content online and create a body of work independent of the news media. However, being quoted as an expert by a professional journalist still carries credibility that you just can't get on social media and your own website.
Even Google acknowledges the authority of journalistic websites like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. So follow these steps, and your contact info will hopefully be included in top journalists' databases as a go-to expert or authority in your field to be quoted time and time again.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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0fc482e7a779be98243f299aae36fa36 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/25/the-new-aas-economy-why-the-as-a-service-sector-is-booming/?sh=388f625d4149&utm_content=152523047&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-2416379 | The New AAS Economy: Why The “As A Service” Sector Is Booming | The New AAS Economy: Why The “As A Service” Sector Is Booming
Nancy A Shenker, Founder & CEO, theONswitch & nunu ventures.
You’ve probably heard of SaaS. It stands for software as a service, and it is expected to grow to a $220 billion industry in 2022 (a 13% increase from 2018). Including companies like Slack, DocuSign and ADP, it refers to any cloud-based, subscription-based system that enables companies to perform more efficiently and scale without developing their own software solutions.
Over the years, I've worked with a variety of SaaS companies as a marketer and brand builder. These companies often focus on the first S and the features and functions of the software they offer. But the buyer isn't necessarily looking for just technology. They want a solution to a specific business problem. That's why I'm advocating making that S invisible and focusing instead on what the technology delivers as a benefit, which is what great marketing is all about.
What are "as a service" (aaS) models? We’re seeing a surge in technology-driven cloud-based services that enable businesses to streamline business operations and perform specific tasks or manage key expense line items.
For example:
• GaaS: Gifting as a service. Sales professionals express gratitude or build prospect relationships by simply checking a box in Salesforce or other CRM platforms. For example, Sendoso and Alyce allow companies to send gift cards, plants, branded products and even spirits.
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• RIaaS: Revenue intelligence as a service. Several fast-scaling companies, such as Gong and RingDNA, use AI to analyze sales conversations and enable coaching and fine-tuning of pitches. Sales professionals use this data to improve business results, and management can assess team and individual productivity.
• EaaS: Education as a service. Employees can upskill or reskill by accessing online training 24/7. This has replaced the classroom model for a wide range of businesses. Traditional universities like California State are investing in technologies to enhance their online offerings. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of digital-only training options — from nursery school through adult learning and professional training.
• TMaaS: Time management as a service. From scheduling and paying hourly employees to tracking billing for service companies, these tools enable businesses to better analyze and control their human capital expenses and workflows. Harri and Deputy are just two of the many platforms that help retailers, restaurants and other industries that employ hourly workers schedule and manage staffing expenses.
• BaaS: Banking as a service. New cloud-based companies are leading a financial services revolution as the traditional brick-and-mortar systems become obsolete. These emerging companies don't have a physical presence but offer a full suite of banking products.
• LaaS: Lighting as a service. Energy expenses can be daunting for restaurants, retailers, auto dealerships, prisons and other commercial enterprises. LaaS companies like Future Energy Solutions average out the cost of lighting over time and charge clients a flat fee each month, which includes expenses like bulbs and maintenance. With an increased focus on sustainability, companies like Carbon Lighthouse are examining other energy sources beyond lighting and managing and tracking both carbon footprints and expenses.
Subscription Models Are Not New; They’re Just Smarter Today
Subscription-based business models for consumers have existed for decades. In the analog era, the book-of-the-month and Columbia House Record Club were mainstays of their industries.
As businesses looked for more ways to get complex services while managing cash flow, the SaaS industry emerged. Fueled by automation, developers started to look at tasks and functions that most businesses need and then created ways to perform them using cloud-based tools.
The business benefits of aaS offerings include:
• Access to complex programs that would take years and millions of dollars to develop in-house. The aaS company is constantly investing in improvements and functionality, often based on customer input.
• Predictable expenses. In the case of lighting, for example, commercial enterprises spend millions of dollars a year on energy. Having a set monthly expense enables them to better manage cash flow. Some companies even cover the entire upfront cost of LED lighting conversion and simply amortize that expense as part of the monthly fee.
• Ease of use and analytics. When everyone in a company is using the same cloud-based system, CEOs and other decision-makers have easy access to comparative measurement.
Companies with aaS offerings are also able to prove their long-term value to subscribers. Subscription models enable these businesses to use a wide range of sophisticated tools, measure their effectiveness and determine their ROI over time.
As companies head into 2021, they will be looking for ways to manage expenses and scale. Subscription aaS models can give them access to best-of-class tools and services while controlling costs.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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2eb9e74c306716a33ab65e3d9250d2b5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/26/15-marketing-advertising-and-pr-trends-that-will-take-off-this-year/?sh=16dd9d8c165d | 15 Marketing, Advertising And PR Trends That Will Take Off This Year | 15 Marketing, Advertising And PR Trends That Will Take Off This Year
Trends in the world of advertising, marketing and public relations are exciting and elusive things. Their popularity can go through the roof one week and be virtually nonexistent by the start of the next. Regardless of how unpredictable they are, getting in on a trend before others do can be a massive boon for an agency.
Consequently, there’s a continual focus on anticipating which emerging trends will explode before they become mainstream. Below, 15 members of Forbes Agency Council look at some of the trends they expect to rise to prominence as this year progresses.
Forbes Agency Council members discuss the most important trends in their industry to keep an eye on this year. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. A Growing Focus On Simplicity
Simplicity is key. Given the growth of everything digital, making things more focused on essential tasks will be critical. Expect simpler website design, less color and focused use cases for product applications. - John Assalian, Viewstream
2. Differentiating On Customer And Employee Experiences
As a global experience consultancy, we see how more companies will need to differentiate on experience. Customer and employee experiences are becoming the new competitive advantage, a step beyond quality products or exceptional service. Successful organizations are starting to view their own employee experience with the same level of importance as their customer’s experience. Seamless employee experience is key. - Ross Freedman, Rightpoint
3. The Overlap Of Different Marketing Disciplines
The overlap of different marketing disciplines will become even stronger, with an impact on the buying and delivery side. What matters more than ever before is a true understanding of brands’ challenges and the research-based strategy that sums it up in a compelling, big idea. This can come from traditional PR, advertising, social media or events experts—there is no monopoly on great ideas! - Lars Voedisch, PRecious Communications
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4. A Shift In How Influencers Choose Partners
In 2020, influencers pivoted their content strategies from being self-focused to community-focused. They led without being asked, and as a result, many of them now feel it’s their job to speak up. So going forward, the shift in how influencers now view themselves and their responsibilities toward their followers will create a fundamental shift in how and why they choose to partner with brands. - Atul Singh, The Shelf
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. The Increasing Importance Of Data
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are reaching a stage where marketers have more insights into consumer behavior, attribution and preferences than ever before. Winners will be those brands and agencies that harness that superpower to hyper-target their marketing and match the media, message, frequency and location to the individual consumer or business. “Micro” will ultimately replace “mass.” - Nancy A Shenker, theONswitch
6. More Use Of AI In E-Commerce
More use of AI in e-commerce is one thing that I definitely think we will see a lot of in the industry. As things continue to evolve, what is clear is that there is going to be more and more use of AI, as well as of other platforms, to ensure better outcomes. - Jon James, Ignited Results
7. Rising Adoption Of Facebook And Instagram Shops
We are seeing a rise in e-commerce sites adopting Facebook and Instagram Shops. This new feature allows products to be sold directly on Facebook or Instagram with a simplified order process. With payment details on file, this sets the stage for a seamless one-click transaction that could eventually rival Amazon. - Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint
9. A Shift From Mobile To Desktop Search
With an abundance of people working from home for the majority of 2020 (and likely most of 2021), people are less shy about searching on their desktops within the privacy of their own homes. Therefore, we see a shift from mobile to desktop, as users aren’t worried about co-workers seeing their shopping lists on their monitors at the office. - Larry Gurreri, Sosemo LLC
9. More Focus On Self-Care
Self-care will be paramount. Consumers are taking multiple measures to deal with the rising levels of stress, a trend that has been steadily rising for years but reached new levels during the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, brands will learn how to take part in these self-care routines to become more helpful and win consumer loyalty. - Hamutal Schieber, Schieber Research
10. Increasing Popularity Of Over-The-Top Advertising
With the rising popularity of OTT streaming services, advertisers now have unique opportunities to reach an ever-growing streaming audience and target their key consumers like never before. Forward-thinking advertisers who take advantage of this new opportunity can now build their brands by reaching untapped OTT audiences at scale. - Dennis Cook, Gamut. Smart Media from Cox.
11. The Continued Rise Of Online Community Building
In 2021, we’ll see the continued rise of online community building. Brands that bring their consumers together through on-site forums, Facebook groups or other social platforms are providing value beyond their actual products. People crave interaction more than ever. Brands have an opportunity to link like-minded people together and, in the process, strengthen their brand loyalty. - Stefan Pollack, The Pollack Group
12. Brands Being Judged By Their Actions
If Covid-19, the Black Lives Matter movement and the Facebook boycott have taught us anything, it’s that brands will be judged by their actions, not just their advertising. I think 2021 will be the year that brands bring that realization to life by focusing on strategically identifying their authentic purpose and finding ways to act and live those values for consumers. - Joanne McKinney, Burns Group
13. Hybrid Events And Digital Live Broadcasts
In 2020, business and marketing efforts have been largely digital out of necessity; and there have been some great successes and learnings. As we move into 2021 in the experiential space, we’ll take these learnings and apply them as we are able to gather in person safely, but hybrid events and digital live broadcasts will likely play very prominent roles in brand experiences in the new year. - Scott Kellner, GPJ Experience Marketing
14. Working From Home Becoming Standard Practice
Work from home is here to stay. I believe WFH has always been a viable option for most agencies. The pandemic forced it upon us, and we’ve adapted. Lesson learned? It actually works. It may not be ideal for every situation, but I project no less than a 50-50 split between WFH and office work from here forward. - Randy Shattuck, The Shattuck Group
15. More Investments In Risk Management Strategies
Companies recognize that an issues-management or crisis plan is no longer nice to have or only for the IBMs and Chevrons of the world. In a post-Covid-19 world, savvy CEOs will invest in leveling up their corporate communications and risk management strategies, with their CMOs and agencies at the helm. - Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
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6481a8f0ceecfd68a190ab7beaa9409f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/26/the-trickle-down-effect-from-the-rise-of-alt-cities/ | The Trickle-Down Effect From The Rise Of Alt Cities | The Trickle-Down Effect From The Rise Of Alt Cities
Founder & CEO of Treble. Entrepreneur bootstrapped to $1M+ ARR since 2016. 20-year PR pro. Passionate about turning ideas into results.
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A rising tide apparently does lift all boats when it comes to the rise of so-called alt cities.
Indeed, one of the biggest challenges for alt cities will be how to balance rapid growth and population migration while preserving the homegrown culture and affordability drawing people in the first place. The alt cities offer a new wave of opportunity for entrepreneurs and service providers to be the "bigger fish in a smaller pond."
The First Wave of Alt Cities
The first wave of alt cities, as defined by Peter Yared, are Austin, Nashville and Miami. I was on the earlier cusp of the movement to Austin from San Francisco and became a resident in 2012. One could see the potential in 2006 — however, the ecosystem of big tech plus a strong early-stage venture capital ecosystem has catapulted Austin into a place that goes well beyond its infamous BBQ and live music. Fast forward to 2021, with Tesla, Apple, Facebook, Google and Oracle, along with Sand Hill Road VCs moving to Austin, and the growth curve continues up and to the right.
Nashville is pulling musical talent from Los Angeles and other markets, combined with a booming real estate market. Armed with professional NHL and NFL franchises, celebrities and a growing entrepreneurial tech startup and fashion ecosystem, the city is poised to continue to align with the South as a destination for talent.
Miami is also having a moment. Tax-friendly policy and sandy beaches combined with a pandemic have accelerated the rise of a diverse tech and finance scene. Blackstone and Goldman Sachs, two of the world's biggest hitters in the finance realm, are reportedly making the move.
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Why Service Companies Will Experience a Power Shift
One of the reasons I believe my agency would have struggled to replicate itself being headquartered in San Francisco is because of the closed-circle access to the influencers. In San Francisco and Silicon Valley, the executives that sit on the board of directors at heavy-hitting tech companies tend to recommend the same small group of vendors that have "proven" themselves over the years. This ranges from PR to legal to benefits providers.
In Austin, conversely, there is an underlying culture of empowerment and entrepreneurship. I was able to network with VCs across Texas and build trust. They welcomed new talent with open arms and a fresh perspective. This is why I believe service-oriented companies will be the real winners of this massive population migration.
Innovation is not limited to code. Service companies are innovating on everything from pricing to business models across law, accounting, public relations and HR. When the innovators are able to win in alt cities, everyone benefits with more cost-efficient, superior offerings. Gaps in the market exist everywhere, and the combination of savvy entrepreneurs and cities that embrace them leads to real innovation.
The Trickle-Down Impact of an Ecosystem
The toughest part of building an ecosystem is not the lone-wolf entrepreneurs who dare to dream — rather, it's the intangibles that make these companies actually run: accounting, legal, HR, PR, marketing and venture capital. With investors clearly on board for doubling down on inland cities versus the coasts, it is indeed the service providers that stand to benefit in alt cities. And the service providers provide the trickle-down effect that truly makes a city thrive. These service providers create jobs which, in turn, creates economic stability. Net result? Economies benefit from higher tax revenue, and retail businesses benefit from increased spending. Restaurants, artists and other small businesses are able to survive and thrive (notwithstanding the immense challenges of a global pandemic).
And yet, while some of the biggest cities in the United States (i.e., San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston) are dealing with a net outflow of tech workers, there are lessons to be learned. These cities are not "going away" anytime soon — however, the playing field is a bit more even. Post-pandemic, here are three factors that could lure back talent:
• Create tax incentives for smart city planning. From affordable housing to mass transit, invest in the future now.
• Create grants for nonprofits, music venues and restaurants. Restaurants have been decimated by Covid-19 and are seemingly left out of the federal stimulus. If New York and San Francisco lose their cultural identities when restaurants go under and live music no longer has a home, the incentive for top talent to stay is effectively gone.
• Mandate Big Tech to give back. Given the impact of Big Tech — like Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Netflix — on cities, create policies that steer them toward the greater good of society. Rather than breaking them up, let's focus a small percentage of revenue to be given back to cities to create affordable housing and empower small businesses.
Actually, I believe many of these policies would benefit not just NYC, SF and other big cities, but could be implemented in progressive cities all over the United States. It's really about embracing a fundamental shift to looking at the big picture versus a singular lens. I believe the next wave of growth will continue to be from a fresh wave of alt cities: Madison, Boise, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Atlanta and Minneapolis. Alt cities represent one of the greatest shifts of people and wealth in modern history.
And the best part?
Intelligent growth and policies leave all of us — individually and society as a whole — in a much better place.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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42d09717e39337ec7da5e7eca0ec7b5c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/27/14-ways-to-better-leverage-ai-to-connect-with-consumers/ | 14 Ways To Better Leverage AI To Connect With Consumers | 14 Ways To Better Leverage AI To Connect With Consumers
The use cases for artificial intelligence have expanded far beyond the tech sector in recent years. Today, AI not only automates processes to save time across multiple industries, but can also provide valuable consumer insights.
However, marketers who are interested in using AI to better connect with their target audiences may not be sure of the best ways to do so. To help, 14 members of Forbes Agency Council described specific ways that marketers can better leverage AI to build and strengthen connections with their customer base.
Forbes Agency Council members discuss ways to better leverage AI to connect with consumers. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Get Recommendations That Will Yield The Most ROI
In a sea of content, using AI is nonnegotiable for brands. By leveraging structured and unstructured data, AI easily sifts through the vast landscape of creators and content and accurately provides recommendations within the influencer ecosystem that will yield the most ROI. This data equips brands with the necessary knowledge to execute impactful, authentic campaigns that better resonate with audiences. - Ricky Ray Butler, BEN
2. Identify Individuals Most Likely To Convert
AI and, more specifically, deep learning, enables marketers to use their first-party data to identify which individuals are most likely to convert (and are therefore worth spending money on), as well as those on whom advertising would be wasted. In this case, AI can help marketers build stronger connections with prospective customers by providing a better, more relevant advertising experience. - Jeremy Fain, Cognitiv
3. Provide Offers Based On User Behavior
AI technology can be a very powerful tool. We’ve recently had success with our restaurant clients leveraging AI in online ordering. We track user behavior and ordering patterns that allow us to market specific offers or deals to customers based on previous spending habits. In simple terms, if we know they like X, we can sell them on Y when it becomes available. - Blake George, BMG Media Co.
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4. Automate Real-Time Insights
“AI” is one of those buzzwords that really means “insights.” Automating insights in close to real time will continue as a means of driving more ad relevance, consumer engagement and response. - Carl Fremont, Quigley-Simpson
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Scour Search Intent Data
We leverage AI to scour people’s search intent data, and then we serve those people and companies relevant content. If you know that people at a certain company are searching for products and services that you offer, serving them helpful and informative content becomes much less intrusive, and the engagement rates climb significantly. - Rich Cannava, The CSI Group
6. Engage With More Meaningful Content
Through AI, companies can connect with consumers in a deeper way by leveraging data available to them now about the consumers and their interests. This allows brands to engage their prospects and customers with more meaningful and targeted content through email, on their website, on social media channels and more. - Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions
7. Optimize Email Marketing
While there are many useful applications for AI, using it in email marketing has proven to be very effective. Getting into prospects’ inboxes is tough enough, let alone getting them to read your emails. Using AI software to optimize emails so that they are tailored specifically to where individuals are in the purchase cycle and their unique interactions with your site is very powerful. - Danny Shepherd, Titan Growth
8. Combine Keyword Research With User Intent
Understanding Google’s machine learning BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) algorithm can allow you to better comprehend user intent when creating content. This can help you accurately align your site with more qualified users and create the right content by combining keyword research methodologies with user intent and experience in mind, rather than mainly (and traditionally) focusing on the keyword data. - Larry Gurreri, Sosemo LLC
9. Access Big Tech Brands’ AI Marketing Sites
There are so many amazing AI tools and libraries available via API (application programming interfaces). Any curious marketer should read up on Amazon’s or Google’s cloud-based AI services—not the technical docs, just their marketing sites. You’ll be amazed at the things you have access to. A developer needs to implement it, but only someone on the business side can set the right strategy. Educate yourself. It’s not as scary as you think! - Paul Canetti, Bounce House
10. Use Image Recognition To Personalize Browsing
More marketers are utilizing image recognition software to identify common objects and faces in a user’s browsing habits. For example, if a consumer clicks on a pair of white sneakers, the image recognition software will identify and suggest other pairs of white sneakers. Knowing how a user shops enables you to generate more targeted content, which creates a more personalized browsing experience. - Adam Binder, Creative Click Media
11. Invest In Lookalike Prospecting
Using AI in programmatic targeting helps with things such as lookalike prospecting to identify those consumers most likely to engage with your messages. You, as the marketer, identify your target audience (existing customers, VIPs or website visitors), and the AI finds more potential users who look and act like them online. Then, your ads are served to those new, lookalike audiences. - Jason Wulfsohn, AUDIENCEX
12. Gain Better Understanding Of Clientele
AI can help build and strengthen connections with consumers by giving you a better understanding of your clientele. You can see your clients’ age demographics, income and more. AI can combine all of that for you. The more informed you are about your consumers, the more and better opportunities you’ll have to connect with them that much stronger. - Danny Star, Website Depot
13. Implement Chatbot Technology
One of the most straightforward AI tools that most brands can use is chatbot technology. Chatbots are getting smarter and can be online 24/7 to help customers find answers, track down order statuses or even notify customers with updates. All in all, the customer will get a more personalized experience over time, and personalization is gold for building a better connection with customers. - Bernard May, National Positions
14. Automate Big Data Collection
AI can and should be used to reduce your time spent collecting and analyzing big data in order to create clusters of “suspected” needs and wants to potentially drill down on and use for personalization. Marketers can then spend more time analyzing “small data” and create compelling communications at the individual level. - Hamutal Schieber, Schieber Research
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39b22f03c49c4d1dfe5ed8b47615303b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/27/15-top-marketing-trends-to-keep-an-eye-on-in-2021/?sh=4a0e19032a5e | 15 Top Marketing Trends To Keep An Eye On In 2021 | 15 Top Marketing Trends To Keep An Eye On In 2021
How well an agency capitalizes on marketing trends can make or break it, so keeping an eye on the latest is essential to get ahead of the competition. From simpler strategies, such as influencer and micro-influencer marketing, to larger, more complex methods, such as automation and the state of digital marketing overall, all of these elements are important for agencies to understand.
What are the defining marketing trends of 2021? What sort of marketing and advertising will be the most popular in the coming year, and how can an agency leverage its knowledge around these trends?
Fifteen professionals from Forbes Agency Council weigh in below on the trends they see taking over marketing in 2021, so agency leaders can learn about them before they become standard practices.
Forbes Agency Council members share marketing insights. Photos courtesy of the individual members
1. Digital Transformation Continuing
Digital transformation will continue to be a focus in 2021, as companies realize that we may never go back to “business as normal.” Companies across every industry will continue to lean into digital technology, and the way we operate will also continue to change. Agility in all facets of business, especially marketing, will be a key to success. - Jason Wulfsohn, AUDIENCEX
2. Consumers Going Numb To Digital Ads
Consumers are numb to digital advertising. We have been in front of screens, locked in our homes, for most of 2020. Brands need to think beyond this go-to media format to reengage with their customers in unique ways. Out-of-home advertising will be a very effective format to achieve this once the vaccine is available, as people will be rushing outside and will be more aware of their surroundings. - Skye Suttenfield, Seen Media Group
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Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
3. Accelerated Adoption Of Automation
By far the largest marketing trend we are seeing for 2021 is the accelerated adoption of automation. In 2020, marketers had to make do with less and so needed tools that would allow them to carry out all their normal tasks while saving resources. However, even as budgets return to normal, expect to see marketers continue to embrace automation to improve efficiency and produce results. - Jeremy Fain, Cognitiv
4. Growing Focus On Meaning And Purpose
Meaning and purpose are the marketing trends that allow companies to transcend transactions. Knowing your “why” helps differentiate you from the competition and stand in an authentic place. That attracts customers. Coming from a place of purpose will drive marketing to new heights and bring customers better suited for what you have to offer. - Lynne Golodner, Your People LLC
5. The Rise Of Programmatic Advertising
If paid advertising is part of your strategy, then programmatic advertising is your best-friend marketing trend for 2021. With insight into real-time reporting, finite targeting options, enhanced fraud protection and detailed budget spending optimization, there are many reasons to make this trend a top focus. - Timothy Nichols, ExactDrive, Inc
6. More Social Selling On LinkedIn
Many people still underestimate the power of social selling on LinkedIn and, more importantly, the quality of leads you’re able to generate via paid ads. Yes, CPCs are high compared to Facebook, but you’re paying for quality. Most decision-makers are on LinkedIn, and even more so in 2020 and 2021. If you’re not showing your face there, you’re definitely missing out. - Tim Rath, YOYABA GmbH
7. Influencer Marketing Getting Even Bigger
Influencer marketing is going to be bigger than ever. When you collaborate with the right, target-audience influencers, it still reigns as king of content when it comes to leveling up your brand reach. - Sophie Bowman, Business Owner Society
8. The Death Of Cookies
Cookies will be dying. As Google Chrome begins to sunset cookies, and other tech companies like Apple follow, there will be a new push for marketers to use alternative mechanisms for targeting. Facebook is pushing its audience, others will rely on SSO (Single Sign-On) authentication, and other options will emerge. Stay current on cookie replacements so you don’t waste your paid ad budget. - Damon Burton, SEO National
9. Growing Importance Of Direct Mail
Direct mail is growing exponentially. People are spending more time than ever at home, and businesses are tapping into this with physical touchpoints, such as postcards. As the founder and CEO of a direct mail tech company, I’ve seen this firsthand. Our 2020 numbers are record-setting. Expect to see more ads in your mailbox in 2021. - Joy Gendusa, PostcardMania
10. Sustained Focus On Building Brand Advocates
Building brand advocates has been and will always be the most effective and affordable marketing strategy. We trust influencers and our peers before we trust any marketing message. - Douglas Karr, Highbridge
11. New Alternatives In Social Media
A major trend I expect to see in 2021 is growing disdain for Facebook and for how much many companies are relying on it. Exploring alternatives in the social media world is going to definitely be trending. - Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency
12. More Focus On Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels will be a major trend, without a doubt. Reels are at the forefront of the Instagram algorithm, and so much so they have implemented the Reels icon as the center of the app. Make sure you are creating Reels over standard videos when possible, as this will be key in order to make sure your content is being seen by as many of your followers as possible, ultimately growing engagement and shares of your content. - Olivia Ormos, OO & CO
13. Short Videos Remaining Popular
I think short videos with quick edits will continue to gain popularity worldwide. The trend, initiated by TikTok and adapted by Instagram, will continue to move up the popularity scale, and not only among the younger target groups. Its power cannot be underestimated, especially from a business perspective. - Markus Hetzenegger, NYBA Media GmbH
14. Live-Streaming Wars
2021 is poised to be the year of the livestreaming wars, with audiences tuning into streams from gamers, musicians, influencers and more. To stand out, marketers should leverage live streams with natural e-commerce tie-ins. For example, livestreamed fashion shows or unboxing videos can include links to featured items; brands can sponsor virtual festivals—the possibilities are endless. - Ricky Ray Butler, BEN
15. The Rise Of E-Commerce Purchasing Capabilities
I expect to see a rise in e-commerce purchasing capabilities. We all saw how quickly e-commerce picked up in 2020, but we also saw a wide variety of services adapt to the digital landscape, and in turn, e-commerce purchasing options. Gyms providing digital sessions, telemedicine appointments and personal wellness consultations over Zoom all need an e-commerce solution to take full advantage of this uptick in digital reliance. - Bernard May, National Positions
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fd70113f1b9f6348e0ddf1db35d56569 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/27/ready-for-changes-in-2021-involve-employees-now/?sh=4c68923c27dc | Ready For Changes In 2021? Involve Employees Now | Ready For Changes In 2021? Involve Employees Now
Merrie Spaeth is President of Spaeth Communications, Director, Media Relations, Reagan White House.
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Businesses coped with record-breaking change in 2020. In one Wall Street Journal article, Shopify Vice President Loren Padelford is quoted as saying, "Covid has acted like a time machine: it brought 2030 to 2020."
But 2020 is now over. Whew! So, are we going back to the way we did business in 2019? Not a chance. 2021 is going to bring pressures for change just as far-reaching as 2020 but without the discipline of government-ordered guidelines.
In the same Wall Street Journal article, writer Greg Ip points out that "This year, businesses spent more on almost everything related to logistics and technology and less on everything else."
That's understandable. If multiple governmental bodies tell you to vacate your office and send everyone home right away, you do it. Immediately. And we did. There are many stories of workers visiting their offices last fall and discovering memos from March still on their desks.
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One challenge business owners will face this year is: Where should people go? While office building owners likely hope workers will return to now-empty office buildings, most experts think that's not going to happen. Some argue that no one should be allowed to go back to a full-time in-office job.
While there are still huge swaths of job categories that are tied to schedules and specific locations, many employees, whether they thrived or struggled in 2020, are asking themselves: Do I want to go back to the office? I think many people would say yes and no. For leadership, the question is, how do you accommodate these mixed feelings?
Zillow's Dan Spaulding points out, "Your best talent is going to have options coming out of this." What options do you offer and who decides? Zillow is experimenting with paying its workers, who are mostly highly educated tech experts, the same salary no matter where they choose to locate. Live in Dime Box, Texas, earn a San Francisco salary.
"Long-term changes in the workplace will continue for years. Working from home and other remote locations...will likely remain a major part of the workplace..." writes Peter Grant in The Wall Street Journal, predicting that the phrase "other locations" includes that many businesses are opening small satellite offices, so you'll be working "from home" and the office, but you won't be commuting as before.
In order to produce successful change in 2021, leadership must involve and enlist all of its company's employees.
C-suite inhabitants need to expand the involvement of their HR or "people" function. Start by involving your employees, asking what they want and also describing their current arrangement. You may think employees are working from home, but it may turn out that they have developed a unique schedule that includes two hours at Starbucks, or in their car while a relative or neighbor watches the kids.
One author points out that work-from-home employees most value flexibility and eliminating their commute. That's probably true, but how do employees value those aspects compared to an efficient workspace, proper IT support and dependable Wi-Fi, privacy, collegial relations and teamwork, predictable child care, and educational arrangements? Much more in-depth and highly specific research is needed. Start with traditional polling but include extensive focus groups. Employees must have the opportunity to ask questions and offer suggestions. It's the C-suite's responsibility to organize and assess the findings without preconceived notions.
To seize the opportunity to truly engage the workforce, business leaders must broaden the focus on the 2021 work location to include topics of overarching importance, such as cybersecurity and innovation — topics that cut across every function, in every company, in every industry. Packaging them with discussion of the physical work environment should significantly increase employees' attention and suggestions.
Experts note that cyberattacks are skyrocketing, and hackers are increasingly targeting smaller companies. The trend of working from home increases the risk. Hundreds of home computers greatly expand the areas vulnerable to attack. Compounding the situation, many cyber specialists were deployed to handle other IT problems. Many attacks start with a careless employee, so rethinking the enterprise-wide work environment aligns with an employee-based focus on security.
Innovation is another supposed priority that many companies relegate to a siloed function. To accelerate innovation and infuse the entire organization, Elon Musk advises CEOs to spend less time on finance, in conference rooms, and on PowerPoint and more time working on the product. The more that innovation is part of everyone's mindset, the more ideas will come forth.
The way to survive and thrive in 2021 is to truly involve and excite employees, discussing not just where they'll work but what they'll prioritize as they debate where and how to set up shop.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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b231b32dec791f82ca1c70e2696f4db2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/27/three-emerging-influencer-trends-for-2021/ | Three Emerging Influencer Trends For 2021 | Three Emerging Influencer Trends For 2021
Emilie Tabor is Co-Founder & CMO at IMA || Forbes 30 Under 30
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This year, the need for brands to have a strong digital presence — especially on social media — has increased dramatically. As brands settle in on their digital strategy, the role of influencers and content creators has elevated in the marketing mix, creating surprising new opportunities for brands.
In the last months, we've seen creators deftly adapt their content during lockdown and pivot to more "at home" posts to stay relevant. And it's worked. The increasing need for digital interaction and deepening reliance on technology has not only strengthened the relationship between influencers and their followers but has also brought new audiences online.
In light of these new digital behaviors, it's time to reassess the way we think about influencers and their role in the brand-customer relationship. Here are three insights to consider as we move forward in the new normal of digital engagement.
The Influencer Market Has Matured — Literally
The idea of the "influencer" might conjure the image of a content creator appealing to an audience of teens and young adults, but digital is no longer restricted to a certain age group. Today, four out of 10 elder citizens own a smartphone, and influencers are likewise skewing older: Grece Ghanem (age 55) and Sherry Ott (age 50) are two influencers who symbolize how the social landscape has grown up — and with a combined follower count of 500,000, they have a lot of reach.
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And therein lies a new opportunity for brands: There's more fertile ground now for different industries to grow their awareness in social media and reach their audience through influencers. Brands that believed digital wasn't a primary channel for reach — such as many health care providers — now find new possibilities in injecting relevance into the brand through influencer marketing.
In working with DarioHealth, a client that has always advocated for the importance of digital marketing, we were able to confirm the insight that influencer marketing can make the health care industry more accessible and understandable to interested audiences. Through authentic influencer storytelling, DarioHealth partnered with influencers like Milk'n Honey Nutrition and Diabetes Strong to build awareness of its blood glucose meter among 30-plus year-olds interested in Type 2 diabetes education. These niche campaigns may have fewer impressions, but they tend to have a higher engagement among interested consumers.
Influencers Branch Out of Image-Heavy Platforms
When we think about influencer marketing, image-focused Instagram may be the first platform that comes to mind, but there are many other ways to engage with audiences. Spotify, the largest audio platform today, has 300 million monthly active users and over 4 billion playlists — a destination for all things audio with massive reach, and a new environment for brands to tap into through its growing podcast offering.
Podcasts are no longer flying under the radar. In addition to an existing library of 700,000 titles, Spotify has signed deals with some of the world's most-followed influencers such as Lele Pons, Addison Rae and Joe Rogan. Podcasts give hosts an opportunity to address their audiences through longer-form content. And when listeners subscribe to these feeds, brands have an opportunity to habitually engage with listener communities on what's often a weekly basis.
When new content formats and user behaviors emerge every day, influencer partnerships provide an easy "in" for brands. Regardless of the platform, these content creators are adept at speaking their audience's language and know the platforms well, making it easier for the brands they partner with to make an impact there.
Shoppable Content Goes Live
As consumers spend more time at home, live content has filled a need for entertainment and connection. In fact, the average daily consumption has quadrupled since last year, opening up an entirely new shoppable environment for brands to close a sale. With users spending four hours a day watching video content, live e-commerce solutions are emerging to accommodate this behavior, and of course, influencers are at the heart of it.
Shopping and streaming make a powerful combination, as Amazon Live Creator so remarkably proved. This is a live feature that transforms content creators into full-fledged presenters by the likes you'd see on home-shopping TV of yesteryear, showcasing their favorite products on Amazon. Instagram's Live Shopping is another platform that is being rolled out in beta, allowing viewers to add items to a shopping cart based on the products that an influencer recommends during their live stream.
These are some of the latest trends in influencer marketing, but the opportunities for brands to conquer new digital ground multiply daily. In this context, influencers become the experts that brands need to translate their message in a way that resonates with a specific audience within each platform, building lifelong relationships with new consumers.
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f587e62f701f39c773a721118385de5c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/28/the-unique-challenges-of-health-care-marketing/ | The Unique Challenges Of Health Care Marketing | The Unique Challenges Of Health Care Marketing
Partner, Director of Strategy & Insights at RUNNER Agency.
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In the last 20 years, I've worked on digital marketing strategy across virtually every industry. But for the last several years, I've focused almost exclusively on health care.
What I've learned is that marketing for health care companies and medical practices has a very unique set of challenges that are unlike any other industry. Success in health care marketing demands that you have a clear understanding of how to navigate these challenges.
In this article, I've outlined some of the differences that I believe make healthcare marketing unique. My hope is to remind current health care marketers why having knowledge of the industry is so important, and to prepare new healthcare marketers for the strategies they'll create.
Targeting Limitations
Perhaps the biggest challenge in health care marketing is targeting. Channels like search engine advertising are relatively easy as you can target patients searching for conditions and treatments. But outside of these channels, privacy regulations often prohibit targeting medical conditions. In fact, some platforms have even prohibited remarketing ads to brands in healthcare due to privacy concerns.
So a good health care marketing strategy will often rely on creative and messaging to attract the right patients. More advanced health care marketers will leverage platforms like programmatic networks where anonymized, privacy-safe data sets allow advanced targeting such as lookalike based on conditions.
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HIPAA Compliance
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act rules are an important nuance of medical marketing that has implications not only for how marketing and leads are handled but also for your marketing tools, how your site is hosted, vendor relationships and much more.
Technology often moves faster than HIPAA can keep up, so it's important to understand how new marketing technologies are compliant and where there are risks. As a marketer, you need to understand HIPAA, but you also need to know when to pull in legal or IT resources to help you make decisions.
A Specialized Marketing Stack
Many of the more popular marketing technology solutions aren't HIPAA compliant. This means that marketers are sometimes driven to industry-specific tools that are HIPAA compliant. Compared to other industries, there are far more custom marketing tools developed specifically for health care marketers. Not only does the tool need to be built in a way that keeps your data compliant, but you'll also generally want the vendors to sign a business associate agreement with you — it's essentially a contract that outlines the vendors' responsibility to use protected health information only in a secure and established way.
In addition, one of the larger challenges marketers have is with electronic medical record and practice management software that medical practices use not only to securely hold patient records but also to manage things like physician calendars. If you want to seamlessly help patients book appointments, for example, you have to integrate with these systems. The landscape is extremely diverse, and often these systems don't have pre-built integrations.
KPIs
Unlike other industries, medical marketing key performance indicators are extremely clear. Medical practices typically have a singular focus on driving new patient office visits.
Yet there are many other KPIs that are important for medical marketers to pay attention to when trying to grow a practice. I've written before about six of the most essential KPIs for growth.
A Tracking Puzzle
Perhaps because of the challenges with the marketing stack, measurement and marketing attribution are common frustrations. In most cases, medical marketers have a difficult time automating measurement and have to spend time manually connecting the dots.
Here's an example: measuring revenue per patient. In other industries, measuring customer revenue may be as simple as looking at an invoice or credit card charge. But for medical practices, insurance makes things a bit more complex. Patients all have different types of insurance. So there's the cost of the services provided, but reimbursements are very different from patient to patient, and it may take months to understand how much a physician is actually getting paid. This makes attributing revenue to marketing a consistent, complex challenge.
Solving tracking challenges in healthcare requires patience, a motivated team and perhaps some custom integration development.
Understanding Insurance
The insurance landscape is already fairly confusing, but succeeding in health care marketing means you need to have an understanding of different insurance types — such as PPOs, HMOs, Medicare and Medicaid. As a marketer, you need to understand what plans are in-network with the physician and which are not, as well as which treatments are covered and which are not. All of these will impact your messaging and creative, as well as the conditions and treatments you target.
Balancing Authority And Empathy
Health care decisions are made by patients who are often experiencing extreme emotions. Marketers must equally balance establishing the authority and showcasing the empathy of a physician. It's a unique combination and can make for challenging messaging. Strive to create a connection but offer hope and confidence in getting treatment.
The Lingo
To write convincing copy for health care marketing, as well as interact with physicians and other health care providers, it's important to know the dictionary of terms that are specific to the specialty you're marketing. In addition, patients sometimes don't use the exact same words.
It's not enough to just understand the words used; to create deeper marketing materials, you need to also understand the treatments and conditions at a much deeper level.
It's Challenging, But Rewarding
Despite all of the challenges above, health care marketing is extremely rewarding. As a health care marketer, I take pride in connecting patients with physicians to get them one step closer to the expertise and treatments they need.
And health care is exciting because it's now evolving quickly. As the rapid adoption of telehealth has shown us over the last year, old challenges are being replaced with new opportunities.
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Dian Griesel is a perception analyst, author & President of Dian Griesel Int'l. She blogs as @SilverDisobedience & is a Wilhelmina Model.
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Is your influencer marketing program boosting your brand or blemishing it? As influencer marketing campaigns continue to evolve and many brands are allocating more resources to these programs, it is important to evaluate whether brand partners are not only generating ROI but also positively impacting brand value. At the same time, influencers need to maintain their authenticity so they can continue to grow their communities — which, no matter who you are, can be quite fickle.
Since I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum, I’ve gleaned unique insights on how to satisfy the goals of agencies, brands and influencers. I have spent the last 27 years advising hundreds of public company CEOs on material business decisions, including marketing campaigns and reputation management. I have seen how company partnerships with the right key opinion leaders, particularly in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry, can positively transform a company’s reputation and share of voice.
At the same time, I host an active community and personal growth movement, Silver Disobedience, founded on the principle of living agelessly. Silver Disobedience started as a space where I shared my reflections on aging. Via community demand, it has evolved into a “what I know now and what I wish I knew then” discussion, and the loyal following continues to grow. My style as a long-form creative was not typical three years ago when I began and didn’t really follow the “traditional” formula. Still, many global brands have sought partnerships with me.
Drawing on that experience, here are key factors to consider when selecting influencers to partner with for your campaigns.
Peer Into Their Profiles
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Truly understanding an influencer’s background is important — and I don’t mean just the basics of age and location. It may feel like a waste of time to deeply vet people for one-off brand mentions and nominal fees, particularly as brands are focused on rapid growth and building a wide network of affiliates, but not doing so can be risky. We’ve seen over the years — particularly in 2020 — that public opinions, even due to the seemingly harmless actions of a person living life the way they want on social media, can change a reputation overnight. Aligned brands, even if the relationship is no longer active, then must contend with how to address these situations so that any equity built is not diminished and public trust remains intact. As such, my recommendation for brands is to vet each influencer as you would a celebrity, executive or spokesperson requiring a large budget. Evaluate past posts — was there anything cringeworthy related to current events? Did the influencer make good choices with their reposts? Did they have to explain away commentary or photos that may have been open to misinterpretation?
The best influencer for global brands realizes that while the majority of their followers may be within a certain demographic (e.g., mine are largely age 48 and older), there is no one-size-fits-all viewpoint. An influencer who inserts themselves into controversial conversations without considering nuance, or merely disregards perceptions, may obtain more views and clicks at the moment but may ultimately lose followers and jeopardize relationships with those who don’t agree.
Expect High Engagement
Does “the more the merrier” hold true when it comes to followers? While marketers understand that not everyone can be a Kardashian (and that not every campaign requires a Kardashian to have an impact), numbers are meaningful for decision making. Having a certain size audience may satisfy certain measurement metrics, but working with an influencer who knows the value of engagement will likely deliver greater returns on investment. Evaluate the number of comments, who is commenting and what they are writing. Are an influencer’s followers’ comments generic, or do they show a connection with the content? Are they tagging others because of connection and appreciation for the content, or are they tagging them because they’re entering a giveaway that requires this temporary action? Can influencers show that they ultimately contributed to a brand’s bottom line or positively enhanced the brand’s image? Look for an influencer who fosters a genuine, positive conversation and who intimately knows who their followers are — even if they’ve never met — because the audience feels comfortable being open and sharing in the discussion.
Seek To Feel Special
While it is important to vet the influencers you want to partner with, it is also equally important for influencers to do the same for brands. A growing influencer may be pained to say no to offers from brands, but selectivity may be beneficial for long-term growth. Influencers will want to be mindful of the right balance between editorial content and advertising because without the right mix, followers will likely become less trusting and less engaged. As a brand, be willing to pay a premium for more exclusive positioning.
Further, ensure that influencers use discretion when agreeing to promote a product or brand that they do not use nor believe in, as followers are typically adept at knowing what’s authentic and what feels scripted. And doing so may even be considered against Federal Trade Commission regulations.
Remember The Regulations
As regulations and rules surrounding disclosure of partnerships through social media continue to evolve, brands will be a step ahead by working with influencers who understand the need to closely follow these rules and regulations. This goes beyond the FTC — the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also has rules that brands and influencers need to be mindful of. Likewise, if promoting a health or wellness product, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines surrounding claims may also need to be addressed. Therefore, working with an influencer who has a background in these areas can help to mitigate the risk of any regulatory blunders.
A Win-Win Relationship
Look for influencers who know not only how to build a following but also how to truly be good business partners. Doing so can ensure a win-win — a long-term symbiotic relationship that delivers benefits for both of you.
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950396b8f4adfb810021e757e0a5c87e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/04/going-live-online-the-state-of-live-streaming-and-the-opportunities-for-brands/ | Going Live Online: The State Of Live Streaming And The Opportunities For Brands | Going Live Online: The State Of Live Streaming And The Opportunities For Brands
Ricky Ray Butler is CEO of BEN, an entertainment AI company that places brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music and film content.
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In a diverse entertainment ecosystem where platforms jockey for a competitive edge, one area has seen impressive growth: live streaming. Live streaming has been around for years, quietly building momentum in the background. Today, the medium is poised to explode on a global scale, and the ripple effects will be felt throughout the entire entertainment landscape.
The success of live streaming is due, in part, to the unexpected events of 2020. As social distancing requirements curbed traditionally physical experiences, live streams gave audiences the ability to connect virtually. Indeed, with 99% year-over-year growth of hours watched and a 45% growth between March and April 2020, it’s clear that live streaming has flourished.
This live streaming boom follows in the footsteps of Eastern social media. Since tech giants like Alibaba joined the influencer marketing game, the industry has grown rapidly. Alibaba, in particular, has demonstrated the huge potential for e-commerce via live streams. Its streaming platform, Taobao Live, drove billions in sales over the 2020 holiday shopping season. Other companies are taking note — I believe 2021 and 2022 will be pivotal years where these trends, with millions of dollars being passed through individual live streams, will become prominent in the West.
We’re already seeing the beginnings of this: live stream platform Twitch saw 1.7 billion hours of content watched in November 2020 alone. This growth, along with new and expanded live streaming capabilities across social platforms, allows brands to capitalize on endless monetization opportunities. From live stream shopping — where users can sell products in real-time — to social media, music, TV and gaming integrations, live streaming offers brands numerous ways to drive awareness and sales.
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Live streaming isn’t just popular on social media platforms like Twitch, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Fitness platforms like iFit and Peloton now offer live streamed workout classes, helping users exercise at home and on their own schedule. Meanwhile, music streaming platform Spotify has been live streaming virtual concerts in an attempt to bring audiences together. All in all, live streaming offers individuals a chance to connect with others safely and without many of the costs that go into traveling to in-person events.
Live streaming is growing rapidly and, if brands hope to capitalize, they’ll need to act quickly and purposefully. As we’ll explore in the examples below, brands that execute targeted, authentic campaigns can drive awareness and achieve maximum ROI.
The Twitch Phenomenon: Live Streaming in Video Games
Live streaming has deep roots in the gaming space, where creators have long turned to platforms like Twitch and YouTube Live to broadcast their video game play-throughs to audiences. Twitch is the clear market leader, and in Q3 of 2020, the platform saw an overall year-over-year growth of 96% in terms of hours streamed. But other platforms, like YouTube and Facebook, are catching up. On YouTube, 100 billion hours of gaming content was watched in 2020 — twice the number of 2018’s viewed hours, and Facebook’s daily watch times for broadcasts grew four times over the course of the year. These numbers suggest that live streaming in the gaming space is going strong, with no signs of stopping.
For some brands, gaming influencers offer a powerful vehicle for driving awareness and sales in a live streaming setting. For example, KFC teamed up with Twitch streamer Ben Lupo (known on Twitch as DrLupo) to promote its chicken wings. Lupo and another Twitch influencer played a game while running a live stream contest. At the beginning of the stream, Lupo announced that every time they won a round in the game, viewers should type the phrase “winner winner” in the video chat to enter to win a KFC gift card. Thanks to the periodic mentions of KFC’s chicken throughout the stream, Lupo organically integrated KFC into the content.
Other organizations, like video game developer Electronic Arts (EA), a client of ours, have seen similar ROI on live stream campaigns. In 2020, when people had just started isolating at home and professional sports games were on hold, EA Sports launched its “Stay Home, Play Together” campaign to foster a sense of community amongst sports lovers. Using AI to determine the best partners for the campaign, EA ultimately teamed up with 13 NBA stars and three professional gamers to stream EA’s sports titles on their Twitch and Caffeine channels. Not only did the athletes and influencers provide a sense of excitement and normalcy, but they encouraged viewers to connect with their own friends through online gaming instead of in person.
Live Events, Live Streaming
The volatility of 2020 has been a catalyst for live streaming use cases in more than just our digital lives. Traditionally, in-person events are transitioning to live streamed experiences, reaching massive audiences and opening the door for a wealth of opportunities for brands. Many music artists have turned their attention to live streaming on platforms like Instagram to play virtual concerts. These streams, like Coldplay’s Chris Martin playing simple versions of the band’s classics at the start of the pandemic, tap into Instagram’s existing audience while also bringing non-users to the platform.
This trend has continued on through the new year, and with an expanded audience at their disposal, brands have ample room to experiment with campaigns. The opportunities run the gamut from partnerships between brands and these artists, sponsorship of certain events with a ticket fee, or featuring products during an artist’s stream.
It’s clear from the limitless options for virtual events and the successes of the influencer-backed initiatives across platforms that live streaming has become an integral piece of the entertainment landscape. As platforms continue to refine and expand their live stream offerings, the opportunities for brands will continue to grow. If brands are equipped with the information needed to navigate the landscape, they’ll be able to execute impactful campaigns that cultivate a sense of community and authenticity.
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9e77e28ff5fb395a9338f25ffed5ae43 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/04/influencer-marketings-surprising-rise-of-the-everyperson/ | Influencer Marketing’s Surprising Rise Of The ‘Everyperson’ | Influencer Marketing’s Surprising Rise Of The ‘Everyperson’
Founder and CEO of Sway Group, an influencer marketing agency that generates exceptional content with guaranteed results.
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Even during a year like no other, influencer marketing thrived in 2020. Lockdowns led to increased social media usage, a change in consumer behavior from Covid-19, there were production challenges around traditional advertising shoots, audiences turned toward authenticity and curated content, and brand budgets were upended, requiring quick-turn pivots. All of these issues and more inspired plenty of brands to partner with influencers this past year in order to get the word out in a relevant, topical and mindful way.
Of course, influencer marketing has been on the rise for a while now. According to the annual Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report, ever since 2016 there has been a yearly increase of at least 50% to the overall estimated market size of the industry. While it’s safe to say that influencer marketing isn’t going away anytime soon, today’s most brand-effective digital creators may be flying under the radar.
TikTok’s Overnight Celebrity Factor
As TikTok continues to experience explosive growth, the platform’s unique recommendation system rewards great content with great visibility. As TikTok puts it, “neither follower count nor whether the account has had previous high-performing videos are direct factors in the recommendation system.”
This is all to say you don’t have to be a hugely popular TikTok creator with thousands or millions of followers to have a video go viral. Case in point: the second most popular TikTok of 2020 was a random man skateboarding down the highway while drinking cran-raspberry juice and vibing to Fleetwood Mac.
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While TikTok is aimed at young audiences — and therefore it tends to be teenagers who receive surprise viral fame from the platform — the platform hosts an enormous spectrum of creativity that encompasses a range of niche topics and communities. A number of everyday older adults have gained viral followings in recent months simply from being their authentic selves and connecting with younger viewers.
Growing Appeal of Micro and Nano Influencers
More and more brands have been seeing the value of partnering with micro and nano influencers, whose small-in-name-only clout can far eclipse their more popular peers. These creators are often viewed as more authentic and credible than macro-influencers, and they tend to have deeper personal connections with their followers.
Celebrity-level influencers certainly have the kind of follower numbers that implies slam-dunk campaign success, but it’s the smaller creators who bring more sway to their sponsorships. Their audiences are more engaged, more loyal, and more likely to pay attention to a review or recommendation. Simply put: people relate more to “everyday” influencers than they do Kim Kardashian or PewDiePie.
Authenticity and transparency became important in 2020 as brands struggled to find meaningful ways of staying relevant without coming off as insensitive or appearing to capitalize on a crisis. This trend is likely to continue into 2021 as our “next normal” evolves throughout the year, with consumers being more drawn to campaigns that feel genuine and personal.
Niche Topic Experts
Many of today’s digital creators focus their content on the specialized topics they know their followers are interested in. Food, DIY, tech, parenting, fashion, beauty and lifestyle are all examples of popular niche categories, with subcategories that can be incredibly specific while still appealing to large audience numbers (gluten-free baking, for instance).
Information overload has led to a growing need for content curation, which has, in turn, driven interest in subject matter experts of all kinds. The events of 2020 prompted many of us to seek out trustworthy sources for reliable political and pandemic updates, turning those people into influencers in their own right.
As an example, political historian Heather Cox Richardson’s expertise and clear-headed writing skills led to enormous digital popularity and relevance during 2020’s political upheavals. Her political observations newsletter, Letters from an American, is now a Facebook page with almost a million followers.
Infectious disease researcher Laurel Bristow also gained Instagram fame in 2020, by posting Covid-related information to her Stories feed, demystifying the science and keeping audiences abreast of the latest developments. Her ability to explain complicated topics in a relatable way, on a platform that people were already on, sent her follower count soaring from a couple thousand to more than 330,000.
The point is, influencers aren’t limited to social media mavens sharing their “outfit of the day.” People across all sorts of professions and platforms can be hugely influential for a variety of reasons, which offers a world of opportunities for brands that want to leverage influencer expertise and credibility.
Influencers are often thought of in stereotypes (i.e., young blonde fashionista) but they come in all shapes and forms, across all sorts of platforms. There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for finding the right influencers; every campaign is different. However, when it comes to reflecting current realities, identifying pain points and offering real value to consumers, it’s often the “everyday” creator who truly shines.
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df97d37d697951b7c69d2cdb8b738d4a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/04/the-importance-of-name-address-and-phone-number-consistency-for-local-seo/ | The Importance Of Name, Address And Phone Number Consistency For Local SEO | The Importance Of Name, Address And Phone Number Consistency For Local SEO
Zach Thompson is CEO of MediaSmack, a legal marketing firm, where he oversees the strategic vision and growth of the company.
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Whether you are marketing on TV or online, brand consistency — such as using the same logo, colors and slogan — can help your audience recognize and trust your brand. When marketing online, businesses also need to focus on NAP consistency because it is important for local SEO and E-A-T. Below, I explain these acronyms and how NAP consistency can affect your business’s online marketing efforts.
What Are SEO, NAP And E-A-T?
I understand that all of the acronyms can be overwhelming. SEO, or search engine optimization, is broadly the practice of optimizing your website so that it is more likely to appear on search engine results pages (e.g., Google search results) for relevant search terms. For example, if you are a personal injury lawyer in San Diego, you would want to show up in a Google search for “personal injury lawyer San Diego.” That is what SEO is all about.
NAP is an acronym that stands for name, address and phone number. Your business’s NAP should be consistent across the internet. I explain why this is important in the next section.
E-A-T stands for expertise, authority and trustworthiness. You want to be the expert and trusted authority in your industry — not only to potential customers but also to Google and other search engines.
Why Is NAP Consistency Important For My Business’s Local SEO?
Online business listings should be an integral part of your business’s digital marketing strategy. These listings are backlinks that can build up your website’s authority with search engines. A backlink is a link from another website to your website. You can think of it as another website endorsing your website, and search engines pick up on these endorsements. However, all of these endorsements should provide the same information about your business.
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At my company, we start with the “big three” business listings: Google My Business, Bing Places for Business and Yelp for Business. These listings should be identical to each other and match any other listings and social media profiles you create. These listings should also align with the NAP information you have on your website.
Why? Well, these are key pieces of information that consumers are looking for when they are ready to contact a local business, and search engines want to provide users with the most relevant information they can. If you have inconsistent NAP information across the internet, search engines may not be able to trust your information, and as a result, it may be more difficult for your business to show up in search results for locally focused queries. This point coincides with your business’s E-A-T.
Why Is NAP Important For My Business’s E-A-T?
As I discussed above, NAP inconsistencies can adversely affect your local SEO because search engines won’t be confident about the information you are providing. Basically, search engines won’t trust you. Many of my clients are attorneys and law firms, which have what are known as “your money or your life” websites. This means that their websites can affect a person’s financial, health or professional decisions. Google and other search engines hold these websites to the highest standard. Displaying accurate NAP information is part of this standard.
There is another even more important side to this too: You need to showcase E-A-T to your target customer or client. Inconsistent NAP information can adversely impact your potential customers or clients. Think about how frustrating it is to call a business and learn that the wrong number or even an out-of-service number is listed. Another example would be driving to a business that is closed, when online it says that it is open. That person would have a negative experience with that business, and it would not be unusual for that person to call or drive to the competition.
Ensuring Consistency With Your Business’s NAP
The most important takeaway from this article is consistency. You do not have to use the exact same business name that is on your business license, but whatever you decide to use needs to be the same everywhere.
Here are some questions to ask to ensure you’re being consistent with your name:
• Is your business a limited liability company? Do you want to include “LLC” in your business name?
• Do you have the word “and” or an ampersand in your business name? Which one will you use moving forward? Do not interchange them.
• Does your business name include commas? Keep them in or leave them out, but stay consistent.
Similarly, consider how you want to list your business address. Does it include a suite number? I recommend that you spell out abbreviations (e.g., “Suite” rather than "STE”) and always include your specific suite number.
Search engines’ intention is to provide users with the most valuable and relevant information. If you give them consistent NAP information across the web, they will be more likely to reward you. Even more important, you will give potential customers a positive first experience with your business.
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a79c029c64c654a2c0f9277a49598d89 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/08/the-power-of-nano-influencers-for-local-businesses/?sh=576c8bdf3ad4 | The Power Of Nano-Influencers For Local Businesses | The Power Of Nano-Influencers For Local Businesses
Co-Founder and CEO of Followpass. Followpass is an app that connects retailers with local influencers to promote and grow their businesses.
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The pandemic has seen many local businesses close down, but the survivors still have a set of challenges to overcome. Even though the consumer realm has been swept by “support small business” initiatives, capturing attention to generate more demand hasn’t been an easy feat.
With live events and face-to-face interactions coming to a halt, many faced a radical wake-up call. In fact, 83% of local U.S. businesses revamped their marketing strategies in light of the pandemic. Often for the first time, businesses (like restaurants) saw the direct correlation to revenue growth and a localized marketing strategy — working to grow organic searches, drive engagement and increase foot traffic and sales.
Leveraging influencers for this purpose is nothing new; the use of nano-influencers for ultra-local marketing is, however, still relatively untapped. By connecting with audiences of only up to 10,000 followers, local businesses can pervade niche structures that are often tightly knit and highly engaged.
Having coordinated influencer marketing campaigns for over eight years, I have worked with influencers of all sizes — from nano to macro. However, after co-founding an app that connects local retailers with local influencers, I have seen just how powerful nano-influencers can be.
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Whether a car wash, a boutique hotel or a comic store, local businesses can greatly benefit from nano-influencer collaborations. Here’s how.
Localized, Human-Centered Interactions
If a decision requires a rather small investment of time, money or effort — such as in retail, hospitality or travel — we have the most trust in our friends. With their smaller audiences, nano-influencers are almost considered a friend by most of their followers. This is also because, at least in my experience, they are likely to answer almost every comment, provide meaningful answers, and lead open and honest conversations. This converts to buying influence: Small influencers have 22.2 times more conversations weekly about purchasing recommendations compared to an average consumer.
Active in a specific geographic area, these smaller influencers can drive engagement in the desired audience pool while encouraging offline conversations about a brand at the same time. Even businesses that have worked with influencers in the past are now abandoning travel creators and a more outward strategy to incorporate locals as well.
For example, in the Bay Area, we’re seeing a rich nano-influencer scene, with many niche creators waiting to be explored. With an approachable tone and defined taste, their colorful Instagram feeds become the hubs for local communities (i.e., foodies), allowing communities to share a common passion. Businesses that get featured then get more than a nice post; they become the subject of many conversations.
The accounts of the effective nano-influencers we see are neither glamorous nor polished. Rather than betting on expensive setups, they’re tapping into ultra-authentic, human-centered interactions. Considering that a close human focus is one of the key marketing trends for 2021, this is an essential aspect for local businesses to consider.
Putting a Twist on Existing Content Strategies
Many local businesses still have a lot to learn about the world of digital marketing. Their Instagram content tends to be carefully curated, filled with promotional messages and neatly designed calls to action. But nano-influencers can get them where they actually need to be: Through these collaborations, local brands can build more trustworthiness but also show a more genuine face of their brand.
Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) should be a key focus. This format is proven to be 9.8 times more impactful than branded content when making a purchase decision. Unless the business already has a loyal following that creates UGC, nano-influencers can generate this content and also trigger a snowball effect by promoting brand-specific hashtags or organizing a giveaway.
For instance, an influencer that gets a quirky haircut at a local barbershop can inspire others to share their original hair-dos. With a clearly defined campaign hashtag, all these interactions can happen under the umbrella of the brand, driving new users to explore it. And if such initiative is tied to a competition or a trending cause, such as self-love, its reach can be even bigger.
Nano-influencers can also work on sponsored posts, which allow them to make more detailed content pieces around a specific offering, including videos and live streams. However, these creators are also particularly apt for storytelling posts that are tied to the interests of wider audiences. For example, a local restaurant that celebrates a specific culture could partner with a creator affiliated with it as well. Instead of promotional reviews, brands can find a connection with the influencer’s life and passions and focus on that.
Powerful Promotion, at Budget
Contrary to what we might think, less is often more in the influencer marketing world. Nano-influencers might not have legions of followers, but that doesn’t make them any less important. According to the State of Influencer Marketing research, the engagement rate of nano-influencers is actually twice as high as that of other groups of influencers.
The promising ROI is particularly interesting for local businesses. That’s because when it comes to marketing challenges, budgetary limitations often top the list. Luckily, many nano-influencers are happy to enter a collaboration in exchange for a product, service or even a coupon. According to SocialPubli, only 44% of small influencers prefer monetary compensation. And many ad posts they share are actually marked as gifted collaborations.
There are many local businesses out there that are still learning the ropes of navigating a digital presence. Luckily, they have powerful allies on their side — and at little cost. While nano-influencers might need some extra guidance at first, they can help local businesses bridge the gap to their audience and craft engaging stories, which will be vital to capturing consumer attention throughout 2021.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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df8474e6b78bf66b05d50f65fc6c0ad1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/08/you-dont-have-to-mourn-the-third-party-cookie/?sh=77879edf6cbc | You Don't Have To Mourn The Third-Party Cookie | You Don't Have To Mourn The Third-Party Cookie
President & Co-Founder of Silvercrest, a technology company offering sophisticated marketing & media solutions for brands.
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Much has been said about the loss of the third-party cookie. It looms ahead of us, with Google joining the browser gang to eliminate them by the end of 2021.
There is no threat to first-party cookies, which are used by websites to gather information about users who have interacted with those sites. But the third-party cookie has an unknown relationship to the user. The third-party cookie creates a relationship with other brands downstream and leverages the user’s information to market to them without the user’s acknowledgment or known consent.
There is an advantage to the third-party cookie, however, in that it can personalize and suggest products and services that a user might like. And yet, it is still viewed as an invasion of personal, identifiable information.
The mourning over the loss of the third-party cookie is a scapegoat for the larger and much more important discussion: that digital advertising is woefully untransparent. This has led to both media waste and fraudulent metrics, be they intentional or unintentional.
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There is no shortage of marketers that bemoan this state of affairs and have changed digital strategies to preserve budgets that have been squandered with no tangible results.
Try a New Cookie
The third-party cookie is a blunt instrument. It need not be mourned. It can be improved upon.
As a marketing technology company, we faced this issue initially as an agency that markets itself to other businesses and, subsequently, on behalf of our clients’ campaigns. A previous demand-side platform (DSP) partner of ours suggested that the answer to increasing our B2B conversion rates was to increase our budget by 10X. If the conversions that had been delivered were qualified, that would indeed be a viable option. However, my company’s own frustration was at the lack of insight into the appropriateness of the inventory in which our ads were served and into prospects that visited our site and were later remarketed to. This drove us to develop our own tracking system.
Everyone thinks Google Analytics is king. Sure, it tracks your brand’s website statistics, conversions, site paths and search terms, but it fails to give you the very thing you should know about the people who visit your website: who they are.
This is your data. These people have visited your site. Your brand’s advertising, in some form or another, likely drove them there. With this information, you can remarket to them via an ad exchange, but shouldn’t you have a right to know who actually came to your site? And not just broad strokes information, but real, granular data?
Cookie Withholding
The information has been kept from your brand under the guise of protecting personal information. But that information isn’t really being protected; it’s being used by search engine organizations to understand you and target you with advertising messages. So, they have the data; they are just restricting you and your brand from knowing it while taking your brand’s budget. Seems unfair, no?
And why can’t we have one source for cross-platform media delivery and measurement? We’re basically enabling the media silos to continue, while marketing departments are held accountable to omnichannel effectiveness. So often the marketing teams are left feeling and looking like Keystone Cops while they try to stitch together data from different platforms to create analysis, recommendations and optimizations.
Cookie Proxy
Full-disclosure, we built our own tracking platform for ourselves and were then able to leverage it for our clients’ campaigns, and while our technology is proprietary, the concept is not. Google uses it and other search and ad networks use it. If your brand doesn’t have the development manpower to write the code, find a company that does.
Leveraging programmatic technology, your brand can develop individual tracking links for every piece of digital creative (and non-digital using QR codes, but that’s a different article) through an affiliated brand partner, which would act as the brand’s proxy cookie aggregator.
With those tracking links, the first-party cookie proxy can identify the media vehicle that sent that potential customer to your brand’s site, identify the IP address, and if that individual is known to your brand via your brand’s customer data, that information can be matched and the person identified.
It’s as simple as a.) creating a unique tracking link query string that will identify the details of the creative unit and b.) installing a pixel on your brand’s website to read and record the information. My best advice when shopping for a technology partner or an internal hire is to not accept "not possible" or "it will take six months" for answers. Because I can assure, with the right minds, it is neither. I have heard naysayers at some large organizations, only to be chagrined when we expose their innefficiencies and reveal valuable information.
Unlimited Cookies
Don’t accept the conventional wisdom that this critical information is too complicated and fractured or that it needs to be masked. That inventory delivery visibility and website visitors are your brand’s information. You have a right to it, and you also have a responsibility not to abuse it, which is one of the tenants of the "need to mask it" argument. However, there is an incentive for brands not to abuse the information: brands want those customers. There is no incentive for the ad exchange networks, which is the real reason for the end of the third-party cookie.
Claim your cookie.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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baed02b277b546e4a0a75e7206ec6ff9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/11/15-effective-ways-to-leverage-doomscrolling-in-your-marketing/ | 15 Effective Ways To Leverage ‘Doomscrolling’ In Your Marketing | 15 Effective Ways To Leverage ‘Doomscrolling’ In Your Marketing
The year 2020 was so unpredictable and full of surprises — the overwhelming majority of them unpleasant or downright terrible — that people didn't know what to expect next. To keep up to date with the latest developments, people have taken to their social media feeds to do damage inspection at the beginning of each new day. Popular culture has termed the phenomenon "doomscrolling," and it's become a commonplace activity for most people.
With people spending more time on social media, new opportunities can emerge for marketers to raise awareness of their brand and even gain more followers and customers. So how can marketers leverage doomscrolling to their benefit?
Here, 16 contributors to Forbes Agency Council discuss the best ways to get eyes on ads while people are doomscrolling through social media.
Members explain how to effectively leverage "doomscrolling" to create engaging marketing campaigns. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Be The Good News
My advice to marketers is to be the good news people wish to see. A teacher is leading live Zoom classes from his Humvee? Someone should give this dude a car. Veterans cleaning up after the capitol riots? How can your brand reward their humble heroism? A man who grew up without a dad teaching dad lessons? Categories from men’s ties to oil changes should be lining up to provide a platform. - Elizabeth Paul, The Martin Agency
2. Focus On Relationships
We focus on relationships. We're often hired because of the relationships we have and how we can put them to work for others. We focus on sharing the messages of success and giving our clients options for information that promote calm and civility in uncertain times. - Robin Derryberry, Derryberry PR
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3. Combine Negative And Positive Words
“Negativity bias” means the collective humans’ hunger to read and remember bad news. According to psychotherapy, bad news signals our brain to be careful — essential for basic survival needs. Try to combine negative words (e.g., “COVID-19”) with sweet words (e.g., “love”) to grab attention and give a cheerful color to the negative word (e.g., “COVID-19 can’t stop Love”). - Oganes Vagramovich Barsegyan, Digital Beverly Marketing Solutions
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
4. Appeal To Their Desire To Help
People want to be involved in something, and with "doomscrolling," they may want to feel like they can escape it or do something to fix it. Appeal to this desire to help or escape. Partner with a charity, show ways to break out of the negative cycle, or find easy ways for people to make a difference. Make your audience feel involved in the solution, or at least give them an alternative distraction. - Dmitrii Kustov, Regex SEO
5. Think About The Experience
Think beyond static. To get noticed, you need to think about the experience. Posts and ads are less and less about the post copy and more about the creative. Get your message across in 15 seconds. Think of a six-second looping gif, a 15-second word-based, illustrated or stock-footage based video, or a carousel unit. Create a story for your audience and remember to make it about them and not you. - Lora Kratchounova, Scratch Marketing + Media
6. Encourage Mindfulness
One thing your brand can do is to encourage mindfulness. Help consumers create and stick to a morning ritual that takes into account their mental health and self-care commitment. These could be exogenous to the brand (e.g., journaling, meditation, stretching) or inherent to the brand's consumption ritual — for example, personal care, food/beverage or relevant content. - Hamutal Schieber, Schieber Research
7. Leverage Influencer Marketing
With ad exhaustion and skipping at an all-time high, influencer marketing is an impactful way to earn audience attention, creating positive and unique advertising that breaks through the noise. If brands can utilize the positive power of influencers in an authentic, organic way, they can leave a lasting impression on audiences while creating joy in the midst of the daily scroll. - Ricky Ray Butler, BEN
8. Be Funny Or Shocking
Use humor. Or shock them with extremely interesting images or video. "Doomscrolling" is causing huge anxiety and despair, with negative content dragging people down. It’s a serious bummer, but it's often linked to spikes of adrenaline — that "fight or flight" chemical. Give them something positive to tap into to create a better rush without all the drama. - Toby Eckhardt, Focused Image
9. Remind People Life Goes On
As marketers, it’s inappropriate to be playful about "doomscrolling." You run the risk of striking the wrong tone and distracting from your message. Instead, remind people that life still goes on outside the chaos of 2020/2021— they likely still need the product or service you’re selling. Give them a good distraction with creative visuals, messages, and even music that conjure positive feelings. - Patricia Rioux, Team ODEA
10. Use Photo Ads, Video Content
I suggest photo-only ads and video content as they can have immense attraction, driving more unique visitors. Audiences are consuming more short-form content, with 15-second video clips outperforming 30-second versions. Add music and text to increase watch time, add “save” or “share” in your captions to encourage engagement, plus include a relevant call-to-action, such as "Buy Now" or "Download." - Robert Simpson, PR Associates
11. Use The Appropriate Format
I think it starts with the appropriate format. How many ads we see in stories that are actually an in-feed post that has been boosted to stories?! Too many! A story ad should be conceived the same way a story is consumed by the user, i.e. by using full-screen content and the tap-forward navigation. - Aurelie Sauthier, Made in
12. Stop Using Stock Photography
It is obviously challenging to do right now, but stop using stock photography if you can. Photos or videos taken of your actual team members and/or products are much more engaging and interesting for users. Especially when it doesn’t feel overly produced or “photoshopped.” - James Burn, BrandActive
13. Use Memes, Hashtags And Caption Puns
If used correctly, social media can be a place of encouragement and positivity. No, we can't fully escape the world, but the photos selected and the tone of a caption can either inspire people to do better or convince them that we're stuck in a downward spiral. Memes, hashtags and caption puns are all effective ways to bring some lightness to users' social media feeds. - Leila Lewis, Be Inspired PR
14. Create ‘Thumbstopping’ Content
The adage of creating "thumbstopping" content still holds true to give users a reason to stop, read and interact with your social media post. Marketers can offer perspective, stability and solutions to stand out from the typical "doomscrolling" content. Marketers can provide utility through inspiration and aspiration to further convey positivity amidst a wall of negative news. - Larry Gurreri, Sosemo LLC
15. Release Your Content Early
One big tip that I have to counteract the dreaded "doomscroll" is when it comes to releasing fresh content on any digital channel, release it early. I usually suggest 6 to 7 a.m. EST in many instances. If this is not the optimal time, you can always re-release it when it is best, or put out another piece. Even your regular content will look fresh amongst the negative breaking news that happened overnight. - Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency
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cb559b4da8434254585994cbe68ed59d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/11/dont-panic-just-prepare-five-leadership-lessons-for-difficult-times/?sh=38cf68072db6 | Don’t Panic, Just Prepare: Five Leadership Lessons For Difficult Times | Don’t Panic, Just Prepare: Five Leadership Lessons For Difficult Times
Michelle Taylor, CEO of BETAH Associates, leads communications and event-management initiatives for clients.
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When Covid-19 emerged as a public health crisis unlike anything we had experienced in our lifetime, many business owners were caught off guard. Some got stuck in a state of panic, not knowing what to do about the growing list of health and business concerns — from safety protocols and supply shortages to staff layoffs and work-from-home logistics.
At first I panicked as well, contemplating these unprecedented challenges, but then I remembered four words I learned from my mother, founder of BETAH, the company I now lead: “Don’t panic. Just prepare.”
The first time she shared this wisdom with me, I was preparing to deliver a professional development presentation for a large group of influential women — and I felt anxious and uncertain.
What could I offer them that they didn’t already know? Who was I to present a program on how to live life to the fullest when I was still figuring things out? What if I failed? What if they saw me as an impostor? What if, what if…
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I came up with every excuse for why I wasn’t ready. My mother allowed me to rattle them all off, then said pointedly, “Don’t panic. Just prepare.”
That’s it? That’s the solution to my angst? At first I was annoyed at the simplicity of her advice, but in the days that followed, I allowed it to sink in. I began to do what she suggested: I stopped panicking and began to prepare. I developed a plan for presenting the information. I considered the audience and created a list of benefits for them. I shared my ideas with others and used their feedback to improve my presentation.
Since then, these simple yet profound words have become my mantra, helping me overcome obstacles in my personal and professional life. Following it is what set BETAH up to survive and even thrive during the pandemic. Here are five steps you can take to incorporate it into leading your organization through difficult times.
1. Listen and verify.
How do you tend to make decisions? Do you rely more on your intuition or hard data? All leaders have to find their own particular balance, but there is something to be said for listening to your inner voice.
When I received an email in late January 2020 from local officials about an increase in diagnosed cases of what we now know as the coronavirus, I paid attention to both the facts and my instincts. I didn’t know yet what the virus meant for our business, but I understood it could be important.
When making a decision, verify the factual information and evaluate how you react to it. What do you know? What do you feel? Both offer valuable insights.
2. Rally the troops.
After I read the email, I was uncertain about the impact the virus would have on our organization, so I forwarded the message to my operations and HR managers and asked them to research it further. I wanted us to consider our options for employee engagement and business operations if the situation were to escalate.
When faced with a tough dilemma, turn to other leaders on your team. Ask for their support and expertise as you decide on the best plan of action.
3. Make a plan.
To divert panic, our leadership team began to prepare a plan. We quickly formed a “Covid Comms Team” with representatives from communications, HR and operations. As a result, we were able to mobilize as a team, prepare remote work environments and communicate with transparency.
Gather key leaders and as much information as you can, recognizing that it will inevitably change, and make a plan for the immediate future. Identify the next best steps you can take, and set them in motion.
4. Embrace the pivot.
BETAH was already a hybrid with many employees working remotely. As the crisis gained momentum, we made the tough but early decision to close our headquarters and move to a 100% remote work environment.
We also made changes to our business model. Pre-Covid, one of our business solutions was in-person conference management. We pivoted to digital event management, offering training and helping clients transform on-site meetings into virtual events.
Find ways to support your clients and their changing needs. Identify what their current pain points are and how you can help solve them. What lessons have you learned from similar challenges? What changes have you implemented that could be valuable for them as well?
5. Stay engaged with employees.
This past year, it has been crucial to recognize the tremendous amount of stress our employees are under. Work-life balance disappeared overnight, as all activities moved into the home. Parents with young children had to juggle caregiving and work, adjusting their schedules to account for remote learning, meals and nap times. Those who lived alone had to manage the stress of isolation and lack of social outlets.
Our team embraced the idea that socially distanced doesn’t have to mean socially disconnected. We developed consistent forms of communication, held virtual lunchtime mixers and encouraged project managers to stay as engaged with their teams as possible.
Be adaptable and compassionate as you try to stay connected with your team. Try to understand what challenges they are dealing with in their personal and work lives. How can you make your policies or hours more flexible? How can you create a culture that is open, honest and supportive?
The mantra that I learned many years ago is not particularly innovative, but in a crisis, we sometimes forget the simple truths that will help us get to the other side.
As a business owner, you’ve probably survived your share of crises, yet 2020 may have presented the most daunting challenges to date. Draw on the experiences that have helped your business become more creative and resilient. As we move through this year and beyond, take time to apply these lessons and remember: “Don’t panic. Just prepare.”
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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43605389bb99e58de1413a399449539a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/12/11-ways-to-identify-the-best-tech-solutions-for-an-agency/?sh=541c9297aada | 11 Ways To Identify The Best Tech Solutions For An Agency | 11 Ways To Identify The Best Tech Solutions For An Agency
With the volume of technology available, agency leaders face a tough challenge in figuring out what the best solutions for their organizations are. Introducing new technology that doesn’t meet your needs, or adopting tools without properly training the employees who will use them, is a waste of money.
Whenever a company invests in technology, it should bring an immediate benefit to the employees and the business as a whole. Below, 11 leaders from Forbes Agency Council offer their best advice on how to identify the most viable and valuable technological solutions for your agency.
Forbes Agency Council members offer advice on how to find the right tech for your agency. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Define The Problem
You cannot look for technology and then define the problem you are trying to solve. The first step is to understand the scope of the problem and define the critical components of the solution. It is too easy to look at technology as a way to create new opportunities or solve issues, but technology alone will not always create a better outcome for your team and clients. - David McGarry, Automotive Internet Media
2. Continuously Self-Assess
Continuous self-assessment, while staying on top of new efficient tools and technology is important. It doesn’t have to be complex. For instance, we take time to regularly go through the “stop, start, continue” process as a company. We gain feedback from the team on what’s no longer working or may be holding them back. We then look for tools that will solve particular challenges. - Anna Crowe, Crowe PR
3. Listen To Your Team
Listen to your team—what are the pain points they’re finding in your workflow? And are there tech solutions to help? We always talk about “working smart,” and using tech for various processes (i.e., project management, comms, file storage, etc.) definitely makes our lives easier. Pro tip: Limit the number of platforms and ensure the tech is user-friendly and doesn’t become a new pain point. - Marc Becker, The Tangent Agency
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4. Aim To Add Value For Your Clients
As an agency leader who is constantly looking into better ways to serve your clients, it is important to understand that tech solutions are not just a way to improve internal efficiencies. The best solutions are ones that can also add value to the services you are giving your clients. Without clients who find immense value in your services, the agency’s bottom line will never improve. - Revecka Jallad, DIVISA
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Uncover The Bottlenecks
You need to uncover the bottlenecks in order to find and implement the best tech solutions. Once you have your list of problems that need to be solved (processes, order confirmations, etc.), you can then match your list of problems to the solutions provided by the tech stack. This approach will keep you from being overwhelmed or blinded by shiny, often unnecessary features. - Bernard May, National Positions
6. Think About What Can Scale
Think about your size and what can scale with you. We have been using 15five since we were a team of 10, and it is even more impactful for us as a team of 55 because it has helped scale communication. - Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co.
7. Build Your Own
Often existing technology doesn’t meet our specific needs for specific clients, so we build our own. We have an in-house agile development team that doesn’t work under elongated timeframes and is empowered to identify solutions and build quickly, breaking down barriers to conventional wisdom to create custom solutions. When someone tells us “we can’t do that,” we can’t wait to prove them wrong. - William Rodriguez, Silvercrest
8. Assess The Tech Stack
It is important to ensure that the correct tech stack is used for each client and each agency. That means doing a complete evaluation of all of the needs and trying many different products. By evaluating all of the products tried, it is possible to make an accurate assessment of the tech stack to address all of the needs outlined in the evaluation. - Jon James, Ignited Results
9. Involve The End Users
The end users must be involved in determining which new software solutions will benefit the agency. We’ve developed a voluntary committee responsible for championing the testing and adoption of new tools. Team members come to them to vet new ideas, and the committee is empowered to come to the executive team with reasons why a new solution should be tested or an old solution should be replaced or removed. - Lindsey Groepper, BLASTmedia
10. Don’t Seek Solutions Without A Problem To Solve
It sounds simple, but rather than finding cool technology and trying to figure out how to use it, figure out what your problems are and find the technology to solve them. It’s easy to become enamored with bright, shiny objects and trendy tech. But if it’s not solving a problem, what good is it? Talk to your team and see what their frustrations are. Then solve them. You’ll be a hero. - Jodi Amendola, Amendola Communications
11. Identify Needed Workflow Edits
Working in a smaller agency, it is easier to see where edits need to be made to workflows than it is in a larger one. I would do this in a team meeting where you ask your employees what tasks take the longest, what procedures feel a little outdated and whether they have seen any technology out there that they would like to try. - Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency
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5cacbe613a9e90d2cdd0eff444a4ce6f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/12/13-clever-and-effective-content-hacks-you-should-know/?sh=1afcaebe51d5 | 13 Clever And Effective Content Hacks You Should Know | 13 Clever And Effective Content Hacks You Should Know
There are some ways of throwing together content that get a lot more traction than others. "Hacking" the content creation process allows a creator to be more effective and efficient with the content they produce.
With so much information about content writing and marketing, it's still difficult to ascertain how a professional can fast-track their content and make it more attractive to the core audience. To help, 13 experts from Forbes Agency Council come to the rescue with their own useful content hacks that any marketer or content writing professional can apply to their own work.
Members share their best "hacks" for creating effective, engaging marketing content. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Collaborate With Microinfluencers
Influencers are more than awareness drivers — they are expert content creators. Consider working with microinfluencers whose style matches authentically with your brand, then use your paid media dollars to amplify their amazing content. - Kate Weidner, SRW
2. Work With Creators On TikTok
Work with creators on TikTok who have followings between 7,000 and 100,000 and more than five pieces of content with two to three times the number of views as they have followers. This means those creators are getting featured across a wider audience than their own following. Look for creative fit with your brand values. Request that commentators on the creator's post follow your account, then DM them with a unique promo code. - Brian Freeman, Heartbeat
3. Make Your Digital Media Shoppable
Make your digital media shoppable by integrating your e-commerce platform and your social media with in-app shops. Consumers want to digest your Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube content and be able to purchase the offer right away. The chance of losing a sale because you have a customer who has to leave and go to a website is extremely high. - Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
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Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
4. Leverage News Hacking
A great tactic for marketers is called news hacking. You look for trending stories in the media and find an angle to incorporate your solution into the mix. An example of this would be an online startup consulting company taking COVID-19 news and creating content that showcases the awareness that millions have experienced financial hardship and now may be the time to start your new online business. - Ryan White, Social Revelation Marketing
5. Model Your Competitors
One of the most effective hacks is modeling competitors. No one knows exactly what the search engines want to see. Instead of embarking on an innovative new content strategy, simply go research what your most successful competitor is doing. Don't reinvent the wheel, keep it simple. How long are there posts? What keywords are they going after? See what they're doing and do it better than them! - Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH
6. Use Meme Marketing
Memes are an internet phenomenon that have a short lifespan, but can be highly effective. Stay up to date on current internet trends and have a flexible and witty marketing team that can quickly take advantage of those opportunities when they arrive. - Leila Lewis, Be Inspired PR
7. Repurpose Evergreen Content
Repurpose evergreen content. I know this is something you may have heard before, but think about it. One valued packed blog post can be repurposed as a series of emails, podcast topic, social media post, video topic, and even can be used in advertising. And feel free to recycle content that doesn't get a lot of engagement — if your audience hasn't seen it, it's new to them! - Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency
8. Create In-Depth Infographics
We have always found tremendous value by creating in-depth infographics related to our industry. Our best infographics have been born out of a conversation of “I wish there was a ___.” Once we realize that a specific piece of content would be valuable to others in the same industry, we spend between one and three months collecting and organizing the data, working with designers and then promoting it. - Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint
9. Listen To Your Customer's Feedback
Listen to your customer's reviews. Not only can you use the reviews to improve research and design, you can also surface content ideas in which to expand that are centered around consumer pain points or positive feedback. You can use this information to improve your product pages as well as thought starters for your blog, social channels or other supporting content. - Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
10. Display Reviews On Landing Pages
Display reviews on product landing pages. The visitor is now in the purchase phase and so seeing good reviews of the product can push them over to the shopping cart. - Stefan Pollack, The Pollack Group
11. Mind The Recommendation Engine
Pay attention to the recommendation engine, which can significantly improve user experience and conversion and help find what your visitors are looking for. “Style with,” “Others also bought,” “If you liked this post, you’d love these related articles” are crucial features for every e-commerce marketer. - Oganes Vagramovich Barsegyan, Digital Beverly Marketing Solutions
12. Always Post In 4:5 Format
Post in 4:5 format. Always. It takes up the most screen real estate, and that content can be easily repurposed for other platforms with a simple crop to square. - Kelly Samuel, Snack Toronto
13. Batch Similar Products
Batch “like” products. For example, if your fashion company sells polo-style shirts — when a customer chooses a certain color, make sure that specific product page shows a grid of all your additional color options for that product. This can help keep customers from clicking out to find another option or bouncing from your site because they assumed you didn’t have what they were looking for. - Bernard May, National Positions
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611ff67c20f8cd6f10c4022191ee3f74 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/12/5-digital-marketing-trends-in-2021/?sh=5c2c36bd4072 | 5 Digital Marketing Trends In 2021 | 5 Digital Marketing Trends In 2021
Founder and CEO of Digital Beverly Marketing Solutions, based in Los Angeles, CA. digitalbeverly.com
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As we watch 2020 burn in the rear-view mirror, we can't help but wonder what the road ahead might bring for businesses around the world. Navigating the new normal can be overwhelming when you don't know what to expect, so here are five digital marketing trends we're seeing for 2021 that could help your business plan, protect itself and prosper this year.
1. Remote Working And Hybrid Events Are Here To Stay
Working from home may be here for the foreseeable future, at least in some measure. PwC found that 78% of the CEOs surveyed said "the shift towards remote collaboration is enduring, a nod to the momentum building around flexibility," so be sure to keep your home office ready.
I think we'll also be seeing increased interest in hybrid events, meetings, seminars and conferences that combine in-person and virtual components. In my experience, this gives organizers the chance to regulate the number of attendees for social distancing requirements without excluding their online audiences.
To make hybrid events productive, prerecord speaker presentations to keep audience attention, share the meeting recordings with attendees, check the post-event analytics (e.g., unique visitors and average dwell time) and use only high-definition video.
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2. E-Commerce Will Become Your Best Bet
With global e-commerce sales expected to reach $6.54 trillion by 2022, according to Statista, it's clear that e-commerce businesses are in for exponential expansion. I believe that investing in the e-commerce experience is a fairly safe and rewarding opportunity for businesses everywhere.
To prepare for anticipated growth in e-commerce, put payment preferences in the hands of the consumers, and give them options such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Venmo. Consider adding financing options such as Affirm or Afterpay. Simplify the checkout process, and pay special attention to fraud protection.
3. Content Consumption Will Become Even Simpler
We're seeing an increased need to streamline how audiences access and consume online content. Companies are fighting to stay relevant in this cutthroat online advertising space, and brands that can't evolve may be left behind. In my opinion, focusing on features like voice search and easily accessible content — like podcasts and engaging social media posts — is vital for brands to reach an audience that's geared for at-home browsing.
4. Befriending AI Is Becoming Essential
From my standpoint, consumer behavior is more confusing and unpredictable than ever, which is why I recommend investing in the power of artificial intelligence to connect and communicate with your audience. Not only can AI give you greater insight into consumer behavior, but you also can use automation tools to meet your audience's needs. For example, Amazon has long used AI to promote relevant products to customers.
Chatbots and virtual assistants can help you improve, simplify and personalize customers' online buying and browsing experiences. Data is the key for this. It's essential to train chatbots and VAs during implementation by feeding them as much data as possible and connecting with customer relationship management tools and other internal data sources.
5. Sustainability Will Remain In High Demand
Sustainability is more important than ever before, and business leaders should pay close attention. Sustainable digital marketing is the promotion of socially and environmentally responsible projects, practices and brand values. It's important to educate your audience about environmental issues, and to share and support sustainability innovations.
If 2020 taught us anything, it's that we, as individuals and business owners and leaders, have the ability to evolve and adapt at an unbelievable pace. That's why we also predict a huge focus on collaboration, communication and consistency when it comes to how we structure and implement our marketing plans.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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e6f9a9da268ef80a905a0d66c0ea0a38 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/12/by-harnessing-intent-data-law-firms-can-zero-in-on-companies-that-want-their-services/?sh=4c1707fe964b | By Harnessing Intent Data, Law Firms Can Zero In On Companies That Want Their Services | By Harnessing Intent Data, Law Firms Can Zero In On Companies That Want Their Services
Guy Alvarez is the CEO of Good2BSocial, a digital marketing consultancy that helps law firms & companies in the legal industry grow.
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When people need a particular B2B service, they often read articles, visit websites, download whitepapers and attend webinars to get more information to help them make a decision. As the professional services landscape becomes increasingly competitive, law firms need to become more effective at using this trail of digital evidence, which is called intent data, to target their marketing campaigns at companies that are in the market for the services they provide.
Intent Data
As the name implies, intent data reveals a buyer’s or a group of buyers’ interest in a product or service and predicts what they are likely to purchase. By capturing and analyzing intent data, law firms can zero in on those prospects who are interested in a particular service and put customized advertisements and other content in front of them to move these prospects further along the continuum to becoming customers. There are different categories of intent data, which I’ll dive into below.
Implicit vs. Explicit
Intent data can be implicit, meaning it is inferred from the behavior of the user. For instance, if users from a particular company do several web searches and download a whitepaper on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), it may be inferred that they want to learn more about how the newly expanded law will impact their company’s operations. Or intent data can be explicit, such as when someone comes to your website and fills out a contact form saying they need help with setting up a corporate entity.
First-Party vs. Third-Party
Intent data generated from prospects’ activity on your website is known as first-party data. For instance, if your firm holds a webinar on the CCPA and people register for it, the registration data is considered first-party. Conversely, third-party data is purchased from vendors who collect intent data from buyers’ activity on various publishers’ websites. For example, if someone goes on Law.com and reads an article on the CCPA or watches a video on the topic on the Thomson Reuters website, that data is available from a variety of third-party vendors. A law firm that advises companies on the CCPA can use both the first-party and third-party intent data to inform their marketing efforts to convert these prospects into clients.
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Company vs. Individual Data
It’s important to note that third-party data is generally only available at the company level, as opposed to the individual level. Rather than knowing John Smith at Company ABC read an article or downloaded an e-book on partnership agreements from a third-party site, you will only know that someone or multiple people at Company ABC took those actions. By contrast, if John Smith goes onto your website and registers for a webinar or a newsletter, you can track his behavior on an individual level. But absent a registration, vendors can only provide intent data by company.
Gathering Data
To collect third-party intent data, intent data providers work in collaboration with content-rich publishers that place a pixel on their website or app so that when businesses come to view the content, their behavior will be trackable. With both first-party and third-party data sources, an automated process is used to tag content based on topics, track buyer interactions and build intent data based on these interactions. This data can help law firms generate leads from companies that are ready to buy but may not have directly interacted with them online. Intent data can also indicate when businesses are looking at competing law firms and their services. Law firms can use this information to prevent losing a client or compete for business they may otherwise lose.
Intent data providers such as Bombora or Demandbase collect data from their clients’ websites, large websites they have purchased their data from, or websites and domains they own themselves. These providers often include marketing or sales features, such as CRM integration and lead prediction, with their intent data offerings. When considering an intent data provider, law firms need to review the specific features of each one and select one that most closely matches their needs.
The Takeaway
Online marketing tools are becoming increasingly useful in helping law firms gain a competitive edge. By harnessing intent data, you can optimize your marketing efforts by providing prospects with meaningful content. Steer them to your website and develop a relationship with them before your competitors even know they’re in the market for legal services.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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76955501eaa3a9c63f226a8aa2d97c5f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/12/people-kindness-and-gratitude-foundations-for-a-successful-2021/?sh=3075aee669ba | People, Kindness And Gratitude: Foundations For A Successful 2021 | People, Kindness And Gratitude: Foundations For A Successful 2021
Founder and President of The Luminations Group, a business solution and marketing strategy agency.
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As I sit here at the start of 2021, I've noticed that what really matters has shifted a lot since Covid-19 entered our world. Or maybe we've just begun acknowledging what we always knew: Invest in the people, and the results will come.
I've always said that setting S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) objectives each year is important. Last year, I even wrote about our company's annual tradition at our holiday event of filling out five key objectives on green index cards and setting bold goals.
The physical act of writing out a goal and posting it, then referring to it, and maybe even sharing it, all help to achieve it. Every year I keep my green cards. I check to see if I measured up to my goals and write my new card. It's not surprising that most years I succeed at several but miss one or two and then quickly add them to next year's list. I think having the same goal on a card for a few years in a row isn't a bad thing — a little humbling maybe, but still fine. Achieving a dream on your card is an amazing experience.
This year, I was pleased with my performance against objectives on both sides of the card (Side One has professional objectives and Side Two has personal objectives). I hit my self-projected sales number, made the business transitions I wanted to make, taught two classes in subjects that stretched me and brought more wonderful talent onto my team. Yet, as the year progressed, I found myself gravitating much more to the personal side of the card. Covid has made me value relationships and time more than ever. Others in my company and many clients have echoed this sentiment — people have become more of a priority than ever.
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Not surprisingly, both sides turned out to be essentially the same. People and relationships are at the heart of all successes, and 2020 was the year that brought this into sharp focus. There's no question that focusing on people, kindness, and viewing every moment as precious is business-building; we've seen the results. It's a lesson I won't forget soon and one I hope will help others view their businesses, interactions and lives just a little differently. Here are some takeaways inspired by my card for 2021:
• Work hard to ensure that you are delighting all the business partners you have now, or will bring on this year, by infusing your interactions with kindness and ensuring you deliver on your promises.
• Do everything you can to ease clients' or customers' burdens. Many are working remotely, struggling with homeschooling and huge business goals, and managing distributed teams. Take notes for them, schedule meetings at their convenience, welcome noisy interruptions in the background and stay flexible.
• Invest in training, education and serving as a resource for those seeking jobs. I started a quarantine webinar series and am doing all I can to help pair those who have lost jobs with those who need help. Sadly, there are many in need. If every business leader connected just two contacts every month, there's no question we'd be able to put lots of talent into new roles.
• Make sure every interaction is a good use of time. Concentrate your time with the people you care about, who make you smarter and happier. Time has always been a precious commodity, but it feels more precious now than ever. This means selectively focusing on projects and initiatives with clients who inspire you, making a difference for those who truly appreciate you, and letting them know how much you appreciate them.
• Remember to be grateful, and take nothing for granted. This year, many of us have suffered losses on the business front. I feel fortunate that we have been able to grow our business in a time of crisis, haven't had to furlough anyone and rolled with the punches this year. Being grateful also means we must invest in causes that help those in need — contributions of money, time and ideas all count.
As you continue setting your 2021 goals, I hope these five tenets will help remind us that investing in people, now more than ever, can never steer you in the wrong direction and inevitably help deliver the strongest business results possible.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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23749cde2ccdc5c47b99dbd8d2dcbcfd | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/17/10-red-flags-to-look-out-for-in-potential-clients/?sh=4938a2071013 | 10 Red Flags To Look Out For In Potential Clients | 10 Red Flags To Look Out For In Potential Clients
Not every client that walks into the door of your agency will be a perfect fit. On a few occasions, however, the agency needs to terminate the relationship early because of miscommunication or misunderstanding of roles.
It would be far easier to spot these problems before they become an issue and avoid getting into the business relationship to begin with. Spotting the red flags can help a business understand whether a potential client is worth the time and effort.
Here, 10 professionals from Forbes Agency Council share some of the red flags they've noticed that clearly indicate whether a client is a good fit for their company or not.
Members share some critical "red flags" to look out for in a potential agency client. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Misalignment Of Core Values
While passion and partnership are cornerstones to successful relationships, and while logistical factors like staffing & budget play a role, we find the truest indicators of client fit lay in the alignment of core values. When a client shares the same enthusiasm for transparent comms, risk-taking, and appreciation for the impact we can have together, those are the most fruitful relationships. - Brad Zeifman, SHADOW
2. Different Worldviews
You need to see the world through a similar lens. If your key assumptions about the way the world works, the way buyers buy, the way growth is established, are inconsistent, you will spend most of your time fighting uphill to create alignment. And, while you don’t need to be best friends with your clients, you need to have similar ideals. For me, for example, authenticity is critical. - Kim Kapustka, 280blue Inc.
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3. Lack Of Common Courtesy
I'm going to keep this super simple: common courtesy. If the potential client doesn't reply to messages in a reasonably timely manner (or at all), if one client contact ghosts and then another appears without explanation, if the client suddenly drops an unforeseen project in your lap and demands immediate turnaround, then these are red flags, and the potential client will not be a good fit. - Beth Noymer Levine, SmartMouth Communications
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
4. Misalignment Of Expectations
All business relationships should start out by setting clear expectations. In my experience, the only clients who turned out to not be a good fit for our agency were the ones who were not on the same page regarding what they should expect in using our services. The more time we spend at the very beginning defining the relationship, the longer that client has retained our services. - Scott Keever, Scott Keever SEO
5. Not Participating In Discovery
We're an inquisitive bunch. We ask a lot of questions right from the start, and we do this because we know that, in the end, the strategies we shape will be that much more successful for our clients. If a prospective client does not want to participate in this discovery effort, if they don't see a value in exploration, we're probably not the right fit for them. - Sarah Mannone, Trekk
6. No Respect And No Traction
Three major red flags may signal a client is a bad fit: 1) Disrespectful behavior, poor or abusive communications with you or your team; 2) Rounds and rounds of edits, lack of ability to approve materials; 3) Not serious about marketing. This will be quickly evidenced in how the organization engages with you or not. No respect, no traction leads to no results. - Toby Eckhardt, Focused Image
7. Friction Over Standard Policies
If standard policies create friction, then personal scenarios will be even worse. Let the structure and policy of your agency be the test by itself — if a client wants to jump ahead of your normal procedure, it likely won't be a one-time occurrence. - Kelly Samuel, Snack Toronto
8. Huge Expectations Without Metrics
One potential red flag is if the client has huge expectations that are rooted in business goals but not marketing metrics and performance. This can create an impossible situation early on. Another problem is if there is no communication and alignment between the marketing team and the company leadership. We work to get high-level decision-makers involved early to build rapport and to make sure there is alignment around expectations and goals. - Michael Mothner, Wpromote
9. Poor Ethics And Integrity
Ethics and integrity are hallmarks of our work. For those asking for communications assistance in "spinning" an issue, our firm isn't a good fit. We base our work on facts and will go the extra mile to make a difficult case when we know the facts support the effort. We love working with clients who are honest in sharing their challenges and looking for a firm to exceed their expectations. - Robin Derryberry, Derryberry PR
10. No Funding, Unreasonable Goals
As Maya Angelou wrote, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." How the prospective client behaves in the first meeting is exactly how they will act for the rest of the engagement. Our rule of thumb is if we see three red flags in the first meeting, we politely decline the engagement. Red flags examples: lack of funding, inability to delegate and unreasonable goals. - Wendy O’Donovan Phillips, Big Buzz
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3855842f47ffd183f38fe12a7f66b190 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/18/how-to-get-agency-clients-when-youre-just-starting-out/?sh=314f86d853cc | How To Get Agency Clients When You’re Just Starting Out | How To Get Agency Clients When You’re Just Starting Out
Solomon Thimothy is the Founder of Clickx, where he works with agencies and clients to develop predictable and scalable growth strategies.
When I started my agency, I had big dreams of running an award-winning firm that clients were fighting to work with. I was ready for the challenge, but there was one thing holding me back: clients.
How was I supposed to convince anyone to work with me when I didn’t have any experience running an agency?
I quickly realized that there was a solution to this problem. With a clearly defined sales process, converting clients wouldn’t be a problem — even without years of experience to show.
Why Is The Sales Process So Important For New Agencies?
The sales process is often the first interaction a potential client has with your brand. When you have an extensive track record of happy clients, convincing them to join your roster of clients can feel pretty straightforward. But when you don’t have any experience to show, it can seem like the sales process doesn’t quite fit.
Many agency owners let their sales process fall to the side. They hyperfocus on finding a client — any client — who will give them a chance. And while this is one way to get started, ignoring a formal sales process completely can leave you with clients who don’t quite fit, delivering products or services that aren’t really what you want to do.
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Implementing a well-defined sales process from the very beginning helps you weed through potential clients to find those that truly fit your vision for the agency. While you still might need to make some sacrifices to get the ball rolling, you’re able to prospect and qualify leads to find opportunities that more closely fit your end goal.
A sales process also prevents you from doing business with a client with unrealistic or unmanageable expectations. Without a formal sales process in place, you might be tempted to skip over the proposal or contract phase of the deal. If these aren’t clearly ironed out before you begin working together, you might find yourself completing work for too low of a rate or biting off more than you can chew.
Including a proposal and contract phase within your sales process gives you an opportunity to hash out all the details before you begin to work. You can upsell or cross-sell products to add to your contract, giving your clients a more complete look at what you can offer.
How To Create A Sales Process As A New Agency
When you’re just getting started, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing you should do things differently because you’re new to the game. But when you do this, you’re selling yourself short. While you may need to adjust your initial sales strategy, you want to approach the process the same way you would if you had been running your agency for years.
Here are my best tips for creating a sales process for your agency:
• Consider your clients' buying processes. Your sales process needs to mirror your clients' assumed buying behaviors. Getting your sales process right means being in tune with the needs, questions and actions a client might take when deciding whether to work with your agency. Be proactive, not reactive. For example, having a descriptive e-book ready to send to a client after your first conversation can give them the deeper insight they might need. Taking the initiative to send this along before they request more information can keep the customer education process moving smoothly.
• Set clear qualification targets. Make sure you’re focusing on the right target audience members. Setting qualification targets, such as visiting a specific number of website pages in a predetermined amount of time or participating in a webinar to move prospects through the sales process, ensures you’re putting the right investment into the right people.
• Be flexible. While you want to control the sales process as much as you can, you also need to be willing to work with clients on their terms. Sometimes they’ll behave unexpectedly, or they’ll ask a question you didn’t prepare for. To be ready for any curveball that comes your way, stay flexible. You need to adapt your process as new challenges come to you.
A sales process will look different from agency to agency. It’s important to find a process that works for you and your business. With some fine-tuning and adjusting, as well as continuous assessments of how your process is working, you can create a sales strategy that helps you build the agency you’ve always dreamt of.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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7d0e0092733dda1d36c709fcb69a1e1d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/19/five-upcoming-social-networks-to-keep-an-eye-on-in-2021/ | Five Upcoming Social Networks To Keep An Eye On In 2021 | Five Upcoming Social Networks To Keep An Eye On In 2021
Jim Tobin is President/Founder of Carusele (2015), an influencer marketing agency, and CEO/Founder of Ignite Social Media (2007).
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Social media marketers constantly try to balance the proven practices on established social networks with strategic bets on the up and comers. When I started Ignite Social Media in 2007, the battle between MySpace and Facebook still raged and Friendster was hanging on for dear life.
For years, new networks like Plurk, Jaiku, Google Wave and others came and went. Today, things are generally more established, although the rise of TikTok in recent years shows that nothing is set in stone.
TikTok was just released in 2016. It only took four years for it to gain prominence. Few marketers were prepared for its sudden gain in popularity, though. At the beginning of 2019, only 4% of social media marketers in the United States used the platform to reach consumers.
You don't want to be unprepared for upcoming social media networks that may gain traction in the near future. You never know which ones will thrive. Still, these five upcoming social media networks look like platforms worth watching.
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Signal
People have become increasingly concerned about the security of their mobile devices. Security issues plague some of the most popular social media platforms. Near the end of 2020, a Chinese startup leaked 400 GB of scraped data from Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. The leak affected more than 200 million people.
Signal stands out among upcoming social networks because of its focus on security. The app uses end-to-end encryption, so only the sender and receiver can view messages. Not even Signal can read what users share with each other.
Currently, Signal operates as a messaging service that lets you send photos, videos, voice messages, texts, and other files. Every communication benefits from end-to-end encryption.
The app received a lot of attention at the beginning of 2021 when Elon Musk, who has more than 46 million Twitter followers, posted a two-word tweet: Use Signal.
True to its commitment to privacy and security, Signal has not said how many users it gained after Musk's tweet. It's safe to say that it has at least 20 million users, though. That number could grow significantly over the next few months and years.
MeWe
MeWe was founded in 2012 under the name Sgrouples, but it didn't launch its platform until 2016. This social media platform has always tried to position itself as the "anti-Facebook" option. Despite that, it has features that function very much like Facebook. It gives members a newsfeed where they can share with their friends. MeWe also lets members send direct messages to each other.
Like Signal, MeWe dedicates itself to privacy and security. Those features made it a popular choice among demonstrators during the 2019 and 2020 protests in Hong Kong. In November 2020, the platform gained about 3 million users, largely due to the protests. At the beginning of 2021, MeWe says it has more than 16 million users.
Many MeWe members like the site because it doesn't censor what they say. They can post about practically any topic without getting censored by the platform.
Whether MeWe can keep growing remains to be seen. It makes money by offering a premium membership. Still, marketers should track its importance and brainstorm ways they can use the platform to their advantage.
CloutHub
CloutHub launched in 2018 as an alternative to major social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. The company says that it offers users a nonbiased platform that will not censor ideas or track user data.
Interestingly, it also positions itself as offering a "healthy user experience" by using advanced technology that keeps conversations positive and productive. Given concerns that social media algorithms intentionally foster division among people, it makes sense that some would want to use CloutHub to express themselves without bickering.
CloutHub doesn't share much about its membership numbers. Look for statistics to emerge so you can determine whether you want to attempt marketing on upcoming social networks like this one.
Clubhouse
As of the beginning of 2021, Clubhouse operates in private beta mode on iOS only. You can only join when invited. It plans to make its new social media platform open to the public soon, though. And an Android version is coming, too.
Clubhouse's focus is allowing people to drop into live chats, either as participants or as an audience member. Some key points:
• It focuses on live audio instead of text.
• No long-term recordings of audio. Unless needed for an investigation around a Trust and Safety violation, audio is deleted when a room ends.
• Social Media Examiner says that Clubhouse may be "the next major social media platform."
So far I'm hearing mixed reviews. Some say it's like early Twitter, where you could get real access to experts. Others imply that it's the same voices saying the same old things over and over. For marketers, it may be best to just explore until the app opens its membership to the general public.
Parler
Parler attracts users with promises that they can post what they want without getting censored. It got a lot of attention when Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms started to block accounts sharing questionable content.
Parler has had difficulties staying online since AWS stopped hosting its platform. Parler has at least a few million users, though, so it will likely find another cloud service soon. As of mid-January 2021, the network is down, and no one knows the future of this social network.
Marketing on Upcoming Social Networks
Some of the most promising new social networks say that they don't want advertising, and they refuse to sell user data. That presents a problem for marketers that want to connect with social media users through methods that are common today. But one thing social media marketers know is that tactics continually change with the times.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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18cd01a81a337bdf2594103a67a0edcd | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/19/successful-b2b-marketing-in-china-a-primer-for-international-marketers/ | Successful B2B Marketing In China: A Primer For International Marketers | Successful B2B Marketing In China: A Primer For International Marketers
President of Brandigo China, a Shanghai-based full-service marketing communications agency.
B2B marketing in China — like all marketing in China — has its own quirks, pitfalls, advantages and opportunities. We've found that keeping up with the changing channels and platforms is one of the biggest challenges for marketers, as marketing tactics in China evolve quickly and Western approaches may fall flat.
In the post-Covid period in China, finding the right balance of tactics that incorporate online and offline target audience behaviors is just as important as finding the balance between global and local Chinese marketing tactics.
Platforms You Should Know
There are many social media and short-video platforms in China, but they are generally geared toward consumers. For B2B marketers, here are some key places to start:
• Chinese-language website: If you don't have a localized version of your website (Simplified Chinese for the mainland), you're barely in the game. Ensure it is mobile optimized and either hosted in China or someplace close by to get over the Great Firewall. If you plan on advertising or hosting the website in China, you'll also need to apply for an ICP license — a permit issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
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• Official WeChat account: Most B2B companies have an official account on WeChat, where they can host a mini-version of their website and communicate with their followers through weekly posts. Generally, companies post a few articles every week together in one push.
• WeCom (WeChat enterprise): WeChat has a relatively new corporate version of WeChat that can be integrated with your HR systems and used for internal and client/customer communications, moving the conversations from private channels and providing corporations with more oversight.
• Baidu: This is China's version of Google. You can run Chinese-language keyword advertisements here once you have applied and set up an account.
• Forums and Wiki sites: Posts and articles on user-generated forums, such as Zhihu, will help your SEO and brand awareness.
• 1688: This is Alibaba's B2B trading platform for mainland China and is applicable if you are selling online.
Things to Avoid
• Avoid anything connected to Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and also website hosting platforms that may be blocked. That Google Map on your contact page or even the fonts connected through the Google API? These will slow down or completely block your page from loading.
• LinkedIn is a mixed bag. We've worked with several companies to try and reach users on LinkedIn. The ads and platform-sponsored email click-through rates aimed at non-Chinese professionals working in China averaged around a 3%-5% click-through rate — a fair result. But the same campaign localized and aimed at Chinese users barely moved the needle. So, I think it's safe to say that Chinese professionals who work for multinationals will probably have an account, but it's likely they won't use it to keep up with posts and industry trends — just for job searching. This makes ABM (account-based marketing) a challenge.
• Data in China is highly regulated, like GDPR in Europe. Don't expect to purchase any marketing lists. Also, data collected in China is to be strictly controlled by corporations.
• Direct translation is rarely going to turn out well. At worst, you may offend someone. At best, it will sound like you barely have a grasp of China and will not be able to handle local client servicing. And yes, in most cases, everything must be in Chinese.
Keys to Success
Analyze where you are in your China marketing journey and set your tactics appropriately. If you don't have localized marketing materials, such as a website and other material, then you're not ready for a large-scale lead generation or brand awareness campaign.
Also, Chinese user behavior may not be what you expect. When we managed an insight research project for a client targeting HR managers, we were surprised to find that they did not read "HR Weekly" but actually preferred to watch online drama series during lunch and received most of their information through informal WeChat groups. How does that affect your campaign? Print trade magazines have slowly disappeared or are evolving into WeChat channels. Insight research — even a few interviews — will help you identify key touchpoints and pain points.
Finding the right balance between global marketing and local team demands is critical. A sales team can easily push the boundaries of what is acceptable by global standards, claiming that this is the right way for China. On the other hand, the global team can be too restrictive, resulting in a lackluster effort.
One effective global website, for example, uses images of the company's local Chinese team on its front page, and the WeChat QR code is right at the top of the website — easy for Chinese users to scan and follow but without breaking the global visual standards.
From our experience with dozens of B2B companies, along with hundreds of interviews and focus groups, we see that Chinese B2B users visit the web on their mobile device as well as desktop. But, according to our research, mobile is most likely the preferred device for over 70% of B2B employees looking for partners and suppliers. Purchasing and supplier accreditation will most likely take place on a desktop. Make sure that your site is optimized and fast.
Incorporating your global CRM or other systems is all possible in the China marketing workflow, but don't expect it to be easy or cheap. Some basic behaviors of Chinese users, such as a preference for WeChat over email marketing, make some Western workflows superfluous.
Hot B2B marketing topics and techniques, such as ABM (account-based marketing), automation, video, AI and virtual events are all part of the mix, but again, the trick is to figure out how to adjust the channels and tactics for China and to make sure you have the basics nailed.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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caadcf2a8253c6867a363de59a2eb54e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/22/15-digital-advertising-challenges-to-overcome-in-2021/?sh=280ffadb26c8 | 15 Digital Advertising Challenges To Overcome In 2021 | 15 Digital Advertising Challenges To Overcome In 2021
Given the innovations in digital advertising that continue to arise every year, advertisers may be feeling pleasantly overwhelmed with options to choose from. Yet reaching target audiences online with the right content at the right time is still a huge challenge for brands.
While new solutions and a wider variety of platforms provide the opportunity to create more effective ads than ever before, the sheer number of tools and tactics available for reaching consumers online can make creating effective digital ad campaigns more complicated than traditional campaigns.
To help, 15 leaders from Forbes Agency Council look at this year’s biggest digital advertising challenges and suggest some concrete ways to overcome them.
Forbes Agency Council members discuss digital advertising challenges to overcome in 2021. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Driving Engagement Across More Channels
Driving engagement with an increasing number of channels available to connect with customers will challenge marketers in 2021. Brands must move to where their consumers are, adopt mobile messaging channels previously reserved for chatting with friends and allow for true two-way dialogue. Leveraging personalized, dynamic content on these channels will boost the customer experience and thus customer loyalty. - Matt Ramerman, Sinch for Marketing
2. People Tiring Of Digital Advertising
In 2020, we saw more and more companies move toward digital advertising. I fully expect this will become tiring for recipients, resulting in the loss of initial gains and forcing companies to become more creative in their approach. Out-of-box thinking around earned media placements, thought leadership content, article placements and company-owned content channels will prevail. - Grant Kirkwood, Unitas Global
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3. Evolving Privacy Regulations
Marketers will face evolving privacy regulations and the phasing out of third-party cookies. To continue reaching their target audience, marketers should introduce local strategies to understand a customer’s purchase intent. This permissioned, first-party customer data can then be leveraged to deliver valuable insights into customer actions for local personalization, conversion and loyalty. - Stephanie Shreve, PowerChord
4. Launch Of Privacy-Focused iOS 14
The biggest challenges facing digital marketing depend on which area of digital marketing we are talking about. Apple announced changes to iOS 14 to increase user privacy. Once implemented, this will have a significant impact on measuring the performance of Facebook campaigns, for example. Since Facebook is a huge platform for advertisers, and Apple owns 40% of the mobile market in the United States, this will have serious implications. - Jonathan Hanson, Unconquered
5. Bad Or Tone-Deaf Messaging
The biggest challenge in digital advertising is bad or tone-deaf messaging. Brands and their agencies must learn how to speak with an audience without using ad-speak, which turns them off. They need human messaging, not acronyms. Regardless of industry, it’s up to marketing and messaging professionals to help executives understand this and create clear and actionable ads, not tone-deaf ones that are ignored. - Nicole Rodrigues, NRPR Group, INC
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
6. Fraudulent Traffic And Lack Of Experience
Digital transformations were fast-tracked in 2020, creating a challenge in 2021 for people being thrust into digital advertising who aren’t ready for the task at hand. I think you’ll see a lot of fraudulent traffic this year as the industry booms; and I think you’ll see a lot of marketers get hurt by having inexperienced agencies running their digital media buying. - Michael Hubbard, Media Two Interactive
7. A Lack Of Transparency Into Delivery And Reporting
The biggest challenge to digital advertising is the lack of transparency into delivery and reporting and acceptance by marketers that they are helpless to demand change, especially with the loss of the third-party cookie. But digital darkness doesn’t have to be thus with a first-party cookie proxy. It creates enlightenment, allowing brands to own their own traffic. Believe. - William Rodriguez, Silvercrest
8. Educating Clients Who Are Just Getting Into Digital
A big challenge this year will be educating clients who are just getting into digital. We have seen many clients shift budget from events and trade shows to content marketing and other digital spend. This is fantastic news, but it also means there is a level of education that must be done to get the clients’ true buy-in on digital and ensure long-term success. - Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co.
9. Clients Reducing Marketing Spend
I believe one of the biggest challenges of the upcoming year will be clients reducing their marketing spend due to fear of overstretching their budgets or not receiving results, or a mixture of both. Personally, I believe this is the best time to push harder than before. It’s time to capitalize on all of the opportunities left on the table by those who retreat and pause spending on marketing. - James Blake, Vindicta Digital
10. A Lack Of Creative Discipline
So much of B2B digital advertising is either bland or takes a print approach. Neither works to get people to stop and read. The biggest challenge is to have the same creative discipline for an online digital ad as you have for a full-page ad. In the B2B space, there is still great room to use your thought leadership as a call to action. - Elonide Semmes, Right Hat, LLC
11. Increased Competition In The Digital Space
Increased competition will be a challenge. This last year pushed record numbers of businesses into the digital space, and more competition equals more demand and higher costs for brands. Marketers can benefit from pivoting their focus from volume to quality, from traffic to conversions. If more marketers embrace and leverage the data and use it to improve performance, they will be well-prepared. - Bernard May, National Positions
12. Social Media Policy Changes
Policy changes by social media giants will alter the way people interact on those platforms. My advice is to closely watch the calls for regulation of social properties and the response of their leaders. Facebook has pulled political ads. TikTok has an uncertain future in the United States, and all platforms are in some state of turbulence. Over the next 18 months, things will likely change even more. - Randy Shattuck, The Shattuck Group
13. Reaching The Right Audience
With the shift to working from home and other changes, reaching the right audience at the right time has become more challenging during the pandemic. Third-party data offers an effective way to address this challenge with audience building, identity graphs, intent data and other strategies, empowering marketers with precision targeting and insights into prospects who are in-market and ready to buy. - Paula Chiocchi, Outward Media, Inc.
14. Click Fraud And Tracking Of Real ROI
Click fraud and tracking of real ROI will be a major challenge. Many larger brands are finding that digital advertising has an element of fraud or is not moving the needle. Unless brands are tracking all clicks, all the way through conversions and long-term value of clients, then they are simply wasting money. - Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
15. Market Saturation
As more people turn toward adopting online business practices, I personally believe saturation is one of the biggest challenges in 2021 for marketers. The key to keeping your head above water will be to master standing out in a marketplace full of noise. Remember, those who adapt the best will win and survive, and those who can’t adapt will be left behind. Stay ahead of the curve. - Ryan White, Social Revelation Marketing
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82ce23c8fce6638ee6c4691973e9c4f2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/22/brands-must-drive-purpose-forward-in-2021/ | Brands Must Drive Purpose Forward In 2021 | Brands Must Drive Purpose Forward In 2021
President and Co-Founder of OBERLAND, a purpose-driven agency and certified B-Corp. Drew creates brands that drive social progress.
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From a global pandemic to civic unrest and a tedious election season, 2020 was a parade of events that will undoubtedly shape years to come. As co-founder and president of a purpose-driven advertising agency, my team and I have spent the early days of 2021 examining how leading social forces that erupted in 2020 — namely, racial and systemic inequities; climate action and sustainability; social connection and mental wellness; and democracy and truth will shape the role that brands play in purpose, conversation and civic action as we progress into 2021 (and beyond).
1. Racial and Systemic Inequities
Following the murder of George Floyd, 76% of Americans agreed that racial discrimination is a big problem in the United States, a 25-point jump from 2015. Consumers expect brands to play a large role in tackling this systemic issue: a majority (65%) of Americans believe that actions taken by brands will lead to sustained change regarding racial inequities.
But this doesn't mean just any action — brands must take proactive measures that effectively break down racial barriers or admit to existing racist policies and make noticeable, meaningful changes to combat this moving forward. Netflix is an example of the former, as the streaming giant added a Black Lives Matter category to its services, increasing accessibility to the work of Black creators. Walmart, Walgreens and CVS represent the latter, as they admitted that policies of shelving Black beauty products in anti-theft cases were racist and removed this unnecessary protection in stores. Whether your brand is responding proactively or reactively, what matters most is this: Your action is authentic and, ultimately, drives forward racial equity.
2. Climate Action and Sustainability
With the number of environmentally conscious consumers on the rise, brands' sustainability efforts need to be more fruitful than one "green product'' or one messaging bullet in order to show that they are committed to climate action. Our research found that 73% of people have felt inundated or confused by sustainability claims found on products, not knowing which would ladder up to the greatest positive environmental impact. This is further validated by research finding that just one-fifth of shoppers trust brands' sustainability claims.
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Brands that make their sustainability claims clear, factual, and outcome-oriented will stand out from competitors' vague, wishy-washy language. This will help consumers choose the most impactful brands and drive business for brands that can articulate how and why they are committed to sustainability. Burt's Bees is a great example of a drugstore brand that is clear and transparent about its sustainability; information on its packaging clearly articulates ingredients, supplemented by website content that details its sustainable packaging and environmental footprint. Brands that show they care about their long-term effect on the planet will also win over environmentally conscious consumers. Deciem, for example, has proven its commitment to climate action by hiring a director of sustainability to ensure the brand's planet-friendly practices are clear and focused on long-term impact.
3. Social Connection and Mental Wellness
A whopping 72% of Americans have felt a strong desire for more human interaction during the pandemic and, as a result, are clamoring for products that can help them foster meaningful human connection amid social isolation.
Brands that can meet this demand are proving their enormous value in consumers' lives. Bumble, a dating app, highlighted its video chat functionalities to encourage safe, remote dating during the Covid-19 pandemic by suggesting users video chat before they take the risk of meeting in-person. This led to Bumble seeing a 70% rise in video calls during March and May 2020, and interestingly, according to data curated by Match, users say this has led to more meaningful conversations with potential partners compared to in-person meetups.
Consumers will also value brands that take the initiative to help them forge digital connections, even if this is not their inherent offering. For example, Chipotle's virtual lunch program that focused on digital connection contributed to the company's highest-ever quarterly earnings. This points to the enormous opportunity for your brand to think outside of the box when it comes to your role in consumers' lives. It's vital to consider how it can improve consumers' mental wellness, even if this feels outside of your wheelhouse.
4. Democracy and Truth
2020 brought into question the legitimacy and transparency of our democratic system, the boundaries of freedom of speech, and the role that the media plays in this core tenet of democracy. This conundrum has led to heightened expectations from consumers for brands to encourage civic responsibility.
Amidst election season, 70% of Americans believed that brands should take action to support voters — from giving employees election day off to educating consumers about their options for mail-in voting. Consumers also expect brands to help combat misinformation and prioritize transparency. With more than one in five American adult consumers reporting they get their political news primarily from social media, and with nearly all Americans scrolling these platforms daily, brands have a responsibility to promote factual information on social networks. And, those who can limit the spread of fictional information on these platforms have a responsibility to identify it. As major social platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest, took a stand against misinformation by disabling former President Trump's accounts, only time will tell how this impacted the business and usage of these platforms for political conversation in 2021 and beyond.
If we learned anything in 2020, it's that silence is not an option when it comes to social change or political reform — for both individuals and brands. In 2021, brands must go beyond their fundamental duties of creating their products or selling their services; they must use their platforms to meet the deeper needs of their consumers — from promoting civil rights to racial equity to sustainability and mental health. 2021 is the year for brands to listen — and respond — to the cries of consumers to help better our nation.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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bd6869b4af65b4b2d63895a92f149e12 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/22/corporate-communications-lessons-from-the-white-house-press-secretary/ | Corporate Communications Lessons From The White House Press Secretary | Corporate Communications Lessons From The White House Press Secretary
Founder and principal of Look Left Marketing, an agency that delivers integrated content, media, influencer and marketing strategies.
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Like many Americans, I watched the presidential inauguration and the first week of a new leader in office with a ton of anticipation. As a professional communicator, I'm always looking to see how changes are structured, messaged and delivered — and ultimately if they carry weight and emotional impact. After 25 years of doing this, it's hard not to.
No communicator or communication event is perfect, but I was especially intrigued by the first and second briefings between reporters and new White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. In watching it, I found many long-standing best practices on display as she fielded questions deliberately, confidently and no, not perfectly.
Regardless of your politics (I'm not here to argue party or policy), here are some best practices that stand out as lessons for business communicators.
"We have a common goal, which is sharing accurate information with the American people."
Out of the gate, the White House found shared ground with its audience around common goals and values. The previous administration, you could argue, valued theater and performance, while the new administration campaigned on aggressively factual, science-based policy, as well as responses to world events rooted in those values. For example, scientist and public health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci was featured in the second briefing to remind the audience of that shared value.
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Psaki occasionally looked at her notes for a fact or paused momentarily to determine the direction of an answer. That's not a sign of weakness; it's a sign of being prepared. After all, these are complex issues, and it's consistent with a platform of accuracy.
"I have not had the opportunity to dig into that today."
No human being knows everything, and no communicator can prepare enough for every question or detail he or she might be asked. Even the most knowledgeable experts won't know everything. The worst communicators attempt to BS their way through a question or, worse, challenge a question as BS because they don't know or like the answer.
During her initial briefings, Ms. Psaki often repeated that she would circle back with an answer later, which is the perfect response when you really don't know the answer. In corporate communications, leaders are expected to have the fundamentals down; otherwise, they look incompetent. But legitimately not knowing is an opportunity to recognize a complex or simply unknown area, conduct the proper research into the topic and address it with confidence and strength at another time.
"Share the truth, even when it's hard to hear."
This was a promise on the first day of Psaki's White House briefings, and without question, it's not an easy promise to keep. Anyone who's done crisis communications knows the hardest part is sharing what happened, as horrible as it is, and then facing the consequences. I've worked with clients who look for the magic words, the spin, the sound bite that makes a bad event fade. The truth is, you tell it like it is, take your punch and get to what's important: the repair.
Of course, there's a balance here in both political and executive communications. You need to share the truth, but also the hope of what's happening. You need plans on how to overcome — or at least address — whatever the bad news entails. Consider questions you might be asked and be ready to share straightforward, honest answers. And think of specific actions that can and will be taken to address the issue.
"There will be times when we see things differently...and that's OK."
If you're not listening to and recognizing different points of view, you're doing it wrong. Insight begins with ideas that go against the grain of conventional wisdom, and solutions are often refined over time with new views and compromise. Your team should feel comfortable asking questions and challenging norms, and you shouldn't take offense to it.
You can respectfully exchange conflicting points of view. That said, leaders make the decisive calls and need to stand by those calls with confidence and facts. And they need the backbone and fortitude to stand up to criticism.
"Let's do this again tomorrow."
By far, this is my favorite example of great communication and of the first two White House press briefings. If you want the office, the position and the podium, then you'd better be prepared to show — and maybe even defend — why you should have it. And you must want to be there.
Communication isn't a quarterly update or a generic, auto-generated birthday greeting. It's a living, breathing activity that should happen consistently and through a variety of formats. In good times or bad, a regular cadence of communication — both formally and informally — can build trust and authority. Keeping valuable information under lock and key can permanently erode it.
Don't get me wrong: All political communication promotes a favorable view for those doing the communicating. You could argue this is the honeymoon. There were times when Ms. Psaki did the classic "answer the question you wished you were asked" tactic. And, to their credit, reporters followed up, asking for the answer. But it's that engagement that keeps the republic — and your company — informed, honest and on track, especially during tough times and when dollar signs and other temptations nudge your lesser angels to take the shortcut and do something you shouldn't.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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d3b48caec7ac58b5e7958193bd7b5b8c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/22/how-business-leaders-can-overcome-fears-in-2021/ | How Business Leaders Can Overcome Fears In 2021 | How Business Leaders Can Overcome Fears In 2021
Founder and CEO of Big Leap, an agency that helps people evolve their companies through effective and sustainable digital marketing methods.
getty
Without a doubt, 2020 was one of the most challenging years many of us have faced, and one emotion seems to have prevailed: fear. While we are certainly justified in our fears, 2020 taught us that even amid uncertainty, we can rise above and conquer them.
Here are the top three fears I see many business leaders dealing with and my tips on conquering them.
Fear 1: With in-store shopping on the decline, how can I strengthen my online presence?
Solution: Combine digital marketing tactics to create new connections.
Digitizing in 2021 is a necessity for many businesses. Customers now expect most businesses to have a solid online presence. Here are three ways to do so:
1. Build an SEO strategy.
Paid ads will only get you so far. It’s long been known that 70% to 80% of search engine users ignore paid ads and focus on organic search results. So if you want to build quality relationships that bring long-term results, focus on SEO.
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SEO helps you show up for relevant online searches. But it takes time, consistent effort and patience. It’s important to acknowledge this and build your foundation now.
• Conduct competitor analysis and keyword research to target the right terms and audiences.
• Link build to boost your site’s authority and traffic.
• Implement local SEO if your business provides services in specific geographic locations.
2. Boost your social media and email efforts.
Social media and email marketing allow you to reach more people on a more personal level. Check out the facts:
• 71% of consumers who have a positive experience with a business on social media are likely to recommend the brand to others.
• Every dollar spent on email marketing brings an average return of $42.
Here are some ways to leverage social media:
• Create a social media calendar. Like SEO, social media takes consistency to create an impact. Building a social media calendar can help ensure that you post content regularly on the right channels.
• Hang out where your audience is. Take time to dive into your target market. Make sure to build your presence on the key platforms they’re active on.
• Use video. Almost all social platforms have live video tools that let you speak to your audience in real-time. Facebook Live videos get six times more engagement than pre-recorded ones. So consider live streaming.
To maximize your email efforts:
• Segment your contacts. Segmentation involves grouping your contacts based on characteristics like demographics and purchase history. You can then send out unique messages to these specific groups. Marketers who use segmentation often see up to a 760% increase in revenue.
• Rely on marketing automation. Segmentation can be a lot of work. But luckily, you can streamline it through marketing automation. Good platforms not only automate your efforts, but they also allow you to test subject lines, track metrics and more.
3. Define your brand story.
Before you post content and send out emails, you have to know what to share in the first place. There’s a lot of noise in the online landscape. How do you rise above it?
A good place to start is by defining your brand story.
• What are your core values?
• Why do your products/services matter to your clients/customers?
• What kinds of changes has your company implemented during these unprecedented times?
Fear 2: With the pandemic still going on, how can I help my employees make more connections?
Solution: Create ways to help employees connect, feel appreciated and feel supported.
Here are three ways our company has built a culture of connection during these uncertain times.
1. Hold weekly company syncs.
When things took a sharp turn last year, we decided to hold weekly company updates to check in, keep the communication going and dive into some fun virtual activities.
2. Recognize employees.
There are a couple of ways we recognize our employees:
• Core value stories: These stories showcase employees who have lived up to our core values — character, competence and community. We take a few minutes each week to highlight employees who have embodied these principles.
• Client success stories: We choose one person to share key clients wins. Whether it’s getting positive feedback from clients or winning higher conversion rates, we celebrate them.
3. Offer flexible leave benefits.
Flexible paid time off has helped our employees tremendously. With family members getting sick, challenges in finding childcare and anxieties that brew from the changes in our lives, it’s essential to allow people to take time off when they need it.
Fear 3: In 2020, the world changed every few weeks. How can I stay resilient during this ever-changing time?
Solution: Be mindful of what will stay the same and what may change.
It might take longer to get back to normal than we anticipate. The important thing is that we acknowledge that and prepare. Here are two ways to do that:
1. Learn and try new things.
The new normal is still evolving. As the world around us shifts, we can’t be afraid to learn and try new things.
Below are some of marketers’ biggest changes in how they invest in marketing tools due to the pandemic. Use them to help guide your decisions on what to keep doing and what to change:
• Webinars have increased by 67%.
• Organic social has increased by 56%.
• Online video has increased by 44%.
• Events/experiential have decreased by 80%.
• Out-of-home advertising has decreased by 39%.
2. Take breaks.
Handling change is no easy task. Be kind to yourself and step away when you need a breather. Encourage mental health days for yourself and your team to safeguard your sanity, so you can put your best foot forward when things shift again.
Prepare And Stay Resilient
Even though we’re faced with circumstances beyond our control, we can prepare our teams and businesses to adapt. The time to plan and innovate is now. It’s the only way to combat our fears and stay resilient in times of uncertainty.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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fde2f271c64f6b46d60fb9dd3575c366 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/22/the-three-as-of-affiliate-or-partner-program-management/ | The Three A’s Of Affiliate Or Partner Program Management | The Three A’s Of Affiliate Or Partner Program Management
Affiliate Marketing Strategist. Owner of Affiliate Insider (An Affiliate Marketing Agency, Media Hub + Training Business).
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One of the cornerstones of creating a successful affiliate program is to build a solid lead generation strategy that grows your affiliate partner database. Often, affiliate managers get bogged down with program management and daily administration tasks, leaving affiliate recruitment and partner discovery lying on the side of the road like roadkill.
Continual affiliate partner recruitment is integral to an affiliate program’s growth strategy.
Affiliate managers have a lot of functions to their job description, and “social selling” is yet another that teams should be using now to leverage organic opportunities for partner discovery and lead generation.
In this article, I’ll explain three simple concepts to help affiliate managers attract (and hopefully convert) more affiliates to their programs to drive consistent sales and growth development. By using these three A’s as the basis for your team’s social engagement, you can increase your partner outreach and keep growing your program organically using any of the readily available social platforms.
A: Attention
There are thousands of affiliate programs and networks currently in existence. It is a competitive marketplace and a fast-growing billion-dollar industry. Getting an affiliate's attention is the first step to increasing new partner onboarding. With more brands turning online to engage and interact with publishers, how will you be standing out? Are you hosting virtual events to spark new conversations and interesting discussions through social platforms like Clubhouse, Telegram and Facebook?
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Getting an affiliate’s attention to consider your program is only half the battle.
Your content strategy needs to grab partner attention. The easiest way to do this is to leverage your social channels using a variety of content — video commentary, polls (on LinkedIn, you can see who votes on your program polls and reach out to engage with them in person), etc. Offering up research and stats that can help them convert and sharing other affiliate testimonials about what it’s like to be part of your affiliate program are simple, attention-grabbing options for social selling content.
Even if you’re using a network to manage your program delivery, your marketing strategy to promote your affiliate program is as important as the strategy you’re using to promote customer sales. Mass outreach emails will no longer provide a steady stream of new leads because people have become immune to cold-call sales pitches. Affiliate marketers will need to take time to start and nurture meaningful two-way conversations that offer solutions to problems instead of being straight program upsells.
A: Attraction
Once you have gotten their attention and engaged them in a conversation, you need to move on to attraction techniques to get them active in your program. In the past, this has always been to offer higher commissions than your competition. But pricing wars aren’t going to build long-term relationships. What really matters is that an affiliate gets the right support to grow their business along with yours. This means closer collaboration with your affiliate team, getting more human about account management and effectively onboarding partners at the start of their working journey with your program and brand.
Your affiliate account management team should act as influencers for your affiliate program.
Their first contact dictates how fast or slow an affiliate comes online to promote you. In addition, sales and commercial negotiation discussions should be quick to conclude, and this requires more skills-based sales training to be part of the role development within your marketing team. Brands that invest in their front-line account management workforce will naturally benefit from increased sign-ups to active affiliate ratios.
A: Ambition
No matter how big your affiliate program is, there is always room to grow it. To grow, you need to have ambition. Your team needs to be ready to stretch, and you need to meet affiliates' ambitions, too. (This comes back to attraction as well — if you can help solve their problems with ambitious business growth, you will find they’ll be more attracted to your program and give you more real estate as a result.)
Be ambitious with your marketing strategy and build positive outcomes that deliver month-on-month growth.
Affiliate teams should look to leverage effective but simple content strategies that build lead generation and, at the same time, effectively upsell the key unique selling propositions of your affiliate program. Everything you post needs to speak to the partners who have traffic in the niches you need for building sales growth.
Talk ambitiously about what your team will deliver and how you aim to partner with media, influencer, or traditional affiliate performance-based publishers. Get visible at virtual events, get seen and heard, and your ambitions will yield positive results. Find partners who can collaborate and leverage their networks for your ambitious growth. Recognize that we are living in an age of virtual attraction, which is currently one of the easiest ways to get new business done.
Understanding these three A’s of affiliate management and how they affect multiple aspects of your content, marketing strategy and social-selling affiliate recruitment or outreach will keep you moving forward with purpose in these somewhat uncertain times. With this framework on your side, you should be able to amplify your partner program and reach a host of new and interesting new partners, too.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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c0498fb803e363830bf7f0800dbaa7b8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/02/23/the-tao-of-thought-leadership-marketing-be-desireless-be-excellent-and-be-gone/ | The Tao Of Thought Leadership Marketing: Be Desireless, Be Excellent And Be Gone | The Tao Of Thought Leadership Marketing: Be Desireless, Be Excellent And Be Gone
Founder and CEO of Idea Grove, a unified PR and marketing agency, and author of the upcoming book "Trust Signals: The New PR."
getty
Two decades ago, sisters Jenniphr and Greer Goodman created a wonderful indie film called The Tao of Steve about a slovenly, underachieving kindergarten teacher named Dex (played by Donal Logue), who despite his imperfections, had developed a surefire strategy for wooing women who most assumed were out of his league.
As he explained to one of his astonished friends, the strategy — inspired by Dex's idol, '70s movie star Steve McQueen — was simple. It included three steps:
1. Be desireless. Focus on getting to know the person; don't make it about romance right away.
2. Be excellent. Prove your worthiness by showing off something you're really good at — juggling, card tricks, art history — whatever.
3. Be gone. Because, as Dex puts it, "We pursue that which retreats from us."
When you think about it, Dex's tao (or method) makes sense not only for dating but also for businesses seeking to woo customers with thought leadership marketing.
Let me explain why.
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Standing Out Amid The Noise
Did you know there are currently more than 600 million blogs on the internet and nearly 32 million active bloggers in the U.S. alone? One result of all this blogging is a thought leadership content glut that makes standing apart from your competitors more difficult than ever.
In fact, Edelman found that while more than half of the business decision makers surveyed spend over an hour each week reading thought leadership content, only 15% percent consider the content they consume to be of high quality.
That's a formula for a lot of disappointment for your customers and prospects — and a lot of wasted time for you.
So stop doing what everyone else is doing, and start doing things the Dex way.
Here's how it works.
Be Desireless
Thought leadership is not about selling; it's about helping. If you can't separate the two in your mind when creating your content, you shouldn't bother creating it. Sharing interesting and useful information with those who come across your brand online is one of the best ways to establish rapport and build trust. It shows that you have more to offer the world than a product to sell. For top-of-the-funnel audiences, talking about your ideas more and your products less (or not at all) is the way to impress.
Be Excellent
How do you stand out with thought leadership? Not by posting more content than everyone else, but by seeming smarter than everyone else. Your content will be deemed excellent only when it is highly attuned to the needs, desires, interests and predispositions of your target audience. The more you've researched your audience, the better you will know them and the smarter your content will seem to them.
Be Gone
Because thought leadership marketing is mostly a top-of-the-funnel activity, your buyers usually aren't ready to buy when they come across your content. It may be a year or more before they are ready to replace that enterprise software, or can get out of their current service contract. So you will likely turn them off if you are too aggressive in your follow-up. Sign them up for your blog, retarget them with advertising as long as you're not too annoying about it, and then count on them to remember your desirelessness and excellence when the time comes.
In the battle for attention amid a growing glut of mediocre content, it might be tempting to be more salesy and aggressive to stand out from your competitors. But as Dex can tell you, the better path is to be desireless, be excellent and be gone.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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