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Believe it or not, startup marketing isn’t always about quantitative metrics and growth hacking. It’s about making a connection with your customer and driving their actions through emotion.
Psychologists say there are at least eight basic emotions that guide behavior. They include everything from joy, trust, fear and surprise to sadness, anger, anticipation and trust. These emotions can over time help establish a connection to a brand that goes beyond normal engagement.
The key is determining what emotions to target and how best to get them that will yield the best results. Research suggests that intrigue and mystery can lead to curiosity and perhaps better click-through rates in emails. Desire can help with imagery on websites and urgency or fear can evoke feelings of missing out and perhaps trigger a purchase....
Content marketing is often the focus of an inbound marketing strategy, but there’s more to it than that. A good corporate website is a crucial foundation for this type of marketing. Good inbound marketing websites rely on a careful combination of these five must-have characteristics:...
There really is no getting away from it, these days Social Media is no longer just an option for your business marketing, it is now an absolute necessary function - and not just for excellent customer service and content management.
Last year we featured your Recipe to Social Media Success and have given a lot of great tips for managing your social media presence . However, without proper planning, a lot of time can be lost to the Social Media function. It is therefore very good practice to spend the time creating a robust Social Media Strategy. In this article, we look at some tips that will assist you in doing just that - and what perfect timing for the New Year too!...
Marketing personas, also known as buyer personas, are fictional archetypes that are created to represent your typical or ideal customer on social media.
When getting started, it’s important to keep your ultimate goal in mind: to gather just enough information to create a true picture of your target audience through both qualitative and quantitative data, build an archetype based on that data, and use it to create an effective social media content marketing strategy.
So how do you go about collecting the data you need?...
Did you know that, 8 in every 10 of generation Z - those born around the year 2000 - use some kind of social media. And that last year 1 in 4 of generation Z left Facebook.
This tech-savvy group is connected 24/7, have an attention span of around 8 seconds, they communicate with images emoticons and emojis are the norm and they think in 4D.
So how should we market to them? And what are the best ways to reach these consumers?...
Content marketing is more important to B2B businesses. Who is succeeding and why? Below is a infographic that details B2B Content Marketing Trends for 2015.
Here are 15 B2B case studies. They show how content marketing drives ROI with B2B businesses who: - Know their audience
- Don’t create content for the sake of creating content
- Use specific content solutions to impact different stages of the buying cycle
- Integrate internally with their teams...
Some have deep pockets to solve this. RedBull for instance became a media company with its own record labels, studios and a content pool of 50,000 videos.
Do you?
As an SMB, chances are… no.
So how does a content strategy for the rest of us look like?
Answer: Low cost / fast / high impact.
Easier said than done of course but here in Silicon Valley we have examples every day of companies with limited budget changing the world in a radical way. So we got inspired by the Lean Startup movement and together with other marketers decided to apply that to marketing: speed and agility can make up for lack of budget.
Here’s a framework on how to do this. L.E.A.N means:...
The problem? Social media is comprised primarily of unstructured data, which is difficult to analyze.
A new approach called Mindset, Skillset, Dataset can help marketers make sense of complex social media data. Mindset refers to the ability to think beyond a certain frame of reference and look at the bigger ‘Why’ of solving a particular problem. Skillset refers to analytical techniques and tools that can be used to solve a particular problem. And Dataset refers to the copious amount of data generated from social media.
The availability of data and skillsets/technique is almost never an issue. Typically, it is the right mindset that’s lacking. Here are some tips for getting in the right frame of mind....
Need more proof that mobile advertising is working? Okay, you twisted our arm.
The most recent salvo comes in a new report from NinthDecimal, a mobile audience intelligence company. In its consumer packaged goods (CPG) “Mobile Audience Insights Report,” the company notes that “70 percent of consumers tried a new product as a direct result of seeing a mobile ad.”
That represents a 49 percent increase over 2013. Indeed, the research suggests that mobile is increasingly influencing every stage of a consumer’s path-to-purchase....
Just this month, Google published a new entry on its Think With Google website that highlights what it believes are three trends marketers need to know in 2015. Go ahead, check it out.
Read it? Good. Now let’s dig into what it means for you. It’s easy to get caught up in some of the slick graphics and the thought leadership behind the Google name, but will these trends really impact you and your business this year?...
LinkedIn has leap-frogged Twitter as the No. 1 social network for content marketing, reveals a new study.
A December survey from the Content Marketing Institute and the Direct Marketing Association UK found that 96 percent of respondents use LinkedIn for content marketing, compared to 85 percent in 2013.Twitter finished second in the poll, with 89 percent using this platform, which was the same number as the previous year....
The baby boom has happened again, and then some. The Boomers themselves, in the fullness of time, have given birth to an even bigger generation. Their offspring, the millennials (also known as Gen Y), are the young adults and teenagers born between 1980 and 2000 who are poised to transform a nation once more.
Specifically, and of most importance to those of you in business, they’re about to become the most important consumers–customers–in history. Their wallet power, already significant, is rapidly expanding, and will soon equal and then eclipse that of the Baby Boomers. In fact, it’s estimated that Millennials will be spending $200 billion annually by 2017 and $10 trillion over their lifetimes as consumers....
Each year we see continuous change and growth in the digital arena. As such there is a regular flow of new digital insights and information to keep on top of - a consuming task for any business leader. Last year we released Five digital strategy reports you should read from 2013. Given the great feedback, we've once again selected four reports released in 2014 that provide valuable insights to business leaders looking to build or improve their digital strategy....
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According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 80 percent of responders said they research a product online before buying. Today, it’s not enough for businesses to have a voice in traditional channels. In addition, brands must be active online in order to influence purchase consideration – with emphasis on the word “active.”...
As a result, we at Vertical Measures have created the following eight-step approach that businesses can adopt to begin the quest of creating content their audience will find and love, and see success through content marketing. (In fact, I just published a book that covers these eight steps in detail.)...
In a recent post, I pointed to research that shows that as much as 70 percent of social sharing is unknown to us. And perhaps we only know 2 percent of our non-lurking audience!
This presents a real problem for marketers. Getting content to move through a loyal audience is critical to business success. A study commissioned by Google shows that your most-loyal audience is more than 250 percent more likely to transmit your content and 200 percent more likely to make purchases from your company. These engaged customers don’t just buy your products again and again, but encourage others to do it, too.
In my upcoming book, The Content Code, I describe this elite group as the Alpha Audience – fervent supporters, and a rare breed we can rely on for loyalty, ignition, and most important, action. We urgently need to find more of those people for our businesses, but if most of this powerful audience lurks in the shadows, how do we know they’re there?...
Do you want to improve your social media marketing? Are you curious about what works for large companies? The best way to add techniques to your repertoire is to look at what brands with high levels of engagement are doing.
In this article I’ll share 26 tips, an A-Z guide, from brands doing an excellent job of social media marketing and getting results to match.
Despite a myriad of research studies pointing to the importance of personalization, the majority (74%) of online retailers still promote irrelevant items to shoppers via email, according to OrderDynamics c research. Some retailers (33%) don’t even sufficiently follow up with consumers after they sign up for the brand mailing list.
The report, titled: Customer Relationships: The Dating Game, compares retailing to dating, in that businesses have to convince consumers to “go out” with them to start and continue a business relationship. The study specifically measures the effectiveness of a “first date,” or purchase, as well as the long-term relationships that can lead to additional purchases and increased order values. Opinion Matters conducted the study on behalf of OrderDynamics by surveying more than 60 retailers and 2,000 consumers....
Across the six-month period of this analysis, we found that some post types did perform better than others. - Lists and why-posts proved to have the most reliable social traction, averaging around 21,000 shares per month with a variance of less than 2.5%. - What-posts were the riskiest format, showing a high variance of 13.45% - Further analysis of the six-month period revealed:Lists narrowly claimed the most social traction at 22.45% - Why-posts earned 22.32% of social traction. - Videos drew 18.94% of total shares and performed well in Q4. - How-to articles earned 18.42% of shares. - What-posts had the lowest social traction, earning 17.88% of total shares....
Content marketing was voted the top marketing activity to drive commercial results in 2015, according to Smart Insights, so competition will be tough and the need to create a focused plan is paramount.
Even though content looks set to take over the digital marketing landscape in 2015, brands still need to get the fundamentals right. This means coming up with a clear strategy, researching consumer data, distributing content in the right places and measuring campaign effectiveness.
By doing so, B2C companies can overcome challenges such as creating engaging content that resonates and appeals to customers, on a regular and consistent basis.
Take a look at the infographic below for an overview of, the most commercially important digital marketing trends for 2015, marketers' top goals for 2015, most popular B2C content marketing tactics, 7 content marketing planning techniques, and more.
There are literally hundreds of social networks to choose from. We all know the big players: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, Snapchat... oh, well, that list can go on for awhile, too. How can anyone actively engage in all of the social networks, even just sticking to the main players? The truth is, you can't.
Every business has to determine which social networks are most valuable to them. Where is your target audience engaging? Which network is most friendly to your type of business? Which offers you the best reach? Not all social networks are equal, and a network that does great for one business might be a bust for another.
I usually tell businesses that are just starting out in social media to choose one network at a time. Build that up sufficiently before jumping into another network. By focusing on one network initially, your efforts will be far more effective (we only have so many hours in the day!) and you'll more quickly be able to determine if your efforts there are producing fruit....
As a small business owner, the concept of content marketing makes you raise an eyebrow and ask yourself lots of questions that might include:
Do I really need a content strategy to speak my mind and bond with my clients? Couldn’t I just let the words flow freely?
Don’t let your upcoming experiences provide the answers to these questions.
Trying to convey your messages without a well-researched, documented content marketing strategy would be like trying to steer a ship without a helm. In this case you would probably drown in a sea of disparate content pieces that do not actually add value to your audience and don’t do a great job at representing your business....
We get it, your inboxes are jam-packed with must-read trend predictions for 2015, and no doubt some of them are right on the money. We can all feel the shift: This year will be a game-changer, especially in the field of social innovation.
If we want to be ahead of the curve, we have to be creative, forward-thinking and incredibly innovative when it comes to designing new products, services and brands. This list is all about taking the top 10 innovation trends of 2015 and transforming them into actionable opportunities that you can run with and profit from in the year to come....
The phrase “people trust people, not brand advertising” should be updated to state: “People trust real people and real friends, not social media and/or brand advertising.” Nowhere is this more evident than among the Millennial generation, who for all their good intentions and social-do-goodness, are less trusting of what they read and see in social media.
An October 2014 Student Monitor survey queried college students about the the media through which they learn about products and services. The number one channel by which students preferred to receive product/service information was good old-fashioned word of mouth (48%). Interesting, “ads on the Internet” was second at 39%, well ahead of “information on the Internet” (21%) and “product reviews online” (18%)....
Does your social media need a boost?Do you want to add something to your online marketing?Trying new things can be fun and refreshing, for both you and your audience.In this article I’ll share 26 ways, an A-Z guide, to improve your social media efforts....
“IBM’s research found a few areas where retailers may have some interesting opportunities,” said Kali Klena, global retail industry leader for IBM’s Institute for Business Value, San Mateo, CA. “First, there is a growing gap between shoppers’ enjoyment of digital shopping — online and mobile — and their last purchase behavior.“
Said another way, some retailers are delivering more enjoyable digital shopping experiences than others,” she said. “This indicates an opportunity for retailers to look at their digital shopping offerings and be sure they are truly tailored by channel....
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Here's how emotional triggers can enhance your marketing results.