Finding creative ways to market a product that isn’t going to get millions of social shares

Going viral. It’s the dream of so many digital marketers. If you could just get one video, one blog post, one social media infographic to go viral. Then your campaign (or product or client) would be a total success. But what can you do when going viral isn’t an option? How can you use digital marketing techniques to successfully reach an audience that needs your product, but might not be willing to admit it on their social networks? It’s a challenge, but it can be done. And with great success. Take one example: Brickell Men’s Products. This luxury men’s skincare brand was started with a heavy dose of reality. The story of the company’s founding starts with Josh - one of the co-founders - being teased by…

#Chart of the day: The top technology trends that senior marketers believe will be impacting their strategy in 2020

The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 499 CMOs and other senior marketers about how they saw marketing evolving up to 2020. One of the most interesting questions asked was what technology trends senior marketers saw as most likely to be having a major impact on how they conducted their marketing in 2020. The top trends are mobile marketing, personalisation and the internet of things. It's also interesting to see more niche technologies such as blockchain making this list of the most important technology trends for the next 3 years. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit & Marketo Report Sample Size: 499 senior marketers Recommended Resource: Strategy and Planning Toolkit …

The term digital branding is often used, but what actually is ‘digital branding’?

As a strategist and brand planner, I find the use of the term 'digital branding' curious. Do we use the term ‘TV branding’ or ‘radio branding’? Digital marketing has emerged as a specialism over the last decade with its origins rooted in direct marketing. The increase in the number of personal devices and their use means brand marketers have many more ways of communicating directly and interactively with their target consumers or customers. Given this, it's no surprise that branding concepts should be applied to digital media and technology to develop brands through interactions with consumers on their digital devices.  We'll look at some of the leading FMCG examples at the end of this article.

Digital branding definition: So, how do I see it? Here's my perspective on "Digital Branding":

"Digital channels and assets are used to communicate a…

Why you need a plan to defend and improve your online reputation

In an online world of viral news articles and social media, your brand’s image is something that can quickly be affected by even the slightest misstep. That’s why protecting your brand’s reputation is more important than you’ll ever realize.

The Significance of Your Online Image

It’s easy for us to forget that the internet is still a relatively new business channel. When we look back on the history of the internet in 25 or 30 years, 2017 will still look very much like the Wild West. Rules are still being developed, concepts are just now being understood, and what works isn’t always clear. But when you cut through all of the unknowns, it doesn’t take an advanced degree to recognize the importance of maintaining a strong online image. Information spreads fast online and you have to keep up. The internet gives everyone a…

Chart of the day: Search continues to be the number on source of referrals for fashion retailers

Search engines drive the highest proportion of visitors to fashion brands. Connexity, the e-commerce & consumer analytics company looked at the channels which drive the most traffic to two high fashion brands Ted Baker and Karen Millen. Though they found the actual numbers varied considerably, the order remained the same. Search is followed by Social, Rewards and directories then Email. What is interesting about this chart is that while Search features so high, the search strategies for both brands are mostly the same. If you do a brand search then the ads are quite indistinguishable. While they make every effort to make their clothes distinctly there's, they could follow this through to their search marketing via the use of lesser used ad extensions e.g. review & price extensions. …

Facebook changes the way its algorithm ranks content, weighting reactions higher than likes

Since Facebook introduced new ways to react to posts, with emotions like 'Love, wow and angry' as opposed to the traditional 'like', we've been interested how they affect the way Facebook's algorithm ranks content. Now Facebook has confirmed that it will be weighting the importance of reactions more than 'likes' when it comes to deciding what posts will be shown to users. Facebook's newsfeed algorithm is extremely important deciding what content gets seen, and generally is far more likely to show a post that is highly engaged with to a large majority of a page's followers compared to one that is failing to drive engagement. This means many brands are trapped in negative cycles, where posts are shown to only a tiny percentage of followers (1% is common), and then they fail to get engagement from that 1%,…

To succeed with content marketing you have to have a well thought out strategy

Your peers have been telling you for years that you need to invest in content marketing. They tell you it’s the highest returning investment you can make and that your internet presence depends on your company’s ability to leverage high-ranking publishing platforms and specific SEO techniques. Are you ready to listen? If so, you need a plan. This blog will walk you through the basic steps of getting started with your first content marketing campaign. 

Grasping the True Value of Content Marketing

As a business owner or marketer, you probably like numbers. So let’s look at the value of content marketing from a quantifiable standpoint. And what better place to start than by seeing what your peers – who are already heavily invested in content marketing – think. 

According…

Chart of the Day: How often do Americans open and send emails per day?

The American worker spends a lot of time checking their email. All across the country people are spending large blocks of their workday in their inbox. But what exactly does the typical American inbox at work look like? Email marketing company Reachmail surveyed one thousand American workers who consider email significant to their job. The survey focused on 4 core areas relating to email use at work: How often American’s are checking their email at work How many emails they send per day How quickly that they respond to emails How many emails are unread in a typical inbox The goal of the survey was to get a better look at how American’s deal with email while at work. As a result of the survey, they discovered several interesting trends.

Checking Email

The survey found that 54% of Americans check…

Multiple channels has led to a 'siloing' of marketing processes which is detrimental to your brand

As the number of channels used by customers has proliferated, so organisations have felt the pressure to keep in step with their customers. But although the need to adapt to customer preferences is vital, it has become increasingly apparent that many channels are being bolted on with little or no consideration for how they are integrated with the rest of the organisation. In many cases, there is double trouble, as this sub-optimal channel support is also the action of a department that has decided to bypass the rest of the organisation in a bid to fast-track channel support. This means that we’re not just seeing evidence of the all-too-common operational silos, but are also witnessing channel silos being built on top.

Channel silos can take the form of:

Siloed marketing channels. Customers receive marketing messages across…

How to boost the effectiveness of your content marketing with properly mapped buyer personas

If you want to maximise results from your content marketing strategy, it is essential to map your buyer personas to the buying cycle. This is executed by delivering the right content, to the right people, at the right time. If your business is B2B, your content marketing strategy is crucial to your success because 64 percent of B2B customers will engage in upwards of five blogs prior to purchase. However, a mere five percent of marketers believe their content marketing strategy is moving in the right direction, according to Top Rank Marketing. Blogs, videos, ebooks, case studies, and infographics are all invaluable content marketing assets. And you want these content marketing assets represented in each stage of the buying cycle. To make the absolute most of your content marketing strategy, you need to develop your buyer’s journey. This allows…