Not Your Mama’s Marketing

Gone are the days when all you needed to do to find new clients was post a billboard and a few TV commercials. Thanks to technology, the entire philosophy of marketing has shifted, and the demographics of your target audience have likely shifted, too. Back in the day, women held the purchasing power.  Businesses and brands targeted their advertising and messaging to women in the hopes that they would share their experiences with family and friends.

Today, teens and young adults have more purchasing power than ever before.  They’re an incredibly savvy group, so in order to capture some of that purchasing power requires that you speak their language and spread your message where it’s most likely to be heard.

How to Capture Young Audiences:

Include useful information in your marketing message -– not just “advertising” statements.

Today’s young people are bombarded with more advertisements than ever before.  From pop-up and sidebar ads on their favorite blogs, to commercials on music streaming apps, advertisements have become a part of their minute-by-minute experience. Simply stating that your product does x, y, and z or your organization does x, y, and z is not good enough. They’ve heard that claim before – perhaps from your competitors. Instead, include information that grabs their attention.

Remember, your viewers will only see your ads for a second, and then their attention will be on to something else. Make sure that second counts by including only the most pertinent information about your product or service in the ad.

Focus on providing engaging, interactive content on your website and social media pages.

To capture a dedicated, young customer base, you need to provide them with more than just your key product. Draw them to your website or social media pages with content that they want to engage with. Don’t make it all about selling your product. Trust that after they grow to love your company for its witty, interactive content, they’ll come around to giving your product a try on their own terms.

• Make Facebook posts about day-to-day life that encourage your followers to respond. For instance, you could post a status that says “How many people have already gone swimming this season?” at the beginning of summer.
• Keep your blog updated with regular posts related to current events in your industry. If you sell clothing and accessories, you could make bi-weekly posts about the latest trends in the fashion industry and what celebrities wore to certain events.
• Post pictures on Instagram of things you come across that are related to your business. If you sell healthy snacks and you’re driving past a strawberry field, take a picture of the strawberries.

Your goal is to draw your target demographic (young people) to your website and social media pages with great, engaging content – then let them make the decision whether to learn more about your product and perhaps purchase it on their own.

Make it clear that your product or service solves a specific problem.

The companies that have been successful in selling their product to the younger generation all have one thing in common – their products solve a problem. 

To encourage young people to try your product, your advertising needs to make it clear that your product solves a specific, real-world problem, thus making their lives easier. Wording such as “Are you tired of, xyz? Our product eliminates xyz by…” is very useful. And, USE VIDEO.  This is a must when catering to young people. Depict someone struggling with a problem, and show how your product solves it. This will make your ads relatable.

Develop a company mission that’s deeper than sales – and make it clear to your customers that you really care about the cause.

Today’s young people are caring and passionate about the world around them. They want to do their part to preserve the environment, save animals, fight homelessness, feed the hungry, and support other worthy causes. They want to buy from businesses that share their morals and values. 

If you want to market your business to young people, you need to show them that you care about more than just making a profit. Choose a cause that you and your partners or employees are truly passionate about, and get involved. Participate in fundraisers related to that cause, or pledge to donate a portion of your proceeds. Then, let your viewers know what you’re doing. Post about it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Ask your viewers for their opinions about the cause.

Young people will appreciate that your company is “about more than just the business,” and you’ll gain not just any customers – but loyal customers who share your passions.

Marketing to the young generation is not simple. You must take a multifaceted approach, carefully tailoring messages on your website, social media accounts, and other outlets to ensure they are in line with your target demographics’ values and needs.

Above all, engage! Respond to comments on social media. Go where the young people are.  Don’t wait for them to come to you.

To Outsource or Not to Outsource – That is the Marketing Question

As a business owner trying to grow your business on a budget, you may be inclined to try to conduct your own marketing. After all, no one knows your company and its offerings better than you, and there are websites and software that will allow you to take care of many of the necessary aspects on your own. But it’s worth asking yourself a few questions before you make any decisions about this. 

Do you have the time to research, strategize and create compelling marketing campaigns? Do you know how to measure success? Can you tell the difference between effective and ineffective marketing? If not, it may be time for you to consider outsourcing your marketing and advertising.

Why You Should Consider Outsourcing

Effective marketing is extremely important for businesses of all sizes, but it is especially important for small businesses and startups. In many cases, small business owners and startups are competing against larger companies with deeper pockets and larger staffs. Even for medium and large companies, consistent marketing helps your company remain relevant and expands your potential reach.

No matter the size of your company or how long it has been in business, effective marketing increases revenue, builds industry authority, strengthens your brand, develops customer loyalty and increases the overall value of your business.

If you’ve been handling your own marketing up to this point, you may be unsure if outsourcing would be worth it for you. Here are some signs that it may be time to begin outsourcing your marketing:

Benefits of Outsourcing Your Marketing

If you’re looking to take your company to the next level, investing more time and energy in your marketing is a must. But rather than attempting a trial-and-error, shooting-from-the-hip approach, it’s better to trust your marketing to a professional or a business that specializes in strategic marketing. 

Here are some benefits of outsourcing:

1. New Ideas: Bringing in an outside professional(s) to work on your advertising brings in a new flow of ideas for your marketing initiatives. A third party can and should add different perspectives that you haven’t considered.
2. Proven Techniques: Rather than playing the guessing game, a marketing and advertising professional already knows what works and what doesn’t. They’ve conducted market research and will be able to create a sound strategy based off of their experience.
3. Expand Your Team at a Fraction of the Cost: What would it cost you to add marketing professionals to your staff? Aside from paying high salaries and benefits, you would also have to provide office space and up-to-date computers and software. Outsourcing your marketing department saves you money in the short and long terms.
4. Objectivity: It can be difficult for business owners to be completely objective about their products and services, just as it can be for them to be objective about their current marketing strategies. An outside business will bring a fresh opinion and offer objective advice about what you should be doing.
5. Save Time and Focus on Your Business: Market research, developing a strategy, creating an advertising budget and designing ads takes time. This is time you could be spending on serving your customers and growing your business.
6. No Staffing Problems: Even if you do have a dedicated employee or department for marketing, you still have to worry about sick days, vacations and leaves of absence. A third-party company will eliminate staffing concerns.
7. Growth: One of the best ways to grow your business is to invest in marketing. Working with a professional advertising agency will help your business grow more than attempting to do your own marketing.
8. Return on Investment: Return on investment is a major metric in the marketing industry. Many business owners are unsure of how much bang for their buck they’re getting. Meanwhile, advertising agencies obsess over measurements like this, which will maximize your budget.
9. Measure Results: You have to know what’s working and what’s not. Even the most well-constructed marketing strategies will require some tweaking to adjust to what is and isn’t successful. If you aren’t measuring, how can you tell? Professional marketers measure everything.

As tempting as it may be for you to try and handle your own marketing, it’s not recommended. Unless you have the skills and experience to be successful, this is a bad strategy that will likely cost you time and money. To maximize your results, time and budget, work with a reputable company that cares about your business and its success. 

Incorporating Video into Your Marketing Plan is Essential

Everywhere you turn, you see videos.  Social media is abuzz with it.  And while many forms of marketing turn out to be fads or here-today-gone-tomorrow strategies, video marketing is here to stay.  If you want your business to stay relevant in a constantly-evolving digital landscape, you must add video to your content marketing strategy.  This doesn’t mean you need to ditch the blogs and other content avenues, just add great video to your plan!

Right now, everything is being dominated by video. This means video marketing is an essential part of any content marketing strategy that hopes to survive the next few years.

What is Video Content Marketing?

It’s not just creating videos for the internet and hitting publish. Like any content strategy, it takes the right amount of planning. Think of video the same as written content marketing. Instead of creating a 500+ word blog post, you create a short video sharing the same information and topics.

Ultimately, the goals of video and traditional content are the same. You want to educate your audience, establish trust, and position yourself as the expert.

It’s important to realize that video content marketing is not the same as commercials. Commercials, like on TV, have the sole intention of selling. They’re not created to explain, engage, or simply to inform. Video content marketing provides value, and it isn’t just an advertisement.

Why Use Video?

What is it that makes video marketing so effective? The proof is in the statistics. YouTube alone has more than a billion users, which is almost one-third of all the internet users on the planet. Why?

Build on Emotions
Videos are inherently emotional. Unlike text, you’re able to connect with users face-to-face. Video resonates on a deeper level with audiences than other types of content because you can speak directly to your ideal customers.

Even if you’re just sharing a how-to video, the fact that you’re able to interact as a person instead of a screen makes a world of a difference. Your videos don’t need to be heart-wrenching emotional tales to capture your audience. As long as you use creativity and personality, you’ll still build a higher level of trust than traditional content.

Video SEO
YouTube is actually the second-largest search engine after Google, so video is now essential to a modern SEO strategy. Google looks at more than just written content when it ranks your website. Google looks at multimedia assets to see the entire package of what you’re bringing to the table.

Because videos are easily shareable, they’re perfect for link building campaigns. Including videos on your pages can help keep users there longer and keep them scrolling. All of these things come together to improve your page ranking.

Customer Journey
Your customers go on a journey that takes them from learning about your business to actually making a purchase. In most cases, this isn’t a quick journey. That’s why content marketing is so essential. It follows your customer journey from start to finish, gently guiding them where to go every step of the way.

Video encourages engagement and it can be used to build a unique message for every part of the journey.  Video fits perfectly into the funnel, and it helps your brand stand out in a competitive world. Consumers want to be educated. They want to learn about products and services before they make purchases. Video offers a way for customers to not only experience products or learn more about your services, but understand why they need them.

Engagement
What’s more likely to stop you in your tracks? A stand-alone picture with a blurb or an exciting video? In the world of social media, things move fast. People scroll through their feeds on their way to work, during breaks, and before bed. They aren’t always taking the time to read through every message, especially when they’re so used to advertisements from companies.

How will your business stop consumers in their own busy schedules and cause them to take notice?

How to Use Video Marketing

First, most videos are viewed online without sound. Because social media usually mutes videos by default, most users won’t unmute them unless they’re particularly engaging. That means it’s helpful to include subtitles if they’re relevant, or to include messaging suggesting users turn on the sound.

Next, you’ll want to build your video to the platform format. For most platforms like Facebook and Instagram, that means creating square video. The square format takes up the most real estate on social media, so it’s most likely what’s going to capture your users’ attention. For Instagram and Snapchat, you’ll need to use vertical video that fills the entire screen.

Shooting Your Video
You don’t need to blow your budget on a professional film crew and editing software to make your own video. You can even use your smartphone camera if that’s your only option.

For instructional videos that rely on sound, consider investing in a microphone. You can purchase one that can even attach to your smartphone. Having clear, crisp sound shows you’re serious and that you know what you’re doing.

Editing

If you’re planning on using your video on more than one platform, edit multiple versions. Ideally, social media videos are short (under a minute long) while website videos can be longer. Again, you should include subtitles on social media videos as well since most users likely won’t use sound. Use text and other effects when you think it’s appropriate, but don’t go overboard. For instructional and educational videos, it’s helpful to use graphics and animations.

The Future of Video

Video marketing isn’t just another trend. It’s the future of content marketing, and the sooner your business can utilize video, the more prepared you’ll be for tomorrow. Not only is video engaging, but it’s an easy way to provide even more value to your prospective customers.

User-Generated Content and Its Impact on Your Brand

Traditional advertising is a one-way street: Brands advertise to consumers instead of having a conversation with them. And that’s a problem.

Today, younger consumers aren’t interested in traditional advertising tactics; they want to lead the conversation and feel an authentic connection to brands. Building those relationships takes more than an ad; it requires engaging, one-to-one brand experiences.

Investing in experiential strategies pays big dividends for your business. Trust us. In addition to getting better insights into their consumers, business owners are learning that this interactive approach is a gold mine for user-generated content that amplifies their brands and drives loyalty.

When consumers share content created at your live event, it extends your activation beyond the footprint and allows your product to reach people who might never have seen it otherwise.

User-generated content is perceived by consumers to be more trustworthy and authentic than brand-created content. This builds brand awareness and consideration among a wider segment of consumers.

There are a lot of ways to create a brand experience that’s so incredible that consumers can’t wait to let other people know. Here are a few steps you can take:

1. Think beyond the boomerang. Don't rely on a single photo engagement. Instead, the entire activation must be share-worthy and envy-inducing, with content creation built into multiple touchpoints throughout the experience.

If you’re hosting an event, get live testimonials.  Ask attendees if they wouldn’t mind doing a live stream with you to share their experience.  Tag other vendors to capture their audience.  If you own a restaurant or catering business, capture individuals or patrons enjoying your food.  This is video proof with an actual, live person, that your product(s) are mouth-watering good!

2. Consider why consumers share. Consumers are selective when it comes to the content they share. For an activation to be deemed share-worthy, it must resonate emotionally, be eye-popping, and align with something the consumer is passionate about.

Consumers are highly-visual individuals.  It has been stated that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Imagine what a great video is worth.  Don’t post just to post.  Post videos and stories that pull at the heart strings, tug at the envy bone and plant themselves in the emotional part of the brain that is hard to eliminate.  (Think puppies and babies)

3. Let the consumer be the story. A consumer’s experience with your product is more powerful than any marketing message a brand can craft. For the most impact, give consumers the experiential tools to allow them to tell their story in their own voice.

Think of it as a live testimonial.  Let them share their experience with your product or business.  What did it do for them?  If it’s a skincare product, why did they want to try it and why do they love it.  They had a problem, you provided the solution, they tell the story.

The brands that resonate most powerfully in the future will be those that facilitate and foster the ability of people to connect with other people. Bringing people together to tell their stories creates the communities that consumers long for and builds brand loyalty. Utilizing video, consumer stories and true, authentic engagement will set you and your business up for success!

If you are not sure what user-generated content is or how to incorporate it into your business, contact the experts at SK Consulting.  From concept to creation to implementation, we’re there with you every step of the way!

Everything and Everyone Has a Brand!

Brands are part of our everyday lives.  They are everywhere.

Many people immediately think of products and services when we think of brands. But places, religions, people and even ideas can and should be branded. What’s the value?  See for yourself.

Link the Thinking and Feeling

Think of products and services like Apple, Nike, Google, etc. – love them or hate them, you know exactly what you will get from them. Brands that move from a noun to a verb and are part of the everyday language, have pretty much reached the holy grail of branding. Skype your family. Photoshop that picture, and just Google it!

How does a brand become a great brand? And how does a great brand stand the test of time?

Great brands connect, resonate and then spread like wild fire. Great brands connect our thinking and our feeling. When you connect thinking and feeling, you get someone’s attention and you keep their interest with the promise of something great. You offer something valuable beyond just your product or service. You don’t just differentiate, you make a difference. And by making a difference, you evoke emotions.

When a customer feels like they belong to something, they implicitly trust it.

Building Trust

Trust is not something that just happens. It takes consistency and time to build. You trust your bank with your money.  You continue to invest there because they have a) branded themselves in a way that resonates with you and b) proven their worth and validated your trust in them. 

Trust gives everyone reassurance.

If you think about it, trust starts within us. Our senses have been developed over time to inform us of goodness, beauty, excitement, risk, danger, etc. We trust our senses unconditionally because consistently, they’ve been our beacons in life and we continuously learn from them. From influences in our environments, past experiences, and from stories from other people we trust.

Trust in people has been built over time with regard to the expertise and competence they bring. We blindly trust them (think about doctors) with our lives due to the inherit trust that lies in their capability. We trust them because what they are promising we can depend on and rely on. They create value to us.

Trust = Reliability + Desirability x Experiences

Our world has changed drastically and continues to change at a rapid pace. The people (your customers) are now making the decisions. They are empowered and demanding. Whatever they experience in their personal life becomes the standard and they expect it in ALL aspects of their lives.

ADDING VALUE

To tap into this empowered and knowledgeable market, TRUST remains the foundation. The essence of trust is when people find value from you or the services you provide. As a business, you need to deliver value beyond your product or service. All of us make our decisions based on the maximum value being received.

The value received can be objective (ie. better sound, faster connectivity, quicker payment, lower price, etc).  But, it can also be subjective (ie. ethical standards of the company, the social issues that the company support and I also personally value, embracing diversity, etc).

Value is a key factor in brand development and is derived from all the interactions people have with your company and product/service. At every touch point. That is even before they sign up or purchase your product, and definitely after. The value you create needs to be a way of life.

When you truly offer value, you have an outside-in approach as a business. You build relevant and valued experiences to your customers’ needs.

Make a difference

People and consumers have different needs and will find value in different solutions. People want to belong and connect to other people and organizations that share their values. If you try to be everything to everyone, you will end up being nothing to no one. Be unique and don’t just be different – make a difference.

Connect to Belong
The power of connecting between an organization and consumers results in a two-way understanding and long-term relationship. When you truly connect, you connect on an emotional level because of your shared values and belonging.

You connect on an emotional level by once again applying a human-centered, outside-in approach. One way to do this is through storytelling. We all love a story. When your brand is a story, it will help you stand out from the cluttered world we live in, it will help you to be differentiated, and it will help you to be remembered.

Your brand will be defined by what people, your customers AND your employees think and feel about you. Unlock and cultivate the value you offer and keep building on the trust you earned.

This is how you become memorable in a noisy and ever-changing world.  If you need help building a great brand that stands the test of time, contact the experts at SK Consulting.  From concept to creation to implementation, we’re there with you every step of the way!

Integrate and Communicate to Make Your Marketing Great!

Before you embark on a marketing campaign, know your audience and have a clear, consistent message. If not, you will open the door to a confused audience. If your customized message leaves your target audience unsure of who you are and what your company does, you will be wasting time, money and resources on failed efforts.

This notion is a part of brand awareness, which is built by delivering consistent communication of your company’s position each time you make contact.

How can you do this?  Create a position statement that clearly defines your company and emphasizes how you differ from the competition. Audit existing marketing materials to ensure there are no inconsistent messages before you spend another dime on marketing activities.

Integrate marketing and sales

Some companies combine marketing and sales. Others treat them separately, never linking the two.  This is a huge mistake.  

Do not allow your marketing team to spend too much time, effort and money on a new program or product without allowing the sales team to provide input. The sales team could reject the materials and campaign if the most compelling selling points are missing. In turn, they may produce their own presentation or brochure that sends mixed messages to prospective clients.

For example, you might launch a direct mail campaign in hopes of generating sales leads. However, the sales team may refuse to follow-up on leads they do not feel qualify. Those potential targets will not receive a message of continuity, which effectively tells them your company is incapable of handling their needs.

Marketing campaigns will fail when there is no clear integration between marketing and sales. This causes you to lose money in wasted expenses and lost opportunities for generating new revenue. But, you can quickly recover by including the sales team in the marketing planning process. Implement a combined team of marketing and sales representatives on an advisory committee. Allow the sales team members to provide feedback on proposed marketing efforts.

Unless you unite marketing and sales efforts, any strategy will be lacking.

Measure the success or failure of strategies

The true measure of success is how successful you are in different marketing strategies. Every strategy will not work the same for every company, even when both are in the same industry. Therefore, you want to dust off those metrics tools and find out what you should keep, throw away and improve.

No matter the size of your business, you should always look for ways to measure success. Doing this helps you evaluate your company’s performance and highlights your marketing goals. There are several simple, inexpensive ways that you can track the return you receive on investing in marketing campaigns. Ultimately, you want to be confident in which strategies are more effective than others, and how each one ties into the goals of your company.

First, define the channels that you want to track in order to measure the success of a campaign. Linked to this is defining a collection of numerical data points. These will help to give you some perspective on how well your marketing campaign is working.

Once you develop a cohesive planning process for how you will measure and track the marketing campaign, the next step is to actually begin tracking once the campaign begins. Not measuring your ROI is simply setting your company up for a marketing mistake.

Focus on needs of potential clients

If you have no idea what potential clients need, how could you possibly know what they will respond to in an email or snail mail piece? Every effort you make towards marketing should focus on their needs and wants.

Few businesses have a solid grasp on what clients need. Many have a product-centric view, rather than a client-centric view. You can define your products and/or services from every possible angle. However, this only vaguely describes who might actually need or want those products and/or services. Lost in this translation is the WHY.  Why would your prospective customers want to spend their money?

You need to spend valuable time listening to your ideal client. The result of all your marketing campaign dollars go down the drain if the message delivered means nothing to potential clients. Your products and/or services will only count when they satisfy the needs of potential clients.

Moving Onward and Upward

Marketing is one of the most important expenditures that your company should make. Doing the right things to add to your client base ensures that your company’s revenue and size will grow. Effective marketing campaigns are critical to this level of success.

As one of the most important elements of your company’s business strategy, marketing will set you apart from the competition and keep you top-of-mind with current and potential clients. Expanding your base, increasing revenue or brand awareness will not happen without a savvy marketing strategy.

Have you made a marketing mistake?  Don’t worry, we can work with you to reverse what has been done and create campaigns that will set your business up for success.  From concept to creation to implementation, the experts at SK Consulting are there with you every step of the way! 

Just Starting Out? Market Within Your Budget

We’ve all heard the riddle:  If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around….does it make a sound?  Think of that riddle in the marketing world.  It’s like having a high-quality billboard promoting your business placed in the desert.  Nobody will see your efforts or know that you exist.  As a business owner, you know you need to market your business, especially if you’ve just very recently opened your doors. It’s the only way you can attract customers to your brand!

Unfortunately, budgets are typically tight.  Small business owners rarely have the large budget needed to compete with the ‘big dogs.’  Without a sizeable wad of cash, marketing becomes extremely difficult.

But it isn’t impossible!

Start with the basics and go from there.  (and don’t spend your money on a billboard in the desert!)

Create the Very Best Logo You Possibly Can

Creating a logo will cost a little bit of money upfront, but it’s an investment that will pay for itself in a relatively short period of time.  We wouldn’t recommend trying your hand at design with this important part of your brand.

Research and hire a company with a portfolio that speaks to you.  And what’s great is, once you pay for the logo – it is yours.  You own it and can use it however you see fit!

It is important to note that your logo should incorporate the color scheme of your business.  You want people to take notice of your logo, but don’t make it too artsy.  You want a simple design that speaks to your business and can be easily reproduced on promotional and collateral pieces.

Start a Blog

There are many reasons to start a blog.  And don’t worry, if you’re not a good writer, there are many freelancers and businesses, like SK Consulting that can help.  Here are some benefits:

• Attracting an audience
• Building rapport with customers
• Establishing authority in your industry

Blogging can get expensive so shop around to find the best writer for the right price.  You can try your hand at blogging, but make sure you have a second and third pair of eyes to edit your work and incorporate SEO and key phrases.

One great thing about starting a blog is the fact that you can fund it later on down the road when there’s more cash to go around. All you have to do is look for a content writer to join your team when the time is right.

Get on Social Media

Social media is one of the easiest ways to do a little marketing without spending any money. It’s free to start a business account on platforms that include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

There are two approaches you can take. If you have the time, you can join as many social media platforms as you can to attract people to your brand, or you can choose just one or two to spend your time on. No matter which method you choose, make sure that have time to update your accounts often.

Also, make sure there’s a strategy behind your posts.  After all, social media is more than pretty pictures and sales pitches.  You need to be educational, relevant and authentic! Testimonials and videos are sure-fire ways to grab attention of potential customers.

Do Some Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla marketing is a fun way to get your brand noticed! Here are some low-cost ideas:

• Network, network, network – there are many free networking groups that you can join and share your business and business card with others
• Use creative, inexpensive signs to point to your store (think sidewalk chalk or sandwich board signs)
• Give away free samples at an event – find events that align with your business and show up with free samples
• Use inexpensive promotional items to share your logo and website

You don’t have to have thousands of dollars burning a hole in your pocket to do a little marketing! You can get your business noticed by new customers and clients without spending money you don’t have. Need help establishing your marketing goals within your budget?  Contact the experts at SK Consulting today!  From concept to creation to implementation – we’re there with you every step of the way!