Marketing Super Heros

marketing superhero

You’re charged with being the “marketing super hero.”

Exhibiting at events and your sales staff are great 1:1 engagement tools. When you can’t meet or draw all of your potential customers to your website or meet them in-person, engagement marketing casts a net to capture your prospects as they are forming opinions and drawing purchase conclusions well before they start to interact with your company.

Today’s digital access gives buyers and prospects more opportunities to do their background product comparison and all the purchase funnel activities they perform before they reveal themselves and their interest to you. How do you intercept these buyers and prospects and beat the competition to their wallet? Demographics aren’t the total solution in this marketing plot, this strategy calls for engagement marketing (EM).

Captain E to the Rescue
Data is a factor in EM, but it’s behavioral data. You are identifying buyers and prospects by who they are and what they are doing to indicate interest in the type of product you market. EM tactics are about you identifying and creating personalized, meaningful interactions with these interested buyers and prospects. Many of these tactics are real-time web interactions with your targeted prospects – and you are subsequently using personalized communications via email, web, mobile and more channels to establish your product or brand with them.

Your goal with this type of marketing helps you intercept prospects early in their purchase funnel cycle and helps you shorten the time between prospects’ interest and sales. Over time, by listening and responding to your buyers and prospects, and establishing your company as trusted experts with them, you earn the right to tell buyers about your products.

Once potential customers became actual customers, the conversation changes. Your goal is to get to this tipping point and EM tactics can get you there.

Learn more about EM from Marketo’s “The 5 Principles of Engagement Marketing” presentation, download it here.

Would You Prank It?

Jag- prank marketing

Prank = Buzz

We usually concentrate on authenticity and honesty in our marketing. Jaguar took a different approach and it’s benefiting them with scores of brand impressions. Would you do it?

Here’s what Jaguar did
If you track of who took home the Lions at Cannes, you may have seen this virtual reality (VR) “prank” that was actual reality. The Jag team displayed one of their latest models with the enticement of a VR experience while they sat in the passenger seat. The visitors didn’t get the VR – they got the AR.

Steal this idea for your show exhibit
How would you do it? How you would carry it off would vary by product, but what a creative perspective to thrill your customers and prospects. It may be too late for this year’s events, but there’s always next year. Think of the buzz.

Adweek posted an article with links to the pranked participants’ experiences. Check it out.

Authentic Engagement – The Buildup

the buildup or overload

Authentic Engagement – The Buildup

If you are going “long” on your landing page, you are no doubt working on the buildup with compelling images, product information, benefits list and a reminder of why your reader should trust you and CTAs (Call To Action). When we stay focused on these key points we reap conversion rewards. Otherwise the experience can lead to overload.

Mighty CTA – Almighty Conversion – Show the Love
The objective of a longform landing page isn’t to keep putting something on the page with the hopes that something will appeal to your reader. The objective is to serve powerful content, build your story and serve winning CTAs. The authentic engagement you develop builds your conversions.

Avoid Overload
What compels your customers and prospects to convert, or click, can and often does vary depending upon the product or service, their past experience (with you or your competitors) and how you are building a compelling landing page with content. Does it make sense? Does your value proposition include benefits that will improve their business success, quality of life or filling a need you know they have? If you are a marketing junkie like me, you take your projects and jot down these factors on a regular basis as a creative exercise to keep your marketing focused on central product elements.

Test and Iterate
Conversions are always your goal and eliciting the almighty click-through is always the goal. Landing pages are a lot like the directions on a shampoo bottle, lather, rinse, repeat. If the first gen landing page isn’t working, change it.

Kissmetrics has a blog, “How to Structure a Longform Landing Page for Maximum Conversions,” on their website that is loaded with inspiring and tested ideas on what works well with longform landing pages, check it out here.

Snapchat As a Marketing Tool

snapchat as a marketing tool

Snapchat on the marketing horizon.

Real, authentic, spontaneous, unedited, now. Snapchat is attracting more users and marketers find it to be a developing marketing tool – ephemeral but in the moment.

Farmers are discovering it … get ready.

Rhea + Kaiser’s recent blog, “Snapchat as a Marketing Tool,” gives you some “getting started” and cautionary points to consider as you give Snapchat a try for your brands. Here’s a selection of ideas from the post:

Behind-the-scenes action: You want to show you are a fun company that’s doing cool things. This platform is a great way for you to share more and also to show your followers the things you’re doing and the events you’re attending.

Private content for viewers: Marketers can make a serious impact with product launches using apps like Snapchat. It’s an ideal opportunity to start teasing out videos and pictures of new products. Because these images last a few seconds, you can expect a fair amount of buzz to surge around your new offering.

Creating a customized Snapchat Geofilter
Creating your own geofilter is as dynamic as it is affordable. Businesses and individuals alike can purchase on-demand geofilters for their event, business, or a specific location. Whether it’s for an industry event, a work conference or just a general filter for your business location, geofilters make it easy for users to share real-time photos and videos with their friends.

Don’t miss this idea-sparking blog. Read Rhea + Kaiser’ full post: “Snapchat as a Marketing Tool.”

CTAs – ABOVE OR BELOW THE FOLD?

scrolling_CallToAction CTA

CTAs – Above or Below the Fold?

I read a lot of marketing research and can give you references to studies on CTA (Call To Action) click-throughs placed above or below the “fold” on your web landing page.

My experience is I hedge the response by placing CTAs above AND below the fold as often as possible. I get a slightly higher CTR on the button above the fold and when I use a button up top and lower on the scroll-down, I get an overall higher rate.

What has been your experience?

I find that CTA placement isn’t always tied to location; it’s more related to what is near it or what has been presented before it. If you are placing a CTA lower on a scrolled page, elements such as a compelling copy and the quality of appropriate graphics leading up to the main CTA factor into your results.

Conversion rate up-tick factors:
More white space around central messaging – Apple is the champion of this technique
Video
A list of benefits
Storytelling
Testimonials
High-quality images
Lengthening your landing page to incorporate your content without a busy or copy that is too small or hard to read

Testing matters. If you aren’t getting the conversions you expect, change your content … and/or CTA placement. Then, compare results.

Marc Schenker’s article on Readz has put together a succinct article that explores both sides of the CTA above/below debate. Read his article titled, “Why The Fold Is A Lie & How To Get Awesome Conversions Anywhere,” check it out here.

 

Food marketing transformation: It affects the entire supply chain

Food marketing supply chain blog
Mark Williams, senior vice president, administration at Bader Rutter, presents key perspectives on the urgency and rapid marketing transformation throughout the food supply chain. Consumers are more connected and have access to more information about what’s behind the products in the grocery stores, presenting food industry decision-makers with great marketing opportunities and perils.

Here’s an excerpt from Mark’s blog:

Build a story around what your brand stands for.

In today’s social media-driven world, telling a story has become a key way, and often the preferred way, to communicate. From individuals to companies, everyone has a unique story to tell. What’s yours? For insights, explore your competitive advantages, aspirational goals and company values, as these will lay foundation for the chapters in your story. Keep your key customer audiences in mind. How do they value the products and service you provide? What is expected of your company at different points along the customer’s buyer’s journey? Keep your story positive and focus on what your company stands for and not what it’s against. Get employees involved by contributing and providing input. Vet the story internally and gain acceptance so everyone in the company believes in the story.

Delivering the story: It’s everyone’s responsibility.

From the front-line sales contact to the CEO and among the many individuals who sit in the cubicles and customer service desks throughout the office, everyone should be trained to effectively deliver your unique story. Key messages are not useful if people are not trained properly in how to deliver them. Your brand story won’t mean much if it just turns into a game of telephone.

The entire article is a must read and reminds us all to make sure all levels of personnel in our companies can be brand ambassadors. Read the entire blog here.

Ag Marketing Trends & Insights – Survey Report

Ag Marketing Trends survey

Note – most comments are from the Executive Summary from the Ag Marketing Trends & Insights conducted by Penton Agriculture.

The ag industry marketing benchmark survey conducted by Penton Agriculture, Ag Marketing Trends & Insights, helps answer key questions ag marketers have about where industry marketing dollars are being spent, how marketing initiatives are shifting, feelings around trending topics and how their tactics measure up against marketers beyond the ag sector. Marketers from across the ag industry were invited to participate in this ground-breaking survey and the results were recently released.

Ag commodity price shifts influence ag marketing budgets. The survey shows ag marketing spending has leveled-off and is now flat to slightly down, compared to prior years. (See slide 10 below.) The new budget realities spawn tactical shifts that are resulting in trends to keep delivering ROI and brand impact.

Marketing Survey YOY spend change
Slide 10 from survey. Click to enlarge.

Digital upshot

No surprise to anyone, digital marketing initiatives are trending significantly up from previous years and look to continue to be the highest investment increase over the next 24 months. Marketers are funding their digital activities by scaling back spending around outdoor, direct mail, TV, radio and print. These traditional tactics remain important to marketers, however they are being shaved to fund newer activities, ag necessity given that overall budgets are note increasing. (See slides 6 and 20 below.)

Ag Marketing Survey Spend by platform
Slide 6 from survey report. Click to enlarge.
Marketing study 2016 marketing spend by category
Slide 20 from survey report. Click to enlarge.

What are the top three tactical spending increases that respondents reported? (See slide 22, below.)

1) Video Advertising
2) Data analytics
3) Social media

slide 22 Marketing survey top three spending increases for2016
Slide 22 from survey report. Click to enlarge.

Internally, firms are spending more time and resources on site development, SEO/SEM, marketing automation, data analytics and content development. Much of this activity is likely driven by the need to adapt sites for mobile users, to measure marketing efforts, improve target marketing and to develop content used to fuel native programs.

The Payback

ROI will always be a part of any marketing program, today metrics matter even more. While CPM remains the most common metric used for digital advertising measurement, viewability has burst onto the scene and is quickly gaining traction. (See slide 24 below)

slide24 Marketing sruvey ROI metrics
Slide 24 from survey report. Click to enlarge.

Technology transition

Ag marketers face customer variables that the average non-ag B2B marketer has never faced. We have a hybrid market of consumer/business customers. Our most significant customers (large-scale farmers and ranchers) who many times are part of a multi-generational “corporate” structure. Our customers use a high degree of complex technology to accomplish their daily work of feeding a hungry world. Their work locations can change throughout the day – they are on-the-go consumer group with heavy use of mobile devices.

Marketers are being driven to change their approaches to reach these multi-generational levels of decision makers by integrating marketing technology that takes advantage of improved rural connectivity, customers’ heavy use of mobile devices and the consumerization of technology.

This is only a topline summary of the report. Get the full survey report to see what new digital marketing tools are being adopted. Ask your Penton Ag account manager for the full survey report or click here to request it.

AMP-UP WEBINAR ENGAGEMENT

webinars

You are getting set for your next webinar and have your agenda, the content is clear and concise, a great speaker, the right audience is invited and is set to attend. What additional techniques would make or extend the success of your next webinar? Don’t overlook these additional ideas to engage and work on customer relationship building.

From using the pre-event time slot to warm-up the crowd (it works for Kimmel, and it can work for webinars, too, since a research shows the average live webinar viewer arrives 10 minutes before the event starts) to positioning the moderator a key expert, read on to learn get more ideas to impact your audience.

Specialized Information Publishers Association’s (SIPA), premiere of its Best Practices Series included a session on “Using Events to Create Lasting Customer Relationships,” with the following ideas:

1. Get your audience participating as quickly as possible.
2. Use multiple speakers.
3. Pause frequently and ask for questions.
4. Establish the moderator as an independent expert.
5. Don’t be shy about getting your nerd on.
6. Try a series, don’t stop at one event.
7. Always be relevant or create urgency.

Get more details on each point, read the entire article here.

THE MARKETING JUNGLE

A-B TESTING

“Tarzan doesn’t know where Tarzan go,” Jane’s mocking line from the Geico commercial comes to mind when discussing A/B testing for email subject lines. Without the test you can just be swinging your emails in the marketing jungle and not get where you need to go. Geico’s Tarzan had confidence, but no results.

A/B testing ups opens

Who would think that a pithy, on point four-word email subject line would produce fewer opens than a longer more detailed subject? Of course this can vary by topic and word choice, that’s the point of A/B testing. A/B testing gives you confidence and results.

Don’t hide the response mode

I’ve so often written (and reminded myself) about getting into the mind of our customers or prospects – and I will bring it here, too. When we understand our customers, we can anticipate their needs and questions, then we can help them and when we help them they buy or opt-in. Think of how this applies to CTA buttons in your emails and websites (CTA=call to action). What message is on your button? “Click here” or “Save $100 on My Order” – which do you think will work better? If you’ve brought your customer to the point of serving the next step, think about their immediate next step, use a button with copy that anticipates their next step. And what else can be done to bump-up click-throughs? Add an arrow that leads the eye to the button. Your page designer may not appreciate the request, but BounceExchange has hard data to support the outcome of “wrecking” the page design a bit. Remember you are the marketer, stick to your click-through guns.

Test, test, test

We conduct a lot of testing, research and interviews; this process leads us in the direction our customers’ and prospects’ thinking. BounceExchange published a summary of 10 points of inspiration (and blunders to avoid) to improve conversations with customers and prospects along the lines mentioned above. Again, it’s not an endorsement of their services, use the info for inspiration for your next email message or landing page.

Check out more ways to improve your digital game:

Opt-in testing, graphics vs. type
Opt-in, 1-step vs. 2-step
Opt-in distractions to avoid
Bounce rate reduction
A/B testing
Directional cues
CTA buttons
Consistent messaging across methods
Testimonials

Enjoy the entire BounceExchange report, download it here.

KEYS TO UNLOCKING KEYWORDS

Keyword marketing

You can attend seminars, hire service providers, debate and share lists with your colleagues about what works best, check out Google’s tool and then here’s a good “nutshell” guide that will help you help your readers and users find your content.

The article had me at hello, or rather “…you should always think about your reader first and foremost.” But what kept me reading was all the ideas, tips and tool resources it puts at your fingertips. Search engine operation has changed a lot and is more complicated today than it was 10 years ago. When searchers ask Siri to find a good restaurant for a hamburger, they won’t just say, “hamburgers,” the “old fashioned” keyword approach. They probably will be more elaborate, “Locate restaurants serving great hamburgers close to me.”

Next Gen Keywords
Keyword research is still important, but the approaches and methods are evolving with the current search engine algorithms and user approaches. For marketers, semantic searches that elevate the searcher’s intent and context make the difference when choosing keywords and phrases.

The full article has several online tools to help you hone your keywords and phrases. Here’s a quick rundown on the tools:

Wordtracker – research high-performing keywords

Google Keyword Planner Tool – always a good place to start

Authority Labs – SEO monitor with Google rankings, Yahoo and Bing

Keyword Spy – (paid service) search your competitors’ keywords

BuzzSumo – semantic keyword search tool

The full report is featured on Content Marketing Institute’s website. It’s written by Julia McCoy and has a catchy name, “A Nutshell Guide To Proper Keyword Research.” Read it here.