Growing Marketing Trends: Is Influencer Marketing Still Effective in 2020?

Have you ever approached a popular internet personality or celebrity to help you grow your brand? If yes, you’re already utilizing influencer marketing. Influencer marketing has been growing for years. Expect it to be more effective in the coming years. At the end of 2019, the industry was worth $8 billion. As per Mediakix Data, influencer marketing will soar to hit $15 billion by 2022. Well, there are many social media and internet users. But many people use online mediums to communicate and interact. As e-commerce grows and more people go digital, the role of influencers will become vital. People trust influencers more than traditional ads and old school celebrity endorsements.

Here are more reasons influencer marketing is an effective growing marketing strategy to use in 2020.

Why Influencer Marketing is Still Effective

Customers have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and lately TikTok to use. With all these options at hand, each customer chooses their ideal medium. For a business, you may struggle to target your niche across all the social sites. Influencer marketing can help you reach the spread audience faster. Brands can locate their audience through influencers and achieve their marketing goals. As mentioned earlier, customers trust influencers sometimes more than brands. It isn’t also as effective for a brand to push its selling content onto the audience. Brands hire influencers to take advantage of their trusted image.

Social media is still a growing marketing tactic. New strategies arise as more people continue to join the platforms. There are also new platforms popping in the market. For instance, TikTok, the new site in the scene, has already hit 400 million users. Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful growing marketing strategies to improve brand relevance. It takes your content to an active audience and increases interaction. More people interacting with your content means better search engine rankings. Working with trendsetters is a sign your brand is credible. If top influencers are inaccessible, you can work with micro-influencers. These influencers have a smaller and active reach. Yet, people consider them as industry experts, and they are more loyal.

What to Expect from Influencer Marketing in 2020

There are a few trends that are already happening within influencer marketing. As the years go by there will be more popping up. Here are some of those things to watch below.

The Rise and Rise of the Micro-Influencer

Top influencers might not be accessible when you have a limited budget. These influencers often charge premium prices. This is one of the reasons why many brands opt for micro-influencers. Besides cost, the influencers may have an underactive following, which may not be the most beneficial for a brand. Most marketers are not ready to pay large amounts for influencer marketing yet. Consumers trust ordinary people for referrals and recommendations. Meaning, micro-influencers have the upper hand in promoting products. From 2020 onwards, brands may look for individuals who run a social community or niche.

Tapping Into Emerging channels

Today, Instagram seems like the king of influencer marketing. Yet with the need for a different content version, you can’t ignore other platforms. Recently, TikTok has been making waves as a platform to share short videos. If you serve a younger market, TikTok may be the platform to explore. With its focus on content quality rather than followers, it is a fit for niche brands. Many micro-influencers will tap the potential of Tiktok and upcoming sites like Twitch.

In-House Influencer Marketing

In-house influencer marketing is also a growing marketing tactic. The strategy started back in 2018. Brands will probably opt for in-house influencer marketing as they gain influencer marketing experience. In-house influencer marketing is popular because of its ease of promoting products. The tactic needs no introduction of third parties to your marketing team. Nonetheless, it puts you in control of your campaigns.

Search for Wholesome Experiences

Since influencer marketing became the norm, brands opt for short term relations. Many relationships ended after a marketing campaign. To connect to customers, brands need a consistent marketing campaign. Many brands now aim to work with an influencer for long to bond with their customers. Brands also save a lot of time and the cost of scouting for new influencers often.

Shopping Posts/Branded Content

Before, influencers and brands faced a massive hurdle in their Instagram marketing efforts. Influencer posts could only reach a limited audience. Then came Instagram branded content. Influencer posts can now appear as ads and hit a broader audience. Brands can now maximize the power of influencers by targeting the ads to a specific audience.

Evolution of Influencer Tiers

Influencer marketing is now mainstream. Yet, brands haven’t taken advantage of the strategy’s full potential. Likes and followers have determined who called the shots among influencers. The good news is with customers increasing interest for value, quality content is more on-demand. Even people with the fewest followers can share their content and get conversions. Brands now opt for the smaller influencers. This is because their content seems more genuine and garners more attention. People now categorize influencers by their follower numbers. There are mega influencers with over a million followers, and they dominate marketing for the top brands.

On the lower end of the spectrum, you will come across nano influencers. Nano influencers have between 1k-10k followers. Their up and coming fame makes them more accessible.

There is now a diverse pool of influencers for all brands. Regardless of your brand’s size, you can join influencer marketing to enjoy the new trend.

Are You Using Influencers as a Growing Marketing Strategy in 2020?

Influencer marketing is becoming a must-have growing marketing strategy in 2020. Almost half of the customers rely on it to make purchasing decisions. It’s an effective strategy to target an audience, generate sales, and increase revenue.

For help with finding the right marketing and advertising strategies to promote your brand, feel free to contact us today.

by Cindy Haynes

8 Reasons Why Your Business, and Your ROI, Need Email Marketing

Everyone is on the hunt for the next big thing in marketing. That new magic bullet that costs next to nothing and rakes in the revenue. Ah, but what if it's been in front of you all along? Email marketing doesn't get the credit it deserves. It offers a slew of benefits no other marketing channel can provide. Not convinced yet that you should add email marketing to your strategy in 2019? Here's why it's essential for any company.

1. Direct Delivery

With most marketing channels, you can't control who gets what. For instance, not all of your social media followers will see your posts. You can put a billboard up but you don't know how many people will see it. But email marketing is more direct. Your messages land smack dab in the middle of customers' inboxes. You might be saying, "What if my emails get sent to the spam folder?" You have more control over that than you think. All you have to do is follow the right rules and that can keep your emails out of the spam filter.

2. Instant Communication

Sometimes you have a message you want your customers to get right away. With most marketing channels, there's a long waiting period while you write, design, fulfill, and deliver your message. Email marketing, on the other hand, is far quicker. Less is more when it comes to written content, and a simple design can get the job done nicely. When you hit "send," your entire email list gets the message in seconds. This makes email marketing a more flexible medium and you can use it to communicate last-minute information like flash sales, reminders, retractions, and more.

3. Customization Galore

In most marketing channels, you're broadcasting the same message to a wide audience. You might cater it to your target demographics, but that's as far as the customization goes. Email marketing is a whole new world of options. Each email goes to a specific customer's inbox. That means you can customize their messages based on their history, interests, and actions. One way companies do this is by offering recommendations. By tracking the types of products email customers view, for instance, you can recommend products that will catch their eye.

You can also set up specific actions to trigger certain emails. For example, your system can send an email to a customer when they abandon their shopping cart.

4. Earning Potential

If you're a numbers person, you're gonna love this. Email marketing has one of the highest averages around for return on investment. The average is around 4400% ROI! There are a few reasons why this is the case. On top of how successfully email marketing drives sales, it's a low-cost investment. As with anything, you can spend a range of amounts on your email marketing depending on the quality you want. Still, email marketing software costs next to nothing in the grand scheme of things, and it may take less of your designers' time than you expect.

5. Mobile-Friendliness

All you have to do is look around you at the grocery store or walking down the street to see that phones are the new arms. People are attached to their phones on a constant basis, giving them priority over almost anything. And guess what? Most people get their emails on their phone. Not earth-shattering news I know. But...this means your messages get right to that screen your customers are already looking at. This also means your emails are available to customers at their convenience. They can pop in and purchase their shopping cart while they wait in the carpool line because their phone is always there.

6. Trackability

Tracking is one of the most important parts of any marketing campaign. It's also one of the most neglected tasks. For every marketing endeavor, you need to gather data on its success. Which messages drove the best results? Which channels brought in the most customers? Email marketing makes that easy because software programs track this data for you. You can see which emails get opened most often, what links received the most clicks, and more. The key, though, is that while this gives you information, you have to use it. Take the time to look up that data and use it to inform your future email marketing campaigns.

7. Prioritization

There are some communication channels we pay more attention to than others and email is up there toward the top of that list. 98% of people check their email on a daily basis. 34% keep a constant eye on their inboxes throughout the day. With so many people getting notifications on their phone every time an email comes in, this makes it easy. Compare this to the number of times you check your social media. Chances are that you only go to your mailbox a few times per week.

8. Quick Action

Think about what happens with direct mail. A customer gets your postcard or letter. If it doesn't get tossed, they have to head to their phone or computer to take action. Then they have to open a browser window and enter a web address. Or maybe they have to get their phone and dial your number instead. With email, one click and they're there. It takes minimal effort for customers, which means it takes less convincing to get them to take that step. But not all emails are equally effective at encouraging that next step. Your call-to-action is an essential part of any email. So make that design stand out and make the wording enticing.

Adding Email Marketing to Your Marketing Strategy

You've heard the warning time and time again not to put all your eggs in one basket. It might be a cliche but it's never been truer than it is in the marketing world. Marketing is all about making an impression on customers and building familiarity with your brand. The only way to do that is with a varied, well-orchestrated marketing plan. With all the benefits above in mind, it's clear that email marketing needs to be part of your strategy. The key word in that sentence is "part," though. Pair it with your other marketing channels and keep your brand and messaging consistent across the board.

If you're not a marketing pro and you prefer to bring in a professional, contact our marketing team today.

by Cindy Haynes

How to Market to Millennials: The Ultimate Guide

As of 2019, there are around 73 million millennials in America. That’s well over one-fifth of the entire population of the country. Indeed, millennials have officially overtaken the baby-boomers as the largest adult population in the US. And the number’s only going up. Generational change has a significant impact on society all-round. The implications stretch into all facets of life. One of them is marketing. The rise of the millennial has a direct impact on the life of a marketer. The question of the day is no longer ‘how to market to baby boomers?’ It’s ‘how to market to millennials?’

Here for answers? Keep reading.

What’s a Millennial?

Successful millennial marketing begins with understanding your audience. Marketers have to get into the millennial mind. It’s the best way to learn how to tap into the $200 billion of annual buying power millennials represent.

Let’s consider what, and who, millennials are.

The What

At its simplest, ‘millennial’ is the generational term given to anyone born after Generation X (these guys came after the so-called ‘baby boomers’), and before Generation Z. As you can probably surmise, millennials are also known as Generation Y. Go figure. Anyway, the millennial ‘window’ of years changes depending on who you ask. That said, it’s roughly between 1981 (or 1982) and 1996. If you’re born in these years, well, congratulations, you’re officially a millennial.

The Who

Now let’s turn to the ‘who’. This is of utmost marketing importance. Remember, we’re all a product of the life and times we grew up in. The world a generation grows up in is largely responsible for how it turns out. For millennials, in general, that’s created a sect of society who are highly-educated, hard-working, ambitious, tech-savvy, family-oriented, and achievement-oriented. All good qualities. However, they can also be attention-seeking, entitled, job-hopping, pampered, and wary of authority. That makes for an eclectic and diverse range of people! Marketing to millennials can be tough going. Read on to learn how to do it.

How to Market to Millennials: 7 Crucial Methods

Okay, we know who they are. Now, let’s go through what they want to see in your marketing endeavors.

1. Make it Authentic

Authenticity is the key to your marketing success. It’s the number one thing millennials want to see. They’re tired of being sold to. Tired of advertisements. Tired of being manipulated by corporate interests. Tired of having products and services shoved down their throats at every turn.

Instead, they want something real!

They want to know who you are. They want a face to the name. They want a front row seat and a backstage pass to your company. They need to see reality and get genuine value provided from you. Want their trust? You have to earn it first.

2. Traditional Ads Don’t Work

Old-fashioned advertising is dead. Millennials just don’t trust it. They will not buy from a banner-ad, pop-up, or anything else. These ads are deemed untrustworthy and are unlikely to stimulate clicks. You’re more likely to succeed from reviews and recommendations. That can come with social proof (testimonials work well) and solid brand identity. Focus on developing both to be successful in your marketing.

3. Leverage Influencers

We’ve just seen how social proof and recommendations make a difference. That’s the power of an influencer. Trusted people with large followings will help sway the audience you’re trying to tap into. Remember, millennials are tech-savvy. They’re online, on their devices, for hours every day. Social media is awash with millennial activity. The internet is alight with millennial traffic. Influencers have a captive audience. Work with the influencer, access their audience.

4. Make it Personal

Millennials are unimpressed by outbound marketing. Bad news 1980s marketing man. Your magazine ads, direct mail, and radio spots aren’t gonna work anymore. Millennials want more. They want genuine substance in the form of customer-focused, personalized marketing. Here’s the basic idea: this is about them, not you. Make a millennial feel important and they’ll love you for it. Invest in personalized marketing capabilities. Your ads, emails, and content should all be specific to the person you’re targeting.

5. Content is Still King

Content marketing isn’t dead. In fact, more content is being produced and consumed than ever before. People still rely on it in their lives and use it to inform their decision-making. However, the type of content is changing with the times. There’s still room for a good old-fashioned blog post. But video content is becoming increasingly important to marketing success. Likewise, all content should be optimized for mobile consumption. Then you have the development of virtual and augmented reality to think about too.

6. Have a Worthy Cause

Millennials are interested in ethics. They want to know you’re a worthy company. They want to feel good about purchasing from you. They will pay attention to your company morals and judge you according to what they see. Indeed, millennials are more likely to use your product or service when they know they’re contributing to a good cause, or actively tackling a world issue, etc by giving you their hard-earned money. Does your company work with a charity? Does it donate to good causes? Does it lend its hand to a world issue? If it doesn’t, then consider doing so now. It’s in your direct financial interest to make millennials feel good about buying from you.

You get to feel better about yourself in the process!

7. Get Social

Social media marketing is a major asset to anyone marketing to millennials. For instance, 87% of millennials use Facebook. That’s more than any other generation. And the same goes for other platforms too. Millennials love their smartphones. They love scrolling, liking, sharing, and watching. Any marketer worth their salt must be utilizing social media in their efforts.

Time to Get Marketing

There you have it: how to market to millennials in 7 essential ways. Millennials now make up a major part of the adult population in the US. And that comes with serious purchasing power. Marketers need to tap into this audience. However, this is an enormously diverse bunch of people, who won’t fall for old-fashioned practices. Marketers need to adapt to the times and learn what these millennials want to see. Hopefully, the information above has been enlightening!

Looking for help with your millennial marketing campaign? Contact us today to learn more about our creative advertising approaches.

by Cindy Haynes

Top 7 Content Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2019

Are you curious about the newest content marketing trends? I know I am. But I'm a curious person by nature.

For example, did you know that 71% of buyers say they’re turned off by content that sounds like a sales pitch? That’s one of the reasons content marketing has been so successful. Content creators design articles, podcasts, and videos that educate and entertain.

The content doesn’t sell.

It builds trust and authority. If you’ve been developing content for a while but you’re just not seeing a return on your investment, stay tuned. The sections below outline the newest trends for 2019.

When you’re ready to see your authority skyrocket, drop the sales pitch. Use the themes below and give your audience what they want. Are you all buckled in? Good, then read on.

1. Long-Form Content

In recent years, there’s been a growing shift toward long-form content (aka posts over 1500 words). Recently, Buzzsumo analyzed over 100 million articles. They found a correlation between the length of an article and its popularity. Longer posts tended to be ranked higher in search engines.

Well, that trend is continuing into 2019, but there’s a catch.

The key word is correlation. Just because popular posts tend to be longer does not mean the opposite must be true. In other words, just because you build a long post doesn’t mean it sure to become popular.

We posit that the length of a popular post is the byproduct of something else altogether. And that “something” is the secret sauce. It separates expert content creators from their less successful brothers and sisters. It’s called thoroughness.

They build articles focused on a goal, be it to inform or entertain. And they don’t stop to worry about word count. They stop only when they meet their goal.

It just happens that it usually takes more than 1500 words.

2. Webinars, Webcasts, and Live Video

YouTube is taking over the world. Actually, video as a whole is taking over the world. YouTube is just a sign of Video’s supremacy.

Unfortunately writing a script, filming, and editing can take a great deal of energy. 81% of content producers say Video is the hardest type of content to create. But it doesn’t need to be.

If you’re an authority in a field, people will want to know what you have to say. They aren’t concerned about what you’re wearing or how often you blink on camera. They don’t care about whether you stumble over your words once or twice.

They want your insight.

If you aren’t an authority, then borrow someone else’s. Find a person in your field and interview them. Audiences love genuine settings and off-the-cuff conversations.

3. Voice Search

Did you know that in 2018, 84% of buyers admitted they used their smartphones to access business-related content online? That’s amazing when you consider that the first smartphone was built in 1992, and didn’t really become popular until 10 years later. Now they’re ruling not only our personal lives, but our work lives as well.

Now, another trend is moving us toward another burgeoning technology. It’s called voice technology. If you’ve ever used Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, you know what we’re talking about.

So how is this tech connected to content creation?

Well, you can take one of two approaches to take advantage of this trend. The first is to create more audio content. Think podcasts.

Second, you can design the rest of your content for audio technology in the same way that you design it for search engines. You need to keep in mind that search engines look for different things when they run queries for audio users.

They look for keywords or phrases that use natural language. They also tend to work better with a question and answer format, which is why Q and A webpages do so well.

4. Originality

You’re not the only one building content. If you’re only using Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique and nothing else, you’re in trouble. There are too many other people doing the same thing.

The problem is it’s all saying the same thing. It’s just repackaged. This approach worked fine when hundreds of people were using it. There was still plenty of internet to go around.

It worked fine when thousands were using it. Tens of thousands. Now there are millions of people who have build content aggregate sites.

It’s led to a homogenous internet. It’s like cable tv, back before satellites and the internet, when every channel was showing repeats of the same shows.

If you want to build a following, change it up. Sure, you can write about the same subject matter. Simply choose a different perspective.

Take a different stand. Breath your own life into the topic. Give it something to make it stand out rather than writing the same dry, repackaged information.

5. Brand Storytelling

Brand positioning in marketing is everything. Remember, we’re in the age of information overload. A thousand of your competitors are saying the same things, in the same ways, to your audience.

In the last section, we talked about the importance of standing out from the chaff. Well, another way to do it is by filtering your content through a brand filter.

Continue building content, but first, make sure it’s in line with your brand. That includes focusing on your niche and using a voice and style consistent with your brand. Use all relevant brand positioning tips to keep your content laser focused.

6. Personalization

One of the biggest current marketing trends is to build more content for each stage of a buyer’s awareness. Long gone are the days of one-size-fits-all style content. The more accurately you can give a person what they need, the more they’ll appreciate it.

The more they, and others like them, appreciate it, the more popular your content becomes. Fortunately, we’re in the day and age of heatmaps and exit polls. We have the technology to determine what stage of awareness your web traffic fits into.

It gives you greater insight into how to entice your audience. It gives you get in their heads and meet them where they are, rather than where you think they might be.

7. Influencer Reversal

It’s not uncommon to sponsor digital content influencers. To pay them each time one of their viewers watches your ad on their channel or clicks on your link. But what about the opposite?

What if rather than paying them to put your content on their channel, you ask them to build content for your channel? You still reap the benefits of connecting to the digital influencer’s audience, but now you own the content.

It’s a one-time fee rather than a monthly fee, and it stays up as long as you want it.

Try These Content Marketing Trends

Now that you know about the latest content marketing trends, it’s time to them into action. We recommend you start by developing your brand voice and style. You can introduce them to any piece of content you create from here on out.

Then move on to the other strategies we laid out in the sections above. If you found this information helpful, then hop, skip, and jump over to our vast library full of other brilliant articles on all things marketing.

by Cindy Haynes

Top 10 Content Marketing Tips for Your Tampa Business

Did you know that 97 percent of marketers are implementing a content marketing strategy that follows a formula for success?

It is no secret that a strong content marketing strategy is beneficial to your company. But the question now lies in what makes for effective content?

Without the proper digital content marketing knowledge, it may be difficult to produce creative content, discover your targeted audience or even stand out against the sea of content on the internet.

Whether you are new to the world of digital marketing or you are looking to take your digital content marketing to the next level, this post will provide you with the best content marketing tips designed to set your business up for success.

Quality Over Quantity

Many business owners perceive digital content marketing as the more they produce, the better results they will see. While you want to produce as much content as possible, it is important to make sure that each piece of content that you publish is insightful, targeted and effective.

Basically, you want to perceive each piece of content as serving a purpose or sending a message. Then focus on relaying that purpose or message at the best of your capabilities. It is more effective to publish four excellent pieces of content a month as opposed to 20 mediocre pieces of content a month.

However, this doesn't mean that you have to be the next F. Scott Fitzgerald. Don't stress yourself out about crafting the perfect blog post, tweet or video. Make sure that you are focusing on quality over quantity but in a healthy and reasonable aspect. If your audience finds your content helpful, then you have done a great job at executing your content marketing strategy.

Know What Works For Your Audience

What works for someone else's target audience might not work for your target audience. Your content marketing strategy should be geared toward your specific audience. This includes demographic, gender, location and consumer goals. It is important to sort through your content to analyze your content marketing strategy as a whole and how to refine it for your audience.

You might be wondering how to decipher this information. Luckily, the answer is much simpler than you think: Google Analytics. Google Analytics's job is to track and report website traffic numbers. These numbers show who your audience is, where they are from, what their interests are and much more. Once you have a solid idea of this information, you can take your analytics and guide your content marketing strategy along with it.

You can use this information to decipher what tools and platforms are working better than others and focus more on them. You can gain an understanding of what content your audience responds to the most. Then simply recreate that content in various storytelling forms.

Repurpose Your Content

There is nothing wrong with reusing content that you have already published. In fact, doing so is even encouraged because it is much easier to repurpose content as opposed to creating brand-new content.

For example, if you find that 15 of your blog posts from 2018 did well and received a lot of engagement, you can repurpose them into a downloadable e-book. E-books are great for driving traffic toward your website and email subscription incentives.

If you already have an e-book that receives a lot of attention, you can turn it into 15 publishable blog posts. This is why evergreen content is so beneficial. Because you can repurpose it to use for later use when you are strapped for time or in a creative rut.

Create A Multimedia Strategy

The more content you plan ahead and the better organized you are, the more effective your digital marketing strategy will be. It is essential to create a content marketing calendar at the beginning of each month. This will allow you to appropriately plan content for holidays, events, sales and any other important dates you want to focus on. It also allows you to fill in the other days with evergreen content, which is content that can be published throughout the entire year.

Creating a monthly content marketing plan prevents you from missing any important days. It will also allow you to stay consistent with producing content. It is important to post content often to keep your audience engaged and to constantly lead traffic toward your website. Planning your content will prevent you from slacking off or running out of ideas.

You can also use your content marketing calendar to determine what content will be posted on what platform. The more details that you incorporate into your content calendar, the more effective it will be. Thus, the easier your life will be throughout the month.

Encourage Your Whole Team To Create Content

Many businesses run into the problem of not having enough time to create content consistently. Or they don't have enough funds to hire a creative team dedicated to producing content. Luckily, businesses don't need either of those resources to regularly produce content.

All you need is a team that is dedicated to their job with an ability to transform their ideas into creative content. Your team members, most likely, already have a lot of ideas in their head just waiting to be published and put on your website for the world to see. That way, the role of content creating falls on the team as a whole as opposed to a single person.

You can also offer rewards for the team members who produce the best content. Incentives encourage employees to produce great content that is both effective and publishable.

Content Marketing Tips Proven Effective

When creating a digital content marketing strategy, it is imperative to consider your audience over everything else. No matter what content marketing tips you use in your strategy, if you are not doing so with your target audience in mind, you won't get very far.

Implementing a proper digital content marketing strategy can increase the overall success of your business. Make sure to visit our blog for more expert advice on content marketing.

by Cindy Haynes

A Business Owner's Guide to Understanding Brand Positioning in Marketing

Curious about brand positioning in marketing?

Did you know that 59% of people prefer to buy new products from brands they already know? Did you also know that a simple thing like color consistency can increase brand recognition by up to 80%?

How you present your brand can affect everything from brand recognition to conversion rate. The key is to establish a link between the essential features or benefits your audience is looking for and your company. That's the core of it.

How you get there, unfortunately, isn't always so clear-cut. In the sections below, we'll delineate exactly what brand positioning is and how it affects your bottom line. Read on to discover more.

What is Brand Positioning in Marketing?

The concept of brand positioning first began back in the '60s. Two successful advertising executives, by the name of Jack Trout and Al Reis, wrote their iconic book, "The Battle for Your Mind." With it, they built a case for the benefits of establishing a connection between what consumers want and what your company offers.

That's called your brand.

The idea begins with understanding your customers. What problems do they need to be solved? What are their wants and needs?

After you truly understand your customers, you can begin building a brand which specifically speaks to them. For instance, FedEx built an empire by targeting a single, specific need: When your package "absolutely, positively has to be there overnight."

They redesigned their entire company using that slogan as a foundation. Here are a few more you may have heard:

• Subway: "Eat Fresh"
• Zurich: "Because Change Happens"
• Superdream: "Normal Sleeps. Super Dreams."
• MasterCard: "For Everything Else, There's MasterCard"
• New York Times: "All the News That's Fit to Print"

None of these brand slogans would have had the same effect if they didn't target their audience's specific need. They may not have worked at all. Remember, branding always begins with deep customer research.

Slogan vs Tagline

We're focusing on these two elements because they're the essence of your brand positioning. They're your marketing mission statement and your promise to your consumers. It's worth noting that although both tagline and slogan are often used interchangeably, they serve different purposes.

A slogan encompasses what a company stands for, its mission, and how it's helping its customers. Slogans may be different from one campaign to another. They can also be longer than taglines.

A tagline is a catchy quip designed to evoke images of your brand. They tend to be more lighthearted. They also build associations between two things, one being your company.

Also, taglines are shown more often next to a company logo. They're the cornerstone of brand awareness in your advertising campaigns. Slogans tend to project a long-term, overarching sense of your company's values and promises.

So what makes a great slogan?

Slogans are at the heart of any branding strategy. Research has shown five elements that set great slogans apart:

• They're memorable
• They include a key benefit
• They differentiate the brand
• They impart positive feelings about the brand

Great taglines carry the same key elements, but they're often shorter. They also place more importance on memorable qualities.

We've also put together a list of other brand positioning tips. Read them over before you rebrand your business.

Ways Positioning May Benefit You

If you're wondering what solid brand positioning may do for your company, we've listed a few below:

Sets You Apart

It's your ticket to stake out a unique territory. One which your competitors can't reach because your offer is unique. Determine which elements differentiate your company from similar companies and focus on those.

Laser Focuses Your Target

As we've mentioned multiple times, it all begins with research. Design your company around needs that already exist. In doing so, you guarantee people will want what you offer. That research will give you deep insight into how to approach consumers to tell them what you have to offer.

By using specific phrasing and aiming at particular problems, you can narrow your audience. That translates to higher conversion rates and lower advertising budgets.

Drives Services and Pricing

Positioning your business against competition will do two things. It'll help you understand what services to offer. It'll determine how you should price them. Are you a high-priced boutique? Or maybe a one-stop-shopping establishment?

Focus on what sets you apart. Use that to establish new services and create your prices.

It Guides Decision Making

When you establish your slogan, use it as a filter when making a decision. Will your choice lead your company closer to your brand positioning? Or lead further away?

Provides More Sales and Marketing Tools

Your sales and marketing teams can use that same filter. It'll improve their communication with consumers. By explaining how you can satisfy their needs, you dramatically increase sales. It gives your teams a connect-the-dots strategy for approaching customers.

Putting Your Strategy to Work

Once you've done your research and developed a positioning strategy, it's time to implement it. Start with your employees.

They must not only understand your position, but they must also express it in everything they do. Every decision they make. It's easy to understand when you speak about client relationships.

Take note of all the ways your employees interact with clients. Ensure each touch point mirrors your brand position. Does it closely reflect your brand, or doesn't it? That should be the basis for every communication.

Your message should be consistent throughout your channels:

• Company name
• Logo
• Product name
• All ads
• Public relations
• Customer relations
• Email communication
• Sales programs
• Recruiting
• Conferences
• Sponsorships

It's easy to see how sales and marketing teams can use your positioning. But what about upper-level management? Their focus on a ten-thousand-foot view of things. They don't regularly connect with customers, so when do they use it?

The answer? Everywhere.

They're no different than other staff. Your brand positioning should guide every decision they make for the company. Is it going to lead the company closer to that ephemeral, ideal positioning? Or further away?

What's Next?

Now it's time to make a decision. Is your brand positioning in marketing up to snuff? Or is it time to rebrand?

If you can't decide, look first at the research you performed on your target audience. If it's skimpy (most are), then it's time to rebrand. If not, check whether your tagline and slogan meet the requirements above.

If you found this information helpful, take five minutes to browse our library full of other advertising articles.

So long and good luck!

by Cindy Haynes

Why You Need to Start Using Account-Based Marketing Tactics

Have you noticed that your current marketing strategies seem to be losing steam?

Are you looking for more ways to learn how to cross-sell and upsell to your current clients?

Concerned that you're not making as personal of a connection as you could be with your target audience?

If so, then account-based marketing will likely be able to help you do all that and more.

In this post, we'll fill you in on why account-based marketing tactics should be used as a part of any strong marketing strategy.

We'll help you to define account marketing, understand the benefits that it offers, and connect you with the professionals who can help you to take advantage of it.

What Is Account Based Marketing?

Before we begin to talk about the advantages of using account-based marketing tactics, let's come to a clear understanding of what it is.

In a nutshell, it's the idea of advertising to your current customers by showing them products and services that relate to their specific needs. ABM is influenced by things like their past orders, their overall buying intent, and how they most like to be engaged.

Think of it almost as a kind of personalized marketing strategy for each individual account.

It's somewhat similar to the idea of market segmentation, as well. That is the process of breaking down and classifying your customers into smaller subgroups based on their needs and demographics.

It also works to directly target the decision-makers and buyers behind each account.

Essentially, the goal of account-based marketing isn't just to collect as many random leads as you can.

Instead, it's to show the right kinds of content to the most specific audience possible -- that you already know has a need for what you're showing them.

Often, you'll need to create customer avatars and personas to help you to connect the right buyer profiles with the best products for them. So, you can expect to do a lot of research, as well as to do with some serious trial and error at the start.

However, the payoff is huge and well worth the effort.

In fact, nearly 85% of marketing professionals state that ABM is more effective than their other marketing tactics.

Why Account-Based Marketing Works

Now that you have a better understanding of what account marketing is, let's talk more about why using these tactics is such an important part of your overall marketing strategy.

Read on to learn why there's no time like the present to start using account-based marketing tactics.

Leverage the Power of Personalization

Did you know that personalizing an email can increase your open rates by up to 20%?

After all, how likely are you to take the time to open, let alone read through fully, a generic message that you know was sent to hundreds of other people?

When you take the time to get personal, as well as to address in the body of an ad's text the specific needs and concerns of a client? You greatly increase your chances of doing business with them.

Your customers will feel much more like a priority, and you can prove to them that you've taken the time to get to know their pain points -- and the possible solutions you can offer.

Shorten Your Overall Sales Cycle

You're already well aware that the overall length of your sales cycle has a huge impact on not only your sales and revenue but also on your marketing strategy as a whole.

Account-based marketing tactics help to shorten the sales cycle.

First and foremost, they work because you're talking to the primary decision maker of a lead or current client. This means your message isn't just less likely to get lost in translation. It also means that the "yes or no" can happen much more quickly.

You'll also be able to reach those primary decision makers on the channels that, based on past research, you know they prefer to use.

In addition to helping you to keep your sales cycle as short as possible?

The chances are good that the impact of account-based marketing can help you to increase your overall order size, as well.

Your Strategies Are Informed by Hard Data

Yes, it's certainly important to get to know your individual clients on a personal, more abstract level.

After all, this kind of knowledge is what often helps you to develop and deliver effective and creative and brand-focused ad campaigns and content for your blog.

But if you really want to increase your sales revenue and outpace your competitors?

You also need tactics that are driven by data and analytics.

With account-based marketing, that's exactly what you'll get.

Plus, not only will your numbers improve.

This will also help to strengthen the relationship between your sales team and your marketing professionals. This means you'll be more likely to upsell, and that each team will help to hold the other accountable.

Start Using Account Based Marketing Tactics Today

In addition to helping you to answer the question, "What is account based marketing?"

We also hope that this post has helped you to see why taking advantage of the many account-based marketing tactics is the right idea for businesses of any size and within multiple industries.

When you're ready to start putting these ideas into practice, we invite you to reach out to us to get started.

We can't wait to help you leverage your current clients, connect with higher quality leads, and grow your revenue in the process.

by Cindy Haynes