Does Your Marketing Need a Booster?

Dear Reader,

Hi from your 5 times jabbed author.

COVID Booster shot Yup–I got my third COVID booster on Wednesday afternoon at a not-quite local CVS.

By New York City standards, this translates to walking about 20 blocks in total since the CVS website didn’t show the cross streets on their registration page.

That said, I was impressed with the number of people waiting to get their COVID and/or flu shots and waiting afterwards. (In New York, you must stay 15 minutes to ensure that you don’t have an immediate reaction.)

The benefit of going to a location that gives lots of shots:
The pharmacist is careful and well practiced so that the process is painless.

In my experience with healthcare, always choose to get a blood test or injection from the person who does it the most. Often this is NOT the doctor.

Since I spent a lot of the next few days sleeping due to the booster, I missed the joyful sunny days at the end of the week.

So on Sunday, my husband and I headed down to the West Village to get coffee and tea despite the overcast skies and people carrying umbrellas in expectation of rain.

To brighten our day, colorful dahlias and calla lilies filled the garden just north of the Jefferson Market Library in the West Village.

Dalias

After buying coffee at our favorite independent purveyor, Porto Rico, we headed to Rocco’s for cappuccino and pastry.

While enjoying our Italian treats, our waiter’s 5 year old son was seated at the table next to ours. After showing us his homework, he changed into his Batman costume that even covered his crocs. He took great pride in his outfit and showed us how the Batman shield lit up and changed colors.

We had trouble understanding his name and his mother clarified it for us. She told us that they were Ukrainian. Given how the war in that part of the world continues made his playful joy even more special.

Table of Contents | Volume 10, Issue 43

Marketing Lesson of The Week – Is Your Market Research Based On Accurate Data?
Content Communicates – Who Says Print Books Are Dead?
Voice Notes – How Voice Marketing Starts To Move Past Web 2.0
New York Marketing Minute – Local Restaurant Expands From NYC To Arlington
Marketing Reads
Mark Your Calendar

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Marketing Lesson of The Week

► Is Your Market Research Based On Accurate Data?

Usually politicians don’t know much about surveys. I expect them to quote the latest numbers only when they’re ahead in the polls. So, I was surprised when President Biden responded to a question about this year’s election polls.

President Biden, who probably doesn’t answer a telephone without it being screened at least once, told an interviewer that the current election telephone surveys weren’t accurate.

Why?
Because the surveys depend on having a telephone number, getting someone who’s time-strapped to answer the phone, and agreeing to take the survey.

Biden pointed out that most people don’t answer their landlines, which is the phone number most election surveys have. He then added, “If the research firm has a mobile number for the respondent, it may take up to 7 tries before someone answers the phone.”

The bottom line:
Election poll results are biased towards a small segment of people who answer their landlines and unidentified mobile calls. As a result, these surveys don’t present an accurate representation of voters in any given district.

Why does this matter to you as a marketer?
When examining market research results, take the time to check the details of how the survey was fielded.

Questions to ask:

How was the respondent base selected and how were they contacted?
What was the number of total people chosen for the initial pool and how many people were contacted? and
How many people actually completed the survey?

Translation:
Is this group statistically valid and representative?

For example, a closer look at the research chart below entitled, “Most Valuable Content For Researching B2B Purchases,” shows that less than 200 B2B executives were questioned. Given the small sample size, the chances are that it’s not statistically valid.

When fielding or examining market research, take care to ensure that the information you receive is statistically valid. Or it could harm the results of any actions you take based on them.

One Fortune 100 company I worked for fielded in-depth market research from a Tiffany-type research firm for a new product offering. The research cost over $100k. Yet the results were useless.

Why?

The market research firm had trouble finding a large enough segment of people to survey. From a marketing perspective, they should have stopped at this point. Since it meant that the Fortune 100 company would have trouble finding enough people to target for their new product.
The survey design was poor. For example, one question asked, “Which of these 4 answers describes your job position?” The answer choices were: Executive Secretary, Secretary, Administrative Assistant and Other. As a marketer, how would the answer to this question help you? These titles are similar and can differ by company and industry.

Actionable Marketing Tip

Have a statistician check the size and quality of your total market research population and the selected sample size.
Always check any market research survey before your supplier fields it. In my experience, surveys it can contain unnecessary or irrelevant questions. These add to the time required to take the survey and the survey cost.

Content Communicates

► Who Says Print Books Are Dead?

With the increased use of tablets and kindles for ebooks as well as the growth of audio books, you’d think that old fashioned print books are dead, except to use as doorstops.

But you’d be wrong!

Lately, more and more authors are writing and publishing paper versions of their books (aka: long form content).

For example, today is Ann Handley’s Book Birthday for her Completely Revised and Expanded Everybody Writes: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Content.

As Ann described the book in her Total Annarchy Newsletter, “This book will teach you to be a stronger marketer, writer, storyteller.”

Ann Handley and her book, Everybody Writes

While most authors and publishers refer to this as Launch Day, being Ann, she even has a party planned. With the help of Ahava Leibtag of Aha Media Group, it’s a webinar style event.

Most authors get additional marketing help to make a big splash on the first day of book sales in order to hit Amazon’s best seller list. The new edition of Everybody Writes has a head start. Attendees at both Content Marketing World and MarketingProfs B2B Forum got copies. This will help its first day sales numbers.

Since the OG version of Everybody Writes, published in 2014, hit The Wall Street Journal’s best seller list, I don’t think that the new addition has much to worry about in terms of gaining bookselling street cred.

Since the second edition weighs in at 395 pages compared to the first edition’s mere 279 pages, I wonder whether Ann got paid by the page. #JustKidding

Why?
Because, when she edits a piece, Ann takes a surgeon’s scalpel to every sentence to get rid of any excess words or punctuation. (I was lucky that Ann had moved on before I started writing my ClickZ Actionable Analysis column.)

Beyond the usual gaggle of friends, colleagues and influencers sharing their photos with Everybody Writes across various social media platforms and a list of podcasts and events, Ann upped her writing game.

She’s launching another newsletter for marketing writers and content creators. It’s entitled, “Communication Today”. Unlike Total Annarchy, this monthly newsletter is part of the MarketingProfs offering and requires opt-in signup. Click here to subscribe.

Happy Book launch Day

Actionable Book Marketing Tip

Always test new ways to reach readers. But make sure that you can deliver on your promises to your readers!

Voice Notes

► How Voice Marketing Starts To Move Past Web 2.0

At my Voice22 talk, “Voice Marketing Made Easy: How To Attract, Nurture and Grow Your Audience”, I made the case for including voice marketing in your marketing strategies.

But make no mistake, voice marketing is NOT an extension of your content marketing. The emergence of voice marketing as a new force to help marketers move towards Web 3.0 is attributable to the Seismic Shift in Marketing.

How seismic marketing shift changes marketing

► A Stands for Audience

These are the prospects, customers, purchase influencers, end-users and the local community you want to reach. They view voice experiences across your organization as seamless. This includes your website, web chat, real life sales rep, web conferencing and 800# or IVA.

Since their content consumption habits and patterns changed during the pandemic, meet customers and prospects where they are and provide help when, where and how they need it.

Actionable Voice Marketing Tip

Understand your audience and what they expect from you in terms of voice-enable services. This includes when, where and how they use voice devices, not just voice assistants.

► B Is For Branding

Extend your brand beyond text and visuals to include sonic elements consistently across your organization. Sound adds emotion, humanity and memorability to your brand.

Among the sonic branding questions to answer:

Who will represent your brand?
Will you use synthetic voices?
What does your audience expect of your voice brand?
How do you extend your marketing persona?
How does voice/audio work holistically across your business?

To-date, the most in-depth sonic branding case study is Mastercard. They viewed their sonic brand as part of a larger initiative to create a more holistic relationship with consumers.

► C Is For Context

Context changes voice from other forms of marketing. It makes voice marketing a unique form of marketing, setting it on the path to Web 3.0.

Content

Context defines the where, when and how a user wants and/or needs to use voice. Often, the user’s expectations are set by the device they choose to use.

The sonic branding question for your business to answer Is:
“Is your brand available and findable and in a format your audience can use?”
So, consider the devices and various platforms used based on the user’s context at the time.

Actionable Voice Marketing Tip

At a minimum use “Google My Business” to aid findability via Google and Android devices.

New York Marketing Minute

► Local Restaurant Expands From NYC To Arlington

While we were at the Voice22 Conference in Arlington, VA, we followed Eater’s suggestion and ate at Seamore’s, a sustainable seafood restaurant.

Seamore's of Arlington, VA

When we chose the restaurant, we didn’t realize that:

In 2022, sustainable food will be a $2 trillion industry. In large part, this market growth is attributable to the demand for more plant-based foods. Of this total, plant-based meat alternatives and products made from plants are projected to grow $5 billion over the next 4 years.
Due to loss and spoilage, 40% of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted annually totaling over 60 billion pounds. (Source)

Seamore’s tapped into the important sustainability trend that influences its target diners’ purchase choices.

Red spoons spotlight the day’s specialities

As Topher, one of the owners, explained:

“We choose our fish based on their interaction in the local environment. The restaurant selects and serves fish that are overpopulated relative to the environment or are predators in the area.”

For example, the night we ate at Seamore’s, they served blue catfish. Locally, it was destroying the blue crab population since it had no natural enemies.

Also, we learned that Seamore’s had expanded to Arlington from New York City. Despite having restaurants in our neighborhood, we had to leave home to find out about them.

Heidi Cohen and Seamore's Manager Topher
Heidi Cohen and Seamore’s Manager Topher

Actionable Marketing Tip

Tap into the new, sustainable consumer trends to grow your business. Help your audience learn about new products.

Marketing Reads

Conference season is in full swing. Whether you attend in-person or virtually, here are some recommended readings.

If you’re scheduled to give a presentation at a conference or event, we’ve got you covered with this extensively updated article. It includes examples to help you shine.

Presentation Success: How To Create A Killer Preso Every Time

Here’s help to make your conference experience fun and useful at the same time.

Conference Attendance: Ultimate Marketing Guide To Generating Business

After the conference or event share your new knowledge with your peers and audience. This article gives you 20 options to shine.

Conference Blog Posts: 20+ Ideas To Steal That Will Make You Shine

► The Tech Marketer’s Guide to Brand Messaging

Brand messaging is the one thing that should tie together every piece of content you create. It is how your brand expresses its unique value proposition and inspires and motivates prospective buyers.

Get this important FREE eBook from IDC today!

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