How To Market For Results As Consumer Behavior Changes

Marketing Lesson of The Week

► Conferences Go In-Person Again

As live content, conferences are major marketing events for a variety of businesses. At a minimum, you need to be present if your competitors are or to determine who may become new competitors.

Since they bring together diverse audience segments to achieve positive business outcomes, namely:

• Educate attendees about new developments in the field,
  Wally Brill teaches Heidi Cohen at Project Voice 2020.
• Allow potential buyers to meet a mix of possible vendors, and
  Heidi Cohen has fun with exhibitor Jeff Coyle at MAICON 2019.
• Create an atmosphere conducive to building business relationships and closing deals.
  
  Heidi Cohen and Michiel Schoonhoven celebrate their Content Marketing World relationship in 2019.

Even better, conferences help to build community among your attendees. Mike Stelzner and his team do a great job of this at Social Media Marketing World.

Speakers party at Social Media Marketing World 2018.

To break out of my COVID shell, I’m attending the Creator Economy Expo next week in Phoenix, Arizona. Produced by Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute, and Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger, CEX is the newest addition to the Marketing Conference lineup.

Issues to consider before you plan your next in-person event:

• Assess how attendees want to re-enter in-person events. Let them decide what makes sense for them in terms of health, family and career.
• As in-person events return, at a minimum, set guidelines for COVID tests and vaccine proof. Further, offer speakers, sponsors, attendees and employees the option of being more cautious about interacting with others.
• Set refund guidelines due to illness

If you’re planning to attend CEX, please find me. I would be thrilled to meet you IRL. I’ll be easy to recognize since I’ll be wearing a royal blue sequined hat. Personally, I love being a part of new conferences since everyone wants to reach out and connect with their peers.

Actionable Marketing Tips

• Set goals for conference attendance. Popular options include getting educated about new developments in your field; connecting with others active in the area; and/or making business connections for potential sales or other ways of working together.
• Pre-plan conference time. Decide which sessions are of interest to you and who you want to meet. Don’t overlook the importance of meeting exhibitors and local culture (where possible). For example, I’m using the opportunity to visit family and to take a bucket list vacation to the Grand Canyon after CEX.
• Organize your technology and other relevant business needs in advance. At a minimum, backup your computer and other devices before you leave.
• Plan for post-conference follow up. Consider how you will use the information and contacts you make.

Voice Talks

► Voice Today

When you say “voice functionality” most people assume you’re referring to a voice assistant such as an Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant device.

Yet, in reality, many devices offer voice functionality. The ability to activate a device using voice commands can be integrated into a product or operated through an app on a voice-enabled device.

Beyond smartphone and smart speakers, you can talk to computers, tablets, televisions, cars and other home products to accomplish certain tasks. Further, some devices are multi-modal, meaning they have screens with voice functionality

A 2021 US survey revealed that:

• Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, leads in smartphone usage. This isn’t surprising since Apple introduced voice functionality to consumers. It’s followed by Google Assistant on Android-powered smartphones.
• Amazon Alexa has led smart assistant use since they introduced the product to consumers.

Why does this matter to marketers?
Once a consumer and his or her household selects a specific brand of voice functionality, there’s a strong chance they’ll continue to buy products that work with that voice functionality. 

Actionable Marketing Tips:

• Provide voice functionality across your organization where consumers expect to use it and where it improves business results. (BTW, chat and telephone IVAs are forms of voice functionality.)
• Transform your content into audio formats and platforms your audience prefers.

Social Scene

► Social Media Delivers The News

News consumption has migrated to social media. In the process, US adults have learned that they don’t need to pay for quality information.

While this matters a LOT if you’re a media entity, it has important implications for businesses trying to attract attention for their content since your marketing needs to be visible where your audience spends its time.

As many as 7 in 10 US adults get news from social media platforms. Closer examination shows that slightly less than half of these US adults get their news from social media sources on a regular basis. [Source: Pew Research September 2021]

Broken out by social media entity:

• 31% get their news regularly on Facebook;
• 22% regularly get their news on YouTube;
• 13% use Twitter to stay up-to-date with the news; and
• 11% regularly use Instagram to get news.

Unfortunately, trust in information from all sources remains at an all time low. Even worse, social media ranks lowest in terms of trust. [Edelman Trust Barometer]

As a marketer, this matters because the context in which your content marketing is found and consumed influences how trustworthy your audience views your information.

While we’d all love to only use owned media, the reality is you need to use a variety of content formats, channels and/or platforms to reach your existing audience and to attract new readers, listeners or viewers.

Actionable Social Media Marketing Tip

• Deliver quality content across all platforms, content types and devices. Otherwise you risk losing your audience.

New York Marketing Minute

► Are You Eco-Friendly?

Across New York City, businesses used Earth Day last week as a promotional hook to attract prospects based on the ways in which they were eco-friendly.  And research shows that customers approach sustainable behavior in different ways.

Flatiron-based ARC’TERYX announced their “Community Clothing Drive” with a sidewalk sign outside their store. They placed a related exhibit near the entrance to collect clothes in case donors wanted to donate but not purchase.

From a marketing perspective, this was well done since it attracted local foot traffic and made it easy to find. Alternatively, they could have placed the exhibit further back in the store to make people walk through and possibly shop.

Unfortunately, when I asked about the details of their clothing drive, I was told that a related co-marketing promotion was in the works but the details still needed to be confirmed. While their intentions were good, they missed the window of opportunity for an Earth Day tie-in.

Actionable Social Media Marketing Tips

• Layout merchandise promotions around key holidays and local events as part of your annual calendar. If you need last minute promotions, make sure that you have sufficient time to make them happen before it goes live.
• Educate customer-facing employees about the details. This is key to a good customer experience (aka: CX).

► How To Create Fun Promotions That Attract Prospects

Sometimes we’re so close to our marketing and offering that we miss opportunities to create unique promotions to pull passersby in and to attract a greater audience with user-generated content.

Behind the cashier at ARC’TERYX, an oversized multicolor jacket hung on a large hanger. It was a great piece of branding. I was told that it had been around the business for about a decade before someone decided to use it as store decoration.

As a marketer, I saw a fun piece that exemplified their brand and products. So I asked if I could try it on. To my surprise, they said yes!

My experience as a store visitor totally changed; I went from observer to participant. While the jacket was easy to take down, I had problems getting into it since it was so large. Once it was on, I felt transformed and strutted around the store. This attracted thumbs up attention while my husband took photos.

If I hadn’t asked to try it on, my customer experience would have been totally different.

Suddenly I was in my marketing zone brainstorming with the clerks how they could use this lifeless item to attract foot traffic and create user-generated content.

My recommendation:

• Promote an event where people could try on the oversize jacket and take photos to post on Instagram and other social media platforms.
• Create a branded background and a relevant hashtag. This can be done creating a letter-size page with their brand name, social media handle and hashtag. Then print out enough to cover a wall section.
• Choose a low traffic day to create a reason for people to come in. I recommended Memorial Day since the city is empty on long holiday weekends.
• Get participants to sign a waiver so the store can use these photos. Also  get contact information to send them the photo.
• Ask participants to post their photos on social media with relevant hashtags.

NOTE:
Vet this promotion by your Legal Department to ensure that it doesn’t violate any store policies or have any inherent liabilities. (Disclaimer: I am NOT a lawyer.)

Actionable Marketing Tip:

• Use every customer interaction to build your audience. In ARC’TERYX’s case, I’d put out a pad to collect visitor’s email addresses to build my house file.

Marketing Reads

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

Use these article ideas across a variety of platforms, channels and formats. 

Even better, you can create conference-related content even if you don’t attend the conference IRL. Track the hashtag on Twitter and other platforms. It provides a great opportunity to reach out and connect with participants and speakers.

► 3 Reasons You Need Sustainable Content Marketing

In honor of Earth Day, make your content marketing sustainable for the long term. Like the earth’s natural resources, your marketing resources are limited.

This article explains how to get the most from your content overtime to keep it visible and viable.

Marketing Training

► How To Be A Content Entrepreneur?

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► Personal Branding Masterclass

Create your powerful personal brand with expert Mark W. Schaefer

August 2nd through August 18th, 2022

Plan Ahead: Mark Your Calendar

► The 2022 Creator Economy Expo (aka: CEX) – May 2–4th, Phoenix, AZ

[Affiliate Offer]