Tag Archive for: Digital Advertising

The Importance of Diversity in Digital Marketing

Society is more diverse and inclusive than ever before. With that, consumers are demanding that marketing pay attention to and represent people as they really are: A huge varied spectrum of race, bodies, gender, and socioeconomic classes. As these standards have rapidly changed over the past few years, some companies struggle to keep up. Today, companies that fail to make a real effort to create better representation in their marketing, are likely to fail in many other areas of business as well. But there is no clear-cut formula to representational diversity, it can be a fine line to walk, and mistakes can easily be made. It’s created from the ground up, by a team that’s fully engaged and committed to the process. 

 

What is Diversity? 

The term diversity is widely used and tossed around today, but many are unaware of what is means on a practical level. In this context, diversity means 4 things. First, creating spaces and media inclusive to minority races, people with disabilities, people outside the gender binary, and more. Then it means fully acknowledging and representing these groups of people in marketing campaigns. When they are represented in campaigns, it also means following established best practices for using language about race, gender, disabilities, etc. Lastly, it means completely avoiding harmful stereotypes and not using said race, gender, disability, etc. as a punchline. 

 

Why Does Diversity in Digital Marketing Matter? 

Many small brands have a very tight and focused marketing persona, which can work in some cases, but as a brand grows it needs to evolve to appeal to a full range of customers. A shallow and out-of-touch message will produce poor results and an array of other negative side effects. For example: 

  • It may be offensive. Lack of diversity or addressing a group in the wrong way can potentially offend future and even current customers. 
  • Missing out on potential customers. People are much more likely to buy from brands that they feel are addressing them directly and that they can relate to. 
  • Your message may be uncomfortable. Changing to a more diverse marketing approach can be difficult, but not doing so, especially when your competition is, can be even more difficult to explain. 

Not only does diversifying your marketing efforts help to avoid these negative outcomes, it also helps to produce many positive ones. Several studies have shown: 

  • 80% of marketers agree that using diverse representation in marketing helps brand reputation. 
  • Millenials and Gen Z consumers prefer media with diverse casts, view ads with diverse representation more favorably, and are more comfortable with brands taking social stances.
  • Aiming products and campaigns at previously unserved markets can create great new revenue streams, as the story of Fenty Beauty’s expanded foundation range shows.
  • Diversity and representation are top drivers of engagement with content and Black millennial audiences have actively asked for more in surveys. 

 

How to Better Incorporate Diversity in your Marketing: 

As we said, there’s no one-size-fits-all, clear-cut formula to creating instant inclusivity and diversity in a company. It’s grown organically from an internal philosophy that rewards, celebrates, and values it. This is something that takes long-term effort and commitment. 

Diversity has to start with the team and diversity-centered hiring practices. If you haven’t yet fully embraced that yet, it should be the first step to work on. If you don’t have representation on your marketing staff, representation in your campaigns will suffer. Companies that already have a diverse team established should make sure those members are taking control of projects, especially the ones aimed at the group they’re a part of. 

When it comes to developing actual campaigns, outside perspective is essential. Consider hiring remote workers or outside consultants who aren’t immersed in your brand every day to get the most honest feedback. Make sure diversity is in the ideation process. It helps to include many team members throughout the entire process. Making empathy your ultimate and overall goal is important. Your customers should feel like they can relate to your ads, even if they are edgy.

These aren’t one-and-done tricks to score some easy points. It’s critical to approach diversity as a constant process rather than as an achievement.

 

Common Mistakes/What to Avoid: 

 

  • Using team members as a token representative to pander a certain group or to rubber-stamp marketing materials as “certified unproblematic.” 
  • Taking stances on social issues out of your brand’s depth. 
  • Getting defensive when or if your marketing is criticized for lack of sensitivity, inclusivity, or diversity. 
  • Using victim/hero language in the context of people with disabilities. 
  • Not completely aligning your practice with your message. 

 

Final Thoughts 

Today, brands can play an important role in social conversations and movements. When advertising is well executed it has the potential to shift the mindset of the public and help shape the viewpoints of the world. Companies that champion diversity and keep it at the forefront of people’s minds will be leaders in creating change. Change can be uncomfortable and takes time, but it’s happening whether brands like it or not. Those that embrace it stay ahead of the curve, and those that fail to do so are seen as out-of-touch and irrelevant and will slowly fall to the waste side. 

 

YouTube’s New “Video Reach” Campaign Capabilities

Earlier this week YouTube launched a new way to run video ad campaigns. Advertisers can now upload three different types of videos under one campaign, and it apparently cuts campaign costs by more than 20%. In the announcement, YouTube said they’re constantly working on better ways to help companies achieve their marketing goals—whether that’s to build awareness, shift perceptions, or drive a specific action. It should be a simpler and more effective way to drive reach while meeting target audiences in the places they’re watching.

 

Video Reach Campaigns 

Before, advertisers would have to make 3 separate campaigns for each video ad type. Now, they can use 6 second bumpers, skippable in-stream ads, and non-skippable in-stream ads in a single campaign. From there, Google’s machine learning will automatically serve the most efficient combination of these formats to help reach your audience at scale.

Bumper Ads: Non-skippable ads, 6 seconds or shorter that are shown before the video the user wishes to view. Bumper ads use target CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) bidding. You pay each time your ad is shown 1,000 times.

Skippable In-Stream Ads: The ad plays before, during, or after other videos and viewers have the option to skip after 5 seconds. These can appear on YouTube watch pages, on videos on partner sites, and apps in the Display Network. You have two bidding options, CPV or CPM. With CPV you pay when a viewer watches 30 seconds of your video (or the duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or interacts with your video, whichever comes first. CPM bidding means you pay based on impressions. Skippable in-stream ads use CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) bidding, so you pay each time your ad is shown 1,000 times.

Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads: The non-skippable video ad is an ad format that may appear pre-, mid-, or post-roll while viewing partner content. They can be 15-20 seconds long and viewers must watch the ad before they’re able to watch the selected video. A smaller, 300 x 60-pixel ad may also be shown next to YouTube videos that show non-skippable video ads on desktop. They are sold on a CPM basis, and may generate higher CPMs than other ad formats on YouTube.

 

TrueView for Action Campaigns

For companies looking to build a full-funnel strategy, YouTube recommends using the video campaigns alongside a TrueView for action campaign. TrueView campaigns are built to drive leads and conversions by adding CTAs, headline text overlays, and an end screen to video ads. In the announcement, YouTube said that soon, TrueView for action ads will extend to the home feed, giving advertisers the opportunity to capture more high value leads. 

 

Masthead on TV Screens 

YouTube also announced it will be bringing mastheads to their fastest growing surface, the tv screen. According to YouTube, their daily watch time tops 250 million hours a day. It will be available as a reserved placement for advertisers to ensure brands can drive the visibility they need on the dates that matter most. They can be purchased on a CPM basis, with audience targeting capabilities, and cross-screen or single-screen Masthead buying options. YouTube believes the rich audio and visual experience brought by the TV screen will create an upper-funnel drive greater than ever before. 

 

Final Thoughts 

Some companies have already started adopting the new campaign strategies. Ford, being one of them, has reported strong results. In alpha tests, the automaker lowered their campaign cost over 20% compared to their past YouTube campaigns. These new capabilities take advertisers’ guesswork out of creating comprehensive campaigns that utilize a series of ads. YouTube is becoming a stronger and more strategic partner by focusing more on marketing objectives rather than media. 

 

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The Importance of Social Listening

Social listening is an invaluable marketing tool that not enough companies take full advantage of. It allows you to track, analyze, and respond to conversations about your brand, competitors, and your entire industry online. If you don’t have a social listening strategy in place, you’re missing out on critical insights.

 

What is Social Listening 

Social media listening is analyzing conversations and trends happening, not just around your brand, but your industry as a whole, and using those insights to make better marketing decisions. Social listening is not the same as social monitoring. Social monitoring involves tracking and responding to messages about or sent directly to your brand. Social listening helps you understand why, where, and how these conversations are happening, and people’s in-depth thoughts, not just their tags and mentions of your brand specifically. It can assist in forming future campaigns, improving content and messaging strategy, and building effective and impactful brand partnerships. Social listening is all about understanding the bigger picture. 

 

The Benefits 

Reputation Management 

This is the most common reason companies perform social listening. Companies can monitor mentions of their products and track overall brand health. Following conversations around your brand can allow you to illuminate consumer attitudes and sentiment drivers. Social media has become a leading customer service platform, and where customers prefer to complain. Whether it’s to a brand or just about one in general, customers openly share about any problem they’ve encountered. Other customers often judge brands by how they respond to these complaints. Companies that respond promptly with professionalism and empathy keep customers and gain new ones. 

Market Research 

Social listening can supplement – or sometimes even replace – traditional market research strategies. Traditional market research methods such as surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc. only reflect attitudes of a small group of people at one point in time. The information gathered can be time-constrained, selective, and skewed. Social media analytics can produce data in hours or days, as opposed to the weeks and months for conventional methods. When the information gathered is unprompted it’s more likely to reveal consumers’ true, unfiltered feelings. Social media listening can help quickly identify market issues, consumer concerns, and preferred product features. For most companies, their markets are constantly and rapidly changing. Those fail to keep up quickly get left behind, such as BlackBerry and Nintendo. 

Competitor Analysis and General Research 

The purpose of social listening doesn’t just stop at your brand, you can also monitor competitors, as well as just any general phenomenon being discussed online. Occasionally checking a competitor’s website doesn’t really give the full picture about how they’re performing in the space. Companies can gain a wealth of competitive intelligence through monitoring what’s being said about your competition on social networks, in the general media, on discussion boards, etc. This can give you data on new product development, marketing strategies, product positioning, key consumers, and any PR activity. Identifying competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and successful/unsuccessful strategies can help you determine things to try and avoid. 

Additionally, you can monitor anything in general that you find relevant to your brand. Whether you’re a journalist writing an article on a political issue, a charity wanting to evaluate the volume of conversations around a social cause, or an entrepreneur looking to start a business and doing market research, social listening can assist you. 

Identifying User-Generated Content and Potential Influencers 

Consumers frequently post photos and videos praising products online. User-generated content can be an enormously effective and affordable way to market yourself. Countless studies have shown that consumers trust recommendations made by other customers more than brands, especially if the consumer has influence. Social listening enables brands to find this type of content, amplify it, and repurpose it for marketing purposes. 

Through social listening you can also identify the impact and reach of your brand mentions and find who your most influential advocates are. If you’re looking to partner with an influencer, you can create a social listening alert for your industry and see who are the most influential people in your niche. It’s also smart to note competitor’s influencers because they would likely make a good fit for your brand as well. 

 

The Top 5 Social Listening Tools of 2019 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion 

Social media is an invaluable resource for insights and trends in consumer behavior that not enough brands take full advantage of. Social listening tools continue to get more powerful and affordable as more brands turn to them for market research, customer insights, competitive analysis, and to gain leads. If you settle on purchasing a tool it’s important to remember that just monitoring isn’t enough. To make it worthwhile, you need to act on the data. Which means engaging with customers that are mentioning you, spotting trends to adapt to your marketing, customer services, and product strategies, with the overall goal to better serve your customers. 

 

More From Onimod Global 

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The Benefits of Embracing Consumer Privacy for Digital Marketers

Marketers have been tracking behavior, targeting individuals, and gathering endless data with implicit consent for years now. But after recently learning about privacy breaches across social platforms and search engines, consumers have started taking ownership over their data and privacy rights. As this trend becomes more popular the traditional data tracking strategies will likely no longer be a suitable way to pursue leads and revenue. 

Privacy is something a lot of marketers, and companies as a whole, are starting to take into consideration as making a core principle of the user-first experience. Privacy and transparency have the potential to shift the focus from getting short-term leads to creating long-term trust and consumer relationships. These factors are what have the potential to make your brand stand out among others and why embracing privacy can actually turn into profit. 

 

Here are 5 reasons why marketers should start embracing privacy: 

Gaining customer trust 

Embracing transparency is a way to show you’re an accountable brand and deserve the trust of your customers. When you adapt endless paragraphs of legal privacy jargon to a language regular consumers can understand, it won’t seem that you’re trying to hide something or pull a fast one on them. This allows consumers to let their guard down and begin trusting you so you can then start building loyalty.

 

The opportunity to turn a one-way conversation into a two-way conversation 

Obviously you can’t just stop asking for customer data completely, but sending and receiving data from customers is no longer a unidirectional relationship. You don’t want to keep asking for as much data as possible, only the data that really matters. This means you have to rethink how you want to communicate, instead of just continuing to communicate with the data you already have. Once you’re better aware of what the customer really cares about, you can start building a real relationship and starting a two-way conversation. Showing that you actually care about what’s happening in customer’s life is what makes the difference between brands people love and those that get looked over. 

 

The chance to expand business and increase revenue 

It’s been found in a privacy study that people are willing to invest more money into brands that are known to respect and protect privacy. The research showed that users are even willing to pay more monthly for services that delete their data immediately. Not only is investing in privacy-oriented marketing an economic win, but the data you do receive is much more meaningful. It will help you to provide offers to customers at the right place, at the right time. You could take that data even further to develop more custom-tailored products or services, generating more revenue and creating more value for your customers and your brand. 

 

Contributing to brand experience 

Most companies are trying to comply with privacy regulations, so to stand out you have to be creative. Finding innovative ways to communicate with customers will help build and improve brand experience. The main reason customer data should be used is to improve the experience they have with your company. Which is why it’s important to remember to not ask for too much data, just what’s important and can help contribute back to the customers some how. Brands need to start thinking about creating ideas and experiences that consistently add new value to people’s lives. 

 

Gain better ROI 

When you start focusing on privacy-oriented marketing, you’ll also be able to start focusing more on personalized, efficient marketing. You’ll reduce the time spent on non engaged customers, which allows for more time and effort for those who are already involved or open to your brand. You will be able to further understand the customers that do allow you to use their data, enabling you to tailor messages more perfectly for them. 

 

Final Thoughts 

Embracing privacy isn’t some new marketing secret weapon, as it’s something that every company should comply with. But when it becomes a core value and naturally integrates with the rest of your customer experience, it can start to set you apart from other brands. Privacy will continue to become more important as users continue to get more savvy. Going beyond the bare minimum will not only allow your company to be ahead of the curve, but will help you to be seen as accountable, secure, and trusted to current and potential customers.

 

More From Onimod Global 

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Facebook’s New Lead Generation Messenger Feature and What it Means for Advertisers

On August 29th Facebook started their global roll out of their new lead generation feature in Messenger to all advertisers. This feature allows businesses to create an automated question and answer experience within their Messenger app that launches via click-to-Messenger ads on Facebook News Feed. This is just one of the many new tools Facebook has introduced in the past year with the intentions of streamlining the advertising and communication processes from brands to users. 

 

How it works:

The automated lead generation feature is designed to be used in conjunction with click-to-Messenger ads, which triggers conversation between businesses and Facebook users. If you’re unfamiliar with click-to-Messenger ads, they were one of three new ad additions Facebook released back in February. These ads appear in user’s regular News Feed and will open a Messenger chat with the brand if the ad is clicked. With the new feature, businesses can now set up an automated question experience. The ad opens Messenger and kicks off a set of questions that can be answered through pre-filed or free form text. The system is also designed to send follow-up reminders if users do not complete the questions. 

Businesses can integrate Messenger with their CRM provider to capture the information provided by customers and identify qualified leads. Then, Pages can manually continue the conversation through Pages Inbox, Pages Manager App, or a third party-live chat provider. 

 

What it means for advertisers: 

According to a recent survey, 42% of those polled said they expect a response via an online chatbot within five seconds of sending a message. By integrating an automated lead generation feature that directly connects a CRM platform to its click-to-Messenger ads, brands are not only able to respond more quickly to customer inquiries, but also streamline all communication with their customers on the platform.

 Facebook says that “businesses engaging with potential leads in their preferred channels are seeing results, and finding it easy to continue the conversation and seamlessly nurture leads in Messenger.” They reported that RIFT Tax, a financial services company, used the new feature to increase its customer base of Armed Forces members and increased their qualified leads by 42%. They were able to respond to users in less than 10 minutes, which increased their lead resolve rate by 18%. 

Along with Facebook ads targeting, this feature allows advertisers to further drive interested people into conversation with your business. You can start to take action on leads in Messenger when it’s convenient for both you and your customers. You can easily send reminders to users that haven’t completed the questions, and nurture leads where they spend their time. Finally, with an integrated CRM, your sales team can start immediately taking action. 

 

To try out the lead generation feature:

  1. Visit Ads Manager.
  2. Select “Messenger Objective” and set “click to Messenger” as your message destination. The lead generation template is under the Ad Level in “Message Setup” section. 
  3. Select the option “Generate Leads” and click “+ Create Chat.” 
  4. Add a welcome message, a question, a thank you, a disqualifying message, a completion reminder, and your privacy policy. 
  5. Finalize the setup and submit for approval. 

 

Final Thoughts 

Currently, there are around 300,000 developers building on Messenger, and people and businesses exchanging over 20 billion messages on the platform each month. This option helps to improve the bots and conversation process overall. The more options business have to utilize them, the more popular they will become, and as utility increases, you can also expect consumers to become more attuned to bot usage, further boosting their appeal. 

 

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Becoming an Experienced-Focused Brand

The days of the “sell and forget” relationship between customers and brands is long gone. Most brands now aim for having exceptional customer service and continuous customer engagement. Brand loyalty is more crucial than ever due to the internet and social media influencing the acceleration of the “full brand experience” approach. Brands positioned with customer-first, always-on experience optimization approach and build for personalization are becoming market leaders. 

The question is – how can brands achieve this? There is a common misconception that becoming an experience-focused brand is a difficult process. In reality, it is simple and just requires you to listen and observe your current customers. 

 

What Is Brand Experience?

Brand experience is a marketing function that integrates a comprehensive collection of interactions to elicit emotions and feelings from consumers. It shapes the way consumers feel toward a product or business, helps build consumer awareness, and can even create brand-loyalty. An experienced-focused brand has a strategy to continuously deliver positive and meaningful experience throughout every interaction. With every product, service, and process designed, customer experience is at the fore-front of decision making. 

 

How to Become an Experience-Focused Brand:

 

Identify Audiences 

Marketing strategies should never be developed without a target audience or first gaining consumer insight. Customer feedback is essential when it comes to designing an experience catered to them. To get started, determine who is your current audience. It’s helpful to use data sources if possible, such as google analytics, databases, prior research, etc. Find out what your audience likes, what they dislike, their spending habits, what they’re motivated by, or any other important psychographics relevant to your brand. It’s also important to look at loyal customers separately to see if there are any drastic differences between them and average consumers. 

 

Create a Customer Journey Map 

After your audience has been identified the next step is to build out a customer journey map. Some marketers believe this step is not necessary, but a customer journey map can be a very valuable tool. Breaking down the customer journey phase by phase, aligning each step with a goal, and restructuring your touchpoints accordingly are essential steps towards maximizing customer success. Everything a company does essentially revolves around solving customer problems and helping them achieve long-term success with your product or service.

Creating an ideal customer journey map generally has six steps

  1. Determine a clear objective for the map. What are its goals, who is it for, and what is the experience based upon? It may be beneficial to create a buyer persona based on this and the demographics and psychographics that represent your average consumer. 
  2. Perform customer research. Anyway that you can gain feedback from real customers or prospects works. The most important aspect is that you only reach out to those that have or would seriously be interested in purchasing your products or services. 
  3. List out all the touch points where customers can interact with you. This can be directly through your website or outside sources, such as social channels, paid ads, emails, or third party links. It helps to also list out all the action, emotions, motivations, obstacles, and pain points customers experience throughout their interaction with your brand. 
  4. Choose the type of customer journey map you want to create. This is based on the elements you want your map to show. The most common types include current state, a day in the life, future state, and service blueprint. 
  5. Take the customer journey yourself and analyze the results. You should follow the map through each customer persona that was created. Analyzation is where you can discover where customer needs aren’t being met, as well as solutions to other problems they might face. 
  6. Make necessary changes based on the data gathered. 

 

Measure Experience 

While thinking thoroughly from the customer’s perspective and about their journey is important, measuring their experiences from direct interactions is even more effective. The key is to make sure you’re using the right customer experience metric at the right point in the customer journey. A common mistake made by companies is only using one kind of metric for every step in the customer journey. Most customers have different experiences and needs at different stages in the process, which is why a single metric can be ineffective and problematic. There are a variety of customer experience metrics, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES). It’s also important to ask for feedback at the proper time, through the customer’s preferred channel. The average consumer does not want to spend extensive time giving companies feedback, meaning the measurement process should be as short and easy as possible. 

 

Build the Ideal Experience and Start Putting it into Action

With all the prior steps completed there should be a solid foundation to build a high quality experience directly based on consumer insights. It’s beneficial to perform multiple audits of data and technology throughout the building process. This helps support the automation of personalized, people-based experiences. Aligning stakeholders across the organization is another important element to driving change. Data-driven approaches that prioritize and emphasize customer perspective is extremely valuable when you run into any political or organizational roadblocks. In the beginning it’s beneficial to prioritize quick wins. This way you’re still making progress while laying out critical interactions that take more time, effort, and long-term planning. 

 

Final Steps 

After the ideal customer experience has been built it’s time to test it. Some brands only measure and test their customer experience if it’s new or has been changed recently. Brands that are truly going for being experience-focused should track and measure experience continuously and make regular updates and improvements based on that data and feedback. Brand behavior is more important to consumers today than ever. That means brands have to be prepared to change their behavior when necessary. It’s all about personalization, relevance, and engagement with consumers. 

 

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Marketing Automation: Why It’s Essential and What to Avoid

As more businesses shift away from traditional marketing tactics, agencies should follow suit. The times of one-time projects, lower value relationships, and thoughtless solutions with no unified reporting will lead to failure. The demand for full digital marketing services continues to increase, meaning agencies are taking on new clients while trying to keep existing ones happy. But with the rise for the need of digital services also comes the rise of resources available that makes providing those services easier. 

Some agencies have started using automated marketing systems to increase both sales revenue for both their company and their clients. These solutions allow repetitive tasks like email marketing, social postings, and ad campaigns to be automated, not only for efficiency, but to also create a more personalized experience for users. Not to mention, every step customers make can be triggered and tracked as they go through your marketing funnel. Allowing marketers to make appropriate adjustments to ads, campaigns, website, etc. 

Marketing automation is becoming a must have for agencies to stay relevant, but it can lead to failure if it’s not correctly implemented. 

 

Why You Should Use Marketing Automation 

 

Higher Value Relationships 

Marketing automation presents the ability to build and provide hyper personalized services for clients. This includes things like initial automation technology adoption and strategy, creation of email templates, nurture sequences, landing pages, as well as ongoing campaign assets, analytics, and optimization. Providing all these services ,in addition to the initial transition, makes it difficult for clients to change agencies. Not to mention it sets you apart from the competition, as many agencies have not yet integrated automation into their marketing strategy. 

Recurring Revenue 

Marketing automation is what can make an agency go from completing endless one-time projects, to being a consistent, must have resource for a number of companies. Marketing automation is necessary for almost any client and many companies struggle with technology. Many companies also struggle with knowing where exactly they need to personalize messages and where they shouldn’t. That’s where you should come in, and ultimately move towards a retainer-based relationship and consistent revenue. 

Proving Value 

Clients always want to know they’re getting the best ROI possible. When marketing automation is carried out correctly, there should be no issues presenting results. It gives you the ability to show measurable results with comprehensive lead-to-revenue reporting. Since it’s rooted in data, you’re provided the necessary numbers to help clients pinpoint what should be focused on and what should be tossed. Marketing automation also becomes more valuable and a better investment the longer it’s used. The more data there is, the more accurate the results will be, and can hopefully show month to month improvement. 

It’s Necessary to Stay Afloat 

According to Ad Age’s Agency Report 2018, U.S. agency growth is the slowest it’s been since 2010, except for those offering digital marketing services. With the need for digital services growing, marketing automation is basically becoming a must to stay in business. Companies need more data than ever to feel confident about their spending. Marketing automation can assist with all of these aspects when executed correctly. You can create new streams of revenue, attract new clients, provide real evidence of ROI and a service too complicated to take on in-house. 

 

Marketing Automation Mistakes 

A misconception has grown around automation that is can salve for any slowdown in marketing growth, including the need for generating new leads. This leaves many marketers with sophisticated tools automating the middle-of-the-funnel, but no real strategy or solution to generate new leads to nurture in the first place. This commonly results in marketers purchasing email lists to nurture instead of generating inbound leads. While this is a quick solution, it doesn’t work long term. This strategy fails to create a solid foundation for healthy, long-term customer relationships. Instead, it produces spammy content and incredibly low ROI. 

Another mistake is using marketing automation to force customers through a funnel with arbitrary touch points and irrelevant content. Marketers try to pass customers on to the sales department as quickly as possible, creating a disjointed customer experience. When marketing automation operates in a silo like this, points of friction are introduced that stall and strain what could have been productive, long-term customer relationships. Instead, there should be a contextual experience built on each customer’s individual needs. 

 

Final Thoughts 

Marketing automation can be a powerful and effective tool. To make it work it’s essential to understand all components and distinctions. Marketing automation should always be backed by an inbound strategy centered around the prospect, using all the information known about a person to inform the automation strategy. The ultimate goal is to deliver the information people need to make a purchase, when they need it, right where they’re looking for it. 

 

More From Onimod Global 

At Onimod Global we are experts in marketing automation and customer relationship management software. Our work is creating digital synergy and cross-channel digital marketing campaigns driven by machine learning analytics and human intelligence. Together ensuring your brand meets the consumer when and where they need them. Learn more about what we do, or become a client today

 

 

Generation Z Marketing Strategies

Gen Z now makes up 26% of the population and comprises 48% of the total media audience. Their spending power is estimated to be between $29 and $143 billion, without taking into account their influence on household spending. They are a formidable consumer demographic, but the generation gap leaves some marketers struggling to successfully reach them. 

It is true that conventional digital marketing strategies rarely work and there has yet to be a complete consensus of which methods are most effective. But experts are starting to come together to compile their best recommendations and guidelines for successfully marketing to Generation Z. 

 

Highlight Social Awareness 

This generation has a heightened awareness of issues plaguing our society and the rest of the world. They know that what’s occurring now has the ability to strongly impact their futures. Which is why if they discover that a company is engaging in objectionable practices, they will avoid doing business with them at all costs, while making it widely known. Conversely, brands that are positively contributing to society or the environment have the opportunity to be strongly supported by Gen Z. As individuals they have varying beliefs, but they share a number of ideals such as inclusivity, multiculturalism, social justice, environmental awareness, and anti-capitalism.

A great example of a company that has done this is TOMS Shoes. For every pair of shoes purchased, they donate another pair of shoes to a child in need. These are the kinds of campaigns and practices that this generation looks for before fully getting behind a brand. 

 

Focus on Mobile Platforms 

75% of Generation Z selected a mobile phone or smartphone as the device they use most. This means strategies aimed at desktop users are no longer effective, especially when it comes to eCommerce web designs. A study performed by Google revealed that Gen Z mostly uses smartphones to make online purchases, and highly prefer online shopping in general. This means all web designs must be mobile-friendly, the checkout process needs to be simple, and content must be created with mobile devices in mind. Voice search is something else to keep in mind, as its use is on the rise with Gen Z. So it’s important to produce website content which conforms to patterns from everyday speech.

 

Be Personal and Relatable 

Generation Z was raised on the internet, they’ve seen everything there is to see. Which means using traditional sales ad and blatant customer manipulation attempts will fail miserably. Aggressive ad copy should be replaced with relatable and relaxed language. They will only pay attention to ads that are directly related to personal needs and desires. They expect retailers to offer a more personalized experience based on the customer’s shopping habits and preferences. This can be accomplished by creating targeted landing pages, publishing content aimed at the right buyer personas, and giving personal replies to messages on social media.

 

Use Each Social Media Platform Differently 

Social media has been a part of Generation Z’s entire lives. They’re highly aware of what each platform is best for and use each reflectively. Which means you can’t advertise to them in the same way on every platform. Response Media’s study reveals that Gen Z: 

  • Showcase their aspirational selves on Instagram
  • Share real-life moments on Snapchat
  • Get the news on Twitter
  • Glean information from Facebook

Instagram is also most used for brand discovery, with 45% of teens using it to find new products. And YouTube is used most for shopping recommendations, followed by Instagram, then Facebook. These are all things that should be closely kept in mind when conducting social media campaigns, sharing content, etc. 

 

Create Quick, Effective, and Visual Content 

It’s a common misconception that Gen Z has an outrageously short attention span, 8 seconds to be exact. In reality, they actually possess a sophisticated filter that comes from growing up surrounded by a deluge of information. So yes, you have very little time to convince them that your content is worth their time, but if it is, they can focus (or binge) long enough to complete in-depth research on any topic. 

Additionally, 71 percent of 13 to 17 year olds spend more than three hours a day watching online videos. But that doesn’t mean you can throw any video advertisement in front of them and they’ll pay attention. On average, Generation Z clicks “Skip” on skippable video ads after only 9.5 seconds. It all stems back to growing up in an information overload environment. This means you need to start focusing on only giving them the most necessary and important material. 

 

Final Thoughts 

When it comes to marketing to Generation Z, the most important thing is to forget all the misconceptions. They are not a generation of unintelligent, short attention spanned, detached kids that are dooming digital marketing for the rest of the generations. Every new generation of consumers means shifting marketing tactics and best practices in order to continue driving revenue and growing as a brand. When you execute your digital marketing strategy correctly, Gen Z can bring in major revenue, their own as well as revenue from their parents. They care about social responsibility, authenticity, and personable customer experiences. Brands have the opportunity to start engaging with socially active, highly motivated young people. They want to connect with companies, lead a following, or even become loyal brand ambassadors. Generation Z presents a new challenge that may just not seem worth it to some, but they offer the opportunity for huge payoffs with a little bit of work and understanding. 

 

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5 Steps to Creating a High Converting Landing Page

Customers arrive on a landing page through social media posts, paid advertisements, and various other content. If your landing page is ineffective, all the ad dollars and resources put towards getting these customers there was essentially a waste.

A quality landing page has the potential to increase leads, sales, and gain valuable information on potential customers. Creating highly effective landing pages can seem like a difficult task, as there’s no one-size-fits-all template, but there are a variety of landing page best practices. These combined with understanding your target audience and dedicated effort, building a high converting landing page will be much easier. 

 

1. Focus on Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Designs 

In 2018, 52.2 percent of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones. No matter the industry, it’s smart to make mobile design a priority. This means using: optimized images, shorter sentences, bullet points, headings, and subheadings. Mobile-optimized landing pages include a lot of white space and can be easy to read at a quick glance. Performance is also important, as conversions won’t be likely if page speed is low or chew up data. 

Mobile-optimization also forces conciseness and high design focus. Screen space can’t be wasted on extra unimportant content or fluff. The message should be focused on the action you want the customer to take. The less-is-more design approach results in a more concise and engaging final project. 

 

2. Have One Clear Call-To-Action 

The call-to-action is the number one, most important element that should be included on every landing page, as it’s what turns visitors into real customers. 

What should be focused on first is the text. Powerful, direct, and urgent language is key. What makes you unique and would create an emotional drive in customers? If possible try to communicate one or more of the following: they are getting something for free, they are getting something exclusive, you are solving their problem, or they have limited time to act. 

Some other elements that increase the effectiveness of call-to-actions are contrasting colors, buttons instead of links, and ensuring its visibility. Most companies and sites have a set color scheme, which is great, but you don’t want your CTA to blend in. Make it stand out by using contrasting, yet visually appealing colors. It also doesn’t need to be at the bottom of the page. It should be placed where the user’s eye naturally goes. This is something that may require A/B testing. 

 

3. Use Visuals 

The brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. Meaning that visitors are immediately affected by the images on the landing page. As pictures are selected and placed, remember that they should be relevant to products and services, and high quality. 

If you’re selling a physical product, a high quality image should be displayed on the landing page. If you’re selling a service, the primary purpose of the image is to grab users’ attention and demonstrate relevance to them. 

And since the images are the first thing the user processes, you want that impression to be a good one. It has the potential to shape the visitor’s impression of your brand before they even make it to the ad copy. Which is why this isn’t a great place to use stock photos or quick photoshop jobs. Marketers have the opportunity to give potential customers a visual understanding of what they stand to gain with their product or service, and set themselves apart from the competition.

 

4. Have User and Search Engine Friendly Formatting 

Along with a mobile-friendly design and quality content, the page also needs to be formatted well, starting with a solid headline. It should compelling, something that will keep visitors reading. Touch on a main point that’s relevant to readers and hints that you have a solution to their problem. It’s also beneficial to use emotional power words. The most effective emotions to appeal to are anger, greed, and fear. “Stop getting ripped off!” “Free exclusive gift!” “Only 24 hours left!” are all possible headers appealing to these emotions. 

After you’ve established a heading that meets all the criteria, break the rest of the content of the landing page into segments. Each segment should have a subheading of its own that makes sense. This way if a reader is skimming the page they can skip to the section they’re looking for or read what is most relevant for them. Not only are headings and subheadings helpful for visitors, it helps search engines as well. Landing pages can be more easily indexed by Google and other search engines when they’re logically structured. 

 

5. Show You’re Reliable 

High converting landing pages always contain an element of trust. Include various pieces of evidence that show you can be trusted and are a reliable company, since you’re most likely asking visitors to give up some kind of sensitive information. There are five types of evidence best used to show trustworthiness.

The first is high quality landing page copy. There should be absolutely no spelling or grammatical errors. This makes visitors wary because it seems unprofessional, gives the sense that the website was thrown together, and thus unreliable. There are many tools that can help with spelling, grammar, and guides for clear landing page copy.

Proof of expertise and experience is also essential for reliability. Things such as: established in 1995, over 50,000 satisfied customers, licensed in 50 states, officially certified, member of the local Chamber of Commerce, etc, all communicate an important message. It reassures potential customers that your company is experienced, qualified, and have taken the prerequisites to earn and deserve your trust. 

Social proof, direct and indirect, is great evidence. Indirect includes social media follows, number of subscribers, likes, and shares. The more social engagement you have, the more trust you can earn. Indirect social proof can also be things like reported revenue, employee size, and other factors that bring your business clout. Direct social includes positive reviews, testimonials, and positive quotes from customers or influencers in your niche. It’s one person telling others “I had a good experience,” The simple truth is, trust begets trust.

Personal connection is next. Earn visitors trust by letting them get to know you and your business. This could be things such as a personal story, video, company bio, history, photos, etc. It helps when customers can put a name and face with who they’re doing business with. 

Lastly, evidence of security is very important. Most IT and security software vendors will give badges to their customers. You should place those on landing pages to indicate to customers that you have taken steps to ensure they’re information is protected, especially when it comes to personal or financial data. 

 

Contact Onimod Global 

Struggling to make your landing page convert or just need some digital marketing advice? Contact us! We are experts in all things digital marketing including SEM, Web Dev, Automation, Analytics, and much more. Learn more about what we do here, or keep up to date with all things digital marketing on our news page