Digital Media Immersion For A Day

By Tracey Wells

In today’s marketing environment, digital reigns king. That’s one key thing I learned attending the first Baltimore Digital Summit (#bds1) in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Sept. 30. Held in conjunction with Baltimore Ad Week, the audience was a mix of advertisers - creative types and executives - entrepreneurs and digital media enthusiasts.

We learned that digital’s growth rate eclipses all other channels with seemingly no end in sight. This combination creates a web of decisions in the best use of digital media for your brand’s success. It was one of many strong points made during this informative and inspirational seminar.

Here’s what You NEED to Know:

1. Social Media is not a PR platform.

Please don’t mistake social media with a channel to brag about your brand. People do not want to listen to you promote your own awesomeness on social channels. The primary goal of social media is engagement. Finding a connection with your customers is the holy grail of digital media. Revenue is a secondary goal, followed by the growth or adoption of new fans. Use social to build your brand, not flaunt it.

2. Content is key.

Compelling content remains important in digital media, much like in all marketing channels. Your audience is distracted by media clutter. Be unique. Compelling information doesn't always need to push a positive angle, though, so long as it engages. Consider this “baby” campaign from Durex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xEoqWuN1_8.

3. Don’t SPAM the media.

If you are using the press to spread your message, digital media experts like Mario Armstrong (@marioarmstrong) and Roger Mecca (@rogrmecca) advise to engage in one-to-one contact. Don’t SPAM the media using email or Twitter. Send an individual message using a single channel, otherwise it just feels like stalking, or worse, impersonal.

4. Put your content where your audience is.

Research and understand your customer: Where are they? What are they saying? Be there to solve their problems and deliver a solution where they are, not where you think they should be. Are they using mobile or desktop applications? Content marketing is more about content discovery than search. For example, a search for low rate credit cards could lead to content about a debt consolidation loan, providing additional helpful information for the searcher.

5. Take calculated risks. Don’t be afraid to fail.

“Fail forward” was the one quote that resonated the most from the summit. If you are taking a calculated risk and fail, then you are failing forward. Be prepared to take risks, make mistakes and learn from them. Henry Ford did not create the first automobile without risk and failure, but where would we be without his fortitude? A recent risk taker that took off is Tessemae’s Salad Dressing, a family company whose founder left a steady employee benefits representative job to start a company and is now making millions selling salad dressing. Honestly, I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t listened to the story first hand. Learn more here http://www.tessemaes.com/pages/about-us.

6. Engage. Connect.

Let your customers tell their story. This allows them to engage with your brand and connects you to the community. While the customer story is the body of the content, your business is the halo.

There is no one-size-fits-all for social media. Each brand will find a few channels that work best to deliver their message. Within each channel, brands must deliver in an appropriate voice for that channel’s identity. In other words, Twitter will have a different voice than LinkedIn or Facebook. 

Listen to your customers, whether through your own research or listening services like Adobe Social. Find your influencers and join the conversation.

Certain concepts that shape all aspects of marketing also hold true in digital media, while others may sound like a foreign language when heard the first time around. Digital media has turned marketing on its head, and continues to spin it to places that excite and challenge even the most seasoned professionals.

Reading List

Top Dogs by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

The Startup Playbook by David Kidder

Apps & Resources to Check Out

Glide http://www.glide.me

Xero https://www.xero.com/us/

ban.jo

HARO http://helpareporterout.com/

All Good Marketing Tells A Story

All Good Marketing Tells a Story – Part 1 (of 3)

By Kyle O'Brien

The phrase “every person has a story” applies equally to business. Every company, business and corporation started somewhere, and their stories – their origin and history, the passion and motivation of the people involved, and the reason for their continued success – beg to be told. Each business is unique, and whether it’s a century-old corporation or a year-new upstart, it has a tale to tell.

The problem some companies have is that they haven’t yet told their story, perhaps because they don’t see it as important, or they don’t know how to put what they are all about into words and images that fit today’s methods of communication. To consumers, yours is just another business trying to get their money. Creating the “why” of the business, the unique selling or marketing proposition, then getting that proposition heard is what leads someone to buy. It makes them care.

Businesses need marketing in some form to help them tell their tales. Successful companies bond emotionally with their customer base. This dramatically increases their chances for brand loyalty and for long-term success, and that happens when they hone their ability to tell meaningful stories about their businesses.

From Retailer To Storyteller

An example I was proud to be involved with was a radio-based campaign for a local outdoor goods retailer in Portland, Oregon. The store was already popular, and the two owners had their names and faces on the side of the building and in their printed and online sale ads. Their business appealed to the independent and outdoor-minded people of the city, but they hadn’t really reached beyond their core customer base, and they had never really told the story of why they originally got into the outdoor retail business.

After sitting down with the two in a meeting, I found they were natural storytellers, and funny as heck to boot. So, I put them in front of the microphones at our radio studios, asked them questions and just let them go for over an hour. What came out of it was a wealth of engaging stories – they were friends since boyhood and had numerous, and often hilarious, outdoor adventures growing up, ranging from comically overturned kayaks to epic motocross trips – which we edited into 60-second commercials that aired on the indie rock station. The campaign, which also included banners and streaming ads on the radio station’s website, not only helped tell their unique story but also entertained in the process. The campaign continued for a year, kept fresh by rotating in new stories every other month, and it led to a widening of the store’s customer base with an increase in brand recognition, and ultimately sales. Letting the public into the owners’ personal world through smart storytelling helped bring them closer to their customers, which broadened their appeal and cemented brand loyalty. The listeners of the radio station felt they were learning intimate details about a local business rather than being sold to, which empowered them to shop at the store with confidence.

When stories like these are told, businesses and marketers win. But businesses need to open themselves up to the storytelling process. They have to understand that people want to know more about them and that this sort of transparency and detail can lead to greater brand loyalty.

See the next chapter of this blog for more about telling stories that make a deeper connection and how to create your story in elevator pitch form.

Visit www.marketingpartners.com.