6 Tips for More Intimate Marketing

6 Tips for More Intimate Marketing

Is your content connecting with customers?

Effective marketing is — and likely always will be — a distinctly human-to-human endeavor. It’s important that your content cultivates intimacy with your audience and engages in a way that builds trust. And that’s not something you can fake (or pass off to AI robots).   

So, how do you get more personal? Here are six tips to get you started.

1. Start with customer-first policies and practices.
If you start from a place of genuinely wanting to provide your customers with an authentic and positive experience, the content you create will naturally reflect those goals.

2. Stay in the conversation.
Don’t just put out content and call it a day. Stay engaged and moderate conversations as needed to ensure a welcoming environment for your audience.

3. Add context to data.
Talk to your customers like people. Try to humanize data with context instead of just throwing out stats and numbers and letting your audience fill in the blanks.

4. Tell customer stories.
Use narrative case studies to show the human element of your product or service, as well as to illustrate that there are real people who rely on and benefit from what you do.

5. Embrace micro-communities.
Going micro with your targeting is essential to making strong and sustainable connections. It can also help make your marketing more effective since the engaged individuals are more likely to be interested in your brand.

6. Reward loyalty, and say thank you.
Say you care — and show it, too. Loyalty programs are a great way to build positive relationships with your customers. And saying a genuine “thank you” is as human as it gets.

For help creating a more intimate marketing strategy, get in touch with us.

Is Your Marketing Strategy All-Inclusive?

Is Your Marketing Strategy All-Inclusive?

By now you’ve probably realized that consumers expect more diversity from their favorite brands’ marketing content, images, social media, community initiatives and offerings.

If you’re not considering diversity and inclusion with thoughtfulness and intent, you’re losing out on a big opportunity to connect with your audience. And you might even be losing customers.

Here’s why diversity in marketing matters — and a few action steps to take.

Audiences Want Diversity

Everyone wants to feel like they belong. Yet, many consumers don’t find themselves accurately portrayed in marketing, if they can find themselves there at all.

A majority of Americans (61%) believe that diversity in advertising is important, and 38% say they’re more likely to trust brands that do a good job at it. Likewise, consumers report being more loyal to brands that make a commitment to addressing social inequities.

Now more than ever, diversity has a direct impact on brand reputation. Your audience wants to be represented, and if they’re not, they’ll find somewhere that they are.

Action Steps

  • Define what diversity is. Diversity in skin color is a great start but go further than that. True inclusion involves a diversity of disabilities, religion, gender, body types, and all other things that make people unique.
  • Walk the walk. Your audience can see through a shallow social justice campaign. Prioritize diversity throughout your organization, including not just your marketing materials but also your company and team.
  • Diversify your content. Before greenlighting a piece of marketing content, ask yourself: Is the language inclusive? Are the images diverse? Is the copy human and empathetic? You want people to feel welcome and understood by your ads — not left out.

It’s never too late to bring diversity into your marketing. We can help, so get in touch today for additional guidance and advice.

Personalization in Marketing: Why and How

Personalization in Marketing: Why and How

Personalized marketing provides visitors with an individualized experience. In turn, this creates more opportunities for brand growth and customer loyalty — and increases the chance that people will make a purchase.

Want to learn more about personalization in marketing? Here’s what you’ll want to know.

What are the benefits of personalization?

Creating an individualized experience can help your brand stand out in an oversaturated market. When customers feel that you care about them and not just their money, they’re more likely to take notice and engage.

How important is data for personalization efforts?

Data is critical for personalized marketing. Luckily, there are many ways to help you find out who your customers are and what they want.

You’ll need to get familiar with data analytics tools, use surveys and quizzes, put an A/B testing plan in place, and do thorough market research.

How are brands customizing their marketing campaigns?

Segmenting and personalizing email marketing is a common way that brands to start with customization.

Many companies also use more advanced techniques such as personalized abandon cart messages and promotional offers, custom product or service recommendations, and location-based recommendations.

Other Considerations

Putting data to work is always a wise idea, but personalization can also involve:

  • Quick and helpful customer support
  • A thoughtfully automated chatbot
  • Responsive social media management

Get Started With Personalization

Contact us today if you have any questions about personalization in marketing and how to make it work for you.

4 Shopify Best Practices to Implement

4 Shopify Best Practices to Implement

Are you using Shopify? It’s one of the simplest and most popular e-commerce platforms available, and it has plenty of features to help you boost awareness and sales. But to take full advantage of Shopify, make sure you understand how to optimize your use of the platform.

Here’s what to know, including helpful tips you can put to work right away:

Let’s start with the basics…

Shopify is a subscription-based e-commerce platform that allows any business to set up a virtual store and sell their products online. Some of its key features include the ability to showcase products, manage inventory and facilitate payments — all while making stronger and more impactful connections with your customers.

And optimize with best practices.

Selling your products online gives you a bigger customer base, but it’s still up to you to grab people’s attention (and meet your revenue goals). Make sure you’re implementing a few best practices:

  • Copy: All of your products should be accompanied by descriptive, well-written copy. Keep it short but impactful, and always include a CTA.

  • Navigation: Break down bigger menus into smaller, more digestible sections so that your customers can easily see what’s available. And put an organized tagging system in place so shoppers can easily search and filter products.
  • Collections: Create curated collections to provide targeted recommendations and increase the scope of individual sales.
  • Design and Imagery: High-quality design and images make your products more attractive and let customers know what they’ll get.

Need help with your marketing? Get in touch anytime.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

Are you familiar with omnichannel marketing?

While it’s easy to get confused with multichannel marketing, omnichannel marketing is a distinct approach with its own best practices — and its own big benefits for your brand.

Here’s what to know, including the basics of what omnichannel marketing is and some simple tips on how you can start adapting it into your strategy.

What Is Omnichannel Marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is an integrated, sales-focused marketing strategy that aims to provide customers with a cohesive shopping experience across all platforms, places and devices.

At its core, omnichannel marketing is about putting the customer experience first. The goal is to ensure that regardless of how your customers like to shop — on their phone, through social media, in-store, etc. — the messaging and interactions they have will remain consistent.

Omnichannel Marketing vs. Multichannel Marketing
Both omnichannel and multichannel marketing are diverse strategies intended to capture an audience in various places and in various ways.

Where they differ is in intent: While multichannel marketing is focused on simply building a brand presence on as many platforms as possible, omnichannel marketing is about bringing cohesion to that practice in order to boost sales.

Make the Switch to an Omnichannel Approach
Creating an integrated sales experience isn’t just better for your customers — it’s better for you, too. Here are some tips to get you started:

  • Know your customers. Build well-researched customer personas to understand how and where your audience prefers to shop.
  • Work on segmentation. Different customers have different needs at different times. Segment them into groups (for example, new customers and existing customers in need of re-engagement) so you can offer an optimized experience.
  • Focus on cohesion. You want to make sure your customers have the same experience regardless of where they are. Double-check your story, your message and your branding are consistent from channel to channel.

Need more advice? Get in touch and we can help.

Marketing to Gen Z: A Quick Guide

Marketing to Gen Z: A Quick Guide

Are you in touch with Gen Z?

 

The nation’s next big generation of spenders grew up in an era of connectivity and social influence, both in terms of how they relate to each other and how they relate to brands. To get their attention, you’re going to have to know what’s important to them. Here’s a quick explainer to get you started.

What is Gen Z?
Generation Z refers to young adults born in the years 1996 to 2015. And they’re about to surpass Millennials as the most populous generation on the planet.

How Gen Z Feels About…
As the most racially and ethnically diverse generation of Americans to date, it’s difficult to generalize about Gen Z’s opinions. What we do know though: Members of Gen Z have lived their whole lives online, and that’s affected how and where they’re spending their money — and their feelings about the market in general.

  • Brands: Authenticity is the name of the game when appealing to Gen Z, with 82% saying they trust companies more if they use real people in advertisements.
  • Capitalism: Only 20% of Gen Z has “very positive” views about capitalism, which is fewer than any preceding generation.
  • Social Media Marketing: Gen Z isn’t just completely tuned in to social media marketing they’re also redefining it. So while they’re happy to engage with brands, it’s increasingly on their own terms.

What It All Means
Gen Z has high digital expectations for brands. Looking ahead, you’ll need to invest in new platforms and the authenticity of your image.

This generation is spending big, but you have to earn it. If you need more guidance on how to do it, get in touch.