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Tip and tricks for creating great content part one

21 Oct

Training in Digital Transformation and Social Media Marketing necessitates me to keep up with a whole range of apps and software.

This is almost a full-time job as new ones emerge constantly.

I follow you tubers: subscribe to blogs; talk to influencers and industry pros; check out thought leaders on social media such as Twitter and news sites.

I mean …  who’s got the time

You probably don’t, so I’ve decided to start posting regularly on some of the amazing tools.

Content is king!

I always say that marketing used to be easy … well, easier. And that’s true.

With the rise of digital and the power of social media, today’s marketers need to be on top of their game. Yes Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial but the creative is KEY no matter if you’re creating videos, graphics, blogs like this, paid ads around various applications.

You may also be planning on creating a MARTECH STACK – adding tools to your arsenal. But what tools do you need. NOTE: It’s easy to get overwhelmed and spend time on creating stacks that don’t help.

PART ONE > Video creations tools

With the ongoing success of TikTok (a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short videos), and the waning attention span digital has created, creating engaging videos is a must.

Here’s a list of tools:

I have provided links to most of them. Some have free versions with limited features. Most offer subscription plans to match your business and budget.

Check them out. Let me know how you go.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Have fun creating.

 

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Is marketing getting harder?

31 Aug

It was fun and I was working with industry giants.

I’ve been in marketing all my career.

I started in the despatch department of a McCann’s – a global agency when I was 19 and worked my way up through various departments such as media accounts, media planning and finally into creative via the film and sound area where we recorded radio ads, setup new client pitches and filmed pilot campaigns. I also worked with the research director videoing his face to face market research.

Later I worked for media publishers and direct response agencies. I even had a stint as a creative headhunter with a legend in the industry. That’s another story …

Social and digital changed everything

A marketers role has expanded to include planning, creating, implementing and measuring. ROI is expected and marketeers must justify the budget spend. Digital tools can assist in every step of the journey but which ones? That’s the billion dollar question.

PEOPLE EQUIPMENT TIME AND MONEY

These are the resources organisations/businesses require to manage marketing. The right people including marketing teams and external suppliers. The right equipment including apps; creation tools and cloud tech. The right amount of time to plan, create, implement and monitor, and finally the right budget to achieve all of the above.

Platforms to the rescue

There are many platforms to choose from, but beware of the new ‘shiny toy.’ Think about your 4 major resources. Think about your strategy. Think about your objectives.

Then you may get your martech right.

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Welcome to the emojincey ward

1 Mar

emojincey ward

The digital sphere can be complicated for marketers and business operators, trying to keep up with all the new features social media is offering as well as apps and other whizz bang offerings.

I use the term whizz bang because when you really look at a lot of these innovations, they offer the excitement of the new. And we have been trained to upgrade from old to new even when the new features aren’t that special.

In the olden days marketing was relatively simple.

  • Create the message
  • Match it to your target market
  • Choose the best media option
  • Run the ad or the campaign.

Now targeting requires sorting through many variables to do with lifestyle and behaviours.

Ads or posts are run and testing is conducted using the analytics.

Often we are advised to run separate campaigns to ‘test’ the efficacy and effectiveness.

We are told to be strangely unique to cut through and to tell stories not to just sell.

TV channels have been replaced by internet influencers who command vast audiences.

It’s so un marketing in the traditional sense where a product or service was promoted to a market.

OK … that’s simplistic.

And there’s likes and follows. Shorthand ticks of approval from our ‘community.”

Other shorthands include the emoji.

now featuring an array of cute visages with stand out emotions. And gifs.

Like it or not, we are in the age of shorthand … short attentions span.

Ultra convenience services such as UBER Eats and Netflix stop people socialising.

But people are people and will no doubt get bored with social which is why they have to keep changing and updating and adding features.

Great advertising is still about the creative. Cut through only occurs when people stop and take notice.

So let’s open the emojincey ward where people are people and emotions aren’t a quick flick, insert and like.

emoji image:  

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Do what it takes to stand out

1 Jan

Rombaut shoe copyAs I delve deeper and deeper into the world of digital marketing and social media, discovering countless apps, knowledge bases, channels, classes and courses, tips, tricks (hacks), opinions, videos, podcasts and webinars, influencers, etc. – it can tend to be overwhelming.

One thing hasn’t changed though and that’s the need to be creative. To have big ideas (thanks David Ogilvy) and to be brave.

It doesn’t matter what medium you are on – achieving cut through is more important than ever.

It might get people to stop just for a second.

AIDA = Attention Interest Desire Action

 

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The Niche

10 Jun

There are a lot of good reasons to service a narrow market aka a niche.

niche

Here’s some info I found on Quora.

Niche Marketing

If you try to target all markets you will be in big trouble, because you’ll find yourself surrounded by a load of competition and it will be hard to showcase your unique value proposition.

A rule of thumb is to start narrow and then grow wider.

Start talking to one group of your audience and be specific about their needs and desires so that you can attend to them with your product and services.

Benefits of niche marketing:

  1. Less competitive – a small market means less competition. Carrying out good research across a small market makes it easier to find out the strengths and weaknesses of your competition and makes your product or service better.
  2. More affordable – you won’t be spending money on a broad target group, so you won’t waste money on advertising.
  3. Customers are more loyal – you will be able to nurture, teach, and understand them much better.
  4. Audience is easier to target – you know where they hang out and what their interests are, which makes it easier to target and offer them your solution.
  5. Focused – trying to offer different services for each market can be inefficient, whereas having one nice one will help you to be much more efficient and focused on one single market.

All you have to do is find yours.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-upcoming-digital-marketing-trends

 

The newer consumer decision journey

27 May

The consumer decision journey traditional

According to McKinsey, the way consumers purchase and the journey they travel to get to that purchase has changed. The traditional model (above) suggests that the process is fairly uncomplicated from awareness of a need > to familiarity with a range of solutions > to the consideration stage > next to purchase and finally loyalty (we hope.)

The consumer decision journey

The newer consumer decision journey model describes a more circuitous approach which fits with the digital age where research and comparison shopping is far easier and online reviews can make or break a product/brand. It also looks at buyer perception of brands which in itself is no new thing.

This old coke ad is all about building brand perceptions which they do nicely with their image – modern for it’s time.

old coke ad

To quote the authors ‘Our research showed that the proliferation of media and products requires marketers to find new ways to get their brands included in the initial-consideration set that consumers develop as they begin their decision journey. We also found that because of the shift away from one-way communication—from marketers to consumers — toward a two-way conversation, marketers need a more systematic way to satisfy customer demands and manage word-of-mouth.’ (+ online reviews.)

The research, according to the article, identified two different types of customer loyalty, challenging companies to reinvigorate their loyalty programs and the way they manage the customer experience. It also reinforced the importance of aligning all elements of marketing—strategy, spending, channel management, and message—with the journey that consumers undertake when they make purchasing decisions but also of integrating those elements across the organisation.

No more silos!

Source: McKinsey Quarterly

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The Fourth Wave

20 May

Digital Age: The Fourth Wave of Technology

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Pioneers of Digital Influence

13 Apr

The Smart Set

The Smart Set was a magazine that was founded in 1900 for and about New York’s social elite, The magazine evolved into an expression of popular modernism and it’s heyday went from 1913 through 1922.

It had a literary side publishing some of the best authors of the day (including Joyce and Conrad) and gave F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) his start.

Subtitled “A Magazine of Cleverness” The Smart Set never gave up its aim to entertain, to win a large audience, and to make money through advertising.

Thoroughly modern

The magazine covers (see above) are images depicting modern women. The flappers and ‘it’ girls who made the news and social pages of the day through there ‘shocking’ displays that went against the moral norms of the day. They smoked and drank and used colourful language. In that way they were liberated some might argue. But that’s not the point.

Digital influencers and advertising dollars

These were the pioneers of today’s online digital influencers who garner huge crowds of followers just by posting a pic or a little message on their instagram pages. They are trend setters (sometimes) or trend followers but they have built a brand image around themselves by understanding what their ‘tribe’ want, need and often just aspire to.

And when they attract large numbers of followers, that translates into advertising dollars.

So things haven’t changed that much – just the mediums.

and the hipsters just look like Ned Kelly.

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Marketing and Mindfulness

24 Nov

marketing-and-mindfulness

There’s a revolution going on not just in politics but in other areas.

An interesting article from B&T about the new consumers who value sustainability, health and well being above therapy shopping.

http://www.bandt.com.au/marketing/marketing-mindfulness-future-holds

We need to listen to our customers.

Donald Trump and the Shoulds

11 Sep

“The upheaval of our world and the upheaval in consciousness is one and the same. Everything becomes relative and therefore doubtful. And while man, hesitant and questioning, contemplates… his spirit yearns for an answer that will allay the turmoil of doubt and uncertainty.”

So wrote Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. Jung was also interested in and influenced by philosophy, sociology, religion and spirituality.

carl-jungI

Trump, Kanye and Kimye and the blur between reality and reality TV 

We are all living in a period of great uncertainty where our politicians and the major parties are no longer trusted (see the political rise of showmen like Donald Trump in the US and our own One Nation’s resurge.) The problems of globalisation, immigration, warfare and refugees, economic cycles, ageing populations, industry and technology and of course climate change have rendered us all into a state of unknowingness and sometimes fear. Trump and his often unstructured and simplistic rants wouldn’t have made it to second base in past US Presidential campaigns let alone get endorsed by the conservative Republican party if he wasn’t striking a chord with alienated, scared voters who no longer trust their politicians.

Trump is also a reality TV star so maybe Kanye and Kimye could be future Commander in Chief and his first lady. This says a lot about the pre-occupation with celebrity and branding. It’s more fun hanging out in billionaires mansions than listening to men in suits talking about fiscal policy + we get to live their lives vicariously (and escape our own) for an hour a week.

As human beings, we crave certainty around our lives as this gives us control. 

In reality there is no certainty much less control. We can be comfortably off and get sick. We can be employed and lose a job through no fault of our own. Our bread winning industry can go off-shore. In a lot of ways, life is random and full of paradoxes.

It’s hard to live this way but there is no choice and often pain and hardship open doors that were not visible through the haze of contentment.

The shoulds

Many years ago I was introduced to ‘The shoulds.’ It goes like this:

We should have a job and do well. We should be happy in our personal lives and have rich and fulfilling relationships. We should always do the right thing and not make mistakes.

Shoulds also relate to others in our lives:

Friends should be true and stick by you.

Family should be there for you.

Managers and employers should recognise you for your work and enthusiasm.

Shoulds let us down and make us naive.

Let go of the shoulds both for yourself and others in your life.

Be open to change because it’s rapid nowadays.

Instead enrich yourself with learning, creating and thinking outside of yourself.

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