In a World of Marketing Madness, Simplicity Rules Posted on March 2, 2015 by Jessica Lunk Marketers and advertisers used to control the message sent to consumers. But a lot has changed. For instance, we can opt out of watching TV commercials and skip the radio for our favorite podcast. Today there are lots of different channels from which your audience consumes information. This also means that many forces are at work to influence customers to make decisions. Word of mouth, peer recommendations on social media, online advertising, thought leadership, online searches > all of these channels work together to turn prospects into customers. Today’s multi-channel approach to marketing can feel overwhelming, but there is relief. In a complex world of marketing madness, simplicity is key. Here are 5 ways to simplify marketing: Simplify Your Messaging > Do you know who your best customer is? If your messaging is generic, and you’re trying to speak to everyone, you’ll find it difficult to capture anyone’s attention. Instead, boil down your company’s mission, purpose, vision and unique value proposition to attract only your best customer. Your messaging will resonate much better with your audience, cutting through the noise to pull in more (and better!) customers. Simplify Your Design > Website design is trending toward big images, flat icons, and shorter, succinct copy. Sites and design are getting simpler in order to adapt more easily to a fluid landscape of devices, social media channels, email, video and online ads. Design is a communication tool. It should get to the point and aid in conveying your message. Design shouldn’t hinder your ability to connect with your audience. Simple, responsive design can help your brand resonate with your audience across all channels. Along those lines, simple design elements can help you quickly execute multi-channel campaigns, easily adapting creative to social media, print, ads, video and others. Simplify Your Tools > Have you ever invested in technology, only to find that you needed a specialized consultant just to get it to work for you? Not only are complex tools frustrating, but they are time consuming and costly. As a small business, you can’t spare extra time and resources just to make a system work like it should. Cut out the middle man and use simple, but powerful tools like Hatchbuck customers Deanna Fenton and Kim Doyal have done. When you invest in tools that fit your business size, budget and resources, you can dive right in and start seeing results now, rather than waiting 6 months to roll out new technology. Simplify Your Campaigns > Today, marketing is 6 months in, not 6 months out. Agility and flexibility are crucial in executing cross channel campaigns. The market, your target audience, technology – a lot can change before you wrap up a year long campaign. Shorter iterations give you a chance to test a campaign, measure results, learn from what worked (or what didn’t) and repeat. Simplify Your Tests > Little changes can add up to make a big impact. Test one little change at a time to improve customer conversions across channels. Elements like the color of a button, a homepage image, a line of copy, or an email subject line can all be optimized to generate better results. Moving the needle doesn’t need to be complex. Gaining incremental advantages can make a big difference in your business, improving metrics like conversion rates, deal size and customer lifetime value. It’s always easier to get complex. But complexity doesn’t help you to get organized, connect with your audience, or have those meaningful conversations with prospects and customers. Keep it simple to calm the marketing madness.
Marketing Campaign Lessons from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Posted on August 27, 2014June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is the type of campaign marketers dream of – a viral, revenue-producing campaign that has everyone talking about your brand. While you may not come up with the next Ice Bucket Challenge, you can run with a few key takeaways to make sure your next marketing campaign is a success. Simplicity is Key. There is no secret formula for making something go viral – often it’s a perfect storm of creativity, influence and current events that boil down to the perfect recipe for an infectious campaign. But you have to start somewhere on your quest to reach more people with your message, so start with simplicity. The ALS challenge is super simple to understand and act upon, so that anyone, and everyone, can participate. Audit your next marketing or social media campaign for ease of use and eliminate any unnecessary steps that may hinder involvement. Influence is Everything. Former Boston College baseball captain, Pete Frates, is credited with helping the Ice Bucket Challenge go viral. Frates, who is battling ALS, participated in the challenge, and his connections in the sports world took it from there. Since then, global celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey have participated in the challenge, using their star power as a platform to reach millions of people with the campaign. Before you launch your marketing campaign, think about how you can rally the influencers in your network to participate so you can get the most leverage out of your campaign efforts. Innovation Beats Budget. ALS could have poured a lot more cash into a much less effective channel. Instead, with an innovative social campaign, they reached millions of people and received a ten-fold increase in donations. While you can’t always bet on a viral marketing campaign, you can refuse to meet the status quo. Track where you are spending your budget and the impact of that spend to highlight programs that are working and ones that aren’t. Think outside of the box to achieve the same results at a lower cost. For instance, could allocating spend away from a niche conference to a direct mail piece be more effective for reaching more prospects? Can capturing leads from a freebie-offer on your website be more effective than purchasing a cold list of contacts? You won’t know until you test, and taking a creative approach can pay off. Marketing Makes an Impact. Sometimes, especially when it’s difficult to track your marketing efforts, marketing can feel like fluff. But, between July 29 and Aug. 21, the ALS Association had received $41.8 million in donations, compared to just $2.1 million during the same time period last year. Brand awareness and relationship building have everything to do with the success of your company. You can have a great product, the best service or the most noble cause, but if no one knows or trusts your brand, they aren’t going to invest in you. Whether you’re a digital marketer, social media maven, or in the creative department, tracking your marketing efforts back to ROI can show just how valuable you are to the big picture. Maybe you won’t come up with the next “Harlem Shake” or “Ice Bucket Challenge,” but who knows, maybe you will. In the meantime, focus on simplifying your message, building relationships with influencers, out-innovating (instead of outspending) your competitors, and measuring marketing impact to grow your business.