Retailing CMOs: 3 Recommendations to Better Incorporate Social Media Into Your Marketing Strategy

Social media has become the place for consumers to find and connect with brands on a personal level. A majority of consumers incorporate some form of social media in their shopping process and a fast growing portion of them are purchasing through social platforms. As a senior marketing leader and social shopper, understanding the trends and bettering my social strategy is critical for continued revenue growth. 

The article, Do Today’s Retailers Still Embrace the ‘Change Markers’ in a Company?, gives perspective on the advancement of social media in the consumer sales process and its role in forming genuine connections with your customer base. Steven Sumner provides compelling statistics to reenforce the growing social shopping trend and the need for marketers to consider social as a key element in their strategy. CMO's can't afford to ignore the importance of social media today and its impact on the shopping process.

                                     Image from Convert With Content. 

Jan Skrabalek's, 4 Impressive Benefits of Social Selling, is an actionable followup to Sumner's article. She defines social selling, sales interactions with customers via social media, and gives four key benefits of continuing to evolve your social media strategy. Consumer engagement through social content is key to gaining social relationships, loyalty, insights and referrals. 

Based on my analysis of these two articles and my experiences at Northwestern Medill IMC I've developed 3 recommendations that you should consider next time you are building your marketing strategy. 

• Elevate Social Presence – Build a social strategy that genuinely engages and educates your audience. 

•  Social Influences Shopping– Social media influences the shopping process when content adds value for your followers.

• Recommendations Rule– Engage followers by asking for feedback and get them talking about you.

Consider bettering your social strategy with these three recommendations to increase engagement and social consideration with your brand’s followers. 

Robyn Petit
I am senior marketing leader in the consumer technology industry pursuing a master's degree at Northwestern University. I have passion for data driven marketing and finding better ways to engage and resonate with consumers. Connect with me on Linkedin and Twitter.

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HR professionals: 3 actions to take towards gender equality hence better company performance

Gender equality has been one of the most debated topics for decades in the history of mankind. Being underrepresented in power and decision-making, women around the globe is still striving for equal pay for equal work, and they continue to be targets of physical and sexual abuse.

Nowadays, with more spotlight on the discriminative behaviors and unfair treatment to women, 
there are more and more voices from the population, and the significance of their roles in the economic development as well as important topics that concerns the entire human race has been 
readily increasing.

As a student at Medill, Northwestern, and with a strong interest in Human Resources Management (or People Operations as defined by Google), I have found two articles on the issue of gender 
equality you might find interesting.

The first article is The Economic Cost of Devaluing “Women’s work” by Kristalina Georgieva. In 
the article, Kristalina talked about the unpaid work women are constantly doing, a large portion of 
that being work around the household, and the opportunity costs of it. In the article, Kristalina 
suggested helping the overworked and underpaid with policies besides stating the significance of valuing women's work.

The second article is ESG: Invest in companies standing up for women in the workforce by Lyxor ETF. In the article, gender equality is discussed from the investor's point of view, in an objective and data-based manner. Women in OECD countries are listed as an example as they are well-educated, however, underrepresented and undervalued.

Based on the articles as well as my learnings from Medill, Northwestern, I have three recommendations for you as a woman at work myself.

Action Recommendations:

• GENDER DIVERSITY RULES- As shown in one study by McKinsey, gender-diverse companies are 21% more likely to outperform their peers on EBIT margin, a measure of profitability.
• STRIVE TO TRANSPARENCY- Keeping an open dialogue is the best approach to eliminate workplace discrimination and motivate all. 
• BALANCE THE SCALE- Not only is overall gender balance important, pay attention to the leadership team as well as your workforce. 

The next time you think about hiring, promoting, or firing an extraordinary lady, and how she represents an irreplaceable group of top-minds in your industry, recall the three recommendations to better structure your thinking.

My name is Monica, and I am an IMC student at Medill, Northwestern. I am proud to be a woman in work. I am starting a career with the purpose of becoming an accountable HR professional who stands for gender and race equality.

Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or advice at wenfangshi2019@Northwestern.edu.

Or you can reach me via LinkedIn or Twitter.

Ecommerce Sellers: 3 recommendations on preparing for the holiday season

As an ecommerce seller, you probably already know that the holiday season is a great time to attract buyers and boost sales. The holiday season is approaching and more and more people are shopping online, so it is crucial for ecommerce sellers to get ready for it.  As an IMC student who is interested in ecommerce, I find these two articles below that provide useful tips for sellers to prepare for the holiday season and stand out in the competition.

The 2019 Ecommerce Holiday Readiness Checklist: Technical and Marketing Preparedness — from Local to Global

Author: Rally Stanoeva 

Publication

The first article is written by Rally Stanoeva on the subject of getting ecommerce ready for the holiday season. In the article, the author creates a detailed checklist for the sellers to make sure that they can fully leverage the end-of-the-year shopping season. The article includes topics on mobile commerce optimization, SEO seasonal updates, campaigns and promotions, packaging guidelines, customers’ shopping experiences, the global marketplace, and new technical preparations. As shoppers are getting ready to shop for holidays with excitement, it is important for ecommerce sellers to get well-prepared to attract more eyes to generate more profit.

source: https://is.gd/HolidayShopping

5 Tips To Increase E-Commerce Sales During The Holiday Season

Author: Austen DiPalma 

Publication

The second article is written by Austen DiPalma on the subject of tips to increase online sales during the holiday season. According to the article, end-of-year holidays drive more sales than non-holiday months. Moreover, shoppers also use ecommerce as a search portal for their gift ideas. To increase sales, is suggested that sellers use advocacy marketing by inviting loyal customers to share your content out. You should also make sure that your site is “holiday-ready” just to provide a smooth shopping experience for customers. You may also want to get your site “mobile-ready” for those who shop on their phones. Lastly, holiday-themed content is a good way to attract shoppers’ attention, and personalization message is a great tool to lead shoppers to make purchase.

Recommendations

1.     Use push notification

-       In your apps, use one-time messages for special offers and use automated notification based on user activities

2.     Get personal

-       Send personal recommendations and coupons to existing shoppers in the apps or over emails and offer personalization on your products' listings to build customer intimacy.

3.     Leverage social media

-       Make social media posts about deals and products and create social campaigns before the holiday season starts. 

Now the Christmas season is considered synonymous with the shopping season. Ecommerce sellers have to get ready for it ASAP and react fast to boost end-of-the-year sales.

About the Author:

Nancy Zheng is from the Northwestern IMC program and will graduate this December. She is interested in social media, ecommerce, and the indie music industry. Here is her LinkedIn. You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram

CEOs in China: 3 Recommendations that Deliver Value, Drive Business, and Create Speed

Introduction

As a CEO in China, keeping up with the latest consumer trends has a great impact on the profitability of your businesses. With a degree of Master in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University, I have been chasing after the latest consumer insights that can be super powerful for your businesses in China.

Two Articles

In the report China Consumer Market February 2019 published by Virginia Economic Development Partnership, great insights are provided to better understand, gain confidence, and ultimately penetrate the Chinese consumer market, which includes a great number of interesting trends of consumers and markets, some key consumer product sectors, and general trade regulations of China.

(Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26087974@N05/11423157513)

In the article A Big Shift In China: Consumers Are Trading Down, Author Says written by Russell Flannery, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, the author has shared about what his take on China's economy is and what this means for the CEOs in China.

Action Recommendations

1. Consumers seek value – Chinese consumers currently look for value in products more than ever before.

2. Millennials drive business - Millennials will contribute 20% of the total consumption growth of China until 2030, more than any other generation.

3. Apps create speed - Mobile phone apps have become a major channel to reach consumers. Apps permit quicker transactions than in traditional channels.

Ending

Although Chinese consumers' confidence is increasing, CEOs must keep up with the latest trends in the markets. CEOs in China need to clearly know who their high-value customers are, what these customers want, and how to reach these customers.

About the Author

David Chen is an experienced Co-Founder with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing industry. 0 customer to over 800 customers in 4 years. A strong business development professional with a Master's degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University specialized in Insights and Analytics. Come and follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter!

Explorers: 3 Tools To Build Itinerary For Your Dream Trip

In the recent years, people are looking more into doing personalized trips, travel planning tools are becoming increasingly important to help individuals get the experiences that they truly desire. For both the travelers and the luxury travel agencies, it is critical to get to know the best travel planning tools. As a student studying integrated marketing communications in Northwestern University and with an interest in traveling, I found three articles that you will find informative.

Sarach Schlichter gives a list of 5 Best Trip Planner Apps for Travelers, and Lori Zaino also recommends several Best Apps for Travel. On the other hand, Jennifer Allen illustrates the 6 Best Trip Planning Apps for Headache Free Travel.

Travel Planning Tool Recommendations

1. Plan with GoogleTrips – GoogleTrips provides a good scratchpad for testing trip ideas and seeing the destinations with recommendations on a map.

2. Review with TripAdvisor – TripAdvisor has comments and tips of the specific attractions written by other travelers, so you can finalize the places that you would like to go.

3. Organize with TripIt - TirpIt turns scattered booking confirmations and reservations into a single master itinerary that is accessible on your phone anywhere.

Keep those 3 recommendations in mind and make your unique dream trip come true.

About the Author
Glenn Xu is a current student of the IMC program in Northwestern University.