CMOs: 3 recommendations to do marketing under the age of media convergence.

Media convergence has fundamentally changed how people receive and react to information from the outside world, it has empowered consumers to become smarter and have more initiatives towards information. Moreover, all sorts of information flushed online and created a rather messy environment, there are too much information flouting around consumers that has resulted in a creation of information protective barrier around each individual. As a graduate student in Northwestern university Medill studying Integrated Marketing Communication, I came across two articles addressing the phenomenon of media convergence.

From the article ‘What You Totally Forgot In Your Content Marketing And It Is Costing You All Success’ on The Social MS,  Susanna Gebauer emphasized the importance of content marketing in a media convergence age. The article explained how to create a successful content marketing campaign that involves efficient planning and organizing, precise goals, an in-depth understanding of the company’s target audience, and a powerful promotion plan.

Graph source:https://news.bpmsupreme.com/how-to-build-an-online-presence-as-a-dj-chapter-i-build-a-website/

The other article, ‘What today’s shopper want, and how omni-channel retailers can satisfy them’, on the website of marketing profs, Barry Feldman talked about the importance of becoming an omni-channel retailer under the age of media convergence. Retailers need to meet the need of customers wherever they are—on mobile, desktop, in-store, browsing with apps, or on social media in order to create a full circle and curate loyal customers. 

Based on these two articles, as an IMC student and marketer, I have three 3 recommendations to share to CMOs nowadays to deal with media convergence.

Content is King - Use content marketing to lure people out in the messy environment of media convergence. 
The best way for marketer is to create genuine, solid, interesting, useful contents to lure out customers into a roadmap of purchasing action. No matter how messy the media environment is, the quality of content always matters, as long as people are still searching things on the internet. And, quality content is the sword that can break the barrier and the one with the ability to travel through the complicated environment.

WOM marketing - Let people to trust you by using other people’s voice. 
Also because of this, consumers don’t know whose voice to trust, so they tend to ask their friends and families’ circle for advices. Also, more importantly, they went to online communities to find answers either, to read the opinion from the experts and KOLs within the community. Word-of-mouth marketing is the best solution towards this problem. Use referral programs and encourage people to share on media channels with some incentives. Also, find out several KOLs in the related communities who hold most rallying points, and let them market for you.

Omni-channel - Identify what people want, and to build an omni-channel strategy to satisfy them. 
By the impact of Media convergence, people can expose to the information in various ways and channels from everywhere, mobile phone, website, or maybe from mobile phone to website. The goal is to predict and streamlining all possible touch points across all media channels and screens to create an exceptional customer experience. And this requires an omni-channel approach, so that companies can connect the dots and continue the customer journey under the messy and chaos environment media convergence created.

With these three recommendations in mind, CMOs can do a lot easier job in the age of media convergence.



Rachel Wang is a graduate student at Northwestern University studying Integrated marketing communications, who is very passionate about the media landscape and marketing tactics. In her free time, she loves to explore new trends about media and marketing to always stay alert and on track. Her dream is to be a future CMO in the FMCG industry. Feel free to connect her at LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Content Marketers: 3 Ways to Utilize Podcasts as a Marketing Tool

 As a content marketer, finding new and creative ways to communicate with your audience, and  identifying the best channels to disseminate your content is key. As a student enrolled in Northwestern’s Integrated Marketing Communications program and lover of all things audio, I have identified two articles that will help you use podcasting as a marketing tool. 

In Podcasting 101 for Content Marketers: An Interview with the Podcast Guy, Dave Thackeray for the Content Marketing Institute, CEO and copywriter Rachel Foster sits down with Dave Thackeray, known as the Podcast Guy-- a broadcaster and journalist specializing in marketing and audio. Thackeray recommends podcasting as a marketing tool as it "brings the brand to life." Thackeray says podcasting allows an audience to engage with companies in a way that is not possible through written media--through personal communication. Thackeray says that audience crave to get to know the real people of the company and all they have to offer.  Thackeray suggests a wide array of content ideas to get you started. First, he says to look at your existing content and think about how it can be formatted into a podcast. He suggests going around the office and doing 60-second interviews with a wide variety of employees or to ask a selection of employees to have a round table discussion and record it. Asking a client to share their experience as a case study could also be an effective topic.To be effective, Thackeray tells Foster that most listeners prefer podcasts shorter than 16 minutes.

Source: AdWeek

Jayson DeMers in Could a Podcast Boost Your Content Marketing Campaign? for Forbes notes that podcast listeners are not necessarily the same people reading your article or your white papers. Podcasts present a unique opportunity to widen your appeal and share your knowledge with a new audience. DeMers suggests to use your own experiences to differentiate yourself from other podcasters. He gives the example of What's Good Games, a podcast by four women in the male-dominated video gaming industry. Their unique experiences make for a unique podcast able to attract a loyal following. DeMers acknowledges that podcasting, like any marketing communication, should be consumer-focused. Your podcast should provide your listeners with your unique perspective to meet their needs and wants, but also should take their feedback and loyalty into account. DeMers suggests releasing content at the same time and on the same time day every week. This consistency will build a more loyal audience.

Based on these two articles and my experiences at Northwestern, I have developed three action items you should consider when thinking about starting or improving your own podcast.  

• Think about repurposing - Podcast listeners are not necessarily the people reading your blog, so you can repackage your valuable information to reach a new set of consumers.
  
• Be an authentic voice - Listeners will reward authentic voices sharing their expertise, experiences and their personalities—that’s you! Embrace it. 
  
• Actively listen - Listen to the feedback your listeners have-- although you’re producing the podcast, your voice shouldn’t be the only voice that is heard.

The next time you think about implementing a podcast in your marketing plan and strategy, remember these 3 things.

 

 
 Allison Ledwon is a senior at Northwestern University studying journalism, religious studies and integrated marketing communications. You can get in touch with Allison via LinkedIn or Twitter.  

PR Experts: 3 Tips to Create More Effective Content for Social Media Marketing

As a PR Expert, you know the challenge you face to engage markets that are on many different social sites. According to research in the US, around 80% of the population have at least one social network profile. Coming up with quality content in social media that will attract more followers and interact with customers. As a graduate student at Northwestern University studying Integrated Marketing Communications, I have found two great articles below highlighting the importance of content marketing in PR world.

“3 trends PR pros should embrace in 2017” by Christopher Penn for Shift Communications

Christopher in his article shows three mega-trends that will influence on PR industry this year. He mentioned that more content created than ever before. They found 72 million news online stories written in 2016 and is expected to continue expanding in the coming year. Besides, Christopher also highlighted that influencer marketing is quickly becoming one of the most important online marketing channels. Today influencer marketing is on the huge rise and tends to listen and build a strong relationship with consumers. Certainly, companies really need content marketing, and PR can help create a great content marketing strategy and build trust and credibility.

 

Source: SEO Content Specialists

“PR Content Strategy: Let’s Talk Shop!” by Gini Dietrich for Spin Sucks

The second article explains the applicability of content marketing in public relations. Unlike the company messaging or traditional advertising, Gini thinks the strong content marketing can build brand awareness, loyalty, and trust. In addition, she also emphasized how to identify content that will resonate with audiences and drive engagement. To sum up, PR content strategy can deeply understand brands’ ideal customers and drive company growth.

Recommendations

Based on the sights in these two articles and my studies at Medill, I listed three key learnings from PR contents strategy that can help PR pros to be successful in social media marketing world:

l   Make It Easy to Share - Influencer marketing taps into the power of writers who are well-known by brand’s audiences and uses their influence to spread the article. Adding social sharing buttons and making it far easier for influencer or audiences to share content.

l   Use the Storytelling to Connection - Great stories attract attention. We always say people forget facts, but they never forget a great story. Telling story can be a fantastic way to have a deeper and more meaningful social media conversation and successfully connect with brands’ target audiences.

l   Embrace PESO Model - We have the content and we can use shared media to spread it, paid media to extend it, and earned media to hand-stamp it. Overall, PESO model is a great tool to help PR pros to find the success they can build on. 

Next time you developing a PR piece, remember these three action items to create successful social media content.

I-Chuan Hsu currently is a Master of Science Candidate in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Medill-Northwestern University, as well as a marketer experienced in Los Angeles for 2 years. She is graduating in December 2017 and is interested in data analytics and International Marketing. Feel free to connect with her at @florina_hsu or LinkedIn here.