CMOs: 3 tips to engage your customers in the digital world

As a CMO, you know the importance of engaging your high value consumers in today's highly competitive digital world. As a graduate student in Integrated Marketing Communications [IMC] program at the Northwestern University with an interest in digital marketing, I have found two insightful articles on how to engage consumers in the digital world.  

The Article “These 3 digital marketing strategies are making ads more relevant for all” published in April 2015 by Tessa Wegert , interactive media specialist, provides three effective tips to create relevant ads and thus to increase customers’ engagement. These three tips are leverage programmatic ad, go niche on social media and finally match ad format to audience. By following the three steps, companies are more likely to create advertising relevant to consumers. 

http://marketingland.com/wp-content/ml-loads/2014/01/customer-engagement.jpg

Another article published in April 2015 by Roger Katz , CEO of Friend2Friend, talks about “How customer engagement campaigns impact customer experience”. In this article Roger talks about the benefits of engagement marketing and six ways to further engage the consumers. The six ways include: 1) Personalize the matching of customers with products and services. 2) Help customers to learn something about themselves. 3) Challenge customer knowledge. 4) Invite the best customers to the inside track. 5) Ask customers for testimonials. 6) Ask consumers for content. By following the six steps, companies are more likely to engage with consumers through positive experience.  

After reviewing these articles, and based on my experience through the IMC program, here are three action items any CMO or marketing manager should immediately begin to think about and take actions on:

• Understand your consumers – Understand your consumers’ life style and interests. Use social monitoring system to find customers’ motivation to engage with your products.

• Create relevant content – Based on the understanding of your customers, marketing team should create relevant content that is contextually meaningful to your consumers to draw their attention.

• Interact with your consumers to engage them – Interacting with consumers on social media. Encourage consumers to take part in product design and brand storytelling to build stronger relationship with consumers.

Taking customers as our centroid is the basic principle for Integrated Marketing Communication. But marketers often forget to apply this principal to the daily marketing practices. The three steps allow marketers to know more about the customers and build more meaningful relationship with them. When customers have a strong relationship with the company, they are more loyal to the brand.

Ada Cui is a M.S. candidate in Integrated Marketing Communication program at Northwestern University with interests in digital marketing. She worked for FocalPrice and LightInTheBox, two China-Based online global retailers as Digital Marketing Manager targeting at Hispanic market. She is passionate about digital marketing and will graduate from Northwestern University in Dec 2015.

You are welcome to follow her on Twitter: @Ada_Wendong or get connected with her on LinkedIn. 

Digital Strategists: 3 Ways to Differentiate Using Mobile and Video Storytelling

The opportunity to differentiate by tapping into under-invested mobile video is now and using video storytelling is how to break through. As a graduate student at Northwestern in Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and a research and strategy professional, I've found two articles that you will find interesting. 

Our friends at Adage recently published an article titled, Mobile Ad Spending Lags Use, But Not for Long, eMarketer Says, which states that consumers are watching less TV, but engaging more with video in other formats. While this isn't necessarily breaking news, the gap in spend among mediums is. The eMarkerter study found that:   

• TV makes up 90% of video ad spend and 77% of time consumers spent with video
• Mobile gets only 3% of video ad spend and makes up 12% of time spent with video
• Total time spent on mobile devices is up to 2 hours and 51 minutes per day, likely as a result of simultaneous device usage

With time on mobile devices steadily increasing and the lower share of video dollars spent on mobile, there is a great opportunity to capitalize and reach viewers. 

http://www.havasmedia.co.uk/2015/01/the-future-of-video-and-its-consumption/

Adage also recent helped break news that the video game Guitar Hero is getting refreshed. The article, Guitar Hero Live: Activision Updates Classic For New Generation, explores some of the new updates, which includes live action video. The new live video elements or video storytelling, puts the consumer at center stage (literally) and builds a strong emotional connection with the consumer. The new game uses the theme of Stage Fright, an emotion that research among consumers showed was greater than even death. Guitar Hero Live builds upon the emotion, using video storytelling and a fictional band (made up of real actors) to show how stage fright can impact performance. As Activision CEO stated, "putting the player on a real stage, in front of a real audience -- and creating this sense of stage fright was the "meaningful, breakthrough reinvention" that made a new game launch worthwhile." The experience that the video storytelling created, was the driving force behind the launch. 

There is an opportunity in mobile and video storytelling can help to seize it. Here are the three steps that should be taken to capitalize on mobile opportunity using video storytelling:

1. Go mobile-It is an efficient way to reach your users and there is less clutter than with other platforms
2. Get focused-Learn about key customer moments or emotions and use them in your video content
3. Tell stories-And maintain them throughout all aspects of your campaign, it will help differentiate

Differentiate video content by putting the customer first and using video storytelling. Ensure that the customer's experience is felt within your video to help it separate from the clutter. Use these experiences and build upon them to create relevant content throughout your brand interactions.

Brian Blake is a student at Northwestern University pursuing a Master’s degree at Medill School of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). He leads the Research and Insights team at a CDW. He has experience in brand and corporate strategy, brand research, copy testing and VoC.  @brianblake_me 

LinkedIn

Social Media in Your Small Business Whether B2B or B2C

I love your title but get rid of everything after the word Business.  You make an impact with the first 1/2 and the B2B and other stuff just ruins it.

Next, check the font on this article.  It appears to be really small.  Make it bigger so it is easier to read.  Check it in the preview.  My response is in Ariel at the Normal level.  See how much bigger it is.  See if it is easier to read.

To start, you really need to do two things.  First, connect with the reader.  Second, establish your expertise.  I would recommend an introductory paragraph of 2 and only 2 sentences to accomplish these objectives.  The first sentence should be something like "As a small business manager, you hear a great deal of talk about how to use social media to reach your customers and prospects.    Next, establish your expertise by saying something like "As a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill IMC marketing program, I have found two articles on social media and small businesses.

Then, go to the first article.  I don;t really see an article here but in the second paragraph, you should just discuss the article.  Cite the article and the authors and put in active links to them.  Be sure the active links open to a new window.

On a day to day basis, I talk with Marketing executives at small businesses regarding how to market their products to both businesses (B2B) and consumers (B2C). Frequently, these discussions include social media; specifically, how to use social media to leverage their profile within a specific space or within a targeted market. In most cases small businesses are not only concerned about leveraging the brand's profile, but are also interested in how to use social in a way that will create a ROI so that their efforts are measurable and have literal value. 

After the first article [paragraph 2] you need a GREAT graphic.  It must be relevant.  Put it between the two articles to draw their eye to the articles.

NOW, paragraph 3 should be a second article.  Again, summarize it for the reader and have the article title and the authors as active links. 

First thing is first, what to communicate to your audience through social? Mashables, Todd Wasserman, encourages small business marketing executives to as yourself: Do you follow a brand? Why? The answer to this question typically falls within one of these three reasons:

· Passion: Connecting with one of your passions and/or interests.

· Personality: Entertaining you with their engaging personality.

· Transparency: Providing interesting and/or important information to you.

After the second article is summarized, paragraph 4 is the most critical one for your blog article.  You should start is with something like "From my analysis of these articles and my social marketing studies at Northwestern, there are three action items all small business owners should do now.  They are:

Then. give me 3 bullet items.  They must be a short 2-3 word action item [in bold] followed by a dash and a single sentence explanation [not bold].  Something like Focus on Passions - then explain    Personality is Important - then an explanation.   If the above bullet points are the ones you want to use, don't cite others but tell them they are your recommendations.

NOW, you need to summarize the blog.  Two sentences max.  Encourage the small business owner to do your three recommended action items and do them now.  Tell them the benefits of doing it.

AFTER the three bullet points, there should be NO OTHER citations or articles.  Just make three great recommendations and then a short summary paragraph.  Everything after the bullet points should either be erased or incorporated elsewhere.

As a small business, these are things you should be thinking about when sharing content to your followers/targeted market. Caitlin Francke, SVP, and Director of Social Strategy at Publicis Kaplan Thaler states that, "These approaches are interchangeable, and a brand can not only switch back and forth between them, but also use two or three at the same time." You can read Wasserman's full article article here: http://mashable.com/2013/02/22/social-media-marketing-strategy/.

It should also be noted that social media is more than just posting pictures and hashtags. Bryan Srabian, from the San Francisco Giants' director of social media, explains that it is important to listen to fans/followers, participate in conversations, and give them a voice to be heard.
NOW you need a italicized paragraph of you and your background.  give them your name and the fact you are a graduate student at Northwestern.  Tell them the career / industry you are seeking and end with your Twitter @ tag.  

Make these changes and then publish and begin testing it.

Millennials Drive Alcoholic Beverages Trends

It may not be surprise for marketers in the alcoholic beverage industry that Millennial Generation is the most influential alcoholic consumer recently. Millennial Generation often represents people whose birth dates are from late 70s to late 90s. According to an article I recently read, this group makes up 20% of the US population and 72% of this demographic drinks alcoholic beverages.

This article identified the importance of Millennial Generation to alcoholic beverage industry and suggested that social media should be the “critical marketing tools” for brands to target Millennials.

Combining with the reading and my personal perspectives, I provide three recommendations for marketers in alcoholic industry who want to target the Millennial Generation more effectively.

Photo source: nightclub&bar

Create Values

Price is the most important factor they consider when Millennials are making their purchase selections. However, the generation is more value-conscious than other groups as well. According to a research, more than one third of Millennials purchase products because of the brand values they have perceived.  These two results may be contradictory, however, they are not necessarily conflicting at some points. For marketers, these results show a fact that Millennials will scrutinize price carefully but the values of brands, which marketers have delivered for their prices, will definitely be took into consideration by Millennials as well. So the most important issue for marketers here is to create and deliver extra brand values to Millennials. By creating values that mean something to Millennials, marketers can not only charge premium price for product but also encourage Millennials to have commitment with brands.

Implement social media

There is no need to say that social media is one of the most important marketing tools for marketers to leverage in order to increase customer engagement and many other purposes. However, Millennials are more likely to interact with brands they like through social media than other demographics.  Millennial Generation has grown up with computer and many of them have used Internet as the primary news source nowadays.  They use social media a lot. It is really important for marketers in alcoholic industry to grasp this opportunity to connect with their Millennial customers through social media. Social media allow Millennials to be involved in everything from product design to marketing and marketers can easily foster conversation between brands and consumers. By leveraging social media, it will be more effective to increase customer’s engagement, build loyalty, and connect with Millennial customers.

Be fresh

Millennials like to receive or heard anything new immediately from their love brands. They want to be informed by their favorite brands instantly when any change has been made or any new product has been launched recently. Marketers should keep providing Millennials interesting information or small marketing tactics such as limited time offers to obtain their attention. By doing so, Millennial will be entertained and engaged and therefore brands can maintain positive relationship with them. 

Calvin Chang is a Master candidate at Northwestern University studying Integrated Marketing and Communications, and specializing in direct and interactive marketing, marketing analytics, and digital marketing. Calvin will be graduating in December 2012 and can be reached on his twitter handle at @CalvinChang1987 or on LinkedIn: http://lnkd.in/rDQtXB

Three Things Luxury Managers Need to Know about Digital Strategy

As a graduate major in the Medill IMC program, we learn about luxury brands and the trends which impact the marketing of them. Just a few years back, most luxury brands were skeptical about digital media. The question, “Is digital killing luxury brands,” was frequently asked, and for many prestige executives, their brands’ exclusivity ran tangent to those wholly democratic platforms. Their fear was reasonable – if they failed to nail it, the democratizing effect of digital media could have diluted the brands.

Now that premium brands have found themselves befriending the fear. And they have good reasons to talk themselves into going online. According to Adweek, eighty percent of people with an income of over $250,000 are active on social media sites. In addition, a 2011 Digitas study shows that millennials, also known as digital natives, will become major high-end shoppers over the next few years and should therefore be targeted now.

So brands from Aston Martin to Cartier are embracing digital wholeheartedly. They are setting up Facebook pages, posting videos on YouTube, redesigning their ecommerce sites, and developing mobile apps. Choosing the right platforms is essential to good luxury brand digital strategy – on that we can agree. However, great luxury brand digital strategy puts emphasis on a more holistic approach. They ask how – how to leverage the world’s most democratic media. With that in mind, here are three things today’s luxury executives must know when creating their own digital strategy:

Picture Source: ogilvydo.com

1. Maintain that sense of exclusivity. Luxury managers have been worried about losing their cachet in this digital landscape. However, their concern misses the point because if premium brands want to remain prestigious, they need to engage not only the affluent set but also the aspirational set. This is where the power of digital media comes into play. Digital media offers luxury brands an opportunity to build tremendous clout among customers who want but cannot afford the products. This, in turn, helps the brands preserve that sense of exclusivity and makes the products more desirable for high-end shoppers.  

2. Create an engaging experience. Oftentimes, engagement relies on stories that sell, whether it be a Facebook post or a branded video. Cartier, for instance, has done a great job selling its story recently. The French jeweler is running a digital campaign for the new Tank Anglaise timepiece. The campaign focuses on communicating the history of Cartier’s iconic Tank timepieces. Cartier creates a video that showcases the Tank model alongside the evolution of the arts, and the Tank story is also incorporated into Cartier’s social media content. 

3. Be consistent in the brand image. Maintaining brand consistency across digital platforms has become somewhat of a challenge to today’s luxury marketers. This is because digital media has changed the way these brands reach their target audience – it seems difficult to control the brand image while encouraging “interactivity.” For luxury marketers, however, killing the conversation between the brand and the consumers is not the answer. Instead, understanding that they need to ultimately gain control of their branding through generating content, responding, and monitoring on a regular basis is the key. 

By adhering to these principles, luxury brands are taking that first step to better ingratiate themselves with consumers in the digital landscape.

Phoebe Chen is a graduate student in Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University. She specializes in brand management and marketing analytics and has experience working with multinational companies operating in various industries. Follow her @yhschen or connect with her on LinkedIn: Phoebe Chen.