Bright Planning - Weekly Marketing Strategies

Woohoo! It’s Episode 100 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast! That means we’ve brought you at least 33 and a half hours of free marketing advice! Most episodes run longer than 20 minutes, so it’s no doubt closer to 50 hours!

As always, this celebration is hosted by Catherine Campbell and her producer Natalie Pyles, with a special appearance by yesteryear co-host Jason Pyles! Your three intrepid hosts bring you our predictions for 2019 marketing best practices.

We start the show with a little levity as we discuss Reese’s brilliant, post-Halloween marketing gimmick. #NotSorry We also discuss how we think Instagram will fit into the social media marketing of 2019, with its top “promotional” photo spots. And we talk about the development of Image Search.

Jason discusses how voice search should play an important role in your 2019 blogging efforts. We also talk about the simplifying of language, and of course, the ever-mysterious holy grail that is SEO. We explore the importance of niche podcasting and how narrowing your field of focus can attract a highly motivated and specialized audience. We also talk about how to get away from having to offer so many freebies in 2019.

And naturally, with Jason on the show, we run down a number of rabbit holes and other weird segues and non sequiturs, like serial killers and Natalie’s grandma. You know? A usual episode. Join us!

Links for this episode:

Documentary “The Creepy Line” - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J261ZFM/

Cliff Ravenscraft: https://www.cliffravenscraft.com/

Link to https://www.brightplanning.com/user-generated-content-is-king/

https://www.brightplanning.com/existing-content-how-to-break-down-an-interview-into-multiple-pieces/

In Episode 99 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast, we’re wrapping up Season 2 — our Girl Power Season — with an awesome show that recaps the highlights of our best marketing storytelling tips from the past 99 episodes! A genuine must-listen!

During this episode, we talk about adding positivity to your storytelling and marketing. Think Zen! In a climate with so much contention, tragedy, and negativity, your positive messaging will stand out and be refreshing to your customer community. Strive to depict praiseworthiness in your marketing. Know your audience and what they want from their marketing, especially in terms of the length of the content that they prefer, and so forth.

Planning is essential. While a plan may not be worth much, planning is priceless! So, be strategic and plan for the long-term: Condition your audience’s attention spans. For instance, if you want to condition your audience to receive more content (or less) from you, then you must make this transition very gradually.

Remember to set your brand off to the side, and keep the customer at the center of the story. Feature your customers front and center! Be honest and transparent with your community. This is good PR, and it just makes good business sense. Join us for this episode to learn more! Thanks for listening.

Links:

https://www.brightplanning.com/who-do-i-need-on-my-team-to-execute-a-marketing-plan/

https://www.brightplanning.com/every-successful-marketing-plan-uses-these-4-types-of-media/

https://www.brightplanning.com/what-to-do-if-you-fall-behind-on-your-marketing-plan/

https://www.brightplanning.com/when-does-your-business-need-a-marketing-plan/

If you want to learn how to write product descriptions that sell, Episode 98 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast can help! Naturally, you can always observe the strategies of Dollar Shave Club or Trader Joe’s to help provide inspiration. In this episode we explore some of the effective tactics that those companies use and more!

For example, we discuss how disruptive headlines and product names are not merely employed for the sake of shock value, but they are used to spark innovation within the industry. Depending on the product, for some creators the product inspires the name, and for others the name inspires the product.

As always, storytelling plays a crucial role in writing product descriptions that sell. A careful copywriter can tell a story through a production description that’s only one paragraph. Remember that stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. And the end should land right in the customer’s lap, so they can relate to the “punchline” or point.

Slick marketers often use quirkiness to their advantage. It’s OK to be different. In fact, try to do the exact opposite of what everyone else in your industry is doing. Just avoid being crass because that does not inspire the confidence of your consumers.

Remember not to write about the product; write about the experience. And for some additional reference, you can also peruse this blog post: https://www.brightplanning.com/how-to-write-top-selling-product-descriptions/

Thanks for listening!

The art of public relations tends to go hand in hand with marketing. If you’re getting ready to market a product, service, or book launch, you can pave the way by taking care of a lot of the PR aspects in advance. You can also create the posters, display stands and other marketing collateral early.

In Episode 97 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast, we discuss the importance of working months in advance, so you can have time to facilitate media coverage. Media outlets can often have long lead times. For instance, print magazines are three to six months out!

Build relationships with journalists now, so when you need to pitch them something, they already know you. Plan enough time in advance so as your launch date approaches, you can email the journalists and follow up a few times.

In this episode, we also talk about how to "triage" your inbox and reply to emails quickly and professionally. Join us to learn more! Thanks for listening.

https://www.brightplanning.com/two-quick-tips-for-better-press-releases/

https://www.brightplanning.com/public-relations-the-rising-gap-in-the-publics-trust-in-the-media/

https://www.brightplanning.com/episode-38-the-6-month-look-back-assess-your-marketing-goals/

https://www.boomeranggmail.com/

Medium.com is a free, online publishing platform that has become a popular resource for content marketers. It is essentially a blogging tool with a built-in audience. Medium connects you with your Facebook and Twitter connections automatically. You can’t exactly target certain Medium readers, but you can still be discovered by its readers.

Should you be using Medium as part of your content marketing strategy? In Episode 96 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast, we tackle this question and others.

For instance, we also discuss creating a publisher account that allows you to import your existing content from anywhere from the web (even your own website). You can re-post all your writing, thereby giving your blog a boost and helping to draw more eyes toward your content. There are a lot of people who will engage on Medium who may have never stumbled upon your website otherwise.

We talk about the importance of being a reader. “Fill your well,” so to speak, by reading the work of other writers. Notice how the most effective writers deliver stories that have heart. Give this same sense of heart to your stories and your business will have greater visibility.

Along those lines, we discuss the necessity of being a writer. Your writing strategy and voice become part of your brand. Be sure you develop a distinctive and memorable approach to the way you write your messaging.

Let us know if you’ve tried Medium, and if you found it helpful for getting more engagement for your brand! Email us at [email protected].

By the way, we recently launched Signature Brand Story! Our registration closes in just two weeks, and then we’ll kick off the course! Don’t miss out: signaturebrandstory.com.

First things first! Signature Brand Story launches today, October 1, 2018!

https://signaturebrandstory.com

What is the current landscape of social media? If you've ever wanted a "State of the Social Media Platforms Address," then Episode 95 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast is for you! In a nutshell, social media is still worth your time. It’s where people learn to trust you and get to know you. Here are a couple of factoids:

Did you know that 64 percent of online shoppers say that a video on social media helped them decide which product to purchase?

When it comes to Twitter, "the online water cooler," acknowledgement is key: 77 percent of Twitter users appreciate a brand more when their tweets receive a response. On average, it takes businesses about 10 hours to respond to a tweet, but customers want a response within four hours. By the way, we talk about how Twitter is where people tend to get their news.

In this episode, we also discuss the ages and percentages of Instagram users. We discuss the new way to post for Flash Sales and Instagram Stories. You can learn the total number of monthly active Instagram users. And we talk about hashtags and whether they matter for engagement.

During Episode 95, we also let you know how much time people are spending on Facebook. And we talk about selling directly to those in specific lifestyle groups. Learn more about creating events on Facebook (and how to promote them). We even discuss Pinterest and cat videos … naturally. Join us to hear more!

Link to 3 episodes on marketing budgets: https://www.brightplanning.com/episode-51-lets-talk-money-small-business-marketing-budgets/

https://www.brightplanning.com/episode-55-the-smbs-guide-to-a-10k-per-month-marketing-budget/

https://www.brightplanning.com/episode-54-marketing-with-1k-per-month-use-this-strategy/

https://www.brightplanning.com/episode-53-how-to-market-your-small-business-for-100-per-month/

Link to blog post on different social media ideas you can come up with to use video:

https://www.brightplanning.com/ep-89-brainstorm-ten-social-media-campaigns-in-20-minutes/

Link to the ballad of pinterest: https://www.brightplanning.com/episode-35-the-ballad-of-pinterest-and-lessons-in-visual-marketing/

Welcome to the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast. In Episode 94, your host Catherine Campbell discusses just how powerful storytelling can be. She highlights five particularly compelling examples of how companies can draw their target audience into their origin story, mission or brand. These brand campaigns are clever and effective, so this episode is a must-listen for those who are seeking some marketing inspiration!

Here are the examples that are highlighted during this episode:

Innocent Drinks - Features a great About Us story

https://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/our-story

Land Rover - A fantastic method for increasing interaction with fans

https://www.landroverusa.com/our-story/news/vanishing-game.html

Toms Shoes - How to tell a story over and over each year

https://www.toms.co.uk/onedaywithoutshoes

Airbnb - Highlights the uniqueness of each customer, not the skeleton of the brand

https://www.airbnb.com/community-stories

Burt’s Bees - A legacy brand that doesn’t grow old

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPzVbbzc5Aw

And don’t forget that our Signature Brand Story launches October 1! Be sure to sign up now with your name and email address to get the first class free!

Website conversion is the whole point to building an online presence and having a space on the internet. In Episode 93 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast, we discuss where your website falls in the overall sales funnel. We talk about the importance of ensuring that every single call to action on the website is designed with conversion in mind.

Every web page should have a call to action. Believe it or not, this is where almost every small business owner fails! Did you know that putting a call-to-action button on your About page can make a big difference?

In Episode 93, we also examine what happens if you place too many sales or action-oriented choices on one page. Each page of your site should offer no more than two or three choices. Don’t build too many widgets, such as social media, email opt-ins, free downloads, channels to explore, and variations on a product. This overwhelms the customer. The two or three choices toward a sale should all complement one another.

Having a downsell action in place is another important tip. Downsells include a single actionable item such as an “exit popup” that offers a free guide or tip sheet for your service or product. This strategy captures leads whom you can sell to later via email marketing or even direct mail.

Testimonials and reviews should be strategically placed across all website pages, not huddled together. Don’t hide them away on a Testimonials page because it tends to get mediocre traffic and almost no conversions. Use powerful testimonials that talk about visible results! Ask your customers or clients to give you specific numbers, visible changes, etc., to anchor the testimonial.

We also talk about changing the color of your action button, using scarcity and urgency, social proof, eliminating the pop-up and embracing the slide-out, search buttons, navigation links, font choices, reduction of content and registration forms, clickable phone numbers and emails in the top header and more!

Don't forget our Signature Brand Story launch on October 1, 2018! Be sure to sign up now for your email and name to enroll in the first class free!

SHOW NOTES:

https://www.brightplanning.com/how-to-make-quizzes-for-lead-generation/

https://www.brightplanning.com/episode-40-the-ego-episode-marketing-with-quizzes/

https://www.brightplanning.com/marketing-with-online-quizzes/

https://www.brightplanning.com/invisible-marketing-4-rules-for-the-future-of-online-sales/

In Episode 92 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast, we’re happy to discuss the following questions from Chelsea, who writes:

I'd love a 101 on 'market research'. It's always a recommended practice and I can do market research in my own way but I never really know if I'm doing it productively. Maybe you could walk through an example of what "doing your market research" looks like for a small biz owner.

Am I networking with other photographers to learn the culture? Am I surveying past clients to understand what they want? Am I researching what other photographers are offering in my comp set? Am I Google searching keywords? All of the above? These are just a few questions that I ask myself when told to "do my market research" and I'm overwhelmed with how vague that sounds. Just a thought! : )

Chelsea

Thanks for the great questions, Chelsea!

While there are many ways to perform market research, most businesses use at least one of the five basic methods: surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, observation and field trials.

So, what is the purpose of marketing research? You can use research to receive more clarity on brand awareness, competition in your field or local area, new or current product likeability, demographics on your target audience, simple “this or that” votes, branding decisions, business model or pricing decisions, cultural insights (if you’re expanding to a new geographic market), and so forth.

In Episode 92, we also talk about the importance of knowing your goal. For instance, you should be able to readily answer these questions: What problem are you trying to solve with this data? How will it benefit your product, your customers, or your company in general? Asking these questions will allow you to understand the issues and the type of data you’re looking for.

Listen to this show to also learn more about marketing surveys, focus groups, current client conversations and interviews and more! Thanks for listening to the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast!

If companies want to understand consumers, big data offers a valuable but incomplete solution. Our preoccupation with digital data endangers high-quality insights and observations. The internet remains a curated, idealized version of who we are. Small data has the power to influence the way we create products and marketing campaigns that actually matter to the whole person, not just the persona they’re presenting.

In Episode 91 of the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast, we talk about how to gather small data in order to level up your marketing game. There is a framework for collecting small data, but it’s challenging, so many companies don’t bother. You can use the seven C’s to gather small data for your business: Collecting, Clues, Connecting, Causation, Correlation, Compensation and Concept.

“Collecting” asks how we can establish a baseline perspective and gathers as many different perspectives from as many trustworthy sources as possible. The “Clues” phase consists of observing and notating information about your customers’ idealized, publicly curated and private selves.

“Connecting” looks for any similarities or patterns in the midst of the information you’ve gathered. Start assessing whether you can begin to validate your initial hypothesis about your customers. “Causation” examines what emotion is evoked. It’s important to look for the emotional DNA of the research. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers.

In the “Correlation” phase, you take time to assess whether there is an event, milestone or shift that your company has made — or that your consumers have gone through — to bring them to this point. Also, try to determine whether your brand was influential.

“Compensation” examines which desire is not being fulfilled and the best way to fulfill it. Note that emotional fulfillment and physical fulfillment are very different. And based on what you’ve learned about your customers, “Concept” explores the big idea that your brand can bring to the table to fulfill their desires. Listen to learn more!