Is Content Really Important?

When advertises are creating creating digital marketing campaigns they must focus on the content they are producing. To keep consumers engaged marketers must produce content that is interesting and relevant. Content marketing comes in a number of forms with some of the best examples of content marketing being provided in an article I was reading earlier today.

Source: TechCrunch

An example of content marketing suggested in the article is web pages. Although a web page does not seem very exciting they can be an important aspect of a digital marketing plan. A good company website can be the difference between attracting new customers or scaring them away. Apple is a great example of a company web page that proves a what a powerful tool content can be. What is great about this page is it is incredibly easy to navigate with easy access and information for all Apple products on the landing page. The ability to easily navigate the content of the site cannot be understated and with a quality site such as Apple’s it is easier to satisfy consumer needs

Source: The Real Daily

The other form of content marketing that I want to talk about is video. Video is increasingly popular with consumers and marketers are reacting to this. I have previously spoken of the rise in video consumption, in particular on Facebook. In this post I spoke about the difficulties of this increase in video favoured content but the best way to overcome this issue is to ensure quality content is provided. If an organisation releases videos that provide value and engaging content to their consumers they will be successful.

However, these are only two examples of content marketing. The article also suggested infographics, podcasts and books. Do you think these three are better examples of content marketing or would marketers be better to utilise web pages and video content?

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts

Living in an Artificial World

Marketing is constantly changing, progress through new technology ensures this. When we think of Artificial intelligence, or AI is it is more commonly known, we often think of old movies like the Terminator when robots take over the world. However, AI as menacing as this and actually presents an opportunity for marketers to succeed. When researching AI I came across an article about how AI is used by marketers and the two ways that stuck out to me were in search and recommendations engines.

Source: Search Engine Land

The first way that AI is becoming increasingly useful for marketers is through web search. In particular Google has begun using an AI system called RankBrain to assist with searches. Using RankBrain Google is able to find more relevant results for difficult and obscure searches. This is incredibly powerful for Google as it increases consumer trust in the search engine. If consumers trust that an obscure search will provide results through Google they are far more likely to use Google rather than competitors such as Bing or Yahoo.

Source: InSites Consulting

The other use of AI that is becoming a more prevalent part of everyday life is recommendation engines. A company that is well known for using recommendation engines is Netflix. Netflix uses a recommendation engine in their algorithm to analyse what their viewers have been watching an determine what they would also enjoy. By using this form of AI the hope is to provide the most enjoyable experience for their subscribers. I personally find this tool useful as the recommendations they provide at times can help me chose a new tv show to watch that would not have even crossed my mind without Netflix. 

These forms of AI are most certainly powerful tools for organisations and make life easier for us as consumers. Their use proves that AI can be incredibly useful for consumers and should not be feared. However, what other forms of AI are being utilised by Companies?

Leave a comment and share your thoughts below

Will it Blend or Will it Go Viral!!!

With marketing going digital and many advertisements now coming in a video form, viral videos are having a strong effect on consumers. When a video goes viral the reach of an ad campaign is increased and a company is far more likely to succeed. This has been true for a number of campaigns that have gone viral including Old Spice, Pepsi and Microsoft. Each of these brands has achieved success through viral campaigns but no company has been quite as successful as Blendtec.

The most viewed viral advertisement in history was the 2010 Blendtec ” Will it blend?- iPad” advertisement. The ad features Blendtec founder Tom Dickson placing an iPad into a Blendtec blender to prove that his blenders can handle anything. Despite being an advertisement for a company that sells blenders it was a huge viral hit. The video has over 18 million views on Youtube.

Source: Blender Reviewer

As well as this video Blendtec has released a number of other videos to create this campaign in which they blended other products such as iPhones and glow sticks. Whilst researching Blendtec I found an article about their success and was amazed to discover that Tom Dickson has released over 140 “Will it blend” videos with 256 million combined views on Youtube. I personally find this fascinating as there is nothing overly exciting about blenders but Tom Dickson found a way to get get consumers talking about what some would consider a generic product.

Source: Youtube.com

If relating this campaign back to Kaplan & Haenlein’s groups of viral media campaigns this campaign would be considered a triumph. A triumph is a viral campaign that is company initiated and has a positive response by consumers. However, a triumph for one company could be a disaster for another. This campaign reflects badly on Apple as it shows their products are breakable and leaves a bad image in consumers minds.

This raises the question:

Can companies like Blendtec cause serious damage through a viral ad? Or in this case is it ok that the ad effected Apple negatively because Blendtec is a much smaller company that needed the success and Apple will continue to be successful regardless the ad.

Leave a comment below and let me know how you feel

 

The Rise and Fall of Mobile Marketing?

Technology is taking over the world. Every year peoples reliance on technology is becoming stronger. In particular individuals usage of mobile devices is growing. With mobile devices being a convenient way to access information and make purchases mobile devices have become integral to everyday life. This fact can’t be ignored by marketers. Mobile marketing is growing and is important for any organisation. An article I read a few days ago listed five reasons that mobile marketing is becoming more important. I would like to talk briefly about two of them.

Source: The PediaBlog

The first reason is that consumers are spending more time on mobile devices. According to the Sensis Social Media Report in 2017, 81% of people own a smartphone and 45% own a tablet. So, if consumers have these mobile devices why not use them? A mobile device can be used in almost any location. This may include whilst on a tram or train or even whilst on a lunch break at work. By having these devices consumers have information at their finger tips. Knowing this allows marketers to target consumers through mobile marketing at any time or any any place and remove the restraints of traditional marketing.

Source: Travel Tripper

The second reason the article presents for why mobile marketing is booming is because mobile marketing and mobile commerce are so easily intertwined. Mobile commerce creates convenience for consumers. It allows consumers to access a range of products and services that would not find in a physical location. By utilising on this knowledge marketers are able to target consumers that are fond of mobile commerce and encourage them to make a purchase then and there. Why wait to go into a store when you can buy on the spot?

However, does this create an ethical issue for marketers? Does the use of mobile marketing encourage consumers to make purchase decisions that they would not ordinarily make. In some cases consumers could jump from the awareness stage of the buying process right into the purchase stage and if the consumers are unsatisfied what will their post purchase evaluation of a brand be? Is it possible that despite the effectiveness of mobile marketing that it could have a negative effect on organisations?

Share your thoughts below and let me know what you think.

Is Mobile marketing the way of the future or could it create more problems than it is worth?

Segmenting the Digital Age

With the world moving towards technology and marketing becoming digital a major consideration that must be made is how to segment consumers when capitalising on digital marketing. When researching how segmentation has changed for digital marketing I came across an interesting article that suggested three strategies for segmenting digital markets.

Source: Bridge Marketing

The first strategy is for companies to develop personas through digital platforms. Organisations have always segmented consumers into groups of people with similar characteristics such as age, gender or geographic location but are these effective with online consumers? It is more likely that their online behaviour is useful to segment consumers. By focusing on consumers online behaviour and interests marketers are more likely to get a sense of who they are and what they like more than they are with characteristics such as age or gender and can create personas that match these behaviours accordingly.

The next strategy was to integrate unique experiences into the customer journey. Different customers are at different stages of their own individual customer journey. Some customers are only just becoming aware of a product, other customers are considering buying a product or service and some customers are brand loyal. So how do you segment consumers at the different points of their journey? By creating a unique experience for customers an organisation can gauge their response to segment them. Not only can like minded customers being segmented together but the overall customer experience can be improved to the benefit of the organisation.

Finally the third strategy was to identify touch points using a multi- channel approach. By utilising multiple digital marketing channels a marketer can get a clearer idea of what stage in the sales process consumers are at. For example consumers looking at a Facebook page may be in a preliminary research stage but a consumer that opens up a companies online store will most likely be at a sales consideration stage. Being able to identify these touch points can be very valuable to marketers for segmentation as consumers can be targeted with individuals at similar stages of the sales process.

How do you think these strategies compare to traditional segmentation?

What other strategies can you think of to better segment consumers of digital marketing?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Online and offline: Can they work together?

As technology becomes a more integrated part of our lives we have to think about the benefits of it both online and offline. Earlier this week I was thinking about how digital marketing can effect offline performance and came across an article that talks about offline campaigns with digital marketing. The article suggested a number of strategies but the two I found most interesting were using Hashtags and Influencers.

Hashtags can be an effective way to track the success of an offline campaign. Using a hashtag can create a conversation about an offline campaign that will grow beyond offline and become online. When this happens the success of the campaign can be seen with the campaign reaching further than it could have as a mere offline campaign. A great example of the use of hashtags offline was the #shareacoke campaign. Through the use of the hashtag coke created a integrated campaign and created a conversation about their products that a mere ad would not have.

Source: Facebook.com

The other strategy that I liked was the use of influencers and in particular social media influencers. Social media is a powerful tool for marketers and social media influencers can help a company reach a new potential market without even needing to create an online campaign. Social media influencers can bring consumers attention to an offline campaign that is being run. This gains more attention for a brand and more consumers are likely to buy the product because they have trust in the opinion of the individuals that bring the campaign to their attention. Influencers can even use hashtags to help promote a campaign.

How else can these strategies and digital marketing be used to increase the success of offline campaigns?

Share your thoughts and let me know what you think.

SEO: Dead or Alive?

In this weeks lesson Wags talked in great detail about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  A part of this included an article which debated the question, is SEO dead?  The article argued that SEO is not dead but rather is just changing. I found the article very interesting and three of the trends that the article discussed were content marketing, social media marketing and a shift to mobile usage.

Firstly, content marketing is crucial for a company looking to use SEO. One way to optimise a sites position on a search engine such as google is to have good quality content that is linked to other sites. If the content a site is publishing is of a good quality and it is clear to googles algorithm that the site is at a certain standard and relevant content is clearly provided then it is highly likely that the page will be highly ranked.

Another trend that I found interesting was social media marketing . In the 2017 Sensis Social media report it stated that 60% of large businesses are now capitalising on social media marketing. As consumers become more reliant on social media in there everyday lives company’s need to respond to this change. If they fail to have a strong social media presence they are reducing their chances of being highly ranked in a web search.

Source: GeoMarketing

Finally, the shift towards mobile usage is becoming increasingly present. Consumers no longer sit down at a computer to search something that they want to know. With mobile phones becoming more powerful consumers can now search the internet wherever they are. If a site is not mobile friendly consumers will not react positively and will ignore the site despite the content or quality of the product or service being provided.

What do you think?

Is this the way that SEO is headed to survive or do you believe that voice search poses a great enough threat to “kill” SEO?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think

Netflix and Changing the Face of Advertising

The way that individuals are consuming media is changing and it is all because of On-Demand services like Netflix. Whereas once consumers watched television and were subjected to advertising, Netflix has changed the game. An article that I read earlier this week discussed how companies can still advertise with Netflix without traditional marketing.

Source: Fox News

The first suggestion was the for companies to advertise through the use of product placement. Product placement has been prevalent in film and television for many years and when used well can make consumers aware of a brand and willing to buy from them. However, when used poorly can be too obvious and create a negative perception of a brand in the mind of consumers. Product placement would be a good way for Netflix to bring advertising onto the platform without the use of traditional advertising. Netflix subscribers like the fact that there are no ads on the site and product placements would be a good alternative.

Source: Stark Insider

The other alternative that was suggested is for Netflix to allow further merchandising. Merchandising is a very different strategy to product placement but could prove to be just as effective. In particular this strategy is effective with science fiction or children shows. The use of merchandising would allow consumers to form a connection with characters in new shows on Netflix. By creating this connection with consumers they are more likely to watch shows on Netflix and support the companies that produce the merchandise.

What else can companies do to advertise with on demand services?

Can Netflix avoid traditional advertising forever or will they have to adapt to survive?

Share your thoughts and let me know what you think.

 

 

 

Video Favoured Content and the Struggle to Connect with Consumers

A few days ago when reading an article about emerging trends in digital marketing I came across an interesting trend. The trend is that social media platforms like Facebook now and will continue to favour video content and as a result companies need to ensure their content is engaging.

Source: Facebook

Within the article some intriguing statistics were provided. One such statistic is that every day over 100 million hours of video content is consumed on Facebook alone.  I find this fascinating as it shows consumers are looking for engaging content that is more likely to be found in a video.

However this does create issues for companies as there is now more pressure on them to create engaging content. As well as this they have to overcome the endless stream of videos that individuals are being exposed to everyday to have their content seen.

Source: Facebook Brand Resources

How can companies overcome this? Even if the content is engaging there is no guarantee that consumers will even see it.

One way that the article argued was through the use of live videos. The article argued that because these videos send notifications to followers and save them after they have finished that it is the best way for companies to reach consumers.

Are live videos really the best way to remain relevant or are there other ways for companies to have their content seen?

Share your thoughts and let me know what you think.

The Influence of Instagram in Changing Marketing

Earlier this week when reading an article about social media usage in business I came across a fact that was very interesting. In the past year Instagram was the fastest growing social media platform with a 14% increase in adoption. I found this fact and the impact it has on marketing intriguing.

Source: time.com

When it comes to Instagram we normally think of people posting photos of food or holiday pictures but very rarely do we think of companies.

By looking a bit deeper I found another article that discussed the usage of Instagram in fortune 500 companies. The article provided a range of facts about these companies and their Instagram usage but most interestingly the fact that Starbucks has the greatest engagement ratio of any fortune 500 brand on Instagram.

Source: artnet news

Upon further inspection of the Starbucks Instagram page it is clear why. Starbucks posts pictures of their food and drinks, pictures from around the world and as a result fits the normal perception of Instagram.

Through the use of Instagram Starbucks is able to connect emotionally with their customers and relate to them in a way that wasn’t previously possible before social media. No longer do consumers need to watch out for traditional advertising, now they can just log onto Instagram and see exactly what new products are available. But how many people want to follow big companies on Instagram? Although Starbucks has a certain mainstream appeal to it, are other companies like IBM going to be able to gain the attention of the average social media user?

Will consumers connect with big brands through Instagram or will it’s use fail to be as effective as Facebook or Twitter?

Would you follow a company on Instagram?

Let me know what you think?