Be Innovative with Your Marketing and Stand Out

The way companies are learning to engage with their potential clients and customers is certainly interesting! Fun and fresh are the two key words to take away from this post. I recently heard about a front-yard lawn fountain filled with a soft drink. This was placed in a lady's yard, she won it in a contest run by the soda company. Then the media picked up the story and ran it. It was just another one of the wild ways companies are now having fun with their customers online. They're really taking engagement very seriously for the most part and being highly creative in their interactions with the public which is refreshing to watch. There are exceptions with some - who are still old school, but most companies have teams to engage the public now.

Everything is completely changing and so very fast we're seeing these changes. The way companies engage with clients, even how customers are found today is totally different than it was even about 7 years ago. There is less focus on the traditional advertising and more focus on the creative and innovative campaigns which engage large audiences in a fun way. Many more companies are willing to hire brand spokespeople to rep their brands on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter etc. We're also seeing many more of these fun contests, active live engagement campaigns, fun hashtags and exciting videos being presented by traditional companies looking to interact with their fan-base. The way businesses are located today is highly online {even if they do still have brick and mortar locations} The marketing for just about every product is digital now. Even the way customers decide on which products they'll try is based on online reviews and Google searches. Of utmost importance are the customer comments online for almost all decisions are based online. As a business, you need to take time and study your reviews. The best thing you can do is to engage with your customers directly and take the feedback seriously. Use this shift to our newer review based culture to your advantage. In order to take advantage of online reviews, actively seek out happy customer comments to offset any negative ones.

We're Drowning in Ads

There is so much noise on the Internet between as many sites and social media sites all competing for our time and attention. Now with the constant ads showing up everywhere we look in places they'd never been we have a tendency to be blocking out what we read more. Between the ads in social media and apps and we just naturally just ignore it. We must ignore all the nonstop blasts of ads on apps that have taken over every aspect of our lives. Who would of even thought 10 years ago while you'd be pumping gas, ads would be playing selling us products? That would of seemed really foreign even 10 years ago. Many of us are learning we must take breaks from the social ad bombardment rest between working and social media. So much bombardment can lead to negative health consequences. We need rest too, besides read social posts and ads. Many people today regularly take large breaks from being online with announced social vacations. We are learning to focus on what is most important to us family and friends, our healthy, our pets and our need for sleep, our need for downtime over being online 24/7.

As a business you need to study this change to take advantage of it and learn new ways of engagement in a fresh new ways to keep the level of interest up.

Knowledge is Power

For brands, blasting more ads actually makes the public have less interest. The need to tune it all out is very high, so this creates a new marketing challenge. How to get the audience who has seen all the ads interested again? Today marketing is all about communication and engagement with your ideal customers. Getting to know what they like, where they are online and what most interests them are keys to keeping customers. Engaging and learning what they want your brand to produce for products in the future {for example} is a great takeway. What changes they'd like to see in your existing products. Learning that knowing your ideal customers likes and needs will only set you above your competition. Knowing what to have in spoken and written communications is key. Knowing what your content writers should include and not include in your website, marketing materials and social media posts all will lead the right clients to you. Finding just the right content which is engaging, entertaining, meaningful, helpful - the type of content they'd share in social themselves with their family and friends. The mother of all is the "The did you see this?" with a share. The word of mouth advertising that no one can deny is the best advertising of all!

Celebrity Endorsements

Brands which are on top of their game have noticed this change in the way advertising is done today. We've moved to the "who also likes it business model" more than ever. The rise of the social media shout outs. One shout out either positive or negative by a celebrity makes or breaks a brand in an instant. The connection for a brand with a celebrity can make a brand go from unknown to an overnight success in about a second on social media. The "new media stamp of approval" all the brands are banking on it to make their brands stand out. Brands spend hours studying online individuals and media personalities on how they speak to others. The brands make their decisions as to who they will offer brand ambassadorship positions to based on online interactions, all these decisions are based on engagement with audiences and follower counts. The brands themselves study their own audiences extensively, they watch and listen intensely to their social conversations, and develop plans to use that content in their social profiles. There are no mistakes made by the top pros in marketing when it comes to who's comment they share. They know their ideal customers inside and out. They are well aware of the social and emotional connection to celebrities with their customers. They know their ideal audiences to the point they even know which celebrities match well with their demographics. The celebrity ambassadors are actively encouraging conversations about the products they use and are able to engage audiences like no other. The sharing of just one post placed well can bring in millions of dollars and receives comments unlike the brand could ever bring in on their own. The celebrities make megabrands out of small to medium businesses overnight with their visibility.

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Moving Forward

This is a new way of doing content marketing. The content may come in different forms from contests, shout outs, carefully timed and designed mentions. The sharing is more natural and the conversation is often organic and the emotionial connection is based around celebrities. Start thinking of ads as conversation pieces, as a conversation starter over just an ad. Helpful questions and conversations gives the engagement your brand needs while it also creates a level of expertise in the online marketplace we call the web.

Start

So start thinking like a customer. The more helpful and education based your brand is the more loyal your customers will be. Your goals is to drive engagement in a softer more caring way to hit home the point you care and like your customers.
The new rules to content writing and marketing are simply "Relationship based Consumerism", not blasting 'em the cows come home. No one cares to listen or cares to buy products with those tactics anymore.
IF YOU TAKE AWAY NOTHING ELSE REMEMBER THESE TIPS:
Content.
Care.
Engage.
Educate.
Emotion.
Connection.
Help.

If you any need help with developing a marketing mindset or developing a marketing startegy for your businesss, or any other marketing challenge, subscribe to my email newsletter. http://www.sharonnicholas.com/free-resources.html It’s filled with helpful advice, hints, tips, and lessons and case studies I'll include too.'

About Me

Sharon Nicholas is a Marketing Strategist and Coach. Sharon is a Business Consultant, Writer, Corporate American Marketing Strategist & Best-selling Author of four books. You can connect with Sharon on Facebook www.facebook.com/AuthorSharonNicholas/

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