Nick Baggott's CRM and Digital Marketing Blog

How has brand content evolved since COVID? Key themes used by brands...

Have you communicated differently since the onset of Corona Virus? Have you become more empathetic? more customer focused? More service focused? More willing to share your brand purpose? If you haven't changed, then why not? The world has changed, customer behaviours have changed, surely your customer insights must have changed too. Branded content must continually adapt to reflect the markets and people that we serve. If you haven't changed, then you are probably in the minority.

But don't just take my word for it (although I feel I am in a good place to comment as a digital marketing consultant and trainer that probably speaks directly to over 50 marketers a week, from different countries, industries and brands). I have worked in over 50 countries and in pretty much every market sector. So, what does the data tell us?

Discover.ai has complied a fascinating report, analysing how the messages and themes communicated by brands have evolved since lockdown. This free report is entitled "100 projects since lockdown". In the report, discover.ai analyse the key messages conveyed across these campaigns and summarise the key themes and approaches taken. I would advise you to take a look for yourself. That link will take you to a page where you can register to request a free copy. As a teaser, here are some of the key findings and a sample of the ideas contained within it. 

This shows the communication themes that have increased and decreased in usage since Lockdown. You can see that brands have been keen to portray themselves as empathetic and reflect how people are feeling. 

We can then see what keywords match to these themes, to help us understand what each theme represents:

Then discover.ai has analysed each of these in more detail and clustered the messaging into 7 key themes. These themes are:

• Wanting more texture from life
• Voicing a renewed purpose
• Gaining in poise
• Peering over into the wild other
• Grasping after possibility
• Finding their spiritual home
• Riding on the waves of solidarity

For each of the themes, they have outlined what the key messages are, with examples of brands articulating them. I recommend you download the report here to understand what each one means in more detail.

From my own personal experience, working with my client contacts, I have noticed a greater emphasis on two of these in particular. That is "Voicing a renewed purpose" and "waves of solidarity". An example of waves of solidarity, could be a brand like Japanine Games, who have offered to give bricks and mortar retailers 50% of the revenue when someone buys on their brand eCommerce store, even though they are fulfilling the order directly, because they realise how important it is to their customers to have physical stores that they can visit to meet friends and discover new products, once lockdown finishes. To give you a flavour of what is in the report, here is an example:

I have been reassured at how most brands have listened and reacted to the changing needs of their audiences and adapted their messaging. This report is an excellent piece of evidence, which underlines the importance of customer insight and agility in marketing.

I would love to know how your messaging has evolved and the reaction that it has had from your audience. Please share examples in the comments section. 

Ultimate SEO Checklist from SEMrush

SEMrush have just posted this excellent quick SEO checklist on their Twitter account 

There is also a link to an excellent and very detailed article, I have pasted the link at the end of this short post. When I am running digital marketing training courses that cover SEO as part of a wider range of topics, I tend to get clients to focus on selecting keywords (particularly long tail phrases), then focusing on their mobile optimisation, external link building and writing copy in an engaging way that will help with SEO. Don't forget, if you focus on creating great content, you are on the right lines. 

The Only SEO Checklist You Will Need in 2020: 41 Best Practices

 

How has digital channel usage changed during Covid-19?

Every January Hootsuite produces the most comprehensive and reliable study of digital marketing that is available. I use their studies regularly as reference materials for my training and consulting.

In April, Hootsuite published an updated report, looking specifically at uses of digital channels during April of this year as the Pandemic took hold. The report is called "Digital 2020 - April Global Statshot Report"

Here are some highlights: 

• Smart phone usage is up by 76%
• Laptop computer usage is up 45%
• Tablet usage is up 22%
• TV Streaming is up 34%
• Gaming is up 17%

And the amount of time we use each channel is up to, as the image below demonstrates:

We can also see that consumers want new content and ideally they want it to be original, exclusive and live. When asked what type of content they wanted to watch during lockdown, old repeats of TV shows and sporting events are seen as less desirable than films, how to videos and funny memes. We want to be entertained, we are prepared to laugh about the challenges we face and I am guessing we also want to switch off and we want to be bale to help ourselves. I have always been an advocate of brands creating "how to..." videos, and they can be particularly helpful when lockdown means that people have to fix their own issues and find wasy to entertain themselves and their families.

Social media usage is up substantially across the board with females increasing their use of social more than men, across all ages, globally. No surprise that the most downloaded app in the world in April 2020 was TikTok.

The report has lots of great info, so download it yourself Hootsuite April 2020 Update. Here is one last chart, showing social media usage growth by age and gender. 

If you see any more data on Covid-19 behaviours, please share it. I'd love to see it. Stay safe...

 

2 New blog posts for Chartered Institute of Marketing about communicating in the Corona Virus Crisis

I have recently guest written 2 posts for the Chartered Institute of Marketing's blog

They are: Are you striking the right tone on social media

And: Adapting your content marketing in the age of coronavirus

In these articles, I explore how brands should be adapting their communications in these tough times and show case examples of companies that I believe have struck the right tone. I have tried to feature businesses that are not known for their marketing expertise, such as Hotel Football and Blue Orchid Bakery, as I believe many small businesses have shown their bigger, less agile rivals, the way.

I was impressed with Admiral Car Insurance, who have spontaneously contacted their customers to say that they were reducing premiums as less cars on the road has led to fewer claims, but this came out after my articles were submitted. 

Please check out both articles and other excellent pieces, written by other expert CIM Course Directors on the CIM Exchange blog. 

If you are interested in contacting me to discuss either attending a CIM Course, or if you need help with your digital marketing strategy, you can also reach me on all of the usual social media channels:

Twitter - @njbaggott

Linked In - nick-baggott

Web site - Navigate Consulting Ltd

Or if you have any questions or comments about how best to communicate in these challenging times, please comment on this post...

Good luck and stay safe

How to get backlinks to help with SEO

I have just read an informative and practical article on how to get backlinks for your web site to drive SEO rankings. It was written by T-ranks 

It is extremely thorough and practical and provides lots of simple tips.

Some of the tips that i particularly enjoyed were:

• Focus on guest blogging and make sure you think about your objective and the proposition to the blogger before you approach them
• How to find Private Blog Networks to simplify the process of generating backlinks for your content
• Focus on unique or skyscraper content, don't be a follower
• Focus on getting editorial links within the body copy of articles
• Create list style posts eg the 6 best SEO tips, or my 5 favourite research tools, or 7 top tips for 2020

I dont want to replicate the whole article here. If you are interested in learning more, why not check it out here

I am doing a free webinar on Building an Audience Driven Social Media campaign

I shall be delivering a free webinar on behalf of Crowd Control HQ on March 31st

It is entitled "6 Steps to building an audience-driven social media plan". If you'd like to sign up, please do so. It would be great to see you there. Here is the link https://content.crowdcontrolhq.com/6-step-audience-driven-social-media-marketing-plan

Hey Siri, how does voice search affect SEO?

How does voice search affect SEO? That is probably the most common question that I am asked in digital marketing training courses at the moment. Surprisingly, Google is using the same algorithm for both text and voice based searches, but voice queries are impacting significantly however you search. So, I decided to have a look for myself. Naturally, the first thing I did was ask Siri! This is what Siri came back with: 

So, I have had a read of some of these results and done some research of my own and firstly here are some stats:

1) According to Google, 20% of all searches are voice 

2) 65% of 25-49 year olds talk to their voice enabled device every day

3) 55% of households are expected to own a smart speaker by 2022 

4) People use voice search to ask questions. 20% of all voice search queries use one of these 25 words:

5) Teens use voice search for calling their friends: 

So, what does all of this mean to marketers?

Here are my thoughts on how marketers should respond to the growing movement towards voice search:

1) The voice and text algorithm is the same, so keep doing what you are doing. Focus on making pages load quickly, having mobile enabled web sites, generating external links and all of the other typical SEO tactics

2) People search using different language when it comes to voice - we are more conversational. For example, on text based search we may search for "best local coffee shop", but when we talk to our voice activated device, like Alexa or Siri, we may say "where is the best place to get a good coffee around here?" So, when you are writing copy, try to include some Q&A style content on the page. Frequently Asked Questions could be a really important part of your web design strategy. 

3) People tend to use voice search more for local searches, so make sure your web site is optimised for local search. The example I gave in point 2 is a typical example of this. According to this useful Forbes article, 22% of voice searches are for local content.

4) Can you create content that could become a Google "Featured Snippet" that is a short piece of content (less than 29 words) , that answers a query, such as "What is a Featured Snippet". See below as a perfect example....

The Launch of Digital Experteers - fancy becoming a digital marketing consultant?

My blog has been quiet recently. That is because I have been putting a great deal of effort into the launch of a new business...

Digital Experteers is a new concept. If you have an ambition to set up your own digital marketing consultancy business, then this is your opportunity to do just that. Our aim, is to build a network of independent digital marketing consultants, who will all have access to the IP, tools and experience of the business' two founders (myself and Paul Haworth). Members will be self employed (it is not a franchise business), but will have the support of the founders, other members and a range of partners that we have linked up with, covering data analysis, web site build, e-learning and hosting services. You can find out more about the member benefits here. 

We have taken the content and tools that I have been developing for my consulting and training business over the last 12 years and added Paul's knowledge and experience and built some new planning and measurement tools. We call our process the ABC3 model. This model covers all aspects f digital marketing from developing your strategy to executing and measuring campaigns. Our data analytics partner, Coniak, have helped us to develop a new ABC3 evaluation tool, which will be going live very soon too. This is what the ABC3 model covers:

We will be having a free half day launch event soon, so if you are interested, please visit the site to sign up. 

 

Super Fans v Celebrity Endorsement

A national newspaper contacted me yesterday asking for my opinion on whether using super fans to create and share your content was more effective than traditional celebrity endorsement. So, I wrote a few pointers for them. I suspect they will only use a quote or two from this, so I thought I would share my thoughts in full here. Once they publish the story, I shall also tweet out a link @njbaggott.

Here are my thoughts:

Influencing the influencers has become core to most business’ social media strategy. As Social channels like Facebook and Instagram have reduced the free exposure a brand can achieve with their personalisation algorithms, brands have had to find alternative ways of engaging with their audiences. Typically, we think of influencing influencers as being synonymous with finding celebrities with large reach. However, consumers increasingly want to hear from authentic users of a brand’s product or service, rather than listening to celebrities who they do not believe to be experts or genuine users of that brand. They will trust someone that they believe is genuinely recommending a product because they use it, more than someone who is being paid to endorse a brand. For this reason, I believe brands should focus on giving their best customers a voice.

This is particularly true in the more considered purchases, like in B2B sectors or in consumer markets that consumers want to research before they spend, such as choosing a University course, or a vacation. The rise of review sites like Trip Advisor and the importance of positive reviews in search rankings are examples of this.

One brand who uses fans effectively is Disney Themes Parks in the USA. Their “Disney Moms” membership programme is used to encourage theme park visitors to post positive and authentic imagery on their personal social media channels in return for money can’t buy rewards at the park (such as their children appearing in the Disney Parade or feeding the giraffes in Animal Kingdom. This generates huge reach for believable content that promotes their experiences.

Other examples include brands like Red Bull and Abercrombie & Fitch who use student ambassadors in University Campuses to spread the word and drive traffic to events and in-store activities.

The challenge for brands is how to maintain the feeling of authenticity when reviewers and members are getting rewards in return and also generating the reach that a high profile celebrity could achieve in one post.

My football team, Reading FC have used super fans in a different way to build bridges with their core fan base and to improve their fan experience. Since the appointment of a new Chief Executive in 2018, Reading FC have regularly engaged with a select group of Super Fans to ask for their opinion on generating a more positive atmosphere in the stadium and to bring more of a connection between fans and the club. It is the fans’ responsibility to feedback how the club has co-operated and listened to them with the rest of the fan base, via podcasts and fan forums. This has resulted in the club opening up a new area of the stadium, Club 1871, to fans who want to support the team in a positive way that does not include being abusive to away team fans, which has contributed to a much more positive in-stadium experience.

Do you have any great examples of brands using Super Fans that you can share?

 

Top Tips on Account Based Marketing

I have recently updated a course for a client which covers Account Based Marketing (ABM). So, I thought I would share some of the tips and references used in that training course. 

I thought that was a great quote. ABM is all about influencing the key decision makers at your target customer accounts. So why do it? Here is some stats from act-on's blog:

• Almost 85% of B2B marketers who measure ROI describe account-based marketing as delivering higher returns than any other marketing approach, with half of those marketers citing significantly higher returns.
• Sales and marketing teams that do account-based marketing align better than other organisations.
• According to Bizible, “marketers doing ABM are about 40% more likely to report alignment with their sales team compared to marketers not doing ABM”

Here are their 5 top ABM tips, with my comments for each one...

1.Align sales and marketing strategy - make sure that sales and marketing plan and execute it together, not in silos

2.Have the right data quality - make sure your CRM system is regularly updated with all contacts and actions

3.Target and personalise - learn about each target contact and send them information that adds value to them and solves their problems

4.Have the right tech (CRM & automation) - I am personally a big fan of Microsoft Dynamics CRM as it is easy for everyone to use

5.Test, learn, measure and optimise - This is true of all marketing!

And here are some tips from me. I managed a team of 30+ Account Managers as Client Service Director of Chemistry Communications Group PLC

• Start conversations - I often blog about customers when I first meet them and then email them to ask for their opinion on my article about them, saying that I will correct any inaccuracies. It is a sure fire way to start a dialogue with them.

• Add value - send them content they might find interesting, take them to trade events like industry conferences and spend quality time discussing what each speaker says and how it affects them. 

• Ask their advice - become a trusted partner, by asking them for help. I used to use this often. If I was stuck with a strategic problem for one client, I would call up another client from a different industry and ask for their input. They love being asked and being treated as experts, it is intellectually stimulating for them and it means when they have a problem, they will be more inclined to call you!

• Develop account development business plans - get every account manager to draw up a plan for every client containing their objectives for the relationship (eg grow, cross sell, retain etc), stakeholder mapping, relationship building activities planned, how they will involve more people on the account to spread the connections between your organisations proposition, how they will measure success and targets.
• Segment accounts based on profitability, growth potential and the strength of your relationship and target each customer with relevant content.

Hope that helps you. Do you have any tips on account based marketing? If you do, please share them in the comments