Posts

Why AI is Not Taking Over Content Marketing

a robit hand about to touch a human hand to show that AI and content marketing can work together

AI and content marketing — if you’ve logged into Twitter in the past year, you know it’s all the digital marketing world can talk about. Every day, thread after thread is tweeted to tell us why ChatGPT is the future of content and how it’s going to replace the human writer altogether.

So I did what I normally do when it seems like the world has gone a little crazy. I allow my sarcasm to take a little walk:

Michael Brenner post on how ChatGPT isn;t going to take over the world

But seriously folks! Yes, artificial intelligence is here to stay, and there are definitely ways it can be used to make your content strategy better. But replacing your human writers? Executing your entire content strategy for you? Nope.

AI is not taking over content marketing any time soon (and probably not ever) — no matter how much the social media buzz suggests otherwise. Let’s talk about why.

Quick Takeaways

  • AI content marketing technologies are powerful support tools, but they can’t replace human creators.
  • Because ChatGPT (and similar tools) can only create content based on what already exists, they can’t form original opinions for thought leadership content.
  • AI can’t replicate emotional content marketing elements like humor and empathy.
  • Brand storytelling is unique to each individual company. There is no way for an AI tool to understand a company’s story the same way its leaders and content creators do.
  • Google recognizes AI-generated content as spam and downvotes it as such.

Why People Think AI Is Taking Over?

ChatGPT and other AI content marketing tools do indeed have capabilities impossible for us measly humans to accomplish on our own — they can mine existing data from across the web in seconds and produce narrative content about it that mimics human writing.

How I feel about ChatGPT vs everyone else.

Source: Mark Williams-Cook

With every version that’s released, OpenAI says the tool is getting smarter and more capable of handling nuanced instructions. The company’s President, Greg Brockman, says that ChatGPT 4 (the newest version) can even calculate tax returns — a task I think we can all agree we’d be glad to offload.

Ways that writers are using ChatGPT include:

  • Understanding the larger conversation about a topic
  • Creating outlines for blog articles
  • Generating new ideas for blog topics and headlines
  • Writing blog intros as a way to get started
  • Breaking down complex ideas a writer is researching

And yes — writing complete articles and press releases (although, as you’ve likely gathered, we don’t think that’s the best idea).

All of that is to say we are not suggesting ChatGPT is bad or irrelevant. In fact, the opposite is true. But AI in content marketing is a tool — not a replacement — for human writers and brands that create high-quality content.

The simple fact is that you risk running a major penalty from the search engines if you use any mechanism to game search rankings. This includes the use of any type of AI to fully write and publish content. Here is one example shared at SMX Munich earlier this year.

website penalty using ChatGPT

Let’s look at four important reasons why AI falls short of taking over our content strategies.

The Human Element: What AI Can’t Do for Content Marketers

Original Opinions

Everything an AI-powered content marketing tool produces is the result of something else that already exists. No matter how massive the datasets AI can mine and analyze, nothing they come up with is truly original.

And customers? They look for brands to provide original and authentic thought leadership.

It’s one of the most important ways brands connect with their audiences — 76% say they use thought leadership directly to engage customers and clients, and other stakeholders they also list include employees, investors, media, and the public at large.

Graph shows all of the audiences brands connect with using thought leadership, including customers or clients, employees, investors, media, and the general public.

Image Source: Marketing Charts

Your people are what build your brand’s stances on topics, events, trends, social issues and more, and when you lose the face — and the real, human brain — behind the opinion, there’s an inevitable loss of connection with your audience that no brand wants to risk.

One of my favorite Marketing Insider Group blogs is one we wrote about why most of the buyer personas that agencies help you make, well — suck. They’re arbitrary, and they aren’t based on any kind of real motivation or action.

But buyer personas are a huge buzzword in the content world. I can’t imagine ChatGPT spitting out this opinion if I asked them what to write about them.

MIG’s blog on why most buyer personas suck showcases why AI in content marketing can’t replicate original opinions.

Image Source: Marketing Insider Group

Humor

Okay, here’s the thing: ChatGPT can be funny. But most of the time, it’s unintentional.

As many examples have proven (including the one below — “It’s important to not blindly follow advice, even if they are a wizard.”), AI mostly misses the mark when it comes to humor.

ChatGPT example shows why AI content marketing is funny — but not intentionally.

Image Source: Uproxx

Despite its undeniably growing sophistication — AI can really only process human language at a surface level, based on parameters humans tell it to use. And  if it’s not able to handle humor in general, it definitely won’t understand the nuances of industry-specific sarcasm and humor that make business content fun to consume.

Brand Storytelling

Brand storytelling allows us to connect with our customers by telling stories about what we do (and why it matters). It’s a type of marketing that’s totally unique to every brand that does it — having your own individual story is what makes you stand out from your competition.

But ChatGPT can only understand what others say about your brand — not the way you want to present it to the world. There’s no way an AI tool can represent that message the same way that your founders, leaders, and human employees do.

Stories are emotional. They’re told to evoke some sort of feeling in the people who watch or read them. AI-generated content may have all the informative potential in the world, but it can’t have a human experience, and it definitely can’t share one firsthand.

Content that’s made to share your mission, tell client success stories, provide background on your team and expertise, and generally share that intangible “this is what we’re all about” kind of message just can’t be generated with a ChatGPT query.

Check out this video Chevy produced about how, like a best friend — in this case, a woman’s dog — Chevy vehicles are designed to stick by you for life. If you don’t feel something watching this, you might be a robot yourself.

Can you imagine a machine posing this concept or writing this script?

Empathy

I have talked about the Paradox of AI: the more we use AI, the more we will expect to interact with real people. This is true in life and maybe even more so in written content.

Empathy in content marketing means seeing things through the eyes of your customer. It’s one of the key elements of emotional intelligence — something valued now in brands more than ever before. In fact, nearly three-quarters of buyers say they choose brands who are best able to demonstrate understanding of their company-specific needs.

Survey results show nearly three-quarters of buyers say they choose brands who are best able to demonstrate understanding of their company-specific needs.

Image Source: Demand Base

Further, a global study on brand emotional intelligence (EQ) found that the brands that show the highest EQ not only connect with customers more easily, but earn more revenue and grow more quickly.

In other words: emotionally intelligent marketing doesn’t only impact your connections with your content audience — it plays a role in your overall business performance.

No matter how “smart” AI content marketing tools become, they won’t be able to feel human emotion or use it to connect with their customers. ChatGPT itself will tell you “I don’t have feelings or emotions like humans do.” When it comes to showing empathy and evoking emotion with content, stick to human creators who can feel it too.

What Google Says (and Why it Matters)

Nothing’s more important for content marketers than what Google thinks about a trend. Why? Because organic search accounts for the overwhelming majority of web traffic and Google owns 90% of the search engine market.

If your content doesn’t show up in Google rankings, it’s basically invisible to your audience.

It’s a huge deal if Google cares to recognize AI-generated content and rank it differently than the human-created version — which they do. In fact, Google’s Senior Webmaster Analyst John Meuller said that Google sees AI-generated content basically the same way as spam, and that it violates their guidelines.

His exact words in a recent Google hangout on the topic were:

“We still see [AI-generated content] as automatically-generated content . . . it’s all against the Webmaster Guidelines. So from our point of view, if we were to run across  something like that, if the web spam team were to see it, they would see it as spam.”

And spam? It gets demoted or removed from Google’s index. Check out the most recent formal guidance from Google here:

When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years. Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.

The guidance goes on to say that using automation to create lists and things like sports scores and weather is fine. So my takeaway is this: use AI to automate the research. Use humans to write the content!

The Takeaway: AI Content Marketing is Valuable, But It’s Not Everything

If you’ve followed any of the social media debate raging about ChatGPT and AI in content marketing, you’ve seen that most people are taking an either-or stance — it’s good or it’s bad, and there’s no in between.

But there is an in between: Using ChatGPT for the powerful tool it is, while still recognizing the absolute need for human-created, empathetic, customer-centered content. Brands that can perfect this balance are likely the ones whose content strategies will stand the test of time for the foreseeable future.

Publish High-Value Content for Your Audience Every Week

One of the many reasons ChatGPT feels attractive as a total content alternative is because it saves time — time you might feel like you’re losing trying to keep up with the demand for more and better content.

This is one of the primary reasons more than 70% of companies outsource content creation. At Marketing Insider Group, our team of expert writers and SEO specialists can deliver you optimized, ready-to-publish content every single week for a year (or more). Check out our SEO Blog Writing Service or schedule a free consultation with me to learn more.

The post Why AI is Not Taking Over Content Marketing appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

/by

Why Brick-and-Mortar Marketing Needs Modern Automation to See Successful Results

The past few years have been very good for the e-commerce industry, and really any business that earns significant revenue from online sales.

The COVID pandemic sent established brick-and-mortars rushing to accelerate their digital transformation plans and sell more online. They plowed eye-watering sums into digital marketing channels despite often shaky evidence for digital ads’ effectiveness and, more recently, a broader decline in ad spending.

Some benefited greatly from this shift, but many spent the second half of 2022 wondering whether they’d made the right call. As normalcy returned and consumers sought out in-person experiences once more, brick-and-mortar retail’s prospects brightened.

We’ll never truly go back to a pre-pandemic landscape, in marketing or sales or any other domain. But brick-and-mortar retailers can look to what their digital counterparts did right and apply those lessons in the real world. This brings us to the increasingly critical importance of marketing automation to brick-and-mortar retailers’ success.

Why Modern Automation Is Essential to Brick-and-Mortar Marketing

Digital marketing opened up strategies for automation by leveraging technologies to streamline and optimize various marketing processes, from lead generation to customer engagement. While brick-and-mortar brands have embraced digital marketing trends, the same can’t be said for automating trade marketing operations. To be able to compete and survive alongside direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, brick-and-mortar brands must adopt automation, here are some reasons why:

1. Good Data Is Difficult to Come By in the Real World

Measuring marketing performance is easy in the digital realm, where most every impression and click is trackable and attributable. In the real world, marketing performance is much more difficult to quantify. Even knowing what to measure, performance-wise, is a challenge.

This is the top trade marketing pain point identified by Brand Regulator, a trade marketing automation (TMA) software solution for brick-and-mortar brands. While it’s true that sales-based metrics can hint at what’s working and what’s not on the physical collateral front, insufficient market and consumer data can make more precise comparisons difficult.

Brand Regulator also notes that larger brands in particular may suffer from ineffective marketing automation, resulting in a lack of coordination between regional directors, HQ-based planners, and retail locations. The end result is often an incomplete or outdated representation of in-market activations, making effective campaign analysis and scalability near impossible. Collecting up-to-date data and generating accurate reports in trade marketing relies completely on the use of automation.

2. Standard CRMs and ERPs Aren’t Up to the Job

Brick-and-mortar retailers often see CRMs and ERPs as low-cost, out-of-the-box alternatives to specialized tools designed for in-person marketing automation. But these solutions — such as Salesforce and alternatives like HubSpot and ActiveCampaign — have limitations. This isn’t because they’re not good products but because they’re designed for one type of digital marketing or another rather than retail trade marketing.

What invariably ends up happening when brick-and-mortars try to use standard CRMs and ERPs for trade marketing automation is a daunting, time-consuming customization process that often does only some of what its stakeholders envisioned.

3. Trade Marketing Campaigns Have Many Moving Parts

Trade marketing campaigns are much more complicated than PPC or affiliate-based or even social media marketing efforts. Brick-and-mortar marketers have to consider:

  • The various iterations of physical collateral involved (often a dozen or more pieces per campaign)
  • Keeping this collateral’s physical footprint straight (more on that below)
  • Designing and approving new collateral (a multistep process that many marketing departments struggle to manage in-house)
  • Managing orders for new or replacement collateral
  • Orchestrating fulfillment for collateral orders, from printing to shipping to installation
  • Managing trade marketing budgets within the context of a broader marketing strategy (another multistep process that can overwhelm in-house planners without adequate resources or expertise)

Given these and other demands on your marketing department (and others), sensible marketing automation isn’t just “nice to have.” It’s practically essential for success. Automating high-volume, repetitive functions frees up your core team to focus on more creative or complex functions and decisions that demand more brainpower.

4. Physical Marketing Collateral Has a Complicated and Constantly Changing Footprint

Managing all of the above is extremely difficult without scalable marketing processes and robust automation wherever possible. Throw in the fact that your physical marketing footprint is constantly changing and it’s all but impossible to keep straight using only spreadsheets, shared folders, and ad hoc communication.

For example, one of the biggest pain points for large-scale trade marketers is basic quality control, including:

  • making sure the right fixtures show up in the right retail locations
  • ensuring they weren’t damaged in transit or installation
  • overseeing that they’re properly installed per brand guidelines and the marketing team’s instructions

All this requires a huge volume of detailed, dated photos. Simply switching from a “text HQ after install” system to an “upload to a shared folder accessible to install teams, marketing, and location management” system can save dozens of person-hours per month while dramatically reducing error rates and measurably improving performance tracking.

Brick-and-Mortar Marketing Shouldn’t Be So Hard

It may seem like history now, but in 2020, intelligent marketing experts were talking about the end of the retail shopping experience. But we see now, there was really never an end in sight to speak of. Sure, eCommerce received a boost during the pandemic, but we’re now living through a reversion to the mean. 2023 is shaping up to be brick-and-mortar’s comeback year.

Yet we can’t pretend as if nothing has changed. The pandemic did drive home the importance of a multichannel sales strategy and did demonstrate the benefits of digital marketing automation at unprecedented scale. Brick-and-mortar retailers — including those skeptical of marketing automation software and practices — should apply these lessons to physical trade marketing as well.

Marketing automation is no small investment. But for brick-and-mortar sellers who thrive on loyal and engaging customer relationships that are still best cultivated in person, it’s worth every dollar.

The post Why Brick-and-Mortar Marketing Needs Modern Automation to See Successful Results appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=5570

/by

MOFU Content: How Middle Of Funnel Content Increases Your Conversion Rate

funnel showing MOFU content

Recently there’s definitely been an increase in the expectation that marketers need to deliver more than they have in the past. We have to do more than just grow the traffic on our website. We need visitors that convert to leads and paying customers.

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) content is what gets your blog visitors to convert. And good MOFU content is what 9increases your conversion rate to more qualified leads.

One of the best ways to think about MOFU content is that it is where content marketing and campaigns come together.

So let’s learn about MOFU content and how it helps increase your conversion rates.

What is MOFU Content?

MOFU content is content created for the middle of the marketing funnel with the goal of converting an unknown blog reader or website visitor into an identified prospect.

MOFU is often talked about as the 2nd stage of demand generation content along with TOFU (Top of Funnel) content and BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) content.

This is how we describe the various stages on the marketing funnel and why it is called that:

  1. Top of the Funnel (TOFU): Reach new prospects and build awareness
  2. Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): Engage new prospects and identify who they are
  3. Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): Help prospects make a decision to buy from us through validation and proof points
  4. Retention: retain new customers through loyalty programs.

Here’s a great visual that shows how the 4 content types differ by stage. It’s called a marketing funnel because there are more people at the beginning TOFU stage than there are in the latter (BOFU stage).

tofu mofu bofu sales funnel stages
Source: Web Ascender

So unlike TOFU content which is designed to capture someone’s attention. MOFU content is designed to gather their information.

What Types of Content Are MOFU?

While blog posts, social content, short form videos, or podcasts are the best forms of early-stage of TOFU content, MOFU content formats include Whitepapers, E-Books, Webinars (live or recorded.) Other forms of TOFU content might include Email Nurture campaigns, free templates, or even customer stories.

Whitepapers

A whitepaper is a relatively longer report on a particular topic that dives deeper into an industry problem or challenge and is intended to show an objective solution to those problems or challenges.

The term whitepaper evolved from typical colorful and glossy promotional brochures and sales sheets in the technology industry that were obviously trying to sell a company product or solution.

In contrast, a “whitepaper” was intended to appear more educational and objective, often filled with industry research, analyst quotes, and devoid of selling. Back when I was doing demand gen for larger tech companies, whitepapers were often purchased from 3rd party analyst firms like Forrester or Gartner for $10,000 or more and used as an obviously objective piece of content to get you provide your name and contact details.

These traditional whitepapers were also often 10-20 pages in length. While this practice has become less popular, the concept remains in the form of analyst reports, or shorter, more visual buying guides.

E-Books

E-Books have evolved from whitepapers to become the more visual type of guides you predominantly see today. Ultimate Guides, buyer guides are the predominant form of e-books and they typically come in around 3500 words but visually designed into about 10 pages with callout boxes for quotes and stats.

We create about 50 e-books every year for our clients averaging about $5000 each (with design!) We have a long form Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing, and here’s an example of one of our e-books

Webinars

Webinars are online / virtual events that typically will include a professional speaker or a subject matter expert providing insights like trends, tips and how to.

Templates

Template packs have become super popular recently due to their practical nature.  Templates help your potential customers to solve real-world problems they are facing and encourage them to come back to your brand for more insights. Here is a link to our Ultimate Content Marketing Template (our highest converting page on the whole site!) and our content marketing starter kit:

Email Nurture

Email nurture series are responsible for driving about 75% of our leads! We try and earn our visitors email addresses through our newsletter subscription. And then we nurture those subscribers through a series of subtle and not-so subtle messages, stories, content, and promotions.

Customer Stories

I have a strong opinion about how to use case studies and customer stories in content marketing: make your customer the hero of the story!

If you check out our case studies, you’ll find they do certainly validate the success we helped our clients achieve but they mainly talk about our client’s success, not how awesome we are.

There is a way to bring product-led content into the marketing funnel, as long as we keep the customer as the hero:

Some other forms of MOFU content include checklists, videos and slideshows.

How Well Does MOFU Content Increase Conversion Rates?

We are obviously big believers that content marketing improves sales. After all, the whole reason to do MOFU content is to drive conversions.

Most people don’t visit websites to read your blogs and then ask to buy something. MOFU content keeps them engaged long enough so they can get educated on how to buy your product or service. And if you’re lucky, your MOFU content is good enough to convince them to buy from you. Not because of your features and benefits, but because you’ve built trust and authority!

So the real bottom line is that if you don’t have MOFU content, you are missing out on the majority of leads you could generate from your content marketing efforts.

According to CMI, after TOFU content, MOFU content is the 2nd largest bucket of content budget and focus:

So it’s important to focus on MOFU content and getting it right. OK so now let’s get to the math. A few years ago, a firm called Sirius decisions published research that showed that most B2B firms see a 4.4% conversion rate from inquiries (new names and email addresses) to leads or Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).

B2B Marketing Directions: An Inconvenient Truth About B2B Demand Generation

My own experience at SAP showed about an 8% conversion rate to MQL. The reason we scored higher was because we relentlessly tested our MOFU content. Sales and product teams would ask us to try and use brochures and fact sheets to get leads. But we found that thought leadership content was the best way to increase conversion rates.

For more updated information on lead conversion rates, check out our latest data on that.

Content Marketing Made Easy with Our Content Builder Service

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service.

Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

The post MOFU Content: How Middle Of Funnel Content Increases Your Conversion Rate appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

/by

9 Biggest Event Trends of This Year

The past few years have brought some exciting developments in the events industry. And you might be surprised to hear that some of the biggest event trends are here to stay.

By keeping an eye on some of the top event trends expected for next year, you can make sure you plan an event to remember.

Quick Takeaways:

  • Sustainability and corporate responsibility will be key for events run in 2023 and the foreseeable future.
  • Emerging technology, including augmented reality and AI, will continue to offer more opportunities for event planning.
  • Brands must focus on highly personalized events and forging personal connections with attendees.

9 Biggest Event Trends Happening Now

1. Sustainability

The world is heating up – both figuratively and literally. Concerns around climate change have been one of the major themes of the past decade as an increasing number of individuals and corporations make a commitment to lessen their impact on the environment.

This eco-friendly approach has spilled over into the world of events, which traditionally has been a fairly wasteful industry – just think about all the plastic water bottles and catering waste, not to mention the merchandise and freebies that often get thrown away as soon as the event is over.

Easy ways to shrink your carbon footprint for your next big event.

Now the tide is turning, and sustainable events are becoming the more popular (some would say the only) option.

So how do you make a more sustainable event? There are many opportunities, from switching to digital ticketing systems to replacing plastic bottles and cutlery with biodegradable alternatives, using seasonal, local produce in catering, and donating leftover food to local charities.

However, as you can see from the above chart, travel contributes majorly to the carbon footprint of an event. Event planners can reduce this impact by planning more localized events, and even ditching physical events entirely in favor of online events.

As consumers demand brands to develop more sustainable practices, they will also expect events to be planned in a way that will have a minimal environmental impact. Organizations failing to follow this trend may well find that their audience votes with their feet and finds another, greener event to attend next year. And remember – your event is a representation of your brand as a whole. Make sure it aligns with your core values.

2. Mindfulness and Wellness

Next year may be the year we say goodbye to a culture of “hustle and grind.” Working long hours and putting work over personal life is becoming increasingly unpopular with today’s millennial workforce.

The workers of next year and beyond favor a more balanced approach – working smarter rather than harder, with more importance placed on the value of mental health and general wellness.

What does this have to do with events? Well, packing back-to-back workshops and seminars into an exhausting schedule is definitely considered to be an outdated approach.

Over the coming year, expect to see more events incorporating mindfulness and wellness activities into their schedule, whatever the industry. This may include meditation and yoga workshops, dedicated “brain breaks” designed to inspire creativity, “unplugged” tech-free zones, outdoor activities, massage stations, and other sessions designed around wellness.

Salesforce’s annual event, Dreamforce, has taken this trend to heart by partnering with mindfulness organizations to provide guided meditations and mindfulness sessions during the four-day conference, as well as running yoga sessions and fun runs.

3. Hybrid Events

Hybrid events allow for the flexibility of a virtual event, but the connection and engagement of an in-person option.

As time passes, hybrid events are being refined and it doesn’t look like they’re going away any time soon. Check out some interesting stats:

  • Searches for “hybrid event” have increased 237% in the last 5 years.
  • 97% of event marketers believe that the number of hybrid events will increase beyond over the next few years.
  • 59% of event marketers believe that hybrid events will be crucial for their event marketing strategy moving forward.

More than 59% of event marketers believe that hybrid events will be crucial for their event marketing strategy moving forward.

Hybrid events can be any configuration or breakdown of virtual to in-person. Tread lightly though, because more reach and flexibility doesn’t equate to ease of planning.

Be sure to do extensive research before deciding if this could be the right route for your next event.

4. Smaller, More Intimate Events

Running a big flashy corporate event may be seen as a badge of success by many companies, but demand is actually growing for simpler, smaller events with authentic opportunities to meet face-to-face.

Stop thinking of events purely as a marketing opportunity and consider them more as a chance to engage better with your audience and build trust. Consumers are increasingly demanding authenticity from brands and becoming distrustful of big business. Creating more opportunities to speak with individual customers on a one-on-one basis makes your brand feel more personal and less like a faceless corporation.

Smaller events also open up the possibility of using more unique boutique event spaces that are more appealing to attendees.

Networking opportunities are a big attraction for many event attendees, aside from the event itself, so make sure you schedule in plenty of free social time and provide casual spaces that promote interaction.

A huge plus of planning a smaller event is expanding your location options.

5. Non-traditional Venues Gain Popularity

If you’re about to book the conference room in your local hotel for your next event, stop! Research by Social Tables shows that over 90% of event planners agree that events are more likely to be booked in a non-traditional venue than five years ago.

Thinking outside the box when it comes to your event venue comes with advantages. Choosing a visually appealing venue is more engaging for attendees and encourages them to post images of the event on social media.

Some examples of venues that are becoming more popular for hosting events include warehouses, barns, gardens, museums, art galleries, and co-working spaces.

This doesn’t mean that hotels are out completely though. In line with this trend, more hotels are thinking about how they can meet this need for more inspiring surroundings with non-traditional spaces such as rooftops and outdoor venues, or simply offering more options when it comes to event design and styling.

A cozy, outdoor event space with neutral colors, string lights and a fireplace.

As long as you’ve got an inclement weather alternative at the venue, I’m sure your attendees will appreciate the fresh air and Vitamin D that outdoor spaces provide.

Additionally, the growth of ride-sharing apps has made it more practical to host events outside of the typical downtown venues. More accessible and affordable transportation means that organizations can now take advantage of more varied locations and lower cost event venues.

As more event planners are seeking out new venues for events, this hasn’t gone unnoticed. There’s now a new breed of venue sourcing software available that makes it easier for event planners to find an ideal venue based on several different criteria.

6. Experience-First Events

This should be a no-brainer. Isn’t an event already an experience? What you should think about is how you can flip the script of work conferences being boring and just for work.

The homebodies are still out there and some even prefer hybrid events or virtual conferences still. How can you make your in-person event worthwhile?

Some elements of events are inherently experiential so those might come more naturally. Food trucks and swag bags, VIP sections and photo opportunities.

Other parts of an event could be spiced up a bit. If networking is your only pull to have someone attend live rather than online, think harder.

You can add a digital element, such as a photo booth with fun props or even a hashtag-based photo contest. Share results immediately via a QR code or turn the photos into a social wall to display in break spaces or between speakers.

7. Enhanced Personalization

Advancements in technology mean that consumers are now expecting more personalization in their communications with brands, and this is going beyond digital marketing channels to become a key part of events too.

Big Data and AI are creating more personalization opportunities such as the ability to create a unique event schedule for each attendee, or even just to provide a personalized map of the venue location with nearby points of interest.

Companies using events for marketing can also use data collected about event attendee behavior to create personalized follow-ups and more highly targeted and optimized marketing messages post-event. This practice is commonplace in all the big and popular digital marketing conferences today.

8. Augmented Reality

Augmented and virtual reality technology solutions are becoming more commonplace and affordable. There are many potential uses for them in events for a number of different industries.

The AR and VR industry is forecasted to grow by over 25% over the next two years, with AR leading the pack.

A chart outlining VR and AR users in the U.S. over time.

While VR has already been a bit of an event trend over the last few years, AR is taking over as the most popular technology, mainly because it’s more accessible and offers more flexibility in the real world.

VR can certainly help to engage your event attendees and enhance their experience, but it’s still seen as somewhat of a novelty. VR can transport your event attendees to another world and can be useful for virtual tours and games, but its applications are limited.

While virtual reality creates a completely virtual world, augmented reality adds digital elements to the real world environment.

AR technology is a more attractive and practical option for many event organizers because the technology is more affordable and accessible (AR apps can be used on any smartphone) and it offers a huge range of possibilities.

AR can be used for interactive product demonstrations, to help attendees learn more about each other and network, to create interactive venue maps, provide entertainment and opportunities for engagement, and more.

9. Use of AI in Event Organization and Analysis

Another emerging technology that we’ll see more of in the events industry next year is artificial intelligence.

Event planners can use AI in a number of different ways from event planning to during the event and for post-event analysis.

Just as e-commerce sites use AI to power their recommendations engines, event planning software has started using AI to assist planners by finding potential attendees, speakers, influencers, and topics, and suggesting optimal times and venue locations.

AI-powered Chatbots can be used for pre-event marketing and customer service to answer common questions, automate ticketing and follow up leads.

Facial recognition is another highly useful application of AI that can be used in events for everything from security and streamlining registration to personalizing experiences.

Need Help with Content Marketing for Your Events?

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content that’s consistently published, check out our Content Builder Service. Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

The post 9 Biggest Event Trends of This Year appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

/by

Will Facebook Ads CPM Costs Increase This Holiday Season?

As advertisers prepare for the holidays, there’s a bit of anxiety about what to expect. The past few years have been anything but normal, so it’s not easy to predict what advertisers should expect this year. In particular, will Facebook ads CPM costs increase?

There is good reason to hope, based on current trends, that any seasonal cost increases may be subtle. And that could be critical for advertisers who have struggled to generate consistent, profitable results since the iOS-related changes of early 2021.

Let’s discuss how CPM impacts Facebook advertising results and the trends that we are seeing so far…

Why CPM Matters

CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions) is essentially the cost to show your ads. While it isn’t a primary metric to obsess over, it certainly can impact the success of your campaigns.

For example, you could have two ad sets, both getting the same number of clicks and conversion rate. But, if it costs twice as much to reach people in one ad set, it may be the difference between a profitable and failing campaign.

There are many reasons for high and low CPMs, but one is competition. The more advertising dollars in the system, the higher the auction goes. It’s more difficult to reach your ideal audience since there are more advertisers trying to reach them.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t overcome high CPMs to find success. While the holidays tend to result in higher CPMs, this is also the period of time consumers are eager to spend money. Combined with brands willing to offer special deals and you can absolutely find success this time of the year.

That said, the seasonality of CPM can be difficult for brands, especially those who aren’t in the e-commerce and gift spaces. Prior to 2020, seasonal CPMs often doubled, tripled, and even more. That could make advertising costs unreasonable, and you may consider lowering budget or shutting off advertising entirely in those cases.

But, we shouldn’t assume that CPMs will have that potentially crippling effect this year. As noted, the past few “weird” years haven’t led to spiking CPMs the way we’ve expected them in the past.

So, what will happen this year?

Average Price Per Ad

You probably know that Meta’s Q3 Earnings Report came out recently, and it wasn’t particularly in the company’s favor. Growth has slowed, resulting in layoffs.

But, one of the more curious revelations was a continued drop in Average Price Per Ad.

Facebook Average Price Per Ad

Meta doesn’t call this CPM, but I think we can draw at least loose connections to that metric. The cost of advertising is clearly falling, and that drop is increasing with each quarter. The third quarter Average Price Per Ad was 18% lower than the same quarter in 2021.

This could certainly be a sign, barring a startling reversal, that advertising costs during the holidays won’t be overwhelming in 2022.

Within Marketing Pulse

Another resource that I use to monitor CPM costs is the Within Marketing Pulse. The website provides a dashboard to show how their clients (some $500 Million in advertising) are spending their advertising dollars.

First, it’s interesting that they are showing Facebook advertising spend up 37% year over year, as of November 13.

Within Marketing Pulse

You might assume that would result in increased CPM, but that’s not what they are reporting.

Within Marketing Pulse

Facebook CPM is down a staggering 49% compared to the same date last year, and it’s been down for at least the entire last month.

If you’re curious, the red line is Instagram CPM, which has followed much more closely to the 0-line compared to last year. But, it’s still been mostly down lately.

This is Good News… Right??

So, sure. These are good signs that CPM costs may not get out of hand this holiday season.

The problem, of course, is that many advertisers have struggled the past year or so, regardless of CPM costs. In fact, I’d bet that if you polled advertisers right now, they’d believe that CPM costs are higher now than they’ve ever been before.

There’s a clear disconnect there. Maybe advertisers haven’t always paid attention to CPM. They need a reason for why ads aren’t performing like they once did. Rising CPM could be an easy target.

That said, this could be a very good holiday season for brands that are set up for holiday success. If you are in retail and offer big sales, this could be a profitable season for you if CPM costs stay down.

Don’t Forget: 28-Day Click

This may seem somewhat random, but it’s relevant.

As you are monitoring your results this holiday season, make certain that you are making use of the new 28-day click attribution window. You can only view this when comparing attribution settings.

Compare Attribution 28-day Click

Why does this matter? Well, because you are bound to see more conversions this way. It could significantly impact your view (and the view of clients) regarding the impact of your advertising.

Not everyone has this yet, but hopefully you do!

Your Turn

What are you seeing in terms of CPM costs? Do you have big advertising plans this holiday season?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Will Facebook Ads CPM Costs Increase This Holiday Season? appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=3541

/by

The Power of Content Marketing for IT Services

2 Data Center worker discussing IT services content marketing

Technology and the services that connect them all have seen massive growth in the past few years. And we are just getting started. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, we are now seeing software that teaches software how to write better software.

Content marketing emerged early on as a driver of technology and IT Service company marketing strategies. It was resisted at first because many product folks and engineers thought of marketing as a bad word and akin to lying. IT people don’t want to be marketed to (aka sold to or lied to), they would say. I was called a “marketeer” by many of these product engineers early on in my career. It was not a complement.

But content marketing helped to change the conversation. Technology and IT Service buyers need to be educated on the context of new technology. Content marketing helped engineers to see that marketing could be helpful. Creating and publishing content that answers the questions on the minds of your prospects and customers is how you start to build trust, get measurable traffic to your website, and leads for your IT services.

The Big Picture of Content Marketing

I define content marketing as a marketing strategy that consistently publishing customer-focused content on your website that allows you to reach and convert new customers for your business.

So ads, product promotions, lies of any kind, and brochures do not fall under the realm of content marketing.

Content marketing is more important in industries where the educational needs of the buyer are high. That’s why Technology, healthcare, finance and IT Services see the highest penetration of content marketing. Because your buyers demand it.

Quick Takeaways:

  • Content marketing is an affordable way to reach and convert new clients  to your IT Service business
  • Publishing helpful content that educates your audience is more effective than more traditional forms of paid advertisement
  • Keeping a consistent and quality content marketing schedule is critical to achieving Compounding Marketing ROI

So we’ve assembled a list of what you need to know and how to implement content marketing for your brand to maximize the value of your content marketing efforts for your IT Service business:

What You Need to Know For Content Marketing Your IT Services

Know Your Audience [WHO?]

The first step in deciding what content to write is understanding who you’re writing it for – your buyer persona.

For a B2B IT services, your target audience is usually business owners and technology leaders. But as I love to say, Personas are great except when they suck. What they call themselves, how old they are, your fake names for them – aren’t going to help you create great content.

WHAT Are They Interested In?

You need to focus on topics of interest. What are their top challenges, concerns, questions. What kinds of things are they interested in? What are the hottest topics in your industry.

Source: Forbes

WHY do they care?

You need to answer the WHY for your persona and how it related to your business, like we did here. (and many other ways!) Why is privacy, security, cloud, digital transformation important?

WHEN to publish

Our research shows that businesses that publish more than once a week, see 4-5x more traffic and leads than those who publish infrequently or not at all.

It’s also important to remember that your buyers are searching for answers to their top business challenges every single day!

And of course I love to say that Google is looking for your website to have a heart beat, a cadence, a rhythm that it can see from regular blog posting.

WHO Writes

If your IT business is a start-up or a longstanding pillar of industry, you got to where you are by excellent technicians, service people, and sales reps. Experts in their fields of study and champions of excellence.

But they probably aren’t writers. If you haven’t already, you’re going to have to track down quality writers with proven blog-writing (or even journalism) experience. Ideally, you’re looking for people plugged into the tech or cybersecurity spaces to fill out your website and enhance your content marketing efforts.

But hiring blog writers directly is expensive and time-consuming. You can always try and hire freelancers or work with a writing agency.

There’s pros and cons to both, but you have options when considering content creation for your digital marketing efforts. We believe outsourcing content gives you an advantage because you can get the best of all worlds: experienced writers, less cost than full-time hires, less hassle than finding the write ones.

However, blog writing isn’t the only type of content you want to consider in your content marketing. These days videos, animations, demos, customer testimonials are also important.

Take this example from SaberVox Cloud Software:

By using good expert analysis and real-world application, they explain why you need their services. Leading your prospect to this natural conclusion is the whole point of content marketing! Make sure to hire experienced videographers or content creators to advise you and execute similar content.

HOW to Build Your Content Marketing Strategy for IT Services

Using the framework we provided here should be a good start. Or just call us and we’ll handle it all for you. But whatever you decide, you should consider:

  1. Who you are writing for? What questions do they have?
  2. Where you are publishing? Your website is the best way to attract new leads.
  3. Who does the work. Finding someone to build your content strategy and expert writers is key
  4. How often will you publish
  5. Where will you distribute the content? Can you automate some aspects of promotion?
  6. How will you measure results

HOW MUCH Value Does It Deliver

Half the battle of content marketing is measuring the results and being able to read your analytics for insights into your audience. There’s a couple key metrics you need to keep track of how well you are reaching and converting new customers.

  • Reach
  • Engagement
  • Conversion

Traffic on your content includes the number of eyes and users getting to your website. Important questions to consider during analysis include where are my viewers coming from, how many are there, and what are the demographics I’m the most popular with. These answers will tell you about the raw viewership of your content marketing, giving you a solid base to work from.

Engagements refers to the sharing, commenting, and interacting done with your content across social media. This includes things like comments, likes, and conversations surrounding what your page has published. Higher engagement makes social media platforms more likely to put your content in front of fresh eyes.

Conversions on your content include how many viewers are actually becoming customers via your content. After all, the whole point of this is to convert your prospects into returning, loyal customers and clients. This metric will help you decide which of your content is best for overall viewership, and which gives you the best shot at increasing your bottom dollar.

These metrics should drive your content marketing strategy. You have to be able to look at the trends in the content you produce online and read between the lines. Some of the things you do will work better than others. Figure out what does – and do more of it.

Know Your Website(s)

If you’re in IT, you know that good UI (user interface) is crucial to the overall experience of a viewer. After all, who would want to call you to implement IT Services if your web experience is terrible?

Furthermore, knowing what your social media following and presentation looks like is important to keeping up your brand image for clients and prospects.

We’ve worked with dozens of companies working on a relaunch of their website and put together this checklist of things you want to consider.

But your main website isn’t your only website. Your social media channels are powerful distribution tools meant to share your services with the world. IT services lend themselves best to more professional avenues like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Check out what industry leader Tata Consultancy Services is doing on LinkedIn. With over 10 million followers, they are amplifying their brand voice and in turn distributing their content to prospects and customers all over the world. By effectively utilizing a professional platform, they are able to boast their authenticity and credibility for all to see.

As an IT Service company, you probably don’t have to be on Snapchat, but identifying your communities across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn can put you in a place where the conversation already is.

Wrap Up

IT services is a tough field to set yourself apart from the competition. In a research-oriented business, you need to be able to put the information your prospects need to convert right in front of their faces. By knowing your audience, creators, analytics, and websites, you can boost awareness of your services today! Go get to it!

Looking to work with a marketing consultancy for your IT service provider? Look no further! You can check out MIG’s weekly blog content service or schedule a free consultation.

The post The Power of Content Marketing for IT Services appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=3259

/by

The Essentials of Account-Based Marketing

In the modern era, adopting an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach is a key business strategy for B2B marketers. What used to be purely account-based selling in the past has evolved to include marketing strategies that yield higher ROI at a fraction of its previous cost.

Technology has played the biggest role in this evolution. The latest marketing tools and platforms have paved the way for ABM users to scale their efforts through software and apps that provide predictive analysis, effective lead management capabilities, and the ability to produce highly targeted content.

Using ABM solutions enables users to adopt an automated, programmatic advertising process to identify key personnel or accounts, which in turn help them tailor communications depending on what part of the buying stage prospects are in at any given moment.

Simply put, marketing automation and digital demand management channels have allowed marketers to do more with less.

These factors result in increased focus on business objectives because these new tools allow sales and marketing to align their strategies. With an ABM approach, these two teams work in a collaborative environment rather than in silos.

Through this effective alignment and account targeting methodology, the vast majority of businesses have reported increases in lead quality and ROI.

Here’s a quick video from Zaryn @ Market & Hustle to give you the ABM rundown:

Quick Takeaways:

  • Account-Based Marketing is about personalizing your marketing efforts directly toward your most profitable prospects.
  • ABM helps weed out the less-profitable clients to maximize your profit ceiling.
  • Creating systems that focus your time and resources on the accounts that are most likely to close will save you from wasting said time and resources.

Here are a few things to consider when implementing an ABM approach:

  1. The Role of IT in ABM

Having a dedicated IT team at hand ensures that you’re working within a reliable, secure platform. Not everything is as easy as “did you turn it off and back on again?” They are there to help the integration of ABM tools with your existing network, making the transition smooth and seamless.

They can also address any hiccups that inevitably occur whenever new software is introduced. Originally, spending precious resources and waiting for IT teams to identify, select, and deploy ABM technologies is something businesses were finding difficult to accept.

Thankfully, technological advances in ABM-related software have made it easier and more cost-efficient for businesses to jump on the ABM bandwagon. This has enabled organizations of various sizes to implement ABM tactics to deliver personalized marketing to hundreds of accounts.

2. Funnel Stage Targeting

Source: Blueprint Creative Group

The traditional waterfall marketing funnel casts a wide net to catch as many prospects as possible. ABM attempts to modify this model by narrowing the lead base first instead of last.

The process begins with a thorough understanding of your ideal customer profile, which is made possible by paying close attention to CRM reports and other B2B data about your ideal prospect. Having a set of criteria to work with helps you identify where your biggest opportunities may lie.

This approach enhances your targeting and personalization capabilities so you can increase lead quality and in turn, sales conversion rates.

3. ABM Leverages Existing Customers

Source: Ecomextension

Not only is it cheaper to tap your current customer base, but it also promotes loyalty because of your continued efforts to provide additional personalized products or services that fit your client’s needs. Cross-selling and renewal campaigns can now be more targeted with data-driven marketing tools.

These automated tools allow you to develop individualized cross-selling or upselling techniques such as complimentary product trials that supplement existing products or call to action services that resonate with your customers.

Keep in mind the Pareto Principle, which states that you should be focusing on the 20% of customers that deliver the most revenue so you can increase the ROI of your marketing activities (See How to Get a Positive Return on Your Marketing Investment for more).

4. The Focus Should be on Your Biggest Opportunities

Source: Sticky Digital

In 2020 there was a 171% increase in average annual contract value after implementing Account-based Marketing. Meaning, your deal size with the biggest targets just got bigger.

Expand your current base by building your list of organizations, companies, business roles, and key personnel that fits within a set of criteria you’ve identified.

After you’ve identified your target profile, it’s time for you to increase engagement with awareness campaigns via online and offline channels (like content marketing!). 

Once you’ve gained momentum in your relationship building efforts, it’s only a matter of time before loyal customers become brand advocates. These advocates are the best sources of high-quality referrals and positive recommendations.

5. Marketing and Sales Must Align

Source: The Next Scoop

The primary cause of conflict between sales and marketing stems from the different goals they typically pursue. In a traditional company setting, sales teams are measured against their ability to convert the most number of leads, while marketing sees lead generation primarily as a numbers game.

This means that sales values highly qualified leads with a greater desire to buy, while marketing is more concerned with getting as many leads as possible, regardless of their likelihood to convert.

With ABM, the metrics used to assess whether or not a marketing campaign is a success has to be shifted towards a more sales-centric approach. Overall, marketing has to be measured based on the amount of engagement from each lead instead of focusing on the number of leads in the funnel.

Optimizely.com says,

Account-based marketing encourages marketing teams and sale organizations to work together, identifying target accounts, crafting customized campaigns for them, and working together to align and move individual accounts through the pipeline, both before and after lead conversion.

In short, we’re all playing on the same team! For ABM to work we just need to be on the same page.

6. ABM Means Personalized Communication

Source: Medium

The fundamental basis of ABM is personalized communications. You need customer data for ABM to work because this data will help you personalize communications in the future. This increases your ability to relate to customers’ needs and create the best buying experience.

In a multi-platform world, your website, mobile apps, emails, events, and every other brand communications channel should be tailored to accelerate the buying journey.

This means modifying your messaging, CTAs, social proof and other aspects to deliver the right buying experience to the right customers at the right time.

The Wrap Up

In some organizations, ABM can be better than Inbound Marketing because the former allows for a more targeted approach, only engaging companies that are ideal users of the product or service you’re offering.

With Inbound Marketing, your ability to control your audience is limited—anyone can download your e-book or subscribe to your newsletter, reducing the qualification requirements to become a lead.

ABM allows you to optimize a larger percentage of your prospects because they were chosen based on a list of criteria you’ve made from relevant sources, which includes their digital footprint or predictive tools.

It’s not based on guesswork or a theoretical customer roadmap – but actual data. This, coupled with the ability to scale at a low cost, are the key reasons your B2B should consider applying an ABM approach in your future marketing strategy.

Do you want to use some of the marketing strategies seen here on MIG’s site but need some help or advice? Check out our weekly blog content service or schedule a free consultation. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business!

The post The Essentials of Account-Based Marketing appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

/by