Category: Content Marketing

Five Reasons Why Traveling the World Can Make You a Better Marketer

In celebration of graduating Northern Kentucky University with my Master of Science in Business Informatics, I recently traveled to Cuba, making it the 17th foreign country I’ve visited. During my trip, I reflected on how I got there, why travel is so important to me, and how it has impacted my professional, and personal, life.

Traveling can give you a much-needed break and disconnect from the office, along with the 24/7 stream of messages flowing into your inbox. While that’s true, there’s plenty of benefits to your career and professional development that you will take home with you. Think of these five reasons as lifelong souvenirs after taking that trip abroad.

Open Your Eyes to New Perspectives

Like presents, people come in all different shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. Being a successful marketer requires having a great deal of empathy. You must know what your audience cares about, what their pain points are, and what they are sensitive to. The best way for you to grow your sense of empathy and ability to shift the lens of how you see the world is to see the world, put yourself out there, and meet others that are different.

Think about creating audience personas. It’s a best practice to create an audience persona, with an actual name so you can make this process more personalized, and then discover the persona’s wants, needs, pain points, lifestyle, and so on. The foundational skill for this process is empathy, and no marketing textbook, influencer, whitepaper, or conference can teach it to you.

Develop a Sense of Multiculturalism

A large chunk of managers who are sent abroad end up failing. If getting an overseas assignment is something that excites you, then you’ll want to get a head start on getting experience abroad. When working with, and marketing to, people of other cultures, it’s critical to be aware of their cultural norms and sensitivities. This includes having at least a basic working knowledge of their language, political climate, history, food customs, religious practices, culturally-specific phrases to say or avoid, and nonverbal communication, including tone-of-voice, hand signals, gestures, and spatial orientation.  If you get any of these wrong in your marketing tactics, then you might do some massive damage to your brand, or even get into legal trouble.

A facepalm worthy example of a brand shooting itself in the foot is the United Kingdom based Tesco supermarket running a Ramadan promotion featuring smoky bacon flavored Pringles. Think about that for a second… There was also this rough example of people publishing a post so wrong that it landed them in jail. A pair of Instagram influencers focused on travel who posted a revealing picture of their butts at the world-famous Wat Arun temple in Thailand, a Buddhist country (wow did they mess up!). They were arrested for this picture and deported back to California after spending two weeks in jail, although they could have faced several years in prison. For additional context, many temples in Thailand require modest apparel to be worn out of respect (shorts aren’t even allowed at some), so that single Instagram post was an enormous disrespectful slap in the face to the Thai people.

On a positive note, having a multicultural bent enables you to ask questions and do your research before launching a new marketing campaign. Not only will you avoid an embarrassing blunder, but you will also be able to cultivate a deeper understanding and appreciation of a culture different than your own. This makes you a smarter and more engaged global citizen while also empowering you to build authentic connections with people different than you. Ultimately, you’ll be able to engage more in-depth with a culture and reap the rewards both professionally and personally. As the United States is a very diverse country, having multicultural awareness and communication skills will benefit you at home and abroad.

Discover Different Ways People Receive Information and Communicate

People around the world communicate in different ways and through different platforms. As marketers, we need to understand where our target audiences spend their time, how they like to get their information, and which communication channels they use. Knowing this information allows us to craft relevant marketing campaigns for our target audiences and optimize content that’s deliverable to them.

By traveling, you’ll get a better understanding of a society’s culture, which has a major impact on how they receive information. If you’re in PR, you’ll need to know which media outlets operate in that country, what their reputation is, and if they have any bias towards a certain topic. While researching this information, the knowledge you gathered on your trip could help you weed out certain media outlets or digital platforms quickly.

Being Adaptable and Able to Switch Gears on the Fly

You can have the most ingenious marketing campaign or strategy crafted, yet things won’t always go your way.  Your targeted audience might not respond to your ad, your content calendar might not cultivate much engagement, or your campaign might not yield conversions. It can happen to the best of us. What will set you apart is your ability to take these circumstances, adapt to them immediately, and make changes to improve the outcome.

How does traveling play into this? Well first, no travel itinerary goes 100% according to plan. I’ve had my fair share of “WTF do I do now?” experiences in unfamiliar countries.  This recently happened to me within my first hour of being in Cuba. I forgot to ask the taxi driver who picked me up from the airport to call the Airbnb host and let him know I would arrive at the apartment momentarily. So, I got dropped off on the street in the middle of Havana in front of an apartment building without the host anywhere to be found. With my elementary level Spanish, I asked a senior woman on the street, who luckily happened to live in the same building, to call him. She and I could barely understand each other, but she was very kind and helpful, and he showed up 15 minutes later!

As marketers, we need to understand that plans don’t always go as expected. Creating contingency plans is always a good business practice, but sometimes weird things happen that not even the contingency plans cover. That’s why it’s important to train yourself to be adaptable in unfamiliar situations and scenarios where things go wrong.  Traveling gives you the skills to shift your plans, think creatively for outside of the box solutions, and ask for help from people at a moment’s notice.

Discovering, Appreciating, and Capturing Beauty in all its Forms

When is the last time you looked down the street, stopped, and thought to yourself, “Wow, this is incredibly vibrant and beautiful with many stories behind it,”? It can be easy to glance over, but even typing that very sentence made me take a closer look down Main Street in Covington’s Mainstrasse (my neighborhood) and have a moment of appreciation for all the culture and history behind it. Traveling gives you that appreciation for all the beautiful things that the world and life have to offer, which can directly result in a more creative eye. Visual content is the trend in marketing right now with no end in sight. On social media, your posts better at least have a compelling image tied to them if a video isn’t possible.

Traveling will give you that curiosity to explore, appreciate, and capture beauty in all its forms. As you snap and record away, you’re going to refine your photography and videography skillset. You’re also going to learn to look for appealing visual content in ways that you never did before. For me, my first trip abroad to Italy in high school solidified my interest in photography and travel, and then taking a professional photography class while studying abroad during my undergrad in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, Costa Rica, has given me an eye for capturing visual content that I wouldn’t have otherwise. You don’t need to be a professional photographer or videographer to capture beautiful visual content worthy of sharing; you just need to know how to look for it, recognize it, appreciate it, and then represent it through the appropriate marketing channels.

Final Thoughts

In the end, traveling alone won’t make these five reasons come to life for you. You are responsible for that. Travel is the vehicle, and you’re the driver. You own these experiences and the outcomes of them. If you go to a country and just want to spend time at the all-inclusive resort’s pool while only interacting with people who can speak English, then you’re going to lose out on a lot of experiences and context that will help you grow. Successful marketers think outside of the box, are willing to take some risk to be innovative and reap great rewards, have an open mind, and are adaptable to all the unexpected curve balls that may be thrown at them. Traveling the world will help you build and refine these skills. No marketing class, book, whitepaper, blog (even this post), or whatever piece of content can teach these to you. There’s only one way to do that, and that’s to experience the world yourself.

In case you’re wondering, Cuba is an amazingly vibrant, beautiful, fun, and safe country to explore. To get a glimpse of what I experienced in Cuba, check out my album!

When You’re a Marketing Team of One

When you’re a marketing team of one, things get more complicated. Things like schedules and strategies and goals can quickly get usurped for the latest marketing fire unless you’re able to get ahead of the rest of the organization. I should know –  I was a marketing team of one for a good chunk of my career before joining the O’Keeffe tribe.

Here are the top five things I wish I’d known early in my career as a marketing team of one.

  1. Documentation is your best friend.

It sounds like a no-brainer, right? Document things. Easy peasy. But when you’re a team of one, you’re likely juggling priorities across the business and, depending on the history of the organization, and who you report to, you may be dealing with conflicting ideas on how you should move forward.

Hence documentation.

It’s more than just a recap of emails after meetings (although those are essential). Think about how you can best communicate your strategy and your wins across the business. Would a monthly report help? How about a note breaking down wins via email with a why it matters summary? Find ways to bring your leadership and the rest of your organization along on this magical marketing journey with you.

  1. Stay connected within the marketing community.

As a marketing team of one, you will likely be the only person who gets excited when a significant client tweets at you or when you double your open rate on that biweekly email send. Find your local marketing community and make nerdy friends. Sometimes a lunch spent talking segmentation is the boost you need to push out your new content strategy. Your local AMA is an excellent resource for this, but so are Meetups, user groups, and events or conferences.

Make friends, and you’ll always have someone to call to celebrate a big victory or talk you off a ledge when Salesforce breaks.

  1. Keep a roadmap.

Depending on the nature of your organization and whether you’re setting the long-term strategy, you’ll need to keep an eye on your initiatives. Sometimes you’ll be working through a tough time with your sales team, and you’ll need a way to refocus on what’s next. Your roadmap will be your strategic marketing bible and help you cut through priorities. It’s easy to get overwhelmed as a team of one. Being able to reference that roadmap can help your leadership stay focused on where you can make the most impact.

  1. Do the math.

Let’s face it: pulling your monthly analytics isn’t a high priority when you’re managing a giant marketing strategy. But it’s also the one thing that will help you see the light at the end of the long, complicated white paper you’re writing. Being able to see your progress is hugely motivating, and that process of continual optimization isn’t possible without a historical perspective on your efforts. It’ll also save you if you ever want to find a new home because showing concrete results is the best way to land your next gig.

  1. Find time to get creative.

When all of the pressure rests on your marketing shoulders, it’s easy to stay head down and ignore the outside world. You’re just trying to knock out this week’s social posts – there isn’t time for nerding out with a whiteboard and reviewing your personas. The single best way to stop stress and burnout is to stay creative and engaged in your work. Make the time to develop new strategies, review fun ideas, and learn skills that help set you apart. It keeps your brain fresh and your marketing strategy even fresher.

Being a marketing team of one isn’t easy. I’d wager that it’s one of the hardest roles to fill as a marketer. That kind of ownership and responsibility can be insanely fun if you’re able to ride through competing priorities, times of loneliness as you long for a team, and all those conversations explaining just what exactly you do to the rest of the organization.

Did you read this and think, gosh, I wish I had a marketing buddy like the O’Keeffe tribe? We’d love to work with you and help you tell your story. Send us a quick message and let’s talk.

Why Companies Need B2B Content

Businesses in every industry have valuable stories to tell about their products and services. However, many are not utilizing the power of content, and their stories aren’t being heard. I believe it is important that companies incorporate content marketing into their lead generation and sales processes to give customers the information they really want. So, why is content important for B2B businesses? I’ve put together a list of my top reasons.

Quality content builds credibility and authority

Consistent, quality content can help establish your company as a leader in your industry. By writing thought leadership pieces, you are proving your expertise to those who might need your services. Gaining that credibility and authority is important when it comes to strengthening your relationship with current customers, as well as attracting the attention of new ones. The more you write and publish, the simpler it will be for you to convince your target audience that you are an expert in the business subject you’re promoting and selling. Your thought leadership de-risks their buying process.

Buyers are always looking for helpful content

According to LinkedIn, 79 percent of small businesses say that industry specific news and articles are the most valuable pieces of content they look for on social media. 79 percent! This illustrates that companies are out there reading and looking for answers. It’s important that your company is part of the conversation.

The B2B buying journey can take some time

The buying journey for B2B companies can often take much longer than it does for B2C companies. This is because you are building a relationship with your potential customers, rather than asking for a simple transaction. Because the process can often take some time, it is important to stay in touch with prospects throughout their journey. Helpful and relevant content acts as a great touchpoint and provides a way to initiate discussions and ensure loyal follow-up. It also doesn’t hurt that 74% of B2B buyers choose a vendor that’s first to help them with useful content, according to LinkedIn.

Google recognizes quality content

A high SEO ranking is the cherry on top of producing quality material. Marketing is a great way to promote your brand and reach new customers, as well as get recognized by Google, who will award your efforts with a good ranking. You just have to make sure you are publishing quality content consistently. However, while it can be tempting to write purely for SEO purposes, always be sure to focus on writing compelling content about the things your target audience would be most interested in. There is no downside to optimizing your content for SEO, but don’t lose sight of your primary goals when you create and deliver content.

Every B2B company has a story to tell and an audience to share it with, whether it is current clients, prospective clients or industry colleagues. Providing and publishing relevant content can make a major difference in creating a rewarding customer relationship. B2B businesses are embracing the benefits of content each day and are seeing direct results. Make sure your company doesn’t miss out on opportunities that content marketing can provide.

Why your business needs visual content

Regardless of the industry you work in, you’ve probably already heard that visual content is an effective form of communication. Actually, in my opinion it’s becoming the most effective form of communication.

Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, it’s still H2H (human to human). Humans are visual beings, and in today’s world of information-overload, visuals can help your message rise above the clutter.  If you aren’t focusing on visual content for your marketing, social media or email campaigns, it’s probably time to start.

Visuals grab our attention.

There are 1.5 billion units of content generated each day. With so much information floating around online, businesses need to find ways to grab the attention of their target audiences. Using visuals, rather than text, is a much more effective way to accomplish this.

We remember visuals.

Did you know that people retain 80 percent of what they see? This is compared to 20 percent of what they read and ten percent of what they hear. Big difference. If you want your audience to remember what you are communicating, show them using visuals.

Visual content gets more views.

Content featuring compelling images averages 94 percent more total views than those without. It’s also 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than posts with only text. By including an image, you can drastically increase people’s willingness to read, listen or see what you have to say.

Visual content can influence human emotion.

Images, videos, infographics, and other forms of visual content include color that can appeal to your target audience’s senses and influence their emotions. Studies show that colors not only affect emotions, but also influence how people will take action. Additionally, visual content acts as a universal language and can appeal to all audiences and emotions.

To practice what I preach, I’ve included an infographic that brings this message to life.

 

Infographic from Ethos3
Infographic from Ethos3

 

Is your website working for you?

I think of a website as a digital employee for an organization. It’s probably the hardest working employee in your company. It works 24/7 to introduce your brand to new people and continue building relationships with them. Its primary role is to clearly deliver the right information, at the right time, to your prospective customers and clients.

Given the heavy load that it carries, why is it that many companies pay their website so little attention? I often find myself visiting a website to find that the information I need is well hidden in a place that doesn’t make sense. Or, it’s like a digital brochure that makes me feel like I’m dealing with a pushy salesperson. Sometimes the homepage is filled with too much content and it’s like being on a first date with someone who tells you their entire life story in the first hour. In each of these cases, I end up moving on to find what I need.

As with the people you hire, you want your website to represent you well, authentically engage your audience and help you build long-lasting relationships with the people you serve.

Here are three things you can do to make your website “Employee Of The Year”.

Think about the people you serve.

Schedule some time with your team to discuss your target audience. Who are you trying to reach? What are their needs and challenges? How can you help them? How will they find you? Sometimes it helps to create personas and give them a name. This keeps them top of mind as you create content and design the website experience.

Create the right content for the right time.

After you identify know who you want to meet and attract, it’s time to think about how to best engage them. Think of it as starting a new relationship. What information do they need from you as they are beginning to search for an answer or solution? You’ll want that content front and center on the homepage and it needs to be clear, concise and compelling. But that’s just the start because there are many other companies who can also help them. In order for you to stand out, they will need to easily find information that establishes your expertise and credibility. This can be answered through blog posts, case studies or customer reviews. At this point they may be ready to take the next step. You’ll want to be sure they can easily contact you or know where to find you.

Design an intuitive experience.

Once you have your content structure, you’ll want to think about the design of your website. First and foremost, you want it to be easy to read and navigate on a mobile phone, desktop or tablet. Go for a clean design with visuals that enhance your copy and bring it to life. Give careful thought to the titles you use in your navigation. Go back to your personas. What information are they expecting to find? Your titles should reflect this content and appear in order of importance from left to right. Anticipate their next steps in the decision process as you determine your subpages and their location. If your website is well organized and easy to navigate, your visitors feel as though you understand them and are more likely to reach out to you.

In the end, you want to make sure that your “digital employee” has everything it needs to be successful. Taking the time to create a website with an engaging visitor experience is a great first step to building relationships with your clients and customers.