023: David Rich: From Magic to Marketing

[:en]david rich of george p johnson

Guest

David Rich (@richexpmarkting) is the Senior Vice President of Client Services for George P. Johnson Experience Marketing (@GPJExpMktg). He has over 15 years experience with the company and some unique pre-GPJ experience in theatrical magic and even crooked gambling. Listen to the podcast above to get the details!

Company

The company’s founder and namesake started one of the first modern event marketing companies by helping Henry Ford drive traffic to the first auto shows. Recently, George P. Johnson Experience Marketing celebrated 100 years in business and has the unique distinction of having worked with Chrysler for over 70 years. It is going on its second century in the event marketing business putting it in league with brands like Ford, Coca-Cola, Levis, and Heinz. Some of its clients have included Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Infinity, IBM, Cisco, Proctor & Gamble, Under Armor, Pepsi, and more.

Quote

“Authenticity is one of the cornerstones of successful marketing.”

Story

David Rich shares his early exposure to theatrical magic. As a performer and student, he noticed that in the hands of some people tricks looked like pure magic; in the hands of others it looked like foolish men playing with toys. What’s the difference? It’s more than talent. Everyone uses the same tools under the same laws of physics. What sets professionals apart from amateurs are particular approaches and skills that are cultivated in a way to coax the viewer to suspend their concept of reality to the extent that they believe what they are seeing is accomplished by supernatural powers.

This correlates with success in marketing. How can we purposefully engineer experience — in an honest and ethical way — to change peoples’ experience and behaviors?

David shares projections for what companies are going to need to do differently and what excites him about the coming 1-5 years.

Show Links & Social

David Rich [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/richexpmarkting” target=”on” ][/social_link]

GPJ Experience Marketing [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/gpjexpmktg” target=”on” ][/social_link] website

IMA Network: [social_link type=”linkedin” url=”https://www.linkedin.com/company/internetmarketingassociation” target=”on” ][/social_link] [social_link type=”wordpress” url=”http://www.imanetwork.org” target=”on” ][/social_link] [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/IMA_Network” target=”on” ][/social_link]

Dominick Sirianni: [social_link type=”linkedin” url=”http://www.linkedin.com/in/domsir/en” target=”on” ][/social_link] [social_link type=”twitter” url=”http://twitter.com/domsir411″ target=”on” ][/social_link] dsirianni@imanetwork.org[:de]

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3 Social Media Landmines & 5 Steps to Avoid Disaster with Frank Luntz

frank luntz article pic frank on tv interview croppedLove him or hate him, Frank Luntz calls it like he sees it. During my recent interview with him on the IMA Leader podcast, Luntz didn’t pull any punches when calling out Republicans for their weak social marketing strategies.

“Republicans didn’t implement in 2014 what Obama was doing in 2008.”

Though he got his start on a national stage working for Newt Gingrich and helping to draft the Contract with America, Luntz pulls from a wide audience. He serves as a contributor to Fox News and CBS which is rare. He’s worked for politicians on both sides of the aisle and, though he’s definitely known as a Republican pollster, he started off our interview by telling me he didn’t define himself that way.

“I’m sort of a jack of all trades and master of none.”

Luntz was incredibly pessimistic when talking about social media. He laid into Republicans who seem to have their head in the sand when it comes to using the relatively new media to engage the electorate. Luntz also had some words of caution for people using digital marketing techniques to talk with an audience.

3 Social Media Landmines

1. Lengthy messages do not get read.

2. Social media is a place for venting, not to think and contemplate.

3. Your posts can and will be twisted and used against you.

5 Steps to Avoid Disaster

So how do we tame this beast? Given Luntz’s stipulation that social media has its limitation and potential pitfalls, here is advice from the ‘maestro of messaging’ himself:

frank luntz article pic 1 response by facebook post length

1. People don’t read much more than 450 words 

In the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, you generally get 800 words to make your point. Not so in the social world.

On Twitter you get 140 characters and on other platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn you certainly can use far more, but no one wants to read a diatribe so keep your blogs to one topic and stay focused. Keep your tweets, Facebook posts, Pinterest descriptions, etc. as short as possible.

Buffer even recommends 40 characters maximum for Facebook posts for higher engagement. Less really is more.

2. Visuals are powerful

videos and photos are shared more than text aloneThe likelihood of your information being shared increases when a visual component accompanies the verbal message.

In fact, according to Hubspot, videos on Facebook are shared 12 times more than text posts and links combined, photos are twice as likely to earn likes over text updates, and photo and video posts on Pinterest refer more traffic than Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Screen Shot 2015-03-03 at 6.41.14 AM

3.  Play to emotion

Because social media is a great place for venting, connecting quickly to your audience through emotion is a top strategy. Get them to laugh, cry, fume, or jump and your message will be more widely shared and engaged with, thus eliciting a bigger impact.

Read more on the Science of Emotion in Marketing from the Huffington Post for how you can leverage it in your social media strategy.

4. You better have facts

frank luntz article pic 4 just the facts

If you don’t have facts to support what you say, prepare for destruction.

The best rule of thumb according to Luntz is to ground what you say in principles or information not up for debate. This reduces what opponents can argue with and the havoc they can wreak on your message. For example, include verifiable statistics when talking about a product or situation.

No: “Our product was great.”

Yes: “Our product was in the top 3 of industry rankings 7 out of 8 years.”

5. Never “set it and forget it”

frank luntz article pic 5 one does not set it and forget it

Part of your social media strategy must include monitoring what you put out there and the engagement it receives. Many take pride in hijacking communication for their own interests and even the best communication attempts can be thwarted if you don’t monitor and correct confusion.

Luntz believes that we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes. In our interview, he shared mistakes he made in his life that helped him realize that with social media, you need to be short, visual, authentic and emotional in order to be successful.

 

More

Be sure to subscribe to IMA Leader and hear guests like Frank Luntz share the experiences from which they learned to be successful in today’s hyper-communicative and ultra-competitive world.

Do you have other “rules” that should be added to this list? What social media mistakes have you learned from that you can share with our IMA members? Comment below or tweet me at @domsir411 or at @IMA_Network.

024: Frank Luntz: Social Media has its place

frank luntz headshot

Guest

Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) CEO of Luntz Global is also a contributor for both Fox News and CBS. An expert in communication strategy, TIME Magazine wrote, “If words are a weapon, Frank Luntz is a Samurai.” In this podcast (click above to listen), Frank shares his candid perspective on social media and communication in digital marketing and politics.

Company

Luntz Global has advised corporations and organizations in virtually every major industry from Citigroup to Coca Cola to FedEx to the U.S. Navy. Using focus groups to tap into the pulse of the public, even President Barack Obama confirms Frank Luntz’s authority when he said, “When Frank Luntz invites you to talk to his focus group, you talk to his focus group.”

Quote

“If social media teaches us anything it’s that [if you] can keep their head, you’ll be a success….Figure out what needs to be done and play your game, not theirs.”

Story

Frank Luntz has been called “the maestro of messaging.” He shares the good, the bad, and the ugly of social media citing specific examples from his illustrious career.

Too often people make large mistakes by looking at the world through their own perspective and not considering other viewpoints. Frank demonstrates how using words and stories via different mediums can have amazing impacts but only if you do your homework. And be forewarned, what you say and write will often times be twisted and used against you, so choose your words wisely.

Frank also answers the question of “What have the Republicans learned about the two effective national campaigns of Obama?” Frank shares his candid opinion plus his advice on how to make up lost ground using digital marketing. 

Show Links & Social

Luntz Global

Luntz Global Focus Groups

Frank Luntz   [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/FrankLuntz” target=”on” ][/social_link] Luntz Global [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/LuntzGlobal” target=”on” ][/social_link]

Dominick Sirianni [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/domsir411″ target=”on” ][/social_link] IMA Network   [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/IMA_Network” target=”on” ][/social_link]

Dominick Sirianni Email

 

 

022: Andrea Ward: Not for the Faint of Heart

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Guest

andrea ward vp marketing at oracle headshotAndrea Ward (@awatpa) is the Vice President of Marketing for Oracle Marketing Cloud (@OracleMktgCloud). With an MBA in International Finance, Andrea has had a lengthy career in many aspects of Marketing from Public Affairs, Market Research, and Product Management to Finance and even Mergers and Acquisitions. Andrea has great perspective on what’s happening in marketing today.

Company

Oracle (@oracle) — the second largest software maker in the world after Microsoft — unleashes innovation and enables its 400,000+ customers in over 145 countries to deliver the best experience to their own customers by simplifying IT.

In 2014, Forbes listed Oracle’s brand as more valuable than AT&T, Walmart, Verizon, and Budweiser. With 38.3 billion dollars in brand revenue, Oracle sells more than Ralph Lauren, Visa, EBay, Gucci, and Rolex combined. Oracle is also one of the major sponsors of the IMA.

Quote

“You need be able to use the tools available to you to be a data-driven marketer — to use data to create more personalized interactions. And that may mean a different skill set than what a marketer may have needed 10 years ago.”

Statistic

3 out of 4 marketers have taken on new responsibilities but 9 out of 10 report no corresponding increase in budget or resources.

Story

“97% of B2B marketing leaders say they are doing new types of work, new skills for marketers will be desperately needed going forward, and the pace of relentless change in their worlds is expected to pick up.” ~ Forrester & Business Marketing Association Findings

The field of marketing continues to expand and push forward in innovative ways. Andrea Ward, VP of Marketing for Oracle Marketing Cloud, discusses how the move to the cloud and other technological advances require marketers to use both their natural and developed skills to do even better at communication, collaboration, and data driven decision making. She highlights  improving communication with IT departments – by speaking to them in terms they value like efficiency and cost savings – to ensure better customer experience and increased driving of demand.

Andrea goes on to discuss the concept of “digital dialogue” and how using new data capturing technologies can help marketers learn about their known customers and unknown (potential) customers to engage with them real-time in a personalized way. Marketers need to develop their own skill sets in the right direction to be leaders in their fields.

Show Links & Social

Oracle Marketing Cloud

Darian Shiraz (Founder & CEO of Radius) Interview

Forrester & Business Marketing Association Findings

Andrea Ward LinkedIn

Andrea Ward   [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/awatpa” target=”on” ][/social_link] Oracle [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/oracle” target=”on” ][/social_link] Oracle Marketing Cloud   [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/OracleMktgCloud” target=”on” ][/social_link]

Dominick Sirianni [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/domsir411″ target=”on” ][/social_link] IMA Network   [social_link type=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/IMA_Network” target=”on” ][/social_link][:de]

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IMPACT14 is now two weeks away!
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The clock is ticking. IMPACT14 is now two weeks away, and the excitement around the conference is reaching an all-time high!

Over the course of 3 days, attendees will rub shoulders with a virtual who’s who of the Internet Marketing world, be hosted to unparalleled social and networking opportunities, and learn from the very top thought-leaders, influencers, and shakers and movers in the industry.

If you need any more convincing, simply take a look at theconference agenda and the impressive list of speakers who will be sharing their expertise, knowledge and perspective on the future of Internet Marketing.

If you can fly it, or drive it, you can make it.

Register today »

You simply do not want to miss this.

We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas in just two weeks!

 

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Guidelines and Roles for Content Management

Today nine out of ten companies are managing their own website content. This content is used to retain customers, bring in new ones, pass on to social media, blogged about, sent in newsletters, used in webinars, and even handed out at events and fairs! That’s a lot of reuse for the same content and a heavy strain on specific resources.

The Content Marketing Institute has said that just one in three companies feel their content is actually being used in the right manner and bringing in customers. This is because most organizations don’t have the specific skills to create the right content to drive in new customers. With content being used in so many different ways, it takes vertical knowledge and specific research to understand what is going to work and where.

Take these statistics for instance:

  • Sans-serif fonts work on the web, while serif can work on paper.
  • Warm colors tend to draw more customers on paper, with the opposite online.
  • Online content is generated to be optimized for size, while offline has no such restrictions.
  • Online media are “first-fold” oriented, meaning the first part of the page you see without scrolling down

 

These are some examples that show the differences in approach required for your content management strategy.

Content as an Asset
Strong brand advertising uses specific content that is meant to pull at your heartstrings, cause you to engage with the brand, and build a connection that is endearing over the long term.

However your marketing strategy changes, your content is going to rise to the top if it has value. It will remain accessible for years and will continue to engage people. Once you create an active audience for your content, you can sell current products and services as well as cultivate your target audience to introduce new and similar products.

Robert Rose says, “In many businesses (especially in B2B), the marketing department is an order-taking, tactical function that runs on the hamster wheel of demand generation, trying to keep up with ‘client’ orders for new collateral, press releases, case studies and, at times, marketing-qualified leads (MQLs).”

In the next decade, we will need to build and grow audiences that are genre specific and have been nurtured to like our content. This will require some thinking as Internet marketers and a change of mindset when companies are hiring new talent.

New Age Marketing Roles
With the changes that marketing will face, there are new roles to be filled. Whether you are a marketing firm that is scaling up to new demand or a small store that is planning its expansion strategy, you need to start thinking about these roles and how you can best fill the gaps in your organization.

Chief Content Officer
This position is your king of the castle. The CCO will be the one who tells the story for your organization. They will be the person spelling out the direction that the content is required to take, based on the mission that the organization has in mind. As different parts of the organization spin out different content for newsletters, brochures, search optimization, social media, etc, the CCO will be required to go through it all and ensure that the mission of the organization is intact.

Managing Editor
The managing editor will push into action the CCO’s content plan and vision. The managing editor is responsible for the execution of the strategy the CCO has planned out for different departments and verticals. This includes ensuring that style, scheduling and tone are in sync with the company’s vision.

Chief Listening Officer
The CLO is the eyes on the ground, the person in charge of listening to what the feedback from the market is saying. He/she also ensures that the content is received correctly and people have access to the correct content they require.

Director of Audience
The DoA ensures that the content generated is in sync with the mindset of the target audience, that the content has the right passion points, and that it is pushing towards the right action. They are also responsible for building mailing lists, both online and offline, and social media interactions.

Channel Master
With the differences in media, there is a requirement for someone to define how content is generated and how it will be optimized for different channels. The channel master provides the strategy for different areas of content. What time it should be released, what technology should be used, how it is to be released and so on.

As you can see, the future of content marketing is huge. It will weather search engine updates, changes in fashion and taste. We need to ensure that we use media correctly and plan out our strategies effectively. Keep in mind that these roles are not necessarily unique. Depending on the people available and the size of your organization, you will probably need to tweak them based on your specific requirements.

Local SEO for Your Business

With Google’s new Penguin updates, local is making bigger inroads into the Google SERPs. Local SEO is relevant for a business with a local presence requirement, whether you are a lawyer, a dentist, a doctor, a restaurant or a painter.

Local vs. National SEO

Local and national SEO share a large number of factors in common such as on-page, links, social, indexing, etc. But local does have a few differences. For local, you want to claim your Google profile, which is the page that will show up in the local search results. Next, you need to get a citation. A citation is a website that uses your name, address and phone number – all on the same page. Make sure that your details are the same everywhere. Changing your address or zip code could confuse Google. Third, generate reviews. Lots of reviews. The more, the merrier. The quantity and quality of the reviews for your page are one of the most important local ranking factors.

On-Site Optimization

Make sure name, address and phone numbers are on every page of your site, in the same format as your Google local listing. Use schema markups to better help search engines identify and show your location. Also include a KML file on your site. While some of this may seem redundant, it never hurts to send as many legitimate signals as you can.

Maximizing Local SEO Rankings

The fundamental way to do this is to increase citations, overall number of reviews and positive reviews. At this point, local results are quite Google specific. So, the more you can do in terms of  getting a better page for your business, the better your outcome is going to be. Ask clients to leave positive reviews and to +1 your page, keep it updated and keep linking to it. Location being close to the city center helps, since Google assumes you are close to city center when doing a search.

Getting Local Search Results

Go to Google place to sign up for your listing and complete all the details. This includes adding images, videos and all the other information you can share about your business. But don’t get too “SEO” on this listing. You don’t want to over-optimize for SEO and make it look unnatural in any way.

Sign up at Yext. They will send out your information to other major local platforms in the same format. Each of these will become a citation, which is hugely valuable. Next, use a tool like KnowEm to get your social profiles. Yext and KnowEm do have a charge for setting up profiles, but it is well covered in terms of returns. Invest your money as you feel comfortable for your budget and start with Yext.

Along with making your profiles, don’t ignore SEO on your website. Make sure that at least some of the links you build towards your website contain your target city/state combo. And, although it isn’t entirely correct to encourage people to go to your profile and write reviews, do suggest that if your customers are happy with you they leave a review at your pages.

Tools for the Task

WhiteSpark provides services for locating local citation sources, and you can try them out. In case you are doing some local guest blog posts, you can add your bio into the post data and generate some citations from it.

Ways to Get Reviews

Let your customers or clients know that they can rate their experience with you on your Google Places profile. Have logos up in your windows or in your office showing the places where people can leave reviews. Include your profile links in your email communications (particularly in follow-up emails after a purchase or visit), direct mail and anywhere else you can think of to get in front of customers. Of course, if you want poitive reviews, you need to provide a product and/or service that warrants them.

And while this should go without saying, DON’T BUY REVIEWS. While Google doesn’t always catch fake reviews, they are working constantly to get better at it. Yelp, on the other hand, errs on the site of extreme caution and often banishes overly positive reviews.

Outsource or Self-Promote

Depending on what your budget is, you can make a few choices. From the tips above, you may be able to do a large part of this on your own. Or you can hire an agency that will take the pain away for you. While we can’t specifically make a recommendation for an agency, keep in mind that typically with SEO, what you pay is what you get. There are a large number of agencies, but as a start you can check the WhiteSpace service at $16.

Keep building up reviews and citations for your business over time, and you will rapidly see the number of visitors coming to your local business go up.