As technology improves, so does marketing. Once an art of its own, marketing has now morphed into a hybrid discipline combining art and science to create a powerful tool in the age of digital marketing.

Every team needs balance. Start by implementing automated marketing to transform your firm by delivering personalized messaging that will be more impactful and engaging to your customers and prospects.

• Am I bothering my leads with generalized information?

• Are my emails and campaigns generating sales?

• How much contact and personalization is too much?

• How do you automate touch points in a meaningful way?

TRACKING IS MARKETING AUTOMATION’S BEST FRIEND

Automated marketing platforms allow businesses to monitor almost every aspect of a lead’s journey with your company. From social media and website engagement, marketing asset management, and more, your entire team can access all the information available for any given lead. Knowing exactly which recipients are opening your emails and which parts they interact with will increase internal communication and understanding while providing your team more cognizance to nail the sale.

Tracking insights go beyond single contacts. Once you successfully integrate marketing automation into your business, it will become your one-stop-shop for tracking. Reviewing real-time campaign analytics, specific link clicks, and actionable tasks will help identify activity and trends to increase lead retention.

DETAILS ON DEMAND

One of the most useful characteristics marketing automation platforms have to offer is that they use cloud-based technology. Just like Apple iCloud, if you update the platform in one place, that information is now instantly available to everyone who has access. This remote access to lead information on demand is exceptionally beneficial in streamlining the communication between your marketing and sales teams.

Cloud-based marketing automation platforms keep everyone on the same page and allow for transparent, real-time communication across all departments on your team. This leads to fewer mistakes and more opportunities to create dynamic content for specific personas.

New leads, key performance indicators, and additional metrics at your fingertips will empower your sales team to close on personalized packages when the perfect opportunity arises, allowing for a more seamless experience for your customers. Not to mention, simplified metrics will illustrate the bigger picture for your entire team to grasp so you can make data-driven improvements.

IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN AUTOMATE IT

Automation is a crucial function to look for when choosing the best platform for your small business. Whether it be mindless administrative responsibilities or building long-lasting sales and marketing campaigns, marketing automation tools are there to help your business succeed.

Marketing automation can benefit your small business by eliminating mindless duties while expanding your company’s horizons. For example, improve conversion rates and keep leads hot with triggers and filters to target individual prospects. Add leads to lists immediately, segment lead nurturing by creating personalized subject matter, and get notified when a lead is ready to buy; marketing automation is genuinely a game-changer!

Automation tools like visual workflows and dynamic landing pages facilitate more personalized content that may be more interesting and informative for that specific client.

BOOST ENGAGEMENT

Combining multiple tools in one platform gives you a well-rounded idea of each marketing strategy you are using and what works for your business. Taking the insights you gather from automation software and implementing changes accordingly will boost your engagement because your prospects will connect with your work more naturally!

Adopting a marketing automation system will level up your leads, boost your return on investment, and increase client satisfaction, all while improving communication and eliminating busywork.

What is holding you back? If you think your small business could benefit from marketing automation software, reach out today!

Did you know that on average, a measly 10% of your total Instagram followers see the content you post on their feed? Do you tend to notice posts from 3+ days ago while you mindlessly scroll down your home page? With this madness, it was only a matter of time until influencers and marketing gurus would dig up how to hack their way up your feed! After all of the speculations that we have come across, Power On Marketing is ready to drop five tips for beating the aggravating algorithm, in no specific order.

01 MEANINGFUL INTERACTIONS

As the story usually goes – quality is more important than quantity in life and on Instagram. One of the best ways to hike up your Instagram feed positioning starts with genuine engagements with your followers and who you are following.

Likes are out, saves are in! While any Instagram user appreciates a like on their post, it has become apparent that likes do not really matter. Some accounts cannot even see the number of likes any given post has. Therefore, saving a picture to your collections has become an extremely helpful tracking metric. Not only that, but the more saves a post has, the more likely it is to appear on more of your follower’s feeds, higher up on the feed, and perhaps even make it to the explore page.

Use your words. Friends love to drop a simple emoji under your pictures to show support, but the devil is in the details! Word on the street is that comments that contain more than four words will prove to the insightful algorithm that your content is worthy of more views.

Connect with your community! Interacting with your followers goes beyond saving their posts. There is no harm in direct messaging someone if you like their story. If you are totally impressed with a non-conflicting post, go ahead and share it to your story or send it to someone via DM’s. Shares are like saves in which they can really boost engagement and post placement!

02 POST MORE VIDEOS

IGTV Series, Reels, and other video-friendly amenities are available to Instagram users, so why not get the most out of these free materials and tools!

Social media is all about brand exposure and trend-setting. Instagram video content allows for exactly that, in a shorter time frame than most.

Video content like a reel is storytelling at its finest, and your brand should see it as an opportunity to pitch your services.

Consumers appreciate realistic ideas of products before making their purchase, and data shows that a buyer is much more likely to check a company’s social media before heading
to their site. That means your page could make or break that sale!

03 CREATE EPHEMERAL CONTENT

How often do you post stories or go live? Ephemeral content is only available for a limited time, but it can make a huge difference in your brand’s Instagram presence.

Posting content that is only available for 24 hours at a time lets users know that you are present on the platform.

Try to create stories with relevant and exciting topics that promote the use of questions and polls. This encourages more one on one interactions that could form into leads for your company. These short and sweet interactions also increase your personability, which will build trust between you and your clients so they will never second guess if they are in good hands.

Ephemeral content moves quickly, so you must keep up! Try to post at least a few stories a week, if not each day, to keep your audience active.

04 CONSISTENCY IS KEY

The more you visit the app, the more chronological your feed will become. We recommend scrolling all the way through your feed until you see the “You’re all caught up!” message. While it can mean viewing the same posts a couple of times, your feed will be more likely to reflect the most recent content.

As we touched on earlier, quality is better than quantity. However, if you are sharing more <STRONG>high-quality</STRONG> content, your followers will inevitably see more of you on their feed.

Life Hack: you can also go to the “Go Live” tab to see how many of your followers are currently online. This creates a better understanding of popular times for you to post and engage!

Play around with optimal posting periods for your niche; you want to post when your audience is most active. Going back to our trick to see how many users are online, once you find a time frame that works for your business, try to post future content around that time as well.

05 SCREEN TIME MATTERS

Just like Apple is tracking what you spend so much of your time doing on your phone, Instagram does this within their app! Like most companies, they are more interested in how to monetize from their app than anything.

The easy answer is advertising. People are more likely to see ads if they spend a lot of time snooping around. The longer you keep people on the app, the higher your insights will be.

Get creative – unique content will naturally draw more attention. Sharing more than one photo at once with carousel posts can extend a user’s stay on your page as well!

Again, the longer you can keep your viewers on the app, watching your stories, IGTV series, and creeping down your feed, the more Instagram will reward you!

Conquer the Instagram algorithm in 2021!

So much business is done digitally, from email to Zoom meetings, we are increasingly reliant on our technology to connect us. However, it is essential to remember that we are connecting to human beings when it comes to our marketing. We need to embrace our humanity to create that human connection. We need to act as though the person behind the screen is sitting right in front of you. Effective marketing focuses on appealing to the individual and not creating messaging just for the masses.

Connecting with your audience and knowing their desires and wants is essential for any business to be successful. As the technology age is growing, people often forget or do not realize that marketing and social media, when strategized properly, can rely heavily on the studies of psychology to understand to whom they are appealing.

Many of you might remember a lesson from high school English class on Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Let’s walk through the three modes of persuasion used to connect to an audience and then delve into how you can apply them to your marketing strategy to increase sales and overall ROI.

TIP! Getting to know your consumer takes knowledge and research. One of the best tips to create a better provider and customer relationship is through appealing to the customer’s senses and emotions.

01 ETHOS

Ethos is the appeal to someone’s ethics. You can leverage this effectively if you have the right credentials for your brand to do so. Does your brand use all-natural products? Is your business animal testing free? Vegan? GMO-free? Are you considered ethical, and why? Appeal to your audience’s ethics by talking about why your product is better for them, others, or the environment rather than your competitors. The other way to appeal to ethos is to offer a donation to charity for every purchase. Charitable donations boost your standing as ethical in the eyes of other human beings that value helping the community.

Creating credibility for your brand should be a priority, as well. You can apply ethos by being a reliable brand with stellar reviews and a positive reputation. Get creative with how you play on your clientele’s ethical sense using different vocabulary, facts and creating a conversation between your customers themselves, not just between you and the customer. With the proper wording, you can drive your customer straight into your waiting arms and away from your competitors.

02 PATHOS

Next comes pathos, very similarly applied to marketing as the ethos is, but this appeals to your customer’s emotions instead of ethics, which are separate in human beings’ minds. With pathos, you are less trying to boost your credibility as a brand but instead play on your consumer’s feelings towards your brand and products. Those feelings could be sympathy if you have an excellent ethos appeal, but for the ones who do not have the strongest appeal to ethos, there are other emotions to play on.

For example, let’s say you are a technology software company attempting to sell your consumer protective technology to prevent data hacks and breaches. You might use pathos to instill fear into your customer. This emotional trigger will then, in turn, motivate them to buy from your company out of the fear of potential hacks looming around the corner. Fear and wanting are great motivators.

Scarcity is another powerful emotional motivator. Highlighting an almost SOLD OUT product hits on customer’s FOMO, fear of missing out. FOMO is an incredibly effective driver, especially amongst the millennial generation. Everyone wants to be a part of what everyone else is doing, so utilize that when creating your marketing materials to appeal to that sense of desire and the feelings of being left out.

03 LOGOS

The last one to consider is logos. Logos is the appeal to logic or reason. Logos is the ideal tactic to utilize when you are appealing to the logical thinker. Have your audience asking themselves:
do I need this? Is this practical? Is this a good deal? If they ask all those questions and the answer is yes, you appeal to their logos. Offer exclusive deals, explain to your customer why they NEED this product. How can it benefit them, do not leave any stone unturned when explaining the benefits of what you have to offer for your client in the present and the long run. These customers who respond to logos need the maximum amount of information you can provide them, so do not be afraid to overshare. Draw on history, statistics, or client reviews to convince your buyer because knowledge is vital for compelling logos marketing.

As marketers and business owners, we must not forget that we are selling to human beings, not phones or computers in a world full of technology. It is time to bring back the human touch of marketing and advertisement; Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are just one example of ways to ensure that our marketing materials will possess the human touch.

Psychology plays an invaluable role in the marketing world because it truly is just studying human behavior. Trend tracking is also a meaningful way to determine how well your consumers might react to the marketing materials you are putting out on the internet and via social media. There are so many different ways to track the results, so it is imperative that your brands try out multiple avenues of appealing to your customer before settling on one strategy. Test different ideas out and see which warrants the best results for you before pushing a full-scale marketing plan with the entirety of your budget.

Watching human behavior and tracking consumers’ trends can help you increase sales and stay on top of your brand’s next big move. Try out Ethos, Pathos, and Logos this quarter and see if you see any difference in your brand’s growth and ROI!

Human connection in marketing is huge! We’re here to answer your questions!

In our current uncharted territory, everyone’s business is subject to rapid change. Here at Power On Marketing, we highly advise a plan that is proactive and a plan that will adjust and adapt as you lead your company and team during these unprecedented times and in the future. The way we speak to customers, and manage brands is changing, don’t get left behind.

Finding your voice during such tumultuous times can be a struggle. It becomes even more difficult during a landscape that is changing daily. With the challenge, though, comes opportunity. Businesses are presented with the chance to show their integrity and also what they stand for. All of this though has to be done sensitively, to not make light of present situations or turn people away. When selling a product or service well-suited for these difficult times, there is a fine line that does not come off as exploiting tragedy and chaos.

HOW DOES THIS ALL TIES INTO YOUR MARKETING, YOU ASK…

Your customer may never know how your business reacts to these events internally, but your social media and marketing are at the forefront. The face of your company is what foot you put forward online. Marketing sets the tone for how customers will perceive the brand during difficult times.

We want to provide you with a four-step plan to define different scenarios that are arising, monitor customer’s reactions, and plan forthe upcoming marketing changes caused by the issues throughout the world and society.

01 SCENARIO ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING

Define theoretical best, worst and moderate scenarios that could play out during the crisis from the perspective of the business, its customers, and critical partners. Work with peers in other departments like HR and finance to develop the scenarios as they apply overall to the business. However, marketing must not rely simply on the high-level corporate scenarios but must go further for their department and brand. Marketers must drill down to identify the specific challenges that customers, the brand and the marketing organization could experience in each scenario, and identify actions to take. For example, if the best case “business as usual” scenario involves ad purchases during the Tokyo Olympics or an industry tradeshow, a worst-case scenario in which that event is canceled should identify alternative ways to reach customers.

02 LISTEN FOR CHANGES IN CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR

Long before the coronavirus emerged, consumer trust in both government and large brands had begun to erode. People want any excuse to shop local or support small businesses. The current climate has made it even more of a plus to shop smaller, and we see smaller brands emerge from the ashes. Here are some ways to use that in your marketing tactics and keep the ball rolling:

Listen. Now more than ever, it’s essential to know what customers feel and do, and why. Determine who your ideal customer is and make sure you are speaking to them, but unlike the ways of the past, don’t just speak to one person, but make sure not to exclude other voices that might vary.

Stay true to your brand, but don’t alienate. When marketing your brand needs to support customers while still staying true to what you stand for also but what you can and cannot deliver at this time

03 PREPARE FOR CHANGES

During a crisis, it is highly likely to see hiccups in the average production of daily activity for your company. Nothing is business as usual anymore.

In the marketing industry, we have to adapt clients messaging to reflect the mishaps and realities as they roll out day by day. So it is more important right now than ever to be ready to go with the flow and think quickly on your feet. Some steps to take to make this process either could be:

Avoid promises. Set realistic goals and realities for your customers, so you do not over promise and disappoint. Evaluate current policies and consider rational changes — for example, allowing cancellations or extending payment terms.

Go fully digital. Now is a better time than ever to promote yourself online. Make sure people can shop for your company online and that your social media presence is accessible.

Increasing your digital marketing budget. Prioritize your spending, and do not forget to include all things digital for it to adjust to this technology world-driven shift.

04 SHIFT THE MARKETING PLAN

Now that you know changes are right around the corner shift your marketing plan to address them. With preparation and awareness, you will not only succeed but thrive in what is being seen as such a trying time.

Anticipate the future and create suitable action plans to stay ahead of the market disruption pick value-added partners.