Archive for May, 2023

Working With Influencers

Tuesday, May 30th, 2023

What do Richard Simmons, Ron Popeil, George Foreman, and Kim Kardashian have in common? Many readers may not have even heard of the first three names, but they do share something in common with Kim Kardashian: They are early examples of influencers.

While influencer marketing often seems to be a factor of the digital age, it’s a concept that has been around for decades—ever since people began selling products and looking for ways to spread the word. In the digital environment, influencer marketing can be both more challenging and riskier. Marketers have only to do a search for “influencer marketing lawsuits” to learn about thousands of lawsuits that have been filed against influencers—and the companies that have used them. (more…)

Best Practices for Leveraging Content Across Multiple Social Media Channels

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023

There are a wide range of social media channels available to today’s marketers. There are so many that it can be challenging to decide which to use—and how to use them most efficiently and cost-effectively. Yes, there are costs involved in posting to social media, even if you do it yourself. Time is money, and, especially for do-it-yourselfers, time spent on social media means an inability to spend it on other potentially higher-value activities that uniquely require your expertise. Let’s take a look at some best practice recommendations from social media experts and business owners who have learned how to juggle posting across multiple channels. (more…)

AI for Content Creation

Tuesday, May 16th, 2023

A Facebook headline reads, “How to Generate Blog Posts in 1 Minute Using AI.” It’s a sponsored post from Jasper (more about this later), and while the concept is certainly intriguing and tempting—especially when facing a mountain of blog posts to create for various clients—there’s a certain amount of skepticism that goes along with it. Is the hype too good to be true? (more…)

Zigging When They Zag: The Potential of Traditional Marketing Communication

Tuesday, May 9th, 2023

The digital environment is quite cluttered these days and becoming more so. Consumers benefit from access to a massive amount of information literally available at their fingertips—and often being pushed to them by marketers yelling “pick me, me, me.” But with so much activity in the digital environment, sometimes it takes a different approach to stand out: (more…)

Don’t Assume Your Customers Know What You, or “Everybody,” Knows!

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023

“You don’t pay unless we win!”

That’s the compelling marketing claim made by a large and very successful law firm. If you’re a consumer thinking about suing someone—an individual or a company—for a loss or injury you’ve received, such a no-risk offer would be compelling indeed.

But here’s the thing. (more…)

The Role of Social Media in Your Marketing Efforts

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023

Every once in a while, I’ll come across a post suggesting that social media is dead. With all of the recent buzz about Twitter—given Elon Musk’s takeover of the company and predictions of doom—I wondered if marketers’ usage of social media is declining. The short answer is no.

A longer answer is that while social media still makes up a significant part of most marketers’ communication efforts, how they use it and which channels they use have shifted. That is likely to continue. The effectiveness of marketing channels ebbs and flows; newer channels and newer entrants to the space tend to reap the benefits of early adoption, while laggards may never experience the same results. This means that marketers of all kinds—and especially content marketers—need to stay up-to-date on these shifts and continually evaluate their social media strategies to ensure they’re making optimal use of these platforms. In this column, I look at some insights from experts in the field about how their social media use is shifting and how they stay on top of new trends. (more…)