Category Archives: Marketing Tips
Authenticity marketing and how it can work for your brand
I have been thinking lately about how brands are using social media and advertising appeals that revolve around how authentic, true, and personal they are.
As we s-l-o-w-l-y recover from the economic recession, consumers are definitely less trustful of individuals and institutions, such as universities, banks, and political leaders.
With scandals, crises, and ever increasing amounts of counterfeit products on the market, you can’t blame people for being wary.
The Edelman Trust Barometer measures people’s level of trust in business, government, and other institutions. 2012 saw sharp drops in trust. The credibility of CEOs fell 12 points.
On the other hand, people thought the information they discovered in search engine results and found in traditional media, such as newspapers, was the most trustworthy information of all.
I see growing consumer preferences for authenticity played out in all kinds of ways. To name a few,
- The trend of featuring local, fresh ingredients on restaurant menus.
- The broadcast predominance of reality television and news programs.
- The tremendous popularity of social media platforms like Facebook and Pinterest.
Even Oprah decided to go natural in her hairstyle and show her “real” hair on the cover of her September 2012 issue of her magazine, and the move made news and drew positive Facebook comments from her fans.
Clearly, people are drawn to brands they perceive as real and authentic. So, how you can you deliver the real while communicating the key messages associated with your brand?
Here are my suggestions:
- Create content that will be found in search engines. So, you may want to scale back your efforts on Twitter and Facebook updates, and devote more resources to producing content that will be discovered in organic search engine results: blog posts, website pages, YouTube videos, and digital images.
- Use real stories and examples in your advertising.
- Emphasize testimonials on your website and marketing materials. Use photos to put faces to your testimonials.
- Tell your story online with YouTube and blog posts, which come across as most authentic. Feature (brief) videos with executives and staff members. Demonstrate your products and services on YouTube. Showcase your expertise (but in a visual way).
- Take photos and share them frequently: on your website, on your blog, on Facebook, and on Pinterest.
All of these tactics depend on one premise, however: that your business or organization is scrupulous in its operation and practices, as these methods will heighten your visibility.
Watch this Forbes video that demonstrates how an executive used the attribute of authenticity to build trust in his brand’s products.
How have you enhanced the authenticity of brand in your public relations and marketing efforts?
Market it like Mae West
“It’s not what I do, but the way I do it. It’s not what I say, but the way I say it.” — Mae West
Mae West knew how to use what she had to maximum advantage
Let’s talk about some Mae West marketing 
When you compare Mae West with any other person, they have the same basic elements in common, more or less.
But Mae West became a star because she understood how people consumed those assets, and she knew how to play them up to her best advantage. She made minor adjustments that paid off tremendous dividends. That’s what made her a star.
Think about the companies and organizations that attract attention. They may have the same assets as others. But the difference is: they know how to work it. And that pays off for them.
Everyday, I see organizations and companies with great assets: blogs, videos, websites, advertisements. And they have often invested significant resources in producing them. But they miss out on communications opportunities, because they may not fully understand how these assets are consumed, or how to make them more searchable. Or, they have failed to brand them.
At Fletcher Prince, we help businesses, associations, and nonprofits start from scratch with website projects, email marketing campaigns, and social media endeavors. But we also enjoy helping clients better understand how to take what they have and work it!
Starting with an audit of your resources — or looking at just one element, such as your YouTube Channel or Facebook Page — we can tell you how to make that communications vehicle work harder for you — with adjustments in branding, optimization, and organization. Makeover services, if you will.
If you already have a social media program, or other communications program in place, talk to us about how we can help you improve it.
As Mae West would say, “Why don’t you come up and see me sometime?”
Some cost-saving examples of PR and marketing tactics from our latest client project
Simple promotional wristbands can be real attention-getters at a convention
We have had such good results in our awareness campaign for the Bahrain Coordinating Committee in such a short time, that I just had to share these preliminary results with you, in case you would like to apply any of these approaches in your own marketing and public relations campaigns. Their awareness campaign has been mounted with very little investment of funds, just lots of creativity and effort. Hopefully, we will maintain the momentum we are building!
As you know, only a month ago, we launched the organization’s blog and website, using our favorite, affordable platform, WordPress.com. It’s basically an $18/year website. In only a month, the website and blog has received more than 2500 views. Even their brand new YouTube site is doing well, getting more than a hundred views for its videos less than 48 hours after the first videos were put online. The cost for that YouTube channel? Zero dollars.
One of our recommendations was that the organization exhibit at the ADC Convention, the largest gathering of Arab Americans in the United States. The Committee joined forces with Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain who created a wonderful display that received lots of attention. The organization created folders of information, and distributed 540 of them to convention attendees. Some of the media who dropped by the booth included BBC Arabic and Voice of America.
Our client making an impact at the ADC Convention
Giveaways are important at conventions, and we particularly wanted to increase awareness of the organization’s Twitter handle (@Connect_Bahrain), since that is such an important medium for communicating a movement like this. We designed and ordered rubber wristbands that had the organization’s Twitter handle and the slogan, “Freedom in Bahrain.” The exhibit volunteers gave out all 275 wrist bands (we gave out some to the press before the event), which cost the organization less than $150 including shipping, and 75 bags of M&Ms tagged with their new logo and Twitter handle, which cost about $40 to put together.
Well, it worked! Over that weekend, their Twitter followers shot up from 420 to 641! Their Facebook Page fans also increased 20%.
We’re very pleased to help this organization with their public relations efforts. We have put out seven press releases in the past six weeks, some on PR Newswire, and all on Free Press Release.com. The paid distribution with PR Newswire ($89 each), of course, gets very good results. We expected that. But what we did not expect is that we would receive so many additional views for our online news releases on Free Press Release.com ($1 per press release) — over 1,800 views thus far.
The feedback we are receiving from the client is that there is increased interest in the organization and its work, and that many conference attendees were curious and supportive. This is all gratifying to hear.
So, I wanted to share with you how these inexpensive approaches can pay off, and perhaps, they might work for your company or nonprofit organization! Please let us know in the comments if there are free or low-cost public relations and marketing tactics you have tried that worked well for you.
A spoonful of measurement helps the marketing show results
It may sound a little “Mary Poppins,” but when I think about my approach to measuring marketing and social media results, I think of it as a “spoonful of measurement.”
Like many sensible options, it’s just enough for what I need to track, not more. I wanted to share my approach because I think it’s a practical one for sole practitioners, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations on a budget. Read the rest of this entry
Learn how nonprofits are using social media
You know, when it comes to innovation in social media, there are some interesting trends I have observed.
Of course, you see some amazing work from national and global brands. But I also admire the work done by individuals and organizations with fewer resources. Many nonprofits, in particular, are doing quite well in social media. For example, according to the 2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark report (which you can download here) produced by Common Knowledge, the average nonprofit Facebook Page has 8,317 Likes, while the average Twitter account has 3,290 followers.
Common Knowledge, a communications firm specializing in the needs of nonprofit organizations, is presenting two free webinars this week and next that sound worthwhile:
2012 Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Report – Part 1 of 2
This Thursday (4/19), 2:30 p.m. EST
2012 Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Report – Part 2 of 2
Wednesday (4/25), 2:30 p.m. EST
Related articles
- How does your nonprofit stack up in using social networks? (jcsocialmarketing.com)
- Top 12 Social Media Insights for Nonprofits in 2012 (pamorama.net)
- Do Nonprofits Rock at Social Media Marketing? And Other Hot Topics (blogs.constantcontact.com)
- 10 Ways to Jumpstart Your Nonprofit’s Social Media Strategy (blogs.constantcontact.com)
- Six Amazing Stats From Blackbaud’s 2012 Nonprofit Social Networking Report (socialfish.org)
Think Before You Speak (and comment on blog posts)
One of the great things about having a blog is that it gives me the opportunity to have a dialogue with my readers about important issues.
Today, I received a comment on my March 17 Ad Council post that was basically unrelated to my point, but gave me the opportunity to make an important point about my personal beliefs, as well as my company’s business practices.
The issue today was a public service announcement sponsored by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network). You may have seen these. They are part of the “Think Before You Speak” campaign created by the Ad Council for the nonprofit organization, and they discourage the use of the word “gay” as a negative adjective. The commenter thought the PSAs were funded by the federal government and that they were possibly infringing on his right to free speech. The campaign is not funded by the government; it’s funded by the nonprofit organization. Also, no PSA, federally funded or not, can take away a person’s right to anything, because all a PSA can do is influence someone to change their behavior. It can’t compel, intimidate, or penalize a person for not responding to the call to action.
He also called the advertisements “gay.” Although that usage tempted me to delete his comment, as I will delete comments I find abusive, I let it stand so I could inform him of his mistake, and also my point of view.
The public service announcements are particularly targeted at students, and the campaign is designed to raise awareness about bullying and harassment in schools. I find it notable as an advertising vehicle because it gives teens the words to use so that they can confront their peers who engage in hurtful speech. So I think it’s an admirable use of call to action.
For the record, Fletcher Prince supports safe and affirming schools and workplaces for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. And we never use, nor do we support the use of, the word “gay” to mean something negative or derogatory, in our personal or business practices.
Nationwide, schools will be observing a day of silence on April 20, 2012 to recognize the importance of respect for all students, regardless of sexual orientation, including the 90% of LGBT students who have been harassed at school for being who they are. Please take a moment today to watch and share the public service announcements.
Related articles
- Create the next ThinkB4YouSpeak PSA for GLSEN and the AdCouncil! (uchicagolgbtq.wordpress.com)
- Bet you didn’t know: the Ad Council and public service campaigns (fletcher-prince.com)
- Video | GLSEN, Ad Council announce ‘Think Before You Speak’ TV ads to air at Super Bowl XLVI (miamiherald.typepad.com)
Read the 2012 Digital Marketer Benchmark and Trend Report
Experian Marketing Services, a provider of data, analytics and marketing technologies, today announced the release of the 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report. The 128-page report provides data pertinent to consumer and technology trends, as well as insights on email marketing, mobile, and social media.
Not surprisingly, nearly half of marketers (46%) in the study say that coordinating all these channels is their biggest challenge.
Other findings:
• 91% of adults online use social media regularly.
• Revenue per email averages two times higher for “friends and family” campaigns.
• 28% of smartphone owners watch videos on their phones in a typical month.
• Pinterest is now the third most popular social networking site, after Facebook and Twitter.
• 92% percent of businesses feel their contact data is inaccurate in some way.
Download the free report here: http://press.experian.com/United-States/Press-Release/experian-marketing-services-releases-2012-digital-marketer.aspx
Related articles
- Experian: Pinterest is third most-visited social site (nextlevelofnews.com)
Bet you didn’t know: the Ad Council and public service campaigns
Image via Wikipedia
Do you sometimes see or hear a public service announcement that is produced by the Ad Council for a nonprofit organization or a government agency?
Did you assume that the nonprofit organization or agency received that public service announcement for free?
I did. Until this week. But I was wrong about that.
The Ad Council takes credit for these campaigns, and the public perception is that the Ad Council is responsible for them. For example, NPR just recognized them for 70 years of “Ad Council campaigns.”
But the truth is, the campaigns are initiated by other nonprofit organizations or the federal government; advertising agencies (such as BBDO and Arnold) contribute the creative at no cost; and the advertising space is donated by publishers that can’t sell the space (the leftovers) and broadcasters, who are mandated as a condition of their license to allot a certain percentage of their broadcast time to airing public service announcements.
You won’t see these nonprofits, government agencies, and advertising agencies getting much credit from the Ad Council on the Ad Council Facebook Page, however (at least, not until I mentioned it yesterday!) The Ad Council claims the campaigns as their own — and they also take credit for the impact. And I don’t think that’s right.
So if the Ad Council doesn’t come up with the idea, execute it creatively, or pay for advertising space, what is the Ad Council’s contribution? And is it fair for them to claim these campaigns as their own, as well as their impact to the community?
Well, the Ad Council does make a contribution, for a price. It actually charges some pretty hefty fees to federal agencies and nonprofit organizations for “managing” the production and distribution of PSAs. In most cases, this “sponsorship” amounts to many thousands of dollars. The agencies and nonprofits are expected to assume all costs of production (which the Ad Council expenses to the IRS – seems odd to me!). The nonprofits and agencies also pay project management fees paid to the Ad Council. For example, Autism Speaks paid the Ad Council $844,000 in fees in a recent year (as reported to the IRS).
Maybe that’s a great price for what Autism Speaks received that year, I don’t know. But I’d be curious to know what exactly they were paying for, if the creative and space were already donated. Stock photography? Or maybe it helped pay for the Ad Council president’s $862,000 annual compensation package.
Did I mention that the Ad Council was a nonprofit organization? How do you feel about a nonprofit organization paying its CEO $862,000? Still consider them benevolent?
In their most recent tax report, the Ad Council claims that it received nearly $32 million in program revenue from nonprofits and federal agencies, as well as nearly $9 million in donations and grants.
What is your opinion now of the Ad Council? And do you think they should take credit for these public service campaigns?
Related articles
(May Link Inside) For Your Editorial Calendar: April Events and Content Marketing Ideas PLUS Hashtags
Newsletter readers: LOOKING FOR MAY EVENTS? I accidentally linked you here Click here to see May
April
Sunday, April 1 Today is April Fool’s Day. Not kidding, it really is.
Monday, April 2 Today is World Autism Day. Please place a blue light bulb in your workplace today — a lobby lamp will do — to show your support for the millions of families living with autism. We also encourage you to wear blue to work! Blue light bulbs are available for sale at Home Depot, or contact us before April 2 and we will deliver one to your workplace. Follow Autism Speaks @autismspeaks on Twitter and use hashtags #LightItUpBlue or #liub or #autism
April 2 – 6 Spring Break for many schools. Be kind to the tourists. It’s not their fault that they don’t know to stand to the right on Metro escalators
Saturday, April 7 Passover begins this week.
Sunday, April 8 Today is Easter. It is traditional to wear new clothes on Easter; a spring custom that goes back to pre-Christian times. A good excuse to buy a hat! Happy Easter, everyone!
Friday, April 13 Today is opening night for the Washington Nationals, playing the Cinncinati Reds. Follow the home team on Twitter @Nationals
Saturday, April 14 The Cherry Blossom Parade takes place today in downtown Washington, DC. Learn more about the National Cherry Blossom Festival and follow @CherryBlossFest on Twitter. Use hashtag #cherryblossom
Sunday, April 15 Ooh, tax time. Don’t worry; you have until April 17 to file. How much revenue did your business make in 2011? Did you spend enough on marketing? You should be spending between 5% and 10% of your revenues on marketing expenses. If you didn’t spend enough on marketing your business (or nonprofit) in 2011, refine your marketing budget so you don’t make that mistake this year. Fletcher Prince can help.
Sunday, April 22 Today is Earth Day. What are you doing in your business activities to preserve and protect the environment? Talk about your workplace recycling program! This could make an excellent YouTube video or blog topic, or even a press release (with photos, of course). Follow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Twitter @EPAgov and use hashtag #
Tuesday, April 24 Join your Fletcher Prince friends for networking and lunch at Jaleo in Bethesda, Maryland today! Cost of lunch is on your own (about $15-$20, including tip); please register in advance.
Wednesday, April 25 Did you know there are more than 4.1 million secretaries and administrative assistants working in the United States. Admins are the “pulse of the office” and today is the 60th anniversary of Administrative Professionals Day! Follow the International Association of Administration Professionals on Twitter – @IAAP – and use hashtag #APW
Thursday, April 26 Today is the 20th anniversary of Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day (can you say “photo op?”) and is recommended for children between the ages of 8 and 18. How will you educate and motivate young people in your workplace today? Why not promote your efforts? It’s good community relations. Take photos and write a blog post. Or videotape the kids
Friday, April 27 Today is Arbor Day. Follow USDA Forest Service @forestservice on Twitter and use hashtag # Follow the Arbor Day Foundation on Twitter @arborday and use hashtag #arborday
Check back next month for May events and content marketing ideas!
Related articles
- For Your Editorial Calendar: March Engagement Themes PLUS Hashtags (fletcher-prince.com)
Social media in the workplace (Mindflash infographic)
Check out this helpful infographic highlighting statistics and best practices associated with social media in the workplace from Mindflash. (You’ll find more posts on this topic in our blog by checking out the categories, right.)
Related articles
- Everything Your Employees Need to Know About Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC] (mashable.com)
- A Quick Look At The Social Media Demographic [INFOGRAPHICS] (sociableblog.com)
