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Part 1: Podcasts are here to stay

podcasting microphone in front of podcasting table

“There’s a podcast for that.” It’s true: No matter the topic, you’re likely to find a podcast that fits a certain niche. With more than 2 million podcasts in existence, there is bound to be one that piques someone’s interest. 

Podcasts – episodic series of digital audio files users can download and listen to at their convenience – continue to explode in popularity. A 2021 study conducted by Edison Research revealed that podcast listenership in America has grown a mighty 29.5% over the past three years. Podcasts’ average monthly audience size is 116 million people – a 61.5% increase over three years. It was also found that 57% of Americans have listened to a podcast. So, how can brands take advantage of this forum? 

As global social media engagement has plateaued, per the latest GWI study, podcasts have the power to offer brands a new, growing medium to captivate new audiences. They provide different means of connecting with audiences in ways social media cannot. Here are some key reasons to consider adding a podcast to your company’s digital marketing toolkit.  

Empower your audience on the go

Podcasts are long-form pieces of content with virtually no boundaries on length. For example, you can create an episode anywhere between a few minutes and a few hours. And unlike most video platforms and social networks, podcasts don’t always rely on internet connection. Once the podcast is downloaded to the device, listening can happen over the Atlantic Ocean or in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa. Not only is Wi-Fi not a constant barrier, but podcasts can also be listened to whenever, wherever without missing a beat. The pause/start button enables the listener to tune in when their schedule allows. In other words, your audience is free to choose the time and place to listen to your content. 

When it comes to podcasts, the content you create empowers the audience’s control over when they want to listen. This is a significant advantage when compared to other forms of content that live on social media, which might be missed if the audience is not active during the time posts are published. Podcast listeners are opting to interact with your brand, which can make a greater impact on the success of your podcast and overall marketing goals.  

Drive stronger connections

Podcasts, like the radio and other traditional media, are a one-way form of communication in which the sender is speaking to the listener, but the listener cannot provide immediate feedback nor participate in a dialogue. This form of communication often comes with a negative response. In other words, the receiver of the communication, i.e., the audience, may feel unseen or underappreciated, thus potentially hurting the brand’s long-term content goals. This is a possible concern for podcasts, but due to the nature of the technology, the receiver already understands the setup of the communication, as they voluntarily engage with the platform. 

As listeners carry podcasts wherever they go – from their morning commute to the gym to doing chores at home – a bond is created between the podcast and listener – both literally and figuratively. The listeners can take a deep dive into assorted topics, no matter how niche or broad. Podcasts also humanize your brand by clarifying your values and displaying thought leadership and expertise. The bond grows stronger between the hosts and listener each episode, developing an emotional connection that is hard to break. It has been shown repeatedly that strong emotional connections between brands and consumers can generate more sales and foster loyalty. Additionally, the dialogue is longer and more in-depth on podcasts than on other channels. 

Podcasts are an effective way to elaborate on topics related to the brand and feature guests with aligned values and opinions. Brands can elevate and amplify different voices otherwise not enabled to be heard on other channels. These unique opportunities build loyal relationships with audiences, which ultimately leads to trust. Trust drives repeat and new business, marketing responsiveness, loyalty, and even goodwill during hardships. 

Podcasts are an affordable, versatile, and powerful way to engage with audiences, but should they be a part of your brand’s marketing strategy? In part 2, we’ll discuss how to incorporate podcasting into your digital marketing toolkit.

6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)

woman typing on laptop with email icons surrounding her hands

Email marketing is climbing to the top of the priority lists of companies of all shapes and sizes — and for good reason. Email is a primary tool for nurturing relationships. Communicating via email is an efficient way for brands and people to relay information in a succinct fashion, on a regular basis, and to specific audiences. Email provides a means to send personalized messages in real-time. 

When done right, email marketing yields amazing results. To give you a better picture, email generates an average of $42 for every $1 spent, which equates to a wildly impressive 4,200% return on investment. 

The global email marketing market was worth $7.5 billion in 2020 and is estimated to reach a value close to $18 billion by 2027.

HubSpot

Clearly, email is a strongly backed and effective channel. But let’s be real: Occasionally, mistakes are made. Here are 6 common email marketing blunders and how to fix (or avoid) them. 

1. OOPS! Sharing incorrect or broken links 

Sometimes, honesty is the best policy. If your brand sends an email with an error, especially a glaring one, don’t fret. It’s acceptable to send another nearly identical email admitting and correcting the mistake. And, depending on your brand voice, you can even infuse a bit of humor into the follow-up. “Oops! Sorry about that. We meant to say/send/share XYZ.” 

2. ARGH! Not segmenting your contact list 

The whole concept behind email is to personalize and grow relationships. So, if your content isn’t appropriate for the receiving audience, the message will end up being counterproductive. You probably don’t have the same conversations with your parents that you have with your closest friends or significant other, right? If your mailing list is extensive, your contacts don’t want to hear the same messages or be marketed the same products. 

Most modern customer relationship management (CRM) systems offer a feature that allows email marketing managers to segment their contact lists based on various factors. You can target customers based on precise audience characteristics to increase relevance. For example, brand new subscribers can receive welcome or onboarding emails while long-time fans can be addressed in a more familiar tone. 

Marketers who use segmented campaigns report a 760% increase in revenue over those who don’t.

HubSpot

3. D’OH! Forgetting about mobile 

One of the key mantras of digital marketing is “mobile first,” and there are many valid reasons as to why this is the case. Your emails should be as easy to read on a mobile device as they are on a full computer screen. With more people consuming content from their phones throughout the day, it’s important that messages are fully legible and offer the same value regardless of the reader’s screen size. 

Implementing a mobile-responsive email design can increase unique clicks by about 15%, according to Mailchimp. Yet, a November 2020 study conducted by SuperOffice found that nearly 20% of email campaigns are not fully optimized for mobile devices. 

oops key on keyboard

4. HUH? Writing ineffective subject lines 

The proverb “Never judge a book by its cover” usually does not apply to email marketing. Marketers will quickly find that a lackluster or irrelevant subject line will result in deleted and unopened emails. The copy of an email subject line doesn’t have to include witty puns to seize someone’s attention. But it should be concise, credible, and spark curiosity. 

Here are a few tips to craft compelling subject lines: 

  • Express a sense of urgency: If your email is time sensitive, one of the best ways to capture people’s attention is to convey its importance. Phrases like “LAST CHANCE,” “DON’T FORGET,” and “20% OFF TODAY ONLY” catch the eye of the recipient and automatically bring urgency to mind. 
  • Personalize it: Cater the subject line to the individual recipient by addressing them by name or directly referencing their preferences. 
  • Ask a question: Pose a relevant question your recipients can hypothetically answer. Some examples include, “Does your brand have a defined voice?” or “Where is your company on the journey to digital transformation?” Humans are naturally curious beings, so when an email literally starts with an inquiry, they may automatically assume that opening the email will reveal the answer. 
  • Keep it simple: As with any marketing message, simplicity is key. Also, subject lines that are too long may get cut off, especially on smartphone apps. HubSpot recommends 50 characters or fewer as the sweet spot. 

Don’t forget about preview text — the short string of copy that appears alongside the subject lines in people’s inboxes. This gives readers a sneak peek at what they should expect when they open an email. 

5. UGH! Failing to provide a clear call to action 

What specific action do you want your customers to take upon reading your email? Calls to action (CTAs) are table stakes of modern marketing. An email, no matter its purpose, should continue the conversation or interaction between a brand and its consumers. 

Brands send emails for several reasons: sharing news, promoting products and services, plugging a new blog post, introducing new personnel — the list goes on. Emails are also an avenue between the recipient’s inbox and a destination, whether it be a website, a physical store, or another identified location. 

Common calls to action include: 

  • Learn more 
  • Download now 
  • Continue reading 
  • Get the full story 
  • Register today 
  • Shop now 
  • Request a quote 
  • Claim your coupon 
  • Order yours 

The CTA can be clever and creative, depending on your unique brand voice, but always keep in mind: simplicity is superior. 

6. SAY WHAT? Making your emails too long 

The acronym TL; DR (“too long; didn’t read”) takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to marketing emails. Of course, this depends on the subject matter as well as the design. If you’re strategically sending a longer email with multiple sections, be sure to include relevant imagery throughout the body to break up the copy and add color and dimension. 

Like any other marketing channel, email best practices are constantly evolving, so it’s important to keep practicing and paying close attention to the smallest details. Mistakes happen; it’s about how you go about reconciling them that matters. To learn even more ways to optimize your email marketing strategy, reach out to Brian Bennett

How to Amplify Your Brand Voice in an Already Noisy World

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”

Maya Angelou

Just like people, brands have unique personalities and characteristics that allow them to express their individuality in a variety of settings. For instance, you may have some friends who are lively and upbeat, while others are a bit more conservative and introverted. The people in your life are able to coexist, but they may use different vernacular or have their own preferred ways of engaging in conversation.

This same concept applies to businesses using brand voice in today’s congested marketplace.

Brand voice is defined as the way in which a business or person speaks with their audience. It’s articulated by a distinctive style of communication that sets it apart from other brands – essentially, how the brand carries itself. Voice is the disposition and emotion instilled into a company’s communications and encompasses everything from the language used to the public image marketing and advertising efforts intended to create. A brand’s voice also clearly exemplifies its core values.

Make your brand voice heard

Why does all of this matter? All day long, from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep, people are blasted with messages. For your brand to successfully stand out among the crowd, it must have a distinctive, uniting, memorable voice.

How is this feat accomplished? For starters, consistency is key. A brand must maintain a consistent voice across all media on which it appears. In other words, every single touchpoint – including advertisements, websites, social channels, brick-and-mortar locations, collateral, and even customer care hotlines – should share a consistent tone. A coherent voice demonstrates a company’s reliability and credibility, which results in a more trusting relationship with customers. By contrast, inconsistent communications may confuse customers or diffuse that level of trust. Uniformity sets expectations and allows people to have faith in your brand.

An established brand should possess a voice that’s deeply manifested in that company’s principle, products, and personnel. For example, if a company’s mission is to help those in need, then its brand representatives – including leaders, employees, and ambassadors – should also have a generous and kind character.

Over the years, some of the world’s most distinguished brands have reached celebrity status via their iconic voices. Here are some examples:

  • Apple = confident and inspiring
  • McDonald’s = friendly and welcoming
  • Harley-Davidson = rugged and outspoken
  • Starbucks = warm and neighborly
  • Nike = uplifting and empowering
  • Chanel = elegant and glamorous
  • LEGO = playful and youthful
  • CVS = neighborly and helpful

Over time (and at different rates), these brands have become reputable household names across the nation and around the globe. As we’ve seen across media, each of these brands speaks differently than their own competition as well as brands in other industries. However, they’re all part of our everyday lives, whether or not we’re customers.

Never falling far from the tree

An example of a brand that has maintained a strong brand voice throughout its life – despite massive cultural shifts, workplace changes, and consumer needs and expectations in regard to technology – is Apple. Since its founding, Apple has been a groundbreaking brand. Year after year, Apple’s offerings expand. From desktop and laptop computers to handheld music players to tablets to mobile phones, they have become a global tech giant that sells convenience and simplicity. They have also drastically changed the way we see and use technology every day. In the 1970s, Apple Computer was focused on creating an intuitive product that allowed people of all types to be more efficient and creative. Fast forward to 2021, and the mission of Apple is virtually the same. Innovation, simplicity, and user empowerment have been at the core of Apple since day 1.

Apple 80s Brand Voice Ad
Apple 90s Brand Voice Ad
Apple 2000s Brand Voice Ad
Apple 2010s Brand Voice Ad

As people, we constantly mature and establish ourselves in various environments, shape our own personas, and grow from our surroundings. This naturally happen over time as cultural and societal norms transform. Brands do the same. This, of course, makes sense, since the human minds behind brands change. We and the people we know adapt to different environments. Sometimes we’re more laid back; sometimes we’re more formal. It all depends on who we’re with and where we are at that time. As brands evolve and establish themselves in the marketplace, customers are able to better define and more strongly connect to them.

Now is the time to do some evaluation: Does your brand have a clear, established voice? How are you currently speaking with customers across the media spectrum? How do your customers think of and describe you? Defining a messaging strategy and showcasing a distinct brand voice will take your brand soaring, which will lead to customer loyalty, foster widespread prominence, and ultimately boost your bottom line.

Contact STIR Advertising masters of messaging today to begin shaping, or refining, your brand voice: bbennett@stirstuff.com.

Three Reasons Why Content Marketing = Mainstream Marketing

Content marketing is absolutely essential to every brand (no exceptions). Until now, content marketing has been largely misunderstood and seen as the bastion of clever, high-tech B2B companies or the one-dimensional digital agency.

But in reality, every company needs to develop and deploy these capabilities and build them into their integrated marketing plan. There are a number of quality whitepapers available on the techniques of content marketing. (I encourage you to download several and read them). Most were developed by purveyors of individual technologies – which is why many companies have yet to develop content marketing programs with any confidence – they don’t see how it fits into their big branding picture because they are getting information in bubbles.

This examination of content marketing comes from a more holistic marketing and messaging perspective. From this perspective, in the world of true integrated marketing communications, all marketing tools should be considered in the context of all other marketing tools, because in the end, their use will affect and be affected by all the others.

Reason #1: Top of Mind Awareness

Without question, a successful brand needs to work hard to maintain its relevance and stay top-of-mind. No matter the category, to move to the front of the pack, your brand must be seen as:

  • Providing the most important benefits
  • Providing the best information on issues
  • Trending and changing with popular sentiment
  • Engaging and in touch with customers
  • Present in all the places where important conversations occur
  • Looking and acting like a leader

It is critical that any brand not only be positioned properly, but also participate vigorously. Enter content marketing. There should be a steady stream of communications (content) emanating from the brand that continually supports the brand’s position – telling the brand story. This is accomplished by publishing on a regular basis, in a variety of platforms, and in a variety of media that surround the customer.

This may seem like added busy work, but it’s essential because digital media is so vibrant and prolific that if you are not participating daily you lose ground (or soon will) to those who are. If you’re not engaged, you’ll soon be extinct.

Reason #2: Content Marketing Goals are YOUR Goals

The goals of content marketing are similar to those you’ll find in general marketing plans:

  • To increase interaction and engagement
  • To improve brand perceptions
  • To drive traffic to your website/landing pages
  • To identify new prospects and move them through the pathway to purchase
  • To convert prospects into customers – online, traditional retail or other
  • To maintain customer loyalty and increase the frequency and diversity of purchase

Reason #3: Content Marketing Builds Momentum

Unlike paid advertising where there is immediate gratification, content marketing tends to build upon its own momentum. The longer you do it, the easier it becomes, and the more you learn. It becomes an enjoyable part of the weekly routine. The “wins” are something the team can own. It’s good for morale. The more content you generate the better you will perform on a search basis. You will find content that is several years old still produces traffic and leads. Therefore, if you embrace the process you will benefit greatly.

Getting Started With Content Marketing

Once you’ve decided you need content marketing, how do you get started? The basic steps are as follows – we’ll get into greater detail below:

  • Develop your positioning – what does your brand stand for
  • Define your brand’s personality – how will the brand comment and communicate
  • Have a keyword strategy/SEO strategy in place
  • Design the strategy behind the campaign – where and when will you be present
  • Develop an editorial schedule – what will your brand talk about, and when
  • Designate & train authors – who will speak for the brand – how will they engage
  • Build the tools – do this with your entire E-Co. System in mind
  • Understand how you will measure and optimize the effort

Build Your Brand Story and Brand Persona

By nature, most of us are a bit insecure and humble. We were taught not to brag or boast. But your brand needs a persona with different attributes. Your brand should be an activist in its field. It should strive to be the most enthusiastic participant in its category. It should be outgoing and confident in its knowledge. It must work hard to make things simple and easy for its friends (customers & prospects). It must be talkative and present with words of advice.

You want to define how your brand will interact with people so that you know what tone to use as you communicate, and how to respond when others communicate with you. And you’ll want to make sure you have a keyword strategy developed so that each piece works to help optimize your results for the search engines.

Strategically Select Your Content Vehicles

There are many ways to produce and publish content. What and how it is executed will be determined by the needs of the customer, the competitive situation, and the goals of the brand. Some you can consider include:

  • Social sites
  • Outbound emails
  • Blogs, websites, microsites, apps
  • PR/blogger relations
  • Speaking & event marketing
  • Advertising (digital & traditional)
  • Promotions
  • Internal/customer communications

Most brands are best served by deploying several, if not all, of these platformed strategies in an integrated marketing campaign around a campaign or series of campaigns that are all coordinated to provide a steady stream of content.

STIR defines content marketing as “a fully integrated approach to utilizing content to drive interest in the brand via a variety of media to maintain relevance.”  It is a mainstream marketing concern and a very contemporary approach. This is contrary to what you might think. Most companies that promote content marketing are utilizing email and blogging almost exclusively. In this case, Wikipedia has the definition right.

As you select the vehicles you’ll utilize, put together a calendar. This will help you plan your efforts – to make sure you’re being reasonable in your own expectations for what your team can handle and what your results may be.

Develop Your Team

This will take a coordinated effort that must have one primary visionary to lead it. You may need to serve that role or you must find someone who “gets it” to develop a master plan and push to see that it is executed with discipline and expertise. You’ll need to gather all the players who touch your various marketing elements –agencies and internal marketing employees. Clearly, define roles and outline expectations. Keep in mind that this will transform your marketing organization in that new efforts will be created. Consider this part of the inevitable evolution of your team and your process. Content marketing is a relatively new framework of thinking. So on-the-job learning is acceptable so long as there is buy-in and commitment.

In addition to the team, there may be tools you’ll need in place to help you develop and use your content more efficiently. Keep your ecosystem in mind so that you can ensure that information will be more readily shared across platforms. How you will measure your success will affect not only the content you build, but also how you build it, so remember your goals, so you can optimize your efforts.

Helpful Resources

While these sources tend to overlook much of the big picture advice I have just given you, they will help with the nuts and bolts of getting started and the more detailed process steps that you’ll need to take.