ImaginativePRO Blog

HOW THE VOLUME OF MARKETING DATA, INCREASING NO OF MEDIA CHANNELS AND PLATFORMS AND RESILIENCY ARE DRIVING CMO'S TO ADOPT DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING

Remaining resilient and competitive means doubling down on data.

Despite the tumultuous past few years, 75% of CMOs at SMBs say their team was resilient enough to adapt to periods of unpredictability.

Recent crises have catalyzed a focus on using data to make marketing budgets go further, by rewarding those who have invested time and resources into their data strategies, while many of the less data mature have failed to survive. And for those who have successfully ridden out the storm, data is now front of mind as another hurricane forms on the horizon.

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In fact, among the CMOs at SMBs we surveyed, a staggering 85% agree that being able to make data-driven decisions is a critical competitive advantage. As the global economy teeters on the edge of recession once again, marketers can look back to draw on a couple of lessons from recent economic crises.

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CMOs are cutting down on inefficiency - not ops spend

An encouraging number of CMOs are allocating more resources to bolstering their data operations and capabilities. As found in our recent study on the evolving role of the CMO, 73% have committed to investing in a marketing ops role, with 33% having only introduced this role in the last year. Combining management of the martech stack, data quality control, and analytics at once, the position is a smart addition to help eliminate internal silos and drive team efficiency by ensuring easy access to connected data, whenever it’s needed.

Our latest results also indicate growing interest in further enhancing data mastery, with 29% of CMOs increasing their data ops budget for 2022. The shift towards bigger spending, however, doesn’t run across the board. Almost as many (27%) say their budget has decreased while 44% are working with the same spending pot as last year.

Although unchanged budgets might simply reflect steady costs, other findings indicate there could be additional issues at play. An overwhelming 70% of CMOs name money, not time, as their most stretched resource. With finances already a significant concern, many may be under strain that’s leading them to tighten purse strings and cap their data ops spending.

While pausing investment might bring some short-term gains, allowing spend to stagnate will cause multiple issues over time. As analytics tools and practices evolve, teams will fall further behind and be less able to squeeze as much as they can out of marketing budgets. Continued underinvestment also makes it more likely they will battle with further inefficiencies that add to already unwieldy workloads and impact productivity. Businesses, therefore, need to balance costs carefully, running calculations of how much they can save from stalling data ops investment, versus the benefits a well-supported team can drive.

Key Takeway:

Stretched finances could soon result in budget cuts. CMOs need to use their resources and invest in key areas now if they want to tackle the recession armed with better insight.

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What’s shaping the CMO’s roadmap?

CMOs are struggling to keep up with new platforms and channels

Fast escalating digitalization is bringing a mix of opportunities and challenges for CMOs at SMBs. Where new platforms and channels bring more scope for audience engagement, they’re also seeing an exponential rise in data and complexity.

Keeping on top of sprawling multi-channel activity is getting harder and harder; pushing up time to insight and making it difficult for teams to achieve the real-time performance view they need to guide quick and informed decisions. With demand for frequent and granular reports from the rest of the C-suite growing, it’s easy to see why CMOs are feeling pressured. One-third (33%) cite multiplying channels and platforms as the biggest external factor impacting marketing today.

In contrast, there is a much lower level of concern around data regulation, such as the GDPR. Previously high on every CMO’s priority list, the European regulation is now seen as a major external impact by just 8%, relegating it to last place. Despite increasing fines for rule breaches, marketing leaders are more comfortable with regulations they know and have already adjusted to than the varied complications emerging channels and platforms create; highlighting the urgent need for them to adapt in line with rapid digital evolution.

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More channels and platforms have left CMOs buried under their data

As might also be expected, both capturing and using the data generated by increasing channels and platforms is proving a challenge. Nearly all (99%) of CMOs say their marketing team is working with at least 10 data sources, 52% say they’re working with 14 data sources or more, and 32% say their teams use external data sources for marketing analytics.

While similar research from 2019 revealed that nearly half (47%) of respondents had 6 or fewer data sources, three years on we couldn’t find a single respondent reporting so few data sources.

As more and more data streams in from different directions, teams are reaching their limit; with 67% of CMOs admitting they have been overwhelmed by the quantity of marketing data available in recent years. This may also explain why the unpredictability of black swan events and the growing complexity of audience behavior rank second and third in key external impacts on marketing, at 26% and 17% respectively.

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As marketers struggle to deal with infinitely increasing data sources, effectively tracking and responding to unpredictable events is becoming more difficult. The expanding variety of platforms and channels that consumers engage with is also creating similar problems for understanding audience behavior, with marketing teams struggling to achieve a clear view amid a relentless influx of disparate data.

Tellingly, for respondents who cited a lack of resilience and difficulty adjusting during black swan events, reports of data overload soar to 92%, and jump to 100% for those decreasing their data ops budget this year. For marketing teams that have not invested in strengthening data handling capacity and implementing streamlined processes, keeping pace with digitalization is a tougher task.

Key Takeaway

Marketing is going to get more complicated as digital development presses on. CMOs that ensure teams can handle the rising data tide will have the best chance of staying afloat and steering their way to optimal outcomes.

What’s stopping CMO's from investing in tech?

Optimism about company prospects is crucial, especially when it comes to thriving through a recession. But it’s also important for businesses not to view data capabilities with rose-tinted glasses.

In our recent Marketing Analytics: State of Play 2022 report, 68% of respondents self-identified as data mature, despite lingering dependence on outdated practices and spreadsheets.

Download the full report to continue reading HERE.

Courtesy of an e-book dated September 2022 titled, "What's Shaping The CMO's Roadmap: Recession, Resilience and Marketing Data" published by Adverity  

DIGITAL BRANDING STRATEGIES REQUIRE MESSAGES AND MARKETING THAT IS RELEVANT AND RESONATES WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

The necessity of branding in the digital age is as important as branding itself.  We have already seen what branding is in “Brand Guidelines and Why Your Business Needs Them?”   In short, a brand comprises of all the elements such as the logo, color palette, typography, taglines, symbols, etc. that help you differentiate your brand from the others.  It could be a product, service or even just a concept that can be communicated to the public to make you stand out from the competitors in the 
marketplace. 

The methodology of creating a unique and distinctive personality of any product with the help of various elements is known as Branding.  Similarly, branding in the digital age, which is also called as Digital Branding, is a brand communication strategy that is implemented with the use of the internet and digital marketing to enhance a brand’s attributes, establish their presence and promote the brand.  It gets its roots from direct marketing and is done via certain digital platforms such as the internet itself, mobile applications, social media and most importantly, digital media content.  It also comprises of all the elements such as the logo, color palette, typography, taglines, symbols, etc.  The content is in reference to blogs, organic videos, e-mailers, website content, etc. with its overall appearance as well, that appeals to your target group.

Developing your brand strategy involves two phases:  brand development and brand management. (Click Image To Enlarge) 

Whether it is traditional branding, or digital, successful branding can only be reflected on the target consumer’s perception about your brand. This successful branding will help you enhance your brand positioning in the minds of the consumers.  Hence, on the digital platforms, it is important to strategize your communication in a manner that resonates with the positioning that you wish to have. Due to digital marketing and social media, it has become easier to connect and interact with the consumer online, but it has also become easier for the consumer to change his perception about you as well. To avoid this, it is important to stick to the brand guidelines, that defines the tone, color, typography and the overall appearance of your brand, even it if is to be done digitally. There cannot be any kind of inconsistency with reference to the branding tools that are used even traditionally. Your brand should have utmost consistency on all of the digital platforms, which increases your credibility and appeal, and also increases consumer loyalty.

Importance of Digital Branding:

• Autonomous Consumers: With oceans of information flowing everyday on the digital platform, the consumer is often left in dilemmatic situations, especially in case of products and services. The consumers are often “spoilt for choice”, which essentially means that you have to make your brand stand out in terms of your product and service offerings as compared to your competition. The average consumer is smarter now, due to the information about all products and services available at his/her fingertips.
• Change in Consumer Behaviors: The digital age has eradicated all kinds of geographical barriers in the world today. Due to this, social trends change almost every day, which directly affect the consumer’s behavior as well. The average consumer will still desire new products and services, but their social circles, perception, psychology and research will change their decisions very quickly, which means that your brand’s communication approach has to change with the trends as well, to stay ahead of the competition.
• Lesser Importance to the Funnel Model: The funnel model is a consumer’s purchase journey that follows the sequence of awareness, opinion, consideration, preference and finally the purchase. Traditionally, a consumer follows this journey and brands integrate their communication in such a manner that this funnel model is smooth. But in the digital era, the interactivity with a brand is extremely high and directly affects the purchase decision.
• Engagement: Digital branding’s greatest factors are the levels of engagement and interactivity that it allows between the brand and the consumers. A consumer will definitely prefer a brand that “connects”. This requires the brand to socially engage and provide interactive content through blogs, infographics, videos, etc. regularly, as it appeals to the consumer very well.

Digital Branding, just like offline branding, has a process that is followed. This process is in such a way that the brand establishes its distinct presence and personality on the digital platforms, and makes itself stand out from the rest.

Following is the process:

• Target Group: In the digital era, identifying your target group has a somewhat different approach to it. As the consumer is present on roughly 250 digital platforms today, it is important to understand and map the consumer’s journey, to understand their behavior and segment them accordingly to match the category your offering fall into. This includes specific and detailed research that help you indentify certain factors such as the consumer’s demographics, income, behavior, age, gender, etc.
• Brand Values: Your brand values are the factors that drive you to excellence in product and service offerings. Clearly defining your core values and mission for your brand help you remain consistent in your communication processes and implement those values in it. Having a definitive mission and core values help consumers feel connected to your brand and it appeals to them, especially if the values resonate with their own. It has also become easier to reflect the same values in your digital communication through blogs, videos, social media, etc.
• Brand Positioning: Brand positioning is the influence and impact of your brand in the minds of the consumers. It helps them make a perception of your brand, and gives you a competitive edge in an already established market. If your brand has been successfully positioned, especially on the digital platforms, it gains certain popularity through word of mouth and the most important factor of digital media — virality. Due to this, it becomes much easier to add new products to your offerings if the consumer already trusts your brand.
• Brand Identity: Your identity entails your message, personality, name, logo, etc. and anything that will help the consumer recognize your product first in the digital market. Consumers today tend to buy products that enhance and uplift their own personality. Integrating a strong brand identity gives your brand very high recognition in a market that already has products that are similar to yours. For a consumer that sees thousands of brands on his screen, your brand identity is what will make him consider you first. Brand names and logos are also equally important as they increase the brand’s recall level. Your brand name should resonate with your personality and identity, and also the kind of products and services that you are offering. Your logo is your greatest persona. With successful branding, consumers can identify your product on any digital platform by just looking at the logo, and it also gives certain credibility to it.
• Brand Objectives: Now that you are on digital platforms, what is it that you want to do? What are your goals and what are you promising to your target group? Your brand must have a tagline that is extremely crisp, memorable and that resonates with your personality. This same slogan can deliver or showcase your brand’s promise, and this is where you as a brand position yourself in the market. If the consumers are clear with your objectives, you will most likely be the go-to brand for them.
• Color Palette: Your color palette distinctly represents your brand’s visual identity. There are certain combinations of colors that help you position yourself and abstractly talk about your brand values, and also attract a certain niche group of people. This color palette helps you remain consistent on any digital platform and provides authenticity. Colors themselves hold meaning and carry a message.

All these factors help you successfully build a brand in the digital age today. Consumers are always looking for engaging content to interact with, and the digital era has changed the way the consumers think and behave, and also the way the brand approaches them. It has become extremely vital to have a digital presence, regardless of the brand’s offerings.  

Courtesy of an article dated September 30, 2019 appearing in Interics Designs

HOW TO USE AI TO CREATE A DATA-DRIVEN DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY FOR YOUR STARTUP

When you’re growing your startup, there are countless things to consider – from product design to hiring your team. One of the most crucial aspects, though, is digital marketing.

No matter how amazing your product, you’ve got to get the word out to create an audience for it. This is where digital marketing comes in. And AI is rapidly gaining ground here. 

It’s an open secret that AI is transforming almost every aspect of our lives. This includes marketing strategies. In today’s business world, harnessing AI is essential to keep up with competitors or even get a step ahead. 

This article is for you if you’re working on setting up a digital marketing strategy for your startup. It outlines what data-driven digital marketing is, where AI comes into play, and how you can make the best use of this technology’s potential. With what you’ll learn here, your startup’s digital marketing strategy can excel from the beginning. 

What is a Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy? 

The biggest mistake you can make in digital marketing is to base your strategy solely on assumptions. Assumptions about your product, your performance, or your target audience can end in disaster. 

With a data-driven strategy, you gather and analyze as much information as possible. Then, you base your decisions on these quantitative insights. 

Building a digital marketing strategy from scratch involves four steps, with or without AI involvement.

1. Market Research 

First off, thoroughly investigate your audience and your competitors. 

Find out who your customers are and where their interests lie.           

Then, learn what you can from your competitors. Which audiences do they target? What                        are their marketing strategies? Which messages of theirs resonate with customers?

2. Drawing Up a Buyer Journey 

When a potential customer first sees your product, they won’t instantly buy it. Not even if you have the world’s best marketing strategy. 

Broadly, customers go through three phases in their buyer journey. First, they become aware of your product and its advantages. How does it benefit them? What problems could it solve? Then, in the consideration stage, they compare alternative solutions. Finally, they decide to go with your solution – or not. 

When you draft a digital marketing strategy, figure out how to optimize this journey.

3 – Choose the Right Digital Marketing Channels 

Next, you have to decide which marketing channels to use. Typically, this includes content, email, and social media marketing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) also factor into it. 

4 – Launch, Analyze, and Refine 

Finally, you can launch your digital marketing strategy. Consider having a try-out phase. When you do put your finished digital marketing plan into action, keep a close eye on performance and make adjustments as you go along. 

How Does AI Factor Into It? 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have massive potential for data-driven digital marketing. They excel at rapidly gathering and processing vast amounts of data. This means they can offer almost instant insights into complex realities. 

Another bonus: You can use AI and ML to automate processes. Tedious tasks like content research no longer need to bog down your marketing team. Algorithms can take care of these tasks faster and with more in-depth results. 

Here’s a detailed guide on how to leverage AI and ML during every step of creating a data-driven digital marketing strategy.  

Get to Know Your Customers With AI 

First, figure out who your customers are and what they want. AI can help you by finding patterns at macro-scales and providing actionable insights. 

You can use AI pattern recognition to analyze the data you’ve bought from market research providers. 

Alternatively, you can deploy algorithms to pull enormous amounts of data from social media or discussion forums. Using natural language processing, algorithms can sift through countless posts, reviews, and articles.

The goal is to run a sentiment analysis. With this AI tool, you’ll be able to identify the major questions, trends, and gaps related to products like yours. It will also make it easier to pinpoint your audience’s demographic details. 

Suppose you’re running surveys or focus groups to get a more in-depth understanding of your potential customers. In that case, AI and ML will help you make sense of feedback. Using voice recognition, it can even transcribe and analyze the results of oral discussions. 

Use AI Tools for Competitor Research 

In parallel, you can use AI-driven tools to give you an edge in competitor market research.  Checkout:  SproutSocial's "13 Competitor Analysis Tools To Spy On Your Competition."

Use these tools to track competitors on social media and find out what their strategies are. Get statistics on posting frequencies, types of posts, and identify high-performing content. Gather insights into their followers’ demographics. Figure out how these followers interact with the brand through comments, shares, and likes. 

AI-based platforms can also help you reverse-engineer your competitors’ website analytics. Once you launch your own website, keeping a close eye on page traffic and bounce rates will be crucial. Before you get there, though, check out what your rivals are up to. Think of it like peeking over your friends’ shoulders during a math test. Analyze what they’re doing, then do it better. 

Also, AI and ML can mine your competitors’ link profiles. Having links to your website on other pages is a crucial factor for high rankings. That’s because search engines see such links as proof of trustworthiness and authority. By understanding which pages link your chief rivals, you can draft a strategy to stay competitive.

Set Up an AI-Optimized Buyer Journey 

When you envision your customers’ buyer journey, know that you can use AI at every turn to improve their experience. 

In fact, an outstanding user experience (UX) largely depends on AI. Machine learning algorithms can provide every customer with a personalized experience. From the first time someone comes in touch with your brand, your AI will keep tabs on them. It will identify which stage of the buyer journey they are at. Which aspects of your product interest them? What problems are they aiming to solve? 

These insights will then curate website content, adjust paid ads, or send personalized recommendations. If you use AI for nothing else, use it for personalization. Statistics show that 91% of customers are more likely to shop with brands that tailor content and communication to their interests. 

AI can also improve customer service, another critical element of the buyer journey. Especially during the comparison and decision phase, swift customer support can be the clinch. AI can help in the form of chatbots that answer routine questions and auto-generated email responses. This will free up your team to respond to complex or urgent queries. 

Harness AI for Content Marketing

Creating the right content has become crucial to digital marketing. Search engines reward comprehensiveness and high information value and penalize superficial, spammy posts and articles. 

AI can help you to produce high-quality content that will drive organic traffic to your website. 

Based on your target audience’s interests and your competitor’s performance, AI tools can generate content ideas. They will tell exactly which topics resonate with potential customers. 

To go further, deploy AI-driven tools to create content profiles. When writing any piece of content, research is the most tedious part. It can take hours to go through similar blog posts and analyze how they performed. 

AI will take this load off your back. The right tools can scan through all existing articles and posts on any subject. They will then tell you how to approach the topic, structure your content, and which gaps other articles left for you to improve on. 

More directly, AI can improve the quality of your writing. Deep-learning algorithms will polish your grammar and improve your vocabulary. 

Leverage AI Tools for Social Media 

Tools based on AI and ML can boost your social media performance. 

They will help you analyze past performance to pinpoint the right content to post. On a larger scale, they can help you draft a messaging strategy. One size does not fit all: You have to tailor your brand voice to different platforms. Overall, this will help you develop a social media strategy for maximum effect and reach on each channel.

Also, you can automate processes like analytics. Gain cross-platform insights by having your AI assistant regularly deliver comprehensive reports. 

Take Email Marketing to the Next Level With AI  

When you’re starting out with email marketing, you might be tempted to default to Mailchimp and then focus exclusively on building an email list. Instead, carefully check out the various AI and ML tools that Mailchimp alternatives (appsumodotcom) offer. These tools can reduce the time and money you have to invest and increase your ROI. Building an email list is important, but no longer everything. 

The right email marketing platform will offer AI and ML tools to increase email personalization for every single sub-group in your target audience. They will also offer analytical insights for data-driven email marketing. You’ll be able to check the effectiveness of different subject lines, and A/B test different newsletter layouts. Solid AI tools also help you increase your campaigns’ deliverability by optimizing send times and making sure your email list is clean.

Boost Your SEO Using AI 

When you think of digital marketing, chances are that Search Engine Optimization – SEO – tops your list of priorities. SEO has been key for years, and it should be an integral part of drawing up your digital strategy. 

Luckily, AI can give you a serious leg up. 

It’s important to know that search engines themselves use AI and ML algorithms. RankBrain, for example, is Google’s AI search algorithm. To get these algorithms to rank your site highly, using AI yourself is a must. 

To begin with, use AI to optimize your keyword research process. Deciding on the right keywords to target is fundamental for your SEO strategy. In 2020, trends like Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) have gained momentum. AI-driven keyword research tools are an asset in harnessing these trends. 

You can also use AI to optimize your content for voice search. It’s estimated that 50% of searches this year will be voice-based. These voice searches use a natural language processing AI. Making sure that your content is compatible with them will improve your rankings.

Further AI applications in SEO are having an algorithm check how you appear in local searches, using it for A/B testing, and to optimize your site’s technical SEO. 

Optimize Paid Marketing with AI 

Finally, using the right AI tools can give a major boost to your SEM performance. As in other areas of marketing, AI helps you target the right audience and personalize content. In terms of analytics, it can show you the bigger picture. 

To be more specific, AI will also keep track of all your SEM metrics for you – from CTR (Click-Through-Rate) and CPA (Cost Per Action) to CPC (Cost Per Click). You can have periodic summary reports delivered and keep an overview of the success of different marketing campaigns. 

Conclusion 

Integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into your digital marketing strategy from the get-go will give you a valuable advantage. It will help you base your marketing approach on data insights, rather than assumptions. 

AI now permeates every aspect of digital marketing. Setting up data-driven strategies and feedback loops is something to do sooner rather than later. 

Use AI-driven tools to gather and analyze data for market research. Make them part of your buyer journey. Harness them for content, social media, and email marketing, as well as SEO and SEM. 

Altogether, this integration of AI and ML will give your startup an edge from the start – and set you up on the path to success. 

Courtesy of an article dated October 26, 2020 appearing in ReadWrite

9 STEPS TO BUILD A GREAT DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

I bet this is not the first time someone suggested you integrate an effective digital marketing strategy to your business. Stepping into the digital marketing is pretty much fine, but why does one need a strategy for that?

Because a strategy helps you in “setting the direction to the destination you want to reach.”

Whether you just started your startup or in business for years, it is never late to create a plan that creates a real impact on your bottom line. Any Digital Marketing Services provider basically follows this pipeline for the best possible chance of success.

1. Goals and Objective

Okay! Do not raise your eyebrows. This suggestion or advice might seem certain that does not need any special mention. However, we have seen many marketers who are eager to get into the nuts and bolts of postings and campaigns without any prior plan which is necessary for a productive outcome. As a business holder, you should be clear of what your goal is. Whether you want to mark your presence in the neighboring state or rank higher in the Search Engine Results Page? The end objective can be determined by your current business standards and how you want it to be in the long run.

2. Identify “your” customers

One of the vital things to be contemplated during any digital marketing strategy is that you need to identify your customers. See, if you do not know who you are marketing to, what is the point of discussing a “great strategy?” Isn’t it? With the available digital channels, you sure can REACH people, but the question is WHICH people? Identifying the target audience is not rocket science if you could create the fleshed-out persona. And a persona is something that gives a detailed description of your audience. Get started with their gender, age, and location. Then dig deeper to identify their hobbies, interests, occupation, emotional desires, goals, etcetera. Google Analytics can help you determine such factors and whom you should actually target.

You can also identify your customers by :

• Analyzing the competition in the market.
• Using social media.
• Creating customer surveys to understand their needs exactly.

Try to modify digital marketing campaigns for recognizing your ideal customer by creating content and images so that it captivates the customer. Then, ask yourself whether the correct results are generated with these things. If not, try a different approach to appeal the consumer.

3. Competitor Research

It is essential to get the current online landscape in terms of competitiveness. Analyze what the competitors are doing. It could help you in discovering the areas you need to hone up. Create a spreadsheet and note their every single activity on every single channel. With the help of SEO services companies and tools, you can discover the keywords which are driving the high volume of traffic to their site.                                               

• Note: You are studying your competitor’s way of marketing not duplicating their strategy. 

4. Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a way of internet marketing which is basically the promotion of your website. It improves the site visibility in search engines by bidding on search terms. SEM enables businesses to get precise success tracking and in-depth campaign analysis too. You can get to know how much value you are generating which further helps in making educated decisions. 

On the other hand, Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is a component of Search Engine Marketing. SEO’s ultimate aim is to increase the number of visitors to your website. It includes on-page and off-page optimization that helps in maximizing the visitor count.

5. Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing(SMM) is a form of internet marketing that includes composing and sharing content on social media channels or networks. The primary activities involve in SMM are posting any kind of media such as text, image, videos, memes, and updates that drive user engagement. Social Media Marketing is mostly executed on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

It needs an evolving strategy with more significant objectives, and it includes :

• Posting videos, stories, live videos, and pictures to showcase your brand to attract a specific audience.
• Responding to the shares, likes, comments, and then monitor your business popularity.
• Engaging with the customers, influencers, and followers to build a community across your brand to create brand awareness.

6. Email Marketing

You might be wondering why we set down Email Marketing as a separate tile amidst the resounding cry that email marketing is dead. But, it is not. It is still one of the effective ways of sending a commercial message for a group of people that actually matters. As a matter of fact, 72% of people still prefer email communication instead of chat. Besides email marketing, you can also integrate the best Instant Messaging software into your website to convert visitors into business clients. 

7. Content Marketing

Content Marketing is a form of marketing that primarily focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for the target audience through online medium. It is implemented to increase brand awareness and credibility through constant blogging, press releases, guest blogging, webinars, ebooks, articles etcetera. 

8. Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is a route in which technology is used to promote products and services to the end-user who is constantly connected to the network. It involves promotions sent through downloaded applications through push notifications, SMS text messaging, and MMS Multimedia messaging.

It utilizes modern mobile technology features that incorporate location services for tailoring marketing-based campaigns on an individual location. Mobile marketing is better and more affordable than marketing your products or services on radio and television.

A business owner can measure the mobile marketing campaign's success through mobile marketing. Furthermore, it is cost-effective as there are various choices to pick from any budget, and the influence it can produce when compared with the cost is essential.

9. Measure Results

It is essential to measure the results or outcomes of using a digital marketing strategy in your business. First, you need to observe the total website traffic to know if there's a rise. Also, try your best to monitor returning traffic, mobile traffic and analyze the traffic resources to understand in what ways your customers are visiting your website.

Another critical aspect is to learn the average time a particular user is spending on your website. These things will offer depth insights to show how digital marketing in your company is successfully operating.

Great that you have made up till here. Now let us explore how you can implement this digital marketing strategy below:

Courtesy of a blog post by GeeksChip

14 DIGITAL MARKETING PREDICTIONS FOR 2022 AND BEYOND

Digital marketing transformation refers to the shift from digital complacency and reliance on traditional marketing to the active pursuit of digital excellence through the proper usage and optimization of your digital channels.

The main difference between digital and traditional marketing is the medium through which an audience encounters a marketing message. While traditional marketing uses traditional media like magazines and newspapers, digital marketing uses digital media, such as social media, search and websites.

Digital transformation is essential in achieving business sustainability, competing better in an economic environment that is constantly changing in response to technology evolutions and economic disasters brought on by pandemics like COVID19.

One of the biggest reasons digital marketing has become so important is the engagement it brings – you can converse with your prospective and current customers, answer questions and resolve issues. You can also interact with a wider audience, meaning you can do more than just sell.

The following infographic presents 14 digital marketing predictions to help brands implement a digital marketing transformation and prepare their digital marketing strategies for the year 2022 and beyond.

Courtesy of an infographic by Liana Technology based on several sources between 2017 and 2020

Why Is Digital Marketing So Important? Competitive Advantage and Data Analytics Drives All Your Marketing Initiatives

Why is a Digital Marketing Strategy so important, particularly in the New Age of COVID19?  There are several real good reasons: 

• The majority of commerce and interaction with businesses is now conducted electronically by consumers using mobile digital devices.
• The adoption of internet usage, proliferation of mobile devices, increase in ecommerce and use of social media have dramatically increased digital traffic.
• For businesses to compete in today's digital economy in the aftermath of COVID19, they must be able to communicate to consumers online wherever they are, know when to reach them, how to reach them and use the most effective media channels while offering a great consumer experience.
• Digital marketing is five times more effective than traditional marketing media.
• Digital marketing creates measurable competitive advantage.
• Digital marketing allows businesses to more accurately target, identify the best customers and develop valuable customer insights to increase sales and operational efficiency throughout the digital ecosystem.

We consider digital marketing to be an ecosystem - a system of interconnecting and interacting parts – formed by three distinct areas of content creation: SEO, Social Media and Target Marketing.

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We believe that success in digital marketing is achieved by using strategies that leverage the interrelationship of the three key ecosystem elements into an Integrated Digital Marketing Strategy.

Courtesy of ImaginativePRO

 

MARKETING TO MILLENIALS: SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

Why should you market to Millennials?

If you are asking yoursef why should I care about the Millennial generation and why should I consider spending my marketing dollars, time and effort targeting Millennials.

I have the answers for you….

The millennial generation represents the largest generation consisting of approximately 80 million people with over $170 billion in purchasing power.

The millennial generation with its large influence is shaping the way that brands send messages, forcing businesses to change or suffer the consequences.

Millennials marketing and an understanding of how to reach the millennial generation is critical and will enhance your organization’s brand and integrated marketing communications strategies. Implementing these millennial elements will help your organization reach its business and marketing objectives.

Millennial Characteristics

Let’s start out by giving the definition. The Millennial Generation is typically defined as individuals born between 1980 and 2000.  According to the U.S. Censur Burean, as of April 2015, Millennials now number 92 million or 20% of the total U.S. population, and are now the largest generation, even bigger than Baby Boomers. 

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A comprehensive understanding of millennial characteristics is critical in creating an integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan.

There are concepts, values, and characteristics unique to all millennials that include:

Concepts

• The use of a variety of media
• They view brands as a partnership and form of self-expression

Values

• Honesty
• Authenticity
• Value

Characteristics

• More technologically advanced than previous generations
• More educated than previous generations
• The most racially and ethnically diverse
• Encumbered with student loan debt, which continues to grow each year
• Have different priorities like putting off marriage, buying a house or automobile

Millennials also take action on behalf of brands based on loyalty and give significant brand loyalty to brands and products of preference. In addition, the millennial generation likes music and events and requires authenticity, two-way communication, social responsibility, and connection with a personal touch.

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Other important concepts of millennials marketing involve the millennial generation’s value systems that include altruism and a predisposition to support social and environmental causes they care about. As a result, millennials purchase and support companies with environmentally and socially responsible products (brands).

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Millennials Marketing Strategy and Tactics

A two-pronged generic millennial strategy and a subculture marketing strategy are critical to an organization seeking to achieve its objectives. Using a homogeneous millennial culture and subculture marketing strategy based on addressing the different ethnic subcultures provide a method to reach the target audience effectively.

The combination of the two marketing strategies will be used in the areas including logo design usage (affect), events, social and digital media, television, radio, and sponsorship (cognition).

The other elements included in marketing to millennials should also consider product or service content options and pricing (environment).

A combination of promotional strategies is required when marketing to millennials. Think in terms of the sum of the parts when influencing the millennial.

The marketing mix (product, place, promotion, and price) also heavily influences the millennial consumer stimulating trial and creating brand loyalty based on leveraging the brand assets.

Marketers are challenged with addressing two diametrically opposite considerations to reach millennials effectively. On one hand, millennials communicate asynchronously (i.e., via text). Conversely, the millennial market segment wants face-to-face interactions and a personal touch.

The key takeaway is for marketers to address the millennial generation using an IMC approach.

Market Research Drives Strategy and Tactics

Market research was the most important step in the approach used by Mercedes-Benz and Amazon. The essential driving force behind the development and launch of the CLA from Mercedes-Benz and the Fire TV from Amazon is market research.

Market research was the basis that determined product development and the corresponding marketing strategy and tactics resulting in both organizations reaching and exceeding organizational objectives.

The list included is not an exhaustive list of marketing elements used in strategy and tactical development, but a representation of the most important and how they fit together to address a diverse generation. The elements listed provide an organization with a framework from an IMC perspective to take into consideration when forming strategies and tactics to reach the millennial consumer.

Event Marketing

IMC messaging strategies with a millennial target audience must use a dual approach. The IMC strategy must incorporate event or experiential marketing offering a personal one-to-one relationship required by the millennial generation based on the statistic that 78% of millennials prefer a brand experience that is relevant and gives them information.

An example of a relevant and simple marketing tactic to reach this audience is Federal Express providing South by Southwest festival attendees charging stations to charge mobile devices. The charging station example demonstrates a marketing tactic that builds an emotional connection with a brand, especially with the millennial generation that does not like to be without the use of its mobile devices.

Digital and Social Media 

Another critical element in an IMC strategy focused on millennials requires a company to use Internet marketing and social media which is in stark contrast to the face-to-face interaction desired by this generation. Event marketing provides the ability to begin a conversation with the millennial consumer supported by the internet and social media.

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The internet and social media allow a company to continue to engage this generation to gain brand awareness, stimulate trial usage, repeat usage, and ultimately  loyalty. The social media channel must consider the product or service offered by the company and target where this generation spends most of its social media time (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat).

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For example, using Facebook and Twitter to engage craft beer consumers would be a good social media choice and LinkedIn would be a poor media choice. Training consulting services or customer relationship software provides examples of a product and service that offer a better fit with LinkedIn’s target audience and purpose.

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Millennials are early adopters of different social media channels, and marketers must keep track of the social media consumption patterns and trends adapting marketing tactics to reach this generation.

Millennials Seek Lower Prices, Loyalty and Reward Programs and Discounting and less on product quality

Millennials are forcing brands to become more participative by subtly engaging by offering discounted prices and loyalty and reward programs while relying less on product quality.  77% of the millennial generation reported participating in loyalty and reward Programs

Millennials thrive online, researching product choices online, then placing orders online.

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In addition, 78% of millennials reported to being more likely to buy from a brand with a rewards program than one without.

Millennials have the highest percentage of word-of-mouth marketing, electing to share feedback about a product or service both on-line and off-line.  The implications of these millennial statistics support the social media tactic of engaging using online channels to support the event marketing high-touch required by this generation.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A critical statistic for marketers is the fact 75% of millennials donate to charity and 60% volunteer for a worthy cause.

The millennial generation coming of age is one of the most important components influencing marketing and the messages brands send. The millennial generation with its demonstration of purchasing power and brand support for companies that are environmentally conscious has caused a seismic shift in business.

Here is a quote from Simon Sinek that provides a paradigm shift for marketers and how they communicate:

“PEOPLE DON’T BUY WHAT YOU DO, THEY BUY WHY YOU DO IT.”  – SIMON SINEK

Companies must infuse environmentally responsible practices into the core of their business strategy using an IMC approach. As a result, marketing strategy provides a core element in business strategy to promote a company as an ethical entity with genuine concern for social issues and the environment. Marketers must create authentic messages that can be supported with actions regarding the environment and social issues or risk suffering the consequences of the millennial consumer.

CSR Examples from the Automotive Industry

Companies such as General Motors and Ford have had to change significantly over the last six years. It is not enough to provide vehicles that are environmentally conscious, but the millennial generation demands a more significant effort from a brand. GM and Ford have implemented programs across their entire supply chain supporting environmental and social initiatives. GM and Ford now use a sustainability report a common marketing tool in business to provide information regarding the environmental and social practices of the company.

The sustainability report used by many companies across all industries provides evidence of the changing nature of business and marketing influenced by the millennial generation. However, if companies do not provide the millennial generation with authentic evidence of support for the environment, they could face significant brand and company damage.

The key takeaway is to include corporate social responsibility into your business and marketing strategy in an authentic manner.

Benchmarks for Millennial Marketing

There are a few companies out there that I think are really getting it right and setting the bar for marketing. The companies that are in the best position to take advantage of the largest generation include:

• TOMS donate a pair of shoes to someone for every pair of shoes sold. Giving and aligning the millennial generation with a cause allowing them to participate in the story. Blake Mycoskie, the founder, has found a way for philanthropy and profit to coexist in perfect harmony.
• Netflix continuously keeps pulse with the millennial generation exceptionally well and uses social media with shareable content to attract and engage.
• Uber with its unique app focused on convenience and the needs and wants of the millennial generation. Uber provided a disruptive business model that simply works with marketing campaigns focused on the millennials and shareable social media content.
• Dollar Shave Club has disrupted the personal grooming market with a business model that is uniquely suited to millennials. The two critical things marketers can takeaway from Dollar Shave Club is their unique, disruptive pricing model and creative marketing. Dollar Shave uses multiple media specifically targeting millennials with relevant, shareable, and entertaining content.

COMMENTARY:

The focus of this post is dedicated to targeting millennials using an integrated marketing communications (IMC) framework. In other posts, I discuss brand building that must take place before developing the IMC plan.

The millennial generation is an important generation for marketers to target for almost every industry. Forming strategies and tactics to reach the millennial consumer based on solid market research provides the best opportunity to target them effectively and achieve success.

Omnichannel Experiences: Creating Online And In-Store Moments That Matter To Millennials

Mobile marketers, take note: Millennials already live in an omnichannel shopping mindset. In fact, they were living in this mindset years before most businesses realized they needed to adjust operating models accordingly. These young shoppers carry with them the central expectation that a spectrum of seamless and consistent online and offline engagements will be the norm across their shopping journey. 

The goal of omnichannel marketing is not to create multiple experiences across multiple channels — that’s multichannel marketing — it is to build a unified brand-to-consumer interaction across all channels. Omnichannel experiences are not simply coordinated, and not simply integrated, they become continuous. A consumer can begin an experience in one channel and complete that interaction somewhere else. And, with the Millennial demographic set to spend some $200 billion in coming years, theimperative for brick-and-mortar to focus on omnichannel to reach them is more critical than ever. 

Success begins — and begins only, as there are many ways to inspire Millennials in the omnichannel space — with close attention to social-media interactions, live support, and real-time surprise and delight.

• The Social Experience: Based on our recent research, more than 1 in 4 young consumers, aged 14 - 29 (including both Millennials and Gen Z), said they use a mobile phone while browsing in a physical store, seeking guidance, input, and validation from friends and family on their screens. Engaging organically with Millennials as they share these experiences requires nuance and a sense for strategic delicacy, adapting to the distinctive “dialect” of each platform in positive and relevant ways. Taco Bell has earned notice by using Snapchat, for example, challenging young consumers to “Doodle Wars” that can be shared and saved for later, piping more attention to the brand-related drawings via Twitter, and all the while steering diners toward fresh brand-focused engagements. 

• Mobile-to-Live Support: Some 60% of Millennials recently told Radial that they want online chat and communications as part of their in-store shopping segment. A key opportunity for brick-and-mortar, then, is to seamlessly match a conversation that starts on mobile to a moment when an expert in-store representative can pick it up, further prompting the anticipatory inspiration that Millennials say they crave. The hospitality industry has become a superb example of this kind of handoff, with staff having all the immediately preceding information available on desktop and/or mobile device at the moment of the switch.

• In-the-Moment Inspiration: Brands that commit to omnichannel experiences can plug into Millennials’ openness to new ideas in the moment — specifically the kind that arise during otherwise-occupied segments of their shopping journey. Advertisers can prompt or seal the deal around restaurant visits, for example, giving users a chance to skip a seating line by donating to a social cause on their smartphone. This aligns with Millennials’ affinity for purchases that leverage philanthropic outcomes — 70% of them will spend more on brands supporting what they perceive to be worthy causes. It’s an omnichannel solution with in-the-moment meaning, driving sales and loyalty.

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In an omnichannel world, opportunities are free to emerge in seamless and consistent ways at any time, in any space … if these moments match the expectations and values of the Millennial consumer. Each of the above approaches fosters increasingly meaningful moments and, when it comes to Millennials, each instance represents a prime way to tap into the generation’s spending power as it reaches its peak.

Courtesy of an article dated December 3, 2014 appearing in Stephen Zoeller blog, a blog post by Goldman Sachs, and an article dated May 9, 2017 appearing in MediaPost Engage:Millennials

 

2015 DIGITAL STATSHOT FOR CHINA: THE STATE OF DIGITAL, SOCIAL MEDIA, MOBILE AND eCOMMERCE

The latest report in our series of studies into Digital, Social & Mobile use around the world shows that the pace of digital adoption in China shows few signs of slowing.

You can read the full report in the SlideShare embed above (or download it here), but numbers don’t mean much on their own, so we’ll use this post to dig into the significance of the data and their associated trends for marketers.

China Digital, Social and Mobile By The Numbers

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To get us started though, here are the key data headlines:

• Internet Users: 668 million, a 6% year-on-year increase
• Social Media Users: 659 million – more than the USA and Europe combined
• Unique Mobile Users: 675 million, responsible for 1.3 billion mobile subscriptions
• Mobile Internet Users: 594 million, accounting for 89% of all China’s internet users
• Mobile Social Media Users: 574 million, up 15 million since this time last year

The year-on-year growth rates tell interesting stories too (note that the mobile figures in this slide represent the growth in mobile subscriptions, not unique users):

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We’ll examine each of these in detail in the sections below.

Internet in China

Roughly 100,000 people in China started using the internet every day over the past year – that’s more than one every second.

Much of this growth is being driven by improved mobile access, with close to 90% of the country’s netizens using mobile devices to access the internet. It’s worth noting that this is often in addition to PC-based usage too, but an increasing number of the country’s internet users are mobile-only, especially in rural areas.

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When it comes to the total volume of web traffic, PC-based access still dominates, with 56% of the web pages served to China’s netizens in the past month going to laptop or desktop computers. However, this figure is down 29% year-on-year, while the number of web page requests from mobile devices has jumped 136% to 42%.

These trends suggest that mobile usage will account for more than half of all China’s web activity by early 2016.

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Despite mobile’s promise of ubiquitous internet access, however, internet usage still isn’t evenly distributed in China, and a marked difference remains between urban and rural usage rates. Nearly two-thirds of China’s urban population now uses the internet every month, but barely 3 in 10 of China’s rural citizens are online:

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The good news is that connection speeds are up considerably on last year, with the average fixed-connection access speed up 17% year-on-year according to Akamai. It’s worth noting that the average mobile connection speed is considerably higher than that of fixed connections though, with the average connection in China now considered ‘broadband’ (i.e. 4Mbps or above).

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Social Media in China

The overall number of social media users in China grew more slowly than we expected over the past year, but this is more likely due to a change in behaviour, rather than a waning of interest in social media. 

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It’s also worth noting that social media usage in China is already at a very high level, with the numbers suggesting that 99% of China’s internet community uses social media of some description.

The numbers for individual platforms tell the more interesting story though. QQ, Tencent’s ever-popular instant messaging service, still claims the country’s top position in terms of monthly active users (MAUs), and despite the vast majority of its users residing in China, it also claims the second-place spot in the worldwide rankings behind Facebook (click here to read more about the global picture).

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It’s worth noting that more people sign in to QQ via mobile devices each month than sign in to WeChat, but WeChat offers more varied services and functionality for both users and marketers.

User numbers suggest that QZone still dominates when it comes to traditional ‘social networking’, but WeChat (or Weixin, as it’s know in China) is quickly catching up, and is the platform that most users claim to use on a regular basis (note the difference between ‘use’ and ‘sign in’, the latter being the metric many of the platforms use to measure ‘active’ users).

For those who are still relatively unfamiliar with Chinese social media, Baidu Tieba may be a new discovery. Tieba, or “Post Bar” as the platform calls itself in its English literature, is a community that has grown up around specific areas of user interest related to the searches that people conduct on Baidu, China’s largest search engine.

Meanwhile, readers of our previous China reports (2013, 2014) will notice the absence of Tencent Weibo in this ranking. Tencent stopped publishing monthly active user figures for Tencent Weibo a number of months ago, and we have interpreted this to mean that the company has de-prioritised the platform in favour of its three larger ‘products’, QQ, Qzone and WeChat. Tencent Weibo appears to remain popular with many users though, with 38% of China’s internet users claiming to have used the platform in the past month (see below).

Research from GlobalWebIndex suggests that more than 6 in 10 internet users in China used WeChat in the past month. Sina Weibo comes in second, with 54% of survey respondents claiming to have used the service in the past 30 days.

It’s interesting to note that Facebook, Google+ and Twitter all appear in this list too; they may be officially ‘blocked’ by the Great Firewall, but GlobalWebIndex’s research suggest that a considerable number of China’s netizens are getting round these blocks to access non-Chinese social platforms.

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87% of China’s social media users now access via mobile devices at some point each month, with platforms like WeChat helping to drive overall numbers up 77 million over the past 12 months – a year-on-year increase of 15% that equates to more than 200,000 new users every day, or almost 2.5 new users every second.

At 1 hour and 43 minutes per day, social media accounts for just under half of all the time that people spend online in China. The country’s social media users spend 23% longer using social media than they do watching TV each day, although it’s worth noting that much of this time overlaps, with many TV viewers engaging in ‘second-screen’ social media use at the same time.

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It’s worth noting that use of tablets appears to be down slightly year-on-year though, with 22% fewer web page requests coming from tablet devices in the past month compared to this time one month ago.

Mobile in China

With 675 million unique subscribers in China, almost half the country’s population now owns a mobile phone, and we fully expect to see the country pass this milestone before the end of 2015.

The number of mobile subscriptions in China rose significantly in 2014 too, with three new subscribers every second contributing to annual growth of 94 million – an 8% year-on-year increase.

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The number of mobile subscriptions in China is now very close to the number of people living in the country, which suggest that the average user still maintains close to 2 active connections.

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However, we expect that this ratio will reduce over the coming months as more and more people upgrade from feature phones to smartphones; the main reason why individuals operate more than one mobile contract is to benefit from intra-network deals, but data-powered communications such as chat apps and VOIP are more efficient and effective ways of achieving the same benefits.

Smartphones are clearly the must-have devices in China today, accounting for 90% of new handset sales. They already account for just less than two-thirds of all handsets in active use, and we expect their overall share to increase steadily over the coming months as more people renew their devices.

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When it comes to internet-powered activities on mobile devices, Chinese netizens appear to be particularly interested in checking the weather. 

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China’s mobile users also appear to have embraced m-commerce, with reports suggesting that 20% of the country’s population have made a recent online purchase via their mobile device.

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E-Commerce in China

E-commerce more generally appears to be thriving in China, with almost one in three internet users buying online each month. 

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The country’s consumer e-commerce market was worth more than a quarter of a trillion US dollars in the six months to June 2015, with the year’s biggest shopping event – Singles Day – still to come. Sales on Alibaba’s various sites exceeded US$9 billion in just one day last November, and there’s every chance that number will pass $10 billion on 11th November this year.

Conclusions

So what does all this mean for brands? Here are our three key tips, designed specifically for non-Chinese marketers looking to make sense of the world’s largest consumer market:

China’s Different: it’s obvious that the platforms that dominate in China are markedly different to those that marketers are familiar with elsewhere – even those in their Asian neighbours. However, it’s not just the platforms that are different; the ways that Chinese netizens use social channels is also markedly different, and marketers need to carefully adapt their approaches for China’s cultural and societal idiosyncrasies as much as for its technological differences. One size does not fit all when it comes to China, and marketers would do well to engage the expertise of a partner who understands the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’.

1-to-1 Social: The numbers in this year’s report highlight the growing popularity of chat apps – a trend that we’ve seen elsewhere in the world too. The growing popularity of chat apps presents a new set of opportunities for marketers, as many of the conversations that take place on these platforms are more private in nature, taking place between individuals and small groups (versus the public environments that Western marketers will know from Facebook and Twitter). In order to take advantage of the ‘intimate’ nature of these one-to-one conversations, however, marketers will need to explore new approaches to social media and content marketing, ensuring that the tactics they employ make it easy for audiences to find and consume content on one platform (e.g. video-sharing services like Youku or Tudou), and then share that content proactively via chat apps. This will require greater emphasis on highly engaging content and organic sharing, rather than an approach that relies on paid media to push mediocre content to the masses.

Social Selling: China’s netizens are already very comfortable buying things online, whether that’s through their PCs or via their mobile devices. The next big opportunity for marketers is to understand how the dynamics of social referral work in China, and use that to move from social engagement to social conversion.

COMMENTARY:  If you have been looking for information on the state of China's growing digital, mobile, social media and e-commerce for 2015, this is a great source thanks to the nice guys at We Are Social. 

Courtesy of an article dated August 18, 2015 appearing in We Are Social

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INSTAGRAM RELEASES BOOMERANG, A NEW VIDEO APP

INSTAGRAM'S NEW VIDEO APP BOOMERANG DIRECTLY COMPETES WITH VINE.

Instagram is releasing its newest app, a video maker called Boomerang. The app, announced today, allows users to create short, shareable animations that play from beginning to end and then from end to beginning—hence the name, Boomerang. This is the latest in a wave of add-on apps released by the Facebook-owned company.

In a blog post about the new Android and iOS app, Instagram wrote:

"Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forward and backward. Shoot in portrait or landscape. Share it on Instagram. Boomerang automatically saves it to your camera roll. We’re inspired by the visual stories you tell on Instagram."

Whether Facebook admits it or not, Boomerang is fuel for the ongoing war between Instagram and Twitter’s video-centric Vine platform. Boomerang also competes with that other great GIF purveyor, Tumblr.

Other apps released recently by Instagram include Layout (which lets users create video collages) and Hyperlapse (which lets users create time-lapse videos). According to analytics firm App Annie, downloads for Hyperlapse in iOS have steadily declined since its release in 2014; it now hovers around being the 225th most downloaded photo or video app in App Annie's metrics.

COMMENTARY:   To learn more about Boomerang from Instagram check out the Instagram Help Center.

Courtesy of an article dated October 22, 2015 appearing in Fast Company

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ITS A MISTAKE FOR BRANDS TO TREAT GEN Z LIKE MILLENNIALS, GIVE THEM CONTENT THAT IS WEIRD, OFFBEAT, QUIRKY AND RAW

Marketers need to look closer at the differences between this generation and millennials to find insights with significant meaning.

As the millennial marketing craze reaches saturation, a new obsession is making the rounds among brand marketers: Gen Z. Roughly defined as anyone currently 12 to 20 years old, this group is now falling victim to many of the same vague platitudes and insights that characterized "Who Are Millennials?" articles for years.

The same conclusions about Gen Z are drawn again and again. They’re digitally savvy, because they were raised with technology. They’re either entrepreneurial souls looking to redefine the workplace or old-souled pragmatists resigned to climbing the corporate ladder. They inspire words like collaborative, optimistic, and transparent.

But most of these observations are not just banal—they’re also completely wrong. That’s because much of the generational data we see suffers from either poor survey design or misleading conclusions. Whenever we talk with teens face-to-face, it’s telling that many of the "truisms" that surveys conclude don’t hold water. And the insights that are true ("Gen Z loves tech") are too broad to construe any significant meaning.

What really separates Gen Z isn’t that they use technology, or what their values and dreams are—it’s how they choose to live their lives in digital. And after studying this group in closer detail, we’ve identified a few key ways they stand out from millennials.

To gain a perspective of the differences between Gen Z and Millennials in the workplace, this infographic based on a survey conducted by Adecco provides some very interesting insights.

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WE'VE GONE FROM CLEVER TO OFFBEAT

All generational differences are driven by environment. So when we talk about environmental changes for Gen Z, the first and most obvious shift is the native nature of technology in their lives. Yes, they do have more screen-time than any other demographic, but it isn’t their frequency of tech usage that’s interesting. Rather, it’s how that usage changes what resonates with them.

On the whole, millennials are attracted to the clever and witty: the sharp, biting commentary of Jon Stewart and Seth MacFarlane, content from Someecards and The Oatmeal, ads like the Old Spice guy, Messin With Sasquatch and Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World.

 

All generational differences are driven by environment. So when we talk about environmental changes for Gen Z, the first and most obvious shift is the native nature of technology in their lives. Yes, they do have more screen-time than any other demographic, but it isn’t their frequency of tech usage that’s interesting. Rather, it’s how that usage changes what resonates with them.

On the whole, millennials are attracted to the clever and witty: the sharp, biting commentary of Jon Stewart and Seth MacFarlane, content from Someecards and The Oatmeal, ads like the Old Spice guy and Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World.

But Gen Z connects to something completely different: the offbeat and raw. When we talk to teens today, a lot of what they love has a weird, unhinged sensibility to it. The media figures they look up to—people like Pewdiepie and Jerome Jarre—are embraced more for their absurdist humor than for clever witticisms. The content they share tends to mirror this as well: self-deprecating Snapchats and memes, or Vines centered around making people think you’re offbeat or quirky. This is not millennial behavior; it’s rare for a 20-something to post anything on social that makes them look strange. But for a generation that’s spent their entire lives online—mostly in the unfiltered lens of Skype, webcams, live streams and vlogs—an intimate exhibitionism has emerged in a way that older generations simply don’t have.

 

THERE ARE NO MORE SUBCULTURES, EVERYTHING IS A SUBCULTURE

When we speak to clients about their consumers, it’s generally positioned through layers. Depending on the industry, at the core are hardcore or niche users; above that, casual dabblers; and outside of that, the disinterested mainstream. But increasingly, when we talk about younger audiences, that last mainstream layer is going away.

This is another outcome of being connected to the Internet throughout one’s entire childhood. For Gen Z, niche communities and interests were facilitated at a much younger age than they were for older generations. Twenty years ago,kids were absorbed into specific subcultures over time—jocks, theater nerds, band geeks,or prepsters, to name a few. These groups were defined by shared tastes, in clothes, music, slang, and other patterns that could be easily sorted into a singular group. But for today’s teens, there’s no uniformity among hobbies, and because of that, group distinctions are falling away.

For example, we recently talked to a group of gamers who told us they don’t like being called gamers, despite the fact that it’s their favorite hobby. Privately, some of them said that even though they love gaming, they’re involved in so many other communities—rap message boards, sneaker blogs, and skating—that the label ‘gamer’ feels limiting. We don’t see this as much with millennials, who tend to use their passions and identity interchangeably.

ONLINE "LEISURE" ISN'T JUST FUN, ITS CRUCIAL TO A HEALTHY AND HAPPY LIFE

One of the biggest assumptions about the increase in time spent on digital is that it’s merely entertainment and largely a waste of time. But for teens, that entertainment is proving to be a vital component in the creation and maintenance of friendships.

A Pew study last month found that,

"More than half of teens have made new friends online, and a third of them (36%) say they met their new friend or friends while playing video games…Playing games can [also] have the effect of reinforcing a sense of friendship and connectedness."

Other types of online communities have also gone from hobbyist chats to real outlets for connection and support. Nearly a fifth of all teens go on message boards regularly, as problems that were once isolating or suppressed now have a connected community behind them. It’s important to note that without the inherent vulnerability we talked about earlier, we wouldn’t see stats like this. But because of Gen Z’s willingness to open up online, the Internet has a much greater impact on their lives.

Generation Z have been dubbed "digital natives" because of their love for sharing their activities with their friends online (Click Image To Enlarge)

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MARKETERS?

Ultimately, vague platitudes and clichés serve no one. It's important to understand the digital culture that Gen Z lives in today if we wish to connect with them beyond a surface level. With that in mind, here are three points to think about when targeting them.

First, give them the tools to mess with anything you make, because they’ll do it anyway. Tightly controlled messages aren’t possible anymore. Gen Z is going to draw stuff on your creative, tweak it, and do whatever else they want, regardless of your intentions. Don’t fight it.

Second, build stuff for the communities they’re a part of instead of injecting messages into them. For specific product launches messages can still work fine, but when it comes to general brand building, it’s much better to think about the communities your target lives in and build things that make that community more fun or easier to navigate.

And third, take out a position that not everyone agrees with.This one is somewhat counterintuitive, as the logical thing to do would be appealing to as many people as possible. But for Gen Z, the honesty and exposure that a brand takes when doing something potentially polarizing often strengthens the connection they have with that brand.

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COMMENTARY:  They want to drive to their jobs, head into their private offices and meet face-to-face with colleagues before calling it a day – hopefully, not too late, since work-life balance is their primary career concern. Sound like a baby boomer, or even Gen X? On the contrary, these are the work preferences expressed by more than 770 members of Generation Z (those born between 1990 and 1999) surveyed recently by Robert Half and Enactus. 

Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half said. 

"Gen Z employees bring unique values, expectations and perspectives to their jobs.  They've grown up in economically turbulent times, and many of their characteristics and motivations reflect that."

Following are five surprising insights based on the research:

1. Open floor plans? Hot start-ups? Nah, this group's tastes skew more Mad Men than Silicon Valley.

• Forty-one percent described midsize organizations as the ideal work environment, followed by large organizations (38 percent). Only 14 percent cited start-ups.
• Forty-five percent of respondents prefer to work in a private office, and face-to-face communication is the method of choice for 74 percent.

2. They're not exactly bubbling over with youthful optimism. Meet the 'reality-check' generation.

• Seventy-seven percent believe they will need to work harder compared to those in past generations to have a satisfying and fulfilling professional life.
• Balancing work and personal obligations was the top future career concern for 28 percent of respondents, followed by making enough money (26 percent) and finding a stable job (23 percent).

3. A gold watch marking decades of service may not be in the cards, but they do plan to stay a while at their jobs -- and move quickly up the ladder.

• Gen Zers expect to work for an average of four companies throughout their lifetimes.
• Thirty-two percent believe they will be managing employees in a corporate environment within the next five years.
• One in three would like to retire by the age of 60, but only 17 percent think it will be possible.

4. Forget fancy job titles -- they mainly want more responsibIlity and an honest boss.

• Opportunity for career growth was the most commonly cited career priority, with 64 percent of respondents ranking it among their top three. An impressive job title was only cited as a priority by three percent.
• Honesty/integrity was the top quality sought in a boss, cited by 38 percent of respondents; this was followed by mentoring ability (21 percent).

5. Collaboration shouldn't be a problem, say Gen Zers, except with those baby boomers.

• Forty-five percent cited potential challenges working with baby boomers, compared to 17 percent who anticipate difficulties with Gen X and five percent with Gen Yers.

Bev Graham, Ph.D., vice president of Enactus USA programs, said, "Gen Z professionals are full of potential, but these young adults will need support in honing their skills and harnessing their enthusiasm to address real-world employment situations, such as the need to communicate more formally in certain situations."

Added McDonald, "This group of professionals has grown up with technology available to them around the clock and is accustomed to constant learning. Companies with a solid understanding of this generation's values and preferences will be well prepared to create work environments that attract a new generation of employees and maximize their potential." 

Visit roberthalf.com/generation-z to view infographics, learn more about the research and download the white paper.

Courtesy of an article dated October 1, 2015 appearing in Fast Company Create and an article dated July 15, 2015 appearing in Robert Half, and an analysis of a survey about the differences between Gen Z and Millennials conducted by employment staffing firm Adecco 

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