Friends and colleagues,

The crab apple whistled past my head like a bullet.  Immediately feeling lucky I jammed an unripe McIntosh onto the sharpened tip of a willow branch from my back yard and catapulted it, rapid-fire, at my freckled, red-haired neighbor, Chris.  My aim was gloriously true.  The rock-hard fruit impacted my retreating target’s lower back and elicited a falsetto scream I recall clearly to this day, more than 40 years later.  The point of this purple prose?  I had an idyllic, if violent childhood.  Oh, and also, storytelling engages, something your brand likely needs more of, especially now.

Ok, you’ve been tolerant of my tomfoolery.  So here, good people, is your reward:  Juicy tips curated by our keen-eyed archers.

Tips

1. You NEED a marketing algorithm.  What’s that Bower, you ask?  Well, an “algorithm” refers to a sequence of steps or rules designed to produce a specific outcome from a set of inputs.  You can use these in your CRM and ESP programs to trigger a new course of action when key performance indicators (“KPIs” for you analytics nerds) are not met.  So, for example, if the email nurture sequences you use to increase customer or prospect engagement are not meeting targets you’ve set in, say, HubSpot or Marketo, the software will start to send a more promotional track of communication you’ve pre-loaded in the system.  It does require a lot of thoughtful pre-work and creative development, but avoids deadly “set and forget” campaigns persisting past their useful life. Intimidated by all of this?  Reach out to us or some external resource less charming and intelligent than we are.
2. Trick and/or treat.  I know many of you require a Halloween-themed tip in the fall.  I get it.  Who doesn’t love candy and costumes?  So here you go, pumpkin-spiced latte lovers.  When setting up a promotional marketing campaign you need to offer an incentive for your target audience to respond, and no, it doesn’t need to be chocolate-covered, though that might help.  The trick to delivering this treat is knowing how to artfully position its value relative to what you are asking your reader or viewer to do.  Want additional information that will help your sales teams follow-up?  Then tell folks why providing this information will be used in ways that clearly benefit them.  And you’ll find that the trick will yield the treat.
3. The best ability:  Availability. HR managers (and Batman…) focus on capability.  Customer service teams on affability.  UX folks on usability.  May I suggest that marketers using social media to interact with their customers and prospects focus first on increasing the frequency and variety of their posts.  In short, being available and present for key stakeholders who look to you for solutions, solace and succor (whatever that means).  Why?:  1)  60% of buyers consult a company’s social media before buying them. 2) 80% of purchases start with and are influenced by social media posts and/or ads.  And 3) The platforms’ algorithms reward you for increased engagement .  So, if you’re posting once or twice a week, you need to crank your content engines up, double or triple that frequency and lower your culpability (yes, that just happened).
4. Don’t be a draft dodger.  Steering clear of A.I.?  Don’t like bots?  Does Bard evoke Shakespeare and not Microsoft for you?  Well, my Luddite friends and colleagues, to quote not Jonathan, but Taylor Swift, shake it off.  The ability of ChatGPT, Bard and other A.I. tools to generate first draft social content, presentations, analytics and yes, imagery, is truly astounding and will improve.  If you’re not using it, you’re working harder than you need to.  And you know, that’s where solicitous Westport, CT-based agencies can help. Ask an archer about our Assisted A.I. offering and/or how to get started.
5. Be a prompt pro: Brand-approve ’em.  For those trailblazers among you have integrated artificial intelligence into your marketing department’s daily routines, may I suggest that you brand-approve prompts (i.e., the asks you submit to your AI tools like ChatGPT or Bard) the same way you submit branded communications for approval.  You’ll ensure output is brand compliant, you’ll address intellectual property risks and you’ll socialize best A.I. best practices within your marketing team(s).  The good folks at HP do this through their “Garage”, a reference to the place their founder started one of the most successful companies and admired brands in the world.
6. Rx for your UX.  Is your website user experience lacking?  You’re among friends here so ok to admit that it might be.  Are there clear paths to insight?  Is your site’s taxonomy economical and easy to understand?  Does it load quickly?  Is the mobile experience at least as seamless as your top three competitors’?  If you’re not sure, get thee to a nunnery.  And by nunnery, I mean to an agency or expert who can provide a scorecard so you know where you stand and where you need to improve.
7. Trumpet your “__est”, herald your “___ers”, Part Deux.  Vuori-wearing product and brand marketers have a completely understandable tendency to assign a torrent of adjectives and adverbs to the many wonderful features and benefits of their product or service. They are, after all, proud of their hard work and will assume prospect audiences are as excited as they are to learn more. But it ain’t so. What time-starved prospectors do want to know as they develop short lists of finalists for consideration is: 1) who is the fastest, simplest, cheapest? and 2) who is better, smarter, user-friendlier? If you can credibly claim and own an “_est” and/or and “__er” you should clearly, concisely, compellingly and single-mindedly communicate these advantages to your target consumers.

News

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