Are you assessing your brand right how? Recently I was invited to sit in on a brainstorming meeting about marketing and growth. Here I was able to pick up some powerful marketing tools needed for growth. These tools may be applied both for personal and business growth.

Assessing Your Brand: Assets

In growth, we learn powerful information. So look at and determine your growth, and the path you took to get there. Assess the road your brand has taken – whether it’s a personal or business brand. Revisit where you have been and decide where you’re headed. Assess your brand’s strengths and weaknesses by asking yourself these questions.

• Present your strengths and weakness so that you stand out, sell your brand.
• What is new with you? Determine what you have learned and how it matters.
• Why does your business exist?
• Who are previous clients and why did they hire you?
• Evaluate your goals: where do you see yourself long/short term?

Target Audience Evaluation

Your target audience are the people you want to work with, your customers and potential customers. The internet provides resources to reach your target via platforms such as blogs, newsletters, social media, and alumni groups. Use these resources to be present for your customers, and assess your brand’s voice on these platforms.

• Who are you targeting? Who’s the decision maker that could benefit from your expertise?
• What are the hot topics? What’s trending in your brand’s space?
• Protip: Subscribe to platforms that your target audience subscribes to.
• Listen to your customers. Assess what they are talking about, and their relevance to your brand.
• Protip: Participate on sites that interest you, this is a great networking tool for finding like-minds.
• Become like your target, interact with their “friends” socially to really get to know them.

The Social Media Impact

Social media is more than a picture sharing platform, it is great for networking. Use social media platforms such as LinkedIn to learn about and follow clients to implement current trends.

• Use social media to introduce your brand to your potential customers, potential employers, and to your peers.
• Seek out and become a “friend” to past clients as well as their friends, and network with them, sharing your expertise.
• Your LinkedIn page should mirror the career for which you are aiming. Find websites dedicated to that career and subscribe to them. This will allow you to network and stay on top of any current or future possibilities. Brag about yourself on your profile, be proud and loud.

Plan and Grow Your Brand

Planning is the most important step one can do to get to the next level. So, plan, plan and keep planning. Brainstorm with colleagues and staff about ways to grow your personal brand and/or your business’ brand. Gather, analyze and leverage data, creating a message map of the recurring themes that you see. Really think about: what is your end game – a job, a career, an entrepreneurship? Evaluate and understand what you will need to get there by assessing your brand. Update your skills, explore what’s new and current. Investing in yourself is important to your brand’s growth.

Social media trends for 2022 look a little different than last year.

Social media trends for 2022 will increasingly be about customer experience and personalization. Those agendas are paramount. And, most if not all social media platforms are increasingly moving more and more toward “pay to play”. In other words, platforms want you to pay to get people to see your social media. For instance, this looks like boosting posts on Facebook. Trends that involve an interaction with customers, and especially those that offer some measure of personalization (as opposed to just pushing out a message to everyone) will top brands’ to-do lists.

Here are some of the social media trends we see for 2022.

• Short-form Video – Less is more, and people don’t read. The human attention span is short. So, a video a minute or shorter is plenty long enough. Do a series of short videos each making one point, instead of one long video. Repurpose your existing long videos into shorter snippets and program them for different social media channels. Reveal a different aspect of your company, or solve a different problem on different channels as opposed to playing the same content on the same day on the same channels.
• Customer Service – Customers are conversing more than ever via DMs, Twitter and comments on posts. Monitor these conversations and be responsive on any channel that customers are contacting you on.
• Social Commerce – Customers want to check out immediately on whatever social channel they are on. Social commerce offerings (like buying a dress directly from an Instagram photo) are growing on every channel. Perhaps this social media trend is appropriate for your product or service.
• Paid Social Advertising – Algorithms continue to change. And, platforms continue to ramp up their paid social offerings. There may be a need to add a paid strategy to your organic posts to get wider reach and more engagement. The ultimate goal is connecting with more potential customers, right?
• Influencer Marketing – Micro or local influencers are more important. Work with these influencers who really already love your brand. They can demonstrate your product or service in a way that is unique to them and resonates with their audience.

Content remains king.

Have a plan. Don’t chase squirrels. Plan your content for the year – or at least the next quarter – to meet your brand’s sales goals, branding initiatives, limited offerings, or even just calendar holidays. Planning your content means have a blog and regularly contribute to it. Then, promote your new content on your social media platforms. Build your content marketing practice like you’d grow a garden. Keep at it.

What do customers want to know? Customers want content that is focused on:

• Deeper Meaning – Be authentic. Answer questions that are helpful and offer perspectives that can be touch points for your brand in a customer’s life. Find your commonality. Create your company’s tenets, and do those fewer stronger things in a deeper way.
• Giving Back – Showcase volunteer efforts and donations. A company’s charitable giving is important for 73% of Americans’ purchase decisions. People WANT to love you. Showcase how you are showing love for others. Giving back increases loyalty.

Overall, after the past few years of being disconnected, consumers are craving connection in every aspect of their lives. But make connection with your brand meaningful. Be convicted. Be consistent. Create a connection that will last, create loyalty, and continue these social media trends for 2022 to the years ahead.

Are you ready to spring clean your brand for 2022?

Spring is in the air! As much as we need to enjoy this time and “smell the roses” it’s time to go through your media channels and update them. Use the idea of spring cleaning on your brand and your company’s media assets to help you stay relevant with what’s going on in terms of design, copy, content, PR and media to be competitive in today’s marketplace. Maybe its time for a marketing audit?

Could your logo use updating?

Let’s first start with your logo. Is it still relevant? Does it convey what your company stands for and the products/services you provide? Maybe it doesn’t necessarily need to change, it just might need an update. Use these questions as more of a checklist, and think about your logo against the backdrop of your company’s competitors’ logos. Sometimes business have had the same logo for decades and it works, but sometimes it does not. What these companies often do is simplify their logo, and clean up the look of it to make it feel more modern.

Is your social media talking to the right people in the right way?

Try a spring cleaning social audit:

It’s time to get your hands dirty and do some data analysis – spring clean your social media. Take a look at the insights/analytics offered on each of your social media platforms to find out better times to post. See what content you have posted in the past that got the most likes and comments, and then do more of that. Long-term, you can record your followers and likes in an excel sheet or Google sheet, to track changes from month to month. Or you can subscribe to a scheduling app like Buffer or Hootsuite to post your social media. Those types of platforms have great analytics to track your engagement over time.

Then do a competitive analysis:

Hello Neighbor! Your social media be doing well and be on track, but it’s important that you see what your competitors are up to as well. Pablo Picasso once said “good artists copy, great artist steal.” Now don’t take this advice literally, but don’t be afraid to adopt similar strategies that other companies in your industry are doing. It’s a great place to start. Work smarter not harder. Start with something that works in your industry, make it your own, and then improve on it.

Brush the cobwebs off your website.

Your website is your company’s home. This is probably the most important place to focus your spring cleaning because this where you want your clients to go – again and again. Since this is your brand’s home, how good is your homepage? Make sure you have quality imagery, an engaging font, and text that flows well when read.

It’s important to consider not only how your website looks, but also how it works. Is it easy to navigate your website? Does your website answer the questions that people would ask about your product or service? You might also consider adding Google Analytics code to your website so that you can study your site visits. Where do visitors come from? What pages do they read? How long are they staying on your site? This information can help you continue to build a better and better website over time.

Conclusion:

It’s important to stay up to date with your brand’s image online and this spring is the perfect time to do it. Get your spring cleaning done sooner than later, and welcome your customers and fans into your remodeled “house” the rest of the year!

AHA Moments are happening again!

AHAs and WHOAs. When the way the world of work is done shifts, like it did Q1 of 2022, you can expect a little bit of both. Our annual team kick off meeting this year was an AHA for us! Unfortunately, not everyone could make it. But it was the first time for us to meet two team members in person. They had joined us in 2021, but we had not all met in person yet. Such a great AHA moment!

We were also so excited to be onsite with our client last week. Their manufacturing facility inspires. Yes, we creative individuals love being in this environment because we can have lots of AHA moments together. Then, some of us go into a cave for a few hours after to recharge, taking all that inspiration with us to create. That meeting was the first time we met our client of several months in person vs via a screen. We hugged, natch.

WHOA, I’m not sure I’m ready for this.

In a catch-up lunch, Friday, a longtime advocate of ours was very anxious. And he admitted, he’s a bit angry. He starts international business travel again full throttle this week. He liked his pandemic routine. WHOA. We all kind of got used that didn’t we?

Another client of ours brought us on board recently. Their team is overstretched all the way around. Trade shows and conference are back now in person, and that adds a lot of extra marketing work to their plate. What’s extra hard for them right now is the fact that some of their clients are demanding online events as well. So, WHOA, they are now doing double the work.

We’ve been virtually ready for this for years.

Between all the client AHAs and WHOAs, it’s easy for us to just keep rollin’. Eleven years ago this month, we were founded on a virtual model. So, not much changed for us workstyle wise over the past two years. The rest of the world finally realized what a great model remote work is, and caught up to us!

Now the “Hybrid” work is emerging. Hybrid offices practice some time in the office and some time remote. According to U.S. News & World Report, the younger generations love the hybrid idea. But, they also love the connection of the face-to-face model. The older generation, who were the yuppies of the ‘80s, working 70 hours a week, now prefer not to be in the office all the time. And everyone seems to still be moving forward, getting things done. So remote and hybrid models are making more sense to a lot of workers.

Different work styles can work together.

Whatever style you or your team members or clients chose, be kind and carry on. You CAN work together! Remember professionals of all industries and levels are going through AHAs and WHOAs of their own as 2022 progresses. It may take some people time to settle in to their optimum work style, and make it work for their family, their team, and their company.

How to make working together easier.

When you’re working together, the key to a successful partner relationship between an agency and an in-house marketing client is articulating goals on both sides. What does the in-house marketing director want out of the partnership? What role(s) will the agency fill? And for those on the agency side: what is the expertise that you are offering and how will it fit into the work and process of the in-house marketing department. Ultimately, what common goal is everyone working toward?

3 traits of a successful in-house marketing director (when working with an agency):

1. Treat the agency like a partner. Be available. Share the wins and the losses. Exchange information and best practices. Work united toward a common goal.
2. Let people do their job. It has been said many times – surround yourself with smart people and let them do their jobs. This is very true when working with an agency. You, as the in-house marketing director, know your brand better than anyone. But the agency will have deep knowledge in how to market your brand to the right people, at the right time, and in the right place. Take advantage of this expertise.
3. Be clear, concise and direct. Communication is key to a great in-house/agency working relationship. Having clear goals and being able give good feedback will make the process of creating great work run smoother.

3 traits of a successful agency (when working with an in-house client):

1. Be transparent. Give real world examples with data and KPI results to show that you know how to do this work successfully. Show and tell your successes that relate to your new client’s business to increase their confidence in your expertise.
2. Flatten your organization when it comes to direct contact. Allow clients to be able to communicate directly with different members of your team if they need an opinion on a specific matter. Shielding most of your agency from the client and running everything through gate-keeping account service people prevents deeper brand knowledge and deeper connections.
3. Prepare to collaborate. Including your client in the creative process will not only make the working relationship work better, the client will have the opportunity to “own” the idea with you. Then, you’ll have no better champion for your idea than your client as it moves up the C-Suite approval chain.

Growing your partnership and working together – in-house and agency – requires determination. First, be determined to recognize the value of the people that you are working with. And then, be steadfast in your determination to succeed together.

How do you get hired in marketing? Finding a job can be tough especially in marketing where competition is high. When you don’t know what companies are looking for it can make this process significantly more difficult. To make your life easier we’re going to go over some of the main attributes companies are looking for.

Interpersonal Skills

When you’re in the workplace how do you handle conflicts? Do you get along well with others? Interpersonal skills are your ability to have diplomacy and act professionally in the workplace. According to LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner, the biggest skill gap in the U.S workforce is interpersonal skills. What can you do to solve this? Have good manners, show compassion, and be mindful of your body language.

Being Flexible

The world of marketing is always moving. New trends become the norm and old trends completely go away. It’s your job to stay agile and be able to adapt to these changes quickly. In other words, you need to consistently stay relevant to what’s happening. If you need to learn new skills then learn them.

Social Media Expertise

In the 21st century almost everything has a digital footprint. Especially companies. According to SCORE in 2018, 77 percent of the small business in the U.S use social media to facilitate sales, marketing, and customer service. The main platforms you should focus on are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and if you can pull it off, TikTok. Understanding the platforms and how each of them contribute to business is important if you to stand out amongst your competition.

Ability to Analyze Data

Data is everywhere. In order to be a valuable asset to your marketing team you must be comfortable with going into large amounts of data. Then be able to pull solutions from this data and visualize it with charts and graphs. How does it apply to the problem at hand? What are the trends? I recommend taking an excel class or get very familiar with using Microsoft Excel.

Writing Skills

Writing is incredibly important to marketing. If you cant convey what needs to be said in a polite and efficient manner you’re going to have a difficult time in the workplace. You’ll be writing social media posts, blogs, or tweaking websites, so it’s important that you grow as writer. This means double checking your work for grammar mistakes and checking to see if what you’ve written flows well.

Proven Results To Get Hired in Marketing

When companies are looking over your resume, you want to make sure you have highlighted some of your accomplishments. They need to know that you have a great track record of success. Try to highlight key metrics that you have impacted. This helps you stand out amongst your competition.

Conclusion

We know it’s hard out there. Learning how to set yourself apart from others can be challenging and stressful when trying to get hired. We hope this information helps you prepare and gets you ready for your future interview!

How to communicate corporate social responsibility for your brand

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business’ commitment to philanthropic endeavors and environmentally friendly practices. It is essential for businesses in 2022. Why? Sure, today’s successful businesses are “responsible” organizations committed to profits. But in today’s world they are also responsible for other higher callings. Their consumers now demand it.

Gen Z is all in with brands who demonstrate corporate social responsibility. First, younger generations thirst for buying these products. Next, they want to work for these companies. So CSR gives businesses an opportunity to engage with not only their consumers and their employees, but with the communities in which they live and work in a meaningful way.

Yes, deeper client and customer connections will follow.

CSR efforts benefit the economy, society and environment. They demonstrate how the organization uses its resources in broadly beneficial and ethical ways. Showing that your company or brand is a responsible partner, employer and neighbor will be key to business success going forward.

How does a brand communicate CSR activities?

Talk about your company’s corporate social responsibility with a CSR report. A CSR report highlights your organization’s achievements. It builds social responsibility into your brand’s identity. This report makes the organization accountable to its stakeholders. And it shows progress year over year. Then highlight how your company has saved energy or fuel, renewed land, or reduced their carbon footprint. Finally, showcase better employees work environments with safety initiatives. Also implement DE & I programs that promote equity in hiring and promoting employees.

Your CSR report’s content can then be repurposed all year long as social media assets. Highlight individual specific goals your company has met with this effort. Statistics and data can be turned into compelling visuals and narratives that speak to your customers, your client partners, your employees and your community. Communicate your social responsibility efforts in these ways:

• Email Marketing – create an eblast once a month or quarterly to key stakeholders
• Social Media – create content and consistently communicate, once a week or month
• Internal Communication – utilize existing intranet or internal emails to communicate CSR activities

What size business needs to show Corporate Social Responsibility?

A CSR report may be easier for larger businesses to execute. But, small to midsize businesses can do it too. These businesses are exercising the same values albeit in smaller, yet still remarkable ways. And that is worth talking about. CSR activities can separate your business from the competition in a truly meaningful way. So consider incorporating this important effort into your business.

3 Lessons I Learned Working for Amazon

For as long as I can remember life has always been fast-paced. Going to school was always about keeping up and trying to stay ahead 24/7. Sports were always about learning while on the go. Even life, in general, was always about how little time we had to accomplish the tasks at hand, and once again I was able to experience this lifestyle working for Amazon, a company that only knows one speed, fast pace.

One of the biggest adjustments coming into the job of working for Amazon was how much responsibility you get right off the bat. With little time to adjust, I was thrown into my job and expected to keep up like the rest of our company. Just like life, I was expected to take the little I knew and find a way to succeed.

How to Adjust to a Fast-Paced Environment

Luckily I’ve had some great lessons about how to adjust to fast-paced environments, and I used these to help me succeed.

1. Stay as organized as possible. It is so easy to become overwhelmed with all the components of your job. It is important to find a system that helps you excel when you organize for the day. Take the time to keep all your ducks in a row, it helps you so much in the long run. Also, don’t be afraid to take extra time to get this right, slow and steady wins the race even in a fast-paced environment.
2. Be as flexible and adaptable as possible. This one I cannot stress enough, because it is easy to just stick to the things you know. Whether that is knowledge or process, it is easy to not want to adapt to new things and change. At Amazon, there were so many processes, in the beginning, I refused to learn because I didn’t want to change my method. When I finally decided to give them a try my entire workday changed for the better. Sometimes a little change can be beneficial, so embrace it!
3. Use all the tools given to you. This practice backpacks on being flexible and adaptable, and is so important. One of the first things I failed to do when I started at Amazon was use all of the different tools that were provided to me. Doing this made my work more difficult and made my day seem like it was so slow. When I decided to utilize my tools I was finally keeping pace and enjoying the process at work.

Working for Amazon Forced Me Out of My Comfort Zone

Amazon was truly an eye-opening experience for me as it forced me out of my comfort zone. It made me realize that working doesn’t have to be this thing you can’t stand every day. Instead by using different tactics and finding ways to work more efficiently, I was able to conquer my days and feel like I won. I think the biggest takeaway from working at Amazon was that when you decide to get past the working part and truly apply yourself, any job can be enjoyable.

Getting marketing and sales on the same page is critical to your brand’s success.

This month, we were honored to attend a client’s 2022 sales kick off meeting in Orlando to see this practice of harmonizing marketing and sales in action. Being with our client in this setting reminded us that cross-functional teams are one of the keys to maximize growth for business success. Smart business leaders and collaborative relationships fuel us, so we wanted to share our top tips for helping marketing and sales work together for greater results.

Sales teams typically focus on talking directly to the customer. The sales process might take a very long time, but the sales team will discover useful information like solving a particular problem, or what pain points a potential customer runs into. These insights can be valuable, especially to the marketing team.

The marketing team approaches the customer in a somewhat different way – focusing on the brand. Increasing awareness of the brand and these brand conversations typically take the form of websites, content marketing, social media and email marketing and advertising.

Often sales and marketing groups seem to have different goals: but in reality their goal is the same – grow the business. They just approach it in different ways. When you harmonize marketing and sales strategies you reap the benefits of shared data on targets and prospects, shared communication, shared processes, and working together to solve challenges that arise.

Four ways to start bringing your sales, marketing and even finance teams together.

1. Discuss with sales what marketing strategies and tools moved the needle in the previous year. Was it messaging, tactics and delivery? Something else? What did potential customers and clients respond to?
2. Planning is key. Make sure that marketing is supporting sales strategies. The marketing team should review annual sales plans and have a meaningful discussion on how they can support the sales efforts.
3. Agree on goals. Not just numbers and target customers, but the terminology. Are you speaking the same language? Using the same metrics and processes?
4. Make sure the finance team is not developing forecasts in a silo. Communicate with them. Just because they can access the CRM does not mean they can create real projections.

Marketing is only as successful as sales; and sales is only as successful as marketing. Harmonize marketing and sales to work together to success. Working together is more important in 2022 than ever before. It is by working together in harmony, that the greater good can be achieved.

As an account manager, I love the beginning of a new year.

In account management, a new year means a fresh start, not just personally but professionally! It’s an opportunity to put the struggles of 2021 in the rearview mirror and focus on what you want to accomplish in the year ahead. Maybe you’re committed to getting healthy or decluttering. Or, did you a pick a word that you want to embody in 2022? Like “Present”. Or maybe “Accountable”. Perhaps, “Grateful”.   

The start of a new year at work means a chance to re-energize yourself and get better at doing your job. If you work in the agency world managing accounts like me, maybe you want to focus on a few core skills that will make 2022 your best year yet as a successful account manager.  

Recommitting to excellence.

Where do you start? Well, we know the traits of a successful account manager are many. But I think we can all agree that no matter your career level or personal management style, there are skills that every effective account manager should possess.  So what are they?

1. Excellent Communicator. And Excellent Communication. Plus, Excellent Communicating. Saying it once isn’t enough. First, we are responsible for balancing the needs of clients with the resources of agency partners. Next, we communicate in every aspect of our job whether it’s through writing creative briefs, submitting change orders, or managing timelines and budgets. And most importantly, we understand our clients’ needs by actively listening and asking the right questions. Clear and consistent communication is invaluable in every aspect of our job.  
2. Organized. If you’re in this field, chances are high that you love a to-do list. I know I do! You’re always equipped with your favorite note-taking tools. You jot down important pieces of information all day long. You will undoubtedly glean insights others miss, with your excellent notes. In addition, you’re simultaneously juggling multiple clients. And your projects move forward while you make sure you keep everything on-brand, on-time, and on-budget. Whatever method of organization you prefer, exercising organizational skills is critical.  
3. Resourceful Problem Solver. It goes without saying that marketing is fast-paced and change is inevitable. So you’re not afraid to address problems head on. And you don’t leave any stone unturned to resolve a situation. Better yet, you’re always thinking ahead and proactively working with your clients to head off any roadblocks before they even occur.  

Get started on your account management reset!

Whether you choose to focus on all of the skills above or one or two, chances are if you stay committed and focused the possibilities are endless for a successful 2022 as an account manager. What are you waiting for? Get out there and ‘Rock Your Relationships.’