Starting a business in 2021 is hard. You have to have the right product, shown at the right time, to the right people, and have everything executed properly. Not to mention you have to compete in an ever-growing marketplace. It’s a tough world and you have to have real mental grit to be successful. Startups have a 90% failure rate according to Investopedia.com. One of the main reasons as to why these startups failed was due to poor marketing. We’re going to go over some of the top marketing strategies that will aid your start up, to get you going in the right direction. 

1. Make a Marketing Plan

You can’t have successful marketing strategies for a start up business without a marketing plan. This means coming together with metric-driven marketing goals, creating user personas, coming up with a budget that supports how you will achieve these goals, and researching your competitors, for starters.

2. Post on Social Media

Posting on social media is crucial to gaining exposure for your business. Around 2.4 billion people use social media. It’s important for you to be seen and heard, and for people to know who you are. Not to mention this helps reach a younger generation. Make sure you’re posting engaging quality content consistently.

3. Make an Email List

Email marketing can attract customers if done correctly. One way to build a list is by having a subscribe page on your website. Make sure when you send these emails out that they aren’t too advertising based – answer questions, be helpful. Help potential customers solve their problems. For example, you can post guides, infographics, or videos. 

4. Don’t be Afraid to Try Some New Marketing Strategies

Don’t be afraid to voice your ideas! If you never try something new you won’t grow as a company. You never know who could benefit from an idea you might have. You don’t have to always stay inside what everyone is comfortable with. Innovations come from questioning the status quo.

5. Use More Than One Channel for Promotion

This builds off of tip #2. Once you have your social media set up, it’s important to diversify your brand. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even TikTok can be a channel for you to connect with your audience. These are amazing tools to get your brand out there. They each hit different audiences and you should change your approach depending on the socials you use, and who your audience is. 

6. Know Your Audience

You must find your target audience. Find what age group is going to be interested in your product. What type of topics are they into? Don’t try to be too broad and play to your strengths. Once you’ve identified your target market make sure you cater to them.

7. Create and Maintain a Blog

Blogs are important to driving traffic your brand. They make you a source for information. Did you know that businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those who do not have one? Make sure you’re publishing blogs that you know your audience would read. Quality over quantity.

8. Sponsor an Event

Sponsoring events can gain massive exposure for your business. It’s a great way to get the right people looking at your company (investors). All you have to do is pay a fee to the event organizer and then you market your business with marketing materials like signs, stickers, etc. Try and sponsor events that are related to your business. For example, if you sell comic books maybe you can sponsor a comic book convention.

9. Give Away Small Things as a Marketing Strategy

Everybody loves free stuff. What do I mean by free stuff? Stickers, t-shirts, merchandise, or gift cards. These help people have a positive association with your business. It makes your company look very friendly and is great PR.

10. Use Paid Search Advertising

Paid search is a way to purchase focused traffic on popular search engines like Google. They use a system called cost-per-click. Which means you pay when someone types a specific word you have listed in your ad. You only have to pay for when people click on the ad. This can be a great traffic driver to your website.

Marketing Strategies for Start Up Businesses Can Take Many Forms

Don’t fall behind when running your startup business. It’s very competitive out there and if you aren’t doing everything you can to stay ahead of the game you may fall behind your competitors. However, if you follow at least half of these strategies your startup will be headed in the right direction.

If 2020 was the year of the pivot, 2021 is the year of branding and marketing agility. As we work with clients in multiple sectors, we are seeing this bubble to the top as a necessity. With constantly changing standards of operations and guidelines, the ability to move quickly and easily is equally yoked with the pivot this year. So there are several strategies that your organization can implement to ensure agility in all operations. Here’s the Porch’s top three for marketing and branding agility.

#1 Be Data Driven

Branding and marketing agility requires you to harness as much data as possible. Thus, it is important to focus not only on your potential customers, but also the competition, industry trends, and even in-house developments. We believe that marketing plans are an excellent tool for capturing and monitoring this data.

#2 Have Assets at the Ready

Your marketing team, and branding and marketing partners will be agile with viable marketing solutions if they have access to your marketing assets. Brand, style, and logo guides as well as asset hubs are good tools to have in place. Result? Easily accessible assets make everyone ready to rock quickly and easily.

#3 Be a Learning Organization

An important component of branding and marketing agility is the expertise of your employees and organization. Promote creative thinking, demonstrate the value of formal training and be sure to reward the expertise. The only way your business will be able to provide an answer to marketing challenges, is if itself becomes equally as agile in all of it is operations.

Take an agility self-assessment, if you need some help, we are a click or call away. Three cheers to a rockin’ agile end of the year.

GenZ is Up and coming

Learn GenZ marketing strategies to market to this up and coming group as they become more involved in the economy. They use social media apps to shop, care more about knowing a brand and what they stand for, and are more receptive to different marketing strategies. As a member of GenZ myself, I know the in’s and out’s of how members of my generation think and shop. I also know what types of marketing they are the most drawn to.

Social Media Changes Everything for GenZ Marketing Strategies

What differentiates GenZ from prior generations is that we have grown up in a world where technology is changing by the year. We have used social media to our advantage, especially in terms of purchasing products or familiarizing ourselves with brands. According to a Forbes article, 95% or GenZ consumers use social media as their top source of shopping inspiration; 65% use social media to find entertaining content; and 61% are specifically interested in watching more video content. The most common social commerce platforms for GenZ are Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. These apps are leading the way because of their easy checkout process, limited distractions, and ability to explore other recommended brands. Also, many members of GenZ will purposefully like and follow appealing brands so the algorithm will recommend similar brands.

Brands Have to Speak Up

Another thing about GenZ is that most of us are unafraid to take a stand about issues that matter to us. Especially in light of the coronavirus pandemic and black lives matter movement upwards of 78% of GenZ’ers have said that these events have shaped their worldview. Brands remaining neutral on these issues are no longer an option. GenZ’ers are becoming more and more reluctant to purchase from brands who do not present a stance on major world events. Additionally 79% of GenZ agreed that companies behaving more sustainably has become more important since the pandemic. This generation has an attitude that can change the world for the better and want brands to do the same.

New GenZ Marketing Strategies

GenZ kids are more receptive to video media and get their product recommendations from different places. Social media influencers have played a huge role in marketing and GenZ are very receptive to this tactic. Influencers will show off their favorite products routinely on social media and because they have built trust with their audiences, Generation Z’ers are more likely to purchase a product if a trusted influencer recommends it. Also, a brands social media aesthetic and presence are crucial. I can attest to the fact that a brands Instagram feed/aesthetic is one of the main attention grabbers for me which ultimately could lead to me following or purchasing from them.

The Change Upon Us

Businesses will have to adjust their marketing campaign tactics if they want to keep up with GenZ. They demand more from businesses in terms of usability, online presence, and advocation. Social media is playing a bigger role than ever before and change is definitely upon us.

Now that school is around the corner, it’s time to refresh your digital marketing strategy for your school, academy, or university. From experiencing a pandemic to entirely transforming a new academic environment for students and staff, the marketing and communications strategies that used to work for your district “pre-covid” may not work in this ever-changing 2021 environment. It is now the time to be pro-active, adaptive, and present to meet the increasing expectations of today’s families. 

Practice #1: Start a School Blog 

A school blog is a wonderful way to display the activities that students participate in and around the school. It’s also a great place to distribute advice and share the community’s voice. The blog will give outsiders an inside look on the programs and events that the students participate in. Connecting with the school’s community will emphasize how much the directors care about the students and faculty, while promoting conversation. It will also let more people organically find your school when searching for their children’s next academic steps. Overall, creating a blog will strengthen your school’s brand identity.  

Practice #2: Enhance the School’s Website 

Times are changing, and so should your website! Making an inadequately designed website and not thinking about the user’s experience will produce site traffic and static action. Like the director of Front Porch Marketing, Julie Porter states, “create a clean, user-friendly website.” This will increase the school’s reputation and lead to more engagement. Just remember to keep it simple to navigate and creative. An easy way to accomplish this is to rebrand logos, create a color scheme that seamlessly translates throughout all pages, and habitually update the navigation tabs.  

Practice #3: Make Social Media Accounts 

Posting on social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, create opportunities for parents and guardians to find your school organically. People can easily share, like, or comment on your posts to help create more popularity quickly. As your account grows, the more recognition and traffic your school develops. You can achieve this by devoting time into capturing professional videos and photos of events and activities.

A great example of this is with one of our clients, Faith Family Academy. As Christine Finnegan, our media relations director states, “be consistent will all messaging throughout your platforms.”  In addition, you can connect with your audience by responding to their comments and other members can add reviews.

Practice #4: Begin an Email Drip Campaign 

Emails are increasing in popularity due to people relying on the digital-sphere to stay in the loop. This upward trend in email reliability is the result of them being tailored to user preferences and behaviors. This personalization helps users see information related to their interests rather that unfavored topics that are being pushed upon them through advertising.

By asking current families and interested families for contact information via a survey or sign-up sheet, users can subscribe to an email list and look at automated content daily or weekly. This proves to be an easy strategy for reminding and promoting members of future academic and recreational events. Email workflows truly provide a personal touch to electronically reach each community member. 

Practice #5: Promote School Events 

Events, such as an open house, are a great way for newcomers to meet the faculty and staff. It also helps families understand if their values align with the school’s and if the school fits their expectations. Parents and guardians will also be given the opportunity to explore the campus for the first time.  

Additionally, back-to-school kickoffs are a wonderful way to understand what people personally look for in a school and its curriculum. Having organized school events with informational pamphlets to give out aids prospective families to secure their decision of coming to your school. Whether you share the events via social media or on the website, the end result allows you to increase engagement and nurture relationships with newly inquiring families.   

Conclusion 

The expectations of parents are higher than ever. It’s crucial that your school’s digital marketing strategy adapt alongside them. As the fall semester comes right around the corner, use these best practices to ensure that your digital marketing strategy is future-proofed.  

What are social selling and social commerce, and how do they differ? Would your business benefit from adding one of these practices to your sales efforts? If you’re like most small businesses, then you may have started with a storefront. Next you built a website. And after last year, your website became a much larger part of your sales strategy, as most of the world turned to ecommerce over in-person shopping.

As you plan your marketing strategy for the rest of the year and beyond, recognize that your social media can also be a part of your ecommerce strategy. In addition to being a personification of your branding, your social channels now have the functionality to make sales directly on each platform.

Expanding your brand conversations into making sales on social media is the goal of these tools. Social Selling refers to cultivating a relationship with your customers on social media with the goal of eventually making a sale. While Social Commerce means your customer is buying your product or service directly from the social media app. There are many ways to execute a social selling strategy on social media platforms. But currently, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest offer Social Commerce, and Twitter is testing this functionality. Here’s an overview of what sales tools are available on some of your social channels.

Facebook Social Selling and Social Commerce Tools

By 2017, a quarter of the world’s population was using Facebook monthly. As a small business thinking about expanding your customer base, it makes the most sense to start on this platform. With tools like Messenger, Groups, Insights, Shop and Marketplace many small businesses can leverage their local fanbase into larger audiences and make sales with social selling. In addition, brands can create active product catalogs right on Facebook with Facebook Shop for social commerce direct sales.

Facebook’s potential customer base combined with specific targeting tools makes this platform an easy place to start. A retailer or restaurant could post a limited time offer for instance, and then boost that content for a nominal charge, getting it seen by more people. Posts can even include a button to take an action.

Companies can sell products and services – including things like webinars and online classes – in the marketplace or in their Facebook Shop. And with insights and targeting tools available, brands can create ads as well, tailoring the audience for each ad deployment.

Instagram Social Selling and Social Commerce Tools

Instagram upgraded their social selling and social commerce tools in 2019 (look for the shopping bag icon in the nav bar of a business profile). Audiences like GenZ now rely on this platform to find and purchase new products right in the app. And, brands with a business page enjoy sales functionality that regular Instagram users don’t have including follower insights.

Selling on Instagram can be as simple as posting beautiful images of product, with an offer, and steering customers to a specific website link to purchase. Or companies can employ ad types like Carousels and Stories. Tools like LinkInBio or LInkInProfile enable Instagram accounts to post a specific website link for each post. (Otherwise there is only the one link in the bio for the entire account).

Using hashtags on Instagram is key. Small businesses can create their own hashtag, and then encourage customers to use it when they photograph and share pictures of the company’s product, place of business or service. Brands can then use that hashtag to find new customers – reposting their user generated content (with permission), engaging with that user’s followers, and tagging the customer. These activities increase the reach of the post.

Next, businesses can set up an Instagram Shop, just like on Facebook. The in-app checkout means customers can buy directly from a brand from their Instagram account. Once a business account reaches 10,000 followers, even more social selling and social commerce tools are unlocked to use, for instance, in Stories.

Pinterest Social Selling and Social Commerce Tools

Pinterest is always a place to collect and save favorite ideas and bookmark things for later. It also has social selling tools – beyond just bookmarking. Three types of “Rich Pins” (pins with extra content) are available to set up your social selling system: Recipes, Articles and Products.

As with all social channels, set up your business Pinterest account with a combination of pins of your own products as well as pins of brand-representative images that are not sales-oriented. To be part of the Pinterest community it is a best practice to pin other people’s images as well. Then leave comments and like others’ content while on the platform. Pinterest business accounts also feature analytics to glean insights into your top pins, impressions, and other KPIs.

In April 2021, Pinterest and Shopify expanded their partnership to make social commerce easier on the platform. And Pinterest also features functionality called Catalogues, allowing businesses to basically set up a virtual version of their stores complete with collections, aisle browsing and even price comparisons. 27 countries worldwide currently have all of this new functionality.

Twitter Social Selling and Up-And-Coming Social Commerce Tools

According to TechCrunch, Twitter is now testing ecommerce features for tweets. In the Twitter “card” system, the product card will link to a shop’s website and feature the product as well as a “SHOP” button. This type of Twitter post could be used not just as an ad, but also as an organic social commerce post.

Twitter is definitely a place for brands to gain insights and engage with their followers. Using practices like social listening and tools like Buffer, Brands can discover how customers talk about their brand. Brands can also use hashtags for locating information, and lists for grouping like-customers together and marketing to them.

Adding Social to Your eCommerce Strategy Can Pay Off

Social commerce is an $89.4 billion market right now. It is projected to grow 8x that over the next few years. Start small, test often and grow your business with social media using social selling and social commerce!

From Pics to Vids

Video media is rising in popularity, especially with younger generations. This is prompting social media platforms like Instagram to take a more video-based approach to their branding strategy in order to reach all target audiences. Consequently, Instagram introduced more video watching features that bring a new depth to advertising and entertainment on the platform. 

The Takeover of Video Media

Tik Tok, a video-sharing focused social networking service, has ignited a frenzy of user-generated content and influencer pull. The power is now in the users and as such, TikTok has benefited from making their videos short, entertaining, shareable, and customizable to each user. These features align with the short attention span of users and their desire for a high level of engagement.  

TikTok’s platform also includes feeds titled “For You” and “Following”. These two feeds collectively hone into the individual’s likes, therefore making the app more appealing.  

Additionally, the TikTok algorithm differs from the “following” style of Instagram. With Instagram’s feed, the user customizes it with little recommendation. This is due in part to how interests, relationships, timeliness, frequency, following, and usage influence the feed. 

According to an article by The Conversation, the combination of a “feed” and videos makes TikTok very information dense. The article explains that, “video media operates on two parallel pathways conveying explicit information (the kind found in speech or writing) and implicit information (social cues like the TikTocker’s clothes and hairstyle, or emotional affect from music) at the same time.” Pictures are not as information dense, so they feel “slower” for users which further prompts Instagram to push for high-speed video sharing. 

How Instagram Adjusts to the Change

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, shared a video on July 30, 2021. He explains, “we’re always trying to build new features that help you get the most out of your experience. Right now, we’re focused on four key areas: Creators, Video, Shopping, and Messaging.” 

An article from The Verge also summarized Mosseri’s video by saying, “the message that Instagram is sending is clear: it no longer wants to be thought of as the “square photo-sharing app,” but instead as a general entertainment app driven by algorithms and videos.” 

To follow through with this vision, Instagram introduced “Instagram Reels” a concept where users can watch short videos on a continuous feed much like TikTok. Reels are the newest addition to Instagram Stories and IGTV, the forms of video sharing currently on Instagram. With this change, businesses must adjust and start curating engaging videos for all social media platforms. 

What the Rise of Video Media Means for Businesses

This video takeover is a turning point for many company’s branding strategies. Companies must now start using videos to highlight their products and services to promote the personality of their brand. The sole use of high-quality photography may no longer be enough. For instance, according to Social Beat, “41% of users use social media to influence their purchase decisions. Furthermore, 83% of users want to discover a brand’s personality through social media.” 

Whether the videos are interactive or informative, this prominent form of media makes brands more attractive to new and current customers. Showing a company’s products and services in action allows customers to see how the products and services can help “get the job done” in their own lives. 

Up Your Instagram Game

Video content has taken the world by storm and forced Instagram to adjust to a new media environment. Truly, now is the time to invest in influencers, video trends, social listening, and engagement. From creating perfect loops to setting up an aesthetic frame, Instagram’s newest video features will help many companies promote their message to target audiences worldwide. 

Your brand has a voice.

As your brand’s marketer, you have control over whether that voice builds your brand or not. A strong brand voice is the structure and tone of the copy and content that is created for a brand to speak from. You can hear this voice on its website, ads, social and in collateral. With consistency, a brand can feel like a person. And over time that person can become familiar and even recognizable. That’s when you know you’re doing it right.

Why does brand voice matter?

First, a part of your initial branding exercise, your brand might have completed something similar to what we call The Brand Elaborative. This branding document outlines the personality of the brand. This helps writers write in that voice when creating copy for digital and traditional marketing and advertising. One of the most important parts of The Brand Elaborative are the three personality words that describe the brand as if it were a person. For instance: honest, kind, quirky. So why does having a distinctive brand voice matter to your brand?

Brand voice drives consistency.

Our B2B client Agile Sourcing Partners specializes in helping gas and electric utilities and utility infrastructure companies improve operational efficiencies and performance. So, they speak in an authoritative voice with above average complexity of language. Given that their audience are decision-makers in engineering and other technical industries, it makes sense for them to speak the language of their peers. Thus, using this consistent voice in content sets them apart as insiders: educated and in-the-know.

Brand voice helps you discern what copy hits the mark – and what misses.

Our restaurant client Chocolate Angel Café & Bakery is a local favorite for cross-generational high teas, exquisite baked good and charming family recipes. They believe in serving one another and understand that relationships matter. Thus, their brand voice is connective, celebratory and conjures up memories of childhood. They express gratitude often, and make every day feel like a special occasion. So it’s no wonder they’re a favorite for bridal showers and family celebrations. If it sounds like your great aunt reminiscing about a casserole, then we’ve hit the mark.

Brand voice creates fans.

Our education client Faith Family Academy, a charter school in DFW believes in pushing public education beyond just the classroom. They speak in servant leader’s voice. FFA makes students the center of attention, celebrating wins and putting every effort possible into their individual and collective success. The social media channels for Faith Family Academy are a testament to this brand voice in creating fans. In both English and Spanish their fans celebrate right along with the students, staff and parents. The FFA community adds congratulatory comments and a plethora of emojis on a daily basis. So who wouldn’t want to be part of this kind of enthusiasm, joy and experience of being lifted up by your community?

Brand voice can make your brand the authority on subject matter.

Our real estate client The Slay Diaz Group is a woman-owned residential real estate team who regularly wins “best-in-class” awards for their work. As a result, their voice is very real, straightforward, easy-to-understand and ready to give helpful advice on everything home-related, even sharing their coveted list of service providers. This is who you ask when you don’t know if remodeling your bathroom is a good idea or not. And, this is who can tell you if now is a good time to sell your house, put in a pool or move to a new neighborhood. Their consistent brand voice has grown their business, their reach and their authority on the subject of residential real estate.

Brand voice lets people know what you stand for.

Our own brand voice here at Front Porch Marketing tells you that we will go the extra mile to help. That we share what we know without reservation. And that we will be your biggest cheerleader. We stand for lifting you up, making you laugh and creating opportunities for others to do the work they love while taking care of the people they love. If your brand has a mission, shouldn’t all of your content reflect that mission? We think that your brand voice can show your potential customers that you are like them – kind, helpful, positive – and they will want to hang around with people like that.

Need to define or redefine your brand voice for better consistency and stronger connections with your audience? Then get started with a branding exercise which results in the guidance documents you need to hone your tone and define your voice. Consumers actually prefer brands with strong, defined and unique personalities. And having a unique personality definitely helps in creating spot-on social content, email storytelling and website visuals for your brand – which results in stronger brand loyalty and repeat customers.

You can visit some of our Front Porch client brands to see different types of brand voice in action.

The Bigger Picture

Picture this. You have the perfect idea for an event, and you feel that it represents your brand’s vision to a T. Yet, there are so many steps to get from A to Z that you start feeling overwhelmed and as the date of the event looms nearer, you realize how many things you wish you had planned for. If you have ever felt this kind of stress before or are currently experiencing it, this is the blog for you.

When it comes to event marketing, there are multiple moving pieces. At times there are so many pieces that it may seem like there are too many starting points. To help set a starting point for you, let’s focus on the big picture and then hone into the minute details that will lead your brand’s vision to the picture-perfect moment.

The First Focus: Scheduling

Imagine event marketing to be like a photographer setting up the most picturesque scene. To capture the moment perfectly, at times working backwards is best. In this case, thinking about what you want the vision to look like as a whole then mapping out how to get to that end goal. Although this may seem unorthodox, this process will lead you to a track record of success while also allowing you to tweak the planning breakdown to fit your needs.

At Front Porch Marketing, we start with writing everything down, especially anything that is time-sensitive i.e. inviting VIPs, scheduling speakers, printing deadlines, and booking sponsors. This timeline allows you to envision a clear reality and identify immediate “strikethroughs” or ideas that should be nixed.

Next, identify your audience, define your message, and determine the experience you want to provide. Having a clear vision is important, because all of the smaller event details and decisions will flow from it.

The Second Focus: Seamlessness

Once you have the deadlines and your audience in mind, choose a venue, food, music, entertainment, format, and feel that aligns best with your vision. Stay true to the experience you want to provide, and these decisions will flow easily.

When it comes to your deadlines, also keep geography in mind. Although it may seem natural to book an event near your location, for your professional partners, sponsors, or guests this location may be new terrain. As such, ensure the professional partners and sponsors you choose to assist you are on board with your vision. Your caterer, photographer, videographer, etc. should also be well versed in what your plans and expectations are for the event.

The Final Focus: Structure

Now that your event is on the horizon, it is time to hammer out the final details. Here are some of my final tips on how to create that picture-perfect moment for your future events.

1. Create an overall schedule for the day and share with all of your professional partners and staff.
2. Double-check with your staff on their roles and make sure that all loose ends are tied.
   • Examples of closing loose ties:
     • Posting check-in times to all communication platforms.
     • Pre-inspecting uniforms.
     • Finalizing catering details with the company of your choosing and making sure no cross-contamination occurred.
     • Securing all entrances and marking them accordingly.
     • Making sure that the exits are not blocked by staff or their respected station.
     • Posting last minute schedule changes to all social media platforms.
3. Notify staff and members who should be called in case of an emergency or in the event that something needs to be addressed.
4. Do an event run through the night before to make sure that all equipment is running smoothly. Also do another run through at least two hours prior to the event.
5. Check that social media has been posted and is shareable throughout the event. (A quick way for guests to get plugged in is to post QR codes throughout the location or on deliverables.)
6. Center the company’s brand at the forefront of the event from color schemes to logos to swag.
7.  Brand the sponsored content and products by making sure that they are explicitly seen.
8. Label Wi-Fi passwords and make them visible.
9. Double-check that all mandated COVID protocols are being followed. Have disposable masks and sanitation stations readily available to increase accessibility and comfort.
10. Promise a good time (and deliver)!

In Conclusion

We love planning, executing, and marketing events for our clients! Most recently, it has been our privilege to partner with Faith Family Academy to create a socially distanced graduation ceremony that is expandable for future success. We look forward to executing more events in the future and are proud of the recent 2021 graduates.

I hope that these tips are helpful and got your creative juices flowing! If you need help planning an event come see us on the Porch!

R Studio 101

You may be wondering, what is R Studio? Is it easy to learn? R Studio is a programming language for statistical computing and graphics. The overall goal of R Studio is to help you summarize and analyze data that will provide insights for making data-driven marketing decisions. While it is not initially easy, like most things, through practice and many trials you can hone your skills just as I have.

This past semester, at Baylor University, I had the pleasure of doing in-depth customer analysis through R Studio and learned how to create data visualizations and perform different statistical analyses using R codes.

Data Science

Data science is the future of business analytics, yet it is often difficult to figure out where to start. The last thing you want to do is waste time and money with the wrong tool or program. Making effective use of your time involves two pieces: 

(1) selecting the right tool for the job at hand

(2) efficiently learning how to use the tool to increase value for your business.

This blog focuses on the first part, explaining why R is the right choice in three points.

Reason One: High Return on Value

The first reason for why R may be the right tool for the job is if you are looking to use a statistical programing language that lends itself well to an extensive infrastructure of big data. R covers a wide range of topics such as econometrics, finance, and time series. R has the best-in-class tools for visualization, reporting, and interactivity, which are just as important to business as they are to science. Because of this, R is well-suited for scientists, engineers, and business professionals.

With the analysis of customer analytics through R, business professionals can:

1. Increase sales to new and existing customers.
2. Increase response rates and customer loyalty.
3. Reduce campaign costs by targeting customers most likely to respond.
4. Increase sales force effectiveness by targeting qualified prospects.
5. Reduce customer churn by accurately predicting customers most likely to leave and developing the right proactive campaigns to retain them.
6. Deliver the right message by segmenting customers more effectively and better understanding target populations.
7. Deliver higher returns on marketing and promotions investments by contacting the right customers with highly relevant offers/messages.

These all important marks for a company and can be drastically improved through R.

Reason Two: Free Open-Source Tool

When downloading R for business use, one of the greatest pros is that it is an open-source program. Therefore, it can be modified and redistributed as per the user’s need. It is great for visualization and has far more capabilities, compared to other tools like Python.

Companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, are using R programming as their core platform to make online advertising more effective. They also use R for economic forecasting and Big-Data statistical modeling. Due to the results that the ‘console’ and ‘plots’ provide in R, these big-name brands are able to make dutifully noted decisions.

Reason Three: Easy to Use

What is great about using R Studio is that once you understand the basics, you will be able to transcribe codes to more advanced stages since they have similar frameworks. Although it takes a couple tries to understand the statistical language, through failure comes success. To help create successful codes and interpretations, the RStudio Cheatsheets are a great reference guide for R syntax as well as YouTube videos.

Conclusion

Whether you use R or Python or another program, find out what your customer data strategy is and what your marketing strategy is to find that perfect balance between the two.

It’s time to evaluate your marketing strategy for the second half of the year. With Q1 in the rearview mirror, and thick in the midst of Q2 now is the time to plan what comes next.

Failing to plan is planning to fail

My kids hear Benjamin Franklin’s quote about planning often. They are teenage boys and the simplicity of “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” strikes a chord. In October we talked about 2021 marketing planning – and it is absolutely crazy that the second half of 2021 is right around the corner. May is the perfect time to plus-delta your marketing plan to rock Q3 and Q4.  

We wax the marketing plan lyrical often, if you want some additional reading search Marketing Plan right here on Off Your Rocker, because it is a topic we keep coming back to because it is that important. Running through your activities, business, leisure or really anything without a plan to evaluate often leads to a failure.

Who could have planned for 2020!?!

For real. If you had pandemic marketing plan – ROCK ON! Many threw out the 2020 marketing plan and went into crisis or survival mode. Is it safe to say most everyone was scrambling in the unchartered time. Now that we are well into Q2, what lessons can we learn? Should we all write pandemic marketing plans? No! Should you have crisis plan? Maybe. Should you have a stop-gap strategy at-the-ready if everything falls apart? Yes.

Plan to evaluate a pivot

It was easier for teams to pivot from a plan versus starting from scratch in 2020. Existing plans guided and grounded activity for some, for others it gave a communication channel for policy and operation updates. We were reminded of the importance of staying positive in all marketing efforts and staying true to your brand. We celebrated the entrepreneurial spirit of our network and were honored to be a part of several brand launches in the back half of 2020.

Now is the time to look at the 2021 plan to evaluate what stays in, what stops and what needs to be added. Let’s get ready for the second half and move forward with purpose and intention to flourish the rest of the year.