Optimize Magazine - Winter 2017

WINTER 2017

IDEAS FOR MARKETING AND CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

PANTONE’S 2017

15-0343 TCX – GREENERY Should it affect your marketing?

Depends what you do.

Influencer Marketing Marketing in the “Micro-Moment” The Consumer Journey Redefines Email Marketing

CALENDAR SHOWCASE Each quarter, Hopkins Printing produces and distributes a quarterly calendar and notepad that have been designed for Hopkins Printing by one of our talented design clients.

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Printed on Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105, 6 color with in-line coating. Printing and Imaging by Hopkins Printing 614-509-1080

Want to receive the Hopkins Quarterly Calendar?

Printing & Imaging Hopkins Printing 614-509-1080 Printed on Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105 6 color with in-line coating unit Design Shelby Daugherty of Wexner Center for the Arts shelbydaugherty.com

Contact your Hopkins Printing Account Executive today or visit www.hopkinsprinting.com/ optimize/sign/ to place your request.

1-800-319-3352

www.hopkinsprinting.com

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Design by: Shelby Daugherty, Graphic Design Intern, The Ohio State University, Wexner Center for the Arts

MAIL OFFS MAIL PRIN PROM TION MAIL OFFS DIGIT WIDE WIDE FORM VARI FORM VARI DATA STOR DATA STOR FRON FULL TORE FRON FULL MEN SIGN

WELCOME

Welcome to 2017!

3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT HOPKINS PRINTING

Roy Waterhouse President, Hopkins Printing

EXPERT OPINION Read insights from the following contributors in this issue:

1 Happy New Year! — There’s something very special about the start of each New Year as excitement fills the air. We design and commit to new goals, both personal and professional, and look forward with much optimism to wonderful opportunities in the coming year. Yes, you’ll find us in the same camp you’re in! Spending time with our sales and production teams, management team, and even with customers, as we ask questions like “How can we help you grow?”, “How can we improve the experience of working with us?”, and “How can we continue to be a great company to work for?” In 2017, we will welcome new members to our team, add new equipment, and do everything in our power to help our customers grow and meet their own unique goals. That’s our promise to you.

Let’s make it a great 2017—together!

2 POP Signage — When it comes to strategic thinking and planning, the Hopkins executive team is driven and laser-focused.

With an overall long-range plan in place, each year we set out to establish three to five key areas to target with goals ranging from production efficiency and volume to implementing new technologies and equipment. These goals drive many of our decisions in the coming year. One specific area we are targeting in 2017 is our pointof-purchase (POP) signage. Having experienced tremendous success in our large format division in 2016, and with valuable input from our current customers, we have identified a growing need for projects requiring quick turn-time combined with custom kit-packing and shipping to individual locations. We’ve become a leading resource of POP signage, and our goal is to become the “go-to” provider for all of our customers who use this type of product and service. If that’s you, let’s talk!

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Dan Evans Marine Corps veteran Dan Evans learned just how powerful social media and personal branding can be, for both the Marine Corps and his own personal career. (Page 12)

Lynzee Jablonka

Structural Graphics — When Jim and Arnie founded our

company more than 40 years ago, our primary focus was on quick printing. The company had a storefront, (the physical kind not the online kind), and customers would walk in and place orders.

Over the years we transitioned into a full-service commercial printer, branching into areas that compliment print and marketing. When we began to see an interest in structural graphics, as we always do, we jumped right in! Structural graphics are typically three dimensional in nature, and include boxes, pop-ups, and kits with inserts. They can be an exciting way to engage your audience and set your messaging apart from your competition. Looking for something new to try in 2017? Think structural graphics! Let us show you samples of our work and explore ideas for your next project.

Follow us online

Winter 2017

facebook.com/HopkinsSolutions

@hopksolutions

John Melican Lynzee Jablonka Influencer Marketing Manager at Everywhere Agency (Atlanta, GA). and John Melican, President of Kinetek Sports (San Diego, CA), share influencer marketing success stories and insight on why this could be the next big thing for your marketing strategy. (Page 6)

linkedin.com/company/hopkins-printing

OPTIMIZE is printed on 100# Hopkins Silk Cover/100# Hopkins Silk Text paper

01 Welcome WINTER 2017

IDEAS FOR MARKETING AND CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

PANTONE’S 2017

Discover 3 new things about Hopkins Printing, plus a selection of the key contributors writing in this issue.

02 Insights

Ideas, opinions, news, and trends.

15-0343 TCX – GREENERY Should it affect your marketing?

Depends what you do.

06 Influencer Marketing Influencer Marketing Marketing in the “Micro-Moment” The Consumer Journey Redefines Email Marketing

Two influencer marketing experts share their wisdom and experiences, and why you should consider this trending marketing tactic.

10 Outsourcing Your Marketing

We explore the idea of outsourcing parts of your marketing to help you focus on key marketing strategies.

12 Lessons in Brand Building

Executive Editor

Cindy Woods, cmoteam.com Contributing Writers

Marine Corps veteran Dan Evans shares how he built a strong social media presence for Marine Corps recruiting by sharing compelling stories and creating personal brands.

Design

Production Design

16 My Working Day

Designlogix

Diann Durham

©2017 All Rights Reserved

Carey Bradshaw delivers workshops and one-on-one coaching for C-suite executives, nonprofits, and start-ups in presentation-delivery skills.

Carro Ford, Tim Sweeney, Cindy Woods

Printed and distributed by Hopkins Printing www.hopkinsprinting.com

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Winter 2017

INSIGHTS

NEWS | REVIEWS | IDEAS | OPINION |

SOCIAL MEDIA »

Marketing in the “Micro-Moment” We live in a world of micromoments. The life of an average tweet is about 18 minutes. We make decisions in milliseconds, from speed dating to deciding what’s for lunch. According to Google, we check our phones 150 times per day, spending an average of 177 minutes on mobile sessions that average 1 minute and 10 seconds each.

Yes, we’re speed dating with stores, restaurants, online merchants, exercise-tracking sites, and even our doctor’s office and health records, all on our phones. And we’re doing it in micro-moment bursts, at the moment of need. Author Malcolm Gladwell, in Blink, noted that we only use a few seconds to make most decisions, even important ones. He calls it “thinslicing”—using limited information from a very narrow period of experience to come to a conclusion.

Marketers, take note. Sometimes it only takes a moment to market, too.

Micro-moment marketing can refer to the size of an audience, the size of a message, or the length of the marketable moment. As a micro-engagement, it targets the very specific, focused interest of a buyer, or a moment in time that has meaning for that one person.

Think of small moments that carry a big impact. For example, Red Roof Inn used mobile location targeting and customized creative to reach

travelers with canceled flights.

These people needed last-minute lodging, and Red Roof stepped into the moment faster than their competitors, resulting in a 375 percent increase in conversion rates.

TINY SCREENS. TINY MOMENTS. BIG OPPORTUNITIES? Mobile devices have created a wider stage for micro-moment marketing.

“Because people have a computer in their hands at any given second, the individual moment they’re in is now the most important part of the customer journey,” says David Edelman of McKinsey & Company.

WE GOOGLE’S MICRO-MOMENTS GUIDE! Micro-moment marketing is about helping people accomplish what they want to in that particular moment. Maybe you are planning to check into your hotel. Starwood Hotels has an app that recognizes you through the use of beacons the moment you enter the property. After verifying your identity on your mobile device, the app assigns your room number, and you can even use your phone to gain access to your room.

Whether it’s insight, knowledge, offers, discounts, maps and directions, real-time updates, or exclusive user experiences, the moment of engagement needs to have value for the consumer. n

Micro-moments can happen anytime, anywhere. “The I-want-to-know moments, I-want-to-go moments, I-want-to-do moments, and I-wantto-buy moments really matter,” says Sridhar Ramaswamy of Thinkwithgoogle.com, adding that they’re game changers for both consumers and brands. “They are intent-rich moments, when decisions are made and preferences shaped.”

We found several great examples of micro-moment marketing in this guide from Google.

Download today at: hopkinsprinting.com/micromoments

GEO-TARGETING: APPS AND MAPS IN MICRO-MOMENT MARKETING The growing use and benefits of geo-targeting, personalized maps, and customized offers in micro-moment marketing can be extremely useful for businesses that depend on walk-ins or other physical action from customers.

“Consumers are comfortable with visual formats—they translate well into different media—and the call to action occurs in milliseconds. Readers understand what to do right away,” explains Randy Hardy, North American Representative of LOCR Maps.

• Retail: Draw retail customers into a store for flash sales, demos, and special events.

• Trade shows and conferences: Provide • Insurance: Enhance the customer news and updates, instant offers, schedule experience when contacting, reporting, reminders, and exclusive invitations. and filing claims on the spot.

• Hospitality: Search for a local • Travel and tourism: Provide maps, restaurant or hotel and make directions, booking, immediate help last-minute reservations. with service problems, • Health care: Communicate open hours, reviews, up-to-the-minute wait and recommendations. times and nearby locations of urgent care clinics.

INSIGHTS

Pantone’s 2017 Color of the Year. . .

Should It Affect Your Marketing?

Depends on What You Do. The 18th annual Pantone Color of the Year has been announced— Greenery #15-0343. It was decided in a secret meeting held somewhere in Europe, attended by anonymous representatives from a number of nations. They observed and tracked trends and influences across several industries (fashion, film, technology, art, travel) for months, presented and debated the options, and finally, made their choice. Although the Color of the Year becomes more influential every year in manufacturing, home, and fashion, that secrecy doesn’t win them much support with people such as Lauren Labrecque, Ph.D., an associate professor of marketing at Loyola University Chicago, who has authored several papers on the importance of color in marketing.

“I don’t put too much stock into it, mainly due to the fact that there is little transparency,” Labrecque says.

“That said, I think the color of the year is important for some people and industries—those who follow trends.”

Labrecque’s extensive research has led her to conclude that color is crucial in marketing and that it can be used strategically to help craft and reinforce brand personalities— a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name and allow the consumer to better relate with the brand. There are five main dimensions of brand personality

that are commonly used: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness.

Labrecque’s research examined the relationship between these brand personality perceptions and color— specifically hues, saturation, and value. She found that they are all important for communicating brand personality.

Colors, in fact, influence us all on a daily basis. We’re just not always aware of it. “Color tells us if a strawberry is ripe, if food has gone bad, or if something may be poisonous, such as snakes,” Labrecque says. “Some of the early color work in psychology examined physiological effects and found certain colors can raise or lower blood pressure or brain activity.”

She cites an article detailing how some railway stations in Japan have changed their lights to a more calming blue in an effort to curb suicides, and saw an 84 percent decline.

With all this research on colors, why might a designer or creative director look at what an anonymous committee says is the “it” color?

For Bryan Torgerson, a freelance creative director who has worked on brands such as CVS/pharmacy and Bose, “the Pantone selection is interesting, but I also look for color trends, specifically on Behance, Pinterest, or Coolors.”

Winter 2017

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“Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew. Illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors, the fortifying attributes of Greenery signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate.

Greenery is nature’s neutral.” – Pantone

Behance.net is a website to showcase and discover creative work, and Coolors.co is an online color-scheme generator. Both Labrecque and Torgerson say knowing your audience is the first step to deciding how “trendy” you can be with your brand colors. “If you are going to be the designer who brings the 80s color palette back, that product or brand better be known as cutting-edge, or your decision to go with those colors will be perceived as old and dated,” Torgerson says.

Labrecque also authored a paper examining color norms for various product categories and found that whether a brand should be distinct or follow category trends really depends on the category and whether there is a dominant leader.

“If a brand already has a strong color identity, I wouldn’t let it be impacted by the Color of the Year,” she advises. “While a brand may choose to offer bags or packaging or product variations in the trending color, I wouldn’t change anything at the core.”

So if you aren’t sold on adopting the Pantone Color of the Year into your brand profile,

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what steps should you take to decide on a color scheme?

Start with competitor analysis within the industry, and don’t be a follower. You can also peruse one of the many studies that explain the physiological meaning of colors and how people feel when they see them.

“I think creatives should be aware of it, but it shouldn’t overtake other factors,” Labrecque says of Pantone’s yearly choice.

“I also believe that its importance varies on the context. The Color of the Year is much more important for hedonic categories, such as fashion, than for utilitarian categories, such as cars or kitchen appliances.” n

Winter 2017

INSIGHTS

NEWS | REVIEWS | IDEAS | OPINION |

TRENDING »

The Consumer Journey Redefines Email Marketing

Like the rest of the marketing landscape, the world of email communications is evolving rapidly.

It’s no longer enough to deliver commercially focused emails judged solely on sales, open rates, and click-throughs. For starters, today’s consumers seek stories, which means brands are challenged to deliver emails and newsletters that provide content of value around their products and to do so when consumers want to receive it.

Interactive and Animated Emails PERSONALIZATION AND AUTOMATION ASIDE, INTERACTIVE ELEMENTS AND ANIMATION COULD BE THE NEXT BIG THING FOR YOUR EMAILS.

The right copywriter, a tone that is “on-brand,” and relevant content are merely the baseline. “We are all trying to provide authenticity and content around our products that our consumers will continue to enjoy,” says Jocelyn Bonhomme, Global CRM Manager at Salomon. Speaking the same language as your customers, especially when it comes to technical or specific content, is essential. That’s why an

1. POLLS INSIDE AN EMAIL Ticketmaster sent an interactive email with a poll asking subscribers who they thought would win in certain categories in the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards. Subscribers could vote directly in the email. After voting, they were redirected to a results page to see the live voting being tallied. This email experienced 182 percent more opens than Ticketmaster’s average email.

outdoor-sports brand such as Salomon uses writers who are outdoors lovers, mountain guides, and former athletes with strong copywriting or journalism skills.

Soon enough, that language may be even more personal. Bonhomme—who previously worked in digital marketing in Patagonia’s European office—believes that it won’t be long before hyperpersonalized emails will be the primary way companies communicate. The reason? Data management tools are changing how brands create, target, and deliver their message. “We are living in a hyperconnected world managed by data,” Bonhomme says. “I wouldn’t say that it’s easy, because it’s more and more complex to analyze this amount of data and to track customer behavior. But one result is that we, as brands, care very much about not overcommunicating or being too intrusive.” With more and more data available, companies can create solution architecture that is increasingly global, which sounds great, except that privacy policies are becoming increasingly stringent and less global.

Regardless of the constraints, the goal should be to support the consumer journey at the right moment with the right service, whether that consumer is sitting at their computer, looking at their tablet on the subway, or standing in a store aisle, looking for more info on their mobile phone. Digital insights on where a consumer is browsing and when he or she is close to making a purchase allow brands to interact with consumers and provide them with the most appropriate message at the best time. “A strong digital relationship is very similar to the person serving you in the store,” Bonhomme says. “A good salesperson can read the consumer in the store, see his or her body language,

2. CUSTOMIZE A PRODUCT WITHIN AN EMAIL Burberry sent a very sophisticated and personalized email that let subscribers design their own scarf from within the email in a three-step process. First, they selected the type of scarf, then they selected the scarf pattern, and lastly, they were able to view their monogram on the scarf prior to purchasing it.

INSIGHTS

and respond to their needs. When it comes to sending an email to a consumer, we now know when to send it. It’s a matter of building a relationship so that we converse with them when they want to converse with us.”

As you’ve likely noticed, brands are also becoming very good at merging social media and email marketing on the consumer journey. In fact, Bonhomme regularly has calls with both social media and email marketing experts, something a job like his might not have entailed just a few years ago. “From an on boarding journey, we advertise on Facebook to register for our newsletter, welcome them with an email, and then send them one or two additional emails with content on our website and consumer events in their area,” he says.

In the future, Bonhomme says that brands might be less inclined to influence consumers to buy one way over another and instead will try to support consumers with the best, most well-timed service, whether online or at retail. “We are already there in terms of people checking online for prices, comparing product offers, checking opening hours, and looking to see if a product is available in a store nearby,” he says. These are just a few ways that micro-moment marketing is influencing email marketing and consumer journeys.

The consensus among marketers is that these same practices will translate into other industries outside of retail, such as fundraising, conference attendance, or recruitment for colleges and universities. We will be taken beyond the traditional experience of triggers and automated emails into hyperpersonalization of content, offers, and timing. n

3. ANIMATED GIFS IN EMAILS ModCloth used animation to illustrate how the same clothing items could be combined to form different trendy outfits by autorotating the clothing items to show multiple collections, all within the email itself.

Winter 2017

Check out the 2017 USPS Mailing Promotions and download our quick-reference guide.

2017 MAILING PROMOTIONS OVERVIEW hopkinsprinting.com

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Tactile, Sensory and Interactive Mailpiece Engagement

Registration Period

Promotional Period

Incentive: Upfront 2% postage discount during the promotional period

December 15, 2016 – June 30, 2017

February 1 – July 31, 2017

2

Emerging and Advanced Technology

Registration Period

Promotional Period

Incentive: 2% discount at time of mailing

January 15 – August 31, 2017

March 1 – August 31, 2017

Leverages some of the latest technological advances within the print industry, providing marketers with exciting new ways to enhance and encourage sensory engagement with a mailpiece.

The print industry has been actively innovative not only in print production equipment, but the fundamental elements of the mail itself through new developments in papers/stocks, substrates, finishing techniques and inks. These elements can be incorporated to engage a multi-sensory experience through special visual effects, sound, scent, texture/tactile treatments and even taste.

Encourage mailers to integrate direct mail with advances in mobile technology using NFC technology, Video in Print (ViP), Beacon technology, “Enhanced” Augmented Reality, Virtual reality or a Digital to Direct Mail experience to allow the recipient to engage in innovative digital experiences triggered from their mailpiece. New for this year is the inclusion of Virtual Reality to generate opportunities to immerse consumers by creating interactivity and harnessing a first-hand engagement experience. We have also added Digital to Direct Mail to this years promotion to elicit a higher response from consumers by using dynamically printed, personalized messaging that is automatically triggered based on a digital interaction.

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Direct Mail Starter

Registration Period

Promotional Period

Incentive: 5% discount at time of mailing for up to 10,000 mailpieces during the length of the promotion

March 15 – July 31, 2017

May 1 – July 31, 2017

Opportunities for the small and medium market segments to grow and attract new mailers. This promotion is offered to first time mailers to promote events and offers that incorporate the use of print-mobile technology on up to 10,000 mailpieces during the length of the promotion. Any print-mobile technologies, such as (QR codes, barcode tracking technology, enhanced augmented reality (AR), Near Field Communications (NFC), or other print-mobile technologies currently approved in our promotions can be used to qualify for this promotion.

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Personalized Color Transpromo

Registration Period

Promotional Period

Incentive: Upfront 2% postage discount during the promotional period

May 15 – December 31, 2017

July 1 – December 31, 2017

Since 2014, the USPS has provided this promotion to continue to increase the value of First-Class Mail by encouraging mailers of bills and statements to leverage new color print technology. In doing so, a better connection and response from consumers is intended to occur.

Mobile Shopping

Registration Period

Promotional Period

Incentive: This promotion offers a 2% discount at the time of mailing for Standard Mail letters and flats that include qualifying technology (i.e., QR codes, snap tags, watermarks) inside or on the mailpiece that facilitates consumer purchases through a mobile-friendly website or social media “Buy Now” features

June 15 – December 31, 2017

August 1 – December 31, 2017

Encourage mailers to adopt and invest in technologies that create consumer excitement and highlight the connection between the mailpiece and the digital shopping experience. It is designed to enable customers to conveniently go from the mailpiece, directly to a mobile optimized online shopping experience using technology platforms such as Quick Response (QR) Codes, Snap Tags, Watermarks and other advanced technologies.

The USPS has released their mailing promotions for calendar year 2017. DOWNLOAD a complimentary USPS Quick Reference Guide here: hopkinsprinting.com/2017USPSpromos

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Winter 2017

COVER STORY

INFLUENCER MARKETING

by Tim Sweeney

I

nfluencer marketing has been around forever, really.

From sports-marketing pioneers such as Arnold Palmer, to celebrity endorsements for presidential candidates, the idea of using people with influence to promote products is not a new concept.

Thanks to social media and the proliferation of content marketing, today’s influencers can come in a variety of formats, with social media bubbling to the top as a leader. Sure, with the right budget, you can still turn to NFL quarterback Tom Brady in his UGGs, but nowadays, your influencer can even be a mom with a blog.

“Those are influencers!” says Lynzee Jablonka, Influencer Marketing Manager at Everywhere Agency, a social media agency in Atlanta. “Influencers can be someone with hundreds of followers or someone with a million. If people are listening to what they have to say, they are social media influencers.”

It should not be a news flash that, according to research, consumers trust a referral from their personal network at a 90 percent rate. Eighty-one percent of referrals are found online. What’s more, 92 percent of consumers also say they rely on referrals from people they know above all else.

And the power of influence doesn’t end with B2C relationships. According to LinkedIn, 84 percent of B2B buyers begin the process of making a purchase with a referral. Jablonka says influencer marketing is the modern-day word of mouth. “Influencer marketing campaigns involve a select group of individuals who have a certain influence over their community,” she explains. “When used correctly, these influencers can help a brand drive sales, encourage conversations, and build awareness/ loyalty. Today, we see advertisements everywhere; it’s such a saturated market. With influencers, it feels like we’re sitting in a coffee shop having a casual conversation with friends.

It’s authentic and refreshing.”

Lynzee Jablonka Influencer Marketing Manager Everywhere Agency

John Melican President Kinetek Sports, Inc.

Winter 2017

But what is it exactly, and how can influencers help you? Influencer marketing involves partnering with people who have an audience and influence within a specific segment of consumers. They can help you —usually via the content they create—reach and engage with audience members that your brand might not reach normally. Often, they are experts on a particular subject matter. They can be bloggers, speakers, or authors with an audience that values their opinion on their subject matter of expertise. And they can be at their most effective during new product launches and store openings, in building new followers for your brand, and even as an advocate for you in the event of a public relations crisis.

If you’re reading this thinking: “Yeah, all that sounds great, but what if I can’t afford to get a ‘real housewife’ to use my product?” there’s good news.

Influencer marketing is a table just about anyone can get a seat at. “It all depends on what you’re looking for. If you want to work the Kim Kardashians of the world, of course that’s going to require a big budget,” she says. With a smaller budget, you simply have to be a little more strategic. She cites the work that Everywhere Agency is doing with OshKosh B’gosh.

“We don’t have bottomless budgets—everything we do is very thought out,” she explains. “We choose micro-influencers—influencers with more targeted audiences who will generate more meaningful conversations around your brand—to take photos of their kids wearing OshKosh. It’s as simple as that.”

The campaign was so successful that the agency just won a PRSA Georgia Phoenix Award for excellence in PR. For John Melican, who held sales and marketing leadership roles at Nike and then Callaway Golf, what he learned by using athlete influencers to drive brand and product awareness was still quite applicable when he went to work for a small start-up brand.

“At Nike and Callaway, we used these big athletes, schools, and endorsers as visible signs of the brand, because it gave us broad visibility and awareness

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Today, we see advertisements everywhere; it’s such a saturated market. With influencers, it feels like we’re sitting in a coffee shop having a casual conversation with friends. It’s authentic and refreshing.

with consumers and in their sport,” he says.

“We partnered with them to show how our products are authentic to that sport, while also driving emotional attachment.”

When Melican went to a small sporttechnology start-up company that specialized in connecting everyday golfers to their own statistics via their phone, he called on a different type of influencer. In the golf landscape, there is a certain pyramid of influence in which advice trickles down to the masses from teaching professionals and even the best players at a country club. “If the influencer in a regular foursome uses the product, the students or other foursome members will have an interest,”

he explains. “Hopefully, that interest will lead to trial and then adoption. What I learned at Nike was that putting the athlete first is key to the equation. Once you have the right influencers using your product, this leads to gaining awareness, which leads to trial. Once you have trial, you usually gain acceptance and use of your product.”

If you’re ready to dive into the deep end of influencer marketing, or at least dip your toes in the water, Jablonka says to start with identifying your goals. Specific ones. Start with your area of interest, location, and the voice you want to portray. “Do you need fitness

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Winter 2017

COVER STORY

HOW TO FIND YOUR INFLUENCERS Lynzee Jablonka’s advice for finding the influencer that’s right for your brand.

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Know your audience: If your audience is down-to-earth and fascinated with DIY tips, look for bloggers who speak to those topics. Maybe it’s a mother of three who writes about easy life hacks or someone who frequents the crafts store and writes about various projects.

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Determine your goals: Need to drive coupon sales? Find a blogger who talks about deals and giveaways.

Looking for strong graphics? Find an Instagrammer whose pictures are Nat Geo worthy. There are influencers out there for every benchmark you’re trying to reach.

The key: knowing what success looks like to you.

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Invest in software: A number of platforms can help you find the right influencer for your brand. We sometimes use GroupHigh when we’re looking for a very niche group of people. These

enthusiasts nationwide, or do you just need fitness enthusiasts in Denver, Colorado?” she asks. “If you’ve established a quirky voice, working with someone who takes themselves very seriously probably won’t be the best option. Do you want influencers with amazing photography or someone who can push a coupon? The list goes on and on, but it all comes back to what your end goal is.” You should also have a thorough understanding of your own social strengths and weaknesses. What channels are your followers or potential customers using? Perhaps you want to step up your game on Instagram or reach a slightly older demographic on Facebook. It sounds simple, but deciding what channels you want to be seen on is critical. Whether it’s only one or two, or many of them, that will influence whom you recruit to influence.

platforms often allow you to search with parameters such as location, blog topics, keywords, etc.

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Determine your budget: Social media is pay to play, so you’ll have to spend some money to get results. In this day and age, influencers who will work for free or solely for product are hard to come by. Figure out what you have to spend, then base your search off of that allowance.

Consider outsourcing: Can you source influencers on your own?

Sure. Do you have the time to dig into each one of them and make sure they’re a good fit? Maybe, or maybe not. It doesn’t cost anything to talk to the experts about your needs and budget. Contact a reputable agency, learn about their process, and ask about successes they have had with clients similar to you. What we do, in short, is basically like Match.com, but for brands and bloggers!

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Once we talk social media marketing, the natural next question is how you might measure success if you decide to rely on influencers. The answer: it depends. Jablonka says the way influencer marketing campaigns have been measured at Everywhere Agency has depended greatly on the client’s needs, and yours should, too. “With OshKosh, we were tasked with tracking the sales associated with a specific coupon,” she explains. “With Macy’s, they track traffic in the store at specific events. No matter what the goals, the agency always tracks number of social media posts published, engagement rates, sentiment of the conversation, locations of interactions, and total number of impressions.”

Melican and his team eam at the small start-up company had a slightly different goal. They were attempting to rely on coaches to help introduce the product to golf students who wanted to get better. It was a different approach than, say, using

a big-name professional golfer to promote the product so it gains visibility. Of course, at a start-up, budget has a way of shaping strategy. “Hopefully, an approach like this leads to content that we can build and then push out via social media and in videos,” Melican says. They also found influencers to be helpful in another manner—product development.

“We did a beta test panel of golfers, teaching pros and other influencers, and we learned a ton. We took the information we received and put it back into the product.”

The difference between a brand spokesperson and an influencer can often be found in the way they tell the story. Using your influencers creatively means avoiding leaving the bad “sales” taste in a consumer’s mouth. In short, that means letting them tell their own stories. Language, pictures, and posts that are too “salesy” in tone—as opposed to delivering value to the reader/viewer/listener/ follower—can have a detrimental outcome. “With our OshKosh campaign, we are ultimately driven by sales from a coupon, but does that mean that our messaging is purely promotional? Absolutely not,” says Jablonka. “In fact, it’s the opposite. We weave intricate story prompts for the influencers to create their posts off of.”

In a back-to-school -to-school shopping campaign in 2016, they challenged the influencers to create five outfits from OshKosh using one staple piece.

Within their post, influencers touched on points of affordability, quality, and the trendiness of the brand’s clothing. “We let the influencers tell their own story in a way that would be relatable to their

It sounds simple, but deciding what channels you want to be seen on is critical.

Whether it’s only one or two, or many of them, that will influence whom you recruit to influence.

Winter 2017

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6 Influencer Marketing Facts:

1 2 3 4 5 readers, so as to encourage them to visit OshKosh and purchase clothes for their own kids, using the coupon our influencer provided,” Jablonka explains.

If, based on your audience, you’ve chosen the right channels to be active on, it’s a good idea to allow your influencers to post on your branded channels, too. Jablonka sees great opportunity in allowing influencers to be part of the brand for a campaign. She points to a Gap campaign called “styld.by” in which influencers created outfits for the everyday person, which were then displayed across Gap’s social media channels. She says the influencer program that www.LIKEToKNOW.it uses

is another innovative approach. “They allow self-proclaimed fashionistas to create an account and send their followers to the stores where they purchased their clothes from,” she explains. “If their readers make a purchase, the influencer gets a cut of it. It’s basically an affiliate program, and it seems to really be working because it doesn’t seem ‘salesy.’ Rather, it’s like shopping through your friend’s closet.”

Unfortunately, just having a great product is hardly ever enough, especially if nobody ever hears about it. Melican falls back on the original universal truth—people believe one another.

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On average, for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, brands are making back an average of $6.50 in earned media value.

Consumers under the age of 32 spend 30% of their social time digesting peer-written content.

90% of consumers trust peer recommendations: 33% trust ads.

Marketers rated influencer marketing as the fastest-growing online customer-acquisition tactic.

Giveaways and sweepstakes earn higher earned media value and engagement than any other tactic in influencer marketing.

The most effective platform for influencer marketing is blogs, followed by Facebook.

“Even if you have a great product, you need these types of people to test, use, and promote your product,” he says. “Word-ofmouth influence is huge for most people.

Learning about something from someone you trust opens up the possibility for consideration.

For a small company, this is especially true.

People want things from people they trust.” n

Find out what’s REALLY going on in influencer marketing Thanks to Jay Baer and the Convince & Convert team for introducing a new podcast series called Influence Pros. Influence Pros is the weekly show where professionals learn about case studies and success stories in the fast-growing world of influencer and advocate marketing.

Learn how B2C and B2B companies are working with online influencers and customer advocates to grow reach, engagement, and conversions.

Check it out at: convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/shows/influence-pros-podcast

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Winter 2017

FEATURE

HOW MANY HATS CAN ONE MARKETER WEAR?

by Carro Ford

T

he days of having one, two, or even three marketers on staff and feeling like your bases are covered may be gone. The exciting new reality is that marketing disciplines have evolved beyond what many marketers will admit they can learn, implement, and manage.

We have new platforms, new technologies, new apps, new software, and the advanced use of data.

We’re seeing no slowdown in mobile, augmented, digital, Internet, social, print, and even virtual marketing technology. Every day across the globe, communication and engagement ideas are being developed into apps and software platforms at an unprecedented rate. They may not all be in it for the long haul (e.g., Twitter’s recent shutdown of Vine), but part of demystifying marketing is trying to figure out which new disciplines and technologies will be effective and should be included in your own marketing strategy and how you’ll execute on them.

The flip side of this exciting new reality is this—an overloaded marketing group or solo marketer with little time to take on more initiatives or learn new skills. You fall behind on techniques and updates. You can’t thoroughly research new strategies and opportunities. And the resulting scenario is that attention is divided across your marketing initiatives, with limited effectiveness and frequent fire drills. If this sounds familiar, it may be time to consider outsourcing certain marketing tasks.

Outsourcing opens immediate doors for skills, platforms, and programs you can’t easily ramp up internally. Whether it’s testing new channels with less risk, improving your content strategy, or implementing an email marketing campaign, partnering with a professional can deliver immediate and better results.

Winter 2017

GOING HYBRID: FUEL MARKETING SUCCESS WITH THE RIGHT OUTSOURCING FORMULA “You don’t always have to choose between all-internal marketing or all-external marketing,” says Jayson DeMers, contributing writer to Forbes.

“In fact, hybrid marketing strategies are becoming more and more common, especially in small- to medium-sized growing companies. And while a small- or mid-size business might not justify a full-service agency, many good boutique firms and freelancers are readily available.”

In a recent Hoover’s study, it was revealed that an estimated 44 percent of small- to mediumsized B2C companies are now outsourcing part of their marketing tasks in an effort to gain outside expertise. Still, it’s a big decision to outsource even one function. You may feel you’re losing control, that your boss may question your performance, or that the cost cannot be justified. Think again.

Today, you can find every level of marketing assistance, including virtual marketing assistants!

A wide array of talent and services can be found that can fit within every budget and complement any marketing team, filling gaps in areas where skills are lacking or where time constraints limit productivity.

THINKING OF OUTSOURCING? Here are 7 signs that it may be time to look at outsourcing some of your marketing tasks: 1. Your revenue isn’t growing fast enough.

2. Your marketing staff is overworked.

3. You always seem to be running behind.

4. Your marketing strategies are thrown together.

5. You’re limited to a handful of channels.

6. You focus too much on tasks and not enough on strategy.

7. You’re disappointed with your marketing results.

Source: (as published by Jayson DeMers in Forbes)

Kay Kienast, head of marketing operations for GE Power Digital, has led hybrid marketing teams at a variety of technology firms and frequently outsources. “If you choose the right partner, you may get to market with good results faster,” she notes. “I’ve found marketing outsource partners mostly through word of mouth from other marketers whom I trust and who’ve successfully used the people they recommend.”

WHO GETS YOUR BUSINESS? Only you can decide if outsourcing is right for your organization. Nobody knows your company, product, or services as well as you do, and there is always a learning curve with any new partnership.

Start with an assessment of your workload. Ask your marketing team how they spend their time, how those tasks rank for value to the business, and their level of expertise in each task. Going through this exercise identifies where your time is being spent versus where it would best be spent. It may make sense to outsource simple tasks such as scheduling your posts across your social platforms or entering data into databases. Outsourced marketing has traditionally been thought of in terms of big-ticket items such as SEO and link building, telemarketing, or lead generation. While these are commonly outsourced services, clearing your plate of smaller, nontraditional marketing admin tasks can return valuable time to your day as well.

IN ADDITION, KIENAST SUGGESTS WORKING WITH A PARTNER WHO: • Supports your work hours and is available for emergencies.

THREE BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING

1 2 3

Access to top-tier talent in competitive markets where opportunities are plentiful.

The luxury of time to learn and operate with a more focused and leaner team initially, and the option to build an in-house team at your pace.

Flexibility to quickly scale up or down based on your current requirements, without long-term commitments.

Keep an open mind about outsourcing.

You might find it offers the space you need to grow and the edge you need to compete. Lack of marketing bandwidth turns serious when the missing skills are critical to a revenue-generating initiative or a new market opportunity. Then it’s not just about an overloaded team. It’s about loss of customers and revenue. However you look at it, outsourcing can be an important strategy for marketers. n

• Has sufficient technical talent to assess and correct issues between systems.

• Can hone reports to correspond with your key performance indicators daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly.

• Wants your business and works to improve it. “Remember, it never goes right for the first few months,” she adds.

At some point, you’ll need to justify the expense, so ask for proposals showing what the outsourcing would look like, cost breakdowns, expected outcomes, goals, and success milestones.

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Keep an open mind about outsourcing.

You might find it offers the space you need to grow and the edge you need to compete.

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Winter 2017

BRAND BUILDING

Lessons in Brand Building and Storytelling from a Marine Corps Veteran Building a personal brand and learning to tell stories is not easy.

Marine Corps veteran Dan Evans taught himself to do both. The lessons he learned along the way might help your brand—even if that brand is YOU.

by Tim Sweeney hile serving as a social media director for the US Marines for the last few years, Dan Evans also had an eye toward the future. He had joined the Marine Reserves in 2003 as an infantry rifleman and in 2005 was asked to work as a recruiter. He took the leap and was augmented to active duty, serving in various escalating recruiting roles until transitioning to civilian life in late 2016 so he could spend more time with his family. Today, Evans lives in Texas with his wife Stephanie and their three young children—

W

Brooke, Brighton, and Boston—and he recently accepted a position as Director of Social Business Strategy for USAA Bank. “Oddly enough, what I was doing in the Marines was social business, weaving social media into culture for employees as well as customers,” he says. “This role is exactly what I’ve been doing, and I have an opportunity to grow and be challenged in a similar line of work.”

As a Marine, Evans saw the importance of establishing a personal brand firsthand when some of his peers struggled to transition professionally

to civilian life. “It wasn’t that they didn’t have relevant experience,” he says. “They didn’t have the street cred of showing what they’d done.” To avoid experiencing the same fate, he bought a domain name (danevansonline.com) and started to create content. He also recognized, “If I wasn’t Googleable, I was nobody,” and he set about becoming just that. His brand awareness increased greatly when he wrote an article about how the Marines used 21st-century media for recruiting. The article was a hit online and on LinkedIn, which led to a podcast

Winter 2017

and speaking engagements. To tie his growing content together, Evans hired a web designer to help improve his “horribly ugly” website.

“At first, I was just talking about my social media work, and then I realized I was on to something,” Evans says. On his final day of active duty in October 2016, Evans posted a photo with his family on LinkedIn, saying he was transitioning to civilian life and looking for his next opportunity, and thanked his supporters and mentors. The post was shared 250 times and received more than 23,000 Likes and 3,000 comments. It also drove people to his website and LinkedIn profile.

He had done the legwork up front, starting his podcast, getting recommendations on LinkedIn, and producing quality content that made people willing to vouch for him. “You are saying and doing all of these things, but how do you prove it?” he asks, rhetorically. “By using online tools such as blogs and podcasts. Showing, not telling, that you have the skills to do these things. I proved that I know how to do online marketing by doing it not just for the Marines, but also for my own brand, earning trust with professionals outside of the military.”

In 2013, Evans was offered the chance to run the recruiting efforts for the Western U.S. region, and he and his family were off to San Diego.

Recognizing that it was important to tie metrics to the social media efforts he had implemented previously, and knowing that the most feasible way to do so was to create clarity around where posts were to be published, his team created Facebook Pages for each of their 180 recruiting sites in the Western region, each with three to seven recruiters creating meaningful content around the local citizens who had chosen the Marine Corps. “It was one way we could associate the brand message with local people and make an impression we couldn’t from a national standpoint,” Evans says.

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Storytelling played a large part in the training he administered. He urged recruiters to think like a skilled marketer by asking, “What is the story?” Small things, such as posting a Facebook photo of a new recruit who was heading off to boot camp (and tagging that individual), could lead to more conversations. “The fact is, many of them weren’t telling people about their decision to join,” he says. The swearing-in photo became a way to activate the sphere of influence around that individual by drawing a relevant customer base, because people who click the Like button are more interested in joining. “It creates conversation that otherwise wouldn’t have been had,” Evans says.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK Evans learned many of these skills while recruiting for the Marines. Early in his career, he worked in Provo, Utah, a notoriously difficult place for the Marines to recruit. He and other recruiters found themselves visiting high schools with only the phone numbers of potential recruits, which were becoming increasingly useless. “We built a Facebook business Page and took a couple photos of new Marines that had come back from boot camp,” Evans explains, “and I saw an opportunity to start a recruiting conversation around that.”

Soon, Evans was training recruiters on presentation and consultative selling skills. Along the way, he noticed that a number of them were using social media, just not to its full potential.

He saw an opportunity to use social media to tell each recruit’s story and to use that as a catalyst to start a recruiting conversation. “I built and implemented training for recruiters to move these conversations from online to offline and turn them into recruiting business,” Evans explains. “It was also an opportunity to showcase the young men and women who made the decision to serve, share these stories with their spheres of influence, and garner support for their decision to serve.”

On his final day of active duty in October 2016, Evans posted a photo with his family on LinkedIn, saying he was transitioning to civilian life and looking for his next opportunity. The post was shared 250 times and received more than 23,000 Likes and 3,000 comments. It also drove people to his website and LinkedIn profile.

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Winter 2017

BRAND BUILDING

He also empowered recruiters to publish on media channels owned by the Marine Corps, on behalf of the Marines brand, which took some getting used to by leadership who were concerned over what recruiters were posting and felt communications should be vetted through PR. “That wasn’t realistic,” he explains. “Most recruiters had been using social media for recruiting, but they were doing it solely from personal profiles.” Even now, Evans looks at brands and sees a missed opportunity to leverage employees and customers in their marketing. Most, he believes, are afraid of letting employees create content around what they do, despite the reality that they are already talking about the brand. “We saw it with our recruiters and thought, ‘Let’s train them and show them how to do it,’” he says. “As long as there are systems and training in place for people to post on behalf of the brand, I’d say to put it on an owned media channel, where it can be tracked and you can see the effectiveness. People trust human-to-human interaction; they don’t necessarily trust brands.”

“In one three-month stretch, we had 600 recruiters generate 2,800 posts, which generated 50 million impressions on Facebook,” Evans adds.

“If you do that on a Facebook business Page, it’s really hard to get that kind of reach. By setting up lists and adjusting your privacy settings on Facebook, you have a lot of power over who can see your stuff. The secret to that organic reach is to make it personal, like being able to tag individuals on a business Page. For us, using ambassadors was a great way to contact like-minded talent.”

Creating these personal and local stories led to conversations and, ultimately, advocacy and trust. Recruiters were then taught to monitor these advocates and conversations and take them offline through a phone call or by reaching out via a mutual connection for an introduction. “The people we are bringing in today are smarter and know exactly what they are getting into,” Evans says.

“Social media has helped us create transparency like never before, so I believe this helps us bring in the right types of people.”

A major lesson Evans learned from this, and something he later used to build his own personal brand, was that having a great product and advertising on big media channels doesn’t mean a thing if your online personality doesn’t match who

you are offline when you reach out to someone.

“My point to recruiters was that when people sign up, they are buying you. They see something in you that they like,” he says. “I don’t think there is any secret—you repel the people who don’t want to be like you and attract the ones who do. Being your authentic self is important. Being honest and transparent sells more than anything else.”

Evans would later apply the same lessons he taught to recruiters when he launched his own personal brand, understanding that if people felt comfortable when they viewed his profile, they’d feel comfortable reaching out with other opportunities.

His podcast—interviews with military veterans who took the leap into entrepreneurship—is a prime example. When he realized it could be difficult to get interviewees on the phone for a conversation, Evans created a product that would help build his guest’s brand and name through the interviews they’d do with him. “I created value for the mentor to potentially help other veterans who listened to our interview, and I gave them a venue to promote their product or service as well,” he explains. “Not to mention building a great relationship with them, too!” n

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Evans would later apply the same lessons he taught to recruiters when he launched his own personal brand, understanding that if people felt comfortable when they viewed his profile, they’d feel comfortable reaching out with other opportunities.

BEDTIME READING As you might have figured by now, Dan Evans is pretty interested in learning.

Since books are generally considered a tried-and-true way to educate oneself, we asked him to recommend a few.

The 4-Hour Workweek (Timothy Ferriss) This book drastically impacted my life by helping me understand the importance of using technology to scale time.

The Start-Up of You (Reid Hoffman) and Crush It! (Gary Vaynerchuk) These books taught me the importance and how-to of developing relationships and a personal brand around a service, then telling the story. At the end of the day, people are investing in people, and people make up companies and brands.

Your Brand, the Next Media Company (Michael Brito) This book reinforced the power of online advocacy by using employees and consumers to help tell a meaningful story and earn trust with stakeholders.

Each of these books had a drastic impact on shaping the training for the Marines and helping me shape my personal narrative and my unique selling proposition while leaving military service.

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Winter 2017

MY WORKING DAY

My Working Day Carey Bradshaw Creative Butter, Workshop and One-on-One Coach for C-Suite Execs, Nonprofits, and Start-ups in Presentation Delivery Skills Connect with Carey at: linkedin.com/in/careybradshaw Read Carey’s blogs at: creativebutter.com/blog

Bringing the Secret Sauce to Presentation Delivery Carey Bradshaw is president and co-founder of Creative Butter, a marketing agency that brings on the “secret sauce.” Among many other hats, she’s on a mission to eradicate bad PowerPoint by coaching executives on presentation delivery skills.

Q: You work with C-levels, nonprofits, and start-ups to perfect their pitches to

saying. Having a poor deck is bad, but it can be overcome with a stellar presentation style.

Unfortunately, I rarely see this.

It’s all too common for presenters to rely too heavily on their deck or (gasp!) notes. By the way, notes are strictly verboten when presenting in my coaching sessions.

Q: There are so many ways presentations can go wrong. What mistakes do you frequently see?

Q: Content overload just seems to be getting worse, in spite of it being an acknowledged bad presentation practice. How do you convince people not to cram so much into their slides?

CB: I abide by the 5x5 rule—no more than five bullets per slide and no more than five words per bullet.

There are lots of versions of this rule, but I find that this allows enough information to impart the meaning

CB: I have to see a commitment to the process. I tend to work with executives, and I cover the process and time commitment in the initial meeting with them.

Presenting in public is a huge fear for so many people. I like to think my process is a fun and effective way to overcome any fears or bad habits to become a more effective, credible, and authentic presenter.

Q: What does a good coaching process look like?

The 5 x 5 Rule—no more than five bullet points per slide or five words per bullet point.

VCs and angel investors.

Those are pretty important moments. What are the risks for executives who deliver average to awful presentations?

CB: Loss of credibility, for one thing. And it’s not just about the physical presentation deck. How you say it is just (if not more) important than what you are

CB: Too many to count!

Death by PowerPoint is a big one. There’s nothing worse than watching a presenter read slides to the audience.

Usually this also involves lots of text or graphs that are too small for the audience to read.

Another pet peeve is when presenters go crazy with transitions and fly-ins.

ADVICE FROM A PRESENTATION EXPERT Tip: Above all else, brand that presentation.

There’s one thing people should start doing with their decks, and I go back to branding with this one. Decks should have consistent branding. This includes logo placement, color choices, and

fonts. Most decks are a hot mess, when this is such an easy way to look more professional. As both a marketer and a presentation delivery skills coach, I say presentations should be branded.

This means each and every slide has a similar look and feel.

of the slide, while not overwhelming the audience. A well-chosen graphic with a few words, combined with eye contact, confidence, and a rehearsed message, are much more impactful than watching someone read their notes to the room.

Q: How do you evaluate a client before you start working with them?

Tip: Keep Frankenstein away from your slides.

I often see the “Frankenstein” approach to deck building.

Presentations are hacked together by pulling slides from other presentations. The result is disjointed and has an unprofessional look that’s all over the map. My advice: start from scratch and have your agenda

CB: With me, there’s homework involved, and I really push clients out of their comfort zones. I use a number of tools and activities, and many are uncomfortable for executives. I’ve been known to use everything from improv to children’s books to move people away from their habits into becoming effective presenters. I am a big fan of TED Talks and use them often as examples.

outlined prior to development.

Tell your audience what you are going to tell them, then tell them, then recap by telling them what you told them. Great presentations are typically built to support and deliver no more than three highlevel key points. If you do this in a creative and authentic way, you will have an engaging presentation.

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7 Best Social Media Channels for Business Marketing:

1

Facebook • More than 1.79 billion users • 80/20 rule: 80% of your content should be for your audience, 20% for your business (sales, marketing, promotions, etc.)

2

Twitter • Great way to promote new products, offers, events • People retweeting your content will grow your following • Tweets should have CTAs: retweet, download, call, register, etc.

3

LinkedIn • 76% of B2B buyers prefer to work with recommendations from their professional network

4

• 433 million users; 40% check the platform every day • 49% of key decisionmakers use LinkedIn for business purposes

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YouTube • Second-largest search engine • Extensive analytics and user statistics • Broad range of uses, from tutorials to product demos and uses

5

Instagram • Great for events, trade shows, launches • Posts can include infographics, image quotes, graphic coupons, behind-the-scenes images • Consumers can snap a photo and tag your location, becoming marketers of your business

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Pinterest • Great visual marketing of products • Around 5% of all referral traffic to websites comes from Pinterest • 2/3 of content saved on Pinterest come from businesses

Yelp • 142 million users per month • Business-critical social channel allows you to engage in conversations with your reviewers • Considered to be one of the most influential channels due to authentic, organic consumer reviews Sources: Hootsuite, LinkedIn, Shareaholic, Social Media Examiner, Ahalogy, Sprout Social