New year, new strategy?
Congratulations - you’ve almost made it through the longest, coldest, month of the year! If it’s taken you a few weeks to get back into the swing of the real world after Christmas, then you’re not alone. Reopening the inbox and restoring work tabs comes as a bit of a shock for all of us.
However, now that we’ve all remembered how to do our jobs, it’s time to make plans for 2025. A defined strategy = measurable, successful outcomes. Something we’ve been loving this month on social media is the “ins and outs” trend, which involves using the Notes app to list and share the things you want to bring into the new year, and then the things you’re aiming to leave in the previous one. In fact, we couldn't resist jumping on this ourselves!
The Zync version, of course, is a marketing special. Six things that every marketer should include in this year’s strategy, and six things that should stay firmly in 2024.
Here are our ins and outs: the marketing edition…
What are we bringing in?
Building an online community
A survey from Salesforce revealed that 84% of customers say being treated like a person rather than a customer is very important when it comes to winning their business. Yet another reason why brands rely on marketers for success; it’s not enough just to provide a great product. You need to build authentic, long-term human connections surrounding your business. This means getting your audience involved in your brand. Make people do something! Take the Adidas Creator’s Club - the adiClub - a programme that rewards customers with access to “exclusive” sales and events. By asking them to complete set activities, Adidas uses its deep customer understanding to make people feel part of an exclusive group. Which leads nicely onto our next point…
Targeted, personalised messaging that speaks to your customers
We’re bombarded with marketing messages and adverts. The average cross-industry marketing email open rate is only 2.3% - that’s more than 97% of marketing emails being ignored or deleted. A personalised email, however, has around a 25% higher chance of being opened. This could be as straightforward as including the contact’s name in the subject line or more advanced like offering tailored deals based on their spending habits. Customers should feel like the brand message was made just for them, not them and thousands of other people. Personalised marketing features in the strategies of the biggest names; Amazon shows you products it thinks you’ll want, Netflix recommends programmes you might like. And personalisation goes further than email campaigns; many restaurants, for example, show each site visitor their nearest branch using location tracking, and social media is a more inexpensive way to put out a message to a specific group.
Using data to inform your strategy
In order to create the targeted messaging we spoke about in our previous point, you need a good set of data. One of the best ways of getting to know your customers and their behaviours is through surveys, which could be sent out via email or linked on social media. You can even bring in two “Ins” in one by using a reward incentive for submission! Information taken directly from your target audience members’ mouths allows for campaigns that match their interests, and any negative feedback tells you what to avoid in future. There are also more technical resources available such as CRM systems and AI-powered tools that predict interactions. Once you’ve implemented a strategy based on this information, you should analyse its performance. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) will vary depending on your brand’s industry but usually include statistics like click-through and conversion rates. Use these to continuously refine and adapt your approach.
Maintaining brand authenticity that makes you stand out
To reinforce an important point from “In” number two; many customers receive hundreds of marketing emails a day and scroll past endless social media adverts. Hence why it’s so important that your brand has a voice - one that makes you stand out and ensures you’re memorable. Every brand should have a set of visuals and a tone that is both consistent with the image it wants to portray, and unique from those of its rivals. For example, you could look at any sentence written in the infamous curly white font on a red background and immediately think “Coca-Cola”. A clear style guide is a great place to start; it sets a template for branding across each platform, ensuring cohesivity of content.
Campaigns that tell stories
This doesn’t necessarily mean “Once upon a time…”! Relevant storytelling is a powerful marketing technique because it creates an emotional connection between a company and its customers. This is what leads to a “humanised” brand, building loyalty and therefore increasing conversion rates. A good brand story creatively demonstrates that you understand your audience’s challenges; then shows how you can help. Barclaycard mastered this in one 2019 campaign showing a couple with a conflict of interests. First, we see a woman enjoying a wrestling match whilst her partner dreams of being at a music festival, then vice versa. The man enjoys a festival and the woman wishes she were watching wrestling. All is OK, however, because Barclaycard offers savings on thousands of events, meaning that neither of the pair has to miss out on their hobby.
Creating a profile on Bluesky
Noticed a drop in your X (formerly Twitter) following lately? Or, at least, a decline in engagement? It’s probably nothing you’ve done wrong. Elon Musk’s platform lost 2.7 million active users at the end of last year, with many prominent figures announcing their departures following concerns over its role in Trump’s reelection and the rise in misinformation. Even The Guardian dubbed it a “toxic media platform”. Bluesky, in contrast, averaged a million new users per day during one week last November - a trend that seems to be continuing. Which is why we’re running a special offer this month; if you’re having doubts about X and would like to try Bluesky, we’ll set your social enterprise or credit union up and get an account going for only £119*.
See what we did there? We understood your problem - and now we’re giving you a way to solve it! Just get in touch…
*+VAT
And what are we leaving out?
Jumping on trends that don’t align with your audience
It can be tempting to hop on every viral trend. If it’s working for others, why wouldn't it work for you? However, reactive content should be created with strategy in mind. Not all current media fixations will align with your audience, so choosing the wrong ones puts you at risk of alienating people. And return to point #3 - maintaining brand authenticity - doing something simply because everyone else is will not help differentiate your content from the sea of noise. An audience made up of 40-60-year-olds in the corporate sector, say, won’t find the latest TikTok sound as entertaining as an audience of teenagers and 20-somethings. Try to stay current and down-to-earth, but choose trends that fit your brand's identity.
Sticking to the same strategies rather than experimenting with new ones
The marketing world is constantly adapting and evolving - so your strategy should do the same! We mentioned continuous refinement and adaptation in our point about data, and you should be using your insights to test new approaches, explore emerging platforms - to be generally ahead of the curve. To put this into perspective; when Instagram was launched in 2010 it was exclusively a single photo-sharing platform, but over the last few years has added numerous extra features. The engagement rate of “Reels” now exceeds that of still images by almost 1%, and “Carasouls” also tend to perform better. So, if you use Instagram but haven’t experimented beyond the traditional photos, the chances are you’re falling behind your competitors.
Ignoring customer feedback
Of course, nobody likes to receive negative feedback. Acting on criticism, however, is often the best way of improving. Like we said in point #3, surveys and feedback forms are relatively straightforward tools that are invaluable when it comes to setting a successful strategy. If you notice a recurring negative comment or review, then perhaps that’s something that needs to change. And if there’s an aspect of your company that’s regularly praised, you know that’s something to keep shouting about!
Neglecting to research your audience and competitors
Market research might not sound thrilling, but it leads to thrilling results. Neglect to make it part of your strategy and you’ll struggle to establish a clear idea of who your target audience is and what they want. Staying on top of consumer and economic trends as well as what others in your industry are focussing on allows you to tailor your product or service to meet demands, or even identify further relevant gaps you could fill. The statistics you should monitor will vary depending on your industry, but Hubspot offers a useful set of planning templates along with guides on how to use them, and the Office for National Statistics is always a reliable source if you’re looking for information such as employment rates and national income. Researching your competitors is more straightforward; follow them on social media, keep track of the products they’re offering, and stay generally up-to-date on what other brands are doing.
An overselling, unrelatable tone of voice
We’ve spoken about brand authenticity and creating campaigns that tell stories, so you’ve probably got the picture; don’t talk like a salesperson. Consumers don’t want products flogged to them - they want entertaining, relatable content. According to a survey from 2022, 91% of people globally want brands to be funny, and with corporations including the likes of Monzo and Ryanair now opting for a funny, lighthearted tone of voice, especially on social media. And it works - look at Monzo’s LinkedIn page. Now look at Nationwide’s. Likes and comments don’t always mean revenue, but they are a good indicator of a loyal, engaged customer base. Humour sells!
Content that offends or alienates anyone
This one needs little explanation. The last thing you want is to put out content that offends people, because it'll damage your reputation and erode consumer trust. It’s generally best to avoid controversial topics such as serious news stories and politics. Knowing where to draw the line can be difficult, though. The question of politics in marketing is such a big one that it deserved to be a blog post itself! We’ve seen huge brands experience extreme backlash for misjudged adverts, showing how important it is to approach sensitive topics with caution.
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