Our Top Three Digital Marketing Articles | September 25

In this week’s highlight of digital marketing articles, I’m sharing about online marketing, brand awareness, and why having FANs of your business is key. Especially as we’re turning towards Q4 and wrapping things up for the year, it’s important to have a marketing strategy in place that will help you to reach those year-end goals! Check out three articles that I enjoyed this week.

Q4 key dates and campaign examples by Ash Read

The last quarter of the year can be an especially busy one for marketers. There can feel like there is a lot of keep on top of with all the content to round out the year. But with advance planning and strategy, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Buffer shares a great Q4 content calendar that highlights the holidays and events for the rest of the year and how you might incorporate them into your brand effectively.

My reflections: Quarter 4 is upon us and this can be an especially powerful, but sometimes tricky, quarter for social media. With it, it brings a lot of holidays. Which means a lot of chances to potentially connect deeper with leads and customers, but also some changes to go astray. Companies should recognize these holidays otherwise their social media and marketing efforts will sound out of touch for the current season.

What’s a better social media goal: customer loyalty or brand awareness? by Jason Keath

The measurement of any marketing effort and especially social media marketing efforts is key. It’s possible that social media isn’t huge for your specific business or at least not where you’re focusing the majority of your efforts, but if you focus on conversion it can help your overall strategy. Social Fresh shares their new social media marketing report that highlights the future of social media. They found that for the majority of brands, awareness is their top social media goal. Sales are farther down the list. The least focused on aspect of social media? Customer Service.

My reflections: Social media can do a lot for a potential customer’s awareness of a brand. Sure, someone may not directly buy a home through your Instagram or Facebook post, however, if they see you while they are scrolling through their feed they are more likely to remember your name at a later date. And while awareness is a great place to focus on, with a little additional strategy, you can build up other parts like customer service and customer loyalty to help your business overall.

Study Finds 83% of Americans Are Likely to Buy a Product or Service When This Happens by Jay Baer

Over at Convince and Convert they’ve been working on some research to better understand the importance and effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing. Shockingly (or maybe not so shockingly) they found that 83% of Americans are more likely to buy something if they have received a recommendation from a family or friend. That’s a large number. This means that word of mouth marketing is important for any business and is the way that potential customers actually want to get information about buying a product or service. That means “good” companies may not be getting that word-of-mouth marketing that they desire, because most people don’t share about “good” experiences – they share about great ones. Ones that go above and beyond and really stand out. BTW – check out Jay’s new book Talk Triggers and learn the science and art of word-of-mouth marketing.

My reflections: Word-of-mouth marketing can be hugely beneficial for any business, as the research that Convince and Convert shows. Having excellent customer service that goes above and beyond can truly change someone from just a customer to a FAN. It’s part of my whole idea and series around FANtastic marketing. Recently, I ended up going live from the airport (something I rarely do!) because I had to share about an experience with a company, that honestly, left me awe-struck. If you didn’t already know, I’m a huge fan of Rustic Cuff. They are a brand of cuff bracelets that I love and wear often, especially when I’m speaking. During one of my speaking events, I realized I was in the city where they had their showroom and knew I had to go. I ended up choosing a nice bracelet for myself as a gift. As I was checking out I told the cashiers how excited I was to have found the store and how much I loved their products and wore them frequently. As I was getting ready to pay, she let me know that it would be on the house. I was shocked. She said that she knew that the owner would want me to have this bracelet since I had been a loyal customer. That right there – customer service that goes above and beyond. It wasn’t just a good experience – it was a great one. And it turned me into a FAN for life and I’m now sharing my experience with my friends and family.

Meredith Oliver is a digital marketing expert, sales and marketing professional speaker, and author. If you’d like more information on speaking engagements or books, visit MeredithSpeaks.com For sales and marketing tips, you’re at the right spot! Take a look around Meredith Communications. Follow her on Twitter: @MeredithCSPand follow her killer shoe collection on Instagram: @MeredithsShoes22.

Categorised in: Digital Marketing, FANtastic Marketing Tips