The biggest gap in 90% of marketing departments is not data, it’s people who can successfully interpret the data and recommend actionable strategies to leverage current consumer trends.
Social Media
According to the Type A Group 250 advertising people – about 70% agency and 30% marketers – were asked very basic questions about video viewing habits of consumers. Their ignorance was shocking.
Social media can often be seen as a faceless form of communication, and hence many companies lose that personal touch to their customer service that they rely on in face to face interactions when communicating online. It is important that your do not forget that the importance you place on connecting with your customers offline should also transfer to the online world. All too often, I see some simple mistakes that can really damage your company’s reputation in the social media world. Here is a rundown of social media mistakes that are simple to rectify but can have a devastating effect on your reputation if you do not stop them now!
With all the hype around social media and digital marketing what we are learning now is that POP displays and things like packaging can still lead to conversion. Despite a shopping list being a tool to stay on budget and eliminate unnecessary purchases, research shows that nine out of ten shoppers still buy items not on their list.
So now the social media “experts” are telling brands that they need social media for customer service and to listen to consumers. Since organic reach is dead I guess they are trying to stay relevant so they can earn money speaking and selling books.
Blogs are influencing purchase decisions and recommendations more than ever. According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report, 38% of bloggers talk about brands positively and negatively on their blogs, and 34% write product, service, and brand reviews. This is happening more and more because consumers trust each other a lot more than they trust advertisers messages but let’s also remember that people are not going to seek Bloggers advice on every product.
There is no doubt that resources are hard to come by today as brands look to cut costs to make numbers. Probably the biggest surprise I hear from clients, when presenting the “under the hood” of social media implementation, is “I had no idea that many resources were needed to do it”.
It’s about time that marketers understand something:consumers don’t want to marketed to”. They are sick of commercials, sick of ads on mobile devices and they wield a lot of power holding brands accountable for bad marketing, ads and products.
