8 Ways CMOs Should Engage Millennials on Social Media

As a marketer, you’ve likely noticed the shift across the industry when it comes to targeted audiences. Millennials are now the primary group that everybody talks about and extensively analyzes on social media.

The reason for this is simple. Within the last few years, there has been a massive wealth transfer between baby boomers and their Gen X and millennial offspring. Now millennials wield a larger spending power than any other generation.

Here are 8 ways you can better reach millennials with social media:

1. Prioritize Visual Content

Millennials are visual learners. They grew up interacting with screen-based technology like television sets, video game consoles, and computers. As a result, they tend to respond best to content that stimulates their eyes. Marketers who want to attract their attention will need to do so with a strong aesthetic design.

Make sure that the images you post are always of the highest quality possible. Reach out to talented photographers and artists for potential collaborations. Also, don’t skimp on videos. It’s predicted that by 2019 about 80 percent of all internet content will be video.

2. Stay Relevant

On average, millennials spend a little over six hours each week on social media. They often use this time to catch up on the latest news, trends, and discussions. “Given the speed that the internet moves and evolves, content that seems old or outdated has a greater chance of being ignored,” says Jonathan Foley, the founder of the popular Instagram pages @Positivity, @Deep, and @Societyfeelings.

“You should constantly monitor social media to keep an eye on what’s trending. If you see a great opportunity to jump into the public conversation – for instance, if there’s a hashtag that meshes well with your brand – then go ahead.”

Exercise a little caution, and do some research first, though. It’s best to avoid highly controversial and divisive topics, or else you might risk alienating your audience.

3. Invite Participation

Millennials are active internet users. Sitting back and passively consuming content gets boring for many of them. They would rather interact with others and contribute their own thoughts and creations.

There are many ways to tap into this inclination. You could ask your viewers questions, or tell them to tag their friends in the comments. Furthermore, you could encourage them to make user-generated content and then feature it on your page. Another good way to invite participation is by announcing a new product without many details. An example is the announcement of Microsoft Office 2019. Many users on Twitter, specifically millennials, made memes of what this product could look like driving product awareness.

4. Don’t Waste Time

There are numerous claims about millennials’ short attention span. Most of them are drawn from dubious research or based on overly negative, unfounded biases. The truth is that millennials are no worse than any other generation in this area. Instead, the real problem is that a large chunk of social media marketing is poorly suited for the medium.

Social media is used more in short bursts than extended periods. This means that users judge content based on quick initial impressions. People will watch a longer video, for example, if the introduction is compelling enough; however, they’ll quickly tune it out if it spins its wheels for too long.

So, in other words, make an effort to get to the point faster.

5. Change Your Influencer Approach

For a while, it seemed as if influencers held the ultimate key to marketing to millennials. Now, perceptions are shifting. Millennials are starting to trust influencers less these days, and the reason is due to a lack of transparency.

Too many brands and influencers are failing to disclose their partnerships. As a consequence, it has shaken their followers’ confidence in their honesty and integrity. While many still might hesitate in sharing this information, being upfront is significantly less damaging than getting caught and called out.

6. Humanize Your Brand

A lot of marketers lose sight of the “social” part of social networks. The main reason so many millennials flock to these platforms is that they wish to talk to other real people. They don’t want their experience interrupted by obvious marketing from faceless businesses.

This is why some brands have found success in adopting more organic, genuine personalities online. Just take a look at the MoonPie account on Twitter. Its unique mixture of self-deprecation and weird humor has won it many followers on Twitter.

7. Support a Good Cause

Generations are reflections of the cultural environments in which they grew up. It’s for this reason that millennials are more socially conscious than their predecessors. Not only do they expect individuals to contribute to society, but brands are expected to as well.

About 75 percent of millennials say they want businesses to give back to their communities and demonstrate social responsibility. That involves working with charities, organizing awareness events, speaking out about important issues, fighting inequality, and helping the disadvantaged.

8. Treat Them Like Adults

Despite how some use the word, millennial is not a catch-all for young people. It specifically refers to adults currently between the ages of 22 and 37. Anybody who still thinks of them as teenagers really needs to update their mental picture.

Address them like you would any adult. Don’t speak in a condescending tone or treat them like they’re still children. Give them the respect that they deserve.

Make sure to also read: 3 Tips To Reach More Millennials With Your Social Media Marketing

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Five tips for writing a stellar promotional email

Before we dig into our interplanetary advice (no, really, anyone from anywhere can use these tips), let’s take a step back. You can’t even begin to create an effective promotional email if you don’t know what your goal is. Ask yourself:

• What are you offering?
• Whom are you offering it to?
• What do you want readers to do with your email?
• Do you want to convert readers into buyers or spread awareness for a new product?

Answering these questions will help you determine your goal and drive direction during the email creation process. Now, on to some tips and promotional email examples.

How to write a promotional email

1. Subject line

Subject lines are the first thing recipients see, and they can make or break your email open rates. Creating subject line copy that is awesome and attention-grabbing should be a priority as you write a promotional email, so be specific about the promotion you have without sounding too spam-like (e.g., don’t use “FREE, open this email NOW” as a subject line). Additionally, don’t promise something in the subject line that you can’t follow through on. Here’s an open-inducing subject line from online consignment store thredUP:

2. Email body

Whatever you promise in your subject line, make sure you follow through. Show that your emails are of value so recipients look forward to seeing things from you in their inbox. Demonstrating this value will capture, and keep, your potential customers’ attention, while endearing your brand to readers and encouraging them to take action. Here’s a good promotional email example from thredUp that not only shows how the company backs up the promise made in the subject line above, but also gives readers a reason to be excited about the email: 

 

3. Call to action (CTA)

Your CTA should drive to the action you want readers to take from your email. A good way to get people to act is by not telling them everything about your promotion. Capture their interest and then leave something to the imagination to get them clicking to your site. Keep in mind, though, that you need to be respectful of readers’ time: Don’t create copy or a CTA that misleads your reader. For instance, if your CTA says, “learn more about this promotion,” but sends people to your homepage, your blog or an unrelated product page, you’re betraying the trust they exhibited by clicking your CTA. 

ThredUP effectively uses two CTAs in the email below. The first CTA, “Start saving,” ties in with the subject line and the rest of the email body, while the secondary CTA at the bottom drives a different action.

 

4. Email format

Make your email easily scannable with things like images, bullets and titles. Break up the information by placing your main message at the top of your email, which broadcasts its importance. (Bonus tip: VerticalResponse has promotional email templates for you to build from.) 

5. Mobile-friendliness

People are glued to their phones. If you want them to be glued to your emails as well, captivate them with the above tips while also ensuring your emails are mobile-friendly. To be mobile-friendly, your emails must have a responsive design, meaning that the visual and copy components of your email will readjust to any screen size it’s being viewed on. Here’s thredUP’s email above as seen on a mobile screen:

 

Now that you’re in the know, create a promotional email and blast it into space (or readers’ inboxes). We think they’ll be impressed. 

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© 2018, Lindsey Bakken. All rights reserved.

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Practical Success Advice for Creative Professionals

There’s a bizarre myth in our culture that we have to choose between making a living and being creative. That...

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7 Ways to Build Lasting Customer Relationships

Answer this question with yes or no. Does content marketing, where you give your users and website visitors information and insights on how to achieve their goals more effectively, still work? Yes. And no. Unfortunately, many marketers focus more on creating great content machines than creating great customer relationships and authentic brands. And this type of marketing just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Over the years, some brands (possible constrained by resources and time) have reduced their content marketing efforts to simply churning out new content — be it blog posts, ebooks, or white papers. Instead of thinking of content as something that can help you rank better, you need to think of it as an opportunity to satisfy your audience’s needs and answer their questions. Focus on providing a great experience to your clients — one that emphasizes quality over quantity, builds credibility, and creates awareness about what your brand aspires to.

All content — from the blogs you write to the lead magnets you create to your posts on social media — should be part of an overall marketing strategy that’s working toward building an enriching experience. This will set you apart from your competitors and make a remarkable difference in the connections you create with your audience.

Here are some ways you can go beyond simple content marketing to provide a holistic marketing experience to your customers and visitors:

1.  Build a Brand Based on Authenticity

Of course creating good content is of vital importance, but your aim should be to build a brand experience that’s so compelling, relatable, and trustworthy that customers don't wait for you to come to them, they go looking for you.

At the heart of every great brand is the question, “What change does your brand create?” Is it just a product or set of products? Or is it something more? The difference you make in the lives of your customers is what will make your brand meaningful. Your aim should be to create a brand that your customers can be proud to be associated with.

Consider McDonald’s. This 63-year-old fast food chain has made a huge effort to address any controversies about the ingredients they use. They’re open about the quality and provenance of their ingredients, and they were the first chain to post calorie counts on all in-store menus.

Their most recent campaign showcased the brand’s desire to connect with their customers in an open and honest way. They invited people from around the world to ask them anything, and they committed to answering all of their questions. This helped solidify McDonald’s brand as transparent, authentic, and trustworthy.

Pro Tip: You need to love your brand before asking your client to do so. Your marketing team should know and like what you’re selling, and this genuine enthusiasm will definitely go a long way in winning your customers’ hearts.

2. Know Your Audience

To learn what will resonate best with your customers, you have to learn what makes them tick. And how do you find that out? We have a rare, golden trick for you to use. Listening. Listening to your customers can be done through a variety of means, ranging from collecting feedback via online surveys to conducting in-person or digital usability tests to seeing what customers search for, the comments they write on your social media posts, and, of course, from listening to customer service calls.

Now let’s take a look at Ikea. In response to a Facebook fan group called ‘I wanna have a sleepover in Ikea,’ which had over 100,000 members, Ikea actually hosted a sleepover in its Essex store for 100 lucky members! The winners were pampered with free manicures and massages, and even had a bedtime story read to them by a reality TV star! Ikea fulfilled their clients’ wishes and, more importantly, established themselves as a brand that listens to its audience.

3. Get Personal

There’s a popular quote by Maya Angelou that says, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

The same applies to your audience. It’s important that your visitors and customers feel that they’re treated as individuals and not as numbers in a tally. Personalization might require a little effort, but it goes a long way to ensuring that your clients feel valued. Try using content that’s interactive, strikes up a conversation, and directly uncovers their needs and problems.

Check out this quiz, for example. It’s a great example of how directly answering your audience’s questions (in this case, the audience consists of students who are looking for the best college) allows your business to garner their trust. It’s simple, really.

All buyer journeys begin as a quest for answers, and your job is to answer them. Here are some tips on how to create effective interactive experiences.

4. Make Interaction Easy

You have to be accessible and easy to work with. It’s important that your clients feel that you are there for them, and thankfully, there are a multitude of ways through which you can achieve this:  

• Complement your client’s overall experience with a website that loads quickly and easily provides all relevant information.
• Make it stupidly simple for someone to contact you.
• Place big, obvious call and map buttons and a simple contact form – on every single page of your website.

We all know that technology is a two-edged sword, so use it wisely.

The website of GrooveJar, a startup that works to improve website traffic conversion, (not surprisingly!) covers all of these points and more. They have a clean, navigable layout, easy-to-understand CTAs, and most importantly, they have all important information placed above the fold so that it’s easily visible to their website visitors. The icing on top are components like the easy-access reviews in the bottom left corner and the chat box that provides instant information and assistance to visitors.

5. Under Promise, Over Deliver

As a marketer, it is vital that you follow through with everything you promise. When a brand follows through, it proves that they are authentic, and fosters trust and connection. The No. 1 way to do this is to keep your word. When you deliver and fulfill your promises, you earn the loyalty of your clients. Avoid making unrealistic promises to impress your clients or imposing unrealistic deadlines that your team cannot meet. Just be honest, and deliver.

A great example of this can be seen in Toyota, the world’s largest automobile maker, and an industry trailblazer. They achieved this status by constantly coming through for their clients. With their brand promise that “nothing is so good that it cannot be made better,” the company has always strived, and succeeded, in constantly improving their output. Because of Toyota’s focus on quality and relative affordability, customers tend to stick around for life.

*Source: https://www.toyota-europe.com/world-of-toyota/feel/quality

6. It’s about the Experience, not the Words

“You say it best when you say nothing at all.” Ronan Keatings sure knew what he was talking about!

True magic happens when brands put customers in an immersive branded experience. Via experiential marketing, you stir genuine positive emotions and get to connect with your clients in a big way. By creating experiences that are participatory, hands-on and tangible, you offer your clients a real-life invitation to engage with your brand.

Take a leaf out of Lean Cuisine’s book. As part of its #WeighThis campaign, Lean Cuisine curated a gallery of "scales" in New York's Grand Central Station and invited women to "weigh in."

Here's the catch: The scales were actually small boards where women could write down how they really wanted to be weighed. And rather than focusing on their weight, the women opted to be measured by things like caring for 200 homeless children each day or being the sole provider to four sons. Notably, none of the participants actually interacted with a Lean Cuisine product. In fact, no one was really asked to do anything — the display was enough to entice people to stop, observe, and then, voluntarily interact.

By focusing on the experience and not the words, Lean Cuisine created an interactive experience that helped their audience focus on their accomplishments – instead of weight – while quietly displaying their brand’s beliefs and aspirations.

Pro Tip: Create a branded hashtag that participants can use to share the experience on social media. Then, make sure you’ve integrated an online element that allows people to participate when they learn about it this way.

7. Be Proactive

Being proactive shows that you’re always looking out for your audiences’ best interests. Little things such as sending your attendees an agenda in advance of an event or asking for their input afterward is a great way to add value. You need to put energy into generating content and securing media hits, but also into making your clients feel comfortable and cared for.

Trader Joe’s is a brand known for its great organic products and reasonable prices, but what’s exceptional is just how far they would go for their customers. For instance — for a snowed-in customer in Pennsylvania, not only did the brand agree to deliver directly to the man's home, they suggested items that would fit perfectly with his special low-sodium diet. Despite the weather, the food was delivered to the customer’s house free of charge in less than 30 minutes. Now that's service to remember!

*Source: https://ift.tt/2h4lvPt

Pro Tip: Your team is a strong component of your brand. From the marketing to the sales division, train your team to work together to create an overall positive experience for your audience. Every contact point is an opportunity for you to restate what you are all about and make them feel valued.

You can control the message that your brand cares about its audience, its products, and the world. You control how authentic you are, the quality of your marketing, and the value that the customers get from your product. The need to build a holistic marketing strategy that goes beyond basic content marketing is not an option, it’s an indispensable need. Are you ready to start working toward it?

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Doors to Copyblogger’s Content Marketer Certification Close Today

Just wanted to make sure everyone knows that today is the last day to join us inside the Copyblogger Certification...

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Want to Reconnect to What Really Matters? Try Breaking Your Routine

For the past several months, I’ve thought a lot about routines. How do we build a good routine? How do...

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My New SEO Tool: Ubersuggest 2.0

I promised you months back that I was going to release a newer, better version of Ubersuggest for free.

And can you guess what?

I just released it! 🙂

Before I go into the features of the new Ubersuggest and how it works, I just want to tell you that not all of the features have been released yet.

For the first release, I focused on keyword research.

So let’s dive into the new Ubersuggest.

Keyword Overview

The keyword research is broken down into 3 main sections: overview, keyword ideas, and SERP analysis.

The overview looks like this:

The first section is a graph that breaks down the search volume over time.

You can see the search volume for any keyword in any country and language over the course of the last 12 months.

The graph will show you if the keyword is gaining or declining in popularity or if it has seasonality.

In addition to that, it breaks down the cost per click, the SEO difficulty, and the paid difficulty.

The difficulty scores are from 1 to 100. The higher the number the harder it will be to compete for that keyword. And the lower the number the easier it is to compete.

Keyword Ideas

The second part of the keyword research is the ideas section.

This is the section that is most similar to the prior Ubersuggest but with a few more features.

You’ll see a list of keyword ideas.

The keywords are pulled using both Google Suggest and AdWords recommendations. This way you can get a comprehensive list of potential keywords you may want to rank for.

And similar to the overview section, you’ll also be able to see volume data for each keyword as well as cost per click (CPC), paid difficulty (PD), and SEO difficulty (SD) data.

Now on the right side of the keyword ideas report you’ll see all of the sites that rank in the top 100 for that term.

This is my favorite part of the keyword ideas report because you can easily see the estimated visit count based on rankings.

This metric looks at whether a keyword has seasonality and if there are any rich snippets or paid listings for the term.

In addition to showing you the estimated visits based on rank, you’ll also see how many social shares each URL has and its domain score.

Domain score is a metric between 1 and 100. The higher the number, the more authoritative a domain is and the harder it will be to beat that site.

As for the social shares, this will tell you how much people loved that particular web page. If more people are sharing it, they must have really enjoyed it.

The last feature in the keywords idea report (other than the exporting to CSV feature which doesn’t need much of an explanation) is the filtering.

This is where you can filter the keyword results based on any data point you want. From limiting the results to just Google Suggest or AdWords or by filtering keywords based on their popularity and competition.

If there are also too many results like the screenshot above, you can exclude or include certain terms or phrases. This will help you filter the results even faster.

And if you want to focus on long tail terms, just “uncheck” the “Google Ads” option and you will see all of the long tail terms.

SERP Analysis

The last section, SERP analysis, shows you a simple view of the top 100 sites that rank for any given term.

I know many of you are doing keyword research in different languages and regions and you’ll be able to do that with all of the reports, including the SERP analysis.

Eventually, I’ll showcase rich snippets and paid advertising data in this report.

We are already taking those two things into account when we run our calculations on estimated visits.

And of course, you’ll also see social share data and domain score.

So, what’s next?

I wish I was able to release everything at once, but development is never easy or fast. I have an amazing team… but good things just take time.

A few of the features I want to release over the next few months include a traffic analyzer report, which shows how much traffic a domain receives from Google.

Another feature I will release will be a report that showcases top pages for any given website and the search terms that each of those pages rank for.

Once I release the traffic analyzer report, the team will be focusing on the content ideas report.

The content ideas will be part of the keyword research section.

When you research any keywords, you’ll be able to see the most popular articles on that subject based on search traffic and social shares (similar to Buzzsumo).

Conclusion

What do you think about the new Ubersuggest? If you haven’t used it, go check it out.

And if you find any bugs, please email them to support@neilpatel.com so my team and I can work on fixing them.

Like I mentioned earlier, this is a work in progress and other amazing features are already being worked on for future release. A lot of these ideas come from you guys so, please, the more feedback the better.

So, what do you think about the new Ubersuggest?

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5 Ways To Come Up With Great Content Ideas Now

Do you need new ideas for content creation? How can you setup a stream of constant creative energy to best serve your audience? Is there a recipe for this process?

Although there are no definitive answers to these questions, here at Fizzle we do think we have some helpful directions to get your content conveying belt rolling! It is actually a bit easier than you might think to get that pot steaming and your platforms fizzling with fresh new stuff for you clients.

In this episode, we talk a little about marketing and social media and the different philosophies around these concepts before getting down to the actual nitty gritty ways to jumpstarting your creativity.

We also talk about SEO, bias, viral sharing and all that good stuff you are usually aiming for. We look at the three major avenues that you can use, that are right at your fingertips, so we know you are going to want to get in on this!

For all this and much more, be sure to tune into this must-hear episode!

Subscribe (how to)   iTunes   Overcast   Pocket Casts   Stitcher   Google Play   RSS  

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Key Points From This Episode:

• The evolution of content marketing and social media now. [0:03:55.4]
• The two schools of thought on what makes content grow. [0:07:19.6]
• Matching your content and strategy with your type of business. [0:12:38.4]
• The built in bias that can help us along our entrepreneurial path. [0:18:45.7]
• Using both schools of thought in conjunction with each other. [0:22:20.9]
• Accidental SEO and finding your way as you go. [0:28:02.4]
• Writing content for shares or viral possibility. [0:29:53]
• Content creation as a means to scratch your own itch. [0:35:25.7]
• Taking inspiration from your own life and business for new content. [0:39:05.4]
• Ideas from research and surveys in an existing community. [0:45:00.8]
• What are your contemporaries creating? Using this question as a starting point. [0:50:22.4]
• Grouping these strategies into passive and active. [0:56:49.1]
• And much more!

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

• Fizzle — https://fizzle.co/
• Motherbirth — https://motherbirth.co/
• Simplified Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/simplified/?hl=en
• Matt Giovansci — https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgiovanisci
• Swim University — https://www.swimuniversity.com/
• Flywheel Hosting — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/fizzle-plus-flywheel
• SEO fro Bloggers — https://fizzle.co/seo
• Brendan Hufford — https://brendanhufford.com/
• Epic Content Marketing – https://fizzle.co/sparkline/epic-content-marketing
• Clayton Christensen — http://www.claytonchristensen.com/
• BuzzFeed — https://www.buzzfeed.com/
• Joe Rogan — https://www.joerogan.com/
• Fizzle Roadmap — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/small-business-roadmap-1-clarity
• Courage and Clarity — https://www.courageandclarity.com/
• The Goal Digger Podcast — https://podcast.jennakutcher.com/
• Jenna Kutcher — https://jennakutcher.com/home
• Is Your Dream Really Possible? Episode — https://www.courageandclarity.com/podcast/108
• Scott Dinsmore — https://liveyourlegend.net/about-scott-dinsmore/
• Ahrefs — https://ahrefs.com/
• Pat Flynn — https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/
• Joe Biden — https://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/joe-biden
• Corbett Barr on Twitter — https://twitter.com/CorbettBarr
• Chase Reeves on Twitter — https://twitter.com/chase_reeves
• Start A Blog That Matters Course — https://fizzle.co/start-a-blog-that-matters
• Fizzle 80/20 Copywriting Guide — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/writing-copy-for-web
• Fizzle Toolkit — https://fizzle.co/toolkit
• Fizzle Goals Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/goals
• Fizzle Journaling Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/journal
• Fizzle Craft + Commerce — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/craft-commerce
• Fizzle Project Management for Entrepreneurs — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneurs
• Fizzle Try 5 — http://fizzle.co/try5
• Fizzle Hosting — https://fizzle.co/hosting

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