I’ve been immersed in the world of social media marketing since the beginning. It was so exciting to be part of those early pioneering days!

It took us years to determine how authentic creativity and real human engagement blended (or didn’t blend) with the stodgy culture of traditional corporate marketing.

It took a lot of patience and experimentation to prove that we fit a marketing department. The biggest question we always faced: “How do you measure the value of this stuff?”

I lost one of my first customers because I couldn’t measure the ROI of a tweet!

We’ve come a long way, and social media marketing has evolved into an independent skill set and budget item. However, according to new research from Sprout Social, we’ve made little progress in terms of measurement and legitimizing our work.

This chart from the report made my head spin:

So 68% of social media marketers define Return on Investment … by engagement???

No wonder some regard the field as fluffy.

ROI is a financial measurement. Period. Always has been. Always will be.

If you came to my office justifying the ROI of your effort by engagement, I’d throw you out.

Social media marketers have been at this for more than a decade. Shouldn’t we be aligned with the real language of business by now?

To make matters worse, there is little to no correlation between engagement and the business’s revenue, conversions, or brand loyalty. Social media marketers are literally picking the worst possible measurement — engagement — to justify their existence.

The purpose of marketing is to create customers. If you’re driving engagement without conversions, you’re “engaging” your company into the poor house. Let’s look at a better way.

What “Measurable ROI” Looks Like

When we say “social media,” do we mean ads or Instagram Reels? Sprout probably needs to do a little better with the question because a good marketer will use both, and “ROI” lands in different ways.

When we consider social media advertising, we can generally measure ROI with precision — Conversions, CPA, ROAS.

When you run paid campaigns with clear calls to action, you can measure cost per acquisition, return on ad spend, and lead generation. This is where social media behaves like any other performance channel.

So for the “bottom of funnel” or “middle to bottom funnel” activity, social media is highly measurable. You can put in dollars, get out hard numbers, rinse and repeat.

This success requires collaboration with a trusted, experienced ad partner, but on the performance marketing side of the business, the real ROI of social media is easily measured. So why not say so?

Brand Marketing is Critical, Too

Now to the less measurable, but equally crucial side: awareness, trust, brand equity. This represents brand marketing, and these benefits matter deeply, but they don’t always show up on the next quarter’s P&L in obvious ways.

Direct ROI attribution for organic TikTok videos, thought leadership posts, and podcasts is notoriously difficult.

My friend Martin O’Leary put it well in his excellent newsletter:

• 77.5% of sharing is invisible (Dark Social data)
• 93% of attribution died with iOS 14.5 (Dashboard data)
• Most metrics don’t drive revenue anyway (Vanity metrics data)

If you’re obsessed with attribution and engagement, you’re not seeing the full picture. And that might be the best thing that’s happened to you.

Because once obsession over attribution dies, you have to look elsewhere.

• Do people remember you?
• Are they talking about you?
• Do they come back without needing a discount code?

That’s marketing.
Not math.

This is where we usually fumble the ROI discussion. It’s hard to find the money, so we revert to “engagement” because it’s easy to measure.

But not all measurements are important. And, in this case, all things important cannot be easily measured.

Brand marketing — and I would include almost all organic posting in this category — is essential because it builds a company’s emotional connection with its audience, fosters long-term trust, and ultimately drives sustainable growth. In a world flooded with noise, choice, and copycats, a brand is the one thing nobody else can replicate. It’s your reputation, your signal, and your promise all wrapped into one.

The Brand Equity Imperative

Your reputation and brand equity is hard to quantify on a month-to-month basis, especially for smaller companies, but it is no less important than the advertising side. Done right, social media can propel awareness, foster brand conversations, and cultivate a community that can significantly increase revenue.

Brand equity is a proxy for trust. People don’t buy from faceless companies. They buy from those they feel understand them. And trust is earned through consistent, human-centered communication. When your marketing focuses on reinforcing your values and emotional resonance, it accelerates the building of trust.

Second, brand marketing creates differentiation. In fact, it is probably your only differentiation. Competing on features or price is a race to the bottom. The best brands compete on emotion, identity, and belonging. Apple, Patagonia, and Nike aren’t just companies. They’re symbols of aspiration and identity.

Third, a well-developed brand becomes a growth engine. Studies show that brand-loyal customers spend more, refer more, and forgive more. They become your marketing department (see my book Marketing Rebellion to do a deep dive on that idea).

Brand marketing builds resilience. When economic conditions shift or new competitors enter the market, it’s not just your product that keeps you afloat — it’s your brand equity. A well-loved brand gives you margin, customer loyalty, and relevance when everything else is uncertain.

Finally, brand marketing has a compounding effect. The more people encounter your message in a clear, emotional, and consistent way, the more brand momentum you build. Like investing, the returns grow over time.

Measuring Social Media Brand Marketing

Just because social media brand marketing is harder to measure doesn’t mean it’s unmeasurable. But folks, we need to move beyond engagement.

The truth is, there are reliable indicators that show how your brand-building efforts contribute to ROI over time. These may not appear to be instant sales, but they are leading indicators of future financial health.

Here are a few:

Share of Search

This is one of the best proxies for brand awareness. If more people are typing your brand name into Google compared to competitors, you’re winning mindshare. Les Binet’s famous research shows that share of search is a strong predictor of future market share.

Branded Traffic

Website visits that come directly from brand-related keywords and links are another sign of brand equity. Growth in branded search volume indicates that customers know you, remember you, and are actively seeking you out.

A side comment — When customers care enough about you to include your name in a search, you are “overriding” the automated decision-making of AI. In the AI world, brand is more important than ever.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

A strong brand doesn’t just attract customers; it keeps them. CLV grows when your brand fosters loyalty and repeat purchase behavior.

Referral Rates and NPS (Net Promoter Score)

People are more likely to recommend brands they trust. Tracking referrals, reviews, and NPS is a way to connect emotional equity to bottom-line growth.

First-Party Data > Everything

If you don’t own the relationship, you don’t own the result. Attribution models that rely on third-party data are dead. What works now:

• Email capture with progressive profiling
• Customer accounts with behavioral tracking
• Direct website visits through branded searches
• SMS opt-ins for immediate communication

Pricing Power

Strong brands can command a premium price. If you can maintain margins or raise prices without losing customers, that’s a measurable ROI of brand strength.

Subscriptions

Especially for small businesses, building an email list is everything. These are the people who love you and will buy from you.  Subscribers are a leading indicator to revenue.

It’s hard to attribute brand marketing to a precise dollar amount on every social media post, but you can measure whether your social media efforts are moving the levers that ultimately lead to revenue and customer acquisition.

So yes, social media is both advertising (measurable today) and brand marketing (measurable over time). Budget for both brand AND performance marketing. When you account for both sides of the equation, you’re not just justifying social media — you’re proving its role as a powerful business driver.

Just don’t ruin it by telling your boss that an increase in engagement is the ROI of your marketing! Are you with me on this?

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

The post This is Why Social Media Marketers Struggle appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Marketers love talking about trust.

We toss around phrases like “authenticity,” “emotional resonance,” and “earning customer loyalty” as if every purchase is a sacred relationship between buyer and brand.

But here’s the truth: I don’t trust most of the things I buy. I just buy them.

I don’t trust my gas station (I probably don’t even notice the brand). I don’t have a meaningful relationship with the person who stocked the bananas. I don’t need my new ladder to make me feel something.

It’s time to fill the tank with gas. I want a banana. I need a ladder. And then I want to be left alone. I don’t want branded content, net promoter surveys, or a brand community.

So what gives? Is all this “trust marketing” talk a bunch of fluff?

Not exactly.

But let’s stop pretending that every product, brand, or moment requires emotional depth. Because marketing isn’t a single tool. It’s a spectrum of strategies, and trust is just one part of the picture.

The Two Faces of Marketing

At its core, marketing is about creating customers. But there are two fundamentally different ways we do that:

1. Performance Marketing

This is transactional. It’s about showing up at the right time, solving a real need, and moving on.

Examples:

• Google Ads for “urgent care near me”
• A $5 coupon for a wrench at Home Depot
• Bananas on sale at the endcap at your grocery store

No trust. No loyalty. No emotional arc. Just commerce.

2. Brand Marketing

This is the long-term play. It’s about emotional preference, identity, and recall.

Examples:

• Buying Patagonia over another cheaper jacket because you believe in their environmental story
• Lining up for hours to buy a new iPhone
• Knowing that “Nike” feels different from “Puma” even if the shoes are basically the same

Here, trust does matter. So does consistency, storytelling, and human connection.

Most companies employ a blend of these two marketing strategies. Start-ups may emphasize performance marketing to fill their sales pipeline. More established brands will focus almost entirely on brand marketing to create distance between their products and the competition.

Many everyday products don’t need brand marketing. They just need to be visible, relevant, and frictionless.

And that’s okay.

The Myth of Universal Trust

When I buy petrol, a banana, or a ladder, it doesn’t mean marketing isn’t at work — it just means it’s not obvious.

Somewhere behind the scenes, someone:

• Decided which bananas get top shelf space
• Sets the pricing strategy
• Designed the end cap packaging
• Built a reliable supply chain to deliver fresh fruit to your store

That’s marketing. It’s not flashy. It’s not emotional. But it’s real.

When I was a B2B marketing leader, I spent most of my time in transportation, accounting, and customer service, seeking ways to serve our customers better and improve our profit margin. Not very Hollywood, but a challenging job that required insight and creativity. I never won a Cannes Lion Award, but I created significant value for my company.

A Better Definition of Marketing

One of the most popular definitions of marketing is “Marketing is earning trust at scale.”

That is so oversimplified. It more or less overlooks the classic “Four Ps” of marketing, which still work really well! It overlooks the fact that I was a highly successful B2B marketer by keeping my head buried in spreadsheets all day long!

Here’s a definition that I think works better:

Marketing is the process of creating customers—through visibility, relevance, or desire.

Twelve words. No fluff. It holds up for pencils and Porsches.

Sometimes, we create a customer by showing up at the perfect time.

Sometimes, we do it by building a story that lodges in the heart.

Sometimes, we just put a banana where people expect to find one.

Final Thought: Let’s Respect the Whole Spectrum

If you’re selling designer jewelry, storytelling matters.

If you’re selling windshield wipers, trust probably isn’t the hurdle — visibility is.

So let’s retire the idea that trust is the only game in town. Let’s build brands when it makes sense.
Let’s optimize transactions when that’s what the customer wants. Let’s remember that some people just want to buy their banana and go home.

Normally, I write about what’s next in the marketing world. But there is always SO MUCH confusion about the essence of marketing that I wanted to pause and ground the discussion. There is too much navel-gazing about storytelling, AI strategy, TikTok, and even trust. Marketing is so much more.

The best marketers know how to use every tool in their toolbox, at the right place, at the right time.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post Do I Really Need to Trust My Banana? What Most Marketers Get Wrong About “Trust” appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

On the latest episode of The Marketing Companion, I decided to take a deep dive into the nooks and crannies of social media marketing, and there’s nobody better to accompany me than marketing genius Dennis Yu.

Dennis studies the art and science of social media success to the Nth degree and we get into some fascinating discussions that include:

• The ROI of a blue check mark
• The viral power of feel-good stories
• A social media platform that is killing it right now
• How social media platforms are using facial and image recognition to elevate content
• Why replay rate is the key to success on TikTok
• Insights into what’s happening with Meta and the metaverse

Dennis also shares a unique perspective on how search engines and social platforms are turning over information to the US government. But TikTok doesn’t have to … which could be influencing the government’s position with that platform.

Click here to listen to episode 270

Resources mentioned in this show

TikTok Advertising book

Blog post: Why hate is good for business

Ocean Spray cranberry juice case study

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post What is the ROI of a blue check mark? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

A the urging of my website advisor, I did some housekeeping here on the blog. It was time to sweep out some older blog posts that were either irrelevant or ignored by the world. But I came across a gem — An old list of marketing predictions!

In 2009, I made 12 marketing predictions about the future of social media. There wasn’t any timeframe specified … they were just predictions about “the future.” I thought it would be fun to give myself a report card and see how I did on the predictions.

To set the stage, in 2009, social media marketing was just creeping into the mainstream. There weren’t any big social media marketing conferences, nothing like “content marketing,” and nobody was using the term “influencers.” Measurement was almost impossible, blogging was a new rage, and Twitter was just building steam.

So as you read my marketing predictions, you’ll have to imagine a world where most companies didn’t even have a Twitter account yet! I summarized some of the marketing predictions to keep this article short, but you can see the original prediction post here.

The 2009 marketing predictions … and my “grade!”

1. “Hyper social measurement”

Back in 2009, social media marketing measurement was a huge problem. The metrics coming out of the newly-emerging social media platforms were terrible. I predicted that Google would become the gold standard for social media monitoring since they could see data and interactions across all channels. They would put social listening platforms out of business.

My grade: D

Google and Google Analytics did become an important source of marketing measurement, so my prediction is not quite a fail. However, today we rely on a mix of platform dashboards and third-party social listening platforms like the AI-powered Sprinklr to let us know what’s happening in the social media world.

2. Tapping into text messaging

In 2009, the one communication mode largely untouched by real-time search was text messaging. Text messages were a goldmine of information too big to ignore, especially if you’re a “cool-hunting” consumer products company.  I predicted that somehow companies would tap into this data, perhaps by incentivizing users to opt-in to rewards programs for their anonymized data.

My grade: B+

In fact, Facebook (Meta) did find a way to own much of the world’s private messaging through Messenger and WhatsApp.

Messenger was introduced in 2011, and WhatsApp in 2010. Another big cache of private messaging is occurring on Instagram (Meta) and TikTok.

Meta does not completely own the market on private messaging — we still send text messages — but the company is capturing data on 200 billion messages a day on Messenger and WhatsApp combined!

3. Real-time geo-sensitive coupons

In 2009, the idea that relevant ads would show up when you were in a certain location was still science fiction. I predicted that RFID technology, combined with GPS, would enable convenient, real-time deals, right down to the store shelf.

For example, if you pick up a blouse off of a rack, a message will direct you to the precise area of the store where you can find a matching skirt … on sale just for you.

My grade: B+

We’re not exactly at that “shelf-level” yet, but we will be. And we certainly have real-time, geo-appropriate ads coming to us based on the city we’re in or a road we’re driving on, so my prediction more or less came true.

4. Radical privacy movement

I predicted that the intense data gathering by Big Tech would result in privacy regulations, including the right to be excluded from Internet data-gathering mechanisms like cookies. I thought that there would be a backlash against Google because the company would eventually abuse its power.

My grade: A

Almost every country in the world has privacy regulations in place. We all have the ability to control privacy settings by law. With the eventual demise of cookies, this trend will continue. I would not say Google is the most hated company. That title would probably go to Facebook, but my reasoning was sound.

5. Man-machine interface.

Medical advances and social media platforms would converge.  We would be able to engage on social media with our thoughts. Humans will have markings like tattoos to display the premium, designer brand of devices embedded in their bodies. This will give new meaning to the tagline “Intel Inside.”

My grade: Too soon to tell

Remember, I wasn’t predicting something 10 or 20 years into the future. It was just something that would happen at some time. There have been incredible breakthroughs in tapping into brainwaves, so my prediction is certainly directionally correct.

6. We become the Internet.

Building on the last idea, as the ubiquity of the social web literally becomes part of our existence, we will no longer distinguish between listening, talking, and electronic communications. In our minds, there will be no more web. It will just be.

My grade: A

Look at how young people communicate today. They never think about logging into the internet. They are probably texting each other, even if they are in the same room. Lines of communication have blurred.

7. National ID validation.

The social web will become the exclusive source of consumer information, political research/policy development, and education systems. Because of the increasingly critical importance of this feedback and the opportunity for corruption, complex systems to prevent fraud will be needed, including a broadly-implemented government validation program that extends across all platforms.

My grade: C

Let’s put it this way. I correctly identified the problem, and we still need some kind of validation to prevent corruption and misinformation. Some countries have implemented a system like this, most notably India, but I’m not sure it could ever happen in the U.S.

8. Micro politics

Politicians will use real-time sentiment analysis to craft and re-craft voter appeals right up until the moment they enter a polling station. Political messaging will be nearly-instantaneous and tailored to individuals based on their private data.

My grade: A

I was 100% correct, unfortunately.

9. Extreme content

Journalism, film-making, and advertising agencies will thrive, much to the surprise of nearly everyone. The need for content on the social web will drive the digital evolution of these traditional professions, and “Content development and management” will become a popular career and college major. Salaries for the very best and most creative content providers will skyrocket as corporations raise the creative bar to cut through the clutter.

My grade: A

As every significant organization on earth competes for attention on the web, the need for quality creative content is insatiable. In fact, there is a content arms race. The sad and unsettling fact is that 90 percent of these jobs are now jeopardized by AI.

10. The “loner workforce.”

The cultural impact of the social web will have radical implications for managing the workforce of the future. We will have a dramatic increase in remote working. This will provide significant challenges for the managers of the future.

My grade A

Got an assist from the pandemic on this one, but a move to a remote workforce would have happened eventually.

11. Growing digital divide.

I predicted in 2009 that for many parts of the world, access to free, global communications will be the equalizer between rich and poor nations, especially as web-based translation services improve and encompass local dialects.

However, in countries where people cannot access the web, either for economic or political reasons, the digital divide will not only grow, it will become permanent because they will fall so far behind the technology curve they’ll never catch up. Digital commerce, innovation, and technology will be permanently dominated by those nations in the game NOW.

My grade: C

I don’t know about this one.

I was correct in predicting that many countries that were poor in 2009 would still be poor today due to corruption, oppression, and lack of free access to the web.

On the other hand, I’m not sure “ownership” and being a homebase for tech development matter to an individual’s freedom and opportunity in the long run.

In the early days of the web, France tried to create its own internet. It flopped, of course, but has the nation been disadvantaged because it didn’t own its own digital backbone? No.

There have been tech successes and innovations in almost every corner of the world.

Putting military advantages aside, most technological building blocks that help people become healthier, wealthier, wiser, and more creative are eventually available to everyone with an internet connection. At least for now, the hurdles to adoption might be language, education, and disabilities.

12. Pay for play

The 2009 prediction said: “Social media is free, but the cost of attracting consumer attention will become increasingly expensive, especially with the ability to skip ads. At some point, the cost per impression will be so high it will be less expensive to simply pay people to watch an ad.”

My grade: C

I think the wisdom here is that traditional ads (newspaper, radio, etc.) would decline, and companies would rush into digital, dramatically driving up the cost of online ads (true).

While paying people to watch ads isn’t a “thing” yet, there are certainly options like watching ads inside a game that earn points or exclusive content.

From an economic perspective, it probably makes no sense to actually pay people to watch ads all day, so the specific idea was silly, even though I got the trend right.

Final thoughts

First, thanks for obliging me with this walk down memory lane. I know the marketing predictions commentary was not the typical content you expect from me, and I’d love to hear your comments on it.

I did learn something from this exercise, and perhaps it’s something for you to think about, too.

Making a marketing prediction is merely a process of thinking through the implications of what I know to be true.

For example, I knew in 2009 that more and more work tasks could be completed on the internet. At some point, certain knowledge workers would not have to leave their homes for work, presenting new management challenges. Makes sense.

But here’s the problem I’m sensing with the world now. The rate of change is so fast and unpredictable compared to 2009, I don’t know how to know what is true.

Arguably the three biggest impacts on global business in the last two years have been a pandemic, a war, and a ship getting stuck in the Suez canal. Nobody saw this coming. Did anybody see ChatGPT coming? Even many analysts were surprised.

Last week I read that an analyst had predicted in December that it would take about seven years to cross a certain AI milestone. That milestone was crossed in three months! Yes, the speed of innovation is crazy right now! How do you make forecasts in a world like that?

My point is, so much change in the world is not only coming at us fast, it’s also unpredictable. While many of my marketing predictions from 2009 earned a B or above, I don’t know if I would have that track record going forward.

I suppose time will tell. You’ll just have to keep reading my next marketing predictions posts to find out!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy Graphics Fairy

The post Grading 12 marketing predictions about the future appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

My major consulting activity is helping companies develop their new marketing strategy. I find that customers usually have most of the information they need to know how to compete, they just need me to provide a few prompts to help bring the insights to the surface.

Here are a few of the key questions I ask to help customers focus on their approach to a new marketing strategy. Every company and industry is different, but these are the questions that seem to help most of the time.

1) What customer problem do we uniquely solve?

This is a deceptively complex question that gets to the heart of a new marketing strategy.

Great marketers find promising un-met or under-served customer needs and then energize the company to react to this opportunity rapidly and effectively.

Competitive advantage occurs through this magical combination of an undefended opportunity + timing. Is there a trend that fits our capabilities? Is the timing right for us to devote all our energy to a new customer solution?

If the answer is “yes,” we burst through that seam with all our might, power, and speed.

A big problem is that companies often confuse what they sell with what a customer buys. For example, one company I worked with prided themselves on being a tech leader and their marketing message reflected that. But when I interviewed customers, they could care less about the tech. They loved this company because of its responsive service. They were buying something different than what the company thought they were selling!

Marketing begins with research and data. You need to accurately know your place in the eco-system and your best opportunities to compete.

2) Who is your customer?

This is an extremely important question, especially in a rapidly-changing business landscape.

If you thought you knew your customer well, it’s time to re-evaluate in the context of this global, multi-dimensional turbulence. So much is changing.

For example, in a recent podcast episode, Brooke Sellas and I discussed how children are playing a bigger role in eCommerce decisions. What an interesting trend!

Who is making the decision to buy? How are they deciding to buy? How is that changing? Is your true customer the same as it was a year ago?

3) Where are those customers?

In Chapter 9 of my book Marketing Rebellion, I introduced this important idea of “customer islands.” I also wrote a blog post about this that you might find useful.

Today, like-minded individuals have the ability to assemble in many ways and in many places. It might be a Facebook Group, a thread they visit on reddit, an industry site, or a Twitter chat. Perhaps they’re watching a certain television show or flock to a podcast, blog or Instagram account.

Sometimes, a new marketing strategy is heavily influenced by the idea of fishing where the fish are. Instead of forcing marketing communications on our customers, how do we come alongside them in the places they frequent as an organic part of their lives?

In the early days of digital marketing, there was an emphasis on dragging customers to our site and our messages. Today, it makes more sense to show up where they already love to spend their time.

If we know where customers congregate, we’ll know how to reach them.

4) What makes us relevant?

I once had a chance to work with Sergio Zyman, the former CMO of Coca Cola. Somebody asked him, “how many marketing strategies do you need?” His answer was, “How many customers do you have?”

His point was that we need to segment and fight for relevance as granularly as our resources allow.

Chances are, people buy our products for different reasons. An entrepreneur leading a startup might like your price. A purchasing manager at a larger company might appreciate that your company has great service. An enterprise customer likes the fact that you’ve been around for 20 years  — stability is important.

Having a sense of these needs enables us to establish relevance audience by audience. And by the way, this is something that needs to be constantly revisited, especially in an era of crisis.

5) How do we effectively communicate our relevance?

Ironically, we now get to the step in our marketing journey where most people START!

Only now do we have enough information to begin to think about the creative, influencers, ads, content, and social media.

I’ve been in marketing a long time and can say with authority that this step has never been more difficult. The overwhelming information choices people have today makes establishing a meaningful connection extremely hard to achieve.

I would also say this is also the step where most people are failing. Too often when it comes to a social media or content strategy we are simply checking a box, or following a guru without rolling up our sleeves and doing the difficult creative work demanded by our times.

And more often than not, corporate communication efforts are not the most effective way to tell a story as trust in companies and advertising declines. Today, the customer is the most effective marketer. How do we earn the right to enter their narrative?

Hard work.

6) How do we measure and continuously adjust?

If you’ve followed me for any time at all, you’ll know I’m a stickler for data and analysis “beyond the dashboard.”

Marketing is the glue that connects customers to every part of our organization. We have to be the experts on our marketplace and that means constant conversation. Are you really having conversations or simply looking at pie charts?

Are you engaging with customers in a way that informs your marketing strategy or are you ignoring the critical comments behind a social media sentiment analysis?

Are you using robust statistical analysis in your work or “eyeballing” the data? This is where the strategic advantage probably lies. Everybody probably has access to the same data. How do you distill unique insight from the data?

I hope this thought process helps. If you’re struggling with your marketing strategy, it might be an opportunity for us to work together. A good place to start is a one-hour consultation (you can sign up here).

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of several best-selling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Six questions that propel your new marketing strategy appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Alisa Meredith, {grow} Community Member

Pinterest … That’s for women and weddings! Besides, my customers aren’t there.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard something similar to that …

According to a January 2019 study from Statista, only 27% of marketers are using Pinterest.

I admit it. I’m conflicted. As someone who enjoys helping people get more out of their marketing, I want everyone to reap the benefits of Pinterest, but part of me likes having a secret weapon.

A secret, traffic-driving weapon.

The Potential for Content Marketers

It’s been years since Facebook began throttling the reach of business pages while simultaneously building one of the most popular, robust advertising platforms in the world. Instagram’s algorithm, while creating a great experience for consumers, has left businesses scrambling for engagement and feeling stymied by the lack of traffic-driving opportunities.

That’s where Pinterest comes in. In 2017, this visual search and discovery platform quietly became the #2 driver of all social traffic. And for those who embrace its potential, Pinterest can easily be even more impactful – sometimes rivaling search engine referrals.

“When it comes to traffic…Facebook marketing is like betting on a horse race and Pinterest is like a high performing 401K. It may take a while but it’s a better investment in the long run.” Jeff Sieh, Head Beard, Manly Pinterest Tips.

Add to that the reality of 300 miillion monthly active users and 2 billion monthly searches (97% of which are unbranded), and it’s clear that 27% of marketers are on to something.

Why The Pinterest Resistance?

There’s the persistent stereotype (women and weddings only), but the bigger problem is that:

Content Marketers do not understand Pinterest.

Not because they’re not capable. Not because lifestyle bloggers – who DO understand Pinterest – are smarter than they are. No, it’s because Pinterest isn’t like anything else they’ve ever encountered.

This is the place people go for inspiration and education. Despite the way its data is characterized in Google Analytics and the way it’s lumped in with social by marketing publications, Pinterest is NOT a social network. What works on Facebook and Instagram does NOT work on Pinterest.

How Content Marketers Should Think of Pinterest

Think of Pinterest as the introvert’s network. We’re not there to show off our lives or businesses. We’re there to plan our new and improved lives and businesses. Understanding THIS one key distinction can make a world of difference on Pinterest.

Surprisingly to some, it’s more like Google than social in that:

1. Search engine optimization is vital.
2. It can take time to see results.

Annnnd, it’s #2 where people who’ve “tried Pinterest” get tripped up. “Trying” this platform is a little bit like “trying” blogging for generating Google search traffic. If you try it just long enough for it to be a hassle and then quit before you start seeing results, ANY endeavor will be a fail.

Because of the way traffic builds as Pins are saved and “repinned” across the platform, it can take a while to see significant results from the content you save.

But, the payoff is on the other side.  In fact, the half-life of a Pin is 3.5 months. By way of comparison, the half-life of a Tweet is 24 MINUTES. In case you’re not big on math, that means your average Pin will give you traffic and distribution-building engagement for 638K% longer than your average Tweet accumulates interactions.

How does this translate to real life? My very first client still gets more traffic from Pinterest than from all other sources combined – and not a Pin has been added in YEARS. That initial investment continues to pay off even now.

Can it Work for Content Marketers?

In a word, yes!

While the most popular categories on Pinterest are what you’d expect, topics such as travel, health, and wellness, food and drink, etc., there’s plenty of room for other topics.

Case in point: I’m the Content Marketing Manager at Tailwind. We help people market more effectively on Pinterest and Instagram. Our audience is marketers. Not home decor. Not food. Not fashion. 65% of our social traffic comes from Pinterest.

Donna Moritz of Socially Sorted is a content marketer who understands the power Pinterest has to grow her business. She shares some of her favorite features of the platform,

“You can do well on Pinterest even if you have few followers.  It’s possible to get solid views, traffic and results with a small account.

Why? Because it’s search-based, and there are easy tools that allow you to create awesome visuals and share your content quickly and easily.

What’s more… your visuals have longevity in that they get shared for months and years down the track.  I’ve got pins showing up from years ago. And it has remained my number one source of social traffic for a few years now. The best part? That traffic takes way less effort than Facebook and can be tracked to subscribers, affiliate and program sales through my blog.”

Since implementing best practices for Pinterest, Simple Pin Media client Julep Tile has seen their traffic from Pinterest overtake that from all other sources, including search. In fact, traffic from Pinterest makes up over 73% of the total traffic to their site. They’re not just coming to dream and plan, either. Pinterest visitors are signing up for their email list, ordering tile samples, and sales? They’re “crushing it,” as Simple Pin owner Kate Ahl puts it.

Kate says Julep is not an outlier, “I have dozens of clients using Pinterest to amplify their content marketing with similar results.”

How to Make Pinterest Work For You

You’re likely already doing most of the work by creating useful content for your readers. You’re helping them solve problems and get things done – even inspiring them from time to time.

Now keep in mind the way Pinners discover on the platform – frame your content in such a way that appeals to people in discovery mode. Keep things positive and show Pinners how your product or service or content can make their everyday life or special event infinitely better. That’s the secret sauce of Pinterest.

Now all you need to do now is to create and strategically save Pinnable images. Create 3-5 images in a 2:3 ratio for each page or post to give your content even more distribution. Keep keywords consistent between your Pin (including Pin title, description, AND text on image), your Board title and description, and your linked page. Claim your website so Pinterest knows it’s yours. Create new content (even if it’s just a new image or 3) and Pin consistently.

That’s it.

The Next Big Thing For Content Marketers?

Maybe. With 300 million monthly active users, it’s certainly not the behemoth that Facebook is. Then again, Facebook would prefer you remain on their site; whereas Pinterest is all about discovery and taking action — which means traffic for you.

Those content marketers willing to look beyond the cliches may find a significant source of additional website traffic in amongst the wedding dresses and recipes. Will you make it work for you?

Alisa Meredith is a sought-after speaker and teacher on Pinterest marketing and the Content Marketing Manager at Tailwind – a Pinterest and Instagram scheduler and analytics platform. When not Pinning, you can find her on the beach in North Carolina or spoiling her two blind dogs and more cats than she’ll claim. Reach out on Twitter or LinkedIn and make her day by asking about Pinterest.

The post Why Pinterest is the content marketing secret weapon appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Keith Reynold Jennings, {grow} Contributing Columnist

Introductory Note from Keith: It’s a privilege to be a new contributing columnist for Mark’s blog, {grow}. I hope you’ll reach out and introduce yourself. I look forward to getting to know you!

Do you know what business you’re really in? I’m going to share some insights that might surprise you but let’s begin with a story about socks and Skittles.

Getting crazy with socks

John Cronin was born with Down’s Syndrome, but he tells anyone willing to listen that it will never hold him back.

In 2016, at the age of 21, John told his dad that he wanted to start a business with him. You’ve got to hear John tell his story, but it goes like this…

John’s first idea was to create a “fun store.” But he couldn’t figure out what a fun store was.

John’s next idea was a food truck. He had seen the movie, Chef, about a father taking his son on the road with a food truck. And it seemed like a good idea. But there was a problem. “We can’t cook,” John said, with a grin.

Eventually, a new idea emerged: socks.

John had worn crazy socks his whole life. Socks allowed him to be creative and have fun. And, with that, John’s Crazy Socks was born.

Spreading Happiness

When I first saw the video of John and his dad telling their story, I fell in love with their company. It’s clear from the moment you enter their narrative that they’re not really in the sock business. They’re in the business of spreading happiness. Socks are merely the means.

• They spread happiness through their ever-expanding inventory of crazy socks.
• They spread happiness through a pack of candy and a hand-written note included with each order. Residents in Long Island get their socks personally delivered by John.
• They spread happiness through John’s infectious Instagram videos.
• They spread happiness through their growing workforce of, and advocacy for people with differing abilities.
• And they spread happiness through donating a significant percentage of the company’s profits to causes John cares about, such as Special Olympics, Down’s Syndrome and autism.

The weird marketing turn

My first pair of crazy socks were a gift from family for my birthday (which, indeed, included a note from John and a pack of Skittles). I’ve continued buying socks from John ever since.

Each time I wear a pair of John’s Crazy Socks, people ask me about them. So I get to tell them the story of John and his dad. And, each time I tell their story, I watch people light up with (you guessed it) happiness.

Naturally, I follow John’s Crazy Socks on Instagram. John has Monday Madness Mystery Bags, Wacky Wednesdays, weekend dance-offs, you name it.

But here is where the narrative takes a weird marketing turn.

Other “funny sock” companies started showing up through sponsored ads in my feeds and search results. And they did that ridiculous tactic of liking my Instagram pictures and following me in hopes of a follow back. Of course, I blocked them.

Why would a company do this? Because they think it’s about the socks. There is an important lesson here.

Be Customer-Oriented, Not Product-Oriented

For decades, railroads dominated passenger and freight transportation. Then, they started to decline. Why? Because railroad executives thought they were in the railroad business.

Theodore Levitt called this “marketing myopia,” in his legendary 1960 article in Harvard Business Review. He believed there is no such thing as declining market growth, only a failure of management to see bigger, emerging opportunities.

In other words, business leaders tend to be product focused, rather than customer focused. And this myopic tendency blinds them to new opportunities literally right in front of them.

According to Levitt, had railroad managers believed they were in the transportation business, they could have capitalized on the opportunities that cars, airlines, buses and trucks offered. Instead, they shrank as these new modes of transportation lured customers away. They were railroad-oriented, while their customers were transportation-oriented.

That’s why those sock companies thought their job was to “target” me with their stuff. They were myopic. They couldn’t see past their own products. They thought it was about socks.

In reality, is was about me: the customer. I’m not buying colorful, cotton covers for my feet. I’m buying the feeling I get supporting and sharing the story of a young entrepreneur I believe in. I’m buying the spread of happiness!

Think about the things you buy. It’s rare you buy anything merely for the functional job it can do. More often than not, you’re serving a bigger story. You care about the emotional, social and even transformational benefits a product, service or idea offers.

What Business Are You Really In?

Had the railroad titans asked, “What business are we really in?,” they could have seen the emerging opportunities in passenger and freight transportation.

“What business are you really in?” is the classic question Theodore Levitt challenges us with and it’s as relevant today as it was sixty years ago.

John Cronin is the business of spreading happiness. He currently achieves this through socks. But he recently announced plans for John’s Crazy Christmas Store. John is not myopic. He’s sees opportunities his product-centric competitors cannot.

What about you? What business are you really in? What are your customers actually buying when they buy your product or service? What else could you offer that would help them get that functional, emotional and/or social job done in their lives?

Now go do that!

Keith Reynold Jennings is an executive and writer. He serves as vice president of community impact for Jackson Healthcare. He’s an advisor to goBeyondProfit.org. And he writes about the intersections of social impact, identity and legacy. Find Keith on Twitter and Instagram.

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By Kerry Gorgone, {grow} Contributing Columnist

The privacy crackdown has begun.

This week, Marriott and British Airways faced massive fines from the U.K. data protection authority the Information Commissioner’s Office [“ICO’] for violating the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation [“GDPR’].

The ICO fined Marriott $124 million for the data breach that exposed 339 million guest records. British Airways was fined $228 million fine after the company leaked 500,000 customers’ personal data. Bear in mind, the ICO didn’t even impose the maximum penalty (4% of annual global revenue).

I recently wrote about developments in privacy law right here on this blog. Read up on what’s happening with data privacy protection and take the steps necessary to protect yourself from liability.

Legal news for marketers

If you haven’t reviewed the provisions of the GDPR, you need to. And bring your company’s data collection policies into compliance, because you absolutely can’t afford to wait any longer.

Make sure your data protection practices and policies are in compliance, and only work with vendors who do the same. Conduct an audit now to figure out what data you’re collecting and how you’re using it. Document your process for obtaining consent for data collection.

Compare what’s happening with what’s required under GDPR. If what you’re doing doesn’t satisfy legal requirements, it’s time to make changes. If the cost of doing an audit or updating your policies seems daunting, compare that cost with losing 4 percent of your annual revenue to a fine.

Safety “pins”

And privacy isn’t the only area that’s getting more complex for marketers. A federal court in Hawaii has ruled that re-pinning an image on Pinterest violates copyright law.

The court found bottled water company Hawaiian Springs liable for copyright infringement earlier this month. The company’s former marketing director had “re-pinned” a fake ad that college student Brea Aamoth created for a course project.

The mock-up incorporated a picture taken by photographer Vincent Khoury Tylor. He sued Hawaiian Springs for using the photograph in ads on Pinterest and Facebook.

Hawaiian Springs maintained that the college student’s use of the photo in a course project was “fair use” and, therefore, the company’s use of that image was also protected. The court rejected this argument, however, because the company used the image for advertising, a commercial purpose.

The copyright imperative

Like many companies, Hawaiian Springs used outside vendors to manage the brand’s social media. However, this did not absolve the company of responsibility for using someone else’s copyrighted work in their advertising. As the court pointed out, “a defendant’s knowledge or intent is irrelevant to their liability for copyright infringement.”

Copyright is about more than Pinterest or Facebook: any time you use someone else’s content without permission, you put your company at risk.

The stakes for marketers keep getting higher, so if this is new for you, check out our previous posts on copyright.

In the meantime, here are some tips for marketers who want to minimize risk:

1. Create your own content.

Smartphone cameras take incredibly high quality pictures and video, and professional audio is as simple as connecting a handheld mic to your iPhone. Go the extra step to create your own content.

2. If you want to use someone else’s content, get permission.

This sounds easy, but it involves making sure that the person who gives you permission actually owns the content! Third parties upload content to YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, and other sites all over the web every day, in some cases claiming ownership.

Keep digging until you find the original source. Then, get written permission from the copyright owner before using their creative work in any of your marketing.

If you can’t verify that the original source actually owns the content you want to use, don’t use that content.

3. Get permission in advance

Encouraging people to submit photos, videos, or other creative work for a contest or promotion can be a great way to engage your audience, but protect yourself from copyright infringement claims up front.

Be sure that the rules clearly tell people that, by taking part in the promotion and submitting their creative work, they’re giving your company a royalty-free license to use the content for any and all purposes from now until the end of time.

Well, something like that. Consult an attorney to draft official rules.

4. Make sure that any agency or vendor you work with takes the law seriously.

When using third-party vendors and agencies for content (or for any part of your marketing process that involves the collection of data, for that matter), choose carefully. Select agencies and vendors that take legal compliance seriously, and supervise their work once they’re engaged.

If you’re not sure how to tell which vendors will keep you out of trouble, here are some questions to ask before hiring an agency or contracting with a CMS vendor.

“The wheels of justice turn slowly,” as they say, but law is beginning to catch up to marketing technology. Take steps now to minimize your exposure.

Kerry O’Shea Gorgone is a writer, lawyer, speaker and educator. She’s also a Learning Designer at MarketingProfs. Kerry hosts the weekly Marketing Smarts podcast and gets people to open up about their cool collections, weird hobbies, and inspiring side hustles on The Punching Out Podcast with co-host Katie Robbert. Find Kerry on Twitter.

Illustration courtesy of Sang Hyun Cho from Pixabay.

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By Mark Schaefer

It took me a long time to figure out my talent.

I wasn’t a gifted athlete or singer like some other kids in school. But sometime in my early 30s I noticed that I had an instinct for knowing what comes next. While my business co-workers were obsessed with responding to some current trend, I could see how those trends projected into the future. I could connect the dots and see where we needed to be next.

If you’ve followed my blog over the years, you’ve seen how this plays out. I’ve had a pretty good track record predicting what is going to be next — or what is not going to be next — and why. Sometimes my predictions have shaken people up, but in the end, I’m usually correct.

This gift has come naturally to me — until now. For the life of me, I have no idea where social media is heading over the next 3-5 years. I have some clues, but the absolute future of social media is hazy to me (to everybody?) because there are too many mega-trends occurring at the same time:

Artificial Intelligence

The way we interact with social media is still largely … manual. But that is going to change dramatically. Computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and instantaneous translation will upend traditional social media.

5G

5G technology is rolling out throughout the world, city by city. I’m convinced this is going to mean more than faster speeds. It is going to enable entirely new content-driven business models.

Augmented/virtual reality

Last year, Facebook introduced Spaces, a format that merged social media and virtual reality:

Since its introduction, the platform has gone absolutely nowhere. Do you know ANYBODY who uses it? And yet, somehow AR and VR seem to be an inevitable fit in the social space.

How cool would it be to become a Game of Thrones character and sit around The Wall talking about the news of the day?

Influence of Gen Z

What is the most downloaded social media app of the year? I’ll bet you a shiny nickel that you don’t know. It’s TikTok. As Snapchat is to under-30s, TikTok is to under 20s. It is their new cool space of funny super-short videos. What is Gen Z’s hottest chat app? I’ll bet you don’t know this one either. It’s Google Docs.

The point is, Gen Z is pushing and pulling online social interaction into some surprising new nooks and crannies. There is an inevitable change to our marketing future happening there.

Gaming

Fortnite

On average, there are 8.3 million people concurrently hanging out with their friends on Fortnite. I could argue that this game platform is the world’s largest social network. But it’s not even mentioned in the same breath as Facebook and YouTube.

At the recent Social Media Marketing World, there was not a single talk or workshop devoted to gaming and the commercial implications for social media. It’s time to explode the idea of what social media is today. One thing for sure, increasingly it’s NOT Facebook — unless you’re over 55.

Tencent

Tencent is the largest and most successful social media company in the world. They are not a household name because they operate primarily in China. But something remarkable occurred last year — Tencent acquired 12 percent of Snapchat, becoming that social media channel’s largest shareholder.

Tencent’s technology and scope of offerings blows away anything we have in the US or Europe. As Snapchat struggles, could Tencent use this channel to build their own offering in the Western World? It’s exciting to think of the possibilities of a serious new player in the field. This would literally transform social media as we know it.

Regulation

The biggest wildcard might be future regulation. Normally, putting the words “internet” and “regulation” together would cause people to break into hives. But today, even Silicon Valley leaders are calling for some kind of regulation because these tech giants have no moral compass and simply can’t regulate themselves.

European nations are aggressively taking action against Facebook, Amazon, and Google … steps that will reverberate to all parts of the world.

Beyond regulation, some US political leaders have called for breaking up the tech giants. Nothing will happen until after the 2020 elections, but there is certainly an anti-monopoly narrative developing across party lines.

Consolidation

We can’t dismiss Facebook when it comes to a coming social media shake-out. They have the financial and technical resources to transform their company to meet these emerging trends, too. It’s unlikely that Twitter and Snap can make it on their own as independent companies long-term. I’m not sure LinkedIn is meeting Microsoft’s expectations. Even TikTok could be an acquisition target. Could these channels become part of a new Tencent play to take on Facebook in the US? How will Facebook respond to beat back the threat?

The social media shakeout

Now, perhaps you see why the future of social media is so hazy to me. All of these mega-trends are coming together to create something bold and new. Three years from now, we won’t even recognize what “social media” means compared to what we have today. Certainly we’ll all be challenged to open our eyes and redefine what it means to be in social media marketing.

Which is precisely what Brooke Sellas and I discuss in the new edition of The Marketing Companion podcast!

We begin the show with a discussion of “belonging” as a marketing priority and then move into a lively discussion of some of this social media shakeout. And most important, there is an explanation of this:

You won’t want to miss this fun and enlightening discussion! Click here to join the fun!

Click on this link to listen to Episode 159

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
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• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

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