6 Very Expensive Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid

Every business has a product or service worth promoting, but a prolific marketing presence should not be your main goal. A thoughtfully planned and well-executed campaign can easily outperform lazy, mass-media ad buys.

To save money, time and headaches, entrepreneurs eager to attract an audience and acquire customers at scale need to be wary of poorly-executed campaigns and advertisements done in bad taste that can cause more harm than good.

Examples such as Groupon’s 2011 Super Bowl commercial, Sony’s white PSP ads and Molson Coors’ college drinking campaign earned each company widespread public backlash and will forever haunt these brands. To be more effective at marketing, businesses must be mindful of embarrassing themselves and offending customers. Ultimately, bad marketing can be ruinous for customer loyalty and sales.

1. False promises negatively impact brand affinity.

Companies like Allstate Insurance, Avis Car Rental and RadioShack set themselves up for failure with their alluring taglines but poor service. While Allstate suggests, “You're in good hands with Allstate,” paying customers aren’t convinced. On ConsumerAffairs.com, the insurance company receives an average rating of 1.1 out of 5.0. Avis’ slogan, "We try harder," is similarly far from believable. It, too, maintains an abysmal rating of 1.2 out of 5.0. Prior to 2014, Radioshack touted, "You've got questions ... We've got answers." Unfortunately, its broken promises have awarded it a customer satisfaction rating of 1.4 out of 5.0.

Although a clever motto can be enough to motivate customers to walk into your store or visit your website, the experience you offer and the value deliver are what matter the most. Make only promises you intend to keep to effectively manage consumer expectations and improve customer satisfaction.

2. Bad data nets zero ROI for potentially profitable campaigns.

 Companies simply cannot afford to operate with bad data. According to Econsultancy, “New research from Experian Data Quality shows that inaccurate data has a direct impact on the bottom line of 88 percent of companies, with the average company losing 12 percent of its revenue.” In advertising, unique creatives are often tested against a control audience. In this instance, clean data might reveal that certain ads drive high engagement and positive ROI while others underperform. With the flip of a switch, data-driven marketers would then turn off the creatives that provide negative ROI and scale up spend on the high-performers. But without these sorts of insights, many marketers find themselves paying a fortune for traffic that does not convert. 

3. Inconsistent experiences confuse customers.

Different things make different customers tick. In a world where technology allows us to personalize every marketing touch point with consumers, many brands still fall short. Email blasts include links to products that are no longer available. Ad creatives direct audiences to unrelated pages on your site. At checkout, the coupon that should have automatically been applied to a purchase is nowhere to be found. Marketers need to regularly walk through the customer acquisition and engagement funnels to spot any errors or inconsistencies which may confuse customers and deter audiences from completing their purchase.

4. Aggressive email blasts affect deliverability.

For mid-sized businesses, email marketing offers a 246 percent return on investment. Yet, some marketers forget the importance of proper audience segmentation. An email blast to your entire list of subscribers may cause recipients, in droves, to mark your mail as spam. Of course, losing subscribers is the least of your worries. If you regularly receive complaints from recipients who mark your email as spam, your email service provider may temporarily disable or permanently delete your account. According to Campaign Monitor, “The industry standard for an acceptable percentage of complaints per email campaign is less than 0.02 percent.” Anything above that is cause for concern.

5. Marketers fly blind when they operate in silos.

Marketers sometimes find themselves operating alone and on their own terms inside a bubble instead of interacting with their peers to build a better product and increase overall customer experience. Marketers, for their own purposes, should reach out to their colleagues in finance, sales, customer service, product and engineering for valuable help and guidance. Marketers operating in a silo may not realize which products customers rave about most, which offerings have the highest (and lowest) markup, and tools or services that are currently experiencing bugs or downtime.

6. Marketing to desktop users neglects a larger, growing audience.

Most advertisements and creatives are built and optimized for a desktop audience. What many marketers forget is they leave money on the table when they fail to optimize their campaigns for mobile users. In the U.S., consumers spend more time on their mobile devices than they do on desktop computers. The future of marketing is mobile, as audiences have long shifted their attention towards smaller screens with lightening fast Internet connections. Marketers waste millions each year on desktop-optimized ads that are delivered to mobile audiences. Companies, instead, should prioritize developing mobile-optimized ads first, and worry about desktop traffic later.

by Firas Kittaneh, Entrepreneur

Email Is Still Relevant! Are You Getting the Most from Your Email Marketing?

In an era of mobile this and social media that, it’s easy to think that email — the original online marketing channel — is becoming ineffective. But giving the inbox short shrift is short sighted. After all, approximately 182 billion emails are sent every day, according to The Radicati Group. Clearly, your customers spend tons of time reading their email, so it only makes sense to put your message where their eyes already are.

That’s why, in a June 2014 poll by Internet Retailer, almost 40 percent of respondents said email marketing was their most important investment. Even more compelling: 90 percent indicated that email produces “a positive return” on investment.

Here are some key considerations to help you get the most from effective small business email marketing:

1.    Know Why You’re Emailing: Retention, engagement and revenue generation are the three most popular reasons business owners use email marketing. “Pick the one or two things you want to focus on first,” says Christopher Lester (no relation to the author), vice president of sales for email marketing company Emma in Nashville, TN. “Instead of a monthly newsletter, spend time creating an incredible three-piece welcome series. Do email marketing, but do it right.”

2.    Leverage Existing Relationships: Email marketing is most effective when you use it to stay engaged with customers and clients you already know who have opted in to receive emails, according to Robbin Block, creative marketing strategist with Block Media & Marketing in Seattle, WA. “That means they're interested in hearing from you, no matter what the delivery mechanism,” says Block. “Take the time to build a solid list. There are many ways to do that: sign-ups, purchases, registrations, networking, phone calls, trade shows, etc. Otherwise, it’s spam.”

3.    Make It Work on Mobile: Data from the Knotice Mobile Email Opens Report show that in 2013, 45 percent of emails were opened on a mobile device, usually a phone. “Marketers that aren’t making sure their email sends are optimized for mobile are really missing out,” says Carrie Hill, co-founder of Ignitor Digital in Glenwood Springs, CO. “One study suggested that mobile email will account for 15 to 70 percent of email opens, depending on your target audience, product and type of email. Email and mobile are a match made in heaven.”

4.    Personalize It: Use an email marketing service that enables you to add a person’s name to the message, because this kind of personalization makes it more effective. When recipients feel the message is targeted at them, “they’re more likely to engage with the message and click through,” Hill says. Take it a step further by gathering information like birthdays and anniversaries, so you can reach out on those days with a special message. “This is a great way to remind your customers you care about them in their day-to-day lives,” she adds. “I have local REALTOR® clients who watch home-sale transactions and try to gather email addresses of new homeowners via opt-in to market local home improvement products and services to them.”

5.    Make and Keep a Schedule: “The biggest mistakes small businesses make are not sticking to a consistent schedule and failing to measure the results of each campaign and apply those learnings to the next one,” says Abigail Stock, founder and chief digital strategist with New York City–based Little Digital Co. “An easy way to ensure you hit send on time — every time — is to create a content calendar and plan ahead for what you want to say to whom and when. A simple spreadsheet will do. If you have some extra time, get two or three emails done in advance and schedule them to go out ahead of time. That way, you don’t have the excuse of being too busy in the future.” Don’t forget to add time to review and analyze each email’s performance, too.

These small business email marketing tips apply whether you’re using email to send a newsletter, a welcome message or deals and surveys.

“Email marketing isn’t a silver bullet — no marketing channel is — but it is one of the best tools in your marketing toolbox,” Lester declares. “I think we’re past the point of convincing people to try email marketing. It’s not even an option anymore. Everyone is being marketed to via email.”

by Margot Carmichael Lester, Staples® Contributing Writer

The CEO of Okta, a $1.2 billion startup, tells us about his growing-up moment

Last week, Todd McKinnon the co-founder CEO of Okta, stood on stage in front of 1,000 of his customers and did something he had been wanting to do for years: unveil a better website.

When he began the better-website project, he didn't realize it would drag him through a series of exercises that he didn't want to do at all. But this process ultimately changed how he thought about his own company.

It was a growing-up moment for McKinnon as CEO of his 6-year-old, 600-employee company that's raised $230 million and was valued at $1.2 billion in September, The project started in February, he said.

"The marketing team came to me and said, we need to do a 'branding exercise.' and I thought to myself, what is that? Why do we need that?" The marketing team sold it to him as a project to build a new website, which he wanted. They hired an agency but McKinnon still really wasn't on board.

Someone from the agency came into his office to quiz him about his company. 

"We started this interview and I was pretty cynical about it and not very cooperative," McKinnon said. "And I was like, why do I have to tell this guy this stuff? We need a new website, can't he just do that? Do we really need to spend our time on a 'branding' project? Can't we just get a new logo? Can't we just get some new colors on the website?"

The agency had given him some references and one of them was his good friend and former co-worker, Tien Tzuo. Tzuo and McKinnon were early employees of Salesforce. Tzuo is the co-founder CEO of Zuora, another skyrocketing startup that's raised about $243 million and has about a $1 billion valuation.

Tzuo is also a really calm, chill dude, with a deep, radio announcer-like voice. He's the perfect person to talk a fellow CEO out of a tantrum. Tzuo told him that the process of having someone from the outside come in and tell you what your company is really about was fantastic for Zuora. 

So McKinnon played along.

"I didn't really hear much about the project for a few months. And then the team presented to me a progress update and it was a amazing. It wasn't a website," he said. It was a different way to look and talk about his company: "what language to use. Of course we also got into visuals and a new logo."

It made him realize, "We're now at a size and scale that they can't just get the essence of the company by talking to the founders. You have to do things at scale."

So now instead of telling everyone that Okta is a startup that does "single sign-on for cloud apps" he's now thinking of Okta as "the foundation layer for secure connections between people and technology." And while that new tagline sounds like the kind of marketing-speak that would come from a "brand" exercise, it really made McKinnon stop and think. 

The "challenge" for himself as CEO was to stop thinking of his company in terms of its first and most successful product, the one he and co-founder Frederic Kerrest created, which manages employee's passwords for cloud apps. Okta now offers a bunch of other stuff, too.  Growing up meant thinking bigger, but he also had to learn how to talk bigger. And for an engineer like McKinnon, he needed help to do that, even if he didn't think he wanted it. 

by Julie Bort

8 Reasons Why Your Marketing Sucks

If you ask 10 CEOs to tell you what marketing is, you’ll probably get 10 completely different answers. And get this. If you ask their marketing veeps the same question, you’ll get the same result.

Marketing defies definition. It confuses everyone, even those who do it for a living. I know that because that was my job in a former life, and I’m the first one to admit that I never considered myself an expert. Besides, my brethren could never agree on what their job titles meant. They were all over the map.

As I explain in my new book, Real Leaders Don’t Follow: Being Extraordinary in the Age of the Entrepreneur, marketing has always had a perception problem. It’s truly ironic that the field responsible for branding has a brand identity that’s about as unambiguous as Facebook’s 58 gender options. And yet we live in a commercial world where consumers and businesses make buy decisions based to a large extent on a field that nobody seems to understand very well, not even those who make big bucks doing it. Don’t you find that just a little bit unsettling?

Now you know why I quit marketing. I was tired of explaining to every CEO, board, and management team what marketing is and why it’s so important to the success of the company. I felt like Sisyphus, the sinner condemned to roll a boulder uphill, only to watch it roll back down, again and again, for eternity. I always wondered what I’d done so terribly wrong in a prior life to deserve that.

If you find marketing to be somewhat elusive, don’t feel too badly; you’re in good company. And while I intend for this to be instructive, not critical, there’s a very good chance that your company’s marketing sucks. Here’s why:

You have no idea what it is.

In his seminal book, Marketing High Technology, legendary VC and former Intel executive Bill Davidow said, “Marketing must invent complete products and drive them to commanding positions in defensible market segments.” I couldn’t agree more. And anyone who finds that confusing should not be running marketing.

It’s so easy to fake.

As VC David Hornik of August Capital says, “VCs like to think that they are marketing geniuses. We really do.” He goes on to say that they meddle in the marketing of their portfolio companies because “we can fake it far more convincingly than in other areas …” As I always say, marketing is like sex; everyone thinks they’re good at it.

You’re a follower of _____ (fill in the blank).

Marketing may be as much art as science, but it’s still a complex and nuanced discipline that takes a great deal of experience to develop some level of understanding or expertise. I don’t care if you’re intoPurple Cows or The Brand Called You, popular fad-like notions won’t get you there.

You’ve lost sight of the big picture.

In some ways, growth hacking is no different from traditional marketing, and I mean that in a good way. That said, I see a lot of businesses chasing lots of small opportunities or incremental growth improvements with no overarching vision, strategy, or customer value proposition. That, in my opinion, is a recipe for disaster.   

It’s built on flawed assumptions.

Most product strategies and marketing campaigns are built on assumptions that nobody ever attempts to verify because their inventors think they have all the answers. The problem is they don’t know what they don’t know. Never mind what customers say and do. What do they know?

You have an MBA.

MBAs may be good for something, but marketing is not it. I’m not saying marketing can’t be taught, it’s just that, in my experience, it’s better learned on the job in the real world. Davidow, Theodore Levitt, Regis McKenna – none of these innovators who literally wrote the book on marketing had MBAs. Maybe there’s a good reason for that.  

You’re not measuring the results.

Show me a marketing program and I’ll show you beaucoup bucks spent on a mostly “shoot from the hip” approach that lacks sufficient metrics to determine if it’s effective or not. If you don’t measure it, how do you know if it’s delivering a return on investment?

You’re a marketer.

One of the reasons for marketing’s perception problem is that senior-level talent is hard to find and few execs have the ability to articulate the importance of the function. And since CEOs tend to be a pretty cynical bunch, marketing has, to a great extent, been marginalized in the business world. Sad but true. 

Marketing is an enigma. It’s both art and science, creative and analytical, intuitive and logical, amorphous and tangible. It’s two sides of the same coin. That’s probably why it mystifies most. And yet, marketing is, without a doubt, among the most critical functions in every company. 

That may be a perplexing paradox, but companies that somehow manage to unravel the mysteries of marketing have a far better chance of making it than those that don’t. 

by Steve Tobak, Author and Managing Partner, Incisor Consulting

Why We Hate Logo Redesigns

Last month, Google unveiled its redesigned, mobile-friendly logo, which updates the font from a crisp, sharply defined san serif wordmark, to a blockier, rounded sans-serif.

Despite its cutesy introductory animation on Google's homepage, the new logo made me uneasy. Both at work and outside it, I'm dependent on Google's search-engine. On some days it's my one constant, and while that sad fact should probably unsettle me more than the subtle logo alteration, Google’s move threw me nonetheless. I wasn’t alone. "I hate it," my friend announced over Gchat. "It looks like the scribbling of a child."

An informal Ad Age poll showed that most readers were also against the shift, and the reaction on social media – which, to be fair, tilts toward negative reviews – was decidedly underwhelmed.

Whether it’s Tropicana's 2009 packaging makeover and Gap's revamped logo in 2010, it's easy to draw up a list of recent logo makeovers that, at least initially, landed with a thud. There's Airbnb's much-mocked redesign, Hershey's equally maligned update and thesocial-media meltdown that accompanied Spotify's decision to adjust its logo's bright green to a cooler variety.

While it's possible to dredge up a long list of additional logo re-dos that have offended, it's far more difficult to unearth a logo redesign that was immediately embraced.

Why do logo redesigns upset us so much?

It comes down to identity, says Karen Winterich, an associate professor of marketing at Pennsylvania State University. Consciously or not, we internalize the brands that we admire (and want to align ourselves with) as well as the brands that are a part of our daily lives. As the consumer-facing symbol of a brand's packaged identity, when a logo changes we expect the underlying brand to change as well, which helps explain the intensity of consumers' negative reaction to Apple's logo update in 1999 (people tend to identify closely with the brand), and my reaction to Google's update (the company's logo is very much a fixture of my day-to-day routine).

In general, the stronger our associations with a brand, the more negatively we react when its logo changes. In one study, Winterich had 632 college students respond to logo redesigns for Adidas and New Balance athletic shoes created by professional graphic designers. For participants who expressed weak ties to the brands, the refreshed logos went over smoothly. Those who expressed a strong connection, however, tended to react negatively to the redesigns, which affected their attitude to the brands as a whole.

With every redesign, then, a brand risks alienating its core audience, a group that – through the megaphone that is social media – can easily vocalize its displeasure.

As consumers, we're typically wary of change, says Michael Walsh, an associate professor of marketing at West Virginia University. "Brands tend to overlook the impact a [logo redesign] can have."

So why redesign at all?

Sometimes the risk of negative feedback is worth it. When a company significantly modifies its product, service, structure or the way it does business, "a redesign can be a useful way of signaling to the rest of the world that things are changing," says Walsh.

It's when a company revamps its logo or packaging for the sole purpose of revamping its logo or packaging that the situation can get precarious. Take Tropicana. In 2009, the beverage company rolled out a package overhaul for its Pure Premium line, swapping its recognizable logo (an orange, with an inserted straw) for a brighter, blockier more stylized Peter Arnell design. The negative reaction from consumers was swift – as was the corresponding 20 percent sales plunge, which forced the company to backpedal. Less than two months after the new packaging was unveiled, it was scrapped in favor of the original design.

Walsh speculates that much of the negative sentiment originated from the lack of substance behind the update. "To me, it appeared to be driven more by a desire to shake things up – a new look for the sake of a new look," he says. "There wasn't enough of a reason to change the packaging, and consumers called [Tropicana] on it."

If you're going to change the logo, articulate why

For companies considering a redesign, it's important to be transparent, says Winterich. Whenever possible, she advises that brands inform consumers that change is coming, instead of pulling the rug out from under them.

Warning consumers that a redesign is about to launch punctures any corresponding buzz and drama, so it's understandable that companies often avoid that route. Still, it's possible to preemptively quell negative consumer reactions by explaining the thought process behind the update.

When Starbucks changed its logo in 2011 – liberating its green Siren from a circle and shedding the surrounding 'Starbucks Coffee' -- the company outlined its reasoning for making the change, namely that the company was moving beyond just coffee products. It also acknowledged that not everyone was going to initially like it. "[Starbucks] asked consumers to give the logo time," says Walsh. While there was a flurry of intense negative pushback, the discontent "eventually quieted down."

In Walsh's view, Google's redesign was expertly handled. When the new logo was unveiled, the company released a corresponding sleek video and blog post detailing what, exactly, the mobile-friendly revision signified:

Today we’re introducing a new logo and identity family that reflects this reality and shows you when the Google magic is working for you, even on the tiniest screens. As you’ll see, we’ve taken the Google logo and branding, which were originally built for a single desktop browser page, and updated them for a world of seamless computing across an endless number of devices and different kinds of inputs (such as tap, type and talk).

At the end of the day, some companies can afford to stick to their guns more than others. "You're not going to stop using Google just because the logo changed," says Winterich. (She's right, of course. As much as my friend hates its childlike aesthetic, she's tethered to Google along with the rest of us.)

For the majority of companies that lack Google's gravitational pull, here's a rule of thumb: If it's possible to write a convincing blog post that justifies the redesign, go for it. If not, consider leaving well enough alone.

by Laura Entis, Entrepreneur Staff

3 Marketing Mistakes Business Makes That Hurt the Brand

When changes occur in your industry or your customer base evolves, is your business nimble enough to reflect those changes in your marketing campaigns? More importantly, can you maintain the trust of existing customers and build trust among prospective customers without damaging your brand? For many businesses, problems occur when their marketing strategy veers from what their brand stands for. This creates confusion in the minds of the target audience, threatening the brand’s most valuable components — its inherent integrity and how it differentiates itself from the competition.

Large companies often have entire departments dedicated to maintaining a cohesive, integrated approach to brand building and marketing campaigns. But smaller businesses with fewer resources must pay special attention to designing and executing marketing campaigns that stay consistent with their brand. 

Typical branding and marketing errors include:

1. A lack of attention paid to marketing materials

Many small businesses embark on marketing campaigns that violate the sanctity of their logo, tagline, brand colors, etc. As Avin Kline at Intentionally Digital writes, this results in “unintentionally hurting their brand by trying to handle their marketing ‘on the go,’ without paying too much attention to branding guidelines and consistency with their marketing materials.”

2. A focus on product promotion, rather than building a community on social media

In their haste to get on the social media bandwagon, some small businesses emphasize blatant product promotion on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. This marketing approach fails to create a community of followers loyal to the brand. It also tarnishes the brand’s appeal among social media platforms whose users are notoriously hostile to a traditional hard sell.

3. A 'quantity over quality approach' to content marketing

The wrong type of content marketing — another facet of a business’s overall marketing strategy — can also harm a brand’s effectiveness. This stems from the mistaken belief that, with so many channels to cover, a brand can only maintain awareness by blanketing platforms with an endless stream of content. This excess of content (relevant or not) dilutes customers’ interest in and adherence to a brand. “Instead of focusing on quantity, marketers must focus on the quality of their content,” writes Anna Papachristos at Certona. “Engaging material has the power to strengthen customer loyalty and advocacy, while mediocre work will likely have the opposite effect.”

Branding vs. marketing

Part of the problem is a misconception of the differences between branding and marketing. In the minds of customers, your brand isn’t the product itself, nor is it your company’s messaging, logo, website design, advertisements, etc. Your brand consists of the perception customers have about the business and how it makes them feel.

A marketing campaign employs tactics designed to reinforce your brand promise. Marketing should enhance what your brand means, not distract from it, and communicate the value of your brand in ways that build a growing sense of trust and comfort among current and prospective customers.

Although the methods utilized in marketing campaigns can vary from season to season (including social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, pay-per-click marketing, mobile marketing, print campaigns, etc.), they must support your brand’s core values. Tools and tactics can be adjusted depending on the audience and changes in market conditions, but your brand “must always remain a constant.”

Stay focused on customer behavior

Perhaps the most effective guidepost for aligning branding and marketing rests with an in-depth knowledge of customer behavior. This involves keeping a laser focus on:

• Precise customer demographics
• Their buying habits
• Their preferred social media channels
• Their prior purchasing experiences (good and bad)

By compiling and analyzing data, thus garnering valuable insights on customer behavior, new marketing campaigns can be designed that strengthen trust and bolster your brand promise.

Consistent messaging is essential for reinforcing your brand in the minds of customers. Every marketing campaign you embark on should reflect what they want and need, while sticking closely to what your brand has come to stand for. The result will be a unified brand experience that doesn’t change, regardless of where customers encounter your business — be it online, in print, or in conversations with your employees or sales team.

Written by Claire Prendergast, agencyEA

11 Marketing Wizards Share Their Best Tricks

There are no silver bullets in marketing. What makes businesses successful are scaleable and repeatable processes. A solid approach to generating consumer interest and promoting your brand will go a long way in building a profitable and sustainable company.

Here, 11 of the world’s most talented marketers share their best secrets, strategies and tips for growing big businesses.

1. James Mahon: Discovering what people really want.

Your customers will consistently surprise you, but they are not the only people worth surveying.

James Mahon, an award-winning CBS affiliate TV reporter and media and marketing advisor, recommends, “Don't overlook those who you feel are not your traditional client base. They are the ones who can often teach you the most.” Companies consistently discover new opportunities when they expand the scope of their consumer research.

2. Peep Laja: Mastering conversion rate optimization.

Peep Laja, founder of ConversionXL, knows process is more important than any single tactic. “If you’re focusing on tactics (make the button bigger, etc.), you’re doing it wrong. Focus on mastering the CRO process.” This includes in-depth research and extensive testing.

Assumptions and hypotheses must be regularly challenged. Laja adds, “The most important thing in conversion optimization is the discovery of what matters. If you don’t know what specific elements on any page of your site might have an impact when you change/test them, you’re wasting everybody’s time.”

3. Noah Kagan: Converting email audiences to subscribers.

Roll out the Welcome Mat, insists SumoMe founder Noah Kagan. Ask audiences for permission to share interesting and relevant content with them and, consequently, earn their loyalty and trust.

To deliver emails worth opening, include these five elements to boost your email marketing ROI:

1. Powerful subject lines.
   
2. Empathy toward customer intent.
   
3. Compelling images.
   
4. Compelling calls to action.
   
5. Mobile optimization.
   

4. Mike Allton: Circling the right people with Google+.

Social media can get a bit noisy. Filter out unwanted messages by only following users who are mindful with the content they share. Mike Allton, editor of The Social Media Hat, says, “My best advice for new (and existing) Google+ users is to be very particular about who you circle. [Give] careful consideration to how you intend to use the network.”

Unlike Facebook, use Google+ “to discover and connect with the people you don't know. This way, every time you log into Google+, instead of seeing random posts and discussions in your stream, it will be a rich dialogue that you'll be excited to jump into every day.”

5. Bryan Eisenberg: The importance of relationships to influencer marketing. 

Instead of building a homegrown audience, clever marketers leverage others’ authority, influence and reach. Influencers with half a million fans on Facebook and two hundred thousand followers on Pinterest spend years cultivating large fan bases. They’ve done all the hard work and to get in front of their audience, all you need to do is develop a single key relationship -- with the influencer.

But remember that "influencer marketing is not a transactional deal but an ongoing relationship. Spend time understanding your influencer and their goals," says Bryan Eisenberg, co-founder and CMO of IdealSpotand New York Times Best Selling author.

6. Dharmesh Shah: Inbound marketing needs an early start with content.

Brands everywhere are in love with content, and rightfully so. Businesses looking to market their products and services throw absurd amounts of money on ads that never get seen. Instead, businesses should invest their marketing budgets intelligently and Dharmesh Shah, CTO of HubSpot and founder of Inbound.org, believes the first thing they should do is “start creating content and building reach the day you start building the product.”

Shah’s two arguments for prioritizing content include:

1. “First, marketing is not just about finding customers for the product you've built -- in the early days, it's also about better understanding the market you're building for.”
   
2. “Second, inbound marketing takes time. It's a long-term investment, and the sooner you start, the better.”
   

7. Alex Attinger: Native advertising focus is engagement over conversion.

By 2018, eMarketer estimates U.S. native advertising spending to be$8.8 billion dollars, up from $3.2 billion in 2014. To take full advantages of native advertising, Alex Attinger, Group MD of millennial advertising platform ContentClick, advises, “stop thinking about [yourself] and instead take the consumer down an engagement journey. Too many brands focus on what they’re going to offer (coupons, special offers, trials etc) without truly engaging and interacting with consumers in a two-way conversation.”

8. Arjun Dev Arora: Retargeting, segmentation and testing.

For powerful retargeting campaigns, Arjun Dev Arora, chairman ofRetargeter and co-founder of Immediately, suggests brands “segment and target” their ads. The secret is creating “multiple campaigns based on and targeted from unique and defined places on your website.”

Every customer follows a different buyer journey. Avoid applying a mass-marketing approach to retargeting. Also, “make sure that you test a vast variety of creatives,” adds Arora.

9. Muray Newlands: Partner with likeminded publications.

What I love about the digital age is how accessible expert knowledge is. If I want to learn from Richard Branson, I read his column onEntrepreneur. Many brilliant professionals similarly contribute to leading publications to get in front of their target audience. When developing thought leadership content, co-founder of Due.com Murray Newlands suggests, “Find the publications which influence the market you want to connect with and contribute to those publications. Win with big ideas and great content that establishes you as a thought leader. Write about the whole industry not just your narrow interest.”

10. Alex Debelov: Procative video distribution.

Alex Debelov, CEO of programmatic video advertising platform Virool, tells entrepreneurs to, “Consider the video’s distribution as a proactive part of the process rather than a reaction to a lackluster view count. Once in front of the right viewers, they will do the work for you and the organic traffic will keep flowing.”

To be strategic about your video distribution efforts, Debelov shares, “One tip we like to tell our clients is to use your social audience to test content before distributing it. For example, post three thumbnails to Facebook and see which one gets the most likes. This is an easy, unpaid way to optimize your thumbnail and drive an increase in clicks.”

11. Georgiana Laudi: Thinking holistically about webinars. 

“There's more to webinars, than the webinar,” says Georgiana Laudi, VP Marketing at Unbounce. “From the topic selection, choice of guest, registration landing page, to how you leverage the webinar recording. Every detail needs deliberate and strategic thinking behind it. It's not that the webinar itself isn't hugely important (of course it is), but too often it's the opportunities surrounding the webinar that are overlooked or under-estimated, and they make all the difference.”

For example, “The topic you choose for your webinar should be irresistibly useful, while inspiring attendees to take your desired action (purchase your product or service), without being the slightest bit pitchy. Your guest should bring not only expertise and credibility with them, but ideally a totally new audience to your brand too. Your email invitation and promos should encourage people to register even if they can't attend the live event (you can send them the recording). Your registration page should be free from distraction like navigation to the rest of your site or social share buttons (ask for that after they've registered).”

This ensures every webinar you produce is successful. At Unbounce, “It's these details (and plenty more) that helped turn webinars into our largest acquisition channel in only a few short months.”

by Eric Samson, Founder of Group8A

5 Steps to Build Your Personal Brand

Your personal brand is how you appear to the world. Therefore, it serves to reason that a strong brand is preferable to one that is unpolished and uninteresting. Once people know who you are and begin to identify you with a specific area of understanding or expertise, you'll be well on your way to becoming the go-to person in your niche or industry.

The question is, how do you become more recognized? How do you build your authority and your following? If you're looking to build your personal brand, here are five ways to go about it.

1. Understand and be your authentic self.

Imagine how hard it would be to build a brand around your "fake" self. You would have to act a certain way, appear a certain way, and say certain things, regardless of how you felt about it. Some professionals suggest going about building a personal brand by shaping and molding what others see, but this is exhausting to maintain in the long run.

Your brand should be a reflection of who you are. Do you know what you believe? What you stand for? What your strengths and weaknesses are? Never forget -- people connect with other people. If you don't appear to be a real person, or if it just looks like you're faking it, how likely do you think others are to trust you? Even if they do buy into your fake persona for a while, the slightest bit of inconsistency could prove problematic. Building a personal brand is first and foremost developing an understanding of your true self, and then sharing that with the world. Take your masks off and don't be afraid of being vulnerable.

2. Speaking engagements.

If you're looking to build your brand, then you should be speaking on a regular basis. Naturally, this will mean developing your communication skills. If you speak in exactly the same manner others do, you will never stand out from the crowd. Speak from a place of knowledge and power. Show that you know what you're talking about, and answer questions in a way that serves your audience.

Show that you are confident. Some may criticize or disagree with you. The important thing is to remain open to feedback. Thank others for sharing their views, and if the points they raised were legitimate, determine how you can improve and do better next time. Speaking engagements are opportunities to be seen and heard. Start small, and keep building. You may not land high-quality speaking engagements off the bat, but if you keep swinging, you'll build your following and get invited to speak at bigger, more notable events and conferences. Buckle down and offer the greatest amount of value you possibly can everywhere you go.

3. Write thought leadership articles and participate in interviews.

Thought leadership articles and interviews establish your credibility. As with speaking engagements, landing the best opportunities takes time and effort, but if you remain open to what comes your way, pretty soon you'll be showing up everywhere. Take a look at the press coverage we've received to date. Anybody who regularly hangs out online should be aware of many of the brands listed there, but even if they aren't, they probably know about publications and media outlets like Fox News and Time. This shows that others see you as an authority.

In addition to that, here's an example of an interview I’ve done, covering one of the topics FE International is most known for; selling websites. Getting an "in" with the media, online publishers and publications can prove challenging. However, it is a powerful way to show that you know what you're talking about. Every outlet you build a connection with increases your brand authority.

4. Build your online presence.

Do you know how you're appearing and coming across online? This is something you're going to want to monitor on an ongoing basis, and improve upon whenever and wherever possible. Do you have social media profiles? If so, are they fully fleshed out with all of your information? Do they present you in the best light possible, and make you look professional? Are you using high-quality professional photography? Are you interacting with others and sharing their content?

Do you have a website for your personal brand? One of the best ways to rank in search for your name is to build a website. This gives you considerably more control over your online presence than social media. It can't hurt to add new content to your site on a regular basis, either. You can get a domain with this GoDaddy coupon for just 99 cents – so there’s no excuse to delay. Try to buy your own name if you can.

Don't forget to Google yourself regularly to see how you're coming across, how others might be perceiving you, and what they're saying about you. You'll have a tough time building a great personal brand without making a real effort to monitor and tweak it.

5. Remain a student of your industry.

No matter how well you know your industry or area of expertise, it would be wise to remember that things are changing at a faster rate than ever before, and you have to stay up-to-date with the latest changes and trends. It takes time to build your personal brand. If you fail to stay relevant, all of your effort will be wasted. If you don't want to be discredited, then you'll want to keep a steady supply of articles, trade journals, blogs, and books on hand.

It also pays to learn new things, develop new skills, and to expand your knowledge. If you're not growing, then you're stagnating, and that's the last thing you want to do as an entrepreneur. Odds are you already know how important it is to stay on top of your game, but a friendly reminder never hurt anyone. As you begin to sharpen your personal brand, the right opportunities will start coming your way. People will begin to see that you're know what you're taking about, and they'll invite you to be a part of their stories or news pieces. However, don't forget how important it is for you to have accomplished something yourself. You can't talk about what you haven't done, because that will take away from your personal brand. Be open about your shortcomings and weaknesses. This will make you all the more human and relatable.

By THOMAS SMAL

Co-founder of FE International

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5 Simple Ways to Give Your Marketing a Boost

Don't sit back and wait for your customers to come to you. Get the sales you want by getting the word out there about your business.

Coming from a background in both accounting and human resources, I've been able to witness a lot of business lessons firsthand. When I launched Cao Chocolates, I felt fortunate to take some of those lessons and apply them directly to my daily business life, channeling what I had learned in the corporate world into my small business life. One of the areas I've always had an interest in is marketing, and I work hard to find new and inventive ways to bring products and ideas to potential clients. Here are five rules I live by on my marketing journey:

1. Love your product and try to be the best in your industry.

I was passionate about chocolate long before I made it my business, and I think that passion comes through in my work. I also channel my passion by investing money in my chocolate education. Even today, I often travel to meet and learn from the best chefs and chocolatiers in the world to be sure I am providing clients with the very best product.

2. Create strong partnerships.

I truly believe that if you go by yourself, you won't go very far. A strong group of people will get you there. I'm proud to partner with and support other local businesses and share in successes that we can all benefit from. I recently sent out corporate gifts for an attorney client of ours. We hand-delivered chocolates to about 25 of his best clients and just a few days later he was on the phone, thrilled with how many referrals he had already gotten. At the same time we had other attorneys who had seen the gifts calling us, wanting to do the same. It was a great marketing opportunity for both of us.

3. Be kind.

It sounds simple, but it really is so important. We live in a big world, but it can be small when it comes to our business and industries. Be nice to everyone, make them feel great and make an effort to have exceptional customer service—you never know who you're dealing with.

4. Find new ways to get your name out there.

You have to be creative. You can't wait for the customer to walk through your door. When I didn't have a storefront, I created pop-up opportunities via local farmer's markets. When I didn't have a commercial kitchen, I partnered with a local baker to rent space in her shop. We do wine and chocolate pairing events, special tastings and sell our product in more than 10 markets and coffee shops across South Florida. We connect with growers and clients via social media. We're constantly thinking of new ways to introduce Cao to the world.

5. Give back.

It doesn't matter how much you make, you always have to give back. If you make $100, you can give $10. If you make $1 million, you can give $1,000. Use part of what you make to help someone else. It will always come back to you.

by Cao Chocolates.