Category: Strategic Marketing

3 Key Content Creation Insights from MozCon 2024

Posted on June 26, 2024 by - Content Strategy, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Strategic Marketing

In June 2024, I had the absolute pleasure of attending my first MozCon. My mind was blown several times by how deep the SEO world actually is, and I was pleased by how many talks underscored the importance of knowing your audience.

Understanding who your ideal targets are and what motivates them is an essential part of strategic marketing. Read on for 3 content creation insights gleaned from MozCon 2024.

MozCon sign in front of a window overlooking the Seattle Convention Center

Knowing HOW your audience searches will help you craft compelling content

Garret Sussman, Demand Generation Manager at iPullRank, gave an eye-opening talk breaking down the psychology of search. He detailed various biases influencing how we search and the results we receive.

For example, asking the internet, “Is coffee healthy for you?” will yield vastly different results than “Is coffee bad for your health?”  The distinction is important. It challenges marketers to remember their psychology coursework and return to the consumer’s mind.

Watch out for biases that could be influencing search results:

  • Confirmation bias—Consumers may choose search results supporting what they already believe. 
  • Position bias—Consumers tend to interact with the first few items listed on a search engine results page (SERP).
  • Familiarity heuristic—Consumers favor familiar brands. If they’ve seen them often, they’ll likely gravitate toward them. 
  • Authority bias—Consumers tend to trust authorities even if they’re not accurate.
  • Halo effect—Consumers are more apt to feel positive about products, brands and people if they’re affiliated with a brand they already trust.

What does this mean for content creators and marketers? 

We need to dive deeper into our target audiences and develop a true understanding of who they are, what motivates them, their likes and dislikes, the media they consume and potential biases that might influence decision-making. We also need to develop relevant online content despite (or perhaps due to) their cognitive biases. 

How does AI factor in? Consumers are getting more comfortable using AI-powered large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT to search for information, and they’re asking longer and more complicated questions than they do with traditional search engines.

Using AI to search can lead to even more bias. Lean in with strategic keywords, partnerships and affiliations to ensure your ideal target audience connects with your brand, and be sure to double-check the results—AI isn’t always right.

Tapping into emotions can drive impressive conversions

Everyone loves nostalgia, and it is everywhere these days. A simple scroll through social channels will show countless content creators parodying the 80s, 90s and 2000s, much to Millennial and Gen X delight. Big brands are doing the same things, and it works because of the way it makes consumers feel. 

In The Power of Emotion, Talia Wolf, Founder and Chief Optimizer of GetUplift, reminded us that everyone makes decisions based on emotions, even in the world of B2B.

People are eight times more likely to buy a more expensive product or service if they easily see the personal value it provides. While features, cost and impact hold weight, decisions boil down to categories:

  1. Internal motivation/self-image—How will this product or service make me feel?
  2. External motivation/reputation—How will this product or service influence how other people think or feel about me?

What’s a marketer to do? Focus on the WHY. What’s in it for your customer? How will your product or service make them feel or be perceived in the workplace? How will it improve their lives? Leverage emotions to drive conversions. 

  • Step 1: Make it about the customer—Conduct audience research to uncover and leverage key consumer insights.
  • Step 2: Use consumer insights to audit your strategy—Is your content relatable? Does it hit the WHY? What’s missing?
  • Step 3: Weave emotion into your content—Tell stories. Make it impactful. Inspire your audience to feel good about themselves and your solution.
  • Step 4: Weave emotion into your design—Use powerful images. Leverage design and UX to guide audiences to desired actions.

By honing in on emotional outcomes and placing customers at the center of our narratives, we can move into more meaningful content that actually resonates. It’s not only about what we can offer. Instead, it’s how our solution will improve our customers’ lives. 

How does AI factor in? AI can be a powerful tool to help us better understand specific target audiences. AI resources like SparkToro and BuzzSumo were designed for audience research, giving marketers an inside look at how specific groups approach purchase decisions. We can then use those insights to create targeted content that drives conversions.

Behind the AI Curtain: Insights into the Invisible 

It was interesting and refreshing to hear Britney Muller, Founder of Data Sci 101, describe AI as lazy, pattern-making machines. She urged conferencegoers to stay skeptical because while AI is a huge technological advancement transforming the world, it’s not perfect—not by a long shot. 

Should we be using it in marketing? Yes. Should we completely trust it? No. Remember, AI crawls the entire internet and serves the most likely solutions to queries. The internet is as full of misinformation as it is fact, so it is essential to remember that LLMs are not actually search engines.

✅ AI/LLMs are good with:

  • Language translation
  • Content summarization
  • Brainstorming
  • Question-answering
  • Repurposing content for different mediums
  • Simplifying long or complex text
  • Correcting spelling and grammar

❌ AI/LLMs are not good with:

  • Common sense
  • High-level strategy
  • Reasoning and logic
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Anything they haven’t been specifically trained to complete

AI must be trained in order to improve—we want it to improve so it can eventually complete more labor-intensive tasks, leaving us time to focus on strategy and creativity. It’s important to note that AI reflects and magnifies its training data, so it is essential AI be fed high-quality content from the start.

Marketers can help improve AI by submitting detailed prompts and providing feedback on whether the AI tool hit the mark. In addition, be wary of sharing proprietary information. Once AI knows it, there’s no control over how it’ll be used. 

How can we get the best results from AI? Write better prompts. Explain tasks as you would to teammates, provide examples and describe your audience. Be as detailed as possible to hone in on the right target audience. 

Final Reflections on MozCon 2024 

I highly recommend this conference for strategic marketers! The world of SEO is changing at lightning speed, and content creators must stay at the forefront or be lost in the dust.

These content creation insights from MozCon 2024 are the tip of the iceberg, with many more talks delving into technical and local aspects of SEO. Check out the Moz Blog for daily recaps (Day 1 Recap, Day 2 Recap) and keep learning.

Consistent, Constant and Compelling: The Fundamentals of Marketing

Posted on May 22, 2024 by - Strategic Marketing

We could talk about marketing trends all day long, diving into the rise of influencer marketing and AI-driven content creation or the importance of sustainable marketing and data-driven campaigns.

While those trends are undoubtedly important for keeping your marketing strategy adaptable and relevant, there’s one invariable truth: the fundamentals of marketing are unchanging.

Let’s get back to basics and discuss why the right offer priced optimally and promoted to your ideal audience with strategic messaging through a curated media mix can be effective in driving results—without the frills of flashy marketing trends. 

The Unchanging Fundamentals of Marketing 

The foundations of marketing can be condensed into four fundamentals—offer, price, promotion and place. When you implement these key elements into marketing strategies, you’re going to see meaningful results (even if you ignore what’s “trendy” in marketing). 

Create the Best Offer

You’ve likely defined the ideal audience for your products or services, but can you hone those insights further? (Hint: “everyone” is not a target audience!)

What does your audience want? What do they care about? Can you solve problems or challenges your audience faces? What can your company offer to make their life easier and help them achieve their goals? 

These are all questions you need to ask when refining your offers to drive business growth. The answers will build the foundation of your entire marketing plan. This is your opportunity to create value for your customers, foster loyalty and set you apart from the competition, lending to long-term business success. 

To stimulate further brainstorming when creating enticing offers, consider: 

  • Has your target audience changed? Have their concerns evolved?
  • What are the demographics, psychographics and behaviors of your target market?
  • Is there existing competition, and if so, how is your offering different?
  • What makes your offer unique?
  • Why should the audience choose your offer over competitors’?
  • What are the potential challenges associated with your offer?
  • Is your offer scalable for future growth?
  • How will you collect feedback from early users or customers?
  • What is your long-term vision for your brand? 

Set it at an Ideal Price 

The next step in refining your offer is finding the ideal price point. When determining the right price, it’s important to ask yourself two questions: what do customers expect and how are competitors pricing similar products or services? 

While you definitely don’t want to undervalue your products or services, you don’t want to go too high, either, as this could turn off prospects. Instead, aim to align the price of your offer with the value it provides. 

Though these questions and considerations will help you gauge pricing options, ultimately, it’s up to you to determine what you charge. 

Build the Perfect Promotion 

To effectively and concisely communicate your offer to your ideal target audience, you must craft the right message and build the perfect promotion. 

  • Understand your audience and what messaging will resonate. For example, you wouldn’t talk to a millennial the way you would talk to a baby boomer because they each have a vastly different set of drivers and concerns. These distinctions could make or break a campaign. 
  • Craft a compelling message highlighting the benefits of your offer. Focus on your audience’s needs and how your solution adds value to their lives. Remember, it’s not necessarily about what you want to say but rather what your audience needs to hear.
  • Embrace uniqueness and creativity with your campaign, as this will help capture the attention of your target audience and differentiate your brand from competitors. Consider implementing storytelling, user-generated content, giveaways, influencer partnerships and more.

Find the Proper Place to Market

This is your moment—the time when you showcase your refined offer in a way that effectively communicates its value proposition.

During the execution phase of your marketing strategy, there are a few key aspects you need to consider to ensure your promotions are successful: 

  • Choose the right marketing channel. Where are your prospects—physically and digitally? It’s important to find the most effective channel to reach your audience. Often, this includes a mix of online and traditional offline channels, like social media, billboards, radio and email marketing. 
  • Ensure synergy and consistency across all marketing channels. This helps to create a unified brand experience, reinforces your message and fosters stronger brand recognition.
  • Measure and optimize. Develop and track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, sales enablement metrics and return on investment (ROI). Use this data to refine your strategies and optimize your campaigns for better results.
  • Embrace adaptability by using the data and metrics gathered when measuring the performance of your promotion. This will help refine your strategy and optimize your campaign for the best possible results. 

Digital marketing is essential, but don’t underestimate the power of human connection. The art of relationship building is still an important component of any marketing strategy. 

Interactions at trade shows, 1:1 meetings, speaking engagements and networking events are all still effective and important ways to gain brand recognition—and they’ll complement your digital efforts to create a stronger campaign overall.

Get Back to (Marketing) Basics

As you navigate the complexities of today’s market, it’s important to recognize that an impactful marketing campaign doesn’t need to be complicated—it can be as simple as tapping into these four foundational pillars of marketing. 

Understand your audience, create a value-driven offer and strategically price and promote it using the right channels and messaging. With the right approach, you can achieve your marketing goals while staying true to timeless principles that drive results. 

If you’re looking for a marketing partner to take the reins and create a customized marketing strategy for your business, contact Giant Voices. We’re here to help you achieve your revenue goals. 

(Hint: if you’re teetering between hiring a marketing professional or a marketing agency, it’s best to hire a herd of workhorses, not a magical unicorn!)

Marketing Trends We Expect to See Take Off in 2024

Posted on March 25, 2024 by - Strategic Marketing

It’s that time of year! As we move into the new year, brands and businesses across the globe assess, analyze and revise their marketing strategies. To help you get a better grasp of what’s likely to come, we’ve gathered a list of growing marketing trends we expect to see take off in 2024. 

Marketing Trends We Expect to See Take Off in 2024 | Giant Voices Blog

AI-Driven Content and Conversations 

Picture this: personalized content that’s practically a mind-reader and tailored just for you. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI), marketing messaging, chatbots and online conversations will move forward with ease, making it seem as though each virtual interaction is designed perfectly for clients and customers. 

While not all businesses will make the jump to fully AI-driven content creation, many will likely start or continue using AI to predict and stay ahead of trends, making content creation more adaptable, fluid and timely. 

That’s not to say humanization isn’t required when harnessing AI-driven content. It can often come across as robotic and inauthentic, which is why incorporating human touch is crucial. 

Customize AI-written content to make it unique, decipher whether an AI-predicted trend is worth your time and investment and analyze AI-fostered online conversations to ensure they come across as genuine. 

Authenticity is Key

As many consumers are no longer swayed by perfection and beautifully curated content, authenticity is likely to be a key driver of growth, engagement and sales moving into 2024. In the era of transparency, consumers aren’t just buying products—they’re investing in brands that they trust and genuinely connect with. 

How can your business embrace authenticity? Expose the human side of your brand, build a strong foundation of credibility and foster enduring relationships with your customers and clients with marketing materials, content and service that represents your company and people accurately. 

Eye-Catching Animated Marketing 

Introducing animation into your marketing strategy offers a unique blend of creativity, innovation and visual appeal that captures the attention of today’s fast-paced and visually-oriented audience. Plus, it’s really fun to make and watch!

Compared to video marketing, which is still an effective tactic, animated marketing is not only more accessible and implementable for everyday brands, it’s also short, sweet and to the point—ideal for younger audiences with shorter attention spans. 

For inspiration, check out this simple, animated graphic Giant Voices posted for New Year’s Day.

Human-Centric Approach

Hyper-personalization will be a key part of marketing in 2024. No longer are we viewing our audience as “customers” or “clients.” Instead, marketers are seeing them for what they truly are: humans that need help solving a problem. 

Coinciding with AI-driven content and conversations, expect to approach each and every client and customer interaction with care, authenticity and a unique solution to their challenges. You can do this by leveraging creativity, humor and emotion within your marketing campaigns—in a way that aligns with your brand, voice and—more importantly—your audience. 

Ethical and Sustainable Marketing

Ever heard of ESG marketing? Also known as environment, social and governance marketing, this strategy highlights how well a brand is meeting its ESG goals, using specific benchmarks, KPIs and reporting metrics. 

With a strong ESG strategy, you can bring attention to your energy and water management practices, greenhouse gas emissions, charitable contributions, workplace diversity, company culture and responsible supply chain management practices. 

Rather than simply talking about ESG in company meetings, bring it to light and showcase your efforts in an impactful ESG marketing strategy, as sustainability will be an important consideration for younger generations during the purchasing process. 

Ethical and sustainable marketing also applies to your recruitment and retention strategies. Ensure that your hiring process is fair, consistent and purposeful, and implement meaningful retention tactics that make your employees feel valued, respected and unified. This will help you build a strong, impactful team that moves you forward year after year. 

Short-Form Video Content 

With the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels—and, as such, much shorter attention spans—short-form video content is becoming more and more relevant in today’s dynamic online world. 

We expect to see brands roll out easy-to-make, short-form video content on a regular basis in 2024. Everything from quick tutorials and tips and tricks to influencer collaborations and utilizing user-generated content (UGC) with the help of content creators. 

Harnessing the Power of Analytics 

Relating to our earlier mentions of AI-driven content and human-centric marketing, we expect brands to better harness the power of analytics to get exceptional results. 

Deeply understanding your target audience, how they operate, the type of content they enjoy consuming, their purchase behavior and other vital components is crucial for building out a strong human-centric strategy (which, as we mentioned above, will likely be a 2024 marketing trend). 

At Giant Voices, we utilize data to improve everything from social media engagement and email opens to click-through rates, brand experiences and website interactions. Our team truly believes that data is one of the best tools businesses can harness to create growth-driven results. 

Utilizing Influencers and Creators  

In the last few years, influencers and content creators have upheaved and transformed the social media landscape. With more influence and leverage than ever before, online figures have the power to make or break your brand. 

When used correctly and intentionally, influencer marketing can grow your brand’s reputation, following, sales and revenue rapidly. On the flip side, if your product or services aren’t up to par, just one influencer’s strong review can seriously hurt your business. 

Capitalize on Better Marketing in 2024 

By modifying your 2024 marketing plan to integrate one or many of these predicted trends, you can capitalize on better marketing strategies that deliver long-term results. Questions? Reach out to the Giant Voices team. We’re here to help. 

How Adding a Fractional CMO or Marketing Leader Can Transform Your Business

Posted on March 7, 2023 by - Business Tips, Strategic Marketing

What if you could bring on an expert to help fill in critical leadership and skills gaps but at a fraction of the cost of hiring FTEs? This is exactly what a fractional CMO or marketing leader does, and here’s how adding one to your team can transform your business. 

Marketing has always been a fast-paced industry, and the momentum continues to build faster than marketing teams can hire the support they need.

It takes time to interview, hire and train new FTEs who may or may not have the skills required to develop and execute effective marketing strategies. It may take several FTEs to fill the necessary gaps, and that overhead adds up quickly.

Yes, you can fine-tune your recruitment strategies to attract qualified candidates, and it’s essential to focus on retaining the talent you already have on board, but neither of these will guarantee your marketing team has the full breadth of expertise needed to deliver qualified leads to your sales team. 

Staying at the forefront of changes in the marketing field is often more than one marketing professional or small internal marketing team can handle—nobody should be doing this alone. 

Just because marketing takes a specialized team, however, doesn’t mean all of those experts need to be on your payroll.

Hiring a fractional CMO, fractional marketing director or fractional marketing sales and alignment expert can provide your business with the power of a full-service marketing department—for a fraction of the cost.

Giant Fractional Marketing Services

Giant Voices offers fractional marketing support to augment your existing internal marketing person or team. This type of investment gives your company the power to leverage the expertise of a full-service marketing agency for a fraction of the cost of hiring FTEs, and it amplifies your existing teams’ capabilities.

Instead of hiring for specific skills, you’ll gain access to an entire strategic marketing team with experts in marketing strategy, digital marketing, web development, SEO, content creation, social media, graphic design, and more. 

We become an integrated part of your organization, delivering what is specifically needed in terms of strategy or tactical assistance. If your team has gaps in certain areas, fractional marketing support could be the key that unlocks unlimited potential.

If you could use help in any of the areas listed below, a fractional service agreement may be worth exploring:

What level of fractional marketing support is right for you?

Marketing support services can augment your team at any level—from C-suite to (virtual) front desk. Check out the following options and consider your needs. 

Fractional Chief Marketing Officer

A fractional CMO sets the strategy for marketing and sales teams, manages your organization’s brand identity, and builds strong relationships with internal and external partners. It’s executive-level strategy and oversight, backed by a skilled team of marketing professionals. 

Fractional Marketing Director

From internal and external communications to marketing and advertising strategy development, a fractional marketing director will help move your business forward powerfully, ensuring all marketing projects are completed and optimized.

Marketing/Sales Administrative Support

Fractional marketing sales and administrative support adds capable hands to your team. They’ll keep you in touch with customers through list management, mailings, email sends, customer inquiries, event management and more.

Case study: Giant fractional CMO services fill critical leadership and skills gaps

Involta is an award-winning hybrid IT and cloud-forward consulting firm orchestrating digital transformation for the nation’s leading enterprises. Involta’s ongoing mission has been rooted in partnership for nearly 20 years.

The Giant Voices team has been Involta’s strategic marketing partner for over a decade, helping grow the company’s footprint from one market to six and providing marketing insight every step of the way.

As Involta grew, the company needed a higher level of strategic marketing insight and leadership. Giant Voices fills the role of Chief Marketing Officer to help Involta fill a critical leadership gap. 

The Giants backup Involta’s internal marketing team, provide support to build Involta’s brand, strengthen lead generation and digital advertising efforts, oversee the company’s website and manage public relations.

This tremendous amount of work wouldn’t be possible without combining the Involta and Giant Voices teams. It’s a collaborative effort every step of the way, and the results have been mutually beneficial. Deep integration leads to deep knowledge and a high level of trust. We’re one team. 

“With Lisa Bodine leading Involta’s marketing efforts, we’ve expanded our data center footprint, honed our IT security offering, elevated the Involta brand and positioned the company for acquisition by Carlyle. She and her team have been invaluable.”

—Jim Buie, Involta CEO

Ready to engage a Giant fractional marketing expert?

Reach out to our team at any time to discuss how we can augment your team.

4 Marketing Trends We’re Watching in 2021

Posted on January 18, 2021 by - Business Tips, Strategic Marketing

If the events of 2020 taught marketers one thing, it’s that we have to be prepared for anything. Companies ready to pivot at a moment’s notice bounced back from the pandemic faster than others.

Now that we’ve (finally) said “so long” to 2020, we’re excited to re-energize and share our top tips for getting ahead in the 2021 marketplace.

Here is what we expect to see trending in the marketing industry over the next 12 months.

Staff Augmentation

2020 came in like a wrecking ball, with the majority of companies feeling a financial strain. Many operations furloughed or reduced staff, decreased resources, and, in some cases, closed their doors for good.

So, it should come as no surprise that companies will be slower to hire new employees in 2021.

This creates an opportunity for agencies to offer help without adding to a client’s overhead costs. We anticipate a significant shift in staff augmentation, allowing agencies to fill marketing leadership and administrative roles for their clients.

  • Companies will likely hire contractors or part-time employees before adding FTEs to their organization
  • A few agencies (like Giant Voices) will offer staffing help, providing talented and trained marketing experts to fill marketing director, marketing assistant or CMO roles

During previous economic downturns, marketing agencies have been the thought-leaders and strategic partners helping clients get back on their feet. Agencies have played an integral role in providing communication, direction and support when organizations need it most.

At Giant Voices, we offer clients the support they need to sustain their operations and the strategy they need to thrive.

Full-Service Agency Support

The need for full-service agency support has shifted like a pendulum—especially in the past 10 years. Around 2010, companies preferred hiring multiple “niche” agencies to cover singular focus areas. One agency would provide social media support, another influence management, the next SEO support, etc. 

However, many soon discovered how difficult it had become to manage 7-10 relationships with segmented teams, not to mention the inability to create cohesive and comprehensive campaigns that resonated with customers and prospects.

Moving into 2019, most companies wanted to limit their agency partnerships, preferring a full-service firm model that provided a much-needed integrated strategy. We see the pendulum continuing to favor the full-service agency model in the new year.

  • Companies want to create cohesive messaging across their many communication channels
  • Connections matter more now than ever, and clients want to work with agencies that understand them. They want to build a relationship with a single firm that can dig in and strengthen an organization’s brand while helping them achieve revenue goals
  • Firms like Giant Voices will expand their specializations to provide clients with full-service agency support

Sales and Marketing Alignment

Moving into a new year while trying to curb the effects of an ongoing global pandemic means companies need more than marketing help—they need sales help as well.

In 2021, we see more and more clients asking for help with sales and marketing alignment strategies. Our team advises clients through sales funnel development, visually showing them how their advertising and lead generation tactics will take their prospects from impressions to sales conversions.

  • Sales are critical – companies and clients aren’t just looking for a marketing firm, they’re looking for a firm to help them sell
  • Messaging matters – companies are reaffirming their competitive advantages by synchronizing their messaging in sales and marketing
  • Increasing ROI has never been more important – companies are tapping into full-service marketing agencies for conversion strategies
  • Numbers tell a story – companies are reassessing their KPIs to measure success and ensure sales and marketing alignment

Customers are part of the entire journey, not just the sale, which is why sales and marketing alignment will take on a new meaning in 2021.

Our firm knows consumer behavior, and we understand the importance of  pivoting quickly when the landscape changes. We specialize in creating customized strategic plans that work best for each client’s unique situation.

Ongoing Growth of Personalized Connections

It’s been in almost every headline in 2020—we miss connecting with other people. While building relationships remains the key to successful client/customer and client/firm relationships, this sentiment holds true in 2021.

Companies will seek new, creative and innovative ways to reach their customers, and they will rely on their full-service agency to guide them to where they need to be.

We anticipate these tactics will perform strongly:

  • Video advertising: As thousands of Zoom calls in 2020 have taught us, nothing beats a face-to-face conversation. Whether it’s on social or in programmatic display, video ads will continue to be the preferred choice as each allows advertisers to communicate on a more personal level than a standard display ad.
  • Personalization using programmatic AI: The digital advertising landscape has transformed in the last two years, making it easier and more affordable for advertisers to send personalized ad content to targeted audiences. Providing the right content, in the right place, at the right time, is the best way to drive conversions.

2020 was a year of autonomy for target audiences across all industries—during that time, consumers’ needs changed drastically as they wanted to work, learn and gain feedback on their own time, in their own way.

Customers have had time to assess companies’ channels as well as the content they produce, so utilizing technology while emphasizing the importance of authentic storytelling will be critical to success as marketers embrace a new year.

Drive Growth in 2021 With These Marketing Trends

Four marketing trends will drive growth in 2021:

  1. Staff Augmentation
  2. Full-Service Agency Support
  3. Sales and Marketing Alignment
  4. Ongoing Growth of Personalized Connections

At Giant Voices, we practice what we preach. We are here to help you reach your ambitions as we embrace a new year.

Are you ready for 2021? We can help. Connect with us today for a discovery meeting.