Actionable Marketing Lesson of The Week

Along Fifth Avenue’s eastern sidewalk, brightly colored signs spotlighted the key elements of the UN’s Global Goals agenda. They provided QR codes to allow passersby to get more information. (BTW, QR codes have re-emerged as a safe, environmentally-friendly way to distribute content.)

What does this mean for your marketing:
Your audience expects you to serve a higher societal goal.

72% of Edelman’s 2021 Trust Barometer Research respondents were concerned or fearful about climate change.

Post-pandemic, 50% of consumers think about sustainability when they shop (Source: PwC’s June 2021 Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey).

Also, how you treat employees and suppliers sways consumer purchase decisions.

So why don’t consumers buy sustainably?

44% of consumers less interested in sustainable shopping:

• Think sustainable products cost too much,
• Believe sustainable product's quality is inconsistent, or
• Lack time to shop for sustainable options.

Beyond your customers, approach your entire business including suppliers and distributors to understand the full impact of the environment on your profitability.

The Fashion Industry has been hit hard by sustainability and other UN Global Goals. According to McKinsey’s The State of Fashion 2021, the apparel industry faces shocks due to geophysical events, heat stress and flooding.

How do you improve the sustainability of your business?

Listen to Peter Drucker and integrate marketing across your organization.

Why should your business do this?

Because climate change and other social issues such as how you treat employees has an impact on your long-term viability and profitability.

Further, consumers and employees expect businesses to fill the gap when governments and other organizations fall short in their responsibility to serve the greater good.

So pay attention to the factors your audience cares about in terms of sustainability. Reduce your organization’s waste creation and carbon footprint. And treat your employees and resources with respect and care.

Because your competitors and near substitutes are a search away!

Actionable Marketing Tips:

• Document and promote your business’s sustainability practices to raise public awareness.
• Transform your content marketing into sustainable content to stay relevant and up-to-date.

Voice Notes

► Is voice part of your marketing mix yet?
It should be!

Why?
Since voice-enabled products already had 90% awareness in 2018 (Source: PwC 2018). They included smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, smart speakers, TV remotes, car navigation and wearables.

More important for your organization’s bottom line:
You need voice marketing so your brand IS heard!

Because: Customers use voice along the entire buyer journey! (VCI 2021)

How Can You Add Voice Marketing To Your Mix?

Chances are your organization already has some voice or audio content. For Example: podcasts, conference or webinar recordings or “how to” videos.

Your audience can engage with voice content marketing in one of three ways using the OUI Approach:

► On-Demand Voice Content includes content that you’ve transformed from another format into voice or audio content to make your content more accessible.

Actionable Marketing Tips:

• Aid findability with relevant metadata. So prospects can find your voice content regardless of where, when or how they look.
• Add user-friendly text to voice and audio content. And publish it on your own media! While AI-based tools can do this, have a human edit and format the results to improve readability. See how the A16z podcast did this.

► User Question Answered is a short piece of audio content that’s the best answer to the user’s question. In this case, the best answer delivered the fastest matters.

Actionable Marketing Tip:

• Only deliver the answer to the specific question. So make audio content findable in small chunks.

► Interaction. In most casts, the user expects to simplify their question to fit the device’s way of responding. Often, this applies to IVAs and chatbots.

Actionable Marketing Tip:

• Allow users to speak to a human when they need to. And set expectations by stating your business hours.

► Want to learn more about Voice Marketing?

Join me on Friday, October 8th at 12 pm EDT/9 am PDT for Voice Lunch Marketing. Voice Lunch Marketing meets every other Friday at 12pm ET/ 9am PT.

Get your FREE invite and reminders to attend Voice Lunch via Zoom.

Social Scene

► Is Instagram Hurting Teens?

While being a teenager is difficult, use of social media can make this life stage harder. This is especially true of Instagram.

Why?
Focusing on body image and lifestyles, Instagram makes social comparison worse.

Adding to Instagram’s problem, 40+% of its demographic is under 22.

Internal Facebook research reported by The Wall Street Journal revealed: One in five teens say that Instagram makes them feel worse about themselves. (Source: The Independent, September 14, 2021).

Even worse, teens who struggle with mental health issues say Instagram makes it worse, according to internal Facebook documents.

So what does this mean for you as a marketer?
If your products and services focus on teenagers, use Instagram with care to avoid creating or adding to users’ negative feelings and mental health issues. Because this could erode consumer trust and your brand value.

NYC Marketing Marketing Minute

In its Fifth Avenue retail location, Furla spotlighted their new “Re-Candy” pocketbooks. Using the bright color array of Pantone®’s colors for Autumn and Winter 2021/2022, the brand reintroduced their “Candy” collection.

What is the Fall 2021 difference?
Furla launched Furla Re-Candy, a new version of the iconic design, To celebrate its 10th birthday.

“Furla Re-Candy means innovation and sustainability: recycled materials, reused creatively by employing cutting-edge manufacturing techniques.”

Actionable Marketing Tip:

• Look for opportunities to bring back stellar products from past offerings. In today’s post-pandemic world, people long for nostalgia.

Marketing Reads

► New Post on the Actionable Marketing Guide

Author Interview: Dan Gingiss, The Experience Maker

Want to improve your organization’s profitability?
Then improve your customer experience.

Even better, this interview provides you with useful charts to make the case to your management team!

Plan Ahead: Mark Your Calendar

Join me at these marketing events:

► October 8 - Voice Lunch Marketing, 12pm ET / 9am PT. Sign up to get your Zoom invitation and reminders. This week’s topic is “How Voice Marketing Works”. It will include a brief presentation followed by an open and unrecorded discussion. So please join us!