AMG Newsletter: Want To Improve? Use These Back-to-School Marketing Tactics

Published: Tue, 09/07/21

Dear ,

Labor Day Weekend in the US signaled the end of summer.

And, yes, endings are often bittersweet.

But the cooler weather after Tropical Storm Ida blew through the New York City metro-area left people with a sense of renewed energy after the August heat.

The wind and choppy ocean translated to red no swimming advisory flags. This forced people to find non-beach activities. For me, this was perfect beach weather since I never go in the water except on the hottest of days.

So my husband and I celebrated the end of summer with fruity drinks at a Russian cafe on Brighton Beach.

Heidi and Larry on Brighton Beach

What does this mean for you as a marketer?

Always have one or more backup plans and/or promotions in case, due to weather or other major factors, things don’t turn out as planned.

How do you accomplish this resource-effectively?
Create easy-to-modify content and promotions you can quickly adapt and execute.

In my corporate experience, marketing often has to find ways to make up revenue shortfalls due to under-performing promotions or poor results elsewhere in the organization.

Actionable Marketing Tip:

Have one or more easy-to-implement promotions. The key to success is to keep them quiet until you need them. For example, last Wednesday, it was raining at the Union Square Farmers’ Market. What did one fast-thinking farmer do? Offered a “Rainy Day Special on Peaches”. As a marketer, I wondered whether it was the intended price for the less desirable fruit.

Actionable Marketing Lesson of The Week

Tap Into the Power of Quality Content

The end of August often means vacation time in the US. So, many employees want to take advantage of the last days of summer before their children go back to school. As a result, many businesses tend to be thinly staffed to keep normal activity going smoothly.

So what do you do as a marketer?
Tap into the power of your existing quality content through content curation.

Of course this marketing tactic assumes that you keep your best content in top condition. To accomplish this, continually update and improve your top performing content, whether it’s your Top 10, 25 or 100 articles every quarter. These articles drive the lion’s share of your traffic, leads and/or conversions.

Voice Notes

On average, US smartphone owners spend 3 hours and 10 minutes engaged with non-voice call activities on these devices or about one quarter of their media consumption time per day.

What does this mean for marketers?
Ensure that your target audience can easily find or access your audio and voice content using a voice command. This translates to voice search and mobile apps.

Smartphones: Average time Spent

Social Scene: Influencer Marketing

Social media accounts for the lion’s share of influencer marketing. Both B2C and B2B businesses pay influencers to represent and promote their products and services. In 2021, US influencer marketing spend will grow to $3.69 billion, an increase of about a third from 2020.

Influencer marketing Spend

Marketing Reads

New AMG Articles:

► Top Marketing Books: Experts Recommend the Best!

Whether you’re going back-to-school or back to work, improve your marketing and business skills with these great books. Even better, they’re recommended by some of the smartest people in marketing today!

► Influencer Marketing Relations: How To Improve Your Results

Is influencer marketing part of your mix?

Did you know that influencer relations marketing can increase your brand
trustworthiness, expand your reach, and improve your ability to persuade prospects to purchase?

So get the latest research and tactics on this $13.8 billion global market now!

NYC Marketing Marketing Minute

Last week the remnants of Hurricane Ida blew torrential rains into New York City. While my husband and I expected bad storm conditions, we didn’t foresee over 50 gallons of dirty water gushing through our kitchen ceiling between 8:30 pm and 1:30 am.

And we were grateful that we were able to collect and empty most of the water quickly. As a result, we prevented damage to the apartments below us. But compared to the stories from Louisiana, our problems were minimal since we still had clean tap water and electricity.

What makes this story worth telling marketers?

The next day before noon I received a phone call from a real person at my homeowner’s insurance asking me if my husband and I were safe and whether we had any damage to our apartment.

When I told him about our kitchen, he asked if he could help us with the claims procedure and he sent an email to follow up.

This is what I consider a remarkable, talk-worthy customer experience. While our insurance costs more than average, this firm has come through for us whenever we’ve had a problem. So it’s well worth the additional cost.

Actionable Marketing Tip:

Provide talkworthy customer experiences to retain customers and increase referral business. The increase in these 2 indicators more than covers the extra business cost!

Plan Ahead: Mark Your Calendar

Join me at these marketing events:

► September 8, 2021 – B2B Influencer Marketing Summit 3:30AM to 10:00AM ET (Note: It’s being presented in the UK hence the strange timing). BTW, I’m presenting on one of the panels with Gordon Glenister, author of Influencer Marketing Strategy.