Making It Last: 3 Tips to Keep Your Audience Engaged

Now more than ever, a successful branding strategy involves finding new ways to reach and engage your target community—but that’s only half the challenge. Let’s suppose you’ve implemented an effective campaign; you’ve made real inroads into a community and you’ve built ties. Now, what do you do to keep the momentum going? Building connections and generating interest was only “phase one”. For lasting success, you now need to move to “phase two”: converting that immediate excitement for your product or service into long-term brand loyalty.

What can you do to continue the momentum you’ve built through your marketing efforts? The following tips may help.

 

#1 – Remain Involved in Community Causes

 

The public’s collective memory is quite short especially with the bombardment of advertising we all see each day. If you build brand awareness with a generous sponsorship of a one-time event, you may build rapport—but without any further involvement, all your effort (and dollars donated) will be forgotten in six months’ time, if not soon. To build long-term engagement, you need a long-term strategy for long-term involvement. Consumers need to know you care. Find local or regional causes that resonate with your company’s core values and support them regularly. Be on the lookout for additional ways to give back to the community you’re trying to reach. This piece, for instance, catalogs how 100 different companies are giving back during coronavirus. One example of this altruism—a business called RepairSmith is donating $100,000 of “contact-free” auto repair services to people who lost their jobs as a result of the 2020 pandemic.

 

#2 – Always Look for Ways to Add Value

 

One of the best ways to build loyalty is by adding value for consumers without adding cost—and without being asked to do so. When you make a sweet deal even sweeter just because you can, you turn satisfied customers into raving fans. When you extend a one-year subscription for an additional three months for no apparent reason (and for no extra money), you have just eliminated their need to even consider going elsewhere. Always look for ways to make customers feel they’re getting more value from you than they’d ever get from your competitors, and you’ll have them for life. This Inc article details 9 real-world examples of companies going above and beyond to delight customers. For instance, Kleenex used Facebook to coordinate with friends and family members of sick people and then arranged to give away free “Kleenex Kits” to those who needed them.

 

#3 – Stay in the Conversation

 

Social media serves more purpose for brands than just marketing. By its very nature, it’s a “social” platform with many opportunities for organic engagement. If you only use your Instagram to advertise or for influencer marketing, you’re missing a huge opportunity for long-term connection with an online community of potential customers. Pay attention to what people are posting, like and follow, and leave shout-outs, comments, and questions where appropriate. Likewise, if someone goes to the trouble to comment on something you’ve shared, a thoughtful response will go a long way toward building rapport and loyalty. Irreverence can work as well, as with Wendy’s famously spicy Twitter campaign.

 

Your long-term success as a brand depends not just on making the public aware of you, but also on earning their trust. Think of engaging your community like a marathon, not a sprint. Wicked Bionic can help you develop powerful strategies to find your desired audience and engage them both effectively and consistently.

How Millennials Consume Content – What You Should Know

The demographic known as the Millennial generation (people born between 1981-1996) has been a point of fascination for pundits and marketers alike. Millennials seem to have a unique perspective, worldview, and set of habits compared to the generations both before (Gen X, Boomers) and after (Gen Z). Considering Millennials now comprise 25 percent of the American population, according to Knoema—representing $1.4 Trillion in buying power—any marketing plan that doesn’t include efforts to reach this demographic will likely generate significantly less revenue and miss out on the brand loyalty of this generation.

 

To reach Millennials, not only must you create content that speaks to their priorities and thought processes, but you must also understand where to deliver that content most effectively. Let’s explore some of the most common ways Millennials consume content—and the type of content they’re most attracted to—to help identify the best channels for getting your message to them.

 

Millennials Favor Online Sources

 

Since Millennials are the first generation to grow up with the Internet and mobile devices, it naturally follows that their preferred methods of receiving content are mainly online. Consider the following:

 

  • Nearly 50 percent of Millennials spend a minimum of 10 hours per week online. Twenty percent spend more than 20 hours per week.
  • Nearly 60 percent of Millennials use the Internet as a primary source for news.
  • Nearly 60 percent of Millennials use their smartphones for shopping.
  • The most visited websites among Millennials include YouTube, Facebook, BuzzFeed, Spotify, and Amazon.

 

Thus, an effective marketing campaign geared toward Millennials will inevitably include a significant budget toward creating content for digital.

 

Millennials Eschew Traditional Advertising

 

The fact that Millennials are online doesn’t mean you should necessarily buy ads or simply treat the Internet as a new type of billboard. Millennials are turned off by mass marketing; in fact, 57 percent of Millennials block ad content whenever possible. Instead, they prefer to use the Internet to research facts for themselves, which is why Millennials are 247 percent more likely to be influenced by a blog post than by a traditional ad. For that reason, hiring a blogger for your own site and guest blogging on other sites are excellent tools for reaching this generation with informative content about your product or service.

 

Millennials Are More Loyal to Brands that Engage Them

 

Nearly 95 percent of Millennials are on Facebook. Over 60 percent of them are on Instagram. There are 87 million Millennials on LinkedIn. Thus, social media plays a critical role in how this demographic consumes and processes content. Building a strong social media presence with authentic content is critical in reaching them. That said, we’re not talking about simply buying Facebook ads (see point above); we’re talking about engaging a Millennial audience with regular interactions on social media. Yes, it’s an opportunity to educate them about your brand, but if you want to build loyalty around your brand, invest time and money to engage, ask questions, and talk about issues and causes they care about.

 

Los Angeles multicultural advertising agency Wicked Bionic has done extensive research on the Millennial market and how they respond. We specialize in helping brands tailor their message and their strategies to reach specific audiences more effectively. Get our FREE 2021 GUIDE on attracting Millennials and more.

Top 3 Consumer Shopping Trends You Need to Know

Consumer online shopping is stronger than ever. Here’s what’s happening.

Any effective marketing campaign will take into account what consumers are doing, what they’re buying and why. Consumer trends are a constantly moving target, even more so when there’s a rapidly evolving global situation. Just within the past 6-8 weeks since the pandemic began sweeping across the globe, for example, consumers have made abrupt changes in their shopping and online habits, sending many marketers scrambling to reinterpret the data and adapt accordingly. Let’s take a look at three of the most current consumer trends happening right now that are shaping (or re-shaping) marketing strategies today.

 

1. Strong Shift to the Online Marketplace

 

E-commerce and mobile shopping apps were already taking a dominant role in the marketplace. Now, with much of the nation under stay-at-home orders, online shopping has taken even more of a leap forward. Companies with strong e-commerce, especially those selling products and services that can be used from home, have found themselves well-positioned during this time. If you haven’t made much effort to sell online before, now is the time to make that transition because, for many consumers, it’s literally their only shopping outlet and they are looking for what you have to sell.

 

2. Emotional Connection to Brands

 

Consumers today, especially Millennials, are looking for more than just a product or service—they’re looking for an experience, for engagement. For that reason, you want to find ways to help your audience make an emotional connection to your brand. In many ways, social media marketing provides the best solution because it centers almost completely around engagement, dialogue, and influence. Again, with more people spending time on social media when under quarantine orders, for example, the dynamic of this trend has been suddenly amplified. Brands that utilize social media to offer inspiration, education, and comfort during this time have the chance to build strong customer loyalty.

 

3. Social Responsibility

 

Today’s buyers, particularly younger generations, are partial to brands with a social conscience—who follow “green,” sustainable and/or fair-trade practices, who give back to the community and who support causes they believe in. They also gravitate toward the micro-economy, favoring local businesses and/or companies that source locally.  This trend is encouraging bigger brands to re-evaluate some of their practices and engage in more philanthropy. It should also encourage smaller, localized brands that there is an audience of consumers eager to support them—if they know how to connect with them.

 

Wicked Bionic is a strategic marketing and advertising agency in Los Angeles. They reach multicultural and multigenerational consumers and are always ahead of the latest consumer trends. Innovation keeps their clients talking to their customers in new and relative ways. Contact them here to learn about how they can help your business succeed.

5 Steps to Gaining More Customers with Hispanic Marketing

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It may be a surprise to some that are not specifically marketing to the Hispanic population that they represent a significant portion of market share across the U.S. The Census Bureau estimates that Hispanics currently comprise 18.3 percent of the population across America with a spending power of over 1.4 trillion. As an example, in Los Angeles County alone, there are over 4.3 million Hispanics who are your potential customers. Focusing your advertising across concentrated metropolitan areas will be a wise investment for your marketing dollars. Tailoring your approach and messaging to reach them is what will separate your business from your competitors.

Speaking in culturally relevant terms is vital

When marketing to Hispanics or any multicultural group, you must first identify your target market and their location, research their priorities, craft your messaging accordingly, and deliver that message via the appropriate channels. Our agency has gathered and analyzed the research and identified five top ways you can reach your target Hispanic segment more powerfully.

1. Be Culturally Relevant and Affirming

More than one-third of Hispanics say they respond better to advertising that reflects their culture, which means, by extension, that if you ignore cultural relevance, you’ll lose one-third of your total impact. Utilizing Hispanic spokespeople and influencers in culturally affirming situations will go a long way toward building brand trust in this demographic. (One note of caution when speaking to any culture: Avoid being disingenuous in this approach – people can spot inauthenticity a mile off.)

 

Get Your FREE Marketing Means Diversity 2021 Report

 

2. Be Age-Specific with Language

‘Culturally relevant’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘Spanish-speaking’. Nearly 60 percent of Hispanics in America are under age 35, and our research shows the 14-35 Hispanic age bracket prefers messaging in English over Spanish. If your target market is older Hispanics, a Spanish-language ad will be quite effective; if you’re reaching the younger set, however, you may do better with English messaging, perhaps interwoven with “Spanglish” where appropriate.

3. Be Regionally Sensitive

Cultural differences aren’t just about ethnicity—geography also plays a vital role. As a New Yorker sees the world differently than someone in the Deep South, so a 30-year-old Latina female in Los Angeles will respond differently than a Latina 30-year old in El Paso. Do a deeper dive into your research to understand why using “geofencing” to tailor your messages more locally is a highly useful tactic.

4. Focus on Mobile/Online Advertising

Our research shows that a significant majority of Hispanics respond well to online advertising, and they are at least one-third more likely to use their mobile devices for online shopping than the average consumer. Online ads and mobile ads are quite effective channels for delivering your messaging to this segment. Make sure that your images are culturally relevant and that you’re not using a one-size-fits-all approach.

5. Focus on Streaming Media

Another high-impact delivery channel for reaching Hispanics, especially Millennials, is nearly any kind of streaming media (e.g., streaming music, podcasts, YouTube videos). Roughly half of the Hispanic community are active users of streaming services, and three-quarters of this demographic use YouTube as a search engine more often than Google! Advertising on these channels is powerful, as well as creating or curating your own streaming content that applies to this demographic.

The days of one-size-fits-all messaging are over. It used to be that a single marketing message blanketing all demographics could at least yield enough ROI to make it worth the cost. Today, with our population more diverse and segmented than ever, you have to take a more targeted, nuanced approach if you want to market effectively and grow your customer base.

Don’t miss out on the latest trends with our FREE Marketing Means Diversity 2021 Report now to learn how and where to reach your target market.

The more well-crafted your messaging strategy, the more customers to your door, product or service.

Wicked Bionic helps you understand your target marketing and tailors messaging to reach new consumers. Contact us for more information.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Where Advertising Media is Most Effective

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What’s the Most Effective Media Mix?

A question that’s often posed by our clients is what the most effective media mix is for them, their business, or their brand. Our response is always the same: It depends on what your goals are. Focus has indeed shifted over time to loftier strategies that include massive spending in digital marketing, but that’s not always the right strategy. Data shows how being bombarded with messaging, in cases by as much as ten thousand ads a day. Messaging overload has made it increasingly hard to deliver brand recall. We’ve grown a negative perception of advertising, where ads are, in some cases, considered a hindrance to our experience. That is not always true. Yes, while ads may be intrusive, they allow us exposure to new experiences that we may not otherwise. These experiences can be positive, as they pertain to services or products that improve our lives, save us money, or provide us with a useful service.

One of the primary goals of a media plan is to drive brand awareness and recall. While in some cases we’re attracted to or make whim decisions based on immediate exposure, in other cases, we may have no use for the product or service right now but will in the future. In cases like retail products, like activewear, we may be attracted by a Facebook or Instagram ad showing pieces of clothing that we can utilize during our workout routine. That may make us indulge in a moment of online shopping. In other cases, it may be a product or service that we may not have an immediate need. An example of that could be a new bank account. While we may have no obligation to open a new bank account, having a positive and reinforced perspective of the services of a particular bank or branch will help drive our brand recall. We define brand recall as the ability to recall a brand or product we’ve been exposed to in the past at the time we have an intent to take action. Meaning that the day that we do consider opening a new bank account, the customer will be able to recall having seen a specific bank or branch that has a special offer for new bank accounts. What gives the brain the ability to remember that brand at the instance of intent or momentum is a mixture of a positive experience, meaning someone in our trusted circle mentioned a brand or perception from exposure to messaging that resonated with us with the number of times we experience that brand or message. Nowadays, it can take up to 14 exposures to a brand or message within two weeks to drive brand recall.

How brand recall reflects on your media buying and advertising strategy will differ based on your priorities and how you understand your customers. For some brands, like banks, the priorities may shift at the local and regional level from the national priorities. Local branches may need to prioritize messaging of inclusiveness if they’re in a diverse area or benefits if they’re in an older demographic area. They may also need to prioritize messaging of proximity, availability, hours of operation, and other conveniences that are important to local customers. As an example, the national institute of health recently reported that customers are willing to walk up to half a mile for products or services but not more. Therefore, a bank’s message may need to include different out of home messages to target foot traffic than to target transit or vehicular traffic. The point is that one message does not fit all. For media placement to be effective, it is not only where you place the media but how you target and customize the message to fit your audience’s needs that will drive brand recall at the time when there’s momentum in the decision to take action.

TO DRIVE MOMENTUM, EFFECTIVE MEDIA MUST AT LEAST CONSIDER THESE TOP 5 MEDIA CHARACTERISTICS:

  1. Intent: What intent is your media addressing? When looking at your customer, what is it that is going to drive them to your product or service?
  2. Media Demographics: Content consumption varies based on demographics. How effective a short video will depend on the age and medium targets viewing it. Millennials appeal to video is undeniable, however, having grown in the video era, they are quick to identify stock footage from original videos and are therefore more resistant to pay attention to a video that is stock. In contrast, videos created in partnership with influencers will be far more effective as these are perceived as real experiences. Gen X users work differently, while stock footage is still a relevant factor; the messaging surrounding the video will take priority to the video itself. Highlighting the benefits of watching the video, like a special offer, discount, or another benefit, will affect the length of the video the user will watch.
  3. Media Ethnography: Awareness of media diversity is one of the critical drivers of consumption in diverse communities. Our exhaustive “Marketing Means Diversity” report, highlights a 2019 Bloomberg report showed that African Americans are 20% more likely than the total population to say they will “pay extra for a product that is consistent with the image I want to convey.” In that report, we gathered data from more than 20 reputable sources on how diversity affects marketing effectiveness and media placement.
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  4. Media Proximity: How close in proximity to the product or service is the consumer. At our agency, we develop strategies that, in specific cases, prioritize budgets and messaging based on proximity by creating geographically fenced areas both in digital and physical mediums. Within these areas, we deliver customized messaging targeted to persons in vicinity tot he advertised product or service.
  5. Media Relevance: Each medium is active in a different way to appeal to different audiences. While a billboard is just a billboard, the messaging on that billboard may be relevant to a diverse audience than the creation of the advertisement, and that may have different relevance to foot traffic than it does to transit. While you won’t always be able to please everyone, it is essential to base those decisions on your measurable priorities to determine how effective your existing message is to achieving the ROI that your advertising should yield.

There’s a lot more than 5; other characteristics include media environment (the demographic environment where the media is placed), media timing (correct times differ depending on the media type, target and messaging), and many more. The point is that your media effectiveness will only be as measurable as the priorities you set to it, how your media program develops to fulfill those priorities, and the characteristics that you place as the measure of the effectiveness of those priorities. The win then is in the details and your ability to dedicate the time to analyzing and pivoting based on those metrics.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

How much messaging is too much in a time of crisis?

In times of crisis, when the societal norms we are used to having been stretched, and we’ve entered a new paradigm of separation, communication has taken center stage. It’s the one way we have left amongst all the stress and anxiety form the unknown that can keep us connected. This time presents a unique opportunity for businesses to show their human side.

In Western civilization, we often hear that the Chinese letters that represent “Crisis” are the combination of the letters for “Danger” and “Opportunity.” As with everything in science, the universe, or however you relate to our existence, everything is about balance. For every positive, there is a negative. For every down, there is an up. And so, for every loss, there is an opportunity.

Mankind will always find an opportunity in crisis.

Did you know that more millionaires were created during the great depression than at any other time in history?

More people became millionaires during this time than at any other time in American history. Opportunities that were not present during the 1920s economic boom times suddenly became available. An economic downturn is an excellent time to start a business. Start-up costs are much lower in a recession than in boom periods. Savvy entrepreneurs edged in and positioned themselves for when the economic climate improved.
—January 03, 2020, Kimberly Amadeo,The Balance, “1920s Economy
What Made the Twenties Roar”

Be Human.

As with previous times of crisis, the human community will emerge changed. We will have been torn apart and put back together. We will have seen the best in people surpass the worst in people. For every person hoarding toilet paper, we’ll have seen ten people willing to share theirs with a neighbor. After a time of crisis, when we show that with humanity, it is not about the “me”; it is about the “we,” we will emerge, once again, a strengthened human community. If we understand that through crisis we also evolve, then we can reflect on the opportunities provided by each evolution. Where is your opportunity? Now is the time to focus on working on creativity, developing your message to be released both during and after a crisis. How you react to this time will be a determining factor of whether you are one of those that ride the wave of success that always follows a change-event.

In times like these, it is about the quality of the communications and message and not about the quantity. During these times we find examples of appropriate and not so communications everywhere. I’ve gathered a sampling of them here:

Do

  • Communicate from a human perspective and acknowledge the crisis. A crisis provides a unique opportunity to cut through the fear and anxiety by driving messaging that while it acknowledges the obvious, it is focused on positive, reflective outcomes. Every crisis eventually unravels, let your brand be a guiding light during this period. Always remembering to be human, not pandering, but strengthening.
  • Show what you stand for: Share how you’re reacting positively towards this crisis, the measures you are taking to take care of your people. We recently saw a private club post on social media that they will close for the next two weeks but that they will be refunding membership fees. The reaction was swift; people didn’t care about the costs, they wanted to know how they were taking care of their people. The club responded that they would be covering the salaries of all staff during this time, which was very well received, but that was a lost opportunity to have made the team the center of the message.
  • Get creative: In California, the governor laid out a crisis guidance for our most recent crisis, letting us know that wineries, bars, and restaurants would be closing. To address that, a very innovative winery came up with the idea of “virtual wine tastings” with their wine club. The way this worked was by setting a time for everyone to hop on a virtual conference call and taste their wine club wines together with the Vintners. The results were incredible and the brand was recognized for being in resonance with the times.
  • Think of the Community: Crisis is an excellent time for your firm to put their money where their mouth is. We are being called to help. We have been shown that we cannot rely solely on the government to take charge and solve problems during a crisis. The first step is to Identify community initiatives or local giving that your organization can support. From places like food banks, and homeless shelters, to more creative initiatives like child care, elder care, and low-income families
  • Understand your audience: Be aware of who is your existing audience and be cognizant of what your target’s pains and priorities are. During a time of crisis, priorities shift to security, family, and community. How can you be a part of that conversation? In recent days we’ve seen grocers like Woolworths in Australia, establish a “senior hour” so that senior citizens can shop early, when the stores have been cleaned and restocked, to ensure they get a chance to get what they need in safety. Get it. Safety, seniors (family) and awareness (community). During a crisis, small reflections can go a long way.

Don’t

  • Act like nothing is happening: We’ve seen emails from national brands that seem so disconnected. Pushing the “SALE” or “Black Friday is Back” messaging. During this time of uncertainty, we couldn’t care less about your tepid attempts at capitalizing on people being home.
  • Be Tone-Deaf: Sending messaging that communicate how frustrated you are to have to cancel sessions for the first time since you launched your business, and your incredible network of over X amount of locations has never had to close its doors when people are more concerned about whether your employees will be taken care of, shows your insensitivity to what truly matters. During a crisis, we don’t care about you being less wealthy, when we don’t know if we’re going to be able to pay our bills.
  • Send an email or post for the sake of sending an email or post: We all know what’s happening. Unless someone is living under a rock. There’s no need to send or post multiple communications with the same message of how you’re aware that this is an imposition, but you’re there with us.

Share your thoughts on do’s and don’ts with us, and we may add them to the list.

Get Creative.

At times of need, we seek to reinvent. During the plague, through a period of self-isolation, Sir Isaac Newton had the time to explore and ponder, eventually yielding the laws of nature included in the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Although it took him 20 years to publish it, you’re possibly familiar with the laws he devised:

  • A body at rest will remain at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force.
  • The force acting on an object is equal to the mass of that object times its acceleration – or in mathematical notation, F = ma.
  • For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Creativity flourishes in times of need. We have an abundance of energy in the air to harness. Take this time to work “on your business” more than “in your business.” After a wave of crisis and its consequences like the possibility of a recession, we will see a wave of hope, community, and growth. Take time to think about the previous crisis and what transformations they brought about.

9/11 highlighted our need for action in communications and security. Still, it also alerted us to the importance of acknowledging other cultures, working together to build a world focused on humanity as a whole, and the importance of shared responsibility for this earth. Businesses like Clear, capitalized on this time, made Steve Brill (owner) a millionaire after 9/11 by being a company that uses our biometric data (fingerprints, irises, faces, and voices) to change the world.

Get Crafty.

After any crisis, we will work to find ways to return to “normal” or the established “new normal.” After the final wave of the Spanish flu subsided in February 1919, the market began an increase of 50%, which lasted until November of 1919. Still, no one can say if it was tied to the end of the war or the disappearance of the disease; however, what is true is that after every one of these “collapses,” particularly when they are worldwide collapses; humankind strives to outperform. In this case, as with the Spanish flu and world war, we’ll be coming out of a “world event” so the push will be even harder to go even further.

The time is now to ready your positive, community-minded message. Let’s remember that the roaring 20’s happened right after the end of World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic. How will you be there? What will your brand represent? What part of our new normal will you be a driver of?

The time is Now.

If you need help understanding how to connect with your customers reach out to us at Wicked Bionic.

5 Strategies to Understanding Your Target Customer

[vc_row margin_bottom=”0″][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1585245872816{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text]When developing a brand or marketing a product or service, identifying your target community is only the first part of the process. Now you need to learn the target customer and what makes them tick—their needs, desires, fears, motivations, and so on—so you can begin to understand how your brand fits into their larger picture.

To illustrate, let’s assume you’ve figured out your primary target market is affluent single adults aged 18-28. That’s important to know, but what else do you know about them? What are their priorities? How do they spend their money? What causes do they care about? Where do they shop? Where do they hang out? What are their political views? The answer to these and other questions will give you a framework for developing your brand image in a way that resonates with them, builds their trust and earns their loyalty. Let’s discuss a few key strategies for getting to know your target community a bit better.

 

1. Create an Ideal Customer/Consumer Profile

 

Many companies find it helpful to develop a customer profile— an avatar – who represents their ideal customer, including their habits, beliefs, and values. Example: Janie is 28 years old, married with two children. She works part-time as a dental hygienist, goes to yoga three times a week, attends church or synagogue, enjoys going to the movies with the kids, and doesn’t mind pampering herself at the local spa when she has the money. You might not have all these details immediately, but the customer profile gives you a framework to fill in the blanks as you learn more about your ideal customer.

 

2. Learn Where They Spend Time Online

 

This sounds a bit like “stalking,” but think of it more as market research. Try to discover which social media platforms your target community spends the most time on (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, TikTok). Once you have an idea, don’t just set up a profile on those platforms—become a participant yourself. Find out which online communities they’re tuning into, what podcasts they’re listening to, which forums they check out, what influencers they follow, etc. The idea here is to find out what media your community regularly consumes, then listen in yourself, so you’ll begin to understand their priorities, how and where they consume content, and hopefully chime in with helpful thoughts of your own.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”vc_default” bg_type=”bg_color”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1585246078470{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1585248259355{margin-top: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][mc4wp_form id=”6483″][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

3. Know What They Care About

 

Knowing what your audience cares about is central to any marketing strategy. Multicultural audiences have different priorities and it’s important to understand what resonates with each. Online research will yield data from reputable sources like Pew and Nielsen that can provide you with an understanding of how Hispanics, Millennials, African Americans and other cultures and demographics consume content. Learning how to use messaging based on data when targeting a market is crucial.

 

4. Learn Where They Are Located

 

Knowing the location of your consumers allows you to display relevant content to them by various forms of marketing. Depending on the strategy, this opens the door to a variety of advertising options. As an example, using digital marketing, you can set up a virtual location or radius (geofencing) so that you can market to people within that specific area via platforms such as Facebook, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat.

 

5. Survey Those That Are Similar

 

Sometimes the best way to find out what’s important to someone is to simply ask them. Identify a few current customers that you consider to be within your target community, and ask if they would be willing to participate in a brief survey. Your questions don’t need to be too probing or personal, but try to frame them in a way that will help you understand more about what makes them tick. (Also, don’t be afraid to ask them what they’d like to see in your product or services that you’re not currently offering.)

Not all the information you obtain with these strategies will apply directly to your product or service, but they will help you build a picture of who your ideal customer is, who’s connecting with you, and how your brand can help make their lives better.

 

Wicked Bionic can help you develop and implement these and other strategies to gain a deeper understanding of your target community.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][dt_default_button link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwickedbionic.com%2Fcontact%2F%20|title:Talk%20To%20Us|target:%20_blank|” size=”medium” el_class=”wbformbutton”]Talk To Us[/dt_default_button][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The Importance of Testing and Quality Assurance

“Don’t wait for your best day to have your worst day.”
-Carlos Sapene

The news has been abuzz this week on issues related to the debacle at the Iowa Caucuses. Reports have been pouring in, blaming the coding of an app developed to transmit reporting efficiently from the voting centers to the central data collection location. Without getting too technical, the issue relates to technology, capabilities, and testing.

I’m never looking to bore people with too many explanations, especially when it relates to politics. We have enough politics in the news. What did strike me, though, is that the issue was something that, in hindsight, should have never happened and has now put the entire process in doubt. The point here is testing. Testing is probably one of the most underrated needs when developing anything on technology, and that includes your website, your funnel, your ads, your apps, anything that relies on technology to deliver your messaging. You could have the best landing page, with the message that converts at such a high rate, you’re sure a significant spend in advertising will yield a high return on your investment. But, how useful is that if when people land on your page, your website doesn’t load?

I like to explain this to our clients by illustrating to them what a website is. You may have heard that your website is hosted on a server. That sounds all techy, so allow me to explain it more in lay man’s terms. Think of your server as a filing cabinet, in the old days (and some places still) filing cabinets held tons of folders which contained information that was important to a business. Now think of your website as one of those files in the filing cabinet. Accessing that file is all good-and-well, while people can walk up to the filing cabinet and pull the file out. Visualize that cabinet sitting in your office, with people passing by and viewing the files. Now visualize what would happen if all of a sudden 50,000 people wanted to see that file at the same time, what would that look like? I’m guessing you’re getting the point. It would overwhelm your entire office, and everyone behind the first five or so to arrive at the cabinet would not be able to see the file or it’s contents so they may try to crunch in to view. That could cause all sorts of problems.

In that example, you begin to get a sense of why testing is essential. Because everything may seem to be doing great; until it’s not. To help people understand these issues more clearly, we’re launching video episodes to cover topics related to testing. In the first episode below, we highlight the importance of load-testing. As you may gather from the story I illustrated for you in this post, load testing allows you to test what would happen if your website or app receives more significant or massive amounts of traffic at one time. It is essential to discover these issues when you can do something about it, not after you’ve lost the business and hurt your brand.

Instagram: Tips and Hacks to Increase Your Reach

This past weekend Dana and I attended a Pinnacle Global Network event where we had the opportunity to listen to Chalene Johnson speak on tactics and techniques to grow your engagement on Instagram. For those that don’t know Chalene Johnson, she’s an entrepreneur who made a name in the fitness space and has grown to become a business coach and influencer. Chalene’s talk covered topics I found relevant to share with our community of clients and prospective clients so we decided to cover these topics in our Wicked Marketing Podcast. As a top Los Angeles marketing and advertising agency, we broadcast the recording of this podcast episode through Instagram Live as it was a perfect fit for covering the topic. You can listen to our podcast recording here as well as read the transcript of the conversation below:


Dana:               Hi, this is Dana.

Carlos:              And this is Carlos.

Dana:               And this is Wicked Marketing. Welcome to our podcast today. Glad to have everybody listening.

Carlos:              And watching us on Instagram live.

Dana:               And watching us on Instagram. Yeah.

Carlos:              Yeah.

Dana:               We’re going to talk a little bit about Instagram today. We had a great weekend conference in Palm Springs and Chalene Johnson came. Oh my God, what a dynamo, right?

Carlos:              Yeah. She was brilliant.

Dana:               She had the stage. She was so amazing and she’s, if you don’t know who she is, check her out on Instagram because she’s just a spitfire and knows an incredible amount of how to maximize and leverage Instagram.

Carlos:              Yeah.

Dana:               So it’s great. That’s what we want to talk about.

Carlos:              I actually hadn’t even heard of her before and now that I have-

Dana:               Oh, we love her.

Carlos:              Yeah, we love her and we definitely recommend that you guys check it out. That’s also the reason why we’re going live today with the recording of our podcast. So with that, let’s start talking about Instagram.

Dana:               Yeah, let’s go. Let’s go, Instagram, as you all know, you’re there.

Carlos:              So Chalene was discussing, we were in a large group over, what, do you say 200, 300 people in there?

Dana:               It was actually 400 people-

Carlos:              400 people.

Dana:               … Pinnacle Global Network. Yes.

Carlos:              And one of the things that she talked about is the importance of not only focusing on the type of imagery that you’re putting on Instagram but the fact that you need to be authentic. So let’s talk a little bit about that. Traditionally, Instagram is a visual medium, right? So people, because of it being a visual medium and it all initially being all about photography and beautiful imagery, there’s a lot of both people and brands that are on there that have been focusing a lot on creating these artificial images, right? So…

Dana:               Right. And so something looks beautiful. You go to the wall and every slide is the same and everything kind of has this feeling that you can, not necessarily emotionally, emotionally feel, but you have a look that’s pretty.

Carlos:              Exactly. And I think that as Instagram has evolved and more people have gotten on it, what we’ve come to realize is that, that’s not effective for everybody, right? So just looking at a wall that looks like literally a piece of advertising constantly is not as engaging for a personal brand maybe or a business brand as it is for someone that is in beauty, makeup…

Dana:               Right. Maybe fashion.

Carlos:              Fashion, photography.

Dana:               That would make perfect sense for them.

Carlos:              Exactly.

Dana:               Right.

Carlos:              And those cases, it makes absolute sense to have something like that on your wall or have your wall curated like that, but when you’re looking for people to authentically engage with your brand and really develop a connection with your brand, there is nothing better than authenticity, right?

Dana:               Yeah. And you want to see who somebody is. You want to feel who somebody is behind the brand. I mean, at Wicked Bionic, we’ve tried so many different things, just thinking about different types of things in a wall, we always try with ourselves before others. And what we realize over and with our clients, over and over again, when you put people in the image and you get to understand a little bit about them, you feel a sense of connection and trust.

Carlos:              And that’s the thing, right? What is it that your brand is trying to communicate when you’re on Instagram? Each social network has a reason for existing, right? A raison d’être in French. And when you think about Instagram, it is about the emotion that an image gives you when you look at it, right? And also, that is the way to get people to actually engage with your brand on Instagram.

Dana:               Put a video up there and that’s it, right? You get to see a personality as well, which is what, Chalene, if you look at her stuff, I mean, she’s wacky fun. So she’s got a lot more personality than most of us, right?

Carlos:              Yeah.

Dana:               I mean, yeah.

Carlos:              Yeah. But one thing that she said that absolutely makes sense is if you think about social networks as a business, right, what they’re looking for is to retain people on their sites for prolonged periods of time. That’s how they’re able to serve advertising and that’s how they’re able to measure engagement, that’s how they’re able to create audiences for people to target through marketing. So like everything that generates money and longevity for a social network right now is tied to the time that people are on the site. So when you are thinking about why is my Instagram not effective, or I’m putting all this effort into Instagram and I feel like the algorithm is not showing my post to as many people, or how does the algorithm even make the choice of what to show to people?

Carlos:              If you start tracing it back to the content that you’re creating and whether or not it’s engaging for people, meaning people are going to spend time on it, then you get a measure of why certain content does better than other content. So she provided some tips that I thought were really great tips about how to drive engagement on your posts.

Carlos:              So let’s talk a little bit about those. One of the tips that she provided was, it’s always better to do video or do…

Dana:               Multiple images.

Carlos:              Multiple images, right. So, what are called the carousel posts on Instagram? A carousel post is always better than a single image. Why? Because it takes longer for you to go and swipe through several images than it does to just swipe up on one image that you…

Dana:               And Instagram is just trying to, is just seeing where people stop and what they do. So the longer you’re there, watching a video, swiping them multiple pictures, that’s what matters and keeps people engaged.

Carlos:              Yeah, absolutely. So, another one of the tips that she provided was creating long captions.

Dana:               Right. Right.

Carlos:              Right? So we’re so used to social media being quick, right?

Dana:               Right. Short, soundbites.

Carlos:              And short. Mind you, no one’s going to read your caption if they’re not attracted to the image or the images. So it’s a combination of both. But really thinking about, okay, now what is it about what I’m posting that I’m really trying to tell people? And how do you break it down into something that is interesting for people to engage with and also make it, because you can make a caption really long, but that doesn’t mean that people are going to read it, right?

Dana:               It’s interesting. Yeah.

Carlos:              So don’t force it, but make it into something that is interesting that people really want to read, that they want to, maybe you’re providing tips or you’re giving people information that they can use to learn about what you do…

Dana:               Well, maybe it’s something shocking and in some way, that makes you stop, goes, what is that about? We’ve all gotten those emails with incredible subject lines that make you go, “Oh, I got to open this.” And like, “Ah, it was just a sales thing.”

Carlos:              Exactly. So you don’t want to be salesy on your Instagram.

Dana:               Yeah. You just want to be honest.

Carlos:              You want to be honest and you want to connect. So those are a few of the ways that you can do it. Other ways that people are doing it that are interesting all have to do with interactivity, right?

Dana:               Right.

Carlos:              So Instagram provides you with tools to make both your images and videos interactive, and those tools are something that people use just for fun. But when you’re thinking about creating these posts or these Instagram stories, which is definitely a place where you should be putting your time and effort into, the use of these tools within the story will enable you to drag on that engagement and also the people interacting with those tools.

Dana:               Mm-hmm (affirmative), responding.

Carlos:              Or responding to those tools is going to count towards your engagement on your posts. So let’s talk about some of those tools. So there’s polling, right? So you can create a poll, a yes or no type answer on your poll where people can jump in and you can put in a question and they can connect with it and they can see what other people are responding to. You can use stickers, right? Stickers are a fun way-

Dana:               Stickers are fun, they’re fun.

Carlos:              … to have something on there that sort of makes people stop, hashtags, so people can click on them. Anything that people can touch-

Dana:               Right, use their screen.

Carlos:              … and engage with or that they can touch the screen and stop in order for them to be able to read or pause or whatever. All of those are interactions on Instagram that are going to help you lengthen the time that people are engaging with your content.

Dana:               And Chalene said a great thing and it’s kind of in our world, it’s A/B testing, but she said a great thing. She’s put out so much content and I think she has over half a million followers, and she was saying, she’ll put out one thing that, let’s just say, multiple images or a video and she will put a certain type of subject line or whatever, and then she’ll do the same type of thing with a different subject line or a different image and really kind of test and see where people are. And she says things have fallen flat that she thought there would be a connection to and then other things when she… I love what she does, when she’s trying to make a business decision about maybe a new product or something that she wants to put out there, she was saying that she will throw it out to her audience. Now granted, she has half a million to respond-

Carlos:              Yeah.

Dana:               … but she will throw it out to the audience and say, “Which one do you guys like best?” I mean, how fun is that?

Carlos:              Well, and that, I think that’s great.

Dana:               So fun.

Carlos:              Because then, you… we tend to assume that we know everything or that the people that engage with our brand should know everything about our brand, right? Or sometimes, we think that we’re going to talk about something and it’s going to be dumb because it’s just generic to us. But what you have to remember is that whatever it is that you’re marketing, it could be shoes, it could be t-shirts, it could be your services, you have assumptions from inside of the building, right? Because you’re so engaged with it, it’s so part of your day-to-day-

Dana:               You know it so well.

Carlos:              … that you assume that people already know things or you assume that people are not going to care about things or you assume what people will care for. And the point that Chalene was making is that you really need to go out there and see what’s going to resonate.

Dana:               It’s research, live research, really, right?

Carlos:              It’s live research. Yeah.

Dana:               I mean, that’s what it is. We all spend so much money and so much time with analytics and stuff on our end. And then you just ask your audience, if you have a decent size audience, to be able to get some opinions back and forth, and then you can go to market.

Carlos:              Exactly.

Dana:               You spending all that crazy money.

Carlos:              So, focusing on your authenticity, looking at what is going to resonate with your audience and how do you drive more time for people on Instagram is definitely going to be what’s going to help you measure success. Tactics, like using Instagram stories and implementing polling on there, going live, like we’re doing right now as we record this podcast, we’re actually live on our Instagram.

Dana:               Yes, for fun.

Carlos:              So people are getting to preview-

Dana:               For fun. Super fun.

Carlos:              … our podcast is going to be released in the coming days.

Dana:               But I forget that we’re doing a podcast as well, so this is going to be recorded as well [crosstalk 00:12:23].

Carlos:              Yeah, so this will be released-

Dana:               Wicked Marketing.

Carlos:              … in the coming weeks on the Wicked Marketing podcast, which you guys can subscribe to. And so what we’re trying to do here is really get you to think about why you’re doing Instagram, right?

Dana:               And I think, we hear the word authenticity and we say, “What does that mean?” Because Carlos and I really went to work on our business for three days and we’re like, what is it… all of us, we are our business, right? It’s not this thing, it’s we are our business, who’s behind the business. And we want to work with people that know and like us and trust us, and just like you would, finding people that you feel comfortable with. So how else do you expose that except by doing things like this and being able to share? So authenticity, I believe, is not being so afraid of thinking you have to be buttoned up or behave. I used to think, you have to behave like a professional, when I was younger. You have to be what a professional looks like, whatever that story was. And so it’s been very interesting having my own business for five years, over five years, is that I can put me into it. I can just be me and it’s so much easier than creating a persona or an idea or…

Carlos:              Well, and I think that’s a great segue to the final portion of what we’re going to talk about as far as engaging with people on Instagram. Instagram, as with every social network, is not a set it and forget it, right? So when you’re talking about authenticity and personality and engagement, right, and length of time that people are spending on your Instagram posts or Instagram stories or Instagram lives, what you want to think about is how much effort I might be putting in after I put that content out there, right? So if people are going on, which I’m seeing all these people coming and waving on our Instagram live.

Dana:               How fun is that? Hi, friends.

Carlos:              Hello, friends. Is that you can’t just leave it there. You can’t just, you have to look at the comments that people are putting on your posts because…

Dana:               And respond.

Carlos:              Once you’re being authentic, right, people are going to have questions.

Dana:               And we want to have, it’s a back and forth, so it’s developing a relationship through a medium where you can be yourself, they can be themselves, and then you’re connecting. It’s such a cool thing when you think about it.

Carlos:              So to that point, one of the things that Chalene talked about, which I just took for granted that people knew about and they don’t, funny enough, no one knew there, was text shorteners, right?

Dana:               Yeah. Yeah. So fun.

Carlos:              So text shorteners is something that I will encourage you guys to look for and learn about. So basically, what text shorteners allow you to do is to pre-craft, meaning you think about the things that people may have questions on related to your brand or product or service that you’re putting out there on Instagram, and create responses that are lengthy responses, right?

Dana:               Personalized responses.

Carlos:              Personalized, lengthy responses so that they spend time reading your responses to their questions, right?

Dana:               Not a novel, but a lengthy response.

Carlos:              But still to the point, right? You want to encourage people to keep asking you questions so you don’t want to give them like a mile-long response. But with a text shortener, you can attach that canned response, that’s what it’s called in marketing, canned response, to three or four or five letters in…

Dana:               A, B, C.

Carlos:              Well, I wouldn’t do A, B, C, but something like…

Dana:               RLF.

Carlos:              Yeah, letters-

Dana:               DCA.

Carlos:              … that you wouldn’t normally use, so that then when you need to send that response to someone, whether it’s in a text message or in an Instagram post or a tool like that, you type those three, four or five letters, whatever it is-

Dana:               That you’ve memorized.

Carlos:              … that you’ve memorized for that response, or you could even have a document where you track it, and it will immediately insert your long response to it.

Dana:               So as an example, if somebody says, “Gosh, Dana. Oh my God, where did you get your glasses?” Don’t say that nobody cares. But if somebody says, “Where did you get your glasses?” And I know that they’re going to ask about my glasses, I would have a text that says, basically, “I bought them at this store. You can go over there. LensCrafters has this. Here’s the place. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And here’s what they were and here’s how much they cost.” If I know somebody’s going to ask about that, I can just do the text shortener and it’ll have that response. Sounds like it’s from me, personalized, but it just makes it quick when you’re on the go and you have, certainly, you have the kind of crazy following that people like Chalene have.

Carlos:              Yeah. Or in cases like the live podcast that we’re doing right now on Instagram. If someone were to text us and say, “Hey guys, loved it. Do you guys have any way for me to get those tips in a fast way?” Then had we done it, which we didn’t, so don’t ask.

Dana:               Don’t ask.

Carlos:              We could just have those-

Dana:               Right.

Carlos:              … that quick-

Dana:               Response, with the response, yes, [crosstalk 00:17:27].

Carlos:              … response with the text shortener that could send all of that information to the people that are listening [crosstalk 00:17:33].

Dana:               For sure. So just look up, just google text shorteners and you’ll see, it’s a very cool tool. I just worked on it a couple of months ago and it’s super fun. So.

Carlos:              Yeah. So those are our tips for Instagram.

Dana:               And that’s our love for Chalene Johnson. Look her up.

Carlos:              And our love for Chalene Johnson. She deserves it.

Dana:               And she’s got, I can’t bring it off the top of my head, but she’s got four brands, so she really became incredibly successful in the fitness area. And so pyro, P-I-Y-O.

Carlos:              P-I-Y-O.

Dana:               P-I-Y-O. Yeah, dot com.

Carlos:              So she has the top infomercial in 2019.

Dana:               She’s awesome.

Carlos:              So she’s awesome. We encourage you guys to look into her. Maybe one day, we can have her on our podcast as a guest.

Dana:               Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Carlos:              That would be awesome.

Dana:               That’d be great. So, listen, thank you so much for listening, you guys, and we’ll talk to you next time.

Carlos:              Talk to you next time.

 

Reach out to Los Angeles multicultural marketing and advertising agency Wicked Bionic to be a guest on our Wicked Marketing Podcast.

The Importance of Forming Strategic Alliances with Other Businesses

Have you ever gone into bookstore Barnes & Noble, browsed around, picked a handful of interesting titles, then wandered over to the in-store Starbucks to enjoy your favorite coffee drink while perusing your new finds?

If you have, you’ve just demonstrated the power of a strategic alliance. Barnes & Noble doesn’t sell coffee. Starbucks doesn’t sell books. But by partnering strategically, these businesses have created a successful user experience by which both companies gain more customers and increase their revenues. It’s an excellent example of a symbiotic relationship.

As a business owner, you aim to provide the best possible product or service for your customer—but if you tried to meet all your customer’s related needs, you’d go crazy, broke, or both. You could be the best home remodeling contractor in town, for example, but what happens when a prospect needs architectural plans or an interior designer before they can work with you? You can’t afford to expand your business into architecture and design. STILL, if you partner with a local architectural firm in a strategic alliance, you can offer that additional service as a way of closing the deal—and both companies will get more business as a result! (The architect, in turn, can make your contracting services available to her clients, increasing your revenue even more.)

Types of Strategic Alliances

Strategic alliances between companies generally take one of three forms, based on how they choose to work together:

· In a non-equity alliance, the two businesses agree to work together as separate entities, offering shared services and leads without any exchange of equity. This alliance is the most common among companies and requires the least amount of commitment.

· In an equity alliance, one or both companies buy equity in the other. The two companies remain distinct, but one now has a partial ownership stake in the other. (Think of it as a partial merger.)

· In a joint venture partnership, the two parent companies pool their resources to form a third “child company,” creating a “one-stop-shop” for the services they provide and sharing the profits accordingly.

 

Tips for Developing Strategic Alliances

Strategic alliances and partnerships with other businesses can significantly increase both your customer base and your profits—but how do you choose the right partner company or companies? Some tips to point you in the right direction:

· Make a list of additional services or products your customers might need related to your business, but which you have neither the time nor resources to provide.

· Make a list of associated companies in your area who share your target market without competing with you directly. (Example: a school supply store and a yoga studio might both target moms in their 20s and 30s.)

· Research and network to determine which companies are serving the same markets are in alignment with your vision or your customer’s needs.

· Make an attractive offer. (Remember—the alliance needs to benefit the other company at least as much as yours!)

Partnering with similar companies can exponentially increase the value you provide your customers while providing additional cross-platform marketing opportunities. Wicked Bionic can strategize with you to find the best alliance partners as well as the best ways to market those relationships to your mutual advantage.