Marketing Your Brand in a Multi-platform Environment

Make your Business STAND OUT on the International Social Scene

Session by Nick Wells, Flame Tree Publishing

Data Sources include: Internetworldstats, CIA, ITU, Globalwebindex.net, gsmaintelligence.com, www.smartinsights.com, Nielsen and Bowker.

Introduction

• How to prepare your SME for the international digital marketing and social media scene.

• Methods to engage effectively and retain your customers in a multi-platform environment.

• Need some facts to understand the relationship between personal consumption and business activity across the global landscape.

• Global and local, digital and retail. Hand in hand for tactile goods such as stationery, accessories, books and art calendars, diaries, greeting cards.

• Driving integrated sales on and offline.

Flame Tree as a Global Brand

• Flame Tree: a global publisher of art calendars, deluxe journals and illustrated books.

• 65% of our sales are export.

• 7% sales online and growing by 15% each year.

• 64% of our website users are female.

• 40% visitors are UK • 22% from the US • 38% everywhere else.

• 38% is 25-44 age group.

• We have hundreds of products to sell so we focus on segmented messages and imaging.

Social Media Campaign – Lifestyle Images

Building Blocks

• Brand-building in the global marketplace is a long term business.

• We must be everywhere our consumer is.

• We need to understand the rapidly evolving marketplace.

• The customer has always been king, but now more than ever. And they’re vocal, and visible.

• But, now we can know our customer, engage, carefully manage expectations and deliver.

• How do we drive sales on and offline?

A Revolution in Behaviour

• The last 16 years have revolutionized our personal and business lives.

• Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, app stores, smartphones, iPads, online streaming, ebooks, downloads, broadband, cloud storage.

• 12 years ago Facebook didn’t exist. Before Google we used multi-volume printed encyclopedias. The iPhone 3G brought us mobile internet access and handheld computing.

• As businesses we can reach more people, more quickly, across multiple time zones. We can grow our brands globally, without vast budgets.

• So we have adapted.

Some Stats.

• 7 billion people on the planet, 3.4 billion use the internet, 3.7 billion use mobile.

• US population is 322 million. 282m on the internet, 192m use social media, 342m mobile connections. People spend more than 4 hours a day on the Internet, 75% of people use the internet every day, 66% buy online.

• Very similar for the main Western markets inc. UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, also Japan, Singapore and most of Europe.

• Facebook is 40%–50% of social media in Western markets. Others 12-17%.

• The World Wide Web well named: connected, it’s growing and accessible.

So, We’re Already Global…

• The Global reach demands careful handling.

• A complaint from a disgruntled customer in Uzbekistan, can affect the trust of a customer in Utah, or The Wirral.

• Facebook controls access fiercely. Page posts are down to less than 6% of followers, unless you advertise.

• Your brand appearing on organic searches are subject to the multiple changes of algorithms as Google battles with those trying to game the system. Keywords, once king, are largely ignored in favour of content quality and context.

• It can feel tough to keep up.

Making the Web Work for Your Brand.

• Understand how social media and SEO work

• Drive people to your website. It should be your hub. You own it, not Facebook or Twitter.

• Use a .com address worldwide, unless the UK is critical to your brand.

• Understand the differences between Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube:• Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr are young, under 18. And difficult to sell to directly.

• Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest users tend to be 24-44. More considered.

• Google Plus is more male weighted, special interest focused.

• Pinterest is heavily female orientated, focused on fashion, beauty and accessories.

• Linkedin: for working professionals, but they’re people too!

Trust and Engagement, Giving and Selling.

• Global brands build their reputation everywhere, every message, every product, every image.

• The key is to give, not sell. Give time, energy, expertise and commitment.

• Build trust slowly. People understand the game now, they don’t like to be patronised. We don’t follow Coca Cola unless there’s a good reason. We don’t follow Body Shop unless we know there are some great offers.

• Once you’ve found your consumer, made a connection you have to have something great to show them too, otherwise they won’t recommend it.

• Find a way to love your brand. Passion and belief in what you’re doing communicates to the consumer.

• It’s about Trust and engagement. The sales will follow.

So, Overall Strategy.

• Find the potential consumers and listen to them.

• Build trust with information, sympathetic messaging.

• Create good quality products, that fit an identifiable need.

• Show them, using custom images and excellent product shots how good and appropriate the products are, on all forms of social media, worldwide.

• Value what you make, or do, visibly, and ostentatiously.

• Integrate: make an offer online, with a pick up at a local store. Sell a product with an online offer, add a leaflet in the delivery box with an membership code.

Attitude and Platitudes

• Demonstrate care about something beyond your brand, but be genuine, make sure it reflects your values. If you advocate for good causes, be passionate, don’t be cynical. And strictly no politics, no religion.

• Become an expert in something relevant to your brand. Blog, tweet and post about it every week

• Find something to love about your brand: the content, the shape, the manufacturing standards, the colours.

• Understand the importance of tone. Always be positive, but don’t pretend to be 20, if you’re not. Find the tone that works for your brand.

• Reach for the consumer, but work with retail to provide the full service: recommend independent stores, great chains, shops with terrific staff.

Integrate Your Website and Social Media.

• Set up Google Analytics. Make sure the code is in the header of every page of your website. Eventually you’ll find out who’s coming to your website, their demographics, devices, software, the pages they visit, how often. Use this to reshape your marketing accordingly

• Build around a success, any success, and talk about it. Share it everywhere.• 5 times on twitter, at different times, different text every day, for different markets.• Once on Facebook with a longer story.• Promote a core post on your blog from your website.

• Promote news items, anniversaries, new members of staff.

• Facebook ads: play the game, boost a few posts, make a few ads. It’s worth it to test the response.

Giveaways and Email Lists.

• Segment. Know where your customers come from and what they’re interested in.

• Email lists are the prize. These are hard won contacts from people who are genuinely interested in your brand. Be nice! Special offers!

• Use Mail Chimp, Awebber, Tinyletter, Constant Contact.

• Give away something valuable to your target customer: ebook about a core subject, a cheat sheet on shopping, a list of links and contacts, a special edition.

• Use this as an honest exchange for gathering names.

Play to Your Strengths.

• If you’re a stationery brand with goods made in your own country, promote the local sourcing. This plays well everywhere, it’s a success story, with integrity. If you’re a hardworking SME then you’re bound to be close to your products, and your customers.

• Be clear about what you can and can’t do:• Can you make lots of videos?

• Do you have the funds to engage 3rd party production?

• Do you have creatives in-house who can whip up 70 social media images?

• Do you have marketeers who can write great headlines?

And Finally, almost…

• Always read about the latest online trends, look at Moz, Problogger, Techcrunch, Mashable, Engadget etc.

• Join brand marketing groups on Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin

• Use Twitter to check for news stories and events sympathetic to your core categories, in other countries

• Set up a Google alert for mentions of your brand.

• Set up a Google alert for your areas of interest, then re-post and talk about them.

And Finally…

• Know your consumer. Use Analytics, Facebook Insights, wait for several months of meaningful data before drawing many conclusions.

• Find ways to link online with offline activity.

• Keep up to date. So much has changed in 16 short years.

• Above all…

• Believe in your brand. Find a way to love it. Advocate for it, shout about it everywhere.