Aim higher than SEO for your marketing content

You know, Jane Austen could have opened "Pride and Prejudice" with the standard line, "Once upon a time there was a family with five girls and no sons to inherit the estate that they depended on for their support." She didn't.

https://www.zazzle.com/pride_and_prejudice_tote_bag-149363338488539996

Instead of sticking with the safe formulation, she crafted one of the most memorable openers for a novel that also gives the readers a taste of her wit and sense of irony. That opening line is Austen's brand in a nutshell.

This is what businesses should be striving for in their opening lines on their sites and their reports. Generative AI will not deliver that because it will work off pre-existing models. Simply tweaking that output will still not result in something truly fresh, though it may be just good enough to not incur the generative AI penalty Google has promised to deliver for those who aspire to achieve high SEO results.

Achieving SEO goals is not the same as making a memorable impression on your target audience when they click through to your site or blog.

What impresses Google is not necessarily going to move your target market to establish a relationship with your brand. The content that does can only be produced by a combination of analytics and human creativity.

You can't just be content with optimizing for search engines by following SEO guidelines when you need RO -- responsiveness optimization -- that requires blazing your own brand path.

That's what Write Way branding and marketing is all about. Learn more about my business offerings here.

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Pride, Prejudice and Persuasion: Obstacles to Happiness in Jane Austen's Novels

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Colgate needs to brush up on its email communication

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What Colgate got wrong

 It forgot that in marketing communication, less can be more more, and more is only welcome if the audience sees value in it.

Some time ago, I granted Colgate permission to email me in order to receive its promotions. What I had in mind by promotions was value for me, meaning special offers and/or coupons. But Colgate seemed to think it was just about constantly reminding me about Colgate products with no financial incentive attached.

Finally, today, I decided I had enough of the Colgate clutter that wasn't bringing any value to my inbox. I put in a request to stop the emails. 

What Colgate got right

The opt-out form offers a menu of reasons to select that the folks on the marketing team should note in planning future campaigns. Most opt-outs include the first three, but this one adds a fourth option that fit my motivation exactly:

That was nice to find exactly my reason without having to fill in other or pretend I had not opted in. 

What Colgate should do with that data is plan for more effective email communication in future. If you lure customers in with the promise of special savings for subscribers, you have to deliver on that. Otherwise, you're not keeping up your end of the bargain and will lose the customer's attention and trust.

From Multi to Omnichannel Marketing

Think Marathon Rather Than Sprint When Planning Content Marketing

7 Ways to Grab Customer Attention in Subject Lines

CRO is Like Basketball

Banking on Data

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Very few people seem to express warm, fuzzy feelings about banks. In fact, they are more  20 point drop in public trust in 2018. 

likely to have cold, prickly feelings about them. Financial services institutions suffered a

So what can banks do to try to attract and retain loyalty? Aside from asking banking customers directly, how would banks find out what people really think of what they’re doing? They could tap into social data. That’s what Crimson Hexagon did with in a report that compares two bank brands: BNP Paribas and Santander. 

The report is based on an exploration of five years’ worth of online conversations related to these two large bank brands.  Data was culled from “Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, blogs and forums – a wide range of locations where consumers gather to discuss various topics.” 

Read more in 

Data You Can Bank On

Holiday Marketing Fail from Adora Dolls

Below is the email I just saw copied exactly as it appeared except for the manual addition of one of the pictures.  So how many things does this get wrong?

1. Market targeting: my youngest is 16 -- in other words way past the stage of playing with dolls.

2.They say "multi-cultural" when they really mean muti-racial. Dolls don't have culture, and these are not the kind that come dressed in native costumes that reflect a particular ethnic or cultural identity.

3. They give themselves a big pat on the back for making dolls of color avaialbe yet show a girl of color holding a white doll.

4. Notice that for all their claiming broad-mindedness, including stressing the possibility that a boy may want to play with dolls, they don't show any little boy with a doll here. At best, they showa doll who could be dressed as a boy, or what they like to call"gender-neutral." In fact, parents have thought of giving their boys dolls to play with already decades ago (at least I did) and the fact that a doll may be dressed as a girl or as a boy really is not part of the equation. My girls had baby boy dolls, as well as those that were dressed in a gender-neutral clothing. 

5. The whole princess/prince thing is absurd. I never called my kids that, and it actually has very negative connotations in certain contexts.

So there you have it: if you're going to pitch your products in this way, do it right, and make sure you're actually reaching your target market via email rather than spamming countless people. 

Hi Ariella,

Isn't there enough racial tension today?  Not with Adora dolls.  This brand creates authentic multi-cultural dolls, boy dolls and gender neutral designs.  Their award winning dolls are also Machine Washable & BPA Free.  This is a company you want to support!!  Let me know if I can request a sample.  Thanks!  Jessica :)

Make It A Multicultural Holiday Season With Dolls From Adora

BPA-free, machine washable dolls & accessories for every child

It has been said America is the melting pot and today it could not be truer. Ethnic diversity has accelerated in recent decades, a trend which is expected to continue into the future. Ethnicity has important implications for culture, identity, and well-being that is why Adora has created a variety of ethnically diverse dolls that all children can identify with. No matter their ethnicity the nurturing aspect of doll play is good for all kids, (yes, boys too).

Adora encourages nurturing doll play with award-winning dolls and accessories that kids and moms love. Adora offers handcrafted toys that are as responsible as they are fun. Unlike other doll brands, Adora not only has gender neutral patterns, but many of their multicultural dolls have unique sculpts for different ethnicities.

Finding that special doll a child can identify with is essential to nurturing play and helps foster a healthy self image. In addition, doll play improves a child’s motor skills, social skills, sparks imaginations and teaches important social skill such as kindness and compassion.

Truly find a doll for ANY child and boost their confidence with Adora

 

• PlayTime Baby Floral Romper: Handmade with care, this adorable Asian baby doll is perfect for cuddling! With a bean bag weighted bottom which gives them their life-like feel, it’s great for ages 1 and up.

• PlayTime Baby Little Princess: The perfect first baby doll weighing just 12 ounces, your little one will love the life-like features from their button noses to little hands and feet! Created in exclusive, lightly baby powder scented, Gentle Touch vinyl, these baby dolls have a cuddly, silky-smooth body that reminds us all of the beloved trim on a child’s favorite blankie.

PlayTime Baby Little Prince: While some may still see dolls as a “girl toy,” there are plenty of little boys out there who adore their baby dolls. Downright adorable, this little prince will be the perfect cuddle buddy for your tiny tot!

Let Adora help foster a healthy self image with nurturing play this holiday season. Surprise them with an Adora doll that shows them just how beautiful they are in their own skin!

Prices range anywhere from $12.99 to $119.99. Adora Toys can be purchased online at http://www.adoraplay.com. For more information or a sample, contact jparise@chicexecs.com. 

NFC taps IoT's potential for marketing

Once upon a time, retail stores tried to get our attention with special displays, signs and stickers, but now they can tap into the power of IoT to communicate a lot more than just “New!” or “Special!” The smartphones we carry can convey marketing messages built into the displays or even the product themselves with just a tap.

Thin Film Electronics ASA is a global leader in NFC (near field communication). It creates printed tags, labels, and systems that incorporate memory, sensors, and wireless communication to enable one-to-one digital marketing through just a tap of a smartphone.

Together with GlaxoSmithKline, it deploys Thinfilm's SpeedTap™ tags in interactive “smart” shelves featuring Flonase®  in stores in six Canadian provinces. Customers who tap their NFC-enabled smartphones to the shelves can get information about the product at the moment of decision.

Matt Bright, Senior Director of Product and Technical Marketing, Thinfilm, spoke with us about why the “smart” shelves are just the tip of the iceberg in IoT marketing. We're not only talking about delivering marketing messages, but being able to customize and adapt to them and pick up the trail of the customer journey even beyond the buying decision.

Read more in 

Tying the Physical and Digital in NFC

Crowdsourcing creativity in the cloud

Betterific is the attempt to harness the power of the web to improve on the concept of a suggestion box and on just about everything else. It is intended to give people a chance to not only voice their ideas for improving what is already out there, but to be heard as well. Read more in 

Crowdsourcing the Corporate Suggestion Box

Confidence as a marketing ploy

That's what GM's clearance event is about, as discussed in my latest blog post for theCMOsite