Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • No-Touch Retail: Creating Rich Experiences for Consumers Using Touch-free Technology

    Physical retail’s strength when compared to online shopping has always been the multi-sensory experience it delivers. When it comes to hooking shoppers, there’s nothing like seeing, touching, and trying the products. But when touching is a no-go, like it has been for much of the past year, how can retailers deliver the same immersive experience that keeps customers…
    The post No-Touch Retail: Creating Rich Experiences for Consumers Using Touch-free Technology appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

  • How to Create a Successful Blog Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide

    Did you know that 55% of marketers say blogging is their top inbound marketing priority?
    Did you also know that these marketers are 13x more likely to see positive ROI than marketers who don’t invest in blogging?
    Over the last decade or so, businesses have increased revenue, improved brand awareness, and boosted conversions with valuable written content published for their target audience and customers. The key here is that their blog content is valuable — it isn’t enough to simply have a blog; there has to be a purpose or reason for its existence.
    So, how can you create and maintain a successful blog that provides your target audience worthwhile, high-quality content — all while building your business’s reputation as an industry thought-leader and expert?
    The answer is with a blog marketing strategy.

    Before we review the steps to your blog marketing strategy, let’s take a look at how to start a successful blog. We’ll also include examples of successful blog sites to illustrate some of these steps.

    1. Choose your blog topic and purpose.
    The first part of developing your blogging strategy is to clearly define your blog’s topic and purpose.
    Your blog topic should be broad enough so you can write hundreds of articles about it but also specific enough to relate to your business niche and area(s) of expertise.
    When thinking about your blog’s purpose, ask yourself, “Why does this blog exist?”
    You should be able to answer that question in one, straightforward, defining statement. (Document your blog’s purpose to you can refer to it as you grow and your business evolves.)
    If you need help defining your blog’s purpose, take a moment to ask yourself these questions:

    What is the greater purpose your company is trying to fulfill?
    What story supports this purpose?
    Who shares your passion for this purpose?
    Is your team aligned with the meaning of this purpose?

    Example
    HubSpot has four blog properties: Marketing, Sales, Service and Website. Each blog focuses on its respective industry and relates the content back to the appropriate HubSpot product.

    Source
    2. Register and host your blog
    This step is two-fold. First, let’s talk about your blog’s URL structure.
    A domain name, also known as the root domain, is the text in a URL that identifies your website — and, therefore, your business — for a web browser. For example, HubSpot’s domain name is hubspot.com.
    Subdomains are part of your root domain — they appear before the domain in your URL like this: blog.hubspot.com. “Blog” is the subdomain. Subdomains are helpful for organizing a lot of content, including multiple content types. If you have a large blog operation, this structure can help you over time. However, it does pass less authority from your root domain in the short-term.
    Subdirectories are divisions of your domain that live on your website, but represent specific pages on your website. For example, a subdirectory that’d take visitors to a specific blog post on a website would look something like this: hubspot.com/blog/article-name. Subdirectories often pass more authority from your root domain and subdomain. However, they can make it hard to scale your content strategy over time since you need more subdirectories to organize your content properly and protect your user experience (UX).
    Subdirectories can also represent certain types of content within a subdomain. For example, blog.hubspot.com/marketing/article-name takes visitors to a marketing article on blog.hubspot.com.
    The option you choose for your blog has the potential to impact your organic ranking, which is why it’s important to choose wisely.
    Next, you’ll need to pick a host for your business’s blog. The simplest way to host your blog is through the same software on which your website is run.
    For example, HubSpot users can employ HubSpot CMS and access their website creation and management tools alongside their blogging tools — all from a central location.
    Another common way to host your business’s blog is through WordPress — compare HubSpot vs. WordPress here. Other popular options include Wix, Bluehost, and Squarespace.
    3. Design your blog.
    Design your blog in a way that entices your readers to regularly read (and hopefully, share) your content.
    Your blog should be inviting and on-brand. It should be well-organized, clean, and easy to navigate. Within seconds of visiting your blog, readers should know it’s published by your company.
    To do this, choose a theme that’s consistent across your blog properties and articles. Depending on the host you choose for your blog, you’ll likely have several theme options that are both free and paid.
    For example, HubSpot offers a marketplace of free and paid blog template options. Templates help you easily customize and edit your blog template to tailor it to your business.
    The Help Scout blog is a wonderful example of beautiful blog design. Its minimalist design limits the use of copy and embraces negative space by promoting the latest posts with gorgeous feature images. The blog is aligned with the Help Scout brand and promotes readability and easy navigation.

    Source
    4. Decide who will write and manage your blog.
    Now it’s time to think about who’s writing, running, and managing your blog. Ask yourself (or your team): Who’s accountable for each role within your blog strategy?There are lots of moving parts when it comes to your blog — if you don’t create ownership around each component, it’ll be difficult to reap the benefits of a successful blog operation.
    We’ve put together a list of some examples of the roles you need to fill to effectively implement a blogging strategy.

    Blog article topic ideation

    Search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research

    Statistics, examples, personal stories, and thought leadership

    Editing
    Strategy and editorial calendar governance
    Promotion
    Repurposing, updating, and historical optimization

    Depending on your resources and the size of your marketing team, you may find one person holds responsibility for multiple roles.
    5. Determine how frequently you’ll share blog posts.
    How many blog posts can you commit to writing and publishing? How often are you planning on producing blog content for your audience? Consistency is the key to keeping your audience engaged and interested. This will also allow you to maintain your status as an active thought-leader and expert in your industry. Use a content calendar to consistently manage and schedule your blog posts.
    Plan and optimize your marketing content with these free calendar templates.The beauty of creating this type of blogging rhythm and sharing that information via an editorial calendar is that it creates a sense of accountability among your team of bloggers. It ensures all writers and contributors have optimized for keywords, added CTAs, and edited their pieces by a certain time and date. This way, you’ll have a consistent stream of content your readers can get in sync with.
    If you’re a HubSpot CRM user, you already benefit from an editorial calendar built right into the COS.
    6. Write compelling and valuable content.
    It’s important to reiterate just how critical it is for your blog content to be both compelling and valuable to your readers. This plays a large part in how you’re viewed by your target audience, customers, competitors, and other industry leaders. It’s also how you’re going to keep readers engaged and loyal to your blog — and hopefully converting to customers, too.
    Remember, it takes more time and energy to obtain new subscribers than to maintain current readers. Plus, your current readers have the potential of becoming your brand advocates faster than new subscribers do. So, focus on consistently producing content that captivates your audience all while providing them with useful and worthwhile information so they stick around for the long run.
    Patagonia’s blog, The Cleanest Line, is a fascinating publication. It’s not a generic brand blog that discusses Patagonia products or customers; it tells compelling stories written by some of the best writers on the web — yet it still resonates with Patagonia’s target audience and those who share its core values. I’ve personally spent hours reading the articles on The Cleanest Line, and it’s endeared me to Patagonia in the process.

    Source
    7. Include CTAs.
    Are any of the reasons you’re developing your business’s blog to drive organic traffic to your website, improve conversions, and boost sales?
    That’s great news — but to accomplish these goals, you’ll need to include relevant calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your blog posts.
    CTAs can be paid or free for your audience members. Either way, effective CTAs provide readers with a level of value that they simply cannot pass up.
    A CTA might share in-depth content and information with your audience on a specific topic. Or maybe it includes a discount code or special deal on your product or service. A CTA could also provide further training related to the subject of your blog article.
    Check out this blog post if you’re looking for some examples of clickable CTAs to insert in your content.
    If you’re a HubSpot user, the CRM offers a CTA creation tool to help you develop relevant — and even personalized — offers to drive traffic to your landing pages and convert more leads.
    For example, the Omniscient Digital blog naturally weaves CTAs into its posts, making the linked items part of the broader story or takeaway. The goal of CTAs should be to encourage readers to take action without deviating too far from the purpose of the post.
    Source
    8. Launch your blog.
    Now it’s time to launch your blog!
    This is the exciting part — you finally get to share the content you’ve been working so hard to develop. Put your blog content on it’s corresponding landing page on your website and send your email list of recipients their blog article(s). Share it via social media and send it to members of your network as you see fit. 
    9. Track and analyze your blog’s success.
    Remember to track and analyze the success of your blog over time. To do this, decide which metrics matter most to you and your business. Once you understand how a specific metric contributes to a positive outcome, then you’ll be able to make your blogging strategy more targeted. Examples of blogging metrics you might track include:

    Number of readers and subscribers
    Number of page views per post
    Number of conversions
    Number of backlinks
    Number of referrals
    Overall traffic

    When applying these metrics to the goals you’re looking to set, consider the following questions to provide concrete targets that make sense for your business.

    Does this goal help you achieve your purpose, or is there something more relevant we can aspire to?
    Is this goal aligned with the initiatives of other parts of our business?
    Which metrics track the progress towards this goal? Are these metrics complementary or counterintuitive?

    Once you determine which metrics you’re going to use, start by setting goals for a 60-day period. This gives you enough time to see whether your strategy is working and then you can adapt your goals based on the results you see.
    Next, let’s dive into your blog strategy.

    Blog Marketing Strategy
    Your blog is an important component of your business marketing strategy and will hopefully market your products and services, but in order for it do this, you must market the blog itself.
    A blog marketing strategy is how you share and promote the content on your blog. Unfortunately, “build it and they will come” doesn’t apply to blogging as well as it does in Field of Dreams.
    For your blog to do its intended job — drive traffic, convert visitors, increase revenue, and/or promote your brand as a thought-leader or expert — it must have a marketing strategy in itself. How will people locate your blog? What type of content will keep them reading? How can you use your other promotional channels to elevate your blog content?
    Follow these blogging best practices to promote and market your blog content to your target audience.
    Always keep your buyer personas top of mind.
    When writing, managing, and scheduling your blog — or working on anything related to your blog, really — keep your buyer personas in mind. 
    Ask yourself, “Who are our ideal customers?” and “Why do they need our product or service?” Once you can answer these questions in detail, you’ll be nail down your buyer persona(s).
    Use this free template to create your business’s buyer personas.
    Once you create your buyer personas, document a detailed description of who this person is so you can reference it has your business and blog grow. You should be able to refer to this description every time you write a new blog post.
    This way, you’ll be able to create content specifically suited to your target customers’ wants, needs, challenges, and/ or pain points. This will also help you turn your blog into a powerful lead conversion tool for your business (i.e. your blog will show your readers and target audience why they need your product or service).
    To get a deeper understanding of the actions your buyer personas are likely going to take, research the behaviors of your target audience so you can adapt and tailor your blog content to meet their needs in a way that pushes them to convert in some way. To conduct this type of customer research, you can use:

    Q&A forums (Quora, Yahoo! Answers, or Fluther)

    Social media (LinkedIn Groups, Twitter Advanced Search, and Google+ Communities)

    Content creation tools within your industry or niche (BuzzSumo or Topsy)

    Other blogs (comments and interactions on blogs similar to yours; your competitors’ blogs)

    Keep an eye on your competition.
    Speaking of your competitor’s blogs, it’s important to keep an eye on these other thought-leaders in your industry. Your competitors provide insight into what’s working (or not working) in terms of blog content among your target audience.
    It also tells you a little bit about what they’re experimenting with and what you’ll need to accomplish to stand out and provide your readers with valuable content they can’t get anywhere else — something unique to your business and your business only.
    Create a list of 5-10 of your closest competitors with blogs you could conduct a content audit on. Make conclusions about the type of content they share, unique techniques they’ve implemented in their blog, and how they’re doing in terms of ranking for the keywords you hope to rank for.
    Then, look for gaps in their content so you can capitalize on them. To help you do this, use tools like QuickSprout, Open Site Explorer by Moz, and SEMRush Competitor Research.
    Perform SEO and keyword research.
    When one of your customers searches a phrase on Google (or any search engine), you want them to find your blog (or web page), not a competitor’s. To make this happen, dedicate some time to researching which keywords and phrases your target audience is typing into search engines so you can include them in your blog posts where they naturally fit.
    In other words, you’ll significantly improve your chances of ranking on the search engine results page (SERP) by performing appropriate search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research prior to writing your blog post, and then incorporating those findings in your content.
    Start by creating a list of 5-10 keyword groups you want to rank for, along with their associated long-tail keywords, in the SERP.
    Remember, Google’s algorithms are constantly changing to become more intuitive — meaning, old tactics like keyword stuffing will hurt your ranking in the SERP. Instead, you’re better off writing copy that engages audience members first and search engines second.
    Note: HubSpot customers have access to a built-in keyword and SEO tool to help with this.
    Focus on your blog’s SEO and keyword research with HubSpot CRM’s Content Strategy tool.

    Decide where you’ll distribute your blog content.
    Strategically determine where you’ll distribute your blog content. You chose a host for your blog already, meaning your content is likely already easily shareable on your website.
    For example, if you use the HubSpot CRM and blogging software to host and manage your website and blog, it’s simple to add your articles to their corresponding landing page on your site.
    Other ways and platforms through which you might distribute your content include social media, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, and online publishing platforms, such as Medium. You might also work with industry leaders, experts, and influencers to share your content on their websites and social profiles.
    Promote your blog content.
    It’s probably safe to assume you want your blog content to be as discoverable as possible. In terms of your blogging strategy, this refers to your ability to get your content out there so members of your target audience find, read, and (hopefully) share it.
    There are many inbound tactics you can use to promote your blog. We touched on a few options above, but another common form of effective blog promotion involves an influencer marketing strategy.
    Get started promoting your content with the help of a free influencer marketing guide.
    To begin, identify the key influencers in your niche or industry you want to contact and work with. These should be people your current customers and target audience perceive as credible, trustworthy… and, yes, influential.
    As you begin making and managing your influencer connections, remain in regular contact with the ones who are promoting your blog content. Be sure you know what they’re doing to support, share, and promote your blog content and that their tactics meet your business’s standards — you want to ensure they’re representing your brand accurately. After all, you’re likely paying them to promote your content among their audience members.
    You can make your relationship with your influencers even stronger by interacting with their content regularly to show your support. For example, if you’re working with an influencer who also has a blog, then go to their blog and read, comment on, and share it (even when the content they’re publishing isn’t necessarily related to your business). 

    How to Maintain a Blog
    Creating and marketing your blog is merely half the battle. As we mentioned above, consistency is key to a successful blog — which means maintenance is most of the hard work.
    Creating blog content can be time-consuming, especially when you aim to command authority in your niche with researched, thoughtful, and planned posts.
    This is why updating, repurposing, and republishing your existing blog content is so valuable — it saves you time and energy but it also allows you to efficiently achieve the results you’re looking for.
    What do I mean by this? Well, ranking in the SERP with a net new post takes significantly more time (I’m talking months) than an updated post. Meaning, you’ll see a positive impact sooner if you start repurposing existing posts rather than solely creating new content.
    Audit your existing blog posts to determine what you can repurpose and update. Outdated content to remove and/ or replace might include statistics, examples, infographics, quotes, product or service details, research, and irrelevant ideas. You can also add keywords you’ve determined are missing through your research.
    (Check out this post if you’re looking for more ideas on how you can effectively repurpose your blog content.)
    The process of updating content also allows you to reinvigorate the brand new content you’ve worked so hard on. Updating allows you to maintain the quality and relevance of your blog without having to recreate blog posts from scratch.
    Grow Better With An Effective Blogging Strategy
    Growing an influential blog in your niche is a surefire way to nurture your potential customers. By creating regular content that solves the challenges of your readers and fulfills their biggest curiosities, you’ll start to build a vault of trust and advocacy. This will inevitably contribute to the overall success of your business. Start with your purpose — the big why — and slowly unpack the individual levers that will contribute to your blog marketing performance through the steps and strategy we’ve reviewed above.
    Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

  • Virtual Hold Competitors: An Overview

    This blog will give you a brief overview of all the virtual hold competitors.
    Virtual Hold is the name of VHT’s original virtual queuing software. Virtual Hold Technology is the grandad of virtual queuing and helped pioneer virtual queue management for the call center.
    Genesys Virtual Hold Competitor
    Genesys Virtual Queuing
    Genesys virtual queuing is called Virtual Queuing, one of the original competitors to VHT’s Virtual Hold product. So competitive that VHT sued them, and then Genesys sued them back; it was a whole thing. But that’s all water under the bridge, and everyone is friends again.
    Avaya Virtual Hold Competitor
    Avaya Callback Assist
    Avaya’s virtual hold-type product is called “Callback Assist.” It’s come a long way from the early days and comes with an estimated wait time option before the callback offer message. We’re pleased to see they also now offer conversation scheduling.
    How it’s Done: Click to Call, Visual IVR, and Virtual Queueing
    You may be interested to learn that Fonolo has Avaya-approved documentation. We’re a paid add-on product with more data and reliability — and a team dedicated to helping you use them most effectively.
    Cisco Virtual Hold Competitor
    Cisco Courtesy Callback
    Cisco’s virtual hold competitor is called ‘Courtesy Callback,’ and it’s sufficient for a free add-on, most of the time. After trying out CISCO call-backs, several of our customers have returned to us because they often fail under high-volume.
    NICE’s Virtual Hold Technology competitor
    NICE Automatic Callback
    NICE is one of the world’s largest cloud-based contact center platforms. Their software comes with a virtual queuing functionality they call “Automatic Callback.” NICE software is, and customers are a combination of companies they’ve bought over time, but Fonolo’s solution works with them all.
    How Does Virtual Queuing Technology Work?
    Five9’s Virtual Hold competitor
    Five9 is another leading cloud-contact center platform, with a pretty good call-back feature. Their forum covers pretty much everything, and you get a lot of data with it. They don’t have a unique name for it, but most Five9 customers are happy with the built-in offering from our experience.
    Talkdesk’s Virtual Hold competitor
    Click-to-Call
    Talkdesk is the final cloud contact center technology we’re covering today. Their software comes with a virtual queuing solution, the same ‘click-to-call’ functionality as many other platforms (including Fonolo). They also have an ‘intelligent queue’ feature, where you can prioritize callers.
    Fonolo’s Voice Hold Technology competitor
    Voice Call-Backs
    Fonolo is one of the few call-back software specialists. Our voice call-back solution works with every contact center platform securely, and we’ve even got full Avaya-certified developer documentation.
    Virtual Queuing, Virtual Hold, Call-Backs: What It All Means
    Our advanced cloud-based call-backs and dedicated team will help you install and use call-backs to their full effect. Companies come to us when a built-in virtual hold competitor breaks under pressure or doesn’t provide the data or feedback needed.
     
     The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

  • Choose your Jones wisely

    We’ve been brainwashed into keeping up with the Jones’s. Paying attention to our peers and staying ahead, just a little bit.
    But if you’re in that trap, it’s probably worth considering who your Jones’s are.
    A hard worker might feel lazy at a sweatshop on Wall Street. A shopper in love with luxury goods might feel inadequate on Fifth Avenue. “Compared to who?”
    If comparing yourself to a different set of peers is going to motivate you or give you peace of mind, by all means, switch. It’s up to each of us, isn’t it?

  • GetResponse vs. Sendinblue: Which One Should You Choose?

    Deciding between GetResponse and Sendinblue? Here’s a complete rundown of each platform’s features and pricing to help you decide.

  • Getting Started with Salesforce Flow – Part 51 (Add a Flow to a Lightning Page)

    Big Idea or Enduring Question: How do you add a Flow to the Lightning Record Page? Flow can be run through custom action, Custom button, the flow URL, a Lightning page, a Visualforce page, etc. In this article Add Record … Continue reading →

  • 8 Inclusive Advertising Tips for 2021, According to Microsoft’s Head of Inclusive Marketing

    Advertising can help create a direct connection between consumers and your brand, and is a critical component of marketing.
    And inclusive advertising can yield dramatic results and increase brand trust, loyalty, and better overall brand perception. In fact, 64% of people said they are more trusting of brands that represent diversity in ads, and 85% of consumers said they will only consider a brand they trust.
    Advertising that works hard for your company has never been more important as we come off the heels of a challenging year affecting all businesses. However, there is one concept that rang true for us all that can inform our approach in advertising for 2021 and beyond – that is, we are all interconnected and interdependent, both as consumers and as advertisers.  
    In this post, we’ll provide eight tips curated from Microsoft’s Marketing with Purpose Playbook to help you create more inclusive advertising, reach more customers, and grow your business.

    1. Showcase human diversity in your campaigns.
    Inclusive advertising means having diversity authentically represented in your ads and promotions, while aligning it to your local market’s composition of diversity. It also means considering the many dimensions of human diversity, including (but not limited to) age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, location, language preference and gender expression.
    Additionally, you’ll be able to expand your ability to connect and tailor ad creative and promotions with your audience when you consider experiential diversity like ability, parental status, marital status, military status, affinities, and job function.
    Ultimately, inclusive advertising is understanding with empathy who your customers are, representing them accurately, and more importantly, recognizing who you’re excluding in your marketing materials.
    2. Perform a landing page and website audit for audience diversity.
    Inclusive advertising doesn’t end with the ad. In fact, half of the customer experience with your advertising resides where you send them after they click — which means it’s critical you demonstrate diversity in your landing pages or website, as well.
    Considering 64% people are more likely to consider or purchase a product after seeing diversity or inclusion in advertising, it’s critical you ensure your landing pages and website represent true diversity.
    Does your website’s collection of photos and images match the audience representation you created across your entire ad campaign? Does each inclusive advertisement point the customer after the click to the landing page that matches the inclusive spirit of the image creative? If not, it should.
    However, while it’s relatively easy to spot-check a landing page with the corresponding ad creative, how can you collectively evaluate your entire website for the right amount and variety of diversity?
    For an easy way to review what images are across your site’s web pages, simply use Bing.com and type in the search bar the command, “site:” and then add your website’s URL after the colon.
    For example, let’s search Bing for the clothing brand Tommy Hilfiger, which looks like this in the search bar: “Site:https://usa.tommyhilfiger.com”. Then, hit “Enter”. Bing will produce a search engine results page indexing all your web pages:

    Then click on the “images” in the search engine results page for your “site:” search in the navigation bar:
    This will produce all the images found on the website. You can quickly scroll through to get a sense of the diversity — or lack of diversity — in the collection of images on your website.
    Your audit can be used as a general website check, or a search for specific dimensions of diversity that you feel are underrepresented in your upcoming advertising campaign.
    3. Align your advertising messaging to the nine feelings of inclusion.
    Emotions are becoming increasingly linked with brand outcomes. As Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

    Feeling included so that a person feels that this brand is for me is at the heart of
    brand trust, love, and loyalty.

    There are actual identified feelings of inclusion in advertising, which can create connection and drive trust. Inclusive advertising can conjure two major feelings: joy, and trust. As a marketer, it’s critical you look for brand connection points in product or features that can create these two main feelings.
    However, there is more to it than that – there are actually nine feelings that make up joy and trust, which is great news for advertising. If you can find a genuine and authentic way that your product creates any one of these feelings, this can convey inclusion, which – you guessed it, builds trust, brand love, and loyalty.
    This product marketing approach facilitates connections with people, making them feel like part of a community. Here are some marketing ideas to evoke feelings of joy and trust:

    Celebration: Of people, their successes, honoring of holidays, etc. How does your product celebrate them?

    Zest: For life (for ours, theirs, and that of the planet). Convey enthusiasm and energy. How does your product create a zest for life?

    Hope: Bringing hope to conquer challenges and/or societal issues. How does your product give your consumers’ hope?

    Relaxation:Instead of portraying the need to be on guard, remove tension or anxiety for your customers. How does your product produce relaxation?

    Relief: From concern or worry, removing something distressing or oppressive. How does your product bring relief?

    Safety: Create experiences or highlight how your brand extends safety to all people. How does your brand experience make someone feel safe?

    Confidence: Instill a sense of confidence—the belief that we strive to act in the right way. How does your product give your consumers’ confidence?

    Acceptance: Of others’ differences, typically to be included as part of the group. How does your product make someone feel accepted or demonstrate you are accepting of others?

    Clarity: Bring a sense of certainty, clarity, and transparency in ambiguity. How does your product bring clarity to a confusing situation?

    4. Incorporate three metaphors of inclusion.
    Another customer touchpoint that can help your brand emotionally connect with people in your advertising is language cues and context, which evoke positive feelings.
    Discovered in our research, The Psychology of Inclusion and the Effects in Advertising at Microsoft Advertising, we uncovered the following fifty language-based cues that signal inclusion, as well as three metaphors of inclusion which are inextricably tied to emotions.
    If used in context and in a genuine and authentic way in your ad copy, website, or digital content marketing, these metaphors can help convey inclusion and drive brand performance.

    5. Practice inclusive and authentic image selection.
    Authentic representation in advertising is important. It drives trust and brand support — so the images you choose matter. It is worth noting that from the Microsoft Advertising research around trust, we found that there is a strong tie between trust, love, and loyalty.

    Once trust is established as the baseline, a brand can begin to build love and loyalty. To do this, brands must go the extra mile to make someone feel understood through inclusion, and that means authentic imagery, too. Inclusion was found to be a key brand attribute that creates loyalty.

    The same story threads are woven through our inclusive advertising research. Our research uncovered that authentic representation in advertising builds trust and brand support, with 72% of people saying they’re more likely to support brands with authentic advertising.

    Choosing imagery is an important part of the process in constructing a meaningful and inclusive customer experience. Inclusive advertising isn’t just about representing everyone — it’s also about making everyone feel your products or services are for them.
    Here are some tips to help identify and select inclusive imagery:
    Tips to illustrate “Connection”:

    Have more than one person in an image
    Include realistic diversity: use authentic and genuine imagery, which is best conveyed using real people being themselves, that reflect everyday life, not actors hired to play a part
    Create a visible relationship between people that is positive
    Include people in photos rather than featuring the product only

    Tips to illustrate “Openness”:

    Include people with disabilities
    Feature non-traditional dimensions of diversity like people with larger bodies
    Include unique subsets of diverse populations
    Include multiple people of color
    Have people with intersectionality in diversity

    Tips to illustrate “Balance”:

    Everyone is featured with the same prominence
    Equity is conveyed
    Ensure multiple dimensions of diversity are represented in an image
    Within your campaign, have the creative represent the spectrum of people that your potential customer base could be

    Lastly, it’s good practice to include a diverse representation of people in the review of your creative to uncover blind spots, such as non-obvious negative connotations, stereotypes, cultural inaccuracies, or negative associations.
    6. Perform an accessibility audit on your ads, content, and landing pages.
    Would you want to turn away one in four people from buying your product simply because your ad or website was not in the right format for them?
    Conversely, wouldn’t you want to increase your reach by 25%? I hear you saying, “Yes, of course!”
    Without accessible advertising, no matter how perfect your product or offer is for someone, one in four people in Europe or the United States might not get your message. This is the ratio of people with disabilities to the general population. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people globally live with disabilities.
    Digital inclusion is important because it provides access to services, products, data, information, and education for everyone. We, as advertisers, can recognize these exclusions, solve for them, and make a difference for the one in four people — and also in our business performance.

    Download the plug-in for your browser https://accessibilityinsights.io/ and begin to learn how to make your landing pages for your campaigns accessible. This free open-source tool by Microsoft will highlight what accessibility issues are present and how to fix them. It could not be more turn-key, it’s free.
    Use the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft 365 to make any media or content more accessible.

    Learn the ten accessibility principles to building accessibility into your advertising from the start.

    7. Develop an inclusive keyword library.
    Nothing replaces the value of first-hand customer experience as you develop an inclusive keyword library for your brand. Begin with customer focus groups with the audience you are trying to reach, and you’ll be surprised what you uncover. You can even start by sourcing this information from your internal Employee Resource Groups.
    To develop an inclusive keyword library, you’ll want to consider the consumer decision journey for the product or service you offer. Next, layer on the journey for the consumer with a physical disability, cognitive difference, military status, age consideration, gender expression, or other dimensions of diversity.
    Include their lived experience and map the unique keywords that they might use to seek out your product. By understanding the consumer decision journey from their perspective, you will develop your own inclusive keyword strategy for your business.
    One simple example is understanding gender differences. In Microsoft Advertising’s Inclusive Automotive Marketing webcast, we shared the difference between men and women in the consumer decision journey when shopping for a car. An inclusive keyword strategy can inform not only your search engine marketing (SEM) but could shape you content marketing, as well.
    As suggested earlier, don’t stop at the usual dimensions of diversity — go further and see what you can uncover to help you connect and give people the feeling that you’re “a brand for someone like me.”
    8. Root out bias in your ads and your data.
    Contending with and working towards eliminating bias applies to all of us. As marketers, our job is to understand and identify potential bias that can live within our datasets and our marketing models. Bias in data produces biased models, which can be discriminatory and harmful. Bias can lead to missed opportunities in marketing, or even damage your brand’s reputation.
    There is a long list of bias types, and it’s good to become familiar with many of these. A great resource is the Harvard Implicit Bias Tests, which you can use to explore and learn about the variety of biases.
    For instance, a marketer might conclude that a luxury accessories brand should target women, because gender appears to correlate with a higher purchase probability. You might assume that only women buy luxury handbags. However, gender may just be a red herring. Income could correlate to a much higher degree with conversion.
    The resulting bias of only targeting women, then, would limit your opportunity. I invite you to have deliberate curiosity about long-held beliefs, because you might be accidentally leaving out other buyer personas.
    Additionally, it’s critical you’re cognizant of gender-neutral pronouns in your marketing materials. Refer to “they” or “them” when writing about people (rather than “he” or “she”), and ensure you offer at least a third option when asking for gender in customer profile forms.
    As we start 2021 and work to find new ways to drive business impact while making a positive impact in the world, we hope these eight tips for inclusive advertising help get you there. Let’s work together to build a more inclusive world today.

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  • Understanding “popular”

    Popular doesn’t mean better by any absolute scale.
    Popular simply means that more people like this thing than that thing.
    Popular isn’t an act of genius. Popular is either an intentional act (to serve a particularly large, homogenous audience) or a lucky break.
    The most direct way to become popular is to serve the audience that made the last thing popular. By that definition, popular almost always means ‘not better.’ It simply means that you found a large group and gave them what they wanted.
    The world likes popular, but it doesn’t have to be your goal.

  • Natural technique doesn’t exist

    It’s amazing how much we can get done simply by trying.
    Whether it’s writing or golf or sales, when we show up and do our best, we can make things happen.
    But then, our internal horsepower becomes insufficient. As we seek to make a bigger impact, we discover that powering our way through obstacles is simply too difficult.
    And so we need to learn technique.
    Technique is the unnatural approach to a problem that, with practice, becomes second-nature. Technique is the non-obvious solution that amateurs and hard-working beginners rarely stumble upon on their own.
    The commitment to a practice opens the door to finding a more useful technique.
    You got this far because your natural approach was helpful. But to get to the next level, you’ll need technique, which, by definition, isn’t something you come by on your own.
    If there are people who are playing at a different level than you who are embracing an approach that feels unnatural to you, you may have found the technique that you’ve been missing.