marketing tips Archives - Wellons Communications

What’s ahead for marketing and PR in 2021?

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Wellons team

The new year is almost upon us and, with the pandemic still raging full-bore, it is challenging to try and look too far ahead.

As difficult as it is to forecast the future, making preparations for what we can reasonably believe will happen in the upcoming months is a must. None among us, of course, has the ability to precisely predict, for example, how consumers will respond when COVID vaccination peaks in the springtime or how businesses will respond to a new presidency.

There are, however, certain characteristics we consider as we develop marketing and public relations approaches for the immediate future.

Recognize the increased emphasis on health and safety

A recent Consumer Index Report by Ernst & Young reports that 26% of consumers surveyed prefer brands and products they trust to be safe and minimize unnecessary risks. Fifty-seven percent say they now pay more attention to how healthy the products they buy are for them.

So how does this translate to your business?

First of all, it means that consumers will continue, at least until they feel less threatened by COVID, to deal remotely. Projected even further, that means that your business must make it as easy as possible for your customers to do business with you. Outdated software or barriers for people to reach you or conduct business with you can be a deterrent to retaining existing customers or attracting new customers.

Upgrade your ability to connect with your customers online

According to an eMarkerter report from June, the average U.S. adult will spend 23 more minutes on smartphones per day in 2020—and that was in June!

We are socializing, working, shopping, and more—online. It’s not just Gen Z and Millennials anymore; it is all of us.

Though digital fatigue is real, there are certain digital experiences to which consumers are growing increasingly accustomed, like buying online and picking up in a store, curbside pickup or home delivery. Your website and social channels are now the front door to your brand or business. Looking ahead into 2021, this may translate to tactics like brief virtual events, online channels and creating video content to tell your story more effectively.

Keep you staff’s tech skills equal to those of your customers

The COVID threat has accelerated behaviors with a speed that no one could have forecast. Business professionals routinely conduct Zoom meetings, and youngsters attend classes without showing up in a classroom. People attend exercise classes online and talk to their doctors in virtual visits. The scale and magnitude of these changes is absolutely staggering.

This huge shift in behavior means your employees, particularly those who are in frequent contact with your customers, need to clearly understand how to work the levers of tech interaction.

So how to upgrade your staff’s tech skills?

Some people are resistant to new technology because they don’t see how it’s any better than the current system. Your employees may be thinking, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The problem with that attitude is that they may not realize how broken the current system is.

If you want your workforce to be more tech savvy, you have to make them want to be more tech savvy. It’s never easy to get people to do things they don’t want to do.

Start by showing them how your technology will make their jobs easier. Just saying it will benefit them may not be enough.

Have them work side-by-side with someone who has embraced the technology. Your tech-savvy employees can demonstrate how easy it is to use and how it will simplify their job.

And, finally, look to the future with confidence

All of us want to return to “normal,” but, realistically, we must recognize that “normal,” will never be the same at it was before COVID.

Even after suffering through the ravages of a pandemic that none of us ever could have anticipated, Americans still possess a tough, resilient spirit that is seeing us through a period of uncertainty.

Given the exceptional abilities that have made our nation the leader of the free world, we find a way to create and prosper in a new normal.

No one, of course, can accurately predict what a new normal will look like, but by examining and responding to trends that are manifesting themselves in the marketing world, we can be better prepared for what is coming and how to adjust to it.

Happy holidays to all and a safe and prosperous 2021

We wish all of you a happy – and safe – holiday season. And we join each of you in hoping that we turn the corner toward an even more positive life as we will know it once the pandemic is behind us.

Involve your PR firm at the start of marketing planning

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Wellons team

When businesses put together important marketing initiatives, it’s surprising how many times publicity and public relations are treated as an afterthought.

In an overwhelming number of instances, organizations invest enormous energy and time into involving their advertising agencies at the beginning of a communications program aimed at increasing sales. When the idea has been formulated and approved, all too often someone says, “Why don’t we involve PR, too?”

This results in a structured program being handed off to the PR firm with the demand, “Get results.”

Whether or not the marketing message is actually attractive, from a publicity and PR perspective, is a different story—but it is a consideration that needs to be baked into marketing planning from day one.

The best marketing initiatives get PR involved in ground-floor planning

As the old saying goes “Advertising is what you pay for. Publicity is what you pray for.”

Advertising most often occupies the center ring when it comes to marketing planning.

Why?

First, advertising costs a lot of money. For that reason alone, marketing chiefs focus their attention on what is consuming the majority of their marketing budget.

Second, the company can totally control the advertising message. Where it goes, what is says, and when it is issued all are under their direct control.

For those two reasons, marketing chiefs usually start planning by huddling with their advertising agencies—winding up with expensive media plans, accompanied by equally expensive production costs necessary to make a message come to life.

In the rush to center their marketing efforts around advertising, however, businesses often totally fail to capitalize on the PR potential of what their message can—and should—deliver.

That’s an opportunity missed.

It’s also an expensive whiff that can be avoided by putting a member of the PR team in the room at the start of the planning cycle.

Two ways involving PR at the start of planning can benefit you

PR can augment and reinforce advertising messages
PR can connect with audiences in ways advertising cannot

PR’s ability to reinforce and amplify marketing messages is surprisingly effective. Publicity—be it word-of-mouth, customer testimonials or editorial media coverage—is regarded by consumers as more trustworthy.

According to a 2014 Nielsen study, PR is 90% more effective than advertising in influencing consumers. In short, getting a favorable mention of your product or service, which is earned and not paid, holds much more weight than an ad.

By involving your PR team at the start of your planning process, they can better understand what your advertising message is intended to do and what it cannot do—and they can fill that gap.

Second, by involving your PR folks in planning, they can more clearly visualize how they can present your story to editorial media and expand your message into stories that have a connection and credibility advertising simply cannot deliver.

Remember, PR provides you a different marketing weapon

One of the 21^st century buzzwords that has become popular is “influencer marketing,” which is simply a more contemporary way of saying “believability.”

It’s another way of saying that PR provides your product or service with believability. It’s not a new idea, but simply a new way of asking yourself:

Who are you more likely to believe, a salesman or a person just like you who bought or used a product or service?

Which is more believable, an advertisement on TV, in a newspaper or magazine or on the internet, or something that appears in a story that involves a product or service?

Editorial coverage has two great advantages over advertising. Editorial coverage provides third-party validation that advertising lacks. Simply by being recognized in editorial media, coverage implies “this is important.”

PR’s ability to augment one’s believability does not discount paid advertising—it is a totally necessary component of marketing.

The difference between the two serves as a reminder for the need to include PR as an integral part of one’s marketing plan—at the very beginning of the planning process.

When you begin to look ahead to the rest of 2020 or even 2021 and shape your future marketing planning, keep Wellons Communications in mind. We’d love the opportunity to sit down with you, learn more about your vision for your product or service and explore how we can help you improve your overall marketing effectiveness.

Call me at 407-339-0879 or email me (will@wellonscommunications.com) and find out for yourself how we can help you augment your marketing effectiveness.

Say it again…and again…and again…

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Wellons team

When you step back and examine what you say to potential customers, how consistent is your message?

Does your message say the same thing every time?

Or does it introduce a new thought to an audience that requires some time to absorb?

The wisdom of The Rule of Seven

One of the tenants to which we adhere at Wellons Communication is The Rule of Seven.

The Rule of Seven says you need seven points of contact with your audience to convey your message.

Why does it take seven times to get your message across?

Because in today’s communications-centric world, people are overloaded with information. Emails, tweets, cable TV, apps, newspapers, and magazines…the list of the different media that impact consumers is long. The list of information they project on a daily basis is even longer.

Because there are so many messages impacting us daily, saying the same thing over and over again is critical to get one’s point across.

Fighting message fatigue

One of the characteristics aggressive marketers exhibit is that they are often the first to grow weary of message consistency. The general feeling often is “We’ve already told ‘em that,” followed by the launch of a new and different message.

The reality is that potential customers, as well as current customers, may not have seen your original communication — or are so busy dealing with their own business that your message has not had time to sink in.

We believe that consistency is key to effectively conveying whatever it is you want your audience to know about you. And that means sticking with a sound strategy and message without growing weary of saying it over and over again.

What’s the one thing you want your audience to know about you?

One of the benefits of stating — and repeating — your core message is that you take ownership of your communications.

That notion is comparable to the oft used “elevator speech” concept: if you have 30 seconds to tell your story, what would you say?

Drilling down to your core message, and re-stating it at every opportunity, helps you meet the Rule of Seven and reinforce the key principle that makes your business unique and even more importantly, valuable to your potential clients.

Fight the urge to keep changing the message

Marketers are smart people who have a lot of ideas and are eager to try them out to see if they can improve marketing results. That intelligence, however, can be a detriment if messages keep changing constantly.

Customers and potential customers don’t require a hit on the head to understand what you are saying. What they do require is seeing and hearing the same thing on a regular, consistent basis. It’s a philosophy that effective advertisers have used for more than a century and one that is adaptable, albeit in a different fashion, in publicity and public relations.

We encourage staying the course and communicating in a regular, organized, and consistent manner. It’s easier on your audiences to remember what you are saying and when they need you, easier to remember who to call.

If you are in need of well-crafted, effective communications that are results-oriented, call me at 407-339-0879 or email me at will@wellonscommunications.com.

Like the communications programs we advocate, we will consistently answer the call, always in the same fashion, and then look for new and innovative approaches that will help stretch your marketing dollar and improve results.