MackCollier.com

by

November’s Blogging Recap

November is the 3rd month of my ‘blogging relaunch’ that I started in September. Over the Summer, I decided that with changing work patterns due to covid, that it was a good time to double-down on blogging as a content creation tool. Plus, I fear that heavy regulation is soon coming to social media sites regardless of who is in the White House come January 20th. So all of this together prompted me to get serious again about writing and creating content here.

So here’s how traffic did in November vs October:

Sadly, traffic was down 11.45%. First, there was one more day in October, so that accounts for a bit of the drop.  And last week was Thanksgiving, that also accounted for a little bit of the decline. But the biggest reason for the decline was I went from 20 posts in October, down to 10 posts in November. Real life and work got in the way and I didn’t write as much as I should have.

When I first relaunched the blog in September, the goal was to write 6 posts a week. I kept that up for about 5 weeks, but I’ve now decided that I would like to settle in on a schedule of 4 new posts a week, Monday through Thursday.  Occasionally I might have a 5th post on Friday or Saturday.  Monday’s Marketing Minute is the post series I can stand by, and that results in one post every Monday.  I announced yesterday that I would be launching #ContentCircus on Tuesday. The goal is to have a recap post on every Wednesday that covers what we discussed the night before in #ContentCircus.  That will give me 2 posts a week.  The post on Tuesday will usually be an ‘opinion’ post, and the post on Thursday will be a ‘thought leadership’ or instructional post.

More than anything else, it’s so important to strive for consistency in blogging. These first 2-3 months of the relaunch here were mostly about me developing a schedule that I can set, and stick to. Nothing is worse than a blog that goes weeks or months with no posts. I started out shooting for 6 posts a week. I’ve now figured out I really can’t maintain that volume, so I’m going to try dialing it back to 4 posts a week. But again, the main point is consistency.

Thanks for reading, I hope this is helping you plan your own blogging strategy. I’ll be back here in a month to share December’s results.  And there WILL be more than 10 posts in December!

by

Introducing #ContentCircus!

Starting one week from today on December 8th, I will be launching a new Twitter chat called #ContentCircus! #ContentCircus will be focused on three areas:

  • Content Creation
  • Content Strategy
  • Content Execution

#ContentCircus will be every Tuesday night at 7pm Central. We will have a topic related to each of these three areas every month, and the last Tuesday of every month will be OPEN MIC, just like we had with #Blogchat!

Helping companies improve their content strategies and creation efforts is the work I love. I love teaching companies how to create content that resonates with customers, while also achieving desired business outcomes. And while I will always be partial to content created on blogs, content in 2020 takes on so many forms across so many tools and platforms. I think there’s an opportunity to create a robust Twitter chat with content as a focus that can benefit both content creators as well as the companies that hire and work with them.

So why not just bring back #Blogchat? 

I started #Blogchat on a whim in 2009 as a way to better catalog a Twitter conversation around a blogging question I asked on Twitter. It quickly grew into one of the first chats on Twitter. It WAS the first Twitter chat to monetize with a sponsor, and ended up being live at events like South By Southwest, Content Marketing World and Blogworld and New Media Expo. Companies such as Dell, Adobe, Club Med, Pilot Pen and others have sponsored #Blogchat. Every important thought leader in the blogging and digital space co-hosted #Blogchat during it’s 10-year run and at its height, #Blogchat was generating 25 Million impressions in one hour on Sunday nights!

#Blogchat soon took on a life of its own, and was a wonderful way to connect with new and emerging bloggers, and give them valuable guidance on how to improve their craft. You sense the ‘but’ is coming, right? But…my clients weren’t individual bloggers. So over time, the audience for #Blogchat and my desired audience began to become fractured. But I loved doing #Blogchat so much, and I felt an obligation to give back and do all I could to help bloggers become better bloggers. But over time, #Blogchat began to become a big time sink and other than sponsorships, I really could get enough money back from it to justify the time I needed to spend with the chat to continue its success.

So in 2019 I finally decided to end #Blogchat. But I didn’t end my love of Twitter chats. I still believe that chats are the best source of value on Twitter. And I always had in the back of my mind maybe I could bring #Blogchat back, at least for a one-shot.

Then one day it hit me: Why not do a Twitter chat focused on content? Boom! That would allow me to cover a topic that’s more in line with my desired client base and which would let me better promote my business services. Additionally, we could cover content creation using tools other than just blogs. So since the topic would be more closely aligned with my business, I could justify spending more time with the chat, to help it grow and be more valuable to as many content creators as possible.

What will be the focus of #ContentCircus?

The topics for #ContentCircus will all fall into 3 buckets; Content Strategy, Content Creation and Content Execution. In most months, we will have 4 Tuesdays, so 4 topics.  We will pick one topic from each of these buckets, and the 4th topic will be OPEN MIC, held on the last Tuesday of the month. OPEN MIC is something I started with #Blogchat. During OPEN MIC there is no set topic, everyone can discuss anything they want related to content. It’s a great chance for anyone to ask questions on content topics that we haven’t yet touched on.

We will also be focusing on these buckets as they relate to content tools and platforms as well.  For instance, we might talk about how to create more engagement on Twitter one month, and how to take better photos for Instagram the next month.

Over time, as the community grows, we will bring in co-hosts who are subject matter experts. One of the things I loved about seeing the #Blogchat community grow was that it gave me the opportunity to bring in popular thought leaders who could not only offer valuable insights to the #Blogchat community, but the exposure from co-hosting #Blogchat was also great for the co-hosts. A true wn-win.

And yes, we will have sponsors for #ContentCircus. Lining up sponsors honestly is not a concern at this point, that will take care of itself later on. As with #Blogchat, any sponsorships with #ContentCircus will be structured so they add value to the community, and aren’t a distraction.

So I’m excited about #ContentCircus and I’m looking forward to creating another community that can help others become better content creators. See you next Tuesday at 7pm Central on Twitter!

by

Monday’s Marketing Minute: Tracking Sales to Social Media, Conducting Sweepstakes and Contests

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope you had a fantastic Holiday weekend, and are easing into the workweek slowly. Here’s some useful links to help you start the week smarter:

 

I always chuckle at how companies lament that they are having difficulty tying sales directly to its social media efforts. The reality is, social media as a channel is not the best channel to drive sales directly. First, most companies struggle to correctly attribute revenue to any channels, much less social media. The study in the tweet below found this as well. Social media has certain strengths and weaknesses for businesses. It does a great job at things like building brand awareness, a good job at things like customer service, and not that great at things like direct sales. All channels have strengths and weaknesses. Most companies are also having trouble attributing customer service success to billboards. The point is, focus on the strengths and weaknesses for each channel and don’t waste time and money trying to force a square block into a round hole.

 

One of the most misunderstood areas of social media is how to effectively and legally run sweepstakes and contests via social media. This great share from Mari gives you wonderful pointers on how to run either via social media channels.

 

I constantly talk to companies that want to build a fanbase of passionate customers, who have no idea how to get started. I always tell them to do the same thing; say ‘Thank you’. LA Chipper (and former Alabama Crimson Tide great) JaMycal Green recently left the LA Chippers, and when he did, he posted goodbye and said thank you to Clippers fans on Instagram. Then he went through and thanked every fan that replied. This is how you build a fanbase, by simply showing your current fans that you appreciate them. Look at your company’s Facebook page, or your Twitter replies. How many customers are commenting that they enjoy your products or services? Are you replying and thanking every one?  You should be. Don’t over complicate things, saying ‘Thank you’ still works.

 

I hope you have a great Monday! Speaking of news, I’ll have some news of my own to share here tomorrow. I think you’ll enjoy it!

by

The Business Link Between Customer Empathy and Brand Loyalty

The other day I was talking about mapping content and marketing to the buyer’s journey with Alexandra. Alexandra mentioned what comes after the purchase, and that’s when we began to discuss the role of creating and cultivating brand loyalty. We then had a fascinating discussion about the role that empathy for the customer plays in creating and cultivating loyal customers. I started doing some research into empathy and I wanted to do a deeper dive into the topic here.

Let’s first examine some of the drivers of brand loyalty:

  • We trust the brand. This trust can be established via a consistent experience, customer support, following through on brand promises, etc.
  • We relate to the brand. Here we feel we have common interests and values as the brand We feel as if what’s important to us is also important to the brand.
  • We feel that the brand acknowledges us and appreciates us. They listen to us, they communicate they hear our feedback and act on it. This also leads to us feeling a vested interest in what happens to the brand. We will promote it to other customers, we will defend it against criticism.

 

Now let’s look at empathy. According to Greater Good Magazine, empathy is “used to describe a wide range of experiences. Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.”  All of this ties into the drivers for brand loyalty; Trust, understanding, being able to relate to the brand.

Empathy for the customer is a paramount skill to have if you are working in customer service. And quite often, customer service is called upon post-purchase, by the customer. Which is also the point at which brand loyalty often is created or enhanced.

A big part of showing empathy to someone is making sure that person understands that you are listening to them, and you are being considerate of their feelings. Whenever I consult with companies on addressing customer complaints, I always stress to them that the company should never apologize unless they actually did something wrong. I tell clients to focus on listening to the customer, and making sure they know that you are listening. That’s far more important than simply saying ‘sorry’. Upset customers want to know that you are listening to them, that you have heard and understood WHY they are upset, and that you give the customer a solution for their complaint.  Starting a customer service interaction by saying “Well I’m sorry that happened to you!’ and then NOT solving their problem, can actually lead to more anger and frustration for the customer. Communicating that you are listening is more important than saying you are sorry.

Taking the time to listen shows that you DO care. It’s critical that your brand listens to its customers, especially when they contact customer service, post-purchase. It’s also important that even though the customer is very likely upset, the main thing the average customer wants when reaching out to customer service, is a rep who will listen and understand why they are upset. This communicates that the brand values that customer and their feelings.

Feeling appreciated is one of the key drivers of brand loyalty. Also keep in mind that everyone, your customers, your employees, we are all under additional pressure and stress right now. Communicating you appreciate others has never been more important. And it will never be more appreciated by others.

by

Monday’s Marketing Minute: eCommerce Sales Spiking, Smart Marketing For Virtual Events

Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope everyone has a wonderful week with friends and family! Let’s jump into some marketing stories that caught my eye the last few days:

 

According to eMarketer, eCommerce sales will rise by a little over 10% both this year and in 2021. When you consider that’s a big increase over 2018, 2019, it suggests that the changes in shopping behavior we are picking up this year will carry over. As a result, your company should be doing everything it can to streamline the online buying process on your website.  Calls to action should be clear and consistent, content that’s relevant and that moves the buyer through the purchase process should be utilized. More customers will be shifting purchase behavior toward buying online, and your website needs to be able to capitalize on this change.

Virtual events have been very popular this year, for obvious reasons. I love this idea of sending lunch to attendees of virtual events. There are so many opportunities with virtual events, and quite honestly, I’m not a fan of most virtual events because they are a really bad version of live events. But with a little thought and consideration for the attendees, you can come up with ideas like this that greatly improve their experience.

 

It’s been very troubling to see how social platforms continue to censor content it disagrees with. This censorship is often done under the guise of ‘policing misinformaton’, but the end result is typically that content moderators simply remove content because its expresses an opinion that the moderators disagree with. Which is very disturbing, and will likely lead to a removal of the CDA 230 protections that content creators now enjoy. I’ve written before about how this censorship could affect individual content creators in previous posts.

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday! See you back here in 24 hours!

by

What Will the Next 12 Months of Social Media Look Like?

As I write this, CEOs from Twitter and Facebook are being grilled during a Congressional hearing, with censorship of content being a hot topic. It seems that user frustration with major social media sites like Twitter, Facebook an Instagram finally came to a head, for a variety of reasons, in 2020. The environment on these social sites has been increasingly toxic in 2020 as politics has become a dominant topic.

Interestingly, Twitter’s moderation efforts have led to the rise of Parler, which has emerged as the first viable competitor to Twitter in nearly decade. Top influencers who recently joined Parler have already seen their follower numbers surpassing their followers on Twitter.

I’ve been spending more time on Parler recently, but it’s clear that the toxic exchanges around politics that people are sick of on Twitter, are slowly migrating to Parler.

But I think (or rather hope) that the rise of Parler signals a potential shift in the future of social media. Parler is a social site where almost all of the conversation happening is around politics. But what if more sites similar to Parler arose, with each one focused on a particular topic. For instance, Twitter is a catch-all. You can find discussions about literally any topic you are interested in.

But what if there was a ‘Twitter’ just for people who are interested in your favorite hobby or topic?  What if there was a platform just for discussing sports, or gardening, or cooking, or Sherlock Holmes, or Pokemon, etc?

I’ve been using the internet long enough to remember when AOL switched from 10 hours a month for $24,99, to unlimited access for the same price. When AOL went unlimited, the experience on AOL changed dramatically. When AOL went unlimited, obviously everyone had a lot more time they could afford to spend on the site.  AOL had many forums and message boards, and when the service went unlimited, the activity levels went up, but so did the amount of arguing. The reality is, when you only have 20 or so hours a month you can use on internet access, you probably aren’t going to waste that time arguing. You are going to search for and share only the most important information. Which means the value of the content in those forums increases. But when you open the floodgates and let everyone in, you also let in a lot of people that have less interest and knowledge of said topic. Which led to more arguing and less informed viewpoints.

By the way, this is why Twitter chats work so well. Because you bring together people that are knowledgeable and passionate about a particular topic. As a result, the conversations that happen in these chats are so much more valuable than what we see on Twitter as a whole. I’ve had so many people tell me that chats are the only reason why they are still on Twitter.

So I’m interested in the success of Parler simply because I’m intrigued by the idea of having social platforms that aren’t a ‘catch-all’ like we have now with Twitter and Facebook, but which are focused on just one topic or area. I think such an approach would lead to much healthier conversations, and the quality of those conversations would increase dramatically, as well.

Here’s to new social media sites that offer us better and more valuable conversation and content in 2021.

by

Monday’s Marketing Minute: Growing Distrust of Influencers, Driving More Sales With Email

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and is ready to have a great week! Here’s a few stories that caught my eye the last few days:

 

I thought this study from Ipsos was very interesting. It found that most consumers don’t put much trust in influencers. In fact, the study found that consumers felt that influencers were only marginally more trustworthy than politicians! Yikes! I do think these results are a bit of an outlier, but at the same time, I do think trust levels for influencers are falling. A big reason why is because influencer marketing has become a cottage industry. Big money is flowing to these influencers, and some are creating content around their sponsors that looks and feels more like an ad, and less like organic praise for a product they use and enjoy.

 

Interesting findings from eMarketer on what we want from our emails. Emails that are pointing us toward products based on our purchase history seems to be the clear winner here. It makes sense, we often want and need products that compliment or are similar to what we’ve already bought. This works in stores as well. How many times have you seen a small display of ketchup placed to the french fries in the freezer section? Or maybe a display of buns placed next to the hot dogs? These are reminders that hey, you might want this product that works well with the one you have already bought. This is simply taking a tried and true upsell opportunity from offline, and bringing it to online in the form of smart email marketing.

 

One of the areas of marketing that I think is ripe for growth is visual representation. Pictures are so important to driving engagement on social media, so if you can nail the visuals, you have a much better chance at grabbing your audiences attention. I love this tweet from Alabama’s football team. Look at how they utilized including multiple images in a tweet. They included two images, and have them both combine to form one larger picture. This is a great example of leveraging visuals to drive higher engagement rates. This is an area I want to focus on with my own content.

Hope you have an amazing and productive week!

by

Building Employee and Customer Advocacy Really Is This Simple

Think about a brand that you love. Why do you love that brand? Most people are loyal to brands for many reasons, such as the value they create, the ideas and beliefs they stand for, they feel that the brand actually cares about them.  There are many reasons more, and they are personal.

And that word, ‘personal’ is the key. If you have a personal relationship or view of a brand, then you have affinity for that brand. And affinity leads to advocacy. You want to tell others about that brand, you feel a sense of vested interest in seeing that brand succeed. You want to play some small role in that brand’s success.

This is the simple, 4-step process for creating advocacy. It works for both your employees and your customers. And the reality is, if you don’t have employees that will advocate for your brand, it’s very difficult to create an environment where customers will.

At both the employee and customer level, it starts by initiating interactions that communicate that you care. On the employee side, instead of having 4 weekly meetings a month to discuss how your employees are progressing with their work, what if you made the 3rd meeting of every month instead be focused on helping your employees? What if that meeting was focused on discussing what THE BRAND can do to better help the employees do their job better? Give the employees a chance to discuss what’s holding them back, let them suggest changes that could make their job easier.

“I could be more productive if I could do _____”

“I wish I could devote X amount of time to personal work projects”

“I could get more done if we had fewer meetings like this”

Ok I just threw that last one in there cause I know so many of you were thinking it! But the point is, by interacting and LISTENING to your employees then ACTING on their suggestions, you signal to them that you value their opinions. Also, you are signaling to them that you TRUST your employees to come up with good ideas, and then run with them.

Want to inspire your employees? When they come to you with an idea, give them ownership to get it done. It communicates that you trust the employee, that you value them, and that you know they can do the work without your supervision. That’s incredibly inspiring to the employee.  That’s what creates advocacy.

Also, make sure your employees understand WHY your brand does what it does. As Simon Sinek says “People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it”. What impact does your brand make on the lives of your customers, and the world? Make sure your employees understand that. We all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We all want a vision to unite us, a larger cause that binds us as a team working toward a common goal. There’s the famous story of the time President Kennedy was touring NASA, and he was stopping employees as he met them and asking them to explain what they did at NASA. He eventually found a janitor, and asked him what he did at NASA.  The janitor replied “I”m helping send man to the moon!”  That was the vision and the ‘why’ that inspired him to do his job.

The same things apply to your customers. Interact and engage with your customers. Ask them for feedback on your brand.  What can be improved, what do they like.  Take their suggestions to heart, and follow up with them on what your brand is doing to implement the changes they want to see. This helps your customers become more invested in your brand and helps create higher levels of customer advocacy.

Interaction leads to Understanding leads to Trust leads to Advocacy. When both your employees and customers advocate for your brand, that leads to higher sales and profits.

by

Money Can Buy You Happiness, If You Spend it On This

It’s an age old question; Can money REALLY buy you happiness?

Science has chimed in on this question with a definite answer; It depends.

According to scientific research, money CAN buy you happiness. But, and here’s the catch, that happiness can either be short-term or long-term, based on WHAT you spend your money on.

If you buy products, your happiness from that purchase tends to be short-term. Additionally, your happiness is typically at its highest levels at the moment of purchase. The amount of happiness that you get from a product purchase tends to degrade over time. When you are dealing with products that are frequently updated, such as a new version of the iPhone coming out every year, your happiness levels from your purchase can fall even faster.

So product purchases tend to bring you short-term happiness that fades quickly.

If you want long-term happiness, then scientific research shows that you should spend your money on experiences. For instance, travel. And your happiness from these experiences increases more, if you enjoy those experiences with other people.

Here’s why; Word of mouth. Think about it, your family goes on vacation and that creates memories that you will share for the rest of your lives. In recalling those trips, you continue to get happiness and joy from simply recalling with your family what happened.

I grew up in a rural area of Alabama that had no toy stores. As a child, my exposure to toys in a retail setting was one isle of boys toys and one isle of toys for girls in the local department store. But when I was 8 years old, my family took a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was in December, so very cold, in fact I think it was snowing. My family and I were in an area with many small shops on both sides of the cobblestone street. I was walking around marveling at the shops when I saw it. A toy shop! I turned around and there was a huge store display of 12-inch Star Wars dolls! For the rest of my life, I will always remember seeing that gorgeous display on the other side of a frost-covered window.

I could not, for the life of me, remember a single product my family bought during that trip. But I will always remember the experience of being on that cobblestone street and seeing that display of Star Wars figures in that toy shop.

Product purchases bring short-term happiness that fades quickly. Long-term happiness comes from spending money on experiences.

So what does this mean for product marketers? If what you sell only provides short-term pleasure, how do you overcome that?

You focus your marketing, product design, sales and research on the EXPERIENCES that your product enables for the customer. You aren’t just selling a product, you are selling a product that allows the customer to engage in amazing experiences!

Here’s an example. When a financial planner talks to you about planning for retirement, what do they talk to you about?  A good deal of the conversation revolves around ‘what do you want retirement to look like?’ In other words, when do you want to retire, and what do you want to do WHEN you retire? The planner focuses on the life you want to live when you retire, then customizes a financial plan to help you achieve those goals. But when selling the services, a smart planner will focus on what good retirement planning today will mean to your financial future. She will talk to you about the experiences you will be able to have if you create a solid retirement plan today.

Look at Red Bull’s commercials and content. Red Bull sells energy drinks, but almost none of its marketing or content is focused on the products it sells. Instead, almost all of Red Bull’s content focuses on the experiences that its athletes are engaged in. The amazing stunts, tricks and accomplishments that make us ‘ohhh’ and ‘ahhh’! But the underlying message is clear: If you want to do amazing things like this, drink Red Bull.

 

So when you designing your product marketing, focus on the experiences that your product can create for your customers. Ask yourself “What does this product allow our customers to do that’s amazing? How does this product change the lives of our customers?” At first this might seem silly, but after a while, you will probably realize that your product can make a bigger impact on the lives of your customers than you realized

Now you need to make sure your customers realize that as well. Remember, the key is to create happiness for your customers that lasts for life.

by

Monday’s Marketing Minute: Covid Vaccine Spikes Markets, Parler Taking Off

Happy Monday, y’all! Apologies for not posting since last Tuesday, I got too caught up in the election drama like we all did. Unfortunately, it looks like it may be a few more weeks before we get everything sorted. As I tweeted last week, the best thing we can do is turn OFF the media. It’s wonderful for your mental health!

 

Speaking of health, hugely important news from the pharmaceutical world is breaking this morning, as Pfizer has announced that its covid vaccine candidate has achieved 90% effectiveness in trials. The stock market just opened up well over a thousand points to an all-time high on the news.

 

Kids are spending a lot more time with electronic devices this year. This is another indication of how our behavior is changing as a result of spending more time at home due to covid. As parents, it will be a challenge to monitor the new habits our children are adopting in regards to use of electronic devices, and make sure they don’t overdo it.

 

If you haven’t yet heard of Parler, you probably will soon. Parler is the first competitor to Twitter to actually gain some decent traction with users since…gosh…probably Identi.ca, a decade or so ago. Parler is positioning itself as the ‘free speech’ alternative to Twitter. GAB tried this last year, and it really didn’t work that well for them. But Parler has roped in some big-name influencers in conservative media and that’s helping its popularity.  Personally, I love the conversation there, and the exchanges are basically free of the constant arguing and trolls that have taken over Twitter. I’m not a huge fan of the interface, Twitter’s mobile app is much more intuitive for me. But I will definitely be spending more time on Parler, you can find me there under the name MackCollier, same as my Twitter handle.

https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1325630382088269825

 

That’s it for Monday, hope everyone has a wonderful week! Remember to tune the toxic people and information out of your life, and embrace the good people! See you tomorrow!