Do Cliché Slogans Work?
Happy Maewyn Succat Day!
Who and what is Maewyn Succat? You probably celebrate this person every year, though you may not realize it. People all over the world celebrate the day of Maewyn Succat’s death, March 17, though most people know this popular holiday by a more familiar name – St. Patrick’s Day.
The standard St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the United States consists of wearing green and shamrocks, novelty t-shirts, going to parades and of course – drinking green beer. However, it’s important to note that though green beer is a fixture in America on St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish traditionally don’t include it in their celebrations. This colorful libation is just one of many marketing elements built to meet consumers’ traditional expectations of the holiday.
Every community has a way of life, rituals and social behaviors that need to be considered (and respected) when marketing (to consumers or businesses). Yet creativity and ingenuity need not go down the drain at the expense of tradition. Many companies thrive on lifeless cliché sayings and phrases that are repeated every year. So much in fact that we become calloused to them and we can’t associate these clichés to any particular products or service. They become bland and overused, can position companies as being stale and out-of-date, and are really causing companies to miss out on what can be a very valuable marketing opportunity. Take this opportunity to pull away from the pack, be unique and think of clever and inspiring ways to position your brand during holiday seasons.
- People come from all over the world to take part in Chicago, Illinois’ vast and diverse St. Patrick’s Day experiences. Each year a highlight of these festivities is turning the Chicago River Emerald Green. This unique and grandiose tradition cannot be seen anywhere else in the world and helps to make Chicago a ‘must visit’ destination during the St. Patrick’s Day season.
- An office supply store took an interesting approach to ‘going green’. They used the season to launch a series of environmental initiatives designed to encourage customers and employees to recycle and purchase products made from recycled materials. The campaign promoted both ways to ‘go green’ and ‘save some green’.
- This year, Polk County, Georgia is helping dogs and cats ‘get lucky’! In this spin on the traditional St. Patrick’s Day theme of the ‘Luck o’the Irish’, Polk County Animal Control is dropping the cost of adoptions to $20 to help find available animals a home.
All of these examples are plays on traditional St. Patrick’s Day themes, but that went a little above and beyond. Take a chance, go outside the box and make your business stand out by taking a traditional theme and giving it that little twist, or boost to the next level.
Can 70% of trade show attendees find you?
Trade shows and event marketing account for twenty percent of B2B companies’ average annual marketing budget according to a 2014 Forrester Research study. With one fifth of a company’s budget going toward an events like a trade shows, conferences or seminars, and the explosion of programmatic digital advertising and mobile devices, it is vital companies implement state-of-the-art marketing technologies into their arsenal.
There is no doubt that traditional tactics work. Utilizing pre-and post-show emails, inviting clients, writing press releases, website landing pages, purchasing flashy new exhibits and staffing booths with intelligent, outgoing employees is a must. But what else should you be doing to outshine your competitor in booth 103?
To answer this, ask yourself: what is my potential client is doing before, during and after an event like a trade show? The answer is: Research on the internet. And the best way to place your company in that research is through search engine marketing (SEM).
Seventy percent of event attendees plan out who they will visit before and during the show. According to AdWeek, eighty-one percent of consumers conduct online research before they make a purchase, and sixty percent of those consumers start their research on a search engine before heading to a specific website. Although some of this data relates to consumer purchases online, combining these statistics helps us understand how attendees behave. It makes the most sense strategically to place ads on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and their network partners where attendees will be conducting research. This is a perfect storm for digital trade show marketing.
The ability to advertise your company, products and presence before a trade show is of tremendous value and a new, effective way to stay ahead of competitors. But you might be asking yourself, how can SEM help me during the show? How do I drive potential customers to my booth?
Since we know consumers conduct online research before visiting a booth and/or making a purchase, and with the advancement of the search engine marketing (SEM) platforms, companies have the option of targeting ads to within a mile of a specific location. With other location based optimizations in place within your account, you can be confident attendees searching for you keywords on a mobile device or desktop at a trade show are served your company’s ad. Seeing that sixty to seventy percent of viewers prefer search engine ads targeted toward their immediate location, and that thirty-two percent of viewers who were served location-based ads visited a specific store/location made a purchase (Search Engine Watch), this tactic is sure to increase visitors to your booth.
Utilizing search engine ads allows attendees to find your company before, during and after a trade show or event. But most importantly, placing these ads where your customers will be searching drives traffic to your booth, and serves as one of the most efficient ways to bring value to the largest expense in your annual marketing budget.
Strategy Critical to Long Term Marketing Success
It is very easy to get caught up in the web of tactical initiatives when marketing a company. However, in order to be effective and receive the most impact from your marketing budget, strategy development must take top priority. Developing a strategic plan for your marketing initiatives, and systematically reviewing that plan allows you to respond quickly to the constant ebb and flow of your business.
According to a recent survey conducted by Adobe B2B Digital Trends, when asked about the building blocks of customer experience, B2B respondents overwhelmingly identify strategy as the most important. They understand that without a long-term view that is shared by executive leadership true change is difficult and slow to achieve.
They also identified that if an organization’s culture does not embrace changing priorities of their market any changes will be only temporary.
Q: Please rank the importance of these areas as building blocks for building a brilliant customer experience.
618 Respondents
Adobe B2B Digital Trends 2015
Without a long-term strategy in place it becomes impossible to develop and track goals and benchmarks that drive success. In order to fully understand what changes have the most impact you need to have a clear goal and in order to make those goals you must have strategy in place. Without these things, you’re unable to evolve to correct your course. A strategy does not have to, and should not be a concrete entity. It should be fluid and always changing with your company, your views, your goals, and the marketplace.
Without support, a plan has little chance to endure long term. A company’s plan must run parallel with the culture of the company, both executives and employees, and the marketplace, in order for it to be successful. As the Adobe study shows us, technology, skills, and data, also have an impact on the ability to change, but strategy and support are the clear deciding factors in a company’s ability to develop and execute a successful marketing initiative.