Marketing Trends

In 2021, data flows from multiple pathways to a marketer's desk, and the insights generated from those datasets feels endless. But one thing is becoming increasingly apparent; despite the information you have on hand, it’s still never enough.“33% of marketers say they are completely satisfied with their ability to use data and to create more relevant customer experiences. A third of marketers feel like they have the ability to use data, to create a customer experience that's relevant. Think about all the relevancy that we now have with the brand, to think that only a third of marketers think that they're able to do it. To me, that's the opportunity for marketers to figure out how to go from not just using data, but making it relevant to customer experience.”On this episode of Marketing Trends, Edward McDonnell, the Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer for Marketing Cloud at Salesforce, returns to discuss the future of marketing. Plus, he explains how remote work is enabling marketers to build the most talented teams possible thanks to software that allows them to succeed from anywhere. Ed also explains why it's time to focus on reskilling the modern-day marketer.Main Takeaways:More Control, Please: Two-thirds of marketers in a recent survey stated the data that they receive is not painting a clear enough picture for them when it comes to their customers. Marketers in 2021 want more control of their data — where it’s coming from and how it is used so that they can create a more agile and elastic marketing strategy.Hit that Subscribe Button: Subscription marketing is a growing channel for marketers, but it goes far beyond the technology that enables it. Subscription marketing consistently challenges marketers not just from a sales and retention perspective, but it’s forcing them to rethink how they produce content, and how that content keeps users connected and engaged with a brand.Upleveling Your Skillset: Marketers are not lacking creativity, but the way companies engage with them from a remote perspective must change. Businesses need to rethink how marketers can be successful in a remote-first world. This means putting more of a focus on creating workflows that can enable an efficient creative process regardless of where team members are.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

For years, college athletes have racked up Twitter and Instagram followers due to their on-the-field fame, but despite these large followings, a quarterback known for slinging touchdowns was prohibited from slinging endorsements thanks to a system that prohibited athletes from profiting off of their image or performance. But this summer that changed, and with college athletes now able to profit off their name, image, and likeness, it’s left companies such as Captiv8, an influencer marketing platform, ready to hit the ground running with a new pool of talent. “Scale for creators or athletes within specific verticals is pretty tough. It's hard to snap your fingers and get a hundred college athletes activated in minutes. Platforms like Captiv8 have made it easier to do that in the digital creator space. With creators that have been around for a while, you can go through specific verticals. With college athletes, it's a green field right now.”Krishna Subramanian, is the Co-founder of Captiv8, and on this episode of Marketing Trends, Krishna goes deep into the weeds of influencer marketing and how these new opportunities with college athletes can help brands. Plus Krishna provides some dos and don’t for brands that are looking to partner with influences. Enjoy!Main TakeawaysInfluencers are an Extension of the Brand: Over the last year, brands have leaned more and more on influencer marketing. But despite how loyal an influencer’s audience might be, that audience might not be a match with your brand. Make sure the values of your brand align with that of the creator and with the people who make up their pool of followers.Fighting for Control: How much creative control the brand and the creator requires is one of the main things to consider when partnering with an influencer. If a brand wants more control, don’t partner with top influencers. Instead, partner with lower-level creators that are looking to grow their audience.Going Further Down the Funnel: Right now, influencer marketing is specifically focused on branding and building awareness, but there are far more areas for marketers to derive value from it, including measuring a product viability and the ability to scale content across multiple channels.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

End-of-life planning is something we often put off. After all, nobody actually enjoys thinking about what happens after they die or where their personal belongings will end up. But the truth is, you have to consider your options at some point. That’s one of the things that makes things tricky for Luke Sheehan, the CMO at Willful.co, a Canadian company that guides users through making their legal will online.“What we really try to do [at Willful] is understand the life stages behind when people are most likely to need something like a will in their life. What we then do is try and understand what the consumers are going through in their mind as they make their decisions.”On this episode of Marketing Trends, Luke explains why that process is challenging, and he talks about some of the ways he uses marketing tools to help ease the minds of consumers and gain their trust along the way. Luke also explains how a good public relations strategy can feed into effective marketing, and why it’s important to understand who your key stakeholders are in order to leverage their influence.Main TakeawaysTapping into the Right Audience: Online services are consistently fighting for legitimacy, which makes it increasingly important for marketers to be able to leverage power users of the product who can help raise brand awareness.You’re in Good Hands with All-State: Partnerships can not only be a driver for brand awareness but they can also be used as an effective avenue to build customer trust. When consumers see online services associated with brands, it removes some of the ambiguity and fears they might have of dealing with a service they can not physically interact with.Doubling Down on What Matters: It may sound simple, but your campaigns need to pack a powerful punch and resonate with your audience. If your marketing message is down the middle, your message is not going to stick. Know your companies strengths and weaknesses, and double double down on the strengths that matter to your consumers.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.   Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Sometimes the best marketing campaign is the one you never expected. In an age when every shareable moment matters, and getting consumers to engage with your product can feel tiresome, Ring has built an empire of smart-home devices off those shareable moments.“Our marketing teams are very performance-driven in terms of where we're spending our dollars and certainly paying attention to things. [We pay a lot of attention to] shared voice and earned media engagement and we have teams that are really aware of what's happening and how those videos are really powerful in terms of delivering context behind our products and what they're doing.”Founded in 2014, Ring has grown from its humble origins as a video doorbell into a full-fledged line of products and services that includes security cameras, smart lights and security systems. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Mimi Swain, the Chief Revenue Officer at Ring, offers up examples of how Ring uses the shareable moments to build a community of loyal users and also expands on how Ring expanded its product line from a modest doorbell to a robust offering and the importance of showing up where your customers are.Main TakeawaysShowing Up Matters: In order to drive product growth, it’s important to think about the areas your product is showing up — whether that’s on an ecommerce website or at stores such as Home Depot and Best Buy, your product needs to be visible in the channels that consumers expect them to be in and also wherever your target consumers typically shop.Customer Feedback is More Important than Customer Data: Data is important to create a clear view of your customers, but data alone will not paint a full picture of what your customer likes and dislikes about the product. The feedback you receive from your customers is far more valuable in building a memorable and seamless customer experience. Make sure you are consistently engaging with your customers to understand the areas of the product they love, but also their pain points so that you can continue to innovate.Teachable Moments Lead to Product Innovation: When product teams have the freedom to openly innovate and try new things, those moments of experimentation can lead to real opportunities to drive deeper engagement with the products because they are able to freely learn about the products and understand where they fit best.--- Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Taking a customer-centric approach is difficult. It requires not only thinking differently, but also ignoring your own personal agenda for the greater good of the company. But putting the customer first also requires trust and it requires a top-down effort from everyone involved. That’s why PwC’s remodeling of its business strategy is different. “The New Equation” as it’s called, is not just a motto, it’s an entire strategy based on the principles of building trust and helping PwC customers keep up with the pace of change. And the key to any successful marketing strategy begins with a top-down approach and a relentless focus on implementation.“I don't think any strategy is perfect, nor do I think any strategy needs to be perfect. What needs to be far better is the execution of that strategy… All of our people fundamentally understand what we're doing, but it's the getting the confidence in that story and making sure that they really feel supported, bolstered and have everything that they need in order to bring that with confidence.”On this episode of Marketing Trends, we caught up with J.C. Lapierre, Chief Strategy and Communications Officer at PwC, who offered up some insight into the steps PwC went through to implement its new three-pronged services model. Plus, J.C. explains why successful implementation means everything when you’re rolling out a new strategy, and how PwC is forging ahead with a customer-first approach.Main TakeawaysSuccessful Strategies Start with Successful Installations: The best marketing strategies are ultimately the ones that have the best implementation from beginning to end and from the top down. This will help your marketers not only have a strong understanding of the values of your new strategy, but it will give them the confidence to relay that message to the company's clients.The Days of A Siloed Marketing Approach are Over: Siloed approaches to marketing no longer work, especially if you want to have an efficient, cross-functional business. When you eliminate silos, you’re able to effectively and efficiently push your message and your purpose across all your channels without confusion.Don’t Be Scared to Play in New Channels: Even when you’re a legacy company, it’s important to try new channels and continuously evaluate your marketing mix to understand where your message is resonating and where it’s not. Don’t get comfortable with the same strategy that’s worked in the past. For a company like PwC, that meant advertising on OTT platforms, a channel the company had never participated in before.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Genna Franconi has been in digital marketing so long, she fondly remembers the day she pushed out the first Instagram post for Barbie. But social media marketing has changed significantly since those days. These days, lone marketers aren’t the ones worried about hitting send on a post at the right time. Instead, brands now have teams of social content creators who monitor trends and leverage a brand’s voice to get personal with consumers and entice and engage them at each point of the buying journey. “For years we have been saying that brands do not need to be investing in organic content...That makes a ton of sense. But if you're trying to participate in a cultural conversation by throwing out content that is old school, those days are over. Now marketing is really sophisticated and marketers are using the channels to reach these audiences. We're not screaming through a megaphone. Now we’re laser-targeting people to give them something that's either helpful or educational within their buying path.”Genna is the founder and managing director of Trade School, an integrated content shop that works with big brands such as Home Depot and FedEx. On this episode of Marketing Trends, she reveals just how the social media landscape has evolved from the wild wild west of marketing to an integral piece of every marketer's toolkit. Plus, Genna touches on the evolution of influencer marketing and why it’s important that every brand and creative agency understand why and how to effectively deploy a successful influencer strategy.Main TakeawaysOrganic Content Sets Brands up for Success: Creative agencies need to understand that the best way to partner with brands is to not only understand the creative voice of the brand, but also the business goals the brand wants to achieve through its creative efforts. If you don’t align your creative vision with the business goals of your brand, the content you create for them won’t resonate with its consumers.Content is Less About Format and More about Engagement: As the social landscape has shifted, marketers’ strategies need to pivot from thinking about what content works best for each social platform to understanding what content will get the most engagement from their consumers. This means marketers should spend less of their budget on large-scale commercials that will reach a broad audience and focus on more organic content that can be targeted to hyper-specific audiences.Influencers are Now Competitors to Agencies: Many brands view influencers simply as talent that they can direct, but the reality now is that influencers must be seen as competitors to creative agencies because of the hyper-targeted audiences that each influencer possesses. The best influencer strategies allow influencers to leverage those audiences and give creative license to influencers so that the material they post is organic and  aligns with the influencer's audience.--- Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.   Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Usually, marketers are fighting amongst their peers to generate brand awareness in an already saturated market. How does a camera maker get its latest product to stand out from 15 similar devices? How does a new automaker enter a market to steal customers who might already be loyal to one brand or another? Every marketer has strategies in his or her toolkit for these types of moments, but what happens when you’re literally inventing a market and the only competition you have is yourself?“We're a brand new product, and we're a brand new category. It's not about how do we get incremental sales away from a competitor and into the plant-based egg space. We have to raise awareness that a plant-based egg exists, that it's delicious, but it's called JUST egg.”Tom Rossmeissl is the Head of Global Marketing for Eat Just, a company that develops and markets plant-based alternatives to conventionally produced eggs. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Tom details the trials and tribulations the company went through when developing its plant-based eggs, and he describes the uphill climb the company is still trekking as it continues building brand awareness and getting consumers to change their eating behaviors. He also reveals the influencer marketing strategies the company has deployed to help consumers make the switch to a healthy, sustainable, plant-based diet. Enjoy.Main TakeawaysPick-Up On Aisle Three: When you’re in the CPG space, it’s important to have a full understanding of how your product can succeed while also being able to manage your inventory to maintain your profit margins. For JUST, a relatively expensive product compared to its competitors, this has meant holding off moving to a direct to consumer model while the brand grows.Changing Consumer Behaviors: Marketers cannot rely on consumer’s to make their buying decisions just on their value proposition. While marketers would like those same consumer’s to make purchase decisions based on the environment, the reality is when it comes to CPG brands consumers will still spend their money based on what they believe is good value.Wait, What? When you’re managing multiple brands, it’s important to draw a line and make a clear distinction between the two brands. When consumers see brands, especially in the CPG space, you want them to have a clear understanding of the way each product is produced and what it represents, as opposed to drawing their own conclusions.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Marketers are always looking for ways to get their message across to consumers. Whether that’s trying to get them to stop scrolling long enough to watch an ad, or grab their attention quick-enough to prevent them from changing the channel, marketers are waging a never-ending war to get noticed. But instead of racing to get consumers to your web page, why not just target them when they are already in your store?“All the other digital investments, you're just trying to get people to leave their house, or get out of their car, or leave the gym and go to the place to buy your product. We're talking to the people that are standing in the very place where they can buy your product.”Paul Brenner is a broadcasting savant, with a quarter-century of experience in the radio and television industry. He’s watched from the front row how marketers have shifted their advertising spend from traditional broadcast inventory to digital platforms. Now, as the Chief Strategy Officer at Vibenomics, he’s helping those same marketers create a memorable in-store experience through out of home audio. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Paul describes why the audio you hear in-store is an often overlooked opportunity to grow product conversions. Plus, he explains why ecommerce is not the death of brick and mortar stores.Main TakeawaysThe Rise of Digital: While consumers are moving their shopping habits to online platforms, those purchases still only make up for 7% of total items sold. This means marketers still need to place an emphasis on providing a memorable in-store customer experience.OOH Audio as an Asset: Advertisements are meant to make consumers think about a product and then take action. But getting someone to take those next steps is challenging. OOH audio allows for marketers to subtly remind consumers what they may have missed while they are already in your store.Trusted Source: With the move from third-party cookies, marketers must adjust the metrics they use to make their decisions when it comes to how they spend their ad dollars. This means that marketers will need to have more faith in the numbers that media partners report to them when making their ad-buying decisions.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

For years the automotive industry has served as a beacon of America's thriving commerce industry. Now that once-thriving sector is facing a global chip shortage, which has caused automakers to slow production. With supply chains sputtering along,what does that mean for manufacturers such as GHSP— a company founded in 1924, with deep roots in providing automakers some of the key components used in everyday cars.“ We're not able to necessarily provide the product that our customers are looking for. They're not always able to, to continue their production. You have the consumer still wanting it. And so it's been unique in the sense that we aren't really looking for a lot of work. We're just looking to fulfill the work that we already have in terms of certainly in our auto space and the markets and companies that we service.” John Major is the Director of Marketing at GHSP, and on this episode of Marketing Trends, John details how GHSP is reinvesting in itself by building up its marketing efforts. John also provides examples of how the company is expanding its product offerings by jumping into the appliance sector, and he details the marketing strategies they are using to build brand awareness and to target potential customers. Enjoy this episode!Main TakeawaysWhere There’s a Will, There’s a Way: When your company is reliant on face-to-face interaction to demonstrate your products and services, it’s important to find new ways to engage your consumers. Consider finding alternative ways to display your products, such as putting together showcase videos or building out a TV studio in an effort to broadcast how the product works.Well, This is New: When you’re entering a new product space, one of the most important things a marketer can do is understand if you have product-market fit. Understanding the niche audience that will need and utilize your product is not only important when it comes to identifying who your target market is, but also in understanding how your service will be used.A Chance to Show Off: While product launches should be used as a marketing tool to build anticipation and excitement for your latest offering, they should also be used as ways to identify future customers and open up conversations for how your product should fit into their current offering.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Not every marketing department has a large budget, and not every marketer has the endless resources needed to hire top-flight designers, editors, photographers, and videographers to create big-budget campaigns. So, what do you do if you’re a marketer that is confined to a strict budget? You do what marketers do and you get creative.“What we're doing with Fiverr, we are building a super brand one step at a time, and one step after another. If you are limited with budget, and you need to be creative and smart and brave, this is where the magic really is. This is how we want to build Fiverr as a brand. We want to be a brand that people will talk about and marketers will talk about because they're going to learn from it.”Fiverr originated as a website for quick five-dollar jobs, and has scaled into a two-sided marketplace for freelancers and job seekers, allowing marketers the opportunity to source quality work while trying out multiple freelancers. Gali Arnon is at the center of it all, and as the CMO of Fiverr, she’s working to evolve the company’s image into a well-known super brand. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Gali discusses how Fiverr uses influencer marketing to organically push the brand’s presence on digital platforms, and she also details how a recent brand refresh is putting the company's old mantra of five-dollar jobs in the rearview mirror.Main Takeaways:The Power of Influencers: Influencers remain a savvy way for marketers to gain organic awareness while also aligning the views of the company with the people that actually use the product. YouTube is one channel where influencers can tell their story in an organic and meaningful way without being confined to advertising time slots.The Makings of a Superbrand: Brands are not made overnight and your brand’s story is not written when you first launch. As your brand evolves, so must your message. Your base users may remain the same, but your target audience’s needs and expectations are constantly changing, so your brand needs to pivot as well.Have to Show Up: If you’re a digital marketer or an ecommerce company, search should remain an integral pillar of your marketing strategy. Whether that is through paid acquisitions or SEO, if consumers are not able to find you, or locate what they are looking for while on your site, it’s a missed opportunity to attract them to your brand and introduce them to your story.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.