COMMENTARY

Keeping It Real: Why Video-Powered Experiences Connect With Consumers

• by Amy Thorne , January 25, 2021

You can learn a lot during difficult times, and this pandemic has certainly provided lessons for marketers. Foremost, campaigns must now lead with empathy and situational awareness, which begins by showing understanding of the customer’s personal situation and providing a solution to help.

The constraints of social distancing have accelerated the use of all things digital, particularly tools like video. The medium can tell a story like no other, drawing on verbal and nonverbal communication, graphics, special effects -- and delivering a 9X improvement in recall over text, according to one study.

Further, while video has encountered marketing challenges in the past -- mainly that it’s too costly to create and manage at scale -- advanced video-powered experience (VX) platforms can now enable marketers to deliver individualized content on the fly and at scale.

It’s not a moment too soon, because with COVID-19, authentic experiences matter more than ever.

 Just in time

Key to video success today is providing real experiences versus over-polished ones that aren’t relatable or believable. Ironically, this allows for a much broader range of production, and it’s less expensive, because it can reach all the way down to the user-generated content level. The results are more genuine, and targets don’t feel as if you’re trying to convince or oversell them, something companies should avoid right now.

Customers want brands to meet them where they are. By leveraging a brand's existing engagement data, video content can be tied to motivational insights. When delivered  within video modules, content can be highly personalized content, creating those "aha" moments at exactly the right time -- whether that means resolving a pressing customer question or prompting a decision. 

Make it personal

Due to the data-powered production efficiencies, the ability to scale and deliver individualized moments across all channels, VX as a content strategy is producing impressive results, in areas that might seem surprising. Take financial services, where making personal connections is paramount.

For example, a video experience can begin simply with a prospect opening a credit card. In the past, this would have been followed by a series of static emails and direct mail. Now, armed with the information from that sole exchange, marketers can deliver  an email with a link to customized video. With one click, customers have everything they need to learn how to use their card, read statements, check  balances and gain other onboarding details. Information within the video can even be chaptered out to make it easier for customers  to find answers.

Further, companies can use this detail to determine what additional products might be of interest, even using video to extend the relationship into higher level loyalty programs or other complimentary products and services.

Keeping it real

There was a lot of skepticism pre-pandemic about video replacing in-person communications, but that’s no longer the case. Like so many things, COVID-19 has completely changed the dynamics around personal experiences and communications, making believers of naysayers and accelerating the use of many digital technologies.

Video -- due to its richness, individualization and newfound ability to scale -- is that personal connection for customer engagement. The technology is there, and the trick is keeping it real and making it meaningf

 

7 Skills You’ll Need in Marketing for 2021

Fri, 01/22/2021 - 08:08

Author: 

Jim Ewel

With 2020 behind us (thankfully), how should we prepare for 2021? If you’re a marketer, here are seven essential skills marketing leaders will need in the new year.
 
1: Able to adapt
 
Wasn’t 2020 the year when we needed every bit of resolve we could muster to deal with the avalanche of change? Yes. But don’t think that things are going to suddenly get back to “normal.” If anything, expect as much or more change.
 
Adapting to change is a skill, one that can be developed and honed over time. It requires listening to your customers and the marketplace to detect the early warning signs of impending change. It requires the ability to adjust your marketing quickly and often. If you optimize your marketing campaigns weekly, or even daily, you’re going to adapt to change faster than those who run the same campaign for months.
 
2: Alignment

The average tenure of chief marketing officers (CMOs) continues to decline – to just 41 months in 2019, according to the recruiting firm Spencer Stuart. One reason for this: marketing doesn’t speak the language of business and isn’t aligned with the goals of the rest of the organization.
 
In 2021, make sure you’re aligned with the goals of both sales and executive management. Start the year by having candid conversations, asking sales and management what marketing is doing well and what they could do better. Make sure you understand the most important metrics from their point of view. Find alignment, not just once at the beginning of the year but quarterly, to ensure the alignment holds.
 
3: Napkin plans

Are you writing a marketing plan for 2021? Don’t. Traditional marketing plans are broken. They’re too long, seldom read, out of date soon after they’re written, and don’t provide a concrete approach to revisions as conditions change.
 
Instead, learn how to write what I call “napkin plans.” Napkin plans are:

• Short – Your plan should be no more than two to three pages long
• Visual – Create a simple graphic that conveys your 2021 plan. People will remember the image even if they don’t remember your words.
• Based on feedback – Share your plan early and often. Involve other people in its creation. Ask for and incorporate others’ feedback. People support what they help create.
• Revised regularly – Schedule some time each month to re-examine your plan, and, when necessary, revise it. Make sure it’s always current.

4: Saying no
 
Marketers are really bad at saying no. Developers have no trouble saying no. Finance has no problem saying no. If you never say no, you never prioritize, and you can’t focus on the most important things you need to get done.
 
5: Limit your work-in-progress (WIP)
 
Humans aren’t very good at multitasking. Limit the amount of work that you’ve begun but not finished (work-in-progress). This practice encourages us to finish work rather than accumulate lots of half-finished work in our to-do lists.
 
Most marketers should limit their work-in-progress to no more than three items at a time. In other words, if you have three items in progress, finish one of them before starting a fourth. You’ll find this improves your throughput and helps you get more done.
 
6: Validated learning
 
Modern marketers test their assumptions and optimize their campaigns. I call this validated learning. Some people call it growth hacking. Make 2021 the year that you build an infrastructure that allows you to run more tests and run them more often.
 
If you’re not testing today, begin by setting a goal to run two tests per week. If you already run tests, make it a goal to triple the number of tests you run each week by year’s end.
 
7: Creating remarkable customer experiences
 
Customers no longer want to buy products; they want experiences. From the first moment of contact with your brand, the experience should be consistent, interesting and engaging. As a marketer, how can you work with other departments in your organization to create remarkable customer experiences, ones that customers love and tell other people about?  
 
If you need a place to start, simplify the buying process. Study where customers are confused, when they disengage, and fix these problems so that the experience of buying from you is straightforward and easy. Sounds simple, right? It’s not.
 
Jim Ewel is a leading voices on Agile marketing. He co-organized the first meeting of Agile marketers and co-authored the Agile Marketing Manifesto. Ewel runs an Agile marketing consultancy, where he has helped over 60 organizations adopt this futureproof approach to marketing. Learn more at AgileMarketing.net.