20 Marketing and PR Tips for 2020
We are about to embark on a new decade. During the next ten years, we will see marketing and public relations evolve. How we share messages and distribute content is going to change.
Here I will share some sure-fire tips on how to start your 2020 marketing and public relations initiatives with a bang.
20. Develop A Strong Yet Adaptable Brand Bible
This is a topic that I could write several articles on. When establishing your brand it is essential to establish brand guidelines in the form of a brand bible. However, when developing a brand bible you should keep in mind that it should be adaptable and amendable. Sometimes there are rules that need to be bent or new rules added to a brand’s guidelines.
The best brand bible that I have seen was created by FutureBrand NY for Adient. I had the privilege of working for an agency in Germany that had Adient as a client and I learned so much from their brand bible. At the time Adient was going through their global rebranding after separating from Johnson Controls, so they need a powerful brand bible that would serve as the basis for the marketing, look and style. Being in the automotive industry and taking part in the North American International Auto Show they needed to have a strong brand and FutureBrand delivered on creating their brand bible.
Even if you are promoting your own personal work, the idea of creating a brand bible can really set you above the rest.
19. Naming Your Company Or Brand
This falls onto the brand development side of marketing. Granted if you the company already exists then it is difficult to make changes, but really think hard before committing to a name or branding yourself.
Research potential names that you are considering, especially if you are using words that have different meanings in other languages. One example that blows my mind is ass-ass. We all know what it means in English, of course in German it can mean other things such as ‘ace’ and a few less offensive things. To make matters worse their current slogan is: ass-ass. Endlich Ruhe. Which means finally quiet. In a world connected by the internet, you really need to think things through and if a name was produced before the internet then one might consider changing it. No offense to ass-ass of course, but they might want to consider adapting their brand bible and changing their name.
Another big issue when naming a company is starting off the name with a lowercase letter. I have seen some companies that require their name to be lowercase in written content. This makes it really difficult for people to create content when putting the name of the company at the beginning of a sentence. Facebook was smart, even though their logo features a lowercase ‘f’, it is always written uppercase in content. This saves your marketing team from such a hassle. If you really want your name to start with a lowercase letter in the logo form, then please allow your team to write the name with an uppercase letter when creating content.
It is always good to work with a strong marketing team when developing your brand identity.
18. Create A Social Media Strategy, But Keep It Flexible
Before committing to a social media strategy it is important for you to do your research. The best way to start is to start looking at how your competitors are utilizing social media.
This is a great way to find inspiration. However, there are two things to remember. First, be original. It is good to study what your competitors are doing, but do not copy it. Second, realize what may work for them may not work for you. It is important for you to devise your own plan.
When creating a strategy, keep it flexible. Digital trends and mindsets change quickly in today’s world. Thus, you need to be able to adapt your strategy when necessary. Sometimes this can include starting over from scratch.
17. Establish A Community
A community not only adds value for your clients or customers, it also provides you will valuable feedback. Thus, the first thing to do when developing a community is to learn how to listen.
Developing a community requires a great deal of patience. It does not happen overnight. This is one thing that many people do not realize and can be found as frustrating.
Remember the old phrase “quantity does not equal quality?” This can be applied to community development. Building a strong community is important because you want members of your community to become loyal ambassadors. Once you have a handful of loyal members, they can become evangelists and help further develop your community.
16. Content Creation
When I create content I follow three principles: Inform/Educate, Entertain and Inspire.
Inform/Educate:
Content should provide people with inspiration that they find valuable. After reading an article, for example, it is important to give the viewer the feeling that they have gained some kind of knowledge. People are more likely to return to a blog or social media feed when they feel that they have learned something.
Entertain:
This is pretty simple. Content should be enjoyable and thus content that has a little personality makes for a better read. If the content that you produce has a monotone voice or pushes only sales then it will not be entertaining and the likelihood that people will return to your blog or feed is going to be low. Give the content that you produce a little personality while remaining true to yourself or your brand.
Inspire:
The knowledge that one gains should inspire your community. Inspiration can come in many forms. Being able to take the knowledge that one gains from viewing content and putting it to use can be motivating. It can also produce a ‘call to action effect.’
15. Avoid Cookie Cutter Content
The first thing to realize when it comes to creating content is that your audience may vary on the different social channels. Thus, you want to create unique content for each channel.
Another reason to avoid Cooke Cutter Content is that you want to give people a reason to follow each of your social channels. If your social feeds look exactly the same across the various platforms it makes no sense for people to follow every channel. You need to create value for each platform and give people a reason to follow you on each platform.
You can share some of the same content across all your social media channels. Sometimes rephrasing things or sharing different images can help give each channel an individual identity. Then sprinkling unique content between your posts will create a reason for people to follow all your social media channels.
14. Become An Expert
Whether you are interested in promoting a brand or yourself, it is crucial to establish yourself as an expert. When I speak at conferences, I always tell people that they should start creating content about the field that they are interested in. This also holds true with brands, companies, agencies and studios.
Sprinklr is one company that utilizes this strategy. The company itself provides a platform that helps large brands better market, promote and advertise themselves by providing powerful tools. One way they have established themself as a leader in their sector is that the content they produce for their blog and online magazine showcases their expertise. Additionally, the content they produce informs/educates, entertains and inspires their followers. This allows them to stand out above other companies with similar services.
Another company that has proven itself to be an expert is Adobe. Being one the largest developer of creatives software, Adobe quickly developed a loyal community. They constantly share videos, articles, demos, tutorials and more… that feeds the inspiration of their followers. It would take an entire article to list all everything that Adobe shares: the Adobe Blog, Adobe Create Magazine, 99u, etc.
13. Consistency.
When utilizing social media, it is important to maintain consistency. The best way to develop a community or a following is to be consistent when it comes to sharing content.
Facebook and Instagram have a nasty little algorithm that can impede your reach. Part of this algorithm, supposedly takes into consideration the consistency of your posts. If you are consistent when producing ‘quality’ content then you will rank higher on a person’s home screen. This is a small part of what the algorithm supposedly takes into account, but naturally this is an important thing to think about when while establishing followers. This leads to the next topic: Content Scheduling.
12. Content Scheduling
Ideally, you want to plan your content in advance and schedule it to be published. Those with strong marketing and public relations skills know the importance of maintaining an organized content schedule. This is another topic that I could really dive into in another article. But it is something for you to start thinking about.
Granted your content schedule should be adaptable and flexible. You will see me use these words quite often and for good reason. Sometimes the news, cultural events and happenings can impact your content schedule. Thus, your content schedule needs to be somewhat fluid. Following trends and knowing when to adjust your schedule can help you produce a strong social media presence.
If you are an advertising or public relations agency, this is also important for your agency. The worst thing for potential clients to see is an agency who can not maintain their own social media feeds. If you can not manage or be consistent with your own feed then why should a client take you on? I have seen some agencies who have feeds that are just sitting there with content that has not been shared for months or years. If you can not schedule your content and be consistent, then kill your feed and pick it back up when you can do a better job.
Look into platforms such as Hootsuite to better schedule your content. Tools like this can really help you schedule and manage your content. Plus they are easy to use.
11. Consider Live Streaming
Live streaming can add a new dynamic and excite your followers. This is another topic that I plan on covering more in-depth with a future article.
Ask any YouTuber or Twitch Streamer and they will tell you that consistency is everything. If you want to grow an audience for live streams then you need to decide how often and when you will stream. Then do your best to stream at the same time and frequency. Decide if you will stream daily, weekly or at a certain time. ‘Same bat time, same bat channel’…. this lets viewers know when to tune in. Also do you best to remember to save the recording for later usage or highlight reels.
Promoting your live stream can also help boost the number of your audience. Let people know in advance when you will be streaming and what you will cover. If you are on LinkedIn, you can be approved for LinkedIn Live. In fact, I have been approved and will begin streaming in January! <<So stay Tuned!!!>>
A quick point to make in regards to live streaming…
BACKGROUND BACKGROUND BACKGROUND! If you are streaming live from your office or home, then do not sit in front of a blank white wall. That is so boring! Having a nice backdrop or setting will make your stream visually appealing. This is also something to take in consideration when doing a job interview via Skype (hint hint).
Another thing you will learn from streamers on Twitch and Mixer is that is important to engage your community while you are streaming. Even engagement on Instagram Live can go along way.
This leads to the next topic…
10. Engagement & Acknowledgement
It is not just about creating content, posting and sharing… in order to truly develop a community, fan base or followers then you have to learn how to engage and interact with your viewers.
So many social media managers fail when it comes to engagement. They think they can just post something and that is that. No no no no… you have to really learn how to interact with your followers. If people respond to a post a little ‘Like’ or “Thank You’ to their comment will go along way. People yearn for acknowledgment and actually responding to their comments allows them to feel that you are actually listening to them.
As time goes on you may not be able to respond to all comments as your community grows. So learn how to prioritize responses. Comments that are special and thoughtful always deserve a response. Negative comments when approached correctly allow you to turn a person into a follower. Remember that comments provide you quite a bit of information and feedback. So listen to your followers, their wants and their desires. This will help you develop your audience.
I have several companies and brands fail when it comes to Instagram Live, simply because they only point the camera on their smart device and film. What I recommend to companies and people is to watch how streamers on Twitch and Mixer respond to their viewers. It takes practice learning how to interact with the comments of viewers while live streaming. But doing so shows that you do listen and care about them. It gives the viewer a sense of feeling important. I learned this while creating lectures for the Adobe Education Exchange courses. During a lecture, I will pause to acknowledge, questions that people have posted. If you are live streaming I challenge you to interact more with your viewers in 2020. You will notice the difference!
Engaging your followers during a live event or speech can be difficult. I have mastered typing during Instagram Live sessions for companies, when others are presenting. However, if you are not able to do this on your own… then a colleague can join the chat and type responses to commentors. Just a quick solution for those who are not multitaskers.
9. Consider Contests And Giveaways
People love to win things. This opens up the door to attract new followers.
First, consider what you are giving away. Make sure it is something that your community would find useful. If you are giving away one of your own products great… this could lead to reviews. Let’s say you are Adobe and you are giving away an iPad or a camera, then this can also attract more followers. However, if you are giving away products that are not your own…then when you ship out the prize think about including a hat, shirt or hoody with your logo. If you do include swag, make sure it is quality and something cool that a person would actually wear. Including surprise swag could lead to the winner sharing social media the swag via social media. Streamers love cool swag from their favorite brands. Think of this as free promotion so make sure the swag is top-notch. No one will wear garbage.
Gleam… Ok, some of you may know what Gleam is already, but for those who do not Gleam is a platform that allows you to create contests for giveaways. People can gain more entries by completing more tasks… such as following you on Twitter, visiting your Facebook page, following your YouTube channel or subscribing to your newsletter. Gleam has been proven to be quite an effective platform. It also gives the appearance of running a fair and real contest, as it will select the winner for you.
8. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing can be really effective. But choose your influencers wisely. Unfortunately, there are those who know how to abuse the system. There are ways to buy likes, follows, subscribers and appreciations.
When gauging influencers look for organic growth. It takes a while to develop a following. If you see a sudden jump of ‘likes’ from 20 to 500, then this should set off a red flag. Either this person did something that was pure genius or he/she signed up a service that provides fake likes from bots. Over time, I have learned how to notice this and determine if likes are coming from bots. Just remember high numbers does not mean the influencer is good, make sure they are legit.
Find influencers who best represent your brand’s tone of voice. It is important to find people fit your brand.
Educate your influencers, but allow them to be authentic. Influencers do not like to give false opinions to their audience. However, you can ask for them to highlight specific topics or points. Influencers will let their fans know if the content is sponsored as well.
Sometimes partnering with influencers to host Gleam contests can be exciting. The influencer is excited to be able to give something back to his or her fans and their followers will inturn get exposure to your brand.
A great platform for gauging a potential influencer’s impact is Social Blade. This provides you with a report card that shows how well the influencer is doing in regards to reach, engagement, etc. But do not solely rely on this alone, do your own personal research on the influencer.
Which brings me to my next point…
7. Be Authentic And Be Genuine
When creating content, whether it be a post, blog or video … ALWAYS be authentic and genuine. People can smell content from awhile away that is not. It is important to be truthful and transparent. Do not try to BS people. You will get called out for not being honest, which will just create a PR nightmare for you.
Other ways to be more genuine…
Sometimes it is good to allow your content creators the ability to give blogs for example, their own little sense of personality. Usually your content creators know that they should stay within the sphere of your brand’s tone of voice, so there is no fear there. Then credit the employee who wrote the blog. Giving the employee credit not only shows that the content is genuine, it will also show that you care about your employees. Remember marketing is not just about promoting your business but it is also about attracting new hires. If people see that you care about your employees, then it might entice people to apply for open positions.
Do not always SELL SELL SELL… think like your consumer or a client. One thing that I learned when I moved to Germany is that people fear the commercial block. This is why, I took on the values of Inform/Educate, Entertain and Inspire. People simply do not want to be pressured into buying something and if you constantly are selling, then people will stop following your brand.
Avoid clickbait when creating social media posts. Never mislead your audience to get them to click on a link. This partially falls under being transparent.
Being authentic and genuine builds trust. People tend to share items from brands they trust and are comfortable with. This can in turn increase sales and ultimately ROI. It pays off in the end to keep things real.
6. Be Aware Of The Read Time
Ok, ok, ok, ok… this article breaks this rule. But most people tend to read content that has a read time of under five minutes. If your content is going to be longer, then make sure what you are sharing is valuable.
Unfortunately, people’s attention spans seem to get shorter and shorter. In today’s world where people swipe through content, they are less likely to sit down and read a long article unless it provides information that they can learn from.
From my experience, articles that can be read in three to five minutes tend to do well. When you get to articles that are over five minutes, people may lose interest at some point. So the content needs to be really entertaining or have some sort of value.
5. Produce Snackable Content
Since I discussed the read time of articles, I might as well mention snackable content. Snackable content is content or information that is “quick” and easily digestible.
Snackable content can be used to:
- Surprise and delight your audience.
- Drive traffic to larger content pieces.
- Reinforce your brand voice.
- Promote on or offline initiatives.
- To create deeper connections with your community.
Teaser videos, images, quotes, infographics, community-generated content, interactive content (such as polls) are all types of popular snackable content.
The proof is in the pudding… people started preaching about snackable content around 2014. Since then Instagram introduced IG Stories. This has to be the ultimate form of snackable content. You have to be able to convey a message quickly and if you have the ‘swipe up’ privilege then you can drive traffic to another location for additional information.
4. Work Culture Content
Remember marketing is not just about selling a product if you are a company. Thus, it is important to share a smidge of your work culture and life. This not only makes your content more human and authentic, but will attract potential applicants.
Two companies that have done well at showcasing their work culture are Blizzard Entertainment and Adobe. For smaller companies, it is ok to sprinkle your feeds with work culture content. If you are a larger company such as Blizzard or Adobe, then you may choose to create a separate feed.
The great thing is you can then create a hashtag for employees such as #BlizzLife or #AdobeLife. If you are a company that truly invests in your employees and host team-building events then your colleagues might enjoy sharing how much they enjoy working at your company. This is additional free promotion for you.
Blizzard also honors its employees with service rewards for working 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 years. Blizzard employees are excited when they receive this recognition and tend to share it via their own social media. Showing your appreciation for the passion of your employees can be exciting for your followers.
3. Stay Up To Date On Trends In Digital Marketing
I can not stress how valuable it is to stay up to date on trends in digital marketing. No matter where you live, you can find events where you can learn more about what is happening in digital marketing and how the industry is evolving.
DMEXCO takes place every year at the Koeln Messe in Germany. Here you will be able to interact with companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, etc. This conference showcases brilliant speakers from across the industry, so be prepared to take notes!
Additionally, I attend other conferences such as Devcom, which also takes place at the Koeln Messe. Now you might ask me, what does the games industry have to do with marketing and public relations. Well… everything. Community development, content creation, live streaming, engagement and more. Devcom is the precursor to Gamescom and includes speakers from the marketing and PR side of things. In fact, I was able to hear Blizzard’s Saralyn Smith and Twitch’s Ethan Evans speak there. When I get the opportunity to hear from top professionals in the field of marketing and PR, I make sure to do so.
Hint, Hint: You can read my recaps of Saralyn and Ethan’s speeches here on Medium.
2. Be Smart With Hashtags
One thing, I noticed is that several agencies do not know how to create hashtags for campaigns. When I speak at conferences, this is one topic I really enjoy talking about.
Not sure how many of you remember Susan Boyle? She gained some fame after appearing on Britain’s Got Talent. So much so, that she launched an album. Except the marketing campaign for it included the hashtag #susanalbumparty. This was supposed to read ‘Susan Album Party’ but people on Twitter went into a frenzy as they saw ‘Su’s Anal Bum Party.’ As you can imagine this caused a PR nightmare. Look up hashtag nightmares on Google, there are several stories out there.
Also, if you are two generic when sharing hashtag then no one will find any posts relating to it. I normally would not call out a company, but I feel that for this example I should. T-Mobile in Germany has me constantly scratching my head. They have used #TAKEPART and #DABEI (which means ‘to be with something’, ‘part of something’, or ‘at something’). If I type in TAKEPART or DABEI or any other generic common word into Twitter or Instagram, I will pull up all kinds of things that do not relate to T-Mobile. It might have made sense for them to use #TMobileDabei for example.
Keep hashtags…. simple, short, to the point and brand-related. Be clever, be smart, but watch out for potential issues for your PR department.
1. Celebrate Your Successes, But Analyze The Data
I think in digital marketing, it is always great to celebrate your wins. But I feel that it is important to step back and review the data as well. The thing as marketers, we need to grow… we need to evolve… we need to learn… and without sounding cliche, we need to level up.
Analytics are important to look at no matter if content did well or it failed. By studying the data, you will determine how to make the next post or campaign even more powerful.
BONUS…
I do not want to dive too deeply into this topic, but one idea is to invest in advertisements on various social media platforms. If done correctly, this can enhance the growth of your brand and spread your message. This is something that I will discuss another time. Just a little food for thought for right now.
WRAP…
2020 is going to be an exciting year for marketing and public relations.
The keys to remember are:
- Do the research, but be original.
- Do not post just post. Think first before sharing.
- Be authentic and genuine.
- Acknowledge your community.
- Be creative and inspirational.
If you keep in mind these 20 tips, you are bound to rock your marketing and PR initiatives this year!
I would enjoy hearing your success stories, so make sure to share them with me.
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