Who better than a scientist to come up with the best definition of conversion rate optimization ever? Read on. Be the Judge. What exactly is conversion rate optimization? You’ve read about it over and over, but you may not have a proper understanding of how to apply it to your ecommerce store or to your […]
Can a Super Bowl ad that costs nearly $6 million be worth it?
That’s a question worth debating if you’re in marketing, so let’s take a look at some of the Super Bowl marketing strategies behind the ads from this year’s big game and see which ones were the biggest winners and losers. For longtime readers, you know I’ve done this before but in past years when I was working at a large agency, I would tread carefully when doing my Super Bowl recaps to make sure I didn’t accidentally mention a client.
Thankfully, being out on my own means I don’t have to measure my words, so what follows is entirely my unfiltered opinion about the ads that worked and the ones that didn’t. Let’s start with the worst strategies of the big game …
Doubling down with two ads focusing on two features of credit cards most people take for granted would probably be more meaningful if people ever thought about these two things. There are dozens of credit cards with no annual fees and most people never even consider their card might not be accepted everywhere. Unless they have a Discover card apparently, in which case both of those things must be a big deal.
Relying on people watching a pre-game ad in order to have the storyline for your in-game ad make sense isn’t a good bet. Neither is hoping people still have an emotional attachment to a long-forgotten monocle-wearing mascot from 1916.
One of the richest companies in the world that has daily issues with ethics, privacy and morality chooses to run an ad reminding us all that there are Facebook groups for people who have niche interests? We need this platform to do a lot more in the world than this. Focusing on promoting groups while ignoring their many issues was weak and just plain disappointing.
While rival Coke used their Super Bowl spot to strategically and entertainingly introduce their new energy drink, this Pepsi spot was a forgettable song remake that shows a red can inexplicably being painted black because … well, just because. This is all to introduce Pepsi Zero Sugar – but unfortunately it makes zero sense too.
I’m not sure why any brand would pay more money to take a pretty good creative concept they already used last year and remake it to be worse and more confusing… but that’s exactly what Walmart managed to do this year. The spot from last year was clever and original to introduce their grocery pickup feature using many different cars. This year’s remake using spaceships was a sad and less effective redo that should never have been approved.
I am a HUGE fan of using the platform of the Super Bowl to introduce people to a new product or service they haven’t heard of yet. This one for Dashlane does it in a clever, funny and totally relatable way.
This ad was so clever I was envious. I mean, using one spot to feature at least half a dozen different brands, including the branded campaign icons for each was just so smart. I counted Troy Polamalu for Head & Shoulders, the Old Spice guy, Mr. Clean, the Charmin bear, a weird appearance by Rob Riggle for Bounce, a product shot for Fabreze and an Olay reference. This was probably the strategy winner of the night for me.
The brand already provides the sideline technology for the NFL, so it was a masterful move to do something that just about any other brand could have done … celebrate the first woman to coach in an NFL team in the Super Bowl. This spot was on trend, emotionally powerful and (unlike the entertaining but unstrategic spot from Olay), it was also right on brand.
The storytelling in this spot was probably the best of the night for me, reminding people of the vital connection between technology and humans. Ironically, Google was promoting the same idea as Facebook … yet unlike Facebook, their spot managed to be human, emotional, real and not vaguely self-promotional.
I loved the idea of introducing the “Smaht Pahk” feature by using a collection of actors with the New England accent. It was a fun and memorable way to introduce a great feature of the new Hyundai Sonata, and a gag that carried through even to the brand’s tagline: “Bettah Drives Us.” Nice idea and great execution.
Similar to the upside for Dashlane of introducing a new product, this spot made the idea of a bar you’ve never heard of fun and helped get the point across that there’s a new candy bar you should know about and might want to try. Unless you have your head up your own ass, of course.
Want to read the full list of my Super Bowl Marketing strategy recaps from previous years?
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post on landing a book deal by first time fiction author, Verity Bright who had three publishers offering to publish her first novel, A Very English Murder. Even if you’ve yet to write a word, Verity shows you how to turn this to your advantage and go get that […]
According to SparkPost’s 2020 Transactional Email Benchmark Report, companies recognize this. Indeed, 95% of those the email delivery platform firm polled indicated that transactional emails, which include purchase confirmations, notifications and onboarding communications, were “very important” or “somewhat important” to their customer engagement efforts.
At the same time, shortcomings in how companies manage and send transactional emails are becoming more apparent. They include:
Delivery
Close to 50% of the companies polled revealed that they have received customer complaints about transactional emails not being received. That’s a sizable jump from 38% two years ago.
That figure isn’t surprising, however, when one considers that just 52% of those surveyed said that they use some form of authentication when sending emails and a fifth weren’t even sure if they were using authentication.
Of those using authentication, just under 39% use SPF and close to 40% use DKIM. DMARC, a newer protocol that uses SPF and DKIM, is used by just 21%.
Because ISPs and email providers have for years been getting more aggressive in trying to stop spam before it reaches inboxes, companies not taking full advantage of these authentication protocols are unnecessarily creating delivery issues.
On this front, it’s worth noting that nearly half of companies task IT/engineering with sending transactional emails and just under 30% use an email service provider (ESP). While in-house staff at some companies might be capable of competently managing deliverability issues, in many cases small and mid-sized businesses will lack the resources that ESPs dedicate to this.
Analytics and testing
A higher than expected number of survey respondents (37%) told SparkPost that they didn’t know what percentage of engagement is occurring on mobile – “a major potential experience issue.” This demonstrates that many companies are falling short in implementing and using email analytics capabilities.
Similarly, just 36% of companies are using testing to optimize their emails. When done right, testing can play a big role in driving email marketing success.
Ownership
The quality of the copy in transactional emails is critical. Every detail, down to tone of voice, can shape how customers perceive this part of their journey.
As such, it’s not surprising that the majority of transactional email copy is written by writers in marketing or product roles. But more than a third of the writers are in technical/IT roles, so there are a sizable number of companies at which copy is lacking because the wrong staff has ownership over its creation.
As SparkPost sees it, “Those leaving transactional email content in the hands of disconnected IT developers are likely leaving opportunities for conversion on the table and will fall behind in growth.”
Good news
Despite the shortcomings SparkPost identified, the news isn’t all bad. 30% of respondents reported engagement rates exceeding 50%, and a third reported engagement rates between 20% and 50%.
“The lack of visibility in reporting, minimal testing and content production are huge opportunities for understanding and improving the performance of transactional emails,” according to SparkPost’s Director of Strategic Insights April Mullen. In other words, even though many companies are achieving high rates of engagement, they can achieve even higher rates by dealing with their shortcomings.
Since many of the shortcomings, such as lack of use of authentication protocols, can be fairly easily addressed, exploiting these opportunities will not require arduous effort and should be a priority in 2020.
Are you using enough authenticity in your B2B marketing to build greater inherent trust into your brand purpose?
If you’re not sure, read on — and let’s examine how authenticity, influence, and trust go hand-in-hand to deliver great B2B content marketing.
Authenticity is a key factor in great B2B marketing, with the trust it builds powering campaigns that will stand apart from the crowd.
Influence plays two roles in authenticity, as those who have influence are seen as being authentic, and content built with authenticity creates its own inherent influence. This connection between influence and authenticity has a surprisingly lengthy history, as I explored in “10 Tips From Influencer Marketing’s Hidden 1,000-Year History.”
Taking a more conversational tone in your content marketing efforts, even in the B2B realm, can go a long way towards building brand storytelling that bolsters authenticity.
[bctt tweet="“Buyers expect and want authenticity from the brands with which they engage. This trend has caused a shift in voice and tone, that includes being conversational in your content.” — Brody Dorland @brodydorland" username="toprank"]
At each step in your B2B marketing journey, whether it’s writing a case study, article, social message or white paper, ask yourself whether your work authentically represents the message and story you’re telling. Consider the words of English poet William Wordsworth as a litmus test.
[bctt tweet="“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” — William Wordsworth" username="toprank"]
B2B content marketing that comes from your heart and rings true to you and your team is a major part of the foundation for building the kind of audience, brand trust, and genuine influence that authenticity allows.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and the rise of so-called deep fakes should make it clearer than ever that trying to use substitutes instead of authenticity is shortsighted, as Katherine Hays recently wrote about in “What Happens When You Fake Authenticity” for Entrepreneur.
[bctt tweet="“The brands that will win in the future are those daring enough to partner with their customers and smart enough to leverage robust technologies to ensure brand safety at the same time.” @KatherineAHays" username="toprank"]
Building authenticity can be accomplished by sharing the kind of best-answer content that your audience is actively searching for, so learning about search intent can be an important part of trust-building in B2B marketing. We’ve explored best-answer content and how to find what people are searching for in several recent articles:
Genuine B2B Content Marketing Offers a Wealth of Trust Benefits
Authenticity matters everywhere in our lives, and leading a life where we’re as authentic as possible in every area makes it easier and more natural to incorporate it into our marketing efforts.
Digital audiences in 2020 are savvier — and more skeptical — than they’ve ever been, and having been exposed to countless marketing messages on an hourly basis, marketers face a trust barrier that authentic content can reach through.
When done well, authenticity is a business growth engine for B2B marketers, and with trust in marketing at the low levels seen in the following chart, boosting trust is a much-needed benefit, especially when done by using trusted influencers in your marketing mix.
Maintaining your meticulously constructed authenticity is an ongoing effort that involves constant observation, readjustment, and assessment. Making this process transparent to your team, clients, and audience can go a long way towards building your genuine content marketing a passionate following.
Achieving a passionate following through authenticity brings with it dedicated fans on social media platforms, and brand advocates who will recommend your brand whenever and wherever they can.
[bctt tweet="“For more than a millennia we’ve had the trust, expertise, and wisdom that meld together to allow one person to hold influence over another.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]
Learn More About Authenticity in B2B Marketing
We hope this introduction to authenticity’s role in B2B marketing has given you new ideas to explore and brought to light a few of the tactics you can implement in your own content marketing efforts and campaigns.
We’ve also got you covered if you want to learn even more about authentic content and trust in marketing.
From fake news to privacy issues to deep fakes, the digital world has become an uncertain source of information for consumers. Tired of information overload, sales focused brand messaging and unremarkable content, 86% of customers say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support. In this keynote presentation, Lee Odden will share the current state of content marketing and how brands are winning customer hearts, minds, and trust with authentic content experiences.
Finally, highlighting the importance trust plays in authentic marketing, we’ve put together an entire series of articles detailing various aspects of trust in marketing, and you’ll find nine of them here:
Is your Facebook marketing meeting your customers where they are? Wondering how to design a Facebook plan that supports your sales funnel? In this article, you’ll discover how to create a customer-centric Facebook marketing plan that meets your prospects and customers at every stage of their customer journeys. #1: Map Out Multiple Customer Journey Scenarios […]
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