Opinion: The rainbow washing of marketing campaigns during Pride may seem like a positive, but are those bright colours really supporting the LGBTQ+ community or just fulfilling a brand purpose?
We’re fast heading toward summer, which to most means sunshine, holidays and ice cream. But to many in the marketing and advertising world, it means incorporating rainbows into campaigns ahead of Pride month in June.
Throughout June, July and August, rainbows seem to appear everywhere as brands show their apparent support for the LGBTQ+ community. While this may seem like a positive thing - after all, supporting a marginalized community can only ever be a good thing, right? - the rainbow washing of everything from fizzy drinks to bank windows doesn’t really tell the whole story.
Support versus brand purpose
For starters, there is a big difference between supporting a community…
How to apply our RACE Planning Framework and SOSTAC® to a B2B digital marketing plan
We pride ourselves in giving you content that you can apply directly to your company – whether you’re a burgeoning start-up trying to make your mark in a competitive market or an industry-leader taking your next step to global expansion. Our digital marketing plans are used by members from around the world in a wide variety of industries, which is why we’ve created a new batch of example marketing plans. These example plans will show you how our RACE planning framework can apply to specific industries and help you to set attainable targets for your marketing activities.
They combine two recognized methods of structuring digital marketing plans used throughout the Digital Strategy Toolkit – Smart Insights’ RACE Digital Marketing Planning™ and PR Smith’s SOSTAC®.
Our first digital marketing plan example is for the B2B packaging industry!
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Chart of the Day: Strategies and practical factors that support growth of a business - new research
The Ansoff matrix growth drivers
The Ansoff matrix model is a classic marketing model featured in our free top marketing models guide.
Although developed in the 1960s, Ansoff is still useful for considering, at a top level, the strategic initiatives that a business is taking to increase its competitiveness in a sector through identifying new revenue opportunities.
This new research based on the views of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in large US organizations is interesting since it translates the theory of Ansoff into practice, showing how businesses are investing in the four quadrants of Ansoff.
You can see that a market penetration strategy of selling existing products or services into existing markets has the largest investment. This is building on existing strengths and is fine, with the…
Chart of the day: 11.1% of businesses budgets is spent on marketing activities on average
Research by The CMO Survey has found that 11.1% is the average budget spent on marketing. As shown in the chart below, 11.1% on average is how much businesses are spending n marketing. If your business is spending less than this, it's worth considering whether there are missed opportunities.
Across sectors, the research has found that marketing spend is mixed, but there are a number of industries that spend considerably more than others. Shown below is the percentage of budget spend on marketing in each sector listed. Energy, healthcare, media and tech industries are leading the highest average marketing spend
Digital marketing also dominates marketing spend across B2C and B2B sectors when compared to "traditional" marketing spend.
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Psychology research that will help you subtly convince your leads
Ever wanted to get into the minds of your customers and figure out how they think? Ever wanted to know the best methods to convince someone to do something?
As the study of the human mind and behavior, psychology has answers to what you're looking for. Psychology is applicable to a wide range of fields, from daily life to counseling to human resources. But what you're probably more concerned about is the intersection of psychology and marketing
1. Relate to your customer
Goldstein, Cialdini, and Griskevicius (2008) conducted a study on Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels. In particular, they tried to determine what kind of message would get hotel guests to reuse their towels. They used three variations, paraphrased below:
Standard message: 'help save the environment'
75% of hotel guests in this hotel reuse their towels
75% of hotel guests…
Chart of the Day: CMO survey of investment in alternative strategies for growth
A key part of marketing strategy development is to review the strategic options for growing a business. Here we're sharing a breakdown of actual investment by companies using this classic marketing model that has stood the test of time since it originally dates from the 1960s...
You may recognize Ansoff’s growth model, which is a matrix that can be used to identify alternative growth strategies by looking at present and potential products in current and future markets. The four growth strategies are market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification.
It's no surprise that investment in existing markets is the main focus, followed by new product development. But it's surprising to me that market development and diversification are as high as they are. This breakdown showing the balance between…
A round-up of our time at TFM 2017
This week the Smart Insights team were in London for Technology for Marketing 2017. A two-day conference dedicated to martech. If you didn’t make it to TFM, here is a recap of Dave's talk and panel discussion, as well answers to the most common questions we were asked at our stand.
Download the 10 reasons you need a digital marketing strategy booklet
All visitors to the stand were given a new 10 reasons why you need a digital strategy mini-booklet which gives recommendations on what a strategy should include - you can download it here [pdf] if you want to take a look.
How to measure and improve your return on MarTech, Dave Chaffey
Dave spoke…
The focus is on the product
In the digital age, the role of a marketing manager is blurred and often comes down to online promotion. What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say ‘digital marketing’? I bet it’s SEO, paid ads or social media campaigns. However, user acquisition is only the top of the conventional marketing iceberg. Developing a lovable product in the SaaS world remains the task of the highest priority.
The reason?
Great products trigger word-of-mouth effect which is the most reliable and also the cheapest marketing channel. Therefore, keep in mind that the 4Ps of marketing are still alive and well.
What about SaaS pre-launch stage when you don’t have a product ready yet? I’m here to share our experience and best practices.
Make use of the market research
SaaS marketing starts long before…
Our goals are the same as they’ve always been: attract customers’ attention, stick in their memories, and provide a great service (or product) they keep coming back to.
That’s never going to change. So what’s the difference? Consumer choice. Gone are the days when we could spray-and-pray radio ads and advertorials in high-circulation outlets. Consumers are absolutely glutted with options. There’s more out there than anyone person could ever experience and it’s just as difficult – if not more so – to stand out in the all-too-familiar “crowded marketplace” as it ever was, fancy tools or not.
1. Turn off your phone and call a meeting
Meetings aren’t anybody’s favourite pastime. But you’re going be glad you arranged this one because you’re going to get your entire team together to figure out the most important step in implementing any marketing plan for a startup: “what do we want to achieve?”
Your business' success depends…
Agile Marketing holds the power to transform your company in 2017.
Agile is a technique that has been enthusiastically adopted organizations of all sizes and across every industry. No matter where your business currently stands with its goals, Agile Marketing can give your business the ability to use small tests to quickly understand what new tactics are most effective.
Don’t let 2017 end without understanding the following four Agile Marketing tenets. Once you put them to work for your brand, you’ll see why this methodology has become so popular all over the world.
1. Small, Strategic Goals Are Better Than Big Ones
As the name suggests, Agile Marketing gives marketers a lot of freedom to roll with the punches. This is possible because you set small, strategic goals. You then observe your team’s efforts to reach them and adjust accordingly.
Neil Patel recommends small goals as a “hack” that can transform your business.…
