MARKETING

Optimization Tips for Your SEO Career (and Your Life)

Published

2 years ago

August 3, 2022

Optimization Tips for Your SEO Career (and Your Life)

The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

What does it take to advance your career?

Knowledge? Absolutely. Skills? Most definitely. But there is another element, one so important that without it, knowledge and skills lie dormant: Action.

In my experience, the ability to take action sits firmly on the foundation of a strong mindset. Consider these scenarios:

Have you wanted to answer a question at work that you were sure you knew the answer to, but doubt crept in and you remained silent?
Perhaps you were in a team meeting and wanted to put yourself forward for an exciting opportunity, but instead shrunk away?
Or maybe you were part of a new, exciting project, however, felt unworthy of being there. So instead of actively contributing, you sat frozen with imposter syndrome.

You are not alone. Last year, I spoke to many people within the SEO industry about their biggest struggles. They talked about the difficulty in progressing their career, improving their salary, saying yes to opportunities, or even speaking up in meetings. As we peeled away the layers to the real problem, the issues ran deep. Lack of confidence, imposter syndrome, and a less than empowering self-image or lack of self-esteem.

Organizations allocate vast amounts of resources to create environments that encourage development and a sense of belonging. And in the ever-changing landscape of the SEO industry, continuous learning is key. There is a wealth of available knowledge to tap into, all aimed at improving skills, be it analytical, technical, content, etc. All of these are hugely important. I’ve been involved in these educational initiatives myself, and know how passionate all those involved are about helping colleagues grow, thrive, and feel fulfilled in their careers.

But the impact of these are not effective if employees have a limited sense of self, if confidence to speak out is lacking, or if self-belief is elusive. Only 4% of the respondents from the 2021 State of the Workplace survey said they feel fully confident at work. Without tackling these confidence issues, can anyone really reach their full potential?

My personal journey to self-belief

For many years, I, too, was lost in this maze of learning, with little belief that I could truly embrace opportunities. As a student, I self-sabotaged myself after being dubbed a “bad student” and failed most of my exams. But by 33, thanks to the help and support of great friends and lecturers, I graduated with a first-class degree as a mother of two. At 40, I was a single mum, afraid to speak publicly, but thanks to a supportive manager, by my 50s I was speaking at BrightonSEO in front of hundreds.

Yet, I knew I was capable of more. I wanted to teach others the lessons and tools that had helped me, so, I took the bold step of hiring a coach. He encouraged me to build my mindset, self-belief, and high-performance habits.

And it worked. Now at 54, I’ve started my own coaching business, and have launched my own course, Reflect, Recharge, Relive. I also co-host The SEO Mindset Podcast with Sarah McDowell, and we are building a course based on the podcast to help people in the industry optimize their SEO careers. I run workshops to help teenagers with their confidence and self-belief, and am writing a book (aren’t we all!).

But most importantly, I have the self-belief that I can do anything I set my mind to.

Below, I’ll share the process I went through that took me from self-doubt to empowerment. I will also share some actionable tips to help change your mind about what you can achieve.

Understand your algorithm

A big part of the SEO world is understanding search engine algorithms. Each update is followed by a flurry of activity to find out what has changed. Why the updates? To serve the user better, add value, give them a better experience, and provide the desired result easier and quicker.

But what about your own inner algorithm? Do you understand it? Know what you do in certain contexts, such as when collaborating with others, or handling difficult situations. How often do you test and assess your behavior with the aim to update those behaviors, thus updating your algorithm to serve your career better?

Actionable tip:

Get to know yourself better than anyone by reflecting and journaling. Give yourself time, even 15 minutes a day, in a quiet place with no distractions to ask yourself questions and write down your thoughts and feelings. With questions come answers, and with answers comes clarity. Get clear about what will give you a better career development experience:

Reflect on what is important to you, on what you want to achieve, and what is holding you back. Is it presenting or writing more? Do you want to work with people more, or is your energy better spent working on your own?
Reflect on how you handle situations and what habits are not serving you. Be honest with yourself, and where you can be better. What happens when things don’t go your way? Are you able to empathize with others?

Build empowering beliefs

Graphic illustrating the four parts of the success cycle: belief, potential, action, and result.

Tony Robbins has a simple, but effective, success model showing the relationship between beliefs, potential, actions and results. Your beliefs determine how much of your potential you tap into. This potential, in turn, determines the actions you take, and of course these actions determine your results. The cycle continues as these results further shape your beliefs.

At 18, I believed I was a “bad student”. I certainly didn’t use all my potential because I didn’t see the point, and therefore didn’t study well. My results were awful, which made sense, because I was a “bad student” — a label that was someone else’s opinion of me, that I chose to accept.

In my 30s, however, I worked on crushing this belief. I was a hard worker. I was capable. I was studious. I was a successful student. Repeating all these new beliefs meant I tapped into more of my potential, studied harder, and was rewarded with the highest grade possible. The cycle continued, and my beliefs grew stronger.

If you are looking to improve your career, but are struggling, or there is a challenge you cannot overcome, there may be a limiting belief that is blocking you. These limiting beliefs are often embedded in your brain’s circuitry from earlier years. The great thing is that you can reprogram your mind, and you can begin by thinking.

There has been much research conducted in this area, and the expert that has helped me the most is Dr Joe Dispenza who speaks a lot on reprogramming the subconscious mind.

Actionable tip

Start with the baseline that human potential is unlimited. Look at your role models and what they have accomplished.. You have the potential to do great things, too, but you have to believe:

Notice what thoughts are holding you back. What are you saying to yourself? For me, it was thoughts such as, “I am not good enough”, “Who am I to coach anyone”, or “I am not an expert”.
Ask yourself what evidence you have to back up these thoughts. Often, there is none.
Craft out more empowering thoughts that help you achieve your career goals. Repeat these to yourself daily. I say them to myself during my meditation practice in the morning.
Imagine yourself tackling your challenges. See yourself facing them, going through the work, learning the skill, stepping up to the opportunity, and allow yourself to feel how it would feel.

This sequence of thinking the process through, saying the empowering words, seeing yourself live through it, and feeling how it feels, is so important, as it begins the process of rewiring your mind.

Think of yourself as an entrepreneur

Imagine you were an entrepreneur starting a business. You would strategize and plan your vision, what needs to go into your mission statement, your goals for the next 3, 6, 12 months.

Often, when we’re employed, these goals are the business’s goals, which we mold ourselves to. Nothing wrong in that, as these have to be met.

However, alongside that, have you taken the time to strategize the goals for your own life? By thinking about yourself in this way, you are taking ownership, and are no longer the victim of someone else’s goals for you. When you take ownership, the power is with you to choose your path, to make choices in line with where you are heading, and with this comes fulfillment and confidence.

Actionable tip

Take time out, at least once a year, to take stock. What is going well in your career, and what could be better? What do you want to achieve in the next year and what skills will you need to learn?

Find the resources you need to learn these skills, be it a course/book/person. Build your curriculum. Talk to your manager – there may be some overlap between your goals and the company goals, so you can link the learning plan together.
Create a timetable – when are you going to learn these skills? Set small milestones.
Be consistent. Do something, no matter how small, but do it daily. These small accomplishments each day add up.
Find a coach/mentor/accountability partner and arrange to go through your progress at least once a month.

Tie your self-esteem to being a learner

Often, our self-esteem is based on other people’s opinions, like our manager’s assessment of how well we do at work. But their opinions are external factors out of our control, and when we base our self-esteem on them, that makes us vulnerable to harm when things turn negative.

But what if there was a way of linking self-esteem to something within our control, something that we could do every day, like learning?.

Actionable tip

Decide what you want to learn. This could be tied to your career development learning, or maybe a hobby or personal endeavor.

Every day, do something towards this learning goal, be it reading, writing, doing an online class, etc. At the end of the day, preferably in your journal, ask yourself: “What did I learn today?” and write down the answer.

You have now created a loop for yourself where every day you know you are getting better in some way, at something. Every day you are re-enforcing your growth – and by writing the progress in your journal, it becomes a record of how far you have come.

Take action, and venture out of your comfort zone

Graphic with quote from author reads: On the path of growth, comfort is not your friend. It engulfs you with warmth and softness, luring you away from the contribution you were born to give.

All this thinking, learning, reflecting, and journaling is hugely valuable. However, the aim of it all is that you take action – that is what will progress your career.

Now is the time to do something, preferably something you haven’t done before. Give a talk, take the lead, present some findings. Will it take you out of your comfort zone? Absolutely! That’s the idea.

Actionable tip

Rename the comfort zone. We often talk about “stepping out of our comfort zone”, but what is this other zone called that we step into? Does it even have a name? Most of us feel like this unnamed space is scary. A place many avoid, where we have to push ourselves to go, desperately wanting to return to “comfort”.

What if, instead, “comfort zone” became “rest zone”, and outside the rest zone became something like “learning zone”, “growth zone”, or “progression zone”?

Notice how none of these new names allow for perfectionism. Let perfection go – it really is a way of keeping you stuck, silent, not saying what you need to say and not doing what you need to do for fear of not being perfect. Instead, embrace “good-enoughism”, because that is what will advance your growth in this newly named zone.

And remember, version 1 is better than version 0.

Look after your energy and recharge…daily

Grid of 9 images. Top row, left to right: woman meditating, an open pair of hands, a woman running. Middle, left to right: a plate of healthy food, a brown square reading

We charge our phones daily so that they work for us when we need them. But how often do we recharge ourselves? Our minds are the vehicles that will take us forward, but they will only be able to do so if we look after them.

Actionable tips

Listen to your inner world, or the conversations that you have with yourself. Catch yourself being negative in your thought processes. This dialogue will limit what you believe you can do and be.

Change these to words of positivity and affirmation of your limitless potential, words that will boost your belief and attitude. Start your day with these words, affirming who you want to be and what you want to believe.

I am confident.

I am strong.

I am healthy.

I am knowledgeable.

I am creative.

I am solution-focused.

I am a learner.

I am getting better every day.

Now look at your outer world. Who are the people discouraging you, telling you it isn’t possible? Minimize contact with them as much as possible and instead surround yourself with people who help you feel charged and who will help you grow.

Finally, incorporate self-care into your schedule, especially in the form of movement. Yoga, sports, even just walking all are great for the purpose of exercise, but also help still the mind and relieve stress.

Be optimistic

Look, I’m not saying there are no hardships in life, and working on your career will indeed have challenges. But if you have the view that it is all bad, people are bad, opportunities are non-existent, failure is certain, and nothing ever works, then why would you try anything new?

The truth is that we often see the worst in people and believe in the worst possible scenario. This is a distorted view, one that doesn’t serve us or help us advance. And in my experience, most people are good most of the time. Colleagues and managers want us to do well in the same way we want others to succeed.

Cheer others on but grab the opportunities, too, with optimism. If nothing else, every opportunity has the ability to teach us something that will help us grow.

Actionable tip

Next time you’re in one of these situations, think of all the possible outcomes and pick the best one. Perhaps it is an opportunity to work on a new project, or apply for a promotion. Let yourself feel excited about the possibilities and what you could achieve.

Think of not what you’ll lose, but all that you will gain. What skills will you learn or improve on?

Finally, offer to help others. Reach out, build relationships, or teach others a skill. Build goodwill and your reputation for being optimistic and generous.

Conclusion

There is no one thing that leads to an optimized career, because success means different things to different people. Keep an open mind, follow the action points, try doing different things, and be consistent.

Consistency is key, even if it is a small step each day. Commit to building the habits that will move you towards your new you. These new habits will weave themselves into a new way of life that will reap results for you.

By taking these steps, your self-awareness and self-esteem will grow, and your beliefs will be more empowering. You’ll feel charged and optimistic, and your confidence will lead you to take action that previously you may have avoided.

More than that, you will feel in control, and will begin to build a better you, who will then show up in every area of your life — your newly optimized life.

Related Topics:career Life optimization seo tips

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MARKETING

How to Use AI For a More Effective Social Media Strategy, According to Ross Simmonds

Published

1 day ago

April 22, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

How to Use AI For a More Effective Social Media Strategy, According to Ross Simmonds

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

It’s the age of AI, and our job as marketers is to keep up.

My team at Foundation Marketing recently conducted an AI Marketing study surveying hundreds of marketers, and more than 84% of all leaders, managers, SEO experts, and specialists confirmed that they used AI in the workplace.

If you can overlook the fear-inducing headlines, this technology is making social media marketers more efficient and effective than ever. Translation: AI is good news for social media marketers.

In fact, I predict that the marketers not using AI in their workplace will be using it before the end of this year, and that number will move closer and closer to 100%.

Social media and AI are two of the most revolutionizing technologies of the last few decades. Social media has changed the way we live, and AI is changing the way we work.

So, I’m going to condense and share the data, research, tools, and strategies that the Foundation Marketing Team and I have been working on over the last year to help you better wield the collective power of AI and social media.

Let’s jump into it.

What’s the role of AI in social marketing strategy?

In a recent episode of my podcast, Create Like The Greats, we dove into some fascinating findings about the impact of AI on marketers and social media professionals. Take a listen here:

Let’s dive a bit deeper into the benefits of this technology:

Benefits of AI in Social Media Strategy

AI is to social media what a conductor is to an orchestra — it brings everything together with precision and purpose. The applications of AI in a social media strategy are vast, but the virtuosos are few who can wield its potential to its fullest.

AI to Conduct Customer Research

Imagine you’re a modern-day Indiana Jones, not dodging boulders or battling snakes, but rather navigating the vast, wild terrain of consumer preferences, trends, and feedback.

This is where AI thrives.

Using social media data, from posts on X to comments and shares, AI can take this information and turn it into insights surrounding your business and industry. Let’s say for example you’re a business that has 2,000 customer reviews on Google, Yelp, or a software review site like Capterra.

Leveraging AI you can now have all 2,000 of these customer reviews analyzed and summarized into an insightful report in a matter of minutes. You simply need to download all of them into a doc and then upload them to your favorite Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) to get the insights and data you need.

But that’s not all.

You can become a Prompt Engineer and write ChatGPT asking it to help you better understand your audience. For example, if you’re trying to come up with a persona for people who enjoy marathons but also love kombucha you could write a prompt like this to ChatGPT:

The response that ChatGPT provided back is quite good:

Below this it went even deeper by including a lot of valuable customer research data:

Demographics
Psychographics
Consumer behaviors
Needs and preferences

And best of all…

It also included marketing recommendations.

The power of AI is unbelievable.

Social Media Content Using AI

AI’s helping hand can be unburdening for the creative spirit.

Instead of marketers having to come up with new copy every single month for posts, AI Social Caption generators are making it easier than ever to craft catchy status updates in the matter of seconds.

Tools like HubSpot make it as easy as clicking a button and telling the AI tool what you’re looking to create a post about:

The best part of these AI tools is that they’re not limited to one channel.

Your AI social media content assistant can help you with LinkedIn content, X content, Facebook content, and even the captions that support your post on Instagram.

It can also help you navigate hashtags:

With AI social media tools that generate content ideas or even write posts, it’s not about robots replacing humans. It’s about making sure that the human creators on your team are focused on what really matters — adding that irreplaceable human touch.

Enhanced Personalization

You know that feeling when a brand gets you, like, really gets you?

AI makes that possible through targeted content that’s tailored with a level of personalization you’d think was fortune-telling if the data didn’t paint a starker, more rational picture.

What do I mean?

Brands can engage more quickly with AI than ever before. In the early 2000s, a lot of brands spent millions of dollars to create social media listening rooms where they would hire social media managers to find and engage with any conversation happening online.

Thanks to AI, brands now have the ability to do this at scale with much fewer people all while still delivering quality engagement with the recipient.

Analytics and Insights

Tapping into AI to dissect the data gives you a CSI-like precision to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and what makes your audience tick. It’s the difference between guessing and knowing.

The best part about AI is that it can give you almost any expert at your fingertips.

If you run a report surrounding the results of your social media content strategy directly from a site like LinkedIn, AI can review the top posts you’ve shared and give you clear feedback on what type of content is performing, why you should create more of it, and what days of the week your content is performing best.

This type of insight that would typically take hours to understand.

Now …

Thanks to the power of AI you can upload a spreadsheet filled with rows and columns of data just to be met with a handful of valuable insights a few minutes later.

Improved Customer Service

Want 24/7 support for your customers?

It’s now possible without human touch.

Chatbots powered by AI are taking the lead on direct messaging experiences for brands on Facebook and other Meta properties to offer round-the-clock assistance.

The fact that AI can be trained on past customer queries and data to inform future queries and problems is a powerful development for social media managers.

Advertising on Social Media with AI

The majority of ad networks have used some variation of AI to manage their bidding system for years. Now, thanks to AI and its ability to be incorporated in more tools, brands are now able to use AI to create better and more interesting ad campaigns than ever before.

Brands can use AI to create images using tools like Midjourney and DALL-E in seconds.

Brands can use AI to create better copy for their social media ads.

Brands can use AI tools to support their bidding strategies.

The power of AI and social media is continuing to evolve daily and it’s not exclusively found in the organic side of the coin. Paid media on social media is being shaken up due to AI just the same.

How to Implement AI into Your Social Media Strategy

Ready to hit “Go” on your AI-powered social media revolution?

Don’t just start the engine and hope for the best. Remember the importance of building a strategy first. In this video, you can learn some of the most important factors ranging from (but not limited to) SMART goals and leveraging influencers in your day-to-day work:

The following seven steps are crucial to building a social media strategy:

Identify Your AI and Social Media Goals
Validate Your AI-Related Assumptions
Conduct Persona and Audience Research
Select the Right Social Channels
Identify Key Metrics and KPIs
Choose the Right AI Tools
Evaluate and Refine Your Social Media and AI Strategy

Keep reading, roll up your sleeves, and follow this roadmap:

1. Identify Your AI and Social Media Goals

If you’re just dipping your toes into the AI sea, start by defining clear objectives.

Is it to boost engagement? Streamline your content creation? Or simply understand your audience better? It’s important that you spend time understanding what you want to achieve.

For example, say you’re a content marketing agency like Foundation and you’re trying to increase your presence on LinkedIn. The specificity of this goal will help you understand the initiatives you want to achieve and determine which AI tools could help you make that happen.

Are there AI tools that will help you create content more efficiently? Are there AI tools that will help you optimize LinkedIn Ads? Are there AI tools that can help with content repurposing? All of these things are possible and having a goal clearly identified will help maximize the impact. Learn more in this Foundation Marketing piece on incorporating AI into your content workflow.

Once you have identified your goals, it’s time to get your team on board and assess what tools are available in the market.

Recommended Resources:

2. Validate Your AI-Related Assumptions

Assumptions are dangerous — especially when it comes to implementing new tech.

Don’t assume AI is going to fix all your problems.

Instead, start with small experiments and track their progress carefully.

3. Conduct Persona and Audience Research

Social media isn’t something that you can just jump into.

You need to understand your audience and ideal customers. AI can help with this, but you’ll need to be familiar with best practices. If you need a primer, this will help:

Once you understand the basics, consider ways in which AI can augment your approach.

4. Select the Right Social Channels

Not every social media channel is the same.

It’s important that you understand what channel is right for you and embrace it.

The way you use AI for X is going to be different from the way you use AI for LinkedIn. On X, you might use AI to help you develop a long-form thread that is filled with facts and figures. On LinkedIn however, you might use AI to repurpose a blog post and turn it into a carousel PDF. The content that works on X and that AI can facilitate creating is different from the content that you can create and use on LinkedIn.

The audiences are different.

The content formats are different.

So operate and create a plan accordingly.

Recommended Tools and Resources:

5. Identify Key Metrics and KPIs

What metrics are you trying to influence the most?

Spend time understanding the social media metrics that matter to your business and make sure that they’re prioritized as you think about the ways in which you use AI.

These are a few that matter most:

Reach: Post reach signifies the count of unique users who viewed your post. How much of your content truly makes its way to users’ feeds?
Clicks: This refers to the number of clicks on your content or account. Monitoring clicks per campaign is crucial for grasping what sparks curiosity or motivates people to make a purchase.
Engagement: The total social interactions divided by the number of impressions. This metric reveals how effectively your audience perceives you and their readiness to engage.

Of course, it’s going to depend greatly on your business.

But with this information, you can ensure that your AI social media strategy is rooted in goals.

6. Choose the Right AI Tools

The AI landscape is filled with trash and treasure.

Pick AI tools that are most likely to align with your needs and your level of tech-savviness.

For example, if you’re a blogger creating content about pizza recipes, you can use HubSpot’s AI social caption generator to write the message on your behalf:

The benefit of an AI tool like HubSpot and the caption generator is that what at one point took 30-40 minutes to come up with — you can now have it at your fingertips in seconds. The HubSpot AI caption generator is trained on tons of data around social media content and makes it easy for you to get inspiration or final drafts on what can be used to create great content.

Consider your budget, the learning curve, and what kind of support the tool offers.

7. Evaluate and Refine Your Social Media and AI Strategy

AI isn’t a magic wand; it’s a set of complex tools and technology.

You need to be willing to pivot as things come to fruition.

If you notice that a certain activity is falling flat, consider how AI can support that process.

Did you notice that your engagement isn’t where you want it to be? Consider using an AI tool to assist with crafting more engaging social media posts.

Make AI Work for You — Now and in the Future

AI has the power to revolutionize your social media strategy in ways you may have never thought possible. With its ability to conduct customer research, create personalized content, and so much more, thinking about the future of social media is fascinating.

We’re going through one of the most interesting times in history.

Stay equipped to ride the way of AI and ensure that you’re embracing the best practices outlined in this piece to get the most out of the technology.

MARKETING

Advertising in local markets: A playbook for success

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Advertising in local markets: A playbook for success

Many brands, such as those in the home services industry or a local grocery chain, market to specific locations, cities or regions. There are also national brands that want to expand in specific local markets.

Regardless of the company or purpose, advertising on a local scale has different tactics than on a national scale. Brands need to connect their messaging directly with the specific communities they serve and media to their target demo. Here’s a playbook to help your company succeed when marketing on a local scale.

1. Understand local vs. national campaigns

Local advertising differs from national campaigns in several ways:

Audience specificity: By zooming in on precise geographic areas, brands can tailor messaging to align with local communities’ customs, preferences and nuances. This precision targeting ensures that your message resonates with the right target audience.
Budget friendliness: Local advertising is often more accessible for small businesses. Local campaign costs are lower, enabling brands to invest strategically within targeted locales. This budget-friendly nature does not diminish the need for strategic planning; instead, it emphasizes allocating resources wisely to maximize returns. As a result, testing budgets can be allocated across multiple markets to maximize learnings for further market expansion.
Channel selection: Selecting the correct channels is vital for effective local advertising. Local newspapers, radio stations, digital platforms and community events each offer advantages. The key lies in understanding where your target audience spends time and focusing efforts to ensure optimal engagement.
Flexibility and agility: Local campaigns can be adjusted more swiftly in response to market feedback or changes, allowing brands to stay relevant and responsive.

Maintaining brand consistency across local touchpoints reinforces brand identity and builds a strong, recognizable brand across markets.

2. Leverage customized audience segmentation

Customized audience segmentation is the process of dividing a market into distinct groups based on specific demographic criteria. This marketing segmentation supports the development of targeted messaging and media plans for local markets.

For example, a coffee chain might cater to two distinct segments: young professionals and retirees. After identifying these segments, the chain can craft messages, offers and media strategies relating to each group’s preferences and lifestyle.

To reach young professionals in downtown areas, the chain might focus on convenience, quality coffee and a vibrant atmosphere that is conducive to work and socializing. Targeted advertising on Facebook, Instagram or Connected TV, along with digital signage near office complexes, could capture the attention of this demographic, emphasizing quick service and premium blends.

Conversely, for retirees in residential areas, the chain could highlight a cozy ambiance, friendly service and promotions such as senior discounts. Advertisements in local print publications, community newsletters, radio stations and events like senior coffee mornings would foster a sense of community and belonging.

Dig deeper: Niche advertising: 7 actionable tactics for targeted marketing

3. Adapt to local market dynamics

Various factors influence local market dynamics. Brands that navigate changes effectively maintain a strong audience connection and stay ahead in the market. Here’s how consumer sentiment and behavior may evolve within a local market and the corresponding adjustments brands can make.

Cultural shifts, such as changes in demographics or societal norms, can alter consumer preferences within a local community. For example, a neighborhood experiencing gentrification may see demand rise for specific products or services.
- Respond by updating your messaging to reflect the evolving cultural landscape, ensuring it resonates with the new demographic profile.
Economic conditions are crucial. For example, during downturns, consumers often prioritize value and practicality.
- Highlight affordable options or emphasize the practical benefits of your offerings to ensure messaging aligns with consumers’ financial priorities. The impact is unique to each market and the marketing message must also be dynamic.
Seasonal trends impact consumer behavior.
- Align your promotions and creative content with changing seasons or local events to make your offerings timely and relevant.
New competitors. The competitive landscape demands vigilance because new entrants or innovative competitor campaigns can shift consumer preferences.
- Differentiate by focusing on your unique selling propositions, such as quality, customer service or community involvement, to retain consumer interest and loyalty.

4. Apply data and predictive analytics

Data and predictive analytics are indispensable tools for successfully reaching local target markets. These technologies provide consumer behavior insights, enabling you to anticipate market trends and adjust strategies proactively.

Price optimization: By analyzing consumer demand, competitor pricing and market conditions, data analytics enables you to set prices that attract customers while ensuring profitability.
Competitor analysis: Through analysis, brands can understand their positioning within the local market landscape and identify opportunities and threats. Predictive analytics offer foresight into competitors’ potential moves, allowing you to strategize effectively to maintain a competitive edge.
Consumer behavior: Forecasting consumer behavior allows your brand to tailor offerings and marketing messages to meet evolving consumer needs and enhance engagement.
Marketing effectiveness: Analytics track the success of advertising campaigns, providing insights into which strategies drive conversions and sales. This feedback loop enables continuous optimization of marketing efforts for maximum impact.
Inventory management: In supply chain management, data analytics predict demand fluctuations, ensuring inventory levels align with market needs. This efficiency prevents stockouts or excess inventory, optimizing operational costs and meeting consumer expectations.

Dig deeper: Why you should add predictive modeling to your marketing mix

5. Counter external market influences

Consider a clothing retailer preparing for a spring collection launch. By analyzing historical weather data and using predictive analytics, the brand forecasts an unseasonably cool start to spring. Anticipating this, the retailer adjusts its campaign to highlight transitional pieces suitable for cooler weather, ensuring relevance despite an unexpected chill.

Simultaneously, predictive models signal an upcoming spike in local media advertising rates due to increased market demand. Retailers respond by reallocating a portion of advertising budgets to digital channels, which offer more flexibility and lower costs than traditional media. This shift enables brands to maintain visibility and engagement without exceeding budget, mitigating the impact of external forces on advertising.

6. Build consumer confidence with messaging

Localized messaging and tailored customer service enhance consumer confidence by demonstrating your brand’s understanding of the community. For instance, a grocery store that curates cooking classes featuring local cuisine or sponsors community events shows commitment to local culture and consumer interests.

Similarly, a bookstore highlighting local authors or topics relevant to the community resonates with local customers. Additionally, providing service that addresses local needs — such as bilingual service and local event support — reinforces the brand’s values and response to the community.

Through these localized approaches, brands can build trust and loyalty, bridging the gap between corporate presence and local relevance.

7. Dominate with local advertising

To dominate local markets, brands must:

Harness hyper-targeted segmentation and geo-targeted advertising to reach and engage precise audiences.
Create localized content that reflects community values, engage in community events, optimize campaigns for mobile and track results.
Fine-tune strategies, outperform competitors and foster lasting relationships with customers.

These strategies will enable your message to resonate with local consumers, differentiate you in competitive markets and ensure you become a major player in your specific area.

Dig deeper: The 5 critical elements for local marketing success

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MARKETING

Battling for Attention in the 2024 Election Year Media Frenzy

Published

3 days ago

April 20, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Battling for Attention in the 2024 Election Year Media Frenzy

As we march closer to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, CMOs and marketing leaders need to prepare for a significant shift in the digital advertising landscape. Election years have always posed unique challenges for advertisers, but the growing dominance of digital media has made the impact more profound than ever before.

In this article, we’ll explore the key factors that will shape the advertising environment in the coming months and provide actionable insights to help you navigate these turbulent waters.

The Digital Battleground

The rise of cord-cutting and the shift towards digital media consumption have fundamentally altered the advertising landscape in recent years. As traditional TV viewership declines, political campaigns have had to adapt their strategies to reach voters where they are spending their time: on digital platforms.

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According to a recent report by eMarketer, the number of cord-cutters in the U.S. is expected to reach 65.1 million by the end of 2023, representing a 6.9% increase from 2022. This trend is projected to continue, with the number of cord-cutters reaching 72.2 million by 2025.

Moreover, a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2023 found that 62% of U.S. adults do not have a cable or satellite TV subscription, up from 61% in 2022 and 50% in 2019. This data further underscores the accelerating shift away from traditional TV and towards streaming and digital media platforms.

As these trends continue, political advertisers will have no choice but to follow their audiences to digital channels. In the 2022 midterm elections, digital ad spending by political campaigns reached $1.2 billion, a 50% increase from the 2018 midterms. With the 2024 presidential election on the horizon, this figure is expected to grow exponentially, as campaigns compete for the attention of an increasingly digital-first electorate.

For brands and advertisers, this means that the competition for digital ad space will be fiercer than ever before. As political ad spending continues to migrate to platforms like Meta, YouTube, and connected TV, the cost of advertising will likely surge, making it more challenging for non-political advertisers to reach their target audiences.

To navigate this complex and constantly evolving landscape, CMOs and their teams will need to be proactive, data-driven, and willing to experiment with new strategies and channels. By staying ahead of the curve and adapting to the changing media consumption habits of their audiences, brands can position themselves for success in the face of the electoral advertising onslaught.

Rising Costs and Limited Inventory

As political advertisers flood the digital market, the cost of advertising is expected to skyrocket. CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) will likely experience a steady climb throughout the year, with significant spikes anticipated in May, as college students come home from school and become more engaged in political conversations, and around major campaign events like presidential debates.

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For media buyers and their teams, this means that the tried-and-true strategies of years past may no longer be sufficient. Brands will need to be nimble, adaptable, and willing to explore new tactics to stay ahead of the game.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday: A Perfect Storm

The challenges of election year advertising will be particularly acute during the critical holiday shopping season. Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which have historically been goldmines for advertisers, will be more expensive and competitive than ever in 2024, as they coincide with the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

To avoid being drowned out by the political noise, brands will need to start planning their holiday campaigns earlier than usual. Building up audiences and crafting compelling creative assets well in advance will be essential to success, as will a willingness to explore alternative channels and tactics. Relying on cold audiences come Q4 will lead to exceptionally high costs that may be detrimental to many businesses.

Navigating the Chaos

While the challenges of election year advertising can seem daunting, there are steps that media buyers and their teams can take to mitigate the impact and even thrive in this environment. Here are a few key strategies to keep in mind:

Start early and plan for contingencies: Begin planning your Q3 and Q4 campaigns as early as possible, with a focus on building up your target audiences and developing a robust library of creative assets.

Be sure to build in contingency budgets to account for potential cost increases, and be prepared to pivot your strategy as the landscape evolves.

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Embrace alternative channels: Consider diversifying your media mix to include channels that may be less impacted by political ad spending, such as influencer marketing, podcast advertising, or sponsored content. Investing in owned media channels, like email marketing and mobile apps, can also provide a direct line to your customers without the need to compete for ad space.

Owned channels will be more important than ever. Use cheaper months leading up to the election to build your email lists and existing customer base so that your BF/CM can leverage your owned channels and warm audiences.

Craft compelling, shareable content: In a crowded and noisy advertising environment, creating content that resonates with your target audience will be more important than ever. Focus on developing authentic, engaging content that aligns with your brand values and speaks directly to your customers’ needs and desires.

By tapping into the power of emotional triggers and social proof, you can create content that not only cuts through the clutter but also inspires organic sharing and amplification.

Reflections

The 2024 election year will undoubtedly bring new challenges and complexities to the world of digital advertising. But by staying informed, adaptable, and strategic in your approach, you can navigate this landscape successfully and even find new opportunities for growth and engagement.

As a media buyer or agnecy, your role in steering your brand through these uncharted waters will be critical. By starting your planning early, embracing alternative channels and tactics, and focusing on creating authentic, resonant content, you can not only survive but thrive in the face of election year disruptions.

So while the road ahead may be uncertain, one thing is clear: the brands that approach this challenge with creativity, agility, and a steadfast commitment to their customers will be the ones that emerge stronger on the other side.