Katrina Olson

Strategic Communications

Market Boldly 014 – Digital Transformation with Michael Evanko of Fromm Electric Supply, Part 2

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Market Boldly
Market Boldly
Market Boldly 014 - Digital Transformation with Michael Evanko of Fromm Electric Supply, Part 2
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Join me with guest Michael Evanko, VP of Reading, Pennsylvania-based Fromm Electric Supply in this second installment of this discussion about the digital transformation in electrical distribution. If you’re still figuring out how to get started, tune in to learn:

  • What to think about when adopting a new technology like CRM
  • Why marketing must take a strategic leadership role in the digital transformation
  • What to consider when deciding between outsourcing or adding marketing staff
  • How (or if) one person can manage a distributor’s entire marketing function
  • Why you can never stop learning

Michael discusses his experience and offers suggestions for those just beginning their digital journey. It’s not as difficult as you think if you have the right approach and the right people on your team.

Market Boldly 013 – Digital Transformation with Michael Evanko of Fromm Electric, Part 1

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Market Boldly
Market Boldly
Market Boldly 013 - Digital Transformation with Michael Evanko of Fromm Electric, Part 1
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Join me with guest Michael Evanko, Vice President of Marketing for Fromm Electric Supply of Reading, Pennsylvania as we talk about Fromm’s digital transformation and how they’re navigating the challenges of technology. You’ll learn:

  • Why you need a technology roadmap (Hint: it will save you time and money!)
  • How to determine what you need in your marketing technology (martech) stack
  • Why implementing a CRM is not just about buying software
  • How technology makes customer information more easily accessible and readily available
  • Why it’s important to set goals before purchasing technology or software
  • How technology enables omnichannel marketing versus multichannel marketing

If you you’ve been struggling with how to get your company to embrace the digital age, this episode is for you. Watch for Part 2 for even more information to help your company begin its digital transformation.

Includes shout-outs to Rockwell Automation, WebPresented, Salesforce and Infor.

Give Them What They Want

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By Katrina Olson

This article originally appeared 5/26/2015 as an Exclusive Feature on tedmag.com.

In the April 14 Marketing Momentum, we discussed 10 ways to create content that gets attention. This column will address number seven on that list, “Communicate often,” and number eight, “Give Them What They Want.”

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are great places to build your brand, communicate with customers, build relationships and directly engage with customers. They’re also useful for sharing information.

Reasons to Share On Facebook
But too often, a big gap exists between what we want to tell our customers and prospects, and what they want to know. For example, do your Facebook and Twitter followers really care how many years you’ve been in business or how many items you stock? Probably not.

If you’re not sure what they want to know, read the comments on the social media platforms they are using and answer these questions:

  • What are people most excited about?
  • What topics keep coming up?
  • What problems are they discussing?
  • What problems are they having trouble solving (and how can you help)?
  • What frustrates them?
  • What are they saying about your products or services — and about your competition’s?

Rather than sharing content that serves your own purposes when it is only convenient for you—start by addressing the topics already being discussed and answer those questions.

Communicate often… or when they want.

Between the 121 emails each of us sends and receives per day and the 200-300 Facebook friends we’re each tracking, plus texts, Snapchats, Twitter, Facebook and more —your message can easily get overlooked.

Business emails sent/received daily

 

Facebook friend counts

This message clutter, compounded by our short attention spans and compulsion to multitask, means we need to communicate and interact with our customers often…or at least on a regular basis. Here are a few tips:

  • Invite them to join the conversation by asking for feedback or opinions
  • Don’t send the same message over and over (i.e. vary the content and approach)
  • Let customers choose how often they receive emails (e.g. once a week or month)

Also, use multiple platforms, leveraging the strengths of each. For example, use Twitter for announcements and links to articles, and LinkedIn for company news. Your followers will know what to expect from each platform and can choose which they want to receive.

Give them what they want.

Number eight on our list of ways to create attention-getting marketing is “Give them what they want.” This means appealing to your followers’ interests, sharing information useful to them, and giving them a reason to communicate with you.

Your followers need and deserve an incentive, reward or benefit for reading your content. Here are some suggestions for developing engaging content:

  • teach them something new by sharing your expertise
  • educate them about trends in your industry
  • tell customer stories (with permission, of course)
  • offer discounts, private sales or gifts (occasionally)
  • tell them about new products and services that will solve their problem
  • invite them to an event (virtual or real)
  • share an entertaining video, picture or meme that relates to your industry
  • hold a contest just for your followers (with a valuable prize)
  • play games; it’s okay to just have fun

Negative Comment

As you’re interacting and engaging with customers digitally, you’ll likely get both positive and negative feedback. Try to respond to both promptly. When you see a positive comment about your products, services or company, it’s appropriate to say “thank you.”

If you see a negative comment, respond briefly and politely, then contact the person directly to resolve the situation. If they comment anonymously, invite them to contact you directly so you can address their concerns.

NEXT WEEK: We’ll wrap up this series on creating content that gets attention by discussing how to make it easy for readers to respond.

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Olson is a veteran marketing and public relations consultant. She has written for tED magazine’s print edition since 2005, judged tED magazine’s Best of the Best Competition since 2006, and emceed the Best of the Best Awards ceremony for a total of seven years. Reach her at katrina@katrinaolson.com.

 

The Power Of Pictures

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By Katrina Olson

This article originally appeared 5/18/15 as an Exclusive Feature on tedmag.com.

Visual content is becoming increasingly important for reaching and engaging people in social media. Marketers harnessing the power of visuals are increasing blog traffic, converting visitors to leads and acquiring more customers.

Almost every social network has seen an increase in video, photos, memes, charts and infographics.

  • In 2014, use of video content increased by 8% to 58%, while infographic usage increased by 9% to 52%, according to Demand Gen Report’s 2014 Content Preferences Survey of B2B buyers.
  • Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets, according to a recent study by software application designer Buffer. In late 2013, Twitter enabled users to add inline photos and Vine videos in tweets, available simply by updating the app. (Note: the graphic at right was created using https://infogr.am.)
  • In Social Media Examiner’s 2014 Social Media Industry Report, 82 percent of businesses that responded cited images as crucial elements of social media content optimization, ranking images as “important” or “very important.”

Of course, you want to post, share or tweet relevant images to strategically targeted audiences, or you’ll be creating content that only your mom will see.

Why is visual content so important?

Video adapts your messages to our increasingly short attention spans. Visual content instantly engages viewers and creates impressions that last longer than words. Why?

1. Visual content is instantly and easily sharable on social media. And it’s more likely to be shared if it’s attractive, entertaining or easy to digest.

2. Visuals can communicate messages very quickly. For example, rather than explaining how a new product, tool or app works, you can demonstrate it in a short video.

3. Visuals can persuasively show instead of tell, allowing viewers to decide for themselves without feeling pressured.

4. Visuals communicate quickly, breaking through the online clutter.

How to find visuals

If you have the budget and need high-end, professional images or photos, hire a photographer, illustrator or graphic designer to create custom graphics. But if custom graphics are not in the cards, you have many other options.

1.  Buy stock photography and images.
Online sources like istockphoto.com, shutterstock.com, and gettyimages.com (plus tons more) sell royalty-free images, illustrations, videos and music clips at prices lower than custom visual content.

2. Use open (and free) content.
Creative Commons (creativecommons.org) is a nonprofit organization that offers free creative content to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing and remixing through a variety of licenses for commercial and noncommercial use. It’s network consists of affiliates in over 70 jurisdictions around the world.

3. Take/find and edit your own photos.
Enhance and edit your own photos with online image editors like Pixlr, BeFunky and Fotor.  Most offer filters, frames, effects, text, borders, collages, cropping and more. Find more tools here and here.

I found the free photo below at www.pptbackgrounds.net and added the type, border and effects in pixlr.com (using the basic Pixlr Express option).

4. Create your own infographics.
Infographics can present complex information in an engaging and informative way.  Use them to explain a process, explain how something works, present survey data, make comparisons or present otherwise uninteresting facts.

Infographics are especially useful for building brand awareness or educating customers about an issue. Find 10 easy tools for creating infographics here.

Check out this infographic by MGD Advertising which illustrates how images influence a company’s business, branding, search, and social media efforts.

5. Tell your story in video.
You don’t need to hire a film crew and production company, or even buy fancy video editing software (unless you want to). If you’ve never created a video, start small with easy-to-use, web-based programs like Animoto or Wideo. Both provide templates for creating simple videos with animation for announcements, training, recruiting or even holiday greetings.

Once you’ve mastered the animated video, use your own footage and pictures with a “starter” video editor like iMovie for Mac or Windows Movie Maker. Both provide simple templates for making movies using still photos, graphics and your own images. Next thing you know, you’ll be frustrated with how little you can do with these “beginner” programs.

Now you’re ready for more sophisticated editing software like Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro, CyberLink PowerDirector (PC) or Corel VideoStudio Pro. These range in price from about $80 to $300.

No matter what you’re trying to find, use or create, there’s probably an easy way to do it. A simple Google search will yield hundreds (if not thousands) of results. Or you can just ask your kids. They’re probably already using them on their phones.

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Olson is a veteran marketing and public relations consultant. She has written for tED magazine’s print edition since 2005, judged tED magazine’s Best of the Best Competition since 2006, and emceed the Best of the Best Awards ceremony for a total of seven years. Reach her at katrina@katrinaolson.com.

Make Your Content Easy to Scan and Understand

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By Katrina Olson

This article originally appeared 4/27/15 as an Exclusive Feature on tedmag.com.

We’ve been exploring ways to get your target audiences to pay attention to your marketing content. You may recall points two and three from Marketing Momentum of April 13:

2. Make it easy to scan.
Use headlines, numbered lists, bullet points, subheads, spaces between lines—they help readers pick out what’s important.

3. Focus on one message per communication.
Don’t put too much information in one email, Facebook post, ad or video. Readers will get bored and just stop. Send targeted messages to targeted groups.

At first glance, these two concepts seem at odds with each other. But when you combine them, you create a powerful marketing message. And it’s easier than you think. Check out this TV commercial for the new Apple Watch.


The commercial highlights the watch’s clock, maps, internet, fitness tracking, charge cards, calendar, music, apps. alarms, texting and more. Anyone familiar with the iPhone (probably their target audience) will recognize the icons.

It’s “easy to scan” because it shows the watch’s capabilities and style choices instead of talking about them.

And even though the commercial features multiple images and glamour shots of the watch, the single, focused message is, “This watch looks sleek and contemporary, like your iPhone, and can do almost everything your iPhone can do.”

How do you know what your single, focused message should be?

First, determine what your audience most wants to know. Start by asking yourself (or your customers) these questions:

  • What does your company or product offer that’s unique, important and beneficial?
  • What will convince them to choose you over the competition?
  • How does your company, product or service help them work better, smarter, faster or cheaper?
  • What problem can you solve for them?

Home in on that unique selling proposition (USP) and use it to develop your key message. When planning your marketing strategy, sum up your key message in one sentence. Then build your plan and execution based on that key message.

Next, choose tactics—website, brochure, video, news release, feature story or social media campaign—that can best illustrate and communicate that single message. As you’re executing that plan and message, be consistent in your use of color, font, imagery (photos or illustration), layout and design, and even the wording (or “copy”).

By consistently communicating your message, you’re benefitting from the synergy of all pieces working together with a common look, feel, theme and message.

How do you make content that is “scannable”?

You’ll want to support your key message with subpoints or additional features and benefits. What proof can you give to back up our claim? How can you expand on or further explain your key message in a way that’s quick and easy to read? In print and online, we often use:

  • bullets (like this)
  • subheads (like the one preceding this section)
  • lines/spaces (like the space between these bullets)
  • other visual cues such as bolding, highlighting and italics (sparingly, so as not to become annoying)

By making your print ads, web content, blogs or direct mail pieces easy to scan, your audience gets the main points, even if they don’t read the entire message or even pay full attention.

NEXT WEEK: In next week’s Marketing Momentum, we’ll discuss how to be funny, engaging and relevant.

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Olson is a veteran marketing and public relations consultant. She has written for tED magazine’s print edition since 2005, judged tED magazine’s Best of the Best Competition since 2006, and emceed the Best of the Best Awards ceremony for a total of seven years. Reach her at katrina@katrinaolson.com.

Tell Your Story Quickly

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By Katrina Olson

This article originally appeared 4/20/2015 as an Exclusive Feature on tedmag.com.

Last week we talked about how to create content that sells, and the need to adapt to today’s shorter attention spans, multitasking habit and mobile lifestyles. Today let’s dig a little deeper into how to tell your story concisely, precisely and in a way that gets read.

Unlike novels that people choose to read for entertainment, very few people seek out advertising. So your advertising copy must get to the point quickly and communicate efficiently.

For example, Sprint is currently running an ad on Netflix that opens with yellow type on a dark gray background and it goes something like this:

“Sprint has the best family plan. We could show you an awesome chart to prove it. (And they do.) Or we could just tell you why you should care. More lines, more data, just $90 a month.”

Bam! Sprint tells us exactly what we need to know—nothing more. We don’t care how many different customers they have, how many brands they carry or how many retail stores they operate…we just want them to answer, “What’s in it for me?” Or, maybe, “Why should I bother switching carriers?”

Enhance your copy with visuals to communicate your message quickly and efficiently. For example, if your product saves labor by making pulling wire faster, show a clock spinning backwards (for example). Or create a video with two people pulling wire—one the “old” way and one with your product.

If your product saves money, show a stack of bills that represents how much money you can save in a month or a year. Perhaps your product is more lightweight and easier to carry than the competition. Show a child carrying it.

Professional copywriters and art directors sometimes spend days if not weeks coming up with effective headlines, copy and visuals for a single ad. That’s how important it is. If you’re going to spend thousands of dollars on media, it’s worth investing some time and money up front to make sure it’s effective.

NEXT WEEK: In next week’s Marketing Momentum, we’ll discuss how to make your content easy to read and understand.

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Olson is a veteran marketing and public relations consultant. She has written for tED magazine’s print edition since 2005, judged tED magazine’s Best of the Best Competition since 2006, and emceed the Best of the Best Awards ceremony for a total of seven years. Reach her at katrina@olsonmarketing.net.

Creating Content That Gets Attention

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By Katrina Olson

This article originally appeared 4/13/2015 as an Exclusive Feature on tedmag.com.

The term “content” is tossed around like it’s something new. Good marketers have been providing content for decades—in newsletters, workshops, seminars and (gasp) one-on-one, face-to-face interactions.

So what’s changed?

We are constantly bombarded with information from our mobile phones, iPads, laptops, television, radio and billboards. Our smartphone alone connects us to all social media platforms plus email, news apps, music, games, TV networks, Netflix, YouTube, weather reports, and shopping apps. What’s the result?

1. Our attention spans are shorter.
The average human attention span in 2013 was 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000 (According to the National Center for Biotechnology). By comparison, a goldfish’s attention span is 9 seconds. Wait, what?

2. We’re a nation of multitaskers.
Only 2% of us are actually good at multitasking, according to Psychology Today—but we all think we are.

3. We’re increasingly mobile.
In January, Americans used mobile devices more than they used PCs to access the Internet. For the first time ever, more than half (55%) of Internet traffic was smartphones and tablet apps. (According to research firm Enders Analysis and featured in CNN Money on 2/28.)

How do you adapt your content to fit these trends?

1. Tell your story…quickly.
Be concise and to-the-point. Concise doesn’t mean brief; it means not using more words than necessary.

2. Make it easy to scan.
Use headlines, numbered lists, bullet points, subheads, spaces between lines—they help readers pick out what’s important.

3. Focus on one message per communication. 
Don’t put too much information in one email, Facebook post, ad or video. Readers will get bored and just stop. Send targeted messages to targeted groups.

4. Be funny, engaging and relevant.  
You’re competing with Buzzfeed, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and Vine—and that stuff is pretty entertaining.

5. Capitalize on opportunities in real time. 
When the lights went out at Super Bowl XLVII, Oreo almost instantly tweeted, “You can still dunk in the dark,” with a picture of an Oreo cookie highlighted against a dark background. It was retweeted 10,000 times in one hour. And it didn’t cost them a dime in media.

6. Use visuals.
A picture really is worth…well, you know. If you’re “of a certain age” and I say, “Because so much is riding on your tires,” you can’t help but picture a baby with a Michelin tire.

7. Communicate often.
You’re competing with my spouse texting me to pick up a birthday party gift and my boss emailing about that report. You’re likely to get lost in the shuffle if you don’t stay in touch.

8. Give them what they want.
I get Groupon email emails daily. But I don’t mind because: (1) I gave them permission and (2) the offers are targeted to my interests. What do your customers want?

9. Make it easy to respond. 
Want customers to call, give them your number. Visit? Provide a map. Order?  Provide a mobile ordering app. Even Papa John’s pizza has a mobile ordering app and they send you specials!

10. Make phone numbers clickable and trackable.
All they have to do is click to call. This article by LunaMetrics tells you how.

The rules of engagement haven’t changed. Marketers have been following these principles in print ads and billboards for years—now they’re just more important than ever.

In future Marketing Momentum columns, we will dig deeper into each of these 10 trends to give you a better idea of how they will improve your marketing efforts.

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Olson is a veteran marketing and public relations consultant. She has written for tED magazine’s print edition since 2005, judged tED magazine’s Best of the Best Competition since 2006, and emceed the Best of the Best Awards ceremony for a total of seven years. Reach her at katrina@katrinaolson.com.