Tag: B2C

Marketing for Non-profits: Telling the Story and Measuring Brand Awareness

Posted on by admin

Catherine Davis knows how marketing for non-profits differs from marketing in the for-profit sector — and she succeeds at both. From building her marketing foundation at Leo Burnett and Diageo to her current role as the CMO of Feeding America, Catherine has mastered the ability to distill powerful stories into tangible pieces that entire populations can connect with. Through strategic brand tracking strategies and working to solve an issue that she is passionate about, Catherine is proving that the role of a CMO as a storyteller has never been more important.  

As Renegade Thinkers Unite meets its 101st episode milestone, Catherine Davis and Drew sit down to discuss why a career in marketing does not have to be linear to be successful. Catherine also explains how to capture individual stories, overcome challenges in brand awareness, and manage a non-profit CEO’s expectations. In this episode, Catherine will walk you through what it takes to communicate what your organization stands for and how to break down big issues into personal stories.

You’ll be inspired to make your marketing matter — catch the full story now.

                 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Catherine works to capture individual stories – a skill she learned early on in her marketing career

Catherine picked up on 2 major lessons that have laid the foundation for her career in marketing for non-profits. The first is to identify and select a marketing strategy. Then, you have to break down that strategy into emotional and logical components that can be woven into stories, statistics, and campaigns.

She explains that people find it much harder to dismiss individual stories from real people struggling with hunger. By encouraging people to have conversations about the bigger issues in America, even if they aren’t necessarily “measurable,” Catherine can begin to see how the tides are turning for the hunger problem.

Measuring progress in marketing for non-profits – it doesn’t come down to quarterly reports

Both Drew and Catherine agree that you can’t begin to measure your non-profit’s success if you don’t use a brand tracking study. Even Feeding America, the 3rd largest non-profit in the United States, couldn’t measure their level of brand awareness without using a study – one that gave them valuable feedback into their brand and messaging. Catherine and her marketing team discovered that across a 2 year period, Feeding America’s level of brand awareness and passion for solving hunger went up from 24% to 51%.

Catherine explains that measuring the impact of a campaign often doesn’t occur after just a few months – solving an issue like hunger can take a decade or more for progress to be made. She outlines how to maintain support from your CEO and more on this episode.

Key pieces of advice for CMOs in non-profits

There are a few key takeaways from this episode that every CMO should hear. Catherine explains that in order for marketing for non-profits to be effective, CMOs need to be 100% clear on who the organization is and what it stands for. Then, you must execute in a way that people understand – avoid academia-type language that isn’t easily understood. Finally, you cannot assume that people believe in the same ideals as you do. By speaking with a single, focused, and passionate voice, you can find success in your marketing efforts.

If you visit the Feeding America website and donate now (tag Renegade Thinkers Unite,) the Renegade Team will match up to $250 in gifts from listeners. What a Renegade way to make a difference today in the lives of fellow Americans. #SharingIsCaring

Timeline

  • [0:30] Having a foundation in classical marketing strategies allows Catherine to flourish
  • [13:01] Feeding America and its place in the American non-profit industry
  • [17:55] Catherine works to capture individual stories – because people can’t ignore a person’s story of hunger
  • [20:47] Catherine’s proudest marketing moment at Feeding America
  • [24:45] The biggest differences being a CMO for a non-profit vs. for-profit organization
  • [32:38] Bridging the gap between brand awareness and unawareness
  • [35:43] 2 do’s and 1 don’t for CMOs of non-profit organizations

Connect With Catherine:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Thoughts on Leadership, Accountability, and Building a Network That Spans a Lifetime

Posted on by admin

Carl Neisser starts every new year with a list of learning goals. Last year, he aimed to master texting with his children and grandchildren. Throughout his lifetime of over 90 years, Drew’s father Carl has collected important lessons about everything from teamwork, to leadership, to continually building a personal network. Above all, he never stops learning and never stops caring about his relationships.

On this special 100th episode of the Renegade Thinkers Unite podcast, Drew and his Dad discuss the Neisser family legacy in marketing and business, and chat about why putting people first is the first idea that any Renegade marketer needs to understand. For Carl, listening is important, but retaining that information is even more crucial in becoming the player that your team can rely on. In an inspiring “like father, like son” fashion, Drew and his father will walk you through the steps to becoming a lifelong learner in marketing and beyond.

Listen here to celebrate 100 episodes of Renegade thinking.

            Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Life lessons on how to build a network of relationships across the span of a lifetime

Great relationships with people from all walks of life should be an aspiration for people across the world – not just in B2B marketing. How can you begin to build a network of close friends and colleagues? Drew and Carl explain that it starts with simply taking the initiative to connect with them on a regular basis. Carl meets with dozens of people every month and always takes an interest in their businesses, ideas, passions, and families. This deep knowledge people allows him to make meaningful connections among people in his network – adding value to the lives of nearly everyone he meets.

Leadership, accountability, and the power of a great team

Leadership, while often complex and detailed, really comes down to a few simple strategies. Carl outlines his best advice for leadership all on this episode. For example,

  • Be honest, upfront, and supportive in your communication
  • Hold your team accountable in order to help them grow
  • Remember what people tell you, and make connecting with them a priority
  • Encourage authentic teamwork within your organization

Carl also learned how to keep a close eye on his competitors from the great Abraham Lincoln. By understanding the way they think, lead, and act, your organization can be better prepared to compete against them in your industry.

You can’t avoid failure, so learning from past mistakes is crucial

Everyone has known deep and painful failure, both in their professional and personal lives. The difference lies in whether or not you learn from your mistakes and move past them, or continue to dwell in the past. By approaching every day with Carl’s mindset of “every day is a learning day,” you can start to view mistakes as simply opportunity for growth. He encourages all Renegade marketers to stay humble, stay curious, and never stop learning.

Timeline

  • [0:29] Drew’s guest for this episode is his father, Carl Neisser
  • [5:50] Key leadership and teamwork lessons from Abraham Lincoln
  • [10:50] Teamwork is essential in many contexts, from sports to marketing
  • [15:30] Learning how to build and maintain a lifetime’s worth of connections
  • [22:17] The way you connect with people is important
  • [25:22] Treating failure as an opportunity for growth

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

The Role of a CMO in the Future of Marketing Leadership

Posted on by admin

Few professionals are as knowledgeable about marketing leadership and the CMO’s role as Greg Welch. A senior partner at Spencer Stuart, one of the world’s foremost leadership consulting firms, Greg helps to connect companies with the right fitting CMOs. He’s witnessed firsthand how, when leadership is done right, a CMO can be his or her team’s biggest cheerleader and source of inspiration.

Greg has worked with the leadership of dozens of large corporations, including Walmart, Facebook, and Dunkin’ Donuts. Greg believes that the intangibles of an extraordinary leader can transform a good CMO into a great one, but developing those skills takes work. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew and Greg discuss what aspiring professionals need to know to be successful in marketing leadership, as well as concrete advice for CMOs striving for that CEO desk. Greg also shares why you should surround yourself with a group of supporters and mentors to develop your personal marketing leadership style.

    You’ll be inspired by Greg’s advice – be sure to listen here.

                   Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Greg is seeing a new breed of CMOs emerge, and they have these qualities

Throughout his 20 years of executive search experience, Greg has discovered that the best marketing leaders possess a few main qualities, including:

  • The ability to understand both the brand and data sides of a business
  • An intense sense of curiosity
  • An ambition to be a great listener
  • Capable of building and maintaining support with others

CMOs need to be smart, aggressive individuals. Greg believes they need to have the ability to know the basics behind building quality, sustainable brands, as well as motivate and inspire others.

Marketing leadership is all about building and maintaining relationships

Greg says, “You can’t manage your marketing team with the door closed.” Meaning, a person in marketing leadership can’t exist as a silo – every leader should rely on their team in order to achieve the greatest amount of success. That’s why stellar leaders intensely focus on building and maintaining strong relationships with others. Mentors, peers, subordinates, and even your competition are all invaluable connections a great CMO needs to invest in. Being authentic, transparent, and honest will go a long way towards fostering strong relationships with those who will help you in life and work.

The role of the CMO is always shifting – here’s how to continually succeed

Drew and Greg both believe that the role of the CMO in business is never stagnant. The best CMOs are seeking to learn and understand more about the business they’re in – even if they have no desire to end up in the CEO spot. Greg explains that the top priority should be keeping your team satisfied and engaged, no matter what else you may be focusing on in your marketing leadership role. Looking towards the future, Greg predicts that a focus on eCommerce strategies will help you stay on the cutting edge of a career as a CMO.

Timeline

  • [0:29] Greg’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [6:50] It’s a new day in marketing and marketing leadership
  • [12:40] You can’t manage the marketing team with the door closed
  • [23:39] The ever-expanding role of the CMO
  • [33:10] Greg’s take on the ultimate CMO of the future

Connect With Greg:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Using Review Websites as Your New Lead Generation Strategy

Posted on by admin

As a CMO, sometimes nothing seems worse than your business receiving scrutiny on a review site. But don’t review site pages with only stellar, positive reviews also seem suspicious? The reality is that even negative reviews serve an absolutely vital role in how authentic and genuine your business comes across to potential customers. Not only can they create a well-rounded story around your brand, but review sites can even be a  major lead generation source. Now that sounds like a strategy that every marketer should take into account!

From her experience as GM of Capterra, a leading online review platform, Claire Alexander shares her expertise in everything from lead generation to turning a bad review into a marketing win. Claire drives everything she does at Capterra with the motto, “Do the right thing and the right results will follow.” Throughout this episode, you’ll learn Claire’s advice on how you can best engage with your audience on review sites and optimize every dollar of your marketing budget to get the best results.

Listen here to catch the full story about this new form of word of mouth marketing.

                               Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Why are review websites so important to your business?

Everyone knows that word of mouth marketing is the best form of marketing. For modern businesses, this type of marketing can be found digitally through review sites. Buyers are starting their purchase journeys online, and resources such as Capterra allow them to evaluate their needs and compare software programs. Buyers take online reviews very seriously, and the way your company responds to reviews describes a lot about your company’s leadership, culture, customer care, and products.

Using review websites as a lead generation strategy can work wonders for your business

One avenue for success that many CMOs aren’t aware of is the ability to combine a lead generation strategy with review sites. For example, if a buyer can find a highly-searched for review site on Google, then find your business on the review site, you can use that site’s organic traffic to drive leads to your site. Potential buyers that click through a review site onto your web pages can be captured as buyers with a higher level of interest than those who simply stumbled upon your site by accident.

Claire’s best advice for handling reviews left on your business, products, and services

Review sites can not only serve as a great lead generation strategy, but they can also be a new avenue for connecting with your audience. Drew explains that there are 2 facts in modern marketing: reviews will be given and therefore, you must seek to provide the best customer experience you can. Claire outlines a few key steps to follow when monitoring reviews:

  1. Decide which review sites matter to you (consider the ones with the highest volume of traffic)
  2. Monitor review (just as you would comments on social platforms)
  3. Invite people into the conversation
  4. Incorporate review collection into your closing/follow up process
  5. Graciously embrace the negative reviews (but closely monitor for incorrect or bot-driven reviews)

Claire’s #1 key to success for using review sites as a lead generation tool is to allow and encourage both positive and negative reviews. Having a mix increases your buyer’s trust with your company, and results in higher conversion rates for your products/services. Interacting with customer reviews isn’t always simple and easy, but it is 100% worth it.

Timeline

  • [0:30] Claire shares how she became involved at Capterra
  • [9:09] Claire’s biggest challenges as she transitioned from marketing to GM
  • [13:22] Your biggest outcomes come from having great processes
  • [19:54] Why are review sites so important?
  • [26:39] Claire’s best advice for approaching reviews left on your services and products
  • [32:30] Using review sites as a lead generation tool
  • [35:53] The best way to optimize your marketing dollars spent on review sites
  • [47:25] 2 do’s and 1 don’t for review site marketing strategies

Connect With Claire:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Perfecting the Art of People Marketing

Posted on by admin

With growing demands from the C-Suite, (often) low budgets, and pressure to keep up with today’s current trends, marketers constantly face the challenge of creating authentic content that builds brand awareness and inspires action. Every CMO knows how difficult it can be to recruit brand ambassadors to create compelling content that cuts through. But what if the answer could be found in the co-workers around you? A recent study showed that brand messages posted by employees achieved 561% more reach than posts made by the company itself—resulting in 8 times the engagement for those posts! You’ve probably heard of different employee advocacy programs, but Jeanniey Mullen’s concept of “people marketing,” through her role as CMO at Mercer, is a brilliant concept of building big brand awareness with no media budget at all. There is no formula and no equation to adhere to in order to get the best results. Jeanniey’s philosophy is simple: trust in your people to tell their stories.

Mullen has a deep background in advertising, start-ups, and entrepreneurship. Looking back at her career, she credits her renegade spirit to the Davos Squad initiative at Mercer—a content marketing success that created a one-of-a-kind buzz around hundreds of Mercer employees enthusiastically interacting with the brand on social media. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew and Jeanniey dive into how brand ambassadors can be formed within your own company. Jeanniey also explains her top three takeaways from initiating a “people marketing” program and demonstrates how to overcome any obstacles in your way.

Listen here to learn how to market engaging content in completely new ways.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher– or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

How can you use people marketing to create brand ambassadors?

Simply put, Jeanniey explains that “People marketing is the process of leveraging your company’s people in a way that’s so powerful, it takes your brand to new heights.” The first step in the people marketing strategy is to develop impactful content. Jeanniey created the AIR concept – content that is Authentic, Inspirational, and Relatable – in order to develop better material. Developing that content is only one part of the people marketing journey. You must then make your employees brand ambassadors. These ambassadors then share your content to reach new markets like never before.

Overcome the challenge of staying “on voice” by following these guidelines

With dozens or even hundreds of new employee brand ambassadors, how can a company stay “on voice” with the message? Jeanniey explains that the answer isn’t found in strict guidelines. If you provide authentic content to people, let them choose what to share and when, and allow their individual personalities to shine through, your people marketing strategy will be effective. If you want a brand ambassador’s post to be authentic, you can’t script their social media.

Jeanniey’s 3 key takeaways from successful people marketing campaigns

Throughout her time at Mercer, Jeanniey has learned 3 main lessons when handling people marketing campaigns. Here they are.

  1. Break the rules! Don’t be afraid to pursue new options.
  2. Don’t default to email (there are better, more creative options available)
  3. Nobody will pay attention to your content unless it’s really cool

People marketing has the power to forever change how you view marketing – be sure to learn from Jeanniey’s career.

Timeline

  • [0:29] Jeanniey’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [13:01] What is people marketing?
  • [21:18] Overcoming the challenge of staying “on voice” in people marketing
  • [25:42] People marketing is not just a single moment in time
  • [31:17] Tackling hurdles while pursuing this marketing strategy
  • [34:04] 3 key takeaways from using people marketing strategies

Connect With Jeanniey:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Why a Digital Brand Relies on Outdoor for Growth

Posted on by Drew Neisser

One of the most memorable Simpsons’ moments has to be Homer’s excitement for “new billboard day.” His car screeches to a halt on the highway, causes a major traffic jam, and he sticks his head out the window to take in the first new billboard: A romantic message, accompanied by decorative swirls and a picture of a man presenting a thrilled woman with a gift, reads: “This year, give her… English Muffins”. Homer squints, reads, and responds enthusiastically: “Whatever you say, Mr. Billboard!”

First and foremost, it’s a great laugh. Beyond that, however, it points to the widely-held notion that audiences are always out there and will be receptive to brands that deliver a strong, meaningful promise. In the non-animated world, that means going further than english muffins or Krusty’s Clown College, where Homer ends up.

In past 18 months, Pelosi and Zoom put forward the simple but powerful message “Meet Happy” to build awareness of their online meeting platform. Then they shared it with the world, but not just through ads on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. They invested heavily in billboards and transit ads across major US and European markets. The results? Weekly web traffic has grown 1600% since Janine joined Zoom. From the Spring of 2017 through Spring of 2018, the company has seen 100% year over year revenue growth and 135% year over year user base growth. That Simpsons gag was released in 1995, but Janine’s team is proving that billboards and outdoor advertising can still be powerful, as long as the message is right.

In this episode, Drew and Janine talk about effective, honest messaging and how to broadcast it to the world. Janine talks through Zoom’s success, its challenges, and her high-level thoughts on the role a CMO should play, especially in being an advocate for their team.

Click here to listen now.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Zoom’s latest brand awareness campaign is “Meet Happy,” and it works wonders without digital marketing

With an ever-increasing number of companies using Zoom to meet virtually, Janine and her team realized that meetings were a critical piece of modern business. They sought out to create a brand awareness campaign that would generate demand in a unique way. That’s why they stayed away from typical digital marketing strategies such as Facebook ads. Instead, they put outdoor marketing pieces across the world on buses, billboards, taxis, etc. Now, Zoom hosts over 39 billion annualized meeting minutes and provides services for 58% of the Fortune 500, over 75% of the 2017 Forbes Cloud 100, and over 96% of the top 200 US universities.

The “Meet Happy” campaign speaks to so many prospects because it encourages a positive emotion and interaction with a product. Delivering happiness and great meeting experiences are what Zoom does best, and it shows.

Generating demand is one thing, delivering on a promise is another. Zoom succeeds at both!

The “Meet Happy” campaign simply generates demand. It doesn’t capture that demand and turn it into leads and sales. For capturing the demand, Janine still relies on digital tools. By using this form of promise-based marketing, Janine creates positive connections with prospects even before they visit Zoom’s website. Their team follows through on that promise by always focusing on perfecting their product and having exceptional customer service.

Internally, the 1,300+ employee Zoom team keeps “be happy” as a company culture pillar. It focuses everyone around a central mindset and has bonded the team together as they grew.

Janine shares her main ideas for successful marketing, company culture, and innovation

At Zoom, having a supportive CEO is one of the biggest ingredients in their “secret sauce” of success. Janine explains that without the support and encouragement of top company leaders, organizing successful campaigns is difficult.

Are you interested in achieving the same amount of success as Zoom? Janine encourages all marketers to keep marketing practical, keep it simple, and stay focused. Don’t chase after all the tools on the market and don’t overthink your messaging. Simply know your brand, believe in your product, and trust your intuition.

Timeline

  • [1:15] How Janine’s work has increased Zoom’s marketing success in just 3 years
  • [2:35] Janine’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [11:49] How Zoom’s “Meet Happy” brand awareness campaign works wonders for capturing demand
  • [20:07] The “secret sauce” behind Janine’s marketing strategy at Zoom
  • [23:34] Delivering on the promise of the “Meet Happy” campaign
  • [26:45] Learn from the challenges Zoom’s marketing team has faced

Connect With Janine:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew