5 Marketing Strategies We Can Learn From Trump

Who saw this coming? Like all of my liberal friends, I am stunned that Donald Trump is not only still in the race but well on his way to winning the nomination. That he espouses racism, has no platform or foreign policy experience and has never held elective office doesn’t seem to deter his fans—those with limited world views who don’t understand that there are consequences to actions. The office of President of the United States isn’t, after all, an entry-level position. Yet as a marketing expert, you have to step back and admire marketing strategies that are working, unfortunately, flawlessly. Here’s what we can learn from Donald Trump.

1. Live Your Brand

Trump owns his brand. He lives and breathes it, rarely steering off course. Trump has helped the GOP debates hit unprecedented viewer ratings because people knows exactly what to expect when they tune in to watch him. Never before have we seen this kind of entertainment value associated with political debates. Dubious though it may be, his brand practically guarantees news headlines and everyone wants a front-row seat. A strong brand helps built relationships—or in Trump’s case, voters.

2. Dominate the Media

Have we ever known a more talked-about candidate? We may find him loathesome, but we remain fascinated by his insults and diatribes. Trump clearly understands that there is no such thing as bad press and luxuriates in all of his free media attention. He enjoys nearly universal name recognition across the country, while lesser known, more qualified candidates struggle for attention. When it comes to politics, world issues, media, minorities, women and even Saturday Night Live, Trump is dominating the headlines—he’s everywhere. To dominate the media you need to be willing to take a stand on an issue and be consistent—sadly, he has mastered that.

3. Haters Are a Good Thing

If people don’t hate you, you aren’t trying hard enough. Brand haters, who may be your competitors, not only bring you more media attention but provide the opportunity to defend yourself, defend your brand, and take a stand for what you believe in. But this isn’t just about supporting Trump; there’s more going on here. People have an innate need to belong—to feel connected and to be a part of something bigger than themselves. More than being a Trump supporter, they want to be a part of making America great again.

4. Make Controversy Work for You

Trump is a master at making controversy work for him. On the campaign trail, this has been one of his driving forces. He’s skilled at taking sensitive issues and pushing them into the limelight. Trump brings attention to hot topics and forces issues to be talked about. He’s been able to break through the noise and make the 2016 campaign memorable.

5. Meet and Connect with Your Audience on Every Level

The most successful brands share common traits, such as passion, uniqueness, consistency, and exposure. Exposure used to be limited to the big brands with deep pockets, but the internet has leveled the playing field, and Trump’s team has learned to leverage this channel–more than 5M Twitter followers, 5M likes on his Facebook page and he’s passed the 750K mark on Instagram. These channels are critical in connecting with a younger audience. Trump has learned that he needs to be using all forms of media to connect with his potential voters.

What’s next

Trump’s own party hates him and may attempt an end run at the Republican convention. There is every reason why he should be defeated. Now, more than ever, we need leaders who are seasoned, rational and understand the consequences of their actions. We’ve learned from this campaign that what we don’t need is another bigot with a private agenda—there are already way too many of these. Yet there are other lessons we can learn from Donald Trump—savvy marketing techniques.

Need help with your marketing strategy? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content media experts. 

Social Media Belongs in Every B2B Marketing Strategy

You don’t have to be a social media junkie to understand that this medium has changed the way we communicate. We’re sharing our lives, our personal challenges and triumphs with our communities. We’re also sharing the minutiae, the silly things that humanize us and make us interesting. The collection of our random posts, these snippets of information accompanied by images help tell our stories; they document our lives. This personal component has become an important part of the new marketing paradigm—there needs to be an emotional connection, and people want to know about the people with whom they’re going to be working.

Forget about “not my audience”

Many of my clients are in B2B environments, and they discount social media as a communication tool for kids. I get a lot of “not my audience.” Their single concession consists of a boring profile on Linkedin. But social media isn’t just for kids anymore; creating a social media presence and owning it is a critical part of building your online presence. It has a tremendous impact on your SEO value. Every time your name and that of your business appears in the online space, it contributes to your SEO value. It’s cumulative. Consistent with Google’s last few algorithm changes, there’s an emphasis on quality content. Posts that are thoughtful, timely, well-written and relevant. Use images—people expect to be entertained.

Social media should be part of every B2B marketing strategy 

Recent research looking at buyers in the IT sector found that 86% use social media when making a purchase decision. These buyers tend to be the young adults who are also using social media for fun.

But the research also showed where the influential decision-makers tend to hang out:

• 83% research on LinkedIn
• 80% check out Twitter
• 80% look at Facebook business pages
• 61% review YouTube videos
• 39% use Google+

Do these numbers surprise you? They shouldn’t 

Twitter just celebrated its tenth birthday. Facebook is 12 and Linkedin is now a rambunctious teenager, at 14. And these are just the Big 4. This doesn’t include Instagram, Snapchat and the gazillion or so other social media apps that are popping up and capturing people’s imaginations every month.

Social media is not going away; it’s an accessible communication tool that’s deeply ingrained in our lives. Informed buyers these days expect to do research before purchasing a product or service, and the vehicle to do that is conveniently located in the palm of their hands—the ever-present cellphone. They’ll look at your website, read your About section and your Linkedin profile. They’ll also go to your social media sites to see what kind of presence you have. They’ll want to see what you’re posting and what people are posting about you.

Just one channel in an overall marketing plan

Social media is just one marketing channel, but it should be part of a larger marketing strategy. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs are overwhelmed by social media—they don’t have the resources to really create a robust presence and build a huge community. That’s okay. The important thing is to have a steady, consistent message that’s informative and fun. Don’t become a slave to social media—but you can't afford to neglect it either.

Need help incorporating social media into your marketing plan? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.

The Truth About Algorithms--And Why You Should Expect to See More of Them

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So what are algorithms?

Algorithms are machine learning systems designed to ‘learn’ about user interests based on their on-platform activities. Google’s been tweaking its dreaded algorithms since 2002, constantly upgrading its back-end processes to stay one step ahead of SEO scammers to deliver the best, most relevant search results. Google changes its algorithms some 500 or so times/year. Yet it’s the big ones—Hummingbird, Panda, and the most recent, Mobilegeddon, which debuted in April 2015, that have had a major impact on SEO. Google and its algorithms own the search space.

Amazon’s been using personalized algorithms since the late 90s, and users are rewarded with a system that recommends products for you based on your search and purchasing history. We may not like the the big-brother mentality, but we love the results.

Let’s take a look at Facebook and its algorithms

Facebook was the first social network to implement an algorithm. They developed the News Feed Algorithm and initially it focused on pretty obvious variables like:

1. How often you interact with the friend, Page, or public figure (like an actor or journalist) who posted the story.
2. The number of likes, shares and comments a post receives from the world at large and from your friends in particular.
3. How much you have interacted with this type of post in the past – the post format (photo, link, text) and the content. Fans of kittens will see more kittens; basketball fans will see more basketball stories, etc. Your individual interests drive your activity, which in turn drives the algorithm.

When is the right time to implement algorithms?

The ideal time to implement an algorithm is at that point when engagement is starting to plateau, when the noise is increasing and people are seeing fewer posts; they’re beginning to spend less time on the platform, as a result. Look at Facebook’s stats; there are more than:

• 3B monthly active users on Facebook
• 54M business pages
• 640M minutes on Facebook each month of combined use by its users

The goal of News Feed is to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time so they don’t miss the stories that are important to them. Facebook put measures in place to maximize their on-platform material and enhance the user experience by matching them with content that’s most appealing to them. It’s perfectly logical: why let your audience lose interest when you have both the tools and posts that can keep them engaged?

The truth about algorithms is that they work

Algorithms deliver better user experiences, they sort the signals from the noise of the growing number of social networks and connect users to the content that’s most relevant to them. The best algorithms may know your likes and interests better than you do, and we’re going to see more of them for one very good reason—they work.

Are you getting the most from your marketing program? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We're writers and content marketing experts.

Content Marketing Case Study: Web Referrals Up 50%

I began working with California Document Preparers more than a year and a half ago to develop and execute a content marketing program. At the time, they were doing a weekly blog–working an anonymous blogger in the Midwest; they knew these blogs were neither relevant nor topical.

He wasn’t making any particular effort to stay on top of industry news or local headlines that translated to timely blog topics for our community.

Our program is based on consistency and a weekly blog

We are doing a weekly blog, a monthly newsletter and we’re posting to 4 social media sites 2x/week: Google+, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. We post our blog to our website and Linkedin and we just began posting it to Blogger–it’s a Google product, and they own the search space, and it’s ridiculously easy to use.

We follow best practices

I do the small things that enhance SEO value–I always include our name in every social media post, I label every image with our company name and I include alt tags with our images. I identify keywords and metadescriptions. These are small things, but they’re cumulative and they make a difference.

In less than a year, our reporting showed that our web referrals were up 60% over that time last year, which translated to $95K in revenue. This is a significant increase for a small company, and we continue to increase our visibility. In mid-February 2016, our web referrals were up 50% over that time last year. 

Quality, well-written content that’s topical and relevant

It’s the steady posting of quality, well-written content that’s enhanced my clients’ web presence. We’ve noticed other things. We’re not killing ourselves on social media. We post religiously, rotating through our services, always including an image. We used to get 15-20 views on our FB posts. Now we’re consistently getting 90-150. It’s all part of our steadily increasing presence.

We’ve made other changes. We’re a company that provides a high level of customer service—we’re about our people. So we did a photoshoot, and we featured a team member each month in a profile. We want people to get to know us, and these have proved very popular.

A new website and a new approach

After a heroic effort to rehab our old website to make it more accessible, we had a come-to-Jesus and realized that rather than try to beat this old site into submission it was time to bury it and start fresh. We wanted a new, modern site that was straightforward and attractive, with significantly streamlined navigation.

Content that reaches people on an emotional level

We’d gone through a complete catharsis and knew that we needed to dump our old content. We’d been laboriously trying to educate people about the legal services we provided, yet metrics showed that people weren’t reading these pages. Our new approach is based on simpler content and good images; we want to reach our clients on an emotional level. Our message is that we’re there for them to help them through their uncontested divorces, living trusts, probates and other legal matters. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable. 

Need help with your content marketing program?

Content marketing works! Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.