Recorded live from the Innovation Center at WVU Reed School of Media and Communications, Ruth Stevens and Cyndi Greenglass look at the fascinating marketing trends shared on their podcast over the first half of 2022. Included in the discussion are insights on the complex evolution of the customer experience (CX), the emerging power of Gen X as an audience, the importance of your digital first impression, the future of events, humanizing measurement, and connected TV (CTV). Don’t miss this opportunity to catch the highlights of the first half of 2022 and the marketing waves Cyndi and Ruth are riding over the horizon.
The Future of Higher Education Marketing
With Chad Mezera
The landscape of higher education has experienced major changes, but it is set to undergo a sweeping transformation in the years ahead. We need to prepare for that with three main focuses:
- Implement lifelong learning opportunities.
- Combine hard and soft skills.
- Marketers of higher education should take a page from the B2B playbook with segmentation geared toward a niche market.
Beware! Customer Expectations Never Go Backward With Jay Baer
- Customer experience really boils down to how you make your customers feel and how we impact their feelings.
- Customer service is not a singular project, it has to be considered continuously. Customers want quick, clear and kind service.
- 73% of customers change their expectation based on what they are experiencing with other businesses.
- Marketing now owns responsibility for customer experience. We need to make sure we stop doing things customers hate.
The Future of Content Marketing Will Surprise You With Andy Crestodina
- Not only do we need to get the right content on the right pages, we also need to get the landing pages to call out the most important content areas.
- What does your digital-first impression say about you? Your web presence makes a bigger difference than you think.
- Networking is so important. We may be digitally engaged, but we aren’t getting to network like we were. Digital connections are more important than ever. Make sure to update your LinkedIn profiles, it should shine like your website does.
New Directions for Virtual Events With David Meerman Scott
- When we think of virtual events, we can’t just move an in-person event online. We need to think about it from scratch.
- Virtual events are not going away, it’s here to stay and hybrid events are expected to continue.
Ideas for virtual events:
- When we are creating virtual events, it is different from a class, lecture or presentation.
- Pace the event like a TV show with a variety of short pieces with different content, people.
- Make sure to include interactivity early and frequently. Attendees need to feel like they are apart of the event.
- Have a surprise guest or musical interlude.
- We shouldn’t use the share slide tool. It takes away from the speaker.
Digital Anthropologist: The New Role for Marketers With Steve Gershik
- We’ve gone way beyond IADA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). We need to become digital anthropologists.
- We need to understand our customers more deeply by examining customer behaviors and signals to infer the steps needed to expand their value.
- We have to understand where they go, what they do, what they say to each other.
- We have to really think of how we support the customer after the initial sale and focus on ongoing customer engagement.
- It’s the funnel beyond the funnel. Companies need to pay attention to post customer accusation and also budget for it.
The Promise of Connected TV Advertising is Here With Brian Hunt
- CTV gives you the value of 1:1 marketing combined with TV. And it’s affordable.
- There are currently 3 types of CTV: Paid subscription services like Hulu, larger networks like Disney Plus and ad-supported apps like Pluto.
- CTV allows marketers to use a visual medium with individualized targeting.
The Future Belongs to Gen. X With Alicia Lifrak
- Marketers have forgotten about Gen X. We are focusing on Millennials too much, especially for fundraising.
- Gen X makes up a 2.4 trillion dollar market. If we ignore that, we are ignoring that at our own peril.
- We cannot start talking to them out of the blue. They are skeptical and don’t trust brands or companies. The messaging has to be authentic and transparent.
Too Many Tools, Too Little Think: Tackling the Challenge of Marcom Measurement With Katie Delahaye Paine
- We should forgive ourselves, measurement is hard. It varies by industry and medium.
- Our awareness to action funnel has sprung so many leaks.
- A lot of progress has been made to measurement tracking with new tools and mediums. We need to make sure we understand our objectives to pick the right metrics we need to track. Then pick the tools.
- We need to watch out for siloed measurement. We might not get the overall picture and the metrics need to be integrated across media and marketing practices.
- You are what you measure.
It’s Time to Humanize, not just Analyze, Data With Stephen H. Yu
- It’s time to humanize and not just analyze data.
- Stop annoying your customers with mindless automation and misplaced AI.
- Those who rely solely on automated analytic solutions will be the first to be replaced by the machine!
Marketing Communications Today presents Horizons, it’s forward-thinking, looking ahead, through the front windshield and beyond, into the marketing future. Join Cyndi and Ruth bi-weekly for new ideas, technologies, tools and strategies that are emerging to help marketers navigate over the marketing horizon.
Meet the hosts
Cyndi W. Greenglass is a founding partner and president at Livingston Strategies, a data-informed, strategic consulting firm that helps clients develop, execute, and measure their customer communications with a close focus on results. Cyndi has razor-sharp strategic skills matched by impeccable on-the-ground savvy and tactical abilities. She is an Adjunct Instructor in the Data Marketing Communications online master's degree program from West Virginia University.
Greenglass has twice been named into the Top 100 Influential BTB Marketers by Crain’s BtoB Magazine and was the 2012 CADM Chicago Direct Marketer of the Year. She is a member of the Board of Advisors for BRAND United and has taught, trained and presented at over 50 conferences throughout the world.
Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, for business-to-business clients. Ruth serves on the boards of directors of the HIMMS Media Group, and the Business Information Industry Association. She is a trustee of Princeton-In-Asia, past chair of the Business-to-Business Council of the DMA, and past president of the Direct Marketing Club of New York.
Ruth was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Marketing by Crain’s BtoB magazine, and one of 20 Women to Watch by the Sales Lead Management Association. She serves as a mentor to fledgling companies at the ERA business accelerator in New York City.