Distribion makes social media easier.

By now, there should be little doubt regarding the pervasiveness of social media. We’ve shared statistics on social media multiple times in the last year in this space, and new statistics come out frequently augmenting the case for social media. Without a well devised and implemented presence in social media, a company misses great opportunities to achieve greater success. Most target audiences can be found somewhere in social media.

Nevertheless, a quality presence in the social media space doesn’t occur out of thin air. Social media is something that takes a time commitment, a good degree of training & knowledge on a subject matter that is constantly evolving, as well as locating, producing and sharing relevant content. Additionally, concerns about corporate and regulatory compliance in regulated industries can increase the degree of difficulty. All these factors can work as disincentives from the perspective of a local sales agent.

Local sales agents in industries like financial services, insurance, healthcare and pharmaceuticals have a lot on their plates. There are always new sales objectives to meet, and retaining existing business is often a priority. There can be key client service issues to attend to, preparing presentations and tying up loose ends around the office, all taking time. For many, dedicating the required amount of time to having a fully formed and well implemented social media presence across multiple social media platforms can seem like an overwhelming task. Fortunately, local agents can have a valuable allies taking care of much of the time and content requirements in maintaining a social media presence.

Distribion has found a way for corporate entities to support their field sales agents in social media through automatic campaign scheduling and personalization options.

With automatic campaign scheduling, corporate marketing entities, who may have dedicated social media marketers, publish pre-approved social media campaigns that consist of numerous content posts with links to compelling content, including collateral. Once published, local sales agents opt-in to a campaign and our marketing automation software posts the content to the selected sites at the designated time intervals on their behalf. Local sales agents are not required to dedicate time to this in any way beyond the opt-in. They become able to spend more time selling, while their social brand is built and maintained for them.

With personalization options, corporate marketers can allow for places where posts can be customized, and if necessary, routed through a corporate approval process prior to being published. In any organization, some agents will take advantage of these personalization options, and there will be some that want to do no more than just opt-in to corporate campaigns. Either way, there is a presence in the social media space for the local agent, bolstering their own image amongst local prospective clients.

Once published, employees and marketing partners simply opt-in to a campaign and the software posts the content to the selected sites at the designated time intervals on their behalf. Local sales agents are not burdened with tasks of finding relevant, engaging content, community management or any other time consuming aspects of social media. They spend more time selling, while their social brand is built and maintained for them.

Getting your emails read is the first step in conducting an effective email marketing campaign.

Email marketing, when executed properly, has been known to deliver impressive results. One important factor in email marketing is that it is not very expensive when compared to traditional mass marketing means. The CMO Council notes that email marketing accounts for 15% of SMB marketing spend. Small to medium sized businesses often have limited budgets, so they need to choose marketing communications mediums where they will get the best return on marketing investment.

With email having the potential to be a cost effective medium, what are some ideas that brand marketers can use to get their emails read.

Earlier this year, The Harvard Business Review featured a blog post entitled “Write Emails That People Will Read”. The focus of the article was more comprehensive than just marketing communications, but it did offer some relevant insight for marketers.

Three suggestions from the article that resonated were:

1. Stick to standard capitalization and punctuation. This seems intuitively obvious, but sometimes errors are made. Re-check copy frequently to make sure that mistakes are not made.
2. Get straight to the point. This is especially relevant in a time of shorter attention spans. It is vital to be captivating to get read. The purpose of certain email messages is different than others.
3. Be brief — but not too brief. Brevity is a good thing. But leaving out pertinent details that can be difference between closing the sale and not closing the sale is not recommended. There is a limited window to keep someone’s attention. Keeping them reading key details in a short time span will always be a winning combination.

Two additional keys from me:

1. Compelling Content: Compelling content is the king of all marketing communications messaging. Why should I keep reading? What do you offer that is worth my time? Your content needs to address these concerns. Plus, if there’s language in the emails that creates an emotional reaction, even better. Compelling content is memorable, and we can often remember the way that we feel.
2. Calls to Action:  Marketing communications usually have a purpose. Before and during the writing of email marketing pieces, you should really be thinking about why you are communicating with your audience. What do you wish to accomplish with communication? Make sure that there is a alignment with the goals of communication and the calls to action. Do you want people to like/follow you in the social media space? Make it clear in your communication. Do you wish to ask for the sale? Ask for it. Be clear with what you want your audience to go and have clear metrics for measurement progress towards the goal of the communication.

Scheduling content is a great tool, but not always appropriate.

The tragedy in Boston on Monday was a horrific and saddening event. It also served a lesson in digital marketing.

Monday afternoon was a challenge for marketers in the digital space. The ability to schedule social media posts and emails is a wonderful asset to marketers, and is a part of our distributed marketing software. The scheduling of social media posts and emails has become a common practice, and during the vast majority of times, it helps brands drive top of mind awareness and brand engagement. However, during a tragic event when lives are lost due to a coordinated act of violence, the generally agreed upon course of action for brands is to cease posting and emailing for a time and to acknowledge the larger event. During a time of tragedy, there’s a saying that is often uttered, and it is “This really puts things into perspective.” There’s a reason why that phrase exists, and that’s because it is true.

This was not the first major tragedy of the social media era. The way in which information is disseminated has changed so much in such a short time. In some ways, 9/11 doesn’t seem that long ago, but in terms of the practice of digital marketing, it is ancient history. When 9/11 happened, social media marketing as a component of the marketing mix hadn’t really come to fruition. We were still 2 and a half years away from the launch of MySpace and Facebook and 4+ years before Twitter. YouTube wasn’t around. Email was an existing channel back then and had viability as a marketing tool.

Some organizations, particularly SMBs with fewer resources to attend to breaking news stories, may find themselves surprised by a breaking event such as this. There may be inadvertent branding social media posts that go out in the wake of the event, but if that happens, the best course of action to cease social media posting and immediately acknowledge the tragedy. Email doesn’t quite move as fast as social media in certain contexts but if an email campaign happens to go out right as a tragedy breaks, subsequent email marketing efforts should acknowledge the action and the tragedy.

The learning curve for digital marketing can be steep even for the best marketers. A good idea for organizations of all sizes to formally prepare for something like this. This is a similar approach to what I suggested when discussing brand crisis reactions. Preparation is a key to success in many facets of life, including digital marketing. There are times where it is appropriate to step back for a moment, and Monday’s events would certainly fit that description.

Engaging in the right thought processes regarding social media ROI is a part of achieving social media success.

In February, we posted Part One of this series. Part One was meant to be just an introduction to the topic. Part Two is a more in depth look, emphasizing mindset to measure ROI.

One of the thought leading pieces on this topic came from a 2010 article in the MIT Sloan Management Review. Although a number of the examples are rather dated at this point, most of the key themes touched on in the article remain true today, even with the drastic changes in social media in the 2 and a half years since it was released, confirming the classic saying of “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.

The MIT article indicated that traditional based efforts to measure ROI in the social space have been unsatisfying. By following this topic closely, it is easy to understand that perspective. There is a deluge of information out there on the topic. “Social Media ROI” on Google brings up 24 million+ results and “ROI Social Media” brings up 44 million + results. With so much information out there, how can one be absolutely sure that they are gaining a good perspective? Much of it would depend upon the original sourcing of the article. Like in the brand management world, reputation of the brand (in this case, publishing body) is everything. This is why I strongly feel that the MIT Sloan Management Review is a quality source to use as a framework for discussion.

The MIT article authors felt that the ROI model should be changed. They state:

“Effective social media measurement should start by turning the traditional ROI approach on its head. Instead of emphasizing their own marketing investments and calculating the returns in terms of customer response, managers should begin by considering consumer motivations to use social media and then measure the social media investments customers make as they engage with the marketers’ brands.

Handling the measurements this way makes much more sense. It takes into account not only short term goals such as increasing sales in the next month via a social media marketing campaign, or reducing costs next quarter due to more responsive online support forums, but also the long-term returns of significant corporate investment in social media.”

I like this approach because customer perception is a driving force in managing brands effectively. Brands exist due to the positive perception of how a brand solves a problem for a customer.

Almost every source of information on this topic, including the MIT article, encourages brands to define objectives or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of social media participation. I agree with that notion. Every brand needs to know where they are going in order to find a way to get there.

Common goals for participation in social media are increasing revenue and reducing costs. These are important, but the MIT article defines sub goals such as brand awareness and brand engagement. Brand awareness is the first step leading to purchase, so the idea of measuring brand awareness is key. Engagement matters as well, because a consumer that feels a connection with a brand on some level moves further along the AIDA model (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action), one of the fundamental components of marketing. Engagement could easily be classified as a sign of Interest, and certain engagement actions could also be classified as fostering Desire.

Brand awareness and brand engagement are accompanied by word of mouth as metrics of measurement in social media. These categorizations cover a wide spectrum of events and brand managers are well served to realize what these metrics are, a key step in taking action to guide their respective brands towards more positive social media outcomes. Although I don’t agree 100% with the way that the authors classify outcomes (there are instances where events are lumped into multiple categories, something that can be perceived as confusing), the framework remains valuable.

Brand awareness metrics will depend upon the type of social media presence that is being measured. With Facebook and Twitter, number of Likes & Follows respectively are the key metrics. With YouTube, number of video views is a key measure of awareness. Unique visitors to a blog helps to measure how well the blog is doing. Positivity and negativity are measured. There is a famous saying that “all publicity is good publicity”. I’m certainly not one to believe that. I believe that negative brand awareness can be detrimental to the fortunes of brands.

On Facebook, brand engagement metrics include number of comments & Likes on Facebook and the People Talking About This (PTAT) function, something not mentioned in the MIT article because it hadn’t been created at the time of publication. PTAT measures a variety of functions. On Twitter, number of @replies is a way to measure engagement. With blogs, number of comments on a blog and time spent on the blog count as engagement measures. The authors considered number of return visits under brand awareness, but I consider it brand engagement as return visits indicate more content consumed over an extended period of time. With a blog, it is usually a good thing if there’s an audience that regularly returns. With YouTube, seeing lots of comments is a key indicator of interest.

Word of mouth metrics involve re-posts on Facebook, retweeting on Twitter, reblogging or sharing blogs in the social media space, sharing of video, etc. The more of this, the better when the context of the sharing, re-posting or retweeting is positive.

It is apparent that these 3 categorizations are dependent upon actions of existing and potential customers. Therefore, it wasn’t unexpected that the authors said:

“effective social media strategies put the brand to work for the customer”

That idea is one of the larger scale evolutions in the promotion aspect of marketing in the last 10-15 years. Prior to Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, this idea existed, but it wasn’t as prominent because consumer interaction with a brand moved at a slower pace than today. Take for instance the story of bourbon brand Maker’s Mark. The brand made a decision to reduce the alcohol content of their signature bourbon offering. The social media outcry was so significant that the plans got shelved in less than a week and the re-formulated Maker’s Mark never made it to stores. In 1985, the New Coke re-formulation made it to market for a few months before negative consumer perceptions led to Coca-Cola reversing course. Now more than ever, the public has greater influence over brand decisions.

Social media is here to stay as a part of the marketing mix. It is a two way, real time avenue of communication between consumers and a brand. The metrics of evaluation discussed are means of social listening. If a brand receives negative feedback in their social media efforts, it is a sign that the brand likely needs to adjust some component of their communication and/or other aspects of the marketing mix. Understanding what the consumer thinks and feels about the brand is an essential step in the mindset of getting to a positive ROI in social media efforts. Without the correct means of measurement, a brand is less likely to know what leads a social media to positive outcomes, most importantly an ROI that delivers measurable impact on the income statement.

Next time, I’ll evaluate some mathematical equations that have been proposed to measure social media ROI. Stay tuned!

Not participating in social media could be hazardous to your brand’s well being.

Trade publication “Insurance & Technology” recently featured an article about social media’s dangers. The article cited a quote from a VP at a life insurance company and a consultancy in the insurance industry. There was some alignment in their perspectives. The VP at the life insurance company stated that “the value in terms of selling” for social media hasn’t “warranted a huge investment.” The consultancy discussed the dangers in the social media space, but also mentioned social media monitoring as having value.

What the executive in the life insurance company said may hold value in their organization. At the time of this writing, I’m not entirely familiar with what their social media practices have been to this point. While it is easy to start a presence in social media, curating a social media presence in a beneficial way is a challenging blend of an art and an science, with no one size fits all, single correct answer. Selling is one way to measure a social media presence, but selling shouldn’t necessarily be the one and only metric in measuring social media ROI. There is a lot more that goes into a social media presence than just broadcasting messages to increase sales. Social media can be used for brand awareness, for education about a topic and for meaningfully connecting your brand to something that has entertainment value. Goal setting, reasonable expectations and goal alignment with the various mediums within social media are some of the keys to success in the social media world.

I would agree with the idea that social media monitoring, at the very least, is essential. A brand needs to have a feel for the outside world and the way that the brand is perceived out there. Social media efforts can enhance surveying and targeted focus groups but shouldn’t necessarily be perceived as a replacement of these methods for measuring sentiment. If a brand doesn’t have the right insights and conduct the right research, how are they going to make the right branding decisions? Research and analytics are great guides in making the right branding decisions.

While monitoring is good, monitoring without participation isn’t a panacea. At the very least, in discussing the insurance world, perhaps insurance brands would be wise to think about a social media presence in the same manner as they often position their products. Insurance product offerings, regardless of category, are meant to be a safeguard against catastrophic events. Social media can be thought of in the same way. A social media presence could be perceived as an insurance policy in the event of a brand crisis. Brand crises seem to happen sooner or later to nearly every brand. It warrants taking steps to be prepared to deal with these situations when they arise. Swift, decisive action communicated rapidly is much of the equation in having a quality response to a brand crisis. Social media plays a big role in this.

No matter what line of insurance a brand is in, their target market is likely to be found in social media, as well as their current policyholders. Customer acquisition and retention are fundamental keys to any business. Retention should always be a priority as it is usually easier to keep your current clients happy than find new ones to replace the departed ones. Social media can be used to play a part in retention. It can impact retention through facilitating meaningful discussions with current policyholders and addressing issues while they are less severe, with the hope of preventing escalation to a point where there is major dissatisfaction and the desire to change insurance companies.

Certainly, there are dangers in a social media presence. I feel that the greater danger is complete non participation. Each brand will have to determine their own goals are and their comfort level in social media participation. Regardless of organizational goals, social media earns a place in the marketing communication mix.

How does a brand get on someone’s radar? Building meaningful relationships with those who will positively discuss the brand with their friends is one key way.

A report from Forrester Research, based on survey responses from 58,000 respondents, indicates what could be perceived as a severe advertising trust gap. The data indicated that 70% of consumers trust brand recommendations from friends but only 10% trust advertising messages. At first glance, this may seem like a significant deficiency for brand advertisers and a substantial knock of the process of advertising itself. While there is relevance in this snippet of data, it does not spell doom for advertising. I expect advertising to be around in some form 100 years from today.

Certainly, this is nothing new. There’s often been an inclination, which has either manifested itself in quantitative or qualitative data, to trust what friends are doing with their brand choices more so than basing product or service purchase decisions just randomly based on information out there. Information out there is a wide categorization and can be anything from a company website, to offline marketing material to company review pages on Yelp. Those items, along with many other items, have usefulness, but word of mouth based on a one to one personal relationship with a history of significant in person time spent together is going to be valued significantly higher in the decision making process. This is not a new concept to the marketing world, as I regard this as a fundamental truth that existed prior to the Internet and social media eras.

Another fundamental truth is that the gap, while real, is probably not as big as the data may indicate. One of the common factors in survey responses is social desirability bias, the idea that respondents respond in a way that will make them appear socially appealing. It is socially appealing to deride advertising. With that said, positive word of mouth from one’s existing social network is still going to have a stronger net effect in inducing brand beliefs that will deliver greater market share.

So what does this mean for brand managers?

Ultimately, your world hasn’t changed as a result of the newest research. Some of the key ideas that the Forrester report touches upon are reflected in key themes that routinely come up on this blog. Two of those key themes are the importance of local level marketing efforts and the proliferation of online marketing channels that has created the new multi-channel environment. Both of these themes are part of the process of building more meaningful relationships that can enhance word of mouth marketing, which has adapted to the new digital ecosystem.

The CMO Council has noted that one of the key initiatives amongst brand marketers during 2013 is going to be greater localization of content. Local customization is a key element of distributed marketing, and why the distributed marketing model is in place in a number of industries. The use of the distributed marketing model alone does not provide a competitive advantage, but Gleanster noted top performers are 7 times more likely to utilize distributed marketing management software within their organization.

The multi-channel marketing approach is a way to attempt to get in front of as much as your target market within reason. But when members of that potential target market are doing research, it is best to have a multifaceted digital presence. Seeing content on a website and Facebook Fan Page can be a good start for driving basic brand awareness and can serve as validation of brand beliefs developed from other sources. It is good to use video to deepen relationships and provide for easy to consume content. Paying attention to Google and Yelp reviews is often essential. Reputation management is its own burgeoning sub discipline of marketing communications. The Internet is often the vehicle for word of mouth marketing and it is frequently the go to source for company research when someone lacks familiarity regarding a brand.

Now more than ever, the distributed marketing model and the anatomy of a distributed marketing platform are relevant in delivering marketing outcomes that are closely aligned with top performing brands.

**Special Announcement**

Want to master multi-channel marketing? You won’t want to miss this webinar on March 28 at 1 PM. tinyurl.com/cpdldro

Take note! Distributed Marketing Management Software is a key initiative for marketers.

Content distribution is a key concern for marketers. Recent research from Gleanster and the CMO Council has reinforced this notion. For instance:

• A significant percentage of companies are having difficulty finding balance between corporate marketing and local marketing efforts. Recent research from Gleanster noted that 93% of distributed marketing organizations cited the conflicting needs of local marketers and corporate marketing as one of the biggest challenges. CMO Council data indicates that 61% of marketers they surveyed felt that local customization of content would be a high priority during 2013. 
• Use of technology has corporate & local marketers at odds. Separate technologies being used at the corporate & local levels creates marketing inefficiencies that often put a drag on marketing outcomes. In highly regulated industries, too much local level customization can cause brand compliance issues, which can have monetary consequences. 
• Use of distributed marketing management software is a crucial factor for top performers. Gleanster observed that top performing companies were 7 times more likely to be utilizing distributed marketing management software.

These findings have not surprised Distribion. CEO Tim Storer said:

“Organizations have a huge content management and distribution challenge due to the proliferation of marketing channels. What we offer is a solution that streamlines and optimizes the marketing distribution process, maintains brand and corporate messaging requirements and provides valuable insight into all marketing activities.”

To Read More: http://www.prweb.com/releases/Distributed-Marketing/Marketing-Automation/prweb10549119.htm

The various sides of dice represent the multi-channel marketing environment. Don’t leave your marketing plans up to a roll of the dice. Plan & know where to be.

Visa ads once had a famous tagline of “It’s Everywhere You Want To Be”. So where is the everywhere that brand marketers want to be? Simply everywhere, or as close to everywhere within reason.

One of the key challenges of the present era in marketing is changing the mindset from single channel to multi-channel. Brand marketers need to stop thinking about marketing communications efforts in a single setting and think more fully about how the efforts are going to integrate holistically. How will the pieces of the puzzle fit together? Here are the 5 basic components of a multi-channel digital marketing approach and why all marketers should be thinking about them.

1. Your social media efforts are going to be instrumental in developing top of mind brand awareness. Mostly every brand is going to find a sizable portion of their target market somewhere in the social media space. Last month, I wrote “Who Will You Find on a Social Network?“, which was an analysis of the recent Pew Center Internet & American Life Project data. Some of the more notable stats were:

• 67% of all Internet users are using at least one social media site
• 83% of those 18-29 are on a social network

It would be easy to surmise that those who use social media would be more inclined to check up on a brand in the social media space than those who didn’t. Social media is a great way to share interesting content, share news about what’s going on with your brand and to interact with others. It is a good idea to engage others meaningfully in the space. The best results come from engagement and interaction.

The first stop in social media is likely to be Facebook, as it is the most dominant social media site by market share. Not every brand is a good fit for Facebook engagement, so it’s not necessarily mandatory to be there, but it is close to it. Twitter is a really good fit for some brands and LinkedIn is a hub of B2B activity. Instagram is growing quickly as pictures are always popular online. Pictures and video are key parts of a multimedia experience.

2. Email marketing is not dead. In fact, there’s been survey data from the last couple of years that indicates that marketers still find it to be one of the most effective channels. It has evolved over time though. One of the key developments has been the rise of mobile platforms. Earlier this month, I wrote about Why People Think Mobility = Survivability and that article referenced a survey that shows email in the mobile space is considered a more vital app than Facebook. The Nielsen Company released data in 2011 showing that email was the #1 activity amongst mobile Internet users as measured by time spent on it.

3. Video is a crucial component. YouTube is the second largest search engine. Marketing is all about making things easy. People often find it is easier to consume video content than written content. Good video also works well with your social media efforts, as video content can easily be shared and go viral. Video content is often perceived as more engaging.

4. Websites and Blogs. As a brand, this is what you own. Your website is the centerpiece of all of your online marketing efforts. Website content can be used for social media updates. It is still a place where you can sell the best features of your product or service offering. The blog is the hub of knowledge sharing of more than a couple of sentences. It can tie into social media updates, email marketing content and can be used as a basis for videos. Websites & blogs tie into SEO efforts as well.

5. Landing Pages. The landing page is a key component to marketing strategy. The landing page is page people arrive based on some sort of online marketing effort. Often times, the landing page is the result of a PPC campaign like Google Adwords, but landing pages can be the destinations of email marketing campaigns. They can often contain videos. The landing page is tied into other online channels and is often a source of good marketing analytics. It should be where you get your target audience to do exactly what you want it to do.

As you can see, all of these 5 places work together. There must be alignment. Marketing communication efforts work best when the various elements of the mix are working harmoniously together. When marketing communications are working, it is a step in the right direction towards achieving the most desirable business outcomes.

Local customization is a key component of the Distributed Marketing Platform

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will begin in earnest on Thursday, but the field of teams was chosen yesterday. The tournament is a noteworthy event in the annual cultural calendar, particularly in places where college basketball is closely followed by a significant portion of the population. This represents a tremendous opportunity for brand advertisers in all industries, including distributed marketing brands in insurance and financial services.

Experian has compiled data and released research findings about the cultural significance of the tournament. According to Experian, the men’s tournament will reach nearly 20% of adults age 18 or over. This is an impressive statistic given today’s fractured media consumption patterns, a result of a multi-channel environment. It’s not just the reach alone that is impressive. This is a highly lucrative audience as well. Close to 40% of the fan base earns at least $100,000, and they tend to work in ‘white collar’ occupations. Four of the six most affluent market segments, based on Experian’s Mosaic lifestyle segmentation solution, have a 50% or greater likelihood to be watching the men’s tournament compared to U.S. households overall.

Given the characteristics of this target market, a lot of brands see this market as vital, and conduct campaigns around the event. Typically speaking, potential legal issues surrounding campaigns would likely be addressed at the corporate level, as marketers are often taught to be aware of legal implications of branding actions. In distributed marketing management organizations, brand compliance is a very pressing issue due to the highly regulated nature of the industries where the distributed model is prevalent. For instance, in financial services, FINRA is a key regulatory body, and they are known to fine over advertising issues.

In terms of local customization, there are ways for local agents, supported by corporate, to customize to local tastes around the tournament. Experian also released a list of the metropolitan areas that stream NCAA tournament games online the most. While the list of cities that stream the most may not fully represent the geographical breakdown of fan interest of the tournament, there is a degree of correlation with this statistic regarding overall interest. The two most NCAA tournament streaming metro areas are Austin, Texas and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. This makes sense because Austin is the home of University of Texas, a very large public university in one of the most populous US states. Austin also is not home to any professional sports teams, so University of Texas sports get a lot of local attention. Raleigh-Durham also makes sense, because it is close to Duke and University of North Carolina, two teams that traditionally have winning basketball programs. The closest pro teams to Raleigh-Durham are over 150 miles away in Charlotte. Austin and Raleigh-Durham are also known to have employment hubs in technical, science and engineering fields. Local agents in the insurance and financial services fields in these geographies and numerous others have a quality opportunity to capture attention in multi-channel marketing campaigns based on the size of the target market, the interest in college basketball in these locales, and the favorable financial statistics. Local agents are known to have more of a personal relationship than corporate entities, and bonds can be built around fanship in a college basketball program. Both email marketing and social media marketing would be key components in a locally customized campaign.

There’s a financial incentive for brands to take advantage of local customization while retaining centralized marketing control that will ensure brand compliance. Use of the Distributed Marketing Platform is a very good step in conducting well executed local customization campaigns. Gleanster noted that companies using a distributed marketing technologies are 7 times more likely than their competitors to be a top performer in their industry. Top performance should be an aspiration that brands work to make reality.

Baby Boomers represent a tremendous target market for distributed marketing organizations

There’s a lot to be impressed with from the perspective of many brands with regard to the 50+ market. Many brands that operate using the distributed marketing model are in industries that the 50+ market would be favorably inclined to, such as insurance, financial services and healthcare.

First off, consider the sheer size of this market. The Seattle Post Intelligencer noted that the 30% of the 2011 USA population would be over 50 years old. In 2013, that number has likely inched up even more, as demographic trends that led to that estimate have not abated. Futurity published news this week that Americans are living longer. That can be interpreted as good news, but the good news is tempered by the fact that the population has been experiencing more sickness, so quality of years isn’t spectacular. An aging population alone doesn’t make the USA unique. In fact, it is common knowledge that Western European nations and Japan possess aging populations as well. In some countries, it is even more dramatic than the US. Children born per woman has been decreasing in many countries over time, including the US. The overall, long term population trend is going to be more top heavy in age distribution tables, meaning that there will be more and more 50+ people as a percentage of the overall population and fewer 35 and unders. In prior times, many brands considered the 18-34 population to be the holy grail. That notion has already begun to evolve. The evolution of that thought process will become even more apparent over the next decade.

The sheer size of the 50+ market isn’t the only reason why brands are going to be allocating more resources pursuing this demographic. The primary reason that this trend will emerge more and more is because money talks. The aforementioned Seattle Post Intelligencer article also stated that 50+ Americans were expected to outspend their younger counterparts by over $1 Trillion in 2011. Marketing is only successful when market share exists through sales of a product or service. Brands need to know that there’s a target market with disposable income to spend on their offering. LIMRA (Life Insurance & Market Research Association) Retirement Research indicates  that investible retirement assets of U.S. households aged 55+ will nearly double to $22 trillion by 2020, which would be a boon to the financial services industry. Additionally, LIMRA notes that Boomers will be responsible for directing their own retirement plans.

Compare the Boomers to the generational cohort of their children, known most commonly as Generation Y or Generation X, a smaller cohort of adults commonly in between the two generations. Generation Y (approximate birth years of 1980-1994) has been disproportionately affected by recent recessionary conditions. First off, the younger you are these days, the more likely you are to be unemployed. But just having a job isn’t necessarily a panacea.  With many Generation Y era born children graduating into recession, income stats have been lower, net worth has been lower and student debt has been rising. These factors set the stage for potential lifelong financial impact. However, some statistics indicate that the recession may have just accelerated pre-existing trends. A 2012 Forbes article where Penelope Trunk (a generational expert) indicated that Generation X (approximately birth years 1965-1979) will be the first generation to earn less than their parents. This is notable because unlike Generation Y  they did not typically graduate college into the worst of post Year 2000 recessions. Many actually graduated college during the mid to late 1990s, when the economy was booming. Many of the economic factors in this paragraph are at least moderately correlated with the age distribution facts in the previous paragraph. It has been a well documented phenomenon that people don’t have as many children during times of recession and/or economic stress (this partially explains the US phenomenon of fewer births during the peak of the 1930s Great Depression and Generation X being relatively smaller due to 1970s era recessionary conditions).

What does all of this mean for brands in this distributed marketing space? Each brand will have their own approach to the phenomena, but many brands have the potential to be positively impacted.

Brands that are strongly associated with life insurance could easily benefit from this. As one ages, it can be a common approach to think more and more about death. Even if a person has fewer children, there’s still enough of a base of loved ones that a person leaves behind and often times, there is a wish for descendants to be taken care of. In many cases, this desire could be getting stronger as those in their 20s and 30s today are having a harder time forging ahead on their own. Preserving existing family assets could be a significant motivating factor now and more so in the years to come. Older populations would be more inclined to have the means to pay premiums and the mindset to perceive this product offering more favorably.

Financial services has the potential to benefit in certain ways. In financial services, there may be a shift in the marketing messaging, especially amongst local level agents. The way in which the consumer may perceive the need for financial services and allocate resources may be shifting. There may be more conservative portfolio allocation approaches, both amongst older individuals who have greater means than younger individuals (older investors tend to be more conservative in portfolio balances) and amongst some younger individuals, fearful of stock market losses. There’s been some data out there that suggests the those in their 20s now have taken some financial traits of their grandparents’ generations (the children born in the 1920s raised during the height of the Great Depression).

Healthcare brands, depending upon their space in the healthcare market, may see greater demand services given the sheer size of the 50+ market. Medical devices and pharmaceuticals, particularly in areas where the customer base tends to be older, are best positioned to succeed.

A sizable portion of mainstream brands across a wide array of industries had never really considered the 50+ market in their promotion strategies for a myriad of reasons. The primary reason is they have not been considered a profitable segment of the market, and for certain brands that may still ring true, but less so amongst brands in industries that commonly use distributed marketing models. It has been that these types of brands considered this market to be set in their ways, unlikely to be open to new brands and not extravagant spenders. They have also associated 50+ individuals as a declining market, and brands often desire to be associated with ascending or peak maturity markets. However, the Baby Boomers, poised to make up the overwhelming majority of the 50+ market in the years to come, are fundamentally different from 50+ individuals and senior citizen markets of the past. Unlike their parents, the generation that spent their formative years during the Great Depression and World War II and were significantly scarred as a result, the Baby Boomers were raised during an era of economic prosperity and are more likely to have an optimistic outlook. They are also more likely to spend money more freely than the children of the Great Depression, tying into desires of brand managers to have target markets who can afford the product/service offering. Numerous studies have indicated that the Boomers are less brand loyal than the parents’ generation, which is a doubled edged sword for brands. There are greater opportunities for customer acquisition but customer retention could be more difficult, especially in organizations that do not keenly focus in this area.

Taking all of this into account, how does a brand develop actionable items around this knowledge?

The Boomers, the majority of the 50+ market today and in forthcoming years, are more technologically savvy and becoming more and more aware. In my recent article, “Who Will You Find on a Social Network?“, I noted that 57% of 50-64 year olds use Facebook, and 35% of those 65+ use Facebook. Expect to see the number of people who use at least one social media network, even if it isn’t Facebook, to grow over the next 5-7 years for 3 reasons:

1. People will age into new categories. People in their 40s using social media and apps will become 50+ and a lot of the late 50/early 60s users (first wave Boomers) of social media will become 65+
2. In the technology adoption life cycle, we are near the late majority or laggard phase in social media. There’s still some growth to be had here in the 50+ market
3. Non users of computers or mobile devices will pass away

Additionally, I believe there’s going to be a rise of 50 and 55+ individuals regularly using 2 social networks or more in the years to come. When there are more online channels, there’s more places for brands to be, creating greater complexity in the marketing ecosystem, and greater complexity calls for distributed marketing management software, particularly distributed social media marketing. One of the features of a distributed social media marketing software solution is integrated campaign scheduling, meaning that scheduling campaign posts across social networks is much easier, and can work in conjunction with other elements of a brand’s marketing communications mix, including email marketing. This ensures that a brand’s core marketing message is everywhere that their target market is. Repetition encourages brand recall, and has the potential to be correlated with positive brand beliefs, if the marketing messaging is compelling.

The size and relative financial strength of 50+ market makes them an apt target for many brands, but especially brands that operate within industries that typically use a distributed marketing model. The 50+ market is becoming more and more technologically savvy and marketers who can effectively optimize, distribute and manage content across the variety of online media channels are best positioned to reap financial benefits.