The presentation topic was definitely of interest to me. It was about bringing up teenagers (I have a 14-year-old son, thankfully showing no major teenage behaviour traits . . . yet, other than a propensity to leave everything to the last minute, which he’s had all his life!). But I couldn’t believe how fast the time went or how captivated I was by the speaker’s fantastic storytelling ability.  And for someone who doesn’t always remember things without writing them down, I really believe his stories will stick with me.

It made me think about the role of storytelling in marketing. Today’s digital marketing channels are completely overloaded with stories; Instagram and Facebook have completely adopted this concept with “Facebook Stories” and “Instagram Stories”.

Stories resonate with people and are something we typically respond well to, because everyone likes a good story – and in fact, we are actually hardwired to listen and pay attention to stories. Individual ads, emails or promotions are great for short-term action, but stories can reinforce your brand and resonate more over a longer period of time.

As a marketer, I urge clients to create stories and write engaging content all the time. But every company is trying to tell a story and get customers to pay attention to their websites, their email campaigns, text messages and Google ads.  I’m doing it now with this article!  There’s endless competition. Apparently, people now see between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day . . . and that’s just ads.

So how do we cut through all the noise, get people to stop scrolling and hear us? Do our stories need to be more shocking?  Media outlets and tabloids have tried this for years with ‘propaganda’ headlines and ‘fake news’, etc., but especially after COVID, we’re all really tired of shouty headlines designed to reel you in when there’s really no substance behind the magic curtain.

We want good stories.

Here are three things that engaging stories provide:

1. Emotion

“Shock” may grab people for a few seconds, but much more often, people want to feel something real, such as inspiration, hope, fear, excitement, comfort or joy. Using genuine emotion in your marketing gives you a way to connect with customers on a meaningful level. In the best cases, it boosts engagements AND leads to improved sales and customer loyalty. For example, Budweiser beer is known for making people laugh or pulling on their heartstrings through the use of animal stories in its TV ads.  Almost every year for the Super Bowl football game in the U.S., the company releases an ad that viewers vote for as one of the best.  One of my favourites was from 2014 – what’s not to love about horses making friends with puppies, to get across the ‘Best Buds’ tagline?More recently, the company has switched over to human subjects in their ads but has continued to tell stories that people could connect with, while successfully promoting their brand. The ads make people feel good, and customers (consciously or unconsciously) connect that feeling with Budweiser.

2. Information or instruction

Marketing software giant Hubspot recently conducted a survey to find out why people read the blog posts that they do. The top answer? “To learn something new.” This was especially true during COVID (with people searching for help with things like, “How do I cook my favourite Asian dish while that restaurant is closed?” “My pipe is broken in lockdown! How can I fix it?”), but video and written tutorials will always remain popular. Whether it’s watching a video showing them how to plant and care for the perennials they bought at your gardening shop or tips from an accounting firm on how to better prepare for tax time, customers like to be provided with solid information that helps them and offers value.

3.  Relevance and/or personalisation

One of the great benefits of storytelling is that it helps humanise your brand. When customers can recognise where they fit into or connect with the story, you’ve got a winner. When you send a personalised email message that shares a story relevant to that person, instead of a generic message to the whole world, you’re much more likely to grab attention. And with all the clever marketing automation software around at the moment to help you tailor your messages, it should be even easier to make a connection.

Need help creating your stories and cutting through the noise? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

I meet with business owners like you regularly, and everyone wants to know about the latest website design trends or Facebook algorithm or SEO hacks.

But there’s something way more important than any of this — and that’s getting the basics right.

I recently met with a restaurant owner who didn’t understand why his lunchtime trade was so slow. I looked him up online and, according to both his website and Google listing, the restaurant was closed for lunch. Luckily, this is an easy fix but it left me wondering how something this basic had gone below their radar.

Keeping your information up-to-date is vital. This is especially true for opening hours and contact details — how will people get in touch otherwise? How will customers know you’re open? Especially when so many people are using their mobile phone to get directions and make calls to businesses – information needs to be to hand, and accurate.

Here are five more marketing basics to prioritise right now:

1. Mobile-Friendly Website

How does your website look when you browse it on your mobile? With 71% of Australian smartphone users browsing the Internet on their phones daily, this is so important.

Not compatible with mobile? Website visitors are unlikely to stick around — which means you’re losing potential customers.

2. Basic SEO

Search Engine Optimisation sometimes seems like another buzzword, but it is important.

The good news is, the basics are straightforward to implement. Make sure your website is set up correctly and contains engaging and unique content. High-quality content that recognises and helps solve the problems of your target market is key.

If you can find time to blog (like I’m doing now), that’s a bonus!

3. Google My Business

Google My Business is a service offered by Google to help you engage potential customers.

The best part is it’s free (at the moment), so make sure you claim and make the most out of your listing — start by adding your correct opening hours!

4. Know Your Customers

Any good marketing strategy starts with an understanding of the target customers. This will impact everything else you do, so it’s worth spending some time getting it right.

Write it down, print it out and stick it on your wall. Make sure everything you do is focused on them – don’t get distracted.

5. Start an Email List

An email list is one of the most valuable marketing assets any business can have.

Use it to stay in touch with your customers, focusing on providing value over the hard sell. Remember — people don’t like to be sold to, so you need to think about the kind of content and messages your target market want to read.

Are you struggling to find time to do it all yourself? Get in touch to find out how we can help.

It’s unusual for me to start with a disclaimer, but on this subject I must. I am not a lawyer. I have compiled this information myself with the aim of providing my clients with the kind of practical, down-to-earth and tailored advice they have come to expect from me. If you need further clarity you may want to contact a lawyer (I have a very good one in Adelaide I can refer you to).

What’s happening?

New data protection rules take effect from 25 May 2018, called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The purpose is to consolidate privacy regulations across the European Union (EU). The GDPR bears many similarities to the current Australian Privacy Act 1988, but some fundamental differences will impact Australian businesses.  In a nutshell, the GDPR is all about getting the right level of consent from anyone who’s data resides in or passes through the EU when any of their personal data is collected, stored or managed by a business. If you don’t comply, there are potentially huge financial penalties.

There’s lots being written about GDPR at the moment, but I don’t want to regurgitate all the nuts and bolts here. I’ve just picked out a few scenarios that I think some Australian businesses will face, and what they need to do as a result.

Who is affected?

Don’t think that because your business isn’t established in the EU, or you’re not actively marketing to EU residents, that you don’t need to comply with the GDPR. There are some subtle things that many Australian businesses are doing that trigger the need to comply with the GDPR. I’ve tried to pick out the most relevant ones below, under ‘triggers’.

Even if your business is not affected by the GDPR right now, this is a good opportunity for all businesses to review their data capture and management.

What do you need to do?

After reading pages and pages of content on this issue, attending webinars and speaking to website administrators and digital marketing people in my network, here is my bite-size and easy-to-digest summary on what affected business need to do to comply with the GDPR, and what kind of scenarios might mean you are affected by the changes.

*There are more triggers than these (eg. if you translate any of your website content into an EU language other than English), but I have tried to focus on the main ones that affect my clients.

In summary

Don’t panic. There are a few checks and balances you may now need to put in place. If you get things wrong but can show you’re attempting to do the right thing, then the penalties are more educative than punitive. But take this opportunity to have a better understanding of what you’re doing with people’s data (irrespective of whether they are within the EU), why you’re doing it and have a clear plan on how you’re going to handle personal information moving forward. It’s only a matter of time before consumers in Australia will expect higher privacy protection and we too may have to comply with stricter rules in the future.

Why? One-to-one marketing (or 1:1 marketing) has been shown to foster greater customer loyalty and better ROI. Fortunately, through CRM, email and other marketing software tools, it’s never been easier to target your prospects and customers with customised offers and content.

Here are a few suggestions – and a few tools – to help you do just that.

Know your audience

Putting customers’ first names into your print or email campaigns is a good start, but being able to offer tailored coupons or promotions can really boost sales and loyalty.

When you know who your customers are, you can create custom marketing campaigns to appeal to specific wants and needs. This sounds daunting, but being able to separate groups of customers by their interests or past purchasing behaviour gives you the power to target your marketing efforts to individuals.

So how do you do this? Start by using the information you have available. Use your email list and customer database (or CRM) and look for ways to segment campaigns. You can separate groups by purchase frequency, city, postal codes, services and much more.  Then you can use this information to send grouped special offers via email, postcard or even SMS messages.

Set up automated triggers 

Behaviour-triggered emails help you respond to how your customers are using your product or website. They’re a great way to get results and build interest.

For instance, if you buy something from Apple, you’ll undoubtedly get a follow-up email after you receive the item that asks you how you liked the product. And if you put something in your shopping cart and then leave the site without purchasing it, you’ll probably get an email a day or two later that says, “Hey, your items are still waiting for you!” These are both examples of behaviour-triggered emails.

Trigger emails are highly effective, with a 152% higher open rate than traditional emails. They’re a valuable communication tool that’s easy to automate with most major email platforms, and they can be used for up-selling, cross-selling, welcoming new customers and more.

Get the tools

Not sure where to begin in personalising offers for prospects and customers? Email platforms like MailChimp offer a wide variety of options for segmenting your emails (with some paid and some free choices), but there are also several online tools available that go beyond email:

• Marketo is some pretty full-on marketing automation software, offering real-time personalisation with targeted individuals through dynamically generated and personalised communication.

• Vero is a cloud-based email platform that helps businesses create and send targeted emails based on customers’ website behaviour, as well as offering complete data analysis.

• Intercom combines CRM and email tools to provide support, live chat, feedback and trigger emails so businesses gain an understanding of (and respond to) customer actions both online and in-app

• SparkPage is a B2C tool that helps businesses analyse where they’re losing customers in the conversion process, creating tailored messages suited to users’ needs.

These are just a few options to personalise your marketing. Depending on where you are in the process, your software and your marketing plans for the year, you can create plans for personalised promotions and efforts that will focus on each of your individual customers.

Need help personalising your marketing to get results? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

Email marketing is still a low-cost and effective method of promotion.  Growing your email list organically is always the best way to go.  But if you don’t have time or you’re entering a new market where you have no contacts, it is possible to buy an email list from a reputable list broker.  Just before you do that though, make sure you are Spam Act compliant.

The Spam Act states that in Australia, commercial electronic messages sent to you must be sent with your consent. There are two types of consent. These are express consent and inferred consent.   Also known as direct or implied consent.

Express consent means that you have intentionally opted to receive messages from the sender.  Examples include:

• Entering your details into a website, such as a phone number, email or address
• Ticking the box next to a statement seeking permission to send you marketing messages
• Entering your email address on an entry form or ticking a box saying you are happy to receive updates from the business
• Contacting a business to ask for information to be sent to you on an ongoing basis.

Inferred consent is when there is a connection with the person being sent the message.  An example of inferred consent is if you subscribe to a certain service, it is inferred that you are open to other services provided by that company.

If you are planning to purchase an email list, they can be bought through companies online, such as list brokers.  BUT, check with them first if there is any consent in place.  For example data can be sold with implied consent already in place providing the content you are sending is of direct relevance to the person you are sending it to.

Just before you click ‘send’ remember:

• All commercial electronic messages must contain clear and accurate identification of the sender of the message and information on how you can contact the sender.
• Your emails MUST have an unsubscribe option. This means there must be instructions on how the receiver can opt-out of receiving messages.

If you need any help with email marketing, let me know!

Your customer data is one of the most valuable assets your company has.  But from my experience of working with clients, data is often the biggest marketing headache they have too.  

Being able to mail, email or phone people to announce a sale, share information or announce a new product is key to keeping in touch and doing business.  But just how good is your data (or your CRM tool, if you’re using one)? When was the last time you checked your information for accuracy? If you don’t have correct phone numbers or email/mailing addresses for your clients and business contacts, your messages may not be getting through. You may be paying to mail brochures or email sales announcements to the wrong people – or to no one at all.

The bottom line: Without the right contact information, you’re wasting time and money on your marketing efforts.  I’ve seen this too many times.

If your primary contact method is email and you’re using a program like MailChimp to send marketing eshots, you’ll get updates when email addresses are determined to be invalid (and MailChimp works really well with a CRM like Salesforce). MailChimp will automatically remove invalid addresses from their system, but if you have a separate in-house database – for instance, a CRM that doesn’t automatically sync with MailChimp – you need to make sure it gets updated, too.

Obviously you can check phone numbers and other data through outbound manual telephone calls to each business.  But who’s got the time to do that?  Especially if you have thousands to contact.

The good news is that there are companies and online programs you can use to help clean up, verify and improve your data easily, even if you have thousands or millions of records.

Here are some solutions you may want to check out:

• Experian Australia offers a range of software products for better data management including address validation software and email address validation. You can do a free ‘test drive’ of the email program on their site to see how it works.
• The Data Cleansing Group provides services including merging of multiple data files from the same or different programs, verifying data, eliminating duplicate records, standardising formatting and, where possible, finding missing information for you.
• Sensis Data Solutions can assist you with data validation and data cleansing, as well as verify mobile phone numbers and email addresses in real-time so that you can determine whether they’re active.

Need help getting your data sorted to maximise your marketing dollars? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

To be effective in marketing you must tailor your efforts to customers’ wants and needs as much as possible in order to build loyalty and increase the number of purchases from existing customers.

For instance, let’s say a particular customer always orders pizza with anchovies – instead of, say, sausage or pepperoni.  Wouldn’t it be great to offer them vouchers specifically for anchovy pizza since that’s what they want? But how do you track this kind of customer behaviour and act on it?

There are numerous software programs, including online email service tools, which help you do just that. For instance, the email provider MailChimp* offers features including:

• The option to send automatic welcome messages to new email list subscribers
• Personalised emails based on past customer purchases and behaviour
• Automatic follow-ups based on customers’ actions within emails.

Get them on board

Let’s say you’re working on building your email list. You might offer a special discount on your website to any customer who signs up for your list online. You can set up a pre-designed email message beforehand in your MailChimp account – including your discount coupon or code – that automatically goes out when someone joins your list.

You can also send out an automatic follow-up message a week or two following your welcome message that provides tips on using your products or services, special offers coming up, or information about an upcoming event.
Give them what they want

If you have an email you send out to all customers – say, a newsletter or sales promotion – you can use MailChimp to track who clicks on what and then automatically act on it. For instance, let’s say you’re sending an email to everyone on your list which gives them 20% off any one full-price item on your website during a two-week period. You include a link to your site and a code for the offer.

With MailChimp automation, you can track who clicked on your link, went to your website and used the code to make a purchase. For the customers who don’t act – or for those who click through to the site and look around but don’t buy anything – you can send an automatic follow-up message a week later to remind them that time is running out.

MailChimp can also help you keep track of those people who spend the most on your site or regularly take advantage of sales. Ultimately, you might want to group these loyal followers into a special list that gets VIP treatment, such as additional discounts or advance sale notifications.

(Note: MailChimp also plays well with major CRM and payment software such as Magento, PayPal, Shopify and SalesForce to help you achieve and keep track of all these nifty things.)

The sky’s the limit

These are just a few of the things you can do with automated emails. Based on your business, list size and desired level of interaction, you can create campaigns and customised promotions that will keep your customers coming back for more.

Ready to get personal with your email marketing? Need help? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

* Note: Other email providers offer similar features – I just use MailChimp most often for clients because it’s really user-friendly, and offers free membership and reports for email lists of less than 2,000. The automated features described here are part of a paid package.

• Do put together a plan. Develop an email strategy for sharing news, sales announcements, and information. An email newsletter can cover all of these things in one message without flooding people’s inboxes with too much mail. Decide what you want to send, then schedule time to plan, write, design and release your campaigns.
• Don’t overwhelm your recipients with too much mail. An email address is a precious gift from a customer, so don’t abuse it or your recipient is likely to unsubscribe (or worse, report you as a spammer). Send just enough messages to keep your customers interested in what you’re up to.
• Do craft your subject line carefully. Make it short enough (50 characters or less) to fit in an inbox overview, but interesting enough for people to want to open it up and read more. Getting the message into the inbox is just the first step; make people want to open it up.
• Don’t give your readers too much information in the email itself. Give them just enough to grab their attention, then give them a way to click through to your website for more details.
• Do focus more on content than design. Yes, you want your message to be attractive, but it’s really the text that’s most important. If you put in too many graphics, the email will be too big and go straight to Spam.
• Don’t send every message to every person on your list. A newsletter is appropriate for all groups, but if possible, for sales promotions, break your email list into groups and send targeted messages to each one. For instance, if you can categorise your list by what customers buy (package or product purchased, etc.), you’ll be able to target them with messages about other items or services you offer. List management takes time, but the results will be well worth the effort.

Looking for more help with your email campaigns or strategy? Let us know!