What will 2020 look like for marketing? Where should efforts be focused in the upcoming year? Those are two questions that kick-off the new year for every marketer. You may think you need a crystal ball to figure out the answers, but you don’t! Instead, give this week’s episode of Brain Lava a listen. Not only is Patty sharing three tips on focusing your marketing efforts in 2020, but she’s also joined by Andrea Durfey, marketing and communications strategist that’s been in the business for nearly thirty years with a ton of insight to this ever-changing industry.
So, trade the crystal ball for some headphones, and hit ‘Play’ for some marketing knowledge in your ears!
Prefer to read instead of listen? We’ve got you covered. Find a transcript of episode two below!
Patty: Hey podcast listeners welcome to season two episode two of Brain Lava, it’s Team ODEA’s podcast on all things marketing and technology. I’m Patty Rioux president of ODEA and I have a super special guest today, Andrea Durfey who’s a marketing and communication strategist and consultant. I have had the pleasure of knowing for I would say 15 years. Could be closer to 20, we both started when we were in diapers. Andrea was my account manager in my last in-house gig before I started this this crazy biz owner journey. Andrea had to deal with me as a client, but that story is for another day.
Andrea: You were a dream.
P: I’m super excited that Andrea said yes to our invitation to come on Brain Lava this week. Everyone’s doing those 2020 projections, so heaven forbid we not jump in. We’re going to go ahead and add in our thoughts and I’m extremely excited that Andrea is going to be here to help me kind of flush out some of my thoughts and add in her thoughts, of what do we think 2020 is going to bring?
A: Great! Thanks for having me Patty, I appreciate the invitation.
P: Of course! I kind of feel like I’m a bit of a broken record so anyone who’s listened to Brain Lava, any of our current clients or anyone that that knows me is going to hear the exact same things. I think I’ve been talking for two years if not more. I’m going to say them again anyways, and number one that I’m going to start with is 2020 is going to be the year of your brand. If you haven’t invested in your brand, if you think you don’t have a brand, guess what you do! I think it’s going to be a year where you need to determine and develop your brand because, at the end it’s the only thing that matters. Would you agree with me, Andrea?
A: Absolutely. You know, I think you touched on something there. People don’t think that they have a brand but, they do. Your brand is your operations, your culture and communication. It’s not just what you’re putting out there, it’s how you live as an organization and you need to take that and you need to be able to represent that to your potential customers. It’s not as easy as it sounds. You’ve got a brand. It’s just a matter of discovering that uncovering what it is.
P: We use a couple of different describers of the brand, the one I love is Seth Godin’s, “it’s the set of expectations, memory, stories, and relationships that together account for why I choose one product over another. If I don’t have those expectations, memories, stories or relationship, it’s what I think I know.” To your point Andrea, if I’ve had an interaction with you, if you are out there as “fly the friendly skies” and I get the least friendly customer service rep on the phone. If you’re not living your brand, suddenly your brand degrades right in front of my eyes.
A: Absolutely! In today’s social media world, it degrades, because once that experience is pushed out to everybody’s followers and then people just kind of add to it and feed on it. The next thing you know, there’s a big social media firestorm out there that you’ve got to deal with.
P: Like, United Airlines with a bloody passenger being pulled off, right? I think that was 2019’s? If you haven’t invested in your brand both from a marketing and communications, but also from an operational side, which I love you bringing up Andrea! 2020 is the year to do it. That’s our first tip. Second thing, oh my gosh, if I had a penny for every time, I said video within the last three years. It is still that passive ability to consume content. I don’t have to stop and read, I can be walking and listening or watching and that immersive experience and everything that goes into it.
I really still do believe that it’s where investment needs to go as you’re looking at your marketing budget in 2020.
A: Absolutely and the great thing as you said that word investment but compared to (aging’s ourselves again) 20 years ago and 30 years ago when we first started that investment was significantly larger. There are so many opportunities today! Don’t be daunted by “oh gosh, I’ve got to shoot a video”, you see commercials out there that are shot with an iPhone. There’s lots of ways to get that content that doesn’t have to break the bank and can be very creative, interesting, engaging, and it can be used across a number of different platforms. You can link to it in direct communications on your website in social media. It’s just a great tool to have in your arsenal when you’re trying to reach a number of different audiences. You’ve got to remember that everybody consumes information differently and particularly in today’s environment, people want things that they can quickly consume and digest, video is a great way to get that message out there!
P: I will add that I do think that some folks hear us talk about “you can use your iPhone” and they immediately think that it’s cheap. I will be really honest and say that even those iPhone videos that you think someone just shot and put up, there’s a lot of editing time that actually goes into those. I don’t think folks always remember that.
A: Yeah, that’s true! The editing stays the same but at least if you don’t have to go in studio necessarily. I’m thinking of the production dollars itself versus editing and that’s still very important.
P: I won’t talk about being in the giant editing suite early on in my days, I’m not saying it was tape, but I’m not saying it wasn’t tape. We’re just not going to talk about it. You’re working on your brand, your investing in your brand, you’ve spent some money on some great video assets and you’re editing them and you’re getting them out there. My third 2020 (and I lived this in 2019 and I’m going to continue to live it and ODEA’s going to continue to live it in 2020) is if you’re in B2B, there’s no better place to be than LinkedIn. It is continuing to outperform lots of other mediums, it is continuing to grow the amount of folks who, I always think of course everyone who’s a professional is already on LinkedIn. Then I see the stats every week that the graduating class of Harvard’s numbers are joining LinkedIn. That’s how many new folks every month, or every week are coming on? So that’s always surprising to me, because I just think the whole world’s already there. There’s a lot of folks who are and there’s a lot of really strong great content going on. LinkedIn has come out with some really great tools with sales navigator. A lot of our clients right now are equally interested in not only attracting new business but also attracting top talent. It’s really tight for talent right now, so obviously that’s kind of the core of LinkedIn. I’m going to be saying LinkedIn a million times in 2020.
A: Yeah, and I do think the one thing with LinkedIn is that it is probably (of the different social media platforms out) the most multi-generational. You do have those younger folks who are just starting their careers going out there to look for jobs or try to find information about training and whatever else might be out there. Established folks are out there putting out leadership pieces looking for leadership and information. You kind of run the gamut whereas some of the other platforms tend to be more for the millennials or the younger generation. When you look at Snap Chat things like that, Facebook tends to be as my daughter always says, “It’s for folks your age, it’s for old folks.” Joke’s on her, she had to join it for school. I totally agree with you that LinkedIn is a great way, particularly for B2B, to kind of further your brand and get your message out there. The other thing that I’m seeing more and more of because I’ve already aged myself and said I’m there on Facebook. Facebook is still huge. People think that it’s dwindling but, there’s over two billion Facebook users. I think I read a stat the other day that 75% of them login every day. What I’m seeing more and more is more B2B type content linking into Facebook because of all the data that’s out there. You’re then able to link across platforms, your activity engagements online and what you’re searching for, all of that stuff is feeding into a Facebook feed as well. They know that this is what I do marketing in particular, I’m getting more and more things fed to me as a marketer versus a mom of a college age daughter. It’s interesting that it’s not just that social platform anymore. Business is starting to creep in there as well.
P: Yeah, business looking for other business buyers, not just shoes and make up and everything that we typically think are on there. Which makes sense right? I remember having this conversation with a client who worried about doing some of the remarketing because they were a B2B and they asked “do they really want to see my product in their B2C world?”. My husband Tom listens to ESPN every morning and for every B2C purchase/ commercial I would say there’s now pretty close to one to one B2B purchase. Whether that’s factoring your accounts receivable, whether it’s a business loan, whether it’s Indeed and hiring, or commercial real estate. He’s listening to it as a sports fan, he’s listening to it as a human person for his personal enjoyment but B2B companies are all over that radio station. In case he’s a business owner, in case he’s a hiring manager, in case he’s responsible for the commercial building or location. I think the exact same things happening in social media.
A: Yep, there’s so much data out there about people and what their interests are and what they do in their life that companies and organizations are just going to say “how can we reach that?”. I think anything is kind of fair game these days. Look at the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks and maybe we can do a follow-up on that? Let’s keep a list of how many of the commercials on the Super Bowl are B2B versus B2C because I think we’re going to see some more B2B type content.
P: A hundred percent, yeah! You’re still human, no matter if we found that in B2B as the expectations of folks are if Amazon can do it, why can’t you, while I’m sitting in my office, right? I’ve got the same expectation of my bank portal when I go in as Patty the owner of ODEA as I do when I go in is as Patty, a person. Those same expectations, so B2B really has had to rise to the level of B2C from certainly a technology standpoint.
A: It’s hard to separate that, because you do it at work too! When you’re working, you’re also a consumer as well. The same holds true when you’re a consumer your work persona does kind of creep in there also.
P: 100%. Listen in for more of our podcasts! You’re obviously going to hear “brand” this year, you’re going to hear “video” this year, you’re going to hear “LinkedIn”. If we can convince Andrea to come back on, she’s going to share more of her B2C social world. I love the thought of looking at the Super Bowl and keeping track of how much really was B2C how much is B2B, how those two are now morphing together. That’s our 2020 predictions, I don’t have a Super Bowl winner prediction, but I do know that marketing’s going to keep being fun, so I hope you’ll keep joining us. Andrea let’s do this more often.
A: Thank you.
P: To listeners, you guys know we love to hear from you. Love your suggestions. Love your questions, so you can find us at [email protected] or www.teamodea.com. Until next time, thanks for joining us.