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  Ann Handley is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author who speaks worldwide about how businesses can escape marketing mediocrity to ignite tangible results. IBM named her one of the 7 people shaping modern marketing. She is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs; a LinkedIn Influencer; a keynote speaker, mom, dog person, and writer. She joins Adam Buchanan on Episode 37 of the Marketing Trust podcast to talk about the importance of content and leaning into differentiation. So often we see brands playing it say, copying each other’s messages and approaches – the industry needs a little ‘Annarchy’! Which brings me to the email newsletter you should absolutely sign up for by Ann which you can do at https://annhandley.com/. Listen to this episode and get inspired on how to approach your marketing in an effective and relevant way. Ann brings an incredible view on our industry and her expertise is powerful.   Original article: Episode 37 – The Importance of Content with Ann Handley.

Greg Trimble joins me on the show and brings an incredible background of content marketing with him. Greg is the founder of the digital agency Lemonade Stand and has been writing a very impactful blog for many years which can be found at https://www.gregtrimble.com/. One thing I love about Greg is his view and approach to content marketing and how him and his team partners with clients to help tell their story. One thing that you should definitely check out is the workflow software him and his team has built specifically for digital agencies. Learn more at https://yalla.team/.     Original article: Episode 36 – Interview with Greg Trimble on How Content Builds Trust.

Lance Black and Stephen Dalby join me on Episode 35 to talk about how Gabb Wireless entered a very crowded cell phone market and yet, is making huge waves by creating the most simple cellular device in the market. Gabb Wireless is actually a product I use as it’s the safest phone on the market for kids. We gave our daughter a Gabb phone and it’s been so easy to manage because it can only make phone calls, texts, and doesn’t allow apps or internet. The phone doesn’t even allow texting images, which makes a father feel pretty good about handing her daughter technology. This interview was very important because Gabb Wireless Founder Stephen Dalby shares how they are focused more on creating an intentional product rather than ‘just another phone’. Towards the end of the interview Stephen shares that more is coming from Gabb and if you think you know Gabb, you haven’t seen anything yet. Excited to follow them on their journey and get an insider look at how they built their marketing strategy around key relationships, word of mouth marketing, and product feedback. Learn more about Gabb at https://gabbwireless.com/ Original article: Episode 35 – How Gabb Wireless Created an Intentional Product.

Chris Rudolph joins me on the podcast to share a morning routine that can help you show up every day. Remember, right now clients are looking to YOU for help and leadership and you have to make sure you show up. Trust is built upon having confidence and as clients are relying on you, this morning routine can help.   Schedule a no-cost 45 min coaching session with Chris https://www.schedulewithchris.com  The 30 Day Schedule Reboot Course with Chris, Andrew and Gracie www.schedulereboot.com Original article: Episode 34 – The Power of a Morning Routine with Chris Rudolph.

My good friend Matt Singley joins the podcast to talk about what brands should be doing to continue to run business in a crisis and how to be nimble. He brings many years of experience with his work with clients like Microsoft, Samsung, EA, and many more doing marketing and design with his company Singley Content Studios. We also talk about his latest brand he started Hello Blue CBD. A few days ago I was on that site and made my first purchase. On the episode I share super critical things they are doing to build trust through their purchase experience. Wow! Seriously I’m blown away. Any ecomm manager could check out their website and learn very simple but effective thing Matt and his team is doing. Original article: Episode 33 – How to be a Nimble Business with Matt Singley.

Scott Miller, Executive Vice President, Thought Leadership & Chief Marketing Officer at FranklinCovey. WSJ Best-Selling Author, joins me on the Marketing Trust podcast to share his knowledge on how to build trust. He gives a few highlights from his book Management Mess to Leadership Success and how to refine your skills as a leader but also as a producer. I really enjoyed Scott’s straight forward approach and loved some of the takeaways from our conversation. If you feel stuck as a leader or need a fresh look on how to work within your team, give this episode a listen. Original article: Episode 32 – Learn How to Build Trust, an Interview with Scott Miller.

Brooke Sellas, CEO and founder of B Squared media, joins me on the Marketing Trust podcast to discuss the importance of customer service. Especially at a time like this, it’s more important than ever to have your army of company associates ready. I’ve known Brooke for quite a few years now and she’s definitely one of the strongest marketing leaders I’ve met. She shares in this episode how she’s making herself available for her staff to talk about whatever they want to talk about. That right there is a sign of a true leader. I appreciate Brooke and love her point of view on marketing. Make sure to tune into her show with Mark Schaefer called The Marketing Companion! Original article: Episode 31 – The Importance of Social Customer Service w/ Brooke Sellas.

My good friend Jason Yarborough, director of strategic alliances at PFL.com, joins me on the Marketing Trust podcast to discuss how brands have transitioned to remote work and why culture is so important at this time. Listen in and learn how companies should be maintaining their culture which in turn builds trust with their workforce and even builds trust with their audience. I also have two Pick My Red Glasses questions that came in from Ryan and Jill, make sure to listen until the end to hear their questions. If you want to submit your question, send in a video recording to http://www.adamcbuchanan.com/about-me/pickmyredglasses. Original article: Episode 30 – Why Company Culture is Important As Workers Work Remote w/ Jason Yarborough.

Do you feel like the adults right now are doing all the talking? I brought my kids on this episode to hear what they think of Covid-19 and help parents understand we may want to think about how we are talking to our kids about the current situation. First is my son Beckham who is 11, Ryan who is 13, and my daughter Jett who is 4 (and didn’t want to be left out). I hope you’re doing well in your business. While this episode detracts a bit of what Marketing Trust is all about, I think it’s important to focus on humanity and how we’re treating each other. If you have specific marketing questions, please send to adam@adamcbuchanan.com and I’ll be sure to respond and include in upcoming episodes. Original article: Episode 29 – What My Kids Think of Home School and Covid-19.

My wife Lisa Buchanan joins me on the Marketing Trust podcast to talk about how we’ve prepared for Coronavirus, our perspective and tips from working from home, and what we’re doing going forward. If you’re experiencing high stress right now, we share a few ways to simplify to be able to get through this situation. If you’re starting to work from home we share a few things to keep in mind to make that transition successful. We also discuss physical, mental, and spiritual health and how that actually helps during a national crisis. Books that I mention in this podcast episode: Atomic Habits by James Clear Mastery Journal by James Lee Dumas Sovereignty by Ryan Michler Original article: Episode 28 – How My Wife Lisa and I Prepared for Covid-19 and Share Our Approach to Working From Home.

Suunto is one of the top leaders in watches for athletes and anyone who is active and wants to track their fitness. Caleb Whittle joins me on Episode 27 of the Marketing Trust to talk about how they position their content strategy and partner with influencers. What I found really interesting about Caleb’s approach with how focused they are on making sure they have a strong offline approach to ensure they are building lasting relationships with influencers. This reminds me of the early days of social media and when influencer partnerships first began. In this episode you’ll learn about what the basics are of creating strong relationships with influencers and how you can incorporate this into your influencer marketing strategy. Original article: Episode 27 – How Suunto’s Caleb Whittle Partners with Influencers.

This is the most important episode on my podcast. Trevor Farnes, CEO and co-founder of MTN OPS joins me with an in depth interview about values and purpose. I really enjoyed how he broke down the importance of trust and the values behind it. He also shares the backstory of MTN OPS which is incredibly inspiring. He shares what MTN OPS is doing in the outdoor and hunting space with influencers and discussed how thoughtful they are when partnering with influencers. I really appreciate their approach and think a lot of brands could benefit from following their example. The reason why this is the most important episode I’ve ever done is because Trevor really opened up and talked about his family, wife, and business partners in a way that is inspiring to listen to. Business owners should take note of how relationships should be built with those around us. Original article: Episode 26 – Interview with MTN OPS CEO Trevor Farnes about Values, Trust, and Purpose.

In episode 25 I cover how to get started in Omni Channel Marketing.  I’ll walk you through a process I’ve seen that has worked very well in organizations that isn’t as complicated as you think. Like you, I’ve seen brands do a fantastic job in omni channel marketing and most organizations emulate them. If you feel stuck and want to see more integration in your company listen to this episode. I break down how to start a micro project to help get buy in for more complicated and higher return projects.   For years ‘omni channel marketing’ has been a hot buzzword in business. We look at companies like REI or Disney and say, “Let’s do Omni Channel marketing like them!” 73% of consumers shop on more than one channel and that number is continually increasing. While this is a majority of customers, brands still have yet to adopt omni channel marketing due to lack of resources, vision, and understanding. The social media team is in a unique position because it has a strong pulse on all touchpoints a customer experiences with the company. You can be a champion of change to propel omni channel marketing at your company. Use this document to build out an Omni Channel Micro Project to help your company start the journey. Omni Channel Marketing Definition The definition of omni channel marketing is a company providing a seamless consumer experience across multiple channels that a customer interacts with. Whether the customer is standing in a retail store, visiting the brand’s website, or viewing a catalog in the mail; the messaging is cohesive across all these touchpoints. Another way to look at it is the brand is being omni-present; simply that it’s everywhere. The reason why most companies resist omni channel is for this reason. There’s a myth that this costs a lot of money, will take a ton of coordination between teams, and is only applicable to large major corporations. This micro project helps break down the process of how to get started in omni channel marketing to then scale it later. This is less about launching a massive shift in a company and more about starting small, seeing success, and build a foundation to make a massive shift in the company over time. Stats worth mentioning Consider these stats around omni channel marketing when selling it into the business Brands can expect a 15-30% increase in transaction size 5-10% increase in loyal customers’ profitability 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop only using one channel 25% of consumers have made an online purchase while standing in a retail store 89% of customers are retained by companies that have an omni channel strategy In summary, this is how people shop now. Consumers need multiple touchpoints from a brand to build up enough trust to open their wallet to them. For brands to stay ahead they must implement this quickly or they will soon be left behind. Omni Channel Micro Project Overview By building a micro project around omni channel, you can help your organization try omni channel marketing without having to get the WHOLE company behind this. This will involve identifying an opportunity, getting a few select team members to help, launching the project, and reporting the results. By taking this approach it helps your brand see success quickly and builds momentum for larger shifts later. This can take 3-4 weeks from start to launch which is fairly attainable for most brands. Key tip: When people hear ‘micro project’ they think, “Oh cool, we can knock that out easily.” When people here, ‘Omni channel marketing strategy and monumental foundational shift for the company’ they think, “No way is this possible…”  Remember, by spearheading this you can build strong relationships with other departments and gain more awareness for the social program at your organization. This helps your program and in turn helps grow your career.   Steps to Build an Omni Channel Micro Project Here are the steps to building an Omni Channel Micro Project at your organization. Remember, this isn’t about completely transforming the business overnight. This is about showing the company success by doing a small project based on principles of omni channel. Present the Customers’ View To start, we’ll want to identify a key experience that a customer is having with your brand. Are you seeing a certain pain they are experiencing when purchasing your product? Are multiple customers asking the same question over and over? The key here is to help bring the customers’ point of view to the attention of your organization. You can find these experiences through social listening, watching trends of what customers consistently talk about, and reviews found on product pages or social pages. Examples of this: When customers are looking at the hang tag on our product, they can’t find the information they want. The information is on our website but not the hang tag. When shopping in store, the return policy at the cashier says we have a 30-day return policy, but online it says its 90 days. On our recent email we are promoting our new fall line but, on the website, we still are promoting summer clearance. What are inconsistencies or pains that your consumer may be experiencing? What are products that are being promoted that need better messaging or are clearer to your buyer? Think of 3-5 ideas that come to mind and then we’ll begin our selection process of which one is best to do a micro project for. Select Your Project  Once you have a few ideas, select your project based on context and deliverability. You want to select your idea based on if this is relevant to your audience and can the team and resources you have in front of you actual make a change to influence this. Context Is this a constant issue for our customers or only happens rarely? Should this be addressed sooner or later? Is it affecting a lot of customers or just a certain segment? If it’s just affecting a certain segment, that actually makes a great case for a micro project to make a change and see the results to that small segment. Is this related to the overall brand experience or a select product? Again, if it’s just a select product that can be a great candidate for a micro project. Deliverability Do you have enough information to get started on this or do you need more time for research? To make a change, is this going to cost a substantial amount of money or time from the team? Are we tightening up messaging or are we re-creating one of our products? Can you make the change in 3-4 weeks or 3-4 months? How many stakeholders need to sign off on this change? 1-2 or 5-10?  Based on your responses above, plot the ideas on the graph below to identify what’s a candidate for a micro project and what ideas should be held off for a later time.   Segment Audience   Now that you have a micro project selected it’s important to identify your audience segment that you’ll focus on for this project. As you’ve gone through the vetting process of ideas, you most likely already identified the segmented audience. Make sure to clarify this in the micro project to set the appropriate expectations with the business. If the segment is small, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The larger the segment the more change and approval you’ll probably have to get to move forward. You don’t want the segment to be too small either (i.e. two customers in Texas we’re upset because they didn’t like our 4th of July celebration post on twitter) but identifying a group of individuals that you can notify of the change and see results is key. Examples of Audience Segments: A group of 30 customers that are long-time customers have contacted us in the last month about clarifying if certain food products we offer are actually gluten free. While 30 may seem small, this question will probably arise in the future making this highly contextual. Each month we see about 10 reviews on our Facebook page regarding confusion on our retail location and finding directions on how to get there. They are first time customers and are visiting us for the first time. Recently we’ve seen close to 50 requests in the last 90 days from female ranging from age 34-45 asking if we can make an alteration to our product. In the last 3 months we’ve had 30+ messages primarily from men from ages 18-25 asking about a product we use to carry but don’t anymore. The key to identifying the audience segment is being as specific as possible. It’s also important to share any other data or anecdotal information including images or social messages from customers to build a case for this project. Offer a Solution   Now that you have a project and segmented audience in place, you will now offer a solution. When gaining buy-in it’s also helpful to offer a range of solutions depending on the project. Key Tip: Executives often want to weigh their options rather than only having one solution given to them. They like to also see that you’ve done your homework and thought through various solutions rather than going all in on one approach.  When offering the solution make sure to include timelines, resources needed, and reference past projects that are similar that they may be familiar with. Offer an expected result of what you are trying to make happen to help stakeholders know if this was successful or not. Are you trying to increase NPS on your website? Increase positive sentiment around the brand? Drive more reviews for a product? Make sure to clearly state what the objective is so it can be measured against post launch. Test and Report Back Once you’ve received approval for the project you’re ready to launch! As you’re implementing the change make sure to keep stakeholders updated on the project. This is also a great information to include during in the Trust Accelerator Email and the Social Open Office Hours. As you inform the business of what projects y

In this episode I share two ways to break down silos that can often happen in business. I see these a lot especially with social media teams. The benefit of what I’ll share with you today is that you can not only break down internal silos but grow your program as well. As you use the following methods that I share in this episode you can garner more resources for your program in the long term. Over time you can identify what needs you have in social media and inform the business, rather than waiting for your quarterly or annual business review to show how the program is performing. Trust Accelerator Email The strategy behind this email is to inform the organization consistently so they can understand the highlights and insights from social media efforts. Audience: The audience for this email is the entire company, similar to a sales report or company announcement. If you get push back from this, you may start sending to just certain departments depending on feedback. Cadence: Recommend a bi-weekly cadence to keep people informed but not add too much additional workload to your current program management. After testing this for years I’ve found bi-weekly is often enough to maintain attention but isn’t too overbearing. Approach: This email isn’t just sharing all the great stuff happening in social. You want to give a balanced view of what’s happening in social media and how it can help the company to move forward. This is less about what photo performed well and more about what insights need to be elevated across departments that are being discovered on social channels. Outline Here are the main components this email should contain every time you send it. It’s important to keep this outline consistent, visual, and brief. Avoid text heavy sections and strive to go deep quick and leave poignant takeaways that are relevant to the organization. Introduction: 2-3 sentences giving context to what this email contains. While people may receive this email repeatedly, you’ll want to set context each time as if someone is reading it for the first time. For example: Hi team! This is the social media insights review that we send out bi-weekly. This will give you a snapshot of what we’re seeing in marketing on our social media channels and help inform the business on key insights. Take a moment and review the insights and let us know if you have any questions. Please take time to take the brief survey at the bottom.   Win: Share a win that recently happened in social media and a takeaway to answer the question, ‘what now?’. Often times as social media managers we see wins constantly but over time become numb to them. The organization doesn’t see what you see and it’s important to share wins big or small. For example: Two weeks ago, we had an upset customer ask about their broken product. After Carol in customer service took care of her, she shared this photo on Instagram of the handwritten note from Carol. <insert image> Takeaway: While it can be time consuming to write handwritten notes, our customers absolutely appreciate it and it creates an interaction on social media they will share with their followers. This means we in theory spend less money attracting new customers and can foster strong relationships with our current ones. Highlight: A highlight is similar to a win but can also be a way to spotlight another department or appendage to marketing. The goal here is to spread some light on a campaign or initiative that people may be wondering about but haven’t gotten an answer on. For example: Recently we partnered with human resources to spotlight a few employees on our social channels to attract new talent. We saw that by sharing a week spotlight it garnered more and more engagement and performed well on LinkedIn. <insert post screenshot> Takeaway: By testing this with images first and seeing that we saw a good response tells us that we can try video as we’ll see even more engagement from what we’re seeing now. Key Point: Video is commonly one of the biggest under invested initiatives of a company. By planting a simple seed like the above, you can get stakeholders thinking about it in a strategic way. In most cases teams will ask for more resources to make video but it can hard to paint the right strategic picture executives need. Stakeholders also like data and by saying that content is already working but we want to make it better with video can get the buy-in needed.  Insight: By now we’ve warmed up the audience to two updates that will get them excited. An insight can either be positive, neutral, or negative. If there are certain pains in your program this is a great opportunity to share them but in the right way. An insight should be looked at as very matter of fact, an observation of data, or stated without much emotion. Once this insight is stated it’s key to offer a solution which is laid out in the Takeaway. For example: In the last few months on our Facebook reviews we’ve noticed customers referencing a product that we use to carry last year but don’t anymore. We’ve seen approximately 20 reviews referencing this product and that they miss it and wish we’d bring it back. <insert screenshot of reviews> Takeaway: We’ll continue to monitor the social activity but think we might want to consider either bringing back the product or addressing these messages in a holistic way to let them know we have a similar product they should consider. Social can be a great way for us to crowdsource what products we should focus on and bring to market and this is a great example of this.   Survey: It’s surprising how many people will take this survey at the end of the social updates email. Make sure to include a link to a simple google form and have them vote on what update of the three they thought was most helpful to know about.   Each email update you can keep the google form link the same and update the responses for future email sends and google will capture old response updates. Then include a free form box to allow them to share comments, questions, or observations. Allow them to leave their first and last name but that it’s not required. Often people who fill out these surveys want to learn more and are worth following up with later. Over time this survey will help you understand how these updates are resonating with your audience and can help you on how to message future email updates, what topics to focus on, and build relationships with the right stakeholders. Key point: Don’t worry about offering an incentive to the survey. Often it creates more work and you’ll be surprised with how many people will take the survey without an incentive. Build Your Trust Accelerator Email Step 1: Give it a name! You’re in marketing, this part should be fun. Think about the culture at your company and how you could make this memorable and fun. Success will be walking down the hall and you over hearing someone saying, “Did you read the Social Insights Wrap-up? It’s so good, I’ll send it to you.” Step 2: Draft your first Trust Accelerator Email and identify your audience. Ideally you want to send this to as many people in the company as possible. Work with your team and see if you can start sending it to just a few departments to start and then scale from there. If it’s resonating well, employees will do the work for you and you may get requests from people to send it to their team. Step 3: Send and monitor engagement. After a few times you send this I promise you that you’ll be walking down the hall one day and someone will stop you referring to your email. They’ll either thank you, ask you questions, or add their point of view. This is good news! Step 4: Stay consistent and keep at it. Make sure to pick a time and date that this email goes out and stick to it. By the 4th or 5th email send people will take notice and will see how you’re working to break down silos and collaborate. Stakeholders and executives will notice as well. It will get to the point where executives will be asking you on how to grow your program rather than you banging on their door.  Social Open Office Hours Credit for this straetgy goes to my man Ryan Amirault. To create a dialogue with employees at your company in-person trainings and presentations can be highly effective. However, people can get tired of sitting through a PowerPoint where the dialogue isn’t a dialogue but a lecture. I’ve tried every approach there is out there to gain the buy-in and attention of stakeholders. I’ve tried presentations, social media classes, and presenting to specific teams. Sometimes there is a time and place for those approaches but the one that really gets people talking is Social Open Office Hours. Let’s dive in. Overview and Approach Social Open Office Hours is a way to gather people together in the organization in an informal way to allow an open conversation about social media. No PowerPoints. No lectures. No kidding. If you work at a company that has multiple offices or virtual teams this can be highly effective. You’ll create a reoccurring calendar invite that people can accept or forward to their co-workers. This calendar invite will simply invite people to join the social media manager and ask their questions about social, see live examples, and discuss the social media strategy at the company. Audience: Start with a smaller audience that you know has an interest in social media that can be an advocate for your program. The sales team, human resources, and customer service are all great places to start. Starting with a smaller audience is also good in the beginning so the room isn’t too full that you can’t handle everyone’s questions. Cadence: The cadence is up to you and depending on how many people you expect to show up. The most frequent I’d recommend is monthly and the least amount of frequency is quarterly. Depending on the audience you can

I pull up to the river and see my friend Mitch already there. We’ve been meaning to get together to fly fish for a while and I’m anxious to learn from my pal who knows this river well. As we’re putting on our waders I ask Mitch what fly I should use. He reaches for his fly box and says, “For this river, I created something that you can’t find at any fly shop.” I’m intrigued. He then tells me after fishing this river for a while he’s tried all sorts of flies and nymphs and this custom pattern seems to work the best. He tied the fly himself along with building the rod he’s using from a blank piece of graphite. I grew up fly fishing and would like to consider myself a fairly skilled outdoorsman. When I fish with Mitch I feel like I’m on the river with a truly skilled pro who also humbly helps me with my technique. Within a few casts on the river he’s hooked up multiple times while I’m still fiddling with my line. I trust Mitch. He knows his stuff. Trust is Why We Buy In a recent report by my friends at Convince and Convert, they found 83% of Americans say that recommendations from friends or families influence their purchase decisions. BOOK ALERT: Make sure to pick up Jay Baer’s new book Talk Triggers to build your word of mouth marketing strategy. While partnering with influencers is effective, your customers are your best recommenders for your business. As you think about your own purchase decisions you probably have a friend like Mitch who helps you know what products to buy and what to avoid. The reasoning for this is because trust is built on three main principles: Proximity Honesty Expertise When we can ask a question to someone know we know and they answer, that means we have access (Proximity) to that person. Our friend is most likely not getting paid to recommend a certain brand and will tell us what to expect when we buy a product (Honesty). We appreciate their opinion because we’ve seen this person share their own experience and passion for the product or category (Expertise). This is why we buy. Social media follower count has become less important. People want to receive credible information from someone they can believe. As influencer marketing grows in business and brands try to figure how to get into their target audience’s newsfeed, we must remember that we cannot fabricate trust. Brands come in and look at influencers as more of a billboard opportunity rather than actually influencing and serving their target audience. It’s intriguing for influencers because they can monetize this transaction. But will this last? I’m not saying influencer marketing is going away but rather brands should assess how they are approaching this method of marketing. 3 Ways to Do Influencer Relations Based on Trust Brands should use trust as their beacon when approaching influencer relations. So often I see brands quickly lay down big money to garner the attention of influencers as they think that’s the only way to approach this strategy. You’ll notice I changed this topic to ‘influencer relations’. That’s actually what we use to call this back in the early days (ha! early days, more like less than 7 years ago…). I hope this buzzword makes a comeback because it would hopefully help marketers focus more on relationship building than how to we game the newsfeed in the brands favor. With that in mind, here are three things to consider when partnering with influencers for your brand. IDENTIFY: Use the Marketing Trust framework to select content creators to partner with. Make sure they are making themselves accessible to their audience (Proximity) and not just talking at their followers. Research and see how they talk about products in their feed, is it all 5-star reviews and roses or do they share the good and bad of products (Honesty). Does their content demonstrate passion for the category and are they looked at as experts in the industry (Expertise)? ENGAGE: After you’ve selected content creators to work with engaging them is key. I’ve heard from influencers in the past that have said they’ve been selected, they worked on one tiny project with a brand, and then don’t hear from them for months. Then when the company has another product launch they get an email asking for them to promote the story. Sadly I’ve seen this many times. Brands will take a great relationship (unpaid or paid) and base it solely on the brand getting benefited. Consider putting together a simple Facebook group with content creators you’re working with to build a micro community for them to have access to people behind the brand. SERVE: As you build out your influencer strategy ask your self this simple question: how can I serve this person? Often brands get so excited about what THEY get out of these partnerships but they really are in a unique position to serve influencers. Could you spotlight the influencer in an upcoming marketing email? Could you bring them onsite to meet leaders in your organization? Could you identify what the influencers mission is and how you could help promote that? Trust has been the underlying currency in business for years. It fuels our purchases and it’s not more important than ever to fuel our relationships. Social media exposes the good and the bad of a brand so make sure as you venture into the world of influencer relations you do it with trust in mind. As I’ve done this with programs I’ve built and managed myself I’ve seen these relationships flourish. I’ve met incredible individuals who’ve shared their passions with me. Sure I’ve seen strong results with product launches and campaigns. Sure I’ve seen sales increase from a successful facebook live takeover. But behind all of that you must remember these people are humans. They are motivated by their missions and beliefs. How do you approach influencer marketing? What successes and challenges have you experienced?   Original article: Episode 23 – Influencer Marketing Should be Fueled with Trust.

On episode 22 I’m grateful to welcome Matt and Missy Kelly to the Marketing Trust to talk about how they launched CatTongue Grips a unique non-slip grip for devices. They are a client of mine and I thought it’d be great to have them join the show and be able to share how they started CatTongue Grips. To check our their product go to cattonguegrips.com. In this episode they share how they came up with the idea and started to bring it to life. I love how Matt shares that he first tried putting skateboard grip tape on to the back of a phone but needed to make a change as it was too scratchy. Then Missy said it should be grippy but not scratch sort of like a cat tongue. BAM! The rest is history. Give this episode a listen and watch for great tips on the importance of listening to your audience and building a product they would use in their everyday life. Original article: Episode 22 – The Story Behind CatTongue Grips w/ Founders Matt and Missy Kelly.

When consumers make a purchase they turn to people they trust to gain insight from them before they swipe their credit card. We do this because we want our money to go further and end up with a good product experience. A few months ago my wife and I decided it was time to purchase a new mattress. We turned to our facebook for answers and asked our friends for recommendations. In this episode on the Marketing Trust podcast I bring my wife on the show to talk about what the experience was like and gather her thoughts about what companies need to know to build more trust with their audience and also with their current customers who may recommend them in private conversations like on facebook or even in a text message thread. To read more about our experience read my Medium article here. When we went to buy a new mattress I as a consumer used the Marketing Trust framework: Proximity — I’ll ask for recommendations and people will actually respond. Honesty — When people share a recommendation they’ll be real with me and not pressure me into buying a certain brand that may not be a good fit for me. Expertise — My friends may not be mattress experts but I would say that humans in general are experts in sleep. By having them share their experiences with their mattresses I can make an informed decision. If you’re enjoying the podcast make sure to subscribe and share with your fellow professionals to listen to the Marketing Trust podcast to infuse more trust with their audience to grow their sales and loyalty. Appreciate it! – Adam Original article: Episode 21 – My Wife and I Bought a Mattress Based on Recommendations from our Friends.

Since Influencer Marketing has hit the scene in business one popular tactic has been having an influencer do a social takeover. This is when the influencer gets the password and login for the brand’s Instagram account and post content for a day. They announce they are taking over the account and let the audience know they can ask them questions, follow along, and engage with them. In this episode I’ll share how brands can do takeovers the right way to build trust with their audience using the Marketing Trust framework. Why would talking to a celebrity on the phone get people to donate? Because talking to a celebrity on the phone is pretty dang exciting! I once interviewed Helen Hunt, my childhood crush, a few years ago with Huffington Post Live and I have to admit it was super exciting. I pitched Twister 2 and my guess is I wasn’t the first… Wanna hear something even more crazy? I was interviewed on Jay Baer’s Social Pros a year before the interview with Helen Hunt happened. On the interview he asked if I could Skype with any living person who would it be? I chose Helen Hunt. A year later, bam. Life goal unlocked. Thanks Jay. Social Takeover Strategy If your brand has relationships with ambassadors or influencers absolutely use the following strategy to do a social takeover, but also consider your customers can be great to partner with as well. Here are four things to include in your social takeover strategy. Programming Decide early how often you’ll host social takeovers. Remember, the reason why they work so well is because they give your audience a break from what you’re talking about but also should be done consistently. One benefit of working with customers with takeovers is they are far more accessible then a social influencer. Influencers may charge you big bucks to do the takeover and may be harder to schedule. As you stick to a specific programming schedule your audience will become accustom to it just like when they expect a new season release of their favorite binge worthy TV show. Select By using the Marketing Trust framework of Proximity, Honesty, and ExpertiseI’d say the big one to keep in mind when selecting someone for a takeover is who can make sure they have a strong Proximity with the audience. You want to make sure whomever is doing the takeover will pause, respond to comments, take a quick video to address the audience, and make sure they are present. A lot of time I see social takeovers so rigid and scheduled that they leave very little room to ad lib and actually connect with the audience. You want to select someone who is comfortable with this. If you do decide to work with a customer it’s best to work with someone that is comfortable producing content and can quickly produce a video. Most of the influencers and ambassadors that I see in the outdoor industry who do social takeovers can do this easily. Remember: unpolished and raw content that have the right intentions can outperform perfectly executed updates in the newsfeed. Plan with Freedom Outline with the person taking over what the expectations are and how much content they should consider producing. Often I see in the outdoor industry photographers takeover a brand’s social account and have images prepared to post during the takeover. This is definitely the right way to do it but I’d also take it one step further and allow them to create a quick video to answer customer questions. Avoid having the takeover be so rigid that it comes off stale. Think of how can you make someone feel like they get special access to someone’s story. Distribute I’m so surprised brands only think takeovers should be done on Instagram. Seriously this blows me away. I’ve been hearing a lot of outdoor brands tell me lately that twitter has dropped off for them and isn’t seeing much performance and Facebook has so many algorithm updates it’s hard to keep up. Let that go for a second. Make sure that if you’re doing a takeover that ALL channels get taken over. For twitter you could publish the live updates and even host a 30 min twitter chat. For Facebook you could go live on Facebook Live and discuss the product or story being featured that day. You could increase the cadence to make the audience feel like they have special access for the day and can interact with the person taking over. If some of your social channels are struggling a takeover can help re-engage those audiences and even might show that they do have signs of life. Or they don’t and you just need to delete your Facebook page. A version of this article is originally posted on Medium here. Original article: Episode 20 – How Customer Social Takeovers Can Build Trust with Your Audience.

Welcome to Episode 19 of the Marketing Trust podcast. In this episode I share how three outdoor brands approach Marketing Trust in their content strategy and what you can learn from it. I share how Gerber Knives, Otterbox, and Big Agnes approach the three pillars of Marketing Trust and I rank how they did in each category of Proximity, Honesty, and Expertise on a scale from 1 to 5. Gerber Knives does a great job at video on their facebook page. Here’s how they stacked up: 3 out of 5 for Proximity – they do a nice job including the designer and helping their audience feel close to the brand. I had to dock them a few points for their social engagement with their fans. They generally generate a lot of comments but they don’t necessarily respond to them. 3 out of 5 for Honesty – The majority of content they share is up front and shows what the product can do. They also call out if the product is made in the USA in Portland, OR or in China. Their audience does call this out and is generally not happy about the China made products, however Gerber does respond to them and doesn’t ignore these messages so they get a few points for that. 5 out of 5 for Expertise – Their brand, imagery, music, and other elements all represent a strong sense of expertise. They also have an ambassador program but call it a something else, which is super on point. well played. I think one area for improvement is slowing it down and showing more demos of the product. Their videos are 60 seconds long and in some ways that maybe a little too short to show the product in action. Overall score: 11 out of 15 Otterbox has a lot of messages that come through their social feeds and has a strong team in place to address their questions. Here how they stacked up: 4 out of 5 for Proximity – With almost 900k followers on Facebook, Otterbox does a great job responding to almost all the comments they receive. Otterbox makes cell phone protective covers and the majority of questions they receive are if certain styles are available for phones, primarily samsung. They see a pretty high volume but definitely have put the right resources in place to serve their customer. 3 out of 5 for Honesty – While they respond to their comments of their fans, they receive a TON of feedback of which styles people want for phones. They often respond with, ‘thanks for your feedback, we’ll let you know if that ever becomes available’. As we’re now in this era of customers being closer to the product development process, we as brands need to update our audience on the update of that initiative. The example I found is they just released cases that are disney themed with the little mermaid, yes you heard me right, little mermaid. Right now it’s just for iphone but their fans are going crazy of the styles. It’d smart to update fans on the process of getting these available for other phone brands. 2 out of 5 for Expertise – Otterbox is known for their protective cases that keep phones safe. While style is important I’m surprised they don’t talk more about the function of their cases. A lot of questions that come through relate to the style of their phone cases but they also seen quite a bit of interaction around how far you can drop them and how well they protect the phone. They truly are the experts in phone cases and have honestly branded the product category with their name, I think their content could reflect that more by balancing the fashion style focused content with a deep dive into the specs and functionality of the cases. Overall they ranked a 9 out of 15 3. Big Agnes makes sleeping bags and tents and shared a customer story that has me in stitches. Here’s how they stacked up: 3 out of 5 for Proximity – One thing I love about their content approach is they include employees consistently in their content. This sends a message that they care about their people which translates in how they do business and build their products. They do a nice job responding on social media however some comments do go unanswered and they could definitely garner more trust but answering them even though it maybe around difficult topics. 5 out of 5 for Honesty – On instagram they re-shared a story of one of their customers who had their tent destroyed by an elk while camping. The pictures show an elk standing on the tent, chewing it up, and totally ruining it. They do a nice job sharing the story and making light of the situation. They said they took care of the customer and their audience loved the story and said things like, ‘they should make their tents more elk resistant’. Often times brands may be tempted to not share stories like this because they don’t want to show their product getting destroyed, however I’m proud of Big Agnes for doing this as it shows they are human and respect that sometimes ‘Elk Happens’. 2 out of 5 for Expertise – A while back they did a great job sharing product and tutorial videos about their products. While they share a lot of interesting stories about their ambassadors and employees, they need to mix in more product content and show why their products are different. Honestly, they should really talk more about that hilarious Elk story and even add that story to their warranty or product page on the site. Something like, ‘while our tents can’t withstand a curious elk trampling, they can withstand X amount MPH winds, waterproof, easy to setup, super lightweight…etc’ Overall ranked 10 out of 15. Make sure to follow these brands and keep an eye on their approach to content. This is also a good time to ask yourself how you rank with Marketing Trust in your content approach. Original article: Episode 19 – How Three Outdoor Brands Approach Marketing Trust.

With more than 20 years of marketing and business leadership experience, Tim Hayden has been a founder of new ventures and a catalyst for transformational progress within some of the world’s largest brands. Part social anthropologist, part strategic business executive, Tim studies human behavior and how media and mobility are reshaping all of business. From operations to marketing and customer service, he assembles technology, adoption and communications initiatives that lead to efficiency and profitability. In episode 18 Tim joins me on the Marketing Trust podcast to talk about what brands need to know and do when it comes to protecting the data of their customers. Thankful to Tim to join at this time as this has been a topic that has had a spotlight on it for a while now. Tim talks about how brands need to be very careful and proactive when it comes to unifying data and making sure they have their customers best interest in mind. Tim is also one of the few guests on my show who won Name That Handle! with only one guess. Nice work Tim and thanks for being on the show. Original article: Episode 18 – What Brands Need to Know about Privacy with Tim Hayden.