Consumers make decisions emotionally.  

It’s true.  

According to Gerald Zaltman, emeritus professor at the Harvard Business School, 98% of buying decisions are made in the subconscious.  

That means these buying decisions come from the heart or the gut… rather than the brain. Emotion beats logic nearly every time.  

And that’s why it’s vital to have an emotional brand story.  

Facts appeal to the brain. Stories stir the heart. If you want to create a real connection between your brand and your customers, you need a brand story that sticks with your buyers. 

So how do you do it? How do you craft a brand story with emotional impact?  

When building a website, companies have always been focused on creating a “user-friendly” interface. Online shoppers should be able to navigate around your website and make a purchase with ease. However, sometimes companies forget the biggest user of their website… Google. By controlling search engine results, they are the one who ultimately decide which websites get traffic. Long story short, if Google is happy, you’ll be happy.

On this episode of the J&See  Views on Marketing, we dive further into the world of SEO with the founder of Huckabuy, Geoff Atkinson. Meg and Geoff break down the basics of SEO and why Google plays a part in everything. Read on for some of the highlights of their conversation. And of course, make sure to subscribe to J&See: Views on Marketing to hear a interview like this once a month.

There’s no doubt that the pandemic has thrown a wrench into everyone’s plans for 2020. To avoid tone-deafness during a crisis, many brands have had to tweak, pivot or completely scrap their marketing calendar. In a recent survey of marketing professionals across industries, only 6% didn’t have to change their marketing strategy. The rest are refocusing messaging or changing how they do business. Forty-five percent of companies surveyed say the impact is moderate… they haven’t had to throw everything out the window. But 18% have found themselves changing drastically.

A good direct marketing campaign does three things well: 1.) It promotes the right product/service, 2.) It conveys a strong benefit and 3.) It persuades consumers to action.

Direct marketing also gives you a chance to deliver your best offer directly to the people who most need them.

In times like these, it’s important to remember that direct marketing is a good way to:

• Build and re-establish relationships with customers
• A/B test different offers
• Reach the right people, with the right message at the right time
• Increase sales

But a good direct marketing campaign requires careful planning and a firm grasp of direct marketing tactics and techniques. Knowing how and when to use direct marketing can help you achieve your business goals. But before you get started, there are a few things to keep in mind:

So you’re not seeing the response from your content marketing you expected.

It was well written, it was useful information, it was witty. So what happened?

Well, it’s more common than you might think. And over the years, we’ve discovered that there are certain pitfalls that often plague content marketers.

The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer buying habits. Many people have gotten used to only venturing out to the grocery store or pharmacy. Online ordering is up. Curbside pickup is expected.

But as the country moves toward reopening, phase by phase, companies are looking for ways to recapture sales and reignite the interest of consumers in their brand.

Right now, many consumers need a nudge. And retargeting through direct mail could be the push they need to engage with your brand.

Some college students choose to spend their time at a university creating something of their own… such as a new business. With scholarships and grants, plenty of work space, and your choice of partners, college can be the perfect time to test out a new idea. As schools caught on, programs were created to help students build their own businesses and attract investors.   

One such program is the iVenture Accelerator at the University of Illinois. The iVenture team, lead by program director Manu Edakara, has helped their students raise over 17 million dollars since its start back in 2015. On this episode, Manu and Meg Goodman discuss the importance of programs like his on college campuses, the marketing behind a successful start-up and how situations like the pandemic can affect business. Read on for some of the highlights of their conversation. And of course, make sure to subscribe to J&See: Views on Marketing to hear a compelling interview like this once a month.

 Personalization is simply a must for marketers. Consumers and business buyers want personalized communications and organizations see a greater return when implementing it. In Salesforce’s Fourth Annual State of Marketing Report,  52 percent of consumers and 65 percent of business buyers stated they would switch brands if a vendor did not personalize communications. Personalization was once as simple as inserting the contact’s first name and maybe even a company, and that was all that was needed, but it has evolved to so much more.

We can all agree that coronavirus will leave behind a series of long-term consequences for marketers. And even though it’s taking about all you have to just “get through” it and put out the dilemma du jour, it is equally important to plan for the future. As tough as this is, you need to be prepared for what’s to come.

To that end, here are 5 ideas to guide you through the fog and into the future.

The customer buying journey involves getting clicks on your ads, guiding customers through your website, and completing a sale. You can have all the online traffic in the world but one tiny technical error can halt that journey in its tracks. Making sure your website functions properly and running your ads efficiently is the goal of conversion rate optimization, or CRO. On this episode of J&See, Meg Goodman talks CRO with Kurt Philip, founder of Convertica. Kurt and his team of experts identify issues with existing websites and provide support to increase traffic and click-through rates. Kurt and Meg also discuss running a remote company and the future of online businesses. Read on for some of the highlights of their conversation. And of course, make sure to subscribe to J&See: Views on Marketing to hear a compelling interview like this once a month.