If generative AI is the future of marketing (and media in general), how can you compete with other marketers if ALL OF US have access to the same tools?

We can all create amazing images, videos (soon), and articles. We can all use the most amazing copywriter as a template to write our own copy. We can even develop entire marketing plans in SECONDS.

We can also research almost any topic to justify the claims that we make for the products and services we’re trying sell… in almost no time.

Basically, pretty soon we’ll all be able to build anything we want to help our clients sell whatever they want with little effort… but is it a good thing?

It means UNLIMITED competition which may be a problem, but more importantly, it means that all businesses will soon lose the competitive advantage known as “professionalism.”

Why “Professional” Marketing Assets Aren’t Special Anymore

Back in the good ol’ days of digital marketing, if you could produce professional copy and visuals, you would be ahead of 90% of your competitors.

Writing consistent copy WAS hard.

Generating professional graphics WAS hard.

Producing professional pictures and videos WAS hard.

Now, professional marketing assets aren’t just widespread and more available than ever before, they’re LESS effective than user generated content (UGC) in most cases!

According to a Nielsen study, 92% of consumers trust organic, user-generated content more than they trust traditional advertising.

Why is UGC content more effective than professionally created content? It feels genuine and trustworthy.

Even if UGC content is made for personal gain (e.g. influencers, sponsored individuals, affiliates, etc.), it doesn’t matter to the viewer. They just see amateur content made about a product or service they might be interested in. They’ll trust that much faster than the fanciest commercial you can make.

UGC materials don’t need to PROVE anything, we as marketers do.

How Can Professional Content Keep Up with UGC?

So, what can marketers do to influence viewers the same way unpaid (or low paid) amateurs do with UGC?

The answer isn’t simple, but it is necessary.

If we need to produce professional content AND it needs to be compelling, we’re going to have to start proving ourselves in real world situations.

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We all sell high quality, well-vetted products and services (of course), but a list of features, benefits, and even testimonials isn’t going to be compelling enough any more. People want proof, and there’s something we can do to directly provide it.

How Case Studies Can Deliver Results Like UGC

Case studies are the professional business/marketing equivalent to User Generated Content.

Here’s what makes UGC effective:

• Authenticity: UGC is perceived as genuine, fostering trust and credibility.
• Relatability: Real user experiences make it easier for potential customers to envision product use.
• Social Proof: Positive interactions in UGC serve as powerful endorsements, boosting confidence.
• Diverse Perspectives: UGC provides varied viewpoints, appealing to a broader audience.
• Engagement: UGC generates higher engagement, fostering a sense of community around the brand.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Leveraging UGC is more budget-friendly compared to producing polished branded content.
• Scalability: UGC can be easily scaled, allowing for continuous and diverse content creation.
• Emotional Connection: UGC can evoke emotional responses, creating a stronger brand connection.
• Word of Mouth: UGC acts as digital word of mouth, amplifying the brand message organically.
• Adaptability: UGC can be adapted for various channels, maximizing its reach and impact.

Now, let’s look at what makes case studies compelling:

• Authenticity: Like UGC, case studies are authentic and based on real experiences, fostering trust.
• Relatability: Case studies provide real-world examples, making it easier for potential customers to relate.
• Social Proof: They serve as powerful social proof, showcasing successful experiences with the product or service.
• Diverse Perspectives: Case studies often include diverse perspectives, offering a well-rounded view of the product’s impact.
• Engagement: Well-crafted case studies can engage readers, drawing them into a narrative that highlights the value of the product or service.
• Cost-Effectiveness: While creating case studies involves some investment, they can be cost-effective compared to other forms of content creation.
• Scalability: Case studies, once created, can be shared across various platforms, maximizing their reach.
• Emotional Connection: Effective case studies can evoke emotions, creating a deeper connection with the audience.
• Word of Mouth: Positive case studies can be shared by customers, acting as digital word of mouth to amplify the brand’s success stories.
• Adaptability: Case studies can be adapted for different marketing channels, offering versatility in their use.

Even with all of these similarities, Case Studies can feel stuffy (especially when they’re related to services). There’s one type that can come closer to UGC, and that’s the “Undercover Case Study.”

What is an “Undercover Case Study?”

This type of “case study” has been done for years, and was popularized by the show “Undercover Boss” which started airing in 2010. If you didn’t know… this was marketing (and was probably paid for by the company being featured). Here’s a few entertaining moments if you haven’t seen the show before:

Yes, there are a ton of cringy moments when the “boss” proves to be incredibly incompetent while working simple jobs, but the desired effect was usually achieved: humanizing big companies and their owners/managers.

It also provides a ton of exposure for the brand, what they sell, and why you should shop there (even if the only reason to shop there is to help the poor souls that work there).

You might be saying, “I don’t have millions to spend on a production like this, what can I do?”

Good news! Marketers are stepping up to show how this type of case study can be done without a million-dollar budget.

Undercover Billionaire: A Step Closer to Practical Undercover Case Studies

“Undercover Billionaire” is this American TV show where super successful business folks get stripped of everything and get plopped into small towns armed with just $100 and a car. They’ve got a tight 90 days to spin that measly $100 into a cool million-dollar business, all from scratch.

The show kicked off on August 6, 2019, and wrapped up its first season on September 24, 2019, featuring bigwig Glenn Stearns. Season two stepped up the game with three entrepreneurs, including the likes of Grant Cardone. Here’s a peak at the content:

Folks love this show for throwing the American dream into the ring and seeing if it’ll come out on top. Can you really build a booming business with just pocket change? Sure, the show’s taken a hit for maybe being a bit too scripted or over the top, but it’s dishing out some serious lessons on hustling and business building.

Here’s the rundown: these high rollers pick a business, build a squad, hustle their way from that humble $100, and BOOM – a startup is born. Oh, and there’s a Discovery Channel film crew shadowing them, calling it a documentary on starting a small business from scratch. They want you to think, “Hey, if these guys can do it, so can I!”

Yeah, we get it – reality shows can be a bit Hollywood, maybe stretching the truth here and there. But, “Undercover Billionaire” serves up some real-deal insights into the wild world of entrepreneurship and the crazy hurdles of starting a business from ground zero.

It also shows whether the marketing techniques touted by people like Grant Cardone ACTUALLY work.

Again, you might be saying, “This is great, but I still don’t have a budget for something like this.”

In that case, good news! Someone is making a show that could prove the practicality of undercover case studies for the rest of us!

Undercover Agency: The Future of Marketing?

We know you can produce a compelling, interesting undercover case study if you have the money for a big show and the ability to get huge names on it, but what if you have a smaller budget and a smaller following?

Enter our DigitalMarketer friend and community members, JC & Karen Hite from Hite Digital.

They’re gearing up to embark on a daring mission: launch an agency from scratch and try to acheive $10k in profits within just 4 months. To up the stakes even higher, they’re moving to Searcy, Arkansas (from their home in Nicaragua) to do it.

They want to prove that their marketing techniques, for both starting an agency and gaining results for their small business clients, works. To do that, they’re following these specs:

• No team
• 4 months
• $2k starting funds

To add an extra layer of challenge, JC is throwing in a commitment to keep faith and family at the forefront. That means reading the entire Bible during this experiment and powering down the phone from 5pm-8pm for some quality family time!

Can the Hite’s “Undercover Agency” show prove that undercover case studies are the future of marketing? We’ll find out!

If you’re an agency owner and want to join JC on this journey, they’ll be posting their progress starting in December 2023. To follow along, just join their Facebook Group.

The post “Undercover” Case Studies: Why the Future of Marketing Is Proving Yourself in the Field appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

You know that eerie moment when you’re halfway through an article or ad and you realize – “Hold on a second, a human didn’t write this. An AI did!”? We’ve all been there. It’s a bit like biting into a juicy apple, only to realize it’s made of plastic. 

Sure, we’ve got AI now – it’s pumping out content faster than a popcorn machine at a movie theater. But truth be told, a lot of AI content lacks the warmth, the humor, the “je ne sais quoi” that makes us human. That, my friends, is the puzzle we’re facing in today’s marketing world. 

But here’s the kicker: with just a bit of human editing and smart prompting, AI content can transform from simply good – to indistinguishable from top human writers. That’s the sweet spot we’re aiming for, and that’s exactly what we’re going to explore in this conversation.

Understanding the Limitations of AI-Generated Content

Before we delve into the nitty-gritty of why human editing is crucial, it’s essential to understand why AI can’t go at it alone. Let’s unpack the limitations of AI-generated content.

Overestimation of AI Capabilities in Content Generation

As AI’s popularity in content generation grows, there seems to be an overestimation of its capabilities. It’s easy to get drawn into the allure of automation, the promise of churning out article after article without so much as lifting a finger. However, AI is not some magical wizard that spews out flawless, engaging content at will.

AI writing tools are excellent at structuring information, spotting trends, and even using natural language processing (NLP) to mimic human-like text. But they lack the nuances, context understanding, and creativity inherent in human writers.

They can’t grasp emotions, humor, sarcasm, or cultural references the way we do (at least not yet), leading to content that, while technically correct, often feels flat and uninspiring.

The Risks of Factual Inaccuracies and Low-Quality Content

One of the most significant risks with AI-generated content is its potential for factual inaccuracies and low-quality output.

While AI tools can pull in data from numerous sources, they lack the human ability to discern between reliable and unreliable information. This can lead to content peppered with misleading or outright false information, damaging your brand’s credibility.

While these tools can spin sentences using complex language models, the final result often lacks the cohesion, logic, and flow that readers expect from high-quality content. This can lead to content that’s not only unengaging but also confusing for readers, impacting your brand’s image and authority.

While these inaccuracies might be minor nuisances in some fields, they can have devastating effects in others, particularly in “Your Money Your Life” (YMYL) niches. YMYL content refers to information that, if presented inaccurately, incorrectly, or deceptively, could directly impact a person’s health, happiness, safety, or financial stability. Think of content related to health advice, financial planning, or legal matters.

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For instance, let’s consider the healthcare industry. Imagine an AI tool writes a blog post on managing diabetes but misinterprets the data it was fed and suggests a dangerously high dosage of insulin. If a reader were to follow this advice, it could result in severe health complications or even death. This is an extreme example, but it underscores the potential risks of unverified AI-generated content.

Content Velocity Vs. Content Quality: Striking the Right Balance

In the world of digital marketing, there’s often a tug-of-war between content velocity and content quality. While it’s tempting to publish content at a high frequency to keep up with competitors and maintain online visibility, it’s a delicate balancing act that could backfire if not managed appropriately.

The Dangers of Prioritizing Content Velocity Over Quality

Imagine you’re a reader, faced with a stream of new articles every day from a particular brand. Initially, you’re impressed by their prolific output. But as you read through the pieces, you notice a recurring trend – the articles are filled with convoluted sentences, factual inaccuracies, and offer little to no value. Would you continue to trust this brand?

The point here is simple – prioritizing content velocity over quality can be a dangerous game.

While it might offer short-term gains in terms of visibility and perhaps even click-through rates, in the long run, it’s likely to harm your brand’s reputation and reader trust. It could also lead to lower engagement rates and increased bounce rates, as readers quickly exit your content if they find it low in quality or relevance.

The Continued Importance of Quality Content for Ranking and Authority

In contrast, high-quality content continues to be a pillar of digital marketing strategy, and for a good reason. Well-researched, accurate, and engaging content appeals to both your target audience and search engines. Google’s ranking algorithm, sophisticated as it is, rewards quality content that provides value to readers.

Beyond SEO, quality content builds authority. It positions your brand as a trusted expert in your field, a source of reliable information and insights. This can lead to higher engagement, increased conversions, and brand loyalty.

The Role of Human Editing in Enhancing AI-Generated Content

Integrating AI into your content creation process doesn’t mean human involvement becomes obsolete. Quite the opposite. It’s in the merger of AI capabilities with human skill that the magic happens.

My Experience with AI and Human Editing

As a seasoned digital marketer, my journey with AI has been enlightening, to say the least. I’ve seen firsthand how AI can simplify the content creation process, taking care of the heavy lifting by producing multiple drafts in a fraction of the time it would take a human.

Yet, there is something innately human about the act of writing, a subtlety and nuance that AI, for all its capabilities, can’t quite replicate. So, I’ve learned to work alongside AI, using it as a tool to augment and speed up my content creation, not completely replace it.

Every AI-generated piece I work on goes through a thorough human editing process. I infuse the AI output with a human touch, refining the language, ensuring factual accuracy, and most importantly, crafting a narrative that resonates with readers on a deeper level.

Estimation of Editing Required in AI-Generated Content

Now, you might wonder – “Isn’t that too much work? How much editing does AI-generated content need, anyway?” The answer is – it depends. Some pieces come out surprisingly well-formed, requiring only minor tweaks and polish. Others might need a more substantial overhaul to ensure they meet the desired quality and resonate with the target audience.

My rule of thumb? Consider spending around 40-60% of the total content creation time on editing and refining AI-generated output.

This isn’t a rigid number but more of a guideline. It emphasizes the need to dedicate significant time to the human element, ensuring that every piece of content you put out aligns with your brand’s voice, meets quality standards, and provides genuine value to your readers.

Google’s Perspective on Quality Content

Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” This mission directly impacts how they evaluate and rank content. So, what does Google consider “quality content”?

Effective Communication with Target Audience

One of Google’s core principles in evaluating content quality is how effectively it communicates with the target audience. Simply put, your content needs to resonate with the people for whom it’s intended.

While SEO techniques, like optimizing your content with Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords and links, play a crucial role in enhancing visibility, they’re not the be-all and end-all. In fact, an overemphasis on keyword density at the expense of readability and relevance can backfire. Google’s algorithms have grown incredibly sophisticated and can penalize ‘keyword-stuffed’ content that doesn’t offer genuine value to the reader.

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So, how should you approach this? First, strive to thoroughly understand your audience’s needs, interests, and pain points. Then, craft content that addresses these aspects in a meaningful, engaging, and accessible way.

This effective communication gives your readers the sense that you are an authority on the subject, which can enhance your website’s trustworthiness and authority.

Engaging content can increase the average session duration, a significant ranking signal for Google. In other words, the more valuable your content is, the longer users will stay on your page, which in turn signals to Google that your content is useful, pushing it higher in the search results.

Providing Value and Establishing Authority

Another critical aspect in Google’s quality content equation is the value your content provides. Are you offering new insights, or are you simply rehashing what’s already been said a thousand times? High-value content tends to be original, in-depth, and relevant, directly contributing to a positive user experience.

Lastly, Google pays attention to authority. It trusts content from sources that consistently provide accurate, trustworthy, and valuable content. Earning this authority isn’t about being the loudest or publishing the most content. It’s about demonstrating your expertise and reliability over time.

Let’s look at it this way – If your content was a person, Google would want it to be a knowledgeable friend who speaks clearly, offers genuinely helpful advice, and is trusted by others.

Achieving this in an AI-dominated content landscape requires the human touch – an understanding of the audience’s needs, the creativity to offer unique insights, and the ability to build genuine connections. Taking the time to go the extra mile will make your content stand out in an ocean of AI content.

Finding the Right Editor for AI-Generated Content

Just as every artist needs a discerning critic, every AI-driven content strategy needs a sharp, skilled human editor. But what does it take to edit AI-generated content? And where can you find such talent?

Key Skills Required in an AI Content Editor

When it comes to editing AI-generated content, traditional editing skills are just the start. Of course, a solid grasp of grammar, style, and punctuation is necessary. However, AI content editing demands more.

One key requirement is a knack for spotting and fixing AI-specific errors. Sometimes, AI content can be a little ‘off’ – oddly structured sentences, incorrect facts, or phrases that just don’t quite make sense. A good AI editor needs the sharpness to catch these issues and the skill to fix them while maintaining the overall flow of the piece.

Equally important is the ability to infuse a human touch. A skilled AI content editor can take an AI-generated piece and give it life, weaving in a compelling narrative, adding emotion, and tailoring it to the target audience.

Finally, the right editor is adaptable, able to work with various AI tools and tweak their editing approach based on the specific outputs of different AI models.

Platforms to Source Content Writers and Editors

So where can you find these AI-savvy human editors? There are several online platforms to tap into:

• Freelance platforms: Websites like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr are teeming with freelance writers and editors. You can post your requirements and invite freelancers to apply, or you can directly approach freelancers whose profiles match your needs.
• Content creation agencies: These are companies that specialize in producing and editing content. While they can be pricier than individual freelancers, they often provide a more comprehensive service, which can include content strategy, SEO optimization, and more.
• Online networks: Websites like LinkedIn and Facebook can be a good source of professional writers and editors. Look for individuals with a proven track record in content creation and editing, and preferably, experience with AI-generated content.

The Process of Humanizing AI-Generated Content

Leveraging AI for content creation presents a unique blend of challenges and opportunities. As we’ve established, a key part of this is infusing the ‘human touch’ to ensure the output doesn’t read like it was churned out by a machine. So how does this process work?

Starting Point: Generating AI Content Outline

The journey of humanizing AI-generated content begins with feeding the AI the necessary information it needs to know. Contrary to common misconceptions, AI is not an all-knowing entity. The quality of the content it creates is directly tied to the quality and depth of the information it’s given.

The human editor plays a crucial role here. They ensure that the AI is primed with a thorough briefing and all the necessary context about the topic at hand. From the intended audience to the key points to cover, the AI is equipped with all the requisite details.

Following this, the AI takes the baton and creates the initial content outline. This AI-produced blueprint forms the basis of the content piece, setting its direction and flow.

However, the editor’s job isn’t done yet. They need to review the AI-generated outline carefully, ensuring it is comprehensive, logical, and aligned with the content’s goals.

Only after this careful examination and potential refinement does the AI proceed to flesh out the content. This process ensures the AI-generated content starts on the right footing and stays on track as it evolves.

Section-by-Section Review and Reprompting

Once the initial AI-generated content is ready, the human editor steps in for the next phase – a detailed, section-by-section review. Here, the editor critically reads through each part, reprompting the AI tool wherever necessary.

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Is the AI providing a relevant response? Is it capturing the nuances of the topic? Is it staying within the desired tone and style? If the answer is no, the editor reprompts the AI, tweaking the instructions to guide the AI towards a more desirable output.

Fact-Checking and Surgical Editing for Final Refinement

The final stage of the humanizing process is fact-checking and surgical editing. Here, the editor verifies the AI’s data and cross-references it with reliable sources to ensure the content is accurate.

Any factual inaccuracies are corrected, and the content is fine-tuned. Grammatical errors are rectified, awkward phrases are reworked, and an overall polish is given to the content, enhancing its readability and engagement factor.

Through these steps, the AI-generated content is transformed. It becomes not just technically correct and informative, but engaging, valuable, and ‘human.’

The Benefits of Combining AI and Human Editing

In the world of content creation, combining AI and human editing is a match made in heaven. But what specific benefits does this union bring? Let’s dig in.

Saving Time and Improving Efficiency

The first major benefit is a significant boost in time efficiency. AI is lightning fast. It can generate a draft in the time it takes a human writer to finish their morning coffee. This speed frees up a huge chunk of time that would otherwise be spent on writing, allowing editors and content teams to focus more on strategic tasks.

AI doesn’t suffer from writer’s block or fatigue. It can churn out content consistently, helping maintain a steady content output.

That’s not all. Editing AI-generated content is often faster than editing human-written content. Why? AI tends to make predictable, patterned mistakes. Once editors get the hang of them, correcting these errors becomes quicker and easier.

Achieving Complete Topical Coverage

Expanding the depth and breadth of your content to cover a topic comprehensively is a proven strategy for establishing authority and improving your search engine rankings. Here, AI and human editing work together like a well-oiled machine.

AI, with its ability to generate content swiftly and at scale, can help you achieve broad topical coverage faster. It can produce multiple pieces around a core topic, covering various subtopics, and creating a web of interconnected content. This, in turn, positions your website as a comprehensive source of information on a specific subject.

However, the speed and scale of AI-generated content could potentially lead to compromised quality standards if not properly managed. This is where human editing steps in. Editors ensure that each AI-generated piece of content is accurate, engaging, and offers real value to the reader, aligning with Google’s perspective on quality content.

Ensuring High-Quality, Humanized Content

The AI-human combination isn’t just about speed and efficiency. It’s also about quality. While AI is great at producing quick drafts and covering topics extensively, it often lacks the human touch that makes content relatable and engaging.

That’s where human editors step in. They transform AI’s technically correct but often sterile output into something rich and engaging. They add warmth, emotion, and narrative flow, turning a plain piece into a compelling read.

Human editors ensure factual accuracy, maintain the brand’s voice, and optimize the content for SEO. All these are areas where AI still has room for improvement.

How to Implement These Tips

Now that we’ve discussed the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of humanizing AI-generated content, let’s dive into the ‘how.’ How can you put these insights into practice?

Identifying Suitable AI Content Generation Tools

The first step is choosing the right AI content generation tool. There’s a myriad of options available, each with their strengths and weaknesses.

Your selection should depend on your specific needs. What type of content do you produce most often? What’s your budget? How much content do you need to produce?

Some tools are excellent at generating short-form content like social media posts, while others excel at long-form content. Some are geared towards creative writing, others towards SEO or technical writing. Research different options, use free trials, and find the one that fits your needs the best. 

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Plain ol’ ChatGPT is a great place to begin if you would rather not pay to use a third party software.

Finding and Collaborating with Skilled Content Editors

You need skilled content editors who can humanize AI-generated content. Look for editors with a knack for storytelling, an eye for detail, and a deep understanding of your brand and audience. They should also be comfortable with AI tools and eager to learn and adapt.

But finding good editors is just part of the equation. You also need to foster a strong collaboration between your AI tool and your editors. Set clear expectations, establish communication channels, and encourage feedback and learning from both sides.

Consistently Reviewing and Improving the Editing Process

Don’t set it and forget it. Regularly review and tweak your editing process. Solicit feedback from your editors, watch for patterns in the AI’s errors, and continuously improve your briefings and editing guidelines.

The more your editors work with it and correct it, the better your editing processes will become.

With these steps, you’re all set to leverage AI for content creation while ensuring top-notch quality. But remember, the world of AI is fast-evolving. Stay curious, stay flexible, and continue to learn and adapt.

The post The Future of Marketing: Harnessing AI with a Human Touch appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

As a marketing pro, you know how tough it can be to capture the attention of potential clients and keep them. There are more than 10,700 digital advertising agencies in the U.S., giving business owners a lot of options. So, if you want to stand out, you need to be more than an expert in digital marketing. You need to be an expert in marketing science.

If you’ve spent years promoting your agency as the go-to for all things digital marketing, this can be a hard pill to swallow. But the fact is the landscape has changed. To be successful, you have to position yourself as a true marketer—who happens to love digital marketing. 

Why Digital Marketing Expertise Isn’t Enough

No marketer wants to hear that their digital marketing expertise isn’t enough. I get it. You’ve likely put a lot of effort into studying proven frameworks, staying on top of trends, and even recruiting top talent for your agency. And chances are, that effort has paid off. However, having an agency adept at digital marketing won’t bring you to the pinnacle of success—not without marketing science savvy.

Here’s why…

• Digital marketing has been around for a long time. 

Although digital marketing has evolved, it’s not a new concept. The history of digital marketing spans more than 30 years. In fact, the term was introduced back in 1990, around the time the first search engine (Archie) was launched. 

In short, everyone knows about it by now. And many agencies are doing it. Unfortunately, that means your digital marketing know-how isn’t anything novel or unique. 

• Business owners get digital marketing (for the most part). 

Today’s business owners are more knowledgeable about digital marketing. Of course, they don’t necessarily have a clear grasp of it. And there are still plenty of marketing misconceptions out there. But research shows that 47% of small business owners handle their marketing efforts themselves. So, it’s fair to say they get it—more or less. 

In most cases, potential clients aren’t impressed by an agency’s ability to handle social media, implement SEO tactics, manage paid advertising, etc. They’ve heard it all before. Even if you can do it better, that may not be reason enough to outsource to your agency. 

• Marketers have to work extra hard to earn respect.

DigitalMarketer’s own Mark de Grasse has talked about how marketers don’t get the respect they deserve, and it’s true. As marketers, we have to work harder than other professionals to demonstrate our worth and prove we know what we’re doing. Claiming digital marketing expertise—even if you do have it—just won’t cut it. You need to have broad marketing knowledge and use marketing science to back up your recommendations. 

• Tools and tactics change, but the principles of good marketing don’t.

As touched on previously, digital marketing is constantly evolving. New tools and channels are constantly being introduced, resulting in new tactics to adopt. But if you focus too much on what’s changing, you lose sight of what doesn’t. Being on top of every new “shiny object” doesn’t matter much if you can’t follow the principles of good marketing. And that only comes with an understanding of marketing science. 

What Do We Mean by Marketing Science?

Many believe that marketing is both an art and a science. And they’re right. But for now, we’re focusing on the latter. After all, it’s the piece of the puzzle your digital marketing agency is likely missing. 

There are several different takes on marketing science out there. But when we talk about it, this is what we mean…

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Making Decisions Based on Data—Not Guesswork

Those who embrace marketing science know that data is key. That doesn’t mean a marketer’s knowledge and experience should be tossed aside. However, data should play a critical role in decision-making.

Leveraging data just makes sense. 

• It allows us to see what’s working and what’s not. 
• It provides valuable insights that help us answer tough questions.
• It ensures we’re making the right decisions for each client.

Science-driven marketers are skilled at compiling, analyzing, and interpreting data from various sources. They apply their findings accordingly, using facts and figures to support their choices. As a result, they can serve their clients better—and with more confidence. 

Applying Techniques from Other Disciplines

Digital marketing can be bolstered by other practices. Science-driven marketers know that. They see the value in disciplines like psychology, sociology, economics, and neuroscience (the last of which is combined with marketing to create neuromarketing). That’s why they look at research from those disciplines to see what they can leverage. Then, they apply techniques to make their marketing efforts even stronger. 

Conducting Well-Designed Experiments

Experts in marketing science realize that experimentation is essential to improvement. After all, you can’t ensure the best result if you don’t do some testing first. So, they conduct experiments using the scientific method to determine if their initial choice (or hypothesis) is correct. 

The most successful marketers tend to be those who are constantly testing. On a granular level, they create different variations of assets, analyze the data, and make improvements as needed. They view every test as a source of valuable information and use it to their clients’ advantage. 

Using Technology Wisely

True marketers who understand the science side use technology to their advantage. They don’t get hung up on every new tool that arrives on the scene. Instead, they conduct in-depth research to create a marketing technology stack that benefits them and their clients. 

At the most basic level, they find technology to assist with the following:

• Data tracking
• Automation
• Keyword research
• Model building
• Wireframing

Although most marketers understand the importance of marketing technology in serving their clients, scientific ones don’t suffer waste. They only invest in tools that will enhance their efforts. And they strive to get the most out of each one they use. 

Taking a Holistic Approach to Marketing

There are many different facets of marketing—social media, paid advertising, SEO, email, copywriting, web design, etc. But science-savvy marketers don’t see them as individual pieces. Instead, they view them as parts of a much larger whole. They know that each one contributes to a business’s online presence. 

That’s why they take a holistic approach. 

They ensure consistency in all assets across all channels, connecting them for maximum impact. Every part is working together to promote the client’s business. More than that, every team member is doing the same. 

How Marketing Science Yields Success for Agencies

When you’re an expert not only in digital marketing but also in marketing science, you position your agency for success. It helps set the stage for being known as unique and smart.

Here’s how…

• You can frame your agency as an authority in the space.
• You can demonstrate your understanding of marketing as a whole. 
• You can encourage your team to start thinking about the big picture. 
• You become more strategic in marketing for each individual client.
• You can provide proof that your efforts are yielding results. 
• You can gain a competitive advantage over tactical marketers.

Ultimately, it doesn’t just make your agency better. It makes your agency appear better to current and potential clients. 

Takeaway

These days, digital marketing expertise isn’t enough to stand out from the crowd. If you really want to take your agency to the next level, you need to embrace marketing science. You need to show you have what it takes to build a business, develop a brand, and achieve long-term results. By convincing clients you’re a true marketer who offers digital marketing services, you’ll have an easier time acquiring and retaining them.

The post How Marketing Science Yields Success for Agencies appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

If you are reading this article, chances are that you know something about Ryan Deiss and his Customer Value Journey. Ryan literally built a marketing education empire on the concept of this framework.

It’s so important to the DigitalMarketer community that he even has the original napkin version framed like a relic to be viewed like the Mona Lisa.

My name is James Bullis. I am a Marketing Technologist / Webmaster with over 25 years in the industry.
I remember when I first learned about this concept around 15 years ago.

It was originally called Customer Value Optimization and had an entirely different structure. I’m a web designer and when I started working in this industry I started out in marketing.

When I became a web designer, I didn’t understand that a business web design is a part of a business’
marketing plan. After learning more about marketing, I realized how I could put these concepts into the website and use them to create a better website experience for my customers’ website visitors.

Then the along came the Customer Value Journey (CVJ) which was a fundamental upgrade and made the entire foundational framework make more sense. It essentially closed the loop and created an endless flywheel of customers if applied correctly.

It really played well in helping to understand how a business website should be laid out so that the traffic could be funneled through the Customer Value Journey.

The CVJ is not the only part of this foundational framework. It is usually accompanied by an Ideal Client Avatar and the Before & After exercise. Essentially, you need to understand who you want to help and be able to empathize with them to discover how you can bring value by easing their pain.

But there is a real problem when it comes to the CVJ that I have noticed over the years. It seems to me that no one will sit down and do it.

Do I know this for a fact? No. But, I can guess with some authority that most people who have learned this framework skip over it in practice.

This became obvious to me some years ago inside of DigitalMarketer Engage – the Facebook group of people who have spent some time and money with DigitalMarketer to engage with other members to talk about the frameworks, get advice, and learn from each other.

You could always tell when a fresh wave of members would join because the same questions were asked repeatedly.

These were questions that could simply be answered if they took the time to go through the process of completing these exercises for each new campaign or business that they started to work on as marketers.

I don’t know why people skip over these foundational steps. The framework itself along with the worksheets probably make the concept seem simple and insignificant but it is a powerful exercise that will save you a ton of time, money, and resources.

Years ago, DigitalMarketer invited people to a conference in Austin to learn some amazing new concepts that were going to change the way we thought about digital marketing.

I was excited. I packed up. Headed to Texas. Arrived at the event. Sat down. Excited to learn something new when the guys came out and began talking about…the CVJ. The avatar. The before and after exercise.

I was a bit dumbfounded and a little bit angry at myself when I realized that this framework…was the secret. And I realized that I was not taking the time to do these exercises.

I realized that I wanted to spend my time learning about these frameworks and exercises but I myself was not implementing them. I did something drastic when I left that event. I went home and disconnected myself from everything DigitalMarketer and I decided that I wouldn’t invest in learning any new concepts until I started with these fundamentals.

For years, I worked on numerous projects, and I took a stand to make sure that we sat down and did the work. This is what I discovered.

Why the Customer Value Journey Is STILL Essential

The CVJ is essential because it answers the most important questions that everyone who works with a
business needs to know:

1. Who Do You Help?
2. How Do You Help?
3. Why Does It Matter?

It’s also important because it puts this information in a format that can be shared with anyone who works on a business including sales, marketing, and technology. If my clients already had a CVJ for their business when I started designing and building a new website for them, it would be so much easier to create a website that actually gets results.

If the information that is contained in a CVJ were given to a graphic designer, marketing contractor, customer service rep, sales rep, consultant, anyone…this would make working the clients and ensuring their success so much easier. We call it greasing the skids because it makes it outlines everything that needs to be done in a simple to understand and comprehend format.

After using this framework on any new projects, I don’t know how I could realistically provide value to my clients if I didn’t help them create their CVJ.

The CVJ Is an Experiment in Marketing

Everything that we do in marketing is an experiment. Every little decision we make is a series of experiments that lead us to always be optimizing. No matter how far we’ve come, we can always do it better. For that reason, the CVJ is more of a living document that changes over time as the campaigns that you work on. A business can have multiple CVJs.

Think about it. You can get this process wrong because chances are you and your customer are just guessing about what will work. The more you do it, the easier it will be for you to ensure your customer’s success, but chances are, if you are creating a CVJ for a customer, they probably never completed one before and these concepts are new.

You can get it wrong. In fact, you can get it wrong and waste time, money, and resources by targeting the wrong people. Last year, I did a session with a client where we went through the process of mapping out their Ideal Customer Avatar, Before & After Exercise, and CVJ.

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For months we created content, updated the website, and ran social media campaign. It wasn’t until we expanded on these exercises with AI that we realized that we were targeting the wrong prospect. Now we can avoid that.

The CVJ Is Easier To Create Than Ever with AI

If I were to ask a group of marketers why they did not use a framework to conduct their marketing, I would imagine that the main consensus would be that the act of sitting down with your client and getting a full understanding of these concepts is not something that you or your client really want to do.

In the mind of the client, you should just know this information (by some miracle). The reality is that every business is different and while you may be able to repeat the concepts in these exercises, having the exercises completed and documented will save you a lot of time and heartache in the long run.

I love the quote from Lincoln that says, “If given six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four sharpening my axe.”

This concept is true in so many aspects of business but as I said before, if you take the time to document the CVJ, ICA, and Before and After exercise, you will be so far along that you’ll make your life a lot easier.

Well, now we have this thing called AI. And what I have discovered about AI is that it is really suited to help solve this problem. In fact, now that I have started to use AI to help create this foundation, I can’t help but generate the concepts, expand on them, and make some of the most focused content that speaks directly to the prospect.

The CVJ framework is essential to success as a marketer. Now with the help of AI tools, you can take any framework and inject it with steroids to create comprehensive marketing foundation that can literally transform your marketing campaigns.

Not only can you generate expanded versions of these foundational frameworks, but you can now use them to reference when creating content to build awareness and increase engagement with your audience.

The dawn of AI in digital marketing is an exciting one, offering boundless opportunities to strengthen and streamline the strategies we use. Leveraging the capabilities of AI, the creation and application of foundational frameworks such as the Customer Value Journey (CVJ), Ideal Client Avatar (ICA), and the Before & After exercise, can be profoundly amplified.

Gone are the days where marketers neglect these critical steps due to their time-consuming nature or the perceived complexity. With AI, we are able to enhance these processes, reduce the margin for error, and ultimately deliver more targeted and impactful content.

In my personal journey as a web designer turned marketing technologist, I have seen the value these tools bring to the table, but also witnessed their neglect. Utilizing AI, we can change this trend, ensuring that these valuable resources are used to their fullest potential.

By taking the time to implement these tools properly, we not only provide immense value to our clients but also create a better experience for the end user, leading to more successful marketing campaigns.

As digital marketers, we have an exciting path ahead of us. Armed with the transformative power of AI, we can take the wisdom encapsulated in the CVJ and other frameworks and unleash it on a grander scale than ever before.

In an era where every business decision is becoming data-driven, the advent of AI ensures that the nuances of human insight remain central to our marketing strategies.

It allows us to balance the scales between data and empathy, between efficiency and effectiveness, and, ultimately, between the business and the customer. So, as we step into the future of digital marketing, let us remember to carry these valuable lessons forward, and embrace the tools that AI provides to augment our journey.

The post AI Has Made the Customer Value Journey More Powerful: Here’s Why appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Let’s dive into the pool of reports that have been surfacing recently – those revolving around AI, the economy, and how this roller coaster of a world may impact your marketing agency, then we’ll shift gears and put your agency under a microscope.

My goal is simple, to spark a lightbulb moment, where you say, “Ah, these are crucial, foundational aspects of my business that I’ve been overlooking.”

Your customer avatar, your customer journey, your niche… all those buzzwords you’ve heard until you’re blue in the face (but might not have really acted on quite yet).

The “development” of your small business was optional until recently. You could ignore trends, delay updating your services, and maybe even “step away” from operations before… but NOT ANYMORE.

Things are changing FAST, and if you don’t get your business on track, you’re going to miss out. Not only could your services (and therefore your business) become irrelevant if you fail to consider how new technologies, marketing practices, and methods are changing, you’re going to do something even worse… YOU WILL MISS A MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY.

The rapid progression of AI and societal change means one thing: all businesses are facing the same lack of experience and also have access to new technology. The next Google, Facebook, TikTok, etc. are going to launch over the next

It’s time to crush that resistance to change, and the action starts here, right now.

What’s the Matter With the Way Things Have Been?

Let’s take a moment to gauge your feelings about the internet so far.

Is the internet a dreamy utopia where you can find everything you need, with all of the fun and answers just a click away?

Or is it more like stumbling into an IKEA store, utterly lost, drifting aimlessly from bedrooms to kitchens, only to end up shelling out an unexpected $5k for a living room set you didn’t intend to buy?

That sums up the internet so far – a wild, chaotic IKEA… a poorly structured labyrinth of information.

The tool we’ve been given to navigate this labyrinth is a search engine, biased and inefficient, a Frankenstein monster of our own creation. My theory is that this mess of a situation paved the way for social media to rise and shine.

As search has gotten increasingly unhelpful, we resorted to building individual networks to connect with others (Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, etc.), but due to the nature of these networks, it doesn’t satisfy what we really want… easy access to easy answers.

The internet has, until now, been a digital wild west. Full of freedom and opportunity, but so chaotic that it’s tough to make progress.

In the midst of this chaos, AI seems like the answer to our original dream of the internet. Imagine logging on, typing a question, receiving a concise answer, and smoothly moving onto the next thing on your list.

Sounds like a dream, right? Instead, we’ve been stuck in an endless loop, spending hours, sometimes a whole day, hunting for that elusive piece of information. This was not the plan.

The plan was, “Hey machine, fetch me the stuff I’m looking for,” and the machine promptly delivering. Instead, but again, what we got was a virtual IKEA store.

But fret not! Change isn’t a monster, change is progress.

The internet, as we know it, has been somewhat dull and mediocre, merely the first step in the evolution of new technology.

What the Heck Is Happening Right Now?

Needless to say, the future promises much more CHANGE, and you need to be prepared to leverage it to the fullest.

Are you worried about recession, war, or the economy in general? Most of you probably are, and rightly so given the topsy-turvy state of affairs.

Hold onto your hats, folks, because we’re about to dive into a wild world of change that could make your head spin.

Recession, War, & Economy Fears

The US inflation rate is tap dancing at 4.93% (in May 2023), a subtle decline from last month’s 4.98% and a healthy decline from last year’s 8.26%. To put that into context, the long term average inflation rate is around 3.28%.

Basically, the cost of everything is high and getting higher, and boy, is that going to pinch when it comes to netting those customers for your business.

Worse, especially for marketers and businesses reliant on expendable income, is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). March 2023 saw a jaw-dropping spike in the consumer price index to nearly 10.1%.

We haven’t seen anything like this since the eighties, perhaps. This figure does exclude food and energy costs, and in a way, that makes it all the more striking. We’re now looking at a significant disposable income that marketers, like us, are vying for.

Which brings me to the ecommerce sector. We just launched a report recently called the Hawk AI Ecommerce Report.

If you’re still thinking that ecommerce is on a skyrocketing trajectory post-2020 pandemic, hate to break it to you, but that’s not the case. Growth has tapered off.

The average order value has leaped 31% year over year, even as overall sessions dipped by 5%. I can almost hear you scoff, “5%, that’s peanuts!” Hold on.

In a realm where constant growth is king, a 5% dip in eyeballs looking at products is no laughing matter. It’s like a crack in the dam.

So, the past year wasn’t e-commerce’s finest hour. But hey, let’s focus on the positives, like the soaring average order value. There were also some intriguing trends, like a 78% hike in the ‘buy now, pay later’ option during Black Friday.

Now, let’s dig deeper into the data. Strap in, folks, because we’re about to embark on a rollercoaster ride through the year-on-year changes in the consumer price index since the disco era of the seventies.

AI Taking Over

Switching gears now, let’s talk AI, specifically about its sudden blitz through the ranks. Our little friend ChatGPT has managed to amass a staggering 100 million users in just two months. To put that in perspective, this AI darling outpaced WhatsApp, mobile phones, Twitter, and even the internet itself in terms of user base growth. It’s like a comet blazing across the tech universe.

Sure, AI has been on the scene for a while, but what we’re witnessing now is the starting of its “coming of age.” It’s like the awkward teenager morphing into a supermodel.

And this is just the beginning, because once your average Joe and Jane start using this tech, it’s game on. Commercial interests are pricking up their ears and eyeing that 100 million users figure like a juicy steak.

AI makes creating new apps, especially simple ones, almost free. Back in the mid-2000’s I wanted to develop a fitness application and was told that it would cost $500,000 for a non-working mockup. Today, I could probably develop the whole thing for free, and that’s exactly what many entrepreneurs are doing.

How many apps? Hard to say! New ones are coming out daily. If you want an idea of how many, check out TheresanAIforThat.com. As of this articles’s publish date, they have 4,434 indexed AI apps used for 1,242 tasks.

Information Tech War

Then there’s the battle of the tech giants, who are in a mad dash to revamp, reinvent, and reimagine their platforms to keep up with AI’s blazing trail. Remember when Instagram flipped its focus to Reels, only to switch back to photos when that didn’t pan out as they’d hoped?

You know what’s really intriguing? We’re watching TECH GURUS make these seismic decisions, not your average consumer.

It’s as if the tech nerds have hijacked the driver’s seat, pressing buttons and yanking levers without asking the passengers where they want to go. Despite having the funds to do extensive surveys, they’re barreling full steam ahead.

So, here we are, standing at the precipice of the great information tech war. It’s a new battlefield, with tech giants scurrying to mimic the success of TikTok and AI applications like ChatGPT, a frontier so vast and unsettling it’s causing Google to break into a cold sweat. Because, if AI continues its meteoric rise, SEO’s value could crumble like a cookie.

When it comes to content creation, the game is changing.

While Google still dotes on keywords like a doting parent, AI is taking a different approach. It’s an evolution, my friends. A revolution, if you will, where we shift from the creator dictating the content narrative to the user wielding the power.

The current model of content production is like putting the cart before the horse. It’s all creator-centric when it should be focusing on the user. Now, you might argue that keywords stem from user queries, but let’s be honest, it’s like trying to piece together a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

So what’s the deal with AI and why is Chat GPT all the rage?

Well, instead of playing favorites like Google, who’d boost Bob from down the street because his keyword game is strong, ChatGPT levels the playing field. It takes a massive fixed data set, learns from it, finds patterns, and then churns out an answer that’s an average of all the answers it has analyzed.

So when folks say AI is biased, I chuckle.

Sure, it has its inclinations, but it’s no more skewed than Bob penning an article with the sole aim of lightening your wallet. That’s the harsh reality of the internet, which loops back to my earlier point – the internet, as we know it, is flawed.

Why AI is Growing Right Now (and Why It’s Here to Stay)

Switching gears now, let’s gab about AI adoption. We’re seeing a steady uptick here with about 35% of global companies harnessing AI in their operations. Now, I know, most folks’ minds jump straight to Chat GPT, but AI’s tendrils extend much further.

Consider the likes of TikTok, Starbucks, and other bigwigs. Ever used the Starbucks app? It’s a masterpiece of design rooted in machine learning – understanding how people interact with information, discover products they desire, and even related items they might fancy. This intricate dance of relational data is all orchestrated by AI, and it’s been this way for some time.

Nike and other industry titans have been riding the AI wave for a while now.

This 35% isn’t a passing trend; it’s a new industry standard. Interestingly, the data suggests larger companies are 100% more likely than their smaller counterparts to have AI up and running in their operations.

The message here is crystal clear – the big players are in the AI game to stay.

Small businesses, to stay in the race, have got to be nimble and swift to adopt these changes. If you’re stuck in the slow lane, you’ll not only be left in the dust by the corporate giants but also by the fresh-out-of-college Joes, who’ve grasped AI’s potential and are now moulding their marketing knowledge base around it.

Consider this, while we’re scrambling to retrofit AI into your existing frameworks, there’s a whole new generation coming up that knows nothing else.

Now, don’t get ahead of yourselves. I recently interviewed forty twenty-somethings for a new role. Not a single one had tried AI. They’ve heard of it, sure, but their understanding is largely surface-level. This presents an enormous opportunity for established players to tap into the AI potential because the rookies, surprisingly, aren’t fully clued in yet.

AI & the Job Market

An interesting tidbit, one in four companies are turning to AI because of labor or skills shortages.

The job market is a tough nut to crack. Companies, particularly the big ones, are starting to question whether they need new hires or if they can simply reallocate tasks.

Let’s debunk this misconception that AI is a job thief. It’s not.

What AI does is streamline specific tasks and processes, some of which were once part of someone’s job description. Suddenly, email monitoring or data analysis isn’t a full-time position; it’s an automated task, courtesy of AI.

This doesn’t mean you’re axing jobs. Rather, you’re ramping up efficiency.

Here’s the golden ticket – we always say you should aim to be 10x more productive with AI. As marketers, you have the expertise and AI offers the tools. The result? Your abilities are amplified.

We’re not talking mass job losses here. We’re talking about enhanced productivity and speed, reducing the need for extra hires and solving issues with unmotivated employees, which, believe me, can be a headache.

As marketers, it’s natural to be concerned about our roles, but we do have a creative function, and that makes a difference. The top five jobs at risk of automation aren’t ours. They’re IT professionals, data engineers, developers, data scientists, and customer service professionals.

I’ll provide a link to IBM’s 2022 State of AI report for more details.

So while we should be aware, let’s dial back the worry a notch.

In terms of labor and skill shortages, many are quick to condemn AI adoption, arguing it deprives people of job opportunities. Often, these critics (which can be referred to as Luddites), oppose new tech due to various pressures unrelated to the work at hand. We need to take a moment and remember what’s most important here – our customers.

Our primary focus shouldn’t be our employees, business partners, or investors. It should be our users. There’s been debate about whether Google should index AI-created content or human-produced content, but the truth is, good content is good content. Period.

From a customer-centric perspective, they don’t care about your internal issues. They care about receiving a great product or service.

As businesses, we need to stop obsessing over our internal operations and start considering our users more.

Your priority should be delivering the best content for your audience, rather than worrying about who’s producing it. Of course, ethical considerations matter, but they should not overshadow the primary goal – customer satisfaction.

What does that imply if you’re aiming to scale?

Well, stellar customer service is mandatory. The user experience has to be outstanding. The product – whatever you’re selling, has to be top-notch. Plus, customers need to be sold on your brand. The days when you could sell a product, move on to the next customer and repeat, are long gone.

This shift has already begun on the product front because Amazon’s model has forced us in that direction. It led us to commoditizing products we don’t care much about to get them as cheaply as possible.

Now, the focus is on people committing to brands and quality products. No more tolerating being on hold with an offshore call center for hours and still not having your issue resolved. Those days are done.

So picture insurance commercials – except they weren’t lying, you know? I find insurance commercials amusing because they promise the world but do virtually nothing, or worse, they fight you when something goes wrong.

That’s how traditional marketing has been. That needs to change now.

We’re moving towards a time where we deliver, not just promise. So again, expect significant changes in the marketing industry. Things will be different, and there may be fewer of us, as we become ten times more effective – keep that stat in mind. If your competitor was ten times more effective, would you stand a chance? Not really.

Your competition may no longer be a big agency. It could just be a lone individual who has figured out how to automate everything seamlessly. This will lead to unified marketing because it will be generated by a single individual.

We’ve all heard tales about a guy working out of his basement for a year, building a company from the ground up and then becoming a millionaire, posting pictures of Lamborghinis in Dubai or something. Have you ever wondered how that works? It works because everything originates from one person – it’s cohesive, whether it’s high-quality or not. It all feels like a personal brand rather than a product of a committee.

That’s how most companies are – built by committee. It leads to a lot of compromises and blandness, and it disconnects you from your customer avatar. It results in a bland, default campaign. And anyone can create default campaigns now.

For instance, with the help of ChatGPT, you can have a month’s worth of social media content without breaking a sweat.

The era of achieving great success by following a systematic approach is over too. Now, you need a system (which many companies lack) in addition to excellent execution and delivery.

AI is the Latest Case of Creative Destruction

The process of the new taking over the old is known as creative destruction. Essentially, it’s the process of continuous internal revolution within the economic structure, constantly breaking down the old and creating the new.

This phenomenon isn’t new – it’s been part of our history. For instance, let’s go back a bit. Remember when disposable film cameras were a thing? You know, the little plastic and cardboard ones you’d get at weddings, click away mindlessly, giving you a bunch of sub-par pictures, costing you a small fortune to develop.

That era has been replaced by the era of digital photography. With a digital camera, you popped in an SD card, and voila, instant content. Remember the decline of Polaroid? Polariod sales essentially got obliterated, overtaken by digital photography.

That’s creative destruction in action.

Our task, then, is to navigate this constant change, ensuring that we are always on the cutting edge, always adapting, always prepared for what comes next.

In doing so, we ensure our survival and growth in this ever-evolving landscape.

Let’s draw parallels to another example, the decline of manual stock trading and the rise of online trading. It mirrors the way digital marketing took over offline marketing.

I set up my online stock trading account back in high school, and I can’t picture doing it any other way. I spoke to from a trader that they’d pay a hefty fee to place their processor just a foot closer to the data line, buying them an infinitesimal edge in time. Can’t even imagine operating in that industry without such capabilities.

Let’s talk about the decline of traditional retail stores and the rise of e-commerce, an area that exploded during the pandemic.

Stores had to shutter all over the country as people were locked indoors, finding that they had more time and disposable income since they weren’t splurging on trips. They turned to e-commerce. Even though some physical stores are reopening, ecommerce isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.

Then, we have the decline of physical media and the rise of streaming. Remember when strolling the aisles of the DVD store on a Friday night was a treat, and the excitement of finding an unexpected gem? That was a “thing,” replaced now by the advent of streaming, which effectively obliterated Blockbuster and all other DVD shops.

Now, let’s glance at the decline of traditional newspapers and the rise of online news. When was the last time you actually looked at a physical newspaper? Can’t remember, can you? And even in the checkout aisle, you’re more likely to be scrolling on your phone.

This process of ‘creative destruction’ that we’re going through, it’s cyclical. We’re on one cycle right now, but the key question is, will you make it to the next one?

Prepare Your Agency For the Future: Fortification & Innovation Assessment Framework

To navigate these tides of change and chaos, I propose a strategy of fortification and innovation. The marketing frameworks we’ve taught to hundreds of thousands of marketers (like the Customer Value Journey, Customer Avatar, and Core Message Canvas) still work.

They’ve worked for countless people and companies, and they’ve generated billions in revenue (over $100 million directly for DigitalMarketer). Even so, they need to be fortified so they can be even more effective using the latest technology, in this case, AI. That’s why we launched the AI-Powered Marketer Accelerator.

Similarly, you need to do the same thing with your customers by fortifying what works, and innovating improvements.

Are you prepared for the new market? If you don’t score 15 or above on either the Fortification or Innovation questions… you aren’t ready.

Click Here to download the spreadsheet.

Fortification

Rate your business from 1 to 5 on the following questions (1 = Not Defined, 5 = Well Defined)

How well-defined is your customer avatar?

Step one is understanding your customer. This is the foundation we’re building on.

So, the first question is, who’s your client? Can you define that client? Rate the clarity of your client definition from one to five.

Can you visualize them? Picture Sally, the yoga enthusiast with four children who somehow finds time to attend all their matches, manages a myriad of tasks and all she desires is the perfect phone case to capture her life moments.

I’m chasing after the emotional connection here. I’m not interested in the mundane demographic data like a married, suburban mother between 35 to 45. That’s old news. I crave something juicy, something impactful for advertising.

Can you craft an advertisement, a tantalizing, effective ad using just that customer avatar?

Because if you can’t, you’ve got a hazy, nebulous understanding of your customer rather than a clear customer avatar.

How well-defined is your niche?

Moving on, question number two, what’s your niche? We’ve had endless discussions on niches. I’m quite fond of the phrase ‘niche it to rich it’. So, what’s your niche?

Can anyone take one look at your business and instantly discern your niche? If no one, even those familiar with your work, can pinpoint your niche, then you likely don’t have a defined niche. Evaluate yourself on your niche clarity. On a scale of one to five, how well-defined is your niche?

How well-defined are your products & services?

Next question, what’s your product or service? You might think it’s evident, but believe me, I’ve dealt with countless companies that were clueless about what they’re selling.

They might know their product or service catalog but fail to succinctly define it. Like with any offering, apply the 80/20 rule. If you can’t discern where 80% of your revenue is originating from, you likely have a poorly defined product or service.

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How detailed is your primary Customer Value Journey?

Next up, what’s your customer value journey? It’s not about educating them on marketing, it’s about illustrating the complexity of the process. Marketing isn’t just putting up billboards or Facebook ads, it’s a comprehensive, consistent plan. If your approach isn’t cohesive and consistent, you don’t have a customer value journey, rather a collection of tasks you perform for clients. And is that contributing to their growth? Or is it just ensuring your next paycheck?

So evaluate your core customer value journey on a scale of one to five. You should ideally have these customer value journeys segmented by product or product line. If you don’t, then you lack customer value.

How detailed is your conversion process?

And finally, what’s your conversion process? Can you describe it? Is it meeting Joe at a local business event, following up, running a discovery session, and signing him as a client? If you don’t have a conversion process, then you don’t really have a business, you’re merely interviewing for a job with random people, hoping that they hire you. Not much of a business model, is it?

You likely do have a conversion process, it just hasn’t been formalized yet. So, rate how formal and defined your conversion process is, on a scale of one to five.

Innovation

Rate your business from 1 to 5 on the following questions (1 = Not Defined, 5 = Well Defined)

How customized are your solutions for each customer?

AI’s level of personalization and its ability to generate immense amounts of content instantaneously means your customers will increasingly expect comprehensive, cohesive, and customized solutions.

If you’re not delivering these, they’ll seek out those who can. As I’ve mentioned before, you need to consolidate what you’re currently doing before you can innovate. You can’t possibly innovate in these areas if you don’t have them clearly defined to begin with.

Customers are going to become increasingly expensive to acquire, which means customer retention will become absolutely crucial.

How well are you taking care of your clients? Is it an afterthought or a constant priority? This needs to be at the forefront of your strategy – how to acquire and retain customers.

Next, you’re expected to exhibit your core competency in every facet of your business. This is why I always insist on expanding content marketing.

Your content is essentially a public display of your competence. When I commit to a brand, I undertake extensive research. I devour everything they’ve published, check all their social platforms, sign up for newsletters. If I find any inconsistencies, I likely won’t engage.

While this might sound eccentric now, it’ll soon become commonplace, as customers will have access to transformative experiences. They’ll find brands that ‘fix’ things for them and they’ll never consider leaving. So, brace yourself and be ready for the AI revolution in marketing!

How expensive are your customers to acquire?

The acquisition of your customers is escalating in expense, necessitating that customer retention takes center stage in your strategy.

Do you lavish attention on your clients or do you scatter that attention sporadically? This isn’t about generating monthly progress reports as an afterthought. It’s about constant engagement. Think about how you sign up your customers and how you ensure their allegiance.

Time to face the music – your core competency needs to be glaringly visible across your entire business. This is why I’ve always been an ardent advocate of content marketing. You see, your content is your public avatar, your professional facade. When I decide to commit to a brand, I run a comprehensive background check – I pore over every piece of content they’ve put out, scour their social channels, subscribe to their newsletters. If I detect inconsistencies, I’m out of there.

Now, this may sound a bit extreme in the current scenario, but trust me, it’s a trend that’s picking up steam. Why? Because consumers are being exposed to these transformative brand experiences. Once they get a taste of a brand that ‘fixes’ things for them, they’ll stick with it. So, picture this – a thousand fiercely loyal customers hooked to your brand. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

However, to earn that loyalty, you need to ensure that your content rings true to your brand. This is a significant issue I have with brands outsourcing their content creation. If you aren’t the one crafting the content, it lacks authenticity. If a customer reads an article attributed to you but you didn’t write it and then they approach you with questions based on it, how does that reflect on you? Not favorably, I assure you. You need to create your content and answer every question your customer could potentially have.

You’re also expected to anticipate questions they may not even know to ask yet. If you aren’t providing the answers, they’ll seek them elsewhere. So, it’s paramount that you invest in your content creation, possibly even leveraging AI-generated content.

How well are you expanding your private following?

With the uncertainties in search algorithms, it’s critical to develop your private following. A consistent newsletter is a good place to start. It gives you a platform to roll out content regularly and nurture your audience privately.

This idea came to me when I saw brands that relied heavily on Facebook for their marketing get banned. You need to secure your audience independently, away from the vagaries of social media.

How well are you using AI to augment/improve your speed & processes?

Now, let’s touch upon the application of AI in marketing. The core uses include personalization, predictive analytics, chatbots, image recognition, voice search optimization, content creation, lead generation, A/B testing, and sentiment analysis.

It all circles back to data crunching and content creation. However, don’t assume AI-created content absolves you of your responsibility. It’s still your duty to bring a unique style to every piece of content, across all platforms and mediums.

So, let’s tackle some pressing questions. How customized are your solutions for each customer? Are they templated or do they address unique needs? Next, how costly is customer acquisition for you currently, compared to last year? And, how well are you utilizing AI to enhance your speed and processes?

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In modern business, standing out from the crowd isn’t easy. A strong brand-customer relationship is vital, as it drives customer loyalty and engagement. This can be the deciding factor in your business’s long-term success. 

This article will explore the importance of your brand-customer relationship. We’ll explain how the four principles of brand management can help you build and maintain that relationship.

What is a Brand-Customer Relationship?

Your brand-customer relationship is the connection between your business and its customers. It’s influenced by various factors, but is essentially formed through the perception and reputation of your brand. You build this relationship on trust, loyalty, and engagement. 

As well as the quality of the products or services you offer, your company’s reputation is also important. So is the customer’s overall experience with your brand. To put it simply, there are both tangible and intangible aspects to your brand-consumer relationship.  

The tangible aspects include the quality of your products and services, as well as your sales, customer service, and support. We measure and affect the intangible parts of the brand-customer relationship with brand management. 

Why is Brand-Customer Relationship Important?

It’s well-known that customer experience is one of the most critical factors in customer loyalty – and your brand-customer relationship is central to this. A good relationship encourages customer loyalty through engagement. 

Customers who have a positive experience with your brand, and thus a strong brand-customer relationship, are more likely to recommend your company to others and make repeat purchases. This drives higher customer lifetime values and can grow your revenue through word-of-mouth and social sharing. 

In addition, a solid brand-customer relationship helps to differentiate your business from its competitors. Positive associations with your brand make it easier for customers to identify and choose it over others.

The 4 Principles of Brand Management

So, now you know what we mean by a brand-customer relationship. But it probably still seems like a vague concept. Yet, whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re affecting it with everyday business decisions, advertising, and communications. 

That’s why many established businesses have dedicated brand management teams to build consistency across your brand. These four overlapping principles guide brand management strategy. Measuring them will show you the state of your brand-customer relationship.  

1. Awareness

This is how aware your target audience is of your brand versus others in your market. Think of synonymous brands such as Coke for soft drinks or Hoover for vacuums. These are the brands with the highest level of awareness in their respective areas.  

Most businesses won’t become household names, but there are other ways to measure brand awareness. Analyzing organic searches for your brand name, as well as social media mentions, content shares, and so on, can give you a good idea of your audience’s awareness level.

That said, raising brand awareness isn’t just about getting your brand name in front of people. Increasing and maintaining awareness means you must also stand out in the customer’s memory. For brand managers, this means creating a unique brand personality for your business. 

2. Reputation

Your reputation is what customers think about when they see your brand. This might be certain words or emotions they associate with your brand or product or a generally positive or negative sentiment.  

This has a significant overlap with your brand awareness. If you’re not working on maintaining your brand reputation while growing awareness, you can spread negative sentiments and do more harm than good for your brand. 

Building a positive reputation takes time. You can affect it through your communication, service, recruitment, and community projects. Your company culture, mission statement, and guiding principles can also tell external stakeholders about your reputation and values. 

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3. Loyalty

Research shows that loyal customers are five times more likely to make repeat purchases and four times more likely to recommend your business. That’s why customer loyalty is the goal of your efforts to improve your brand awareness and reputation.

Easier said than done? Perhaps. Customer loyalty can be challenging to build, partly because many customers look for different things to get their best experience out of a business. Some customers value convenience and price, while others want on-demand support. 

For example, customers who come to your brand for value might appreciate your customer service measures such as a toll-free number or online text chat for inquiries. On the other hand, those looking for convenience might appreciate a premium-rate line that guarantees instant access to support. 

That means that to increase customer loyalty, brand managers must analyze customer behavior and feedback. Personalization is a major driver of customer loyalty. When you listen to a customer’s needs and make changes based on feedback, you show that you value their contribution to your business.

4. Equity

Brand equity represents your brand’s perceived value. Think of it as the premium customers are willing to pay to access your brand over cheaper competitors. This leads to higher ROI on both new and developed products, as you can incorporate this into your pricing. 

In his book, “Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity”, author Kevin Lane Keller describes four key steps to building your brand equity:

• Establish your brand identity by identifying your target audience. Then, create your brand assets and stories around it. 
• Define what your brand means. You do this by clearly stating your company values and through the projects you choose to support. 
• Analyze how customers respond to your brand. What feelings and emotions does your brand evoke? Direct feedback and sentiment analysis are two good ways to judge this. 
• Build your brand resonance by developing your existing customer relationships. Use your brand management to form deeper emotional connections with your customer base. 

High customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are key indicators that your brand equity is rising.  

How to Use Brand Management to Improve Customer Relations

Now you understand the principles of brand management, let’s look at how to use this in an everyday business setting to improve your customer relations.  

Start With Brand Basics

If you’re new to brand management, the first step to improving customer relations is establishing a clear and consistent brand identity. This means developing a brand strategy, mission statement, and brand identity that aligns with your business’s values and goals.

You’ll also need to make key decisions about core brand assets like your logo design. Simple assets or slogans can be crucial in reinforcing the emotions and values you want customers to associate with your brand. Give these decisions the time and thought they deserve. 

Share Your Stories

Whether we’re talking about your brand’s origin story, mission, or even employee journeys and customer testimonials, sharing these stories will help you make deeper emotional connections with your customers. 

For example, many companies make support content like video tutorials for their products. But one way to make your customers feel more connected to this process is to share user-generated content with success tips and product guides.  

Optimize Your Online Visibility

In today’s digital age, your business needs to have a strong online presence. Optimizing your online visibility can increase brand awareness and reach more customers. 

This includes developing a website and creating social media profiles, as well as covering other basics like listing your brand in online directories and review sites.

Create an Internal Branding Guide

A strong brand identity is not just built by communicating with customers. You also need to ensure that employees understand and align with the company’s branding efforts. You can achieve this by creating an internal branding guide. 

Use this as a reference for all employees to ensure consistency in tone of voice and other branding markers for all departments.

Focus on Your Customer Journey

It’s vital to understand how customers interact with your brand, from the awareness stage to post-purchase. By understanding the customer value journey, you can identify areas for improvement and tailor your branding efforts to meet the needs of your customers at each stage.

Engage Your Customers on Their Terms

Engaging with your customers on the channels they prefer is crucial to building a strong brand-customer relationship. Whether it’s social media, email, phone, or in-person interactions your audience prefers, make sure they can access your brand on those channels.

Personalize the Customer Experience

While we can fit customers into groups and demographics, each one is also unique. By analyzing a customer’s preferences as they interact with your business, you can give them a customer experience that meets their needs every time. 

This can be small, simple, gestures. For example, give your priority customers access to a separate business phone number to speed up their support experience.  

Analyze and Improve

Finally, to truly optimize your brand-customer relationship, you need to analyze your performance and make adjustments as you go. This includes tracking website traffic, monitoring social media engagement and sentiments, and analyzing customer feedback. 

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By using analytics, you can make data-driven decisions to improve customer relations and drive growth. 

Final Thoughts: It’s all in the Details

Your brand-customer relationship goes deeper than your surface interactions with your customers. When we’re talking about subjective factors like emotion and engagement, the little details can make the biggest difference. 

Even seemingly unrelated decisions like your choice of website hosting providers can have a knock-on effect. Does your domain name reflect your brand? Is it instantly recognizable to customers? When we think about it in these terms, it’s easy to see why a choice like this can have repercussions for your brand. 

Effective brand management means you don’t have to fret about the small details of every decision. Having a clear brand strategy and documents like an internal branding guide help ensure consistency, even up to the decision-making level.  

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