Let’s Talk Business: May 27, 2022

Read this week’s Let’s Talk Business column in The Emporia Gazette.

Social media is currently the number one channel used by marketers to attract new customers and engage with existing audiences. With each app’s unique intended functionality and use, business owners handling their organization’s social media need to understand how engagement differs by platform.

On Pinterest, an image-sharing social media platform with virtual boards and pins, 85% of searches are unbranded–meaning businesses have a wide margin to surprise and delight new customers with unique, relevant content. To improve engagement on Pinterest, invest time in reviewing your analytics, creating Pinterest Idea pins, and analyzing past successes to create great engagement.

On Instagram and TikTok, hashtags have become a driving force of customer discovery and engagement. Instagram allows 30 hashtags, so small businesses have the ability to showcase their versatility through branded hashtags, community hashtags, industry-specific hashtags, and more. TikTok limits captions and included hashtags to 300 characters or less, but offers flexibility in hashtag-driven engagement. Try to run a branded hashtag challenge with sounds and visual aspects. Make it accessible and open-ended, and encourage participation from anyone who sees it instead of only existing customers.

When it comes to social media, authenticity has never been more important. Gone are the days of creating promotions-only posts for social media and marketing to the masses. Marketing practices today require creating unique, relevant content that speaks to specific problems or offers solutions to a niche audience. These best practices also result in much higher engagement than traditional cookie-cutter techniques.

Drop these outdated marketing tactics now: using customer demographics, relying exclusively on video, and marketing to the masses. Today’s customer seeks entertaining content, personalized service, and convenience–in addition to the desired product or service.

Psychographics (segmenting people based on attitudes or beliefs), as opposed to traditional demographics, can help you create messaging that’s more relatable. Research from the EY Future Consumer Index offers five consumer segments to frame your marketing:

• Affordability first consumers: focused on living within their means and budgeting carefully. They’re primarily concerned with product functionality.
• Health first consumers: focused on protecting their health, choosing products they trust to be safe, and minimizing risks involved with shopping.
• Planet first consumers: this group seeks to minimize its impact on the environment.
• Society first consumers: want their purchases to contribute to the greater good, and seek honest, transparent organizations and brands.
• Experience first consumers: this group wants to make the most of life and is adventurous in its purchasing behavior.

Consider how your marketing outreach and campaign messaging can better relate to one or more of these psychographic segments–and which segments best align with the product or service you offer.

What does all this mean for your marketing? You have the ability to control how your mass outreach can be refined into more targeted marketing messages that can reach the customers most likely to relate, respond–and purchase.

It’s a great day in Emporia!

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“Let’s Talk Business” is a weekly column of the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce and Visit Emporia. The mission of the Chamber is to be proactive in creating an environment for business and community success, guided by the vision that positive attitudes promote positive actions. Contact us at 620-342-1600 or chamber@emporiakschamber.org and visit our website at www.emporiakschamber.org