While the digital marketing landscape is shifting under our feet and the artificial intelligence revolution takes hold, the ancient art of storytelling remains tried, tested and true. Such is the dichotomy of marketing in the Digital Age.

Last week, I attended the Change In the Making Conference. in our home town of Squamish. Now heading into its third year, the conference attracts some 700 attendees from enterprise brands, small business and agencies. While still maintaining its heavy focus on digital, the CIMC organizing team decided to broaden the scope of the event in 2017, adding in broader topics for the public relations community.

Here are the big take aways and trends that will shape marketing and storytelling in the months ahead. It’s a long one, but I promise it’s a good one!

A Good Story Is Timeless

In today’s Digital Age, it’s important to have a hook in the first 8 seconds if we want to draw the audience in and overcome ADD. But, we needn’t be overly clever. Vulnerability and authenticity reign in this space.

Matthew Luhn from Pixar reminded us all that simplicity is key when it comes to telling a great story. We have to make people feel the story more than anything else. If we can achieve that, we can make magic happen.

Tried, tested and true storytelling devices that have been used for thousands of year still apply. Every story needs a set-up, build, and pay off. But, pacing and tension are critical to create an emotional connection with the audience. And of course, the good old anecdote is still very relevant and effective. In fact, adding a story makes facts 22 times more memorable.

Native Advertising and Influencer Marketing Critical To Marketing Mix

As the digital marketing pipeline becomes more and more saturated (and expensive), relying on third-party allegiances is the new norm.  

After all, in a world where people fear “fake news”, sponsored content doesn’t seem so bad as long as there is transparency. Lindsay Stewart of Buzzfeed revealed that the recipe for success when it comes to sponsored content is for brands to give the publication creative license to maintain their voice. They know their audience best and have historical data to inform their content. In Buzzfeed’s case, they stick to their recipe for success: being relatable, creating emotional pull, educating people or making them laugh.

Native advertising is estimated to become a $28 billion business by 2018. Native ad units might be modelled after IABs, but their place in the digital mix is to add context, educational or entertainment value.

On the other hand, working with influencers to gain reach and third party endorsements has become mainstay in the marketing mix. But, it doesn’t always have to be the mainstream Internet giants whose engagement decreases as their reach increases.  Looking at so-called micro-influencers can be a more cost effective approach with long-term benefits. These are people who are prolific in niche communities and are on their way to Internet fame, but haven’t quite made it yet.

The Web Landscape Is Shifting

No longer is it sufficient to build a mobile friendly site. Rather, with the saturation of mobile, it’s critical to build mobile first web properties. Some brands are deciding to de-prioritize desktop all together, depending on who their target market is.

As design becomes more mobile-centric and m commerce gains momentum, we can expect to see purchasing behaviour shift from desktop to mobile as it becomes easier to buy items from a mobile device.  To date, mobile has done a great job at driving web traffic, but user experience and trust still hinder many from purchasing on their mobile. Broadly speaking, e-commerce businesses still see more purchases made on desktop. But, that is changing.

Another space that is dramatically shifting is the world of mobile applications. Britney Muller of Moz argued that apps could become a thing of the past; replaced instead by a hybrid solution called Progressive Web Applications. PWAs are built for mobile browsers, but offer the sophistication and robust user experience of an app.

But it’s not just web design and apps that are evolving. The landscape of search is changing too, with the prevalence of voice recognition technologies like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google’s voice software. No longer must we optimize our websites for written search terms, but also voice search as well. To date, advertising companies like Google have yet to monetize voice search, but it’s on the horizon. Search engine optimization is transforming and now, more than ever, it’s important to lay the foundation with today’s best practices so you can be ready for tomorrow.

We Need to Simultaneously Embrace and Prepare for AI

We are in the midst of a not-so-quiet revolution of artificial intelligence and automation. Simply put, cognitive computing (or machines that continue to optimize and learn as they go) will play up a major role in almost every aspect of our lives. From helping businesses better understand their customers, to organizing and interpreting massive volumes data, to completing tasks currently executed by humans, AI will become an extension of human decision-making and action. Some would argue we’re already there.

Internet giants Facebook and Google both admitted that “connectivity” is the next frontier. AI and machine to machine will be the next battleground. It’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top in this space.

But, as Meagan Tanner of Google Canada so eloquently explained, technology does not just disrupt industries – it has a trickle down effect.  Technology disruption impacts entire economies. The electric, self-driving car for example, disrupts gas stations, packaged goods sold in the gas station, people who work in goods manufacturing, vendors who serve the manufacturers and so on and so forth.  With these new technologies barrelling towards us, our nation is poised for a major economic disruption and Google Canada is campaigning hard to pressure the Canadian government to invest in tech leadership.

There’s no better place to look at how disruption impacts the economy, than, well, the sharing economy. The revolution started with the likes of Uber and AirBNB, but ultimately permeates just about every industry there is. Ted Graham of GMC posed the question : “who is the Uber Of” the next industry in his talk. He demonstrated how GMC has taken a page from some of the most successful sharing economy brands – and even partnered with them – to adapt and grow.

As we near the midway point of 2017, this is a good time to re-evaluate where we stand. Stéphane Bérubé of L’oreal hit the nail on the head when he emphasized the importance of reinventing, innovating and building the future before it builds you. Becoming stagnant – even if you have a 108-year success record – is the greatest fail of all.

Influencer marketing is a mainstay in brand campaigns these days. Savvy social media stars are cashing in big with one-off promotion of products and services on their channels – often times taking it on as a full-time job. But, are brands taking the easy route of paid influence and ignoring advocacy?

For the most part, influencer marketing is a highly effective tool: lower cost per engagement and all the reach you can buy. After all, the notion of paid product endorsements isn’t a new one and there’s a reason why celebrities make a killing on hawking everything from Parisian perfume to canned coffee in Japan. The only challenge is that influence is a short game, while in actuality, the world of true advocacy is a much longer, more arduous journey. And that is scary, time consuming and costly. But, it’s necessary.

Businesses can win over lifelong loyalty one customer at a time; one social engagement at a time; one recommendation at a time.  Whether it’s rallying your internal team members or connecting with your most active customers, here are three ways you can amp up your advocacy game:

Start With Your Team Members

By far, your team members are the most knowledgeable and passionate about your company. There’s a reason why they are working for you – and it’s time to harness that momentum and share it with the world.

Create an environment where team members are invited to share your social media posts, blogs and marketing campaigns. Make it easy by providing them with a mechanism for easy sharing. A simple all-team email, internal communication tools like Slack and Salesforce Chatter, or a more robust solution like Hootsuite Amplify, are great ways to notify team members that there’s new content to share with the world. Integrate prizing and incentives to make it fun and ensure the engagement is sustained.

Amp Up Community Management

If there’s one low hanging fruit that will give you a leg up on your competition, it’s social media response. Every reply to a Facebook comment or a Tweet (good or bad) goes a long way to showcasing your customer service and sales excellence. If you have to invest in one area of your business, it’s customer service – and social media community management is really on the front lines of this. If you can maintain a balanced relationship with your online audience during the good times, it will do wonders to help you rebound quickly from a crisis if something goes awry. A word to the wise: make sure brand guidelines and issues management plans are in place to ensure your community manager has everything thing they need.

Create Opportunities for Reviews and Testimonials

By now we all know that customers trust their peers more than companies. So, if you know your customers have had a good experience with your product or service, why not invite them to share their story with others? Sometimes all it takes is a gentle nudge to remind customers. Ensure that there is a prompt to provide a review in all point of sale or post-sale follow ups, such as on receipts, clothing hangtags, cash desk cards, and confirmation emails.  

Most importantly, find ways to highlight these reviews in the mediums customers use for researching your business. Some ideas to showcase testimonials include: adding a slider on your website, creating a case study, integrating a call-out box on your email newsletter or creating snackable social media content featuring the quotes.

Want to learn more about how to build an advocacy program? Get in touch for details!