Month: December 2023

A North American brand and celebrity SMS platform partners with a European omnichannel messaging service to grow both their audiences.

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As you are familiar with extensive lists of tasks, particularly when setting your objectives and methods for the upcoming year, it may feel like every discussion results in numerous tasks to complete. However, in 2024, it is crucial to concentrate on the most important marketing goals to expand your company in the new year and beyond.

Digital marketing, particularly in the realm of social media, is rapidly changing and this makes it difficult to pinpoint marketing priorities. New technologies are developing at a swift pace, consumer demands are consistently rising, and the need to demonstrate the return on investment for your marketing strategies is becoming more urgent. Additionally, executives are facing the challenge of achieving more with a limited budget.

We’ve put together a list of the top six marketing priorities that you should be paying attention to in 2024, in order to assist you in determining the areas that require the most strategic focus.

Embed AI into team rituals and processes

In the year 2023, the widespread availability of AI models significantly transformed the landscape of social media marketing. A vast majority of marketers, over 80%, report that AI has already positively influenced their work. However, despite the high adoption rates, there is still a considerable amount of uncertainty surrounding AI. As emphasized in The 2023 State of Social Media Report, a staggering 98% of leaders admit that they need a deeper understanding of the long-term potential of AI. Additionally, 37% of executives reveal that their organizations have limited experience with AI, indicating that the current skill sets in most workplaces are not sufficiently equipped for a future dominated by AI at a corporate level.

2024 will usher in a new chapter, where AI-powered data analysis, copywriting, graphic design, social media management and customer care tools become the new standard. Businesses that make the shift to AI-driven processes will have a clear competitive advantage, so leaders can no longer afford to wait and see. It’s your responsibility to prepare your team for the future and invest in AI processes that count.

What does an AI-powered way of working look like? According to Aaron Rankin, CTO of Sprout Social, “AI will serve as an exoskeleton, a layer that enhances your existing strengths, or be a virtual assistant who shields you from tedious tasks—preserving your time and energy to focus on truly creative work. As AI tools evolve and become more intuitive, business leaders need to identify how their workforce and existing systems need to adapt for AI to be successfully onboarded.”

Nevertheless, it’s important not to hastily dive into AI. It has significant shortcomings, such as reinforcing biases and fabricating data. It’s essential to have human oversight within your operations, both inside and outside the organization, to truly take advantage of AI and safeguard your brand’s reputation. If you haven’t established a policy for AI usage yet, now is the moment to do so.

Considerations: Start by giving your team space to experiment and find ways to use AI to complement their work. Observe the results, and ask what your executive and senior leadership teams are doing to champion the widespread use of AI technology. Then, invest in the most durable, impactful tools that empower your team to create more space for creativity and set your company up for the long haul.

Read more about how CMOs are leading their teams into the AI frontier.

Improve the transition between marketing and customer service to enhance support for customers on social media.

It used to be that whoever owned the keys to a brand’s social channels was responsible for effectively addressing customer inquiries, concerns and feedback. Social media managers would attempt to juggle their own marketing priorities while also serving as the liaison between consumers and service teams. This left social teams overtaxed, and resulted in a lackluster experience across the customer journey. As social evolves, social customer care has to move from an ancillary duty to a business-wide priority.

According to the Index, only a quarter of businesses say social customer care will be exclusively owned by marketing in the future. Marketing and service teams working in harmony is the future of customer care. Service agents shouldn’t have to wait for social marketers to triage messages in order to resolve customer complaints. Likewise, social marketers should focus more effort on activities that best harness their expertise instead of chasing down answers that could be easily addressed by the service team. But for shared ownership to be productive rather than chaotic, everyone who touches social customer care needs to be on the same playing field. And that takes thoughtful coordination.

According to Ryan Barretto, the President of Sprout Social, relying on a single team or individual to handle all online customer interactions is a recipe for disaster and does not take into consideration the preferences of customers. However, getting different departments to collaborate on a unified customer care strategy also comes with its own difficulties. With more people involved in social customer care, it becomes increasingly important to have an advanced playbook to ensure everyone is working together seamlessly.

To meet (and exceed) increasing customer expectations for high quality and efficient service, 96% of leaders plan to integrate social data into their CRM system in the next three years, according to the Index.

Considerations: To scale customer care efforts, you need the right tools and workflows in place. Everyone needs to be able to access and act on the right information without relying on others. It’s the path toward increased efficiency, stronger risk management and top-line growth. Ask yourself: Does social customer care have clear ownership within your organization today? Do your tools and processes support a steady flow of communication and data between teams?

Balance brand and performance marketing

Today’s uncertain economic climate is leading some brands to pull back on their brand marketing investments. But a laser focus on performance marketing can hurt your business long-term and impair future growth. According to The State of Social Media Report, 66% of business leaders say increasing brand reputation and loyalty is a top priority. Another 56% of executives say telling a compelling brand story and weaving together a cohesive identity gives their brand a competitive advantage.

Failing to make equal investments in brand and performance marketing can tip the scales against you, making customer interactions seem one-sided and strictly transactional. Consumers are savvier than ever—they can tell when brands only see them as dollar signs and aren’t afraid to switch their loyalties.

Executives must prioritize investment in brand marketing just as much as performance-based marketing due to increased customer expectations, decreased customer loyalty, and tougher competition. In financial terms, brands that show they understand their audience and add value to their consumers’ lives are almost five times more likely to surpass brands that fail to do so in terms of customer lifetime value.

Considerations: Rethink how brand marketing efforts—like awareness and loyalty—are quantified, or risk those efforts being panned and abandoned. Nurture your relationship with your CFO and senior leadership team, and learn to discuss social media marketing priorities in their language so you can contextualize your brand-building efforts. How do your brand marketing efforts contribute to revenue and the bottom line?

Get your business intelligence house in order

Google is advancing its plans to phase out third-party cookies, which will greatly limit the type of user behavior information that marketers can use to guide their advertising efforts. This doesn’t mean that limited user data will completely eliminate performance marketing. However, it’s clear that these strategies won’t produce the same level of quantifiable results as before, and there will be missing pieces in marketers’ understanding of their customers.

This puts even more pressure on brands to invest in processes and tools that collect and centralize accurate first-party data from all digital and non-digital touchpoints. By following data collection best practices—like refining targeting and attribution, and keeping your data current, you can turn raw data into actionable marketing business intelligence (BI).

Factors to consider: Marketing Business Intelligence (BI) is present throughout the entire customer journey, starting from the initial engagement on a social media post to the final purchase transaction. This highlights the significance of organized data management. When choosing tools and designing new methods for gathering marketing BI, begin by asking: What is my ultimate objective? Next, assess the tools based on their user-friendliness, compatibility with your current technology infrastructure, and their capability to consolidate BI insights from various sources into a single location.

Elevate influencer marketing efforts for stronger ROI

According to a Q3 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey, social marketers rate influencer marketing as having a significant impact on their efforts, including brand awareness, brand reputation and customer loyalty. Another 81% of social marketers describe influencer marketing as an essential part of their social media strategy, with 79% describing it as essential to their customers’ experiences.

However, just over a third of marketers have allocated funds specifically for influencer marketing, and almost 50% of social media marketers report that determining the success of their campaigns is a major obstacle in influencer marketing that hinders them from fully utilizing their strategies.

Peter Kennedy, Founder and General Manager, Influencer Marketing for Tagger by Sprout Social, explained why influencer marketing ROI can be a challenge to quantify. In our recent LinkedIn influencer marketing roundtable, Kennedy said, “When you start to use influencer content across the entire journey, sales are definitely part of [your results]. But what’s the ROI of the awareness and consideration you’re building?”

Calculating influencer marketing ROI is a critical proxy for gauging effectiveness, not to mention a jumping off point for future budget asks. But it’s important to remember influencer marketing drives returns across the customer journey. Two-thirds of social marketers use social media engagements (e.g., likes, shares and comments) to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Social engagement data as well as conversion rates (e.g., sales, sign-ups and downloads) are the two most important metrics to secure internal buy-in for influencer marketing.

Kennedy highlighted the importance of choosing the right influencers for successful marketing campaigns, as influencer content tends to generate more engagement compared to branded content. However, it’s crucial to align influencer marketing strategies with specific business objectives, as having a large following doesn’t guarantee reaching the intended audience effectively.

Realign team structures for maximum business impact

Sharing social data beyond the marketing department is crucial, and bringing multiple teams into social execution—like customer support, community, sales, account management, product, etc.—will strengthen the customer experience.

However, the Index reveals that almost half (43%) of social media teams still experience a sense of isolation from other departments. This feeling is even more pronounced in bigger companies, with 48% of mid-sized and 44% of large enterprise social media teams reporting a sense of disconnect.

Brands that continue to silo social in one department will find themselves struggling to capitalize on social’s ability to transform their entire business. Consolidating your tech stack and rethinking conventional team structures are necessary first steps for improving access to social data, and empowering non-marketing teams to take immediate action on social media intelligence.

Considerations: Does your current tech stack make social data inaccessible and collaboration between teams clunky? Break down barriers by investigating where there’s room for consolidation and integration. Is your team using a platform-specific team structure that inadvertently creates silos? Instead, try aligning your social experts with internal functions (like engagement) to ensure they stay agile and social intelligence is disseminated across the organization.

Concentrate your marketing efforts on the areas that are most important.

As a marketing leader, your teams’ resources are pulled in many directions, and it’s challenging to sift through tactical items and decide which ones you should prioritize. Plus, consumer expectations are more nuanced, emerging tech is more powerful, and it’s difficult to even forecast what new trends and market forces you’ll need to address six months from now. With these six marketing priorities as your north star, you can plan for a future of stronger collaboration, business growth and greater impact.

Use the data from our latest Index report to rise to today’s challenges, rally your team around the opportunities within your business and pave the way for a bright future for your brand.

The post 6 marketing priorities leaders will obsess over in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

As business leaders look ahead to 2024, they must be prepared to navigate a rapidly changing landscape. The marketing strategies that worked in the past may no longer be effective, and new approaches must be adopted to stay competitive. To ensure success in the future, business leaders should prioritize the following six marketing priorities:

1. Focus on Digital Platforms: Digital platforms are becoming increasingly important for businesses to reach their target audiences. Business leaders should focus on developing a strong digital presence, including websites, social media accounts, and mobile apps. This will help them reach more customers and build relationships with them.

2. Leverage Data and Analytics: Data and analytics are essential for understanding customer behavior and preferences. Business leaders should invest in tools that can help them collect and analyze data to inform their marketing decisions. This will enable them to make more informed decisions about how to best reach their target audiences.

3. Invest in Content Marketing: Content marketing is a powerful tool for engaging customers and building relationships with them. Business leaders should create content that is relevant to their target audiences and optimize it for search engines. This will help them reach more potential customers and build trust with them.

4. Utilize Automation: Automation can help businesses save time and money by streamlining processes such as email campaigns, social media posts, and website updates. Business leaders should invest in automation tools that can help them manage their marketing efforts more efficiently.

5. Embrace Personalization: Personalization is key for engaging customers and providing them with a more tailored experience. Business leaders should use data and analytics to understand their customers’ needs and preferences and create personalized messages and offers that are tailored to them.

6. Monitor the Competition: Business leaders should keep an eye on their competitors to understand their strategies and stay ahead of the curve. They should monitor their competitors’ websites, social media accounts, and other digital channels to stay informed about their activities.

By prioritizing these six marketing strategies, business leaders can ensure that they are well-positioned to succeed in the future. By leveraging digital platforms, leveraging data and analytics, investing in content marketing, utilizing automation, embracing personalization, and monitoring the competition, business leaders can stay ahead of the competition and ensure that their businesses remain competitive in 2024 and beyond.

Source: sproutsocial.com