Millennial Marketing Insights from HypeLife Brands

Why You Should Use SMS Marketing Over Email

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Email and SMS (short message service) are direct, “outbound” marketing strategies businesses use to engage with potential and existing customers. While they are both effective and useful in their own right, there are several differences between them in terms of performance, how well they can cut through the “noise,” and other metrics.

These differences give SMS marketing an upper hand due to its many benefits over email marketing.

What the Heck is SMS Marketing Exactly?

SMS Marketing, also known as text or mobile marketing, is one of the most effective ways of communicating with customers using text messages.

You can use text messages in your marketing efforts to send promotional messages, welcome texts, autoresponders, appointment reminders, abandoned cart messages, and many other types of targeted messages that you would like to communicate to your current and potential customers (aka your "target audience") quickly, and with a high rate of visibility.

Even better? Text message marketing isn’t limited to just text! Using MMS (multimedia messaging service), you can also include captivating images in your SMS marketing. Pretty cool, right?

According to Finances Online, people prefer to receive brand updates by SMS rather than email.

Why?

One reason is spammers more widely and easily abuse email. Too many brands use them to over-communicate, in short (trying to get “top of mind” with potential customers, but in the end, suffering the dreaded unsubscribe, never to be heard from again).

This poor approach is more of an old-school, “carpet bombing” approach than cultivating a real, authentic relationship with current and potential customers (the latter being what you want and what we wholeheartedly embrace in all things here at HypeLife Brands).

Additionally, bad actors and marketing novices can gather emails more easily through scraping, list buying, and other inauthentic methods. So again, this gets heavily abused, making the inbox a very noisy place to cut through.

After all, do you or people you know have 5,605 new emails in your inbox? It’s likely…rendering email far less effective in a marketing campaign today than in decades before for consumer marketing.

This is not to say you shouldn’t use email…because you should, but do it carefully.

Marketing is about having a healthy, cross-channel mix of consistent inbound AND outbound tactics.

Some consumers prefer text message marketing over email, while others prefer the opposite. So holistic consumer marketing means it is better to use both channels than rely only on one.

That said, here are some reasons why text message marketing can be more useful than email when you want to send a powerful marketing message to your customers, past and present.

The Best Ways to Use a Text Message Marketing Platform

1. Building Brand and/or Solution Awareness

You can use both email and/or an SMS marketing campaign to make your brand and solution to the consumer’s problem you’re able to solve known. Whether launching a new product/service or communicating with your customers about an existing one, you can use SMS messages to distribute your message effectively.

Remember not to abuse text message marketing when considering either channel, just like email. Mobile carriers are protective, and your text message marketing platform will be monitored. An expected unsubscribe rate of ~1% or less will be measured against your specific, provisioned phone number.

Because text message marketing has a much higher open rate, be careful not to abuse it in your marketing strategies. Mobile carriers can and will ban your sending entirely if they detect a high rate of unsubscribes from your text messages.

2. Generating Leads

SMS marketing campaigns and email campaigns can both be useful in generating leads for your business. You can use either method to encourage your audience to sign up for an email newsletter (send this through your SMS marketing channel), visit your website, try a service, download a product, etc.

Of course, not everyone who receives your text message marketing will buy your product or try your service. So remember that this, like most digital marketing, is a numbers game. If your email list only has 200 subscribers, your results will be minimal. But building this list to 1000, 5000, and beyond through approaches like paid advertising will give you a larger audience to cultivate.

Remember the old business adage: It takes 10 no’s to get 1 yes. The same applies to effective and powerful email + marketing by text message.

Some consumers will be ready to move, and others will sit on the sidelines for weeks or even months.

But if they don’t unsubscribe, they are likely listening but just not ready to buy yet.

3. Making More Sales

Text message marketing and email both allow you to reach many people quickly. The more reach and engagement you get, the more sales you can make, as building awareness requires seven to ten marketing "touches" at minimum to gain that new customer's allegiance.

Of course, email marketing and SMS campaigns can be helpful beyond just this type of conversion goal. They can also help you generate more traffic for your website, build credibility with your customers, grow customer loyalty, grow your social media following, and, ultimately, grow your audience.

Therefore, to implement a successful sales strategy for your business and your marketing efforts, it is critical to not just send with your digital bullhorns but also look at your metrics, open rates, click rates, Google Analytics, etc., to see which channels are performing the best for specific messages.

While these channels can achieve the same objective, they don’t always yield the same results due to their differences in effectiveness and rate of customer attention.

Why Use SMS Messages for Marketing?

Studies have shown that about 85% of smartphone owners prefer text messages or SMS over phone calls or emails. SMS marketing is a powerful communication and marketing strategy that every business should use in its marketing effort.

With mobile devices in everyone’s pockets, purses, and desktops, SMS marketing has an ingrained mobile-friendly nature that is also super-powerful in getting your marketing messages delivered and seen.

Why Use Email for Marketing?

Email marketing simply means using email to communicate with potential or existing customers. You can use email for the same purpose as SMS marketing—for instance, to introduce a new product, inform customers, notify customers about an update on pricing changes, generate more leads, or promote a product or service.

The difference comes in the results. Using email compared to SMS marketing will definitely yield different results.

You can use email to send longer messages to an enlightened audience with active email subscriptions.

Why is Marketing by Text Message Better than Email?

As mentioned earlier, more benefits come with marketing via SMS text compared to using email in the following ways:

1. Higher Open Rate

Sending a message and getting it opened are two different things. Most will either ignore it or not spend much time considering it amongst the many other messages they get flooded with daily.

Getting your business messages read is important, though it is not guaranteed that every opened message will be read.

The higher the open rate, the higher the read rate.

Comparing the email open rate with the SMS open rate is important when you want an effective strategy to yield better results. People are more likely to open a text message than an email.

According to current statistics, SMS receives a higher open rate of up to 98% compared to the average email open rate of 28%. Yes, the difference is that huge, so take note!

Therefore, if you were choosing a channel that would get you the highest open rate, you would definitely want to go with SMS marketing.

2. Higher Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The click-through rate is the number of times the links in your message are clicked compared to the number of people who view them. According to Text Republic, the average click-through rate for text marketing compared to email is about 19.3% vs 4.2%, respectively.

Apart from your messages getting opened and viewed by your audience, you also want them to click on your Call-to-Action (CTA) links. The good thing about text messages is their precise and concise nature.

SMS messages are shorter and can be better optimized to generate a better click-through rate than emails too.

With a higher CTR, you will likely generate more leads and even conversions than a lower click-through-rate.

3. Better at Encouraging Quick Responses and Two-Way Dialog

Every marketer or business is encouraged when customers respond to their messages. The response rate is, however, heavily affected by the marketing channel you use for the message. For instance, if you communicate by email, you are more likely to get delayed responses than text messages, which imply one-to-one communication in the eyes of consumers.

Statistically, 90% of people open text messages within 3 minutes, which is massively faster than emails arriving in flooded inboxes (if you don’t end up in the Junk or Spam folder or Gmail’s dreaded “Updates” folder). If they can open the message within that very short time, you will also get responses and top-of-mind faster.

In addition to that, SMS have a higher response rate of 45% compared to the email response rate of 10%. Therefore, when using text marketing, you will likely get more responses faster than email.

Text marketing is also powerful for encouraging back-and-forth, two-way, personalized communication. People looking into and researching your organization and offerings can ask questions and get quicker responses via text messaging than email.

And if you're managing one of the small businesses out there and thinking, "how will I have time to manage this also?!", this type of communication can make your business feel larger to the average person, helping grow customer (or potential customer) delight in the earliest stages of the relationship you're aiming to build. So give this marketing channel adequate focus, if not more than strictly your email channel.

4. Higher Deliverability Rate

Deliverability refers to the ability of your message, whether email or SMS, to reach your customers’ inboxes and eyeballs. Email, due to a growing number of technical requirements to prevent domain spoofing and spamming, plus much tighter email sending restrictions put in place in early 2024 by most major email service providers (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, et al.), you will likely encounter deliverability issues – especially when sending using email. That means, though you may be sending 1500 emails to your audience members, you will see a drop without question in the emails that successfully arrive in the first place.

However, studies have shown that SMS marketing alternatively has a much more reliable, average deliverability rate of 97% for small businesses and large ones on average, with email having an average deliverability rate of 84% (at best) across the board.

As mentioned earlier, communicating via text is instant and customers or audiences will likely receive and see the message faster. As there are no major spam filters for text messages, as long as the person hasn’t unsubscribed, SMS marketing has a much better chance of being delivered (and, again, seen).

5. Higher Conversion Rate

Every business wants a higher conversion rate because that is the ultimate goal in achieving your organization’s key progress indicators (read: goals for growing your business). Converting a visitor means you can convince him or her to take a desired action, such as buying a product or service.

The conversion rate has been proven higher when using SMS marketing than email.

Statistically, text marketing yields about 29% conversion rate, while email yields about 16.72%.

6. Encourages Direct Customer Feedback

Due to the significantly higher deliverability and open rate of SMS marketing, you will likely get more customer feedback and responses to an SMS survey about your products or services when using SMS over email.

7. Easier Personalization

Your audience can feel more connected to your brand and special to you when using SMS marketing with personalization than email...because of the more "personal" intangible feeling we get from text messages since they're usually received from people we know, unlike email.

No matter which text message marketing software you're using, it is very easy to personalize SMS messages you send to your audience to make them feel special (yes, just like a mail merge so send bulk messages).

This again puts you in a position to increase your engagement and achieve better results with your SMS marketing campaigns than those sent via email.

8. Opt-In Consent Gives You an Open Door

The other good thing about SMS messages in your marketing is that you get opt-in consent from the recipients before you can text them via your SMS marketing service, and your texting phone number will have to be verified by the service provider before you can even use it. This ensures that your communication does not infringe upon the Telephone and Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), among other laws.

In addition, people have consented to receiving your messages from your dedicated phone number. When they receive text messages from your organization, they are already aware of your content or business niche and have acknowledged they want to hear more. Collect their phone number directly from them, getting their consent right up-front to communicate further, and you've got an open door for developing new customer relationships and new revenue opportunities.

9. More Cost-Effective

Another benefit of using text messaging over email is the cost.

Communicating with your audience via SMS marketing services is generally cheaper than email. However, the cost is relative depending on the service provider or platform you are using to send SMS marketing campaigns and emails.

When you compare most email and SMS service providers and platforms, you will note that sending SMS campaigns is typically cheaper than an email in the end...though some SMS marketing services do have a small per-text-sent cost baked in.

So if your frequency is high (meaning you send multiple messages per month), this can be a bit of an expense "gotcha" with your SMS services, so be careful with that. And yes, you typically get charged a credit for both inbound messages, not just outbound ones.

However, with a reasonable sending cadence, SMS text marketing campaigns can yield a higher Return on Investment (ROI) than emails due to their much higher visibility rate.

10. Better Flexibility

SMS's flexibility makes it easy to integrate with other marketing channels, such as mobile apps, social media platforms, and even email. After integrating with various platforms, you can easily implement communication using text messages in your marketing automations.

You can use marketing text messages to complement your email sends, like encouraging your subscribers to take a certain action or remind them to check their inbox for your emails about a particular, longer subject.

11. Easier Customization for Who Gets What Message and at What Time

A person's average attention span is about 8.25%. Since a text message is only about 160 characters long, it is possible to capture their attention for the entire text message since you are forced to communicate in a short and sweet format.

Given people's general fatigue in the digital realm, this contributes to why SMS marketing performs better than email.

Why?

In short, email is much more often abused, too long, and poorly written by novice marketers and/or people working within your business who simply don’t understand the moving target of marketing towards results (if you haven’t hired a specialized and certified marketing agency like ours). These novices may not even have a marketing strategy at all.

In other words, a customized, short, and sweet text message sent at the right time during the customer’s lifecycle often yields more desired results for your top and bottom line than an email, which is almost always longer and more cumbersome to read.

12. Faster Execution

When it comes to implementing SMS marketing as part of your marketing campaign and supporting your overall advertising mix, the recipient also doesn't need to be connected to the internet at that moment.

So the execution of the send and the ability for the person to read it can be done nearly anywhere, even if the internet signal is weak or non-existent, giving you a more powerful signal (no pun intended).

We know it may be painfully technical for some of you reading or painfully simple for others, but this is a nuance that's important to understand.

Many SMS marketing software platforms also offer iOS and Android apps (with a snazzy user interface) that allow you to compose draft marketing messages, personalize messages, and even schedule a campaign send on the go. This makes this marketing campaign tactic easier for you or your marketing manager to keep up with and stay consistent.

Those same apps also enable you to respond to inbound messages that result from your marketing campaign on the go, allowing you to keep your text message responses coming fast and promptly.

Want to build ecstatic Millennial customer satisfaction? This is one major way! Want to totally eliminate the need for phone support (and its costs)? Make your customer service responses impeccably fast via your text message marketing platform of choice!

Millennials hate the opposite. No response? There's no faster way to get yourself a one-star review than to ignore their contact request...and if you're reading this, we'll bet your organization relies on Millennials as a key part of your target audience, or at least one of them.

13. Better Simplicity and Better Reach

Some people don’t use email very often or at all (yes, they exist!). But more often than not, they know how to open and field a text message on their personal phone. This is why gathering phone numbers in your initial marketing intakes and lead forms is crucial for success in your marketing strategies!

Therefore, using text messaging will promote inclusivity if your organization is marketing to older generations, like Baby Boomers, who are more likely to read and consider your marketing messages if they receive marketing messages via text. These older generations are also more comfortable giving up their phone numbers over their emails, so don't hesitate to ask for it upfront.

When is the Best Time to Send an SMS Marketing Campaign?

Source: Semaphore

The best time to send SMS marketing messages to mobile devices using your selected business SMS marketing software is between 12pm and 8pm. The best days of the week to send messages to your audience for better engagement are Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Though it is clear that text message marketing is more effective than email (or cold phone calls, for that matter), timing is still an important factor to consider when using any of these communication channels. This is because some days of the week perform better than others, and some hours give better results.

Like all marketing tactics, implementing and executing is the first step, but measuring, testing, and optimizing are the next and most critical steps toward effective marketing that gets actual results. All SMS services are essentially a web app (or web-based application) that give you an excellent statistical breakdown of everything that can be measured about an SMS campaign.

Of course, be sure to review those metrics, especially as you gather phone numbers and develop and execute your marketing strategies. Planning, executing, reviewing analytics, and optimizing are the pathways toward a more advanced marketing approach that yields more elevated results.

In addition to that, you need to have the following best practices for your messages to be effective in your marketing campaigns:

Define Your Marketing and Communication Goals—What do you want to achieve with your marketing text messages? You need to set your goals and objectives so that your text message captures everything you would want to achieve.
Build Your Subscriber List—Text messaging is not a random exercise. You need to get a quality subscriber list of the right audience. These people have opted in to receive your messages and are interested in them.
Use Compelling Content—Your content—yes, even in a short message format—should be optimized to suit your audience's needs and be compelling enough for your readers to find interest in it.

Absolutely, positively, do NOT send the same message repeatedly to the same person...there is no faster way to have them unsubscribe than this. Be smart about the messages you send, just like any and all other marketing channels.
Add a Call to Action—This is an important aspect of ALL marketing messages. You want your audience to act in a particular way, whether to click on your links, check out your new web app, follow your brand on social media, send appointment reminders, fill out one of your sign-up forms, share your message, respond, or even buy a new product in the case of e-commerce businesses.

Therefore, your Call to Action (CTA) must be clear to the message's recipients, a.k.a., the human beings on the other end.

If there’s no CTA in your marketing message, it is best not to send it to avoid risking the dreaded unsubscribe button or “stop” response to your text marketing.

If that happens, chances are extremely high that communicating with that potential customer is gone forever. Some messaging platforms will not let you re-add them either, so be careful and keep this in mind when using either of these channels.
Customize Your SMS to Suit Your Marketing Demographics—Segment your subscriber list to ensure you are sending your message to the right audience and not sending too many recurring messages. Depending on your goals, you can (and should) categorize based on age, gender, occupation, and geographic location.
Personalize—Personalizing the messages will make your audience feel special. Messages that are not personalized or contain the receivers' names may be ignored.
Include Your Brand Name—To build a positive reputation for your company and brand, it is always best practice to include your brand name in your text messages to instantly recognize who’s sending this message to a person. Keep it as close to the front of your message as possible. People's attention spans are fatigued so choose your words wisely in your SMS marketing.
SMS at the Right Time—Timing is also important, just like when you post on your social media channels. You need to experiment with different times of the day and different days of the week, then find the right timing that suits your marketing strategy.
Keep it Concise and Precise—Messages should be brief and to the point. Since SMS text messages are limited to a certain number of characters, ensure your message is clear and captures all the details you need to communicate.
Get Consent from Your Audience—Your messages should have clear opt-ins and opt-outs, this is one of THE most core best practices for using a texting service as a part of your marketing tools.

This ensures that you get the best results and comply with text message marketing compliance regulations and best practices for marketing text messages.

Closing Thoughts

With the above insights in mind, always choose the right channel for your marketing messages. Some messages are best suited for SMS marketing, others for email, and others belong in both (sent at a similar time to ensure you get it across if it is more of a time-sensitive message). As we've highlighted above, be mindful not to send too many messages in either channel. Make sure they are targeted, useful, and poignant at all times!

If you want a higher open rate, response rate, immediate feedback, higher deliverability and click-through rates, and/or want to encourage a two-way dialogue with your customers, then you would opt for SMS marketing over emails.

Choose email if your message is broader, not time-sensitive, and does not aim to open a two-way dialog.

Digital marketing is about maintaining a solid strategy and a healthy, holistic mix of inbound and outbound communication across many channels.

Use them often, and use them wisely towards your marketing success!

What is a Fractional CMO?

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a marketing executive that's outsourced to another company to provide the expertise of a salaried executive without the need to invest and commit to a full-time, on-premise CMO. By adding a fractional CMO to an early-stage startup or a small-to-mid-sized business (SMB), companies can add valuable executive leadership at a much lower cost while focusing critical funds elsewhere. Are you interested in learning more about fractional chief marketing officers? Would you like to learn how to find a fractional CMO with the skill set to plot a course for growth for new businesses from day one? Do you want to learn how to utilize an outsourced marketing department with a highly specialized senior team led by a fractional CMO, while still retaining the feeling and direction of an in-house strategic partnership? In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about what they do, how to hire them, and how businesses and their clients can benefit from their addition.

Table of Contents:

Understanding Fractional CMOs: A Quick Guide
What is a fractional CMO hired to do?
What are fractional services?
Reasons to hire a fractional CMO
How much does hiring a fractional CMO cost?
- Chief Marketing Officer Salaries by City
How do you find a fractional CMO?

Understanding Fractional CMOs: A Quick Guide

No matter the industry, a fractional chief marketing officer is a strong investment for an organization. Hiring a fractional CMO—one that can bring a specialized, senior team with them—should usually be your first hire.

What is a fractional CMO hired to do?

Sometimes referred to as “CMO as a service,” fractional CMOs operate in a part-time capacity, but can potentially have as much impact as a full time resource. This highly strategic role is not defined by the number of hours spent at work, but the precision of the leader's output. For example, here's a job description from an organization looking for a CMO recently posted to LinkedIn:

Fractional CMOs are capable of leading multiple marketing initiatives at more than one startup at a time. They can confront unique challenges inherent to varying industries and provide the right focus and function for a company's marketing endeavors to drive growth. Entering the market from ground zero is extremely challenging, and while a fractional CMO might seem like a short-term, project-based role, it's actually quite the opposite. Stable marketing leadership can bring guidance and clarity to untested startups to withstand what can often be volatile beginnings. Plus, a full-time CMO will usually command a six-figure salary, benefit requirements, a larger tax burden, severance packages, and more—liabilities that do not apply to a fractional CMO.

What are fractional services?

The responsibilities of a fractional CMO can include, but are not limited to:

Lead key marketing initiatives central to a company's growth
Earn the trust of their teams
Empower and manage direct reports
Present to key stakeholders—CEO, CSO, CFO, board of directors, investors, et al
Onboard new marketing team members
Create programs and systems to facilitate ongoing training and knowledge development
Bring senior-level guidance to the task of prospecting for new employees
Provide direction for branding, public relations, creative ideation, copywriting, logo development, brand naming, et al.
Provide thought leadership to internal sales and marketing staff
Create blueprints and guides for content marketing creation
Review and provide approval of these marketing materials
Deliver an appropriate return on investment (ROI) on all marketing efforts
Track key performance indicators (KPIs) against core objectives and overall marketing strategy
Drive and maintain focused brand positioning, segmentation, and consistent brand messaging across all marketing channels and brand touchpoints.
Improve product pricing and launch endeavors to find the perfect cost-to-revenue ratio
Focus on improving the overall digital marketing experience for clients and customers by creating consistent criteria for the marketing and sales teams to follow when cold-calling, handling a customer support call, connecting with potential clients, following up with existing customers, etc.
Build a marketing plan, develop the necessary creative assets to execute it, and work to improve sales infrastructure as you grow and scale.
Prepare comprehensive marketing reports on a monthly or quarterly basis or when funding comes up for renewal.
Make resource-focused choices, such as deciding which paid search or organic search marketing tactics to invest in for long-term growth.

Reasons to hire a fractional CMO

From day-one marketing strategy development to a consistent scaling of marketing efforts as revenue increases, there are many reasons to invest in fractional CMO services for your startup or business. Some of those reasons include:

Your business lacks robust marketing insights and needs direction. Without a marketing plan developed by an experienced marketing executive, it can become difficult to make good, confident decisions as an executive team. A fractional CMO will be able to lead the in-house marketing department and manage team members of varying experience levels to uncover valuable insights and present multiple options for sound executive decisions. Having insight, research, and data driving the marketing programs for your company is critical, and so is the ability to interpret it and build a cohesive marketing strategy around it. Marketing strategy not built on this foundation will most likely fall short of expectations.
Your company doesn’t have the resources for hiring a full-time CMO or an in-house senior marketing director. For startups or small businesses that are just getting ready to launch or beginning to see growth, the need for marketing leadership direction is vital. However, bringing on a full-time CMO is capital intensive, and your business may not be ready for this yet. That's okay, and that's why a fractional or outsourced CMO is a great alternative to consider when planning the direction for your company's next-level marketing strategy.
Your company is well-established and scaling well, but you don’t have anyone with expertise leading the marketing process. Just because your business is doing well now doesn’t mean it will do well in the future, especially if you don't have a savvy marketing leader or a robust marketing plan. Hiring someone to act as a marketing leader (fractionally) is an excellent way to provide strategic leadership to your marketing team, so that future financial success can become a reality for your business.
Your sales team is currently handling most of your marketing materials. A more established startup will ideally have a sales team and a marketing team that works together. However, some startups and SMBs mistakenly put the marketing responsibilities exclusively in the hands of their sales team. If your sales team is handling your company’s current marketing plan and materials like ad campaigns, presentations, digital marketing efforts, and more, then your branding and overall marketing message may end up being inconsistent, raising your customer acquisition cost (CAC). A fractional CMO will be able to manage your marketing strategy, keep your assets organized, watch your CAC like a hawk, and organize your marketing department in a more efficient way than your full time executives know how to do.
You need a person in a position of leadership to take over a vacated position. If a leadership position was recently freed up in your startup, you might find it difficult to find someone to fill the role while you search for a new leader. With a CMO on your team, you can fill an important leadership role in the meantime. A CMO is a multi-faceted, flexible leader that can handle much more than just basic marketing needs, and provide you with an expert opinion 24x7 (while not requiring you to split equity with a co-founder).

There are many more use-cases for a fractional CMO, no matter your business size or niche. But even with all of these reasons to invest in a fractional CMO, is it really worth the cost?

How much does hiring a fractional CMO cost?

According to numerous salary aggregate websites, the costs and average annual salaries of a CMO vary a bit across the U.S., but consistently start in the six-figure range in all major metros except Detroit. Full time executive hires can easily reach over $200k per year in some larger cities. Let's take a look at what an average annual salary for hiring a full time marketing executive looks like:

Chief Marketing Officer Salaries by City (as of Q2 2021)

San Diego - $104,378

Los Angeles - $183,331

San Francisco - $223,676

New York City - $200,148

Chicago - $176,238

Phoenix - $109,009

Detroit - $97,805

Miami - $222,519

Houston - $181,499

Philadelphia - $216,342

San Antonio - $123,705

Dallas - $164,492

San Jose - $238,706

Those are some hefty yearly salaries, but the costs don’t stop there. A business that chooses to staff a full-time position will have to pour resources into searching for prospects, investing in onboarding & training, as well as long-term costs like insurance, benefits, etc. To put it simply, it can be an extremely expensive strategy for a company to have a full time CMO in the early stages. That’s why opting for a partnership with a startup marketing agency like HypeLife Brands could be the best decision you haven't made yet ;-) Rather than hire a full time CMO—and endure the short term business expense—when you engage our agency at any of the levels we offer, our Founder and CEO Curt Cuscino remains your single, lead point-of-contact throughout our work together (typically spanning years). He not only provides the benefits and support of the fractional CMO services you need, but he's also backed by our talented, award-winning senior team who works along with an established brand + marketing development process and methodology to deliver next-level strategic marketing direction.

How do you find a fractional CMO?

There are a number of different ways to find a fractional CMO of this style and caliber. Typically, most startups will turn to job boards and similar platforms to find freelance CMOs and part-time marketing professionals, which can take a significant time investment to sort through, find, and call upon prospects. There is also the option of contracting a marketing agency to provide overall marketing services, which include a fractional CEO in addition to a full outsourced marketing team. Another option is for your business to work directly with HypeLife Brands. Our Founder and CEO Curt Cuscino can help your business save a significant amount of money by outsourcing your fractional CMO needs, helping you skip many of the costly mistakes we hear about from startup founders, entrepreneurs at the early stages, and even CEOs of more established brands. HypeLife Brands is a startup-focused brand development and marketing agency that helps startups of all sizes and at all stages in creating the perfect, strategically-tuned brand development, marketing, and advertising mix for their unique needs. We understand that many startups have limited funding, and having a full-time CMO can be too much cost to bear (this is normal for most pre-revenue, early-stage startups). With HypeLife Brands, your startup can save money while also reaping all of the rewards of having a fractional CMO as a part-time executive on your team. This gives you, the founder, the visionary entrepreneur, the freedom to rest easier at night knowing that you've got other hands on deck to handle your marketing leadership and to also provide strategic insight into getting your new brand from point A to point Z. Contact our team today to learn more about how HypeLife Brands can take your startup to the next level!

What is Demand Generation?

Sun, 01 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to marketing and growing your startup or challenger brand, you don't just want your business to tread water and barely survive, right? You want customer traction growth, more household-name popularity, and more funding/investments as you progress. There's a term for this challenge when it comes to which tactics are required in marketing your business: demand generation (which stems from the widely known economic term "supply and demand"). Simply put, it refers to creating demand for what your business has to offer the marketplace. Let's look at everything there is to know about demand generation, including demand gen strategies.

What is Demand Gen?

Demand generation is a pretty clear-cut marketing term. It means generating demand for a company’s products and services. Demand generation involves utilizing strategies, programs and tactics meant to boost leads, and eventually sales, from prospective and current customers (many of which may not even be familiar with the idea your new startup or business exists). These strategies -- critical to marketing and sales teams worldwide, but also to startup founders and CEOs with smaller teams -- must spark awareness and interest for your brand, creating reliable, high-quality leads and clients. Assuming you have completed all of the steps involved with brand development, including brand/product naming, product packaging, tagline development, user experience design + website creation, and foundational aspects of startup marketing, you are ready to progress with a solid demand gen strategy. Table of Contents:

Demand Generation Vs. Lead Generation
- Demand Generation
- Lead Generation
What Does Demand Gen Strategy Include?
- Demand Generation Strategy: The Basics
- More on Directing to the Sales and Marketing Team
  - CTAs
  - Customer Retention
Are You in Need of a Successful Demand Generation Strategy?

Demand Generation Vs. Lead Generation

Demand generation marketing and lead generation marketing are two critical ways to secure prospective customers. Understanding the difference between the two is a vital part of understanding digital marketing as a whole.

Demand Generation

By now, you have a pretty decent idea of what demand generation is – the process of generating demand for your products and services. However, it is important to note the differences between demand generation and lead generation, and why they matter. Demand generation should focus on people who have a problem and are searching for a solution, with your product or service being that solution. Your goal as a marketer, CEO, or startup founder is to strive to get their attention and establish brand awareness with a holistic marketing and advertising strategy in play. The goal with demand generation specifically is to garner new leads (people who show interest in your brand or startup's offering). In marketing-speak, high-quality leads mean the prospective buyer is well-versed enough in your product/service and close to making a purchase, or at a minimum, "qualified" to make a commitment at some point in the future. The higher the quality of the lead, the more likely you will make a sale (eventually). And the more qualified that lead is, the sooner they may make that decision to commit to your business. Your demand generation efforts should kickstart the following actions and reactions in the potential buyer:

Awareness: The potential buyer is aware of your brand, products and services.
Consideration: The potential buyer has enough information about your brand to consider a purchase.
Intent: The potential buyer intends on buying your products and services.

Another way we like to say it here at HypeLife Brands: Taking a person from curious to interested to wanting.

Lead Generation

Lead generation means working in your target audiences (aka "unique buying tribes") you've already established through a solid marketing strategy, brand audience research groundwork, and building what is known as "customer lifetime value." It involves acquiring contact information like email addresses, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, etc in order to reach them where they are (not where you might think they are...as not everyone is on TikTok, or Facebook). Generally, lead generation includes compiling an email list of people who have proven that they are a part of one of your targeted persona groups (driven by marketing and advertising in many different channels that are relevant to your audiences). After establishing the email list, your marketing efforts can begin towards maintaining a steady communication stream with them, and eventually opening a two-way conversation. This may include:

Directing them to your sales and marketing teams in different ways.
Establishing a bond with your unique buying tribes via marketing newsletters, etc.
Directing them to information about new products and services you're offering.
Running ads towards additional touches and getting them into your lead or marketing funnel.
Creating an incentive to invest in your brand and purchase your offering, such as a monthly giveaway email.
Using social media advertising to build your email list.

When prospective customers see your social media posts, emails and ads containing information on your brand, it may appeal to them and drive an action (following your startup or business, responding to an email, etc), giving you a new potential customer (yes!).

What Does Demand Gen Strategy Include?

Here’s a scenario: you've got this amazing startup and/or brand, and you're about to secure the funding you need to get the ball rolling. However, what's the use if no one knows your product exists? (Hint: Your potential investors will be asking you how your customer traction looks today, and what the average customer acquisition cost is...something we track vigilantly and daily for our clients). The best demand-gen strategies transform your vision into something popular for potential customers, creating demand. After securing funding, early-stage companies and startups often need a 360-degree approach to gaining public interest. You need to establish several ways to achieve demand generation and, later, understand your demand generation metrics to enable further optimization (which can help lower customer acquisition costs).

Demand Generation Strategy: The Basics

There are four components to demand generation: brand awareness, inbound marketing, sales enablement, and customer retention.

Brand Awareness

If you don't know who you are, how could potential buyers possibly know who you are? You should immerse yourself in your brand as much as possible to achieve demand generation.

Establishing a brand identity is a major component of brand development. Many people make the mistake of thinking a brand identity is simply a logo or image. However, it should instill an intangible, yet positive, feeling in potential buyers.
Understanding who your buyers are is another critical component to brand awareness, demand generation strategy, and effective lead nurturing. To accomplish this effectively, much up-front planning is required. Ask yourself: what type of person needs our products/services? Where do they hang out (online or otherwise)? What are their needs, wants and desires? "Prospective customers" doesn't just mean everyone who hasn't purchased your product/service yet. While potential customers may include everyone in an ideal world, it's important to understand and establish a niched audience to focus on so that your lead generation efforts are actually fruitful. Not knowing your defined niches can make your customer acquisition costs unsustainable, and for startups, kill your startup before you start marketing. And no qualified leads can be frustrating for your sales team, if your organization is large enough or capitalized enough to have one.
Building a social media presence is an excellent way of gaining access to your potential buyers and brand advocates but not the only channel you want to focus on. For instance, your Instagram followers, LinkedIn followers, and so on will give you valuable insight into who is interested in what you have to offer. Social media is also one of the most important demand generation strategies since this type of marketing continues to dominate the world of advertising and brand awareness (but again, we must stress: not the only, and for some startups and businesses, not the primary either...contrary to popular belief). If you maintain a consistent social media presence, you can capture new demand and multiply existing demand in this "sticky" marketing channel.

Inbound Marketing

Demand generation should also include consistent inbound marketing, a technique for producing valuable content. It differentiates from outbound marketing, which could interrupt your target audience with information they may not need. Interesting, appealing content keeps customers focused on your product and ensures your brand stays in their thoughts when they have a problem that your brand can solve. Inbound marketing strategies that drive sales and reinforce demand generation usually include:

Blog articles: Many people think blog articles are a thing of the past, but most people don't realize how many web-based blog posts are from reputable, well-known brands. Blog articles engage and inform your target audience, consistently giving them new reasons to invest in you, helping to generate more demand.
SEO Marketing: Think about the last time you needed a certain product or service —- did you google it? Many people would certainly say yes, and that's why search engine optimization plays a huge role in your demand generation strategy. SEO involves discovering and implementing specific keywords into your content marketing so your business ranks on Google. Your SEO strategy should generate traffic to your website and social media pages.
Downloadable content: If there is a way to show people how to use your product or service, you should produce this type of content. This can include guides, how-to documents, infographics or product guides. One of the best content marketing strategies, ensuring you have some downloadable content, gives your customers information they can store in their digital media libraries. The key is to make sure your downloadable content is valuable.
Newsletters: Demand generation should also include keeping in close contact with all former clients. A monthly or quarterly newsletter keeps people informed on what's new with your business, reminding them that you exist. Who knows when they will need your brand again?
Podcasts: Podcasts are all the rage. They're also one of the best digital marketing strategies you can take advantage of. Striking a deal with a well-known podcaster can give your brand some attention in a new space (audio...also great for SEO as speech recognition continues to be utilized more by Google for cataloging podcasts in search results). This content strategy technique lets people discuss your brand in a down-to-earth, conversational way, making potential customers feel like it may be the product for them.

Inbound Marketing: Lead Nurturing

Nurturing leads essentially means creating a genuine relationship with potential customers. This relationship should grow as customers participate in marketing and communications messaging on their journey. The goal is to nurture prospects, creating company growth.

Inbound Marketing: Lead Scoring

You should perform an intricate yet beneficial process called lead scoring as a part of your demand gen strategy. Unsurprisingly, the goal is to assign scores to your leads. The scores determine which leads are ready to send directly to your sales team and which still need nurturing. There are two types of lead scoring: explicit and implicit. You can determine an implicit lead score (sometimes called a behavioral score) based on the information you gather yourself. It's essentially a measure of how a prospective client interacts with your brand by means of visiting your website, clicking links, filling out a form, joining an email list, and more. You can base an explicit score on more direct information, like their name, occupation and location. You can generate an explicit score by observing information that potential customers include when they fill out contact forms, sign up for newsletters, etc.

Sales Enablement

Enabling sales means prepping your sales and marketing team before communicating with potential customers and getting them running through your sales funnel. Sales enablement should include:

Training: Sales reps need sufficient training before guiding customers through the buying process and establishing a sales cycle. They need to know everything about the products they're selling. They also need to understand the company's tone, goals and values. Furthermore, they should also be well-versed in customer pain points, referring to common problems your current and future customers face in the marketplace.
Connection: You'll need to ensure an easy way to transfer potential customers to the sales team, kickstarting the sales cycle.
Testimonials: An excellent way to enable sales and, in turn, another great demand generation strategy is posting a page of testimonials. They spark trust in your product and can generate more high-quality leads.
FAQs: A great internal, free tool is a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page for your company's website. Answering these for your unique buying tribes up-front can speed up the sales cycle and buying process by answering questions about your product, giving the marketing team more time to focus on other sales initiatives (rather than answering the same question repeatedly). This page on your company or startup's website should be a living, breathing document and added to constantly as these repeat questions appear.

More on Directing to the Sales and Marketing Team

Demand gen isn't possible without excellent representation, and relevant audiences need to end up communicating with your marketing and sales team.

CTAs

To ensure they steer in this direction, you should use the call to action (CTA) marketing strategy. A CTA uses terms and phrases that you can easily insert into sales scripts, web pages and advertising. In a nutshell, you want the audience to act specifically, meaning you want them to purchase your product or service. When using a CTA, it's crucial to lead into the direct action by reinforcing why they could benefit from your brand. Simple CTAs state things like "buy now!" or "call now!" However, your CTA shouldn't just demand action without highlighting that your product will deliver. While the buyer's journey should end with an act, they should feel confident with their decision instead of feeling too much pressure. You don't just want to offload potential clients onto your sales team without working closely with them and ensuring their end of things is running properly. They also need to be completely in tune with your brand and the leads it should attract. After all, your sales and marketing team will keep churning out consistent demand generation. It is their job to guide returning clients and new leads through the sales finalization process, so it's important to make sure they're a solid team.

Customer Retention

The existing demand that already exists is just as important as demand generation. New, high-quality leads are essential, but you should continue to appease the quality leads that are already your customers. The best way to retain your existing customers is to simply appreciate them. You can do this with exclusive offers and giveaways. You can also utilize your blog to continuously show you care about them by producing helpful how-to articles. Getting feedback from your customers is another good way to maintain and grow a healthy potential customer base. You can also use feedback to make necessary adjustments to your products and services, putting you in a better position to raise brand awareness and secure a new qualified lead.

Are You in Need of a Successful Demand Generation Strategy?

We've covered a lot of information here, and believe it or not, there is even more to learn about demand gen strategy. Marketing agencies like ours here at HypeLife Brands do all of the hard work for you when it comes to building effective content marketing, sales funnels, and getting marketing programs + marketing automation in place, giving you more time to focus on making your business the best it can be. We believe in your brand, so let us help you ensure that other people do too. Our services, which include getting your business or startup in a position for effective demand generation, include:

Brand Development: Includes brand strategy development, digital strategy, messaging development, tagline development, founder coaching, product packaging, and more.
Marketing: Includes SEO, influencer marketing, email marketing and establishing marketing automation, location-based marketing, and more.
Advertising: Includes social media advertising, advertising campaign development, and more.
Startup Funding Preparation and Support: Includes cash flow forecast analysis (how much revenue will you generate?), deep competitor analysis, executive summary design, and more.

Our company works hard to make hitting your goals and KPIs a reality no matter how old your business is. Our goal is to help you generate demand, create awareness (and yes, revenue!), and ensure you're on track to long-term success. With a specific focus and specialization on working with B2C lifestyle startups and challenger brands, we're confident we'll be able to guide you through the intricate process of demand generation.

How Important is Digital Marketing for Startups?

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Why Do Startups Need Digital Marketing?

Startups entering into the lifestyle space need a great product/service backed by a strong brand and a powerful, purpose-driven message to attract initial investment. It could be an excellent idea that serves or disrupts a market or something unique that helps people achieve their goals faster, better, easier, and/or cheaper. But just having a great idea isn't enough anymore...it's barely even a start really. The consumer marketplace is fiercely competitive, and we've all seen way too many startups fail because they couldn't achieve the momentum required to survive. Digital marketing for startups helps you get your brand's product (or service) in front of potential customers towards building brand and solution awareness. It achieves this through various digital marketing strategies that grow your online presence and reputation. As your startup grows and scales through utilizing these methods and tactics (of which there are many), it can then become more attractive to potential investors. In the last few decades, the way consumers interact and engage with businesses has changed dramatically. In the past, you could use traditional advertising to reach an audience through TV and print media; however, most of these marketing channels have been overtaken by digital channels (TikTok to YouTube, Twitter to Instagram, and so on). Why? Because simply: Modern consumers, especially Millennials, consume media differently. Many of their interactions take place online through email, social platforms, and sites like YouTube and Reddit, made incredibly convenient by the mobile devices that are prevalent in their life and moment-to-moment interactions. As a result, to get your product in front of this audience, you need to use a wide array of online marketing channels, like:

A Website
SEO (search engine optimization)
Social Media
Email Marketing
Content Marketing

Can a Business Survive Without Advertising?

Startup failure is quite common. In fact, some estimates put the number at around 90%. There are lots of reasons for a startup's demise, such as a lack of market need for the product or service, legal challenges, or being outworked and outgunned by competitors. However, the most common reason that startups fail is running out of cash or failing to raise capital. Your business could have incredible, ground-breaking products or services, but if no one knows about them, you won't have an audience or customers. Without revenue, it isn't easy to convince investors that betting on your business is a wise strategy. Some startups have had success with a product-led growth approach. In effect, this is a strategy that relies on the virality of a product to do the promotion. This approach works for a very narrow amount of businesses and heavily relies on somehow getting your audience to become advocates for your product. The typical startup will struggle to survive with a product-led growth approach. In short, most businesses of any size simply can't survive and grow without digital marketing or advertising. Digital marketing for startups in particular is mission critical in the earliest stages following launch. Table of Contents:

Benefits of Digital Marketing for Startups
How HypeLife Brands Can Help with Your Digital Marketing Strategy
- How HypeLife's Services Can Help Startups
- HypeLife's 360 Degrees of the Brand and Marketing Universe

Benefits of Digital Marketing for Startups

Do entrepreneurs need digital marketing? The answer is an overwhelming yes. Word of mouth is all well and good, but it's not a scalable strategy to ensure your ideal audience hears about your product. So, let's take a look at how startups can benefit from digital marketing.

1. Brand Awareness and Online Presence

Brand awareness is crucial for any business. It's a way of reaching potential customers and telling them what you do and how you can help solve their pain points. To do this successfully, you need to start with brand development. Brand development involves having a clear idea of who your brand is and what audience it will serve. This can be the difference between running a successful business and not for startup founders. The product or service you offer needs a customer base. But to engage a potential customer, you need to get your messaging right. The tone of your marketing materials needs to speak to your ideal customer. It needs to demonstrate that your product or service will solve their existing problems. Additionally, to engage with Millennials, you'll need to show that your values align with their own. Once you understand what message you need to broadcast, you can begin with brand awareness. Old school marketing methods like tradeshows, TV spots, and industry magazines can still work, but these days, digital is the best way to get your product in front of your target audience. It's almost impossible to get anywhere with an online presence, be it a website or an account on a social platform. How customers consume information — and hear about businesses — has changed dramatically in recent years. To reach them, you need to occupy the same spaces they do.

2. Drive Traffic with SEO (Search Engines + Search Engine Optimization)

An online presence, like a website, is a crucial part of digital marketing. Search engine optimization and search engine marketing are two of the most valuable digital marketing skills because you can use them to drive visitors to your company site or landing pages. SEO works by targeting the keywords or terms associated with your product in search engines (also known as "keyword research"). When prospective customers look for products or services they need on search engines such as Google or Bing, they will get pages of relevant search results. Good SEO content, coupled again with numerous other digital marketing strategies and tactics working in concert together, will help you rank higher on the search engine organic results page (SERP). For startups, this can be a very cost-effective avenue to success, but it isn't easy, and it takes time when it comes to search engine optimization (this is the long-game that can get you ranked and listed in organic results) and search engine marketing (this is more a short-game, also known as pay-per-click as you can target those searching for what your startup has to offer right away). Using this type of digital marketing is an efficient way to drive signups or generate leads, but should only be one piece of your digital marketing plan...not all of it. Unlike other marketing spending, a good piece of SEO content can continue to drive growth through organic traffic for years after the fact.

3. Audience Targeting

Traditional marketing isn't the most efficient way to reach your target audience. Often it targets an extensive range of people in the hope that some of your target customers would see the ad. However, modern audience targeting has become far more precise at making connections. Take a social media platform like Facebook. Their business model is essentially to collect demographic information on their customers and use this to match their audience with advertisers. Paid advertisements like this are an excellent way to reach your target audience surgically. Does your startup or small business serve a niche? Social media paid advertisement is a great way to reach these audiences through hashtags, groups, or forums.

Retargeting

Retargeting is a subset of audience targeting in your marketing strategy. A digital marketing platform allows you to collect limited amounts of data on audiences that browse your website or social media ads. This activity indicates that these prospective customers are interested in your product or service. So, when they go to other websites or social media platforms, they will see email banner ads or native advertising for your company. This type of advertising can be a cost-effective way to increase sales or leads.

4. Lead Generation

A sales team is only as good as their leads. And if startups want to secure funding or VC money, the best way to make their case is through revenue growth. But how do you ensure that you have a consistent pipeline of leads? Digital marketing can help by using content marketing on social media and other digital channels to reach potential customers. To ensure startup success, you need to collect the names and email addresses of people interested in your product and get them into your sales pipeline.

5. Email Marketing

Email marketing is still the most popular sales channel. It relies on having a good list of prospects, which you can get through social media engagement, content marketing, and so on. Once you have a list of target customers, you can send them news, promotions, or other helpful content to build niche expertise and brand loyalty. Both big and small businesses have been using email marketing to generate sales and leads for a long time because it works.

6. Measure ROI on Marketing

One of the surest roads to startup business failure is spending money poorly. Marketing and advertising budgets can run very high, which is why you need to know a) what you're spending and b) how effective each marketing channel is. It's hard to know the results of indirect marketing campaigns, like newspaper or tv ads. For starters, it won't always be clear which ads are generating interest. Furthermore, without good data, you won't know what type of ads are resonating with your prospective customers and which ads aren't having an impact. Digital marketing allows you to measure and understand your return on investment (ROI). It allows businesses to measure everything about their campaigns, such as click-through rates (CTRs), time that users spend on your landing pages, and even the percentage of visitors who turned into leads or customers. All this information is available through data analytics software, like Google Analytics or the analytics software of your chosen social media platform. Additionally, digital marketing allows your startup to do A/B testing on ads, campaigns, landing pages, and so on, so you can whittle down your outreach to what gets results. Understanding what ads have an impact is the most cost-effective way to advertise.

7. Digital Marketing is the Most Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy

It's difficult for a startup business to compete with larger companies using more traditional marketing strategies. TV, radio spots and billboards aren't cheap, especially for early-stage startups who could easily eat up their runway trying to compete with big industry players. Digital marketing levels the playing field. It allows startups to use various methods to demonstrate their product or service. For example, having a presence on a social media platform can be a great way to find your market.

8. Digital Marketing Crosses Geographical Boundaries

Traditional marketing methods like TV, radio, and print media are best at targeting local markets. However, many startups have products or services that are built for an international market, and play extremely well in an online marketing strategy using newer tactics like viral marketing, digital marketing campaigns (many channels can be used here for a "full funnel" approach). Additionally, niche products or services can find a market through social media marketing or by using SEO to appear in search engines when people are trying to find solutions to their pain points.

9. Marketing Automation

Startups that use marketing automation can gain a competitive advantage because they efficiently and effectively engage customers and prospects (proceed with caution though when it comes to automation, as you don't want your brand to appear robotic and impersonal...customer experience is just as -- if not more -- important as automation efficiency). There are several benefits of balanced marketing automation, such as more accurate reporting, lead generation and nurturing, personalization, and more increased conversion rates. Additionally, it can cut down on staff overheads or free you up to do your core duties.

10. Reduce Churn with Customer Engagement

Customer acquisition costs are getting higher all the time. Once you've done the work to get customers, you need to do everything you can to keep them. Customer engagement is about communicating with your existing market at every stage of the buying process. Establishing a strong relationship with your existing customers breeds brand loyalty, more sales, and in the best scenario, a group of advocates that will promote your startup.

How HypeLife Brands Can Help with Your Digital Marketing Strategy

As outlined above, startups can employ several different digital marketing strategies to achieve growth. In fact, any viable business model needs a way to communicate its message and let potential customers know what they have to offer. When startups or small businesses are starting out, money can be tight. There's a lot of uncertainty, legal fees, equipment costs, etc. With a limited budget, finding a way to grow your company to secure further rounds of funding creates something of a dilemma. How much of your runway should you spend on a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)? Well, let's take a look at the cost of a full-time CMO in big US markets, according to Glassdoor: San Diego - $141K per year Los Angeles - $157K per year San Francisco - $221K per year New York - $197K per year Boston - $206K per year Seattle - $190K per year The biggest reason why a lot of startups failed is that they ran out of money. Remember, these numbers are just averages; going for the best CMO can cost significantly more. But if you don't spend, you can't grow your customer base. As we said, it's a difficult dilemma. A great solution to this issue is to employ a marketing consultant for your business. These digital marketing experts don't work for you full time, so they'll cost a lot less than 200K per year. However, the most cost-effective way to get the expertise you need is to hire a startup marketing agency and/or a fractional CMO. Instead of spending a huge chunk of your funding on another executive, you can get the same effect — and, in many cases, a more experienced and connected digital marketing professional. HypeLife Brands go one further by giving you access to a fractional CMO in the form of our Founder & CEO Curt Cuscino, alongside our highly-specialized, senior team of digital marketing experts. This setup is about far more than just saving money; it's about working with a team that takes a 360-degree approach to branding, creative, digital/tech, marketing, and advertising all working in concert together.

How HypeLife's Services Can Help Startups

As mentioned earlier, there are many different ways that startups can do digital marketing, from building a war-chest of SEO-driven content through expertly-tuned keyword research, promotional videos, design, email marketing, advertising on social platforms, and more. All of these digital marketing techniques are good individually. However, you need a more holistic strategy to achieve greatness by breaking into a competitive market.

HypeLife's 360 Degrees of the Brand and Marketing Universe

As a marketing agency in operation for over 20 years, HypeLife Brands has a finely-tuned process and brand development methodology that helps startups achieve growth which combines these four main pillars:

Brand Development

Brand development is essential for building a market-ready startup. Branding is about much more than your logo or website design. It's about how your customers feel about your product or service. It's about positioning your offering as something valuable that makes your customer's life easier or better. It takes a lot of research to understand your ideal customer and what messaging will resonate with them. There are a whole host of other factors to consider, too. Creative, tagline development, user experience design and more should all come together to give your business a look and feel that will inspire brand loyalty and build natural brand advocacy.

Marketing

Coming up with a good marketing strategy is one thing, but executing it is another. HypeLife Brands can help you understand which channels work best for your business. A well-defined marketing strategy can consist of content that is optimized for search engines, social media marketing, email marketing, PR, and even influencer marketing. It's about choosing the best options for your industry or niche.

Advertising

Once you have a good marketing strategy in place, advertising is the next step to amplify your message. There are several types of advertisement, both traditional and digital, that will put your product in front of prospective customers. At HypeLife Brands, we understand that you need to develop a go-to-market strategy, powerful marketing messaging connected to your brand's WHY, and clearly defined reasons customers should choose your venture's offering to improve their lifestyle. Once these elements are in place, advertising can then -- and only then -- be very effective. Which channels you choose are important too. For example, if you have a medical startup that monitors elderly health, TikTok advertising might not connect you to the right customers. A well-tuned marketing and advertising strategy gets you in front of the unique buying tribes who need your product or service the most. Awareness of a better way is the first goal of any startup's advertising strategy. That could be demographics that use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., or specific industry publications, or even OTT streaming services. Remember that a poorly tuned advertising and marketing approach brings with it high customer acquisition costs (often unsustainable long-term), which can heavily impact the viability of your business in the eyes of potential investors. So, you need to pay attention to them and make sure your ROI on advertising is justified.

Startup Funding Preparation and Support

Whether you have an exit strategy or want to grow your business forever, you'll need funding to survive. Being able to convince investors that your company will generate profits is essential. Here at HypeLife Brands, simply put, we work doggedly to grow your customer traction in an up-and-to-the-right trajectory, so you can present an excellent offering when it comes time to start moving through your funding rounds. Our leadership, combined with our senior team's diverse expertise, helps us help you cover the "360 degrees of the brand and marketing universe" as broadly and deeply as needed to keep that trajectory moving in the right direction. Our commitment and passion for over 21 years has been building, launching, and growing new brands for the long haul, with the ultimate goal being to help startup founders be in the right position at the right time, ready to blow investors away with the possibilities.

Top 6 Strategies for a Successful Startup in the Red-Hot Millennial Market

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Curt Cuscino (Founder & CEO of HypeLife Brands)

Millennials make up nearly one-fourth of the country’s population, and startups are constantly seeking new and innovative strategies to attract that demographic. Current estimates suggest Millennials have a current buying power exceeding $200 billion per year.

If you’re considering creating a new startup -- a new business that can effectively reach and connect with Millennials -- there are several key strategies when it comes to building and marketing a startup.

1. Get to Know Millennials

Baby Boomers have long been the buying market of choice for brands and marketers alike, but now that Millennials have the majority share of focus, it’s important to note that Millennials approach the actual buying experience much differently than their predecessors.

For example, they are:

mobile-first, last and always
user experience-obsessed
have no brand loyalty
intent-based in their purchasing patterns
tribal in nature

Millennials grew up using technology, and currently spend an average of 25+ hours online every week. They’re constantly searching for new products and services to best meet their needs, and more importantly, fit into their lifestyles.

Additionally, Millennials make extensive use of social media platforms to both obtain and share information. And because they’ve come of age in a highly digital, online world, they’re quick to spot information that’s misleading or incomplete and, when they do, quickly move on to other options.

That means online information -- the messaging and essence your brand is putting out into the world -- must be relevant, accurate and authentic at all times.

2. Take Time to Define Success

Sure, sales and profits are nice. But as Amazon has continually proven, sales and profits matter less than user experience and customer loyalty in the long run.

For any startup, it’s important to sit down and figure out what "success" in your brand's specific niche really means.

Fast profitability? Huge user growth? Rapid adoption of platform? Which KPIs attained spell success for your specific startup? How much capital will it take to get there? Answers to these questions should drive all the other decisions related to your startup.

For example, a new company providing accounting services for consumers has far different needs than a startup that's marketing home security. Consumer-focused B2C brands of all types must then review their objectives with other stakeholders to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Only then should the startup’s owners take additional steps to determine how to move forward.

3. Partner with the Right Team

A must: Find strategic partners who can bring your brand to life, and make the marketing plan a reality. That generally means working closely with legal and financial advisors as well as a specialized, startup-specific marketing agency to build a compelling brand and develop an online presence that delivers solid results.

Because a startup is about building from the ground up, it’s important to align with a savvy team that can solve today’s marketing needs, while building a future-proof framework for increased brand awareness and future growth.

Additionally, finding a funding source that shares the same type of vision can also be hugely important. Ultimately, we always recommend startup founders plan to self-fund for the first 2+ years, as finding funding for a pre-traction startup (read: a startup that's been created, launched, and is growing) is nearly impossible.

TIP: Keep in mind that building, launching, marketing and growing a successful startup is a six-figure capital commitment over the first two years of the life of any new business, without question.

It is extremely tough for most traditional investors, e.g. banks and even venture capital groups, to see and understand your vision until after it has been created AND has a tangible (and growing) client/user base.

Additionally, if you're reliant on others for capital, this will hamper your ability to move quickly and swiftly, a move that's necessary to take a startup from idea to market.

When it comes to traditional lenders, in most cases they are simply too unfamiliar with startups, their marketing needs, and what it takes to truly grow a new business in the modern, digital age.

Find a funding source that gets you and your vision, or better yet, fund and invest in your idea (and yourself) for the long haul.

Lastly, if you're having a tough time with the capital requirements for building a new business or startup, you can still get started. We've actually put together this handy list of tools for startup marketing, affordable stock photography for startups, and more, that we here at HypeLife use for our clients daily...just for you, if you're in this situation. This helpful list of vetted resources and tools will save you DAYS if not WEEKS of ripping your hair out trying to figure this all out on your end.

4. Build a Proper Foundation

Marketing to a demographic that’s so tech savvy adds an extra layer of complexity, as it becomes even more important to design marketing strategies that take that skillset into account. The brand’s message and marketing campaigns have to be easily digestible, quick reads, authentic, mobile-first, intuitive, and often, directly useful to the lives of the viewer.

Since there is so much at stake, getting everything right the first time simply won’t happen. But getting as much right as possible—laying a solid foundation from which to grow—means carefully planning a sophisticated marketing strategy that’s geared to your startup’s agreed-upon success markers. After all, no matter the size of a startup, eventual return on investment (ROI) is critical, which makes finding a partner to properly set the stage for success equally critical.

5. Plan for Tomorrow

While ROI drives business strategies today, it’s also important to structure marketing for startups that are future-oriented. Millennials will drive the markets for several more years, and that suggests it will certainly be vital that the long-term objectives and business plans consider that fiscal reality. Planning for the future makes the startup look more attractive to investors and, at the same time, enhances the potential for enjoying higher profits over a longer payback period. That’s why engaging with the right partner during the planning stages is critical.

6. Start Today

You’ll always fail tomorrow at what you don’t start today. A successful startup takes significant time to plan and execute, so start now. If you’re in the early stages of developing a startup, now is the time to take advantage of every resource at your disposal.

We know that building a startup from scratch isn’t for everyone, but we’re here to help those willing to take the leap.

We’re here to help you -- the visionary founder -- bring your idea to life.

About the Author

Curt Cuscino is the Founder & CEO of HypeLife Brands. HypeLife Brands is a progressive brand development + startup marketing agency specializing in building, launching, and growing new B2C/DTC brands and startups, tuned for the Millennial generation.

Established in 2001, HypeLife Brands serves a select roster of startup and challenger brand clients throughout the U.S. and provides full, 360 degree coverage of the brand and startup marketing & advertising lifecycle for new brands and businesses at all stages of growth...often starting from day one with little more than the seed of an idea from a Visionary Founder or Entrepreneur.

The Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

"From lack of product-market fit to disharmony on the team, the reasons for startup failure are abundant. After analyzing 101 startup failures, the number one reason cited for failure in a whopping 42% of cases was tackling problems that were interesting to solve rather than those that served a market need." - CB Insights

Excerpt Source: cbinsights.com Last Updated: October 27, 2023

After compiling a very long list of startup failure post-mortems, one of the most frequent requests was to distill down the reasons for failure from all these posts (a tall order, my friend!). Startups, investors, economic development folks, academics and corporations all wanted some insight into the question:

“Are there a few primary drivers of startup failure?”

So CB Insights gave those post-mortems their special data treatment to see if we could answer this question. And so, after reading through every single of the 101 postmortems, we’ve learned two things:

There is rarely one reason for a single startup’s failure.
Across all these startup failures, the reasons are quite diverse.

Once we sifted through all these post-mortems, we identified the 20 most frequently cited reasons for failure. Since many startups offered multiple reasons for their failure, you’ll see that the chart highlighting the top 20 reasons doesn’t add up to 100% (it far exceeds it). Following the chart are an explanation of each reason and relevant examples from the postmortems... [read the full article at cbinsights.com] P.S. If you are a startup founder or entrepreneur, and the above makes sense to you (or if you've read it carefully and burned these lessons into your brain, or you're well on your way to bringing your Big Idea to market), but you're burning a lot of time looking for useful, affordable startup resources, look no further. As a startup marketing agency, we here at HypeLife Brands have compiled this handy list of the Top 30(ish) Most Useful Resources for Startups. The list includes tools and resources we use every day for our clients (seriously), so if you're still bootstrapping your way along, you'll find this list immensely helpful. It'll also save you HOURS -- well, DAYS -- of hunting, searching, trying, failing, and so on. The list includes affordable startup business insurance, stock photography resources, easy-to-use social proof for startups and their websites, awesomely affordable digital telecommunications options (no, you don't need a $5,000 PBX system to get going), and more. Plus, we're constantly updating it as we find sweet new tools and useful resources. Sound good? Check it out, and thank us later. 😉

Millennials & The Digital Experience: Getting Your Marketing in Order

Sat, 01 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

There’s new marketing methods required in response to Millennials’ continuously growing distaste for advertising, along with their increased social media usage and thirst for new technology — a powerful trifecta compelling startups and lifestyle-centric brands need to embrace to keep pace with the latest trends in digital marketing.

Source: Forbes Magazine Raised in a digital, media-saturated world, Millennials are digital natives — and are therefore the first to notice if your digital experience is lacking. Yet, more than a few brands are in the dark when it comes to defining and creating positive online interactions that resonate with the millennial crowd. To be clear, nailing the digital experience involves more than providing extraordinary customer service online. It’s using social media and technology in ways that create delightful experiences across all touchpoints — from design to content to customer support to creating a seamless offline-to-online experience. Here are some thoughts on Millennials, the digital experience, and why it’s so important for brands to get their digital acts together.

Mastering the Art Of Digital Experiences Matters.

Let’s be honest: Millennials aren’t influenced by traditional advertising tactics. And despite the fact that yes, “change is hard,” lifestyle startups, consumer brands, challenger brands, SMBs and even large legacy corporations won’t make headway if they continue along that path. There’s a new method of marketing approach in response to Millennials’ distaste for advertising as well as their increased social-media use and thirst for new technology — a powerful trifecta that compels brands to keep pace with the latest trends in digital marketing.

Traditional ads don’t work anymore because 84% of Millennials simply don’t trust traditional advertising.

They don’t like the pushy, disingenuous nature of commercials and will do anything within their power to skip, fast forward, and even block any content that even hints at advertising.

Of course, there are some brands that are good at creating digital ads. And there's excellent tools and resources for startups out there that are still in bootstrapping mode and don't have a full-blown marketing or creative team just yet.

But being creative, emotive, and innovative with these tools while melding the components of a successful ad together is tough, easier said than done. And the reality is few brands or startups succeed in the end.

In a marketing-centric world, brands have only one move — master the art of digital marketing experiences.

For example, we just launched a new effort at Adobe to help us better articulate what matters most to all of our customers: make connections by designing and delivering an exceptional digital experience. Our latest brand video captures the full essence of the digital experience…[read the full article at www.forbes.com]

What the Millennial Generation Wants in 2023, and Beyond

Sat, 01 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Critical Issues Facing the Millennial Generation

By now it is a well-known fact that Millennials are by far the largest group of people on the planet. It's an incredibly large body of people, with many nuances between just the older half of Millennials and the younger half of the generation alone. Digging deeper, we find that fifty percent of the world’s population is under the age of 32 (there are, of course, Millennials outside this age bracket), which is an even more significant statistic when you take a moment to think about it. While Millennials comprise a significant portion of the global population (~72 million in the U.S. alone), no matter how you slice it, they will define our collective future in the years and decades to come. Because of their continued, growing level of impact on our shared future, it is important that we understand their view of the world, their passions, what they want, and the critical issues they're currently facing. Taking time to understand better their worldviews will clearly indicate how they will engage the road ahead.

So What are Millennials Most Concerned About?

Based on a recent survey, two key concerns for the Millennial generation are climate change and global conflict. According to the survey, the third hottest concern for Millennials focuses on entrepreneurship and a person's ability to engage in it. When asked, Millennials responded that they also felt that access to the Internet, and social media, followed close behind in importance, particularly because access to these "essential life ingredients" is necessary for starting their own businesses.

The Millennial Generation Speaks Out

Also discovered as part of the survey, over 50% of younger Millennials believed that their opinions and voices were not being recognized. Solving this issue is no easy task, but developing initiatives with clearly defined paths that Millennials can contribute to and exercise their voices in, may be a pathway we as a global culture and community can explore together. Another pressing issue facing Millennials is their ability to find a resolution to the conflict in the world, another larger-scale issue. The critical question here is: how does the Millennial generation begin to feel empowered to combat it? Believe it or not, Millennials see one potential solution to this through entrepreneurship, as this is how they feel they can fuel effective change in the world. Entrepreneurship gives them a vehicle to develop and implement innovative solutions to existing problems in the world. They may not feel they can affect change through existing, antiquated systems...but they do if they can build new ones on their own.

Millennials Want to Tackle Unemployment

Although unemployment affects all countries -- particularly among individuals under 30 -- technology and entrepreneurship alone can't solve the problem. Unemployment has reached a record high of ~13% internationally, with an urgent need for a solution. Starting a new business isn't a simple fix, as most start-ups statistically will fail (9 out of 10, to be exact). As anyone who's started a business learns, no single formula leads to business "success," making a quick and clear solution for Millennials somewhat elusive, despite the best intentions. Even well-funded start-ups coming out of Silicon Valley often struggle to figure out the key to "success" as constant evolution is required. As Millennials look to pursue their entrepreneurial spirit and open new businesses, they too will inevitably find the challenge of running a business much more difficult than they originally thought. Ultimately, the message is clear: the way to help Millennials resolve unemployment is by arming them with the business skills and understanding that sets the stage for their success. Building a strategy to help Millennials achieve these goals for 2022 and beyond is a necessary first step. That, combined with their eagerness to generate positive change, will make Millennials potentially unstoppable toward a better tomorrow. And that will benefit us all, no matter what generation you're a member of. Sources:

How to Find a Solid Startup Marketing Consultant

Sat, 01 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Finding an Expert Marketing Consultant for Your Next Startup -- How They Help, What to Look for, and What to Expect

Table of Contents

Intro
Think About Marketing (Sooner than Later)
Enter the Startup Marketing Expert
Sometimes You Need a General, Sometimes You Need an Army for Digital Marketing
Timing is Key
But How Much Do Marketing Consultants Cost?
Summary

So you’ve decided to take the plunge and start a new venture eh? First, a big congrats on choosing to forge your own path. It’s not for everyone, for sure.

But for those who DO choose the path to bring their Big Idea and Vision for a better tomorrow to life, entrepreneurship can be an incredibly exciting journey. Before we go deeper into how (and why) to find and hire a seasoned marketing consultant, or a startup marketing agency (if you need something a bit more robust), let's first talk a bit about digital marketing, the role it plays when launching a company, and when to consider it when starting your entrepreneurial journey of building a venture from the ground up. And by the way, if you are still very early in building and launching your new startup (and perhaps not ready yet for an outside startup marketing consultant or marketing company just yet), check out this handy list of Resources for Startups that we've put together for you, the Visionary Founder. Here you'll find many handy resources ranging from startup marketing tools to startup business insurance and more that we use daily for our clients at HypeLife Brands. Trust us, it'll save you hours and hours of Google searching for the things you're going to need for the road ahead.

Think About Marketing (Sooner than Later)

As you start thinking through all the pieces of what it’s going to take to achieve your vision and bring it to life, inevitably, the topic of marketing will (hopefully) enter your mind.

“Once I’ve got this startup sorta built, how will I grow it?” 🤔

Building a startup from the ground up, launching it, and growing it for the long haul all requires you to get as many relevant touches and eyeballs on it as possible, as early as possible. It's ok not to get them all in one big burst or all in a single month. Rather, good, healthy growth over time is a better target to aim at. And if your eventual goal is to raise outside capital -- such as getting an angel investor on board, or venture capital -- showing that you did, and can, grow your startup (known as "customer traction") is absolutely clutch for investors to see before they're going to write you that first investment check. You may think your idea is great, but once you've put the skin in the game to lay a solid foundation and bring it to market, the big question is then: Will people like it? Will they engage? Will they buy/subscribe? Hopefully, you can answer an overjoyed "YES!", but a strong marketing strategy is critical, along with finely-tuned creative for your marketing campaigns and advertising to deliver your message to those eyes and ears and hearts and minds you want to reach.

"So how soon should I be thinking about marketing though," you ask?

A best practice to follow is to think about marketing as early as possible, not after you’ve “made the movie”, metaphorically speaking. Carrying on with the movie-making metaphor, remember that the marketing budgets for most major pictures are as big, if not bigger than the production budget itself (meaning, the budget for doing everything to make the movie and get it in a state that people can watch). In fact, don’t just think about it as early as possible — start to talk with, and even hire, potential marketing reinforcement for your startup as early as the idea stage. This is where a digital marketing consultant (with a background in building new ventures) can come into play early in the game as an invaluable resource. After all, an efficient process to creating a business, or anything from scratch is about this:

90% planning, 10% execution

The opposite looks like this (and is something I commonly hear about) with first-time startup founders: Do, fail, do, fail, spend money to patch bad planning, fail slightly better, think harder, try again, fail again (you’re not surrounded by any experts still), and so on. (Oh, and you have no new customers to show for it because you've focused too much on trying to execute, but haven't even been able to launch.) I've seen this go on quite a bit with “bootstrapping” founders, sometimes to the tune of blowing through six figures of capital (and above), and yet still have little to show for it in the end. (Yes, seriously.)

Enter the Startup Marketing Expert

Maybe you’ve not “done” and failed too many times yet...if so, excellent! (And if you have, that’s ok, it has happened to some of the best startup founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs on the planet) There’s an old adage, which I too have had to learn the hard way in the past, which goes something like this:

“Surround yourself with people who are better and more skilled than you” 🎯

And it’s incredibly true. I can attest to it. In other words, don't not hire. Don't hire bad. Hire good...better than you. Experts can be like a Sherpa, guiding you along a treacherous, exciting, scary at times, exhilarating at others, type of journey to a previously uncharted destination. So when it comes to marketing strategy for your new venture, you'll want to consider hiring an expert just as you would in other critical areas of the company that you're not a subject-matter expert in yourself.

That planning for growth, sales, how to get new customers and clients, and beyond should start before you even launch (unless you really love cold opens).

Some would say it should start before you even really start as you look at how the journey might look towards building a new business venture, and what the next year, two years, three years, and so on may look, and what they'll require. A senior digital marketing consultant that knows startups and how to achieve growth from a tough place (ground zero) can — among many other things, both tangible and intangible — put together a go-to-market plan to help with planning how you’ll market your new startup. This plan should dive into which advertising channels may be best to start with, as well as which social media channels to use (you can't tackle them all at the beginning). It should also detail the kind of advertising & media budget you’ll need to plan for and set aside to make it all happen (these are the channels where your digital marketing tactics will be best executed). This type of marketing plan for startup companies is best constructed by a marketing expert, rather than a marketing generalist. The difference between marketing generalists vs. specialized, expert marketing consultants is important to note. Why? Because generalists are far less familiar with the often tight constraints that startups have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, and how best to extract the most value for the dollar out of a startup-sized advertising budget. On the flipside, expert marketing consultants know the terrain you'll be traveling, and know it well, thanks to a wide range of past experience that they carry with them from their past work.

And especially when it comes to digital marketing, the game is always changing.

Social media platforms and advertising channels are introduced seemingly every month these days, and marketing consultants with a special focus on helping new companies can definitely help you find growth.

Sometimes You Need a General, Sometimes You Need an Army for Digital Marketing

Depending on the scale and size of your vision, potential available market, what stage you’re at in the strategy to branding to tech build and so on, you may be ok with just a single, experienced marketing consultant to help guide the way. A marketing agency with experience in helping their customers build businesses in an industry like yours can give your company the guidance, expertise, diverse service mix, tech-savvy support, and know-how of a singular marketing consultant, PLUS the benefits of a digital marketing team. That team can execute on a cross-functional approach including branding, marketing, technology development, advertising, SEO, search engine marketing, PPC management, and beyond. While this team may be packaged as a say, "digital marketing agency", you'll be getting the benefit of an interlocked team of marketing consultants, managed by a senior marketing consultant if you can locate a solid company to hire and work with. Bringing in a digital marketing agency can also give you the benefits of bolting on an expert, multi-disciplinary team that can execute once the strategy and planning are solid, without the headaches and overhead of employees and payroll. If you bring on this type of digital marketing army, not only can they assist or even lead with the strategy development, these type of companies can also manage everything from designing your user experience, building your website, managing your social media marketing strategy, ongoing SEO for your company, technology setup, designing creative automation to touch leads, advertising + marketing campaigns setup and optimization, and more. If you can find a great strategic marketer in one of these companies during your initial search, their team can help you fast track your strategies, get campaigns up and running faster than you ever could, and start helping you find those leads that will eventually turn into your next customer or first batch of clients.

Timing is Key

As mentioned earlier in this run-down on how to find a solid, senior digital marketing consultant that knows your industry and knows startups, timing is critical when you’re a founder of a startup company (obviously, you’ve got a lot to juggle). So don’t let this ball hang too long in the air. Rather, locate, and start conversations early with a senior-style marketing consultant, or startup marketing agency, and select a strategic partner as early as possible (especially if they can help you with the upfront strategy and planning part). An additional expert brain at the table to help you see all the angles can be extremely powerful when It comes to preparing your startup for a pathway aimed at success.

But How Much Do Marketing Consultants Cost?

For sure, there are a lot of "expenses" involved with starting a business...it's guaranteed, so plan on it. But don't look at them as expenses, as they are really strategic investments in getting farther, faster, and with little to no capital waste in an ideal world. A good, expert marketing consultant, or marketing agency, will come alongside you as a part of a monthly retainer type of engagement. As you're paying for expertise and experience, not just hours, you will most likely see this kind of pricing model with any experienced specialized marketing consultant or agency you explore working with. For you the startup founder, this also gives you the benefit of not feeling the pressure of "watching the clock", but having a true strategic partner that's just as engaged as you are, and willing to go the extra miles when necessary (which will be often in this type of role).

This is also a much better approach than giving up equity in something too early on.

Remember, equity in your business is not "monopoly money," and investors down the road like to see a clean cap table instead of one where you've given up say, 15% of your equity in exchange for services. Prepare to invest, and keep ideally 100% of your ownership equity in your business. Trust me, you'll thank me later for this tip 😉 Costs overall really depend on the level of expertise the consultant has in the space you're working in. Are you building a business focusing on the B2B (business to business) sector? Great! Look for a consultant with a background in marketing to other businesses and business owners. They'll have some great vantage points on how to reach your ideal customers, and draw them towards your company. Are you building a lifestyle brand, or B2C (business-to-consumer) focused business? Cool. Then be on the hunt for a expert marketing consultant, or lifestyle startup marketing agency, that specializes in that space and has worked with other B2C or DTC (direct to consumer) businesses. The strategies and tactics you'll need within your marketing campaigns -- yes, you'll need to be armed with a lot more than just a website and sales goals -- along with creative and technical execution, can look somewhat different here when compared with a B2B-focused startup marketing consultant. Even if the pricing is more than you expected, having a specialist on board that knows the terrain is critical for your success. In the first year of building a company, this is a very top-heavy role. A senior digital marketing consultant has to put in a lot of thought and strategy development, so be sure the specialization is there, along with the bandwidth to adequately support your business along the way for the first year, and potentially ongoing beyond that point too.

In Summary

By now, you should have a good understanding of the powerful role digital marketing consultants can play when you are going it alone and forging a new path for your Big Idea. Building companies from the ground up requires some incredibly heavy lifting, focus, research, tools, know-how, experience, and drive in a complex cross-section of digital marketing, technology, sales, creative, SEO, and social media (among others). A well-selected digital marketing consultant who keenly understands building new ventures can act as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for your budding company, at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time CMO (which for most startups, is too costly too soon). Also, they can serve as a quasi-co-founder for you and giving you an objective sounding board to provide solid, untainted advice, guidance, and direction in unfamiliar, and ever-changing terrain when it comes to digital marketing, advertising, and how to execute it all from a creative and strategic perspective. If you have any questions on anything above, or simply on how we can help your brand reach more of your ideal customer + what tools to use, feel free to get in touch with me via:

The Contact Us section here on our website
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Call/text us at 800-936-2170, or
Hit us up on our on-site chat down in the bottom right corner of our website

and I'll be happy to have a conversation with you any time. We wish you the best in your journey ahead...bon voyage!

Millennials and Branded Content: 8 Ways Brands Can Engage Millennials

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Engaging the Millennial consumer is crucial to Corporate America's marketing plans, and well really, any startup, new venture, small to mid-sized business (SMB), or company that relies on the largest people group on the planet for revenue when it comes to their bottom line. Branded content plays a key role in this effort. According to the recently released quantitative study “Storytelling: The Current State of Branded Content” by IPG Media Lab, Forbes and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, branded content’s impact is superior to display advertising in terms of recall, brand perception and intent/consideration. The study results include findings on how Millennials react to branded content: "longer-form, branded content drives Millennial purchase consideration: 18-34 year olds responded better to long articles, driving higher engagement consideration rates and aiding recall." As consumers continue to shift their attention to mobile devices at the expense of more traditional media channels, they gain more control over their content consumption experience, opting to ignore, skip, and even block advertising they did not opt-in for. This is especially true in the tech-savvy, Millennial segment. While marketers continue to scratch their heads to overcome the increasingly more hostile ad-blocking environment at the hands of Google and Apple, branded content has risen as a smart, evergreen advertising alternative, and has indeed changed the way brands can connect with consumers. But there are unique challenges in creating and distributing sponsored content intended for the Millennial generation. Here are seven steps you can take in connecting your brand with free-thinking, and highly connected, Millennial users via content they actually want to consume.

1. Partner with a trusted publisher

Identify publishers trusted by your Millennial audience and partner with them. This step is critical because sponsoring content on publishers that do not offer a safe or enjoyable user experience -- or worse on publishers that are not regarded as reputable by your unique buying tribes -- is bound to affect your brand's perception negatively.

2. Produce relevant content

Research the likes and dislikes of your Millennial consumer, then plan your content around topics that are most important to them. Apply user-data information as a guide to shape your content offering, and leverage your partnering publisher’s familiar voice to tell your brand’s story in a way that resonates best with them. Beyond just the idea of "content production," keep in mind that content creation and production isn't just about words and copywriting. Any piece of content must also include visually engaging photography just as much as it needs to tell a powerful story. In many ways, you can bank on the fact that the pictures used throughout your article are as important, if not more important than the words themselves, based on the well-documented visual leanings of Millennials. (Not to mention they are also important for, and will impact, your content's SEO rankings.) If you need some excellent resources for stock photography with Millennial-relevant imagery, checkout stock photography platforms like Scop.io under our Resources for Startups section.

3. Offer valuable content

Fight the urge to produce salesy sponsored content. Rather, look for building brand loyalty by offering Millennials entertaining, educational, inspirational, or otherwise valuable content. Millennials are prone to associating their appreciation for a prized piece of content with the sponsoring brand. Take advantage of this.The production of valuable content definitely pays. According to the above cited study of IPG Medialab, an increase in the effectiveness of branded content over time was also measured. Aided ad recall showed a 17 percentage point improvement when measured against a similar 2013 study conducted by the IPG Media Lab.

Fight the urge to produce salesy, sponsored content.

4. Share their values

Beyond your brand’s values, your sponsored content should elevate the values of your Millennial consumer. A study by the Pew Research Center concluded that…[read more at portada-online.com] Source(s): portada-online.com

Adapting to COVID – How We’re Moving Forward and How You Can Too

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

As a startup marketing agency often building in stealth-mode on behalf of our startup and challenger brand agency clients, we’ve been hunkered down for the last year working on all kinds of goodness for our clients: building new brands, growing existing brands in omni-channel-blitz-mode, helping our clients build full-blown precision marketing machines, fixing & optimizing everything from digital to key process issues, producing some sweet video action, and much more. Truthfully, it's really hard to summarize thousands of hours of work at a marketing agency for startups in a simple blog post.

While this moment may feel like a strange, unwelcome “pause” on the business landscape, I challenge you to look at this differently.

Entirely differently.

This is an opportunity...a chance to ZAG, and a chance to win in the turns

And whether you’re a CEO at an active startup or established challenger brand navigating some tricky turns at the moment, or a startup founder getting ready to engage in an adventure of your own — Carpe Diem baby!

With that said...here’s just a few ideas:

Retail brands should simply reward your customers with a little love. Zappos is the only brand I’ve seen execute this well, so far. “Here’s $15 towards some shoes. Love ya” That’s all.
Clean out your inbox. Seriously, cleanliness adds a clarity of mind for Leaders and it does not come from an inbox with hundreds of year-old emails.
Stop putting off working ON the business. Let’s be honest: You’re always working IN the business. It doesn’t improve anything for the long-haul, it just maintains your status quo at best, and let’s face it: there’s probably some inefficiency and internal process issues you need to deal with.
Get a second opinion on your marketing & advertising budget and plans for the year (or lack thereof). Maybe this pause is hinting at you to rethink a few things before you go speeding off in the wrong direction...maybe off a cliff, even.
Startup Founders: Just getting ready to get it all going? Awesome! Now is the time...go go go! While your future competitors are sitting around watching the entire Marvel franchise chronologically by release date on Disney+, hit the “go” button — which is unique for each of you — and take the chance at gaining some serious ground when things are back to “normal.” Remember, this too shall pass...it's just a matter of time. I cannot stress this enough!

Lastly, I learned many key lessons during the last blip on the business landscape radar (2008-2010). We put fixes and processes in place to never let our agency be vulnerable during any sort of challenging event again.

We can’t be, our startup marketing and challenger brand clients rely on us for guidance always, and especially now when decision direction can literally change (and is changing) day-to-day.
I can proudly say that we are 100% operational thanks to our processes, geo-proximity, and decentralized model, and geo-redundancies we have in place for situations exactly like this. Our team of senior startup marketing agency ninjas can work from anywhere, whether at desks here at our office or at home in this strange blip (this is not a new concept for us, I’ve had this working remotely thing baked into HypeLife’s DNA for over 15 years...we can and do work from whenever, when necessary).

Our proactive approach, task delegation/management processes, and efficiency to tackle navy seal style challenges — yes, we can still turn on a dime — is unparalleled to what I’ve seen in most businesses I’ve encountered and that we’ve worked with in the last 19 years of business.

Our clients recognize us for it too — as the premier startup marketing agency on Clutch. Clutch is a ratings and reviews platform for B2B service providers, letting businesses consult with industry experts. We have a perfect 5.0-star rating on the platform, including a recent 5.0-star review from the founder of HUDL Music, Lashion Robinson!

“They take everything seriously and contribute as if they were a part of our team.”

~ Lashion Robinson, Founder and CEO, HUDL Music (HUDLMusic.com).

So if you need us, we’ll be here.

Now take a deep breath, and

“Be like water, my friend” (Bruce Lee).

Your competitors — and future competitors — probably aren’t.

Cheers,
Curt Cuscino
CEO
HypeLife Brands

Millennials Take a Different Road to Auto Insurance

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We did a little research on the views that Millennials — people born between 1980 and 1997 — share about auto insurance. Not surprisingly, wildly different conditions influenced their opinions compared to those that influenced previous generations.

Here's a look at what we found:

Millennials think insurance should be fast.

We have Geico to thank for that perception. The insurance giant spends over $1 billion on advertising every year. Millennials (and the general population) are bombarded with TV commercials, social media promotions & ads, sports marketing, digital marketing, and planes towing banners that proclaim, “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on your car insurance.”

And the reality is yes, it could, but it doesn't always save you 15% or more, as insurance is a heavily-regulated industry with complex, multi-faceted pricing structures that the average consumer doesn't understand or even know exist.

Regardless of the amount of savings one may or may not actually find with such promises (and advertising spin), Millennials have little patience with insurance administration overall.

What they really want is the information they’re seeking, quickly - and by “quickly,” they mean NOW (just as they can order a medium pair of yellow socks with a watermelon print and have it delivered it to their door in a matter of minutes, thanks to Amazon). So yes, when it comes to get auto insurance quotes, they want that now, and easy, too.

The Takeaway: Look for ways to speed, simplify, and humanize the insurance-buying process for Millennials.

Millennials are less loyal to insurance brands.

Millennials are willing to shop around for their car insurance. And if they have auto insurance, they’re less likely to buy homeowners or renters insurance from the same provider.

A recent Gallup poll revealed that barely 31% of Millennial customers were classified as “fully engaged with” (read “committed to”) their primary insurance carrier, versus 34% of both Generation X and Baby Boomers.

When it’s time to renew their insurance, they’ll shop around for the best deal, since there’s little-to-no incentive for them to truly remain loyal to any particular insurance brand. And, stuck in marketing practices from decades past, insurance carriers do very little to inspire any sort of brand loyalty to begin with.

Incumbent insurance shopping platforms like GoodFetch have wisely recognized that insurance has indeed become a commodity for the modern consumer.

Responding to this gap in the marketplace, GoodFetch.com has simplified the process of comparison shopping for accurate insurance rates -- and completing a policy purchase -- down to a matter of minutes (across a vast carrier panel no less...think Trivago, but for auto insurance; one 5-10 minute process, get accurate rates, pick one, check out, boom...done).

Clearly, GoodFetch "gets it" twhen it comes to car insurance for Millennials, and what the modern, digital native consumer really wants.

By addressing this pain point, they've indeed humanized and NOW-ified the historically painful process of comparing rates across multiple insurance carriers' sites (which takes the mere mortal hours to complete).

Further, they've removed the need to complete lengthy form after form, only to have you, the user, get dropped down a rabbit hole of lead aggregation traps, tricks, sales tactics.

(You know, when you've shopped online for car insurance rates before, and it seems as if the whole world knows? That is then followed by an onslaught of phone calls and spam from random insurance agencies starting almost immediately...painful right?)

The Takeaway: Thanks to this lack of loyalty, Millennials are willing to try new insurance carriers, offering new opportunities for providers of all sizes. This levels the playing field substantially for insurance carriers both big and small — household brand names no longer hold the trump card.

In fact, Millennials in many cases would rather sign up with a smaller, newer more boutique-style carrier that "gets" them, and caters to their requirement of "Everything, Now."

Millennials are less likely to engage in face-to-face interaction with agents.

For older generations, most insurance shopping begins online and concludes with a face-to-face meeting with an agent. But Millennials are much less likely to set an appointment with a local agent. In fact, a recent study by Effective Coverage (performed by ORC International) found that only 34% of Millennials who buy insurance do so from a local agent.

And according to a J.D. Power survey, Millennials' preference for digital self-service increased to 27% in 2015, up from 21% in 2011.

Insurance agents (who are, on average, 60 years old) pitch specialized service and personal attention as points of differentiation, though in a heavily regulated industry, Millennials know better.

In the end, Millennials are far more driven by price and ease + speed of purchase (online is their first choice, of course) than personalized service.

The Takeaway: Personalize your online, digital experience with potential new Millennial buyers in mind.

This offers the best of both worlds, giving them the feeling of personal attention while recognizing their overall distaste for making an appointment and sitting in a dusty office waiting to meet with an insurance agent in person.

Millennials don’t place much value on insurance.

Millennials know they should have insurance, but spending money on it isn’t always a top priority. In a survey by AXA Strategic Ventures, only 16% of Millennials think insurance is necessary, and only 13% found insurance to be helpful.

As a result, according to a study by InsuranceQuotes.com, only 64% of drivers ages 18 to 29 have auto insurance, compared with 84% of older drivers.

The Takeaway: Content marketing and creative thought leadership components in your Content and Social Media Strategy offer an opportunity to educate Millennials about the importance and true value of insurance as a part of their lifestyle.

In other words, SHOW them why it matters, but don't TELL them to buy it.

Millennials want to pay for only what they use.

Gen Y is increasingly more interested in usage-based auto insurance (UBI) policies than any other age groups. According to a survey by Towers Watson, 88% of Millennials are interested in UBIs, versus 74% amongst other generations.

In fact, 75% of Millennials believe linking insurance rates to driving behavior is more fair than linking costs to factors such as age, gender, occupation, and credit score. Millennial drivers are also willing to pay more for services enabled by UBI technology, including theft tracking, location services in a mobile app ("Dude, Where's My Car?!"), automated emergency calls, and breakdown notification service.

The Takeaway: Offering more flexible ways to purchase insurance gives Millennials a chance to “try out” insurance.

Insurance companies lack the trust of Millennials.

Millennials, like much of the general population, are skeptical of insurance companies as a whole. They do, however, trust what their friends say and will look to their networks to help them in decision making.

According to an IBM Institute for Business Value survey, 89% of Millennials place more trust in friends’ comments than what a company claims in their marketing and advertising. An overwhelming 93% of Gen Y shoppers read reviews before purchasing anything, and that definitely includes insurance.

The Takeaway: Invite your satisfied customers to leave a review on your website to provide another viewpoint beyond your controlled marketing communications.

Meanwhile, they are dissatisfied with the current state of the online experience.

J.D. Power noted that, out of all the ways to interact with an insurance company, Gen Y ranked the website experience lowest, with an average score of 816, compared with 826 for Gen X, 841 for Baby Boomers, and 861 for pre-Baby Boomers. They found it easy to make a payment and gather information about their account, but they also want to solve most of their issues online.

When it comes to discussing price adjustments, only 23% said they prefer in-person meetings or phone conversations, finding them cumbersome and time consuming. At this point, insurance carriers have shown little innovation in regards to mobile apps that can make the online experience more customer friendly, although a few UBI upstarts such as MetroMile are quickly blazing a trail in this area.

The Takeaway: Optimizing and rethinking the online user experience will pay off in spades in the years to come, helping insurance carriers move towards increased customer satisfaction and retention (and growth) among Gen Y customers as they age.

Upscale Millennials represent a unique opportunity.

Millennials who make more than $75,000 a year are more likely to be married, well-educated, and homeowners. In fact, the 15% of Millennials who make more than $100,000 a year are more likely to have auto insurance than previous generations, and are likely to have life insurance as well. Their willingness to switch to a new provider offers a unique, ripe opportunity for insurance carriers.

The Takeaway: This niche Millennial demographic offers a rich opportunity to broaden insurance offerings well beyond auto coverage.

To wrap it all up, as Millennials grow older and continue towards higher incomes, they will continue to place a greater value on insurance. Invest the time and energy now to personalize the online experience, build trust, and strengthen your brand's relationship with them to build strong brand advocates for a future of growth.

Cheers,

Curt Cuscino
Founder & CEO
HypeLife BrandsSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

We are Venture Builders

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

"Entrepreneurship is throwing yourself off a cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down."
- Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

Venturing out on your own...

Taking “The Leap”...

Committing yourself to building a startup...

It’s not for everyone.

In fact, it’s not for most.

And definitely not for the faint of heart.

For most of you Visionaries and Entrepreneurs reading this, building a startup will most likely be the BIGGEST risk you’ll take in your life.

I know, I’ve done it myself...multiple times.

And we’ve worked alongside many startup founders before you to turn their vision into reality...to work alongside them as we cross “The Dragon Gap*” together, saving them from all the costly pitfalls and mistakes we hear about routinely in founders’ horror stories.

In a nutshell, as a VC-realm friend of mine so perfectly put it:

We build fundable, Millennial market-ready, ROI-tuned startups through disciplined capital deployment.

Since my own earliest years, I’ve always found great joy and excitement in bringing something that doesn’t exist to market, well-positioned, well-branded, well-built from the ground-up, with a vast future in mind full of many more possibilities...or more simply:

Creating Something out of Nothing more than the seed of an idea.

It’s what I live for, and so does our team...each of them over the years I’ve personally selected and vetted, and each of them has an entrepreneurial spirit built in to their psyche. And each of them has a superpower.

So when we say “we live for The Dragon Gap,” it’s what we all thrive on. The fear of the unknown isn’t fear to us at all. Rather, it’s excitement at creating disruption towards positive change.

Positive change for our collective future, which is — and will be more than ever in the next 5 years — driven by the Millennial generation.

So yes, while we’ve had our fair share of established B2C and B2B corporate clients over the past two decades to great success (one of them even sold for $645M four years after engaging us as AOR, an international rebranding project, and numerous internal and external marketing initiatives), we find the challenges inherent to building and growing consumer-focused startups far more exciting.

Maybe that makes us a “startup studio,” or “venture builders,” and not just a simple “marketing agency”...but we don’t care too much about titles.

Whatever you call, we love it.

We live for it.

Because life is really boring without challenges.

And engaging HypeLife to bring your vision to reality makes your challenge OUR challenge together.

Let’s talk!

*A term coined by one of my favorite brand strategy thought leaders, Marty Neumeier, author of "The Brand Gap," "ZAG," "The Rules of Genius" and more

The Widening Gap Between Millennials and the Church

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past several years I’ve noticed a growing phenomena both in my own personal experiences, as well as in the world at large: an ever-widening gap between Millennials and the church. There are many points on this gradient of "the church”, so I admit there may seem to be some sweeping generalities here, but rest assurred they’re not intended.

Now before we get too deep, let me be clear: I grew up in the [protestant] church.

Or "The Church." And perhaps others reading can relate to why I might even make that distinction. But for the sake of this article, let’s agree to set our capitalization differences aside…we will treat them the same, despite the bazillion splinters & differences amongst the church, The Church, denominations, religion, faith and where it all crosses (quite messily).

With that out of the way, let’s first agree that there’s really a lot to it, with many different factors, experiences and perceptions at play, but all that withstanding: let's take a deeper look at this growing gap, what’s at the root of it, and why Millennials & the church seem to be having such a hard time engaging with each other with the same level of passion Millennials are known for.

First a brief, anecdotal backstory of my own: My wife and I wanted to get our infant son baptized. No big deal, right? I grew up in protestant churches. My wife grew up in the Catholic church. Like your typical Millennials, we decided to forego the whole idea of a “church wedding” as we didn’t feel that our union together was about a church or a big fancy expensive hoopla. Really, we didn’t feel it was about much of anyone except us. We wanted the commitment and togetherness, but we just didn’t see the point of months and months of tedious planning and detailed minutiae. Call us crazy.

When it came to baptizing our infant son, my wife [initially] really wanted this to be done in a Catholic church and that was fine by me. As we began to search for a venue, we were told time and time again that we didn’t meet some sort of criteria, such as:

We weren’t married in a Catholic church
The godparents weren’t Catholics. This, even though one of our son’s godparents had in fact grew up in the Catholic church, been baptized as a child in it (being from a latin family and all), etc etc, but they now attend a protestant church, and are thus now considered "not Catholic”…by the catholic church.
The godparents weren’t married in a Catholic church.
We weren’t “members” of their Catholic church. We couldn’t even entertain becoming a “member" without a referral letter from another church that we went to. (First time I’ve ever heard this one - a referral letter is needed to participate in a church? Really? I thought that was needed to see a specialist for that weird growth on your foot.)

So up, down, left, and right, we were turned away without any real option or doorway for us to become a part of these “communities." Somehow, there was always some old rule in the way of us not simply being able to bring our child in for a simple baptism (and/or be simply welcomed in to participate).

Now, I’ve been wanting to write this very article for many months, and this whole event really had me taking notes, observing first-hand just one of the many ways I’ve noticed this gap getting wider and wider between me, and the church (and faith) I’ve clinged to for so long (and many times, even when I didn’t want to).

Astonishingly, not one of these churches ever invited us to visit their church, join their community, or simply have a cup of coffee together so we could see how maybe we fit into their bigger picture. Rather, it was a never-ending string of “gotchas” that we couldn’t get in, or around, as a simple, young Millennial couple looking to engage a church for, and — if I put my marketing strategy hat on for a moment — what you could consider a potentially excellent entry point to draw us in.

The old, dusty rules — which I’m also certain aren’t derived from Biblical scripture (Fun fact: I’ve actually read that old book many times, front to back) — somehow still applied. They simply weren’t having us.

But isn’t this the point of the church in the first place? A safe-haven for anyone to experience, work through, walk, and grow together in faith, even if we don’t meet a certain set of "club criteria"?

My wife’s frustration was resounding: “I feel like the Catholic Church has abandoned me."

A LACK OF RELEVANCY
This one single story from my own life far from encapsulates my many observations over the years of just how far out of touch with culture the church at large has become. Perhaps this is why new shows like The Young Pope (HBO/Sky), a racy, sardonic, satirical take on essentially the Catholic Church — yes, big C’s there — have been reportedly the highest watched show in Italy when it originally premiered. In Italy(!), home of the Roman Catholic church. Wouldn’t you think they’d be up in arms over there? No, they are, interestingly enough peering under the rock of this show to see what’s underneath.

The mass exodus of Millennials from the church can, for one, be attributed to their disenfranchised feelings towards the church and its ideologies — due in large part to a lack of relevancy to their lives and way of being.

Millennials are more likely than any other living generation to have negative views of the church and organized religion of any flavor due to the free-willed, DIY attitude they have had to evolve into. This has caused a ripple effect, making an significant indentation on church attendance. According to a 2016 report by the Pew Research Center, Millennials' rating of churches (and other religious organizations) has dropped by 18% since 2010. Ironically, 18% less Millennials also believe religion is very important (41%) versus Baby Boomers (59%).

This decline can also be attributed to Millennials prioritizing their own personal independence, experiences, and derived “knowledge” over following pre-determined doctrine. Compared to older generations, Millennials are exponentially more concerned with the short-term — they’ve had to be — opting for living in the here-and-now, rather than “investing” now for their future.

Our Millennial generation is really searching for more: more relevancy, more understanding of modern culture, more appreciation for the world they live in.

52% of American Millennials DO believe in a God of some kind, the desire for something greater in their lives certainly isn’t lacking. They just don't need fancy fog machines, light shows, rock music, and the many other “tricks” churches often use in their messaging & marketing for the church to feel “relevant”.

Rather, just a humble demonstration of the church wanting to be a part of, not separate from, our culture can be a solid start. A true, concerted attempt to understand us. To engage us. To even simply try to care about some of the same, often human-condition-centric issues we do.

In other words: to not talk AT us, but WITH us.

THEY'RE NOT ALL BAD

This isn't to say their aren’t churches out there that do well in remaining relevant to and attentive of issues at the heart of Millennials' way of being.

I myself have been to churches like Jacob’s Well in Kansas City, an emergent church who’s deep attention to social justice issues, and looking at life more as a journey (Pilgrim’s Progress anyone?) then a set of step-by-step, self-help principles to check off a list (as if life is ever that clean and simple).

North Coast Calvary Chapel (Carlsbad, California) is another good example. Despite the small-sounding name, the church is a rather large body of folks, culturally-tuned to SoCal’s vibe, with a bevy of offerings and openings into their community for Millennials, married or not, questioning or not, purple space alien or not. This isn’t a “seeker church” per se, but if you want an easy entrance to the church (and faith, more importantly), this Millennial-friendly, culture-aware option exists for you.

I know, I know: that’s only two examples (from my own personal experiences on my own journey), there are others throughout the U.S. that have started to figure It all out. (If you know of others, let us know, we'd love to hear from you!)

For those churches who’ve started to figure this out, realizing it isn’t just about “come to a service” is key. It’s about relationships. There’s a lot going on in culture & communities, and we Millennials know that…we’re already there, we’re down in it.

Faith folds perfectly into The Journey of Life, yet churches seem to fall back on the old guard’s idea of a focus on themselves, the church, more than the faith journey & experience aspect — the idea that perhaps, we are all part of one great body, and one greater, worldwide church of sorts. The name on the local building really doesn’t matter any more, just as I don’t care really about getting insurance through a local agent like my parents did, I just care about having the insurance I need (and not having to waste time finding it).

MILLENNIALS LOVE EXPERIENCE, THEY THRIVE ON IT, AND IN IT
Why do you think EDM has had such a wave in the U.S. and also globally the past few years, and music festival attendance has been at an all-time high?

If the church itself isn’t there engaging side-by-side, hand-in-hand with Gen Y, then Millennials just won't see them as part of their personal “tribe” — a concept that is extremely-important in understanding and engaging with Millennials. Thanks in large part to how social media has shaped the Millennial generation, and their way of being, the idea that we’re far more of a tribal generation than all those before is truly key in understanding how best to understand and engage Generation Y. We are far more likely to check on what others like friends and social connections have to say about you first, then to respond to that direct mail postcard you sent out telling us about your church’s upcoming Easter service.

IN CONCLUSION, HOW CAN CHURCHES START TO BRIDGE THE GAP?
While we could leave this at “it’s complicated” status, and move on, let me recap. Here’s a few main ideas that are the entry points for churches dealing with this issue: how to market (I know, sounds like a dirty word in this realm doesn't it?), and better yet, how to engage this massive generation. All is not for loss, there’s still hope for the church; it is not too late to rebuild its eroding body and close the gap.

1. Authenticity and relevancy to the culture in which we live — not the one we wish it was, or what we remember it being like 20 years ago — absolutely must exist 100% of the time, in every message.

Without genuine, authentic points of connection for Millennials, the entire generation will be missed, as we are far more in tune with filtering messages than all generations before us…because we have to be. With the number of messages Millennials are hit with every hour via the web, social media, and everything in-between, our filter is extremely tuned to quickly filter out the inauthentic sales messages a church living under the old guard might send our way.

2. Transparency, please.

Millennials hate the idea of judgement as a whole, and lean much more towards the idea that everyone should be accepted for who they are. This requires realness and transperancy from all sides for this to work in favor for your church body, and your church marketing efforts. I know, I’m only skimming the tip of the iceberg here and this point alone could be discussed for hours (which I’m totally open to, by the way).

3. “Club Members Only” mentality has to be retired, completely.

Simply put, the walls need to be broken down regardless of denomination, protestant or catholic, flavor or whatever…this sort of exclusivity to access to God and faith and all things in-between can’t be present if a true desire to welcome this massive generation into your church’s doors exists.

4. Engage Your Community

Churches can also re-establish themselves as leaders for Millennials by putting more focus on giving back to their local community, and engaging in social justice issues as key demonstrations of faith in the modern era.

Recent surveys show that Millennials would rather utilize their small amount of free time outside of their demanding jobs helping their community.

As an example, one church helping Millennials to engage in this way is the Northbrook, Illinois-based Lutheran Church Charities (LCC). LCC launched a new ministry aimed at reaching Millennials by working with non-profit organizations and implementing community volunteer programs.

The program LCC built, called “ACTS" (Action, Compassion, Teamwork, Service), provides ways for Millennials (and anyone else) to service their community. This unique ministry helps fill a void in a way that encourages participants to continue serving, even outside of official ACTS events. As a direct result of this program, LCC has seen Millennials flock to their church every week.

As I’ve said many times, this is indeed, a complicated subject. But if we don’t all start working towards repairing this widening gap, we will eventually end up in a too-far-gone state, and if I thought that was a good idea, I wouldn’t have bothered penning this article.

Yes, I run a Millennial-focused startup marketing agency, but I chose not to focus on why your social media presence needs to be better, or your website needs to be more relevant, or any of the number of other avenues & tactics we use to help our clients build and grow, because it always comes down first and foremost to your brand — and your church’s — Why, more than the What. If the Why — the heart of it all — isn’t right, then how you market to and work to engage Millennials simply won’t matter.

So let’s start there: at the Heart.

SOURCES:

The Millennial Mom Is Not Who You Think She Is

Sat, 01 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Marketing to parents today, especially moms, is different than ever before. It is no longer about end-caps and advertising in retail stores – moms just aren't there anymore (if they don't have to be). They're not the mall-walking, window-shopping, coupon-clipping moms they used to be.

Today’s mom — a member of the Millennial Generation almost without question — is a plugged-in, connected, possibly unmarried, advice-seeking perfectionist. She is a mom that wants the perfect home life while finding the support she needs online, mostly from her unique buying tribe with shared experiences: other Millennial Moms.

She is more than likely attached to a smartphone or tablet nearly 24x7 — 95% of Millennial Moms own at least one — and she's more knowledgeable than the moms of yesteryear because of it. When she needs to know something, she consults Google, Pinterest, blogs, Instagram, Facebook, and the like. Even in those late night nursery visits, her smartphone is more than likely in her hand. She reads reviews before she purchases anything, especially if it is for her child, looking for only the best, with value in mind (though for Millennials, price isn't the only consideration in this equation). She consults with mom-centric blogs more often than she talks to her friends in real life.

What are some of the main characteristics of the Millennial Mom? I'm glad you asked! Let’s take a look:

1. Millennial Moms have an incredible social media following.

While we used to talk about “successful” parents “living the dream” as those with 2.5 kids and a white picket fence, today's moms talk about their social media platforms – of which most have 3.4 accounts on average (and they just might have a mommy blog of their own). 84% of them follow a brand's social media channels to gain information about them (and 82% are looking for deals and coupons).

2. They talk a lot…online.

They want others to hear what they think about a product, service, or the latest way to parent. They blog, tweet, update their Facebook status, pin pictures on Pinterest, and write reviews. They also read these reviews intricately, processing them before deciding what purchase to make.

3. They want it all.

They want to be the perfect mom, perfect wife/girlfriend, and the perfect “me.” They take “me” time very seriously, having no problem paying someone to help them get that time, whether it is a babysitter, maid, or someone to help them organize so they can take time for themselves.

4. They compete…hard.

Each mom tries to outdo the other, thanks to the internet and blogs. Pictures speak a thousand words. When they see one mom engaging with their child in a way they haven't, you can guarantee they are going to find a way to “outdo” that mom. Think of this as the Millennial version of the Baby Boomers' “Keeping up with the Joneses” syndrome.

So how do Millennial Moms shop? Here’s a look from 10,000 feet up:

1. They research…hard.

Blogs, product review sites, Yelp, or retailer sites with many reviews, 9 out of 10 Millennial moms are reading up before making a move and 83% of them trust blogs for recommendations more than any other source. They want to know as much about a product or brand as they can before clicking that coveted “Buy” button. If the reviews aren't there, or are anything other than positive, she isn’t buying.

2. They are not brand loyal.

Less than 50% of Millennial Moms consider themselves "brand loyalists,” and only 1 in 3 buy the products they grew up with. If there is buzz about another hot product, they have no problem switching in the blink of an eye if the value is there.

3. They think about it.

The product might hit their cart or it might not and it could take a few weeks before they actually make a decision. This creates a new challenge for brands marketing to Millennial Moms in measuring abandoned shopping carts versus "I'm thinking about it" carts.

4. They share their product purchases everywhere.

...Especially on their social media platforms. They rave or complain about them there too. Sell them a poor quality product and be ready to face their wrath online (and lose hundreds, maybe thousands if there's consensus, of potential customers).

Brands that want to market to these Millennial Moms take note. The mom of today is not who you think she is. She is above all else, a Millennial. The best thing brands wanting to engage Millennial Moms can do is cater to her story, her life, in the media and ways Generation Y lives by. Go to them, don't try to pull them to you. Use influencers to help you market and connect. Illustrate how you can improve their lifestyle through images, videos, helpful social media posts and the like.

With Gen Y mothers, it is no longer enough to simply tell them you have a great product, and how hard their life must be as a mom. They must be shown. They need to see how it fits into their lifestyle, how it will make it better.

The mobile-savvy, Millennial mothers are here to stay. How do you fit into their picture?

Cheers,

Curt Cuscino
Principal & Founder
HypeLife Brands
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How Millennials are Changing the Face of Retail

Fri, 01 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Let's start with a quote from a CNBC article reporting on 1Q retail trends in the US:

"Elsewhere on the earnings front, there's a problem at the mall, and Kohl's is symptomatic. The retailer's poor guidance and third-quarter same-store sales' 1.4 percent dip is certainly a disappointment, but maybe not a complete surprise.

"Consumers seem to be genuinely changing their spending habits. Malls are not as crowded. Apparel is not on the minds of Millennials. It's now about being interconnected. Go to a mall, and what stores are most crowded? The AT&T Store, the Apple Store, the Verizon Store."

Retail numbers are down, and there are lots of reasons for this, not the least of which is a continually sluggish economy. But this isn't an economics piece. It's important to also consider, like the quote above, that Millennials – the largest spending block in the world – simply don't buy things the way anyone else does.

Put another way, whether or not your brand operates in the retail space, it's important to understand how Millennials shop and why Millennials purchase. Here are some givens that all brands need to consider, understand, and evaluate:

Customer Service – Before buying or engaging in a service, Millennials will read reviews or blogs by people they trust (key influencers) to find out as much as possible about your brand experience before handing over their credit card.
Compare and Contrast – No matter how cool or how needed your product or service is, be prepared for Millennials to shop the competition. Brand loyalty has limits – unless you're Apple – and budget-conscious Millennials will survey the field before purchasing. They won't always choose the best deal, but they'll be as informed as possible before clicking 'Buy' to ensure the purchase is one they can feel good about.
Put in Cart, Wait – Point #2 also means shopping carts can stay full for weeks. Abandoned shopping carts don't mean what they used to, i.e. there's no immediate reason to hit the panic button. Whether selling a product or service, sales teams must reevaluate lead times and conversion rates to adjust for discerning, informed Millennial shoppers.
Mobile – A steadily rising number of these Millennials referenced in points 1-3 are doing their shopping on their phones. That means stunted attention spans and a consumer mindset slanted strongly toward browsing and not buying. Plus, brands with the best mobile expereiences will be more likely to turn those browsers into eventual buyers.
Social – The conversation begins and ends here. This is where Millennials learn about your brand, experience your brand, engage with your brand, etc. This is where the personality of your brand is cultivated and grows, and where casual followers can eventually become hardy loyalists. Conversions are not the goal; engagement is the goal.

While retail can often be a flashpoint for greater symptoms of the consumer marketplace, the companies and brands that best understand how Millennials shop and spend will be the ones less likely to experience dips in leads, in conversions, in growth. It begins and ends with building and maintaining a great brand, but a great brand must also consider all the points above when it comes to its ability to connect with the largest consumer base in the world: Generation Y.

Cheers,

Curt Cuscino
Principal
HypeLife Brands

Separate Your Brand from the Herd: Dissecting Social Media

Sun, 01 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Facebook has made a lot of savvy business decisions from its inception. Some have been controversial and well-documented in the press. Others less so. But year after year, they've made tremendous growth and show no signs of slowing. As a branding and marketing agency, however, it's becoming increasingly difficult to assess the value of advertising on Facebook as a way of tracking meaningful brand growth. The reasons for this are many, but perhaps the easist one to understand is the sheer size and scope of Facebook and its global user base. At some point, too big can become a problem, especially when trying to reach a Millennial audience that covets personal connection to brands.

And that's why perhaps one of their best decisions will turn out to be their acquisition of Instagram. It will of course take time to recoup the $1 billion sticker price, but for brands looking to connect with Millennials, we're seeing a major shift to this image-sharing platform. The reason: authenticity.

The original intention of Instagram was to provide its users a way to share their stories in a visually compelling way. And out of the gate, only iPhone users had access to the app, cultivating a community of passionate users who valued orignality and the authenticity of beautiful images. As it evenutally expanded to include all smartphone users, the artistic integrity of the app remained. And now, of course, brands are slowly getting into the game.

Instagram hasn't opened up its advertising platform to anyone and everyone, and time will only tell if doing so will de-value the app's effectiveness with reaching Millennials. But for now, some brands are using Instagram in smart, effective ways, and its important to understand the strategy behind it.

One of these brands is Patagonia, who's even gaining some notoriety for their posts. In a recent poll conducted by Huffington Post, Patagonia was listed consistently by Millennials as one of their favorite brands, and its Instagram presence was named as one of the major reasons why. According to the article, respondents said Patagonia's posts made them want to be outdoors and were often inspirational. Head on over to their actual Instagram account and you'll see that an actual product mention is rare. Instead, the feed is full of images from all over the world. Beautiful, awe-inspiring images that, subliminally, associate themselves with the Patagonia brand.

This is what Millennials want. This is what Millennials respond to. Contrary to popular belief, Millennials aren't averse to marketing. They're open to marketing, with a big caveat: It must be marketing with which they can connect. It must be authentic, and that's what makes Instagram different from all other social platforms. It was founded in authenticity, and at least until now, remains true to that ethic.

We've seen a lot of success on Instagram with our cilents, and with the increasing size and scope – and thus, broadened missions – of Facebook and Twitter, it's starting to separate itself as a key way to reach the Millennial group most of our clients seek. And in turn, a key way for our clients' brands to separate themselves from the herd. But as Patagonia has shown, success is about more than just being present. Strategy is still king, even on social media.

Cheers,
Curt Cuscino
CEO
HypeLife Brands

Iconic Brand First, Social Second

Sun, 01 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In every sudsy romantic movie, there's a moment when a relationship ends, and the victim of the breakup is left picking up the pieces. But rather than rush out and try to find a new mate, the best friend is always there to offer some sage advice: "No, you're not ready for that yet. For now, you need to focus on you."

Plots vary, characters interchange and situations flux – but you get the idea. You can't expect to grow until you've built a solid foundation for yourself. The same is true with brands. But there's a misperception floating around that, with all the rapid access and eye-blink gratification that technology provides, merely having a cool website and being engaged on social media should mean brand success.

But it's simply not true. So allow us to play the role of 'best friend': You may not be ready for that yet. You may need to focus on you.

During a recent interview we gave, a member of the press asked some questions on the relative social media success (specifically Instagram) of one major brand in comparison to another major brand within the same vertical. Both of these brands are household names and some of the biggest players in their industry. But one was performing significantly better on Instagram than its counterpart, and the contact wanted us to help identify the tactics the success story was using that perhaps others were not.

This is a fairly common occurrence, and it's a scenario our clients are asking us about with increasing frequency. But the answer has little to do with social media or any specific Instagram tactic. The answer has to do with branding and what's at the very core of your business.

Objectively speaking, both Brand A and Brand B from the scenario described above have more than enough money to spend on top-tier agencies employing the best and latest in Instagram / social media tactics to drive engagement. The discrepancy in engagement, then, can be found by taking a giant step backward and looking at the brand itself. Brand A is simple, modern, and grounded in wholesome, ethical principles that are important to the most active and engaged demographic on the planet: Millennials. Brand B is focused on none of those things, albeit it's arguably much more recognizable, and so is struggling to connect with the Millennial crowd. And when it comes to Instagram, that's the ballgame.

Brand A built a brand that appeals directly to the demographic with the most influence, the most social presence, and, pretty soon, the most money. Brand B has been around for more than 50 years longer than Brand A, and it shows. Millennials can't relate, and they don't want to. But more than that, understanding social media is about understanding passion. There is perhaps no more organic process of brand support than social media, where consumers can directly engage with their favorite brands, where a filtered photo of a brand's product is actually an extension of that consumer's persona. The most engaged people on Instagram tell a visual story about who they are, and to let a brand's story into their own can only mean they're proud to let that brand be a character in their narrative.

Every story has a beginning. And like this one, a main character. If you look carefully, the main character of this story is the word I use most often: brand. You can employ all the cutting-edge, viral, strategic, targeted, insert-buzzword-here social media tactics you want... But only once the brand is solid will social media perform the way it was meant to – by reinforcing what's at the very core of the brand.

Cheers,
Curt Cuscino
CEO
HypeLife Brands
[a progressive brand development + marketing agency helping lifestyle startups & challenger brands engage the Millennial Generation]

Traditional Media: The Non-Traditional Approach?

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The shift away from traditional media isn’t news. To the savviest of firms, it hasn’t been news for more than a decade. Here's a fact: Marketing online is a cheaper way to get eyes – specifically Millennial eyes – on your brand; a statement that’s more true today than ever before.

But because this is common knowledge, because not having a Twitter account means your brand isn’t relevant, there also may not be a better time to consider traditional media. Put another way: Do things no one else is doing.

We’ve all heard the doom and gloom of cable TV, of broadcast television, or the clever moniker aptly dubbed to Millennials as ‘cord-cutters.’ But consider this: Last year, the popular content management system Squarespace ran their first television commercial in its 10-year history. And they ran it during the Super Bowl, an event guaranteed to receive millions of oogling Millennial eyes. Up until that commercial aired, they had relied solely on Google AdWords, sponsored online posts and online media buys to drive its growth from its launch in 2004. They had done well, averaging 1,000 new sign-ups a day and garnering millions of registered users. But they wanted more.

Here’s a statement that gets thrown around a lot: Online marketing is the most cost-effective way to advertise. While this sounds a lot like the first fact I gave you up in paragraph one, it’s actually quite different, and not a fact at all. For some brands, the statement is true. Sometimes resources mandate a certain marketing strategy, and so focusing solely on a sound online marketing plan is absolutely the best play. But then there are other times when an important question must be asked: What’s cost-effective really mean?

For Squarespace, they spent well into the seven figures for a :30 spot during the Super Bowl (if you'd like to guess, a :30 spot is selling for $4.5 million this year). That’s $150,000 per second, without spending any money actually making the commercial. Crazy? Perhaps. But also consider that last year's Super Bowl between the Broncos and the Seahawks was watched by 112.2 million people, a record for a live television event. Plus, it's the only time all year where the commercials garner nearly as much hype as the game itself, assuring a massive audience for a litany of branded messages.

So was it worth it? Only Squarespace can know that. But they’re running another ad during this year’s big game. So I’m thinking it was money well spent; perhaps even a more cost-effective marketing solution than their online campaigns.

Of course, cost-effective is a relative term, as not every brand can afford to advertise during the Super Bowl. But big, established brands are re-allocating some of their traditional media buys to hot online markets every day. And as these online markets become more crowded, and inevitably, more expensive, now may be the perfect time to consider a well-crafted ad paired with a strategically sound television media buy aimed at Millennials.

One more thing: In a postgame study, Squarespace’s :30 spot ranked as the 4th most memorable ad out of the 48 that aired. It showed that those new to the TV medium performed, on the whole, much higher with audiences than the gameday regulars, e.g. Bud Light, Pepsi, the car companies. So there's a lot of upside in the traditional space for some brands who may be new to TV. And while it's too late to get in the game (see what we did there?) for this year's Super Bowl, this insight is driven to give you some more ways of thinking about getting those coveted Millennial eyes for your brand... Which, believe it or not, might just mean doing something traditional.

As we always say, go where your competition isn't. ZAG when they zig.

Cheers,
Curt Cuscino
CEO
HypeLife Brands