Greetings!

Welcome to our September issue of Key Notes - Marketing Keys' monthly newsletter! As we begin our favorite month of the year, we hope your business is heading into high gear. Key Notes is an informative, quick read newsletter to get you caught up on all things media and marketing. Our goal is for you to be informed and entertained with the latest media and marketing happenings quickly and efficiently. 
Is your company using these strategies?
As a business, you must stay up to date with the latest audience targeting strategies. Technology is constantly changing.

Here’s 5 audience targeting strategies that continue to deliver results.
 
1. Expand reach with Google’s In-Market Audiences
Google’s in-market audiences feature lets you target consumers who are researching your products or services.
 
2. Remarket with Google Ads
Remarketing helps brands connect with people who previously interacted with your website or mobile app. Creating remarketing lists is particularly effective for targeting an audience that has already expressed interest in your product or service.
 
3. Use Facebook custom audiences
Despite Facebook’s data privacy issues, it’s the social platform with the widest selection of formats to target, reach and engage potential customers. Advertisers can use Facebook’s back-end ad platform to set up demographic and psychographic parameters to ensure ads reach the right audience, as well as to track performance.
 
4. Prioritize SEO
Organic SEO is the best audience targeting there is because it puts you right in front of the customer when they search for exactly what you are able to offer. If your brand ranks high for relevant terms, it is targeting everyone actively searching for your products and services.
 
5. Start tracking
Adding event targeting to your site shows you how visitors are interacting with your site and can help you build a more effective online presence.
Are there downsides to working remotely?
Can a business truly achieve its full potential with “fully remote” workforces? The pandemic has proven to us that teams can accomplish almost everything working remotely. Work from home has been effective because of tools like cloud-based document creation, sharing, and, most importantly, real-time video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. That said, there are some gaps between the quality of communication and understanding between electronic and face-to-face meetings.

The 7-38-55 rule, developed decades ago by UCLA psychology professor Albert Mehrabian and popularized in his 1971 book “Silent Messages,” attempts to quantify the importance of nonverbal communication. The rule states that only 7% of meaning is delivered through spoken words with 38% derived from the speaker’s tone of voice and 55% from the speaker’s body language.

What does this ultimately mean? This means when conversations are happening on video, the user may get the words right. However, the tone of voice and body language is lost.

We are not saying that all meetings need to be in person. Instead, go into video conferences and calls with the understanding that parts of our communication are going to be lost. We should find ways to make up for the loss. This includes seeking more clarity, asking more questions, practicing better listening skills, preparing better, or following up more diligently. And, most importantly, entering our conversations with more empathy for others.
Can texting sell product?
No matter the brand, the one place you can always reach your audience is on mobile devices. Mobile usage is now surpassing that of "fixed Internet access" worldwide. Whether it's mobile banner ads, ads that appear in video games or QR codes, there is no shortage of ways to reach mobile consumers.

Short Message Service (SMS) marketing is another one of these methods. It's a low-cost, high-return marketing system that uses text messaging to convey content or offer to customers. When used successfully, it creates an effective platform for communicating with mobile customers. Below are some of the most effective SMS tactics that can help boost response rates.

  1. Offer incentives. Tempt your customers by offering coupons or deals.
  2. Short and sweet. Make sure your message is to the point and delivers value to your customer.
  3. Have a clear call-to-action. If you want customers to take part in a campaign that has them text your keyword to a five-digit number make sure those two items stand out and aren't buried in the message.
  4. Integrate MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). If you have a hard time with the 160-character limit, use MMS to send video clips or images to your customers.
  5. Create a sense of urgency. Including some sort of expiration date encourages customers to respond faster.
  6. Make it exclusive. Make your customers feel special. If the offer were available to anyone, then being a subscriber becomes less appealing.
  7. Use your texts as hooks to your social media. Cross-promote on your social media pages and texts. You can engage them further through those pages, but use your texts to direct them there.
  8. Ask questions or send surveys. Ask customers their opinion on a product or idea. The best way to make sure your product will do well is by surveying your audience.
  9. Send a text as a follow-up to an email. Your customers generally receive both of these messages on their mobile devices, boosting response rates and engaging them in conversation.
  10. Send texts at the right time. Aim for times your customers won't be busy, like before or after work, or during lunch hours. As a general rule, don't send texts before 9 am or after 9 pm.
  11. Engage a younger audience.18-49 year-olds have grown up with various mobile devices, and are more active texters than baby boomers.
  12. Personalize the texts. Customers respond more to materials addressed directly to them, so insert your subscribers' names when you can.
"I didn't buy it. TikTok made me buy it!"
The days where social media platforms are used solely for connecting are long gone. TikTok, like all other social media platforms, wants to be more than a marketing strategy for brands. TikTok wants to drive sales. TikTok offers brands the ability to partner with creators to promote products. This is done often as creators make organic content featuring clothing hauls, Amazon finds, or viral recipes. An Ad Age Harris Poll study found that 57% of millennials have purchased items featured on TikTok, while 38% of Gen Zers have done the same. The hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has over 4 billion views. Retailers have been quick to take advantage of this opportunity. Walmart was the first to host a live shopping event in December of 2020 featuring its own-label clothing lines. Other major names such as L’Oréal and Kate Spade have used Tik Tok to drive sales.
Back to school means Back to normal!
Personally, I couldn't be happier when my kids went back to school in person everyday on September 2nd.
Slowly but surely, things appear to be returning to normal, or at least a new normal. Even with restrictions, more and more kids are heading back to school this year and back-to-school TV advertising is up. Advertising tracker AdImpact reported year-to-date Back to School TV and cable spots are up about 60%, with a total of 336,361 market-level occurrences. According to the AdImpact data, the top-five retail Back to School advertisers this year are Kohls, JCPenney, Amazon, Target, and Staples respectively. The top-five non-retail Back to School advertisers are: Crest, Finish Your Diploma (part of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation), Independence University, an online university that reportedly closed in early August, CVS and Stanton Optical.
BLOG OF THE MONTH
Here is a recent highlight from Marketing Keys' blog page. Please start following our blogs and let us know what you think.


Get the latest insight here!
Get help from 'The Mouse'!
In my previous life, I worked for many media companies including the one headed by the Mouse. During my 20 year executive run with media companies, I had noticed that if an advertiser wasn't properly represented with a media expert helping them with their media planning and buying, then that company was at a disadvantage. Thus, I created a company to provide a solution to that problem.

Marketing Keys was formed in July, 2007 to more than level the negotiation playing field between advertisers and media companies. We enabled advertisers to have a major leg up in the process.

We targeted Presidents, CEOs, Regional Managers, Marketing Directors, CMOs etc. of small and mid-sized businesses. We then went to market with our 'key' differentiator and mission. During the last decade, the company has grown from 2 clients in 2010 to presently close to 20.

To find out if we can help build on the results that you had started and eliminate the inherent disadvantages of buying media on your own, please reach out to us at roger@marketingkeys.com.
Hooters goes Country!
Join WCCQ's Bossman Thursday night, September 16th at Hooters of Downers Grove from 6p-8p for a chance to win tickets to the sold out Dan & Shay concert at the United Center on October 2nd. With world famous wings, delicious seafood, stacked burgers and ice cold beer all served by the world famous Hooters girls, how can you go wrong? Hooters, the original wing joint. originalhooters.com
First Day of School is extra 'Sacred' this year!
On August 31st, Sacred Heart welcomed all of their students back to campus to celebrate the first day of school and the 145th year of a Sacred Heart education in Chicago! Sacred Heart is part of an international network of more than 150 schools, and also has a warm, inclusive community that represents and celebrates the richness of the Chicago area. Students leave the halls of Sacred Heart curious, confident, compassionate and with a self-knowledge that allows them to go out into the world and impact it for the better. To find out if Sacred Heart is right for your child, check them out here.
Opening September 10, The Newberry hosts Chicago Avant-Garde. The Newberry puts the spotlight on Chicago as a site of historic, boundary-pushing experimentation in art, literature, and dance. At the center of the exhibition are five women whose lives and careers embodied a uniquely Chicago style of avant-garde creativity: artist Gertrude Abercrombie, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, dancers Katherine Dunham and Ruth Page, and curator Katharine Kuh. To learn more about this free exhibition at The Newberry, click here!
Are you Socially Challenged?
 During my 14 years as a business owner, I have discovered there are many companies out there that are challenged with the task of managing their social media.

It may be that they are confused over the platforms that they should use, the content they should post, how to boost that content and/or the time or lack thereof that goes into managing their social media platforms. 
 
As a Social Media partner of ours, our Social Media expert will manage and strategize daily on your sites. We will also coordinate all communication so there are no surprises while all of your initiatives are scheduled accordingly. 
 
For more information, please contact Marketing Keys at (312) 291-4630 or you can email us HERE!
Fill up your Lead Generation funnel!
In the days of Mad Men, creativity was everything. The goal was for a brand to be the most creative creating a tag line to resonate with the audience. Now, creativity takes a back seat to targeting through data and reaching your target synergistically through multiple mediums with an integrated marketing campaign.

Find out how Marketing Keys can help generate (on average) an incremental 30-35% more in leads and/or conversions through our system.

For more details, Contact us here!
We are Social!