A recent report from the CMO Council explores how content is empowering marketers during our current turbulent times. However, the report also cautions marketers to be mindful of inauthenticity and tone deafness to avoid backlash from their audience, particularly on social media.
Shared Melanie Huet, CMO at Serta Simmons Bedding who was interviewed by the CMO Council: “The brands that weren’t prepared for certain statements, looked very misaligned and the whole company suffers the consequences…There’s been a tremendous amount of backlash for companies that just post something with no meat behind it.”
With digital media being the primary source of engagement with brands for most people during the pandemic because of shelter in place orders, it is having an out-sized impact on a buyer’s decision-making process. To this end, experts at the CMO Council recommend close alignment between all marketing and communications teams in order to convey a unified message across all platforms to engage buyers and to not confuse or frustrate them.
Noted Angela Hsu, senior vice president of marketing and eCommerce at Lamps Plus: “As a multi-channel retailer that saw the temporary closure of all our brick-and-mortar stores, we quickly reallocated our paid campaigns by scaling back top funnel and focusing on direct response campaigns to our e-commerce website.”
While the advice contained in the CMO Council report is primarily aimed at empowering marketers in the B2C realm, it applies equally to B2G marketers. Government buyers are just as affected by the pandemic and equally reliant on digital media to educate and inform them on their buyer’s journey. Which means, that they are also equally susceptible to the negative impacts of a misaligned marketing and communications strategy.
The report highlights key areas for marketers to mitigate the challenges of marketing to ensure that core messages are aligned and that a unified message is presented to prospects across all platforms. According to the CMO Council there are five strategies that are vital to empowering marketers.
Forming the core of these strategies are content marketing and analytics which can then be used to create sales and marketing intelligence. With these two tools alone, marketers are able to connect engagement to demand and significantly influence the buyer’s journey.
Ready to learn more about the other essential tools that are empowering marketers? You can learn more here.
