Employee engagement is marketing’s job, too
Employee engagement is marketing’s job, too
Three ways marketers can help HR keep employees engaged—and why they should
According to Gallup, “A staggering 87 percent of employees worldwide are not engaged. Many companies are experiencing a crisis of engagement and aren’t aware of it.” Many marketers might see employee engagement as a human resources problem, but there are steps that marketing departments can take to help with employee engagement and retention. Why bother when it’s not in your job description? Given that news of low morale and high turnover can drastically overshadow positive brand messages—and all of your hard work—it’s worth marketers’ time to invest in employee engagement, too.
Here are three ways to support human resources’ efforts in this area:
1. Involve employees in marketing decisions
Letting employees have a say in marketing efforts is a great way to help them feel involved and heard. When crafting campaigns and deciding between directions, run a survey where employees can vote on the direction they like best. When revamping a logo or website, let employees weigh in on what attributes they think should shine through. Or request their ideas for your content marketing program.
2. Interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to spotlight team members
At the heart of any brand is its people, which is why it’s important to allocate marketing resources to spotlighting their great contributions. Create short videos for use on your website with employees talking about what they do at the company or why they like working there. Write a blog series that highlights a different individual or team each month. Celebrate work anniversaries on the company intranet or social media pages.
3. Put some razzle on the HR dazzle
It’s your job to make the company or organization look good to the outside world, but how about making it look good to employees, too? Help HR by creating professional flyers for companywide programs or contests. Create and manage an internal Facebook Group for employees where you post about employee successes and milestones. Brand recruitment incentive or employee reward programs like you would any customer-facing program—and if HR doesn’t have those programs, gather your gaggle of creatives and help brainstorm some ways to reward employees for great work. Then create posters for the bathroom stalls, table toppers for the lunchroom, or shareables for social media to promote programs and, ultimately, help employees feel more recognized and engaged.
Five reasons to take another look at native advertising
Five reasons to take another look at native advertising
Native advertising is content that looks like editorial but is actually paid for by an advertiser. It’s a newer form of digital advertising that savvy marketers are using—and you probably should be, too. According to a study from IHS on behalf of Facebook, by 2020, the majority of mobile display ads will be native and represent $53 billion in advertiser spend. Here are five reasons to take another look at native advertising.
Reason 1: You’re already writing the content.
Native advertising is the perfect match for an existing content marketing strategy, because blogs, e-guides and case studies that you’re already creating can be easily adapted as native ads. If you’re already writing the content, why not do something with it?
Reason 2: You can do a deeper dive.
If your product or company requires more explanation than the five words that can fit on a banner ad, native is for you. Add in illustrations, figures, photos or video to help tell your story to readers that are already in the right brain space to read your content.
Reason 3: It is more engaging than traditional display.
Native ads deliver up to 60% more engagement and up to three times greater retention than other digital advertising. That’s because readers are more likely to engage with a sponsored article that provides relevant information, and more likely to share it with friends and colleagues, than a display ad with minimal information. Click through rates can be two or three times higher than display ads.
Reason 4: It’s good for thought-leadership positioning.
Not only can native drive clicks to your site for a free trial, e-guide or webinar, it’s a chance to elevate your thought-leadership position, as well. Hand company executives a pen and invite them to share insights on trends related to your industry—the article can include a byline and mini bio.
Reason 5: It’s flexible.
Launch a native campaign in a trade publication for a one-month period with a few articles. Watch how many clicks the articles are getting and extend the run of the popular articles and swap out the unpopular ones—native is an incredibly flexible addition to your marketing mix.
Are you interested in investigating a native campaign for your company? Many of our clients are seeing success with it, so we’re well-versed in the practice. Give us a call or drop us a line if you’d like some help.
Marketing healthcare to millennials and Gen Z
Marketing healthcare to millennials and Gen Z
The youngest adults among us present a marketing challenge for those in the healthcare space because they don’t follow the commonly accepted “rules” of the healthcare system. As an example, according to the Accenture 2019 Digital Health Consumer Survey, only 55 percent of people in Generation Z, born in 1997 and onward; and 67 percent of millennials, born in 1981 to 1996, have a primary care physician (PCP). In comparison, 84 percent of Baby Boomers have a PCP.
But younger adults are key for healthcare marketers because they have a lifetime of potential brand loyalty ahead of them. And they’re powerful, using their voices and spending power to support what matters to them. According to Pew, young adult households earn more than most older Americans did at the same age; they’re better educated than their grandparents; and Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X outvoted older generations in the 2018 midterm elections.
Here are three things to keep in mind when marketing healthcare to millennials and Gen Z.
They don’t care about your TV ad
Though 44 percent of millennials do watch their favorite shows on broadcast or cable, the youngest adults were raised on digital. That’s why display advertising, search engine marketing, social media advertising, native advertising, pay per click and other types of digital ads should take up a large piece of the pie when targeting this demographic. And make sure your website is mobile friendly—92 percent of millennials use smartphones and, since smartphones were introduced in 1992, Gen Zers have never lived in a world without them.
They’re staying single longer—or for good
Don’t assume that since the oldest millennials are in their mid-to-late 30s, they’re focused on family healthcare. According to Pew, 46 percent of millennials ages 25 to 37 are married, compared to 83 percent of those in the Silent generation who were married in 1968. And they may never marry. “The share of adults who have never married is increasing with each successive generation. If current patterns continue, an estimated one-in-four of today’s young adults will have never married by the time they reach their mid-40s to early 50s—a record high share.” Focus on marketing care for the individual, not the family, to reach a wider swath of this audience.
They’re an excellent source of feedback
Younger adults seek online reviews before they make a decision about a purchase—or a doctor. In fact, 97 percent of consumers aged 18—34 read local business reviews online. (Source: Search Engine Land) That means that it’s important to ensure that your reviews are enabled on social media and solicit positive feedback from current patients—and respond to negative feedback instead of burying your head in the sand. And because younger adults also provide reviews, they’re a great source of feedback. Monitor ratings and review sites, health apps, and online communities for useful insights into how your patients feel about your practice or organization, so you know what’s working and what isn’t.
Top three reasons why your site should have a blog
Top three reasons why your site should have a blog
Building a website is not enough. It’s important to consider how to drive visitors to your site. Blogging is the #1 way to draw traffic to your website. Publishing blog articles optimized for search will help you generate leads. Consider:
Creating a blog is just the start; you need to develop an editorial calendar and fill it with topics of interest and information of value to your customers. Mix in a little company personality and fun. Dedicate time and resources to keeping the blog fresh and employ Hootsuite or another social media management platform to automatically share your blogs to social.
Need help getting started? Contact us and we’ll get you up and running in no time. We can help you achieve the right content mix to engage, inform, and entice key targets to keep in contact with your company or organization.