Author: amacharleston

Ever since watching Lauren and Whitney intern at Teen Vogue on The Hills and all the competition and planning that went into Paris, I wanted to be in Marketing. Not fashion, not events… Marketing. And it seems I am not the only one.

A recent study found that female marketer leadership is at an ‘all-time high’, with women making up 64% of the industry. This positive representation of women shows no sign of changing, with 21% of women saying they’d consider a career in marketing vs. 16% of men.

This month, consider pushing the hard cold facts that make people think out their position and possibilities in the workforce. I’ve rounded some up for you:

More Stats + Facts

Women in the workforce:

• 42% of all businesses in the U.S. are women-owned.
• Women of color account for 50% of all women-owned businesses in the U.S.
• Women-led businesses employ 9.4M workers and generate $1.9T in revenues annually.
• States with the most women-owned employer firms are Hawaii, Virginia, and Colorado.
• Over 1,800 new women-owned businesses are created each day in the U.S.
• 1 in 3 female entrepreneurs has experienced sexism as a business owner.
• The top priority of women-owned businesses is to get more funding and financial help.
• The average loan size for women-owned firms is 50% lower than for male-owned.
• Only 2.4% of venture capital funding goes to female founders in the U.S.
• 31% of women business owners have school-aged children at home. Marketers in the workforce:
• There are over 4,646 marketers currently employed in the United States.
• 47.8% of all marketers are women, while 52.2% are men.
• The average age of an employed marketer is 36 years old.
• The most common ethnicity of marketers is White (66.9%), followed by Hispanic or Latino (12.8%), Asian (9.7%) and Black or African American (5.4%).
• Marketers are most in-demand in New York, NY.
• The technology industry is the highest-paying for marketers.
• New York, NY pays an annual average wage of $80,006, the highest in the US.
• In 2021, women earned 92% of what men earned.
• 10% of all marketers are LGBT.
• Delaware is the best state for marketers to live.
• Marketers are 72% more likely to work at private companies in comparison to public companies.

Women to Know If you went to school for marketing or advertising, these names may sound familiar to you. I often think back to these women and the movements they started to help inspire my work today.

Mathilde C. Weil

Way back in 1880, Mathilde founded the M.C. Weil Agency in New York. She opened for business years before J. Walter Thompson, often cited as establishing the first advertising agency, entered operation. Yet, little is known about Mathilde, which indicates the adversity she must have overcome as a businesswoman in the 1800s.

Helen Lansdowne Resor

Hired by J. Walter Thompson, Helen formulated the iconic ‘a skin you love to touch’ ad for Woodbury’s Facial Soap in 1917. Her ability to entice customers with ‘risqué’ (though tame by modern standards) print advertisements makes her a key figure in copywriting development. She finished her career as Vice President of the J. Walter Thompson company and was a lifelong supporter of female empowerment and representation.

Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

Bernice, born on a farm in rural Wisconsin, worked her way up from a local newspaper secretary to being one of the key marketing figures at Macy’s. Credited with introducing fashion show demonstrations into department stores, she later founded her own advertising company and, in the mid-1950s, was known as the highest-paid woman in marketing.

Caroline Robinson Jones

Caroline was the first person of color to rise to the position of senior copywriter at the J. Walter Thompson Company before assuming the role of Vice President of Zebra Associates in 1968. She used celebrity endorsement to develop KFC’s famous ‘we do chicken right’ slogan in the 1980s and worked with Mcdonald’s and Toys R Us.

Mary Wells Lawrence

Mary trained at Macy’s under Bernice Fitz-Gibbon in the 1950s to become their fashion advertising manager. Later in her career, she founded her own company: Wells, Rich and Green. Mary developed marketing campaigns, including Flick your Bic, Plop Plop Fizz Fizz for Alka-Seltzer and the world-famous ‘I ♥ N Y’ tourism slogan and logo with graphic designer Milton Glaser.

Information from One2Create

Despite the strides women are making in the marketplace and in the marketing industry, hurdles like pay gaps, DEI and caregiver stigmas will undoubtedly continue to drive conversations about equality in the workforce.

How are you going to help make an impact?

To your success,

Taylor Ion

Marketing Director Charleston AMA

February may be the month of love, but I’m about to change my status from it’s complicated to single when it comes to ALL the social media algorithms. 

As a social media manager for several brands and organizations, the end of this relationship has actually been a long time coming. 

When you’re late-night doom scrolling, have you ever found yourself thinking, “I just saw a similar post to this – everything just looks the same…” – SAME. Remember the time when posts used to be chronological? Remember when you had more control over what you wanted to see without a platform tailoring your actions to your account? SAMEEEE.

For the accounts I manage, I no longer feel like: 

• I have thoughtful, insightful answers to my clients questions about engagement 
• I’m proactively planning content, rather, being more responsive and reactionary – which is not where I want to be
• I’m putting out meaningful content because I’m tailoring my ideas around what we think the algorithm might like 

So, a clean break is what I feel we need to restart, reconnect and reestablish our connection to what we really want to publish online. 

Don’t get me wrong, not all algorithms are created equal. They have their time and place, especially when they expose civil injustices and connect us to national movements. We want to feel connected and see timely content, but it might not be the most interactive content. And it’s definitely not helping my cause by converting impressions into meaningful engagement or adding to my clients exposure and account growth. 

With Instagram’s recent announcement of “over focusing on video in 2022 and going back to static images for this year”, the amount of eyerolls heard around the world were staggering. I’m still recovering. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, has become, admittedly, the last person I want to see in my social news, social feeds or anywhere, really, because then we all know another update is about to shift our strategies. And for TikTok knowing more about you than you know yourself, we’re jumping from one extreme to the other. 

Given all of this, I’m closing the door on my typical social process and focusing on one thing only: fun. What is bringing us joy? What content makes us smile and brings out the best in our brands? What is silly and uplifting that might brighten a social feed? That’s it. 

If you Google anything related to “how to best represent your brand on social media” you’ll get the same answer over and over again: 

• Have a clear brand voice
• Create content that relates to your audience
• Create consistent content that users can learn about you and strengthen trust 

And even THOSE comments have been derived from years of studying consumer and algorithm data. 

I can feel my brain fog parting as I type and know this will be for the better in the long run. 

Are you with me?

To your success, 

Taylor Ion

Marketing Director, Charleston AMA

Roses are red, violets are blue. And as consumers, we’re hopelessly devoted to you! 

This Valentine’s Day, we’re celebrating the most important relationships of them all: the ones you have with your favorite brands. From indulging in our morning coffee to relying on cars and gadgets that get us through our daily lives, our brands are the ones that stick with us through it all. Is it because your chapstick is honestly the best on the market, or is there something more that makes it the product you just can’t quit? Open a box of chocolates and pop the bubbly; today we are recognizing our long term relationships – the special bond between customer and brand. 

Brand loyalty is like any other relationship – it takes time to build. The steps of the journey to becoming a loyal customer are similar to becoming a significant other. You start off as an acquaintance, then you move on to being friends and eventually you become partners in success. You find yourself gushing over them with friends, and you’ll probably even share them on your social channels. But while you’re in the honeymoon phase, the brand is busy finding ways to keep you coming back for more. 

We’re going back to the start. The first date. 

We all know it’s true; the first interaction with a brand is just like a first date. It may be a little awkward and the conversation may be superficial, but both parties are taking stock of the other’s habits and beliefs. We think of how the brand makes us feel and take note of how their behaviors indicate their values. And all over a cocktail! Just like any relationship, your courtship with a brand needs a solid foundation that will stand the test of time – something that keeps you coming back for a date #2.

You and the brand have successfully made it through the first date and all flags are showing green. Now what? It’s time to take things to the next level and Define The Relationship. We’re going deep. Do the values they displayed on date one seem to be values they live by? And do those values align with yours? During this phase, you’ll begin to understand the behavior of the brand and start to get a sense of what is consistent for them. You may notice them behave consistently in a way that makes you feel proud to be a consumer. Whether it’s continued exceptional customer service or taking public stands on issues that are important to you, you may find yourself in love at first buy. Just like any important person in your life, you come to know them so well that you can predict how they behave in any given situation. 

Do you feel like your most cherished brands get you? If not, it may be time for a break. 

When it comes to building long-term relationships with brands, how you feel matters. Just like any life partner, they become a reflection of you, so it’s important that you feel confident in what you’ve aligned yourself with. At the end of the day, people love relationships and brands that make them feel good. People love brands that are there to celebrate them in the big wins, comfort them in the losses and that make them feel like they’re on top of the world. Once they have achieved that, my friends, they have achieved brand loyalty, and you’re in it for the long haul. 

Will you accept this rose? Say a toast to the brands you love the most this Valentine’s Day. Let’s find the humanity in brands by finding, using and sharing what we truly love and believe in. If reading this blog made you realize that you don’t have a brand you stand behind, then consider this your candy-heart sign to get back out there. 

Xoxo, Charleston AMA

It’s Christmas time in the Holy City and we want you to join us in spreading holiday cheers at our happy hour on December 13 at Rutledge Cab Co. from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. We’re closing out 2022 with our most impactful happy hour yet, and we’re calling on our friends and neighbors to help make it happen. All ticket and cocktail proceeds from the event benefit one of our favorite local nonprofits doing big things, Courageous Kidz.  

Founded in 2006, Courageous Kidz is on a mission to give children living with cancer and their families the magic of hope by providing year-round uplifting experiences. After moving to Charleston in 1967 with her husband, Deborah Stephenson quickly found her calling making a difference in the Charleston community by originating and nurturing Camp Happy Days. In 2005, Debby transitioned from Campy Happy Days to caring for her husband full time as he fought his own battle with cancer. Recognizing the need children and families living with cancer have for a more individual type of care, Debby knew there was more work to be done and more families to touch. She then created Courageous Kidz. 

Courageous Kidz works to alleviate the stress experienced by families stricken by childhood cancer while giving them the opportunity to connect over family-fun activities, all free of charge. These opportunities give families the chance to take a pause and just be a family for the day while creating lifelong memories. Whether it’s a day at the beach with Shaka Surf School, bowling and pizza at Charleston Rifle Club, dinner at their favorite restaurant or even a custom trip, Debby and the Courageous Kidz team go above and beyond to provide these Charleston families with a sense of normalcy and an amazing experience to pair. 

The journey with Courageous Kidz doesn’t just stop after these activities. The kids, their parents and their siblings become a part of a robust support network in the Charleston community, composed of like-families who can lend understanding to the challenges that accompany pediatric cancer. Through this network and the continued champion from Courageous Kidz, each family gains access to additional resources, organizations and support that help carry some of the weight. 

Through the generous support of volunteers, sponsors and donors, Courageous Kidz has been spreading the magic of hope through the Charleston area for nearly 17 years, and we are honored to lend our support to help them reach 17 more. While we can’t take away the devastation of pediatric cancer, we can do our part to help Courageous Kidz continue impacting these incredible families and alleviating some of their stress during unprecedented times. 

Buy your tickets today and join us on December 13 at Rutledge Cab Co. from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. to close out 2022 by making an impact. Come cheers to the season, network with marketing pros and enjoy complimentary appetizers and signature cocktails — all benefiting Courageous Kidz! Over 95% of the donations go straight to the cause. 

Can’t make the happy hour but still want to get involved? You can donate to Courageous Kidz on their website, as well as find information on becoming a volunteer or sponsor.   

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good happy hour! 

VR, Blockchain, Web3 and Metaverse

Starting with the biggest nobraider is thinking about marketing through the lens of virtual reality and conducting business through blockchain technology. With the rise of the Metaverse, a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users, comes the evolution of web3 as well. web3 is the name some technologists have given to the idea of a new kind of internet service that is built using decentralized blockchains — the shared ledger systems used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether. The term has been around for years, but to break it down it’s really, “the internet owned by the builders and users, orchestrated with tokens.” web3 takes on many forms, including decentralized social networks, “play-to-earn” video games that reward players with crypto tokens, and NFT platforms that allow people to buy and sell fragments of digital culture. But some believe that web3 is little more than a rebranding effort for crypto, with the aim of shedding some of the industry’s cultural and political baggage and convincing people that blockchains are the natural next phase of computing. In this new internet, we get rid of the centralized systems and create an open ecosystem that would reinvent the digital marketing industry. This technology is really for recording and verifying transactions that can be applied to practically anything requiring trust—from money to real estate to medical records. As a result, blockchain has the potential to revolutionize marketing as we know it today.

Audio Content

Consumption habits have no doubt changed since COVID-19 with consumers doubling down on digital and transitioning to online lifestyles, which includes the way they experience content. With the rise of podcasts, audio play time is significantly higher across all platforms and mediums. Considering TV, music, podcasts and streaming services, consumers are multitasking and taking in SO much more information, messaging and storytelling at a rapid rate through audio. So, the way we target and market products and services should meet customers where they are–in their ears. 

Completely Paperless

People have been changing their habits by prioritizing sustainability and they want brands to help them make sustainable choices more obtainable, manageable and available. They also expect organizations, businesses and corporate companies to have an impact on society on a much larger scale and align promises with actions. I predict a lot more of these entities will likely make sustainability promises by “going green by 20XX” and eliminate paper goods altogether. In addition, they’ll take it further by not only reducing their economical impact, but creating purposeful outlets for others to do the same. 

Privacy Technology 

Leaks, breaches, hacks and scams all are on the rise as people and technology advance in all areas of business. And with people managing more of their day-to-day lives online than ever before, online privacy has never been more important. To customers, privacy IS trust and market performance will no doubt make or break when it comes to user experience. Reported by Google, consumers view bad privacy experiences almost as damaging as a theft of their data. It’s enough to make 43% of them switch to another brand. In addition, while privacy and respect is top of mind for the consumer, ease of use when protecting their information is still number one—locking down information still has to be quick and seamless. 

Special Services Over Big Business 

Long are the days of the Mad Men mentality. It’s expensive to compete with big brands when so many small businesses need the same tools and exposure just to swim in the same sea. And in the era of the Great Resignation, which shows no signs of slowing down, businesses, nonprofits and all companies in between are turning to subject matter experts who have now left corporate life to specialize in a unique area of expertise, in turn, starting their own small business. As every individual and every business in the past several years has now scaled back, gotten leaner and smarter with their spending, they are outsourcing what they collectively agree cannot be done in house and look to freelancers and contractors. For marketers, that means bye bye big agencies and hello skilled remote workers with short term contracts. 

Taylor Ion, Marketing Specialist

Director of Marketing, Charleston AMA

Strategist, rūmbo

As GivingTuesday has become a massive worldwide movement, the stakes are higher for ensuring your story and mission are seen, heard and ultimately: you get the donations you need.

Creative, out-of-the-box ideas are a must

This global movement has taken the world by storm. GivingTuesday content reaches millions of people every year. Your campaign needs to stand out to get the attention it deserves. Long gone are the days of just a few posts on social media. Instead, consider compelling, fun and engaging ways to share your story.

Curate an extensive image bank this year. Create a recap video. Have incredible testimonials or stories from those you’ve helped. Amplify their voices by making them the heroes of your campaign! Uncover the creative core of what you do and make it shine bright by sharing through all your communication channels.

Appoint ambassadors for your campaign

Leave the logistics of your campaign with a planning committee. Whether it’s committed volunteers or members of your staff, forming a group of a few people to execute your campaign from start to finish will ensure the attention to detail and focus of your message is layered in every step of the way!

Create a campaign landing page

Make the most out of your donor’s giving experience by sending them to a dedicated campaign landing page versus your donate page on your website. This way, they will have a seamless experience that matches your campaign. Whether you create a subdomain or host it elsewhere, let us help you maximize your donation potential!

Pro tip: Keep the separate landing page all year long and change up the content each time you run another campaign or special event! You’ll be able to monitor your campaign traffic and separate it from your year-long traffic.

Partner with others for a larger impact

Double down on your reach by pairing up with other like-minded organizations. Do you all serve the same community? Are you both members of a larger cause? Tap into different audiences, increase your budget and promote your partnership for a louder impact on giving day!

Partner lead: Are you an SC nonprofit? Together SC has over 800 members! Your new partner may be closer than you think.

Plan for Welcome Wednesday 

The day after GivingTuesday has come to be known as Welcome Wednesday, a day to extend an extra special thanks and welcome to the donors from the day before. Welcome Wednesday should layer into your overall donor retention communication plan, so don’t skip out on this must-do. Ensure you have emails drafted and your hand-written thank you notes on hand to reach out to everyone that made the day a success! 

Spring toward a six-month check-in 

Speaking of thanking donors, while a majority do not return until the next holiday season, Classy reports that 31% of those who return to make a second donation do so within six months (May). You now have another opportunity to amplify your retention tactics and re-activate GivingTuesday donors earlier in the year! For example, knowing that these supporters respond to time-based, exciting giving days, it’s a good idea to use national cause awareness days to create an inflection point during earlier months. 

Pinterest! It’s an incredible marketing tool that typically can get overlooked. BUT I am here to tell you, it can BOOST traffic, INCREASE sales, get your products or services NOTICED and you only need to spend an HOUR a week on it. 

Let me explain.

• It’s AVAILABLE at the tap of a finger.
• You can AUTOMATE your strategy and save time.
• Pinterest users are primed and ready to PURCHASE.
• Your ideal demographic is ALREADY SEARCHING on the platform.

Curious? Here are some other great things to consider: 

• Pinterest isn’t a social media site, it’s a search engine where people look for ideas and content. People type in KEYWORDS and QUESTIONS to find inspiration and solutions through visual pins.
• Marketers are driving more traffic to their website using content they ALREADY HAVE by automating their strategy in just ONE HOUR A WEEK posting ONE pin a day leveraging templates already made and ready to go.
• Current users spend more money on Pinterest than ANY OTHER social media site. They are there for inspiration, but what happens when they see something they like? THEY BUY.
• 2022 Pinterest users are: female, 24-54, AHHI of OVER $100,000, they make the purchasing decisions for their home and THEY START with Pinterest for research, shopping and purchasing – so your audience is ALREADY THERE.

Ready to pin? All you need is content. 

• Once you’ve identified the CONTENT TYPES, you need to create a graphic in the form of a pin to promote on Pinterest.
• If you pin ONE fresh pin a day = HUGE results because Pinterest PRIORITIZES new content over anything else!
• Create high quality NEW pins that are yours and Pinterest will distribute your pins into the smart feed for others to discover.
• A new pin GRAPHIC pointing to the SAME CONTENT counts as a fresh pin!

The best part about adding your content to Pinterest is that the LIFESPAN of a single post on Instagram or Facebook is ~3-5 hours AS MOST. The average lifespan of a single pin on Pinterest is 3 to 5 MONTHS!

See the potential? I hope so! Now, all you need to do is is get your Pinterest cover graphics together and get pinning! *Need help with that too?* 

I GOT YOU. I have 10 tried and tested Pinterest templates to help you get started! Send me an email and I’ll make sure to get them over to you ASAP! 

Taylor Ion

taylor@charlestonama.org

If we’re not watching, we’re scrolling. If we’re not scrolling, we’re listening. And if you’re not listening, well that’s where we come in! In 2021, over 80 million Americans were dedicated, weekly podcast listeners. With over two million podcasts to choose from, there’s always something to laugh at or something to learn, especially when it comes to marketing. Join us in as we keep up with the podcast Joneses; here are the five podcasts all marketers should be listening to right now!

The Marketing Secrets Show

Hosted by New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of ClickFunnels, Russel Brunson, The Marketing Secret Show highlights small business successes. As a small business entering the marketing space with a limited budget, it can be daunting to form a plan. Heck, you may not even have a pla-. Russel’s podcast is a free resource to help get your company started off on the right foot and make sure you stay there. 

The Digital Marketing Podcast

In an arena that’s ever-evolving, keeping up with the latest digital trends is truly a full time job. This weekly podcast, hosted by Daniel Rowles, award winning author, speaker and CEO of Target Internet, and digital marketing specialist and trainer, Ciaran Rogers, highlights the need-to-know digital news to keep your strategy relevant. From social media to SEO to digital ads, they’ve got it covered. 

Marketing Over Coffee

The perfect show for your morning commute, John Wall and Christopher Penn’s show breaks down industry news into bite-sized bits. Published every Thursday morning, the pair of marketing experts and public-speaking aficionados cover a wide-range of topics, industry best practices and interviews with the marketing industry’s finest as it relates to what’s current – and they do it all in just 20 minutes! 

Everyone Hates Marketers 

Raise your hand if you have been personally victimized by people who hate the marketing industry… We’ve all been there. Host Louis Grenier provides an irreverent take on industry news and need-to-knows and does it in a way that will reignite your spark for the space as a whole. This podcast is both educational and entertaining, providing resources and perspectives that allow you to do your job well, while reminding you why you started your job in the first place. Marketing is FUN! 

This Old Marketing

Hosted by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose, This Old Marketing covers a week in review of pertinent media, marketing and content news. Joe and Robert look at the world through an entrepreneurial eye, making this a must-listen to for all who are moving and shaking the industry. The show, published every Friday, provides insight and conversations that you won’t want to miss. 

The next time you find yourself stuck in traffic on the Ravenel Bridge, stop your scroll and turn on one of these podcasts instead. You may even learn something!  

Taylors-Marketing-Tips-CAMA-Blog

This time I’m talking vocab to get you ready for big trends to hit the industry come 2023. Let’s jump in…

1. Agile Marketing: An approach inspired by the Agile methodology. It’s a way of working that involves rapid iterations rather than one big project. Agile marketing emphasizes real-time collaboration (over silos and hierarchy) and is designed so that marketers can respond more easily to change.
2. “Blanding”: The cross-market phenomenon of brands adopting similar minimalist aesthetic cues. Ruled by the dictum “less is more,” blanding is embodied by sans serif fonts, clean lines, limited color palette and overall simplification. Blanding is a visual style
   that’s controlled, ahistorical and flat. Blands by definition look the same. The style can be seen across all sectors, and major companies are rebranding to fit the trend. Blanding removes associations, attempting neutrality. As simple and streamlined as possible, there’s nothing that could alienate consumers now or in the future. This will specifically apply to UX design working to make websites free of intrusive advertising and popups.
3. Conversational Marketing: Instead of directing people to lead capture forms and waiting for a response, conversational marketing uses targeted messaging and AI automation to engage with people when they’re on your website. This digital marketing trend employs intelligent chatbots with machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), allowing customers to have a two-way conversation with a brand. Shifting from an asynchronous way of marketing to real-time conversations presents a major learning curve as conversational marketing grows in 2023.
4. Internet of Things (IoT): This term describes a network of “things” that are connected through sensors and software for the purpose of connecting and sharing data with each other over the internet. According to Cisco, 500 billion devices are expected to be connected to the internet by 2030. This means marketers should start thinking about how to incorporate IoT and artificial intelligence into their programs to maintain omnichannel marketing across channels their potential buyers will be using.
5. “Scrollytelling”: A term first coined to describe online long-form stories characterized by audio, video and animation effects triggered by simply scrolling the page. The scrollytelling format represented a departure from basic stories containing little or no multimedia, and also from interactive stories that were complex to navigate. One of the first examples of the style to gain widespread attention was Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek, published by The New York Times. The simplicity of the scroll-based interaction meant that readers didn’t have to second-guess what to press, click, or swipe in order to see the full story. The scrollytelling format also provided novel opportunities for position-triggered multimedia events, such as video playing, animation, and image transitions. This enabled a dynamic interplay of text, imagery, and sound that gave the story an engaging rhythm and provided elements of unexpected surprise as components came to life.

And there you have it! I hope you’re feeling more ITK and a bit more prepared for the marketing realm in 2023!