The Charleston American Marketing Association Launches the Charleston Marketing Podcast

Premiering on August 1st, the podcast in partnership with the Charleston Radio Group will highlight key influencers and business professionals in the Charleston marketing industry. 

The Charleston American Marketing Association (AMA) has launched their podcast, The Charleston Marketing Podcast, entirely geared toward Charleston’s marketing professionals. Featuring conversations with the Lowcountrys’ movers and shakers, changemakers and elite knowledge workers, each episode of The Charleston Marketing Podcast and YouTube channel provides listeners with relevant and topical takeaways ready to be applied and implemented. 

Hosted by Stephanie Barrow and Mike Compton, board members of the Charleston American Marketing Association, the “CAMA Cast” is highly engaging with guests like Will Hayine, Mayor of Mount Pleasant, Nikki Kuniej, Director of Digital Strategy, Charleston Radio Group, Olivia Flowers of Southern Charm. With a new episode dropping each month, many more thought-provoking interviews are planned with top marketing experts, industry thought leaders, nonprofits and successful Lowcountry entrepreneurs. Four episodes will be launching in August including an intro episode. 

“To me, it’s all about connecting and building community, like we do at CAMA. We are discussing content and ideas for all types of marketers. From solopreneurs to c-suite agency heads, from college grads to entrepreneurs that wear all the hats. We plan to have all the conversations, big and small so everyone can take something away from the podcast,” shares Mike Compton. “The Charleston Marketing Podcast has been a goal of our Chapter since I was President. The pandemic reiterated to our team the importance of connection, inspiration and motivation. I am genuinely thrilled and humbled by the amazing opportunity to interview these truly inspiring Charleston professionals who are making an impact here in the Lowcountry,” stated Stephanie Barrow.

Episodes will be available on the platforms Spotify, YouTube, Buzzsprout and CharlestonAMA.org as of Tuesday, August 1, 2023.

Follow @charlestonama for your updates, marketing inspiration, Charleston news and networking events.

 

Are you chasing away your customers?

“How much is too much?”

 

Do you find yourself wondering, “How often should I send out an email? How many times in one week? When will they opt out?”

 

The answer to all of those questions is, “It depends.”

 

Never send out an email unless you have something to offer. Do you have new inventory? Are you having a sale? That is information of value to your recipient. “Come shop in our store.” Or “Call me to make an appointment,” is not enough to capture someone’s attention.

 

eNewsletter – once a month. Include at least one picture. You can use eNews to talk about schedule changes, upcoming specials, events, or sales. Newsletters also provide an opportunity to recognize milestones for employees and customers – like birthdays, anniversaries, and awards.

 

Value Added – once a week. Recipes, Tips & Tricks, DIY projects. Give your subscribers a reason to open the email and continue reading.

 

Events – Major, once a year events can be promoted four months or more in advance. This is especially helpful to people who are traveling for the event. It assures that your event gets onto their schedule ahead of others, and allows guests time to make travel and hotel reservations.

 

Small gatherings should be promoted at least two weeks in advance.

 

As the event becomes closer, increase the frequency of email and social media notifications. Always include a link to register for the event. To build anticipation, include pictures of previous years’ events.

 

Send out “warning” notices for event registration, and include the timeframe in the subject line. “Only 2 days left to get your tickets.” “Join us tonight!” Always send out notices the day before and the day of an event. Include helpful information in these last-minute emails, such as suggested parking in large cities, and any directional information that isn’t provided by GPS, such as, “Entrance is in the rear.” “The hall is on the third floor.”

 

If you have a lot of content, you may consider segmenting the type of emails you have. Many email programs allow the recipient to choose the frequency or types of emails they receive.

 

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools you can implement. Remember to add it to your editorial calendar and make sure the content is consistent with your other channels.

 

Maggie Mills is the founder and CEO of Black Book Marketing and president-elect of the Charleston AMA.

 

Six Horrible New Communication Practices …and They’re Catching On!

Despite protestations from my yellowing birth certificate, I am no fuddy-duddy. I don’t talk about “these kids today” or complain about TwitFace.

But it is difficult to ignore the evidence that all the new doodads, gizmos and anti-social media have created ways of doing business that have made the world safe for stupidity and rudeness, and have created The Dumbest Generation.

Truly, I adore my College of Charleston students, but they are communication majors who literally don’t know what news is, what it should look or sound like, how it’s made or how it’s different from advertising.

I won’t regale you with the mortifying details. I have other mortifying details to regale you with! The details about the stupidity and rudeness that I mentioned previously.

woman stiff-arming man trying to discussBehold, the burgeoning number of people who:

  1. Refuse to communicate via certain methods and media – Some people will text but not talk. Some won’t listen to voice mail. Some only email; some never respond to emails. It’s like you need a database to keep track of how to communicate with friends and business associates. More communication options have made communication – worse!
  2. Ignore you as a method of communication – This one is the worst and it is spreading like kudzu. For an increasing number of people, including CEOs, rudeness is a communication tool. You could be carrying on a business relationship, but if you ask them a question that they don’t want to answer, they will ignore you, no matter how many times you leave emails and voice mails. After three weeks, you are expected to conclude that they’re not interested, even if they don’t exactly know what they’re not interested in.
  3. Maintain asynchronous communication – You know those people who will never respond to your outreach if you need them, only if they need you? These people don’t answer their phones, so you can only communicate when they want to. They feel the need to put you in the position of supplicant all the time. It’s not the basis for friendship.
  4. Use social media to speak, not listen – A growing number of people ask you to support their cause, patronize their employer, etc., but never reciprocate, or even read your posts.
  5. Can’t understand why the rest of the world matters – They can recount their friends’ episodes of belly button lint, but couldn’t identify New Zealand on a map if you spotted them Australia. They literally don’t know what is going on in our community, across the nation or around the world – unless Saturday Night Live parodied it. Andy they vote. God help us.
  6. Consider themselves informed because they read a Tweet – Americans have never been particularly well-prepared voting citizens, but now “informed” people only go headline deep or live in a political echo chamber. The paradox of the information age – and the endless presidential election – is that the more information available, the less informed we are.

When you add all of this up, Americans are becoming willfully ignorant jerks. Was that the purpose of the Information Age? Maybe you can tell me…when you return my call from three weeks ago.