INBOX INSIGHTS, August 14, 2024: Human Connection in Marketing, Instagram for Brands - Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting

INBOX INSIGHTS: Human Connection in Marketing, Instagram for Brands (8/14) :: View in browser

👉 Register for our upcoming free webinar, Generative AI for Hospitality!

The Power of Human Connection in Marketing

Over this past weekend, I volunteered some time at the info booth for an animal shelter. They set up a booth at a local farmer’s market with the goal of driving awareness.

The marketing manager that works for the shelter had created beautiful information sheets. These sheets had QR codes that led to the website and Venmo accounts. There were sheets that outlined everything the shelter can take as donations. There were postcards with the online and physical address of the shelter. There were sheets about fostering and adoption. Every single question someone might have about the shelter’s services was covered.

And yet.

And yet, it didn’t matter. Despite all the information being available and easy to access, no one read it. Yes, they asked all the questions we assumed they would. The most-asked question was about what goods the shelter could take as a donation. Many people walked up to the table, put their hands on the sheet that outlined all the goods, and asked anyway.

So, what happened? I noticed something interesting about most of the interactions. It wasn’t that someone would come up and ask, “what goods do you take as donations?”. Instead, the conversation usually started with, “I have these things…” or “I adopted a dog from this shelter…” or some other variation. People wanted to start with their stories. They wanted to talk about themselves before getting to their questions.

This is the problem a lot of us face with our marketing. We look at it from our perspective. What we think our customers want. How we think our customers will interact. I was reminded that we can put our information on all the different digital channels, but some people still want to talk to you face-to-face. They want real human connection. Marketing is not about us. It’s about them. It is about meeting your audience where they are, not where you want them to be.

Generative AI, social media, and other digital channels can act as barriers between you and your audience. While you’re working hard, creating content that’s valuable and high-quality, you might be missing your audience altogether if you’re not reaching them where they are. In my instance, all the print and digital information didn’t matter. People wanted to talk and share their stories. But more than that. They want to connect and reach others. They want to feel emotions and sympathies. You can’t do that easily with a website. Posting something on a social media page isn’t the same if you don’t get an instant reaction. It can all be very cold for the end user. Additionally, if we rely on machines, we tend to make assumptions about our audience. If they are in a certain age range, they must be using certain platforms. If they identify as a certain gender, they likely have these experiences. Those assumptions might be true some of the time, but what about the rest of the time?

Digital marketing, generative AI, all the gizmos and gadgets have their place and time. First, try to understand your audience. Do they just want information, or do they want to connect with you? Do they have a story to tell? Are you willing to listen? For your marketing to be effective, you need to spend time learning about your audience. Talk to people. Attend events and network. Make human connections. It’s more important than ever.

I’m all for using generative AI to build out Ideal Customer Profiles, but those ICPs need to be based in reality. If the shelter had relied solely on putting out information sheets and brochures, they would have missed a lot of opportunities to make connections. Instead, they also put humans at the table who were willing to talk to people and answer questions. By doing this, they increased their odds of finding donors, fosters, and adopters.

Your audience is going to be unique to your business. The shelter example is unique to them. Talk to your customers and ask them how they get information. Run polls and surveys, and ask your audience where they want to make connections. This will inform the rest of your marketing in a smart, thoughtful way. You’ll also be making deeper connections with your audience.

How are you connecting with your audience? Reach out and tell me, or come join the conversation in our Free Slack Group, Analytics for Marketers.

– Katie Robbert, CEO

Do you have a colleague or friend who needs this newsletter? Send them this link to help them get their own copy:

https://www.trustinsights.ai/newsletter

In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss their upcoming MAICON 2024 talks on managing the people who manage AI and the importance of open AI models. Discover why open models give you more freedom and control over your AI than closed models. Learn why marketers should understand both the potential benefits and risks of open AI models. Find out how open models can potentially give you a competitive edge in your industry.

Watch/listen to this episode of In-Ear Insights here »

Last time on So What? The Marketing Analytics and Insights Livestream, we dug into what to do with an ideal customer profile once you have one. Catch the episode replay here!

This week, we’ll be looking at using generative AI for automating newsletters. Are you following our YouTube channel? If not, click/tap here to follow us!

Here’s some of our content from recent days that you might have missed. If you read something and enjoy it, please share it with a friend or colleague!

Take your skills to the next level with our premium courses.

Get skilled up with an assortment of our free, on-demand classes.

In this week’s Data Diaries, we bid farewell to an old friend: Meta Crowdtangle. Originally a standalone company, I first became aware of Crowdtangle in 2015 at my old agency job. We were one of the first paying customers, and then in 2016, Meta (then Facebook) acquired the company.

Crowdtangle was unique among data provider companies in that they provided large scale data exports. Though the services they’ve offered have diminished over time, they were still the best way to get high quality, high quantity data from Meta for Facebook and Instagram.

With today’s cessation of service, every company wanting to do large-scale data analysis will need to find alternate solutions that will inevitably be less convenient, which is too bad. Our state of Instagram and state of Facebook reports will likely be suspended for a while until we determine whether it’s feasible to produce them with alternate data sources.

So with that, here’s our final (for now) state of Instagram analysis for brands:

When we step back and look at the last year and a half, we see that brand performance in aggregate on Instgram for engagement rates continues to decline. Back in January of last year, performance was around 0.25% engagement, or roughly 1 out of 40,000 followers. Currently, it’s hovering around 0.15%, or 1 out of every 67,000 followers.

One of the interesting things to note in terms of media types is that brands saw almost no engagement on any media type for most of 2023. In 2024, we see that video is suddenly doing reasonably well for brands. Bear in mind that Crowdtangle’s data lumped Reels and video posts together.

The thing about the Crowdtangle data is that it tells us the same story it’s told us for a while now: brand engagement on Instagram, in aggregate, continues to drop year after year. Your level of investment and effort for organic social media on it should be commensurate with the returns you see in your marketing analytics software.

We recommend once a quarter, doing a test period where you have very high activity for a week to see what, if any, activity you can spur. If after four quarters you see absolutely nothing, it’s probably not the best channel for your marketing.

Next week, we’ll look at Instagram influencer data.

Here’s a roundup of who’s hiring, based on positions shared in the Analytics for Marketers Slack group and other communities.

Are you a member of our free Slack group, Analytics for Marketers? Join 3000+ like-minded marketers who care about data and measuring their success. Membership is free – join today. Members also receive sneak peeks of upcoming data, credible third-party studies we find and like, and much more. Join today!

Imagine a world where your marketing strategies are supercharged by the most cutting-edge technology available – Generative AI. Generative AI has the potential to save you incredible amounts of time and money, and you have the opportunity to be at the forefront. Get up to speed on using generative AI in your business in a thoughtful way with our new offering, Generative AI for Marketers, which comes in two flavors, workshops and a course.

Workshops: Offer the Generative AI for Marketers half and full day workshops at your company. These hands-on sessions are packed with exercises, resources and practical tips that you can implement immediately.

👉 Click/tap here to book a workshop

Course: We’ve turned our most popular full-day workshop into a self-paced course, available now and updated as of April 2024!

👉 Click/tap here to register for the course

Interested in sponsoring INBOX INSIGHTS? Contact us for sponsorship options to reach over 30,000 analytically-minded marketers and business professionals every week.

Where can you find Trust Insights face-to-face?

MAICON, Cleveland, September 2024
Lab Products Association, Philadelphia, September 2024
MarketingProfs B2B Forum, Boston, November 2024
Social Media Marketing World, San Diego, April 2025

Going to a conference we should know about? Reach out!

Want some private training at your company? Ask us!

First and most obvious – if you want to talk to us about something specific, especially something we can help with, hit up our contact form.

Where do you spend your time online? Chances are, we’re there too, and would enjoy sharing with you. Here’s where we are – see you there?

Our Featured Partners are companies we work with and promote because we love their stuff. If you’ve ever wondered how we do what we do behind the scenes, chances are we use the tools and skills of one of our partners to do it.

Read our disclosures statement for more details, but we’re also compensated by our partners if you buy something through us.

Some events and partners have purchased sponsorships in this newsletter and as a result, Trust Insights receives financial compensation for promoting them. Read our full disclosures statement on our website .

Thanks for subscribing and supporting us. Let us know if you want to see something different or have any feedback for us!

Need help with your marketing AI and analytics?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter

Pin It on Pinterest