Digital Marketing Simplified

The challenges of managing a global marketing campaign are never easy. But getting to know the challenges ahead of the curve is always helpful. Hubspot has done a great job at performing research about the state of inbound in Latin America. What helpful things did that report have for you? 

Here is some background which you can skip and go directly to the 5 helpful facts...

Inbound marketing is definitely part of the digital marketing DNA of the US. Whether it is for awareness of a social problem like AT&T’s it can wait campaign or Home Depot how to videos, the focus has shifted from pushy ads to content that is valuable for customers. 

In 2014 WAZ, a digital marketing agency in Argentina, took MOZ’s global study and analyzed only the results for Latin America, in which we could see that the sample of Latin American companies were more focused on measuring their results based on conversions and not number of fans.

 In 2015, Hubspot did the first study focused only in the Latin American market. They interviewed 1,667 marketers, of those, 86% said they had heard of inbound marketing and 68% said they were practicing it today. If we look at the numbers from the market research done by Hubspost we have proof that marketers in Latin America practice Inbound Marketing. If we look a little closer we see the inbound transformation is still in process and is very different depending on which country in Latin America we are referring to. Here are 5 helpful facts about inbound marketing in Latin America.

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Fact #1 Marketers in the US and Latin America have the same top 3 priorities but very different execution.

Challenge for marketers: Implementing an automation software.

The top three priorities for the US and Latin American marketers are: increasing contacts, converting prospects into clients and reaching a relevant audience. The study also pointed out that only 2% have automation software in place.

How effective can your inbound strategy be without automation? How do you do e-mail campaigns, segment your audience or schedule posts on social media without it? Do they have a CRM in place? Marketers in the US and Latin America have the same priorities. But marketers in Latin America are executing their inbound marketing strategy without automation! It sounds like a lot of work for Latin American marketers.

 Fact #2: 68% of marketers in Latin America that practice inbound marketing are predominantly using blogs and social media.

 Challenge for marketers: How is conversion happening?

Blogs and social media are key to attracting prospects. But that is just step one, you need to go beyond this and create ways to get your prospect’s information in exchange for the great content they want. Having a lot of likes on social media or many visitors on your blog is important. but converting this traffic is also part of inbound methodology and has plenty of potential to develop in Latin America. The study did not mention how these visitors were being transformed into leads, although it was listed as one of the top three priorities for Latin American Marketers. 

 So I keep asking myself the following questions (and I think you should be asking yourself this question too): How much knowledge do Latin American marketers have about converting prospects and how are they reaching a relevant audience? Do they have landing pages with forms? Do prospects get handed to sales after they have demonstrated interest? How does this happen? How do visitors move through the marketing funnel? 

Fact #3: Blogging is one of the top three projects of marketers in Latin America and the US .

Challenge for marketers: Meeting the audience with the content they want where they are and how they want to get it. (Hint: blogs won’t always be effective!)

Creating content for blogs is at the top 3 most important projects. Now, are there avid professional readers in Latin America just waiting to get the latest information from your blog? 

 The OEI study reveals that in Latin America 45% of professional never or rarely read any educational or professional material. True the study from the OEI dates to 2013 but the landscape has not changed much since then. I would have to say a small group is waiting for your blog and you have the potential of reaching the select group of professionals in Latin America that read constantly every month which are about 20%.

 If you are still inclined to believe that blogs are not as popular in Latin America as they are in the US try the following test. Write marketing blog and see how many results you get in google. For marketing blogs I got 322,000,000 results but for mercadeo blogs, the same thing but in Spanish, I only got 564,000 results. 

This can be an indicator of two things: the huge potential market for creating blogs about marketing or that there is only a small group of engaged professionals that read blogs about marketing, therefore there are few blogs about it. Either way, it up to you to figure out how to deliver the content they want. 

 Fact #4: Significant differences in adoption of inbound marketing depending of the country in Latin America 

Challenge for marketers: Balancing inbound and outbound methods depending on the country’s state of marketing evolution. (example below)

The countries that had the highest adoption of inbound marketing were: Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Peru. But for the other countries in this study (Guatemala, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Paraguay, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá and Puerto Rico) less than 10% of the marketers said they practiced inbound marketing. 

The use of inbound marketing is concentrated in a group of countries but that is still not widespread among all countries in Latin America.Therefore, for marketers trying to sell all over Latin America this means there is a need to adapt your message for the specific country, using the right combination between inbound (which for some countries is something new) and outbound.

For example, in the Dominican Republic, in which less than 10% of marketers said they practiced inbound, the right combination between inbound and outbound is the key to engaging audiences. For example, a tv commercial for Orange was uploaded to youtube and got over 1 million views. In the comments people kept saying they watched the video on TV enjoyed the music and wanted to hear it again. Below the video, you see the hashtag to continue the conversation on twitter. 

 Fact #5: Only 17% of the sales team uses the inbound methodology

Challenge: Aligning sales with the marketing strategy. 

Part of the inbound methodology is turning leads into customers, which is the sales team’s job. But with only 17% of sales team’s in Latin America practicing the inbound methodology, is the marketing team working on great content for blogs while the sales team is cold calling and pushing products? Without a doubt, better alignment will improve results for Latin American marketers. 

The study that Hubspot made was unique and it is a very valuable piece of information. Nonetheless, there is a need for case studies, and in depth qualitative analysis of how the inbound method is being planned and executed in Latin America, there are unanswered questions in terms of how marketers in Latin America execute their inbound marketing strategy and how they are aligning their efforts with sales. To get a more realistic picture of how Latin America is adopting inbound practices a proportional allocation of the sample size would have been helpful. 

Creating content that delights your customers will only reach them if you meet them where they are. Not all countries in Latin America are the same and not all targets are created equal. For example, a famous supermarket in Brazil decided to give their customers the best cooking recipes, but not in a book or a youtube video, they put tv’s in certain areas in the supermarket where you could watch the chefs preparing the meals. The content was presented to the audience where they could consume it. 

Digital Marketing can be time consuming, so focusing your efforts on doing the right things is very important. Check out this list and find out if you have been making these digital marketing mistakes.

1) Don’t have a herd mentality. Some small businesses start being active in the online world with a vague idea of what they want or why they are doing it. They know everyone else is doing it and they want to do it as well. 

First ask yourself is your customer active online? Where? After you have figured if your customer is present and active in the digital world then you may consider content creation to build your online presence. 

2) Don’t create content in vain. Before creating any piece of content LISTEN. Don’t do anything yet. Don’t start sharing quotes or information. Just watch what information people are sharing. Is it useful tips? Is it how to videos? Is it news? 

After you have seen what is out there, think of how you can say something that is valuable to your customer. Value, according to Guy Kawasaki, means three things: inform, assist and entertain your audience. 

3) Don’t built it assuming they will come Now that you have created a great piece of content, don’t think that when you publish it people will automatically find it. As @LindsayRegina says: "Spend as much time on content promotion as you did creating that piece of content". Therefore, content promotion is just as important as making good content. 

4) Don’t be shy. Are you just sitting there posting content? It’s called social media for a reason, go out there and socialize. Comment, show people you exist, demonstrate you got know how, share your thoughts.

I was lucky enough to get an influencer to notice my comments and start following the company I was working for. I had very interesting discussions with him, after that point on my daily routine was more about replying to comments and less about posting or scheduling content.

5) Don’t slack, build a relationship. So you are posting great content and people give you a lot of likes. So that’s it? You think you have fulfilled what you are meant to do in social media? The answer is no, take it to the next level. 

Drive people to an awesome landing page so they can get content they need and you get their contact information. Now you know who finds value in your content. 

6) Don’t think it is all about you because it is not. Pushing paid ads and talking on and on about your product or service won’t get the attention you have been hoping for. People don’t have a minute more in their day, if you want to get their attention you better have something that good to say. 

Having an online presence that is out of this world is a goal many set out to achieve, but most are not quite there yet.  It’s not about lack of effort, believe me I have seen marketing teams work very hard and still not get the results they want. Following these four tips can help you rethink your digital marketing strategy. 

Tip #1: Build your online presence from the customer up

Going viral or getting a lot of followers should not be your main digital marketing goals. You should be thinking about how you are going to offer something valuable and innovative to your customers. As Seth Godin said “be remarkable”. What do customers need that they are not getting? There is no one size fits all approach to this question. But to make things clearer I will offer an example. 

Club W is more than your basic online shop for wines. They have created an experience for their visitors. You need to answer six questions about the flavors you like. Based on your answer to those questions you are offered a selection of wines. They did not simply put a website on which people could buy wine. They created an online experience tailored to the needs of users that are not wine experts, but a new group of people that were curious about wine, lacking time or tools to figure out which wines they would enjoy. 

Tip #2: Good content is not enough 

If you think that making good content is enough to get people’s attention I am afraid you will be disappointed. I learned this piece of valuable information in my day-to-day activities as a blogger for small companies. After writing a blog I had to work very hard at promoting it in social media. Why? If I did not do that no one would see it. The trick that worked for me was to engage with the influencers in my field, share their content and if I had a piece of content that was AWESOME, then they might (no guarantees here) share it with their large group of followers. There are other ways to get more traffic, like using the right keywords and link building. But without good quality content you won’t get any attention. 

I will give you an example, I have been following this youtube channel for sometime now and I have not been disappointed, Beading4perfectionists is a great example of good content that became very popular. How? As Gianna stated in one of her videos she could not compete with companies that were making Youtube videos on how to make hand made jewelry, because they made one how to video everyday. Instead of trying to do the same thing, she focused on delivering videos for a select audience that were not beginners and use high quality images so everyone could watch regardless of language. The results are amazing as you can see in her youtube channel.

Tip #3 Don’t forget to engage

Having a lot of followers on social media does not mean you are engaging with them. You need to take it to the next level. Who are your followers and what do they need? Offer your followers an amazing piece of content or a webinar in exchange for their e-mail and some information about them. Get to know them, figure out what their needs are and build your campaigns around them. Beware of doing email blasts that are of no value to them, they will unsubscribe in a heart beat. Slideshare is doing a great job of sending out a newsletter with the top presentations of the week. I enjoy reading that newsletter because they are sending me content that is useful to me. 

Tip #4: Integrate with other forms of marketing 

Get creative and think of ways you can integrate your digital presence with your your offline presence. Going to an event? May be all your giveaways should have a QR code offering that great guide that your customers will enjoy reading. Are you writing an article for magazine XYZ? Go ahead and include your twitter handle, website or any other form of digital presence you may have. Remember that there is no one size fits all approach so this may depend on who your customer is.