Author: admHonWpAdm

Our blog last week Far from the Madding Crowd – outlined how brands are increasingly grappling for a share of voice to effectively engage their target audiences as content marketing reaches a saturation point.

The Honner Content Team has pulled together a bumper outline of what a firm needs to do to transform their content marketing process. The Honner infographic: Turning Content Marketing into Conversations details the key steps to executing a winning content marketing program and how to nurture a conversation with your customers. A good conversation always starts with listening.

Over the next eight weeks we will put the spotlight on each key stage, outlining key strategies and tips to maximise each step. This week we’re focusing on the first stage: Listen Deeply. Many firms skip this stage, relying on their gut instincts and jumping straight to execution. Unfortunately, they often end up building content programs around what is important to them rather than their customers.

If you get this listening stage right, it will allow you to provide that fresh angle and ensure your program is truly grounded in dealing with the pain points of your customers. It will also ensure your content program is crafted with an awareness of your competitor strategies.

Strategies to use at the listening stage:

1. Develop customer personas. Firstly, identify your different customer groups (e.g. individual investors, retirees, financial advisers, institutional investors, for-purpose firms and influencers such as asset consultants). Start to map the key concerns, challenges and pain points against each of the personas. Also outline the different publications and channels these personas are using to consume content and undertake research.

 

2. Interview your employees. Mine the insights from those internal resources who are close to the client/market to gain their views on what they are hearing from clients. They should be able to give you first-hand insights on the key pain points that drive decision making.

 

3. Create a Customer Advisory Board (co-operative content). A great way to get an inside look into your customers’ minds and opinions is to set up a Customer Advisory Board. This is made up of key customers and influencers. It is designed to listen to customers (not sell) and can help you shape the research agenda as well as other initiatives, such as product development or competitive intelligence. This works particularly well for institutional asset management clients and independent financial advisers – and also provides a networking opportunity for participants.

 

4. Get to know your enemy. Today you can get a lot of transparency into your competitors’ content strategies. Check out your competitors’ websites and social media profiles to get a sense of what they’re producing and sharing.

 

5. Have your fingers on the pulse: Gathering customer insights is essential to any winning Content Marketing program. But you also need to ensure these insights are in real time to be nimble and respond quickly to new pain points or new events. The most successful content pieces are often those that are first to provide insight into a recent issue or event. But in order to do this, you need to be able to pick up on these new themes or be prepared when a key event occurs (e.g. market correction, interest rate change). Timing is critically important.

 

6. Undertake keyword research. Keywords reflect the voices of your audience. Search queries are effectively a vote that yells “I want content about this topic!”. It’s important to do some effective keyword research as it impacts where your brand ranks in online searches. You can simply do a Google search on key terms that are important to your firm and customers. Look at how your competitors rank relative to your own firm. If they rank higher, check how they are optimising their content for search. Also check out some of the tools available online, below, in the tips section of this blog.

 

7. Newsjacking. Again, timing is everything. So, take time to monitor the stories that are trending and gaining key media traction now. Be nimble or opportunistic and start to write about those topics. Newsjacking is defined as ‘the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story so you and your ideas get noticed’. But don’t just jump on the bandwagon – look to add some fresh perspective and more value to the story.

 

8. Undertake A/B testing on headlines: Did you know that 8 out of 10 searchers will read headline copy before clicking a post, but only 2 out of 10 will actually read the post (Copyblogger)? A/B testing can you help to identify what messages convert most effectively. So, test two different types of headlines and see which one performs better. If you want some inspiration try a headline generation tool like portent.

 

9. Mind the emotional gap: According to a harvard business review article, “when companies connect with customers’ emotions, the payoff can be huge”. It is no longer sufficient to read the initial comments, qualitative data and insights from customer surveys. But identifying these emotional motivators is difficult, because customers themselves may not even be aware of them. You need to unlock the attitudes, emotions and intent of your customers – you need to understand the ‘why’, or the context. These could be factors like ‘protecting the environment’, ‘be the person I want to be’ and ‘feeling secure’. This context is essential to identifying specific customer pain points, addressing them, and feeding back to customers material that will connect with them at a deeper, emotional level.

 

10. Incorporate insights from metrics: Being able to analyse metrics on the performance of your existing content can help you learn from the past and shape the type of content you want to produce in the future.

Honner tips and tools to play with

• buzzsumo is a one of the top social media analytics tools to gain insights on how prospective clients find your content, how you can lead them to your content using SEO, and when it’s best to publish content. BuzzSumo only shows you 10 ideas unless you pay the $99 a month fee. Simply visit the BuzzSumo website and place your particular query in “inverted commas” to search on the exact phrase (e.g. ‘emerging markets’ or “income for retirement”). The tool also shows you the most popular blog posts and how well they perform for the each of the major social channels.
• sem rush is a great tool to research competitors’ traffic on Google and the keywords which are enhancing their rankings. Just type in the relevant website domain and you’ll get useful data related to SEO. The free registered account reveals the top 10 organic keywords driving traffic.
• ubersuggest is a keyword idea generation tool. It provides a complete list of keywords, generated by search terms people are using on Google and the terms that providing traffic to your competitors.
• answer the public provides content marketers with valuable data about the questions people ask online. Simply input a keyword and it fetches popular queries and generates a graphic with the questions and phrases people use. This provide content creators with keyword suggestions.
• Honner also provides qualitative market intelligence services. These include:
  • in-depth personal interviews with key decision makers such as CEOs, institutional clients, and executives;
  • designing online surveys that provide deep insights; and
  • bespoke competitor reviews services.

Next week we’ll publish the second in the eight-part content marketing series, Ideation and Mapping. This second stage is all about turning the insights you gain in part one into concrete content ideas that are aligned to the business agenda of the firm. It is also about being organised and having a central map of your long-term content agenda, so you can keep all stakeholders in your business informed and engaged in the content process.

If you’d like help creating a well-researched content marketing strategy, or more information on Honner’s 8-Step Content Marketing Model contact Craig Morris. Also, if you have some strategies and tactics on using market intelligence to improve your content strategy – share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Earlier this year as I was standing at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo (regarded as one of the most crowded spaces in the world) and it reminded me of the current state of the content marketing landscape. The last decade has seen content marketing evolve from a niche sub-sector to a mainstay of modern marketing strategy – but brands are increasingly grappling for a share of voice to effectively engage their target audiences.

According to leading market research firm Technavio, the global content marketing industry will be worth $575 billion by 2021. This growth is being driven by the cost-effectiveness of content marketing compared to traditional advertising; its ability to tackle pain points and build trust among customers; and its usefulness in building brand awareness and generating leads.

But content marketing may have reached a saturation point as everyone jumps on board the content band wagon. Some firms are still treating content marketing like a hamster wheel – continually spitting out more content and then moving onto the next piece. The financial services industry is also guilty of focusing too much on a salesy product approach and providing bland content that lacks an emotional connection.

In order to overcome this tsunami of content from competitors and succeed in grabbing the attention of audiences, marketers therefore need to work smarter, not harder. Effective content programs should focus on engaging with audiences and looking at how they nurture that relationship. Otherwise brands are just broadcasting.

At Honner we see a much bigger opportunity for businesses willing to shift their focus from high volumes of content to a more strategic focus on creating customer value and connecting with audiences.

Every day our content marketing team works with financial services firms that are trying to produce great content for the media, their social assets and their website. One of Honner’s core missions is to advise financial services firms on how to understand, develop and execute smart content marketing strategies. We’ve witnessed how hard it is to produce a quality piece that is going to get cut-through.

While every project is different, the Honner Content Team have come together and identified the foundations of what a firm needs to do to transform their content marketing process. We’ve identified and extracted the success factors and combined them into The 8-Step Honner Content Model.

Over the next eight weeks, we’ll put the spotlight on each of the eight steps in a blog series that outlines key strategies and tips from Honner to maximise each stage.

Next week we’ll publish the first blog in the eight-part series, Listen Deeply. This step is all about market intelligence and forms the foundations of a winning Content Marketing program – ensuring your content marketing program is truly grounded in dealing with the pain points and needs of your customers.

Get further insight on The Honner 8-Step Content Model connect with Craig Morris.

To help our clients manage an increasingly shifting political landscape, Honner has partnered with Advisory Street, a Government Relations Advisory firm with extensive expertise providing political and government relations advice to financial services organisations.

Here, Managing Director Taleen Shamlian provides some insights on the Federal election campaign and how your organisation can prepare a game plan to kick off after the election.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched the Federal campaign placing the emphasis on the economy:

“To secure the future, the road ahead depends on a strong economy. And that’s why there is so much at stake at this election.”

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten downplayed this by stating that the Coalition’s approach has not worked and that Labor will “manage the economy in the interests of working and middle-class people”.

In terms of the fiscal messaging, the approach from both major parties could not be more starkly different: the Coalition wants to play on their traditional home ground by promising to bring the budget back to surplus and be seen as better economic managers; while Labor promises bigger surpluses through closing tax loopholes (such as negative gearing, franking dividends, capital gains tax) to support their traditional home ground of better health and welfare policies.

Aside from these overarching messages, it is good to take a look at where the parties and leaders sit in current polling.

Labor is polling ahead in two party preferred terms at 51% versus the Coalition at 49%, according to The Australian’s Newspoll. Both major parties are close in their primary votes, recording (around 37%), while Scott Morrison has a higher satisfaction rating (-1%) compared to Bill Shorten (-12%).

All of this suggests that if the election was called today, Labor would win to form majority government but only slightly (77 seats out of the House’s 151 seats).

While this paints the picture at the macro level, the election will be fought state by state, seat by seat, and poll booth by poll booth.

But the top brass won’t campaign in every seat. Instead they are focusing on a handful of marginal electorates, in areas such as New South Wales and Queensland, to convince voters of their promises and pledges. It is no accident then that campaign headquarters is in Brisbane for the Liberals and Parramatta for Labor – both cities are outside of the leader’s home states but are used for pragmatic (read financial) and political (read swing voters) reasons.

Keep an eye out for Victoria – last November’s state election showed how strong the Labor brand is there, and the high chances of losing some marginal seats (including those that are now notionally Labor such as Corangamite and Dunkley). Some Liberals have changed their banners to be “Modern Liberals” or done away with Liberal branding altogether.

Impact on the financial services industry

Both major parties are committed to the Royal Commission’s recommendations, with Labor going further and pledging a $640 million ‘banking fairness fund’ to be paid for via a levy on financial organisations in the top 100 listed companies. Treasury is also using the caretaker period to prepare a Royal Commission implementation plan so that it can be acted on expeditiously, regardless of who comes to government, given the pressure from minor parties and independents.

Superannuation is also a point of difference with Chris Bowen, Shadow Treasurer promising to increase the superannuation guarantee to 12% in line with Paul Keating’s timetable and legacy.

Finally, they both agree that regulators need to step up their supervision and enforcement to help restore trust in our financial institutions.

The big question will be how each party will act on this, given the capability reviews of key regulators. The Coalition, which begrudgingly agreed to the Royal Commission, sees this as the end stage of bank reform. For Labor, which claims that the Government voted against the Commission 26 times, this is only the beginning of the reform journey.

Does your organisation have a Government Relations game plan?

Regardless of the election outcome, Ministers and policies will change and have an impact on your organisation’s bottom line, reputation and market position.

Sharpening your organisation’s Government Relations strategy should be a key focus during this election period, to ensure your organisation has a seat at the “policy table” to secure your business success.

Your Government Relations game plan and strategy should outline:

• Policy issues – How will changing regulations impact your business? What policy issues do you want to influence? What are you key messages to influence this outcome?
• Stakeholder engagement – Who do you need to influence? And why?
• Timing and method for that engagement – How and when do you go about influencing these policy outcomes? Are they via: parliamentary inquiries, direct engagement with departments/regulators, building coalition with other influencers (such as industry associations)? Your approach may also complement your broader communications program through active advocacy via media channels.

It’s never too early to prepare your Government Relations game plan.

For further insights or advice, please contact Paul Cheal at Honner (paul@honner.com.au) or Taleen Shamlian at Advisory Street (taleen@advisorystreet.com).

International Days are inescapable.

One of the most prolific and longest running has been the UN-led International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, observed on the 17th of October for the past three decades.

Since then, our calendars have been filling up with more and more International Days including International Day of Happiness, Equal Pay Day and International Day of People with Disability.

International Days represent both an opportunity and a (potential) curse for marketing and communications professionals alike.

Recently, we celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8 – a day to celebrate the achievements and progress we’ve all made towards a gender equal world.

As one of the longest running and most prominent International Days, it seems to be pencilled in every marketer and comms person’s calendar.

This is hardly surprising, given we are in a time now where more consumers expect brands to take a stand on a cultural issue.

A study into ‘Meaningful Brands’ by Havas Group in 2017 found consumers wouldn’t mind if 77% of brands they use vanished.

The report revealed consumers’ rejection of brands was due to an overload of communication.

Getting your brand behind a cultural issue may be an antidote to this growing obscurity in the modern consumer’s mind.

However, it can be akin to walking a tightrope – one falter and the consequences could be devastating.

Here are some things to consider before signing off your International Day communications plan:

You don’t need to take a stand on every issue

It is not appropriate for every brand to jump on the bandwagon of every cause, just because you can.

Instead, the risk to reward ratio must be carefully weighted. Potential associations with a particular day or cause must be carefully, objectively and sensitively assessed, otherwise you could find yourself facing negative backlash.

There’s no hard and fast formula to choosing which days and/or causes to leverage, however consider the existing core values or current social purpose strategy your company propagates. Is there a natural association? Alternatively, is the cause of importance to company stakeholders?

These considerations could mean the difference between doing one thing well and doing many things in a shallow way.

Make sure you send the right message

Thoughtful consideration of how you join the conversation on International Days for specific causes is also vital.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison learnt this the hard way when his speech at an International Women’s Day breakfast clearly sent the wrong message.

In the speech, Morrison said, “We want to see women rise. But we don’t want to see women rise on the basis of others doing wrong.”

The speech was widely regarded as tone deaf and “putting women down” – and made global news.

It serves as a timely reminder of the tightrope many communications people walk on International Women’s day and how the consequences of one wrong move can be far reaching.

Practice what you preach

The message you send should align with your company’s actual business practices, for example, in the context of International Women’s Day, consider your company’s maternity offering, if there are any women sitting on the board or any diversity programs in place.

Consumers are extremely savvy and any attempt to jump on the bandwagon of a political or social issue can cause your company to be perceived as hypocritical or disingenuous, that is, unless these messages have been inoculated within your brand identity over longer periods of time.

Drawing on an example from the financial services world, US-bank State Street placed the highly recognisable Fearless Girl statue on Wall Street to promote an index fund comprised of companies with higher levels of board diversity.

However, in the same year, State Street agreed to pay $5 million to settle US government charges that the company had allegedly discriminated against female and black senior executives since 2010 by paying them lower salaries and bonuses than white and male colleagues.

This is a situation where a handy check list like the Femvertising litmus test, developed by Boston-based marketing consultant Katie Martell, could help.

Don’t just think about the here and now

The history of your brand or company should also be considered so no skeletons in the closet can suddenly come out of hiding and derail your message – however well-intentioned it is.

The world of hygiene products offers us an example of this.

Recently, Procter & Gamble-owned Gillette released an advertisement campaign calling out toxic masculinity in light of the #MeToo movement.

The campaign, to say the least, was divisive. The shaving brand’s history came back to bite, with many citing the shaving brand’s past advertising campaigns objectified women. Others pointed to the price difference between the brand’s razor range for men and women. Budweiser recently showed how you can leverage a questionable past for good. In stark contrast to Procter & Gamble, the company owned up to the sexism of its past advertising campaigns by publishing three ads from the 1950s and 1960s, alongside updated versions promoting exclusivity.

The vintages ads read, “It’s a fact: Budweiser has delighted more husbands than any other brew ever know.” This is juxtaposed with present day ads which read, “It’s a fact: Budweiser can be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere.”

In addition, Budweiser is partnering with the #SeeHer initiative, led by the Association of National Advertisers in the US, to improve the portrayal of women in advertising.

Plan for negative backlash

Regardless of how smoothly your communications plan is executed, it is always important to have a section dedicated to dealing with negative backlash – especially in the age of the internet.

Make sure you pre-plan responses beforehand and filter these through to your social media and customer service teams.

Trust is a fundamental pillar of society. But it is broken.

Last week I heard a speech by Richard Harris, the anaesthetist who was a central figure in the Thai cave rescue, helping to sedate the stricken boys before they dived into the water to exit the flooded cave.

Here was the ultimate act of trust. These boys, their families, the world, put their trust into the hands of Dr Harris and his peers. And an amazing result, or what most, including Dr Harris, have described as a miracle, was achieved.

But in the age of Trump and fake news, trust, it seems, is broken – trust in media, in governments, and in organisations is at an all-time low.

A Roy Morgan research poll this week found the most trusted brand in Australia is Aldi – a German supermarket chain.

Aldi entered Australia in the early 2000s to disrupt the Coles and Woolworths grocery duopoly and has earned this trusted position for the simple reason it does what it says it will – deliver quality products at a lower price by switching big brands for home brands and focusing less on marketing, merchandising and loyalty programs and more on customer satisfaction.

Bunnings, with its lowest prices guaranteed, and ING, delivering simple, straightforward products, and Qantas, with its commitment to safety, service and reliability, all made Roy Morgan’s latest list of the top 10 most trusted brands. They did so by living and breathing their brand promise.

Trust is an interesting concept as it is both rational and emotional. It is something we think but also feel. Why do we believe (or not believe) online reviews? Why are we comfortable with Uber and getting into cars with strangers? Or using Airbnb to rent houses from strangers? Or going on dates with someone we’ve only “met” on an app?

The thing about trust is that it is hard to earn but can be easy to lose. Or put another way, it’s easier to maintain trust than restore it.

Take my brother-in-law, for example. He had his business, home and both cars insured with NRMA and had been a loyal customer for 26 years. He had trusted (as clearly do many Australians, given  NRMA is also among the top 10 most trusted brands) that he was getting a good deal. So he was surprised when he recently got his car insurance renewal from NRMA and it was $200 more expensive than the previous year. A fair hike in anyone’s book.

After calling the NRMA and pleading his case he was told there was nothing it could do, so he rang around and found an alternate car insurance policy for $480 cheaper. That’s right, $480. Suffice to say he won’t be so trusting of NRMA anytime soon.

Trust is earned by not only doing what you say, but doing it consistently and for all. Perhaps there is a lesson in this for our politicians too.

The Roy Morgan survey not only looks at the most trusted brands but also the brands with the largest distrust scores. Unsurprisingly, in the wake of the royal commission into banking and financial services and ongoing negative headlines, AMP and the big four banks have some of the biggest distrust scores.

The inaugural Deloitte Trust Index launched this week found that only 20 per cent of Australians believe that banks in general are ethical – that they do what is good, right and fair.

Trust doesn’t discriminate, either. Facebook, among the world’s most valuable brands, is also on this least trusted list. The issues of the past year have hit its brand hard. Privacy and data protection are now at the forefront in the minds of many users.

So why does trust matter? RBA Governor Philip Lowe put it bluntly when he said this week: “Our economy, and our society, works best when there are high levels of trust.”

For organisations, trust is rewarded with loyalty and conversely, Roy Morgan says, distrust can lead to customer churn and loss of market share, and it is a bellwether for an unsustainable future.

The bottom line: if I trust a brand I am more likely to buy it time and time again, and perhaps even more important, recommend it to others. It’s the barbecue effect. And in case you are wondering, my wife does our shopping and chooses our insurance. I suppose that means she’s the only one I trust.

*This article first ran in The Sun-Herald.

All around the world paid subscriptions for traditional mastheads are rising.

The Australian Financial Review has recently reported a 40 percent increase in digital retail subscriptions over the last three years.  In May, News Corp reported digital subscribers for its Australian mastheads had increased 23 percent on the previous year.

Up until recently, many were claiming that Facebook’s move to become a news provider would be the final blow to traditional media.

However, Facebook users dropped for the first time at the end of 2017, prior to the Cambridge Analytica breach story coming to light – a story broken by traditional media.

While it may be presumptuous to call a winner, it does appear that there is a ‘flight from fake’ movement with people increasingly being prepared to pay for quality journalism.

But should we even be directly comparing traditional media and social media?  Facebook itself has given mixed messages on whether it is seeking to position itself as a media company or a technology company.

Is this really a reaction to fake news or is it rather a realisation that no single medium can be all things to all people?
What we see occurring is a growing acknowledgement by more and more people that there is a significant difference between seeking out interests and seeking to be informed.

The world is a complex place. Trying to explain issues through a window of 180 characters or taking the number of ‘likes’ as a proxy for robust data may, at the end of the day, just be confusing people more.

Another attraction of paid subscriptions may be a desire to avoid online advertising. The Interactive Advertising Bureau stated that six in 10 Australians using an ad blocker expressed concerns over the quantity and intrusive nature of some digital ad formats.   Publishers appear to be picking up on this with some moving to advocate the complete absence of ads as a way of incentivising paid subscriptions. A subscription-only revenue model could have significant flow-on benefits. If publishers don’t need to employ advertising sales staff, they can divert more resources to selling subscriptions and to resourcing their editorial departments, leading to a higher quality product and yet more subscriptions.

Rather than seeing the death of traditional media, we may instead be of the cusp of a new, unexpected era in which traditional media decouples itself from its long-held dependency on advertising and focuses intently on quality journalism. And that is something to like 👍.

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The Weekend Australian May 12-13, 2018.  Page 29

While Bitcoin and its crypto currency cousins are becoming increasingly mainstream, providers are having a hard time right now as they try to get their message across to a broader audience. In the past few months, several major technology platforms have updated their advertising policies, effectively banning cryptocurrencies from their ad networks. Other financial products affected by these new advertising policies include providers of CFDs, foreign exchange products, and binary options.

Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft form the list of companies that have taken aim at these financial products so far this year. The idea behind the strict new policies is to protect users from being exposed to ads for products that may not be suitable for them. But beyond the reasons provided by the technology companies themselves and given some high-profile fake ICOs that have happened recently, it’s clear that the main reason was to prevent reputational damage.

Here’s what you need to know about the changes for each company:

Facebook

In January, Facebook announced it would prohibit ads that promote financial products and services that are “frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency.”

Let’s just park binary options for now and agree that they are not suitable for retail investors. But for the nascent industry of cryptocurrencies, the ban was a hard hit. However, the measure is not meant to be permanent. Rob Leathern, Facebook’s product management director, said the policy was “intentionally broad,” and that it would be in place until the company could work out which ads were in fact “misleading” or “deceptive.” According to Mr Leathern, Facebook will revisit this policy as its detection signals improve.

Google

Google also took a blunt approach with some products. Starting in June, the company will restrict the advertising of contracts for difference (CFDs) and foreign exchange products and will ban ads for binary options and for cryptocurrencies, including all related content—such as initial coin offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrency exchanges, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice.

CFDs and forex providers can work around the restrictions by getting certified by Google as a legitimate provider. In the case of companies operating in Australia, Google requires providers to be licensed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and meet other legal requirements, such as disclosing leverage caps and risks. If a company with these requirements gets certified by Google, there won’t be any impediments to continuing to advertise through its Google Search and Display networks.

Again, the ban on cryptocurrencies is a harsh measure. A better approach for Google would be to allow legitimate and regulated providers to advertise, just as it’s doing with CFDs and forex providers. But we’ll leave the lobbying to others.

Microsoft’s Bing

Also starting in June, Microsoft’s Bing search engine will disallow cryptocurrency advertising in its network. Melisa Alsoszatai-Petheo, Microsoft’s advertiser policy manager said in Bing’s blog that “because cryptocurrency and related products are not regulated, we have found them to present a possible elevated risk to our users with the potential for bad actors to participate in predatory behaviours, or otherwise scam consumers.”

This is a very broad policy, especially considering that cryptocurrencies have started to be regulated in Australia by AUSTRAC.

Twitter

In March this year, Twitter confirmed in the media that it would ban adverts for certain cryptocurrency services as well as ICOs. In the case of cryptocurrencies, the social media platform would only allow advertising from cryptocurrency exchanges and online crypto wallet services that are listed publicly on “certain major stock markets”.

As reported by the FT, “Twitter’s bid to clean up its advertiser base comes after it emerged that the platform has been used as a vehicle for online cryptocurrency scams, with fraudsters setting up fake profiles to promote bogus ICOs or encouraging pump and dump schemes.”

The company also said it would allow adverts from exchanges in Japan if the advertisers are formally regulated by the country’s Financial Services Agency.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE RESTRICTIONS

© AdobeStock / nancy10

First of all, there’s life beyond paid networks offered by Google, Bing, Facebook and Twitter. Display ads can still be placed in different digital publications that companies want to target to offer their products.

Second, Google and Bing are placing restrictions in their advertising network, which leaves search strategies having to rely on organic search. This is important because people are still searching for information on cryptocurrencies and ICOs. A combination of good content creation with an organic search engine optimisation (SEO) specialist should help companies in this new industry to bypass the search restrictions of Google and Bing.

Third, LinkedIn is another network that can help companies advertise their services. The trick here though is not to sell, but to run thought leadership campaigns instead. LinkedIn works best around content quality, even if you run paid campaigns. At times, the professional social network has been known to have its staff check on the quality of content before allowing advertisers to run targeted campaigns, ensuring they are not misleading and that the content meets the editorial guidelines.

Fourth, there are non-digital alternatives, such as print advertising in newspapers or magazines or aired advertising on the radio which are still valid, and which can reach a broad segment of the population. It may be counterintuitive for young companies in the space of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to use these advertising avenues, but they continue to be there to use.

All of these are advertising alternatives that emerging companies in this space can still work with. Creating the right content and building a strong media presence are some complementary actions to take. Regardless of the changes in digital advertising, the rules of content creation, good storytelling and media relations remain unchanged.

Writing well isn’t rocket science, but it does require a set of skills that you can acquire through training and practice – and writing for PR or marketing purposes has its own particular set of challenges.

It’s one thing to write well and even entertain people with your writing, and altogether another to be persuasive – to engage people in a way that changes their opinions or motivates them to act.

Persuading readers to agree with you can transform them into paying customers, advocates or partners. Luckily there are a few timeless principles that anyone can employ to improve their persuasive writing technique:

Learn from the Greeks

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that a persuasive argument has the following three elements: logos (appealing to logic), ethos (appealing to credibility) and pathos (appealing to emotion). It’s a formula that still works exceptionally well today.

Logos comprise statistics, data, definitions, and proven business results that back up the central argument. This type of evidence allows writers to make an argument without sounding speculative or vague. Feel free to draw on case studies, relevant projections or other evidence that demonstrates why it makes sense for an end customer to engage with your business.

Ethos means to convince the reader of the author’s credibility. Ethos is how well the author convinces readers of his or her authority on the subject at hand. Aristotle maintained that there were three prerequisites needed to make a speaker appear credible: competence, good intention, and empathy.  Depending on the topic of the argument, this may mean demonstrating the author’s business credentials or talking about issues such as corporate social responsibility or employee wellbeing.

Supplementing the written word through links to video tutorials, online resources and toolkits gives people a further glimpse into the depth of knowledge your client harbours.

Last, but not the least, the third pillar in the Greek triad of persuasion is pathos, or emotion. Create a rapport through your writing by addressing your audience using words ‘you’ or ‘they’ wherever appropriate. Draw on all five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) to convey your client’s product / service experience, especially in B2C writing. Importantly, know your audience, so that you can address their concerns and wants.

Follow the 5:3:2 rule

Research is the ultimate antidote to a writer’s block. It helps you bring out genuinely original angles for your piece.  Importantly, it provides the ammunition for the all-important appeal to logic as discussed by Aristotle. Persuasive writing should involve five parts of research and planning, three parts doing the rough draft, and two parts polishing it. Applying this rule to the job, it’s important we know all about our client’s business model, their products and services, their competitors and the industry dynamics within which they operate before we write any content for them. It’s also handy to source a brief from the client in advance—essentially setting down all the goals of the campaign before kicking off.

Stick to the point

From the start, it’s important to have a very clear idea of what your central argument will be.
Select one idea and stick to it. Everything else should back up that argument. Too many tangents can be distracting and confuse the reader. It’s a good idea to outline a problem faced by your reader, and then provide a specific solution.

Work hard on the headlines

Headlines and subheads are more than just a snapshot of the copy that follows, so keep it clear and simple, under seven words, and avoid clichés.  Headlines are also the hook that excites the readers interest and compels them to read on. Write a boring headline and it matters little how impressive your following prose is, as the reader may well have moved onto other, more promising, activities.

Keep at it

Writing is a process of continual improvement. To ensure consistency and perseverance, keep a go-to folder for all things writing including: your favourite writing samples, new writing sites (e.g. lousywriter.com), join ‘copywriting’ LinkedIn groups and always keep thesaurus.com open on your desktop.  Also read, read, read, as much as you can, especially great writers.

Next time you are faced with a writing task, remember the advice of the Greeks, and if you are struck with writer’s block, draw inspiration from Ernest Hemingway’s famous quote “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” It is a reminder that once we get started, words flow much easier from there – as long as we start in a position of integrity.

Larry Fink’s annual New Year letter to CEOs received much media attention and emphasised the need for brands to not only generate profit but have a higher social purpose. The note kicked off a debate that has now well and truly hit Australian shores.

According to Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset management firm BlackRock: “To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.”

For organisations, and in particular financial organisations, this poses many questions around proactively supporting and advocating for societal issues.

Ken Henry, chair of National Australia Bank, picked up this theme in recent weeks saying that businesses must demonstrate a social purpose that drives the way the firm operates. Organisations, he said, need to demonstrate that they are more than just profit.

The most publicised social purpose campaign in recent times was Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s support for marriage equality – for which he received a pie in the face, but ultimately widespread praise.

Social issues don’t necessarily need to be controversial. Richard Branson says the focus at Virgin includes diversity and inclusion, giving back to communities, and many important global environmental and social issues – from climate change to LGBT rights to ending the war on drugs. All worthy causes.

Late last year, Honner worked with Ariel Investments to provide a joint submission to ASIC calling on the regulator to create a platform whereby local banks, investment managers and other financial companies can support financial literacy programs in Australian primary schools.

It is no surprise the rise of social purpose for organisations has grown as the number of gen Y and millennials grow as both employees and customers. More than eight in 10 millennials (81%) expect companies to make a public commitment to good corporate citizenship.

Brands are increasingly responding to this trend.

In a recent interview with the Australian Financial Review, Coca Cola Amatil CEO Alison Watkins said stakeholders expect more than simply short-term profit delivery. “At Coca Cola Amatil, we need to be leaders in reducing obesity and waste. I also recognise that I am responsible and accountable to our shareholders; however, I look at that as a long-term responsibility even though we have some short-term shareholders.”

From a communications perspective, building a consistent message and projecting your organisation’s values builds trust and generates commitment — whether from employees, customers, industry or other stakeholders.

However, the social purpose needs to be true-to-label. It needs to reflect who you are as an organisation and it needs to resonate through your entire organisation. Alan Joyce drove the marriage equality debate from the top down; Virgin’s values flow through all it does; Honner works to educate individuals on financial services every day.

Anything less than an open, transparent and true-to-label approach will be quickly spotted.

This article was originally published in Mumbrella on the 6th of March, 2018.