It’s no secret that a recession is looming. A massive economic downturn can harm any business, no matter the industry. As a marketer, you might wonder how to keep your team motivated and engaged in a precarious economy. After all, if your company has less money to spend on operations and advertising, you may not be able to invest as much as you’d like in marketing. These steps can help you energize your team and enhance your marketing efforts during financial uncertainty.  Focus on what you can control You can't control a recession, but you can focus on how you approach your marketing ..read more

Online education – also known as e-learning – is a rapidly growing industry. After all, over 5.5 million American students attend online school on a part-time or full-time basis, and that number keeps climbing. With so many e-learning platforms for prospective students to choose from, you’re probably wondering how to make your program stand out from the rest.  The solution is referral marketing.  So, what is referral marketing? Think of referral marketing as word-of-mouth marketing for the digital world. Because consumers are more likely to trust a product their friends already kn ..read more

For prospective students looking to start or continue their education online, the possibilities are endless. In fact, a recent study projected that the online learning industry would reach $848 billion by 2030. In such a rapidly growing, over-saturated industry, referral marketing is the best way to reach prospective students and drive enrollment for your education programs. Referral marketing is changing the online education industry  Referral marketing is your most effective marketing strategy: prospective students are more likely to apply or enroll if they learned about that organ ..read more

A strong portfolio of 5-star reviews is one of the best ways to build trust with potential clients. Reading success stories from other customers will instill confidence in your brand and convert potential clients to satisfied customers who start their customer journey primed to leave 5-star reviews of their own. 1. Write a clear call to action in your email blasts that encourages customers to leave a 5-star review.  Engage your customers by leveraging your current marketing strategies, like your weekly or monthly client newsletters. Include a quote from an existing 5-star review and a ..read more

In the referral marketing world, there seems to be a debate brewing over the most effective way to identify, enroll, and engage ambassadors.  In one corner is the belief that carefully enrolling only your most loyal and passionate ambassadors is the best approach. The thinking here is that those people, who already love and support your brand, will happily and aggressively work to generate referrals and new business for your company.  In the other corner is the somewhat contrarian stance that auto-enrolling all of your potential brand ambassadors is the better strategy. The argument ..read more

A customer loyalty program is a marketing strategy that rewards customers for their repeat business or brand loyalty. The aim of a customer loyalty program is to incentivize customers to continue choosing a company's products or services over those of its competitors.  Companies offer loyalty program participants rewards, such as discounts, free products, exclusive access, or special privileges, in exchange for their loyalty. These programs can be based on points earned through purchases, membership tiers, or other criteria that encourage customers to engage with a brand and continue to ..read more

            View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Tom Fishburne (@marketoonist)   If you’re a marketer, you’ve likely seen your marketing team shrink. And, it’s likely been attributed to market uncertainty in the face of a recession, or, prompted by spooked investors watching the great tech correction happening with tens of thousands of people at leading tech firms being cut loose.  And whether or not a recession actually happens, the fact is, the size ..read more

            View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Tom Fishburne (@marketoonist)   If you’re a marketer, you’ve likely seen your marketing team shrink. And, it’s likely been attributed to market uncertainty in the face of a recession, or, prompted by spooked investors watching the great tech correction happening with tens of thousands of people at leading tech firms being cut loose.  And whether or not a recession actually happens, the fact is, the size ..read more

As a growing brand, you may be wondering how to grow your social media followers to a degree that matches your ambition for your brand. You know that what you have to offer is valuable, and there could be— should be— a dynamic online community of people following your work on social media.  As you think about growing your social media audience, lean into a new mindset: you aren’t creating content about your brand or how great your offering is. You are creating content for your followers and, more importantly, for their followers.  There’s a powerful litmus test that you can use an ..read more

If you want to become a paid nano-influencer or micro-influencer, you’re in the right place.  We recently discussed how you could build a nano-influencer or micro-influencer platform that is poised for rapid follower growth by defining a niche, choosing a color scheme, and identifying the buckets of social media users who will be most interested in the topics you want to represent as an influencer. Building a platform as a micro-influencer used to be considered a hobby that most people did “just for fun,” and only a small percentage of people at the top make money. Previously, the ..read more