The Most Pinteresting Blog in the World

Pinterest-ed yet?

Okay, I’ll stop now.

You may have heard of Pinterest. It’s a social media site that acts like a kind of bulletin board. People see images they like (a food recipe, meme, or workout routine) and “pin it” on their board. Their board is visible to their friends, their friends can “repin” the post and it goes on and on. It might sound like Facebook or many other social networks, but Pinterest is different and it could have an impact on social media plans moving forward. 

How It’s Different:

In a recent American Advertising Federation (AAF) presentation, Mike Magolnick said Pinterest is revolutionary because it links the emotional with the commercial, which is something Facebook and Twitter have failed to do. You can’t get people to buy stuff on Facebook and Twitter lacks the emotion that Facebook has. Pinterest is the middle ground.

However, we are anticipating that soon marketers will be asking why their brand isn’t active on Pinterest. Well, while Pinterest is great for a lot of brands, it isn’t right for every brand for a number of reasons:

Pinterest is a feast for the eyes:

If your brand doesn’t have a unique way to sell itself through images, Pinterest might not be right for it. Pinterest is a colorful, pretty site to look at because of the collection of images on it. I mean, look how pretty this is. People pin stuff on their “board” because it’s eye-grabbing, it’s relaxing to look at, it’s cool to look at, and it’s usually something they would like to buy.

From our perspective, if you’re selling a service or something like car insurance, you probably don’t have a place on Pinterest.

Who is your target demographic?

What are you selling? Men’s cologne? Muscle cars? Bad news, 68% of Pinterest users are women and 97% of the people who “like” Pinterest’s Facebook page are women.

Pinterest is most likely working on a grand plan to even out this one-sided demo appeal as we type, but for the time being, Pinterest isn’t ideal if you’re looking to sell to men.

How are other social networks doing?

How is Pinterest going to affect the marketing ways of Facebook and Twitter? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer right now. June was a huge month for Facebook as far as adjusting their site for brands as they made many “Pages” upgrades to accommodate marketers (for example, brand pages can now schedule Facebook posts). However, Facebook’s marketing role remains as questionable as ever. Twitter’s role remains largely the same and, arguably, the safest. Tumblr is growing right behind Pinterest, but that’s a topic for another post.

Social media is an ever-evolving landscape, and it’s continuing to grow. Pinterest arriving on the scene makes this growth even larger and even more exciting. All brands may not have a use for it right now, but considering the pace at which things change in this field, it’s best to keep an eye on it.

Branding through Social Media

"Social media isn't the end-all-be-all, but it offers marketers unparalleled opportunity to participate in relevant ways. It also provides a launchpad for other marketing tactics. Social media is not an island. It is a high-power engine on the larger marketing ship."-Matt Dickman, SVP Digital Marketing at Fleishman-Hillard

Though they were labeled as fads during their humble beginnings (and still sometimes now), social networks like Twitter and Facebook have grown to include a combined total number of subscribers that exceeds one billion people. That’s kinda huge.

Most fleeting fads don’t feature this size fraction of the world’s population. As a result, many industries and organizations have not only accepted social media, but are now embracing social media as a way to brand their company and/or their product – whether it be through Facebook, Twitter, or both. And while the push to use social media has been somewhat prevalent since the middle of the past decade, some institutions are still trying to find their way in this realm in terms of expressing and building a brand across various social media channels. With this in mind, we’d like to offer a few key concepts to remember when branding through social media:

Consistency: 

Consistency is a problem for any kind of branding, but it can be particularly frustrating for branding across social media. Why? Because social media, even when formal, is a very personalized version of your company and/or product. You’re creating an e-personality and when your consumers have no concept of who that personality is, it frustrates them. Taking that into consideration, your messages via Twitter and Facebook should match in tone, what they’re trying to convey, and target audience.

Keep it simple: 

How many characters do you have at your disposal for a tweet? 140. Not 140 words. 140 characters. You have more for a Facebook post, but long Facebook posts will almost certainly turn away the eyes. People on social networks want the bare minimum and they want any information they’re going to get very quickly. There should be simplicity in the length of the statement and in the choice of words. Plus, trying to over-explain what your company and/or product is can simply complicate or distort the message.

Interaction: 

As mentioned before, whatever social profile you create for your company and/or product is essentially that entity’s personality. That personality should both interact with its “followers” and “friends” and encourage those people to interact with one another. If you’re not encouraging any kind of interaction on your social profile, you are essentially talking to a wall. People will also grow more comfortable and attached to your product if they can interact with it on this level.

Branding yourself through social media has endless possibilities and it is also quickly becoming one of the most cost effective forms of marketing. But just because it’s mostly free and readily available, does not mean it’s easy to use, so please consider what we’ve wrote about while you’re using it!

Why you should NOT fear the transparency of social media

In conversations with several credit union marketing professionals, there seem to be two main reasons why they aren't investing as much time or as many resources in social media as they probably should be.

1. They don't see how it is relevant to the financial services industry.
2. They fear the transparency of it, and how it gives customers an open forum to discuss anything - including negative topics.

I will try to tackle the first issue later this month, because it is an industry-wide struggle without an easy answer. But the transparency of social media is still a very hot-topic issue that needs to be addressed.

Facing criticism is difficult for anyone. But especially among banks or credit unions - places people trust with their money - because stability and assurance are non-negotiable must-have qualities. It makes sense that the assumption would be that an angry member could do irreparable damage to the reputation of a financial institution by posting about a customer relations mishap repeatedly on Facebook or Twitter. And if not managed properly, it might well could.

But if managed well, it will do the opposite.

Today's consumers crave transparency from the brands they trust. Why? Because transparency is authenticity. Authenticity is real; it is honest. People trust honest. If you are doing good business, your members are going to be ambassadors of your brand. They will recognize that mistakes happen, no one is perfect. And in many cases, they will defend your brand by expressing their own positive experiences. Beyond that - they will appreciate that you took public criticism, especially if in response to it you apologize sincerely and gracefully take action to correct the problem.

Also, the fact of the matter is, whether you are on social media or not, your members most definitely are. And they are probably still talking about you. By being involved in the conversation, you can help manage it. And by not being involved, it sends the message that perhaps you have something to hide.

And, not fearing transparency has the added bonus of allowing you to use social media as the most inexpensive way to get immediate feedback on products and services you provide. That means you can make adjustments quicker, and keep your members happier.

Have a look at this case study about the Boulevard Brewing Company, and their launch of a chocolate ale.

Boulevard Brewing Company: A Social Media Case Study in Leadership, Transparency and Doing the Right Thing

 How have you interacted with customers/members on your social media channels? Any negative or positive experiences? Let us know in the comments below!

More on PURLs: Landing Pages that Work

Making good use of PURLs is a twofold process. 1.) Creating compelling direct mail or email marketing that drives your target audience to use their PURL. And 2.) Having a landing page created that upon their arrival engages them and sends a clear message.

Each of these are equally important, but the landing page is where you get the results you are looking for. This post has 10 quick and dirty key points to keep in mind when considering the design of your landing page.



1.) Relevant, attention-grabbing headline

2.) Relevant graphics and design

3.) Use a different design than your homepage - something that stands out and makes it unique.

4.) BUT stay true to your branding.

5.) Clear, simple call to action. Don't ask for more than one thing, instead be direct and lead them directly to that next-step.

6.) Give just enough information to support what it is you want them to do - no more, and no less.

7.) Don't make viewers scroll to view important content.

8.) Don't overwhelm them with links. Provide them with a link to the next page you want them to view, and maybe a link to contact you.

9.) Utilize white space to make it easier for viewers to make a quick scan of your landing page.

and 10.) Pay attention to the results you are getting as the campaign is ongoing-tweak your page and test the change that you make. Within the first two weeks you should have settled on design/copy that optimizes results.

What is a PURL?

Since our newsletter this month focused on Kearley's past successes with PURLs, I thought now might be a good time to revisit what they are. Here is a great article that I found that explains fairly simply what a PURL, why it works, and why they are great tools for marketers.

Why Marketers Should Use PURLs

Why we like pURL

A couple months ago I posted a blog about pURLs (personalized URLs) and how they can be combined with direct mail to reach out to customers. Here at Kearley we recommend utilizing pURLs because we have seen them work, and recently I have been given some numbers that can demonstrate how well they work.

Kearley worked with Andrews Federal Credit Union to promote the opening of a new branch in Waldorf, Maryland. As part of the campaign, we combined direct mail and pURL to reach out to current members and potential new members.

Within 5 weeks of the branch opening, 119 new members signed up at the new location and over 500 current members visited the new location. Traffic remained steady at the branch following the campaign. It was so successful, Andrews repeated using pURL with three other campaigns, and are currently repurposing the pURL database to use it a fourth time.

Pretty great, huh? If you have any questions about pURLs, you can always email us at bigideas@kearley.com.

Retail Merchandising

(ree-teyl mur-chuhn-dahy-zing) noun

Image of a retail schematic for Andrews FCU

There seems to be some general confusion about what exactly retail merchandising/visual merchandising is. Ask most people, and their response is something along the lines of 'interior design for a business.' They aren't wrong--but that is just the surface.

I found a blog on ddionline.com that described it very eloquently, so I thought I'd share it here.

"To me, successful visual merchandising is a pragmatic balance of art and science and should be, in many instances, weighted more heavily on the science side. I commonly use the analogy of a cupcake to describe this balance. The bottom portion of the cupcake represents the science, or the primary foundation of visual merchandising: space planning, product placement, adjacencies and organization. It is the general merchandising framework of standards, 
systematic practices and planning that creates this foundation. The top portion of the cupcake—the frosting—represents the art form, the display and appeal that helps to attract and differentiate. You need the solid foundation of the cake (the science) to support the frosting (the art). Since it is front and center, most people see the frosting only—which is good, but to successfully leverage the true function of visual merchandising, you must apply the framework of the science behind it. Visual merchandising creates the in-store experience. It is a 3-D expression of the brand. It creates organizational efficiencies and ultimately motivates purchase decisions that result in sales. Bottom line, effective visual merchandising is intended to create a positive customer experience that drives sales."

Read the full article here.