In An Era Of Social Media Distrust, Some Brands Are Finding Ways To Get Intimate

In March of last year, a whistleblower revealed that political data firm Cambridge Analytica gained improper access to private information on more than 50 million Facebook users. One month later, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg faced a congressional hearing where the social network’s data practices were the subject of intense questioning.

Facebook was not the only social network to suffer this level of public scrutiny in 2018. Twitter suspended more than 70 million accounts from its network last year in response to growing public pressure against bots and trolls that were shown to influence the U.S. 2016 presidential election.

In many ways, 2018 marked a turning point in the public’s distrust for social media. Edelman’s 2018 Trust Barometer Report found that 60 percent of people no longer trust social media companies to behave responsibly, and independent research firm Ponemon Institute reports that trust in Facebook has dropped 66 percent.

This increased social media skepticism presents new challenges for brands using these platforms. Users are now less likely to trust celebrity influencers, many of whom have inflated audience counts and are less relatable than friends, family and micro-influencers. At the same time, newer, ephemeral formats, like Stories on Instagram and Snapchat, are growing 15 times faster than traditional news feed-based sharing.

Some brands are rethinking the way they use social media, shifting toward relatable, individualized content to sidestep recent skepticism.

The Guardian, for instance, found that for their Instagram Stories, simple static graphics and quick explainer-style videos vastly outperformed their more polished and labor-intensive videos.

Meanwhile, women’s retailer EVEREVE found that their target consumer loves to engage with them on social, so they make it a priority to repost customer-generated content in their Instagram Stories. A representative for the company explained via email that their digital manager even works off hours to make sure the company is engaging with its target audience at the right times.

Using Snapchat or Instagram Stories is by no means unique — in a recent Hootsuite study, 64 percent of businesses confirmed that they have either implemented Instagram Stories into their social strategy or plan to do so in the next 12 months. But the way these big brands are experimenting with replacing or supplementing high-production value posts with more spontaneous and relatable photos and videos is a savvy way to boost engagement with an audience that has come to expect that kind of interaction from their friends and family, not corporate entities.

Condé Nast Traveler took this idea further by stepping out of the way and letting their fans to talk to each other.

The media company launched a private Facebook group called Women Who Travel, which provides a safe space for passionate female travelers to ask each other questions, leave suggestions and offer encouragement. Since the group is private, it requires moderator permission to join and provides a sense of exclusivity and authenticity that can be hard to find elsewhere on the web. The group has quickly grown to more than 120,000 members strong.

Other brands are choosing to use micro-influencers -- those with thousands of followers, rather than millions -- in lieu of more famous celebrities to access more niche communities and keep their marketing efforts more relatable.

Adidas followed a grassroots approach when they built their Tango Squad program, partnering with more than 1,400 specially selected football-obsessed teens across 11 countries who are leaders in their respective communities. These micro-influencers are a part of an exclusive group that gets access to their sports idols, events and competitions, and can help Adidas design and launch new products. In return, these influencers help spread the word to their teammates, friends, and followers.

While Adidas chose to use Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to coordinate and stay in contact with their Tango Squad, other brands are using messenger apps to communicate with their audience at large.

Beauty retailer Sephora, for instance, launched the Sephora Assistant, a bot for messenger that gives customers the ability to book in-store makeover appointments in just a few simple steps. The bot, which has been live since late 2016, has cut down booking steps by over 60 percent and increased in-store bookings by 11 percent.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, meanwhile, became the first airline to expand their service to Facebook Messenger. KLM customers can access their bookings, get flight service updates, and contact customer service — all directly from the messaging app.

The airline has seen a 40 percent increase in customer interactions since it began using Messenger, and today 15 percent of KLM’s boarding passes are sent via that service.

The number of customer-company conversations hosted on messaging apps is growing at a rapid clip: two-thirds of consumers have increased their use of messaging with businesses in the last two years and 53 percent say they are more likely to do business with companies they can message.

The reason is simple: direct messaging offers customers a greater sense of empowerment, not to mention relief from waiting in long queues or phone holds to resolve a customer service issue. Being able to seamlessly contact a large company to resolve an issue -- or get access to their booking info -- dramatically mitigates the slow bureaucratic stresses of dealing with larger brands.

Companies looking to take these customer relationships to the next level are focusing not only on alleviating stress, but also on proactively improving the customer experience. Sephora and Nike, for instance, are part of a select group of companies participating in a closed beta test of a new Facebook feature that lets customers message companies to see products ahead of time in augmented reality.

The fact that customers change their preferred methods for receiving corporate communications comes as no surprise. The recent skepticism of celebrity influencers and social media channels evolved from a former trust of those same outlets at the expense of traditional TV commercials. For companies looking to ride this most recent wave of social skepticism, the key appears to be developing a more relatable, intimate and customized relationship with each customer.

That is, until the tide changes again.

Here's How Major Brands Measure Social Media Impact

In 2017, then-16-year-old Carter Wilkerson jokingly asked Wendy’s on Twitter how many retweets it would take to score him a year’s worth of free chicken nuggets. To Wilkerson’s disbelief, Wendy’s actually responded “18 Million,” and he pleaded with the Twitterverse to help him reach that noble goal.

That Twitter exchange has since racked up 3.5 million retweets, breaking the record Ellen DeGeneres set with her 2014 Oscars selfie. Wilkerson got his nuggets in the end, and Wendy’s earned a flood of praise and positive press for the virality of the social media interaction.

Within 6 weeks, Wendy’s had earned 2.5 billion media impressions and 5 million mentions of Wilkerson’s quest for nuggets, increasing overall mentions of the brand by 376 percent.

Businesses pay a lot for that kind of virality -- it’s a dream come true for content marketers everywhere. But what kind of impact does Wendy’s social media activity have on its bottom line? What’s the right way to measure this kind of customer engagement, and does Wendy’s sell any more chicken nuggets as a result?

How To Measure Social Media ROI

Measuring return on investment (ROI) is relatively easy for businesses that can tie their social media metrics directly to financial gains. When a direct-to-consumer brand invests $10,000 exclusively on Facebook ads and tracks $30,000 in online sales, for example, they know the monetary return of their social media efforts.

But many businesses don’t have that luxury. Wendy’s, for example, does not sell its hamburgers online through easily-trackable lead funnels. Measuring social media ROI can be difficult, and the challenges are in some ways unique to the nature of the platforms .

Nowhere else do businesses have customers engaging on a single channel for so many different reasons. Wendy’s Twitter account, for example, fields customer service complaints and interacts with superfans while simultaneously roasting competitors and promoting new deals.

"Never before have we seen so many departments with overlapping business objectives having to play in the same sandbox,” said Teresa Caro, the SVP of Marketing at Atlanticus. “Each department has its own KPIs, which poses a tremendous challenge when it comes time to measure the impact of any one individual social media campaign.”

That challenge can be lessened by detailing ahead of time what success means.

“You have to tailor your objectives, goals, and KPIs for each individual campaign,” suggests Ben Ricciardi, CEO of the full service agency Times10. “If the goal is sales, then you’ll measure success by your financial return. If the goal is brand awareness, then you’ll measure the impact by impressions, followers, or views.”

But, experts warn, it’s a mistake to conflate the two. Trying to measure financial return on a brand awareness campaign, or vice versa, is where ROI conversations get incredibly messy.

“When you have an organic audience on social, the value you provide them is different than an advertisement,” explained Todd Lombardo, Managing Director of Brand & Social at creative agency The Many (previously Mistress). “The measurement should reflect that.”

To measure improvements in brand awareness and loyalty, social media channels offer the usual metrics like followers, views, impressions, shares, and comments. Though these measurements sometimes get flack for being ‘vanity metrics,’ that criticism typically stems from business owners whose goal on social media is direct sales rather than brand awareness or brand loyalty.

Ricciardi encourages businesses not to underestimate what it means to grow their organic following and engagement on social.

“Choosing to follow a brand means they're sharing something compelling,” Ricciardi said. “When people follow you, they’re making it clear they have loyalty towards your brand and the content being shared.”

Caroline Kalentzos, the CEO of PR and branding agency POSH PR, agrees emphatically.

“We know that younger audiences have no problem switching brand loyalty, so likes, comments, and shares are crucial components to defining a social media account’s success,” Kalentzos explained. “At the end of the day, a client who feels ongoing intimacy with your brand is more valuable than a one-and-done client.”

From that perspective, Wendy’s return on investment is pretty easy to measure. Assuming brand loyalty and awareness is the goal, then the stats speak for themselves: 213,000 new Twitter followers, 23.9 million visits to Wendy’s Twitter profile, over 2.5 billion earned media impressions from 1,076 placements, over 5 million online mentions of Carter's quest for Wendy's nuggets, and a 376 percent increase in mentions of the Wendy’s brand.

If, on the other hand, increased sales is the goal, then measurement gets much trickier.

To Measure Financial ROI On Non-Financial Goals, Wider Is Better

In some ways, the difficulties of measuring financial ROI on social media are no different than the ones businesses face with other media outlets. When Wendy’s earns 2.5 billion impressions, it has to assign a monetary value to that level of consumer reach to get some semblance of monetary ROI.

“Major brands have been doing research around impressions and engagement levels and the corresponding increase in sales,” explained Caro, who has years of experience working with top brands on social media. “It’s very much like measuring the impact of a TV advertisement.”

But solo measurements can only go so far. Evan Berglund, Senior Partner at the Gonzberg Agency, suggests that consumers today move seamlessly between channels within seconds -- from social media on their phone, to a subway ad, to a billboard, and back to their phone again to check email. For businesses looking to tie non-financial goals back to their bottom line, experts suggest widening the measurement scope.

“There is no easy way to financially quantify what each social media interaction is worth,” Ricciardi explained. “It’s much more effective to take all the marketing channels you’re budgeting for and compare it against the general lift or decline you see in sales.”

In other words, a more accurate financial correlation comes from measuring an entire marketing mix, and aligning it holistically with a brand’s business objectives.

With that in mind, we can begin to understand how Wendy’s might measure the financial impact of its activity on social media. After all, the brand enjoyed a 49.7 percent increase in profit from $129.6 million in 2016 to $194 million in 2017. It may be impossible to know how much of that increase is due to the #NuggsforCarter campaign in particular, but with a wider perspective that looks at all of the brand’s marketing activities, Wendy’s could get pretty close.

New Research From 200 Top Brands Shows How Effective Instagram Stories Really Are

There’s only so much space in the Instagram feed. That harsh reality has inspired brands to try a variety of creative growth hacks and trends to reach larger audiences on the social media platform.

Commenting on celebrity photos and joining Instagram “pods” are two common ways accounts have jockeyed for attention in a crowded market. Meanwhile, some of the most popular meme pages are experimenting with turning their accounts private so that people have to follow them in order to see their posts.

But Buffer’s latest research suggests that posting to Instagram Stories is perhaps a more sustainable solution to reaching larger audiences.

The social media management platform partnered with Delmondo, a social media analytics platform, to analyze more than 15,000 Instagram stories from 200 of the world’s top brands in one of the largest Instagram Stories research studies to date.

The study found that the more stories top Instagram accounts post, the higher their median reach and impressions. Accounts that posted a series of 10 stories earned twice as many median impressions as accounts that didn’t post at all, and those with 20 stories earned five times the number of median impressions than the non-story posters.

Take one look at the Instagram feed and it’s obvious why that might be so. Instagram Stories take up additional real estate at the top of the news feed, giving brands another opportunity to get their content seen. The more a brand can maintain its position at the top of the feed -- as well as in it -- the more often it will reach its audience.

But it’s not just about improving reach. The users who consume Instagram stories content (all 400 million of them) are so engaged that brands see a 75 percent completion rate on their stories, meaning that their audience stays to watch all the way to the last story frame.

In fact, according to Instagram’s internal data, one-third of the most-viewed stories come from businesses, and one in five stories earns a direct message from its viewers.

Engagement rates on Instagram Stories are so high that brands are finding early success advertising on the feature. Oreo’s eye-catching ads on Instagram Stories helped the cookie brand drive significant growth in ad recognition and ad recall with a 17 percent lower cost per lead.

L’Oréal Paris Russia saw similar success, with a cost per click 22 times lower compared to their average result using Instagram’s carousel ad format. While the costs fell, L’Oréal ads simultaneously enjoyed a 16-point lift in ad recall.

For businesses looking to follow in Oreo and L’Oréal’s footsteps and dramatically improve Instagram reach, timing is everything.

Buffer and Delmondo found the largest spikes in completion rate fell outside of normal U.S. working hours (4-6am EST, 8-10am EST, 12pm-2pm EST, and 8pm-10pm EST).

While this is a helpful starting point, it’s worth remembering that these spikes are averages. In other words, different brands are likely to have very different optimal posting times. While a sports team may find more success directly before and after big games, a travel brand may earn more reach on weekends when wanderlust is highest.  

Timing isn’t the only factor, though. Even the number of stories posted at one time can impact a brand’s Instagram analytics.

Buffer and Delmondo found that one to seven stories was the optimal posting length to maximize the number of people who make it all the way through a series of Instagram story posts. After that seven-story threshold, completion rate dropped below 70 percent.

Then again, the number of stories posted positively correlates with an increase in reach and impressions. So while completion rate did drop to 60 percent for a series of 20 stories, the median impressions was still nearly three times more than the seven-story threshold. In other words, the more a brand posts on Stories, the more it can expect to reach a larger audience but get diminishing returns on completion rate.

Regardless of the number of stories a brand posts, prioritizing the best or most important content first is a good idea. Doing so gives people the highest chance to see what matters and maximizes their chances of clicking through.

Finding out what that ‘best’ content is, though, requires patience and testing. While Louis Vuitton posts highly polished video ads, The Guardian found that for their Instagram Stories, less labor-intensive posts like simple static graphics and quick explainer videos outperformed their professionally-produced videos.

Thankfully, that testing process doesn’t have to be super painful. Those looking for deeper analytics than Instagram offers naturally can try Delmondo to get a more detailed view of who is watching their content and when. That way, jumping on the latest growth hacking trend can be more of a scientific experiment and less of a guessing game.

How 'Boring' Industries Are Rebranding To Appeal To Younger Generations

Mutual Funds. Mortgage. Insurance. Health plans.

If you’re already nodding off, that’s to be expected. The financial services and healthcare industries don’t necessarily have a reputation for being “fun.” Even so, young consumers are growing up and need loans, checking and savings accounts, and the ability to navigate the healthcare system on their own.

Oscar Health is one company that’s consciously shedding their industry’s “boring” label with a goal to make health insurance less confusing, more convenient, and — as they put it — more human.

The company has an easy-to-use mobile and web app that houses members’ pertinent health information and lets you look for doctors, book appointments and see details of your claims. The app is supported by a personalized concierge team and members have 24/7 access to board-certified physicians if they need a diagnosis in a pinch. It even comes with a step-tracking feature that offers members $1 a day when they meet their daily step goal.

Though the company’s digital-first approach attracts consumers of all generations, it is particularly appealing for digital natives whose purchasing habits have been shaped in the smartphone era.

“It’s the ease and convenience that people across all ages want, but that the younger generations have come to expect,” said Sara Wajnberg, SVP of Product at Oscar Health.

While Oscar seeks to disrupt health insurance, another company -- Capsule -- is focused on reducing the frustration that comes with multiple, inefficient trips to the pharmacy. The company offers free same-day delivery of prescription medicine through its mobile app and provides access to its team of pharmacists via text, email, or phone.

Capsule is also able to anticipate questions about insurance coverage, remind patients about refills when they would have otherwise forgotten, and offer competitive prescription pricing.

And while the healthcare industry is ripe for disruption, health-related companies aren’t the only ones offering modern convenience through digital upgrades to appeal to younger consumers. Financial institutions are also doubling down to deliver that level of expected speed, ease and convenience.

Fintech frontrunner Fiserv, for instance, provides tech solutions to thousands of banks and credit unions across the US to make banking simpler, more trustworthy -- and even, more fun -- for younger consumers. Real-time money movement, biometric authentication, voice banking, online and mobile account opening and the ability for the cardholder to control their debit and credit card functionality with their CardValet app are just a few specific examples.

“The financial services industry is in a period of rapid transformation,” said Vincent Brennan, President of the Credit Union Solutions division at Fiserv. “Evolving consumer expectations are a catalyst for change as financial institutions work to deliver the speed, ease and convenience people want and need. Fiserv is providing the technology that enables these experiences with solutions that are in step with how people live and work today.”

Vibrant Credit Union, one of Fiserv’s clients, recently revamped its brand image and in-branch technology capabilities to appeal to the youngest members. Matt McCombs, President and CEO, reported that since its 2011 overhaul, membership of 18 to 34-year-olds has increased 75 percent. He credits this to the credit union’s modern technology, such as video banking, and customer experience, including their branded ice cream truck and events like “Talk Like a Pirate” day.

Wealthsimple, a popular automated investment manager (robo-advisor, for short), takes a similar approach to save customers time. The company says it takes less than five minutes to sign up and get invested in a customized portfolio (hence the “simple” in Wealthsimple’s name).

The platform is also particularly beginner-friendly, which is not the first adjective you might otherwise use to describe the investing industry. But that’s the point, says Mike Giepert, Executive Creative Director at Wealthsimple.

“[We’re] demystifying investing for younger people by making smart and low-cost investment services accessible and more human.”

That accessibility and digital-first approach is particularly appealing to younger consumers whose purchasing habits have been shaped in the smartphone era. But with those digital roots comes a healthy dose of skepticism. Headlines about fake news and Instagram feeds flooded with sponsored posts have led younger generations to be increasingly cautious about the trustworthiness of online information.

Yes, younger generations undoubtedly want convenience; but they also want companies that offer transparency, and are even willing to pay more for that privilege.

NerdWallet has made that transparency part of its core business model. The personal finance website was founded in 2009 to help consumers get more clarity around financial decisions. NerdWallet offers tailored recommendations and side-by-side comparisons for credit and debit cards, insurance quotes, checking accounts, and more. Think of it like a Kayak for financial advice.

The company often earns referral fees when people sign up for the services they write about, but the company discloses all its partners on its website and is adamant that those partnerships only influence which products they choose to review -- not the nature of the reviews themselves.

“Bottom line?” the site asks readers rhetorically. “We’re on your side, even if it means we don’t make a cent.”

Policygenius is another website whose entire business model is built around transparency. The company is an independent insurance marketplace that gives younger customers a side-by-side comparison shopping experience they’re used to. Only instead of flights or hotels, consumers compare insurance quotes.

Of course, offering a mobile-first, transparent service is only half the battle for companies seeking to tap into this market with up to $143 billion in spending power. The other half is branding those initiatives in such a way that younger consumers will see past the industry’s boring stigma and give the service a try.

“We talk to younger consumers where they are most -- on their phone,” explains Alison McGlone, Head of Brand at NerdWallet.

“Our marketing spend is primarily focused on Google, social media (Facebook, Instagram) and TV, and even our TV campaign is designed to find them outside of the living room, wherever they watch content, since we know that is how their consumption has evolved.”

NerdWallet’s approach appears to be working. The company reports more than 100 million people — a third of American consumers — come to NerdWallet every year for advice when making financial decisions.

Those familiar with Progressive’s iconic Flo advertisements may be wondering what it is that makes them so memorable. Love them or hate them, they’re engaging because they connect with consumers on a human level.

That insight is what helped inform Progressive’s Parentamorphosis campaign, based on the premise that ordinary people start turning into their parents the moment they purchase their first home. (The latest episode depicts a group of new homeowners in a therapy-style support meeting who trade hilariously relatable dad-isms. “Progressive can’t save you from becoming your parents,” the narrator admits at the end, “but we can save you money when you bundle on home and auto.”)

“It’s all about the right content in the right context,” says Jeff Charney, Progressive’s CMO.

There may not be one right answer to the right content and the right context. But one thing is for certain: young people reward brands they feel “get them.” Companies in traditionally “boring” industries may be fighting an uphill battle to break through the stigma, but untold riches await the companies who can most effectively tap into the psyche of young consumers and offer a purchasing experience congruent with their values.

How This Tie Shop Accidentally Became A Content Marketing Master

If you’re anything like me, you’ve developed ninja-like reflexes to swat away pop-ups and ads with lightning speed. You’re never one second too late to press the “Skip Ad” button before a Youtube video starts and you DVR your favorite programming (or simply watch Netflix) to avoid all the annoying adverts.

Why have we become so accustomed to treating adverts like pesky mosquitoes?

Perhaps it’s because they’re actually pretty similar. After all, companies that spend money on ads prioritize getting in front of your face whether you like it or not.

I know this is controversial and advertisers are picking up their pitchforks as we speak, but bear with me. My point is this:  Traditional advertising is simply one way to get attention for your business, but it’s not the only way.

Ties.com knows this, and the company is proof that you can drive growth and awareness without annoying customers with ads. According to CEO Omar Sayyed, the company has enjoyed 30% revenue growth each year over the last five years, and they’ve earned trust by providing value with digital content that educates and inspires, rather than popping up when you least expect it to.

A Sticky Web Of High-Quality Content

I first heard of Ties.com a couple years ago when I stumbled upon their comprehensive knotting guide. It gives step-by-step instructions for tying classic necktie knots, adventurous knots (check out the eldredge!), and of course, the bow tie.

The guides are top-notch. Look closely and you’ll get a feel for the writing, designing, and production skills required to execute the final product. The guides include text instructions, helpful sketches, and well-produced Youtube videos for more visual learners.

Is all that effort worth the investment?

Consider this: Ties.com’s knotting guide is the first result that shows up when you Google “how to tie a tie.” The same is true for the phrase “how to tie a bow tie.”

Google’s Keyword Planner shows that those two questions get searched 800,000 times total each month. That’s nearly 10 million people who find Ties.com’s knotting guide every year, thanks to just two search terms!

That doesn’t even take into account the dozens and dozens of other, more specialized questions and keywords that the company ranks for as well. (Guess who shows up at #1 for “halloween ties”?)

The end result? A web of educational, high-quality articles, visuals, and videos that rank for key terms and phrases and consistently drive people back to Ties.com to get their questions answered.

The Winding Road To Ranking #1

Of course, Ties.com isn’t the only brand targeting these valuable keywords. The Tie Bar and The Art of Manliness both have their own tie knotting guides that rank well for the same keywords, but neither rank as high as the content from Ties.com.

It’s an impressive feat, to be sure. So how did they do it?

With such a strong roster of content success stories, you’d think the company had some master plan all along to produce smash hits and grow its web of online content into a sticky traffic funnel. But to hear CEO Omar Sayyed tell it, producing top-ranking content was almost an accident at first.

“In the beginning, we just wrote content that we found interesting,” Omar explained. “We’ve always believed in pushing out products that we believe in, and we felt the same way about our content.”

Passion without direction is risky business. The Ties.com team began to pour hours and hours into the initiative, creating a library of articles and instructional content that they thought would attract interest. Some earned decent engagement, but some were gigantic flops.

“I remember we were so excited about this one post that compared jean fits across different companies,” Sayyed recalls.

“We went to all these different stores and measured jean sizes, created an infographic using the data and even reached out to people about getting backlinks and sharing the post. But it ultimately fell short and you can’t argue with your audience.”

(I actually found that denim comparison article and it has since earned a few hundred shares on social media, which isn’t shabby, though it does pale in comparison to this pocket square video on Youtube with over a million views and 11,000 likes.)

Today their process is much more polished. The company has senior level writers on staff to ensure the content quality is consistent, they employ their own illustrators and video producers, and they filter their topics through keyword research to uncover the phrases and questions get the most search volume.

“We’re much more deliberate about picking content topics today. We may not have started by targeting ‘how to tie a tie’ but we got there eventually,” said Sayyed.

Armed with the right topics, the Ties.com creative team then determines the right medium and format to share each story. Depending on the topic, the content may lend itself better to a listicle with images, a beautiful infographic, or a quick YouTube tutorial.

The extensive focus on content is impressive, especially for a small, private company like Ties.com. Still, there are priorities. Sayyed admits the company doesn’t do a great job of proactively getting people to share their content or link back to it -- two elements that are often helpful for improving Google rankings.

“We’re not a major content-producing outlet so we have to figure out where our priorities lie,” Sayyed explained. “We either write mediocre content and do a lot of outreach, or write amazing content and wait for people to find it. It may not be perfect, but it’s the way we’ve done it.”

Their method certainly seems to work. The tie-knotting guide did so well that Ties.com started the Man Academy, with all sorts of additional manly knowledge for the style-conscious gentleman. They have a complete guide to bow ties, the ultimate guide to the tie bar and even a guide on how to lace your dress shoes like a pro.

The Man Academy initiative appears to be paying off too. Today, the company is ranking in the middle of Google’s first page of results for the search term “how to tie dress shoes” and is well on its way to a number-one position for “how to fold a pocket square.”

Playing The Long Game

While some companies focus exclusively on targeting people who are ready to make purchasing decisions, Ties.com has taken a different, longer-term approach.

For example, consider the search term “how to tie a tie.” People who Google that phrase already have a necktie in front of them, and there isn’t any immediate commercial intent behind that query.

But that audience clearly cares about neckties, which makes it a great demographic to develop a relationship with long term. The more that we, the consumers, associate tie advice with Ties.com, the more likely the company is to get our tie business long-term.

The company has already published content that targets the most important, high-volume search queries. Sayyed says that they’re now focusing on niche phrases and questions that attract less search volume but educate people during other pivotal moments.

They also write fun pieces that don’t target any specific keywords at all, but are merely created to drive blog traffic and position the company as a thought leader in the menswear space. 10 Things Women Find Most Attractive in Men's Style doesn’t do the company any good from a Google search perspective, but according to Sayyed, it has been huge for their visibility and has increased blog traffic by 8%.

It’s comforting to see that a passionate men’s accessories company can climb its way to the top of search rankings by providing authentic, high-quality content. It means Google is doing its job by allowing the best content -- rather than just the best-optimized content -- to rank the highest.

For those looking to follow in the footsteps of the men’s fashion brand, the Ties.com roadmap is a reminder that success in Google results is less a product of rocket science and secret sauces, and more a result of smart keyword research, a strict adherence to quality, and some good old-fashioned hard work.

The Ties.com story is also a reminder that companies can grab attention through educational content rather than annoying advertisements. By earning trust and developing a relationship with its customers before they ever need to buy a tie, Ties.com solidifies its position as the men’s accessories go-to when you decide it finally is time to make a purchase.

Originally published on Forbes.com.

Ryan Erskine is a Senior Brand Strategist at BrandYourself, where he helps people take control of their online presence. Visit his website, follow him on Twitter, and read his book here.

6 Surprising Ways to Use Google Adwords You Haven't Tried Yet

There’s a legend in the digital marketing world of a college graduate who wanted to work at a large digital agency.

This enterprising young graduate submitted his resume, and when he didn’t hear back, decided to leverage Google AdWords by bidding on the names of executives at the large company.

When those executives Googled themselves and curiously clicked on the paid search adverts, they were taken to the graduate’s resume. The executives were both peeved and impressed, and the graduate was ultimately offered the job.

Pretty inventive use of Adwords, right?

It defies the classic way businesses use the platform: bidding on keywords with commercial intent and convincing potential customers to click through to visit your website. Dermatologists bid for keywords like “fix my acne” and “dermatologist nyc” while lawn care businesses bid for “grass cutting service.”

It’s quintessential cost-per-click (CPC) advertising, and it’s often a great way for business owners to allocate their advertising budget.

The only problem is that Google Adwords can get really expensive when your competitors are bidding on the same keywords with the highest commercial intent. (The keyword “asset management” goes for $49.86 per click, and “lawyer” goes for nearly $55 per click.)

Thankfully, this isn't the only way to use Adwords. In fact, it’s not even close. Here are six unusual ways to use Google Adwords that you probably haven’t tried yet.

Poach Your Competitors’ Clients

When your consumers get really close to making a purchase, they Google the vendors they found along the way to do some final comparing. But what if your business isn’t one of the vendors on their shortlist?

Don’t fret. With a little clever engineering in Google Adwords, you can intercept customers during this final research phase.

Instead of bidding and focusing on industry keywords, try setting up your ads on the brand names of well-established competitors. By inserting your business into the conversation when consumers research your competitors, you give yourself the opportunity to attract purchases from those who are still on the fence.

In fact, a little Googling shows this is pretty common practice. When you Google the content discovery platform “Outbrain,” you find an ad from its competitor: Taboola. And when you search “Taboola,” you find an ad from Outbrain. 

Tuft & Needle's Google Adwords campaign that shows up when people Google Casper.

The mattress company Tuft & Needle takes this a step further. When you Google “Casper,” Tuft & Needle’s advert suggests there is a shocking flaw in the competitor’s product. “Do Not Buy a Mattress,” it reads, “Before You Learn the Truth.”

When you click through, you land on a custom Tuft & Needle landing page with explanatory videos that discredit higher-priced competitors and offer a potentially better solution. Ethical quandaries aside, I have to admit this is a pretty genius use of Google Ads.

This can all get wildly expensive, especially if other competitors are trying the same tactic, or if the established brand is protecting itself with its own Google Ads. If this means poaching is out of the budget, another clever option is to bid on misspelled versions of your competitors’ brand names.

“Bidding on a misspelled version of your competitor’s brand can produce wonders, especially if your competitor is a big name in your industry,” explains Nick Ilev, Director of Marketing at Gabriel Marketing Group. “In some cases, more than 10% of searchers misspell brand names. If you capitalize on those misspellings, you can shoot to the top of the page with relatively low ad spend.”

Target People Who Aren’t Ready To Buy Yet

It sounds counterintuitive, right? Why would you want to go after the people who aren’t ready to buy yet?

According to John Leo Weber, the VP of Marketing at ProjectManager.com, it all boils down to different interpretations of the value Google Adwords provides.

“Most advertisers bid on high buyer-intent keywords because they see Adwords as a conversion engine,” says Weber. “Instead, advertisers should treat Adwords as a traffic engine. You can bid on lower buyer-intent keywords to bring traffic to your site, and put people into funnels to be targeted in other ways."

In this mindset, a non-conversion on the first visit is an opportunity, not a loss. As long as you have marketing funnels in place to capture and nurture your leads, you can get potential customers for a faction of the cost, and then use those other marketing channels to convert them down the line. In other words: remarketing with a twist.

When you have high commercial-intent keywords going for $50+ per click, this top-of-the-funnel tactic starts to seem pretty appealing.

Figure Out Who You’re Not Selling To

Imagine you sell software that helps independent physicians manage their medical practices. Your product is not designed for large healthcare systems, so you wouldn’t want one as a customer.  

If you target keywords like “medical office management software,” you’ll reach your target audience. That’s great, but you may also get people searching for software to support the management of large practices.

This exact scenario happened to Beth Cooper, Marketing Manager at KNB Communications.

“The fact is, no matter how great your product is, there are some people you simply aren’t selling to,” said Cooper. “The trick is to figure out who those people are and think of keywords around them. AdWords lets you add them as ‘negative keywords,’ meaning they will not show your ad to people who use those search terms.”

By using negative keywords such as “hospital” and “large,” Cooper weeded out people searching for things like “hospital management software” or “large medical practice management solution.” She also used negative keywords like “free” and “open source” because the client wouldn’t want to pay for clicks if people were looking for a free software product.

Why is all of this important? Negative keywords can save you money, big time.

Remember: you pay for each click in an AdWords campaign. You don’t want to pay for clicks if the clicker most likely will never be a customer. So further targeting your campaigns will give you better bang for your buck.

Using negative keywords also improves the quality score Google assigns each of your ads. A better quality score means higher ad rankings and -- you guessed it -- a lower cost per click. The ultimate win-win.

Support Your Organic SEO Initiatives

According to 2017 data, Google searchers click on Google ads about 15% of the time. The other 85% goes straight to the organic results -- that is, the search results that are notGoogle ads.

That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) remains a cornerstone of digital marketing initiatives. By creating valuable content and optimizing it to rank for carefully-considered keywords, you convince Google to rank your website for key terms and phrases in the long run without having to pay each time someone clicks.

Of course, writing high quality content is incredibly time-consuming, and it can sometimes take months before the results of a SEO campaign come to fruition. So how do you know which keywords are worth your attention before you dedicate months of writing, optimizing, generating traffic and building backlinks?

Google Adwords can help.

“Adwords data is invaluable for SEO keyword research,” explains Elliott Brown, an SEO and marketing consultant. “If people are willing to pay for traffic from certain keywords, it's worth making an effort to get that same traffic for free.”

While it may take weeks or months to push organic results higher in search, you can see the results of your PPC ads the same day you launch a campaign. And writing an advert in AdWords takes way less time than developing long-form blog content.

“By determining which keywords are most effective in driving traffic to your website, you can double back and include those in your SEO strategy,” Cooper agreed.

To that end, remember to share your Adwords data with the team responsible for generating organic traffic. Doing so can help align everyone's efforts around the most profitable keywords for your business.

And once you’ve determined the right keywords to target when you create your new content, try using Google Adwords to drive supplemental traffic there too.

“PPC ads are not going to magically increase your organic rankings; you can't pay to do that,” said Cooper. "But PPC can help to catalyze your SEO efforts by increasing traffic and proving to Google that your page is relevant to certain searchers. This in turn helps your page appear more often in relevant searches, and much more quickly than with SEO tactics alone.”

Create Some Buzz And Go Viral

Every platform that hosts content has the potential for virality, and ad platforms are no different.

Remember the time that auto salesman posted a brutally honest Craigslist ad for his 2002 car that got the Internet buzzing? Or what about the time Geico released that Hump Day camel commercial and that’s all people ever said around the office on Wednesdays?

There’s no reason you can’t apply those same creative tactics to Google Adwords too.

“One of the most creative usages of Adwords I've seen was for Cinema L'Amour, an Erotic Cinema in Montreal,” said Philippe Côté-Léger, Online Marketing Director at Lab Urbain.

“They were bidding on the keyword Kleenex. I don't remember the exact ad, but I guess you can figure out what they were saying!”

To be sure, virality on Google Adwords can be tough to achieve, especially when you’re up against super relevant ads on high-volume keywords. As funny as it may be, an erotic cinema’s ad for Kleenex is likely to earn a low quality score from Google and get buried without much attention.

Instead, try focusing on hyper-targeted and longer-tail keywords with less search volume. Or try targeting something that’s more timely, like an upcoming industry conference or event. Take it from the enterprising young graduate I mentioned earlier: by doing something completely unexpected for the right audience and bidding on the right keywords, you can make a life-changing impact.

Though the use of ASCII art in Google ads is now banned, here's a German auto company’s inspiring approach to textual advertising from years ago.

Quickly Gauge Customer Sentiment

Want to see if your new brand messaging will resonate? Need to know if your latest headline ideas are as good as you think they are?

To answer questions like these, business owners often rely on expensive research studies. But with Google Adwords, this kind of data may be more accessible (and cheaper) than you ever thought possible.

Paul Bromen agrees. He’s a serial entrepreneur with several mobile game apps under his belt that have amassed millions of downloads.

“My favorite way to use Google Adwords is to test out new ideas,” said Bromen. “Before I start a new business I run several campaigns designed to test product offerings. I put ads next to similar products or in the broad category. Anything with over a 4% click through rate is a great opportunity.”

That kind of speedy feedback can be critical for testing out the viability of a new business idea. That’s no joke, considering that 50% of startups fail in the first four years.

“I was once hired by a budding entrepreneur who wanted to launch a vintage-inspired clothing shop online,” said Andrea Atkins, Marketing Evangelist at Revere.AI.

“She was hesitant to launch until she knew the business idea was a profitable one. So instead of building an entire e-commerce store for her, waiting for a large inventory shipment, and integrating with payment processors, I built her a landing page with 8 product photos and PayPal 'Buy Now' buttons.”

The success of the Google Adwords campaign proved the product/market fit.

“It ultimately gave her the confidence she needed to move forward with a complete website build, and a successful business launch,” said Atkins.

Originally published on Forbes.com.

Ryan Erskine is a Senior Brand Strategist at BrandYourself, where he helps people take control of their online presence. Visit his website, follow him on Twitter, and read his book here.