A Marketer's Musings

Welcome! I'm Emma and I am a Marketing Technologist and Community Manager. I have a knack for digital marketing and am big on disruptive ideas and innovative brands. This is where I post my thoughts.

[emmanemtin]

A guest on Hack to Start Podcast

I had a lovely time chatting with Hack to Start all about developing a technical marketing skill-set and how I got involved with Hubba early on as well as my new with role Headspace. 

Take a listen here!

http://hacktostart.com/emma-nemtin/

[emmanemtin]

Growing Your Brand on Instagram to Half a Million Followers: Advice from Freshly Picked

Starting Freshly Picked from the ground up

The idea for Freshly Picked started in 2009, when founder Susan Petersen was frustrated at the lack of well-designed baby shoes for her son. Working on a shoestring budget, Susan got resourceful and approached her brother who owned a window installation business. She convinced him to let her keep the old windows he was removing.

Susan spent a summer banging out the glass of the windows and turned in the old aluminum window frames to a scrap yard. Susan made a couple hundred bucks to get the leather materials she needed to start making moccasins.

Fast forward a few years and six moccasin designs later, the brand now has a manufacturer, started working with retailers like Nordstroms, been on Shark Tank and Ellen, and has grown their Instagram following to nearly half a million followers.

Since the beginning, Freshly Picked has grown quite organically and gained a ton of steam (and awesome press) along the way. I was extremely lucky to chat with Susan, CEO and founder of Freshly Picked, about how she grew her brand to where it is today and her advice for how other brands can capitalize on the growing popularity of Instagram.

Using Instagram authentically to help your brand blossom

Instagram can be an enormous value-add for your business, especially with a target market of mommy bloggers. Susan said Instagram has helped her business grow ten-fold. It could have a lot to do with the Freshly Picked consumer being mainly mothers. Mothers love being connected to their peers and friends and Instagram is such a natural and authentic way to connect. “Instagram is where our customers live. We put a lot of thought and work into developing this platform”, said Ashley on behalf of Freshly Picked.

Freshly Picked has been trucking away at building their Instagram presence for a few years and it has definitely paid off. They take extra care in crafting every single post and even have picked out unique hashtags for their brand like #foreverystep.

Start building small: Getting to your first 10,000 Instagram followers

Goals are so much more attainable when they’re small. Getting half a million followers can seem daunting to anyone, but getting to your first 1000 or 10,000 can be easier to visualize. I asked Susan how she began building her following and she said getting to 10k was her very first goal. It took her about a year and it was a struggle. Susan mentioned that it was tough coming up with new ideas every single day, trying to figure out ways to leverage the platform was a big learning curve.

For Freshly Picked, their growing popularity comes down to the content they produce and the community interaction. The Freshly Picked team is constantly engaging on their Instagram account, answering questions and commenting back to their customers. It has been a huge source of their success.        

Developing a solid team behind your social initiatives

It can take a village to run a high-performing Instagram account. I asked Susan how many puppeteers are behind Freshly Picked and she said in the beginning it was just her of course and then she brought on a photographer. Now, the company has a stylist, two social media managers and a graphic designer. It also helps take a load off your team when a ton of your brand’s Instagram content can be user-generated. Freshly Picked has a team that writes compelling copy and sifts through user generated content to hand select the best imagery that fits with their aesthetic.  

We love how the Freshly Picked team gives shoutouts to their mamas like in the image above. If you make your customers and evangelists feel special, it won’t go unnoticed. Take the extra few moments to include curated, user-generated content in with your original product photos.

Be picky with your content and know when to toss it

Freshly Picked may make their Instagram look effortless, but Susan told me that for every one image they post they have about 20-30 they could have posted, and 20-30 that don’t make the cut. Susan mentioned, “We have a lot of content. We don’t want a lot of overlap. Everything has to be fresh and new.”

For example, they recently had a pop up shop in Brooklyn, she told her team not to post an image they had planned on posting because what was happening in real-time at the pop up was so much more important than the post they had planned to post a week ago. “From a visual standpoint, we want it to feel very accessible. For us, the image isn’t always the one thats the most perfect”, notes Susan.

Don’t try to capture perfection and know your audience

“It’s about the person, not the product” is what Susan tells her social team every week. Even if the moccasins are blurry or out of focus, the look on the child’s face that they’re having the best time of their life is what matters the most. You don’t need your product to be the center of attention in every image.

It’s really important to know your Instagram audience inside and out. “Moms are emotional, and want to make memories with their babies and they want to have those experiences that we are posting on our feed”, says Susan. Some of Freshly Picked followers come to their Instagram feed for ideas on baby outfits or activities, so knowing who their followers are and knowing who you want to reach is really important to your success.

Susan adds, “It doesn’t have to be about the product its more about the story. For new mothers its such a transitional time and you don’t want to feel alone, you want to read about what other moms are doing and feel like they’re a part of a community.”

Tap into trending hashtags and local events

Freshly Picked makes sure to have their social team on top of trending hashtags and events that their target market would be attending. Susan’s team noticed there was this big game happing in Utah and saw there were two top trendy hashtags for the game. So, they used those to capitalize on the opportunity. They let their customers be a part of it.  

Susan said that her social team ran this contest and it was so fun for their customers. “This worked for us because you see these moms who are maybe just out of college feeling like they’re a part of the big game. Sometime I run my social by the seat of my pants a little bit.  When you plan your posts weeks in advance it can be no longer relevant. You have to be really, really flexible.” 

     You can use this strategy for your brand too, and tie in a contest or product giveaway to a local event or perhaps a college football game.

Using brand collaborations to increase your exposure

I asked Susan how she manages collaborations with other brands, and how she chooses who she collaborates with. Freshly Picked recently launched a collaboration with Beloved. Collaborating can positively (or sometimes negatively) impact your social following.

When I chatted with Susan about collaborating with Beloved she mentioned, “We were trying to do something really fun for halloween. were looking for brands that we can expose our customer base to and that they can grow from, it has to fit with our style it has to be fresh, new and fun.”

Susan noted that her company gets approached all the time for potential collaborations, so much so that their collaborations are totally filled out for next year. “Were trying to do more quality and less quantity, but we love collaborations. But it is so much work.”

Susan said that Freshly Picked is super flexile on a lot of things, but brand equity is something she’s doesn’t budge on. “Brand equity is so difficult to build. You find out what other brands are flexible and not flexible and it’s so important to lay out what you want from the collaboration from the very beginning.” Susan drew a parallel between collaborations with other brands and pop up shops saying, "It’s kind of like doing a pop up together. You’re able to leverage a lot for social. We find that we get a whole new customer base and were able to offer our customers something new and exciting.”

We’re looking forward to seeing what kind of collaborations Freshly Picked debuts in the future. We will be keeping our eyes on their social accounts to watch this brand continue to skyrocket into success.

(this article originally appeared on Hubba.)

[emmanemtin]

People congregate around ideas and stories, not data points and spreadsheets

A story is a living, breathing thing — when you tell a story you must intensely believe in the strength and wisdom of your idea.

Martin Luther King didn’t say “I have a dream..but I’m not entirely sure if it’s going to work.”

Brand storytelling has been a hot topic for years and there are definitely a handful of brands who are doing a standup job. Building a story around your brand makes it human-like and relatable.

I mean who doesn’t love a good story? From an early age, most of us have memories of begging and pleading a loved one to read one last bedtime story before it was time to hit the hay.

I had some serious story demands when I was younger. My nighttime story always had to be fresh and exciting. Heaven forbid there be a nighttime story rerun. I insisted there be a character named Emma and her best friend Lara in every single story. In hindsight I applaud my parents for being able to take the same story content and spin it in a creative fashion every night. (Kudos to my parents.)

Storytelling hasn’t lost momentum. But what has gained almost more momentum is data puking. There are people all over the internet just barfing analytics all over the place without tying them into some sort of cohesive, digestible story.

Have you ever lusted over a good set of data?

Well, maybe some of you have. Especially if you are one of those coveted ~*Data Scientists*~. I’ve never been presented with charts and graphs with stimulating numbers that were so inspiring it made me burst off the couch with excitement and spring into action.

Telling a story as a technique for persuasion is by far more effective then presenting facts or stats. Why is this?

Stories can turn complex ideas into simple examples.

Using storytelling can allow you to make an emotional connection with your audience, turning it a living experience. By doing so, your audience then becomes the story and has the possibility to see the world in a different way. People want to hear your personal stories. Remember that. Share anecdotes, personal stories about your brand go far.

“Crafting a persona online is like constructing with tweezers & toothpicks. Much patience is required, some sense of purpose & a sense of humour.” — Joyce Carol Oates

True stories, happy endings, told in a minimalist fashion

Is there a way to ask questions to draw out stories/experiences: ask ‘why.’Why did you do this or why did you do that. What is your intention, how do you feel? These questions will be hard to answer with data.

Stories allow you as the speaker to share your knowledge in a different form and connect to your audience. Giving people reasons through story telling is an effective way of your argument across. If an audience gets bombarded with heavy data they will become even more resilient to change and hold true to their original way of thinking.

Story telling is more persuasive than facts, data, or figures because the power of story telling allows for a breathed experience a listener can identify with and connect to.

[emmanemtin]

Went to the pyramids in Giza. Had a bit of a time. 👆

[emmanemtin]

Created a simple website for Four Peaks Media Group’s production company. Love getting back into some dev work and coming up with new design concepts. 

Take a look - www.fourpks.com 

[emmanemtin]

How to Make Killer eCommerce Product Pages

When I shop online I am hungry for information. No, I’m starving. I cringe when I come across a product page that is lacklustre and doesn’t give me the information I need in order to make an informed purchase. Information sells, there’s no two ways about it.

We know it’s tough for brands in today’s digital age. With the boom of ecommerce, it’s next to impossible for brands to relay all the necessary product information to their 100’s or 1000’s of retailers. Not to mention how hard it is for a retailer to promptly update their product listings when, heaven forbid, a brand changes something about their product. It’s no wonder companies are nearly doubling their spend on ecommerce technology.

There is huge consumer demand for proper, comprehensive product information. Maybe it’s time to take a step back, reconsider your product pages and how you could revamp them to start turning your ‘window’ shoppers into buyers.  Here are a few examples of how you can nail your ecommerce product pages and start converting your online shoppers.

Write product descriptions like a boss

I love finding products online where the brand has turned the product description into a full blown story. Try to come up with a narrative for your product. Add some personality, make it silly, see what works. L.L Bean is notorious for this. The copywriters at L.L Bean turn some of their products into their own marketing campaign.

When it comes to writing descriptions that are catchy, don’t forget about the benefits and remember to ask yourself ‘why this product’? Why should someone buy this specific item, what makes it unique? Drill down! I can’t get enough of J. Peterman’s copy for this Gladstone Bag. ‘Heirloom. You don’t have one? Try looking in the attic first.’

Include multiple angled product shots and high-res images

Did you know that larger visuals actually increase ecommerce sales? Product images are so important on a product page, high-res preferably and as many as possible. Try loading product images with all different angles too.

Don’t be shy and include images that are zoomed in on details as well. Swedish shoemaker brand Hasbeens does a fantastic job of adding super hi-res images as well as the option to mouse over different shoe colours and auto re-loads that shoe product image.

Add videos and social sharing buttons to your product pages

Asos really nails it with their ‘view catwalk’ videos. It allows the shopper to see what the garment looks like in real life. Zappos also uses videos, and they found that it increased their sales by between 6% and 30% for items that included product demo videos.

Not only do they have rich video content for their product pages, but they also have specific social sharing buttons like the ability to post to Wanelo. Why not let your shopper share their most coveted items with their own network?

Highlight what makes your product special

Biosteel, who is one of our awesome Hubba brands, does a standout job at highlighting what makes their sports drink unique.  On the product page for their High Performance Sports Drink, they outline the importance of Amino Acids and electrolytes and what effect they have on your body.

Consumers are becoming more and more conscious of what they ingest, so giving all the necessary information up front is key to converting your savvy shoppers. Being that type of consumer myself, I appreciate that Biosteel adds their nutritional information on their product page so that I can see there is only 9 ingredients (all of which I can pronounce).

When in doubt, throw in a bit of a deal

If you scroll any product page from Greats, you will see a ton of best practices for what to include on an ecommerce product page. They kill it. Not only do they have such a visually appealing page, they incorporate tons of white space, beautiful font types, loads of images and they also  have a few sneaky deals on their pages. I love the banner floating on the right hand side for a credit. They also have a ‘bundle special’ on their shoes!

Have you come across some awesome ecommerce product pages that make you want to click add to cart? Clearly there is a huge demand for product page content and first impressions matter. Shoppers are hungry so why not feed them!

(This article originally appeared on hubba.com) 

[emmanemtin]

Had a blast last night at Techvibes Techfest event in Toronto. Clearly the Marketing and Dev team at Hubba know how to get along!

[emmanemtin]

What it Really Means to be a Marketing Technologist

As a marketing technologist you have to be a scrappy innovator.

There’s no better feeling than making something out of nothing. That’s what gets me up in the morning. That unknown feeling. Every day at work I am building something from scratch. I’m helping to grow a business by learning on the fly and tweaking the processes that I have put in place. I’m scrappy. I’m resourceful. And I love utilizing new technologies.

Scott Perry, the VP of Technology at SapientNitro, said ‘It’s fascinating to think about how every single interaction that happens in marketing is created, built, managed, delivered, experienced and measure by technology.”

Publications are banging off articles titled “The Rise of The Unicorn — Why Marketing Technologists Will Rule Modern Marketing.” Now, I don’t think I’m a 'unicorn' by any means but I could at the very least be a mutt in this new litter of marketers.

The definition of marketing has drastically shifted over the past few years. I can no longer say I am a marketer (or digital marketer). I’m a marketing technologist. There’s no two ways about it. Ugh. It feels buzzword-y to even say that but hey, all my industry does is spit buzzwords day in and day out.

I’m marketing to a empowered, connected audience. In order to have a comprehensive understanding of my business there is so much I need to know. I need to choose the right technology tools that can prove business value. I need to always be testing to see what works and what doesn’t. I need to be agile. I need to act quickly but with a sense of certainty.

You need to learn from the best and challenge yourself to be better.

At times I feel like I’m in over my head and am struggling to stay afloat. I’m constantly honing my tech skills, learning new programming languages, diagnosing why a piece of javascript is breaking one my landing pages, coming up with creative marketing stunts, creating storyboards, writing blog posts, designing infographics from scratch and evaluating if certain SaaS platforms are a fit for my company.

My eyes are glued to Product Hunt, GrowthHackers and HackerNews day in and day out. I know how competitive it is out there, I know there are other marketers who are doing the same and I want to stay in the race.

It’s not easy. I’m constantly being reminded of how to do better. When I see Uber/Airbnb/Dropbox pull some crazy stunt that gets boat loads of press, I feel the pressure pushing down on my back to growth hack. Even though I know these ‘startups’ (if we can even call them that) are established and have huge creative minds and budgets to come up with these campaigns, all I can think of is why didn’t I think of that stunt first.

I have major moments of self-doubt and self-criticism, but what I’ve realized is everyone else does too, whether they publicize it or not. I keep in mind that from every one creative marketing growth hack or word-of-mouth stunt that makes it into the tech publications, there are about a hundred (or thousand) that bombed. This fires me up. You never know what sticks until you try.

As a marketing technologist you need to have a hand in everything.

At times I feel like I work in my own silo only because I can’t fully be a part of one team. I’m part growth, part sales, part business development, part developer, part designer, and dare I say part hacker. It’s a lot to juggle.

I’ve had a few people ask me how I got to where I am today (which I think is insane going back to the whole ‘everyone is faking it and no one knows what they’re doing), but I can only attribute most of my successes to mixing technology and analytics into my marketing.

I urge you to go take a coding class, be able to fix things on the fly and not have to rely on your dev team to hash out your to-dos. It’s so empowering, trust me.

You must stay on top of your game.

You have to give people a reason to talk about your company, brand or business. You have to invoke genuine emotion. Have your true north be growth. Focus on ways to grow your community and your audience and ask yourself, “Will this get me more fans, more users, more support?” If the answer is yes, try it. Test it. Monitor it. Revise it. I’m excited to see what you come up with.

[emmanemtin]

I finally finished designing a fully responsive website for my pops. Building websites from scratch ain't easy when you're a beginner, but it sure is satisfying. 

Take a look at it and let me know what you think! 

http://www.majorconradflapps.com

[emmanemtin]

Every once in a while I hit a gold mine on live chat at work. Love it when Americans sass Canadians. 

[emmanemtin]

How Google Works

Absolutely love this Slideshare from Google's execs on how their company works and how to inspire 'smart creatives'.

How Google Works from Eric Schmidt

[emmanemtin]

I chatted with Yonge Street Media about Hubba and how we're transforming the way brands and retailers share product content. Check out the full article here. 

[emmanemtin]

Work-life balance.

[emmanemtin]

Startups, ask your users these questions.

[emmanemtin]

Over the past few months I have heard this question come up: What is different about the Canadian shopper and what influences their purchase decisions? I created an infographic based on research from Google Insights about how Canadians shop online and offline.  If you haven’t ever checked out the studies Google Insights, there is a wealth of valuable information available to look at. I highly suggest taking a peek!

  The main research takeaways that stood out were the reliance Canadian shoppers have on smartphones for researching products right before the moment of purchase decision. Canadian consumers are more impulse shoppers than planners, and do most of their research either on the day of purchase or one moment right before the purchase.

[emmanemtin]

The Power of Visuals and How to Create the Perfect Infographic

Here's my latest presentation from my workshop with 8-13 year old girls about basic design principles and how to create infographics.

The Power of Visuals and How to Create the Perfect Infographic from Emma Nemtin

[emmanemtin]

I had such a blast teaching 40, 8-13 year old girls how to design infographics and become storytellers. Check out http://learninglabs.org/ for more info.