Business Growth and Marketing News & Tips 3-20-22

Let’s briefly talk about edutainment. (Edu-whaaat?)

The word is a combination of education and entertainment and it was supposedly named in 1973 by a smart guy named Bob Heyman. But, we’d like to go back even further to a hero of ours, Walt Disney who did an amazing job entertaining us, while also selling to us during his weekly Disneyland shows starting in 1954.

When Uncle Walt spoke, his first goal was to entertain his viewers. But at the same time, he was actively selling. He sold people on his movies. He sold people on his products. He sold people on completely new concepts like Disneyland which were foreign concepts to people at the time. To sell something so unique, he had to resort to a unique way of selling!

As marketers and business owners, we can follow Walt’s lead, because people are tired of being marketed to. Even in 1954, Walt knew that it would be hard to “sell” Disneyland. He needed to entertain first. Then he educated and endeared himself to his target audience. He needed this approach to help people understand the value of his product and how it would ultimately give families something new, fun, and unique to do together. But he couldn’t use a traditional sales approach. Through edutainment, he was able to sell without actually selling. And it worked like a charm.

How can you use edutainment? We’ll talk more about this in the future. Regardless of your content format, here are some angles to get you started!

• Demonstrate – Show your audience how something works in an engaging way.
• Educate – Don’t just show them, ensure that they understand how your product or service can help them solve a problem or simply make their life better.
• Tell stories – Everyone loves a good story. Educate and demonstrate by telling a really great story.
• Inspire – Inspirational stories are wildly entertaining. Everyone needs a little inspiration from time to time and they can create emotional connections.
• Use humor – Many stories are better if you can add a little bit of humor along the way.
• Create wonder – Disney has always used the word “magic”. How can you create a sense of wonder and excitement that feels like magic for your brand?

MARKETING AND GROWTH NEWS

What you need to know:

Google is trying to improve your experience online. But it could be a lot of work for marketers in the end.

Gen Z can see right through your marketing efforts. Only 8% of the generation thinks brands actually understand them.

Facebook How advertisers are faring after Apple’s privacy update.

User-generated content – ways that you can collect it.

TikTok The ultimate guide.

Twitter 2022 Trends Report.

Twitter Shares New Insights into Rising Topics of Discussion.

Google confirms that internal linking is super important for SEO success.

Google Marketing Live will be held on May 24th.

Google has suspended all advertising in Russia.

Small business How I grew a candle store into a multi-million dollar business.

Instagram Stats that Every Social Media Manager Should Know.

Other business stories that we’re watching…

Disney’s Bob Iger is investing in the metaverse.

Covid is surging in China and it could interrupt manufacturing, tech production, and business in general.

Jobs February’s jobs report shows a gain of 678,000.

Nasdaq 100 is down 20%.

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates for the first time since late 2018 this week.

Government The Senate approved a $1.5 trillion spending bill that will fund the government for the current fiscal year. 

PODCAST

How to successfully start something new (Part 2)

Today on the Academy we’re going to be taking a short break from business growth advice, and looking back to find inspiration and advice about how to “start” something great. This might be a new business. But it could also be a new product, division of your company, or even starting a new hobby or reaching a personal goal.

Listen now and subscribe!

EMAIL MARKETING

Expand the Value of Your Newsletter List with Email Automation

The value of an email newsletter list is no secret. When someone commits to receive your newsletter in their inbox periodically, they are signaling their interest in your brand and what you have to offer. This subscription gives you an important opportunity to directly reach these people with advice and news, as well as products and services they may want to purchase. 

Of course, it can be hard to manage an email newsletter list and it’s not easy to extract maximum value from this asset. With the article that follows, we want to offer some practical, actionable advice on how you can make your list more effective as a marketing and sales tool. You have worked hard to build this list; implementing email automation tactics can help you secure more rewards for that hard work.

Read more about automation

EXPLORE

Hubspot?

Have you heard about Hubspot? Let us guide you down a path that will fulfill your needs and help your business integrate and utilize the full potential of HubSpot and Inbound. Sanctuary is an Ohio HubSpot Solutions Partner and we’re ready to help you grow your business.

Get our newsletter in your inbox

Viewing this online? Sign-up to receive all this great information and free content in your inbox. Sign-up here!