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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Both consumer and business audiences often respond more to visual communication than written content. Photos and videos tend to be more entertaining and visually stimulating, and consequently create longer-lasting audience engagement than written content does.  

While video has already told many brand stories, the platform started to get even more attention once COVID-19 hit. With a need to connect, audiences sought out video stories that could both inform and provide some comfort during an uncertain time. Although the intent of heightening brand authenticity remained the same, the video storytelling that’s emerged since COVID-19 illustrates how it can also be an effective crisis story management tool. 

Let’s look at examples of companies that created story videos during the COVID-19 crisis to support customers and grow their brands. Messages within these brand storytelling examples have evolved from what marketers developed prior to the crisis. They can provide insights into the strategy to take when producing platform-specific content during difficult times. 

Before exploring video storytelling in a time of crisis, it’s important to define the concept and understand how the tactic has previously been used. 

Brands have used visual storytelling to grow closer to a specific audience by sharing the story of the company and its product. Developed through marketing and sales efforts, the video’s narrative walks the viewer through a pain point or issue the audience experiences. 

The video story then uses the narrative to involve the audience by building an emotional connection. The combination of emotions, music, and visuals transforms the video into a personal story for the audience. The solution offered to the customer completes the authentic effect while never making the viewer feel as if they were just sold something.  

A crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic has demanded much of people, including isolation, while they wait and wonder what’s going to happen. The loneliness and uncertainty drive them to spend more time online, looking for connections. Video often becomes the missing human connection because it offers information and familiarity. 

User-Generated Content: Examples from VSCO and ADT

Launching a product in the midst of a crisis can be difficult. However, one brand found a way to use video storytelling to drive awareness of its new product. 

VSCO (Visual Supply Company) is already a popular tool for creating and editing visual imagery. The company wanted to introduce its new Montage tool, which allows the app’s users to compose video and use it as a storytelling tool. VSCO reached out to its audience to create and share with the tool, expressing how they felt during the current crisis. They encouraged relevant hashtags like #VSCOMontage and #VSCOCOVID19.

In this way, their target audience could see and experience what the tool could do, while simultaneously enjoying an outlet to express and connect in a challenging time. It led to extensive, creative user-content in the form of video storytelling for VSCO.

Security solutions company ADT also focused on user-generated content for its “Safe at Home” video marketing campaign. The company used the campaign to connect its brand to security and safety in the home year-round. It also served to remind customers that the shelter-in-place mandate is the best strategy to stay safe during the pandemic. 

In the video stories, viewers can see individuals and families coping with the stay-at-home order. The stories featured multiple demographics so audience members could connect more easily. This was intended to provide comfort, familiarity, and security, which also reflected ADT’s brand values. 

Safe at Home

Shifting Perspectives: Examples from IKEA and Guinness

In a time of crisis, video can be a good way to shift the viewer’s perspective away from stress and anxiety to something more positive. This is something you didn’t see as often with videos produced before the crisis. Ikea did this with a series of videos that tell the story of a person’s house—with the house as narrator. The idea was to go from dread and isolation to the security and enjoyment of a home. 

In the process, Ikea was also able to align its values of helping its customers create a home that is meaningful to them with the experiences they will have there. 

The images displaying what a home means provided a way to redirect viewers to the comfort and connection people can have with their homes and families. 

Your house has something to tell you - Anuncio IKEA

Guinness took a similar approach with video storytelling to get its audience to refocus on positive perspectives. St. Patrick’s Day celebrations were essentially canceled around the world, so the beer maker created a video story that reminded its audience of resiliency and celebration. Using images that spanned the brand’s centuries-long existence, Guinness was able to show how it has survived many crises, including two world wars. 

This campaign tied the idea that everyone becomes Irish on St. Patrick’s Day with the reality that we are all human every day. It offered a touching message that connected St. Patrick’s symbols, including Guinness beer, with the ability to still celebrate, thrive, and be kind to each other. 

A St. Patrick’s Day Message From Guinness 2020

Here are some recommendations for engaging video storytelling during a crisis:

Acknowledge the crisis but build your video story off of it into something that is more positive and hopeful for the audience. 

Look for ways to see and show the crisis from the audience’s eyes. 

Align the narrative and story resolution to brand values you share with your audience.

Focus the video story on doing the right thing in the face of adversity or turning a challenge into a solution that benefits the community or society. 

Include user-generated content to diversify visual images and illustrate the array of personal stories.

How to Use Video Storytelling Effectively in Times of Crisis

Imagine you're networking after an event and discussing best practice around engaging prospects, existing customers, and driving marketing revenue. Email marketing is mentioned as one channel to leverage. Half of the group nod their head in agreement with the benefits described, while the other half proclaims that “email marketing is dead."

I'm sure you've been there. I certainly have.

"Email marketing is dead" is a quote that’s often used in communication circles, which I find interesting, as research proves that consumers beg to differ.

Campaign Monitor found that 72% of people actually prefer to receive promotional content through email over other forms of marketing channels. So why is this phrase frequently cited by marcomms professionals?

The problem isn’t that email as a marketing channel is dead. The problem is that companies are failing to build engaged email lists and craft emails that strategically move audiences along the customer journey.

Today, consumers are inundated with emails. According to McKinsey, the average person is said to receive around 120 emails per day. And email shows no sign of slowing down! By the end of 2023, Radicati Group predicts that worldwide email users will grow to more than 4.3 billion.

There's still clearly a lot of opportunity for brands here. That’s why we’ve dedicated this article to help you find the right consistency of urgency, attractiveness and effectiveness to successfully implement in your email marketing strategy.

Read on to hear our email marketing tips that can be used to grow email lists, develop relationships with subscribers and increase the ROI of your efforts!

How do you make an email campaign more effective?

What does a good marketing email look like?

Before we share our top email marketing tips, let’s first make sure we’re all on the same page by clarifying what exactly we mean by the term.

We like how email marketing experts, Mailchimp, describe email marketing as: 

A form of direct marketing that uses email to promote your business’s products or services.

So why invest in this communication practice? Well, the benefits of email marketing are vast! We’ve listed some of the reasons why email marketing is so important below.

Increase brand awareness: The chances of your landing page getting in front of consumers is much higher when leveraging email compared to social media. You see, 90% of email marketing campaigns get delivered, whereas only 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed due to updates in algorithms reducing organic reach. Furthermore, the reach of email is much greater than the reach of social media. In 2019, the number of global e-mail users amounted to 3.9 billion, over a billion more than Facebook’s 2.6 billion monthly active users.


Nurture relationships: Not only are email campaigns a great way to educate prospects and customers, but they're also fantastic at nudging audiences through the customer journey. By communicating with audiences in ‘lull’ moments, for example after they abandoned their cart, brands can develop deeper relationships with customers and speed up the sales process as a result. 


Benefit from cost-effectiveness: According to an eMarketer study, the median email marketing ROI is 122% - that’s four times higher than any other digital marketing channel. To give you a monetary ballpark figure, DMA found that for every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI.


Drive action: Whether you’re trying to get customers to fill out a form or visit your website, the purpose of email lies in intent, which makes them a great marketing tool for driving leads and revenue! 24% of visitors from email marketing buy something as compared to 2.49% of visitors from search engines and 0.59% from social media, according to a survey conducted by Monetate.

And it’s not just those who work in marketing that benefits from email, PRs also see value in leveraging this as communications tool too, as we discussed in our previous webinar Email Marketing for PR Pros. But while the above advantages might sound appealing, there's one thing to get started with email marketing and another to build a solid email list. In the next section of this article, we'll offer marketers tips for growing their marketing database.

There's no denying that brands who see high return in email marketing are those that build and maintain an engaged list of subscribers who actually want to read what they have to say. Marketers based in the EU know the importance of this all too well...

In May 2018, the GDPR legislation took the marketing world by storm when it wreaked havoc on the number of subscribers to marketing databases. And even outside of the EU, buying lists are now either illegal or frowned upon - and rightfully so! Since the volume of opted in subscribers has a key role in how successful an email marketing campaign and strategy is, many marketers are having to rethink how they sustainably go about growing their marketing database.

So if you’re still struggling to get your marketing database looking like it did pre GDPR, or if you’d simply like to understand how you can quickly boost your subscriber numbers, we've jotted down a few tips to follow! 

Install a ‘subscribe to our marketing database’ pop up on your website for first-time visitors

Ensure your marketing database subscription button is visible on all landing pages

If your marketing database is small, but your social media community is thriving – tap into your online fans!

Incentivise new subscribers to sign-up by running a competition or offer a discount

Invest in “lead magnet” content. This is content that can be sent in exchange for email addresses, for example, ebooks, cheat sheets, webinars etc.

Use email software that can help you make sense of your CRM data and optimise segmentation through advance analytics. 

While the benefits of a strong email marketing strategy are clear, competition for eyeballs on emails is relentless. Inboxes are a noisy space and standing out is difficult.

Put yourself in your reader's shoes. You're likely to have 32 tabs open, a ringing phone, a sea of notifications and an eight-second attention span while you skim through your email. When you think about that, it's clear that spending 2 hours putting a witty subject line together isn't guaranteed success. Regardless of how incredible your content might be, if it’s not well put together, then in the words of Ariane Grande, it’s “thank you, next!”

To help increase the chances of winning the attention of your audience, follow the below email marketing pointers.

Don’t overlook the importance of focusing your message. Trying to cram too many messages in one email can be confusing for your reader. If you have to send multiple messages, then we’d recommend breaking them up into a number of emails so that each can be as concise and short as possible. Attention-grabbing subject lines are important, but make sure the content of the email is aligned so that you don't come across as click-baiting. 

These days, “Dear Sir/ Madam” just doesn’t cut it. Personalisation is now expected by customers, so don’t turn them off by taking a generalised approach. We’re not saying you need to know their favourite ice cream flavour (FYI brands, mine is cookie dough) - calling them by their first name is a good start. Next, segment your audience by key characteristics, such as whether they’re customers/ what product/s they’ve purchased etc. Breaking your subscribers into smaller groups will help you send more personalised and relevant emails. In addition to this, segmentation also has a positive impact on open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates.

Hyperlinks are great for readers who want to navigate to more content and they’re equally as great for us marketers since they’re trackable. By UTM tracking email landing pages and hyperlinks, you can get a much better idea of your customer’s journey and the type of content they’re interested in.

Having no-reply@domain.com isn’t the friendliest move, nor does it encourage engagement with customers. Instead, it makes it clear that it’s a mass-send and takes away any personalisation efforts you've made. Moreover, no-reply email addresses are also more likely to be flagged as spam, meaning it’s less likely that your email will even end up in your audience’s inbox!

Your design has to be flawless and your content laser-focused, to ensure this, consider the below:

Invest in an email builder: We get it, you’re a marketer, not a graphic designer. But what if we told you that a comprehensive email builder can allow you to be both? Builders come with pre-built intuitive templates, so you don’t have to sweat if you you're lacking technical knowledge or graphic design experience.


Skip to the good bit: Put the most important information first for people who are short on time (that's why we suggested putting a number of CTAs too). Furthermore, don’t forget to use headings and bullet points to break the content up into scannable bite-sized sections.


Create mobile-first content: Research shows that mobile is preferred nearly 2:1 over webmail, so if you’re not ensuring your emails are user-friendly, you’re losing out. Send sample mails and open them on your phone to be certain.


Pick a palette: Keep it simple and choose around one or two brand colours so that your design looks clean. Speaking of brand imagery, don’t forget to feature your logo somewhere on the email so that audiences know this is official communication. We’d recommend including this in the header section. 


Blank space is good: Don’t feel like you have to cram as much information into the email as possible. Blank space is good as it allows your reader to focus on what’s important, and they’ll become less distracted from your message as a result.


Make the form simple: When it comes to forms, only ask your audience to fill in critical fields. If you’re keen to capture more information about them, look into progressive profiling rather than asking for all their information at once.

Find out the best time to send marketing emails

We’re often asked, “when is the best time to post on social media?”, and the answer applies to email too.

Truth is, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all best time to send a marketing email.

The best time to post depends on when your specific audience is active. There are industry averages that you can use in the first instance, but it’s important to A/B test when you send emails so you can find your own audiences sweet spots. Good email marketing platforms will provide this information for you, which leads me on to the next point!

You can make your life a lot easier by following in the steps of the majority of marketing professionals and investing in an email marketing platform, also known as email marketing software. The application of email marketing tools are wide, but they're most commonly used to automate email workflows, A/B test messaging, manage subscribers, and optimise reporting. There’s a whole bunch of email marketing platform vendors out there, however, we’re big fans of the below:

Psst. If we’ve missed out your favourite email marketing platform, drop us an email on hello@meltwater.com and tell us why you’re advocates and we’ll look into including them!

While the metrics used to understand if you’ve been successful at email marketing depends on your campaign goal, the most common metrics adopted are open rate, click-through rate (CTR) and unsubscribes. Let’s take a look at each of them in more detail.

Open rate: Your open rate will tell you how well you’ve built your relationship. If the number is low, it means that people have started to delete upon receipt, which means you need to work harder on providing value and/or managing expectations.


CTR: If your CTR is low, it means that your message is either not targeted enough, or simply not getting through. In this case, focus on improving your copy.


Unsubscribes: If your unsubscription rate is high in relation to your opt-in rate, then you’ve passed the point of building value and writing good copy – you’ve got some work to do.

Wait until open rates and CTRs are high and unsubscriptions are significantly low before you take action – if it’s just a couple here and there, don’t take it personally.

Tip: Learn how to Measure Your Email Campaign Performance.

Before we wrap things up, we thought it would be cool to leave you with a few email marketing examples; we’ve tried to include a good mix of B2B and B2C campaigns to inspire you. Enjoy!

The reason why we love it: This is a great email that triggers intent. Asana cleverly encourages new subscribers to get involved with the app by highlighting key features and showing how easy it is to use them.

Tip: Read our Meltwater customer story with Asana to learn how media intelligence helped them grow their business.

The reason why we love it: It's clean and straight to the point.

The reason why we love it: It's a very clever way of driving referral subscriptions as well as brand trust.

The reason why we love it: The layout makes it easy to understand the three key focused messages of the email.

The reason why we love it: The email is a cleverly disguised #humblebrag that also gives the reader something free - what's not to love!

So there you have it, a list of email tips to use and squeeze the most out of your marketing database. Hopefully by now you have a better idea of what goes into a successful email marketing strategy and best practices for optimising your efforts. Eager to learn more? Check out our on-demand webinar How to Win at Email Marketing. Want to add to our email marketing tips? Our inboxes are always open – tell us what worked for you and drop us an email on hello@meltwater.com

How to run a successful email marketing campaign

An innocent man died on the 25th of May 2020. The man was unarmed, forcibly pinned on his neck from behind, under the crushing weight of a man’s knee. For eight minutes and forty-six seconds, this man pleaded for mercy. He never received it. The thought of such brutal imagery of this attack may even leave a hardened individual speechless and scarred. The worst part is that it was inflicted by an officer of the law. George Floyd died while in police custody, in front of helpless members of the community, unable to save the forsaken man.

What is more jarring is that other police officers stood by, almost senseless and devoid of emotions in the face of the tragedy. A man accused of using counterfeit money was left begging for the life that the broken police system was robbing him of. And this incident is a familiar one. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. Dreasjon Reed. All African Americans who have died at the hands of civilians. And these names only go back to February this year. There have been many more in the past and these wrongful acts should not be allowed to fester within the police system. 

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement arose from such a killing after the death of an innocent African American - Trayvon Martin. In 2012, the young man was killed by a civilian who wanted to exercise his right as a citizen to arrest - just like the police - and later on, was acquitted of the heinous crime. The movement was formed to voice against the injustice that the police, and those who support the atrocities, against the African American community. Like going through the five stages of the Kubler Ross model - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance - the community has shown collective grief through the years. But actionable change is needed now instead of acceptance. This systemic cycle of violence needs to end.

Hate is too great a burden to bear ~ Martin Luther King

So how can this happen again and again eight years on? Unsurprisingly, the incidents of police brutality against the African American community in the United States have been grossly normalized in its system. Culturally prominent African Americans have repeatedly documented the systemic problem in the police - from Tupac Shakur to Dave Chappelle to even Pulitzer Prize recipient Kendrick Lamar - the racial profiling and brutality refuse to end. In 1991, Rodney King was savagely beaten by a gang of police officers. When the four officers were subsequently acquitted of their crime a year later, riots tore across the West Coast - reminiscent of the restive violence that has recently razed the streets across several countries such as the UK and Australia. Police brutality against the African American community, especially the male youths, has been so pervasive in the community that it has become a form of cultural reference.

Many have spoken out against the injustices. Knees have been bent on the sporting fields. Even the most eloquent and only African American president Barack Obama has taken the pedestal to voice his concerns. Alas, all those words have fallen on deaf ears. Like rapper Killer Mike’s agonizing call to halt unrest, the people have made social media their bastion to “plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize”. Words of anger seething through the medium, more than 143 million mentions of the cause since Floyd drew his final breath. Fists raised, bandannas wrapped around their mouths to temporarily practice personal hygiene during a pandemic. Even President Obama admittedly said he could have been one of those who have died in the hands of the police. 

So where do we go from here? With almost four million mentions per day, elaboration on the topic is exactly what needs to be done. Mainstream media have been reporting on the issue, more than a million times, and that comes with wide-ranging opinions and perspectives. This satisfies the first course of action - the education and awareness of the problem and finding ways to address it. And this is where the next dimension is important - the people who are not affected by the problem, the ones with the privilege of still being served and protected by the men in blue. Those with privilege are now tasked with exercising their ability to further support their African American communities and demand wholesale changes to the system. This final stage of mobilizing their support is integral to force law and policymakers to draw lines in the sand. An immediate victory for the movement came when the authorities banned the controversial carotid restraint technique used to pin down Floyd since his death.

Knowledge is important and there are tons of online resources available for one to absorb as much information on the matter. Truth be told, there are many excellent sources out there on the internet but the number of questionable ones makes it much harder to decipher the complexities of the issue. Below are some of the many organizations and movements that provide essential and thought-provoking information.

Films and series to watch: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBBotbHFGvc/

As an organization, Meltwater is taking action in empowering our African American members of the community. We will be pursuing partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to offer greater opportunities and collaborative work. We are also partnering with diverse student organizations at target schools to reach out and connect with the communities. Internally, we will be conducting diversity and bias elimination training for our hiring teams. We will also be establishing employee resource groups that are specifically focused on diversity and inclusion within our organization. Finally, we are offering complimentary access to our platform and consultancy services to non-profit organizations that are championing the causes of social justice and racial equity. With these actions in place, Meltwater aims to drive out cultural biases within our organization, advocate a harmonious society, and make our offices welcoming for everyone. 

I can’t breathe. A plea for those who were suppressing his ability to live. His ability to lead a life he once knew. But those pleas were left rejected by brute force, one that stemmed from an endemic nature. However, Floyd’s pleas left an indelible mark on the rest of the society to ensure that not another strange fruit is left hanging on the poplar tree. Another martyr for the cause of the fundamental human right to live without fear of arbitrary persecution. We heard the pleas and now we are breathing that hope for him - and countless others - through our actions.

Black Lives Matter: A movement That Should Matter to All

No matter how compelling your website content and your marketing materials, it's pretty common for customers to need assistance before and during a sale. While you could funnel them to a customer support call center or message link, what if you could anticipate their questions and immediately serve up friendly assistance without leaving the page? That's where conversational marketing comes in.

Conversational marketing is an approach that uses two-way dialogue (a conversation) between a company and its prospective customer. Using tools such as chatbots, live messengers, and real-time video to close a sale, conversational marketing takes a more personal approach than broadcast-message-style traditional marketing.

While it may not yet be as ubiquitous as email, Hubspot's State of Marketing report found that 45% of those businesses surveyed are using bots as part of their inbound marketing strategy. And it's not just consumer tech companies who are early adopters of this new approach to customer engagement. The Drift 2019 State of Conversational Marketing report found that this is not a niche marketing strategy, with a range of industries now putting chatbots to work:

How Conversational Marketing Fits into Your Marketing Strategy

While chatbots can't replace a live one-to-one conversation in all cases, the Drift report found consumers are willing to use chatbots in a wide range of situations:

Getting detailed answers or explanations: 29%

This provides several opportunities for marketing and communications professionals to put their institutional knowledge proactively to use. For example, rather than rely on salespeople exclusively to convey new product features or promotions, your chatbot can be programmed to provide as much detail about new offerings as a consumer desires—using the same on-brand messaging you so carefully crafted as part of your advertising and social media marketing strategy. 

In situations with high communications volumes, a quick response can be the difference between keeping a situation calm or escalating into a crisis. Chatbots can be a critical part of a strategic crisis response plan, giving all your audiences’ immediate access to information they need. 

These applications not only lead to satisfied customers, they can also significantly decrease corporate customer service costs. Autodesk’s customer service chatbot, using IBM’s Watson Conversation platform, has delivered significant ROI, including cutting the average response time for resolving issues from 38 hours to 5.4 minutes, with the chatbot answering over 30,000 queries per month. Customer service issues that previously cost $15-$20 each when manually processed are now handled by a virtual agent for $1 per query.  

The Importance of Tone and Voice in Conversational Marketing

Getting the tone and brand voice right is critical in all your content and communications, but it’s even more critical in conversational marketing. After all, its effectiveness hinges upon encouraging conversation. That means if your brand is typically formal and conservative in its marketing content, you’ll need to spend some time thinking about how to stay true to your brand while not making customers feel like they're talking to a protocol robot from a science fiction novel. 

An easy way to check if you’re conveying the right tone is by having your team use your bot and read aloud their queries, followed by the chatbot’s replies. If the communication sounds stilted when you hear it read by a human being, you need to refine it. Conversely, it is also important to ensure your chatbot can recognize a change in tone from the human it’s interacting with. If a person becomes upset, which can be indicated by specific language or an increase in typos or speed of their replies, for example, your chatbot should be programmed to hand the conversation off to a trained customer service person before things escalate.

Tip: Learn how to use chatbots to improve your sales

Three Tips for Getting Started with Conversational Marketing

While conversational marketing has the potential for significant improvement in customer experience and organizational cost-savings, it can also backfire. A customer who has a bad experience with your chatbot—or worse yet, never receives a response from your messaging tool, may not give your brand a second chance to make things right. With this in mind, here are three tips for getting your go-to-market plan off to a good start:

Start small. It’s fairly simple to add a chatbot to your Facebook page, for example, that can provide answers to questions that commonly come in through that channel, such as store hours, directions, and other simple queries. Take existing FAQ documents, and expand from there to add queries that come in that weren’t on your list. 

Always answer. If your chatbot gets a request it can’t answer, make sure the system has a way to let the person who submitted the query know it needs to refer the question, and provide a commitment to respond. Drift found 42% of chatbot users expect a response within 5 seconds, and 36% within 5 minutes or less. 

Provide an easy out. Sometimes, a chatbot misunderstands a query. Or a customer has such a specific question, it’s not possible you could have anticipated it. Make it easy for someone to click-to-call or live chat with someone directly from the chat window. You don’t want your customer to feel like they’re on an automated phone tree endlessly saying “operator” trying in vain to get someone somewhere to help.

Conversational Marketing Examples: 3 Brands Who Are Doing It Right

The best way to get a feel for how conversational marketing can transform your customer experience is to try it out for yourself first-hand. Check out these three brands that show the possibilities for creating a seamless multichannel experience, with conversational marketing.

With the Starbucks app, frequent sippers can order their usual cup to go using a voice command via Amazon Alexa or through the app’s built-in messaging. When your coffee is ready, the bot lets you know and allows you to pay for your order and even tip, allowing for an easy contactless ordering experience. The app makes it easy to regularly re-order multiple drinks, and learns your preferences over time, all leading to an improved customer experience.

Not all conversations need to involve words. When you use the Sephora app, you have the opportunity to upload a photo—or take a photo live—to use a bot that helps you find a lipstick shade that color matches its hue. No, it’s not going to have the same level of color matching as bringing that bridesmaid dress into the store with you. But getting to see a color on your lips (through augmented reality technology) at home and being given a few different brand and shade options does give you the confidence you are making a smart purchase.

While the app itself makes it easy to get to where you need to go, the integrated bots take it a step further. You can order a Lyft through a Slack or Facebook chatbot or by a voice command to your Alexa. Then, the app sends you updates on the status of your ride. It’s especially convenient for Apple Watch users who can receive a photo of the car’s license plate directly on their watch screen.

For a crash course on the technology trends that are starting to shape how customers interact with brands, watch our webinar with Greg Cress, a leading digital transformation expert from Accenture. 

Don't Miss Out On The Power Of Conversational Marketing

It’s difficult to say exactly when social media began, but you could argue that it really started with blogs in 1999 when LiveJournal was launched. So that means social is now 21 years old, the traditional coming of age milestone, which is oddly appropriate because this is the year it really had to grow up.

The year started dramatically, with some of the worst bushfires in history raging across Australia and apocalyptic images being shared with the world. The issue amplified discussions around man-made climate change, and social mentions of this topic peaked at nearly 1.3 million on January 5th.

On the other side of the world, the UK finally left the European Union on January 31st. This topic has dominated the country’s media agenda for the past four years, with social media serving as the battleground for the often bitter Brexit debate. When the day of departure finally arrived, social media mentions of Brexit peaked at 1.2 million.

Both of these events seemed huge at the time, especially in the countries where they occurred. But 2020 was just getting started.

Towards the end of January, the volume of online discussions about Coronavirus already exceeded those of Brexit and the bushfires combined, and that was just the beginning. On March 14th, mentions of Coronavirus topics reached a peak of 29 million, as the impact of the pandemic became clear.

Although the volume of Coronavirus discussions has steadily declined since that peak, even today, months later, it’s still a huge topic of conversation compared to those events at the beginning of the year. For most people the main consequence of the pandemic was global lockdown, with millions forced to remain in their homes and, since mid-March, that too has been a significant topic of discussion on social channels.

There was still more to come. Following a series of racially motivated murders, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, protests broke out across America and other countries in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s difficult to track the volume of discussions for all of the issues around this event, because there are so many different threads to the conversation, but our best analysis is that social media mentions of Black Lives Matter related issues peaked at 18.3 million on June 2nd. It’s probably higher.

To put the sheer size of all this into context, last year’s biggest news story was arguably Donald Trump’s impeachment, and on the day that occurred, December 18th, it was mentioned approximately 6.1 million times. This year’s Super Bowl got 6.3 million mentions. Both big events, but both also dwarfed by two separate stories in just the first half of 2020.

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