Eugenie Bisulco, Founder and Principal at Choose Your Words Wisely Communications and Forbes Communications Council Member. All Photos Courtesy of the Members. One-way, authoritative advertising a la the Mad Men era is now almost completely antiquated. Today’s consumers don’t want short-term sales pitches; they want to invest their money in companies that invest in long-term relationship-building. Consumers want to understand a brand’s fundamental mission and engage in a continuous two-way conversation. They also want to interact with social media influencers who use a brand’s product as part of their everyday lives. This kind of authentic engagement is what generates brand loyalty.   Modern marketing, advertising and communications departments are undergoing a major shake-up, and rightfully so. Companies are experimenting with the best ways to utilize organic customer feedback to attract future customers instead of relying on static corporate advertising. Individual sectors may experiment with and benefit from different advertising methods to better reach their constituencies. In the non-profit realm, social media may still be the best way to create engagement, while other sectors may find that an investment in artificial intelligence (AI) will provide the biggest return.  For example, one of the next big trends in communications is an influencer and customer-generated promotional videos.

A recent survey of marketing professionals and online consumers revealed that 88% of businesses believe video is an important part of their marketing strategy, while 76% of those businesses report that video marketing directly drives ROI. On the consumer side, 70% of respondents said they have shared a brand’s video on their social media. Across all industries, it’s becoming increasingly clear that today’s audiences desire marketing as a two-way street. Clients, consumers and donors want to know that a product is authentic before they buy. They want to assume the power to make their own well-educated purchasing or philanthropic decisions.  Forbes Communications Council member Eugénie Bisulco is a New York-based marketing and communications expert, as well as Founder and Principal of Choose Your Words Wisely Communications. With over 25 years of experience in the communications industry, she honed her ability to tap into iterative, consumer-generated, loyalty-building advertising strategies during her time as Vice President of Communications for a major nonprofit in Queens, NY. She believes most organizations in most sectors can capitalize by adopting an attitude of flexibility and experimentation in their marketing. Bisulco says her success is based not on trying to predict or anticipate a sales pitch that will resonate with her target audience, but on letting her target audience pitch what they want to hear. Her consumer-guided marketing strategies involve consulting trends and metrics to engage her constituency better. 

Bisulco believes it’s crucial for organizations to pay attention to how their specific audiences use social media, without making any assumptions. While Facebook used to be the zenith of social media advertising, recent statistics show a sharp decline in consumer engagement. Metrics from the Pew Research Center indicate that almost half of Facebook users have taken a break in the past year. Perhaps even more compelling: Over a quarter of Facebook users have deleted the mobile app.  “At first, our audience seemed to gravitate toward Facebook, so we increased our posting there. But then LinkedIn became more popular, so we shifted our focus,” Bisulco says. LinkedIn, once an advertising desert, may now be poised to become the next big social network, especially for brands. Social media habits are always subject to change as new sharing features and platforms arise. Brands should never rest on their laurels and assume consumers will always be reachable through the same avenues.

Bisulco believes many brands can benefit from taking consumer-generated marketing a step further by appointing customers to advisory boards. “Bringing former clients on as advisors and spokespeople helps current and future clients feel more confident in your brand,” she says. “If you can encourage employees or board members with a lot of followers to create video content representative of your product, that’s an inexpensive and authentic way to attract new customers. I’ve always believed that the best influencers are those that have a personal connection to the brand, so internal communications and employee synergy are often just as key as client participation in a company’s success.” Ultimately, Bisulco says, the most successful advertisers will always think of themselves as consumers first. “We are all consumers, so it really doesn’t take particular expertise in communications to know what appeals to us when we are considering a donation to a non-profit or figuring out where to buy the best olive oil,” Bisulco says. “And the thing that drives my purchases is most often the belief that a product or service actually works and is loved by other people like me.” For more information, check out Eugénie Bisulco’s executive profile click here. To learn more about Forbes Communications Council and see if you qualify for membership, click here.