Mary Charleson

This presentation illustrates the power of leveraging word of mouth and customer delight as part of a social media content strategy, while uniquely positioning a business as an indispensable travel resource – be it as a travel agent, industry supplier, or destination marketing organization.

Participants learn how to leverage organic reach across platforms, utilize user generated content and leverage free marketing through publicity. Best practices for social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and TikTok are presented along with user profiles to align with a company’s target audience. 

The pandemic ravaged the tourism industry, and fundamentally altered consumer behavior forever. Utilizing user generated content, peak moments, experiential marketing, influencers, and reviews/ratings/comments as part of your content plan, this presentation helps travel industry clients build back and leverage their message.

Learning outcomes:

• Learn how to approach social media with an informed strategy that saves you time and effort
• Learn how to select social media platforms well aligned with your target audience
• Learn how to leverage word of mouth and storytelling through increased engagement and sharing
• Gain insights to maximize your free publicity

This presentation helps attendees think like a media company in their approach to marketing by using owned, rented, earned, embedded and paid media. The session focuses on the use of owned media – the stuff you control and produce content for such as e-newsletters and blogs, and explores the use of rented media – social media that you use to broadcast and engage, but are ultimately at the mercy of a landlord. Content explores in detail the use of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn as tools for broadcast and engagement in this capacity.

Attendees also learn about earned media – how to get free publicity, and embedded media – how to become a published or broadcast authority using the reach of an established media player like the Huffington Post, CBC or the Wall Street Journal. The session is rounded out with a strategic direction on utilizing paid media. Participants learn how to punch far above their weight and budget using content marketing, and leveraging all media platforms.

This presentation can be customized with examples drawn from a client’s industry to really make the content meaningful and actionable for your team. Available as a keynote, or adapted for break out or workshop format, this presentation is available in the virtual format as well.

Learning outcomes:

• Learn how to approach social media with a strategy that achieves your goals and doesn’t waste time.
• Learn how to leverage word of mouth and storytelling in your media efforts.
• Gain insights to maximize your free publicity.
• Learn how to use various media and marketing efforts to create a community with your customers.

Mary Charleson inspires business leaders to understand trends and generate new ideas to make marketing more effective. Pithy, often irreverent, but never short on actionable insights, information is presented in a compelling and memorable way; through storytelling, research, and short 5-minute segments on a variety of marketing topics. After gaining insights into the challenges that a business or industry is facing, Mary selects a series of 5-minute marketing insights to meet the client’s specific needs, while considering current market trends and opportunities.

Tired of other speakers losing your audience after the first 5 minutes? The unique 5-Minute segment structure of Mary’s approach keeps even the most attention-deficit challenged audiences alert and ready to put insight into action.

Constantly updated with insights from Mary Chareleson’s marketing presentations can stand alone as a keynote, or be modified for a breakout session or workshop. For smaller groups Mary uses a gamification approach, allowing participants to select the material and order that it is presented in a fun and memorable way.

The pandemic has caused considerable shifts in consumer behaviour and demanded a digital transformation for many businesses. This presentation will consider the top 10 consumer trends that will continue to have an impact post-pandemic. We’ll explore specific tactics to re-evaluate the customer journey in 2021, with an emphasis on finding opportunities in the gaps while leveraging digital tools and social media, to adapt and thrive.

We’ll address digital marketing best practices, as they continue to evolve with shifting consumer values and behaviour in the Covid-19 environment. This presentation can be done as a keynote with interactivity and Q&A at the end, or it can be adapted for break-out sessions and discussion in a longer workshop format. Each presentation is customized to be relevant to your industry, so examples and actionable concepts are meaningful for your attendees.

Customer service is now a major part of marketing because customers increasingly own our message and share it with others through word of mouth – both online and off. This means that online and in-person interactions matter more than ever.

During the pandemic, we witnessed dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour, and many of those changes have now become permanent. Managing the customer experience in this new environment has been challenging, particularly with staffing shortages and supply chain issues post-pandemic. This presentation explores the fundamentals of exceptional customer service in this new environment, as one of the best marketing practices you can implement right now.

We consider how the customer journey has shifted, and ways to validate pinch points in customer interactions, with an eye on finding opportunities in the new gaps. We also explore ways to maximize the positive impacts of customer interactions, as well as leveraging online platforms to support staff efforts. Customer “touch points” before, during and after purchase are framed from the in-person perspective and virtual online lens. And we drill down into industry segments to find customer service opportunities that not only maximize retention efforts but ensure existing and new potential customers continue to be strong brand ambassadors for you in their communities.

Expect a presentation that includes current marketing trends related to customer service and best practices, and some creative inspiration from both inside and outside your industry, to challenge your thinking.

This keynote can be delivered with a Q&A at the end, or as an extended time workshop where attendees can roll up their sleeves and participate in group exercises to generate ideas that will put best practices to work for your business or industry. This presentation is available in face to face or virtual format.

Learning outcomes:

• Explore each step in the customer journey with a post-pandemic lens, to ensure exceptional customer service
• Re-evaluate your communication channels to ensure you are where your customers are
• Learn new ways to leverage customer experience and brand story, so customers do your marketing for you
• Understand how to adapt new best practices for social media as part of your customer interaction efforts