WebProNews

Category: DigitalAgencyPro

News and trends in the world of digital marketing for agency insiders.

  • Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying, Says Bombora VP

    Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying, Says Bombora VP

    “It’s really about customer experience,” says Nirosha Methananda, VP of Marketing at Bombora. “I think that is something fundamental to marketing. I feel like we have gone down this path of almost over automating and having to constantly pounce on people without necessarily being conscious and mindful of what their experience is on the other end. From my experience, it’s leading to me switching off and ignoring messages. I’m sure I’m not the only one. That’s basically why I’m passionate about creating a marketing strategy that’s not annoying.”

    Nirosha Methananda, Vice President of Marketing at Bombora, discusses the challenges of marketing without annoying your potential customers by bombarding them with marketing messages in an interview with Logan Lyles on the B2B Growth Podcast:

    Marketing Is Really About the Customer Experience

    As a B2B marketer, I get marketed to a lot. It’s something that I have increasingly noticed and I’m probably not the only one. That’s just becoming part of the experience in terms of being inundated with different messaging and different calls and this, that, and the other. Use this, do this, buy this, whatever it is. It’s really not a great experience. It doesn’t necessarily provide value. Marketers are so busy as it is, and I know that is applicable across the board with everyone we are marketing to. Being able to cut through the noise and having an understanding of all these different things is very challenging. 

    Having on top of it being inundated with this constant flow of messaging like meet me, meet me, meet me, is not very helpful. That’s one of the things that I’m passionate about. It’s really about customer experience. I think that is something fundamental to marketing. I feel like we have gone down this path of almost over automating and having to constantly pounce on people without necessarily being conscious and mindful of what their experience is on the other end. From my experience, it’s leading to me switching off and ignoring messages. I’m sure I’m not the only one. 

    Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying

    It also leads to this annoyance and irritation which leads to distrust of brands and that’s not great for this industry. From a customer perspective those bad experiences, unfortunately, more than good experiences, they stay with you for longer and you remember that. Another thing that we don’t necessarily think of is that it’s wasteful. It’s wasteful of time and it’s wasteful of money especially for marketing and sales where money is a precious resource. It’s not something to be wasted. That’s basically why I’m passionate about creating a marketing strategy that’s not annoying.

    As an example, our Intent Event was our first flagship event that we did last year. It was a closed event so we did have limited numbers and we were limited as to what we could do with promotion. What we did was try to have mindfulness around what we were sending out and ensuring that it was helpful. Making sure that the recipients, the people that we invited, were given all the relevant information, but there was brevity in the communication as well as encouraging them to participate without forcing them to be there. 

    There was certainly some urgency around some of our communication but it wasn’t you need to attend this and this is why you must attend this. It was more about being a bit more subtle in presenting them the idea and the concept of what it was, why it would help them, and exactly the information that they needed. What that meant was not sending out multiple emails, being very controlled around it, really thinking about what the experience was before the event, to during the event, to after the event. We were really focused on the customer and making sure that all of the content and communication was educational and helpful.

    Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying, Says Bombora VP Nirosha Methananda
  • B2B Influencer Marketing Adds Up To Nurture and Ultimately Conversion

    B2B Influencer Marketing Adds Up To Nurture and Ultimately Conversion

    “We co-create content with (B2B Influencers) in concert with brand messaging,” says TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden. “So now instead of people just ignoring the press release we actually have storytelling happening with these different voices. You have this intersection of one or two or three or four influencers talking about this topic and those audiences intersect and cross. Your customer is hearing this credible message not only from the brand but also from people that they trust in different channels. That all adds up to yes. That all adds up to nurture and ultimately conversion.”

    Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing, discusses how B2B influencer marketing can be a highly effective force in driving leads and conversions for companies. Lee was interviewed by Tim Washer at the 2019 Content Marketing World Conference & Expo:

    Influencer Marketing Is Powerful Because Of Influence Itself

    Influencer marketing is powerful because of influence itself, not about the people. Influence has always been a factor in being persuasive and being effective as a communicator, as a marketer, and really being able to tap into the dynamics of that. The psychology and sociology of that is something that is everlasting, it’s evergreen. While there are trends in terms of tactics that come and go, there’s this consumerization of B2B. B2C influencers are misbehaving and have fake followers, etc. and some of that’s leaking over into B2B. But I think that’ll reconcile a little bit and kind of clean itself out. In the future brands are going to be looking at influence as a really key component of their holistic marketing strategy internally and externally.

    A lot of people when they think of influencer marketing they think of a Kardashian or some people think of something like Baddiewinkle, a 90-year-old woman who wears hip-hop clothes and now has her own makeup line on Sephora versus someone like Tamara McCleary interviewing an executive at Dell about the right IT infrastructure for doing edge computing. That’s really what it’s about in B2B.

    B2B Influencers Actually Have To Have The Main Expertise

    One of the big differences between B2B and B2C influencers is that in B2B you actually have to have the main expertise. You actually have to be knowledgeable and have a depth of that expertise in what it is that you’re influential about. It’s also important to have a network for distribution and a place to publish your content. It’s great to have a personality and that’s less common in B2B, where you have charisma. Well, lack of personality is a form of personality I suppose. 

    The good thing is that we’ve figured out ways to coach folks that have that domain expertise and an active following but they’re not necessarily used to being social. We are coaching them in how to activate themselves and to pull out the best of what they have to share in a way that’s very promotable. Many of them start to open up a little bit after we show them how to do it.

    B2B Influencer Marketing Adds Up To Nurture and Conversion

    In the planning stages (with a client looking to promote something) we’ll look at the topics that are important around the announcement and how it affects customers and how customers will think of that news and how it’ll affect or change their lives. Those topics are then what we want to be influential about. We’ll use those keywords or topics to search our network using influencer marketing software to find who is influential around those topics, who’s publishing content, who self-identifies around that topic, and whose audience is actually activated around that topic. We find those people who have trusted voices with an active community and we invite them to collaborate on content and give their opinion about the announcement. 

    We co-create content with them in concert with brand messaging. So now instead of people just ignoring the press release we actually have storytelling happening with these different voices. You have this intersection of one or two or three or four influencers talking about this topic and those audiences intersect and cross. They intersect across channels too. Your customer is hearing this credible message not only from the brand but also from people that they trust in different channels. That all adds up to yes. That all adds up to nurture and ultimately conversion.

    B2B Influencer Marketing Adds Up To Nurture and Conversion – TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden
  • Conversational Marketing Closes the Gap Between B2C and B2B, Says Drift Marketing VP

    Conversational Marketing Closes the Gap Between B2C and B2B, Says Drift Marketing VP

    Conversational marketing is a whole new way of thinking about marketing and sales, says Dave Gerhardt, VP of Marketing at Drift. “We go to our jobs in B2B and none of the tools that we use match how we actually buy as real people,” he says. “That’s the most exciting thing to me about conversational marketing. It’s really closing the gap between B2C and B2B. We just call it B2P, marketing to people.”

    Dave Gerhardt, VP of Marketing at Drift, was recently interviewed on the B2B Growth podcast by John Rougeux who is VP of Marketing at Skyfii. Gerhardt discusses conversational marketing as a new B2B product category and how it is changing marketing from reaching out to you later to a conversation that is happening now:

    Conversational Marketing is About Connecting You Now

    Conversational marketing is a whole new way of thinking about marketing and sales. The traditional way of doing marketing and sales is all about later. Come to my website and fill out this form and somebody is going to reach out to you later, when it’s convenient for them. The big shift that is happening in marketing and business over the last five to ten years is customers have all the power today. You can’t make people wait. Information is free now.

    I can find anything I want to know about a company without ever having to go to your website. It’s crazy to think that you are going to force people to go to your website, fill out a form, wait three days to hear back from your sales team, and then get a demo. Conversational is all about connecting you now with the people who are ready to buy now while they are live on your website.

    B2P – Marketing to People

    It’s not about buyers. It’s not about sellers. It’s not about sales. It’s not about marketing. It’s about people. That’s how people all communicate online today. I pressed one button in my car and I got a list. I ordered something from Amazon while I was here this morning to send back to my house and it’s going to be there tomorrow when I get home. There are countless examples of that. That is how we all behave online in our real lives today.

    But then something happens weird happens. We go to our jobs in B2B and none of the tools that we use match how we actually buy as real people. That’s the most exciting thing to me about conversational marketing. It’s really closing the gap between B2C and B2B. We just call it B2P, marketing to people.

    What Ties Our Products Together is Conversation

    We have an email product and we have a landing page product. Black and white versions of those people would say everybody has email, everybody has landing pages. The thing that ties those together is conversation. That forces us to think about what is conversational email? What is conversational landing pages? What is conversational whatever? That one word forces our product team to think about how can we change this? If our fundamental stance as a company is that the internet should be one conversation, then how does that weave into everything that we build?

    Ultimately what we care about is that email becomes a conversation. Meaning, the way that marketers have had to use email the last decade is a one-way channel. Email is meant to be a two-way channel. Marketers have been using it as, “John come to my webinar.” What happens if you actually respond to that email? Most of the time you can’t because it’s donotreply@ or it just goes to some inbox where nobody is answering it. That is a terrible experience. Our belief is that if you reply, “Hey actually I can’t make it. Can you reregister my colleague?” That should get handled. We are thinking of that from an evolution standpoint.

    The same thing with landing pages. Most landing pages today are static. You go to the landing page, put a bunch of info in and you are gone. What if that was a real-time conversation on the page? That one topic has to weave itself into everything we do from a product perspective.

    >> Listen to the complete interview with Drift Marketing VP Dave Gerhardt on the B2B Growth podcast.

  • TrenDemon CEO: We Connect Content Marketing to Sales

    TrenDemon CEO: We Connect Content Marketing to Sales

    The CEO of TrenDemon, Avishai Sharon, says that they created their cloud-based software solution in order to help companies prove that the marketing content they produced also achieved business goals and sales. In order to show this correlation, the TrenDemon software analyzes all of the different touchpoints the customer has had over his lifecycle and then reverse engineers those successful journeys in order to find out what content is working.

    Avishai Sharon, Co-founder & CEO of TrenDemon, discussed their software on ILTV:

    How Do You Connect Content Marketing to Sales?

    My personal background was heading a marketing agency for many years and one of my biggest struggles was how do I prove our value and our effort to our customers and how do you connect the impact of what we call content marketing to business goals and to sales? When we couldn’t find an easy way to show that correlation three and a half years ago we went ahead and founded TrenDemon to help companies do just that.

    We connect their marketing efforts, which today rely mostly on content, you want your audience to consume valuable content, as opposed to just advertising. The big challenge is how do you attribute those efforts to sales? There’s actually a prior problem, how do you actually map the customer journey? How do you track those different touch points into one picture?

    Reverse Engineering Successful Customer Journeys

    The first thing we do is look at all the different touchpoints that a customer has had over his lifecycle. We ask the question, not just where do they come from, but how deep was their engagement? Did they actually watch the video? Did they actually read the article? Then you can start reverse engineering those successful journeys and say what’s common about all of these successful journeys.

    What we found, and this is the interesting thing, we’re working with over 90 companies today worldwide and the vast majority of content the companies produce, over 90 percent, is ineffective at driving business goals. As you guys know it’s very expensive to create quality content and it takes a lot of effort.

    If People Read the Right Content They Will Covert to a Sale

    The second interesting thing is that if you do manage to find those 10 percent and you find a way to get it in front of the right people you’re actually able to improve dramatically your results. So there’s not just a correlation between what buyers did beforehand, there’s also a causation, a causal relationship, that if people read the right content at the right time they’re more likely to follow a path. We’re not probably as sophisticated as we believe that we are.

    We’re a SaaS company, a cloud-based solution. We’re working a lot in the US and one of our biggest markets and growing markets is Japan. They’re investing a lot of content and a lot on technology. Essentially, because we look at the customer journey and not necessarily specific languages we can operate in any environment which allows us to grow pretty much anywhere. As long as they have content, which means that they’re producing something other than just advertising, they want people and audiences to actually engage with what they’re producing and they do have some business outcomes that they’re looking to measure.

    About TrenDemon:

    Founded in 2013, TrenDemon is the world’s leading content marketing attribution and optimization solution, helping marketers prove and improve their content’s impact.

    TrenDemon insights can help you uncover your content marketing ROI, impact on business goals, and engagement to help guide the content strategy. Our optimization units will help you increase conversions and shorten time to convert on your owned assets.

    TrenDemon proudly serves a wide range of customers, from Fortune 500s and brands to SaaS, B2B, and financial companies and is backed by leading VCs.

  • Adobe CEO: Pandemic Was Inflection Point For Everything Being Digital

    Adobe CEO: Pandemic Was Inflection Point For Everything Being Digital

    “What the pandemic and the current health situation has done is that it has created yet another inflection point for everything being digital,” says Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. “The importance of digital in the marketplace is going to be sustainable for decades. You’re not going to put the genie back in the bottle as it relates to engaging digitally and creating content digitally.”

    Shantanu Narayen, Chairman and CEO of Adobe, discusses how the pandemic has created another “inflection point” in the move toward digital transformation:

    Digital Transformation Is A $120 Billion Opportunity

    It was a good quarter all around. All of our businesses performed exceedingly well. On the Creative Cloud and the Document Cloud, not only did we have a great acquisition. in other words, new customers adopting the platform, but we really focused on engagement and demonstrating the value of our products to our customers. Even our retention levels came back to pre-COVID levels which we believe is a really good sign.

    What’s happening in the world is the businesses that we’re in, namely creativity and enabling people to tell their story, what’s happening with documents and accelerating document productivity, and what’s happening associated with every single enterprise needing to engage with their customers digitally, when you add all of this up we think it’s over a $120 billion of an addressable market opportunity for Adobe.

    Pandemic Was Inflection Point For Everything Being Digital

    What the pandemic and the current health situation has done is that it has created yet another inflection point for everything being digital. What we will have to continue to monitor is what happens in the spending environment. But as it relates to the overall need for the kinds of solutions that Adobe provides as well as the importance of digital in the marketplace I think that’s going to be sustainable for decades. You’re not going to put the genie back in the bottle as it relates to engaging digitally and creating content digitally.

    We believe that we’re in this third phase of what is happening in the enterprise. Traditionally, businesses first focused on automating the back office, and then they focused on automating the front office for knowledge workers. It’s absolutely clear that the biggest imperative that exists in the enterprise today is how do you engage with customers? This is a category that we call Customer Experience Management.

    Customer Insight Is Key To Your Digital Transformation

    If you’re an enterprise today and you’re thinking about digital transformation, what’s top of that stack in terms of where you have to invest is to make sure that you have insight into what your customers are doing. How are they engaging with you? What’s the profile? How do you deliver the personalized experience?

    We really believe that what you’re seeing in the enterprise spend environment is that the companies that are focused on this next generation of delivering customer engagement, the customer experiences, and the insight associated with how to take the most advantage of that data, they’re going to be the secular winners moving forward.

    Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen: Pandemic Was Inflection Point For Everything Being Digital
  • Digital Agency Growth: Navigating Growth for the Future

    Digital Agency Growth: Navigating Growth for the Future

    The pandemic hit small businesses very hard, as studies show that over 95% of small businesses were affected. Nearly 60% had to lay off a substantial number of their employees, and almost 30% of small businesses had to close their doors entirely. In addition, there is a gender disparity. On a global scale, 20% of women-led small businesses reported closing in comparison to 16% for men-led businesses. Digital agency growth can help us get there.

    Planning for Small Business Growth

    Fortunately, the future’s looking brighter for small businesses everywhere. In 2021, the global closure rate for small businesses fell from 24% to 18%. Also, Americans created 2.8 million more online microbusinesses in 2020 than in 2019. Nearly 70% of those plan to grow their microbusinesses full-time, while a much smaller percentage state that they are still working to get on their feet. The future is digital for many of these small businesses. 45% are planning for a future online, and almost 30% are already working on it. 

    Despite these hopeful developments, it is still important to prepare for the unexpected. Many small business owners are fully responsible for all aspects of their business, such as sales, client management, or hiring. As a result of this, many are too terrified to leave their businesses for even a short vacation. In addition, 3 in 4 report not feeling prepare for their #2 to take temporary leave. The bottom line is that most small businesses are not prepared for unexpected success. More specifically, over 96% cannot handle a sudden influx of leads, and over 80% cannot handle a new client.

    Impact of Digital Agency Growth

    Now is the time to plan for digtal agency growth. Reports show that by 2024, small businesses could add 2.3 trillion to the global GDP growth. Therefore, it is vital to create a complete and optimized business system. This allows for easy delegation and performance tracking, making it simple to identify strengths and needs for improvement. What has been dubbed a “Scale Map” can be used to track workflow, tech stack, documents, training, and metrics. Workflows refer to steps to track progress, and tech stacking helps to streamline processes to run more efficiently. Documentation is the foundation of organizing assets, and training enables all employees to reach their full potential. Metrics measure the efficacy of the entire process overall. 

    Closing Thoughts

    While there are many factors that may be holding small businesses back, there are so many methods to ensure that one’s business is left working like a well-oiled machine. Making the switch to a digitally focused platform has been shown to be the most successful way to grow and conduct business in a post-pandemic world. In fact, over 60% of businesses that have shifted to a digital platform report planning to maintain and expand those options moving forward. 

    In addition, 20% of small businesses report having dramatically changed their models since the start of the pandemic. Overall, preparing one’s business for the unexpected can be the key to future success especially in a time that is so uncertain for entrepreneurs across the globe. 

  • Microsoft Advertising Adds Target Impression Share Automated Bids

    Microsoft Advertising Adds Target Impression Share Automated Bids

    Microsoft has released its August product updates, including Target Impression Share automated bidding.

    Manually managing a search campaign can be a tedious process, especially when trying to stay at the top of the results. Microsoft’s August update aims to help address that with Target Impression Share automated bidding.

    “A new addition to our suite of automated bidding strategiesOpens in new window is the exciting new Target Impression Share strategy, now available in Microsoft Advertising online and Editor,” writes Kevin Salat, Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft Advertising. “With this strategy, you set your budget, where you want your ads to appear, and your Target Impression Share, and Microsoft Advertising automatically sets your bids.”

    Microsoft is a distant second to Google in search market share. Nonetheless, rolling out features that continue to make it easier for customers to use its services can only help it gain ground.

  • Is TikTok Replacing Google?

    Is TikTok Replacing Google?

    Digital marketing entrepreneur Eric Siu, asks an interesting question, “Is TikTok the NEW Google?” The idea is that younger people are starting to search immersive social apps like TikTok and Instagram directly instead of searching Google.

    “Is TikTok going to replace Google? 40% of 18-24-year-olds report that they are using apps like TikTok to search for things like lunch. The engagement on Google Maps is also starting to grow down. In addition, people are now using fewer keywords to discover. They prefer immersive experiences instead.”

    “Now, things are changing quite a bit because Google is actually starting to index Instagram posts and TikTok posts. If you use Google as much as I do for my business or you do any search marketing at all, stay tuned.”

  • Oracle Turns to AI to Automate Digital Marketing With Fusion Marketing

    Oracle Turns to AI to Automate Digital Marketing With Fusion Marketing

    In an industry first, Oracle is using artificial intelligence (AI) to help automate digital marketing.

    AI is revolutionizing a wide range of industries, but Oracle is applying it to digital marketing campaigns, with its newly announced Fusion Marketing platform. Unlike many lead generation systems, that merely raise brand awareness, Fusion Marketing is specifically designed to generate leads.

    Fusion Marketing uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically score leads at the account level, predict when consumers are ready to talk to a salesperson, and generate a qualified sales opportunity in any CRM system.

    Oracle hopes Fusion Marketing will address the disconnect many salespeople feel when using a CRM system, where siloed data often works against making a sale. Oracle’s new system is designed to address that and accelerate marketing campaigns by automating the lead generation process from end-to-end.

    “It is time for our industry to think differently about marketing and sales automation so that we can transform CRM into a system that actually works for both the marketer and the salesperson,” said Rob Tarkoff, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience. “This is not about forecasts and rollups or a reporting tool to see how the sales force is performing, but instead about turning CRM into a system that helps sellers sell. A huge part of that change is bringing marketing and sales teams together and eliminating the low-value, time consuming tasks that distract from building customer relationships and closing deals. That’s why we have invested so much time engineering a system that will help marketers fully automate lead generation and qualification and get highly qualified leads to the sales team faster.”

    Oracle’s Fusion Marketing is just the beginning, as experts say AI will continue to transform digital marketing.

    “Machine learning algorithms are integral to digital marketing and that will only increase over time. The best digital marketers have embraced this fact, and have already shifted their focus towards more human-first activities. Machines are better at crunching numbers and making data-driven decisions. But they still need humans to decide what data to feed into those systems. This comes from understanding human behavior, a deep sense of empathy, and expert-level storytelling that are hard to replicate through AI.” – Dennis Consorte, Digital Marketing Expert and Expert at Digital.com, told WebProNews.

  • Tim Cook: ‘We’re Not Against Digital Advertising’

    Tim Cook: ‘We’re Not Against Digital Advertising’

    Tim Cook has set the record straight that Apple is not against digital advertising, it simply wants to give consumers more control.

    Apple is at odds with the advertising industry over changes to iOS. Apple recently began enforcing privacy labels, forcing app developers to disclose what user information they collect and track. iOS will soon include App Track Transparency (ATT), forcing apps to ask users for permission to track them.

    Unfortunately, the advertising industry seems to suffer the belief that it has an inalienable right to track users, and build detailed profiles of them, with or without their permission. Thankfully, Apple is opposed to that view, and holds to the idea that people should be able to decide for themselves whether they are tracked and profiled — not the have the decision made for them by advertisers.

    In an interview with the Toronto Sun, via AppleInsider, CEO Tim Cook clarified the company’s stand.

    “We’re not against digital advertising,” Cook said. “I think digital advertising is going to thrive in any situation, because more and more time is spent online, less and less is spent on linear TV. And digital advertising will do well in any situation. The question is, do we allow the building of this detailed profile to exist without your consent?”

    Cook framed Apple’s actions in the context of protecting its users.

    “We feel so much that it’s our responsibility to help our users be able to make this decision. We’re not going to make the decision for them. Because it’s not our decision either. It should be each of ours’ as to what happens with our data. Who has it and how they use it,” Cook continued.

    Cook also addressed why companies like Facebook and Procter & Gamble are so opposed to Apple’s efforts. P&G has even gone so far as to work with a Chinese ad agency to find ways of bypassing ATT.

    According to Cook, these companies are only concerned because they’re facing a reality where they may not have access to the same amount of data as before, and they would only lose that access if customers choose not to give it to them. Rather than accept that change, their approach is: “You don’t want to give us access to all your data, so we’re going to try to find ways around your choice and collect your data anyway.”

    Regardless of whether you’re an Apple or Android user, Apple’s stance on privacy is a refreshing one — one where the customer comes first.

  • We Are a Marketplace That Sells Demand Generation, Says Grubhub CEO

    We Are a Marketplace That Sells Demand Generation, Says Grubhub CEO

    “We are a marketplace that sells demand generation,” says Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney. “We sell growth. That’s what our primary product is. We’re not a logistics company. We do logistics because we know that’s an end to get to restaurant growth and make money off our logistics. The gross margins on the logistics are not fabulous. The gross margins on the demand generation are fabulous which is why I differentiate between a logistics company and demand gen company. If you’re selling consumers, you’re selling growth, and you can charge a lot for that.”

    Matt Maloney, CEO of Grubhub, discusses with Jim Cramer on CNBC how Grubhub is in the business of driving growth for restaurants and is not just a logistics company:

    The American Public Has Just Adopted Digital Ordering

    This is our fifth anniversary of our IPO. The market now is ten times what I thought it was five years ago. It’s because the American public has just adopted digital ordering as their preferred way to engage with their local restaurants. We are not just marketing to Millennials. We are marketing on national television across all channels, all time zones, and hitting all segments. We just see that people realize that digitally ordering on their app or on their desktop is just easier.

    Of course, our ad campaign is working. I wouldn’t have it on TV if it wasn’t working. You think about it this way. You know your LTV, your lifetime value of your customer, once they start ordering we know that they’re lifers. They’re on forever. We can make that revenue model and then we know how much it cost to put the ad on there. So yes, over time, as people see the ad, more and more it becomes less and less effective. But we’re nowhere near our LTV.

    https://youtu.be/qpyVP-JhToc
    Grubhub National TV Commercial

    I have always been willing to be extremely aggressive investing in the future. Historically, I was bound by the amount of money I could invest. The reception of these communications just weren’t hitting the public and they weren’t working as well. Then around the third quarter of last year, we saw that we could spend way more than we had historically. I’m just talking about effectiveness. Spending it effectively. We came to the street on our third quarter earnings call and said we see opportunity and we are going long in the fourth quarter.

    Yum Made $200 million Investment – They Believe in Our Story

    People are going to say where’s the beef, the old Wendy’s commercial. They’re like show me the money. (We don’t have Wendy’s) but everyone talks to everyone in this industry. I think over time exclusivity is just not going to happen. (We have Yum) and Yum is the biggest restaurateur in the world. YUM is an incredible brand which includes Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. They are very forward-thinking. They invest in technology a lot and they wanted to make a fundamental partnership and we wanted to understand what the brands needed from a partner.

    Yum made a $200 million investment because they believe in our story. We didn’t need the investment because we have a very healthy balance sheet. What it did it was really bringing the support of the young brand and the franchisees into Grub. As a tight partnership, we’re able to execute on technology and growth for them in a way that nobody else in the industry is doing right now. I totally disagree (that we aren’t making money from this partnership).

    We Are a Marketplace That Sells Demand Generation

    We are a marketplace that sells demand generation. We sell growth. That’s what our primary product is. We’re not a logistics company. We do logistics because we know that’s an end to get to restaurant growth and make money off our logistics. The gross margins on the logistics are not fabulous. The gross margins on the demand generation are fabulous which is why I differentiate between a logistics company and demand gen company.

    If you’re selling consumers, you’re selling growth and you can charge a lot for that. That’s the profitable side. Everyone else in my industry is a logistics company which has razor thin margins. One of my competitors said they’re the next FedEx. Do you really want to be the next FedEx? There’s the multiple that we can get as marketplaces and there’s the multiple that logistics companies can get.

    Everyone Would Prefer to Order Digitally

    I think that everyone in the country would prefer to order digitally than order on the phone. That’s why we acquired Tapingo. It’s an incredible acquisition because it gives us further scale on campuses. Tapingo is a pickup focused product. So here’s what you need to think about. We sell growth, we sell orders. I don’t care if that’s a pickup order, a delivery order, a self-delivery order, or a catering order.

    Everyone else in my industry only does delivery facilitated by that platform. Because we partner with the restaurants (which means) the restaurants are subsidizing part of our transaction fee, we are always cheaper. That’s what people don’t understand. There’s a lot of bait and switch pricing going on (from competitors).

    We Are a Marketplace That Sells Demand Generation, Says Grubhub CEO


  • How to Go From Freelancer to Agency Marketing Professional

    How to Go From Freelancer to Agency Marketing Professional

    The freelance life can be great for skilled marketers in SEO, web design, or copywriting. The truth is that so many freelancers don’t want to go into the office. Remote work is growing around the world which could mean incredible opportunities at agencies are opening up. A number of digital marketing agencies have gone completely remote in the last two years. You could see a huge bump in your income depending on your skills and past experience. The following are tips to transition from a freelancer into agency life. 

    Update Your Resume and LinkedIn

    Updating your resume and LinkedIn is imperative when looking for a job. You might even have a recruiter reach out to you about a role that fits your profile. Jobs come from all angles in today’s digital age which you should keep in mind. If you have accomplishments you are proud of, list them and do not be modest. Launching a new website without losing search engine rankings then improving organic traffic for a business is a great example. 

    Social media can be quite damaging when you are looking for a job. You might have never had a traditional job as the lifestyle freelancing allowed you to have was good enough. Social media profiles can be full of things that you would rather not share with a potential employer. Digital marketers are notorious for finding things online that you would rather not. 

    Find a Job You Know You’ll Love

    Working in marketing in a particular industry might be something you have envisioned. Getting into top marketing agencies might have required you to move to New York or San Francisco in the past. Indeed and LinkedIn can make it as easy as ever to apply quickly. Don’t get discouraged if you are getting constant rejections before or after interviews. Look at the interviews as a form of practice for when you find a job you know that you are perfect for.

    Finding a job when you are already generating income can allow you to pick one you love rather than like. You most likely do not need a job but want to get back into agency life or see what it is about if it is the first time. The one aspect that you need to keep in mind is that without agency experience, you might actually be taking a pay cut. There are those people that have worked as contractors with agencies which can suffice. 

    Keep Your Current Gig Going For a While

    You might be working extremely long hours with your new job and freelance work. Scaling down your freelance work is an option but this should only be done when you are comfortable in your new role. The extra money is something that you will be happy you’ve worked hard for. There might come a time where you have to completely scale your freelance business down. If you have loyal clients, you might be able to start working with them if you decide working for an agency is not your cup of tea. 

    Get Ready For Zoom Meetings

    Freelancers might jump on a Zoom call with a client monthly or just to get things started. Agencies are full of client meetings and internal meetings. If you don’t like meeting virtually, you are going to have a tough time at an agency. Some agencies are better about sending a detailed email out for a topic that others would schedule a meeting about. 

    Your Schedule Will Be Set

    You are going to have to work certain hours with your agency team even when working remotely. As a freelancer, you probably set your own schedule which allows for a lot of freedom. Even in a remote work role, you will be giving up flexibility you have when freelancing. 

    Agencies Can Be Stressful

    Agencies differ immensely but there are some where there always seems like something is going wrong. You could inherit a job from an individual that was so far behind that it is hard to believe. The last thing anyone wants is to work for an agency that is a dumpster fire in more ways than one. 

    The transition from a freelancer to an in-house or remote agency marketer can be tough. The perks could be plentiful as certain skills could be valued immensely. Getting a director position could lead to a massive salary with bonuses quarterly. Create a list of pros and cons before making any decisions as it could become clear what the right choice is.

  • LG: We Know What Users Want — More Ads On Their TVs

    LG: We Know What Users Want — More Ads On Their TVs

    In the latest example of unadulterated greed, LG is planning to serve its users even more ads on TVs they have spent hundred of dollars on.

    As we have pointed out many times in the past, it’s one thing for companies like Google or Facebook to make money selling ads to people. They are, after all, providing their services free-of-charge. When a customer spends hundreds of dollars on a piece of hardware, however, there’s a certain expectation that they will get to enjoy that product ad-free.

    Those days may be over, if LG Ad Solutions has anything to say about. Not content to charge a premium for its TVs, the company is evidently planning on bombarding its users with even more ads. Unlike traditional TV commercials, these ads are in LG’s smart TV interface, meaning there’s no way to easily avoid them when using the built-in features.

    “We’re turning the tables for advertisers, making performance not just something brands aim for, but something that is actually guaranteed,” said chief executive officer Raghu Kodige. “Whether driving sales, conversions, or customer acquisition, advertisers struggle to quantify ROAS for TV spend. We created this extensive program as the starting point in a new paradigm for TV-driven outcomes in which marketers are assured every CTV ad dollar hits the bullseye.”

    Worse yet, the company plans on greatly expanding the metrics it uses to track the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

    The conversion metrics program will begin immediately with app installs and is available globally. More conversion metrics such as tune-in, web visits, physical location visits, and more, will be available in the coming months both in the U.S. and globally. 

    There’s just one thing LG seems to have forgotten: Advertisers aren’t the ones buying their TVs, meaning advertisers should not be the company’s prime concern — its customers should be. 

    Fortunately, users still have a way to opt out, albeit at an added expense. Users who don’t want to see LG’s ads should not give the TV internet access and use a third-party device, such as an Apple TV, instead.

  • Google Experiment Is Adding Favicons to Ads

    Google Experiment Is Adding Favicons to Ads

    Online ads may be on the verge changing significantly, with Google testing favicons within ads.

    Favicons are those little icons that show up in browser tabs when visiting certain websites. They’re a way for websites to add a little more branding, but many users find them annoying and distracting. What’s more, browser favicons have been exposed as a privacy risk, allowing bad actors to track users’ activity.

    Evidently, Google still believes favicons may have a place in advertising, and is testing their inclusion, according to a tweet by Google’s AdsLiason account.

    This is part of a series of small experiments to help users more easily identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads they may see for a given query.

    AdsLiason (@adsliason), January 24, 2022

    There’s no indication when Google will make a final decision.

  • It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture, Says CMO

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture, Says CMO

    “When I think of brand architecture it really gets to the essence of the brand,” says Buffalo Wild Wings CMO Seth Freeman. “The essence of the brand is around this idea of camaraderie and ritual and something that we like to call “game on.” It’s our ability to make sure that when folks come in to experience Buffalo Wild Wings that we have a game on mentality and that we bring them the very best of who we are.”

    Seth Freeman, Chief Marketing Officer of Buffalo Wild Wings, was recently interviewed on Adweek’s CMO Moves podcast with Nadine Dietz. Freeman discussed their new “game on” brand architecture that defines not just their new marketing strategy but really the heart of the business. “The purpose ultimately is really about inspiring legendary experiences between friends,” noted Freeman:

    Turning Good Times With Friends Into Great Times With Brothers

    When I think of brand architecture it really gets to the essence of the brand. There are three components to it in the way we framed it up.  They are the promise, the essence, and the purpose. We identified an insight out there that guys want to turn good times with friends into great times with brothers. More accurately, legendary experiences with brothers. That was the cultural insight that really framed our brand architecture.

    When we think about our purpose we defined our promise as the great American sports bar that turned game time into stories worth telling. It wasn’t just about inviting folks to watch a game. It was about translating that into an experience worth telling. That’s what folks are really looking for. That’s the promise that we deliver on every single day. That’s why we get up. That’s why folks are going out there and doing the job that they do and delivering a great experience.

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings

    Our purpose ultimately is really about inspiring legendary experiences between friends. The essence of the brand is around this idea of camaraderie and ritual and something that we like to call “game on.” It’s our ability to make sure that when folks come in to experience Buffalo Wild Wings that we have a game on mentality and that we bring them the very best of who we are. We have 80,000 folks out there working across Buffalo Wild Wings and they bring it every single day.

    https://youtu.be/AkGZHYM-D90
    It’s Game Time at Buffalo Wild Wings!

    As we were talking to consumers, one of the things we learned was that some of the most impactful experiences that they talked about was with the bartenders and servers. They are influencing whether or not those folks come back. For instance, one of the most memorable experiences they talked about was the bartender remembering them when they came back.

    That is our brand architecture, but it also lends itself to things we have done in rolling out this purpose to the broader community through our Brand Champ Initiative. That really is a cultural movement that we are employing across our franchises and corporate stores. We have over 1,200 locations where folks are trained to make sure that the brand architecture is translating to a way that is meaningful to the consumers and also meaningful to the folks that are on the front lines every single day.

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture


  • Amazon SEO is Now More Important than Google SEO for Brands

    Amazon SEO is Now More Important than Google SEO for Brands

    Amazon has dethroned Google in product searches with over 54 percent of all product searches now happening on Amazon instead of Google. What this means is that brands must make Amazon SEO their priority in order to show up near the top of product searches for their related keywords.

    It’s predicted that an entire industry is in the midst of emerging to help companies adjust their strategies similar to what happened when Google first started to dominate search a couple decades ago.

    Walled garden research company Jumpshot released The Competitive State of eCommerce Marketplaces Data Report earlier this month which shows Amazon’s amazing eight-point rise in product searches in the last year alone.

    Recently, Deren Baker, Jumpshot CEO, revealed the latest results from their report in a Bloomberg Technology interview with Emily Chang:

    Amazon Leading Google with Product Searches

    We have seen a shift from Google to Amazon. Today over 54 percent of all the product searches that occur on the entire internet now occur on Amazon. Once you get into Amazon we’ve seen a strong growth in the number of sponsored placements that they put on their site. The product views that emanated from a sponsored click has increased from 3 percent to 7 percent in the last 18 months.

    We think that Amazon and Google are converging. We did some additional analysis at Jumpshot that shows that from the time a consumer searches on either Google or Amazon to the time that they buy was actually much shorter on Google. On Google, 35 percent of those purchases were made within 5 days, only 20 percent on Amazon.

    Amazon Becoming a Place for Product Discovery

    What you are seeing is that Amazon is becoming a place for product discovery for customers more and Google is shifting from pure product discovery to more of that considered purchase. When people are interested in understanding the price or the quality or the brand name they’re going away from Amazon back to Google now.

    Once you get to Amazon, 90 percent of the product views are actually the result of a search. So people aren’t messing around with merchandising placements or banner ads, they are typing a search for a product into Amazon and getting a search result. Once they get that search result we found that over two-thirds of the clicks are on the first page.

    Amazon SEO is Now More Important than Google SEO for Brands

    Imagine if you are a brand, you know that the majority of your customers are now searching for your product on Amazon. You know that once people get to Amazon what they are doing really doing is typing in a product search. Then once you get that search result you’ve got your competitors products, Amazon’s private label products, and you have to decide whether you are going to try and increase your organic results or pay for a sponsored placement. It’s a very confusing world for a brand today.

    I would not want to be a brand manager at a CPG company right now because I think you are between a rock and a hard place. I think what you will see in the future is the same way that an ecosystem of companies sprung up around Google search when it started to dominate peoples online behavior, you are going to see the same thing for Amazon search. What people are going to need is a non-Amazon source of information to help them understand what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to spend their advertising dollars.

  • How Do You Measure the Success of a Content-Driven Marketing Strategy?

    How Do You Measure the Success of a Content-Driven Marketing Strategy?

    Content marketing is reshaping ecommerce for companies large and small. That’s because marketing is about trust first and foremost and marketers are realizing that quality content builds trust quicker than traditional advertising. Tim Turner Forman of a new startup called The Tot and Matt Osias of Hawke Media recently discussed how to start a content-driven marketing strategy.

    Why is it important to resist the urge to have your content do the selling?

    Tim: What we do at The Tot is provide trust and advice and mindfully curated products. For it to be considered trusted advice it needs to come from a credible real place. It needs to be authentic and it needs to come from experts, people who know what they are talking about. At The Tot we work with a network of experts around the globe to create parenting content. What first-time parents are looking for most is information and they are just as likely to turn to a website as they are to go to a doctor and they are even more likely to go to a website than to ask their own Mother. If we are able to develop and curate content of moms sharing to other moms, that develops a relationship and provides values for them.

    How do you measure the success and performance of a content-driven marketing strategy?

    Matt: When you consider measuring in general, there are so many different formats that are out there that people can leverage. Oftentimes, people are saying… well I want articles for my blog. What type of article are you looking for? What is the goal of that piece of content? Are you trying to drive organic search and bring in new audiences so they can learn who you are or are you trying to engage them a bit more with videos and infographics? Every single format has a very specific measurement.

    Beyond that, your measurements are somewhat different than your basic media buying for example, where you spend a dollar and hope to make back three, or some version of that. When we are looking at content marketing, especially when it is brand agnostic, the real important ideal there is to think about how can I actually give something to my audience that resonates with them, teaches them and solves a problem. Then ultimately, your brand is there waiting for them.

    Awareness, Engagement, Advocacy

    The three things that I look at are awareness, engagement, and advocacy. The first thing you would want to do in building a content marketing strategy is to consider the idea of awareness, giving awareness to the people you are working with. Then having intent-driven content. People are asking questions in Google all the time and they are getting answers. If your site has the answers in its content, especially if it’s early stages, then that’s going to do something that most (ecommerce) sites aren’t doing, which is to put eyes onto your site, without the brand and product coming into play at first.

    With this brand agnostic content, the bulk of your content is primarily text-based content. With measurement I look at eyes on site and what they are doing when they get there. Are they jumping around to different pages or are they bouncing right away? When you bring in somebody to your site where it is solving something you have to have something that is engaging to keep them there and keep them coming back.

    Tim: We definitely watch inside of Google Analytics to be able to see the pageviews, what people are doing, and how they move from the editorial side of the site to the product side of the site. We also use content as part of our marketing program. It’s definitely an upper funnel prospecting piece.

    Quality Content is Just as Important as Ad Spend

    Tim: As somebody who came from an ad agency working with clients who had large ad spends and then coming to a start-up to help them grow and find customers, we didn’t have a large ad budget. What we did have though is this wonderful bank of content. This quality content has become just as important as the ad spend. Every month we put together a new prospecting campaign with a variety of articles and then we keep some evergreen pieces of what performed and that gives us a really good indicator of the type of people we are able to draw and attract to the site. It’s very contextually targeted so somebody that is clicking and looking at an article titled, “9 Ways to Prepare for a New Baby,” is probably going to be our customer.

  • SEO 2018 is All About Branded Search Queries

    SEO 2018 is All About Branded Search Queries

    SEO pioneer and Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin was recently asked about the future of SEO and how SEO agencies and marketers should adjust to these changes. Rands says that SEO has changed to the point that the traditional SEO focus on generic related keywords for your products and services is becoming obsolete because of how Google now displays search results.

    See below for highlights from Rand’s thoughts on the changing SEO landscape:

    There is definitely this problem in the SEO space where the amount of opportunity in SEO (is lessened), because of Google entering all these business sectors and taking away of a lot of the clicks and trying to solve the searchers’ query before they ever click.

    This means that you just don’t have as much opportunity to earn search clicks from this search engine anymore.

    Branded Search Queries

    How can we overcome that? I think the answer in SEO is pretty clear, which is the one thing that Google is not taking away from us, branded search queries. If somebody searches for StatBid or they search for Moz or they search for the North Face, that is a searcher telling Google to take me to this companies website. That’s a very very powerful undeniable signal that they want to reach your site. You’re getting 90% plus click-through rates on those.

    If you can increase the number of people searching for your brand instead of drawing a smaller and smaller percentage of the people who search for outdoor jackets, because Google’s placing all these ads above the fold and trying to say these are the best outdoor jackets and having an instant answer and a featured snippet and all this type of stuff, yeah that’s that’s a big win.

    Combining Classic SEO with New Stuff

    I think for CMO’s and for marketing departments it’s going to be a combination of classic skill sets in SEO. First, how do we rank? How do we make sure that our site is technically optimized? How do we make sure that we’re doing good keyword research and keyword targeting? How do we create good content around all these things and solve searchers problems?

    Then I think it’s also going to be some new forms of marketing that SEO’s are not generally familiar with, at least not historically. Those are things like creative that draws attention and eyeballs and interest. I think it’s a lot of storytelling. Great brands are built on the back of great storytelling and that is traditionally a big weak spot for SEO.

    SEO Teams Need to Get Retooled

    So yeah, I think there’s going to be a combination of new and old. That could mean that some (SEO & marketing) teams need to get retooled or new people need to be added. It could mean that agencies will have to upgrade those practices and I’ve already seen some agencies in the SEO world start to do that. I think serving existing demand is going to long-term not be as exciting as creating more demand.

  • The Future of Google and SEO is AI

    The Future of Google and SEO is AI

    The future of Google and of SEO is AI says world-renowned SEO expert Stephan Spencer. “If you’re relying just on backlinks, then you aren’t recognizing that the future of Google and of SEO is AI, it’s artificial intelligence,” noted Spencer in another informative interview by James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness.

    Stephan Spencer, SEO expert, speaker, and author recently discussed the impact of AI on Google Search and SEO with James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness: (Listen to the full podcast below)

    The Future of Google and SEO is AI

    If you’re relying just on backlinks, then you aren’t recognizing that the future of Google and of SEO is AI, it’s artificial intelligence. What’s the best way, or the really the only way, to outsmart an AI? I would challenge that the only way to outsmart an AI is with another AI. So really, AI is the future.

    AI and nanotechnology and all the cool technologies that are advancing, like VR, AR, etc., they’re happening faster and faster. And we need to be more nimble than we’ve ever been in order to keep up. So that’s kind of the game that we have to play.

    SEO is Not Just About Machine Learning and AI

    But right now, SEO is not just about having machine learning on your side to try and outsmart Google. It’s about having a search-engine-friendly website. It’s about identifying keywords that are relevant and popular and that are attainable for you in the Google search results. And it’s about achieving buzz and link equity by having people mention you and link to you. So those things still work, they’re still important to the Google algorithm. But on top of that, you’ve got to be willing to explore machine learning and be nimble about the future.

    I’m personally excited about the future. I think it’s an amazing time to be alive. The kinds of advances that we’re about to experience in our lifetimes are going to be mind-blowing.

  • Luxury Online Retailer Farfetch Focusing on Technology to Improve the Consumer Experience

    Luxury Online Retailer Farfetch Focusing on Technology to Improve the Consumer Experience

    Luxury online retailer Farfetch, where product prices start at around a thousand dollars, had a breakout IPO on Thursday, raising $885 million while setting a valuation of $6.2 billion for the company. Then on Friday the stock surged 53 percent above their initial offering price and it’s up again this morning valuing the enterprise at $7.4 billion.

    Farfetch plans to use their IPO windfall to dramatically improve their technology which they see as the best way to improve the consumer experience.

    Farfetch Founder and CEO José Manuel Ferreira Neves recently discussed Farfetch and the online luxury brand industry on Bloomberg:

    Online Luxury is Growing 25 Percent a Year

    It’s a very unique opportunity. You have this amazing global industry. It’s $300 billion, the personal luxury goods industry and only 9 percent is online. There are two opportunities here really. One is the growth of online luxury which is going to grow to 25 percent a year for the next seven years. This is a $100 billion opportunity shift in online luxury.

    The big question is how is technology going to help brands and retailers really improve the consumer experience in the physical store. This is something at Farfetch that we are very passionate about.

    China is an Incredible Opportunity for Online Luxury

    China is a very exciting opportunity. Chinese citizens are at the onset of the luxury industry, whether they shop at home or when they’re shopping abroad. Online penetration is very low in China so this means that there is an incredible growth runway for Farfetch in the territory.

    That led to our partnership with JD.com where we have our own team. We have the Farfetch China app and website, we have local customer service, local payment systems, and local marketing. It’s a truly localized service. That is what’s driving incredible growth to the Farfetch brand in that region.

    WeChat is an amazing app with over 900 million users. It is the Instagram, plus WeChat, plus PayPal, etc. of China in one app. That is very powerful and very interesting. Now with our acquisition CuriosityChina we are powering the retail presence of 80 luxury brands. We think that is very interesting for the industry and we think that is probably something that we will see for the western world.

    Brands Now Using Social and Digital Marketing Extensively

    I think brands move cautiously and they choose their marketing channels very carefully. As these newer channels have developed the brands have adapted to them and their now using social media and digital media extensively to create desire, to drive discovery of new products obviously transactions as well.

    It’s a gradual pace but it’s really exciting that were at that inflection point where the brands see this as a tremendous opportunity.

  • You Can’t Find A 24-Year-Old On Facebook Today

    You Can’t Find A 24-Year-Old On Facebook Today

    “You‌ ‌can’t‌ ‌find‌ ‌a‌ ‌24-year-old‌ ‌on‌ ‌Facebook‌ ‌today,” says social media marketing expert Gary Vaynerchuk. ‌”Every‌ ‌one‌ ‌of‌ ‌them‌ ‌was‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌platform‌ ‌eight‌ ‌years‌ ‌ago.‌ ‌So‌ ‌it‌ ‌ebbs‌ ‌and‌ ‌flows‌ ‌and‌ ‌as‌ TikTok‌ ‌gets‌ ‌older‌ ‌an‌ ‌audience‌ ‌can‌ ‌emerge.‌ ‌I’ve‌ ‌been‌ ‌putting‌ ‌out‌ ‌business‌ ‌content‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌platform‌ ‌from‌ ‌day‌ ‌one,‌ ‌it skews ‌entrepreneurial,‌ ‌which‌ ‌may‌ ‌work‌ ‌in‌ ‌teenage‌ ‌and‌ ‌early‌ ‌20s.”

    Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of Vayner Media, social media star and entrepreneurial guru followed by millions, says you can’t even find a 24-year-old‌ ‌on‌ ‌Facebook‌ ‌today:

    I Don’t Believe TikTok Is A National Security Threat

    The‌ ‌pitch‌ ‌started‌ ‌before‌ ‌all‌ ‌the‌ ‌brouhaha‌ ‌started.‌ ‌We‌ ‌were‌ ‌awarded‌ ‌the‌ ‌business‌ ‌(with TikTok) during‌ ‌this‌ ‌time‌. ‌Obviously,‌ ‌like‌ ‌every‌ ‌other‌ ‌American‌ ‌business‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌world, we‌ ‌will‌ ‌deal‌ ‌with‌ ‌whatever‌ ‌the‌ ‌rules‌ ‌are.‌ ‌Like‌ ‌everybody‌ ‌else,‌ ‌we’re‌ ‌standing‌ ‌by.‌ Personally‌, ‌I‌ ‌don’t‌ (consider TikTok‌ a national security threat). ‌But‌ ‌maybe‌ ‌I’m‌ ‌not‌ ‌sitting‌ ‌on‌ ‌information‌ ‌that‌ ‌others‌ ‌are.‌ ‌But‌ ‌no‌, ‌I‌ ‌do‌ ‌not.‌

    ‌Our‌ ‌small‌ ‌scope‌ ‌with‌ ‌TikTok‌‌ ‌at‌ ‌the‌ ‌Vayner‌ ‌Media‌ ‌level‌ ‌doesn’t‌ ‌really‌ ‌impact‌ ‌what‌ ‌I’m‌ ‌interested‌ ‌in‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌scheme‌ ‌of‌ ‌business.‌ ‌Facebook,‌ ‌Inc.‌, ‌Pinterest‌, and‌ ‌Linkedin‌ ‌all‌ ‌our‌ ‌platforms‌ ‌that‌ ‌all‌ ‌of‌ ‌our‌ ‌brands‌ ‌work‌ ‌on.‌ ‌I’m‌ ‌not‌ ‌overly‌ ‌emotional‌ ‌or‌ ‌I ‌have‌ ‌no‌ ‌feelings‌. ‌I ‌could‌ ‌care‌ ‌less‌ ‌if ‌Facebook‌, ‌Snapchat‌, ‌Linkedin,‌ ‌CNBC, ‌the‌ ‌New‌ ‌York‌ ‌Times‌ ‌disappeared‌ ‌off‌ ‌the‌ ‌face‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌Earth.‌ ‌I’m‌ ‌focusing‌ ‌on‌ ‌attention‌ ‌and‌ ‌that’s‌ ‌what‌ ‌our‌ ‌clients‌ ‌are‌ ‌focusing‌ ‌on.‌ ‌Where‌ ‌is‌ ‌the‌ ‌actual‌ ‌attention‌ ‌and‌ ‌how‌ ‌do‌ ‌we‌ ‌advertise‌ ‌on‌ ‌that‌ ‌platform?‌ ‌

    Every Influencer Needs To Be On Every Platform

    As‌ ‌far‌ ‌as‌ ‌the‌ ‌influencers,‌ ‌every‌ ‌influencer‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌‌ ‌world‌ ‌needs‌ ‌to‌ ‌divest‌ ‌and‌ ‌be‌ ‌in‌ ‌every‌ ‌single‌ ‌platform‌ ‌and‌ ‌create‌ ‌contextual‌ ‌content‌ ‌on‌ ‌each‌ ‌of‌ ‌those‌ ‌platforms.‌ Whether‌ ‌it’s‌ ‌a‌ ‌government‌ ‌getting‌ ‌involved‌ ‌and‌ ‌shutting‌ ‌it‌ ‌down‌ ‌or‌ ‌if‌ ‌it’s‌ ‌the‌ ‌consumers‌ ‌shifting‌ ‌if‌ ‌you‌ ‌put‌ ‌all‌ ‌your‌ ‌eggs‌ ‌into‌ ‌MySpace‌ ‌you’re‌ ‌not‌ ‌doing‌ ‌so‌ ‌well‌ ‌today.‌ ‌So‌ ‌something‌ ‌I’ve‌ ‌been‌ ‌screaming‌ ‌about‌ ‌in‌ ‌my‌ ‌content‌ ‌for‌ ‌a‌ ‌decade‌ ‌is‌ ‌if‌ ‌you’re‌ ‌not‌ ‌creating‌ ‌content‌ ‌across‌ ‌the‌ ‌board‌ ‌you’re‌ ‌losing‌. ‌It’s‌ ‌something‌ ‌that‌ ‌brands‌ ‌need‌ ‌to‌ ‌be‌ ‌doing.‌ ‌

    Way‌ ‌too‌ ‌many‌ ‌are‌ ‌pot-committed‌ ‌to‌ ‌commercials‌ ‌on‌ ‌a‌ ‌TV ‌network‌ ‌when‌ ‌all‌ ‌the‌ ‌attention‌ ‌is‌ ‌shifting‌ ‌to‌ ‌your mobile device. ‌

    You Can’t Find A 24-Year-Old On Facebook Today

    What’s‌ ‌funny‌ ‌is‌ ‌if‌ ‌you‌ ‌look‌ ‌at‌ ‌what’s‌ ‌happening‌ ‌on‌ ‌TikTok‌, ‌‌we’re‌ ‌getting‌ ‌our‌ ‌advertisers‌ ‌that‌ ‌are‌ ‌trying‌ ‌to‌ ‌reach‌ ‌35‌ ‌to‌ ‌45‌ ‌going‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌platform‌ ‌pretty‌ ‌aggressively‌ ‌because‌ ‌every‌ ‌platform‌ ‌gets‌ ‌much‌ ‌older.‌ ‌Don’t‌ ‌deviate‌ ‌from‌ ‌what‌ ‌you‌ ‌know.‌ ‌If‌ ‌you‌ ‌and‌ ‌I ‌dance‌ ‌on‌ ‌that‌ ‌platform‌ ‌I ‌don’t‌ ‌think‌ ‌we’re‌ ‌getting‌ ‌that‌ ‌many‌ ‌views.‌ ‌You‌ ‌need‌ ‌to‌ ‌stay‌ ‌in‌ ‌your‌ ‌pocket‌ ‌and‌ ‌create‌ ‌the‌ ‌content‌ ‌‌and‌ ‌let‌ ‌platforms‌ ‌evolve.‌ ‌

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B_d-65RFQNd/

    You‌ ‌can’t‌ ‌find‌ ‌a‌ ‌24-year-old‌ ‌on‌ ‌Facebook‌ ‌today.‌ ‌Every‌ ‌one‌ ‌of‌ ‌them‌ ‌was‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌platform‌ ‌eight‌ ‌years‌ ‌ago.‌ ‌So‌ ‌it‌ ‌ebbs‌ ‌and‌ ‌flows‌ ‌and‌ ‌as‌ TikTok‌ ‌gets‌ ‌older‌ ‌an‌ ‌audience‌ ‌can‌ ‌emerge.‌ ‌I’ve‌ ‌been‌ ‌putting‌ ‌out‌ ‌business‌ ‌content‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌platform‌ ‌from‌ ‌day‌ ‌one,‌ ‌it skews ‌entrepreneurial,‌ ‌which‌ ‌may‌ ‌work‌ ‌in‌ ‌teenage‌ ‌and‌ ‌early‌ ‌20s.‌ ‌CNBC‌ ‌and‌ ‌‌your‌ ‌incredible‌ ‌show‌ ‌could‌ ‌dominate‌ ‌on‌ ‌TikTok‌‌ ‌if‌ ‌you‌ ‌put‌ ‌out‌ ‌information‌ ‌and‌ ‌just‌ ‌had‌ ‌the‌ ‌nuances‌ ‌of‌ ‌TikTok‌ ‌more‌ ‌than‌ ‌trying‌ ‌to‌ ‌become‌ ‌Charlie Demilio.