WebProNews

Category: Marketing Strategies

  • Stitch Fix CEO Says Localization and Brand Marketing are Key

    Stitch Fix CEO Says Localization and Brand Marketing are Key

    Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake says that “we are still early in the journey but have learned a lot in the last couple of years on the marketing front.” Stitch Fix, an online subscription and personal shopping service, was established in 2011 in San Francisco and went public in 2017.

    Katrina Lake, founder, and CEO of Stitch Fix discussed their current marketing strategy on “Squawk Alley” earlier today:

    Stitch Fix Enters the UK Market

    I’m excited about heading into the UK. What we see in Stitch Fix Mens has given us a lot of confidence as we think about a new client base and a new set of inventory. We are now coming up on the two year anniversary of Stitch Fix Mens and now that we are in a place where that business is more mature and contributing to the business you can actually see it in our gross margin. We had the highest gross margin this quarter than we had in the last six quarters.

    Then to add kids and now to add the UK we are really excited about planting those seeds. I think that the UK it is so important in the business of personalization which ours is. We understand each client and understand what each client is looking for.

    There’s a lot of investment in localization, of localizing stylists, of bringing on merchants who understand the market and are buying from brands that our clients in the UK will expect. All of that localization definitely requires more work but we think really sets us up for greater success.

    Revenue Per Client is Up

    We are really excited about seeing revenue per client higher this quarter. What that means is we have high-quality clients that are spending more with us. Right now is a great time to see that because Men’s is getting to a place where we see greater maturity in that business. Kids, our newest business, has not blended into those client numbers yet.

    Internally, figuring out how we can capture more wallet share and how we can make sure we are getting clients more what they love and capturing more of that revenue per client is a really big effort for us.

    We Are Still Early in Our Marketing Journey

    We are still early in the journey and we have learned a lot in the last couple of years on the marketing front. We’ve brought channels in-house. We have a lot of efforts around diversifying our channels. In the last quarter, we had national TV off for 10 of the 13 weeks which really helped us understand regional impacts, how much TV is adding directly and much it is helping our other channels.

    We already knew that TV was an important part of the mix, but it really validated those learnings. It definitely helped us to plan in an accurate way going forward. That being said, even on the TV front, there is still a lot of opportunities as we think about diversification and different tactics.

    Planning Brand Marketing Push Soon

    What we haven’t done any of to date is brand marketing. We have a CMO who has been in the role for three or four months and as we are able to hone that marketing muscle and learn more about what’s working and what’s not working brand marketing is actually going to be another tactic that will be really helpful. This will not just be for activating and generating awareness but also driving more reengagement and driving retention.

    We are part way on the journey on the marketing front but we are still really early. There’s still a lot of the addressable market out there, our awareness is still really really low. We are really excited how much more opportunity there is on the marketing front.  

  • How Amperity Uses Machine Learning To Unlock Data and Supercharge Marketing

    How Amperity Uses Machine Learning To Unlock Data and Supercharge Marketing

    “Nobody was using machine learning to point at the underlying consumer data to help make sense of it and bring it together,” says Matthew Biboud-Lubeck of Amperity. “We put together cloud computing that was scalable with better economics alongside a machine learning algorithm that we were pointing at the data to help make sense of it. We realized that what we had was a pretty scalable solution to help brands get to that nirvana of a single view of the customer.”

    Matthew Biboud-Lubeck, VP of Strategic Services at Amperity, discusses how their platform helps brands create a complete view of their customers in an interview on the B2B Growth podcast:

    Helping Brands Create a Single View of Their Customers

    We are a CDP (customer data platform) based in Seattle that is helping brands create a single view of their customers and to unlock personalized experiences from that data. If you look back to the founding of Amperity about three years ago our founders were canvassing the marketplace. What you saw was a marketplace using a lot of buzzwords but having a lot of trouble executing them. You heard about personalization, customer 360, and a 360 view of the customer. Marketers across major consumer brands were super frustrated.

    They spent a fortune trying to cobble some view of their customer. They invested in technology to help them send better emails, to make their media more targeted, and to unveil better analytics. All of those tools that they have invested in talked about the notion of a single view of the customer because they fundamentally needed that to operate. The reality was that nobody was getting to the solution. We came in to say maybe there is a better way.

    Machine Learning Helps Brands Get To Nirvana

    There were two things that changed in the marketplace that we capitalized on. First of all, it was that cloud computing got a lot cheaper. It used to be that if you were a big brand and got hundreds of millions of customer interactions, it’s just a lot of data. Part of the reason that no one was able to create an easy solution to putting that all together was because it was cost prohibitive.

    The second really interesting evolution in the market is that machine learning has become much more mature. What we found was that everyone in the marketplace was using machine learning to make that last mile to the marketer a little bit better. It was used to decide which products to show a customer or to decide which offer to show a customer or to create a customer care solution that’s automated. You go online and type toward a solution and some bot talks back to you. Nobody was using machine learning to point at the underlying consumer data to help make sense of it and bring it together.

    We put together cloud computing that was scalable with better economics alongside a machine learning algorithm that we were pointing at the data to help make sense of it. We realized that what we had was a pretty scalable solution to help brands get to that nirvana of a single view of the customer. That’s how we were born. What’s interesting is that the customer data platform space is a little bit confusing. You have a lot of companies that started as something else that rebranded as a CDP. We were purpose-built from the ground up as a customer data platform designed to bring all of a brands data, reconcile that data to create a notion of identity on it and then to unleash that data back to the brand anywhere that they want to use that data.

    >>> Listen to the full B2B Growth podcast here.

  • How Mobile is Changing Marketing by Creating Value

    How Mobile is Changing Marketing by Creating Value

    Mobile has become the focus of marketers worldwide because it goes with all of us, wherever we are and whatever we are doing. It seamlessly and ubiquitously is with us as we move from work to home and in between.

    At Salesforce Dreamforce, Stephanie Buscemi, CMO of Salesforce, and Susan Prescott, Vice President Product Marketing at Apple discussed how mobile is changing the world of marketing. In particular, how mobility is setting new standards for customer expectations and how the is impacting the customer experience.

    Apples VP of Product Marketing, Susan Prescott, explains:

    An opportunity from a marketing point of view with mobility and with the technologies, the information you have about customers in the cloud and the devices that we have in the hands of customers, is the ability to personalize it. Rather than a marketing world where it’s just about driving awareness and trying to drive a generic action you have the opportunity that will help you deliver an even better more personal experience understanding things about that user.

    From a marketing point of view, the power of combining the Salesforce Cloud and all of the things that are all of the insights and information that are there together with the intuitive familiar experience of the ubiquitous device that brings information to your fingertips all the time, it’s so powerful. This idea of having information when you need it, where you need it, on the device you have with you, is powerful.

    As a consumer, obviously, I have that when I walk in a store I can have information right on my phone about items in the store, some of which have smart tagging so I can see the availability of the item and colors it comes in. Once the consumers have that kind of information we have to be smart as marketers to help them take the next step and not just feed them with generic awareness tools.

    We as marketers have the opportunity to leverage all of that into more personalized experiences that benefit the user and also can benefit businesses. The idea of mobility isn’t just that it’s fun and easy, it’s that it’s creating value, value for the consumer, value for the business, and value for the customer.

  • New AI-Powered Email Capabilities Released Into Salesforce Marketing Cloud

    New AI-Powered Email Capabilities Released Into Salesforce Marketing Cloud

    “We’re making email marketing even smarter with a set of new AI capabilities getting released into Salesforce Marketing Cloud,” says Salesforce VP Armita Peymandoust. “One of them is Einstein Engagement Frequency. The other one is Einstein Send Time Optimization. We also have Einstein Content Tagging out and available today to our customers. Email is definitely not dead. Even the Millennials say that.”

    Armita Peymandoust, VP Product Management, Analytics, and Einstein at Salesforce, discusses new AI-powered email features for Marketing Cloud announced by Salesforce at Connections 19:

    AI-Powered Email Capabilities Released Into Salesforce Marketing Cloud

    As we know email is still a really important channel. Over 64 percent of customers are still saying that they prefer email channels to all the others. What we’re doing is we’re making email marketing even smarter with a set of new AI capabilities getting released into Salesforce Marketing Cloud. One of them is Einstein Engagement Frequency. The other one is Einstein Send Time Optimization. We also have Einstein Content Tagging out and available today to our customers. Email is definitely not dead. Even the Millennials say that.

    Einstein Engagement Frequency

    With Einstein Engagement Frequency we’re trying to tell the marketer what’s the sweet range that they should keep on engaging with their customers. As marketers, we want to keep on engaging with our customers but we just don’t want to get to a point that we’re potentially annoying them. So we are telling them that this is the range that you should stay in.

    Einstein Send Time Optimization

    Now that the marketer knows what the frequency of engagement should be, with Einstein Send Time Optimization we’re also telling them what is the right time to send those messages. It’s really easy with a drag and drop of an activity into Journey Builder we make every message go out at the right time for the customers.

    Einstein Content Tagging

    Then with Einstein Content Tagging, we’re basically bringing image recognition the same set of AI capabilities that you’re familiar with for your customer based or consumer based products. This is where you upload photos and then they automatically get tagged. We are bringing that same technology to the hand of the marketer. Every image that’s getting uploaded into Content Builder gets automatically tagged so they can find it later and use it when they’re building their messages.

    Transactional Messaging

    We’re also releasing Transactional API’s for Emails and SMS. There are different types of emails out there. There’s the commercial one and there’s the transactional one. It allows the marketer to bring both of those two in an inter-marketing cloud and take advantage of Marketing Cloud to send those emails to have the same voice, the same brand voice, and also be able to see how those are performing all in one place.

    Indiana Pacers Improved Customer Engagements By 20 Percent

    These features are all relatively new. So we have pilot customers that have been taking advantage of them. We have one retailer that talked about Einstein Engagement Frequency. They had a hunch that they were over messaging customers but they couldn’t really put their finger on it. With Einstein Engagement Frequency we could show them visually exactly where they’re over engaging with their customers and let them take action on it. The platform automatically created lists so that they would not send messages to the ones that are getting too many email messages.

    We’ve had a set of AI features in Marketing Cloud, specifically Einstein Engagement Scores, was one that the NBA’s Indiana Pacers is taking advantage of, to increase the engagement rate that they’re having with their fans. They got a 20 percent increase in engagements with their fans using that.

    Customer Engagement Getting Even More Granular

    We have a jam-packed roadmap for the next of the rest of the year as well. One of the things that I’m really excited about is Content Selection that’s coming out. Content Selection lets each of those messages that we’re creating be dynamically optimized for every customer that’s receiving them. Think of your email as a template that has different aspects or different selections in it that gets automatically replaced with what your customer cares about most and also what they have engaged with most and historically. It’s very engaging for every one of your customers.

    The other one that I’m interested in (that is coming later) is bringing natural language processing to understanding your subject lines. What types of subject lines are resonating? Why is it that they’re resonating with your customers? It will give you an insight on them first and then also give you recommendations on how to improve your subject lines.

    https://youtu.be/oaH_OrquEcE
    New AI-Powered Email Capabilities Released Into Salesforce Marketing Cloud
  • The Over-the-Top Marketing Juggernauts Have Arrived

    The Over-the-Top Marketing Juggernauts Have Arrived

    “Netflix versus Disney is the right comp,” says Laura Martin of Needham. “Netflix just raised price and Disney is now saying they are going to do a $12.99 bundle for Hulu, ESPN Plus, and Disney Plus, That feels like bundling is a smart idea and free services feel like a better value. I think what we are going to get for the first time in over-the-top is the marketing juggernauts have arrived. Guys who market things for a living. This is what Disney does better than any company in the media space.”

    Laura Martin, Managing Directory of investment banking firm Needham & Company, discusses how the game is changing for over-the-top (OTT) with the arrival of Disney Plus, in an interview on CNBC:

    I would call Roku the winning aggregator of all over the top platforms. They’re now in 30 million homes out of 120 million US homes. This means you can’t watch Apple Plus, Disney Plus, Warner Brothers Plus, and Disney Plus without going to Roku because they are reaching 30 percent of connected households. That gives them pricing power against those juggernauts. 

    Netflix versus Disney is the right comp. Netflix just raised price and Disney is now saying they are going to do a $12.99 bundle for Hulu, ESPN Plus, and Disney Plus. You are getting three services for $13. Really, four streams from Netflix is now $14 after the recent price increase. That feels like bundling is a smart idea and free services feel like a better value. I think what we are going to get for the first time in over-the-top is marketing juggernauts have arrived. Guys who market things for a living. This is what Disney does better than any company in the media space. 

    Disney+ Takes Netflix Growth Negative In a Significant Way

    I think it takes Netflix growth negative in a significant way in the US. Bob Iger has said he wants 90 percent awareness of Disney Plus by the time they launch on November 12th. To do that, that means they are putting it in every single theme park, they are buying billboards, they’re going on ABC which they own, they are going on ESPN which they own. They are going on everything. He said it was the most important media launch initiative since he’s been there. Bob Iger got there in 2005.

    The Roku channel is all ad-driven, meaning free. It looks like NBC is going to launch ad-free. CBS has news that is ad-driven. So I think we are going to get 50 percent of viewing with no subscription fee that is ad-driven. I think it is going to be cluttered. In my opinion, you won’t go from three average SVOD subscriptions to five.

    OTT Marketing Juggernauts Have Arrived, Says Needham’s Laura Martin
  • Neil Patel’s Content Marketing Strategies for 2019

    Neil Patel’s Content Marketing Strategies for 2019

    In 2019, you need to think differently about your content marketing strategies. Google has so much content on the same topics that it’s difficult for average content to rank. You need to constantly create new fresh content that is unique. More importantly, according to Neil Patel, you need to aggressively promote your content. He says you should use the 80/20 rule, 20 percent of the time writing, 80 percent promoting.

    Neil Patel, one of the original internet marketing influencers, released a new video (below) that offers tips on how to successfully do content marketing in 2019:

    Content Marketing Strategies for 2019

    In 2019 content won’t rank as well as it used to. Yes, they say content is king, but we already know there are over a billion blogs. Google isn’t just picking from, hey what content do we want to rank because we lack content. They’re like, we have content on everything under the sun and the same thing a hundred other times. So now they’re just not picking what content do we want to rank. They’re looking at authority and user metrics and their even looking at when the content was created.

    Tip 1 – Create New Fresh Content

    Why would they want to rank content that’s two years old when they can rank something that’s less than one week old? When it comes to content marketing in 2019 you need to make sure that your content is also being up-to-date. If you don’t update your old content you’re not going to get as much love as people who are continuing to put out new fresh content.

    Tip 2 – Don’t Regurgitate the Same Information

    The second tip I have for you is don’t regurgitate the same information over and over again. People are tired of reading 12 SEO Tips That Will Double Your Traffic. You can Google it. There are probably different variations of that number but there are probably hundreds of articles on that subject. Write something new and fresh that hasn’t been seen before and you’re more likely to get traffic rankings and even social shares.

    Tip 3 – Create Video and Audio Content

    I know you’re not gonna like this third tip, but the third tip is to create video and audio based content. Text is overrated. It doesn’t help you connect with people as much as video. I still love text and I still crank out text, but the future is video. It’s much more personal and people get to know your personality and your company better. Create video-based content, upload it to YouTube, LinkedIn, and you can even do Twitter and Instagram if it’s short enough, and of course Facebook.

    Don’t share the same video over and over again like sharing your YouTube video on Facebook. You’ve got to take that video all over again and re-upload it into Facebook. With LinkedIn, for example, you have got to re-upload the video all over again versus sharing the link to that Facebook video or that YouTube video.

    With audio, you want to create a podcast. It’s easy. You can just bust out your phone, create an audio file, upload it to iTunes or Libsyn, and you’re off into the races. Same with video. You don’t actually have to go into a studio like I am and shoot all these fancy videos and pay money. You can just bust out your phone. I would even say most of the times from all the tests we’ve run that the videos that you end up running on your iPhone convert better if you’re selling a product or service. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. Just look at Tai Lopez. He’s known for just busting out his phone and recording videos and it does very well for him.

    Tip 4 – Spend More Time Promoting than Creating

    The fourth tip I have for you is promoting your content. In 2019, you’ve got to spend more time promoting than writing. Again, I can’t emphasize this enough. There’s too much content on the web. It doesn’t matter how good of a content piece you write it’s not going to be seen unless you promote it. so spend more time promoting than writing. Use the 80/20 rule, 20 percent of the time writing, 80 percent promoting.

    One way to promote content is to email all the people who link to your competitors content and ask them for a link. You can use tools like BuzzSumo. Just type in a keyword related to your space and see all the other popular articles within your space. You then take that and put that URL into Ahrefs. It shows you all the people who link to that URL. Then you hit up all those people who link to it contact them asking for a link also.

    Tip 5 – Get Social Shares

    You also need to get social shares. Getting backlinks isn’t enough. Facebook, Twitter, all these social sites drive a lot of traffic. You then want to go to BuzzSumo and click on the view shares button and it will show you every single person who shared those articles. That simple thing will help you get more social traffic.

    You Can’t Just Do the Old Stuff That Worked Before

    In 2019, if you don’t leverage these tactics you’re not going to do well. A lot of people have the old mentality of, hey, I’m just going to keep creating new content and just crank out ten posts a day. If you do that you’re probably going to regurgitate content and you’re not going to get rankings. Google already has more authoritative sites to choose from. You can’t just do the old stuff that worked in 2018 and 2017. You have to leverage these tactics.

    Even the video stuff I described, I know a lot of you’re like, I don’t want to create video it’s too much work. But you know what, with YouTube SEO I get over a hundred thousand visitors a month just from YouTube SEO. It’s amazing. It’s a channel you have to leverage. Best of all, unlike Google SEO, with YouTube SEO you can get results in less than a week. I kid you not. I created a video on SEO and I started ranking for the term SEO on YouTube in less than one week.

    Neil Patel’s Content Marketing Strategies for 2019


  • How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy (And Stick to It)

    How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy (And Stick to It)

    In recent years, content marketing has become one of the most powerful techniques for growing your business. Because of its effectiveness, businesses are now allotting as much as 40 percent of their advertising budget on content marketing. The investment makes sense because well-executed content marketing can bring more traffic to a website, raise brand awareness among consumers, position your business as an expert, raise customer loyalty, and greatly improve sales.

    However, in order to get the most of your content marketing efforts, you’ll need to have a clear and defined strategy. And, you’ll need to stick to it! This will not only make it easier to create more content but also help you analyze, set goals, and measure your ROI.

    How to Build Content Marketing Strategy

    Determine Your Objectives

    The first step to developing a content marketing strategy is to determine your company’s objective. In other words, you’ll need to have an end goal. Are you trying to create more awareness about your brand? Or, are you trying to gain more subscriptions to a service you provide? Decide on one or two core goals that will affect your bottom line and two or three supporting objectives you want to meet.

    Content Marketing Trends Most Important Objectives

    Define Your Target Market

    You want to market to the right customer using the right content at the right time. To do so, you would need to define your target market. You can do this by creating buyer personas and using them as a model for your content marketing plan. Conduct qualitative research to build these personas. Make use of surveys, customer feedback, focus groups, social media activity, and customer interviews. Even user profiles and transaction histories will help you in understanding who your real customers are.

    Study What Your Customers Need

    Make use of social media, search browsers, surveys, customer conversations and insight from your sales and customer service personnel to understand what your customers need. You can then use the collected data to segment your customers and send them content that is specific to their needs.

    Decide on What Content to Prioritize

    Once you have determined your end goal and identified your buyers, you can start focusing on content. There are a lot of content types to choose from—blogs, ebooks, infographics, games, courses, mobile apps, webinars, podcasts, and newsletters to name a few. Choose two or three types that are most suited or relevant to your audience to ensure you can always provide high-quality content. Once you have decided on the content channels you want, you can start creating a content schedule.

    According to a 2018 B2C survey by Conductor, businesses use blogs and videos 3 times more than any other type of content marketing.

    b2c content marketing

    Develop a Plan for Executing Content

    Utilize your buyer personas and customer information to design a plan for executing your content. Start brainstorming for ideas, like what keywords to use or topics for your blog. Think about how and where your audience will receive their information. Consider that customers require different kinds of content per funnel stage.

    Design Ways to Measure Your Content Marketing

    Your objectives will help define your metrics. Develop a measurement framework to help you keep track of how your strategy is helping with your goals. There are different categories of content marketing metrics that you can find online.

    common-content-marketing-goalsAmplify Your Content 

    It’s not enough to just develop content. Even an in-depth blog post or expertly edited video will fall on deaf ears unless you amplify its reach. Consider that there are at least 4 million blog posts published every day, how will you get your post to rise above the noise? You can get the word out through social media channels or explore other avenues, like using influencers or creating events.

    3 Tips on How to Stick to Your Strategy

     Image result for stick to the plan

    Once you have established your content marketing strategy, you’ll have to stick to it to reap the benefits. Unfortunately, this is where a lot of companies falter. Here are three tips to help you stay on your path:

    1. Make sure everybody knows what to expect

    Every departments’ goals should align with each other. For instance, the goals of the marketing and sales department should be in tune with each other and should fall in line with that of the upper management. Every member should also know the metrics that will be used.

    2. Concentrate on initiatives that are already successful

    Check which previous marketing strategies gave you the best results and build from there. After all, why fix something that isn’t broken? For instance, if one PPC campaign resulted in a good ROI, update it by either boosting the ad spending or launching a similar campaign using a different product.

    3. Delegate or outsource

    Good marketers know they should play to their strengths and delegate or outsource the rest. For instance, if you have good graphic design skills, make your own business logo or visual banners. If you are terrible at getting your ideas across in words, hire a writer. There’s no reason to do it all yourself when you can tap the services of others who can do a better job.

    Conclusion

    A solid content marketing strategy is essential to a successful business. Brainstorm for ideas and do not be afraid to experiment with different approaches or try a variety of tools. Keep track of customer engagement to ensure that you will stick to the strategy you devised. These will help in the continued improvement of your content marketing strategy and the success of your business.

  • AT&T CEO Defends 5G Evolution Marketing Following Sprint Lawsuit

    AT&T CEO Defends 5G Evolution Marketing Following Sprint Lawsuit

    AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson defended AT&T’s aggressive 5G E marketing following the filing of a lawsuit by Sprint. During the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, some of their competitors criticized them, saying AT&T is “slapping 5G stickers” on upgraded 4G phones.

    Stephenson says that 5G Evolution (5G E), represents new technology that they are deploying that delivers radical increases in speed and performance on their network.

    Description of 5G Evolution on AT&T website.

    Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T, defends their 5G E marketing amid a lawsuit filing by Sprint in an interview with CNBC:

    It’s an Evolutionary Step to 5G

    It’ll play itself out obviously. We feel very comfortable with how we’ve characterized the new service that we’re launching. What we do is go into a market and we turn up a significant block of spectrum, wireless airways that we own. I mean it’s rather dramatic. We’re deploying new technology that I won’t go into the details of it, but when we go into a market and we turn up this technology and we light up this spectrum our customers are seeing radical increases in speed and performance on the network.

    This is a step that’s required to get to ultimate 5G. It’s an evolutionary step to 5G, a critical step. So we are characterizing this 5G E, 5G Evolution. We’ve obviously done our homework. We’ve done a lot of work around how we characterize this. We’re being very clear with our customers that this is an evolutionary step.

    It’s Not a Play Everybody Can Run

    But this is a dramatic step-change improvement in what the customers experience where we turn this up. I fully understand why our competitors might be upset with this. It’s not a play everybody can run. It’s a play that we really like. It’s a play that’s going to differentiate us in the marketplace as we begin to roll this out over the course of this year.


  • Neil Patel’s 7 Trends to Embrace for Successful Digital Marketing in 2019

    Neil Patel’s 7 Trends to Embrace for Successful Digital Marketing in 2019

    Self-made marketing expert Neil Patel released a video titled, How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2019. Patel outlines 7 Trends that all businesses and content producers should embrace for successful digital marketing in 2019:

    “Digital marketing is going to change in 2019,” says NeilPatel. “What’s been working for the last few years is not anymore. Here’s how digital marketing is changing in 2019 and what you need to do to thrive and succeed.”

    Tip 1: Embrace Omnichannel Approach to Digital Marketing

    Digital marketing is moving to an omnichannel approach. You used to be able to build a business with just one channel. For example, Facebook grew by just telling everyone, hey invite your friends. They would take your address book and invite all your friends automatically even without your permission. That’s changed and those tactics don’t work as well as they used to. I’m not saying they don’t work at all, they just don’t work as well as they used to.

    Marketing has moved to an omnichannel approach where you now have to use tactics like growth hacking, pay-per-click, SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and banner ads. The list is never-ending and the more channels you use the better off you’re going to be. Most of these channels are crowded because there are so many online businesses. If you don’t use all of them you just won’t do as well in 2019.

    Tip 2: Leverage Voice Search

    Most of you will not like this but search is moving to voice search. By 2020 Comscore estimates that half the searches on Google will be through voice search. Right now, two out of every five adults are using voice search. Yes, that means kids aren’t using it as much but still by 2020 they’re saying half of all searches, not just from adults, but half of all searches are going to be via voice search. So if you want to do well in 2019 you need to be leveraging voice search.

    The way you do this is one, make sure your site is HTTPS because most of the sites that are at the top are HTTPS these days. And two, your site needs to load fast. If it doesn’t load fast you’re not going to do as well with voice search. Three, when people are typing in questions, they’re typically typing in longer-term phrases. So your questions, and especially your answers need to be short and to the point. If your answers are a paragraph long you’re not going to do as well compared to if your answer was one sentence long.

    Tip 3: The Only Way to Compete is Through Conversion Optimization

    The third tip I have for you is conversion optimization. Advertising is getting more and more expensive over time and that’s not going to change. The only way you’re going to be able to compete and stay ahead is through conversion optimization. The more you optimize your landing page for conversions the better off you’re going to be. Make sure you’re using tools like Crazy Egg which allows you to do A/B testing so you can squeeze more conversions from the traffic you’re getting.

    Also, make sure you’re using tools like Hellow Bar which encourages email collection. Again, this will help you get more revenue from the users and visitors that you do have. If you don’t do this as the years go on you’re going to get drowned out by the competitors because they’re going to spend more money than you and they’re going to crush you. So focus on conversion optimization even though it’s not sexy and most people don’t like talking about it in marketing.

    Tip 4: Leverage Marketing Funnels

    The fourth tactic I have for you is leverage funnels. Marketing funnels are going to be more popular than ever in 2019. Before, people used to just optimize their campaigns to, hey I’m buying ads, how many sales am I getting? Now you need a look at up-sells, down-sells, cross-sells, lifetime value of a customer, and churn.

    Whether you have a physical product, digital product, or you’re doing lead generation, you need to track everything from a visitor all the way to a conversion point. That’s revenue for them to keep buying and that’s why funnels are really important. If you don’t know how to create a funnel go check out tools like ClickFunnels.

    Tip 5: Content Marketing Only Works if You Create Amazing Unique Content

    Content marketing just won’t work as well. Think about it, anytime you do a search most of the articles that are at the top are content marketing. Blogging is so popular and so played out that everyone is regurgitating the same information over and over again. Unless you’re creating amazing new information that people haven’t heard before, you’re not going to do well. Content marking just won’t work to get links or social shares unless you’re creating amazing content that’s new and that people haven’t seen before.

    Tip 6: You Need to be Leveraging Video

    My number six tip is creating video content. Video content is the future. You see me here in this video and you’re engaging with me. If you’re not, leave a comment and I’ll show you. I’ll respond back. Video content is the future. People want to engage through video. Facebook gives you more views if it’s video. YouTube gives you a ton of views and Linkedin does as well. You need to be leveraging video. You can’t take it for granted.

    Tip 7: You Need to Create a Podcast

    Podcasting is taking over. Did you know that 45 percent of the people who listen to podcasts have a household income above $75,000? That’s a ton, that’s a lot of money, and that means that the people that are listening to your podcast are going to be better buyers than most other marketing channels out there. You need to create a podcast.

    Everyone is using their phones these days and everyone is driving to work. Podcasting makes it easy where people can listen to your content on-the-go. It’s such a hectic world out there and you need to have a podcast so people can listen to you while they’re dealing with their hectic life.

  • 4 Fast-Rising Digital Marketing Trends Leading Into 2019

    4 Fast-Rising Digital Marketing Trends Leading Into 2019

    Digital marketing is now firmly embedded in our day-to-day lives; we start our day with newsletters and check our Facebook before bed. Its influence will continue to grow in 2019, and new advertising trends built on today’s digital innovations will grow along with it. It’s your job to learn to distinguish them and adapt your marketing strategy accordingly.

    Here are four digital marketing trends to watch out for in 2019:

    Snack Ads

    Most people prefer watching videos over reading, which would explain why marketers are producing more video content. While video has made digital avertising more dynamic, it’s also caused consumers’ already short attention to become even shorter. Luckily, snack ads are enough to keep your target audience engaged. As the name implies, these ads can be likened to snacks, something easy to digest but filling. These videos ads are less than 10 seconds long; they’re short enough to keep people interested while still getting a brand’s message across.

    Image source: videoeffect.tv

    Consumers will be seeing more of these short ads in 2019. Youtube is already pioneering snack ads, and Fox Networks Group will reportedly follow in its footsteps by incorporating them in their linear programs and streaming services.

    Voice Search

    The coming years will see a deeper interaction between people, devices and applications. Researchers have forecasted that by 2020, 30 percent of web searches will be conducted without even touching the screen. Half of these searches will be done via voice commands.

    It’s easy to see why voice search will play a vital role in our daily lives. Using voice to search and ask questions will elevate multi-tasking to new levels. For instance, you can do your shopping while cooking. A lot of people also find speaking to be quicker than typing. Domino’s Pizza is already using voice search technology, with customers being able to order their pizzas through Alexa.

    With Google, Amazon, and Apple continuously working on improving their voice assistants, and more people expected to use smart speakers, your brand should make full use of this medium by producing relevant audio content.

    Micro-moments

    People are spending more than three hours a day on their smartphones, and it’s changing the way companies are trying to get the customers’ attention. The deluge of content and videos mean that brands should be able to deliver their message quickly and in an interesting way, and all in a matter of seconds. This new consumer behavior is what Google has termed “micro-moments.”

    How Your Business Can Identify and Capitalize on Micro-Moments

    Image source: Google

    Customers generally have four such moments – “I want to go,” “I want to know,” “I want to do,” and “I want to buy.” For instance, a customer is trying to decide where to eat and wants to know which restaurant is nearby. Brands can take advantage of this micro-moment by being able to provide the customers with the information they need. A Business Page on Google can help since you will appear on “Near Me” searches. Companies should also make sure they’re on platforms where customers search for information, like Amazon, Google Maps, or YouTube.

    Augmented Reality

    Virtual and augmented reality technology has given consumers something they want—the opportunity to be engaged in a brand’s message. A number of businesses have already embraced VR and AR’s ability to boost brand awareness and sell products. IKEA is a good example. The company’s shopping app gave prospective clients the chance to try out different design solutions before making a purchase.

    Image source: YouTube

    Social media platforms like Snapchat have also shown that augmented reality can expand a brand’s marketing reach and improve their interactions with customers. Snapchat’s facial and geo filter features quickly developed a following and helped the company, secure sponsors. 2019 will see AR and VR becoming a common marketing tool for companies, especially since the virtual and augmented reality markets are expected to hit $298 billion or more by 2023.

    There are still several weeks left in 2018. That’s more than enough time to future-proof your brand. Take stock of these fast-rising digital marketing trends and develop a good strategy that incorporates them in your marketing plan.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Neil Patel: Word-of-Mouth Marketing is the Best Form of Marketing

    Neil Patel: Word-of-Mouth Marketing is the Best Form of Marketing

    The best form of marketing by far is word-of-mouth marketing because it is not only free but inherently viral. Internet marketing pioneer Neil Patel dives into word-of-mouth marketing in his latest video and in a simple way explains how every entrepreneur can attain this holy grail of marketing by just providing a product or service that people love.

    Neil Patel provides his expert advice on the world’s original and best form of marketing, word-of-mouth marketing:

    The Best Form of Marketing is Word-of-Mouth Marketing

    Do you know what the best form of marketing is? Word-of-mouth marketing. If you take care of your customers, you do what’s best for them, eventually not only are they going to keep coming back and buying again from you, but they’re going to tell other people about it.

    It’s funny, everyone these days is trying to optimize to rank higher on Google, to be popular on Facebook, and to be popular on Instagram because that’s how they believe they’re gonna grow their business. And sure, those things do help. But, the real core reason companies become big is because they solve problems and they do it better than anyone else.

    If You Create an Amazing Product of Service People Love It

    If you create an amazing product or service, like Slack, for example. People love it. They weren’t the first into the space, but they’re a more usable and better product. They didn’t do much marketing, it just started growing. If you look at the marketing that they started doing when they raised the money, they were doing television ads with all these animals in their TV commercials.

    No one really understood what Slack was based on that TV commercial. But, you know what, they’re still a multi-mil billion, not even a million, they’re a multi-billion dollar company, and it’s because they created an amazing product.

    When you create an amazing product or service, that generates more word-of-mouth marketing, which is bar far the best form of marketing. If you think about shoes, running shoes, what brand are you going to buy? It’s probably Nike because everyone talks about Nike and they know it’s amazing. Same with credit cards. You’re going to either pick Visa, Master Card, or American Express because everyone talks about them. Their brand is everywhere. People have had amazing customer experiences with some of these brands.

    Popular Products and Services Are Growing Because of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

    Whatever you look at when it comes to a product or service that you admire, or even a company, like Amazon. A lot of these companies are growing not because of their marketing efforts. They’re growing because of word-of-mouth marketing. And that’s not created by being popular on Instagram or being popular on Facebook. That’s truly built by providing amazing product or service, caring for your customers, being the best out there.

    Look at Zappos. Zappos moved their company from Silicon Valley to Vegas, because they needed a more affordable way to do support. They were able to do that in Las Vegas. And their big belief was to provide the best service out there. When you would call Zappos and you’d make an order, in many cases even though you paid for ground shipping, they would just randomly give you overnight shipping on your shoes for free. Why? Because they cared about you.

    They want to give you such an amazing experience that you would tell your friends about them. And that’s what caused them to get bought out and being worth now, these days, well over a billion dollars.

  • Facebook Group Vs. Facebook Page: Which is Better for Marketing Your Brand?

    Facebook Group Vs. Facebook Page: Which is Better for Marketing Your Brand?

    For some time now, social media has been a popular way for marketers and brands to get more exposure and grow their customer base. Among the many social media platforms on the web, Facebook ranks as the most popular with nearly 70 million active business accounts.

    If you’ve been considering using Facebook as a marketing tool for your business, you’re probably unsure of whether to use the platform’s Page or Group feature. And given the overwhelming amount of information available online regarding the matter, researching it may only confuse you more.

    Let’s break down the two options in simple terms to make it easier for you to decide:

    Facebook Page or Facebook Group: Understanding the Difference

    A Page and a Group are two distinct features of Facebook’s platform.

    A Facebook Page can be described as the personal profile of an organization, a public figure, or a business. Since it represents an entity, it has the visual and style elements associated with the business or website it’s promoting. The Page also acts as a communication channel with a brand’s fans or followers. Users who connect to a Page instantly get access to all the brand’s news and content.

    Meanwhile, a Facebook Group functions as a forum. It’s primarily used as a communication channel for people with the same interests. Members freely exchange information and knowledge with each other. Interactions are more honest and opinions are willingly expressed since the Group is considered a safe environment. One or more moderators can manage discussions within this space.

    There are several key differences between Pages and Groups, like ads, member interactions, and privacy settings. Any posts or updates made on a Page are visible to the public. Anyone who likes or becomes a fan automatically receives updates or notifications. Groups, on the other hand, are typically private. Membership can be by invitation only or has to be approved by a moderator. Ads are not allowed in Groups, although you can promote your product. Conversely, Pages can carry ads and promos, although there are limits.

    Pros and Cons of Pages and Groups

    Facebook Pages and Groups both have their pros and cons. For instance, Facebook Pages can be set up easily. Updating them is also a breeze. Page creator tools can also be used for easy customization. You can also personalize the URL to make it easier for followers to remember. Pages are also a great way to openly engage with an online audience and advertise products.

    Groups, however, are more about communication and members can use emails, wall posts, and direct messaging. Interactions here tend to be more personal, making it easier to market directly to your audience. You can’t advertise directly but your network can spread the word about your brand, thus you get some free advertising.

    It comes as no surprise that Pages and Groups also have drawbacks. For example, it’s a well-known fact that growing Pages organically is difficult now. Facebook’s algorithm essentially leaves brands with little alternative but to invest in banner ads and boosts if they want to grow their Page quickly. Aside from that, moderators have to monitor all posts carefully since everyone can read it. Conversations between the Page owner and customers are also hard to manage.

    Facebook Groups can also be challenging, especially for marketers. For one, the platform does not offer Insights to groups so it’s more difficult to keep track of everything that’s happening between members. It’s also hard to customize Groups since they don’t have access to some of the design and SEO elements available to Pages.

    Which One Should You Choose?

    So which one is right for your business—a Page or a Group? That will actually depend on your goal.

    Pages are suitable for brands or companies who are out to promote their product or message. For instance, a brand’s Page is where they can talk about the benefits of their product and offer the latest deals. Meanwhile, Groups are better suited for in-depth discussions and for expanding networks. A budding businessman can join a Group for entrepreneurs to learn how to get started.

    Think of a Facebook Page as the front porch of a house and the Group as the living room. The porch is where you meet and greet people quickly. A Page acts the same way. People who visit your Page stop for a while to get the latest news and updates. There is nothing personal shared.

    Using the same analogy, the living room is where you let in the people you know and interact with them on a more personal level. It’s the same with a Facebook Group. People talk about their ideas, experiences, and passions. Interactions in this channel tend to run deeper and more passionately. There’s no active promotion allowed but members can build networks. Think of it as support groups for anything and everything, from mental health issues to SEO specialists.

    Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups are two powerful marketing channels. The former is similar to personal profiles while the latter is essentially a forum. Both can provide you with the chance to engage your audience and promote your brand.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Search Marketers Should Reframe Around Precision Marketing

    Search Marketers Should Reframe Around Precision Marketing

    If you are just starting your career as a search marketer, Amanda Richman, CEO of Wavemaker which is the second largest media agency network in the world, says that you should “reframe it around precision marketing instead of search.”

    Richman adds, “Folks coming up from the ranks the search have this great understanding around consumer intent. They understand how to optimize against certain signals. They should broaden that beyond the digital world to think about what insights they’re saying that they then act on that they could bring earlier into the strategy and planning process.”

    Wavemaker CEO Amanda Richman recently reflected on her career with Geoffrey Colon, Head of Brand Studio at Microsoft Advertising, and offered advice to those new to search marketing:

    What To Tell Young People Just Starting Their Career in Search Marketing

    It’s about the journey, not the destination. If you’re very linear and you think about your career and levels of advancement and steps and hard goals and in your mind at 24 you think here’s where I’m going to be in 20 years, prepare to be blown away and maybe blown out as well.

    You have to stay relevant and I’d say have a certain humility too. Acknowledge that you’re not going to master anything in this space. It’s constantly evolving, stay nimble, surround yourself with really smart people that you can constantly be learning from and your career is going to take some really interesting twists and turns and you’re going to enjoy the ride.

    Search Marketers Should Reframe Around Precision Marketing

    I would say first to step back and reframe it around precision marketing instead of search. Folks coming up from the ranks with search have this great understanding around consumer intent. They understand how to optimize against certain signals. They should broaden that beyond the digital world too to think about what insights they’re seeing that they then act on that they could bring earlier into the strategy and planning process.

    They might consider how they think holistically across an addressable television and other formats and obviously, within search itself, voice and other means, to actually get to that consumer intent and pay it off for brands. That is a tremendous skill set and an opportunity for them to really reframe from search expertise to broader precision marketing experts.

  • 4 Inbound Marketing Tactics to Use for Your B2B Company

    4 Inbound Marketing Tactics to Use for Your B2B Company

    According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, eight out of 10 Americans now shop online. This means that the traditional ways of marketing—cold calls, trade shows, TV, radio—are not as effective as they used to be. In fact, more companies are now turning to inbound marketing to generate leads and close deals.

    To stay ahead of your competition, it’s now essential to have a good inbound marketing strategy in place. Here are four B2B marketing tactics you should be using right now:

    1. Create and Curate

    Useful and well-written content is a powerful weapon in B2B marketing. Posting long-format articles and discussing issues more deeply attracts more visits to your website and leads to higher conversions. A study by Moz showed a distinct correlation between social shares and content length. 

     

    According to the data, readers love this type of content and are more likely to share it.

    You should also post articles to your blog more frequently. A Hubspot report showed that businesses that blogged 10 or more times a month enjoyed three times more traffic than those that blog only once a month.

    And, you can continue to reap the benefits of your old blog posts for years to come. Assuming that they’re good, consider repurposing older posts to generate more organic traffic by sending the content to your email list or posting them on social media.

    However, creating good content takes time and effort, and sometimes a company might not have enough manpower to handle this. No need to worry, though, as curating content will work just fine. It’s a strategy that some marketers have used very effectively. Content curation involves sourcing content that is already on the web and organizing it in a meaningful way for your audience. Curating helps add new content to your site, builds value, converts readers, and helps generate traffic.

    2. Collaborate With People Who Matter

    Connecting and collaborating with experts and influencers creates more opportunities for your brand to be shared with a bigger market. 

    Look for authorities or influencers in your niche and reach out to them. Discuss how working together will benefit all parties involved. Invite an influencer to host a podcast, write a guest blog or take over your social media page for a day. This will add more quality content to your site and boost awareness of your brand.

    3. Get Video Ready

    Scientific research shows that most people process the information they see 60,000 times faster than what they read. So it’s a good idea to incorporate videos and eye-catching graphics in your marketing strategy.

    In 2017, video became the most popular type of content on social media, and the demand for it will only continue to rise among consumers. Because of this, more companies are using the medium to showcase their product, disseminate information, teach consumers, and reach prospective clients. 

    Image result for video most popular type of content on social media 2017

    Don’t forget other visuals like infographics and slides. Infographics have become popular over the last few years because they are an effective way of communicating a lot of data within a short time. These visuals are also easy to share and can be used to recycle your content and make them fresh and engaging.

    4. Improve Your Site’s Speed and Load Time

    A fast website is crucial for any business. People prefer sites that have a quick loading time. Studies have shown that consumers are only willing to wait three seconds for a page to load. Any slower and they are highly likely to abandon the site and search elsewhere. Plus, Google also takes into account the site’s speed in their rankings. So if you want to keep your visitors and rank high in search engines, make sure your website is optimized for speed.

    Consumers today know what they want and how to get it. If you want to capture their attention, you have to step up your inbound marketing game. Adding visuals and writing longer posts are simple tactics but they can go a long way in generating leads and traffic.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • 4 Snapchat Marketing Tips to Help You Rise Above Your Competition

    4 Snapchat Marketing Tips to Help You Rise Above Your Competition

    Compared to the larger social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat is a bit like The Little Engine That Could. That’s because it’s been underestimated by numerous brands and marketers alike. They dismiss Snapchat as a viable advertising tool because of its reputation for being a purely social platform, used mostly by teenagers and young adults. But the image-sharing app has the potential to generate leads and keep profits rolling in.

    In the first quarter of 2018, Snapchat reported 191 million active daily users—that’s a lot of potential customers. One survey also showed that 86 percent of the platform’s users fall into the 13 to 37 age group and more than seven billion videos were viewed on it daily in 2016.

    Image result for snapchat number of users 2018

    Despite these numbers, businesses are still not overly fond of Snapchat. A Clutch and Smart Insights study found that only 21 percent of businesses have Snapchat accounts. Compare that to the 89 percent of companies that are on Facebook, 80 percent on Twitter, and 56 percent on Instagram.

    The Social Media Platforms Businesses Value

    But this means that brands have fewer rivals and more room to maneuver on Snapchat. The platform is also evolving continuously, changing its user interface, featuring Stories for up to 24 hours, and adding eCommerce features. It’s also gaining popularity among older users as the teens who started using Snapchat when it launched in 2011 are becoming working adults.

    Savvy marketers know that Snapchat can be a powerful tool for rising above the competition. Here are four tips to help you tap into the benefits of Snapchat:

    1. Concentrate on a Younger Audience

    Snapchat developer Snap Inc. designed the multimedia messaging app for teenagers. Recent data has shown that the company is doing a great job of keeping their young demographic engaged. A Pew Research Center study revealed that 78 percent of the respondents between 18 to 24-years-old are using the app. Meanwhile, only 45 percent of the same demographic use Twitter.

    You can leave your competition in the dust by learning how to catch the attention of younger consumers. While a carefully worded call-to-action can be effective, creating an intriguing story or using entertaining filters in your Snap can exceedingly better. 

    In 2016, Taco Bell rolled out a comical Snap filter that turned the user’s head into a giant taco. The Cinco de Mayo promotion generated a whopping 224 million views. Now, image how that type of attention could change your business.

    Best Brands On Snapchat Taco Bell

    2. Launch Products and Push Promos

    Snapchat has a high engagement rate. As a matter of fact, it gets almost 4 times higher engagement than Instagram. This makes it a great place to launch your latest products or to push promos. Makeup brand NARS launched their new product line to great success on the platform. The company drummed up excitement by giving followers a quick look at their new line. Snapchat allows you to create short, informal videos that look unpolished but relatable to more users.

    Image result for NARS product line snapchat

    Image result for NARS product line snapchat

    3. Collaborate With Influencers

    Influencer marketing is a very effective strategy. Companies can draw in a big audience because their content will be viewed by followers of the brand and that of the influencer. It’s a quick way of develop a large following in a short amount of time.

    One company who successfully leveraged an influencer’s popularity was Audi. The car manufacturer partnered up with the popular show Pretty Little Liars and quickly amassed 115,000 followers on its Snapchat account.

    Image result for audi pretty little liars snapchat

    You can also have an influencer take over your Snapchat account and make posts on your behalf for a specific time frame. For instance, music producer Pharrell once took over one of the Adidas events.

    4. Keep Followers Interested Longer

    Snapchat is all about drawing people in and engaging them. You’ll have better sales results the longer people stay on your page or account. Other social network platforms keep followers engaged by having them take additional steps, like clicking on a link to send them to another website.

    Image result for snapchat ecommerce

    Snapchat keeps followers interested much longer because they have integrated eCommerce features in the app itself. For instance, users can use the app to call people, make dinner reservations, grab an Uber, or explore brands and their locations.

    With its impressively high engagement levels, business-friendly features and low competition from other brands, incorporating Snapchat into your marketing strategy could prove to be a worthwhile investment. 

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • How to Define Buyer Persona for More Successful Marketing

    How to Define Buyer Persona for More Successful Marketing

    Do you really know who your customers are? You might believe your product is popular among millennials when in reality your main consumers are 50-year-old housewives. Not knowing who buys your products will lead to disappointed consumers and an ineffective marketing strategy.

    Unfortunately, a lot of companies do not understand what their customers want and need. In one survey, Brandshare discovered that more than half of 11,000 of respondents who took part in one brand engagement activity felt companies don’t do enough to find out about their needs.

    This disconnect with consumers can have dire consequences. Another study showed that a lot of consumers have “broken up” with their favorite brand because of irrelevant or poor marketing messages. One way to avoid such a disaster is to have a buyer persona.

    What is Buyer Persona?

    Buyer personas are generalized, fictional representations of a brand’s ideal customers. Also known as marketing personas, they help companies understand the customer they’re trying to attract and relate to them as real people.

    A buyer persona helps all aspects of your business. It is essential in developing a solid marketing strategy and coming up with relevant content. It also helps in product design and development, the follow-up of sales leads, client acquisition and retention, and improvement of customer service.

    But do not think of a buyer persona as a simple profile or you’ll end up with too many personas and not enough information to devise a marketing strategy.

    Why is Knowing Buyer Persona Important?

    Buyer personas are important because they can help brands understand their customers and prospective clients. Once you have nailed your brand’s buyer persona, you will have crucial insights into what your customers think about your business and how they feel about conducting it with you.

    These details will assist you in aligning your content, product development, messaging, and services to that of your customer’s needs and expectations. For instance, you know your target market are millennials, but what are the specific interests and requirements of your ideal customer? Are they looking for a product that will last them for years or do they expect to buy a similar item again in a few months?

    However, you’ll have to develop a detailed buyer persona to really understand your customers and their needs,

    How to Identify Different Types of Buyers

    The strongest and most reliable buyer personas are created using a combination of market research, insight, and information gathered from your actual client base.

    Here are some ways to extract this information and define your buyer’s persona.

    1. Start by Asking the Right Questions

    Developing an accurate buyer persona starts by asking the right questions. Coming up with relevant questions will guide you in your quest. For instance, you want to ask current and prospective clients about the features they care about, their everyday concerns and responsibilities, or the position they hold in their organization.

    Use surveys, in-person or phone interviews, or web surveys to get answers. The information you generate can then be utilized to evaluate the characteristics and traits of particular markets and buyers that you have successfully closed deals with. By identifying common elements, you can start plotting out possible buyer personas.

    2. Utilize Site Analytics

    Make good use of analytic tools like Google Analytics to generate data. Your site’s analytics will show you the search words visitors used to discover your site, where they came from, and how long they were on your web page. This data can be used to create good buyer personas as it shows the keywords that led prospects to your site and the platforms and devices they used. You can then harness this information to plot your marketing plan more strategically.

    3. Expand Your Research

    Developing your buyer persona would sometimes require you to go beyond what information sales and marketing experts can supply. You might have to expand your research and look into other areas. For instance, you can check the LinkedIn profile of a previous customer or the company website of a recent associate. A social network profile will give you information about a person’s career background and skill set while a company page can tell you about the business’ size, values, and motivators.

    4. Focus on Creating an Ideal Primary Persona

    When it comes to buyer persona development, the best practice is to limit it to four main personas at most. Think of these primary personas as the clients responsible for starting or approving a purchase. They are your point of contact during the entire sales process.

    5. Develop a Persona Template

    Once data has been collated, analytics checked, and insights gained, it’s time to develop a buyer persona template. Make sure that your template has a persona name, job title, demographics, goals and values, proposed pitch and marketing message. Try to bring your persona to life as it will help humanize your marketing and sales efforts.

    Buyer personas are a critical tool that companies should take advantage of. They can give brands insights into how to improve user experience, develop compelling copy, or come up with good pricing models.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • How Mattel Optimizes Marketing on Walmart.com

    How Mattel Optimizes Marketing on Walmart.com

    Mattel is one of the largest distributors and brands sold on Walmart.com. Meredith Wollman manages the customer experience and all of the digital marketing for Mattel products that are sold through the Walmart.com channel. Wollman was interviewed at the eTail Conference by Tammy Everts, Senior Director of Research at SOASTA, now part of Akamai.

    How do you deliver the high conversion rates that Walmart and Mattel expect?

    If you don’t have the fundamentals down no campaign is going to be successful. Before we consider an ad campaign we go back to the cradle and look at setting up the items. We make sure that each item has the correct title, correct brand attribution, the right content in terms of A+ asset, beautiful imagery,  lifestyle imagery, package, out of package, the right videos, whether we have short TV commercials, and any user-generated content.

    Whatever the case may be, making sure that those items are set up and that they are optimized properly is very important to do before we even look at a campaign. No campaign will be successful if the item isn’t set up properly and they aren’t engaging for the consumers and there aren’t reviews already on the product.

    How do you plan a campaign for Mattel on Walmart.com?

    We are looking at what are our big bets? Where do we have the biggest investment in terms of the products that we want to put in front of the consumer? Every campaign looks at our on-hand inventory and where we are hoping on having the consumer lean in big. What we do is set up the campaign around that. We determine that if we can only have 5 or 6 hero images, what are those going to be? What are the products that we are going to use as the enticement for the consumer to come in and look at more?

    Then, which brands are we going to focus on? We also look at all of the analytics in terms of geo-targeting. In this particular zip code, are consumers leaning in towards our latin Barbie? Are they leaning in towards our African American Barbie? We want to really personalize what shows up on the screen for the consumers so they are seeing what they want to see and what they didn’t even know that they wanted to see.

    It’s Definitely a Data-Driven Process…

    I think the days of gut testing everything have gone the way of the Dodo Bird. Everything has to be data-driven now. That doesn’t mean that you can’t test something new, we do that all of the time. We really look at the data first to determine which products, where, who, when and how. All of those key factors are looked at when determining what we are going to put forward. It has to be data-driven.

    Most Mattel Shoppers Start on Mobile in the Store

    About 75 percent of our consumers start their journey on mobile. They are either in the store looking at a product and then they go on their phone and look for reviews or they are in the store and looking at products to see how quickly it could be shipped. A lot of people start their journey online which is why it’s so important to be mobile optimized.

    They don’t all necessarily buy online but that’s where they start their journey. Some will buy online but then go pick up in the store, which is actually considered a store purchase.

    How are conversions for Mattel on Walmart.com?

    They are slightly higher than the norm of 4-6 percent. If you are hitting the consumer when they want to see the product and with the product, they want to see you will, of course, have a greater conversion rate. It comes down to being scientific and artful at the same time about not necessarily telling the consumer what we want them to know, but giving the consumer the information that they want.

    Those two don’t always mesh as easily as we’d like because we have things we want to share at certain times, but that’s not always what works best for the consumer. The better we understand the consumer and what they want and when they want it the more successful the campaign. It’s always the case when we are communicating something that we want them to know in the time frame that we want them to know that it’s not nearly as successful.

    Akamai Study Shows Load Time Impacts Revenue Significantly

    A study by Akamai shows that every 1 second of load time improvement on Walmart.com equaled a 2% conversion rate increase.


    Also, for every 100ms of improvement, incremental revenue grew by 1%. All ecommerce sites can benefit from increasing both the speed and efficiency of the consumer experience.

  • 7 Pinterest Marketing Tools You Should Be Using in 2018

    7 Pinterest Marketing Tools You Should Be Using in 2018

    Every year, millions of new websites are launched, and they’re directly or indirectly competing for the same visitors you are. That makes driving traffic your website, increasingly more difficult. Even major social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are having trouble generating organic reach. But that doesn’t seem to be a problem with Pinterest.

    Pinterest has become more than just a visual search platform. It’s more of a search engine now where prospective customers go to look for products. Statistics have revealed that 93 percent of account holders use the platform to plan what they want to buy while 50 percent have actually bought something after seeing a Promoted Pin. And with 20 million monthly users, it makes sense for marketers to take advantage of Pinterest’s power.

    These seven marketing tools are among the best for helping generate more website traffic with Pinterest in 2018:

    1. Canva

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    You need captivating images if you want people to notice your Pins, and Canva is just the design software to help you achieve this. Canva offers ready to use Pinterest Pin templates with a variety of layouts to choose from. The layouts are customizable, so you can easily change the font, text, and background image. You can also add more graphics or take out elements that don’t fit with your vision or website theme. You can use the app for free and just purchase new images or assets for $1. However, a paid version will give you more designs and photos to choose from, as well as the option of saving your logo or brand to make designing a board go quicker.

    2. Hootsuite

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    Hootsuite makes it possible for you to create boards, make a publishing schedule, and post pins directly to Pinterest from its dashboard. You can also manage several accounts using this tool, making it easier and safer for your team since you’re just using one secure workflow. This full integration on a single dashboard saves time and makes it easier to reach a wider audience.

    3. PicMonkey

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    Eye-catching images are what sets Pinterest apart from other social platforms. Retailers and service-based companies will have more impact on this platform if they use a visual format for their content. PicMonkey is an online image editor that can help with designing and editing your brand’s images so that simple shots become more compelling. You can give photos a quick touch-up, resize images, create image quotes, and overlay photos with text. More importantly, it’s free so you won’t even need to hire a digital artist or invest in Photoshop.

    4. PinFollow

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    You need a lot of followers to establish your brand’s credibility, influence, and popularity. One way to get more followers on Pinterest is to follow other Pinners and hope they will do the same. PinFollow will help you weed out which Pinners are not following you so you can unfollow these accounts. This will streamline your list and leave you with more loyal followers.

    5. PinGroupie

    One of the fastest ways to make connections on this social media platform is through groups, but finding the right group board to join is tricky. PinGroupie helps you establish the best Pinterest Group Boards for your brand. This tool lists live group boards, allowing you to reach out to the owners and see if they are willing to let you join or contribute to the board. PinGroupie also has an industry sorting feature that you can use to check what kind of content other brands are offering and see if there’s anything unique that you can provide.

    6. Pinterest Analytics

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    This tool provides Pinterest users with the basic metrics about their Pins, like reach, impressions, and what people save from their website. It also shows how much traffic your site receives and indicates what your customers want. It’s very simple to use; just click on the stats icon on your Pins to get an overview of the essential metrics. You can use the tool to improve your marketing strategy and come up with ways to get more clicks, saves, and impressions.

    7. Tailwind

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    Tailwind is one of the most essential tools you need to successfully market on Pinterest. This analytics and campaign management tool will help you do everything, from scheduling the content you need published, to pinpointing your most influential followers to determining the most popular pins. It can also monitor your competitors and track the engagements on your account. What’s more, it seamlessly integrates with Google Analytics.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Have You Tried ‘Doctor Fork’ Pizza Yet? Google Pushes Fake Food Ads in Marketing Experiment

    Have You Tried ‘Doctor Fork’ Pizza Yet? Google Pushes Fake Food Ads in Marketing Experiment

    Google and Unskippable Labs cooked up a new project that has marketers salivating with new ideas.

    The company created a fake pizza brand, “Doctor Fork,” as a way to challenge conventional marketing strategies and see how far they could push the advertising envelope.

    According to TechCrunch, Google conceptualized and ran 33 ads on YouTube. The clips were made from stock footage and images, focused mainly on two things—the perfect “man vs. food” ratio and whether the number of sensory cues affected the effectiveness of the ad. In layman’s terms, the former deals with the ratio of human images against shots of food while the latter deals with the cues that stimulate our senses (ex. shots of stringy mozzarella, the sounds of vegetables being chopped).

    The bogus Doctor Fork ads generated 20 million impressions and led to some useful and revealing conclusions. For one, the experiment showed that immersive experiences that utilized multiple senses provide better recall. This means advertisers should try to stimulate all of the consumers’ senses (ex. audio, text, and video).

    The company also concluded that separating audio and visuals has more of an impact in terms of brand favorability and recall. So does giving explicit instructions to the customer.

    The Doctor Fork ads also showed that when it comes to food commercials, close up shots of food get people’s motors running. The experiment also proved that the bite and smile axiom that has been strictly followed by marketers is not the sole way of presenting a pleasant food experience. This finding gives food sellers more leeway when it comes to showing people enjoying their food.

    Google’s decision to use a fake company to study how people would react to their ads was an inspired one. Legitimate companies are constrained to following certain ad styles. For instance, food commercials usually don’t show someone chewing their food while looking at the camera. But this unspoken rule has never been tested so it can’t definitively be said that chewing and looking at the audience is bad. Unfortunately, brands are not willing to branch out in terms of style since an ad that flops is costly.

    Since Doctor Fork is not real, Google didn’t waste valuable ad time or lose any real customers. The fake pizza brand provided the company with the freedom to take risks. Ben Jones, the creative director of Unskippable Ads, explained it quite well when he said that “Doctor Fork can do whatever he wants.” He added that they used “the freedom of the unbranded ad to be wrong, to push in directions and ask questions that a brand will not.”

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Benefits of Adding In-App Advertising to Your Marketing Strategy

    Benefits of Adding In-App Advertising to Your Marketing Strategy

    In-application marketing has grown by leaps and bounds, thanks to the prevalence of mobile devices. With more people utilizing gadgets connected to the internet, companies are now spending more of their marketing budget on mobile web advertising.

    One strategy on the forefront of mobile advertising is in-app marketing. As the name implies, in-app marketing is any campaign or message that’s specifically designed to appear within a mobile application while the consumer is using the app. Unlike emails or push notifications, which engage the consumer outside of the company’s app, in-app ads take advantage of the moment and hook customers in real-time.

    Digital marketing strategies, like geo-targeting, are still important but brands and marketers believe that in-app advertising is the way forward. As a matter of fact, it has been estimated that global in-app revenue will reach $189 billion by 2020.

    Worldwide in-app advertising and app store revenues of mobile apps and games in 2015 and 2020 

    [Graphic via Statista]

    Aside from the fact that in-app marketing is a money-maker, there are also other benefits to utilizing this strategy.

    Benefits of Using In-App Marketing

    Consumers Spend A Lot of Time on Apps

    Brands should take advantage of the fact that the majority of smartphone users are spending a lot of time on apps. According to a 2017 US Mobile App Report, people are spending about 87 percent of their time online on mobile apps compared to just 13 percent on the Web. This gives companies that use in-app ads an opportunity to focus on a large market, boost their brand visibility, and improve lead generation and conversion. 

    Mobile Internet users in US Spend Most of their time on Mobile Apps, 2017

    Higher Click-Through Rates

    Another advantage in-app ads have over mobile ads is their higher click-through rates (CTRs). As it stands, CTRs for mobile web ads is at 0.23 percent while in-app ads are at 0.58 percent. In-app ads also perform 11.4 times better than conventional banner ads. This means that in-app advertisements not only raises lead generation numbers, they also help capture and convert these leads.

    More Focused Targeting

    Advertisements displayed in the brand’s application are designed within the app’s context, making them look natural and more organic. Many apps also opt for interactive formats, which gives advertisers the option to choose when it will be shown. This ensures a seamless transition for users. In contrast, other types of mobile advertisements, particularly pop-ups, can be quite disruptive. They interrupt the prospective consumer and could cause them to be annoyed, thereby dissuading them from making a positive decision.

    Image result for banner mobile app vs in-app

    Marketing inside company apps also gives advertisers a specific view of their target market due to geo-location data and the apps’ capacity to pull in the exact demographics. This increases the chances that the audience reached is aligned closely with the company’s advertising and marketing efforts. Highly targeted marketing also means that less money is wasted on consumers who are unlikely to make a purchase via the ad.

    Ads are More Memorable

    Research has shown that in-app ads are more effective because they’re more memorable when seen on the application. This is due to users being more engaged in the app right from the start, particularly in the social network and gaming niches. The personal nature of mobile gadgets, which people use during their leisure time, also gives people a more positive attitude towards brands they see advertising in-app.

    With in-app marketing, marketers can move away from generalized ads and instead focus on ads that are designed specifically for the brand’s demographic. This marketing strategy also reaches a lot of people in a very short time, thereby giving brands more reach and higher ROI.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • 7 Most Attention-Grabbing Words to Use in Your Online Marketing

    7 Most Attention-Grabbing Words to Use in Your Online Marketing

    Words are powerful. For marketers, they can mean the difference between successful conversions or a failed campaign. Certain words can pique a customer’s attention while others might repel them. So what words have the most power to get people interested in what you have to offer?

    7 Words That Will Grab the Attention of Your Customers

    1. Free

    People love to get free stuff, so it’s no surprise that “free” is one of the most persuasive words in the English language. It’s often the primary factor in what product a customer chooses.

    While the word can help with conversions, be mindful that it will also attract those who prefer bargains, and this might not be the type of customers you want. Instead, use it as a way to draw attention to your business, maybe by offering free guides, seminars, support, information, etc.

    2. You

    Using the word “you” in your marketing can be as attention-grabbing as calling someone by their name. It personalizes your message and helps you to quickly connect with your customers.

    You can use this personalization to great effect in your email marketing. Make it more effective by developing distinct lists for your products and the customers who would prefer them. Integrate “you” in the message for a more personal touch.

    3. TryImage result for 14-day trial

    If your product is new to prospective customers, they’ll likely need time to decide on whether they want to buy it. Using the word “buy” can seem aggressive and could make the customer feel pressured. A better word to use is “try” since it’s non-threatening, but can still motivate people to act.

    Give your customers a little push by encouraging them to try your product or service first. Offer a 14-day free trial period to test drive your brand or send them samples so they can know exactly what to expect from you.

    4. New

    When it comes to marketing, people prefer a recognized (or old) brand but love “new” products. This is due to the novelty aspect of an experience. It activates the brain’s reward center and is a great way to keep customers alert and interested.

    You can keep your customers engaged by refreshing your website’s design or changing your product packaging. Add new features or find a different way of sending a message or making an offer. Your customers will be interested even in something as simple as a new background color for your ad.

    5. Now

    Delayed gratification has no place in marketing. Most customers want things immediately. So it’s no surprise that “now” is among the most powerful words in marketing. The word easily evokes your fear of missing out and pushes you to action. Your brain also gets all fired up as it imagines the rewards it will soon be receiving.

    Make the most of the word and use it in your headlines, email subject headings, and calls-to-action. Boost the chances of instant conversions by making easily realized promises, like giving customers “Access Now” to services or by giving direct instructions on what they should do (Subscribe Now! Shop Now!). You can also use the word “instant” as it provides the same effect. In some cases, it might even generate a more powerful response.

    6. Best

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    People love knowing which items or services are popular, especially when it appears to come from word-of-mouth. This is why consumers look for best sellers or are interested in the best products that a company has to offer. It also gives the impression that many people have already bought the product and had good results.

    7. Easy

    People want products or services that will make their lives simpler and easier. Use this adjective to call attention to the fact that your product will make things easy for them. Easy is also a very positive and encouraging word to customers.

    Make the most of the word by using it to emphasize how easy your product is to use or operate. You can also interchange easy with other adjectives like “simple” or “hassle-free.” But be careful since the former tends to generate a simple response while the latter could cause customers to just focus on “hassle.”

    And the Runner Up is…

    If those seven words are the winners, then “sale” and “tips” are the runners-up. Sale is actually the granddaddy of advertising words. After all, who doesn’t love a good sale? The word also has the power to motivate customers into buying something. Meanwhile, customers love to receive suggestions on how they can do things better. This is why emails or blog posts with tips about a product or service are always appreciated.

    Conclusion

    You have to grab your customer’s attention if you want to win in digital advertising. These seven words are simple and can easily be included in any ad or conversation, yet they are powerful enough to generate interest among consumers. Learn to use them in the proper context and improve your online marketing.