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When brand strategy fails: 4 ways to use customer journey mapping for brand alignment

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By Liz Hess 

Known’s Liz Hess describes a world where linear customer journeys have given way to a complex matrix of platforms and routes. Worse, attempts to map them too often fall short with internal misalignment.

In today’s fiercely competitive and optimization-obsessed market, understanding and enhancing the customer journey has emerged as a crucial aspect of success. Customers have come to expect personalized, proactive, and anticipatory experiences. Delivering exceptional customer experiences throughout the entire journey is the key to building strong relationships, fostering loyalty, and driving sustainable growth.

The customer journey has become a pivotal concept that empowers organizations. With marketers embracing the idea that excellent customer experiences can be the best advertisement for a brand, customer journey mapping has become an obligatory aspect of go-to-market planning.

To create the seamless experiences that customers have come to expect, marketers dissect customer needs and aggregate an amalgamation of data: marketing metrics to define the details of how customers have been acquired, user research for a step-by-step analysis of the shopper journey, market research gleaned by interviews with customers and survey data, and details on how a buyer persona uses a product. There’s also a treasure trove that can be gleaned from customer touchpoints including email interactions, social media engagement, abandonment of part-filled shopping carts, returns to the site after abandonment, or chats with sales or support representatives.

Welcome to the matrix

The customer journey, once linear, has been replaced by a complex matrix of touchpoints with the customer at the centre. Somewhere along the way, customer journeys have gotten so fluid that we’ve forgotten who and what we’re serving. Marketers need to strive for a dynamic, collaborative, and socialized customer journey that works harder and smarter.

As brand marketers, we often witness clients invest significant time and resources into (and apply painstaking detail to) defining a brand strategy, only to hit a crossroads when socializing the direction among other departments. They fall in love with a vision but struggle to evangelize colleagues with the same energy, vigour, and inspiration.

For companies to live up to their brand promise and keep up with ever-evolving consumer demands, they need to be aligned and involve each division and department. While completely breaking down silos isn’t realistic, a collective journey map can be an effective bridge to connect teams and disciplines. Still, there are a few principles to position the customer journey as a tool for internal alignment.

1. Make it universal

The customer journey shouldn’t live within one department. A customer journey is best used as a tool for building consensus, and a contract between each discipline as to what they’re ultimately working towards.

The map should provide the business with a common language and understanding of how all efforts intersect. All initiatives should stem from the journey by translating customer needs into business rationale.

2. Make it personal

A customer journey map should outline not only how disciplines intersect but also how specific individuals in the company support customers’ needs. This is particularly impactful in healthcare marketing, where it’s been shown that when employees understand how they impact patients’ lives directly, it leads to higher job satisfaction, employee retention, and overall marketing and sales effectiveness. Naming clear roles and responsibilities, escalation protocol, and internal systems creates a sense of collective ownership.

3. Make it actionable

Brand strategies can often fail in implementation. Your brand is everything that you do, so it’s crucial to thread foundational brand elements into the journey. Beyond characterizing your customer, you can also use a journey map to humanize the brand. For instance, we can imagine and define how a brand archetype would behave at critical moments that matter, based on its values and focuses.

4. Make it holistic

Remove the purchase funnel and think about what a customer is really doing before they’re engaging with or thinking about the category. Customers enter and re-enter the funnel at various points, and with different states of mind and needs. Designing these pre-entry points helps us to imagine what motivates a customer, and when.

At times, imagining a category-agnostic customer journey can help widen the aperture to identify moments and touchpoints that can bring a customer into the journey at various stages.

While there are many schools of thought, training courses, and step-by-step guides to creating customer journeys, marketers and brands looking to create a competitive advantage and win need to break convention in favour of utility. Want to create customer journey maps that are enlightening, inspiring, and effective? Flexibility is the key to success.

Feature Image Credit: Amirali Mirhashemian via Unsplash

By Liz Hess 

Sourced from The Drum

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5 Top Blogging Platforms for Every Kind of Business

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By Amanda Pressner Kreuser

Whether it’s showcasing your company’s work, building your reputation as an industry thought leader, or trying to create demand for your products, a blog is one of the most important marketing tools a brand can leverage.

Posting about your brand on social media has become an essential part of any business marketing plan. But if you’ve let your blog lapse because longer-form content seems like too much of a commitment, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to connect with your audience — and convert them into customers.

At the content marketing agency I co-founded, I’ve seen just how incredibly powerful (and successful) blogging has been for clients like OXO and Nutanix that incorporate it into their business strategies. In fact, 68 percent of marketers find blogging more effective than it ever has been, according to data tracking tool Databox; brands that post content on blogs produce about 67 percent more leads than those that don’t. That’s because blogging can be one of the best ways to drive visitors to your site, whether it’s through organic search or the call to action you include in your posts on another platform — I like to think of both of those as free digital foot traffic.

If the idea of having to write blog posts regularly feels overwhelming, keep in mind that one of the best parts about blog content is it can be repurposed in so many ways. You can rework blog articles into social media posts, LinkedIn thought-leadership pieces, and editorial-style newsletters, helping to fill several channels at once and reach different audiences. Even if you don’t have the time to post very often, as long as you do it with some regularity, you’ll build a body of work that serves to tell your brand’s story and lets customers feel more connected to you.

There are lots of excellent blogging platforms out there, and they serve different needs. These are five of my favourites.

1. WordPress

This might be the first site you think of when it comes to blogging. That’s because WordPress made a name for itself in the early days of self-published websites and blogs. Now, 43 percent of all websites are built using the platform.

WordPress has ready-made themes and layouts but also has a treasure trove of customization options. It’s easy to manage and maintain, thanks to the number of tutorials, and also has plug-ins that can help you drive sales, create newsletters, and more. The platform supports various types of media, so if you want to spice up your blog posts with images and videos, WordPress can handle it. Another plus is that most creators already know how to use the platform, so if you’re thinking of hiring someone to help write your blog posts, they’ll most likely be able to jump right in–no training required.

WordPress is best for those who want heavy customization, greater control over the function of the blog, and search engine optimization features. You can set up a site for free if you don’t mind the “.wordpress.org” tacked on to your URL. If you’d prefer your own domain name, you can do that starting at $4 a month.

2. Wix

If you’re not too concerned with customization, Wix is the platform for you. The drag-and-drop builder plus the ready-made layouts mean you’ll soon be able to get down to writing. The platform is optimized for mobile, so once you get your feet wet, if an idea for a post strikes you, you can write and publish even when you’re on the go.

Though Wix wasn’t always known for good SEO tools, a recent update means you can now optimize your blog posts. The paid plan is free for the first year and $22 per month thereafter. So you can play around and get up to speed at no cost, and once the paid plan actually kicks in, you may already be seeing the ROI.

3. Squarespace

Squarespace is the place for e-commerce businesses that want to leverage content to help them reach potential new customers and boost sales. And Squarespace is one of the best platforms for e-commerce functionality. With its easy-to-use platform (like Wix, it is drag and drop) and e-commerce features (including integrated shopping carts and product pages), Squarespace is ideal for that combination of selling products while sharing your brand story. Prices start at $16 a month, but the platform does have a free trial, so you can give it a test drive before committing.

4. LinkedIn

You may be surprised to see a career platform on a list about blogging, but you can easily create “article” pages from your own personal account or business page. It’s as simple as typing up your article, choosing a header image to go with it (always a best practice to include an image!), and clicking publish.

I personally use LinkedIn as my blogging platform because it has the best engagement with our client base at Masthead Media and has allowed me to build a stronger connection between the LinkedIn community and my company. I highly recommend it if you already have a large following and if SEO isn’t your top priority.

5. Medium

If writing is something of a passion for you, and you like to share insights and opinions about your industry, Medium is your platform. Unlike WordPress and Wix, Medium won’t give your company a homepage with a unique URL, but it comes with an already-engaged audience who receive a daily email promoting the best new stories posted to the site. You simply write your piece and publish it, and it has the potential to be shared with millions of readers.

The platform has also rolled out a new payment model whereby popular pieces can earn you money. So if your blogging objective is to share your thought leadership with a broad audience, check out Medium.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Amanda Pressner Kreuser

Co-founder and managing partner, Masthead Media@mastheadmedia

Sourced from Inc.

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Tensions rise as Meta distances itself from news publishers

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By Jai Hamid

  • Meta is reducing its engagement with news publishers, focusing less on current affairs on its platforms.
  • The company launched a text-based app, Threads, that prioritizes non-news content.
  • Meta is in conflict with Canada’s government over legislation requiring platforms to pay for publishers’ content.

 

Tensions are escalating as Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Whatsapp, Threads, and Instagram grows increasingly distant from news publishers, sparking widespread concern.

This move comes amidst a shift in strategy where the technology titan has been giving less attention to politics and current affairs on its platforms, while simultaneously shrugging off governmental calls for increased payments to media outlets.

Meta’s growing reluctance: A strategic move

In a pivotal turn, Meta has distanced itself from the traditional news sector, despite years of appeasing key publishers through the funding of non-profit journalism initiatives and forging partnerships with entities like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

This alteration in stance manifests in Meta’s latest product release – Threads, a text-based application designed to rival Twitter. In less than a week, Threads managed to draw in an astounding 100 million users, thanks to its integration with the globally popular Instagram platform.

Much like Instagram, Threads prioritizes content from creators and friends over hard news or political stories. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, has firmly declared the platform’s intent to avoid promoting news content.

In a controversial move, Meta has decided to exclude news from its feed in Canada, as new legislation demanding platforms pay for content from publishers and broadcasters comes into effect.

This law was formulated to uplift smaller news organizations with limited bargaining power. However, the law has been met with resistance not just from Meta, but also Google, which threatens to impose a news blackout in Canada.

The corporate tussle has elicited backlash from a host of advertisers in Canada, some of which are threatening to withdraw their advertisements. The implications for Meta are significant, given that Canada contributed approximately $3 billion to the company’s $117 billion annual revenues in 2022.

A history of friction

Historically, Meta has made attempts to ally with publishers through various initiatives, such as deals for content to be featured on Facebook’s News Tab product.

However, the senior leadership at Meta has concluded that the company’s interests conflict with those of the news industry. This stems from the notion that the growth of the company’s digital advertising business is perceived as a contributing factor to the global revenue decline experienced by newspaper groups.

Additionally, Meta’s internal research has revealed that users gravitate more towards short-form videos and content from influencers rather than news and political content. Consequently, the tech giant has reduced the presence of political content in users’ feeds since 2021.

Despite its ongoing withdrawal from the news industry, the ramifications of Meta’s actions are far-reaching.

With allegations that the company’s inadequate moderation of its applications fuelled discord surrounding the election of former US president Donald Trump, as well as the 2021 Capitol building riots, the technology behemoth is treading on thin ice.

As a result, industry insiders argue that Meta will eventually suffer from the escalating rift with news publishers. The absence of reliable news sharing could potentially isolate the firm from real-world happenings, leading to the question of whether its strategy will prove sustainable in the long term.

As the tension unfolds between Meta and news publishers, the future of news content on social media platforms remains uncertain.

However, one thing is clear: the technology titan’s standoff with news organizations and governments alike is set to redefine the relationship between social media and the world of journalism.

By Jai Hamid

Jai Hamid is an enthusiastic writer whose current area of interest is the blockchain sector. Whenever she is not reading or writing, you can find her tending to her plants in the garden. She strongly believes that crypto is going to transform the world for the better.

Sourced from Cryptopolitan

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Why LinkedIn Is the Ultimate Platform to Unleash Your Thought Leadership Potential

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By Megan Thudium

Whether you’re a seasoned executive, a new entrepreneur or a subject matter expert, let’s explore why LinkedIn should be your digital podium for sharing insights, igniting meaningful conversations and leaving an indelible mark in your industry.

Publishing thought leadership content on LinkedIn is a game-changing strategy.

The platform is the beacon of expertise in the ever-evolving realm of professional networking and personal branding, and the influential power of its extensive network rewards thought leaders with organic growth and lead generation.

Whether you’re a seasoned executive, a budding entrepreneur or a subject matter expert, let’s explore why LinkedIn should be your digital podium for sharing insights, igniting meaningful conversations and leaving an indelible mark in your industry.

What are the benefits of creating thought leadership content on LinkedIn?

There’s lots of buzz around thought leadership, but it’s often misused and misunderstood.

Thought leadership is an essential part of any successful content marketing strategy. Companies and entrepreneurs in all types of industries can benefit from the many advantages of thought leadership to build a more competitive reputation and ultimately drive more revenue.

This type of content strategy is essential and can be a game-changer, especially in B2B companies. This is because of the complexity and length of the decision-making process and the many people involved. Leaders can use LinkedIn to create authentic and personalized relationships, while also elevating their authority on the platform.

A few benefits of creating thought leadership on LinkedIn are:

1. Increased visibility and exposure

The beauty of LinkedIn lies in its vast network of professionals spanning various industries and sectors.

You position yourself as a knowledgeable authority by consistently sharing insightful and valuable content, unlocking unparalleled opportunities to amplify your reach and connect with individuals who can elevate your career.

And more: This helps you attract the attention of like-minded professionals, potential clients, employers and industry influencers actively seeking valuable insights and expertise.

2. Enhanced credibility and authority in your industry

LinkedIn has earned its stripes as the go-to platform for professionals seeking to establish credibility and authority. As you provide valuable content that educates, inspires and solves problems for your audience, you position yourself as a trusted source of knowledge in your industry, demonstrating your expertise and your ability to provide meaningful solutions.

The platform professionally sets the stage for meaningful interactions and paves the way for valuable connections with like-minded individuals, potential clients and industry influencers. This helps to establish your credibility and sets you apart as a thought leader in your industry.

3. Opportunities for networking, collaboration and meaningful conversations

LinkedIn is not merely a platform for self-promotion; it’s a hub of intellectual exchange and robust dialogue. By publishing thought leadership content, you invite others to engage in insightful conversations and challenge conventional wisdom. Sparking discussions around your expertise allows you to gain new perspectives, refine your ideas and strengthen your professional network.

LinkedIn’s messaging and commenting capabilities enable you to contact individuals directly to initiate conversations, explore partnership opportunities or seek mentorship. Your thought leadership content can serve as an icebreaker and a reason for professionals to engage with you.

4. Increased engagement and connection with your audience

As your content gains traction through likes, comments and shares, LinkedIn’s algorithm recognizes your authority and rewards you with increased visibility in users’ news feeds and search results as your content gains traction through likes, comments and shares. This expanded reach allows you to connect with a larger audience, amplify your message and increase your chances of being discovered by individuals who may have otherwise never come across your profile.

Set aside 30 minutes daily to engage with industry-specific groups, participate in relevant discussions and like your network’s content, leaving meaningful comments when possible. Share insights that resonate with your audience and watch your engagement and connections grow.

5. Make a lasting impact

LinkedIn empowers you to showcase your expertise and leave an indelible mark on your industry. Your ideas can shape the direction of your field, inspire others and generate positive change, positioning yourself as a thought leader.

Don’t miss the chance to become the driving force behind significant industry advancements: In today’s fast-paced business landscape, leaving a lasting impact is crucial.

Harness LinkedIn’s thought leadership power

In today’s dynamic professional landscape, LinkedIn stands out as the ultimate platform for harnessing thought leadership power. It provides professionals a unique opportunity to establish credibility, expand their reach, foster meaningful conversations and leave a lasting impact in their respective industries.

Now that you understand the untapped potential of LinkedIn as the ultimate platform for thought leadership, it’s time to start putting your thought leadership strategy in place. As you embark on your journey to become a thought leader, you can unlock your ability to captivate audiences, drive engagement and propel your career to new heights. Embrace the platform’s potential, ignite conversations and leave an indelible mark on your industry.

Get ready to seize the reins of your industry and establish yourself as the go-to expert in your field, unleashing your thought leadership potential on LinkedIn, transforming your career trajectory and shaping the future of your industry.

By Megan Thudium

Megan Thudium is an American marketer working in Berlin, founder of MTC | The Content Agency. As a branding, content and LinkedIn B2B marketing specialist, Megan works with innovative tech brands in Germany and throughout Europe.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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Netflix subscriptions jump 8%, revenue climbs as password sharing crackdown takes hold

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By Lillian Rizzo

Netflix said Wednesday that its quarterly revenue and subscriptions rose, as efforts to curb password sharing took hold.

Here’s what the company reported for the second quarter versus what analysts expected, according to Refinitiv:

  • Earnings: $3.29 a share vs. $2.86 per share expected
  • Revenue: $8.19 billion vs $8.30 billion expected

The streaming giant said it added 5.9 million customers during the second quarter amid its broader crackdown on password sharing in the U.S. Netflix said it would roll out its new policy to the rest of its customers on Wednesday.

Netflix’s stock fell as much as 8% in after hours trading.

The company reported revenue of $8.19 billion, up 3% from $7.97 billion in the prior-year period. Net income of $1.49 billion climbed from $1.44 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The earnings report comes soon as investors look for more information on the rollout of Netflix’s ad-supported streaming tier and push to boost subscriptions by rooting out account sharing.

However, Netflix said it was too early to report a breakdown of revenue from the ad-supported tier — which was introduced late last year — as well as the accounts that have come from the new password policy.

Netflix said Wednesday it expects a boost in revenue in the second half of the year as it begins “to see the full benefits of paid sharing plus the steady growth in our ad-supported plan.”

Netflix said it now forecasts revenue of $8.5 billion, up 7% year over year, for the third quarter. It attributed the expected revenue growth to more average paid memberships.

The company also anticipates paid net subscriber additions in the third quarter will be similar to the second quarter. Meanwhile, Netflix expects revenue growth in the fourth quarter to “accelerate more substantially” as the efforts to curb password sharing gain steam and as advertising revenue grows.

In May, Netflix began alerting members about the policy to deter the use of other people’s accounts. Subscribers can either transfer a profile to someone outside of their household so they can pay for their own account, or the member can pay a $7.99 additional fee per person.

The company’s subscriber base rose in the weeks following the sharing policy rollout, according to a report from Antenna.

Netflix executives declined on Wednesday’s earnings call to give specific information on the rollout of its paid sharing initiative so far.

Co-CEO Greg Peters said Wednesday that the company will not see the full effect of the policy for several quarters.

“It’s not an overnight kind of thing,” Peters said on the call. “In part because of interventions that are applied gradually, and in part because some borrowers won’t immediately sign up for their own account, but will do so in the next month or three months or six months or maybe even longer down the line as we launch a title that they are particularly interested in.”

The executives noted that the password sharers who have started their own accounts have similar characteristics as longstanding customers, leading the company to expect a high retention rate.

Netflix introduced both the new sharing policy and ad tier in the last year as part of its response to its first subscriber loss in more than a decade in 2022.

Netflix’s stock has risen with the rollout of the initiatives. The company’s shares have climbed more than 60% this year, and it notched a 52-week high on Wednesday amid expectations it would show growth this quarter.

The company on Wednesday said it hopes the changes will help to “generate more revenue off a bigger base,” adding it wants to use the additional funds to reinvest in the platform.

In May, Netflix said it expanded its paid sharing policy to more than 100 countries, which account for more than 80% of its revenue.

“The cancel reaction was low and while we’re still in the early stages of monetization, we’re seeing healthy conversion of borrower households into full paying Netflix memberships,” Netflix said Wednesday, adding it would address the issue in the remainder of the countries that it is available.

Meanwhile, media companies have turned more to ad-supported streaming as a way to get to profitability.

During its pitch to advertisers in May, Netflix unveiled few details about its ad-supported tier, albeit enough to push its stock higher. The company said it had 5 million active users for the new tier, and 25% of its new customers were signing up for the tier in areas where it’s available.

On Wednesday, Netflix confirmed that it removed its “basic” ad-free plan, making its standard plan with ads its cheapest option at $6.99 a month. The standard and premium tiers without commercials cost $15.49 and $19.99, respectively, a month.

These initiatives come as the media industry goes through one of its most tumultuous periods in some time.

Industry analysts have long suspected the industry could consolidate, particularly through mergers and acquisitions.

On Wednesday, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said Netflix looked at opportunities to buy intellectual property and build its content library.

“Some of those assets are stressed for a reason,” Sarandos said of potential media companies or assets up for sale. “Our M&A activity would mostly be around IP that we could develop into great content for members. Traditionally, we’ve been very strong builders over buyers and that hasn’t changed.”

Netflix is also contending with the potential fallout of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes.

Analysts expect Netflix to fare better than other media companies during the work stoppage due to its deep bench of content, particularly from international sources.

As a result of the strike, Netflix increased its free cash flow forecast to $5 billion for 2023, up from a prior estimate of at least $3.5 billion due to lower spending on content this year.

Sarandos said during Wednesday’s call that Netflix has a lot of fresh content in the pipeline, but did not say how long that stream would last. Still, he said the strike needs to reach a conclusion.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. There are a handful of complicated issues,” Sarandos said. “We’re super committed to getting to an agreement as soon as possible, one that’s equitable and one that enables the industry and everyone in it to move forward in the future.”

Feature Image Credit: Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

By Lillian Rizzo

Sourced from CNBC

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Every Brand Has Three Target Audiences

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By John Gumas

Brand marketing is complicated—not only because it has many moving parts but also because most marketing professionals continue to confuse it with other marketing activities.

Brand marketing is not the same as advertising. It’s also not the same as direct marketing. Brand marketing encompasses something bigger and more nebulous. One way to approach brand marketing in such a way that you have focus is to think about the three audiences for any brand:

1. New potential customers (acquisition).

2. Existing customers (retention).

3. Internal team members and stakeholders (inspiration).

As you develop your marketing program, keeping these three target audiences in mind will help you define a brand marketing campaign.

What We Mean By Brand Marketing

When we talk about brand marketing, we are talking about building your brand by exposing it to as many people in your target audience as possible. Brand marketing builds your reputation and recognition, and it helps establish relationships with your target audiences.

Branding relates to how you talk about yourself and your image as well as how you drive value for customers and stakeholders. In many ways, brand marketing is about storytelling—explaining your brand story, what makes you different and how your brand makes people feel.

Your brand sets you apart from your competition—expressing your company’s personality, identity, values and value promise to your stakeholders. Your brand is an abstract that exacts an emotional response and a tangible response. For example, your brand could be a sense of refreshment that comes with the red label (Coca-Cola).

Once you have a brand story, you can use different marketing strategies to deliver the message. For example, brand marketing for Coca-Cola projects an emotional brand promise of joy, happiness and a consistently refreshing experience. In fact, in Mandarin, Coca-Cola can be translated as “Tasty Fun” or “Delicious Happiness.”

The brand message is delivered using other marketing strategies. The Coca-Cola advertising campaign, “The Pause That Refreshes,” exacts the emotional brand response of refreshment and associates it with the more tangible Coke logo and packaging.

Once you have defined your brand message, your brand marketing strategy needs to translate that brand promise for each of your three target audiences.

Matching The Brand To The Target

Matching your brand message to your target audiences can be one of the most challenging aspects of brand marketing. As you develop your brand, you should keep your target audiences in mind. The deeper you understand your audiences’ informational needs and emotional responses, the more you can focus your marketing programs and the more efficiently you can allocate your marketing budget.

1. New Potential Customers

Marketing programs are primarily designed to drive sales, and the number of new leads measures the success of most marketing campaigns. In fact, marketing professionals often use the number of qualified sales leads as the key performance indicators (KPIs) that dictate promotions and bonuses.

At the same time, customer acquisition costs (CAC) rose 60% between 2013 and 2019. Much of that increase can be attributed to the rising cost of content marketing. Online content through blogs, videos, social media posts, downloadable guides and other sources is expensive but highly effective. Content is proving to be the best way to deliver the brand message to prospects, enabling companies to help prospects make the connection between the brand promise and the value they get from the brand.

Using content to package your brand’s value proposition enables you to present your brand message where your target audience is most likely to see it, thus raising awareness. Once you have awareness, you can focus on moving prospects to consideration by showing them how your brand benefits them, ultimately allowing you to land them as customers.

2. Customer Retention

Too few organizations dedicate sufficient resources to customer retention. Customer retention costs five times less than customer acquisition, and increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%. The average customer retention rate for the top five companies in most industries is 94%, and the probability of upselling an existing customer is between 60% and 70%. That’s why reaching out to existing customers is more important than finding new customers.

Your current customers need to be reminded why they love your brand and are important to you. Use your brand message to forge an emotional connection with customers through e-newsletters, social media campaigns, promotions, contests, special offers only for customers and other means. Promote brand recognition by keeping current customers informed and entertained.

3. Internal Stakeholders

Don’t neglect your internal team members. They need to be kept informed and inspired as well. As J. Willard Marriott once said: “Take care of associates, and they’ll take care of your customers.” Keep your team updated on customer promotions and company news through internal newsletters, emails, posts in the lunchroom, etc. Remember that your team members are the bearers of the brand message, so they are vitally important.

Your internal team extends beyond the staff. Develop communications strategies for partners, board members, suppliers, friends and family. They are all part of the organization and carry the brand message in their own way.

Brand marketing is a collaborative effort—not only with your internal team but also with customers and prospects. Everyone who receives your brand message can become an evangelist in one way or another. That’s why it’s essential to be clear about your brand identity and the value it presents to each of your audience targets.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By John Gumas

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

John Gumas is CEO of Gumas Advertising based in San Francisco and co-author of Challenger Brand Marketing. Read John Gumas’ full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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Google Reminds Advertisers To Prepare For End Of Third-Party Cookies

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Google is preparing to release in November additional tools for companies that evaluate their use of third-party cookies.

It’s a reminder to advertisers, publishers, platform providers, and the rest of the online community of its intension to disable third-party cookies in the first quarter of next year.

“We are building a DevTools extension to facilitate analysis of cookie usage during browsing sessions,” Rowan Merewood, developer relations for Privacy Sandbox, wrote in a post. “This will provide debugging pathways for cookies, and Privacy Sandbox features, with access points to learn and understand the different aspects of the Privacy Sandbox initiative.”

Privacy Sandbox aims to reduce cross-site tracking while keeping online content free. The plan is to deprecate cookies for 1% of users as of Q1 2024, and then increase to all users by Q3 2024. The move should address any remaining competition concerns of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the company said.

Merewood, in the post, detailed what he called the “cookie countdown.”

Two milestones are approaching in Q4 2023 and Q1 2024 as part of Chrome-facilitated testing. The testing primarily is for companies testing the Privacy Sandbox relevance and measurement APIs, but as part of this Google will disable third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome Stable users.

“From the start of 2024, you can expect to see an increased portion of Chrome users on your site with third-party cookies disabled even if you are not actively participating in the Chrome-facilitated testing,” Merewood wrote. “This testing period continues through to Q3 2024 when, after consultation with the CMA and subject to resolving any competition concerns, we plan to begin disabling third-party cookies for all Chrome users.”

Earlier this year, the CMA accepted commitments from Google addressing the competition concerns that resulted in an investigation of Google’s proposals to remove third-party cookies and other functionalities from its Chrome browser. The CMA publishes quarterly reports.

It appears that the deprecation of third-party cookies continues to spur tighter collaboration related to data throughout the advertising industry.

On Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced data-matching capabilities for advertisers using AWS Entity Resolution through integrations with LiveRamp, TransUnion, and Unified ID 2.0.

Last week, LiveRamp gave brands, publishers, and technology platforms better collaboration and a way to get more from first-party data from any environment. The company is also working on a sophisticated data platform, where marketers will have the ability to log in to see data available from companies. Some might include demand side platforms (DSPs) like The Trade Desk, publishers such as Paramount, or streaming partners such as Netflix or Peacock. Brands might also be included in that list.

Interoperability between different identity solutions will become more important, according to Insider Intelligence.

The research firm said collaboration will enable data partners to enrich first-party data to understand consumer behavior, provide a comprehensive view of the customer journey and its touchpoints, and maintain the frequency and recency caps across multiple platforms.

Citing IAB guidance, Insider Intelligence pointed to a few challenges to achieve interoperability, such as “matching IDs based on diverse data sets, matching IDs with different definitions of individuals and households, and consumer privacy-related methods like Apple’s “hide my email” that make it difficult to match identities across contexts.”

Merewood also provided guidelines for the industry to prepare, including auditing third-party cookie use, testing for breakage, cross-site cookies that store data on a per site basis, and more.

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Strategies to Know Before Selling a Business

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By Rob Csernyik

Selling a business may be the deal of a lifetime, but how these transactions are taxed can have implications for generations.

That’s why it is critical for business owners to consider the most tax-advantaged strategy for their financial goals—whether that’s funding their retirement lifestyle, philanthropic ventures, or maximizing the inheritance of their loved ones.

Individuals can employ varying approaches to deploying the cash they receive from a sale by depending on what they hope to accomplish, though there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, says Jere Doyle, a Boston-based estate planning strategist with BNY Mellon Wealth Management.

For instance, an owner could choose to defer gains through an installment sale, where purchasers make at least one payment in a different tax year. That strategy, however, comes with the risk (though not the certainty) of higher future tax rates. Earlier this year, the Biden administration called for doubling the capital gains tax rate over the current maximum of 20%.

Business owners who instead choose to give away business-related property to someone else while receiving nothing in return—or an amount below the property’s full value—will be required to pay gift taxes on the amount above the annual exemption of US$17,000 a year or US$12.92 million over a lifetime. The rates can range from 18% to 40%.

Before going this route, an owner should make sure their property receives an outside appraisal, Doyle says. Without it, discrepancies between how the IRS and the business owner value a closely held business can have tax implications.

For owners planning to pass along money to their heirs, using an intentionally defective grantor trust is among the most desirable strategies, he says. These trusts allow an individual to still get income from certain trust assets, such as business holdings or real estate. Though the owner pays taxes on this income when he or she is still alive, their estate is reduced and there are no estate taxes paid on the trust upon death.

Penta spoke with Doyle about various strategies investors can use to manage the windfall from the sale of their business.

Understand Asset Versus Stock Sales

Owners have a choice between selling shares in their business or selling the business’ individual assets and liabilities. Each choice has tax implications, yet, a lot of business owners aren’t familiar with the difference, Doyle says.

The DealStats business acquisition database estimates about 70% of business sales in the U.S. are asset sales. They are attractive because buyers can allocate high values to quickly depreciating items like equipment, and lower values to more slowly depreciating items, says Doyle. This approach reduces an owner’s tax burden sooner, yet it generates higher taxes for sellers who may pay ordinary income tax rates on certain assets.

A stock sale allows sellers to potentially be taxed at a lower rate of up to 20% in capital gains taxes on any profits.

Consider How Charitable Donations Can Help

Before a sale, many business owners will ask whether they can donate stock to charity and receive an income-tax deduction, Doyle says.

“If you’re going to do that to minimize your capital gains you want to make sure you give the stock to charity well in advance of the closing date,” he says. “You can’t wait until the last minute or the government will tax you.” In about four out of five cases, people try to gift stock after a deal is solidified, by which point it’s too late and they won’t receive the tax break.

Business owners can also use a charitable remainder trust to defer taxes before or after a sale. Assets that can be donated into this kind of trust include cash, private company stock, and real estate. The structure allows people to draw income from the trust at a rate of 5% a year for up to 20 years or the life of one or more beneficiaries, according to the IRS. When the term is up, any remaining dollars are passed on to a designated charitable organization.

An individual who uses this vehicle gets a charitable income tax deduction in the year the trust is funded equal to the remaining value the charity eventually receives.  Meanwhile, income taxes are due on the annual distributions.

“You’re really deferring the recognition of the gain to a future year so you avoid it in the current year,” Doyle says, paying instead in installments over the trust term.

Consider Opportunity Zones

One option owners have is to funnel any proceeds they receive from the sale of their business into an investment in an opportunity zone, which is a geographic area qualified as economically distressed by the federal government.

By investing in qualified businesses or real estate in these areas, or in opportunity-zone funds that own multiple qualified assets, owners can defer capital gains from a business sale. Available to accredited investors, opportunity zone funds often require a minimum US$100,000 investment. Knowing the status of the holdings of these funds is critical—funds must prove 90% of their assets qualify twice annually. If they don’t, the investment may get returned.

This type of investment not only defers taxes on invested gains until Dec. 31, 2026, according to the U.S. tax act of 2017, but if the investment is held for 10 years, investors can avoid paying capital gains taxes on appreciation over the initial amount. Because maximizing tax benefits happens long term, this is a good option for those who don’t need immediate cash for a portion of their business sale proceeds. Investors must also be comfortable with the risk levels in the underlying investment.

Feature Image Credit: Unsplash

By Rob Csernyik

Sourced from Barron’s

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YouTube’s Anti-Adblock Feature Frustrates Users

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By Peter Suciu

YouTube is running an adblocker that will greet users with a pop-up alert, warning that such apps aren’t allowed. Those users will be asked to either allow the ads or choose a paid subscription.

Currently, just closing the alert will allow the video to continue, but it is expected that soon anyone running adblockers won’t be able to watch videos on the platform.

“Adblockers are not allowed on YouTube. You can go ad-free with YouTube Premium, and creators can still get paid from your subscription,” the warning noted.

The video-sharing service first started testing the feature in June, and the company has said that ads are necessary to support its community of creators.

“Ads support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favourite content on YouTube,” the Google-owned company said in a statement this week.

Swift Backlash

YouTube’s decision to issue the warning has upset a number of users, who have voiced their frustration on social media—with some suggesting they’d ditch the video service before accepting the ads. However, given that there is the premium option, it would seem that may be a short-sighted view to take—especially given that ads do, as YouTube noted, support smaller creators.

“People have gotten accustomed to ‘free’ on the Internet, so change is always difficult,” Susan Schreiner, technology analyst at C4 Trends said. “Creators, writers and others deserve to be compensated and as platforms experiment with new revenue models—it also seems the era of ‘free’ is coming to an end. Just consider that content creators and the platform make most of its revenue from ads and people using ad blockers prevent them from being compensated and making money.”

Enticing Users To Go Premium

This move by YouTube could also be a way to further promote its ad-free premium option.

“It also seems like YouTube might be experimenting with a new business model with its YouTube Premium,” Schreiner added . “At $13.99 per month, it’s positioned as a practical choice that streamlines one’s viewing experience as well as ensuring uninterrupted and gratifying content consumption.”

Many of the video streaming services have had to raise their subscriptions, but YouTube has long been a platform where users have enjoyed the free option.

“In these times when there is a movement away from ‘free’ as a premium service—there’s a shift towards the onus being on the consumer and forcing the user to make choices,” said Schreiner. “Is it worth it to subscribe to YouTube Premium? If the user relies on YouTube for their entertainment than comparatively it might be a good value since it also includes features such as unlimited daily use, background play for multitasking, seamless cross-device experiences and ad-free viewing.”

However, based on the responses on social media this week, warning users that the adblockers simply aren’t allowed, perhaps wasn’t the best way this could be handled.

“This is a coercive move by Google to force people to pay for an ad-free experience on YouTube or accept the ads and the corresponding targeting and tracking. If you look at this in a privacy context, Google and others are now trying to force people to pay for privacy—see Meta in Europe. In a purely advertising vein, Google doesn’t want to leave any money on the table. It’s less about supporting creators than maintaining ad-revenue growth,” suggested social media analyst Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media.

In other words, users can pay, allow ads or simply quit using YouTube.

“There are unfortunately no other options,” Sterling continued. “Nothing online, it seems, is free anymore.”

It is also likely consumers may need to reassess their streaming subscriptions, and choose to retain those that enhance their entertainment experience.

Feature Image Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images

By Peter Suciu

Follow me on Twitter.

I am a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. I covered the Detroit bankruptcy for Reuters in 2014, and I currently cover international affairs for 19FortyFive and cybersecurity for ClearanceJobs.

Sourced from Forbes

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It’s Time to Target Those Holiday Shoppers. Ramp Up Your Email Marketing Efforts Now to Maximize Your Profits This Season.

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By Liviu Tanase

Is your email marketing ready for the busiest shopping season? Take these five simple steps to set yourself up for success and increase email ROI during the holidays.

People spent $1.14 trillion online and $270 billion in the U.S. during last year’s holiday season. For businesses like yours, the coming months have the highest sales potential — and for that, you need a reliable strategy.

Email marketing is competitive 365 days a year, but the last quarter? It all comes to a head. With so many companies fighting for attention and dollars, you can’t afford to have anything go wrong.

From figuring out the right offers to preparing your email list, here are five steps you can take today to get better holiday email marketing results.

1. Create different offers for each audience segment

Your customers’ journey with your company can be wildly different. For instance, a repeat customer will have different needs compared to a prospect who just created an account on your website. So, when you and your team brainstorm holiday email campaigns, you must take these details into account and segment your audience.

If the effort of splitting your list intimidates you, stay focused on the benefits. Open rates are 14% higher for segmented campaigns, which means you’ll have higher chances to convert.

2. Verify your customers’ email addresses

Now that you’re clear on the offers for each customer segment, it’s time to check the health of your email lists. Looking at your most recent email marketing reports is a good place to start. For instance, if your bounce rate exceeds 2%, you know it’s time to run your databases through an email verifier. Otherwise, your email deliverability will suffer. This is not a time when you can risk having your emails go to spam.

After verifying more than six billion email addresses in a year, ZeroBounce found that only 57% of them were valid and safe to keep. Your email list decays monthly, so remove obsolete data and also check every new address you gather.

3. Run an email blacklist check

Have you noticed a steep decline in your open rates and clicks in the past few months? Your IP or domain could be blacklisted. Mailbox providers (like Yahoo or Gmail) and anti-spam organizations maintain email blacklists to block senders with a history of spam-sending. However, even senders with good intentions can land on a blacklist if they don’t maintain healthy email lists and follow best practices. In most cases, emails from blocked senders never make it to their recipients.

Email blacklists are updated in real-time. The best way to find out if your IP or domain is flagged is to use a blacklist checker. Such tools run tests against hundreds of blacklists and alert you if there’s trouble.

4. Part with subscribers who never click

Every email list has its devoted fans, who open every email, and subscribers who rarely or never click. While these email addresses don’t bounce, their lack of interaction sends Internet service providers (ISPs) the wrong message about you. If a large segment of your list doesn’t open your emails, are you relevant enough to be in the inbox? Unengaged subscribers may cause your campaigns to go to spam, so if you haven’t removed them in more than six months, now is the time.

You may be nervous about reducing your email list right before the holidays, but you’ll enjoy more engagement. Since they haven’t opened any of your emails in months, those subscribers weren’t likely to convert anyway.

5. Send a gift to boost engagement

To increase engagement ahead of the holidays, start warming up your prospects a few weeks before launching your campaigns. An effective tactic is to create a series of educational emails to relieve some of your customers’ pain points. Whether you run a B2B or a retail business, think of free content offers to create your emails around. A free e-book, infographic or useful video can go a long way in building trust and standing out in people’s inboxes.

Remember: healthy engagement feeds your email deliverability, showing ISPs that your content is relevant. Nurture your audience with outstanding emails before you go for the hard sell.

Bonus tip: keep sending those great emails

Aside from sending compelling content, sending it regularly is what helps your email marketing the most. If throughout the year you’ve been inconsistent, now you want to gradually ramp up volume. You’ll build a stronger connection to your customers, and your email deliverability will benefit.

Avoid sudden and drastic volume increases, as ISPs can flag that behaviour as suspicious. The more predictable you are, the better chance you have of getting your email campaigns in the inbox.

By Liviu Tanase

Founder & CEO of ZeroBounce

Liviu Tanase is a serial entrepreneur and telecommunication executive with extensive experience in the creation, growth and sale of novel technologies. He is currently the CEO of ZeroBounce, an email validation and deliverability platform.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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