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The Best Digital Marketing Strategies for Start-up Businesses

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By Sahin Alom,

As a newbie in the industry, you should be ready to work hard so that you can earn more profits with the help of the new thing called the internet. It is just like a factory for the newbies to learn how to run a business. The Best Digital Marketing Strategies for Start-up Businesses

Do you know what marketing strategies are for your start-up business? There are a lot of companies that have used these strategies, yet few of them have the money to implement it.

For example, your digital marketing campaign is for different businesses. The strategies for one business may not be effective for another. Complete understanding is the reason why your start-up business should also look into the strategy of your competitors.

For example, if you are into digital media and digital products, you should take into consideration your competitors’ websites. They may already be in business and are competing for the same market as you.

Furthermore, how is your company’s site relevant to the needs of the consumers. The site must be easy to use, easy to navigate, and relevant to the consumer’s needs.

The best way to achieve this is to customize the design of the site. You can do this by using the navigation tools provided by the search engines.

Startup Businesses

To make it look more professional, you can hire a professional designer to look over your site. You will be sure that the website will have an attractive design, but if the designer has a creative side, he or she can give you a great design.

For your online reputation, you must make sure that you have a blog for your website. By blogging, you can create a presence on the web so your customers can have an idea about your services and products.

Articles are also significant for your business. Your articles should be written with accurate facts.

To get more traffic, you can also put the links to your website at various directories. However, it is still essential that you keep the link to your site as prominent as possible.

For your marketing campaign, you can also consider hiring expert feedback. True feedback will provide you information about what works for other companies. Email Marketing Tips for Start-up Businesses

These are just some of the strategies. When you consider these, you will have a better chance of success.

Email Marketing Tips for Startup Businesses

Email marketing is the most cost-effective way to advertise your business. So it’s easy to see why so many companies are getting into this type of marketing.

To build a list of potential customers, you will have to provide them with an email address. While this may seem like a tedious task at first, it really isn’t. It’s all a matter of knowing where to find an email address, as well as making sure that you do it right the first time.

The way to get started with marketing is to go online and do some research on what other people are doing. Find out how they built their lists. You can also ask around to see what methods are working. Knowing the methods that are working can help to get you going, as well as give you great ideas on how to create your own list.

One thing that you want to be careful about is giving out someone’s name and mailing address to many people that don’t care about your product or service. The more subscribers you have, the more money you can make. If you want your list to have longevity, then make sure you choose people who need your product or service.

Best Tips For Your Start-up Business

After you’ve determined who you are going to market to, you will need to start planning out your next step, which will include having a monthly newsletter. Remember that emails can easily get lost in the shuffle. So, having a regular newsletter will ensure that it is picked up each month by your subscribers. You want to make sure that you use a high-quality email marketing software to allow you to know when you should send out an email.

Once you have your newsletter sign up form established, you can start looking for your products or services or start building an affiliate link. Keep in mind that people are only going to join you if they have an interest in what you are offering.

You will want to email these people with offers to promote your products or services and have them take action. You can do this through offers that promote your software or affiliate links, as well as offering incentives for signing up. Also, do a free trial to get their attention, and then you can offer them a discounted or even free product.

While email marketing isn’t a new concept, it is only recently that many companies have begun using it. When done properly, it can result in a considerable amount of profit for your business.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is simply marketing done through social media platforms. A marketing technique that combines website promotion, blogs, and discussion boards to connect with prospects and establish a brand. It allows businesses to connect with their customers but also promote their business via social media marketing. Helps establish business ties, generate buzz, and make an organization more appealing to potential clients.

Today, companies are turning to the Internet to solve all of their marketing needs; however, traditional forms of marketing do not offer the same convenience as they once did. For many years, businesses could only reach out to their customers through visits to their office or even by sending out business cards.

With social media marketing, companies can reach their customers when they need them most. If you’re looking to make your start-up business more attractive to customers, consider using social media marketing.

One of the most critical aspects of the start-up business is to have your products and services are unique. Unlike before, now, customers can easily find out about your business, providing them with fresh information about what you do. For instance, having your website listed on various search engines and sites will help customers find you. Websites are also a great way to connect with customers and create long term relationships.

Most network marketing companies are also looking to expand their reach online. Some of them have gained loyal followings because of their ability to leverage social media marketing techniques. These companies offer a variety of marketing tools for their members, including blog marketing, social networking, and more.

Can Help Your Start-up Business

Social media marketing is similar to traditional marketing. The only difference is that it provides a better way to connect with customers online. It helps to provide your audience with a sense of familiarity while providing your products and services to potential customers at the same time.

Although some might consider network marketing as competition from them, it is suitable for customer support. Since the company will be relying on customers to purchase your products and services, it will be beneficial to provide your customers with free content and discounts to keep them happy.

When people’s attention is brought to your site, it becomes much easier to get them to share your content with others. It makes sense to use social networking sites to connect with potential customers. Not only will you have a built-in community, but it will also give you a platform where you can further build a fan base.

To reach more potential customers, you will need to implement social media marketing strategies in your marketing plan. If you’re looking to start a start-up business, this is a great way to establish the name of your business and attract new customers.

Avoid Failure With Paid Promotions and Paid Advertising

The idea of Paid Promotions to help a start-up business success is simple enough, but it’s also very easy to go wrong. You may want to spend months developing your own promotions and marketing efforts, only to realize that they’re not working well enough for you to earn money from them. On the other hand, you may discover that your existing marketing efforts are working, and then you’re simply out of ideas. Here are some tips to help you avoid this situation.

One reason why paying Promotions may not be as successful as you’d like them to be is because of the quality of your content. For one thing, you want to have something that will catch people’s attention from the moment Facebook ads placement strategy they come across it.

For another thing, you should be writing for readers that will read what you’ve written. When you go into Paid Promotions thinking that only your own site is going to get traffic, this is not the case. A lot of articles and blogs go into Paid Promotions in a similar way – a good article or blog gets more views and traffic because people find it useful.

It’s not always easy to keep in mind these things, but if you’re serious about getting your Business Online and driving traffic to your site, you need to remember that paying Promotions and Paid Advertising can help you. The success of Paid Promotions and Paid Advertising depends on the quality of the material you put out there.

The less work you have to do, the better off you’ll be. It’s not always easy to write an article, but if you’re doing it well and putting out high-quality content, it will make your Paid Promotions and Paid Advertising efforts more successful.

Search Engine Optimization for Start-up Business

The most effective and cost-effective SEO optimization approach that will generate more traffic to your website is Search Engine Optimization. It is mainly a marketing plan that is driven by search engines to generate relevant traffic to your website.

In this process, keywords or key phrases are associated with each page of your website to make it search engine friendly.

The idea is to make your site to be easily found by the search engines and also to bring about a targeted audience to your website. The best way to attract such visitors is through the use of rich media such as graphics, videos, voice over Internet applications, and animated images.

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Although search engine optimization is essential to the success of any website, this also comes with a price. To sustain this for a long time, you need to make use of the best practices of Search Engine Optimization. SEO includes the use of appropriate keywords, appropriate meta-tags, and the use of proper content on your website.

The content consists of all the essential information that is related to your business, product, or service. The SEO strategies should be taken into consideration as the process of SEO is at the forefront of the competition of search engines.

The first step for Search Engine Optimization is research. You need to have a high level of competency to conduct a search engine optimization campaign. SEO is basically to get an understanding of what is on the mind of the search engines.

There are many resources available for free that can provide you with the knowledge to carry out the process of Search Engine Optimization. Some of these are those that offer training. Once you have this knowledge, then you can proceed with the process of Search Engine Optimization.

Content Marketing

If you are a blogger, marketer, or a freelance writer, you should be careful with content marketing. You might be losing clients by writing lousy content for your business. There are three ways to find out what the search engines think about your content. The first is by reading the Google manual that shows you how to find out what the search engines say about your content. You will also find that there are a lot of mistakes in the content of many blogs.

Another way to find out what the search engines think about your content is to have your own content analysed. You should be aware that most content management companies do not analyse your content for you, but they do suggest improvements for you.

The best way to go about this is to find a company that specializes in this and employ them to write a blog post for you. They will tell you exactly what you should change about your content.

Content Strategy

You can also use a service that will analyse the content of your business and send you an email when there is a problem with the content. It sounds far fetched, but you might find that the content management expert had seen similar issues before.

The best thing about it is that you do not have to worry about the time it takes to do it yourself. You can ask them to rewrite the content for you for a little over $20 per article. Do a little research before employing a content management company.

A third option is to do it yourself, but I am afraid you will be writing content that is never going to be seen by many people because most people have no idea what the term content marketing means.

By Sahin Alom

Sourced from ReadWrite

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Online Marketing Tips That Actually Work

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By Evan Varsamis,

This year has been quite a roller coaster for marketers so far, and it’s still unclear how things will go in the next few months. However, when it comes to designing a marketing funnel, you can’t stick to your traditional methods anymore. You have to start thinking outside the box and picking up new techniques that can enhance your brand’s presence on the web. Online competition has grown massively over the last few years. It’s not just about being present on the web anymore. It’s about sustaining an omnichannel presence.

What Is An Omnichannel Presence?

Years ago, we used to think of online marketing as finding the platform that works the best for you and prioritizing your activities there. Today, with so many different platforms having unique structures, it’s even more difficult to figure out what works the best for your brand. It’s not about finding your best platform anymore. It’s about learning how to be present on every channel and make the most of it.

What works on Facebook won’t work on Pinterest. You have to figure out how to be present on both channels with equal effectiveness.

Now that you’re familiar with an omnichannel presence, let’s take a look at trends and online marketing tips that will help you sustain your business in 2020.

Cobranded Content

Every individual is loyal to a certain number of brands. As a marketer, if you can leverage that engagement by combining two brands, there’s nothing like it.

Sophia Bernazzani explained this concept beautifully on HubSpot: “One of my own beloved childhood memories was a product of co-branding: Betty Crocker partnered with Hershey’s to include chocolate syrup in its signature brownie recipe. There’s something brilliant about that co-branded product: It’s a fun way to marry two classic brands into one delicious experience for fans of baking and chocolate alike.”

So, to make your 2020 marketing work, you can connect with brands that appeal to you and use that collaboration as a marketing campaign. You could choose to go for video advertising or even audio influencing through podcasts or webinars. Either way, cobranded content can help you soar high with the help of loyal followers.

Micro-Influencer Marketing

If you have experience with influencer marketing, you’ll know why micro-influencers are the near future. Reaching out to big-time influencers is difficult, and you can’t expect them to review free samples that easily. So brands that are tight on budget can opt for micro-influencers who cater to their product niche.

These influencers have enough popularity to still be influential, and they also tend to have better engagement rates with their followers because they are less overwhelmed with sponsorship offers, which gives them the bandwidth to keep in touch with their followers. A study (paywall) from HelloSociety suggests that micro-influencers with around 30,000 followers have 60% higher engagement and are about 6.7 times more cost effective than influencers with more followers.

Nontraditional Social Media Marketing

Ever since we started social media marketing, we’ve primarily used Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. While these platforms continue to be the rulers in the industry, there are several others that are making their way up with the help of the younger generation. These platforms include Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and Medium.

So when it comes to planning a successful marketing campaign, you need to think outside the box and come up with ways to work on every platform instead of sticking to just one or two. In fact, it may seem far-fetched, but TikTok could work for your brand, depending on what you are trying to promote.

Contextual Targeting

When you throw random ads at people, you can’t expect the click rate you desire. That’s because not everyone will want to see the product you are showing them. Instead, with contextual targeting, you can showcase your ads on pages with related information. People who see your ads will have a higher chance of clicking them because they are already interested in your product niche.

Programmatic Audio

With podcasts and audio streaming apps becoming more and more popular, they’ve turned into avenues for online promotion. The advantage of programmatic audio promotion is that it enables you to place ads in the audio content.

Depending on your preference, you can opt for ad formats such as companion, ad pods, or pre-roll and midroll ads. Currently, companies including Google, Rubicon Project, SoundCloud and the BBC offer audio advertising features.

Video Advertising

Every social network is focusing on video content. Many are even looking for ways to implement product shopping directly from videos.

Consider using traditional video advertising methods by placing your ads on YouTube. You can even work with brands on Facebook and Instagram to promote your products in videos.

Mobile-Friendly Emails

As more people switch to primarily using their smartphones, the entire email marketing industry will change. Email designs need to be mobile-friendly and minimal, and they must have the call to action (CTA) button in a place where the user can easily find it. Another crucial point is to avoid too much content in your email. You can always opt for a drip email campaign to send out information sequentially.

Augmented Reality (AR) And Virtual Reality (VR

If you are an e-commerce brand, chances are you’ve already heard of implementing AR and VR for better product discovery. By implementing these technologies in your marketing funnel, you may be able to draw the attention of people who hesitate to purchase online. Give them the opportunity to try out products virtually before purchasing them.

Having said that, it’s also crucial not to forget the tone of voice you use while implementing all your marketing campaigns. The world is going through a massive change in 2020, and it’s important to understand the emotion of your audience before you try to promote a product or service to them. An empathetic and genuine tone can always take your brand a long way.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Evan Varsamis,

An entrepreneur and Founder/CEO at Gadget Flow, as well as an investor and marketing advisor at Qrator Ltd.an entrepreneur and Founder/CEO at Gadget Flow, as well as an investor and marketing advisor at Qrator Ltd.

Sourced from Forbes

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6 small but effective shifts to leave a memorable first impression

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By Jonah Malin

Business relationships are defined in the first 90 seconds. Here’s how to make every second count.

Whether interviewing for a job, meeting a client, or participating in a group event, we often overlook the value of first impressions. Instead of being thoughtful and pragmatic, a lot of people rush their introductions, ignore their physical cues, and gloss over personal details out of nerves or inexperience.

The truth is, we only have one chance for a first impression. And successful people understand just how important this opportunity is.

According to Alexander Todorov, a professor of psychology at Princeton, people trust their first impression and hold onto it for a long time: “Once we have a representation formed, it’s used as a filter. Think someone’s trustworthy right off the bat? You might tell them more. And if you write them off as a negative person, you might complain about them to coworkers.”

With that said, here are a few ways to make sure you leave a lasting first impression and are perceived by others as a positive individual.

Make Eye Contact 

When you enter a room or meet someone for the first time, try and make it your goal to remember eye colour. It will help you stay engaged and present in the moment. A lot of younger working professionals have a tendency to avoid eye contact after a few seconds, which displays a sense of insecurity and immaturity.

Usually, eye contact is the very first impression you will make when being introduced. It’s an opportunity to establish yourself as a friendly, interested personality.

Project Confident Body Language 

Do you sit up straight in a chair or slouch down and gaze into the distance? Do you look to grab a seat at the table or disappear into the back of the room?

These basic somatics offer insight into who you are and how you act in a professional setting. Whether you realize it or not, physical presence helps people make snap judgments about your personality. It could be the difference between someone thinking you are curious and enthusiastic or bored and out of place.

Focus On Your Role, Not Your Title And Tenure 

The classic introduction line is, “Hello, I’m Jonah and I work on the marketing team. I have been in this role for a few months and am really excited to work with you.”

How many times have you heard some variation of that line? And guess what, everyone else has heard it or said it before too. Instead, try something along the lines of, “Hello, I’m Jonah and I work on developing the content strategy for our agency and our clients. I am a member of our marketing team.”

It’s a simple shift that still gives your audience an understanding of your title, but provides a little more depth on how you can contribute. It’s also important to remember that your tenure with an organization only matters if it positions you better. I have been with my current company for a few months, so bringing it up to new clients establishes me as green and potentially inexperienced.

Share Relevant Personal And Professional Information

Most people want to know a little more than your name and your role. When speaking for the first time to someone new, you have a chance to really grab their attention. You can add a quick background to your introduction that is relevant or try to find common ground with the person you are speaking too. While I currently live in Washington D.C., I like to bring up that I am from Chicago. This little piece of personal information either sparks further questions or connects me with someone who happens to be from the Midwest.

It doesn’t have to be anything overly revealing- just be creative and attentive as to what may resonate with the person you are speaking to.

Be Authentic 

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received was from Sean Conlon, real estate mogul & host of CNBC’s primetime show, ‘The Deed’. In an interview, Sean told said, “Love me or hate me, you’ll remember me”. With Sean, who started his career in the U.S. as a poor Irish immigrant, first impressions meant everything. His philosophy in life is “what you see is what you get”, which speaks volumes to the personality trait that drives his success.

People can usually pick up on inauthenticity, and saying something or agreeing with someone for the sake of it could backfire. In order to make a good first impression that lasts, it’s important to be yourself.

Don’t Forget To Smile

As Ann Demarais, founder of First Impressions, a New York-based coaching and consulting company told Time Magainze, “We sort of scan the world for threats, and facial expressions are really primarily processed. On a very deep level, if someone is frowning or looks threatening, we register that as ‘Watch out.’”

Smiling is an invitation for mutual warmth and appreciation. Not only will it make you seem more approachable, but it eases the tension for everyone else while painting you in a positive light.

Final Thoughts 

Introducing yourself is at the core of networking and business relationships. Being able to professionally handle these little interactions with poise and confidence will put you a tier ahead of everyone else.

In the first 90 seconds, most people will make a quick judgment about you. Take advantage of the opportunity and establish yourself as a confident, creative, collaborative team player, or leader. It’s the best way to position yourself for a successful future.

By Jonah Malin

Sourced from LADDERS

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Why You Need To Market More In A Recession

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By Peter Boolkah

Award-winning business coach, podcaster and speaker, helping high-performing entrepreneurs and business owners get results they want.

When a recession hits and money is tight, businesses tend to look for ways to cut costs until the economy improves – and marketing is often first on the chopping block. But this is a big mistake. It tells the world that you are not open for business at a moment when you want to be communicating the opposite.

As an entrepreneur, I understand the impulse to reduce marketing spending during an economic downturn. I did exactly that during the 2008 recession and have learned from my past missteps. Now I’m investing more than ever in marketing because I know this strategy will result in long-term gains for my business. Here are three reasons why you should market more, not less, in a recession.

Your business will shrink in line with your customers.

We are in the midst of a global crisis unlike any we’ve experienced before. We don’t yet know how long the recession will last or how damaging it will be, but we must be prepared for a long recovery. A forecast from the International Monetary Fund predicts a nearly 5% contraction in global GDP this year, with projections for the U.S. (8%), Europe and the UK (10.2%) higher than the average.

You can expect your business to shrink as your industry marketplace contracts. You will likely lose some of your current customers, which means you need to step up your marketing to attract new customers. Use this time to build relationships and trust with your new customer base. When the market eventually recovers and we re-enter a period of expansion, you will be well-positioned to grow with their businesses. Not only will you be able to reclaim the market share you lost, you’ll be able to increase it.

Figuring out what works for your business will multiply your success.

Marketing isn’t magic; it’s math. Before you spend more on marketing, take the time to understand what platforms and strategies are valuable for your business. Analyze data from past campaigns and look for insights that can guide your efforts in the future. Is there a standout example you can learn from – for example, a course that sold out with Facebook ads or a YouTube video series that led to a spike in subscriptions? Have you experimented with different marketing approaches, giving each one enough time and variation to decide if it’s effective? When you find a strategy that works, do more of it.

It’s also important to remember that customer behavior is changing rapidly. In just a few short months, the crisis has accelerated the digitization of how we work, play, shop and connect. According to data from Mastercard SpendingPulse, which analyzes reports on retail sales across all payment types in select global markets, e-commerce sales in the U.S. doubled in one year, increasing from 11% of all retail sales in April/May 2019 to 22% in April/May 2020. In the UK, e-commerce sales reached an all-time high – 33% of total retail sales.

Many of these digital shifts will lead to permanent changes. In a recession, some industries will die as other opportunities emerge. Pay attention to trends so you can continue to spend your marketing budget wisely.

Now is your greatest opportunity to be visible at a reasonable investment.

At the height of an economic expansion, everybody is marketing. Costs go through the roof, and you have to fight for people’s attention in a crowded marketplace. In a recession, however, marketing space becomes plentiful and affordable as competition plummets. Many companies are cutting back on marketing, so you can spend far less to reach more people with your message.

During a recession, the economy doesn’t grind to a halt. People are still spending money; you just need to give them good reasons to spend it with you. Take advantage of this opportunity to spend on marketing that boosts your visibility, builds on past successes and helps you grow with your customers as the economy rebounds.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Peter Boolkah

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

Award-winning business coach, podcaster and speaker, helping high-performing entrepreneurs and business owners get results they want. Read Peter Boolkah’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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YouTube Subscription Revenue Growth Seen Bigger Driver Of Google Stock

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YouTube’s non-advertising subscription revenue will boom and emerge as a bigger driver of Google stock valuation, says one analyst.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post says subscription revenue will become a bigger part of the unit of Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL).

“Based on an increasing, but still small, share of paid TV and music subscribers plus price increases, we estimate YouTube non-advertising subscription revenue can grow at a 28% five-year compound annual rate from $5.2 billion in 2020 to $17.6 billion by 2025,” Post said in a report to clients.

He added that for YouTube, “A key question is profitability.”

Alphabet disclosed more YouTube subscriber metrics when it reported earnings in April. Google reports second-quarter earnings on July 30.

In the March quarter, YouTube’s overall revenue rose 23% to $4.4 billion. Most of that came from advertising.

Google Stock: YouTube TV Fee Increased

Google stock gained 3.1% to close at 1,563.84 on the stock market today.

YouTube had more than 20 million music and premium paid subscribers and 2 million TV paid subscribers at the end of 2019, Google said in April.

“The recent YouTube TV fee increase to $65 per month has raised optimism that Google is looking to drive positive margins,” Post added. He noted that “Spotify (SPOT) had 130 million subscribers, 26% gross margins, and was roughly break-even in the first quarter of 2020.”

Google stock is not in a buy zone. It trades 10% above a cup-with-handle entry point of 1,415.63.

By

Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on 5G wireless, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.

Sourced from Investor’s Business Daily

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Podcast Advertising Revenues Will Surpass $1 Billion by 2021

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By Amy He

New figures from the IAB and PwC show that podcasting presents a big opportunity to advertisers

he podcasting industry continues to explode with potential for advertisers, and the numbers show it: Marketers spent $479 million on podcast ads in 2018, and podcast advertising revenues are projected to surpass $1 billion by 2021, according to figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC.

US Podcast Ad Revenues, 2015-2021 (millions)

In an analysis of the US podcast advertising industry, IAB and PwC calculated self-reported podcast advertising revenues from 22 companies and found that revenues grew 34% in 2018, compared with the $257.4 million in self-reported revenues in 2017. The IAB and PwC predict that revenues will grow 42% this year.

“Podcasts are one of the fastest-growing, if not the fastest-growing category within digital audio,” said Lauren Fisher, principal analyst at eMarketer. “Performance marketers and brands are recognizing the value in reaching consumers who aren’t just tuning in to tune out—they’re tuning in to actively be entertained or engage their minds. And that’s a mindset advertisers increasingly want to be a part of.”

While podcast listeners may still be in the minority (76.4 million people in the US will listen to podcasts this year, or one-quarter of the population), surveys have found that among weekly listeners, most are listening to several podcasts a week. In a March 2019 survey by Edison Research and digital audio technology and advertising company Triton Digital, a fifth (21%) of podcast listeners said they listened to four to five podcasts a week, and even more (31%) said they listened to six or more podcasts a week.

Number of Podcasts Listened to by US Weekly Podcast Listeners, Feb 2019 (% of respondents)

Companies like Spotify and Pandora Radio have responded by bulking up their podcast content libraries: Pandora began offering podcasts on its platform at the end of 2018, and Spotify has been aggressively investing in podcast companies, acquiring Gimlet Media and Anchor in February 2019, and then buying Parcast a month later.

Most (65.7%) ad revenues captured by the industry in 2018 went to news/politics/current events, comedy, business, education and arts and entertainment podcasts, per IAB/PwC.

Podcasts have historically drawn more direct-response advertisers, direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies in particular, but that is changing. IAB/PwC found that podcast ads are currently split between brand-awareness ads and direct-response ads—another indication of how podcast advertising is becoming more mainstream. A large majority (73.7%) of ads are bought by brands in D2C retail, financial services, business-to-business, arts and entertainment and telecommunications.

The same study said that host-read ads continue to be the preferred ad type, making up 63.3% of ads in 2018. Announcer-read/pre-produced ads made up 35% of last year’s ads. Fisher said many brands often prefer host-read ads to provide an added boost or endorsement to the advertisement. Such ads are also more contextually relevant, she said, given that they’re read by the same voice rather than simply swapped out for an entirely different audio experience.

“We’re hearing a lot about the influential power of that host-read ad,” Fisher said. “Some listeners look at hosts very similarly to influencers, and brand and performance advertisers are eager to take advantage of that.”

By Amy He

Sourced from eMarketer

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Apple’s Privacy Decision Threatens Billions In Facebook Revenue

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By John Koetsier

Facebook is one of the two most dominant companies in an $80 billion industry that impacts hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, in consumer spend. But a huge percentage of that revenue is now at risk, thanks to an obscure privacy move by Apple at the company’s World Wide Developer Conference in June.

The move?

Deprecating a mobile device identifier called the IDFA.

It’s a super-geeky term in a super-geeky industry: mobile advertising. But it represents a sea change in how advertisers and ad networks target ads to consumers. Good targeting leads to relevant advertising and high returns for both the advertiser and the ad network.

Poor targeting? It’s literally worth 50% less by Facebook’s own numbers.

The IDFA is the Identifier for Advertisers, and in every existing version of Apple mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads, it’s visible to ad networks and mobile advertisers. Unless consumers opt out in a little-seen out-of-the-way setting, which only about 30% of iPhone users have bothered to turn off.

Facebook uses the IDFA — and the Android equivalent from Google, GAID — to accumulate data on what billions of people do in apps. Facebook then uses that data to target app install ads (ads that are aimed at getting you to install a new app or game). Because they have so much data via the IDFA, Facebook is likely to be able to find the people who are most likely to install the app and do specific things inside it.

Like register. Or buy something. Or complete a level in a game.

Here’s how Facebook describes the technology, called App Event Optimization:

“Using AEO, you could optimize your ads for an app event such as Achieve Level, so your ads would be shown to people who were likely to download your app and also achieve a new level within the game. You could also optimize for in-app purchases using the Purchase app event in AEO.”

At World Wide Developer Conference in June, Apple changed how the IDFA is set.

Rather than a global setting for all apps, buried somewhere in an iPhone’s settings, the IDFA will now be set for each app individually.

It will be set by active, required choice by consumers for each app they install, much like GDPR permissions on websites today, and people will choose whether to allow or deny permission to “track you across apps and websites owned by other companies.” Most mobile experts think this will get a 0-20% adoption rate. The high end of that range is probably generous.

The immediate result: tracking what people do in apps will become a lot harder. Probably, in fact, illegal, and likely impossible.

That’s what puts the first few billions of Facebook ad revenue at risk.

Mobile app installs is close to an $80 billion business in 2020, and estimated to hit almost $120 billion within two years. Facebook and Google own about half of the global digital ad industry in general, and are also the two most dominant players in mobile app installs, perennially featuring in the first or second place in industry charts for best performance.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

As mobile expert Eric Seufert noted today, Facebook published a white paper just a month ago — shortly before Apple’s conference — that says personalized ads are twice as effective as non-personalized:

“We ran a test that constrained delivery to just mobile app install ads for a small portion of Audience Network Traffic, then compared personalized ranking to non-personalized ranking,” the white paper says. “We observed more than a 50% drop in publisher revenue between these two treatments, with no changes made to targeting.”

A 50% drop in return on ad spend might just mean a 50% drop in ad prices you’d be willing to pay.

Facebook generated almost $71 billion in ad revenue last year, and almost all of it was on mobile, where the IDFA and GAID can aid in ad targeting.

Less sophisticated targeting could easily mean less valuable advertising.

And the IDFA was just the first shoe to drop.

Seufert says that Google is likely to follow suit “within six months,” which would follow a trend. Apple created the IDFA to increase privacy and decrease use of hard-coded unchangeable device identifiers; Google followed suit. Apple killed the third-party cookie on the web with Intelligent Tracking Prevention; Google is following suit with Chrome.

If Google continues the trend and makes GAID opt-in in a similar way (basically designed to guide consumers to opting-out), that’s when the other shoe drops. Then Facebook’s not just out of luck on Apple mobile platforms; it also loses sophisticated tracking capability on Android as well.

That’s additional billions at risk.

Facebook has its software development kit in hundreds of thousands of apps, as I’ve mentioned before. The company could try to use that data source to aid in ad targeting. But it would be tough, because it’s not a given, standard, always-available option. And because based on what I’ve heard via those who have talked to Apple, that would violate a users’ don’t-track-me choice.

Interestingly, killing the GAID would harm Google’s advertising capabilities as well. But as the Android platform owner, Google is more likely to be able to come up with a solution that enables its own ad tracking while harming Facebook’s. Or, at minimum, harms itself less.

(At least, if it’s willing to take the antitrust heat on both sides of the Atlantic.)

This isn’t the first challenge ad networks have faced in targeting. The vast majority of ads used to be delivered with contextual targeting: getting a Wall Street Journal audience in the WSJ, for example. Only with tracking technologies like third-party cookies on the web and IDFA/GAID on mobile were ad networks able to assemble WSJ audiences off-platform, in Candy Crush or on The Enquirer, for instance.

That saved advertisers a lot of money, because ads on the WSJ are more expensive than ads in Candy Crush. But it also cost premium publishers a lot of money. And it cost consumer privacy by requiring tracking technologies.

GDPR, California’s Consumer Privacy Act, a general consumer feeling that tracking has gone too far, and now Apple’s disabling of the IDFA are likely returning us from tracking to more of a contextual model of advertising

And that threatens Facebook revenue, at least in the short term:

“Over the long term, I believe that Facebook will find a path to its current level of ad serving efficiency without needing advertising identifiers,” says Seufert. “But the content of its own white paper underscores very clearly how important personalization is for ad targeting, and IDFA deprecation damages Facebook’s ability to deliver that kind of personalization.”

About $10 billion in Facebook revenue might be at risk in the short term. If its ads lose relevance and therefore return poorly on advertisers’ investments, that $10 billion could turn into $5 billion pretty quickly.

Unless there’s no better game in town, or Facebook finds a way to make contextual targeting as powerful as tracking.

Feature Image Credit: PHOTO BY BAREFOOT COMMUNICATIONS ON UNSPLASH

By John Koetsier

I forecast and analyze trends affecting the mobile ecosystem. I’ve been a journalist, analyst, and corporate executive, and have chronicled the rise of the mobile economy. I built the VB Insight research team at VentureBeat and managed teams creating software for partners like Intel and Disney. In addition, I’ve led technical teams, built social sites and mobile apps, and consulted on mobile, social, and IoT. In 2014, I was named to Folio’s top 100 of the media industry’s “most innovative entrepreneurs and market shaker-uppers.” I live in Vancouver, Canada with my family, where I coach baseball and hockey, though not at the same time

Sourced from Forbes

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Instagram is Making it Easier to Kickstart your Small Business

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By Erica Perry,

Instagram Shops, IGTV, and Pinned Comments are just a few recent updates to help small businesses market their products and services.

With eCommerce sales rising amid the COVID-19 lockdown, platforms are working every angle to make their interface friendly to brands and businesses looking to build a digital presence in the absence of a traditional brick-and-mortar experience. Leading in the space is Instagram and its parent company Facebook.

Specifically, Instagram has recently introduced a number of ways it’s committing to achieve this underlined by themes of discovery, monetization, and driving conversations around specific products and services.

MAKING CONTENT DISCOVERABLE VIA THE “SHOPS TAB”

Originally introduced in May as part of a larger announcement of Facebook and Instagram Shops, more users can now expect to see the new “Shop” tab within their bottom navigation bar. At a high-level, users who use the tab will be driven to the current shopping experience in the app which consists of a list of postings with Shopping Tags attached. They can filter by specific categories, including Beauty, Clothing & Accessories, Home, and Travel, much the same way they’re able to via Instagram Explore. Ultimately, additional purchase options will be added as parent company Facebook onboards more companies and introduces more selling options.

Per TechCrunch, the new tab will be indicated with a “Shop” icon that will replace the heart icon (Activity) in the app’s main navigation though the Activity feed will still be available either by toggling to an icon in the top right corner, beside the icon of a ‘Direct’ paper plane, or by going to their profile and tapping the heart icon. For more general insights into set up a Facebook shop, check out this new Blueprint education course the platform recently unveiled.

MAXIMIZING YOUR IGTV EFFORTS

Earlier this Spring Instagram shared several key changes to its IGTV app including an important cross-promotional update whereby the first 15 seconds of the video will play with the rest of the content available via a ‘swipe up’ link, as opposed to a freeze-frame from the clip. In addition to this, the platform introduced a broader overhaul of the IGTV display options within the Discover tab. The intent was primarily to highlight top creators but, more importantly, allow users to have more specific control over what they see as opposed to limiting search options solely based on content they’ve already engaged with.

In this vein of ‘control,’ more recently Instagram introduced additional options allowing creators and brands to edit the preview images and thumbnails of their IGTV videos that are displayed in the feed. The app is also unveiling capability for IGTV creators to cross-post to Facebook Watch, serving to increase the exposure of their uploads. With the roll-out of IGTV monetization including ads and Badges through which users can donate to their favorite broadcasters, this is a significant incentivizing factor for companies looking to double down on e-commerce efforts amidst the global pandemic and boost their digital presence.

Put differently, marketers want a reason to put resources against yet another digital app. With further options to generate income from IGTV, they’ll naturally find more reasons to make it a consistent focus. For context into just how much live-stream viewership has increased in recent months, Instagram reported a 70 percent uptick between February and March alone.

PINNING POST COMMENTS

Following a test in May, Instagram is announcing that users can now pin up to three comments within a comment thread. To do this, swipe to the left and tap on the icon resembling a thumbtack. Each of the three posts you designate to pin will appear underneath your photo with a “Pinned” label beneath.

Per Instagram’s VP of Product Vishal Shah, the option is designed to enable brands and users to control the tone of conversations. “By highlighting positive comments, you can better manage the tone of the conversation,” he shared on Twitter. From an e-commerce standpoint, this stands to be a useful way for those building their e-commerce presence to promote great reviews of their product and learn more about new purchasing behaviors by boosting relevant questions and feedback.

Though still up for debate, many experts in space anticipate that such trends will hold beyond the pandemic. Why? As more consumers experiment with online buying options and recognize the convenience and efficiencies of shopping from the comfort of their home, they won’t go back. This will ultimately exacerbate the current growth in e-commerce. Pivoting, in this case, is not necessarily only about a change in direction, but much more directly correlated with moving the needle of a business.

By Erica Perry

Editorial and Programming Manager, Crowdcentric

Sourced from Social Media Week

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3 Steps to Improving your Marketing Intelligence Strategy

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By Leah Pope,

As businesses work to reopen and adjust to the “new normal”—navigating changes across customer preferences and the economy—marketers continue to employ agile strategies to contend with the shifting environment. Marketers are working to stabilize their operations by becoming radically efficient with time, resources and budget while simultaneously planning for future growth and transformation.

With a marketing strategy founded in marketing intelligence, they are fully equipped to tackle this seemingly daunting journey. Yet each marketer and marketing team is at a different stage in establishing their marketing intelligence strategy. To best understand where to improve and shift focus, it is important to assess your maturity when it comes to the three main pillars of marketing intelligence:

1. Data integration

How connected are your data sources and how seamlessly and quickly can you access them?

Today’s marketers are using a vast number of channels and platforms to reach their customers, with high volumes of siloed data stemming from each. As a result, data integration—the process of unifying and connecting marketing data—is a challenge for many. In fact, 57 percent of marketers spend a week or more trying to unify their data.

Without accessible, consistent data and a holistic view, it’s difficult for marketers and their stakeholders to see which new tactics and campaigns are working and which are not. To fix this, marketers need to harmonize their data and structure their taxonomy. With these processes in place, marketers are able to see any data– such as social, search, display, programmatic, web, email and CRM data– all in one place.

2. Analytics and insights

Next, take a look at your insights—how are they being generated and what actions do they inspire?

With landscapes shifting faster than ever, marketers need to act more nimbly in order to keep up. Marketers need to gain insights from their data swiftly in order to engage customers with relevant and helpful content and ensure they are using valuable budget efficiently and effectively.

With all the information in one place, marketers can quickly gather insights at scale. The power of artificial intelligence (AI) can also provide marketers with always-on insights into important KPIs and suggested actions for optimizing campaigns. Currently, 80 percent of marketers don’t have access to daily or real-time reports, but marketers are keen to expand their use of AI tools, with 47 percent of marketers planning to do so in the next year.

With consistent reporting and insights across channels, marketers can identify where to spend and move budget across marketing campaigns and channels in real time. They can also adjust messages, content and tactics to account for any changes across customer behaviours to drive better customer experiences and impact long-term loyalty and brand health.

3. Alignment and collaboration

Marketers are constantly working across multiple brands, business units, teams and regions, and a majority of companies are now contending with remote working environments. Marketers need to understand whether they’re operating cross-functionally in a successful manner. Is the entire business aligned to a unified marketing strategy? Does everyone agree on KPIs, goals and benchmarks? Are key stakeholders receiving the information they need, when they need it?

With a single system of record, marketers can build customized data visualizations, personalized to different stakeholders. This way, each stakeholder will receive the exact data and insights they want to track, all in real time. With all teams working from the same set of facts, KPIs and taxonomies, the data-driven culture across the organization will become elevated, leading to smarter decision-making that impacts the customer experience and business success.

Marketing intelligence allows marketers to power true business transformation. But this doesn’t happen overnight. No matter where you are in your journey, now is the time to assess your maturity when it comes to current capabilities, progress and goals for the future. Marketers and their teams have the opportunity to reflect on these three key pillars and understand their marketing intelligence maturity—where they might be able to improve and rethink processes and maximize efficiency and impact.

Feature Image Credit: iStock

By Leah Pope

Leah Pope is a seasoned world traveller and marketing executive. Acting as chief marketing officer, Leah leads all strategic marketing activities at Salesforce Datorama, a global technology company that provides a marketing intelligence platform for enterprises, agencies and publishers. Leah has more than 15 years of executive experience successfully delivering software products and services to market, having held positions of worldwide marketing leadership at Synthesio, IBM, Lombardi Software and Inquisite. An accomplished writer, speaker and blogger, Leah also sits on the Forrester Marketing Leadership board. Leah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, Marketing and History from Boston University.

Sourced from AdAge

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Putting Story At The Heart Of Marketing

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By Ethan Stine

The first time I told a room full of white-collar professionals about my ex-colleague’s near-kidnapping while we were promoting prize fights in Istanbul, I learned the real power of storytelling. And you’re paying attention now too, aren’t you?

It’s a true story that I’m usually excited to tell (mostly because we got him back in one piece), but what I came to understand from the first few times recounting the tale was that ignorance and boredom are potent poisons, and stories contain the antidote. So much of our lives are spent in routines and, when a window opens up and we get to peek through someone else’s lens, we can’t help but look. We want to understand, and we want to be entertained.

The Evolutionary Power To Move People

Whether or not it registers on a conscious level, for most people, stories are part teachers and part entertainers. They define our understanding of the world around us, functioning as a sort of series of dress rehearsals to help us build comprehension about things that we’ve never actually experienced. They’ve become so evolutionarily critical to us as a species that our brains have developed to release a series of chemicals in response to a good, character-driven story: Cortisol makes us sit up and pay attention, while oxytocin builds empathy and connection, and dopamine rewards us for keeping engaged with the narrative.

Let’s pause for a minute to consider the awesome power of that. We can convey information in a way that can move people to action. Without raising a finger, human beings can compel other human beings to feel and think in certain ways, and it’s because we’re programmed by evolution to do it. The ethical considerations are enormous. Despots frequently rise to power by positioning themselves as the leading characters in the story of our connected lives, portraying themselves as messiah figures who can “right the wrongs” of society. Good storytelling can be extremely dangerous when used by bad-faith actors.

Assuming you’re not a bad-faith actor, however, and looking at this through the lens of a communicator, is there anything more noble and powerful to learn how to do? Stories create new opportunities for us to learn from each other, and they motivate us to be better. They teach us about ourselves and serve as our escape from the mundane. A well-told story can be an enormous force for good, a vehicle to drive positive change and introduce innovation in our world.

An Industry-Agnostic, Evergreen Skill Set

Two years ago was when I really registered the pervasiveness of my hopeless addiction to stories. I was neck-deep in field interviews, collecting dozens of customer stories to feed to hungry sales and marketing teams at a newly minted business-to-business (B2B) unicorn, and suddenly it dawned on me: “I can’t get enough of this stuff.”

I was working alongside a team of delightfully qualified consultants, kicking whichever doors stood between us and a juicy narrative, documenting anecdotes and uncovering how some of the biggest and most innovative businesses in the world were using technology to overcome their prickliest challenges. How did a Fortune 500 cosmetics business shave weeks off the time it took them to get cash in the door from their biggest customers? What organizational shifts were happening among Europe’s largest manufacturers in response to the global demand for green energy? People I used to work with in the entertainment business asked me if I was bored in the corporate ecosystem, and I found myself surprised to tell them, truthfully, no. I was constantly learning and endlessly entertained. I was hooked on the story.

Today, I’m building out a fledgling (but supremely talented) marketing team at a series A venture that’s focused on supercharging productivity in the building industry, and you wouldn’t be surprised to know that the stories in this industry are also incredible. I’ve been fortunate in my career to have encountered a surplus of interesting people, and the stories I’ve heard from the folks creating our skylines from glass, steel and imagination are already contending for some of the coolest. Who wouldn’t want to go to dinner with the people who built the tallest towers in London and New York and hear about the challenges they surmounted along the way? Who wouldn’t want to meet the people building our skylines — universal symbols of human creativity, capability and progress?

The point is, there’s always something interesting worth knowing and sharing, no matter which industry you’re working in. The ability to get people to open up and translate their narratives into something that moves people is a totally evergreen set of skills that will serve any marketer for a lifetime.

The Power Of The Story-First Marketing Organization

When my team and I connect with customers, we proudly tell them that we’re a story-first marketing organization, and we tell them that we want to know ​their​ story. Our success as a team is dependent on more than just having successful customers — it’s contingent on us being able to unearth and understand their tales of struggle and success, and then our capability to shine a light on the good work they’re doing. We spend time thinking through media formats and delivery mechanisms. But without a good story to tell, a cause simply cannot be successful.

The imperative for those of us in marketing and communications roles? If you want to be successful in moving people, first always ask, “What’s the story?” Once you have the answer, put it at the heart of your marketing.

Also, don’t wander off with friendly strangers in Istanbul, but that’s a story for another time.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Ethan Stine

Startup veteran, story purveyor and Global Head of Marketing at Disperse. Read Ethan Stine’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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