Omincare + twitter vs FB

Omnicore has a very neat summary of what we've talked in class yet.
Check it out here.

Here's a preview of some of the cool graphs they have:

On an unrelated topic. Twitter has cancelled all political advertising. This is worth a read.

Instagram vs. Pinterest

I have been strategizing around Instagram vs. pinterest, and seems like most of the creatives are using the pinterest more so than then instagrams… is there any user experience difference in terms of the pinterest?

From the ads buyers' perspective, the pinterest seems to be more cost-effective.

Is Social Media Marketing Dying?

The problem with social media for most people has largely been the volume of content that has shifted it away from curated towards an endless analog stream of content. I have personally seen this resulting in diminished interest in my feed and therefore instagram has tried to counteract this by using predictive analytics to curate users feeds rather than showing all the users they follow. While this measure isn't perfect it is attempting to stem the decline in engagement to try and ensure users still see value in the platform so brands can market on it.

Article:

Diagnosing Social Media

First, let’s look at some numbers. Buffer’s study of 43 million Facebook posts found that Facebook engagement between 2017 and 2018 dropped dramatically, with the average engagement per image dropping from 9,370 per post in Q1 2017 to just 3,454 per post in Q2 2018, while the average engagement per video fell from 5,486 to 2,867.

Twitter has its own problems, the sheer number of tweets published daily (500 million per day, in case you were wondering), essentially makes it a noise machine, which impacts engagement and clicks. On an episode of his podcast, “Marketing School,” Neil Patel also declared Twitter “dead,” sharing that roughly only 2% of his 233,000 followers turn into website traffic each month.

Social media is a broad term, and there are a myriad of factors contributing to falling engagement and click-through rates. Some marketers however, point the finger to the culture of social media, rather than the algorithmic changes we see creep in from time to time. “I don't think social media marketing is dying, but I do feel it is evolving. First, it's becoming more democratized. Everyone is doing it. [However], that same ubiquity is the reason why [social media] is having its effectiveness minimized. It's everywhere!” explained Richard Williamson, VP of marketing at HealthLynked.

“The problem with much of the social media traffic is that it's too often political commentary, vicious personal attacks, or shameless (or shameful, depending on your point of view) self-promotion. All that makes it hard to pull meaningful messaging out of the background chatter,” Williamson said. 

Others, such as Leah Tombling, social media executive at Colewood Internet, lament the issues surrounding privacy and the impact this has had on end user trust in social media. “Privacy. If anything has changed in the last 3 years, it always involves that word. [We’ve all] heard of Cambridge Analytica, where data was [illegally collected and] used for various political advertising purposes. Facebook suffered [as a result of the scandal]. Their stock price fell dramatically. It has since recovered, but it hasn’t reached the same heights as it was before the scandal hit,” Tombling said. 

"Too many people on too many soapboxes have made social media too noisy.” - Richard Williamson

Evolution, Not Extinction

The majority of marketers we spoke with had a positive outlook towards social media marketing.  "I don't believe that social media marketing is dying — I do believe it is maturing and changing from what it used to be five years ago,” said Drew Beechler, director of marketing at High Alpha. However, Beechler conceded that the "hype around social media has died off and has made it harder for marketers to use social media in a creative and strategic way to drive results.”

“I think that the new opportunities in social media marketing revolve more around utilizing your own internal employees and their personal brands to help amplify and promote marketing messaging and campaigns. In B2B marketing, LinkedIn has been an incredible channel to build internal thought leaders and utilize in this way. I've seen posts from individuals see up to 10x as many impressions as the same content posted from a company account on LinkedIn,” Beechler continued. 

Ciara Hautau, lead digital marketing strategist at Fueled, concurred. “I do not believe that social media marketing is dying. Actually, I think we've only scratched the surface and social media marketing is going to expand even further over time,” Hautau said. “Where Google ads, for example, limits you to search queries, social media allows you to advertise via the demographics of your audience (think: commuter, interests, job title, related profiles that you follow, etc.), which allows you to show your ads to the audience that will most likely convert.”

Hautau went on to detail a three-step plan that marketers can follow to side-step the woes of social media marketing:

• Customize, customize, customize: “Have a brainstorm of every single type of audience you could think of that would be interested in your product or service. Define their personalities and then identify these as different audiences. Using these audiences get creative and personal with your ads. Be sure you're customizing the ad to fit these audiences needs and truly demonstrate the value of your company.”
• Show  don't tell: “We're always shortening our attention spans. You have to grab your audience visually, and you have to do it quick. I recommend using videos when able to demonstrate the value of your product. Instead of telling your audience why this product or service is so great, show it. Let your audience see in real time what your company can do for them and help them to visualize the impact it can make.”
• Run experiments: “Run experiments and then scale up! There are hundreds of routes you can take when customizing campaigns and targeting audiences. Don't throw all your budget away, but rather set a smaller budget upfront, test your idea, reiterate based on the results, and then scale the budget up once you find your campaign catching success.”

Finally, Williamson added that, “in 2020, I think social media marketers will have to trend away from jumping on every hashtag bandwagon and work to make content more meaningful to individuals. We need to think of social media as a dialogue with one person rather than a shout out to a crowd. Too many people on too many soapboxes have made social media too noisy.”

Ineffecient Facebook Advertising - From CBS to Keto Food

This month Columbia Business School has been targeting me for their "3-Month MBA-Inspired" management essentials program. Over the past few weeks I have seen these targeted advertisements showing up repeatedly on my news feed. This has led me to call to question which attributes of my social media profile or past activity have triggered this targeting. If it is because my profile says I am a "student of Columbia Business School," this would be very inefficient advertising spend as I would already be an enrolled student. If I once visited a CBS website, I would think the second trigger should be to check if I am a current CBS student. This inefficiency in advertising spend led me to call to question other targeted Facebook ads that I see on my news-feed.

Over the last few months I have been receiving many advertisements for Keto food products. What is strange is that I have never searched Keto food, I have never tried a Keto diet, I have never discussed Keto with anyone online, and I am still not interested in a Keto diet after seeing the ads! However, I suspect I started receiving these ads (which have now taken over my news-feed) because I was intrigued by the first food image that showed up on my news feed so I clicked on it. Ever since then 80% of my ads are keto food items. I was not interested in Keto foods, but I clicked once, so now it is too late, Facebook has pegged me as Keto dieting male.

I suspect they did the same for my CBS ads. Years ago I probably visited the CBS website, and now, years later, I am still in the same target group. Maybe it is time to update their algorithms to learn to fade their preferences when a user is not clicking on the content. Both of these examples are companies that are wasting money targeting me when they easily could improve their algorithms.

Because of this, I decided to look into what experts are writing about this topic, and found that the "How To" on Keto Companies is telling start ups to target people over Facebook. Maybe it works for some people, but there is always room for improvement.


https://www.optimum7.com/blog/business-strategy/how-to-successfully-introduce-and-market-keto-products.html

Personal Branding for job seeking

A recent article posted on yahoo.com referenced one of our Digital Marketing guest speakers, Patrick Ambron and his co-founded company Brand Yourself:
https://money.yahoo.com/job-career-online-screening-reputation-155558910.html

We discussed, it is standard play in the current environment for recruiting and HR professionals to leverage digital resources to source, scan, and more importantly, weed out, potential candidates. I've explored the impact of personal branding and how to proceed with best practices.

Luckily for me, I have a pretty generic surname associated with a korean background so there are plenty of Jennifer Ahns to dilute the google universe but on the other front, I started to consider the important of building a positive online presence vs trying to avoid it altogether.
Following the article and the concepts discussed in class I looked into how important or relevant it may be to have a clean yet marketable online presence. I found a few interesting points:

-Leveraging Linkedin: With a comprehensive and well formulated Linkedin presence you are presenting yourself to recruiters in the best light - over 90% of recruiters regularly use Linkedin. A study found that 122 million people received an interview through Linkedin.
Having a searchable and active presence on the forum would be beneficial in branding yourself to potential employers.

-Over 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates during the hiring process and about 43% of employers use social media to check on CURRENT employees. After becoming aware of how impactful your social media accounts can be, I took steps to ensuring my accounts privacy settings were updated and represented what I would want an external AND internal network to see. There have also been recent articles about non US Citizens getting denied re-entry into the US due to their connections on forums like Facebook therefore not only analyzing your profile but your associations is vital.

In the brief synopsis above, it is evident digital marketing's perspective on a personal basis is an important element to positioning yourself professionally. Protecting your reputation and promoting your capabilities/industry knowledge/network are certainly foundational to seeking new opportunities and building on existing ones.

Snapchat VS. Instagram

The fight for retailer's adverting spend rages on. Snap recently announced a new kind of advertising product, Dynamic Ads, which will help it to better attract ad dollars from retail, e-commerce and other DTC brands — a group that today thrives on Instagram. With Dynamic Ads, advertisers can now automatically create ads in real-time and served to Snapchat users based on their interests using a variety of templates provided by Snap. 

Snapchat believes it can do well in this space because it can better deliver the millennial audience; the company claims that 38% of Snapchat users 16 and older can’t be reached on Instagram daily, while Snapchat reaches more than 90% of 13 to 24-year-olds in the US. 

Spinning Our Wheels: The Peloton Community

I have owned a Peloton spin bike since 2014. My husband begrudgingly agreed to the investment when we moved from Manhattan to the suburbs. My convincing point was that "the numbers just made sense." We would forgo our Equinox memberships and sporadic Soul Cycle classes and buy a $2,000.00 spin bike through a year of finance free 12 monthly payments.

However, I didn't expect my husband to enjoy it more than me. The bike effortlessly brought out his competitive spirit among friends. The feeling of pride while achieving a top leaderboard position made him loyalist. On the rare occasion he is on Facebook, it has only been to read posts published by strangers on the private Peloton Community page.

Last week, New York Magazine's The Cut published the article, "Peloton Is Spinning Faster Than Ever."  Peloton claims they discovered the happy accident of the social media community by chance. Below is a brief example from the article of what this community is like:

"That this community would form such an enormous part of the business was never the plan — it was more of a “happy accident.” Peloton first realized that the cult part was a big deal in October 2015, when a rider named Lori Roth from Ohio called up the studio to let the company know that she and 25 other people she’d “met” on the leaderboard had gathered in New York for a class. They were calling it the “Home Rider Invasion,” or the HRI. The then-small (60-person) Peloton staff was thrilled and invited them upstairs, where they met Foley, hugged their favorite instructor (Jennifer Schreiber Sherman, with long blonde hair and a tendency to play a lot of classic rock), and took a zillion smiling, laughing group photographs, which they immediately posted online. Other members started getting the same idea, and then Peloton started advertising. The May 2019 meetup hosted 3,000 riders from 49 states (plus Puerto Rico, the U.K., and Canada). Tickets sold out in ten minutes."

Funny enough, my husband and I moved back into NYC about a year ago in an effort to help curb my commute while attending school. Simply put, moving back meant a smaller apartment. We donated a lot of furniture that we knew wouldn't fit. But other than our bed and couch, the Peloton bike was a non-negotiable.

Voice is the next frontier in marketing

With edge computing as the next frontier, the use of IoT devices is expected to explode. One category of IoT devices, specifically, voice-activated interface is expected to be the next advertising channel. Artificial intelligence powered voice, like Amazon’s Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod, have sold well over 45 million devices. This number is expected to rise to 67 million by 2019. Amazon’s Echo is currently the leader with 70% market share.

One way that search could migrate to voice activated device is products can pay to be on the top of the search list when users are asking for recommendations. Or products can pay to position themselves as the pre-eminent brand for a certain consumer product.

Last year, IBM launched Watson Ads to allow direct interaction with brand’s ad and request additional info. The engagement time is between one and two minutes, which will give brands to craft a better advertising message. While still in its infancy stage, it looks like voice activated ads is here to stay and tremendous use cases to come.

Salesforce Determined to Dominate Email Marketing

https://venturebeat.com/2019/10/24/salesforce-launches-new-einstein-email-capabilities-for-marketing-cloud/

This week, Salesforce introduced new features to its email marketing, including insights and AI-informed content suggestions. Through its product "Einstein", it has a content selection tool that automatically recommends content to include in an email. It can also use natural language processing to recommend email subject lines and other phrases to make the content as engaging as possible.



In addition, Einstein's insights features can automatically inform marketers about the performance of their marketing campaigns. It will suggest how to improve campaigns that are not doing so well.

Even cooler might be Salesforce's "Journey Builder", which enables marketers to create a cohesive email journey for consumers. Through this, you can create a "Journey Template", which can then be shared and used in a collaborative way across your organization.



These are very useful tools for any company that leverages Salesforce as a CRM. Combined with email marketing efforts, these new features can be powerful for companies to increase conversion rates.

Consumer Consensus 2019

I found one of the latest consumer survey with digital marketing trends.

https://content.ometria.com/hubfs/Ebooks_/2019/Consumer%20Census%202019/Consumer%20Census%202019%20%7C%20Ometria.pdf?utm_campaign=CC19&utm_source=PR

Top channels for hearing about offers, new products and other news from retailers;

Email 56% 

Facebook 28% 

Direct mail 23% 

Instagram 13% 

SMS 11% 

Twitter 8% 

Push notifications 7% 

WhatsApp 4% 

Chatbot 2% 

The online/offline divide 

Both 74% 

Online only 14% 

In-store only 12% 

How often do consumers feel overwhelmed by marketing emails? 

At least daily 15% 

At least once a week 45% 

At least once a month 70% 

Top consumer annoyances: 

Too many emails 74% 

Promoting out-of-stock products 71% 

Promoting products I’m not interested in 66% 

Promoting products I’ve already bought 56% 

Not recognising my loyalty 54% 

How many retailers are consumers loyal to? 

10% aren’t loyal to anyone

58% are loyal to 3 brands or fewer 

82% are loyal to 5 brands or fewer 

From “You Can’t Sit with Us” to “Come Join Us”: Influencers Community

Aspiring Fashion Brands like Realisation Par, Reformation, With Jéan, are thriving through social media like Instagram. Many brands are creating communities of bloggers who have similar tastes and styles online and offline.

These communities are first started by generating hashtags like “#lesfillesenrouge” (the girls in Rouge), “#dreamgirls” (girls who wear Realisation Par), etc. By encouraging customers to use these hashtags, brands are creating a sense of “insider” and “family”. These brands can also find KOLs who post pics with their products and thereby post UGC (User-generated content). This helps the brand form its unique identity.

Take a look at the Instagram page of the French brand Rouje, which is created by blogger Jeanne Damas. Most of its content is UGC and KOLs in Rouje. It rarely showcases famous models or displays professional photoshoots. It does branding through more daily snapshots like a Parisian girl sitting by a café wearing a Rouge dress - blinking to young women - to live a “Parisian lifestyle” by buying their products.

The Californian brand Revolve uses similar strategies. Revolve is an online fashion retailer created by two data science guys targeting young women. According to “The Fashion Law,” 70% of current overall sales at Revolve are driven by influencer marketing.

http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/the-business-of-influence-revolvearoundtheftc  

By collaborating with influencers with a similar vibe as Revolve, it successfully turns traffic into cash. Instead of posing random OOTD pictures, Revolve gathers buyers and influencers into a “friend cycle.” For example, they traveled together with their loved ones to Phuket Island on Valentine's day. This campaign has less a feeling of a campaign, but more like a sorority outing. Every year they have this type of “group outing campaign,” and the effect is better than commercial advertisements. Similarly, Rouge also posts bloggers having dinner together, dancing and partying on its Instagram story.

Forming of bloggers communities definitely need careful management of the relationships with KOLs. This long-term collaboration is nevertheless effective for marketing and branding and costs much less.

Marketing News Sources You Need to Be Reading
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/01/05/marketing-news


This was a great quick read that allowed me to put a lot of what I am learning in class and discover some new things around digital marketing.  Its an article on the top sites that you should read to keep up to date on all that is marketing today.  I can tell you that it was great to see some of the platforms we have been speaking about like Google Ads, SEM Post, Search Engine Land etc..  However, this article had so much more and it also explains what makes them so great.  I took notes on a hand full of websites that I am going to check out because of it.  One thing is clear, the world of digital marketing changes minute by minute.   Enjoy reading!

By Idreamof  a.k.a Jeannie Marmol

Old viral media with why they were successful: https://upviral.com/viral-social-media-posts/

Another beauty thing... I am doing my next week's hw early. ;)

• Following an investigation opened in October 2018 after an email was leaked to Reddit, Sunday Riley settles FTC charges over company-wide fake review practices. The brand is formally banned from engaging in future deceptive activities.

• • Cosmetics Firm Sunday Riley, CEO Settle FTC Charges That Employees Posted Fake online Reviews at CEO’s direction (FTC Press Release)
  • Sunday Riley Formally Banned by FTC From Leaving Fake Reviews (Allure)
  • FTC Finds Sunday Riley Guilty In Fake Review Scandal (The Cut
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Something we are talking about in class in terms of the fake news!

Very beauty posting: but Glossier who started as the instagram beauty brand, now $1 billion in its worth...

https://www.glossy.co/fashion/any-form-of-exclusion-is-off-putting-why-brands-are-still-flocking-to-inclusive-marketing

‘Any form of exclusion is off-putting’: Why brands are still flocking to inclusive marketing...

Glossier started its business from basically Instagram. They made products based on the Instagram posts, and replies, and now is worth $1 billion in its worth. What interests me is that they moved so far in its path in terms of creating this vibe around Gen Z and millennials that they are listening to their skin concerns unlike any other brands, and this case, they are the frontier of inclusive marketing.

Which got me think. can we do something about inclusive marketing with the normal digital marketing channels such as banners/emails/and even posts?

Beware the Influencer

Today I came across this article in Wired chronicling Lashify’s drama as a new brand coming up against influencers. Lashify is a lash extension company which launched in 2017. Long story short, soon after the company’s launch, a Youtuber called MannyMUA with nearly 5 million followers posted a review video slagging the product. Below the video were a list of affiliate links which included, among others, links to Lashify’s competitors. 

Jabs and name calling ensued between Lashify and MannyMUA and it didn’t look good on anyone. Not only was the public squabble bad business for Lashify but their founder and employees received death threats from MannyMUA’s loyal followers. In retreat, Lashify closed their Google business page and disabled their reviewing function on Facebook. Then, nearly seven months after MannyMUA’s video was published, a rumor took hold on Reddit that a Lashify competitor had paid MannyMUA (speculated to be around $70,000) for his eight minute video. The drama created: priceless.

Welcome to the business of influencer marketing. Brands are willing to pay a lot of money for influencers’ endorsements. According to the Wired article, “a [Youtube] content creator with 3 million subscribers will usually charge at least $40,000 per video. If the company wants the YouTuber to produce a negative review of a competitor’s product, that’ll cost extra—often from $10,000 to $30,000 more.” 

Brands are willing to pay so much because consumers see this form of advertising as more authentic – like getting a recommendation from a trusted friend – compared to say a commercial. It’s actually highly effective: 19% of Americans say they’ve made a purchase because of an influencer’s endorsement. This trend is expected to grow.

But in the effort to appear “authentic” some brands would also prefer if influencers wouldn’t mention that they were being paid for an endorsement. There are rumors that they'll even pay more for this. The FTC has rules requiring influencers to disclose sponsorships but they’re clearly not being followed. Only 10% of affiliate content on Youtube contain the required disclosures. 

On the other hand, there is the argument that disclosure enhances the authenticity of an endorsement. Social media users are becoming more and more savvy to when influencers are being paid (whenever a brand’s name crosses an influencer’s lips). In this light, transparency about sponsorship can add to an influencer’s credibility and relationship with their followers. And this must also translate to the brands they associate with. Surely, Lashify's competitor must have felt some backlash over this rumored secret sponsorship of MannyMUA's video.

This puts companies in a tricky situation. Depending on the industry, they may not feel like they have any choice but to pay out large (and growing) sums to influencers. And sure, proper disclosure seems like a better long-term strategy, but what to do if competitors aren’t so sweet? If Lashify’s experience was any example, proceed with caution. 

Facebook: free speech and fake facts

Apropos our discussion in class last Saturday, this is one of the op-eds I've liked the best. It's Kara Swisher's take on how Silicon Valley likes to frame big complex issues as binary:


"Mr. Zuckerberg presented us with an either-or choice of free speech — either we have free speech or we’re China. “Whether you like Facebook or not, I think we need to come together and stand for voice and free expression,” he said with an isn’t-this-obvious tone.

But, as anyone who has lived in the real world knows, it’s much more complex. And that was the main problem with his speech — and it’s also what is at the crux of the myriad concerns we have with tech these days: Big Tech’s leaders frame the debate in binary terms. "

"Rather than say “thank you” to Mr. Zuckerberg for his speech without asking any questions, I would like to discuss how giving marginalized people a voice is different from giving malevolent users the tools to manipulate sloppy digital platforms. I would like to discuss how free speech can be valued and protected, while also putting up guardrails against abuses. I would mostly like not to be lectured to about free speech in the most simplistic of terms by people who avoid hard questions about that freedom."

Could Triller Challenge TikTok?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Triller, a music-focused video-sharing app, just raised $28 million in venture funding.

We have all by now heard of TikTok and its dizzying growth statistics. With TikTok's 500 - 800 million active users worldwide (I have seen differing estimates) and runaway popularity among teens, the social platform for sharing short videos set to music has earned a lot of attention.

Triller has only 13 million monthly active users and is more concentrated in the US and Europe. However, what could help spur its growth is that it recently successfully closed licensing deals with three global music companies, something TikTok has yet to complete successfully. And as Tiktok faces possible government scrutiny the US, there could be an opportunity for other platforms tot ake its users. Furthermore, Triller has some enthusiastic celebrity supporters in the US.

No matter what happens, things are certain to change quickly.

Post Box - A Digital Wellbeing Experiment

Google announced earlier today that it will be expanding its collection of "Digital Wellbeing Experiments", in an effort to help user's take back more control of their time amid a constant stream of push notifications and alerts. One particularly innovative experiment, Post Box, allows users to restrict incoming notifications to four times per day. This short clip provides a quick demo of the idea.



By giving users back a sense of control over their time and attention spans, tools like Post Box could help prevent consumers from feeling like they need to "unplug" altogether, by uninstalling a mobile application, bulk archiving mail or unsubscribing from email lists.

This could be a great way for people to maintain connections with brands they like and would like to stay engaged with, without feeling like they are being constantly being distracted by incoming updates, and needing to unsubscribe altogether. 

Given the importance of engaging with members, users and leads overtime in establishing brand loyalty and improving conversion rates, this paradigm shift could be a great way to maintain a healthy balance as users connect with the brands they love. 

   

Spotify's Meme Campaign

Advertising in the digital era can be tricky, but can also be very cost effective if you have a good idea and are able to connect with customers. With luck, you can even go viral and reach millions of people for a fragment of the cost of traditional media advertising.
For this reason, I really liked Spotify's meme campaign, here.


It connects with its customers in a very direct, fun, and modern way. Spotify has also tapped into its own customer's data in the past to advertise effectively. Here is another campaign based on the analysis of playlists and songs most played.

Personalization should occur in all channels

Personalisation within marketing is currently quite crude whereby demographics are utilised to allow brands to access broad user profiles but instead data should allow people to understand consumers on a more nuanced level to be able to target them based on their specific preferences. This could also expand to allow them to integrate real world (offline) data to improve users online experience.

Personalization is one way to make a great impression and increase engagement from the start. It sets the tone for a fully-integrated personalized experience, extending beyond your website to all your other channels.

Every year, personalized marketing automation technology provider Sailthru evaluates 250 retailers’ personalization capabilities across website, email, mobile and even offline. Cross-referenced with customer sentiment, Sailthru’s proprietary methodology results in the Retail Personalization Index, a definitive ranking of retailers based on their overall personalized shopping experiences.

One major takeaway from this year’s Index is that brands have come a long way in improving onsite personalization. All but two of the retailers Sailthru evaluated allow customers to create profiles, for example. However, the true personalization pros take what they learn about people onsite and apply that to other channels, creating a more connected customer experience. Here are a few ways to extend personalization beyond your website.

Email: Offering Nuanced Preference Centers

Email is the channel where most consumers want to hear from brands, but do they want to hear from them on a daily basis? Not always. Preference centers are a great tool here that enable people to control messaging cadence, decreasing the likelihood of messaging fatigue. While 51% of the retailers Sailthru evaluated have preference centers, many offer just two options: all or nothing. Just 35% go more granular, allowing consumers to select their preferred messaging frequency and type.

This is much more prevalent among the top performers. Of the 25 highest-ranked retailers, 52% offer messaging frequency in their preference centers. Three-time Index champion Sephora allows customers to choose between all, weekly or monthly marketing emails, in addition to emails pertaining to events at Beauty Insiders’ preferred Sephora stores.

Mobile: Sharing Profiles and Carts

When someone downloads a retail app, chances are high they’re already a loyalist. And yet, many retailers fail to recognize them as such, requiring new app users to onboard again. Overall, 43% of brands have consistent profiles between mobile apps and websites, while 42% share their shopping carts across channels. Among the top quartile, 88% of retailers offer both.

Retail Personalization Index runner-up Nordstrom earned a near perfect mobile score, in part because of how seamlessly the brand’s app integrates with other channels. Customer profiles, shopping carts and loyalty information carries over, ensuring consistency wherever and however the customer wants to shop.

In-Store: Noting Nearby Inventory

Surveying 1,500 consumers, Sailthru learned one of the strongest indicators of customer satisfaction is omnichannel personalization. The stronger the connections between digital and in-store channels, the more likely people are to enjoy their shopping experiences.

Onsite, 35% of brands allow customers to pick up their online orders in-store, while 39% of brands’ websites allow customers to view an item’s in-store availability. The latter is particularly indicative of overall personalization proficiency, as eight of the top 10 brands do this. For example, fifth-place Best Buy’s website incorporates geolocation, showing the site visitor relevant information, including store hours, special features and inventory, for the nearest brick-and-mortar store.

Instagram Influencers: waning influence and bulging pocketbook

What do you think of when you hear the word "influencer"? You are probably thinking of the picture-perfect, perfectly scripted and art directed instagram life--and you are right. Instagram has redefined the idea of influence. Influencer marketing has become an important part of the marketing budget, but are advertising investments in #ads and impressions really worth the price tag? A recent article in WSJ explains the waning influence of instagram and social media endorsements.

At the core of the issue is the loss of trust between the influencers and the influenced. As users become increasingly aware of the social media playbook and the inherent misalignment between the monetary incentive behind the act of influencing and a genuine recommendation, instagram has become more or less a marketplace.

Despite the naysayers, and the fact that the designer shoes and Maldives vacations are not all underwritten by someone looking to get a lift in marketing spend ROI, as long there are eyeballs to be converted, the influencer economy will continue to thrive. 

How The Sausage Gets Made: An Ugly Truth of Making a Living Off Instagram Income

I truly appreciated the frank commentary that Blogger/Actor/Influencer/Journalist/Real-Life Human, Tavi Gevinson provided The Cut's article: Who Would Tavi Gevinson Be Without Instagram? Tavi is one of the original fashion bloggers who has remained relevant through the evolution of social media platforms.

Tavi breaks down her Instagram life into multiple acts.  By the third act, Tavi was living in a fully paid luxury rental building in Brooklyn with a vague marketing agreement to feature the building during her year-long occupancy.

By the fourth act, Tavi had purposefully scaled her presence back. She also began to experiment and see just what Instagram's algorithm might favor when she did post.

"After noticing how few likes my posts of book excerpts or event fliers had gotten by comparison — like, so few that I thought people weren’t even seeing them — I tried using the platform to test out a theory I’d heard about Instagram’s algorithm while fundraising for Rookie: that it prioritizes faces and videos in people’s feeds over other types of content. (The feed isn’t chronological but is sorted by an invisible algorithmic hand.) This notion encapsulated my agony over the idea that being a face, a personal brand, was the most likely way to get one’s content seen on the oversaturated World Wide Web. I made a video of myself asking my followers to tell me where my video fell in their feeds, and many confirmed that they were seeing my new posts high in their feeds for the first time in months. They were divided on whether that was because Instagram explicitly favors certain types of data or because Instagram prioritizes, for each user, content similar to other content they’ve liked."

In the end, Instagram invited Tavi to their offices to basically debunk her theories.

In summary, it is unclear how many more acts Tavi, or any other Instagram influencer will have. But more importantly, it is fascinating to see how each act is a new discovery of how social media can be monetized, exploited and leveraged never thought up before then.

Stay tuned for Act V......

New Ways to Collect Consumer Feedback

Since starting Professor Kagan's Digital Marketing Class, I have been noticing many new ways that companies are trying to gather consumer feedback through digital tools. In the new age of connected-ness, where consumers expect brands to speak directly to them frequently, companies are now using the same output tools to encourage feedback and engagement back from consumers. Companies are using direct feedback to inform their decisions and improve their advertising. When I have seen examples of companies collecting feedback, it has been helpful to view these examples through the context of our class content and consider how advertisers and publishers will use this information to improve their content and approach.

I recently noticed on Facebook that they started asking questions about my ability to recall recent advertisements directly on my Newsfeed. Just this week they asked me if I remembered seeing an Ad for Dick's Sporting Goods in the last 2 days. Honestly, I had not remembered seeing anything from this company. There is a chance I was a control in their test, but if they had served me an ad for Dick's Sporting Goods, and I did not remember it, hopefully now they can use this information to serve me a more effective ad in the future. I was very happy to respond to this question and was willing to do it without any form of compensation. If Facebook started asking me questions like this daily I would be very annoyed, but in small amounts, I actually found it to be engaging and with good intentions.

Here is the questionnaire:

In addition, the popular app iBotta, that offers consumer coupon and money back for loading receipts, often has videos users have to watch before they can access the promotional coupon. Instead of requiring a video view, some companies have started asking potential consumers a question about their understanding of the product or category. This is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to get feedback from potential consumers who have already expressed interest in the product. Recently, I was asked if I knew that Philadelphia Cream Cheese's single serve dip cups were microwaveable. I didn't know this, so I was able to give them this feedback while at the same time I learned this important aspect about their product.

Trump Outspends the Dems on Digital

Ok, I'm doing it... I'm going political on a class blog.

In a recent article in the New York Times, the paper of record noted that the Donald Trump reelection campaign is outspending the Democrats on digital ads, and that at least some Democrats (the Biden campaign) have responded by... reducing digital spend and diverting the funds to TV advertising. Oh boy.

NYTimes went on to explain why this is a bad idea for the Dems, not only because duh, that's what happened in 2016, but also because they should be fighting to make up for an inherent disadvantage against an opponent who seems to automatically go viral by pushing provocative and polarizing messaging. It is entirely unclear why the Biden campaign decreased digital spend, but if it was at all meant to punish social networks for allowing opponents' untruthful political ads to buy space on their sites, then ducking out of the conversation could be a bad strategy.

As is on brand for the Times, the article is very long, but it includes some examples of Trump ads and describes how they are selected, tested and optimized to deliver the most fundraising juice. I recommend giving it a read.

Political content on Facebook

An article I found related to what we've talked about in class...political ads on Facebook and what they've implemented to prevent false news.  But with many other things, they've put a disclaimer at the end of the article that they are facing very smart people so they can bypass their security measures.  Probably goes back to the point about Facebook making money so they probably don't try that hard to block many content.  Below is the site:

https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/05/ads-with-political-content/

Advertising spend remains strong despite macroeconomic outlook

Gardner in its most recent spend survey suggests that total marketing spend is expected to increase more than 20%. Marketers have only allocated 9% to digital ads in video and display, or approximately half of overall marketing budgets.

Major agencies have seen lower margins and commoditized services have given way to higher-margin, longer-term strategic engagements, such as digital transformation, strategy or technology projects. Budget challenges could be deeper and broader, and highly impacted by macroeconomic outlook. CEOs are still expected to increase more than 50% this year. 

For different verticals, B2B manufacturing companies expect to increase budgets in 2020. Optimism remains higher for other B2B and B2C respondents. High-tech, also reported the third-highest average marketing budget in 2019, at 10.8% -- and is the least confident about prospects in 2020, with only 31% expecting a budgetary increase next year. CMOs in travel and hospitality and consumer products are the most confident -- with 76% and 74%, respectively, expecting an increase in 2020.

Shifting formats on social media

Social media has evolved in the past decade from a communications channel between friends to now huge platforms influencing on people's lives.

As we’ve seen the Facebook newsfeed go from a place consisting of college students sharing travels and adventures to an advertising platform now engagement has become crucial and the skill of content creation has become more important. This has accelerated the trend towards short format video

Article:

Before looking towards the future, let’s take a moment to see what the social media landscape looks like currently. According to Pew Research:

• 88% of 18- to 29-year-olds indicated that they use any form of social media. That share falls to 78% among those ages 30 to 49, to 64% among those ages 50 to 64 and to 37% among Americans 65 and older.

• Facebook and YouTube dominate the social media landscape, as notable majorities of U.S. adults use each of these sites.

• 35% of U.S. adults now say they use Instagram, an increase of seven percent from the 28% who said they did in 2016.

• Roughly three-quarters of Facebook users ­– and around six-in-ten Snapchat and Instagram users – visit each site daily

The data doesn’t lie; we’re all becoming addicted to our digital identities and social media usage. As the percentage of young people using social media rates the highest, it’s key to analyzing how they are using social media as that will define the future of content creation and consumption.

Video Is Front And Center

According to Adobe, 52% of marketing professionals name video as the content with the best ROI. That percentage will only increase as video becomes essential within every aspect of content and media. 

As customers spend time watching video across all social media platforms whether that is an explainer video, product testimonials, behind-the-scenes content, or thought leadership interviews -- users are glued to videos to connect with brands and companies they have an affinity towards.

For companies, they can truly understand which channels optimize for their audience and create content off of those metrics. Additionally, the marketing team will need to figure out which channels those videos work best on. 

The strategy that works best for teams is to create long-form content and then distribute it across the appropriate social media platforms. 

Take GoPro, the company that manufactures cameras for action based lifestyles; they’ve mastered the art of branded and user-generated videos. Their YouTube channel has almost 6 million subscribers that include incredible global adventure videos in skiing, snowboarding, hiking and more all captured on their cameras. These videos can run in length from 1.5 minutes to thirty minutes alongside user-generated content, as GoPro has an emphasis on community

Aligning with their YouTube strategy, GoPro has a strong Instagram presence. With a focus on the consumer, they encourage posting user-generated Instagram Stories and tag @GoPro on accounts. Their comprehensive strategy posting quality content allows GoPro to be one of the leaders in the video content space. 

As you can see it’s imperative to post content where it plays best. In doing so, companies can capitalize on this universal ‘pivot to video’ happening and create long-term relationships with their communities.

Ephemeral Content Storytelling

With 60% of Snapchat and Instagram users returning to the site each day, that’s an attractive statistic for the case for disappearing or ephemeral content storytelling. 

This new form of storytelling has been embraced by users, influencers, and brands alike. With ephemeral content that only lasts 24 hours, this lends itself to a lot of testing and discoverability for brands to find what works for them. Consumer brands like Everlane and Away Luggage have done a fantastic job at creating consistent content on their channels to take their products around the world and showcasing them in a strategic and sophisticated way through ephemeral content storytelling. 

Everlane hired millennial filmmakers to go to an ice cave in Canada to test out the new puffer jacket. The content influencers created Instagram Stories to share how they’re still warm despite being in frigid temperatures, and in doing so, were able to promote the product in a fun, compelling style that connects with consumers.

Companies that are looking to invest in ephemeral content storytelling can look at their competitors or other brands that are producing compelling content. Each industry has companies excelling in this form of storytelling.

They can learn best practices to engage their audience in making sure that customers are viewing the entire story and interacting with the content. This can include chatting with customers in the direct message/chat features of the platforms. These chats can help bring about stronger relationships through humanizing the brand and making customers want to purchase or advocate for the brand because of their ability to make customers feel that they’re part of their community.

Additionally, the form of storytelling with these platforms differs from traditional social media. The content is less curated, and some integrations make the content more engaging including Snapchat face lenses, Instagram GIFs integrations, the ability to draw and write on the material, and much more.

Stories are overtaking regular grid activity on Instagram and platforms like LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Skype and others are integrating stories into their suite, marketers will need to learn how to execute on ephemeral content. 

Influencer Marketing Is Going Strong

By 2020 influencer marketing is on target to become a 10 billion dollar industry. The rise in influencers across all social networks, but especially YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat highlight how the millennial and Gen Z generations are embracing influencers wholeheartedly. 

There are influencers in every industry that use social media storytelling to create communities. Because of this, brands can work with influencers to expand reach and bring about greater engagement. 

Influencers are incredibly skilled in content creation and understand the platforms thoroughly; making it easier for brands to let go of the reins so that influencers can produce content for any of the brands' goals and intent.

In addition, influencers have been known to develop unboxing videos on YouTube where they show off the new product, fashion and beauty hauls where influencers try on or test new products in long-form vlogs, posting lifestyle photos on their Instagram Grid highlighting the product, and Instagram or Snapchat Stories to share a uniquely immersive experience. 

With the multitude of content ideas, building relationships with influencers is vital for the future of your business and your community -- as influencer marketing is here to stay. 

Content drives our daily consumption and purchasing decisions. For marketers to succeed, they will need to understand the social media climate and trends. 

By knowing that video is becoming how people are digesting content to ephemeral content storytelling being the force towards more user growth on Snapchat and Instagram, and influencer marketing becoming a necessary tool for brands to engage communities and create valuable content, you’ll be able to produce and execute upon a comprehensive and valuable marketing strategy.