Monday, January 31, 2022
Digital Marketing Has Arrived (to Healthcare)
Sunday, January 30, 2022
HOW
TIKTOK, TWITTER, SNAP ARE UPGRADING AD TOOLS TO HELP DRIVE BRAND SALES
As it has now become
a standard for brands to leverage Apps to reach their customers and increase
sales and conversion, Apps, on their end, are continuously releasing updates.
Snapchat
introduced augmented reality filters that links to brands’ product catalogs. These are Snap Lenses that users use to
create videos. Snapchat improved lenses by
linking them to product catalogs and inventory data from the brands. Nike,
Dior, Prada, to name some of them, have built Snap Lenses so consumers can
virtually try on products through the camera.
Twitter
adjusted the back end of its ad platform to accommodate more performance
marketing goals. One adjustment consists
of “site visits optimizations” which allows brands to set a goal of
driving traffic to their websites. An
additional enhancement (still in progress) is the ability to add items to a
digital shopping cart through Twitter ads. Finally, Twitter is also working on
measurement which will report anonymous stats to brands.
TikTok
launched fast-loading pages, which are landing sites within the App where brands
can show more product details. Instant Page
allows brands to share their story by highlighting products, services and
promotion to users.
This shows how the
customers shopping experience will become all-in-one within the apps millions
of people communicate with every day.
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Additional Advertising Implications of the Metaverse
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/miller-lite-skirts-super-bowl-ad-block-with-metaverse-bar/617653/
The article summarizes how the Molson Coors beer company is partnering
with the Metaverse company Decentraland to circumvent Anheuser-Busch’s advertising
exclusivity that started in 2010 and which is currently expected to extend
until 2027. Within Decentraland, Miller Lite will have a unique booth that
patrons can visit to view Miller promotional offers and interact with other
patrons. Although this marketing tactic will
not generate the number of impressions and awareness that a superbowl ad would today,
it provides another interesting use case for how metaverse advertising could
compare to traditional mass media, and specifically to the holy grail of mass
media – the television Super Bowl Ad. Since consumers are glued to their
smartphones, it seems at least plausible that they can be enticed to engage with
a digital medium during Superbowl or television downtime. Such mediums can
potentially strengthen the impact and relevance of advertising by providing a
social platform for users to engage with one another. What if you could join
the Miller lite booth in Decentraland and “politely” debate the merits or flaws
of the two teams currently competing with other patrons? In the same way that
streaming on-demand television has become favored in many contexts to traditional
‘scheduled television’, could we one day expect on-demand interactive experiences
to at least partially dominate how advertisers reach consumers?
Google Pivoting to new Cookie Replacement Strategy
Earlier this week, Google announced plans to forgo it's previously committed 'FLOC' proposal which was expected to be the centerpiece of its move toward removing 3rd-party cookies from Chrome. The original proposal was announced in 2019 and expected to be finished in 2021. Early in 2021, Google came out and suspended the change for an additional 2 years, until sometime in late 2023. FLOC was a cohort-based solution designed to bucket users into groups that share similar learnings. This would give advertisers some control over who they are targeting and with what products, however it would not allow for individual cookie-based targeting that exists today. The new proposal, called Google Topics, does move further in the direction of being more privacy centric as it only allows for users to be bucketed under 6 'topics of interest' which will then be available for advertisers. These topics instead of being based on purchase behavior, they will be based on site content - not dissimilar to contextual advertising which has seen a resurgence in the past year with so much volatility around 3rd-party cookies. What will be interesting to see is first, will the timeline in 2023 still remain for this industry change - after all, google owns 55% of the display advertising market today. Does this change mean that ad tech companies and media agencies will lose their efficiency even more, thus causing more people to bring dollars through Google's search products? This will be a really interesting development to follow and will surely have huge implications on the online advertising space as a whole.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/google-floc-cookies-chrome-topics/
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Optimizing Email Marketing
2. Interactive Features: To enhance engagement, interactive features, such as, quizzes, games, surveys and call to action buttons, can be added to emails to increase consumers’ curiosity, engagement and genuine interest. Companies can also offer special discounts and deals for those who interact with these messages.
3. Appealing aesthetic/email design: Emails should be visually pleasing and easy to read. Emails should be designed with layouts, fonts, formats and visuals that complement content; the better an email looks, the better received an email will be. Companies should stay on top of industry design trends.
4. Appreciation: It is important to thank your customers for their support. A simple thank you is a breath of fresh air for many consumers who are typically sent too many promotional emails. Thanking customers for support instead of pushing a product may help an email stand out. Some opportunities for customer appreciation: anniversaries, holidays, birthdays, etc.
To implement the above, email marketers should consider automation. Automation can help with personalization, design and enhancements, significantly lifting the manual burden off of companies (and saving companies time and money).
Article
of reference: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/09/22/optimizing-your-email-marketing-in-2021/?sh=1909eb45e52a
Friday, January 21, 2022
The Covid Impact - The Value of the In Person Experience
DTC native brands such as Glossier and Away have thrived in the digital era. As Facebook and Instagram ads took over our IG feeds, these brands capitalized on already having a strong social media presence and were able to organically create engaging campaigns and continue to boost followers through their catchy digital presence. And yet, they all ended up creating strong in-person shopping experiences to round out their campaigns and give people the chance to experience their products in real life. They saw the value in creating an in person experience to engage their community in a way that social media didn't allow. And then the pandemic hit.
Brands tried to quickly pivot from in-person shopping events to strategize on the digital marketing experience, from live shopping events, to sponsored influencer posts, and more. Many retailers appeared to struggle to adapt and figure out how to tell their brand story without being "on the ground" and news of store closures splashed over TVs. And even with the pivot for many of these brands who had already had a strong digital presence, they struggled to engage with consumers and drive brand awareness without the catchy in person experience. As mentioned in one article about the value in retail stores, Warby Parker's CEO highlights the importance of retail stores, saying "We deliberately design our stores to serve as billboards and have found them to be highly effective in driving brand awareness, new customer acquisition and in serving our existing customer base." Now that stores are open again and more and more consumers feel comfortable shopping in real life, I will be curious to see how brands like Warby Parker continue to grow their brand's in person presence. I think we're about to see more in person events, more highly engaging and niche product assortments, and we will see store growth pick up, even during a time when digital is outperforming its growth. It will be very important for brands to make sure they see the value in the in person experience to fully round out their brand as the digital space becomes highly competitive and over saturated.
Article: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/23/store-closures-slowed-in-2021-as-retailers-got-creative-seized-cheaper-rents.html
TikTok for Influencer Marketing
Article: “Marketers increasingly turn to TikTok for influencer marketing” -https://www.emarketer.com/content/tiktok-influencer-marketing
eMarketer makes it clear that TikTok is becoming an unquestionable
force in a marketer’s toolkit.
As a novice in the digital marketing space and someone who a) does not have TikTok and b) is trying to minimize social media use, I was unaware of the importance of TikTok in marketing. That said, I am also no expert in influencer marketing, and to understand the significance of this article, looked more into the broader industry. Per “influencermarketinghub.com,” influencer marketing was a $13.8B industry in 2021, with businesses seeing a $5.78 ROI for every dollar spent on influencer marketing. These numbers provide a compelling argument for why I should understand this!
Two-thirds of U.S. influencer marketers plan to use TikTok in 2022. At this point, only Instagram and Facebook are ahead of TikTok in terms of popularity among influencer marketers, with Youtube, Twitter, and Snapchat forecasted to lag behind TikTok in popularity in 2022. In just 2020 alone, there was a 33% increase in US marketers using TikTok for influencer marketing, at 36%. That number rose to 42% in 2021 and is forecasted to rise through 2025 and close the gap with Facebook. It is predicted that by 2025, 54.9% of marketers will use TikTok influencers and 66.4% of influencer marketers will use TikTok.
Currently, Instagram and Facebook are viewed as stable
platforms vs TikTok as an experimental platform and thus marketers are
utilizing TikTok in conjunction with a more stable platform. I am curious
how the TikTok platform will evolve against the market leader, Instagram.
I'd also like to understand the demographic reach of various social mediums,
and will explore this in a future blog post.
What are the top challenges of digital marketing transformation?
https://www.thedrum.com/profile/leadfamly/news/what-are-the-top-challenges-of-digital-marketing-transformation
If digital marketing transformation was that simple, every business in the world would have undergone it already. And yet, in spite of all the talks about how digital marketing plays a vital role in order to succeed in the new digital world that we are now living in, many brands and retailers are still in the nascent stage of digital transformation, or nowhere at all. It took a global pandemic to force many of them to finally embark on their digital transformation. What is so challenging, you may ask? This article points out a few.
First, it requires not only an investment of time and money but also a change in their ways of thinking. Technology change is one thing but in order for it to work, it’s imperative that the staff become engaged and welcoming of the transformation as well. Second, it’s much harder to compete for the attention of customers who are increasingly busy and receiving a variety of marketing messages and calls to action.
This article also discusses how brands need to rely on accurate customer data to truly understand what their customer wants and be able to effectively respond to it. When they use the right data, they can send the right message that will get the customer’s attention. It is an important pillar of digital transformation.
Waterproof Jackets Show Their Strength Not in the Rain, but in the Shower
Arc'teryx, a 33-year-old outdoor gear company, usually relies on traditional channels to advertise like print or paid media, and for many years has hidden in the shadow of its bigger competitors like Patagonia and NorthFace. More recently though, the company has found their share of newfound brand loyalists and even celebrity endorsers.
While celebrity endorsements are are known to be one of the strongest signals of success for a seemingly under the radar brand, becoming a TikTok trend is now the holy grail.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-are-all-these-people-showering-in-their-arcteryx-jackets-11642422998?st=ikw67aundjsav06&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Thursday, January 20, 2022
Progress Over Product
Finding the right medicine on the App Store
Pharma companies are perhaps most well-known for cheesy TV ads where the lists of side effects is longer than the medicines’ actual descriptions. It may feel like these companies have not changed anything about their marketing strategies in decades. That said, more and more pharma companies are finding ways to connect with potential or existing patients digitally through mobile health apps. Apps can help patients learn about their disease, monitor their symptoms and explore potential interventions. For patients already on a specific treatment, apps can augment patient experience, improve patient compliance on therapy and possibly help them seek payment assistance.
Overall, these apps provide valuable data to drug developers and drastically narrow the population that they need to target their marketing towards. However, the majority of health apps independently developed by pharma companies have had mediocre success, primarily because they are poorly developed and simply do not attract enough patients to reach useful scale. No one needs yet another app just for medication reminders and, most definitely, not a separate app for each different medication.
But what about tacking on to an existing app that patients already use? Companies that have partnered with a health app or medical device that already has a strong user base have seen far better success. For instance, Novo Nordisk is working with diet management app Noom to market its weight loss drug and Pfizer has created an app in conjunction with device maker Striiv for hemophilia patients. We will likely see more similar partnerships arise in the near future and you can bet that every health app from Fitbit to WeightWatchers will eventually be selling aggregated data to healthcare companies. This is still very much an evolving space and certainly raises questions about patient data protection but, as a silver lining, the shift to digital might mean that we’ll all have fewer awful TV drug ads to endure.
The Covid Effect: Why CEOs Must Adapt to a Digital Marketing Mindset
The pandemic has changed many aspects of everyone’s lives, and consumer behavior has been affected as a result. This article states that four main factors have driven the shift in consumer behavior.
Shift to digital buying
Virtual selling replacing in-person
Slower sales cycle
Covid market dynamics
At the beginning of the pandemic, when only critical businesses remained open for in-person shopping, consumers were forced online. This quickly and drastically shifted the way that customers interacted with businesses. We are now two years into the pandemic and this is clearly a long-term shift, and it’s unlikely that we will return to pre-pandemic levels of in-person shopping.
As a result of this shift to virtual commerce, businesses need to increase digital marketing efforts to compete and to provide their customers with the engagement and level of service that they expect. This article mentions several ways to engage with customers in the covid world.
The first is through the company’s website. The article discusses the importance of companies’ websites and its role as a virtual storefront. I strongly agree with this assessment. I rely on a company’s website to answer any questions I may have about their products. In the absence of an in-person sales experience, through which customers can ask salespeople questions and experience products first-hand, consumers need to have as much product information available through the web as possible. Any missing information or unanswered questions could lead to missed opportunities for businesses, ultimately hurting their brands and bottom lines.
Another suggestion from this article is for companies to focus on customer touch points through the use of social media. I think it’s important for a company’s social media strategy to be aligned with their website messaging and other marketing campaigns, I think I would deprioritize social media and put a higher emphasis on customer service.
Customer service was another aspect that this article recommended as a focus point for companies given the covid effect. It’s critical that companies can provide reliable customer service and support. Since consumers are engaging less with in-person salespeople, online or telephone customer service representatives have become the primary customer-facing employees for many businesses. It’s critical that the customer service representatives are knowledgeable, aligned with the company’s values, and empowered to truly help solve customers’ problems.
What 2021 Tells Us About 2022
The year 2020 posed unprecedented challenges for marketers, but 2021 was even more challenging. Not only has the pandemic stuck around, but changes in privacy policies shaped and impacted key metrics in search, paid social, and online retail. As we enter into 2022, the story continues, but the good news is we have the benefit of experience and information from the past two years to help us prepare better.
In 2020, the e-commerce business grew 32.4%. In 2021, we saw extraordinary growth in CPC as advertisers fought for the attention of consumers on limited digital real estate. As we look forward to 2022, we need to keep in mind some key trends that we saw in 2021 to match key indicators with probable behaviors that consumers will likely display.
First, organic and paid search will continue to grow as consumers are making purchasing decisions mostly online and basing those decisions on online research as we expect the pandemic to continue to affect in-person gathering.
Second, marketers can more easily predict which device consumers will use based on the COVID case numbers.The higher the case numbers, the more people will work from home and stay indoors, increasing the usage of desktop over mobile. This will help us to predict when to increase mobile vs. web type of marketing.
The biggest challenge is going to be from the updates to privacy policies that affect consumer data collection. Businesses will have to spend more money and resources on organic and paid marketing. Those who view this challenge as an opportunity will get ahead, opening up for new marketing tactics to emerge.
Resource: https://martechseries.com/mts-insights/guest-authors/three-factors-that-influenced-q3-2021-digital-marketing-performance/
New Proposed Regulations for Digital Advertising
https://martech.org/google-and-marketing-industry-predictably-hostile-to-proposed-surveillance-advertising-ban/
The article above begins to explore the implications and corporate response to the introduction of the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act in Congress. Should this specific bill be passed and implemented, advertisers would no longer be able to target consumers based on digitally collected personal information, except for contextual advertising based on what the user is interacting with, and general location advertising at the city or state level (note: these additional details came from a similar article here: https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/18/banning-surveillance-advertising-act/)
The privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has used this opportunity to praise the bill for promoting principles which emphasize user privacy. The article further describes that the bill does not offer leniency in the event the personal information is provided by the user voluntarily. Industry experts comment that while they appreciate the motivates of the bill, the suggested actions are too restrictive, would not necessarily produce the outcomes congress seeks, and would have detrimental consequences for marketers.
Google describes that the bill would actually limit the following functionality for it's search engine:
Showing directions from Google Maps in its search results.
Providing answers to urgent questions.
Highlighting business information when someone searches for a local business.
Integrating its products (e.g., Gmail, Calendar, Docs).
I tend to have mixed feelings on this issue, but ultimately lean towards permitting advertisers to continue leveraging my data. Organizations like google have been able to effectively target me in a way that I don’t find too frustrating, and each feature listed in the bullet points above is one that I value. Furthermore, if I were the proprietor of a website, I don’t necessarily feel that tracking information about the user is necessarily immoral. Those individuals presumably didn’t have to visit my website, provided they had options. The challenge with a firm like google is that there really is no comparable site that’s as effective, although DuckDuckGo has received some impressive reviews from the tech industry based on my own cursory searches in google (lol). I therefore find myself revisiting a much bigger question continually asked in our society, which is the extent to which we are willing to tolerate the market power of big tech?
Human Nature and Why Free Covid Tests Went Viral
How do we meme stock our way out of social media?
Over the course of the last year, I've watched all common sense go out the window and people pile into a trend that just makes no sense. AMC, GME, valuations through the roof. I'm all about people's willingness to "stick it to the man" but, how do we harness the droves of people who are doing this to stick it to someone more influential? I'm a geek of sorts, farm animal geek, sea creature geek, Settlers of Catan geek, Game of Thrones geek... heck, I'm even a NARP! I am not, however, an internet geek but, I do know a thing or two about stocks AND I've seen Mr. Robot. If individuals are able to organize to rock the financial markets... why are they only focusing on Uncle Sam? Don't they know that he's so yesteryear and Zuckerburg and his cronies are the ones to shake-up? As everyone and their mothers' and grandmothers' (UGH) brains are melting like a Mister Softee in August... people are getting there sh*t together enough to make AMC look more like MSFT than the sticky sad rat den on your neighborhood block. Why the heck aren't they out there to save Granny and their teenage brother's body image? What will it take for people to organize and quit the mind-numbing stupifier that is social media? Your guess is as good as mine but, I would put my money and what's left of my PTON stock on the folks in these gaming chat rooms who are manipulating the financial markets.
Keeping Up with Digital Marketing
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Automatic content recognition: Your TV is listening. And watching.
https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/wtf-is-automatic-content-recognition/
“And by 2026,
51% of households worldwide are expected to own a smart TV…”
The increasing demand for smart TVs is resulting in more viewership data for
targeted ads and personalized content recommendations. This article covers automatic
content recognition, a tech process that enables a smart TV to listen to or watch
content with us. ACR is used across linear, streaming, digital videos, and any
device connected to a smart TV. This type of tracking was under fire in 2016
when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined Vizio for tracking and collecting ACR
data without a viewer’s consent. But, even after a class action lawsuit
settlement in 2018, 90% of Vizio smart TV owners still opted in to ACR
tracking. Millions of people with LG, Roku, and Samsung smart TVs have also opted
into this tracking, too. Why? As a Samsung smart TV owner, I find personalized
recommendations helpful especially on streaming platforms (go Netflix!); I save
time and avoid searching / scrolling through the noise. But truthfully, the main
reason is because I didn’t read through my privacy policy nor terms of use
carefully enough when setting up my TV. I am interested to see if there will be
another backlash as more ACR data is available to marketers and as more smart
TV owners are becoming aware of this tracking. We will also see which
companies can successfully ingest this data for personalized marketing.
How NFTs Are Used by Marketers
https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-tech-news/how-brands-are-using-nfts-continually-updated-list/2376086
With the rise of crypto currencies and blockchain, NFTs are one product that are becoming more common in marketing ideas and strategy, and I assume they will only continue to grow. NFTs are non-fungible tokens and can be used to monetize brands/marketing imagery, and can also help create a community of people invested in the marketing and branding of the product. While NFTs are just beginning to gain traction, I believe the application will only continue to transform, and the scale at which they will reach from a marketing perspective, will only continue to grow. In this article, they begin to allude to how NFTs are specifically growing increasingly accessible and are also continuing to gain traction. They site a series of various articles and business moves that indicate how NFTs are growing increasingly intertwined with business branding and marketing. I believe that NFTs, and the marketing work that is being done surrounding them, are just reaching the tip of the iceberg in terms of how blockchain will fit into marketing and business strategy, and I am excited to continue to follow it into the future.
AI & the Digital Marketing Game
5 Ways AI Will Change the Digital Marketing Game in 2022
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/401518
There is more data available to marketers than ever which has increased the need to manage and utilize it. Marketers are turning to AI to help them leverage that data and work smarter not harder. AI helps drive targeted marketing through personalization. AI is also being leveraged to predict what a user might like and share that content with them.
Personalized content is great and can help drive conversion but it also poses risks. A user is no longer served the ‘whole picture’ but instead the part of the picture AI thinks they will like. Marketers will have to be careful not to look like ‘big brother’ and not to limit users' ability to have a sense of discovery and be inspired by something new.
AI’s role in CRM will be instrumental in increasing revenue as it will help marketers to better understand user behavior and meet their needs. The challenge will be how to use it effectively while respecting users' trust. Marketers will need to ensure their content is value-added so users continue to come back.
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Name Image and Likeness in College Athletics
This past summer, the NCAA adopted a new policy allowing college athletes to be paid for use of their Name, Image and Likeness (LINK). Especially for big money sports like college football and college basketball, there has been a debate for some time whether athletes should be able to profit off of their name. Since the ruling came down in July 2021 ahead of the previous college football season, many athletes have signed sponsorship deals with local and national brands in order to capitalize off their image and popularity. One of the earliest trends that was observed when the first deals were signed was how it wasn’t just the best or most successful athletes, but rather it was the athletes with the largest social media presence that were commanding the best financial deals. The impact Name, Image and Likeness or NIL is yet to be fully understood as it’s only 1 year old but it’s certainly a new channel that could prove to be really interesting for marketers and a new way to appeal to hyper-local, but extremely loyal fan bases. One interesting business that came out of this NIL ruling that stuck out to me was a new marketplace that allowed athletes to sign up – and then individuals or companies to go on and essentially pay for a certain level of sponsorship. This NIL marketplace idea is surely going to allow brands to reach new and unique audiences but also give athletes a chance to finally benefit from the use of their name.
The Big Data Conundrum
TikTok’s Pay-Per-Click Disruption to the Disruptors
TikTok is making ground with its pay-per-click avenue for revenue. It’s unique approach to invite brands to work directly with creators gives the brands a helping hand to grow much valuable organic growth in the digital marketing universe. TikTok is also partnering with the online retail superstar Shopify to allow consumers to click a button on the video to purchase the products directly. These advantages along with TikTok’s simple one video at a time allows the social media platform to gain clean data from each user, what they like and what they are shopping for. When it comes to pay-per-click this data is the golden ticket to make an efficient ecosystem for the platform’s
revenue.
Read more at: https://www.economist.com/business/2022/01/15/tiktok-isnt-silly-its-serious
Monday, January 17, 2022
Sunday, January 16, 2022
MOBILE AD SPEND LEAPT 23% in 2021, ON TRACK TO HIT $350B
THIS YEAR
While it is not
a secret that people are spending more time than ever before on mobile apps (also
driven by the pandemic) as a result, mobile-first strategy is becoming
vital for marketers to thrive within the renovated society. Few stats can help framing the
transformation: ad spending grew 23% in 2021 with respect the prior year
reaching $295 billion….going for $350 this year; consumers globally
spent 3.8 trillion hours on mobile in 2021 and 70% of these on social,
video and photo apps (TikTok and Facebook being the top ones) and, finally, consumers’
spending across app stores grew 19% in 2021 hitting $170 billion.
These figures clearly show how the mobile device became the tool we shop, we pay and entertain ourselves with, turning into the best place for brands to target customers. Despite someone may think that mobile is the place to be “for the future”, that successful companies have captured the trend years ago and they thrived even more through the past two years of pandemic. The “followers” need to adjust fast and catch up quickly in order to survive and surf the big wave.
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Trends in SEO that Will Affect Every Industry
The main objective of a search engine is to identify the most relevant and useful websites for searchers. The most successful search engines, like Google, prioritize searcher/user experience and therefore effectively “force” website creators to focus on search engine optimization. Some of the most important and current SEO trends according to The Entrepreneur are: 1) Local SEO; 2) Featured Snippets; 3) Core Web Vitals; 4) Google BERT Model; 5) Testing and Improving User Experience and 6) Mobile-friendly websites.
VISIBILITY:
I. Local SEO. Local SEO is a SEO strategy that optimize
websites for a local area searches. As more and more people rely on search engines
to find nearby items of interest (i.e., malls, restaurants, public buildings,
etc.), local SEO becomes increasingly important. To maximize website visibility
for local searches, website owners should add keywords that reference city,
state, and county onto their site.
II. Featured Snippets. Featured snippets are the excerpts
of text that appear underneath a suggested webpage. These snippets are critical
to providing searchers with an understanding of webpage content and potential
relevancy. Insightful snippets encourage more meaningful traffic.
USER EXPERIENCE:
III. Core Web Vitals. Core web vitals are a specific set of metrics
that Google considers critical to a user’s overall experience. Website
owners should regularly monitor and analyze these metrics in order to ensure peak
performance and user experience.
IV. Google BERT Model. In order to ensure top positioning on Google’s
search results page, websites must contain content focused on search intent. Adding
this content will make your webpage appear more often than those of competitors,
driving more traffic to your website.
IV. Testing and Improving User Experience. It is important
that website owners regularly test their site to ensure accessibility and function.
This will make the user experience as pleasant as possible and will encourage longer
interactions and repeat visits.
V. Mobile Compatibility. As mobile devices become increasingly more
integrated into consumers’ lives (54.8% of website traffic globally is
accessed via mobile devices), websites must be optimized for mobile use in
order to appeal to this audience.
I believe that focusing on the above trends is critical for
increasing a website’s visibility and traffic, and thus, driving additional profitability.
Reference: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/412854
Saturday, January 08, 2022
Acquisitions in Ad-Tech: Smartly.io to buy Ad-Lib.io
The art of free product placement
Product placement in digital media is a crucial and growing part of several companies’ marketing strategies. Global spending on product placement was approximately $23 B in 2021, a 14% increase over spending in 2020. However, as well-known brands pay millions for a seconds-long slot on the Netflix’s latest hit series, one company found a clever, albeit short-lived, workaround.
The North Face, iconic retail brand known for its outdoor and cold-weather apparel, skipped past the expensive streaming platforms and straight to everyone’s favorite free info media site – Wikipedia. They leveraged Wikipedia’s no. 1 rule, that anyone and everyone can edit articles as they please. The North Face’s Brazil group took photos of hikers, climbers and other outdoor enthusiasts wearing their apparel at famous outdoor destinations and sneakily added them to the destinations’ associated Wikipedia pages, which pushed the brand’s photos to the top of Google’s image search results.
But as every evil genius cannot help but brag about their master plan, North Face too could not keep their brilliant scheme to themselves. Together with an ad agency, they created a video as part of their “Top of Images” campaign in which they boasted “We hacked the results to reach one of the most difficult places: the top of the world’s largest search engine.” And of course, the backlash that followed was to be expected - the branded images were swiftly taken down and the company issued a public apology. The incident is a few years old now but remains a great example of how brands are constantly being compelled to be more creative in their marketing strategies, with mixed results, and how absolutely no place on the web is safe from advertising.
Independent Watchmakers Embrace the Virtual Display Case
Watch industry giants such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet were able to benefit from this bias for in-person sales especially, and have remained on top for decades, even despite the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
That said, over the past few years, even before the pandemic, up-start watch companies who knew they would unable to win the window-space war flocked to the internet and embraced digital-first customer experiences.
For example, Thomas Baillod's company BA111OD launched their first watch in October 2019 for about $400 USD, with the large majority of their sales coming from Baillod's personal LinkedIn page. Recognizing that digital experiences would allow new ways to directly market to his customers and provide transparency on the sales process, he began his own take on a influencer program called the "Afluendor" program, where anyone who buys a watch can become an Afluendor, though they are not obligated, and are given up to six "rights to purchase" watches which they can pass on to their network.
Though BA111OD is not coming for Rolex any time soon, Bailod's simple digital marketing and Afluendor program demonstrate that network effects remain incredibly powerful in the fashion and jewelry space.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/fashion/watches-independent-brands-online.html?smid=url-share
Digital Marketing & Real Estate
Real estate is not thought of as a digital industry, and
consequently, there is not much literature on the web on this topic. I did, however, find an agency article that provides
high level thoughts on the industry, entitled “How Digital Marketing Will
Transform Real Estate Industry In 2021” (linked below).
Real estate is a physical asset. Similar to other industries—recall the
example in class of researching a car before purchasing at a lot—real estate customers
are utilizing the internet to understand a building’s offerings (floorplan,
amenities, etc) before visiting it and ultimately making the decision to rent
or purchase. In the New York City
market, Streeteasy is known as the aggregator of this information and rental
brokers such as Douglas Elliman are the customer’s go-to contact people about a
unit. However, new construction rental
buildings (like the one I work on) must find ways to differentiate themselves
from other class A buildings in the neighborhood to have a competitive edge.
I reviewed the article to see what differentiators digital
marketing could provide my company. The article mentions Chatbots, Influencers,
Augmented Reality, and Blockchain as tools that will be in the future of real
estate marketing – all items that are not widely utilized in the NYC leasing process
today. In new construction, the owner
hires a leasing brokerage team and the team receives a leasing commission for
every unit’s first lease, regardless of how hard they work to lease the unit. Many of these tools can supplement the
brokers’ work or in the long run, disrupt the current compensation structure to
the broker, providing savings to the owner.
For example, if a leasing broker is giving a tour – they cannot answer phone
calls. A Chatbot can supplement feedback
to renters. Influencers for real estate
only exist through famous sales brokers’ Instagrams – but there is likely a use
case for rental that hasn’t been discovered as well as other mediums not
currently in use like TikTok. AR has
multiple use applications but the one that is just picking up in the market is
allowing someone to view an empty unit as a furnished model unit. This will be a very valuable tool to owners
if the price is right. Lastly, the
article discusses Blockchain, which it says can make tracking customer data more
accurate – further research on my end is needed to understand how.
Article: “How Digital Marketing Will Transform Real Estate
Industry In 2021” - https://digitalagencynetwork.com/how-digital-marketing-will-transform-real-estate-industry/
Digital marketing ^2
Humanizing Digital Experience
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/humanizing-the-digital-experience-in-a-post-pandemic-era/
With the effects of the pandemic still impacting in-person retail brand experiences, the emphasis to build robust digital brand experiences remains heightened and necessary. What this means for companies is to evolve from approaching digital strategy from mainly transaction-focused to creating a more "humanized" digital experience for consumers. Research shows that "95% of consumer decisions take place in the subconscious mind". Brands, therefore, must enact imaginative and innovative ways to capture the hearts and minds of consumers by creating a series of positive associations in the memory banks of existing and future consumers - whether they are tapping into consumers' deep-rooted values or revolutionizing the "trying on" experiences in a digital realm.
These insights are not new. And while many brands try to express themselves in engaging ways to connect with their customers, many have also missed the mark. The silver lining during the pandemic is that brands, especially retail companies, have been given a wide range to experiment with different tactics to tap into different human sensitivities and senses that they may have never considered. As we mature away from much of the "commerce" part of e-commerce, we are in for exciting adventures and experiences, as long as they are done responsibly and not drilling into the dark and unhealthy recesses of our psyche.
“Show don’t tell”
The increased trend in short-video
social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube don’t only prove how
videos have been the strategic way to reach customers on social media but also
show how shorter videos keep the audience more engaged. Consumers do not read the captions, hence….. “show
don’t tell”. However, comments, like,
#s and share are critical too.
Brands compete every day for
share of customers attention by publishing content. The best way to differentiate themselves from
the noise is to catch their attention and doing it quickly. The goal is to educate the consumers, making
them exciting about the product and to create a flawless shopping experience.
In addition to standards videos,
virtual reality (VR) is being used as engaging tool and a very entertaining way
to deliver brand messages. In the
eyewear industry the virtual "try on" is becoming more and more popular, in
fact.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/comment/2022/01/02/five-digital-marketing-trends-that-can-help-businesses-in-2022/
Why the Metaverse Will Reshape Digital Marketing For Decades to Come
Digital marketing continues to evolve, and the metaverse offers new ways for companies to engage with consumers. While the metaverse has yet to gain broad adoption among consumers, some companies are racing to be early movers in what could be a significant paradigm shift in customer engagement. Firms such as Nike, Gucci, and Disney have already indicated their commitment to the metaverse, and it's likely more big-name companies will follow.
Customers' interactive involvement in the metaverse is critical for this to pay off for advertisers. Given the nature of the metaverse and its innate customer engagement through the virtual world, it appears poised to be a successful new channel for businesses. As consumer preferences shift toward experiences and personalized content, the metaverse could offer benefits for businesses, creators, influencers, and consumers alike.
Will the metaverse adoption reach a tipping point to make this investment worthwhile for advertisers? And when might this happen? 2022 may be the year we see a big push into this exciting new channel.
https://www.adweek.com/media/the-metaverse-will-reshape-digital-marketing-for-decades-to-come/
#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt
TalkShopLive: Walmart and livestream shopping
The pandemic and the
rapid growth of social commerce has made livestream shopping a hot trend for
global ecommerce brands. Although livestream shopping has been around for quite
a while, particularly with Alibaba in China, the large U.S.-based retailers
have recently adopted this virtual approach to shopping. This article provides
insight into Walmart’s partnership with TalkShopLive, a social-shopping
platform that allows brands to feature live shoppable content across Walmart’s
owned-and-operated channels & partner sites.
The partnership
positions Walmart to compete directly with Amazon’s Live Creator App (launched
in 2019) and other retailers who are embracing this trend. I think this
in-video selling concept, and influencer-led livestreams, will help Walmart
attract a younger demographic of shoppers and create a community for home
shopping. I see the current streams on Walmart Shop Live are 30-, 60-, and
90-minute+ videos. We saw a stat earlier on humans having a shorter attention
span than a goldfish, so I wonder how many live and on-demand views convert to
a transaction…and I am also curious how long it will take Walmart to see a
profitable return on this new platform. However, based on Casey Schlaybaugh’ s quote in
the article, Walmart’s objective is to focus on their reach and customer
experience right now, and eventually this added element of entertainment can
lead to long-term ROI for the company.
Impact of Personalization and Zero-Party Data into 2022
https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/04/4-trends-that-will-define-e-commerce-in-2022/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAM0ghOSUxwFkvQnWQnAKgiu5qlmLSdb85R91XppfqU40XakymQ8y7vwDynVC2SsDNe3its8NfwqFyk0Pu0VGgTc-HJ19mrCBKIU5zgh_k3v0XbannjhwlSwGpgSXhuX-xhzCLGThNF3p5TpiFOlI1szEGEy8kzRphKb16owB6f6D
As the digital marketing space continues to gain transaction and scope, it is expected that headwinds and regulation will follow. One change in particular is highlighted in the article referenced above, which mentions the data privacy trends initiated by Apple, allowing users to opt out of data tracking on iOS 14.5. This change specifically had a large impact on Facebook marketing campaigns, as they leveraged the data tracked here extensively, and was, a large part, why their targeting was so successful. The impact of this change has already been felt at Facebook, and the businesses that aggressively utilized the median for advertising purposes are starting to forced to look at different marketing engines to ensure they continue to attract and obtain customers effectively. A similar change may occur when Google Chrome gets rid of third-party cookie support, which a number of advertise leverage for data purposes as well. Given digital marketing is strongly tied to the strength of the data at which it is working off of, incremental changes such as these will continue to have ripple effects on the landscape, and may change where dollars flow to and from. In addition, as the industry only continues to grow, it would be expected that similar changes will continue to follow, the digital marketing industry, and the businesses that rely heavily on the digital marketing space, to remain innovative and nimble to stay ahead of the curve.