| How Snapchat is Preparing for the Next Creator Movement Posted: 26 Jul 2021 10:57 PM PDT
December 2nd, 2020
Marketing
Erica Perry
2020 has seen many brands and platforms step outside of their comfort zones and experiment with ways they can deliver content at scale and create personal experiences. A player of late that has stood out in departure from the original focus on intimate communications is Snapchat. Here's a breakdown of what the company has released these past few weeks and what they could mean for marketers and creators. Making video creations and communication more expressive with 'Sounds' Earlier this fall Snapchat released 'Sounds,' a TikTok-rival feature that allows users to enhance their Snaps with music from a curated catalog of both emerging and established artists. Tracks can be added pre or post-capture and then shared either publicly, via your Story, or directly to specific connections. To add music before recording video, select the Sounds tool designated by the music notes icon on the right-hand side of the Camera screen and select a track from the Featured Sounds list. Alternatively, use the Sounds tool after taking a Snap to drop in a song after you record. The current Sounds catalog offers "millions" of licensed songs from Snap's music industry partners including Warner Music Group, NMPA. and Universal Music Publishing Group. Per Variety, beyond music, Snapchat is also working on introducing the ability for users to create their own sounds and add them to Snaps — an update expected to roll out globally on the platform in the coming months. Acquiring mobile music app Voisey Delving even further into the music industry space, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. recently acquired startup Voisey, a mobile music app founded in 2018 that allows users to record short videos using professional vocal effects and backing tracks provided by producers. Clips are one-minute in length following the ever popular short-form format dominating the social media sphere. Think of it as a musical equivalent of stickers and filters, where users can pick from a selection of user-created backing beats, hit record, and then customize the content by overlaying to the track with their own vocals. More specifically, they can add auto-tune, choral, spacey amongst other voice effects. "We are on the verge of a revolution in music creation with the boundaries between creator and audience blurring like never before. Apps like Voisey focus on giving consumers tools that enable them to go from zero to 100 faster than ever before," said Mark Mulligan founder of MIDiA Research in a statement to Business Insider. The move seemingly follows a trend in which apps are more eager than ever to deliver unique creative at scale. Instagram, for instance, allows users to create high quality photos, TikTok the ability to create share-worthy short-form videos, and now, the window of opportunity centers on the next generation of music creators and giving them the tools to collaborate and work efficiently and effectively. Unveiling 'Spotlight,' a short-form video feed Taking a page out of TikTok's playbook and Instagram's 'Reels,' Snapchat introduced a short-form video feed option, 'Spotlight,' showcasing the top Snaps submitted on the platform by more than 249 million users and offering financial incentive for the most entertaining content. Snaps in this designated feed will play on a continuous loop until the user swipes to the next one. Previously, Snapchat users were limited to seeing snaps posted by their friends or posted by publishers in the app's Discover feature. As part of the push, Snapchat is offering a million dollars per day in funding, which it will distribute to the best Spotlight clips. The app will utilize a similar algorithm to TikTok in ranking each clip based on engagement. In particular, factors like total views, view time, and number of Favorites and Shares will be weighed. Clips are displayed in full screen, so the intent is for the platform to utilize specific indicators to better tailor the feed over time. In terms of how brands can get involved, a spokesman said Snap expects it will introduce ads to the product in coming months. Instagram's Explore page, TikTok's 'For You,' YouTube's recommended videos, and now Spotlight — it's clear that a discovery engine is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have as creators become the crux of social media engagement. With an emphasis on exclusive content, these feeds are evolving as the key differentiator that will continue to etch platforms out above their competitors in the fight for online talent. Photo credit via The Verge Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.  |
| How Instagram is Expanding its Branded Content Offerings Posted: 26 Jul 2021 10:41 PM PDT
December 2nd, 2020
Marketing
Erica Perry
Instagram recently unveiled a new redesign of its main home screen on the app in an effort to combat the rise of TikTok. Specifically, the Reels icon is now front and center in the app and directs users to a dedicated page of curated content organized by people they follow and your previous engagement patterns and interests. Now, the platform is taking additional steps to ensure creators have access to more lucrative brand partnership and revenue options through additional branded content capabilities across Reels, Live, Stories and in posts including product tags. Here's a breakdown of the latest: Integrating the branded content tag in Reels and Live 
In an effort to make creation and amplification easier for influencers and brands alike, Instagram is introducing branded content tags to its TikTok-like product, Reels and unveiled plans to test these disclaimers within its Live video product as well in coming weeks. Ultimately, this will allow creators to generate revenue more quickly from their short-form and live video content. "Branded content is a powerful tool for creators and businesses, and these updates will help them get more out of the content they're creating together," Instagram COO Justin Osofsky shared in a statement. "This will continue to be an area of focus for us as we build out a suite of monetization tools that support creators' various needs and ambitions." As social platforms continue to offer creators new tools and platforms in which they can drive direct, measurable sales — the line between affiliate and creator is more blurred than ever. Needs and ambitions continue to shift as a result of the pandemic demanding platform-specific content versus retrofitting one set of assets across all channels. New workflow and age restrictions Previously, Branded Content ads were created by promoting already existing posts produced by creators. In a revised workflow, however, Instagram is placing emphasis on co-collaboration by allowing advertisers to post Branded Content ads without the need for creators to post organically on Instagram first. On the surface, this allows for greater efficiency and flexibility while still giving creators the control to approve or pause any ads published from their handle. The process follows a simple three-step approach: - The advertiser sends a request for ad creation access.
- The creator accepts ad creation access, with a notification sent to the advertiser upon acceptance
- The creator receives a notification of the created ad for their approval
Finally, businesses and creators can set a minimum age for branded content feed posts. Specifically, they can choose to set a default minimum age or a minimum age for specific countries, or a combination of both options, per the official announcement. Promoting branded content in Stories and with product tags 
Brands will now also be able to promote branded content posts with product tags. Prior to today, branded posts from creators that included product tags were not able to be promoted via Branded Content Ads making it harder for them to reach target audiences. "More and more, people are shopping directly from the creators they love on Instagram – this new ad format is another way brands can provide a seamless shopping experience on Instagram. This new format will begin testing in the coming months," the platform shared. What does this ultimately mean? Brands have a more streamlined ecosystem in which they can get more value out of the content that makes it easy for people to shop directly from creators that inspire them. Within Stories for instance, Branded Content ads can include tappable elements, such as @mentions, location and hashtags in an attempt to give brands wider access to organic Stories' creative that is "native and authentic to the Stories experience." Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.  |
| 7 Key Tips For Optimizing Your Email Marketing Ahead of Holiday Season Posted: 26 Jul 2021 10:22 PM PDT It's that time of year again. As the holiday season fast approaches, the nights are beginning to draw in, the temperature is beginning to drop, and marketers are hard at work figuring out a winning strategy to entice customers into their sales funnels. The winter period is an extremely busy period for online marketers as businesses ramp up their efforts to appeal to buyers in the run-up to Christmas. 
(Image: Clicky Blog) In fact, in the US, the busiest five days in the calendar year for email marketers all fall between Thanksgiving Day and mid-December. That's a hectic schedule, so it's vital that a plan is in place to make the most of your email marketing efforts. Although marketing has evolved at a rapid pace in the 21st Century, email marketing has proven itself time and time again that it's going nowhere when it comes to sales funnel optimization. 
(Image: Software Advice) In fact, despite the rise of increasingly advanced technology, only social media marketing is ranked higher in the minds of marketers when it comes to campaign effectiveness. This means that your email marketing should be fully optimized as we head into the holiday period. However, if you feel like you're not quite ready for entering battle with your competitors to make your voice heard and leverage sales in the tumultuous festive marketplace, don't worry. Here's a compilation of seven key tips to get your campaigns in good stead for the competitive landscape ahead: Adapt Your Subject Lines for Festive Frivolity If there's one thing you can be certain of during the festive period, it's that your marketing emails are going to have plenty of company in the inboxes of recipients. It's imperative that you exercise creativity with your email subject lines and use some seasonal triggers to enable you to stand out from your inbox. Whether your creative streak extends to festive puns, themed keywords or just a little bit of alliteration, these subtle boosts to your visibility can help you to stand out from the crowd and build more engagement. One of the most effective ways of standing out is by including some themed emojis in your subject line. This can be a great attention-grabbing technique that may come across as tacky for your business during any other time of year – but as it's a time of festive cheer, should strike a chord with your customers. Furthermore, emojis have been proven to be effective when it comes to email open rates, with Mailjet finding that 63% of email subscribers in the UK were more likely to open emails with an emoji in its subject line. 
Above, Enchant has created a compilation of eye-catching emoji-based seasonal email campaigns. As we can see, the cheery attitude is complimented by the emojis in a way that adds colour and frivolity to a recipient's inbox. Use Audience Segmentation Wisely Sending targeted and personalized festive emails can carry significantly higher engagement rates than generic mass emails. Segmenting contacts is by far the most effective way of adapting your messages to the specific interests of your customers and purchasing habits. There are plenty of ways in which segmentation can take place. One of the most effective options is through categorizing audience interests based on the types of products they've purchased or the sections of your website that they've browsed. It's also possible to segment your subscribers into year-round and more seasonal shopper groups. Shoppers who are more active during festive periods and less active throughout the year require different approaches to your loyal everyday shoppers – especially when it comes to mailing frequency and follow-ups. Segmenting your subscribers into those who more frequently seek to utilise coupons can help you to develop campaigns tailor suited to your more bargain-conscious shoppers. This segment can be particularly useful in avoiding offering discounted products to loyal customers who are likely willing to buy at full price. 
Above, Sendinblue highlights how Airbnb has segmented audiences based on their browsing habits to offer locations that they may be more interested in visiting. There are plenty of tools available that can provide you with the insights and ability to segment your subscribers effectively, with Google Analytics and Kissmetrics among the market leaders. Set Up Exclusive Holiday Offers To help shoppers to get into the holiday spirit, it's worth creating holiday offers that run alongside festive themes. For much of the year, your emails tend to look the same, so this is really an opportunity to create new layouts and build eye-catching deals. Switch your approach up and build some holiday-themed offers alongside some fitting templates. According to OptinMonster, one client, Cloudways, achieved a 120% boost in free trial signups by creating a holiday marketing campaign that's fitted with a suitable offer. Holiday-themed offers help to develop a natural sense of urgency among your subscribers. The natural time constraints on building a campaign to match a specific holiday or festive period gives customers a clear understanding of how long they have to act on their interest. Be Sure to Optimize for Mobile Did you know that TechCrunch recently announced that Cyber Monday sales had topped almost $8 billion? Significantly, $2.2 billion of this figure stemmed from sales on smartphone devices. With this in mind, it's essential to craft email marketing campaigns that consider the fact that users will be browsing on their smartphones. If your emails during the festive period aren't mobile-friendly, your business risks losing out on a significant portion of its market. To ensure that your email campaigns can be viewed by readers wherever they're choosing to access their inbox, it's important to integrate a responsive design that can adapt to all screen sizes. Responsive design relies on media queries to make your emails mobile-friendly. Media queries can trim your email's designs and hide text on mobile while scaling images to fit various different screen sizes among many other useful applications. Always Test Your Emails No matter what campaign you create, there's always time for A/B testing. It's vital as a marketer to figure out which products and services work best in driving more conversions for subscribers. There's never an inconvenient time to test your products ahead of the winter festive period. Even if you're in the middle of June, it can be useful to run some campaigns to see what's generating more interest early on. This can give you a credible idea of what your subscribers are looking for and where conversions are most likely to take place. Split testing and A/B tests can help you to identify possible errors and shortcomings before the busy season, giving you plenty of time to act in advance. Once again, Google Analytics can be a great way of measuring the performance of your test campaigns. The platform can offer comprehensive insights into exactly where your visitors are coming from and how willing they are to act on their interest by making a conversion. Platforms like Finteza can be useful for gaining visualizations into the quality of incoming traffic. 
The tool automatically identifies the quality of traffic, for example, "Clean Traffic", "Spam", "Cookie Manipulation", and more. Entice Customers With Seasonal Freebies Everyone loves a freebie, especially during the festive period. Christmas, in particular, is a great time to build brand loyalty with giveaways and free goods. While some freebies can be met with scepticism among customers at various other times across the year, holidays that champion giving like Christmas can really work wonders in creating more receptive audiences for offers. Additionally, with how many competitors you'll be battling with to win the interest of your customers, a free prize draw, competition or giveaway can work wonders in driving more traffic to your website. With an alluring array of deals and call to actions in sight, there could be significant profits on offer for brands brave enough to give valuable products or services away for free. Create an Intuitive Emailing Schedule To get the most out of the lucrative holiday season, it's important to begin planning your email marketing campaigns in advance, leaving nothing to chance. Since the emergence of Covid-19, the digital marketing landscape has gone into overdrive as businesses attempt to adapt to a brand new world of remote work and self-isolation. Some retailers may attempt to get in early on the chaos of festive email campaigns, but the best approach is to develop an emailing schedule that you trust. It's important to resist the temptation of bombarding customers with emails as this could bring on fatigue with your campaign while sending too early can run the risk of subscribers ignoring your content. Utilize your analytics accordingly and schedule emails to be sent at what you believe to be the most opportune time for your specific audience. With the right blend of engaging content, the appeal of offers, and a tried-and-tested formula, you'll likely win the attention and trust of your subscribers. Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.  |
| TikTok’s Top 100: 2020 in Review Posted: 26 Jul 2021 10:03 PM PDT
December 9th, 2020
Marketing
Erica Perry
Since September 2020, TikTok has amassed more than 800 million active users worldwide and the app has been downloaded over 2 billion times on the App Store and Google Play. To commemorate a year of success, the app released its annual edition of TikTok 100 — a year-in-review roundup highlighting the top videos, genres, creators, and memes that took the Internet by storm. "From a global pandemic that introduced us to social distancing to protests for racial equality, community hardships, and personal and economic uncertainties the world over, 2020 was full of all the feelings. Throughout those moments, millions of Americans turned to TikTok to share their stories and lift others up," the platform shared. As you look to identify ways your brand can get a piece of the action and create your own TikTok experience, here are a few highlights from 2020. Top Viral Videos Bella Poarch's video lip-syncing "M to the B" was TikTok's biggest viral video of the year, The clip quickly went viral after she published it in August and is currently the most-liked video on TikTok with nearly 520 million views and over 43 million likes. Second to Poarch, Ohio native Nathan Apodaca aka doggface208. After his aforementioned "Dreams" video went viral on September 25 — it now has over 69 million views and 12 million likes (and counting) — the short clip also served to benefit Fleetwood Mac. Streams for "Dreams" more than doubled while sales nearly tripled since his video became a sensation. "It struck a chord," stated Chris Ferzli, Ocean Spray's director of global corporate affairs. Almost making the top list: Will Smith for his take on the "Wipe it Down" challenge and Julian Bass' superhero special effects video that earned the attention of Disney executive chairman Bob Iger. Top trends, hashtags, and challenges By now it's no secret TikTok is the birthplace of trends — whether referring to a dance, a new comedy format, or a memorable quote — and 2020 saw no shortage of these viral moments. Amongst those earning top spots include the #blindinglights dance challenge. Set to The Weeknd's chart-topping hit "Blinding Lights," the moment brought families, friends together, bound by a love for the song and finding ways to have a little fun at home during the pandemic by dancing. The hashtag #blindinglights has approximately 3.5 billion views. Speaking of social distancing, another trend that kept users entertained during COVID, Curtis Roach's "bored in the house"– a quarantine anthem that inspired over 4.5 million videos to date, and the hashtag #boredinthehouse has approximately 4.8 billion views. The 'YouHaveTo' hashtag has earned over 7.3 billion views today. Set to a cover of Odezsa's "A Moment Apart" by @hannah_harpist, TikTokers parodied a monologue about how "you have to start romanticizing your life." Those who have put their own twist on the trend include familiar names such as Dr. Phil and Catfish's Nev Schulman. Finally, who could forget the Time Warp Scan feature, which freezes an image in place as a blue line crosses the screen allowing for limitless creative transformation? The #timewarpscan hashtag has been viewed over 14.3 billion times to date. Top creators and celebrities Creators are at the heart of TikTok and this year many stepped up in the delivery of videos authentic to who they are and the brands that align with their goals and values. We saw an enormous cultural shift as voices were used to spread awareness around the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, underrepresented communities, and more. The platform continues to be a launchpad for those seeking to forge community and inspire. So who were the biggest breakout stars? TikTok's list of top creators overall is led by none other than Charli D'Amelio, and also includes familiar names including Addison Rae, Bella Poarch, and Noah Beck. A separate creator list dubbed 'Most Impactful,' recognizes creators for their efforts in the fight for positive change in the U.S. and around the world. The top three named in this group were Doctor Leslie (@drleslie), Taylor Cassidy (@taylorcassidy), and Sienna Mae (@siennamae). In the celebrity space, Jason Derulo came out on top, followed by Kylie Jenner and Lizzo. Others who made the top 10 include Tyga, Charlie Puth, Shay Mitchell, Jack Black, Lil Yachty, China McClain, and Dr. Phil. Top songs TikTok's top 10 songs feature hits from established hitmakers, rising stars, and previously-unknown artists. The unabated creativity of the platform transformed the sounds into immersive experiences in a COVID-19 world when in-person experiences including concerts were longer possible. The number one ranking went to Jason Derulo's "Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)," with Megan Thee Stallion's "Savage Remix" coming in second and "WAP" by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stalin taking fourth. Also making the list– "Say So" by Doja Cat. Check out the full list here including winners in categories such as top food recipes, trends, and hacks, top style and beauty trends, and top product elements. Stay tuned on the 31st for a special New Year's Eve countdown live on TikTok! UPDATE: TikTok has also added a new 'Year in Review' feature, which enables users to take a look back at the top videos, tracks and effects they engaged with in the app throughout 2020. Check it out by tapping the icon on your For You feed or on the special Discover page banner. (You'll need to be on the latest version of the app). Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.  |
| How WhatsApp is Streamlining In-App Shopping Posted: 26 Jul 2021 09:44 PM PDT
December 9th, 2020
Marketing
Erica Perry
In May, Facebook Shops made its debut streamlining the process for businesses to set up a single online store for customers to access on both Facebook and Instagram. In order to best facilitate the new on-platform shopping experience, the platform has also expressed its interest leading the path for customers to message businesses from their shop listings, via its family of apps including WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram Direct. While consumers can't yet view a business' shop and make purchases directly from within a messenger stream, as of today they can select the items they wish to purchase and share their list from within a WhatsApp messenger stream. How to use WhatsApp Carts 
When you are visiting a business' catalog on WhatsApp (tap on the shopping button icon listed next to their name), you can use the 'Message Business' to start a conversation or use the 'Add to Cart' button if you're ready to place an order with the business about a product that you're viewing. As users find the items they want when interacting with a business in the app, they'll now be able to tap "add to cart" as they go. Once you've finished shopping, you can then send your Cart as a message to the business to submit your full order. You can access the details of your order by tapping on the 'View Cart' button in your chat window with the seller. What this ultimately enables is an easier process for brands to keep track of requests and help create a more seamless way to deliver personalized responses. Shopping might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Whatsapp, but it's become an increasingly popular space for small businesses eager to sell their products. Per The Verge, more than 175 million people used the service to message a WhatsApp Business account each day as of late October. Further, the WhatsApp Business app reached over 50 million users worldwide as of July this year. Supercharging the shopping experience This isn't WhatsApp's first foray into e-commerce. To date, it's launched QR codes, dedicated shopping buttons, and the ability to share catalog links in direct chat messages. It also opened up free storage to merchants to host their business's messages. "Catalogs have allowed people to quickly see what's available and helped businesses organize their chats around particular items. With more and more shopping happening through chats, we want to make buying and selling even easier," the platform explained. WhatsApp's growth and the future of shoppable social media Many of the old ways in which people and businesses communicate are not working. Per Shopify data, a whopping 92 percent of U.S. consumers have shopped online since the start of the pandemic, compared to 65 percent who have shopped in-store. In addition, over half of consumers have shifted more of their spending online since March, particularly young consumers between 18 and 34. These younger consumers are also more likely than other age groups to find products and shop them via social media, utilize new commerce tools, and prioritize shipping. Stats aside — what's key here is: With an acceleration towards apps for personal commerce and e-commerce, the time is now to consider Alternative shipping options, conversational commerce, and shoppable social media. Consumers are starting to consciously cut back on mindless scrolling or mindless following. If a brand wants to cut through the noise and truly resonate, they must stay true to their personality, while delivering value through their content. Understanding specific wants and needs and diving deeper into the consumer's motivation versus relying on predictions based on prior purchase patterns will be instrumental in e-commerce strategies in 2021 and beyond. Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.  |
| Reimagining Social Media Marketing for a Better Tomorrow” Posted: 26 Jul 2021 09:25 PM PDT
December 9th, 2020
Conference
Toby Daniels
If we have learned anything from the tumultuousness and catastrophic events of 2020, it is that we need to make substantial and even systemic changes in society and especially in our industry. The spotlight of scrutiny has never been brighter and what is in plain sight for all of us to see is a business landscape that has failed to adequately respond to the moment. Social Media Week's flagship conferences will take place: May 4-7, June 29-July 1, and November 2-4 The Great Re-Invention Author, marketing guru, and former Chief Growth Officer at Publicis, Rishad Tobaccowala, says that we are in the midst of a Great Re-Invention of society, business, and ourselves. What he means is that at the macro-level, when we face societal change and economic uncertainty, systems undergo a kind of stress test. All systems go through it, government, healthcare, education, infrastructure, business, and of course marketing. In 2020, many of these systems failed, or at the very least, buckled under the weight of a global pandemic, civic uprising, misinformation, and economic uncertainty. How Our Systems Are Failing Us The system of marketing buckled and continues to be weighed down by a failure to be strategic, versus. tactical, an obsession with short term gains, the glorification of shiny social media, an ocean of unwanted and frankly irrelevant data, the latest technology or tools, and probably most importantly, a failure by marketers to put themselves in the shoes of their customers and lead with empathy. There's a reason why so many brand messages during the early days of the Pandemic were trite, cliched, and in many cases completely tone-deaf, or that marketers felt paralyzed as the ground swell of racial inequality led to an uprising, protests and civil unrest. As marketers, we were ill-equipped to quickly respond and adapt to the movement. The reason why is there are only a few stand-out examples during this period, including the likes of Postmates, P&G, Clorox, Aviation Gin and AirBnb comes down to whether their brand values, leadership and messages were grounded in something bigger than their own organizations. These examples, both the failures and the successes, should force us to look at every aspect of our industry and ask important questions, such as, what does our brand actually stand for? Does our leadership embody empathic-led and human-first principles of marketing? Is our message right, and are we engaging appropriately through the mediums in which we communicate? Most importantly, how must we reinvent ourselves and how should we as marketers respond to the challenges of our time? Reinvention v.s. Invention During periods of massive disruption and societal and business change, we also experience something truly remarkable; invention and ingenuity. The creation of something new. The Phoenix rising from the ashes. There are businesses and brands that exist today that have become category leaders including AirBnb, Uber, and Pinterest that were invented after the Great Recession of 2008. There will be businesses and brands that will be invented in 2020 and over the coming years that will be similarly disruptive. This is certain. Invention is good. Invention is sexy and cool. But what needs reinvention? What does this moment mean in terms of fixing what's broken and designing new systems for how we do marketing? In his October 2020 piece, "The ABCDE of Marketing Re-Invented," Rishad addresses this question through a framework for how marketing has changed and is changing into the future. A = Audience
B = Brand
C = Content
D = Data
E = Enterprise In adapting the ABCDE Framework for reinvention we have put together a list of questions, which we believe represent the priority areas that we need to focus on: - Audiences: Who we are marketing to, how we find them, and how has their mindset shifted? How can we think about people and not consumers?
- Brand: Brands continue to be important but the way they are built is changing greatly and our relationship with them is complicated. How should experience and purpose play into brand strategy?
- Content: Has always been a key to marketing but here is much more of it, there are new ways to make it, faster and cheaper, so how do we cut through the noise?
- Data: Data is key to the future of marketing, but very few companies will find a competitive edge in how they use it. How do we focus on quality versus quantity?
- Enterprise: A progressive company is where information and decision making is transparent and leaders are accountable. How do we give power back to the people and inspire leaders to step out of their way?
Where Does Re-Invention Start? We believe that reinvention starts with acknowledging what is not working, asking the hardest and most important questions, and being willing to embrace the idea that change, however hard, or potentially costly in the short term, is what will allow us to survive and thrive in the future. Much of the change we've experienced in recent years has been technologically driven, and we imagine this change will continue and even accelerate, but as marketers, the change we should want to affect, the kind of future we should be working hard to realize, is one that is human-first, technology second. With some much still uncertain about the future, we should come together and commit that 2021 will be the year where our industry undergoes the greatest reinvention of our lifetime and that the outcome we are striving for is more equitable, fair, and positive and less extractive, exploitative and divisive.  |
| 5 Insights to Boost Your Brand’s Social Presence in 2021 and Beyond Posted: 26 Jul 2021 09:09 PM PDT
December 10th, 2020
Marketing
SMW Staff
It's been a whirlwind of a year and anticipating what lies ahead is no easier to navigate. Our friends at Hootsuite launched their 5th annual Social Trends report illuminating the top trends set to shape brands in 2021 and how to adapt and thrive. You can download the full report here, but here's a peek at some of the high-level insights backed by the brightest minds in marketing and data. A shift to short-term ROI This year saw a rush to deliver a short-term return on investment (ROI) to recoup lost sales from the upheaval of the pandemic. In fact, 73 percent of all marketers ranked "increased acquisition of new customers" as their top outcome for social in 2021, compared to only 46% last year, marking a 58 percent year-over-year increase. This has led to a very transaction-focused year. But transactions alone don't create memorable brands or long-term growth. That's why you need to innovate to win long-term loyalty and engagement. How? By bringing back the fun to the buying process, making shopping more social and using social as a way to connect with customers, foster loyalty, and prevent disjointed experiences.
Finding your place in social conversations
The uptick in social media use in 2020 translated into numerous opportunities for brands. Unfortunately, many faltered by jumping in too soon instead of taking crucial time to listen to their audiences. The reality is, many people want to engage with each other, not brands. Those that let their audiences guide them were able to find spaces where they could fit into the conversation in a meaningful and authentic way.
Brands who will find success in 2021 are not necessarily the ones leading the conversation, but rather finding creative avenues to fit into it and break through the walls of indifference. To join the conversation instead of just interrupting, lean into user-generated content (UGC) in lieu of costly content production, bolster social listening to find where you fit, and pick your time and place for engagement and participation.
The tipping point for baby boomers Baby boomers are spending even more time on social platforms now as a result of the pandemic, yet marketers still overlook and under-represent this lucrative group in favor of targeting younger demographics. Why? For one, we have a tendency to fall prey to the irresistible chase of newness—rather than pursuing effectiveness. To capitalize on boomers' growing tech enthusiasm, look to smart segmentation and thoughtful representation. That's how savvy brands like yours will leapfrog over companies still stereotyping.
Tying engagement data to identity Social media isn't simply about racking up likes, those are just a means to an end. You want to make sure your social efforts drive real results for your business. To do it, move beyond reactions and dig deeper to see how social data can help you understand your customers better. Linking social media engagement to identity is more critical than ever for marketers. After so many traditional approaches fell by the wayside, it's become the strongest bridge between brands and customers. To achieve this, look to establish a solid UTM framework for both paid and organic ads and integrate your data into your CRMs. This will ensure greater visibility into customer touchpoints and untapped opportunities. Success will boil down to taking steps — big or small — to gather key insights from quantifiable data. Be sure to map these back to your broader marketing objectives to avoid getting lost in a pit of attribution or stuck measuring social in a silo. Becoming a purpose-driven brand While 2020 wasn't the beginning of the shift towards purpose-driven marketing, it kicked things into high gear. Now 53 percent of people say they want brands to proactively make the world a better place. Becoming a purpose-driven brand isn't something you can fake or simply mimic on social media. You can't tick a box and be done. Brands must be cognizant of what is going on in the world and take into consideration the conversations already unfolding. If you're going to take a stance, make sure your actions back it up. In 2021, the strongest brands will balance the twin demands of building a better business and better world. This strategy must start in your boardroom and should use social listening to learn and gain intelligence. Get your free copy of Hootsuite's Social Trends 2021 report! Download  |
| Your Path to Becoming a Powerful and Transformative Leader Posted: 26 Jul 2021 08:51 PM PDT
December 11th, 2020
Marketing
Toby Daniels
Empathy, a word that has been used extensively during 2020. It is abundant yet also scarce. It is a foundational part of being human, however, when we look at what has happened this year and when we think about our politicians, the News Media, Social Media and the role of Corporations, you can argue that empathy is very much in short supply. This is why we teamed up with Facebook, the 404, and Michael Ventura, the author of Applied Empathy, a book that helps us understand that empathy can provide a direct path to powerful and transformational leadership, to bring you The Business of Empathy, a 12-part content series that is exclusively available, for free, on SMW+. Last year we announced the formation of the 404, a community of multi-disciplined, digital thought-leaders brought together to take necessary steps toward solving problems that exist as a product of how we use social media. Functioning as a coalition, The 404 is made up of over 40 member companies, including Facebook, who has provided support by offering up its Global Partner Centers to host 404 events and meetings, and most recently, a new content series on our live and on-demand streaming service, SMW+. "Facebook is proud to support the Business of Empathy program and bring the industry together to make a change for good. The global pandemic has touched all aspects of our lives, and for business leaders, it's more important than ever to dial up empathy for our customers, employees, and communities," shared Sylvia Zhou, Global Industry Relations and Intelligence Lead at Facebook. Each episode of The Business of Empathy takes on a different topic and features interviews with some of the world's most successful business and marketing leaders, including former Head of Digital for Visa and CMO of Eargo, Shiv Singh, author of Restoring the Soul of Business and former Chief Growth Officer for Publicis, Rishad Tobaccowala, and Lola Banjo, a Strategic Innovation Partner at Salesforce. "Our world is a diverse and nuanced place and those who can perspective take and evolve their understanding and behaviors will be well poised to usher in a more inclusive, collaborative world. This is why The Business of Empathy is so important. The time for empathy is now," said Michael Ventura, author of Applied Empathy. The 12 episodes of The Business of Empathy include: - EP1: Why Empathy, Why Now? with Michael Ventura
- EP2: Empathy and Strategic Innovation with Lola Banjo
- EP3: Empathy, Expertise and the Truth with Shiv Singh
- EP4: Empathy in a Remote and Distant World with Teodora Pavkovic
- EP5: Empathic Archetypes with Michael Ventura
- EP6: Empathy and Design Thinking with Paulette Bluhm-Sauriol
- EP7: Empathy, Innovation, and Pharma with Cal Austin
- EP8: Empathy and Visual Communication with Kirstin Benson
- EP9: Exploring the Whole Self with Michael Ventura
- EP10: Empathic Leadership with Karuna Rawal
- EP11: Empathy and Team Culture with Kiesha Garrison
- EP12: Restoring the Soul of Business with Rishad Tobaccowala
You can watch all 12 episodes for free on SMW+, our streaming platform for marketers who are looking to level up in their careers, thanks to Facebook's support. We are confident that by watching this series you will become more enlightened and educated in the ways that empathy can be transformative to your career and help you become a more powerful leader.  |
| An Undervalued Asset in Marketing Posted: 26 Jul 2021 08:35 PM PDT
December 15th, 2020
Marketing
SMW Staff
Hosted by Jesse Kirshbaum and in partnership with Triller, Beats, Bytes, and Brands is a show exploring the future of music marketing and how innovations in social media and shifts in consumer behavior are reshaping how music is made, consumed, and shared and how brands will need a music strategy to ensure they keep pace with culture. As Triller continues to grow in popularity, there is an opportunity for brands to reach a highly sought after demographic and engage with a bustling social video community where you can show the world who you are by capturing flawless videos and sharing them in seconds. "Music is an undervalued asset when it comes to marketing products and embedding them in culture," said Kirshbaum. "With Beats, Bytes, and Brands we are giving you a weekly master class, featuring various experts in this specific field, discussing current trends, best practices, key learnings, and how best your brand can utilize music as a marketing vehicle." The series brings together leaders in music, technology, and marketing, including Bough, Fabrice Sergent, the founder of Bandsintown, Tuma Basa, the Head of Black Music at YouTube, and Raphi Lima, head of Global Music Partnerships and Marketing at Electronic Arts. Each episode of season one dives into relevant topics such as playlist culture, music in gaming, the do's and don'ts of artists partnerships, and more. Viewers are invited to put their finger on the pulse of what's hot and relevant to both brand marketers and culture at large The eight episodes include: - EP1: Music Marketing with Jesus Malverde Gonzalez
- EP2: Crafting a Music Strategy with Anthony Demby
- EP3: State of the Livestream Business with Fabrice Sergent
- EP4: Power of Music with Aubrey Marcus
- EP5: Creativity and The Power of Playlists with Tuma Basa
- EP6: Artist Partnerships with Louis Colon III
- EP7: Music X Gaming with Raphaella Lima
- EP8: Supporting Emerging Indie Artists with Andrew Keller
You can watch all eight episodes for free on SMW+, our streaming platform for marketers who are looking to level up in their careers, thanks to the support of Trille and Beats and Bytes.  |
| 4 Data-Driven Digital Marketing Tactics to Embrace in 2021 Posted: 26 Jul 2021 08:17 PM PDT The new year is fast-approaching, so it's high time that we evaluate our marketing strategy and come up with tactics to shake things up. Digital marketing is one of the fastest-changing industries out there – is your marketing strategy agile enough to adapt? There have been multiple marketing innovations introduced in 2020 (driven by both technology and the pandemic that has changed all the aspects of our lives), yet one trend is the most prominent one: Data Never before have brands had access to so much marketing data that includes: - Internal / private data (customers' emails, buying preferences, etc.)
- Public data (like competitors' identifiable marketing tactics, overall shopping trends, etc.)
You don't need to be a data scientist or invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in data collection agencies to create a data-driven marketing strategy these days. Thanks to the Internet, big and small brands can access more data that they can process. And it is a beautiful thing because it gives a competitive advantage to smaller brands that are eager to innovate. Here are a few data-driven tactics anyone can implement, even without technical skills: Improve Your Data Quality Data: Brands lose up to 20% of revenue due to poor data quality practices (Source: zdnet/ Data Quality) Sisense defines data quality as follows: Data quality measures the condition of your data, using factors such as accuracy, consistency (in all fields across data sources), integrity (whether the fields are complete), and usability. How to identify poor data quality? There can be a variety of factors including: - Is your data consistent? In other words, if it's coming from different sources (which is usually the case), does it correlate?
- Is your data relevant? In other words, are you using the data that helps your company's bottom line? If you are using Facebook likes as the measure of your success, what exactly does this data do to help your revenue grow?
- Do you collect the data you need? Does your company have the necessary data that would foster growth?
Improving your data quality is not just necessary, it's also quite doable. There are multiple solutions that collect, organize and blend data to turn it into actionable insights delivered to each of your teams. The two easiest and the most affordable solutions include: - Cyfe (create dashboards to consolidate data and deliver most relevant data to each of your teams)
- SE Ranking (pull lots of data from various sources to monitor your site health, positions, traffic, etc.)
- Whatagraph (turn data into visualized email reports that are delivered to different teams within your organizations
Embrace Inclusive Marketing Data: Over 25% (i.e. one in 4) of US adults have a disability (Source: CDC / Disability & Health Infographics). Are you including these people in your target audience? Do you create marketing personas that would include a disability? Inclusive marketing refers to adapting technologies and messaging to enable underrepresented groups to fully connect with and experience brands online. In web context, inclusive marketing often means making your website accessible to people with all kinds of disabilities and difficulties. These disabilities may prevent web users from being able to see page elements or navigate a site using a mouse or touchpad. Including these people into your marketing strategy is not only a smart move (otherwise, every fourth user of your site may have hard time navigating it or making a purchase). It's also a way to show that you care. This means making your marketing philanthropic. The good news, it is also pretty easy to implement. You don't have to re-design your site to make it accessible to users with disabilities. You can easily optimize your site for just about any sort of disability by using a solution called accessiBe. 
There's also a DIY way to make your site accessible but it is likely to take you some time. Use Cross-Channel Marketing Data: The number of channels consumers are using to make a buying decision is growing. Just over a decade ago the average consumer used two touch-points when buying an item. Four years ago consumers were already using an average of six touch-points with almost 50% regularly using more than four. (Marketing Week / Why marketers are failing to target consumers at key life events) Many of those touch-points tend to happen on different devices and through different channels. Millennial shoppers shop from mobile devices, For example, a contemporary consumer will search Google before buying an item after seeing a social media ad. And these two touch-points are very likely to happen on different devices. What does it mean for businesses? They need to be everywhere. You should also be diversifying your content strategy with a wide array of types, in order to reach the highest potential audience, on more channels. This will also help your project build authority, which is critical in retention, churn reduction and overall brand loyalty. Yes, have a blog. It is a great SEO tool and you should already know how to be targeting keywords by now. But in addition to this, make videos, create infographics, launch a podcast, guest on other podcasts and YouTube channels, embrace newer networks like TikTok and Instagram, and contribute to other blogs. You should be producing diverse content constantly to be able to market to different channels. Luckily, content re-packaging tools make this process easy and affordable for brands: - Venngage: Turn any text into an infographic
- Haiku Deck: Turn any text into a slideshow
- InVideo: Turn any text into an engaging video
[Invideo allows you to create videos for Instagram and Facebook ads, customize Youtube videos to brand them better, and more!] Personalize Your Marketing Data: 80% of people agree that they are much more likely to buy a product or service from a brand that provides personalized experiences (source: Epsilon Marketing / The impact of personalization) Marketing personalization is one of the most powerful tactics out there, yet many brands don't really understand it. Marketing personalization is going far beyond using "the first name in the marketing email" or even "segmenting your email list by previous engagement". Marketing personalization is about creating on-site personalized experiences. You are scrolling through a website and you see a handful of product suggestions on the bottom. It shows a strip of items that you can tell are based around people of your gender and your age, much of it not flattering. Mainly because it is a selection of products that you have never before purchased or needed to purchase, but that someone might assume a person of your target demographic would enjoy. Or you are going through your email and catch sight of a message that is titled, "[Your Name], I need to speak to you right away!" Upon opening it, it is a generic, uninteresting automail from someone's newsletter you forgot you had even signed up for. You roll your eyes and hit 'delete' without going any further. The above examples show how you lazily customize to fit a potential customer. Is it any wonder the fish aren't biting when the bait is so unappetizing? Now imagine this: You are on that same website and below is a collection of items you have been searching for price comparisons on all week. Others are items related to what you have purchased on the site in the past, or reviewed highly elsewhere. They are even within a decent price range of your usual budget. Later, you are going through your email and there is a newsletter you forgot you signed up for. But rather than cheap clickbait, it has a subject line about something that interests you. You take the time to click and read the whole thing and even end up back on the website through a provided coupon for an item you had put in your cart a few days before but hadn't pulled the trigger on because of the price. Now you are getting it for 15% off and you couldn't be more thrilled! Notice how each of the counterexamples totally changes the consumer experience and makes them more willing to engage with your brand. All because you showed them that you were actually paying attention to them as individuals, not a category or demographic. They are people, not walking dollar signs and stat sheets. That is the true meaning of personalized ecommerce and when done correctly, it is a great way to generate leads that turn to profit and also build a relationship with your customer base. Marketing personalization is becoming more and more available for smaller brands that lack huge budgets or technical teams. Finteza is a web analytics platform that comes with a powerful re-marketing solution allowing you to customize users' experiences based on: - Source of traffic
- On-site actions
- Demographics (gender, age)
- Location
What's more important, it is extremely easy to set up and very affordable. What's the real moral or takeaway here? Marketing innovation is a never-ending process. You can never consider this task done, but it is also what makes digital marketing such an exciting industry. Good luck innovating and reinventing! Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.  |
