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A Year In Review: Advertising Trends of 2018

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The year is almost coming to an end, which makes it the perfect time to take a look at some of the most popular advertising trends that caught on in 2018. The following are not only some of the most popular advertising trends of the year, but also some of the most effective ones that you may want to continue implementing into the new year.

1. Focusing On The Brandbrand development process

Businesses are switching their marketing efforts to focus more on their brand than on their products and for good reason–focus on the brand will never become outdated, whereas product messaging will become outdated the moment you release a new product. Not to mention that by focusing on the brand, it will be easier to sell products and services, whereas focusing on a single product or service will not have that domino effect. By focusing on your brand, you can establish yourself as being more relatable to your customers. This is a challenge if you’re just focusing on marketing products.

2. Being Authentic

Trying to appeal to your audience by being something you’re not simply doesn’t work anymore. Audiences are smart and they can tell whether or not you’re being authentic. They can sniff out a company that’s trying way too hard to be cool and to win over an audience. Being inauthentic is going to turn off your audience, not to mention potentially make your brand look dishonest.

Content Marketing Trends to Track in 2018

3. Embracing Social Change

It wasn’t long ago that businesses shied away from any kind of social issue (or anything that could be viewed as political) in fear that they might alienate part of their customer base. However, it turns out that by taking a stand for what you believe in, you’re more likely to strengthen your relationship with your audience. And even if you lose some customers as a result, odds are you’ll gain just as many for the same reason. A great example of a company embracing social change is Nike and their Colin Kaepernick ad.

4. Omni-Channel Marketing

There are a lot of marketing channels that you can use to reach your audience. However, picking and choosing one channel and focusing on it shouldn’t be the extent of your strategy. Businesses are leveraging multiple channels of marketing and using them to compliment one another in what’s called omni-channel marketing.

Examples of this include promoting content on your website via your social media channels. These channels don’t need to be within the same type of marketing format either. Many businesses are crossing their inbound and outbound channels. For example, it’s not uncommon for a business to promote their social media presence on the commercials they’re running on TV. This kind of cross-channel promotion helps improve the effectiveness of your reach.

These were some of the biggest advertising trends of 2018. While they are called “trends” they are legitimate marketing strategies that should remain effective well into 2019, making them worth considering as a part of your future marketing campaigns.

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

Stevens and Tate Named Top Ad Agency in 2018 By Clutch.co!

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Whether you’re looking for a commercial or a full on marketing campaign, our team at Stevens and Tate has been offering the best solutions to our partners since our start in 1992. As a B2B service company, we recognize that our success stems from the success of our partners, and that is why we aim to deliver exactly what our clients need in order to boost their business. It is because of our client-focused mentality that our firm has caught the attention of ratings and review firm Clutch, who has ranked us as a leading marketing agency!

What is Clutch?

Clutch is an unbiased, third party company that provides rankings for B2B service providers in order to help companies who are looking for compatible partners. The rankings they give businesses like ours are derived primarily from work they have done with their past partners. Clutch contacts their past clients directly to hear their feedback and the experience that they had. On our review page, Clutch provided our ratings and the testimonials from our partner companies!

Here are only a few of the things that they have had to say about working with us:

  • “They’re a team of professionals that know how to communicate effectively.” – Owner, Grocery Store

  • “I cannot find another agency that matches their quality and their rates in equal measure – Division President, Real Estate Firm

  • “They understand our company and they understand our brand.” – VP of Marketing, Food Production Company

In addition to being highlighted on the Clutch website, our work has also been featured on their sister-website, The Manifest, where we are ranked in the top 30 advertising and marketing companies! This database provides industry reports and trends in rising companies in their respective fields, and serves as a tool that breaks down the top companies within their industries.

marketing-make-or-breakOver the years, we have had the opportunity to work with clients of all shapes and sizes! Whether their market is retail, healthcare, or the food industry, we help companies brand themselves and engage their customers effectively. Our diverse portfolio allows us to think outside of the box for our clients. It also has given us the ability to reach any market.

When working with our partners, we offer unique solutions that are tailored to their business specifically. We offer a multitude of services from branding, SEO, PPC, web design, and basic advertising. Our speciality is forming a strategy that helps your business grow and captures the attention of your customers!

Free Marketing Consultation

Creating Successful Holiday Marketing Campaigns

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Businesses tend to put extra effort into their advertising campaigns during the holiday season. While this is in part because people are buying gifts for one another, which means that there’s a general spike in sales, it’s also because Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become national institutions in themselves, a time when people search out great deals for things that they want. Because almost every business big and small offers deals at this time of the year in order to attract customers, stepping up your advertising efforts is the only way you’re going to stand out from the crowd.

4 Examples Of Successful Holiday Marketing Campaigns

The following are a four examples of some of the holiday marketing campaigns that have stood out over the past few years:

1) Coke

Coke put a twist on their famous “Share a Coke” ad campaign by running a holiday campaign that showed people sharing a coke instead of fighting over products at a mall. This ad works well because not only are people already familiar with the basis of the campaign, but they can also relate to fighting the crowds to get what they want before it sells out.

2) HotelTonight

The online hotel booking site’s clever campaign was headlined by the slogan “Visit, Don’t Stay.” This refers to how family members often visit one another and generally get into arguments or on each other’s nerves due to the holiday stress. Instead of staying with their family, they can stay at a hotel and simply “visit” their family.

3) John Lewis & Partners

John Lewis & Partners released their “Boy and his piano” commercial featuring Elton John this year that quickly went viral. It showed Elton John playing a song as the camera speeds through time, showing John as a younger and younger musician performing in front of huge crowds, finally settling on a version of him as a young boy getting a piano for Christmas. This ad is effective because of its use of a celebrity, its message of how a gift can change someone’s life (making it relevant to the holiday season), and in creating a feeling of nostalgia. The ad was particularly effective in that it did not specifically promote a product or sale, relying on its message to be its call-to-action.

5 Holiday Email Templates for Salespeople

4) McDonald’s

McDonald’s has used a variation of a campaign in which Santa stops by for a bite to eat at McDonald’s during his Christmas run for years now. But this year, McDonald’s stepped it up by making their ad campaign more interactive. For example, Spapchat users can play a game that makes them look like a reindeer and that requires them to catch as many falling carrots as they can.

5 General Tips For Your Holiday Marketing Campaign

Use these five tips to craft a marketing campaign that will help you stand out during the busy holiday season:

1) Make your ads holiday-themed

This one’s obvious, but find a way to tie your product or service into the holidays. The previously mentioned ads are great examples of how this can be done.

2) Use nostalgia

People often feel sentimental during the holidays, which means that using nostalgia is an effective way to make an emotional connection.

3) Use a sense of humor

The holidays can be quite stressful, which is why an ad that can make consumers laugh will stand out. See the HotelTonight ad as a fantastic example.

4) Make your offer stand out

Whether it’s a huge discount, a free trial, free shipping, or something else, your offer should stand out to make your ad stand out.

5) Find a way to engage

Get consumers engaged. This can be done by finding ways that consumers can interact with your campaign, whether it’s by holding contests or by providing short games that they can play, in the same way that McDonald’s did this year.

The holidays are a time of year where consumers are looking to spend the most money, which means businesses tend to step up their game when it comes to marketing their products and services. Use past holiday marketing campaigns as inspiration and keep in mind general holiday marketing tips to create a successful holiday marketing campaign of your own.

Free Marketing Consultation

What’s Trending In Marketing For December 2018

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This week in inbound marketing we look at Pinterest’s new carousel ad feature and Foursquare’s new way to measure a tv advertisement’s offline impact on store visits. Read more on the changes and marketing trends for this past month.

Noteworthy Marketing News

How Small Businesses Can Compete With Amazon This Holiday Season

Amazon is convenient for the everyday shopper, but if you own a small business, you may be really feeling the pressure from the eCommerce giant, especially over the holidays. So how can you compete with variety and fast, free shipping? This article gives you three tips that can help you prepare for a successful holiday shopping season.

Facebook Shared 5 Holiday Shopping Season Tips for Marketers

The holidays are here, the biggest shopping season of the year. And if you’re like most marketers, you want to make the most of this time of year and reach out to as much of your audience as you can. Read on to see the 5 tips Facebook gave to marketers for this holiday shopping season.

Calls to businesses rose more than 375% over past two holiday seasons

According to the past two holiday seasons, it looks like customers are picking up their phones more often. This is important for all business owners, because it means that every ring could be another possible lead. And with more customers turning to their phones for answers, the more chances you have for success.

Survey: Expect more holiday spending, ‘blended retail’ shopping this year

The NPD Group shopping report for this year shows that with the rising economy, people will be spending more on holiday shopping this year, averaging $700 for gifts. Along with other important discoveries, the survey also notes that most people plan on ‘blended retail’ shopping, which is a mixture of both online and in store shopping. If you are a marketer or a store owner, remember the importance of both your online and offline presence for the 2018 holiday season.

Improving Your Marketing Program

5 Holiday Email Templates for Salespeople

The holiday season is upon us, which means you’re getting ready to send out those holiday emails to your leads and clients! Whether its a big thank you for their business, a big deal on your services or just a little holiday cheer, read this article for 5 Holiday Email Template ideas to help engage with your audience.

Which Is Best For Me?: Growth Driven Design vs. Traditional Web Design

Growth driven design is a great way to adapt to the market’s demands and give your customers new material on a constant basis. Although it’s a great marketing tool, growth driven design isn’t for everyone. Whether you want to go the traditional route or take the plunge and go for a growth driven design, this article shows you the important differences between the two.


Using Lead Scoring to Identify Your Best Prospects

There are many approaches to reaching your audience, and although reaching as many people as possible can be a good approach, you want to reach the right people. How do you know you’re reaching high-quality prospects? That’s where lead scoring comes in. Using lead scoring is the most effective way to target your most potential prospects so you’re being efficient with your time.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Pinterest’s new Promoted Carousel ads will display up to 5 swipable images in a single ad

Pinterest’s new advertising feature will now allow advertisers to display up to 5 images that you can swipe left-to-right.  It looks just like a regular pin, except users can scroll through it in their feed or tap on it to look at one of the images. Giving marketers more ad space will allow them to add more creativity to their ads.

Foursquare can now measure TV ads’ impact on offline store visits

Marketers spend $70 billion dollars a year on tv advertising, but how do you measure the ROI on your tv commercial? This is the question businesses have been asking for decades, but now with Foursquare you can. Now radio, direct mail and TV commercials can be tracked to the store and even to the point-of-sale. Read on to see how they do it.

Snapchat integrates with Comscore to measure Discover channel traffic

With the new partnership with Comscore, advertisers will now be able to more accurately measure their reach in their Snapchat Discover channels. Compared to in the past when advertisers could only look through Snapchat itself to look at their reach, now there will be more data to gauge with a third-party measurement.

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

marketing dashboard for social media

5 Examples for Great Social Media Branding

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Large brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds have the necessary budgets to invest in A-list influencers and over-the-top Super Bowl commercials. The same cannot be said for startups and small-business struggling to make ends meet. This, however, won’t stop a smart marketer from taking a note or few from the best. Whether it’s a clever use of shape and color, or a catchy slogan, here are some of the best examples of what branding is supposed to look like.

1. Social media branding done right: Airbnb

Most major brands invest heavily in large creative design teams to manage their social media branding efforts. Yet, Airbnb has managed to do a lot more than just share beautiful content to solidify their brand image. With Airbnb, the customers are the brand, both guests and hosts. The company doesn’t manage nor does it own any of the properties hosted on its website and social media accounts. In fact, it only provides a forum where customers can promote and ultimately book some of the most breathtaking properties in the world.

Businesses often rely on telling their brand story to sell products and services, but Airbnb lets the customers to tell their own stories. The travelers are using their platform and Airbnb regularly hosts them on its website and social media accounts. Going through the company’s Instagram account and you’ll quickly feel exactly what it’s like to be in the customer’s shoes. The company understands the importance of social media engagement and also provides links to each and every location displayed in their content. That way they are providing their followers with the opportunity to experience what their feed is offering using a single click.

2. Brand-driven storytelling: Nike

Nike is one of the few companies that have understood and successfully leveraged great storytelling for the last 20 years as a means of developing a brand soul. One of their most successful branding campaigns was led in 1999. That year the company released a minute-long commercial commemorating the fruitful career of none other than Michael Jordan.

What made the commercial such a wild success is the fact that Nike as a brand was not mentioned at all until the very last second of the film. In the last second we saw the logo and now iconic words “Just Do It” were superimposed over Jordan’s high school photo. The entire minute-long commercial was dedicated to the great basketball player. That was something that was previously unheard of in the marketing industry.

Instead of trying to sell its products and push the brand down the throats of its consumers, Nike wanted to make an impression! The one that lasted and cemented their brand with an authentic, heartfelt story. Now, their logo and slogan can be found literally anywhere. From their clothing lines and twitter commercials to a viral video of Shia LaBeouf screaming “Just Do It” into the camera for a solid minute. Go figure!

But on a serious note, brand development requires a number of important steps, including logo design, color and font choice. All that play a major role in developing a brand voice and maintaining consistency. Finding the right agency using Google and similar search engines might be a stretch. You can find help using dedicated resources such as Design Rush which allows users to search and filter through leading branding experts based on budget, location, and their expertise.

Visual Storytelling Trends That Will Shape The Future For Marketers

3. Clever brand slogan: Dollar Shave Club

The team behind the Dollar Shave Club knows exactly what they’re doing. Their “Shave Time. Shave Money.” slogan is arguably the pinnacle of marketing related puns. Dollar Shave Club offers a shaving equipment and accessories as a cheap subscription service. It includes flexible shipment without the use of contracts and tricks involving fine prints. The company has cleverly incorporated two of the largest benefits offered by its service: convenience and cost.

Its campaign is on point, quite funny and adequately defines its brand tone, voice and a pun-related sense of humor. Today, Dollar Shave Club is often being cited as a sponsor to various YouTube personalities and celebrities. That  only increases their reach and solidifies the company’s brand authority.

4. Embracing new technologies: Domino’s

Most brands fail to incorporate new technologies fast enough, but Domino’s pizza has not only managed to do just that but also stay ahead of the curve by constantly innovating their mobile ordering experience. The company has incorporated Twitter into its ordering process by offering a “tweet-to-order” option and has recently introduced its very own messenger chatbot “DOM The Pizza Bot”.

Their approach to social media branding is refreshing, to say the least.  They also pushed forward a campaign where users could visit their website, make their own pizza and share the design on different social media channels.

5. Customer experience is the best marketing: Slack

A collaboration tool used by teams to communicate and share files more effectively, Slack currently has over 2 million active daily users. What even more amazing is that the company didn’t really launch a massive marketing campaign. In fact, its success can only be attributed to the outstanding customer experience. Slack not only receives but also responds to more than 10,000 Tweets per month. Their Twitter Feed is home to “Slack Wall of Love”, a place dedicated to showcasing all the love Slack has been receiving from its users.

Your number one priority should always be building brand awareness. Regardless of whether you’re working in business-to-consumer or business to business fields. Why? Because people would not be investing in your products and services unless they know and trust your brand. Social media branding is an effective tool for maintaining a consistent brand image in order to build authority, increase customer engagement, boost loyalty and make your brand memorable.

Integrating Social Media & SEO Efforts For Enhanced Search Engine Results

Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions

Using Lead Scoring to Identify Your Best Prospects

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Although one of your main goals should be to capture as many potential leads as possible, it’s worth mentioning that not all leads are the same. Some leads are more qualified than others–and the last thing you’ll want to do is waste time trying to nurture low-quality leads when there may be other prospects that are ready to advance through the sales funnel. The way to ensure that you’re dedicating your resources to the best leads that are available is through the use of lead scoring.

What Is Lead Scoring?media mix

Lead scoring helps you to separate your leads in terms of how far along they are in the sales funnel and what needs to be done to nurture them. By using a scoring system, you can more easily identify which leads have more interest in your products or services. By simply looking at the scores you’ve automatically assigned to your leads, you’ll be able to tell if:

  • They need more marketing content
  • They’re ready to engage with a sales rep
  • They’ve already made a purchase and need additional direction

With proper lead scoring, you won’t waste time trying to convert a sale with a lead who still needs to read or view more content to make a more informed decision about your brand. Doing this not only wastes resources, but it also risks alienating the lead by putting too much pressure on them. On top of that, it allows you to ignore low scoring leads that aren’t likely to convert in favor of those that are.

5 Types of Landing Pages To Increase Your Lead Conversion Rate

How To Score Your Leads

At its basic core, lead scoring involves assigning points to each lead based on certain criteria. The more points the lead has, the more qualified they are. The following are a few of the criteria that you should use to assign points to your leads:

Lead demographics

The closer they are to your buyer persona, the stronger a lead they become. Some of the information that can help you score a lead based on their demographic includes the industry they belong to, their company, where they are located, their age, their gender, their education level, their job title, and more. The closer they are to your ideal customer, the more likely they are to become a customer.

The biggest challenge in scoring your leads based on their demographics is collecting the information you need to determine what their demographics are. You’ll want to ask certain questions in your online forms so that when they sign up for your email, you’ll immediately have enough information to score them based on their demographics.

However, you’ll want to be careful about asking too much or asking questions that may be deemed to personal as this can scare leads away from submitting the form. What you can do is ask some basic questions on your initial form, then send out occasional surveys to help you gather more information.

Lead behaviors

In addition to scoring your leads based on who they are, you’ll also want to score them based on what they do. The way they navigate your site and engage with your brand online can tell you a lot about how ready they are to convert. The following are a few metrics you can use to score your leads based on their behaviour:

  • Page views – The more pages that a lead has been to on your site, the more interested they likely are in your brand. A lead that has explored your site is a much stronger prospect than one who has only been to one or two pages.attraction marketing
  • Website visits – The more a lead visits your site, the more interested they are likely to be. It’s important to understand that a lead isn’t always going to be interested on their first visit.
  • Specific pages seen – What pages the lead has been to matters. For example, a lead that has read through your product pages and that has visited your e-commerce page is much stronger than a lead who has only been to a few pages on your blog.
  • Offers converted – Leads that have signed up for your email newsletter or who have downloaded free offers (such as eBooks or whitepapers) have likely developed a certain level of trust in your brand.
  • Email engagement – Even if a lead has signed up to your email, it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily strong prospects. If they’ve never opened your email, it means that they may have just been taking advantage of one of your offers and aren’t actually interested in your brand. However, a lead that has opened multiple emails is more than likely interested.
  • Social engagement – Leads that engage on social media with your brand, such as sharing, liking, or commenting on content, are likely to be strong prospects.

These are some of the metrics you’ll want to use to score your leads. Keep in mind that you can give leads negative scores for certain demographic information you gather about them or certain behaviours (such as not opening your emails). This will allow you to identify both good leads and poor leads.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Which Is Best For Me?: Growth Driven Design vs. Traditional Web Design

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Both growth-driven design and traditional web design can be successful if you implement them effectively. The biggest difference between them is that a traditional website is built all at once, while growth driven design evolves. This makes a growth driven design more adaptable to the changing needs of your business, your customers, and technology. A traditional web design will often require a complete redesign to adapt to major changes–but that doesn’t mean that a traditional web design can’t be effective as well.

So how do you determine which type of web design will best suit the needs of your brand? The following is a more in-depth look into the differences between the two types of web design to help you decide which will best suit your needs.

The Optimization Of A Website

With a traditional website, you have to make use of the data you have to make the best possible design choices. In most cases, you may not have a lot of data yet since your website isn’t up and running. This means that you’re going to have to make a lot of guesses about your audience and your strategy.

With a growth driven design, you start off with a launchpad site that helps to collect data. You can then use that data to build your website over time. The more data you collect, the more you can add to or adjust your site. This way, your website can better reflect the information you have about your audience. This lets you continuously improve your site based on the desired path of your customers.

The Cost Of Designing A Website

A lot of brands invest a significant amount of money into their traditional web design because they understand that their website is going to have a huge impact on the success of their online marketing strategy. It’s not uncommon for a medium-sized business to put anywhere between $15,000 and $100,000 into their website. A launch pad website will costs less to build then a full blown website.

Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing

However, this is only when comparing the initial costs. A growth driven design doesn’t require a lot for the launchpad site, but it will require a budget to continuously collect data and add to the website month after month. A traditional website’s budget is mostly spent on the initial launch, unless you decide on a website redesign later.

When comparing the costs, understand that a traditional web design will be more expensive in the short-term. However, consider the overall budget. Factoring in the long-term costs of growth driven design, there’s not a huge overall difference between the two designs. Keep in mind that the trial-and-error nature of a growth driven design can help offset continuous costs.

The Time Spent On Your Website

A growth driven design requires constant analysis of your website’s data in order to continually update your website throughout the year instead of just during the web development phase. This is done periodically; for example, every month or every six weeks (However, you’ll usually be billed monthly). Although a traditional website design does still require constant content creation as well as the need to track certain metrics in order to make strategic adjustments to your marketing strategies, the website itself will essentially be set in stone, which means not nearly as many resources need to be dedicated to your website.

These are some of the differences between implementing a traditional web design and a growth driven design. The main difference is that with a growth driven design, you’ll need to continue building your site over the long term, whereas once you launch a traditional website, you’re done until you decide to do a redesign. Yes, a growth driven design needs your continuous attention, but you may get more out of it as a result.

25 Website Must Haves For Driving Traffic, Leads & Sales
brand development process

What’s Trending in Marketing For November 2018

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Businesses that stay up to date with all the latest marketing trends and news are more likely to see success due to the ability to adjust their marketing strategies accordingly as a result. As such, we like to highlight marketing news and trends every month as well as provide a bit of insight on how you can improve your marketing. The following are the latest marketing trends, news, and tips that we think are worth noting this November.

Noteworthy Marketing News

Google Launches AdLingo

Google recently launched its conversational marketing platform “AdLingo.” AdLingo provides the first conversational ad format outside of messaging apps, allowing advertisers to deliver ads that query users as well as respond to them. Read up on the ins and outs of the new AdLingo feature and why it matters to marketers at Marketing Land.

Pinterest Updates Ads Manager And Adds Product Pins Features

Ahead of the holiday season, Pinterest has improved its Ads Manager tool by allowing advertisers to choose business goals, select pins they want to promote, and to select an audience. They have also rebuilt their Product Pins system by adding stock information and dynamic pricing. Find out more about the changes made to their Ads Manager and Product Pins features by reading Marketing Land’s write-up.

Facebook Working On Connected TV Device

Facebook appears to be expanding its reach even further as they are rumored to be working on a connected TV device that will work in a similar fashion to Amazon’s Fire Stick or Roku. The Facebook TV rumor is explored in more detail in Marketing Land’s article, which also goes into the impact it could have on marketers.

Pandora Announces Ad Distribution Agreement With SoundCloud

Pandora has been busy making moves to become a major platform for advertisers. Not only has Pandora finally launched its own analytics tool, they also announced a new partnership with SoundCloud. According to Pandora, the partnership will make them the biggest digital audio advertising marketplace in the U.S. and will expand their addressable audience to 100 million. Marketing Land’s article goes into more detail about Pandora’s recent developments.

8 Tips on Social Media Best Practices For Your Business

Improving Your Marketing Program

Learn About The Differences Between Smart Display And Custom Intent Campaigns

AdWords continues to be a valuable marketing tool, which is why we recently explored two of their newest PPC options, Smart Display Campaigns and Custom Intent Campaigns. Check out our article to find out what the differences between the two features are and how they can benefit you.

The Importance of Social Media Engagementsocial media

One of the common mistakes advertisers make is to focus on their following instead of on engagement. Our recently published article highlights the importance of social media engagement and goes over several tips on how to improve your engagement on social media.

Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing

Knowing the differences between traditional marketing and digital marketing will help to better inform your overall marketing campaign. We recently explored the differences between digital and traditional marketing, from the long-term and short-term impact to the costs and more.

Pew Reveals Relevant New Marketing Data

The Pew Research Center recently revealed new data that might surprise marketers. For example, broadband Internet penetration remains at only 65 percent amongst U.S. adults and that smartphone-only Internet usage has increased from 12 percent to 20 percent over two years. Head to Marketing Land for a more in-depth look into Pew’s recent marketing research.

Survey Reveals More Customers Plan To Use Amazon For Holiday ShoppingAmazon For Holiday Shopping

Amazon’s marketplace domination continues as a recent survey conducted by Survata revealed that the majority of holiday shoppers plan on using Amazon over any other online platform. In fact, the survey showed that online shoppers prefer Amazon 3-to-1 over Google. Check out what else the holiday shopping survey revealed at Marketing Land.

Marketers Focusing Primarily On Black Friday

A Nanigans study revealed that only five percent of retailers that responded are focusing any of their ad budget on late-season shoppers, while 25 percent of ad budgets will be spent on Black Friday weekend. Read Marketing Land’s article to find out more details about the holiday ad budget study.

Website Redesign Checklist
New call-to-action

What’s Trending in Marketing For October 2018

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There’s a lot going on this October in the marketing world, from the waves Nike has made with its new advertising campaign to the addition of new features to social channels such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Read on to find out more about this month’s marketing trends.

Noteworthy Marketing News

Nike’s controversial Colin Kaepernick ad proves to be a smart strategy

https://youtu.be/-hIc_epqfI0

Brands tend to shy away from taking controversial stances in fear of alienating part of their customer base. Nike showed no such fear when it ran its Kaepernick commercial with the tagline “Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything.” Although Nike took a lot of heat for its stance, upon closer look it’s obvious that it was a very carefully thought out strategy. USA Today examines the strategy in which Nike targets the up and coming Generation Z, a generation who will soon make up the biggest part of Nike’s target audience.

Vidyard Integration Provides HubSpot With On-Board Video Capability

HubSpot, the popular inbound marketing and sales platform, has recently introduced the ability to add videos, add interactive layers, and create video messaging within their dashboard with their new Vidyard business video platform. Learn more about these new video capabilities in Martech Today’s rundown of the new features.

Twitter Unveils Audio-Only Broadcasting Feature

Responding to the demand for audio-only broadcasts as well as the general popularity of podcasts, Twitter recently introduced a new audio-only broadcast feature to its channel and to Periscope. Read more about Twitter’s new feature at Marketing Land.

LinkedIn’s new Dynamic Ad product provides businesses with the ability to create, manage, and track their campaigns and includes new features, such as pre-built templates and auto-translation capabilities. Check out what else you can do with LinkedIn’s Dynamic Ad campaigns by reading the write-up on the new feature at Marketing Land.

Video Marketing Ideas: Using Storytelling In Social Media

Improving Your Marketing Program

What To Expect From the Future Of Email

Email marketing has been around for a long time, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t new ways to improve your email campaign. Learn about the new email marketing trends brands are employing to create innovative new email campaigns that will soon become the standard.

Taking An Omnichannel Approachomnichannel

In this day and age, there are countless ways to reach your target audience, whether it’sthrough TV commercials, blog posts, social media, or mobile, to name a few. By making sure that you establish a presence on multiple channels, you’ll have a much better chance at reaching your audience. This is known as an omnichannel approach. Be sure to learn about the best practices for taking an omnichannel approach in our article outlining the strategy.

How To Write For Search And For Brand

There’s a fine balance between writing content that’s effectively optimized to help bring in more organic traffic and writing for your brand. Find out how to strike this balance by reading our tips on writing for both search and brand.

Email Marketing Metrics You Should Keep In Mind & What They Mean

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

New Pew Survey Reveals Facebook User Engagement is Down

social media

A recent study by the Pew Research Center revealed that 42 percent of Facebook users have spent less time engaging on Facebook on a daily basis, while 26 percent have deleted the Facebook app from their phones. For more details about marketing trends relating to the decrease of Facebook user engagement, read the summary on Marketing Land.

 

Why Retailers Need To Invest In Better Service And Faster Checkouts

GroundTruth published a survey-based report on marketing trends that provides insight into how physical retail stores can continue to compete in an era where online shopping is growing significantly. Learn how you can improve your physical retail location by checking out the results of the report on Marketing Land.

Connected TV Impressions Increase By 106 Percent Since 2016

Innovid recently published a new marketing trends report on the growth of Connected TV in a world where the audience for video content is as big and fragmented as its ever been. Find out how Connected TV could benefit your video content strategy by reading more about the study.

How Creativity and Data Driven Marketing Help Develop Marketing Campaigns

social media marketing

Mobile Marketing Trends To Keep Track Of In 2018

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Mobile marketing has taken its place over the past few years as one of the most important marketing strategies that you can implement. This should be no surprise, considering the fact that mobile devices accounted for almost 50 percent of the world’s web page views last year. Because of this, it’s important that you keep your eye on mobile marketing trends that could potentially improve the success of your mobile marketing strategy. The following are a number of mobile marketing trends that have caught on in 2018 worth taking note of:

  1. Playable Ads

    Playable ads help improve engagement since they allow users to interact with the ad. According to a recent survey, some 71 percent of advertisers who experimented with playable ads found them to be effective.

  2. Live Streaming

    Live streams, such as through Facebook Live or Periscope, give viewers a sense that they are part of something exclusive since they are viewing content that can’t be accessed if it’s missed. Many people will view live streams from their mobile phones because it allows them to partake no matter where they are.

  3. Progressive Web Apps

    Offering a progressive web app makes it easier for consumers to access your website, will make your website load quicker, and will greatly improve the user experience.

  4. Mobile First Indexing

    Mobile first indexing refers to your website’s mobile ranking. This is based on how mobile-friendly your website is and requires that your site load quickly, be displayed properly, and be user-friendly on mobile devices.

  5. Augmented Reality

    AR can help consumers interact with products or ads in real time using their smartphones. For example, using an app, you can take a picture of a food product. The app can then pull up a recipe that you can use that product in.

  6. Ephemeral Content

    Ephemeral content is content that lasts a short period of time before disappearing. SnapChat is a platform focused on ephemeral content. Ephemeral content can be effective because your audience won’t put off watching or reading it knowing that they could potentially miss out.

  7. Voice

    Voice is going to become more and more important as it replaces typing, especially on mobile devices and with the growing popularity of virtual assistants. As a result, voice search is something to keep in mind while implementing your SEO strategy.

  8. Quick Load Times

    Mobile users are often looking for specific things while on the move, which means that if your site doesn’t load quickly on mobile, your bounce rate is likely to be high. Quick load times are a must in the age of mobile use.

  9. Micro Moments

    Micro moments refer to the brief moments that consumers pull their phones out to look something up. Identifying your target audience’s micro moments will make it easier to target them effectively.

    Read our article: How First Person Experience Videos Can Make An Impact On Your Video Marketing Strategy

Keeping track of mobile marketing trends can help you discover new mobile marketing tactics that could benefit your marketing campaign. These are some of the mobile marketing strategies that are gaining steam in 2018 that are worth looking into.

A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING TECHNIQUES