Type of Marketing Strategy

As more Companies Catch on to the Benefits of CBD, Here’s What You Need to Know About This New Type of Marketing Strategy

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CBDs (cannabidiols) are becoming incredibly popular throughout the country, leading to many CBD products and businesses popping up everywhere. One reason for this is the continual legalization of marijuana throughout many states. Note that CBD is only illegal in states where marijuana is illegal (if it was derived from marijuana). It can also come from hemp, in which case it’s legal everywhere.

It’s hard not to argue that CBD’s popularity isn’t related to the increasing acceptance of marijuana. However, it’s not the only reason behind the sudden increase in demand for CBD-related products throughout the country. Surprisingly, these products aren’t just sold at marijuana dispensaries. They are also sold at many health and food stores too. There are even rumors that major corporations like Starbucks and Coca Cola are strongly considering offering CBD products. If you’re in the CBD business, you’re going to want to know what type of marketing strategy to implement as the industry continues to explode.

Type of Marketing Strategy for CBD Products

The CBD industry is still in its infancy, but studies are predicting that the industry will be worth $22 billion by 2020. One of the major contributors to its popularity has been word of mouth. Today’s culture has a thing for natural, health-related products, and CBD is just that. However, there are so many big players hopping on the CBD train. Knowing how to market your CBD business is going to be vital to growing your business. Proper marketing allows you to compete with the many other CBD-related companies in the near future. 

CBD oilHow To Market CBD

The most important element of your marketing efforts in today’s CBD market is going to be your content marketing strategy. Consumers are still learning what CBD is. Many consumers don’t understand how CBD is different from marijuana, which isn’t surprising considering how many misconceptions about marijuana there are (such as the fact that it’s not an addictive substance).

Although CBD is from marijuana, it is not the ingredient that can cause the high marijuana is known for. That ingredient is THC, which is a psychoactive ingredient. Many consumers may think that CBD is psychoactive as well since it’s found in marijuana, but it’s not.

8 Tips on Social Media Best Practices For Your Business 

Informing Consumers

All of these misconceptions are important to dispel in order to be able to successfully sell your CBD products. Creating content that informs consumers about CBD is going be extremely important. Not only will you be helping to inform your audience, thereby generating more interest in your products, but high-quality CBD content will help attract more leads who are interested in learning about CBD and will help to build trust in your brand. Content focusing on what CBDs are, what the potential health benefits are, how CBDs are different than THC, and what some of the common myths about CBD are can be quite helpful to your audience. In states where marijuana is still illegal, you may also want to highlight how CBD products derived from hemp are legal.

The CBD industry is relatively new, but it’s absolutely exploding. You can expect many CBD-related businesses to begin popping up over the next few years, not to mention that big, established companies will likely begin offering their own CBD products as well. The type of marketing strategy you implement plays an important part in helping you stand out in an industry that will be soon oversaturated. 

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What’s Trending in Marketing for June 2019

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Staying current on recent marketing trends is an excellent way to reflect and verify whether your marketing efforts are harmonious with what’s going on in today’s ever-evolving marketplace. We’re aware that keeping up with these trends can often be difficult given the abundance of information thrown at us every day. The following articles come from popular marketing blogs. They highlight current marketing trends that we think are worth paying attention to:

Noteworthy Marketing News

Spotify tests interactive ads that listen for your voice

Spotify is testing interactive ads that can be controlled by users voices. The idea allows a user to say “play now” when hearing a voice controlled ad, which would then take them to the piece of relevant content. Two ads are currently running, one for Unilever’s Axe products and the other for a Spotify podcast called Stay Free: The Story of the Clash. Saying the key phrase during whichever ad is playing will direct you to an Axe-branded playlist or to the advertised podcast. This is just one way digital content allows for the development of new ways for consumers to interact with advertising content. You can read more about this story on The Verge.

LinkedIn refreshes Sales Navigator homepage to put focus on alerts

This is a change to increase Ease of Access when using LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The big news with this latest update to the Sales Navigator platform is that the homepage shift. It is transforming from a newsfeed format to focus on alerts.  Knowing the full-breadth of features offered by LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps marketing teams contribute added value to their sales organization. These insights allow companies to take full advantage of their social media advertising platform and investment. Learn more about this update at Martech Today.

Facebook is getting a redesign

The main takeaway from the new Facebook redesign is that groups will continue to dominate the Facebook marketing space. This is an interesting redesign that comes off the heels of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing how a lot of users have started using groups and more private ways for sharing content.

Social Report writes, “But this is no new trend. We’ve been huge proponents of Facebook groups since Facebook changed its algorithm to prioritize content from groups and other “content that matters” on the Newsfeed last year.When Facebook changed its algorithm, it plummeted organic reach for Facebook pages. At the same time, however, Facebook gave groups more organic reach—even if they’re run by a brand. This groups-focused redesign shows us that Facebook is continuing its commitment to Facebook groups, and that we’ll continue to see the platform prioritize content from them indefinitely”.

Improving Your Marketing Program

Developing the Perfect Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy

The buyer’s journey has changed a lot over the years. This is a result of the consumer’s ability to explore multiple channels online and to engage in multiple ways. There is no distinct path that takes them from point A to point B in order to make a purchase. While one customer might begin doing research through a search engine like Google, another might ask their followers questions on social media to identify solutions to their problems, while yet another might stumble on an ad for one of your products in a magazine. Basically, every buyer’s journey is unique.

As such, it’s important that you have a presence on multiple channels. You should integrate all of your channels, processes, and strategies to help nurture any stage of their buyer’s journey. This is omni-channel marketing. The following are a number of tips that you should consider implementing that will help you strengthen your omni-channel marketing strategy.

Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions: Rethinking the Marketing Funnel

In order to continue attracting your target audience, you need to keep up with the wants and needs of customers. This can be a real challenge if you don’t understand the factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions. Those factors are a lot different than what they used to be, which means that the customer journey has changed a lot as well. This updated journey is referred to by many as the consumer decision journey (CDJ). What makes the CDJ so different than traditional marketing funnels is that each consumer’s CDJ is unique. Keeping that in mind, the following are three of the biggest factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions in today’s digital age.

How to Outshine Your Competition with Effective E-Commerce Website Marketing 

While not all businesses have an e-commerce page, many do. If you’re selling products or services online, make sure you have an e-commerce marketing strategy in place. If you don’t, it’s going to be difficult to stand out from all the other e-commerce sites out there. Through the use of digital marketing strategies, you can build awareness of your e-commerce page to generate more traffic. Thereby, you can improve your chances of closing sales. The following are a number of e-commerce marketing tips that will help you do just that.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Mobile to become the preferred platform for video ads by end of 2019

A new report from PubMatic stated nearly 50% of video ads were viewed on mobile devices0. That is up from from 40% in 2018. Video ads are expected to exceed $29 Billion globally according to this same report. This trend follows the amount of content being consumed on mobile devices versus any other device. With 5G on the horizon, content accessibility will only drive increased impressions and ad dollars. More about this story can be found on Marketing Land.

Universal Measurement Standard for video

For years, media companies have tried to develop a universal standard that allows advertisers to compare video metrics across all visual media. The Media Rating Council is getting closer to implementing a single standard for measuring video across all platforms. A standard metric allows marketers to have an effective tool to independently prove how effective ad performance.

Sarah Fisher from Axios writes, “Last week, the MRC finished collecting dozens of comments in response to its long-awaited draft proposal for the new cross-media audience measurement standard, which imposes stricter rules for digital companies reporting video impressions and stricter rules for how TV report commercial viewership.”

Time spent on Facebook, Snapchat remains flat, but Instagram sees growth

A recent study from eMarketer looked at some of the key players in social media. It’s findings offer an interesting glimpse into what 2019 holds for Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. eMarketer reports the average amount of time people will spend each day on Facebook this year will remain unchanged from last year at 38-minutes. That number is expected to drop to 37-minutes per day by next year. This is a downgrade from the figures eMarketer released during the third quarter of 2018.

Overall, eMarketer reports the average amount of time people spent per day on social networks in the U.S. dropped by nearly 1.5 minutes last year. That number will remain “virtually” unchanged this year according to eMarketer’s forecasts. Learn more about this study at Marketing Land.

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Developing the Perfect Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy

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The buyer’s journey has changed a lot over the years. This is a result of the consumer’s ability to explore multiple channels online and to engage in multiple ways. There is no distinct path that takes them from point A to point B in order to make a purchase. While one customer might begin doing research through a search engine like Google, another might ask their followers questions on social media to identify solutions to their problems, while yet another might stumble on an ad for one of your products in a magazine. Basically, every buyer’s journey is unique.

As such, it’s important that you have a presence on multiple channels and that you integrate all of your channels, processes, and strategies so that you can help meet the needs and nurture your leads at any stage of their buyer’s journey no matter where they are. This is known as omni-channel marketing. The following are a number of tips that you should consider implementing that will help you strengthen your omni-channel marketing strategy:

Be Consistent With Your Marketing Efforts

Consistency is incredibly important when it comes to omni-channel marketing. This is because your leads are likely jumping from one channel to another. A lead may see a commercial on TV, then visit your Facebook page, then go to your website. If your branding is different (for example, if your message is different, your tone is different, or even the overall aesthetic of your marketing is different), you’re going to confuse consumers and you’re likely going to lose leads.

 Remove Siloed Organizational Structure

Because consumers may be at different stages of the buyer’s journey while exploring different channels, it’s important that your sales, marketing, PR, and customer service departments a

ren’t siloed. You need to make sure everyone has access to customer and prospect data at every stage and on every channel. This ensures that everyone is on the same page when it comes to identifying leads, engaging with them, nurturing them, and closing them.

Create Content For Every Channel

The more content you make available on different channels, the more successfully you’ll be able to reach consumers wherever they are. For example, if you only have a website, then you’re missing out on a lot of leads who use social media to find product or service recommendations. Make sure that you create content for every stage of the buyer’s journey and that you post it on a variety of platforms, including your website as well as social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and whatever other platforms your customers use.

Similar Article: How To Create Content For Each Sale Funnel Stage

Optimize Everything For Mobile Use

All of your online content needs to be optimized for mobile use. This is because many consumers may explore your website while on their smartphone or tablet. This is especially true if they are engaging on social media and follow a link back to your site, or they see one of your commercials on TV and decide to do a search for your company (more and more consumers use their mobile devices while watching TV these days). If your online content isn’t properly optimized for mobile use, then it may not load properly or be displayed properly.

 Put Together The Proper Marketing Stack

Because you’ll be collecting data on leads and customers from a variety of different platforms, you’ll want to make sure that you have the tools needed to organize the data and to put it to good use. To do this, you’ll want to build a marketing stack using tools such as CRM (customer relationship management) software, CMS (content management system, analytics and data visualization tools, and marketing automation.

Omni-channel marketing is essential if you want to attract and nurture modern day consumers through their unique buyer’s journeys. These omnichannel marketing tips will help make it easier to reach consumers at every point of their buyer’s journey no matter where they are.

25 Website Must Haves For Driving Traffic, Leads & Sales
What’s Trending in Marketing for May Month

What’s Trending in Marketing for May 2019

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Staying current on recent marketing trends is an excellent way to reflect and verify whether your marketing efforts are harmonious with what’s going on in today’s ever-evolving marketplace. We’re aware that keeping up with these trends can often be difficult given the abundance of information thrown at us every day. The following articles come from popular marketing blogs and highlight current marketing trends that we think are worth paying attention to:

Noteworthy Marketing News

Google starts showing more images in web search results

Multiple tools that track the Google search results have been showing an increase in the percentage of time that Google shows image results in the core web search results. The image search result box that is sometimes shown in the main search results is now showing up for 1/3rd of all queries according to some reports.sweeTARTS

SEOClarity published their data this morning showing “images in the Top 10 leaped from an approximately 24% occurrence to a 34% occurrence.” The increase has started around April 13. Get more information about this at Marketing Land.

SweeTARTS® New “Be Both™” Marketing Campaign Celebrates the Multi-Dimensionality of Its Products and Gen Z Consumers

Iconic candy brand SweeTARTS® is introducing itself to a new generation of candy lovers. It is launching of its largest integrated marketing effort in recent years. Kicking off this week, the “Be Both” campaign champions Gen Z, which Pew Research Center calls the most diverse generation, and their desire to reject one-dimensional definitions of identity, by celebrating the intersection of their passions, expressions and tastes, and connecting this multiplicity back to the brand’s multitude of colliding flavors, textures and forms. Read more about SweeTARTS new ad campaign at Cision. 

Twitter’s ‘Hide Replies’ Feature is Set to Roll Out in June

A new Twitter feature will allow users to hide replies to their tweets is set to launch this June. Twitter was spotted working on this feature back in February. A representative from Twitter later confirmed it would soon be rolling out publically.

A blog post published by the company this week reveals that the ‘hide tweets’ feature will be available in June:“Starting in June, we’ll be experimenting with ways to give people more control over their conversations by giving them an option to hide replies to their Tweets.” SearchEngine Journal goes in to greater detail concerning Twitter’s latest feature. 

Improving Your Marketing Program

Learn About the Six Steps to Better Use of Marketing Analytics & Dashboard

Using marketing analytics is essential to being able to judge the performance of your marketing efforts. They allow you to see what is and isn’t working in real time, thereby letting you adjust your strategy. Not only do marketing analytics help improve your marketing efforts, but they also allow you to make much more efficient use out of the resources that you have at your disposal so that you don’t end up wasting a significant amount of time and money on tactics that aren’t working.

Should You Consider a Growth Driven Design Strategy?

In this day and age, every business understands the importance of having a company website. Even local mom and pop shops have a web presence, whether it’s a basic website or a social media page. However, not everyone realizes that there are different ways to build your website. If your website is the foundation for all of your online marketing efforts, then consider implementing a growth driven design. It is true that when properly implemented, traditional website designs can still be very effective. However, growth driven designs have their own set of unique advantages worth taking a look at.

Brand Leverage Marketing: Partnering with a Positive Brand Can Bring Attention to Your Own

Brand Leveraging is quickly becoming more common as it becomes harder for messages to break through the clutter. This marketing strategy uses the power of an existing brand  to support a company’s entry into a new but related product category by communicating valuable product information to the consumer.

Utilizing recognizable visual stimuli, familiar voice endorsements, and popular songs can help you establish credibility, add emotion, and further draw in a potential customer- and more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Snapchat’s Gen Y, Millennial audience helps deliver 39% YoY lift in revenue

Snapchat has been able to stabilize users for two consecutive quarters now. Snapchat increased DAUs by 2% to 190 million in the first quarter of 2019. As of March, Snapchat claims to reach 90% of all 13 to 24-year-olds in the U.S.  They social media giant reaches 75% of 13 to 34-year-olds.

Snap Inc. reported $320 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2019, a 39% year-over-year increase. Read more about Snapchat’s success at Marketing Land. 

Amazon to introduce video ads in mobile-app search results 

Amazon.com is starting to roll out video advertising on its smartphone apps. Currently, nearly every search result yields a graphical ad unit at the top of the SERP. According to Bloomberg, video ads for relevant products will start to appear in those same positions.

The report says that “Amazon has been beta testing the ads on Apple Inc.’s iOS platform for several months,” but I was not able to find one of these units after numerous product queries. Amazon’s mobile app for Android will apparently be getting video ads later this year. Find out more about Amazon’s video ads at SearchEngine Land. 

Facebook ad revenue keeps rising, 3 million advertisers using Stories Ads

Facebook’s bet on Stories Ads looks like it is paying off. COO Sheryl Sandberg said Wednesday during the company’s first quarter earnings call that, while Facebook and Instagram feed ads make up the bulk of Facebook’s ad business, Stories Ads are “an increasingly important growth opportunity.” Facebook announced it now has three million advertisers running Stories Ads across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, and more than 500 million daily active users engaging with Stories experiences across the three platforms.

The company reported $14.9 billion in ad revenue during the first quarter of the year, up 26% year-over-year. At $13.9 billion, mobile ad revenue accounted for 93% of the company’s total ad revenue — up 30% year-over-year. Marketing Land has more information about Facebooks ad revenue. 

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What’s Trending in Marketing For April 2019

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Staying current on recent marketing trends is an excellent way to reflect and verify whether your marketing efforts are harmonious with what’s going on in today’s ever-evolving marketplace. We’re aware that keeping up with these trends can often be difficult. The following articles come from popular marketing blogs and highlight current marketing trends that we think are worth paying attention to:

Noteworthy Marketing News

google ads

Google Launching Policy Manager in Google Ads

Coming in April, Policy manager will be the central spot to manage policy violations.The new dashboard will show any policy-related issues affectingyour ads, keywords or ad extensions. You’ll be able to view and manage disapprovals across your account.You can currently get more details about why an ad got disapproved by hovering over it. Google said, this year, it will continue to add details about why ads were disapproved. Get more information about this at Marketing Land. 

Marketers Say They’ll Adapt to a Changing Facebook

Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his vision for the company’s coming privacy-focused, unified messaging and social networking platform. The CEO said, in the coming years, Facebook plans to rebuild its services and platforms around the following six  principals: private interactions, encryption, reduced permanence, safety, interoperability and secure data storage. Marketing Land goes in to greater detail concerning how marketers will adapt. 

Bing Ads brings 3D ads to Search with Samsung

Users can interact with the desktop ad format to inspect product features and details. In a first for search advertising, Samsung has begun running a 3D ad format on Bing.com to promote the new Galaxy S10 phone. Full screen ads in search results. The format is the result of months of coordination between Bing, Samsung and agency Performics, a unit of Starcom. The ads display in desktop search, and exclusively on Bing. When users search for the Samsung Galaxy S10 or Samsung S9. The 3D unit expands the size of the screen and users can interact with it by rotating and zooming in on the product image to explore features. Users can also click on an image to see product details about the device. Read more about Bing’s 3D ads at Search Engine Land. 

Does Direct Marketing Have A Role In Inbound Marketing?

Improving Your Marketing Program

Buyer's JourneyLearn About the Buyer’s Journey

The general goal of every business is to attract consumers and turn them into customers. The process that a consumer goes through before they make a purchase is the buyer’s journey. As a business, you will need to meet the needs of the consumer as they move through their buyer’s journey. You’ll need to be able to do this at every stage of their journey in a passive manner until they are ready to be engaged.

Check Out A Guide to the Decision Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

After helping consumers learn about their problem and how they can solve it, you will want to present your product or service as the best option for that specific solution. It’s at this point that consumers are in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey.

Read About The Difference Between the Buyer’s Journey and Customer Journey Customer Journey vs Buyer Journey

You’ve probably heard a lot about consumer life-cycles, and the different terms used to describe said life-cycles such as buyer journey and sales funnel. Terms like buyer’s journey and sales funnel can be overwhelming.  You might even wonder why some terms seem to describe the same thing, such as buyer journeyand customer journey. Don’t be fooled–the buyer journey is very different from the customer journey and it’s important that you know what the difference is.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Expect More Instagram Branded Content Ad Opportunities in 2019

Instagram confirmed it is exploring more ways for brands to amplify content from influencers. The company has tested a new branded content ad format since last year. It will allow brands to turn posts created by influencers into ads on the platform. “We got great feedback from the brands that participated that this ad product is helping with some major limitations that can come with organic branded content including targeting and scale,” said an Instagram spokesperson. Read more about Instagram branded content at Marketing Land. 

Amazon Adds Customer Acquisition Metrics for Sponsored Brands Campaigns

Amazon Featured ImageThe “new-to-brand” set of metrics are aimed to help brands understand how well their campaigns convert first-time buyers. Amazon has introduced new metrics that capture insights on new customers that converted from seller’s ad campaigns. The “new-to-brand” metrics are available for Sponsored Brands ad campaigns — the search-triggered ads that showcase several products and formerly called headline search ads — as well as video and display ads. Find out more about Amazon’s new customer acquisition metrics at Marketing Land. 

Public Google+ Content Gets Archived for Future Generations

Google’s failed social media network could have been a huge step towards internet domination, and thanks to the Internet Archive, we’ll always get to look back on it.As the April termination date for Google’s social network approaches, attempts are being made to preserve public content for posterity.The fatal combination of low user engagement and security flaws characterized the end of Google’s foray into social media. Marketing Land has more information about Google+ content getting archived.

A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING TECHNIQUES

Eddie Bauer’s “Release the Fleece” Ad Campaign

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Eddie Bauer’s recent ad campaign has put an interesting twist on a common seasonal item that many are familiar with: fleece. In their recent “Release the Fleece” campaign, E.B. focuses on the uses of emotional appeal, photography, and typography to draw their customers in and transforms this every-day product into a must-have commodity.

Emotional Advertisementad campaign

Ads that end up making people buy and share can usually be linked back to one word: emotion.

This should come as no surprise. According to Psychology Today, studies show that people rely on their emotions, rather than just information, to make final brand decisions. Emotional responses to ads are more influential on a person’s intent to buy than the content of an ad.

In Eddie Bauer’s case, their “Release the Fleece” focuses on sporty, adventurous, and smiling adults. This is the demographic E.B. is trying to grab the attention of. By showing customers what their fleece products look like “in action” on relatable and similar types of people, this further entices the potential customer to invest in a fleece product.

What Every Creative Advertising Agency Needs To Know To Endure The Digital Transformation

Photography

The power of visual communication has reached an all-time high with the rise of digital and social marketing. This is media that modern marketers use to promote their content and brands. Because of this, photography is becoming even more vital to the promotion of a product than ever before. It catches a customer’s attention, improves understanding, calls for action, and most importantly: it drives sales.

Eddie Bauer’s photographs in their fleece campaign are all outdoors. Whether the models in the fleece are hanging out along a coastal beach, casually strolling in the city, or hiking up the mountains, they make the fabric look modern and chic. This type of fabric is for cooler weather. E.B. intentionally chose the month of February to send out this ad campaign. This helps reinforce to customer that there are only a couple months left to wear fleece.

Typography

When it comes to optimizing conversion rates, marketers are more than familiar with testing various colors, images, and buttons to see how they will affect customer turnover. But what about something as seemingly insignificant as choosing a typeface? You may believe you’re in the clear as long as you’re keeping away from Comic Sans, but typography matters more than you realize. It can add that “human touch” that customers are looking for.

In Eddie Bauer’s “Relase the Fleece”, typography was kept very minimalistic. It is very easy to read in sans serif. The colors of the typography are a cool, mint green and ocean blue, both of which have spring connotations. In fact, the ocean blue hue matches the color of Eddie Bauer’s logo.

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b2b marketing

What’s Trending in Marketing For March 2019

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Staying current on recent marketing trends is an excellent way to reflect and verify whether your marketing efforts are harmonious with what’s going on in today’s ever-evolving marketplace. We’re aware that keeping up with these trends can often be difficult given the abundance of information thrown at us every day. The following articles come from popular marketing blogs, and they highlight current marketing trends that we think are worth paying attention to:

Noteworthy Marketing News

The 5 Best Ads of the 2019 Super Bowl

Bud Light, Burger King, HBO, Amazon and Hulu commercials kept things the most interesting during this year’s SuperBowl. These brand’s video ads were the ones to get the most laughs, and they got positive reactions from viewers at home. Watch the commercials and read more about the success of these commercials at AdWeek.

Google+ to Close after 7 years

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Learn About Using HubSpot Lead Flows to Improve Conversion Rates

A strategically placed pop-up can actually make it easier to convert your leads. In fact, a recent study showed that pop-ups convert 1,375 percent better than traditional opt-in forms. If you do decide to use pop-ups in an attempt to convert leads, then you should be sure to use HubSpots’s Lead Flow feature.

Check Out the Importance of Implementing Marketing Dashboards

At this point in time, most businesses realize how important data is, and how analyzing the data that they collect can provide valuable insight into the performance of their marketing tactics. The challenge lies in making those metrics easy to access, and easy to read for everyone in your company so that everyone can act on them appropriately. Fortunately, tracking data is easier than ever with the use of dashboards.
Sales lead

Read About a Guide to the Awareness Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

When it comes to addressing the buyer’s journey, making sure that you have content available that addresses the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey is vital if you expect to draw in potential customers. If you try to skip this stage, you will end up losing a substantial number of potential leads.  These leads are still looking for basic information and aren’t ready to make a purchase yet during the awareness stage.

Does Direct Marketing Have A Role In Inbound Marketing?

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends 

Visual and Voice Search Are Revitalizing The Role of SEO

The basic parts of a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy may have remained consistent for the past couple decades. However, their definition and purpose have changed entirely. Driven by trends like visual search and voice search, the industry’s scope has expanded and evolved into something more dynamic. This delivers on a genuine consumer need. According to a report from Slyce.it, 74 percent of shoppers report that text-only search is insufficient for finding products. Read more about visual and voice search at Search Engine Land.

Nielsen buys Sorensen Media, boosting Addressable TV

Nielsen logoRecently, Nielsen announced that it will acquire Sorensen Media as a a means of providing an all-encompassing addressable TV ad delivery solution. Addressable TV advertising allows marketers to “address” specific consumers with customized advertising messages. By the year 2023, it’s estimated nearly 250 million Smart TVs with addressable capabilities are expected in the market. As read in Marketing Land, Nielsen plans to combine Sorensen Media’s addressable TV platform with its Gracenote automatic content recognition (ACR) technology to “help deliver on the promise of addressable TV advertising.”

Digital ad spending to top traditional for first time

Digital ad spending in the U.S. will exceed traditional ad spending in 2019, according to a recent forecast. Much of that share will come from Google and Facebook, with Amazon gaining speed from behind. The report predicts that digital ad spending will make up more than two-thirds of total U.S. media spending by 2023. Find out more about the growth of digital ad spending at Marketing Land.

What marketers should know about Hulu’s new ‘pause’ ads

A few weeks ago, Hulu unveiled a new “non-intrusive, viewer-initiated” ad type that is displayed when viewers pause their content. Hulu is currently testing the ad with Coca-Cola and Charmin.  Hulu expects to make it available by next quarter. Read more about “pause” ads at Marketing Land.

Inbound marketing will help you grow your business by attracting website visitors, converting them into leads and closing leads into customers

Stevens & Tate Named a Top Integrated Marketing Company by Design Rush

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Here at Stevens & Tate, our goal is to help businesses of all sizes to improve their marketing efforts in a substantial way so that they can not only achieve their marketing goals, but so that they can set their sights on even bigger goals that they may not have previously thought possible. As such, we are incredibly flattered to be recognized by Design Rush on their Top 25 Integrated Marketing Companies list.

The Top Integrated Marketing Company List

Being named as a top integrated marketing company by Design Rush is an incredible honor. In order to make the list, companies have to demonstrate an exceptional ability to create cohesive digital marketing strategies by blending communication strategies that reflect a consistent message across both online and offline marketing channels. Only the very best integrated marketing companies from around the country are named to the list, so as you can imagine, it’s quite a thrill to be named to the list.

Award Winning Integrated Marketing Services

Although we are very proud of the recognition we have received from Design Rush, it’s not the first time that we’ve been awarded for the services that we offer. We have regularly received recognition as a top ad agency by Clutch as well. Clutch is a third-party company that regularly ranks B2B service providers as a service to businesses who are looking for compatible marketing partners.

Starting 2019 Strong: A third award from Clutch

These rankings are based on the work that ad agencies have done with their clients in the past. Clutch gets into contact with these clients to collect feedback and accurately review the work that was done. We currently have a perfect five-star rating on Clutch, which has earned us three awards as one of the top advertising firms in Chicago. We were also ranked as one of the top 30 advertising and marketing companies by Clutch’s sister website, The Manifest.

Our Commitment to Excellence

We understand that the recognition that we’ve received recently from Clutch in the past and from Design Rush more recently wouldn’t be possible without the strong relationships that we’ve built with our clients over the years. We strive to provide the best possible services to our clients–their marketing success is our success, which is why we will always be committed to maintaining a high standard for excellence.

To find out why we’re recognized as a top Integrated Marketing Company on Design Rush, be sure to check out their website and to take a look at what some of our clients have to say about the work we’ve done and the relationships we’ve built with them over the years.

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

What’s Trending in Marketing For February 2019

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As you begin launching any new marketing campaigns at the beginning of the year, it’s a good idea to check out some of the latest marketing trends. While some marketing trends come and go, many of them have the potential to influence your own marketing efforts for the better, not to mention that the industry certainly latches onto certain marketing trends, which means you won’t want to fall behind. The following are a few of the marketing trends that we recommend looking into this February:

Noteworthy Marketing News

Gillette Takes a Social Stance And Goes Viral

As Nike showed us last year, taking a social stance helps make your company more relatable and can have a huge effect on brand awareness. Gillette recently published a video directly addressing the Me Too movement by commentating on toxic masculinity. Consumers obviously took note as the video racked up over 11. 5 views on YouTube within three days. Watch the Gilette video and read more about it at Marketing Land.

Living Coral Named Pantone’s Color Of The Year

Every year, Pantone names a color of the year. The entire design industry takes note as Panton names the color of the year based on careful analysis of the year’s color trends. This year, living coral–a shade of pink–was named color of the year after its use by Airbnb and Apple. Read more about Pantone’s color of the year at Adweek.

Army Implements New Recruitment Strategy For Generation Z

While marketers continually focus on the Millennial generation, a new generation has already begun to mature–Generation Z. Because recruitment has dropped significantly over the past year, the Army has decided to change their strategy to connect with Generation Z more effectively–by going digital, expanding recruitment to urban centers, and by getting creative. The Washington Examiner goes into greater detail concerning what the new Army recruitment strategy entails.

Improving Your Marketing Program

Learn How to Prepare This Year’s Marketing Strategy

Now that it’s 2019, reviewing last year’s marketing campaigns and planning this year’s marketing strategy ahead of time will help ensure that you hit the ground running. We’ve outlined eight steps that will help you to prepare your 2019 marketing strategy, including reviewing last year’s strategy, reviewing your target audience, and creating new SMART goals.

Find Out What Advertising Trends Are Going to Catch On This Year

As you begin to create your new marketing strategy, you’ll want to stay ahead of the game by keeping your eye on advertising trends that are likely to catch on throughout the year. We’ve gone over a number of advertising trends that we are starting to see within the industry and that we expect will grow in popularity as the year goes on, including a bigger emphasis on voice search, the growing importance of micro-moments, the increase in visual search, and more. Head over to our site to read more about 2019 advertising trends.

Check Out How to Create a Stronger Brand By Improving Your Package Design

The design of your product’s package has a huge impact on your brand identity. Learn how to attract the eye of your target audience and how to stand out from the competition by checking out our list of package design tips by our very own Mark Beebe.

Advertising Trends That Will Catch On In 2019

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Keep an Eye on Generation Alpha

Although Generation Z is the generation that’s currently maturing, some brands are looking even further ahead by targeting kids under the age of 10 that belong to Generation Alpha. Generation Alpha is the generation of tech-savvy children of Millennials that reports have shown are having a rising influence into the purchase habits of their households. Read more about Generation Alpha’s influence at AdAge.

Mobile Users Have Better Ad Awareness While Watching TV

According to Mobile Marketer’s recent article, consumers are more receptive to mobile advertisements when they’re relaxing at home, such as in front of the TV. While this does vary based on demographics, such information can be quite helpful for marketers in identifying when to best target their audience.

Twitter’s Commitment to Ensure Brand Safety for Video Advertisers

Last year, almost half of all of Twitter’s business came from video advertising. As a result, Twitter is making a concerted effort to create a brand safe environment for its video advertisers so that they can choose which publishers they are associated with or what content genres they want to be associated with. Find out more about how Twitter is creating a brand safe environment for video advertisers at Ad Exchanger.

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mobile marketing

Mobile Marketing Trends to Keep Track of in 2019

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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 that are 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.video marketing trends

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.

5 Mobile Marketing Techniques To Build Your Ecommerce Brand

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 that are worth looking into.

A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING TECHNIQUES