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The Difference Between Landing page vs. Homepage

September 10, 2019/in Articles, Directors, Website Design /by Nicole Wagner

Once upon a time, when the web was still in its infancy, the homepage was considered the most important page on your website. While the homepage is an essential component of your website, it shouldn’t necessarily be the first page that visitors see. The webpage functions more as a way to draw visitors into the marketing funnel than anything else. Unfortunately, many businesses focus heavily on sending new leads to their homepage, which can actually be a mistake. Doing so can confuse new visitors because they won’t know where to go from there. Instead, you should be sending new visitors to a landing page. The following is a breakdown of the main differences between landing page vs. homepage.

What Is The Function Of A Homepage?

The homepage is the page that should occupy your root domain. For example, if someone types in www.yourwebsitename.com, it should take them to your homepage. When you add a link to your main social media profiles, you want it to direct users to your homepage. This is because the main function of your homepage is to provide an overview of your company. Visitors should get an idea of who your business is and what services you provide. It should also act as the main hub of your website from which visitors can explore at their own pace — meaning, you should have links to all other important pages on your homepage. Last, but not least, your homepage should inform visitors as to how they can get in touch with you.

What Is The Function Of A Landing Page?

Landing pages are pages that are specifically designed to receive traffic from specific sources. For example, if you run a PPC ad, users who click on that ad should be taken to a landing page. That landing page should be specifically designed for that particular ad. For example, if the ad is for a special discount on a specific product, your landing page should reflect that. If you send the user who clicked on that ad to your homepage instead, they would simply be confused. You’re basically forcing them to go on a search for the ad’s offer without any clear directions as to where to go.

Landing pages are created to stay focused on a single topic or offer and encourage visitors to take specific actions, such as filling out a form or downloading an offer, to name a couple of examples. A landing page shouldn’t have links to other pages unless they’re relevant to the action you want them to take. Adding irrelevant links to your landing page can distract visitors from what you want them to do.

Landing pages can be created for all kinds of marketing efforts, including not just PPC ads but also for different CTAs that you include in your blog posts. These landing pages may not be a permanent part of your website either.

Similar Article: 5 Types of Landing Pages To Increase Your Lead Conversion Rate

The Main Difference Between Landing Page Vs. Homepage

When it comes down to it, the homepage is an overview of your business that introduces visitors to your marketing funnel, whereas a landing page helps to convert visitors immediately by prompting specific actions. Although your homepage isn’t the end all be all of your website like it was during the early days of the Internet, it still plays an important part in your marketing efforts. However, it’s important to understand when it’s more appropriate to send visitors to a landing page instead of your homepage.

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

6 Mobile Marketing Tips

September 6, 2019/in Articles, Directors, Mobile Advertising /by Nicole Wagner

The mobile market has skyrocketed over the past decade. It’s estimated that around 96 percent of all American adults own a cellphone and that 81 percent of Americans own smartphones. That’s more than the number of Americans that own desktops or laptops. It’s also estimated that around 20 percent of American adults access the Internet solely through their smartphones. As such, it’s no surprise that businesses both big and small are focusing more and more on mobile marketing. At this point in time, the mobile market accounts for almost 75 percent of all digital advertising spending. Keeping all of this in mind, the following are six mobile market tips to help strengthen your mobile marketing strategy:

1. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly

Your mobile marketing strategy is going to fall flat on its face if your main site isn’t mobile-friendly. Few mobile users are going to be patient with your site if it has trouble loading on their phones. Not to mention that if your site doesn’t display properly or is difficult for mobile users to navigate, it will hurt your mobile SEO. The best way to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly is to use a responsive design and to design it with mobile use in mind.

2. Improve Your Local SEO

People often use their smartphones while on the go in order to look up products, services, or businesses within their vicinity. By strengthening your local SEO, you improve your chances of being found during these searches. You can improve your local SEO in a number of ways, including by using local keywords, creating local-based content, submitting your NAP to local directories, and by setting up a Google My Business page. mobile market

3. Advertise Promotions Through Text

Sending promotional content through email is often unsuccessful. This is because many people receive so many emails that they often miss your emails — not to mention that they may just choose to ignore it if they can tell it’s promotional. If you get leads to subscribe to SMS marketing, then you can text them promotions instead. Texts are much more likely to be seen and opened.

4. Invest In Video Content

Watching video content has never been easier with the use of smartphones. In fact, more than half of all mobile traffic is used for video. As a result, creating video content is an excellent way to engage your mobile audience.

Similar Article: The Importance of Implementing a Marketing Dashboard

5. Use QR Codes In Store

QR codes can be scanned to bring mobile users to a specific page. For example, putting QR codes in your store that take users to a discount page can help motivate them to make a purchase. It also encourages customers to continue engaging with your brand. One way you can do this is by having a QR code for your Facebook page at your checkout. You can also put QR codes on your website. This will allow mobile users to quickly scan the QR code on their computer to direct them to your site on their smartphone.

6. Optimize For Micro Moments

Micro-moments are those moments in which people use their phones to look something specific up. For example, quickly looking up the weather before heading out of the house is a micro-moment. These micro-moments happen all day long, which is why you should optimize your content to address potential micro-moments that are relevant to your business. You can do this by creating bite-sized content that’s both easy to consume and visually stimulating.

If you haven’t implemented a mobile marketing strategy yet, then you need to do so soon. Without an effective mobile marketing strategy, you’re limiting your audience reach greatly. Be sure to keep these six mobile marketing tips to keep in mind, whether developing or strengthening your mobile marketing strategy.

A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING TECHNIQUES

5 Simple Facebook Advertising Strategies

August 28, 2019/in Advertising Agency, Articles, Directors /by Nicole Wagner

Facebook has an enormous user base that’s only continuing to grow every month. As of the first quarter of 2019, Facebook boasted 2.37 billion active monthly users — up 55 million from the previous quarter. Additionally, roughly 1.56 billion users are logging into Facebook on a daily basis. These are numbers that no marketer can ignore, which is why you should be using Facebook Ads. However, just because Facebook has a big audience doesn’t mean that you’ll reach your target audience. It’s why you need to put some time into crafting an effective Facebook advertising strategy. The following are five Facebook advertising strategies that will help you reach your target audience:

1. Target Life Events

Depending on what your business is, you can target users based on major life events. Users commonly share big life events, such as if they bought a new house, got engaged, had a new baby, moved to a new city, or got a new job. Facebook is well aware of this, which is why it offers advertisers a Life Events parameter. You can select what life event you’re targeting and the date range from that event that the event will remain relevant. For example, if you’re a moving company, you might want to target users who have just closed on a new home within a three-month range. If you’re a jeweler, you may want to target newly engaged users within a year of their engagement.

2. Target Custom Audiences

Another unique feature that you can use on Facebook is the ability to target Custom Audiences. The feature works by uploading who you want to target, such as a customer phone list, an email list, or even your Facebook followers list. You can then specifically target these audiences. Doing this can be an excellent way to increase your lifetime customer value and to boost brand loyalty. You can also choose to specifically exclude the list you upload if your goal is to target completely new leads. facebook advertising strategy

3. Use Geo-Targeting

As you can imagine, targeting all of Facebook’s 2.37 billion monthly users is a ridiculous idea. This is especially true if you’re running a local business that provides a local service. This means that targeting an audience in a different country or even a different state is going to be a waste of time. Geo-targeting allows you to target users who are located within the vicinity of your physical location or the locations that you serve.

4. Retarget Engaged Users

Retargeting users who have engaged with your brand via Facebook in some way can be effective for a number of reasons. First of all, they’re aware of your brand. Secondly, they’ve shown interest through interaction. For example, if you ran a Facebook video ad campaign, then you can retarget users that watched the video all the way through with an additional call-to-action.

Similar Article: How Much To Advertise on Instagram And Why It ‘s Worth The Cost

5. Take Advantage Of Look Alike-Audiences

Lookalike Audiences lets you mirror your Custom Audience list or Facebook following. By doing this, you’ll target a completely new audience that has a lot in common with your current leads and customers. You’ll be able to expand past your reach while still targeting users with specific profiles.

These are five ways you can implement a Facebook advertising strategy that will allow you to effectively target your audience. Just keep in mind that these strategies work best if you’ve already done the basics. This means developing your buyer personas, understanding who your target audience actually is, and establishing the main goals of your Facebook ad campaign.

Why You Should Invest In RTB Advertising As Part Of Your Paid Advertising Campaign

August 20, 2019/in Articles, Directors /by Dan Gartlan

In this day and age, there are countless ways that you can run ads. Even if you don’t take into account traditional advertising (such as running newspaper ads or magazine ads), there seem to be new online advertising opportunities popping up every day. For example, in addition to running banner and popup ads on certain websites, you can also target your audience more effectively using Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, or Twitter Ads. While you may have already invested in these types of advertising campaigns, there’s one other advertising opportunity that you should look in to — RTB advertising.

What Is RTB Advertising?

RTB (Real Time Bidding) advertising refers to a process in which online impressions are bought and sold during real-time auctions within the few seconds that it takes to load a webpage. These auctions are ran by supply-side platforms or ad exchanges. The way it works is relatively straight forward. During the few seconds that an ad impression loads, information about the webpage that’s loading and the person viewing the page is sent to the ad exchange. The ad exchange then auctions the impression off to whoever is willing to pay the most for it. The winning bid will get their ad onto the webpage almost instantly. This entire process takes milliseconds to execute.

Advertisers make a number of decisions prior to bidding based on what websites they will appear on and the previous history and behavior of the user viewing the page. Such decisions include what ad impressions they want to purchase and how much to bid on them. The cost of each impression will be determined in real time based on what bidders are willing to pay.

How To Transition From Traditional Advertising to Inbound Marketing

How Is RTB Advertising Different Than Programmatic Advertising?

Programmatic advertising is a process in which the buying and selling of online ads is automated. As such, it’s not difficult to see why you might think that RTB advertising is the same thing; however, it’s not. While RTB advertising is a type of programmatic advertising, not all programmatic advertising involves real-time bidding. For example, some programmatic ad platforms allow publishers to sell their inventory of ad space for a fixed price ahead of time instead of auctioning it off in real time.

Why Should You Invest In RTB Advertising?

You don’t have to work directly with publishers. There is no more wasting time negotiating ad prices with individual publishers. You can simply use ad exchanges to access a massive inventory of impressions across a huge number of sites.
RTB advertising is more cost-effective. Because you have access to a big inventory of impressions, you can choose what impressions are most valuable to you. This helps reduce the number of impressions that go to waste on the wrong users.
Reach niche audiences. Because of RTB advertising’s use of cookie matching to obtain user information, you can more effectively target niche audiences with your RTB ads.
RTB advertising fits any ad campaign and budget. RTB advertising can be an effective strategy no matter what size your ad campaign is or how big of a budget you have.
Obtain valuable data. Over the course of an RTB advertising campaign, you can collect valuable data on your marketing campaigns. This data can help you to determine what types of ads drive the most engagement, what websites perform better, and more.

RTB advertising is not only a cost-effective way to run an online advertising campaign, but it’s also incredibly effective when it comes to advertising to your target audience. As such, it’s well worth looking into RTB advertising if you haven’t done so already.

What is an Ad Exchange and How Does it Work?

August 14, 2019/in Advertising Agency, Articles, Directors /by Nicole Wagner

Before ad exchanges began popping up, the only way for marketers to purchase ad space online was directly through publishers. This process was not very cost-effective. It was also time-consuming. As new ways to purchase advertising space online have popped up, including programmatic ads and RTB (real-time bidding) ads, so have ad exchanges. Ad exchanges have made it much easier to buy ad space that’s both more effective and more efficient. But what is an ad exchange, exactly?

What is an Ad Exchange?

An ad exchange is an online marketplace for ad space that functions as an auction. Publishers (such as website owners) make their digital advertising space available. Then, advertising agencies and marketers then purchase this ad space through the ad exchange. It’s worth noting that ad exchanges are autonomous, meaning that they aren’t on the side of either the buyers or the sellers.

While ad exchanges are simple for publishers and advertisers to use, the way they actually function can be a bit complex. When a publisher lists ad space on an ad exchange, they provide details that include the page location, audience, topics, and URL. When somebody visits the publisher’s website or mobile app, data about that user is collected. That user data is transferred to the ad exchange. The ad exchange then sends a bid request to DSPs and ad networks. Each DSP inspects the bid request and the parameters of the advertiser to decide of the impression will be relevant to the advertiser. If it is, the maximum bid amount will be sent back to the ad exchange along with the location of the advertising copy to be placed in the ad space.

The ad exchange will review all the bids, eliminating bids from advertisers that don’t meet the publisher’s requirements. The impression will then go to the highest bidder. Their copy will then be displayed on the publisher’s website in front of the user that’s visiting the website. As complicated as this process may appear to be, it takes milliseconds for it to occur.

What Are Marketing Qualified Leads And Why Do They Matter?

The Benefits of Using an Ad Exchange

The use of an ad exchange provides benefits to both publishers and advertisers. The following are a few of the advantages publishers have when using an ad exchange:

Establish the minimum CPMs (cost per mile, which refers to the cost per thousand impressions) for their inventory units.
Filter and block ads that have sensitive content or that are ads for competitors.
Choose the ad format and style, thereby defining what types of ads can appear on their webpage.
Choose where the ads will be displayed on their webpages.
Customize combinations of fonts, colors, and corner style. They can then apply these combinations to multiple display ads at a time.

Ad exchanges don’t just benefit the publishers. They also benefit advertisers who are buying ad space in the following ways:

Choose targeting options, behavioral profiling, price settings, and bidding capabilities.
Blacklist certain audiences.
Blacklist certain publishers.
Place limits on the number of times the same ad appears to the same user.
Retarget across multiple ad exchanges.

Ad exchanges are incredibly effective because they provide advertisers with a lot of control over where their ads will be seen, who will see them, and how much they are paying for those impressions. They also help you save a significant amount of time finding ad space in general. As such, ad exchanges are well worth looking into.

5 Innovative Marketing Ideas To Use In 2019

August 8, 2019/in Articles, Directors, Video Marketing /by Mark Beebe

When it comes to inbound marketing, it can be somewhat easy to fall into a pattern. If you feel like your marketing efforts are just more of the same, then it might be time to take a fresh approach. You want to stand out from your competition, after all. The following are five innovative marketing ideas that you should consider implementing into your inbound marketing strategy in 2019:

1. Create Eye-Catching Lists

Lists are popular because of how easy they are to read. Audiences can just scan lists and still get the general gist of the content. They’re particularly effective at keeping the attention of readers. Just make sure you format your lists into sections and use visuals for each item on the list for an even bigger impact.

2. Reference Current Pop Culture

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that referencing pop culture is tacky or that it will date your content. As long as the pop culture you’re referencing is relevant to your target audience, it can actually help to engage your audience on a deeper level. For example, you could use the meme of a popular TV show that you know your target audience is familiar with to add a bit of flair to a blog post. Just make sure you keep your buyer persona in mind when you do this.

Local SEO Marketing In 2019: 5 Easy Tips To Dominate Local Search

3. Use More Images

Written content can become stale simply because it’s not visual. Make it a point to use images to break up the text of written content. The longer the text is, the more images you should use. Images help give the eye a break, make the content more interesting to consume overall, and give readers an idea of what the content is about by simply glancing at the images. Even if you’re crafting a white paper or an eBook, using images to break up your text will go a long way towards making it easier to read.

4. Leverage Older Studies For New Content

There is a massive amount of old studies available online no matter what industry you’re in. Many of these studies are not outdated even though they may be older. Look for older studies

that have relevant information and leverage that information for new content. Not only can you use the data to back up new content, but you could even highlight the data on its own in the form of new infographics or other types of visual content (just be sure to cite your sources).

5. Create Time-Lapse Videos

Video content is the most effective content there is because of how easily consumable it is. People love watching video content and do so on their phones on a daily basis (as long as that video content is on the shorter side). Time-lapse videos are extremely effective because they’re basically videos that are displayed in fast motion, making them even easier for viewers to consume. Time-lapse videos tend to be on the shorter side, which is perfect for present-day audiences, which have shorter attention spans (which is why social platforms like Snapchat are so popular). There are lots of ways that you can create time-lapse videos as well, from showing how products are made to the showing the effects of a product over time (for example, showing a stain remover product removing a stain from a carpet).

You should always be on the lookout for innovative marketing ideas to keep things fresh and to keep your audience interested and engaged. These are five innovative marketing ideas that can help to inject some life into a marketing campaign that might be growing a little bit stale.

Chatbot Examples: How Businesses are Successfully Using Chatbots

July 30, 2019/in Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Mark Beebe

Businesses are constantly looking for ways to engage with their audience in any way they can. The more you engage with them, the more effectively you can nurture them. It’s one of the reasons why companies are beginning to implement chatbots more and more. Chatbots are a form of artificial intelligence (AI) that engage with website users via a messenger. Chatbots use data such as user information and behavior to personalize interactions. They are a great way to keep visitors engaged as they navigate your site by answering basic questions and providing assistance any hours of the day. Considering how popular online messengers are in general (Facebook Messenger alone has more than 1.2 billion monthly users), it should come as no surprise that chatbots are a form of customer service people appreciate. The following are some chatbot examples.

Types of Chatbots

When it comes to implementing a chatbot, it’s important to know that there two main types to choose from: a simple chatbot and a smart chatbot. The following is a brief rundown of their differences:

Simple Chatbots – Simple chatbots work by implementing a series of commands written by the developer based on pre-written keywords. Basically, the chatbot will only understand a user query if it contains one of these pre-written keywords. If a user engages with the chatbot but doesn’t use any of these keywords, it will automatically respond with something like “I do not understand.” It’s a very basic chatbot, but it can still be useful for answering simple questions.
Smart Chatbots – Smart chatbots use AI to communicate to users. Instead of replying to user queries and responses with pre-prepared answers, a smart chatbot will respond with appropriate suggestions on the topic. The words of the user will also be recorded for additional data.

How Major Brands Use Chatbots

Now that you have a better understanding of what chatbots are, the following are a few examples of how some of the more well-known companies have adapted chatbots and why they have been so effective for them:

Adobe – The Adobe chatbot helps users troubleshoot issues by responding to questions with links to pages that contain the solutions. It’s a no-frills chatbot, but it’s one that users can rely on when they have questions or issues.
Arsenal FC – The London based Arsenal soccer team has a chatbot that provides users with real-time updates about ongoing games. It is useful for anyone who can’t catch the game on TV. Their chatbot also provides information about upcoming games, team line-ups, and team-related news.
Universal Studios – The chatbot used by Universal Studios in hugely helpful in a number of ways. First, it can provide a significant amount of information while users are at one of their parks, such as where the nearest restroom is or what the wait times are for certain rides in real time. It also gives users the chance to speak with a human representative if the chatbot can’t provide the answer they’re looking for.
Dominos – Dominos lets its customers order food through its chatbot. It’s like someone is taking their order over text. The chatbot asks customers what they want and will follow up with specific questions about customization options. It’s particularly customer-friendly because customers don’t have to download or sign-up for anything. The chatbot can also save your preferences for future orders.

These few successful chatbot examples show just how helpful using chatbots can be, especially when it comes to improving your customer service.

How Businesses Are Using Brand Ambassador Programs To Increase Brand Awareness And Trust

July 22, 2019/in Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

Generating brand awareness and building brand trust are two major marketing goals all businesses have. One of the most effective ways to achieve these goals is by encouraging loyal customers to increase brand awareness and trust on your behalf. This is because positive word-of-mouth can be incredibly powerful, and because consumers tend to trust one another when it comes to brand recommendations. As a result, many businesses have established brand ambassador programs in order to turn their loyal customers into official ambassadors.

What are Brand Ambassadors?

Brand ambassadors are consumers who work closely with you to advocate your brand. Companies generally choose loyal customers who already have a history recommending your brand, and also have some online influence. Someone with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram is going to be more effective as a brand ambassador than someone who only has LinkedIn and a handful of connections.

Having brand ambassadors can influence their followers by recommending your products or services, incite conversations about your brand, and create content on your behalf. For example, a brand ambassador on Instagram might post a picture wearing a jacket your company sells.

To take advantage of brand ambassadors, you’ll want to establish a brand ambassador program. You’ll need to do a lot of research to identify individuals who will make good brand ambassadors. Consider making the program membership exclusive. People are more likely to take their brand ambassadorship seriously if they know that not just anyone can be one of your brand ambassadors. Additionally, you’ll need to provide some sort of compensation, whether you actually pay them or you give them free products. Many companies will provide their brand ambassadors with new products before they’re even available to the masses.

Examples of Successful Brand Ambassador Programs

The following are some of the most successful brand ambassador programs launched by some of the biggest companies:

• Red Bull – Red Bull’s brand ambassador program is called the Wings Team. They focus on students who have an exciting lifestyle to turn their brand into a lifestyle brand. Because their ambassadors are students, they are able to reach a college audience much more effectively.
• Lululemon – Lululemon essentially uses its brand ambassador program to sponsor local athletes, yoga instructors, and influencers. They provide incentive by partnering with their ambassadors to support their local philanthropic projects and initiatives.
• American Express – American Express has a brand ambassador program filled with social media influencers. They target travel and lifestyle influencers in particular since they showcase a luxurious lifestyle — one that obviously benefits from the extensive use of a credit card. They not only showcase the use of their American Express credit cards, but the rewards that they can obtain from their regular use as well.

Even the biggest companies in the world recognize the value of a brand ambassador. If you have loyal customers, then you should encourage them to become brand ambassadors by implementing a brand ambassador program. Use these three examples as an inspiration to set up your own brand ambassador program today.

What Are the Real Customer Benefits of AI?

July 8, 2019/in Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Terry Becker

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more prevalent in the technology of today, from virtual assistants, such as Alexa and Siri, to Google’s self-driving cars. AI also sorts through massive amounts of data for businesses of all sizes. This technology can also eliminate repetitive tasks. Thought the benefits of using AI are apparent for business, it may not be as obvious as to how the customer benefits. The following are a few ways that the use of AI can help your customers:

Improve Customer Service

As much as you would like to have somebody waiting to speak with every person that comes to your website, that’s going to be impossible to do. A queue of users could build up waiting to speak with someone, which could harm their customer service experience. Not to mention that people will visit your site after business hours as well. Chatbots address the questions and concerns of your customers immediately. Chatbots can be programmed to answer basic questions, thereby preventing users from abandoning your site or waiting for a response.

Personalize Your Interactions

Not only can you segment your email list by the information that users have submitted to you, but you can further personalize emails through dynamic content, ensuring that the content users receive will be tailored to their specific needs and actions. You can even personalize interactions through your live chat or chatbots feature by tracking user behavior.

Help Customers Find What They Need

You can trigger certain product or service recommendations based on users’ purchase history or what they’re looking for. AI helps your customers discover relevant products or services they may not have known about.

Improve Customer Experience

There are AI tools that can not only collect user feedback so that you can identify ways in which you can improve their experience, but that can also track user behavior to identify problem areas on your site (for example, maybe a significant amount of people are abandoning their shopping cart without checking out). You can use this information to improve your customer experience.

The use of AI is growing in all facets of life. AI can be especially useful when it comes to providing customer benefits. These are just a few of the ways you can benefit your customers through the use of AI.

What’s Trending in Marketing for July 2019

July 1, 2019/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Trending /by Nicole Wagner

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

Microsoft Just Dealt A Blow To Google’s Ad Blocking Plans

Google announced their plans to restrict ad blocking Chrome extensions. This means that ad blockers, like uBlock origin, won’t work on the Google Chrome browser. This update will come in the upcoming months and some Chrome users have made it clear that they’ll move to another browser if Google carries out that plan. Microsoft has responded by reaching out to their users to see if they’d like Ad Blockers built into the new version of the Microsoft Edge browser. You can learn more about this story on Forbes.

Instagram advertisers can now convert organic influencer posts into ads

Instagram confirmed in March that it’s testing a new ad format. It’s going to be possible for brands to create ads using organic posts from the influencers they have relationships with. Marketing Land writes, “Before brands can use influencer posts as ads, the content creator must grant their business partners (the brands they have relationships with) access to promote their posts. Once the creator — or influencer — has done this via their Advanced Settings page, brands will see the influencer’s posts in the Ads Manager under “Existing Posts” and can run the content as an ad within the Instagram newsfeed or Stories format.”

Comcast partners with Charter, Cox to advance targeted advertising

Comcast launched an advertising strategy that will target audiences better in an effort to lure more advertisers away from digital platforms like Facebook and Google. The initiative is called “On Addressability” and the aim is to target advertisements to certain households based on their interests. So far, this has only been done on a small scale in TV advertising. TV is the best way to reach a lot of people at once, but it lacks the big data that digital platforms use. Learn more about this story at Yahoo.

Improving Your Marketing Program

Emotional Advertising: How Brands Use Feelings to Get People to Buy

Informing your audience is important. You want potential buyers to understand what their problem is, and how your products or services can solve that problem. Unfortunately, people don’t generally make purchases based on information alone. It turns out that people are more prone to making emotional purchases than informed purchases. It’s why commercials consist of much more than an explanation of a product’s use. Instead they use emotional advertising to target the viewer. It’s effective, and it’s why connecting with your audience on an emotional level will benefit your marketing strategy.

Simple Ways that Small Businesses Can Use Data to Build Better Customer Relationships

In this day and age, it’s pretty difficult for consumers to not be inundated with dozens of advertisements. As such, targeting your audience has become more important than ever, especially when it comes to running a smaller business. The most effective way to target your audience is to make use of the consumer data that you have access to. Knowing how to use the data you have can go a long way towards building customer relationships.

However, having consumer data is a lot different than knowing how to make it actionable, which can make the data you have very intimidating. The following are the three steps that you should take to so that you can leverage your data to build strong customer relationships.

What Are Behavioral Biometrics and How Do They Fit Into Marketing?

Companies often hold focus groups in order to get direct feedback about products, services, and even website experiences. The only drawback to such focus groups is that people often aren’t sure how to articulate what they feel about certain things. However, new biometric technology, such as eye-tracking software, has made it easier to determine exactly how someone feels about a website experience at any given moment–and they can allow you to do so without holding a focus group.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Almost 70% of digital ad spending going to Google, Facebook, Amazon, says analyst firm

Google, Facebook, and Amazon are collecting more than 2/3rds of all digital ad spending. Between the 3 companies, this is about $73 billion. Amazon owns 38% of e-commerce, which is down from almost 50% a year ago.

These numbers matter greatly as the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice will begin antitrust investigation of Facebook, Google, and Amazon in the upcoming 12-18 months. More about this story can be found on Marketing Land.

Political Ad Spending Will Approach $10 Billion in 2020, New Forecast Predicts

A new report predicts that spending on political advertisements will reach a new high in 2020. According to the forecast, political ad spending will total $9.9 billion in 2020. In 2016, $6.3 billion was spent on political ads. Political ad spending in 2018 accounted for 2% of total digital ad spending in the US and it’s projected to increase to 2.2% in 2020. Learn more about this story on WSJ.

Survey finds 89% of marketers seeing increased sales using location data

700 U.S. based mobile marketers from 536 consumer brands and 164 agencies took part in this 2019 survey. The survey found that about 9 in 10 marketers plan to use location data in the future to increase sales. However, of those surveyed, only 24% are using or plan to use location data for store visitation or offline measurement.

This report shows that location data is becoming a popular horizontal tool for audience segmentation and targeting across channels. Learn more about this report at Marketing Land.