Blog Archives - Page 13 of 14 - Stevens & Tate Marketing

Eddie Bauer’s “Release the Fleece” Ad Campaign

March 21, 2019/in Articles, Blog, Directors /by Dan Gartlan

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 Advertisement

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.

A Guide to the Awareness Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

March 7, 2019/in Attraction Marketing, Behavioral Marketing, Blog /by Nicole Wagner

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.

What Is The Awareness Stage Of The Buyer’s Journey?

Before you can start presenting one of your products or services as a solution, the consumer needs to know what their problem is. Otherwise, they’ll have no need for your solution. During the awareness stage, consumers know they have a problem but they don’t necessarily understand. They will likely be doing very general searches on Google and other search engines. They are attempt ing to learn more about the problem that they are dealing with.

For example, a consumer might notice that their current computer isn’t running properly or is having obvious problems. They are likely going to begin doing some basic research. For example, maybe their computer keeps freezing up. They may look up things like:

Why is my computer freezing?
Does my computer need repairs?
How to fix my computer?
Do I need to replace my computer?

[Read about how to use the buyer’s journey to create great content]

They’ll explore content online that addresses such questions. This is so they can figure out exactly what their problem is by reading about examples of their problem. This can also help identify the cause of their problem. Only once they have gotten through the awareness stage and have managed to become more informed about their problem will they begin seeking out potential solutions.

Creating Content For The Awareness Stage Of The Buyer’s Journey

You will want to make sure you create a range of content that addresses the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey. This content should be optimized for SEO using keywords that your audience will use in their searches during the awareness stage. Keep in mind that during this stage of the buyer’s journey, you’re not attempting to sell anything. Rather, you are merely trying to attract potential customers. You can do so by providing content that is helpful, informative, and relevant to their needs. By providing content that helps your audience to identify what their problem is, you’ll be in a better position to recommend a solution.

Short-form blog content that’s highly focused on identifying the problem will be particularly helpful since it will be easy for consumers to scan. For example, if you were to create content addressing a consumer’s issue with a freezing computer, you might publish blog articles such as:

5 Reasons Your Computer is Freezing
How to Prevent Your Computer From Freezing
5 Signs Your Computer Needs Repairs
5 Signs You Need to Replace Your Computer

Video content works well too, especially for mobile users. In the case of this example, it would be particularly beneficial for mobile users since their computers are on the fritz. In addition to short-form content, you’ll want to offer long-form content. This includes eBooks and white papers, which goes into greater detail that consumers can download in return for joining your email list. If your content is good enough, they’ll be more trusting of your brand and will continue doing research on your site.

The awareness stage of the buyer’s journey is where you attract new leads to your brand and provide helpful content. This content can help inform them about their pain points. It’s only once you’ve addressed the awareness stage that you can begin to present potential solutions to your audience, which is where the consideration stage comes in.

Learn To Use Social Media To Find New Leads

Mobile Marketing Trends to Keep Track of in 2019

January 29, 2019/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Mark Beebe

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.

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.

Mobile Marketing Trends To Keep Track Of In 2018

August 23, 2018/in Articles, Blog, Digital Media, Directors, Mobile Advertising, Video Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

What’s Trending In Marketing For August 2018

August 1, 2018/in Articles, Blog, Brand Story Telling, Directors, News & Insights, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

This week in inbound marketing we look at Amazon’s incredible success on Prime Day that made history in all categories. Read more on the changes and trends happening in marketing this past month.

Noteworthy Marketing News

Facebook To Begin Testing New ‘Highlights’ Feature That Lets Users Save Stories

Taking a page out of Snapchat’s playbook and making it their own, Facebook has begun testing a new “Highlights” feature that will give users the option to save Stories to their profiles. Unlike Snapchat, Facebook’s feature will allow users to save their Stories beyond the standard 24-hour period a Story exists. Your saved Stories will appear as a horizontal bar on the user’s profile and display view counts as well. Facebook believes this feature will not only give users the opportunity to hold on to their favorite content, but will also “make it easier to express who you are through memories.”

Instagram Testing Open-Ended Questions In Stories To Make Content More Interactive

In an attempt to make content more interactive on their app, Instagram is testing a new feature in which users can add open-ended questions in stories according to a recent write-up on Marketing Land. Instagram currently allows users to post polls with multiple-choice answers, but with this new feature, Instagram is hoping to increase engagement between users, while giving brands the opportunity to have more public conversations with followers.

Snapchat Partners With 4 News Discovery Platforms To Help Push Content Beyond The App

According to an article on Marketing Land, Snapchat has decided to partner with four news discovery platforms (NewsWhip, Tagboard, SAM Desk, and Storyful) used by media organizations to spread their news-related content on a wider scale and basis outside the app. The partnership will allow the four platforms to use Snapchat’s Story Kit Integrations to access and deliver news content posted within the app to thousands of storytellers and newsrooms. Along with Snapchat, the platforms will also be able to access content that is present on the app’s Discovery channels like NBC News and BuzzFeed to name a few.

Improving Your Marketing Program

20 Tips To Improve Your Website Redesign Process

Whether you like it or not, your website is often the first impression your audience gets of your business and your offering, so keeping your website up to date with today’s technological changes in mind is crucial if you want to draw in your target consumer. Our own Nicole Wagner offers an abundance of tips to help you improve your website redesign process.

Today, the majority of marketers and brands recognize the value of implementing a social media strategy when it comes to engaging and connecting with their audience. In an article she wrote, Nicole Wagner presents the best social media practices to get the most out of those popular platforms.

What Is Digital Storytelling: How To Improve Your Efforts

Storytelling plays an important role when it comes to presenting your products or services as a solution, while also helping consumers relate to your business on a deeper level. Similar to storytelling, digital storytelling involves using strategies across all online platforms to communicate your message to your audience. Dan Gartlan offers strategies for how to improve your digital storytelling efforts to build strong relationships with consumers.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Even With All The Glitches, Prime Day 2018 Proves To Be Amazon’s Biggest Sales Day Ever

Amazon has done it again. According to a recent post on Marketing Land, Amazon reported that this year’s Prime Day was the biggest sales day ever surpassing last year’s sales as well as its Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales. Despite the glitches it faced, the company sold over 100 million products, and in the first nine hours gained more Prime members than any other day of the year in Amazon’s history. The products that sold the most worldwide were all Amazon devices—Alexa Voice Remote, the Echo Dot, and the Amazon Fire Stick.

Discover how to improve your brand marketing strategy using Amazon Alexa

How Overstock.com Created A Multipurpose Video Campaign

The digital era we are living in today has made it difficult to distinguish between brand and performance campaigns. For brands with dual goals, a multipurpose campaign might be the answer. In an article published on Think With Google, Overstock.com, the online home goods and furniture retailer, decided to experiment with mixing direct-response strategies with regular brand creative. Interestingly enough, the return on ad spending for the campaign was 3X its other campaigns—the result was enough to make them reconsider how they would normally approach digital video.

Senior living industry leaders attended the Senior Living Innovation Forum, a conference that takes place every June to discuss a variety of topics centered on the senior housing industry. Several attendees shared their insights and concerns about the future of the industry, and recognized that in order to fit in with the current times, companies and investors need to shift their attitudes and accept a new business model if they aspire to create larger market opportunities and increase innovation as well.

Content Marketing Trends to Track in 2018

July 12, 2018/in Articles, Blog, Content Marketing, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Nicole Wagner

Content marketing is a long-term strategy. As such, you need to make sure that you track your content’s performance and regularly adjust your strategy. This is especially true as new content marketing trends emerge every year that could be beneficial to your brand’s marketing efforts. The following are nine content marketing trends that you should seriously consider adopting:

Live video content is becoming more popular– Streaming live content provides audiences with a feeling of exclusivity since they have to tune in during the live stream or miss out. This can be a very powerful draw. Additionally, live content gives you the opportunity to show your authenticity and to build stronger connections with your audience.
Content is going beyond social – While social media remains one of the most effective ways to engage with consumers, you should find ways to interact and build relationships beyond social, such as via in-person events, email marketing, membership sites, and more.
Original content is becoming more important – Traditional advertisements, branded emails and sponsored posts have their place, but they are no longer as effective as they once were. This is because consumers have caught on and are in search of content that is unique and relevant to them. Producing original content will give you a competitive advantage.
Content is becoming more interactive– Engagement is extremely important when it comes to content, which is why more brands are creating content that is interactive through the use of augmented reality and virtual reality. For example, both can be leveraged to demonstrate services and products in stores or at trade booths.
Vertical content– When creating video content, the natural impulse is to shoot horizontally. However, because more consumers are using their smartphones to browse the Internet (more than 50 percent of Internet users are browsing on their smartphones), creating vertical content allows them to view your videos more conveniently.
Formats for consumption are changing– Simply posting content to your blog on a weekly basis will no longer cut it. You need a comprehensive content marketing strategy that implements everything from copywriting to graphic design to video production across all platforms.
Content is expanding beyond the screen– The Internet has already expanded beyond the screen in the form of the IoT (Internet of Things). Content creation for IoT platforms, such as Alexa, Siri and the like, isn’t far behind.
Content is shifting to converged media – Content is shifting away from being solely owned media to becoming a combination of owned, paid and earned media, to the point where you can no longer tell the difference between the three. This is a result of social media’s role in content consumption.
Content will become important at every stage of the buyer’s journey– Instead of focusing on content for the first stage of the buyer’s journey, you should be creating content for every stage, especially the middle-end. For example, the first stage (the awareness stage) should have content identifying the needs and problems of the customer and information on the causes behind them. The second stage (the consideration stage) should have content that addresses how the problem can be solved or how the need can be fulfilled. The last stage is the decision stage, in which your content should present your product or service as the solution. Having content that addresses each stage will make it easier to nurture your customers through the buyer’s journey.

Looking for more trends? Click here.

It’s important that you stay up to date with the latest content marketing trends so that you can adopt new strategies and adjust old ones to ensure that your content marketing is successful over the long term.

4 Competitive Advantage Examples That Could Improve Your Marketing Efforts

July 10, 2018/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

One of the goals of any good marketing campaign is to set yourself apart from the competition. This is done by showcasing a unique selling proposition, which tells consumers exactly what makes the product or service that you’re offering unique. However, you can’t just stop there. At this point, every competently run business is going to have their own unique selling proposition.

To truly stand out, you’re going to have to figure out what your competitive advantages are as a brand and leverage them in order to enhance your marketing efforts and boost your brand reputation. The following are a few competitive advantage examples:

1. Pricing

If you’re able to provide value at a lower price than your competitors, then that is a big advantage in itself. Many businesses will find ways to cut down on their operational costs so that they can lower the price of their products or services to the point where their competitors can’t afford to match. This kind of cost leadership is advertised by many businesses whenever they have it. Think of McDonald’s dollar menu or the “every day low prices” that Walmart advertises. These are companies that have successfully leveraged their cost leadership in their advertising.

2. Product Or Service Differentiation

Product or service differentiation refers to the ability to provide better benefits than your competitors. For example, being able to deliver a product to consumers faster than anyone else via same day shipping is a form of differentiation. Differentiation is typically achieved through product or service innovation, the quality of customer service that’s provided, or by the quality of their products or services. Another example would be a roofing contractor offering a longer warranty on their repair work than any of their competitors.

3. Processes

The processes employed by your business can be a huge competitive advantage. For example, if you have sole access to technology and partnerships that allow you to manufacture your product and get it shipped out quickly in a cost-efficient manner, then you may not only have a competitive advantage, you may have on that is sustainable as well. Other processes may work as competitive advantages as well, such as the ability to provide 24/7 customer service.

4. Authority

Authority is something that can only be built over time and which is often done by providing consumers with valuable content that helps to establish your authority and by extending your reach by regularly engaging with your audience. As an authority, you’ll become an influencer of sorts within your industry. When you lay out the benefits of your products or services, people will be more willing to take you at your word as a result.

These are just a few competitive advantage examples; however, these competitive advantage examples may not be your brand’s advantages. To identify your competitive advantages, you need to do a thorough evaluation of your company’s strengths. Once you’ve identified these advantages, you can begin to leverage them in your marketing efforts.

Digital Marketing Strategies For Higher Education

June 20, 2018/in Advertising Agency, Articles, Blog, Digital Media, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Nicole Wagner

As a college or university, you have a lot to offer to your students in terms of obtaining a higher education that can help them pursue their dreams of a career. However, you’re not the only school around, which means you’ll need to implement effective marketing strategies for higher education in order to attract prospective students and to convince them to enroll. The following are a few digital marketing strategies for higher education that are proven to be effective if leveraged properly:

Using PPC advertising

PPC (pay-per-click) ads are an excellent way to reach the students in your target audience and to generate high-quality leads. Prospective students will perform a significant amount of searches when trying to find higher education options, which means that PPC ads are a great way to put your school in a position to be found. They’re also very cost-efficient since you are only paying for the clicks that your ad gets.

When using PPC ads, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. For example, you need to know who your audience is and what they are searching for in order to choose the right keywords and create effective ad copy. You will also need to take great care in deciding where to place your ads to best reach your audience.

Optimizing your site for SEO

To improve your page rankings and increase exposure to potential students, you’ll need to make sure that your website is properly optimized for SEO (search engine optimization). This includes paying attention to both on-page and technical SEO, using high-quality, relevant keywords, and earning high-quality external links. All of these elements are important in bringing in more organic traffic. Building up your external links will also help you bring in a bigger audience from other relevant websites and will go a long way towards expanding brand awareness and building a positive brand reputation for your school.

Check out our article: 7 Reasons Why Digital Marketing for Manufacturers is Critical to Success

Creating high-value content

Prospective students will do a substantial amount of research before making a decision. Not only do most students have to pay for a higher education, it requires them to commit a significant amount of their time to it as well. They’ll want to make sure they make the right choice, w

hich is why you will want to provide them with plenty of content on your site that is relevant and helpful to their interests.

Not only can good content help with your SEO efforts (thereby drawing in more organic traffic), it can help establish your school as an authority, which will make your programs more attractive to potential students.

A regular social media presence will put you in a position to communicate directly with prospective students, allowing you to address questions and concerns, provide valuable information, and develop relationships with students, thereby building trust.

These are just a few of the marketing strategies for higher education that can help give your school an advantage in attracting prospective students for years to come.

What’s Trending in Packaging Design

May 22, 2018/in Blog, Directors /by Mark Beebe

The packaging of your products is more than just packaging, it’s a way to promote the product as well as your brand. Because there are so many businesses out there competing for the same audience, it’s important that you do everything you can to stand apart from the competition — and this includes keeping up with what’s trending in packaging design. The following are some of the articles that we’ve found that explore current packaging design trends in addition to where packaging trends are going in the future.

Smart packaging creates new ways to connect with consumers

When it comes to baking and snack packaging design, consumers care about functionality, such as whether packaging is re-closeable. With new advances in technology, manufacturers are turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) to create smart packaging, going beyond what a product’s package has traditionally been able to do. For example, NFC uses tags on their packages that allow consumers to pull up useful information, including promotional offers, product information, and more, using their smartphones. A recent article on Baking Business details the potential of smart packaging and how it could change the way consumers interact with packaging in general.

Special effects: Tetra Pak offers eye-catching options

The visual design of a product’s packaging is often what helps it stand apart from the competition. Food Dive recently published a blog focusing on Tetra Pack Artistry, a line of packaging material designs meant to help food and beverage makers give their products a stylish facelift. These unique designs include packages that resemble paperboard with wood fibers and even packages that use holographic images. All of these packages are carefully designed to draw the eye of the consumer and generate interest in the brand.

What are some package design trends that you can follow for the remainder of 2018? Read here!

How winning brands differentiate with digital packaging

The demand for high-quality, sustainable beautify products has resulted in more and more new brands entering the market, resulting in extremely stiff competition. A recent article on Beauty Packaging explores how competition has driven the need to explore every potential advantage, including through the use of a digital packaging design that allows consumers to engage with the brand more effectively. Digital packaging has allowed companies to provide more information to consumers without cluttering their physical product packaging. QR codes that allow consumers to scan packaging using their smartphones to access more information is just one example of successful digital packaging design.

A more flexible design for gel-based spirits

Roger Renstrom recently wrote a blog focusing on Flexible Packaging Association’s 2018 competition, in which two students from the Iowa State University designed easily transportable flexible squeeze pouches for Win-O’s gelatin shots. The packaging is not only well designed from an aesthetic standpoint, but also from a functional standpoint as it makes the product it holds easier for consumers to use. The design uses a laminated structure of PET, polyethylene, and foil, and allows users to easily squeeze the product out of the package using a small tube to consume at their own pace.

These four recent articles should give you some valuable insight into what’s trending in packaging design as well as where the future of packaging design might be heading.

What’s Trending in Marketing

May 1, 2018/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, B2B Marketing, Blog, Content Marketing, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

Keeping up with what’s trending in marketing is an important way to ensure that your marketing efforts remain up to date. Not to mention that they can provide insight into how you can adjust your marketing strategies in order to improve your results. The only problem is that keeping up with what’s trending in marketing can be quite a challenge seeing as how the online marketing landscape seems to always be shifting.

The following are a collection of articles that we have curated from some of the most notable marketing blogs on the web highlighting recent marketing trends that we think you should be aware of:

1. Noteworthy Marketing News and Trends

The power of podcasting: How to boost your reputation and search engine rankings

Podcasts have exploded in popularity over the past five years, taking on the position that radio once had in our lives. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of opportunity for marketing using podcasts as a result. A recent article about podcasts published on Search Engine Land recommends establishing yourself as an authority within your field through the creation of webinars, video content, a social media presence and more. This helps build credibility so that you’ll have a better chance at being invited onto a podcast. Once you’ve built a name for yourself, you’ll want to pitch podcast ideas that can benefit your SEO efforts to podcast hosts that are relevant to your business.

YouTube’s new TrueView for Reach option makes bumper assets skippable

According to an article by Ginny Marvin on Marketing Land, YouTube recently introduced a skippable option for short-form ads that are called TrueView for Reach, which can be skipped after five seconds; however, advertisers only pay if the viewers watch 30 seconds, the viewer interacts with the ad or the video ends. YouTube has implemented this new option in response to requests for ways to optimize TruView buys based on the different campaign objectives that customers have. One of the beta testers of the TrueView for Reach option, Samsung, revealed that it reached over 50 percent more people at half the CPM (cost per thousand) using the new feature.

Google Switches to Infinite Scrolling Mobile Search Results

Google has switched from having to click from page to page on their mobile SERP (search engine results page) to being able to scroll down infinitely by clicking on a “more results” button. This could potentially change what it means to rank on the first page of SERP according to a recent write up on the new infinite scrolling feature on Search Engine Journal. However, it’s currently in a test phase, which Google will only make permanent based on user feedback.

What other trends are there? Check out these ten ways to use Google Trends to Increase SEO!

2. Growing Your Inbound Marketing

Do You Need to Redesign Your Website?

Your website plays a huge role in your ability to market effectively. If it’s been a while since you updated your website, it may be in need of a redesign. Our own Nicole Wagner did a write up recently sharing some of the signs that a website needs to be redesigned. These signs include poor web rankings, a change in branding, a lackluster conversion rate, an outdated look and a subpar user experience.

Your Company’s Core Values Play a Role in Developing Your Brand Story

Storytelling is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Without it, you’ll have trouble engaging with your audience and connecting with them. We recently published a blog post on developing your brand story detailing how important it is to employ storytelling in order to share what your company’s core values and beliefs are and how that will evoke stronger emotions and build stronger bonds with your audience.

3. Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Pinterest reports 50% gain YoY in SMB advertisers

The Pinterest Propel ad program has been around for a whole year now and it recently reported a 50 percent jump in small and medium-sized business advertisers since it first went live. Pinterest has made a concerted effort to position their platform as an effective tool for advertisers and also revealed that businesses who are using Pinterest Propel are earning three times as many clicks than those who are not — and are even experiencing an average of 15 percent lower cost-per-clicks within the first 90 days.

Snapchat looks to offer new e-commerce options for Discover Publishers

According to a recent post on Marketing Land, Snapchat is currently testing a new e-commerce option on some of its Discover publisher channels. The new feature will allow users to swipe on products within the Discover platform in order to buy them from the Snap Store. Although they are just testing the waters, the company seems to have great ambition for its store’s future potential. Several publishers have revealed that they have tested the new feature and that currently, Snapchat is not taking a revenue share from any of the products being sold so far during the testing stage.

Facebook & Cambridge Analytica: What we know, what they knew & where that leaves us

Facebook has been all over the news as of late due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Considering the fact that many businesses leverage the use of Facebook for their marketing efforts, you’ll want to know where the future of Facebook lies. A recent article on Marketing Land goes into detail about the scandal as well as Mark Zuckerberg’s recent testimony in front of Congress addressing the issue of Facebook’s privacy settings and user consent.

The future of retail is Generation Z-dependent — and martech is the way to reach them

A new generation (Generation Z) is coming of age, and like every generation before them, their buying habits are different. Rohit Gupta explains how important it is for businesses to begin adjusting their marketing efforts to better target this upcoming generation by providing numerous tips. These tips include customizing the purchase journey, connecting through social media, preparing for the use of voice recognition technology, and focusing on convenient shipping options.