Blog Archives - Page 8 of 13 - Stevens & Tate Marketing

Why You Should Consider Using YouTube Videos For Senior Living Marketing

May 27, 2022/in Advertising Agency, Articles, Blog, Digital Media, Directors, Senior Living Marketing, Video Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

When it comes to choosing what platforms to leverage in order to reach senior living audiences, you may have skipped over YouTube assuming that this particular platform is aimed at younger audiences. However, this is actually not true. You may want to give YouTube another look as it turns out YouTube videos are an excellent way to reach older audiences. The following are just a few of the reasons why you should incorporate YouTube videos into your senior living content marketing strategy:

1. Seniors Use YouTube Frequently

The idea that YouTube is for younger generations is a misconception that simply isn’t true. In fact, YouTube is the number one video platform of choice for the Baby Boomer generation. According to YouTube’s Trends Dashboard, more than 60 million Baby Boomers over the age of 55 view content on YouTube every month. In fact, four times as many Baby Boomers visit YouTube than people under the age of 18. This means that creating YouTube videos is actually an excellent way to reach your target demographics.

By 2013, there were already 39 million people 65 and older that were using Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. At the time, this made them the fastest growing age demographic for these social channels. Considering the fact that there are more senior citizens than ever, incorporating social into your content marketing strategy is a must–and YouTube is a social platform. When you create YouTube videos, you can post them to Facebook, after all. Seniors can then comment, like, and share your YouTube videos, helping to increase brand awareness amongst their social circles, which are likely to be filled with family members as well as friends in the senior citizen age range.

3. Seniors Prefer Visual Storytelling

The best way to reach senior citizens is through the use of visual storytelling (according to multiple studies on the subject). There’s no more effective way to tell a story in a visual manner than through video. For example, you could use video to tell the story of a resident and their journey to find a home at your senior living facility. By making a resident the main character in your video, you would make your content more relatable to your audience.

4. YouTube Videos Allow Pre-Roll Ads

Pre-roll ads have become quite common on YouTube videos. They are the 5 to 30-second spots that run before the video and that usually can’t be skipped until 5 seconds in. While they can be a real annoyance for a lot of viewers, they can actually be very effective if they are relevant to your video content. This is especially true if you already have video content available on your site.

Read More Related Article: 4 Senior Living Video Marketing Ideas That Will Improve Engagement

You can create effective pre-roll ads by cutting short 15 or 30-second spots out of existing video testimonials or video tours of your senior living facility. This way, when someone watches one of your YouTube videos (especially those that are instructional or informative and not promotional), your pre-roll ads will showcase your senior living facility so that they know who you are.

5. YouTube Videos Can Drive Traffic

YouTube isn’t just a platform to host videos. It can be used to help drive viewers to your website for more information. Curate your YouTube page so that you have a lot of YouTube videos audiences can go through, but make sure that it’s obvious that it’s your senior living facility’s page and include a link from your YouTube channel to your website. You should also add links to your video descriptions and clickable links embedded within the videos themselves towards the end. Doing so can help drive a significant amount of traffic to your website.

YouTube videos can be extremely effective at reaching a senior living audience, which is why you should incorporate YouTube into your content marketing strategy. It’s also worth mentioning that YouTube is owned by Google, which means that properly optimized YouTube videos can help to boost your SEO as well, thereby increasing your page rankings and helping to drive more organic traffic to your YouTube channel as well as your main website.

Understanding Consumer Expectations Around Omnichannel Approach

May 23, 2022/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

There are many ways to engage with potential customers these days, from social media to mobile and more. While it’s important that you establish a presence on different channels so that you can reach your target audience, it’s also important that you create a seamless experience. This is known as an omnichannel approach. An omnichannel approach allows customers to engage with a brand no matter what platform they’re on or what device they’re using, whether online or in-store.

What Is An Omnichannel Approach?

The idea of the omnichannel approach is that consumers are no longer on a buyer’s journey that is strictly linear. For example, they may begin their journey by searching for a product and reading up on it by checking out your blog. But then they may check out some customer reviews by taking a look at your social media pages. Then, they may sign up to your email newsletter, where you may continue to nurture them. They may read these newsletters on their smartphone even though they had been engaging with your brand on their computer.

Finally, they may choose to go to your physical location in order to make a purchase instead of buying online. This is an example of how a customer can make use of multiple platforms and devices to go through their buyer’s journey.

Read Our Article About Types Of Advertisement Opportunities For Popular Streaming Services

Omnichannel Vs Multichannel Marketing

Multichannel refers to the ability to engage with customers on various channels. For example, if customers can reach you on social media, a live chat feature, a phone number, or an email address, then that’s multichannel marketing. The omnichannel experience allows customers to do the same thing — but there’s one big difference. With omnichannel marketing, all of those channels are connected to create a singular experience.

For example, say a customer emails you with a question and you answer it. The customer does some more research, then engages again on your website’s live chat. The person they’re engaging with will have access to the information that was exchanged via email. As a result, the customer won’t have to repeat questions or information that they already gave.

Essentially, omnichannel marketing ensures a seamless experience across all channels.

What Does It Mean To Take An Omnichannel Approach?

You’re no longer in charge of laying out the journey for your buyers. Consumers demand control over their own buyer’s journey, which means that you have to take an omnichannel approach in order to give them this freedom. There are several ways to do this:

Know your audience

Develop buyer personas so that you understand your customer’s needs and pain points. By doing so, you’ll be able to address those pain points across all channels. It will also make it easier to identify your customers’ buying patterns, which you can leverage throughout your marketing efforts.

Have an omnichannel presence

Don’t just focus on one marketing channel. Set up a website with a regularly updated blog. Establish a presence on several social media platforms that you know your target audience uses. Engage in email marketing. Ensure your online efforts are mobile-friendly. Use pay-per-click advertising. Don’t ignore traditional marketing methods, such as TV or newspaper ads. Make it easy to be found no matter what channel your audience is using.

Make sure your branding is consistent

It’s extremely important that your branding is consistent on all channels. This means that you need to have the same message, the same tone, and even the same style. Otherwise, your audience may get confused about who you are and what you represent.

Be easy to contact

Present several options for contacting you where ever your audience is. For example, respond to comments left on your social media pages, provide an email address and phone number on your website, allow mobile users to just click on your phone number on your site, and submit your NAP (name, address, and phone number) to local online inventories, and more. You might even want to implement a live chat into your website.

Meet consumers at every stage of their journey

Make sure that consumers can advance through their buyer’s journey no matter what platform they’re on. This means having content that’s suitable for every stage of the buyer’s journey on all of your channels so that you can meet their needs and nurture them through their current stage in no matter where they are.

The Benefits Of Omnichannel Marketing

Implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy may take some extra work, initially, but it’s well worth the effort. With that in mind, the following are some of the primary benefits of omnichannel marketing:

Create a seamless customer journey

Arguably the biggest advantage of omnichannel marketing is the fact that it results in a seamless customer journey. Customers will be able to pick up where they left off on any channel, making it easy to nurture them through the sales funnel. Additionally, there will be fewer roadblocks to conversion, resulting in fewer lost customers.

Increase your brand loyalty

Using omnichannel marketing improves the customer experience. It does this by providing a seamless and consistent experience across all channels. As a result, the needs of your customers are met at every stage of their journey. The better their experience is, the more loyalty they’ll have for your brand.

Better insights into customer behaviour

Because all of your channels will be unified under an omnichannel strategy, it will be easier to collect and organize customer data. For example, you’ll have no problem measuring how each channel contributes to certain marketing goals. As a result, you’ll be able to make better adjustments to improve your marketing efforts.

Improve your brand recall

A major component of successful omnichannel marketing is consistency. By ensuring that your branding efforts are consistent across all channels, you’ll strengthen your brand identity. As a result, customers will have a stronger sense of brand recall. This means customers will think of your brand when they have needs or challenges that your products or services address.

Generate more long-term revenue

All of the previous benefits, from the improved customer experience and customer insight to the increase in brand recall and loyalty, will result in more revenue. Essentially, omnichannel marketing can help you improve your long-term profits.

Consumers have more options than ever before, which means that they have much higher expectations when it comes to their buying experiences. As a result, you should take an omnichannel approach in order to establish a seamless experience over multiple channels, making it easy for them to engage with your brand no matter where they are on their buyer’s journey.

How To Create Content For Each Sale Funnel Stage

June 25, 2021/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, Blog, Content Marketing, Directors /by Dan Gartlan

Even though you may not realize it, you go through a process before buying something, unless, of course, you are an impulse buyer. This process is called a sale funnel. It refers to “the buying process that companies lead customers through when they are purchasing products.” But for any company to succeed, its process must have quality content. Having quality content is having leadership, which is a part of attraction marketing. Here is how to create quality content:

Phases of a standard funnel

Top of the funnel (TOFU): awareness stage

At this point, your followers do not know they have a problem or are just now realizing they do. TOFU involves driving traffic to you as well as providing free surface information with “how to”, “improve”, and “prevent” content.

Middle of the funnel (MOFU): consideration stage

When a potential buyer gets here, they graduate to a potential lead. They need the best solution for their problem and are willing to make possible future purchase commitments. For this stage, begin providing deep content with a wide coverage of topics.

Bottom of the funnel (BOFU): decision stage

Here, someone is making a final purchase decision. Still, there is no guarantee. A little nudge from the right content and assistanced from a call to action will win the customer over.

[Read to learn about the importance of lead generating content marketing]

Creating sale funnel content for each stage

TOFU

Content can be in the form of an eBook, checklist, podcast, whitepaper, etc. It should be rich with key words, compelling, informational, correctly format, and delivered in a timely manner. Do not attempt to sell at this stage because the potential customer is not yet considered a qualified lead. Make your content both easy to understand and enjoyable to read. Try to obtain the potential customer’s personal contact information at this point through forms and landing pages to use later in the lead qualifying process.

MOFU

As your visitors transition to this stage, your content should transition with them. This content can be in the form of case studies, demonstration videos, trial offers, cost estimates, etc. You should offer expert, in-depth content. For example: “The Complete Checklist for a Refurbished Phone.”

As they look to expand their personal understanding, usher in lead nurturing techniques such as personal engagement and email marketing. This is usually the longest phase because potential customers need to weigh their options and research further. However, an advantage to this wait is that you can take time to filter out unqualified leads and instead focus your resources on marketing qualified leads.

BOFU

When your leads reach the final stage, you will probably be a little anxious, but don’t push too much. Offer content to make them understand why you are the best best option for them. Position yourself as a solution to their problem. Be careful not to sound too much like a sales person, and focus your content on their needs. “Guidelines For Success” or “How to Implement Inbound Marketing Strategies” are some examples of content you should provide in order to convert your leads into sales.

Defining Your True Brand Story and Bringing it to Life Online

June 11, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Brand Development, Directors, Storybranding /by Dan Gartlan

Today’s most well-known brands share a powerful marketing secret—its about connecting with customers on an emotional level and in a way that addresses their challenges. But how can you do this without pushing your ideas on prospects?

Taking a true storytelling approach is the answer. Sharing your brand’s core values and competitive advantages in meaningful, memorable way will help reach your ideal buyer and build a following to your brand. Any brand, large or small, in any industry, for any product or service, can benefit from getting past just telling advantage and benefit claims, and truly developing a unique voice that customers believe in and becomes your brand.

The Power Of A Great Story

Stories have feeling. Emotion. Honesty. A good story naturally draws people in and creates lasting impressions. Beyond showing personality, it can convey a brand’s authentic motivational core—distinguishing you from the competition. A brand story rooted in truth and experience, and not about simply speaking about your product or service facts, will communicate your values and beliefs while empowering your customers and prospects. And once you have people on board, they will instinctually want to share it with others. So you not only attract buyers, you attract followers and advocates of your brand—without forcing it.

Uncovering The Plot

As you begin to think of your brand as a story and the best ways to convey it, consider these two essential layers: your Core Values—which is the WHY you do what you do (what you stand for and believe in) and your Competitive Advantages—the WHAT and HOW you do what you do best. By aligning these two elements, you define the true essence of your brand, and develop a unique value proposition that no other company or brand can match. While one point on its own may not be the differentiating factor, in combination, they become what makes you unique and extend the belief that you do it for the right reasons.

Learn more about telling your Brand Story here!

Diving Deeper

Companies must do some internal processing to find a brand’s difference and its’ point of view. The difference is the brand’s function. The POV is the brand’s cause. Features and benefits are copied or upgraded all the time. But when a customer feels a brand shares their beliefs, when they believe in the same Core Values, they are more likely to connect with them. As they consider at different purchasing options, you will have already built an emotional connection—and trust.

Expressing Your Story

Once you capture and define your one authentic story, you must bring it to life for the world to discover. Crafting the voice and tone to showcase your personality, what motivates and inspires you, and demonstrate your values. Creating consistent, relevant and informative website content that speaks to the right prospects you are trying to attract. Maintaining a positive experience for all visitors, but shaping experiences for your key audiences to keep them coming back for more.

At the end of the day, your website’s greatest objective is to deliver prospects the information they need, when they need it, and provide clarity around how to act. When you shape it around a story that already engages, you will effectively build the following—and the sales—that lead to lasting success.

Out of Home Advertising for Post Pandemic Consumers

May 25, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Directors /by Mark Beebe

The success of digital marketing has been noted for some time now. Every business has some sort of digital marketing strategy. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital marketing became even more effective than ever before. People were essentially trapped inside for more than a year, which means they spend significantly more time online. As a result, they became easier to reach via digital marketing efforts. However, as the pandemic comes to an end, cities will eventually begin opening back up. Knowing this, it’s critical that you begin planning an out-of-home advertising strategy.

What Is Out Of Home Advertising?

Out of home advertising refers to any advertisements posted outside, where countless people will see it. The more people walk or drive by out-of-home ads, the more exposure your brand receives. Obviously, out-of-home advertising was nowhere near as effective during the pandemic as it once was since everybody stayed inside. There are lots of examples of out-of-home advertising — billboards are one of the most common types. Billboards also include murals, posters, and junior posters. Billboards can be both paper and digital as well.

Is Newspaper Marketing still Valid?

The Benefits Of Out Of Home Advertising

In-home advertising, such as digital marketing, TV commercials, radio ads, and the like, are often preferred by businesses (especially smaller to mid-sized businesses). However, you should strongly consider out-of-home advertising as well. While the pandemic undoubtedly hurt the relevance of out-of-home ads, people will be looking to get out and about post-pandemic. As cities open up and people make an effort to spend more time outside, there will be more opportunities to reach them using out-of-home advertising. If that’s not reason enough to begin planning an out of home advertising strategy, consider the following benefits:

Outdoor advertising will be seen – Any person walking, biking, or driving by an outdoor ad, will see it.

Outdoor ads can increase brand exposure – If you put your ads in the right locations, you can reach a larger audience.

For instance, placing your outdoor ad in a location that has a lot of pedestrian traffic will ensure that it’s seen by a lot of people.

Outdoor ads can help bolster digital marketing efforts – Studies have shown that 46 percent of people will perform a search online after seeing an out-of-home ad.

Planning For Out Of Home Advertising

When it comes to successful out-of-home advertising, it’s crucial that you know your audience. If you know who you’re trying to reach, then you can determine where the best place to reach them is. For example, if you’re advertising a high-end luxury product, placing a poster for it at a bus stop in a lower-income neighborhood doesn’t make much sense. Instead, it would be more effective if you put it up in an area of town where there are multiple luxury stores in operation. This way, the customers of those stores will see your ad.

In addition to understanding the audience you’re trying to reach, you will also need to figure out the best placement

for your ads. An ad displayed on the side of a building where it’s difficult for nearby pedestrians to see is going to be ineffectual. You’ll want to make sure you know where the ad is going to be placed and where it will be visible.

Finally, the message is very important. Just because people see your ad as they walk by doesn’t mean that they will remember it. Make the messaging and branding clear. Try to make the ad as memorable as possible. People who see clever or memorable ads while they are waiting in traffic will often share them on social media.

Take Advantage Of Post Pandemic Out Of Home Advertising

As the pandemic nears the end, consumers are going to be making up for lost time by going out, whether they’ll be heading into the city on a night out, going to the park, or traveling to see friends and relatives that they haven’t seen for a long time. Knowing this, there is going to be a huge opportunity to reach a bigger audience using out-of-home advertising.

How to Increase your Social Media Presence in 2021

March 22, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Social media usage has increased exponentially over the years, to the point where there were over 3.6 billion people using social media in 2020. This number is expected to grow by almost a billion more within the next five years. Social media has become a part of everyday life for most people, especially during the pandemic. As such, maintaining a strong social media presence has become even more essential to the success of your business than ever before. Keeping this in mind, the following are a few tips on how you can increase your social media presence in 2021:

1. Interact with your followers

The easiest way to build your audience on social is to engage with your existing followers. The more engaged they are, the more likely they are to share your content with others, thereby driving growth organically. As such, you need to interact with your followers on a daily basis, whether it’s posting new content, asking questions, responding to questions, or engaging in discussions with your followers. The moment you stop being active is the moment your followers will forget about you.

2. Host contests

Encouraging people to engage with your brand isn’t always easy. Not everyone will take the time to post replies to your questions or comments. The most you might get out some people is a like or two. However, one of the most effective ways to get people to engage is by hosting a contest on your social media platforms. For instance, a caption contest or a photo contest. You could also allow your audience to vote for the winners themselves. If there’s a prize at stake, more people will be willing to engage. You could even require them to follow you in order to participate.

3. Create video content

Humans are visual creatures, which means that their attention is easier to capture and hold using visual content, especially in the form of video content. Both long-form and short-form videos are popular, as evidenced by the success of video-based social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Even platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter, have embraced video content creation. Video content also makes it easier to deliver information as well as show off the personality of your brand, making it easier for audiences to relate on a personal level

Using Storytelling In Social Media

4. Avoid sales pitches

Social media is not the place to advertise new products and services. If you’re constantly trying to pressure followers into buying something, they will eventually unfollow you. They’re already bombarded by ads everywhere else they go (both online and offline), the last thing they want is to voluntarily subject themselves to even more of them. Use your social media presence to build relationships, not sales.

5. Build relationships with influencers

Influencers are people with massive audiences on social media. By building a relationship with a social media influencer that’s relevant to your industry, you can gain access to their audience. For example, they can post a product review or even a link to your content on their page, thereby increasing brand awareness substantially.

6. Use your analytics

The last thing you want to do is to pour time and effort into your social media presence only to see it have little impact. Understanding where to focus that time and effort is incredibly important. Use your analytics tools (most social platforms offer their own tools that you can use) to monitor various performance metrics. Doing so will allow you to identify what types of content appeals to your audience, which social channels your audience uses most, what time of day you should post to reach the biggest audience and more.

7. Live stream events

People love live stream content because it allows them to interact with an actual person on video in real-time. Not to mention that live content attracts more viewers due to the fear of missing out. You can also use live stream events to capture new leads (by requiring viewers to RSVP). Some events you can live stream include new product launches, interviews, Q&As, behind-the-scene tours, panels, and more.

Don’t just assume that customers and leads will find you on social media. Direct them to your pages wherever you can. You can do this by adding social buttons and links to your website, to your emails, and to local online directories. You can even advertise your social presence on your business cards, newsletters, physical media ad copy, TV commercials, and more.

These are a few tips to help you increase your social media presence this year. When it comes to maintaining an engaging presence, remember that you must stay active and consistent. Understand that when it comes to social media, the goal is to engage your audience, not to close sales. Only then will your social media presence grow.

How Marketing Automation Can Improve Lead Nurturing Process

March 12, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Lead Nuturing /by Nicole Wagner

One of the most important aspects of successfully nurturing your leads through the buyer’s cycle is understanding that each lead is different and that your marketing efforts need to be tailored to the needs of each lead. This can be quite difficult to do manually, which is why most businesses are turning to marketing automation.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is an automated process that allows you to target leads based on their behaviors at different points in the buyer’s journey. It allows you to make your marketing more personal by delivering content to your leads that suits their needs or interests. This, in turn, makes it easier to build a real relationship with them, helping to drive them towards the conversion and closure stages of the buying cycle.

Not only does marketing automation help free up resources, it makes your marketing efforts much more effective. How effective? According to one study, businesses that use marketing automation increase their qualified leads more than fourfold.

So how exactly does it work? Take for example a lead that has just submitted a form from one of your landing pages opting into your email list. Using marketing automation software, this action can trigger an automatic email sent to them thanking them for signing up. It can be automatically personalized based on what landing page they converted from.

In fact, you’ll be able to personalize your content to your email list by using the information that they submitted on the opt-in form. Using this information, you can segment your email list to automatically send content at specific times that’s relevant to their interests and needs. For example, if you’re a pet food company and a lead lets you know that they own a dog on their form, then you won’t want to send them content you’ve written about cats. Using automation, you can make sure they get the right content, which will not only help build your relationship, it will reduce opt-outs.

If you’re uncertain as to the difference between marketing automation and CRM, be sure to read through our detailed article on the subject.

The Benefits of Marketing Automation

The following are some of the benefits that you’ll be able to take advantage of when implementing marketing automation software:

1. Improve productivity

Instead of sending emails out on scheduled dates to your entire email list by hand, you can schedule emails to be set out automatically by certain times on certain dates to certain segments of your email list, thereby improving your productivity significantly.

2. Increase revenue

Studies have proven that marketing automation does increase revenue if used properly. In fact, B2B marketers have reported an average of 20 percent increase in their sales opportunities as a result of using marketing automation to nurture their leads.

3. Improve customer retention

By being able to target your leads more effectively with personalized content, you’ll reduce the number of leads that you lose.

4. Improve customer relationships

By being able to personalize your interactions with leads, you’ll improve customer relationships. Not only does this help with customer retention, it will help with building your brand reputation. Building good customer relationships can help to improve repeat business and can also generate positive word-of-mouth.

5. Collect better data

Marketing automation software can help you monitor responses to your various marketing campaigns based on the specific parameters you’ve established for success or failure. This data can then be leveraged to improve future marketing campaigns.

For more in-depth information, check out our post on the benefits of marketing automation.

Marketing Automation has more benefits! Check out this article to learn more.

How to Use Marketing Automation

There are many ways that you can use marketing automation. Besides using it to segment your email lists, it can also be used to provide data on what types of content helps move leads from one stage of the buying cycle to the next, which allows you to create higher quality content to attract higher quality leads. In fact, you can also use marketing automation to score your leads based on their behaviors on your site. Scoring leads lets you identify what leads have the best chance of converting, allowing you to more effectively use your resources to target those leads.

One thing to keep in mind is that marketing automation isn’t just limited to your email campaigns or to your website — it’s channel-agnostic, meaning that it can be used on any platform. Read through our article on B2B vs. B2C marketing automation for more in-depth advice.

Marketing automation is proven to be successful, which is why businesses of all sizes have started implementing it into their online marketing strategies. There’s no reason not to use it, all it will do is make your marketing efforts more effective and more efficient, thereby allowing you to capture more leads and close more sales.

5 Examples To Improve Brand Marketing Strategy Using Amazon Alexa

February 25, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Terry Becker

Amazon’s Echo is a voice-controlled home device that uses Alexa technology. Such devices are providing marketers new and exciting platforms to improve brand marketing strategy by better connecting with their customers and fans. Companies are using the voice-enabled platform to offer more creative and frequently updated content to their users. Learn from these brands that have timely adopted the new concepts of digital marketing and integrated artificial intelligence into their brand marketing strategy to listen to your customers’ needs and generate audio content that develops and fosters effective relationships.

1. Digiday

You must be familiar with Digiday, a renowned portal for information on digital marketing industry. In just ninety seconds you can know the top marketing news while drinking your morning coffee, and through a human voice not a robotic one. Moreover, users can request Alexa to stream music through Spotify or order a ride through Uber.

2. Giant Spoon

As a leading communications and market strategy agency, Giant Spoon distributes its personal content in innovative ways. It is fun and lighthearted and tends to capture the overall feel of this company.For instance, if you ask the company for brainstorming help, you may get a snarky response like: We are currently low on ideas, hire an influencer. This could be a good ice breaker before you start a meeting.

As voice has become the new frontier for many interactive experiences, a platform like Alexa provides brands a big opportunity to play differently in a new and exciting environment on a revolutionary canvas to enhance their brand marketing strategy.

3. Web Analytics

If you want to evaluate your brand marketing strategy, analytics is must. If you want to know how your new marketing campaign is going,rather than accessing and going through Google Analytics reports, simply ask Alexa and it will pull the numbers and details for you. You can use both granular and broad queries to stay updated on real-time traffic data.

Are you a marketer? Here is an article with some helpful tips for Google Analytics

4. The American Heart Association

Using Alexa you can ask AHA how you can perform CPR to get a step-by-stepwalkthrough, or know the important warning signs of a heart attack or stroke. This is another example of how you can provide value or benefits to your audience through a voice-enabled platform.

5. GoodNes

Nestlé has introduced Amazon Alexa customers to a unique and convenient visual and voice browsing experience with the launch of its GoodNes skill for Alexa. With an Alexa device, consumers can now improve their cooking experience using voice instructions as well as a visual guide that lets users see and hear recipe steps in the paired web browser. It also provides them access to valuable nutritional information, fun facts, ingredients, and useful how-to videos especially designed to help them learn new cooking recipes and techniques.

You can find the GoodNes voice-assisted skill in the Alexa store. Once you enable the skill, you can link your account with your email to get a link to the unique visual guide. This visual guide is fully compatible with Safari and Chrome web browsers on laptops, tablets, and desktop computers.

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

February 8, 2021/in Advertising Agency, Articles, Blog, Directors /by Terry Becker

Let’s face it: the transformations that are taking place in the digital world have altered the definition of being a creative. Understanding the impact these changes have on creatives and figuring out how to navigate them can be an overwhelming task. Here is what every creative advertising agency needs to know in order to endure the digital transformation today:

Big Ideas Can Arise From Anyone Or Anywhere

Everyone from creative technologists to consultants are constantly challenging themselves to think of new ways to stay innovative in the rapidly changing digital world. Because of this, we have to recognize that people all around us, regardless of title or industry, are pitching ideas that could be the next big thing. To avoid missing out on those big ideas, I encourage you to keep your door and your mind open when conversing with co-workers.

Learn Through Collaboration

Technology alone is no longer the single center of digital transformation—it’s people. I learn new things, and processes in the digital scape, by discussing projects and goals with others. Can you remember a time you were working with someone and they showed you something new in a program you have been using for years? It’s easy to think that because you have been around a technology, you are familiar with every aspect of it, but you might be surprised by what you learn from the people around you. Acknowledging the wide range of abilities our fellow creative partners possess can inspire us to go further and elevate what we are capable of.

Make Learning A Constant

If you are seeking to improve your craft and entice your clients, continue to expand your field of knowledge and gain perspective on the world around you. There are several different ways to do this. For example, I have an Alexa in my home and I like to develop skills for it, as well as listen to podcasts and audio books in the car. Learning can feel like a chore, so do it where you are most comfortable and really dial in to how you learn best. For me, it’s audio and visual.

You should even Consider using down time to learn. Yeah, we all like to recoup during less busier times, but why not take advantage of your free time to bolster your skills? Remember when you used to love to create? It could have been when you were a kid coloring in a coloring book, or when you were in college creating projects where you had all the authority and made all the creative decisions. Think of digital the same way.

Read our article: 4 Questions To Ask Yourself When Looking For Creative Marketing Solutions

Work Backwards If You Have To

Discover what else you can learn from a familiar program or subject by working backwards. I recently re-upped certification by Google in Analytics and filled in some of the holes in my knowledge base. I use Google Analytics just about every day, but never knew all the things it could do. Just because you do something all the time OR because you are supposed to be a professional, doesn’t mean you can’t keep working on your skills.

Inspiring People

With creativity finding new platforms for expression, our renewed focus on humanity has played the most important role in digital transformation. Having a variety of options that work to improve our lives has never been easier due to the merging of creativity, data, and technology. Although mixing all of those elements into a stew of color, light and imagination can certainly hurt our heads, it is all worth it when something incredible arises from it that inspires people.

We Are Currently In The Second (And Maybe Third) Chapter Of Digital Innovation

Major companies like Amazon, Kickstarter, Uber, and Netflix have altered what we thought was possible in today’s world. Thanks to their innovation, we have become accustomed to a life of convenience and have higher everyday expectations. Advertising agencies play a massive role in inspiring people, so the way we use technology matters significantly for the next chapter of digital innovation.

The Future of Email: What To Expect

January 22, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Directors /by Terry Becker

Although one of the oldest forms of online marketing, email marketing is consistently one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies there is, and it will continue to be so well into the future. Because of this, it’s worth thinking about the future of email in order to begin adjusting your email marketing strategy accordingly. The following are some of the things you should expect from the future of email:

1. More Visual

While emails used to be more text-based, this is quickly changing even now. Besides the content itself, the email interface will become more visual as well. For example, contact photos will become more prominent, attachments will become previewable without having to open an email, and email apps themselves will be more visually customizable for the user.

2. More Interactive

Smartphones provide users with a lot of interactivity options due to their touchscreens. It won’t be long until users will be able to interact with their inbox by picking up, deleting, and grouping emails within a 3D space.

Interactive Email Marketing Trends

3. More User Control

Every facet of a user’s online experience will be providing users with more control in the future, including their email. They’ll be able to organize their main email interface by choosing to see their favorite contacts first and by customizing their most important folders or labels. Although this could limit the ability of advertisers to reach users, it could also help your emails become more prominent amidst all the spam that recipients once received.

4. Potential Payment Email Models

Consumers get tons of spam on a daily basis because emails barely cost spammers anything to send. As a result, some kind of paid email model may be implemented. Sending emails would only cost cents or fractions of a cent, but it would limit the ability of spammers to send out mass amounts of emails on a regular basis because the cost would add up.

5. Automatic Organization

It was only recently that Gmail introduced their tab-based email system to organize user inboxes into folders. This was a huge change from the basic full view list inbox that all email apps used beforehand. This type of automatic inbox organization system is only going to get smarter and more intuitive in the future.

6. Content Will Be Rated And Analyzed

Email apps will have the ability to rate and analyze the content of a user’s emails. This will allow them to extract important information. For example, if they’ve ordered airplane tickets, then the app will be able to identify flight information from the email and display that.

7. Emails Will Be Read Out Loud

Voice assistants like Alexa are already becoming quite popular. It’s only a matter of time before users can have their emails read out to them – or have them summarized out loud.

These are some of the things that you can expect from the future of email that will no doubt have you rethinking parts of your email marketing strategy in the years to come.