Integrated Marketing
21 Feb Invite Your Audience in with Interactive Content
In this next installment of our series on major trends in communications for 2022, we're talking about interactive content as part of a strategy that works in tandem with emotional marketing and ephemeral content. As we discussed in our piece on ephemeral content, one of the top tips to ensuring your content has impact is to involve the viewer's input in some way. Whether it's taking a quiz or a survey, or playing a game that supports what you're sharing, allowing your audience to interact with your content creates an immersive and memorable experience. Interactive content is the next level in content consumption and engagement that lets viewers interact with the content instead of passively view it. Previously the engagement tactic for most social media, e-mail marketing, blog posts and multimedia content was to encourage viewers to like, reply or share to engage and spread the word. Interactive content is a more rewarding, real-time way for your audience to feel engaged and connected to your brand.
20 Jan 7 Ways to Make Ephemeral Content Better
Continuing our series on major trends in communications in 2022, in this installment we're discussing ephemeral content and how to harness it for effective marketing.What is Ephemeral Content?
Traditionally in marketing and communications emphasis has been on evergreen content - something that will stay visible and relevant for years. Evergreen content is still important and forms the backbone of many websites, including blog posts, white papers or case studies, and complementary media like videos or podcasts. However, over the past few years there have been more and more opportunities to experiment with ephemeral content, which is any content that disappears quickly - usually after 24 hours - and can't be found again. Ephemeral content is mostly based on video and social media platforms. Snapchat introduced the world to the concept, but virtually all major social media platforms now have ways of posting something that is designed to be seen for only a short time.How Is It Used?
Celebrities frequently use this kind of content to showcase personal videos, and in general ephemeral content is very popular as a way to share something personal people don't necessarily want on the internet forever. In some ways, it could be considered the evolution of "felt cute, might delete later" culture, but with a mechanic in place to make it easy and acceptable.
07 Jan Emotional Marketing – An Effective Tactic for Our Emotional Times
Welcome to the first in a four-part series in which we'll be exploring major trends in communications for 2022. In this initial installment, we're examining the concept of emotional marketing, its traditional definition, and its current state. People have been appealing to emotions to motivate others for millennia. Aristotle himself established techniques for emotional appeals that were quite persuasive. While appealing to emotions may seem manipulative, it's usually not nefarious. Emotional marketing connects people with the things they want and need on a deeply personal level. True, some marketing and advertising campaigns play on negative feelings of fear or greed. Here, however, we're looking at how emotional marketing can elicit positive results, and why it's a major trend in communications with tremendous staying power.What is emotional marketing?
Emotional marketing identifies and builds on an audience's emotions to market to them more successfully. Rooted in current best practices in research and behavioral psychology, today's emotional marketing requires a deep understanding of the feelings a specific audience has toward a product or service and its competitors. To work, emotional marketing has to get a good handle on an audience's vibe, and how it affects their view of the entire product genre. A very simple example is marketing campaigns for online talk therapy providers where emotional marketing is essential to conversion. The target audience naturally includes anyone who's experiencing distressing emotions and could benefit from online mental health counseling. You don't have to look far on Twitter to see people tweeting about their struggles with mental wellbeing - and you also don't have to look far to see ads for these therapy providers in the same places.Is it ethical?
31 Dec Five Martech Tools to Help Boost Collaboration for Distributed Teams
In today’s martech landscape, there are just over 5000 marketing technology companies, dubbed the ‘Martech 5000.’ The categories of martech revolve around five major themes:- Advertising & Promotions
- Content & User Experience
- Social & Relationships
- Commerce & Sales
- Data & Management
Advertising & Promotions
08 Oct Customer-first Marketing: 4 ways to know thy customer and capitalize on their interests
Posted at 09:45h
in Content Marketing, Customer Behavior, Integrated Marketing, Project Management, Social Media
Customers are human. They are complex and changeable and yearn to feel valued and understood. As marketers, we tend to focus exclusively on demographic characteristics to lump them into groups to target. But the wants, needs, interests and values of a customer cannot be determined...
21 Aug A Beginner’s Guide to Using APIs For Business
Posted at 11:10h
in Customer Behavior, Digital Marketing, Ecommerce, Integrated Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Project Management, Social Media
To be a functioning professional in the digital e-commerce environment it’s important to be as present and multi-functional as possible. Mobile apps offer the perfect opportunity for business owners to connect with their target audiences. APIs or Application Programming Interfaces are what allows one piece of software to share information with another. Although invisible to the user almost everyone has interacted with and most likely benefited from an API. APIs give businesses the ability to embed maps, process payments and run different apps in conjunction with each other. Using APIs with some or all of the following applications can help better integrate your business, improve customer interactions and streamline your business operations.
24 Jul Top 3 types of native advertising still worthwhile in 2019
In a time when over 70 million U.S. internet users are using ad-blockers, native advertising is an extremely valuable and effective alternative to traditional ads. Most major brands use it in some capacity, as 53% of consumers are more likely to look at a native ad than a banner ad. What’s more, native advertising increases purchase intent by 18% over normal display ads. With formatting designed to match the surrounding content, native ads are much less obtrusive and more educational than traditional ads that disrupt the browsing experience. Though native advertising comes in many forms, a few have proven to be more profitable and worthwhile. Below, you will find the top three types of native advertising. These strategies will give your content a prominent stage to help you reach new and existing customers.
11 Jul Top 8 ideas to improve your brand initiatives through marketing efforts
Posted at 08:30h
in Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media
You have the vision in your mind: what your brand stands for, its personality, what it promises to customers. But despite your best marketing efforts, sometimes brand initiatives don’t quite deliver your glorious vision. It’s probably time to re-evaluate your core brand identity, a practice you should actually do fairly often. Assess the what, why and how of your business to identify your purpose and what sets it apart from your competitors (which also requires some research of the competition). Once you’ve nailed down your objective, then you can start thinking about how best to communicate it to your target audience. These eight strategies will help you take your brand initiatives to the next level.
21 May Best 8 Marketing Books to Read in 2019
Posted at 09:38h
in Integrated Marketing
In a dynamic, ever-evolving field, it’s essential to stay updated with blogs, news and social posts to keep ahead of industry trends, but marketing books offer invaluable, more in-depth insight that you won’t often find elsewhere. Learning from the successes and failures of the pros...