Worst Brand Blunders of 2019

The purpose of branding is to build connections with prospective and current customers. They want to understand the who and the what behind the company they do business with. Although they’re making a financial investment into a company, the brand allows them to make an emotional investment, and this drives long-term loyalty.  

One would think that C-levels and their marketing teams would have the type of branding that develops loyalty in mind when sending out their marketing and ads to the masses, but there’s been a bevy of examples in the last year that prove otherwise. Below are examples of some of the most forehead-slapping, head-scratching, bewildering, “Why did they do that?!?”, and “Who approved that?!?” branding content of the last year.  

But in order to protect the not-so innocent, names of companies won’t be mentioned. What will be mentioned are some of the examples, … Continue reading

Blog Abstract: Marketing & Business Strategy in Uncertain Times

From time to time, team members will share their views stimulated by content from an industry thought leader. Here, our CEO, Lisa Maier, discusses the recent CXL Institute article, “Marketing and Growth Lessons for Uncertain Times” by Derek Gleason.

So, I have a split brain and I want to share both perspectives.

First and foremost, we are a shared humanity across the globe and we are in a moment of crisis. Our top priority is to help ourselves, our families and loved ones, our employees and stakeholders, our clients and business partners to get through this. One of our clients received a surprisingly warm and heartfelt message from vendor in China yesterday, a message that is enormously heartening for all of us:

This awful situation will come to an end.

From the second perspective, many know that I am a business strategist and that my radar lights up … Continue reading

Jell-O and How Influencer Marketing Impacts Your SEO

Influencer marketing has been around for decades. Jello-O was only a minor success until 1904 when free cookbooks were distributed to supermarkets. The first families to pick up a cookbook and enjoy these new desserts became early influencers in their neighborhoods. And Jell-O took off.

Over the past few years, influencers in digital marketing have been a popular topic. Let’s examine who they are, how to find them, and what benefits they provide to your marketing efforts by expanding your content reach.

What is an Influencer?

An influencer is someone who has a significant following on social media platforms, a large market reach and can dramatically impact your marketing campaigns. Influencers usually offer their expertise through informative posts, classes, services and products to specifically targeted groups and can enhance SEO. A lot of times they are educators, inspirers and experts in their particular field and have a breadth of connections … Continue reading

Take Advantage of Facebook Search Ads

Facebook began rolling out a new feature to its search engine in late October 2019 – Search placements. Meaning that your Facebook ad can now show up in results from the search box. This development caters to advertisers by making the search box tailored to reach customers.  
 
What are Facebook search ads? 
 
Facebook search ads are a new form of advertising allowed on their platform. This previously tested feature is set to change campaign management of Facebook ads, and provide a new place to advertise. This could be music to the ears of marketers, all members of an ad agency, and internet-based businesses. The advertisements that normally show up on the sidebars and in the news feed, will also be added to search bar results. 
 
This option was originally tested in 2013, to find new ways to allow marketers to reach clients as ad space became scarce. The idea was to allow businesses to … Continue reading

Simple Ways to Boost Conversion Rate on Your Website

What exactly is a conversion rate and what does it mean for your business? A conversion is simply an action taken by a visitor on your website or a landing page. It can be a purchase, a sign-up, a download or anything else that you consider a measure of success for a particular call-to-action (CTA). Conversions are measurable and because they are measurable, we can apply various methods to influence the effectiveness of our content and CTAs. This practice is called Conversion Rate Optimization. Continue reading “Simple Ways to Boost Conversion Rate on Your Website”

6 Ways Leaders Stay Focused At Work

From time to time, team members will share their views stimulated from a piece by an industry thought leader. Here, our Director of Paid Marketing, Kim Figor, discusses a Forbes. article by Senior Contributor Forbes Women, Avery Blank “6 Ways Leaders Stay Focused At Work”.

At times I find it amazing that the more I must do at work, the less I seem to be able to do. Yes, it has occurred to me that much of this is due to simply not knowing where to start or time be waisted trying to figure out how to make a dent in a seemingly never-ending to do list.

Like me, do you at times lose focus at work because of feeling overwhelmed or sometimes a lack of interest? If so, the below 6 tips provided by Avery Blank will be worth your time reading. For those, who are saying … Continue reading