How the Aluminum Shortage has Impacted CPG Brand Marketing
Increased demand and reduced supplies of aluminum have kept products off shelves. Learn how CPG brand marketing was impacted and could react in the future. While not quite as notorious as the infamous toilet paper shortage, many companies have had to reduce production of canned products because they have had trouble sourcing aluminum cans. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic and even changing customer behaviors have contributed to supply problems. Take a look at the multiple causes of aluminum shortages and the best ways a CPG marketing agency can help cope with the problems. What caused the aluminum can shortage? According to Newsweek, aluminum shortages did not stem so much from production cutbacks as an increase in demand. Because of restrictions on restaurants, bars, and other in-person sources of products, CPG audience research found that consumer behavior has changed to prefer picking up supplies and bringing them home. For instance, people stocked up on canned drinks to replace the beverages they might have consumed outside of their homes from a beer tap or a soda dispensary. At the same time, concerns over future shortages and limiting trips to stores caused many people to stock up on other kinds of canned goods to keep in their pantries. Ironically, an increased consumer preference for recyclable and somewhat eco-friendly aluminum cans over other types of packaging also helped stoke demand. At the same time, recycling centers had closed or limited operations, so that aggravated the problem. That meant that a lot more of these aluminum cans ended up in the trash anyway. How consumers viewed the aluminum shortage Consumers might have seen evidence of the problem as sparsely stocked shelves in their favorite beverage aisle at the store. In truth, the problem did not come mostly from shortages of products but from fewer aluminum cans to package them in. These statistics from Packaging World help illustrate the issues: In 2019, before the pandemic, people consumed 60 percent of beer from cans, so a high demand already existed. Turnarounds for orders of some kinds of cans changed from four or five days to four or five weeks after the pandemic hit. The price of printed cans has nearly doubled, meaning companies either have to struggle with lower margins or increased prices. How is the aluminum shortage impacting CPG brand advertising? Most commonly, both large and small brands have prioritized their most popular products over niche offerings. As an example, Coca-Cola reduced supplies of Cherry Coke Zero. Mashed noted that even though the fruitier version of Coke Zero isn’t as popular as the regular version, people still noticed. Cherry Coke fans even flocked to the company’s Twitter page to ask Coca-Cola why they couldn’t find their favorite soft drink on the shelves. The company responded by saying they struggled with supply issues and were working hard to adapt. Since Coca-Cola has earned a good marketing reputation over decades as a market leader, their response can provide some inspiration for any brands impacted by shortages of aluminum cans or other products: Coca-Cola knows its CPG brand personas very well, so they first responded by retrenching to prioritize their best-selling products. They sacrificed production of less-popular flavors in order to try to satisfy as much demand as possible for the most-popular drinks. They responded pretty transparently to questions on social media. While they didn’t go into specifics of the types of shortages, the company did admit they struggled with supply problems and were working hard to address the issue. Perhaps, they might have done better by bringing up the topic before consumers asked, but at least, they answered questions when they arose. Will the aluminum shortage lead to greener alternatives? Even more than such large companies as Coca-Cola, smaller breweries and other supplies have struggled with supply shortages. As an example, Brett Trump serves as the CFO of a small brewery in Pennsylvania. He said that larger breweries have swept in and purchased available supplies, and he lacks the resources to compete with them. Actually, this can provide an opportunity for some smaller companies to find alternatives to traditional cans. As an example, some premium brands have turned to eco-friendly Cartocan cans, according to Packaging Gateway. They’re actually made out of a special kind of cardboard, generate a lower footprint than either aluminum or PET cans, and can keep products fresh for up to 11 months. Since studies of CPG brand personas uncover that many consumers prefer eco-friendly alternatives, using aluminum-alternative packaging could help producers improve their brand. Imagine what an impact it could make if a company like Coca-Cola started using Cartocan.
TikTok Marketing Predictions and Tips for 2021 and Beyond
What will 2021 TikTok marketing look like? Don’t ignore increasing market penetration or this quirky social video site’s young, engaged, and fresh market. Developed by ByteDance, a Chinese company, TikTok lets users produce, edit, and share short videos. The social media platform’s editing features include the ability to add sound effects, musical overlays, and video effects. Even though TikTok has only been around for a few years, it’s attracted a large, enthusiastic user base and more than its share of controversy. At the same time, businesses have just begun to explore the potential of Tik Tok marketing. Find out what makes this site unique and how a social media agency might use it to attract an audience. What makes TikTok unique? In order to start to develop a marketing plan for TikTok, it’s important to understand its unique character. Effective social media content writing for this video site differs from content development for Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter. As a very general impression, most people would describe most popular TikTok videos as quirky. With some notable exceptions, a marketer would probably call the site’s content more entertaining than newsworthy. Exceptions to this might include Claudia Conway, the daughter of the former presidential advisor and of course, high-level critiques of the site’s privacy and security. As for more typical examples of popular videos: One piece played upbeat music as the presenter sprayed shaving cream into a Croc and then stuck her foot inside to splatter the shaving cream through the holes. Another video started with suspenseful music as a hand drew back a curtain to reveal a wide-eyed cat. Even though the videos sound silly when described, they were both worth a watch for a quick grin. To gain a better feel for this kind of short, amusing video content, watch this compilation of popular Tik Tok videos on YouTube. Can social media services benefit from TikTok in 2021? Look at some eMarketer predictions for TikTok in 2021: After 95-percent growth in 2019, eMarketer predicted growth of over 21 percent this year. By 2021, the platform should have over 50 million users. Young people make up most of the audience, with slower growth among older users. At least one out of five social media users will login to TikTok at least once a month by 2021. Right now, the platform lacks the penetration of such established social sites as Facebook and Twitter. Still, it’s the only large social media site with growing penetration. In fact, eMarketer compared TikTok’s position to that of Facebook in the first decade of the 21st Century. A savvy social media agency might view this new, growing platform as a good place to test creative marketing ideas and a chance to get in on the ground floor before it grows saturated with ads. How to plan TikTok social media content development Mostly, marketers look at TikTok as more of a place to build brand recognition than to generate direct sales or leads. Now and probably into 2021, the most popular kind of marketing campaign on the site is called a Hash Tag Challenge. These challenges can rapidly increase visibility and also encourage popular influencers to join in. To understand how a hash tag challenge works, look at a couple of examples: Guess ran a challenge to build their audience and launch a new line of denim jeans. They ran the campaign under the hashtag of #inMyDenimChallenge and motivated users to produce music videos while wearing the new denim pants. Burger King called their challenge the #WhopperDance. They offered coupons for $1 Whoppers to encourage users to produce their own dances. TikTok offers hosted challenges. These include increased visibility and a special page where the promoter can list their terms and display the challenge videos. These hosted challenges cost quite a bit, but smaller businesses can still succeed by creating and promoting their own challenges. For one thing, TikTok offers other kinds of ads that businesses can begin with a budget as low as $50. A small business could use these cheaper ads to test their strategies and to promote an independent challenge. Will TikTok remain fresh in 2021 and beyond? According to HubSpot, some other social sites have tried to provide features that recreate the TikTok experience, but their efforts haven’t successfully pulled users away from the original. Because the site is still fairly new and growing, it can provide a fantastic opportunity to get noticed by engaging in creative marketing. Plenty of marketers would love a chance to revisit Facebook marketing back in its early days. Experimenting with TikTok may give them that chance.
5 Reasons Pumpkin Spice Became a Cultural Phenom
Pumpkin spice marketing and the success it’s seen over the years can be explained by nostalgia, broad cultural appeal, and even the way human brains work. Anybody can visit a local grocery store to buy a jar of pumpkin spice for a few dollars. Generally, the blend contains a mix of cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and sometimes, ginger and allspice. Stores have sold these traditional spice mixes for generations. For most of that time, shoppers would pick up a jar as a convenient way to season pumpkin pie, a traditional autumn treat. How did pumpkin spice become incredibly popular as a fancy coffee flavor? Obviously, anybody could have added a pinch of this blend, milk, and sweetener to their coffee mug for a few cents a serving. Until about a decade ago, few people thought of it. According to a recent estimate from Forbes, Starbucks has managed to turn this common mix of seasonal spices into a popular phenom that helps them sell about 20 million cups of pumpkin spice latte each year. Even more, they reserve their pumpkin spice for the holiday season, so it’s not even available all year. Later, plenty of other businesses caught on and flavored or scented their products in an effort to profit from the trend. Obviously, lots of marketers would like to understand how Starbucks managed to turn a seasonal drink into extra revenue and even a cultural phenomenon. Consider the popularity of pumpkin spice from the perspective of consumer insight marketing to understand why it grew so wildly popular and how to apply these lessons to other marketing efforts. Five pumpkin spice consumer insights marketing perspectives To spark some ideas for other potential products, start by understanding what makes pumpkin spice latte so great. 1. Pumpkin spice smells like nostalgia People may actually derive more satisfaction from the fragrance of a pumpkin spice latte than the flavor. According to Scientific American, the brain processes olfactory information differently from other senses. Scents travel more directly to centers of the brain associated with memory and emotion. Thus, people may actually remember scent-associated memories faster than they can even recall the name of the scent. If somebody says that pumpkin spice smells like Christmas, they’re probably describing their first reaction to the smell pretty well. Very often, people lend weight to this idea by saying they enjoy pumpkin spice because it reminds them of holiday gatherings and other pleasant memories. Anyway, a hot brew provides the perfect carrier for the scent of a fragrant blend of spices. If some people talk about needing their pumpkin spice fix, they’re offering clues to the appeal of this holiday drink. For a little while, just letting the scent waft into the air can help evoke the holiday spirit 2. People connect with others around their love of pumpkin spice Of course, plenty of competitors and other companies have jumped onto the pumpkin spice bandwagon. Besides coffee, consumers can find everything from recipes for pumpkin spice granola to spice-scented soap. Lots of these products generate social groups and energetic follower bases. As an example, Starbucks has a Facebook page dedicated to its pumpkin spice latte and thousands of followers. Yes, people join a Facebook group to show their support for this drink and ensure they stay updated with news about the coffee drink. On a related note, the Facebook Pumpkin Spice Festival group also has thousands of followers. That’s dedicated to all things pumpkin spiced and not just coffee. By picking up on a popular trend, plenty of marketers can find a thirsty market. 3. Pumpkin spice stirs up light-hearted controversy Brands generally like to minimize controversy; however, measured differences of opinion can also attract attention. Reddit, for example, has multiple threads devoted to discussions of the relative merits or demerits of pumpkin spice. Judging by some of these Reddit threads: Some contributors admitted they loved the Starbucks latte but considered it a guilty pleasure. Others argued that the flavor had grown so pervasive that the whole uproar ruined their enjoyment of a seasonal treat. Of course, the purists objected to the fact that it tasted nothing like pumpkins. Pumpkin spice products only contain the spices used to flavor pumpkin pie and sweetener but not pumpkins. Most posters just appeared to be having fun discussing a fairly harmless topic, and the thing is, nobody really said they disliked the flavor. In any case, lively discussions like that engage viewers. It’s fair to assume that more than a few readers stumbled on the discussion and decided they needed to try the drink to form their own opinion. The idea of pumpkin spice has even generated memes. Funny, supportive, or even mildly disparaging, they get shared on social media and bring more attention. 4. Seasonality can generate a sense of scarcity Some businesses only want to invest in products they can sell 12 months a year. At the same time, marketers should recognize the value of having seasonal items. According to Unamo, a provider of SEO and market research services, the seasonality of pumpkin spice products provides two powerful benefits: A sense of scarcity: With some products, scarcity creates extra value value. Anybody can buy the spice blend in a grocery store 12 months a year. However, Starbucks and other companies tend to reserve their products for the holiday season, so customers have to wait to buy them. Association with seasonal marketing: The product’s seasonality also makes it easy to incorporate pumpkin spice marketing with seasonal marketing. People tend to spend more during holidays, so they’re likely to indulge in fancy coffee when they’re out shopping, meeting friends, traveling, or even commuting. 5. Pumpkin spices span most U.S. cultures A pumpkin spice latte serves as a new twist on something traditional for many people. Today, Thanksgiving feasts from Maine to California often include this traditional dessert. Similar scents emanated from George and Martha Washington’s kitchen hundreds of years ago. At the same time, such ethnic cuisines as Chinese, Middle Eastern,
The Value of Podcast Advertising After the Decline of Radio
How effective podcast advertising can deliver a receptive audience to all kinds of businesses with podcast advertising and measurable returns. Even though historians may refer to the 1930s as radio’s golden age, the audio device remained important through the rise of TV and even the introduction of the internet. Most recently though, radio use has declined into a media that many people only use in their cars or keep in their emergency kit in case of a storm. Radio Ink cited one survey that found about 96 percent of Americans still had a radio at home in 2008 but only about two-thirds do today. Still, another form of audio media — the podcast — has grown rapidly in recent years and may provide an alternative source of advertising for savvy content marketers. Does podcast advertising offer a good alternative to radio advertising? Perhaps because of the decline of the overall radio audience, many marketers actually have explored podcast ads as an alternative to radio spots. They might consider podcasts as either a replacement for or supplement to radio ads. According to Marketing Dive: With over half-a-million podcasts to choose from, a podcast marketing agency should have no trouble finding the right topic and niche audience for almost any advertiser. Over 70 million Americans say they regularly listen to podcasts, and industry watchers believe the audience will increase 81 percent within a couple of years. During 2020, financial analysts expect podcast advertising budgets to top $650 million, representing a $250 million increase over 2018. Can a podcast marketing agency use podcasts effectively? Not matter how large and engaged the audience, marketing effectively still requires skill and familiarity with the medium. To understand how a content marketing agency can make the best use of their ad budget, it will help to understand why podcast advertising works well. And even though ads may help attract an audience, marketers still need to ensure they’re worth the investment by finding ways to track their returns. On Bigeye’s podcast, In Clear Focus, we discuss podcast advertising with Stephen Pickens, Director of Sales for AdvertiseCase. “I like to think of podcast advertising as word-of-mouth marketing, but at scale. So if you have a friend that recommends you try a particular product or service, it comes with a level of authenticity because you trust them. And it’s really similar to podcast advertising in that way because the shows that I listen to, I really trust the hosts. When they take some time out of their show to explain a product to me and ultimately endorse it, it comes with a tremendous amount of weight.” Why podcast advertising can work For one thing, ads tend to annoy internet users and even radio listeners and TV watchers. Lots of people install ad blockers on their computer browsers and even buy TVs that have similar features built in. In contrast, CNBC found that 78 percent of podcast users don’t mind hearing ads from sponsors. When it comes to their favorite podcasts, listeners appear to understand that the sponsors fund the content, which they’re less inclined to consider when their favorite programming gets interrupted by ads on other types of media. In fact, some studies found that over 60 percent of listeners not only remembered podcast sponsors but actually made purchases from them. That makes this medium look like a dream for a podcast marketing agency! Measuring ROI for podcast marketing Of course, podcast formats can vary. Typically, they have advertising slots at the beginning, middle, and end of the broadcast. Very often, the host will read the ads, which can help blend them very well with the rest of the program. On the other hand, simply having a marketing message read makes it tough for sponsors to determine exactly how the audience reacted. These three tactics can help the advertisers measure the effectiveness and returns of their sponsorship: Offer a special promo code for each ad. If a customer enters the promo code to make a purchase, the business can trace it back to a specific spot. Businesses can create unique URLs for the advertisement, and if they sponsor one podcast often, they may even include the broadcaster’s name in the internet address to enhance the connection with customers. A company might also provide customers with checkout surveys that ask how they learned about the business or the specific offer. Traditional TV and radio advertisers use similar tactics to these to help measure returns from their marketing. None of them works as well as the sort of detailed analytics that purely digital advertising can produce, but they should offer enough information to give businesses a good idea of their campaign’s performance. As a note, these ways to measure responses will mostly only work for direct response ads. Marketers may have other goals, such as improve brand awareness. Sponsors may get a rough idea of how much a spot improved brand awareness by measuring activity on their website or social sites. In fact, Marketing Dive reported that direct response spots make up about two out of three podcast ads, with brand awareness efforts taking up about one out of four. This may say more about the difficulty of measuring returns than the effectiveness of brand awareness ads on podcasts. Why should a content marketing agency consider podcast ads? Lots of people say they enjoy podcasts because they can listen to a program while doing other things. Similar to radio, podcast fans can listen on their smart phones while they commute, cook dinner, or even work. Because the barrier to entry into podcast publishing is much lower than for producing radio shows, audiences also have a big variety of programs to choose from, so almost everybody can find something of interest. For a number of reasons, podcasts keep increasing in popularity and can provide a great form of media for marketing.
10 Tips to Pick the Best Full Service Marketing Agency
Hiring the best full service marketing agency for a particular business presents challenges. Learn the in’s and out’s of finding the best marketing partner. According to Statista, businesses can choose between over 13,000 marketing agencies in the U.S. All together, these advertising agencies help their clients invest billions in marketing. While having choices should benefit companies that need to find the best marketing partner, the number of marketing firms can make the selection process daunting. 10 suggestions to find the best full service marketing agency partner To help find the best full service marketing agency, consider these tested tips from successful companies. 1. Define business goals and the company mission Knowing what they need to accomplish and how they want people to see them provides a signpost that can help direct all kinds of decisions. Sadly, many companies get the idea they need to market online. Then they plunge into it without truly defining what they hope to accomplish with their investment. Marketers need goals before they can develop metrics to measure success. Without them, they may simply judge progress by such fuzzy metrics as getting a lot of fans and followers on a social site. While inexperienced marketers may take that as a sign they’re attracting an audience, a large audience doesn’t always mean a company has achieved such essential goals as improving brand recognition or revenue. Businesses don’t always have to know exactly which platforms or resources to use in order to accomplish their goals. A good marketing agency should take the time to understand their clients and provide direction. However, they need to communicate what they hope to achieve. So, a business not only needs to define their mission and goals; they also need to find a marketing partner that pays attention to them. 2. Decide between a local vs. national firm Of course, the internet can open up national or even global marketplaces for businesses. In some cases, a national firm may have more resources and reach. Also, marketing firms don’t need to have their physical offices located near the business to communicate or collaborate. On the other hand, a “Sunshine State” business may benefit by choosing a Florida advertising agency that already employs talent who really understands the community and even the geography. For instance, people in an Orlando marketing agency will know there’s more to the city than just Disney World. In addition, companies with headquarters in other states or even countries might benefit from using local agencies in new markets when they hope to expand into that region. Even more than local knowledge, hometown marketing companies typically have local connections that can provide lots of value. 3. Consider the company’s personality, culture, and values According to advice from the University of Southern California, establishing a brand personality lies at the core of generating brand loyalty. A description of the company’s character gives customers a reference that they can relate to on a personal and emotional level. That’s why the best marketing campaigns don’t just sell services or products. They also reflect well upon a company’s overall image. It helps to work with a marketing partner that understands these important business characteristics and can align with them because they have similar values. 4. Look for firms with the right staff and resources Businesses don’t just have a lot of choices when it comes to choosing a marketing agency. These days, marketers also need to decide between a large selection of promotional methods. These include digital and offline media, including paid ads, content marketing, social sites, podcasts, print, radio, TV, trade shows, sponsorships, and so on. Moreover, marketing plans might include these steps and more: Audience research Creating and tracking metrics and analytics SEO and web platform development Content production and optimization for text, videos, audio, and graphics Social media development and management Influencer marketing Email marketing Loyalty and referral program development Paid ads for a variety of online or offline platforms Packaging design Generally, marketers need to stay within budgets while selecting the right steps for their marketing plans, making certain every channel works together to support overall goals, and of course, tracking results. A full service marketing agency needs to understand all of the options, keep up with current trends, and of course, know how to demonstrate results. And they need to do that within their client’s budget. Businesses also need to take care that they don’t choose a marketing firm that only has expertise in a few methods because those firms may have biases that won’t always produce the best returns. A full service marketing agency can deploy the right expertise and give suggestions based upon their client’s needs and not their own preferred niches. 5. Make sure the marketing firm keeps up with marketing trends While some old-school marketing tactics still work very well, others have declined in effectiveness either because the audience has declined or simply because the ad platform worked well and then grew very competitive. As an example, few advertisers can enjoy profiting off the penny clicks on Google that they could have found years ago. At the same time, new opportunities always arise, and it’s vitally important for marketing firms to keep up with innovation. As an example, radio audiences have declined dramatically in the past decade; however, podcasts may provide a growing source of targeted and engaged listeners for audio ads. Businesses need to make sure they hire a marketing firm that understands both traditional media and keeps up with new ones. 6. Find a company that knows how to use marketing technology to work efficiently Technology probably won’t replace creative people soon. At the same time, businesses can benefit by employing marketing technology that can help them perform a variety of jobs efficiently, such as research or performing tedious scheduling tasks. Companies should look for marketing firms that understand technology and know how to use it to keep costs down, reduce errors, and improve profits. 7. Investigate the marketing firm’s transparency If the first
Adobe Might Lose Its Creative Software Crown
By: Rhett Withey, Bigeye Art Director When you take a shot at the king, you better not miss. Adobe, the king of the creative software world, has reigned over its users with the expectation that no matter what the company does, their users have to buy their product because it’s the “universal standard.” Adobe, recognizing the grip they hold on the creative world, has in recent years taken advantage of their user base by changing its business model to a steeply priced monthly subscription, continuing to release updates overrun with bugs and glitches, and rarely coming through on promised features presented at yearly trade shows. There is a challenger to the throne looming on the horizon, and its name is the iPad Pro. The hubris of Adobe has been knowing that designers and creatives can’t just up-and-drop Photoshop or Illustrator in favor of a newer and cheaper alternative without risking a severe downturn in productivity. In the fast-paced world of advertising, designers have decades of muscle memory with hotkeys and processes ingrained in their heads. Going cold turkey and learning a completely new software would result in the loss of hundreds of hours of time on projects. Adobe knows this and expects their users to return month-after-month and year-after-year. The iPad is Adobe’s worthy competitor. What Adobe doesn’t know is that the iPad, specifically the iPad Pro, is helping knock down the gatekeeping walls that Adobe holds to the creative industry. There are a bevy of great design and illustration apps available on the iPad that replicate the experiences of Adobe products and at a much cheaper cost. Apps such as Procreate and Affinity Designer don’t require recurring payments and often cost less than a one-month subscription of an Adobe Creative Cloud license. Of course, established designers aren’t going to ditch their desktops in favor of the iPad Pro, but there are designers who are actually preferring the iPad experience over the desktop for illustrating, designing, and photo editing. They are the ones currently sitting in the backseat of a minivan on a road-trip or on a bus heading home from school. They are in their bedroom at their parents’ house doodling on the iPad while watching TV. Children and teenagers are adopting the use of iPads at a younger age, and their parents aren’t likely diving headfirst into an expensive Adobe Creative Cloud subscription plan. Younger generations are paving their own way. This younger generation is currently developing their own muscle memory of tricks and processes that they will, in time, transfer to their future careers as designers and visionaries. It’s a future that Adobe doesn’t seem to see coming. Adobe needs to adapt if it plans on being around in the next ten to twenty years. They won’t have the luxury of relying on users coming back just because they are working on a familiar system. Each subsequent release of the iPad and iPad Pro is closing the gap between what a tablet is and what a computer is. Apple has even recently released an update that allows for keyboard and mouse support on the tablet itself. Adobe does offer iPad versions of some of its software such as Photoshop and Illustrator, but those apps have been released years after initial releases of other apps such as Procreate, which itself has developed a dedicated following and has been identified as one of the “must own” apps on the iPad Pro. Also, without a Creative Cloud subscription, the Adobe offerings come up short of being their own fully realized design apps on the iPad. If Adobe expects to continue its reign on the creative world, they are going to have to win over the hearts and minds of the younger generation through their iPads.
How Out of Home Advertising Complements Digital Marketing
Do I need a billboard for my business? Learn how out of home advertising and digital marketing work together for great results. While scholars believe human societies were first introduced to oral advertising, it did not take long for those old-time marketers to discover the power of signs. At least, they’ve found papyrus advertising posters that date back to ancient Rome, Greece, and even Egypt. In societies with low literacy rates, they relied upon pictures. In the Digital Age, you might wonder how an out of home advertising agency can possibly still help achieve your business goals. After all, isn’t everything online now? Actually, buying a billboard and working with an OOH advertising agency may serve as the perfect solution to some struggles you face attracting more attention to your social media, digital ads, and business site. Is an outdoor advertising agency beneficial to digital businesses? When you think of the largest players in online advertising, companies like Amazon, HBO, Apple, and Google probably come to mind. According to The Outdoor Advertising Association of America, these companies ranked in the top 10 for money spent on out-of-home ads. Netflix, the online streaming service, made it to the top 15. Just as surprising, the OAAA said that tech-related companies made up 25 percent of the biggest spenders. Together, Facebook and Google will contribute to over one-quarter of the total spend. Not only that, outdoor advertising had experienced constant growth every quarter since the Great Recession, not counting the coronavirus outbreak. According to the president of OAAA, Nancy Fletcher, companies spend money on this kind of advertising because it provides the perfect complement to their social, mobile, and search tactics. Of course, these days, an out of home advertising agency might suggest electronic billboards and not just static ones. In that way, you might think of them as giant monitors in very visible locations. These allow advertisers to display very slick, sophisticated ads that can cast a very wide net. In other cases, the old-fashioned, static kind may also serve your purposes. How can a billboard advertising agency help your business? To understand how an OOH advertising agency might help you find outdoor ad placements to help improve your overall marketing plan, it will help to consider an example. For instance, Apple solicited images from iPhone users to use on the digital billboards they used for their ads. The “Shot on an iPhone” campaign helped demonstrate the types of photos that people could capture with their phones. It also gave contributors and their own social circles plenty of incentive to share images on social sites. In this case, the digital and outdoor advertising worked together to help Apple enjoy a sort of synergy that they could not have achieved with either one alone. People saw the billboards who might not have visited the company’s digital platforms. In turn, contributors were quick to share their own photos to have them displayed both online and outdoors. In simpler cases, businesses can use a billboard at the top of their marketing funnel to help attract more attention. Interested people will return to their computers and phones to seek out more information about the quick message they saw while they were commuting or running errands. Does outdoor advertising work? Some outdoor advertisers have also used mobile phone data to detect when people pass near their outdoor signage. In that way, the physical and virtual world of advertising merge even more. For some other examples: A study from Ocean Neuroscience found that almost half of mobile users were more likely to click on an advertisement after first seeing the brand advertised on a billboard. Another study found 46 percent of people said they’d searched for something after first seeing it mentioned on an outdoor advertisement. Online advertising has grown increasingly competitive and expensive. Ad blockers or simple online ad blindness have also made attracting attention on the internet more challenging. Engaging billboards can help attract more visitors to your business site or social pages and serve as the perfect complement to digital marketing. If you’ve been considering ways to grow your audience, don’t overlook the power of signs.
Podcast Marketing: How to Create Branded Podcasts That Connect
As a content marketing agency or business, don’t overlook the power of podcast marketing to meaningfully connect with your market. As a business or content marketing agency, have you overlooked the potential of podcast marketing? Even though this might first appear like a niche tactic, you should know this audio-only kind of content has blossomed into the mainstream. Take a moment to learn more about the popularity of this media and how to start podcasting to connect yourself and your brand with an audience. Why no content marketing agency should overlook the power of podcasts According to Convince and Convert research, plenty of podcasts have connected and engaged with audiences. For instance: About 70 percent of Americans have heard of various podcasts and over half half Americans over 12 have listened to at least one. Typically, when at least half of the population has done something, it’s fair to consider it part of mainstream activity. In addition, almost one-third of people listen to at least one podcast regularly. This figure represents an increase from just about one-quarter of over-12 Americans from the previous year. To put these percentages in context, about 90 million Americans listen to at least one podcast every month, and 61 million listen each week. One good thing about podcasts is that they appear to appeal to various age groups, so almost any content marketing agency should be able to find their niche audience for podcast advertising. For instance, you can find more podcast fans under 55, but the numbers are about the same if you’re talking about listeners in their 50s, 30s, or teens. A few years ago, most people listened to podcasts on their computers but now tend to favor mobile devices that let them enjoy this content on the go. Also, as with radio, people tend to listen to podcasts while they’re attending to another task, such as driving, walking, doing chores, and finishing homework. That fact that busy people can listen to their favorite podcasts while cooking or commuting may also help account for their rise in popularity. How to start a podcast that connects with your audience Naturally, some podcast producers enjoy more attention than others. While a podcast can give you a chance to engage with a lot of people, you will always face competition for attention. As a provider of a podcast platform and training, NPR offered some valuable insights to help develop a quick connection with an audience: Get off to a strong start According to NPR’s own data, typical podcasts lose up to 35 percent of their audience within five minutes. After that, the dropout rate declines. They say that even mediocre episodes with strong introductions will perform better than great episodes with poor introductions. Some tips to help engage with audiences right away can include: Ask thought-provoking questions: Get listeners to think about their own reactions to questions. Promise more information that may either solidify or change their views. Jump right into the narrative of a story: Help the audience imagine they can see, hear, feel, or even taste a situation. A few minutes later, you can catch them up with a little background. By that time, you should already have them hooked. Present listeners with a mystery: Offer listeners a mystery or problem that might intrigue or even plague them. Promise an in-depth analysis to help find solutions. Establish a personal angle: Tell the audience why the story is personally important to you. In this case, you may start with more exposition than narrative, but you can use your experiences to help develop a connection quickly. Re-engage listeners every few minutes Your strong introduction will help you keep keep listeners engaged. At the same time, you risk losing some of your audience as you move past the intro and into the meat of the topic. Worst of all, you might feel like you’re speaking into a void, so it’s also important to keep engaging your audience to remind yourself that you have one. For instance, you might invite listeners to send feedback through social media or even contact tools that your platform provides. If possible, you can comment upon some of that feedback during your podcast. Letting the bulk of your audience know that other audience members are also engaged enough to leave feedback also helps maintain interest. Mentioning people who leave feedback and thanking them for their contribution will let them know they’re valued. Develop good descriptions and artwork For most podcasts, you will have a chance to include thumbnail artwork and text descriptions that potential listeners can view. Basically, these work like the headlines of news stories that will entice people to give your podcast a try. Try to craft these to specifically reflect both the spirit and content of your episode. The best examples evoke a reaction that will convert your potential listener into an audience member and hopefully, a fan of your brand. Can podcast advertising help your business? As with any kind of content, you should define your target market, set marketing goals, and of course include a marketing message and clear call to action. Once you understand what you hope to achieve, you can develop the sorts of content that should appeal to potential customers. You might directly advertise or simply use the podcast as a way to encourage more people to opt into your social media or subscriber list. You can also find podcast platforms that include analytics to help you see how well you’re retaining listeners and of course, eventually converting some to leads and customers. Successful marketing podcasts tend to focus upon some educational aspect that relates to the business. For instance, Ken Greene represents a financial firm, and his podcasts help his audience learn about such important personal finance topics as investing and saving money or improving credit scores. A pet food company might attract an audience by inviting vets, trainers, and other professionals to a podcast that covers various pet care topics. Just about
Inbound Vs. Outbound Marketing: Why Should You Care?
After years of testing different forms of online and offline marketing, marketers still debate the virtues of an inbound vs. an outbound marketing strategy. Consulting marketing pros may not always help you take sides in this debate. That’s because representatives of an outbound or an inbound marketing agency will naturally have their own biases. Before you decide which types of marketing to invest in, start by learning how inbound and outbound differ and which tactics will produce the best results for your unique business. What is an outbound marketing strategy? Outbound marketing refers to typical forms of paid advertising that you may find in print, broadcast media, and of course, on the internet. Some common examples include television or radio commercials, mailers, paid search listings, and banner ads. Businesses usually pay for this sort of advertising in order to gain recognition from a wide audience. They hope this exposure will help improve brand recognition and drive sales. Pros and cons of doing outbound marketing for your business Outbound marketing in popular shows, publications, or websites can cast a very wide net, so your business may enjoy a lot of attention. These ads can introduce new people to your brand. You may also try to target your outbound advertising to reach a particular audience. For instance, a business might have their ads run at certain times or on specific websites that are likely to attract the kind of audience they want to court. At the same time, these kind of ads typically insert themselves between the audience and whatever they wanted to hear or see. If you want to read the news, you may not appreciate having to scroll past a banner ad. Likewise, if you’re eager to watch your favorite show, you may find commercials annoying. For this reason, some marketers disparage outbound marketing by calling it interruption marketing. The advertisement interrupts whatever the consumer had intended to do. Also, an outbound marketing strategy relies upon talking to customers and prospects, but it starts a mostly one-sided conversation. Generally, you only have a short time or small space to provide your marketing message. Even if some viewers have an interest in your product or service, you have to hope that you’ve crafted your advertisement in a way that appeals to them. What is an inbound marketing strategy? If you think of outbound marketing as casting a net, you might picture inbound marketing as drawing people in with a magnet. Businesses strive to get found when consumers search for the sort of content that they or others produce about them. In that way, inbound marketing may inform, educate, and even entertain, and though it’s crafted with a marketing message, it’s not always directly selling. The internet did not give birth to inbound marketing. For instance, Jell-O almost failed so badly that the owner considered selling off his product rights and factory. An enterprising inbound marketing agency came up with the idea of passing out free Jell-O recipe books in 1904 to literally create an appetite for the product, and the company quickly rebounded. Today, marketers tend to associate inbound marketing with such internet platforms as business websites, social media, blogs, directories, and review sites. As noted in Impact, 70 percent of consumers research products before making a purchase. The right kind of content should help answer consumer’s questions, solve problems, and in some cases, even generate demand. For instance, following the early example of Jell-O, lots of food manufacturers publish recipes that feature their products. Other companies may even use less direct kinds of content that are not so much designed to sell but to are crafted to simply attract an audience that matches their typical buyer’s profile. As an example, Casper, a mattress company, publishes a wellness magazine called Woolly. How to create an inbound marketing strategy Few businesses know more about inbound marketing than HubSpot. They function somewhat as an inbound marketing agency but are better known for the services and tools that marketers use. According to HubSpot, it’s important to begin by analyzing which models tend to work well for similar companies to figure out which actions to take and which to avoid. Getting started also means figuring out how to develop an infrastructure to use for implementing the plan. For instance, a business might need to add a blog to their business website or create profiles and pages on social media sites. To develop the tactics to execute the outbound marketing plan, companies might follow these guidelines: Develop buyer personas: A buyer persona describes a fictional example of a typical customer. It might include such potentially relevant information as age, location, income, gender, and even the number of children or profession. Your personas should represent various kinds of customers you may have and could also include something about their unique motivations for calling upon a company. Outlining buyer triggers: Once you’ve developed a sample of buyer personas, you should document any events or issues that might trigger more interest in your offerings. As a simple example, Betty Crocker’s recipe site will tell you that besides making biscuits or pancakes from their baking mix, you can also use it in a simple recipe to make a quick pizza crust. The next time you go shopping, you might remember to add their product in case you get a pizza craving. Defining keywords: Now that you understand your buyer and what might lead them to buy from you, you can develop lists of keywords that they might use to search for you online. You could brainstorm and then use some keyword tools to generate these lists. If you already have analytics for your website, don’t forget to browse past searches too, particularly if you know they’ve led to conversions in the past. Develop goals: Your inbound marketing campaign goals should support your overall business goals. You also need to have a way to measure them. For instance, you may want your business to increase revenue and brand awareness. Some
Using a Reddit Marketing Strategy to Reach Niche Audiences
These Reddit marketing tips will help you reach niche audiences, improve your brand, increase traffic, and avoid common Reddit pitfalls. Almost every digital marketer knows about Neil Patel. He’s one of the internet’s top influencers and a bestselling author. When Neil Patel calls Reddit the most intimidating social platform, you have to take notice. Intimidating or not, Mr. Patel also says that the right Reddit marketing strategy can help deliver targeted traffic and many other benefits to your business. Why invest in a Reddit marketing strategy to attract a niche audience? Reddit does have a reputation for hosting a population of harsh critics and controversial topics. Disrespecting Reddit users with inauthentic marketing tactics will do your brand more harm than good and perhaps even get your account banned from the more prickly communities. Given its reputation, you might wonder if Reddit really has a place in your social media strategy. Still, according to HubSpot’s collection of Reddit statistics: Over 430 million users access the site and search the site over 46 million times each day. The site gets about 21 billion screen views every month. Reddit has over a million communities, called subreddits, and at least 130,000 of these are active. You can find subreddits dedicated to almost every interest, from cute pictures of animals to guides to navigating the dark web. As with many other social sites, the most active discussions tend to center around popular culture, public figures, and current events. HubSpot’s statistics also supported the idea that Reddit users, particularly younger ones, tend to view the site’s crowd-sourced opinions as a great place to research solutions to problems, products, and services. Done well, Reddit can provide a valuable addition to your company’s content marketing strategy. Even better, a fairly high portion of Reddit users earn at least $75,000 a year and have a college degree. This means that you have the chance to connect with a relatively high-income and educated audience. Even if that doesn’t describe your best market, you will also benefit from the Reddit user’s ability to self-select their communities. Compare that to social sites like Facebook, where users often complain they see ads and content that don’t interest them. Three important Reddit marketing tips to help attract your tribe If you’re marketing your own business or offering services from a content marketing agency, you should see how you might benefit from adding Reddit marketing to your toolbox. Make sure you take the time to understand this unique social site before you plunge in. 1. Understand Reddit’s structure If you just look at the front page, Reddit may look like a very plain bookmarking site from 2005. Indeed, back then, that’s what the original founders pictured. It was only after they added subreddit communities, that this site really took off. If you’ve never spent time on Reddit, the first thing you should do is explore the communities that align with your interests. Finding communities Communities have this URL structure: reddit.com/r/subreddit. You can also search for communities and topics in the search box at the top. As an example, a search for marketing found reddit.com/r/marketing, reddit.com/r/content_marketing, and more. If you just want to start by looking at the front page, you will also see tags by the titles that tell you which community these popular posts originated in. Post Types You may also notice three common kinds of posts on Reddit. These include media posts, text posts, and link posts. For instance, clicking the title of a linked posts will redirect you to the linked page. Posts with such media as graphics, videos, and even polls may tend to attract lots of views. Still, you may find that your thoughtful text posts drive the most conversation and engagements. As with most social sites, a mix of content types tends to perform the best over time. Voting Reddit users can vote posts up or down. Obviously, more upvotes will tend to keep your post higher on the subreddit’s page. Posts will lots of votes can even make it to the front page. So yes, you can think of Reddit as a popularity content. Your own popularity will depend upon how well you read the room — or in this case, the subreddit, the quality of your content, and sometimes, your overall reputation, called karma on Reddit. Profile page As with other social sites, you can also develop your profile page. That’s where users can see a feed of all of your post history, your overall karma, and how to content you directly. Digging Deeper into Reddit Mashable published a beginner’s guide to Reddit a few years ago, but they’ve updated it somewhat since then, so it’s still a pretty good resource for beginners. It will introduce you to Reddit’s unique culture and provide more information about Reddit’s structure and organization. 2. Present yourself as authentic While you have a good chance to post your message in front of an engaged audience, you’ve also been warned that these users may not, as they say, suffer fools lightly. The tone in subreddits varies considerably, even those with similar topics. Read the rules As you would when venturing into any new community, like an old-fashioned forum, make sure you adhere to the subreddit’s unique rules and browse enough posts to understand what kind of posts tend to gain positive notice and which either don’t gain traction or even draw criticism. Understand the community’s tone Again, the most popular types of posts can vary considerably between subreddits. If you look at r/entrepeneur, for instance, you’ll probably see a lot of serious case studies that have been developed just for that community at the top. In contrast, r/books tends to favor links to interesting articles about books and authors. To help you understand the community, you can sort posts in a variety of ways. For instance, sorting by “Hot” will show you the most popular posts. You can also find a checkbox to select such time frames as the last 24