DIGITAL - Mobile Strategy 2017 Conference

Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2017 takes place in New York on January 18th.

The conference focuses on advertising, marketing, retail, commerce and media issues and opportunities expected in 2017 with mobile at its center.

With mobile becoming more important to business, it’s an opportunity to hear from speakers from Forrester Research, Dunkin’ Donuts, PetSmart, Hershey’s, Amazon, Levi Strauss, Vitamin Shoppe, Google and more.

Discussion will centre on what marketers can expect in a disrupted and even more mobile-centric marketing, retail and media environment in 2017 and what it means for retailers, brands, ad agencies, publishers, market researchers, technology platforms and service providers.

A cross-section of experts discuss strategy, tactics, results and analysis for gaining or maintaining market share in a rapidly evolving, mobile-driven market where the consumer is leading the change as much as brands.

Register here.

BUSINESS - Optimize Your Customer Journey Through Mobile

(pexels.com)

Customers don’t just enter your business through the front door anymore. There are websites and numerous social media channels that can bring customers in.

And mobile has caused a huge shift in how customers engage with businesses.

Now you have to understand mobile users’ habits and behaviour so you can maximize sales and engagement. A new customer path has to be carved as businesses strive to be continually engaged with consumers.

So, how do you integrate mobile initiatives into your customer experience strategy?

IBM and Forrester Research have joined forces to offer a webinar - Top Ways to Influence and Optimize the Customer Journey Through Mobile Touchpoints - on Tuesday, September 13th.

Guest speaker Julie Ask from Forrester Research will share case studies and discuss how you can influence customers' decision-making and streamline their journeys through seamless mobile experiences.

You will learn:

• How companies in different industries benefit from mobile moments and mobile touchpoints to improve overall customer journey
• How mobile impacts customer journeys, online and offline
• How customer behavior and preferences impacts future decisions
• What you can do to influence and guide customers to stay on track of their journey with mobile experiences and engagements.

As customers move away from following traditional paths to your company, this webinar could help you avoid missteps in the mobile market.

Register here.

DIGITAL - Mobile Marketing; How to Aquire, Engage, Convert and Retain Users

Mobile is the way of the future.

This was predicted by technology trend analysts about eight years ago and it has proven to be true.

What they got wrong, however, is how quickly mobile would take over. Mobile use is growing much faster than experts initially anticipated.

Businesses are feeling the pressure to jump on the mobile bandwagon now - before they fall too far behind their competition.

But where do you start? How do you create an app? How do you develop a mobile marketing campaign that will drive value and revenue over time?

Localytics, an analytics and marketing platform, has The Beginner’s Guide to App Marketing ebook available at no charge to answer these questions.

Starting with the definition of ‘App Marketing’, progressing through analytics, marketing goals, measurement and improvement, the guide also provides more resources to learn about mobile and app marketing.

For those marketers wanting to understand and demonstrate the impact of mobile marketing, read the Forrester Report - Beyond ROI: Showcasing the True Impact of Mobile Marketing.

DIGITAL - Video Tools to Ignite Your Social Marketing

Video is fast becoming one of the more important marketing tools in social media.

Cisco predicts that by 2017 video will make up 69% of consumer internet traffic.

In 2015, users spent an average of 5.5 hours per day watching video content according to eMarketer reports - 39 of these minutes were on mobile devices which is up significantly from the 3 minutes per day of 2011.

It’s time to take steps to create video as part of your digital marketing strategy. But how do you do it well without breaking the budget?

There are a number of tools available to make your video sing, and Social Media Examiner compiled a list of six.

Animoto to Create Video Compilations

Available in both free and paid versions, Animoto allows you to create professional-quality videos with pictures and video clips.

It accepts photo and video uploads from your computer, smartphone, or other sources including Facebook, Dropbox, and Photobucket.

Legend to Build Custom GIFs

Legend is a smartphone app that allows you to create branded, customized GIFs by combining text, flash, and images.

You can share your animated GIF on Instagram, WhatsApp, or in a text message from the Legend app, or share it directly from the app to other social networks if you’ve already downloaded the apps to your smartphone.

It is available from Google Play or the App Store.

Relay for Snapchat Video Geofilters

Relay is a graphic design and publishing tool for people who aren’t graphic designers that can be used to design your own customized Snapchat geofilters, which you overlay on your videos.

Geofilters act as a personal branding tactic for your Snapchat stories, which leads to greater engagement.

Overvideo to add a Soundtrack

Overvideo is a free iOS smartphone app that lets you add text and music to your videos.

It can be used to elevate the engagement potential of your video with music and quirky captions.

Cinemagraph Pro for Facebook Profile GIFs

Cinemagraph Pro by Flixel (iOS or Mac only) is an easy-to-use tool to get movement in your Facebook profile photo.

You can replace static profile photos with a 7-second looping video called a cinemagraph.

GoAnimate for Video Presentations

Available in free or paid versions, with the GoAnimate animation tool, you can create videos that are made up of template scenes, customizable characters, backgrounds, music, and props from their library.

You can also upload your logo and change the colors to match your brand.

Read the full story to learn more about these tools - including step-by-step instructions on how to use them.

DIGITAL - 17 Things People Hate About Your Website

You created a website for your business so people can find you, but also to market your services, make sales, develop relationships and build your business.

Did you know that poor user experience can do the opposite? It can cause high page abandonment, low visitor-to-lead conversion and poor organic search positions.

Hubspot Marketing has created a list of 17 things people hate about your website. This list can help when developing a site, but also is a guideline for existing websites to determine how they can be improved.

It takes forever to load

According to a KISSmetrics report, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less, and 40% abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.

It isn’t optimized for mobile

Scrolling from side to side or having to pinch and zoom to read content just frustrates users.

Google announced it would strengthen the ranking of mobile friendly sites so if a site isn’t mobile friendly, it will lose out in organic search rankings.

It offers poor navigation

It’s important for users to easily know where to go and what to do on your site.

It uses excessive pop-ups

How annoying is it to have your reading interrupted by constant pop-up boxes? Many sites are now using slide-in call to action boxes that are less obtrusive.

It contains multimedia content that autoplays

The user is enjoying reading your site when suddenly music starts playing or someone starts talking and they can’t find the button to stop it. It’s likely they will simply close your page.

It’s littered with generic or cheesy stock photography

It's much better to show real pictures of customers, employees, your company, product, and location.

It doesn’t clearly explain what your company does

Steven Krugg sums it up best in his best-selling book, Don't Make Me Think: If visitors can't identify what it is you do within seconds, they won't stick around long.

It contains keyword stuffed copy

Keyword-stuffed copy makes for a bad reader experience. So instead of cramming a keyword in every chance you get, read this blog post to learn the five parts of your website where you should optimize for keywords.

It’s missing social sharing buttons on content

Buttons make it easy for your readers to share your content on social networks because they don't have to manually copy and paste your URL and compose a tweet.

It employs title and headlines that are incongruous with the content

Also known as click-bait. It's important to capture people’s attention in titles, but make sure it isn't misleading and the content can actually live up to what you promised to deliver.

For the rest of the tips along with links to how you can address them and make your website better, visit Hubspot Marketing.

DIGITAL - Create Better Content Than Your Competitors

Every day you are inundated with images, videos, posts and updates. So, how do you make your online content stand out from everyone else?

While you may know that your content needs improvement, it can be challenging to know where to start and how best to optimize your posts.

Siege Media has created an infographic that illustrates steps that can be taken to give online content the edge over the competition.

To help even more, the Ultimate Collection of Content Marketing Templates is available to download for free from HubSpot. It includes social media image, infographic, blog and SlideShare templates - plus more.

DIGITAL - Measuring Your Social Media Efforts

One of the biggest challenges for marketers using digital/social media, is measuring its effectiveness. How can you take likes, comments or shares and determine your return on investment (ROI)? How can you report the statistics to others in your company in a simple, yet meaningful way?

HubSpot and Simply Measured have developed an ebook, ‘How to Create a Monthly SocialMedia Report.’ The ebook includes the best tips for creating a solid report and it will help you gain a better understanding of what the report should include to prove the worth of your efforts.

Best of all, the ebook is free.

As organizations try to determine how much effort to put into digital media and which mediums are most effective for their organization, accurately measuring their marketing efforts can only help.  

DIGITAL - Pet Product Marketing: Technology, Mobile and Social Media

Marketing has been undergoing a dramatic transformation all over the world with the development of new technology and the increasing use of digital media. The marketing of pet products and services is no exception.

A new report, “Pet Product Marketing Trends in the U.S.: Technology, Mobile, and Social Media,” is now available from Packaged Facts which examines the ways pet product marketers have capitalized on new marketing tactics to engage and interact with pet owners.

The report covers a wide range of digital technologies including mobile marketing, online video, social media, interactive games, e-mail marketing, loyalty programs, content marketing and more. It also looks at the digital media usage and behaviour of pet owners, along with their psychographics relating to internet, mobile and social media. Dozens of images and examples of new technologies from pet marketers are included – from pet food and supply brands to pet retailers, medications, pet treats, veterinary services and animal shelters.

The pet marketer will find this report filled with of best practices for marketing to the pet parent.

The report also contains analysis of consumer technology usage trends and motivations, drawing primarily from two data sources. The first is national consumer survey data from Simmons. Through an ongoing program of telephone and booklet questionnaire surveys of a large probability sample of consumers who represent a statistically accurate cross-section of the U.S. adult population, Simmons is able construct detailed demographic profiles across various consumer product and service markets. The discussion of consumer patterns also draws on the Packaged Facts Pet Owner Survey, an exclusive look at pet owners across the U.S..

EDITORIAL - The Times, They are a changing

Bob Dylan's ballad to change (1964) is relevant today

Come, gather round people wherever you roam

And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
Then you'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a changing

The song

A CBC story on Thursday highlighted 1,000 layoffs at BBC and a complete refactoring of Britain's national broadcaster. This response to change bares further scrutiny.

Last month, the BBC's Head of News, James Harding, predicted that by the end of the next decade (2025) most people in the United Kingdom would receive their program content over the Internet. He also said:

"The Internet has ripped a hole in the business model of many great news organisations." 

More recently BBC, Director General, Tony Hall admitted:

"There are very tough things happening out there and the hard choice that is happening to us is that the number of households with TVs is diminishing, slowly, but it is diminishing."

'Ripped a hole in the business model', really?? 
Clients view the Internet as the best thing that has ever happened to the 'news' business. The Internet has accelerated news collection, improved distribution and eliminating cost. What the BBC and other broadcasters didn't anticipate was a need to move strategies from 'scarcity' (available only from the BBC) to one of 'abundance' (available everywhere, at anytime, from everyone) and the impact that would have on it's advertising revenue model. 

'The number of households with TVs is diminishing', pardon me?? 
NOW HEAR THIS  - Mr. Hall you are measuring the wrong thing. According to a recent report in Mobile Marketing, more than 72 of 100 prospective and existing BBC customers have a smartphone and that number jumped 14% in the last ten months. According to Deloitte, smart phone usage in the UK will reach 95% and become ubiquitous by 2020. Mr. Hall, everyone of these consumers can be served your product without a TV. The number of TVs is irrelevant.

One can observe the pain in 'Broadcaster Speak' coming from Harding and Hall, but as Dylan sings '..you'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone, for the times, they are a changing'. 

Around the globe, the major scramble to find sustainable practices in a landscape of rapidly shifting consumer behaviors features advertising agencies, content providers, broadcasters and media companies. Many of these players were the 'wise' Rulers that governed communication and contact with the consumer. Retailers and brand companies paid homage and lots of 'gold' to the reigning experts of the day. These experts charged their clients according to some magical formula based on ratings, views, impressions and eye balls. The cost of campaigns often defied forecasting logic and many had a pay back (ROI) that resembled Roulette.


Today the fears of marketing directors and brand developers is palpable. Consumers are enjoying a new world where they reign supreme. Legislators are busy shutting down direct marketing schemes in the name of consumer protection, anti-spam and privacy. 

In the evolving paradigm, consumer skepticism regarding how 'big data', 'likes' and 'pluses' are manipulating their online experience has undermined brand marketing strategies and tactics. Together these trends add volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity to an environment where enriching the consumer experience is paramount.

In this new world, one would do well to understand the client life cycle as a series of episodes. Eliminating spin and hype, while developing a reputation for authentic, transparent communication will serve clients in a continuum of trust and a relationship that extends over their lifetime. 

The times they are a changing. Anticipating change as the new norm will give service and content providers fewer surprises and many more opportunities.

About Guest Editor Larry Evans:
Larry R. Evans is a futurist, a brand developer and a collaboration advocate. He is the Principal Adviser for The Paradigm Corporation, which is headquartered at Thunder Ridge just outside Crossfield, Alberta, Canada. He is known for bringing a unique and predictive lens to paradigm shifts during a career that spans 45 years. Now from his wheel chair, he brings a grounded but tenacious view of client rights and relationships in the digital age. His perspective and values influence his life, business and ministry.