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Meta's decision to shut down its Spark AR platform, effective January 14, 2025, has sparked outrage among creators who rely on the platform for their work. Meta stated that the decision followed a thorough assessment and is aimed at prioritizing future consumer needs, though it did not directly link the move to AI initiatives.
Value innovation allows companies to chase differentiation and low cost at the same time. Rolls-Royce innovated its pricing model in the airline engine industry, which went against the grain but ultimately solved a huge problem for customers. To find opportunities for value innovation, identify and question the assumptions in your industry, find the factors that increase costs for no gain, raise the factors that truly matter for customers, and consider creating new factors that no one else offers.
Highland Titles, a souvenir land plot company, displayed “fast, free shipping” on its mobile website despite the primary product being delivered digitally. The team tested replacing this copy with a short Forbes testimonial, which resulted in a 26% increase in conversion rate and a 31% increase in revenue.
Marketers save an average of 2.5 hours per day thanks to AI, according to HubSpot's 2024 State of Marketing Report. AI tools like ChatGPT and Jasper.ai can be used for technical SEO tasks such as generating schema tags, analyzing logs, and communicating technical concepts to decision-makers.
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In this LinkedIn post, Dan shares 3 key insights he's gained about messaging a developer-focused audience from building ScraperAPI and TLDR. Dan has been actively posting on LinkedIn - follow him for developer marketing content [10].
Google's new tools in Google Merchant Center include product trend insights that highlight popular search and purchase trends. Enhanced AI features now offer summaries of product performance, and conversational queries allow for easier access to tailored data reports. Additionally, Google has improved product availability notes with an automated onboarding process and introduced new customer acquisition goals in Performance Max and Search campaigns.
SE Ranking offers a Google Cache Checker tool, allowing users to view the full cached version, text-only version, or source code of a page. The URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console and the Wayback Machine on Web Archive are other options to access cached content. The “cache: search operator” still works, but Google plans to retire this feature soon as well.
Krithika Muthukumar, the very first marketer at OpenAI and Stripe, discusses what it takes to found and scale a marketing operation to build an enduring brand. A great early marketer doesn't blindly follow a playbook, is genuinely curious about the product, has a T-shaped skill set, and isn't distracted by vanity metrics. In their first month, they should create a “state of the funnel” report and shadow customer calls. Building a brand is often a bottoms-up motion rather than a top-down decision, so Muthukumar recommends developing a razor-sharp POV about what the product is for, learning how your audience talks and wants to be spoken to, and overinvesting in marketing craft.
TikTok Live has become a lucrative platform, with some livestreamers earning over $7K/month through viewer donations. Streamers engage their audiences in "battles" where viewers donate coins to influence outcomes, often driven by creative or trending themes. The demand for making money through these streams has led to new opportunities, including developing interactive games, selling leads lists, and offering video overlays.
Brands are often built to last forever, but the obsession with brand immortality might be limiting creativity and relevance. Instead of striving for permanence, brands should embrace their mortality, focusing on making a meaningful impact in the present rather than adhering to rigid consistency. Shifting this mindset could unlock new creative opportunities and allow brands to contribute more actively to the world around them.
This webinar explores strategies for crafting viral, culture-driven content via real-world case studies.
It's increasingly important to blend traditional and digital PR strategies to maximize impact.
Instagram now allows users to add text directly onto photo posts, as well as new fonts and the ability to layer images and stickers.
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Can you afford to ignore a channel with over 500 million active users during the holiday season?
It's almost impossible to scroll through your For You Page without coming across a live video where you're being directly sold to — akin to the '90s shopping channel QVC. These streams give users community interaction, advising each other in the comments, as well as a celebration moment when someone makes a purchase in front of hundreds of other users. Many businesses in China, the UK, and the US have turned to this sales format via TikTok Shop, as social media users are increasingly willing to make purchases directly through the app.
This deck highlights how younger audiences (18-25 years old) are reducing social media usage, shifting the focus to niche, interest-driven interactions. It discusses TikTok's growing role as a search engine for Gen Z and the rising importance of longer content formats. The deck also emphasizes the need for brands to create serialized, scalable content across multiple channels and the power of "weak ties" in niche communities to build loyalty.
To convert subscribers into customers, start with a Welcome Email to introduce your brand and deliver the opt-in offer. Then create a Story Email sharing your brand's background. Next, send a Problem Email to highlight the issue your product solves and follow up with a Social Proof Email showcasing testimonials or case studies. An Incentive Email with a discount can then encourage purchases, and wrap up with an Urgency Email to create a sense of urgency. This sequence works for both eCommerce and personal brands.
When embedding videos natively in emails, ensure your video file is under 10MB. Choose a thumbnail with a clear focal point and a prominent play button to entice clicks. Optimize your email for various clients by setting up fallbacks, particularly for platforms like Outlook that have limited video support. Include strong visuals and concise storytelling to capture attention quickly, and always test how your video performs across different email clients.
Links with hashtags represent jump links, which will appear in Google Search Console reports when they are displayed on the search result page. Only use the count of search impressions for the main URL, as the impressions for these jump links are essentially double counted. This reporting is helpful though to see how often the jump links are displayed and clicked.
HubSpot's AI Search Grader analyzes how visible your brand is in AI-powered search engines. Enter 4 fields describing your company to see a brand sentiment score and share-of-voice score. An optional email form unlocks additional reporting, including more detailed sentiment scoring, brand strengths and weaknesses, and competitor analysis.
Searches for “how to humanize AI content” have grown 943% over the last 12 months, but doing so is an inherently flawed process. By the time you've researched and added in the human element, you may as well have created the content from scratch yourself. This type of request is also demoralizing for writers, especially when paired with an unrealistic deadline. Companies should use AI models to ideate, plan, and outline content — not ghostwrite it.
This article discusses an A/B test on CTA anchor text that initially failed, but eventually led to a 4% increase in leads. The test compared 3 variations: a control, a version with "free" added, and a more descriptive option. The best practice of adding "free" caused a drop in conversion rates, likely due to users associating it with spam. However, the descriptive option that included the product name in the CTA improved conversions, especially among new visitors.
Don't write headlines that read like orders - instead, make a specific promise that takes the work off your prospect and puts it on your product.
Inbox providers use bots to verify email links, which give a false measure of engagement - enable the "bot clicks" feature in Klaviyo email settings to get more accurate data.
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Rather than targeting the same tired audience on social media and seeing incremental gains at best, why not reach a fresh audience? Reach software developers, marketers, executives and other tech professionals reading TLDR every day. TLDR offers 10 interest-based newsletters to help you get in front of your target audience. Learn more [4] about running your first campaign with us.
87% of shoppers make at least half of their purchases online, while 39% of consumers return an item purchased online at least once a month. 52% of consumers say they have submitted a fake return at least once in their lifetime, up from 36% last year. The majority of consumers are open to exchanges or store credit instead of full refunds — if the returns process is easy. Research also suggests that consumers choose where to shop based on a retailer's available return options.
California's journalism industry has lost 68% of its workforce since 2005, prompting a $250 million deal with Google to support local newsrooms. The deal, which circumvents legislative efforts to tax tech companies, has been met with skepticism for its limited scope and the exclusion of other tech giants. Funds from the deal will be allocated over 5 years, with a focus on supporting underrepresented groups and AI innovation.
It's ideal to post on LinkedIn 2-3 times per week, spending 15 minutes engaging with replies before spending another 15 minutes interacting with other people's posts. Vary your post formats, as using the same one repeatedly can reduce your reach by 30%. Post new content between 10 am and noon, or when your followers tend to be online. LinkedIn determines how valuable the post is and whether or not to show it on other people's feeds during the first hour after you post.
Reposting Reels to Stories can slightly increase reach. Collab Posts perform better when initiated by the account with a larger following. Be mindful of follower preferences to avoid annoying them with repetitive content. While these strategies won't dramatically boost reach, they can refine content tactics.
Google's Interview Warmup is an AI-powered training tool for practicing interviews. It throws real questions based on your discipline (ie. e-commerce, UX, data, and analytics), evaluates your audio answers, and sends back recommendations on things like how you frame your qualifications.
Bing Webmaster Tools are free and offer several helpful resources, including site scans. Verify your site with Bing, and give it a day or two to collect performance and optimization data. Go to the “Site Scan” section to start the crawl. Once complete, the SEO report will provide “Errors,” “Warnings,” and “Notices” for your website.
The “Time is Money” White House initiative takes aim at bad corporate customer experience practices like customer service “doom loops” and problems with chatbots. 70% of customers struggle to reach a live representative, while 68.5% are dissatisfied with automated customer service, feeling trapped in systems that don't resolve their issues. 1 in 4 customers cite poor follow-up and lack of communication as key frustrations. Brands should invest in conversational intelligence tools, enhance existing automated systems, integrate customer interactions across channels, and close the loop with every customer that reaches out.
Reddit's visibility in Google search results increased by 1,328% from July 2023 to April 2024, prompting publishers to rethink their audience strategies. While Google's AI Overviews have declined in visibility, the emphasis on user-generated content, particularly from forums like Reddit, challenges traditional content approaches. Newsrooms are now experimenting with using Reddit for content inspiration and audience engagement, acknowledging the growing importance of experience-based content.
Time to Value is a critical metric in Customer Value Mapping (CVM), which reorients the customer journey to prioritize faster ROI. The CVM process begins by identifying delays and disconnects in the current customer experience and designing an improved "to-be" experience that eliminates these inefficiencies. The outcome is a cohesive go-to-market roadmap that ensures alignment across teams and quicker delivery of customer value.
Successful humorous marketing relies on trust, data-driven persuasion, and making advertising more palatable.
Submit your trademark to prevent competitors from using your brand in their ad copy on Google Ads.
Ikea's new platform, Ikea Preowned, allows customers to sell secondhand furniture directly to each other.
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Marketing costs money. But between bills and expenses, you might find that you're already in the red before you even start.
Mobile will account for over half of holiday e-commerce sales due to Gen Z's shopping growth, mobile-native apps, and rising buy-now pay-later (BNPL) options. Overall holiday e-commerce is expected to grow only 5% this year. With a shorter Christmas shopping season of 29 days, email volume will increase to counter higher digital ad costs. Social commerce will experience growth from new platforms and increased Gen Z usage. BNPL is projected to grow 9% YoY, driven by retailers promoting in-store offers.
TikTok users are more likely to make self-gifting purchases compared to other platforms, with 87% indulging in gifts for themselves during the season. They also make 80% more travel-related purchases. The platform's diverse community celebrates various cultural traditions, contributing to a 1.24X higher spend across categories.
Instead of just paying an influencer to endorse your product, assign them a 'Chief' title that suggests they co-created it. Announce this title on your brand's social media and create a dedicated landing page on your website for the influencer to direct their followers. While the influencer doesn't receive ownership or a real role, the title enhances the campaign's impact through the Parasocial Interaction Effect and the Halo Effect.
To enhance SaaS conversions, create concise landing pages with less than 200 words. Use exploratory headlines instead of commitment-heavy phrases to make users feel more inclined to interact. Consider removing the word "free" from CTAs, as it can sometimes diminish perceived value and trigger skepticism. Implement time-limited discounts to generate urgency and drive immediate action from your audience. Shift from traditional "Call to Action" buttons to "Call to Value" messages that highlight the benefits users will receive.
Pipeline building is now a shared responsibility across marketing, sales, customer success, product, and operations teams. Success depends on coordinated campaigns targeting high-value customers, moving beyond the limitations of MQL-focused strategies. This post shares over 40 ideas on how to target customers in different stages of the purchase funnel.
Perplexity is expected to launch ads in Q4 across 15 categories, including finance, technology, and health. Advertisers will be able to run “sponsored questions” that appear on related questions and video ads on mobile and desktop.
The rise of AI Overviews and rich snippets in search results is reducing CTRs to traditional websites. Search engines are increasingly delivering concise, relevant information directly in SERPs, often synthesizing content from multiple sources. This shift favors content that is easily understood by both AI algorithms and human users, changing the dynamics of visibility and engagement in search results.
Hinge's “No Ordinary Love” campaign features an 80-page zine of modern romance stories by contemporary authors, showcasing couples who met on the app. The printed zine reflects the resurgence of romance literature and trends on BookTok. Hinge aims to encourage in-person interactions rather than app engagement, setting itself apart from competitors.
The "Don't Make Me Think" growth lever focuses on reducing cognitive load. Grammarly increased upgrade rates by 10-20% through personalized pricing based on onboarding data, while Blinkist boosted free trial sign-ups by 20% with clearer trial terms. These examples show how minimizing friction and guiding users intuitively can enhance feature adoption, speed up product value realization, and improve retention, creating a self-reinforcing growth loop.
Rand Fishkin from SparkToro explains why paid advertising often overcharges marketers.