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YOUR PRODUCT IS NOT THEIR PROBLEM

Understanding customer needs and industry challenges takes priority over pitching product features when entering a new market.

WHY SEO IS A GAME OF POKER, NOT CHESS

SEO is like poker, requiring a blend of strategy and managing uncertainties in an unpredictable environment.

THREADS SPOTTED EXPLORING ADS, BUT SAYS ‘NO IMMEDIATE TIMELINE' TOWARD MONETIZATION

Multiple developers and reverse engineers have uncovered references to ad products in the Threads app's code, including the word “ads” itself, as well as references to sponsored items and ads configuration. However, Instagram says it's not testing ads in the app and has no immediate plans to monetize. The head of Instagram stated in April that Meta definitely plans to bring ads to Threads eventually, but Zuckerberg himself has said the team must first focus on retention and improving the basics.

SURVEY: 31% OF BACK-TO-SCHOOL SHOPPERS WILL TAKE ON DEBT TO FUND THEIR SPENDING THIS YEAR

Nearly one-third (31%) of U.S. adults doing back-to-school shopping this year are going into debt to pay for it (or already have), up from 29% in 2022. That includes 24% who are using credit cards and carrying balances, and 13% who are using buy now, pay later services like Affirm or Klarna. Nearly half (46%) of back-to-school shoppers are employing strategies to save money this year, like seeking out more deals or coupons than they did in the past (28%), buying cheaper brands (21%), or buying fewer school supplies than they did in previous years due to the cost (19%). 14% of people feel pressured to spend more on school shopping than they're comfortable with, while 18% say school shopping did or will strain their budget this year.

HOW TO FIND MICRO-INFLUENCERS FOR YOUR BRAND

A micro-influencer typically has somewhere between 5,000 and 30,000 followers and tends to focus on a specific niche. Partnering with these creators generally results in lower campaign costs, more quality engagement with followers, and more relatable and authentic content compared to mega influencers. Find micro-influencers by using an influencer directory, using filtered search on social media platforms, searching through your brand's followers, or asking your community.

LEVERAGING EMOTIONS IN YOUR FACEBOOK ADS FOR BETTER RESULTS

Facebook advertising effectiveness can be significantly enhanced by focusing on the emotional desires of your audience, rather than just product features. Emotional end states, such as feeling more loved or achieving financial freedom, drive purchasing decisions. Competitor analysis and customer feedback are crucial for crafting ads that resonate on an emotional level.

HALLOWEEN MARKETING IDEAS FOR EMAIL + SMS

This piece shares 10 email and SMS examples for Halloween inspiration. BABOON TO THE MOON uses seasonal colors to highlight its products, while Printfresh emphasizes team connection over product promotion by sharing movie recommendations. Minor Figures creates an interactive experience with a "trick or treat" theme to build community. BirdDogs entertains with a ghost story, leading readers through a comic-like narrative, and HOMAGE leverages Halloween to offer a BOGO deal, encouraging purchases with discounts.

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CRAZYEGG

Crazy Egg is a website optimization tool that provides insights into how users interact with a website. It offers features like heatmaps, scrollmaps, and user session recordings to visualize where visitors click, how far they scroll, and how they navigate a site. It also provides A/B testing functionality.

10 CHATGPT PROMPTS FOR DOCUMENT ANALYSIS

Templated ChatGPT prompts for fact-checking, sentiment analysis, comparing and contrast, and more.

THREE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT ADOBE'S SEO & BLOG DESIGN

Adobe's SEO strategy, driven by content featuring high-quality images, useful tools, custom experiences, and expert opinions, generates nearly 80 million in monthly traffic. Its site ranks for commercially-aligned keywords, such as "infographic examples", and maximizes the traffic value with a custom page template featuring built-in CTAs. Adobe uses page design to improve the user experience and truly meet search intent, unlike some other SEO heavyweights. The white space on each side and the text spacing also make the blog content much easier to skim and digest than other competing sites.

A YEAR AFTER ‘BARBIE', BRANDED CONTENT IS ALL THE RAGE IN HOLLYWOOD

Authenticity is now crucial, as brands must align their values with the content they sponsor to avoid consumer backlash. This shift has led to a rise in co-promotion opportunities, where brands partner with entertainment companies to capitalize on popular content. Companies like Amazon and Creative Artists Agency are developing new branded entertainment units in response to this demand. Additionally, brands are collaborating with entertainment firms to share content creation costs, especially as marketing budgets become more constrained.

THE NY PUBLIC LIBRARY MEME'D THEIR WAY OUT OF BUDGET CUTS

The NYPL's meme campaign, initiated with a "This is Fine" meme featuring its mascot, garnered over 18K likes and became a pivotal tool in rallying New Yorkers to push back against proposed budget cuts. This unexpected approach led to record engagement and contributed significantly to the restoration of library funding.

AI OVERVIEW OPTIMIZATION IS NOW JUST...GOOGLE OPTIMIZATION

One of the best ways to get mentioned in an AI Overview (AIO) is to rank highly in regular search.

21 LINKEDIN HOOKS

A collection of creative, funny, and image hooks used on LinkedIn.

QUICK KLAVIYO MARKETING TIP

Aside from 'friend', try using a different default tag for ‘first_name', such as ‘buddy'.

YOUTUBE TAKES ON TIKTOK SHOP WITH EXPANDED SHOPIFY PARTNERSHIP

YouTube has enhanced its partnership with Shopify in response to TikTok's rapid growth in U.S. e-commerce, enabling creators to access a much wider range of brands through its Shopping affiliate program. This expansion is part of YouTube's broader strategy to increase revenue from e-commerce as digital advertising slows, with new tools like a Chrome extension making it easier for creators to incorporate products into their content. By boosting the number of brands available and streamlining the shopping experience, YouTube aims to solidify its position against competitors like TikTok Shop.

MARKETERS' AD SPEND TO GROW IN H2 LED BY SOCIAL MEDIA AND DISPLAY

The sense of optimism felt by the ad industry in the first half of 2024 is expected to endure, with a significant number of advertisers midway through the year reporting that they again plan to maintain or increase their spending in every channel. 56% of marketers listed connected TV (CTV) and streaming as the most critical consumer technology and media trend, followed by generative artificial intelligence (AI) at 55%. Meanwhile, the amount of time spent streaming increased by more than 40% in June, marking its largest share of TV usage ever recorded.

AIRBNB'S 2024 CAMPAIGN IS A POWERFUL EXAMPLE OF HOW GREAT MARKETING IS JUST POSITIONING MADE VISIBLE

In order to build value propositions that really resonate with your target customer segments, you need to understand what they are doing today (and why that method sucks). Airbnb's series of 8 commercials explain when and why it's the better choice for a particular group of people, for a particular subset of trips. This post includes a brief teardown of positioning and messaging for each of the 8 Airbnb commercials.

USER TESTING: THE TECHNIQUES WE USE TO MAKE MILLIONS FOR OUR CLIENTS

User testing is by far the fastest and most effective way to find the issues that limit website conversion rates and revenue. There are five levels of user testing to consider: testing on yourself, testing on someone with fresh eyes, testing with qualified users, testing with prospects who are on your website right now, and testing competitor websites alongside your own. Common issues found from these methods include users making “stupid” mistakes, users not trusting you (or believing your claims), or users hitting a sticking point and stalling (or leaving).

KEYPLAY

Keyplay helps brands identify their ICP. The platform centralizes data from various sources, allowing for precise segmentation and targeting based on real-time insights. Its collaboration features enhance team alignment, making it easier to build strategies for the right audiences.

ILOVEIMG

A free online photo editor that allows you to edit images in bulk. Features include removing backgrounds, resizing, cropping, and compressing images.

SHORTFORM

Shortform provides concise summaries of nonfiction books, articles, and reports, offering key insights and actionable takeaways. For marketers, this service can save time by distilling complex content into digestible formats, allowing them to quickly grasp information and stay informed on industry trends.

SELF-CARE SOCIALS: GEN Z'S EMERGING GUIDE TO MAKING FRIENDS

Gen Z's social life has moved away from traditional gatherings like happy hours and sports events. They're now spent in novel, digitally mediated spaces such as in-game hang-outs and virtual school environments. This change highlights the emergence of new social settings centered around self-care, like book bars and skincare cafes, which are cozy and interest-focused. There will be a new generation of brands that position themselves as low-key, self-care-specific, and social-but-not-quite.

YOUR TV SET HAS BECOME A DIGITAL BILLBOARD. AND IT'S ONLY GETTING WORSE

Rather than selling as many TVs as possible, TV manufacturers are increasingly seeking recurring revenue from already-sold TVs via ad sales and tracking. Some brands already prioritize data collection and the ability to sell ads and most are trying to boost their appeal to advertisers. Smart TV OS providers are generating revenue by licensing their software and through revenue sharing of in-app purchases and subscriptions. Budget TVs are the leaders in this trend as companies often offset cheap hardware prices with ads and data collection.

SEO LOW-HANGING FRUIT

This post shares how to use GA to identify and optimize declining pages.

13 SECRETS OF BUILDING AN ONLINE WRITING BUSINESS

13 visual insights from the book “The Art & Business of Online Writing”.

QUICK COPYWRITING HACK

Include questions (that people are likely to say yes to) in your content to keep readers hooked.

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THE PINTEREST FALL 2024 TREND REPORT

This report unveils trends in fashion, beauty, home decor, food, and hobbies for the upcoming fall season. Nature-inspired patterns and mixed-proportion layering take center stage in the fashion space. The latest beauty trends feature a blend of bold and contemporary styles, with ‘more-is-more' makeup making a comeback. Foodie interest in earthy ingredients, like morel mushrooms and pistachio butter, and Japanese cuisine is on the rise. Gen Z is combatting the autumn blues by focusing on unique hobbies and IRL connections.

SHOPPING HAULS ARE SO BACK

Shopping hauls are resurging, driven by algorithmic recommendations and Buy Now, Pay Later programs. YouTube and TikTok enabling direct purchases from videos further fuels this trend. This ease of shopping has led to a 12-month high in average items per transaction, with nearly 11 products per order, exceeding last December's holiday sales.

INFLUENCER NICHES AND WHY YOU NEED TO BLUR THEM

A “vertical” in the influencer world refers to a niche or category that a creator specializes in, with brands traditionally sticking to these lanes. To maintain engagement, brands should blur the lines between their products and creators. Understand your audience, including their preferred content, creators, and communities. Take calculated risks by choosing influencers outside your niche, but avoid those who don't align with your brand values or genuinely like your product. Consider adjacent conversations relevant to your audience, even if they don't directly tie to your product, as seen with Fidelity Investments partnering with a cooking creator.

HOW TO USE UNORDINARY OBJECTS TO WIN ON SOCIAL (1 MINUTE VIDEO)

A breakdown of how brands like Jacquemus, Aritzia, and Mush use objects and visuals to break the norms seen on social media. Jacquemus plays around with attention-grabbing images, videos, and lettering in its IG carousels. Aritzia promoted its sale with a video of a girl shopping with a life-size shopping bag as big as her.

HOW TO CAPTURE FOOTAGE FOR SHORT-FORM VIDEOS

To organize footage for short-form videos, create a dedicated folder on your phone to keep footage organized. Mark potential hook shots for engaging intros and aim to capture a high volume of clips, around 50 per location (if you're visiting multiple places), using a "wide, medium, close" shot format. Focus on quick 1-second clips to maintain viewer interest and avoid excessive cropping. Include a variety of shots, both of the surroundings and yourself, using a Bluetooth tripod or a friend for dynamic footage. Prioritize establishing, normal, and close-up shots to ensure a well-rounded video.

USE CHROME TO EMULATE SEARCHES FROM ANY LOCATION

GENERATE HIGH-QUALITY EMAIL COPY WITH CHATGPT

First, create a custom email GPT for your brand that covers copy length, brand style and voice, and repetitive words to avoid. Next, use modularized prompts that force ChatGPT to return the copy in preset email sections. Reprompt the output to improve the copy quickly by asking the tool to rate the existing copy and rewrite it. This post includes example prompts to use at each step.

WHAT IS A SLUG? URL SLUGS AND WHY THEY MATTER FOR SEO

Although Google acknowledges that URL slugs contribute minimally to SEO rankings, they play a crucial role in user experience, which is closely tied to SEO. A clear and concise URL slug, ideally containing the target keyword, helps both users and search engines understand the page content. Best practices suggest keeping slugs short, descriptive, and free of special characters.

COMPETING IN SEARCH

The recent ruling against Google for abusing its search monopoly shows the complex dynamics of search engine dominance. Google is fueled by a self-reinforcing cycle where its popularity improves results and attracts more users and revenue. This dominance is maintained by high traffic acquisition costs, which solidify Google's lead and create barriers for competitors like Bing. Although the ruling may prompt changes, it remains unclear how effective the remedies will be and how LLMs might reshape the search landscape.

50 BOOTSTRAPPED SAAS COMPANIES DOMINATING SEO

An analysis of 1,600 bootstrapped SaaS companies' SEO traffic and strategies driving their growth.

TIKTOK REVEALS THE TOP 10 SONGS OF THE SUMMER IN THE APP

TikTok's summer music trends highlight the platform's role in promoting emerging artists and sparking viral content.

APPS THROUGH THE AGES: A STUDY ON KIDS' TECH USE IN THE USA

This study highlights the growing risks associated with social media use across all age groups. 31% of 7-9-year-olds access X and 28% use Reddit in the US. By age 10, 42% of kids have smartphones, spending an average of 121 minutes daily on TikTok. Social media use increases with age - Snapchat is a communication tool for 38% of 13-15-year-olds. TikTok and Instagram compete for attention among 16-18-year-olds, who average 108 and 72 minutes per day on the apps, respectively. Roblox remains popular but starts to decline among older kids.

GOOGLE APOLOGIZES TO ADVERTISERS FOR MAJOR SHOPPING ADS GLITCH

Google had a glitch in its Shopping Ads system, causing advertisers' products to appear in competitors' accounts, exposing sensitive data. Advertisers are frustrated with Google's vague and delayed responses, inadequate explanations, and inconsistent communication about compensation.

10 PMAX SEGMENTATIONS FOR MORE CONTROL & SCALABILITY

Unlike Google Search campaigns, you can often drive better results for Performance Max and Shopping campaigns by creating advanced segmentations. Effective segmentation strategies include segmenting by product category, bestsellers vs. regular, price competitiveness, and product performance. Choosing the right setup depends on your business goals, so continuously experiment to find what works best for you.

EXPERT EVERGREEN TIPS AND TRICKS

Evergreen content is defined differently across newsrooms. Generally, it refers to content that remains relevant and drives consistent traffic over time. Align evergreen pieces with a publication's core topics, regularly update them, and consolidate similar content to maintain value. Track and prioritize content based on traffic and revenue impact to ensure the most valuable pieces are refreshed first. Lastly, add an editor's note at the top to indicate when it was last updated for transparency.

7 BEST FACEBOOK ADS TACTICS FROM DEMAND GENERATION PROS

To optimize Facebook ad performance, use “ugly” ads that resemble organic content. Incorporate real people into your ads, rather than focusing solely on product images. Use Facebook's dynamic ad features, such as Dynamic Creative Optimization and Advantage+, to automatically test and optimize creative elements. Implement the “engagement; purchase; scale” method by warming up audiences, retargeting for conversions, and scaling successful campaigns. Allow Facebook's algorithms to manage targeting while you focus on A/B testing. Lastly, switch to the Conversion setting for Lead Ads to drive users to your website forms for better tracking.

PRICING MASTERCLASS: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SAAS PRICING (88 MINUTE PODCAST)

This is the first episode of a series on SaaS Pricing strategies. It provides insights on setting prices, managing free-to-paid conversions, and avoiding common pricing pitfalls.