Netflix's introduction of ad-supported subscription tiers marks a significant shift in its business strategy that aims to appeal to price-sensitive consumers and diversify its revenue. By partnering with advertising firms and offering cheaper plans, Netflix hopes to attract a broader audience and compete with other streaming services. Netflix plans to innovate in advertising approaches, develop strategic partnerships, and ensure that ad-supported models contribute to long-term sustainability and growth.
Augmented reality has become a tempting marketing tool for brands tired of shoppers seeing their products as static offerings on store shelves. Research suggests that these phone-based visual experiences can help drive sales, particularly for smaller brands with a more narrow audience in mind. Depending on the approach, AR campaigns can help shoppers pick between product varieties or even boost shopper loyalty with email capture or special offers.
The ultimate customer retention boils down to treating them like absolute VIPs, making them feel like part of an insider club, and giving them the tools and support to win big with your product.
Arcade, an interactive demo platform, makes it easier for people to use its logo by giving options to copy or check out its brand guidelines when its logo is right-clicked on.
The founder of KlientBoost, a digital performance marketing agency, shares 5 tactics he'd use if hired as a CMO at a B2B SaaS company.
Food manufacturers are adjusting their strategies to cater to the dietary changes of the increasing number of consumers on weight-loss drugs. Major companies like Nestlé and WeightWatchers are introducing new product lines and programs specifically designed for people taking GLP-1 drugs, focusing on portion control and healthier ingredients. Analysts recommend that brands adapt by increasing prices, promoting healthier products, and responding to the shifting demands of a health-conscious consumer base.
Bold and colorful aesthetics are this year's key trend for fashion, beauty, home decor, and food. Maximalist fashion will dominate with Y2K and 90s beauty trends making a comeback, including bold bobs, braids, and fruit-inspired nails. Home decor will embrace “dopamine decor”, featuring vibrant and personalized designs inspired by eclectic vintage styles and Nancy Myers' signature warmth. Summer entertaining will see a rise in tea parties and themed dinner parties, inspired by the new Bridgerton season. Food trends will focus on innovative recipes for mangoes, avocados, and sourdough experiments.
Pixar tailors unique voices and tones for each social media platform it uses to engage specific demographics effectively. On Threads, it adopts a trendy, experimental tone, while TikTok content is aimed at Gen Z with trend-heavy, ‘TikTokish' content. X is used for company updates and trends targeting millennials. Its Instagram account features polished content for a broader audience, and its Facebook focuses on global millennials. This approach increased overall engagement by 47% and resulted in a 126% increase in followers aged 13-25.
Testimonials on websites are typically buried, too long, or too vague. To make your testimonials more visible, ensure some social proof is above the fold, consider using one as a headline, and make them easy to consume. Make them more effective by showing the target audience that the testimonial writer is one of them, having a testimonial next to each major benefit, avoiding general testimonials and shooting for ‘too many' of them if possible.
Existing customers are the best source of feedback for new releases and timely feature launches can help with long-term retention. However, the GTM strategy overlooks existing users too often in favor of new user acquisition. PMs and PMMs should begin collaborating on problem alignment and customer segmentation as soon as designers start working on the feature. From there, the PMM should start sketching out preliminary messaging and GTM tactics in the PRD. As the feature progresses, the PM and PMM should continue to collaborate on messaging, rollout strategy, awareness tactics, and post-launch analysis.
This post provides a framework for determining product positioning based on the customer's stage in the buying journey. At each stage, the customer is evaluating a different set of questions, which means your product has a different set of competition. The post walks through how Gong, a revenue intelligence platform, could apply this framework to its positioning.
Snap has announced a series of enhancements to its ad system aimed at providing improved results for all ad partners. This includes new ad formats that use its full-screen display to showcase ad offers and messaging. The platform has also implemented a streamlined app download experience for app advertisers, enabling users to install apps without leaving Snapchat. Snap is offering a new way to bid on click-through conversions within seven days called “7/0 delivery optimization” and is testing an option to bid on the value of purchases driven, not just the quantity of purchases. Additional improvements are covered in the blog post.
This case study discusses how Hunter, an email outreach platform, reached over 4 million users in a competitive market through innovative product development, a strong product/market fit, and a product-led growth model. The company leveraged inbound marketing, SEO, and word-of-mouth virality to drive early growth, while continuously enhancing its core features and launching new ones like Hunter Signals to meet evolving customer needs. Hunter maintained competitiveness and sustained user growth over time by focusing on analytics, reducing friction in the user experience, and employing strategic product marketing.
Image-only emails are visually stunning and a source of great design inspiration. However, they present accessibility issues and can be challenging to read on smaller mobile screens. They also often face rendering problems and slow load times and perform poorly in inbox searches. It's important to combine images with HTML text to balance aesthetics and functionality.
Companies that dismiss TikTok as merely a platform for teenagers are missing out on a significant business opportunity. TikTok's algorithms precisely understand user behavior, making it a powerful tool for tailored content delivery. The platform has been able to forge a deep connection with its users, with over half of them saying they're more likely to trust brands after learning about them from TikTok creators (versus advertising from companies). A US ban of the app could hinder American companies from learning and adapting these technologies, ultimately affecting their competitive edge in the market.
A screenshot of Liquid Death's cheeky copy for its cart abandonment email.
Creators on LinkedIn have experienced a 35-55% decline in impressions, follower growth, and engagement over the last few months.
Content is misunderstood, undervalued, and siloed. This report aims to address the discrepancy between content marketing's perception and reality. It covers content marketing as a function, who needs to be involved in content creation, and what success looks like for today's content marketers.
Trends in commerce are the product of both technological change and behavioral change. This author identifies 10 shifts in the commerce space, from search behavior to physical overstocks. The wellness industry is massive (and growing) in the U.S., and there's an outsized emphasis on wellness among younger consumers. AI's impact on commerce will go beyond AI-generated ad copy – we'll soon have AI-generated products too. Creator and social commerce are seeing a lot of innovation, but the open question remains how best to monetize it.
Google announced plans to test search and shopping ads in the AI summaries. Ads will appear within the AI Overview in a section labeled as ‘sponsored' when they're relevant to both the query and the information in the AI Overview. AI Overview will draw on ads from advertisers' existing campaigns. This means they can neither completely opt out of the experiment nor have to adapt the settings and designs of their ads to appear in the feature.
VectorVest, a stock portfolio management system, found from research that users were skeptical of starting a trial despite the social proof elements on the pricing page. The company tested a variant of the pricing page that changed the trial offer headline, answered common objections around hidden fees and terms, reformatted the pricing table to connect the trial price to each plan, softened the call-to-action to “Select Plan”, and added a callout above the highest-value plan. This resulted in a 43% increase in paid trials, demonstrating the value of learning from real customers.
Optimizing sign-up forms results in more email subscribers, which leads to better analytics, deeper brand building, and higher-value customers. Start by ensuring you have sufficient tracking on your forms to allow you to properly analyze drop-off points and run tests. Look for opportunities to remove or adjust thought-consuming qualities on the form, such as social media icons, which can create a distraction. Get ahead of user anxiety by letting users know upfront how often you'll be contacting them and with what sort of content. The article contains additional tips around error messages, reciprocity, and social proof.
The average conversion rate on a pop-up is 3.8%. Pop-ups with an image get 4.96%. Results fluctuate based on trigger type, number of fields, images, and device type. When designing an email pop-up experience, ensure the pop-up window adheres to accessibility standards and is easy to close for everyone. Depending on your brand and objectives, keep fields to a minimum. One field converts better (4.3%) than multiple fields (2.6-3.5%). Fly-outs or slide-ins are also good options for mobile where space is limited. Test these pop-ups based on where someone's thumb sits beside their mobile screen.
Product-led growth (PLG) is growing in popularity. Used by software companies such as AirTable and Loom, PLG is a growth model where product usage drives customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. Self-service, freemium, and value-based pricing are tools for PLG, not PLG itself. Under a traditional model, marketing and sales push users to product and customer success, but under PLG the four orgs are much more intertwined.
This article compiles advice from seven SEO leaders on how to leverage SEO for revenue growth. It features strategies like growth modeling for keyword ROI, “Pain Point SEO” for targeting high-intent keywords, and the approach to creating promotable content. The article also highlights the importance of a user-friendly blog design to guide users through the buying journey, the benefits of integrating SEO with paid acquisition data, and the crucial role of middle-of-funnel content in capturing and converting demand.
This in-depth case study analyzes Amazon's marketing strategy. It highlights the company's customer-centric approaches like personalized recommendations, seamless returns, and excellent customer service. It also discusses how innovation through AI and machine learning enabled inventory management and voice-controlled assistants like Alexa. The case study shares recommendations on how marketers can replicate the strategies.
Personal storytelling is growing on LinkedIn, with users increasingly posting about their personal lives to engage their professional networks. While this approach can create more meaningful connections, it has also led to concerns about professionalism and “engagement baiting.” Experts advise focusing on authentic, value-driven content that aligns with professional growth to build your brand on the platform.
Attacking competitors can give you an aggressive vibe that may not be in your brand voice, and taking on smaller competitors can validate their place.
How Halo Top, the ice cream brand, used context shifting (ie. fitness snacking) to differentiate from competitors.
As it's still too early to measure AI Overviews' true impact, this post summarizes 13 things to take note of.
The rise of #dupe culture, driven by Gen Z's acceptance and promotion of cheaper alternatives to luxury products, is reshaping consumer behavior. Social media experts suggest that high-end brands should not fight this trend but rather use it to engage with a wider audience and strengthen their brand image. Brands like Lululemon and Olaplex have already seen success by incorporating dupe culture into their marketing efforts.
Pinterest shared a series of insights on marketing to Gen Z based on first-party platform data and recent audience research. Gen Z is Pinterest's fastest-growing audience, making up more than 40% of its global monthly users. This generation uses the platform as a search engine, so brands should optimize their Pins for Pinterest search. Gen Z saves nearly 2.5x more Pins and makes 66% more boards than other generations, which means upper-funnel and retargeting campaigns can set the stage for lower-funnel success. 63% of weekly Gen Z Pinners say that they're ‘always shopping,' so brands should take advantage of ad formats like carousels and collections with direct links.
Powerful product messaging is the backbone of a good marketing strategy. Your website should speak to one specific persona, not a range of segments. Instead of showing a long list of features on your homepage, it should describe the desirable transformation your product will create. Strong customer success stories, case studies, and any other third-party validation will bring validity to lofty promises. Moreover, a compelling and authentic brand personality goes a long way in differentiating your brand.
This article outlines strategies for enhancing customer loyalty through personalized interactions, consistent service, and proactive engagement. Personalization includes offering tailored recommendations and exclusive offers. Consistency involves delivering reliable experiences across various channels. Proactive engagement focuses on anticipating customer needs and resolving issues before they escalate, achieved through monitoring customer behavior and feedback.
This framework is useful for B2B marketers wanting to test a content-driven nurture. It involves asking questions before building your sequence, deciding on the type of content relevant to your audience (ie. a playbook, case study, framework), and incorporating content into every single email and followups. A sample of an email drip series is included.
TikTok announced a new media buying certification that allows digital marketers to highlight their expertise in TikTok advertising. Candidates who pass the exam will receive an official TikTok Media Buying Certification, which is valid for 2 years along with verifiable accreditation. There's no accompanying course (as is the case with the usual TikTok University offerings), but there is a 124-page study guide.
Funnels come with a lot of nuances and are non-linear and non-time-bound in nature. Every business needs to define and optimize its own funnel uniquely. To optimize a marketing funnel, set a purpose for each stage of it and use data to understand what's not working. Build marketing strategies for each stage, keep refining your buyer personas, and audit your marketing assets.
This article highlights the rise of employee social ambassadors, with examples of employees using their platforms to share brand experiences. Brands like Shake Shack are leveraging this trend by collaborating with employees and creators to create authentic content. Experts argue that instead of trying to control employee posts, companies should find ways to mitigate risks and harness the authenticity that employee ambassadors bring.
Major publishers are exploring new revenue streams to combat declining ad revenues and subscription growth. Strategies like e-commerce, affiliate marketing, and social media partnerships are gaining traction. Companies such as Condé Nast and The Independent are also diversifying their offerings and expanding globally.
A portfolio template to showcase projects and improve job applications.
These shifts include platforms preferring longer form content, creators switching click-bait hooks and quick edits for longer scenes and personality, and viewers experiencing trend fatigue.
A chart breaking down the definitions, goals, and competitive alternatives of outcome-based, use case-based, and category-based positioning.
Marketing budgets aren't what they used to be. They're down 15% from 2023 to 2024 on average in the US and Europe. Search advertising represented the largest mean percentage of digital channel budgets, followed by social, digital display, and SEO. As for offline channel budgets, event marketing had the highest mean percentage, followed by sponsorships and linear TV. Over 75% of CMOs say that Gen AI is an investment priority for this year and expect it to eliminate costly drudge work and solve productivity challenges due to shrinking budgets.
The phasing out of third-party cookies is driving the adoption of sell-side curation, where supply-side platforms use first-party data to create targeted audience segments for advertisers. This development is transforming the ad tech landscape by reducing demand-side platforms' dominance in audience curation and increasing the strategic importance of supply-side platforms and data management platforms.
The initial onboarding experience for users is frequently overlooked as a one-time checklist. This often becomes stale as products, messaging, and GTM tactics evolve. To reduce friction and accelerate time-to-value, set up reverse trials directly into the highest-tier plan, use social proof throughout the onboarding flow, push for team usage, and create action-triggered onboarding emails.
We don't notice we're being sold to when we read a good sales story. We pay attention to the story, and that's what makes a product seem more valuable. This author breaks down an effective sales story that Apple published on the sales page for the iPhone 13 Pro. The opening sentence arouses curiosity and promises readers they'll learn something. The story then effectively combines technical language and a description of Hollywood cinematographers to sell readers on a more creative life — which in effect sells the product.
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The cookie is crumbling [8] and marketers relying on old-school targeting are on borrowed time. Luckily, first-party data is at your fingertips [8].
Tome is an AI-powered research and presentation platform for sales and marketing teams. It can be used for sales pitches, landing pages, and sales enablement. The paid plans include AI-generated presentations created with a prompt, which provides an outline and 4 variations of each page. The free plan provides access to static deck templates.
This report includes 60+ charts of interesting findings on how 1,900+ marketers are currently using social media. It covers all of the major social platforms, organic and paid activities, video marketing, and more. A few stats include FB (86%) and IG (79%) being the top 2 platforms used by marketers, visual content being the top content type (87%), and a significant 44% of marketers having no plans to increase their TikTok organic activities over the next 12 months.