Since Hawke’s inception, we’ve been both blessed and burdened with extraordinary growth. What started as a five-person team in 2014 has evolved into an increasingly successful business with a team of over 130 expert marketers who have helped more than 1,500 businesses scale and profit.

While the growth has been great, it’s also come with growing pains. Recently settled into our new, 27,000-square-foot headquarters, we’re finally in a space that will enable and encourage further growth. Getting here hasn’t been easy and the Hawke leadership team, and I learned some valuable lessons in the process. Here are the biggest lessons we learned from building and moving into our brand-new headquarters that we hope will help make your own move seamless.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

1. FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

We wanted an office that was custom built for us and being able to design a space that perfectly accommodates the way our company runs has allowed us to perform better. We were able to match the layout of our new office with the way our business works, rather than trying to retrofit an existing space to work the way we want. Creating that new layout gave us the opportunity to figure out what spaces and office functions were missing that our company and employees needed to succeed. Conversely, we were able to see which functions were unnecessary.

In an ideal world, you’ll find a space that can be designed to fit your company’s unique needs. If you’re not able to custom build an office as we were, at least look for buildings with existing layouts that will be conducive to the way you do business.

2. PAY ATTENTION TO HOW DIFFERENT EMPLOYEES SELF-ORGANIZE, BUT PROVIDE GUIDANCE

It was incredibly insightful and interesting to watch the way my employees self-organize: how they use conference rooms and common spaces; how they organize their desks and their days; and how they work most efficiently.

While our new office was still being built, to accommodate for the expansion of our company we had to rent a separate office two blocks away from our original headquarters. We put one of our teams in that new space and let them figure out how they wanted to organize the space, who sat where, and who got what. We thought that the added freedom would increase performance, but we instead realized that our employees needed structure. As a leader, you should take into consideration how people are best organized to accomplish what they need to, but you should also provide guidance and direction.

In our new space, we assigned which teams went into certain spaces, what areas were common spaces across the teams, what spaces were common areas specific to one team, and so forth. Creatives and accountants have different needs in order to be their most productive selves, so we ensured that each team was in a space tailored to their work styles.

It may sound like a small thing, but by simply providing guidance in the designation of space, we’ve already seen an immense ease in our moving and settling-in process.

Moving into a brand-new office space, especially one you’ve built from scratch, can be terrifying and stressful. But it’s also a huge accomplishment and should feel as such

3. LET YOUR EMPLOYEES FEEL HEARD

When figuring out our needs for the new space, we used it as an opportunity to give our employees a chance to voice their frustrations at what they thought could be better within the office. Of course, everyone wants free food and beer on tap. But beyond voicing the obvious desires, we wanted employees to figure out what they were missing in order to be most productive. And then we listened.

Listening to and evaluating their requests was important. Not everything will be feasible, but much of it probably is. We now have kombucha and cold brew on tap. We have a myriad of common spaces, some more public than others, to allow individuals to get away from their desks but still work. We have a recreation room to act as a reprieve from computer screens.

An office move is a great opportunity to find out what is truly lacking in your employees’ work lives. Find out what you can offer to help them be happier and more productive. Everyone will be better for it in the long run.

4. PARTNER UP

Especially in the entrepreneurial community, companies are actually incredibly willing to help each other out so long as there is fair trade-off. We’re lucky enough to have some very kind friends and partners who have helped make our new office even more incredible.

For example, each of our employees has a Varidesk, allowing them to stand and stretch their legs while they work at any time they choose. In return, Varidesk will be using our office as a showroom to clients and visiting us periodically. It’s a win for us both.

Additionally, we went with Openpath to handle all of our building’s open-access control. Our company already had a relationship with them, and we knew we wanted them to handle security matters. Now, not only do we not need to bother giving each employee a key (opening and securing doors is all done via the Openpath app), but the setup process was incredibly easy.

Don’t be afraid to look to friends of your business to help with various aspects of your new office space. Often this can lead to very fruitful partnerships for all parties involved.

5. GET THE NECESSITIES FIRST

Make sure you have your necessities stocked up and ready to go before anything else. Things like toilet paper, paper towels, trash cans, and garbage pickup are all extremely vital to the smooth running of an office. We had to learn the hard way on day one in the new office that we didn’t know what was happening with our trash pickup. It was a mess.

DON'T FORGET TO CELEBRATE

Moving into a brand-new office space, especially one you’ve built from scratch, can be terrifying and stressful. But it’s also a huge accomplishment and should feel as such. Don’t forget to congratulate each other on a job well done.

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

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[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

But I struggled to find anything geared toward those of us already secure in our positions. Where are the events that cater to the established executive looking to build out his or her community and collaborate with like-minded individuals? National and global conferences are great, but localized events often have two key themes that these larger events lack: community and collaboration.

The 2 Cs

I’ve been in this industry for long enough and, over the years, I’ve noticed there aren’t too many events where top executives can get together and learn from each other. I struggled to find a space where we could all come and be honest, open, and ready to collaborate.

Why Community Is Important

A lot of time the rat race of starting a business can cause people to view their peers as direct competition. In reality, it’s incredibly important to surround yourself with a community of like-minded individuals that you view as friends and confidants–not threats to your success. These people understand your trials and tribulations because they most likely went through it themselves or are currently in a similar situation. They can tell you what worked for them and what didn’t, inspire you to try something new, and be the emotional support you need when things don’t go exactly according to plan.

Community Leads to Collaboration

It may sound counterintuitive to help out your competition, but it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Becoming part of an entrepreneurial community has helped me stay up-to-date on trends, given me a built-in support system, and has even led to new partnership opportunities. In an industry that’s constantly changing, staying current can be difficult. Exchanging ideas and thoughts about industry changes with the members in your community can help you anticipate change and proactively adjust.

The Key: Localized Events

What I Saw

E-commerce events that focus on fostering that sense of community, rather than just getting the biggest names from Google or Amazon, are incredibly valuable when it comes helping entrepreneurs build and expand their network.   There are tons of industry events that are almost tradeshow-like in nature–with tons of vendors, attendees can walk the floor to connect with featured businesses and then funnel into large conference halls to listen to speakers. But I found myself having more fun at mastermind events and CEO summits. I wanted to create an event that embodied that spirit, where people came to make lasting business partnerships, find or become advisors and mentors, and, most importantly, learn together. By prioritizing the value of community and collaboration, e-commerce conferences could become a breeding ground for revolutionary ideas, partnerships, and success stories.

What I Did

My team at Hawke created our own conference for this purpose. I noticed a gap in the industry–a lack of local e-commerce events designed to appeal to established executives looking to collaborate–and decided to do something about it. And so, Hawkefest was born. My team and I created this annual e-commerce summit to provide ample opportunities for attendees to work and learn together in a hands-on environment filled with fun, peer-generated content. We created a space for executives to come together and learn from each other.

How You Can Do It Too

1. Carefully curate your audience.

At Hawkefest, we require all attendees to fill out an application, which then goes through a meticulous vetting process. While that might sound a bit pretentious and time-consuming, it ensures that the people who actually attend aren’t just job-seekers and vendors, but legitimate movers and shakers in the e-commerce industry. Our Hawkefest attendees don’t have to worry about getting hounded by sales pitches or buried under a stack of business cards. In order to attract high-level minds and get them to drop their guard, your event should have an intimate feel. And that comes from a curated guest list. By doing some of the grunt work up-front, you’re able to know exactly who is in attendance. This allows for your event to be a place filled with valuable conversations and meaningful interactions. Establish base requirements for attendees so that you can keep a pulse on the type of individuals who are planning to attend, making sure that list aligns with your overall goals.

2. Emphasize peer-to-peer collaboration.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. And same goes for people at networking events. Just because they are all in the same place, does not mean that they’ll automatically be inclined to talk, mingle, and exchange ideas. At Hawkefest, we encourage peer-to-peer conversations in a variety of ways. Hawkefest isn’t just a bunch of speakers one after the other with a “networking mixer” slapped in the middle. There are breakout sessions, roundtable discussions, fireside chats, team-building workshops, panels, and more. By creating opportunities where communication, teamwork, and participation are encouraged, Hawkefest’s event structure helps foster collaboration. You can take your time when configuring your event schedule and make sure that the types of interactions are conducive to what you’re trying to accomplish.

3. Focus on your community.

With Hawkefest, we target companies and professionals in our Southern California community. By doing so, we’re able to bring together executives that are operating in similar conditions–be it a new tax law, consumer attitudes, or even the weather. Attendees are also much more likely to be able to follow-up with their newly made connections due to their close proximity. In fact, even a handful of even the speakers participating at Hawkefest have their businesses just down the road from the event space. Additionally, becoming the centerpoint of the community you’re looking to create has long-lasting brand benefits. So, while it may be tempting to expand invitations to your event to a national or even global audience, consider focusing your reach to your immediate community.

Come Together

It may seem daunting to try to execute your own e-commerce or digital marketing event since that space seems so saturated. But if you adjust your scope to focus on the community around you, you may find that there is a need for localized networking event. I know it worked for us at Hawke Media, so it can also work for you. If you’re in the SoCal area and want to check out what Hawkefest is all about, we’d love to have you! Apply to attend here.

[For more insight from Hawke Media click here]

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CFOs are not known for encouraging you to spend more. Not, at least, without good reason.

The key to making your CFO happy with expanding your digital marketing budget is to give them a very good reason. Honestly, you should give yourself a very good reason to expand your marketing budget.

Now, the obvious reason is growth. Marketing drives growth; that’s not a new idea. But not all marketing drives growth – only good marketing.

So how can you 1) know that your digital marketing is paying off and 2) prove that it’s paying off to your CFO, your investors or your board?

I’m so glad you asked.

First: Calculate the Value You Can Create

How much net profit does every lead or sale generate for your company? It sounds like an easy question, but it can be surprisingly hard to answer.

If your company’s structure allows your marketing to drive sales directly, this can be pretty easy. Maybe you sell widgets online for $20: Your cost to produce and deliver a widget is $5, and the profit you can drive from a sale is $15.

Your formula is: 

(Sale Price) - (Cost of Goods) = (Sale Value)

Things are a little less easy when you start to consider the long-term value of a customer, or a sales cycle that can stretch into days, weeks, months or years from that initial lead.

Still, it’s important that you understand what that profit is, and the role your marketing can play.

Your formula for finding your value in a more complex sales environment could look something like this:

{(Average Sale) - (Cost of Goods or Services)} x (Conversion Rate) = (Lead Value)

Depending on how your business runs and the potential for repeat business, you might want to replace (Average Sale) with (Average Long-Term Customer Value), or possibly (Average First-Year Customer Value).

It can be tempting to gloss over this part of the process, to guesstimate or to base your advertising on hunches and intuition about the value you’re driving.

Don’t.

Someday your CFO, a board member or an investor will ask you to justify the costs of your marketing efforts. In all those situations, you need to have a good answer. Better yet, don’t wait until they ask; be proactive about presenting them.

[To read more of Mike Schaffer’s thought leadership click here]

Second: Attribute Sales

Now that you know the value of a lead or sale, it’s important to know where every sale you drive comes from.

How much net profit does every lead or sale generate for your company? It sounds like an easy question, but it can be surprisingly hard to answer.

“Attribution” is digital advertising speak for “What brought the customer here?” If a customer clicked on a Google pay-per-click ad that brought them to your site, and then bought something, that sale would probably be attributed to your Google pay-per-click ads.

I say “probably” because it can get more complicated. What happens if a customer clicked a  Facebook ad two days ago, browsed your site and left without making a purchase, but then clicked on a Google ad today and made a $100 purchase? How much of that sale do you attribute to Google? How much to Facebook?

The answer will depend on what’s called your “attribution model.” There are literally hundreds to choose from, but it’s basically how much “credit” you give to each piece of advertising that a customer encounters on their way toward a sale.

Tools like Google Analytics can let you choose from a list of standard attribution models. Once you reach a decent scale, it’s probably worth implementing more complex software that’s tied directly to your ad platforms and that does this on your behalf.

Third: Calculate Your ROAS

Now you’ve figured out:

1. How much a sale or lead is worth.
2. Your spend on each platform.
3. The sales or leads that each platform generates.

That lets you put it all together and get a really clear picture of the value you’re delivering with your ROAS. ROAS stands for “return on advertising spend.” It might sound complex, but it’s not really. Plus, CFOs go nuts for acronyms.

Your goal is to tie the sales or leads driven by every type of advertising you do with the amount of money you spent on that type of advertising.

Your formula here is:

(Per-Platform Revenue) / (Per-Platform Cost) = (Per-Platform ROAS)

So, if you spent $50,000 on Facebook advertising, and drove $50,000 in profits, you have a ROAS of 100% for Facebook. 

If you spent $50,000 on Google and drove $100,000 in profits, you have a ROAS of 200% for Google. Obviously, above 100% and you’re making money; below 100% and you’re losing it.

It’s important to note whether you’re calculating your ROAS on profit or revenue. Calculating ROAS on revenue is much more common, but then you’ve got an additional step of adding in your profit margins later on. I tend to prefer calculating ROAS on profit from the get-go; this enables you to have that data available and front-of-mind for every decision you make related to your digital ad spend.

Either way, understanding your per-platform ROAS lets you optimize for the most effective platform, or combination of platforms.

Once you’ve got that figured out, you can use essentially the same formula to calculate your overall digital advertising ROAS.

(Digital Ad Revenue) / (Digital Ad Cost) = (Overall ROAS)

Now, you’re ready to impress your CFO.

Fourth: Make Your CFO Love You

With these numbers in hand, you can pretty easily understand whether your advertising’s working. If you have an ROAS of under 100%, you’re losing money. Over, and you’re driving profit for your company.

While ROAS is a common term in advertising, return on investment (ROI) might be even simpler for your CFO to understand. How many dollars in profit are you generating for every dollar spent on digital marketing? An ROAS of 100% is the same as a 1:1 profit:spend ratio. An ROAS of 400% is the same as a 4:1 profit:spend ratio.

Then, you can go to your CFO and say things like, “For every $1 you give me in ad spend, I can create $4 in profit.”

You may sound a bit like Bernie Madoff, but the difference is that you can actually deliver on your promises.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there, crunch some numbers, and get ready to make your CFO your digital marketing budget’s best ally.

[For more on Echo Factory's approach to Digital Agency click here]

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Ecommerce - Direct to Consumer

The fact is that most ecommerce brands are getting their margins squeezed and going direct to consumer is going to continue to be a huge focus. Shifting to direct to consumer essentially cuts out costs that are incurred from wholesaling and retail markups. While some of these costs are going to be transferred to marketing campaigns (at first), in the long run, a brand’s reliance on other parties to properly represent them shrinks. Brands looking to make a bigger ecommerce splash in 2020 will need to lock down their direct marketing plans in order to shine the spotlight on themselves in a big way.

The Rise of Visual Search

Technology continues to disrupt how customers will find products – and this will not slow down in 2020. One area that is both a challenge and an opportunity surrounds visual search technology. This involves customers taking a picture of a product to get reviews and even pricing, as well as where items can be purchased. Many apps including Amazon already use this type of technology. So brands need to be sure that pictures of their products are plentiful and are tagged appropriately to benefit from those using visual search technology from their mobile devices.

ADA Compliance in 2020

Websites need to be accessible for everyone regardless of ability or disability. Users with visual impairments, hearing disabilities, or even limited physical motor functions must be able to navigate and gain the value your site has to offer. This goes beyond brand ethics and dips into “brand protection.” Many brands are violating ADA website compliance standards not with general disregard but rather a lack of knowledge. While this may be an oversight by the website owner, sites that are not adhering to ADA standards are targets for lawsuits for ADA compliance law practices. At the end of the day, getting sites ADA ready will need to be a focus for all brands in 2020.

Beyond Social in Social Media

Marketing on social media will continue to make strides in 2020. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms will continue to provide better audience targeting, testing capabilities, and overall costs when compared to other direct digital marketing tactics. Almost any brand can find its audience on social media, and with the ability to use images, GIFs, video, and a wide variety of other creatives, the flexibility is almost unmatched. Beyond the ability to target is the tremendous opportunity brands have to sell their products directly from Facebook and Instagram. While brands used to have to send users to a landing page – or a website – now customers can tap and purchase without ever leaving their favorite social platform. We have seen incredible results with everything from wine brands to home services when it comes to Facebook and Instagram marketing, so if you haven’t tested this ads platform, we highly recommend that you start testing now.

Context Is the New King

We all know the key to getting your message to take hold in the search engines is content. If you have no content (or little content) you will be buried against the competition and will likely never show up on the coveted first page of Google. However, a more important concept (known to SEO experts) is holding much more importance than ever before – and that is the valuable context of your content. What value does your content provide? Is it answering the questions people are asking? Is the context rich enough to keep users on your site long enough to alert Google that users are finding your content valuable? The true king when it comes to content is the context. So brands will really need to place the context within their content as the top priority. Google has even released recent updates (BERT) that layers contextual AI onto searches to provide more contextually rich results. And if Google is changing algorithms to better understand the context, then brands need to make this a priority in their SEO approach for 2020. National Positions (www.nationalpositions.com) is a fully-integrated digital marketing powerhouse, delivering customized programs for clients that encompass SEO, Pay-Per-Click management, content marketing, web design, video marketing, social media, conversion rate optimization and online reputation management.  Founded in 2004, National Positions is a 5-time Inc 500 company and a Google Premier Partner.  A pioneering force in the SEO industry, National Positions offers end-to-end digital marketing services to SMB’s and white label services to numerous agencies throughout the United States." ["post_title"]=> string(75) "Digital Marketing New Year's Resolutions: Outlining Best Practices for 2020" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(83) "Bernard May, CEO of National Positions lists the best marketing practices for 2020." ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(85) "bernard-may-digital-marketing-new-years-resolutions-outlining-best-practices-for-2020" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-01-03 11:33:24" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-03 19:33:24" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=32078" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [5]=> object(WP_Post)#5123 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(24824) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "252" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2017-07-25 09:21:38" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2017-07-25 16:21:38" ["post_content"]=> string(7626) "

On December 7, 1963, a 29-year-old television director premiered a new invention during the Army vs. Navy football game that he called the instant replay. Whether he anticipated its impact on the entire sports experience for everyone from players to audiences to owners, or simply thought he was lessening the referees’ workload, is unclear. Today, instant replay technology has evolved to be a standard practice of sports entertainment, and with it, the emphasis on “how” you play the game has gone from motivational cliche invoked by coaches in the locker room to mission-critical detail that decides championships.

The embrace of technology by the sports and entertainment industries, though dramatically significant, is hardly unique. As business owners in 2017, we’ve witnessed digital technology’s inevitable infiltration of industries across the spectrum, even those once thought relatively immune. The opportunity to influence consumers, widening of the playing field for nimble, technology-loving upstart competition, and unprecedented power of branding and personalized consumer experience are just a few examples of phenomenons presented by the new digital landscape that have taken digital strategy from a line item to an ongoing, daily topic of discussion.

[To read more of Michael Abraham’s thought leadership click here]

Media and entertainment have been among the leaders in transforming operations and products to satisfy a digital appetite. UK-based technology market research firm Vanson Bourne, in partnership with Dell Technologies, conducted an evaluation of 4,000 business leaders from 16 countries across 12 distinct industries. Designed to uncover the effects and timelines of digital disruption, the results show 73% of respondents agree that a “centralized technology strategy needs to be a priority for their business.” Successful organizations focus on adopting diverse platforms to attract larger audiences, utilizing technology and branding across assets to drive results, and implementing solutions backed by data collection and analysis.

New Platforms, New Audiences

According to the same Dell survey, “72% of respondents [are] expanding their software development capabilities.” Even the heaviest of hitters in digital media are reaching to new areas. In 2016, Facebook launched Facebook Sports Stadium, an interactive hub for fans to interact with games, teams, and players more intimately. In 2017, Amazon outbid Facebook, YouTube, and former rights holder Twitter, for the streaming rights to Thursday Night Football, a one-year deal worth a reported $50M.¹ With introduction through the football, Amazon gathers a myriad of data points on customers and understands the potential for drawing a sports audience that will further explore Amazon’s expanding Prime Video service. Media and entertainment businesses are making monumental pushes to diversify their digital capabilities and push their brands further into the mainstream.

More than collecting valuable data on fan behavior, such as peak times for food ordering and parking habits, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers accrued an additional $2M in revenues by digitizing the fan experience when inside the stadium doors.

The Power of Branding

A business plan with a significant digital strategy has proven to have greater opportunities for worldwide recognition. “Digital media companies are by definition global and there is an opportunity to do deals with them in 200 countries around the world where basketball is followed,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.⁴ Social media’s reach of a worldwide audience has allowed more authentic access into a player’s personality. Just as personal, relatable branding campaigns consistently see greater returns, utilizing personable, relatable athletes as branding opportunities has proven a lucrative approach for brand strategy.

[For more on CCG LA's approach to Marketing click here]

“Three years ago, we were in 100 million pay-TV homes…[w]e now have 200 million smartphones that did not exist five years ago,” said Silver. “We need to work through this transition with our television partners. But my view is that this will be net strongly positive when everyone is carrying a TV in their pocket . . . We will truly make it up in volume.”

Dynamic Pricing Models

More than enhancing the experience for fans and players, a sold-out stadium means maximum ticket sales, heightened concession and merchandise sales, and a more desirable product for television audiences. Although, the structure of ticket sales has laid dormant for decades. Today, employing digital databases and analytics, franchises can use a dynamic approach to adjust ticket prices and fill empty seats leading up to game time. In Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals have a system capable of pinpointing optimal prices for sales by comparing data based on ticket demand, team performance, pitching matchups, and weather. According to professors at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, this ebb and flow of ticket prices can result in a 14.3% increase in revenue.¹

Digitizing the Experience

A side effect of today’s digital revolution includes changes in service industries. Before a game, fans can order food delivery through apps like Postmates or DoorDash, buy e-tickets through Stubhub or SeatGeek, and secure transportation to the stadium through Lyft or Uber. The only remaining experience yet to be digitized? The in-game experience. When Levi’s Stadium opened its doors to 49ers fans in San Francisco, attendees could use the official stadium app as their game ticket and parking pass, get GPS aid finding their seats, check instant replay, and order food delivery directly to their seats. More than collecting valuable data on fan behavior, such as peak times for food ordering and parking habits, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers accrued an additional $2M in revenues by digitizing the fan experience when inside the stadium doors.³

Instant replay is now a classic example of filling a void we didn’t realize existed but, once filled, its use becomes ubiquitous and its absence would never again be tolerated. Newly discoverable “voids” and their subsequent technological solutions constantly emerge in a busy digital landscape. A coach is still wise to urge his players to focus on the game over winning or losing. But now in business, thanks to technology, we can identify exactly how to play the game to return a win every time.

¹ knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu 2 Wall Street Journal 3 venturenext.com 4 Financial Times

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On December 7, 1963, a 29-year-old television director premiered a new invention during the Army vs. Navy football game that he called the instant replay. Whether he anticipated its impact on the entire sports experience for everyone from players to audiences to owners, or simply thought he was lessening the referees’ workload, is unclear. Today, instant replay technology has evolved to be a standard practice of sports entertainment, and with it, the emphasis on “how” you play the game has gone from motivational cliche invoked by coaches in the locker room to mission-critical detail that decides championships.

The embrace of technology by the sports and entertainment industries, though dramatically significant, is hardly unique. As business owners in 2017, we’ve witnessed digital technology’s inevitable infiltration of industries across the spectrum, even those once thought relatively immune. The opportunity to influence consumers, widening of the playing field for nimble, technology-loving upstart competition, and unprecedented power of branding and personalized consumer experience are just a few examples of phenomenons presented by the new digital landscape that have taken digital strategy from a line item to an ongoing, daily topic of discussion.

[To read more of Jeffrey Stewart’s thought leadership click here]

Media and entertainment have been among the leaders in transforming operations and products to satisfy a digital appetite. UK-based technology market research firm Vanson Bourne, in partnership with Dell Technologies, conducted an evaluation of 4,000 business leaders from 16 countries across 12 distinct industries. Designed to uncover the effects and timelines of digital disruption, the results show 73% of respondents agree that a “centralized technology strategy needs to be a priority for their business.” Successful organizations focus on adopting diverse platforms to attract larger audiences, utilizing technology and branding across assets to drive results, and implementing solutions backed by data collection and analysis.

New Platforms, New Audiences

According to the same Dell survey, “72% of respondents [are] expanding their software development capabilities.” Even the heaviest of hitters in digital media are reaching to new areas. In 2016, Facebook launched Facebook Sports Stadium, an interactive hub for fans to interact with games, teams, and players more intimately. In 2017, Amazon outbid Facebook, YouTube, and former rights holder Twitter, for the streaming rights to Thursday Night Football, a one-year deal worth a reported $50M.¹ With introduction through the football, Amazon gathers a myriad of data points on customers and understands the potential for drawing a sports audience that will further explore Amazon’s expanding Prime Video service. Media and entertainment businesses are making monumental pushes to diversify their digital capabilities and push their brands further into the mainstream.

More than collecting valuable data on fan behavior, such as peak times for food ordering and parking habits, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers accrued an additional $2M in revenues by digitizing the fan experience when inside the stadium doors.

The Power of Branding

A business plan with a significant digital strategy has proven to have greater opportunities for worldwide recognition. “Digital media companies are by definition global and there is an opportunity to do deals with them in 200 countries around the world where basketball is followed,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.⁴ Social media’s reach of a worldwide audience has allowed more authentic access into a player’s personality. Just as personal, relatable branding campaigns consistently see greater returns, utilizing personable, relatable athletes as branding opportunities has proven a lucrative approach for brand strategy.

[For more on CCG LA’s approach to Marketing click here]

“Three years ago, we were in 100 million pay-TV homes…[w]e now have 200 million smartphones that did not exist five years ago,” said Silver. “We need to work through this transition with our television partners. But my view is that this will be net strongly positive when everyone is carrying a TV in their pocket . . . We will truly make it up in volume.”

Dynamic Pricing Models

More than enhancing the experience for fans and players, a sold-out stadium means maximum ticket sales, heightened concession and merchandise sales, and a more desirable product for television audiences. Although, the structure of ticket sales has laid dormant for decades. Today, employing digital databases and analytics, franchises can use a dynamic approach to adjust ticket prices and fill empty seats leading up to game time. In Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals have a system capable of pinpointing optimal prices for sales by comparing data based on ticket demand, team performance, pitching matchups, and weather. According to professors at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, this ebb and flow of ticket prices can result in a 14.3% increase in revenue.¹

Digitizing the Experience

A side effect of today’s digital revolution includes changes in service industries. Before a game, fans can order food delivery through apps like Postmates or DoorDash, buy e-tickets through Stubhub or SeatGeek, and secure transportation to the stadium through Lyft or Uber. The only remaining experience yet to be digitized? The in-game experience. When Levi’s Stadium opened its doors to 49ers fans in San Francisco, attendees could use the official stadium app as their game ticket and parking pass, get GPS aid finding their seats, check instant replay, and order food delivery directly to their seats. More than collecting valuable data on fan behavior, such as peak times for food ordering and parking habits, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers accrued an additional $2M in revenues by digitizing the fan experience when inside the stadium doors.³

Instant replay is now a classic example of filling a void we didn’t realize existed but, once filled, its use becomes ubiquitous and its absence would never again be tolerated. Newly discoverable “voids” and their subsequent technological solutions constantly emerge in a busy digital landscape. A coach is still wise to urge his players to focus on the game over winning or losing. But now in business, thanks to technology, we can identify exactly how to play the game to return a win every time.

¹ knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu 2 Wall Street Journal 3 venturenext.com 4 Financial Times

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The world in which we live is constantly evolving at such a rapid pace. Seismic technological, social, political, and economic shifts occur so frequently that brands in nearly every sector must remain agile and apply critical strategies to adapt. Particularly challenged are art and cultural institutions whose rich history and purpose must be communicated with the utmost integrity, while also appealing to a broader demographic in order to drive engagement and grow their audience.

Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History’s Executive Director Nina Simon recently published The Art of Relevance, in which she “explores how mission-driven organizations can matter more to more people.” Throughout Simon’s book and in her TEDx talk, she methodically examines the concept that museums and other cultural institutions can become connectors within their communities when they measure and deepen their relevance.

From a business perspective, further cultivating this relevance with the public requires an effective brand and digital strategy that accommodates the demands of our current culture and puts the user and their connection to community at the forefront. At Zehner, we’ve served as both the creative and technology partner to leading art and cultural organizations. Be it the museum space, film and live entertainment venues, or one of the most comprehensive public transit systems in our country, our team comprises experts that understand how to engage the community through the intersection of savvy design and user experience that delivers real results.

Recent, notable examples include our rebrand and site redesign for the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA). As San Antonio continues to gain recognition for its buzzing tech, art, and cultural scene, SAMA has emerged as one of the country’s leading museums. SAMA approached Zehner to deliver a new brand and design experience that would drive deeper engagement within the community and educate the public on the transformational experiences the museum provides.

[To read more of Matthew Zehner's thought leadership click here]

Additionally, we’ve supported the rebirth of public transportation in Los Angeles with our ongoing work with LA Metro. Our user-experience support has helped drive community ridership and improve the quality of life for its now 39 million monthly riders.

Here are leading-edge methods for these vital organizations to attract new audiences, drive demand, and increase engagement.

Elevated Branding

Illuminating art, culture, and history through an elevated experience is key to fulfilling a multifaceted vision that can be sustained over time. Modernizing the embodiment of an organization’s brand is an important first step. However, establishing a new brand identity and strategy for an institution that serves the public often requires a delicate balance of heritage and innovation. Attracting new audiences is crucial, while also remaining mindful that the contemporary iteration of the brand maintains a connection with current constituencies.

Teamwork and A Collaborative Approach

Turning an idea into something that you can see, feel, and be proud of is no simple task. When a large institution can remain nimble and committed to cross-functional teamwork, this can help uncover valuable insights and elevate the spirit of partnership with their agency arm or among their internal personnel. If opting to work with an agency, it’s important to select a partner that can remain empathetic to an organization’s challenges and work collaboratively to deliver optimum results.

Keen focus should be concentrated on building a vibrant digital space that not only highlights the organization’s significant work, but also immerses userS in a community center where they learn about additional opportunities to connect in meaningful ways.

Creating A Comprehensive Styleguide

When reimagining a new identity for an organization, creating a comprehensive style guide ensures the integrity of the brand is preserved at the highest level and consistently carried across all touch points, both digital and physical. Visual relevance and the correct usage of the logomark and logotype all play a pivotal role in delivering consistent branding on an everyday basis that will advance and retain awareness and loyalty.

Crafting A Strategy That Realizes and Executes on Long-Term Goals

In order to grow an organization’s audience, the new brand, design, and communications strategy should actively speak to its city’s residents and tourism industry and the institution’s loyal advocates. This requires that an agency partner or in-house team take a holistic approach to their work and remain focused on sustainable growth. By leveraging all customer data and audience segments, the team can develop an initiative that emotionally connects with their constituencies and drives impressive ROI.

User Experience

Focus on the heart of the art and cultural organization—its people. In today’s digital landscape, it’s a user’s market. Creating a best-in-class user experience is paramount to the success of a digital property. Whether an organization’s reach is local, national, or international, their audience of visitors, artists, scholars, and members should all be carefully considered throughout the architecture of the user journey.

Establish First-Rate Information Architecture

Putting everything in its right place when designing a website or digital platform can often present a challenging task. But establishing solid IA is imperative to crafting the best possible user experience and paths for each visitor type and goal. Have a team that’s willing to get their hands dirty in this process and utilize all tools wisely, from the card sort through to the site map and wireframe.

Responsive Design

Aesthetics are very important, and the visual design of an interactive experience should be carefully examined. Everything from colors, images, typography, icons, and buttons must be strategically implemented in order to engage users. A beautiful website alone is no longer sufficient however. In a mobile-first world, users have different needs depending upon platform and interaction type. Responsive design has reached a critical juncture, and an organization’s site must be able to adapt to any device. Prototyping and user testing are also essential to optimizing the experience, and effective teams understand that these are fundamental components of a comprehensive UX design process.

Engage and Educate Your Community Through Experience Design

Keen focus should be concentrated on building a vibrant digital space that not only highlights the organization’s significant work, but also immerses users in a community center where they learn about additional opportunities to connect in meaningful ways. UX should help narrow the gap between the institution and its audience by clearly celebrating the array of offerings provided to the public. When an initiative is properly featured on the site, it no longer flies under the radar and instead experiences a significant uptick in attendance. Carefully consider all that the organization contributes to the community at large, whether it be in the form of educational programs, film series, shopping experiences, food and beverage options, lecture series, and much more. Then go about ensuring these are taken into consideration early in the creative process and observed in a dynamic manner on the site.

LEVERAGING DATA AND DRIVING MEMBERSHIP

At Zehner, we support the overall vision for a variety of community-based organizations. Our team comprises  experts that excel in developing member acquisition, sustaining lifetime membership value, and increasing ticket sales by leveraging analytics.

A compelling digital product that fully reimagines the user journey can deliver significant ROI for purpose-driven organizations. In tandem with a modern and sustainable brand, art and cultural institutions can connect with multiple demographics and redefine their relevance as a must-see destination for the community at large.

[For more on Zehner’s approach to Digital Marketing click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(55) "Driving Engagement for Art and Cultural Organizations" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(87) "Connect communities through art and culture with relevant branding and user experiences" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(93) "matthew-zehner-marketing-digital-agency-driving-engagement-for-art-and-cultural-organizations" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-06 11:36:27" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-06 18:36:27" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=29412" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [8]=> object(WP_Post)#5120 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(29041) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-09-18 13:49:36" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-09-18 20:49:36" ["post_content"]=> string(11127) "It’s a tale as old as time. A company is born. It outsources its marketing to an experienced agency that helps the company increase revenue and scale business. The company continues to see results from the marketing efforts of that agency and grows bigger. Everyone is happy. And then the company reaches a point where it feels obligated to bring its marketing internal. “That’s what you’re supposed to do right?” says the company. The company brings its marketing in-house and tries to replicate what that fully-staffed, expertly trained agency was able to do with a few new, in-house team members. It doesn’t work out great. Growth stalls. The company loses revenue and has to cut back on its marketing budget. In my years in the marketing industry, I’ve seen this exact situation unfold numerous times. It’s normal for companies to grow, mature, and want to bring all their efforts internal. But I’m not sure when it became accepted as a best practice for companies to reach a certain level of success and deem it necessary to bring all their marketing in-house. I’ve personally seen dozens of companies make that mistake and then lose access to all of the market insight an agency brings to the table.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

On average, at my company, Hawke Media, our clients’ revenue increases by 274% within the first six months when we step in and take over marketing efforts. You know why? Because it’s literally what we are paid to do. And the low-hanging fruit that enable us to produce such incredible results so quickly aren’t seen by the internal team because they lack that outsider perspective. Again, I’m not saying that companies aren’t capable or shouldn’t market themselves. But this misplaced obligation companies feel when it comes to bringing marketing in-house as some sort of right-of-passage can create some serious pitfalls in the long-run. Here’s why.

Companies don't have the resources to train and develop a team.

Most, if not all, CEOs know at least some basic marketing. But to truly get the best results, you want your marketing strategy to be handled by experts. With an agency, you’re able to have a team of professionals who are experts, not just in marketing in general, but within specific facets of marketing like email, media buying, or social. Companies attempting to bring all of their marketing in-house seriously struggle with finding talent and 71% of in-house creative leaders say they don’t even have enough time to develop team members. This means that most in-house teams aren’t going to be anywhere near as trained, knowledgeable, efficient, and experienced as an external agency. Hiring an outside team allows companies the ability to fill that team with individuals who are experts specifically in the areas in which the marketing is focused. In-house marketers often have to be Jacks-of-all-trades, whereas marketing agencies devote resources into continually educating their employees to keep them on the cutting edge of their specific marketing niche. At Hawke, we pay for our employees to attend General Assembly classes to freshen up or expand their skills, industry conferences so that they know all the latest research in the field, and any other ways they find to continue to develop professionally. Unfortunately, most companies don’t have that kind of budget to spend on their marketing, which puts the in-house marketing team at a serious disadvantage. In fact, 75% of marketers believe that their lack of skills is impacting revenue. Agencies satisfy this issue by providing a diverse team with the education and experience to get the job done.

Their budgets become rigid and flexible.

A static budget is not an adaptable budget. This is the real world. Things aren’t always going to go to plan. Flexible budgets are able to adjust when that change inevitably happens. The Motley Fool said it best: “A flexible budget can handle that reality and better position a company for the challenges of the marketplace.” At Hawke, we understand the tumultuous nature of the ecommerce industry and we don’t want our clients to feel like they’re trapped into these long, expensive contracts. That’s why we offer all our services a la carte and on a month-to-month basis. Clients are able to adjust budget and add or take away services without any contractual obligations. If they need to cut back on marketing efforts during their slower months, they can. If sales have been incredible and they’re ready to scale up, they can do that too. Companies need to be ready and able to adapt at a moment’s notice. Having an outsourced marketing team allows for immediate mobilization because you have instant access to a team of specialized, experienced marketers. It also allows brands the opportunity to be bolder and more creative since there’s no long-term commitment.

They struggle to see the forest from the trees.

Agencies have an outside perspective and are going to be much less biased than an in-house team. In order to successfully market to current and prospective audiences, you’re going to need to be able to put yourself in their shoes in order to assess what exactly they need. An agency is going to provide a much more objective perspective. Additionally, marketers at marketing agencies are in the trenches day in and day out. They work with numerous clients and have a large network of vendors and channels. These people know what they’re talking about and have the experience to prove it. In fact, even companies that have in-house marketing teams will work with outside agencies. According to the 2018 In-House Creative Industry Report, at least 77% of in-house teams partner with external agencies, which tells you that even solid internal creative teams need outsider advice to keep that needle moving.

And they lose valuable time and resources in the process.

Time is money. Literally. An outsourced team is going to provide a faster speed to market than an in-house team since marketing agencies have larger staffs, a plethora of resources and the expertise to churn out quality deliverables quickly. Agencies have to be efficient, as they are results-driven, and employees are used to juggling and prioritizing the needs of different clients. The processes already established at these agencies allow them to produce high-quality work on deadline and within budget. Additionally, hiring an outside team is exponentially cheaper than recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and paying an in-house team. Bringing on a firm makes it easier for companies to scale up if things are going well, as well as cut back or go a different route if the company isn’t happy with the agency’s results.

The proof is in the pudding

Outsourced marketing teams are built specifically to deliver exceptional results in an efficient manner At Hawke, we’ve seen client revenue per day grow by as much as 3,500%. Even with an established brand like Tamara Mellon, we were able to make an impact - increasing the brand’s revenue per day by 280% and overall revenues by 50%. The allure to owning and bringing all your efforts in-house may be tempting, but it just doesn’t make sense. Of course, the decision to outsource or not must be addressed on a case-by-case basis and influenced by your company’s specific needs, but we’ve all heard the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If you’re seeing great results with your outsourced marketing agency, there’s no rule that states you must transition to in-house just because you’re finally seeing some success. Stick to what you’re great at and let the experts handle the rest.

[For more insight from Hawke Media click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(17) "Help Me, Help You" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(84) "Why Bringing Your Marketing In-House May Be the Worst Business Decision You Can Make" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(30) "erik-huberman-help-me-help-you" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:11:36" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:11:36" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=29041" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [9]=> object(WP_Post)#5119 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(27792) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-05-24 16:39:31" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-05-24 23:39:31" ["post_content"]=> string(7631) "It’s no secret that happy, motivated and productive employees are good for business. Having a company full of people who are inspired and ready to do their job to the best of their ability each day is crucial to company success, regardless of size. Compensation and benefits are some of the most important drivers of employee satisfaction. It’s no surprise then that businesses will often incorporate bonuses based on performance - anything from typical pay bonuses to company-wide incentives like profit-share or ownership. Though compensation for hard work is important, it’s imperative that the reward is appropriate. According to a study done by the Harvard Business Review, “performance-related pay [is] positively associated with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and trust in management”; but profit-related pay is not. Here at Hawke, we thought long and hard about what type of employee behavior we wanted to reward and how we wanted to reward it. With our business model, client trust and satisfaction are everything, so we naturally sought to reward employee behavior that contributed to maintaining positive and fruitful client relations. That led to our lightbulb moment: since we’re a month-to-month service, client longevity isn’t a given. It’s something we have to constantly work to maintain. We offer our services on an a la carte basis, so clients only pay for what they need. Often, our experts see that a client could benefit from an additional service, but fear the client might be miffed by an upsell. So how do we reward employees for great work that fosters client trust and long-lasting client relationships?

We reward employees based on retaining clients, not increasing their budgets. 

Why?

When employees are rewarded for increasing clients’ budgets, they’re more likely to push companies to take bigger risks. These employees develop a short-term strategy that often pushes companies into uncomfortable situations where these risks end up being detrimental. Not surprisingly, this tends to hurt the client relationship. By rewarding based on client retention, you adopt a long-term approach where employees are likely to be more conservative with their recommendations and allow the company to take risks on their own terms. Retention-based pay helps not only client relations, but also keeps your employees accountable and engaged.

How It Works

1. Links Client Success to Employee Success

At Hawke, we have a different business model than most marketing agencies. We offer our services a la carte and operate on a monthly basis, meaning we don’t lock clients into long-term contracts. Because clients can pick and choose only the services they need, when they need them, we’re able to create uniquely tailored marketing solutions that fit into budgets of any size. However, this creates extra pressure on our ops teams to inspire and impress clients daily so they continue their relationship with us for as long as possible. Rewarding employees based on client retention gives extra incentive to keep the client’s needs in mind. This leads to genuine, long-lasting relationships between our employees and clients, since the client’s success and happiness is directly linked to the Hawke employee’s success. This system has led to mutually beneficial relationships - not only do we perform for the client, but that performance often leads to new business through client referrals. Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to maintaining and expanding your client roster.

2. Establishes and Maintains Client Trust

The other day, a client expressed concern that our team was trying to upsell him with new services he wasn’t entirely convinced he needed. He was worried that our team was trying to boost their commissions by throwing unnecessary services at him. When I told him that our team was rewarded solely for client retention, his whole attitude changed. He instantly became much more receptive toward our team’s suggestions and expressed a heighted trust in his team at Hawke. As is almost always the case, the client felt assured that his business - and not just his money - was valued. When clients know that their team is rewarded based on keeping them around, they stop worrying about getting swindled when the team gives recommendations. They also don’t need to worry about their team losing interest when a new client comes along. Their business and their money is even more valuable now than it was when they first signed.

3. Drives Employee Performance

Goals are great for driving employee performance, and key performance indicators make great objective measurements to assess whether employees have met those goals. By introducing incentive pay based on client retention, you link your KPIs to client satisfaction. This makes life easier for your executive staff, as it eliminates the need to set new goals for each team member every quarter. Of course, managers should still speak with their team members to figure out individual and personal goals, especially when it comes to professional growth and development. But by rewarding based on client retention, you mitigate the risk of individual employees losing sight of the bigger picture and the role they play in getting there. Managing employee performance starts with setting clear expectations. With this incentive system in place, client feedback can serve as that clarification and keep everyone aligned.

Engaged Employees, Happy Clients

I’ve found our reward system keeps the team members at Hawke engaged and focused, which leads to stellar client work and increased client satisfaction. In fact, it’s proven that companies with highly engaged employees consistently outperform companies with disengaged employees. Incentive pay based on client retention encourages our employees to consistently improve their effectiveness while simultaneously doing the same for the company as a whole. By looking into the needs of our business and structuring our incentive pay program around that, we’ve aligned employees goals to company and client goals. Clients trust that their team at Hawke has their best interests at heart, Hawke team members communicate openly and have a clear understanding of what needs to be done to meet their goals and Hawke as a company benefits by fostering both genuine client-company relationships, as well as a culture of happy, engaged employees. " ["post_title"]=> string(46) "How Retention Based Pay Helps Client Relations" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(120) "An in-depth look into rewarding an employee with retention based pay to maintain their drive and a client's happiness " ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(60) "erik-huberman-how-retention-based-pay-helps-client-relations" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:19:52" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:19:52" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=27792" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [10]=> object(WP_Post)#5118 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(27696) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-05-10 10:59:10" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-05-10 17:59:10" ["post_content"]=> string(5635) "Marketing is a dynamic, ever-evolving industry. Trends come and go, but with the right strategies, you can stay ahead of the game. Of course, sometimes there are seismic shifts that drastically change the way brands go about marketing themselves. For instance, Facebook’s recent headline-dominating data scandal has not only caused marketers to reevaluate their ad strategies due to concerns over brand safety, but it has also encouraged many of the major social platforms to bulk up their privacy policies, lest they join Facebook at the whipping post for violating consumer trust. When drastic changes like this take place in such a short timeframe, it can render marketing strategies obsolete and leave brands feeling lost or disconnected from their target customers. Here are four easy ways you can position yourself to stay on the bleeding edge of marketing trends and be prepared for those sudden watershed moments.

1. Stay focused on what’s happening today without losing sight of the big picture.

It’s easy to get lost in the immediate response to a paradigm shift without thinking about how the changes will affect strategies down the line. Changes to third-party data policies in the wake of the Facebook scandal have made it significantly harder for marketers to target consumers with ads. Many are scrambling to make immediate changes to keep their campaigns on the rails, but are they thinking about how these adjustments will play out in the long run? With platforms guarding data more closely, it follows that advertising will become increasingly expensive. In order to justify ad spend, marketers should be placing greater focus on conversion rates and customer lifetime value than ever before. If marketers are primed to stay calm in the heat of the moment and think about more than just putting out the fire, they’ll be in a better position for long-term success.

[To read more of Erik Huberman's thought leadership click here]

2. Build a network of marketers and communicate with them regularly.

In this day and age, by the time something hits the news, it’s already stale. This is especially true in marketing. Having a network of savvy, like-minded individuals who share and distribute information as they get it is crucial to staying up-to-date. Join Facebook and LinkedIn groups where people share news, industry studies, and other valuable content. According to a 2016 MarketingProfs content marketing study, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn and 87% use Facebook. Take advantage of what these online communities have to offer - and remember to not only observe, but also engage! Being an active member of these groups will help you stay on top of industry trends and may often lead to business partnerships.

According to a 2016 MarketingProfs content marketing study, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn and 87% use Facebook.

3. Read (the right) leading industry publications and blogs.

In a time where information is everywhere, it’s important to always be in the know. In addition to regularly attending conferences and industry events, having a solid list of publications you skim on the daily is crucial to staying informed. Top marketing publications (my personal favorites are Adweek and Ad Age) provide fantastic insight into the marketing ecosystem and are incredible resources for breaking news, data and analysis, industry forecasting and event listings. Build out your reading list and follow a variety of outlets including periodicals, newsletters, bloggers, and any other source of interesting content you come across that gives you inspiration or knowledge. But remember - there’s a lot of noise out there, so make sure you don’t go too far down the rabbit hole.

4. Communicate with your team and share knowledge internally.

Nothing beats face-to-face interaction, and your team members may (and probably should) offer different perspectives from your own. Real, insightful dialogue with your peers and subordinates is the best way to explore new concepts and plan for the future. At Hawke, our channel directors are experts in their fields. These guys and gals spend all day in the trenches, living and breathing their particular vertical. If I need insight into a specific trend or topic, they’re usually the first ones I turn to. Make sure communication stays open within your company, not just within teams, but across channels. You or someone you work for hired these people for a reason - take advantage of them!

[For more insight from Hawke Media click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(49) "How to Stay Relevant in an Ever-Evolving Industry" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(49) "Tips and tricks for marketers to stay in the know" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(56) "erik-huberman-stay-relevant-in-an-ever-evolving-industry" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:26:55" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:26:55" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=27696" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [11]=> object(WP_Post)#5117 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(30829) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-06-18 12:20:39" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-06-18 19:20:39" ["post_content"]=> string(4132) "It’s easier than ever to start a company, with the internet and social media allowing for direct-to-consumer companies to reach potential customers anywhere, anytime. But this type of market saturation comes with its own set of complications, one of the most prominent being the struggle for new brands to stand out from their competitors. So, how can companies distinguish themselves in such an overcrowded industry? The answer is a simple one: purpose-led marketing.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

Marketing with Purpose Leads to Cult-Like Success

Purpose is taking the stage as the heart of marketing, and with good reason! Finding and implementing brand purpose into your marketing has been shown to lead to incredible growth. Purpose is often conflated to mean a brand’s commitment to social responsibility, but it’s actually much simpler than that. A brand’s purpose is simply the consumer needs it fills and the qualities that drive consumers to choose that brand over its competitors. In the simplest of terms, it’s leading your marketing with purpose works because it makes people care. Consumers are inundated with options and choices. Businesses and employees need to be aware of their overall purpose in order to reach the highest levels of success. Purpose gets at the emotional side of someone versus objectively offering up the facts of a product. In a recent survey, 80 percent of companies stated that a collective purpose is linked to customer loyalty and 89 percent said that it helps employee satisfaction. Companies need to do a compelling job of convincing consumers, and if you can convince those consumers on an emotional level, you win.

Figure Out Why You Exist

Purpose reflects the merit, trustworthiness, and authenticity of a brand. All of those traits, in turn, speak to the brand’s potential for success. Trust and authenticity are two incredibly important traits to today’s consumer, with consumers becoming increasingly distrustful of ads and the brands behind them. Unifying a brand’s purpose with its message will inevitably help the brand create meaningful content and form an authentic connection with consumers.

The key to determining your brand’s purpose is figuring out your reason for existence.

The key to determining your brand’s purpose is figuring out your reason for existence. What is going to make a consumer pick you over your competitors? Is your company made up of individuals who support and embody that same purpose? Do your consumers know or care about your purpose and share that passion? One event that highlights the brands that have built an empire around their purpose is The Gathering. There, the focus is on “cult” companies, those that have an “above average brand attachment,” recognizing and rewarding brands that build amazing cultures. Many of the brands awarded during The Gathering have been around and relevant for at least a decade because of their ability to uniquely engage their audiences. If you want your brand to reach the same success, you must refine your craft and figure out what about your brand makes you special. What do you offer consumers that no other business does?

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(38) "Purpose-Led Marketing is the New Black" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(107) "Why a brand’s purpose should be front and center in marketing, and how that can lead to legendary success" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(52) "erik-huberman-purpose-led-marketing-is-the-new-black" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-06-18 12:20:39" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-06-18 19:20:39" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=30829" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [12]=> object(WP_Post)#5116 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(26638) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "285" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-01-02 10:03:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-01-02 18:03:00" ["post_content"]=> string(5777) "

Hi. My name is Michael Schaffer, and I’m an ad-techoholic.

Every week, I come across about 10 new advertising technologies that are going to “transform the face of marketing.” New platforms that peer into consumers’ minds and behaviors and phones and computers, and promise to use the power of AI or the cloud or “proprietary algorithms” or a troupe of well-trained chimpanzees to turn that data into sales for your brand.

Amazing!

And I want to believe the claims made by every single one. Ad tech is exciting. It’s cool. It’s shiny and new! At its best, it introduces your brand to new customers at the very moment they’re ready to make a decision about buying your product.

At its worst? It can be a colossal waste of money.

Lucky for me, I employ a team of very smart people whose job it is to use these platforms. And when I get excited about some new piece of advertising tech, I can email them about it. They’ll send me back responses like, “It’ll never work because XYZ …” or, “We already use ABC platform that does the same thing, better.” Or even (very occasionally), “Huh, that does look pretty cool. We should check it out.”

So, assuming you don’t employ a team of ad tech experts, how can you separate the brilliant from the bull**** when it comes to new ad tech?

The simple answer is ROI.

Understand your ROI on any platform, and you can effectively evaluate it against any other platform, or any other place you could be spending your advertising dollars.

[To read more of Mike Schaffer’s thought leadership click here]

This is, of course, a big departure from traditional advertising. Back in the dark days of radio advertising, the success of many campaigns was evaluated on the condition of: “Did the client hear their own ad during their commute?” Television, print, and outdoor can come with the same problem. Even big, smart national brands have to deal with this today.

A while back, I was reading a case study on Old Spice’s brilliant “The man your man could smell like” commercials that launched in 2011. They were an unequivocal hit with consumers, and the big winner at that year’s advertising awards. But when a campaign manager got asked how much they bumped the needle in terms of actually selling body wash, his response was more or less, “We have no idea.” Sales rose around the campaign, but there was no way to confidently attribute that rise to the campaign, or to one of the several other traditional campaigns the company was running at the same time.

Digital ads should solve this problem. With digital, you should be able to track the source of every sale or lead. You should know the last action that a consumer took before they converted, and any digital advertising they encountered along the path to the sale.

Once you understand how much you’re spending to acquire customers on every platform, it’s easy to test any new ad tech that comes along. Just put the shiny new technology against your existing channels.

I say “should” because that’s certainly not always the case. In the past year, our agency has taken over several accounts that had the ability to calculate their ROI on digital, but either weren’t, or weren’t paying any attention to the numbers. In one case, we came in and found that a service provider was paying more than $1,000 per customer acquisition on Facebook – in an industry where each customer was spending less than $50 on their first visit.

In another case, we were asked to jump in on a campaign that had spent more than $100,000 in the last six months, and delivered less than 10 total conversions. Those 10 conversions were worth about $1,000 in total. In both cases, the companies knew something wasn’t working right, but until we calculated their ROI, they weren’t sure what was wrong.

So, the key thing that’ll help you separate the brilliant from the bull**** in ad tech is ROI. How much do you pay to acquire a customer from Google search ads? Display ads? Facebook ads? Instagram? What about sponsored content? And what about the fancy new ad platform you just heard about?

[For more on Echo Factory’s approach to Public Relations click here]

Once you understand how much you’re spending to acquire customers on every platform, it’s easy to test any new ad tech that comes along. Just put the shiny new technology against your existing channels. If the new ad technology demonstrates that you can spend less and sell more, it’s worth investing in. If not, you can thank your knowledge of your ROI for saving you time, frustration, and money.

Once you’re familiar with your ideal ROI, you can let the new ad technologies keep rolling in – all you have to do is pick the winner.

" ["post_title"]=> string(53) "Separating the Brilliant From the Bull**** in Ad Tech" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(86) "How I learned to value ROI when making purchasing decisions, even in the ad tech space" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(59) "mike-schaffer-marketing-digital-agency-echo-factory-ad-tech" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-03 10:48:59" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-03 17:48:59" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=26638" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [13]=> object(WP_Post)#5115 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(30519) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "328" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-05-08 14:48:20" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-08 21:48:20" ["post_content"]=> string(5894) "Smartphones are by far everybody’s most treasured personal item, however these devices cost us money. We pay to use them, we purchase them outright or through an instalment plan and we pay the monthly phone bill.  Hardly anyone ever considers that a smartphone can serve as a tool for making money. And that is where the growing industry of User-Generated Video (UGV) comes in. User-Generated Video are videos filmed and uploaded by consumers, and the impact they are having on news-gathering, entertainment programming and the production of reality series and documentaries is completely disruptive.  In fact, the burgeoning appeal of UGV among the news and entertainment communities has altered the role of consumers from passive audience to active content providers.  And at the heart of this massive global eyewitness video movement, is Newsflare, a company on a mission to bring trusted and compelling UGV to publishers, producers and broadcasters throughout the world.

[To read more of Jon's thought leadership click here]

Based in London and Los Angeles, Newsflare has played a key role in helping pioneer the development of the user-generated video industry. Launched in 2011, the company has perfected a robust interactive platform allowing videographers the opportunity to easily upload their videos, while providing content buyers around the world the opportunity to select from a diverse catalogue of over 150,000 videos.  Newsflare also distributes and licenses its vast content library directly to the company’s impressive roster of media partners that encompasses major websites, social media, advertising agencies, production companies, television news and entertainment broadcasters located throughout the world.  At the same time, Newsflare’s US office is responsible for establishing licensing deals with North American media outlets, as well as the creation of co-development projects with US and Canadian producers.    California plays a vital role to Newsflare because the state is home to major content production players such as Amazon and Netflix, along with the entertainment divisions of all the major national television networks. Highly advanced technology drives Newsflare’s online video marketplace, where custom verification and trust algorithms provide content buyers with absolute assurance as to the integrity and copyright of the videos they license from across  multiple categories.  The company’s state-of-the-art digital technology also powers the uploader experience, as aspiring Newsflare contributors simply download the company’s iPhone or Android app and begin recording and submitting videos.  Newsflare’s apps act like an agent, tracking sales and managing payments to their freelance video contributors.  Uploaders are paid half of the revenues generated by the licensing of their videos to Newsflare’s media clients, and in several cases this has translated into tens of thousands of dollars. Newsflare is at the forefront of the rapid change in the way that news, entertainment, reality and documentary programming is produced.  What may have taken several production crews to capture in the past can now be captured and uploaded by any of over 60,000 Newsflare videographers situated in more than 110 countries throughout the world.  Video content from natural disasters and sports events to political unrest is now being sourced by news organizations from Newsflare’s online marketplace, just as entertainment producers and social publishers turn to the company for its unparalleled array of humorous - and oftentimes outrageous – human interest, ‘viral’ videos. 

[To read more of Preeya's thought leadership click here]

The universal appeal of User Generated Video serves as another reason for the burgeoning rise in this relatively new content category as people everywhere can appreciate the dog who babysits a cat without having to consider the challenge of language barriers.  For both news and entertainment media clients, User-Generated Video also brings an unmatched familiarity and authenticity.  Moreover, publishers and broadcasters no longer have the bandwidth, budget or manpower to source or clear video features that have long served as a content staple.  The Newsflare platform automates this formerly labor-intensive task.  Newsflare has helped propel User Generated Video into a worldwide industry, building a global network that connects amateur videographers with top media licensees – and revolutionizing the way entertainment and news media source original content.  So when you’re ready to transform your smartphone into a revenue-generating video production tool, visit Newsflare at www.newsflare.com. Based in London, Jon Cornwell is CEO of Newsflare.  Preeya Naul, located in Newsflare’s Los Angeles office, serves as General Manager, US.

[For more on Newsflare's approach to Digital Agency click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(39) "The Global Rise of User-Generated Video" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(162) "Jon Cornwell & Preeya Naul explain how their company, Newsflare, is impacting the digital media & entertainment industry through their online video marketplace. " ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(64) "jon-cornwell-preeya-naul-the-global-rise-of-user-generated-video" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-24 14:25:45" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-24 21:25:45" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=30519" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [14]=> object(WP_Post)#5114 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(31789) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "343" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-12-02 12:45:24" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-12-02 20:45:24" ["post_content"]=> string(10110) "Remember how the only available paid functionality on Facebook was a boosted post? Since 2007 paid ads have been part of Facebook, however, Fan Pages weren’t introduced by the social network until 2008. And then, in 2009, we were able to see the first form of advanced targeting by demographics and location. This was a huge breakthrough in terms of advertising on Facebook.  Understanding how Facebook Ads has progressed is important because it’s the only way to see how far they managed to revolutionize the hub. Since 2015 things started changing fast. Even if you were a marketer it was hard to catch up on all of the changes. One thing was for sure, things were changing for the better. Facebook introduced functionalities such as pixel, custom audiences, dynamic product list ads, and lead generation ads. And, they are continuing to expand and innovate on advertising, Facebook is launching new interactive mobile ads in the future. The biggest social network on the planet has also had the greatest influence on other social media companies too, such as Twitter and Pinterest, as they have been trying to play catch up to keep up. Both have introduced similar functionality to help many businesses to reach their target audience efficiently and effectively. Even Snapchat is now getting into the ads game. Even though it seems like we’ve finally caught up with the changes, there are some small things that not all marketers use frequently for better performance or are even aware of.

Here are a few things we can all use to improve our marketing efforts on Facebook.

  1. Creative Hub Many of us store all of our creatives on a local folder on our computer. We all do this because is the most efficient way to store and access things. However, files can get messy if we save everything in a local folder. Facebook Creative Hub is the perfect place to create and store all of your creatives and ads. On the Hub you can:

• Get inspiration from other brands
• Edit and manage mockups
• Check the quality of your ads and increase the chance of approval
• Learn about new ad formats
• Learn about new Instagram functionalities
• Get hold of mobile advertising
• Share all of your ideas with your teammates
• Preview and edit all of the ads in their natural environment
• Export everything, simple and with a single click of a button

The Creative Hub offers the most optimal working environment to prepare you’re A/B test campaigns and manage multiple clients as you will be able to see in real-time how everything will look like. The best part is the fact that you can get inspiration from other brands. Just find the get inspired button and analyze multiple successful ads activated by brands across the globe. Find the ones that are in the same industry or have a similar target audience as you and prepare your ad copy following their examples. 2. Audience Insights  Facebook Audience Insights will help you get the most out of data available for your target audience. Many companies use this functionality to learn more about the online behavior of their target audience. In some cases, you can use the available data to complete your persona questionnaire and ultimately redefine your marketing strategy. Just by entering a few parameters, you will be able to see:

1. The age span
2. Relationship status
3. Interests
4. Liked fan pages

You can use this information to:

• Optimize A/B tests
• Improve your overall cost per click and performance of Facebook ads

3. Lookalike audiences  Lookalike audiences can be created from Custom Audiences with data from your existing Facebook Pixel, your mobile app data, or from your Facebook Page. You can also do this from existing customer lists. Doing this, allows you to expand on your best-performing audience groups on Facebook.  Along with the above, you can also choose the size of the Lookalike Audience that can be smaller (to match your source audience more closely) or larger audiences (to increase your reach). Facebook recommends audiences between 1,000 to 50,000 people and the quality of the source matters.  You can create a lookalike audience from your remarketing target audience or the traffic on your website. By doing so, your targeting will be on point and you will be able to reach a completely new set of people that have the same characteristics as your website visitors. Using Lookalike Audiences, you can broaden the reach of your existing customers through an iterative process. For example, for many of our E-Commerce clients, we are constantly uploading or updating these audiences with full customer lists or creating customer lists that are top converters to match the ideal customer we are targeting.  4. Carousel Ads  Video has become the best way to promote your business and the most widely used format in advertising as of late. People engage more with visual content and Facebook encourages the usage of video everywhere.  However, don’t forget about using Carousel Ads. This interactive ad format gives you the opportunity to promote ten pictures or videos next to each other and all at once. Why this format is so good? Carousel Ads are amazing because they give you the freedom to be creative and tell a story about your brand, product, or experience throughout the carousel and lets you express your brand’s voice. This format also looks great in the news feed and people automatically engage more. You can create a really engaging ad with Carousel Ads in a very creative way that will attract your customers attention and get noticed. Facebook is creating an all-inclusive hub for marketing people to better manage, create, store, share and analyze ads. Making yourself aware and becoming more familiar with everything available to you will give you the best opportunity to create  ads on Facebook that convert at a higher rate. Overall, it’s important to stay on top of everything available to you and the trends that are upcoming so you can continue to engage audiences and convert customers. Facebook is attempting to keep you within the platform and never have a need to leave, thus making you a much more organized and efficient marketing team. " ["post_title"]=> string(63) "The History and Power of Facebook Ads All Marketers Should Know" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(82) "Here are a few things we can all use to improve our marketing efforts on Facebook." ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(69) "tony-adam-history-and-power-of-facebook-ads-all-marketers-should-know" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-12-02 12:47:07" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-12-02 20:47:07" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=31789" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [15]=> object(WP_Post)#5113 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(26698) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "252" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-01-02 10:04:14" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-01-02 18:04:14" ["post_content"]=> string(6415) "

More than the technological leap required to achieve full integration in our day-to-day lives, the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have captured our imagination for the future.

We have discussed our excitement for greater efficiency, faster turnarounds, more detailed, data-driven strategies, and bolder consumer relations systems. But, we must remember the coin has two sides. We have also discussed our fears for debilitating job losses, unqualified talent pools, countless looming uncertainties, and the disappearance of industries on which workers, families, and local economies are reliant.

Nonetheless, individual decisions will not stop technological progress and exploitation of its potential. Executives across industries recognize the great potential of artificial intelligence and are drawing the framework for the inevitable automated system integration.

The history of automation is riddled with sweet victories and sour defeats. No doubt, Amazon’s fully artificially intelligent convenience store, Amazon Go, has taken a long stride forward for AI’s integration into the consumer ecosystem. Amazon’s efforts to streamline the consumer experience, resembling that of online shopping, are blurring the lines between brick-and-mortar shopping and the digital marketplace, marking the first established attempt at offline automation. Yet for every Amazon Go situation, there is a counter situation, which can stray from functional to greatly dysfunctional in less than 24 hours. The point? Despite our constant failure, we keep trying.

While Amazon’s automated Go store technology is nearing its public opening, we must wonder how rapidly we will see an automated transition. In which industries are the effects of automation most likely to be felt? And what will our world look like should an automated system become the norm for consumer interaction?

We live in a digitally determined ecosystem. Our data represents our routines, and artificial intelligence is an aid to those routines, not the interference of them.

REPLACEMENT OF ROUTINE ACTION

What did you do when you woke up this morning? Check your email, the news, or the weather? What about yesterday? Or the day before? In the face of adding variety as the spice of life, we are creatures of habit—comfortable with routine and inherently resistant to change. The human tendency for status quo is constantly being challenged by the ambition of innovators.

When technology challenges the status quo, the bold embrace it while the wary resist. In the history of automated operations, sweet victories are undertaken by bold early adopters who are both conscious of potential failure and hungry for breakthrough success. In a survey by The Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review, executives across industries revealed their stance on AI integration currently in place and for the future.

Executives looking to use AI to extend the length and breadth of their firm’s operations regard efficiency and returns as the biggest questions when deciding if it’s a prudent investment. If artificial intelligence is capable of reducing human error in routine operations and producing output at higher speeds, why would that opportunity not be utilized?

According to the survey, a significant portion of respondents identified artificial intelligence as a strategic opportunity. The report’s data reveals: “Most respondents believe that AI will benefit their organization, such as through new business or reduced costs; 84% believe Al will allow their organization to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage. Three in four managers think AI will allow them to move into new businesses.”

Unfortunately, the same potential for expansion and diversification of business operations that excites managers and executives is offset by uncertainty at the employee level.

We take for granted where we exist on the human timeline. Education has largely remained static, only using new technologies for learning classic concepts. In this environment, how do we, as a society, move forward? The adoption of automated systems has expanded the corporate understanding of consumer behavior and progressed the training of new hires. The potential for expansion and diversification is a representation of our world moving forward. Nevertheless, analysts do not anticipate artificial intelligence taking a firm grasp on the consumer ecosystem for some time.

AI's Depth and path of adoption

Scholarly work on organizational theory and practice widely shows that corporate culture comes from the top down. In the BCG/MITS survey, clear paths to AI integration require distinct business cases in need of automated solutions and leaders in support of integrating artificially intelligent initiatives.

Corporate cultures that prioritize growing the potential for new hires talented in data collection, dissection, and recommendation are most likely to adopt AI capabilities to their operations. In the future, as the next wave of technological capabilities emerges, it will be these early adopters that grab hold of the opportunity, thus creating our future sweet victories. The advantage? Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy. We have not yet explored its vast potential across industries. Industry leaders in data collection and automation are rolling out their first attempts at automated integration. The barriers to adopting automated systems are shorter than they may appear.

We live in a digitally determined ecosystem. Our data represents our routines, and artificial intelligence is an aid to those routines, not the interference of them. Time will tell how the automation revolution will take shape, but being part of that movement makes today’s industry leaders the next great shapers of our society. If the true sign of intelligence is imagination, surely our capacity to harness our own technological inventions to progress our lives and match our vision for the world can happen.

" ["post_title"]=> string(55) "The Humanity of an Artificially Intelligent Marketplace" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(165) "Michael Abraham talks using Amazon Go – the AI-driven convenience store of the future – as the barometer for AI’s role in the marketplace and our daily lives " ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(64) "michael-abraham-marketing-digital-agency-definity-ai-marketplace" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-22 16:53:34" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-22 23:53:34" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=26698" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [16]=> object(WP_Post)#5112 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(26705) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "253" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-01-03 12:50:21" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-01-03 20:50:21" ["post_content"]=> string(6411) "

More than the technological leap required to achieve full integration in our day-to-day lives, the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have captured our imagination for the future.

We have discussed our excitement for greater efficiency, faster turnarounds, more detailed, data-driven strategies, and bolder consumer relations systems. But, we must remember the coin has two sides. We have also discussed our fears for debilitating job losses, unqualified talent pools, countless looming uncertainties, and the disappearance of industries on which workers, families, and local economies are reliant.

Nonetheless, individual decisions will not stop technological progress and exploitation of its potential. Executives across industries recognize the great potential of artificial intelligence and are drawing the framework for the inevitable automated system integration.

The history of automation is riddled with sweet victories and sour defeats. No doubt, Amazon’s fully artificially intelligent convenience store, Amazon Go, has taken a long stride forward for AI’s integration into the consumer ecosystem. Amazon’s efforts to streamline the consumer experience, resembling that of online shopping, are blurring the lines between brick-and-mortar shopping and the digital marketplace, marking the first established attempt at offline automation. Yet for every Amazon Go situation, there is a counter situation, which can stray from functional to greatly dysfunctional in less than 24 hours. The point? Despite our constant failure, we keep trying.

While Amazon’s automated Go store technology is nearing its public opening, we must wonder how rapidly we will see an automated transition. In which industries are the effects of automation most likely to be felt? And what will our world look like should an automated system become the norm for consumer interaction?

We live in a digitally determined ecosystem. Our data represents our routines, and artificial intelligence is an aid to those routines, not the interference of them.

Replacement of Routine Action

What did you do when you woke up this morning? Check your email, the news, or the weather? What about yesterday? Or the day before? In the face of adding variety as the spice of life, we are creatures of habit—comfortable with routine and inherently resistant to change. The human tendency for status quo is constantly being challenged by the ambition of innovators.

When technology challenges the status quo, the bold embrace it while the wary resist. In the history of automated operations, sweet victories are undertaken by bold early adopters who are both conscious of potential failure and hungry for breakthrough success. In a survey by The Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review, executives across industries revealed their stance on AI integration currently in place and for the future.

Executives looking to use AI to extend the length and breadth of their firm’s operations regard efficiency and returns as the biggest questions when deciding if it’s a prudent investment. If artificial intelligence is capable of reducing human error in routine operations and producing output at higher speeds, why would that opportunity not be utilized?

According to the survey, a significant portion of respondents identified artificial intelligence as a strategic opportunity. The report’s data reveals: “Most respondents believe that AI will benefit their organization, such as through new business or reduced costs; 84% believe Al will allow their organization to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage. Three in four managers think AI will allow them to move into new businesses.”

Unfortunately, the same potential for expansion and diversification of business operations that excites managers and executives is offset by uncertainty at the employee level.

We take for granted where we exist on the human timeline. Education has largely remained static, only using new technologies for learning classic concepts. In this environment, how do we, as a society, move forward? The adoption of automated systems has expanded the corporate understanding of consumer behavior and progressed the training of new hires. The potential for expansion and diversification is a representation of our world moving forward. Nevertheless, analysts do not anticipate artificial intelligence taking a firm grasp on the consumer ecosystem for some time.

AI’s Depth and Path of Adoption

Scholarly work on organizational theory and practice widely shows that corporate culture comes from the top down. In the BCG/MITS survey, clear paths to AI integration require distinct business cases in need of automated solutions and leaders in support of integrating artificially intelligent initiatives.

Corporate cultures that prioritize growing the potential for new hires talented in data collection, dissection, and recommendation are most likely to adopt AI capabilities to their operations. In the future, as the next wave of technological capabilities emerges, it will be these early adopters that grab hold of the opportunity, thus creating our future sweet victories. The advantage? Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy. We have not yet explored its vast potential across industries. Industry leaders in data collection and automation are rolling out their first attempts at automated integration. The barriers to adopting automated systems are shorter than they may appear.

We live in a digitally determined ecosystem. Our data represents our routines, and artificial intelligence is an aid to those routines, not the interference of them. Time will tell how the automation revolution will take shape, but being part of that movement makes today’s industry leaders the next great shapers of our society. If the true sign of intelligence is imagination, surely our capacity to harness our own technological inventions to progress our lives and match our vision for the world can happen.

" ["post_title"]=> string(55) "The Humanity of an Artificially Intelligent Marketplace" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(169) "Jeffrey Stewart discusses using Amazon Go – the AI-driven convenience store of the future – as the barometer for AI’s role in the marketplace and our daily lives " ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(64) "jeffrey-stewart-marketing-digital-agency-definity-ai-marketplace" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-03 10:47:03" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-03 17:47:03" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=26705" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [17]=> object(WP_Post)#5111 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(31423) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "343" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-10-23 16:57:08" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-10-23 23:57:08" ["post_content"]=> string(10040) "For the first time in Google history, Google announced a broad core algorithm update. They released the update at the beginning of June and concurrently, Google also released what they dubbed the diversity update. The diversity update was separate from the broad core algorithm update, which was designed to limit multiple results from the same domain unless it made the most sense for the query. Due to the update, sites across multiple niches noticed major dips in organic search visibility. If you’re relying on organic traffic to keep your business running, it’s important to take steps to future proof your SEO strategy to withstand changes to the algorithm, like the broad core algorithm update and others you might see in the future.

Google Has a Stronghold on Search

Not only does Google control the search marketshare, but, they are also using search results as final destinations for many users as well. As a user, you can now find local businesses in Local Pack results, find flight information in search results, get answers to many questions, and much more.  Along with that, Google is overriding meta data provided by websites because they feel they can provide the best titles and descriptions that match the user intent.  The Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are being changed constantly with the intent of keeping users on Google to answer all their lives burning questions, book travel, and find local businesses. This is very powerful. 

In order to really "Future Proof" your SEO, you have to think about it holistically, think about it as a long-term strategy, and continue to iterate on it all the time, so you’re not chasing algorithm updates regularly.

Obviously, this is all being done for user experience and allowing users to get to the things they need in the fastest, most reliable, and easiest way possible. As a user, I love finding all the information I mentioned above quickly and easily. It's massively helpful. But many publishers and websites are seeing the impact of this by the loss of traffic. Who is Next? Or, is the real question, how do take advance of these SEO algorithm updates? Or, how do marketers figure out ways to drive more awareness and visibility to their brand, from search...or even other channels.  But also, how do you make sure you're being a smart SEO by building it into your product and making sure algorithm updates don't strike fear in your heart, when they are announced.

Minimizing the Impact of Future Algorithm Updates

Google will never stop updating the algorithm and making changes in the name of improving the user experience. In fact, I'm all for that. The good news for you is that you can take steps to make your site more resistant to future updates and at the same time, less dependent on traffic that comes to you from Google. Long-Term Results Instead of Short-Term Wins First and foremost, do you have a real strategy for how to win at SEO? Instead of blaming Google or going on a tangent about algorithm updates by Google, maybe a better approach would be taking all that time to think about how your site wouldn't need to worry about this.  If you don't have too much content, it might be time to add more. If your crawling and indexing hasn't been well thought through and you have hundreds (or thousands...or even tens of thousands) of pages. There is a need to invest in this. How is internal linking done across the domain? Could you be writing more, or any, blog content on a regular basis that provides value to the people coming to your website? And, how are you thinking about all this, and other channels, more holistically so you are really delivering on creating a marketing strategy that stands on its own for the long haul? Answer the above questions right and I guarantee you will never be stressing about algorithm updates.  Quality Content Always Survives Remember how I mentioned content above, well, it's really important. And, it has been extremely important for as long as I can remember. "Content is King" has been a phrase around for a couple decades now online and will be around for the foreseeable future.  I've always said that it's important to create content people will find value in. And, if that value matches the intent of searches queries, then it's a win-win. The fluctuations and algorithm changes won't impact this too much. While you might see a dip here or there, it will be just that. And, if certain content loses its luster after a while, you should already be creating so much content, you won't be thinking about it.  Remember, focusing on the long-term is the name of the game.  If you’ve got a solid, long-term approach to organic search, aimed at creating value, that’s the only way you’ll benefit from any and all algorithm updates. SEO Does Not Sit on a Silo When I worked In-house, I never thought of SEO as its own department. It touches content, PR, product, and technology. The truth is, it doesn't work unless you think about it holistically and how to partner with those teams or tie it to those efforts.  Because it can touch so much, you can also make a bigger impact than when it's being worked on in a silo. When you think holistically and you think about the long-term strategy, you can ensure that content, user experience, and the technical details that all apply, are done with SEO in mind. And, they truly are a "future proofed" way of thinking about SEO.  Many times, people think about hacks, quick wins, or quick ways to generate traffic from SEO. While I have done that too, it’s always paid off much more when I have thought about SEO in a more holistic sense.  And, if it all plays nicely together and you've built a solid traffic mix, if SEO traffic is reduced by a small number, you will feel much less of an impact.  Doing this in a thoughtful and holistic way, you will build a stronger, healthier, foundation while reducing dependence on organic traffic. Build Relationships and Your Brand New traffic from organic search is always a great thing, and as someone who has done it for 15+ years, I will always believe in the power of SEO.  But, again, thinking about this more holistically, it’s important to nurture relationships with returning visitors, too. Having a thoughtful approach to engaging an audience via various channels can help drive more conversions and revenue.  Thinking about things from a reliance point-of-view, the more you engage your audience through multiple channels, the less reliant you are on one channel, when, and if, it does falter. This isn't exclusive to organic search and SEO too, think about all the publishers and sites that were crushed by Facebook's algorithm a few years back, the same applies here.  You are playing a losing battle if you think it's okay to not setup email marketing, re-engagement, a community or some form of engagement to nurture your audience and build a real brand.  Be Holistic, Think Long-Term. I've been a believer in thinking about SEO and Content holistically, but also in what your full marketing funnel and mix is. What is the customer journey with and without SEO, because that could be the deciding factor on how well your business really does from a growth perspective.  There are no shortcuts to building great business and the same applies to growing your traffic, your audience, your visibility and revenue. Any "hack" that you might find, might work for a temporary period, but you'll always be worried about Google's algorithm updates like the Broad Core update announced this year.  In order to really "Future Proof" your SEO, you have to think about it holistically, think about it as a long-term strategy, and continue to iterate on it all the time, so you’re not chasing algorithm updates regulary." ["post_title"]=> string(38) "Ways to Future Proof Your SEO Strategy" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(97) "The more holistic your SEO Strategy is, the less you will be chasing algorithm updates by Google." ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(48) "tony-adam-ways-to-future-proof-your-seo-strategy" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-10-23 17:11:54" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-10-24 00:11:54" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=31423" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [18]=> object(WP_Post)#5110 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(29948) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-12-09 12:57:48" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-12-09 20:57:48" ["post_content"]=> string(6946) "The journey of an entrepreneur is anything but a linear, upward trajectory. It’s a series of highs and lows, successes and setbacks, wins and losses. After more than four years of running my own business and helping others run theirs before that — trust me — I understand the frustration that comes from entrepreneurship. The most important lesson I’ve learned through my own experience is that it’s imperative, for both your sanity and your efficiency, to remember that you are not a victim.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

Things happen to everyone. You have a difficult client; your employee is constantly late to very important meetings; partners are constantly shoveling their responsibilities onto your plate; you got a parking ticket just two minutes after your meter expired. Out of all these external factors affecting you and your abilities to get work done, it’s important to understand which of the things you can change and which you can’t.

Don't be a martyr (but give yourself some space to feel)

Entrepreneurship isn’t martyrdom. Your industry was not crafted to best suit your abilities. It’s up to you to adapt to your industry and all its changes. At my company, I could complain about crazy clients or difficult employees or economic shifts, etc. But at the end of the day, that just causes stress and there's nothing to be done about it. Instead, I choose to focus on what I CAN control. I don't have to work with that client, I can let go of that employee, and, while I definitely can't control the economy, I could tighten up the ship a bit. I focus on my energy on the things I can handle within the constraints I have. However, I’m not a robot — and I’d bargain you aren’t either. We have a right to feel frustration, disappointment … even anger or sadness. Give yourself the space to feel those natural human emotions. Just don’t allow yourself to dwell in that space for too long.

Find What You Can Control

Okay. You’ve allowed yourself to let off some steam about an unpleasant situation. Now it’s time to get down to business. For example, say you have an employee who has just missed an important deadline and the client is pissed. The first step in handling this issue is to figure out what, within that situation, you can control. And remember, as a CEO, you have quite a bit of control. In my opinion, there are four options you have to deal with this issue:

1. Immediately fix the problem. (Fire that deadline-missing employee.)
2. Sit around and complain about the problem. (Bitch over beers to your business partner about the missed deadline.)
3. Help your employee succeed (Talk to your deadline-missing employee about their organization methods and suggest ways to prevent missing important dates.)
4. Do it yourself. (Handle any and all deadlines moving forward.)

While these options are obviously not created equal, they are all within your power to implement. What isn’t in your power is the actions of the employee, when the deadlines are, how the client is going to feel about the missed deadline, etc. I know it’s tempting to dwell on these things, but at the end of the day, it’s only going to drain you of your focus and patience. So hone in and find the things you can control.

Then Fix It

Things can and will go wrong, but if you remember you’re a manager, not a martyr — these issues will be a fertilizer, rather than an impediment, for growth.

Now that you’ve thought about the issue with a calm head, it’s time to go about fixing what is broken. Not all problems are going to have immediate solutions that bring about immediate results. But if you’re working in a positive manner toward a bigger goal, that’s a win in my book. Referring back to the scenario above, options 1 or 3 seem like the best way to go. You can obviously still go vent to your partner about the missed deadlines and other work frustrations, but just be sure you’re also doing something proactively to address the situation at hand. If this is the fourth or fifth time that employee has totally dropped the ball, then maybe option 1 is your best bet. But, more likely, this is the employee’s first offense. Let’s face it, sometimes these kinds of things happen. We’re all human; we’re all bound to make mistakes. What matters most is how you grow from them. Take this missed deadline as an opportunity to have a one-on-one meeting with that employee to figure out how you, as a CEO and leader, can help them be better at their job. Maybe there are some issues outside of work that are occupying the employee’s headspace, making them appear to a little spacey. Perhaps they could benefit from a day off or a long weekend. Maybe the employee just needs some tricks and tools to be better organized. Let them know what you do to stay on track and see if they’d be interested in attending a seminar on project management.

Be Proactive

Basically, as a leader, it is your responsibility to deal with the blows and blessings that come from running a business. It is your job to provide your employees the tools to succeed and your clients the results tey’re expecting. Things can and will go wrong, but if you remember you’re a manager, not a martyr — these issues will be a fertilizer, rather than an impediment, for growth.

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(61) "When You’re a CEO, You Don’t Have Time to Play the Victim" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(77) "Instead of dwelling on what’s out of your control, focus on what you can do" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(68) "erik-huberman-when-youre-a-ceo-you-dont-have-time-to-play-the-victim" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:05:48" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:05:48" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=29948" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [19]=> object(WP_Post)#5109 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(29114) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-11-02 15:20:41" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-11-02 22:20:41" ["post_content"]=> string(7556) "There’s been a lot of focus and scrutiny on the unclear, murky nature of today’s media buying practices – and for good reason. The most recent independent study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) revealed some startling, non-disclosed agency practices. Allegedly, “various media companies offer rebates to media-buying firms in exchange for greater amount of ad dollars,” which could mean that “the potential allocation of billions of dollars in advertising may be influenced by a desire for a sort of kickback, rather than being done in the interests of big-spending clients,” as reported by Variety. What this means is clients are being either overcharged or underserved when it comes to media buying in order for the big agencies to make money off the top. As agencies are buying the advertising inventory, they are either marking up the prices or receiving either rebates from the media owners for spending a certain amount of money. This has to stop. As marketers, it is our responsibility to maintain transparency and honesty when it comes to our clients.

The Importance of Transparency

There are now blurred lines between agencies that are only making money from clients and those that get markups from group deals. If practicing media buying correctly, however, you should have no qualms with making sure transparency about your practices is woven directly into the fabric of your business. Especially with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in play, all aspects of media buying should be held up to this standard. With advertisers demanding better contracts with agencies, tightening up their programs, and establishing better relationships with ad tech vendors, transparency in marketing is no longer a question. It’s the norm. As media specialists, it’s our responsibility to place our clients in the best position to succeed and be flexible when our industry shifts. Clients have every right to know where exactly their money is going and it’s our duty to provide them with accurate predictions, information, and expectations.

[To read more of Erik Huberman's thought leadership click here]

Maintaining Transparency

Our media buying experts over at Hawke Media pride themselves on maintaining open and honest communication with clients. Their clients have full optics into everything they do, from weekly verbal and written reporting to total access to ad accounts, which clients can view down to the keyword, campaign, etc. level to see where their money is being spent. Here are some specific ways our media buyers maintain transparency with clients that you can immediately incorporate into your media buying practices:

1. Provide clients with a real-time reporting dashboard so clients have 24/7 optics to objectives and regularly share any additional data with clients.

Providing clients with a 24/7 dashboard that reports in real time is vital to maintaining consistent transparency through the entirety of the client-agency relationship. Having this dashboard allows clients to visualize how much is being spent, where it’s being spent, what’s performing, and where budget can be reallocated in order to achieve desired outcomes or get the most return on each dollar spent. Dashboards can be set up in such a way that reporting dynamically populates and updates from linked accounts. Clients can dive in as they please and see performance in real time. This ensures both client and agency are on the same page, with the same insight into budgets, metrics, performance, and results.

2. Give clients full account ownership.

Hawke never hides or keeps client ad accounts. Clients maintain ownership and have unrestricted access to accounts if they wish to personally view account performance, from an overview of campaigns down to the keyword level. If clients disengage with Hawke, they have full ownership of their accounts and don’t need to worry about not having full access to their campaigns, insights, and reports. These accounts are paid for by the client and part of their brand identity. The accounts are rightfully theirs. Giving clients full account ownership is a no-brainer and should be one of the first things done to demonstrate a marketer’s honesty and transparency.

3. Create a partnership.

When a client signs with us, their designated Hawke team communicates strategy, ad copy, audiences, and keywords with the client prior to launching and during the optimization phase. These talks are collaborative and client feedback is not only heard, but implemented. It’s a true partnership. This is done to ensure both the marketing team and the client are on the same page and that expectations are clear. It creates mutual trust and understanding to make sure that there aren’t too many revisions, making the process more efficient. There is a consistent dialogue around what is being executed and communicated to prospective customers.

4. Be an extension of your client.

In the most simple terms, be an extension of your client. Think how the client would think. Act how the client would act. Marketers need to act in their clients’ best interests and understand client objectives, brand, and business model. That way, both parties are all aligned on overall goals, what needs to be done and why, and how it should be executed.

A Marketer's Code

With so many huge advertising companies coming under increased scrutiny for their less-than-honest media-buying practices, it’s crucial that marketers maintain their morals. At this point, it is up to us as individuals and as agencies to ensure complete transparency when it comes to handling clients.

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(61) "Why Maintaining Transparency is a Marketer’s Responsibility" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(151) "With so many agencies participating in dishonest media buying practices, it’s up to marketers to maintain transparency in order to earn client trust." ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(38) "erik-huberman-maintaining-transparency" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:07:52" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:07:52" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=29114" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [20]=> object(WP_Post)#5108 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(29976) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-02-04 16:29:47" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-02-05 00:29:47" ["post_content"]=> string(5352) "It’s the great marketing debate: in-house versus outsourced. While there are pros and cons to both sides of the coin, the more modern marketing becomes, the more sense it makes to outsource marketing efforts. Modern marketing is faster, bigger, better, stronger than marketing was some years ago. There are so many moving parts, technologies, mediums, etc. that it’s become increasingly more difficult for in-house teams to stay up-to-speed. It’s also become incredibly expensive, in time, money and resources. An external agency offers a well-rounded, intact, ready-to-go team from day one.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

And yet, a lot of brands feel this self-inflicted pressure to bring their marketing in house - which often leads to companies having a rude awakening when it comes to the depth of knowledge one must have in order to market effectively. Especially for growth stage ecommerce companies, getting an outsourced CMO is the smarter business decision. Let the marketing experts focus on the marketing so that you and your team can focus on your product and all the intricacies that go into running a successful business.  

If It Ain't Broke

An odd trend exists. Companies see impressive results from their outsourced marketing agency and decide that the next logical step is to end their relationship with said agency and bring everything in-house. Let me tell you right now - this could be one of the most detrimental decisions a company could make. My company, Hawke Media, had a client that went this route. After seeing such a boom in business thanks to our marketing experts, the client decided they wanted to take their marketing in-house. What happened next? Did they continue to see their sales increase month-over-month? Did they continue to produce effective and efficient Facebook ads? Did they continue to expand their client base and increase the reach of their email newsletter? Nope. Instead, they were banned on Facebook just two weeks before one of the biggest days in ecommerce - Black Friday. It’s true, this company was unable to advertise on Facebook before Black Friday. Even more unfortunate for them was that, because they had an inexperienced marketing team, they lacked any connections at Facebook to help them fix it - something a marketing agency is definitely going to have. This client is not the only poor, unfortunate soul who went this route and suffered for it. We had one client who had been with Hawke Media for a year and half. During this time we took the company from a three million dollar value to a 60 million dollar value. When the company raised that round, they decided to try and take everything in-house. Fast forward three years and, in the time since then, the company has had to raise more money at the same valuation and even had to recently go through a complete internal restructuring. With an expert marketing agency, they were on a complete upward trajectory. On their own...not so much.

You Don't Have to Do it All Anymore

The idea that a company should bring all its processes in-house once they’ve reached a certain pinnacle of success is an archaic way of thinking. The scope and speed of today’s marketing makes outsourcing one of the smartest business decisions you can make. Companies shouldn’t feel obligated to take on all the responsibility of owning, operation, producing, marketing and selling a product. It’s just too much these days and there are experts just waiting to help ease the burden. The digital revolution changed the game and marketing initiatives now cover an incredibly wide breadth, requiring a wide variety of specialization in order to be successful. Because of the nature of today’s modern market, in order to stay competitive, you have to stay efficient. In order to stay efficient, you have to outsource.

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

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Since Hawke’s inception, we’ve been both blessed and burdened with extraordinary growth. What started as a five-person team in 2014 has evolved into an increasingly successful business with a team of over 130 expert marketers who have helped more than 1,500 businesses scale and profit.

While the growth has been great, it’s also come with growing pains. Recently settled into our new, 27,000-square-foot headquarters, we’re finally in a space that will enable and encourage further growth. Getting here hasn’t been easy and the Hawke leadership team, and I learned some valuable lessons in the process. Here are the biggest lessons we learned from building and moving into our brand-new headquarters that we hope will help make your own move seamless.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

1. FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

We wanted an office that was custom built for us and being able to design a space that perfectly accommodates the way our company runs has allowed us to perform better. We were able to match the layout of our new office with the way our business works, rather than trying to retrofit an existing space to work the way we want. Creating that new layout gave us the opportunity to figure out what spaces and office functions were missing that our company and employees needed to succeed. Conversely, we were able to see which functions were unnecessary.

In an ideal world, you’ll find a space that can be designed to fit your company’s unique needs. If you’re not able to custom build an office as we were, at least look for buildings with existing layouts that will be conducive to the way you do business.

2. PAY ATTENTION TO HOW DIFFERENT EMPLOYEES SELF-ORGANIZE, BUT PROVIDE GUIDANCE

It was incredibly insightful and interesting to watch the way my employees self-organize: how they use conference rooms and common spaces; how they organize their desks and their days; and how they work most efficiently.

While our new office was still being built, to accommodate for the expansion of our company we had to rent a separate office two blocks away from our original headquarters. We put one of our teams in that new space and let them figure out how they wanted to organize the space, who sat where, and who got what. We thought that the added freedom would increase performance, but we instead realized that our employees needed structure. As a leader, you should take into consideration how people are best organized to accomplish what they need to, but you should also provide guidance and direction.

In our new space, we assigned which teams went into certain spaces, what areas were common spaces across the teams, what spaces were common areas specific to one team, and so forth. Creatives and accountants have different needs in order to be their most productive selves, so we ensured that each team was in a space tailored to their work styles.

It may sound like a small thing, but by simply providing guidance in the designation of space, we’ve already seen an immense ease in our moving and settling-in process.

Moving into a brand-new office space, especially one you’ve built from scratch, can be terrifying and stressful. But it’s also a huge accomplishment and should feel as such

3. LET YOUR EMPLOYEES FEEL HEARD

When figuring out our needs for the new space, we used it as an opportunity to give our employees a chance to voice their frustrations at what they thought could be better within the office. Of course, everyone wants free food and beer on tap. But beyond voicing the obvious desires, we wanted employees to figure out what they were missing in order to be most productive. And then we listened.

Listening to and evaluating their requests was important. Not everything will be feasible, but much of it probably is. We now have kombucha and cold brew on tap. We have a myriad of common spaces, some more public than others, to allow individuals to get away from their desks but still work. We have a recreation room to act as a reprieve from computer screens.

An office move is a great opportunity to find out what is truly lacking in your employees’ work lives. Find out what you can offer to help them be happier and more productive. Everyone will be better for it in the long run.

4. PARTNER UP

Especially in the entrepreneurial community, companies are actually incredibly willing to help each other out so long as there is fair trade-off. We’re lucky enough to have some very kind friends and partners who have helped make our new office even more incredible.

For example, each of our employees has a Varidesk, allowing them to stand and stretch their legs while they work at any time they choose. In return, Varidesk will be using our office as a showroom to clients and visiting us periodically. It’s a win for us both.

Additionally, we went with Openpath to handle all of our building’s open-access control. Our company already had a relationship with them, and we knew we wanted them to handle security matters. Now, not only do we not need to bother giving each employee a key (opening and securing doors is all done via the Openpath app), but the setup process was incredibly easy.

Don’t be afraid to look to friends of your business to help with various aspects of your new office space. Often this can lead to very fruitful partnerships for all parties involved.

5. GET THE NECESSITIES FIRST

Make sure you have your necessities stocked up and ready to go before anything else. Things like toilet paper, paper towels, trash cans, and garbage pickup are all extremely vital to the smooth running of an office. We had to learn the hard way on day one in the new office that we didn’t know what was happening with our trash pickup. It was a mess.

DON'T FORGET TO CELEBRATE

Moving into a brand-new office space, especially one you’ve built from scratch, can be terrifying and stressful. But it’s also a huge accomplishment and should feel as such. Don’t forget to congratulate each other on a job well done.

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

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[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

But I struggled to find anything geared toward those of us already secure in our positions. Where are the events that cater to the established executive looking to build out his or her community and collaborate with like-minded individuals? National and global conferences are great, but localized events often have two key themes that these larger events lack: community and collaboration.

The 2 Cs

I’ve been in this industry for long enough and, over the years, I’ve noticed there aren’t too many events where top executives can get together and learn from each other. I struggled to find a space where we could all come and be honest, open, and ready to collaborate.

Why Community Is Important

A lot of time the rat race of starting a business can cause people to view their peers as direct competition. In reality, it’s incredibly important to surround yourself with a community of like-minded individuals that you view as friends and confidants–not threats to your success. These people understand your trials and tribulations because they most likely went through it themselves or are currently in a similar situation. They can tell you what worked for them and what didn’t, inspire you to try something new, and be the emotional support you need when things don’t go exactly according to plan.

Community Leads to Collaboration

It may sound counterintuitive to help out your competition, but it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Becoming part of an entrepreneurial community has helped me stay up-to-date on trends, given me a built-in support system, and has even led to new partnership opportunities. In an industry that’s constantly changing, staying current can be difficult. Exchanging ideas and thoughts about industry changes with the members in your community can help you anticipate change and proactively adjust.

The Key: Localized Events

What I Saw

E-commerce events that focus on fostering that sense of community, rather than just getting the biggest names from Google or Amazon, are incredibly valuable when it comes helping entrepreneurs build and expand their network.   There are tons of industry events that are almost tradeshow-like in nature–with tons of vendors, attendees can walk the floor to connect with featured businesses and then funnel into large conference halls to listen to speakers. But I found myself having more fun at mastermind events and CEO summits. I wanted to create an event that embodied that spirit, where people came to make lasting business partnerships, find or become advisors and mentors, and, most importantly, learn together. By prioritizing the value of community and collaboration, e-commerce conferences could become a breeding ground for revolutionary ideas, partnerships, and success stories.

What I Did

My team at Hawke created our own conference for this purpose. I noticed a gap in the industry–a lack of local e-commerce events designed to appeal to established executives looking to collaborate–and decided to do something about it. And so, Hawkefest was born. My team and I created this annual e-commerce summit to provide ample opportunities for attendees to work and learn together in a hands-on environment filled with fun, peer-generated content. We created a space for executives to come together and learn from each other.

How You Can Do It Too

1. Carefully curate your audience.

At Hawkefest, we require all attendees to fill out an application, which then goes through a meticulous vetting process. While that might sound a bit pretentious and time-consuming, it ensures that the people who actually attend aren’t just job-seekers and vendors, but legitimate movers and shakers in the e-commerce industry. Our Hawkefest attendees don’t have to worry about getting hounded by sales pitches or buried under a stack of business cards. In order to attract high-level minds and get them to drop their guard, your event should have an intimate feel. And that comes from a curated guest list. By doing some of the grunt work up-front, you’re able to know exactly who is in attendance. This allows for your event to be a place filled with valuable conversations and meaningful interactions. Establish base requirements for attendees so that you can keep a pulse on the type of individuals who are planning to attend, making sure that list aligns with your overall goals.

2. Emphasize peer-to-peer collaboration.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. And same goes for people at networking events. Just because they are all in the same place, does not mean that they’ll automatically be inclined to talk, mingle, and exchange ideas. At Hawkefest, we encourage peer-to-peer conversations in a variety of ways. Hawkefest isn’t just a bunch of speakers one after the other with a “networking mixer” slapped in the middle. There are breakout sessions, roundtable discussions, fireside chats, team-building workshops, panels, and more. By creating opportunities where communication, teamwork, and participation are encouraged, Hawkefest’s event structure helps foster collaboration. You can take your time when configuring your event schedule and make sure that the types of interactions are conducive to what you’re trying to accomplish.

3. Focus on your community.

With Hawkefest, we target companies and professionals in our Southern California community. By doing so, we’re able to bring together executives that are operating in similar conditions–be it a new tax law, consumer attitudes, or even the weather. Attendees are also much more likely to be able to follow-up with their newly made connections due to their close proximity. In fact, even a handful of even the speakers participating at Hawkefest have their businesses just down the road from the event space. Additionally, becoming the centerpoint of the community you’re looking to create has long-lasting brand benefits. So, while it may be tempting to expand invitations to your event to a national or even global audience, consider focusing your reach to your immediate community.

Come Together

It may seem daunting to try to execute your own e-commerce or digital marketing event since that space seems so saturated. But if you adjust your scope to focus on the community around you, you may find that there is a need for localized networking event. I know it worked for us at Hawke Media, so it can also work for you. If you’re in the SoCal area and want to check out what Hawkefest is all about, we’d love to have you! Apply to attend here.

[For more insight from Hawke Media click here]

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CFOs are not known for encouraging you to spend more. Not, at least, without good reason.

The key to making your CFO happy with expanding your digital marketing budget is to give them a very good reason. Honestly, you should give yourself a very good reason to expand your marketing budget.

Now, the obvious reason is growth. Marketing drives growth; that’s not a new idea. But not all marketing drives growth – only good marketing.

So how can you 1) know that your digital marketing is paying off and 2) prove that it’s paying off to your CFO, your investors or your board?

I’m so glad you asked.

First: Calculate the Value You Can Create

How much net profit does every lead or sale generate for your company? It sounds like an easy question, but it can be surprisingly hard to answer.

If your company’s structure allows your marketing to drive sales directly, this can be pretty easy. Maybe you sell widgets online for $20: Your cost to produce and deliver a widget is $5, and the profit you can drive from a sale is $15.

Your formula is: 

(Sale Price) - (Cost of Goods) = (Sale Value)

Things are a little less easy when you start to consider the long-term value of a customer, or a sales cycle that can stretch into days, weeks, months or years from that initial lead.

Still, it’s important that you understand what that profit is, and the role your marketing can play.

Your formula for finding your value in a more complex sales environment could look something like this:

{(Average Sale) - (Cost of Goods or Services)} x (Conversion Rate) = (Lead Value)

Depending on how your business runs and the potential for repeat business, you might want to replace (Average Sale) with (Average Long-Term Customer Value), or possibly (Average First-Year Customer Value).

It can be tempting to gloss over this part of the process, to guesstimate or to base your advertising on hunches and intuition about the value you’re driving.

Don’t.

Someday your CFO, a board member or an investor will ask you to justify the costs of your marketing efforts. In all those situations, you need to have a good answer. Better yet, don’t wait until they ask; be proactive about presenting them.

[To read more of Mike Schaffer’s thought leadership click here]

Second: Attribute Sales

Now that you know the value of a lead or sale, it’s important to know where every sale you drive comes from.

How much net profit does every lead or sale generate for your company? It sounds like an easy question, but it can be surprisingly hard to answer.

“Attribution” is digital advertising speak for “What brought the customer here?” If a customer clicked on a Google pay-per-click ad that brought them to your site, and then bought something, that sale would probably be attributed to your Google pay-per-click ads.

I say “probably” because it can get more complicated. What happens if a customer clicked a  Facebook ad two days ago, browsed your site and left without making a purchase, but then clicked on a Google ad today and made a $100 purchase? How much of that sale do you attribute to Google? How much to Facebook?

The answer will depend on what’s called your “attribution model.” There are literally hundreds to choose from, but it’s basically how much “credit” you give to each piece of advertising that a customer encounters on their way toward a sale.

Tools like Google Analytics can let you choose from a list of standard attribution models. Once you reach a decent scale, it’s probably worth implementing more complex software that’s tied directly to your ad platforms and that does this on your behalf.

Third: Calculate Your ROAS

Now you’ve figured out:

1. How much a sale or lead is worth.
2. Your spend on each platform.
3. The sales or leads that each platform generates.

That lets you put it all together and get a really clear picture of the value you’re delivering with your ROAS. ROAS stands for “return on advertising spend.” It might sound complex, but it’s not really. Plus, CFOs go nuts for acronyms.

Your goal is to tie the sales or leads driven by every type of advertising you do with the amount of money you spent on that type of advertising.

Your formula here is:

(Per-Platform Revenue) / (Per-Platform Cost) = (Per-Platform ROAS)

So, if you spent $50,000 on Facebook advertising, and drove $50,000 in profits, you have a ROAS of 100% for Facebook. 

If you spent $50,000 on Google and drove $100,000 in profits, you have a ROAS of 200% for Google. Obviously, above 100% and you’re making money; below 100% and you’re losing it.

It’s important to note whether you’re calculating your ROAS on profit or revenue. Calculating ROAS on revenue is much more common, but then you’ve got an additional step of adding in your profit margins later on. I tend to prefer calculating ROAS on profit from the get-go; this enables you to have that data available and front-of-mind for every decision you make related to your digital ad spend.

Either way, understanding your per-platform ROAS lets you optimize for the most effective platform, or combination of platforms.

Once you’ve got that figured out, you can use essentially the same formula to calculate your overall digital advertising ROAS.

(Digital Ad Revenue) / (Digital Ad Cost) = (Overall ROAS)

Now, you’re ready to impress your CFO.

Fourth: Make Your CFO Love You

With these numbers in hand, you can pretty easily understand whether your advertising’s working. If you have an ROAS of under 100%, you’re losing money. Over, and you’re driving profit for your company.

While ROAS is a common term in advertising, return on investment (ROI) might be even simpler for your CFO to understand. How many dollars in profit are you generating for every dollar spent on digital marketing? An ROAS of 100% is the same as a 1:1 profit:spend ratio. An ROAS of 400% is the same as a 4:1 profit:spend ratio.

Then, you can go to your CFO and say things like, “For every $1 you give me in ad spend, I can create $4 in profit.”

You may sound a bit like Bernie Madoff, but the difference is that you can actually deliver on your promises.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there, crunch some numbers, and get ready to make your CFO your digital marketing budget’s best ally.

[For more on Echo Factory's approach to Digital Agency click here]

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Ecommerce - Direct to Consumer

The fact is that most ecommerce brands are getting their margins squeezed and going direct to consumer is going to continue to be a huge focus. Shifting to direct to consumer essentially cuts out costs that are incurred from wholesaling and retail markups. While some of these costs are going to be transferred to marketing campaigns (at first), in the long run, a brand’s reliance on other parties to properly represent them shrinks. Brands looking to make a bigger ecommerce splash in 2020 will need to lock down their direct marketing plans in order to shine the spotlight on themselves in a big way.

The Rise of Visual Search

Technology continues to disrupt how customers will find products – and this will not slow down in 2020. One area that is both a challenge and an opportunity surrounds visual search technology. This involves customers taking a picture of a product to get reviews and even pricing, as well as where items can be purchased. Many apps including Amazon already use this type of technology. So brands need to be sure that pictures of their products are plentiful and are tagged appropriately to benefit from those using visual search technology from their mobile devices.

ADA Compliance in 2020

Websites need to be accessible for everyone regardless of ability or disability. Users with visual impairments, hearing disabilities, or even limited physical motor functions must be able to navigate and gain the value your site has to offer. This goes beyond brand ethics and dips into “brand protection.” Many brands are violating ADA website compliance standards not with general disregard but rather a lack of knowledge. While this may be an oversight by the website owner, sites that are not adhering to ADA standards are targets for lawsuits for ADA compliance law practices. At the end of the day, getting sites ADA ready will need to be a focus for all brands in 2020.

Beyond Social in Social Media

Marketing on social media will continue to make strides in 2020. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms will continue to provide better audience targeting, testing capabilities, and overall costs when compared to other direct digital marketing tactics. Almost any brand can find its audience on social media, and with the ability to use images, GIFs, video, and a wide variety of other creatives, the flexibility is almost unmatched. Beyond the ability to target is the tremendous opportunity brands have to sell their products directly from Facebook and Instagram. While brands used to have to send users to a landing page – or a website – now customers can tap and purchase without ever leaving their favorite social platform. We have seen incredible results with everything from wine brands to home services when it comes to Facebook and Instagram marketing, so if you haven’t tested this ads platform, we highly recommend that you start testing now.

Context Is the New King

We all know the key to getting your message to take hold in the search engines is content. If you have no content (or little content) you will be buried against the competition and will likely never show up on the coveted first page of Google. However, a more important concept (known to SEO experts) is holding much more importance than ever before – and that is the valuable context of your content. What value does your content provide? Is it answering the questions people are asking? Is the context rich enough to keep users on your site long enough to alert Google that users are finding your content valuable? The true king when it comes to content is the context. So brands will really need to place the context within their content as the top priority. Google has even released recent updates (BERT) that layers contextual AI onto searches to provide more contextually rich results. And if Google is changing algorithms to better understand the context, then brands need to make this a priority in their SEO approach for 2020. National Positions (www.nationalpositions.com) is a fully-integrated digital marketing powerhouse, delivering customized programs for clients that encompass SEO, Pay-Per-Click management, content marketing, web design, video marketing, social media, conversion rate optimization and online reputation management.  Founded in 2004, National Positions is a 5-time Inc 500 company and a Google Premier Partner.  A pioneering force in the SEO industry, National Positions offers end-to-end digital marketing services to SMB’s and white label services to numerous agencies throughout the United States." ["post_title"]=> string(75) "Digital Marketing New Year's Resolutions: Outlining Best Practices for 2020" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(83) "Bernard May, CEO of National Positions lists the best marketing practices for 2020." ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(85) "bernard-may-digital-marketing-new-years-resolutions-outlining-best-practices-for-2020" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-01-03 11:33:24" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-03 19:33:24" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=32078" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [5]=> object(WP_Post)#5123 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(24824) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "252" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2017-07-25 09:21:38" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2017-07-25 16:21:38" ["post_content"]=> string(7626) "

On December 7, 1963, a 29-year-old television director premiered a new invention during the Army vs. Navy football game that he called the instant replay. Whether he anticipated its impact on the entire sports experience for everyone from players to audiences to owners, or simply thought he was lessening the referees’ workload, is unclear. Today, instant replay technology has evolved to be a standard practice of sports entertainment, and with it, the emphasis on “how” you play the game has gone from motivational cliche invoked by coaches in the locker room to mission-critical detail that decides championships.

The embrace of technology by the sports and entertainment industries, though dramatically significant, is hardly unique. As business owners in 2017, we’ve witnessed digital technology’s inevitable infiltration of industries across the spectrum, even those once thought relatively immune. The opportunity to influence consumers, widening of the playing field for nimble, technology-loving upstart competition, and unprecedented power of branding and personalized consumer experience are just a few examples of phenomenons presented by the new digital landscape that have taken digital strategy from a line item to an ongoing, daily topic of discussion.

[To read more of Michael Abraham’s thought leadership click here]

Media and entertainment have been among the leaders in transforming operations and products to satisfy a digital appetite. UK-based technology market research firm Vanson Bourne, in partnership with Dell Technologies, conducted an evaluation of 4,000 business leaders from 16 countries across 12 distinct industries. Designed to uncover the effects and timelines of digital disruption, the results show 73% of respondents agree that a “centralized technology strategy needs to be a priority for their business.” Successful organizations focus on adopting diverse platforms to attract larger audiences, utilizing technology and branding across assets to drive results, and implementing solutions backed by data collection and analysis.

New Platforms, New Audiences

According to the same Dell survey, “72% of respondents [are] expanding their software development capabilities.” Even the heaviest of hitters in digital media are reaching to new areas. In 2016, Facebook launched Facebook Sports Stadium, an interactive hub for fans to interact with games, teams, and players more intimately. In 2017, Amazon outbid Facebook, YouTube, and former rights holder Twitter, for the streaming rights to Thursday Night Football, a one-year deal worth a reported $50M.¹ With introduction through the football, Amazon gathers a myriad of data points on customers and understands the potential for drawing a sports audience that will further explore Amazon’s expanding Prime Video service. Media and entertainment businesses are making monumental pushes to diversify their digital capabilities and push their brands further into the mainstream.

More than collecting valuable data on fan behavior, such as peak times for food ordering and parking habits, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers accrued an additional $2M in revenues by digitizing the fan experience when inside the stadium doors.

The Power of Branding

A business plan with a significant digital strategy has proven to have greater opportunities for worldwide recognition. “Digital media companies are by definition global and there is an opportunity to do deals with them in 200 countries around the world where basketball is followed,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.⁴ Social media’s reach of a worldwide audience has allowed more authentic access into a player’s personality. Just as personal, relatable branding campaigns consistently see greater returns, utilizing personable, relatable athletes as branding opportunities has proven a lucrative approach for brand strategy.

[For more on CCG LA's approach to Marketing click here]

“Three years ago, we were in 100 million pay-TV homes…[w]e now have 200 million smartphones that did not exist five years ago,” said Silver. “We need to work through this transition with our television partners. But my view is that this will be net strongly positive when everyone is carrying a TV in their pocket . . . We will truly make it up in volume.”

Dynamic Pricing Models

More than enhancing the experience for fans and players, a sold-out stadium means maximum ticket sales, heightened concession and merchandise sales, and a more desirable product for television audiences. Although, the structure of ticket sales has laid dormant for decades. Today, employing digital databases and analytics, franchises can use a dynamic approach to adjust ticket prices and fill empty seats leading up to game time. In Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals have a system capable of pinpointing optimal prices for sales by comparing data based on ticket demand, team performance, pitching matchups, and weather. According to professors at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, this ebb and flow of ticket prices can result in a 14.3% increase in revenue.¹

Digitizing the Experience

A side effect of today’s digital revolution includes changes in service industries. Before a game, fans can order food delivery through apps like Postmates or DoorDash, buy e-tickets through Stubhub or SeatGeek, and secure transportation to the stadium through Lyft or Uber. The only remaining experience yet to be digitized? The in-game experience. When Levi’s Stadium opened its doors to 49ers fans in San Francisco, attendees could use the official stadium app as their game ticket and parking pass, get GPS aid finding their seats, check instant replay, and order food delivery directly to their seats. More than collecting valuable data on fan behavior, such as peak times for food ordering and parking habits, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers accrued an additional $2M in revenues by digitizing the fan experience when inside the stadium doors.³

Instant replay is now a classic example of filling a void we didn’t realize existed but, once filled, its use becomes ubiquitous and its absence would never again be tolerated. Newly discoverable “voids” and their subsequent technological solutions constantly emerge in a busy digital landscape. A coach is still wise to urge his players to focus on the game over winning or losing. But now in business, thanks to technology, we can identify exactly how to play the game to return a win every time.

¹ knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu 2 Wall Street Journal 3 venturenext.com 4 Financial Times

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On December 7, 1963, a 29-year-old television director premiered a new invention during the Army vs. Navy football game that he called the instant replay. Whether he anticipated its impact on the entire sports experience for everyone from players to audiences to owners, or simply thought he was lessening the referees’ workload, is unclear. Today, instant replay technology has evolved to be a standard practice of sports entertainment, and with it, the emphasis on “how” you play the game has gone from motivational cliche invoked by coaches in the locker room to mission-critical detail that decides championships.

The embrace of technology by the sports and entertainment industries, though dramatically significant, is hardly unique. As business owners in 2017, we’ve witnessed digital technology’s inevitable infiltration of industries across the spectrum, even those once thought relatively immune. The opportunity to influence consumers, widening of the playing field for nimble, technology-loving upstart competition, and unprecedented power of branding and personalized consumer experience are just a few examples of phenomenons presented by the new digital landscape that have taken digital strategy from a line item to an ongoing, daily topic of discussion.

[To read more of Jeffrey Stewart’s thought leadership click here]

Media and entertainment have been among the leaders in transforming operations and products to satisfy a digital appetite. UK-based technology market research firm Vanson Bourne, in partnership with Dell Technologies, conducted an evaluation of 4,000 business leaders from 16 countries across 12 distinct industries. Designed to uncover the effects and timelines of digital disruption, the results show 73% of respondents agree that a “centralized technology strategy needs to be a priority for their business.” Successful organizations focus on adopting diverse platforms to attract larger audiences, utilizing technology and branding across assets to drive results, and implementing solutions backed by data collection and analysis.

New Platforms, New Audiences

According to the same Dell survey, “72% of respondents [are] expanding their software development capabilities.” Even the heaviest of hitters in digital media are reaching to new areas. In 2016, Facebook launched Facebook Sports Stadium, an interactive hub for fans to interact with games, teams, and players more intimately. In 2017, Amazon outbid Facebook, YouTube, and former rights holder Twitter, for the streaming rights to Thursday Night Football, a one-year deal worth a reported $50M.¹ With introduction through the football, Amazon gathers a myriad of data points on customers and understands the potential for drawing a sports audience that will further explore Amazon’s expanding Prime Video service. Media and entertainment businesses are making monumental pushes to diversify their digital capabilities and push their brands further into the mainstream.

More than collecting valuable data on fan behavior, such as peak times for food ordering and parking habits, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers accrued an additional $2M in revenues by digitizing the fan experience when inside the stadium doors.

The Power of Branding

A business plan with a significant digital strategy has proven to have greater opportunities for worldwide recognition. “Digital media companies are by definition global and there is an opportunity to do deals with them in 200 countries around the world where basketball is followed,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.⁴ Social media’s reach of a worldwide audience has allowed more authentic access into a player’s personality. Just as personal, relatable branding campaigns consistently see greater returns, utilizing personable, relatable athletes as branding opportunities has proven a lucrative approach for brand strategy.

[For more on CCG LA’s approach to Marketing click here]

“Three years ago, we were in 100 million pay-TV homes…[w]e now have 200 million smartphones that did not exist five years ago,” said Silver. “We need to work through this transition with our television partners. But my view is that this will be net strongly positive when everyone is carrying a TV in their pocket . . . We will truly make it up in volume.”

Dynamic Pricing Models

More than enhancing the experience for fans and players, a sold-out stadium means maximum ticket sales, heightened concession and merchandise sales, and a more desirable product for television audiences. Although, the structure of ticket sales has laid dormant for decades. Today, employing digital databases and analytics, franchises can use a dynamic approach to adjust ticket prices and fill empty seats leading up to game time. In Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals have a system capable of pinpointing optimal prices for sales by comparing data based on ticket demand, team performance, pitching matchups, and weather. According to professors at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, this ebb and flow of ticket prices can result in a 14.3% increase in revenue.¹

Digitizing the Experience

A side effect of today’s digital revolution includes changes in service industries. Before a game, fans can order food delivery through apps like Postmates or DoorDash, buy e-tickets through Stubhub or SeatGeek, and secure transportation to the stadium through Lyft or Uber. The only remaining experience yet to be digitized? The in-game experience. When Levi’s Stadium opened its doors to 49ers fans in San Francisco, attendees could use the official stadium app as their game ticket and parking pass, get GPS aid finding their seats, check instant replay, and order food delivery directly to their seats. More than collecting valuable data on fan behavior, such as peak times for food ordering and parking habits, Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers accrued an additional $2M in revenues by digitizing the fan experience when inside the stadium doors.³

Instant replay is now a classic example of filling a void we didn’t realize existed but, once filled, its use becomes ubiquitous and its absence would never again be tolerated. Newly discoverable “voids” and their subsequent technological solutions constantly emerge in a busy digital landscape. A coach is still wise to urge his players to focus on the game over winning or losing. But now in business, thanks to technology, we can identify exactly how to play the game to return a win every time.

¹ knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu 2 Wall Street Journal 3 venturenext.com 4 Financial Times

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The world in which we live is constantly evolving at such a rapid pace. Seismic technological, social, political, and economic shifts occur so frequently that brands in nearly every sector must remain agile and apply critical strategies to adapt. Particularly challenged are art and cultural institutions whose rich history and purpose must be communicated with the utmost integrity, while also appealing to a broader demographic in order to drive engagement and grow their audience.

Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History’s Executive Director Nina Simon recently published The Art of Relevance, in which she “explores how mission-driven organizations can matter more to more people.” Throughout Simon’s book and in her TEDx talk, she methodically examines the concept that museums and other cultural institutions can become connectors within their communities when they measure and deepen their relevance.

From a business perspective, further cultivating this relevance with the public requires an effective brand and digital strategy that accommodates the demands of our current culture and puts the user and their connection to community at the forefront. At Zehner, we’ve served as both the creative and technology partner to leading art and cultural organizations. Be it the museum space, film and live entertainment venues, or one of the most comprehensive public transit systems in our country, our team comprises experts that understand how to engage the community through the intersection of savvy design and user experience that delivers real results.

Recent, notable examples include our rebrand and site redesign for the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA). As San Antonio continues to gain recognition for its buzzing tech, art, and cultural scene, SAMA has emerged as one of the country’s leading museums. SAMA approached Zehner to deliver a new brand and design experience that would drive deeper engagement within the community and educate the public on the transformational experiences the museum provides.

[To read more of Matthew Zehner's thought leadership click here]

Additionally, we’ve supported the rebirth of public transportation in Los Angeles with our ongoing work with LA Metro. Our user-experience support has helped drive community ridership and improve the quality of life for its now 39 million monthly riders.

Here are leading-edge methods for these vital organizations to attract new audiences, drive demand, and increase engagement.

Elevated Branding

Illuminating art, culture, and history through an elevated experience is key to fulfilling a multifaceted vision that can be sustained over time. Modernizing the embodiment of an organization’s brand is an important first step. However, establishing a new brand identity and strategy for an institution that serves the public often requires a delicate balance of heritage and innovation. Attracting new audiences is crucial, while also remaining mindful that the contemporary iteration of the brand maintains a connection with current constituencies.

Teamwork and A Collaborative Approach

Turning an idea into something that you can see, feel, and be proud of is no simple task. When a large institution can remain nimble and committed to cross-functional teamwork, this can help uncover valuable insights and elevate the spirit of partnership with their agency arm or among their internal personnel. If opting to work with an agency, it’s important to select a partner that can remain empathetic to an organization’s challenges and work collaboratively to deliver optimum results.

Keen focus should be concentrated on building a vibrant digital space that not only highlights the organization’s significant work, but also immerses userS in a community center where they learn about additional opportunities to connect in meaningful ways.

Creating A Comprehensive Styleguide

When reimagining a new identity for an organization, creating a comprehensive style guide ensures the integrity of the brand is preserved at the highest level and consistently carried across all touch points, both digital and physical. Visual relevance and the correct usage of the logomark and logotype all play a pivotal role in delivering consistent branding on an everyday basis that will advance and retain awareness and loyalty.

Crafting A Strategy That Realizes and Executes on Long-Term Goals

In order to grow an organization’s audience, the new brand, design, and communications strategy should actively speak to its city’s residents and tourism industry and the institution’s loyal advocates. This requires that an agency partner or in-house team take a holistic approach to their work and remain focused on sustainable growth. By leveraging all customer data and audience segments, the team can develop an initiative that emotionally connects with their constituencies and drives impressive ROI.

User Experience

Focus on the heart of the art and cultural organization—its people. In today’s digital landscape, it’s a user’s market. Creating a best-in-class user experience is paramount to the success of a digital property. Whether an organization’s reach is local, national, or international, their audience of visitors, artists, scholars, and members should all be carefully considered throughout the architecture of the user journey.

Establish First-Rate Information Architecture

Putting everything in its right place when designing a website or digital platform can often present a challenging task. But establishing solid IA is imperative to crafting the best possible user experience and paths for each visitor type and goal. Have a team that’s willing to get their hands dirty in this process and utilize all tools wisely, from the card sort through to the site map and wireframe.

Responsive Design

Aesthetics are very important, and the visual design of an interactive experience should be carefully examined. Everything from colors, images, typography, icons, and buttons must be strategically implemented in order to engage users. A beautiful website alone is no longer sufficient however. In a mobile-first world, users have different needs depending upon platform and interaction type. Responsive design has reached a critical juncture, and an organization’s site must be able to adapt to any device. Prototyping and user testing are also essential to optimizing the experience, and effective teams understand that these are fundamental components of a comprehensive UX design process.

Engage and Educate Your Community Through Experience Design

Keen focus should be concentrated on building a vibrant digital space that not only highlights the organization’s significant work, but also immerses users in a community center where they learn about additional opportunities to connect in meaningful ways. UX should help narrow the gap between the institution and its audience by clearly celebrating the array of offerings provided to the public. When an initiative is properly featured on the site, it no longer flies under the radar and instead experiences a significant uptick in attendance. Carefully consider all that the organization contributes to the community at large, whether it be in the form of educational programs, film series, shopping experiences, food and beverage options, lecture series, and much more. Then go about ensuring these are taken into consideration early in the creative process and observed in a dynamic manner on the site.

LEVERAGING DATA AND DRIVING MEMBERSHIP

At Zehner, we support the overall vision for a variety of community-based organizations. Our team comprises  experts that excel in developing member acquisition, sustaining lifetime membership value, and increasing ticket sales by leveraging analytics.

A compelling digital product that fully reimagines the user journey can deliver significant ROI for purpose-driven organizations. In tandem with a modern and sustainable brand, art and cultural institutions can connect with multiple demographics and redefine their relevance as a must-see destination for the community at large.

[For more on Zehner’s approach to Digital Marketing click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(55) "Driving Engagement for Art and Cultural Organizations" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(87) "Connect communities through art and culture with relevant branding and user experiences" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(93) "matthew-zehner-marketing-digital-agency-driving-engagement-for-art-and-cultural-organizations" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-06 11:36:27" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-06 18:36:27" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=29412" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [8]=> object(WP_Post)#5120 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(29041) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-09-18 13:49:36" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-09-18 20:49:36" ["post_content"]=> string(11127) "It’s a tale as old as time. A company is born. It outsources its marketing to an experienced agency that helps the company increase revenue and scale business. The company continues to see results from the marketing efforts of that agency and grows bigger. Everyone is happy. And then the company reaches a point where it feels obligated to bring its marketing internal. “That’s what you’re supposed to do right?” says the company. The company brings its marketing in-house and tries to replicate what that fully-staffed, expertly trained agency was able to do with a few new, in-house team members. It doesn’t work out great. Growth stalls. The company loses revenue and has to cut back on its marketing budget. In my years in the marketing industry, I’ve seen this exact situation unfold numerous times. It’s normal for companies to grow, mature, and want to bring all their efforts internal. But I’m not sure when it became accepted as a best practice for companies to reach a certain level of success and deem it necessary to bring all their marketing in-house. I’ve personally seen dozens of companies make that mistake and then lose access to all of the market insight an agency brings to the table.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

On average, at my company, Hawke Media, our clients’ revenue increases by 274% within the first six months when we step in and take over marketing efforts. You know why? Because it’s literally what we are paid to do. And the low-hanging fruit that enable us to produce such incredible results so quickly aren’t seen by the internal team because they lack that outsider perspective. Again, I’m not saying that companies aren’t capable or shouldn’t market themselves. But this misplaced obligation companies feel when it comes to bringing marketing in-house as some sort of right-of-passage can create some serious pitfalls in the long-run. Here’s why.

Companies don't have the resources to train and develop a team.

Most, if not all, CEOs know at least some basic marketing. But to truly get the best results, you want your marketing strategy to be handled by experts. With an agency, you’re able to have a team of professionals who are experts, not just in marketing in general, but within specific facets of marketing like email, media buying, or social. Companies attempting to bring all of their marketing in-house seriously struggle with finding talent and 71% of in-house creative leaders say they don’t even have enough time to develop team members. This means that most in-house teams aren’t going to be anywhere near as trained, knowledgeable, efficient, and experienced as an external agency. Hiring an outside team allows companies the ability to fill that team with individuals who are experts specifically in the areas in which the marketing is focused. In-house marketers often have to be Jacks-of-all-trades, whereas marketing agencies devote resources into continually educating their employees to keep them on the cutting edge of their specific marketing niche. At Hawke, we pay for our employees to attend General Assembly classes to freshen up or expand their skills, industry conferences so that they know all the latest research in the field, and any other ways they find to continue to develop professionally. Unfortunately, most companies don’t have that kind of budget to spend on their marketing, which puts the in-house marketing team at a serious disadvantage. In fact, 75% of marketers believe that their lack of skills is impacting revenue. Agencies satisfy this issue by providing a diverse team with the education and experience to get the job done.

Their budgets become rigid and flexible.

A static budget is not an adaptable budget. This is the real world. Things aren’t always going to go to plan. Flexible budgets are able to adjust when that change inevitably happens. The Motley Fool said it best: “A flexible budget can handle that reality and better position a company for the challenges of the marketplace.” At Hawke, we understand the tumultuous nature of the ecommerce industry and we don’t want our clients to feel like they’re trapped into these long, expensive contracts. That’s why we offer all our services a la carte and on a month-to-month basis. Clients are able to adjust budget and add or take away services without any contractual obligations. If they need to cut back on marketing efforts during their slower months, they can. If sales have been incredible and they’re ready to scale up, they can do that too. Companies need to be ready and able to adapt at a moment’s notice. Having an outsourced marketing team allows for immediate mobilization because you have instant access to a team of specialized, experienced marketers. It also allows brands the opportunity to be bolder and more creative since there’s no long-term commitment.

They struggle to see the forest from the trees.

Agencies have an outside perspective and are going to be much less biased than an in-house team. In order to successfully market to current and prospective audiences, you’re going to need to be able to put yourself in their shoes in order to assess what exactly they need. An agency is going to provide a much more objective perspective. Additionally, marketers at marketing agencies are in the trenches day in and day out. They work with numerous clients and have a large network of vendors and channels. These people know what they’re talking about and have the experience to prove it. In fact, even companies that have in-house marketing teams will work with outside agencies. According to the 2018 In-House Creative Industry Report, at least 77% of in-house teams partner with external agencies, which tells you that even solid internal creative teams need outsider advice to keep that needle moving.

And they lose valuable time and resources in the process.

Time is money. Literally. An outsourced team is going to provide a faster speed to market than an in-house team since marketing agencies have larger staffs, a plethora of resources and the expertise to churn out quality deliverables quickly. Agencies have to be efficient, as they are results-driven, and employees are used to juggling and prioritizing the needs of different clients. The processes already established at these agencies allow them to produce high-quality work on deadline and within budget. Additionally, hiring an outside team is exponentially cheaper than recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and paying an in-house team. Bringing on a firm makes it easier for companies to scale up if things are going well, as well as cut back or go a different route if the company isn’t happy with the agency’s results.

The proof is in the pudding

Outsourced marketing teams are built specifically to deliver exceptional results in an efficient manner At Hawke, we’ve seen client revenue per day grow by as much as 3,500%. Even with an established brand like Tamara Mellon, we were able to make an impact - increasing the brand’s revenue per day by 280% and overall revenues by 50%. The allure to owning and bringing all your efforts in-house may be tempting, but it just doesn’t make sense. Of course, the decision to outsource or not must be addressed on a case-by-case basis and influenced by your company’s specific needs, but we’ve all heard the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If you’re seeing great results with your outsourced marketing agency, there’s no rule that states you must transition to in-house just because you’re finally seeing some success. Stick to what you’re great at and let the experts handle the rest.

[For more insight from Hawke Media click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(17) "Help Me, Help You" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(84) "Why Bringing Your Marketing In-House May Be the Worst Business Decision You Can Make" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(30) "erik-huberman-help-me-help-you" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:11:36" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:11:36" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=29041" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [9]=> object(WP_Post)#5119 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(27792) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-05-24 16:39:31" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-05-24 23:39:31" ["post_content"]=> string(7631) "It’s no secret that happy, motivated and productive employees are good for business. Having a company full of people who are inspired and ready to do their job to the best of their ability each day is crucial to company success, regardless of size. Compensation and benefits are some of the most important drivers of employee satisfaction. It’s no surprise then that businesses will often incorporate bonuses based on performance - anything from typical pay bonuses to company-wide incentives like profit-share or ownership. Though compensation for hard work is important, it’s imperative that the reward is appropriate. According to a study done by the Harvard Business Review, “performance-related pay [is] positively associated with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and trust in management”; but profit-related pay is not. Here at Hawke, we thought long and hard about what type of employee behavior we wanted to reward and how we wanted to reward it. With our business model, client trust and satisfaction are everything, so we naturally sought to reward employee behavior that contributed to maintaining positive and fruitful client relations. That led to our lightbulb moment: since we’re a month-to-month service, client longevity isn’t a given. It’s something we have to constantly work to maintain. We offer our services on an a la carte basis, so clients only pay for what they need. Often, our experts see that a client could benefit from an additional service, but fear the client might be miffed by an upsell. So how do we reward employees for great work that fosters client trust and long-lasting client relationships?

We reward employees based on retaining clients, not increasing their budgets. 

Why?

When employees are rewarded for increasing clients’ budgets, they’re more likely to push companies to take bigger risks. These employees develop a short-term strategy that often pushes companies into uncomfortable situations where these risks end up being detrimental. Not surprisingly, this tends to hurt the client relationship. By rewarding based on client retention, you adopt a long-term approach where employees are likely to be more conservative with their recommendations and allow the company to take risks on their own terms. Retention-based pay helps not only client relations, but also keeps your employees accountable and engaged.

How It Works

1. Links Client Success to Employee Success

At Hawke, we have a different business model than most marketing agencies. We offer our services a la carte and operate on a monthly basis, meaning we don’t lock clients into long-term contracts. Because clients can pick and choose only the services they need, when they need them, we’re able to create uniquely tailored marketing solutions that fit into budgets of any size. However, this creates extra pressure on our ops teams to inspire and impress clients daily so they continue their relationship with us for as long as possible. Rewarding employees based on client retention gives extra incentive to keep the client’s needs in mind. This leads to genuine, long-lasting relationships between our employees and clients, since the client’s success and happiness is directly linked to the Hawke employee’s success. This system has led to mutually beneficial relationships - not only do we perform for the client, but that performance often leads to new business through client referrals. Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to maintaining and expanding your client roster.

2. Establishes and Maintains Client Trust

The other day, a client expressed concern that our team was trying to upsell him with new services he wasn’t entirely convinced he needed. He was worried that our team was trying to boost their commissions by throwing unnecessary services at him. When I told him that our team was rewarded solely for client retention, his whole attitude changed. He instantly became much more receptive toward our team’s suggestions and expressed a heighted trust in his team at Hawke. As is almost always the case, the client felt assured that his business - and not just his money - was valued. When clients know that their team is rewarded based on keeping them around, they stop worrying about getting swindled when the team gives recommendations. They also don’t need to worry about their team losing interest when a new client comes along. Their business and their money is even more valuable now than it was when they first signed.

3. Drives Employee Performance

Goals are great for driving employee performance, and key performance indicators make great objective measurements to assess whether employees have met those goals. By introducing incentive pay based on client retention, you link your KPIs to client satisfaction. This makes life easier for your executive staff, as it eliminates the need to set new goals for each team member every quarter. Of course, managers should still speak with their team members to figure out individual and personal goals, especially when it comes to professional growth and development. But by rewarding based on client retention, you mitigate the risk of individual employees losing sight of the bigger picture and the role they play in getting there. Managing employee performance starts with setting clear expectations. With this incentive system in place, client feedback can serve as that clarification and keep everyone aligned.

Engaged Employees, Happy Clients

I’ve found our reward system keeps the team members at Hawke engaged and focused, which leads to stellar client work and increased client satisfaction. In fact, it’s proven that companies with highly engaged employees consistently outperform companies with disengaged employees. Incentive pay based on client retention encourages our employees to consistently improve their effectiveness while simultaneously doing the same for the company as a whole. By looking into the needs of our business and structuring our incentive pay program around that, we’ve aligned employees goals to company and client goals. Clients trust that their team at Hawke has their best interests at heart, Hawke team members communicate openly and have a clear understanding of what needs to be done to meet their goals and Hawke as a company benefits by fostering both genuine client-company relationships, as well as a culture of happy, engaged employees. " ["post_title"]=> string(46) "How Retention Based Pay Helps Client Relations" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(120) "An in-depth look into rewarding an employee with retention based pay to maintain their drive and a client's happiness " ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(60) "erik-huberman-how-retention-based-pay-helps-client-relations" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:19:52" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:19:52" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=27792" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [10]=> object(WP_Post)#5118 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(27696) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-05-10 10:59:10" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-05-10 17:59:10" ["post_content"]=> string(5635) "Marketing is a dynamic, ever-evolving industry. Trends come and go, but with the right strategies, you can stay ahead of the game. Of course, sometimes there are seismic shifts that drastically change the way brands go about marketing themselves. For instance, Facebook’s recent headline-dominating data scandal has not only caused marketers to reevaluate their ad strategies due to concerns over brand safety, but it has also encouraged many of the major social platforms to bulk up their privacy policies, lest they join Facebook at the whipping post for violating consumer trust. When drastic changes like this take place in such a short timeframe, it can render marketing strategies obsolete and leave brands feeling lost or disconnected from their target customers. Here are four easy ways you can position yourself to stay on the bleeding edge of marketing trends and be prepared for those sudden watershed moments.

1. Stay focused on what’s happening today without losing sight of the big picture.

It’s easy to get lost in the immediate response to a paradigm shift without thinking about how the changes will affect strategies down the line. Changes to third-party data policies in the wake of the Facebook scandal have made it significantly harder for marketers to target consumers with ads. Many are scrambling to make immediate changes to keep their campaigns on the rails, but are they thinking about how these adjustments will play out in the long run? With platforms guarding data more closely, it follows that advertising will become increasingly expensive. In order to justify ad spend, marketers should be placing greater focus on conversion rates and customer lifetime value than ever before. If marketers are primed to stay calm in the heat of the moment and think about more than just putting out the fire, they’ll be in a better position for long-term success.

[To read more of Erik Huberman's thought leadership click here]

2. Build a network of marketers and communicate with them regularly.

In this day and age, by the time something hits the news, it’s already stale. This is especially true in marketing. Having a network of savvy, like-minded individuals who share and distribute information as they get it is crucial to staying up-to-date. Join Facebook and LinkedIn groups where people share news, industry studies, and other valuable content. According to a 2016 MarketingProfs content marketing study, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn and 87% use Facebook. Take advantage of what these online communities have to offer - and remember to not only observe, but also engage! Being an active member of these groups will help you stay on top of industry trends and may often lead to business partnerships.

According to a 2016 MarketingProfs content marketing study, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn and 87% use Facebook.

3. Read (the right) leading industry publications and blogs.

In a time where information is everywhere, it’s important to always be in the know. In addition to regularly attending conferences and industry events, having a solid list of publications you skim on the daily is crucial to staying informed. Top marketing publications (my personal favorites are Adweek and Ad Age) provide fantastic insight into the marketing ecosystem and are incredible resources for breaking news, data and analysis, industry forecasting and event listings. Build out your reading list and follow a variety of outlets including periodicals, newsletters, bloggers, and any other source of interesting content you come across that gives you inspiration or knowledge. But remember - there’s a lot of noise out there, so make sure you don’t go too far down the rabbit hole.

4. Communicate with your team and share knowledge internally.

Nothing beats face-to-face interaction, and your team members may (and probably should) offer different perspectives from your own. Real, insightful dialogue with your peers and subordinates is the best way to explore new concepts and plan for the future. At Hawke, our channel directors are experts in their fields. These guys and gals spend all day in the trenches, living and breathing their particular vertical. If I need insight into a specific trend or topic, they’re usually the first ones I turn to. Make sure communication stays open within your company, not just within teams, but across channels. You or someone you work for hired these people for a reason - take advantage of them!

[For more insight from Hawke Media click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(49) "How to Stay Relevant in an Ever-Evolving Industry" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(49) "Tips and tricks for marketers to stay in the know" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(56) "erik-huberman-stay-relevant-in-an-ever-evolving-industry" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:26:55" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:26:55" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=27696" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [11]=> object(WP_Post)#5117 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(30829) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-06-18 12:20:39" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-06-18 19:20:39" ["post_content"]=> string(4132) "It’s easier than ever to start a company, with the internet and social media allowing for direct-to-consumer companies to reach potential customers anywhere, anytime. But this type of market saturation comes with its own set of complications, one of the most prominent being the struggle for new brands to stand out from their competitors. So, how can companies distinguish themselves in such an overcrowded industry? The answer is a simple one: purpose-led marketing.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

Marketing with Purpose Leads to Cult-Like Success

Purpose is taking the stage as the heart of marketing, and with good reason! Finding and implementing brand purpose into your marketing has been shown to lead to incredible growth. Purpose is often conflated to mean a brand’s commitment to social responsibility, but it’s actually much simpler than that. A brand’s purpose is simply the consumer needs it fills and the qualities that drive consumers to choose that brand over its competitors. In the simplest of terms, it’s leading your marketing with purpose works because it makes people care. Consumers are inundated with options and choices. Businesses and employees need to be aware of their overall purpose in order to reach the highest levels of success. Purpose gets at the emotional side of someone versus objectively offering up the facts of a product. In a recent survey, 80 percent of companies stated that a collective purpose is linked to customer loyalty and 89 percent said that it helps employee satisfaction. Companies need to do a compelling job of convincing consumers, and if you can convince those consumers on an emotional level, you win.

Figure Out Why You Exist

Purpose reflects the merit, trustworthiness, and authenticity of a brand. All of those traits, in turn, speak to the brand’s potential for success. Trust and authenticity are two incredibly important traits to today’s consumer, with consumers becoming increasingly distrustful of ads and the brands behind them. Unifying a brand’s purpose with its message will inevitably help the brand create meaningful content and form an authentic connection with consumers.

The key to determining your brand’s purpose is figuring out your reason for existence.

The key to determining your brand’s purpose is figuring out your reason for existence. What is going to make a consumer pick you over your competitors? Is your company made up of individuals who support and embody that same purpose? Do your consumers know or care about your purpose and share that passion? One event that highlights the brands that have built an empire around their purpose is The Gathering. There, the focus is on “cult” companies, those that have an “above average brand attachment,” recognizing and rewarding brands that build amazing cultures. Many of the brands awarded during The Gathering have been around and relevant for at least a decade because of their ability to uniquely engage their audiences. If you want your brand to reach the same success, you must refine your craft and figure out what about your brand makes you special. What do you offer consumers that no other business does?

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

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Hi. My name is Michael Schaffer, and I’m an ad-techoholic.

Every week, I come across about 10 new advertising technologies that are going to “transform the face of marketing.” New platforms that peer into consumers’ minds and behaviors and phones and computers, and promise to use the power of AI or the cloud or “proprietary algorithms” or a troupe of well-trained chimpanzees to turn that data into sales for your brand.

Amazing!

And I want to believe the claims made by every single one. Ad tech is exciting. It’s cool. It’s shiny and new! At its best, it introduces your brand to new customers at the very moment they’re ready to make a decision about buying your product.

At its worst? It can be a colossal waste of money.

Lucky for me, I employ a team of very smart people whose job it is to use these platforms. And when I get excited about some new piece of advertising tech, I can email them about it. They’ll send me back responses like, “It’ll never work because XYZ …” or, “We already use ABC platform that does the same thing, better.” Or even (very occasionally), “Huh, that does look pretty cool. We should check it out.”

So, assuming you don’t employ a team of ad tech experts, how can you separate the brilliant from the bull**** when it comes to new ad tech?

The simple answer is ROI.

Understand your ROI on any platform, and you can effectively evaluate it against any other platform, or any other place you could be spending your advertising dollars.

[To read more of Mike Schaffer’s thought leadership click here]

This is, of course, a big departure from traditional advertising. Back in the dark days of radio advertising, the success of many campaigns was evaluated on the condition of: “Did the client hear their own ad during their commute?” Television, print, and outdoor can come with the same problem. Even big, smart national brands have to deal with this today.

A while back, I was reading a case study on Old Spice’s brilliant “The man your man could smell like” commercials that launched in 2011. They were an unequivocal hit with consumers, and the big winner at that year’s advertising awards. But when a campaign manager got asked how much they bumped the needle in terms of actually selling body wash, his response was more or less, “We have no idea.” Sales rose around the campaign, but there was no way to confidently attribute that rise to the campaign, or to one of the several other traditional campaigns the company was running at the same time.

Digital ads should solve this problem. With digital, you should be able to track the source of every sale or lead. You should know the last action that a consumer took before they converted, and any digital advertising they encountered along the path to the sale.

Once you understand how much you’re spending to acquire customers on every platform, it’s easy to test any new ad tech that comes along. Just put the shiny new technology against your existing channels.

I say “should” because that’s certainly not always the case. In the past year, our agency has taken over several accounts that had the ability to calculate their ROI on digital, but either weren’t, or weren’t paying any attention to the numbers. In one case, we came in and found that a service provider was paying more than $1,000 per customer acquisition on Facebook – in an industry where each customer was spending less than $50 on their first visit.

In another case, we were asked to jump in on a campaign that had spent more than $100,000 in the last six months, and delivered less than 10 total conversions. Those 10 conversions were worth about $1,000 in total. In both cases, the companies knew something wasn’t working right, but until we calculated their ROI, they weren’t sure what was wrong.

So, the key thing that’ll help you separate the brilliant from the bull**** in ad tech is ROI. How much do you pay to acquire a customer from Google search ads? Display ads? Facebook ads? Instagram? What about sponsored content? And what about the fancy new ad platform you just heard about?

[For more on Echo Factory’s approach to Public Relations click here]

Once you understand how much you’re spending to acquire customers on every platform, it’s easy to test any new ad tech that comes along. Just put the shiny new technology against your existing channels. If the new ad technology demonstrates that you can spend less and sell more, it’s worth investing in. If not, you can thank your knowledge of your ROI for saving you time, frustration, and money.

Once you’re familiar with your ideal ROI, you can let the new ad technologies keep rolling in – all you have to do is pick the winner.

" ["post_title"]=> string(53) "Separating the Brilliant From the Bull**** in Ad Tech" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(86) "How I learned to value ROI when making purchasing decisions, even in the ad tech space" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(59) "mike-schaffer-marketing-digital-agency-echo-factory-ad-tech" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-03 10:48:59" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-03 17:48:59" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=26638" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [13]=> object(WP_Post)#5115 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(30519) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "328" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-05-08 14:48:20" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-08 21:48:20" ["post_content"]=> string(5894) "Smartphones are by far everybody’s most treasured personal item, however these devices cost us money. We pay to use them, we purchase them outright or through an instalment plan and we pay the monthly phone bill.  Hardly anyone ever considers that a smartphone can serve as a tool for making money. And that is where the growing industry of User-Generated Video (UGV) comes in. User-Generated Video are videos filmed and uploaded by consumers, and the impact they are having on news-gathering, entertainment programming and the production of reality series and documentaries is completely disruptive.  In fact, the burgeoning appeal of UGV among the news and entertainment communities has altered the role of consumers from passive audience to active content providers.  And at the heart of this massive global eyewitness video movement, is Newsflare, a company on a mission to bring trusted and compelling UGV to publishers, producers and broadcasters throughout the world.

[To read more of Jon's thought leadership click here]

Based in London and Los Angeles, Newsflare has played a key role in helping pioneer the development of the user-generated video industry. Launched in 2011, the company has perfected a robust interactive platform allowing videographers the opportunity to easily upload their videos, while providing content buyers around the world the opportunity to select from a diverse catalogue of over 150,000 videos.  Newsflare also distributes and licenses its vast content library directly to the company’s impressive roster of media partners that encompasses major websites, social media, advertising agencies, production companies, television news and entertainment broadcasters located throughout the world.  At the same time, Newsflare’s US office is responsible for establishing licensing deals with North American media outlets, as well as the creation of co-development projects with US and Canadian producers.    California plays a vital role to Newsflare because the state is home to major content production players such as Amazon and Netflix, along with the entertainment divisions of all the major national television networks. Highly advanced technology drives Newsflare’s online video marketplace, where custom verification and trust algorithms provide content buyers with absolute assurance as to the integrity and copyright of the videos they license from across  multiple categories.  The company’s state-of-the-art digital technology also powers the uploader experience, as aspiring Newsflare contributors simply download the company’s iPhone or Android app and begin recording and submitting videos.  Newsflare’s apps act like an agent, tracking sales and managing payments to their freelance video contributors.  Uploaders are paid half of the revenues generated by the licensing of their videos to Newsflare’s media clients, and in several cases this has translated into tens of thousands of dollars. Newsflare is at the forefront of the rapid change in the way that news, entertainment, reality and documentary programming is produced.  What may have taken several production crews to capture in the past can now be captured and uploaded by any of over 60,000 Newsflare videographers situated in more than 110 countries throughout the world.  Video content from natural disasters and sports events to political unrest is now being sourced by news organizations from Newsflare’s online marketplace, just as entertainment producers and social publishers turn to the company for its unparalleled array of humorous - and oftentimes outrageous – human interest, ‘viral’ videos. 

[To read more of Preeya's thought leadership click here]

The universal appeal of User Generated Video serves as another reason for the burgeoning rise in this relatively new content category as people everywhere can appreciate the dog who babysits a cat without having to consider the challenge of language barriers.  For both news and entertainment media clients, User-Generated Video also brings an unmatched familiarity and authenticity.  Moreover, publishers and broadcasters no longer have the bandwidth, budget or manpower to source or clear video features that have long served as a content staple.  The Newsflare platform automates this formerly labor-intensive task.  Newsflare has helped propel User Generated Video into a worldwide industry, building a global network that connects amateur videographers with top media licensees – and revolutionizing the way entertainment and news media source original content.  So when you’re ready to transform your smartphone into a revenue-generating video production tool, visit Newsflare at www.newsflare.com. Based in London, Jon Cornwell is CEO of Newsflare.  Preeya Naul, located in Newsflare’s Los Angeles office, serves as General Manager, US.

[For more on Newsflare's approach to Digital Agency click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(39) "The Global Rise of User-Generated Video" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(162) "Jon Cornwell & Preeya Naul explain how their company, Newsflare, is impacting the digital media & entertainment industry through their online video marketplace. " ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(64) "jon-cornwell-preeya-naul-the-global-rise-of-user-generated-video" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-24 14:25:45" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-24 21:25:45" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=30519" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [14]=> object(WP_Post)#5114 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(31789) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "343" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-12-02 12:45:24" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-12-02 20:45:24" ["post_content"]=> string(10110) "Remember how the only available paid functionality on Facebook was a boosted post? Since 2007 paid ads have been part of Facebook, however, Fan Pages weren’t introduced by the social network until 2008. And then, in 2009, we were able to see the first form of advanced targeting by demographics and location. This was a huge breakthrough in terms of advertising on Facebook.  Understanding how Facebook Ads has progressed is important because it’s the only way to see how far they managed to revolutionize the hub. Since 2015 things started changing fast. Even if you were a marketer it was hard to catch up on all of the changes. One thing was for sure, things were changing for the better. Facebook introduced functionalities such as pixel, custom audiences, dynamic product list ads, and lead generation ads. And, they are continuing to expand and innovate on advertising, Facebook is launching new interactive mobile ads in the future. The biggest social network on the planet has also had the greatest influence on other social media companies too, such as Twitter and Pinterest, as they have been trying to play catch up to keep up. Both have introduced similar functionality to help many businesses to reach their target audience efficiently and effectively. Even Snapchat is now getting into the ads game. Even though it seems like we’ve finally caught up with the changes, there are some small things that not all marketers use frequently for better performance or are even aware of.

Here are a few things we can all use to improve our marketing efforts on Facebook.

  1. Creative Hub Many of us store all of our creatives on a local folder on our computer. We all do this because is the most efficient way to store and access things. However, files can get messy if we save everything in a local folder. Facebook Creative Hub is the perfect place to create and store all of your creatives and ads. On the Hub you can:

• Get inspiration from other brands
• Edit and manage mockups
• Check the quality of your ads and increase the chance of approval
• Learn about new ad formats
• Learn about new Instagram functionalities
• Get hold of mobile advertising
• Share all of your ideas with your teammates
• Preview and edit all of the ads in their natural environment
• Export everything, simple and with a single click of a button

The Creative Hub offers the most optimal working environment to prepare you’re A/B test campaigns and manage multiple clients as you will be able to see in real-time how everything will look like. The best part is the fact that you can get inspiration from other brands. Just find the get inspired button and analyze multiple successful ads activated by brands across the globe. Find the ones that are in the same industry or have a similar target audience as you and prepare your ad copy following their examples. 2. Audience Insights  Facebook Audience Insights will help you get the most out of data available for your target audience. Many companies use this functionality to learn more about the online behavior of their target audience. In some cases, you can use the available data to complete your persona questionnaire and ultimately redefine your marketing strategy. Just by entering a few parameters, you will be able to see:

1. The age span
2. Relationship status
3. Interests
4. Liked fan pages

You can use this information to:

• Optimize A/B tests
• Improve your overall cost per click and performance of Facebook ads

3. Lookalike audiences  Lookalike audiences can be created from Custom Audiences with data from your existing Facebook Pixel, your mobile app data, or from your Facebook Page. You can also do this from existing customer lists. Doing this, allows you to expand on your best-performing audience groups on Facebook.  Along with the above, you can also choose the size of the Lookalike Audience that can be smaller (to match your source audience more closely) or larger audiences (to increase your reach). Facebook recommends audiences between 1,000 to 50,000 people and the quality of the source matters.  You can create a lookalike audience from your remarketing target audience or the traffic on your website. By doing so, your targeting will be on point and you will be able to reach a completely new set of people that have the same characteristics as your website visitors. Using Lookalike Audiences, you can broaden the reach of your existing customers through an iterative process. For example, for many of our E-Commerce clients, we are constantly uploading or updating these audiences with full customer lists or creating customer lists that are top converters to match the ideal customer we are targeting.  4. Carousel Ads  Video has become the best way to promote your business and the most widely used format in advertising as of late. People engage more with visual content and Facebook encourages the usage of video everywhere.  However, don’t forget about using Carousel Ads. This interactive ad format gives you the opportunity to promote ten pictures or videos next to each other and all at once. Why this format is so good? Carousel Ads are amazing because they give you the freedom to be creative and tell a story about your brand, product, or experience throughout the carousel and lets you express your brand’s voice. This format also looks great in the news feed and people automatically engage more. You can create a really engaging ad with Carousel Ads in a very creative way that will attract your customers attention and get noticed. Facebook is creating an all-inclusive hub for marketing people to better manage, create, store, share and analyze ads. Making yourself aware and becoming more familiar with everything available to you will give you the best opportunity to create  ads on Facebook that convert at a higher rate. Overall, it’s important to stay on top of everything available to you and the trends that are upcoming so you can continue to engage audiences and convert customers. Facebook is attempting to keep you within the platform and never have a need to leave, thus making you a much more organized and efficient marketing team. " ["post_title"]=> string(63) "The History and Power of Facebook Ads All Marketers Should Know" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(82) "Here are a few things we can all use to improve our marketing efforts on Facebook." ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(69) "tony-adam-history-and-power-of-facebook-ads-all-marketers-should-know" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-12-02 12:47:07" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-12-02 20:47:07" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=31789" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [15]=> object(WP_Post)#5113 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(26698) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "252" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-01-02 10:04:14" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-01-02 18:04:14" ["post_content"]=> string(6415) "

More than the technological leap required to achieve full integration in our day-to-day lives, the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have captured our imagination for the future.

We have discussed our excitement for greater efficiency, faster turnarounds, more detailed, data-driven strategies, and bolder consumer relations systems. But, we must remember the coin has two sides. We have also discussed our fears for debilitating job losses, unqualified talent pools, countless looming uncertainties, and the disappearance of industries on which workers, families, and local economies are reliant.

Nonetheless, individual decisions will not stop technological progress and exploitation of its potential. Executives across industries recognize the great potential of artificial intelligence and are drawing the framework for the inevitable automated system integration.

The history of automation is riddled with sweet victories and sour defeats. No doubt, Amazon’s fully artificially intelligent convenience store, Amazon Go, has taken a long stride forward for AI’s integration into the consumer ecosystem. Amazon’s efforts to streamline the consumer experience, resembling that of online shopping, are blurring the lines between brick-and-mortar shopping and the digital marketplace, marking the first established attempt at offline automation. Yet for every Amazon Go situation, there is a counter situation, which can stray from functional to greatly dysfunctional in less than 24 hours. The point? Despite our constant failure, we keep trying.

While Amazon’s automated Go store technology is nearing its public opening, we must wonder how rapidly we will see an automated transition. In which industries are the effects of automation most likely to be felt? And what will our world look like should an automated system become the norm for consumer interaction?

We live in a digitally determined ecosystem. Our data represents our routines, and artificial intelligence is an aid to those routines, not the interference of them.

REPLACEMENT OF ROUTINE ACTION

What did you do when you woke up this morning? Check your email, the news, or the weather? What about yesterday? Or the day before? In the face of adding variety as the spice of life, we are creatures of habit—comfortable with routine and inherently resistant to change. The human tendency for status quo is constantly being challenged by the ambition of innovators.

When technology challenges the status quo, the bold embrace it while the wary resist. In the history of automated operations, sweet victories are undertaken by bold early adopters who are both conscious of potential failure and hungry for breakthrough success. In a survey by The Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review, executives across industries revealed their stance on AI integration currently in place and for the future.

Executives looking to use AI to extend the length and breadth of their firm’s operations regard efficiency and returns as the biggest questions when deciding if it’s a prudent investment. If artificial intelligence is capable of reducing human error in routine operations and producing output at higher speeds, why would that opportunity not be utilized?

According to the survey, a significant portion of respondents identified artificial intelligence as a strategic opportunity. The report’s data reveals: “Most respondents believe that AI will benefit their organization, such as through new business or reduced costs; 84% believe Al will allow their organization to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage. Three in four managers think AI will allow them to move into new businesses.”

Unfortunately, the same potential for expansion and diversification of business operations that excites managers and executives is offset by uncertainty at the employee level.

We take for granted where we exist on the human timeline. Education has largely remained static, only using new technologies for learning classic concepts. In this environment, how do we, as a society, move forward? The adoption of automated systems has expanded the corporate understanding of consumer behavior and progressed the training of new hires. The potential for expansion and diversification is a representation of our world moving forward. Nevertheless, analysts do not anticipate artificial intelligence taking a firm grasp on the consumer ecosystem for some time.

AI's Depth and path of adoption

Scholarly work on organizational theory and practice widely shows that corporate culture comes from the top down. In the BCG/MITS survey, clear paths to AI integration require distinct business cases in need of automated solutions and leaders in support of integrating artificially intelligent initiatives.

Corporate cultures that prioritize growing the potential for new hires talented in data collection, dissection, and recommendation are most likely to adopt AI capabilities to their operations. In the future, as the next wave of technological capabilities emerges, it will be these early adopters that grab hold of the opportunity, thus creating our future sweet victories. The advantage? Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy. We have not yet explored its vast potential across industries. Industry leaders in data collection and automation are rolling out their first attempts at automated integration. The barriers to adopting automated systems are shorter than they may appear.

We live in a digitally determined ecosystem. Our data represents our routines, and artificial intelligence is an aid to those routines, not the interference of them. Time will tell how the automation revolution will take shape, but being part of that movement makes today’s industry leaders the next great shapers of our society. If the true sign of intelligence is imagination, surely our capacity to harness our own technological inventions to progress our lives and match our vision for the world can happen.

" ["post_title"]=> string(55) "The Humanity of an Artificially Intelligent Marketplace" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(165) "Michael Abraham talks using Amazon Go – the AI-driven convenience store of the future – as the barometer for AI’s role in the marketplace and our daily lives " ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(64) "michael-abraham-marketing-digital-agency-definity-ai-marketplace" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-22 16:53:34" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-22 23:53:34" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=26698" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [16]=> object(WP_Post)#5112 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(26705) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "253" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-01-03 12:50:21" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-01-03 20:50:21" ["post_content"]=> string(6411) "

More than the technological leap required to achieve full integration in our day-to-day lives, the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have captured our imagination for the future.

We have discussed our excitement for greater efficiency, faster turnarounds, more detailed, data-driven strategies, and bolder consumer relations systems. But, we must remember the coin has two sides. We have also discussed our fears for debilitating job losses, unqualified talent pools, countless looming uncertainties, and the disappearance of industries on which workers, families, and local economies are reliant.

Nonetheless, individual decisions will not stop technological progress and exploitation of its potential. Executives across industries recognize the great potential of artificial intelligence and are drawing the framework for the inevitable automated system integration.

The history of automation is riddled with sweet victories and sour defeats. No doubt, Amazon’s fully artificially intelligent convenience store, Amazon Go, has taken a long stride forward for AI’s integration into the consumer ecosystem. Amazon’s efforts to streamline the consumer experience, resembling that of online shopping, are blurring the lines between brick-and-mortar shopping and the digital marketplace, marking the first established attempt at offline automation. Yet for every Amazon Go situation, there is a counter situation, which can stray from functional to greatly dysfunctional in less than 24 hours. The point? Despite our constant failure, we keep trying.

While Amazon’s automated Go store technology is nearing its public opening, we must wonder how rapidly we will see an automated transition. In which industries are the effects of automation most likely to be felt? And what will our world look like should an automated system become the norm for consumer interaction?

We live in a digitally determined ecosystem. Our data represents our routines, and artificial intelligence is an aid to those routines, not the interference of them.

Replacement of Routine Action

What did you do when you woke up this morning? Check your email, the news, or the weather? What about yesterday? Or the day before? In the face of adding variety as the spice of life, we are creatures of habit—comfortable with routine and inherently resistant to change. The human tendency for status quo is constantly being challenged by the ambition of innovators.

When technology challenges the status quo, the bold embrace it while the wary resist. In the history of automated operations, sweet victories are undertaken by bold early adopters who are both conscious of potential failure and hungry for breakthrough success. In a survey by The Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review, executives across industries revealed their stance on AI integration currently in place and for the future.

Executives looking to use AI to extend the length and breadth of their firm’s operations regard efficiency and returns as the biggest questions when deciding if it’s a prudent investment. If artificial intelligence is capable of reducing human error in routine operations and producing output at higher speeds, why would that opportunity not be utilized?

According to the survey, a significant portion of respondents identified artificial intelligence as a strategic opportunity. The report’s data reveals: “Most respondents believe that AI will benefit their organization, such as through new business or reduced costs; 84% believe Al will allow their organization to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage. Three in four managers think AI will allow them to move into new businesses.”

Unfortunately, the same potential for expansion and diversification of business operations that excites managers and executives is offset by uncertainty at the employee level.

We take for granted where we exist on the human timeline. Education has largely remained static, only using new technologies for learning classic concepts. In this environment, how do we, as a society, move forward? The adoption of automated systems has expanded the corporate understanding of consumer behavior and progressed the training of new hires. The potential for expansion and diversification is a representation of our world moving forward. Nevertheless, analysts do not anticipate artificial intelligence taking a firm grasp on the consumer ecosystem for some time.

AI’s Depth and Path of Adoption

Scholarly work on organizational theory and practice widely shows that corporate culture comes from the top down. In the BCG/MITS survey, clear paths to AI integration require distinct business cases in need of automated solutions and leaders in support of integrating artificially intelligent initiatives.

Corporate cultures that prioritize growing the potential for new hires talented in data collection, dissection, and recommendation are most likely to adopt AI capabilities to their operations. In the future, as the next wave of technological capabilities emerges, it will be these early adopters that grab hold of the opportunity, thus creating our future sweet victories. The advantage? Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy. We have not yet explored its vast potential across industries. Industry leaders in data collection and automation are rolling out their first attempts at automated integration. The barriers to adopting automated systems are shorter than they may appear.

We live in a digitally determined ecosystem. Our data represents our routines, and artificial intelligence is an aid to those routines, not the interference of them. Time will tell how the automation revolution will take shape, but being part of that movement makes today’s industry leaders the next great shapers of our society. If the true sign of intelligence is imagination, surely our capacity to harness our own technological inventions to progress our lives and match our vision for the world can happen.

" ["post_title"]=> string(55) "The Humanity of an Artificially Intelligent Marketplace" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(169) "Jeffrey Stewart discusses using Amazon Go – the AI-driven convenience store of the future – as the barometer for AI’s role in the marketplace and our daily lives " ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(64) "jeffrey-stewart-marketing-digital-agency-definity-ai-marketplace" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-03 10:47:03" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-03 17:47:03" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(23) "http://csq.com/?p=26705" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [17]=> object(WP_Post)#5111 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(31423) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "343" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2019-10-23 16:57:08" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-10-23 23:57:08" ["post_content"]=> string(10040) "For the first time in Google history, Google announced a broad core algorithm update. They released the update at the beginning of June and concurrently, Google also released what they dubbed the diversity update. The diversity update was separate from the broad core algorithm update, which was designed to limit multiple results from the same domain unless it made the most sense for the query. Due to the update, sites across multiple niches noticed major dips in organic search visibility. If you’re relying on organic traffic to keep your business running, it’s important to take steps to future proof your SEO strategy to withstand changes to the algorithm, like the broad core algorithm update and others you might see in the future.

Google Has a Stronghold on Search

Not only does Google control the search marketshare, but, they are also using search results as final destinations for many users as well. As a user, you can now find local businesses in Local Pack results, find flight information in search results, get answers to many questions, and much more.  Along with that, Google is overriding meta data provided by websites because they feel they can provide the best titles and descriptions that match the user intent.  The Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are being changed constantly with the intent of keeping users on Google to answer all their lives burning questions, book travel, and find local businesses. This is very powerful. 

In order to really "Future Proof" your SEO, you have to think about it holistically, think about it as a long-term strategy, and continue to iterate on it all the time, so you’re not chasing algorithm updates regularly.

Obviously, this is all being done for user experience and allowing users to get to the things they need in the fastest, most reliable, and easiest way possible. As a user, I love finding all the information I mentioned above quickly and easily. It's massively helpful. But many publishers and websites are seeing the impact of this by the loss of traffic. Who is Next? Or, is the real question, how do take advance of these SEO algorithm updates? Or, how do marketers figure out ways to drive more awareness and visibility to their brand, from search...or even other channels.  But also, how do you make sure you're being a smart SEO by building it into your product and making sure algorithm updates don't strike fear in your heart, when they are announced.

Minimizing the Impact of Future Algorithm Updates

Google will never stop updating the algorithm and making changes in the name of improving the user experience. In fact, I'm all for that. The good news for you is that you can take steps to make your site more resistant to future updates and at the same time, less dependent on traffic that comes to you from Google. Long-Term Results Instead of Short-Term Wins First and foremost, do you have a real strategy for how to win at SEO? Instead of blaming Google or going on a tangent about algorithm updates by Google, maybe a better approach would be taking all that time to think about how your site wouldn't need to worry about this.  If you don't have too much content, it might be time to add more. If your crawling and indexing hasn't been well thought through and you have hundreds (or thousands...or even tens of thousands) of pages. There is a need to invest in this. How is internal linking done across the domain? Could you be writing more, or any, blog content on a regular basis that provides value to the people coming to your website? And, how are you thinking about all this, and other channels, more holistically so you are really delivering on creating a marketing strategy that stands on its own for the long haul? Answer the above questions right and I guarantee you will never be stressing about algorithm updates.  Quality Content Always Survives Remember how I mentioned content above, well, it's really important. And, it has been extremely important for as long as I can remember. "Content is King" has been a phrase around for a couple decades now online and will be around for the foreseeable future.  I've always said that it's important to create content people will find value in. And, if that value matches the intent of searches queries, then it's a win-win. The fluctuations and algorithm changes won't impact this too much. While you might see a dip here or there, it will be just that. And, if certain content loses its luster after a while, you should already be creating so much content, you won't be thinking about it.  Remember, focusing on the long-term is the name of the game.  If you’ve got a solid, long-term approach to organic search, aimed at creating value, that’s the only way you’ll benefit from any and all algorithm updates. SEO Does Not Sit on a Silo When I worked In-house, I never thought of SEO as its own department. It touches content, PR, product, and technology. The truth is, it doesn't work unless you think about it holistically and how to partner with those teams or tie it to those efforts.  Because it can touch so much, you can also make a bigger impact than when it's being worked on in a silo. When you think holistically and you think about the long-term strategy, you can ensure that content, user experience, and the technical details that all apply, are done with SEO in mind. And, they truly are a "future proofed" way of thinking about SEO.  Many times, people think about hacks, quick wins, or quick ways to generate traffic from SEO. While I have done that too, it’s always paid off much more when I have thought about SEO in a more holistic sense.  And, if it all plays nicely together and you've built a solid traffic mix, if SEO traffic is reduced by a small number, you will feel much less of an impact.  Doing this in a thoughtful and holistic way, you will build a stronger, healthier, foundation while reducing dependence on organic traffic. Build Relationships and Your Brand New traffic from organic search is always a great thing, and as someone who has done it for 15+ years, I will always believe in the power of SEO.  But, again, thinking about this more holistically, it’s important to nurture relationships with returning visitors, too. Having a thoughtful approach to engaging an audience via various channels can help drive more conversions and revenue.  Thinking about things from a reliance point-of-view, the more you engage your audience through multiple channels, the less reliant you are on one channel, when, and if, it does falter. This isn't exclusive to organic search and SEO too, think about all the publishers and sites that were crushed by Facebook's algorithm a few years back, the same applies here.  You are playing a losing battle if you think it's okay to not setup email marketing, re-engagement, a community or some form of engagement to nurture your audience and build a real brand.  Be Holistic, Think Long-Term. I've been a believer in thinking about SEO and Content holistically, but also in what your full marketing funnel and mix is. What is the customer journey with and without SEO, because that could be the deciding factor on how well your business really does from a growth perspective.  There are no shortcuts to building great business and the same applies to growing your traffic, your audience, your visibility and revenue. Any "hack" that you might find, might work for a temporary period, but you'll always be worried about Google's algorithm updates like the Broad Core update announced this year.  In order to really "Future Proof" your SEO, you have to think about it holistically, think about it as a long-term strategy, and continue to iterate on it all the time, so you’re not chasing algorithm updates regulary." ["post_title"]=> string(38) "Ways to Future Proof Your SEO Strategy" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(97) "The more holistic your SEO Strategy is, the less you will be chasing algorithm updates by Google." ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(48) "tony-adam-ways-to-future-proof-your-seo-strategy" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-10-23 17:11:54" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-10-24 00:11:54" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=31423" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [18]=> object(WP_Post)#5110 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(29948) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-12-09 12:57:48" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-12-09 20:57:48" ["post_content"]=> string(6946) "The journey of an entrepreneur is anything but a linear, upward trajectory. It’s a series of highs and lows, successes and setbacks, wins and losses. After more than four years of running my own business and helping others run theirs before that — trust me — I understand the frustration that comes from entrepreneurship. The most important lesson I’ve learned through my own experience is that it’s imperative, for both your sanity and your efficiency, to remember that you are not a victim.

[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

Things happen to everyone. You have a difficult client; your employee is constantly late to very important meetings; partners are constantly shoveling their responsibilities onto your plate; you got a parking ticket just two minutes after your meter expired. Out of all these external factors affecting you and your abilities to get work done, it’s important to understand which of the things you can change and which you can’t.

Don't be a martyr (but give yourself some space to feel)

Entrepreneurship isn’t martyrdom. Your industry was not crafted to best suit your abilities. It’s up to you to adapt to your industry and all its changes. At my company, I could complain about crazy clients or difficult employees or economic shifts, etc. But at the end of the day, that just causes stress and there's nothing to be done about it. Instead, I choose to focus on what I CAN control. I don't have to work with that client, I can let go of that employee, and, while I definitely can't control the economy, I could tighten up the ship a bit. I focus on my energy on the things I can handle within the constraints I have. However, I’m not a robot — and I’d bargain you aren’t either. We have a right to feel frustration, disappointment … even anger or sadness. Give yourself the space to feel those natural human emotions. Just don’t allow yourself to dwell in that space for too long.

Find What You Can Control

Okay. You’ve allowed yourself to let off some steam about an unpleasant situation. Now it’s time to get down to business. For example, say you have an employee who has just missed an important deadline and the client is pissed. The first step in handling this issue is to figure out what, within that situation, you can control. And remember, as a CEO, you have quite a bit of control. In my opinion, there are four options you have to deal with this issue:

1. Immediately fix the problem. (Fire that deadline-missing employee.)
2. Sit around and complain about the problem. (Bitch over beers to your business partner about the missed deadline.)
3. Help your employee succeed (Talk to your deadline-missing employee about their organization methods and suggest ways to prevent missing important dates.)
4. Do it yourself. (Handle any and all deadlines moving forward.)

While these options are obviously not created equal, they are all within your power to implement. What isn’t in your power is the actions of the employee, when the deadlines are, how the client is going to feel about the missed deadline, etc. I know it’s tempting to dwell on these things, but at the end of the day, it’s only going to drain you of your focus and patience. So hone in and find the things you can control.

Then Fix It

Things can and will go wrong, but if you remember you’re a manager, not a martyr — these issues will be a fertilizer, rather than an impediment, for growth.

Now that you’ve thought about the issue with a calm head, it’s time to go about fixing what is broken. Not all problems are going to have immediate solutions that bring about immediate results. But if you’re working in a positive manner toward a bigger goal, that’s a win in my book. Referring back to the scenario above, options 1 or 3 seem like the best way to go. You can obviously still go vent to your partner about the missed deadlines and other work frustrations, but just be sure you’re also doing something proactively to address the situation at hand. If this is the fourth or fifth time that employee has totally dropped the ball, then maybe option 1 is your best bet. But, more likely, this is the employee’s first offense. Let’s face it, sometimes these kinds of things happen. We’re all human; we’re all bound to make mistakes. What matters most is how you grow from them. Take this missed deadline as an opportunity to have a one-on-one meeting with that employee to figure out how you, as a CEO and leader, can help them be better at their job. Maybe there are some issues outside of work that are occupying the employee’s headspace, making them appear to a little spacey. Perhaps they could benefit from a day off or a long weekend. Maybe the employee just needs some tricks and tools to be better organized. Let them know what you do to stay on track and see if they’d be interested in attending a seminar on project management.

Be Proactive

Basically, as a leader, it is your responsibility to deal with the blows and blessings that come from running a business. It is your job to provide your employees the tools to succeed and your clients the results tey’re expecting. Things can and will go wrong, but if you remember you’re a manager, not a martyr — these issues will be a fertilizer, rather than an impediment, for growth.

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

" ["post_title"]=> string(61) "When You’re a CEO, You Don’t Have Time to Play the Victim" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(77) "Instead of dwelling on what’s out of your control, focus on what you can do" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(68) "erik-huberman-when-youre-a-ceo-you-dont-have-time-to-play-the-victim" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 15:05:48" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2019-05-01 22:05:48" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(24) "https://csq.com/?p=29948" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [19]=> object(WP_Post)#5109 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(29114) ["post_author"]=> string(3) "277" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2018-11-02 15:20:41" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2018-11-02 22:20:41" ["post_content"]=> string(7556) "There’s been a lot of focus and scrutiny on the unclear, murky nature of today’s media buying practices – and for good reason. The most recent independent study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) revealed some startling, non-disclosed agency practices. Allegedly, “various media companies offer rebates to media-buying firms in exchange for greater amount of ad dollars,” which could mean that “the potential allocation of billions of dollars in advertising may be influenced by a desire for a sort of kickback, rather than being done in the interests of big-spending clients,” as reported by Variety. What this means is clients are being either overcharged or underserved when it comes to media buying in order for the big agencies to make money off the top. As agencies are buying the advertising inventory, they are either marking up the prices or receiving either rebates from the media owners for spending a certain amount of money. This has to stop. As marketers, it is our responsibility to maintain transparency and honesty when it comes to our clients.

The Importance of Transparency

There are now blurred lines between agencies that are only making money from clients and those that get markups from group deals. If practicing media buying correctly, however, you should have no qualms with making sure transparency about your practices is woven directly into the fabric of your business. Especially with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in play, all aspects of media buying should be held up to this standard. With advertisers demanding better contracts with agencies, tightening up their programs, and establishing better relationships with ad tech vendors, transparency in marketing is no longer a question. It’s the norm. As media specialists, it’s our responsibility to place our clients in the best position to succeed and be flexible when our industry shifts. Clients have every right to know where exactly their money is going and it’s our duty to provide them with accurate predictions, information, and expectations.

[To read more of Erik Huberman's thought leadership click here]

Maintaining Transparency

Our media buying experts over at Hawke Media pride themselves on maintaining open and honest communication with clients. Their clients have full optics into everything they do, from weekly verbal and written reporting to total access to ad accounts, which clients can view down to the keyword, campaign, etc. level to see where their money is being spent. Here are some specific ways our media buyers maintain transparency with clients that you can immediately incorporate into your media buying practices:

1. Provide clients with a real-time reporting dashboard so clients have 24/7 optics to objectives and regularly share any additional data with clients.

Providing clients with a 24/7 dashboard that reports in real time is vital to maintaining consistent transparency through the entirety of the client-agency relationship. Having this dashboard allows clients to visualize how much is being spent, where it’s being spent, what’s performing, and where budget can be reallocated in order to achieve desired outcomes or get the most return on each dollar spent. Dashboards can be set up in such a way that reporting dynamically populates and updates from linked accounts. Clients can dive in as they please and see performance in real time. This ensures both client and agency are on the same page, with the same insight into budgets, metrics, performance, and results.

2. Give clients full account ownership.

Hawke never hides or keeps client ad accounts. Clients maintain ownership and have unrestricted access to accounts if they wish to personally view account performance, from an overview of campaigns down to the keyword level. If clients disengage with Hawke, they have full ownership of their accounts and don’t need to worry about not having full access to their campaigns, insights, and reports. These accounts are paid for by the client and part of their brand identity. The accounts are rightfully theirs. Giving clients full account ownership is a no-brainer and should be one of the first things done to demonstrate a marketer’s honesty and transparency.

3. Create a partnership.

When a client signs with us, their designated Hawke team communicates strategy, ad copy, audiences, and keywords with the client prior to launching and during the optimization phase. These talks are collaborative and client feedback is not only heard, but implemented. It’s a true partnership. This is done to ensure both the marketing team and the client are on the same page and that expectations are clear. It creates mutual trust and understanding to make sure that there aren’t too many revisions, making the process more efficient. There is a consistent dialogue around what is being executed and communicated to prospective customers.

4. Be an extension of your client.

In the most simple terms, be an extension of your client. Think how the client would think. Act how the client would act. Marketers need to act in their clients’ best interests and understand client objectives, brand, and business model. That way, both parties are all aligned on overall goals, what needs to be done and why, and how it should be executed.

A Marketer's Code

With so many huge advertising companies coming under increased scrutiny for their less-than-honest media-buying practices, it’s crucial that marketers maintain their morals. At this point, it is up to us as individuals and as agencies to ensure complete transparency when it comes to handling clients.

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

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[To read more of Erik Huberman’s thought leadership click here]

And yet, a lot of brands feel this self-inflicted pressure to bring their marketing in house - which often leads to companies having a rude awakening when it comes to the depth of knowledge one must have in order to market effectively. Especially for growth stage ecommerce companies, getting an outsourced CMO is the smarter business decision. Let the marketing experts focus on the marketing so that you and your team can focus on your product and all the intricacies that go into running a successful business.  

If It Ain't Broke

An odd trend exists. Companies see impressive results from their outsourced marketing agency and decide that the next logical step is to end their relationship with said agency and bring everything in-house. Let me tell you right now - this could be one of the most detrimental decisions a company could make. My company, Hawke Media, had a client that went this route. After seeing such a boom in business thanks to our marketing experts, the client decided they wanted to take their marketing in-house. What happened next? Did they continue to see their sales increase month-over-month? Did they continue to produce effective and efficient Facebook ads? Did they continue to expand their client base and increase the reach of their email newsletter? Nope. Instead, they were banned on Facebook just two weeks before one of the biggest days in ecommerce - Black Friday. It’s true, this company was unable to advertise on Facebook before Black Friday. Even more unfortunate for them was that, because they had an inexperienced marketing team, they lacked any connections at Facebook to help them fix it - something a marketing agency is definitely going to have. This client is not the only poor, unfortunate soul who went this route and suffered for it. We had one client who had been with Hawke Media for a year and half. During this time we took the company from a three million dollar value to a 60 million dollar value. When the company raised that round, they decided to try and take everything in-house. Fast forward three years and, in the time since then, the company has had to raise more money at the same valuation and even had to recently go through a complete internal restructuring. With an expert marketing agency, they were on a complete upward trajectory. On their own...not so much.

You Don't Have to Do it All Anymore

The idea that a company should bring all its processes in-house once they’ve reached a certain pinnacle of success is an archaic way of thinking. The scope and speed of today’s marketing makes outsourcing one of the smartest business decisions you can make. Companies shouldn’t feel obligated to take on all the responsibility of owning, operation, producing, marketing and selling a product. It’s just too much these days and there are experts just waiting to help ease the burden. The digital revolution changed the game and marketing initiatives now cover an incredibly wide breadth, requiring a wide variety of specialization in order to be successful. Because of the nature of today’s modern market, in order to stay competitive, you have to stay efficient. In order to stay efficient, you have to outsource.

[For more on Hawke Media’s approach to Digital Agency click here]

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