Digital advertising is the process of promoting content on the internet to reach consumers.  This includes all types of online ads, including Google, Facebook and Amazon, encompassing about 60% of all digital advertising spent on the internet. 

So, where do these advertisements show up?  Sponsored content appears on social media in the news feed because this is where the user spends most of their time.  On Google, ads appear in the Google search results and are the first websites displayed to the user, showing text or video ads.  Video platforms like YouTube often preview ads before playing video content.

These platforms and more are a very appealing way to reach a broad audience of potential customers.  By leveraging this relatively inexpensive advertising method, businesses can reach thousands of people with a very reasonable budget. In fact, digital advertising is 3-4 times cheaper than traditional advertising such as print, billboards or mailers.

Besides being more cost-efficient than other types of media, digital advertising is trackable and targeted.  Because of the wide range of data available on the internet, we are able to hone-in on demographics that represent age, gender, household income or geographic location.  No other medium streamlines your audience to this extent allowing you to get the most out of your budget. Other outlets like print or radio do not allow you to know exactly who saw your product.  Neither can you potentially go back and target these same people again.

Digital advertising is also measurable and scalable.  You can monitor and collect the number of clicks, impressions and exactly how much you spent. Traditional media leaves a lot of guesswork.  With digital, all metrics can be tracked in real-time.  If an ad isn’t performing, take it down and feed the remaining budget into an ad that is seeing better results. This method gives the user more control and allows them to test different campaigns to ensure they are getting the highest possible ROI. 

Ready to make this happen but need help getting started?  There are countless online resources where you can learn how to make effective digital advertising campaigns.  Many helpful blogs and videos feature tutorials on how to set up these ads and get started.  Additionally, if you’re ready to get started right away with the help of digital marketing experts, you could chat with other professionals or hire an agency like ours.  Either way, the future is bright for anyone who does digital advertising right.

Traditionally, sales and marketing have been treated as two separate disciplines, causing both to operate in their own separate silos. Today, however, we know these departments are extensions of each other, and these silos are causing brands to miss out on serious leads and opportunities.

Customers have dramatically shifted their expectations. They now expect personalized, connected and cohesive experiences, and insist that each channel in the customer journey bring them the same high-level experience.

So, what does this mean? It means that, in order to create these unique customer experiences, sales and marketing must work together. And they need the technology to do so.

A tried-and-true way to do this is to use an all-in-one software solution that can unify and foster collaboration between. the two functions, breaking down those silos so brands can deliver the experiences customers have come to expect.

And we have just the one in mind – Salesforce.

Here are a few reasons why we recommend Salesforce for fostering collaboration across Marketing and Sales:

1. When sales and marketing are connected on a single platform such as Salesforce, they provide access to a single view of the customer.

We emphasized how important it is for brands to deliver a cohesive, connected brand experience for customers. And if there’s one thing Salesforce does well, it’s put the customer at the center of everything, allowing your company to integrate data from anywhere, so you receive a complete  360 degree view of each and every customer.

2. Salesforce provides end-to-end analytics to measure campaign ROI and performance, supporting customer retention and finely honed marketing initiatives.

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “the numbers don’t lie.” This is why taking a data-driven approach to your sales and marketing efforts is critical to developing effective campaigns.

Whether it be a direct mail program, email campaign, webinar or other initiative, Salesforce allows you to measure individual campaign performance, track where leads are emanating and measure ROI so your marketing and sales teams can easily see what’s working and what needs to be refined.

3. That platform enables a collaboration layer, so teams across the business can share files and comments and engage more precisely on individual customers and prospects.

Think about your favorite band. One of the main reasons you like them is the way they use their instruments to create a unique, but interconnected sound, right? But imagine if the band all played in a different key. They wouldn’t sound harmonious, let alone get into a groove. The same holds true for sales and marketing teams that can’t efficiently communicate.

Salesforce has tools that allow teams such as Sales and Marketing to communicate harmoniously and share information. You can collaborate on sales opportunities and act on critical updates wherever you are to make the most of every moment.

4. Salesforce easily automates business processes. As soon as a function completes a task, a notification is automatically created for the next function to pick it up. And because they’re completed on the same platform, the next person has all historical data.

Automation tools are one of the tools that make it such a powerful platform. Other than the obvious reasons of saving time and increasing productivity, Salesforce automation tools allow the customer to see the same brand experience across all your teams.

Salesforce automation can automatically trigger relevant content and messaging at scale based on your central hub of customer data, allowing you to convert prospects into lifelong brand advocates.

We understand all this may sound a bit complicated, especially if you don’t have the resources or prior knowledge to put these software systems into place. But it doesn’t have to be, and that’s where we can help.

Next-Mark is now a Salesforce Certified Partner. So we’re fully equipped to audit all your current sales and marketing systems and put new systems into place so your marketing and sales departments can collaborate efficiently and easily.

That means no more silos and a better brand experience for the customer.

Visit Next-Mark.com/Salesforce-Partner to learn more.

New Services for New Challenges 
We want to share some exciting news: Next-Mark is now a Salesforce Certified Partner – now serving clients throughout the US and becoming the first Salesforce Partner based in Sarasota, Florida.

This connection, with the world’s No. 1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform, will enable us to not only help clients implement this powerful tool but to also use it to its full potential.

The current climate has forced businesses to rethink how they engage with their customers and reassess how they get work done – all at a distance. As a Salesforce Certified Partner, we can help clients close the gap, driving digital transformation while simplifying the process to promote success even in disruptive and highly competitive markets.

Our full range of Salesforce solutions includes:
·      Quick Start Implementations

·      Full Scale Marketing Cloud, Pardot, HealthCloud and SalesCloud Implementations

·      Existing Environment Audits

·      Salesforce Managed Services

·      Lead Generation Optimization

Significantly, this certification enables us to connect our core competency of content creation with robust digital strategy, enabling client marketing and sales departments to communicate effectively with customers, prospects and each other. This means that even in the most challenging times, organizations can enhance outreach and grow their businesses. Learn more here or give us a call to get started at 941.544.2765.

One day, long ago, I was raking leaves next to a busy road in Maine. Yes, there are such things. A car stopped, and the passenger asked me how to get to a certain park. I gave them such clear and concise directions that pride welled up in me as they disappeared down the road. Then it occurred to me that I had given them excellent directions, but to the wrong park. What’s worse, they would need to drive right past me again to get to the right park. So, as I figured how long it would take them to drive back to where I was, I stopped raking and hid inside the house.

In marketing, it’s rare to give your agency’s team members direction that is exactly opposite to what they need. But even the best marketing managers or directors find themselves giving direction that can almost do more harm than good. To help you help someone else (who definitely isn’t you) give better direction in creative projects, here are twelve quick steps.

1. Relax

Relax! Of course you don’t have time to relax when a big, threatening deadline is looking over your shoulder. But you also won’t have the time—or budget—for later corrections caused by giving vague or ambiguous direction right now.

2. Read

Take the time to review any materials being used as background or input for the new creative project. Missing key elements now will likely be harder to fix later on. Don’t just read the current version of the project; also read the overall project direction and guidelines occasionally to make sure you’re still on track.

3. Timing is Everything

If you’re responsible for setting delivery deadlines, be realistic. Whether your team is in-house or an outside agency, everyone is juggling multiple projects and deadlines already. So, setting an unrealistically short deadline is often counterproductive. When unnecessary time pressure takes over, that’s when mistakes get made.

4. Think CTA

Including an effective call to action (CTA) is just good marketing. Using the CTA as a focus will help you produce more effective direction, because it’s harder to stray from precision when you know exactly what you want your reader/viewer/prospect/customer to do next.

5. Get Your Specs On

Whether the end product is digital, video, print, radio, or whatever, it will need to follow all necessary specifications. Designers, for example, will need the exact dimensions of the image size and restrictions on file size. For copy, it’s normally word count. Every organization should have a brand guide that specifies proper usage of logos and colors in all applications, too.

6. Include Everything

They say editing is the hardest part of writing, but this step is actually about including all the elements required for the project. Little will frazzle a designer more, for instance, than adding an image or logo element they’ll need to include in the design after they’re already halfway finished. It’s similar for writing copy, too. In short, try to get everything to the project team at once, before they get started.

7. Copy That

Provide clean copy whenever possible. True, adding comments and marking up copy changes within a PDF can be expedient. And placing the comment exactly where the change needs to happen, that’s a good thing. But providing clean copy in a separate document is still the best way to make sure nothing gets lost in translation. After all, it’s very easy to miss or misunderstand copy changes when they’re embedded in comment blocks instead.

8. Mark it Up

I just gave some love to marking up PDFs for a reason. Whether you use Acrobat, Preview, or another tool to proof and indicate necessary changes—or use the “Track Changes” within Word—aim for clarity in your markups. Having marked-up versions along with clean-copy versions will make it much easier to backtrack at any point, if necessary.

9. Re-read

Sorry, just when you’d started forgiving me for asking you to read project materials more thoroughly, here I am asking you again. But investing a bit more of that time you don’t have will pay project dividends. Be empathetic and as much of a mind reader as possible: if there’s anything that might still be unclear when a project is approaching perfection, now’s the time to fix it.

10. Version Control

Software companies learned long ago that being very specific about versions—though painstaking—would help avoid confusion in the long run. For example, MacOS Catalina is actually Version 10.15.2 (19C57). Establish and stick to a straightforward system for tracking versions as changes are made. This holds true for copy and artwork.

11. Finally FINAL

As much as possible, avoid including the word “final” in the names of project files. This is extremely tempting, and much too common. By the way, capitalizing “FINAL” never prevents making changes later, either. It’s all about version control, so if you’re not using a meta-tag or filing system to identify status later on, at least use meaningful terms such as “print ready” or “with so-and-so’s markups” to distinguish among the many iterations you and your project team have created. As with version control, the goal is to avoid confusion for now and for later.

12. Distribute Wisely

Just as important as the specific direction is how it’s communicated to the project team. Take care to avoid ambiguity regarding who needs to do what. So, if you’re copying several people at once, parse the tasks and call out the team member responsible, in order to make it extra clear.

There are certainly worse habits to kick that giving less-than-perfect direction. But you (I mean your friend) will be pleasantly surprised by the improvements that can be made to creative marketing projects by following these steps.

As a marketer or business owner, you may want ways to utilize Instagram to help build brand awareness and even bring traffic to your website. Converting from a personal account to a business account on Instagram can give you more options to work with. Here are just a few:

1. Insights

Insights are analytics about your Instagram posts, including number of impressions, reach, and what actions followers took when they saw the post. By doing this, you can increase your awareness of how your followers engage with your posts. It will also show you what percentage of the accounts you reached weren’t already following you, along with some basic demographic info.

2. Boosting

Boosting on Instagram is a form of paid advertising, similar to Google Ads or Facebook Ads. When you create a new post, Instagram will prompt you with a “Promote” button. You can also go back to older posts and do the same thing. There are many options for targeting the audience you want to reach and setting daily and campaign budget limits. By the way, a Facebook account is needed to pay for Instagram boosting, as there’s not a place to pay for advertising on Instagram.

3. Ads

Beyond boosting posts, businesses can also advertise using a variety of ad formats, from photos to stories to videos and more. The place to start creating an ad is in Facebook’s Ads Manager. You have many options for having your ads run on Instagram, Facebook, and elsewhere. You can even pick and choose where you want the ads to appear within the various social platforms.

4. Stories

One of the most widely used features on Instagram is stories. They appear at the top of the follower’s Instagram feed, are limited to 15 seconds as videos, and disappear after 24 hours. A business account isn’t needed to utilize stories, but it is required to add the swipe up feature to the mix. Statistics show that about one third of viewed stories are posted by businesses. Stories can be very engaging and provide a quick way for followers and potential customers to learn more about your business.

5. Swipe Up

Instagram’s swipe up feature provides your followers with an easy way to get to your website via a link on your Instagram stories. Many businesses use this to link to a specific product page or promotion. This feature can be accessed on your business account by clicking the link icon. The catch is that you must have 10,000 followers to get this feature!

In order to gain access to these Instagram features, you will need to switch from a personal account to a business account. First, make sure you have a Facebook page set up for your business. Then, go to settings in the mobile Instagram app and go to Account. At the bottom of the screen, click on the link for “Switch to Professional Account,” then follow the process. There is no fee for a professional Instagram account.

By switching to a business account and using these features, you should be able to increase the number of people who follow you on Instagram and give them more ways to interact with your business.

At Next-Mark, we help clients develop powerful videos, taking them from concept to completion and beyond. If you’d like help creating videos that work effectively as strategic content, please give us a call at 941.544.2765 or email us to get in touch. For more information about all of our capabilities, view our Online LookBook.

Planning is critical in any business. In marketing, it’s also important to have the right tools in place to transform plans into a solid strategy with tactics that propel your business forward. So, as we look at trends driving marketing communications in 2019, keep your own toolbox in mind, tossing the now obsolete and adding new devices.

1. Refreshing Your Brand: Self-Evaluation

One of the key ways we serve our clients is by helping them to understand their brand – as it was, is and should be. While we’ve been doing this for years, experts report that this concept is taking a stronger hold recently, especially in the B2B realm. The process involves creating or re-evaluating the core brand promise and developing a messaging strategy that demonstrates what that company is today. It’s an inward look at what the rest of the world sees and, from our experience, it can be quite eye-opening.

2. Marketing in the Palm of Your Hand Social Media Still Reigns

Social networking apps have become one of marketing’s most powerful forms of outreach for both content and advertising. Offering a fast track to customer engagement and brand loyalty, apps like Instagram also promise an attractive ROI. Though a simple process, presence on these networks does require a high degree of creativity to draw attention, maintain contact and engage with followers. Strategic planning to grow a profile’s following is also a necessity. In 2019, we can expect to see newer apps like Vero burst onto the scene and potentially dethrone some of the powerhouse social media mediums that have dominated the market this year.

3. Embracing Influencer Marketing: Authenticity is a Priority

Social media is by far the most popular channel for Influencer Marketing, which entails building relationships with others who can connect you to your target market. An influencer is simply someone who has a large following on social media and other digital platforms, and can affect the purchasing decisions of their fans. Seen to be a perfect tool for today’s ad-weary consumers, Influencer Marketing can add authenticity to brand communications and strategy. We predict that companies in the New Year will focus less on simply the number of followers an influencer has, and more on whether the individual is a good fit for the brand and campaign. Veracity will always be valued be social media consumers.

4. Focusing on The Few: Account-Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing concentrates resources and effort on a limited set of carefully chosen target accounts, and has brought a personal touch to business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Based on the needs of each individual prospect or customer in that set, Account-Based Marketing drives customized campaigns designed to speak specifically to them. Admittedly, it’s harder than sending a blast email. However, reports show that nearly 85 percent of marketers measuring ROI say that Account-Based Marketing outperforms other marketing spends – and 50 percent say the difference is significant.

5. Seeing is Believing: Video Will Continue to Grow and Flourish

Video content, which currently makes up 75 percent of internet traffic, is expected to grow to a whopping 82 percent by 2021, according to Cisco’s annual Visual Network Index forecast. A powerful tool in story telling, motivating, entertaining and relationship building, video is poised to continue dominating digital marketing. Here, again and of course, creativity is essential, as the point isn’t just to sell but to create bonds that last.

What Else is on the Horizon? 

While we’ll stop here, there are few other things to put on your “watch” list as 2019 brings another year of business opportunity.

• Continue High-Quality Content: Having the information customers/prospects need builds trust and relationships.
• Know Your Audience(s): Despite the power of individual transmission outlets, you still have to deliver information the way they want to receive it.
• Think Strategically: You have the content and the means to convey it, but it will go nowhere without a strategy behind it.
• Make Contact: Technology and automation are wonderful things, but they can’t build relationships as strong as those forged with a personal touch.