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somedaylazysomeday · 8 months

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Experiment - Part Two

Tech x fem!reader

Tech decides to prove how simple female bodies can be.

Can be considered a second part to my one-shot 'Experiment', but can also be read as a stand-alone work.

Rating: Explicit. Minors DNI.

Word Count: 3,800

Warnings: Antagonism, ill-advised bets, assumptions about females, mentions of sexual behavior, sexual touching, fingering, unprotected piv sex, creampie

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It wasn’t rare, per se, that you and Tech found yourselves alone.

Your relationship could be contentious, but it wasn’t anything bad enough that you needed to keep a referee on hand. You found him slightly grating and he thought you were oblivious at times. You also vented some of that low-level irritation by sleeping together every so often, but you had never decided to be anything close to exclusive.

That being said, Clone Force 99 was busy enough that neither of you had much time for finding another partner. It had been a particularly bad dry spell for you. Which was why you were unashamedly eavesdropping on a few troopers behind you in a market on Savareen.

“Anyway, I told her I wanted to bring someone else with us and she freaked out,” one of the troopers was telling his friends. “She said I wasn’t even good enough to keep her happy, let alone two people at the same time. Can you believe that? Not my fault that making her come is harder than defusing a det on a countdown timer”

Thankfully, you were facing the other direction, because that made you grin broadly. From everything you had heard so far, the relayed statement from the trooper’s girlfriend had been harsh but true. The trooper was a remarkably selfish lover if his stories were to be believed. Personally, you thought the girlfriend had a point.

“Are you almost finished?” Tech asked. “We need to return to the ship.”

“Shhh!” you hissed. “I want to hear how this plays out.”

You couldn’t be sure whether the troopers had heard you or if they simply weren’t bold enough to tell their friend that his girlfriend was right. In any case, the only answer they offered was a simple, “That sucks, man.”

“Yeah,” the other agreed. “Females are a mystery.”

“We will miss our rendezvous,” Tech warned.

You huffed at him and went to pay for the basket of produce you were holding. After weeks of nothing but rations, the prospect of fresh fruit and vegetables was something you couldn’t turn down. Still, you were irritated at losing your stolen entertainment and you glared at Tech when he fell into step with you on your way back toward the Havoc Marauder.

“I don’t know why you were rushing me,” you said eventually. You were passing the last of the small town’s buildings and the forest grew thicker around you. “Hunter sent a comm that the window needed to be pushed back by an hour. They won’t be at the rendezvous for at least two hours and we’re not that far from the ship.”

“And I don’t know why you were so eager to continue listening to those regs.” Tech shook his head. “It was hardly an interesting story, especially given the trite and untrue assurances at the end. Females are hardly a mystery.”

Your jaw twitched. “And what exactly does that mean?”

“Females across most species barriers share several characteristics,” he spouted instantly. “The majority of them prefer to be listened to rather than have their problems solved, prize social bonds rather than holding leverage over others, and are often capable of more complex, circuitous thinking than most males.”

“They were talking about female bodies, Tech.”

Tech fell quiet at that. You gloated for a moment, happy to have silenced him for once, but it didn’t last. Apparently, he had needed a moment to consider that, but came back with a reply soon enough:

“There are too many species to narrow down what he was talking about. Different species have different physiology, and need different stimulation to achieve pleasure.” He adjusted his goggles, and you could see the brightness of his eyes behind them. “For instance, did you know that female Dianogas derive pleasure only from having the pressure in their eyeball increased by a factor of twenty percent?”

You nodded slowly. “Gross.”

Tech had been preening at his masterful display of knowledge, but his expression dropped into one of derision when you failed to be as impressed as he thought you should be. “It is far more complex a system than is possessed by most species. Humanoid species are all similar. And human females are the least complex of all.”

That sounded as if you were being challenged. With the frustration stemming from your recent dry spell and the general irritation of being around Tech when he was in one of his ‘I am the god of all knowledge’ moods, you accepted that challenge. “Go on.”

“Human females share close similarities to each other, likely stemming from a narrow evolutionary path. Even ignoring the genitals, human females have a set of several extragenital erogenous zones. They are, in descending order: breasts, lips, neck, ears, and buttocks(1).”

You rolled your eyes, readjusting where your bag sat on your shoulder. “That’s ridiculous. Not everyone likes having all of those places touched.”

“Not everyone, but a majority,” Tech expanded. “And the type of stimulation can vary between each place. For example, lips are best stimulated orally while breasts can be stimulated either orally or manually. That means manipulated by hand.”

You hissed at the condescending explanation, but he paid no attention to you. Tech could get this way when he was convinced that someone would benefit from his knowledge. “And that is not taking the actual genitals into account. The human clitoris has over ten thousand nerve fibers, some of which extend into the vaginal channel to form what is known as the g-spot.”

“I already knew all of this, Tech,” you bit out. Okay, maybe you hadn’t known the exact number of nerve fibers in the average clit, but you didn’t appreciate being lectured on your own body.

Tech turned to you, raising his eyebrows. “And yet you believed those troopers were correct when they said human females were a mystery. There is nothing mysterious about the body of the human female. If given the proper stimulation, most human females can reach orgasm in under three minutes.”

“That can’t possibly be true.”

“Are you doubting the research or my knowledge of it?”

“Are you admitting that you’ve done research into how quickly you can make someone come?” you countered.

“Of course.” Tech was, as ever, matter-of-fact. “And you personally have benefitted from my research. Yet you still doubt whether I’m correct.”

“I’ve been with some talented people,” you said, making sure to emphasize the plurality so he wouldn’t think you were solely talking about him, “but I’ve never come in less than three minutes. So, according to my personal experience, you’re wrong.”

“I am not wrong,” Tech disagreed, clearly appalled. “If you don’t believe me, that is your choice, but I am not incorrect.”

You didn’t answer him, relieved when you saw the Havoc Marauder just ahead. As you had expected, you had plenty of time before you needed to go meet the others, but that meant you could put away the provisions and get some time away from Tech until he started to annoy you less.

Unfortunately, he didn’t seem capable of letting your disagreement lie. He followed you as you went to the storage room where you kept the rations. “The research is simple and well-supported. Even if you ignore anecdotal evidence, there are clear trends that prove-”

“Tech, can we just let this go?” you asked, trying not to sound overly antagonistic. “We can just agree to have our different opinions.”

“It is not a matter of opinion,” he insisted. “There is a single answer, supported by science, research, and experimentation. I can prove it to you.”

That made you pause and turn to him. “What? What exactly do you mean by that?”

“Allow me to prove that I am correct,” Tech repeated.

That was not enough of an answer, so you watched him in silence. There was a strong chance that he meant to show you the papers and studies where he had gathered his information.

When you didn’t agree, Tech apparently decided to offer more of an explanation: “If you agree, I will use the knowledge I’ve gained to bring you to orgasm in under three minutes.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea-” you started.

“I understand it can be frightening to have one’s worldview challenged-”

“Yeah, I’m terrified of an orgasm.” The sarcasm was thick in your voice. “You know what? Fine. And when you’re wrong, you’ll have to admit that your research wasn’t as effective as first-hand experience.”

“I look forward to proving you wrong.” Tech took the bag from your shoulder, tucking it neatly inside of the (little-used) produce cabinet in the ration storage room. He latched the cabinet with sure motions, turning expectantly to you when he was finished.

“Bunks,” you suggested. He inclined his head in agreement and followed you to the small barracks aboard the ship.

You shoved aside your sheets and the discarded clothing that was still tangled in them. When you had woken up, it had seemed impossible that you would be bringing anyone back to your bunk, so you hadn’t bothered keeping anything neater than they needed to be. Tech was more than a little messy, himself, so you didn’t worry that he would look down on you for it.

“How do you want to do this?” you asked, hesitating before you climbed onto the mattress.

“I do not believe that you undressing should count toward my time,” he pointed out.

“Fair enough,” you agreed, stripping quickly. You had been dressed casually to visit the nearby market, so the process didn’t take long. When you were naked, you rested your hands on your hips and tilted your chin at Tech. “Next?”

Tech swallowed hard, like the sight of your bare body had made his mouth go dry. It was a heady feeling, and your confidence soared.

“Remember what I told you about extragenital erogenous zones?” Tech asked, switching into lecture mode.

“Yes,” you agreed, adding, “which is not an attractive term, so I don’t think you’re helping your own case, here.”

“The attractiveness of the term is not what matters.” Tech stepped closer, hand rising. “The important thing is how they impact you.”

You opened your mouth to loose a sarcastic comment, but stopped short at the feeling of Tech’s fingertips brushing lightly against your bottom lip.

It was… odd, having someone touch your mouth. But the warmth and familiar smell of Tech's skin kept you where you were. You would at least let him have his chance.

His hand went to your chest, fingers splaying to cup your breast. When you were nestled in his palm, he trailed his fingers together, letting your breast slip under his fingers until they met with a soft pinch on your nipple.

Tech's head tipped closer, letting him mouth at the line of your throat. Those lips traveled upward until he could scrape his teeth lightly over your earlobe. You fought a shiver.

And then you did anyway, shuddering against him when Tech reached to run his gently squeezing fingers across your ass.

“Breasts, lips, neck, ears, and buttocks,” he murmured. “Slightly out of order, but have I managed to convince you?”

“You've managed to waste thirty seconds of your time,” you replied, fighting to keep your voice almost steady. “Two and a half minutes to go and I'm not anywhere near an orgasm.”

“Patience.”

You frowned at the chastisement, but Tech paid no attention. He guided you down to lay on your bunk, feet on the edge of the mattress supporting your half-bent legs. It left your core exposed to the chill of the air on the ship, and you abruptly realized that those simple touches had left you wet. Not soaking, but well on your way there.

You watched between your own legs as Tech studied your core. He seemed to be plotting his methods. Before you could remind him again of the time requirement, he brushed gentle fingertips over your labia.

It felt more intense than you could believe. And when that delicate touch moved to caress your inner lips, you shifted your hips impatiently.

Tech's attention turned to your clit. His first brush over it was so light that you could hardly feel anything, but he soon grew bolder in his touches. He worked you faster and faster, pausing only to sink two fingers deep into your channel.

You arched against your bunk, a shocked and plaintive cry leaving you before you could even try to bite it back.

“Good,” Tech said softly. “I want to hear you. Let me hear that you like what I'm doing.”

You weren't entirely sure how you would have responded to that, because Tech crooked his fingers inside of you and started hunting. Deliberately, he mapped your channel until he zeroed in on a rough, spongy patch on the inside of your front wall.

A slight smile appeared on Tech's face. You had a moment to think about how handsome it made him before he stole your ability to see.

He bore down on your g-spot, putting pressure on it until you cried out again. If you had the ability to remember words, you would have told him that it was too much.

Tech hummed in understanding anyway and shifted his efforts. His thumb worked against your clit as his fingers started a circular sort of thrusting motion. Your g-spot was still getting more attention than it ever had, but it managed to be less direct - and with that, less intense.

Just when you started to wonder how close you were to three minutes having passed, Tech's mouth dropped to your hip. He applied lips and teeth to the sensitive crease where your hip met your thigh.

Your orgasm rose up and swallowed you whole, and you never had a chance to fight against it. One moment, you were treading water in the assault and the next, you were drowning in sensation.

Dimly, you became aware of the fact that your fingers hurt. With that realization, you came slowly back to your body, letting your stiffened fingers uncurl from where they had been fisted in the sheets. Your thighs unclenched, releasing Tech's hand from where it had been trapped between them.

His fingers were still working gently inside of you and you gathered your strength to push him away. “How… how long?”

“Two minutes and forty four seconds,” Tech informed you, sounding obnoxiously matter of fact about it. “It likely would have taken less time if I had not stopped to test my understanding of extragenital erogenous zones.”

You would be irritated, but the strength and suddenness of your orgasm had left you largely unable to do anything but stare up at the ceiling. The heaviness of your limbs felt strange without a full buildup of activity, and it almost seemed as if your body was in a state of shock at how quickly the pleasure had been pulled from you.

“Tech, can- can you-” you trailed off, reluctant to ask him for anything else. Eventually, you settled on, “Water?”

“Of course,” he agreed, instantly on his feet and rushing to get you a canteen.

When he handed you the water, you could watch Tech eyeing how long it took you to accept it, then to raise the canteen to your lips. Even so, he waited until you had finished drinking to ask, “Is something wrong?”

You lifted one shoulder. “I- no? I don’t think so. It was just weird to come that suddenly. It’s like my body is pissed that there isn’t more.”

“Do you want me to do it again?” Tech asked.

You searched for sarcasm or mocking in his tone, but there was only patient curiosity. “Can you.. kiss me?”

“Gladly.”

He pressed a kiss to your lips. Then another, kneeling on the bed to reach you more easily. Eventually, he was lying on the bed beside you, all so he could kiss you without putting either of you in an awkward position. One of his hands gently cradled your cheek while you pressed a palm to his chest so you could feel the steady thump of his heartbeat.

You continued far longer than you had expected, past the solace of a simple kiss and into the realm of need. You didn’t think it was entirely one-sided. Maybe the kiss had started for your benefit, but nothing said Tech couldn’t enjoy it, too.

And he did. You could tell by the way he squirmed closer, by the heat of him pressed against you, by the steady deepening of the kiss you shared.

“Is this helping?” he asked.

His eyes were bright with desire, a faint but undeniable rasp edging his voice. Maybe you should let him ask, to help assuage your pride. But you took pity on him instead. “Yes, but it might help more if you made me come again. Slower. The old-fashioned way.”

Tech started to ask what exactly ‘old-fashioned’ meant. You could hear the question rise behind his parted lips. And yet it faded away before it could be asked, answered by the way you gripped his length through the material covering his lower half.

His breath shuddered out and his hips twitched, but Tech still asked, “Are you certain-?”

“Yes, if you are.”

Tech’s response to that was to reach down and grasp the back of your leg, tugging your knee up and over his hip. You were both still cradled by your mattress, but he was perfectly between your thighs.

“You are stunning,” he told you.

“You’re still dressed,” you told him.

Tech paused, glancing down with a mixture of irritation and dread. “A problem I intend to fix momentarily.”

He pulled away from you, rolling to his feet with his hands already working at the fastenings of his body glove. He had stripped it off in moments and you couldn’t help but be impressed at the efficiency of his movements.

When he slipped back into your bunk, he was all tan skin and subtle musculature. Tech arranged you both the way you had been before the interruption and, without the body glove in the way, the head of him was notched at your entrance. You were noticeably wet from your earlier orgasm, and he started to slip into you simply due to the position and your proximity.

Tech’s voice was completely unsteady as he asked, “Precisely how slow do you want this to be?”

“More than three minutes.”

It may have been a dry witticism, but Tech accepted it like it was the most sincere request he had ever heard. And you couldn’t bring yourself to regret it, not when he pushed into you in a series of shallow thrusts.

When he had bottomed out inside of you, Tech reached to brush a bead of sweat from your temple. “Slow.”

“Slow,” you confirmed with a nod.

Tech began to move. He stayed deep inside of you for the most part, using tiny pulses to keep you building toward a reasonably paced orgasm. Occasionally, when he couldn’t help himself, he withdrew further and plunged back into you. Each of those thrusts pushed the breath from your lungs, shocking you no matter how often they happened.

It wasn’t the frenetic sprint toward pleasure that you had experienced before. Rather than having pleasure ripped mercilessly from your system, Tech’s efforts were coaxing it from you.

His pelvis rocked against yours, pushing and pulling incrementally inside of you. The bunching of his muscles against your body told you how much he was holding back even as the thick press of him stretched your channel. Compared to the jarring shock of your rushed orgasm, this pleasure felt utterly lazy and self-indulgent.

And you didn’t seem to be the only one who thought so.

When Tech wasn’t watching you intently, his eyes fell closed and his brow furrowed as if he needed to concentrate so he could process everything he was experiencing. After one particularly deep pulse, your body tightened. It wasn’t your second orgasm - not yet - but it was a warning that another one was coming.

Tech’s eyes flew open and he made a rough, helpless sound. Ridiculously, that was the thing that finally pushed you over the edge. The fact that you could pull such pleasure from him even without the extensive research he had done into erogenous zones - genital or otherwise - made you feel extraordinarily powerful. And, of course, it didn’t hurt that he was such a gorgeous man.

In any case, you gasped a warning a half-second before your body clamped down around his. Tech kept going, working you through it, and it only pushed you higher. The pleasure went from silver to a blazing white, blinding in its intensity and almost painful.

It was hard to come down when Tech’s rhythm was speeding up, but you could tell he was close by the wrinkle between his eyebrows. “Where-?”

“My implant is still good.”

Tech’s lips parted and his brows furrowed, but you couldn’t see any more of his face than that. By the time he started to spill inside of you, he had buried his face in your neck. His arms wrapped around you, squeezing hard enough that it took extra time for you to catch your breath.

When the desperate thrusts finally stopped, Tech fell utterly boneless against you. You sympathized as you slumped against the bed. You dozed lightly, rousing only when you felt him pressing his lips against your shoulder.

You chuckled lightly, glancing down just in time to catch his eyes flicking up toward you. “You okay?”

“Rather wonderful, actually,” he admitted, his lips still brushing your skin as he spoke. “And you?”

“Good,” you said, wincing slightly as he moved against your core. “I’ll be sore, I think.”

“I shouldn't be surprised.” Tech gingerly moved away from you, the stickiness of your activities trying to keep you together. “I'll see if we have any bacta.”

“Bacta can't do anything about soreness,” you reminded him. Of course, as the Bad Batch's makeshift medic, he was well aware of the limitations of bacta. “Save it for the next mission.”

Tech's head snapped toward you as your eyes widened. “The rendezvous!”

Weak-kneed and as bare as the day he was decanted, Tech sprinted for the front of the Havoc Marauder.

You braced against the shift of liftoff, then started gathering his clothing and a washcloth for him. Hunter would know what had happened, of course, but there was no need to be blatant.

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Author's Note -

I can't remember if this is a first for me, but it's definitely in character for me as a person: I referenced an actual paper posted in 2016 to get Tech's information about the extragenital erogenous zones. I'm posting the citation below in case anyone wants to read it! I thought it was very interesting, even if you just read the abstract.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to let me know what you thought!

Younis, Ihab, et al. "Female hot spots: extragenital erogenous zones." Human Andrology, vol. 6, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 20-26, www.ingentaconnect.com/content/wk/xha/2016/00000006/00000001/art00004.

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made-this-cause-why-not · 8 months

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I'm bored and I am not sure if anyone has done this yet but Gen V character and their majors if God U was a normal college (coming from a comms and english double major)

Starting off strong- Jordan would be Bio Chem. Jordan Li is a studious little nerd and I will not elaborate past that

Marie- Physical Therapy. Also- feel like I don't need to explain. Even in as a non supe she just loves helping people and would love being part of the process in healing others.

Emma- nursing. She is part of the 25 percent of nursing majors that are the sweetest people you will ever meet. She has a pink stanely, takes notes on her ipad and maintains a solid 3.5 even fs she is a big procrastinator. She is the kind of person where you don't have a pencil she will give you one of hers and let you keep it.

Andre- either finance or business. He only shows up to classes half the time and doesn't have a single class before 12pm. Manages to skate by through public quizlets, listening to audio versions of text books at 2 times speed, and going to office hours every week during the last month of the semester to make it seem like he is dedicated

Luke- psychology and comms double major. Originally he came in as only a comms major, and then his second semester he took a psych class and made that his minor, then the following semester he decided to just double major. For comms his focus is journalism. Maybe he there on scholarship- track and field perhaps. During the off season he gives university tours and is known through out campus and beloved by all. Most def apart of greek life on campus.

Cate- Marketing. I don't know how to explain it- it's a gut feeling. She is also a stanely girl.

Sam- business.

#gen v #jordan li #limoreau #marie moreau #cate dunlap #emma meyer #andre anderson #luke riordan #sam riordan

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jenomark · 3 years

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Okay it’s College Anon (good name? Mayhaps?) back. Honestly, I feel like a lot of these guys might do STEM or business, but take arsty minors or electives.

Mark I see as a music production major, definitely spends all his time in the audio suites, which is incidentally where he met Haechan, a journalism or comm major and student radio DJ, who replaced history major (but comm minor) Renjun, who quit the station after his true crime/supernatural podcast, à la Buzzfeed Unsolved, took off.

Jeno is a straight line, plays a lot of intramural sports, majors in PoliSci but doesn’t really like it, he just thought his parents would. CAN rap, CAN sing, only does it after a lot of cajoling and a few drinks. He’s roommates with Jaemin, the sunshine and bunnies film/photography major, whose parents are concerned, but he’s definitely going to get a good bid from a marketing firm looking to hire ad photographers soon.

Lol I agree, Chenle is definitely the case of someone who can and will goof around because he’ll come out on top no matter what, but I see him as a business major who also does student theatre or open mics on the side, anything to flex his angelic voice. Jisung is undeclared, but is actually great at performing, and when Chenle discovers this, he drags him out and forces him to audition, and now he’s the most sought-after male lead in the theatre department, all by accident. Currently thinking of declaring for theatre and performance, but shy about it.

Sorry this was so long, think I got a bit carried away aha but it’s 2 AM and I’m having thoughts teehee, excited to see if our minds are similarish. Also lowkey missing my college friends, though I’m seeing a bunch tomorrow :)

I LOVE THIS. This is so perfect. I can see all of this. I'm living for true crime Renjun and true crime Renjun only. 😍😍😍😍

I asked and you delivered, so thank you!!! Ahhh, little shy Jisung. I can see all of this so well. I am obsessed with this.

#asks #college anon #fave

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unpocowboys · 5 years

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Van der Linde Gang Modern!AU Headcanons for College Majors

While I'm still cranking out some long fics, I wanted to still contribute some short headcanons. Also feel free to suggest HC ideas through my ask box! It's very empty and it's lonely! Anyhow, the gang members' college majors (and some minors) should they have wanted to go to college:

Arthur: Would love to be in Agribusiness, so he pursues an Agricultural Sciences degree with a minor in nature studies. For electives, he takes a few still-life drawing classes.

Dutch: Public Relations with a minor in business.

Hosea: History major, 0 doubt, even as a young man.

John: The Racoon Arts Was never really the type for a four-year degree, so he went to trade school to get his HVAC certification as well as electrical work.

Javier: Music major with a concentration in performance arts. His main instrument is the guitar, but the best thing about being a music major is that you get to learn EVERYTHING.

Abigail: Was enrolled in an associate's degree program, but had to stop when she got pregnant with Jack. She went back to school later to get a degree in early childhood studies. She loves working with kids in the Headstart Program and schools in rougher neighborhoods.

Jack: English major with a minor in British studies (for his love of King Arthur and other stories)

Trelawney: Theater Arts and a minor in costume design.

Swanson: Goes to seminary, but after recovering from addiction, he pursues a counseling program specifically for recovery and rehabilitation.

Strauss: Accounting and Business double major

Mary-Beth: English with a minor in creative writing. She definitely has thought about pursuing a Master's in teaching or even counseling.

Grimshaw: Double majored in Criminal Justice and Gender and Women's Studies.

Tilly: Social Work with minors in African-American and gender and women's studies.

Karen: Human Resources and a minor in marketing. She is really, REALLY tempted to take the two-week intensive beer-making course.

Sean: Can't decide between advertising, marketing, or mass comm, so just goes to all kinds of classes he thinks sounds cool and hopes that it adds up to a major at some point.

Molly: Enrolls in a private nursing program, completely paid for by her family. She's honestly just in it for the money and steady job security.

Kieran: Started off at community college while he decided what he could do that involved taking care of horses without pursuing a veternary science degree. He discovers Agricultural Sciences is a thing and jumps at the opportunity. Also adds on an equine studies minor later on.

Pearson: Culinary Arts trade program and then a more advanced progran down the road to continue his education. Just let the sweet man cook forever.

Uncle: Undeclared for 7 years and his student loans are listed underneath various aliases.

Micah: Enrolls in college for a week before deciding the professors are stupid and leaves.

Lenny: Political Science with a minor in African-American studies. He would like to be a lawyer for the Innocence Project as well as helping those in low-income housing who are unfairly evicted or experience discrimination.

Sadie: Criminal Justice and Forensic Science no doubt at ALL.

Charles: Environmental Sciences, top in his class, gets a grant to study wildlife in Indigenous communities.

Bill: Trade school, but also enrolls in a beer-making program.

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suchalilyofthevalley · 4 years

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Hi do you have any advice for someone who would like to do PR in the future? And is it compulsory to do a certain degree before we can take up PR as a career?

My undergrad wasn’t in PR - it was Sport & Entertainment Management which came with an automatic Business Management dual major. My concentration for those was marketing communications and I snagged a minor in communications/journalism along the way as well. #overacheiver

I knew though that PR and Marketing were going to be what I wanted to do after college, however, I wanted to have a better understanding of the business aspect of the industry and a more well-rounded approach to my degree.

I do recommend if you’re thinking about PR and you’re not going to do a Marketing or Mass Comm/PR major to do something where you can stock up on taking classes relevant to that. I would definitely recommend taking some mass comm and PR classes so you know/have an understanding of what the principals of PR are and the basics.

I’ve had friends though who’ve had all sorts of degrees fall into PR but they started out as more traditional assistants and kind of fell into learning on the fly about the industry and work their way up while others jumped in feet first. It depends on if it’s agency or in-house, the size, the industry you’re going into with PR.

My POV: if PR (or marketing) is what you want to do, start with getting the baseline education on it in college/university.

Internships are also SO CLUTCH! I had to complete two in my undergrad program to graduate. One during my junior year that was part-time while doing course work for 3 credits and then another during my senior year that was an entire semester’s worth of credits (which for me at the time that worked out to be 18) which was a full-time, full-semester immersive experience. Any time you can volunteer, intern, ask someone for an informational interview/chat over coffee or a drink or skype/zoom or what have you - it’s going to give you perspective and a step up for sure. I walked onto campus as a freshman with a part-time (more like full-ish time when it all shook down) writing job for a magazine and website to help bolster my portfolio and to also show me what it was like on the other side of the coin as media so I knew what I would need to do to be a better PR pro.

I was lucky, my background helped me start off as a Comms associate so as much as I still had to do some admin work, I was hands-on knee-deep right away in Comms work as well.

I talk a little bit more in-depth on this here in a previous post too!

Hope this helps. Always happy to talk more offline/PM if that’s going to be better as well!

#getting on my PR soapbox #cause publicists don't stop working #anon #Anonymous

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wosobsessed159 · 4 years

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I’ve been involved with pretty much every woso fan community online (I just joined reddit the other day) and it’s fascinating to see how the dynamics of the same fandom are completely different depending on the social media platform. I was a communications major in college so maybe it’s just me being a comm nerd. But also as someone with a business and marketing mind (I minored one business too), I’m trying to take in as much as I can because my dream is to work in women’s soccer on the business side. So my four years and counting of “marketing research” as a fan has been fun.

But I also have a passion for media. So I have a Twitter account strictly for following sports media professionals. It’s been very interesting because it’s full of women’s soccer/sports journalists and other personalities, which differs a lot from my other accounts where I just follow fans. I love it because I love seeing what journalists have to say. I made this Twitter account for the intention of it being my “professional account to talk about sports” and after three years, it’s finally starting to pay off. Just this summer I’ve added some new contacts into my network and gotten new opportunities, all because of this account.

Anyways, if I ever do become a marketing executive for a professional women’s soccer team or another sports organization, I’ll probably just lay low and silently watch from these fan accounts. I’ve always loved observing and listening to others so I can help make improvements. Part of good business is knowing who your customers are, and having these accounts will help me a lot to understand what the fans want to see. Women’s sports marketing is starting to get better, but there’s still a LOT more to be done. I’m really excited to see my generation get more and more into women’s sports marketing.

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redarro · 6 years

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tagged by @wlwbatgirl tyty!!

Nickname: fun fact Laney is my nickname but I go by it so idk if it qualifies?? I’ve never really had a solid nickname besides that lmao

Zodiac: Libra Sun, Aquarius Moon, and Aquarius Rising

Height: 5′11 (okay I’m 5′10 and 3/4 but I say 5′11 so I feel Tall) (I also wear heels and platforms so I can be a Tall Woman)

Last movie I saw: I said it on the other one I posted tonight lmao bUT Reign of Superman:)

Last thing I googled: Reign of Superman online movie full djfkahajk

Fave musicians: hhhh I am so indecisive but I love Hozier, Gorillaz, Janelle Monae, Two Door Cinema Club, The Wombats, Radical Face, Frank Ocean, Bastille, Fleetwood Mac, and Carly Rae Jepson (I just chose some of my most recent songs shfaksd)(also Niki ur music taste...that shit is breathtaking bro)

Song stuck in my head: What’s Up Danger (with Black Caviar) by Blackway

Other blog(s): My main is @societaluproar but we don’t know her we don’t go there as much anymore and then I have a ton of saved urls, and then some old aesthetic accounts I forgot the passwords and urls

Do I get asks: recently I have gotten more asks but still it’s scarce

How did I choose my blog url: It’s simple. Red Arrow, but no w.

Following: 740 but I really gotta clean that up

Amount of sleep: Anywhere from 5 to 13 hours, depends on the night. But I am on team nap

Lucky number(s): 8

What I’m wearing: sweats and a flash tee shirt, also sporting a face mask bc it’s self care time

Dream job: oof my Official Dream Job would be to get paid to sit in the writing room of any and all superhero shows/films and be a consultant on character development (or in the casting room, I’m not picky), but on a more realistic thought I am going to school rn to work in social media marketing for international companies or non-profits. Maybe peace corps. I’m a mess. Who knows. I’m a comm major with a dual minor in Chinese and business. Who fuckin knows. Anyway.

Dream trip: ooh I really want to go to Santorini and I want to travel and spend some time in the natural areas of the region, learn to cook, go on a photography trip, etc.

Hair color: like auburn? I’m going to dye it red soon so we will see when this changes lmao

Any instruments: okay so I played flute in middle school but I was ass and then I tried ukulele bc I listened to Twenty One Pilots in 2014 but I was ass at that too so long story short I love music but I am bad at it!

Languages: I speak English and Mandarin and I can read some French but my speaking is awful sajkghds

Random fact: I drive a Voltswagon bug!! It’s silver!!

Describe your as aesthetic things: bandanas, big laughs, small houseplants, smudged glasses. raspberries, loud headphones, zodiac signs, lilac sunsets, finding big foot, flannel, lavender scent (disclaimer none of this matches but whatever)

Most iconic song: My all time favorite song is Lovely Day by Bill Withers

Tagging: @genomorphs @arkhamkjay @katistry @bidinahlaurellance @cassisandsmark @ittybittytatertot && anyone else who wants to do it!!

#oof this was long but hey overshare baby #that job section was yeah #laney.txt #about me #not comics

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sad-ch1ld · 6 years

Link

via RSI Comm-Link

Letter from the Chairman

Hello everyone,

2018 brought some pretty big things in the universe of Star Citizen; our first planet, Hurston, our first major landing zone, Lorville, four new moons, 32 new flyable ships, Face Over IP, much improved performance thanks to Object Container Streaming, Network Bind Culling and a complete overhaul of the game code to run on multiple CPU cores simultaneously. We had our largest CitizenCon to date in Austin, Texas and just recently wrapped up a really fun Anniversary Event. How cool was it to make the journey to Lorville, visit the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo West and get an up close and personal sneak preview of some ships that are coming to the ‘verse, or fly dozens of already flyable ships? It has been exciting reading the posts from people discovering the project for the first time and seeing so many people having a blast playing Star Citizen.

As we look forward to the holidays, I wanted to give you all a couple of updates. The first item of news is the Squadron 42 public roadmap is going live today. As with our Persistent Universe roadmap, this is linked to our company’s internal JIRA tracking system, so you can see at a glance the work remaining to complete the game. It was a lot of work to make sure every remaining task was broken down in detail and estimated to the best of our ability, and the same caveats will apply to the Squadron 42 roadmap as they do to the PU one, but our plan is to be feature and content complete by the end of 2019, with the first 6 months of 2020 for Alpha (balance, optimization and polish) and then Beta.

When we started the campaign for Star Citizen and Squadron 42, I said that the crowdfunding would go towards development of the game, and that the amount would define the scope and ambition of what we were working on. That is a commitment I am proud to say we have been upholding; its why we have over 500 staff around the world working on the games and have spent very little on marketing.

You can see this investment into development in the UK financials that we publish every year on Companies House. In a further effort at transparency we have decided to publish our historical financials from 2012 through 2017 on our new corporate website to allow all of you to see not just how much money we raise via the public counter, but also how the money has been spent globally.

All of our marketing is community focused and viral; events we host for all of you, in-fiction lore, commercials that help flesh out the world, and PR outreach. The fact that we have raised over $211M via word of mouth and viral marketing is staggering and a testament to how amazing a community all of you are. Everyone at Cloud Imperium is humbled to have your trust and support on this journey together.

As a result, we are building two of the most ambitious games ever embarked on in gaming, with budgets that are unmatched by all but the very biggest projects.

Having a great game is only half the battle. As we look towards the release of Squadron 42, we have been acutely aware that having a AAA game that matches the biggest single player games out there only goes so far if no one knows about it. The games we will be competing with for attention have tens and, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising behind them.

Other companies in a similar situation have normally tackled this problem by partnering with a Publisher for the marketing and sales of their game. As you all know I am not in favor of putting my destiny in the hands of a third party. On the other hand, I don’t feel it would be right to go back to all of you to raise funds to market the game to other people; most of you already have a copy earmarked for you and I still strongly feel that the money brought in from our crowdfunding should continue to go to the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

Because of this, we started to investigate ways to raise money to fund the upcoming marketing and release needs of Squadron 42. We turned away some approaches from Private Equity and Venture Capital because we were concerned about them fully understanding what makes our company tick and pushing us towards short term decisions.

During this process we were introduced to Clive Calder and his son Keith, who have both been interested in the confluence of entertainment with the ability to directly connect with an audience online. Clive founded the most successful independent music company, Zomba, which was home to some of the biggest music acts in the world. Keith is an independent film producer whose company Snoot Entertainment’s most recent films are the critically acclaimed Blindspotting and the Academy Award-nominated Anomalisa. During our first meeting, we got on like a house on fire, with Clive telling me about how he wished that when he built Zomba you could have connected to the fans of an artist bypassing the myriad of media gatekeepers in the way Star Citizen does, and which wasn’t possible 15 years ago. Keith and I swapped war stories about the film industry and talked about how refreshing it is to be able to utilize crowdfunding to create a project that normally would fly against what is currently considered mainstream.

During the course of these discussions it became clear to me that if Clive and Keith joined us as investors in our company, we’d have true partners that respected what we had built, but also fully understood the ins and outs and the patience required with a business based on creating entertainment. Taking in like-minded partners helps us solve the need of funding the marketing and release of Squadron 42, but also stay attuned to what makes us special.

So, it’s with this that I would like to announce that we have closed a minority investment into Cloud Imperium US & UK, from Clive’s family office and Keith’s Snoot Entertainment for $46M for approximately 10% of the shares in the Cloud Imperium US and UK companies, which is a testament to the value, future potential and longevity of the company.

As part of this process we’ve taken on two outside board members. The first is Dan Offner, an experienced lawyer and entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience in Interactive Entertainment, who is Clive and Keith’s board nominee and second is Eli Klein, a long term friend who has been acting as an advisor to the company over the past couple of years.

The control of the company and the board still firmly stays with myself as Chairman, CEO and majority shareholder.

We wouldn’t have taken anyone on board if we didn’t feel that they were fully aligned with our vision, philosophy and could add valuable insight in navigating the business challenges ahead.

This investment helps secure our independence. We may not have the resources that an Activision or EA have to launch one of their tentpole games, but we now control our own destiny in marketing Squadron 42, especially as we have a secret weapon: all of you! Between the power of the best community in gaming to help get the message out and these additional funds we will be well positioned to enable Squadron 42 to enjoy the success that it deserves.

Beyond this, this investment gives Cloud Imperium the ability to take the long view when needed and allows us to grow as a company. I couldn’t be happier.

So I would like to welcome Clive, Keith, Dan and Eli to the Cloud Imperium family, and I look forward to great success with them and all of you.

See you in the ‘Verse!

-Chris Roberts

#RSI Comm-Link #star citizen #roberts space industries

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jilliannnr07 · 2 years

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End of the semester

Well the spring semester has come to an end and let me tell you, I am so glad. This semester has been the toughest/longest semester’s I have taken at the University of Houston. This spring semester has been my first time having in person classes. Because I transferred to UH the year COVID-19 started. So finally I was excited to take in person classes for my major at Jack J Valenti School of Communications, since this semester was my first time seeing the communications building.

So, I was super excited about this semester but turns out to be the worse semester of college. I was not expecting that at all. I am so glad that this semester has come to an end. I have had some much work in all of my classes this spring semester and felt like I never got a break. I took four classes this semester. They are all for my major. I took Comm 3377, Comm 3369, Comm 3368, and Spanish 2311. But I had some great experiences with colleagues and have learned a lot from my professors.

I am a strategic communications major and a concentration in integrated communications. My minor is marketing. I am a senior and hope to graduate spring of 2023. I have really enjoyed all the classes I have taken so far at Jack J. Valenti School of Communications. All my professors have been great and I did not have a problem with any of them. They all know what they are really talking about. I also just liked the environment I have been in at Jack J. Valenti school. And even though it has been a rough semester, I cannot wait for fall semester. I’ll be taking my final two classes for my strategic communications major and the rest of my classes will be for my minor.

This spring semester has taught me a lot about myself. I have had super busy days and long sleepless nights, mental break downs and just some times felt liking giving up. But I got through it this semester and pushed through. I learned that not everything is going to be easy but just push through and do the best you can and everything will be okay and fall into place. So, I am grateful for this tough semester. It made me mentally stronger. I am almost done just a few more classes to take then I am graduating so I am going to push through, all the way to the finish line. It will be worth it at the end.

#UH #communication #JJVSOC #semester

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indstatescob · 4 years

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Beau Harpenau, is a senior majoring in Marketing with a minor in Entrepreneurship. He is also running his own videography business.

He recently represented Lockheed Martin Aeronautics at the 15th Annual IMPACT Awards Ceremony held by Indiana INTERNnet through the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

He was nominated for the Intern of the Year category for his work last summer as a Marketing Communications Intern. Beau says, “I am truly honored and blessed to have represented this team and the Aero Comms organization!”

#PerformWithExcellence #INIMPACT21

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swettmarden-blog · 7 years

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What Do I Do?

Right now, I should be studying for a Macroeconomics exam. I took Micro and enjoyed it, but it’s a whole different ballgame when your teacher, like, really sucks at explaining basic concepts. I swear...he takes the simplest concept, warps it, twists it, and over explains it until you’re left sitting there thinking, “I am an idiot and I will never succeed at anything.”

I don’t know why, but everyday I question if I’m in the right place. I’m stuck between majoring in Business with a concentration in Marketing, or majoring in Comm/Journalism with a sequence in PR and Advertising. I like writing and it’s something that I’m good at. I love being creative. However, I don’t want to miss out on learning those fundamental business concepts that, I feel, are useful to have and understand in the real world. So, what do I do here? There is no program at my school that combines both business and writing and creativity. I suppose I could minor in something, but that still leaves me with WHAT IS MY MAIN MAJOR?

It sucks because I look at this, and I know it’s ridiculous how much I’m letting it rule my life. I know that it’s not actually that big of deal. So why am I so hung up on it? I just need to pick something and stick with it.

So, why is that so hard?

#infj #marketing #college #help #please #advice #journalism #creative #advertising #Please help me I really need some advice like seriously

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williambronchick-blog · 7 years

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The Risks of Flipping Properties

William Bronchick: The first thing that should be noted is that flipping houses is a great way to bring home a rather large profit in a relatively short amount of time when doing so in a seller’s market so to speak. The problem is that we currently seem to be experiencing what is known as a buyer’s market from one end of the United States to another. Foreclosures are at an all time high, which means that the market has suddenly been saturated with properties for sale.

While this is excellent news (believe it or not) when it comes to getting your hands on a property at a lower price, it also makes a difficult time of convincing buyers to pay top dollar when there are better bargains down the road. This of course is one of the primary risks involved in the real estate investment venture that is known as flipping properties. The massive profits that most investors seek cannot be accomplished if the property cannot be purchased, rehabbed, and sold quickly.

Unfortunately, at the moment, very few properties in any city are selling too terribly quickly. The worst case scenario in a situation like this is that you are forced to either absorb the loss (which can in extreme cases result in serious financial hardship or bankruptcy) or rent the property out (which will in most cases negate all the efforts that were made to rehab the property. An inability to sell the property that is being flipped is probably the worst fear of every property investor who engages in this sort of investment. In these cases it is often better to drop the price and take a loss than hold out for a better price risking further losses in the future.

These are not the only risks associated with flipping properties unfortunately. Another risk would be the risk of seriously underestimating the amount of money that will be required in order to do the necessary work. This is something that many first time investors find is a fairly common occurrence. Most people have unrealistic expectations of exactly how far their dollars will go when it comes to investing in the materials and labor needed to properly rehab a property. Even minor cosmetic repairs throughout a house can easily run into several thousands of dollars in order to repair. The flip side is that once these repairs are made the potential profits run into several tens of thousands of dollars.

Another risk that isn’t often considered is the risk of overestimating abilities. This is one risk that costs not only precious time but valuable money as well. Not only is material wasted in the process of discovering you aren’t exactly skilled in any particular tasks but also there are further expenses (often unplanned) involved in hiring the professional to repair the damage and replace the material that was wasted. When in doubt, it is almost always best to hire a professional if at all possible. This also leads to missing deadlines, going seriously off schedule, and adding yet another mortgage payment (if not more than one) to the overall price of the project.

The final risk is often something that simply cannot be seen or anticipated. This was experienced in the days immediately following 9-11 and should not be forgotten. The unforeseen happens every day. Markets crash; local economies can be devastated by the announcement of a major employer that it is going out of business (thinks of the collapse of companies such as Enron and World Comm and what they did to local economies). In these instances, the market will take quite a while to recover from the shock to its system and ‘flippers’ among other investors are often left feeling just as lost and devastated as those that were victimized by these companies—both through no fault of their own.

Stuff happens and those things that we have absolutely no control over are almost always the things that affect us most profoundly. The same holds true when it comes to property investment. The state of the economy, the housing market in an area, and sudden announcements that affect either can often have the most profound impact on those who are investing in property in those areas whether for better or for worse. The trick is in deciding which risks are acceptable.

Read more:https://www.legalwiz.com/the-risks-of-flipping-properties/

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josephkchoi · 4 years

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Marketers and Landing Pages: Behind the Scenes for 2020

As part of our new Conversion Benchmark Report, Unbounce ran a survey of marketers, working in dozens of industries, in early 2020.

We wanted to know about your plans when it comes to running a high-converting campaign—as well as the role played by landing pages in supporting your post-click strategy. How do our expectations line up with the insights revealed by a machine learning analysis of 19 million conversions? How firm is the average marketer’s grasp on industry conversion rates? And how satisfied are they with their current performance?

Of course, 2020 didn’t exactly turn out how anybody expected. (Boy, that’s an understatement.) But your answers provide a unique window into the “best-laid plans” of marketers and underline how—midway through a beastly year—some things may have changed in dramatic ways, while others remain tried and true.

Together with the findings from the report itself, these numbers provide a behind-the-scenes view of what other marketers think when it comes to their landing pages. I thought I’d share some of the results with you today.

Takeaway #1: The most popular digital marketing strategy is a diverse one.

When asked about budgets, the 400 people we surveyed were evenly split in how much they plan to spend on marketing activities in 2020. Answers ranged from less than $5,000 to more than $500,000, and this didn’t always depend on the size of the business.

No matter the heft of their wallets, though, marketers also told us they planned to fire on all cylinders by taking on a wide variety of marketing activities. Here are the most popular types of campaigns you told us you’re running this year:

The “Other” category also yields some varied answers, from paper mailers to podcasts to push notifications.

In some cases, we expect this mix of activities has changed to match the new normal. A business-as-usual approach to event marketing hasn’t been possible, for instance, and the landscape for PPC and social is different than it was six months ago. (Though PPC experts are nothing if not adaptable.)

These challenging times don’t mean these activities have been completely abandoned, however. While in-person networking is harder, many companies have found ways to achieve similar goals online by running webinars or digital conferences. (Many say this shift to virtual gatherings will have a lasting impact on how they do event marketing.)

Which brings us to another question…

How often are marketers including landing pages as part of their campaigns in 2020?

Very often, it turns out.

36.2% of respondents told us they use them all of the time, and 41.8% said most of the time—that’s a whopping 77% who see landing pages as an essential part of their post-click strategy.

We surveyed marketers outside our networks, but likely attracted some fans of landing pages (and Unbounce) who may have skewed the results. Still, these responses are an indicator that if you’re not using landing pages to support your campaigns, you’re in the minority.

New to landing pages? One reason they appeal to so many marketers is that they help you squeeze more conversions out of your existing ad budget. If we’ve piqued your interest, take a look at our guide to creating your first Unbounce landing page to learn more about how you can get started.

Takeaway #2: Marketers are doing a whole lot with their landing pages.

So, yes, marketers are using landing pages quite often.

When it comes to how they’re using them, we naturally expected lead-gen activities to top the charts. That’s still true, but it was also surprising how many respondents said they also use landing pages to connect more directly with prospects by scheduling appointments (42%) and phone calls (37.2%). Here’s how it breaks down:

Four years ago, when we were working on the first version of the Conversion Benchmark Report, we focused our analysis entirely on lead gen because the overwhelming majority of landing pages on our platform served that purpose. That’s no longer the case.

This year’s findings reveal that what marketers consider to be a conversion has diversified. A conversion can look very different depending on your business, your customers, and your goals.

For example, while CTAs related to ecommerce (like showing off merchandise or adding a product to cart) are still less common than, say, calls to download an ebook, the popularity of these use cases continues to grow. As competition increases and more brick-and-mortar businesses move online, we expect more marketers to adopt pre-cart landing pages. These let them tell better stories about their products or frame their offers in more compelling ways.

Takeaway #3: When it comes to reaching their conversion potential, marketers are an ambitious bunch.

In advance of publishing the benchmark data, we were curious about what marketers think is an average conversion rate in their industry and what kinds of conversion rates they’d be satisfied with achieving.

As expected, you’ve got high—but, crucially, not unrealistic—expectations about how you want your landing pages to perform. First, here’s how respondents told us they think the average page performs in their industry:

Marketers rarely expect conversion rates over 10%. More than two-thirds of them told us that the averages in their industry are likely below that impenetrable ceiling. (As we’ll see, their instincts aren’t wrong.)

But here’s where you told us you’d like to be:

Clearly, marketers crave big numbers when it comes to conversion rates. If we total the numbers, 71.8% of marketers told us they’re trying to achieve conversion rates of 11% or higher. Many have their sights set even higher than that!

Lofty goals like these are good—great even. And our results show they’re definitely achievable, but probably not without knowing your audience very well and taking the time to test and continuously optimize your landing pages and campaigns.

So…

How do landing pages in your industry actually perform?

Drumroll, please…

According to our analysis of 34 thousand landing pages, the average landing page converts at 9.7% (or 3.2%, expressed as a median).

That’s not the whole story, though. Some industries perform much better than others. For example, the finance and insurance industries convert at 11.6% (average), while real estate achieves average conversion rates of 6.2%.

And when we decided to isolate the top quartile in our conversion data—that’s fancy talk for focusing on the top 25% of performers—we also see much more drool-worthy conversion rates. In finance and insurance, chart-topping pages convert closer to 26%! (So people who told us they wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less aren’t dreaming. There are campaigns and marketers achieving those kinds of results right now.)

This graph from the Conversion Benchmark Report shows the median (rather than average) conversion rates for four subcategories in the home improvement industry.

These are just a few generalities. In the report, you’ll find the specific benchmarks related to 16 industries, including SaaS, e-comm, agencies, and business services. You can also read insights about how long your pages should be, what reading level you should target, what calls-to-action are most popular, and which emotions relate to more conversions.

Why’d we create the report? More than just benchmarks, the data-derived insights from the Conversion Benchmark Report will help you pair your savvy with AI to create the highest-converting campaigns of your career. It’s part of the Unbounce Conversion Intelligence mission to bring marketers new ways to optimize and level up their skills.

Takeaway #4: Delivering the right landing page for the right audience remains a challenge.

Let’s sum up what we’ve learned so far. Marketers have big ambitions for their landing pages, and they’re looking to do even more with them in 2020. We also saw that the best-performing landing pages routinely hit double-digit conversion rates. (Yowza.)

So, what’s holding the rest of ’em back? We wanted to know where our respondents saw room to improve their landing pages, and here’s what they told us:

It wasn’t deliberate, but it seems to me that the answers here fall into four broad categories:

First, there are issues with optimization. Marketers feel they don’t have time to optimize their pages using A/B testing. Sometimes they may not have the data or expertise to make meaningful choices when it comes to improving their conversion rates.

Second, matching the right page to the right audience can be tricky. Fixing it can involve traffic optimizations further up the funnel. But how do you also make sure that each visitor hits the landing page that’s right for them?

Third, whether it’s a matter of talent or time, sometimes marketers don’t feel like the copy and design on their pages are effective. (Testing could help, yes. But see #1 on this list.) For small businesses, marketers may have to play too many roles. And they may not have access to learning material that helps them improve.

And fourth are technical hurdles, like slow loading times or ensuring pages look perfect on different devices. (These made up the “Other” category above.) In this case, marketers have risen to the challenge of building lighter, more mobile-friendly experiences.

Today’s marketers have a lot on their plate—you could say they’re young, scrappy, and hungry—but that doesn’t mean they’re not looking for easy ways to step up their game.

How’d we get these numbers? We fielded the Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Survey between December 2019 and February 2020. To ensure a healthy sample size, we surveyed 439 people. After a few qualifying questions, we paired it down 400 respondents who identified as marketers.

How can marketers overcome these challenges?

When it comes to getting the most conversions from your landing pages, we’ve been talking a lot about a shift in mindset we’re calling Conversion Intelligence. Again and again, we’ve seen evidence that better performance isn’t an accident. It’s the result of continuously fine-tuning each element of your campaigns.

But when marketers often do this optimization work on their own, they quickly run up against limits—of time and money, of expertise, of insight. By pairing your expertise with Artificial Intelligence, you can overcome these limits. You can create and optimize the highest-converting campaigns possible.

Our teams are working to share opportunities you couldn’t spot without the processing power of a machine. For now, you can check out the Conversion Benchmark Report. Starting with the benchmarks, dig into your industry. Use the machine-derived insights about reading ease, word count, and sentiment to create higher-converting pages.

Better yet, build a low-commitment (as in, quick and easy) variant or two based on the insights in the CBR, then flip on Smart Traffic and see how they perform. This feature uses machine learning to automatically match each and every visitor to the landing page most likely to convert. There’s no need to babysit it or declare a champion variant, and it never stops learning.

Using Smart Traffic is a quick win, especially if you don’t have the time or traffic for the traditional A/B testing. It needs just a little bit of attention to get it up and running on your most important pages. All you need to do is build a few variants, and turn it on. We see an average lift in conversions of 20% for customers who use it, so it’s very much worth the small effort.

Finding a New Normal

The Conversion Benchmark Report Survey was a bit of informal market research before starting on an intimidating project. But your responses also helped us enrich the quantitative data (generated with the help of AI) with some good old-fashioned human intuition.

It continues to be a challenging year, and we’ll run a follow-up survey to see how things have changed for you in 2021. But, for now, I’m curious: how have your plans changed? Have you adjusted? Have you pivoted? Swerved? Tempered your expectations? Adapted your existing campaigns to the new normal? Found new opportunities even?

Let me know in the comments.

Marketers and Landing Pages: Behind the Scenes for 2020 published first on https://nickpontemrktg.wordpress.com/

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roypstickney · 4 years

Text

Marketers and Landing Pages: Behind the Scenes for 2020

As part of our new Conversion Benchmark Report, Unbounce ran a survey of marketers, working in dozens of industries, in early 2020.

Takeaway #1: The most popular digital marketing strategy is a diverse one.

The “Other” category also yields some varied answers, from paper mailers to podcasts to push notifications.

Which brings us to another question…

How often are marketers including landing pages as part of their campaigns in 2020?

Very often, it turns out.

36.2% of respondents told us they use them all of the time, and 41.8% said most of the time—that’s a whopping 77% who see landing pages as an essential part of their post-click strategy.

Takeaway #2: Marketers are doing a whole lot with their landing pages.

So, yes, marketers are using landing pages quite often.

This year’s findings reveal that what marketers consider to be a conversion has diversified. A conversion can look very different depending on your business, your customers, and your goals.

Takeaway #3: When it comes to reaching their conversion potential, marketers are an ambitious bunch.

But here’s where you told us you’d like to be:

So…

How do landing pages in your industry actually perform?

Drumroll, please…

According to our analysis of 34 thousand landing pages, the average landing page converts at 9.7% (or 3.2%, expressed as a median).

This graph from the Conversion Benchmark Report shows the median (rather than average) conversion rates for four subcategories in the home improvement industry.

Takeaway #4: Delivering the right landing page for the right audience remains a challenge.

So, what’s holding the rest of ’em back? We wanted to know where our respondents saw room to improve their landing pages, and here’s what they told us:

It wasn’t deliberate, but it seems to me that the answers here fall into four broad categories:

Today’s marketers have a lot on their plate—you could say they’re young, scrappy, and hungry—but that doesn’t mean they’re not looking for easy ways to step up their game.

How can marketers overcome these challenges?

Finding a New Normal

Let me know in the comments.

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itsjessicaisreal · 4 years

Text

Marketers and Landing Pages: Behind the Scenes for 2020

As part of our new Conversion Benchmark Report, Unbounce ran a survey of marketers, working in dozens of industries, in early 2020.

Takeaway #1: The most popular digital marketing strategy is a diverse one.

The “Other” category also yields some varied answers, from paper mailers to podcasts to push notifications.

Which brings us to another question…

How often are marketers including landing pages as part of their campaigns in 2020?

Very often, it turns out.

36.2% of respondents told us they use them all of the time, and 41.8% said most of the time—that’s a whopping 77% who see landing pages as an essential part of their post-click strategy.

Takeaway #2: Marketers are doing a whole lot with their landing pages.

So, yes, marketers are using landing pages quite often.

This year’s findings reveal that what marketers consider to be a conversion has diversified. A conversion can look very different depending on your business, your customers, and your goals.

Takeaway #3: When it comes to reaching their conversion potential, marketers are an ambitious bunch.

But here’s where you told us you’d like to be:

So…

How do landing pages in your industry actually perform?

Drumroll, please…

According to our analysis of 34 thousand landing pages, the average landing page converts at 9.7% (or 3.2%, expressed as a median).

This graph from the Conversion Benchmark Report shows the median (rather than average) conversion rates for four subcategories in the home improvement industry.

Takeaway #4: Delivering the right landing page for the right audience remains a challenge.

So, what’s holding the rest of ’em back? We wanted to know where our respondents saw room to improve their landing pages, and here’s what they told us:

It wasn’t deliberate, but it seems to me that the answers here fall into four broad categories:

Today’s marketers have a lot on their plate—you could say they’re young, scrappy, and hungry—but that doesn’t mean they’re not looking for easy ways to step up their game.

How can marketers overcome these challenges?

Finding a New Normal

Let me know in the comments.

from Marketing https://unbounce.com/landing-pages/marketers-behind-the-scenes-for-2020/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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