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nehatiwari454545-blog · 5 years ago

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Top 5-Trends Transforming E-Commerce and Online Retail in 2020

Businesses are looking for new ways to solve the eternal mystery called a customer. They are trying to devise new ways to forge connections with them and to make their brands click. What’s the secret of standing out in the crowd of ‘me-too’ strategies? What are the trends that the brands ar6e missing out on? As we usher in 2020, it is time to find out what they can do to strike a connection with untapped markets and be more customer-centric!

So, don’t wait and scroll down for the lowdown of 5-top trends of online retail and e-commerce for the year 2020!

Amazon Prime spoilt its customers with same-day delivery. As if it weren’t enough, the launch of Amazon Prime Air has started to deliver the packages in thirty minutes or even less! No wonder, the 30-minutes-or-free generation isn’t willing to wait anymore or even for a week to get their products delivered. This recent shift in logistics has prompted customers to expect faster delivery and enhance the convenience of online stores with the immediacy of offline stores. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that eighty-eight per cent of customers are willing to compensate for faster delivery and shipping. Because it is the only hurdle that stops the online users from buying online especially when time is of the essence.

Same Day Delivery ruled the chart as the e-commerce trend in 2018 and is going to come out in full swing in 2020 with small retail stores leveraging this opportunity to boost their business and strengthen their relationship with customers. According to an Internet Retailer Report for more than nineteen per cent of users, Same Day Delivery and immediate product access is an important criterion.

Often customers abandon their shopping carts when there is an unexpected delay in delivery timings and also cancel their product midst shipping for delayed delivery. However, small startups, mom-and-pop shops and retail customers are going to face a tough competition while keeping up with the unrealistic expectations of immediate delivery and resultant expenses.

Sustainable Fashion

While consumers these days prefer fast delivery, they are no longer identifying with fast fashion. Green consumerism is the buzzword and the biggest catchphrase. The millennial wants to stay on top of fashion without impacting the environment with their purchase decisions. The new-age brands support recycling and practice pre and post-eco-friendly habits. Be it free-range meat, skincare range or organic cotton basics, people prefer responsible brands. On social media as well, customers have been calling out e-commerce giants like Amazon for using too much plastic for packaging and outing brands for their non-greener practices.

Fashion alone contributes to more than eight per cent of greenhouse gases, and if continues to have its way, it will be responsible for more than twenty-five per cent of the global carbon budget across the world by 2050. While fashion waste can go up to 148 million tons by 2030, the ethical fashion and clothing market is gradually expanding its steps and is expected to increase by twenty per cent.

It takes more than 7,000 litres of water to process a pair of jeans. One kilogram cotton takes up to 20,000 litres of water to produce.

…And if the environmental impact of fast fashion wasn’t detrimental enough, seventy-seven per cent of clothing retailers in the UK believed that there could be a likelihood of modern slavery at some stage of supply chains.

If e-commerce businesses, small or big and retail companies want to strike a chord with customers, they have to take the environment seriously and be a responsible brand. While we have a long way to switch to regenerative and renewable closed-loop model, but waking up to the fact that the plastic, footwear or the cosmetics we once used aren’t ending up in an ocean or a landfill, is incredibly satisfying.

See it? Search it!

Often customers shop with set goals in mind. They want a particular handbag, the dress their colleague has or the wardrobe they saw somewhere on an Instagram feed - the visual search enables the spot-on and shop its mindset. Visual search is used by Amazon and several fashion stores to search for similar recommendations and to offer more personal and intimate shopping experience to their users. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the next trend to watch out for retail and e-commerce industry in 2020 is the Product Recognition AI, which makes visual search possible. Fashion retailers and startups want to improve their customers’ journey and make it incredibly simple. The visual search makes it possible. With it, customers don’t have to scroll through the endless stream of products, care for the brand or style –upload the image and let the magic unroll!

Thanks to visual search AI, the circuitous purchase cycle becomes a lot simpler. As only one in three Google searches lead to a click, the product recognition AI makes life easier for the startups that can at focus their attention to the customers with a target in mind and are not mindlessly browsing. It is more personalised and more powerful.

Just so that you know that visual search isn’t new, countless applications are using it to facilitate customers. We all are aware of Google Lens on Google Shopping that pulls similar products. Macy’s utilises visual search to blur the line between seeing and buying. Customers can upload an image and find similar products on the store. Designers are using it to search for stock images. Synthetic Style Intelligence Agent-SIA also uses AI to find the right accessories to complete their look, doubling up as a virtual shopping assistant.

The Power of Influence

Hype beast found out that influencers are losing their charm on commoners. Some of them are being ousted and called out for scamming (Fyre Festival, remember?) whereas some of them could sell only thirty-six t-shirts despite having over two million followers! Let’s accept it. Our Instagram feeds and lives are oversaturated with inspirational quotes, ad videos of brands with some bit of story in them and them always leading on colourful lives, which we clearly can’t afford. They are selling everything, from vitamins to lifestyle and they are everywhere, be it Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. Researcher and Strategist Alexandra Samuel discovered three groups of social media

· Enthusiasts (Users posting more than five times a week)

· Lurkers (A whopping fifty-two per cent of users posting once a week or even less)

· Dabblers (Users who post two to four times a week)

Lurkers are the hibernating cell of the social media that don’t care much about influencers or their friends. The same goes for dabblers that don’t get “influenced” or draw a conclusion from their friends and family’s purchases. The influencers don’t seem to turn this category on as they make their decision independently.

Does it mean the influencer culture peaked? Do companies need to quit influencer marketing?

Certainly not!

Influencer marketing needs to be adopted brilliantly and smartly. In 2020, businesses would need to understand their customers and broaden their mind towards social media so that the ‘lurkers’ somehow could be included and influenced. The influencers need to work on their CTA to not to look like a complete sell-out and instead work towards ‘nudging’ the customers to make a well thought out decision.

In this year, businesses would like to pay attention to not only the big reach but also their content that can unlock the opportunities for you. Apart from it, social shopping is going to rule the roost. According to a North American e-Commerce agency Absolute,

§ More than eighty per cent of e-commerce shoppers accept that they rely on social media for a shopping decision.

§ Thirty per cent of customers purchase directly through social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

§ More than 40 per cent of businesses are utilising social media to gain traction, generate leads and sales.

§ One-in-four businesses are selling through Facebook alone.

One of the interrelated trends in 2020 will be the dominance of mobile sites. Social media sites and e-commerce sites are mainly mobile now. Brands are cashing in on ‘Instagram ability’ and creating visually-driven customer-driven content.

If used intelligently, influencer marketing can be used to harness trusted voices and help customers make an informed decision. Aimed to become a more than $10 billion industry by the end of 2020, the influencer marketing, mobile website and social shopping are going to prove its dominance.

The brands, however, are putting their relationships with influencers under scrutiny. The rise of fake influencers and ‘likes’ no longer being considered as the potential engagement metric, the brands want to leverage nano-influencers, people who have a tightly-knit community as followers.

The other thing to watch out in social space as a booming trend in 2020 is Instagram and Facebook stories that have an engagement of 500 million daily users. Similarly, Instagram trends, polls, interactive stories are also a brilliant way to catch attention and continue to be so. Meanwhile, this New Year also rolls in Instagram business feature, Growth Insights and “Stories about You” to help a business to strengthen their foothold in their domain.

This the feature will be incomplete without the mention of TikTok –the most installed app of year 2019! Once rejected and ridiculed as childish and ‘royal waste of time’, this app now has more than 800 million active users now. The users are spending more than 46 minutes every day on the app, which is important because the videos on this app are only 15-seconds long! And businesses are using this app to reach out to the user base of this platform, which typically consists of 16-24 years old. However, the app’s sixty per cent of users are based in China and this is where it loses its steam. In order to maintain the dominance of its digital footprint, the app needs to wade through Chinese territory.

Voice-based search SEO

You have optimised your website content for SERPs. But it is time to embrace and adopt this new trend in the New Year! The voice search is on the tremendous rise and there were more than one billion voice searches monthly by January 2018 alone. It is estimated that by 2020 more than thirty per cent of website browsing will be conducted with voice, without needing a screen! Similarly, an astonishing sixty-two per cent of individuals have admitted buying products using the voice search capabilities of their smart speakers.

A study discovered that the voice search e-commerce brought in over $1.8 billion in Amazon revenue, which is expected to go up to $40 billion by the year 2022.

The voice-only search allows the users to search through the internet with the voice. One doesn’t need a physical keyboard or have to scroll through several websites on their desktops, mobile devices and tablets. The programs with voice searching capabilities like Microsoft Cortana, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri are driving the brands and businesses to make their interfaces voice-search compatible.

Voice SEO is different from traditional SEO. While the latter is about ‘fixing’ the content with keywords, the former is based on ‘what people say while talking to Siri or Google.’ For instance, a user might type “affordable data mining services” on Google whereas her voice search would vary to “affordable data mining services in my city near me” or “where can I find affordable data mining services?”

It is imperative to think about customers, and your sales funnel while optimising your business and its platforms with voice-search capabilities. Voice search often entails long-tail keywords and smart searches conducted by customers, which may vary from a business to another. The website should load quickly to ensure a comprehensive voice search across the internet. The files should be compressed and images should be optimised for search.

More than twenty-two per cent of voice search queries are location-based. This is why the keywords ‘near me’ hold preference and have a higher chance of appearing in the search result.

The Conclusion:

These social media trends will help retailers and e-commerce enthusiasts to level up and establish contact with their customers like never before. From personalisation to interactive visualisation and chatbots, businesses are making every effort to get ahead from their competitors and win this race of ROI, customer engagement and create a strategy that makes them the most-talked-about brand online. Early adopters of commerce strategies have experienced rapid growth and with more than 1.66 billion online players, it seems they were right about hopping on this wagon. Besides these, eCommerce and retail sectors are harnessing data solutions such as data mining, data scrubbing, data appending, data verification, data appending, email appending, data scraping, skip tracing, phone appending, CRM cleaning , Data verification email verification and data analysis for business intelligence and sales forecasting!

The race is on! Where are you? Are you prepared for the exciting future of online retail and e-commerce? Is your business joining the e-commerce revolution or is it going to lag and miss out on the estimated $4.8 trillion e-commerce sales projected worldwide in 2021?

#data mining #data cleaning #skip tracing #data scraping #Datascrubbing #crm data cleansing #b2b lead generation

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mcnabbal-blog · 6 years ago

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Mmm Thats Looks Delish: How Instagram is Changing the Restaurant Industry -Allie McNabb

For a lot of millennials and gen z’ers, Instagram is used as a platform to showcase cool experiences, family photos, and personal mementos from their daily lives. Depending on the user this could mean posting inspirational quotes to live by, reposting funny videos, or simply posting a pic from a night out with friends. As social media trends continue to shift however, Instagram is no longer being seen as just an app used to publish pictures. Companies, brands, and individuals are utilizing the platform to boost recognition and sales through visual engagement with the end consumer. This strategy spans across several industries, but I believe the food industry has experienced the greatest impact both in a social and business sense.

Have you ever been out to eat at a restaurant, about to take your first bite of an amazing looking meal placed in front of you, when all of the sudden your friend chimes in with a persistent, “Wait! I HAVE to take a picture first!”. Well, if you haven’t ever been in this situation in your life, then you have somehow managed to avoid the overwhelming trend to share your food on social media, congratulations! As the ‘phone eats first’ movement has become increasingly more popular, the landscape of content, as well as the variety of active users on Instagram have changed. “Smartphones have become participants in the meal”, and this shift has established foodstagrams, food bloggers, and restaurant accounts, in their pivotal roles in the decision-making process of consumers (Restaurant Manifesto). Regardless of taste, people are drawn in by the aesthetics of their meal, influenced not only on by the food itself but by the plating and atmosphere surrounding the dish. While this sudden influx may not appear to do anything but make you hungry from scrolling through your Instagram feed, many users take advantage of these resources when making important decisions about food.

One of the most painstaking decisions we’re forced to make on a daily basis is deciding what to eat and where to eat it. Often times, when looking for a new restaurant to try, similar menus and reviews online appear to morph into each other, leaving the most indecisive consumer left to squander on their own. Instagram, however, gives users the ability to see the restaurant and their food options, without even stepping a foot in the door. Along the same line of reasoning, once customers decide on the restaurant, the ability to see their food before they even order it can eliminate the common panic when deciding between two equally delicious-sounding options at a restaurant. Although other platforms utilize customer-taken photos and reviews, enables their users to share their food experiences through a more personalized approach.

Why does this matter to restaurant owners? Not only does Instagram have the power to influence where the consumer may choose to buy a meal, it also has produced changes in whatconsumers want to eat and the atmosphereof where they’d like to eat it. Restaurant owners are taking note of these shifts in consumerism, adjusting their menu items to include sensations such as the “freakshake” and “selfieccino” (BBC). But it doesn’t stop there, restaurant owners have begun making other business decisions with Instagram in mind, citing the benefits to their bottom line. Details as simple as the wallpaper and countertops drastically impact a restaurant’s social media presence by creating those “Instagrammable moments” in which patrons can interact. Making these changes seem drastic to certain business owners, but the results are in the pudding. Samantha Wasser, successful co-founder of the restaurant by Chloe, concluded that a strong Instagram presence can lead to higher check averages because consumers want “to try everything they had seen before” (Fundera). When it comes down to it, Instagram is another tool restaurant owners can use to bring customers into the door, and with millennials dining out 20% more than their generational predecessors, it is imperative to capture this part of the market.

So, while some people fail to see the value Instagram brings to the restaurant and food industry, in the end the old saying,

people eat with their eyes,

still rings true, and Instagram is enabling business owners and consumers to utilize it for their own benefit.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42012732

https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/how-social-media-has-changedthe-way-we-think-about-food

http://www.restaurantmanifesto.com/phone-eats-first/

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/02/click-plate-how-instagram-changing-way-we-eat-food

https://www.fundera.com/blog/instagram-restaurants

#IS6621

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naimahamed · 6 years ago

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7 Digital Marketing Articles You Should Read In 20187 Digital Marketing Articles You Should Read In 2018

2018 has already been a great year in the history of digital marketing. User-generated content and influencer strategies are still among 2018’s most popular digital marketing trends.

Marketing has evolved, human behavior has changed, and marketers should keep up. You can take advantage of this post that contains the collection of popular digital marketing articles around to get the general notion of the present year.

Let’s look briefly at what the year 2018 has brought to the marketing industry: The huge shift in mobile, forcing brands and companies to meet the growing consumerism demand and also it changes the way they look at the marketing platforms.

The short and long formatted videos are everything and everywhere. You don’t need to be a big budget company to shoot some videos because lately, content writing is not enough to stay at the game. Visuality is important more than ever.

On the other hand, many CMO’s are trying to keep up the pace with the future of innovation in the marketing industry to fill the skill gap. Human creativity based apps and brilliant new technologies continue to rise.

If you want to know where you are going, first you need to understand where you came from. In case you missed some of the most remarkable digital marketing articles from the beginning of this year, we prepared a list of “7 Digital Marketing Articles You Should Read In 2018”.

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mollysearle24 · 4 years ago

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Critical thinking lecture 2

What does the future hold; prediction on the current social changes and the impact it has on fashion and textiles.

There are six main sections this comes into and I will be covering them all in this post. They are politics and power, the division of wealth, consumerism, sustainability, innovation and social media.

Politics and power:

Due to the pandemic the government have had a lot of power over the general public, the longer this goes on the less people will want to listen to the rules as they are growing bored and tired of being told what to do. Because of this people may start to rebel and this will link into fashion and the clothes people choose to wear. The last time the government had too much control over people there was a whole style tribe created based on rebellion and risky fashion choices, the Punks, who wore very different and loud clothing. The clothing was dark and very heavily embellished with studs and chains, this was the people’s way of rebelling . Something similar may happen is the close future as people will use clothes and the way they dress to express their frustration with the current situation. This is opposed to people following the latest forecasted trends, seasons, magazines and celebrities. Overall, this means that many more people may start expressing themselves through there fashion choices, this may be by making rebellious and risky fashion choices. Showing their individuality and not dressing the same as everyone else.

The division of wealth:

Division of wealth is the income gap between the wealthy and poor in society. Although, many people often want to follow the latest trends and do this by buying into known brand clothing. This can cause the poorer population to get into debt trying to fit in. From the offset this can cause a blur in the gap as you may not be able to tell the rich from the poor. We can change this by buying into long lasting and sustainable products instead of buying products just for the name. This will also help save money as the clothing is made to last longer meaning there is no need to buy in excess, on fast fashion sites. However, some may argue that these sustainable clothes that were made to last longer could in fact outlast the trends and therefore people may be put off wearing them. In conclusion we need to change what we buy as well as our mind-sets when it comes to what is in and out of trend.

Consumerism:

Many people now, and especially due to the pandemic, turn to fast fashion and online stores. This is because it is easy and cheap as well as retail stores not being open at the moment. Many people think due to the high demand online stores now have; retail stores may never recover from the losses that they have already incurred. When they do reopen, they may never see as much custom in store, compared to online. This could also lead to only online stores in the future as everyone is turning to convenience. This will result in many job losses for in store workers however on the other hand it will create more jobs in warehouse, transport and distribution. Although we could then argue that technology will also take over these positons in the future, overall, still ending in more job losses than gains. Linking back to division of wealth, online stores also take advantage when it comes to wealth and poverty. You Can find anything online, with varying price ranges from budget to designer. Fast fashion stores take advantage of the people living on a lower income as they provide cheap clothes at convince along with regular sales to entice people into shopping. Then there are the luxury, more high-end stores and brands, who aim their products at the higher earners who can afford to buy into them. Therefore, they can still get their favourite designer and luxury brands at the click of a button. We can change the way this works by buying into longer lasting, sustainable products and brands. People are more likely to buy into well-known brands rather than the same unbranded product. We need to change the way we think about sustainability, many people think about buying into sustainable brands but will still only shop fast fashion. Nothing will change unless we start paying more for quality over quantity. Many people will think higher end brands automatically mean better quality however that is probably not the case. Therefore, proving that you can have sustainable clothes but people will still buy into a name brand to look good to society.

Sustainability:

Consumers have an addiction to disposable fashion, there are many reasons for this addiction like it is cheap, easy and fast. We can stop this habit of buying into this disposable fashion by instead buying into products that last longer, although they will be more expensive, they are made to last so overtime it will be worth the purchase. Thinking about being more sustainable is a lot different to actually being sustainable as many people often think about it but never actually act on it. There are many different factors that all have to work together if we want a sustainable future of fashion. These are governments, businesses, civil societies and the general public. When working in our group building our brand, we need to reference all these to make sure our brand meets these goals.

Innovation:

Many people are worried for what the future holds when it comes to robotic technologies and the use of computers in the modern world. Will robots take over is a frequent question on people’s minds and will people lose their jobs to robots. People are concerned that these new technologies will destroy the industries, not allowing growth and resulting in unemployment. Whereas some people think this could help create a more sustainable economy. There will be many job losses if manufacturers and employers choose to replace their current workers with robots, however this may also open up many job opportunities for the people producing and maintaining these technologies. The current pandemic has helped speed up augmented reality within fashion brands as they are now creating digital 3D simulated fashion shows. Designers do this by sending out look book boxes with codes that can be scanned by phones. The code shows the clothes in 3D so the consumer can get a feel for what the clothes look like on and the dimensions of the product, this makes it very convenient. This will never replace the social side of shopping as many people did and still will enjoy going shopping with friends and family to try on the clothes themselves before buying them. The pandemic has also changed the way we will work as many people are now used to working from home and again it is convenient for employers and workers and therefore online meetings and working from home will still continue after the pandemic.

Social media:

Social media is a massive platform that can be used to market a brand easy while reaching millions of people at once. Everything, anyone does is all online now, which makes advertising easy. However, people’s activity online is monitored and therefore social media platforms can insert advertisements based on your search history. Social media is a very controversial topic, as it may have many positive influences it does have its negatives. One of the negatives is that many people feel the need to put up a front when using social media. people will buy into new trends and show off outfits for validation. The whole nation is anxious for views, likes and comments to feel appreciated and noticed. Companies use our addiction to social media for their benefit and finical gain, as I mentioned earlier this can be done by companies monitoring our online behaviour and predicting what personalised advertisements to show us. Technology is surpassing the human race as this is what draws us in, social media could be described as a drug to many people and it is very addictive. This is proven as many people will not leave home without a phone and when they are uncomfortable the first thing, they reach for is their phone, as it makes a good distraction. It is also proven that the rate of suicide flew up after the growth in popularity over phones. This will always come back to the fact that we like to be liked and need validation from others to feel content. Humans were never meant to be seen and followed by millions and therefore never meant to be under constant scrutiny. Many people are more likely to believe fake news and posts made on social media and will normally believe the first thing they read. If we want to change the way social media is being used, we can start making products humanly and sustainably. We also need to introduce new laws in digital privacy, meaning that our search history can no longer be monitored and no more personalised advertisements can pop up to draw us in. Another way we can change the way it is being used is to introduce a tax for data collection this way no one can collect data on you without paying a tax first, we should also be notified when said data collection happens to us. Finally, we could all always do an extra google search when researching, this way we can have a more varied and wider amount of information when searching online.

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abwanderlust · 5 years ago

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Consuming Culture

Every person thinks that they know what consumption means and despite consuming everyday, most people do not have an idea of what consumption is and how it affects the world. By definition, consumption is the usage of goods and services. Consumption in itself is such a vast topic that debates and arguments are still taking place in order to set a threshold. Consumption consists of the goods and services such as shopping, eating, travelling. It can be said that consumption defines the economy of a country and thus, consumption and its consequences play an important role in the world of today. Before studying the unit of consuming culture, my notion of consuming was only related to food and drinks. It has been an eye opener to understand that consuming is not only related to the health of individuals but also related to the health of a country. It is important to critically analyse consuming from various perspectives.

As Hamilton (2005) argues in his article of Affluenza, Australia is considered as one of the richest country and the average income is higher than most countries. However, 90% of its people feels that they have trouble in making ends meet. Are people feeling dissatisfied because of the emphasis on higher income and economic growth ? Are people deprived of their needs or do they feel deprived because they have trouble in recognising the difference between wants and needs. Does more money means more happiness ? These are the questions that needs to be addressed in order to understand consumption. The study of consumption has made a major difference in my own life as it forced me to ponder on the goods and services I am consuming.

As a young adult in this digital world, everything is accessible with only one click, from informations to shopping to entertainment. The one click has made consumption much more accessible. For instance; Consumption is now extremely easy due to the platform of online shopping. It definitely saves time but also encourages over consumption. With the advancement of web 2.0, I have been able to understand consumerism in depth as an individual. Consumption plays an essential role in our daily life and therefore, related to basic routine and activities. The five main forms of consumption that takes place in my daily routine are food consumption, music consumption, shopping consumption, the consumption of travelling and utilisation of social media.

The consumption of Food

First and foremost, food consumption is the most popular form of consumerism. According to Wu (2011), food consumption accounts for only 20% - 30% of the total revenue in wealthier households. Slater (1997) claims that consumption is related to culture and therefore, this can be exemplified by the different food culture around the globe. For instance; Breakfast in India consists of tea, “Paratha” ( is a flatbread consumed in the Indian subcontinent which consist of India and its neighbouring countries. The main ingredient is wheat and the word itself is a combination of the words parat and atta, which literally signifies layers of cooked dough), butter and some fried snacks whereas in France, breakfast usually consists of a coffee or orange juice, a croissant, some fruits and a buttered baguette with jam.

To begin with, my knowledge before the study of consumerism, the idea of food consumption related to culture was not yet explored. Food consumption was a basic necessity rather than a want. As such, I now pay a lot more attention to the way food is prepared and served in different restaurant in Mauritius. For example; The famous fast food franchise McDonalds customise their menus according to the food cultures around the globe. As such, the menu of McDonalds in Mauritius has less variety in comparison to the menu of Malaysia. Therefore, it can be said the company has taken into consideration the food culture of the country before establishing its branch.

The consumption of music

Firstly, it might not seem that music is a form of consumption but it has a prominent role in our daily routine. The consumption of music takes place through various platforms such as radio, phones, iPods and concerts. Initially, music started off for the sole purpose of entertainment but has gradually evolved to a career opportunity. Nowadays, music are consumed for various reasons such as expressing oneself, as a stress reliever, as a profession. Music can also be linked to culture as different countries are now producing their own songs which represent their culture. Furthermore, the consumption of music has contributed to participatory culture which can be defined as a culture whereby the public act not only as a consumer but also as a producer or contributor. As such, the amalgamation of these two words has provided the term “prosumers”. For instance; The well known band “Pentatonix” started posting music covers on youTube as a hobby but gradually gained fame and appreciation which has led the band to a successful career in music today.

The consumption of shopping

As claimed by Timothy (2005), Shopping is now one of the most popular leisure activities that people practice around the globe. Nowadays, people are following the western way of life which includes shopping as a hobby. Therefore, it can be deduced that shopping is now rather a want than a need. For instance; In the early days, people used to go shopping only when required whereas nowadays shopping is all about luxuries. Shopping can classified in different categories such as car shopping, fashion shopping, house shopping. Shopping in itself can vary as per the standard of living of the consumers. For instance; Lower income earners will usually shop at a regular market fair whereas the high income earner will shop for the luxury br ands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci or Chanel. Therefore, it can be said that the consumption of shopping itself create a barrier in the society. It can be also added that the consumption of shopping in the first place, has provided brands and businesses the opportunity to expand.

However, as Miles (2010) claims, shopping is consuming our lives but bringing us less satisfaction. It can be added that trends are constantly changing and thus, people are always attempting to keep up with the trends leading to a dissatisfaction. As such, the ongoing pursue go keeping up with the trends never end.

The consumption of travelling

Recently, travelling has become more affordable to people as compared to earlier times when it was considered as a luxury service. Hence, travelling is now a way of life whereby people can be classified into different categories of travellers. For instance; Solo traveller, honeymoon couples, businessmen, explorers and tourists. Travelling has also played a major role in the economy as it has created job opportunities in the airlines industry. Miles (2010) argues that consumers are extensively playing a role in how travelling and culture is now related.

Travelling involves not only flights or cruise but also as simple as a road trip. For instance; In 2015, 3 Indian women drove a car from Delhi to London, crossing 17 countries (Mishra, 2015). Prior to this unit, travelling only meant foreign trips to me. However, this unit has made me realised that travelling is anything that allows you to displace from one place to another even if it is a bus. Therefore, it can be said that travelling is consumed everyday.

The consumption of social media

Many young people or even elder people till the age of 60 years old are consuming social media, but why, what is there so intriguing about it ? Well, the answer lies in the question itself, social media is extremely intriguing due to the quantity and quality of information on there. Influencers are one reason that we are consuming social Media so much, be it Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. So many high quality brands, be it Gucci, ColourPop, Nyx Makeup brands are using their influencers to promote these products there and how? Their turnover has increased a lot as compared to when social Media was not in. These influencers have so many followers and do their marketing by creating interesting contents so that they earn money via it. Social Media is one platform via which these influencers make their lives and make money. Brands are relying on the consumption of social networking sites in order to do market their products as well as improvise on their visibility. This might also lead to over consumption of shopping as mentioned above.

As it as it has positive outcomes, social media has some adverse implications as well. People, mostly celebs, are trolled as regards to pictures and contents they use in there which can psychologically affect their health. At times these celebrities know how to handle these trollers but in certain cases these celebs do give it back to them which may create conflict.

Conclusion

Well, to conclude it can be said that social media usage is extremely popular and in late 2019 till 2020 due to the covid 19, 79 percent of the population in the United States had a social networking profile, representing a two percent increase from the 77 percent usage reach in the previous year. It is also very correct to mention that It can be said that consumption designates the economic factor of a country or a single region and hence, consumption is one of the prominent way the world id developing and people are becoming more intelligent but at the same time it do have its negative aspects. And needless to say that consumption for the millennials specifically is not limited to food and drinks only but to so many factors as mentioned above.

Reference list

Frick, V., & Matthies, E. (2020). Everything is just a click away. Online shopping efficiency and consumption levels in three consumption domains. Sustainable Production And Consumption, 23, 212-223. Retrieved from doi: 10.1016/j.spc.2020.05.002

Gabriel, Y., & Lang. T. (2006). The Emergence of Contemporary Consumerism. In SAGE Publications (2nd ed), The unmanageable consumer (pp.14 - 29). Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/curtin/detail.action?docID=334595

Hamilton, C. (2005). “What is Affluenza”. Curtin Library. Retrieved from

https://ap01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/delivery/61CUR_INST/12181857790001951

Miles, S. (2010). “Spaces for consumption”. ProQuest Ebook Central. Retrieved from

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Mishra, A. (2015). “3 Indian Women Drove A Car From Delhi To London Crossing 17 Countries. What A Road Trip !”. Storypick. Retrieved from https://www.storypick.com/indian-women-journey/

Timothy, D. (2005). Recreational shopping, leisure, and labour. Curtin Library. Retrieved from https://ap01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/delivery/61CUR_INST/12181858150001951

Slater, D. (1997) ‘The Meaning of Things’, in Consumer Culture & Modernity, Cambridge: Polity, (pp.131-7). Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/ereserve/DC60262343/0?display=1

Stephen C. (1982). Life Styles and Consumption Patterns, Journal of Consumer Research. Volume 8,(4), (pp. 453–455). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1086/208886

Wu, B. (2011). “Family consumption and wealth management”, in Consumption and Management. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/food-consumption

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lligkv · 6 years ago

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a fantasy of unselfconscious being

Natasha Stagg’s Sleeveless is a book of essays written about the NYC media scene of the 2010s. It’s a particular, hermetic scene, and NYC isn’t quite the cultural center it was in mid-century America. But it has given Stagg, who has worked in advertising, fashion, tech, and magazines, the benefit of close proximity to some crucial transformations in American life, like shifting definitions of privacy as social media, content creation, and the generation of data for corporations become increasingly prevalent; the rise of image-making and the personal brand as a fundamental and increasingly automatic element in life online; and the emergence of the quintessential “body trend” of the past decade: an “in transition” or “work-in-progress” body—a body that’s actively being altered and changed, through makeup trends and modification, with the changes being documented and turned into content as they happen.

“New ways of branding,” as she puts it, “are unquestionably informing the ways in which we think.” And it’s harder to think of ourselves as we did “before we were made to feel so implicit in advertising.” “ If I look at it in a dystopian way,” she adds, “this might be the last chance I have to thoughtfully speak on these subjects before I forget them, like a dream, because of their very own projections.”

In the essay “Right Place,” Stagg disputes a claim Kanye West made that Kim Kardashian is the Marilyn Monroe of our time and posits that she’s actually our Marie Antoinette: “unexpected, obliviously reckless, and destined for demise.” It’s an inspired comparison. But “destined for demise” seems a bit much. It seems very unlikely Kim will die, or do much more than she’s doing now. More likely Kim will remain as she is now: an object of gossip and takes, good and bad, as she keeps amassing the profit of her show, her endorsements, and her product lines, undeterred. (In that way, Kardashian occupies the same position as another cultural object people talk about a lot these days, the HBO show Succession—which could be a satire, as some argue, or a straight drama, as others do; which could be said to critique the milieu it portrays or replicate its dynamics. Either way, neither its intent or effect much matters in the end. What matters is that it gets HBO new eyes, more advertising dollars, and more “relevance,” that much stronger a presence in pop culture.)

And ultimately, there may not be much profit at all in searching for cultural symbols from the past to compare Kim to, if the internet, advertising, the brand, and its consequences for our selves’ construction is truly the enduring transformation that Stagg’s book suggests.

“As women,” she writes, “we are so controlled by the impulsive beauty standards set by consumerism, the only way to take back control is to become,” like Kardashian, “the standard by which beauty is measured.” The claim evokes Mark Fisher’s notion of capitalist realism—the idea there’s no imaginable alternative to capitalism. It also evokes the notion of human capital as Malcolm Harris explores it in his book Kids These Days: the idea that every one of us is a “capital project,” and it falls to us to live in ways that reduce our risk and increase our value.

If you’re on the internet in the 2010s, there’s a system so much bigger than you that you have no choice but to participate in. And you try to win its game by cultivating the most human capital you can, the strongest brand. That’s the only way you can gain any kind of foothold as you’re caught up in its wave, the only way you gain any shred of power against the system’s own power.

But even then, that power is only the most comfortable form of oppression. At one point in “Right Place” Stagg cites bell hooks’s assertion, in 2016, that the power that female performers like Beyonce have is “pure fantasy”—and she disagrees. Beyonce will always be “more popular” than Jay-Z, she points out. To her mind, the power held by media figures (often female) is greater than the power held by government or even money, and so female power like Beyonce’s and Kim’s is stronger than male power like the kinds Jay-Z or Kanye West have—which was power amassed through music and fashion, too, as opposed to sheer fame like Kim’s.

And sure, you could see it that way. But media power is basically popularity. And what can popularity really do besides keep you in the public eye with some degree of public favor? Isn’t the power that, say, Trump is capable of, as president, simply more than the power Kim Kardashian has? And isn’t that why Kanye West aspires to run for president, as, Stagg argues, Kim Kardashian would never do?

I would be willing to grant that the power of the media star may entail less risk than that of the politician, or a more manageable kind of stress. And in that sense it makes sense Kim Kardashian would desire it more. But it also achieves less. The power of fame occurs within a system, and it yields a profit that redounds only to you. Meanwhile, the politician’s power, executed well—or even executed poorly, clumsily, almost inadvertently, as Trump’s case shows—can change that system, in that it can both profit you and oppress others.

What’s more, the power of fame comes at the expense of having to please people, and to deal with their prying eyes, scrutinizing every corner of your life…

The idea that all parts of your life might be open for you to broadcast and monetize, as they are for influencers—those who are paid to exhibit and endorse products or services on social media, in money or in more nebulous reward like attention or recognition—disturbs Stagg as it does me. Sleeveless is especially interesting when it engages with those who aspire to join the Kardashian ranks or to be the ones who might create new Kardashians; those who strike the Faustian bargain of privacy and integrity for fame with avidity. In a companion piece to “Right Place” titled “Right Time,” Stagg profiles Adam Rivietz, founder of #paid, an agency that manages the careers of influencers. When Stagg shares her fears about the all-encompassing nature of the project of fashioning your self as a brand, Rivietz seems to agree. “But if you’re on the founding side of it,” he tells her, “you can choose how you want to guide the industry, what governing bodies you’re going to work with to maintain standards.”

The comment suggests, again, that when capitalism becomes capitalist realism, we’re all helpless but to succumb. In fact, you’d be stupid to refuse the chance to make money off your platform, if the things you do on that platform would boost a company’s profits anyway. That’s the argument that influencer agencies like #paid make: “Your brand is already established, they coax. If you’re not making money from it, you’re working for free.”

As Stagg notes, that’s not really how economies work. It’s not a given that any social media activity you make is automatically a brand from which you should, if you’re smart, profit. Companies like #paid had to make the conversion of social media activity to a brand an economically attractive proposition. But the “brand”—which, at its core, is just the sum of the impressions of yourself that you leave behind anytime you use a social media tool, once those impressions become regular enough to be coherent as a product of their own—is just so integral to the self as it’s registered online, as all selves in the 2010s must be. And the project of creating a branded self is just so open to monetization now. In time it might become one of the last sure ways to make a lot of money, if that’s what you’re after, as industries like manufacturing, media, and retail all fall victim to offshoring or automation or monopoly. It’s all too easy to think of it that way.

Maybe the moment we created an image of our lives, online, that differed or just had the potential to differ from our lives as we live them, we crossed a Rubicon. The idea of the influencer became a threat. And then, throw in neoliberal conditions—sanction the consolidation of industries in service of the hypercapitalist pursuit of profit; get rid of the safety net that might make life less precarious and the need for money of some kind less pressing—and the influencer becomes an inevitability.

All this ties into something I’ve been thinking about for a long while: my sense, like so many others’, that “selling out,” which used to be such a thing when art and advertising were separate—when advertising and the market were a centrifugal force that orbited around “real,” “authentic” life—isn’t really a coherent concept anymore. When did that happen? When did that centrifuge collapse?

That’s the question Sleeveless explores—when did advertising, both the industry and of the self, take over everything?—and quite well. It provides no answers (and I wonder if any of us have those). But in the process of describing the fashion, media, advertising, and branding landscapes as she’s watched them evolve, Stagg gives you many small, sharp insights. For instance, when Stagg describes the way that advertising so often incorporates the tools people use to criticize it, like sarcasm or memes (think the Wendy’s Twitter feed), she writes: “Corporations, as they say, are people. And people, it seems, are corporations.” As I write that out, it sounds banal—but I also think, Of course. Why wouldn’t that maxim, corporations are people, cut both ways? And then we meet the kind of person-as-corporation she means: Torri Webster, one of #paid’s “content creators,” who’s the quintessential millennial subject by Harris’s definition—efficient, hypercompetent, devoted to cultivating her human capital. When Webster speaks, it’s like a job application statement come to life: “Being a creator is wonderful,” she says, “because it has given me the opportunity to gain interdisciplinary skills.” By the close of “Right Time,” she’s already preparing to shift her work away from writing paid posts for brands to meet the economy’s next permutation, whatever that will be.

Which leads me to the endpoint of all this. Do you accept the hell we’re in, like Webster or Rivietz, or do you squirm in it, as Stagg does?

And those are the options. Effective resistance is impossible. Especially now that the system that’s constituted by branding, advertising, and online self-creation has outpaced the language one might use to critique it, like “fake.” When a male model leaves a comment on Kim Kardashian’s Instagram accusing her and her carefully constructed body of being fake, Stagg sees his point; she also thinks, “None of this is real, so calling her ‘not real’ seems beside the point.”

If you tell an influencer she’s “not real,” the answer she gives you might be that of the competitor—putting you right on her same plane: “I know it’s not real. Are you jealous of what I have—what I’ve built?” (That’s the angle Kardashian seems to have taken—in a way. She accused the model of being critical because he was gay and therefore not attracted to her—which wasn’t true.) Or, the influencer might assume the role of the victim. “What did I do to you? I’m just minding my own business. I’m just trying to survive.” This too allows her to leverage her platform to subsume your criticism. In arousing the sympathy of her followers, she turns your criticism into another part of her brand’s narrative. Either way, it’s clear the influencer and her critic exist in the same world—and the critic’s criticism won’t get her out of it.

When self-knowledge emerges from self-creation, and when self-creation is about the way you brand and sell yourself, does self-knowledge become meaningless? Say you don’t participate in the influence economy, when the possibility of doing so is available to us and feels both natural and imperative. Does the thing that is “you” dissolve? Like a tree in the forest with no one to hear? At the end of the essay “Naming Names,” at the very end of the book, Stagg has a fight with her boyfriend. She writes, “I was so completely in love and heartbroken thinking that maybe it wasn’t the last time I would be.” And suddenly, she’s face to face with the paralyzing question we all have to deal with when we’re simultaneously selves and personal brands: Is anything she feels genuine, or is it all part of the image of herself she wants to construct?

I remembered being alone on my roof in the summer, single, and enjoying it. Had I enjoyed it, or had I taken photos of myself to feel distracted? I could be alone again, I thought, as long as I didn’t know that’s what I was.

First, there’s the memory. Then, there’s the doubt of the memory. Finally, there’s the fantasy of unself-conscious being. But the curse of this time we live in is that you’ll always have this sense of what you are.

#literary #books #essays #natasha stagg #kim kardashian #marilyn monroe #melania trump #kanye west #mark fisher #malcolm harris #influencers #selling out #informed exceptionalism

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martinemdeiversen · 5 years ago

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Blogging Fast Lane Guide

Start Blogging For Profit

The difference between blogging and blogging for profit is monetization. Starting a blog today is as simple, easy and fast as setting up a social media profile. Anyone can start a blog, either self-hosted or using a Web-Host. There are blogging platforms that allow you to have your segregated section, complete with your profile and exclusive posts.

There are free content management systems that allow you to host a blog on their parent domain. You could also purchase a domain, register it, host it and create a website essentially designed to be a blog. Assess the costs of the different options, consider your technical skills such as website design and choose a platform that suits you.

Get a Free domain at BlueHost today

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Choosing a Niche

There are bloggers who want to write on everything, almost. There are bloggers who focus on a niche. Both can work and both can fail. It depends on the expertise of the blogger. Not the writing expertise but knowledge. Not every blogger can develop a sound understanding of every subject that can be written about. If you are alone or have a very small team, then it is best to focus on a niche. Trying to write about too many things will not only be bafflingly challenging but it will also confuse your potential audience. Readers like specificity. You too would be perplexed as to whom you wish to target. If you check out the popular blogs or even the video bloggers who have amassed millions with their channels on YouTube, all of them are focusing on a niche that is well sorted.

You could write on anything, from fashion to technology, geology to politics, economics to history, consumer electronics to real estate, family or kids to relationships, dating or health, sports or current affairs to news, events, photography and anything that interests you.

Bloggers who have an astute understanding of what they are writing or the larger domain will always do well. Blogging is not just writing. It is a fine combination of writing acumen, knowledge, specialization, awareness of the latest updates and an understanding of what people or readers are looking for.

Choose a niche that you are comfortable with and equally important is the readership. Do not pick a niche that no one is interested in. You can write a blog on such a niche to satiate your own desire but such a blog will be hard to monetize. You can only monetize a blog for profit that will have substantial traffic. Microbiology or nuclear science, applied mechanics or even the history of textiles would not be appealing niches, even though some interesting posts can potentially get thousands or hundreds of thousands of hits. A niche must be perennially popular for the blog to be monetized for profit. You need sustainable revenue and not a onetime windfall gain, although the latter too is welcome with the sustainable profits.

Path to Monetization

There are many ways to monetize a blog. One of the most unpopular and ineffective methods is subscription. We live in an era when information is free. While you can have your content and intellectual property protected with copyrights, you cannot really prevent the information from being available in some other form. Reproduction of information in non-plagiarized forms will always happen. Since there is no dearth of information, subscription has not really been the most successful way to monetize a blog.

Even the most popular newspapers and magazines are losing paid subscribers. However, if your niche is very refined and your target audience is looking for rare exclusive information then you can charge a fee. This will not work for most types of blogs but then there are always exceptions. You need to assess if your audience will be willing to pay a subscription fee per month or yearly to access your blog. This can be a captive source of revenue and hence profit.

1. Advertisements

Such advertisements pay revenue in different ways. Pay per click advertisements will get you paid only when the readers on your blog actually click on the links put up in the ads. Pay per view or impression ads will generate revenue based on how many people are on the given web-page coming across the advertisement. Some ads require visitors on a blog to hover over the advertised link or content for the impression. Usually, pay per view ads has fixed revenue for a certain count of thousand or several thousand.

Then there are sponsored ads, banner ads, footer ads, and larger sponsorship. You could have sponsored ads on top or bottom of your web-page, ala banner or footer ads, ads within the content you are posting, on the sides or you can have a specific web-page dedicated to only one advertiser or just one brand that will have its offers dominating the layout of the web-page.

These can be facilitated by Google or you can have your direct association with advertising networks. You may also get brands to directly advertise on your blog but for that, you would need a substantial readership to entice them.

Advertising is a steady and rewarding source of revenue for blogs provided there is a large readership. Blogs that are not read by too many people will generate almost no or insignificant revenue with ads. This is why other methods of monetization become not just important but essential.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an effective way to monetize a blog. It has a simple modus operandi and can be used by any blogger. You need to sign up with an affiliate marketing network, also referred to as an affiliate network, and start promoting the products or services directly or indirectly. Affiliate marketing is quite simple.

You come up with a blog post wherein a product or service, in most cases, multiple products and services will be advertised or showcased. These products or services could be just mentioned in fleeting references within a post or the blog post can be about those products and services. If the reader clicks on the link of the product or service and purchases or signs up then the blogger gets a commission.

Affiliate marketing has become a rewarding source of revenue for bloggers, principally because one doesn’t need a very large readership to earn revenue. Even if one of your blog posts get fifty views and two people end up buying a product or signing up for a service, you can get a handsome commission. Such commissions could be exponentially greater than what you would earn with pay per view or pay per click advertisements. However, people have to buy or sign up for the products or services respectively for you to earn anything.

Affiliate marketing is often upfront wherein the blogger makes it amply clear that the posts are about products and services. These posts are mostly reviews or accounts of personal experiences. They are informative but do have some degree of promotional intent in the manner the content is created. The purpose is to offer information and to influence the buyers to purchase the product or sign up for the service being promoted. You could also do this in a subtle way, without making it obvious that you are an affiliate blogger.

WATCH THE VIDEO A LEARN HOW YOU CAN MAKE MONEY ONLINE WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING

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3. Paid Content

You could monetize your blog with paid content. You can get paid to write specific types of posts. These could be informative, reviews, assessments of specific products and services, comparison posts, analyses of companies or brands, endorsement articles or just outright informational posts to help increase the outreach of a company. Paid content is very common and even some of the most read blogs have various posts that companies sponsor directly.

However, a blog cannot survive entirely on paid content. Then it becomes a glorified billboard. Paid content would inevitably be promotional, subtly or overtly. There should be more organic content than paid content. No reader wants to read a blog that is only self-serving and paid content is more in the interest of the company and the blogger than the reader. There are exceptions in cases of products or services that can truly help people in their day-to-day lives. Other scenarios are outright consumerism.

4. Direct Sales

This may not sound like a very plausible strategy to monetize a blog for profit but it is absolutely plausible. Affiliate marketing paid content and ads are essentially promotions. They are all about commerce. Facilitating direct sales is more straightforward and honorable than indirect measures. There are blogs that host direct sales. Incorporating eCommerce features in a blog is no big deal these days.

People who explore information and trust the bloggers they follow ardently don’t mind shopping for products they need directly from the blog. This has become very popular in fashion, beauty and healthcare sectors. This is becoming a trend in electronics, accessories, and peripherals. Depending on the niche you are targeting, you can easily set up an online store and sell select products or services. Do not vie for a marketplace as you would have to cater to your niche. Be selective and have only the best products or services. Have an eCommerce strategy to go along with your everyday blogging.

5. Blast Marketing

Any readership can be used as a database. Your blog should have a privacy policy and you should make it lucid how the data obtained from the readers and followers would be used. As long as you are not compromising the privacy or security of your readership, you can use their data in a myriad of ways. You could use the database for blast emails or text messages. You could use the database for social media marketing.

You can offer such blast marketing services to a plethora of companies cutting across industries. Chances are your database will be in demand for businesses operating in the industry which is also the niche your blog is scattering to but a database can always be used for marketing products or services in multiple categories or niches.

Multipronged Monetization

You have to start somewhere and with something. You need to pick one path to monetization and perfect it. If it works, then you should improve it and then consider another option. If it doesn’t work, then have it in place and then expand your scope of monetization. You can never be sure which monetization attempt will work wonders for you. It is also true that each of these methods has its strengths and weaknesses so they all must coexist. It could be affiliate marketing one month earning your revenues that you need to stay profitable for six months. It could be sponsored or pay per click ads in another month that will earn a mini fortune for you.

The simple reality is that a blog must have a multipronged monetization strategy. You should be open and prepared to generate revenue from any and every possible source. An assured revenue or multiple sources of revenue is the only way to survive, to ensure a blog is profitable and to remain focused on what matters more than everything else, the readers.

The readers want helpful information, content that will positively change their lives or assist in their decisions. To achieve this, you ought to stay committed to research and ever-expanding knowledge base, you must be dedicated to creating quality blog posts and you must continue working on expanding your readership. These will be daunting challenges if you cannot come up with a multipronged monetization strategy that works and will work in the future.

from Martin-MD https://ift.tt/3aSTEvT via

#IFTTT #Martin-MD

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webvbrand · 7 years ago

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Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends 2018

Rounding the corner on 2018 – and what is going to probably be a a lot of refined and competitive digital selling landscape – it’s time to appear back at the highlights of 2017. There has been plenty of evolution within the past twelve months.

User-generated content and a rainbow of influencer ways are ever-changing the method brands move with shoppers. the massive shift in mobile, on-the-go consumerism is forcing selling leaders to alter the method they give the impression of being at selling platforms. Video isn’t simply consecutive huge issue any longer. It’s everything, everywhere. It’s live, animated, 3D, and popcorn-worthy, and not only for huge budget corporations. And, there's the talents gap, plaguing several CMOs WHO are attempting to stay up the pace with yesterday’s innovations in selling technology, whereas different selling heads are shaping ahead with good, generally daring applications of recent technology and human power.

If we would like to understand wherever we tend to square measure headed, we want to know wherever we tend to square measure returning from. Here’s a roundup of 2017’s prime digital selling posts. These square measure the articles that created waves within the business this past year and outline the direction our collective arrow is pointed certain 2018.

1. what quantity ought to B2B corporations INVEST IN DIGITAL MARKETING? Published at the start of 2017, this post provides a wonderful summary of wherever B2B selling budgets square measure headed over consecutive few years. It’s not simply a shift towards larger digital budgets, however extra money are going to be directed towards mobile, with B2B CMOs expecting their own mobile pay to travel up by 118 p.c over consecutive couple years.

2. five REASONS WHY COLD vocation IS DEAD … And Digital Marketing is that the Future. this is often the blunt, aggressive, curt write-up that sums up what many articles are spoken communication. It’s time to start out moving on. It’s not simply that the entire word is currently digital. the foundation of the problem is trust.

Consumers could have their transportable in hand or at intervals 3 inches of their person for twenty two out of twenty four hours daily. This doesn’t mean they’re reaching to acquire a decision from associate unidentifiable variety. individuals square measure losing trust in cold calls, ancient advertising and different departing selling ways.

What {they square measure|they're} growing to trust are on-line reviews, shopper feedback and whole interaction on social media, and authoritative web site content.

3. twenty five selling TECHNOLOGY TRAILBLAZERS With everyone’s eyes on consecutive explosion in selling technology, it’s no surprise this was one in every of the year’s most shared digital selling posts. this is often a well-curated round-up of the foremost standout martech minds.

What were the main trends in keeping with the twenty five trailblazers? the highest predictions for 2017 were a lot of machine learning and AI, significantly with a lot of chatboxes, virtual assistants, and automation, moreover as location knowledge and period of time analytics taking a much bigger role.

4. however DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION will REVOLUTIONIZE selling There were lots of discussions on digital selling transformation in 2017. This isn’t simply a shift to digital selling that we’re within the thick of. It’s a complete overhaul of however selling is completed – the technology used, the insights gained, the talent sets needed. We’re not simply partaking with shoppers digitally. We’re in operation digitally.

It’s a data-driven, automation-powered arena, that should perpetually edge towards nearer levels of perfection via analytics – a lot of personalization, higher uxor and a lot of refined, period of time insights.

How to bring home the bacon full transformation in 2018? tiny steps and agile ways. And, reading au fait digital transformation thought leaders just like the one featured during this prime post.

5. the final word GUIDE TO DIGITAL selling TOOLS THAT WON’T value A CENT Need a convenient list of free digital selling tools to empower your selling in 2018? Here’s the final word list of tools and resources digital marketers are exploitation in 2017. From dynamic Google resources that each level merchant ought to be exploitation as normal, to tools to form free infographics and stylish visuals, there square measure lots of budget-friendly choices on the market to trendy digital marketers nowadays.

6. ten REASONS you would like A DIGITAL selling STRATEGY IN 2017 This is a piece each digital merchant ought to browse. Strategy has been an enormous theme this year, with CMOs and selling managers pushing for a a lot of integrated and thoughtful approach to any or all the digital channels getting used nowadays. putt it all at once is that the secret to making a much better user expertise.

You may have a quasi-strategy or associate undocumented set up. However, if you work any of the descriptors during this article, you’ve probably some work to try and do in up your digital strategy.

7. three BEST PRACTICES FOR DIGITAL selling within the marketing research house A useful piece to assist fuel your marketing research in 2018, this text is full of unjust tips for cleaner, a lot of economical analysis. What square measure the essential takeaways

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pelatro-blog · 7 years ago

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17 Healthcare Marketing Tips to Stay Competitive in Today's Environment

See on Scoop.it - Marketing Solutions for Telecom Industry Healthcare is Sluggish

Ever notice how severely slow healthcare marketing can be when it comes to adopting modern marketing strategies? Check out these stats:The healthcare and pharma industry is still expected to have the smallest digital ad spend share by 2020 – image source When you compare the adoption of digital marketing strategies across industries, healthcare is certainly straggling behind. On average, the percentage of overall marketing budget dedicated to digital marketing is 24% with organizations spending $205,757 on digital marketing annually:2017 average digital healthcare marketing budgets – image source This means many healthcare companies continue to allocate a large chunk of their marketing dollars to traditional media. Traditional media channels like TV, radio, outdoor, print, and direct mail come with a high sticker price – it’s no wonder these forms of advertising eat up most of the marketing budget. There are, of course, many reasons why this lag could be happening:

Regulatory standards and lengthy approval processesConcerns with bioethical issuesDistrust with unchartered territory and unfamiliar types of ad formats and ad spendBelief that traditional media purchases are still integral to ROI

And the list goes on… These reasons, however, aren’t enough to turn a blind eye to industry trends.

The Patient Experience is at the Forefront

Buzzwords like patient engagement, patient centricity, patient-centered care, patient power, patient empathy, and so on, all focus on healthcare consumerism and the patient experience. A prediction by Gartner claims that “by 2018, more than 50% of organizations will focus their efforts on the customer,” which for healthcare, means a focus on the patient experience. How engaged is your patient audience? – image source According to MM&M’s Healthcare Marketers Trend report, when targeting market segments in pharma, there’s a growing perception that patients and consumers are perceived as an audience of top importance. While physicians and specialists are still ranked as top priority by 62% of the report respondents, the patients and consumers audience comes in second, at an increasing rate.Modern digital healthcare marketing efforts can help achieve a successful patient experience, entirely from A to Z. That’s why we’ve gathered 17 healthcare marketing tips that you can incorporate into your marketing plans right away. Here they are:

17 Healthcare Marketing TipsHealthcare Marketing Tip #1: Have a mobile-first strategy

According to this State of Digital Marketing in Healthcare report, healthcare organizations are not truly prepared for mobile, and only 33% consider a mobile-first strategy to be essential. Go beyond the mobile responsive design and create a designated mobile-only experience. There’s too much evidence nowadays, showing our increasing reliance on mobile usage, to ignore the need to focus on a mobile user experience. We’ve gone beyond the desktop usage level – image source To stay ahead of the industry curve, it’s imperative to scrutinize your entire mobile strategy for your users to make sure every interaction with your brand goes smoothly. This includes everything from your messaging to user experience. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing your visitors: Mobile users are 5x more likely to abandon the task if your mobile site isn’t optimized – image source Some advantages to having a mobile-first strategy:

Your content is prioritized above everything elseIt allows you to create a UX that aligns with how your audience is behavingIt decreases the download times of your most important site contentIt offers a standardized experience across all platforms

Healthcare Marketing Tip #2: Include micro-moments

Micro-moments are an effective way to stay in touch with your consumers during every step of their buyer journey. If you tailor your content and experience to each stage in the journey, the micro moments can turn into micro conversions and help nudge your audience further along the sales funnel. According to Google/Ipsos Consumers in the Micro-Moment:

“Of online consumers, 69% agree that the quality, timing, or relevance of a company’s message influences their perception of a brand.”

If you speak to each of your consumer’s needs and break up your marketing messaging into little chunks at each stage, the patient experience can be customized and tailored at each micro-moment. Google lays it out for us in these types of micro-moments:

“I-want-to-watch-what-I’m-into” moments – feeding passions or interests“I-want-to-know” moments – learning, exploring or researching“I-want-to-go” moments – seeking direction from search to action“I-want-to-do” moments – seeking instruction“I-want-to-buy” moments – deciding what or how to buy

Which micro-moments are you addressing in your messaging? – image source A successful “I-want-to-go” moment could exist in your messaging within online communities. We conducted a Behavioral Intent Study and surveyed 433 patient influencers across seven condition areas and found that 91% of participants said that online communities play a role in their healthcare.Online communities serve as a significant resource to many patients and could be an important platform for creating micro-moments for a wide variety of healthcare brands.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #3: Increase your credibility

Protect your reputation online by building credibility. You can do this through testimonials, reviews, ratings, and social shares.

Testimonials – testimonials are qualitative and personal, and appeal to the emotions. They complement the quantitative data and stats that back up your brand. According to Orbit Media’s Andy Crestodina, a good testimonial is short, direct, and authentic.Reviews – ProBlogger’s How to Write a Must-Read Product Review claims among the most common reasons why people look for product reviews are: to learn the pros and cons, to find out about other user experiences, and to ultimately learn if the product is worth buying. KissMetrics suggests using Facebook Reviews, YouTube Video Reviews, and niche review sites, and rewarding customers who take the time to review.Ratings – Ratings have historically played a significant role in determining a brand’s credibility, whether it’s the ratings of a TV network in determining where to purchase media or a product rating that shows the average number of stars as a scale. Nielsen has adopted a new rating system that incorporates Facebook and Twitter into its social network measurement system. According to a Cornell University study, “in the eyes of consumers, the numerical ratings are seen as an objective measurement of a business’s quality.”Social shares – Different from social media follow buttons, according to Hubspot, social media share links and buttons “allow you to expand the reach of your content to new audiences and generate new visitors back to your website.” Within online patient communities, we found in our Role of Patient Influencers: How do patients truly share information? report we found that:87% of study participants say they share health information via Facebook posts, and81% of study participants say they share health information via Facebook messages.

There are numerous ways to peg this effort digitally, especially with the surging of information-sharing behaviors online, hence Healthcare Marketing Tip #4.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #4: Consider information-sharing behaviors

In our Behavioral Intent Study, we found that 87% of our 433 patient influencer participants are likely to ask their physician or health professional about a specific medication when the info from a pharmaceutical company is shared by someone seen as influential in the online health community.We also found 75% of online sharing is done through private channels. Wondering how to access these private audiences? That brings us to the next tip.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #5: Get intimate with online patient communities

Tapping into online patient communities and truly understanding where, why, and when they hang out online to share health information can be a major game-changer in your healthcare marketing plan. Social listening and connecting with influential Patient Leaders can lead to a whole targeted audience that would have otherwise been closed off. Medical Economics lists out these four reason why online patient communities should be embraced:

Education and experienceResources and information for caregiversPlace for interactionImprove outcomes

Building trust among Patient Leaders is an effective way to access their private online communities. When a trustworthy Patient Leader who speaks on behalf of her online community, in turn, trusts an educational resource with the purpose of improving outcomes, the information is more likely to be shared among her private online audience. There are numerous ways to build trust among Patient Leaders, one of which is Healthcare Marketing Tip #6.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #6: Feature Patient Leaders in ad creative

The concept of User Generated Content (UGC) is defined by Tint as “any type of content that has been created and put out there by unpaid contributors…or fans.” Marketing Land touts UGC as ideal for any content marketing strategy because “you can take any piece of UGC and use it across virtually any channel, at any time” to build brand equity. In one case study, we found that featuring an influential Patient Leader in creative content generates a level of trust among online community audiences, apparent in the 7x increase in visits to a pharma brand resource sharing hub.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #7: Improve your social media game

Social media is playing an increasingly dominant role in the customer health journey. Take a look at these stats:

More than 40% of consumers say that information found via social media affects the way they deal with their health – source41% of people said that social media would affect their choice of a specific doctor, hospital, or medical facility – source40% of people polled said info found on social media affects how they coped with a chronic condition, their view of diet and exercise, and their selection of a physician – source

There’s more to boosting your products and services on social media than meets the eye. It’s a best practice to tailor your messaging to the various nuances and personalities of each social media platform. Tailored messaging plays a central role in making your content relevant, trustworthy and relatable to your audience on various social media platforms. Here are some ideas and types of content (which you’ll need to tailor across channels) that you can post on your social media platforms, whether through an organic post or a sponsored ad:

Answer a health questionInterview a patientShare something about a patient communityShare your storyShare something inspirationalShare an attention-grabbing stat about a condition areaShare a Patient Leader videoCorrect a common misconception in the healthcare industry

Not only is tailored messaging important, but it’s also critical to focus on social media targeting and reaching your key audience. Social media promotions can be challenging – here are some useful targeting tips for healthcare companies:

Lookalike audiences – in Facebook, you can create a Lookalike Audience from a chosen source audience. If you can access a proprietary healthcare consumer audience that fits your target market, this can be helpful in increasing your number of new, ideal customers.Demographic – depending on the platform, you can zero in on audience segments like age, gender, location, language, industry, company, company size, role, etc.Interest groups – another way to target your audience is by interest-level categories. This can provide another level of personalization to new audience members by segmenting your content to tailor to various lifestyles, hobbies, groups, etc.Retargeting – by dropping a script tag in the footer of your website, you can display retargeting ads to your site visitors as they browse other sites. This can be very effective if you segment your visitors and tailor your messaging to the various stages of the buyer journey.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #8: Aim for precision medicine in messaging and branding

In precision medicine, the patient’s time is seen as being as equally valuable as the doctor’s time. The concept entails a retail-consumer relationship that features a 1:1 experience enabled by technology. In terms of healthcare marketing, convenience and even more personalized experiences can be your path to new competitive currency. Value your consumer’s time and tailor your messaging, delivery, and user experiences even more – and make it a top priority. An example of how this concept was successfully applied is in Evolution Health’s anti-smoking campaign, which took place in Canada. They segmented their audience into various groups, and found that among the young smokers aged 18-24 who predominantly spent time on Facebook on mobile devices, a text message campaign with both proactive and reactive tailored messaging was most effective. The result? At three months, 32% quit smoking and 73% had plans of quitting. Evolution Health went on to include in phase II of their campaign 1:1 text chats with quitline specialists.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #9: Gut check your messaging with market research

Why use your gut when you can test your messaging and campaign ideas with real audience members before spending your ad budget? Market research is a great tool for uncovering insights about your target audience. Through surveys, community insight groups, and focus group sessions, you can better understand what resonates with your target audience and validate whether your marketing message is on track or not. According to MarketResearch.com, these are five benefits of market research reports:

Gather industry information quicklyValidate internal researchGet a holistic view of the marketUse objective data to make informed decisionsStrengthen your credibility and reputation

In a monARC case study, the biopharma company hired Patient Leaders to serve on an advisory board which enabled them to glean important feedback from members who spoke on behalf of their communities. The ideas that the Patient Leaders provided, along with their consultation, made a large impact on the outcome of the company’s health initiative.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #10: Consider programmatic video buying

Mashable found that 15% of people use YouTube as a resource for health information. Do you have a video campaign in your current marketing plan? – image source Last year,EMarketer estimated programmatic digital video ad spending will increase to $10.65 billion and make up 74% of total digital video ad spending by 2018. That’s quite the escalation in ad spend – image source What is programmatic video? Simply put, it’s automated, real-time buying and selling of video ads. According to AdPushup and the Internet of Advertising Bureau, there are three types of video ad impressions to consider:

Instream – linear video ads with various starting points (pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll) that disrupt videoOutstream – these are displayed on top of the content and don’t disrupt videoIn-display – video served in the display ad unit (rich media, in-banner, in-feed, etc.)

Some advantages that Digital Bee lists for programmatic video buying are:

Uses socio-demographic and behavioral data for your targetingMakes it possible to buy just the audience vs place/time on media buying platformsAllows real-time adjustments and optimization to your campaignIdeal for brand awareness campaigns

Healthcare Marketing Tip #11: Focus on search (SEM & SEO) efforts

Let’s first define SEM & SEO: SEM is search engine marketing, which Wikipedia defines as a form of internet marketing that promotes sites by increasing their visibility in results pages. It includes both optimization (SEO tactics) and paid advertising. SEO is search engine optimization, which is a sector of SEM. Hubspot and Google’s Knowledge Graph define it as the process of maximizing the number of visitors to your site, using tactics to make sure you appear at the top of the results list.Search engines play a significant role in a patient’s search for health or medical information. According to a PEW research report:

“When asked to think about the last time they hunted for health or medical information, 77% of online health seekers say they began at a search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Another 13% say they began at a site that specializes in health information, like WebMD. Just 2% say they started their research at a more general site like Wikipedia and an additional 1% say they started at a social network site like Facebook.”

While these terms and tactics aren’t new to digital marketing strategies, you can focus on combining your SEM and SEO effort by making sure these elements are included in your plans:

Keyword strategy – make sure your brand, key phrases, unique value propositions, condition areas, etc. are intentionally and appropriately sprinkled into your online contentAd extensions – be sure to include your sitelink extensions, call extensions, and location extensions when purchasing your PPC mediaConversions – the more you can engage your audience with compelling and authentic content, the more likely your clicks will convert.

According to MD Connect:

“…the higher Google will rank your paid ads and web pages. Moreover, inserting your messages directly into your target demographic encourages word-of-mouth discussion among patient communities and popular forums.”

Healthcare Marketing Tip #12: Incorporate native advertising

Incorporating your ad content into an environment where your ads appear to be a natural fit can be an effective way to increase engagement from your target audience. Not only can the information come off as relevant to the content on the platform or site, but your ads can also serve as resourceful and educational info. According to a Business Insider article, spending on native ads is estimated to reach $21 billion by 2018. Add to that, native ads on social media (social-native), including Facebook News Feed ads and promoted Tweets, will draw a majority of the native ad revenue through 2018. Social-native is increasingly becoming more prominent in native ad spending – image source In the world of influencer marketing, creators of native ads base their content off of relevancy vs the number of followers they may have, and align content with interests and styles. We have found in our own case studies, Patient Leader creative and UGC create a sense of authenticity and trustamong online communities, two key ingredients to building awareness and increasing engagement in a campaign (refer to Healthcare Marketing Tip #6).

Healthcare Marketing Tip #13: Create smarter content

Creating smart content is yet another way to customize and tailor your messaging to your audience. Whether your marketing messages are deployed in the format of drip email campaigns, newsletters, PPC ads, landing pages, opt-in forms, or even your site content, by including elements that change according to who’s looking at your content, you can drive engagement. Smart content creates a highly personalized experience for your audience, based on their previous behaviors. Here’s a HubSpot example: You can go from default footer CTA (addressing the top-of-funnel visitor) to smart content CTA (addressing mid-funnel visitor who has downloaded a piece of content). Depending on the user’s actions, the next piece of content displayed is tailored accordingly. There are many tools out there that can help with implementing smarter content. Bound presents us with an example of how a marketer would use smart content in a healthcare-specific product campaign using their Get Smart Content tool. Here’s the scenario: With these insights, the healthcare marketer is “able to serve up their healthcare-specific product content and a case study on mobile visualization tools and dashboard immediately when that prospect visits the site.” If you have the resources, using smart content tools like HubSpot, Quark, Vertical Response, MindTouch, and Bound can improve your content marketing ROI.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #14: Invest in marketing automation tools

Similar to smart content tools, marketing automation tools allow you to manage entire campaigns based on predetermined behaviors, so you can push out custom messages that are based on previous actions. Here’s an Orlando Health example of how they incorporated their marketing automation tool into the CRM in their New Mom campaign: By following this automated messaging flow, Orlando Health was able to increase their ongoing patient engagement level. Their automated content campaign covered an expansive 12 months of resourceful information. Martin Jones of Cox believes the benefit of using marketing automation tools in healthcare is something that can help patient engagement and education:

“If we can get the right people the right information, and walk them through the right sequence of steps (or story), we can bring in more of the people who need treatment while saving money by reducing preventable cases and false alarms.”

He believes that by using marketing automation tools, patients can better receive the right information at the right time, which will improve the quality of their treatment, whether it’s preparing for surgery, recovery, physical therapy, or taking medication.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #15: Test your usability

Usability testing demonstrates to you how real users are navigating your site pages. By testing your user experience, you can evaluate and improve your customer experience. Jakob Nielsen at Nielsen Norman Group defines usability with five components:

Learnability – how easy is it for users to do basic tasks the first time they see your site?Efficiency – how quickly are users performing the tasks?Memorability – when users return, are they still up to speed?Errors – how many and how severe are the errors, and are the users able to recover?Satisfaction – how pleasant is the experience?

According to Oxford College of Marketing, here’s how site usability relates to revenue growth: Additionally, knowing that 79% will search for another site to complete the task at hand, it’s best to conduct rounds of user testing to ensure your user experience is top-notch and that you’re not missing out on traffic engagement.

Healthcare Marketing Tip #16: Increase UI speed

Every second counts when it comes to your user interface. Here’s a chart by Kissmetrics that shows how page abandonment increases as your page load time increases: Here are 10 tips from Crazy Egg on what you can do to shorten your load time:

Minimize HTTP requestsReduce server response timeEnable compressionEnable browser cachingMinify resourcesOptimize imagesOptimize CSS deliveryPrioritize above-the-fold contentReduce the number of plugins you use on your siteReduce redirects

Healthcare Marketing Tip #17: Clean up your design

Designing your site pages to accommodate these three stats and their respective tips can be helpful in increasing your conversions and page engagements.

Stat: once on a site’s homepage, 86% of visitors want to see information about that company’s products/services – source Tip: make sure your homepage includes explicit and easily digestible information about your products/servicesStat: once on a company’s homepage, 52% of visitors want to see “about us” information – source Tip: include trustworthy info about your company and its purpose on your “about us” page. This is your opportunity to build credibility and show empathy as a thought leader in healthcare and/or as a company with intentions of solving the many problems and challenges that patients and caregivers face.Stat: 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content/layout is unattractive – source Tip: use sufficient white space and categorize your content into clean buckets. This will keep your info simple, organized, and easier to ingest. Closing Thoughts

Understanding that the healthcare industry lags in adopting modern marketing tactics, I encourage you to tackle these 17 healthcare marketing tips to better optimize your patient experience before your competitors do. Staying ahead of the industry curve can greatly impact your ROI and improve the results of your digital marketing effort. Which healthcare marketing tactics have you implemented, and what was the impact on your patient engagement?

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nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

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Hyperallergic: Delivering the Internet, an Underground Network Keeps Cubans Connected

Installation view, 17.(SEPT) [By WeistSiréPC]™ (courtesy Queens Museum)

Imagine a world without internet, where, after a long day, you can’t unwind at home on the couch by mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or Twitter on your smartphone, or by bingeing episodes of your favorite shows on Hulu or Netflix. On television there’s only a handful of state-sanctioned channels — no cable, no DirecTV, no ability to order DVDs from Amazon. Now imagine that, in lieu of an internet service provider, an underground distribution network delivers all of your favorite content — everything — from movies to television, magazines to manga — right to your door in exchange for cash. It’s peer-to-peer file sharing, but literal. And this longstanding arrangement, almost half a century old, is the primary source of entertainment for millions of people.

In fact, this scenario is not some dystopian, Black Mirror premise: it is the present reality in Cuba, where home dial-up and broadband connections are illegal and public access remains limited for the majority of the population. A new exhibition at the Queens Museum in New York, 17.(SEPT) [By WeistSiréPC]™ takes a comprehensive and penetrating look at what’s known as El Paquete Semanal (“The Weekly Package”), a one-terabyte collection of digital video, apps, music, photos, and publications that’s compiled every week, loaded onto hard drives, and then disseminated across the country. The show’s centerpiece, a 64-terabyte server containing 52 weeks’ worth of Paquete material from August 2016 to August 2017, represents a year of labor by American artist Julia Weist and Cuban artist Nestor Siré. Theirs is the first project of its kind to comprise of not only research and investigation, but also conceptual interventions into this intricate system.

At the entrance to the show, Infomercial (2017), a 16-minute video, uses colorful motion graphics and voiceover (first in English, then Spanish) to contextualize the Paquete’s history: although its economy was formalized in 2008, an informal circulation of media has been around since the early 1970s, a decade after the Cuban Revolution, when people began renting out paperback books and novels left behind by foreign travelers. In the 1990s, the network evolved to include magazines and VHS tapes, and later CDs and DVDs. These person-to-person exchanges served as the foundation for the current network, which essentially functions as a physical, offline version of the web. Siré’s grandfather was among those enterprising individuals who capitalized on the media circulation business early on, before retiring when the technological demands increased and thus became more costly. Having “lived this process from inside” through his grandfather’s experience, the Havana-based artist has created various works pertaining to information circulation, piracy, and other cultural phenomena since 2012.

By teaming up with Siré, Weist was able to shadow OMEGA, one of the major Paquete distributors, or matrices, in Cuba. The hierarchical distribution structure begins with a team who collects and curates the content that goes onto each 1TB hard drive. Satellite TV antennas provide a primary source for pirating broadcast entertainment, news, and sports, while downloaded materials usually come by way of individuals who have internet access through either an institution or political office. These drives then travel West to East, from Havana to the farther provinces. Here, the pre-existing network for media circulation demonstrates its efficiency, as the disguised package might be handed off to a bus driver who transports the Paquete along his regular route between Havana and Camagüey. Weist and Siré documented each stage of this process, displayed as video in the exhibition. In one screen capture, an anonymous OMEGA employee, joking about the illicit appearance of these packages, is quoted as saying, “This one looks the most like a shipment of drugs.” Once the hard drive arrives at a distribution center, it gets copied over and over again. Those copies then go to a point of sale, such as a storefront, or with a paquetero who provides home delivery. For $2 (USD), clients can copy the entire Paquete. They can also customize their order by selecting which files they want: 50 cents to fill up a 16GB USB stick, 75 cents for 32GB, with prices breaking down even further at 5 cents per TV episode and 25 cents per film. Customers have also been known to re-sell and share the Paquete with others.

Preparing the Paquete in Holguín, Cuba (image courtesy the artists)

Getting the files to the US proved to be one of the greater logistical challenges, since visitors to Cuba are not permitted to carry more than two drives in their luggage at a time. In the project’s documentation, Weist includes a plethora of travel forms she was required to fill out for her trips back and forth from New York to Havana. According to her, the total amount of video and audio alone is 3.5 times more than a single person could consume in their lifetime, even if all they did is watch 24 hours a day with no breaks. Museum-goers can navigate through the 64TB server on display. As the government does not crack down on intellectual property laws, the Paquete needs only to meet two basic rules: no political content and no pornography.

The widespread success of the Paquete has shaped an entire economy built around producing original content geared toward the platform’s audience. Production companies churn out programs like MiHabanaTV, a popular lifestyle show focused on celebrities, local culture, and news. Cuban reggaeton artists create music videos for Paquetes. There’s also a market for apps that don’t require internet connectivity. And because the government controls all print, independent publishers issue digital magazines specifically for the Paquete. “It’s a whole world, basically,” Weist said. She and Siré even generated their own videos: one featuring Mark Ruffalo talking to the camera while browsing the internet, and another of 19-year-old Cuban Instagram “influencer” Carlos Alejandro Sánchez Rodríguez. By using recognizable celebrities, the artists could submit their videos for inclusion in the Paquete, although Weist concedes that OMEGA did have to edit out one potentially political segment in which Ruffalo remarked how even in the US we don’t have universally free, public wifi.

Hardware for preparing the Paquete (courtesy the artists)

Perhaps the most surprising phenomenon to appear in the Socialist country, where no promotional materials of any kind physically exist and billboards proclaim only government propaganda, is the rise of ad agencies based solely around the Paquete. With the ability to advertise digitally, entrepreneurs who have received licenses to operate, including the matrices themselves, now have the need for creative services. Working with ETRES, the first post-Revolution ad agency founded in 2013, Weist and Siré conceived of their own matrice, which they named WeistSiréPC. Hanging in the middle of the gallery, a large yellow cube represents the custom-designed packaging, while a Promo Manual (2016 – 17) envisions other branded swag like tote bags, coffee mugs, hard drives, and USB sticks.

17.(SEPT) [By WeistSiréPC]™ certainly raises complex questions about the geopolitical relationship between the US and Cuba, as well as larger questions about consumerism, free speech, and technology. For Siré, however, the Paquete serves as an emblem of “social creativity.”

17.(SEPT) [By WeistSiréPC]™ continues at the Queens Museum through February 18, 2018.

The post Delivering the Internet, an Underground Network Keeps Cubans Connected appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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mccullytech · 8 years ago

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Experience is Everything: How B2B Companies Are Competing with Marketplaces

Evolving forces are reshaping the B2B landscape, leaving many marketing teams to rethink the way they talk to their customers. Forrester Research predicts B2B e-commerce sales in the United States will top $1.1 trillion by 2020, giving B2B companies more than a trillion reasons to embrace the trend toward consumerization.

There’s just one problem — online behemoths like Amazon Business and Alibaba make intimidating competitors because they have set the standard for creating trustworthy online experiences backed by great functionality and responsive customer service. But B2B companies can differentiate themselves from third-party players by delivering optimal customer experiences. That means learning how to leverage direct-to-customer platforms without negatively affecting existing distribution partners.

By investing in state-of-the art digital asset and content management technology, as well as analytics, targeting, and optimization solutions, your company can set itself apart from large third-party marketplaces, while giving your customers a reason to keep coming back to you. Putting the digital technology capable of delivering next-level customer experiences in place is precisely what will determine the survival of the fittest in the rapidly evolving B2B ecosystem.

Diversifying your B2B strategy.

It’s easy to think of Amazon Business and Alibaba as competition, but there may be some value in considering the old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

Going toe-to-toe with big marketplaces through your own online channel is as direct as it gets, but you can turn this competition into an opportunity.

“There are different ways you can experiment with B2B marketplaces,” says Tristan Saw, senior director of strategy and consulting at SapientRazorfish, Adobe Digital Marketing Partner of the Year in 2015 and 2016. “The first [step] is to use a site with a broad customer base, like Amazon Business or Alibaba, to test product demand before selling directly to customers through your own site.”

A company’s infrastructure and sales goals should determine how much it leverages third-party partners. Companies already profiting from a direct-to-customer framework may want to augment their existing online marketplace. But companies new to e-commerce might be better served by placing new products on a third-party marketplace to test the market opportunity before investing in the development of a direct channel of their own.

Several key factors play into developing the best strategy, all of which are unique to your brand and marketing. That’s why every company can find value in experimenting with direct channels and third-party marketplaces to see which dynamic works best in the context of their own digital transformation.

The path to a custom-branded marketplace. Every enterprise-level company should be developing a strategy for competing with third-party marketplaces. If your sights are set on one-upping the heavy hitters, the secret sauce is to create a customer experience your visitors won’t soon forget. That means developing an environment that is simple, intuitive, personalized, and flexible — where B2B buyers can easily navigate from product searches through the purchasing process, and beyond, to aftermarket sales and service.

It also means creating an environment that rivals the purchasing experiences B2B buyers are already familiar with as consumers on state-of-the art retail platforms. After all, every B2B buyer who visits your site, whether you like it or not, is going to be judging each aspect of the purchasing process by comparing it to their own B2C experiences.

“If you’re serious about selling directly online, you will need to deliver a customer experience that drives sales,” says Tristan. “In order to compete, you need to invest in becoming an experience-led business, which means optimizing every digital customer touch point.”

In fact, many B2B companies can benefit from embracing a “frenemy-type” relationship with third-party marketplaces by leveraging them for testing and analytics, and ideas for the customization of your own site.

Use third-party marketplaces to test and analyze. Taking on the big guys isn’t for the faint of heart, and even well-established brands have fallen victim to their overwhelming influence in the marketplace. But there’s no denying the power of big, centralized marketplaces, so go ahead and take advantage of their reach.

Using third-party infrastructure provides a relatively low-risk test bed. By taking advantage of an established marketplace like Amazon Business, you can place your products alongside others to evaluate market demand, determine whether you can meet the needs of your buyers, and shape your own infrastructure development strategy. Once you start analyzing KPIs, such as purchasing history, demographics, and conversions, you’ll have data to help formulate a strategy that defines the best direct-to-customer channels for your business.

Select the best platform given the market opportunity. Should testing and analytics prove there is real value in using large marketplaces to your advantage, you easily can increase your presence, or know how best to build your own e-commerce platform that will meet the specific needs and expectations of your customer base. On the other hand, if demand is low, you’ll know not to invest heavily in your own e-commerce platform — or at least not until you can iterate and optimize your offering and approach to attract the market you need. Finally, there are times you’ll want to take a dual approach and determine how to align your third-party sales strategy with a direct-to-customer approach on your own site.

Weigh the pros and cons of a B2B exchange. The need to evolve into an organization that can utilize digital tools and techniques to compete with industry rivals may cause some B2B marketers to rush the process. This is a mistake. While each approach to setting your company apart from third-party marketplace giants has its advantages, there are also caveats that must be considered before implementing your strategy.

For starters, there are financial considerations. Developing your own infrastructure requires an investment in time, staffing, and financial resources. “By selling through Amazon, they’re bringing a marketplace to you,” says Tristan. “They’re giving you access to infrastructure — like payment gateways, warehousing, and delivery systems.”

While services such as fulfillment, drop shipping, and distribution may sound like an excellent bargain, they don’t come without a price. Amazon fees vary by contract, but Tristan estimates they’re about 20 percent. “You’re giving up considerable margin to be able to sell through their channel,” he says. “That’s one element of the risk.”

Another risk factor of a shared platform is losing your customers to your competitors. If you’re going to utilize a third-party site, you’re not going to be the only brand on the page offering the same or similar products. That’s why setting yourself apart from the rest of the pack is an absolute necessity. Odds are, any third-party marketplace is going to be flooded with your competitors lurking in sidebars, banner ads, and “customers also viewed” sections — only a click away from your offer. “This dynamic could lead to customers being lost to the lowest bidder,” says Tristan. “If I’m a buyer on Amazon Business, I can shop not only for your products, but your competitors’ products too.”

Competition isn’t the only worry that comes along with using third-party sites. The lack of control you have over customer feedback and reviews means trusting your brand’s reputation to someone else. It’s not uncommon for customer-oriented sites to get the praise for easy returns, while manufacturers get the negative review for selling a subpar product. “That’s the worst-case scenario because you just hinder your brand,” says Tristan. “While reviews provide transparency and social proof for buyers, they can also lead to poor brand perception from negative feedback. You shouldn’t shy away from this though, as it can also be a key input for improving your products.”

Embracing third-party infrastructure is also going to have an effect on other partners, owned portals, and sales teams. Special pricing is difficult through third-party marketplaces, and the lack of price consistency could lead to customer confusion and attrition in the long run. “If I’m a huge conglomerate that can afford to buy in bulk then most companies will offer me a volume-based discount,” says Tristan. “On Amazon, it is often unclear if you will get a discount, and sometimes you have to actively request it from a seller.”

Historically, prices on many third-party sites have varied considerably, but Amazon Business, in particular, is working to implement consistent pricing — another improvement that’s destined to place further pressure on smaller competitors in the near future. For example, Amazon is already experimenting with a pricing structure that eliminates the need to speak with a sales rep.

And this is only the beginning. Other steps to consider when adding another layer of complexity to your sales strategy include maintaining consistency across channels, managing customer relationships, and managing costs specific to each channel.

Adopt a digital foundation that will prioritize customer experience. While leveraging B2B marketplaces should be part of your marketing mix, if you’re serious about competing with third-party B2B exchanges, you need to invest in your own web infrastructure, in which optimizing customer experience should be the number one priority. That means maintaining a level of relevancy and consistency that follows a vast array of potential buyers across every step of the customer journey. To do that, you’ll need to deploy a digital foundation that collects and analyzes data, creates and publishes content, and helps manage it across digital and offline avenues — transforming how partners and customers engage with your company across every channel.

Few companies know this better than Constellation Energy, which is investing in its own B2B infrastructure in anticipation of a future that may well bring direct competition from B2B marketplace competitors.

Approximately 2.5 million residential, public sector, and business customers rely on Constellation Energy as their energy supplier, each with their own unique set of needs that must be catered to. “We wanted customer relationships to be long-lasting relationships based on value delivered by us,” says Michael Cammon, director of digital marketing at Constellation Energy. “It’s important to take those relationships a step further by truly understanding the problems our customers are trying to solve, and how best to solve them as they relate to energy.”

Any brand looking to set itself apart from larger competitors should take a cue from Constellation Energy by customizing a digital experience platform that will help their marketing teams deliver consistent and memorable messages at scale, no matter the medium.

The sheer size of the energy group at Constellation — with customers ranging from large commercial and industrial organizations to residential and small businesses — meant that any digital transformation effort would have to address problems inherent to large enterprises. “We were very aware that the internal content management system technology we were using in the past was too difficult for a lot of our non-technical content owners to handle,” says Karen Jennings, a digital marketer with Constellation Energy.

One of the challenges for Constellation was integrating legacy software with a digital platform that delivers the tools needed to achieve the company’s marketing goals. “For example, we wanted to look at a scalable system that was easy to use, had an easy to understand vocabulary, and made it easy to manage assets,” says Karen.

By choosing a module-based system with room to grow, Constellation Energy was able to future-proof its digital transformation, while expanding the tools available to content editors using the system. Karen says the company’s content management system choice was based on scalability and growth potential. It also provided a tool that was user-friendly in terms of helping content owners create web pages and manage content, without passing maintenance work downstream.

The result of Constellation’s dedication to its digital transformation takes the customer experience to a whole new level. “For example, we have a team that works in governmental aggregation,” explains Karen. “They work at the municipality level, securing an energy price for everyone that lives in a specific jurisdiction. Now, our team can easily set up landing pages for every community to provide accurate pricing, based on what was negotiated for that community.”

Constellation Energy’s use of an integrated digital asset manager helps the utility company manage content without relying on its IT department, while building highly personalized experiences, custom-fit to meet the needs of a wide array of customers. Whether you’re marketing across third-party sites or your own digital properties, you’ll need an integrated content management system of your own to succeed.

Customer experience is the differentiating factor. There’s no doubt B2C experiences are influencing B2B design, with marketplaces such as Amazon and Alibaba already fully built to service the needs of the B2B buyer. While mega-exchanges pose a competitive threat for some established B2B companies, notes Tristan, they are vulnerable to companies that can deliver more personalized online experiences. That’s why succeeding in the context of this emerging dynamic means developing the right experience delivery framework for your business. In order to optimize marketing, sales, and support, B2B companies need to understand that optimizing customer experiences on their own websites is the key to remaining competitive.

Whether you’re leveraging a large third-party marketplace, your own B2B e-commerce site, or a hybrid solution, experience is everything. Determine the right digital strategy that will help you create the kind of memorable experiences that your customers will want to come back for, while making sure you’re not negatively affecting your existing distribution channels. With the right approach, you can set your company apart as a customer-centric enterprise, willing to go above and beyond to cater to your customers’ needs, regardless of where you interact with them.

Learn more about Razorshop B2B online, or explore how Adobe is facilitating fluid B2B experiences in high tech and manufacturing.

#B2B Strategy

The post Experience is Everything: How B2B Companies Are Competing with Marketplaces appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/experience-everything-b2b-companies-competing-marketplaces/

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euro3plast-fr · 8 years ago

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Experience is Everything: How B2B Companies Are Competing with Marketplaces

Diversifying your B2B strategy.

It’s easy to think of Amazon Business and Alibaba as competition, but there may be some value in considering the old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

Going toe-to-toe with big marketplaces through your own online channel is as direct as it gets, but you can turn this competition into an opportunity.

Learn more about Razorshop B2B online, or explore how Adobe is facilitating fluid B2B experiences in high tech and manufacturing.

#B2B Strategy

The post Experience is Everything: How B2B Companies Are Competing with Marketplaces appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/experience-everything-b2b-companies-competing-marketplaces/

#Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe

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clarencenicholsonata · 8 years ago

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How to Drive Real Results With 7 Simple Psychological Principles

It’s no secret that you can influence purchase decisions by incorporating certain psychological principles in your marketing.

Luckily, educating yourself about those psychological principles can transform your content marketing and conversions and drive real results. Take, for example, this advertisement from Patagonia →

It’s uncharacteristic of any brand to say this, but Patagonia did. This one-liner not only earned them a lot of attention, but also helped them make a strong statement against consumerism, earning the favor of their target audience.

If you understand consumer psychology and what makes people tick, you can generate more website traffic, boost conversions and grow your business.

Here are 5 psychological principles that you can use to do just that.

1. Social proof

In 1935, Muzafer Sherif conducted an experiment to study social proof. He placed a red light in a dark room and asked people how much they thought it was moving.

He then repeated the experiment using the same people in groups with new people. Sherif found that the first set of people changed their answers when influenced by the new joinees.

80 years later and social proof is still relevant, as Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2017 clearly shows. People trust opinions/suggestions made by people like themselves over those made by brands and organizations.

Actionable Takeaways:

Use testimonials and positive experiences shared by customers where it matters most - on your website, and in sales emails, event invites and onboarding emails.

Don’t let the challenge of collecting testimonials stop you. Set up alerts for your brand and everything associated with it on social media, because people are more likely to share their experiences on Facebook or Twitter.

2. Novelty

Attraction towards novelty is seen in humans from infancy. One-year-olds are [found]http://ift.tt/2s9KbNl) to regard new patterns with more curiosity than patterns they have seen before.

With respect to consumer behaviors, it has been observed that attraction arises in favor of fresh alterations, even if there is no dissatisfaction with the current scenario. That’s why people trade in their old iPhones for new ones every year, and Apple releases new models of iPads and Macs every few months.

Actionable Takeaways:

Repurpose your content into multiple, engaging formats. Blog posts can easily be turned into infographics or slides.

Adam Connell from Blogging Wizard turned his expert roundup blog post, that was performing very well, into an infographic.

The result? 22,000 visits and 1500+ shares.

Curate content related to your industry and share it with your audience regularly, so you can stay updated while helping them do the same.

This is why we designed DrumUp to focus on fresh content. It is one of the few content curation apps that favors fresh and undiscovered content over viral and overexposed content.

You could share content curated on an app like this to increase engagement on social media, use it’s suggestions for content inspiration or simply refer to it for the latest trends in your industry.

3. Reciprocity

Dennis Regan tested reciprocity back in 1971. He took test subjects to an art show. Joe would disappear and return with a soda for the test subject, and would later ask him/her to buy raffle tickets.

Subjects who received a soda from Joe bought the tickets irrespective of whether they liked him or not, while the ones who didn’t receive a soda bought tickets only when they seemed to like him.

Give away value for free, before you expect people to subscribe or buy from you. You need courage to offer real value for free. Courage is the secret ingredient missing from most people's content marketing.

CrazyEgg uses a great ploy to win over website visitors.

Reciprocity is also the not-so-secret key to building a great social media following and developing important relationships (with influential bloggers, experts and influencers). Take an interest in what they do, and share their content before reaching out to them.

4. FOMO

FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out, is a part of the theory of scarcity. It states that people tend to attach more value to items they believe are scarce, and lower value to items available easily. That’s why people make impulse buys when stocks are running out.

Ecommerce companies display the number of items available in stock for this very reason. Businesses of all kinds use limited period sales offers to meet sales goals.

Actionable Takeaways:

Create content resources that are restricted to a specific number of copies or are available for a limited period of time.

Use FOMO when marketing your products, services, events and webinars. Webinars have seat numbers limited by the hosting platform and plan you’re using. Make the most of that limitation by advertising it on your landing page and promotions.

5. Decoy Effect

This psychological principle is primarily used in pricing. Most pricing models since the 1920s have been created considering consumer psychology.

Dan Airley discusses the Decoy effect in his well-known TEDTalk, "Are we in control of our own decisions?"

In 2009, The Economist introduced new subscription packages. This is what they offered:

Online subscription: $59

Print subscription: $125

Online and print subscription: $125

Wait a minute… The print-only subscription costs exactly the same as the print + online subscription? Why would they do that?

Ariely asked 100 of his students at MIT to choose between the subscriptions, and most of them picked the combination offer. But when he removed the decoy, they picked the Online subscription offer.

Actionable Takeaways:

If you want to boost conversions on a landing page by offering two options, you might want to consider adding a third.

If you are a Saas business, you can offer different combinations of features at smart prices. You could even indicate what your most popular plan is, if your pricing strategy works out as planned.

Honorable mentions (2 bonuses)

6. Clustering

The short-term memory has limited space, and your audience has to choose to have you in theirs. One way to claim that space as a brand is by making it easy for people to remember you. That’s where clustering comes in.

To cope with the lack of space in the short-term memory, people tend to group similar objects.

Actionable Takeaways:

When creating content (blog posts, website copy or emails), organize your content well.Optimize your structure and flow.

Keep clustering in mind when designing landing pages, content templates and social media graphics. How can you organize your design to increase memory retention?

Create clear divisions on your landing page, like Basecamp has below. Place information on the left and sign-up on the right. You could use also graphic stories to make your message more memorable.

7. Mystery

Mystery works as a great lure. Use it wisely and wherever you can. Think unconventionally. People love well-told stories because they’re unfolded masterfully, and they have a certain mysterious appeal to them.

Actionable Takeaways:

Try and add stories to your blog, social media and email marketing content.

Create a podcast or blog series that builds anticipation, using suspense to create more demand.

Wrapping Up

This is just an introduction to the basic psychological principles and what you can do with them. The key to boosting conversions and growing your business (apart from building a great product of course) is understanding consumer psychology and incorporating it in your content marketing. This post will give you a great start.

About the Author:

Disha Dinesh is content strategist at DrumUp, a social media management and content marketing platform like Hootsuite, but with varied features. When she’s not writing or wrinkling her eyebrows in thought, she’s foot-tapping to the latest in progressive music.

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