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#2 LinkedIn Digital Mafia
People who (actually) have something to say — and say it — on LinkedIn.
Media buying is dead. Or is it?
Ciaran Finn and his marketing agency Blue Finn Media can help your eCommerce brand develop your paid advertising strategy.
It’s true, media buying is getting more and more automated. But can a machine replace a great media buyer? No.
People seem to forget what the real skills of media buying are. It’s not pressing the buttons on your business monitor or Facebook.
A great media buyer is first and foremost a great marketer.
As Ciaran says, the automation of media buying is going to make the fundamentals of marketing and creating a strong offer, copy, and creative even more relevant in the future.
Is Black Friday actually overrated?
Jonny Longden is a great digital marketer. He is currently the conversion director at Journey Further.
This is a great point. You know it’s true because you recognize that behavior in yourself.
Even if we want something now, we hold it for a few months until the sales come up. And then we buy it for less.
So, does that mean that Black Friday is not worth it for your business? It’s actually debatable.
But what we know for sure is this. We are following conventional standard ways of doing things without questioning them so much. Just because it’s what everybody else is doing.
And if you only focus on what other people do, the best that you can achieve is the same as them.
Stand out from the crowd as a new brand.
This is an excellent post.
But we want to highlight something from it. How distinctiveness can be an advantage.
Let’s say that you are a new brand. You can’t really compete with the established brands in your niche. Why?
Because the established brands have more time and resources to spend on advertising. Also, they most likely have better products, delivery, service… You get the idea.
So, how do you get to the heart of the customers now?
Well if you can’t be better, be different. This might be a great way to combat the competition and grow your brand.
You need to avoid silence. Take a stance. Then repeat yourself a lot, consistently.
What is the best way to collect data from your customers?
Romans Ivanovs is a great marketer and founder of Riu Media, an advertising agency that grows eCommerce brands through paid media.
Here is how we see this.
With the way things are going right now, in the future we will need better tools to make our creative. Why?
Because the targeting of the algorithms in platforms like Facebook and Google will become less and less effective over time.
What Romans said here is a great way of collecting data, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the only way for your business.
Other ways of collecting data have worked great for brands until now.
What really matters in the end, is to collect the data one way or another.
What do you think about this? Is there a single best way to collect data, or does it depend on other factors? Let us know.
Should new brands focus on branding?
Jeremy Epperson is a conversion rate optimization expert. If you need help boosting your conversation rates, you can always reach out to his company Conversion Guides.
Jeremy is spitting facts here. When you’re bootstrapped, every dollar you invest must pay for itself. And it’s true that for youngish companies, customer research, direct response marketing, and strong hiring will have a higher ROI than branding activities.
Brand strategy is important on any stage of a business’ lifecycle. But investing in tactical branding activities only makes sense when the business is financially stable and has a strong product-message-market fit.
Another way to think about this: The first objective is to identify, acquire, and serve the customers who’re the best fit for your product. Once that’s taken care of, and you’re running a financially viable business, you can start targeting people who’re higher up on the awareness level spectrum.
Strong tactical branding activities will introduce them to your universe. And over time, your marketing will nurture them and turn them into viable customers.