Proliferation

Jun 12
0

Where are our Eyeballs Heading?

By | digital marketing, marketing, SEO, web development | No Comments

Written by Ascari Pena

 

The dictionary defines attention as “notice taken of someone or something”. Today, our attention has been divided into multiple ‘somethings’. With the evolution of technology, consumers have an enormous number of places that their eyeballs can focus. In 2016, media consumption in the United States amounts to over 12 hours of our day. Digital media, television and radio still dominate our time, with digital platforms leading the way at nearly six hours of our day. Marketing firms debate every single day as to where they should be spending their advertising dollars and efforts to speak to their targeted demographics. As attention is becoming extremely segmented, where is the advertising dollar best spent?

Video

Last year, Nicola Mendelsohn, the Vice President for Facebook in Europe stated that Facebook would be “all video” by 2021. Living in a world where everything is needed to be “Twitter length” or less (140 characters), consumers are demanding more video content to catch their attention. Consumers have become video centric and have found difficulty is consuming text content that is longer than a few sentences.

Non-traditional Television and Cutting the Cord

As cable peaked in the early 2000’s with over 68.5 million subscriptions, cord cutting has become an unavoidable trend for marketers to notice. While having 5,000 channels used to be the cool thing to have, now having access to commercial free and stream lined services such as Netflix and Hulu is the way to go. Twice.com reports that 25% of TV homes do not pay for traditional television. Millennials do not see the value in these services and simply cannot afford it with the rising costs of living and student debt being a large cost burden. Large advertisers, marketing agencies and digital marketing companies are taking full notice of this millennial spear-headed consumption trend and reprioritizing where they place their spending.

Digital

To add to the cord cutting, an estimated four in 10 Americans now get their news online. Whether it be through mobile or accessing a preferred news source website, Americans are ditching the traditional ways of sitting down for the evening news. As nearly 80% of Americans have a smartphone, phones have become the new television screen in 2017. Digital consumption trends show that these technologies are aging up into those that are in their 50s, 60s and 70s, driving forward the need for web development, video production and SEO perfection.

Sources:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/14/facts-about-the-changing-digital-news-landscape/

http://fortune.com/2016/06/14/facebook-video-live/

http://www.marketingcharts.com/traditional/us-adults-daily-major-media-consumption-estimates-2011-2017-59995/

 

Nov 14
0

Is the New iPhone on its Way to Being New Coke?

By | advertising, commercials, marketing | No Comments

Introducing, the newest member of the iPhone family — it’s the only phone on the market that will literally force you to buy Bluetooth headphones. Heck, why stop there? While you’re at it why not buy a new car stereo with Bluetooth capabilities so you’ll be able to charge your phone and listen at the same time as you roll down Utah roads?

It’s no secret that the iPhone 7 is getting mixed feedback. We were all expecting innovation that would make Steve Jobs proud. Instead, we felt the sting of an insult as they made us all aware that our technology is outdated and we’re behind on the times.

The cherry on top is the fact that users are finding their headphones crashing since the newest iOS update. As technology continues to grow, advertising agency employees are anxious to see if Apple’s courage is warranted or if this change will fall into the same category as the epic embarrassment that was “New Coke.”

The “New Coke” Debacle

Take a step back in time when Coke decided to take a risk with a new formula. Their advertising agency had the task of creating a campaign that displayed their courage. Sitting in the number one seat for soft drinks, they felt comfortable with their decision.

After 77 days of protests from their loyal followers, and jabs from Pepsi — whose product took over the number one spot — they admitted it was a mistake brought the old formula back. As an ode to the memory of these dark times, any time a product is classified as an astronomical failure they’re given the title of “New Coke.”

Is iPhone Following in Their Footsteps?

Over the years there isn’t an advertising agency who has been able to beat the brand of exclusivity associated with Apple. Their followers are comparable to the devoted Coke fans that were behind bringing original Coke back. In a world where only the strong survive, the headphone jack that’s survived for decades is putting up a fight.

Only time will tell if the innovation sticks or if the insult “New Coke” is replaced by “iPhone 7.”

Jun 29
0

What Cord-Cutting Means for Cable Companies

By | marketing | No Comments

It was only a few years ago that the cable TV industry was laughing off the idea of cord cutting. At the time, it appeared to be fringe movement by a few frustrated customers and a handful of upstart millennials. Today, the cable companies wish they had been right.

Marketing companies have been watching the cord-cutting movement closely. What started as a small trend has grown into a formidable movement away from traditional cable TV subscriptions. The number of households that subscribe to cable TV has steadily declined over the past several years; A 2010 study by Experian showed that 4.5 percent of U.S. households were cord free. By 2015 that number had climbed to 7.3 percent. Providers of paid TV are losing an average of 350,000 subscribers each quarter.

What does this mean for the future? Research conducted by TransDigm Group Incorporated shows that in 2011, 101 million households in the United States subscribed to cable TV. The research predicts that at current rates, that number will decline to 95 million households by 2017.\

Marketing companies recommend that cable providers closely monitor the millennial movement. Forrester Research reports that by 2025, 50 percent of American adults under the age of 32 won’t pay for cable TV subscriptions.

This slow but steady move away from cable is undoubtedly affecting cable TV providers financially. The average TV customer pays $123 a month for cable. At the current rate of subscriber loss, cable companies are losing an additional $43 million a month each quarter in subscription fees.

To combat this loss, many cable providers are turning to marketing companies for ideas. Several have begun offering slimmed down subscription packages that feature fewer channels for a cheaper price. Others are creating their own versions of online streaming services, such as Dish Network’s “Sling TV.” Methods may vary, but the key to cable companies staying afloat through the cord-cutting movement is adaptation.

May 25
0

The Facebook Metrics You Should Care Most About

By | digital marketing, Facebook, marketing, Utah | No Comments

Facebook boasts just over a billion daily active users, making it a huge storehouse of potential customers that businesses can pursue. Since most businesses and digital marketing firms are onboard the Facebook train by now, the next step for them is understanding some of the metrics Facebook provides — and how those metrics can be used to improve posts.

Page Views

Page views refer to how many people have visited your Facebook page. This is useful because it can show you how many people were either curious enough about your brand to look you up, or wanted to interact with more of your posts after seeing them on their news feed.

Reach

For Facebook, reach refers to how many users viewed your post. This helps digital marketing firms because you can see which posts gather the most reach, compared to which aren’t doing so well. While this information is useful, it it’s not nearly as useful as seeing how many people engaged with a particular post.

Impressions

While reach refers to number of people who saw your post, impressions refer to how many times your post was seen. This is different, because the same user can see your post more than once if one of his or her friends shares the post. Impressions are a useful metric because they give you a clearer picture of how many times your message is appearing to your audience — and can be a good indicator of how shareable it is.

Engagement

For digital marketing firms in particular, the keyword for social media is, of course, “social.” Engagement measures the percentage of people who interacted with your posts, either through commenting, liking, sharing, etc. This is one of the most useful metrics — because the best type of content is the kind that’s interesting enough for people to share with their friends. The beauty of Facebook is that if you’re sharing something your audience likes, they will do a lot of the legwork for you.

Videos

A major focus for all digital marketing firms is video. If you’re posting videos to your Facebook page, you’ll want to know how many people are actually watching them, right? What’s more useful, though, is seeing how long people have watched your video. Facebook will provide you with the number of times your video has been viewed for at least ten seconds. If videos consistently underperform and people begin to watch but quickly bounce, that’s a solid indicator that your videos need some improvement.

In Summary

Facebook provides these statistics for a reason, so don’t forget to make studying them a regular part of your social media strategy. Only by analyzing stats and understanding how your posts are performing can you continually improve your digital marketing game.

Apr 29
0

The Double-Edged Sword of Data and Content Marketing

By | content marketing, marketing, Social Media, Utah | No Comments

In the abyss known as content marketing, creativity is usually deemed king; however, one vital and often overlooked quality of content marketing is data. Content without data is like an unmanned paper airplane; there’s no way to tell where it will go or how soon it will get there. However, data has the potential to turn content into pure gold — specifically if that content is targeting a particular location.

The data for content marketing in Utah might look drastically different than the data for marketing on the East Coast, which is exactly why you need to understand the different layers of data to turn your content into pure marketing gold.

Mastering the Art of Owned Analytics

Owned content has already been established as an integral aspect of marketing; however, how many times have you heard the phrase “owned analytics”? Owned analytics refers to data that is produced directly from a company or brand’s personal website and social media accounts. Owned data might include user reach, shares, engagement and so on. This type of data allows marketers to target their audiences more effectively — whether it’s an audience of outdoor enthusiasts in southern Utah or a group of engineers in Silicon Valley.

What Are the Benefits of Earned Content?

After completing the footwork of owned data, earned content comes into play. Earned content is content produced around a brand; for example, how a brand is trending on Twitter, how people are responding to content shared on Facebook and Instagram or how audiences are reacting to videos and blog posts. The benefit of earned content gives marketers a critical look at how targeted audiences are receiving content — which ultimately helps marketers tweak and fine-tune their content for optimal engagement.

Contextualize, Contextualize, Contextualize

The hardest part of using data in content marketing? Contextualizing it. Marketing to an audience in Salt Lake City, Utah will be substantially different than marketing to an audience in the Midwest. Fortunately, at Fusion 360 we’re pros at turning data into marketing gold — no matter where you’re at.

Apr 28
0

Think SEO Isn’t Important for Your Business? Think Again

By | Google, marketing, SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

For companies from the Midwest to Utah with any measure of online presence, search engine optimization — also known as SEO — is a necessary part of digital marketing. Just as how businesses may purchase signs or billboards to help their business get noticed in real life, so too do businesses work hard to increase their presence in the digital sphere — and that’s where SEO comes in.

In the wide world of the Internet, search engines are working hard to identify, process and organize the information of billions of different Web pages, all at the same time. Now search engines are smart — but not that smart. In order to better understand what your website is trying to tell them, search engines need a little help.

SEO works by increasing that line of communication between your website and search engines, helping to propel your website to the forefront of relevant search results. Here’s why every business in Utah and elsewhere worth its salt needs to take the time to invest in SEO.

A Little Bit Goes a Long Way 

SEO offers great return on investment — better than that of an advertising campaign for Jell-O in Utah. By focusing on a few target keywords and integrating them into your content accordingly, your search rank can increase markedly — and once you’ve made it to the first page of search results, your conversion rates will increase exponentially.

SEO and Digital Marketing Go Together Like Peanut Butter & Jelly

Already have an online marketing presence, but don’t know how to go about integrating SEO into the mix? Don’t worry — SEO and digital marketing were practically made for each other. If you’re already producing content on a regular basis, you just need to integrate your target keywords and start building up an assortment of high-quality backlinks, and you’re already well on your way to SEO success.

If You Have a Website, You Need SEO

Think of SEO as a flyer for an upcoming event you’re holding in central Utah. After months of work and careful planning, the day of your big event has arrived — but nobody shows, because you didn’t put any effort into advertising. This is basically what happens when you spend the time and money to develop an awesome company website, but don’t invest any resources into SEO. Don’t let your website go to waste — invest in SEO and get the word out there.

SEO and Social Media are BFFs

Does your company have a strong social media presence? If so, you can use social media to your advantage for SEO, integrating target keywords as hashtags, linking back to posts on the website, and garnering more shares, likes and other kinds of engagement from target consumers. You might need an SEO professional in Utah to walk you through the process, but trust us on this one — SEO and social media would have totally been in each other’s Top 8 on MySpace.

SEO Builds Major Industry Cred 

Another bonus to SEO is that is it helps to build some serious industry cred. When your company appears at the top of the search results for your relevant keywords, it just screams “credibility.” And if your target audience in Utah believes you’re the best and brightest in the industry, they’ll be more likely to read and share your content around the Internet, further propelling you to the top — it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

SEO Gets You the Most Bang for Your Buck 

Not only does SEO beat out paid search by a long shot in terms of overall conversion rate, the benefits of SEO last a lifetime. Effective SEO can bring in thousands, if not millions, of new potential customers, and the effects of a good SEO campaign will last far longer than other digital marketing endeavors. Think of SEO not as an expense, but as an investment — one that will keep you on top of the search results for a long time.

There are numerous other benefits to SEO, but these are the main incentives. Whether you’re running a startup business in Utah or a larger corporation on the East Coast, SEO is one thing you won’t regret investing in. Get started with an experienced SEO firm today, and you’ll be on the road to Internet fame & fortune.

Apr 22
0

Slaying Your Content Marketing Challenges

By | content marketing, marketing, Utah | No Comments

By now, most companies are starting to get the message that content marketing isn’t a fad. In the information age, content marketing is marketing. Even still, businesses in Utah and beyond build long lists of reasons why they can’t make it happen. They make small problems seem like massive dragons ready to burn their careers to the ground. But by adopting some new ways of thinking about content, there are really no dragons you can’t slay.

Here are some of the biggest content challenges we hear about and why they’re not so bad.

I Don’t Have Enough Time

This is one we’re sick of hearing. Anyone can make time for priorities — and if you’re doing marketing at all, content marketing is definitely going to be one of your primary areas of focus. A quick 30 minutes of unfettered typing can lead to a bunch of different content types, whether it’s a blog article, some social media posts or even quick, low-production instructional videos. Not only that, but who’s to say you have to be the one creating the content? Many companies have had success inviting their clients to write blog articles for them, and still more have hired marketing agencies in Utah to fill their content gaps.

I Don’t Have Any Ideas 

Ten minutes with a pen, a pad and a few people is all it takes to get a huge list of ideas ready for local markets like the state of Utah, or bigger markets like the whole country. Ask yourself questions like:

  • What makes our company different from others in Utah or the world?
  • What expert knowledge about our industry can we share?
  • What about our manufacturing or development process might be compelling to talk about?
  • What is happening in our industry now and how can we comment on it intelligently?
  • What are our clients struggling with and how can we ease some of their burdens with content?
  • At what times has the client been satisfied, and what are their stories?

Among the answers to these questions is a huge list of potential videos, articles and more.

My Brand Doesn’t Lend Itself to That Kind of Marketing

Given what we already discussed above, you should begin to see that even a boring product or company has compelling stories, whether they involve internal processes or client success. The home appliance market in particular might seem boring until you think of what Utah-based company Blendtec has done. Just by using one of their blenders to destroy various things, Blendtec has become a YouTube sensation and a household name, all while selling a ton of blenders.

I Can’t Get the Execs to Sign Off

For many, gaining executive approval is the biggest challenge they’ll face. Executives will wonder why their employees are spending time writing a bunch of articles, and making a bunch of videos that might not even discuss their product directly. Those still stuck in the always-be-closing mentality, won’t like the idea of slowly building trust and authority with prospects. Your job will be showing them how much success other companies have had with content marketing. You’ll need to reveal a detailed plan of how content marketing applies to your company, and what gains you can hope to get from it. You strategy might focus on a local market, like Utah in our case, or it could cast a wider net across the country or world. With a compelling plan in place and a clear picture of the potential ROI, most execs will give you a shot.

It’s Too Expensive

This is a pretty common misconception about content marketing. When you see long-form ebooks, highly stylized infographics and videos with stellar production, content marketing starts to look mighty expensive — but it doesn’t have to be. Audiences will forgive lower production values for information that helps them. How many times have you sat through a fuzzy YouTube video because it had the info you need? The real value you provide is in the quality of the information itself. Great packaging helps, but if you have solid information that’s useful for your target audience, your content will succeed — even on a budget.

Conclusion

Content marketers are always going to run into challenges, whether they’re a small Utah-based shop, or a huge national firm, but there are none too big for agile marketers handle. With a little know-how and a firm belief in successful content marketing, there’s no challenge too big for the knights of content to slay.

Mar 08
0

Communicating Brand Message Via Influencer Marketing

By | advertising, marketing | No Comments

In a nutshell, influencer marketing is a specific type of marketing that focuses heavily on utilizing key industry leaders to convey a brand’s message to a sizable market. While traditional companies focus on reaching a target audience through direct means, marketing companies that employ an influencer-based approach either hire, pay or motivate influencers to spread the word about a brand, product or service to the general public — both online and offline.

Influencer Campaigns Thrive with Social Media, Content Marketing

Influencer marketing requires a couple of different types of marketing support to be successful. Almost every influencer campaign employs two additional advertising tactics: social media marketing and content marketing. Because most legitimate marketing companies should already have a solid grasp on both these areas (and if they don’t, you should seriously question their capabilities), incorporating influencer marketing tactics is more of a natural next step than it is a step in a different direction.

Influencer Marketing Isn’t Word-of-Mouth

Don’t be fooled; influencer campaigns are not the same as word-of-mouth campaigns, although the two can be (and are often) used interchangeably. Most marketing companies who employ influencer-heavy tactics almost certainly utilize word-of-mouth communication channels to spread positive information about particular brands, messaging and product popularity. How influencer campaigns differ, however, is that they designate a key person or correspondent to leverage their status, influence and connections to create buzz for a product, service or idea.

Using Influence, Connections and Status to Target Audiences

This type of non-traditional marketing uses a set of unique building blocks to create successful campaigns. Aside from identifying the initial influencers for the designated product, brand or service, influencer marketing goes one step further by creating a campaign that directly and aggressively targets specified audiences within an influencer’s direct reach. It’s essential for influencer campaigns to conclude with thorough, conclusive metrics tallying the reach and sales for the sum of the campaign. Based on how successful or unsuccessful this data may be, future influencer campaigns may change accordingly.

Mar 04
1

Product Placement in Hip Hop & Rap

By | marketing, Music | No Comments

While Beyoncé’s shout out to Red Lobster in “Formation” was hard to miss, product placement in rap & hip hop music is often more subtle — but no less pervasive. From Run-DMC’s influential track “My Adidas” and Golden Age hip-hop’s fascination with Cristal champagne to Jay Z’s incessant name-dropping of fashion designer Tom Ford, marketing agencies got nothing on hip-hop’s biggest artists when it comes to clever and persistent product references.

From luxury cars and Air Jordan sneakers to chain restaurants and brands of fancy alcohol, check out these blatant brand product endorsements from both big-name rappers and lesser-known acts alike.

 

fusion_rappers

Mar 03
0

Mobile Internet Use Around the World

By | digital marketing, marketing, Mobile marketing, web development | No Comments

In an increasingly global marketplace, marketing companies and digital advertising agencies around the world are devising methods to reach diverse audiences from the flat landscapes of Utah to the mountains of the Himalayas. With landlines and reliable access to electricity available sparsely in many locations, more and more people are turning to mobile as their primary method of Internet access — as are those in more developed nations.

As mobile grows in global popularity, marketers need to increase their mobile presence accordingly — or risk missing out on potentially lucrative opportunities. Take a look at these mobile Internet statistics and demographics and get a leg up on the mobile marketing game.
Mobile-Around-the-World