December 2017 – ACS Reduc 2022

Digital Marketing Year in Review

December 26, 2017

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday surrounded by warmth, family, and festive spirit. With just a few days left in 2017, we thought it would be fitting to take a look back on the year in Digital Marketing. Things are changing fast in the online world. Design trends come and go; mobile traffic is on the rise; and ecommerce is flipping the retail landscape upside-down. Understanding how advertising and marketing evolve is the key to staying ahead of the curve looking forward.

Big, Bold Web Design

In 2017, website designers started thinking out of the box (literally). Logos, graphics, and layouts broke free of the symmetrical grid, embraced white space, and created complex visual experiences in protest of the safe, static compositions of primitive responsive design.

We learned a page is truly a canvas from edge to edge and a bit of controlled chaos can go a long way in leading visitors on an immersive, branded journey. Websites are getting braver and more adventurous with their design. Expect to see this trend push the boundaries even further in 2018.

Advertising for All

When ACS began over 30 years ago, radio commercials were a big portion of our creative work and an effective means of generating new business. It’s no secret the writing is on the wall for television, radio, and print advertising. The meteoric rise of subscription streaming and online content will make sure of that.

As major corporations shift their marketing dollars from fading channels to online platforms, the playing field is leveling. Self-serve advertising makes it possible for small businesses to reach their target audience in the same way as the giants in their industry. No longer is there a massive budget barrier creating opportunity for elite corporations while burying fledgling competitors. Every business, big and small, is now on the same page.

Smarter Social Media

The year in social media can be summed up in one word: interaction. A vast majority of businesses are now on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram, which are primarily “broadcast” platforms by nature. However, a rising importance is being placed on individual conversations.

Many companies are using social media to field customer service requests, educate buyers, and up-sell products. You’ll be hearing a lot about chatbots in 2018, which yield the same benefits of human interaction with far more efficiency. Social networks will always be a place to get your message out to a mass audience, but this new emphasis on making actual connections will surely set businesses apart in the new year.

It’s been quite a ride this past year—for the industry as a whole, and us as well. ACS exceeded the expectations of hundreds of clients on projects ranging from letterhead design to website development. We’re excited to see what’s in store for digital marketing in 2018, and even more thrilled to lead the way.

From our team to yours, we wish you a very happy and prosperous new year!

7 Easy Ways to Build Your Email List

December 19, 2017

Sometimes checking your inbox can feel like flipping through the yellow pages. The perfume site you purchased your aunt’s birthday present from four years ago is trying to sell you their latest floral fragrance. A random stranger is claiming he can boost your Google ranking for just $299.95. Let’s not forget the dry ice steak company starting their Father’s Day campaign… in February. Meanwhile, it’s Monday morning at 8am and all you can think about is the insurmountable workload ahead of you this week. Whatever your personal relationship with email marketing, one truth remains in the universe—it works.

When visitors, followers, and customers opt to hear from your business, those email addresses are pure gold. This is a captive audience of people who have either proven they will spend money with your company or may do so in the future. However, as you know from your own sentiments on promotional mail, not everybody opens, clicks, or buys. For this reason, the power of email marketing is in the numbers. Growing your list is critical to success.

Here, we’ve compiled a handful of effective strategies in building an email list, which are applicable to nearly any industry or business type.

1. Subscription Form

Prominently place an email subscription form on each page of your website. A dedicated row above your footer is prime real estate. When executed properly, a pop-up modal can also be an effective capture tool.

2. The Giveaway

Offer users a free e-book, white paper, coupon, exclusive content, or similar incentive for subscribing. Be sure to note that the freebie is automatically sent via email to minimize invalid entries. The more valuable the giveaway, the more subscribers you’ll get.

3. On-Site Signups

Do you have a brick and mortar business? Give customers the opportunity to provide their email address whether they purchase something or not. Again, consider incentives you can offer!

4. Host an Event

Whether it is a local gathering or a global webinar, asking your target audience to register for an event is a worthwhile means of growing your email list quickly. If this proves effective for you, consider hosting recurring events annually, quarterly, or even weekly!

5. Educational Series

Create a drip campaign that sends a series of informative emails on a particular topic to each subscriber over a short period of time. This isn’t necessarily an opportunity to sell, but to provide real value. Your audience will look forward to checking their inbox every day, and you will enjoy watching your list grow exponentially.

6. Get Social

Most of the major email marketing platforms (Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, etc.) offer the ability to place a signup form on your Facebook page. This is a great way to get your social media followers to take a step forward with your business.

7. Guest WiFi

Whether you have a retail storefront, restaurant, or office space, guests will happily exchange their email addresses for free WiFi. Services such as Gazella and Zenreach make this automated strategy seamless and simple.

Hopefully these ideas have inspired you to establish and grow a massive list of potential customers eager to learn about your products and services. Be creative. Always be thinking of ways to capture new subscribers and provide value to those on your list. Building your email audience is an ongoing effort that will prove itself to be instrumental in your company’s growth.

Measuring Print Advertisements Success

December 5, 2017

Digital marketing has been a game-changer for the world of commerce. Companies large and small can spend however much they want promoting products and services to whomever they wish. In this era of a la carte online advertising, it’s easy to forget about the enormous power of print. After all, a campaign should not be limited to just one medium—but instead diversified to appear anywhere and everywhere customers might be looking. Advertising began with ink and paper and, although it has evolved, print is still a highly-effective means of conveying a message to your intended audience. But the real question is, how do you measure print advertising metrics?

The Print Media Advertisement Challenge

Business owners and marketers have come to expect more than just convenience and control in advertising—but data as well. Pay per click platforms such as AdWords and Facebook not only deliver your ads, but also provide detailed, real-time performance reporting. This data can be used to make smarter budget decisions and better measure return on investment. Being online, it’s incredibly simple to track impressions, engagements, visits, and conversions. The problem with print advertising has been such since day one: how do you measure a campaign’s success?

Let’s assume you keep a close eye on your website’s Analytics. You observe where traffic is coming from and what visitors do once they arrive. This is a wonderful way to see which referral sites are driving the most business for you. Arguably, the least helpful of all sources is Direct. These are individuals who manually typed your URL to arrive at your site. Maybe you assume it’s from any number of the local newspaper or magazine ads you bought last month. Perhaps it’s your bus stop ads or television commercial paying off. Unfortunately, when it comes to Analytics, it’s all Direct traffic. Offline marketing is essentially a Hail Mary. How do you justify spending if you don’t know if it’s working?

Print Media Metrics Solutions

No measurement of print media advertising is ever going to provide truly complete data. However, there are tactics you can employ to get a better metrics of what’s working (and what’s not).

Customer Survey

Whether at point of sale, in a meeting, or on the phone, it’s always a good idea to ask people how they discovered your company or promotion. Be sure to log the responses in an organized manner and, over time, you’ll have extremely useful data. Along with this point, it may be useful for your sales team to have a list of all marketing efforts in market. So they know whether direct mail, magazine insert, or anything else may be communicated and can keep clean data.

Unique URL

A brilliant way to measure offline advertising is to print a unique URL for each source. Your base domain will remain the same, of course, but the directory can reflect the medium. For instance, an ACS ad in Golf Digest could include the vanity URL “acscreative.com/putt” which will help us track its success via Analytics. This strategy also works with phone numbers and email addresses! You can even put unique phone numbers on this landing page with special content. Let the user know exactly what they need to know and how it relates to that audience segment.

Mark Your Calendar

Make better sense of sales and Direct traffic spikes by maintaining a calendar of print advertising efforts such as publication release dates, air times, etc. This seems simplistic, but in 6-12 months when you’re reviewing the previous year wrap up, you won’t remember the print you put into market at what date that may have caused in increase in branded traffic, assisted conversions or phone call volume in a specific time period.

Special Offers

Offering a special coupon, promo code, or offer in your print ads is a great way to track the effectiveness of each source. In this case, website traffic may remain a bit ambiguous, but the conversions will speak for themselves. Also feel free to combine the special offer with any of the above tactics. The more attention you pay to each channel in market, the more actionable the trends become.

There is no denying the awesome power of self-serve online advertising. It provides everything a marketer could ever want and then some. However, promoting to the real world is just as important as ever. Being everywhere doesn’t just mean banners on hundreds of sites or links in all search results. When advertising anywhere, measurement is the key to success. Get creative; capture all the data you can, and make informed marketing decisions moving forward!

Work with ACS Creative to put together a print advertising, call us, fill a contact form, or email us today!