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By Nik Thompson “Refining is inevitable in science when you have made measurements of a phenomenon for a long period of time.” — Charles Francis Richter, seismologist and physicist, creator of the Richter scale Measurement of growth or success is necessary but often challenging in the business world. In television, that challenge centers on an audience that can be fickle, nebulous, and difficult to measure in a way that satisfies everyone. Just ask Nielsen and comScore, which find themselves evolving in fits and starts when it comes to measuring digital viewing. Knowing how many people see your programming or advertisements is only the start. More than ever, it’s important to measure how they’re watching — when, where, and on what devices. After all, we know second-screen usage has become common among those who watch TV — and across all demographic groups. The trick is to find ways to keep those viewers from being perpetually distracted (i.e., to keep them engaged). Flowcode takes that a huge step further by fostering and measuring engagement with specific offerings — from weather segments to breaking or ongoing news stories to advertisements — in ways that benefit TV stations, their clients, and the information consumers they serve. The happy result: effectively connecting the offline and online worlds via direct connections that matter with best-in-class QR codes. Whether it’s linking to extra video, enabling the ability to interact with the talent, or providing more information about an event or product, those experiences all enhance audience loyalty. With Flowcode, you’re learning and responding to people’s interests and needs in the moment and receiving useful guidance for content and advertising. “We are able to provide rich and meaningful data to our partners for their TV content and ads,” says Meghan Glenn, sales director – media, at Flowcode (and a member of the PDMI Brand Response Council). “We share a high level of engagement analytics daypart, by programming, and even by creative type.” Flowcode is the first to market with TV-optimized codes that enhance original content and programming, live events, and advertising across TV, OTT, and digital video. We’ve paid special attention to design, and the data tells us it’s working. Our custom Flowcodes outperform standard QR codes on TV by a wide margin, and we consistently see scan rates and conversion rates that are far higher than standard digital metrics. As a result, Flowcode has quickly become the preferred QR code provider for more than half of the Fortune 500 companies and thousands of others — generating hundreds of millions of connections in more than 100 countries. “People will scan the Flowcode. If the content they’re taken to is good, they will respond to it, and you’re providing a higher level of transparency and accountability with that back-and-forth interaction,” Glenn adds. The reason for that leadership centers not only on creating online engagement, but also on new ways of measuring results that leads to new revenue streams. Flowcode provides its users with real-time analytics — a reliable source of information about what’s working and why. You need to know who the audience is, where they are, what they’re interested in, and what they want to buy. The results enable you to tailor your message quickly and efficiently. And having those Flowcode elements in your toolbox can help you generate a favorable seismic shift that will bolster relationships among broadcasters, advertisers, and those who watch and choose your offerings. Nik Thompson is in content marketing for Flowcode and can be reached via email at nik@flowcode.com.

While e-commerce has been thriving for many years, the pandemic put it on a rocket, with global e-commerce sales growing significantly. As a result, the share of e-commerce as part of total retail jumped from 13.8% in 2019 to 19.8% in 2021. This share is expected to reach 24.5% by 2025. WOW! Having observed how trends have continuously changed in the past several years, it's clear the only way to keep growing your e-commerce business is through evolution. With 2023 heralding new technology and customer behavior trends, you need to adapt to evolve from fighting price wars to building your brand. (1) Brand Your Personal Name One of the biggest mistakes people make early in their careers is not growing their own personal brand — their name. Your name is always going to follow you — unless you have a change of heart. But in all seriousness, it's extremely important to growing your brand and business, especially for those of you reading this that are just now getting started in e-commerce. One mistake many entrepreneurs make is, instead of using their names, they use names theirs is related to. If your attention is focused on the brand name and not your personal name, often, nobody ends up knowing your name — at least, not at the level it should be. Many e-commerce brands get their start thanks to a personality behind the brand. For example: every well-known YouTuber has a merch store. (2) Leverage Social Proof One of the most powerful forces behind brand-building is social proof, which refers to positive recommendations from clients and customers. Here's a stat to remember: studies show that 93% of people trust friends and family more than ads, influencers, or celebrities. Social proof is powerful! Word-of-mouth is still king when it comes to making purchasing decisions. A 2020 survey showed that 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. When potential customers can trust reviews and save hours of research deciding which brand to trust with their money, their experience benefits as a result. Hence, incentivizing your existing customers to share their experiences online goes a long way in building your brand image. User-generated content (UGC) is another powerful way to harness your brand community to your advantage. Encourage your customers to post about their experiences with your brand on social media, your product pages, and even your website. (3) Build and Implement SEO Sixty-eight percent of online users begin their online experience with a search engine — nearly seven out of 10 users. Due to this, you want to make sure your business is showing in search engines, especially Google. Google is believed to control 90 percent of the search engine market, so if you're going to focus on an SEO strategy, you want to make sure you play by Google's rules. SEO is still one of the most effective ways to grow a business or brand in 2023 and beyond. With the addition of visual search, SEO is going to remain relative for many years to come. (4) Great Customer Service The service recovery paradox shows that stopping a customer from jumping ship by solving a problem they faced will increase chances of retention much more than retaining one who never faced a problem at all. Hence, investing in customer service can prove to be one of the greatest investments for your brand. The human element in an otherwise automated experience can work wonders by creating positive associations in the minds of your customers. Your customer support personnel can work as your brand evangelists, working in synergy to provide the best shopping experience, both pre- and post-purchase. The way your brand handles returns and replacements will define brand perception for your customers and will have multiple benefits for your business. (5) Social Media Marketing Social media is still one of the best marketing strategies for growing your ecommerce business. There's a number of different social platforms you can be using; Facebook Twitter YouTube TikTok Snapchat Instagram The key initially is to find (1) social media platform that works for your ecommerce brand. Audiences on social media platforms differ, this is why one platform may work and another may not. As you begin to try and find the right social media platform, it makes sense to try multiple platforms at once. See what those results are, this can help you learn which social media sites are best for your specific type of product. Another way you can use social media is by placing social media buttons on your product pages. A great example of this in action is the company Mahr, they sell polymer gear metering pumps. While they described their MarEx Inline Transfer and Booster gear pumps, they give users an opportunity to share on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. It doesn't matter if you're selling gear pumps, flashlights, or vehicles, give users the opportunity to share your products via social media. (6) Omnichannel Marketing It’s a folly to try to maximize your sales by limiting yourself to a single marketplace or just your website. Ensure you’re selling on all the platforms your potential customers are spending time on, be it Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, or Walmart Marketplace. If you’re already selling on Amazon and Walmart Marketplace, there are still a lot of areas in which you can improve. Amazon With the Brand Registry Program, you can optimize your product pages with increased customization, while also protecting brand assets against infringement by other sellers. Amazon Stores lets you design store pages for your brand. Having a customized brand page builds brand authority and helps you connect with customers on a deeper emotional level. Lastly, Amazon Advertising and the Amazon Influencer Program can massively increase awareness and engagement for your products, both on and off the platform. Walmart Marketplace Sellers using Walmart Fulfillment Services and sporting the Pro Seller badge are automatically part of the most elite sellers on the platform. Walmart Advertising is a highly effective tool to drive customers to your products and highlight deals and specials you might be running. Using Walmart’s new Flash Picks program, you can take advantage of Walmart’s marketing campaigns and deliver a top-notch and consistent site experience to your buyers. (7) Product Images and Videos Since you're selling products, you want to make sure you give your potential customers every opportunity to view your product and see it in action. Let's start with videos as they're one of the most powerful and engaging content types you can have. You can publish videos about your ecommerce products, these could be; Product review videos Product unboxing videos Product advertisement videos Product marketing videos Product explainer videos When consumers are watching videos, they feel like they're a part of that conversation. It's a powerful influencer, video content can make your ecommerce brand rememberable. Product images play a big role also - product images are the vessel that allows potential customers to view a product before they buy. Knowing this, making sure your images are clear and pixel perfect is very important. You should always consider having multiple images for each ecommerce product you have. For the best possible results, make sure you're using both video and images. If your products don't have images and videos right now, get them added - it will make a difference. You want to give your customers every opportunity possible to engage with your products. If you want to take it to another level, try a 360 video. There's a lot of different ways to help your audience connect and engage with your ecommerce products - images and video are among the best. (8) Products Proudly Made In (Country) While we can't speak for every country, here in the United States of America, many customers only buy products that are sold in the U.S.A. Take Diversified Specialties for example, a U.S. based company that builds stainless steel sprockets. If you visit their landing page on sprockets, you'll find "100% Made In The USA" front and center in the header of their webpage. Sure, they talk about their stainless steel sprockets, hitting on the quality, strength, efficiency, and affordable price of their sprockets. Still, they know a product manufactured in the U.S. is important to their audience, this is where a few words can count for a lot. There's a lot of consumers in the U.S. that are very patriotic and only buy from companies that make their products in the United States. In Closing The (6) pillars we've discussed today - they move the needle. If you can focus in those areas, you're going to see better results. Don't forget, one of the best ways to take your business to the next level is by surrounding yourself with like-minded entrepreneurs. You can do just that by joining PDMI - check out our membership here.

By Lindsey Carnett Cast your mind back to how you lived during the pandemic. Our daily lives shifted online, and our contact with the outside world, at least in its physical form, ebbed away. This solitary shift in behavior also led us to spend more time purchasing our everyday essentials — and often lockdown treats — at the click of a button. Businesses, whatever their sector, have been impacted by this shift in consumer purchasing. Many brick-and-mortar stores have ramped up their online offerings to proactively offer customers a broader choice of products and services and the way in which they can purchase them. Others have closed physical stores altogether. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the second quarter of 2020, US consumers spent $211.5 billion on e-commerce. Statistics show that online sales grew nearly 20 percent in April 2021, and online, shoppers were spending the most on clothing. Additionally, 48 percent of consumers say their shopping habits have been permanently changed by the pandemic. To meet these new trends and habits, companies know that they need to invest in market research. Market research helps drive decision making and dives deep into a company and its competition, developing initiatives and campaigns that achieve measurable results using the market research they've conducted. For companies that want to start a new campaign, market research is essential to understand what competitors are up to, as well as identifying opportunities for growth and the chance to gauge the wider consumer landscape. Setting this groundwork early on can help better target audiences and result in a better return on investment. Market research firms have experienced large growth in the demand for market research support. Companies, cross-sector, are utilizing market research not only to navigate the competitive landscape and to prioritize target demographics, but also as a tool to onboard new staff and to support their lending relationships. New methods of market research like content gap analyses, social listening, SEO, and influencer relevance analyses are used by marketers and production companies to gain an understanding of a brand’s customers and their key vertical to clearly illustrate market opportunities. Other consumer insights tactics helpful prior to a full-scale launch include customer surveys, online forum monitoring, social media analytics, big data analytics, message testing, deep-dive web crawling, sentiment analysis, listening sessions, web chats with focus groups, and the synthesis of data. Video content has become even more important in our changing consumer landscape. Video is king in the consumers’ demand for quick, digestible content. Content like this helps brands to make a direct connection with customers and can and should be used to help nurture a deep connection over a long period of time. One DRTV advertiser in the seating business was airing national TV spots targeted toward one persona. By executing a deep-dive competitor content gap analysis, three additional personas were developed, influencers were selected and contracted, ads were created from influencer content, and social media targeting allowed for new revenue streams to open for these new consumer audiences that otherwise wouldn’t have been tested. By not exploring these insights, marketers can’t see their own blind spots. This is essentially a “blind spot finder” that helps brands not leave money on the table. One way in which video production companies can effectively use market research is to work with social media influencers. They prioritize sincere relationships with their followers and are influential in persuading them to buy or try out what they’re promoting. By using them as part of the market research strategy, they will have a direct and authentic line to what customers want from the content they consume, raising the odds of a successful television or digital commercial campaign. And it may sound obvious, but deep diving into the digital footprint of the competition should be one of the first steps a company should do. Did a similar campaign sink or swim? What is their target audience keen to see more of? How do they communicate with their customers? All these questions should form the foundation of a brand’s research. This approach will effectively help with the brand messaging and the development of unique selling propositions, making it more likely that the offer to the consumer will succeed. It is clear that the COVID pandemic changed the landscape for many people and many industries, but it has had a special effect on marketing for companies. From the way that consumers consume products and services, to how they do their own research to influence a purchase, consumer spending habits have challenged even the seasoned marketing professional. Messaging, budgets, and outlets have all been affected and in some ways; "business as normal" may never resume. Marketing research as a technique is a tried-and-tested method of understanding what drives a target customer and how their habits shape an industry’s competitive landscape. An effective market research strategy, led by professionals, should be an approach that businesses invest in if they want to nurture and grow their offering for the future. Lindsey Carnett is CEO and president of Southern California-based Marketing Maven. She can be reached via email at lindsey@marketingmaven.com.

Honor received for third year in a row. Paymerang has been named a Top Performer in the Accounts Payable Winter 2022 Customer Success Report published by FeaturedCustomers. This marks the third consecutive year that Paymerang has earned the Top Performer distinction in the international B2B platform’s annual report. The Customer Success Report is based on the curation of authenticated case studies, testimonials, and videos from across the web — telling a complete story of vendors in the Accounts Payable Software space through real customer experiences. Rankings are determined by multiple factors including the amount of customer success content, social media and market presence, vendor momentum based on web traffic and search trends, and additional data aggregated from online sources and media properties. Based on comprehensive customer data reviewed by FeaturedCustomers, the Top Performer designation is awarded to vendors with significant market presence and enough customer success content to validate their vision. Highly rated by customers, Paymerang consistently publishes high-quality, vendor-produced customer success content and curates quality customer references from multiple third-party sites. “It’s an honor to be recognized again as a Top Performer by FeaturedCustomers. We’re constantly working to remain innovative and improve our products, and often implement feedback from our customers into new product features and enhancements,” said Nasser Chanda, CEO of Paymerang. “Over the last year, when businesses had to abruptly shift to remote work, we saw a significant increased demand of accounting tools that have built in business continuity. Amongst the rapid growth of the company, Paymerang’s promise of being customer focused has remained constant. We’re proud to put minds at ease during such an uncertain time and be a small part of their businesses surviving in this economy.” Paymerang simplifies complex problems and makes business payments easy. After implementing Paymerang’s solution, clients can refocus efforts away from payment processing and reconciliation to more strategic initiatives like operational efficiency and financial controls. When partnering with Paymerang, clients not only see immediate efficiency gains but add over 100 AP specialists to their team. Paymerang is proud to be named a Top Performer in Accounts Payable and will continue to provide world-class customer care to our clients as we continue to grow and increase our product base. Keep reading to see clients rave about Paymerang: “Paymerang saves us time and makes us money, it’s as simple as that. Their solution allows our AP team to take on greater responsibility and focus on more important financial initiatives.” — Corporate Controller, Clark Nexsen “We chose Paymerang because in addition to helping us increase our cash on hand and build revenue through AP, their program enabled us to significantly increase our supplier participation in a way bank credit card programs simply can’t.” — CFO, St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System “Electronic payments are an important part of the procure-to-pay cycle for our customers, and we’re pleased to provide this capability through our partnership with Paymerang.” — President, NorthStar Currency Click here to view the entire 2022 Accounts Payable Software Report. Paymerang’s profile and customer success content can be found here. To find out more about Paymerang's solutions, please contact Mike Johnson, vice president of business development, at mjohnson@paymerang.com or visit paymerang.com.

Good business says companies need to give customers the freedom to change their minds about a purchase. But businesses also need to be aware of common return and refund fraud practices that can cause financial losses. Refund fraud happens when a customer or bad actor gets a refund for goods they purchased without returning them. This type of fraud often occurs during busy seasons. One way bad actors commit refund fraud is by falsely claiming that a package did not arrive or was stolen in an attempt to get a full refund. Because there are little to no industry controls on refunds, businesses experience higher losses in refunds than chargebacks. And since there isn’t a traditional dispute with refund fraud, it’s hard to detect and fight. Return fraud happens when a customer or a bad actor takes advantage of return policies to profit or get goods for free. They may try to manipulate tags and packaging to return an item for more than it’s worth. Businesses lose billions of dollars each year to return fraud. And many allow customers to abuse promotions. For example, they may allow customers to buy enough merchandise to get free shipping and return items later. Fortunately, businesses can fight these types of fraud in a number of ways. Click here now to visit Kount's blog to read more about refund and return fraud — and how to prevent these schemes.

Audit time is one of the most stressful times of year, causing moments of panic and apprehension across organizations. They open businesses up to inspection, scrutiny, and even sometimes, penalties. Finance departments are often looking for more efficient ways to audit and gain visibility of cash flow. Previously, an auditor would send a list of requested documents that the accounting staff would search tirelessly to check off all the items on the list. This could involve rooms full of miscellaneously labeled filing cabinets that consume hours of staff time, diverting them from their primary job roles. Paymerang’s Accounts Payable and Invoice Automation platforms provide companies with the means to complete their audits quickly and confidently, largely eliminating the risk and inefficiencies associated with a manual process. Here are four ways Paymerang simplifies the audit process: Put an end to “paper chasing” Auditors recommend having all your documents organized and labeled by tax year, which can be time-consuming and tedious work/ With Paymerang, all your documents are digitized, processed and searchable with just a few clicks. Reduce risk of human error Whether it be data entry errors, duplicate payments, or misfiled documents, one small misstep can cause a significant delay in your audit. Paymerang uses the power of artificial intelligence and process automation to diminish the inevitability of human mistakes in manual processes. Maintain an audit trail Auditors investigate the invoice approval process, which can involve being bounced around between different levels of approvers. With Paymerang’s comprehensive audit trail, all invoices and payments have a track of approvals, changes, and additional notes so auditors can easily view the process from start to finish. Increase security Incorrectly stored banking information, as well as the rise in check and vendor fraud, can put your organization at risk of financial penalties. Paymerang’s cloud-based platform securely stores all sensitive banking information on your behalf with encryption and multi-factor authentication. In addition, Paymerang is SOC2-audited, NACHA and PCI-DSS compliant, and includes Positive Pay on all checks. Audits are a crucial part of maintaining your organization’s financial integrity, however the time and cost to conduct them can put an unnecessary strain on employees and day-to-day operations. Paymerang’s Accounts Payable and Invoice Automation platforms can reduce the strains that comes with audit season, giving your organization more time and resources to focus on what it does best. To find out more about Paymerang's solutions, please contact Mike Johnson, vice president of business development, at mjohnson@paymerang.com or visit paymerang.com.

While a lot of businesses are focused on utilizing digital marketing for growth, radio advertising is still an effective traditional marketing strategy you may want to explore. There’s no question about it: digital marketing continues to trend upward as one of the most preferred marketing strategies to use. While that is true, radio ads can still be effective as millions of people here in the U.S. still listen to radio. With recent tech advancements, radio advertisements have a much higher quality now versus years ago. While radio does compete with other forms of advertising, Nielson Audio reports 243 million people listen to the radio: that sounds like a lot of opportunity. Formats for Radio Stations One thing you need to understand before you jump into radio advertising is radio station formats. The format is going to determine the specific audience segment the station appeals to and the audience it delivers to advertisers. Here’s a list of the most common radio formats: Top 40 Today FM Adult hits Progressive rock Alternative Classic rock Hip hop/urban World news Golden oldies Christian rock News and talk radio Classical Adult contemporary Easy listening Which Format Is Best for Each Demographic The format of each station impacts which group is typically the core demographic that a station will reach. The following will give you an idea of which format targets which type of listener. Teens 12-17: Primarily top 40, urban, alternative Adults 18-24: Top 40, alternative, urban preference Adults 25-34: Alternative, rock, top 40, urban, adult contemporary Adults 35-44: Rock, adult contemporary Adults 45-54: Oldies, adult contemporary Adults 55-64: Classical, new adult contemporary Adults 65+: Adult standards, classical, news/talk What Are Radio Spots and What You Need to Know Radio spots are another term used for radio advertisements. This is what businesses buy to advertise their brand to listeners. Radio advertising is usually divided into three categories: Live read Sponsorship Produced spot Those businesses who want to promote their products and services need to choose the type of radio advertisement they want to pay for. A radio station has an ad time inventory of about 18 minutes per hour, which it sells in increments of 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 60 seconds. Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these categories and what makes them unique. (1) Live Read Live read is most commonly used at events. The commentators at the event would perform live reads, read the brand aloud, and hope that the product’s quick advertising will reach more people. Radio hosts that are well known and have a big following also can be hired to live-read an advertisement. (a) Onsite Broadcasting Events When you scale back to regional and local radio hosts, many of these personalities are quite popular. Many people follow them and have an affinity for listening to certain on-air personalities. Many times radio stations will offer onsite events to their advertisers. This includes the on-air personality coming to the business location and broadcasting live to try and get fans to come to the business. (2) Sponsorships Sponsorship is another type of radio advertising usually inserted into traffic, weather, or sports segments within a show. For example, the announcer will tell the listeners that a certain brand sponsored the segment. This type of advertising is usually used for branding purposes and can help increase name recognition. (3) Traditional Produced Spots One more radio advertising type is known as "produced spots." These are full radio advertisements that use stories, jingles, dialogue, and even voice actors. These would labeled as information advertisements; they encourage listeners to buy the products and services being advertised. How Much Do Radio Ads Cost? Naturally, you want to know how much radio ads cost. There’s a number of different ways that radio stations can determine the price of their radio ads, including: Specific demographics of the radio station’s audience Specific demand for the radio advertisement The amount of people that listen to your ad CPM rates While any of these can determine a radio ad cost, the majority of them will likely focus in on the CPM rates. There’s a simple equation you can use: Amount of People Listening x Cost to Reach 1,000 listeners (CPM) = Cost of Advertising Per Spot Now, the CPM rate is likely to vary a lot from one radio station to the next. That is especially true as it pertains to programming and the market size. We'll be glad to give to an example, but it's only that, an example. The average CPM rate for ages 18-49 is around $13-$15. The average CPM rate for age 50+ ranges from $7-$11. Evening and overnight costs are usually lower due to inventory and a lower quantity of listeners. What Are the Benefits of Radio Advertising There’s a wide variety of benefits you can receive through radio advertising. In 2022, we can tell you from experience, a lot of businesses are not focused on leveraging radio ads. In a lot of markets, some people think radio advertising has become obsolete, but advertising on radio can still be an extremely effective marketing strategy. Hundreds of millions of people all over the United States still listen to the radio. The majority of those listeners are driving in vehicles. Companies know that, and this is why some of them pour millions of dollars into radio ads. Let’s take a look at each one of these radio advertising benefits. (1) Target the Exact Demographic You Want Each radio station within your market will target specific demographics and market segments. These are usually defined by what is known to be “programming,” type of music that will run through the segments, on-air personalities, and the specific time of day your advertising campaign will run. (2) Hit the Market Fast When creating a television or print advertisement, the time frame required to produce a single commercial or print ad may span weeks or even months. However, a radio host can advertise the product or service in an instant. (3) Can Be Cost-Effective While you can utilize social media to reach your target audience without a lot of costs, radio advertising can also be cost-effective, especially when compared to television and print advertisements. If you’re using TV or print now, it may make more sense to give radio a try, or at least test a radio marketing campaign at some point. (4) Increased Frequency Most marketers would label radio advertising as a frequency medium, we’d agree to that. Unlike television advertising that relies on reach and visuals, radio relies on repetition, making sure your message is heard multiple times. Playing your advertisement multiple times is going to give you the best opportunity to make an impression with listeners; it gives you an opportunity to be remembered. (5) More Memorable Speaking of being remembered, radio advertisements are generally more memorable compared to written and visual ads. Several studies have proven this, suggesting that sound can be stored effectively inside memory for longer than anything visual. Think about all the jingles you know: that could be Nationwide, McDonalds, Slinky. All of these have launched jingles that are recognized by millions of people. Cons of Radio Advertising No Visual Appeal One of the biggest cons of radio advertising is the fact that it has no visual appeal. When you compare it to social media or television, it can’t compete in this area. With that being said, there are strategies you can use to offset this disadvantage. For example, your radio advertisement can funnel listeners to a website or a video online. You can also use traditional marketing strategies, such as events or direct mail. Lack of Attention Another big drawback to the radio is the lack of attention of those listening. A lot of people that are listening to the radio are driving, so you may only have a specific amount of time to reach them. Even if you’re driving down the road with the radio on, you’re paying more attention (we hope) to driving than listening on the radio. Tough to Get Spots When it comes to radio stations and their regional sales reps, you’re always going to lose out to the bigger brands. In many cases, these branded spots are planned ahead of time and that takes away from new advertisers. Although it can be a challenge, it’s not impossible. If you can be consistent trying to find spots, you can make progress. Here are some interesting radio and audio advertising stats, courtesty of eMarketer. How much money will advertisers spend on audio ads? Combined, U.S. radio and digital audio services received $16.8 billion in ad spending in 2021, of which terrestrial radio accounted for two-thirds with the remaining third going to digital audio. Which digital audio platforms will have the most listeners? This year, Spotify will have 83.1 million U.S. listeners, and Pandora will have 54.2 million. Amazon and Apple are gaining listeners, and we expect Amazon to surpass Pandora by the end of 2022. What share of internet users subscribe to audio products? In 2021, there were 121.9 million paid audio subscribers in the U.S., which account for 41.4% of internet users. How much money will be spent on podcast ads? US advertisers spent $1.33 billion on podcast ads in 2021, a 38.7% year-over-year (YoY) increase. How many people in the United States listen to radio every week? Every week, more than 90% of the total American population tunes into the radio. How many people in the United States listen to radio every day? About 59% of the total American population listens to radio programs daily. How many radio stations are there in the United States? In the U.S., there are more than 6,000 radio stations. What percentage of radio listeners are buying advertised products after hearing about them? It’s estimated that about 24 percent of people that hear radio advertisements buy the product advertised after hearing it from the radio.

Marketing is essential to the growth of your business. Implement the right marketing strategy, and it can lead to success. Implement the wrong strategy, and it can impact your business negatively. That begs the question, “What’s the right marketing strategy for my company?” To understand that, let’s look at the definition of marketing strategy. Investopedia defines marketing strategy as follows: a business’s overall game plan for reaching prospective leads and turning them into customers of the products or services the business provides. Your marketing strategy can have many layers, such as the company’s value proposition, key brand messaging, data on target customer demographics, and other high-level elements. A marketing strategy combines all aspects of the customer journey and gives visibility to each department. This then allows the organization to focus on the resources available, figuring out a way to use them to the best of their ability in order to generate sales and increase competitive advantage. Finding a Repeatable Marketing Strategy While your marketing strategy will likely need regular adjustments or optimizations, it should give you a baseline of where to start. In doing so, it’ll make it easier to see similar or improved results from each campaign without having to completely reinvent the wheel. It also creates stability and a sense of predictability within your marketing department, which is exactly what you need to grow your company successfully. Your marketing strategy needs to be repeatable. The best example is to think of your strategy as a menu. A menu gives the restaurant a framework and process to work within, one that can be repeated over and over again. If you order a Big Mac from McDonald's, there’s a specific recipe to create the same result for the consumer. As for marketers, your menu likely looks similar every month. That’s especially true once you get your marketing dialed in. Every month, you want to see a specific set of results: the outcome is usually new leads, new sales, new content assets, etc. Just like recipes can change on a menu, so can your marketing tactics. Some companies will prefer using Google AdWords or Facebook ads, while others may lean more toward search engine optimization (SEO). While our recipes are adaptable and can be altered, the menu is more or less the same, allowing us to have more free time to spend on improving our recipes, rather than changing the menu each week/month/quarter/year. Scaling Your Marketing Strategy The short-term goal for marketing is finding a solid marketing strategy that is repeatable. The last thing you want to do is change your marketing every day of the week. If you can repeat your strategy, you can scale it at will. For a growing company, this is vital. One of the biggest mistakes we see in marketing is the fact that they don’t share data and insights with employees, teams, or departments of the company. The entire company should be on the same page as it pertains to adopting the same marketing strategy for all products and services you offer. By doing so, it’s going to keep everyone on the same page and allow for consistency across all marketing campaigns. If your message is different on your PPC campaigns versus your SEO, that’s a problem. The challenge you face is finding what works, that can take time and effort. However, once you find what works and what doesn’t, you’ll have the opportunity to repeat it and scale. With an effective plan in place — that is both repeatable and scalable — you are free to focus your efforts on improving the strategy and making it work, rather than wasting a lot of time that you don’t have, worrying about what the strategy is going to be. You Can’t Find the Right Marketing Strategy Without Discussing Your Target Audience Your marketing strategy has to focus on getting your content in front of an audience, but not just any audience: it has to be your target audience. The more defined your target audience is, the better your marketing strategy will be, as you’ll be able to create all of the brand marketing content, messaging, and ads with them in mind. How can you find out who your perfect client is and what they want most? You have to talk to your customers. Those conversations are essential to your marketing because you can speak their language in your content. As time goes on, you’ll have the opportunity to gather more insights and details about your audience. It will allow you to gain a deeper understanding of who exactly falls into your target audience. All of us have to learn as we go; don’t let that deter you in any shape or form. If you’re willing to go out there and create feedback loops with your audience, you’re going to walk away with a ton of valuable insights you can apply to your marketing. Those conversations will give you the answers you need, then you can take what you learn and apply it to your marketing. Want to gain access to more premium content and connect with some of the most influential minds in business? Make sure you become a PDMI member today!

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy that focuses on reaching a target audience on their mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, email, websites, SMS, MMS, social media, and other mobile applications. As a business owner, you may be asking yourself, “Do we need to focus on mobile marketing?” The answer is a BIG yes! During the past decade, we’ve seen a huge shift of customers focusing their attention and advertising dollars to mobile. Because of this, marketers are doing the same in order to create true omnichannel engagement. As technology becomes more diverse, so does digital marketing. If you want to stay active and keep your prospect’s attention, you better make sure your content is specific, strategic, and highly personalized. Marketing always must keep device types in mind when creating campaigns. When it comes to mobile marketing, there’s a lot that you have to stay mindful of, such as leveraging mobile apps, SMS, and MMS marketing. Mobile marketing should play a key role when it comes to building out any short-term or long-term marketing plan. How are you going to reach your mobile users? Search engine optimization (SEO) Email marketing Content marketing Google Adwords (PPC) Display advertising Social media marketing Affiliate marketing All six of these marketing strategies give you direct access to mobile users, giving you multiple channels to reach your target prospect. Targeting all of these digital marketing components allows you to reach your audience where they are most comfortable. For mobile marketing to be effective, you need to curate a cohesive experience that customers expect — and that can be a real challenge as you work to acquire, engage, and retain users across a variety of platforms. Mobile marketing can do wonders for driving brand value and demand for your products or services by leveraging mobile devices to connect with more consumers in real time at any point in the customer’s journey. Mobile is also growing steadily. Mobile vs. Desktop in 2021 According to TechJury, over the course of one year, shares of mobile users have increased by more than 10 percent. That’s not all — they found a lot of interesting insights: Mobile vs. desktop usage stats in 2021 reveal 50 percent of B2B inquiries were made on mobile last year. Social media takes 25 percent of all digital media consumption, and it is mainly accessed on mobile. In 2020, US adults spent four hours per day on their mobile phones. In 2021, mobile phones generated 54.3 percent of traffic (vs. desktops at 42.9 percent). 55 percent of page views in 2021 come from mobile phones. More than half of all video views come from mobile devices. Phone-based CPCs cost 24 percent less than desktop and have a 40-percent higher CTR. Mobile apps have higher engagement rates than mobile-optimized websites or desktop web viewing. These mobile marketing insights show you why more companies are focusing on mobile marketing. Everyone uses their mobile phones, adults in the U.S. alone are averaging four hours a day on their mobile devices. Mobile marketing is becoming more effective because that is where you can find your target audience. Adweek estimates that 79 percent of smartphone users have their phones on or near them all but two hours a day. Today, there are more mobile devices in the world (8.7 billion) than people (7.1 billion), due largely in part to our voracious appetite for new technology. U.N. data analysts have found that in the United States, 71.5 percent of citizens over the age of 13 have a smartphone, and 66.5 percent have smartphones globally (WorldoMeters U.N. data, GSMA Intelligence). To harness the growing power of mobile marketing, you must focus on creating the seamless experience that your audience expects. While it may sound like we’re pushing mobile marketing only, that’s not the case. In fact, mobile marketing works great with traditional marketing and media. While mobile is a powerful tool, don’t underestimate the value of combining it with offline marketing strategies. What Problems Can Mobile Marketing Solve for You The big key for mobile marketing is the fact that it allows you to reach people in real-time, no matter where they are. We’ve seen mobile sales trending during the past decade. Mobile commerce sales are projected to reach $3.56 trillion in 2021 — that’s a jump of 22.3 percent versus 2020 at $2.91 trillion. More so, mobile sales show no sign of slowing down anytime soon. With more and more sales being initiated from mobile, it's extremely important that it becomes a focus point in your marketing strategy. Here are a few common questions we've been asked about mobile marketing. Question #1: I’m not sure if my audience is a mobile audience or not. What should I do? As we head into 2022, mobile users can range from ages four to 90 years old. Just in case you didn’t get it, this pretty much includes everyone. Really, you should be asking a different question. It’s not about the age necessarily, but rather, the key is knowing how and when they use their mobile devices. This is why we always recommend developing buyer personas, and you’ll be able to reach your audience anywhere. Question #2: My website and content is not mobile responsive. What can I do to fix it? One of the very first steps to creating a mobile marketing campaign is ensuring you have a responsive mobile design: that should include your website, emails, platforms, profiles, and landing pages. There are so many platforms you can use to build responsive designs. For instance, Elementor is a good one for those of you that need a WordPress solution. Before you ever launch a mobile campaign, you better make sure your designs are responsive. Question #3: I have great mobile traffic, but am not seeing good conversions. What should I do? This is a tough question to answer because this problem can point to a lot of different things. Is there a problem with your mobile design? Can users easily access your mobile website? Have you evaluated your mobile checkout or lead generation process? If mobile design is not a problem, it could point to your marketing, such as the language you're using. Question #4: How do I integrate a mobile strategy into my marketing plan? The key to defining any effective strategy is to first decide what does a successful campaign looks like. Get the key stakeholders together to map your mobile marketing strategy, determine how current efforts are performing (if you have any in place), and identify what can be improved. As long as you're always launching, evaluating, and optimizing, you're going to ensure your campaign is always taking steps forward. Key Elements of Mobile Marketing Mobile marketing goes much deeper than just text messages and mobile apps. To ensure a complete marketing experience, you better consider responsive design across the board. Mobile-Friendly Websites: The good news here: most web builders online today do have mobile designs. Mobile-friendly content fits on the screen without side-to-side scrolling or zooming, it loads quickly, and it’s free of mobile errors. The most important reason to maintain a mobile-friendly site is to create a consistent and engaging user experience (UX). Mobile UX has a dramatic effect on every stage of the buying cycle. Mobile-Friendly SMS and MMS Messages: SMS (short message service) and MMS (multimedia message service) messaging are two direct methods you can use to send content to your customers, but it’s important to use these channels wisely. Gain knowledge of the best techniques to get your messaging to your customer fast, and go over the cardinal rules for an effective campaign, whether it be promos, videos, product alerts, or reminders. Mobile-Friendly Advertising and Landing Pages: Fifty-seven percent of email is opened on mobile platforms and 69 percent of mobile users delete email that isn’t optimized for mobile (Litmus). Because of this, it’s imperative that your emails employ responsive design — a strategy that automatically formats webpage content for optimal viewing on any device. And don’t forget about landing pages. If your email is mobile friendly, but the click-through goes to a landing page that isn’t optimized for mobile, that visitor will likely become frustrated and click away. Mobile-Friendly Apps: With the right strategy and road map, mobile apps can provide an opportunity to drive profound engagement with your customers. Explore the different types of apps — productivity, commerce, retained engagement, and mixed-use — and whether or not a mobile app is the right move to support your acquisition, engagement, or conversion business goals. Mobile-Friendly MarTech. Did you know that quarter of mobile apps are only used one time? First impressions matter a lot in many different things in life, but they certainly do on mobile apps. Since the average consumer has 70 apps on their mobile phones, how can you ensure that your company's mobile app stands out from the competition? That is a challenge you're going to face: you have to think about app downloads, app installs, and app usability improvements. Companies with mobile apps that have used marketing automation can better drive app downloads, user retention, engagement, and monetization. Right now is the best time to start focusing on your mobile marketing campaigns. What can you do today to start optimizing your mobile campaigns? Start with this article! Also, if you haven't joined PDMI, you're missing out on so much incredible content and resources to help you get to that next level. You can check out our PDMI memberships here.

By definition, audio marketing refers to marketing initiatives where the output is audio content, versus written or visual content. While companies have been using audio marketing effectively for decades, it’s just now starting to play a key role in businesses’ marketing strategies. If you’ve been thinking about getting started with audio marketing or thinking about going all-in, right now is a great time to take advantage of all the different ways audio can play a role in your marketing. What Categories Are Included in Audio Marketing? There are a number of different categories under the audio marketing umbrella. Some of the most popular include: Podcasts Podcast advertising Radio Radio advertising Voice search via Google Alexa skills Voice-enabled advertising How to Create an Audio Marketing Strategy There are a number of different ways you can implement audio marketing into your overall marketing strategy. Here’s how you can create an audio marketing strategy. What’s your goal using audio marketing? You always want to set goals for your marketing initiatives, so you need to think about how audio marketing can help feed the growth of your business. You can use audio marketing for: Branding and awareness A new lead-generation channel To sell products and services To increase voice SEO keywords and rankings Creating Content for Your Audio Campaigns One of the biggest challenges we see with companies is their ability or inability to create consistent content for their audience. Everything moves fast and if you’re not creating content regularly, it’s going to be a huge disadvantage for your business. If you don’t have the budget or resources to create consistent content, you better make sure every piece of content you do produce is leveraged to your best ability. If you’re producing content assets or blogs, you can use those for your audio marketing. You can turn those blogs into podcasts — that is one way to maximize the content you already have published. If you have 40 blogs published, you can now take those blogs and create 40 podcasts. The same can be true for your emails: those can also be turned into audio assets. With the popularity of podcasts showing no sign of slowing down, there’s likely an audience there you haven’t tapped into yet. Another big benefit of having a podcast is the fact that you can use podcast ads. Podcast advertising can help you get a 30-second ad in front of your target audience. Podcast ads are often cheaper than other advertising options, so you can get more bang for your buck. A 30-second ad can range from $20-$30 CPM (cost-per-thousand). How to Get Started With Podcasts If you want to learn how to get started with podcasts, the process is relatively simple. (1) SEO and Keyword Research Your first order of business is getting familiar with SEO (search engine optimization). While most business owners are now aware of what SEO is, few know how to get results from their SEO. No matter if you’re doing SEO for your blogs or SEO for your podcasts, the first step is keyword research. You can use SEO software such as Ahrefs to evaluate keywords and keyphrases. Now, if you sell a product, your keywords need to relate to the product. If you sell a service, your keywords need to relate to the services you offer. You’ll want to make a list of keywords and pay attention to the amount of searches that keyword gets every month. Keyword search volume will give you an idea of how popular the keyword is. You’ll also want to research topics that are being talked about a lot, you can go to Google trends to see those topics. If you’re going to get serious about your podcast, subscriber growth should be a main focus for you. You need to think about what your perfect subscribers listen to. It can take some trial and error to get this dialed in, so make sure you’re talking to your subscribers and getting feedback from them on the topics they want to listen to. (2) Staying Organized and Focused Making sure your podcast runs efficiently can be a challenge if you’re not organized. You’ll want to make sure you create an outline for: Structure of your podcast Topics and content Calendar for publishing podcast episodes Podcast episode content The key is staying organized and publishing your podcast on a set schedule. Schedules are vital to growing podcast subscribers, so you want to set specific times so subscribers know when new content will be released. Remember how we told you to create podcasts from your blogs? Great news: once you have a podcast published, you can create blogs out of your podcast episodes. (3) Recording Your Podcast There will be specific podcast equipment you’re going to need to produce a quality show. You’re going to need to invest in: For speaking: a microphone with a USB or XLR output For recording: a computer or smart phone For music: A single-track license or a license subscription For editing: Use a digital audio workstation (DAW) like Audacity A common question we get all the time: How long should my podcast be? It all depends on the subject matter. Most podcast episodes are generally 20-30 minutes long. In the beginning, that is usually a good starting point to target. As your audience and popularity grow, you can experiment with longer podcast shows. Make sure you're communicating with your subscribers. You can ask them how long they prefer the podcast to be. That feedback loop is vital to your success, so make sure your podcast becomes a community. How Can I Distribute My Podcast? When it comes to distributing your podcast, there are a number of great platforms out there that can help you do just that. Platforms like Anchor.fm make it simple to upload your podcast audio and distribute it to popular streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more. Anchor also provides some basic analytics about your listener audience. If you’re more focused on embedding your episodes on your website and not as concerned with distribution, you can use an audio-hosting platform like SoundCloud that will help you meet that goal. You can also utilize YouTube for embeds and community. We’d also recommend reaching out to other podcasters and becoming friends with them. Don’t do it just for the relationship, be honest with yourself and reach out to like minds. These relationships can help both parties grow their podcasts, as well as bring around additional opportunities to grow your brand and business.

Ushering in six more weeks of shopping deals to be had. By Gina Pomponi Black Friday shopping has been in vogue since the 1970s. Who hasn’t woken up at an ungodly hour to get the best deals on Black Friday? The tradition has become a staple in American culture. Retailers advertise their best deals of the season and lure holiday shoppers with “door busters” like a $200 big-screen TV or the toy of the season at the lowest price. With Thanksgiving week comes an abundance of ads touting storewide savings and early bird specials to drive sales … but it’s not just retail foot traffic this year. As with most things in 2020, Black Friday experienced a major paradigm shift on both the consumer and advertiser front. Due to COVID-19, consumers of all ages were forced to shop much differently, moving from brick-and-mortar to purchasing most of their goods online. This created a year-over-year increase in e-commerce sales of more than 30 percent, with 2020 online sales matching those not previously projected until at least 2022. Last year’s consumer buying behavior shift seems as though it’s here to stay. This has forced many previously traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to rapidly step up their ability to meet these demands. In addition to ramping up direct sales capabilities, advertisers are learning to dip their toes in the direct-to-consumer marketing arena. Perhaps one of the biggest changes in 2020 was the length of Black Friday sales events. Best Buy kicked off its holiday TV campaign in late October, touting that Black Friday deals were extended through all of November. Several retailers followed suit, with month-long sales events — many including different weekly sales through to the Christmas holiday. Another big change was big retailers, such as Walmart, Target, and Kohls, closing on Thanksgiving Day last year for the first time in many years. Being in the advertising industry, I always spend some time over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend watching TV commercials (I’m probably the only person that does this!). Last year, there was a big change in commercials and messaging to support a very different “online” Black Friday. As expected, TV retail advertising was in full force all weekend with all the usual suspects. However, the commercial messaging was much more tailored to accommodate and speak directly to the consumer. Even major brands shifted toward direct-to consumer advertising. For example, the M&M’s Santa Claus ad included a URL for consumers to shop direct. Retailers like Kohls, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and others offered both online shopping and curbside pickup as alternatives in their commercials. Kay’s Jewelers’ TV spot provided consumers with three shopping options: online, virtual consultant, and in store. These companies are finally realizing that they need to engage directly with the consumer, which is what I have been doing for more than 30 years. I predict major retailers will continue to take a direct-to-consumer approach for Black Friday advertising in 2021 — and in years to come. Should we really continue to call it “Black Friday”? Perhaps “Black November” is a more accurate descriptor. Everyone knows the official date of Black Friday as the day after Thanksgiving. Not unlike last year, big retailers started their sales as early as October. These sales will not be limited to in-store purchases only. Online sales will lead the charge for holiday retail revenue. Or maybe I should say Amazon will lead the charge — with everyone else trying to catch up. All of this is going to make Black Friday's online deals even more important. This year, you'll have a better chance of finding Black Friday big-screen TV deals in the comfort of your own home rather than waiting in line outside of a physical store at 4 a.m. Happy shopping! Gina Pomponi is president and COO of direct marketing and advertising agency Bluewater Media. She can be reached via email at gina@bluewater.tv.

PDMI member PremiumMedia360 (a panelist during the PDMI's Fall Seminar Series event on Sept. 21) presents an on-demand webinar on how using the right automation can drive organic growth for direct response agencies. In this webinar, hear how direct response agency Lead Surge uses data automation to refocus time, work strategically, and build business more efficiently. This exclusive fireside chat originally aired in August, and features Kirsty Middlemiss, media operations director at Lead Surge, and Michelle Clayton, chief client officer at PremiumMedia360. Get actionable insights on: Knowing when it’s time to automate more of your agency data workflow Using automation to level-up your team’s strategic work Key assets to seek in an automation partner Register here to view this on-demand webinar now!