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Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing

Threads or threat, as Twitter would say

We’ve all heard talk about this new platform that has come in strong to challenge Elon Musk’s famous bird app. A lot of us have already downloaded it to see how it functions. But what does the future hold? Will Threads be able to dethrone the once revolutionary reign of Twitter? Was Threads’ launch a master move or a waste of money and time for the unparalleled Mark?

First, we’d like to briefly review the distinct challenges and adaptations that Mark has had to face.

Instagram was created in 2010 and 6 years later it had changed its logo 5 times, incorporated hashtags, filters, permitted Android users to download the app, created a version for Windows desktops, added advertising and changed the algorithm (prioritizing relevant content over chronological posts). In 2012 Vine appeared, an app belonging to Twitter that allowed users to share videos. Instagram rapidly responded with the same function and longer videos. Then in 2014, Snapchat disrupted the social media industry by revolutionizing the market with instant stories, but of course, Instagram decided not to stay far behind and in 2016 created temporary stories that lasted 24 hours. That same year TikTok was created, and this is when shorter videos came back into the picture but with an artistic twist. This Chinese social platform let users create musical clips and brought us a very particular function: users were able to synchronize an external audio with other images and adding all types of effects and filters. But does Instagram decide to sit still and do nothing? Of course not! Reels and trending audios were introduced; Instagram stood its ground. In 2017 the platform introduced live streams, and the impact was enormous. It was a response to Periscope, which was created in 2015 and also owned by Twitter. Finally, this year spontaneous stories emerged to combat BeReal, an app that was developed in 2020. In this case, spontaneous stories were not well received by the public.

After this brief review, let’s discover together the principal differences between Twitter and Threads to try to discern a possible future scenario.

  1. Threads relies directly on Instagram. It facilitated its initial development by copying data and transferring followers. The boost provided by Instagram, which has over 2 billion users, was significant.
  2. Threads doesn’t have a Worldwide Trends section.
  3. Threads posts can have up to 500 characters, while Twitter has 280.
  4. Threads has more restrictive security policies regarding the types of images and videos allowed to be posted. Inappropriate content is censored.
  5. Threads does not have limits on post views.
  6. Threads doesn’t have a function where users can send private messages, users depend on Instagram for this function.
  7. Twitter has more limitations on publishing multimedia than Threads.
  8. Threads doesn’t have a desktop or web version.
  9. Twitter’s search lets you search keywords, in Threads you can only search for other users.
  10. Threads organizes messages in forms of message threads, facilitating a continuous conversation. Twitter shows messages in chronological order.

We don’t want to take sides, but we understand that Twitter’s journey so far puts it in a privileged position. History shows us that to stay relevant, one must adapt and constantly change. Perhaps that is the path Twitter should continue to follow: acknowledging this threat and taking note of user complaints and making the necessary changes that the social media platform requires.

While Threads and Twitter are very similar, they are also different. Threads offers more intimate and segmented conversations, while Twitter stands out for its immediacy and virality. Threads is ideal for more intimate and focused groups, while the bird app submerges you in an ocean of real-time global conversations. Both apps have their charm. Which one is your favorite?

Marketo Engage - Rednodo
Digital Marketing

Manage big data-bases with Marketo Engage

You’ve probably already heard about Adobe Marketo Engage, recognized as “best in class.” This solution, designed for those who work in marketing or advertising, was acquired by Adobe in 2018 for the sum of 4.75 billion USD, marking a before and after in its Marketing Cloud trajectory. Adobe saw in Marketo a window to reinsert itself in B2B Marketing, and in this article, we tell you why it was a great decision.  

B2B relationships rely heavily on lead generation and management across various marketing channels. To find the right leads and connect them with the corresponding teams, companies are looking to rely on marketing automation platforms. Adobe, based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and learning mechanisms, provides an additional level of efficiency by increasing the number of relevant prospects and eliminating those who do not meet quality conditions. This platform offers various solutions according to needs and objectives: From business objectives, such as improving the customer experience; to marketing objectives, such as improving efficiency and ROI. This is why Adobe is the most chosen for end-to-end marketing.  

Thanks to its advanced software, this Marketing Automation tool is chosen because it allows companies to avoid repetition of processes, therefore, saving time and costs. With Adobe, companies can double the productivity of marketing teams and accelerate x4 the speed of campaign executions. They can build trusting relationships with business teams and individuals, by facilitating engagement analysis1. This allows you to manage and develop a commitment to the customer in different channels. This advantage aligns with the goal that drives the platform: to drive business sales, from 1.4x growth in revenue to a 1.7x increase in customer retention2. Likewise, Marketo Engage allows the user to analyze traffic to be able to measure and make reports of operational and strategic KPIs to monitor their campaigns.  

Now, how does the platform work? Its automation process is divided into phases. First, there is engagement with the client through the publication and promotion of created content. Second, it will “call capture” the software responsible for tracking all customer interactions to capture their information. Then, it goes to the phase of “nurturing” all active campaigns on the website and social networks, to finally enter the phase of establishing contact with promising users. This software also offers content personalization, powered by AI, which increases the efficiency of a campaign by up to 523%3; and user experience automation, since AI identifies the variables that influence customer behaviors, being able to increase by up to 255% 4 the average sales value. Usable in both B2B and B2C campaigns, this platform allows you to project the performance of your actions, being able to designate resources efficiently. It has been chosen by Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ as the leading platform in B2B automation compared to thirteen other platforms such as Oracle, Salesforce, Hubspot, and Microsoft. This is largely possible due to the large number of integrations offered by Adobe (over 500 across over twenty channels). From WordPress to ON24 or GoogleAdWords, this platform offers great scalability that allows the management of leads, AMB (Account-Based Marketing), and global sales. Another attribute recognized by Gartner is its global impact by having a user interface available in six languages with extensive support for documentation and training materials, and spreadsheets for creating landing pages, emails, and creating forms thanks to extensions such as Marketo Launchpoint and Adobe Exchange Marketplace.  

To sum up, one of its main benefits is the potential to assist companies to achieve an increase in their productivity and income. In figures, it has achieved conversion rates as high as 50%. Added to the increase in productivity by employees and therefore a higher ROI, Marketo is the most complete software in marketing automation, which explains how there are already more than 5000 entities worldwide that use it, especially5 Enterprise companies to increase their growth and income.  

Do you have any questions about its functionality? Our experts can help. 

Digital Marketing

Google Analytics 4: A step into tomorrow’s tools.

The tech industry changes by leaps and bounds, but that is no news. In November 2020, Google launched its newest generation of analytical platforms: Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and Team Rednodo has already started using it. Based on our experience, here are some of the differences it provides compared to Google Universal Analytics (UA), its former generation.   

It is essential to know that GA4 is not an upgrade but a new version of Google UA, and is still in its Beta version. It implies a shift in classical measuring Analytics: while UA analyzes data based on “page views” and “sessions”; GA4 establishes its measurement unit on “Events” and user interactions with content that can be measured independently from a web page or screen load. Furthermore, its new utilities allow you to import offline events and analyze them as if they were collected via regular SDKs, using a CSV file.  

This is a response to new trends, where traffic doesn’t just take place on web pages but also on mobile apps, progressive web apps, and single-page applications. Therefore, GA4 helps you understand how people use your web, iOS, or Android app, achieving cross-device and cross-platform measurement. You could know now, for example, the same volume of use, if your website or app converts better. 

 If engagement is a priority in your digital strategy, you can’t miss these updates. Former engagement metrics now have new names: engaging sessions, engagement time, sessions per user, and engagement rate.  

 Also, measuring goal conversion is more manageable now since GA4 contains up to 30 goal conversions and 10 more goals than its previous UA version. Moreover, GA4 enhances machine learning, giving a higher position to advanced analysis reports for funnel analysis and path analysis.  

 Powered by machine learning, it can identify insights, metric anomalies, and predictions in an improved and more embedded way within the new solution. This is crucial nowadays: fundamental changes are hitting analytics and attribution of marketing campaigns due to privacy policies and the war against third-party cookies. Therefore, machine learning becomes more critical in closing the gap of missing data.  

 In conclusion, GA4 is the future. With already advanced offer, new developments within Google Analytics will continue to improve its functionalities. The bad news is that UA will eventually be phased out. If you are still using UA, our advice is to begin a migration to GA4. Although it does not yet contain all the functionalities of UA, this migration should be done progressively.  

 If you need help registering your new GA4 property, migrating your data, or if you have custom configuration or measurement problems, contact us! We will accompany you in the transition. 

Digital Marketing

Marketing automation: Converting the funnel into a cycle

Today we want to give a twist to the generic understanding of the marketing funnel. What would you say if we told you the funnel could become a cycle? That’s right, nowadays, different software allows us to reduce leaks in the marketing-to-sale process by maximizing the nurture of our leads. Thus, helping us to scale our marketing efforts. How so? By the automation of our marketing actions.

What is marketing automation?

It is a tactic that incorporates the usage of software and technology to optimize, automate, and measure marketing tasks. Which tasks? The repetitive ones, the complex ones, and the tailor-made actions for clients. For example, if I need to make a categorization of 100,000 users, according to their behavior, to determine whether they could be potential clients. I would use an automated qualified lead strategy. Let’s take another case. For nurture campaigns, where the content shown to users changes according to their type of interaction and their place at the marketing funnel, only an automated strategy could make this happen.

Automating allows marketers to maximize their time, become more efficient, and spend more time on essential assignments. At the same time, it enables companies to sharply estimate the ROI of a marketing campaign by improving their targeting strategy. In a summary, it allows companies that generate several leads to nurture them across multiple channels.

How does it work?

The nurturing process uses highly personalized, valuable, and timely saving content that allows converting prospects into leads. Then, it helps prioritize the right leads for us, marketers, to make them surf through the funnel to become clients. More precisely, it is about giving the prospect the information they need in the specific moment they want it, personalizing their journey as a customer. In a world where customers seek to interact with humanized companies, this is a helpful tool.

Specifically, marketing automation has two edges: The outbound and the inbound. In the first case, the company uses its intelligence to target communications based on the prospect’s known characteristics related to their responses or actions online. In the second case, after showing valuable content to candidates, the software can gather data related to the prospect’s activities and engagement. Both strategies allow marketers to present individuals with the right personalized content at an accurate time.

Last but not least, this strategy could and should be applied to different channels and uses: Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Metrics and Analytics, Lead Nurturing, Lead Generation, and Management Activities. So, how do these actions transform the funnel into a cycle? When prospects are not ready to buy at a specific time, they can still be returned to more nurturing marketing.

At this point, you must be asking yourself when is the right time to invest in it, if you have not already. Here is a clue: Suppose you are generating valuable content that brings on a constant flow of new and organic leads, and want to take them to the next level -nurturing them into clients-. In that case, you should think of developing an automated strategy. Do you have any questions? Do not hesitate to contact us!

Digital Marketing

MARKETING FUNNEL: FROM THE OLD WAY OF DOING MARKETING TO THE NEW ONE

In the past years, the universe of Marketing has been in constant change. The AIDA model (Awareness -Interest – Desire -Action), although still in use, has been adapted to the changes in the marketplace. Especially Digital Marketing.

What is a marketing funnel?

The funnel of marketing describes the experience a customer has with your business. It is a route map from the initial stage when the client hears your offer, to the moment they buy or consume your product or service.

What is the difference between the old funnel and the new one?

The new Digital Marketing Funnel ads precision to the traditional method. It understands the online experience as a non-lineal one and focuses on the behaviors that guide the consumer. It focuses on generating Brand Engagement and consumer education.

It has its roots in the traditional funnel’s four primary stages: attract, nurture, convert and delight; and expand them into ten steps. The first six take place before the conversion, and the last four afterward.

Let’s go through each step:

1. Engagement: This step seeks to achieve “Brand awareness”, that is, to publicize the brand. Nowadays, this is accomplished almost exclusively through social networks. (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Spotify, Pinterest, LinkedIn, among others). The goal is to reach a large number of people and start attracting potential customers from the masses.

2. Education: The discovery phase that started with engagement continues with educating customers about our brand. It is vital to identify consumers’ problems to provide them solutions.

3. Research: At this point, the client seeks to understand why she should choose a particular company, and therefore they look for information. We should offer them the information they are looking for, without overwhelming them.

4. Evaluation: Now, a solution to the problem must be presented. The consumer at this stage is searching for the product that represents the best solution (better benefits – price difference).

5. Justification: Often, marketers succeed in convincing consumers that their solution is the best one for them, but still don’t make a sale due to consumers’ objections, obstacles, or inertia. The justification stage is about

finding ways to overcome these issues. They need reasons to keep on the buying track.

6. Purchase: This phase is where potential customers become consumers. The key here is to assist your consumer, providing them with all the information needed.

7. Adoption: Post-purchase, the company must deliver all its promises. And we go back to the importance of customer support.

8. Retention: Getting a potential client to become a customer is quite an achievement. However, we must focus on keeping them as satisfied consumers.

9. Expansion: Ideally, customers should be satisfied with their original purchases and become repeat consumers. Marketing campaigns should be built around upselling customers’ higher-end products and cross-selling them complimentary products.

10. Advocacy: Satisfied customers can spread the word to a whole new universe of prospects, including peers, colleagues, family, and friends.

When talking about Marketing Funnel, we do not refer to a rigid model that applies to every case scenario. It is up to marketing teams to understand their industry, products, and target audiences — and then create the digital marketing strategy and funnel that best meets their needs in reaching potential new customers.

Digital Marketing

Revenue Marketing: why is it essential to analyze and plan our actions?

What is revenue marketing?

It is a process applied to commercial and marketing actions to identify the generated income’s origin. Thus, one can estimate and optimize the next cycle’s results. The main goal? To make decisions based on evidence and convert inversions into an engine of repeatable, predictable, and scalable income.

How does it work?

It is all about identifying which marketing action generated a specific income (Webinars o Tradeshows, SEO or Digital Advertisement, SM, or PR).

Therefore it is crucial to be clear about the goal of your actions and how to measure them. You should identify if the action corresponds to the first stages of the marketing funnel (customer acquisition) or recalls the last stages (conversion). At this point, a fundamental aspect is to align the marketing department goals to the sales department goals. By promoting teamwork, we seek to measure and organize the flow of data that both generate.

The essential tools to achieve this are CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Marketing Automation. Both allow automated data centralization in a digital application that serves as operational support for managing, controlling, and evaluating these departments’ performance.

To summ up…

When trying to implement Revenue Marketing, it is fundamental to define the attribution model correctly. We must consider where in the customer journey the interaction with the client takes place; and what percentage of the sale is assigned to each interaction.

Revenue marketing allows a better organization, guarantees and justifies each stages’ budget, and enables making decisions based on evidence.

Digital Marketing

Tips and Tricks for a successful webinar

The secret to achieving a successful webinar is to develop the right level of interaction with the attendees. The goal is for participants to connect with the host and take an active role in the presentation, reducing the churn rate. Here are five tips to encourage the active role of listeners.

1. Call for action: When your audience is asked to be directly involved, the chance to capture their full attention increases. At the same time, it allows for obtaining relevant information about the attendants. An example would be asking them to present themselves briefly.

2. Be spontaneous! If we have a monotone speaker, the webinar will turn out to be monotonous as well. No matter how good the content is, we will struggle to engage the audience. Never stop surprising! Even though the speech should be planned, it is vital to leave the place for spontaneity. Ideas on how to do so: Do a giveaway, pick someone from the public and work with them 1 on 1, create an instant pull.

3. Keep changing: Studies show that our brains will start to get bored after ten minutes, this is why we suggest to switch it up! Plan little breaks throughout the presentation to recapture the audience’s attention. Invite a surprise speaker; add a video or an interactive picture.

4. Blow them away with a great slide deck: Nothing is more tedious than a boring set of PowerPoint slides. The idea is to create an attractive presentation to stimulate interest.

5. Comprehension checks: We recommend you to plan little breaks to check in with the spectators. This is a perfect way to leave room for interacting and not having to wait for the lecture’s end.

In conclusion, the key to success is getting listeners to play an active role in the exhibition. We must plan our Webinar to achieve it and take advantage of these participatory instances to continue to know our audience. The ideal is to give rise to a dynamic exchange, which is beneficial for the arrival of the message and the generation of commitment on the participants’ part.