Mediaboss Marketing

Word-of-mouth has always been a driving force behind advertising. It is one sure-shot method of driving sales and increasing traffic. When it comes to marketing, small businesses and startups often do not have a budget similar to large corporations. Hence, having a huge budget for marketing is out of the question. Despite this, there are ways for such businesses to market their product or services to the relevant audience.

Digital marketing is one of the ways that can help small businesses and startups get in touch with potential customers and clients. There are different techniques involved in digital marketing. These include content Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising, Website Development, Content Writing, Social Media Marketing, and others.

These techniques are valid and essential to drive sales and increase traffic to a companys website. However, social media marketing plays a vital role in increasing brand recognition.

If you own a small business or startup, here are a few reasons why you should invest time and effort in social media marketing.

Social media users are increasing day by day.

Statista reports that in 2020, there were around 3.6 billion people active on social media. By 2025, these numbers will be 4.41 billion, according to estimates. With more people on these platforms, the more potential customers you will find. However, you require a marketing strategy in place to find your audience.

Almost every type of business, including small- and large-scale, have a social media presence. The reason being that they can find their customers on these platforms. A lot of businesses get traffic to their website from social media platforms.

Social media users are spending more time than ever.

On average, social media users spend over two hours on the platform. With more users spending time on the platform, businesses have more opportunities to reach customers. However, it also means that there is competition. There are social media marketing agencies that help startups reach out to their customers. Social media marketing agency Melbourne, First Page, is one such digital marketing company that specializes in this,

Social media users search for products on the platform.

About 54% of social media browsing is for research regarding a product, according to GlobalWebIndex. Users are not only researching a product but also engaging with a brand. Hence, businesses can leverage the power of social media to increase brand awareness among people. People tend to follow brands that are in line with their own beliefs. Moreover, brands that are active and engage actively with their followers are bound to get more traction.

Social media sponsored posts to get hits

Many brands tend to hire influencers on social media platforms to promote their product. Influencers and bloggers on social media, such as Instagram, are quite popular. They can sway the opinion of their followers in checking out a brand and its product.

Conclusion

Social media is an important tool for marketers and businesses. It not only provides a platform for small businesses and startups to showcase their product, but it also helps them communicate with their customers directly.

Read more here:
Why Is Social Media Marketing Important For Small Businesses and Startups? - FinSMEs

A central marketing story of last decade was the rise of the ankle bitersstartup brands collectively feasting on slow moving consumer brands despite their well-fed media budgets. Direct-to-consumer sales fueled by digital and social media were part of the story, but the endless digital shelf and low cost of entry at Amazon also played a major role.

But among the many changes wrought by the pandemic has been a reversalof fortunes for smaller competitors, which are increasingly losing share and getting outspent by bigger players at Amazon. The e-commerce giant is also drawing more older buyers, a demographic shift that is favoring bigger, established brands. Making matters worse, smaller brands that traditionally relied on cookie-based digital ad targeting and re-targeting to drive direct-to-consumer sales more than bigger ones will see that capability go away over the next year and need to rely even more on Amazon.

Whats happening on Amazon is in many ways a replay of what happened on Facebook last decade, as Sarah Hofstetter, president of e-commerce analytics firm Profitero, sees it. Ten years ago, organic social media helped upstart brands thrive, but then bigger brands began outspending them on Facebook, bidding up ad costs and making it harder for new brands to break through, Hofstetter says.

Focus has shifted in recent years to a growing number of new products invented largely to be sold on Amazon. But the surge of e-commerce caused by the pandemic led big companies to shift huge amounts of media dollars to Amazon. The result has been to hike costs that smaller players have trouble paying and pushing smaller brands down search result rankings in many categories, Hofstetter says.

For that matter, Amazon is becoming a bit more like traditional retail, where small brands never had much chance at high-visibility endcap displays. Amazon was different, often giving them more visibility, Hofstetter says. Now theyre starting to get nudged out because of the money.

Nowhere is the change more noticeable than in the beauty business, which is among the segments of packaged goods affected most by the influx of startups over the past decade. Last year, the share shift from big brands to small lurched into reverse, with Amazon playing a key role, according to research by Evercore ISI based on Numerator data.

While it was a tough year for makeup brands generally, as people going out less needed less makeup, it was a lot harder for smaller players. Niche brands with online shares below 0.5% saw their collective share of U.S. makeup sales fall five points to 31% last year, according to Evercore. Big established mass brands gained the most, particularly LOreal USA brands Maybelline and LOreal Paris, based in part on their strong Amazon presence. Cotys Cover Girl and Rimmel also gained thanks largely to their strong presence on Amazon, according to Evercore.

Skincare fared much better than makeup in overall sales last year, but the category is even more fragmented online than makeup, with niche brands (each having under 0.5% market share) controlling 57% of the market last year. Here too big brands were the winners, gaining 2.1 share points collectively last year, according to Evercore.

In fragrance, niche brands did better, gaining share, but the middle brands were the losers, and the top 10 brands collectively picked up 10 share points. And in haircare, big brands including Procter & Gamble Co.s Pantene and Head & Shoulders and LOreals namesake brand alongside salon staples Redken and Matrix all gained share online while niche brands collectively shed 7 share points.

Looking broadly across health and beauty categoriesalso encompassing deodorant, vitamins and oral carethe top three brands in each category actually gained share collectively in total retail, including brick and mortar. The leading brands' shares indexed at 104 in 2020 vs.100 in 2018, according to Evercore. But the big brands gains were actually faster in more fragmented e-commerce channels, indexing 45 in 2020, up seven points from 38 in 2018.

At least part of the tougher environment for startup brands and more favorable results for big established ones on Amazon owes to where the influx of e-commerce buying came during the pandemic. Boomers and Generation X accounted for most of the increased online shopping and brought with them preferences for older established brands, Evercore notes.

The shift to older Amazon clientele continues this year. According to Numerator, Amazons share of overall CPG sales is up 1.4% among Generation X and 1.5% among Boomers so far in 2021 to 3.8% and 3.2% respectively. Amazons CPG share among Gen Z shoppers has actually declined this year, 0.6 points to 4.3%.

Worth noting is that Amazons share is much higher in some corners of packaged-goods, accounting for more than 10% of diaper sales. Overall, e-commerce has become a huge business in beauty, accounting for more than 30% of sales last year in the U.S., per Evercore.

Certainly, Amazon still offers plenty of opportunity for challenger brands. For example, the retailer has an Internet Famous section highlighting the latest social-media product sensations, such as U.K. cleaner import The Pink Stuff, propelled to fame by TikTok testimonial videos generating millions of views.

Then again, The Pink Stuff isnt a new product in the U.K. Its 20 years old. And many of Amazons other Internet Famous items arent exactly startups either. One currently on the list is a hydrating cleanser from CeraVe, which happens to be owned by LOreal, the biggest beauty marketer on earth. CeraVe became LOrealsstar of the pandemic last year, generating 89% sales growth. And if anything, CeraVe is a testament to beauty brands from big companies growing robustly on Amazon and beyond because theyre getting much better digital and social marketing support.

CeraVe for most of its 15 years on the market was marketed mainly via dermatologist recommendations and didnt even have an Instagram account when LOreal bought the brand in 2017, says Penelope Giraud, global general manager for the LOreal brand. Turning the usual social-fueled insurgent narrative on its head, the acquisition by LOreal actually helped improve CeraVes social media strategy and execution, which has included growing endorsements by skinfluencers, a strong presence on Twitter, and most recently TikTok videos developed under the guidance of S4 Capitals MediaMonks, Giraud says.

The Amazon shifts comeas smaller brands, which have relied more than bigger ones on digital ad targeting and re-targeting, face the impending loss of personal identifying cookies by next year something that will make retail data and advertising through retailers, including Amazon, even more crucial for them, Hofstetter says.

Weve noticed things have gotten a lot more expensive and frankly hyper-competitive from an advertising standpoint [on Amazon] as a challenger brand to some of the bigger brands, says Halee Patel Newton, VP of e-commerce for Califia Farms, a marketer of oat milk, almond milk, cold brew coffees and juices.

Hostetter says her company recently launched Profitero Pro, an analytics tool aimed at helping smaller brands even the score by managing their e-commerce distribution and marketing effort more efficiently. Newton says the tool is helping Califia identify and eliminate out-of-stocks, which, besides hurting sales can also hurt brands search rankings, as well as identifying keywords it should be buying ads against and tracking how its products are faring against those keywords in searches. Profitero Pro also helps Califia track its sales and competitive share across e-commerce retailers and spot where it needs to direct spending, she says.

The rest is here:
On Amazon big brands are beating small ones in pandemic - AdAge.com

Five UK and Ireland agencies, including two in the North West, have joined forces to create a new marketing super agency with a combined headcount of 65 professionals.

The business is the brainchild of Darren Low, founder of Cheltenham-based Liquorice, which is one of the agencies involved in the new venture.

London and Carlisle digital agency Upbeat Productions, Warrington brand communications agency Bugler Smith, Birminghams JC Social Media and Belfasts premier UX agency Fathom, which also has an office in Dublin, are the other four.

Collectively, the new agency will be known as Low&Behold, with Darren as CEO and founders of some of the other agencies taking positions on the board.

Low&Behold will provide a comprehensive range of services including marketing and strategy, UX and development, creative, paid, earned and owned digital media, PR, events and internal communications.

Each individual agency will retain its identity during an adjustment period, while some owners will form the groups board of directors.

Clients will include Cheshire-based Pets at Home, Just Eat, Which?, Yodel, SLG Beauty, Alliance Pharmaceuticals, Haynes, Tesco Mobile and permanent tsb.

Darren said: Its fantastic to finally be able to reveal the new business and officially welcome staff from all the agencies to Low&Behold

Ive long believed theres a way to bring the best of niche independent expert agencies and the strength and stability of the larger holding company model together, forming a highly capable, agile agency model that can wrap the right expert arms around any client.

He added: Low&Behold is this and Im confident we can execute any brief in a workmanlike manner, but with the engaged and invested service delivery that is in the DNA of all the agencies we have acquired.

We created the agency to bring together talent from a wide range of disciplines, enabling clients to receive a vast array of services from one place. It also means were able to collectively compete against medium and large sized agencies, but still provide the hands-on personal service to clients, something each agency has always prided itself on delivering.

The client roster and experience of all teams is exceptional, but were hoping to continue growing through both organic and further M&A in 2021 and beyond.

He said existing clients will continue to be serviced by the same teams, ensuring continuity, while also affording them with new solutions from within the group.

Read more:
Marketing, digital and social agencies join forces to form new 'super' agency | TheBusinessDesk.com - The Business Desk

Journalist Zaid Jilani on Tuesday said that former Speaker Paul RyanPaul Davis RyanZaid Jilani: Paul Ryan worried about culture war distracting from issues 'that really concern him' The Memo: Marjorie Taylor Greene exposes GOP establishment's lack of power The Hill's 12:30 Report - Senators back in session after late-night hold-up MORE (R-Wis.) in telling conservatives last week to not become too focused on culture wars showed his fear ofsuch battles crowding "out the issues that really concern him.

Ryan in a speech last Thursday, delivered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, cautioned GOP members not to get caught up in every little cultural battle, adding, "our party must be defined by more than a tussle over the latest grievance or perceived slight.

Jilani in an interview on Hill.TVs Rising, said that Ryan, who after leaving office started the policy group the American Idea Foundation, likely sees that Republicans in public office are not mobilizing in large numbers against the welfare state, against social spending, and other issues.

It doesnt mean that theyre not concerned about it, but its not really the hot button issue, Jilani said.I think that would threaten someone like Ryan, because Ryan would prefer that we were talking about Medicare being unsustainable, social security needing some form of private accounts or privatization, the journalist added.

Jilani went on to say, I think in many ways, the reason that he doesnt want there to be culture wars is not necessarily just because the culture war can be very annoying at times to people on both sides, but because it crowds out the issues that really concern him and I think thats part of why he gave this speech.

Watch part of Jilanis interview above.

Visit link:
Zaid Jilani: Paul Ryan worried about culture war distracting from issues 'that really concern him' | TheHill - The Hill

Its often said that Conservatives and the rightwing press are good at stoking divisions. Whats perhaps less acknowledged is that they do so mostly by inventing them: those who campaign for more inclusive policies become the woke mob and the loony left; those who want students to learn about the darker parts of Britains history become people who hate Britain; judges and politicians who want to follow basic parliamentary procedures become enemies of the people, saboteurs, and traitors, and so on.

In every case, were told that the future of the nation is at stake. The relentlessness of this culture war narrative leaves us with the image of an irreconcilable rift at the heart of British society: between liberals obsessed with identity politics who live, literally or spiritually, in north London, and sidelined social conservatives who live or rather, are left behind everywhere else (most emotively in the red wall). These fantasy constructions are now the twin pillars of Conservative rhetoric.

But this image of an irreconcilably divided nation is just that: an image. A spate of polls have shown that we are not as divided as many would have us think. Views in the so-called red wall are largely consistent with the rest of the country and, nationwide, few people know what either the culture war or wokeness even mean. Yet the right still pushes this narrative relentlessly, railing against a lefty elite that somehow manages to both wield a hegemonic control over Britains culture and be hopelessly out of touch with it. The new rightwing television channel, GB News one of many new ventures to pitch itself as an urgent corrective will host a segment called Wokewatch, to illuminate and amplify examples of the loony lefts looniness.

As the sociologist William Davies has written, this is the logic of the culture war: Identify the most absurd or unreasonable example of your opponents worldview; exploit your own media platform to amplify it; articulate an alternative in terms that appear calm and reasonable; and then invite people to choose. Exaggeration is therefore intrinsic to culture wars: it is a battle waged mostly by straw men.

Its no surprise that Boris Johnson thrives in this environment: a journalist by trade, a liar by nature, he is all too familiar with the energising power of some well-placed hyperbole. As the Daily Telegraphs Europe correspondent in the 1990s, Johnson wrote all kinds of wild and made-up provocations about the EUs regulatory overreach: before Wokewatch there was Brusselswatch. The aim of Johnsons exaggerations wasnt any particular political agenda, but rather to stoke animosity. Everything I wrote from Brussels was having this amazing, explosive effect on the Tory party, Johnson recalled in his Desert Island Discs interview for Radio 4 in 2005, and it really gave me this rather weird sense of power. As prime minister Johnson pursues the same approach, but his plaything is now the nation at large.

The cynicism and bad faith that underlies so much of the culture war should warn us against one of the dominant tendencies within the vast and burgeoning literature on our polarised times: to blame evolutionary biology and an inherent tribalist instinct we share. The mechanism is evolutionary, New York Times writer Ezra Klein writes in his recent bestseller, Why Were Polarised, because our brains know we need our groups to survive. But by conjuring up a primordial past as the source of our divisions, we lose sight of all the contemporary forces and strategies that are deliberately designed to inflame and exaggerate our differences. The climate crisis wasnt destined to be such a divisive issue, for instance it required, in the words of climatologist Michael Mann, the most well-funded, well-organised PR campaign in the history of human civilisation. The Flintstones might not have agreed on everything either, but at least they didnt have Fox News.

The culture war is in this sense the ultimate fiction: what seems like a battle for the soul of our country is a pantomime where we are conscripted to play both gladiator and spectator and obliged to pick a side. The hope seems to be that, amid all the sparring and theatre, we lose sight of what truly frustrates us: in Britain, that is an increasingly harsh economy, imposed by a callous government, which has left us with the worst wage growth in 200 years, public services that are chronically underfunded and a third of children living in poverty a misery offset by one of the stingiest welfare systems in the developed world. If society now feels coarser, its because it is but the reason is not a sudden decline in civility.

Yet while the Conservatives, in power for over a decade, are the main architects of this dreary, resentful state of the nation, they are also its main beneficiaries. The Conservatives have always excelled at stoking resentment and redirecting it elsewhere; now is no different: they are clear favourites to win the next election, a record fifth in a row.

So even amid this total and unsettling ascendancy, the Tories will still insist that the blame for Britains woes lies elsewhere: with Londoners hoarding all the nations wealth, with university professors teaching cultural Marxism in their classes, or asylum seekers trying to cross the Channel, or any other phantom threat they can think of. This strategy goes beyond the usual divide and conquer. It was said of the Romans and their imperial dominance that they make a desert and call it peace. The Tories are trying a different tactic: make a desert and call it war.

Read the rest here:
The culture wars are a symptom, not the cause, of Britains malaise - The Guardian