digital
DIGITAL: Stay Fresh!
Monday, January 30th, 2012 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Working in Digital Media requires constant creativity. However, sometimes you may find yourself staring at a blank notebook page or an empty screen, wondering what to do. How do you keep the fresh ideas flowing from day to day? The folks over at Mashable have provided some suggestions:
• Take a Break From the Web – Occasionally, you need to erase your mental chalkboard. Clear your head for a few minutes by walking away from your desk, turning off your phone or doing something completely unrelated to your work. Taking the time to clear your mind will give you some room for new material.
• Expose Yourself to New Ideas and People – Striking up a conversation with someone you don’t know will force you out of whatever mindset you’re in. Surrounding yourself with people who have expertise in different areas will open your mind to different ideas.
• Find an Easy Way In – You may think that tackling the most difficult part of a situation first is best, but sometimes the opposite is true. Focusing on a task that interests you can help you approach the situation from a different, and possibly easier, angle.
• Avoid Brainstorming in Large Groups – Talking in groups of four or more can actually limit productivity and creativity, because everyone wants to get a word in. The discussion may start to head in a direction different from where you’re trying to go. Working with one other person usually yields better results. In advertising, there’s been a long history of two-person teams, going back-and-forth with ideas. If a larger group is necessary, try working digitally – chat rooms or discussion boards may function as a more welcoming workplace.
• Revisit an “Old Favorite” – Looking back on something that inspired you in the past may bring out new ideas. Books, movies, artwork and places that were motivational before are worth taking a second (or third) look.
• Use the “Jerry Seinfeld” Trick – Seinfeld came up with a system called “Don’t Break the Chain.” With this system, mark an X on your calendar every day a creative goal is achieved, whether it’s new work or just an idea. Continue to do so each day, making sure not to “break the chain.”
• Use the “Ernest Hemingway” Trick – To avoid facing a blank sheet of paper the next morning, Hemingway used to write the first paragraph of his next scene and then sign off for the day. Using this system will give you something with which to start upon arriving to your desk.
The next time you find yourself in a creative slump, step back for a moment and follow one or more of these suggestions. You’ll find yourself feeling much better once you return.
You can read the full article here.
WEB: Where the Grass Is Still Greener.
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
If you’re an online marketer, it’s easy to become enamored of social media’s exciting landscape — its seemingly endless ability to engage consumers, stimulate action and influence or even transact sales. But here’s a reminder that despite appearances, the grass of profitable online sales remains far greener on the web side of your digital neighborhood.
How much greener? Among organizations offering both web- and social-based sales channels, according to a recent study by technology marketer Demandbase in partnership with online network Focus, websites remain a whopping 700% more powerful in generating inquiries and actuating income than alternative social platforms.
What should that mean to you? Well, NOISE would suggest that should mean you remain about seven times more focused on the success of your website, making certain it’s:
• Spot-on branded;
• Strategic, intuitive, obvious, simple and fast;
• Enjoyable and rewarding;
• Interactively engaging with video, imagery, social networking, sharing and more;
• Incredibly search engine optimized;
• An awesome user experience that consumers will want to return to and repeat, again and again.
For most marketers, social media isn’t a highly profitable alternative to web-based sales — at least, not yet. So embrace it — like digital marketing, e-marketing and your other effective strategies and tactics — as another seed to help your web sales grow.
SOURCE: ZDNet, NOISE
SOCIAL MEDIA: Out With the New, In With the Older.
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
While social media may have been launched and nurtured by young adults, today’s social media audiences are decidedly older — and more female — than ever before. So social media marketers, take note of these important trends as reported by Pew Research in a study of engagement habits over the past two years:
1. Twice As Nice. Today, almost one of two persons in the United States (47%) interacts daily with a social media site — nearly double the number in late 2008, when the last study was undertaken. And for whatever it’s worth, folks who participate in social media sites are more politically engaged than other adults, and more likely to trust others.
2. Aging Gracefully. At the same time, the most significant growth in social media is occurring among older adults — with the average age of the social media user climbing to 38 years old (five years older than just two years ago).
3. Girl Talk. Additionally, the U.S. social media audience continues to grow more feminine, with 56% of today’s users women (versus 53% two years ago).
Need to reach intelligent, trusting, motivated females who are likely involved in families with children, with a higher than average disposable income? Now you know a little more about where to find ‘em.
SOURCE: NOISE, MarketingProfs, Pew Research
E-MARKETING: In Defense of the Lowly Ol’ E-Mail.
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
The KISS principle. At NOISE, we believe there’s still a lot to be gained — even in today’s complex, multi-channeled communications world — by keeping it simple, stupid. And we can prove it.
Take e-marketing. Over the course of any given year, NOISE creates, produces, delivers and measures (in-house) more than one million e-blasts for our clients. And the outstanding performance of these highly branded campaigns — which annually deliver clickthroughs exceeding 400% of industry average — demonstrates why we’re passionate advocates of creative, engaging, visually- and verbally-motivating html-based messaging.
So imagine our antler dance when testing of simple, text-only campaigns rocked those numbers — generating clickthroughs almost 800% greater than industry average, as well as numerous social community mentions and referrals seldom seen by traditional campaigns.
Now, there’s a strategy to text-only campaigns that (as a service to our clients) we won’t reveal here. But suffice it to say there’s strong evidence that as sophisticated and studied as e-marketing has become, there’s still a time and a place — even today — for selectively pulling out the KISS principle.
Ask your marketing partner. Or even better, ask us.
SOURCE: NOISE
E-MARKETING: Personalize Your E-Marketing and Boost Performance.
Friday, May 29th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
What defines today’s most effective e-marketing efforts? According to a recent article from MarketingProfs, it’s as much — if not more — about how you talk to your customers, as it is what you’re offering them.
NOISE agrees. We see e-marketing as a robust, effective, cost efficient and wonderfully measurable means of extending and reinforcing your brand promise and brand personality — a direct response way to communicate personally that (done right) can build databases and sales, as well as affinity and loyalty to your brand.
As MarketingProfs spells out, the key is to think less about lists, databases, demographics, geographics and psychographics — and to think more about the real people on the receiving end of our messages. That means e-marketing should always:
1. Speak In Human Rather Than Promotional Terms. In other (and better) words, write conversationally and casually rather than formally — and by all means, humanize your copy by addressing the consumer as “you” and your company as “we.”
2. Leverage Your Brand Personality. E-marketing should just as clearly and effectively articulate your brand personality as any other media you employ. So if you’re brand is offbeat, be offbeat. If you’re the smart company, show your smarts. And if you’re cool like Apple, well, it’s hard to resist the chance to show off your cool, isn’t it?
3. Solicit User-Generated Content. In case you’ve missed it, it’s a whole new marketing world out there — a two-way interactive world where consumers, and their opportunity to share experiences with your brand via social networking, are more than ever able to influence your brand’s global perception. So take the opportunity to put the response in a direct response strategy like e-marketing, and give your consumers the chance to share experiences or provide feedback (like the comment area provided here).
Our final recommendation? Take a look at your last (or next) e-marketing effort, and really look at it from the eyes of your consumer. What do you like? What can you improve?
SOURCE: MarketingProfs, NOISE
MEDIA: The Economy Is Up, At Least Online.
Monday, March 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Not everything is doom and gloom in the economy today. At least, not if you’re selling online advertising.
According to the Annual Marketing Survey conducted by analytics software provider Alterian, almost two-thirds of 1,500 companies polled intend to increase advertising spending on the Internet in 2009 — reinforcing (as almost every study does) the continually-growing importance and impact of digital strategies to successful, multi-channel marketing campaigns.
No surprise as well, online’s gain is offline’s loss — with only 38% of those same companies anticipating an increase in non-digital advertising, and one out of five actually cutting offline media spending.
While pouring more money into online marketing may inspire a “well, duh” reaction from many of you, here’s the “well, duh-est” finding of the entire study, at least as I see it: less than half (47%) of the 1,500 firms surveyed currently apply analytics to measure campaign effectiveness. In today’s highly trackable digital media world, that’s more than incredible. It’s incredibly stupid.
Where are more of your advertising dollars going in 2009? Insightful trendspotters are more than ever going digital.
SOURCE: Marketing News, NOISE
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