Social Marketing Trends
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About a month ago I wrote a post titled “Can AI Help Overcome the Loss of Third-Party Cookies? Google Thinks So”. The post was written in response to Google’s VP of Global Advertising Strategies telling everyone it was time to move on from third-party cookies. That there would be no more delays and marketers needed to shift their focus before it was too late. And then… Ah, Google. It turns out there would in fact be more delays and the new timeline is somewhere in 2025…maybe. Here’s the thing. Cookies are going away. It might not be 100% by the end of the year and it might not be 100% at the end of next year, but they will go away. While the US certainly lags behind the EU when it comes to privacy, there are still concerns and tech companies are continuing to adapt their technologies to ensure these concerns are addressed. What does this mean for marketers?We’re going to give you the same advice we have been giving – focus on first-party data. First-party data is your data to own. You don’t have to worry about if or when Google decides to make a change. Plus, first-party data lends itself to SO MANY things, including:
And more! Marketers can’t keep relying on Google delays. We have to move forward. How to Collect First-Party DataIt’s easy for me to sit here and tell marketers to move on from third-party data but I understand the reality of the situation – collecting first-party data comes with its own set of challenges.
Yes, it’s certainly important to have the right tech stack in place but when it comes to actually collecting first-party data, it’s easier than ever! Starting with website visitor identification. Website Visitor Identification + Your Website = First-Party DataJust by adding one line of code to your website, you can start identifying your website visitors and gathering first-party data. This includes names, emails, phone numbers, job titles, companies, and more. What makes this so cool is that a platform like Customers.ai not only helps you identify the people, but also gives you important information about them. You can get demographic data and business data, and you can even track the customer journey! On top of being able to collect the data and enrich it, Customers.ai allows you to send the data directly to your CRM, directly to your marketing automation system, directly to your ad campaigns, etc. You have the ability to build true customer profiles and get real attribution data without needing third-party data! Look, there has never been an easier way to collect first-party data in a compliant manner. If you aren’t using this, you are truly missing out. The best part? It’s easy to set up! To install the Website Visitor ID X-Ray Pixel, sign up (for FREE!), go to your dashboard, and navigate to My Automations. Select + New Automation and get your pixel. We have easy install options for Google Tag Manager, WordPress, and Shopify, or you can install the pixel manually. Other Methods of Collecting First-Party DataWe are (obviously) partial to website visitor ID tools because well, that’s what do (and for the record, it’s SO easy). But that isn’t the only way to collect first-party data. Let’s look at a few other ways: Email Campaigns“Fill out your email for a 25% off discount.” “Sign up for our newsletter and get a free [insert offer]” “Enter your email for a chance to win [insert prize]” There’s a reason for these things and the reason is first-party data. Email not only can give you personal identifiers but metrics from campaigns (think open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, etc), are great for understanding shopper preferences. Surveys & QuizzesSurveys and quizzes sure are fun! They are also brilliant methods of collecting user data. The key is making it simple enough and interesting enough that your customers want to complete it. Be sure to only ask for the information you need. Remember, you can build customer profiles over time so you don’t need to ask everything in one place. Customer Feedback & ReviewsSoliciting reviews through emails, social media, or on your own website is another avenue for collecting valuable first-party data. Reviews can be associated with specific customers to build customer profiles and can help you better understand what they like and dislike. Don’t Let Google Make You ComplacentWhile I’m sure marketers are taking a collective breath at another delay from Google, we think it’s important not to get complacent. Change is hard and shifting the way we do things takes time. Use this time you have to innovate without the ticking clock of cookie deprecation. Use this time to better understand how you can not just collect first-party data but use it to gain deeper audience insights, and, yes, actually get ready for a cookie-less world. We are here to help and if you want to see how you can start collecting data in under 90 seconds, sign up for a free trial today! See Who Is On Your Site Right Now!Turn anonymous visitors into genuine contacts. Try it Free, No Credit Card Required Important Next Stepsfrom https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/what-does-googles-cookie-delay-mean-for-marketers/10663/ Like my post? Please share! The biggest problem with most advice on “image SEO” is it focuses too much on what images you should take and how you should take them. Often that advice rests on an assumption that you’re in a photogenic line of work, where it’s both easy and wise to take photos of what you offer and where you offer it. But what if your services appear only as brain waves in your head, your products are tough on the eyes, or your place of business looks like Sanford & Son’s? Even if your photos don’t have the good looks, somehow you still need to give them legs. Another problem is much of the advice is perfectionistic and fussy. It’s too focused on technical steps that most people can’t or won’t bother with, that your competitors seem not to bother with, and that Google is unlikely to reward much or at all. (I call it SEOCD.) What’s really important, and what’s only mildly or possibly helpful? Yet another problem is most of the photo-SEO advice isn’t focused on local search visibility, and so it tends not to spell out exactly how photos are supposed to help your local rankings. To that last point, let me lay out exactly how working your photos can help your local SEO: Those are the goals. To those ends, this post is meant to be a filthy-fast guide to what to do with any photo that you want to help your local visibility. Here are 19 moves you can consider putting to work for any given photo. In my experience, the first 6 are very important, and the last 13 are good to do when you can. Most-important local SEO steps for your photos: 1. Name the image file relevantly. Go for the jugular. As in: miami-ultrasonic-rhinoplasty-patient-before-and-after.jpg, cleveland-crawl-space-encapsulation-example.png, ford-f150-interior-detailing-upholstery-cleaned.png, etc. 2. Specify an alt attribute that’s dead-on relevant and descriptive. It should be basically the same as the filename (without the dashes, of course). If the filename isn’t relevant and is just “IMG007.jpg” gobbledygook, and if you can’t feasibly change it, make the alt attribute relevant and descriptive anyway (e.g. “Ford F-150 Interior Detailing – Upholstery Cleaned.” 3. Specify a relevant title attribute. (This is not the same as the alt attribute, nor is it the same thing as the title tag.) This should match the filename and alt, roughly. 4. In the filename, ALT, title, or caption (or some combination of them) include keywords beyond the name of the service or product or city, if possible. Like “buy” or “order online” or “mobile” or “example” or “before and after.” Or the price, or the year the photo was taken. You get the idea. Some modifiers can help you pick up easy rankings. 5. Make sure the photo isn’t giant. I like to keep photos in the range of 600px – 1000px wide, in general. People on your site want help, and you want them to pay you for something. They’re not there for an IMAX experience. 6. Add the photo to multiple pages of your site, preferably on some pages that already see action. Especially the homepage, “service” pages, and “city” pages. Bonus photo SOPs (do these whenever possible and appropriate): 7. Caption the photo. The caption should reflect the filename, alt attribute, and title attribute, more or less. 8. Hyperlink the photo to the page most relevant to what’s in the photo. Preferably a “service,” “product,” or “city” page. In other words, make the photo clickable, and make it take people somewhere they ought to see. 9. Hyperlink the caption, too, or part of it. You’ll probably link the caption to the same page the photo itself links to, but it’s fine to mix it up. 10. Try to give every page at least one photo that you’ve optimized (as much as you can). It’s fine to reuse the same photo occasionally. Sometimes it’s OK to regurgitate. 12. On any “gallery” or “portfolio” or “our work” -type page, add at least a little of written-word content to the surrounding page. In other words, don’t just upload a bunch of photos. Rather, also include some text that describes what’s in the photo, what happened before or after the photo was taken, where it happened, etc. You want the page to rank, with or without the help of the photo. Also, if and when the page does rank, you want the photo to show up in the organic SERPs, off to the right. 13. Avoid unnecessary technology: plugins (e.g. Envira), sliders, lightboxes, etc. Just put the photo on the page. It’s fine to have fancy galleries, too. Just don’t put all of your imagery in that bag. 14. Upload the photo to your Google Business Profile page. Won’t help your organic visibility one pinch, but may help you a tiny bit on the map. 15. Upload the photo to citation sources that allow photos. Especially Yelp and Facebook and any other barnacle sites. 16. Make sure your robots.txt file doesn’t disallow /wp-content or whatever subdirectory you keep your images in (if you self-host them, rather than use a CDN). 17. If possible, get any EXIF data to work in your favor by taking the photo yourself or by having a sidekick do it. That’s all you need to do for the location info (i.e. “geotagging”) to be baked into the photo, typically. Sure, it’s a waste of time in the context of uploading photos to your GBP page (arguably also a waste of time, past a certain point). But on your site it might help you a whisker. 18. Check Search Console occasionally for spikes in visibility due to any of your images getting visibility in the search results. This is one sign you’ve probably stuck the landing. Beyond those, there are some steps that even I don’t bother with. Those include creating an image sitemap, marking up photos with Schema, and compressing the images. Do they help? Maybe. If you can do them easily, more power to you. What other strategy moves are worth considering? I suggest reading this post by the great Chris Silver Smith. (It’s from 2007, and helped me when I was a FNG, and the advice is just as relevant today.) Anyone can have a well-optimized site, and many people do. It sure does help. Even if you’ve put Herculean effort into your written-word content, it’s not hard for someone else to rip you off and enjoy many of the benefits. But a strong photography game is much harder to rip off. It helps you rank in areas and in ways some competitors won’t or can’t, and it makes your site more informative, funner, easier on the eyes, easier to navigate, and more persuasive. Taking or creating or scrounging the photos is the hard part. Once you’ve done that, optimizing the bejeebers out of them is only a little extra effort, and you’ll find it’s worth the effort. -- How do those suggestions square with your experiences? Any other photo-optimization SOPs? Care to show me and fellow readers your photography game, or a competitor’s? Leave a comment! Like my post? Please share! from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/photos-local-seo-simple-ways-to-put-more-notches-on-your-belt-with-images/10661/ Every time I work with a new brand, my first order of business is to conduct a competitive analysis. A competitive analysis report helps me understand the brand’s position in the market, map competitors’ strengths/weaknesses, and discover growth opportunities.
In this article, I’ll break down the exact steps I follow to conduct competitor analysis and identify ways to one-up top brands in the market. We’ll cover: What is competitive analysis?Competitive analysis is the process of comparing your competitors against your brand to understand their core differentiators, strengths, and weaknesses. It’s an in-depth breakdown of each competitor’s market position, sales & marketing tactics, growth strategy, and other business-critical aspects to see what they’re doing right and find opportunities for your business. Competitive analysis gives you a clearer picture of the market landscape to make informed decisions for your growth. That said, you have to remember that competitive analysis is an opportunity to learn from others. It isn’t:
Let’s look at how this exercise can help your business before breaking down my 5-step competitive analysis framework. 4 Reasons to Perform Competitive AnalysisIf you’re on the fence about investing time and effort in analyzing your competitors, know that it gives you a complete picture of the market and where you stand in it. Here are four main reasons why I perform a competitive analysis exercise whenever working with a brand for the first time:
The bottom line: Whether you’re starting a new business or revamping an existing one, a competitive analysis eliminates guesswork and gives you concrete information to build your business strategy. What is competitive market research?Competitive market research is a vital exercise that goes beyond merely comparing products or services. It involves an in-depth analysis of the market metrics that distinguish your offerings from those of your competitors. A thorough market research doesn’t just highlight these differences but leverages them, laying a solid foundation for a sales and marketing strategy that truly differentiates your business in a bustling market. In the next section, we’ll explore the nuts and bolts of conducting a detailed competitive analysis tailored to your brand. Essential Aspects to Cover in Competitive Analysis ResearchBefore we walk through our step-by-step process for conducting competitor analysis, let’s look at the main aspects to include for every competitor:
Now, it’s time to learn how to conduct a competitive analysis with an example to contextualize each step. Competitive Analysis in MarketingEvery brand can benefit from regular competitor analysis. By performing a competitor analysis, you’ll be able to:
As you can see, learning any of these four components will lead your brand down the path of achievement. Next, let’s dive into some steps you can take to conduct a comprehensive competitive analysis. How to Conduct Competitive Analysis in 5 Quick StepsAs a content marketer, I’ve performed a competitive analysis for several brands to improve their messaging, plan their marketing strategy, and explore new channels. Here are the five steps I follow to analyze competitors. 1. Identify and categorize all competitors.The first step is a simple yet strategic one. You have to identify all possible competitors in your industry, even the lesser-known ones. The goal here is to be aware of all the players in the market instead of arbitrarily choosing to ignore a few. As you find more and more competitors, categorize them into these buckets:
Here’s a competitive matrix classifying brands in the community and housing space: Image Source Testing It OutTo help you understand each step clearly, we’ll use the example of Trello and create a competitor analysis report using these steps. Here’s a table of the main competitors for Trello: able of the main competitors for Trello:
2. Determine each competitor’s market position.Once you know all your competitors, start analyzing their position in the market. This step will help you understand where you currently stand in terms of market share and customer satisfaction. It’ll also reveal the big guns in your industry — the leading competitors to prioritize in your analysis report. Plus, visualizing the market landscape will tell you what’s missing in the current state. You can find gaps and opportunities for your brand to thrive even in a saturated market. To map competitors’ market positions, create a graph with two factors: market presence (Y-axis) and customer satisfaction (X-axis). Then, place competitors in each of these quadrants:
This visualization will tell you exactly how crowded the market is. But it’ll also highlight ways to gain momentum and compete with existing brands. Testing It OutHere’s a market landscape grid by G2 documenting all of Trello’s competitors in the project management space. For a leading brand like Trello, the goal would be to look at top brands in two quadrants: “Leaders” and “High Performers.” Image Source 3. Extensively benchmark key competitors.Step 2 will narrow down your focus from dozens of competitors to the few most important ones to target. Now, it’s time to examine each competitor thoroughly and prepare a benchmarking report. Remember that this exercise isn’t meant to find shortcomings in every competitor. You have to objectively determine both the good and bad aspects of each brand. Here are the core factors to consider when benchmarking competitors:
This benchmarking exercise will involve a combination of primary and secondary research. Invest enough time in this step to ensure that your competitive analysis is completely airtight. Check out this example of a competitor benchmarking report for workforce intelligence tools: Image Source Testing It OutHere’s how I benchmarked Asana based on these criteria using the information I could find:
4. Deep dive into their marketing strategy.While the first few steps will tell you what you can improve in your core product or service, you also need to find how competitors market their products. You need to deep-dive into their marketing strategies to learn how they approach buyers. I analyze every marketing channel, then note my observations on how they speak to their audience and highlight their brand personality. Here are a few key marketing channels to explore:
You can create a detailed document capturing every detail of a competitor’s marketing strategy. This will give you the right direction to plan your marketing efforts. 5. Perform a SWOT analysis.The final step in a competitive analysis exercise is creating a SWOT analysis matrix for each company. This means you‘ll take note of your competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Think of it as the final step to consolidate all your research and answer these questions:
You can use tools like Miro to visualize this data. Once you visually present this data, you’ll get a clearer idea of where you can outgrow each competitor. Image Source Testing It OutHere’s a SWOT analysis matrix I created for Asana as a competitor of Trello: How to Do a Competitive Analysis (the Extended Cut)
To run a complete and effective competitive analysis, use these ten templates, which range in purpose from sales to marketing to product strategy. Featured Resource: 10 Competitive Analysis TemplatesDownload Now 1. Determine who your competitors are.First, you‘ll need to figure out who you’re competing with to compare the data accurately. What works in a business like yours may not work for your brand. Divide your “competitors” into two categories: direct and indirect. Keep these brands on your radar since they could shift positions at any time and cross over into the direct competitor zone. Using our example, Stitch Fix could start a workout line, which would certainly change things for Fabletics. This is also one of the reasons why you‘ll want to routinely run a competitor analysis. The market can and will shift at any time, and if you’re not constantly scoping it out, you won‘t be aware of these changes until it’s too late. 2. Determine what products your competitors offer.You‘ll want to analyze your competitor’s complete product line and the quality of the products or services they’re offering. You should also take note of their pricing and any discounts they’re offering customers. Some questions to consider include:
3. Research your competitors’ sales tactics and results.Running a sales analysis of your competitors can be a bit tricky. You’ll want to track down the answers to questions such as:
These helpful pieces of information will give you an idea of how competitive the sales process is and what information you need to prepare your sales reps with to compete during the final buy stage. For publicly held companies, you can find annual reports online, but you’ll have to do some sleuthing to find this info from privately owned businesses. You could find some of this information by searching through your CRM and reaching out to those customers who mentioned they were considering your competitor. Find out what made them choose your product or service over others out there. When a competitor is identified, have your sales team dive deeper by asking why they are considering switching to your product. If you’ve already lost the deal, be sure to follow up with the prospect to determine why you lost to your competitor. 4. Take a look at your competitors’ pricing, as well as any perks they offer.There are a few major factors that go into correctly pricing your product — and one major one is understanding how much your competitors are charging for a similar product or service. If you feel your product offers superior features compared to those of a competitor, you might consider making your product or service more expensive than industry standards. However, if you do that, you’ll want to ensure your sales reps are ready to explain why your product is worth the additional cost. Alternatively, perhaps you feel there‘s a gap in your industry for affordable products. If that’s the case, you might aim to charge less than competitors and appeal to prospects who aren’t looking to break the bank for a high-quality product. Of course, other factors go into correctly pricing a product, but it‘s critical you stay on top of industry pricing to ensure you’re pricing your product in a way that feels reasonable to prospects. Additionally, take a look at any perks your competitors offer and how you might match those perks to compete. For instance, perhaps your competitors offer a major referral discount or a month-long free trial version. These perks could be the reason you‘re losing customers, so if it feels reasonable for your brand, consider where you might match those perks — or provide some unique perks of your own if competitors don’t offer any. 5. Ensure you’re meeting competitive shipping costs.Did you know expensive shipping is the number one reason for cart abandonment? Nowadays, free shipping is a major perk that can attract consumers to choose one brand over another. If you work in an industry where shipping is a major factor — like e-commerce — you‘ll want to take a look at competitors’ shipping costs and ensure you’re meeting (if not exceeding) those prices. If most of your competitors offer free shipping, you‘ll want to look into the option for your own company. If free shipping isn’t a practical option for your business, consider how you might differentiate in other ways — including loyalty programs, holiday discounts, or giveaways on social media. 6. Analyze how your competitors market their products.Analyzing your competitor’s website is the fastest way to gauge their marketing efforts. This is a great way to see how accessible and engaging their assets are, and if you can, try experimenting with A/B testing your landing pages or website as well. Take note of any of the following items and copy down the specific URL for future reference:
7. Take note of your competition’s content strategy.Then, take a look at the quantity of these items. Do they have several hundred blog posts or a small handful? Are there five white papers and just one e-book? Next, determine the frequency of these content assets. Are they publishing something new each week or once a month? How often does a new e-book or case study come out? Chances are, if you come across a robust archive of content, your competitor has been publishing regularly. Depending on the topics they’re discussing, this content may help you hone in on their lead-generating strategies. From there, you should move on to evaluating the quality of their content. After all, if the quality is lacking, it won‘t matter how often they post since their target audience won’t find much value in it. Choose a small handful of samples to review instead of tackling every single piece to make the process more manageable. Your sampler should include content pieces covering a variety of topics, so you’ll have a fairly complete picture of what your competitor shares with their target audience. When analyzing your competitor’s content, consider the following questions:
As you continue to scan the content, pay attention to the photos and imagery your competitors are using. Do you quickly scroll past generic stock photos, or are you impressed by custom illustrations and images? If they’re using stock photos, do they at least have overlays of text quotes or calls-to-action that are specific to their business? If their photos are custom, are they sourced from outside graphic professionals, or do they appear to be done in-house? When you have a solid understanding of your competitor‘s content marketing strategy, it’s time to find out if it’s truly working for them. 8. Learn what technology stack your competitors use.Understanding what types of technology your competitors use can be critical for helping your own company reduce friction and increase momentum within your organization. For instance, perhaps you‘ve seen positive reviews about a competitor’s customer service — as you’re conducting research, you learn the customer uses powerful customer service software you haven’t been taking advantage of. This information should arm you with the opportunity to outperform your competitors’ processes. To figure out which software your competitors use, type the company’s URL into Built With, an effective tool for unveiling what technology your competitors’ site runs on, along with third-party plugins ranging from analytics systems to CRMs. Alternatively, you might consider looking at competitors’ job listings, particularly for engineer or web developer roles. The job listing will likely mention which tools a candidate needs to be familiar with — a creative way to gain intel into the technology your competitors use. 9. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor’s content.To gauge how engaging your competitor‘s content is to their readers, you’ll need to see how their target audience responds to what they’re posting. Check the average number of comments, shares, and likes on your competitor’s content and find out if:
10. Observe how they promote their marketing content.From engagement, you‘ll move right along to your competitor’s content promotion strategy.
The following questions can also help you prioritize and focus on what to pay attention to:
11. Look at their social media presence, strategies, and go-to platforms.The last area you‘ll want to evaluate when it comes to marketing is your competitor’s social media presence and engagement rates. How does your competition drive engagement with their brand through social media? Do you see social sharing buttons with each article? Does your competitor have links to their social media channels in the header, footer, or somewhere else? Are these clearly visible? Do they use calls-to-action with these buttons? If your competitors are using a social network that you may not be on, it’s worth learning more about how that platform may be able to help your business, too. To determine if a new social media platform is worth your time, check your competitor’s engagement rates on those sites. First, visit the following sites to see if your competition has an account on these platforms:
Then, take note of the following quantitative items from each platform:
With the same critical eye you used to gauge your competition’s content marketing strategy, take a fine-toothed comb to analyze their social media strategy. What kind of content are they posting? Are they more focused on driving people to landing pages, resulting in new leads? Or are they posting visual content to promote engagement and brand awareness? How much of this content is original? Do they share curated content from other sources? Are these sources regular contributors? What is the overall tone of the content? How does your competition interact with its followers? How frequently do their followers interact with their content? After you collect this data, generate an overall grade for the quality of your competitor’s content. This will help you compare the rest of your competitors using a similar grading scale. 12. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.As you evaluate each component in your competitor analysis (business, sales, and marketing), get into the habit of performing a simplified SWOT analysis at the same time. This means you‘ll take note of your competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats any time you assess an overall grade. Some questions to get you started include:
You‘ll be able to compare their weaknesses against your strengths and vice versa. By doing this, you can better position your company, and you’ll start to uncover areas for improvement within your own brand. Competitive Product AnalysisProduct analysis drills down to discover key differences and similarities in products that share the same general market. If you have a competitor selling products in a similar market niche to your own — you want to ensure that you aren’t losing market share to the competition. Leveraging the example above, we can drill down and discover some of the key differentiators in product offerings. 1. Assess your current product pricing.The first step in any product analysis is to assess current pricing. Nintendo offers three models of its Switch console: The smaller lite version is priced at $199, the standard version is $299, and the new OLED version is $349. Sony, meanwhile, offers two versions of its PlayStation 5 console: The standard edition costs $499, and the digital version, which doesn’t include a disc drive, is $399. 2. Compare key features.Next is a comparison of key features. In the case of our console example, this means comparing features like processing power, memory, and hard drive space.
3. Pinpoint differentiators.With basic features compared, it’s time to dive deeper with differentiators. While a glance at the chart above seems to indicate that the PS5 is outperforming its competition, this data only tells part of the story. Here’s why: The big selling point of the standard and OLED Switch models is that they can be played as either handheld consoles or docked with a base station connected to a TV. What’s more, this “switching” happens seamlessly, allowing players to play whenever, wherever. The Playstation offering, meanwhile, has leaned into market-exclusive games that are only available on its system to help differentiate them from their competitors. 4. Identify market gaps.The last step in a competitive product analysis is looking for gaps in the market that could help your company get ahead. When it comes to the console market, one potential opportunity gaining traction is the delivery of games via cloud-based services rather than physical hardware. Companies like Nvidia and Google have already made inroads in this space, and if they can overcome issues with bandwidth and latency, it could change the market at scale. Competitive Analysis ExampleHow do you stack up against the competition? Where are you similar, and what sets you apart? This is the goal of competitive analysis. By understanding where your brand and competitors overlap and diverge, you’re better positioned to make strategic decisions that can help grow your brand. Of course, it’s one thing to understand the benefits of competitive analysis, and it’s another to actually carry out an analysis that yields actionable results. Don’t worry — we’ve got you covered with a quick example. Sony vs. Nintendo: Not all fun and games.Let’s take a look at popular gaming system companies Sony and Nintendo. Sony’s newest offering — the Playstation 5 — recently hit the market but has been plagued by supply shortages. Nintendo’s Switch console, meanwhile, has been around for several years but remains a consistent seller, especially among teens and children. This scenario is familiar for many companies on both sides of the coin; some have introduced new products designed to compete with established market leaders, while others are looking to ensure that reliable sales don’t fall. Using some of the steps listed above, here’s a quick competitive analysis example. 1. Determine who your competitors are.In our example, it’s Sony vs Nintendo, but it’s also worth considering Microsoft’s Xbox, which occupies the same general market vertical. This is critical for effective analysis; even if you’re focused on specific competitors and how they compare, it’s worth considering other similar market offerings. 2. Determine what products your competitors offer.PlayStation offers two PS5 versions, digital and standard, at different price points, while Nintendo offers three versions of its console. Both companies also sell peripherals — for example, Sony sells virtual reality (VR) add-ons, while Nintendo sells gaming peripherals such as steering wheels, tennis rackets, and differing controller configurations. 3. Research your competitors’ sales tactics and results. When it comes to sales tactics and marketing, Sony and Nintendo have very different approaches. In part thanks to the recent semiconductor shortage, Sony has driven up demand via scarcity — very low volumes of PS5 consoles remain available. Nintendo, meanwhile, has adopted a broader approach by targeting families as its primary customer base. This effort is bolstered by the Switch Lite product line, which is smaller and less expensive, making it a popular choice for children. The numbers tell the tale: Through September 2021, Nintendo sold 14.3 million consoles, while Sony sold 7.8 million. 4. Take a look at your competitors’ pricing, as well as any perks they offer.Sony has the higher price point: Their standard PS5 sells for $499, while Nintendo’s most expensive offering comes in at $349. Both offer robust digital marketplaces and the ability to easily download new games or services. Here, the key differentiators are flexibility and fidelity. The Switch is flexible — users can dock it with their television and play it like a standard console or pick it up and take it anywhere as a handheld gaming system. The PS5, meanwhile, has superior graphics hardware and processing power for gamers who want the highest-fidelity experience. 5. Analyze how your competitors market their products.If you compare the marketing efforts of Nintendo and Sony, the difference is immediately apparent: Sony’s ads feature realistic in-game footage and speak to the exclusive nature of their game titles. The company has managed to secure deals with several high-profile game developers for exclusive access to new and existing IPs. Nintendo, meanwhile, uses brightly lit ads showing happy families playing together or children using their smaller Switches while traveling. 6. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor’s content.Engagement helps drive sales and encourage repeat purchases. While there are several ways to measure engagement, social media is one of the most straightforward: In general, more followers equates to more engagement and greater market impact. When it comes to our example, Sony enjoys a significant lead over Nintendo: While the official Playstation Facebook page has 38 million followers, Nintendo has just 5 million. Competitive Analysis TemplatesCompetitive analysis is complex, especially when you’re assessing multiple companies and products simultaneously. To help streamline the process, we’ve created 10 free templates that make it possible to see how you stack up against the competition — and what you can do to increase market share. Let’s break down our SWOT analysis template. Here’s what it looks like: Download Free Templates Strengths. Identify your strengths. These may include specific pieces of intellectual property, products that are unique to the market, or a workforce that outperforms the competition. Weaknesses. Here, it’s worth considering potential issues around pricing, leadership, staff turnover, and new competitors in the market. Opportunities. This part of the SWOT analysis can focus on new market niches, evolving consumer preferences, or new technologies being developed by your company. Threats. These might include new taxes or regulations on existing products or an increasing number of similar products in the same market space that could negatively affect your overall share. Competitive Analysis: FAQsWhat is a competitive analysis framework?A competitive analysis framework is a structured approach used to evaluate potential competitors and understand their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This framework serves as a guide for businesses to identify competitive advantages, understand market positioning, and inform strategic decisions. Depending on the industry and the company’s objectives, this framework might focus on areas like product features, market share, pricing, customer feedback, and more. How do you do a good competitive analysis?Conducting a thorough competitive analysis involves several steps:
What are the 5 parts of a competitive analysis?The five key components of a competitive analysis include:
What are the 3 C’s in a competitive analysis?The 3 C’s refer to a strategic model that considers three main factors when understanding the broader business environment:
Is SWOT analysis a competitive analysis?Yes, SWOT analysis is a type of competitive analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It is a strategic planning tool used to identify and analyze these four elements of a business. While a SWOT analysis can be focused internally on a company‘s own attributes, when used as a competitive analysis tool, it assesses a competitor’s SWOT to understand where your business has advantages or might be vulnerable. How does your business stack up?Before you accurately compare your competition, you need to establish a baseline. This also helps when it comes time to perform a SWOT analysis. Take an objective look at your business, sales, and marketing reports through the same metrics you use to evaluate your competition. Record this information just like you would with a competitor and use this as your baseline to compare across the board. Editor’s Note: This post was originally published prior to July 2018 but has been updated for comprehensiveness.
from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/what-is-a-competitive-analysis-and-how-do-you-conduct-one/10659/ Originally Published on my Substack Continue reading on Chatbots Life » from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/how-to-organize-structure-your-documents-for-rag/10655/ If you think world map templates are useless, think again. In the design world, map templates can be a hot commodity, especially if you’re working with clients looking to expand into a global market. Corporate and business clients can make use of the maps to plan their expansion strategy and show it to their investors and shareholders. They can also use them to showcase the location of their offices worldwide in presentations or to add to their About or Contact page. In addition to that, they can use the maps on any of their printed material such as brochures, newsletters, flyers, and more. World maps are also useful for any website or publication that focuses on global statistics. They come in handy for schools and online teaching platforms that deal with geography topics extensively. In short, there is plenty of websites and design projects that could use a world map and the examples above only scratch the surface of why and when you might need world map templates. However, high-quality, world map templates are not easy to come by. In a world of textures, patterns, and brushes, world maps aren’t common which is why we’ve rounded up the best high-quality world map templates in this post as well as to save you time and frustration from trying to find them yourself. The best part about these templates is that you can download them for free so definitely check them out below and be sure to add them to your design library. Creative World Map TemplatesGrayscale World Map TemplatesColorful World Map TemplatesBlank World Map TemplatesVintage-Style World Map TemplatesPixelated World Map TemplatesFolded World Map Templates
from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/25-free-creative-world-map-templates-for-designers/10653/ If you’re running Meta Ads, you are well aware of the problems currently facing advertisers. Let’s take a look at some headlines from the past two weeks, shall we? Search Engine Land Bloomberg Digiday The Motley Fool You get the point. Things are not looking good and Meta doesn’t seem to have an answer for the people pouring their budgets into the platform. Now, I’ve been talking about the decline of Facebook for some time. Starting with the iOS14 update and continuing into this year with the deprecation of cookies, Meta targeting is nowhere close to what it used to be. I’m sorry to say that without a strategy change on the part of advertisers, it isn’t going to get better anytime soon. Meta is still figuring out how to deal with privacy issues while delivering great audience targeting at the same time. Unfortunately, they aren’t there yet and even though Advantage+ can improve with time, without the right data to train it (and without enough data to train it), it’s not good. So what should advertisers be thinking about? I know the Motley Fool wants people to believe advertisers are revolting and Meta is doomed. That’s not exactly the case. We all know Meta can still deliver exceptional results at a lower cost than say Google or LinkedIn. However, there does need to be a change in how advertisers feed Meta and how they target customers. 1. Stop Relying on the Facebook Ad PixelI alluded to it earlier but we have to stop relying on third-party pixels. Without cookies and without click IDs, cross-channel tracking and attribution is crap. This especially goes for the Facebook pixel. Our Test: Facebook Pixel vs. X-Ray PixelA month or so ago we ran a small test. We tested the Facebook pixel audience against our X-Ray audience. Same ads, same budget. The only difference was the audience. Here’s what we saw: With our first-party pixel audience, we were able to reach more of the people we wanted to and more of the people who were actually interested in our product. The result? More leads and a significantly better CPA. Businesses have to stop relying on third-party pixels and instead start focusing on collecting first-party data. 2. Get Back to RetargetingI still talk to plenty of advertisers and one thing I’ve consistently heard over the last few years is that budgets have shifted away from retargeting. I get it. Audiences have shrunk to almost non-existent and it’s just not as effective as it once was. BUT That was before you had first-party data and tools like Restore to give Meta the data it needs! With Customers.ai, you can 100x your retargeting audience. Or if you want to get really granular, you can build audience segments and send them directly to Facebook. The possibilities are endless but the gist is this – retargeting is back! 3. Train Your Advantage+ AudienceThe thing with AI and machine learning is that they need data to learn. Unfortunately, for advertisers with smaller budgets without a ton of conversion data, it might be forever before Advantage+ learns how to target for you. The key is to help it along and train it faster with your first-party data. Build a custom audience with first-party data and then add it as a suggestion. The goal is to make it smarter faster and in turn, get you results faster. Meta Isn’t DeadWe know a few people are signing Meta’s death certificate but we are nowhere near that. In fact, as an official Meta partner, we think Meta is alive and well-ish. Meta is an unbelievably valuable ad platform and with first-party data, you can bring back the performance metrics you once saw. The key here is agility. The platform isn’t working the way it has so you need to change your strategy and change it quickly. Customers.ai and our first-party pixel along with Facebook-specific tools can help you do just that. Reach out for a demo or sign up for our 7-day free trial and see what Customers.ai can do. See Who Is On Your Site Right Now!Turn anonymous visitors into genuine contacts. Try it Free, No Credit Card Required Important Next Stepsfrom https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/its-time-to-rethink-your-meta-ads-strategy/10651/
Think about it. The fundamental aim of any activity performed by a social media marketer on social networks is to gain followers. But is that enough? Not quite. In fact, it is the first step of any social media marketing campaign. What follows is a powerful strategy involving gentle coaxing and convincing to monetize your social connections. Your business could have a huge fan following. But if your followers fail to convert, the entire marketing strategy becomes pointless. For every $92 that brands spent on acquiring leads, only $1 were incurred on converting them -(Econsultancy, 2016). What is it that stops these living advocates of your brand from converting? There are obviously some shortcomings in your social media strategy that prevent you from getting customers. But don’t worry. We are here with 7 super tips that will help you increase your social media conversions. 1. Increase your productivityYour social networking moves have to be systematic to increase productivity. As a marketer, you post content daily or sometimes weekly. Your tweets are random and your Instagram posts are inconsistent. The result? No leads; no conversions. If your aim is to convert followers into customers, focus on increasing your productivity. Dedicate few minutes daily for social media marketing. To get your brand noticed, you have to expose people to your updates on a regular basis. Make your followers get used to seeing you on social networks. If posting too many updates on multiple social media networks seems an ordeal, use an automated social marketing and scheduling tool like Socialpilot. Points to remember
2. Analyze your contentYou think you are posting great content, inspite of which you fail to attract customers. Here are a few questions for you to answer.
If you don’t have an answer to the above queries, you have to probe deeply into them. To find out why your posts fail to deliver, track them, and analyze the results. These analytics do not just represent numbers; they are high-powered guides that help you strengthen your social media plan of action. The results of the analytics could be surprising as well as interesting. Use the performance metrics to channelize your marketing efforts correctly and attract (target) customers to your websites for conversions. Tip – Post at times when your fans are the most active. 3. Track your competitorsWhile you have earned huge respect from your army of followers, all the customers seem to be going to your competitors. Oh no! Here again, social media analytics could be vital. Measure the performance of your competitors’ posts and find out where they score brownie points over you. By monitoring your competitors’ post performance, you will get an idea about the ‘audience’ that actually converts. You could make use of the Facebook lookalike feature which enables you to create an audience similar to yours. Let me elaborate this a bit. This feature offers a source audience and identifies common qualities like demographic information, other interests, etc. Finally we find people similar to them and create the ‘Lookalike’ audience. It greatly increases the chances of conversion.
4. Tempt your followers – create stories, give offers and provide experienceThe first rule of influencing someone is ‘not to try too hard’. Did you hear it right? Yes. You have to persuade your audience to turn into loyal customers; although by not directly asking them to do so. Create stories on social media and make them buy an experience to remember and cherish – like the way Illegal Pete do. Illegal Pete’s is a restaurant that has a small fan base yet a strong conversion rate. They engage their fans by running contests and creating interesting conversations on their timeline. They give away small prizes but do so by making their followers participate wholeheartedly. See how they are distributing prizes in the post given below: In return, they are getting email ids of their customers which they use later for promotion purpose. It’s not just the offers that lead to conversions, it’s the experience their fans and followers gain that makes them come back again and again. You have to be ‘very innovative’ and provide your followers with a great experience while connecting with your products/services. And once they feel connected, you will be on the winning side of the conversion battle. Points to remember
5. Set your goals and plan your campaigns wellBrands can explore new functionalities and come up with brand campaigns that are goal-driven. There can be two approaches. Your ultimate aim is sales, but you could experiment with focusing more on brand awareness and give sales a second lead. Or else you could take the conventional approach of concentrating on growing your sales. Both the approaches are fine. You should then measure the outcome of both strategies, like how much traffic does the marketing campaign drive back to your website. Zevia produces zero – calorie software drinks. Its Instagram marketing strategy combines give away offers with its promotional posts. They know exactly what their followers want and design the perfect marketing plan. Where Zevia scored bonus points:
Set your goals, design your social media marketing strategy, choose your key social networks and start working on them. 6. Make your fans and followers feel specialAfter all, it’s all about them. They have been your huge advocates, grown your sales, so it’s now payback time. Here’s how you can do it. On Twitter, select a day and promote a follower – utilize #FollowFriday. On Facebook, you can add ‘fan of the week’ app to your fan page. Go a step further by mentioning in the comment why they are the fans of the week. Tip – Mention just that ‘one’ follower. Acknowledging too many fans at once takes away the charm of making that one person feel special. Another way of making followers feel valued is by fulfilling their requests. Create a poll or ask fans to comment on your posts. Let’s see how effortlessly Kohl engages with its followers. Kohl’s wanted its fans to respond by a ‘yea or a nay’ for a poncho. The poll got tremendous response along with mixed reactions. The fans participated with great fervorand enthusiasm. Here’s another example of great brand ethics: Target responds almost immediately to users’ requests and queries. This gesture speaks volumes about how much the company values its customers. If you give due importance to your fans and followers, they will connect with you personally. Tip – Display the customer feedback and queries publicly. It says a lot about the brand’s confidence and how much they value their customer’s opinion. 7. Are you loyal to your fans?We expect loyal fans and followers to convert to loyal customers. But that does not always happen. Have you ever pondered why? That’s because, as a brand, we too have some loyalties to display towards customers. Always fulfill your promises, whether it is introducing a new product on a certain date, offers, coupons and other benefits. Your consistency and concern will make them believe in you. In case you are unable to post for a few days, write a message like – ‘Going on a vacation, won’t be posting for a few days, will miss you loads’. This is another way of showing that you value their precious time. And the best thing that you can do for your fans and followers is to post excellent content. Quality content is the biggest driving force behind a brand’s success on social media. As discussed before, design a strategy that includes what to post and when to post. Make your followers believe that you post exclusively for them. Wrap-upThe fact is that brands have to gear up and concentrate more on conversions more, as it is the ‘actual’ goal of their social media marketing campaigns. Plan your marketing strategies, provide irresistible offers and calls-to-action, share stories with your fans and encourage them to participate in conversations. Once they feel connected with your brand, they will readily turn into customers, as well as refer you to their family and friends. And if you think that I missed something, you are most welcome to share the same in the below given comment box. from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/7-proven-ways-to-convert-social-media-followers-into-customers/10649/ Google announced updates to its Maps and Search products on Monday aimed at helping users find and choose more sustainable transportation options over gas-powered vehicles. James Byers, Google Search’s Group Product Manager, states:
Eco-Friendly Route SuggestionsIf travel times are comparable, one of Google Maps’ key new features will be the provision of transit and walking route suggestions alongside driving routes. This update will be rolled out in over 15 major cities worldwide in the coming weeks, including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, and Sydney. Train & Bus Route InformationGoogle is expanding its ability to find long-distance train and bus routes through search. Users searching queries like “Boston to Philadelphia train” will see schedules, prices, and direct links to book tickets on the results page. Train route information will now be available for 38 countries, while long-distance bus routes will initially be added for 15 countries. When users search for flights on Google’s dedicated Flight tool, they will see train route suggestions as an alternative for applicable routes. “So it’s easy to find the more sustainable option no matter where you begin your search,” Byers stated. Highlighting Lower-Emission FlightsIn cases where flying remains the best option, Google will show you the environmental impact. Byers explains:
Google is also releasing a Google Sheets add-on and online calculator to make the emissions estimates more widely available. Looking AheadWhile Byers acknowledged “there’s still a long road ahead when it comes to sustainable travel,” he expressed hope that “today’s updates will give more people the information they need to choose lower-carbon alternatives.” The new features come as consumers increasingly seek ways to make sustainable choices. By integrating these metrics into its flagship maps and travel tools, Google is nudging users towards greener options. Featured Image: Screenshot from blog.google/products/search/, April 2024. from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/google-search-maps-get-upgrades-for-greener-travel/10647/ Machine learning has revolutionized various fields by enabling computers to learn from data and make accurate predictions or classifications. Two prominent types of models used in machine learning are generative models and discriminative models. Generative models focus on capturing the underlying patterns of data to generate new examples that resemble the original dataset, while discriminative models concentrate on classifying or discriminating between different categories based on input features. In this article, we will delve into the concepts of generative and discriminative models, exploring their definitions, working principles, and applications. By understanding the differences and applications of these models, you will gain valuable insights into how they can be utilized in various domains, including anomaly detection, data augmentation, image generation, text generation, and more. So, let’s dive into the world of generative and discriminative models. Generative models are machine learning models that focus on building statistical models of the underlying distribution of a dataset. Their aim is to learn patterns from the data and generate new samples with similar characteristics. These models excel at creating realistic new examples by capturing the underlying patterns present in the dataset. Examples of Generative ModelsGenerative models encompass various algorithms that capture patterns in data to generate realistic new examples. Let’s explore some commonly used generative models:
Generative models aim to learn the underlying probability distribution of a given dataset. They seek to understand the patterns and structures inherent in the data to generate new samples that capture the same distribution. The fundamental idea behind generative models is to create a model that can statistically generate new data points resembling the original dataset. To achieve this, generative models utilize techniques such as density estimation, latent variable modeling, and probabilistic graphical models. These techniques enable the model to capture the complex relationships between variables and generate new data points based on the learned distribution. Generative models have diverse applications where the ability to generate new data is valuable. Some areas where generative models excel include: Image GenerationGenerative models can generate realistic images, such as creating new faces or producing artwork. Text GenerationGenerative models can generate new text that resembles human-written content. This is useful in natural language processing tasks. Anomaly DetectionGenerative models can detect anomalies in data by identifying samples that deviate significantly from the learned distribution. Data AugmentationGenerative models can generate additional training examples, improving the performance of other machine learning models. By applying generative models in these areas, researchers and practitioners can unlock new possibilities in various domains, including computer vision, natural language processing, and data analysis. In contrast to generative models, discriminative models focus on learning the direct mapping between input variables and output labels without explicitly modeling the underlying probability distribution of the data. These models excel at classifying or discriminating between classes or categories based on the available input features. Examples of Discriminative ModelsDiscriminative models encompass a range of algorithms that excel in diverse tasks such as classification and sequence analysis. Let’s explore some commonly used discriminative models:
Discriminative models learn the direct mapping between input variables and output labels. Unlike generative models, which model the joint distribution of inputs and outputs, discriminative models focus on modeling the conditional probability of the output given the input. Underlying PrinciplesDiscriminative models aim to find the decision boundary that separates different classes or categories in the input space. By observing the input features and their corresponding labels, the models estimate the probability of a specific output label given the input. They optimize the decision boundary based on training data by using various mathematical techniques and algorithms to decrease the error between expected and actual outputs. Training and Inference ProcessTraining discriminative models involve feeding the model-labeled training data. The model iteratively updates its parameters to minimize the difference between predicted and true output labels. Optimization algorithms, such as gradient descent, are commonly employed in this process. Once trained, the model can be used for inference by taking unseen or test data as input and calculating the probability of each possible output label. The label with the highest probability is assigned as the predicted output. Discriminative models find applications across various domains. Some key areas where they excel include: Natural Language ProcessingDiscriminative models are employed in tasks like text classification and sentiment analysis to predict the category or sentiment of text. They assist in email spam detection, article classification, and customer feedback analysis.
Computer VisionDiscriminative models, especially CNNs, are extensively used in object identification, picture segmentation, and image classification. They can distinguish people, identify items in photos, and find irregularities in medical imaging. Speech RecognitionDiscriminative models, particularly RNNs, are utilized in converting spoken words into written text. This enables voice-controlled applications and transcription services. Financial AnalysisDiscriminative models can be applied in financial analysis tasks, such as fraud detection, stock market prediction, and credit risk assessment. By leveraging discriminative models in these domains, professionals can make more accurate predictions, gain insights from data, and drive better decision-making processes. In conclusion, generative and discriminative models are two distinct approaches to machine learning. Generative models focus on generating new examples by capturing the underlying patterns in the data, while discriminative models concentrate on classifying or discriminating between different classes based on input features. Both types of models have wide-ranging applications across various domains and can be utilized to solve complex problems. By understanding the principles, examples, and applications of generative and discriminative models, you can unlock the potential of these powerful machine learning techniques. What is the main difference between generative and discriminative models?In generative models, the focus is on capturing patterns and creating new data, while discriminative models aim to classify or discriminate between different categories based on input features. Can you provide examples of generative models?Some examples of generative models include Gaussian Mixture Models, Hidden Markov Models, Variational Autoencoders, and Generative Adversarial Networks. How do generative models work?Generative models learn the underlying distribution of a dataset to generate new data points. They use techniques like density estimation, latent variable modeling, and probabilistic graphical models. What are the applications of generative models?Generative models are used in image generation, text generation, anomaly detection, and data augmentation, among other areas where the ability to generate new data is valuable. What are some popular discriminative models?Some popular discriminative models include Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machines, Artificial Neural Networks, Convolutional Neural Networks, and Recurrent Neural Networks. from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/understanding-generative-and-discriminative-models-by-botpenguin/10645/ |
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Digital marketing is the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. |