Marketing

Marketing

Social media can offer advisors opportunities to connect with prospective clients while nurturing relationships with existing clients. Approximately 40% of advisors use social media as a marketing tool, according to a 2024 Kitces report titled "How Financial Planners Actually Market Their Services." A social media marketing plan template offers a starting point for developing, implementing and monitoring outreach campaigns. Add new clients and AUM at your desired pace with SmartAsset's Advisor Marketing Platform.

Brands love to insert themselves into cultural conversations or piggyback on buzzy current events, a strategy sometimes called newsjacking. But it can happen without seeking, or even wanting, the attention. The borderline absurd virality of a Nike tracksuit evidently worn by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as he was taken into the custody of American captors is the most high-profile recent example-but it definitely won't be the last.

Brand builds long-term awareness, perception, and emotional connection. Performance marketing focuses on immediate, measurable actions and specific behaviors like clicks, sign-ups, purchases, or downloads which drives conversions and business goals. The most successful companies know that true growth happens when these two objectives work in harmony, not in opposition. The evidence is now clear: Brand and performance are not opposing forces; they are multipliers.

There was a Marathon gas station at the end of the street I lived on as a kid. Its big, glowing sign was a landmark for me-when I could see it from the window of my mom's car, I knew we were about to be home. Its iconic 'M'-on the rare occasion I encounter one these days-still brings up that old feeling, the familiarity of homecoming, and a twinge of nostalgia.

O'Leary's modern money-making idea is to "sell customer acquisition with social media." In essence, he said he would create video content for a business and ask for $100 for every paying customer he earned them. "You'd be amazed at how many business owners have no idea how to use social media, and if you've grown up with a phone in your hand, you do," he said. "It's the best side hustle there is: understanding how to make content for social media."

To paraphrase a quote credited to poet and author Maya Angelou, people forget what you say and do, but they never forget how you make them feel. That understanding is becoming increasingly relevant in modern marketing, where differentiation is driven as much by emotional experience as by execution. For agencies, this means thinking beyond deliverables to the full experience clients and audiences have at every touchpoint.

I confirm, big drop Today. Yesterday I still had an increase in impressions after EXACTLY ON MY BIRTHDAY, December 13th, Google reduced me to only 30% of traffic on several sites. Yeah, traffic is completely done today, literally down 90% from normal. So tiring, Up one day, down the next, up again, way down the next. Big drop today. Spam update?

The city has a unique opportunity to showcase its dynamic history and culture, draw new fans to a range of entertainment and attractions and capture the economic impact of all this activity. City officials, our local hospitality industry, regional sports teams and venues and the folks at the San Jose Mineta International Airport have been working together for many months to position San Jose as a home base for visitors and provide local residents opportunities to enjoy the vibrant atmosphere.

A new study published in Marketing Science has found that some of the most widely considered online advertising safety and fairness policies may actually boost ad platform revenues while improving fairness outcomes. The policies at the center of the study are around ads that are designed to help ensure that women, minorities and other protected classes are not disproportionately excluded from job, education and financial opportunities. The study, "Is Fair Advertising Good for Platforms?" by Di Yuan of Auburn University, Manmohan Aseri of the University of Maryland and Tridas Mukhopadhyay of Carnegie Mellon University, investigated whether policies intended to equalize exposure to economic-opportunity advertisements help or hurt ad platforms financially.

If Kevin O'Leary woke up broke tomorrow, he wouldn't panic, pout, or panic-buy a lottery ticket. He'd do what millions of people are already trying to do every day-turn their phone into a paycheck. Because in a world where everyone's trying to become a content creator, monetize their Facebook page, or figure out what exactly "engagement" means, O'Leary says there's a better, faster way to make real money.

Marketers spend billions trying to persuade consumers that a product is right for them. But our research shows that sometimes the most effective way to market something is to say that it isn't for them. In other words, effective marketing can mean discouraging the wrong customers rather than convincing everyone to buy. We call this "dissuasive framing." Instead of saying a product is perfect for everyone, a company is up front about who it might not be for.

Answer engine optimization matters because search behavior is fundamentally changing: AI Overviews reduce organic clicks but increase the value of citations, and conversational assistants are becoming preferred search options for consumers. HubSpot's Consumer Trends Report reveals that the most significant emotions consumers feel while shopping using generative AI are positive - appreciation, satisfaction, optimism, and joy. The brands that will win in the future of search are those whose content can be cited, summarized, and reused by AI engines.

After getting laid off in 2023, marketing veteran Julie Levin worked part time as a bartender for about six months as she considered her next steps. Levin is now the head of brand partnerships at Two Things, a New York City consultancy specializing in business transformations. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity. I moved across the country from LA to the New York area in 2022 for a really exciting job that I thought would mark the next phase of my career.

1. Outdated media mix models offered by major consulting houses weight older media forms like broadcast and cable more than new forms of media or ignore them completely. 2. Media fragmentation has muddied the marketplace with hundreds of new channels. 3. New media forms don't have or haven't built platforms allowing advertising at scale. 4. Bureaucracy. Large marketing organizations are slow movers, despite audiences moving elsewhere. 5. Change is hard. Lazy marketers stick to what has worked in the past, ignoring audience shifts.

If you're an entrepreneur or freelancer, building a personal brand and credible reputation is no longer optional if you want to grow your business. A personal brand helps you stand out in a saturated market and establish yourself as a trusted authority, and in turn, helps to drive more revenue. Social media is a key way to build your personal brand and reputation.

In times gone by, growing your follower count was the ultimate goal. More followers meant more reach, more impact, and hopefully more fans tuning in to your music. But now, that's all changed. According to creator economy executives speaking to TechCrunch, social media follower counts have never mattered less. Not because they don't matter at all, but because algorithms have taken over. Now, your feed is shaped far more by what platforms think you want to see than by who you actually follow.

After a three-year hiatus, Cheez-It has officially brought its mascot Prince Cheddward out of retirement in time for this year's Citrus Bowl. As sports marketing gets more crowded, Cheez-Ithopes its revived brand mascot will drum up enough fan nostalgia to drive more sales. "He's a fan-favorite asset who helps us stand out without needing to 'out-spend' or 'out-shout' anyone," said Cara Tragseiler, senior brand director for Cheez-It. It's increasingly necessary for brands to find new ways to break through the noise.

The session began by asking attendees why they made content, and we were pleased to see answers corresponding to every stage of the marketing funnel. Engagement and storytelling ranked the highest, while other popular answers included education, selling products/generating sales, brand awareness, creating a dialogue, enhancing brand messaging, boosting SEO, making people feel like they belong, entertaining and creating a buzz.

Usually, they'll do that using some bold "AI insights" from tech CEOs - because who knows every industry, from sales coaching to knitting, better than a tech leader? But there's a problem with this kind of blog post. There's no doubt agentic AI will have an effect on a plethora of repetitive tasks in sales and revenue enablement. However, the abstract knowledge that "things will never be the same" isn't nuanced enough to help decision makers future-proof their AI adoption strategies.

A few years ago, the art of the brand collab most often involved bringing together two brands that already had overlapping design styles, fanbases, or product categories. Recall partnerships like Nike and Apple's successful 2016 Series 2 Watch launch, for example; or Dolce & Gabbana's elevated designs for Smeg in 2019; or even Lego's 2020 collection with Ikea. All of these pairings make some measure of intuitive sense. But over the past couple of years, something has clearly changed.

Content plays a central role in how we acquire and educate customers. It needs to perform across the full funnel and work for both classical search and modern, LLM-based discovery. This requires a combination of technical SEO, strong content strategy, and hands-on content creation. As Senior Content Strategist (m/f/d), you own our content system end-to-end. You are responsible for defining the strategy and technical foundations, while also contributing directly to the creation of high-impact content such as articles, guides, case studies, and video-based formats.