Category: Blog

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Advertising Blog

What Does AI Mean for SEO?

Macbook Pro laptop computer with code on the screen sitting on a desk next to a stack of books

Back in January, we made some predictions about digital trends coming this year. Of these, artificial intelligence is at the top of the list, impacting a variety of different areas including search engine optimization (SEO). Now, we dive a little deeper into this futuristic technology’s impact on the future of SEO.

 

Shifting Tides

According to Woorank, Google is no longer just analyzing, indexing and ranking content. Instead, by using AI and machine learning, it’s shifting focus to user behavior and intent to provide more useful information. By analyzing engagement metrics like click-through-rate, the system learns what content is valuable to what search. Now that machine learning technology is in the driver’s seat of SEO, what can brands do to stay ahead of the curve?

 

How to Get Ahead

Consider using semantic markup to make your content machine-learning ready. This tool tells search engines what your content means, not just what it says. This helps with rankings by making your page easier to understand and by associating your content with the intent of a search.

 

For example, a Google search for the word “journey” could return results for the band Journey or the definition of the word “journey.” By using semantic markup you help tell Google specifically if your content simply uses the word in a sentence, is about the band, or is the definition. By making it easier for Google to understand, you help your ranking. In fact, Woorank reports that using semantic markup can increase your site traffic by 30% on average.

 

In addition, make an effort to build a knowledge graph to suggest other content. By linking to frequently related concepts on your website, you reinforce your semantic code and increases the time people spend on your site. These are important determinants of your page’s credibility and increases rankings in Google.

 

In short, the shifting tides of SEO require proactive steps for brands. As AI machine learning focuses more on the intent of a search, tools like semantic markups and knowledge graphs can help increase your rank. Providing more meaning and context to search engines helps brands increase their search rankings and get in front of their target consumer.

 

Keeping your brand ahead of changing technologies can be a tough task. Our duty as marketers is to provide our clients with every resource available. Let our expertise keep your business at the forefront of trends. Contact or stay social with us! We’re just one call, like, follow, retweet, and DM away.

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Blog

Celebrate Your Brand This Fiesta Season

Noisy Trumpet fiesta cookie

Fiesta season is officially here and it’s your brand’s time to leverage this vibrant occasion! Integrate events like Fiesta into your marketing efforts and maintain a presence that keeps your brand relevant in the community. Here are a few ways your brand can incorporate Fiesta into marketing strategies:

Get out there.

Fiesta’s annual events are prime opportunities to connect your brand with a highly engaged audience within the city. By leveraging events like Fiesta you connect with the community in creative and relevant ways that inserts your brand into a larger conversation. Keep the goal of brand awareness and accessibility in mind when executing an event based strategy.

Incorporate the latest in marketing technology into your strategy.

While at events, keep in mind that your whole audience may not be in attendance. Utilizing technologies like live coverage of these events provides engagement with an audience you wouldn’t have necessarily reached before. This also provides you with content to share through your distribution platforms to really plus out your presence at the event.

Leverage events through content marketing.

Connect with your users through digital platforms by sharing photos and stories from the event. Even if you don’t attend an event, your overarching content strategy can be fueled by Fiesta. Touch on what is going on throughout the city and celebrate the season through your content.

 Keep it personal to connect.

Strategically connecting with a community can lead to numerous opportunities. Giving your brand a personality via interpersonal connections, rather than putting your efforts in selling, creates stronger brand equity. One conversation, tweet, tag or even direct message is an opportunity for your brand later down the road.

Keeping communication on a personal level allows you to create a relatable brand that consumers are attracted to. Marketers developing these relationships with an audience and local businesses have a heavy presence in local networks.  

 Stay Authentic to the San Antonio region.

Fiesta is one of the largest events in San Antonio attracting millions each year. This South Texas staple is deeply connected to our city’s identity and unites the community through culture, history and heritage. While San Antonio is the Fiesta epicenter, large events that attract significant crowds are not limited to the huge cities. Many well-known events happen in small towns and provide equal opportunity to localize your brand’s story.

Creating a positive and unique association with these communities may not create onspot conversions, but it gives your brand a positive public perception that leads to valuable relationships. Authentic relationships — whether to other businesses or consumers — hold a lot of weight. You might even consider partnering with other businesses that provide credibility to the brand when marketing during Fiesta.

Keeping your brand relevant can be a tough task. Our duty as marketers is to provide our clients with every resource available. With our expertise and these innovations, we’ll keep your business flourishing. Contact or stay social with us! We’re just one call, like, follow, retweet, favorite and DM away.

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Advertising Blog

Content Drives Revenue: The Art of Brand Integration

Marketing content funnel

Now more than ever it holds true that content drives revenue. Well executed expertly produced content by experienced creators is extremely valuable and measurable. As a panelist and speaker at the 2018 Digital Hollywood Media Summit in New York City and long-time content creator across all platforms, I was engaged in conversations with leading brands, publishers and platform executives who all agree that premium compelling content can be the leading driver to revenue growth–when executed correctly.

All brands and products have a story to tell. Organizations that recognize the value of premium content created by experts for specific platforms, devices, screens and delivery systems rather than a “one size fits all” general distribution model; and, recognize that creators working in tandem with marketers to identify and segment audience will excel at engagement to drive transactions while increasing the ability to identify and build multiple and recurring revenue streams.

Organizations that mitigate risk by protecting their intellectual property; practice high acuity audience segmentation vs. fragmentation; and, create business models with distribution platform diversity will thrive in this exciting, yet, rapidly changing business and social environment.

The production cycle of content creation has not changed much from past decades. What has changed for creators–whether editorial or commercial–is the publishing process and platforms; the ability to laser focus to identify the desired audience; the plethora of digital marketing tools to promote the content to encourage engagement; and, the ability to measure results. Understanding and leveraging the current process and tools available can be a marketer’s dream scenario.

The key for marketers to seamlessly integrate brands into content is to begin by engaging talented creators who have the experience and breadth of knowledge to create and deploy brand integration content via great storytelling. Identifying the right firm or individual to manage and direct the full cycle of each project from ideation to conception to publishing to movement down the marketing funnel and finally measurement, is tantamount in acknowledging that content drives revenue.

Editorial content creators, marketers and audience are all stakeholders in consuming content and driving the desired result. A passionate and engaged audience that becomes evangelists for the creator and/or publisher’s content then becomes the marketer and publisher themselves via social media sharing and online “re” publishing not to mention the all powerful face-to-face endorsement and referrals.

There is a convergence happening and it all begins with compelling content published on the right platforms for the right audience then doing more of what is yielding results and having the swiftness to stop doing what doesn’t work. Organizations that are nimble and data driven and respect the art of storytelling and engage in constant R&D as their culture will lead in transactional growth.

Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 statement that “the medium is the message” has evolved not as a slight to content being second place to the delivery system, rather, as a recognition that brands who embrace and respect the three-legged stool relationship between the creator, the marketer, and the audience as separate yet interdependent entities will build value and market impact.

______________________________________

Ceslie Armstrong is the executive content producer for Noisy Trumpet, and, Quarter Moon Productions.

Published by Noisy Trumpet in The Rivard Report.

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Blog

Noisy Trumpet on the Move

We are excited to see our very own Ceslie Armstrong recognized in San Antonio Woman Magazine’s “Women on the Move” feature. Ceslie serves as the executive content producer for both Noisy Trumpet and Quarter Moon Productions for the YOLO TX show.   

 

At Noisy Trumpet, Ceslie is instrumental in developing our firm’s relationships in San Antonio and beyond. Her national recognition and influence in the communications, media and entertainment industries provide Noisy Trumpet with a unique advantage moving forward and differentiate our firm in how we help build and grow brands across competitive landscapes.

 

In addition, Ceslie will contribute her 25 years of experience towards producing engaging content for YOLO TX. The weekly broadcast travel and entertainment television show showcases exciting destinations and experiences in Texas, and, locations beyond our great state where Texans love to travel. The show will benefit greatly from her award-winning writing and producing, being fine-tuned into a valuable commodity for users and broadcasters alike.

 

We are thankful to have one of our own recognized in San Antonio Woman and congratulate Ceslie on her accomplishments!

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Blog Social Media

March Social Media Updates

Social media platforms are constantly evolving and developing ways to retain users and draw in new ones. When done strategically, businesses can leverage these changes to grow the visibility and value of their product or service. The following are a few recent social media updates marketing and public relations professionals should keep an eye on.

 

Explore the Snap Map

Snapchat is adding an explore feature to bulk up the functionality and engagement of Snap Maps. As AdWeek reports, users will receive alerts about what their friends are doing and be able to see them on the map. These faux status updates will be automatically generated based on contextual information and location. For example, if your friend is at a concert, their status will say they are at a concert.

 

For marketers, this update can provide exposure to events and brands, especially when the story is combined with a geofilter context card. Moreover, marketers will need to adjust their focus to Snapchat to place their message as the app expands into the social networking space.

 

@ Me on Snapchat!

Snapchat recently rolled out a mention feature on their app. Similar to Instagram, users will now be able to mention other users in their stories, everyone from friends to influencers.  According to TechCrunch, pressing on the @-tag will reveal a swipe-up option showing the tagged person’s name, handle, Bitmoji, and an Add button.

 

Companies will now have a new way to expand their following by being tagged in Snapchat stories. Through being tagged by influencers, brands can be easily seen and followed by interested consumers. More marketers may consider being present on the app especially as influencer collaborations become a more integral part of an integrated marketing campaign.

 

Twitter Puts News First

According to Social Media Today, Twitter is testing a breaking news feature that will highlight trending topics and nest them at the top of users’ timeline. Relevant tweets that are attributed to the topic will be filed under one roof making it easier for users to monitor and join in on the discussion.

 

Utilizing this feature for a media relations strategy provides a no-cost and efficient way to get to the forefront of public discussion. They are able to offer their expertise on a given topic, producing more opportunities to be picked up by reporters and inevitably generate greater reach and influence.

 

Instagram’s Bio Makeover

Instagram made a subtle but important update, by allowing users to include hashtags and profile links in their Instagram bios. Mashable highlights the ability to see similar posts with the same hashtag and discover other profiles. Because privacy is key, tagged users will have the option to remove their handles from someone else’s bio.

 

For marketers, hashtags are vital to drawing attention to their brand and expanding their reach. In addition, the capability of adding profile links gives companies, who own multiple accounts under one brand, the ability to seamlessly connect to each other, doubling-down on audience growth.

 

Allowing your brand’s voice to be heard can be a tough task. Our duty as marketers is to provide our clients with every resource available, including the most up-to-date social media tools and tips. With our expertise and these innovations, we’ll keep your business flourishing. Contact or stay social with us! We’re just one call, like, follow, retweet, favorite and DM away.

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Blog Social Media

San Antonio Influencers Reveal the Secret to a Successful Marketing Campaign

Gone are the days of brands depending solely on traditional marketing such as print advertisements, newsletters and billboards, to guarantee the success of a campaign. On a national and local level, businesses are thinking ‘outside the box’ and shifting to influencer marketing strategies to reach their target audience.

According to Adweek, “consumers are seven times more likely to trust someone they follow on social media over a traditional celebrity.” At a recent PRSA luncheon, two of San Antonio’s top influencers reaffirmed this notion and shared some helpful tips businesses should keep in mind when establishing new influencer partnerships.

Research and Selection

First and foremost, social media is an organic way to increase brand awareness and your audience. If you’re hyperlocal, social media is a community platform that can offer opportunities to network with other local businesses and influencers.

It’s important to identify the audience you are trying to reach when vetting collaboration opportunities with influencers. There is a fine line between a media outlet and a media influencer. Do your research and make sure that their brand and audience aligns with yours. Legitimate bloggers post with a purpose. If your content doesn’t apply to their audience, it won’t be beneficial to either party involved.

After you have selected the most appropriate influencers, set aside a budget. “Some common misconceptions about influencers is that they’ll do work for free,” said lifestyle influencer, Stephanie Guerra of Puro Pinche,  “Most of the time, influencers are trying to make a living as well. Consider trade-value items. If you offer nothing, the chances of them doing something for you are low.”

Nonetheless, don’t let a small budget discourage you from reaching out to influencers. More often than not, influencers will help you do the most with the budget you have to work with and offer some alternative options.  

Transparency

When developing an influencer marketing strategy, make sure to outline your objectives and specify the goals you have in mind for your business. Are you looking for sales, brand awareness or both?  When collaborating with influencers, it’s important to provide direction and be transparent in your expectations.

Once a partnership is finalized, trust your influencers. Although traditional influencer marketing heavily relies on brand-created content for campaigns, consider giving them some freedom. Influencers know their audience and allowing them to create original content for you can help them effectively promote your business while safeguarding their brand and audience. A Gartner analysis finds, “consumers who see a user-generated photo on their path to purchase have a 4.5 percent higher chance of conversion, which increases to 9.6 percent once they interact with the photo.”

Due Diligence 

Unfortunately, influencers with the largest following won’t always garner the most successful and legitimate results. As eager as you are to secure a successful marketing campaign, be cognizant of any dramatic fluctuations in your influencer’s channels. Has there been a noticeable decrease in followers? Are their posts not garnering impressionable likes?

“Engagement rates between 1.64 percent and 3.48 percent are considered to be good,” reveals influencer marketing platform, Scrunch. “An influencer with a good engagement rate on Instagram can expect between 16.4-34.8 reactions for every 1,000 followers.”

Lastly and most importantly, be responsive and provide timely feedback at the end of your campaign together. If there is something that the influencer could have done better, be honest and share constructive criticism. Ultimately, you are both running a business and any feedback you provide can be utilized to enable success and secure each other’s credibility.

With the proper execution, influencer marketing can effectively foster growth and help connect your brand with the right target audience.

If you’re interested in capitalizing on this growing trend, we can help you develop a successful influencer marketing strategy tailored to your business.

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Blog Social Media

Social Media Week Austin Recap

Our time at Social Media Week Austin may be over, but our growth from this event is just beginning! Check out some of the key take-aways from #SMWATX!

New Demographics

Catering to new demographics is what marketers are trained to do. However, Gen Z is giving the industry obstacles unlike anything they’ve ever seen or studied before. Bridging the gap between analog marketers and a demographic raised in the digital world is proving to be difficult. Gen Z values social media over sales and advertising, so it is important for marketers to consider the platforms of consumption when planning a campaign. Gen Z easily sees through an inauthentic brand message and is picky about who can be trusted with their time. Marketers are now encouraging companies to create a brand and portray that story in the most authentic way possible, on the channels that make the most sense for their message.

Authenticity

Being authentic and not hiding from the truth is starting to give a huge advantage to brands. Utilizing the transparency of social platforms provides an outlet for users to experience and see the genuine relationship that could be built with a brand. “Social is THE place to connect with the modern consumer,” says CMO of Spredfast, Jim Rudden. While accessibility to a brand on social platforms can lead to slip-ups, it also gives brands a chance to acknowledging the situation, receive feedback and interact with the audience on a 1:1 level. Listening to your audience is key! Their direct feedback is easily accessible through social and extremely valuable in curating your content.

Fashion and lifestyle blogger, Camille Styles, provided a prime example of how authenticity drives business as she explained the ins and outs of becoming a social influencer. Styles explained that her audience is quick to catch anything off-brand or not in her true voice.  Authenticity boosts your brand engagement. Brands that stay true to their core values garner more attention and respect from their followers. In a world where engagement can produce real dollar revenue, winning content can truly support your growth trajectory. A great way to do so is by producing episodic content. Creating this content will expand its lifespan and reach since it is sporadically crafted based off of your strategy.

We’re in a customer experience renaissance. Customers evaluate a product largely in part by their brand experiences. It pays to show your customers some “love” and connect with them as often as possible by responding to their inquiries and/or acknowledging their commentary on social media channels.

Data Leads to Conversions

The great thing about social is that all of these connections with your customers can be measured and quantified. Evaluating this data is key to understanding the consumer. Let your data tell the story instead of forcing your content into a particular narrative. Data helps you understand your customer’s motivations and behaviors, providing tools to develop a customer road map for better marketing strategies.

Does your consumer prefer ___ content or —? Social engagement metrics will tell you.

Listening to these insights helps to form stronger connections between brands and consumers as you provide the consumer with value and entertainment. What questions do your customers typically have? Listening to those questions and providing timely responses through tools like messenger bots will only reinforce a relationship.

Fostering those relationships by tailoring your content to your consumer – or by even being responsive to their questions. For example, messenger bots are a responsive trend to the relationship between brand and consumer. Since the shift to social messaging rose in popularity, Facebook messenger bots add a personalized touch to automated messages that monetizes the space for marketers. This AI feature is the start to bringing consumers an effective user experience and bringing in more sales to digital marketers. Stronger relationships ultimately lead to higher conversions – and revenue for brands.

Implementing trendy strategies and maintaining the willingness to learn keeps our team strong and efficient!

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Blog Social Media

February Social Media Updates

Social media platforms are constantly innovating ways to retain users and draw in new ones. When done strategically, businesses can leverage these innovations to grow the visibility and value of their product or service. The following are the top three social media updates helping grow businesses.

Instagram Goes Shopping

Instagram is becoming an avenue of opportunity for e-commerce businesses. The app’s increasing popularity among beauty and retail brands and the rise of influencer marketing emphasize its potential for businesses. In order to capitalize on this insight, Instagram is testing a more immersive in-app shopping experience.

Courtesy of AdAge

According to AdAge, the test includes full-screen and multimedia ad units allowing users to scroll up from the ad to see featured products in richer and more descriptive detail. Best of all, this feature would allow users to complete purchases without ever leaving the app, satisfying their purchasing desire quickly and seamlessly — making brands even more effective on the platform.

Snapchat Snap Map

Snapchat is now allowing people to view its content and formatting outside of the actual app. Using a web-based map, users can go to the Snap Map website and view publicly posted stories just like in the app. The unique element of this feature is it allows users to embed the story onto a webpage.

This update can be a great asset helping brands showcase their events. It provides a more personal experience via consumer-generated content and greater reach to those who were unable to attend. In addition, the update allows marketers to integrate the feature into a larger overall campaign.

Facebook Viewable Impressions

Facebook announced a new measurement update possibly resulting in a reduction in organic reach for business Pages — but it’s not all bad news. The social network will start only counting ‘viewable impressions’ for Pages. These impressions only count when a Page’s post actually appears on the screen and not when it’s just preloaded into the feed.

Despite the possible decrease in reach, this change gives Pages a newfound confidence in their numbers and ensures brand awareness is achieved. Also, rates of engagement per impression will be more insightful, truly showing which portion of users engaged out of those who just saw the content.

Allowing your brand’s voice to be heard can be a tough task. Our duty as marketers is to provide our clients with every resource available, including the most up-to-date social media tools and tips. With our expertise and these innovations, we’ll keep your business flourishing. Contact or stay social with us! We’re just one call, like, follow, retweet, favorite and DM away.

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Advertising Blog Industry Trends

Super Bowl Advertising Reclaims Surprise

This year, Super Bowl advertising attempted to reclaim the element of surprise. This domineering tactic indicates a major shift from previous years with an interesting result.

Traditionally, Super Bowl advertising has become its own championship showdown, showcasing some of the best ads of the year. Not to mention, it constantly has the highest rates of viewership all year. So why did some advertisers not choose to hype up their ads with early releases or teases?

The Power of Surprise

In years past, advertisers release their ads weeks before the game to milk the expensive price tag for all its worth and stimulate consumer interest.

This technique uses the psychological priming effect. Basically, they create a small, positive experience first so that subsequent experiences are more likely to be positive. Teasing an ad helps ensure that people will keep liking it, making sure the $5 million budget isn’t wasted. However, this strategy leaves out a vital component of the ad’s success: consumer engagement.

The Effect on Consumers

For consumers, seeing the Super Bowl ads prior the game can surrender the joy of novelty. Consequently, consumers will care less when the actual ad is shown.

For instance, if a consumer has already seen the ad, they probably won’t pay attention during gameday — losing out on the value of the media buy. On the other hand, a consumer seeing the ad for the first time will likely be more attentive during the ad and even more engaged online.

Consumers are more motivated to join a conversation about real-time, trending topics rather than what’s already been covered. Therefore, their input and opinions about the ads become more meaningful. Whether it be on social channels or at work the Monday after, they see themselves as apart of a national conversation and current event rather than commenting on the past.

What to Take Away

According to Deadline, viewership for Super Bowl ads on Youtube after the game increased 16% from the previous year despite a 7% decrease in viewership of the Super Bowl. This suggests that there is something to the tactic of surprise.

It pays to be one step ahead of the conventional. Understanding consumer behavior and perception on a larger scale can help brands and advertisers stand out, garnering higher engagement and interest in real time — which, as marketers, is what we’re all after.

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Advertising Blog

Email Campaigns Are Far From Over

Let’s be honest. Most of us suffer from inbox overload, and filing through dozens of unwanted emails is just added stress. Nearly 105 billion emails are sent each day and this number is expected to reach 246 billion before 2020. For some, email campaigns are great at providing information directly to the consumer. However, for those sending multiple emails a day, it can easily get sent to spam. Here are some tips on how to receive and retain the attention your emails need to survive an inbox purge.

Only send important emails

Newsletters are no longer making the cut. No matter how interesting the subject line may be, studies show daily newsletters have the lowest read rate among campaign types and contribute to faster unsubscribing rates. Send emails twice a week, at most, to avoid pestering readers. Keep them interested by showing them what has changed since the last email. If emails include new information about the company or a new promotion, people will engage with the content more.

Keep it short and simple

Long emails filled with clutter will guarantee your email a spot in the consumer trash bin. Since simple structure gets the most clicks, always use clean lines and sharp images make emails more appealing. Write out short, well-defined, pieces to engage your audience. Don’t make anything long or confusing for them. Insert multiple links in your email directing readers to your site; this will keep their attention on your company. Most importantly, make all emails optimized for mobile devices. 72.9% of 18-24 year olds use their phones to check email; therefore, it’s essential to keep emails formatted for mobile users.

Make it personal

Emails with personalized data get the most interaction. Instead of writing “dear subscriber” try using the reader’s name. Personal emails like birthday promotions, post-purchase feedback, and welcome messages receive more attention than any other type of email campaign. Narrow down the general clutter in emails by sending recommendations based off the reader’s past interests. This will give the consumer a greater reason to read your emails.

Most importantly, know who your readers are and what made them originally interested in your company. Keep all emails closely related to each other and experimentation at a minimum. Ask yourself if the emails you send are worth reading; if you don’t want to read them, you can’t expect others to either. By incorporating these methods into your email marketing campaign, your emails are sure to be hit with the audience you’ve worked so hard to build.