Insights

infinitee, a full-service, strategic marketing agency in Atlanta, GA received the Silver Award of Distinction from the 20th annual Communicator Awards for their integrated marketing campaign produced for Cousins Properties, Inc. Cousins Properties is a leading diversified real estate company with extensive experience in development, acquisition, financing, management and leasing. Based in Atlanta, the Company actively invests in and markets office and retail projects nationwide.

The award winning work highlighted the transformation of 2100 Ross, Cousin’s Class-A office building located in the Arts District submarket of Dallas, Texas. Design elements included a renovations look book, digital on-site display boards and supporting printed collateral.

The Communicator Awards is the leading international annual awards program honoring creative excellence for communication professionals. Over 6,000 entries were judged and overseen by the International Academy of Visual Arts (IAVA), an organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of Visual Arts.

“infinitee is honored to receive this award for our work with Cousins Properties as it acknowledges our unique point of difference in commercial real estate marketing,” said Jocelyn Smith, CEO and founder of infinitee. infinitee specializes in real estate, with over 25 years of experience in shopping center, mixed-use, commercial, multi-family and residential development.

For more information about infinitee, call 404-231-3481 to speak with Managing Partner, Jocelyn Smith, visit www.www.infinitee.com or find us on Facebook.

About infinitee

infinitee is a full-service marketing and advertising agency that understands how to improve brands, communications and customer experiences. With a focus in real estate, its strategic and creative solutions build brand equity and drive sales for companies across the country. infinitee’s expertise has proven invaluable to national and southeast regional brands wishing to strengthen and grow their bottom line, including: OliverMcMillan, Cousins Properties, Parkway Properties, PM Realty Group, Tanger Outlets, Craig Realty Group, Lennar Commercial Investments and Banyan Street Capital. Through all facets of advertising, collateral, digital media and brand strategy, infinitee creates award-winning marketing and innovative communications.

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There is a new term being tossed around in the marketing world. That term is "tradigital" and it refers to the successful integration of digital media and traditional advertising in marketing, often used in the sales process. Industry leaders consider this new train of thought to be extremely integral in developing all-encompassing marketing strategies, especially those geared towards millenials. In order to embrace this approach, you must understand the goals and how to reach them. In a recent article published by the Atlanta Busiess Chronicle, writer John Garcia outlines this method.

Step No. 1 - Determine Destination

Before diving into a marketing strategy, you must think further than your goals to increase sales. Tradigital leverages traditional media to drive digital for maximum results. By setting clear and reasonable benchmarks, specifying the results you're trying to achieve, you are guaranteed a benefit even if you don't reach those goals. When the expected outcome is clear, your campaign will be effective.

Step No. 2 - Understand The Roles

As mentioned before, tradigital is a combination of traditional and digital marketing efforts. You have to recognize that each has its own place in the world. Traditional media is no longer the end-all-be-all method. It is now more of a conversation starter. Consumers take these messages and then turn online to continue those conversations.

Step No. 3 - Know Your Position

Garcia outlines the three strategies of digital adaption to help determine where you and your company are. These stages can also apply to new product or service launches.

• • Embryonic – At this stage your digital marketing techniques are not very well integrated into the marketing and sales process.
  • Intermediate – Digital marketing techniques are somewhat integrated, but there is still a lot of work to do.
  • Progressive – Marketing techniques are well-integrated, and are centered around a tradigital strategy.

Step No. 4 - Decide Approach

After you've determined where you stand in the digital adaption process, it's time to figure out how to allocate your marketing budget and efforts. The success of most tradigital campaigns will result in a shift of dollars, migrating from traditional to digital. Naturally, your digital space will begin requiring more support and your reliance on traditional media will decrease.

If your company is in the embryonic stage or launching a new product or service, it's recommended to allocate the majority of your funds to traditional media. The goal is to reach the largest number of people in your target audience with a clear and engaging tradigital message. This will drive the conversation or conversion online. You don't necessarily need more digital to build digital. Remember, it cannot stand alone. You need the right mix of traditional media to build your digital, and then increase your digital efforts to engage and maintain that audience.

Step No. 5 - Build Your Audience

A tradigital strategy will help you find and build your own audience, people that come to you instead of having to reach out to them. The goal is to leverage traditional (mass) media to build your audience and then provide the proper support so that you can keep them engaged.

To further discuss tradigital marketing, contact our Atlanta ad agency today!

Learn more about the author here.

August is right around the corner, which means moms and kids alike are already gearing up for back-to-school shopping. It’s time to make sure your digital media strategy is up to par with the competition. The best way to maintain a competitive edge is through mobile strategy. What’s the one thing no one consumer will leave the house without this shopping season? You guessed it, their cell phones. Shoppers make lists, save coupons, research what stores have certain items in stock and compare prices to competitors, all while in the marketplace.

By now, most businesses have implemented some type of mobile strategy, but there are common interactive media mistakes that should be avoided or corrected before the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons kick into gear in just a few short weeks.

The whole point of going mobile is to provide ease and convenience to your customers. Customer service is the driving force behind all successful campaigns, but as identified by Social Media Today, there are 10 common mistakes that can hinder your mobile interactive strategy.

1. Don’t Violate the 3-Click Rule.

Interactive media should take no more than three clicks on a mobile device to get the user to where he or she wants to be. Digital media is all about convenience.

2. Make Sure Your Content Fits on a Mobile Screen.

The size of a laptop, iPad and iPhone screen are all vastly different. Your digital media needs to adapt and fit appropriately on each device’s screen, especially a mobile phone.

3. Match Mobile Users Preferences with Your Mobile Media.

Your mobile interactive strategy should match what your users preferences are on their phones. If they don’t use auto complete, don’t have your mobile app incorporate auto complete either.

4. Don’t Violate User Security.

This one point hinders the convenience rule a little but for a very good reason. Make sure your users are safe when using your app or mobile optimized site on their phones. If you require a login, make sure a login exists on the mobile interface as well.

5. Make Navigation Easy.

If the user has to scroll every which way to see all of the content on their mobile device, then change the layout of your interactive media to adapt to smarter paths to accomplish the same goal.

6. Make the Most Important Functions Easy to Spot.

A mobile app should have the most used, most important interactive media bolded, underlined and centered on the mobile device screen. Ok, not literally, but the content should be easy to spot. The quicker users can access what they’re looking for, the better your engagement metrics will be.

7. Keep Graphics Simple.

Keeping graphics clean and sleek on each mobile and standing interface allows for easy navigation and makes functions easier to spot. Simple design supports many of the other points outlined above and below.

8. Have a Way to Correct Mistakes.

If a user needs to insert content, create two back buttons – one that returns to the previous page and another that allows users to delete inserted text. If this function doesn’t exist, bounce rates will soar due to user frustration.

9. Make Content Legible in the Sun.

Mobile users are on the go. Sunlight can hinder your digital media strategy if not taken into account. Incorporate legible font and color choices and highlighting techniques into your interactive strategy so users can see the most important content clearly no matter their surroundings.

10. Don’t Let your App Drain the Battery.

Make sure your app has a way to turn off when the user is not interacting with it.

All of these are great tips for avoiding mistakes in creating interactive digital strategy. Accounting for these issues, and many others, can improve your mobile sales and engagement.

If you need help developing or designing your mobile strategy, contact our Atlanta ad agency today.

Learn more about the author here.

Without trust on social media sites, you have nothing. If people don’t trust you, they don’t like you, they don’t believe you and they don’t care to know anything about you. All of this carries over to your brand.

Just like when forming relationships with new people, trust is one of the first things we need in order to develop an attachment to a brand or company. Luckily, Social Media Today has outlined 10 tips to becoming a trustworthy brand on social media sites.

1. Display Authority

Too many people try to fake authority online because there’s no face-to-face interaction. But, what social media strategy consultants will tell you is that everything can be validated and with great ease. Display authority by giving credit to other people, establishing that you’re the real organization and publishing results.

2. Prove Yourself

Again, everything can be validated. Mashable created a list of things to publish to prove that you are real: testimonials, customer references, partner references, kudos from other thought leaders, examples of work completed, links to work completed, guest blogs you have contributed to, links to blogs where you and your content has been cited, white papers, ebooks, etc.

3. Do what you say. Say what you do.

Don’t make a claim that you can’t support and don’t claim something that you can’t do. If you say you give the best social media strategy advice out there, then post some good advice or better yet, post a client’s work that you’ve done. Either way, you have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

4. Consistency

This is really tricky in a large corporation, but in small business, it is essential. A large corporation may have one, two, even five people managing their social media services and somehow they all have to tweet, post and blog in a similar voice. Similarly, small businesses need to maintain the same type of consistency. Social media consultants for companies, large or small, need to have personal and professional beliefs aligned with company values in everything that they share.

5. Apply these tips to others.

You need to follow, like and interact with other real deal companies. Apply all of the tips listed here to measure if what they’re doing is real too. This helps you, helps your fans and it even shows a little love to complimentary businesses.

6. Tweet Carefully

How many times have we seen people mess up the 140 characters in a tweet? Kitchen Aid will forever go down in infamy for the astonishing tweet posted about President Obama’s grandmother during the election. Be careful. Use the 140 characters to inspire, create calls to action or for news releases, but carefully monitor who is in control.

7. CRM

Use social media and advertising on social media to manage customer relationships. It should be an informal place for consumers to learn about the brand, products/services and company. Really develop that relationship, don’t sell yourself short.

8. Create Conversations

The way in which social media is being used today has changed. Create conversations that are actually meaningful. Create a platform or space that answers questions, addresses complaints and reinforces positive experiences.

9. Leave Yourself Out of It

This is not about you. This is about your audience, clients, partners and markets. Learn from them and listen to them. This way, you will be able to post worthy content and helpful items attracting a larger following and building more trust and credibility.

10. Take Credit for Posts

You started this business because you know a thing or two. Give a biography at the end of content posts explaining who the author is and why they have the credentials to tell you what they said.

For help with your social media strategy, contact our Atlanta advertising agency today!

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We all know that there are multiple factors that are taken into consideration when purchasing a product. In fact, studies show that 70% of consumers say they look at product reviews before making a purchase, and that these reviews are 12 times more trusted than product descriptions from the manufacturers themselves. One of the more recent considerations has been tagged - Social Proof. Buffer recently released an article explaining that "Social proof is the concept that people will conform to the actions of others under the assumption that those actions are reflective of the correct behavior."

Social proof has gained attention in the last couple of years because of social media and it's impact on the ease of information sharing. User-generated content, and the internet have made it a lot easier to use it in marketing and communication strategy.

Why is social proof important for your marketing campaigns? Here are 5 examples of social proof and the scientific reasons why they work, published by Ed Hallen.

1. Expert Social Proof

Has your product or service ever received a stamp of approval from a credible expert? Have you received Likes or endorsements from industry bloggers? This is expert social proof and can be in the form of a Twitter mention, Facebook Like, press quote, blog post, etc.

The Science:

Marketers are always trying to get influencers to endorse their product or service. This is often referred to as influencer marketing, but it's much more than a buzzword. Hallen states, "The halo effect is a cognitive bias in which we judge someone’s opinion based on our overall impression of him or her." These online influencers already have established reputations and if positive, anything they are involved with will also be seen in a positive light by association alone. This is why influencer testimonials truly work.

2. Celebrity Social Proof

Celebrity social proof is similar to expert social proof, in that the celebrity expresses an appreciation or liking for your product or service online. The only negative to celebrity endorsements is that the celebrities themselves control the impression of your brand. If they are seen in a negative light, it can be tougher to separate them from your brand. You don't want to them to produce a bad image.

The Science:

Hallen explain the concept of the extended self, stating that "the extended self is made up of the self (me) and possessions (mine). It suggests that intentionally or unintentionally we view our possessions as a reflection of ourselves." This is why consumers look for products that signify group membership and mark their position in society.

3. User Social Proof

User social proof is when existing users or followers recommend a product or service online. This includes customer testimonials, case studies, online reviews and more.

The Science:

User social proof is particularly effective when it involves storytelling. Hallen states, "Although statistics can be effective, it can be tougher to really see yourself in the aggregate the way you can with a personal account." User social proof is scientifically effective because people tend to imagine themselves in other people's shoes when reading a story. This is why they're often times more persuasive and trustworthy. It helps when the reader or follower can relate to your brand.

4. ‘Wisdom of the Crowds’ Social Proof

This type of social proof explains approval of the masses. It's evidence that thousands, millions, or even billions have taken the action that the company wants you to take – making a purchase, subscribing, etc.

The Science:

A big part of social anxiety is the fear of missing out. This is extremely relevant on social media as the sharing of what’s going on in our daily lives means you can constantly compare your status to others on these platforms.

5. ‘Wisdom of Your Friends’ Social Proof

This is by far the most popular type of social proof. There are Facebook widgets that show other Facebook friends that “like” a brand, Twitter displays of people you follow that also follow another person, and the various ways that companies offer rewards for referring others to the brand. Hallen notes a study from a German bank stating, "customers who came from customer referrals had 16% higher lifetime value than those who came from other acquisition sources. Additionally, the customers churned 18% less."

The Science:

Implicit egotism is the concept that most people subconsciously like things that “resemble” them in some way. Hallen says, "we value the opinions of people we perceive as most like us. We tend to become friends with people that we have a lot in common with, so it makes sense that social triggers like Facebook’s Like Box or referral programs are successful."

So how do you begin incorporating social proof into your marketing strategies? It's easy! Start with these small steps:

1. Add customer testimonials to your website or newsletters
2. Emphasize your follower and subscriber numbers on your blog
3. Automate follow-up with great customers or contacts to ask for referrals
4. Find experts who are interested in what you’re doing, build relationships and work together to find ways that they can help promote you

To learn more about effective social media strategy and interactive marketing solutions, contact infinitee today.

Learn more about the author here.

SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is not a new a dimension to the online marketing world, but has recently gained the spotlight as the leading online marketing tactic. SEO can be slightly overwhelming to the creative marketing or advertising mind. From keywords, to Google results, to alt tags, Meta tags, content-driving web results, it’s easy to lose yourself in the technicalities instead of focusing on the creative marketing that drives SEO.

SEO is fantastic for B2B marketing strategy or B2C. It’s the key method of connecting businesses and consumers in cyberspace. It’s imperative that your brand’s site incorporates SEO into its digital strategy to generate and capture leads and ultimately sales.

But again, SEO can be very overwhelming. Too often we feel we are learning about it as we go. But if you do nothing else for SEO, try implementing the following three proven marketing strategies as defined by Search Engine Watch to start building a foundation for search engine optimization strategy.

#1 – Figure Where Your Site is Now

An SEO assessment allows you to have a bird’s eye view of how your brand’s website is currently performing. The best way to do this is by checking your Indexing Status through Google Webmaster Tools. By doing this, you can see how many pages of your website are included in Google’s Index (Special Note: You can reach this by clicking the “Health” tab once you have logged in to your Google website account).

There are two things to look for with your Index Status:

1. How many pages are registered in Google’s Index

2. How many are not registered

If you have too few pages registered and/or if you have too many registered pages, this could present a problem in your website appearing in Google’s search results. That’s ultimately what this small test can teach you. The tricky part is deciding what to do next in your digital strategy if a problem exists.

#2 – Perfect your Keyword List

Keywords are what generate organic leads. Make sure the keywords you use on your website match what future prospects are typing into search engines.

The best way to match your keywords list with clients in a B2B marketing strategy is to make the keywords the title of your pages for major products or services. These title tags should accomplish two things:

1. Focus on the individual characteristics of each page

2. Only use each title tag once per page

If you are unsure of what keywords you should use, there are two tools Google provides: Google AdWords Keyword Tool and Bing Webmaster Tools. Just remember, specialize each page with a different title tag. Duplicating any sort of content is considered a bad practice and search engines will penalize your site accordingly.

#3 – Links are the Keywords of Search Engine Results

A key determinant of what position your site appears on Google or Bing are links. By links, we are referring to internal links among your site and inbound links from other websites to your own. A proven marketing strategy is to incorporate three links per piece of content, like a blog post or something similar. These will separate your site from the thousands of others that are in the same boat.

In summary, there are three proven marketing strategies for SEO that will get your website on the right path given significant time constraints or budgets.

1. Figure out where your site is now with Google Index

2. Refine and use your keywords list

3. Incorporate links in your digital strategy

These three steps are just the beginning in forming an SEO strategy, but they will begin to separate you from your competition. Do your research on SEO or reach out to a marketing and advertising agency that serves as experts in the industry.

For help with your next campaign, contact our Atlanta advertising agency today.

Learn more about the author here.

infinitee, a full-service, strategic marketing agency in Atlanta, GA wins two prestigious awards of 44 upscale outlet shopping centers in 26 states coast to coast and in Canada, totaling approximately 13.3 million square feet leased to over 2,700 stores operated by more than 440 different brand name companies.

The Gold Award of Excellence in the Marketing and Promotional Campaign category was granted for the 2013 Tanger PINK campaign. The Silver Award of Distinction in the Integrated Campaign for Business to Consumer category was awarded for the 2013 TangerStyle Holiday Campaign.

infinitee began as a full-service agency dedicated to the shopping center industry in 1989 and has diversified over the last 25 years to include other real estate business verticals, including mixed-use, commercial, multi-family and residential. infinitee has produced many award-winning campaigns for Tanger Outlets for the past 18 years, while employing the agency’s unique retail flair to help grow their market share.

“It is with great honor and gratitude that we accept these awards. Working together, we have reached international recognition and couldn’t be more proud of our team,” said Shannon Petty, Creative Director of infinitee.

The Communicator Awards is the leading international annual awards program honoring creative excellence for communication professionals. Over 6,000 entries were judged and overseen by the International Academy of Visual Arts (IAVA), an organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of Visual Arts.

For more information about infinitee, call 404-231-3481 to speak with Managing Partner, Jocelyn Smith, visit www.www.infinitee.com or find us on Facebook.

About infinitee

infinitee is a full-service marketing and advertising agency that understands how to improve brands, communications and customer experiences. With a focus in real estate, its strategic and creative solutions build brand equity and drive sales for companies across the country. infinitee’s expertise has proven invaluable to national and southeast regional brands wishing to strengthen and grow their bottom line, including: OliverMcMillan, Cousins Properties, Parkway Properties, PM Realty Group, Tanger Outlets, Craig Realty Group, Lennar Commercial Investments and Banyan Street Capital. Through all facets of advertising, collateral, digital media and brand strategy, infinitee creates award-winning marketing and innovative communications.

Contact: Jocelyn Smith Founder, CEO infinitee, Inc. 3400 Peachtree Rd., Suite 921 Atlanta, GA 30326 404-231-3481

Developing and executing events is a specialty that takes experience and attention to detail to successfully implement even the most modest event. Event planning for a business event that anticipates attendance in the hundreds or even thousands can be a daunting task and requires refinement and decision management skills as the Consumer Events Project Manager for Volvo Cars of North America discovered which led him to define and implement a standard he calls the Five P’s for Successful Consumer Events. Dan Louie's five-step approach to planning successful events includes: Parameters, Process, Partnership, Prepare and People.

1. Parameters – Clarify The Marketing Objectives

Prior to beginning any project, all marketing campaign objectives should be defined and agreed upon. Lack of objectives can lead to many mishaps including: incomplete proposals, frustration, wasted time, and going over budget. Louie says during the planning stage focus on S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) objectives.

2. Process – Use An Objective Decision Making Process

Clearly define the right choices through the Kepner-Tregoe decision-making process to reveal vendor choices that have the right balance of acceptable risk and reward. The four-step four step process: Clarify Purpose, Evaluate Alternatives, Assess Risks, and Make Decisions will ensure that the best decisions are implemented.

3. Partnership – View Each Vendor As A Valuable Partner

Louie emphasizes that relationships based on mutual trust and respect will result in more collaboration during project implementation.Relationships where each person communicates, listens, trusts, and collaborates on creative solutions result in greater rewards, additional benefits and ultimately event campaign success.

4. Prepare – Plan For The Unexpected

Not every project is going to run as smoothly as predicted. Louie advises to analyze potential problems and create multiple action plans for possible disruptions or issues that may come up including: weather, delivery problems, technology issues, equipment failure, and food and beverage delays, to name a few.

5. People – Interact With Consumers At The Event

It is critical for project managers, vendor partners and company stakeholders to attend the event to see the success first hand in order to collect feedback, evaluate partnerships and personally analyze the most effective marketing tactics executed.

Below is a chart of the refined Kepner-Tregoe Decision Analysis Process:

To learn more about developing effective event planning for business, contact our Atlanta ad agency with over 25 years of experience in trade show planning, collateral development and lead generation techniques for business conferences of all sizes.

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Today’s consumer relies on digital media now more than ever for information and marketers need to take notice of the growing fascination for video to tell their story. Video use has grown substantially as the preferred method for many companies to engage consumers and market their services through a visual medium. One of the most popular digital platforms used is Youtube. Youtube Press recently did a study and found that over 6 billion hours of videos are watched each month on YouTube (that's almost an hour for every person on Earth). Additionally, they found that 80% of this traffic comes from outside the US.

According to Forbes, 59% of executives would watch a video instead of a text summary of the same information. It is clear that video is an important marketing strategy to implement in an overall plan. Not only do videos allow for an easy and accessible way to relay information, but it also allows for greater global marketing overcoming many cultural barriers.

Planning and production of a video are exceedingly important considerations as Bulldog Report reports. The following are essential steps to creating the most effective corporate video including important takeaways.

1. Pack With Content - It is fundamental that you include as much key and interesting information as possible.
2. Video Length Is Everything - A study done by SingleGrain found that the longer a video drags on, the lower its retention. It also found that videos under 1 minute enjoy 80% viewer retention up to the 30-second mark, while videos 2-3 minutes in length still enjoy 60% retention. In essence, keep your video short to gain the optimum number of viewers.
3. Quality Over Quantity - A video’s sound and visuals keep your audience engaged, so make sure they are done well. There are plenty of online tools available that can be used to create videos on a limited budget, such as: http://www.wevideo.com, http://www.clipcanvas.com/videoeditor/create and http://www.loopster.com. Or you can use an expert digital agency to create more elaborate and customized videos for trade shows, product training, promotions and campaigns.
4. Location - This tip goes hand in hand with the last point. When filming any video, it is always important to keep in mind the location whether or not the goal of the video warrants location at all. Many videos can be produced using illustration, renderings, and stock images without ever leaving your office.
5. On-camera Talent - When utilizing on-camera talent, the talent should always be dressed appropriately based on the content and messaging. Generally speaking, in terms of dress, neutral colors are better so as not to distract from the message. In terms of demeanor and preparedness, the talent should rehearse their lines and prompt cards can be used if necessary to help the talent appear natural on screen. The bottom line, the talent should reflect your company.
6. Strategic Marketing - Use press releases. This gives your audience reliable information on the success of your company. Make sure you also include the logo of your company in the video (the end is a suitable place because it leaves a lasting impression).
7. SEO Strategy/Title - Use keywords in your title which will help increase traffic to your website after viewing the video.
8. Interactive Media - Embed your video onto your website in addition placing it on Youtube or another platform. Include a comment and share box for your video.

If you need a helping hand in developing a Digital Media Strategy or creating video content for your business, contact our Atlanta advertising agency today.

Learn more about the author here.

If your company is just now getting on the corporate blogging train, you’re already falling behind. Blogging is an essential part of developing an online strategy that seamlessly integrates with other digital and traditional marketing efforts. Now, blogs are no longer the only “content” component in a healthy inbound marketing strategy. The scope of “content” is deep and wide, which gives businesses lots of opportunities in developing fresh and unique consumer-driven information. The easy part in participating in this content evolution is idea creation – the hard part is actually producing it. Business 2 Community outlined a seven-step program to building a content machine that will allow your company to create large amounts of content on a regular basis.

1. Plan

Any strategic effort cannot exist without a plan. What you’ll need to do more specifically in the planning stage of developing content is define personas. Who are you developing this content for? What type of consumers are you trying to attract to your website? What information are they looking for that you can provide? This step is really about looking at your strategy from the consumer’s perspective.

2. Team

You really have to think about developing content like an editor thinks about publishing. The editor alone cannot develop, create, disseminate, track and analyze content. There must be a dedicated team developed to each of these efforts with assigned and clearly defined roles and responsibilities. In this “content machine” situation, those assigned to the tasks cannot be a part of each phase, but the team as a whole needs to understand how each individual section operates so the process can be efficiently and seamlessly refined.

3. Ideas

In introducing the steps to building a content machine, it was said that idea creation is the easiest part of this process. That can certainly be the case, but sometimes it might be difficult to get started. Feelings of writer’s block will inevitably arise, but doing a lot of the legwork upfront can help break down the content dam and let the ideas flow. Before diving into the actual production process, take the time to have a very focused brainstorming session with the team to create a bank of ideas, to which you can continue to add. Ideally, this bank should keep your content machine moving for at least six months. Imagining ideas for content can be sparked by keeping a close watch on what your competitors are doing (or not doing that you can take advantage of), answering your consumer’s top 10 questions or taking your own niche spin on what might be happening in your industry.

4. Production

This is the fun part – seeing your content come to life. Production is also the most critical part in properly executing a content strategy. The saying goes, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but we all do it – it’s human nature. If something looks intriguing, we are more willing to spend the extra time delving in a bit further to learn more. Think about how the content will be best received and deliver it that way. Is this content best suited for a blog article? How about a YouTube video or SlideShare presentation? Can we create an infographic? Is it a white paper? Decide what might be most enticing, but make sure the medium is relevant to the content.

5. Audience Development

You don’t want to invest all of this time and effort in developing content and then only be able to share it with a handful of people. Think about how you can expand the range of your audience and how best to engage those users. Popular ways to build a following would be through social sharing, syndicating your content on other website, paid search campaigns or even guest blogging.

6. Conversion

Your content will speak for itself in this phase. If you’re producing great content on a regular basis, consumers are going to want to come back for more – increasing the number of people subscribing to receive the content when it is published. Build relationships with these engaged users to turn them from admirer to client. Create touch points that keep them intrigued and know that you value their participation. Email marketing is a great way to nurture these leads.

7. Measure & Optimize

How are you going to measure the success of your content? This is a question that must be answered before the content is even developed. Different metrics apply to different types of content based on topic, target audience, goal result and the medium by which it is distributed. If you answer that question first, then you can focus in on what analytics are most important. Based on that, you can make changes for the next piece developed that address the pros and cons of your results.

If you need a helping hand in developing an integrated marketing strategy or building a content machine for your business, contact our Atlanta advertising agency today.

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As consumers, we use our mobile phones for everything. We make the obvious phone calls, send text messages and emails, listen to music, surf the Web, play games, track our caloric intake all on our smartphones. We can even manage our finances with our phones as seen by Bank of America’s mobile app that allows us to track our spending and even deposit a check with an image scan. The beauty of it all is that four-letter word that resounds in consumers’ minds – FREE. We surf Safari for free, download apps for free and listen to music on Pandora for free. The paradox at hand is what exactly makes all this free – and that, friends, is digital media advertisements.

Imagine trying to quickly look up a recipe on Safari, switch to the next song or look for an address and then be interrupted by an ad that completely gets in the way. Without these ads, that four-letter word would be lost. So are ads annoying or tolerable considering the price?

Advertising and marketing agencies know that these free amenities have to be paid for somehow and that consumers are more than willing to download apps onto their mobile devices simply because they are free. It’s kind of a vicious cycle. Marketers pay for what consumers love to have but consumers hate how marketers pay for it – ad revenue.

It’s the classic case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too. We want to know what you think. Are ads on free mobile apps annoying or tolerable?

Tell us how much you value the convenience of having the world at your finger tips at no cost with ads versus the amount you might pay to remove advertisements when you’re in the middle of searching the Web, listening to music or checking your bank statement?

Comment below and contact our Atlanta advertising agency today about your digital strategy questions.

It's no news that consumer demographics in America are changing rapidly. In order to maintain the competitive edge, retailers are scrambling to catch up by modifying their marketing strategies and adopting innovative new technologies. According to a recent McKinsey study, the three groups retailers should be targeting are the Baby Boomers, Hispanics and millennials. A recent article from Business Insider provides the following reasons why.

Baby Boomers

Baby Boomers are defined as those 55 and older and control approximately 70% of disposable income in the United States. The leading online retailer, Amazon created a website especially for these consumers; highlighting products like vaitamins and easy-to-use electronics. Another big brand, Dos Equis has also seen phenominal success with their "Most Interesting Man In The World" campaign.

Hispanics

McKinsey predicts that Hispanics will double retail spending in the next two years, reporting that they'll spend over $1.5 trillion on United States goods and services before 2015. Retailers are securing hispanic spokesmen and women and taking note of cultural fashions and trends in order to garner the attention of this demographic. Target, a leading national retailer even claims to be adding Mexican groceries to its shelves in the near future.

Millennials

These are arguably the most important demographic of our time and will account for nearly one-third of retail spending by 2020. These consumers are defined as those 24-37 and are extremely active online and on social media. Mobile devices are a large part of millennial shopping habits, making targeting them a little tougher.

Below is an infographic depicting the importance of each of these target audiences.

To further discuss the future of retail marketing, contact our Atlanta ad agency today, or learn more by downloading our newest white paper, Emerging Retail Trends - Part 2: How to Reach and Engage Today's Consumers.

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