Luxury brands used to speak in monologues. News about their latest collections flowed one way—from the boardroom, via billboards and editorial spreads in glossy magazines, to the buyer. In the age of social media, the buyers are talking back.One group, in particular, is getting through to fashion bosses: influencers. These individuals have won large followings by reviewing, advertising and occasionally panning an assortment of wares. Their fame stems from the savvy use of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

The Customer Strikes Back

For consumers, influencers are at once a walking advert and a trusted friend. For intermediaries that sit between them and brands, they are a hot commodity. For the brands’ corporate owners, they are becoming a conduit to millennial and Gen-Z consumers, who will be responsible for 70% of the $350bn or so in global spending on bling by 2025, according to Bain, a consultancy. And for regulators, they are the subject of ever closer scrutiny.

The Age Of Influencers

Few reliable estimates exist of the size of the influencer industry. One in 2020 from the National Bureau of Statistics in China, where influencers gained prominence earlier than in the West, estimated its contribution to the economy at $210bn, equivalent to 1.4% of GDP. As with many things digital, the pandemic seems to have given it a fillip, as more people were glued to their smartphones more of the time.

The Influencer Industry

The influencer ecosystem is challenging the time-honoured tenets of luxury-brand management. Apart from being one-directional, campaigns have tended to be standardised, unchanging and expensive. An exclusive group of white actresses with the right cheekbones was supposed to signal consistency, as well as opulence. The same smile from the same photograph of the same Hollywood star would entice passers-by to purchase an item for many years. Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman have been the faces of Lancôme’s bestselling La Vie est Belle perfume and Miss Dior, respectively, for a decade.

How Luxury Brands Use Big Stars

Star-led campaigns can feel aloof to teenagers and 20-somethings who prize authenticity over timeless glamour. And influencers, with their girl- or boy-next-door charm, offer this in spades—for a fraction of the fee of a big-name star. The best ones are able to repackage a brand’s message in a way that is harmonious with their voice, their followers’ tastes and their platform of choice (Instagram is best for all-stars with over 2m followers and TikTok for niche “micro-influencers” with up to 100,000 followers and “nano-influencers” with fewer than 10,000).

Authenticity Vs Timeless Glamour

Influencers are particularly adept at navigating social-media platforms’ constantly evolving algorithms and features. For example, when Instagram’s algorithm seemed to begin favouring short videos (“reels”) over still images, so did many influencers. As social-media apps introduce shopping features, influencers are combining entertainment and direct salesmanship.

Influencers And Online Algorithms

Some luxury houses are leery of influencers. Hermès, the French purveyor of scarves and Birkin bags, maintains a social media presence that is conspicuously influencer-free. But more feel the benefits outweigh the costs. Despite Louis Vuitton’s and Gucci’s live-streaming flops, lvmh and Kering, the brands’ respective owners, continue to rely on influencers to create social-media momentum. To be a top-ten brand, you have to know how to play the digital game. If you don’t, you are not going to be top ten for very long.

Playing The Digital Game

Influencers are becoming brand ambassadors—even for the poshest of brands | Business

Stashed ideas

The business of influencing is not frivolous. It’s serious

Conflict is the arrow pointing to what we need to learn the most

Conflict is described as "perceived divergence of interest, a belief that the parties’ current aspirations are incompatible.” Pruitt and Kim (2004, pp. 7–8 Conflict resolution is when an agreement is reached on contentious issues.Conflict management is when a problem has been solved where the parties had to work out ways to de-escalate conflict and avoid future escalations. Conflict is disruptive. American businesses lose $359 billion yearly due to unresolved conflict. The emotions associated with conflict include fear, anger, distrust, rejection, defensiveness, hopelessness.

Conflict resolution

People involved in conflict experience “a wide range of psychological and physical health problems including a weakened immune system, depression, alcoholism, and eating disorders.” Realistic conflict theory states that “conflict can always be explained by some tangible (such as money, territory) or intangible (like power, honor) resource" that is desired by both groups but is not available to both.

A theoretical framework for conflict resolution

When there is conflict, the body responds with a fight or flight reaction. Stress increases blood sugar levels and speeds up the heart rate. The cortisol released soaks the brain’s nerve cells, causing memories to shrink. When we deal with emotions first, it will help reduce stress, allowing for regular, rational problem-solving skills to continue. That is why it is important to wait for the emotions to subside before engaging in a discussion. Benefits include:<ol><li>Stress reduction</li><li>Improved self-esteem</li><li>Improved self-efficacy</li><li>Better relationships</li><li>Increased energy</li></ol>

Psychological benefits of conflict resolution

<h3>The following skills are vital for resolving conflict.</h3><ul><li>Self-awareness is recognising a feeling when it happens.</li><li>Self-control is the ability to regulate unrule impluses and emotions.</li><li>Assertive communication is where the speaker maintains self-respect, expresses personal need, and defends their own rights without abusing or dominating the other party.</li><li>Collaboration considers all the important needs of the primary parties and develops a suitable solution.</li><li>Problem-solving pursues alternative solutions.</li><li>Empathy is the ability to share and understand others emotions.</li><li>Active listening.</li></ul>

Conflict resolution skills

This method works well for conflicts involving values and intense emotions. <ol><li>Engage with the other respectfully. Respect involves how you look at the other person, how you listen, your tone of voice, and word choices.</li><li>Listen fully until you understand the other side, the content of the other person’s ideas, what it means for them, and their feelings about it.</li><li>Verbalize your feelings, views, and needs. Assertive communication works well at this stage. However, this is not always necessary. When you make a statement, be brief and truthful, but avoid loaded words. Show your feelings.</li></ol>

The conflict resolution method

When two or more parties are willing to work on solving a contentious issue:<ol><li>Define the primary needs surrounding the conflict.</li><li>Brainstorm possible solutions.</li><li>Choose solutions that meet the needs of both parties.</li><li>Create an agenda delineating who will assume each task.</li><li>Implement the plan.</li><li>Evaluate the solutions and reevaluate if required.</li></ol>

Collaborative problem-solving

<ol><li>Create an open-door policy.</li><li>Appoint Ombudspersons - neutral or impartial managers who can help to resolve work-related disputes.</li><li>Internal peer mediation. Designated employees can act as mediators to help resolve conflict.</li><li>Professional mediators are impartial third parties who assist through a formal mediation process.</li><li>Peer review and employee appeals are used to avoid a union process.</li><li>Executive panels provide an opportunity for employees to present their claims to a panel of senior executives that will be objective and sympathetic.</li></ol>

Approaches to work through issues in work settings

<ul><li>The Two Dollar Game was developed to help employees learn the art of negotiation in a fun way.</li><li>Conflict Description Template created by the University of Iowa is intended to deal with conflict.</li><li>Use this workbook: Coping With Stress in the Workplace Workbook by Ester Leutenberg and John Liptak.</li><li>Consider online tools and resources for conflict resolution.</li><li>Role-play activity. Participants are presented with various workplace scenarios and encouraged to formulate assertive messages to initiate a discussion about the problem at hand.</li></ul>

Best activities, games, workbooks, and online tools

Can we seek a better understanding of conflict and transform its devastating effects? Let’s find out in this conflict resolution article.

Conflict Resolution Strategies & Techniques for the Workplace

TikTok is contagious and addicting. It drives some of the strongest engagement numbers across the board and has inspired large-scale shifts and imitation from other platforms such as Instagram (i.e., its Reels feature).TikTok’s explosive initial growth was fueled by young adults. Now, the short-form video content platform is gaining cross-generational appeal. This consumer shift will likely drive a shift in brand spending, and sponsored content partnerships will become more common on the platform.

TikTok Will Gain An Even Bigger Share Of The Pie

Social media platforms make money based on engagement. It’s in their best interest to keep influencers motivated to create and share interesting content. That’s why several leading platforms are investing in resources that encourage collaboration.Despite TikTok’s popularity, Instagram wins when it comes to new features focused on content creators and brand partnerships. Last year, Instagram developed Collabs, which allows creators to build content together and then take advantage of a larger shared audience, as well as “Add Yours” stickers to boost Story engagement.

The Race For Creator-Friendly Tools Is On

The pandemic proved the importance of a digital presence and e-commerce capabilities.<ul><li>On the development front, Instagram recently announced testing for a native affiliate tool that allows creators to earn commissions for purchases they drive through the app. TikTok has been promoting a suite of social commerce solutions called TikTok Shopping and expanded its partnership with Shopify.</li><li>With platforms’ push for in-app shopping, influencers are becoming the entire marketing funnel. Brands will be able to leverage them as an awareness strategy and as a purchase driver.</li></ul>

Influencers Will Take Over The Entire Marketing Funnel

LinkedIn has seen a new category of influencers emerge — more executives, CEOs and business owners — and is building tools to support them accordingly.<ul><li>Last year, LinkedIn launched a new function — “Creator mode” — aimed directly at professionals seeking a foothold in the influencer world. This mode allows business leaders to leverage their expertise and be intentional about building community on the platform.</li><li>Brands should look at this as an opportunity to leverage the reach and expertise of LinkedIn influencers in their respective industries and develop cross-promotional partnerships.</li></ul>

LinkedIn Influencers Will Emerge

In 2021, the global esports industry was worth more than $1.08 billion; that number is expected to grow to nearly $1.7 billion by 2024.Esports is a natural fit for influencer marketing because of the high level of audience engagement and interaction. Esports fans are loyal, and enthusiasts stay engaged for hours at a time.While early esports influencer campaigns focused on gaming-related products, we’re seeing a wider variety of brands seeking to capitalize on this audience: mega-brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, Intel, and BMW have gotten in on the game with sponsorships of esports influencers.

Esports Influencers Will Go Mainstream

In my business, we’ve seen growth in influencer activity across multiple platforms. Here’s what we’re predicting.

Council Post: The State Of Influencer Marketing: Top Insights For 2022

Here's how conflict handling would work using the "SAS" rule:
<ul>
<li>Step 1: (S)tep back -- physically. This creates space between you and your colleague and sends the signal that you're not interested in further aggression or tension.</li>
<li>Step 2: (A)sk for a second to think about the situation logically. With a pause in the communication, ask yourself two critical questions: What is the most important fact on each side of the argument?</li>
<li>Step 3: (S)hare your realization with the other person calmly. Be sure you acknowledge both sides of the argument and how your emotion was coloring your communication.</li>
</ul>

The SAS Rule To Quickly Defuse Conflict

At this point, you may be able to continue a constructive conversation that reaches a peaceful resolution. If, however, there is still tension, ask to excuse yourself so both of you can calm down and rationally think about both sides of the argument.Follow up after a few hours (or days, depending on how much time you need) to calmly discuss the issue and come to a resolution. Be prepared to listen and, as needed, make a concession or compromise.

Follow Up And Listen

You can prepare an agenda for your follow-up or craft a statement of facts or beliefs that frame your side of the argument. Both of you should do this and share it with the other to review in advance. This avoids possible inflammatory statements at the moment and forces you to think about the other person's position.Overall, it's best to defuse these situations quickly and let the other person know you have no interest in conflict, but that you'd much rather listen, share, and come to an understanding calmly. It's the only way forward -- for the issue at hand and for your relationship.

Closure

Conflict appears in many forms, but we seldom are prepared to deal with it. Fortunately, this 3-step rule defuses tense situations and facilitates constructive resolution.

Use The "S-A-S" Rule to Quickly Defuse Conflict & End Arguments 

Website optimization (SEO) still plays a very significant role in your site’s visibility and SERP performance. The main areas of focus should be”<ul><li>Titles</li><li>Headers</li><li>Website copy</li><li>Meta descriptions</li><li>Image alt text</li></ul>By strategically placing relevant and “winnable” keywords of choice in the above areas, you are optimizing your website to be crawlable and indexable by search engines. And of course, the same applies to blogs.

On Page SEO

Search ranking is superficially tailored to user intent. This means that you need to let search engines know that you are an authoritative website that can offer information (and a solution) to specific pains and interests users might have.This is where long tail keywords come in, as opposed to normal keywords and phrases, these show a specific intention:<ul><li>Short tail (typically 1- 2words): “Eggs”</li><li>Long tail (typically 3–5 words): “How to make scrambled eggs?” </li></ul>

Target Long Tail Keywords

When you create a new piece of content, be sure to provide links to previous articles in your blog as it does not only boost your content’s SEO, it also provides visitors with a more user-friendly experience.&nbsp;Furthermore, the more your audience is directed from one post to the next, the more time they are essentially spending on your site, discovering your content and getting educated. This might even result in conversions and more of your content being shared.

Internal Linking

Referral traffic is excellent for increasing your website’s SEO. In addition to providing backlinks from other credible sources increasing your domain’s authority in the “eyes” of search engines, they also might attract more traffic, allowing you to leverage the audience of the site that linked back to you.Keep in mind, however, that referrals are earned, they are not acquired. In order to get referral traffic and backlinks to your site and blog, your content must deserve that link. It must be quality driven and aim to solve a specific pain, need, or interest of an audience.

Increase Referrals

Providing a guest post to another reputable site can increase your authority, expose you to a larger audience, and increase traffic back to your site and/or blog.&nbsp;Just creating a post and sending it to someone to feature on their blog does not work. You will need to build a relationship with them, make sure your audience and content are compatible, and of course always follow guest posting code of conduct when on someone else’s blog.

Begin Guest Blogging

Just like posting your content on others’ blogs is beneficial, the reverse is also true. Guests on your site are likely to share the link with their followers, potentially bringing in a new audience to you.&nbsp;Again, make sure the content you host is quality driven, relevant, and helpful to your readers.

Invite Guest Bloggers to Your Site

Getting an interview with a thought leader in your niche can truly do wonders to your site’s visibility. Not only will it increase your domain’s authority in the eyes of search engines, but similarly to guest bloggers, these individuals are also likely to share the link of the interview with their followers (further increasing your visibility and traffic.)

Interview Industry Experts and Thought Leaders

With a paid promotion, you can ensure that your content is being shown to the right people, at the right place, at the right time.&nbsp;Due to their highly targeted nature, paid ads not only contribute to higher visibility, they can even increase the amount of monthly leads your business generates.

Leverage the Power of Paid Promotion

Try to find aggregators that focus on specific niches as these will be more likely to attract the type of audience that would enjoy your content. If your content is high quality and resonates with the visitors to that site, it will do wonders for your visibility and increase traffic to your site.It is important to remember not to be spammy here. No matter how good the quality of your content is, if it is spammed and forced upon readers, it will probably warrant negative effects to your reputation.

Submit Your Content to Aggregator Websites

Webinars are an interesting, entertaining, and oftentimes engaging tactic to show off your knowledge and build your online authority. Additionally, they are something audiences like sitting down for.You will need a good promotion strategy backing your webinar. You’ll need to get an audience signed up for your webinar; using social media campaigns can be a great place to start. Emails, reminders, and “last notices” for registration are also great for getting people signed on.

Host Webinars

Traditional methods such as email marketing are sometimes (incorrectly) considered to be a thing of the past (especially with social media being a key way to get your message across.) However, it is important to not neglect the power of this tactic.&nbsp;Even moderate email blasts to your list can result in significant traffic, but you will need a strategy.&nbsp;

Email Marketing

With more people than ever browsing the internet on their mobile devices, today’s websites need to be responsive. A website that does not load properly, causing visitors to zoom-in, zoom-out, scroll, and adjusts will just be off-putting and will lead to a poor experience.In order to avoid losing traffic (and reputation) from this, be sure that your website is responsive and comfortably viewable on all screen sizes and devices.

Optimize for Mobile

Just as you would find it unacceptable to wait for tens of seconds for a site to load properly, visitors to your site share the same sentiment. In order to avoid massive bounce rates, diminishing traffic, and a blow to your online reputation, be sure that your site is also well optimized on the back end. This includes HTML ratios, image sizes, page structure, and integration with third-party plug-ins.

Fast Load Times

Join Facebook and LinkedIn groups your audience might be in and begin conversations, answer questions, and share your insight. (Twitter chats are also a great place for you to participate and engage in.)If they have been leaving comments on your posts, engage with them. This will definitely require time, a commodity that in today’s world is extremely limited and valuable, but the pay off can potentially be massive.

Leverage Social Media

Commenting on someone else’s blog brings traffic to yours: by providing additional insight, contributing to the conversations, and answering questions, you will start to expose yourself to new audience members.

Comment

See which tactics are working best for your competitors and even learn from some mistakes they have made, and incorporate this knowledge into your daily strategies.

See What Others Are Doing

One question that keeps popping up is, “How can I get more traffic to my site?” Website traffic is a much sought after “commodity” that few can achieve effectively due to immense market saturation…

16 Ways To Increase Your Website’s Visibility

Just as the social media era of the web was taking off, Google’s rapidly-growing platform radically changed the nature of the content and sharing on the web. Anybody with a website was starting to understand that ranking highly on Google was immensely valuable, and as Google’s ad platform boomed, seeing those paid results alongside “organic” search results made it even clearer that a high ranking had monetary value.Initially, information of how to rank better on Google was exchanged almost as folk knowledge (urban legends or myth, insights that were gleaned through painful experience).

The rise of SEO

Even as SEO matured and formalized, Google had very little documentation and no designated ombudsman to handle questions about how to be in their search engine’s good graces.&nbsp;Eventually, early Googler Matt Cutts took up the mantle of representing the company to the community as an advocate for best practices in search optimization, using his personal blog to explain company policies that had heretofore been opaque or inscrutable.

Advocating for best practices

Through the lens of 1 small choice about a single character in web addresses, we can understand how today’s fake news & algorithmic exploitation had their genesis in the early days of the social web.

Underscores, Optimization & Arms Races

<ul><li>Pick a platform and dominate it. Whether it’s travel photography on Instagram, threaded discussions on Twitter or memes on Facebook, create a clear personal brand on a platform that shows off your creative and marketing skills.</li><li>Always be reading books, listening to podcasts or going to cool talks (and then share them). This will make you look not only like a thought leader in your industry.</li><li>Agree to interviews and podcasts. Always agree to (good) press and podcasts — while this feels like extra work, it will pay off if and when you’re featured on larger publications (like this one).&nbsp;</li></ul>

Goldie Chan, Founder, Warm Robots agency

<ul><li>Stand out in the crowd. Place your brand in unexpected but contextually relevant locations across the digital landscape. Find authentic opportunities to help consumers view your brand differently and surprise them by rising above the noise.</li><li>Mobile Everything. The digital world is now the mobile world and you can’t succeed if your marketing efforts aren’t entirely mobile-first.&nbsp;</li><li>Brand Consistency. Your brand now has an exponential number of points of consumer interaction. It is imperative that each point be consistently connected to your brand identity.</li></ul>

Peter Sloterdyk, VP of Marketing, Grindr

<ul><li>Brands need to “go hard or go home.” Competition is steep and social media users are looking to consume the most thought-provoking and visually compelling content.&nbsp;</li><li>Segment appropriately. Even though a company has a specific identity and brand voice — cultural, socioeconomic, and political climates should still influence final approvals for the creative elements and execution of a campaign.</li><li>Be authentic. To ensure a company’s messaging and overall campaign is authentic is to connect with real people and hire a consultant/employee that matches the profile of the target client/customer.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Daniel P. Calderon, Managing Partner | Brand, Farley, Calderon + Associates(FCA)

Social media is one of the most powerful tools companies use to spread their message to their target audience. Video content has become more critical, giving companies a boost in Favorability and reach on social media platforms. When creating marketing campaigns, companies need to ensure they are using data that is both intrinsic and Extrinsic in nature. One of the best tactics to ensure a company’s Messaging and overall campaign is authentic is to connect with real people and hire a Consultant/Employee

Here Are My Top 3 Digital Marketing Tips:

<ul><li>Content is KEY. Your audience’s attention span is getting smaller and smaller, so pushing out content on a regular basis is extremely important to stay relevant.</li><li>Posting your product on social media isn’t enough. People want to feel like they know you.</li><li>Hiring a marketing agency doesn’t solve all your problems. If you’re an entertainer — make yourself AVAILABLE. Conference calls, interviews, press days/junkets — all of it! It will only benefit you and your product.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Rachel Martin, Director of Digital Marketing and Publicity, Total Assault

<ul><li>Listen to your clients! Sometimes the things you never thought would work blow you (and your client) away!</li><li>Times changes and be open for change! Just because it worked 5 years ago doesn’t always mean it will work tomorrow!&nbsp;</li><li>Don’t just focus on one thing! Use a little of this and a little of that so that everything is balancing out and working with each other! Keep your PR, Social Media &amp; Advertising constantly going! Be creative! Make sure all of your content is coming from multiple sources.</li></ul>

Heather Grabin, Founder, Splash Public Relations

<ul><li>Figure out what tools you need, and use them. Even tools such as Google Analytics (which almost everyone has installed) aren’t used to their maximum benefit.&nbsp;</li><li>Don’t deploy without testing. Testing is becoming mainstream, as it should be. No marketing banner or change on the site should be made without testing it.&nbsp;</li><li>Back to the basics: know your customers. And it’s not just knowing general demographics, it’s knowing what makes the customers tick.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Ayat, co-founder, Invesp a conversion rate optimization agency

<ul><li>Be engaging. There is nothing more powerful than an engaging digital marketer. The best way to do this is to know your customers, their needs &amp; how to make them feel appreciated.&nbsp;</li><li>Play the long-game. Don’t focus on the immediate sale, focus on building a sustainable community of brand ambassadors. If you support your customers, they will support you.</li><li>Differentiate your product or service. There’s so much noise vying for a limited amount of dollars. You need to stand out from your competition.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Lisa Chau, COO, Alpha Vert Enterprises

<ul><li>Don’t assume anything — many marketers have preconceived notions on who a brand's audience is. While they may be right, spending the time to understand who consumes and why they care is key to efficient and effective digital marketing.&nbsp;</li><li>Always be testing — digital allows us to measure efficacy more than other mediums.</li><li>Be nimble — reacting in real-time and iterating is key in the current digital marketing environment.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Chris Van Dusen

<ul><li>We are in the age of SKIM, keep your content short and sweet. Use infographics OR quick bulleted copy to get your message across.</li><li>VIDEO! Video…video… is the name of the game, again, short and sweet, you can really tell your brand's story in a quick 15-second clip.</li><li>MOBILE or DIE! Everyone is on their darn phones these days. You need to make sure you are advertising through mobile devices.</li></ul>

Olivia Mannix, Founder & CEO

<ul><li>Make Your Website Clean &amp; Functional. When designing your website, you should make sure there’s a theme — one that’s simple, sleek, and aligned with your company’s voice and style.</li><li>Quarterly Review Your Digital Marketing Strategy. By looking at various marketing campaigns and the numbers, you can see what’s been working and which areas need more attention or change.</li><li>Craft Content Wisely. When creating content, be sure to make the voice and tone relatable and casual — remember, you’re a human, so communicate as you would naturally to another person.</li></ul>

Jeremy Greenberg, Web Designer/Founder, 97 Switch

<ul><li>Find the reason that consumers purchase your products and services and leverage that story. Through uncovering the “Why” each post has a purpose.</li><li>Realize that you are not a professional photographer and realize it fast! Invest in a professional photographer that can make your products truly stand out from the noise that fills the online world.</li><li>Plan everything! Those beautiful Instagram profiles don’t just happen- they are meticulously planned, drafted and strategized for optimal visual impact.</li></ul>

Alicia Williams — Alicia Williams, Founder & CEO of Aliste Marketing, Inc.

<ul><li>Don’t be short-sighted. It’s important to fully understand not only your audiences but the various touchpoints they may have with your brand throughout their buying journey.&nbsp;</li><li>Take the risk. Ground yourself with data to help provide direction–but then jump.&nbsp;</li><li>Tap into the various networks available. You don’t have to know it all and you shouldn’t try to recreate the wheel! There are so many great resources within platforms like LinkedIn and Slack (shoutout to Online Geniuses, a great marketing Slack group) where people are more than willing to answer questions, share successes and more.</li></ul>

Stacy Poliseo, Chief Marketing Officer, Terra’s Kitchen

<ul><li>Answer Questions: "We answer ad optimization-related questions on Google Product Forums, Quora, Twitter and Reddit. We have found that this enables positive interactivity with sub-communities, establishes MonetizeMore as authorities and drives many leads."</li><li>Round-up Posts: "A well-executed round-up post based on trending topics in our industry has gotten a lot of views, shares, and attention from the most influential players."</li><li>Social Spotlights: "Every month, we feature a publisher and do a deep dive analysis of their programmatic ad setup."</li></ul>

Kean Graham, CEO, MonetizeMore

<ul><li>Business Strategy &amp; Marketing Strategy — Before doing marketing you should look at the strategic parts of a business and figure out the math. You need to know how much you can spend to get a customer.&nbsp;</li><li>As soon as a digital marketing campaign becomes ROI positive its budget becomes infinite. This is the golden rule of digital marketing.&nbsp;</li><li>Because of the previous rule, you should start small and try many things. Test many ideas quickly and cheaply. Try different messages to different audiences. Play around with your offer, your messaging and your targeting until you hit something that clicks.</li></ul>

Dimitar Savov, Head of Marketing, Startup Masters

<ul><li>Facebook &amp; Instagram are the most undervalued platforms in all of the marketing, if you aren’t using these platforms you are wasting marketing money somewhere else. </li><li>Content is king. High-quality content can take your business from 0 to 100 quickly. Don’t be afraid to invest in it.&nbsp;</li><li>Put yourself in your ideal customer's shoes. Get personal and resonate with them. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.</li></ul>

Chad Keller, CEO, GrowthStackers

<ul><li>Contagious Content! Want more views and followers? Focus on the content you produce. This is what will get people talking about your channel.&nbsp;</li><li>Be Original! Never copy off other peoples hard work. Be original and try your best to come up with your own ideas.&nbsp;</li><li>Believe in Yourself and Your Work (even if you start small).</li></ul>

Geeohsnap, Content Creator and Illustrator Artist

<ul><li>Build a network you can rely on. Learn something new from everyone you meet and you can bet that having a network of friends with different skill sets will help you down the line when you’re marketing yourself or your work and need help with things you haven’t done before.&nbsp;</li><li>Make the audience feel good. When people are using or talking about your product, or when a customer has purchased from you, reach out and thank them.&nbsp;</li><li>Add humor wherever possible. There is nothing better to bring people together than a good joke so find ways to inject something fun and unusual in your work.&nbsp;</li></ul>

James Frewin, Head of Creative, Labstep

<ul><li>Revamp your website copy so it speaks to your target audience…instead of speaking all about you and your business.&nbsp;</li><li>Lead your website visitors down a clear path of action. You should have 2 paths, one for warmer leads and one for softer leads. Both paths should require contact information so that you have a way to stay in touch with these leads.</li><li>Nurture the leads that aren’t yet ready to buy, but will be in the future. Most leads aren’t going to pull out their wallet immediately. Make sure you have a nurturing system in place so that you stay top of mind AND demonstrate your authority.</li></ul>

Lauren Pawell, Founder + Owner, Bixa Media

<ul><li>Understand your customer: Create a list of your competitors. Break the list down as granular as you possibly can. Find out the essentials: keywords used for advertising, strategies used on social media, and imagery used.&nbsp;</li><li>Give potential prospects a platform to talk about themselves: this will give you insights on what not to do, but also build strong and strategic relationships.</li><li>Don’t Quit: just because something doesn’t work or you’re not able to see the results you wanted, doesn’t mean you should stop advertising or delivering value.</li></ul>

Johnathan Grzybowski, Cofounder, Penji

<ul><li>Remember you are a storyteller. Behind every piece of digital content, there needs to be a story. People are on the lookout for something different, something that speaks to them, especially with the digital and social channels maturing.</li><li>People consume media differently across platforms. Before marketing or publishing on any digital channel, remember where you’re playing and who plays there.</li><li>Provide value. Content must provide some sort of value to the consumer. It can be anything, from a special offer to a feel-good response.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Samuel W. Turner. Managing Director. Those Social Guys

Email Automation, Content Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Retargeting, Facebook Pixels, Inbound Marketing , Outbound Marketing, Keyword Density… Sometimes it seems like a new approach for digital…

20 Top-Marketers Share Their 3 Most Powerful Digital Marketing Strategies

<ul><li>The color red evokes strong emotions, and also stimulates the appetite. It’s a color used by many top brands. 16% percent of unicorn brands — including Lyft, Pinterest and Airbnb — use red or pink hues.</li><li>The color yellow is the most likely to cause eye fatigue. That’s not a concern for Snapchat, which has seen great success with its yellow branding.</li><li>Surprisingly, the most popular color may be no color at all. Researchers found that 38 % of unicorn brands — including WeWork, Theranos, Uber, and Vice — use black, grey, or white.</li></ul>

The Psychology of Color in their Branding

If you’ve ever heard me speak at a conference or read my marketing articles, you know I’m all about the unicorns! I’m usually talking about unicorns in terms of paid search strategy — my theory is…

How are the World’s Most Successful Brands Using the Psychology of Color in their Branding

A marketing funnel is what takes a potential customer through the whole journey from discovering your business, all the way to purchasing your products on a regular basis.The goal is to create a highly automated system that is measurable at any point in the customer journey.It takes your customers from the first point of hearing about you (e.g. through your blog or through an interview you gave on Youtube) and takes them through all the steps until they become frequent buyers of your products.

The marketing funnel 

<ol><li>The prospecting system. It s basically a way of getting a prospective customer to know you and getting them to receive regular updates from you (e.g. by subscribing to your e-mail list or by following your Medium account).</li><li>The sales conversion system. It is everything that happens once you have gotten somebody to subscribe to one of your channels.</li><li>The system to maximize customer lifetime value. People who buy from you once and are happy with the experience, are much more likely to buy again. So you need a system that caters to people who have already purchased one or more products from you.</li></ol>

The three layers of a marketing funnel

A marketing funnel is what takes a potential customer through the whole journey from discovering your business, all the way to purchasing your products on a regular basis. The goal is to create a…

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Jonathan Cooper
@jonathcoop

The business of influencing is not frivolous. It’s serious

Conflict Resolution Strategies & Techniques for the Workplace

Council Post: The State Of Influencer Marketing: Top Insights For 2022

Use The "S-A-S" Rule to Quickly Defuse Conflict & End Arguments

16 Ways To Increase Your Website’s Visibility

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Jonathan Cooper@jonathcoop

The business of influencing is not frivolous. It’s serious

Conflict Resolution Strategies & Techniques for the Workplace

Council Post: The State Of Influencer Marketing: Top Insights For 2022

Use The "S-A-S" Rule to Quickly Defuse Conflict & End Arguments

16 Ways To Increase Your Website’s Visibility

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Jonathan Cooper
@jonathcoop