Adobe buys Marketo: Who wins, who to watch

Adobe confirms it's buying Marketo for $4.75 billion

Vista Equity Partners bought Marketo for $1.8 billion in 2016, taking it off the Nasdaq after an initial public offering three years earlier.
Marketo's customers include Eventbrite, GE and Kaiser Permanente.

Adobe on Thursday announced that it's acquiring Marketo, a company that sells marketing software, from Vista Equity Partners for $4.75 billion.

The move could have implications for other competitors like HubSpot, Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.

Earlier on Thursday CNBC reported that Adobe was close to announcing the deal.

"Adding Marketo's engagement platform to Adobe Experience Cloud will enable Adobe to offer an unrivaled set of solutions for delivering transformative customer experiences across industries and companies of all sizes," Adobe said in a statement.

Marketo was founded in 2006, went public in 2013 and was acquired by Vista for $1.8 billion in 2016. Marketo's customer list includes Canon, Charles Schwab, Eventbrite, GE, Microsoft and Hyundai. Marketo's CEO, Steve Lucas, will continue to lead the company inside Adobe's Digital Experience group and will join Adobe's senior leadership team, the statement said.

Lucas talked about the opportunity of the unification of Adobe and Marketo's technology in a blog post:

The combination of Marketo and Adobe's Experience Cloud will form the definitive system of engagement for B2C and B2B enterprise marketers. Marketo's exceptional lead management, account-level data, and multi-channel marketing capabilities will combine with Adobe's rich behavioral dataset to create the most advanced, unified view of the customer at both an individual and account level. The result will be an unprecedented level of marketing engagement, automation, and attribution power, all with a goal of delivering end-to-end, exceptional experiences for our customers, where and when they want them.

Adobe stock is up 78 percent in the past year. The majority of Adobe's revenue comes from its Digital Media business, which includes the Creative Cloud software. Marketing software is included in the Digital Experience business, which generated $614 million in revenue in the most recent quarter, with 21 percent growth year over year.

Adobe's software has proven useful for marketing directly to consumers, while Thursday's statement emphasized that Marketo offers marketing tools to people working inside of businesses.

Both companies have many customers in common, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said on a conference call with analysts following the announcement of the deal. "It was clear [that] joint customers were looking for this integration," he said.

Marketo improved its go-to-market approach during its time as a private company, Narayen said.

Article from

Jordan Novet
Technology Reporter for CNBC.com

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Crypto Winter Isn’t Fatal For All âPicks and Shovels’ Makers

Crypto Winter Isn't Fatal For All ‘Picks and Shovels’ Makers

Executives say key infrastrucute is continuing to be built
Dropping equity valuations also attractive buying opportunity

The crypto winter that’s seen major digital assets crash by as much as 90 percent hasn’t been bad for all of the firms building infrastructure or investors looking to pick up equity in projects that dropped appreciably. "This is the most productive phase we’ve ever been in," said Konstantin Richter, chief executive officer of Blockdaemon, a firm that creates and hosts the computer nodes that make up blockchain networks. That’s because various efforts in the space need to deliver on their ambitions and are turning to firms like Blockdaemon for help. "Projects now need to show their colors. The time is up of raising a lot of money and talking a lot of talk," Richter said at a panel discussion hosted at the Los Angeles bureau of Bloomberg News.

After seeing cryptocurrency prices soar to records in late 2017 and early 2018 — Bitcoin peaked near $20,000 and Ether traded over $1,300 — the market had a disastrous time last year. Bitcoin is down about 80 percent with Ether having dropped about 90 percent. Investors and the public appear to have major concerns about what blockchain technology can actually deliver in the real world after hearing promises of its transformational potential.

"The skepticism is warranted in many ways because this technology is nascent and untested at an industrial scale," said Adam Jiwan, CEO of Spring Labs, which is using blockchain technology to build a decentralized credit-reporting system. He said the shakeout has been good for picking up employees who have seen their funding dry up or been cut loose from development firms. "Our hope is this presents us with a great opportunity to recruit talent," he said during the discussion.

The rise and fall of digital currencies validated the approach at Maco.la, a Los Angeles based investment, advisory and recruiting firm, said co-founder and principal advisor Sheri Kaiserman. That’s because the firm decided at inception last year to make equity investments rather than buying initial coin offerings, she said.

"We felt like the best way to make money is to buy the infrastructure companies — the picks and shovels — that are helping build the foundation," she said. "They are coming down in valuation, which is the best part of the crypto winter for us," Kaiserman said. Maco.la is looking to invest in projects that avoid the repetitious work being done in the space at the moment as well as ones that have a high likelihood of being acquired, she said. "That’s why we focus on ones where we think Microsoft might be interested or that Google might be interested."

Blockchain, originally developed as the ledger technology that powers Bitcoin, is promising for corporations, if they can figure out how to use it. Proponents predict billions of dollars in savings by handling data and transactions more efficiently and rapidly. Yet most corporate efforts are still in early development or testing. Still, depending on when a blockchain startup raised funding, it could still have plenty of money to spend on development, Richter said. "There are projects that are so well funded they’ll last for years," he said. Any ICO that went before the summer of 2017, for example, may have been able to buy Bitcoin at $600 compared to its current value of about $3,600, he said.

Health Care

Kaiserman said blockchain has the potential to radically change how global payments are made, specifically remittance payments when you factor in that Western Union charges 8 percent to 10 percent to send money compared with "a nominal cost" of Bitcoin transactions. There is also the chance to use it to give 1.1 billion people a digital identity around the world who currently lack a documented existence. Her favorite use is in health care, she said.

"I would love to be able to go to a doctor and the knowledge of my insurance is on the blockchain" so that "the insurance company knows that’s a covered diagnosis and there’s no need for reconciliation because we’re all sharing this one ledger," she said. Spring Labs is advised by former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Shelia Bair and former Goldman Sachs president and Trump administration chief economic advisor Gary Cohn. The firm avoided an ICO because they thought it would hurt adoption and risked regulatory scrutiny, Jiwan said. It’s working closely with regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission to understand how to transition from a firm backed by equity to issuing a token that would be used on its network, he said.

In November, the SEC announced its first civil penalties against two crypto companies for allegedly violating securities offering registration rules with their ICOs. Both Airfox and Paragon Coin Inc. will need to pay $250,000 in penalties and register the digital tokens they sold through their ICOs as securities to resolve the matters against them, the SEC said Nov. 16. A few weeks later, commission Chairman Jay Clayton said cryptocurrency entrepreneurs should get their “act together” and register their initial coin offerings with the SEC if they want to avoid problems down the road. "There’s some important issues in terms of straddling the transition from security tokens to utility tokens," Jiwan said. "The SEC’s primary concern is speculation ahead of actually delivering a functional technology, which, by the way, is reasonable," he said.

Article Produced By
Matthew Leising

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-16/crypto-winter-isn-t-fatal-for-all-picks-and-shovels-makers

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

BitMEX Research: ICO Tokens Allocated by Teams to Themselves Lost 54% of $24 Bln Value

The value of tokens that over a hundred of initial coin offering (ICO) teams have allocated to themselves has decreased by 54 percent from the initial figure of $24 billion. This was revealed in the latest research by cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX published Jan. 16. BitMEX has conducted a research of the ICO market in collaboration with analytics firm TokenAnalyst, looking into treasury balances of more than a hundred projects on the Ethereum (ETH) network. The analysis reportedly made use of machine learning techniques and was based on the interpretation of smart contract data and transaction patterns on the Ethereum blockchain.

According to the report, the combined value of all the tokens that the analyzed projects have allocated to their own teams, has gone down from $24.2 billion at the time of each individual token’s issuance to about $5 billion as of today. BitMEX cited the 2018 crypto bear market as one of the main reasons, along with $1.5 billion worth of transfers to external addresses,

further explaining:

“Based on current illiquid spot prices, the ICO teams still appear to own around US$5 billion of their own tokens, money they essentially got from nothing, depending on ones view. At the same time the teams may have realized gains of US$1.5 billion by selling tokens, based on coins leaving team address clusters.”

The report also highlighted that the historical combined peak value of the tokens controlled by the subject teams was more than $80 billion, using each coin’s individual price peak. The conclusion drawn by BitMEX and TokenAnalysits from their research is that the ICO market suffers from a lack of standards and transparency, especially in regards to allocating tokens to the founding teams. BitMEX noted that the analysis could be further complicated by the ability of ICO teams to mint, burn, buy, and sell their own tokens. As BitMEX found in November, at least 12 ICO projects, each of which has raised over $50 million via a token sale, have yet to launch. The company’s CEO Arthur Hayes commented back then:

Article Produced By
Ana Alexandre

Total change in her career took Anastasia into the world of analytics and business information as a researcher and translator in 2010. Some time later she got into FinTech, a dynamically developing segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology. Ana joined Cointelegraph in September 2017.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitmex-research-ico-tokens-allocated-by-teams-to-themselves-lost-54-of-24-bln-value

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

CryptoCurrencies: What is an Initial Loan Procurement and why it will drive the Markethive.

CryptoCurrencies:
What is an Initial Loan Procurement and why it will drive the Markethive.

There seems to be a lack of awareness around Initial Loan Procurements (ILPs), as well as a lot of confusion if that. This post will try to explain what ILPs are and their significance to finance and Markethive.

The Initial Loan Procurement

is a new fundraising method that is similar to an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) but in the form of loans rather than coins. In this ILP scenario, borrowers and creditors enter loan agreements through legally binding smart contracts. Markethive is one of the firsts to offer an ILP along with the originator from Blockhive. ILPs (Initial Loan Procurement) disrupt the global debt capital market and have the potential to become bigger than ICOs. Blockchain is revolutionizing finance, especially capital markets, which allow companies (and even governments) to raise money from investors globally.

Let’s talk about how companies and governments raise investor money:

Companies can either sell stakes in the company or equity.

This is done by issuing stocks and stockholders share the company’s profits. Likewise company losses are stockholders losses and companies aren’t required to pay the investors back. On the other hand, companies can borrow from investors by issuing corporate bonds. Although bondholders don’t share in the company’s profit, they will be paid back their original investment + interest unless the company goes bankrupt.

Governments can issue government bonds to big investors as well and the logic works the same as corporate bonds. Since the government is deemed less risky, government bonds typically have lower interest rates. Examples are US Treasury bonds. When companies/governments first issue these financial securities, they are issued in what is called the primary market. The average joe does not participate in this market. The big banks and institutional investors are the usual investors. After this, the already-issued securities are traded in the secondary market which includes retail investors like the average joe. Ex. Stock market

Then there’s the private capital market. All companies start private and once they get big, they might go public and list on one of the stock exchanges. Ex. Uber is currently a private company valued at $70B, and they are supposedly planning an IPO soon. Only then, would the average joe be able to buy Uber stocks and invest in the company. So who invests in these private companies early on? Big institutional investors such as Venture Capital firms (VCs) with lots of money get to invest early on for equity and if the company takes off, they could multiply their investments by orders of magnitudes.

This was how things were done TRADITIONALLY.

With Blockchain technologies, modern finance is changing. Initial Coin Offerings provide companies (and governments) with a whole new way of raising capital. It’s easier, faster, and the whole world gets to participate. Although coins are not 100% like stocks, a lot of them behave that way: Many tokens will profit if the issuing blockchain company becomes successful. (For example exchange token holders earning trading commission fees). Like stocks, there is no legal obligation for the company to pay the investors back their original investment. Initial Coin Offerings serve as the primary market and exchanges like Binance serve as the secondary market. This change is happening extremely fast. In 2017, more money was raised with ICOs for blockchain start-ups than ALL of Venture Capital. Pretty much EVERYONE can participate in these ICOs as well as trade the tokens once they are listed on exchanges.

This is why regulators are going crazy about cryptocurrencies right now. Throughout history, financial market crashes have devastated many lives, and each time regulators stepped in with rules to protect consumers. Let’s not debate the pros and cons of regulation here, but it’s just the way things are. With cryptocurrencies, regulators see more risk than ever for consumers as now regular people are participating not just in this unregulated secondary crypto market, but in primary markets as well through ICOs.

Meanwhile,

the global debt capital market has barely been disrupted by blockchain tech. If anything, there are many crypto projects in the works for peer-to-peer lending, but there is only one project that I know of focused on disrupting the public debt capital market: Initial Loan Procurements (ILPs).

A fundraising structure utilized by Markethive,

this has the potential to grow even bigger than ICOs (The world debt market is way bigger than the world equity market). This year Markethive will be one of the firsts to offer an ILP, like Blockhive, and will be one of the first companies to raise capital by decentralized crowdfunding of debt.

To summarize Markethive’s ILP:

we are targeting 10.5M Dollars (USD in Bitcoin) from lenders (think ILP). In this decentralized world, anyone can participate. The loan period is projected to be 10 years and the interest is 20% of Markethive’s operating profit. For example, if I lent Markethive $1,000 through this ILP, I will be repaid this principal in 10 years, and also earn interest over that period (In Markethive's case, 20% of Markethive’s operating profit will be distributed across the lenders. Furthermore, the ILP structure issues Hive Foundation Shares (HFS), which will allow me to sell my loan contract in the secondary market, if I don’t want to wait 10 years to be paid back. Each ILP will have its own FLAT to provide liquidity in the secondary market. Markethive's FLAT is also called Hive Founding Shares.

All ILPs are powered by legally-binding smart contracts (loan contracts between each creditor/issuer), and digital identity/signature solutions. The token utilized for these products will be traded on the open market exchanges (yet to be announced)

This is HUGE.

Instead of issuing traditional bonds, corporations and governments can participate in this decentralized form of crowdfunding loans. It’s fast, easy, and the whole world can participate.

'

The financial revolution is now just starting.

The need

The Markethive team believes that there is a need for an alternative to ICO due to the following shortcomings. The token economy is based on the demand, and sometimes selling tokens doesn’t make sense because the token has no real function for your business. Also, laws and regulation are an important consideration, because countries such as China have banned ICOs. Taxes also play a major part. Some countries consider money raised through ICOs to be income rather than capital and may tax it at rates as high as 40 percent.

The alternative

Markethive has partnered with smart-contract development firm Menlo Tech and the original developer of the Monero Coin to develop a way to raise funds using loans. Here are some unique points of ILP: The structure is as effective as an ICO because it is open to individuals around the world. It is legally binding because agreements are digitally signed using blockchain technology which records information in a distributed database so they can’t be easily altered, adding a level of security for creditors.

Because ILP is in the form of loans, it is considered to be debt, and not subject to tax.
For businesses that don’t need tokens in the first place, ILP provides an alternative so more time and energy can be spent on business development, rather than creating tokens with no actual usage.

The ILP is regulation-friendly. Markethive conforms with regulatory frameworks designed to fight fraud and money laundering. Therefore, participants of ILP will be required to submit their identification and to go through the process of authentication (KYC). The Markethive team says, “ILP provides a fast track alternative so more time and energy can be spent on business development. Last, but not least, because ILP is in the form of loans, it is considered to be debt, and not subject to tax.”

How does it work?

In Markethive’s case, We first ask our creditors to register their identification, address and other information. Then, they will digitally sign the loan agreement and send Bitcoin to our registered account. Once we receive the Bitcoin, the contract is made. That means Markethive’s creditors can receive 20 percent of Markethive’s monthly profit as an interest payment.

After the loan contract is made, Markethive will issue the Hive Foundation Shares (HFS the FLAT Future Loan Access Tokens). HFS gives creditors the right to transfer loans to others, using Markethive’s Wallets, Markethive’s internal exchange or on public exchanges. The team further clarifies, “When individuals receive HFS tokens, they become potential creditors and can use the tokens to sign loan agreements with the borrower, in this case, Markethive. Once they have signed the loan agreement with Markethive, they are now the new creditors of the loan agreement and they will get the interest payments.”

Take part in the Markethive ILP

The ILP seems like a much more secure approach to fundraising while keeping the ease of raising funds like the ICO. Markethive is a first test case of this new funding method. It is currently in pre-launch and you can register for it here – https://markethive.io

Article Produced By
Thomas Prendergast
Founder
Markethive

https://markethive.com/group/marketingdept/blog/cryptocurrencies-what-is-an-initial-loan-procurement-and-why-it-will-drive-the-markethive

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

THE RESULTS of the reddit cryptocurrency survey – a comparison of opinions, demographics and portfolios of redditors from different subreddits

One month ago I posted a survey of over 40 questions

to a range of different cryptocurrency subreddits and collected just over 300 responses. Since then I have processed the data and taken a look at the different demographics, opinions and portfolios of different users as well as comparing the results from different subreddits. This post is the results of this survey.

In this post I have condensed the results to a number of key stats and graphs. If you want to take a look at the graphs or read the discussion, they can be found in the full report. For the graphs, just scroll down to each section in the report and you will see them.

How do steemit users compare to reddit users?

I don't know so I have set up an almost identical survey for all steemit users to respond to if they like. If I can collect enough responses then I will make a comparison post like this one comparing reddit users and steemit users! If you would like to fill out the survey, you can do that here.
The live raw data collected from this survey can be found here:

Key Stats:

Section 1: Reddit and social media use

• Two thirds of cryptocurrency subreddit users frequently browse non-crypto related subreddits.

• Over 70% of cryptocurrency subreddit users used reddit previous to finding out about cryptocurrencies.

• For 1 out of every 8 cryptocurrency subreddit users, reddit is the only social media platform they use to keep up with crypto.

• 94% of cryptocurrency subreddit users check the price of their cryptocurrencies daily!

• Over 40% of cryptocurrency subreddit users check the price of their cryptocurrencies over 10 times per day and 80% check the prices at least 3 times per day.

Section 2: Demographics

• 95% of cryptocurrency subreddit users are male.

• The median age of cryptocurrency subreddit users is between 26 and 30 years old.

• Almost 50% of cryptocurrency subreddit users are from Europe and another third are from North America.

• Over 75% of cryptocurrency subreddit users either have a University degree or higher or are currently studying at University (University is the same thing as college for any Americans reading this).

• More cryptocurrency subreddit users are living off money they made from crypto than there are users who work in the blockchain industry.

• Over 20% of cryptocurrency subreddit users are students, of these students, 60% of them are at University.

• Nearly 40% of cryptocurrency subreddit users consider themselves gamers.

• 2 of the 331 cryptocurrency subredditors sexually identify as an attack helicopter. It is fair to say that I have learned not to add an “other” gender option in future surveys!

Section 3: Experience and interest in cryptocurrencies

• 70% of cryptocurrency subreddit users consider themselves HODLers.

• Decentralisation is the main ideological reason for cryptocurrency subreddit users to be into crypto and blockchain tech.

• 36% of cryptocurrency subreddit users got into cryptocurrencies in 2017 and 27% got into crypto in 2013.

• 45% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have previous experience in the stock market.

• The average cryptocurrency subreddit user is into crypto for the money but still has a significant interest in blockchain tech.

• Most cryptocurrency subreddit users consider themselves very likely to mention cryptocurrencies to a friend.

Section 4: Crypto Portfolio

• The median cryptocurrency subreddit user has somewhere between $5,000 and $20,000 invested in cryptocurrencies.

• Nearly 45% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have invested either less than 10% or more than 90% of their total savings in crypto.

• Nearly 10% of cryptocurrency subreddit users would rather not share what price category the size of their investment in crypto fits into for this semi-anonymous survey.

• 80% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have made a profit off their crypto investments.

• 60% of cryptocurrency subreddit users who invested in crypto after June 30th 2017 have made a profit off their crypto investments.

• 60% of cryptocurrency subreddit users own altcoins outside the top 10 coins by market cap.

• 50% of cryptocurrency subreddit users own 3 cryptocurrencies or less.

• Nearly 30% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have invested in an ICO before.

• The average (median) cryptocurrency subreddit user is signed up for 3 cryptocurrency exchanges.

• For just one third of cryptocurrency subreddit users, altcoins outside the top 10 coins make up more than 10% of their portfolio.

Section 5: Cryptocurrency Knowledge

• Most cryptocurrency subreddit users believe that they understand blockchain technology quite well.

• More than 50% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have fully read a whitepaper.

• Over 75% of cryptocurrency subreddit users know of Satoshi Nakamoto, Vitalik Buterin and Charlie Lee and who they are.

Section 6: Opinion

• Most cryptocurrency subreddit users think that 3-5 of the current top 10 cryptos will still be in the top 10 in 3 years.

• Nearly 40% of cryptocurrency subreddit users don’t support SegWit2x.

• Just 10% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have an unfavourable opinion of Bitcoin.

• Nearly 70% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have a favourable opinion of Ethereum.

• More participants have a favourable opinion of Ethereum than Bitcoin.

• More than 55% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have an unfavourable opinion of Bitcoin Cash.

• Almost 75% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have an unfavourable opinion of Bitcoin Gold.

• 50% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have an unfavourable opinion of Bitconnect while a further 47% don’t know how they feel about it or don’t know enough about it to have an opinion.

• 45% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have an unfavourable opinion of Ripple.

• Nearly 55% of cryptocurrency subreddit users have an unfavourable opinion of Ethereum Classic.

Final Section: Subreddit Comparisons

• Over 70% or r/Bitcoin users are opposed to Bitcoin Cash while just under 20% of r/BTC users are opposed to it.

• Over 25% of r/ETHTrader users don't have an opinion of Bitcoin Cash.

• 80% of r/BTC users approve of SegWit2x while just 6% of r/Bitcoin users approve of it.

• Over 50% of both r/Ethereum and r/ETHTrader users don't have an opinion of SegWit2x.

Which Subreddit has the highest rate of ICO investment?
The highest rate of ICO investment by users from r/CryptoCurrency where 38% of users have invested in an ICO.

Which subreddit has the most compulsive price checkers?
The two trading oriented subreddits (r/BitcoinMarkets and r/ETHTrader) had the most compulsive price checkers, with r/BitcoinMarkets having a significantly higher percentage of compulsive price checkers.

Which subreddit rates their crypto knowledge the highest?
r/Cryptocurrency, r/Bitcoin and r/BitcoinMarkets all have similar distributions with the same averages (median of 7 out of 10 and very similar mean values just below 7). r/ETHTrader rated their crypto knowledge the lowest with a median of 6 out of 10 and a mean just above 6 which as about 0.7 lower than the mean values of other subreddits.

Closing Words

That's it! If you want to read through the full report I made or want to see the rest of the graphs, I have left a link to the report where you can find them near the top of this post. I will also leave the raw data and the spreadsheets I used to process the data below if any of you are interested. Finally I’d like to thank everyone who participated and especially those who gave criticisms and feedback on what I covered in the survey and how I formatted it. I’m open to any recommendations for next time and criticisms of this survey so that I can make my next survey better.

Article Produced By
trickybits

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@trickybits/the-reddit-cryptocurrency-survey-a-comparison-of-opinions-demographics-and-portfolios-of-redditors-from-different-subreddits

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Earn Crypto Part 2: Incentivized Social Media

In this article, readers will be introduced to incentivized social media networks

that enable participants to earn cryptocurrency for contributed content. More specifically, readers will learn how they can make money on the get-paid-to-play-blog platforms Steemit and Yours.

What Is Incentivized Social Media?

Incentivized social media are digital content networks that pay their users to contribute and curate content. As opposed to traditional social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, which harvest users’ data, incentivized social media networks reward their users for contributing to their networks. While incentivized social media networks exist outside the cryptocurrency space, it was arguably the cryptocurrency sector that enabled the birth of this new breed of social media through its ability to process micropayments at low-costs to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. The market-leading cryptocurrency-paying incentivized social media network is Steemit. However, there are also other platforms, such as the bitcoin cash-powered Yours network that pays users in the bitcoin hard fork cryptocurrency.

Steemit: Curation, Creation, and Earning around High-Quality Content

Steemit was launched in 2016 as the first blockchain-powered social media network. The platform was built on the Steemit blockchain and pays its users in cryptocurrency to publish and curate content. Steemit users are rewarded in a combination of the platform’s three native digital currencies: SteemPower, Steem Dollars, and Steem, with the latter being the most popular and most widely traded cryptocurrency on third-party exchanges. Users can earn cryptocurrency for publishing high-quality original content and for upvoting popular content. The financial rewards for popular content are split among the content creator and the curator to ensure participation among the social media network’s users.

Using SteemPower, users can also increase their influence and the number of financial rewards they can receive for posting and curating. SteemPower can be acquired by exchanging Steem Dollars and Steem into SteemPower. For successful Steemit users to cash out their earnings, they have to turn their Steem Dollars or Steem into bitcoin or other digital currencies on third-party exchanges as very few retailers accept Steemit’s digital tokens as a payment method.

The blockchain-based platform provides an excellent channel to earn cryptocurrency for anyone who has a knack for creating, or at the very least spotting and upvoting, high-quality content that other social media users will appreciate. Some of the highest earning posts have made several $1,000 worth of Steem while the highest earning Steem users have made tens of thousands of dollars by posting content on the platform.

Yours: Income for the Bitcoin Cash Community

Yours.org was launched in 2016 by bitcoin developer Ryan X. Charles to enable social media users to be financially rewarded in bitcoin for posting and curating content. After the Bitcoin hard fork in August 2017, Yours joined the Bitcoin Cash camp and implemented BCH as the new digital currency of its platform due to BCH’s ability to process microtransactions at close to zero fees. Therefore, Yours users are now rewarded in bitcoin cash (BCH), instead of bitcoin (BTC), which has resulted in the platform gaining popularity in the Bitcoin Cash community.

To make money on Yours, users can post content and place a price on that piece of content that has to be paid by users who want to read it. Prices can range from $0.10 to several dollars, depending on how much you believe people will be willing to pay to view it. Users can also earn bitcoin cash by upvoting popular content early. It costs to vote up content but users are rewarded with a share of later votes for the same piece of content and are, thus, rewarded for recognizing high-quality content early on. Additionally, users can also earn BCH from tips, which can be paid directly to a user’s profile page, their content, or a comment of theirs.

Making Sound Money on Incentivized Social Media Platforms

While Yours is still in the process of establishing itself as a crypto-powered social media network, it is effectively only being used by the Bitcoin Cash community. Steemit, on the other hand, has become a go-to source of income for content creators from around the world. Steemit has managed to grow its user base to over one million people in less than three years and has become particularly popular in emerging markets where the bulk of Steemit users are reportedly located.

It is difficult to say exactly how much one can make on Steemit because the financial reward is linked to the amount and quality of the content provided and how much content they curate. For individuals living in developing countries where the average monthly income lies below $500, however, a successful Steemit user can supplement a substantial percentage of their income by being active on this incentivized social media network. A brief glance on Trending Posts on Steemit shows that the most popular posts of the day are earning around $250 and the topics covered are not just focused on cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.

Steemit and other cryptocurrency-powered social media networks like Yours and those still in the making, therefore, provide an opportunity for anyone, anywhere to earn digital currency to supplement their income provided they put in the time and effort to create and curate amazing content.

Article Produced By

Alexander Lielacher

Alex Lielacher is a former bond trader who now writes about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. He holds a degree in Investment & Financial Risk Management from Cass Business School, London and has been following bitcoin since 2011.

https://btcmanager.com/earn-crypto-part-2-incentivized-social-media/?utm_source=Telegram&utm_medium=socialpush&utm_campaign=SNAP

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

6 Actionable Marketing Trends for 2019

The hot item on everyone’s agenda heading into 2019:

how to climb to the top in today’s ever-changing, omnichannel, content saturated marketplace. Keeping up with the innovations and trends of the industry is key to developing actionable marketing plans and breaking through the noise. Here are 6 actionable marketing and advertising trends to take notice of as you finalize your 2019 marketing plans.

1?—?Welcome the New Layer of the Lead Funnel: Fierce Brand Loyalty

What do all of these direct to consumer (DTC) brands have in common? Each of these DTC companies have disrupted their industries and are proving the power of a strong brand narrative and streamlined shopping experiences. The return… fiercely loyal communities of brand ambassadors. The modern consumer is interested in more than just product features. They strive to cultivate an emotional connection with the brands they invest in. These successful DTC brands make engaging customer experiences their core offering. In turn, their customers

convert into loyal advocates.

The modern consumer is interested in more than just product features. They strive to cultivate an emotional connection with the brands they invest in.

We are seeing other consumer-oriented companies taking notice and doing something about it. Gigasavvy’s Brand Strategy Director, Kristy Gulsvig, notes, “in 2019 true brand engagement will come first, and the sales and leads will follow.”

In 2019, all companies should be asking themselves:

Do consumers understand who you are and what you’re about?
Are consumers excited about what you offer? Why?
How can you create a connection beyond product features and functions?

2?—?Data Fueled Marketing Campaigns

From Mark Zuckerberg testifying before US Congress, to the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU, customer data has been the buzzword of the past year. But what does this mean for marketers entering 2019? How do marketers responsibly use data to fuel tailored and

personalized marketing campaigns?

Being responsible with the customer data that we are provided is essential. From this place of respect, marketers will earn the fierce brand loyalty as we drive relevant and highly targeted campaigns

Gigasavvy President, Kyle Johnston, elaborates, “a sound marketing strategy should always be data driven. The problem is most organizations don’t know what to actually do with their data to drive good decisions. In its simplest form, good data should help your brand’s story to be more relevant. In an age where we are overloaded with content, relevance is often overlooked, but is also the most important step in obtaining your audience’s attention.” Johnston adds, “only from creating that attention, does your brand have the opportunity to connect on a human level and build an actual relationship with the consumer. Only then can we even begin to talk about loyalty. Everyone wants a loyal group of brand ambassadors, but you have to work harder to earn it in today’s marketplace. This is the area we want our clients pushing into in 2019”.

Being responsible with the customer data that we are provided is essential. From this place of respect, marketers will earn the fierce brand loyalty as we drive relevant and highly targeted campaigns.

3?—?Social Media from A… to Gen Z

Introducing: Gen Z?—?the first generation to grow up with the internet and social media as a regular part of their everyday routine. According to a recent survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 45% of teens now say they are online “almost constantly.” That’s almost twice the percentage of teens who answered the question when Pew conducted the same survey three years ago.

So what does this mean for marketers and executives?

In 2019, influencer marketing and ambassador programs will continue to grow in demand. Gen Z consumers understand that these individuals are paid, but the personal connection and transparency of the brand interaction offsets any dissonance that they might have during their purchase process. In November of 2018, Instagram announced that the social platform will have additional machine learning tools to help identify accounts utilizing third-party apps to purchase fake followers or likes?—?continuing to reinforce that brand’s prioritize transparency during influencer campaigns. 2019 will be the year that the buzzword “authenticity” will actual be

put to the test.

Gen Z will be the generation to challenge how we consume social media and give marketers the opportunity to set the standard for strategic and transparent campaigns.

Finding a correct influencer to fit a campaign is a highly personal and investigative process… especially with Gen Z in mind. We think of everything from voice of the influencer to engagement rates and potential conversion metrics. It’s the science of digital storytelling. In the future, Gen Z will be the generation to challenge how we consume social media and give marketers the opportunity to set the standard for strategic and transparent campaigns. In turn, brands will feel the benefits as vanity metrics diminish as a focal point, and instead the drive will shift to a healthy ROI.

4?—?Branding Converts to Engagement

Today’s consumers are looking for more than just a product to purchase; they are looking for a brand to invest in. At the intersection of strategy and design, interactive brand stories come to life. In application, our Wahoo’s Fish Taco 30th Anniversary campaign did just that. Wahoo’s found a way to convert customers into brand advocates by involving fans in their history: from distributing custom designed stickers echoing popular surf brands, to a documentary-style brand video

sharing the heart behind the tacos.

Today’s consumers are looking for more than just a product to purchase; they are looking for a brand to invest in.

This interactive campaign resulted in a dramatic increase in Wahoo’s Fish Taco sales as well as a boost in social media engagement and followership. Everyone from the casual Southern California surfer to pro skateboarder Tony Hawk in Japan joined in.

5?—?Design of the Future is Here

Surrealism and imagination are taking over the design space moving into 2019. From banner ads to interactive web design, marketers can expect to implement vivid color combinations, as well as dreamy color transitions. To break through the noise?—?the designs create their own. (Note the announcement of Pantone’s Color of the Year… right in line with this trend)

The design experience should be curated to draw the consumer into an element of brand ownership. This piece of ownership comes from layers of customization of messaging and imagery. Clients need to engage with their audiences in meaningful ways?—?at a quick pace. Because of this, motion design is now deeply embedded in the customer journey. Movement is a critical component to enticing the audience to click and view the promotional content. Design and technology will continue to overlap with a strategic approach to brand experience.

6?—?Hey Siri? (SEO and Search)

Google claims that 50% of searches will be conducted using voice search by 2020. Voice search growth statistics have exploded with the introduction of “smart speaker” devices, such as Amazon’s Echo,

Google Home, and Apple’s HomePod.

When consumers talk to their devices?—?instead of typing?—?they use very different terms than long-form text search

Heading into 2019, we can expect changes in the way people search with their voice. When consumers talk to their devices?—?instead of typing?—?they use very different terms than long-form text search. With this change in consumer behavior, our tactics should also change as we understand the fundamental differences between voice and text search.

Article Produced By

Riley Insko

Digital Marketing Strategist and Coffee Drinking Content Creator

https://medium.com/@riley_18961/6-actionable-marketing-trends-for-2019-1be8d8976e

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

12 social media marketing trends to follow in 2019

These are the key trends to follow for another successful year of social media marketing for your company.

As the social media landscape is changing at a fast pace,
it’s important to keep up with the latest trends every year to ensure that your strategy is still successful.

It’s the perfect time to review your existing social media marketing strategy to find what works and what can be improved. 2018 had been a busy year for all social media platforms. There were lots of positive and negative stories that had to do with their usage and it’s now time to review our social marketing strategies. Here’s a closer look at the key trends of the year and how they will affect 2019 to help you proceed to the necessary changes to your tactics.

Engagement is more important than ever

Facebook has announced early in 2018 the focus on meaningful interactions as part of their updated algorithm. This meant that their algorithm started favouring content that sparks a genuine conversation, which inspired many Page Managers to create more engaging content. As organic reach becomes harder, the only way to survive is to aim for content that is:

Interesting
Appealing
Engaging

Algorithms are becoming smarter so there’s no short route to genuine engagement. It’s not enough anymore to encourage people to like, comment, share on your post. Social platforms are trying to cut down on engagement bait techniques so you may risk losing your existing reach in the longer term with such techniques. Thus, it’s time to stop ‘cheating’ to win engagement and start thinking of an improved engagement strategy for every channel to continue reaching your followers.

Influencer marketing and the rise of micro-influencers

Influencer marketing is becoming an established element of your marketing mix. Influencers can make thousands of dollars through paid sponsorships while brands are constantly seeking for the best influencers for their campaigns. As influencer marketing grows, big influencers are becoming more expensive for small and medium-sized brands. That’s when micro-influencers came in to make up for the gap between being interested in influencer marketing and having the right budget to try it out. Micro-influencers may not have the outreach of celebrities, but they may have an even bigger influence on their own followers. Even 40k followers as an audience can be perfect for a brand, provided that they are working with the right influencer for their target audience.

For example, a food brand may see better results by working with a rising food blogger with 30k followers than a well-known chef who may ask for 20x of the budget. And just as micro-influencers keep winning ground, there is also the trend of nano-influencers, or else influencers who have up to 10k followers. They may not have a big audience to follow them, but they can still have a great influence over them, either by their job, their engaging social presence or their passion about a specific industry/topic.

Nano-influencers don’t require a big budget to work with them but you may need to spend more time on the research to find the perfect one for your brand. Since they may still be new to the influencer marketing world, they may be seeking a partnership that matches their values and could possibly last in the longer term. They can also be easier to reach since they don’t have to deal with thousands of messages every day.

Social media for sales enablement

Social media is already helping customers in the phase of product discovery. Brands are able to promote their products through social channels and customers are finding out about them before making a purchase. Social media is not anymore just about awareness and engagement, but it’s heading even more towards consideration and sales enablement in the business funnel. According to Mary Meeker’s report of Internet Trends in 2018, 55% of respondents who discovered a product through social media proceeded to purchase later on. Facebook seems to be the first channel that people discover new products, with Instagram and Pinterest following up.

What do these mean for 2019? Brands have a great opportunity to benefit from this trend to improve their social strategy. You don’t always need a sales pitch in all your messaging to convince people to trust you. Social media can help you tell your story and improve consideration. Right after someone discovers your product online, it’s up to you to provide a smooth experience that will make sales easier.

AI and customer service

Bots and automated messaging have already shown up in many brands’ customer service. Social media has made it easier for customers to reach a brand, which means that the expectations about the response time are increasing. Chatbots have started becoming popular through Facebook’s Messenger when brands realised that it’s an easy way to add additional customer support to the mix.

Not all customers were convinced that this is the best way to reach a brand, but the adoption rate is improving thanks to the enhanced intelligence and programming of the latest bot experiences. More brands are spending the time to program the bots in a way that they seem as authentic as possible. Whether it’s about giving them their own character or simply predicting as many customer questions as possible, there has certainly been great progress in how they work.

AI can also come in providing automating messaging to customers who want an answer to a common question. Brands can set up messaging that keeps their customers satisfied while they’re also saving time in repeatedly answering the same questions. 2019 will bring an improved adoption of AI as part of social customer service and it’s time for more brands to give it a try to ensure that their customers are finding the answers to their questions as fast as possible.

Stories, stories, stories

Stories are everywhere! Visual content in a vertical format that usually lasts for 24 hours became popular from Snapchat and it soon was copied by Instagram to turn into a global trend for people of all ages. Snapchat may have struggled since then to remain relevant, at least in the way that it was known for, but we’ve already seen Stories to Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and just recently, LinkedIn. There are currently more than 400 million people consuming Stories on Instagram on a daily basis, while Facebook is trying to integrate Stories to our daily routines. Advertisers have already realised that Instagram Stories ads can be very effective, with Snapchat and Facebook following up with their current hype and demand.

Article Produced By

Tereza Litsa

Social media manager passionate about content marketing, creativity and writing.

https://medium.com/swlh/12-social-media-marketing-trends-to-follow-in-2019-af2749d8019e

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

How to Create Client Testimonials to Promote Your Business

I often tell my clients that people buy from people
they like and trust and they are very often inspired to buy by people they identify with.

In B2B circles, it stands to reason that a businessperson is more likely to listen to a recommendation from a similarly placed businessperson about a product or service than the pitch of a sales professional?—?no matter how well positioned.

Solve Problems

When we buy products or services, we do so in the hope that they will solve a particular problem. Only someone who has walked a mile in your shoes is ever really likely to understand the difficulties you face and how a particular product or service can solve them.

Note: There’s no difference in B2C marketing. The problems might be a little different?—?but at the end of the day, people look to people they admire or aspire to be like when making their buying decisions. This goes some way to explaining the importance of today’s social media influencers and why so many brands desperately seek their approval.

Testimonials and Case Studies

With this in mind, testimonials and case studies featuring happy customers explaining how your business solved a particular problem for them, should be front and center of your email, content, social media strategy. However, many businesses struggle to create and publish compelling testimonials on a regular basis. This could be for many reasons, however, in my experience the number one reason is due to the following two reasons:

They don’t ask for them and if you don’t ask you don’t get.
They do ask for them but expect their clients to produce them for them. While many of your clients would love to help you, they are busy people and just don’t have the time to doing your job for you.

It’s Your Job

Note: As a marketer, it is your job to write any copy that your business wishes to utilize as part of a marketing campaign. I’m constantly amazed at how many “marketers,” in what should be a creative industry, tell me they haven’t got the skills or basic desire to do this. So how do I go about creating testimonials and case studies? Here’s a simple 10 step process.

The 10 Step Process to Writing and Publishing Awesome Testimonials and Case Studies

Identify Clients:
I work with account managers and salespeople to identify the hottest prospects for a testimonial or case study. They tell me how the client has used a particular product or service and how it has delivered them success.
Email Introductions:
The account manager or salesperson than contacts them with an email telling them that I would love to speak with them about their success for a possible case study.
Email Questions:
I then send an email introducing myself and invite them to join a call at a specific time (asking for alternative times if the initial time isn’t suitable). I explain why I want to speak to them (to write about their experience) and send them over a few sample questions.
Meeting Software:
I then send them a link for them to join an online meeting?—?I use a software service called Zoom.us. This allows me to record the conversation, so I don’t have to rely on hastily scribbled notes.
Get Them Talking:
I prefer to just chat with the client rather than interrogate them. This sets them at ease and gets them talking about their business. Don’t worry if the conversation goes a little off-piste occasionally?—?sometimes this will reveal some real gold. Just be sure you have a bank of questions at hand to get you back on track.#
Transcribe Your Notes:
After you have completed the call, listen back to your recording and transcribe your notes into text format. I prefer to do this myself?—?as it enables me to listen back on the conversation?—?but if time is short, you could find a freelancer on a service like Fiverr to do it for you quite cheaply.
Write the First Draft:
Once you have the transcript, the copy will almost write itself. Don’t worry about moving things around and tidying up quotes. Your clients will expect you to do this (people want to look and sound knowledgeable and eloquent) and you should have set expectations during the call.
Send for Approval:
Email the draft text to the client and ask if they would like you to make any changes. In my experience, edits rarely exceed one or two sentences.
Design, Proof, Publish and Promote:
It really couldn’t be any simpler. The whole process shouldn’t take more than a few days to complete (on average, it takes me around 8 hours) and the end results can be used across multiple marketing channels?—?think email, your corporate blog, social media, any printed materials, etc. etc.
Bonus Points:
If the audio recording of your meeting with your client is suitable, why not edit it into a podcast? You may even be able to use the video if you connected via webcams.

Article Produced By

John W Hayes

Marketing Strategist, Author of #BecomingTHEExpert, Content Marketing Trainer, and Cyclist.

https://medium.com/@john_w_hayes/how-to-create-client-testimonials-to-promote-your-business-169f7edac3a9

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

2019 Digital Marketing Platforms Guide

2019 Digital Marketing Platforms Guide l

Each digital ad platform has its own set of typical users,

bidding processes, and data. A smart digital marketing strategy employs consistent multi-channel campaigns on the platforms customers are most likely to find them. This guide includes a list of the major platforms and why they may be useful for your business. It isn’t exhaustive, and many niche industries utilize niche platforms. Research your customers, and go where they go. Each of the platforms discussed here deserve their own strategy articles, but this guide reviews how and why each platform would be used in an overall marketing strategy.

No matter what platforms your team uses, you’ll likely use either keywords or demographic data (or a combination of both) in addition to location targeting to help you reach your audiences. The combinations are endless and allow both large and small businesses to get results from their ad spend. You should choose your platforms based on where you expect your customers to be, and how you want them to find you. Take a look at the 2019 Digital Marketing Strategy Guide for more on how do determine where and how to advertise. Ultimately you should follow the data, and work with more audience- or keyword-heavy strategies on platforms based on where your team finds the most success.

Tracking

Attributing sales to your marketing platforms is one of the most important things you can do for your marketing. You can increase your sales or conversions without setting up tracking, but you’ll be missing out on vital data about your customers and funnels. Traffic is coming in to your website and on your channels every day, and the data about it can point you towards your most valuable platform, your most engaged customers, and your highest-performing funnel.

Most advertising platforms provide methods of capturing traffic, measuring results, and building audiences through a combination of tracking code and native features. To get the most out of each platform, you should install tracking codes and ensure they work properly as quickly as possible. Thankfully, most tracking code snippets set-and-forget and can be easily installed through integrations with common apps like WordPress and Shopify. Google’s Tag Assistant and Facebook’s Pixel Helper are handy tools to help you keep an eye on your tracking codes.

Google Ads

The whale of all digital advertising?—?Google Ads accounted for 38% of all digital ad spend in 2018. On top of search, advertisers are capitalizing on the Display Network, Gmail, and YouTube, and Google runs it all. But it’s not perfect for everyone?—?the Search Network gets an average CTR over 3%, while the Display Network gets less than 0.5%. Google Search ads work exceptionally well if you have a niche product or service offering with niche keywords.

Google Ads (and SEM in general) is incredibly useful for inbound leads?—?especially B2B or major service-based business. Instead of chasing customers down, these customers come to you, usually by searching a keyword that you’ve bid on. They’re already looking for a solution to their problem, and you can show up at the top of the search page. It’s a great spot to be in, but you’re still competing for attention and search engine results pages (SERPs) aren’t immune to ad blindness, so keep testing and tracking your results.

Google is obviously heavily keyword-based. If your main strategy is paid SEM, get ready to build and rebuild lists of keywords based on audience research, competitor research, and campaign data. Location-based keywords are highly valuable for local and regional businesses. Use tools like SEMrush or SpyFu to check in on yourself and your competitors. Google search your own industry keywords and make a note of what you find. Once your list is ready, you can fine-tune your content and audience building.

Google Search Network Ads are set up with a headline, text, and a link. There are a lot of other placements and ad types (Shopping, Display Network, etc.) that may require a creative as well. You set budgets for particular keywords or keyword phrases that you want potential customers to find you with and let Google do the rest. You’ll get data back on things like impressions and clicks within your audiences. There are also tracking tools for retargeting?—?a small code snippet for your website lets Google track and retarget your visitors based on their behavior. Use audiences and affinity audiences to build highly targeted campaigns for interested users. When you’re ready to start working with different settings and campaigns, use Google’s documentation for the most detail.

Facebook Ads

The second major player in the duopoly, the Facebook Ads platform is used by 72% of marketers, and 67% are planning on increasing their use within the next year. Even with all of the negative press the company has been getting over privacy and election concerns, it remains one of the largest digital ad platforms on Earth, and advertisers are spending billions. 75% of all the men and 83% of all the women on the internet use Facebook, including people of all ages (over 13, of course), so the likelihood that your customers are there too is very high.

The setup on Facebook Ads is relatively easy. You can even do almost everything straight from the Promote section on your Page, but there’s significantly more control through the Business Manager. There are plenty of campaign objectives to choose from and a lot of flexibility for your ads, which make for great creative and testing strategies. Most ads on Facebook consist of a creative, ad copy, a button, and a link, although some ad formats, like carousels, require a bit more. There are also tools like lead forms that can be filled out directly from the ad, minimizing the steps between interest grab and conversion. Targeting is location- and audience-based, and the Facebook Pixel can be used similarly to Google’s retargeting tools to track and build audiences. The best place to get information about features and tools is straight from the horse’s mouth.

Facebook’s Ads Manager is full of data from your campaigns and it differs based on your campaign objectives and tracking tools. The number of metrics available through Facebook Ads is daunting, but it gives you a deep view of your audience’s’ response to your ads. Use the breakdown tools to see how your ads are performing across various audiences.

Amazon Ads

Advertising professionals are expecting Amazon Ads to take the #3 spot in digital ad spend in 2019. Users are increasingly starting their product search directly on Amazon instead of Google, making Amazon’s search results the perfect new spot to boost retail products?—?US advertisers spent $4.61 billion on them in 2018. Amazon’s advertising platform lets advertisers build Amazon Stores and bid on keywords for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands placements. The Amazon DSP can also be used for display and video ads placed across Amazon-owned websites and apps. Most of the information about the platform can be found in their FAQ.

The best part of Amazon’s analytics is that it’s incredibly easy to attribute sales to particular ads because they’re being advertised and sold on the same platform. The flip side of this is that their current audience targeting is lackluster. There are audience building features available, but they aren’t as easily implemented as Facebook’s or Google’s.

Instagram Ads

Instagram Ads can be run from your Facebook Business Manager by selecting Instagram as a placement for your ads, or you can run them directly from Instagram. Since 52% of Instagram’s US users are between 18 and 29, this is a great platform to use if you’re trying to reach younger audiences that may have left Facebook. It’s image and video based platform means visual content is the main thing your audiences are interacting with, so your creatives are key. Familiarity on social media is also a huge driver of purchases?—?72% of users say they’ve purchased something they’d seen before on Instagram.

If you’re just getting started with Instagram Ads, you’ll need a page, a creative, good copy, and a link. You can get a bit more creative with things like carousels, but ad formats are relatively limited due to the style of the app. Ads on Instagram have the benefit of looking a lot like regular posts, and native-looking advertising can help prevent ad blindness. Overall Instagram is a great way to reach younger audiences based on audience and location targeting?—?more details about the platform and its features are on Facebook.

Email Marketing

Email is unique in that it can be equally useful for potential and existing customers in B2C and B2B businesses and everyone uses it. Its versatility and consistency are its major selling points. It’s also pretty easy to get someone to give you their email when you’re proposing value?—?it’s low-risk and non-committal. Newsletters, blog updates, and product displays sent to interested audience members build expertise and trust, and 80% of retailers use it for customer acquisition and retention. Follow-ups and relationship-building on leads are a necessity to close. Account and software updates keep users informed and comfortable with your products. All of these things can be accomplished with email.

The first step with email marketing is getting and building a list, then segmenting it into users based on their behavior. Buying emails can work but the list will always be lower quality than an organically built list. This means lower open rates and click rates and a higher chance of spam reports. A high quality list will pay off big time in B2B?—?59% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective tool for revenue generation. Common apps like Mailchimp and HubSpot have tools that make collecting and sending emails a breeze. Unfortunately there’s only so much data that can come from emails, but there’s still plenty of room to test subject lines, email copy, and designs against open and click rates.

SEO

SEO isn’t much of a “platform” per se (although you could just call it Google), but it’s usually a major part of a successful ongoing marketing strategy. In industries like retail you’re likely better of using Google Shopping or Amazon Ads, but it’s still important for customers and potential customers to be able to find your company (and not someone else’s) when they search specifically for you or your specific niche. In B2B it’s even more important?—?61% of marketers say SEO is their top inbound marketing priority.

Keyword research is especially important here. Your keywords need to be short, sweet, and relevant. These are words that need to be in your header tags, titles, meta, and copy. Your company name, your product or service offering, and industry keywords are a good place to start. If you’re running a local business, location-based keywords are a necessity. Ensure your Google My Business is up to date. Google Analytics and Search Console are must-use tools, and keyword and competitor research are great if you want to step it up a bit.

Larger budgets call for better marketing, and you can spend a lot on SEO. Experts think there are around 200 ranking factors that Google uses, including your domain’s security, inbound links, site architecture, and authority. Keeping up with the latest ranking factors and maintaining an optimal website gets harder as your site and company grow. Your competitors are also trying to rank for the same keywords, so you’ll need to try to rank higher than them if you think enough customers are searching for your products or services to outweigh the costs.

Smaller Platforms

There are a few other platforms that deserve an honorable mention. Depending on your industry and audience, some smaller platforms can be highly valuable resources for driving traffic or sales, and CPCs can be lower. They’re less one-size-fits-all, so spend lightly until you see real results.

The B2B marketer’s bread and butter?—?94% of them use LinkedIn to distribute content, and 80% of B2B leads from social come from LinkedIn. LinkedIn gives you a unique look at users’ professional lives?—?where a potential customer works and what position they hold are valuable tidbits of information that can be used to build lead lists and run ads (Facebook has features for this as well, but job information isn’t as readily available). LinkedIn Ads are mostly audience-based with targeting based on work experience and position, and you can advertise through boosted content, InMail, text and display ads. The most up-to-date resource on the LinkedIn Ads platform is the Success Hub.

YouTube Ads

This could arguably be put under Google since it’s run under Google Ads, but video deserves its own discussion. Videos are more entertaining, more informational, and overall enjoyable than images. They’re likely to convert better, and more metrics can come from a 10 second video than an image or static post (e.g. seconds watched, percentage viewed).

As for YouTube itself, US advertisers spent nearly $4 billion in YouTube ads in 2018, and 62% of marketers plan on increasing their YouTube Ads spending in the next 12 months. It’s a great platform for the both young and niche audiences. You need a YouTube channel and a video to get started advertising, and you can target based on location and audience demographics and interests. There are a few different formats to choose from, and your ads will appear on YouTube, YouTube-owned videos on other sites, or apps and sites within the Display Network. More information about YouTube Ads can be found in their FAQ.

Twitter Ads

While growing in popularity, Twitter Ads are still only useful if that’s where your audience is. Twitter is the second largest social platform for business professionals, and advertisers are warming up to it, with 25% of marketers saying they’ve run video ads on Twitter. The good news is that the platform creates meaningful engagement?—?in Q3 2017 Twitter reported a 99% increase in year-over-year engagements. The platform’s native flexibility allows for a few different ad styles?—?you can promote your account, tweets, or even hashtags to create awareness and drive trends, and users can still interact with Promoted Tweets like normal tweets. Conversion tracking is available directly through the platform through an installed code snippet, and advanced targeting with Tailored Audiences is available for audience building based on website or app visits or built lists. Their Ads Overview has the most information about running Twitter Ads.

Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is a powerhouse of DIY and design inspiration, and 93% of active users use Pinterest to plan for purchases. Sponsored Pins fit right into users’ typical feeds, so native advertising is a bonus, but options are limited. Similarly to Twitter, your Promoted Pins can also be re-pinned and shared among friends, so it mixes the best of both organic and paid advertising. This is a great spot to advertise if you’re marketing to millennials, in a creative niche or B2C?—?Pinners spend 29% more on retail than non-Pinners.

Targeting is based on basic demographics, keywords, and interests, and custom and actalike audience features allow you to target based on your lists, engagement, and website visitors. Pinterest Analytics can provide extra data on performance and sales if you install the Pinterest Tag on your website. Go through Pinterest’s Ads documentation pages to learn more.

Quora Ads and Capterra Ads

Quora and Capterra are both platforms people use when they’re looking for deeper answers or solutions, making them an excellent start to an inbound funnel. Quora has 200 million unique monthly users searching for well-known and recommended solutions, and Capterra has over 5 million businesspeople looking for software solutions. Based on the nature of these sites, ads and boosted content on the platforms get the benefit of rubbing shoulders with other trusted, credible content, and look more credible themselves. Capterra is strictly for B2B marketing (and the costs reflect that), but Quora can be used in both B2B and B2C strategies.

Bing Ads

While there’s no question Google makes up most of the search traffic online, Bing can still be a valuable ad platform. 72% of Bing’s users are over 35 years old, which makes it a platform worth exploring if most of your customers are older than that. In addition, nearly 38% of Bing’s users have a yearly household income of over $100,000. Again, the smaller platforms perform better in smaller niches, and you should use the typical user demographics to your advantage. Ads are very similar to Google’s in that they consist of a headline, ad copy, and a link, and they appear on search engine results pages. There are a few other formats for products or ads within the Microsoft Audience Network, but many of Bing Ads’ features are limited in availability to users in the US and some European countries. Bing Ads Help is the most valuable resource for setting up and running ads.

Social Media

Social media drives a massive number of interactions between businesses and their current or future customers, and those interactions lead to valuable customer relationships. With most social platforms creating a platform for native or near-native advertising, many companies witt cash to spend use paid social on the platforms their customers use. Unlike organic social, paid social guarantees you’ll get eyes on your content.

Organic

Organic social is still a necessity in 2019, but likely won’t provide a large enough return to spend a lot of time or money on until your company is large enough to be managing lots of customer conversations via social. You ultimately get what you pay for, which is next to nothing if you have a small organic social team (or no organic social team at all). It’s sliding down in popularity compared to paid social, with some platforms deciding to update feed algorithms in favor of people, not companies?—?52% of marketers reported a decrease in organic Facebook traffic in 2018.

Every business needs a minimum of a website and one social page?—?they help potential customers find, interact with, and come to trust your business, and keep existing customers informed and comfortable. Engaged customers are happy customers, and social media is a unique direct connection between them and your business. However, an old, outdated social channel looks worse than no channel at all, so if you’re going to go for it, commit and be consistent. Even just one post per month or week is enough, and you can spend as little as 5 minutes on a quick post. If content is a heavy part of your strategy, more social channels = more traffic to your content. More developed brands with a solid presence or following can get into developing customer support through social channels, where it’s easy to start conversations.

Influencers

The popularity of social media influencers is skyrocketing, with around 50% of marketers planning on increasing their budgets for them. You don’t necessarily have to cough up the big bucks for them though?—?smaller niche influencers can pay off, gathering more targeted attention for a lower price. See someone with a large following on social, or someone pushing a competitor’s product? Ask them if they’ll accept payment to promote your product or brand. On a larger scale, set up an affiliate program and let people sign up, sell, and get a cut of your sales. 71% of marketers think ongoing brand ambassadorship is the most effective use for influencer marketing. People love to buy recommended items, especially from larger, recognizable faces, so marketers are using them to drive overall awareness and sales.

Getting the right eyes on your content is at the heart of marketing. Dollars spent in the wrong place are easily burned, but every ad platform is useful for somebody. Get creative, think about where your customers are, and don’t be afraid to throw a little money at a new platform every once in a while. If you do your research and follow the data, you’re on the path of continuous improvement for your marketing strategy.

Article Produced By

Lookout Web Studio

https://medium.com/@lookoutweb/2019-digital-marketing-platforms-guide-a5d57b837e1d

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden