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Tag: Marketing

  • The Stanley Cup marketing wizard’s next project is Heydude shoes

    The Stanley Cup marketing wizard’s next project is Heydude shoes

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    Terence Reilly might not be a household name, but he played a big part in making a product that is likely already in your house into a national phenomenon.

    Reilly is credited with making the Stanley Cup a must-have item. Now he’s leaving Stanley and will try to work his magic on another brand, which already has a fairly high level of consumer appeal: Heydude shoes.

    It’s a return of sorts for Reilly. Crocs owns the Heydude brand and that’s where Stanley recruited him from originally. His marketing leadership on the rubber clog shoes made them a must-have for Generation Z and others for a while, with a strong rub from social influencers. He will serve as president of Heydude, replacing Rick Blackshaw, who left the company earlier this week.

    “We are thrilled to be welcoming back Terence to the Crocs, Inc. family,” said Andrew Rees, CEO at Crocs in a statement. “Terence has had tremendous success in creating and executing brand-building playbooks at both Stanley and Crocs by leveraging iconic product, scaling awareness, driving brand relevance and ultimately building communities. … I am confident he is the right person to lead the Heydude Brand into its next phase of growth.”

    Heydude shoes—which are lightweight and comfortable, but are hardly fashionable—have a following with some teens, but the brand hasn’t broken out like Crocs had hoped it would when it acquired it in 2021. Sales increased 6% last year, less than half of the increase Crocs saw.

    Rees, on an earnings call in February, admitted the company had oversaturated the market with Heydude shoes in late 2022 and early 2023. Despite that, brand awareness only reached 32%, which Rees called “low by any global brand standards”.

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    Chris Morris

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  • Save Big and Get This Pro Collage App for $39.99 | Entrepreneur

    Save Big and Get This Pro Collage App for $39.99 | Entrepreneur

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    You may have top-notch products and a great team, but if customers can’t find your business, making money could be tough. When you’re drawing up your marketing strategy, make sure to pay attention to social media. Forbes reports that social media marketing could give returns up to 41%, but that doesn’t mean just posting any old picture.

    If you want to really show off what’s going on in your business, try using an app that lets you create custom collages for everything from social posts to your landing pages. Pic Stitch Pro is easy to use and has a lifetime subscription available for new users for just $39.99.

    Show off your business.

    Rated 4.7/5 stars on the App Store, Pic Stitch is a versatile iOS collage maker that you don’t need to be a design pro to use. Just choose from over 400 collage layouts and start pulling in pictures or videos. If you want to add some extra personality, choose from 25 filter packs or 30 border types. That’s not to mention all the photo and video editing tools. Refine your photos on the fly without switching over to another app.

    This app could be a great fit for full marketing teams or new business owners who do all the marketing on their own. Now you can create pro-quality collages that you can share on Facebook, Twitter, or other socials using Pic Stitch’s one-tap sharing.

    Create collages, no college degree required.

    You don’t have to be a design pro to level up your visuals on your landing pages and social media. Just use this simple collage maker to bring some life to your pictures.

    For a limited time, get a lifetime subscription to Pic Stitch Pro Collage Editor for $39.99 (reg. $149).

    StackSocial prices subject to change.

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    Entrepreneur Store

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Search Laboratory Selects APA! As Their Charity…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Search Laboratory Selects APA! As Their Charity…

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    Austin Pets Alive! is honored and grateful to be considered one of Austin’s favorite
    nonprofits and beyond that, to receive outreach from companies in Austin who want to
    turn their love and appreciation of APA!’s work into a service-oriented gift. Search
    Laboratory is just such a company.

    In early 2023, the company reached out to our Marketing team sharing that APA! was
    voted as Search Laboratory’s “charity of the year,” meaning our organization would
    become their “pet” nonprofit to support in whatever way made the most sense to us. As
    a nonprofit, that’s thrilling! We take pride in holding a high score on Charity Navigator,
    with a portion of that score coming from how much of our dollars raised goes directly
    back into our programming (74% — above industry standard!) The way our teams utilize
    volunteer support and generosity of companies like Search Laboratories is a big part of
    ensuring every dollar is spent responsibly.

    To kick things off on the right “paw”, Search Laboratory pledged $10,000 worth of their
    time and talents to help APA! with our digital marketing goals. They’ve worked closely
    with our team members to share industry best practices for social media advertising,
    website, content, and online PR, providing both knowledge and donating hours to create
    content. Our teams have also worked together to streamline processes allowing us to
    track results showcasing how our marketing efforts are directly connected to incoming
    donations!

    Search Laboratory is a certified B-Corporation which means they’re serious about social
    responsibility and taking care of the environment. From employee happiness to giving
    back to the community, they believe in doing things right and we’ve witnessed that and
    benefited from it, first-hand! This company is part of a community of businesses that
    care about making a positive impact, and being a B Corp means they can stand behind
    a brand that their team, clients, and partners can be proud of.

    At APA!, we often say that we do a lot with a little and in this case, that means that our
    little marketing team has been able to fly higher in the past year because of a lot of
    support from our friends at Search Laboratory!

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  • Meet the man who has tasted everything on the Cheesecake Factory’s ridiculously long menu

    Meet the man who has tasted everything on the Cheesecake Factory’s ridiculously long menu

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    LOS ANGELES — and jabbed his fork into a chunk of glistening cashew chicken.

    He closed his eyes for a moment, considering the texture of the dish, a longtime staple that, after a couple-year hiatus, would soon return to the chain’s menu.

    “Not as soft as I’d like it,” he told the executive chef, who nodded.

    Next, he turned to the seared ahi tuna salad, but he doesn’t like fish, so he took a single bite of lettuce and radish before confidently setting down his fork.

    “Nicely dressed. Great crunch!”

    Third up was Cajun salmon with mashed potatoes and corn. He dredged a spoonful of potatoes through the sauce and his lips wiggled from side to side. He nodded twice.

    “OK, delicious.”

    In the 46 years since he opened the first Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Beverly Hills and grew it into the behemoth of casual dining with locations across the globe, David Overton — the company’s official taster, but also its chief executive and co-founder — has built a deep trust in the profitability of his own palate.

    Overton has tasted and approved every one of the menu’s more than 250 items, which despite the factory in its name, the company likes to emphasize are prepared from scratch on site or at the company’s two bakeries.

    “What I like, millions of people like,” Overton, 77, said on a recent morning at the company’s Calabasas Hills headquarters as he weighed in on new offerings. “I have the taste buds of the common man.”

    ■■■

    Over the last few decades, as Cheesecake Factory locations popped up at malls and suburban plazas, they brought to each new corner of the country a sense that you were now in on some universal slice of Americana — a slice, it turns out, that provokes impressively fierce reactions.

    It didn’t matter if you were Tucson, Tampa or Tulsa, you, too, could now laugh with family and friends as you collectively gorged yourselves on the chain’s iconic brown bread. Before long, you, too, would come to associate the restaurant’s decor — a mashup of Egyptian-style columns, dark-wood wainscoting and ethereal murals that, when combined, exude the same over-the-top-yet-somehow-appealing vibe as a Vegas casino — with a sense of nostalgia. This would become the backdrop of birthdays and graduations and late-night meals after prom.

    You were now part of the collective experience shared by doctor and author Atul Gawande, who penned a sprawling ode to the Cheesecake Factory in the New Yorker, a Los Angeles Times food columnist, who, in a viral review in 2019, called his love of the chain “irrational and possibly pathological,” and rapper Drake, who sings about his love for the Cheesecake Factory, christening it as “a place for families that drive Camrys and go to Disney.”

    But not all of the attention is fawning.

    The chain made national headlines in 2017, when a man detonated a homemade explosive device inside a Cheesecake Factory in Pasadena. The FBI said the case remains unsolved.

    Late last year, a video went viral on TikTok of a woman refusing to get out of the car during a first date.

    “This is the Cheesecake Factory,” she says, filming herself, in what some viewers suggested was a staged scene.

    “What’s the problem with that?” he asks.

    “This is a chain restaurant.”

    Before long, someone compiled a list, which also circulated on social media, of places women should refuse to go on first dates, listing Cheesecake Factory as No. 1. (No. 2, Applebee’s; No. 15, the gym; No. 16, church.) The discourse swept the internet, earning two separate pieces in the Washington Post, and loyal fans soon swarmed to the brand’s defense on X.

    “WHO THE HELL DOES NOT WANNA GO TO THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY? BRO IF I WAS TAKEN THERE I WOULD PROPOSE,” one person posted on X (formerly Twitter).

    “I literally met my husband at the bar of a Cheesecake Factory 10 years ago,” Rachelle Tomlinson tweeted. “Stop all the slander!”

    Tomlinson, 30, was on a girls trip to Honolulu in 2014 when she visited the chain for the first time. Tomlinson recounted in an interview how she can still visualize the moment the double doors opened and she locked into a gaze with a man with hazel eyes.

    “Legit love at first sight,” her husband, Sam, recalled, saying the other thing he remembers from that night is that he drank a bunch of Mai Tais.

    Exactly a year from their Cheesecake meet cute, they got married.

    ■■■

    Growing up in Detroit, Overton said, his family could afford to eat out only once a week, usually Sundays at a deli or Chinese spot.

    His father worked at a department store and his mother sold cheesecakes she baked in the family’s basement based on a recipe found in a newspaper. Back then, there were only two varieties — original and original with strawberry topping — and Overton said he and his sister earned a penny for every bakery box they helped their mother fold.

    Years later, when Overton was in his 20s and chasing dreams of becoming a rock ‘n’ roll drummer in San Francisco, his parents, Evelyn and Oscar, tired of Detroit and a string of business ventures that never took off, decided to move west.

    They opened a small, wholesale bakery in North Hollywood, expanding their cheesecake options to include several more flavors, but the Cheesecake Factory Bakery floundered. They were in their mid-50s, working long hours and struggling to find customers who would buy in bulk.

    “I was really getting tired of all these restaurateurs that wouldn’t buy the cake,” Overton said, recalling the frustration that inspired him to start a restaurant of their own.

    On the day they opened in Beverly Hills in 1978, they began welcoming patrons at 2 p.m. and, by 2:10 p.m., Overton said, they were so busy that people had to wait to be seated — an immediate rush he attributes to divine intervention.

    “God was really watching over us,” he said. “I like to say that we had a line in 10 minutes, and it’s really never stopped for the last 45 years.”

    The company opened its second location in Marina del Rey in the early ‘80s and, in 1991, opened the first out-of-state location in Washington, D.C. The next year, the company went public — ticker symbol: CAKE — and today has more than 200 locations in the U.S., as well as several in the Middle East, Mexico and Asia.

    Cheesecake Factory locations brought in $2.5 billion of the company’s $3.3 billion in revenue in 2022, an average of about $12 million in sales at each restaurant, according to the company’s latest annual report to shareholders. (The company also owns the growing chain North Italia, acquired in 2019, as well as Fox Restaurant Concepts, whose upscale, fast casual restaurants the chain sees as a vehicle for expansion.)

    A key growth point, the report notes, has been an increase in takeout and delivery orders, which accounted for about 25% of total sales that year.

    Last year was bruising for a restaurant industry still recovering from pandemic shutdowns and buffeted by rising costs and labor shortages. But during the first nine months of 2023, the Calabasas Hills company racked up increased sales and income, and continued to expand.

    They’ve differentiated themselves with ample portions, a variety of “craveable” dishes difficult to replicate at home and the fact that they, unlike some competitors, still prepare everything from scratch at each restaurant, said Joshua Long, who follows the company in his role as managing director of the financial services firm Stephens.

    “The brand,” Long said, “has really found a spot in the hearts of consumers.”

    ■■■

    As the company grew, so did the length of the menu.

    It started as a single page, front and back, of items simple enough that, if a chef walked out on him, Overton could make them himself — a factory burger, which sold in the early days for $2.10, the Avocado Delights sandwich for $1.75, a slice of cheesecake for $1.25.

    For several years, Overton’s taste buds kept him from adding fish to the menu, and he also dragged his feet on selling steak, because of its price tag.

    “If you went on a date,” he said, “I didn’t want anybody ordering the steak and you couldn’t afford it.”

    Whenever he ate at a rival restaurant, he kept an eye out for dishes he could simplify or transform. During a meal at the Peninsula Beverly Hills years ago, he saw a menu item of cheese straws with avocado, which inspired the idea for avocado egg rolls, now a top seller.

    “How did I let the menu get so big?” Overton said. “I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. If I knew what I was doing and understood the restaurant business, it probably wouldn’t have turned out this way.”

    But it worked — and today, it’s become a key marketing tactic.

    The sheer size of the multi-page, spiral-bound menu has earned a ribbing from Ellen DeGeneres and inspired Halloween costumes and a Buzzfeed list of jokes, including one that, given the menu’s girth, and cultural relevance, compared it to the Bible.

    “We get so much PR just cause of that big menu,” Overton said, smiling. “I always say that our greatest difficulty is the size of the menu, but our greatest defense against competition is the size of our menu.”

    The menu items themselves are a cacophony of calories.

    Every year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit health advocacy group, releases an “Xtreme Eating Awards “ list of single restaurant dishes that contain around a full day’s worth of calories. Two Cheesecake Factory items made the latest list — an Italian combo plate at 2,800 calories and a French Dip cheeseburger with fries at 2,200.

    But when you bring up calories with Overton, he looks unfazed — decadence is part of the brand and besides, he says, people rarely finish a dish in a single sitting.

    “We’re the king of doggy bags,” he says. “I don’t pay a lot of attention to calories, because we let people choose what they want.”

    But if there’s one thing America wants more than delicious, fattening food, it’s the idea — the vow — that they will soon eat less of it. Enter: SkinnyLicious, the brand’s name for menu items with fewer than 600 calories, which they added to the menu in 2011.

    SkinnyLicious items, Overton said, account for around 15% of sales.

    ■■■

    In the winter of 1993, David Gordon, now the company’s president, was looking for a job as a restaurant manager.

    He had applied to two different places, including a Cheesecake Factory on the Westside, but was more interested in the other small chain — until he had his Cheesecake Factory interview.

    The people interviewing him ate a burger in the middle of the interview — “a little strange,” Gordon says — and steered the conversation toward the intricacies and caliber of french fries. Over 20 minutes, they discussed everything from starch levels to how hollow the fries felt when you bit into them.

    “It intrigued me,” Gordon said. “This is somewhere where quality is incredibly important.”

    Early in his career at the company, Gordon recalled asking the person in charge of operations if there was a chance he would be transferred. He was planning to buy a house in Redondo Beach, Gordon explained, but didn’t want to if he might be moved.

    “No, no, fantastic, things are great,” he recalled being told.

    But a few months later, the man in charge of operations asked him to move to Woodland Hills, promising Gordon that, within a year, he would get him back to the location closest to his home. As the year mark approached, the boss kept his commitment.

    “He cared about me as a person,” Gordon said, noting that the company still works hard to live out that ethos.

    Cheesecake Factory locations are notoriously busy, so if you’re going to ask workers to be slammed all day and prepare and serve more than 200 different items from scratch, the workers need to feel a connection to the restaurant and the people they work for, Gordon said.

    Last year, the Cheesecake Factory, whose restaurants employ about 35,000 people, was one of only two restaurant chains — Panda Express’ parent company was the second — to earn a spot on both Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and People’s Companies that Care lists, which survey employees about company culture, pay, retention, opportunities and fairness.

    Their reputation for conscientiousness took a hit in 2018 when the California Department of Industrial Relations held the company and two janitorial contractors jointly liable for more than $4 million in wage theft violations after an investigation found the contractors’ employees assigned to eight Southern California Cheesecake Factory restaurants didn’t get proper rest or meal breaks, and weren’t paid overtime while waiting for kitchen managers to review their work at the end of a shift. Although Cheesecake Factory didn’t directly employ the workers, state law dictates that companies relying on subcontractors for labor can be held liable for workplace violations.

    In January, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office announced that it had reached a $1 million settlement against the company and both contractors.

    Sidney M. Greathouse, the vice president of legal services for the Cheesecake Factory, issued a statement that said “the company denies any wrongdoing and no longer utilizes the services of the janitorial companies at issue in the case.”

    ■■■

    Today, the company sells more than 30 varieties of cheesecake, but a massive painting of one of the originals — a simple slice topped with strawberry filling — hangs above Overton’s desk in his office that looks out on the hills of Calabasas.

    Sprawled across his desk are several stacks of folders each about a foot high. He’s a few years from 80, but between work and spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren, he doesn’t have much down time.

    “I have no time for hobbies,” he says. “I don’t play golf. I don’t do any of that.”

    He thought back on his 20s, around the time he started the business, when he first learned that you didn’t have to print your signature literally, but could sign it however you wanted.

    He played around with it and, as he wrote, let emotion guide him, creating a flowing capital D, which then exploded into 14 looping, semi ovals that start big and trail off.

    “It’s an emotion,” he said. “I just felt like I was moving forward.”

    Through the years, a few people had mocked his signature, he said, including someone who wrote to him saying, “I’m so sorry, with a signature like that, I won’t be investing in your company.”

    But he stuck with it. His gut hadn’t failed him yet.

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    By Marisa Gerber | Los Angeles Times

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  • The Most Successful Entrepreneurs Know When to Say ‘No’ | Entrepreneur

    The Most Successful Entrepreneurs Know When to Say ‘No’ | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    “We’ve said no to Fortune 500 companies,” said Tim Bergler of Percipio Group Consulting during an expert panel session with 50 entrepreneurs in the room. Bergler was sharing the one piece of advice he would give new entrepreneurs in Portland, Oregon’s EO Accelerator program. “Don’t be afraid to say no if you can’t nail the work for your customer,” he continued. His answer rang a bell for me.

    Recognize the power of no

    As I thought about the most successful entrepreneurs I know, I realized they say no to most “opportunities.” When I reflected on my companies, I noted that our greatest successes occurred after we got really clear on what we would not do.

    The overarching issue is that most people say yes too much. When you start a business, you mostly think about what you will do — which is pretty much anything to grow the company. So, you say yes to everything and focus on getting more sales however you can. And while that might work in the short term while you are smaller, it doesn’t work long-term, and may even keep you smaller.

    That’s because as a growing company, resources are finite and can easily be wasted. Saying no is critical because it empowers you to focus your limited resources — people, time, money — on the core elements that drive success best.

    Related: Stop Overworking Yourself Because You Say ‘Yes’ Too Often — Here’s How to Harness the Power of a Simple ‘No’

    Devise your “Won’t Do” list

    While it feels counterintuitive, the most crucial question to ask is: “What won’t we do?” Gather your team and make a thorough “Won’t Do” list. Be thoughtful about it and commit to the result. Watch how this exercise focuses and propels your company.

    Businesses with a narrow focus on delivering only what they can nail for the customer — a product or service not readily found elsewhere — are the successful ones. Think about all the businesses you love. Are they doing everything for everybody, or just one thing exceptionally well?

    Take the grocery business. Standard grocery stores sell an astonishing range of food items in a super-competitive segment with low profit margins. Compare that with Costco or Trader Joe’s, which are high-profit and focused on what will or won’t sell. They only stock value-added items that customers can’t find elsewhere. The top fast-food businesses — McDonald’s, Starbucks, Dunkin’, Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell — all have strong “Won’t Do” lists.

    A recent headline referenced “the most important stock on planet Earth,” which rose from obscurity to a $2 trillion valuation because of its “Won’t Do” list. That company, Nvidia, creates technology that enables AI. Nothing else.

    Related: Focusing as an Entrepreneur Is All About Choosing Opportunities Wisely

    The impact of strategic omission

    I failed to create a “Won’t Do” list for my first company, a commodity business that wasn’t particularly successful.

    The second time around, my self-storage business was way more focused. We shopped our largest competitors — Public Storage, Extra Space Storage and CubeSmart. Then, we thought deeply about what we could provide that they did not, as a way to differentiate ourselves.

    We made a comprehensive list detailing what we did not like about those companies. That list informed our “Won’t Do” list, which includes:

    • Change our prices every day
    • Upsell or push extra products/services
    • Save hidden costs for move-in
    • Route calls through a call center
    • Act like our customer is bothering us
    • Mandate insurance
    • Be a national company
    • Put a customer in a space that isn’t right for them

    That list is simple but magical. It does four remarkable things:

    1. Determines what you will do. Deciding what you don’t like and won’t do is a hack to identify what you will do, which is basically the opposite. Establishing a “Won’t Do” list creates a clear, inspiring answer for what you will be to your customer.
    2. Becomes the ultimate time-saver. By eliminating what you won’t do, you create space to focus on what you will do — and enhance that offering.
    3. Simplifies decision-making. Decisions are either on-brand or off-brand; the list makes it quite obvious.
    4. Clarifies your brand in a way you otherwise couldn’t. When you nail what you will do, your company will be more successful and profitable. You offer something unique that is not a commodity.

    Your “Won’t Do” list is an essential business tool. It doesn’t only limit business scope — it can also help shape how you operate; your business practices, pricing structure and how you will treat your customers. A plumbing company might opt out of electrical work but also exclude practices such as overcharging, pushing upgrades or setting half-day-long appointment windows. Ultimately, a “Won’t Do” list streamlines your focus and helps narrow your niche.

    Related: How to Say ‘No’ More Often: Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a ‘To-Don’t’ List

    Focus your business with boundaries

    Back to Bergler, who ran a management consulting company with a narrowly defined space where they could add significant value. He was as selective about the quality of people on his team as he was with the type of business they would do. The resulting quality of work put them in high demand. Eventually, incoming work opportunities exceeded capacity. He turned a lot of business away and even referred clients to competitors when he felt his company could not truly nail it.

    As a result, clients started to approach Bergler first because they had so many misses with sub-par competitors. It made Bergler the preferred provider for their best clients. When he chose to sell the business, multiple buyers were confident in the company’s durable income because of its 20 years of consistent performance and sky-high customer satisfaction.

    With our self-storage company, we enjoyed a lot of success quickly. Our differentiated brand made us a customer favorite, earning us higher marks than the big-box companies and ultimately making us a great acquisition candidate when we chose to sell.

    When we started a new company focusing on vehicle storage, one of the first things we did was shop our competitors and brainstorm our “Won’t Do” list.

    As I think of the many businesses I know through 20 years in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, I can tell you there is a robust correlation between success and abiding by a strong “Won’t Do” list. Do yourself a favor: Make your “Won’t Do” list today.

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    Barry Raber

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  • This One Thing Is the Secret to Higher Email Open Rates | Entrepreneur

    This One Thing Is the Secret to Higher Email Open Rates | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    By next year, people around the world will send and receive 376 billion emails every day. Inboxes are jam-packed, so capturing your customers’ attention is only getting harder. Want to stand out and get more clicks? Stop obsessing about your subject lines. Instead, focus on email relevance and quality.

    A ZeroBounce report suggests that 47% of people open a brand email not because of the subject line but because they always get relevant messages from that brand. Subject lines come second in enticing someone to open an email, the report shows, based on a survey of American and European email users.

    So, how can you make your emails better, deliver constant value and boost your metrics? Here are eight habits to adopt today.

    1. Make sure people recognize you

    Since email open rates often hinge on trust in the sender, you must be instantly recognizable in people’s inboxes. Make sure your “From” name is consistent across all the different types of marketing emails you send. For instance, if your sales team contacts prospects, their “From” name should reflect your brand, such as “Paul from Entrepreneur” instead of “Paul Jones.”

    Related: 11 Common Email Marketing Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

    2. Show up for your audience

    The value your emails deliver carries the most weight, but it will only make an impact if you send those emails regularly. To determine your sending schedule, be realistic: How many emails can you commit to? If all you can send is one newsletter a month, that’s fine — as long as you show up in the inbox like clockwork.

    3. Segment your email list

    Sending the same email to all your subscribers is unlikely to drive engagement. Your customers are in various stages in their journey with your business. Some may be new sign-ups yet to make a purchase, while others are regular customers. Use filters to create separate groups and reach out with emails that make sense to each segment.

    4. Personalize each message

    Segmenting your email list is the first step to email personalization. But if you want to build further trust in your brand, make every subscriber feel as if you wrote that email just for them. Address their pain points and provide easy ways to alleviate them. Offer fresh ideas and content that caters directly to their needs. This approach fosters a deeper, instant connection.

    5. Listen to your audience

    Want to improve your email content overnight and increase engagement? Dive into your customer support tickets, social media channels and industry forums to find out exactly what people are discussing. If you host webinars, save all the questions people ask in the chat. Gather all this info in a document, and you’ll have a steady stream of relevant topics in your emails.

    Related: 5 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Email Marketing

    6. Keep your emails short

    28% of the email users ZeroBounce surveyed said the length of an email doesn’t matter as long as that email is tailored to them. Once again, we see how important segmentation and personalization are. However, 66% stated they prefer short emails, so if you can make your emails both relevant and short, you’ll get higher open rates. Bonus: you’ll probably spend less time on your email marketing.

    7. Infuse warmth into your tone

    Before you send your next email, take a moment to read it out loud. Ask yourself, does it sound like a conversation you’d have with your customers in person? Corporate jargon can be a communication barrier. Consider toning it down and infusing your emails with more warmth and personality. In the age of AI, sounding more human helps you stand out.

    8. Make unsubscribing easy

    Allowing subscribers to leave your email list easily isn’t just sensible; it’s also a critical email deliverability rule. Recent sending requirements from Google and Yahoo emphasize that people should be able to unsubscribe from emails with just one click. Consult with your email marketing platform and test your unsubscribe process. If you don’t follow this rule, you may see a spike in spam complaints, which can relegate your emails to the spam folder.

    Bonus tips: ensure your emails arrive in the inbox

    Adopting the good habits above will give you a boost in clicks, but imagine putting all this effort into your emails only for them to land in spam. To help them go to the inbox, remember to:

    • Remove invalid contacts and avoid bounces – your bounce rate should never exceed 2%.
    • Authenticate your emails to comply with Google and Yahoo‘s requirements.
    • To prevent spam complaints, avoid emailing people who haven’t given you permission.

    Finally, sending emails from a reliable platform is critical to your email deliverability. Choose a trustworthy company and get expert advice if you suspect your emails aren’t landing in the inbox.

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    Liviu Tanase

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  • The Deodorant AI Spokesmodel Is a Real Person, Sort Of

    The Deodorant AI Spokesmodel Is a Real Person, Sort Of

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    Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer

    In December of last year, Ariel, a 24-year-old content creator in New Jersey, received a message from a French digital-marketing company called Arcads. Ariel makes her living doing marketing videos for brands, who hire her through platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. Arcads had a slightly different request. “They asked if I’d be willing to take part in their AI technology campaign,” Ariel said. “They gave me a couple of prompts and said, ‘Talk as long as you can.’”

    She sent them the material. Later, the company reps came back with feedback and specific requests for clips filmed in different environments. They wanted walk-and-talk video. They wanted different settings. They wanted her sitting in a car. It wasn’t that much work — nine videos in total — she was paid for it, and it felt like something new and interesting.

    On Tuesday, months later, Ariel got a message from a friend with a link to a video posted on X. It had millions of views and thousands of responses and had become the subject of an intense and very strange debate between AI boosters, AI skeptics, and thousands of other assorted strangers with theories of their own. The preview contained her face. “Is this real?” her friend asked.

    “When I watched the video, I genuinely thought it was one of my UGC (user-generated content) videos,” she said. The style, delivery, and location were all familiar. “I’ve done so many, I lose track,” she said, and companies post her influencer-style videos on their social-media channels all the time.

    Then she listened to the text: an awkward, trollish rant about body odor and deodorant pitching a brand of cleaning wipes. She knew she’d never worked with this company and watched the video more closely. It was her, but not quite. She’d encountered her AI clone in the wild. “It honestly just threw me off a little,” she said. It had been a while since she thought about the AI company, and she hadn’t seen any of its work before this week. Now, through Arcads, clients were hiring an automated Ariel to do brand videos, and one of them had gone viral. Arcads had been honest about its plans, and Ariel felt she was fairly compensated and hadn’t been misled. Still, she said, “It just caught me off guard.” How couldn’t it?

    What turned the video into the social-media controversy du jour wasn’t so much the video’s content as a couple of imprecise captions, which launched it into the center of the churning online discourse about the future of AI. First, there was the original, from the founder of the client company: “It’s terrible but I still think it’s wild that this can all be done with AI. Imagine in 6 months …” A classic social marketing post, honestly — vague and teasing, with an unclear subject-poster relationship and a strong connection to an unrelated trend. From there, it got picked up by a bunch of AI influencers, whose breathless posts (“It’s so over …”) really took off:

    Linus Ekenstam’s post started drawing skeptical responses from his audience of AI optimists and doomers. This clearly wasn’t AI, some said, in the sense that it wasn’t generated by AI from scratch — even the most advanced unreleased video-generation software from OpenAI can’t do something quite like this. Others decided that the post was fake, by which they meant the video it contained was not fake. They found Ariel’s Fiverr page, shared similar videos that she’d made, and concluded that the clip was a commission masquerading as a digital avatar. “I’ve gotten so many people messaging me on Fiverr and on Instagram asking if I’m real,” Ariel said. “People I’ve worked with in the past!”

    In comments and community notes, people, including Ekenstam, sorted things out: The video wasn’t entirely AI-generated, in the sense that the base imagery is real video of a real person, but the facial movements and voice were synthesized. Users started commissioning weirder, glitchier videos from cyber-Ariel (the caption here is misleading — the actual cost of the video was €10):

    Still, lots of viewers remained unconvinced, or rather, quite convinced of whichever theory of the video they’d settled on before the video scrolled off their phones forever.

    To AI enthusiasts, this sort of thing is old news. Arcads isn’t a big player in AI — this week’s attention crashed the service, and its main proposition seems to be collecting and digitizing UGC professionals into a stable of licensed talent — but its product is based almost entirely on technology from HeyGen, which has been available to the public since last year and which just raised a round of funding at a $440 million valuation.

    HeyGen offers characters of its own that users can use to make corporate videos, ads, or anything else that needs a talking head. Crucially, it also has the ability to create puppet avatars from short clips, a feature I tested out a few months ago. From 30 seconds of grainy, poorly lit webcam footage, it synthesized a slightly robotic avatar with my upper body and face, something like my voice, and an unrecognizable but semi-plausible set of facial movements. Nobody I know would confuse it for me, but in the right context, they might confuse it for a person. This week, in The Atlantic, Louise Matsakis described the bracing experience of seeing her own HeyGen avatar speaking in perfectly translated Chinese. “By merely uploading a selfie taken on my iPhone, I was able to glimpse a level of Mandarin fluency that may elude me for the rest of my life,” she wrote.

    HeyGen is a real company with customers who see some opportunity in creating what are basically sanctioned corporate deep fakes: individualized videos from executives to clients, customized video and email ads, internal communications, and seminars. (If you want a picture of the future, imagine an uncanny AI avatar leading a workplace harassment-training module about reading subtle social cues, forever.) What HeyGen does, and what Arcads is doing with HeyGen, also represents a safe-for-work, aboveboard take on a technology that lots of people find distressing, or worse, for a variety of reasons. Nonconsensual explicit deep fakes are now so easy to make that they’re a problem not just for public figures but at middle schools. Phone scammers are recording short conversations and then using voice synthesis to target family members. The ease with which record companies and movie studios can capture and reproduce digital likenesses — voices, faces, bodies — has artists rightfully worried and was a major issue driving last year’s Hollywood strikes. The existence of HeyGen demonstrates how accessible this sort of thing has become. Anyone who posts videos to TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube is providing more than enough training material for someone to make a pretty good clone.

    Having the subject onboard, as Ariel was here, doesn’t resolve the essential strangeness of what’s going on or account for how people actually consume and encounter media. A simple ad turned into a disorienting and frequently nasty argument between thousands of people, for an audience of millions, not just about whether or not the video was real, but about what it even means to be real, eventually scattering participants across a range of conclusions from approximately “everyone has lost their minds about this” to “we’re all going to die.”

    The video’s short trajectory tells a slightly different story than the one you commonly hear from politicians, experts, and pundits about deep fakes and disinformation: While people will certainly be manipulated by AI-generated political content, the more significant consequence of this technology will be that it sows doubt about everything else, establishing a conspiratorial default around videos of people in general.

    There are clear limits to HeyGen’s technology as it exists today, and while it will certainly improve, it’s unclear by how much and at what. It’s good enough to create plausible marketing videos, so long as their audiences aren’t too familiar with the actor. Ariel isn’t primarily an influencer, in that she isn’t selling clients access to an audience. Instead, they post her videos themselves, for audiences that understand her as something between a spokesperson, a reviewer, and an influencer that they don’t know, but assume others do. The baseline artificiality of this arrangement would seem to make it a better target for automation, which companies like Arcads clearly think it is. Ariel, surprised as she was by the video, isn’t concerned. “It will definitely automate some things,” she said. “But I’m not worried about competing with myself — I’m a completely different being than that AI version of me,” she said. “It can’t do the same hand gestures or the various different things that make me me.” 

    So far, Ariel’s first encounter with self-automation has gone the other way — the video’s meta-virality has resulted in more business. “It’s weird, but I am grateful for it because so many more people have reached out asking if I can make videos for them. It’s boosted my profile,” she said. She’s still working with Arcads. “I have a very animated personality, and people saw that, and they were interested.” She’s booking a lot of fresh work on Fiverr and is now talking with the founder of the wipes company, whom she hadn’t been in contact with before, and who wants to keep riding this wave. Ariel is now “the new face” of the brand, she said, and they’ll be making videos together, this time with a camera.

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    By John Herrman

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  • 3 Effective Ways to Connect With Your Customers | Entrepreneur

    3 Effective Ways to Connect With Your Customers | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In today’s market, the bond between founders and customers is more than a transaction; it’s the cornerstone of sustainable growth and brand loyalty. Modern consumers want authenticity more than ever. They find it difficult to connect with faceless entities and want to follow people rather than businesses.

    This shift towards personal connection in marketing stems from a saturated market where consumers are bombarded with choices and advertisements daily. Personal stories and authentic interactions cut through the noise in this crowded space, creating a memorable impression. Consumers crave realness and transparency at a time when these qualities are scarce in the world of business.

    So, how do you go about deepening your connection with your target audience? Here are three strategies that can turn your customer interactions into a powerful engine for sales growth.

    1. Personalize your approach with behind-the-scenes storytelling

    It’s one thing to sell a product. It’s another to tell a story and share fascinating details that resonate.

    Imagine a founder sharing their journey, the highs and lows, through a series of behind-the-scenes content. This narrative isn’t about humanizing the brand; it’s about creating a shared experience. When customers see the sweat and tears behind a product, they’re not just buying an item; they’re investing in a piece of your process and founder’s story.

    So, how do you start?

    Weekly emails or social media posts that peel back the curtain on your process make customers feel like they’re part of your journey. To do this effectively, begin by mapping out key milestones in your company’s history or product development process. For each milestone, identify a story or challenge you faced and how you overcame it. These stories form the basis of your content.

    Next, use visuals like photos, videos, or even simple sketches to bring these stories to life. Visual content not only increases engagement but also helps to humanize your brand further.

    In your communication, be transparent about the obstacles you’ve encountered and how you’ve addressed them. This transparency fosters trust and relatability. Moreover, invite your audience to contribute their thoughts or similar experiences through comments or direct messages, turning your storytelling into a two-way conversation.

    Publicly tell people the “why” behind your products, services, and company by integrating customer testimonials or user-generated content that aligns with your narrative. This validates your claims and amplifies your community’s voice, making your brand’s story part of their own stories.

    Like successful pitch decks showcase the story behind your brand, so should your content marketing and advertisements. Bringing the “real” to your business breeds authenticity, and that authentic connection will drive your business’s growth. Remember, the goal is to broadcast and engage in meaningful conversations that build long-term relationships.

    Related: 8 Effective Ways to Connect With Your Customers

    2. Leverage technology for personal connections

    AI tools are booming, so personal connection using automation seems like an oxymoron. Yet, technology can be the very tool that brings you closer to your ICP.

    Consider implementing AI chatbots that do more than answer queries. Work with tools, consultants, and language model professionals to custom-tailor AI to chat with your customers.

    Implement these chatbots on your company website and train them to initiate conversations based on customer behavior. Offer personalized recommendations or even simply check in with website visitors. Sometimes, a simple “How are things going?” goes a long way, and this part of your customer experience can be automated.

    This approach won’t replace human interaction, of course, but it will enhance it by making your brand present and proactive in your customer’s lives.

    The key? Ensure these AI communications feel personal and specific, not just like another automated message in their inbox or as a popup. This takes a bit more effort to implement, but the investment is worth it for the long-term growth of your brand and business.

    Related: 6 Ways Connections Create a Sense of Belonging Anywhere With Any Workplace

    3. Create exclusive communities

    Imagine a space where your customers can gather to discuss your product and share their stories, challenges and triumphs.

    There’s a particular company on the rise called Skool, which enables businesses and personal brands alike to do just this. Other great platform choices, such as Circle, Mighty Networks or Kajabi, enable seamless community building. These platforms allow you to make posts and help your customers, but they also give users the flexibility to post and communicate with each other.

    An exclusive community for customer discussion could take many other forms as well: a Facebook group, a Slack channel or a dedicated forum on your website.

    The goal for your community is to foster a sense of belonging and mutual support, turning your customer base into a tight-knit community. Offer insider access, sneak peeks, and the opportunity for feedback. The more valued and listened that customers feel, the more likely they are to advocate for your brand organically.

    Over the long term, these communities become a word-of-mouth marketing machine.

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    Thomas Strider

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  • Ever Wonder Why Certain Websites Rank Higher Than Yours? This SEO Expert Reveals Why. | Entrepreneur

    Ever Wonder Why Certain Websites Rank Higher Than Yours? This SEO Expert Reveals Why. | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Have you ever wondered why some businesses consistently top search engine results? It’s often the smart use of SEO, now supercharged with AI, particularly in keyword optimization.

    As a technical SEO expert with over two decades of experience in website development and digital marketing, I’ve seen firsthand how AI is revolutionizing the SEO landscape, making it more efficient and targeted.

    AI in SEO is like a super-sleuth assistant, effortlessly analyzing mountains of data to uncover trends and insights, leading to smarter, more impactful SEO strategies.

    Transforming keyword research

    Gone are the days of manually sifting through keywords. AI transforms this process, delving deep into data to reveal not just popular keywords but also niche phrases and emerging trends. It goes beyond just picking keywords — it’s like getting into your audience’s heads and really understanding their needs and wants.

    Making AI work for you in keyword optimization

    Ever wonder how AI can work wonders for your SEO? It all starts with choosing the right AI tool—think of it as finding a savvy partner in your SEO journey.

    Choosing the right tool

    You need an AI-driven keyword tool that matches your business’s unique needs and brings a set of skills that can truly make a difference. Think of it as finding a tool that speaks your language and understands your goals.

    Look for a comprehensive data analysis tool. It should dive deep into the sea of data and surface with valuable insights. Consider SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, which are like the seasoned guides of the SEO world.

    They can predict trends and provide insights into what your audience is actually searching for. It’s not just about having a lot of data; it’s about having the right data that can tell you about user intent and future search trends.

    This way, you’re not just shooting arrows in the dark but strategically aiming based on informed predictions.

    Understand user intent

    Diving into the world of user intent is a bit like being a mind reader. It’s all about understanding why someone typed a query into a search engine.

    Is it to buy something? To learn? To find a specific website? Or to have a question answered? AI tools are here to help you crack this code. For example, when you use a tool like MarketMuse or Clearscope, it’s like having a conversation with your audience without them saying a word. These tools analyze search queries and give you insights into what your audience really wants from their search.

    Now, imagine you run an online gardening store. AI might reveal that a significant portion of your audience searches for “how to care for indoor plants.” This is a clear signal to focus on informational content, perhaps a blog post or a how-to guide, rather than just pushing product pages. Conversely, if you notice a high volume of searches like “buy indoor plant fertilizer,” that’s a transactional intent where your product pages should take center stage. But here’s a twist: not all traffic is beneficial.

    Suppose your AI tool shows a surge in queries like “free indoor plants.” This traffic might not be valuable if your goal is to boost sales, as these users are likely looking for giveaways or contests, not to make a purchase. In this scenario, understanding user intent helps you refine your SEO strategy to attract the right kind of traffic — the kind that aligns with your business goals and converts.

    Stay agile

    Embracing AI in your SEO strategy is a bit like surfing. You need to stay agile and ready to ride the waves of change as they come. AI tools are fantastic at providing real-time data, offering a snapshot of what’s happening right now. It’s like having a weather forecast for your SEO strategy. Just as a surfer would check the weather and wave conditions, using AI tools allows you to monitor current trends, search patterns and changes in user behavior.

    Let’s say you run a fitness website and notice a sudden spike in searches for “home workout routines” due to an unexpected event, like a lockdown. This real-time data is your cue to quickly pivot and focus on creating content that matches this emerging interest. Perhaps you could introduce a new blog series or video content around home workouts. But here’s where agility really counts: not every trend or surge in searches is worth pursuing.

    It’s about discerning which waves are worth riding. If a trending topic doesn’t align with your brand or offers little potential for conversion, it may not be beneficial to chase it. The agility afforded by AI isn’t just about quick reactions; it’s also about making smart, strategic decisions based on real-time insights.

    Merge AI insights with your content strategy

    Incorporating AI insights into your content strategy is like having a seasoned chef in your kitchen — one who knows exactly what your guests crave. It’s about blending the science of data with the art of content creation.

    AI tools do more than gather data; they offer insights that can shape your content strategy, ensuring it’s not only rich with the right keywords but also resonates deeply with your audience. For instance, imagine you’re running a travel blog. AI might reveal that your audience is increasingly searching for “sustainable travel tips.” This insight is a goldmine.

    It guides you to create content focused on eco-friendly travel, perhaps a series of articles or an in-depth guide on the topic. This targeted approach ensures your content is not just relevant but also highly engaging and likely to attract the right kind of traffic — people genuinely interested in sustainable travel.

    However, it’s important to remember that AI is a tool, not a magic wand. It provides the map, but you need to embark on the journey. While AI can suggest topics and keywords based on trends and user intent, the creativity in how you present this content — the unique voice, the compelling storytelling is up to you. This is where your understanding of your audience’s preferences, combined with your brand’s unique perspective, comes into play.

    Related: How Does AI Writing Impact Your SEO? Here’s What You Need to Know.

    Merging AI insights with your content strategy enables you to create content that’s not only optimized for search engines but also genuinely valuable and engaging for your audience. It’s about striking that perfect balance between data-driven precision and creative flair.

    Conclusion

    Integrating AI into your SEO strategy, particularly for keyword optimization, isn’t just a nice to have; it’s becoming essential in a digital world where staying ahead of the curve means understanding and leveraging the latest technologies. By embracing AI, you’re not just optimizing your SEO efforts — you’re setting your business up for smarter, more successful online engagement.

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    Ludwig Makhyan

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  • Common Pitfalls in Cannabis Brand License Agreements – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    Common Pitfalls in Cannabis Brand License Agreements – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

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    Common Pitfalls in Cannabis Brand License Agreements – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news





























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    AggregatedNews

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  • Are You Underpricing Your Products? Here’s How to Find Out | Entrepreneur

    Are You Underpricing Your Products? Here’s How to Find Out | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Do your customers know what your products are worth? That may seem like a bizarre question at first, but in reality, many businesses routinely fail to convey the actual value of their products. Unsurprisingly, this miscommunication is seldom in a business’s favor.

    More than 20 years ago, experts at McKinsey & Company found that between 80% and 90% of mispriced products are priced too low — and that remains true today. That’s potential revenue lost right out of the gate, and more than you might think. A 1% increase in price without a change in the volume of products sold equates to an 11.1% increase in operating profits, according to this comprehensive study by Harvard Business Review published in 1992 and still widely cited today.

    Related: 10 Questions to Ask When Pricing Your Product

    Where does value go?

    Your products and services inherently create a certain amount of value for your customers. We’ll call this the “actual value.” In the ideal world, everything you sell would be priced based on the actual value. However, we don’t live in the ideal world. Actual value is monstrously difficult to calculate and can fluctuate per customer.

    Not all of your customers will be able to see, or frankly even benefit from, the total potential of any given product. Smartwatches, for example, can track hundreds of unique exercises, but if all you do is run, then the value of those additional features would be difficult to see. Marketing has an impact as well. Sticking with the smartwatch example, if you fail to effectively communicate a useful feature — leaving your potential customers unaware — then that can have a negative impact on this “perceived value.”

    Now, your customers may agree that your product produces a certain amount of value for them, but that doesn’t mean they’re willing to pay for it. Dozens of factors can impact how much a particular customer is willing to pay: urgency, income, brand loyalty, advertising, social impact, etc. Finding this number is tricky, yet highly rewarding. If you can identify the maximum amount your customers are willing to pay, you can maximize your profits while capturing as much value as possible.

    Many companies are unable to determine exactly how much their customers are willing to pay. What that means is that the price your customers typically expect to pay is instead the “target price.” This is the value that you and your team hopefully determined is as close to the actual willingness-to-pay value as possible.

    Finally, if you work in a sales-heavy field you may find additional value being lost to concessions and discounts. In this situation, the final price paid would be known as the “realized price.” How much value was lost between all of these steps? Many think quite a bit. Bain and Company found after interviewing dozens of CEOs, CMOs and other executives at more than 1,700 companies that roughly 85% of those who responded believed they could be doing a better job making pricing decisions.

    How can I capture more value?

    Let’s begin by trying to understand how much our customers are actually willing to pay for our products or services. We can do this by surveying our customers, assembling focus groups, experimenting with pricing or even hosting an auction.

    If we’re not happy with how much our customers are willing to pay, we may need to take a step back and instead focus on their perceived value of your product or service. When we help our customers see more value through activities like branding, outreach and communication we directly increase how much they’re willing to pay.

    Alternatively, we can choose to adopt a different pricing structure entirely. More and more service-based businesses are looking towards metric-based pricing to offer an adaptive structure that better aligns with the perceived value of each unique customer. Some examples of metric-based pricing are usage-based like gym punch passes and cellular minutes, or user-based pricing, which is a popular choice in the SaaS realm. There are great examples of metric-based pricing all around us. Mechanics often charge per hour while bowling alleys frequently charge per game. These metrics work because they’re reasonable, predictable and fair.

    Related: How to Get the Price Your Product or Service Deserves

    Don’t miss out on potential profit

    Let’s look at the math together. Imagine with me for a moment that you own a coffee shop selling lattes for $5 each. These lattes cost you $1 to make, earning you $4 in profit. If you sold 100 lattes, unsurprisingly you would make $400 in profit.

    However, unbeknownst to you, your customers are willing to pay $7 for that same latte. That’s a more generous $6 in profit, netting you an additional $200 per 100 lattes sold — a 150% increase. In fact, even if you wound up selling fewer lattes — let’s say 90 instead of 100, that’s still a 135% increase in profits.

    In short, don’t leave any money lying on the table. If your customers are willing to pay more, now is the time to find out.

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    Itai Sadan

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  • How to Maximize AI to Boost Your Productivity and Drive Your Profits | Entrepreneur

    How to Maximize AI to Boost Your Productivity and Drive Your Profits | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    AI is not just a tool; it’s swiftly becoming the mastermind behind thriving businesses and startups. But there’s a catch — not all that glitters in the world of AI-enhanced marketing is gold.

    In this must-watch video, we tackle the seminal challenge that every modern marketer and entrepreneur must confront: the strategic integration of AI into their core marketing strategies.

    Strap in, as we:

    • Uncover the seldom-spoken truths about AI’s role in hyper-accelerating business growth and innovation.
    • A masterclass in discerning the optimal use of AI, veering away from the pitfalls of misuse.
    • Reveal the secrets gleaned from a year of deep research on AI technologies.
    • Crucial tips from the frontlines of AI development, including the wisdom to sidestep third-party limitations and harness the raw power of AI with precision and insight.

    Are you fully utilizing AI to drive your productivity and profits yet?

    Download the free AI Success Kit (limited time only). You’ll also receive a free chapter from Ben’s new book, “The Wolf is at The Door—How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.”

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    Ben Angel

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  • New Email Marketing Rules from Google: What Cannabis Businesses Should Do Now – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    New Email Marketing Rules from Google: What Cannabis Businesses Should Do Now – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

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    New Email Marketing Rules from Google: What Cannabis Businesses Should Do Now – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news































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    Susan Gunelius

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  • This one feature alone makes your ReverbNation membership worth it! – ReverbNation Blog

    This one feature alone makes your ReverbNation membership worth it! – ReverbNation Blog

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    Think of how much money you spend every month on Mailchimp, or Drip, or ConvertKit.

    Do you send enough email to justify that continual cost?

    Are you actually USING all those fancy features you pay so much for?

    After coughing up $30 or $75 or $150 per month, do you say, “that was money well spent?”

    If the answer to all three questions is yes, let me congratulate you; you’re obviously nurturing your list and turning fans into repeat customers on a regular basis. In other words, email is a pillar of your profitability. 

    If you’re NOT one of those artists yet, I have some bad news and some good news for you. 

    The good news involves you actually SAVING money while achieving better results whenever you email fans. But before we get to that, here’s the problem…

    If you answered no to the questions above then the bad news may be obvious: You’re not driving enough revenue through your email efforts to justify the cost of a service like Mailchimp, Drip, or ConvertKit. 

    Don’t feel TOO bad. Most musicians aren’t. 

    You may be overpaying for your email tools because:

    • You don’t schedule your emails
    • You don’t automate emails (beyond a welcome message)
    • You don’t create email sequences
    • You don’t make enough sales offers
    • You don’t prioritize growing your email list at gigs
    • You don’t have an undeniable online lead-magnet to grow your list
    • You don’t segment your list by region, sales history, or interests
    • Or you don’t … send emails at all

    Even in the age of TikTok and Spotify, email is still one of the most reliable ways to drive results for your music. Whether that be boosting streams, video views, or merch and ticket sales. 

    And yet so many artists underutilize their email lists. And here I’m not even talking about making use of advanced automation, sequencing, and segmentation features. 

    Sure, you probably SHOULD get around to doing that stuff at some point to maximize the potential of your list. But let’s be real; most artists suffer from a more foundational problem.

    Musicians. Just. Don’t. Send. Enough. Email. 

    Let’s do a little exercise.

    Think of a marketing list that you’re on. Some brand, shop, or artist who messages you multiple times a week, yet you’re still content to be on their list. Whether you open every email or not. You’re never offended by the frequency of their emails because you like the personality. You’re interested in the products. You dig the vibe. 

    Well, your fans probably like your personality and dig your vibe, too. So why are you only emailing them once a month, or twice a year, or… whenever you finally get around to releasing your next album??

    It’s NOT an imposition to communicate with your audience more frequently. And it’s not an imposition to ask them to take a specific action: purchase merch, leave a comment, etc. 

    If the fan remains on your list, they expect to hear from you. If they unsubscribe, they weren’t going to stream your album or buy your vinyl anyway. 

    So forget fancy email features. Your biggest problem may be the simplest one to solve. Just SEND emails.

    And if you can solve that problem, I want to show you how you may be able to cancel your monthly Mailchimp or Drip subscription, and get the same or better email results through Fan Reach, an email feature included with ReverbNation membership — which, depending on your membership tier, is FREE, $12.95/month, or $19.95/month.

    Meaning even ReverbNation’s Premium membership is likely less expensive than your monthly email bill. PLUS ReverbNation membership includes plenty of other things besides email that you’ll need to succeed:

    • global music distribution
    • promo tools
    • industry access to pitch your music for radio plays, playlist placement, label deals, festival slots, vinyl pressing, mixing and mastering mentorship, and much more

    Let me set some realistic expectations though. Fan Reach does NOT have ALL the advanced email features you’ll find when you use expensive platforms like Mailchimp and Drip.

    It’s designed for simplicity.

    Fan Reach makes it quick and easy to build your list, and email the right segments of your audience. And as you’ll see below, that may be more than enough to find better results from your email marketing. 

    The three reasons most email marketing platforms are prohibitively expensive for the average artist

    1. The more you use it, the more you pay

    The reality is, you don’t need fancy automation and granular segmentation features to simply break bad habits and send more emails. 

    But with many email tools, the more emails you send, the higher your monthly costs. 

    That’s not the case with ReverbNation’s Fan Reach. 

    2. The bigger your list, the more you pay (whether you email them or not)

    Another big issue with almost all email platforms? The more people you add to your list, the higher your monthly costs, whether you get around to emailing them or not.

    You’re paying just to KEEP people on a list you probably underutilize. Talk about being punished for success. 

    Again, this isn’t the case with Fan Reach, where you can build your list in a more worry-free way. With a free ReverbNation membership, you can have 500 fans on your list. At the Basic tier, you can have 1000. And, for just a few more dollars a month, you can upgrade to the Premium level, which supports up to 50,000 fans on your email list, AND includes robust music distribution, unprecedented industry access, and promotion tools. 

    All for less than the price you might be paying to another platform JUST for email.

    3. The more features, the more you pay (even if you don’t use ‘em)

    Who cares if you’re allowed to have twenty different automated email sequences running if you’ve never even gotten around to launching the first one!

    Many email platform tiers are priced as if you’re some enterprise brand with a huge team and endless needs. But more likely, you’re an artist, or a band, with a single list of fans. Plus the need to just write them simple messages once in a while, speak to them like an individual, and then ask them to do something. 

    You can do that with Fan Reach. No frills. No extra bells and whistles that you’ll never use anyways. Just real-time email messaging to your audience whenever you have news to announce, stories to share, music to launch, or products to sell. And the ability to target that email to the right people based on location, recency, and audience type.

    And this gets me to the main point I want to make. That you CAN be MORE successful in driving results from email when you strip away the more intimidating, advanced features. 

    With email marketing, musicians can do MORE with LESS

    That may sound ridiculous to marketing pundits. But here’s why I think there’s merit to the claim: Marketing experts give advice that is designed for the best-case scenario. It’s not grounded in reality.

    They’re often addressing a hypothetical entrepreneur with lots of time to build and tinker. Sufficient budget to test products and craft messages. The expertise to tie all the digital components together. The willingness to study results and modify strategies accordingly. They’re addressing someone who view themselves as a business first, with the purpose of selling a product. 

    Does that sound like you? While you’re driving between gigs, spending hours to shoot a 15-second TikTok, trying to figure out how to sidechain vocal compression on your next home recording, changing the strings on your guitar? 

    If you’ve read this far, it’s probably NOT you — which is why you’re looking for a simpler and more affordable solution. You are an artist first, and to the degree that involves marketing your artistic products, well, you also have competing responsibilities… to tour, to make new songs, and so forth. 

    That’s why for a typical independent musician, email is usually an afterthought, something you think to use when there’s obvious news. And besides that it goes neglected. I’ll reiterate that there’s no sense in paying tons of money out-of-pocket month after month for a tool you underutilize. 

    Streamlining your music marketing with email

    But I’ll go a step further. I think that when you strip away the intimidating features (automations and sequences, endless tagging and segmentation, designing an email campaign from scratch), you’re left with something much more intuitive and usable. All you REALLY need, if we’re being realistic, is a way to capture fans’ contact info, automatically deliver a welcome message, have a simple text box to occasionally write your fans, the ability to add a link, photo, or button, and hit send. 

    Enter Fan Reach! The real-time, streamlined email marketing tool for musicians that is already included in your ReverbNation membership, along with all the things I mentioned above: global music distribution, unlimited pitching for playlists, festivals, label deals, radio spins, vinyl pressing, mixing and mastering mentorship, and much more. 

    You can literally build and send emails in 2 minutes.

    Just select what you want to talk about from the dropdown menu, and Fan Builder will automatically pull that song, album, video, or event into the email.

    If you prefer to create a message from scratch, just select “Update to Fans.”

    Email tools for musicians

    Then write your email.

    Add any pics or links, if needed.

    If you want to have a special design for your email, you can instantly choose from a list of templates. 

    Want further customization?

    You’ve got it…

    Want intuitive and instant list segmentation and email targeting?

    You’ve got it!

    Select which types of people from your audience you want to contact:

    • Fans
    • Artists / Musicians
    • Labels
    • Venues
    • Promoters

    Target your message based on location (or send it to everyone).

    Choose whether you want to send it to newer subscribers (people added in the last 30 days), or everyone.

    Then send it!

    And yes, you can send a test email to yourself to check that links are active and the design looks good. 

    It’s really that simple. 

    And the simplicity is exactly what makes me suspect you’ll get MORE out of Fan Reach than you will by spending $50 or $75 or $150 every month on a more “pro” email platform. 

    Because you’ll actually USE this tool more often.

    The easier something is, the less time it takes overall, the more you’ll think to use it. Not just for the big news announcements (album launch, new video, etc.), but the little moments too. Those quick messages where it’s enough to snap a picture at a gig, or on tour, and just write a couple quick sentences. 

    The way people are inundated with media these days, you’ll have an easier time getting someone’s attention if you send them much shorter emails, but more often. 

    Plus, quick real-time engagement with your list can be more effective because it often feels more personal. Emails sharing what you’re up to in the moment, or what you’re most excited about right now, are more natural to write. They’re easier to compose. And easier to send. 

    That’s why Fan Reach is perfect for sharing:

    • A single, album, or video (with automatically embedded play button)
    • Event details
    • A story from the road
    • Fun moments from your studio
    • The meaning of your song lyrics
    • A pic, link, recommendation, playlist, or social post
    • A merch offer
    • And anything else you can think of

    Fan Reach is a foundational email list management and messaging tools to artists, and it’s already bundled into ReverbNation membership. You can easily import lists from other email programs or signup sheets from your concerts.

    You can also capture contact info from your website visitors using our HTML 5 widget.

    Want to build your list, nurture your relationship with fans, and boost your sales and streams? 

    Email is one of the most important marketing tools that musicians have. And email marketing doesn’t need to be complicated.

    In fact, the easier it is, the more often you’ll communicate with your audience. Giving you more chances to connect, encourage streams, sell merch, and promote tours. Plus, the more you send emails, the better you’ll get at crafting effective messages.

    And when it comes to email tools, don’t pay another service for something that comes included with ReverbNation!

    Get started with Fan Reach today.

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    Chris Robley

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  • How to Turn Setbacks Into Advantages | Entrepreneur

    How to Turn Setbacks Into Advantages | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In the early hours, an unexpected knock from the FBI confronted Amy Nelson, a test not just of her nerve but her resilience. This encounter marks the starting point of a compelling “Beyond Unstoppable” episode, where host Ben Angel and guest Amy Shoenthal delve into the heart of resilience in entrepreneurship.

    In her new book The Setback Cycle and during this conversation, Shoenthal explores how low moments like the one she experienced, far from ending careers, can redefine and strengthen them. Through Nelson’s story, this episode unpacks the essence of turning adversity into an advantage, a narrative every entrepreneur needs to hear.

    Related: How to Upgrade Your Brain to Boost Focus and Productivity

    If Ben Angel’s “Beyond Unstoppable” lights up your day, please take a moment to rate and review the podcast! This is a great way to support our mission of empowering more individuals like you to supercharge their lives and businesses. What’s more, don’t forget to follow the podcast if you haven’t already.

    About Beyond Unstoppable

    Hosted by bestselling author Ben Angel, Beyond Unstoppable is a transformative exploration of biology, psychology and technology. Learn from world-renowned experts like Jim Kwik, Amy Porterfield, Mari Smith and Jason Feifer. Dive into advanced AI tools, biohacking, and strategies to make you unstoppable.

    Subscribe to Beyond Unstoppable: Entrepreneur | Apple | Spotify | Google

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    Ben Angel

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  • Danvers Historical Society exhibit explores the success of Ideal Baby Shoe Co.

    Danvers Historical Society exhibit explores the success of Ideal Baby Shoe Co.

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    A new exhibit hosted by Danvers Historical Society volunteers Sheila Cooke-Kayser and Joyce Cranford will explore the legacy of Danvers businesswoman Adra Day and the Ideal Baby Shoe Co., her business empire that supplied millions of babies around the world with the shoes they would take their very first steps in.

    While the huge factory on Locust Street in Danvers may be gone, the legacy of Day’s business still remains far reaching.

    This is largely thanks to her innovative idea based on medical research to mold baby shoes for the left and right foot as opposed to straight-toed shoes, and her intelligent, medical-based marketing.

    “She was a very smart businesswoman,” explained historian Sheila Cooke-Kayser of the Danvers Historical Society. “She would communicate with doctors and nurses about foot development, and researched what the proper shoe design for babies looked like from infancy to the first few years that they’re walking.

    “She also would encourage the doctors that she worked with to have samples of her shoes at their offices. So when you brought your baby, your doctor might have suggested the Ideal Baby Shoe Co. just like doctors suggest pharmacies and stuff like that today.”

    Going into the 20th century, the popularity of the shoes could not be overstated, with the infant children and grandchildren of famous figures like Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Juliana of Holland, and President Woodrow Wilson all having worn Day’s shoes.

    The exhibit will not only display a huge collection of baby shoe designs from 1906 through 1970, but the 19th century shoemaking tools used to craft them, photographs of the factories, and even the promotional materials and innovative marketing that catapulted the business into notoriety.

    The Danvers Historical Society has collected such materials over decades, amassing a collection of hundreds of baby shoes of different styles and designs. In 1974, the last owners of the company, James and Robert McGinnity, donated the original shoe shop and more than 200 pairs of Ideal baby shoes to the society.

    “We really dove in, and it’s a pretty incredible collection,” said Laura Cilley, development coordinator at the Danvers Historical Society. “I just had absolutely no clue that there would be such a variety. So many incredible designs, colors, patterns — I mean, I wish they made them in adult sizes!”

    More recent research into Day’s history by historian Sheila Cooke-Kayser has revealed further details about her upbringing, business acumen, and family. We now know that she was born in Worthington in 1876 as the youngest of five children. After her father passed away in the 1890s, the family moved to Salem to work in the leather factories as stretchers, work that enabled her to bring home leather scraps and begin crafting the first iterations of Ideal Baby Shoes.

    As a part of their monthly speaker series, the Danvers Historical Society will be hosting historian Sheila Cooke-Kayser to speak more in-depth about how Day’s business went from taking home these leather scraps from her factory job to make shoes, to operating factories of her own and selling thousands of shoes a year.

    The special presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. in Tapley Memorial Hall. The exhibit will be open Feb. 19, 21, and 23, from 10 a.m. to noon, also at Tapley Memorial Hall.

    Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202

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    By Michael McHugh | Staff Writer

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  • How to Make Your Business Stand Out in a $21.2 Billion Market | Entrepreneur

    How to Make Your Business Stand Out in a $21.2 Billion Market | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    When Patagonia announced it would no longer put corporate logos on its apparel, it sparked a larger discussion around the sustainability of corporate promotional products (often referred to as “swag”), as well as how much meaning and use these products actually offer. Today, traditional promotional items — frequently dismissed as insignificant and easily forgotten and then quickly trashed — are undergoing a transformation led by forward-thinking entrepreneurs.

    The focus is shifting from generic swag to unique, story-driven objects that do more than just promote. The right tchotchke tells a tale, encapsulating a company’s values and triggering meaningful conversations. But, to do so, they have to be done just right.

    If you’ve ever wondered, “Are promotional items worth it?” then this article is for you. We’ll explore the reasons behind this shift and how entrepreneurs are strategically using creative leave-behinds to make lasting impressions.

    Related: 9 Key Tips for Navigating the Upcoming 2024 Marketing Landscape

    The swag landscape: A $21.2 billion market

    The promotional products market amounted to a staggering $21.2 billion in the U.S. in 2023, according to IBISWorld. These items, ranging from trinkets to leave-behinds, serve as essential tools in the marketing department’s arsenal. Examples of swag usage might include gifts for new hires to foster a positive relationship and make them feel like part of the team or thank-you gifts to express gratitude to clients and vendors.

    The primary goal is to generate interest, foster new relationships and establish connections beyond the confines of email. It’s worth noting that, in this article, we refer to tchotchkes as trinkets sent to “cold” prospects, while we refer to leave-behinds as items left for “warm” leads after an introduction or first meeting.

    When it comes to cold-sending tchotchkes, the challenge is to instill wonder in a single object, compelling the recipient to prioritize a callback. The market is flooded with these promotional products, so it is absolutely critical for entrepreneurs to figure out how to make their business stand out and make a meaningful impression.

    Success in promotional product campaigns is measured by engagement. For cold outreach, whether through email, phone, direct mailers or tchotchkes, the key performance indicator is a prospect engagement rate higher than average. Traditional cold calling boasts a 2% success rate, while direct mailers and email show about 3% and 2% on average, respectively. In contrast, text messages lead with a success rate of about 15%.

    Related: 5 Steps to Creating Successful Marketing Campaigns

    What promotional items work best?

    Entrepreneurs are redefining promotional products by infusing them with narratives that resonate with their target audience. When it comes to understanding what promotional items work best, it depends on what items authentically tell your company’s story in a way that resonates with your target audience.

    Follow this three-step process for how to make your business stand out by sharing creative tchotchkes that accurately represent your company’s core values and mission:

    1. Create an informed swag budget

    Understanding the frequency and occasions for distributing swag is an important first step in crafting the right tchotchke strategy. Companies often allocate a portion of their marketing budgets to promotional products, with approximately 20% of the budget dedicated to events, trade shows or external branding. Additionally, organizations may have specific budgets for employee acquisition, retention and engagement.

    Determine the return on investment for previous promotional campaigns to allocate your budget more effectively. Then, conduct a detailed analysis of past campaigns to understand which items yielded the highest engagement relative to their costs. It’s important to set specific, measurable goals for each campaign, such as a 5% increase in lead engagement or a 10% boost in social media mentions, to guide your budgeting decisions. Looking for cost-effective, high-impact items — where the emphasis is on creativity and relevance over cost — can help meet those goals. You can even leverage bulk purchasing for cost savings; however, be sure each item remains customized to maintain its unique appeal.

    A great example of this was the approach we worked on with our portfolio company, Arbol, to engage with airline and airport executives using Admiral FitzRoy barometers. That item encapsulated the story of the origins of weather insurance and the risk prediction innovations that followed. By ideating a thoughtfully tailored design, Arbol strategically linked its story and brand to tech advancements in parametric weather insurance. This creative yet cost-effective tactic significantly engaged one of the company’s key audiences, demonstrating how impactful results can be achieved with minimal financial investment.

    2. Identify your ideal outcome

    Next, envision the ideal outcome, in which the recipient keeps the item in a prominent place, triggering conversations. Answer key questions through research: What story will be told? Who is the target audience? What action triggers the story? What object triggers that action?

    Customer persona research can help you tailor promotional items that resonate on a personal level with the recipient. For instance, if targeting tech-savvy audiences, consider items that integrate with digital lifestyles. Implement tracking mechanisms, such as QR codes or unique URLs, to measure interaction with the promotional item. This allows for a direct correlation between the item and desired actions, such as website visits or social media engagement.

    Spotify’s “Wrapped” campaign is a good example of this. Each year, Spotify creates personalized year-end review playlists and statistics for its users, showcasing their most played songs, artists and genres. These summaries are presented in a visually appealing and shareable format, encouraging users to share their music tastes on social media. This approach transforms users’ listening habits into a unique, personal item — a digital tchotchke. It capitalizes on the trends of personalization and social sharing. As users share their Wrapped summaries, they not only engage more with Spotify, but also promote the brand to others. This campaign shows how a digital item, much like a traditional physical tchotchke, can effectively enhance brand engagement and foster widespread cultural resonance.

    For digital campaigns like Wrapped, you can encourage sharing by including incentives, such as contests or exclusive content for participants, which can amplify reach. Ultimately, you want to ensure the story your item tells aligns with the core values of both your brand and your target audience, thereby enhancing the likelihood of the item being kept and discussed.

    Related: 5 Critical Marketing Strategies for Product Promotions

    3. Iterate creatively

    Brainstorm, eliminate, test and refine the chosen tchotchke to ensure it sparks conversations and prompts callbacks. Engage in A/B testing with small segments of your target audience to gauge the impact of different promotional items. This could involve sending out two variations of a product to see which one generates more engagement or feedback. Then, solicit feedback directly from recipients about what they liked or didn’t like about the item, using surveys or follow-up calls. Maintain a database of responses and engagement metrics to refine future campaigns, focusing on creativity and the emotional or practical value provided by the tchotchke.

    We worked with another portfolio company, StoryFit, a storyline intelligence tech company, by sending model DeLorean kits to narrative decision-makers, highlighting the ability of the right story to breathe life into a script. When recipients place the completed model on their office desks, it sparks conversations with co-workers about predictive audience insights. It also left a lasting impression for future collaborations: Our manager received direct feedback from the prospect, saying he appreciated the approach our team took.

    The era of meaningless promotional items is giving way to a new age of purposeful and narrative-driven tchotchkes. Entrepreneurs who invest time and creativity into selecting and crafting these tokens are not only leaving a lasting impression, but also building meaningful connections that go beyond the transactional. Success is measured by engagement, and when it comes to promotional products, that means beginning with a well-thought-out experience and an authentic story to match.

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    Dan Conner

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  • Import prices climb 0.8% in January, up 0.7% minus fuel

    Import prices climb 0.8% in January, up 0.7% minus fuel

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  • Insights From a Tech CEO on Building a Billion-Dollar Business | Entrepreneur

    Insights From a Tech CEO on Building a Billion-Dollar Business | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I’m on a mission to meet and pick the brains of some of the most successful and innovative leaders in business. On this episode of The CEO Series, we went to the headquarters of G2 in Chicago, a software marketplace and review platform that has raised $257 million at a valuation of over a billion dollars, which makes them a unicorn.

    Godard Abel, G2’s co-founder and CEO, sat down with me to share his perspective and philosophy on leadership — what it takes to manage the health of the business, engagement of employees, expectations of stakeholders and so much more.

    Related: Inside Potbelly’s Recipe for Fast Casual Success

    Abel previously built cloud CPQ pioneers BigMachines (which was acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (which was acquired by Salesforce) so his insights are invaluable to anyone hoping to launch and go big. Below are some highlights from our conversation, which have been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full video above.

    The realities of achieving a unicorn status

    “It was an amazing milestone. We had an amazing party. I loved becoming a unicorn. But then you wake up the next day, and you’re committed to giving at least three times that back to your investors. We raised $157 million that first round, so really we have to give them about $500 million back. So it’s a big commitment as a founder and CEO. It’s really the beginning of your next journey that hopefully ends with a successful public offering that gives those investors at least three times their money back — hopefully much more. But it’s many years of work to get to that next peak. It feels great, but it’s also a commitment to getting to that next peak.”

    Related: With Over $120 Million in Sales, Dude Wipes Is No Joke. Here’s How the Company’s Chief Executive Dude Keeps Things Fun and Profitable.

    His entrepreneurial beginnings

    “My first business was in high school. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was called Ultimate Car Care and I started with my best friend at the time, Joe. His dad had a nice red Corvette. We had prom coming up, so we took a picture in nice tuxedos in front of this Corvette. We wanted to do detailing for fancy cars, so we used the photo to make fliers with our phone number on it and that’s how we launched. I was born in Germany into a family of entrepreneurs. My father took over a family business from my grandfather who I always admired. My grandfather started the company in Germany in 1947, two years after WWII. He did it in the industrial part of Northwest Germany, which had gotten bombed to rubble. And I always think about that when I am facing struggles. I think wow, it’s nothing like those struggles.”

    Related: Avoid These 3 Key Mistakes for Team Success in 2024

    What drives him

    “I think almost all entrepreneurs go through failure. Usually, you struggle for years. For almost every successful entrepreneur I meet, it comes down to this: don’t quit, keep going. And that also applies after you’ve begun to find success. We talk about our ‘peak culture’ at G2. I do think we’re meant as humans to be climbing peaks. And so in that sense, I never want to stop climbing. I’ve had good breaks and I probably could retire and just sit on the beach. But I don’t believe I would feel gratified. And frankly, I don’t think any human would. I think we’re meant to strive, we’re meant to climb, we’re meant to have a purpose. And I think entrepreneurship really gives that to me.”

    Check out more profiles of innovative and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Series archives.

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    William Salvi

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  • Why Super Bowl Commercials Are the Ultimate Marketing Play | Entrepreneur

    Why Super Bowl Commercials Are the Ultimate Marketing Play | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Of the estimated 113+ million viewers who tuned in for the Super Bowl LVII in 2023, around 43% tuned in primarily for the advertisements — a far cry from those of us who groan at even 15-second-long ads. Super Bowl commercials have become a cultural phenomenon, with audiences anticipating creative spins from familiar brands and often comparing their favorites online afterward. While plenty of companies have secured these behemoth ad slots only to fumble the ball, many have stood the primetime test. By examining the patterns and themes of some of the most successful Super Bowl ads, business leaders can learn from the ultimate marketing play.

    Related: What Super Bowl Ads Can Teach Entrepreneurs About Marketing

    1. Emotion gets ads to the end zone

    In fact, one of the most memorable and impactful Super Bowl commercials tugged at the heartstrings of the masses, opting for pathos in the form of puppies. “Puppy Love,” the classic Budweiser Clydesdales ad that debuted in 2014, appealed to human consumers not through the classic can-and-condensation combo but via an unlikely animal friendship between a Clydesdale and a golden retriever puppy.

    With subtle themes of rustic patriotism and all-American heroism, the Belgian multinational brewing company wooed viewers via man’s best friend — and barely featured their product at all. In 2016, it was ranked as the most popular ad ever to air in the 50-year history of the NFL’s premier event. The lesson here is clear: wholesome content appeals to almost everyone, and authenticity is universal — eclipsing predictable, emotionally empty product placement.

    When planning our 2005 “What Did You Ever Do Without Them?” commercial for Post-It notes, the 3M team took the same tack, opting for cuteness that resonates with a general audience. While this sentiment does play well, what doesn’t make the cut are the unique challenges of filming with unpredictable (albeit adorable) animals.

    2. Americans huddle up for humor

    Whether it’s a torrential downpour of lemons forecasted by Budweiser, Homer Simpson swiping his Mastercard or the rapid transitions and smooth-talking of the infamous Old Spice guy, Super Bowl audiences are looking for laughs between plays. Since laughter is shown to improve short-term memory, funny commercials are far more memorable, and so are the brands/products they represent.

    While one-hit-wonders may have their moment, brands that establish likable recurring characters in their ads are especially adept at building brand awareness and memory recall of the hero products advertised. The average American will likely recognize Progressive’s iconic associate Flo, Geico’s recently-revived Caveman, Allstate’s mischievous Mayhem man and even Liberty Mutual’s seemingly inescapable LiMu Emu. The combination of clever humor and unique, original characters makes for an effective commercial that will continue to build and enhance brand awareness for years to come.

    Related: 4 Must-Haves for Brands Considering TV Commercials

    3. Social issues are shared goals

    More than ever, Super Bowl commercials are addressing social issues, reflecting a shift in consumer preferences toward purpose-driven brands. By aligning themselves with meaningful causes and communicating their commitment to societal issues, brands aim to foster a positive image and build loyalty.

    For example, Dove’s “Real Strength” commercial (2015) challenges stereotypical gender roles, including what it means to be a “real man”; Nike supported Colin Kaepernick’s social activism by featuring Kaepernick in their 2019 “Dream Crazy” ad. Of course, for these allegiances/political stances to be effective, companies must practice what they preach — which is to say that authentic initiatives within the company must also back up these public allyships. Otherwise, companies run the risk of a backlash similar to that against Budweiser following their controversial Dylan Mulvaney partnership.

    Related: 3 Questions Pepsi Should Have Asked Before Releasing Its Kendall Jenner Ad

    4. Pass the ball to the consumer

    Ads that end with a Call to Action go beyond traditional one-way communication, inviting audiences to leave a lasting impact. One effective example was Coca-Cola’s 2014 “#AmericaIsBeautiful” ad, which encouraged viewers to share their own moments of beauty using the company’s hashtag. The genius of this hashtag is in its simplicity; much like Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” ad, which featured a minimal branded product, #AmericaIsBeautiful celebrates the country rather than Coca-Cola. Impressively, the owned hashtag created an onslaught of positive conversation around the brand without actually using any branding. This interactive element cultivated a trend of user-generated content while extending the reach of the company’s campaign and engagement.

    5. Celebrities are the MVPs

    Whether it’s a cranky pre-Snickers bar Betty White, Ryan Reynolds parking a Hyundai or Harrison Ford chatting with an Amazon Alexa, brands often turn to celebrities to boost the appeal of their Super Bowl commercials. When humor and emotional substance may be lacking, there’s no substitute for star power, and when companies can combine clever scripts with well-known faces, a viral moment is all but guaranteed. That said, companies must be careful when seeking celebrity endorsements — choosing a celebrity who resonates with the targeted audience and whose image/voice aligns with the company’s brand values is essential.

    With every Super Bowl, business leaders can become the brand consumers root for. Super Bowl commercials provide a unique and colossal opportunity to capture the attention of tens of millions of people who are not only exposed to the commercials but also look forward to them. Ultimately, the most successful are those who entertain and effectively communicate their brand’s message and values.

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    Jack Truong

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