William Exchange

There is no business without marketing. And yet, marketing seems to be a consistent challenge for entrepreneurs and businesses across the board. Last year, the State of Inbound reported that 63% of businesses struggle most with generating leads and traffic, and 40% reported challenges in proving the ROI of their marketing activities.  It seems what all businesses could use is a few new marketing tactics to plug into their strategies. Here are four ways to rejuvenate your lead and traffic generation, whether you’re just getting started or needing a revamp in strategy. 1. Build a personal brand worth following on social. Consumers go where they trust. Accordingly, entrepreneurs with large social followings typically find the most success in marketing their products - simply because their followers trust them. But, you don’t need to start with thousands of followers in order to make this work. Instead, focus your attention on establishing a rapport with the fo...

The advertising and marketing industry has a trust issue. Don't believe me? A new Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Index found that, of 18 professions studied, advertising executives ranked the least trustworthy of non-political workers (which included government ministers and politicians in general). And while I have no beef with lawyers, bankers and corporate business leaders — all of whom ranked higher than us — perhaps you found these results surprising. I know I did. This issue has been ongoing. A few years ago, ANA found that the practice of accepting kickbacks (when agencies accept undisclosed rebates from media companies) was rampant. While the report was the first to unearth the dirty secret, a recent report from ANA found this unsavory practice is still a major issue. In fact, a survey of agency-client trust issues corroborated these claims and found that rebates are the primary concern in the industry. Among other concerns: Lack of transparency into c...

As we turn the page on the 2010s and jump into the next decade, companies will need to look ahead and prepare themselves for new trends and changes that will occur across the business landscape. This is particularly true of e-commerce brands, as the world continues down the path of digitization. If an online brand is going to succeed in the years ahead, they must be as agile and adaptable as they are innovative.  One way that e-commerce companies can put themselves in a great position to compete in the 2020 marketplace is by focusing on performance marketing. Simply defined, performance marketing is centered around the principle of paying publishers only when a specific action (a click, an online sale, etc.) is completed rather than an upfront charge or a rate based on impressions. Because of advancing technology, publishers are now able to track and measure nearly every action driven by campaigns, and provide attribution to the correct source. This allows bra...

Keep your cool this holiday weekend knowing your campaigns are in top shape. As the hours tick down to Thanksgiving weekend and the official start of the holiday shopping season, here are a few last-minute items to help ensure you’re set up for success and can handily manage your paid search campaigns right through the season — even if you’re B2B or aren’t expecting a holiday bump. Double-check these paid search tactics Holiday promotion extensions. You can still add holiday occasion-based promotion extensions to your Google Ads campaigns. These can be added at the account, campaign or ad group level are available for Black Friday and Cyber Monday through December 15. Christmas through January 15. St. Nicholas Day through December 31. Hanukah through January 31. Holiday in-market audiences. Google has a Seasonal Shopping in-market audiences for Black Friday Shopping, which includes “People who will shop sales around the United States Thanksgiving holiday (inc...

Brief: 7-Eleven launched a voice-powered app that lets customers place delivery orders through their Amazon Echo or Google Home smart speakers, according to an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer. The 7Voice service lets customers in 34 major metropolitan areas use voice commands to order food, cosmetics, home goods and other products for 30-minute delivery. Customers must link their smart speakers with 7Now, the convenience chain's home delivery app that was introduced last year, to set up voice shopping through the respective Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant mobile apps. After issuing a verbal wake command to their smart speakers, users can say, "Open 7Now" to start shopping. 7-Eleven doesn't have minimum spending requirements on home-delivery orders, which are available 24 hours a day. The chain offers first-time 7Now customers free delivery, and then charges a regular fee of $3.99 for every order after that. ...

Alright fellow marketers, let’s get to the bottom of this. Subject lines can be one of the most frustrating components of email marketing. How can something possibly be short, fun, eye-catching, enticing, and compelling all at the same time? I know. It doesn’t make any sense. As a result, marketers are plagued by a few common questions: Are shorter subject lines better? What is the optimal character count? Does subject line length even matter? Often, the answers to your questions live in the data. In this blog, I’ll walk you through how I collected and dissected data to determine the ideal word and character count for writing subject lines that beg to be opened (and lead to a click). Step 1: Data Collection There is a common misconception that the right question to ask would be: which subject line length correlates to the higher open rate? But that doesn’t factor in downstream metrics such as clicks, click-to-open rate, and unsubscribe rates. The question w...

In a world where consumers have instant access to information, the best brands are those that provide accessible, relevant, and valuable information in the online realm. According to Google, users are not defined by a long chain of consumer behaviour anymore. For example, how long does it take you to decide to make a purchase or book a getaway? These user habits take place only in seconds, a term coined “micro-moments” by Google. As an award-winning Toronto marketing agency, we know how to meet your target audience during these “micro-moments” and provide them with a strong message that sells. Accessing the “now” How many times have you browsed the internet or an application while waiting in line or commuting to work? You might even purchase a product if its brand speaks to you, in fact, 69% of online consumers agree that timing, quality and relevance of the advertisement determines their perception of a brand. We believe that even the right message needs to be...

In the 46 years of its existence, email has become more of a marketing tool than a casual interface for friends and co-workers. In fact, according to TowerData, the first email marketing blast ever sent in 1978 achieved a whopping $13 million in revenue, which amounts to about $78 million today. And the email trend continues: A recent survey from the Direct Marketing Association and Demand Metric found that email marketing receives four times more ROI than other marketing avenues, including social media. Looking at these statistics, any contemporary marketer could easily assume that customer acquisition is email’s primary use. But while lassoing in buyers is certainly an essential part of email marketing, it is merely  one  of its several applications. In fact, you can leave a lot of opportunities on the table if you do not diversify your email efforts. A Multipurpose Tool Ironically, email’s spike in popularity has led to its det...

With every client we have, our goal is the same: To help them succeed. Often, that comes with a full digital marketing package, part of which is dedicated to paid advertising campaigns. More and more, clients of ours are seeing gains and profits from our paid advertising campaign strategies and this isn’t something only our agency is experiencing as digital ad spending continues to rise across the globe.  According to Jasmine Enberg at eMarketer.com, “in 2019, worldwide digital ad spending will rise by 17.6% to $333.25 billion. That means that, for the first time, digital will account for roughly half of the global ad market.” Agencies, freelancers, or departments of companies who are entering the world of paid advertising can be successful in their own campaigns by following a few simple pieces of advice and basic strategic techniques. It really all starts with three things: Researching, testing, and strategizing. Researching, Testing & Strategizing For ...

Since the first email was sent in 1971, it has grown to be one of the strongest ways to reach your customers. Email is still one of the most underrated but valuable tools for any person who wants to grow their business while also nurturing potential customers. I say underrated because many people have falsely speculated that email will die out due to new technology and the changing digital age. However, according to the DMA, emails had a median ROI of 122%, much higher than social media, paid search, and direct mail. Additionally, according to Radicati, there are 205 billion emails sent worldwide every day. This number is expected to grow to around 246 billion emails sent worldwide in 2019. There are many other statistics, but you’re here to read about how to make your emails more compelling and ‘better’ right? As a precaution, these are tests I’ve done during my days of sending emails and they mainly apply to the B2B market. However,...

Sometimes, in an attempt to target new customers, small businesses tend to ignore existing clients. Although it might take a fair bit of convincing on the part of designers, most small businesses eventually create an email marketing campaign to leverage existing clients. Email marketing is suitable for small businesses for a number of reasons. Email campaigns are economical and can compliment the business model of almost every small organization. Most small businesses are able to provide quality service as compared to larger corporations. Due to the exceptional quality of work, people tend to view the work of small businesses as genuine, sincere and trustworthy and are usually more willing to give their email addresses to such vendors. Here are some good reasons for small businesses to leverage email marketing: 1. It is economical Usually, most small businesses create special offers, promotions and reminders for their customers, in the form of printed material....

Recently, the BBC did an article about Amazon turning 25. Frankly, it was appalling. It asked the question “how has the Amazon empire been built?” – and then completely failed to answer it. It listed a bunch of things: strong revenue, retail sector dominance, Amazon’s value flying high, etc. etc. Yawn . Let’s actually answer the question, shall we? Witty fluff about dodging tax aside, Amazon became – and will remain – a powerhouse because they innovate. In 2017 they spent $22.6 billion globally on research and development. While that figure might be contested, there’s no doubt that Amazon has achieved dominance through spending big to stay ahead of the curve. Alphabet (Google), Intel, Microsoft and Apple were right after them. Noticing a theme? No robot is going to take my job! So, innovation is vital, but what’s the greatest enemy of innovation? The fear of change. And I am absolutely sick of hearing people complaining about change. In this industry, the fear of aut...

In this fast-growing era, digital marketers are expected to be skilled in a variety of areas, including analytics, creative direction, sales, digital media and more. Here's how to keep your skills sharp and gain new ones. With more brands than ever relying on digital marketing as their main form of advertising, it’s no surprise that professional digital marketers are in very high demand. In fact, Reuters reports that in 2017, digital marketing spending increased by 44 percent in the United States and to $52 billion in Britain. Globally, digital marketing spend is estimated to approach $100 billion. If you’re looking to work in an industry that continues to grow and provide numerous opportunities, digital marketing may be the perfect career path for you. What is a digital marketer? Digital marketing uses many traditional forms of classic marketing and sales techniques, but is coupled with technology for a more modern approach. Depending on your interests and go...