3 Revelations From Common Thread Collective's Digital Marketing Jam

The SoCal digital marketing elite gathered at Common Thread Collective HQ last Tuesday. The topic of discussion was alternatives to e-commerce businesses who are over-indexed on Facebook Ads.

Your company's marketing strategy is no different than Thanksgiving dinner. 

Your 8-year old niece loads up on turkey and dinner rolls, which is great... Until you watch Uncle Robert circle the spread. It's a work of art. He comes away with a little bit of everything. There isn't room on his plate for a single kernel of corn. 

Diversity is king, especially in the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Make sure your company adheres to the "4-legged stool" theory. If Facebook or Google changed their algorithm overnight, how long could you tread water with wasted, precious marketing dollars? 

Here are a few cheap, highly-effective solutions to consider. 

Email

Remember when email was on its deathbed? Not anymore. Over a billion people have Gmail accounts.  Over 80% of people check their email at least once a day. 

It's a marketing goldmine. In the inbound era, consumers prefer to make decisions on their own time. Personalized tokens and the ability to segment data to target customers with pinpoint precision make email an attractive medium.

Take the time to create multiple campaigns (new user, existing customer, abandoned cart, rewards program, etc.) It will take some effort, but once the templates are finished, they can be setup and automated. 

Track the analytics. See what they say. Experiment with sending at different times of the day, increasing the amount of time between each email sent, and offering various rewards. 

Email is: cheap, requires minimal maintenance and it's ultra-relevant. 

Chrome Push Notifications 

More and more internet users are migrating to Google Chrome. If you haven't yet, what are you waiting for?! 

Even though this feature was created a few years back, it has taken some time to gain traction. 

Companies utilizing it are finding massive success. CTR's on push notifications are astronomical. 

It's bound to become increasingly popular, so stake a claim on the platform right now.

One brilliant strategy for e-commerce businesses is to have "flash sales" via notifications. Engage with audiences while they are online! 

For example, if your brand has customers that are night owls, push out a notification at 11pm offering customers a unique offer! 

Facebook Messenger Bots

The buzz topic at the recent Facebook digital conference was the expansion and utilization of Messenger. 

And when Mark Zuckerberg speaks, you better listen. They are investing a lot of time and resources into this sector. It's pretty wild when you think about it. Some people may get lucky and "predict" the future, but in Zuck's case, he controls it.

Bots can be programmed (many services currently offer for free) to answer any question at anytime. An around the clock employee with a salary of $0. Zilch. 

Keep an eye on marketers taking advantage of this service with social influencers. 

CTR's will be 100%. Let's say [insert your favorite athlete/actor/musician/etc.] messaged you "personally". 

Yea, pretty nuts, right? In a year or two, it will be the social norm. 

Conclusion

I'd love to hear about any other marketing avenues companies are strolling down! 

So feel free to hit me up on social media. Don't be offended if I ask to verify you're not a bot :) 

Next week I am going to focus on podcasting advertising. Stay tuned...