TLDR Marketing 2024-03-25

AI-generated deepfakes are now a reality. There are some state-level laws regulating and limiting deepfakes, but legislation doesn’t often move at the same pace as technology. One way for brands to navigate the ethical complexities of deepfake technology is to declare and disclose all AI content. Without clear labeling, brands, creators, and celebrities alike risk losing audience trust.

Bing Deep Search, an optional generative AI feature meant to help searchers with complex questions that don’t have simple answers, is now fully live for all users. It was originally announced in December 2023 as a search engine that goes deeper on queries using Bing’s index and GPT-4. This article contains a video showing how the feature works.

Implementing a wedge marketing strategy involves capturing a specific niche (or wedge) first and then expanding gradually. This guide covers how the strategy works, its impact on vertical vs. horizontal products, and tips on managing multiple audiences as you scale. An example of a wedge strategy is how Toast started with booking and reservations software for restaurants before expanding to a complete POS for restaurants and beyond.

The general rule of thumb is to keep unsub rates for email under 1% and SMS under 0.5%. High unsub rates could be due to improper segmentation, repetitive offerings, high send frequencies, or poor design. Ensure customer journeys are integrated, know which channels to message a certain customer in and not be too noisy in the others, implement automated flows, and clean lists on a monthly cadence.

Sentiment analysis marketing involves analyzing text to discern whether the tone is positive, negative, or neutral. It helps to understand customer perceptions about the brand or product. Techniques like brand monitoring, campaign insights, and social listening empower marketers to glean insights from customer feedback across various platforms. By analyzing and tracking sentiment, marketers can enhance customer experience, refine products, manage brand reputation, and make data-driven decisions.

Sprout Social has announced the launch of a new mentorship program for social media and marketing professionals via its virtual community platform, The Arboretum. The program will match participants with a mentor or mentee based on their networking goals and shared interests for one-on-one mentorship. The Arboretum also offers educational opportunities, access to exclusive events, and daily peer discussions. The platform is open to all marketers at no cost.

When you tap on a hashtag in Instagram, you’ll now see the full search results for that topic as you would see in explore. By providing access to these additional elements, Instagram is aiming to improve profile discovery, as opposed to only highlighting content. The new feature will ideally expand user search behaviors by linking them through to the various elements. It could also put more emphasis on ensuring that your target keywords are included in your profile in order to maximize discovery in the Accounts display.

Shrinkflation requires brands to assess their long-term brand implications and environmental impacts. While reducing product size may seem to decrease packaging waste, it can lead to increased packaging material per unit, contributing to environmental issues. If shrinking products is necessary, consider an eco-design approach — removing unnecessary packaging and reducing packaging weight. Implementing models like reuse or refill systems are also better than traditional single-use systems.

This article walks through 10 essential steps for crafting a successful referral program. Key steps include choosing the right incentives, incentivizing both referrers and referees, and utilizing tiered rewards for enhanced engagement. The article also shares insights on how to measure incremental impact, combat fraud, and implement a continuous testing process to ensure ongoing program success.

A new analysis suggests websites should expect some erosion of traffic from brand-related terms as a result of Google’s Search Generative Experience. These new types of generative results introduce more opportunities for third-party sites and competitors to rank for your brand and product terms. 91.4% of all keywords analyzed had an SGE result, which means virtually all brands and websites will be impacted by this. The study contains additional findings related to links used within SGE results, the impact on PPC results, and more.

Facebook is the new Craiglist for young shoppers because of the familiarity of the social platform and its perceived trustworthiness - Gen Z shoppers also love buying secondhand as it's cost-effective, sustainable, and something they value.

The ‘Build With Fans’ framework describes how you can immediately start building up traction in a community, even when you only have an idea for a product.

TikTok’s comprehensive 25-page Lead Generation Playbook offers actionable insights into forms, hooks, messaging, and calls to action on the platform.