The average person spends nearly 7 hours online every day, reading articles, scrolling their social feeds, or maybe even checking out your website. With everyone spending so much time online, digital marketing has become a core part of every brand’s strategy. From email to social and native to behaviorally targeted programmatic advertising, digital marketing allows business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers to efficiently target customers during their digital journeys. However, the rapid adoption of digital marketing brings added responsibility for marketers, ensuring everyone, including individuals with disabilities, can access and interact with your branded content. Complying with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) is not just a legal requirement, but a strategic move that expands the reach of marketing campaigns and resonates with a broader audience.

ADA compliance goes beyond simply making websites accessible for screen readers and other assistive technologies. “We’ve found even our largest clients, with seasoned marketing leadership, do not fully understand ADA requirements,” said Jim Livecchi, VP of Strategy at Kreber. The regulation encompasses a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, cognitive, and motor impairment. “We are helping our clients create truly inclusive online and offline brand experiences and think holistically about every piece of content and branded communication.”  

Here are 5 considerations to ensure your brand’s inclusivity and ADA compliance.

Honestly, they’re a blessing and a curse. New-product launches are an amazing opportunity to introduce new ideas and strategies to customers. But launches can be hard to do, and you only get one chance, as they say, to make a first impression.

Well, not really. A launch campaign can have longer legs than you may realize. But making extended impressions takes a strategic plan and, even more vitally, a strong, clear message.

This is just one of the big takeaways from Kreber’s upcoming white paper, “Hidden Secrets of Successful New-Product Launch Campaigns.” To whet your appetite, we’re sharing a few of those insights here; to get the rest, click the link at the bottom of the blog and we’ll drop it in your inbox when it’s released. (Don’t worry—it’s free!)

Today's blog comes to you from special guest contributor Payton Gessel, Senior Video Editor & Motion Graphics Designer here at Kreber.

Imagine the scene: An auteur director barks orders through a megaphone from a tall chair. The production assistant ordered the wrong coffee and the director slams it to the ground. Everyone on set turns to watch the 27th take of an actor, covered in ping pong balls, yelling at a green cube. Truth be told, this scene probably won’t even make the final cut.

While many people associate these common film and prestige TV tropes with all forms of video production, things are often quite different outside of Hollywood. We might use the same equipment and slang terms as our tinseltown brethren, but at Kreber our videos are tailored to serve a different purpose and our process is more flexible and decidedly less dramatic. 

Although we often hire professional talent, the products are the real stars of Kreber’s videos. Product video development, though, is not without its own challenges and typically requires more organizational and technical knowledge than a high-level brand awareness campaign—and many companies find the task daunting. When planning your next project, keep the following tips in mind to help your product video shoot go off without a hitch.

Seasonal Planning is great for aligning internal stakeholders and giving your internal (and external) creative partners time to do what they do best. But let’s not overlook the real fruit of all of that labor: creating external events that get customers excited to shop!

Account-based marketing, or ABM, has been part of marketing professionals’ vocabulary for years. However, in the last 3-5 years, there's been a renewed focus on ABM as technology has become smarter and companies have realized that marketing to the masses isn’t as efficient as narrowing in on their ideal customer profile (ICP).

Yet, it can be hard to launch an ABM program. There are many facets to consider, you may be asking yourself, “Where do I begin?” 

You know what your B2B company needs? 

Video. 

Of course you know that. Video marketing has an extremely high engagement rate, and, when done well, can drive desired viewer behavior, raise awareness, and change how your brand or product is perceived.

Consumers have more shopping options than ever before: more products from more brands and more platforms on which to buy them. If you’re like most of the marketing and creative team leads we talk to, you already know how difficult it is to provide the content everywhere it’s needed!

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) has been around for decades; however, in recent years CGI has taken a front seat for marketing materials. Today we will unveil some of the ways in which our clients use CGI. Additionally, we’ve included a link to a new white paper debunking myths about CGI and further discussing how it can be used in marketing.

Talking about trends at the beginning of the year—a little cliche? Probably so, but this year we’re taking a different approach to appeal not only to those of us marketers building strategy, but also to our admired creatives who design the visuals and write the words to help execute that strategy.

This collection of trends includes outside resources so you can garner more information to help you do your job better this year.

In our last blog, we discussed the keys to creating a successful brand activation strategy. With your target audience defined and your goals established, it’s now time to put a cohesive plan into place and start engaging with – and selling to – your customers. 

The journey of a potential customer and the pieces of content they consume along the way is a subject near and dear to my heart, and it makes the cogs in my brain start to turn.

When I am researching products and services, I always look at the content being served to me at various points during my journey. Let’s explore the buyer’s journey from the beginning of research to making a purchase.

The importance of developing a strong, singularly focused  brand cannot be understated. Considering that today it takes shoppers a whopping 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about a brand, maintaining your unique voice in the marketplace is more important than ever before.

I recently had the pleasure of attending Content Marketing World, the industry’s largest gathering of content marketing professionals. This conference is different from others as the content is presented by brand practitioners who share their trials, tribulations, and successes with attendees. Below I highlighted the things I took away and hope you find some things that help you in your content marketing journey.

With more than 100 years in the printing, graphics, and now marketing industries, you can imagine that Kreber has had its hand in a fair share of memorable projects.

As our company and its mission have evolved, so too has our scope of capabilities—which has led Kreber to a long-term, rewarding partnership with Lowe’s. One of the most recognizable names in home improvement for generations, Lowe’s is also on a journey to evolve and offer customers home decor solutions in addition to a wide range of products that encompass virtually everything your home might need.

As Director of Marketing for our agency and seeing the news with the changes in gas prices and talk of inflation, I wondered how this might affect our clients and their plans for the remainder of the year. 

A couple days later, a webinar popped into my inbox from Gartner on the CMO Spend Survey for 2022.

Account-based marketing, or ABM, has been part of marketing professionals’ vocabulary for years. However, in the last 3-5 years, there's been a renewed focus on ABM as technology has become smarter and companies have realized that marketing to the masses isn’t as efficient as narrowing in on their ideal customer profile (ICP).

Yet, it can be hard to launch an ABM program. There are many facets to consider, you may be asking yourself, “Where do I begin?” 

It’s Spring/Summer. Do you know what your BIG IDEA for Holiday is and what the campaign content to support it looks like?

If you're struggling to get ahead — don't fret. Many retailers feel like they're always behind in their planning and execution. But the fight is worth it! Holiday is, after all, the biggest revenue season of the year for many retail categories.

You Deserve To Get Ahead (With Your Marketing)

Animation is one of the most compelling ways to tell a visual story. 

When you think about animation, what comes to mind? Is it a cartoon, or perhaps a Pixar film? It’s common for animation to be thought of in its bigger, motion-picture style—but in marketing terms, animation is more compact and has become a go-to method of communicating with customers.

Did you know that animation predates film altogether? The earliest forms of animation were used by the ancient Greeks, who used a series of visuals to tell a story or communicate with others. The first animated motion picture was, according to film experts, Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie in 1908, while the first full-length animated movie was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released by Walt Disney in 1937.

Rookie of the Year Goes to…

When I found out I’d be attending the Spring Furniture Market in High Point (HPFM), I started researching the event online and was immediately overwhelmed by its size and scope. I had no idea it was such a large-scale production and was initially a bit dumbfounded on where to start when it came to planning my visit! So I decided to blog about my experience, not only to share the exciting events and activities, but also to add helpful insights in order to make your first HPFM experience easier too.

Perhaps—possibly—you’ve had a chance to take a step back and reflect on how much has changed in the last two years.

March 2020 was truly a different time. As a marketing leader, your priorities have undoubtedly shifted. Whether it was a short-term pivot to reach customers where they were (at home, in front of a screen) or refocusing your big-picture goals to account for all that was happening in your industry or the world…the point is, going forward, you’re going to need a solid plan.

Take a look at your browser tabs right now.

Or, check your phone real quick.

Is there an open or unfinished shopping cart floating out there? Chances are there is, but don’t worry—you’re the rule, not the exception. 

With a 100+ year history of thinking ahead, Kreber has been around for the good, the bad, and the pretty. As industry trends came and went, we continued to evolve, learned important lessons, and persevered—building our capabilities along the way. In that time, we’ve mastered our content marketing services to provide brands with more than a century’s worth of inspiration.

But, have you ever wondered where it all started? Where did content marketing begin?

It’s been a minute since we sent our first tweets in 2007 and began Instagramming our brunch in 2010 (maybe you were a Facebook O.G. back in the mid-2000s).

Though social media isn’t exactly new, we’re always learning new things. Whether it’s one social network introducing a new algorithm or a brand new platform like TikTok exploding on the scene, those of us in the industry are constantly adapting.

Whoa…where did 2022 come from?

If it feels like the last two-plus years have been molded into one conglomerate of time, we’re with you. Things are changing quickly and adaptation has become the name of the game for marketers in virtually every industry.

While ending 2020 felt like a feat in its own right, 2021 was supposed to be a year of optimism—transitioning out of the pandemic and into a “new normal” lifestyle with the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, borders reopening, and once again being able to hug your loved ones.

What does “trending” really mean, and why is it important? Well, according to Merriam-Webster, “trending” is defined as “to generate or attract a lot of interest or attention, especially online and in social media.” Whether you’re an up-and-coming startup or a Fortune 500 company, keeping up with current trends is necessary to gain a prize-winning edge over the competition.

With a flurry of constantly changing industry trends, how can a brand possibly know which ones are most relevant? We’ve scoured the internet and rounded up the top 15 digital marketing trends (in no particular order) that have made the biggest impact this year. Here’s what we discovered:

We’ll start this blog with a bit of self-reflection.

Has the pandemic changed the way you shop? 

Have you noticed a shift in your own buying habits?

The 2021 holiday shopping season is approaching fast, and those in the know say it may have some surprises up its sleeve.

The inner workings of getting your content seen, shared, and converted into sales requires many moving parts. People have changed—the shopper has changed. Consumers want experiences and catered content, not the usual marketing tactics that companies are used to providing. In turn, businesses need to alter their marketing mindset to relate to their overall purpose and goal—their audience. In essence, they need to shift into an “out with the old, in with the new” mentality; essentially debunking any expired way of thinking.

Quite a bit has changed in a year, right?

In 2020, we weren’t sure what the school year would look like. Many of the “what you need to be successful” philosophies mirrored what we were doing while working from home; and much like the adults, kids were not used to learning at home on a regular basis.

Right person, right message, right time. 

This formula is the backbone of all marketing, right? If I can reach the people most likely to buy my product, with a message that moves them out of need or emotion, at the moment when they are most receptive to that message, I’ve got myself some paying customers. 

Advertising has come a long way since the first TV advert on July 1, 1941, for Bulova Watches. Fast forward 80 years and you’ll find yourself smack dab in the middle of a dizzying array of advertising. From print to digital and everything in between, it’s a never-ending game of getting your product or business out there to the masses—a game that’s not slowing down any time soon. 

It’s 11pm. You’re in bed, about to fall asleep. All of a sudden, you realize you forgot to grab the side dish for tomorrow’s dinner with the in-laws—and you’re hosting. Between meetings and picking up the dog from daycare, your “tomorrow” is fully booked. Luckily, it’s 2021 and you can just open your favorite grocery app and get your forgotten item delivered, at a time of your choice. Dinner is saved. 

In early 2020, many businesses struggled with how to react and respond to the pandemic. It was hard to seem empathetic without being disingenuous; humor didn’t feel “ok” until recently; and appearing to want to make money off struggling consumers just felt plain wrong. 

For some organizations, though, it took little time to find the right thing to do, like when well-known restaurants pivoted to feeding the community when they couldn’t serve patrons. For others, there was no playbook for operating outside business as usual.

Why was that? It’s all about values. 

Ever shop on Amazon? Of course you do—we all do. With an infinite sea of product offerings, have you ever wondered why you purchase one item instead of another? Maybe it had a 5-star customer rating, or maybe it had multiple color options? Odds are that the product you bought featured more item-specific content that enticed you to hit “add to cart.”

If your company is like most brands that want to improve their Enhanced Product Content (EPC) on Amazon or any other ecommerce site, you know it only takes about 2.5 seconds before the conversation gets really tactical. 

If you can dream it, we can build it.

Such a simple phrase might seem aspirational, but at Kreber, we’re big thinkers. We’re also into making things happen (ideas are great, but bringing them to life is even better).

Just when you thought nothing could surprise you anymore, you get an estimate for a basement remodel. $$$!!! Thanks to the pandemic, demand for office sheds, multi-room additions, in-ground pools, backyard oases, and more has surged. 

Even though last year was challenging on many levels, we here at Kreber have been asking ourselves (and our clients) to pause and reflect on what we learned last year, and to focus on what worked well. What we’ve seen across the board, no matter the industry or sales category we’ve worked with? Being the best at the basics is a good place to return your focus when external events are, shall we say, uncertain.

Leave it to the pandemic to alter yet another thing during this crazy year. If you’re waiting for Black Friday sales to start the day after Thanksgiving as the retail gods intended, you’ve already missed out on a lot! Stores have Black Friday deals up and running now—and some have had them going since before Halloween.

Let me remind you that Black Friday is meant to be a literal day. A long day (with sales starting as early as 5 a.m.) but still…a day. Then it crept into Thanksgiving afternoon and spilled over into the entire following weekend. It’s so big, it supports two additional retail events that could be legit all on their own: Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

You’re about to engage with the best content creation studio within your budget, and it’s close to home (yay!). They’ve reassured you with their COVID-19 protocols, sleek portfolio, solid talent, project management, and ability to meet your timeline. 

So what’s the catch? They don’t do post-production work. 

Let’s face it: online shopping isn’t always easy for every category of products out there. The higher the price and the more complex the product is, the more customers may want to make that purchase in-person, where they can look, touch, test, and ask questions to a knowledgeable associate. The way to bridge this gap on an ecommerce platform is with Enhanced Brand Content. It’s what showcases the product and helps alleviate the uncertainty online shopping brings.

As we slowly work our way back to normal, practicing proper COVID-19 protocols is an important part of keeping everyone safe and gaining confidence with clients, especially at trade shows. Most of us have not been to a large gathering in months, so creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable has become a key part of running an event.

One of our clients, a global seller of lawn and garden products, has a term for how its teams manage content syndication across online retailer platforms: “spreadsheet hell.”

We wondered about it back in April. We tracked the daily developments throughout May and June. We watched as some colleges planned to have in-person classes, while others (like Harvard) decided in early July that fall 2020 classes would be online only. 

Like everyone else, we crossed our fingers that a sense of normalcy would return after the summer and that the Back to College time frame would find us all a little more back to business as usual.

The use of consumer data to influence marketing strategy has been integral to advertising for generations, well before re-targeting and customized content were even fleeting thoughts. But in this Age of Amazon, the landscape is rapidly changing and many brands are forced to play catch-up.

The modern consumer exists in a saturated, competitive marketplace. One breeze through the Amazon app or any major online marketplace will reveal the mind-boggling number of brands that sell the same or similar products.

That means there’s a lot of noise. One way you can cut through the clutter is by focusing on a tried-and-true element that’s been a key to great marketing since, well, forever: the words you use.

New York City allowed brick-and-mortar retail stores to open back up at the end of June. As the month went on, more and more shoppers ventured out, masks in place, to see just what it is like to shop in-person in these (still) uncertain times.

Enhanced Product Content (EPC) is a big deal.

Many brands and online retailers have mastered it. Others, hoping to jump into the mix—and capitalize on an ecommerce industry that has seen several sectors spike during the COVID-19 pandemic—have done so without a proper strategy.

EPC is no different than any other marketing tactic: you’ve got to do it right. No cutting corners. No “hoping.” The preparation is equally as important as the execution, but we’ve seen too many examples of businesses not taking the necessary time to nail it.

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well.

We tend to think of writing in a few different ways.

It’s creative. It’s technical. Or, it’s expressive.

When we’re talking about creative writing or content writing, we as marketers often become so obsessed with what’s going to look best, what our clients will like, or what sets our work apart. All of those things are important, don’t get us wrong, but often we forget about how our audience perceives the content.

Even with a pandemic and protests happening all around the country, customers are determined not to forget dear ol’ dad this month.

In fact, The National Retail Federation expects them to spend more than ever before for Father’s Day, with the average shopper shelling out $138 on everything from gift cards to special outings to home improvement supplies.

Anticipating this windfall, top national retailers are out in full force with gift guides and other unique content that’s geared to help them get as much of that Father’s Day spend as possible.

In mid-March (which feels like a decade ago), our world turned upside down. But, we were not alone.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced workers and their companies to re-evaluate a lot of things. How they work, when they work, the best ways to be productive, and just generally how to keep ourselves together. We’re fortunate to not have much experience in dealing with global pandemics, but we’re also fortunate to be equipped with the means and technology to make quick adjustments and keep pushing forward.

NOTE: Like many of you, we’re staying home and preparing for a gradual return to the office environment. We’re offering our regularly scheduled blogging (plus a few special entries) to help you refine and re-evaluate your marketing efforts for whatever comes next.  

You’ve probably heard about the importance of search engine optimization (commonly referred to as SEO).

There’s no shortage of in-depth information available on this topic, but oftentimes, it’s incredibly detailed and not tailored to the “step one” phase. Not everyone is an expert in search marketing or SEO, and it’s an area of marketing that is still new to many. 

NOTE: Like many of you, we’re staying home and preparing for a gradual return to the office environment. We’re offering our regularly scheduled blogging (plus a few special entries) to help you refine and re-evaluate your marketing efforts for whatever comes next.  

“Indian food near me.”

“Retail stores reopening.”

“Wine delivery service.”

If you’re like us, this probably looks like your search engine history at some point over the last two-plus months. While our personal and working lives have been forever changed, we’ve had an opportunity to learn a few things. 

In those first unsettling weeks of the pandemic lockdown, feel-good commercials from brands like Ford, Johnson & Johnson, and Charmin may have brought tears to your eyes. All the hashtags, “in it together-ness,” and sensitivity had us feeling some kind of way.  

Now—although the crisis is far from over—we’re sort of jaded, and we realize Ford is still trying to sell us cars, albeit a bit more gently than usual. Ad-industry friends joke about the overuse of words like “unprecedented situation” and “challenging times.” But deep down, we’re still taking comfort in hearing from the brands that define American life. 

NOTE: Like many of you, we’re staying home and preparing for a gradual return to the office environment. We’re offering our regularly scheduled blogging (plus a few special entries) to help you refine and re-evaluate your marketing efforts for whatever comes next.  

Doesn’t it feel like a lifetime ago when things were somewhat normal? In the two months that have passed since the pandemic forced us to lock down, businesses around the world have fallen on difficult times and had to make even more difficult decisions. 

As orders of social distancing remain in place, businesses have found themselves figuring out how to stay engaged with customers from at least a six-foot distance (and a lot farther, in many cases). 

It’s no different for the exhibitors at one of our favorite events, the Spring High Point Market in North Carolina, which was scheduled to take place April 25–29, but inevitably had to be canceled. While obviously not ideal, canceling the Market gives brands the opportunity to try out new ways of connecting with clients and customers. 

NOTE: Like many of you, we’re staying home and working from there, too. We’re offering our regularly scheduled blogging (plus a few special entries) to help you refine and re-evaluate your marketing efforts for whatever comes next.  

When we sat down to write this blog, we had a lot of thoughts. We had a lot of ideas. And in analyzing the world of content marketing as we’re one quarter into a new decade, we found that there are a lot of concepts considered to be “hot” or “on the rise.”

While that may be true, we’re also extremely cognizant of the current situation facing us. As we covered last week, it’s important for marketers to be nimble and proactive right now—and there are ways to do that while still efficiently deploying your budget. Life as we know it has been turned upside down, but for many companies, business must continue (albeit differently).

So, let’s talk about content marketing.

Note: Like many of you, we’re safely working from home. And we’re offering our regularly scheduled blogging (plus a few special entries) to help you refine and re-evaluate your marketing efforts for whatever comes next.

By now, you’ve heard it a thousand times: we’ve entered a period unlike any other seen in our lifetimes.

Our lives and businesses have been changed indefinitely. And if you’re a marketer, you’re no doubt feeling the effects of the pandemic in more ways than one. Maybe your retail locations are closed due to a state’s “stay-at-home” order. Maybe the trade show you were planning to attend was postponed or cancelled, or perhaps one of your advertising campaigns was put on hold until this passes.

Note: Like many of you, we’re safely working from home. And we’re offering our regularly scheduled blogging (plus a few special entries) to help you refine and re-evaluate your marketing efforts for whatever comes next.  

In the retail industry, preparedness and strategy have always been vital, but now, they are critical. With customers spending more time at home than usual—and many more shopping online—readying your brand for the influx of traffic and interest is a top priority.

There’s no way around it: your B2B brand needs content marketing. 

It’s how you scale. It’s how you talk about yourself, and it’s how you sell. And most importantly nowadays, it’s the foundation on which other critical components of your business are built, including lead generation and customer engagement. Why? Because content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.

You know what your B2B company needs? 

Video. 

Of course you know that. Video marketing has an extremely high engagement rate, and, when done well, can drive desired viewer behavior, raise awareness, and change how your brand or product is perceived.

We’re not joking when we say there’s a podcast for everyone.

There’s a separate conversation about whether there are *too many* podcasts, but we won’t get into that (as much as we’d like to). There is one aspect of podcasting that, aside from the booming industry itself, is also starting to take off. And that would be advertising.

It’s important to get this out there: Photography is no small task.

Shout-out to those nodding in agreement after reading this, or letting out “a little louder for the people in the back!” in their heads. Photography is one of the most critical elements of branding and content creation, yet it’s often one of the most underestimated. 

Maybe you own a business. Or you run marketing for your company. Could be you’re simply looking to find the best way to balance your efforts and get the message out. If it was a piece of cake, everyone would do it, right?

But unfortunately, it’s not that easy. The good news is that we’re here to help and make sense of marketing in a time when it seems like there are endless options, technologies, and tactics. 

We had a great time discovering new trends and innovations at KBIS 2020! 

Our two main takeaways from the show? Customization is key and wellness matters.

We’re back from KBIS 2020, and it was a week full of eye candy and some hard-driving content lessons. Let’s dive into what brands are doing to stay top-of-mind going into this new decade.

CGI (computer-generated imagery) represents both the present and the future.

We recently outlined the benefits of integrating CGI into your marketing mix, taking a look at some of the high-level advantages and takeaways. Those include (but are not limited to) achieving photorealism, offering a customizable shopping experience, and the ability to build a bank of CGI assets for use in future content, like AR experiences. 

Happy trade show season! Next up, KBIS 2020. 

We’re gearing up to join the 30,000+ attendees flocking to Las Vegas for the National Kitchen & Bath Show.

As North America’s largest trade show dedicated to all aspects of kitchen and bath design, there’s certainly a lot to love! With 600 exhibitors boasting state-of-the-art booths and dazzling home innovations, here are a few of the trends we’re most excited to see—and why you should be too.

Shoes are so much more than shoes.

Legacy footwear brands—those that have been around for the past 25+ years—have perhaps the best understanding of that. 

Remember the days of the catalog?

We mention the age of the catalog because it was (and, in some cases, still is) a core aspect of legacy brands’ marketing efforts. When products were released or on sale, you’d learn of them through the catalog and, in subsequent years, the website. 

Have you started your holiday shopping yet?

If the answer is “yes,” consider this an achievement unlocked.

If you answered “no,” you’re not alone. 

Every holiday season brings about a new set of data and interesting statistics that we take into Q1 to help formulate strategy for the following year. Some of this information is quite surprising, and some of it makes sense just based on how things have been trending in the retail industry. 

Putting your best foot forward is key to successful marketing in any industry—but it’s particularly so in the footwear category.

If you’ve made it this far, we have good (maybe bad?) news: that will not be the last of our shoe puns in this blog. Proceed with glee if groan-worthy jokes are right up your alley.

This Friday, millions of people will be shopping. And millions of people won’t.

Every year, it seems more “conscious consumers” opt out of Black Friday and into the Small Business Saturday/Shop Local movement, started by American Express in barely post-recession 2010 to keep Main Street alive. Almost a decade later, the movement has proven its value: a recent survey found that among consumers who plan to shop on Small Business Saturday, 96% said the event “inspires them to go to small, independently owned retailers or restaurants that they have not been to before or would not have otherwise tried.”

Folks, Black Friday has arrived.

We’re going to assume you aren’t frantically checking your phone or your calendar to confirm, because if you’re like most shoppers in the United States, you’ve started holiday shopping already. Some of them—an increasing number, we might add—began the journey this summer, with a little something we know as Amazon Prime Day.

With each new blog entry in our series on power tool shopping and product marketing trends, we’re getting deeper into the holiday shopping season. It’s hard to believe, but we’re almost there.

Sorry to scare you. But we don’t control the calendar.

In the introductory blog to our series on power tools, we focused exclusively on enhanced product content.

Makeup is THE hot story for Halloween this year. Unlike candy and costumes, it’s calorie free, one size fits all, and works for all ages. It inspires envy and displays artistry, both IRL and online. It hits the sweet spot of social media-lovin’, Euphoria-watchin’ younger Millennials and Gen Zers.

The holidays are sneaking up on us.

Thanksgiving is around the corner, and Christmas is coming up on its heels. Before we know it, everyone who considered buying new flooring this year will have it installed in time for their holiday parties, guests, and celebrations—that is, if your shopping experience has met their needs.

Whew! Another High Point Market is in the books! With Fall Market officially wrapped up, we wanted to recap some of the exciting home furnishing trends we saw. This is just a small sampling of what Market had to offer, of course...if you’ve been to Market, you’ll understand!

The GIE+Expo (which stands for Green Industry and Equipment) is one of the biggest – and, for industry professionals, most exciting – trade shows of the year. 

It’s that time of year...Fall Market has arrived! 

Now that we’re entering the prime time of “flooring shopping season,” it’s important to revisit a few key things we learned in Part 1 of this series.

Unlike appliance shoppers and holiday shoppers—who are definitively high-intent shoppers—we have to approach flooring shoppers a bit differently. Whereas other shoppers might make a purchase within a day or a week of initiating the process, customers in the market for new flooring take a deliberate, methodical, almost dizzying path to purchase.

It’s a top 10 retail event, and although the current political climate spooks shoppers a little, the fun is expected to continue this Halloween shopping season.

The average shopper will spend $86.27 on costumes, candy, and decor—just a little down from last year’s total of $86.79, says the National Retail Federation (NRF). 

What will customers get into this year? Here’s Halloween ’19, by the numbers:

Let’s talk about flooring.

Normally, that topic alone may not spark a ton of excitement, but trust us—we’re pretty fired up about it. Not only the concept of flooring, but how brands and retailers present product to consumers, who have quite an interesting journey on the path to purchase.

Believe it or not, the holiday shopping season is almost upon us.

And while it feels like summer outside, it’s time for brands and retailers to turn their attention to the end-of-year shopping bonanza. One category that tends to ramp up this time of year is—you guessed it—flooring.

Let’s start with a clarification.

While sales enablement is technically a technological undertaking, it shouldn’t be viewed as a “tech” program or project. It’s encompassing and strategic, and that’s part of the reason this category has been largely misunderstood for a long time. Sales enablement apps and technology are geared to make selling more efficient at a time when there are so many ways for your operation to be, well, the exact opposite.

Entering 2019, there were more than 700,000 active podcasts available to download. That’s...a large number.

Your content calendar probably used to look a lot like this:

Organic post, organic post, organic post, maybe a paid advertisement or two. Match the copy to your brand voice, find the right visual, and move on to the next. But times have drastically changed.

Your product development team has put in the hours designing, testing, and producing new home decor items—now, as a marketing professional, it’s your turn! 

We came, we saw, and now we’re going to talk all about it.

We’ve talked a lot about brands and what they stand for this month, and we keep coming back to one important point: authenticity. 

What do you stand for?

Think back to the last small appliance you bought. Where did you “shop” for it (reviewing your options, checking different products and prices), and where did you end up buying it?

This is one of our favorite events of the year.

Our boots will be on the ground at Casual Market 2019, getting an up-close look at the latest and greatest styles and trends in the outdoor furnishings industry. To say that we’re excited to be in Chicago for this would be an understatement. 

“This is a fantastic week for many reasons,” says Jynne Harris, Kreber VP of Client Services. “We’re looking forward to seeing the great work from vendors and brands at Casual Market.”

Wait...why will Kreber be there?

Have you ever left an item in an online shopping cart, then been convinced to go through with the purchase based on the seller’s follow-up communication? I know I have—because the email either reminded me of an item that I didn’t complete the checkout process for or, more likely, gave me an incentive like free shipping or a discount. 

This is true for many others; in fact, cart abandonment emails have a greater than 10% purchase rate according to Campaign Monitor. We covered the reasons why it’s crucial to have a strategy in place in part I of our Abandoned Cart Email Strategy series. In this follow-up post, we’ll take a look at some examples to break down what works, what doesn’t, and what other incentives you might encounter during the online browsing process.

After the U.S. Women’s National Team won the 2019 World Cup, Nike did this:

If you’ve ever been a kid with a dream (or, ahem, a curly-haired little soccer player with a poster of Michelle Akers on her wall), that spot is a tearjerker. We were all riding high after that win—despite the controversy over goals scored, celebration moves, and the ongoing fight for pay equality—no brand more so than Nike, the reigning champ of provocative sports advertising.

We know Nike, as a top-tier brand, is more than just a company that sells shoes and clothes. It represents everything (or most things!) sports and exercise, innovation, and motivation. Sure, it’s one of the world’s most recognizable brands, but don’t get it twisted: no one is immune to changing tastes and competitive ankle-biting.

Double tap. Like. Love. Call it whatever you want.

The heart icon, located to the bottom left of every Instagram photo you’ve ever scrolled past, is just sitting there calling your name. It’s the beacon of hope that validates our decision to share our lives with our friends, and a confirmation that we are innately interesting.

If you’ve ever shopped online, you’ve probably received several (but more likely hundreds) of abandoned cart emails. You know, a friendly reminder that you’ve left an item in your online shopping cart and just maybe, if you’re lucky, a little incentive to go through with the purchase.

Would it shock you to know that not every retailer has an abandoned cart email strategy in place? Because it’s true (more on that in part II). 

You’re used to hearing that it’s the “holiday shopping season.”

And you know when “back-to-school shopping” is coming up. 

We’re conditioned to be mindful of the major shopping dates on the calendar, which only further increases the hype – and the pressure on brands and retailers to make sure they have better deals than their competitors. And as we’re now approaching the peak of appliance shopping season (yes, it’s a real thing) in September and October, we’ve covered in this series’ first two blogs both the trends and approaches we’ve seen from major brands, and taken a deeper dive at two of the biggest names in the game.

When it comes to small appliances, there are gadgets and gizmos aplenty (to quote The Little Mermaid), but shoppers are smart about what products they let become a part of their world (c’mon, I had to).

Trends have always been a big way to engage and convert customers. From new sofa styles to sports shoe innovations, trends hit that “I want it, even if I don’t absolutely need it right now” feeling that drives so much discretionary spending for customers.

Washers to the left. Dryers to the right.

If you’re not prepared to go appliance shopping...

You might be out all night.

For many consumers, appliance shopping is their least favorite kind of shopping.

And it’s not too difficult to understand why.

Shopping for the upcoming school year is now in session—and customers are expected to spend more than ever on both back-to-school and back-to-campus supplies, apparel, and accessories.

Prime Day 2019 has come and gone.

The early returns are, as you’d expect, even bigger and eye-popping than they were a year ago. While the financials aren’t yet official, Amazon said it shattered previous Prime Day records this year; more than 175 million products were sold (via Yahoo! Finance) and sales surpassed Cyber Monday and Black Friday...combined.

An email dings your inbox. The ask? Your boss wants you to lead the charge on a new back-to-school campaign. It needs to be “fresh and poppy,” have Gen Z appeal, and increase sales by 5%. It also must produce enough video and photography content for seamless marketing across dozens of channels, all while keeping customers engaged and your boss beaming.

You? Overwhelmed. How will you accomplish this Herculean task? What creative approach should your agency take—and how will you direct it?

Remember when we all went back-to-school shopping?

It was, at best, a bittersweet endeavor. 

On one hand, it basically meant that summer was over. Once the calendar hit August, we groaned as we embarked on the slow march toward the first day of school—which would be briefly interrupted by a little slice of retail euphoria. Get in the car, kids, we’re getting everything you need for the new school year and we’re going to do it in like, four hours. Our parents truly loved us, didn’t they?

I’ll just get right to it: if your B2B website leads with your products, you’re doing it wrong.

“But we have the best products!” you say. “We manufacture them in the U.S.!” “Our R&D is second to none!” I hear you, and that’s all still important. But a lot of your competitors claim the same things. And no matter how flawless your SEO, your competitors are also being found for the same things. So why should a prospect choose you?

To start our discussion about chatbots, we’d like to welcome you to the fictional (unfortunately) Kreber Candy Co. You’ll just have to trust us on this. It’s a wonderful place.

Content marketing is all about building trust.

In the B2B world, there’s a lot for you to deal with. You’re responsible for driving awareness of your brand. You’re tasked with acquiring quality sales leads that develop into long-term business relationships, and perhaps most importantly, you have to strike a balance between creativity in marketing and delivering results.  

It’s a slippery slope: As a retailer, media figure, or just a person with a social media account, you want to say something compelling and stand for something, but...you also don’t want to paint yourself into a box and only be about that one thing, especially as times and tastes change.

To not only survive—but thrive!—in today’s competitive retail environment, we were reminded at the CBUS19 retail conference that you have to (first) know who you are, so you can (second) do brave things that others can’t.

Set an alarm.

Check the weather.

Send a text.

A few years ago, these were (most likely) regular daily tasks with a better-than-decent chance that you wrote them on a sticky note or put each as a reminder in your phone. While those list-making and task-completing practices are still prevalent in 2019, there’s another fast-emerging trend that we need to watch.

The dreaded corporate silos. They don’t just lead to miscommunication. They lead to disjointed branding across all your channels. And you better believe your customers notice.

If you’ve ever wondered if your day-to-day work has real relevance to what’s going on in the retail industry at-large—you must seek professional help. No, not therapists and doctors (hopefully not!), but the professional kind we got this week at the #CBUS19 retail conference. 

In part one of this series, Why so Many B2B Websites Suffer, we discussed the myriad reasons B2B websites can turn out...less than ideal. In this follow up, we’ll get into a few of the best practices you can adopt to start seeing results and achieving business goals with your site.

Let’s start this blog with a little history lesson.

*opens textbook*

Ah, yes. Amazon Prime Day.

When you Google a brand’s local affiliates, you usually get what’s known in the SEO world as the Local Pack, one of the many features you can find in Google’s search engine results pages. When searching for “Harley dealers near me,” my Local Pack looks like this:

Every year, marketers are bombarded with new marketing terms that promise to lead them to the hottest trends and fastest results. That’s how words like “disruption,” “growth hacking,” and “actionable insights” become as oft-used as “low-hanging fruit” and “let’s take this offline.” But do they really mean anything?

I spend lots of time thinking about (and shopping in!) unique store concepts. I’m always on the lookout for that one new idea or spin on the traditional brick-and-mortar concept that feels fresh, new, and right for our increasingly ecommerce-driven world.

What’s the first thing you do when you hear about an interesting new brand or business? Google the website, obviously.

Of course, that’s exactly what your business’s prospective buyers are doing, too. Which leads to our next question: What is their experience gonna be like when they get there?

Joker here with another edition of our Content Studio series, though I’m sad to say that this is the finale. The one part to rule them all. As a refresher, let’s revisit how we got here…

Picture this scene: You’ve come up with the perfect blog post topic or idea for a new addition to your website. So you sit down at the computer and start writing. And before you know it, you’ve been on a typing rampage for an hour and the piece is complete. But you’re probably missing one thing…

Are you sure this is what your audience wants to read? And if so, how are they going to get there?

B2B Client: “Social media really isn’t for brands like ours.”

Me: “Hmm, why do you think that?”

B2B Client: “No one follows us but people who already know us. Our business is kinda boring. And we really don’t have the staff to manage it.”

News flash! Consumers are convenience-hungry and time-poor. But you already knew that. The good news for consumers is that retailers have taken note, too. And now, these pain points have given way to a “micro-trip friendly environment,” another new facet of the modern hybrid shopping experience.

Amazon’s investment in Whole Foods was a signal to the rest of the grocery industry—the times are changing. We’re at a period of time when it seems as though no big-name retailer is safe from Death By Amazon, but rather than take a back seat, grocery chains are in a position to grab the wheel. For starters: their inherent knowledge of the industry is a big-time advantage.

Hudson Yards, a brand-new $25 billion development, officially opened about a month ago on the west side of Manhattan. It’s a spectacle—but you may be shocked at how old-school the shopping experience is.

The digitized age of hybrid shopping experiences has created hyper-informed consumers who insist retailers win their hearts before they hand over their dough. Fair enough, but how can retailers stand out in a saturated market—especially when consumers have the world at their fingertips?

There are literally over 3 billion internet searches happening every single day. Do you know how to make your content stand out from the rest in organic search results?

Who still loves shopping at Costco? 🙋

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is back with Part III of the Content Studio series. I know, you’ve all been waiting anxiously on pins and needles to read and learn more, right? OK, OK… I’ll stop.

Amazon closed out 2018 with a whopping $232.9 billion in revenue, and by 2023, the ecomm T-rex is projected to rake in $38 billion in ad revenue alone. So. Many. Billions.

“Marketing to end users isn’t part of our strategy right now.”

“I have bigger fish to fry internally before I think about consumers.”

“If we focus on consumers, we’ll lose sight of our channel partners.”

“Our budgets aren’t big enough to reach end users.”

We’ve heard all of the above, and, with all due respect, we disagree.

It may seem like retailers have limited options, if they want to succeed in today’s wacky brick-and-mortar store environment.

Here's a familiar situation: You're eyeing something interesting online that you might want to buy, so you sign up for the email newsletter—something that might just offer a discount code or special access to a sale. After you click “submit,” the anticipation grows.

Imagine life without a kitchen or bathroom…not a pretty sight, is it? These vital parts of the home are often taken for granted, but not at KBIS! Here’s what you need to know about the role of this massive industry in the marketplace—and in our lives as consumers (and marketers).

Through-channel marketing strategies can make or break a business that depends on dealer or store traffic for sales. Get the marketing mix right, and all of your metrics—Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), sales, customer engagement, and more—will rise. Choose the wrong mix—or neglect crucial channels—and your numbers will flatline. 

Last week, industry professionals, builders, and designers from all over the world flocked to Las Vegas, Nevada, to spend three crazy days at a sprawling convention center, fighting the snow and fighting for outlets to discover what’s hot in kitchen and bath trends this year.

In Part I of this series, we introduced the concept of a Content Studio to tackle the challenges brands and companies face every day—especially with content’s chokehold on resources and budgets. This nimble, more strategically creative team structure produces impactful channel content (paid and owned) on budget, on time, on strategy, and on demand.

Inbound marketing is all about nurturing customers who aren’t immediately ready to buy, so why wouldn’t an ecommerce company take advantage of this? Well, it’s easy to overlook—and also easy to miss the mark. We’ve already established three reasons why inbound marketing is crucial for ecomm, and now we’ll explore how to make the most of it: by focusing on shopper intent.

The red and pink candy, hearts, and flowers have exploded in stores and on sites across the country, and retailers are in the mood for l-o-v-e. The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects it to be a record year for Valentine’s Day shopping, with more than $20 billion being spent on everything from cards to clothing.

Was your last product launch a success? Not really sure? You’re not alone. Hubspot’s 2017 State of Inbound Survey showed that 40% of businesses don’t know how to prove the ROI of their marketing activities. And if you don’t know how to determine your ROI, it’s hard to say whether your product launch was a success or failure. Without being able to prove your success, you’ll have a harder time asking for a bigger budget for next year’s marketing activities.

It’s a classic battle: art versus commerce, editorial versus advertising, journalism versus sales—and it continues to play out in new, super-interesting, slightly frustrating ways all across the media and marketing landscape. Buckle up, baby!

With the boom of online retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, the ecommerce landscape has grown exponentially over the past few years. And in order to keep up with the big-box stores, smaller online retailers need to find a way to disrupt and cut through the clutter. Here’s where inbound marketing can make or break your brand.

Subscription boxes have crossed the chasm. What seems like just a few months ago, Gen Z consumers began flocking to services that deliver ready-to-cook meals, fashionable wardrobe updates, and a month’s supply of pet food to their doorsteps on a day or two’s notice. And again next month, and the month after that.

“It’s September, and we don’t have a style guide for Holiday. We’re making it up as we go.”

“We’re having challenges getting our brand campaign faithfully executed by our internal creative team and agency partners.”

“We need more events, beyond the retail holidays, to get customers excited about coming into our stores.”

“We need more assets so we can allocate more of our print budget to the digital space.”

“We want our marketing team to work further ahead so we can guarantee a 360-degree experience.”

Whoa. That’s a lot of really big challenges. Any of them sound familiar? Most retailers—indeed most marketers—have experienced these issues. And they all share one thing in common: an urgent need to plan ahead.

Does this conversation sound familiar?

“Hey Bob, have we implemented marketing automation yet?”

“Do you mean Salesforce?”

“Well, Salesforce can be part of it, but I mean the software that automatically sends out our content?”

“What content?”

Lately, we've seen a lot of our clients struggle with similar problems: a demand for more output on a smaller budget (with a smaller team), how to manage and anticipate emerging competition, and how to stand out in a noisy, crowded marketplace. And while our experience solving these problems with proven tactics is invaluable, we're always looking for creative new ways to help our clients be more successful. At the end of the day, that's the only reason agencies are in business!

But you don't have to leave creative problem-solving to your agency partners. If the "old ways" aren't working anymore (and they probably aren't), break the cycle of complacency once and for all with a method that will push you and your team to dig deeper and generate the innovations your customers want.

.Com…
Ecommerce…
Email…
Facebook…
Twitter…
Instagram…
YouTube…
Snapchat…
Etc…
Etc…
Etc…

2018 was a pretty big year. Yodeling made a comeback, a star was (re)born, and so was another royal baby. Oh, and a ton of cool stuff happened in the world of photography, too. We thought we’d use the most wonderful time of the year to showcase some of our favorite, high-impact visual trends.

We’ve talked a lot about the complicated business of through-channel marketing—including how to be a better partner to your sellers and how to successfully launch a product through your channel. Amid our research, one dark cloud continues to loom: the possibility of channel extinction.

Are you doing all you can to support your upcoming product launch? Have previous launches fallen flat?

Are you underwhelmed, disappointed, or frustrated with lackluster creative work, but unsure what, exactly, is missing? It’s time to spice things up and reach (nay, exceed) your marketing goals. Here’s a method to idea generation that, when leveraged with a solid agency partnership, can deliver the results and exponential growth you want.

When you consider B2B and inbound marketing, it’s easy to think that content production platforms like blogs and social media don’t work, or that they’re best for brands and companies selling straight to the consumer.

As the buyer experience has evolved and instant technology is all around us, incorporating the inbound methodology into your overall B2B marketing strategy is not only important—it’s essential. 

Two steps into Muji, and you’re somehow a world away from everything. 

The honking horns and bustling shopping traffic in Soho dissipates. The delightful but seedy sway of Hollywood Boulevard loosens its grip on you a bit.

You relax. For a second, you even might forget where you are.

If you rely on a channel partner—a brick-and-mortar store, a dealership, a distributor, or an independent sales force—to sell your products or services, you already know that disruption is headed your way. We’re witnessing unprecedented changes across industries, including the purchase of auto dealerships by billion-dollar private equity firms. Remember how taxi companies never saw Uber coming? 

There are hundreds of pages of circulars, thousands of items, and millions in sales to be made this Black Friday. With the prospect of a positive holiday shopping season ahead (consumers are ready to spend more than $1000 each!), ‘tis the season for retailers to go all out to get you in-store and to shop online this Black Friday.

It’s perhaps the most common conversation I have with prospective clients, and it goes something like this: Tim, I really need to communicate with potential new customers, but I don’t have a database list to send to. Where’s the best place to buy a list? Oh, and by the way, I need it fast and I don’t have much budget to work with.

As I interrupt the question, I respond that there is no place to safely buy/rent/gather/assemble a safe email list at any price. A look of despair ensues. 

Huh?

I repeat: There is no place to safely buy/rent/gather/assemble an email list at any price.

We all get blocked sometimes. More specifically, creatively blocked. And it feels like the more we fight it, the more frustrated we become—especially when we’re juggling a million and one items on our to-do list (and they’re all due yesterday).

So why keep struggling when you can save time, talent and even money…AND get better results?

The demise of Toys ‘R’ Us earlier this year means there’s about $2 billion in toy sales on the table this holiday season for other retailers to snatch up.

Always ones to maximize opportunities, the remaining toy destinations, like Walmart, Target, and Amazon, are working overtime to fill that void in the market. Even grocery players like Kroger are getting into the game! For all of them, scooping up more of your toy purchases this November and December is anything BUT playtime.

First, some perspective.

Want more authentic results from your photo shoot? There’s a secret to creating more intentional photography, and it has nothing to do with how you plan or produce the actual shoot (that’s logistics—which is an art in and of itself).

The acronyms have evolved, and you should too.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know how drastically our buying habits have changed. We all shop like consumers now, so the lines between consumer and business buying have blurred considerably. Still, the old acronyms were useful in helping us categorize communications…except that they never did much to help us understand the people in the second part of the equation.

We don’t just create work for some of America’s most beloved retailers and manufacturers—we’re consumers, too! Just like customers around the country, we love content that catches our eye, makes us want to know more, makes us laugh, and maybe even pulls at our heartstrings a little.

Here’s a look at some broadcast spots and videos some members of our stellar account team can’t stop thinking about. Some are recent, some are older—all are ones we only wish we’d done ourselves!

Think retail is dead? Think again!

Online sales strategies and tactics get a lot of attention these days, but let’s not forget the fact that about 90% of retail activity still happens in-store. The switch to an ecomm sales environment (and world!) has been hugely disruptive, and traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are still finding their way. This makes it the perfect time, then, for Amazon to innovate in a new territory—they’re going offline and into traditional store formats.

The phrase “retail apocalypse” gets thrown around a lot, with a sense of breathless intensity and finality—like the doors are shut and the tumbleweeds are already rolling at local malls and outdoor shopping districts around the country. While store-based retail has definitely seen brighter days, we're not quite ready to put the final nail in brick-and-mortar’s coffin.

Early in my career, I had a boss named Audrey who was famous for saying, “If you didn’t measure it, it didn’t happen.”

As marketers, measuring and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is in our DNA. It's easy to see why, because we're continually asked to prove our worth: "Show me the spend, show me the time, show me the value."

Their tricks, your treats. Here's our round-up of who’s going hard (and who should go home) to get more of your Halloween spending this year.

Doug Stephens, “The Retail Prophet” and internationally recognized consumer futurist, started his keynote presentation at High Point Market on Sunday by depressing his audience with the statistic that 8,643 retail stores closed in 2018, and 10,000 more are projected to fail in 2019.

His news got worse.

The hottest seat on Sunday morning at Market (after the earlier WithIt Breakfast, which this year featured Erin and Ben Napier of HGTV’s “Home Town”—see our tweet!) is in the Retail Resource Center Seminar Room, Plaza Suites, where industry leaders gather at 9:00am to hear Jerry Epperson’s incomparable perspective on “The State of the Industry.”

It’s been an insider’s industry tradition for over 25 years, because when it comes to forecasting the future of furniture, Jerry is even more accurate than a psychic. Put this event on your calendar for the Spring 2019 Market—now! 

Is every minute on the ground in High Point during the October International Home Furnishings Market scheduled as tight as your jeans the day after Thanksgiving? Contacts to meet in real life, collections to preview, contracts to sign, and after-hours parties to let off steam make it tough to squeeze in anything more. 

If you can find time to sneak away to learn the latest in industry trends and technology, there are definitely some highlights we want to point out. Consider it an investment in staying relevant and making your colleagues think you are smarter than them.

"Do more with less." It's not just a polite request—it's expected from everyone, all the time. Consequently, we all have a slash-this and slash-that in our job titles. Which means that no matter your background, if you’re in marketing, you’ll be asked to assign, comment on, and approve creative work at some point. 

When presenting creative to our client partners, we often hear the following questions from them: What am I looking at? What should I react to? What kind of feedback are you looking for?

If those questions sound familiar, follow our five rules to get the best creative work from your partners and team—without spending a ton of time on back-and-forth emails or rounds of revisions. (Fortunately, a degree in graphic design, fine art, or creative writing is not required.)

A huge piece of the inbound marketing puzzle is the buyer persona. Inbound is all about delivering the right type of content to the right people at the right time—but according to the  Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), only 44% of B2B marketers use buyer personas.

We no longer have to rely on sending one message to one giant group of people and hoping our target audience sees it. We now have the power to personalize the content we create and decide when, where, and who to show it to.

Gaining insights about consumers when it comes to B2B marketing can prove to be quite difficult—but the effort will pay off more and more as you begin to fully understand your buyers.

A brand new generation (Gen Z!) and a good bit of swirling social pressure to have Insta-worthy selfies and dorm rooms means the back-to-college shopping season is a perfect storm for a range of retailers.

First, let’s let the math tell the story.

Boston has been good to us this week. The people, energy, lessons, and inspiration at INBOUND 2018 have been nothing short of amazing.

We’ve learned more about content, data, segmentation, growth models, and KPIs than we possibly could have imagined. It’s been exhilarating—and exhausting—and there’s more to come in the weeks ahead about what we learned.

But for now, one presentation from HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah unveiling The Customer Code stands out and, in my opinion, should change the way many of us think about our businesses.

A few months ago, I was up to my eyeballs in a demanding project for a historic retailer. I was pouring myself into it, staying up late, bringing my kids to after-hours meetings, racing to meet weekly deadlines—and honestly, I figured I was failing.

There are a lot of claims floating around the internet about an 8-second attention span. While many studies have been legitimate, BBC News reports it’s a bit more complicated than establishing a hard and fast “average attention span”—and it’s actually task-dependent.

That said, we do know this: Our attention spans are relatively short.

And, they’re extremely short when it comes to digital. If we don’t see what we want, we close windows and choose another result until we find exactly what we’re looking for. So how can you grab your audience’s attention?

The release of the annual IKEA catalog is a mini-event, if only for the fact that it's rare for a retailer to release and mail out 288 pages of anything these days.

As retail marketers, it’s a book we refer back to throughout the year for insights. As shoppers, it’s one we keep around to spark ideas for our own spaces.

With the 2019 catalog's release in August, we wanted to take a closer look and see how IKEA translates the catalog experience for in-store shoppers. We found five simple, interesting, and thoughtful ways the catalog comes to life in-store—tactics you also may want to take note of and refer back to this year.

If you’re familiar with inbound marketing, then you probably have a general idea of what SEO (search engine optimization) is all about. If you’re not sure what SEO is—you’ve got some work to do! This post covers the basics and explains why it's so important to incorporate SEO into your inbound marketing strategy.

Over the years, photographers have perfected the art studio lighting. They work in traditional, light-controlled studios with various combinations of continuous and strobe lighting, bouncing in backfill to create the perfect highlights, shadows, softness and drama. It's a process of adding light in a controlled way to achieve a natural look.

Increasingly though, creative directors and photographers have started to ask why we go to the effort to recreate natural light instead of simply using natural light?

Once only synonymous with a certain friendly ghost, Casper is now a $300M sleep and wellness wunderkind that haunts big retailers and mattress manufacturers alike. 

Casper’s success was built on an online model, but now it's coming for you IRL—with the recent introduction of brick-and-mortar stores this year.

In today’s world where content is king, there are countless ways to define what the word content means. And, it’s possible you’ve heard some form of “we need content, and we need it now!” before.