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COMING AT YOU THE WEEK OF 4.26.22

This week’s most important Marketing News
 

​​TWITTER HAS ACCEPTED ELON MUSK’S $44 BILLION TO BUY THEIR COMPANY

Here’s a quick recap with the latest news.

  • April 4: Elon Musk buys 9.2% of Twitter shares (so he has more shares than anyone else)
  • April 5: Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, says Elon will join their company’s board
  • April 10: Parag announces Elon will not be joining the board
  • April 14: Elon announces he made an offer to buy Twitter
  • April 15: Twitter adopts a “poison pill” which lets shareholders buy more shares at a nice discount. This makes it a lot pricier for Elon to buy Twitter.
  • April 25: Twitter announces that they accepted Elon’s $44 billion offer

Twitter wasn’t thrilled about letting Elon buy the company. But ultimately, they accepted his offer.

As a reminder, Elon says this purchase is about free speech. He said:

“Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square. So it’s just really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they’re able to speak freely within the bounds of the law.”

We’re all intrigued to see Twitter’s future. Some people feel that less restrictions on content will encourage more diverse opinions, while others fear that less moderation will allow more misinformation.

Us marketing-minded people are curious about Twitter’s advertising future as well. Some don’t like the idea of advertising on a platform that doesn’t have as many moderation filters (think: more hate speech). Others might be excited to see some advertising changes to a platform who’s notorious for crappy ROAS (return on ad spend).

NETFLIX MIGHT ADOPT ADS

Last week, Netflix reported a loss of 200,000 subscriptions (the first decrease in about 10 years). In response, their CEO mentioned:

“One way to increase the price spread is advertising on low end plans.”

So we might get to advertise on Netflix, which is a marketing win. On the other hand, us cheapskates will have to watch ads on our favorite streaming platform. 🙃

INSTAGRAM IS MAKING CHANGES TO FAVOR ORIGINAL POSTS

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said,

“One of the things I’ve learned from speaking with creators is how important getting credit for their work is to them. So…we’re going to make sure that credit is going to those who deserve it.”

Here’s how: (1) home feed ranking change, (2) product tags, and (3) enhanced people tags.

GOOGLE TESTS NEW FEATURED SNIPPETS: ‘FROM THE WEB’ AND ‘OTHER SITES SAY’

Here are examples:

MARKETERS ARE NOTICING RANKING CHANGES APRIL 20-21

If you had search rankings shake up April 20-21, you’re not alone. But this isn’t an official Google algorithm. Although tons of unofficial updates roll out each year.


GOOGLE INTRODUCES SPAMBRAIN

Since 2018, Google has used AI to identify and prevent spam content. Google just announced the system’s name, SpamBrain, and some stats about its performance. Like, how it’s helped them achieve 99% “spam free” search results.


THE NEW SOCIAL APP, BEREAL, IS GROWING

Remember this app, BeReal, that gives you a random, short timeframe to post each day? Well, its design to encourage authentic posts must resonate because people are downloading it.

 

RESOURCES

📫 I liked this guide for writing email subject lines. They point out lessons I’ve learned on my email journey, like how you should leverage curiosity in subject lines and keep them short enough to be read on mobile (40 characters or less). They also give a bunch of examples, and we all know examples are very helpful.

📄 Have you checked out The Sample? You might be here reading this newsletter because, like my mom, you love me (love you too, Mom). But odds are, you’re here because you appreciate good content and the newsletter format. And in that case, you might like this resource: The Sample. They send you personalized recommendations to newsletters. It’s an easy way to find great content around topics you care about.

👩‍🎨 Dear Canva, bless you. Recently, I got logged out of Canva Pro and didn’t have access to the color palette feature where our Highrise brand colors are saved. It reminded me how small annoyances are the ones that make you cry on a bad day. Anyway, this is a thank you to Canva for letting me make designs I actually like without making me cry 🙏🏻. (It’s the little things.)

6 TYPES OF MARKETING YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Today I’ve got definitions for six types of marketing. This can teach you terms that many marketers wish they’d learned earlier.

But even if you’re very familiar with these, remember that going back to the basics is an effective way to spark creativity and innovation. Give these a glance if you need some fresh thinking for your current marketing efforts.

  1. B2B marketing
  2. B2C marketing
  3. Inbound marketing
  4. Outbound marketing
  5. Affiliate marketing
  6. Guerrilla marketing

B2B marketing

This stands for business to business marketing, where the purchasing power lies with a company instead of a consumer.

Example: A LinkedIn advertising campaign that targets data analysts.

👉 Our example illustrates that even when you’re marketing to “businesses,” you’re still marketing to people.

B2C marketing

This stands for business to customer marketing, and it’s the kind of marketing people encounter on the daily. While B2B marketing aims to convince companies to buy their product, B2C marketing targets individuals.

Examples

  • Burt’s Bees shows you an Instagram ad for chapstick
  • Nike sends you an email with a 10% off coupon

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing uses content to build relationships and gain customers.

Example: Riverside Bank builds a blog full of finance tips, and they plan local “How to Start a Budget” workshops. When people learn from their blog and workshops, they gain trust in the bank. And when the time comes they think, “Hey I need a new savings account. I think I’ll get one with Riverside Bank.”

Outbound marketing

Outbound strategies often throw out a wide net to a large audience, hoping for some people to choose them. This is often the kind of marketing that interrupts annoys people.

Examples

  • TV ads
  • Billboards
  • Cold emails
  • Those ads that crowd cooking blogs, making it impossible to read the lasagna recipe you came for

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate strategies recruit website publishers to recommend their products and link to them. Then, it provides a small compensation in return for the business the ambassador brings. It’s often successful because it’s mutually beneficial for the companies and ambassadors.

Example: Fitness Clothing Co. reaches out to Alex, who runs a blog of health tips for college peeps. Alex tells his readers why Fitness Clothing Co.’s leggings are the best and links to them. People trust Alex, so they buy some of those leggings.

Then, the brand sees how many people bought their clothes thanks to Alex and they give them a cut of the earnings.

 

 

Guerilla marketing

This title comes from guerrilla warfare which used limited resources to fight using nontraditional and gritty tactics. Guerrilla marketing strategies are also characterized by being creative, less-expensive, and focused on big exposure. They’re often connected to events and experiences.

Example: Deadpool marketers set up a Tinder profile for the anti-hero before the movie hit theaters.

 

INTERESTING STUFF

🥸 This list of misconceptions is fascinating. Like how the black belt isn’t a sign of top-level mastery for martial arts! Or how “funnest” is a real word. OR how the novel Frankenstein is named after the doctor, Victor Frankenstein, not the monster he creates.


👰‍♀️🤵 Some people are having metaverse weddings now. After reading that article from The Morning Brew, I can picture people paying for weird—but coveted—wedding attire and branded virtual food. It’s bizarre and interesting to think of what events like this could look like.

LET’S GET VISUAL

Google is the new homepage