Category: Marketing Automation

Few industries escaped 2020 unchanged, and digital media was no different.
At Influence & Co., our proprietary content marketing software and our process of working with hundreds of contributors, editors, and journalists offered us courtside seats to watch the industry evolve — and we compiled our most relevant digital media research for marketers and content creators into our latest “State of Digital Media” report.
Wondering how to make guest posts stand out? Our third digital media survey combines the opinions of experts with our own exhaustive content analysis, and the result is a tool that can be used to hone your content in order to gain more success in 2021.
One of the biggest findings? Guest-contributed content isn’t going anywhere. In fact, 93% of editors see themselves publishing the same number of guest posts or even more this year.
An increase in guest-contributed content is good news for prospective contributors. But just because more guest post slots are becoming available doesn’t mean guest contributors can afford to send lackluster pitches.
Publication editors haven’t lowered their standards and aren’t likely to, so read on to find out what publications want so you can give your pitches the best shot at hitting the mark and achieving acceptance.
(Note: All of the following statistics are taken from our 2021 State of Digital Media report.)

How to Make Guest Posts Stand Out
The publication editors we surveyed receive pitches day in and day out. Although they might sometimes wish for one, there’s no “unsubscribe” button they can hit to pare down this deluge of requests. That constant barrage on publication editors’ inboxes is why it’s critical to make sure your content is worth reading.
For a guest post to break through the noise, it needs to check these four boxes:
1. A pitch that is on-topic and non-promotional.
Editors receive lots of pitches that are little more than subtle ads — or, in some cases, not so subtle — for an author’s product or service.
Other pitches avoid promotion, which is great, but they also fail to fit the scope of the publication. Or the pitch might offer an opinion or perspective that readers could get from a host of other outlets.
Perhaps the best thing you can do to get an editor’s attention is to write a balanced pitch that’s on-topic, non-promotional, and fresh. And be mindful of how many other pitches editors work through each day. The path to an editor’s heart is short, so keep your pitch brief.
“I’m more likely to read a pitch on a strong topic that is pertinent to our audience and is not blatantly self-serving.” — Paul Nolan, Editor at Sales & Marketing Management
“I’m more likely to read a pitch if it’s clear that the person knows what I cover, reads our publication, and has relevant and high-level executives who are willing to chat on record.” — Allison Schiff, Senior Editor at AdExchanger
2. Multimedia content.
Given that 20% of editors are looking to publish podcasts in 2021, it could be worth pitching yourself as a potential podcast guest for publications that have podcasts. If you go this route, include any experience you might have that demonstrates your ability to hold up your end of a compelling and insightful conversation.
Another 20% of editors plan to publish infographics, so make sure you have that graphic designer on speed dial. And 33% will make space for videos, so start building a library of video assets that could help fulfill this need.
3. Expert opinions with fresh perspectives.
The articles you submit to publications need to push ahead of trends, and you should be able to speak with authority on cutting-edge insights in your industry. In terms of content, if a trend is already being covered by some media outlets, you’re probably too late to the party.
For your pitch about a much-discussed topic to have even a slim chance of acceptance, you’ll need to offer a unique opinion or insight that readers won’t find anywhere else.
“Guest posts must be ahead of the trends. By the time we get article offers on a hot topic, we have already known about that topic and published articles on it.” — Jim Davis, Editor at HR Daily Advisor
4. A “Goldilocks” word count.
We analyzed thousands of pieces of content published during the second half of 2020 and found that the most-shared content was an average of 986 words long. This represents an increase from previous years.
It’s always imperative to follow the guidelines of the specific publication you’re targeting, but if there’s any wiggle room in terms of word count, landing in the 900- to 1,000-word range can help you create shareable content — which is a result all editors and contributors want.
Guest posting is an incredible opportunity to gain exposure, boost your credibility, and speak directly to your ideal audience, but editors are understandably protective of their publications when they’re handing the mic to a stranger.
To improve the likelihood that your pitch is accepted, you need to know how the digital media industry is changing, and what publishers want. Hopefully, the four steps identified above will help get you started.

It can be difficult (if not impossible) to create a brand that remains fresh, relevant, and inspiring years — or even decades — post-creation.
Just consider Dunkin’ Donuts: the brand, first established in 1973, recently shifted its focus to coffee — and, to demonstrate the shift, dropped the ‘Donuts’ in the name.
The rebrand makes sense. Dunkin’s consumers’ preferences, tastes, and style have likely changed quite a bit in the roughly 50 years since the first Dunkin’ was introduced. Dunkin’ needed a rebrand to ensure its business could grow with its consumers, or risk falling behind.
A rebrand can successfully re-establish your brand in an industry, help expand your product offerings, or attract new consumers. But it’s not as simple as copying-and-pasting a fresh logo onto your homepage.
A good rebrand demands redefining your company’s vision and values, re-establishing your brand’s audience, and rebuilding your brand identity from the ground up.
Fortunately, if your business is considering a rebrand, you’re in luck. Here, we’ve compiled five successful examples of rebrands to help inspire your own efforts. Use these examples to kickstart your own rebrand in 2021.

Five Successful Examples of Rebrands
1. Petco

In October 2020, Petco released an announcement declaring it would no longer sell electronic “shock” collars. The announcement was used to highlight the company’s rebranding efforts — the pet store, which is over 50 years old, was officially rebranding itself as a health and wellness company for pets.
The pet store redesigned Petco’s homepage, as well as the Petco app, to focus on their new initiatives — including health and wellness resources for pet parents, a “Right Food Finder” tool to help parents identify the healthiest foods for their pets, and an extended range of pet healthcare and insurance offerings.
The company also redesigned their logo, opting for a simple blue-and-white design over their previously-signature red and blue cat and dog (to mixed reviews).
Nowadays, many American pet owners treat their animals as members of the family — so Petco’s rebranding makes a lot of sense. The company aims to use the new branding to re-establish itself as the leading health and wellness brand for animals.
The new design better reflects the brand’s more holistic approach to animal wellness — including a dedicated landing page that outlines how to take care of your pet’s mental, physical, and social health, with a tagline, “We’re working with trusted experts to improve pet wellbeing by raising the standards of everything we do. Because it’s what we’d want if we were pets.”
Overall, this was an extremely successful rebrand as it focused on a shift in consumers’ lifestyle and preferences, and ensured the company’s refreshed vision reflected those priorities.
2. Adobe Creative Cloud

In May 2020, Adobe released a blog post titled, simply, “Evolving Our Brand Identity”. The article dives into the decisions behind Adobe Creative Cloud’s rebranding, and states, “We’re making these branding changes to ensure our portfolio continues to be easy for our customers to navigate and understand, as well as maintain a fresh look and feel.”
Among other things, Adobe Creative Cloud redesigned:

Its company logo. The company redesigned the logo to an all-red logo with warmer hues.

Its Creative Cloud logo. The new logo uses a colorful, rainbow-esque gradient to represent “the importance of creativity”. The colors in the logo are pulled together from various Adobe products, as well as the new Adobe red logo.

Its product logos. The company is adding 3-letter mnemonics to help viewers determine product families — i.e. Adobe Photoshop (Ps) and Adobe Photoshop Camera (PsC). The designers also used colors to organize products into categories.

The corners of all logos. The corners are now rounded to fit across a variety of devices and operating systems.

These redesigns successfully highlighted and organized the many product offerings of Adobe Creative Cloud. For instance, when you navigate to the “Video” product page on Adobe’s website, you’ll see all apps within the Video category are similar shades of blues and purples.
While some designers have expressed frustration over the new logo color similarities, it makes sense that the brand felt it necessary to organize their products better — with a catalog of over 50 products, it can feel overwhelming to choose the right ones for your needs. The updated logos should help make it easier to pick-and-choose.
3. Starbucks 

Over the years, Starbucks — one of the most valuable brands in the world — has proven the true power of a good brand. And one of the telltale signs of a good brand is the ability to consistently innovate and push the boundaries, rather than settling for what’s already working.
In 2020, Starbucks released its “Starbucks Creative Expression” brand expression guide. Among other things, the site focuses on Starbucks’ defined voice, typography, and logo in an effort to create consistency across channels and Starbucks locations.
In a few words, Starbucks aims to create a brand that is open, creative, carefree, and modern. On the Voice page, for instance, it reads, “We’re confidently turning down the volume of competing messages to elevate experience, removing obstacles in the way of people finding exactly what they seek at Starbucks.”

“By using both functional and expressive voices, we’ll create more space for brand relevance, connection and joy.”

The guideline adds, “When we have the space, we tell a passionate coffee story. But even with just a few words, our copy can make you smile.”
Similarly, Starbucks recently rebranded its logo to the simple Siren logo without the “Starbucks Coffee” wordmark wrapped around it. The company notes, “The preferred approach is to use the Siren logo by itself, unlocked from the wordmark. This allows flexibility to present the Siren with greater prominence while maintaining a considered, open and modern presentation.”
Ultimately, this most recent Starbucks rebrand is simple and effective. Rather than moving too far in the opposite direction of the brand’s roots, the company sticks to its fundamental company vision while making slight alterations to continue serving the needs and preferences of its consumers.
4. GoDaddy 

A web hosting service founded back in 1997, GoDaddy was in need of an upgrade. In early 2020, they did just that, creating a brand-new logo, refreshing their website design, and creating new marketing campaigns to match the new look. Their design page reads, “A new brand for a new era” and focuses on how GoDaddy’s users — the everyday entrepreneurs — inspired the new look.
One of GoDaddy’s most striking changes is the new logo, named the GO. GoDaddy believes the GO represents “the indomitable spirit of everyday entrepreneurs … joy that entrepreneurs everywhere experience … and [a] continuous, overlapping stroke [which] symbolizes the connection all entrepreneurs share.”
GoDaddy’s new design uses bold, colorful visuals, hand-drawn illustrations, and a bold, serif font evokes a sense of inspiration and joy. GoDaddy’s brand voice, depicted in recent campaigns, aims to be casual, human, and friendly.
While some brands might need less of a full makeover, GoDaddy’s older image felt outdated and less cohesive. Their rebranding reflects the modern tastes, personalities, and needs of the GoDaddy’s user in 2020.
5. Pottery Barn

This last example is a subtler, more internal rebrand than the others in this list, but equally important. Pottery Barn, a roughly 70-year-old home furnishing company, has now put sustainability as the central focus of their brand, promising consumers that what they purchase will be worthwhile — both in terms of quality, and in terms of environmental impact.
Pottery Barn, named the most sustainable home furnishings retailer, has focused its efforts on sustainability with a dedicated landing page outlining its commitments.
Among other things, Pottery Barn promises to:

Plant a tree (with the Arbor Day Foundation) every time a consumer purchases a piece of indoor wood furniture.
Reach 100% responsibly-sourced cotton by the end of 2021.
Keep products out of landfills by restoring items with a new Pottery Barn “Renewed” line.
Contribute money for communities to invest in health clinics, water filtration systems, and more (the brand has currently contributed $3 million).

While this focus on sustainability isn’t brand-new for Pottery Barn, its recent efforts are more hyper-focused on it than ever. Consider, for instance, how this detailed Fast Company article about Pottery Barn’s style, published in 2003, doesn’t mention sustainability once.
The article also highlights how, more than 20 years ago, Pottery Barn used to purchase merchandise from outside vendors and assemble into a collection — this lack of ownership likely made it difficult to ensure sustainable products. Additionally, Pottery Barn announced its partnership with the Renewal Workshop in September 2020.
Ultimately, as your brand grows with your consumers, it’s important to take into account what matters to them today. Pottery Barn has done an excellent job identifying a sweet-spot in the furniture marketplace: Sustainability. As consumers continue to use this value as a guiding light in their purchasing decisions, it makes sense for Pottery Barn to ensure all their updated marketing materials reflects this mission.
Rebranding Takeaways for Marketers
When you take a look at the examples listed above, it can be easy to spot some similarities that made them all strong contenders for best rebrands. 
If you’re considering a rebrand for your own business, here are a few takeaways: 

Keep your audience at the forefront of your plans. What tastes and preferences do they have? What inspires or excites them? How would they want your website designed? 

Use your consumers’ outside preferences to shape your rebranding. What passions do your consumers have beyond your products or services, and what do they care most about — can you weave those into your brand story, similar to how Petco focused on animal wellness and Pottery Barn focused on sustainability? 

A rebrand is more than just a logo change. To properly rebrand, you’ll want to conduct a content audit and analyze all your existing content to ensure each webpage, graphic, and advertisement is updated to fit your new image. 

A brand guideline page is critical for cohesion. Most examples in this list have a dedicated brand guideline page for ensuring each employee is empowered with the right tools to create content that fits the new look. Both GoDaddy and Starbucks, for instance, outline how the voice should sound, what fonts to use, and even what colors to include in any public-facing marketing materials. 

Ultimately, a rebranding strategy can be an exciting and effective opportunity to delight existing customers while attracting new ones. Use the takeaways listed above, as well as inspiration from examples in this list, to get started with your own fresh look for 2021 and beyond.

submitted by /u/Parker_in_HK [link] [comments]

 

 

In particular, we have rolled out a couple of important improvements around email marketing and product recommendations and created new weekly and monthly reports making it even easier to stay on top of key information including revenue, campaign results, and changes in contacts databases.

 

Right now, we are running final tests on the most powerful dynamic segmentation tool on the market, namely Actionable eCommerce Insights. This AI-powered product for marketers offers tips and tricks about actions they should take to improve crucial marketing KPIs.

 

Our product strategy remains to deliver best-in-class and innovative solutions for online stores. As you know, last year ended with a number of strong new features including the Loyalty Management Program for eCommerce, Command Center, and AI Search Turbocharger for Online Store as well as the addition of Whatsapp and Viber to our AI-based omnichannel execution stack.

 

We are continuing this dynamic tech growth, and, in Q1, we have delivered two new exciting solutions: AI Visual Search and Voice Commerce.

 

AI Visual Search

 

 

This is an innovative tool, powered by Google’s AI Engine, that supports the standard operation of the online shop search box mechanism. Thanks to this feature, customers can upload a picture of something they like, and AI Visual Search will automatically display similar products that match the desired look and feel. It is a simple solution that improves customer experience and helps stores meet the most demanding expectations of the search function.  

.carousel {
padding: 0 30px;
}
.carousel-control.left,
.carousel-control.right {
background: transparent;
font-size: 50px;
height: fit-content;
width: fit-content;
color: #cdcbcd;
}

.carousel-control.left:hover {
opacity: 0.9;
}

.carousel-control.left:focus,
.carousel-control.left:active {
opacity: 0.5;
}

.carousel-control.right:hover {
opacity: 0.9;
}

.carousel-control.right:focus,
.carousel-control.right:active {
opacity: 0.5;
}

.item img {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}

.carousel-control {
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%);
}

.item {
min-height: 670px;
}

@media (max-width: 440px) {
.item {
min-height: 380px;
}
}

Previous

Next

 

Voice Commerce 

.carousel {
padding: 0 30px;
}
.carousel-control.left,
.carousel-control.right {
background: transparent;
font-size: 50px;
height: fit-content;
width: fit-content;
color: #cdcbcd;
}

.carousel-control.left:hover {
opacity: 0.9;
}

.carousel-control.left:focus,
.carousel-control.left:active {
opacity: 0.5;
}

.carousel-control.right:hover {
opacity: 0.9;
}

.carousel-control.right:focus,
.carousel-control.right:active {
opacity: 0.5;
}

.item img {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}

.carousel-control {
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%);
}

.item {
min-height: 470px;
}

@media (max-width: 440px) {
.item {
min-height: 280px;
}
}

Previous

Next

This is another exciting feature which connects CDP data, NLP, and AI product recommendations to deliver a next-gen mobile buying experience. One-click access to Voice Commerce enables users to search and purchase products quickly using vocal commands, and an advanced reporting and search analytics dashboard means its success can be measured.

 

We are currently working on further cutting-edge features. I am extremely proud of all of these developments, and their market launch is just around the corner.

 

 

Marketing Insights

 

In another innovation, this AI-powered tool includes actionable business insights to enable marketers to make informed and timely decisions about improving current marketing campaigns. Sophisticated tips and tricks are provided that contain information on what should be done to get the most out of SALESmanago and thereby boost revenue. 

 

Customer Segmentation Center 

 

The Segmentation Center is a new solution that includes simple, yet advanced, predefined dynamic market sectors and allows users to create custom contact groups to run focused marketing strategies. It is a single place where customer data can be managed, with extensive filters and advanced criteria to specify recipients according to context. It is a simply unbeatable feature, giving our customers unlimited segmentation possibilities, and it will become the best such module on the market. 

 

We aim to provide clients with the best, most innovative solutions to stay one step ahead of their competition. As such, we are renewing and enriching existing Web Push Notifications and agreement forms so their full potential can be utilized. After reviewing customer feedback and analyzing market solutions, we have developed a project to make web push campaigns more intuitive, easier, and quicker to implement. 

 

Given what we have achieved in the last three months, we would like to share some of the amazing projects coming next on our roadmap. 

 

One of these is the Notification Center, a state-of-the-art solution that allows personalized direct communication with customers through the website and displays products that perfectly match their interests and needs. We want to enrich the Notification Center with a Products Like mechanism which will let customers create a wish list, save their favorite products, and review them anytime. 

 

Another project we want to introduce is the Customer Preference Center. We want to continue meeting our clients’ expectations in line with the changing requirements and trends related to data ethics, and we believe that this feature will help them better understand their customers’ preferences. This Customer Preference Center will enable customers to manage their interests through personalization and purchase intentions. We are focused on zero-party data and the processes which will help enrich 360-degree customer profiles.  

 

“Zero-party data is gold…When a customer trusts a brand enough to provide this really meaningful data, it means that the brand doesn’t have to go off and infer what the customer wants.”

Fatemeh Khatibloo, VP Principal Analyst, Forrester

 

If you are reading this article as a SALESmanago customer, you will know that we like to surprise you, and we will share plans for additional features very soon. Please do not hesitate to contact me: katarzyna.rejdych@salesmanago.com

 

 

SALESmanago, one of the largest Customer Data & Marketing Automation Platform in Europe, has started a partnership with Google. The first initiative is the release of Cinderella AI – a search and recommendation tool for e-commerce. It was created on the basis of SALESmanago and Google AI Visual Search Engine solutions.

 

Cinderella AI is an innovative tool that allows you to search for products by using images. It uses Visual Products Search technology to significantly improve the shopping experience for customers. It’s a feature with huge business potential. According to Gartner, companies that decide to redesign their websites and adapt them to support Visual & Voice Search by 2021 will increase online sales revenue by 30%. It’s also a feature that consumers expect: according to SocialMediaToday, as many as 62% of millennials want to use visual search while shopping.

 

In order to create a tool based on the latest and most advanced technological solutions, SALESmanago decided to use Google AI Visual Search Engine – a visual search engine based on artificial intelligence. It allows to automatically display similar or matching products to previously selected or searched ones, reducing the time needed to make a purchase. Thanks to Cinderella AI, online stores can increase conversion rates and cart value by recommending products that match others, as well as conducting more personalized communication and better respond to customer needs – to generate recommendations can be used products available in the store and images selected by users. 

 

Operating in the martech market we observe the rapid emergence of new needs among our customers. They also expect them to be met immediately, so we have to quickly respond to such changes and constantly expand the range of available solutions. Thanks to the partnership with Google and the use of Google Visual AI tools we were able to quickly create a high-quality product that is already very popular with online stores around the world – says Konrad Pawlus, Vice-President and Founder of SALESmanago. 

 

Martech is a field where success is determined in milliseconds and only the best solutions can provide a competitive advantage. Polish companies in this sector are European leaders, which bodes well for the development of e-commerce by Polish manufacturers. Such partners are a great value for Google Cloud. It is their ambitions that set new goals for our technologies. We are very pleased with the partnership with SALESmanago and look forward to their next innovative solutions – says Magdalena Dziewguć, Business Director of Google Cloud in Poland.

 

Working together on the Cinderella AI is just the beginning of a partnership between SALESmanago and Google that will enable martech to prototype and innovate faster. As the founders of the company announce, there are plans to create more solutions based on Big Data and AI, which will be available based on the Google Cloud Platform. SALESmanago is currently working on unique tools, such as advanced multidimensional segmentation, using BigQuery – Google’s serverless data warehouse that enables scalable analysis of petabytes of data. Another project is Deep Behavioural Profiling, a feature that enables monitoring of all customer interactions with a product, measuring interest and personalization. For its development, the company uses Google solutions such as AppEngine, cloud-based development and web application hosting platform, and Firestore, a scalable NoSQL cloud database for storing and synchronizing data for client-side and server-side programming.

 

About SALESmanago:

 

SALESmanago is Poland’s largest and one of Europe’s largest Customer Data and Marketing Automation Platform. In 2021 the company plans to achieve revenue at the level of PLN 90 million. The company employs 255 people and is based in Kraków. SALESmanago is used by over 2500 clients including global brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Lacoste, Starbucks, Vodafone or AS Roma, and a large group of Polish companies operating on the e-commerce market such as 4F, Inglot, W. Kruk, BIG STAR, Drogerie Natura, twojesoczewki, KrakVet, 5.10.15, Bytom and a strong group of very dynamically developing organizations represented by Ania Kruk, Lilou, Preorder.pl, R-Gol.pl, Drogeria Pigment, Bobby Burger, or the Siepomaga foundation.

The company was founded in 2012 by Grzegorz Błażewicz and Konrad Pawlus. The company’s shareholder is, among others, Rafał Brzoska, CEO and founder of InPost.

 

About Google Cloud

 

Google Cloud enhances an organization’s ability to drive digital business transformation with the best infrastructure, platform, industry solutions, and expertise. We deliver comprehensive, advanced, and fully integrated cloud solutions that leverage the latest Google technology to help businesses operate more efficiently, adapt to change, and innovate the future. Customers in more than 200 countries look to Google Cloud as a trusted partner to solve their most important business challenges.

To understand the “rule of thirds” as it relates to web design, let’s start with an example.
Consider this image of a bull in a field:

Not too interesting, right? As the center of the image, the bull image feels a little bland and predictable. I’m willing to bet if you saw this image on a website, you wouldn’t dwell on it too long.
Now, consider what changes when we use the rule of thirds to place the bull away from the center:

A little more interesting, right?
The rule of thirds can help make your designs feel less predictable and more intriguing. And, ultimately, it has the power to capture the viewer’s attention for longer — which is critical when you’re trying to capture new audiences and convert those audiences into leads for your brand.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Perhaps you’ll decide your designs are more compelling when they’re symmetrical. Still, you can only make the intentional decision for your own website after you’ve explored your options.
Here, we’ll learn how to use the rule of thirds in design and UI design to take your images to the next level.

How to Use the Rule of Thirds in Design
Simply put, the rule of thirds posits that designs are more interesting and visually appealing when you place the main object(s) of your design on one of the four intersections of a rule of thirds grid, or in one of the thirds sections.
It’s no secret that art is more than just guesswork. Dating back to Ancient Roman times, geometry has always had a place in significant artwork.
To understand the rule of thirds, let’s look at an example.
The rule of thirds draws two lines perpendicular to a page, and two lines horizontal to a page, to create a grid of nine boxes.
This divides your page into three one-third sections, regardless of whether you’re slicing the image horizontally or vertically:

Next, to use the rule of thirds in design, you’ll simply want to place your object(s) off-center by putting them into one of the thirds sections:

… Or on one of the intersecting points:

In the example shown above, the main focal point — the mountain top — is off to the left-side of the center of the image, in the first-third of the photo.
Fortunately, it’s easy enough to use the rule of thirds in your own images using a design tool like Photoshop, which offers a grid feature so you can ensure you’re accurately using the rule of thirds to create a more harmonious, interesting design.
Let’s dive into how you can create the rule of thirds grid in Photoshop in four quick steps, next. 
How to Create Rule of Thirds in Photoshop
1. To use Photoshop’s rule of thirds tool, simply open a blank page in Photoshop and click “View” → “Show” → “Grid”:

2. Next, go to “Preferences” → “Guides, Grid & Slices”:

3. Next, choose the color of the grid lines, along with the solid line. Then, change “Gridline Every” to “100 Percent”, with Subdivisions of “3”. When you’re done, click “OK”.
4. And there you have it! You now have a rule of thirds grid. To add your image, simply drag-and-drop the image onto the existing layered grid, expand it to fill the grid, and then move your focal object until it’s either in one of the thirds sections, or on one of the four intersecting points.

Examples of Rule of Thirds in UI Design
To consider the power of rule of thirds in user interface design, let’s take a look at some website examples, with a particular focus on which websites use the rule of thirds.

1. Soulful Vibes Co.

Here, the designer puts the main focus — on the crystal rocks, and the beaded bracelet with an elephant — on the left and right thirds sections, ensuring the visitor’s focus is on the center text itself: “It’s not just a movement, it’s a lifestyle.”
The designer uses the rule of thirds to create a peaceful, harmonious, casual aesthetic that looks more open and welcoming than it would if both objects were front-and-center on the page, which would likely feel more crowded and hectic.

2. HubSpot 

HubSpot uses rule of thirds to draw immediate attention to its slogan and “Get HubSpot free” CTA on the homepage, as most visitors’ attention will start on the left side of your website. Then, the cartoon images are placed on the right thirds section, to balance out the page. This helps create a user flow — from left to right — which would be more difficult to achieve with a symmetrical design.

3. Frans Hals Museum

This Netherlands museum website uses the rule of thirds to draw attention to the photo of the woman, located in the left-thirds section. The page is unique, engaging, and cohesive, and uses counter-images to balance the asymmetrical structure of the page — for instance, while the larger image of the woman is towards the left of the screen, there’s texts and additional images to the right to balance it out.
When to Break the Rules (of Thirds)
It’s important to note — in design and art, there are no strict rules you need to follow, and there are exceptions to every design rule or trend.
Once you understand the rule of thirds and how it can impact a user’s experience, you can break that rule when you see fit.
For instance, you might find it’s more compelling to keep your images at the center of your screen, like shown on Tone Dermatology’s homepage:

Here, the center focus on the woman is compelling and bold, particularly since she’s looking towards the left of the screen, so it’s still an asymmetrical image (you only see her eyes and nose on the left, and you only see her hair on the right).
This design layout works well to draw the visitor’s attention in — and likely wouldn’t have been as powerful if the designer had used the rule of thirds to place the woman towards the left or right side of the screen.
Ultimately, you’ll want to choose design elements that work best for your own brand’s needs. When in doubt, experiment with both more symmetrical designs and rule of third designs, and consider A/B testing to figure out which performs best with your audience.

If you’re a marketer, you’ve undoubtedly asked yourself, “How can I track clicks on a link in Google Analytics?”
Tracking clicks can help you understand where your audience is going from one page to another. It’ll also let you know what links they’re interested in, what CTAs they’re clicking, and more.

With the new Google Analytics 4, link click tracking happens automatically. This is great, because previous versions of Google Analytics haven’t been able to do it automatically. You used to have to set up custom event tracking, which can be confusing.
But we’re here to help. If you haven’t set up Google Analytics 4 yet and you aren’t sure how to get started with tracking clicks on a link, keep reading.

1. Add a Google Analytics 4 property to your site.
In Google Analytics 4, you can automatically track links. While GA4 rolled out in October 2020, your site won’t automatically switch to GA4. You need to set it up.
To do this, click “Admin” on the bottom left of your Google Analytics home page. Then, ensure the right account is selected, and in the “Property” column you’ll see a GA4 setup assistant. Go through the process (takes a minute or so), and then click “Create Property.”
You should be all done now and you’ll have GA4 set up.
2. Click “See your GA4 property.”
Once you’re done setting up GA4, you should be able to click “See your GA4 property.” This will give you all the information on your property that you need.
Before you continue, it’s a good idea to explore around and see what’s new in GA4.
3. Click “Data Streams.”
Now that you’ve explored and set up your GA4 property, you’ll want to click “Data Streams” in the left column.
This will give you detailed information about what GA4 is tracking for your site.
4. Click your site.
Lastly, you just need to click on your site, and you should see the enhanced measurement. It should automatically be toggled on.
This feature automatically tracks events such as page views, scrolls, outbound link clicks, site search, video engagement, and file downloads.
To see this information, your GA homepage should have an area now called “Events” where you can see outbound link clicks.
This is what it looks like when you see enhanced measurements:

5. Set up custom link clicks.
Now you’ve officially set up certain link tracking in the future. While this feature will help you track a number of events, you might want to track certain links clicks specifically. In this case, you’ll want to set up custom link clicks.
You can do this through Google Tags Manager. If you don’t already have an account, create an account for your site and connect to your GA4 property.
You can learn more about event editing in GA4 by watching this video:

Essentially, you’ll need to create a trigger to distinguish between the custom links you want to track and the page views and outbound clicks that the enhanced measurement feature is tracking.
Go to your Google Tags Manager and add a new trigger. Then, you’ll have to connect this trigger to your events tracking.
Watch this video to learn how to set up Google Tags Manager with your GA4 property.

While this is all great if you’re converting your current analytics account to GA4, it will only track these link clicks going forward. It’s not retroactive.
Now, let’s discuss how to track Google Analytics click events if you aren’t using GA4.
How to Track Clicks in Older Versions of Google Analytics
If you aren’t using GA4, then you’ll need to use Google Tags Manager. We have an in-depth guide to help you navigate the tags manager, because it can be confusing.
Without GA4, the process is the same as setting up custom events. Google Analytics didn’t have the capability to automatically track link clicks before GA4.
While it does now, you might not be using GA4, and still want to track those links.
That’s okay. You can read our in-depth guide, watch the videos in step 5, and review how to set up custom link click tracking through the Google Tags Manager.
While it might seem confusing to set up, there are numerous resources available from Google to help you set up custom event tracking. And it’s worth it. Knowing where your customers are clicking and being able to attribute a certain amount of clicks from one blog post to another is invaluable information.

The company is a profitable technology and services company. If interested, DM me and I can provide some specifics.
submitted by /u/surgesilk [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Kloudportal7 [link] [comments]

For your team’s marketing efforts to be effective, you need to know which marketing channels and touchpoints are resonating with your audience most — you must understand which channels and touchpoints are so successful at whatever it is they do that they make leads want to convert.
Last click attribution can help you with this — it assists in identifying which marketing touchpoint prompted a conversion in the final part of the buyer’s journey.

Last Click Attribution Model
In this blog post, we’ll cover all things last click attribution including how it’s defined, what makes it unique, how your marketing team can use it, and more.

Pros and Cons of Last Click Attribution
Last click attribution is helpful if you want to know which of your marketing channels and touchpoints have the most influence in the final stage of the buyer’s journey.
While this is helpful information, it doesn’t account for the numerous other channels and touchpoints that impacted a customer from the very start of the buyer’s journey. This is important to note since there are a variety of touchpoints, across numerous channels, that impact a lead throughout the buyer’s journey — which is why most marketers today refrain from only using last click attribution. Rather, they’ll use multi-touch attribution or include last-click as part of their other marketing attribution efforts.
For instance, say a lead received an email from your email campaign, clicked through to your website, read a blog post, and then decided they wanted to buy your product. Well, last click attribution would only account for that last touchpoint — the blog post. Meanwhile, the other touchpoints throughout the buyer’s journey that contributed to this lead’s decision are dismissed.
That’s why multi-touch attribution has become such a popular attribution model among today’s marketers. Multi-touch attribution accounts for all of these touchpoints and channels and assigns them credit based on their influence.
In addition to last click and multi-touch attribution, you may have heard of first click attribution.
First Click vs. Last Click Attribution
FIrst click attribution differs from last click attribution because it assigns all of the credit for a conversion to the first touchpoint or channel (e.g. interaction on your website or with a marketing campaign) that a customer had before a conversion.
First click attribution is helpful if you want to know which of your marketing efforts are generating initial traffic in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey.
Similar to last click attribution, this is a helpful attribution method on a small scale — combining it with other attribution methods is recommended in order to get a clear picture of your marketing attribution efforts.
Now, let’s talk about how your marketing team can use last click attribution.
How to Create a Last Click Attribution Report
If you choose to create a standalone last click attribution report, you’ll likely find yourself using an attribution tool.
If you already use an attribution tool, there’s a chance it has a specific report that focuses solely on the last click. There’s also a chance that it offers customizable attribution reports which would also allow you to create a last click report.
Either way, here are a few available options for your consideration as you look to create marketing attribution reports of your own.
1. HubSpot Ads Attribution

HubSpot Ads Software offers five attribution models — you can filter your ad campaigns by attribution report to determine how your ads influence contacts throughout buyer’s journey, all from within HubSpot.
If you create a custom multi-touch attribution report, you can hone in on last click/ last interaction data — you can also customize the group of contacts you want to report on, the status of your campaign (“active,” “paused,” or “deleted), and the date range.
Get HubSpot’s Ads Software to use CRM data to create personalized and targeted ad campaigns, and report on the ads that are converting prospects.
2. Google Ads Attribution

Google Ads Attribution gives insight into cross-channel attribution so you have a solid understanding of how your Google Ads perform among your audience — this insight allows you to improve all marketing interactions and touchpoints throughout the buyer’s journey.
Google Ads offers six attribution models, one of which is last click — it gives all of the credit for a conversion to the last event/ last-clicked Google ad and its corresponding keyword.
3. Facebook Attribution

Facebook Attribution gives you a complete look at how prospects and customers are interacting with your business throughout the buyer’s journey via Facebook (including the final stage of the buyer’s journey, when the last click occurs).
Facebook manages giving all of the credit for a conversion to the last click for you — no impressions or earlier touchpoints are credited. If a click occurs within 60 seconds of a visit, Facebook will credit the click.
Get Started With Last Click Attribution
Last click is a great addition to your attribution strategy. By determining what the last customer touchpoint in the buyer’s journey is prior to a conversion, you’re able to understand which interactions and content are likely to heavily influence your customers.