By the end of 2022, people around the world will have spent more than 12.5 trillion hours online. Broken down, that's six hours and 58 minutes per day for the typical internet user across all devices. What’s more, nearly three of ten U.S. adults say they use their devices “almost constantly.”
These numbers drive home the ubiquitousness of our digital world. They also speak to the fact that marketers now more than ever must be digital marketing experts. But what does that mean? We tackled this issue in 2014, but with digital marketing constantly expanding, we feel the topic deserves an update.
Let’s start with a clear definition of digital marketing — particularly because it regularly gets mixed up with inbound marketing. They are two very different disciplines!
Digital marketing refers to the tactics marketers employ online. All forms of online marketing — for example, websites, social media, email and search engines — are leveraged to connect with prospects and customers.
Inbound marketing is a methodology. It is used to proactively reach out to potential customers with offers of interesting content and experiences. The goal of inbound marketing is to build long-term connections with potential customers by being valuable and even solving their problems.
To meet ever-increasing demands, digital marketing is continually expanding into emerging tactics. While the tried-and-true tactics are still powerful — email marketing, social media and blogging, for starters — newer, leading-edge tactics have entered the picture — for example, Connected TV (CTV) ads and shoppable videos.
If you’ve relied on traditional cable television commercials to promote your brand, the future is dim.
The smart money is now on CTV ads. Here are some reasons why.
Every year, more households are cutting the cord on cable TV. An eMarketer report found the following:
As pay TV declines, CTV rises. According to the Motion Picture Association’s annual theme report:
It’s clear that CTV ads are the future of TV advertising. It’s now time to look for marketing opportunities on platforms like Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Peacock, to name a few of the many digital channels available today.
When launching CTV ads, your approach will be different than deploying traditional cable ads. Here are five best practices that will improve your CTV advertising results.
For inspiration on creating CTV ads that work, check out YouTube’s Top 10 list of the best CTV ads in 2021. The number one CTV ad is for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Pre-pandemic consumers were making a slow but steady shift from shopping in physical stores to social shopping online. But during the two years of the pandemic the shift accelerated by about five years. What’s more, the volume of social sales is expected to hit $101.1 million as early as 2023. Results like these have paved the way for higher participation in one of the newest digital shopping trend — shoppable videos.
Shoppable videos feature specific products and include embedded links that allow viewers to click on them, learn more about the product and purchase it immediately without leaving the video.
The superpower of this advertising format is the video component itself. Video marketing isn’t cooling off anytime soon. In fact, over 84% of shoppers reported that they have purchased a product or service after viewing a branded video.
This Ikea interactive video is a great example of a shoppable video. While guiding viewers on how to choose items for a small space, it provides clickable elements that give shoppers details about the items being viewed, along with the option to immediately purchase them.
Some leading best practices for producing high-performing shoppable videos include:
Inform viewers that they are watching an interactive shoppable video. A few ways to do this include introducing the concept at the beginning of the video, adding voiceovers or narration, having a host speak directly to the viewers and announcing it in the video description.
Include a shoppable link within the first seconds. Your viewers will be anticipating a clickable link, so give them one right away. It will enhance their interest and give them the chance to experience the feature. Then continue to add clickable links as the show progresses, even using more than one at a time now and then.
Allow longer shots at clickable moments. Give your viewers more time to interact by extending the length of the product shots with clickable icons to a few seconds or more.
Avoid crowding the shots with too many clickable options. It’s better to focus on a few items per shot than to overcrowd the frame. If you add too much to a frame, you risk confusing the consumer and missing the chance for them to decide they want the item. A good rule of thumb is to focus on two to three products per shot.
Think full frame. This means shooting a product in the full frame versus getting too far away, too close or too abstracted. This will give viewers a better feel for the product and, as a result, improve sales.
While the latest and greatest digital marketing trends can present exciting new opportunities to reach consumers, they can also be challenging to produce and manage. Because you must traverse the learning curve, they can also be time consuming.Working with a digital marketing agency can help you rapidly expand your digital marketing footprint — and your pool of prospects.
The Kuno Creative team can help in all these areas. We’ve helped companies we believe in develop their brand strategy, design websites that convert, create a content marketing plan to attract and educate buyers, and accelerate their efforts with paid advertising. Check out our case studies to see how we help our clients get results.
