IM Sphere

Halloween is the second largest holiday in the world after Christmas. True or false?

The evidence isn’t clear, but the fact that marketers huff and puff to milk their seasonal campaigns for all their worth is apparent.

Sometimes these efforts are hugely successful in generating hype, while in other cases public outrage is the result instead. No matter what, though, businesses hang on for dear life and try to come up with increasing numbers of new ways to create demand for their goods and services.

There’s really not a lot that’s new under the sun anymore, and sometimes the best thing you can do is rely on classic, tried-and-true tricks to get the treat of extra sales and extra income. Let’s take a look at some of the best tricks and treats marketers consistently use to their success.

1. Being the early bird

People are up to their ears in work, and many don’t even start to think about the holidays until the last possible second. That changes, however, if you put some well-executed themed content right in front of them early on.

Last year, M&M’s new Cookies & Screeem flavor was introduced early on, winning the battle against other competitors. Their Pumpkin Pie taste arrived even earlier. This rath… Read More

If you’re checking out this blog you are more than likely a small business owner, marketing manager, passionate entrepreneur, or all 3 rolled into one.

Whichever category(ies) you fall into, by now you’ve realized that creating powerful content to promote your brand but not deplete your budget, is one of the greatest challenges you face on your way to revenue-generating brand recognition.

Seth Godin, former vice president of direct marketing for Yahoo!, explained the power of digital marketing best when he said that, “Marketing is no longer about the things that you make, but about the stories that you tell.”  

Here are 4 digital marketing tactics that will help tell your story, build your brand, and stay on budget.

Start telling your visual story today with PosterMyWall’s extensive Design Templates Gallery!

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1. Save time with DIY design tools

Your time is valuable and probably stretched as thin as your resources. It doesn’t make sense to pay for a graphic designer or learn the intricacies of Photos… Read More

Are you looking for ways to get more Instagram engagement? Wondering how to build stronger consumer relationships? In this article, you’ll discover seven ways to improve your Instagram engagement. #1: Follow Through on Follower Engagement to Stay in Step With Your Community While it’s the first rule of social media marketing, lots of brands and […]

The post 7 Ways to Create Better Instagram Engagement for Businesses appeared first on Social Media Examiner.

… Read More

Nearly every email marketing platform promises the same thing: great deliverability, intuitive tools, designer-quality templates, and useful reporting so you can make the most of every email you send.

We looked at the best email marketing services and found that yes, they do all reliably deliver email, make it easy to manage your massive lists, and make sending emails more intuitive. But they’re not all the same. These are our four recommendations and how they stack up.

 ConvertKitGetResponseMailchimpMailjet

Sign UpSign UpSign UpSign Up

Editor’s PickBest Budget WorkflowBest for BeginnersBest for Collaboration

Hands down the most intuitive way to edit emails and automation chainsA nice visual flow builder that’s half the price of ConvertKit
The forever free plan includes beautiful templates that are easy to useThe only email marketing service with real-time collaboration à la Google Docs

Starting price$29 / month$15 / monthFreeFree

Free trialUnlimited14 days30 daysUp to 200 emails / day

Cost for 5,000 subscribers$79 / month$45 / month$40 / month$10 / month for 30,000 emails

Drag-and-drop email builder✘

App developers are constantly struggling to keep their audience away from competitor apps and retention rates high.

They’re thinking about their users’ needs and wants on a daily basis, but it just isn’t enough to keep them using their app.

According to Localytics, 36% of users are still using an individual app after a month, but 23% of apps are used once before either never being opened again or being uninstalled.

With such a stark number of apps losing user retention, it begs the question: what’s going on? What are these apps doing that’s causing them to lose out to competitor apps?

1. Under-utilized push and local-based notifications

Notifications are helpful reminders that encourage users to actively come back to the app, even if it’s every so often. Roughly 50% of users opt-in for push notifications and about 65% of users tend to return to the app within 60 days.

However, if too many push and local-based notifications are sent, there’s a possibility that users will become irritated and go with a competitor app that features supportive notifications that aren’t too pushy. Users may disable them or uninstall the app completely depending on frequency. No… Read More