Digital Intelligence Report
June 2020
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The tools of the trade are difficult to assess.

First, there are many tools in marketing technology and their categories grow exponentially, so it's tough to keep a grasp of the playing field let alone the players.

Second, new tools are launched or bought up all of the time and apparently none of them are particularly great about letting anyone know. Some of it is the in-breeding nature of marketers on the coasts. There are sites that try to help, like TrustRadius and MarTech Series, but often the newest and greatest shine just as brightly as the oldest and awful.

Third, because the tools are often represented by some of the best sales people in the world, they all sound fantastic and are a few releases away from curing cancer and COVID-19. They lie sometimes. Reality is always a different story.

As painful as it sounds, you have to constantly investigate the martech arena or you will fall behind, or worse, keep playing with blocks while your competition's AI is dissecting your atoms.

Here are a few categories and a few brands to check out. MORE
Come hang out with the best and brightest in agricultural digital marketing and sales at Ag Marketing in the Digital Age. Rescheduled due to COVID-19, AMiDA is set for October 20 in St. Louis. See more details on RoosterStrategy.com
CONTENT MARKETING: Gaining more traffic to your blog or other content can be a challenge. Here are 30 tactics to consider, including taking it multimedia, better engaging through social and watching your search strategy closer. MORE ... Ninety-nine percent of your energy is devoted to creating new, compelling content. What about updating some of your older popular content? What about retiring the content that didn't work? MORE

SOCIAL MEDIA: So many are focused on likes and follows but this is social media. Engagement is usually the end goal. MORE ... If you are relying on a human to monitor all of the social channels for relevant information about your industry, competition and your own brand, you are missing a lot. MORE ... What are the optimal sizes for images and videos on the various social channels? Here you go. MORE ... Whether it is a disdain for current media or the bubble mentality, social is becoming the go-to for news. MORE
  • Facebook: Did you know that if your Facebook ad is poor, the algorithm makes it have to work even harder? MORE
  • TikTok: While it remains brand unfriendly and requires hard work and luck to be great at it, there is some potential value here. MORE
  • Instagram: Taking notice of TikTok, Instagram is slowly rolling out its competitive tool, now in France and Germany. MORE
  • YouTube: Not to be outdone, YouTube also has a TikTok approach. MORE
  • Keen: Google's new content discover engine built a little like a Pinterest. MORE
MOBILE: Apple is promising to make third-party tracking a more transparent experience in its next release. MORE

DIGITAL ADVERTISING: Knowledge of the robots.txt file isn't just for developers. A good one can do everything from keep your search engine rankings high to helping with site speed. MORE ... Most are expecting a bounce back in the second half of the year but there are some continued headwinds. MORE ... Google ad revenues are expected to decline for the first time. It's not a huge fall and they figure to bounce back. MORE ... The death of the cookie is troublesome but Apple's continued privacy moves aren't particularly helpful to the marketing world. MORE

DATA: First party data isn't enough. You need a well-rounded picture of your target audience to be at the top of your game. MORE ... And sometimes, activation based on certain points of data is premature. MORE ... The place to be testing is in the predictive space. It won't all work for you, but having the systems put 2 and 2 together for you can result in much more than 4. MORE ... "The old media model, you were looking for eyeballs. The new media model, you are looking for data." MORE

PROGRAMMATIC: Transparency is the leading buzzword in programmatic and the place where young up-and-comers can make a name for themselves. We'll find the missing money, folks. MORE

CREATIVE/DESIGN: Sometimes, it takes a blunt instrument to get the message through that user experience matters and templated systems like WordPress can get in the way. MORE ... Banner impressions were never meant to be a set it and forget it scenario. MORE

ANALYTICS: Some basics for Google Analytics, how to use it and set it up for best performance. MORE ... Take the next step in Facebook advertising by measuring offline conversions. It is doable. MORE

VIDEO: Social posts with video earn 48 percent more views. MORE ... With the huge uptick of OTT video watching during the pandemic, it might be worth asking your programmatic vendors about retargeting site visitors with your video ads. The volume will be low but still impactful. MORE

AUDIO: In-app podcast interactions are quite low because it sometimes means moving away from the podcast you want to listen to onto a product that you might want. Spotify is trying a bucket approach for the episode sponsors. MORE

VOICE: Voice speakers have an unbelievable adoption curve and the next stage in marketing with them is close. MORE

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Finally, a list of AI marketing tools to check out. MORE

EMAIL: Accessibility, dark mode, automation and personalization are the things to think about right now. MORE

SPEED: Learn more about 5G and the terms surrounding it. MORE
For more details on any of the topics covered here, contact Rooster’s Chief Digital Officer James Arnold:
Cell: (913) 291-6996
Microcast/Podcast: The Rooster Cast
The goal of the Rooster Strategic Solutions Digital Intelligence Report is to provide intelligence around the digital product landscape. What is coming next. How to use what you already have. Who might be doing it right.