What would you do differently if your brand or company was fourth in a three-team race? Oh, and giving up isn't an option.

That's the mindset you need to bring to your digital sales and marketing every day. It keeps you scrappy, willing to risk for a higher reward and pushing for better all of the time.

How does that play out for Rooster (and me)?

In case you didn't realize it, this eNewsletter is a product of that mentality. This is the research I need to be doing to stay ahead of the game. Having you open it, click on it or send comments to me about it is a side benefit!

AMiDA is going virtual! Join us for the AMiDA digital marketing and sales series starting Oct. 20 at 11:30 a.m. See more details on RoosterStrategy.com

SOCIAL: Have you heard the 70/20/10 theory on social posting? It might be a good guiding principle for your brand. MORE ... The biggest failure of social media is an unwillingness to engage and interact. There are 14 others to think through, as well. MORE ... Half of the world's population is on one social media channel or another. MORE ...

SEARCH: What metrics should be top of mind in search? Traffic, cost and performance are a good place to start. MORE ... Google's ad update was lauded by one marketer as one of the top digital marketing developments of the year. MORE

PROGRAMMATIC/DISPLAY: Sometime display banners don't work. If the message isn't the problem, there are other things you can do. MORE ... Apple is killing the Internet for everyone .... except Apple. MORE ... The threat of having no cookie alternative With the cookie on the outs, the digital industry is rewalking old paths. Here's a shout out for IP-address targeting. MORE ... Maybe AI is the answer (doubtful). MORE ... Taboola is teaming with Integral to provide a brand safer environment. MORE

CONTENT MARKETING: Shorter content earns the most backlinks. MORE ... It's easy for creators, but the PDF is not a great content experience. MORE ... Why don't you have a blog? MORE ... Blogs drive traffic, expose your business to new audiences and allow you to speak about your business without speaking only about your business. MORE ... Once you start, it's really, really, really hard to stop. Don't. Optimize. MORE

VIDEO: For inspiration, here are the top 20 marketing videos of 2020 according to one author. MORE ... YouTube is in court again over children's privacy, this time in the UK. MORE ... YouTube is tying together an engaged view to conversions in a metric update. MORE

AUDIO: Podcasts are heavy lifters as it relates to brand awareness. MORE

VOICE SEARCH: Siri uses Google results, mostly. Alexa uses Bing, sometimes. What does that mean for those wanting to be featured? MORE

EMAIL: The subject line matters and an emoji won't save a bad one. MORE ... Creating an email marketing program isn't challenging. You need a provider, a list and then have everything work together behind the scenes. MORE ... If you have or are considering an enewsletter, entertain and educate with it. MORE

DATA: You have marketers, builders, account people, project managers ... but who is digging into the data to pull out the good stuff? You are missing the modeler role. MORE

PRIVACY: iOS 14 is out and settings have changed for things like location services, mic/photo usage, photo access, and see the trackers sites use on the Safari browser. MORE ... If you are looking for stability, it's not going to happen. Instead, you have to make your systems agile enough to respond to the waves involving your business/audience. MORE