PRIVACY
No more transatlantic privacy concerns?
Care for some orange juice? We mixed it with champagne… wink wink.
President Joe Biden just signed an executive order to protect the privacy of personal data transferred between the EU and the US.
Kind of a big deal: A number of European countries have banned tools like Google Analytics for transferring user data to the US, and fined companies for not complying with GDPR.
The new Privacy Shield Framework—already celebrated by Interactive Advertising Bureau—should “create new protections” for personal data, while clarifying the rules around international data transfers.
What happens next: The Privacy Shield Framework has to be reviewed and ratified by the European Commission, so full implementation won’t happen for a few months.
Why we care: Wait time aside, the new framework seems promising for brands and companies trading products and services overseas.
Clearer rules around user data could reduce legal fog for marketers, while safely and securely maintaining the estimated $7.1T in trade between the US and the EU.
At least, that’s the hope.
SOCIAL MEDIA
The most downloaded apps in September
Surprise! TikTok is once again the most downloaded app.
OK, actually that’s not the real surprise. The real surprise is less obvious, and more interesting…
So popular: According to Appfigures, TikTok has been downloaded 54M times on both Android and iOS, beating Instagram and Facebook.
Tagging along: CapCut, a video editing app made by ByteDance, comes seventh with 26M downloads.
That makes sense, since CapCut was designed for the sole purpose of—you guessed it—editing TikTok videos.
Sneaky sneaky: Meanwhile, BeReal is still rising in popularity, at least among iOS users. It’s now the eighth most downloaded app on the App Store, with 11M downloads.
Why we care: When it comes to marketing channels, it’s important to keep an eye on the landscape, so to speak.
Growing channels mean more potential customers for you to reach.
And upcoming channels like BeReal bring opportunities to explode your growth—if you can figure out how to use them before anyone else.
SPONSORED BY SEMRUS
Fortune 500 companies use this free tool to find high-intent keywords other brands ignore
It helps Tesla, Forbes, and IBM maintain a competitive advantage in the SERP and get fresh keyword data whenever necessary.
It gives you access to a database of 20B keywords.
And for every keyword idea you insert, it gives you 14M you can use to target high-intent customers with your content.
We’re talking about Semrush’s Keyword Research Tools.
Here’s how they can help you build profitable SEO or PPC campaigns:
- Get new ideas for content based on exactly what your audience is interested in most.
- See the exact questions search users are asking.
- Access a massive database of 20 billion keywords in 142 geos to spot new opportunities.
- Compare your keyword profiles to your competitors and discover overlapping keywords as well as untapped opportunities.
Get your own high-intent keywords now.
CONTENT MARKETING
Channel impact vs. channel competition: which one’s better?
There are lots of things to consider when you’re planning on adding a new channel to your marketing stack.
Things like your target audience, your goals, potential impact and ROI, etc.
But there’s something else you should consider that few marketers know about…
Saturation.
Sure, platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn can yield a big impact for many brands.
But they’re also highly competitive because they’re saturated with other companies and users.
And while channels and forums like Slack and Discord are less saturated, they’re also frequently low-impact.
So where’s the sweet spot? Well, according to Casey Hill, instead of wasting time on high-competition channels where your content may never get traction, Casey encourages marketers to use less-saturated channels that can have medium-to-high impact.
Such as… Quora.
Believe it or not, Quora is still huge. It has 300M+ active users, good organic traffic, less noise, and less competition.
Of course, it’s far from perfect. But Casey claims his answers to questions have accumulated millions of views, been featured in Quora’s Digest curated newsletter, and brought him more reach and traffic than any other channel.
Of course, Quora is just one of many channels overshadowed by insanely popular platforms. There are others, too.
So if you’re seeking out new marketing channels, remember: don’t only look at the biggest, most popular ones.
Look for channels that are low-saturation and can give you medium-to-high impact.
And if possible, try to use them first before everyone else does.
SPONSORED BY INBOX MAILERS
Boost your open rate by up to 300% by sending emails when you subscribers are looking at their inbox
Four times better open rates means three times more potential clicks to your landing pages… and three times more sales.
It’s possible thanks to a new tech that literally allows you to time your emails when your subscribers are checking their inbox so you can send an email at that exact moment.
And it works so well, a 60-70% open rate is common.
Find out how you can get your hands on this new tech.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
Three smart pricing model examples that make millions
What use is marketing if it shows people an ineffective pricing tier?
The world’s best growth marketers and copywriters can’t save a brand from a bad business model.
Getting pricing right is such a big deal, we spent the last month in overdrive, writing a report on how you can find the right pricing model for your business.
Here are three smart examples that have made millions:
- The razor and blade model. Razors are cheap, blades are expensive. Printers are cheap, ink is expensive. But this doesn’t apply to physical products only… SaaS companies, for example, often charge little or no fees for access to their basic product. Then, they charge hefty fees for most of the product’s useful features.
- The pay-upon-results model. One popular job board, Japan-Dev, doesn’t charge companies to post a job. They charge when the company successfully hires a candidate. This pay-upon-results model almost always increases conversion rates and boosts customer confidence.
- The iPod model. The iPod was expensive, but it gave you access to the iTunes Store and the ability to purchase individual songs. This is the opposite of the razor & blade model—you charge a lot upfront for a benefit that’ll pay dividends long-term.
A little change in the price structure can make for a big change in margins.
These are just three of several profitable pricing models, and you can discover others inside Stacked Marketer Pro.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
INFLATION: If a six-year-old asked us to explain how inflation works, we’d make them read this post by FinMasters. It simplifies the causes and mechanisms behind inflation, how it affects our lives, and more. Understand inflation once and for all.*
SOCIAL MEDIA: Is this the end of the GIF? Short videos seem to be replacing the media format, and apparently younger generations think it’s “cringe” to use GIFs anyway. Time will tell…
META: Hello, new page experience. Facebook just released a new “cleaner, more streamlined” layout with a centralized dashboard and a dedicated feed for interacting with people as a business. Nice.
REDDIT: Well that doesn’t happen often. While we’re still waiting for the official report, it seems Reddit is making major updates to Ads Manager, like adding a new audience manager tool, the ability to edit existing ads, and more.
SEO: It was only a matter of time before AI images creeped into SEO discussions. People want to know whether Google is okay with ranking AI-generated images. So far, it is! In most cases, at least…
*This is a sponsored post
BRAIN TEASER
Mike is a butcher. Everyone from The Crew loves him. He is 5’10” tall. What does he weigh?
You can find the answer here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Stop smiling like that
Seen anyone staring at you with a creepy grin lately?
There’s a possibility you just witnessed the promotion stunt for the latest horror flick, Smile.
Apparently two actors went to a baseball game to smile into cameras and into souls—replicating the bone-chilling, unnatural smile that haunts the movie’s protagonists.
Honestly, we’re not sure which is more impressive…
The bold marketing move… or the ability to maintain a creepy grin for nine whole innings.