The king is dead, long live the king!
The line above is what people would say when a king had passed on and was being replaced with a successor, someone who’d (hopefully) carry on the kingdom to the best of their ability.
Turns out, this medieval transition is also happening on Twitter.
On Friday, Jane Manchun Wong reported that there was some text in Twitter’s app that indicated the future shutdown of Periscope, the Twitter-owned video streaming app.
Also on Friday, video streaming and sharing app Squad announced that it had been acquired by Twitter. Here’s what it all means:
- Periscope is likely shutting down soon. But, so is Squad. To break with our medieval analogy, both kings might actually be dead for a short while. Squad announced that it would have been shutting down on December 12th, likely as part of its work and integration with Twitter.
- Squad and Periscope aren’t the same. Up until now, Squad has been an app mostly for video chatting with friends – a common-sense acquisition for Twitter, who’s been working on different chatroom-type features. Periscope, though, had functioned more as a video broadcasting app.
The Crew’s take: As Twitter continues to explore new avenues for users to chat with each other, acquisitions like this shouldn’t seem too out of the ordinary. And, if the new initiative brings in more marketing opportunities, count us in!
EMAIL MARKETING
The 20 commandments of email
Break out the stone tablets, because Chase Dimond’s got a couple (as in, 20) email marketing commandments that should give a boost to your campaigns.
For reference: According to his bio, Chase has generated more than $50M for his clients, and built a 7-figure email marketing agency from the ground up. So yes, he knows a thing or two about email.
Here are a couple of our favorite email marketing tips from him:
- Test everything. This is something we’ve found to be helpful at Stacked Marketer, too. Test your sending times, subject lines, subject line length, preview text, copy, and more! You don’t want to miss out on extra opens and revenue.
- An engaged list > a huge list. This is paramount for email marketing, and Chase recommends segmenting your audiences and focusing on people who will actually open your emails and click links.
- Hype up your sales and events. Chase suggests sending emails before, during, and after events to make sure your subscribers are up-to-date with your promotions.
- Use preview text as a second subject line. It gets overlooked, but preview text is a great way to hook readers. As Chase puts it, a subject line catches their attention while the preview text seals the deal.
There are 16 more golden tips to check out in the full Twitter thread. Go read it here!
SPONSORED BY THE CREW
Let’s put one more present under the tree…
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It’s the season of giving, after all – and if you’ve got a product you want to put in front of 16k marketers, we can help out.
We’re ready to make it hassle-free for you:
- We’ll do the copywriting for you in the same style we write the rest of the newsletter (and the style you’ve seen other products advertised here).
- We’ll also make sure we create a supporting visual that complements the copy and seamlessly fits into the newsletter design.
You might be interested in some numbers. Did we read your mind?
We’ve put together an updated sponsorship kit that everyone can check out here.
You can learn about our reach, our engagement, see some past examples, a breakdown for the types of marketers who read our newsletter and, of course, the pricing.
Interested? Reply to this email and buy yourself the best gift of the year.
MARKETING
Does the traditional marketing funnel still exist?
It’s a question brought up by Brendan Hufford on Twitter, discussing that although a linear marketing funnel is dead for most marketers, we’re still talking about these three terms:
- Top of the Funnel (TOF)
- Middle of the Funnel (MOF)
- Bottom of the Funnel (BOF)
The traditional funnel structure is used by many marketers, and we even throw the terms around in this newsletter! But is it relevant today?
Well, it’s true that the path a user walks to become a customer is not linear like video game levels.
They don’t go straight from TOF to MOF. They make some steps forward, then they take some steps back, and so on.
In other words, today’s true model is not linear.
But, the TOF, MOF and BOF structure comes in handy when you have to talk about marketing. There are definitely more complicated models that can be used though, which were shared in Brendan’s Twitter thread.
Like this one shared by Camden Gaspar. Heads up before you click: it can look scary in the beginning. But it reflects the reality of things.
Brendan Hufford shared a different model, too:
- Awareness: When the prospect consumes free resources from the brand that uses this content to establish itself as a leader.
- Consideration: This stage is focused on education, addressing the needs and questions of the prospect, and showing social proof.
- Decision: Here the phase acquires two different meanings. If the user bought, the content here is about supporting the customer after the purchase, “thank you” messages and broader education. If they didn’t buy, then the business should try to get feedback, and send targeted win-back campaigns.
- Growth: This stage is about increasing the value of the customer for the company. Upsells, cross-sells, offers, etc.
- Advocacy: Here is where a customer is turned into a brand’s advocate, a person that will spread the word and bring in more customers. What works here are loyalty programs, referral offers, early access to new products, and more.
Do you think this explains the funnel better? Or do you have your own unique take on it?
A true marketing funnel is always continuous and iterative. Let your inner growth marketer take the reins as you optimize your customer journey!
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
INSTAGRAM: Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, has some thoughts about the FTC lawsuit against Facebook. Check out this video to see what he thinks!
ADVERTISING: A new study on ad format and length found that 6-second ads outperform 15-second ads in most cases. It’s good enough cause to do a little testing with your campaigns!
EMAIL MARKETING: Making a mistake with your emails isn’t always a terrible thing. This is a great example of how to respond to a mistake (and make sales, to boot).
LINKEDIN: Ads are coming to LinkedIn Stories. It’s far from the most utilized feature on the platform, but it could provide a good niche audience to target!
E-COMMERCE: Mobile is taking a bigger share of e-commerce sales this year, and the data in this article will show just how much.
FACEBOOK: More pressure on TikTok! The social network is testing the possibility of sharing Reels on Facebook.
BRAIN TEASER
This is it: The last subject line quiz of 2020, or maybe ever? (Remember, we’re taking a break after this week until January 4th.)
Which subject line from last week secured the highest open rate? Take your pick.
⚠️ Update.
🔥 Hacker News.
💸 The future of advertising.
💻 Weird stuff.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Bingle bells, Bingle bells, Bing goes all the way
Are you a sucker for jokes that are so bad, they’re good?
Then you’ll probably fall head over heels for a new “ad” Microsoft’s released on Twitter, featuring as a promo for a Microsoft-themed holiday album.
You can check out the commercial for “Microsoft Holiday Hits” here on Twitter.
The album features lyrics like:
Joy to the Word, spellcheck is done.
Please mute ye, Merry Gentlemen, we’re trying to have a meeting.
Bing-le all the way, oh what fun it is to surf the World Wide Web today.
And there are plenty more gems in the full video.
Disclaimer: This isn’t a real album, but after listening to the preview on Twitter, boy do we wish it was.