Survey says…

80% of respondents said cost savings is more important than convenience, with 42% ranking saving money as their top priority

It’s all about the deals this holiday season.

There is plenty of speculation floating around that the middle of the market (or the middle of everything) is hollowing out. Meaning the split is increasingly becoming luxury or discount.

The middle is a tough place to get stuck. But maybe it’s where the next wave of opportunity lies.

Search Ads Campaign enables sophisticated keyword-based ads which specifically target TikTok's search results page. From a user experience perspective, the ads are the same, but for advertisers, a whole host of new features and targeting capabilities are now available.

Search is splintering, with TikTok one of the growing channels for younger searchers. Now the Trend Machine wants to splinter some of those search ad budgets.

I like this idea from the Alt Marketing School newsletter:

Create an Objection Smasher page or post on your site. This landing page should list the top 5-10 reasons why people don’t buy your product or why they choose another business over yours.

You can’t be for everyone, so why not make it super clear who you aren’t for?

The marketing trend of 2024:

In: AI (& context)
Out: Control

Early this year this was based on lots of prediction posts and podcasts (& my own crystal ball).

As the year has unfolded it’s been based on reality.

If you’re chasing “better” analytics or attribution, you’re behind the curve.

Our culture leans toward the idea that we should intervene and that our results should be visible. To manipulate and control without really questioning why we are doing what we do. Much of the time, I have found you only need to fix things if they have been put out of kilter in the first place.

As in gardening, so in marketing.

The easiest way to prove you’re working is to do stuff. Pull levers, twist knobs, change settings, etc. But campaigns and messages take time.

Don’t change things for the sake of looking busy.

Algorithms as plants.

My major design goal here was…I wanted to push controls, as much as possible, down the screen. So I want the most frequently accessed things to be accessible when you’re holding the phone in one hand and you just want to hit something with your thumb. 

This is pretty common in apps now, it should be way more common on websites.

Respect the thumb zone (image via Smashing Magazine)

that’s really the single core question about the future of Generative AI - is this a new general purpose tool, where one product from one company does the work of hundreds of pieces of software from hundreds of companies, or is this a generic technology that will enable features inside products from hundreds or thousands of companies?

I lean towards the latter.

It’s easier to imagine AI turbocharging all kinds of existing tools and features than a general purpose AI platform that gets mass adoption.

I think most companies fear that they don’t have enough of a young person’s perspective. 

But…like so many things in this world, it comes down to trying to have a mix of old thinking and new thinking. 

The “youth” are like catnip for marketers, but it’s imperative to know who your actual audience is.

Your message needs to reflect your audience.

The manager looks at him and says, “HA! You think I am in the music business? No. I’m in the Iron fucking Maiden business.” The publishing industry? The retail business? These are not the businesses I am in–just like you’re not in the coffee industry or B2B. No, you’re in the business of you. You’re in the business of serving your customers in your city with your unique offering.

What matters is their relationship with their fans. That’s who they are in service of. That’s the job. And so it goes for all of us, whatever we do.

Everything is customer service.

Know who you’re serving and what they expect.

Business is a series of promises.

Success is based on delivering.