Making Science wants to show you the true potential behind the technology: our outstanding teams.

Welcome to our new interview series called called “Meet the Expert,” in which our team members that are certified in Google Marketing Platform, Google Cloud Platform, and many more will tell you the keys to operating the most advanced tools and technology and what’s the primary value they bring in every project.

Meet Cass Grimm, a Google Marketing Platform (GMP) Expert certified in Campaign Manager 360 at Making Science US, who talks to us about the benefits to be certified in the GMP tools and how to extract the most value in our marketing strategy.

What are the advantages of being certified in Campaign Manager?

The main advantage of having the certification is that it lends a lot of credibility to the work you do. One thing is to use a tool on a daily basis; it’s another thing entirely to take the time to study all the features and vocabulary. This makes it so much easier to deploy new ideas quickly. And, it brings me the ability to suggest ideas that are very valuable for the business of my clients.

Here are a couple of other concrete benefits of being certified:

1. Knowledge about planning, implementing, reporting, and troubleshooting reservations while working across partners. It also gives one the knowledge to assess ad tag delivery, measurement, and troubleshooting methods used to optimize performance.
2. This exam covers general product use from trafficking all the way through to reporting. As such, having the certification means you understand the 360º pipeline for implementation.

Do you think being certified in Campaign Manager is essential to operate and improve the activity on the platform?

With any tool, whether it’s Salesforce, Google Marketing Platform, or Meta, having a certification shows you really know the ins & outs. In addition to making the work go faster, if you are at least knowledgeable about the different features, you can wow your clients with opportunities they hadn’t thought of before. 

What advantages of being certified do you think gives the most value to the client?

A Campaign Manager certification shows that you’re knowledgeable about ad serving, targeting, verification, and reporting. In a world where things change so quickly, you have to know how to create a hypothesis and then experiment & iterate to get the results you’re trying to achieve. Being able to adapt reports means that no matter what the results of a campaign are, you can always make adjustments and fine-tune them to get the results you’re looking for.

Ultimately, my mission is to bring value to the client’s project or business. By working closely with our technology partners, I can offer up the best tools in the industry, plus the knowledge about how to make the most of them. And this is why Making Science is truly a digital acceleration company.

Are you ready to extract the most value of Google Marketing Platform? Our team of experts can help you with any need or case you have related to the platform. Don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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Gen Z encompasses a generation born between 1995 and 2010. This group is defined by being always connected, with high purchasing power, and growing up in the boom of smartphone diffusion. These digital natives are well-known for filtering information, their low attention spans (8 seconds), and their preference for visuals over text.

Their main form of entertainment is social networks, which they also use to fill gaps in human interaction. They consider VIPs and influencers as valid advisors for purchases, as long as the suggestions are provided in an entertaining way. The social network that has best captured this audience is TikTok (though it has also successfully captured the attention of many in the 9-25 age bracket), and users spend an average of 52 minutes a day on the app. 

Brands that operate in trendy markets and wish to communicate to Gen Z must therefore integrate this channel into their digital strategy. The platform allows companies to package 15- to 60-second videos with music, stickers, and filters. The most viewed content is characterized by dynamic montages, stop-motion, and forced perspective shots that make viewing quick and enjoyable.

TikTok: The clear choice for maximizing brand visibility

Influencer Marketing campaigns on TikTok often achieve results that exceed expectations. This happens because the social network is governed by an algorithm that shows users selected clips based on their content preferences. For example, a video dedicated to a make-up product has the potential to be seen not only by the fan base of the TikToker who posted it, but also by many other users interested in the beauty topic who might intercept it in the ‘For You’ section.

Measuring the effectiveness of a TikTok initiative

The success of a TikTok campaign is measured above all by the number of views, which are destined to grow over time, as a clip never runs out of chances to appear in the feeds of new users. To make a comparison: the average engagement of Instagram content is around 3% compared to 29% for TikTok.

Tips & Tricks: How to make the most of this channel

The best way to obtain relevant results is to leave the content creation to creators: TikTokers know the tastes of their generation (because they are part of it) and they know what is potentially viral and how to catch people’s attention. 

Creativity is more important than quality: the average TikTok user is primarily interested in originality and fun. It is essential that the branded content speaks the language of young people and stimulates co-creation, i.e. it invites the user to test their creativity by emulating what they have seen Creators do. A dance, an acted scene, an alternative way of wearing a garment: any cue is good to tickle the imagination of users and start a viral chain.

Their secret weapon is the impeccable knowledge of their target audience. But there is a catch. They do not conduct elaborate market analyses on style trends or buying preferences. They are so good and effective at getting people’s attention because… they themselves are their target audience! All they have to do is create and publish the content that they personally would like to see.

Influencers active in the brand niche are succeeding where brands are failing: getting the attention of the potential customers.

Where to start?

The first logical route you could take is to deepen your knowledge of your customers: their desires, fears, problems, language, style, and ambitions. You would eventually be able to produce content that is perfect for them. But no matter how well you do your homework, you would always be one step behind the influencers. And for a simple reason beyond your control: people trust their peers more than companies.

That’s why investing in an influencer marketing campaign is a great strategy to overcome short attention spans, catch your potential target and get your product and brand in front of a new group of potential customers. By working with influencers, you:

• don’t have to interrupt the flow of your target’s content with your self-referential advertising.
• can save thousands of dollars that you would otherwise have to spend on content conception, creation, and promotion.
• can capture your audience’s interest without the need to worry about their attention span.

Not even sure where to find influencers? Don’t worry – Making Science has got you covered! From conceptual creation through selecting which influencers best suit your brand’s needs, we can find the perfect match.

Get in touch

At its World Tour in Sydney, Salesforce announced that it’s changing the names of several of its Marketing Cloud products. Pardot, one of Salesforce’s marketing automation tools, will now be known as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement.

There are several reasons behind this strategic change.

The move is part of an initiative called “MC Easy,” (Marketing Cloud Easy) which is part of the “Salesforce Easy” innovation goal. The aim is to make Marketing Cloud’s broad suite of products consistent and easily understood by everyone.

Marketing Cloud is made up of “Studios,” “Builders,” and plugins that have retained their original names (after being acquired by Salesforce). Salesforce recognized that the vocabulary they’ve used has been inconsistent and that the changes will make it easier for us to talk about products across different Salesforce “clouds.”

These are significant changes that won’t happen overnight, but what are the implications for the Pardot community?

B2B vs. B2C

Salesforce tried to eliminate the binary B2B/B2C divide between Pardot and Marketing Cloud a few years ago. The reality is that Pardot has B2C customers (whereas Salesforce Marketing Cloud has more transactional B2B customers).

Salesforce says that Pardot’s “Account Engagement” will allow us to work “side by side” with Salesforce Marketing Cloud. They have recognized that customers do not fit neatly into B2B or B2C boxes: their intention is not to divide them, but to bring the two sides together.

Pardot architecture is different

Pardot’s architecture (or data model) is separate from Marketing Cloud’s. In fact, Pardot is already more tightly integrated with the rest of the core Salesforce platform. The company’s long-term product development plans have paid off as it developed connected campaigns, marketing asset sync, and the Pardot Lightning app. Marketing Cloud itself doesn’t come close to this level of connection.

Pardot and the account object

“Account Engagement” is confounding to those who understand how the Pardot-Salesforce connector data sync works. Pardot works primarily with the Lead and Contact objects (a two-way create/update between Salesforce and Pardot), while the Account object is read-only.

Although there have been some “Account”-based improvements in recent releases, Pardot is far from being an account-based marketing platform. Pardot’s relationship with the Account object still leaves a lot to be desired. Naturally, one would wonder if there will be any changes on the product roadmap; at this time, Salesforce cannot confirm that there are.

We’ll see what the long-term result of the name change is. What is clear is that there will surely be less confusion about how Pardot is pronounced! 

Let us help you

If you and your team need assistance managing your Salesforce strategy, drop us a line by visiting makingscience.com/contact. We look forward to hearing from you!

Brand marketing strategies have traditionally had two approaches: product and consumer. The product-centric strategy is based on the product and aims to transmit messages regarding the characteristics of the product. The customer-centric strategy is focused on the consumer and proposes actions according to their needs and how to satisfy them.

With the pandemic, consumer behavior, their habits, and their way of perceiving the world have changed. Thus, Human-Centric Marketing has emerged as a way to better connect with users.

What is Human-Centric Marketing?

Human-Centric Marketing is not new, but it has gained strength within the sector due to the pandemic’s impact on society. Consumers want to feel that the brands they interact with have a purpose and a clear message beyond selling their products or services.

In his book Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital, marketing guru Phillip Kolter highlighted that brands that show their most human side are the ones that will achieve a greater connection with their target audience, especially in a future full of technological advances and novelties. Also, they must manage to establish a real relationship with the consumer and start treating them as humans. They must transmit a transparent, true message that highlights the brand’s values.

The keys to successfully developing this type of Human-Centric strategy for our business must be based on human values such as:

• empathy
• kindness
• compassion
• justice

The principle of this type of strategy is to understand the concerns and concerns of consumers. Brands must be capable of conveying that they listen to and understand these concerns, and that they are capable of offering an experience that accompanies their product or service.

The implementation of this strategy offers many benefits for brands, including achieving a positive relationship with customers. Some other major benefits include:

Results

You will discover new ways to grow your business. By researching our clients, we can know exactly what they are looking for and how we can satisfy those needs.

Relationships

Users will feel that we are listneing to them. They will know that we care about everything they have to say.

Branding

By putting the consumer experience at the center of our marketing strategy, our brand will benefit: it will improve the perception that users have of us.

Conclusions

In the end, marketing experts must have a vision of users that moves away from a mere profile as consumers and that is closer to a more human perspective. People who feel that brands connect with them will bring positive change, which can lead to results and profitability for brands.

If you need to make the transition from product- to Human-Centric Marketing, get in touch with our team here.

The digital world continues to evolve rapidly, and companies must stay up to date in order to adopt effective strategies. These are the top digital marketing trends to keep in mind for 2022.

“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” — Walt Disney

Optimize the customer journey

Customer touchpoints continue to become more important for marketing strategies, and they’re all interconnected. Customers are unique, and every day they become more digital. Companies must respond to this new dynamic by adopting innovative strategies, and creating fast, bug-free, easy-to-navigate experiences.

The challenge over the next few months will be to continue integrating the company’s communication channels. This way, a customer (if they choose) can see an ad on social media, search for the company online, visit a physical store, and buy on mobile. It should be an easy, seamless experience.

Omnichannel Attribution 

Cross-channel user journey optimization goes hand in hand with attribution. Attribution means the ability to provoke certain events across the entire funnel: creating relevance, online and offline, along the entire user journey until the moment of purchase.

Attribution allows companies to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing objectives in order to achieve their objectives. Omnichannel attribution improves measurement across all channels to best understand which channels contribute to sales, and which need to be optimized.

Ultra personalization

Adapting marketing content to the behavior and interests of users is already well-ingrained in our efforts. But in order to beat our ever-more digital competitors, it requires something more: being able to ultra-personalize experiences. 

Today, this is possible thanks to data and artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, which uses information about purchase behavior and algorithms, offers recommendations and personalized assistance like never before.

Some particularly innovative technologies are the ones that can optimize ad campaigns. For example, ad-machina can personalize ads for every user who performs a Google search, thanks to machine learning and natural language processing. The algorithm and artificial intelligence that it uses creates multiple versions of an ad based on many possible user searches in order to show them the appropriate information, in the right place, at the right time. This shortens the purchase journey and increases conversions.

Data Activation

Data is one of the most important assets that a company has. But companies tend to gather huge quantities of data without necessarily using it to optimize their investments.

No doubt, some companies are able to analyze and activate their data sources to gain valuable company insights. Giants like Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify are pioneers in activating Big Data to reach more people effectively. By activating Big Data, it’s possible to identify strategies to predict which users are more likely to buy, as well as when and where they’ll make their next purchase. 

Mobile Shopping

According to a Statista report, at the end of 2021, 73% of online sales take place on mobile. Consumers continue to use their phones more and more throughout the purchase funnel. Also, they feel comfortable making purchases on their phones, a trend that continues to increase.

Still, 30% of mobile shoppers abandon their cart halfway through the process. To avoid this, you must optimize your cross-platform purchase journey.

Also, keep up to date on the latest trends to make the most of niches in new markets before the competition gets there first.

The Metaverse

Once again, Facebook started a trend. In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of Facebook (the main company that also controls the social network of the same name) to Meta. This news has implications that are much broader than a simple name change.

The name is an abbreviation of “metaverse.” This name, coined by author Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash, denotes a virtual space. With this new name, Meta becomes the leader in a future where real life and the digital world constantly intersect. Real life and virtual reality already are present in many people’s lives and many company’s digital strategies. Meta is sure to take this even further.

The concept is a virtual world where individuals can submerge themselves easily. They’ll be able to interact in an interconnected system that will include experiences and activities. Some might include: participating in events or selling Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) – unique digital objects.

Forward thinking companies should capitlize on this impending innovation to exploit the resulting business opportunities. This will also apply in advertising, which will continue to have a fundamental role in marketing strategies.

NFTs

As mentioned before, NFTs are original digital assets, created through blockchain technology. These objects have unique identification codes and, as such, are not replicable. 

The market for non-fungible tokens is booming. Companies have spent months to get their share of the NFT pie. For example, in 2021, Clinique organized a contest to gift three NFTs to members of their rewards program as a prize for participating in a social media campaign organized by the company. 

Similar to Clinique, many other companies have started to use NFTs to promote new launches and anniversaries. The goal is usually to increase followers on social media or to support campaigns – in general, to create loyalty with consumers. This is just the beginning of the world of NFTs and the opportunities for companies are nearly limitless.

Gaming 

The gaming sector has a market worth more than 3 billion dollars, and it’s defined by Accenture as the next “super platform.” According to its last study, 3.1 billion people in the world (nearly 40% of the global population) play video games. 

Video Games have gone from an individual activity to a “place” where you can meet up and socialize. Also, in the last few years a new type of user has appeared in the industry: spectators. That’s right, there are people who watch other people play video games online, for example on YouTube or Twitch. 

Some brands have taken advantage of these changes, creating new contact points with a larger audience that’s historically been difficult to reach.

Social Commerce 

Whoever sells products or services online and uses social media to promote it is already involved in social commerce. But many are not taking full advantage of it.

With e-commerce and social media on the rise, it’s no wonder the phenomenon of social commerce – buying products and services directly from social channels – is growing, too.

For this reason, it is important to create your own stores directly on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok using the internal “purchase” functions of the platforms. This way, users can purchase the product they’re interested in with a simple click.

It is also necessary to invest in sponsored promotional activities in order to take advantage of the wave of digital buyers. Sponsored promotional activities, thanks to data and machine learning, can maximize the return on investment. Another important and growing trend, especially relevant for B2C, is influencer marketing.

These are just some of the possibilities offered by social commerce. Used correctly, companies can increase their sales, reach a larger audience, and retain their customers through more integrated experiences.

So, what’s next?

No matter the type or sector of a company, it is important to be up to date with current and future trends. Having an overview allows you to assess where to invest and develop the most suitable strategies for your brand.

If you’re not sure where to get started, reach out to our team by sending an email to info@makingscience.com. We have a team of martech experts standing by to help you achieve your e-commerce dreams!

Hiring a digital marketing agency is like going on a first date. Will you get along? Is it going to be a good match? Will it lead to a long, fulfilling relationship? Or, will you both leave disappointed and frustrated?

This process of choosing the best digital agency for your unique business needs is a “love affair” of sorts, a professional journey that will take you from “Hello, you seem interesting” to “Oh my, where have you been all my life?” with maybe a few struggles along the way. And the choices you face can overwhelm you. The market is flooded with agencies of all sizes, specializations, and capabilities, where trying to choose the right one can almost feel as overwhelming and trivial as swiping right on a dating site.  Hiring a digital marketing agency

But, by asking the right questions beforehand, you’ll be able to avoid some of the risk that comes with getting your heart broken (or, in other words, hiring a digital marketing agency that isn’t the right fit for your company).

Here are 10 important questions you should ask a digital agency before you hire them, when you’re in the dating phase, so that you boost your chances of enjoying a long, successful committed business relationship:

1. “How will you understand our needs?”

Ask about the process they will undergo to get to know your business in order to pinpoint your needs and align their recommendations and strategies with those needs. This is typically referred to by the agency as their “Discovery” phase, and ideally the agency should do as much research as possible, immersing themselves into your business structure and teams, to learn as much as they can about your pain points, needs, challenges, and goals. Find out beforehand how thorough an agency will be in “discovering” your business, and if they don’t seem to put much emphasis on this phase, that could be a red flag that they’re not a good match for you.

2. “Do you have experience with companies like us?”

Ask the digital marketing agency you are hiring if they have ever worked with a business like yours in the past, whether that means in your industry or specific sector or market, or even a business of your size and structure. While it’s often best to find an agency that is already familiar with and established in your field and understands your industry (why re-invent the wheel?), you also want to make sure that the agency doesn’t have any dust on them. Look for an agency that makes innovation and learning a priority, but also has experience with your unique business vertical.

→ Check out Making Science’s Projects portfolio

3. “How do you plan to do things differently?” 

You want an agency that knows what works and what doesn’t work for your industry and business so they can guide you with authority and experience. But, you also want an agency that doesn’t settle for the status quo but is always looking for new, interesting ways to outshine competitors, keep up with cutting edge trends, and who isn‘t afraid to make a few waves and disrupt the market.

4. “What will you need us to do?”

When you hire a digital marketing agency, you’re hiring a partner, a collaborator, a team who will work with you, not only for you, to achieve real growth for your company. Make sure you have a clear understanding from the outset of the level of involvement you or your team will need to commit to in each phase of the project and the kinds of data, access, or resources you’ll expect to provide the agency so they can work on your behalf.

5. “How will you measure success?” 

Ask every digital agency you’re considering hiring what you can expect in terms of reporting and analytics and which methods they use to communicate reports on progress and results. This is one of the most important questions to ask, because, of course, true data does not lie, and the due diligence every agency must do when reporting must be thorough, accurate, and meaningful for your business. Good reporting and data from your digital agency not only helps to justify your company’s spend on these initiatives, but it also ensures you’re getting the results you need and want in the digital world.

6. “How do you bill for your services?” 

Don’t be shy when it comes to bringing up fees and billing, even early on in the process. Ask the agency exactly how and when they bill their services. For example, are they base themselves on performance, or do they charge a flat fee? How transparent are they about the billing process? All of this should be clear from the get-go.

7. “What is the overall cost of hiring a digital marketing agency?”

After you ask about their billing processes, follow that up with a specific question about overall or projected cost. Ask if there are any variables or contingencies that could affect cost along the way.

8. “Can I see some examples of your previous work?”  

By asking to see examples of their work or relevant case studies, you can get an even better sense of how they work and the kinds of results they’ve gotten in the past for clients like you.

→ Check out Making Science’s Projects portfolio

9. “When have you failed?”

This is a key, yet often overlooked question, to ask an agency you’re thinking about hiring. When you ask to see examples of their work, mention that you’d like to see examples of an unsuccessful project. There is learning in failure, so see what mistakes they’ve made in the past and how they’ve learned from them. With this information, you’ll learn how truly “agile” and adaptive the agency is.

10. “How long before we see results?” 

Make sure you have realistic expectations about deliverables and time until results. You also want the digital marketing agency you are hiring to break down the factors that could affect the results and the timing in which you can expect to see progress. Things like traffic, your product, or seasonality. A good agency will provide you with a reasonable and honest timeline that takes all of these factors into account.

Ready to get started with your first digital marketing agency?

Get in touch