Agency Blog

If you own a business, when was the last time you checked your online reviews? Or, have you ever checked out what customers are saying about you? As you gear up for another year of doing business under the challenge of COVID-19, there’s one New Year’s resolution to make and keep: tracking customer reviews. You should pay as much attention to this as you would any other task.

If the ongoing and ever-changing era of the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is how to adjust, pivot, and adapt. Where marketing and advertising are concerned, adaptability has been especially felt in creating relationships between brands and customers. Here then are a few marketing trends to be aware of as 2022 gets underway.

Have you ever considered sponsorship opportunities, whether it is to promote your own brand or to help another? Essentially, two or more brands are noticed by select targeted audiences, which could mean a win-win for all.

As you focus on how many sales your business is earning in the thick of this holiday season, keep in mind that the new year will be here before you know it. A few—but important—changes in search engine optimization (SEO) have happened in the last year, and will continue to have an impact in 2022. Take a break and either get to know or review some of the updated SEO offerings from search engine giant, Google. 

As the year 2021 draws to a close, the world has been upended once more by yet another variant of the COVID-19 coronavirus, named Omicron. How will this impact merchants, shops, and businesses—particularly with the holiday shopping season in full swing?

Small Business Saturday—taking place this year on November 27^th—champions local stores, shops, and merchants. As many small businesses are still coming back in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, they should make the most of showcasing what they have to offer to their neighboring customers. If you own a small business—and you accept American Express®—discover the resources you can use to stand out—so that your neighbors will walk in.

If you own a store, shop, restaurant, or any other enterprise, you’ve likely used—and benefited—from Google My Business to make your presence known to anyone searching for what you have to offer. Well, prepare for a change. Google My Business is going away, to be replaced by Google Business Profile. What is this all about, and what does it mean to you and all other business owners?

In any online space—from e-commerce sites to social media—the focus is to provide a convenient and seamless user experience. A recent case in point: Instagram. This visual-centric platform is in the process of improving its video capabilities as a way to attract customers by making it easier and more accessible to post moving pictures to its platform.

Last week, the Facebook outage, compounded by the Congressional testimony of that platform’s former employee, Frances Haugen, topped the news for several days. The ripple effects, however, may last for some time—particularly for small businesses that advertise on Facebook, not to mention its “family” of platforms that include Instagram.

There has been a lot of coverage about third-party data being phased out over time, coinciding with first-party data becoming the method of choice for marketers to promote brands to potential customers. But were you aware of zero-party data? (Spoiler alert: Instead of the brand reaching out to the customer, the customer is reaching out to the brand.)