Making a U-turn in a Ford Focus is easier than in an 18-wheeler.

In the same sense, making substantial changes to your company structure is much easier at an agency of 10 people than an agency that has grown to 50 or more.

But that challenge and discomfort shouldn’t keep you from working to improve your agency’s structure. If you approach the process strategically and for the right reasons, change can be a positive force for your company — and it could potentially result in pretty impressive growth in the long run.

When my content marketing agency, Influence & Co., grew to about 50 people a year and a half ago, we decided to change our entire company structure.

When I discuss this change with my fellow agency leaders, they often think (at least initially) that a switch to a client-based team structure instead of siloed departments would be chaotic, difficult, and possibly negative for clients who were used to and preferred the existing model.

But change — even major structural and procedural change — doesn’t have to create chaos. If you and your leadership team manage development effectively and commit to transparent communication with your team and clients, you might be surprised by how smooth the process can be.

If you’re considering making a change within your own agency’s team structure, take a look at whether an approach like ours would work for you.

Why We Saw Change on the Horizon

In our agency’s infancy, our client services team was divided into departments by role. Our account strategists managed sets of clients from their own department, while editors, in a separate department, worked on content for all clients according to their individual capacities.

This is a fairly common structure for content agencies, but its prevalence doesn’t mean it’s perfect. In fact, we found it was responsible for a number of inefficiencies and incidents of tension between departments.

A lack of regular contact between editors and clients often left editors in the dark about concerns like strategy and tone, which resulted in a disconnect that reduced content quality. Account strategists were split between two very different job functions: account management and content strategy. This not only left them feeling stretched too thin, but also made it difficult for us to hire and train content marketers and project managers.

This problematic disconnect made it challenging for us to effectively service clients, and kept our employees from performing at their best. We knew we needed a change — we just had to determine what it would look like.

How One Change Can Improve Everything

After six months of internal research and planning, we rolled out the client-based structure we use today.

Rather than separate departments, we designed smaller teams called “pods” that include three team members essential to an effective content strategy who collaborate to serve their assigned clients. Each pod contains an account strategist who manages client relationships, a content strategist who manages client campaigns, and an editor who manages content creation.

The pod structure completely broke down the silos that kept our client-facing team members from working together as efficiently as we knew they could. The new structure also included dividing the account strategist role into two positions, which allows the three pod members to specialize in their own areas of expertise. And because these team members are dedicated to working together and serving their shared group of clients, they each understand those clients, those clients’ strategies, and one another’s roles much more thoroughly.

Because of the targeted focus on client service and employee performance, this change has helped our company grow and improve by every metric we measure.

Our client lifetime has grown by 30%, client satisfaction — as measured by Net Promoter Score — improved by 29% three months after the change; employee satisfaction has risen by 23%; and our top-line revenue has grown by more than 50% since the switch.

Planning for growth has also become easier. In the past, the resignation of one account strategist meant we’d need to transfer all his clients to other account strategists right away. That back-and-forth transfer of clients weakened the client experience and added stress to other team members. Now if one person in a pod leaves, that client has two other familiar faces he or she can trust and continue working with while the third role is being filled.

Plus, the remaining pod members can temporarily pick up the slack while we transition a new employee into the vacant role, giving us enough time to properly hire and train another team member. The entire structure is a much more stable approach to growth and client management than any we had before.

Get the Team Involved for Effective Change Management

We did our best to roll out these structural and procedural changes — big and small — in a way that our team could embrace. What we didn’t do was walk into the office one day and say, “Hey, everyone. All of your roles are changing. We’re doing a pod thing now. Good luck!”

Conversations with team members began about six months before we actually shifted to a pod structure and about three months before our support-structure change. Beginning with discovery conversations with people in all affected roles, we asked how employees thought it would impact their jobs and what resources they needed to make the transition smooth.

We also asked our team to poke holes in each idea. What did they think wouldn’t work about these changes? Were we overlooking something important? How could we make this even better?

With this information, we laid out a transition plan, communicated the changes to our team (including why we felt this plan was the right choice), and set aside an entire day to turn off client work and integrate into the new roles. And we haven’t looked back since.

So whether you’re behind the wheel of a Ford Focus or a semi-truck, change will be inevitable — but there’s no reason for it to drive you off the road. The major changes Influence & Co. has introduced over the past year and a half have resulted in amazing growth and improvement: Our clients are more satisfied, employees stay with us longer, and everyone reports feeling more supported.

Your agency is only as strong as your employees and their abilities to serve clients. Isn’t it worth exploring the changes that might positively affect them?

When it comes to the final days before vacation, people tend to fall into one of two camps: 1) those who watch the clock incessantly, and 2) those who are so busy before they leave, they might even forget to put up an out-of-office email message.

If you’re anything like I am, you probably fall into team two. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to get creative. But if you plan ahead, you might be able to craft some hilarity.

Out-of-office messages run the gamut. From funny, to clever, to snarky, we’ve come across some of the best — from Google, and from colleagues.

Here are some of the gems we found. And once you’re back from vacation? Well, not to rush you, but this email productivity guide can help you get back on track after your out-of-office time.

10 Funny Out-of-Office Messages

1) The Not-So-Tropical Getaway

We’ll give this guy first place, since we almost feel bad for him. Almost. Rather than using an out-of-office message for a tropical vacation, he used one to explain his absence during what would likely be a snow storm. Not only did it give us a chuckle, but it also generated a certain amount of empathy — which is often the key to good content.

Source: New Relic

2) The Sorry-I’m-Not-Sorry

If your email client allows it, you could always just use an image to express your out-office-sentiment, like this one. After all, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words — and, visual content is still essential to successful marketing.

Source: Barry Moroney

3) The Popular Film Reference

Are you familiar with the film Field of Dreams? If not, allow us to fill you in. It centers around baseball and a family in Iowa, but saying any more might spoil the plotline. 

Movie synopses aside, the opening line of this out-of-office message was taken directly from the Field of Dreams script — fitting, given the sender’s travels to Iowa. So before you leave, research some famous quotes about the place you’re visiting. It might test the recipient’s knowledge, but more likely, it’ll just make them smile.

Source: New Relic

4) The Scavenger Hunt

When my colleague Sam Mallikarjunan went on vacation, he set an out-of-office message that was both clever and smart. First, he sent the recipient on an imaginary scavenger hunt to “the highest peak of the tallest mountain.” He used humorous absurdity to make it clear that he would not be checking email while he was away.

Plus, he incorporated a delightful technique to let people know that if they really wanted him to read their emails, they should probably send them again after his return. Not only does that keep the sender accountable by saying, “If this is really important, you know when to reach me,” but it also helps Mallikarjunan truly vacate his work while he’s away. And that’s hard to do — And if you struggle with it, check out these tips.

Source: Sam Mallikarjunan

5) The Blunt Approach

Josh Kopelman, we salute you.

Not only did Kopelman manage to turn his out-of-office message into an epic poem of sorts, but also, he actually went through the trouble of creating a delightfully snarky, vacation-specific email address for his recipients.

Giving the option to contact an email address containing “interruptyourvacation” provides two things — 1) A dose of humor, and 2) discouragement from actually doing what the name suggests. Plus, he prefaces it with a request for empathy, by explaining that he promised quality time to his family.

Here’s where honesty is a helpful device. Sure, Kopelman is truthful about the fact that he’s on vacation, but he also lets the recipient know that he or she would be interrupting important family time if the first option is chosen. It states a point simply, and uses humor to avoid making it sound like he wants the reader to feel guilty.

Source: Gizmodo

6) The Third Person

When HubSpot Marketing Manager Karsten Köhler is out of the office, he doesn’t mess around. In fact, he’s turned his auto-responses into a running series of commentary for fictional cartoon character Troy McClure.

Each time McClure makes an appearance in these out-of-office messages, he “speaks” on behalf of Köhler and alludes to the previous auto-responses in which he starred. It’s a mild form of self-deprecating humor — as if to say, “I know, I’m out of the office again” — made only funnier by the made-up teaser title included in the last line.

As with the Field of Dreams example, don’t be afraid to use a pop cultural reference that audience would recognize. Instead of bemoaning your absence, they’ll have something fun and familiar to laugh at.

Source: Karsten Köhler

7) The Twitter Method

… and then, there was the out-of-office tweet. We’re not entirely sure where it originated, but it has two sides.

If you actually want people to be able to reach you, and you’re more likely to be checking Twitter than email while out of the office, it might be an effective way for people to reach you.

But if you tend to use social media during vacation and really do want to be left alone, we would suggest offering a different communication method in your auto-response.

I’m not in the office right now but if it’s important, tweet me using #YOUAREINTERRUPTINGMYVACATION http://pic.twitter.com/SgL97nof8L

— Philippe Khattou (@Phil_Khattou)
August 14, 2015

8) The Lack of Filter

There seems to be a widespread belief that you’re not allowed to brag in your out-of-office message. But if you ask HubSpot Marketing Director Ryan Bonnici, who needs a filter when you’ve got a great vacation?

We love about this auto-response because of the marketing humor it injects with hashtags like #TMI and #SorryNotSorry. And, it’s not trying to hide anything, making it clear that Bonnici is on vacation and doesn’t really want to read your email while he’s away. But don’t worry, he says, soon you’ll be on vacation, too, which will fill him with his own karmic envy.

This message also pays tribute to the colleagues who are keeping matters in order during his absence. He specifically lists the best contact for each issue, along with a fun fact about them. Not only do I know who to ask about Field & Events, but I can ask for her dip recipe.

So don’t just be honest in your out-of-office — give credit to the people who are handling things while you’re gone.

Source: Ryan Bonnici

9) The Liquid Update

We wish we could find the original source of this one. It’s made several lists, and its author is likely a legend within his or her network.

That said, even though we’ve been preaching honesty as the best policy, be careful with messages that are this transparent. Make sure you’re familiar enough with your audience — and your boss, for that matter — to know that this sort of out-of-office message will be met with a snicker, and not with concern.

I am currently out of the office and probably out-of-my-mind drunk. Enjoy your work week.”

10) The Sneak Preview

I have a confession to make. I’m writing this post on the dawn of my own vacation.

Perhaps I had ulterior motives for seeking these examples, in that I was hoping to find inspiration for my very own out-of-office message. And if you ask me, they all have great elements that I’d like to borrow.

So, without further ado — Sorry to have missed you.

What clever out-of-office replies have you come across? Let us know in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2014 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

 

On December 14th, Twitter announced that users would be able to broadcast live video directly from Twitter on iOS and Android mobile devices. This move is the result of Twitter’s integration with Periscope, the live video streaming app it acquired back in March of 2015.

Earlier in 2016, Twitter began featuring live and replayed Periscope videos in Twitter timelines that users could watch and interact with — even without a Periscope account.

Now, Twitter users can broadcast live video directly from Twitter without having to create a Periscope account first. Tweets featuring live video can be retweeted and liked, and videos on Twitter can generate comments and heart emojis as they do in the Periscope app.

While this isn’t Twitter’s first foray into live content this year — earlier this year, Twitter began partnering with multiple organizations to become a destination site for live video, featuring NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB Games, Presidential debates, and the Republican and Democratic National Conventions — it is an important one. With the launch of its live capability, Twitter is cementing its place in the competition for user attention — and research shows that video is what users want.

Let’s dive into a quick explainer about how to go live on Twitter and what impact this announcement may have on video marketing.

How to Go Live on Twitter

Starting a live broadcast on Twitter couldn’t be easier. When you click to compose a new tweet in the mobile app, there’s now an option to record live video, as seen below:

From there, you tap the “Live” option and enter a caption to accompany your video on Twitter timelines:

Once you start recording, it’s easy to stop broadcasting, change your camera perspective, and see who’s liking and interacting with your video:

Once you’ve finished broadcasting, you can see how your video appears in other users’ Twitter timelines. Here’s my (very brief) broadcast on Twitter:

About to #GoLive on Twitter for the first time! https://t.co/y3dJS6bygD

— Sophia Bernazzani (@soph_bern)
December 19, 2016

That’s it. Easy, right?

For now, Twitter users can receive notifications when specific handles they follow start recording live, and Twitter says they can expect live videos to be featured prominently on their timelines in the future.

What’s Next for Twitter and Periscope?

Twitter Enters the Live Video Arena

If this live video launch sounds familiar to you, you’re right on target — the live content update is very similar to Facebook Live and Instagram Live. Twitter’s new live video capabilities will help it compete against Facebook and Instagram, two social media giants that are currently outpacing Twitter in terms of user growth.

Giving Twitter users the tools to create and share their own live content could help the company attract new users and increase engagement on the platform — especially because 90% of Twitter video plays already happen on mobile devices. On Facebook, live video performs 3x better than embedded video, so Twitter users may start broadcasting more live video on Twitter if it performs similarly.

Twitter Grows as a Breaking News Source

“Live video is really exciting for Twitter since it takes advantage of two things the network does so well — breaking news and being human,” HubSpot Social Media Marketing Manager Chelsea Hunersen observed. And she’s right: Twitter has become a destination for breaking news information, and it’s easy to see why.

In just 140 characters, it’s easier and faster to gather information about an evolving story than from articles or television news — 63% of Twitter users surveyed by Pew Research Center admitted they got their news on the platform, and 59% said they had kept up with a news event on Twitter as it was unfolding. By introducing live video into an environment already known for being fast-paced, breaking news just became even easier to share.

This integration of live video will also provide greater context for people trying to witness a breaking news event online. Hunersen added that, “this will also be a good way to disrupt the firehose we’ve come to know on Twitter, where it can be hard to find quality content among the many different tweets, and will add a really engaging element to those tweets.”

Twitter Has Become a Video Destination

Between sports and politics, Twitter was already generating huge audiences for their live video events. Giving users the ability to broadcast live onto a popular platform is a huge win for Twitter, but it’s a win for users, too. As streaming video content grows in popularity, particularly among Millennials, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are all competing to catch the attention of their young user bases. This live video launch could help Twitter attract more partnerships like the ones they made with professional sports leagues and cable news networks to get more eyes on video content on their platform.

Periscope’s Future is Unknown

As for Periscope, an app that boasts 110 years of live video per day being streamed, what’s next is unclear. With the integration of Periscope’s broadcasting capabilities now available on Twitter without the need for a Periscope account, we don’t know whether Twitter will continue to develop the Periscope app it acquired in 2015. For now, it’s business as usual, but it will be interesting to see if Periscope’s numbers start dropping as Twitter users start ramping up their live video broadcasting frequency.

We’re excited to see how this launch unfolds on Twitter and how it will impact Periscope and other social media platforms. Expect more content from us about competition for users, shares, and engagement, the growing popularity of live video, and more insight into how to record a broadcast Twitter users will love.

What type of video content is your favorite to watch and share on Twitter? Share with us in the comments below.

The roots of project management date back thousands of years to the creation of mega projects such as the Giza Pyramids and the Colosseum.

Although the term “project management” wasn’t coined until the 1950s, projects from more than 4,500 years ago were delivered with the same systematic approach that characterizes today’s projects.

The introduction of the personal computer and the development of the information management sector in the 1990s revolutionized project management like never before.

Modern project management is largely dependent on web-based project applications, as well as mobile applications and the cloud — enhancing agility, mobility, and collaboration.

We decided to go back in time and compare the modern project management practices to the pre-millennium standards. What does the evolution of project management look like?

Check out the infographic below to see how things have changed.

Infographic via Scoro

A great storyteller once said, “brevity is the soul of wit.” And although William Shakespeare wasn’t alive for the invention of video, we think he would agree with our marketing spin: “Brevity is the soul of video content.”

Video content has exploded on social media: Videos are watched by 82% of Twitter users, and 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook every day.

But those platforms aren’t the only ones engaging users through video: Snapchat video views jumped to 10 billion per day, more than doubling in less than a year. And Snapchat users now watch nearly 800 hours of video content per second.

In an effort to keep that growth moving forward, Snap Inc. (Snapchat’s parent company) unveiled Spectacles — sunglasses with a built-in video camera to easily record Snaps and transfer them seamlessly to the mobile app — in September 2016.

Looking for the inside scoop on this launch? You’re in luck, because I just got my hands on a pair of Spectacles to experiment with for this blog post. I’ll tell you everything you need to know about Spectacles and their potential for impact on social media and content marketing — featuring a few videos I recorded while taking them on a test run.

What Are Spectacles?

Spectacles are sunglasses with an integrated camera that records videos and syncs with the wearer’s Snapchat account via Bluetooth for easy capturing and sharing. Check out the video below of yours truly trying on the Spectacles for the first time (I was a little excited):

Users wear Spectacles like sunglasses and record video from their perspective in a new circular, interactive video format that lets viewers rotate their phones while viewing. As shown above, a white LED light will rotate to indicate that video is being recorded live. Check out the videos recorded using Spectacles below (and keep reading to see original footage I recorded using my Spectacles):

Source: Spectacles

Spectacles battery life allows for an average of 100 10-second video recordings per day, and the device can charge inside of its case several times to allow for wireless charging on-the-go. Spectacles come in black, teal, or coral and can be adjusted for fit or prescription lenses.

Wait, Isn’t This the Same Thing as Google Glass?

Spectacles might take you back to 2012, when Google announced Google Glass — a wearable, hands-free computer system. That project was halted in 2015, after Google faced barriers to widespread adoption, including privacy concerns and pop culture mockery.

Luckily, Snapchat Inc. seems to be following a different playbook when it comes to the positioning of Spectacles. Most notably, the product is dedicated solely to video capturing instead of functioning as a wearable computer system like Google Glass. As a result, the cost is significantly less: Spectacles can be purchased for just $129.99.

Sure, the specs are certainly a bit silly looking — the large lenses, bold frames, etc. — but, at the very least, they align with the brand’s colorful image.

At the end of the day, they’re far more wearable than Glass, which received plenty of less than positive feedback in terms of the design.

How to Get Spectacles

If you’re chomping at the bit to get your hands on a pair, we’ve got some bad news: Spectacles aren’t sold at a traditional storefront. Instead, they’re available in limited quantity for $129.99 at Snapbot vending machines that spontaneously pop up around the country. Yes, that’s right, a Snapbot.

Source: Spectacles

Pretty interesting concept, right?

Now there’s a lot to be said about this unorthodox strategy, as Snap Inc. is disrupting both how video is recorded and how new technology brought to market.

Instead of shopping online or heading to a store, these Snapbots are being dropped without announcement or fanfare. Instead, buyers find out about Snapbot sightings via Twitter, Instagram, and word-of-mouth, then rush to queue in line in hopes that the Spectacles aren’t sold out by the time it’s their turn. Additionally, if you’re near a Snapbot, a Geofilter will appear in Snapchat letting you know:

Source: Spectacles

If you visit the “Find a Bot” page now, you’ll either see a map to the current location of the vending machine, or this image:

Source: Spectacles

The strategy behind this interesting distribution method? Aside from the obvious appeal to exclusivity, “It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it,” Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel told the Wall Street Journal.

Spectacles are currently being resold for hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars on sites like eBay (admittedly, that’s where we snagged ours) and Amazon, leaving the rest of us to wonder whether or not this approach errs more on the side of frustrating or brilliant. But if there’s one thing we know, it’s that the buzz — both positive and negative — around this launch has inevitably created an interesting sounding board for ideas and iterations.

Why Are Spectacles Such a Big Deal?

Between the unusual launch and the unique video perspective, it’s easy to understand why Spectacles have the tech industry talking. But what does the introduction of a product like this mean for marketers? How might this launch shape the way brands approach their go-to-market strategies in the future? What impact will this have on the Snapchat app?

Let’s walk through some of the biggest takeaways here.

A New Way to Watch and Record Video

Have you ever had a moment that you wished you had captured on video, but you didn’t have the time to grab your phone, open your camera up, and delete enough photos to make room for storage?

Spectacles allow for (almost) hands-free video recording, granting wearers the freedom to record from their point of view. This adds a new level of ease for the “videographer” to live stream an event, go behind-the-scenes, record a how-to video, or even interview someone. It also creates a new, interesting experience for the viewer: Imagine watching a video from the eyes of your favorite brand or personality.

Here are a couple of Snaps I recorded hands-free using Spectacles:

The camera utilizes circular video, which plays full screen on any device, in any orientation. And the lens is designed to capture the human perspective, offering a 115 degree field of view. This opens Snapchat to a variety of new video content: Previously, users had to record Snaps in vertical format, and the display wouldn’t auto-adjust if videos were recorded horizontally.

Here’s a (very meta) video of me watching my Snapchat Story and experimenting with the circular video format — recorded using Spectacles, of course:

I had fun experimenting with the Spectacles for this article, and I’m excited to keep using them to record unique video content. I especially love the battery-charging case that keeps the Spectacles safe and ready to record at a moment’s notice. 

A Unique Distribution Strategy

If you’re a social media marketer, take note: Snap Inc. does a great job of turning its product into a viral social media moment. The secrecy and exclusivity involved in the rollout make Snapchat users excited and curious — FOMO is real, people.

The larger lesson for marketers here? Use secrecy and exclusivity to generate buzz and make your audience more interested than ever in what you’re up to. For Snapchat Inc., that meant introducing wearable technology vending machines. For your company, that might mean serving up limited-time offers or creating an exclusive ambassador program.

A Platform-Specific Video Format

It’s still too early to analyze how Spectacles will perform, but broadly, Spectacles could impact social media and video marketing in few big ways.

Consumers want more video content, especially on social media. Spectacles answered that call by creating a new video recording format that can only be viewed on Snapchat. Spectacles are effectively helping create more video content on Snapchat while increasing their user base’s engagement with their mobile app. (In 2016, four-year-old Snapchat overtook ten-year-old Twitter’s user base with 150 million daily active users.)

From a brand perspective, this could make Snapchat a more desirable channel for advertising, as shoppers are nearly twice as likely to purchase a product if they’ve seen a video first. (Think: Showcasing your product through the lens of an authentic, human perspective.)

Additionally, if you’re an event marketer, this new video format offers an interesting avenue for showcasing what it’s like to actually be in attendance — something that regular video content or photos can’t capture.

What’s Next?

We can’t tell you much more about data on the Spectacles … yet. But we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop with more circular videos on our Snapchat Story.

And while you wait in line to get your pair, be sure to check out our other Snapchat content, like this hidden features piece, this guide to Snapchat Stories, and this roundup of brands nailing their Snapchat strategies.

What’s your favorite feature of Snapchat? Share with us in the comments below.

It’s almost the end of the year — which means marketing leaders everywhere are in the throes of getting organized for a fresh and successful new year.

You’re setting goals, managing your budget, reading up on how inbound marketing is changing, and figuring out which positions you can hire for. What’s more, you’re finding yourself creating a whole bunch of PowerPoint presentations to package this information nicely for your team, your managers, and other key stakeholders.

To help you stay organized and focused through all of your 2017 priorities, we’ve gathered together a complete collection of executive templates and guides in our latest kit: The 2017 Marketing Strategy Templates & Guides. It includes:

• The 2016 State of Inbound Marketing & Sales Report
• 8 Budget Templates to Manage Your Marketing Spend
• 29 Job Descriptions for Hiring Excellent Marketers
• Top Training Needs for Marketing Teams
• How to Create Beautiful PowerPoints

Use the 2016 State of Inbound Marketing and Sales Report will help you communicate your goals with valuable insight from a diverse collection of global marketers. Then, try out our 8 Budget Templates to take control of all the moving pieces of your expenses on a monthly and quarterly level.

As you finalize the focus of the department, use our collection of 29 Job Descriptions for Hiring Excellent Marketers to identify what positions you might be missing, and then easily copy-and-paste these descriptions into your next job listings. Then, check out our Top Training Needs for Marketing Teams report, where we’ve compiled the questions marketers miss most from our Inbound Marketing Certification test and provided a refresher for the sections that proved most difficult.

And as you prepare your decks for the training sessions, use our beautiful PowerPoint templates to ensure your presentations are engaging and impactful.

Sounds too good to be true? It’s not. For access to all of these resources, download our 2017 Marketing Strategy Templates & Guides today.

2016 was a year of unprecedented creative opportunities for advertisers.

Advancements in technology enabled agencies to develop campaigns across innovative new mediums, pushing the boundaries of digital advertising and inviting consumers to experience brands like never before.

Before we see what 2017 has in store, let’s take a look back at some of this year’s most impactful advertising trends. The following four marketing tactics left a big mark on 2016, and they show no signs of slowing down as we head into the new year.

See which trends fueled some of the most creative ad campaigns, and start planning your first 2017 campaign. 

4 of the Biggest Advertising Trends of 2016

1) Experiential Marketing

From branded pop-up shops to larger promotional events, brands definitely embraced experiential marketing in 2016. And agencies rose to meet this growing demand.

Big brands like Coca-Cola, Google, and Anheuser-Busch sought out agency partners who specialize in creating brand experiences that woo participants and generate buzz on social media.

So what makes experiential marketing so powerful? Casey Conway, a founding partner of Say OK — the agency behind experiential work for brands like Google, Microsoft, and Converse — says it helps brands relate to people who don’t typically connect with traditional advertising mediums.

“We pride ourselves on getting those people who think they know better, who can see right through the traditional side [of advertising], and hit them in a cool, unique way,” Conway said to Adweek. “It’s not about a brand just being the logo [in an immersive experience]; it’s about giving the consumer an awesome experience from a brand.”

Example: SXSW ‘Suicide Squad’ Tattoo Shop Pop-Up

When Warner Brothers wanted a unique way to promote the Suicide Squad movie at SXSW, they turned to the experiential ad experts at Milwaukee-based GMR.

Their team temporarily converted a tattoo shop in downtown Austin into Harley Quinn’s Tattoo Parlor, offering free temporary and permanent tattoos inspired by the film’s characters to anyone who was interested. The shop was redesigned with decor from the movie and staffed with a team of Harley Quinn lookalikes to draw people in.

The event was a massive success for Warner Brothers, drawing in over 2,400 SXSW attendees and generating 35.4 million impressions on Twitter and Instagram.

2) Virtual Reality

Virtual and augmented reality have been rapidly gaining momentum for a few years, with investments in the space topping $1.1 billion in 2016. Skeptics have expressed concerns as to whether or not the tech is accessible enough to generate widespread and sustainable consumer interest, but this year advertisers began to realize that people are generally enthusiastic about exploring the new medium.

A survey conducted by Nielsen’s Media lab found that 24% of consumers said they will likely use or purchase VR next year, and another 20% said they would try it after learning some of the basics of the technology.

Companies like North Face, Samsung, and NBC all got in on the action, and smaller VR-focused marketing startups began cropping up to meet demand from major brands. In a signal of commitment to the medium, The New York Times even purchased Fake Love, a New York-based agency specializing in VR and AR campaigns.

“It’s completely immersive,” said Adam Harter, VP of marketing and cultural connections at Pepsi, speaking at a video conference. “We believe that if you can create an emotional connection with the consumer, you will hook them, you will make them fans of your brand. And I don’t think that any other experience other than VR can create an experience that people want to share more.”

Example: The National Park Service’s “Through the Ages” short film

To celebrate the National Park Service’s centennial anniversary, National Geographic partnered with Facebook’s Oculus Team and VR production agency Felix & Paul Studios to create a short film highlighting the natural beauty of Yosemite National Park.

Starring President Obama and his family, the 11-minute VR film offers viewers a uniquely immersive glimpse at the park as the first family explores the landscape. The video is available for Oculus Rift and on Facebook’s 360-degree video platform.

You can watch the 360-degree video version on the White House website.

Image Credit: The White House

3) Live Video

2016 was the year of live video for social platforms. Facebook launched Live back in April, Twitter introduced a mobile integration with live-streaming app Periscope, and Instagram just released a live video streaming service to all U.S. users in December.

Live video has become an inclusive extension of video marketing, allowing users to connect with content in real time. Brands have been taking full advantage of the new streaming capabilities, inviting consumers to experience live branded content directly from their devices.

And consumers are eager to tune in. Retail giant Lowe’s unveiled their Black Friday offers on Facebook Live to an audience of 32,000 (and picked up an additional 891,000 views via promoted posts over the following days). Martha Stewart broadcasts a series of popular live cooking videos, and Refinery29 hired a team of 10 staffers just to focus on creating Facebook Live content for the lifestyle website.

“Live content is uniquely compelling when it offers rarity,” said Topher Burns, group director of product innovation at Deep Focus, to Adweek. “Glimpses of life you’d never usually get, spaces you’d normally be denied access to, things that are happening in one moment that you’ve just got to see.”

Example: Taco Bell’s Friendsgiving Feast

To celebrate Thanksgiving this year, fast food chain Taco Bell held a “Friendsgiving” feast, inviting a group of social media influencers to their headquarters for a unusual spread of Thanksgiving-inspired taco creations.

They streamed the whole dinner live on Facebook, attracting an impressive audience of 150,000 taco-loving consumers throughout the broadcast. 

Image Credit:
Taco Bell’s Twitter

4) Influencer Marketing

“Influencer marketing” became a much-circulated buzzword in 2016, but it’s still a largely uncertain investment for brands and agencies.

The concept of influencer marketing is pretty straightforward: to reach new audiences on social media, brands pay “influencers” — social media personalities and celebrities with massive follower counts — to post about their products. It’s become an extremely prevalent practice (particularly on YouTube and Instagram, where even pets are getting in on it), but there still aren’t clear compensation guidelines for influencers or ways for brands to measure the success of influencer-driven efforts.

And there’s been some legal backlash. TruthinAdvertising.org, a nonprofit devoted to fighting deceptive advertising, called out the Kardashian sisters in August for not being transparent about what brands they were being paid to promote on Instagram. As a result, many sponsored posts now include #ad or some variation to indicate that a post is a paid endorsement, but brands complain it reduces the efficacy of the posts.

Despite some of the issues with the practice, many brands have found success with tapping influencers to promote their products and target niche audiences. Lifestyle brands have been particularly successful reaching consumers through influencer campaigns.

Example: Honest Tea

Honest Tea, a beverage company, regularly partners with social media influencers to reach their target audience: young mothers. The brand has selectively recruited seven Instagram-famous moms to share challenging parenting moments with the hashtag #RefreshinglyHonest.

 

She isn’t even two but Evangeline has very particular tastes in food. Basically, anything sweet or salty and she’s all over it (sounds familiar…). Most days I try (beg) her to eat balanced meals, and other days I let her have her way. Today is one of those days. #OlivesForever Posted in partnership with @HonestTea-share some of your #RefreshinglyHonest moments so we can all feel better about our less than perfect parenting moments <3

A photo posted by Jessica Shyba (@mommasgonecity) on Jun 30, 2016 at 6:14pm PDT

What were your favorite advertising trends this year? Let us know in the comments.

“We got a $300,000 opportunity this week from live chat on our site.”

I’m filled with pride as I hear our VP of sales make this statement. I worked hard for six months to get the sales team invested in live chat as a sales channel and I’m finally seeing the results.

It wasn’t easy, though. For many weeks, I sat in meetings or sent detailed reports trying to explain that while we had dozens of leads coming in through live chat, they weren’t being followed up on. I sadly watched the leads’ value diminish the longer they sat in the database.

But now that the sales team members were committed, live chat was proving to be a lucrative channel. I had members of the sales team asking me every week to add them as agents. They wanted in. They wanted in, because the most valuable leads are those that are on your website.

People visiting your website are there looking for something. If you can provide them with the answer they are seeking, you are going to win their favor. That’s where live chat comes in. The ability to connect directly with your visitor, at the moment they have questions about your product is an incredible driver of marketing-qualified leads and sales.

However, you only get out of live chat, what you put in: It’s difficult to realize the kind of results above without joint investment from your marketing and sales organizations. So, how do you get everyone involved? Below are the steps to getting leadership, sales, and marketing, on the live chat train.

1) Get People On Board With Live Chat

Identify an Owner and Then Determine the Benefits

You need a live chat champion. The champion will most likely live in the marketing team. Once this person is identified, it’s critical that they set expectations with leadership, the marketing team, and the sales team regarding what live chat will accomplish.

It depends on the stage and structure of your business, but there is a likely a gap that live chat will fill. Define your initial expectations for the benefits that chat will provide. Here are a few suggestions.

• Improved understanding of site effectiveness
• Better insight on site visitors
• Increased site conversion rate
• Increased # of leads
• Increased # of MQLs
• More sales opportunities

Choose one of these improvements as a goal and make it your focus for the roll out and testing of live chat. Then, set a specific amount of time and an approach to your test. At the end of that period, measure your results.

Test It Out

Get started with a trial. Most live chat providers have a trial and SnapEngage offers a 15-Day Free Trial. It’s incredibly easy to setup. The setup typically just requires adding a snippet of code to your website. Once you’re up and running, you can start to validate the improvements you’ve defined almost instantly.

As you conduct your test, there are a few ways to know if live chat is working:

• You are chatting daily with your site visitors and chat volume is increasing
• The bounce rate on the pages where chat is installed is decreasing
• Marketing is driving conversions from visitor to lead through live chat
• You learned something from your chat conversations about your market or how to improve your website
• Your sales team closed a deal with a lead that came through live chat
• The chat agents are consistently using the tool

Illustrate the Benefits

After you have conducted your test, report your findings and the improvements you experienced to the sales and marketing team. Then, project those improvements out over a longer period of time to provide a full picture of what the future with live chat might look like.

As I mentioned, people who use live chat as an acquisition and conversion channel often find it to be one of the most successful drivers of leads in regards to volume and quality. We’ve seen that clients who use chat, experience a 10-20% increase in conversion from visitor to lead. If you experience an increase in your site conversion rate of 10%, show the impact of that over time.

Here’s an example:

*http://ift.tt/1dZkDrx

That’s a huge increase in revenue opportunity–nearly $100K per year–just by improving the conversion rate with live chat. 

If you can illustrate these kinds of benefits to sales and marketing leadership, they will be pumped.

If you’re looking for more information to present to your sales and marketing leadership on live chat’s ability to bridge the gap between marketing and sales, you can also read our guide, How to Leverage Live Chat to Get More Out of Inbound Marketing.

2) Implement Successfully

Define ownership and accountability

For chat to be a successful channel for your business, accountability needs to be clear. Most importantly, there should be committed chat agents who will respond to inbound chats. Without that, chat provides no value.

Here is the most common accountability structure we see marketing and sales teams use when it comes to live chat:

• Marketing or Marketing Operations: Frequently, marketing is the cheerleader of chat. In this role, they are commonly responsible for implementing, training, and measurement.
• Lead or Business Development Reps (LDR/BDR): These are the committed chat agents. This team is responsible for managing the inbound chats, qualifying them, and then handing them off to sales.
• Sales Account Execs: Once the leads have been qualified and passed along, sales is responsible for the following up right away and moving qualified leads through the sales process.

For companies with existing LDR/BDR teams, chat is a no-brainer. It provides the entry-level employees with a less intimidating way to interact with prospects and the opportunity to get familiar with the product and frequently asked questions they might encounter, but in a controlled environment, which prepares them for the phones.

For companies without an existing front line for sales, you can enlist sales reps, marketers, or office admins.

Another option is to do what SnapEngage does and make everyone responsible for chat. This approach provides an incredible inside view on the market, the questions prospects are asking, how people are navigating the website, and the first impression of the site and product.

Install Properly

Customize the design of your live chat tool

Having all the design elements on your site working in harmony helps to present a unified structure and visual appeal. It has also been shown to help drive engagement. Make sure that live chat aligns with your existing web presence and brand style guide. 

Place chat on the most qualified pages

It’s possible to choose where your live chat panel appears and where it doesn’t. Taking a strategic approach to where you place live chat on your website will help gradually introduce your team to live chat and also help focus resources on your most qualified leads.”

Instead of installing across the entire website, install chat on only your most qualified pages. These are the pages that people who are further down the funnel are visiting, such as the product page, the pricing page, schedule a demo, or start a trial areas of your website.

Make it personal

Add names and pictures of your agents to make the experience more personal. It’s important to provide a human touch. By adding pictures and names, you establish credibility, which improves the likelihood of conversion.

Train Your Agents

It may sound obvious, but it’s important that you familiarize your chat agents with all of the features and settings. You can expect that live chat tools will have a general guide to chat. But beyond the general overview, it’s useful to find the unique tools that are going to create efficiency and collaboration for your team. Most live chat tools have features such as:

• Keyboard shortcuts to help make chatting more efficient
• Canned responses to ensure that your chat agents are leveraging existing marketing content to answer common questions
• Territory (or other) assignments and chat transfers to send chats to the proper team member  

Integrate with your CRM

Much of the power of chat for marketing and sales comes with integration. SnapEngage integrates with several marketing and sales software providers, like HubSpot. These integrations allow you to store all of your prospect and customer communication history, including chat activities, in one place.

It also provides the seamlessness of assigning leads to the proper team members and the ability for those team members to see a history of lead interactions (including detailed transcripts), so you always know what’s been said. It’s also possible to include chat activity as a lead scoring criteria to support your lead qualification process.

3) Measure and Improve

Continual measurement and improvement is critical to the success of a live chat program. As you roll out the program, be sure to define accountability and set up a scorecard to measure performance on a regular cadence.

Each group and individual should have a clear understanding of who is accountable for what. Again, the most basic action that the group needs to be accountable to is responding to chats.  

Also determine who will own measurement. When it comes to measuring how successful live chat is, you can start at a high level and look at volume and quality.

• # of chats
• % of visitor to chat
• # of leads (from chat source)
• % of chat to lead

If you want to go a bit deeper, you can follow your chat activity down the funnel and track a few sales-related metrics.

• # of sales opportunities (from chat source)
• % of lead to opportunity
• $ in pipeline (from chat source)
• # of closed sales (from chat source)
• $ in sales (from chat source)

Other, more specific things to monitor and measure are chat performance by different criteria such as:

• Site page
• Visitor geography
• Chat agent
• Product
• Etc.

You can derive a ton of valuable data about the effectiveness of live chat that will only help you optimize and improve your marketing and sales performance. It’s important to recognize that a live chat program isn’t a “set it and forget it” program.

Continual improvements can make a huge difference and will continue the interest and investment in live chat as a marketing and sales channel.

Work and a busy schedule can take a lot out of a person. Thankfully, vacation is a great time to slow down, recharge, spend time seeing your loved ones, and do things you wouldn’t normally have time to do.

While it can be tempting to fill your out-of-office schedule with travel and funtivities, there is something to be said about making time to tackle some of the things that have been collecting dust in your mental backlog. To help you get ahead for the upcoming year, we’ve put together a list of 20 ideas for productive things to do during your downtime while on vacation. Once you’ve picked your favorites, try using one of these awesome to-do list tools to keep yourself on course.

20 Productive Things to Do During Your Downtime

1) Play around with new technology.

There’s never a good time to learn how to Snapchat when you’ve got a billion other things going on, but learning those new technologies is important. For example, Snapchat gets 10 billion video views per day, according to a Bloomberg report. That’s more than Facebook.

So why not use your downtime over the holidays to download and play around with some of these new technologies? A few that we recommend include Snapchat, Instagram (read this post for some great Instagram Story tips), messaging apps like Slack and WhatsApp, and photo editing apps to improve your content creation skills.

2) Write thank-you notes.

Take advantage of the opportunity to make someone’s day by writing them a meaningful, personal thank-you note. It’s a way to distinguish yourself in our increasingly informal, digital world.

Thank-you notes are an easy way to show your appreciation, but there are two roadblocks that cause people to not do it: They don’t have thank-you cards or they don’t know what to write. Let us help out:

1. Buy blank or thank-you notes in bulk. It’s as easy as searching “thank-you cards” on Amazon and buying your favorite pack. (Don’t forget to stock up on stamps, too!) Or, you could go digital using the Postagram app for iPhone: It lets you type up a quick thank-you note to someone, snap a photo, and then they receive an actual, physical card.
2. Here’s a thank-you note template from Hallmark.

3) Schedule all your appointments.

Go see your doctor, your dentist, and your barber or hair stylist. Take your pet to the vet for a check-up. Get the oil changed in your car. Think of all those minor inconveniences you just can’t seem to get to when you’re on your regular schedule, and check them off the list. (Or at least schedule them for the future.)

4) Make reservations for future plans and trips.

Whether you have a whole trip coming up or even just a dinner, spend some time doing the thoughtful research you may not otherwise have time to do — and make reservations as far in advance as possible. These things can end up sneaking up on you, so making plans early helps guarantee you won’t lose out on some cool opportunities. Not to mention, it’ll leave you feeling less stressed out down the line.

5) Get your planner or calendar organized for the new year.

Did you get a new planner or calendar for the upcoming year? The holidays are a perfect time to fill it out with the appointments and trips you’ve already planned. When you’re not spending time on everyday work tasks, you can experiment with new organizational formats such as the bullet journal to make sure you’re as productive as possible when you head back to the office.

6) Talk to your friends and family about what you do.

While you should take advantage of the time you have away from work to dial back and focus on other parts of your life, you don’t need to remove work from your mind completely. Talking about what you do with the people you love is different from actually doing it. Work is such an important part of our lives and takes up a huge chunk of our waking hours, so sometimes sharing that with family and friends can actually be a bonding exercise.

If your friends and family aren’t familiar with what you do or are interested in learning more, now’s a great time to fill them in on what you do all day, why you like it (or don’t like it), and what you’re hoping to do in the future. Who knows, you could pick up some great insights from people who are removed from your day-to-day.

(Inbound marketers, feel free to steal some ideas from “5 Ways to Explain Inbound Marketing to Your Family.”)

7) Call your long-distance friends.

You know that list of friends and family members you’ve been meaning to catch up with, but never seem to find the time? Open your phone, find a comfortable spot to sit, and give them a call with your full attention. Now’s the perfect time to connect with people you don’t see regularly but want to stay in touch with.

8) Start building a habit.

Some say it takes 21 days to build a habit. Others say it takes a lot longer. But exactly how long it takes doesn’t really matter. The point is, you have to put the work in up front if you want a habit to stick. So why not use the holidays to get started?

Whether you want to start flossing every day or writing in a journal before bed each night, take the time during your downtime to start habit-forming and set yourself up for success.

9) Learn a new skill for your job.

Most people have a skill they’ve always wanted to learn to advance their career, but simply haven’t gotten around to.

Ever wanted to learn basic coding? Codecademy’s HTML/CSS courses can be finished over the course of a holiday without interrupting family time.

Ever wanted to learn your way around Photoshop? Start by following along with a beginner’s tutorial like the one in this blog post. Unsure how to make anything besides a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel? Experiment with some Excel resources in this blog post. (And if you’re a marketer who’s not sure where to start, here’s a free ebook that analyzes today’s most in-demand marketing skills.)

If you really don’t have the time to dig into a new skill, you can at least use the time to set yourself up for starting to learn one in the new year. Spend some time browsing conferences or classes you could take and figuring out where you can fit them into your schedule.

10) Learn a new skill not for your job.

Skills that aren’t related to your job are usually even more fun to learn. What about learning how to paint art to decorate your home? Taking a new type of workout class? Learning a new language with an app like Duolingo — perhaps for a country you’ll be traveling to this year?

Try to pick something that uses parts of your brain that you don’t usually tap into during the workday. It can do wonders for your happiness, creativity, and wellbeing — and hey, you may even find a new passion or meet people who end up making a huge impact on your life.

11) Catch up on reading.

Here’s a classic but essential vacation tip: Catch up on those books or articles you’ve been wanting to get to so badly. It’s really hard to find time to read when you’re busy with work, but now that you’re on vacation, you can cuddle up with a blanket and a book. If you’re looking for suggestions, check out this list of must-read marketing books from TrackMaven.

12) Listen to podcasts.

Podcasts serve as an amazing way to pass the time on planes, trains, and automobiles during the heavy travel season. The key is picking and downloading what you want to listen to before you go on the trip, when you have WiFi. That way, you’re not draining your battery and data while on the move.

We recommend a good mix of genres: business, comedy, true crime, etc. Here are two lists of exceptional podcasts we’ve put together in the past year: “Want to be a Better Social Media Marketer? Listen to These 10 Podcasts” and “10 of the Best Podcasts About Business and Management.”

13) Organize your inbox.

There are a lot of ways to organize your inbox. If you use Gmail, my personal favorite is the Klinger method for getting to inbox zero and staying there. If inbox zero isn’t your cup of tea, here’s a list of 14 of the best tools for organizing your inbox.

Organizing your inbox isn’t the same as checking email, though. Don’t get sucked in! Organize your inbox, and then log off and enjoy your break. Don’t forget to let your colleagues and clients know you’ll be out — Here are some creative out-of-office messages we love.

14) Volunteer.

Serving others has a long list of intangible benefits, like pride, satisfaction, accomplishment, connections with others, strengthening your community, and improving the lives of others. There are health benefits, too: Along with social benefits, a growing body of research shows there’s a strong relationship between volunteering and physical health.

Don’t have a specific cause in mind? Check out your local library, youth center, animal shelter, homeless shelter, or hospital to see if they’re in need of volunteers. VolunteerMatch.org is another great place to find good causes in your local community for a wide variety of time commitments.

15) Find a quiet space to let your mind wander.

When we’re deep in our work routines, it can be hard to tear ourselves away from our immediate tasks and goals. But not removing ourselves from these things can mean we miss out on seeing interesting new connections and developing innovations. This is especially true during the busy weeks leading up to the holidays.

Take some time to remove yourself from your day-to-day — even from your family and friends — to be alone and reflect. Daydream about being your own customer, or your competitor, or what it’s like to be the product you produce. Analyze how you’ve been spending your time over the past few months and whether you’d like to make changes in the upcoming year.

16) Get exercise in.

I’m not going to get into the benefits of exercise (or we’d be here for a while), but the holiday season is an especially hard time to keep a consistent workout routine. Factors like cooler temperatures, less daylight, busy travel schedules, and food-oriented gatherings can all throw off your schedule. But staying active — even just a little bit each day — can be easy and fun. The American Heart Association recommends 40 minutes of aerobic exercise three to four times per week.

Not an athlete? Physical activity doesn’t have to be intense. Find an activity like walking, shoveling snow, vacuuming — heck, even shopping — that gets the blood flowing. Something is always better than nothing. And when you head back to the office, keep it up — here are 10 ways to sneak in exercise at work.

17) Set goals for next year.

It’s amazing how quickly the New Year can sneak up on you. Set aside some time during the holidays to reflect on the past year and make goals for the new one. Setting goals gives you a baseline for measuring success, and the motivation to stay on course when things get crazy.

Setting goals can be as simple as creating two lists: one of your accomplishments this past year, and one of your goals for the next. To get more specific, you can break larger goals into smaller ones by month. If you want to really dig in to your goals and ground them in reality, try setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound) and make a plan for staying on course.

18) Do any work-related tasks in the morning.

Although it’d be ideal to leave all your real work for when you’re back in the office, some people simply get more stressed out when they’re disconnected. The thought of missing an important email, or even just returning to an inbox that’s bursting at the seams, can be incredibly daunting for some.

If you’re one of those people, use the morning hours when everyone else is asleep to get your work-related tasks done. By the time everyone wakes up, you’ll have checked off a few key to-dos, and will be able to focus on spending time with family and friends.

19) Watch a documentary.

Holidays are a time for binge-watching all the TV you don’t have time for during the work grind, and we won’t begrudge you that. But when you’re ready for a break, check out a new documentary film. There are documentaries on almost every subject imaginable, and you might learn about a topic or issue that inspires you. Thrillist recommends several here.

20) Prepare meals in advance.

It’s typically healthier and more affordable to make your meals than to buy them, but when you’re busy with work, it’s hard to make time to prepare wholesome meals for yourself and your family. If you’re taking a staycation this holiday season, spend some time preparing meals that can be frozen or refrigerated to eat on the go or at the office. Here are some make-ahead breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes, including vegan and gluten-free choices.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2015 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

What other ideas do you have for using your downtime during the holidays? Share with us in the comments.

 

The Ministry of Magic in “Harry Potter” used enchanted paper airplanes. The offices of Sterling Cooper in “Mad Men” used secretaries. Today’s modern (and nonfiction) offices rely increasingly on messaging apps for inter-office communcation.

One such app is Slack, a real-time messaging app that’s currently used by more than 90,000 different companies. Slack skyrocketed in popularity, making it the fastest-growing workplace software application ever.There are many reasons Slack has 500,000 daily active users and counting, including the folks here at HubSpot. At its core, Slack offers direct messaging and chat rooms for individuals and teams, but takes its software further with a one-stop shop for better productivity at work. Slack offers an archive of team- and company-wide communication, as well as integrations with other bots and apps you may already be using — think Google Drive, Trello, and GrowthBot.

Check out this infographic from the folks at SurePayroll to read more about how Slack came to be so widely used. Learn more about its features and tricks to help you have a more productive work day.