Ever wish you had a magic tool to help communicate trends, patterns, and insights based on complex data sets? Luckily, that tool exists, and it’s something you’ve already seen and used in its most simplistic form – data visualization. It’s believed that around 65% of people are visual learners, so it’s not surprising that data visualization tools are so effective and widely used in many industries. 

Data visualization can be simple or complex, ranging from simple charts, graphics, and maps, to more complicated visual representations. These tools analyze complex data sets, identify patterns, extract valuable insights, and present it in a visual format that’s easy to digest and make informed decisions from. Take a look at this very simple example from Tableau using a word cloud chart to emphasize the frequency (and thus importance) of a set of words. The more important or frequently used a word is, the larger and brighter it appears. 

This data visualization example is rudimentary but effective. Advanced data visualization is more than just converting data into charts and graphical formats. It’s part of a company’s BI (business intelligence) strategy that generates new insights and helps communicate them more effectively, making for easier understanding, collaboration, and decision-making. And with the overconsumption of content in today’s world, who doesn’t want help making well-informed, smart decisions? 

The value of data visualization is clear, but how do you know which type of data visualization is right for your need? Especially with AI entering the chat, there are several types of data visualizations to consider. Here are 5 data visualization types that you should know about.    

1. Interactive Visualizations

People have been using static data visualizations like charts and maps for centuries, but what makes data visualization more useful is the ability to manipulate it. Interactive data visualization allows users to interact with the data directly within the visualization itself to explore and better understand it. The ability to interact with the data has a number of benefits compared to traditional static data visualizations. It provides a more immersive experience that lets users feel empowered to explore the data in more depth. It also helps uncover insights like patterns and trends that might not have been obvious in a static format. All of this leads to better data-driven decisions. 

2. Collaborative Analytics & Visualizations

We can’t talk about collaborative data visualization, sometimes known as social business intelligence, without discussing analytics. Analytics plays a huge role in business operations, but understanding all the different data points can be a complicated and overwhelming venture. Using business intelligence (BI) software, organizations can collaborate on shared goals faster and be better aligned cross-functionally. The key to this is embedded analytics. Traditional BI systems rely on data stored on an internal database, but embedded analytics integrates BI tools and functionality into business applications which gives users access to data and insights directly within your applications (such as websites, apps, CRM, etc.). The convenience and accessibility of these insights allow for even more collaboration and faster decision-making between teams. Some of the most popular BI tools on the market today include Microsoft’s Power BI, Tableau, Qlikview, and Domo. 

3. VR and AR Visualizations

You haven’t splurged $16k on family movie night using Apple’s Vision Pro VR/AR headset? Neither have we. But we have learned how AR and VR can create more immersive data visualization experiences by enabling users to engage with data in three-dimensional spaces. Users can see the various layers of datasets with additional context that spreadsheets or traditional visualizations can’t convey. A larger density of data can be shown at once, which allows for much faster cognitive processing compared to 2D visualizations. This new “immersive analytics” field will help data scientists tell better stories by breaking down the complexity of the data, offering more involvement and understanding in data analytics to everyone, not just data professionals. 

4. Real-Time Data Visualizations

We’re constantly seeking the most up-to-date information and sources, so it makes sense that the most relevant data visualizations would be in real-time. Real-time data visualization allows you to monitor and analyze data as it’s generated, enabling users to make fast, informed, data-driven decisions. In addition to better, more confident decision-making, another huge benefit is improved accuracy and productivity. Real-time insights can help identify anomalies or errors as they occur, enhancing the reliability of the data. Typically, real-time data may involve working with sensitive or personal information, so it’s important to ensure that data security and privacy are accounted for. As more and more data continues to generate in real-time, the demand for real-time insights will grow. 

5. AI-Powered Visualizations

At its core, artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes though machines, and it has changed the way we problem solve. We could speak to the various definitions of AI, the different types, the implications, applications, and considerations, the ethical delimas, and more all day, (and probably lose some sleep over-thinking it). But right now we’re focused on AI’s impact on data visualization. 

Traditional data visualization uses algorithms to create charts and graphs from data, whereas AI-driven visualization uses algorithms that can learn, understand, and respond to the data, potentially even better than a human can. AI-driven data visualization has several key benefits that the previous types of data visualizations don’t (at least not to the same extent). Automating repetitive tasks producing meaningful information is one of those. AI-powered data analytics can streamline your workflow and automatically generate personalized charts and graphs that easily communicate complicated information and insights. This saves time and resources, and combining the AI insights with human SMEs makes for better, well-informed decisions and smarter AI model builds that continue to improve as it learns more. 

All of these data visualization types have the same common goal – to empower users to make faster and more confident data-based decisions. (See Bluetext’s blog on using data to create powerful PR narratives). With the rapid growth in AI, big data, data science, and machine learning, the importance of data and data visualizations for understanding and interpreting complex information will continue to surge. 

In a world filled with endless scrolling and viral dances, TikTok has emerged as a powerful platform for brands to showcase their creativity, engage with their target audience, and leave a lasting impact. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just dipping your toes into the vast ocean of social media, this blog is your guide to harnessing the potential of TikTok as a brand.

Creating a sustainable, long-term growth strategy for TikTok requires careful planning and execution. Here are 8 key steps for brands to get started and establish a successful presence on TikTok:

1. Define Your Goals: Start by clearly defining your marketing objectives on TikTok. Determine whether you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate leads, or boost sales. Having well-defined goals will guide your strategy and help you measure success along the way.
2. Understand Your Audience: Take the time to understand your target audience on TikTok. What are their interests, preferences, and behaviors? Conduct thorough research to gain insights into the content they engage with, the hashtags they follow, and the trends they embrace. This knowledge will help you tailor your content and connect with your audience more effectively.
3. Create Compelling Content: TikTok is all about captivating and entertaining content. Develop a content strategy that aligns with your brand identity while embracing the platform’s unique style. Experiment with a mix of video formats, including tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses, user-generated content, and challenges. Remember to infuse your content with authenticity, creativity, and a touch of humor to resonate with TikTok users.
4. Engage with the Community: TikTok thrives on community engagement. Actively participate in the TikTok ecosystem by engaging with users, responding to comments, and collaborating with influencers and other creators. By building relationships and fostering a sense of community, you can establish a loyal following and increase your brand’s visibility.
5. Leverage TikTok Features: Stay updated with TikTok’s latest features and trends to make the most of the platform. From TikTok Ads and branded effects to utilizing popular challenges and hashtags, explore opportunities to enhance your content and reach a wider audience. Experiment with different features and analyze their impact on your brand’s performance to optimize your strategy.
6. Analyze and Optimize: Regularly analyze your TikTok performance metrics using the platform’s built-in analytics or third-party tools. Monitor metrics like views, engagement, follower growth, and conversions to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy. Use these insights to refine your content, experiment with new approaches, and optimize your TikTok marketing efforts over time.
7. Collaborate with Influencers: Consider collaborating with TikTok influencers who align with your brand and target audience. Influencer partnerships can amplify your reach, enhance credibility, and generate user-generated content. Identify influencers who have a genuine connection with their followers and explore ways to collaborate on sponsored content or challenges that promote your brand organically.
8. Stay Agile and Adapt: TikTok is a dynamic platform with rapidly evolving trends and user behaviors. Stay agile and adaptable in your approach. Continuously monitor TikTok trends, engage with your audience, and adjust your strategy to stay relevant. Embrace experimentation and be open to trying new ideas to keep your TikTok presence fresh and engaging.

By following these steps, your brand can establish a strong foundation on TikTok and create a sustainable, long-term growth strategy. Remember, consistency, creativity, and genuine engagement are key to making a lasting impact on TikTok’s vibrant community.

You’ve done so much work to get to this point. All of your efforts to get traffic to your site, engage that traffic, and convince them of your value have led to this moment: the contact form. Don’t let a simple mistake cost you that lead. There are myriad of reasons a user will abandon ship on a contact form, but most of them are easy to avoid. Keep reading to ensure your contact forms are doing all the right things.

Make it Simple

If you take one thing away from this blog, let it be to simplify your forms as much as possible. We often hear clients say, “we can make that field not required.” Required or not, a user still sees each field adding length to the form and thus perceives the form to be longer, requiring more of their information and time. Ask your sales team what information is absolutely critical to appropriately follow up with a lead and keep the form to those fields with two exceptions:

• Keep fields that users want to fill out, such as a field to explain the problem they’re having or their feedback.
• Keep fields that will make a big impact in the quality of your leads. Higher conversion isn’t impressive if quality suffers.

If you must have a longer form, consider breaking up into multiple steps to make it more digestible.

Also, spam prevention tools are great, but the user can see them as yet another step, especially if they have to solve a puzzle. Explore hidden spam prevention tools like Akismet or invisible reCAPTCHA.

Help the User

Reduce the risk of user error and help resolve user errors by leveraging the following:

• Auto-fill and autocomplete: Allow your forms to populate based on the user’s saved browser data, such as for address or billing information and consider autocomplete suggestions.
• Mobile input types: Certain HTML can trigger specific selectors and keyboards to appear on your mobile device, such as a number pad for phone numbers or picklists for month and year.
• Field input masking, validation, and help text:
  • Input masking is a way to control how data is entered into a field. For example, a phone number field can automatically apply parenthesis, hyphens, and/or spaces to help the user input the expected format. Masking can also help with fields like credit card numbers when the input is long and often mistyped or date fields where the input varies (MM/DD vs. DD/MM, YYYY vs. YY).
  • If your user happens to enter an invalid input, show an error message immediately next to the field so they can correct prior to form submission. Make sure the error message is descriptive enough to understand what was incorrect.
  • If you have an uncommon field, such as Account Number, use help text to tell the user where to find that information and an example of what the input should look like.
• Accessibility: Consider all users when creating your forms. You don’t want to lose a lead simply because someone can’t submit your form due to a disability. By following WCAGs latest standards, you can avoid these issues, such as the size of tap targets, font size and contrast for legibility, navigating the form using a keyboard, and using a screen reader.

Design for the Brain

The design of your form can impact how complicated the user’s brain perceives the form to be.

• Stacking fields in a single column vs. side-by-side columns makes it easier to scan to assess. A common exception is fields that are typically side-by-side, like first and last name or two shorter, related fields like state and zip code. When fields are side by side, keep the spacing between them to a minimum.
• Adjust the field width to the expected input length. For example, a phone number field should be longer than a zip code field.
• Keep field labels visible at all times and left align them above fields.
• Denote which fields are optional vs. required.

Set the User’s Expectations

Filling out a form can be intimidating if you don’t know how your information will be handled and what comes next. Set these expectations by introducing your form with call-to-action language that makes the purpose of the form clear, such as “Contact us today to schedule a free assessment.” Then, make sure the “submit” button text is indicative of the action, such as “Request assessment.” Lastly, show a thank you message or page to let the user know the form submitted successfully and what they can expect next, such as “We’ll call you within two business days.”

It’s also important to set the user’s expectation around how you use their data. Not only do you want to comply with data privacy laws, you want to assuage the user that their data is safe and will not be used for any unauthorized marketing. Make sure your privacy policy is accessible wherever a form is present and outline how you plan to use their information from the form.

Make the Form Available

This sounds obvious, but your form should always be accessible with one click from anywhere on your site. If your form is specific to a page, it should be available within the first viewport. Do not make your user go looking.

Test, Test, and Test

First, test all edge cases to ensure your form is functioning correctly. It’s a sad day when you realize your form won’t submit on mobile devices or for users with a particular browser. Second, consider AB testing different approaches. If AB testing isn’t an easy option, try to at least watch users interact with your forms using recording tools like Crazy Egg to better understand where they struggle. If the number of quality leads on your site is your primary KPI, it deserves testing. As a part of testing, ensure you’re also tracking the percent of users who start and complete your form, not just the percent of users who are submitting the form. The ‘form initiate to complete’ conversion rate is just as important for measuring the impact of changes!

This blog seeks to demonstrate how many factors can impact a user’s decision to fill out a form on your website and how to combat many of them. If you are struggling to get quality leads, a digital marketing agency can assess the points of friction and help you overcome them. Don’t do the hard work only to miss out on opportunities that could have been saved! Contact Bluetext to learn more about forms and conversion marketing best practices.

The entrepreneurial CMO is “beholden neither to the status quo nor to disrupting it for disruption’s sake.” That premise, according to Forbes, helped to guide its selections for the recently released 2023 Forbes Entrepreneurial CMO 50 list.

It is a herculean challenge to drive change in relatively stable environments, let alone be bold enough to transform brands amidst a year of chaos defined by an evolving pandemic, inflation, structural workforce adjustments and a polarized country willing to buy or boycott products based on a brand’s perceived “wokeness.” 

Disruption is not only being fueled by undeniably negative chaos agents, but also by more complex ones that pose endless possibilities…and risks. Generative AI and ChatGPT grab headlines, and rightly so, but for so many brands the pandemic has accelerated enterprise-wide digital transformation. 

Forbes acknowledges those challenges – and more – in identifying 50 CMOs who succeeded despite the unprecedented, multi-faceted risk climate. Here are a few narratives that emerged from the change agents selected for the Forbes 50 list: 

Being data-driven, but human defined

Nobel laureate awardee Ronald H. Course once said “if you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything.” Ironically, in some ways, CMOs are being tortured by the very data they rely on so heavily – particularly when it comes to the crushing volume of marketing data. A 2022 survey of 300 global CMOs by integrated marketing data platform Adverity found that two-thirds of them feel the volume of marketing data available has become overwhelming. 

This love-hate relationship with data may at least be partially responsible for its conspicuous absence within the insights provided by the 50 CMOs named by Forbes. At a time when the ability to acquire and analyze data seems to dominate so many brand and business conversations, it was clear that entrepreneurial marketing leaders aren’t looking to be defined solely as data crunchers. It is undeniable that data has become core to internal and customer-facing operations, table stakes even, but marketers acknowledged its limits. 

More than one CMO recognized by Forbes referenced that while data drives decision making, there are risks in having it solely define brand strategy as if it is a panacea. Marketers such as Carla Zakhem-Hassan, CMO at JPMorgan Chase, highlighted the importance of humans in the decision making process. She wants to always ensure “…the company infuses humanity into their products, services, and marketing approach” and that her team knows they “need the data, but we also need the humanity.” 

Injecting B2C creativity into B2B campaigns

B2B brands often face narrower and more rigid guardrails when it comes to unleashing creative ideas into the market. B2B prospects are bottom-line driven; the sales cycle can be long; and the hierarchy of decision makers is complex. Edgy campaigns that effectively capture the attention and dollars of consumers may strike the wrong chord with business buyers who just want to understand how you can help solve their challenges. 

But entrepreneurial CMOs do not want to be boxed in. Accenture Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and Forbes 50 honoree Jill Kramer pushes back against the notion B2B marketing is “uncreative” by launching campaigns like “Let There Be Change” – designed “to help B2B CMOs reframe the business goal and rebrand the marketing term using a more entrepreneurial approach.”

Re-writing playbooks rather than tweaking them

If a CMO is always trying to adapt to change, they probably aren’t driving it. The notion of a post-pandemic “return to normalcy” when it comes to how and where people work or the mechanisms brands use to engage with consumers is flawed at best, self-destructive at worst. 

Building campaigns that anticipate the unwinding of structural changes that never arrive are sunk investments. Forbes 50 marketers recognize this; ServiceNow CMO Michael Park cites how marketers are missing an opportunity if they simply try to adapt to volatility, and instead should be using it as a springboard to the road ahead, which provides “almost unlimited opportunities to redraw the parameters we set our growth targets against.”

The same can be said about the nature of work. Melissa Selcher, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at LinkedIn makes the point that 5 years ago, you did not have tens of millions of people creating social channel content around work. People commuted to their offices, spent the day there, and then returned home. As Selcher explains, “no one talked about work, we just worked.” 

The pandemic changed all of this; the how, when, and where people worked became diverse and compelling, and also defining in a way that current and future employers have to acknowledge. 

Aiming for micro-failures and macro successes

It isn’t novel to suggest that failure breeds success. As Dale Carnegie suggested “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” 

But the trick is to make brand strategy failures manageable, not fatal. Ricardo Marques, VP Marketing, Michelob Ultra at Anheuser-Busch/InBev, talked about micro-failures when reflecting on the brand’s “McEnroe vs. McEnroe” initiative, which, pardon the pun, served up what it claimed to be the world’s first hybrid tennis match of real John McEnroe versus virtual representations of himself at various career stages. “We had micro-failure moments throughout the project that would have killed it in a traditional approach, but didn’t because we remained agile and flexible throughout, adjusting, and calibrating when faced with challenges.”

Other Forbes CMO winners addressed the need to not only correct failures, but convert them into opportunities. Uber VP of Marketing David Mogensen shared that when Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields tweeted about an Uber Eats delivery fail, the Uber team eyed an opportunity that showcased the value of agility. They pivoted from a ready-to-launch campaign to a call-and-response spot where WR Odell Beckham addresses the QB’s complaint. But to ensure it was a campaign of substance for the customer base, the brand promised a $0 delivery fee for 3 months if app users encountered similar problems. 

Similarly, Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, CMO at DoorDash reinforced the need for marketers to learn from successes and failures. A glitch allowing users to order from Cheesecake Factory without paying became an opportunity to later partner with the well-known chain to hack and gamify its extensive menu – driving a double-digit bump in website traffic and a tangible orders increase. 

Perfect strangers can make perfect partners

A little something about me; if I have an opportunity to work Balki Bartokomous into a blog post, it is going to happen. Balki and Larry were in fact perfect strangers in the hit 80s/90s sitcom, and it is safe to say that top marketers are not shying away from exploring unexpected alliances with celebrities, viral influencers and brands, as well as other content creators to reach desired audiences. 

Lara Hood Balazs, General Manager and CMO at Intuit focused on establishing a more dominant unifying brand elevating its better known products such as TurboTax, QuickBooks, MailChimp and Credit Karma. Updating the brand’s identity included forging a unique partnership with Mr. Beast for its #RaceToTheRefund campaign. 

Nothing excites Bluetext more than working with marketing entrepreneurs who want to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to transforming brands and markets. Click here to learn more about how Bluetext is the innovative partner you need to become the brand that customers want, and the competition envy. 

Within the previous blogs in our marketing acronym series, we took a look at the top acronyms used in the sales and advertising realm, as well as the website design and development side of marketing. In today’s acronym review, we explore the top 45 acronyms most commonly used in and around the office (whether you work from the office or WFH) and those used in the contracting and legal departments. While we’re sure you know what PTO is, you may not know what TOFU means, and no, we’re not talking about the soy product. 

• SLA (Service Level Agreement)

A contract (sometimes it’s internal, and sometimes you have a set expectation that you’ve discussed with your customer) outlining the level of service they can expect.

 

• NPS (Net Promoter Score)

A measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty, based on the likelihood of them recommending your product or service.

 

• MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)

The amount of predictable recurring revenue generated each month from your subscription-based products or services.

 

• ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)

The money you can count on every year from your loyal customers who just can’t get enough of your product or service.

 

• DTC (Direct-to-Consumer)

A business model where you sell your products directly to consumers, no middleman needed.

 

• DR (Direct Response)

A marketing approach that aims to get a quick response from your target audience. Think of it like a call-to-action, but with more urgency.

 

• QA (Quality Assurance)

The process of making sure your product or service is up to snuff and meets all necessary quality standards.

 

• TOFU (Top of the Funnel)

The beginning of the customer journey, where a potential customer is first introduced to your product or service.

 

• MOFU (Middle of the Funnel)

The stage of the customer journey where a potential customer is considering your product or service.

 

• BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel)

The final stretch of the customer journey, where a potential customer is close to making a purchase.

 

• UGC (User-Generated Content)

Content created by your customers, like reviews, comments, or social media posts. People trust other people, so this type of content can be powerful.

 

• USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

What sets your product or service apart from the competition. This is what makes you stand out in a crowded market.

 

• SaaS (Software as a Service)

No more bulky software installations on your computer, now it’s all about subscribing to the latest and greatest software via the internet.

 

• WOM (Word of Mouth)

When your friends give you the lowdown on the latest product or service, that’s WOM.

 

• FB (Facebook)

It’s where everyone goes to check in on their mom’s friends, and share memes with their high school BFFs.

 

• IG (Instagram)

The ultimate platform for posting those #Foodie pics, #OOTDs, and #TravelGoals.

 

• MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

It’s like the beta version of a product, with just enough features to get people hyped. 

 

• DAU (Daily Active User)

A user who’s all about that daily engagement life.

 

• MAU (Monthly Active User)

Basically, a user who pops in once a month for some good times.

 

• TAM (Total Addressable Market)

The whole shebang of people who could potentially be into your product or service. 

 

• SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)

The portion of the total market that a company can realistically reach and sell its products or services to.

 

• SMB (Small and Medium-Sized Businesses)

These are the cool, up-and-coming businesses that are killing it with fewer than 500 employees.

 

• SME (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises)

A term used in Europe and some other regions to describe businesses with fewer than 250 employees. It’s like the European version of SMBs.

 

• RFP (Request for Proposal)

Basically, it’s like asking “Yo, who wants to do some work for me and my biz?” to potential suppliers or contractors.

 

• TOS (Terms of Service)

The legal agreement between you and the service provider that outlines what’s expected from both parties.

 

• PM (Project Manager)

Your one-stop-shop for getting things done and keeping the team on track.

 

• EOW (End of Week)

The end of a workweek and the start of the weekend.

 

• EOM (End of Month)

The end of a month and the start of a new one.

 

• P&L (Profit and Loss)

A financial statement that keeps tabs on the money coming in and going out of your business.

 

• AMA (Ask Me Anything)

A financial statement that keeps tabs on the money coming in and going out of your business.

 

• TK (To Come)

A placeholder used in text when a piece of information is not yet available. It’s like the “Coming Soon” sign on a movie poster.

 

• H/t (Hat Tip)

A way to show appreciation for someone or something that inspired or helped you.

 

• WFH (Work From Home)

The freedom to work from the comfort of your own home.

 

• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

A list of questions and answers to help you quickly find what you’re looking for.

 

• DM (Direct Message)

A private chat between you and another person on social media.

 

• RT (Retweet)

When you share someone else’s tweet with your followers.

 

• PO (Purchase Order)

A document sent by a buyer to a seller, indicating the type, quantity, and agreed price for goods or services.

 

• TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)

A summarization of a long piece of text.

 

• CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)

The person in charge of a company’s marketing strategy.

 

• TBD (To Be Determined)

A placeholder for something that hasn’t been decided yet.

 

• OOO (Out of Office)

A message indicating that you’re not available to respond to emails or calls.

 

• PTO (Paid Time Off)

Time off work, paid – because you deserve a break!

 

To learn more about any of the services attributed to these acronyms, contact us today. 

 

In Part 1 of our marketing acronym series, we reviewed over 50 sales and advertising-centric acronyms. In today’s blog, our listed acronyms focus on the website design and development aspect of marketing as well as the technology and data side, listing out the top 17 acronyms. While you may know most of the concepts described below, we hope you’re able to learn one or two new acronyms. 

• URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

The address of your website or web page on the internet.

 

• RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

A super convenient way to keep up with your favorite blog posts, podcasts, news articles, and updates without having to constantly refresh a website.

 

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

The EU law regulating data privacy and protection for individuals.

 

• UI (User Interface)

The face of your product that users see and interact with.

 

• UX (User Experience)

The total package of a user’s interaction with your product.

 

• API (Application Programming Interface)

A set of protocols and tools for building software applications.

 

• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

The language used to style and format web pages.

 

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language)

The standard language used to create and structure web pages.

 

• WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)

A fancy way of saying, “what you see on the screen is exactly what you’re gonna get in real life.”

 

• PV (Page View)

The number of times a single page has been viewed.

 

• SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

The page you see after you type in a search query on Google or another search engine. The goal is to get your website at the top of the list.

 

• 3PL (Third-Party Logistics)

A company that provides logistics services, such as shipping and warehousing, for other companies.

 

• LP (Landing Page)

The page visitors to your website arrive when they click a link to get your website.

 

• PDP (Product Detail Page)

The ultimate destination for all the deets on your product.

 

• CMS (Content Management System)

The tech that helps you manage and publish your website content with ease.

 

• CDP (Customer Data Platform)

A centralized hub for all customer data.

 

• SQL (Structured Query Language)

A programming language used to manage and manipulate databases.

 

If you missed Part 1 of our marketing acronym series on sales and advertising-centric acronyms, check that out here. Additionally, review Part 3 of our acronym series here, where we explore the world of acronyms at the office and in the contracting department. 

 

To learn more about Bluetext and our marketing services, contact us today. 

Whether you’re just getting to grips with your first internship in a marketing department or you’re a 30-year marketing industry guru, we can all agree that acronyms are well and truly ingrained in the industry and used daily. While some acronyms are easy to remember and used casually in our day-to-day conversations, others are a little more obscure and sporadically used. In today’s blog post, we’ll run through over 50 sales and advertising-centric acronyms; some you need to know, most you should know, and others you may never come across and probably don’t need to memorize. 

• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

The cost of finding your next paying customer, the cold hard cash that got them through the door and signing on the dotted line.

 

• CPM (Cost Per Mille)

The cost of showing off your ad to 1,000 people! The amount of money spent to show your product to 1,000 users on the other end.

 

• ROI (Return on Investment)

Your ROI expressed as a percentage of the original investment – aka, whether this campaign was a good idea.

 

• CTA (Call-to-Action)

A direction for your audience to take action, like “Sign up now!”, for example.

 

• CTR (Click-Through Rate)

The percentage of people who take action and click the button you wanted them to click.

 

• LTV:CAC (Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost)

Basically, the money you make from keeping a customer long-term divided by the cost of getting them onboard.

 

• CPL (Cost Per Lead)

The cost of finding your next potentially viable lead.

 

• ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend)

Your ROAS can be described like this. If you made $2, but spent 1, you have a ROAS of 2x.

 

• GTM (Go-to-Market)

Your overall plan for getting your product or service out there and seen.

 

• OKR (Objectives and Key Results)

A way to set and track your goals and progress.

 

• KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

The metric(s) used to track and measure the success of your goals and objectives.

 

• UTM (Urchin Tracking Module)

A simple code added to a URL to track where your website traffic is coming from.

 

• CPC (Cost Per Click)

The cost of one single click on your ad or link.

 

• ESP (Email Service Provider)

A company that helps you with your email marketing, from sending messages to keeping track of open rates.

 

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results.

 

• SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Using paid ads on search engine results pages to drive traffic to your website.

 

• PPC (Pay-per-Click)

An online advertising model where you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

 

• GA (Google Analytics)

A web analytics service offered by Google to track and report on your website traffic.

 

• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

The strategies and tech used to manage and analyze your customer interactions and data.

 

• SMM (Social Media Marketing)

The use of social media platforms to promote your product, service, or brand.

 

• PLG (Product Led Growth)

A growth strategy focused on using your product to attract and retain customers.

 

• PQL (Product Qualified Lead)

A lead who has shown interest in your product and is likely to buy.

 

• CVR (Conversion Rate)

The percentage of people who take a desired action (such as making a purchase) on your website or landing page.

 

• CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)

This one’s all about maximizing the number of people who do what you want them to do on your website.

• YoY (Year-over-Year)

A fancy way to compare your metrics from one year to the previous. Think of it like a before and after transformation.

 

• ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

How much money each user is bringing in for you on average, so you can see who your top spenders are.

 

• ACV (Annual Contract Value)

The total amount of money a customer is worth to you over the course of a year, based on their recurring revenue contract.

 

• ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)

A detailed description of your dream customer, including demographics and psychographics. This helps you focus your marketing efforts and attract more of your target audience.

 

• MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)

A lead that your marketing team has deemed likely to convert into a customer based on their engagement with your marketing efforts.

 

• SAL (Sales Accepted Lead)

A lead that’s been checked out and is ready for the sales team to work their magic.

 

• PPL (Pay Per Lead)

The cost of finding your next potential customer through various marketing channels, where you only pay when you actually get a lead.

 

• SAM (Serviceable Available Market)

The portion of the total addressable market that you can actually serve. Like, who you’re realistically compatible with.

 

• DSP (Demand-Side Platform)

A platform that lets advertisers buy ad space.

 

• DMP (Data Management Platform)

A platform used for organizing and managing data for targeted advertising and audience analysis.

 

• SSP (Supply Side Platform)

The platform that connects advertisers with a massive network of publishers to serve up their ad campaigns.

 

• SQO (Sales Qualified Opportunity)

A potential customer who has shown interest and is ready to move forward with a sale.

 

• SAO (Sales Accepted Opportunity)

A potential sale that has met certain criteria and is considered a valid opportunity for the sales team to close.

 

• BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline)

A way for sales reps to figure out if a potential customer is ready to make it official.

 

• BDR (Business Development Representative)

These are the salespeople who are constantly on the prowl for new biz opportunities. Think of them as the hunters.

 

• SDR (Sales Development Representative)

These are the salespeople who take leads and turn them into real opportunities. Think of them as nurturers.

 

• AE (Account Executive)

The rockstar salesperson who helps you achieve your advertising goals and dreams.

 

• POC (Proof of Concept)

Think of it as a mini experiment to show that your big idea is actually, well, a big idea.

 

• MARTECH (Marketing Technology)

All the cool tech tools you need to make your marketing dreams come true.

 

• SOV (Share of Voice)

The portion of the advertising market that your brand has claimed as its own.

 

• OOH (Out of Home)

Advertising that’s displayed in public spaces like billboards and transit ads.

 

• PR (Public Relations)

The art of managing your company’s reputation and relationship with the public.

 

• NRR (Net Revenue Retention)

A metric that measures the amount of revenue you keep from existing customers.

 

• POS (Point of Sale)

The place where a customer makes a purchase, such as a store checkout.

 

• CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods)

Products that are sold in retail stores, such as groceries and household items.

 

• AOV (Average Order Value)

The average amount spent per transaction.

 

• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

A unique identifier for each product in a company’s inventory.

 

Hopefully, we were able to share a few acronyms you either didn’t know at all or knew but didn’t know what it meant. Interested in learning about more marketing-focused acronyms? Check out Part 2 of our acronym blog series. 

 

To learn more about Bluetext and our marketing services, contact us today. 

Product-led growth (PLG) strategy is at the forefront of a massive shift in the software purchasing process. Read our most recent blog in this series, PLG Series: Product User POV, to determine if your company is ready to put end users in the driver’s seat. For companies looking to make this shift, consider the steps it will take to get there, which will require two major stages of transformation: the evolution of the product, and the evolution of the organization. 

Steps to Becoming a PLG Company

Evolution of the Product

PLG strategy hinges on end users being thrilled by the product the company offers. How can organizations create a thrilling software experience? While it may seem like an oxymoron, thrilling software is possible. It starts with prioritization of design, empathy, and frictionless touchpoints with a combination of user journey mapping, user testing, and intelligent data implementation. The end-user experience is what sets a working product and a great product apart. The product needs to serve as a solution to the user’s troubles, not just a jumble of benefits and features. The user journey is top of mind for pioneering PLG-focused companies, rather than the specs and selling points of the product itself. 

A good example of this is the onboarding process for new users. In demonstrating software products, the demo should be focused on helping the user achieve their goals, not showing off features of the software it’s trying to sell. Product-led growth really means user-led: anticipating their needs, reducing their friction, and providing ongoing support to create a joyful, exciting user experience with the product. In the PLG model, product enjoyment leads to subscription sales, additional referrals, and customer retention. When shifting to a product-led growth strategy, companies must create sticky products, which capture user interest by delivering consistent value and compel users to use them more regularly. 

Evolution of the Organization

To become a PLG company, the organization must first be willing to turn away from sales-led and marketing-led growth strategies. Instead, the business structure has to support the ability to move faster, more collaboratively, and with more complex dynamics. Collaboration and inclusivity are more than industry buzzwords; they actually can make or break internal strategies. To pull off the rate of product improvement necessary to keep pace with competitors, a PLG-focused company has to run as a democracy, taking input from a diverse group of stakeholders from a variety of different teams. Marketing, sales, CS, design, and engineering teams, for example, will all need to weigh in to make decisions that result in the best product and end-user experience. 

The resulting company structure is often at first more difficult and complex than legacy structures, but it has proven the best way to organize a company that prioritizes the quality of the product for the consumer experience. When scaling, the first thought may be to attempt to grow teams through hiring to accommodate for better, quicker, product improvements. That process tends to be time-consuming, costly, and inevitably leads companies to fall behind their faster, leaner competitors who are prioritizing employee growth, flexibility, and collaboration. As a step toward this organizational transformation, it’s important to break down silos to stay communicative, informed, and aligned across teams.

After going through the transitional phases outlined above, the real work of a product-led growth company begins in harnessing value from the Freemium to Premium chain. 

Capitalizing on the Freemium to Premium Chain

For a PLG-focused enterprise, after creating the best possible product and putting the organizational systems in place to support the development of increasingly spectacular products, the value in the product-led growth model comes from encouraging the following: Product adoption, Customer Loyalty, and Advocacy. This growth can be reaped from the Freemium to Premium chain, composed of three stages: 

A frictionless entry point for users, leading to customer acquisition. 

The user’s first interaction with the product should be personalized, delightful, and convincing. A free trial or demo experience allows users to self-educate about the benefits of the product and its ability to solve their needs, rather than having to deal with a salesperson or middleman to handle the transaction. This freemium experience can come in a couple of different forms: a reduced features version, a reduced capacity or usage version, or a reduced support version. 

There are a few reasons as to why the free trial method is the best entry experience for customers seeking software solutions. First, the software is an intangible object and can be difficult to adequately describe with marketing lingo; it’s better to give users a hands-on experience that shows (rather than tells) the product’s benefits. Second, free trials reduce the fear of committing to a purchase, so users can explore the software offerings without concerns about getting locked into a subscription. Lastly, observing or collecting data during a demo experience allows you to gain valuable feedback on the product at hand. By seeing how end users experience the product designed for them, you can get a realistic sense of their positive reactions and friction points in order to continue improving the product offering. 

Features located behind a paywall, leading to expansion. 

The free trial leads the process by introducing the user to a must-have technology (where they’re reaping actual value), and the paywall follows by scaling up the pricing for the software as usage or benefits increase. After an opt-in free trial, a good conversion rate should be around 25%, and that rate jumps to 60% for opt-out free trials.

The product-led growth strategy for conversion is simple: freemium users are enticed to subscribe to premium accounts when they enjoy the product. To encourage subscriptions, it’s important to remind users of the benefits and product features. In addition, putting a clear time limit on the length of the trial creates a sense of urgency for freemium users to switch to premium subscriptions. Trial period expirations can help push users to take action, for fear of losing out on the benefits that they’ve come to appreciate while utilizing your software throughout the demo period. 

Valuable integrations, leading to retention.

While gaining initial subscriptions is important, PLG strategy necessitates that these users continue coming back to the product. Ideally, each time the user utilizes the product, they should have a better and better experience. The PLG model will not work successfully if the company’s product becomes outdated or uncompetitive. Users must not only fall in love with the product but stay enamored. This can be done by continually improving the existing user experience, or by building out additional features and benefits to the product. However, if exploring the latter, keep the user journey segmented so that different audiences are still able to find the most relevant solutions quickly. As the product grows to encompass more features, the UX designers should ensure that the additional capabilities don’t cloud the interface to make it confusing or overwhelming. 

For companies in the software technology space, shifting to a product-led growth strategy could lead to a better experience for customers and keep the enterprise at the front of the competitive edge. If you are interested in learning more about how Bluetext could use marketing tactics to help reposition your brand as a PLG-focused business, contact us.

The way that users engage with technology has dramatically changed in the last decade. As SaaS companies are stepping up their game to meet these demands, users are met with an abundance of software available at their fingertips to fulfill their every need. Tech-savvy people are seeking software that is more beautiful, more powerful, and more affordable than ever before. The patience for dealing with clunky designs or a challenging user experience has completely dissolved. Now more than ever, businesses are recognizing the value of leading with a great product and user experience in order to generate growth. Enter Product Led Growth.

Product Led Growth

Product Led Growth is a business strategy for companies to use their product as the primary driver for customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. Imagine a pancake house that is famous for its pancakes. You hear about the pancakes, try them, love them, and tell all of your friends to try them as well; thus, the cycle repeats itself. The restaurant’s main goal is to create an unforgettable pancake that keeps customers coming back; they don’t have to prove or tell anyone that they have amazing pancakes because the product speaks for itself. Businesses that have adapted Product Led Growth strategies are thinking about how they can put their product at the forefront of every step of the customer journey–the foundation is having an amazing product with exceptional focus on the user. People hear about it, they test it out, they start using it, and all of a sudden it becomes a necessity to run their business. This type of strategy fosters company-wide alignment across teams around the product as the single most important source of long-term, scalable business success.

Product Led Growth allows for a significantly lower cost to acquire customers because existing users are promoting and selling the product simply by enjoying using it. Unlike sales-led businesses, which aim to get a customer from point A to point B in a sales cycle, product-led businesses turn the typical sales paradigm on its head by allowing customers to try their product for free, through a freemium or free trial that eventually becomes a subscription or an add-on purchase. Some of the most successful companies implementing the Product Led Growth approach are Slack, Dropbox, and Zoom, just to name a few.

Slack

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of a company that has mastered the PLG strategy is Slack. By creating a completely new way for teams to communicate with each other, Slack leads with a product that is widely beneficial to almost any business, unique in its offerings, and initially free. Customers start with a free sign-up process with frictionless onboarding and are met with a superior customer experience throughout usage. Slack swiftly slides in premium plans for users to expand the scope of the platform after they’ve already started using it.

The company boasts over 12 million active daily users, with 156,000 businesses subscribing to the app and a profit of $292 million in 2021. They’ve also uniquely branded themselves with quirky and fun features that cannot be found on traditional messaging or communication platforms. By bridging the favored aspects of modern communications, like the iPhone emoji, the swift speed of the classic IM, and even conferencing abilities of Zoom, they’ve made a one-of-a-kind product that adopters find irreplaceable. It’s the kind of app that sells itself; you hear about it, you try it, and soon enough you’re using it every day. Slack is an excellent example of a company that leverages product features and usages as its main driver for acquisition and retention. 

Dropbox

Next up, we have Dropbox. With sales that have surpassed $1 billion in less than ten years, Dropbox has a clear and undeniably successful product-led growth strategy. Dropbox’s product-led strategy succeeds in two crucial areas. First, Dropbox has developed a user-friendly product that satisfies market demands by making file sharing simple and convenient for end users. For users, the platform is intuitive and easy to set up, and accessible for recipients regardless of subscription status. Second, the platform encourages users to convert non-users by passing along a referral link that subsequently increases their storage credit. This recommendation strategy has allowed Dropbox to gain new clients while improving the satisfaction of current ones. 

Zoom

Last but certainly not least, we have Zoom. Unbeknownst to us at the time, a global pandemic created the ideal environment for Zoom’s product strategy to become a master class of the Product Led Growth model. Zoom continues to distinguish itself from its well-known competitors by putting the needs of its clients first and keeping its promise to offer a straightforward connection. By expanding on its PLG model, Zoom makes many of its essential capabilities freely accessible, putting Zoom in the hands of millions of customers who connect for work meetings, educational purposes, workout classes, and book clubs. Other premium features are further accessible through a paid subscription.

The bottom line is, Product Led Growth strategy is here to stay. It is challenging the traditional sales-driven growth model of software companies and transforming the way customers are acquired and retained.  If you are interested in learning more about how Bluetext could use marketing tactics to help reposition your brand as a PLG-focused business, contact us.

Maybe you’ve seen one of those large banners across your Google Analytics property: “Universal Analytics will no longer process new data in standard properties beginning July 1st, 2023. Prepare now by setting up and switching over to a Google Analytics 4 property.” Seems problematic, right? Such a warning rings an alarm and raises several good questions to digital marketers, including: What is GA4? Should I switch now? Why is Google making me change? How do I switch? Will I still be able to access my data from previous years? If your mind is buzzing with these questions about your marketing analytics data you’re not alone. Luckily Bluetext has done its research and is here to answer some frequently asked questions and quell any lingering fears over this transition. This article will empower you to make an informed decision about Google Analytics 4.

Schedule a consultation today.

What are Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4?

Universal Analytics (UA) is Google’s third iteration of its popular web analytics service. If you’ve logged on to Google Analytics in the past decade, you were more likely than not using UA. When UA launched in 2012, it was quite a technological leap, adding advanced features in cross-platform tracking and custom dimensions. It shaped Google Analytics from simply being a page view tracking platform to a robust data reporting and attribution tool that could compete against some of the largest web-oriented business intelligence platforms, like Tealium. Most importantly, Google provided nearly the whole feature set free of charge.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is simply Google’s newest iteration – think of it as a new generation of analytics technologies. The web has transformed significantly since the early 2010s, and Google is merely re-platforming analytics to match today’s realities. GA4 launched in 2019 to little fanfare but only recently gained significant traction in March of this year due to Google’s landmark announcement that GA4 will be the only analytics service it supports in 2023.

Why is Google Switching to Google Analytics 4 and Ending Support for Universal Analytics?

This is a complex question – with some good answers that Google will give you and some answers you’ll need to read between the lines to get. Google’s official statement is that GA4 better reflects the modern web. UA did a woeful job reporting on non-webpage-based metrics, such as those from web apps. It was also cumbersome if your reporting needs didn’t precisely match those of a traditional website experience – e.g., single-page or non-linear web apps. GA4 is more customizable and reflects modern data collection and attribution processes better.

The underlying message here, though, is that of data privacy. Since UA launched nearly ten years ago, fundamental shifts have occurred over how people and the law treat data privacy on the web. Think of Edward Snowden, GDPR, and the countless data breaches over the last decade. At its core, Google realizes that this enormous cache of web data collected from millions of websites, even if not strictly Personally Identifiable Information (PII), is a huge security risk to the company. GA4 is an attempt to offset some of that risk, either removing entirely or at least offloading it to individual companies. GA4’s data collection methods are more anonymized, and data retention is limited to 14 months. Overall, this is a calculated move by Google to push its analytics customers to use tools that won’t put Google in hot water.

What’s similar between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics? What’s different?

While the actual end-user experience may look starkly dissimilar, the foundation remains the same. GA4 will remain an incredibly flexible web analytics platform suitable for most websites today – regardless of whether it’s a personal blog, an online retailer, or a corporate website. Most day-to-day tasks like page view tracking, user attribution, and measuring bounce rates will remain the same. GA4 merely stores these metrics and measurements in alternative locations.

That isn’t to say everything is identical. The significant differences you’ll notice every day are rooted in the architectural shift in hit types. UA treated things like page views, events, and e-commerce tracking as separate entities or “hit types.” GA4, on the other hand, treats them all as “events”. Any tracking item will now be an event: resource downloads, page scroll, form submits. Google is thus simplifying the old event architecture by putting everything on the same level – everything is an event with associated customizable event parameters.

For example, under UA, a resource download event might have looked something like this:

• Event Category: Downloads
  • Event Action: Resource Download
    • Event Label: resource_file_name.doc

Note that regardless of whether it was necessary, Events always took on this three-stage hierarchy. GA4 removes this rigid hierarchy. Instead of having the arbitrary “Event Action” and “Event Category” dimensions, GA4 lets one create as many custom event parameters as necessary to communicate an event’s nature fully. GA4 can track the event instead as:

• Event: Download
  • Download Type: Resource
  • File Name: resource_file_name.doc

Sessions are also changing. By default, UA defined the end of a session by identifying 30 minutes of inactivity since the last event. GA4 measures the period between the first and last events in a session. GA4 also doesn’t create a new session when a user’s campaign parameters are changed. The major takeaway of these changes is that session numbers will likely be lower in GA4 than in UA.  

Aside from these two critical areas, there are many other minor changes. While lesser in scope, these changes may affect your reporting, depending on what kind of features you currently rely upon regularly. For example, customizable views for properties are going away in GA4. If you depend on different views, you’ll likely have to experiment with custom audience building to replicate the reporting. As mentioned before, GA4 will also only store data from the previous 14 months.

Documenting every change is beyond the scope of this blog post. If interested in getting into the nitty-gritty, read through Google’s documentation on the significant changes. 

Do I Need to Switch to Google Analytics 4?

Google states that no further data will be processed after July 1st, 2023 (Customers of 360 Universal Analytics get a small extension to October 1st, 2023). While Google may extend to a further date, make no mistake, Universal Analytics will eventually be completely deprecated. If your business relies on web analytics in any form, you need to start planning soon on what your migration plan looks like – hopefully well before July of next year.

How Can I Switch to Google Analytics 4?

For most websites, merely enabling dual tracking will be sufficient. Google has made an easy setup wizard for GA4. To access it, go to the admin panel for your UA property and click the “GA4 Setup Assistant” link. You can follow Google’s instructions here, but within a few clicks, you’ll have a tracking setup that collects both UA and GA4 data. You’ll already have nearly a year’s worth of GA4 data to review once UA goes offline next year. As noted previously, be aware that no historical data will be present in GA4, even if you use this wizard. That said, it will give an excellent basis of comparison to see the reporting differences, especially as you can compare each month between GA4 and UA up until the cutoff date.

Custom events and e-commerce will require a more personalized and custom approach. We’ll cover these in future guides here at Bluetext, but for now, you can consult Google’s guides on the matter here.

I hope this guide relieved some worries and cleared up some unknowns regarding Universal Analytics and GA4. There’s a lot to cover about GA4, and this guide only covers the surface. If you have any further questions about UA4 and GA4, be it migrating data, specific differences, or a transition plan, contact us to learn more about Bluetext’s analytics capabilities.