You may be as surprised as I was to find out that the infomercial industry is said to have generated nearly $250 billion in sales globally in 2022. Why are brands still resorting to decades-old sales tactics when there are so many options to promote their products online and through social? And why is this throwback approach still working for some brands? In this Plain Talk, we’ll look at old-school infomercials and how you can leverage the benefits of using infomercials for your brand.

In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886), the Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment applied to corporations, legally establishing what is referred to as corporate personhood.
While this decision was based strictly on legal reasons, nowhere does the personhood of a corporation ring truer than in its brand. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll look at three famous quotes about the importance of personal authenticity and apply them to brand authenticity.

Show of hands if you’d watch a reality show called “Your Money or Your Life.” I mean, who wouldn’t?! I can picture the beautiful, backstabbing cast now.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), in this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll talk about how Google protects your money and your life when you’re searching online. More importantly, we’ll discuss what type of content Google expects from you as a business with a website that impacts consumers. Welcome to the world of YMYL–Google’s guidelines for websites that can impact a person’s quality of life. Learn what it is, why it matters, and how to make sure you’re implementing it on your website.

We’ve all seen them—60-second commercials that pop up during our favorite TV shows. In these commercials, everyone seems to be dancing, mountain biking, or kayaking to happy music while the list of potential side effects is described in the background. With revenues exceeding $600 billion, it is not surprising that pharmaceutical companies spent almost $8.1 billion last year on paid advertising, according to Endpoints News. Seventy percent of that was spent on linear TV. The top 10 pharma advertising brands alone contributed to a combined total of $1.68 billion in ad spend. But are they necessary? Do they work? In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll address those two questions. We’ll also explore what the rest of us marketers can learn from pharma advertising—TV advertising’s fourth-largest industry.

Recently, we onboarded a new client with a rapidly growing technology company. The company needed help in several areas, but most importantly, they needed a new website. In reviewing their current website, we noticed a stock photo we laughed about because we were certain we’d seen it many times before. After a quick Google Images search, we found the same image on hundreds of similar and competitive websites. Understanding that even the biggest of brands can, at times, rely on stock photography, in this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll look at the two factors that lead to most stock photography fails. Plus, we’ll discuss how to best avoid stock photography and how to best maintain brand authenticity when stock is your only choice. Then, we’ll look at the present state of AI as an alternative.

From investment strategies and risk management to services for individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and governments—money and finances touch every aspect of life. If you’re a retail, commercial, or investment bank, credit union, savings and loan association, brokerage firm, or insurance or mortgage company, your website needs to be optimized for organic search. If you know this but don’t know where to start, read on. In this edition of Plain Talk, we will address things to consider before implementing SEO for financial services.

Every year, CMOs, IT, and agency folks like us are asked to deliver websites that are great looking, offer a great customer experience and accessibility, and ultimately drive business. Part of that process always includes the selection of a content management system (CMS) that will make the site easy to update and maintain but that also offers great security features because it’s a scary hacker-filled world out there. In the urban mythology of website content management systems, few myths seem to be as pervasive as the idea that somehow, sites built in the WordPress CMS are “not secure.” In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll get to the truth about WordPress website security and how you can build a secure site.

Does Gen Z spend their tax refunds differently than older taxpayers? The simple answer is, yes! Is now the time to talk about how tax refund season can fit into your marketing plans? Also, yes! After all, you know the old saying, “In this world nothing is certain, except death and taxes.” So, in this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss Gen Z spending and how this generation spends (or pre-spends) their tax refunds differently from Millennials and other Americans. We’ll also discuss whether you should target their refund and how to best align and market your products or services to them during their annual influx of cash.

For most of us, social media is an integral part of our daily lives, and it certainly plays a pivotal role in shaping public perception of brands and businesses. While positive feedback and glowing customer reviews can boost a company’s reputation, negative reviews and customer complaints can spread like wildfire and lead to a full-blown crisis. Effective crisis management for social media reviews and customer complaints is crucial for preserving a brand’s image and ensuring its long-term success. In this edition of Plain Talk, we will examine the importance of social media crisis management for businesses on social media. We’ll discuss effective strategies to combat negative reviews, with examples on both local and national levels. We may also uncover some valuable lessons.

Pinch. Tap-tap. Swipe. Spread. Tap. A new take on Morse code? A video game character’s ultimate move sequence? Slightly naughty dance moves? Nope. Just some typical user behavior when interacting with a mobile version of a website. Over 60% of searches happen on a smartphone, which is why Google switched to mobile-first in 2016. As nanotechnology and responsive artificial intelligence continue to advance, the proportion of desktop searches is flatlining while searches from mobile continue to rise. So, how mobile-friendly is your website? In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll reveal six ways to future-proof your website and enhance user experience (UX) with mobile SEO.