Blog - plain talk

Love it or hate it, social media is more than just a way to connect with friends online. While many of us remember when Facebook first began and being part of a community that didn’t include Business Pages or Newsfeed Ads, the world of social media from 15 years ago is very different from what it is now, which is a world where businesses can no longer afford to not maximize their social presence. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll walk you through why social media is more important than ever and what you should do about it.

As 2020—a year unlike any other—finishes up, marketers are faced with a new world of replacing crucial business leads. One of the most impactful methods, trade shows, is still in flux. Many early 2021 shows have been canceled while others are considering postponing or moving to a completely virtual platform, which frankly just isn’t the same. And you need leads now. This is just the right time to utilize those trade show dollars on a few new arrows in the marketing quiver, ones that allow for pinpoint precision to offset the loss of in-person opportunities. In today’s Plain Talk newsletter, we’ll talk about a few cost-effective B2B lead generation tips and ways to repurpose those trade show dollars to keep qualified leads rolling in.

There are the six digital areas you really need to be concentrating on in order to increase your digital authority and drive not just leads for your business but qualified leads that you can close and convert into profits. Each digital key feeds off the others to maximize results, so the best strategy is to implement each of these as a part of a comprehensive digital plan to acquire new customers and maximize your revenue potential. In today’s Plain Talk article, we’ll kick off our lead gen series and dig into the six keys to building your ideal digital lead generation strategy.

Whether your focus is on B2B marketing or B2C, there are few topics more relevant today than generating qualified leads to move your sales forward. There are a great number of ways to do this (in combination for best results), but in today’s edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss the anchor tactic for “pay-per-click” advertising: paid search marketing. We’ll cover six paid search best practices to get the most ROI from your efforts.

In 2020, the home bar cart has taken on special significance because shrinking out-of-home social opportunities have created a boost in at-home consumption. This on-premise apocalypse we talked about in an earlier article means that brands need to find new and significant opportunities to drive off-premise volume. But the bar cart isn’t just ANY off-premise sale. It’s a place of honor in consumer homes but for the right brands, a lucrative one. In today’s Plain Talk article, we’ll talk about a few ways you can earn a coveted place on the millennial bar cart with the right beverage packaging design.

Today, dropping technology costs and faster production methods mean that video and CGI production is no longer reserved just for Super Bowl ads for many—even small businesses. Video consumption in the U.S. has skyrocketed thanks to COVID-19, so cheaper production costs may be worth considering. In today’s Plain Talk article, we’ll talk about why you may want to consider how CGI advertising fits into your digital marketing strategy and whether it’s a viable option for your e-commerce, B2C, or B2B content production needs.

In 2020, typical communications strategies took a back seat amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses quickly pulled all marketing efforts during the start of COVID-19, evaluating how to best handle this crisis and still get key messaging to the public without appearing tone-deaf to what was happening in the world around us. But while marketing efforts may have temporarily slowed down for some, public relations (PR) professionals were busier than ever. From local nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies, most businesses quickly saw just how important PR would be to their 2020 marketing strategies. PR became a critical and cost-effective part of most plans. Here, we’ll explore the effectiveness of public relations while answering the question, “What does public relations do?”

This year put many public relations professionals to the test, seeing just how quickly they can think on their feet and react. While we weren’t prepared for this scenario, this year has reiterated to many companies the importance of a crisis communications plan. You can’t plan for every potential scenario, but having an overall plan is important. It helps your business handle an emergency situation effectively. Here are some insights and examples of successful crisis communication planning.

We are surrounded by photographs pretty much every waking minute that we are using any type of communication device these days. In the realm of social media, photographs, and video content rule the platforms. Let’s dive a bit further into the subject of taking photos for social media. (Well, I’m not sure that I would be considered a photography legend, but I certainly have had and I am having a wonderful career in this visual world that we live in.) I am the Managing Director of the Content Creation Studio at PriceWeber. I work in photography, advertising, and social media pretty much every day of my life. I am going to share five tips for taking great photographs for social media.

A casual reader looking at spirit sales numbers for 2020 might think it’s a pretty good year. After all, in July, Nielsen indicated a 52-week rolling sales increase of 5.1%. But those numbers do not tell the whole story. Overrepresentation in sales increases by the larger, high-awareness brands and well-known value brands, and stocking up (or hoarding) has potentially skewed the figures for months to come. Of greater concern is that off-premise stock-ups and at-home consumption may lead to spirit brands feeling more like commodities than before. Another concern is that the worst on-premise closures since Prohibition are straining the sales and brand value of many spirit brands. In today’s Plain Talk article, we’ll look at four strategies brands can use for their spirits marketing and how to overcome the effect of critical on-premise losses.