AI, APIs, and PWAs: Happy Medium Predictions for 2024
We’re not fortune tellers (we’re not that kind of medium), but that doesn’t mean we haven’t thought about what’s in store for us in the coming year.
We’ve gathered our team together to make predictions on the topics we think will most likely affect us in the coming year. Some are sober speculations, others manifest from our worst fears, and a few might offer a glimpse of hope for the coming year.
The Team
Katie Patterson – Founder | CEO
Steph Holmes – VP of Product
Kodie Grantham – Lead Engineer
Doug Choi – VP of Creative
Jenna Sallen – Visual Designer
Alec McFarlin – Web Developer
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
SH
I see a huge benefit for sales teams, digital product managers, and marketers because AI has the potential to help segment customers more granularly to direct efforts and spending to a more refined target market to improve conversions.
KP
As an agency we’ve used it for foundations, ideation, etc…I think in 2024, users outside of the tech industry will start to find ways for AI to assist their days. I also think we’ll start to see more clarity on laws and regulations with AI in 2024
KG
I myself am trying to use it more as a tool in my belt. Mainly for writing out a boilerplate for a function I’m about to write but of course the code that the AI gives always needs some manual conditioning to get right. I’ll be interested to see how much AI improves over the next year and if the code it writes will get better.
AM
I’m excited to see its capabilities, but would be lying if there wasn’t at least a dash of concern with how far those capabilities can go and what kind of effect they will have.
DC
People who are already skilled at what they do will use AI to help them get even better. People who are looking to use AI as a way to do things they don’t know how to do (and aren’t willing to learn) will run into a wall.
Data-driven Decisions
KP
Although gathering data can take years, we’re seeing more companies committed to the work and getting clear answers. We always say use data, not feelings to make decisions. In the past that could have been met with resistance, but with how available data is now, using it to make business decisions is vital to success. We help so many companies figure out what data to use and how to use it to build business cases for why they should move forward in a certain way
SH
I imagine there will be a lot of data gathering and meetings discussing the data gathered, but I’m skeptical that companies will put in the effort to create strategies and governance policies, and set goals around the new capabilities to ensure that the data is being put to good use.
DC
People will get a better idea of what’s going wrong or right. What will likely still lag is qualitative research. We’ll know what’s going wrong or right, but we won’t really understand why.
Progressive Web Apps
SH
I predict PWAs will get easier to develop since they’ve been around for a while now, are more mature, and more No-code/low-code development tools are becoming mainstream. The appeal of not having to invest time and support of a native app is pretty high The area that might be tricky is app store bias, since you can still download them as an app, will the app stores start making it more difficult for them to be available in app stores?
KG
PWAs have been around for a while and are only getting and going to get more popular. React and React Native is mainly what we use when implementing something like this. Even using something like WordPress as our main backend but using React Native to turn it into a mobile application is really cool.
AM
I think people will see a lot of value in moving forward with a system like this, but new languages and improvements to languages make it hard to predict.
Accessibility
JS
In 2024, having an accessible website will be paramount to creating a functional experience for visitors. Building a site with features like keyboard-friendly navigation, an option for text-to-speech, and high-contrast color palettes will go a long way to engage all viewers.
AM
I think the accessibility of software is going to take on a higher priority in 2024. Even this year, I have seen campaigns from GitHub supporting and bringing attention to the importance of accessibility and will be happy to see what kind of new technologies could be used to improve the web experience for all.
KP
This has been important for a while, and the conversation in the world now is also matching what tech has been working towards, I think in 2024, those who have accommodated accessibility may also use it as good PR to share with their customers and clients as part of the intentional accommodating they do
Rising API Prices
SH
The API providers will continue their pattern of shifting away from traditional per-call or per-transaction pricing models to subscription-based or usage-based tiers with variable costs depending on the level of service and data usage. All roads point to higher overall costs for the majority of users.
KG
Businesses such as Reddit and Twitter/X have shown that they will raise the prices regardless of user backlash but from this, you start seeing people come up with interesting ways to get data without an API (mainly using custom scraping implementations) and that just becomes a game of cat and mouse. No matter what the end-user is the one that ends up suffering from this.
KP
As with so much of commerce, the number one way to grow profit is by passive income. Software subscriptions are no different.
Future of Social Media
KG
I think (and hope) that people start taking their personal data more seriously. I would like to see more decentralized forms of social media. With the crazy stuff that has happened recently with Reddit and Twitter/X that is becoming more popular but still not anywhere near the scale of the big names.
SH
I hope social media trends become more community-focused where it becomes less about broadcasting and more about building genuine connections. I hope to see more features that foster deeper engagement within communities, like group chats, virtual co-working spaces, and hyper-local interest groups. I’d love to see more personalized feed curation tools integrated into platforms. People are frustrated with missing content they want to see because the algorithm chooses for them, so I predict that tools to help in this area will come to fruition next year.
JS
General social media fatigue will lead users to primarily use social media to connect with friends and family.
DC
Curating your social media feeds against platform advertising demands is going to get more labor-intensive in 2024. My only hope is that advertising AI gets better at funneling relevant ad content to me, or that someone creates an AI product that will curate my feeds for me.
KP
My prediction for social media, as data is more regulated, social media will become a less curated experience on its own. Consumers will either become aware their feeds no longer are as relevant to them and they will only engage with what suits them, or they will be less attracted and engaged in their social media reducing their time spent with platforms.
Pill Packaging, Not So Long Lines, and Ads by Mothers for Mothers
Our most memorable experiences lately traverse the great public spaces and the isolated indoors. We revisit a Mother’s Day ad from earlier in the year that really pulled at our heartstrings, praise the packaging for antiviral pills, and spend less time in line at the state fair because of advance ticket purchasing.
Foolproof PIll Packaging for the Feverish
DC
After two and half years of somehow avoiding Covid-19 I finally slipped up somewhere.
I was lucky enough to get access to Paxlovid to aid in my recovery and I realized that it’s actually two drugs. Despite the initial confusion, I was thankful for the incredibly clear packaging they provided for the standard five day prescription.
Each pill is clearly labeled in the pack, and they split up the morning and evening doses by color. I was really expecting them to just hand me two bottles and call it a day, but this really helped my feverish brain puzzle things out more easily. And the used blister packs helped me keep track of how far along I was in my course of treatment.
- Doug Choi – VP of Creative
State Fair Somehow Circumvents Long Lines
BH
This year I went to the Iowa State fair a couple of times which means lots of corndogs and 27-degree beer. Part of me was not looking forward to waiting in all the lines during a weekend, but I was impressed with how efficient the fair has become. I know depending on what you did, the lines could still be long, but I had the best experience with it.
There was an emphasis on buying tickets in advance more than ever which has greatly changed how getting into the fair looks. For starters, DART still offers their shuttle for half-off fare if you buy a state fair ticket in advance.
Once I got to the fair, there were no lines to get in. One of my friends didn’t get a ticket in advance and there was absolutely no line to purchase one.
In other years, I would have waited 15 minutes to get in. Everything was so well directed. Even the longest food lines moved quickly this year for me and I attribute that to food stands having very efficient processes for charging credit cards and placing orders.
I like that I spent less time in lines (even on a busy Saturday) and more time enjoying it.
🎡
SC
I also had a great experience with the DART park and ride. We went to the Center Street one this year and never had to wait long. Some people paid $20 to park in a muddy lot once, I went to the fair 3 times and spent $6 total to get there and back for both Trenton and I!
- Bill Hitt – Client Success
- Sarah Chesling – Senior Visual Designer
Mother’s Day Ad Hits A Homerun with Heart
KP
This is the absolute best Mothers Day ad I’ve seen in my life featuring their CEO and their own team who is mothers speaking to their support of families for their team members, and showcasing their own product during it.
Katie Patterson | Founder & CEO
Reusable Totes, Holistic Branding, Opt outs, and Empathy
Our most memorable experiences of April are all over the place. We discuss bag fees, toy twigs, over-communication and a whole lot of empathy in our in-box.
Bag Fees Nudge Us to Actually Re-Use Our Re-Usable Totes
DC
I’ve always liked the idea of reusable totes, but never seemed to remember them when I went grocery shopping. I didn’t mind so much because I did have some select use cases for disposable plastic bags, but my needs get outpaced quickly and you end up with one of those plastic bags stuffed with more plastic bags.
Moving to Minneapolis, from Des Moines has surprisingly cured me of my forgetfulness. Now every time I go grocery shopping I have several totes stuffed in my pockets. I’d say that this is due to two very small nudges in the bag experience.
The first would be the plastic bag charge. It’s a negligible cost but it’s an explicit reminder of how my decisions impact the environment.
The second would be that because it’s a transaction, it forces a social interaction with the cashier that I want to go as smoothly as possible to avoid any post purchase anxiety. At least for me, it’s been brilliant at helping me do the small things that I want to do to help out.
JP
We have a bag charge in Denver and even though I was always pretty good at it, now I never forget one. I do not care about the 10 cents but it some how a great reminder.
- Doug Choi – VP of Creative
- Jill Patterson – Director of Talent
Holistic Branding Leaves us With Full Hearts and Full Stomachs
KP
Early Bird in Waukee was a wonderful experience.
Any experience where it’s incredibly clear no stone was left unturned is a major win in my book. The build out, the branding on different pieces, even the children’s toy was “colored twigs” and on brand with their name rather than crayons.
The food was delicious and I will absolutely be back.
💖👍
DC
I love the colored twigs. What a great idea!
- Katie Patterson – Founder | CEO
- Doug Choi – VP of Creative
Etsy and Revel Nail Make an Impact with Empathetic Opt Outs
SC
While I know there’s been some controversy around Etsy lately, I’m still a fairly avid user and I was just reminded of an experience they do yearly that I admire. They send out timely emails that give users the option to opt-out of email communications around Mother’s Day, and if I recall correctly they do it for Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day as well. The emails are succinct but kind and ensure users they won’t be removed from all email communications. I know they are not the only brand that does this, as I just received an email from another, much smaller brand that I’ve purchased from making the same offer. I feel like this is a kind way of looking out for your users and their best interest.
❤️❤️
- Sarah Chesling – Senior Visual Designer
Over-communication and Seamless Booking Services Help us When We’re Overwhelmed
CW
Like everyone else, I am busy juggling multiple calendars and just barely keeping myself organized these days. And unfortunately, remembering exactly when and what shots my dogs are supposed to get an annual basis is never at the top of my mind. In years past, I’ve often found myself getting a last minute notification or post card and then scrambling to get an appointment booked.
This year, though, Starch Pet Hospital in Des Moines stepped up and offered a seamless experience to make sure I got Rufus taken care of. Beginning two months ahead of time, they sent me weekly reminders that Rufus was coming up due for a check-up, included a list of what shots/test he’d need, and a link to their online booking system that took less than 5 minutes to schedule. They even called on Monday to confirm the booking. The mental load of getting him scheduled for his annual visit was completely lifted and I am so appreciative. If only they’d also come pick him up and drop him off…
🔥💖
DC
I can barely keep my regular human appointments straight, so this sounds great.
CW
I cannot tell you how happy I was when the online scheduler worked!
- Carina Woodward – Client Success Lead
- Doug Choi – VP of Creative
Tech and Customer Service Keep You On Your Feet
This month our standout experiences involve the intersection of technology and amazing customer service, clever cardboard engineering, and the value of going the extra mile in customer experience.
Fleet Feet Wins by Pairing High Tech with Great In-Person Service
KP
I had a really great experience at Fleet Feet yesterday. I needed new running shoes, went in and they were super friendly right away. After I told them I was looking for new running shoes, they had me sign up on an iPad – then I got on a machine that did an analysis of my feet to help them determine which were the best shoes for me then the associate put all three on me, talked me through them and walked me through the results of my feet scan and helped me with tips for when I’m running to counter any issues they saw in the scan.
It was a great mash-up of technology and in person support. 🎉
DC
Can also attest to this. I tried it out after you posted this. They even had a super breezy appointment sign up. 🙌
- Katie Patterson – Founder | CEO
- Doug Choi – VP of Creative
U-Haul Protects Your Dishes with Clever Cardboard Engineering
DC
Not only do they have two variants of dividers that help you customize the spacing for everything in your kitchen cabinet, EVERY piece of the cell kit gets used.
The outer shell of the Cell Kit has pre-creased folds that allow you to turn it into a spring to cushion the shock of the box being set down too forcefully.
I’ve always loved cardboard engineering and this is one of my favorite examples. 🎉
MV
It is life changing
- Doug Choi – VP of Creative
- Maren VanDenTop – Web Developer
Small Town Charm Can Be A Local Business’ Secret Weapon
While you’d have a hard time convincing me I should ever move back to small town Iowa, I was reminded this week that small, locally-owned businesses are often going way above and beyond to deliver excellent customer experiences.
When I got to my parent’s late last week, I realized after completing the 3+ hour drive that I was way overdue for an oil change, tire rotation, and my brakes were also making an unsettling noise (see me for more car care tips). Unsure of exactly how I was going to get this done conveniently in my hometown of only 6,000, with four dogs running around and a parent just out of the hospital, I finally made a desperate call to the local auto body shop yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. Not only were they able to fit me in for an appointment this morning, they also picked up and dropped off my car, and threw in a free detail all completed today well before 5pm. Plus, they included this super cute cookie! 💖 ✨ 🍪
- Carina Woodward – Client Success Lead
The 4 Best Experiences That Helped Us Get Through February
We’re putting our heads together to come up with the best experiences that helped us through the harshest month of the year. We’re doing this for a few reasons. For some, it’s fun to crow about the things that make our life more bearable. For others it’s about not taking the good things in our life for granted. But mostly, we want to be more mindful of how great experiences impact our lives so they can inspire to do the same for our partners. Let’s take a look at some of our team’s favorite experiences in February.
Target’s Addition of Starbucks and Returns to Curbside Service is a Big Hit with Parents
KP
They know their target audience so incredibly.
KG
That’s pretty damn good. Get your groceries picked out and put in your car for you and get a coffee in your hand all at the same time.
KP
AND GIVE THEM YOUR RETURNS without going in! It’s a parents dream. 🙏
- Katie Patterson – Founder | CEO
- Kodie Grantham – Lead Engineer / Systems Administrator
Covid-19 At Home Tests That Help Prevent Fumbles
I’ve taken my fair share of at-home rapid Covid-19 tests over the last year and the one thing I really appreciate, other than the science behind it all, are the clever test holders incorporated into the box, or into the internal packaging. It’s incredibly thoughtful to provide a stable base for the tiny fiddly plastic test tubes that determine whether we feel safe enough to see other people we care about. It makes me feel better about my own clumsiness, our curious cat, or the sheer amount of desk/table clutter that a Covid-19 test might be taken around.
- Doug Choi – Creative Director
Good Documentation and Ease of Implementation make Chakra UI a Win with Our Devs
Source: https://chakra-ui.com/docs
Through my React research I found Chakra UI which is a lightweight, front-end component library. Their documentation is super clear, the components are editable and interactive right in the documentation, it’s easy to implement, and they even released a Figma Kit. Truly a rare occurrence in the dev world.
- Maren VanDenTop – Web Developer
Chewy Subscriptions Take a Load Off Our Minds While Still Being Fast and Flexible
SC
I’ve had many great experiences using Chewy to order things for my pets. I can make an order one day in the afternoon, and the order is on my doorstep the next day. I also recently enrolled in their auto-ship for food, which was a quick and easy process and also saved me money. As I got closer to my first auto-ship order being fulfilled, I realized I needed it sooner, and I found it extremely easy to change this date on their website and my package arrived exactly on time. Their communication, UI and shipping are top notch.
KG
I use Chewy too! I always order my groceries online and have them delivered but nowhere would deliver me a 50 pound bag of dog food every two weeks for my three dogs, but chewy does automatically and it’s so nice because I just don’t ever have to think about dog food anymore, it just shows up on my front porch.
- Sarah Chesling – Senior Visual Designer
- Kodie Grantham – Lead Engineer / Systems Administrator
Work in the post pandemic: new perspectives, evolving priorities
We are never, ever, getting back to normal (Taylor’s version).
In honor of the re-release of Red, it only makes sense to paraphrase the iconic Taylor Swift.
In the Fall of 2019 our leadership at Happy Medium did our annual SWOT analysis session. During the threats portion, not one person mentioned a global pandemic, which meant we were not prepared when it hit just a few weeks later. I was just back from maternity leave and very much in the thick of figuring out how to be a mother to two, run a company, and add in time to pump 4 times a day while at the office with a very chaotic schedule.
I’ve never been a fan of the saying “work-life balance” and at speaking engagements, for years I’ve talked about how I believe this puts too much pressure to find some magical “balance” which in my opinion is a fairly subjective word. Our team pre-pandemic was allowed to work from home occasionally during the week and we had unlimited PTO as a work perk. We’ve had 100% parental leave (including mothers, fathers, and adoption) for years. I have always communicated to team members if you need to be off to go to a doctor’s appointment, a child’s activity, etc… please do it.
The most surprising output of the pandemic however to me has been how much the workforce mentality has changed. People are no longer willing to base their entire lives around their jobs. They have had a taste of what it’s like to be working from home, and how truly life-changing it can be to also be able to throw in a load of laundry and start dinner. It seems so simple and obvious, but the culture and working mentality in our country prior to the pandemic made this feel scandalous and odd rather than the true wonderful balance that can be. Now, on the day I knew I planned to write this and announce a few things to my team, the NY Times article directly to my inbox was serendipitous.
“The bottom line is that Covid now presents the sort of risk to most vaccinated people that we unthinkingly accept in other parts of life. And there is not going to be a day when we wake up to headlines proclaiming that Covid is defeated. In many ways, the future of the virus has arrived.”
David Leonhardt
I’m not sure if it’s been the return of quite a few in-person events lately, or the additional rounds of COVID-19 vaccine boosters we’ve all now easily had access to, but I’ve finally started to feel like we’re on the other side of this. We made it, we persevered. I knew at the beginning of the pandemic we had two options, barely get through this and feel the pain of this pandemic everyday within our organization, or work to find the silver linings and know that if we’re here and forced to be in this situation, we’re going to learn together and we’re going to make the best of it we can. I am SO DAMN PROUD to say we are the latter. We did it, we fucking DID IT. It was hard every single day for a very long time. A friend of mine who also runs a business said she felt everyday was like you showed up to work and you were forced to play whack-a-mole day in and day out. Exhausting.
So many things have changed since March 2020. As we near 2022 I can confirm we are not working to “get back to normal” as I’ve heard so many other CEO’s mention. I do not have that goal. I want to use these past two years to define how we’ll be different and better in the future. Rather than looking for balance, we’re pushing even harder to humanize the experience of working at Happy Medium. That goes for all of us, and starts with me. I’ve learned so much in this experience about what kind of leader I want to be and the type of team members that are the best fit for this company and the work we do. I’ve learned more than ever that it’s ok that not everyone is a fit, and not everyone likes me. I previously got so in my head about these things and I’d spend a lot of my time trying to make people who were probably never going to be truly happy here, have a better experience. It wasn’t in the way that I want to truly impact though. So with COVID-19, all of us have learned somewhat the art of giving less of a priority to the things that matter less, and more of a priority to the things that matter more. The same goes for me in all aspects of my life. I feel so incredibly freed from so many pressures I previously felt and I want the same for the humans that show up everyday to do incredible things along my side at Happy Medium.
Going forward here are a few things that will be standard in our company:
- Mental Health Hour – I think it’s been interesting to watch the world try to get back to doing the things we did pre-COVID. In my observations what is stressing people out the most is the demands on our time. The previous way we were living as a nation was unreasonable and we didn’t fully realize it. Now, with the space away from those expectations, we are able to see that previous demands on our time were unsustainable. One of the biggest things I can now provide to our team is time. It’s truly invaluable for most, so we started the Mental Health Hour. Normally, while the standard for everyone is working 40 hours, we’re giving one hour back each week to team members to do whatever they want for their mental health. Run the errands you just can’t seem to find time to, go to a yoga class before you need to be home to your kids, or stare at Netflix if it makes you happy. The positive feedback I’ve got back from team members on this perk has been wonderful and a realization that even one hour back per week – 52 hours of your year – can make a big impact in happiness.
- If you’re burned out, say it. This is probably the biggest one I’ve grown in. I used to let myself be so completely pulled in a million directions from the team and I should have been so much braver to say “hey, I’m burned out for the day and I need to hold this conversation / decision / brainstorm for tomorrow.” Instead, I’d show up, feeling the pressure of being everything to everyone. Likely I’d be frustrating for team members at times because I couldn’t be fully present. We are all humans and have to treat not only each other, but ourselves, as such.
- We will only work with kindness as part of the foundation of our partnerships. The amount of pressure that comes with being personally responsible for 20 people’s paychecks is not small. Sometimes that pressure can/would make it feel like we had no choice of who to work. We continued to work with clients who weren’t sometimes professional, or kind. They had unreasonable expectations. While I understand being in the service industry means some of this occasionally comes with the gig, there is a significant difference between this happening sometimes, or daily and toxic. The daily and toxic is something we will no longer work with. Like with anything, we’re comfortable knowing we aren’t a great fit for everyone and have very much moved towards a world of no. I will no longer let us work in environments where there isn’t a base level of respect and mutual appreciation. The amount of mental peace this brings is worth far more than any amount of money.
- We will continue to find ways to evolve our benefits to be supportive of our employee’s needs. I’ve also taken a deep dive into our company health insurance. I do not want any of our team members to not have the access to any healthcare needs they may have. I was frustrated to find out that, because of the size of our company, we can not get access to the same additional benefits larger companies do. I pushed our benefits provider to help me find solutions and they told me about the option to have an HRA (a Health Reimbursement Arrangement). It’s a way employees can get reimbursed for things our health insurance doesn’t cover through a fund I started. They submit to a third-party administrator the refund they need and it’s taken care of. We are in control of what is reimbursed for and I anticipate this will continue to grow as we find needs. As of January 1st, 2022, our team will have coverage for fertility treatments, abortions, and any mental health treatments including the company paying any co-pays.
All this is to say how we’ll be moving forward while recognizing how truly fortunate we are to still be in business. I know so many businesses were not as fortunate for reasons that were out of their control. For me, I’ll continue to reflect on this time as an era we were forced to simultaneously take a deep breath and work harder than we ever have before. These past two years changed me personally and professionally so much and I am so very grateful and proud to be where I am today. If one of my biggest lessons these past two years was to better take care of ourselves and to put up boundaries with the madness that was, I can’t think of a better way to show my appreciation to our team for getting through it along my side than by shutting down the office for the week of November 22nd, 2021. For the first time in the company history, we’re taking a collective break, and we’ll come back stronger and better for 2022. We are humans first and will be prioritized as such.
Getting Started with SMS Marketing
Marketers constantly canvas the media landscape trying to get a few seconds of attention from their audiences, and celebrate any margin of success over a benchmark. As attention spans shrink and the deprecation of third-party cookies draws near, advertisers need to reset their expectations, but also avail themselves to new media that can maximize the potential of their zero and first party data.
Think of all the tactics people generally resent about advertising:
- Junk mail
- Spam emails
- Clickbait
- Contextually inappropriate ads
- Excessive repetition
- Pedantic/drawn out commercials
What do all these have in common? Cluttering up your space and taking too much time.
Now think of all the tactics people generally like about advertising:
- Humor
- Invitations to participate
- Special or exclusive offers
- Useful/interesting information
- Alignment with taste
- Life hacks
- Relatable stories/testimonials
What do all these have in common? Relevance to and resonation with the end user.
If you can hit any of the marks on the bottom list, then you should be eager to engage your audience and your audience should be eager in return. The only question is, how will you stay in touch with them?
You can target them with ads through the usual channels. You can email them. You can also reach them through text messages!
SMS Marketing Basics
Short Message Service (SMS) itself has been around for a while. But SMS marketing, or delivering marketing messages through text messages, is a relatively new player in the ad space. It’s similar to email marketing in that it relies on zero party data intentionally given by the end user, with mass scheduled messaging about your products and offerings.
Emails are longer formats, and often go unopened due to the implied time commitment they require. The body of the messages are longer and they often call for clicking over to other information which might also take some time.
People often put off emails and leave them unopened. People also might read the email, lose interest, and never click out of it. Email marketing has its place and efficacy, but SMS is a little different.
SMS messages are shorter, and therefore more impactful, resulting in higher engagement. In a survey conducted by eMarketer, 43.3% of marketers report clickthrough rates (CTR) between 20-35% from their SMS marketing, compared to an average email CTR of just 2-5%.
Texting also spans across a much broader age range. While it might not be shocking to know that younger generations prefer texting, it might surprise you to learn that people up to 50 also prefer that method of communication.
In addition to performance benefits of SMS marketing, there are a number of functionality benefits as well. There are no algorithms to wrestle with, bounce rates to consider, or spam folders to avoid. Your message gets delivered directly to the consumer without any GDPR complications, which is a great workaround for iOS devices.
Using SMS Marketing to Engage Consumers
To date, 85% of US digital shoppers are subscribed to at least one text message program. This is outside of the texting businesses are using to provide reminders and updates to upcoming appointments and deliverables such as food delivery or prescription fulfillment.
However effective SMS marketing is, we don’t want to abuse this method, and it certainly should not replace other channels of communication. Consider SMS marketing as more of a supplemental medium, rather than the entirety of your marketing plan. Below are some helpful measurements to keep in mind when approaching this space:
- Why would they sign up?
- Why wouldn’t they sign up?
- What type of messaging would compel them to convert?
eMarketer did some research on what motivates people to subscribe to text messages from brands. The top reason why people sign up for text marketing is to unlock exclusive or one-top promo codes, with early access to sales and regular text-only offers ranking 2nd and 4th respectively. In addition to sales and offers, consumers are also receptive to text messaging that provides updates about their orders, with 51% of consumers saying that they would sign up to receive such updates.
It’s also important to keep in mind what could cause someone to unsubscribe from an SMS marketing program. When it comes to SMS marketing, consumers have many of the same concerns as they do with other marketing platforms. According to eMarketer, the top two reasons why US shoppers do not sign up for a brand’s text messages are worries about brands texting too often and concerns that the brand will share the shopper’s personal data.
Before Pressing “Send”
Like with any marketing effort, the impact of your SMS marketing depends on the amount of strategy and planning work you do up front to make sure you’re reaching the right audiences with the right messaging. If you or your business needs help developing a marketing strategy or wants to seek new, innovative ways to reach customers, Happy Medium would love to help you out. Give us a call.
Putting Purpose Behind Your Cause Marketing
A lot goes into building your brand and corporate identity. From something as small as picking your fonts and color palettes, to defining your key values and mission statement–every choice needs to help tell the world who you are. Of course, all brands need to convey the quality of their products or services, but customers are starting to demand more. What was once perhaps nice-to-have is now becoming a deal breaker.
When it was once passable to only be a good corporate citizen, modern audiences are raising the bar for businesses and forcing them to take a stand on social causes. People want to align themselves with virtue, and they want their money to support that virtue. Put simply, providing a good product or service isn’t enough for some people–they want to be certain that wherever their money goes, a portion of it ends up supporting causes that they believe in.
Using social causes as a way to position your business is called cause marketing, and it’s not a new initiative for many businesses. Perhaps for Earth Day, a company donates a sum of money to green initiatives; or during Black History Month, the company promotes awareness of different African American icons and their contributions or achievements. Other businesses may buy a sponsorship during Pride Month, or use its stores as drop-off stations for toy drives during the holiday season.
These are all nice gestures. But a fleeting good deed brings out the cynicism rather than the good will in people these days. People are looking for consistency from brands, rather than opportunism. And if your brand is trying to position itself as a caused-based business, you should hold yourself to a higher standard as well.
Your cause must be endemic to your brand. For example, if you support green initiatives, then be green all year round and find new ways to advance that cause even outside of Earth Day. Make your cause such a fundamental part of your business that when people hear your company name, they think about the causes that you support as quickly as they recall your products or services. Brands like Ben & Jerry’s or The Body Shop are both great examples of businesses that have benefited from fully integrating cause marketing in their operations.
Cause marketing does much more than simply making you feel good–here are some statistics that prove the value of cause marketing from a study done by Edelman in 2018:
- “Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of consumers around the world now buy on belief, a remarkable increase of 13 points since 2017. These Belief-Driven Buyers will choose, switch, avoid or boycott a brand based on where it stands on the political or social issues they care about.”
- “Belief-Driven Buyers are now the majority in every market surveyed, across all age groups and all income levels. Almost as many consumers aged 35-to-54 buy on belief as 18-to-34-year-olds, and the most impressive gains come from the older cohort, with an 18-point increase among people 55 years old and up.”
It’s not just customers who are paying attention to this. Employees are too! Another Edelman study found that 61% of employees are making decisions to apply, stay, or leave a company based on the core beliefs of the company on important issues.
Whether it’s tied to the product or service you sell, or a cause that is very close to you as a person, figure out what your business aligns with and build that into your overall brand and marketing strategy.
The business inclination is to make every dollar count toward your bottom line. But the aspiration of the brand must be willing to put resources toward equity in something greater than itself, even if the returns aren’t immediate.
The key is to avoid disingenuousness. Your effort, however small, must be sincere and consistent. There are a lot of worthy causes out there, for sure; and by no means should you feel obliged to take up the mantle for all of them.
Rather, create space for your cause. One that motivates you, embodies the values and virtues of your company, and would make both your employees and customers proud to support. One that humanizes your business and reminds the public of the people behind it, but likewise makes an effort to be a force for good.
When thinking about how you will go to market with this, look at it as a point of connection with your potential customers or clients rather than an ancillary side note. As individuals we often introduce ourselves by the parts of our identity we value most. We don’t hide those aspects that bring us the most pride, so feel free to take pride in the causes you support. If you are making genuine advancements toward the cause, then there’s no reason to be modest about your contributions.
Likewise, as a business, feel empowered by your endorsement and the cause-driven partnership you’ve taken up. Network with it. Build connections with it. People want to know that there is a compassionate dimension to your brand to help them feel better about where their money is going. And if your business needs help defining your core values, mission, or vision, give us a call.
Going Back to the Basics Could be the Future of Digital Media
The marketing industry is approaching a crossroads. With issues of user privacy gaining traction and priority in industry discourse, it’s important to understand the implications moving forward.
Plenty of things still remain unknown. For example, we don’t know the best approach to managing the seemingly opposing demands from the users for privacy and the advertisers for efficacy. However, industry players are putting ideas to the test to find a balanced solution.
What we do know is reporting and metrics will not be the same once Google officially does away with cookies in 2023. We also know that Google Chrome represents roughly 60% of browser use, while Safari, Explorer, Duck-Duck-Go, Bing, Firefox, and other smaller browsers represent the other 40%; and that 40% has already abandoned third party cookies.
As the dust settles in this space, a sort of philosophical discussion is emerging: what happens to attribution marketing, and are these changes going to send us back to the dark ages?
Prior to the advent of digital marketing, the only way we could get attribution was if the end-user provided that feedback by using a promotional coupon or filling out a survey. All the other sales and results were attributed to the general synergy of the media mix itself through regression analysis.
Digital marketing on the other hand gave us direct attribution: this conversion came from this lead which came from this ad served on this platform on this day at this time.
Neither were wrong for what tools we had available as an industry and what we knew at that time. But both are incomplete, and the privacy discussion is bringing that issue to the forefront.
The pre-digital way was missing accurate attribution, but with the one-to-many probabilistic approach, we did see the needle move. The digital way gave us accurate attribution, but with the one-to-one deterministic approach, we went too far over the privacy line.
The pre-digital way wasn’t tracking an impression so the assumption was that every piece of the media mix was responsible for the conversions. The digital way gave a lot more weight to the latter part of the cycle (either last touch or last non-direct point of contact).
The media mix model was all we had before digital came on the scene, but this is tracked over a long period of time to determine brand-specific trends in marketing efficacy.
The attribution model only works if you have visibility into who is seeing what and when regardless of which attribution model you use.
We are losing some of the visibility into attribution, but not all of it. But it’s also time to stop loading all the media spend into the bucket with the best attributable capabilities.
It’s time to modernize media mix marketing. Using the same principles and regression exercises to track long-term trends, we can likewise incorporate attribution metrics into the consideration set. Marry this with zero and first-party data, and you have a very healthy analysis for predicting future growth strategies as well as a better idea of who your primary target really is.
The fact remains: there is no silver bullet in marketing and advertising. In the coming months (and years) as government regulations continue to evolve, and service providers vye to ingratiate themselves to the general public as worthy of user trust, attribution visibility will wane.
By going back to the first principles of a balanced and synergistic media mix and integrating contemporary tools, like anonymous unified identifiers and zero and first-party data capabilities, we can get a more holistic understanding of the efficacy of our marketing and advertising efforts, while developing a conversational relationship with our end users.
Leveraging eCommerce and In-App Commerce to Build Your Business
After years of steady growth, the COVID-19 pandemic caused online spending in the U.S. to soar past estimates in 2020. According to Digital Commerce 360, consumers spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2020—an increase of 44% over 2019—compared to just a 15% increase from 2018 to 2019.
As the e-commerce sector grows as a whole, one area is experiencing even greater expansion and promising new value to large and small businesses alike: in-app commerce. Some examples of in-app commerce are:
- Facebook Marketplace
- Snapchat Screenshop
- Instagram Shopping and Reels
- Shopify integrated into several other apps like Walmart and TikTok
- eBay
- Amazon
- Etsy
- Google Shopping
You can build your e-commerce business in these apps rather than build out your own website, but it’s important to understand both sides of that decision.
Building your business in these apps is similar to having a business in the mall. You are a renter of space, not an owner. You don’t have as much control over the traffic or the branding, and you are beholden to their rules and algorithm. The host app to your business also owns the first-party data of all the traffic that comes through their walled garden.
Having your own website gives you more autonomy over the look, feel, user experience, data, and the relationship with the end user. It’s more like having your own independent store rather than renting space in a mall. But with that autonomy comes additional costs for features and activity otherwise provided by an e-commerce site.
Ready-Made Storefront
In-app retail has some solid benefits, which is why it is so successful. First and foremost, for any starting business, this is key: it’s a ready-made storefront. The infrastructure is in place and you simply need to populate a few areas to get things going. That infrastructure could include an integrated means of accepting payment, shipping options, and facilitation of returns and exchanges. Features and integrations do vary from app to app, but Shopify, for example, is integrated on Google and TikTok. Not all apps are created equally, but they do offer features you would have to get for yourself if you built your own website.
Instant Access to Audiences
Secondly, you enjoy the benefits of the traffic and momentum of that app. They are marketing themselves, which drives traffic to their site. They have a search feature on their site which can drive traffic to you. You can then advertise your business on that site using their search features and first-party data to its users.
Another Tool in Your E-Commerce Toolbox
Remember, this isn’t an either-or proposition. Many businesses are on Amazon but also have their own website, and they might even have a physical storefront to boot! But using in-app commerce is far more turnkey and affordable than building out the infrastructure for your own website or physical store out of the gate.
Getting Started on E-Commerce
If you are looking to get into the e-commerce space or your business is digitally native and you’re looking to expand into the social or in-app retail space, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Evaluate where you are driving your traffic and customers
Is your in-app commerce set up in a way that is welcoming, engaging, and user-friendly? If you’re using a social platform, like Instagram Shopping, does your social content offer something of value to your customers like useful information or entertainment? Are the images and footage you use of high quality? Like an in-person retail business, you want your online shopping experience to positively portray your brand and make it easy for users to find what they want. - Plan out your strategy
Think about your target audience and how you want to connect with them. Are you just trying to get anyone over to your page? Can you define the type of person that your product or service would be most suitable for? How can you go about finding those folks and drawing them in? - Once you draw users in, how do you intend to foster a relationship and keep the conversation going?
Customer experience is of the utmost importance. Digital space is highly saturated, so the best way to stand out is to provide great service with an easy-to-understand interface. - How do you plan to guide that conversation toward conversions?
Personalized email marketing with offers relevant to each customers’ engagement history with you can go a long way in garnering repeat business.
With all the changes happening in the digital ad space surrounding privacy and the deprecation of third-party data, first-party data is becoming the new currency. First-party data not only allows you to stay connected with your target, but it also offers an opportunity to customize that experience.
Remember: it’s cheaper to keep a customer than to win one. - How will you measure success?
Finally, and most importantly, be sure to have a way of measuring your strategy’s progress. Is it even working? By tracking your results on a regular basis, you can optimize your efforts to work better for your business.
Capitalizing on Growth
Even as physical retail reemerges from the pandemic, experts predict e-commerce to continue the growth set in motion in 2020. Not only is spending on e-commerce expected to grow, but e-commerce is also expected to account for an even larger portion of total retail sales heading into the future. These trends are already well underway, but it’s not too late to take advantage of this momentum.
If you or your business needs some guidance on how to capitalize on the growth in e-commerce, give us a call because the Happy Medium team would be pleased to partner with you and to help you face this digitally charged future–or you can learn more about our experience building digital solutions by clicking here. Dive deeper into the ever-changing landscape of digital media and marketing by checking out other articles on our blog.