Blog – Caliber Group

The Band is Back Together

cal_admin — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 12:00:40 +0000

It was recently announced that CBS and Viacom will be recombining into a single company again after breaking up in 2006. CBS was among the first media companies to jump into streaming. With Disney, NBCUniversal, and WarnerMedia now launching their own streaming services, along with streaming first services like Netflix, Amazon, and Google creating more and more content, this is a good time for the two companies to reunite, giving them a content library of more than 140,000 TV episodes, and 3,600 movies, including stalwart franchises like “Star Trek”, and “Mission: Impossible”. Our local CBS affiliate KOLD, is independently owned and operated, so this merger will likely not have much of an effect on the Tucson market. This article from AP contains all the details.

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Powerful Email Subject Lines

cal_admin — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 06:00:41 +0000

Do you know one of the most powerful tools to drive openings in email subject lines? Asking questions. Asking a question in your subject line piques your audience’s interest, and gives them a promise of what they will find in the body of the email. At Caliber, we’re big believers in subject line questions. This bit of advice, and 18 other best practices and great ideas for email subject lines can be found in this article from our friends at Hubspot.

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Quora as a Marketing Tool

cal_admin — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 07:15:34 +0000

Quora is the best way to crowdsource answers to basically every question. The site sees more than 300 million unique users each month. And it’s a great way for you to build your reputation. Answering questions on Quora can give your brand a boost, by letting people looking for information discover that you are an expert on a specific topic. Social Media Examiner has some great advice on how to start.

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Do you inc?

cal_admin — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 07:12:27 +0000

Have you purchased your .inc yet? The new domain extension is available for a flat fee of $1,999. While that seems like a high price compared to some other extensions, the idea is that squatters won’t be able to buy up domain names and resell them to businesses at a higher price. Some of the brands that have already set up a .inc include Nike, Apple, and BMW. Is the .inc domain right for your business?

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Does your brand need a Facebook group?

cal_admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 18:46:58 +0000

Recently you may have started seeing ads for Facebook groups on TV, and noticed more content from the groups you’re a member of in your feed. That’s because Facebook changed its algorithm again to increase engagement, and they believe that groups and events are going to be the best way to do that. Does your brand have a plan for how to deal with the coming changes?

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Staying Current with Social Media

cal_admin — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 22:32:46 +0000

It’s that time of year again. As the weather warms up and spring turns to summer, all of our favorite social media analysts release their Annual State of Social Media reports. Each of these focus on different areas and each of them are required reading for anyone who uses social media as a marketing channel. Our team at Caliber uses these and other tools to stay up to date on the latest benchmarking data and trends, so that our clients get the most out of their social media strategies.

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Digital marketing metrics are key to successful campaigns

cal_admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 19:50:28 +0000

With digital media spending forecasted to reach more than $77 billion in 2017, it is more important than ever to ensure that you are integrating digital media and marketing strategies effectively into your digital marketing campaigns.

Businesses should track the successes and failures of each individual digital campaign to learn what is working and not working. Fluctuations in tracking results could be attributed to message strategy, placement, time, creative or other factors. Tracking each individual campaign in-depth will allow for each business to adapt their focus on the areas that are yielding the greatest results.

Metrics are available on almost every digital platform a business might use. When using tools such as Google Analytics or Facebook Insights, or tracking URLs placed within a digital ad, users can track specific results and determine future strategies.

Before a business starts a digital campaign, they should first determine their goals and objectives for each campaign.

How many people do you need to reach?
Who is your targeted demographic?
How much do you want to spend on each campaign?
What messaging or creative strategy is needed to influence or educate audiences?

These basic goals and objectives will allow a business to determine the digital strategies that will provide the greatest return on investment, without wasteful spending. We also recommend determining in-house benchmarks prior to pulling metrics on campaigns.

When analyzing results on each campaign, make sure the results are reaching or exceeding your benchmarks.

Are you getting enough impressions and conversions on Facebook posts?
What are the clickthrough rates on ads both on social media and other digital platforms?
How many of the clickthroughs are resulting in the desired conversion?
How many people are clicking through to sign up for your email list?
How long are people staying on your website and how many pages are they searching through?

These are some of the basic but most important metrics you should compare to your goals, along with other comparable industry benchmark averages.

If you are seeing that certain creative executions are providing more clickthroughs and conversions, you should adapt those concepts in future digital campaigns. Knowing what ads are performing best will also allow you to lower or raise the amount you are spending on each advertisement to realize the greatest return on your investment.

One way a business can test to see if their digital messaging and creative strategy is effective, is to execute a test through a low-cost platform such as Facebook. Advertisements on Facebook can be placed for as little as $15-$20 per ad and return an effective test result before a business invests hundreds or thousands of dollars into more comprehensive digital campaigns.

Each digital marketing campaign is unique and may not have the same goals, but setting universal tracking tactics will allow you to develop digital benchmarks as a business develops future digital media campaigns.

To learn more on how we can help you develop and execute an effective digital media campaign, contact us at (520) 795-4500.

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Use Caution: Super ad ideas can march you into trouble

cal_admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 23:10:17 +0000

When it comes to the NFL’s biggest game of the year, it’s an opportunity for many businesses, especially grocery stores, to promote big sales for the game-day party. However, using the trademark-protected words ‘Super Bowl’ could land you in hot water.

Come March, with Tucson being such a big basketball town, using the phrase ‘March Madness’ can also get you in trouble.

To understand why you can’t use the well-known terms ‘Super Bowl’ and ‘March Madness’, when they are names used for two of the biggest sporting events of the year, you must first understand what is a trademark.

A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademarks may be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office.

For the NFL, trademarking the Super Bowl is all about the money, and only those advertisers willing to pay millions to use the phrase and logo can use it. For others, the NFL is strict and will send cease and desist orders if you even try to say ‘Super Bowl’.

For the same reasons, the NCAA has trademarked ‘March Madness’. It’s college basketball’s biggest tournament of the year, with big advertising bucks capitalizing on fan excitement.

Advertisers beware when planning your Super Bowl or March Madness marketing campaigns this year. Clever wording is needed to avoid marching your way into super trouble.

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Is Your Website ‘Mobilegeddon’ Ready?

cal_admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 17:44:43 +0000

You may have heard the news that Google unveiled a major change in their algorithm today that will impact even the biggest brands’ search results. This change, which aims to give “mobile friendly” sites higher search rankings, was announced in February to allow for website updates. So what exactly is a “mobile friendly” website?

Mobile friendly sites are designed with:

Large text
Easy to click links
Responsive design, meaning the pages respond according to the screen size of the device
Smaller image file sizes

Why would Google make this change? Reportedly mobile searches accounted for nearly half of all Google traffic from June to November 2014. According to research company, eMarketer, the number of US mobile users has grown from 34 million in 2010 to more than 134 million in 2014.

Still, this is just one in a list of roughly 200 characteristics that make up the closely guarded Google search algorithm, but it is a wake-up call. Mobile adaptation should not be ignored. If you are concerned that your site isn’t ready for ‘Moblegeddon’ Google has provided a quick-check tool. Type in your URL on the Google “Mobile-Friendly” test page and view the results.

If you find that your site needs a refresh, Caliber is here to help! We invite you to explore a few of the responsive sites we’ve helped create for our clients.

Hughes Federal Credit Union

Pasadera Behavioral Health Network

Pro*Act

Therapeutic Riding of Tucson

We’ve been predicting the mobile-centric shift since 2011! Read about it here.

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Careful of Your Written-Tone

cal_admin — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 22:09:18 +0000

Judging someone’s tone of voice and body language are key indicators most of us use to determine how the other person feels about a given situation. In business, these observations are crucial when interacting with employees, vendors, and customers. In today’s world of increased electronic correspondence, social media activity, and remote meetings we don’t always have the opportunity to gauge the tone of the conversation this way. What does your written-tone say about you?

This week, while discussing hot topics during our staff meeting, the Caliber team turned our attention to the meaning behind punctuation in text messages, emails, and social media posts. We realized that even among our team, different audiences translate the unspoken tone or meaning of these nuances in completely dissimilar ways. For example:

Several members of our team respond to quick emails or texts with a simple “k” instead of spelling out the word okay or writing a complete sentence acknowledging their approval of the message they received. We learned that some folks read that as curt, sarcastic approval, or sometimes thinly veiled disapproval being expressed.

A second example relates to the now widespread use of the ellipsis. Without any thought to how the popular … would be interpreted, many team members use it in emails and social media posts on a regular basis. We learned that for some it lent a sarcastic tone to the message being shared.

In general the use of exclamation points and/or ALL CAPITAL LETTERS can lead to major tone confusion as well. Is the sender excited, angry, happy, or simply sharing an important development?

Remember, every communication and interaction is important. As we’ve discussed before, a brand is built through multiple touchpoints along the way, and that includes your personal brand. Before you fire off a response and click send, take a moment to review what you’ve written. Does it accurately express what you want to say? Can it be misinterpreted by the receiving party? It is worth the time to watch your written-tone.

Your Turn: Have you recently experienced a text-only message miscommunication? Share your insight with the Caliber team via email or comment below.

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