Marketing Funnel Basics
via Evergreen Media:
Careful planning of your funnel will ensure that you have all of the necessary pieces in place so that you understand what works best for moving customers around your funnel.
Solving Facebook Ad Account Issues
via Evergreen Media:
If you are a regular advertiser on Facebook, you have certainly had the experience of an ad rejection. Ads can be flagged for any number of reasons, but they are usually easy to resolve (unless you need to generate all-new creative in order to get your ads back into compliance.) But what does it mean when Facebook shuts down your entire ad account, with no warning? Facebook does not give most advertisers any direct channels of support, so how do you get your ads back up and running?
Useful tips for Facebook marketers. If you run ads on Facebook, you’re going to run into one of these issues eventually.
Truth
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge”.
– Isaac Asimov
Today
It was a little over six years ago that my family moved out of the Washington, DC area. After living and working there for almost a decade, it was our home. We had purchased our first home, and one of my daughters was born there. I never much cared for the area though, and I was glad when we were able to leave.
Today is the first time that I have missed being there. After four years of whatever in the hell this was, I’m watching the coverage of street celebrations and my hope is being restored.
Now we move forward. Now we solve some problems. Now we begin to heal.
I hope.
Sometimes I watch stuff
I think more than anything else this year, I’ve needed escapist entertainment. I avoid cable news at all costs, and I give a thumbs-down review to any shows which let the real world creep too much into storylines. This isn’t everything I have watched this year, but these are the (first run, not rewatches) shows that stood out. In no particular order:
- The Boys: This Amazon show has been a revelation to me. Imagine if Fargo and Justice League had a baby, and then that baby’s first word was the c-word. Incredibly violent and gruesome, and with pitch-black humor. And, admittedly, it’s a little bit of a meta-commentary on current affairs (in violation of the rule I outlined in the introduction.) But still! It’s a damn near perfect antidote to the news. A
- Fargo: As of this writing, we’re four episodes into the new season, but it’s great. Fargo is one of my favorite shows of all time, and I have every confidence that they will stick the landing. B+/Incomplete
- Archer: Archer has emerged from his coma (which generated the storylines for the prior three seasons) and is back in the spy game. It’s a return to where the show started, and it’s been great. B+/Incomplete
- Ted Lasso: An Apple TV+ comedy, and maybe my favorite show on the list. The initial trailer for this show did not do it any favors, so it’s best to jump right in without any preconceived notions about what this show is. It’s funny, and cheesy, and uplifting in ways that you didn’t know you needed. It’s a sports comedy with almost no sports in it. Ted Lasso is everything that I needed this year. A+
- Away: Science fiction/family drama, this has been a pretty good show. B
- Brockmire: This was the final season for one of my favorite comedies, and it did not disappoint. It was a weird departure from prior seasons (with a big time jump), but it was still very funny. B
- Better Call Saul: BCS has been a nearly flawless show since the pilot episode, but this fifth season was incredible. Amazing storytelling. A+
- Westworld: Since the first season, I’ve found it best to enjoy Westworld as a binge after all of the episodes are available. Even then, it can be a hard show to follow, with so many characters, plot-lines, and craziness to follow. I loved season 2, but my reaction at the end was “what the hell did I just watch?” Season 3 dialed back some of the crazy, and was a fun ride. B-
- Hanna: I didn’t love the first season, but the sophomore effort was an improvement. B
- Star Trek Picard: The episodes were up and down, but this was a welcome return to Star Trek, and to one of Trek’s best characters. B+
- Altered Carbon: The first season of this show was violent spectacle, with a great cast and weird storytelling. Season 2 dialed down the spectacle (probably to save on production costs) but the story was better. Sadly Netflix decided there would be no third season, but the final episode doesn’t leave you hanging. B-
- Mythic Quest: A new comedy from the creatives behind one of my other favorite comedies (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.) Similar to Ted Lasso, you should ignore the trailers and just watch this show. It’s very funny. B+
- The Magicians: The final season of this series which has been described as “Harry Potter for grownups.” I rarely watch much fantasy, but this series has always been a favorite. Very funny, and a great cast. This final season was a little bit of a mess, but still enjoyable. B-
- The Last Dance: This show debuted in the second month of the pandemic, and it was the first cultural event we’d had since February. Everyone was watching this. I’d been eagerly awaiting this since they announced it two years ago, and it did not disappoint. Without any actual live sports to watch, was the sports escapism that America desperately needed, and it helped us get through some dark days. A+
Etc: A few rewatches:
- It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
- Justified (FX is heavily represented in my viewing, as usual…)
- The Expanse (I rewatched the series twice this year, because it’s incredible. I will almost certainly watch it a third time before the 5th season debuts in December.)
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force
3 Disciplines for Marketing
Via Evergreen Media:
Supply chains have been disrupted, and brick-and-mortar shopping has taken a hit. Your customers are consuming more and more hours of content on streaming services and only want to shop via a mobile app.
These are permanent changes to how marketers plan their campaigns, but they don’t have to be permanent obstacles. To help adjust, here are three interconnected disciplines that every marketer needs to adopt.
Another thing I originally wrote for The Green Note, my marketing newsletter. I hope it helps my fellow marketers.
2020 Manifesto
This November, I’m going to vote for Joe Biden. He won’t be the first Democrat I’ve ever voted for, but he’ll be the first I’ve voted for president. And I will vote for him proudly. Here is why.
Inclusive Marketing
via Evergreen Media:
As brand marketers, we have a responsibility to our customers to portray humanity fairly (if you are more interested in an unfair portrayal, you should go into political marketing.) We are chronicling the human experience by shining light on our beauty, our flaws, and our needs. The stories we tell should be truthful, and the truth is that humanity everywhere is diverse in ways beyond just skin tone.
Check out the rest of the thing I wrote over at my agency. It’s an important topic.
Zip It
The year is 1995. You’re stuck with slow floppy disks that only hold 1.44 MB of data. But there’s an exciting new technology: Zip drives, which can hold 100 MB and free you from floppy disks!
Now, 25 years later, we look back at Iomega’s Zip technology and its history. Did you know some industries still use Zip drives?
Zip disks were fairly ubiquitous by the time I left high school and entered college. Anyone who needed to move (relatively) large amounts of data around had a drive (or had one built into their computer.) Reliability issues and the rise of fast networking killed off the Zip almost as quickly as it emerged though.
I never owned a Zip drive personally. I instead had placed my bet on the SyQuest EZ 135 drive. It was slightly more expensive than the Zip, but considerably faster and more reliable — it used hard platters (like a hard disk) rather than the “floppy disk” medium that Zip disks utilized. I bet on the wrong technology though, as SyQuest filed for bankruptcy pretty shortly after I bought into their tech. Sigh.
Bookmark it for life
My oldest daughter, a student at a prestigious northwestern institution of higher learning, is contemplating a trip across the Cascades this weekend. Seeking my advice as a sage veteran of mountain pass travel in Washington State, I sent her a link from my browser bookmarks: the Washington State Mountain Pass Road Report. She then asked for a phonetic spelling of “Snoqualmie” (she’s not a local, so don’t laugh) but I digress.
A few things then dawned on me. I’ve always kept meticulous backups of my data, so I’ve been using the same bookmarks across computers and browsers since at least 1998. I had sent her a bookmark that I had created in 1998 or 1999, back when I frequently traversed Snoqualmie Pass between my school in Tacoma and my home in central Washington.
Maybe it’s nothing, but it really seemed amazing that I was able to send a URL that I had bookmarked while in college to my daughter while she’s in college 20+ years later. It’s also pretty wild that WSDOT has faithfully maintained the same URL structure on their site such that this URL string is still perfectly valid, with no redirects (other than to HTTPS), today. Kudos to their IT team.