Tuesday, June 30, 2015

$3 From Everyone for the People of Greece

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Tom Feeney, a 29-year-old Yorkshireman living in London, set up a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo this Sunday to help the Greek people. Today the campaign really got momentum - so much that IndieGoGo's server crashed this afternoon
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The initiator pledged: 

European ministers flexing their muscles and posturing over whether they can help the Greek people or not. Why don't we the people just sort it instead?
The European Union is home to 503 million people, if we all just chip in a few Euro then we can get Greece sorted and hopefully get them back on track soon. Easy.

€1.6bn is what the Greeks need. It might seem like a lot but it's only just over €3 from each European. That's about the same as half a pint in London. Or everyone in the EU just having a Feta and Olive salad for lunch.  He promises that all profits will go to the Greek people, donation perks include a postcard of greek prime minister alexis tsipras, a greek feta and olive salad "fresh to your door" and a voucher for a bottle of ouzo.

€805,171EUR raised by 47,751 people in 3 days

To pitch in and help, go to 



Thom Feeney: "I wondered, could the people of Europe have a crack at fixing this? Less talk, more direct action. So, sat at the table after dinner, I started a crowdfunding campaign to try to rescue the Greek economy. Some basic maths told me that I only needed the entire population of Europe to donate €3.19 (£2.26) to reach the amount of the bailout fund. I included some nice perks for donating, including a Greek salad and holiday in Athens for two, and set up a page on IndieGoGo and a Twitter."
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Meanwhile:
"12 Ultra Rich Greeks Who Should Have Bailed Out Greece Themselves ...

or at least pay their taxes.  While they are hiding 70 Billion Dollars in Swiss and other banks, people in Greece are often rummaging garbage cans for food. Greece's financial troubles forced its people to the streets and its fellow European nations to negotiations about bailing it out." This is from a five year old article at Business Insider - and now the situation is even worse on both sides. Greek people are suffering and no taxes are paid... 


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Canada: Best Country for Writers and Publishers

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July 1 is Canada's National Day, and today's blog post is dedicated to everything Canadian. The Canadian government is supporting and fostering literature, writers and publishers, even ISBN's are FREE in Canada! 


There is a huge list of government grants and support for writers and publishers. The Canada Council for the Arts offers a range of benefits for professional Canadian writers, collectives and publishers.  In addition to providing support for the creation, translation, publication and promotion of Canadian literature, the"Writing and Publishing Section" funds among others for example author residencies, literary readings and festivals, as well as new areas of activity such as rap poetry, storytelling and electronic literature. 


PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT BENEFITS 
Just one of many provincial benefits for publishers is the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit, offering  generous tax deductions
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WHERE and HOW TO OBTAIN A FREE ISBN IN CANADA 
Good news for Canadian authors and publishers: the ISBN application process is simple and free of charge – but only if you are living in Canada and your publishing company is registered in Canada. 


COPYRIGHT CANADA 
What Every Writer Needs to Know About Copyright. Register your manuscript or articles online to the Copyright Office, Canadian Intellectual Property Office Web site (fee Can $50). 

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Native - PowWow 


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CANADIAN WRITERS DON'T NEED AGENTS 

“You must get an agent!” is an advice that aspiring authors hear and read everywhere. Is it really true? Not for Canadian writers! Beacon Literary Services owner Julie Ferguson says: ”Publishing statistics in Canada demonstrate that it is simply a misconception caused by American influence. In Canada, only ten percent of books are agented. Aspiring and established authors here successfully submit the majority (10,000) of the titles published every year directly to editors."  Julie Ferguson wrote a great blog post for Canadian authors, explaining in detail how publishing “north of 49th parallel” works, with a link to Publishers.ca, featuring listings and contact information for several important literary agents and agencies in Canada. 

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CANADIAN SHORT STORY PRIZE 2013 

Canada Writes, with partners CBC, Canada Council for the Arts, Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and "The Banff Centre", are pleased to announce the Grand Prize winner will receive $6,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and will have his/her story published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and on the Canada Writes website. She or he will also be awarded a two-week residency at The Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Colony, and will be interviewed on CBC Radio. The 4 runners-up will each receive $1,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and their stories will be published on the Canada Writes website.

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WRITE FOR AIR CANADA INFLIGHT MAGAZINE "ENROUTE" 

Writing for airline magazines, such as enRoute represents a real opportunity for freelance writers. Travel pieces are a staple of in-flights, yet airline publications also offer articles on technology, business, sports, and food, as well as lifestyle trends. Find as much of the articles online. Or try to get hard copies. Since in-flights are not sold on newsstands, request a copy from the magazine’s publisher and ask traveling friends for their help. 
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Canada-Day-Ottawa 

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HOW TO OPEN A PUBLISHING BUSINESS IN CANADA?
Authors are smart and able to start their own publishing business, REAL publishing, not POD and not Vanity Publishing: Finding and getting quotes or referrals for an editor, a book lay-out company or book designer, cover artist, e-book formatting company and a printer is not difficult. Setting up their own company can be done online – in minutes. 

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READING CANADIAN BOOKS and ARTICLES
English is English! – No! Not at all! Canada and America are two countries separated by a common language - this is how George Bernard Shaw's statement could be converted. Many American (and other) readers are surprised to learn that there are huge differences in spelling between English-speaking countries. A book, written and published in Canada, needs almost to be “translated” into American English and vice versa. 

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ACCESS Copyright
A study found that 80% of all copies made on copy machines are from books! As a Writer and first-time publisher, back in Europe in the early 1980′s, I was thrilled to receive a copy-royalty cheque for $180.00 from VG WORT.
Later I found out that the same system works well in Canada under the name ACCESS COPYRIGHT. One of the benefits of being a small publisher or trade-published writer in Canada! However you must have set up a small business in Canada, if you are not with an established (not Vanity) publisher ACCESS COPYRIGHT explains on their website. 

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BERTON HOUSE Writers’ Retreat, Dawson City, Yukon Territory
Professional Canadian writers who have one published book and are established in any creative literary discipline(s) — fiction, non-fiction, poetry, play-writing, journalism — are all encouraged to apply for Canada's most northern Writers’ Retreat.  The Writer’s Retreat offers writers time, and a remote location to pursue their professional projects. The writer will be housed in the Berton House at no cost in rent or utilities. Travel costs to and from Dawson will also be covered! The writer is responsible for a public reading in Whitehorse and Dawson City and a summary of their stay at Berton House. Applications may be submitted by mail or email to: jdavies@writerstrust.com Berton House Writers’ Retreat,  c/o The Writers’ Trust of Canada 200-90 Richmond St. East, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1 http://www.bertonhouse.ca
A monthly honorarium is provided to help cover food and other living expenses. The competition to be a writer-in-residency during the 2014-15 season is now open. An online application form is available.  The deadline for submissions is October 2, 2015.
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Canada Day celebrations July 1, in front of the Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario. 
Image courtesy NCC. 

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HAIG BROWN RESIDENCY
Published authors are being invited to apply for the 2013-2014 Haig-Brown House Writer in Residence position. The residency entails spending the winter months (or a portion thereof) living in the Haig-Brown Heritage House, which is under the management of the Museum at Campbell River on Vancouver Island (BC).
 The modest four bedroom house reflects the character of writer Roderick Haig-Brown and his wife Ann. Located in a peaceful setting on the banks of the Campbell River on Vancouver Island, it contains a Heritage library and is surrounded by two acres of garden and 17 acres of public parkland. The writer’s time will be divided between pursuing personal writing projects and providing literary advice and support to the local community, and participate in Museum winter programming.  
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A stipend of up to $2000 per month, depending on available funding, will be provided. Please include a resume (maximum two pages), a list of publications, a one-page proposal of anticipated community activities, and a sample of work in progress (20 pages); with reasons why the residency would further your work. Forward your application package to Sandra Parrish, Museum at Campbell River, Box 70 Stn A, Campbell River, BC V9W 4Z9. Deadline is January 16, 2016. 
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RCMP-officers-on-horse

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RCMP-officers-on-horse, courtesy NCC

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LIST OF CANADIAN WRITERS Past and present writers, including poetsnovelistschildren's writersessayists, and scholars. compiled in a Wikipedia article

PUBLIC LENDING RIGHT PAYMENTS TO AUTHORS
Canadian authors receive approx. $10 Million per year/ in average $600, and up to $3,500.
The Canada Council for the Arts distributes annual payments to Canadian authors through the Public Lending Right (PLR) Program as compensation for the free public access to their books in Canadian public libraries. 
Canada is one of 29 countries with an active public lending right payment program.  
Well, not bad to be a writer in Canada! Happy Canada Day!


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Sunday, June 28, 2015

Is Apple Your Book's Best Selling Place?

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Apple’s iBooks department launched a new free ebook that helps authors with an iBooks Author Starter Kit.  This free e-book shows authors how to use the program. The book is available in many languages and any author should be able to download and use it.
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The iBooks Author Starter Kit is a beginners guide to creating Multi-Touch books for teaching and learning. It walks a user through a set of step-by-step activities, and provides all of the materials — an iBooks Author template, color palette, copy decks, images, videos, keynote presentation, and more — needed to create interactive books.
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Increased Readership Through Updates and Changes. 
Until now iPhone users have been unable to view books made through iBooks Author. They could download and read basic epub books, but they have been unable to view the interactive and graphic-heavy books made through their main publishing app.  Readers will now be able to access all of the books via the iBooks storefront when using the new iOS 8.4. This way they can read the books from an iPhone, iPod or iPad.
Another change is that audio-books and e-books are merged into one storefront to make it much easier for users to find both, text and audio versions of books.
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4 Million New iBook Readers per Month.
According to reports, Apple has stated that they are gaining about one million new iBooks customers every week since releasing the OS upgrade. This is largely from e-pub books, but many iBooks Authors titles are also gaining new attention and sales, even illustrated books.

Smartphone and mobile users - since releasing iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - are slowly becoming the main customers for this service. Larger screens make it easier to buy, read and use this content, and people also want to take their media with them.
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No Pay for Placement.
Gigaon.com reported from the Digital Book World Conference about the speech of Keith Moerer, director of iBooks at Apple: “Another difference between the iBooks and Amazon is that Apple doesn’t charge publishers to promote their books on its site. “One hundred percent of our merchandising is editorially focused. We accept no co-op payments, no pay for placement.”

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iBooks: Now a Real Competition for Amazon. 
Apple is giving new attention, upgrades and books to ensure that as many authors and readers use the platform.  Higher profits for existing authors on the Apple platform makes it a winning situation for those who stayed on board and continued publishing even though iBooks isn’t the biggest store out there - but maybe the more dedicated readers...


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Writers and Artists: Get FREE Market Research

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Authors who use crowdfunding to finance the production costs of their book get for free what industries pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for: MARKET RESEARCH
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It is certainly an amazing opportunity and one of the starting steps in the publishing process.

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Many Benefits, Beyond the Financial Gains:

  • Marketing – project initiators can show there is an audience and market for their project. In the case of an unsuccessful campaign, it provides good market feedback.
  • Profile – a compelling project can raise an author’s profile and provide a boost to their reputation.
  • Audience engagement – crowd funding creates a forum where project initiators can engage with their audiences. Audience can engage in the production process by following progress through updates from the creators and sharing feedback via comment features on the project's crowd funding page.
  • Crowd funding most often grows the overall number of books sold.
  • Feedback – offering pre-release access to content or the opportunity to beta-test content to project backers as a part of the funding incentives provides the project initiators with instant access to good market testing feedback.
  • Bringing passionate readers along for the publishing ride and creates deeper relationships and reader engagement.
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Quite a few crowdfunding services are available, best known and trusted are Kickstarter and IndieGoGo  - see also a comparison table on Wikipedia.

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Support From Your Customers
Too often, authors write books before knowing the depth of their reader base.  The supporters of your crowdfunding campaign are your future readers / customers.  Crowdfunding is a great way to pre-order books before they are produced – invaluable for a startup author-publisher.  Crowdfunding means: you have readers even before your book is published. 

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The idea of funding books by subscriptions is actually something that was already popular in the 18th century.  Now we are really going back to a time before we had big, trade publishers who used to give writers large advances in the past.  These days authors are using the web to attract readers to their own book project.

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Readers and Reviewers
Authors can offer copies of their book to supporters. Let’s say an author’s book campaign gains the support of a hundred people who will receive a copy of the book as a reward. On launch day the author will already have access to those hundred readers, who will be able to review the book on Goodreads, Amazon or B&N, Kobo or Apple and generate attention and momentum immediately after publication.  If the book is sold in print through bookstores, it has only a couple of weeks to succeed and with an initial boost its likelihood of success is much greater.

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Key to Campaign Success
The author’s knowledge of the audience of their book and how to reach them is the key to success in publishing. Crowdfunding means, an author is able to test the market for the book and find and connect with their audience pre-publication, which gives them a tremendous advantage when the book is published and promoted to a large audience of readers. Get lots of tips for a successful campaign from a former blog article.

Important is that such a campaign is well planned and that authors create a relationship with their backers.

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Read more:
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/crowdfunding-success-with-kickstarter-or-indiegogo/ 
  
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/crowd-funding-more-than-money-for-your-book/ 

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/startnext-crowdfunding-jetzt-auch-in-deutschland/ (German) 

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/great-news-for-canadian-authors-kickstarter-is-here/

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites - or learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 - or less than $2 per day!  Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting / Book Marketing for your success: 
http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars  
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To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring” http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE
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Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Glimpse Into Israels Prisons

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Rabbi Fishel Jacobs offers his readers a glimpse into the world of the Israeli prison system.  Through a series of vignettes, Jacobs weaves the tales of prisoners and prison life using compelling description and moving dialogue.  His conversations with inmates and their lives told in their own words offer a truly poignant reminder that we are all just one decision away from disaster.
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Coffee Melts Bars: My Israeli Prison Career by Fishel Jacobs 

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He presents an unswervingly honest look at life behind bars and his struggle to shine love in some of the darkest, most desperate places.  Stories of redemption and faith permeate this work, and the reader is left with an unmistakable sense of hope.

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Rabbi Fishel Jacobs: "I was a Major in the Israel Prison Service and the only American chaplain in the Israeli penal system.  For thirteen years, in a little office located directly below the room where Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann was hung, I tended to countless men and women who were both physically and spiritually broken.  I know that when most people hear the word "prison," they think of the loss of rights, the harsh conditions, the abuse.  But for me it was all about the encouragement, the hope, the growth."
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Karate Champion, talmudic scholar, prison chaplain, lieutenant in an Israel Army combat engineering unit on active duty during the Gulf War, and Tel Aviv University campus chaplain for nearly 20 years. You can imagine that this man is truly... blessed and has a lot to tell.

Teeming with terrorists, murderers, rioters, revolutionaries, madmen and psychopaths, maximum-security prisons like Rabbi Jacobs witnessed would be the last place you'd expect to find ANY ray of HOPE in the human heart.  
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And Rabbi Jacobs now tells all the best stories - firsthand, as only he can - about the triumph of the human spirit over the darkest manifestations of man's depravity.

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His books are certainly available as iBooks at Apple

Coffee Melts Bars - Video: Life in Maximum Security Prison in Israel




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Marketing Trends in Publishing

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These are the five hottest trends - in one sentence: Content Marketing is everywhere and in all variations, from user reviews to video for mobile.  You will see more companies launching their own content platforms, just as every writer does or should do before publishing.


1. Mobile is Everywhere.
Daniel Newman at Forbes brought it to the point:
“Mobile is going to become the center of marketing. From cell phones to smartphones, tablets to wearable gadgets, the evolution of mobile devices is one of the prime factors influencing the marketing world.”


2. Videos Outside of YouTube.
YouTube remains a huge player, with its more than 1 billion monthly active users, the second more important search engine in the world after Google, and number 1 when it comes to travel in the 18-34 age demographic.
Video is not just about YouTube anymore. Not to mention Vine or Instagram, and even Twitter which now allows for embedded videos in its tweets.  64% of website visitors are more likely to buy from an online retailer after watching a video?


3. Carrousel Ads.
Images, visuals or info-graphics work well in social media. A recent HubSpot article found that blog posts with images get 94% more shares than articles without images.  Similar findings were found for Twitter engagement as well.  Rather than showing one picture per post, social networks are now increasingly using the carrousel method in order to show more images in a single publication, especially for paid posts.  Paid advertising on social media is on the rise.  Beneficial are the low costs associated with social media ads.


4.  Call it Just Photo Contest…
Have you heard of the photo messaging service Snapchat or Line? You likely will have if you watch how teenagers use their smartphones.  9 percent of all call phone users in the US now use Snapchat according to Pew.com, which compares to 18% for Instagram.  Cell phone ownership and the rapid rise of smartphones has created a platform for mobile photo- and video-sharing, which became an integral part of the online social experience.  62% of internet users have done at least one of these creating or curating activities.


5.  User-Generated Reviews.
Amazon launched reviews twenty years ago, and TripAdvisor reviews started to appear back in 2000. Now you see them everywhere.  Online reputation management is no longer a nice-to-do consideration for retailers, hotels, restaurants and attractions, but rather a must-do.  Deliver the platform and consumers will flock to this place and create content for you : )



Jeff Bullas sums it all up:  “The one-size-fits-all approach will not work in the world of mobile marketing.  Use these trends to your advantage, by picking the ones that work for you.”


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

TODAYS DEAL: Steve Jobs Biography Up to 50% Off

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Steve Jobs Paperback  

NOW HALF PRICE

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Steve Jobs is the authorized biography of Steve Jobs. The biography was written at the request of Jobs by Walter Isaacson, a former executive at CNN and Time who has written best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.[1][2]

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—in addition to interviews with more than one hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Isaacson was given "unprecedented" access to Jobs's life.[3] Jobs is said to have encouraged the people interviewed to speak honestly. Although Jobs cooperated with the book, he asked for no control over its content other than the book's cover, and waived the right to read it before it was published.[4]
The book's front cover uses a photographic portrait of Jobs commissioned by Fortune magazine in 2006 for a portfolio of powerful people. The photograph was taken by Albert Watson.


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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Forget Advertising

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Old marketing models were built in a bygone era and today’s increasingly digital world demands new strategies.  Companies have to embrace the power of the mobile Internet.  They have to connect with their audiences—and this doesn’t necessarily require large production budgets and deep resources.  Useful information, providing value to your audience and authenticity are the new requirements for marketing.


Changing Landscape of Marketing.
Today’s consumers will never go back to a world again where they will be treated as one in a million.  The "new" content marketing is something bloggers and Youtube creators have excelled at, and it will replace the traditional, non-personalized ad for the masses.  For example a Youtube video about the top 10 things to know when applying for a mortgage as being far more effective than a large billboard or bus shelter ad, or one on Facebook about a real estate company.


Data and Customer Experience.
With websites, capturing every click of users, marketing can be designed to target our preferences. Digital data is far more powerful and valuable than ad designs and arrangements. Marketing professionals want to know how long people look at an ad as a measure of engagement. Do they skip it? Do they share it?  Online analytics can optimize the productivity of marketing.


Marketing in the Rapidly Evolving Digital Age.
In the past the journey from seeing an ad to becoming a loyal customer used to be “fairly linear and discrete.”  The consumer would watch a big ad for 60 seconds, then go into the store and buy the product.  Now, in today’s increasingly connected world, people are never far from the Internet, and so that journey is typically broken up into many tiny interactions—on the cellphone, then back home at the desktop, and even a week later when a customer wants to actually talk to a company salesperson.  Important for marketers is to realize that they need to be present at all those stages in the journey.  People seem to have far shorter attention spans in today’s world and marketing needs to adjust to that.


Think Like a Customer.
In addition to being a successful marketer, you are also a consumer of various brands. Wear that hat when you are interacting with fans and followers. You and I, and every customer on this planet, possess a “what’s in it for me” mindset. Keep this in mind and make your customers feel special – don’t just engage for the sake of engaging.  40 percent of brands’ followers on social are there for the discount, so they will want to continue to see that interaction, and will be more open to receiving a company's message if they occasionally get rewarded for it.


Mobile Phones Are Now the Only Screen That Matters.
Mobile is immediate and far more action-oriented. With mobile, 80 percent of mobile searches take place at home or at work, 75 percent of “conversions” take place within an hour, and 41 percent of searches are goal-oriented, according to the Google Canada/Nielsen 2015 Mobile Search Moments study.  And marketing specialist Frederic Gonzalo explains: "We tend to stick with what they know, i.e. print, radio or TV.  If this still makes some sense with radio and TV, there is a disproportionate amount of advertising budget going to print while mobile goes grossly under-represented..." 

Mobile fundamentally changed behaviour to be much smaller in nature and much more action-oriented.  Critical for marketing success is an excellent customer experience, without frustration, through mobile platforms.