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123 eGuides are authoritative guides published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost. Every 123 eGuide is just 3 bucks or less ($2.99 to be exact).

123 eGuides are designed for today’s reader who wants information in a quick, convenient, easily readable format. Each 123 eGuide is intended to provide a functional overview rather than a detailed roadmap. Every 123 eGuide always includes additional resources if the reader wants to learn more.

Check the "Available 123 eGuides" link above to see what's available. 123 eGuides are available wherever eBooks are sold, including the Amazon Kindle store and in any eBook format at Smashwords.com.

1 Minute Advice: Three Rules of Social Media Engagement

As a marketer, engaging with prospects and customers via social media is essential today. Creating true engagement, however, requires adherence to certain rules. Writing for Social Media Examiner, Luria Petrucci identifies three of the most vital rules for social media engagement:

1. Be consistent - "You must consistently create quality social media content for people to want to engage with you."
2. Ask specific questions - "Too often, marketers think they’re asking for engagement when, in fact, they’re not. If you’re not getting super-specific with your request for people to comment, chances are they won’t."
3. Include an element of fun - "What works today is personality. A sense of fun and your unique personality is what will drive engagement more than anything else because people don’t engage unless they enjoy the content or feel something about it. "

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Brands Need to be Cautious with Consumer Data

As data privacy and data breaches continue to make news, it heightens consumer awareness of how personal data is being used. A recent survey of consumers by content management solutions provider Acquia reveals that 65 percent of respondents will abandon a brand that is dishonest about how a consumer's personal data is being used. Still, consumers are generally willing to share their data with brands: almost half (49 percent) will share personal data with brands that have a physical store, but 59 percent say they wait at least a month before doing so.

A more telling statistic from the survey is that 65 percent of consumers don't know how brands are using their personal data. Tom Wentworth, a senior VP at Acquia, tells MediaPost, “Brands have a responsibility to educate consumers about data usage, proving that they can trust the Internet again," indicating that we are at "the beginning of a new paradigm where businesses need to find personalized ways to engage consumers without going too far."

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Eco-friendly Packaging on the Rise

In response to the groundswell of concern around plastics, large consumer companies are starting to think creatively about eco-friendly packaging. Two encouraging examples:

1. Nestle has come up with a special recyclable polymer-coated paper that can be used in high-speed packaging production but degrades within six months in the ocean. Even more impressive is the fact that the company is making the technology available to food manufacturers rather than patenting it.
2. PepsiCo is using a 100% recycled product for one of its water brands and will introduce aluminum can packaging for its Aquafina brand to eventually replace plastic bottles.

In addition to these examples, an industry movement is underway in a pilot program that tests the concept of multi-use containers being reused and returned by the consumer. Sounds like the good ol' days of glass milk bottles, doesn't it? Everything old is new again!

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: "Primetime" is Now Anytime

The old notion of primetime television -- a specific period of time when the most viewers are watching -- is ancient history. According to Google, primetime is "no longer a single daypart on a single screen. It’s the minutes and hours people are choosing to tune into content they’re most passionate about, whatever and wherever that might be." The implications for marketers are enormous: Instead of the traditional practice of scheduling ads at specific times, marketers need to be serving up relevant ads when viewers are engaged during "personal primetime."

Google offers four specific examples of this new emerging strategy. Admittedly, they are large advertisers using Google's YouTube to create a very customized media experience. Still, the examples are good ones, and they certainly address the changing definition of "primetime." Check it out: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/advertising-channels/video/youtube-personal-primetime/?

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Adjusting to the "Age of Convenience"

Writing for Forbes, Rebecca Brooks calls attention to the fact that, for brands, technology is driving the "age of convenience." She says, for example, "The desire for barrier-free shopping continues to rise," and that means in many cases, consumers don't even have to go into traditional stores anymore, because they can find just what they want online. What does that mean for brand packaging -- and the way consumers used to interact with brands on shelves?

Brooks believes the age of convenience requires marketers to think differently, making three big shifts away from traditional brand marketing approaches:

1. "Dig into the context."
2. "Focus on a recent event."
3. "View everything from your category's unique landscape."

Brooks writes, "we must start to align our research with the real world and focus on connections with an increasingly elusive audience. Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/06/05/why-brand-building-must-change-in-the-age-of-convenience/#14cd28a51966

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Most Valuable Global Brands

BrandZ, a division of WPP, uses a brand valuation methodology to rank the most valuable global brands. For 2019, here are some of BrandZ's rankings:

Top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands
1. Amazon
2. Apple
3. Google
4. Microsoft
5. VISA
6. Facebook
7. Alibaba
8. Tencent
9. McDonald's
10. AT&T

Top 10 Most Valuable B2B Global Brands
1. Microsoft
2. IBM
3. SAP
4. UPS
5. Wells Fargo
6. Accenture
7. Intel
8. Cisco
9. Adobe
10. Salesforce

Top 10 Risers in Brand Value
1. Instagram
2. Lululemon
3. Netflix
4. Salesforce
5. Adobe
6. Shiseido
7. Amazon
8. Uber
9. LinkedIn
10. Chipotle

You can find the complete BrandZ global brands report here: https://brandz.com/admin/uploads/files/BZ_Global_2019_WPP.pdf

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: New Retail Report Focuses on Convenience and Connection

The sixth Annual "Future of Retail" report is now available without charge from Walker Sands Communications.

Key themes from this year’s report include:

1. Consumers have grown comfortable shopping online because of the convenience. 46% of consumers are more open to purchasing a big-ticket item online than they were a year ago. 
2. Consumers want to feel more connection with items they purchase and the brands they purchase from. With this want for connection, 66% of consumers say they are buying less than they used to.
3. There are opportunities to leverage the combination of convenience and connection to drive commerce forward. Despite online stores providing free and fast shipping, 25% of consumers feel more connected with brands when they go to a store.

The study outlines key insights about the shift in population size between the boomer and millennial generations and its effect on the world of retail.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

July Half Price eGuide Sale!

For the month of July only, 123 eGuides is making every one of our informative eGuides available for half price... just $1.50 each!

123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost. 123 eGuides employ the magic of three, based on the simple principle that virtually anything can be accomplished in three proven steps.

123 eGuides are designed for today’s reader who wants information in a quick, convenient, easily readable format. Each 123 eGuide is intended to provide a functional overview rather than a detailed roadmap. Every 123 eGuide always includes additional resources if the reader wants to learn more.

To purchase any of the following eGuides at half price, just click on the title's link below at Smashwords.com and enter the code SSW50 when you check out. Your eGuide is available in a wide variety of formats, including PDF and mobi (Kindle). This special half-price offer is only available through July at the links below.

Low Cost/No Cost Marketing 123
B2B Marketing 123
Branding 123 Second Edition
Sales Leads 123
Product Launch 123
On Your Own 123

Take advantage of this sale today. Thanks for your interest!

1 Minute Advice: Insurgent Brands Keep Growing

According to new research from Bain & Company, "insurgent brands" -- those brands with $25 million in sales or more and growing at least ten times their category rate in the past five years -- will continue their torrid growth rate and capture market share. Between 2012 to 2016, such brands had less than 2 percent market share across 45 categories but grew by 25 percent. From 2014 to 2018, their share of growth increased to 30 percent.

This puts increasing pressure on larger mainstream brands to be more creative and nimble. On the positive side, the growth of insurgent brands suggest there is room for brand growth in general. But Bain thinks these brands need to focus on four specific things to succeed:

1. Rediscover the consumer.
2. Rethink brand portfolio strategy.
3. Build repeatable M&A capabilities.
4. Create nimble ways of working.

More here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bain-company-research-shows-insurgent-130000083.html

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the new book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Ups and Downs of Social Media Marketing

Social media continues to be valuable for marketers, but the 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report suggest some softening. The annual report surveyed more than 4,800 marketers, mostly in small businesses, who use social media marketing. It found, for the first time in the last five years, a drop in Facebook's share as the most important platform for marketers. According to the report, only 51 percent of marketers plan on increasing their Facebook organic activities, down from 62 percent in 2018. Messenger bots usage is declining as well; only 32 percent of marketers plan on increasing their bot activities, a 7 percent decrease from 2018.

On the positive side, usage of Instagram for marketing is up significantly, and it has become the second most important social platform for marketing, behind Facebook, surpassing LinkedIn for the first time. Over the next twelve months, 69 percent of marketers plan on increasing their Instagram organic activities. YouTube usage is also robust -- 71 percent of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube video.

The free report has lots more valuable data. You can request it here: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2019/

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the new book, Boomer Brands?