Native Ads 101 - Native What?!!!!

I came across this article today and fell in love with the title...

People Are More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash Than Click on a Banner Ad.....

Oli Gardner gave a lot of great pointers and stats in this post and I thought it was worth reposting.

Most importantly he begins to explain the difference between a banner ad and a native ad. What's a native ad you ask? Basically, it's an ad placed within a content piece BUT the ad is very relevant to the topic you are reading on (hopefully).

Many brands are moving towards Native Ads as they have a higher click through rate than banner ads (52% more), shared more (32% vs. 19%), Native Ads registered a 9% higher lift for brand affinity and 18% for purchase intent and native ads are consumed the same way people view editorial content.

Ok here's the whole article:

People Are More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash Than Click on a Banner Ad.....
Oli Gardner

Best. Statistic. Ever. Makes me feel better about flying, but sorry for those designing banner ads.

They say that a kitten dies every time someone uses a bullet point in a presentation, so I shudder to think what’s going to happen the next time someone clicks on a banner.

Banner ads. The ugly stepchild of online marketing. Just trying to hang out in the top-right corner, minding their own business. They never asked to be overused. They never asked to be animated GIFs. But they certainly didn’t want to be ignored.

Yet, here we are, about to discuss how little action they get, and how they’re being usurped by another form of advertising. Poor little rectangular bastards. 75,000 wasted pixels in an otherwise useful area of your page. Destined to be thrown on the marketing scrap heap, never to be seen again…

Scratch that. Banners aren’t going anywhere. Yes they’re annoying. Yes they are essentially useless. But they’re here to stay, in all their 300x250px glory. They just have to compete with what’re known as ‘Native Ads’, which, as we’ll learn, have some significant advantages.

What’s a native ad? In 197 characters or less.

Native ads are contextual paid ads that appear in your content stream, designed to augment the user experience by providing semantically relevant supporting content, without breaking the flow of information.

But placing ads in content is bad, right?

It certainly is. The typical method for injecting ads is to use interruption marketing tactics to plant banners and text ads directly into the middle of a piece of content, forcing you to look at them in order to experience the whole article. People – me included – despise these ads. They provide no contextual benefit and diminish the value of the content they appear in. You can probably blame Google for this, as most of the bad behavior seems to have been built around the mass adoption of AdSense as an advertising platform.

There’s a reason for the epidemic known as banner blindness. People never liked banners and decided unconsciously to tune them out, focusing instead on the real content on the page. If you infer the same reaction to ads placed inside your content, you can imagine how unpleasant and interrupted the content consumption experience would be.

However, done correctly, ads inside content can be effective. This is where native ads come in.

So how are native ads different?

To extend the definition of native ads a bit. You can think of them as sponsored content designed to “blur the distinction between editorial and advertising in the eyes of the consumer”, according to Pilgrim Advertising. What this means, is that despite the ads being paid for, they are placed more carefully, with a heightened level of knowledge about where and how they are being used. The result is that they appear more like ‘useful supporting content that just happens to be paid for’.Read more about native ads.

The benefits of native ads

The infographic below was created based on a study to compare differences in behavior and perception between native ads and banner ads. Using eye tracking tools and surveys, the following insights were uncovered:

• Native ads are more visually engaging: Native ads in the study were looked at 52% more frequently than banner ads.
• Native ads drive higher brand lift: They registered a 9% lift for brand affinity and an 18% lift for purchase intent, compared to banner ads.
• Native ads are more likely to be shared: 32% of respondents said they would share the ad content with a friend, compared to 19% for banner ads.
• Native ads are consumed in the same way as the content they appear in: Consumers actually registered that they looked at the native ads slightly more than the content itself.

Enjoy the rest of the data in the infographic, and be sure to tweet the facts at the end of the post.

(Infographic by Sharethrough )

Tweetables

Share these rad stats with your followers to show how ad-savvy you are. And don’t worry, you can change the final tweet text before it goes out. Just leave the stats intact.

• Consumers looked at native ads 52% more frequently than banner ads
  » Tweet This «
• 32% would share native ad content with a friend, compared to 19% for banner ads
  » Tweet This «
• Native ads registered 9% higher lift for brand affinity & 18% higher for purchase intent than banner ads
  » Tweet This «
• People are more likely to survive a plane crash than click a banner ad
  » Tweet This «
• Native ads are consumed the same way people view editorial content
  » Tweet This «

And in case you’re wondering. The stat about the plane crash came from here.

– Oli Gardner

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Credit: http://unbounce.com/online-marketing/native-ads-vs-banner-ads/?utm_content=buffer1bb3d&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

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Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Lessons from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ...

Esquire Magazine recently posted an article by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I love this guy. We've been working with him lately because he's helping us on a campaign for a cancer drug for one of our clients. As most of you may or may not know, Kareem suffers from Leukemia (specifically CML). Despite the disease he continues to do great things for the community and serves as an inspiration to many.

It's always fascinating to me when you learn something new about a person - for example did you know that Kareem is a history buff and LOVES reading history books in his spare time? He's a self proclaimed closet nerd. Love it!

So he recently posted this - and what's not love about it?

We know many of these "lessons" but it's worth a refresher... my favorites in purple...

Kareem: 20 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 30

When I was thirty, I was living my dream. I’d already accomplished most of what I’d set out to achieve professionally: leading scorer in the NBA, leading rebounder, leading blocker, Most Valuable Player, All-Star. But success can be as blinding as Bill Walton’s finger in the eye when battling for a rebound. I made mistakes. Plenty of them. In fact, sometimes I wish I could climb into a time machine and go back to shake some sense into that thirty-year-old me. If I could, here’s the advice I would give him:

1. Be more outgoing. My shyness and introversion from those days still haunt me. Fans felt offended, reporters insulted. That was never my intention. When you’re on the public stage every day of your life, people think that you crave attention. For me, it was the opposite. I loved to play basketball, and was tremendously gratified that so many fans appreciated my game. But when I was off the court, I felt uncomfortable with attention. I rarely partied or attended celebrity bashes. On the flights to games, I read history books. Basically, I was a secret nerd who just happened to also be good at basketball. Interacting with a lot of people was like taking someone deathly afraid of heights and dangling him over the balcony at the top of the Empire State Building. If I could, I’d tell that nerdy Kareem to suck it up, put down that book you’re using as a shield, and, in the immortal words of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (to prove my nerd cred), “Engage!”

2. Ask about family history. I wish I’d sat my parents down and asked them a lot more questions about our family history. I always thought there would be time and I kept putting it off because, at thirty, I was too involved in my own life to care that much about the past. I was so focused on making my parents proud of me that I didn’t ask them some of the basic questions, like how they met, what their first date was like, and so forth. I wish that I had.

3. Become financially literate. “Dude, where’s my money?” is the rallying cry of many ex-athletes who wonder what happened to all the big bucks they earned. Some suffer from unwise investments or crazy spending, and others from not paying close attention. I was part of the didn’t-pay-attention group. I chose my financial manager, who I later discovered had no financial training, because a number of other athletes I knew were using him. That’s typical athlete mentality in that we’re used to trusting each other as a team, so we extend that trust to those associated with teammates. Consequently, I neglected to investigate his background or what qualified him to be a financial manager. He placed us in some real estate investments that went belly up and I came close to losing some serious coin. Hey, Kareem at 30: learn about finances

and stay on top of where your money is at all times. As the saying goes, “Trust, but verify.”

4. Play the piano. I took lessons as a kid but, like a lot of kids, didn’t stick with them. Maybe I felt too much pressure. After all, my father had gone to the Julliard School of Music and regularly jammed with some great jazz musicians. Looking back, I think playing piano would have given me a closer connection with my dad as well as given me another artistic outlet to better express myself. In 2002, I finally started to play and got pretty good at it. Not good enough that at parties people would chant for me to play “Piano Man,” but good enough that I could read music and feel closer to my dad.

5. Learn French. My grandparents were from Trinidad where, though it was an English-speaking country, the school system was started by the French. Whenever my grandparents wanted to say something they didn’t want me to know, they’d speak French. The language seemed so sophisticated and mysterious. Plus, you earn extra James Bond points when you can order in French in a French restaurant.

6. Get handy. I always wanted to be one of those guys who, whenever something doesn’t work, straps on a tool belt and says, “I’ll fix it.” I like the Walden-esque idea of complete self-reliance. Build my own house, clean out the carburetors, find out what carburetors are. Recently my washing machine broke and flooded my entire downstairs. I was forced to stand idly by waiting for a plumber to arrive while water rose around my ankles because I didn’t know how to shut off the water. That’s the kind of experience that makes you have your testosterone levels checked.

7. Be patient. Impatience is the official language of youth. When you’re young, you want to rush to the next thing before you even know where you are. I always think of the joke in Colors that the wiser and older cop (Robert Duvall) tells his impatient rookie partner (Sean Penn). I’m paraphrasing, but it goes something like: “There's two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: ‘Hey pop, let's say we run down there and screw one of them cows.’ The older one says: ‘No son. Let’s walk down and screw 'em all.’” Now, to counter the profane with the profound, one of my favorite quotes is from the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: “Talent hits the target no one else can hit; genius hits the target no one else can see.” I think the key to seeing the target no one else can see is in being patient, waiting for it to appear so you can do the right thing, not just the expedient thing. Learning to wait is one of my greatest accomplishments as I’ve gotten older.

8. Listen more than talk. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

9. Career is never as important as family. The better you are at your job, the more you’re rewarded, financially and spiritually, by doing it. You know how to solve problems for which you receive praise and money. Home life is more chaotic. Solving problems is less prescriptive and no one’s applauding or throwing money if you do it right. That’s why so many young professionals spend more time at work with the excuse, “I’m sacrificing for my family.” Bullshit. Learn to embrace the chaos of family life and enjoy the small victories. This hit me one night after we’d won an especially emotional game against the Celtics. I’d left the stadium listening to thousands of strangers chanting “Kareem! Kareem!” I felt flush with the sense of accomplishment, for me, for the Lakers, and for the fans. But when I stepped into my home and my son said, “Daddy!” the victory, the chanting, the league standings, all faded into a distant memory.

10. Being right is not always the right thing to be. Kareem, my man, learn to step away. You think being honest immunizes you from the consequences of what you say. Remember Paul Simon’s lyrics, “There’s no tenderness beneath your honesty.” So maybe it’s not that important to win an argument, even if you “know” you’re right. Sometimes it’s more important to try a little tenderness.

11. Cook more. After I got divorced I missed home cooked meals and the only person I had to rely on was the guy in the mirror. Plus, I found it impressed women if you could cook a good meal. Once, very shortly after I started cooking for myself, I had a first date with a woman I really wanted to make a good impression on. Of course, I could have done the usual celebrity thing: fancy restaurant, signing autographs, wait-staff fawning. But I wanted this to be special, so I decided to cook for her, everything from soup to dessert. Some women get a little freaked seeing a 7’2” black man with a carving knife and butcher’s apron, but she appreciated the effort. Which was good because the soup was a little salty, the steak a little overcooked, and the flan a little watery…

12. When choosing someone to date, compassion is better than passion. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be passionate. That’s a given. But look for signs that she shows genuine compassion toward others. That will keep you interested in her a lot longer.

13. Do one thing every day that helps someone else. This isn’t about charity, this is about helping one individual you know by name. Maybe it means calling your parents, helping a buddy move, or lending a favorite jazz album to Chocolate Fingers McGee.

14. Do more for the community. This is about charity, extended to people close by whose names you don’t know. You can always do more.

15. Do one thing every day that you look forward to doing. It’s easy to get caught up in the enormous responsibilities of daily life. The To Do List can swallow your day. So, I’d insist to my younger self to make sure he has one thing on that list that he looks forward to doing.

16. Don’t be so quick to judge. It’s human nature to instantly judge others. It goes back to our ancient life-or-death need to decide whether to fight or flee. But in their haste to size others up, people are often wrong—especially a thirty-year-old sports star with hordes of folks coming at him every day. We miss out on knowing some exceptional people by doing that, as I’m sure I did. I think the biggest irony of this advice is that it’s coming from someone who’s black, stratospherically tall, and an athlete: the trifecta of being pre-judged. And I have a lifetime of hurtful comments to prove it. Yet, that didn’t stop me from doing the same thing to others. You have to weigh the glee of satisfaction you get from arrogantly rejecting people with the inevitable sadness of regret you’ll eventually feel for having been such a dick. A friend of mine told me he routinely attends all of his high school reunions so he can apologize to every person he mistreated back then. He’s now on his fortieth reunion and still apologizing.

17. When breaking up with a woman, you can’t always remain friends. I have managed to stay friends with many of the women I have dated because I truly liked and respected them. But sometimes emotions run too deep and efforts to remain friends, while that might help you feel better, actually might make the other person feel worse. Take the hit and let it go.

18. Watch more TV. Yeah, you heard right, Little Kareem. It’s great that you always have your nose in history books. That’s made you more knowledgeable about your past and it has put the present in context. But pop culture is history in the making and watching some of the popular shows of each era reveals a lot about the average person, while history books often dwell on the powerful people.

19. Do more yoga. Yes, K, I know you do yoga already. That’s why you’ve been able to play so long without major injuries. But doing more isn’t just for the physical benefits, it’s for the mental benefits that will come in handy in the years ahead, when your house burns down, your jazz collection perishes, and you lose to the Pistons in a four-game sweep in your final season.

20. Everything doesn’t have to be fixed. Relax, K-Man. Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.

Credits: Esquire Magazine
Read more: Life Lessons with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Kareem on What He Wished He'd Known - Esquire 
Visit us at Esquire.com

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Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Pinterest 101 for You & Big Brands

Here it is - the quick 101 for all you late comers to Pinterest!

As per usual - do not be afraid of yet another social tool! Here are the facts:

Number of users: December 2011: 11 million
What is it: An image sharing network (old schoolers - think of bulletin board with magazine pics all over it)
Why should you care: How many times have you seen a piece of content on the web that catches your attention and you want to keep it but don't want to bookmark the entire site - just need the image. Voila
What's social about it: Other people can see what you have pinned and can repin, like or comment.
How is it different from posting to Facebook: Sometimes you just don't want to share - you just want to pin it to your board.
Why do I care what other people are pinning: Inspiration can be found EVERYWHERE
How do I do it: Go to Pinterest.com and sign up. Grab the Pin It button and drop it in your tool bar - sample instructions here if you are unclear.
How do I pin: Anytime you are on a page with images or video that you want to save, click the Pin It button in your tool bar. You will be presented with content that can be saved - simply select and tag what is of interest to you!
What brands utilize Pinterest: Gap, West Elm, Etsy, Whole Foods, Chobani
What should brands keep in mind if utilizing Pinterest: Make it about the lifestyle - not the products. Post content that bring the brand essence to life.
Still confused? USA TODAY did a great write up of the features. Check it out!

Here's My Pinterest Board!

A Letter To Bad Bosses

Are you a bad boss? You know who you are – you are probably just in denial about it or worse…. you know you are and frankly, don’t care.

Here’s some advice - Cut it out. Seriously, cut it out. It’s costing you time and money.

Now this seems like common sense but it seems to me lately that there has been a spike in the bad boss industry and it’s not cool and before you get all defensive, there is a difference between TOUGH and BAD. I’m a fan of tough bosses, you will learn the most from them.

So, I’m not sure at what point these bosses forgot that a LARGE part of their job is mentoring and inspiring their staff to do their job well – but they did and it is really frustrating to hear over and over again.

Why should you care? For the simple reason, you will not accomplish your business and personal goals if you don’t have a loyal staff.

Here are some quick refreshers for all bosses:

• You have a responsibility to your team.
• They look up to you.
• They look to you for guidance.
• They need to know that you have their back and that you will provide them with constructive criticism when needed and depend on you for sharing your own growing experience with them.
• You are showing them how a great boss operates.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you need to be their best friend and go all soft. There is a fine line here, but recently I’ve seen a dramatic uptick in the “all about me” curve with these bad bosses.  They manage up well… I’ll leave it at that.

So who are these people?

The Fake Listener: This boss is great, because they are super nice, get along great with everyone (team members, colleagues and ESPECIALLY senior management). Downfall – they don’t do anything with the information and there is no follow up.

The Credit Monger: Doesn’t need much explanation – you do the work, I’ll take the credit and give you none.

The “You know better than to come talk to me” Manager: You have a project dilemma. You have analyzed and implemented all possible solutions to the best of your abilities but you fear you have missed an option. Natural solution would be to discuss options with your boss and see if there is anything else you might be missing. But no, you can’t do this because they make you feel like a piece of crap when you do. So you don’t based on fear. You convince yourself it is better to potentially fail than put yourself in the dreaded “belittler machine.”

There are many other types that are out there (and combo packs too) but I can’t get into all of those personality types…

My point here is that I’m not saying that you have to be the nicest person on earth. Find the balance - I’m a huge believer in understanding who your team is, what skills they bring to the table (you hired them - at least most of the time) and acknowledge that they are all different.

Figure out their strengths and help them through their weaknesses in a positive way. 

Don’t have the time? Make it.

That’s what you get paid for. If you can’t do it, hire someone that will. This is a key part of your success otherwise you will lose people year after year.

Again, I repeat - this is a part of your job.

A very important part of your job that will define your success outside of the walls of your company. Remember, managing up is no longer an easy out to not managing down well. With the social networks, word gets out – it will affect your recruiting, your street cred and it will eventually catch up with you when the time comes for you to look for a job.

Now, playing the fair card here - Some folks just aren’t made to work for each other and that is something that both of you need to figure out for yourselves but that is also part of being a good boss - address it. But before you point the finger at your team member or use the “that’s just the nature of the business” excuse, take a look at yourself and be honest. Have you been a fair boss? Have you set accurate and clear expectations?

For those folks that are struggling and do need to keep their jobs until they can find something else, I came across this link on tips for managing your bad boss.

Again, this goes for both ends and it takes both parties to meet half way.  I just really wanted to comment on what I’ve been seeing and hearing lately and it seems like a simple win that is being ignored in company retention and loyalty and perhaps folks need to be reminded. 

On a personal note, I did not write this because I have a bad boss. In fact, I’m on the opposite spectrum which is why I felt compelled to write this. The bosses that I have had, truly guided me with their experience and mentored me well, even the tough ones.

Still not sure if you are a bad boss?

Take a look at your retention rate and talk to your people… you will find your answer pretty quickly.

Here’s hoping for a downtick in the bad boss curve in 2012 and uptick in retention!

For more fun reading:

Lessons from Nightmare Bosses

Bad Boss Cartoons

or just google bad bosses :)

Google +1 - Quick Facts & 101

Ok so what’s Google +1 and does it make sense?

Whether you are a marketer or just an average Internet user you've seen or heard about the Google +1 button.  Basically, +1 acts like the Facebook share or Twitter tweet button with some slight additions - it affects search rankings. A pretty important differentiator.

So think of +1′s as votes. Whenever someone +1′s a website, it counts as a sort of recommendation and shows up next to the page in Google’s search results. The more +1 in your contact circle the higher the ranking in the search results.

Why should I care?

What Google is trying to do is make the search more relevant to you. If your friends have +1 something - you are more apt to click on that link because your friends have already validated the link and it will show up higher in the search rank.

How does it know me and my friends?

You must be logged into your Google account in order to use Google +1. Yes, you need a google account, of course. It basically then pulls from your contact list.

So how is all this information relevant to me? 

Well, if you’re just the average Google user then this information probably won’t help you. If you were simply curious about all these obscure +1 buttons showing up everywhere, you now know what they do and there is no reason for you to carry on reading.

BUT if you are corporation or organization you should take note and consider implementation because let’s face it, natural SEO doesn’t work very well and Google’s algorithm isn’t always fair. So play the game, leverage automated tools and stick to what works.

So what are some con's?

It is still gaining steam - so the verdict isn't in yet, but these are some of the issues I see:

Confusing: We already have "Like" for Facebook, "Follow" for twitter, "digg" for digg and now one more to add to the bunch with +1.

UX (User Experience) Issues: When reading an article and you like what you are reading - the natural reaction is to Like the button - not +1 it - the naming on +1 is not that intuitive - so adoption may be slow.

Limited Reach: Your +1's are only shared with your gmail contacts. Not anyone else - so this is very limited and if folks really want to endorse content, they are more likely to use tools that have a wider reach (via Facebook, Twitter etc.)

Shareability: When you +1 you are not really sharing content. So what I mean is clicking on Facebook "Like" will get you the updates about the page on your newsfeed. +1 just goes to your Gmail profile which nobody looks at. So it's not shared, it's deposited in your profile, ick.

So in summary +1 is not all that user friendly and may not make complete sense to the individual user. Where I see the benefit though is for companies implementing the widget on their site so that their ranking will increase in Google search.

Still confused - here's a video that explains it more visually!

Oh and if you are in the mood - don't forget to +1 this page for me :)

                   

QR Code 101

Ok So Do QR Codes Make Sense?

Forget about the question do they make sense – I think the more common question might be what is a QR code and should I care?

So here’s my quick QR 101 on what it is, where you might see one, what it can do and some best practices and some examples in use. Hopefully it helps you figure out if it makes sense for you to consider them in your marketing mix.

What is it?
QR (Quick Response) codes are those funny looking boxes that have started popping up all over the place that look like something that belongs in a PacMan game. Yes I’m dating myself with noting PacMan, but I digress. They are similar to barcodes used by retailers to track inventory and price products – the big difference though is the amount of data they can store or share. Bar codes are one dimensional and can hold up to 20 digits and QR codes are multi-dimensional matrix barcodes that can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information.

So what does that mean? When you scan a QR code with your camera enabled smart phone (you need to download an app to do this like Scan Life or Red Laser) you can link to content on the web, activate a phone number, email, IM, SMS etc. immediately.

So where might you see a QR code:

• T-shirt
• On a shelf
• Products
• Print
• Online
• TV
• On a Building
• Receipts
• Business Cards
• On a Rock – really? Yes.

Ok I see the code and I scan it my phone... will it do my laundry? No.
What will it do?

• Drive to a Coupon
• Send a Text Message
• Drive to a Personalized Website URL
• Drive to a YouTube Video
• Call a Telephone Number
• Email Message
• Send a Vcard
• Drive to a Google Map
• Drive to a PayPal Buy Now Link
• Enable WiFi Login
• Drive to Itunes
• Drive to Social Media

and many many other things you might be able to come up with!

Ok so now you’re thinking perhaps you should investigate QR codes a little more and integrate into your marketing plan - What should you keep in mind?

• Make sure the code is in a visible location – not buried in a brochure – billboards, posters, covers of brochures, walls are great places
• Have QR content strategy in place – ie make sure the code links to a CTA or compelling content experience (liking a page, signing up for promotions, etc)
• Make it clear near the QR code what the customer can expect if they scan it – if its not clear, folks won’t scan and those who do won’t know what exactly it is they are looking for and you will lose them
• Make certain your site or landing page is optimized for mobile sites. Most of the folks scanning QR codes are coming through their smart phones – if your site is not optimized for mobile... Not cool!
• Test away – this is one of those apps you want to test the hell out of to make sure it works on all smartphones and make sure you test on a number of different scanning programs (ie RedLaser, Scan Life)
• Track the analytics so that you know which CTA’s are resonating the with your target – remember QR codes are relatively new so don’t get bummed if you see low numbers initially.

Need some examples to understand this concept better?
See how Polo, Brooks Brothers and TomTom used QR codes here!


So that's my skinny on QR codes - now you go ahead and figure out if it is right for you!

Two Powerful Words

THANK YOU...

Maya Angelou wrote “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Forget about creating a powerful brand for a moment and think about the last time someone gave you a heartfelt thank you. It felt great didn’t it? 


Where did it come from? Your boss? Family member? Friend? A brand?

I experienced this at the simplest, most surprising moment the other day. It came from a 20 month old, my daughter. I gave her a sippy cup and she exclaimed “thank you mumma” with a huge grin on her face. It was the first time I had heard those words come out of her mouth (and hopefully not the last!) but what it brought to light was that it made me feel good. 


Two small words invoking such a powerful feeling.

I know what you are thinking. Big deal, she said thanks. Well, it is a big deal and people should pay more attention to this dying art of saying a genuine thank you and the power within those two words. In a world where you can get everything at the touch of a finger, you cannot buy feeling good.

Saying thank you to someone at the right time is worth millions and will go a lot further than you think.

So now, bringing it back to the brand.... The brands that are the most successful out there are the ones that pull at your emotional strings... They strike a chord in you that was unexpected. They elicit a reaction you weren’t expecting. This sweet spot is what every marketing campaign strives for.

So what are some good examples of thank you goodness?

Heineken thanking their Facebook fans offline.

Ikea thanking their staff by giving each and every one of them a bike.

Now you may not have the money or manpower to do what these brands did but there are simple things you can do on your site on your thank you page. Don’t miss out on that opportunity.

Lastly, you don’t have to be Oprah or a big brand to make someone feel good as evidenced by my little girl. So go thank your friend, colleague, family member or even your pet.... I guarantee you, that thanks will come back to you at some point, just as unexpected.