Brands are being continually forced to keep up with the latest trends in order to stay relevant and successful.

Successful brands have been using social media listening in order to stay ahead of their competition for years.

There are many tangible benefits of mapping your customer’s journey, including improved efficiency within your internal operations and better end results for sales. Increasingly, marketers are turning to automation, personalization and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the customer experience within that journey.

Chatbots are increasingly being used by companies to engage with their customers. In fact, it has been reported that 8 in 10 companies have already adopted them or are planning to do so by 2020. This points to fast growth in the market. In fact, 15% of consumers have interacted with a chatbot in the last 12 months, and this number will undoubtedly grow at a quick pace over the coming months.

You have undoubtedly heard a lot about GDPR lately. This probably involved a slew of emails in your inbox asking you to update your privacy settings, or (depending on the industry you work in), several other changes made to the way you do business.

Millennials are no strangers to debt. With student loan debt ($1.48 billion) at nearly double the total amount of credit card debt in the United States, a large portion student loan debt belongs to millennials. In fact, debt is such an overwhelming influence on millennial thoughts and behavior that a recent survey by Credible showed that debt scares them more than death.

Influencer marketing has become an extremely effective way to reach consumers because of the perceived authenticity that influencers have.

They’re seen as experts in their industry, so if they like a product, consumers will be more likely to buy it.

A great amount of time and investment is spent ensuring that consumers move through a sales funnel in the way that creates the desired outcome for marketers. What we know, however, is that consumers are not always likely to have a linear progression from the point of awareness to the point of sale.

Now that we are a few months into 2018, it gives us an interesting opportunity to both look back at the previous year and ahead to the rest of the year to see what trends are developing. As with any look forward, if you’ve been in the industry long enough, you’ll likely see the same trends appear every so often with new labels. Because, while technology continues to evolve, some aspects of marketing don’t change so quickly (or at all).

There is a single word you can throw in a sentence at your next meeting that will make people pay attention and feel like you’re taking a project in the right direction. Tell them that what you are suggesting is a “strategic” approach, and surely you will get plenty of head nods and agreement. Who wouldn't want to do something that is strategic?

We’ve been hearing about the benefits of personalization for years now. Consumers, bombarded with marketing and advertising from the moment they wake up to the moment they drift off staring at their smartphones, are demanding tailored experiences, products and offers from the brands they support.

Just as the Gen X and baby-boom generations have had their own unique relationship to brands, this dynamic will continue to evolve over time.

Digital marketers are always looking for tools to optimize their efforts. If you haven’t heard of Facebook Split Testing, don’t worry, but it might be the answer to some of your marketing optimization challenges.

Instagram has grown rapidly to become one of the most used social media apps in the world. The platform recently surpassed 700 million monthly users, putting it ahead of many of the most popular social networks, including Twitter. Now expanding into the paid social space, Instagram is fast becoming vital for brands to use in order to reach their target markets.

Despite all of the pressure that social networks are putting on brands to spend money on paid social in order to reach their audiences, it's important to understand that both organic and paid social media are needed to be truly successful.

The Oxford English dictionary defines clickbait as "content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page."

Over the years, Facebook has continually introduced new methods for marketers and advertisers to target and reach their audiences. Since the introduction of paid advertising through "Flyers" all the way back in 2004 through its latest and much more sophisticated offerings, the social media giant continues to find new ways to connect brands and audiences, while also increasing the value of its social network to those who do not want to be inundated with irrelevant advertising.

An important part of marketing is knowing when to adapt your approach. The world of food marketing is certainly no different. In this article, we're going to discuss three examples of food brands that changed their messaging, why they did it, and how it worked for them.

I know what you might be thinking right now: Another marketing article about Millennials? You're probably not alone. You could say that we've all reached a saturation point as far as talk and discussion about marketing to Millennials, engaging with them, and understanding their behavior. Even research by organizations like Forrester has pointed to the fact that this generation is overhyped.

After you’ve created a great strategy and plan, great content assets, and even brought them to market, how do you organize them all and categorize them in a way that is easy for both your external and internal audiences to use most effectively?

Millennials are changing the game, influencing an industry shift that’s often met with a great deal of resistance from top-level employers who have mastered traditional means of communication.