May, 2021 - Mason Interactive

Creative assets set the tone for your customers’ journey with your brand. The purpose of your creative strategy is to sustain a cohesive message across all digital marketing channels that supports your relationship with your target audience.

Use the following creative best practices and tips to create scroll-stopping assets for your social media, email, or branding objectives.

1 | Use consistent colors and fonts, but not too many

Of course, you want to use some color. But, using a consistent color palette is key to a successful brand identity. According to Mason’s Director of Creative, Shannon Gallaher, general practice is there should be two dominant colors and no more than four accent colors.

When it comes to fonts, have 1-2 fonts, one sans serif, and one serif. Many brands also use a decorative or script font, which is great, but decorative fonts should be used sparingly, 1-3 words at a time, generally.

If you have a strong brand identity already, it’s okay to experiment with color combinations if you use the same fonts and vice versa. But this should be for testing purposes only. The common question is, “What colors work best for my brand?” And, it’s a great question to ask! Colors send messages to consumers in the exact way words do.

Color psychology works. So, choose a color scheme that: a) relates to your industry and b) resonates with your consumers. If you want your brand to seem fun and relatable, try colors like pink, orange, and teal. If you want your brand to appear sophisticated and luxurious, try colors like black and burgundy.

2 | Assume no one watches your entire video ad

No matter how unique your video ad is, we know consumers digest more content quicker than ever before. So, deliver the essential information of your ad within the first 5 seconds of your video. It is possible they won’t linger even for a full five seconds, so you might want to display your logo within the first 1-2 seconds, so at least they see your brand.

Why bother creating a video if no one is going to watch the whole thing? Well, in addition to consumers having a short attention span, they also get bored pretty quickly. You want to provide them with a variety of ways to interact with your brand. Mix in video and animation with your static ads, but always deliver your message within the first few seconds.

3 | Use Short copy

Speaking of short attention spans, consumers will move on without getting your message if there is too much text in your creative. In general, it’s better to use the least amount of copy necessary to deliver your message.

One of the creative best practices is to avoid complicated words and jargon. Also, format your copy for readability. Use font weights, sizes, and colors to show emphasis or create a sense of impact. Focus on delivering the appropriate message, which is more important than being clever or funny. Unless you know your audience extremely well, your well-intentioned humor might not land favorably with everyone and may skew your creative’s message.

4 | Don’t go too heavy on the promos

Creative doesn’t have to be for promotional use only. You’ll want to make assets to drive engagement and build relationships with your audience using a variety of content. Here are some tips for bringing variety to your creative assets:

A good promo to non-promo ratio is 1:4
For every 9 posts, at least one should be about your brand, it’s mission, employees, or founders
Use a mix of tips and tricks, reviews, products in use photos, lifestyle photography, or user-generated content to engage audiences
Utilize the many features social media has to offer, including carousels, stories, and reels
Regularly test alternative creative routes to resonate with different audiences and keep your content fresh

5 | Choose appropriate CTA’s

When choosing your call to action (CTA) for your advertising or email marketing campaigns, use the most appropriate one for your consumer journey. For example, in a welcome email you may want to say Learn More whereas on a product page you’d want to say Buy Now.

Don’t rush the consumer with a Buy Now or Shop CTA in every piece of content. Consider the touchpoint you’re making and ask them to respond accordingly. Also, only use one CTA at a time. It’s confusing if you ask for more than one action at a time. If your customer feels overwhelmed, they won’t take action at all.

In addition to following the above creative best practices, be sure to respond when viewers comment on your posts or stories. Remaining active by commenting and messaging followers is just as important to your online presence as having beautiful creative assets.

Working with a creative-performance marketing agency

Mason Interactive creates assets that provide a seamless brand experience for your target audience. Most of all, we’re performance marketing experts and implement creative performance testing techniques to help you make data-driven decisions for enhancing your brand identity. Contact us today for more information about our creative services.

We’re joining forces with St. Augustine College, our newest education client, and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

St. Augustine College is an independent, bilingual higher education institution with a diverse student population and in-demand Associate and Bachelor degree programs. Their mission is “to make the American system of higher education accessible to a student population with emphasis on those of Hispanic descent; to strengthen ethnic identity; to reinforce cultural interaction; and to build a bridge to fill cultural, educational, and socio-economic gaps.”

Our team of enrollment marketing specialists will manage paid media for St. Augustine College to help them promote their excellent programs and reach prospective students. Brook Llewellyn Shepard, CEO of Mason Interactive, expresses his sincere gratitude for the opportunity to help St. Augustine College reach new heights. He states, “St. Augustine College pursues the best of their students, their culture, and their programs. We’re excited to use our multicultural and bilingual resources to help them succeed.”

Is your college looking for a performance marketing agency to boost campus awareness and drive leads? If you’re ready to begin, contact us for a free digital marketing consultation.

To learn more about St. Augustine College, click here.

Businesses and organizations looking to scale their marketing are faced with a question: should I hire an in-house marketing team or work with an agency?

Both options have their pros and cons, and while marketing in-house may give you more control, the expertise of an agency is invaluable. Given the fast evolving landscape, personnel costs, technology savings, and the specialized nature of the labor, we listed 8 key benefits of partnering with a marketing agency.

#1 You Pay Less

One of the biggest misconceptions is that hiring an agency is expensive. In fact, working with an agency usually costs you less than having an in-house team. You save on recruiter fees, you save on training, you save on software, and you save on salary costs. And you have more flexibility to scale the agency’s involvement up or down, according to your needs.

For example, you may have a specific marketing project in mind, but you are not sure if you need a full-time marketing team on an ongoing basis. Hiring an agency to work on the individual project involves a one-time cost so you end up paying only for what you need.

#2 A Wider Range of Skills

A digital marketing plan needs a multitude of skill sets. Budgeting, copywriting, social media, creative, Google, Facebook, video ads, emerging platforms, and the list goes on. Managing these pieces are all unique skills. Building a team packed with all this talent can take months from posting a job and conducting interviews until hiring best candidates and onboarding them to their new roles and company culture. When working with an agency, you get a pre-packed team of highly trained experts who have the right combination of skills. You will have the ideal full-time equivalent (s) who can jump in quickly and get your marketing programs running in no time without complex hiring and salary costs.

#3 Better Return on Investment

Agencies are result-driven. For the sake of the partnership and our reputation, it is in our best interest to keep you happy (and maximize your ROI).

If you are hesitant in spending money on agency fees, take a moment to think of the monetary savings you achieve with all that agency expertise. Picture an in-house marketer with versatile marketing knowledge who may be familiar with SEO, Facebook Ads, social media, and email marketing, but only has basic understanding of each. While this person does a great job in running day-to-day marketing, you need deeper knowledge of the tools and techniques to scale a specific area and get the results you had hoped for.

#4 Fresh View of Your Brand

An agency will give you fresh ideas and opinions based on their knowledge of industry trends and competition. Yes, an in-house marketing team will start out knowing your business better than a marketing agency. But often an external perspective from an agency can be an advantage to your business.

#5 Access to Latest Technologies & Best Practices

Marketing agencies are continuously training and educating their staff to stay on top industry best practices and latest developments. We come to the table with not only the expertise and knowledge, but also with established partnerships, industry’s must-have technologies and best tools, some of which smaller in-house teams cannot afford, or simply don’t have access to.

#6 Flexibility to Choose the Right Level of Service

A good agency will embrace close collaboration, stay responsive when ad-hoc issues arise, and facilitate weekly, or biweekly, meetings to discuss results and projections.

Typically, agencies offer a range of service levels so you can choose the Service Level Agreement (SLA) that meets your communication needs. You can select an SLA with monthly meetings, or you can choose an SLA where there will be zero daylight between your agency and your team.

#7 End-to-End Project Management

Although collaboration may be faster with an in-house team, it doesn’t guarantee that the process is more efficient. Some in-house employees may be disorganized, or get distracted when other priorities come up. Such occasions have a negative impact on your results, and may cause significant delays. Agencies, however, are deadline orientated and follow a clear project structure, from planning to delivery, to ensure projects are delivered in a given timeframe and on budget. After all, your success is their success.

#8 Been There, Done That

A reputable agency has years’ of experience working with multiple businesses and organizations. To talk about Mason Interactive specifically, we have helped wholesale businesses go big with D2C, eCommerce startups build a strong foundation for their brands, and dozens of colleges exceed their enrollment goals. When you want to do the same, we will bring those wins to your table so you can lean on us for our strategic expertise and tactical execution.

In the end, outsourcing or keeping your marketing in-house can both be a correct solution for your business. It all comes down to your unique situation. While the marketing technology continues to evolve, it has become easier to create and track campaigns, manage workflows and drive results, even within smaller in-house teams. At the same time, advanced use of the latest technology and tools requires constant training on new skills in order to keep up with the competition.

A hybrid approach is the most desirable option for many businesses. Getting that extra help in areas where you don’t have an in-house expert can make a huge difference to your overall performance. We’d love to talk to you more about your marketing situation, book a call with our digital marketing experts today.

Our newest addition to the Mason family is Adit, a virtual buying team for helping retailers and indie beauty brands find their perfect match.

Consider Adit as the missing link between up-and-coming beauty brands and retailers seeking a fresh assortment for their beauty categories. A subsidiary of Indie Beauty Media Group, it’s a solution for beauty brands looking to get in front of their ideal retailers. With participating retailers, such as WholeFoods and Ulta Beauty, beauty brands join forces with Adit for retail opportunities, insights, and clarity.

Leveraging B2B marketing best practices, Mason’s team will manage Adit’s SEO and Paid Media remarketing campaigns to drive leads and increase their selection of beauty brands.

As our relationship with Adit begins, Mason Interactive CEO Brook Shepard states, “Adit is an excellent solution for emerging indie beauty brands, and we’re happy to help them make more matches between brands and retailers! We’re committed to become an extension of their team and help Adit build a robust B2B digital marketing strategy.”

If your B2B business is looking for help with lead generation, contact Mason Interactive today for a discovery consultation.

Apple iOS 14.5 rolled out on April 26th, after advertisers and agencies prepared their accounts for the change. Now, just over a week since the rollout, we asked Mason Interactive’s Director of Media, Adrian Padron, to share an update with our readers.

Working across industries, I have a front-line position to the true impact of iOS 14.5. Below, I share my opinions on what has happened in the advertising industry since the rollout. Skip to the end for my recommendations on what to do now.

Back to Basics – What is iOS14.5?

Privacy, privacy, privacy. Apple’s new software empowers users to control their data, allowing them to choose what third-party tracking they will or will not tolerate, and forcing apps to request those permissions. This gives users more knowledge of what apps are doing, helps protect users from abuse, and allows them to make the best decisions for themselves.

So what does that mean for advertisers? It’s looking like we need to embrace the core of what made digital advertising work some 10 years ago. Intent and frequency.

Facebook’s Position – What About Small Businesses?

We’ve helped grow countless brands on Facebook via hyper-targeted campaigns. Small businesses everywhere are eternally grateful for the growth they’ve experienced from advertising on Facebook. That’s why Facebook sees Apple’s new policy as an attack on small businesses. I won’t get into PII , and how we’re tracked and how if an app or product is free then you are most likely the product. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you want to chat about that.

I would rather focus on what we think will happen and the truth of what is actually happening right now – a week after the iOS 14.5 rollout.

The Truth – Attribution is Taking a HUGE hit

The truth is that no one is exactly sure what will happen yet. We know for a fact that this is a massive change. But the intentions and repercussions are hard to parse. Is iOS 14.5 about empowering the customer to own their data, or is it a grab for revenue on Apple’s part?

One week post iOS 14.5, some observable truths include:

Rising CPAs (cost per acquisition):
- Attribution and data pass-back will be forever changed
Declining CVR (conversion rate):
- If audiences depreciation occurs, the CVR would be expected to drop
Shrinking audience sizes
- Users may not stay in remarketing pools as long
The END OF DIGITAL ADVERTISING AS WE KNOW IT (kidding)
- Seriously, just kidding. The more we embrace change the stronger we come out on the other side.

What does the Facebook data show across our clients’ accounts?

CVRs are slightly down but not at an alarming rate. Across our client portfolio the average is mostly flat while CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) have increased by 100% YoY.

CTRs (click through rate) are slightly down but to us they are holding which means the audiences we are reaching are still up to snuff. If we hold a CTR average of roughly 1% for a heavy impression based channel, we feel good about that. During seasonal spikes we want that same percentage at 2-3% (on social).

Now What – Help Me!

Let me tell you what we at Mason Interactive have been proactively doing in anticipation of this change.

Verifying domains and prioritizing events
Setting up Facebook Conversions API
1. If you’ve read this far and haven’t set up Conversions API yet. Why? Do yourself a favor and get this done.
2. We’re here to help! Talk to us today.
Privacy policies
1. We’re pushing partners to update data privacy policies. You can even consider a pop up for a user when they land on your website.
2. Explain how and why you use their data, have them accept. Talk to your legal team about details.
Leaning in to our partnership with Google
1. Remember what I said about intent earlier? There is no higher level of intent than Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
2. We’ve been pushing more budget into Google to tap into some of that data integrity and customer intent.
Think people and households
1. OTT/CTV video distribution is a must. If targeting users will become more difficult in the coming months then we need to think how to reach households with engaging content.
2. The goal here is impressions and strong frequency. Bonus points for you if you’re thinking about how these impressions drive intent on those lovely mobile searches.
SEO SEO SEO + UX UX UX
1. A house is only as good as its foundation.
2. Refocus some energy on your website ranking and user experience.
3. It’s a numbers game, so if we’re going to effectively get a lower amount of qualified visits to site, then placing an emphasis on CRO will be crucial to success.

It’s still early days to see the full impact of iOS 14.5, or predict what the future holds for advertisers. At Mason Interactive we continue monitoring our clients’ accounts and data, while keeping up to date on the latest from Facebook and Google.

If you want to learn more about the topic, I recommend scheduling a free consultation with our team. As performance marketing experts, we’re passionate about helping businesses navigate the digital landscape.

We are thrilled to announce that we recently added revolutionary, sustainable food company, The Spare Food co., to our growing portfolio of food and beverage brands.

Co-founders Adam and Jeremy Kaye grew up in a family of culinary entrepreneurs–a legacy that goes back at least four generations. The Spare Food Co. was born from their unique combination of life experience—a genetic love of good food, a deep social consciousness born of their youth in South Africa, a shared passion for travel and global culture, and a recognition that each of us has the power to make a difference in the world through the food choices we make every day.

The new partnership will focus on building a long-term digital marketing strategy that will support retail stockists on the East Coast, increase brand awareness and eCommerce sales. The Mason cross-channel strategy teams will be responsible for managing paid media and email marketing channels, across The Spare Food Co.’s line of products, with an emphasis on loyalty and retention.

You can read about The Spare Food Co.’s mission and philosophy on “more ways to use more”, here. You can also find a stockist near you, here.