Today’s Listen is coming in hot from Buffer. In this one, they’re summarizing some killer marketing content they found on the interwebs…and now we’re summarizing their summary of the content.

It’s like marketing inception…anyone wanna take it a level deeper and summarize our summary of Buffer’s summary?

Anyway, the Buffer crew found two pieces of content that need to be talked about. The first is about an ecomm brand who gained 41k email subscribers in just 15 days!

And the second comes from our friends at AdEspresso. They analyzed 752,626 Facebook ads and came away with some pretty interesting tips for all y’all.

So, without further ado…

• (00:53) Growing an email list is crucial. Buffer uncovered an ecomm brand, called Brevite, that grew their email list by 41k subscribers in one campaign!
• (01:37) They grew their list that quickly by running contests as a marketing strategy.
• (02:46) You need to use quality prizes that align with your target audiences’ interests.
• (03:14) To register for the contest, contestants had to do a lot — give their email, follow on social media, and share content. But it was worth it because the prizes were so good.
• (03:35) Overall, Brevite ran the campaign for 15 days and spent $3k for prizes and ads. Sidenote: that seems expensive but considering email marketing has the best ROI, its worth it!
• (04:16) The exact steps Brevite took to promote the contest (really good ideas here).
• (06:39) Next up, AdEspresso analyzed 752k Facebook ads, and Buffer has all the goodies from that study.
• (07:36) AdEspresso found that “a clear, no-nonsense, five-word headline, paired with 20 words of ad text is the recipe for a perfect Sponsored Post.”
• (08:46) More ads are using custom landing pages just for that ad. This is a great idea. Take a note, marketers.

Smash the button below for more insights from the Buffer team, plus a few new social media tools that they love ↓

We don’t usually do this butttttt…we gotta brag for a second.

In the retail industry, average open rates for email are around 12%. That’s not great. But we manage to get open rates north of 40% consistently for one client.

We even had one campaign with an open rate of 65%. Pretty wild, right? So how do we do it? With what we call Super Smart Segmentation (we don’t actually call it that).

Get the full scoop on how we do it for our friends at Wolf Furniture…

We’re going easy on ya today. Instead of the add this to your strategy now kind-of-vibe, we’re going with a you should be aware of these things. And Neil Patel is reviewing the trends that are expected to continue to climb throughout the year.

1. Artificial Intelligence

Crew, robots are starting to take over the world. It’s happenin’. Tech advancements like Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant are today’s mobile-friendly robots and the start of tomorrow’s Terminator.

Okay, robots overtaking the world is probs not happening any time soon….hopefully.

Your goal with AI: Learn more about your audience to create hyper-relevant advertisements for specific audiences.

2. Local Based Tech

Your smartphone knows where you are. C’mon, it’s smart for a reason. This is a huge advantage for marketers, regardless of how creepy it is.

Your goal for local: Learn more about the hyper-specific location ads you can run on Facebook, Google, and other ad platforms.

Now that’s something to tip your hat at.

4. Wearable Technology

This kind of tech includes fitness bracelets, smartwatches, healthcare monitors, and glasses. So how is this mobile-friendly?

By syncing to mobile apps, this tech can become one heck of a social platform and increase engagement.

Think Fitbit. Users can track their progress and compare with friends.

8. Small Business Mobile Apps

Move aside big biz, us youngsters are ready to rumble. It’s reported that 55% of small businesses are using apps to increase sales revenue.

So are Hybrid or Native apps better? For small businesses with even smaller budget, you should look into Hybrid apps. These apps can be launched on Google Play and the Apple Store at a fraction cost to Native apps.

14. Biometric Advancements

Biometrics are used to enhance security. Examples would be voice, facial, signature, and fingerprint recognition.

What’s this mean for you: biometrics could become required to make mobile payments.

Like the title says, Neil gave us the 4-1-1 on fourteen mobile trends so we left 9 for you lovely people to read on your own…

We feature good car commercials all the time… but what about car dealership commercials?

You know the one. The guy in a suit jacket pointing at the camera talking about “once in a lifetime deals” with multi-colored pennant flags and balloons flying in the back!

Times have officially changed people. Auto Bavaria just launched their new dealership’s location and they had some serious fun in the process. Okay, maybe they could’ve toned back on the tire screeching noises, but it’s still pretty clever.

John, the janitor, finished up mopping the floor, decided to lock up and head out for the night. When he came back in the morning there were skid marks all over his freshly mopped floor!

Sound familiar?

We present to you… A Night at the Dealership.