The TNT Report Podcast: Marketing Tips, News, and Tools for Small Business. This newsletter and podcast provides a weekly compilation of curated information for small business owners, entrepreneurs and marketers to grow their business and online presence.
Hello, I’m Jim Person and welcome to the TNT Report Podcast: Marketing Tips, News, and Tools for Small Business. This is Episode (21) for the week ending Friday, May 27. Links for today’s podcast can be found at jimperson.com/21. Today’s podcast is brought to you in part by FastVPN. Secure all your devices so you can work, stream and play games, and browse online without limitations. FastVPN is the fast, secure and affordable way to protect your Internet freedom. Start your 30-day free trial at https://jimperson.com/fastVPN.
TODAY’S CELEBRATIONS
Today is Friday, May 27, and today is Cellophane Tape Day, National Road Trip Day, National Grape Popsicle Day, Sunscreen Protection Day and Nothing to Fear Day.
Saturday, May 28 is Amnesty International Day, International Jazz Day, National Italian Beef Day and International Hamburger Day. Hmmm, just wondering, I’m guessing that makes hamburgers more popular than Italian Beef since hamburger day is an international recognition. Make sense, right?
Sunday, May 29 is National 529 Day, Jerusalem Day and Learn About Composting Day. Sunday is also arguably the biggest day of the year in racing, with the Indianapolis 500, Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 500 all being held on Sunday!
Meanwhile, Monday, May 30 is the Memorial Day holiday. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who died in service to their country. The holiday was officially proclaimed in 1868 to honor Union and Confederate soldiers and was expanded after World War I to honor those who died in all wars. It became an official federal holiday in 1971, known as Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day. Today, Memorial Day honors over 1 million men and women who have died in military service since the Civil War began in 1861. Gratitude to all who have and currently serve in our armed forces protecting this great country, and thanks to those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our safety.
FEATURED CONTENT
According to a story from eMarketer, “Shifting Patterns Mean U.S. Adults Are Spending More Time With Media on Entertainment Devices,” U.S. average time spent with digital will hit 8 hours and 14 minutes per day in 2022 after first crossing the 8-hour mark last year. That 1.9% increase isn’t as big as in past pandemic years, but it’s still eating up a bigger share of overall time spent with media.
This comes as users move away from internet devices associated with working from home, like laptops and tablets, and toward entertainment ones, like smartphones and smart TVs.
- The increase in S. time spent with media is driven by the “other” connected devices category. This refers to devices like smart TVs, game consoles, and internet-connected devices.
- Time spent with other connected devices blossomed by 35.4% to hit 1 hour and 35 minutes in 2020, when bored U.S. adults with canceled in-person plans hit a new level of binge-watching and gaming.
- While growth has slowed, the other connected devices category hasn’t given up those gains: U.S. adults will spend 1 hour and 47 minutes with the category this year. That figure will account for a greater percentage of time spent with media than ever before, at 13.5%.
- Meanwhile, time spent with desktops and laptops is once more on the decline, following a work-from-home bump in 2020. US adults will spend an average of 6 minutes less with these devices this year than they did in 2020, for a total of 1 hour and 57 minutes.
- Time spent with tablets is following the same pattern as desktop and laptop, as users move away from these devices and toward more entertainment-focused ones like smartphones and smart TVs.
It’s worth noting these figures account for multitasking, meaning time spent on multiple devices is counted separately.
How about you? Has your “time with media on entertainment devices” gone up or down recently?
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED TIP
How To Optimize Videos to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Video is everywhere these days. You can watch short and long-form video on your phone, on your desktop, and on your TV. Heck, you can’t even fill your gas tank without getting offered at least one credit card or being informed that it’s BOGO on the terrible coffee they have inside. The fact is, people love and respond to the way that video tells a complete story and have come to accept its ubiquity. After all, there are plenty of video marketing statistics that go into the nitty-gritty of how important video is for growing your business. The fact is, it’s likely that you already know that video is a powerful tool for inbound marketing. You just want to know how to get the most out of it. We know from experience how important it is to create a video marketing strategy that goes beyond webinar sign-ups or getting more YouTube followers. It’s a big part of They Ask, You Answer, and companies that use customer-centric video as part of their marketing efforts see a huge increase in better qualified and more engaged leads. But to get them to engage with your video content, they have to find it. This is where video SEO (search engine optimization) comes into play. Source: Impact Plus
This tip is just one of the tips provided each week in my TNT Report newsletter. Subscribe at https://jimperson.com/tnt.
IN NEWS
Small Businesses Lose Confidence in U.S. Economy
According to The Wall Street Journal, 57% of small-business owners expect economic conditions in the U.S. to worsen in the next year, up from 42% in April and equal to the all-time low recorded in April 2020, according to a survey of more than 600 small businesses conducted in May for the Journal by Vistage Worldwide Inc., a business-coaching and peer-advisory firm.
YouTube Edges Out Spotify to Become the Most Used U.S. Podcast Platform
YouTube is now the most popular podcast app in the U.S., according to new data from Signal Hill Insights. The data suggests that listeners prefer podcasts with video. The question was “Which of the following places do you use the most to access the podcasts you listen to”; YouTube got 24.2%, Spotify 23.8%, and Apple Podcasts got 16% (despite being unavailable on Android).
Source: Westwood One
Pepsi Will No Longer Sponsor the Super Bowl Halftime Show
Pepsi is bowing out of its association with the Super Bowl Halftime Show. After a decade as the presenting sponsor of the Big Game’s star-studded entertainment break, Pepsi has decided this year’s performance featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar was its last.
Source: Adweek
Amazon Opens First Brick-and-Mortar Clothing Store Near Los Angeles
And Bloomberg reported this week that Amazon.com Inc. opened its first physical clothing store in Glendale, Calif., featuring brands like Lacoste, Levi’s and Steve Madden. Amazon operates a successful e-commerce business selling basic clothing items, but has historically struggled to develop relationships with major fashion brands due to their concerns over counterfeit items on Amazon’s marketplace.
And in other news headlines for the week:
- Snapchat Launches New Option to Display eBay Listings in Snaps
- TikTok Is Working On A New Live Shopping Feature
- Walmart to Expand Drone Deliveries Across Six States
- Messaging App Usage Continues To Grow – Whatsapp up 55% In 2022
- Google Shuts Down Its “Book on Google” Option for Hotels Due to Low Usage
- Spotify Stopped Political Ads In 2020. It Just Quietly Brought Them Back
- Instagram’s Working on a Video Option for Reels
For links to these stories, visit jimperson.com/21. For more news of the week, visit www.jimperson.com/tnt.
SPONSOR AD
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED TOOLS
- Tome
A storytelling tool for work.
https://beta.tome.app/ - Better Sheets
Join 3,000+ google sheets enthusiasts learning to use Google Sheets to build their ideas, products, and businesses.
https://bettersheets.co/
Those were just two of the tools I covered in this week’s email newsletter. See all of the tools in my newsletter at https://jimperson.com/tnt.
FRIDAY FREEBIE
If you’re a subscriber to the TNT Report, you know it’s more than just tips, news, and tools. Since the newsletter is published on Friday afternoons, I also include a “Friday Freebie.” And today’s “Friday Freebie” is the YouTube channel Crash Course. The channel features free, high-quality educational videos used by teachers, students, and learners of all kinds. And the videos aren’t just for schools; the majority of their viewers — around 65% — watch Crash Course without being currently enrolled in an associated class. So far, Crash Course has taught Chemistry, World History, Biology, Ecology, U.S. History, Psychology, Big History, Literature, Anatomy and Physiology, World History (again), and Astronomy, US Government, Economics, Philosophy, Physics, Film, Computer Science, Sociology, Study Skills, and Mythology. Statistics, Theatre, Media Literacy, History of Science and Engineering are under way!
If you’re enjoying this podcast, please subscribe at jimperson.com/tnt-podcast. You can also find this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Stitcher and numerous other podcast apps.
BONUS CONTENT
Now for some “bonus content” for you as a podcast listener. This is something not included in the weekly TNT Report newsletter.
The Most Effective Guide to Keyword Research
It’s no secret that SEO is the key to Google rankings success. But what’s the key to a strong SEO strategy? Keyword research! Keyword research is the foundation for your overall content strategy. It determines your topics and themes, your article titles, and ultimately the search rankings you’ll earn. Here’s the problem: many people — even professional marketers — see keyword research as a simple process that lists focus words and phrases and dumps them as much as possible into blog articles. But that’s not enough. In fact, lazy keyword stuffing will have a negative impact on your results. Keyword research — when executed the right way — is a multi-step process that requires time, research, and a strategy behind it. But the ROI you’ll earn from doing it is well worth it. Quick Takeaways:
- Good keyword research is rooted in buyer intent.
- Creating a brief document helps you clarify your preferences, target audiences, and keyword research goals.
- It’s important to start keyword research by knowing your existing keyword rankings and researching those of your competitors.
- Headlines are what people use to decide whether or not to click through to your content from search engine results pages (SERPs).
- Follow best practices for blog article writing to maximize ROI on your keyword research.
- Tracking your monthly SEO progress enables you to capitalize on opportunities and solve problems more quickly.
Source: Marketing Insider Group
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Alright. I think that’s going to do it for this week’s TNT Report Podcast. You can find links to all the resources and news stories mentioned in this podcast on my website, jimperson.com/### (insert Pretty Link). Thanks for listening – have a great weekend, and a profitable week ahead.
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