The TNT Report (April 29, 2022)
TNT Stands for “Tips, News and Tools” ~ Curated Content and Resources to Help Solopreneurs and Small Business Owners Grow Your Business
Welcome to this week's TNT Report, a weekly compilation of curated tips, news and tools for small business owners, entrepreneurs and marketers to grow your business and online presence.
Welcome to another edition of my “TNT Report” e-newsletter. I love podcasts! I love listening to podcasts. Heck, I even write, produce and host several podcasts as well, including The TNT Report Podcast — I’d love for you to subscribe.
Anyway … that’s why this story was interesting to me, since so many podcasters struggle with how to monetize their show.
According to eMarketer:
U.S. podcast ad spending will surpass $2 billion next year and $3 billion by 2026. Podcasts will account for over a quarter of digital audio services ad spending in 2022 and will be more than a third of spending by the end of 2026.
Most digital audio monetization will come from recorded music for the foreseeable future, but podcasts’ share of the market has grown so much — and will continue to do so — that it cannot be ignored by marketers. Once relegated to experimental budgets, podcasts are becoming a crucial component of multimedia ad campaigns.
More than half of advertisers said they planned to increase their podcast ad budgets in 2022, according to a poll of 255 U.S. advertisers conducted by Advertiser Perceptions in August 2021. Nearly half (46%) planned to keep their budgets the same, and just 1% planned to reduce podcast ad spending. These shares were in line with what advertisers expected of their digital audio budgets.
Most advertisers did not have dedicated podcast budgets. About half used their digital audio budgets to fund podcast campaigns. As podcast ad spending increases and accounts for a greater share of total audio ad dollars, expect more advertisers to break out podcast-specific budgets. Having dedicated budgets could help centralize campaign planning and measurement for advertisers committed to podcasts over the long run.
What do you think about ads in podcasts? Love to hear from you on the topic, or anything else in the newsletter.
Thanks for being a subscriber!
Jim
TIPS
Push vs. Pull Marketing: Differences and How to Use Them
Pull marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on getting your target customers to discover your brand, products, and services. Examples include SEO, word of mouth, and social media marketing. Push marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on placing your products or services in front of your target customers. Examples include cold emailing, direct mail, and advertising.
The best businesses use both pull and push marketing to complement each other. Here are some ways you can combine both pull and push marketing together:
Generate leads with pull marketing and close them with push marketing – This is the core idea behind inbound marketing: create content that ranks high on search engines for the target queries (pull marketing), get prospects to sign up for the email list and, finally, request sales teams to reach these prospects via email or phone (push marketing).
Run social ads to promote your content – Get people to consume your content by running ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Quora, and more. We do this all the time at Ahrefs.
Target your ads to lookalike audiences built from your “pulled” audience – Since your “pulled” audience is made up of people who are actively seeking out the type of content you’re creating, they’re perfect as your “source audience.”
Send outreach emails to boost awareness of your existing content – This is the idea behind link building.
Source: ahrefs
How to Create Photo Stickers in Canva
Learn how to design your own outline stickers from photos in Canva with transparent background.
Source: Labnol
NEWS
Twitter Locks Down Product Changes After Agreeing to Musk Bid
Twitter Inc. locked down changes to its social networking platform through Friday after accepting a $44 billion bid from billionaire Elon Musk, making it harder for employees to make unauthorized changes, according to people familiar with the matter. Sources: Bloomberg and Media Post and The Wall Street Journal
Meanwhile, according to a Reuters article, Republican lawmakers welcomed news that Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, was purchasing Twitter Inc, but Democrats slammed it as a sign that more needed to be done to rein in Big Tech.
Joe Rogan Claims Massive Subscriber Boost Due to Recent Controversies
During a recent episode of his Spotify podcast, Joe Rogan said he gained 2 million subscribers after controversies over his alleged spread of COVID-19 misinformation and past use of the N-word. While Spotify does not release subscription numbers related to "The Joe Rogan Experience," Rogan reportedly averages roughly 11 million listeners per episode, according to a recent estimate, though sources clarified that Rogan has seen consistent growth since joining the platform.
Sources: Hollywood Reporter | Techcrunch
Top 1000 Retailers Cross $1 Trillion in Web Sales in 2021
The top online retailers in North America grew their collective ecommerce sales 15.7% last year and 67.6% vs. a pre-pandemic 2019. After retail chains had a blockbuster 2020, consumer brand manufacturers grew the fastest in 2021. Amazon increased its share of Top 1000 online sales as the web giant grew its first-party revenue by nearly 18%.
Source: Digital Commerce 360
LinkedIn Shares New Insights into the Brand Benefits of Adopting Sustainability Best Practices [Infographic]
This LinkedIn infographic highlights ways brands can benefit from greener business practices on the platform. Key findings include the fact that 36% of users are swayed by brands that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, 41% want organizations to be more transparent about their related practices, and those that take sustainability to heart have eight times more new followers than those who have yet to address the topic.
Source: Social Media Today
Why Small Companies Face Ransomware Attacks
Enterprise businesses with 25,000 employees+ are less likely to get hit by a ransomware attack than smaller businesses — even though big companies typically can afford to pay higher ransoms, the 2022 Cyber Edge Cyberthreat Defense Report concluded. What explains hackers taking aim at small businesses more frequently than enterprise giants? The answer: Damaging a critical infrastructure facility or similar disruptions are certain to catch the eye of federal law enforcement, or national governments — something that no hacker wants, CyberEdge said. Smaller to medium-sized firms, as it turns out, get hit more frequently by ransomware attacks, on average at roughly 70%, the report said.
Source: MSSP Alert
YouTuber Deliberately Crashed His Own Plane for Views, U.S. Aviation Agency Says
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has revoked a YouTuber's pilot license after it concluded that he intentionally crashed his plane for the sake of gaining online views.On Nov. 24, 2021, Trevor Jacob was flying over California’s Los Padres national forest in his small single-engine plane when his propeller stopped working. Jacob filmed the whole incident and uploaded it to YouTube in a video titled I Crashed My Plane. Since being posted online in December, the video has racked up 2.2m views. In the video, the empty plane is shown speeding towards the mountains before crashing into the wilderness. On April 11, the Federal Aviation Administration concluded its investigation into the incident and determined that Jacob had crashed his 1940 Taylorcraft BL-65 as a stunt.
Source: The Guardian
Panera Expands Unlimited Subscription Program From Coffee to 26 Drinks
The chain says success of its monthly $8.99 unlimited-coffee subscription program is incentive to expand the recurring-revenue concept to 26 beverages. As with the unlimited-coffee program, the Unlimited Sip Club is available only to members of the My Panera loyalty program and can be used every two hours. Unlimited Sip Club is priced at $10.99 monthly but is free until July 4 for loyalty members who sign up by May 6. It’s available on-premise and via pickup and delivery orders. Panera is expanding its beverage offerings beyond Pepsi to include Bubly Lime and new Panera Charged Lemonades energy drinks.
Source: Media Post
Other Headlines
Sales Grow for Furniture Retailers Focused on Sustainability
Meta to Open Retail Store to Showcase Virtual Reality Hardware
Google Play Store Now Has a Million Fewer Apps Than Four Years Ago
Podcasts Will Account For More Than One-fourth of Digital Audio Ad Spending
World Bank Projects Elevated Energy, Food Prices, Keeping Upward Pressure on Inflation
YouTube is Testing Ads on its Short-form Answer to TikTok, Shorts
TOOLS
Clip Champ
Use Clipchamp’s free video editor to create beautiful videos today. Paid plans start at just $9 a month.
clipchamp.com
Prompted
Guided journaling pathways to help you achieve your goals.
https://prompted.io
Loudness
Loudness is an automatic podcast mastering service for podcasters who want to sound great without worrying about all the technical stuff. Just drag in your audio and we’ll make it sound better. Achieve perfect loudness, reduce background noise, level out speech — all in one click. And during their BETA, it's free!
https://loudness.fm
Placeholder
Do you want to build the layout of your landing pages and funnels quickly without getting distracted trying to find the perfect images? Want to avoid bloating your WordPress media library with temporary placeholder images? Then you’ll love this tool. Placeholder allows you to instantly create images using just a URL!
https://placeholder.com
FRIDAY FREEBIE
Free Zoom Backgrounds
While the pandemic certainly increased our use of Zoom for virtual meetings, many companies and individuals still use the platform. Why not "spice" up for background with professional looking photos or even a video background. Head down the rabbit hole of options with this Pexels search.
Source: Pexels
Thanks for being a subscriber to my “TNT Report” e-newsletter. More tips, news and tools coming at you next week!
Jim Person
www.JimPerson.com
P.S. Please share this TNT Report with someone you know that might find value in it. I appreciate it!!
P.P.S. Subscribe to my TNT Report Podcast
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Affiliate Disclosure: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this newsletter contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost for you). If you use these links, I might be rewarded credit or a small commission of the sale.
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