📰 Growth Daily - Thursday, Jan. 5

1 - Welcome to the first Growth Daily newsletter! 👋🏼

📰 TL;DR - You are receiving this email because you subscribe to Marketing Max's Growth Hacks Weekly newsletter! As mentioned a few times in that newsletter, we are launching Growth Daily as "the WSJ for Marketers" and this is the first edition!

💡Insight - Every Monday through Friday morning you will get an email just like this featuring all of the most important marketing, news, tips, and tools you need to know to crush your goals and grow your business / career that day!

*** Feel free to hit unsubscribe at the bottom of the newsletter, no questions asked! But we recommend waiting a week or so and seeing if you find this content impactful ;)

2 - Instagram Hints At Algo Changes To Take On Tik Tok In 2023

📰 TL;DR - Adam Mosseri who runs Instagram for Meta shared that the 3 things they are going to focus their feature updates on this year will be:

• More editing tools (likely AR & 3D animations) to help inspire users to be more creative

• Changing the algo to feature an increase in content from accounts you don't follow, more similar to Tik Tok's "For You" page but not indications as to just how similar

• Doubling down on DM features to capitalize on the increase they are seeing in people sharing posts & stories with each other through DMs.

💡Insight - Instagram hasn't changed all that much in the last few years besides the addition of Reels. But even the slightest hint from IG's leader that they want to make it easier to discover new accounts on the platform, tells us that they are serious about taking on Tik Tok's best asset aka its ability to get seen by lots of people who don't follow your account. You can bet Marketing Max will be investing heavily in IG content this year.

You can read the article here...

3 - Chinese Brands Are Hiring Virtual Influencers For Cheap

📰 TL;DR - Last year, Beijing city announced a plan to build a "virtual people industry" which they anticipate will be worth more than $7b in just a few years. "Virtual people" as they are referred to, are essentially 3D animated influencers or spokespeople immune to controversy or being "canceled" that can be programmed to speak, move, or act like a human in videos that can be used on a website, in ads, or as organic social posts.

💡Insight - This is the future, no question about it. It's already available to the US market in a simpler form via tools like Synthesia.io which will let you upload a script, pick a person, and get a video of them reciting your script perfectly in 60+ different languages, just seconds after uploading your script, all for just $3 a video. We wouldn't be surprised to see more brands using tools like them to create their "Flo from Progressive" or "Jake from Statefarm" without having to pay big acting and production costs...

You can read the article here...

4 - 18 Online Review Stats Every Marketer Should Know

📰 TL;DR - Search Engine Journal compiled 18 stats about how consumers view online reviews and although some of them are obvious, a few are super insightful. Particularly:

1. 60% of consumers feel that the number of reviews is critical (regardless of the actual reviews)

2. A whopping 84% of millennial consumers don't trust conventional advertising

3. Reviews on Twitter increase conversion rates by upwards of 8% compared to around 2% on Facebook and LinkedIn

4. About 52% of consumers who write a negative reviews expect brands to respond to their negative review within 7 days

💡Insight - Just based on the 4 we listed above, it's imperative that you respond to negative reviews ASAP, encourage people to write positive reviews on Twitter, and that you get as many reviews as possible, even if they are not all 5 stars.

You can read the article here...

5 - Research: Fear-Based Health Ads Are Ineffective

📰 TL;DR - One of the world's largest vitamin brands, Nature Made, just unveiled an unusual January ad campaign. They normally lean into the "new year, new me" January vibe that so many health brands lean into... but new research from NielsenIQ suggested consumers aren't connecting with "scared-based" advertising like "new year, new me" so they chose to go with a more holistic message "The Start Of Something Great" ... Which leans into more of a "new beggings" vibe than a "your old self sucked, your new self is better" vibe!

💡Insight - Nature Made isn't the only health brand changing messaging this new year. Equinox announced they will not be accepting any new members on Jan. 1 as part of their "We don't speak January" campaign. They say their gyms are for people who "...constantly push themselves to those extremes" not people who set a quick-ending new year's resolution. Maybe check on your best-performing ads or website copy and see how you can stop instilling fear into potential customers but rather positivity!

You can read the article here...

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