🔅 Video resolution.

The channels motivating customers to complete purchases, Microsoft is moving inventory in-house, and more. March 7, 2023 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Good morning. On a scale from one to 10, with one being “I’ll read it if there’s nothing else in the waiting room,” and 10 being “I tell every stranger in the subway about it,” how big a fan are you of our newsletter? Just asking because, you know, if you’re a huge Stacked Marketer fan, you have an opportunity to be flown to Vienna to eat schnitzel and nerd out about marketing with us. You’ll find the details at the bottom of today’s stack. MICROSOFT Ad inventory goes in-house, Edge gets a video resolution upscale feature [article-image] At Microsoft, it doesn’t have to be a holiday to bring the whole family together. Oops, sorry… by “family” we mean ad inventory. Everyone’s home: The tech giant said [it will transition the majority of its ads offerings]( on MSN, Outlook, and Microsoft Casual Games into Microsoft Advertising’s in-house technology and sales teams, and make it available through [Monetize SSP](. Microsoft says the transition will help marketers: - Gain more direct and scalable access to Microsoft’s inventory. - Improve efficiency with an all-in-one platform. - Have support from Microsoft’s in-house team. Sounds pretty good to us. How to get it: Most major demand-side platforms (DSPs) already have integration with Monetize SSP. If that’s you, congrats. Looking sharp: Also, Microsoft [unveiled a new video feature for Edge browser.]( The new feature uses AI to make low-resolution videos sharper. It’s currently limited to 720p or lower, but could help you breathe some life into old videos. Good to know if you’re doing video marketing. Why we care: Having all your inventory and assets together in one platform could make Microsoft Advertising more accessible, but also more efficient. You’ll have to let us know, of course. And with Edge getting a video upscaling tool, you could repurpose some of your old content and “revive” videos you thought were deplorable due to low quality. Pretty sweet. E-COMMERCE Texting works, just don’t be annoying Guess what? Texting customers doesn’t have to be icky. In fact, [according to a new study](, abandoned cart texts encouraged 38% of shoppers to complete their purchases. It’s OK to ring: More than half of the shoppers surveyed said that receiving a WhatsApp or SMS remarketing message helped them to hit the “buy now” button. Also, SMS remains the second most preferred channel for receiving promotional messages for 20% of customers, with email being the undisputed king. … But be careful how you ding: However, all customers said that they get annoyed with SMS marketing. Especially when messages aren’t relevant to products they’ve purchased. And if you’re wondering what gets on shoppers’ nerves, here’s a short list: - Messaging too frequently (49%). - Messages irrelevant to shoppers needs (34%). - Messages sent at inappropriate times (14%). What to do: Give your customers a choice to adjust messaging frequency. Oh, and make sure your messages honor special days like birthdays or holidays and remind customers of unfinished actions, in addition to sales and promotions. Why we care: Given the challenging e-commerce environment, it’s good to know that well-tailored SMS and other messaging channels can bring awesome results. You just have to pick the right moments and message types, of course. And in a privacy-first marketing landscape, that could be the difference between cash flow and cash clog. SPONSORED BY SEMRUSH Keep your friends close, and your competition closer. [article-image]( You can learn a lot from your competition, especially if you’re a marketer. You know, things like which strategies are working for your competition. Or the keywords that are helping your competition rank higher than you. When you know that, you can adopt their strategies and improve on them to gain an edge. Semrush is the [one-stop-shop for all of the competitive insights you need to build an unbeatable marketing strategy](. Semrush helps you: - Discover how competitors generate traffic. - Reveal competitors’ top products and offers. - Assess your competitors’ organic strategies. - Dissect your rivals’ advertising tactics. - Uncover top content and social media performance. Semrush analyzes one billion events per day over 190 regions and countries, giving you the broadest coverage of your competitive landscape. Staying ahead of the competition has never been so easy. [Try Semrush now for free.]( BUSINESS A simple roadmap to scaling your agency [article-image] Ahhh, the feeling of winning the first clients for your agency is unmatched. Unfortunately, at some point you’ll hit a plateau where it seems impossible to grow or scale your agency. How do we know? Well, [as Jordan Ross points out](, this plateau happens often with agencies. The solution? Building a system that will help you scale your agency by automating your internal operations. According to Jordan, this system consists of a few pivotal elements. Let’s check them out… #1 – Templatized workflow. If you haven’t mapped out each step of your operations, you’re already behind. Map out each step with your client, SOP & training, software needs, etc. #2 – SOPs and Trainings. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are a [simple set of steps]( for your team members and clients to follow, while training teaches team members how to think. #3 – Organizational charts. This sets clear expectations. Make sure your chart includes responsibilities, goals, and key KPIs. For example: your Customer Success Manager’s main goal—or KPI—could be a monthly client churn rate that’s less than 5%. Responsibilities – daily communication with clients. #4 – Templatized project management (PM). The three previous steps should help you create a PM template you can easily copy and paste when you acquire a client. Tasks, client info, due dates, task owners, hyperlinked SOPs, and statuses are all part of this. #5 – End of day (EOD) reporting. Make every team member fill out a simple EOD report, which increases accountability. Project management tools make this easy to automate. #6 – Client dashboard. Here you track client results internally. Agencies often underperform due to lack of visibility, accountability, and contingency plan for when things go sideways. So identify and track all KPIs relevant to the account, set goals, and track results through APIs and automations. #7 – Ops meeting. When you set everything up, team members can update managers on targeted vs. actual performance, future plans, etc., who will then report the same to you. As you can see, we’re tight on space, so we recommend reading [Jordan’s thread]( for more in-depth tweets and examples. Good luck and happy scaling! SPONSORED BY UPFLUENCE This marketing channel used by Amazon and Asics yields 11x the ROI of online display ads. Are you using it yet? [article-image]( Your customers and fans discover new products and make purchase decisions every day with the help of creators. … Which is why [1600+ brands worldwide are using Upfluence, the #1 all-in-one influencer and affiliate marketing platform, to drive revenue](. Upfluence transforms your manual campaign process into an effortless automated machine, freeing you up to discover and recruit influencers, build campaigns, manage creators, and measure sales from one place. [Drive real results with Upfluence.]( THE CREW’S INSIGHTS Are you doing enough research when you write copy? Here’s a checklist… [article-image] “Copy is not written. Copy is assembled.” Those are words from the brilliant Eugene Schwartz, and they ring true. Good copy doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the result of meticulous work, of assembling winning ideas and promises piece-by-piece. But what are those pieces, exactly? Here are a few of the key ones. - Audience information. You’ll want to learn about your audience demographics, psychographics, and more. Keep these learnings at the forefront of your mind as you write. - Common objections. If you don’t soothe or address objections in your copy, you risk potential customers disagreeing with your claims—and losing them forever. So put together a list of objections and concerns before you ever write a word on the page. - Product details. Before you write, learn the product like the back of your hand. Get to know it better than anyone else. Learn its features and benefits. The more comfortable you are with the product, the more likely you’ll be able to sell it. - Testimonials. Nothing sells quite like a positive testimonial from a customer. These are helpful for two reasons: First, you can use them in your copy. Second, because as you read testimonials, you’ll get a good idea of what happy customers are saying about the product. This helps you expand on benefits in their own language. There’s more to it, of course. We’re just skimming the surface here—and we haven’t even covered the entire list of pieces you’ll need to write good copy. Want to fill in the gaps when it comes to your customer research? [Sign up to Stacked Marketer Pro to take the Copywriting Essentials Course.]( It’s a practical course that’ll teach you everything you need to know about writing good copy in just 2.5 hours—and set you up for writing high-converting copy in no time. ROUNDING UP THE STACK [PREMIUM BACKLINKS:]( How do you turn your website into a traffic and lead gen machine? With the world's most powerful backlinks, of course! Choose from DR90+ websites like The Washington Post, Zendesk, HubSpot and more. [Get authority-boosting, hyper-relevant links with dofollow.io.](* [GOOGLE:]( Guess blue is Big Tech’s favorite color. Google started highlighting relevant text in blue in featured snippets, and also made the font even bigger. So don’t be surprised if you see bigger click-through numbers… [TWITTER:]( Oof, more troubles for Elon. Twitter reported a 40% year-on-year drop in ad revenue after advertisers cut spending on the platform. Of course, the lack of competition could be your chance to get ad placements for cheap… [SEO:]( Be careful when buying domains. According to John Muller, if a website has a “long and complicated history” of abusing search engines and has been flagged by Google before, it’s going to be hard to turn it around. Bummer. [ANALYTICS:]( The battle between Europe and Google continues. Now Norway’s authorities have decided that Google Analytics violates GDPR. At this point, Analytics will probably be banned in the country, just like it already has in Austria, France, and others. Ouch. *This is a sponsored post BRAIN TEASER A man leaves home and makes three left turns, only to return home facing two men wearing masks. Who are those two men? You can find [the answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT What’s a Borg? [article-image] Someone asks you to “pass the Borg.” What do you do? You pass the milk jug, obviously. Yep. There’s a new viral TikTok craze that involves [mixing mostly alcoholic fluids in a gallon jug](. Why Borg? Well, this hefty homemade cocktail is crafted for the sole purpose of binge drinking. It was initially called Blackout Rage Gallon, but the Borg acronym stuck. To us, taking a swig from a Borg sounds like a bad idea. We’ll have a cool beer in a clear, normal glass, please. SHARING IS CARING How’d you like to eat schnitzel with us in Vienna? Attention, Stacked Marketer fans: If you get 1000 people to sign up for our newsletter, we’ll fly you to Europe for a weekend with us in Vienna. We’ll eat schnitzel, see the sights, and talk marketing. It’ll be awesome. And of course, you’ll unlock other rewards, too, including: - The Marketer Mug (30 referrals). - The Marketer Zip Hoodie (50 referrals). Hit your custom link below to unlock exclusive content, merch, and membership! [article-image]( [CLICK TO SHARE]( Or copy your referral link: [ [SUBSCRIBE]( | [SM PRO]( | [ADVERTISE]( You are receiving this email because you want to know what is going on in digital marketing. If you aren't thrilled about our emails, reply and let us know why. Or you can unsubscribe from all daily updates by clicking [here.]( Our postal address: Spectrum IT Solutions GmbH, Canettistrasse 1/Top 0107, 1100 Wien, Austria