Blog

AI is one of the hottest topics right now. At AEI Marketing, we love to try new technologies, but is AI right for us? We have still yet to decide. It can help our market by generating new ideas, but the question is if it causes more harm than good. Google is implementing AI to help its search engine and products improve. Read more below to learn about how AI is enveloping our everyday lives.

https://apnews.com/article/google-artificial-intelligence-search-engine-chatgpt-microsoft-fd0538018df958388991772ced6e693d

Read more

This is important science!

The science behind teen girls’ mental health crisis.

A brain chemical essential to decision-making and managing stress is emerging as another indicator of why teen girls are bearing the worst of the youth mental health crisis.

Why it matters: The way stress physiologically affects brain development is under-researched, leaving it unclear if there are better ways to identify and treat groups facing increased rates of suicidal behavior, sexual assault and depression.

Read more in the link below:

https://www.axios.com/2023/06/09/science-teen-girls-mental-health-crisis?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR38VL6YCBfPmi6VXVonEKEN6F5gsc37B2bgruQBqdg-b9QAMD-uAHzCdAo

Read more

Sustainability is an increasingly popular topic. AEI Marketing is a predominantly remote office and has a smaller carbon footprint. It is important to us to preserve the beauty of the Lowcountry and emphasize it in our work. Our location provides us with the beauty that we highlight in what we create. We can only continue taking inspiration from our area if we all are aware of the effect we have on our surroundings. To read more about carbon footprints and to see how you can assess yours, read the article linked below!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90899551/this-free-tool-tells-you-the-carbon-footprint-of-your-home-or-office

Photo by Kres Thomas

Read more

Performance and productivity are two of the most important parts of a business, but what about well-being? An article from Fast Company shares how well-being and efficiency have a positive correlation. It is essential to emphasize mental health and wellness in the workplace. We want to serve our community and exemplify these ideals in everything we do.

“Prioritizing employee wellbeing could transform companies, and the economy, in driving long-term business success.”

Read more about it in the link below!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90899166/the-business-case-for-investing-in-employee-well-being

Read more

At AEI, we utilize technology every day. Finding what works for our objectives, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, or WordPress, we strive to use technology in the best way possible. In recent news, Fast Company shared an article on how small businesses can incorporate new technologies. We strive to exemplify these five steps in our everyday work. Read more about it below!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90824539/how-small-businesses-can-take-advantage-of-emerging-technology

Read more

Apparently, the rumors of data visualization’s death have been greatly exaggerated … Salesforce is acquiring data viz company Tableau for $15.7 billion Learning on the job is probably the single most important factor driving your performance at work. You won’t know everything you need to about your job when you’re hired, no matter how good your education is or how much experience you had in previous positions. The road to learning starts with a willingness to admit what you don’t know and an interest in learning new things. Tableau allows design luddites to upload a spreadsheet and easily alter the graphical layout of information to make sense of data or just make it more aesthetically pleasing. That service is increasingly valuable, as big data emerges as an ubiquitous tool in the business world. “Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce, in a press statement. “It’s truly the best of both worlds for our customers–bringing together two critical platforms that every customer needs to understand their world.” As TechCrunch points out, the news comes on the heels of Google announcing plans to acquire the data analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion. Apparently smart data analytics, and clear, well-designed information are very much hot commodities in a world that is increasingly quantifiable. Amidst a year of high-profile IPOs, as Uber’s stock founders and Beyond Meat’s soars, it’s worth noting that Salesforce and Tableau are both publicly traded Silicon Valley companies that launched around 20 years ago. Some startups really do grow up   Read more

You’ll soon be able to buy a lot more stuff on Facebook. The social network is testing a shopping experience that allows users to buy items directly from business’ Facebook pages. The new shopping feature, first reported by BuzzFeed, will allow retailers to turn their Facebook pages into mini storefronts outside of their main websites. Facebook confirmed the new shopping features to Mashable Wednesday, saying it’s currently being tested among a small number of users and a handful of retail and e-commerce companies. In the shopping section, companies will show off products in a format that appears to be similar to the way photos are laid out. If you want to buy one of the products, the retailers will be able to choose whether the actual transaction will take place within Facebook or whether you’ll be redirected to the company’s website.

For those that choose to keep the shopping experience inside Facebook, the checkout process will be very similar to the one already in place on Facebook ads that use the buy button. Facebook spokesperson Mike Manning said it’s too early to offer a timeline for when it will expand more broadly to include more retailers or be surfaced to more users. He declined to name the businesses participating in the initial test, but noted there are a range of different-sized retailers and e-commerce companies currently involved. The news comes as other social platforms are looking to increase engagement — and, eventually, revenue — with native shopping experiences. Pinterest rolled out buyable pins earlier this year, and Google announced Wednesday it would be experimenting with a “buy” button in its search results. Meanwhile Facebook has been increasingly experimenting with payments and shopping features. The company added peer-to-peer payments in Messenger earlier this year, and rolled out a business version of Facebook Messenger that allows customers to interact with businesses, including retailers. Recent reports have suggested the social network is also in the midst of testing a shopping assistant feature for Messenger. It doesn’t sound like Facebook plans to make money directly off shopping transactions for now, but all these new shopping and payment-related features fall in line with the company’s larger goal of keeping users in its apps and website as long as possible. Read more

Ask us about copy-writing for SEO … (843) 227-0619! From Emarkerter: Marketers rely on search engine optimization (SEO) to improve search rankings, website traffic and lead generation, and in June 2015 research by Ascend2, 89% worldwide rated SEO successful at achieving these objectives. Further, in February 2015 polling by Econsultancy, fully 73% of in-house marketers and 76% of US agencies worldwide said SEO provided excellent or good return on investment (ROI), the first- and second-highest responses. Most Effective vs. Difficult SEO Tactics to Execute According to Marketing Professionals Worldwide, June 2015 (% of respondents) SHARE THIS More than seven in 10 respondents said SEO effectiveness was improving, and content was by far the most important factor in this. Fully 72% cited relevant content creation as the most effective SEO tactic. Unfortunately, though, it was also the second most difficult, at 46% of respondents. The second most effective area, keyword and phrase research, proved to be much easier at executing; however, this stresses content’s importance again, as these terms must relate to the content produced. Putting manpower toward frequent website updates as well as link building also ranked highly for effectiveness, though the latter was the most difficult to execute. While website URL restructuring was the least difficult, it was also the least effective. Outside experts can help marketers maximize SEO efforts and effectiveness. As such 81% of Ascend2 respondents outsourced some or all of their SEO tactics. Q4 2014 data from AdLift reaffirms the importance of showing up at the top of search results. Looking at the clickthrough rate (CTR) of US desktop organic search results on Google, average CTR for branded keywords in position one was 45.7%, vs. 11.6% for second and 5.4% for third. Similarly, CTR for nonbranded terms was 24.7% for spot one, vs. 12.8% and 7.4% for Nos. 2 and 3. Mobile showed similar results. CTR for branded keywords in position one was 46.4%, vs. 10.8% in second and 6.1% in third. For nonbranded terms on mobile, first position saw an average CTR of 27.4%, dropping to respective rates of 17.6% and 13.9% for Nos. 2 and 3. Read more

Some software development companies program with the theory that it is ok for end-users to get garbage information out of software if they put “garbage” in user input fields. (GIGO Programming). This is a very bad theory. Should end-users guess input formats such as pre-required date, and time formats? If the end user is confused by data field inputs – (1/1/16 or January, 1, 2016) then the software is a failure. Making it easy for end-users doesn’t happen by accident and it can be painfully expensive to tweak systems once $125 per hour programmers are working their magic! At AEI Marketing, we do extensive analysis of proposed software development projects; We document every intricacy of your system in advance. It is our job! As for GIGO Programming, these developers use the word “garbage” twice in their calling-card. We think that says all you need to know about their planning processes. Read more

  Read more