​While omnichannel and multichannel are both concepts based on the idea of engaging consumers across multiple platforms, they are not interchangeable. Multichannel looks at the specific channel and how the transaction will be completed there. Alternatively, omnichannel takes into account that the customer journey may span multiple channels - and looks at how to create the best experience as consumers move between them. Each interaction is a touchpoint on a path, leading to a conversion. Let’s take a deeper look at the differences between the two:

Multichannel
Multichannel is much simpler in its intention, which is to distribute content and advertisements across various channels. A multichannel strategy makes an organization available to consumers online, in print, in-store, etc. The consumer can choose where they want to interact with the brand, however, content and engagements within these various channels are often very siloed. With this in mind, multichannel is more reflective of operations, reaching as many channels as appropriate, while omnichannel is more reflective of the overall customer experience. 

Omnichannel
Omnichannel also makes brands accessible across online and offline channels, however, it goes a step further to ensure an integrated, seamless experience across each one. As consumers move across devices and online and offline platforms, transitions are seamless and messages are informed by prior encounters. An omnichannel approach enables organizations to truly take a consumer-centric approach that keeps the comprehensive customer journey top of mind.

Microsoft Sam2.95K subscribers

Corporate Covid-19 response videos are eerily similar. *Cue somber piano music* When a company or brand releases a Coronavirus Response ad, they might tell you that we're living in "uncertain times", but that "we're here for you". They may say their top priority is "people" and "families" by bringing their services to the "comfort and safety of your home". And don't forget: "we're all in this together!" #together

What's the deal? In reality, many companies have found themselves short on cash, almost overnight. They needed to get a message out - and quick. They asked their teams to throw something together. Since they can't film a new ad because of social distancing, they compiled old stock b-roll footage and found the most inoffensive royalty-free piano track they could find. This, combined with a decade of marketing trends dictated by focus groups and design-by-committee, released a tsunami of derivative, cliche ads all within a week of one another.

​It's not a conspiracy - but perhaps a sign that it's time for something new.

In considering the best digital tools we had to consider the following categories: Analytics & data tools, SEO and blog content tools, social media marketing tools, email automation tools, visual design, landing page tools, project management tools and content curation tools.
​
Analytics & Data Tools

1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a must for any digital marketer looking to scale their business. This free tool shows you all of the important information about your website performance, including audience demographics, popular keywords, actions taken, and more.

2. SumoMe
SumoMe allows you to track your readers’ behavior while on your site and make adjustments accordingly. Use their Heat Maps to see where people are clicking and their Content Analytics to see where people stop reading.
​
3. Platform-Based Social Media Analytics
Platform-Based Social Media Analytics are the free analytics tools built into social media platforms themselves – on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. Though other tools can aggregate your data, looking at platform-based analytics allows you to look at each account as a unique entity, devising different strategies for each social media platform.

SEO & Blog Content Tools

4. UberSuggest
UberSuggest helps you come up with new keywords or blog topics with an easy “suggest” tool. Simply type in your main keyword to see a list of similar results. You can then select any of the results to expand it for even more options, look at Google trends data, or search for the term in Google.

5. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner lets you know which of your potential keywords pack the biggest punch. See how often your keywords are searched and if that changes over time (especially important for seasonal terms!) You can even find “more like this” for more ideas.

6. Yoast
Yoast is a plugin for WordPress that adds extra search engine data to each blog post. This allows Google to easily read your page and increases your chances of ranking higher in search results.

Social Media Marketing Tools

7. MeetEdgar
MeetEdgar is one of the best digital marketing tools for evergreen content. Add tweets, LinkedIn updates, and Facebook posts to your “library,” separated into as many categories as you want. Then set a calendar to schedule each category to post to a selected social media account at a specified time.

8. Hootsuite
Hootsuite offers an easy way to schedule posts and check all of your social media accounts in one place. Set up “streams” for scheduled messages, mentions, messages, posts, and more. You can even assign a comment or message to a team member for them to reply later.

9. Tailwind
Tailwind allows you to schedule content to Instagram and Pinterest. This top digital marketing tool stands out as being one of the top options for managing your Pinterest account. It automatically repins posts for you using an optimal posting schedule you create based on your specific audience engagement, virality, and traffic. If your business is active on Pinterest, Tailwind is an ideal option for building your following and getting your pins shared.

Email Automation Tools

10. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one platform for your email marketing, marketing automation, and sales CRM software. It helps you engage with your contacts with welcome emails, trigger campaigns, sales follow-ups, and more. With countless data-driven automations, you can make sure you never miss an opportunity with a potential lead.

11. Hatchbuck
Hatchbuck automates lead generation and client communication. Its CRM is specifically designed for small businesses, letting you see their activity in real time and trigger hot leads when they’re ready to buy.

12. HubSpot Sales
HubSpot Sales (formerly known as Sidekick) lets you see who opens your emails – and when. It also pulls up the contact’s professional history, company information, and latest tweets, and even lets you schedule emails to send at a later time.

Visual Design Tools

13. Canva
Canva helps you create beautiful photos with easy drag-and-drop technology. Select one of their countless templates or choose a blank design pre-sized for the platform of your choice. You can even customize the branding section so you always have your colors, fonts, and logos available.

14. Animoto
Animoto allows you to create professional slideshow videos with music, custom text, visual effects, and more. Simply pick a template, add your media, and publish to share your video across your social media accounts.

15. Freepik
Freepik gives you access to more than one million vectors, photos, icons, and more for one monthly subscription fee. Find the perfect stock photo for your blog or icon for your logo without worrying about attribution. You can even sort images by color.

Landing Page Tools

16. LeadPages
LeadPages allows you to quickly make mobile-friendly landing pages. Offer lead magnets, collect email addresses, and integrate your page with your email automation software.

17. ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a step above LeadPages, letting you build a series of landing pages to capture email addresses, sell products, register people for events, and more.

18. OptimizePress
OptimizePress is designed to create pages with a similar look and feel to your WordPress site. With lots of templates and customizable elements, you can edit your landing pages in real-time to get your content up fast.

Project Management Tools

19. Basecamp
Basecamp allows you to manage all the moving parts of your projects. With options to create internal and client-facing folders, you can stay up-to-date on all of your tasks, share documents, and keep track of upcoming meetings with a shared calendar.

20. Asana
Asana helps you get your work done faster. With easy to read progress reports for projects, the ability to turn conversations into tasks, and even project templates, it helps your team focus on your current priorities and increases productivity.

21. Slack
Slack is an instant messaging system that allows you to quickly communicate with your team or clients. Hold private conversations or chat in “channels” designated for specific topics.

Content Curation Tools

22. Feedly
Feedly collects all of your favorite blogs in one place so you can scroll through them quickly. It even notes how many shares an article has, letting you find the most popular ones to share on social media.

23. Buffer
Buffer is the fast way to share anything you’re reading. Simply download the extension or app and your links to the tool, and it will automatically add your post to your queue for the social media platform of your choice.

24. Snip.ly
Snip.ly allows you to add a call-to-action on every blog and social media post shared. You can personalize your links with themes, colors, logos, and more, making it a great way to increase conversions.

Have any digital tools that you want to recommend? Let us know.

Including a call to action in your spots can only help with your product or service.
How often do you see a digital ad or social post for a show that you like, then forget to watch or record it? The ad or post you saw likely has a high-res image and includes the date and time of the airing, but that’s it. Very rarely do you even see a CTA button of any sorts, and if you do, it either sends you to a generic destination or isn’t even clickable.
Given that our attention spans are shorter than that of a goldfish, the impulse to act is gone once the ad is gone. Why are you leaving your digital advertising and marketing up to fate? In the age of micro-moments, snaps and stories, the concept of digital ads and marketing sans action in your call-to-action is frankly a bad move.
Viewers watch their video content in a disparate number of places, and that’s causing major pains for TV. According to Nielsen’s second-quarter Total Audience Report, the percentage of U.S. TV households with traditional cable declined by 5 percent in 2018. From large digital buys to massive offline activations, TV marketers have invested tons of time and money trying to capture their viewers’ attention at every turn. However, many marketers are struggling to go beyond the initial “gotcha” moment. With OTTs and vMPVDs now competing with the broadcast and cable networks, harnessing that attention to drive ratings is more important than ever.

Here’s the harsh reality: If TV marketers don’t begin implementing actionable CTAs into their digital campaigns, their share and viewership are going to drop quicker than you can say Jean-Claude Van Johnson.

If TV marketers don’t begin implementing actionable CTAs into their digital campaigns, their share and viewership are going to drop.
Unlike radio or OOH, digital has the uncanny ability to 
inspire action instantly. A recent IAB study shows interactive CTAs are more effective at capturing user attention and generating brand lift. It just isn’t done enough to boost tune-in. The simple application of making your CTAs truly actionable across your digital touchpoints will bring your viewers back into the fold.
Make your viewers active participants again
Your social accounts may have plenty of followers, but social has lost its conversational touch. You’re often broadcasting a message to your audience rather than encouraging engagement. This trend is leading to inactivity and a disengaged audience, not a good fit for driving live and delayed ratings.
By natively including actionable CTAs into some combination of the image, video and text of your posts, you’re clearly alerting your followers to watch, record or catch up with the programming that they love.
Break through the clutter
Publishers continue to expand their monetization strategies, which further turns the digital experience into Times Square on steroids. All of that clutter only reinforces the need to improve the consumer journey from impression to live or delayed viewing.
Including a CTA of “Set your DVR” or “Watch now” within your display, video and rich media will immediately encourage viewers to queue up their favorite shows. Giving those clear actions to viewers will also strengthen brand currency and improve their customer experience in a way that very few are doing across digital.
Connect the digital dots
I’ve signed up for dozens of network newsletters, most of which focus on tune-in efforts. However, rarely do I see any CTAs that signify an obvious way to watch or record. This same use case applies to many network websites. The barrier of entry to watch doesn’t just need to be lowered but completely knocked down.

Dropping these actionable CTAs into all of your digital marketing efforts puts your audience directly on the page where they can convert. Your digital marketing team will also have more analytics to analyze.
The gap between TV and streaming continues to widen, making it paramount that TV marketers empower their viewers to become active participants along the way. Rather than sticking with the adage of “reach and frequency will yield me ratings,” it’s time to adapt. Leveraging actionable CTAs immediately helps you close that gap.

Kevin Hill@khillville
Kevin Hill is founder and CEO of VuPulse.

Crafting memorable Super Bowl advertising remains a formidable challenge, as companies try to navigate the complicated waters of celebrity endorsements, corporate branding, hot-button issues and commercials designed to pitch products.

The takeaway from Sunday, however, was too many sponsors simply trying too hard, with the few witty, surprising and emotional spots genuinely standing out. While it's popular to say "The ads were better than the game," they collectively weren't, even in the midst of a low-scoring affair that didn't produce a touchdown through three quarters.

More image-oriented ads represent a long-term investment in a marketer's profile, although given the size of the showcase, they're can invite controversy. Yet there was relatively little of that, with several commercials that did feature women in prominent ways, tying into that cultural moment.

WINNERS

Bud Light/Game of Thrones -- Many viewers were no doubt stunned and perhaps confused to see the beer ad morph into a "Game of Thrones" tie-in, but it was genuinely surprising, and in terms of shaking up a day filled with otherwise predictable creative, kind of awesome.

Google -- Both of its spots -- one featuring the military, the other about how words are translated -- were arresting and on-point in terms of its brand, providing a ray of hope about the human experience, speckled with fleeting acknowledgment of the darker side.
Microsoft -- The company's ad showcasing special game controllers for kids who need them was not only uplifting but an example of the great things that technology can help people accomplish.

Hulu -- The audacity of airing an ad for the dystopian drama "The Handmaid's Tale" in the midst of the Super Bowl nearly carried the day.
Budweiser -- Using Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" to tout beer brewed with wind power, the callback to previous Budweiser big-game spots contained a mix of advocacy and product pushing that also happened to be visually arresting.

Stella Artois -- On their own, the sendups of "Sex and the City" and "The Big Lebowski" -- and the characters played by Sarah Jessica Parker and Jeff Bridges -- would have been mildly clever. But in a day filled with incongruous celebrity endorsements, mashing the two together felt like an inspired coup.

The Washington Post -- Sober and spare, the paper's one-minute ad offered a broad statement on behalf of journalism, saying, "Knowing keeps us free." The Tom Hanks narration was a nice touch.

Disney -- The combination of "Captain Marvel" and "Toy Story 4" right after the game and a pre-kickoff spot for "Avengers: Endgame" punctuated a quiet Super Bowl for the movie studios, with a modest assist from Universal's "Fast and Furious" spinoff "Hobbs & Shaw."

Kia -- Amid a surplus of celebrity-driven ads, an understated one that celebrated the ordinary people that produce its cars stood out from the crowd.

LOSERS

Turbotax -- A robot child who yearns to do taxes set the bar for creepiness, on a day with a fair amount of it.

Olay -- The company's first Super Bowl ad -- a horror-movie spoof featuring scream queen Sarah Michelle Gellar -- wasted that casting coup, where even the slasher wants to discuss her great-looking skin.

Planters -- It's hard to tell what part of this ad you're supposed to like --the fact that the Planters spokes-nut has a Peanut-mobile, drives it like a lunatic, or lives in the same neighborhood as Charlie Sheen.

Devour Frozen Foods -- There was some promise in the idea of confusing love of the company's frozen dishes with porn (the ad is titled "Food Porn"), but no.

Pepsi -- The soft-drink giant presented a star-studded spoof built around people asking, "Is Pepsi OK?," which really just reminds viewers that a lot of people like Coke better. As advertising goes, it's a classic self-own.

T-Mobile -- The company bought an ad in each quarter, but didn't seem to have anything particularly interesting to say, other than offering freebies.

Avocados from Mexico -- Not to be a stickler, but what does a dog show have to do with avocados?

Yellowtail -- Whatever the wine tastes like, the company's ad tastes bor-ring.
Michelob Ultra -- See, robots can do everything better than us, but they don't get to enjoy drinking beer. Of course, they'll have the last laugh when they rise up against their human masters and take over.

Turkish Airlines -- Nothing about the Turkish Airlines ad made any sense, beginning with the assumption that anyone would be moved to go online to find out.

Audi -- Should a car commercial ever involve the Heimlich maneuver? No, it shouldn't.

Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer -- Frankly, the sharks might as well eat whoever dreamt up that ad campaign.

Burger King -- Andy Warhol? It's a talker, but for all the questions the ad invited, nothing about it really made you want to run out and eat a burger. Or to quote a more memorable ad, where's the beef?

For starters, messages representing your business should be customer focused and not simply self-expression. You need to express that you care what your customer thinks, feels, and wants. Anything less will result in marginal success at best. This is crucial for all of your company communication efforts but most especially with regard to social media and SEO.

Your strategy should begin with the Funnel of Intention (courtesy of *BBVA)
-  INFORMATIONAL
-  COMMERCIAL
-  NAVIGATIONAL
-  TRANSACTIONAL

What is your intention`? Intention is critical and should drive your process. Follow the Intention Funnel - The first stage of intent and the starting point in the path for conversion is INFORMATIONAL. Keywords might look like:
*  what are the best family theme parks
*  what is Disney world?
*  what is the difference between Disney Land and Disney World?

COMMERCIAL is the next stage of engagement.. Not ready to buy, not purely informational either. COMMERCIAL key words might look like:
*  Disney World ticket costs?
*  hotels nearby and room costs
*  what are the best rides at Disney World

Where do I find it? NAVIGATIONAL searches are looking for answers. Some keywords might include;
*  Disney World discounts
*  Trip Advisor theme park discounts

Ready to purchase! TRANSACTIONAL keywords might look like:
*  where can I purchase Disney World tickets near me
*  purchase Disney World tickets online
*  Kayak cheap flights to Orlando
*  best hotel rates in Orlando

Pay attention to Google, your customers and data. Google's Micro-Moments Guide recommends to "Be there. Be Useful. Be quick. Connect the dots."

BE THERE now with:

1. Defined  Goals
2. Defined Share of Voice
3. Intentional Keyword Search
4. Local Strategy

Remember the basics and optimize! Keep technical SEO clean and updated when creating new content or updating or removing old content.

Make your website easy, simple and accessible. After all -

User Expectation = Reality

​We here at Valocom are excited to share our latest website development project for one of Houston's premier caterers - CULINAIRE Houston. View their website at www.culinairehouston.com or www.culinairecatering.com

After many years in business, CULINAIRE Houston needed a website that accurately represented their value proposition and clientele and looked to Valocom to translate their brand message into a fresh and compelling new website.  
​