5 Common Mistakes Email Marketers Make

Make a simple google search using the terms “Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid” and you’ll be met with approximately 1.6 million results. Oh, so you don’t have a few years to set aside for some light reading? Good, let me sum it up for you. There are do’s and don’ts and best practices and recommendations for every intricacy of email marketing. These range from clear, distinct guidelines, to ambiguous ideas. Most are helpful, most are lengthy. So, how do you know if you’re making one of these common mistakes? You might be if…. 

1. Your content is irrelevant

In an age where we can make a simple search for a pair of black snow boots, and have said snowboots show up in our targeted ads on all social media platforms for a week, you better believe subscribers are expecting mail that makes sense for them. If someone lives in Anchorage, Alaska, chances are they aren’t regularly looking to buy those cute flamingo pool floats. So do you ensure that you’re sending your subscribers content that is relevant to them? Start at the beginning! Does your sign-up process include a chance for subscribers to give their geographical location and preferences about what they would like to receive? If not, this is probably a great place to start in order to make sure that your mail is relevant and targeted to your subscriber’s needs. 

2. Your creative needs a refresh

So often, email marketers focus on the subject and preheader of a message that the actual creative content falls to the wayside. The reality is that people are more likely to engage with your mail if something in the body of your message catches their eye. Be sure to include a call to action! Let your users actually engage with your mail by adding in easily found links to your website, a sale, or a special offer. You CAN have fun with your email! For example, below we see Apple is sending a campaign that is relevant to the quickly approaching Valentine’s Day. In their message, they keep the user invested with bold colors, holiday specific emojis, and links to shop the featured products in a subtle, yet easily identifiable way throughout the entire message. 

3. You haven’t optimized for your mobile subscribers

Studies show that 43 percent of subscribers are checking their emails on a mobile device, and that number will only grow since mobile devices aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Make sure that your images, links, and text are rendering in a coherent, eye-catching way to ensure that your mobile users are having a positive experience with your mail. An easy way to do this is to test in our Inbox Preview tool. This tool gives you exact renderings of your mail across multiple platforms and shows you the issues you need to fix before you hit send. Another useful tool is Email Client Monitor. This tool allows you to gain insight into how long subscribers spend reading your email and geographically where they are opening it to help in targeting and segmentation. It also gives you data about which platforms, browsers, and email clients your subscribers use most often to optimize your email for the most used platforms.

4. You aren’t asking for permission

Permission-based email is vital for an email program to be successful and maintain a healthy reputation with mailbox providers and subscribers. How do you know if you’re deploying these types of emails? I’m glad you asked. First, make sure that users are fully aware of the type of mail they’ll be receiving from you at the point of sign up. Do you only send a monthly newsletter? Let them know! Be straightforward about your relationship going forward and I promise, it will be a long and fruitful one. Also, make sure you’re allowing your subscribers to opt-out of your email whenever they may decide. Meaning, don’t bury the unsubscribe button! Doing so will only increase complaints. Much like it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, same goes for your email program. An unsubscribe is better than a complaint any day of the week. Next, make sure you’re keeping subscriber’s contact information up to date. Give your subscribers an easy way to update any changes in their email addresses, so that you always stay in their most relevant inbox. Lastly, don’t buy or rent a list. It is difficult to obtain consent from these types of lists, not to mention some of those addresses may be spam traps, landing you on a blacklist.

5. Signing up for your emails is hard

People like convenience, no one likes to jump through hoops, especially when it comes to getting on an email list. More often than not, I see sign up processes that look more like the format a doctor’s office than a mailing list to hear about sales on my favorite sweaters. Keep your sign up process on one page, make the information you need from them an easy click, not a long form in which they need to write in a great deal of personal information.

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Using Automation to Be More Efficient With Social Media

WE ALL have 24 hours in a day, so we need to always be looking for ways to maximize our time. Fortunately, with social media there are ways to be more efficient with your activities through automation.

I’ll preface this by saying that you do not need to automate your entire social presence.

It kind of takes away from the whole social aspect of the channel.

Instead, let’s identify how you can use automation to be more efficient with social media that will allow you to spend more time on engagement with your audience.

Why You Need to use Automation in Social Media

I like to look for ways to automate or streamline repetitive tasks. It helps to free up my time to do other things that can’t be automated.

I know what you are thinking:

“You shouldn’t automate social media, it’s not authentic.”

Automation needs to supplement your social media, not replace it. This doesn’t mean using every social media tool to automate your existence.

Instead, you need to look for ways to streamline certain aspects of your social media initiatives.

If you are like me, I can’t stand doing the same things over and over…especially if it something that I know can be put on autopilot (or at least semi-automated).

This is the perfect starting point to figure out what you can (or should) automate.

I’ll share 3 ways I like to use automation to complement various social media activities.

Use IFTTT to Automate Social Media

One of my favorite go-to tools for automation is IFTTT. IFTTT is short for “if this, then that.” Basically, it means that if something happens, then something else should be a result of it. Essentially a “trigger” and an “action.”

This is referred to as a recipe in IFTTT.

Creating recipes in IFTTT is pretty straight forward. There is a nice wizard that will walk you through their simple 7 step process to set up your recipe.

However, creating a recipe from scratch is not necessary at all.

There are hundreds of pre-made recipes you can easily copy and use. Some of my favorite recipes are:

• Archive my tweets in a Google Spreadsheet
• Autopin Feedly Article to Pinterest Board
• Add @mentions to Twitter List

I’ll quickly go over what each one can do.

Archive Tweets into Google Sheets

The archiving of tweets into a Google Spreadsheet allows you to create a running list of all your tweets. This can come in handy in a variety of ways. The most notable is that you will have a running backup of your tweets. You can grab some of these old tweets and reuse them for future social media updates.

One thing to note about Google Sheets is that it will max out at 2,000 rows. When this happens, IFTTT will create a new spreadsheet to keep going.

Autopin to Pinterest

With Pinterest, your automation is limited in that there are not too many tools available yet for automation since their API is new/limited.

However, by using this IFTTT recipe you can automatically pin articles from your Feedly account to your Pinterest account.

Every time the recipe is triggered, a pin will be created for the board that you specified. It’s an easy way to add content to your boards from your favorite sources.

Create Twitter Lists Automatically

The final recipe is a simple way to add people that mention you on Twitter to a list automatically. This recipe will look for your username (or perhaps a competitor) and add people who mention the name to a list.

You can either use a public list which I recommend for adding people that mention you, or a private list for mentions of your competitor.

The benefit of adding users to a public list is that they will be notified of being added to the list which will typically drive more engagement.

If you haven’t used IFTTT, I highly recommend looking at all the recipes available and how they can help you automate some of your social media.

Recycle Your Pinterest Pins

I the previous section, I mentioned that there are not a lot of opportunities to automate Pinterest. However, there is one tool that I find invaluable when it comes to Pinterest automation.

It’s called Board Booster.

Board Booster does several things, most notably a feature called “looping.”

By using their looping feature, it will essentially recycle and re-post your pins from a board. This works particularly well if you have evergreen social content.

Setup is rather easy in that you load up one of your Pinterest boards and configure your settings:

As you can see, there are quite a few ways to configure this. I find that the most important thing to have enabled is the “automatic deduplication” which will:

“…give the new pin some time to accumulate repins, and then compare its number of repins to the number of repins on the original pin, and delete the pin that has the lowest number of repins.”

This ensures that you don’t have dozens of duplicate pins floating around your board.

Board Booster will also allow you to schedule pins. While I don’t really use this since I use IFTTT as mentioned above for posting to Pinterest, Board Booster is an option to use.

The way it works is that a “secret” board is created in your Pinterest account. A secret board is only visible to you (and Board Booster), so no one will know it exists. You can then manually add content to it and Board Booster will publish it according to the criteria you set.

It’s pretty straight forward to get going. You’ll just need to be sure to keep your secret board filled with content so Board Booster has something to publish.

If you want to get crafty, you can use IFTTT to add content to your secret board so you have more control of when items are pinned.

Find and Follow New People on Twitter

Back in the day there were quite a few Twitter tools that could follow and unfollow users automatically each day. However, Twitter clamped down on this eliminating many tools that once worked.

However, there are still tools out there that can assist with identifying and following users on Twitter. Albeit in a semi-automated fashion.

The one tool I continuously use is ManageFlitter.

If you are managing multiple Twitter accounts, I recommend upgrading your account to really get the most out of it.

With ManageFlitter, you have several ways to find people to follow. Primarily you can follow the followers of someone’s account, follow the accounts a user is following, search for specific accounts (bios, location, followers, etc), or search for tweets containing certain text.

Should you choose to follow the followers of an account, ManageFlitter will go and get the latest people to follow that account. With one click you can select them all and add them to your “process” queue.

Same goes for following the accounts a user is following.

When searching bios, you get some flexibility of the criteria to use.

You can get pretty granular with your requirements. Just keep in mind the more specific you are, the fewer the results will be. However, they will be more targeted than a broad search.

Finally, you can search for tweets containing specific text and location.

You don’t get as many options with this as other search methods on ManageFlitter. The results will be listed for you to sift through and hand pick people to add to your “process” queue, or you can bulk add all of them.

Aside from finding targeted followers, ManageFlitter will also unfollow anyone not following you back. This can be very useful in that you don’t have to manually sift through and check your followers to ensure they are following you back. In just one click you can select all who are not following you back and add them to you “process” queue.

In your “process” queue is where you will actually follow or unfollow Twitter users. Unfortunately, you will have to manually click follow or unfollow on each user.

Even though this is not the most fun thing to do, what is nice is that the way the site is designed is that once you click on follow/unfollow, that user disappears and the next one in the list scrolls up. This puts the button you need to click in the exact same spot, so it makes it easy to just click real fast to get through the list.

Now if you really want to fully automate these processes, ManageFlitter has a service you can pay extra for and they will handle all this for you. However, I have never paid them for it and would rather save a few bucks to do it myself.

Automate Social Media With Moderation

Social media automation is something you will need to use with moderation. By no means should automation be used to replace your presence on your social accounts.

The various tools and techniques are meant to help keep you out of the weeds and free up your time from performing mundane tasks. You can then use this freed up time to put more effort in engaging with your audience.

So the big question is, what are you going to automate and how are you going to use your additional free time?

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How to Stand Out From the Crowd in 2018 (4 Social Media Marketing Secrets)

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33 Instagram Marketing Statistics for Social Media Managers in 2018

In its 8 years of existence, Instagram has transformed the way people communicate on social media. Focused on mobile photo-sharing, the social media platform not only attracted a massive user base, but also garnered attention from Facebook, which eventually acquired Instagram in 2012.

As a social media manager, you most probably have Instagram included on your list of potential social media platforms for audience engagement. That’s why we have put together a list of Instagram marketing statistics that you can use to understand the social media platform better and formulate an effective Instagram marketing plan.

With the right Instagram management tool and marketing strategy, you can create an effective Instagram presence.

Without further ado, here are 33 Instagram marketing statistics for social media managers in 2018.

1. Instagram was conceived on October 6th, 2010, and was bought by Facebook on April 9th, 2012 for $1 billion.

2. 32% of the community of internet users are also Instagrammers.

3. Brand engagement on Instagram is 10X that on Facebook, 54X that On Pinterest and 84X that on Twitter.

4. Instagrammed videos get 2X engagement than photographs on any other social media platform. If your industry is great for visuals, consider Instagram marketing very seriously.

5. 80% Instagram users are not based in the United States. 77.6 million Instagram users are from the US. Instagram has a better distributed global audience than many social media managers may have assumed.

6. You may have known that Instagram was primarily being used by the younger crowd, but how young are Instagram’s users exactly? According to Pew Research Centre’s study, most Instagram users are between 18 and 29 years of age. So if this your target demographic, you should give Instagram special attention.

7. 60% online adults have Instagram accounts. If you want to engage adults on social media, you shouldn’t sideline Instagram marketing.

8. Within 24 hrs of Instagram introducing video, Instagrammers shared over 5 million videos.

9. 90% of the top 100 brands in the world have an Instagram presence.

10. Women are more likely to use Instagram than men, according to Pew Research Centre. That’s why lifestyle brands with products for women perform exceptionally well on Instagram.

11. Instagram influencers sometimes earn $100,000 per post; but that doesn’t mean that all Instagram influencers are unapproachable. You simply need to find the most influential Instagrammer in your niche within your budget for decent results.

12. 32% of teenagers using the internet consider Instagram the most important social media platform. A good part of your youngest target audience members could be accessible via Instagram marketing.

13. According to a Louisem, over 25% of Instagram users make $75,000 or more each year.

14. Instagram has the most number Instagram users, and Selena Gomez has the second highest number of Instagram users at 124 million. Beyonce holds the record for the most liked Instagram, which included a photograph of her announcing her pregnancy.

15. The Instagrammer community is 600 million strong, and has over 400 million active Instagrammers.

16. Of the Instagram users, 51% claim to use their Instagram accounts daily, while 35% admit that they check their Instagram feeds several times (upto 7 times) a day.

17. 50% of all Instagram users follow at least one business account. That’s a potential audience of about 200 million active users, and 60% of the members of that audience claim to have learned about the business on the platform.

18. The number of photos and videos shared on Instagram daily is roughly around 95 million, so your Instagrams need to be optimized for search and audience engagement to stand out,

19. Since Instagram’s conception, over 40 billion photographs and videos have been uploaded on the social media platform. This activity is a clear indicator of users’ engagement with the social media platform, a tell-tale sign of the platform’s potential in collecting UGC (User Generated Content).

20. 1/6th (100 million) of Instagrammers use the “Stories” feature everyday.

21. In December 2016 alone, there were close to 300 million selfies on Instagram, proving the users’ comfort in including themselves in their content on the social media platform.

22. There are just under 17 million Google searches for the word “Instagram” each month, and 165,000 Google searches for Kylie Jenner Instagram.

23. Over 15 million companies own Instagram accounts, so it’s highly likely that your competition has an Instagram

24. 1 million of those 15 million companies are active advertisers, 800,000 more than were advertisers in March 2017. This drastic increase in the number of businesses advertising on Instagram is clear indication of the platform’s potential to help businesses target and engage the right audience.

25. A massive proportion of top Instagram brands (60%) use the same filter in all of their Instagrams. This statistic proves that brand consistency is a key factor that social media managers should pay attention to.

26. Instagrams with at least one relevant hashtag get 12.6% more engagement than those without any hashtags. Needless to say, the right hashtags can dramatically improve your reach and engagement on Instagram.

27. The <3 is the most popular emoji on Instagram.

28. Clarendon, Gingham and Juno/Lark are the most popular filters among Instagrammers.

29. Pizza, steak and sushi are the most Instagrammed food preparations.

30. According to a study, your Instagram stands the most chance for engagement when it is posted on Wednesdays at 5PM. But you could always find the best time to get engagement among your audience members by running a simple experiment. Post the same content on different days at different times and identify the day and time with the most engagement.

31. In March 2017 alone, 120+ million Instagrammers acted on business CTAs by visiting websites, calling or emailing businesses. Instagram is clearly a great social media platform to entice your audience to act on your suggestions.

32. According to Statista, Instagram’s mobile ad revenue in 2016 was over 1.86 billion, 144% more than the social media platform earned in 2015, and the number nearly doubled in 2018 to become 3.64 billion.

33. About 140,000,000 Instagrammers claim they have been cyberbullied on the platform, making it important for brands to consider the safety and comfort of their fans when including them in content or interacting with them.

That’s a wrap. Stay tuned to this space for an update.

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How to Create a YouTube Channel

If you're reading this article, then I probably don't need to tell you that video content accounts for over 74% of all online traffic, or that over five billion YouTube videos are watched every single day. You're clever.
You already know that YouTube is an important content tool, and you're ready to start leveraging video for your own business.

Download our free guide to learn how to create and utilize video in your marketing to increase engagement and conversion rates. 

This article will cover everything you need to know about creating a YouTube channel, so you can start uploading your own videos and growing your audience today.

How to Create a YouTube Channel

1. Create a Google account (if you don't already have one).
2. Optimize your channel with brand details.
3. Customize your channel with visuals.
4. Add videos and optimize them for search.

1. Create a Google account (if you don't already have one).

To watch, share, create, and comment on YouTube content, you'll need a Google account.

If You Don't Already Have a Google Account

Go to youtube.com and click "sign in" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be taken to a Google sign-in page. Click "more options":
Then, click "create account":

From there, you'll be asked to follow a few steps to create a Google account. Once you've completed them, proceed with the steps below.

If You Do Already Have a Google Account

Go to youtube.com and click "sign in" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be taken to the same Google sign-in page above. If you have multiple Google accounts, be sure to select the one you want to be associated with the YouTube channel.

2. Optimize your channel with brand details.

Once you're set up with and signed into your YouTube account, it's time to create a channel. Back at youtube.com, click your user icon in the upper right-hand corner. You'll see a drop-down menu, where you'll want to click "settings."

From there, you'll be taken to your account overview. Under "additional features," click "create a new channel."

The first step is to create a Brand Account. It can be whatever name you want, and doesn't have to be the same name that you used to create your Google account -- but we do recommend that it reflects the brand the YouTube Channel will represent.

After you enter the Brand Account name, you might be asked to verify the account via text message or voice call. If that happens, enter the code you receive from the option you choose.

Once you've verified your Brand Account, you'll be taken to the dashboard for your channel. Now, it's time to start customizing it. 

3. Customize your channel.

There are two elements of customization for a new YouTube channel: descriptive details, and visuals.

Descriptive Details

From your channel dashboard, click "customize channel."

We'll start with the fundamental details about your channel. After you click "customize channel," you'll be taken to your basic channel page, where you'll see a cogwheel on the right.

Click that, then click on the section that says "advanced settings."

Here's where you'll enter some basic information about your channel, like the country where it's based, as well as optimize it for discoverability by adding keywords that describe what it's about and selecting whether or not you want it to appear as a recommended channel on other account pages. It's also within these settings that you can link an AdWords account, add a Google Analytics property tracking ID and make advertising selections.
Next, you'll want to add your channel description and links. Back on your channel customization dashboard, click on the "About" tab.

There, you'll be asked to fill in such details as a channel description, which you can optimize for discoverability -- more on that later -- as well as contact information, and links to your website and social media channels. Up to five links can overlay your channel art, meaning that the banner on your profile page will contain icons for the links you choose to overlay on this list.
For example, if you wanted to overlay your banner with a link to your Facebook Page, it might look like this:

 

Your channel art is part of your channel's customization, which we'll move onto next.

Visuals

When it comes to creating and adding channel art, Google has a plethora of resources for content owners, from a gallery of images to image editing tools.
One of the trickiest parts of channel art is creating a responsive banner that matches dimensions for various user experiences, like desktop, mobile, or TV. Luckily, Google has this handy image that represents the best dimension for each viewing platform ...

Source: Google

... as well as this concise video explainer:

Need a little inspiration? Check out this post with some of the best YouTube banners we've found.
You'll also want to upload your profile photo. If your channel is linked to a Brand Account, as is the example we've used in this step, then you'll need to update this image in the "about me" section of your Google account. Note that this rule also applies to your channel name when using a Brand Account.
When you click "change" under your profile icon, you might see this message:

Click "edit," and you'll be taken to this page, where you can edit your Brand Account information, including your profile photo (which will be displayed on your YouTube channel).

We recommend choosing an image with dimensions of 800 x 800 pixels.
Next, it's time to add your channel art, like a banner image. Back on your channel customization dashboard, you'll see
Cover art dimensions on mobile and more, best tips (), etc ...

4. Add videos and optimize them for search.

Optimizing your channel for discoverability is just the beginning. Once you start adding videos, you'll want to optimize them for search, which in turn helps users discover your video.
But this goes beyond giving your videos accurate, clear, and concise titles -- though that is important. Below, we describe some of the most important things to optimize on YouTube. (For a fully comprehensive post on YouTube SEO, visit this post.)

Title

When we search for videos, one of the first things that our eyes are drawn to is the title. That's often what determines whether or not the viewer will click to watch your video, so the title should not only be compelling, but also, clear and concise.

Description

This should be limited to 1,000 characters -- and remember that your viewer came here to watch a video, not to read a lot of text. Plus, YouTube only displays the first two or three lines of text, which comes to about 100 characters, so front-load the description with the most important information.

Tags

Using tags doesn’t just let viewers know what your video is about -- they inform YouTube, too, which uses tags "to understand the content and context of your video," according to Backlinko. That way, YouTube can associate your video with similar videos, which can broaden your content's reach. But approach with caution -- just as with your title, don't use misleading tags because they might get you more views -- in fact, Google might penalize you for that.

Category

Choosing a category is another way to group your video with similar content on YouTube -- but that might not be as simple as it sounds. YouTube's Creator Academy suggests that marketers "think about what is working well for each category" you're considering by answering questions like:

• Who are the top creators within the category? What are they known for, and what do they do well?
• Are there any patterns between the audiences of similar channels within a given category?
• Do the videos within a similar category have share qualities like production value, length, or format?

That's it -- you've officially not only created a YouTube channel, but now also know how to optimize its content for discoverability. For more information on how to best leverage YouTube for marketing, check our entire collection of resources.


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FAQ This! Why Should I Care About Amazon AI?

The past three months, it seems, have been a nonstop parade of major tech events and the new product announcements that come with them.

One of the latest was last week's AWS re:Invent, where Amazon announced a new suite of AI-enabled technology designed with businesses in mind.

And while these new products, features, and tools come with a host of opportunities for the developers, marketers, and others who plan to use them, they also raise a few questions. What are they designed to do? How can they help you? How do they work?

Learn more about bots and AI here.

There's also one less-official question that occurred to me as I learned of these developments. Is Amazon trying to creep into Google's territory?

Let's take a look at some of these AI announcements from AWS re:Invent and dig deeper into just what they mean.

What's Amazon Web Services Doing With AI?

1. What Is AWS Re:INVENT?
2. What Were the Major AI Capabilities Announced at AWS Re:INVENT 2017?
3. What Is Deep Learning vs. Machine Learning?
4. What Is Amazon Comprehend?
5. What Is DeepLens?
6. What Is Amazon Transcribe?
7. What Is Amazon Translate?

1. What Is AWS Re:INVENT?

AWS re:Invent is what Amazon describes as "a learning conference" produced by Amazon Web Services -- that's what AWS stands for. The intended audience is what it calls the "the global cloud computing community," but the event features content for anyone who wants to learn how cloud technology can help grow and scale a business. From AdTech, to content delivery, to the internet of things, the conference ranges in learning opportunities from keynotes to certification sessions.

2. What Were the Major AI Capabilities Announced at AWS Re:INVENT 2017?

While a handful of new capabilities were unveiled by AWS, there are four that I'd like to focus on (with a bit of teaser text below on what each one is capable of doing):

1. Comprehend: text analysis for a variety of content formats
2. DeepLens: a wireless, artificially intelligent video camera with newly enhanced object recognition
3. Transcribe: speech recognition technology to convert the spoken word to text
4. Translate: what it sounds like -- advanced text translation technology 

If some of these sound familiar -- or seem reminiscent of similar capabilities previously made somewhat famous by a certain search engine giant -- chances are, it's because they are familiar. I'll delve deeper into this below, but many of these capabilities reflect those for which Google has been known to be a leader, especially in the realm of translation. After all, who could forget this jaunty promotional video on the topic?

3. What is Deep Learning vs. Machine Learning?

The reason why I want to establish the difference between these two technologies (and what they are, in the first place) is that most of these capabilities use one or both.

Machine learning essentially describes the ability of a machine to learn things -- habits, language, behaviors, and patterns, to name a few -- without having been programmed to do so, or pre-loaded with that knowledge. It doesn't describe artificial intelligence in entirety, but rather, is one very important AI capability.

Deep learning is a type of machine learning -- and is a bit trickier to explain. Basically, it takes the next (big) step in that it's designed to imitate the way the human brain works by way of something called neural networks. In our brains, we have biological neural networks in which the action of one neuron creates a series of subsequent actions that ultimately result in our different behaviors.

In technology, artificial neural networks seek to replicate that phenomenon by becoming "trained" to comprehend data based on a certain set of criteria. One of the more notable examples of deep learning in practice is in image recognition, in which neural networks are able to recognize different data patterns or cues to learn what, for example, a cat looks like.

4. What Is Amazon Comprehend?

Amazon Comprehend uses something called natural language processing (NLP) to better understand and determine the meaning within text. It's an instance of machine learning, in which the technology learns how to comprehend -- if you will -- and process language as it was intended by the human being speaking or writing it.

Comprehend performs this capability with a series of steps:

1. Identify the language.
2. Pick out the phrases that most strongly indicate what the text is about -- things like names of people, companies, places, or important events.
3. Use those phrases to determine if the sentiment of the text is positive or negative.
4. File that set of text according to its topic within a collection of subjects it has already organized based on patterns it's observed.

So, how does this technology apply to the real world? Well, it's particularly helpful in an instance of, say, analyzing written customer feedback. By feeding these comments to an API like Comprehend, marketers can use this technology to synthesize data from their audiences to determine something like thematic areas of improvement.

5. What Is DeepLens?

Simply put, DeepLens is a high definition video camera that was designed with developers in mind. It was built with deep learning capabilities and what AWS Chief Evangelist Jeff Barr describes as "pre-trained models for image detection and recognition."

In other words, it's a very smart camera: one that can recognize objects, faces, motions, and creatures (e.g., a dog from a cat). And while that's very cool -- not to mention, somewhat reminiscent of the recently-announced Google Clips camera -- there's a reason why it could prove so helpful to businesses.

To start, DeepLens comes with a number of "templates," or recognition technologies that users can build upon for their own projects. Object and action recognition, for example, can help to more seamlessly create something like product tutorials or demonstrations, by developing a system or algorithm that learns to recognize how the two are paired for different outcomes.

For example, if you're demonstrating how a certain cooking appliance can be applied to different scenarios, it seems that DeepLens can be utilized in building a system to recognize the appliance itself (like a standing mixer), the actions the user can take with it (like mixing cake batter), and the resulting outcome (a delicious cake).

Source: Amazon Web Services

6. What Is Amazon Transcribe?

Anyone with a journalism background is more than familiar with the headache joy of transcribing spoken interviews. We want to get it just right, be sure not to misquote the interviewee, and communicate what was said in the right context.

If only, back in my earliest days of reporting, there were advanced transcription services available to the common writer.

But now, there's Transcribe: an AWS service that uses machine learning technologies to recognize the spoken word and transcribe it into text.

While the function itself is fairly intuitive, the benefits might not be. So let's lay out two instances where technology like this can be applied to a marketer's world:

1. Interview transcription. I already covered this a few paragraphs earlier, but let's say you're writing up a blog post that requires quotes from a spoken interview. This technology eliminates the time-consuming step of transcribing what was said, and leaves you instead with all of the text from that conversation, allowing you to pick and choose the quotes you want to incorporate.
2. Video transcription. Accessibility is no longer optional. It's important to provide a way for individuals who are hearing impaired to be able to consume and enjoy your video content, even without the audio. Transcribing what is said in the video by way of full paragraphs or subtitles allows them to do so -- and, it allows those who simply prefer to watch videos without sound to be able to absorb the content, as well.

These are only two of the more prominent examples of how such technology could be applied, but there are many more, from transcribing podcasts to documenting notes from an important meeting.

7. What Is Amazon Translate?

This development might be my favorite.

Around here, we talk a great deal about approaching marketing with a global mindset. While I might use JetBlue as a remarkable example of marketing, it might not resonate as much with audiences in countries where this airline doesn't operate.

To put it simply, the internet is a global, international destination. The people reading your content might not regularly engage with the same brands you do, and they might not speak the same language.

That's why a growing number of developers and marketers are building a multilingual web presence -- one where their online properties and content can be seamlessly viewed in the language preferred by the user. It's a trend that, as HubSpot's own global presence continues to grow, I take inordinate glee in seeing.

It's also why I love seeing tools become available that make it easier to approach marketing with a "global first" mindset. Translate is one such tool: a service that uses machine learning to more naturally translate text from one language to another.

Here's a look at how it worked when translating a French paragraph to English:

Source: Amazon Web Services

So, here's the million-dollar question: Is Amazon creeping into Google's territory?

Maybe.

It's not the definitive answer I hoped to have, but in these early release days, it might be too soon to tell. While most of Google's headline-making AI developments are largely consumer-centric (like the previous example of Clips), it is true that the company has been working on its own stack of machine learning capabilities for businesses. Look no further than Google.ai, for example, where the mission is to bring "the benefits of AI to everyone" -- including, I assume, marketers.

This is only the beginning.

What are you most excited about? What confuses or scares you, and what fills you with delight? Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on these AWS AI developments on Twitter, or let me know if you have a question about it.

 

 

 

 

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