Hello, I'm Jim Person and welcome to the TNT Report Podcast: Marketing Tips, News, and Tools for Small Business. This is Episode 06, for the week ending Feb. 11, 2022. This podcast provides a weekly compilation of curated info dedicated to small business owners, entrepreneurs, marketers and e-commerce sellers to grow their business and online presence. Before we get started, I just wanted to say thanks to my good friend Dave for doing the voiceover for my podcast intro and extro. Thanks Dave!

                                      

 

On this day in history, Feb. 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, was released from prison after 27 years. In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest Black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg’s youth wing of the ANC. After the massacre of peaceful Black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Mandela helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government. In 1961, he was arrested for treason, and although acquitted he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.

 

Here’s an appropriate quote for the day from Nelson Mandela, "People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love."

 

Meanwhile, today, Feb. 11, is National Make a Friend Day, National Peppermint Patty Day, Satisfied Staying Single Day and National No One Eats Alone Day – quite a juxtaposition. If you’re listening on Saturday, Feb. 12, it’s National Lost Penny Day, National Plum Pudding Day, and Paul Bunyan Day. And Sunday, Feb. 13, is National Cheddar Day, World Radio Day, Kiss Day – seems appropriate being it’s the day before Valentine’s Day – as well as Autism Day and Super Chicken Wing Day, very appropriate since Sunday is also Super Bowl Sunday.

 

Speaking of the Super Bowl…

 

Sunday’s big game, Super Bowl 56, features the Los Angeles Rams vs. the Cincinnati Bengals, and there’s a strong viewership outlook for this year’s game thanks to Gen Zers and Millennials. NFL ratings have been on a tear this season, and new Morning Consult polling suggests Sunday's big game will continue to keep the league, its broadcast partners and its sponsors happy: 2 in 3 U.S. adults – or 67% -- expect to tune in, an increase from the 61% who said they planned to watch last year's game.  

 

Increased Super Bowl viewership would jibe with the recent trend for the NFL, which in 2021 scored its best average regular-season audience since 2015. In addition, all 12 games during this NFL postseason have seen year-over-year viewership increases. 

 

While the share of Americans planning to host or attend Super Bowl parties hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, there will be more get-togethers than last year, which may also have a positive impact on viewership. Among adults who said they typically watch with others at a party, 71% said they are likely to do so this year, up from 46% last year. About 4 in 5 likely Super Bowl viewers (8%) said they plan to watch on live TV, compared to just 14% who plan to watch via a streaming service and 5 percent who plan to watch via a mobile app or other means. 

 

Even in its worst year, the Super Bowl is the most-watched program on American TV by a large margin, netting a financial windfall for the broadcaster. Still, all signs point to NBC getting the better of CBS in their Super Bowl swap, which resulted in CBS airing Super Bowl LV (55) last year and NBC airing Super Bowl LVI this year in concert with its Winter Olympics coverage. NBC said it sold its last remaining 30-second Super Bowl commercial spots for as much as $7 million, a new record, and up from the $5.8 million to $6.2 million the network was seeking during upfronts in the aftermath of last year’s record-low performance.  

 

Meanwhile, as with past Super Bowls, this event was voluntarily submitted to the Department of Homeland Security for a risk assessment. DHS classified this event as a Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) Level 1, meaning that DHS has determined this event to be significant, with national and international importance, and requiring extensive federal support. DHS support for Super Bowl LVI includes more than 500 DHS personnel providing extensive air and maritime security resources; anti-human trafficking prevention and enforcement support; intellectual property enforcement; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives detection technologies; venue, cyber, and infrastructure security assessments; intelligence analysis and threat assessments; and real-time situational awareness reporting for our partners.  

 

And let's not forget the halftime show, The Super Bowl halftime show often gets as much press as the game itself, with its standout performances and meme-worthy moments. This year looks to be no different, as Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar are set to take the stage Sunday night in Los Angeles in a celebration of West Coast rap. Last year’s performance headlined by The Weeknd was designed to draw in Gen Zers and millennials, but new polling data suggests that this year’s lineup is likely to be an even bigger hit among those coveted demographics. 

 

Alright then… this week's TIP – 7 Ways to Drive Traffic from LinkedIn to Your Website. For online enterprises, success is about increasing website traffic and conversions, but what are the best ways of boosting user attention amidst all the noise? One method that relatively few industry pros know or use is LinkedIn, which can be a great pathway to increased traffic. But how? According to Entrepreneur, you want to make sure you have a profile that attracts with a clean and presentable headshot, a brief introduction of what you do, and a concise and straight-to-the-point history of work experience. Next, acquire more connections, join relevant groups or create a group, and then make frequent updates with engaging headlines for links that pique curiosity and interest. And the cherry on top of the list is the last one – add an RSS feed to display your blog’s latest posts on LinkedIn. Not only will this add to the overall look of the profile, but also give extra motivation for an audience to check out your site.

 

This tip is just one of the tips provided each week in my TNT Report newsletter. You can find this week’s edition online at jimperson.com/tnt.

 

Now, in NEWS, according to Influencer Marketing Hub, this year's Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report takes an in-depth look at the influencer marketing industry and summarizes the thoughts of more than 2000 marketing agencies, brands, and other relevant professionals regarding the current state of influencer marketing. In addition to the results from our survey, we packed the report with all the influencer marketing benchmarks, metrics and data that matter most to you, along with some predictions of how industry professionals expect it to move over the next year and into the future. Think of it as fuel for your next influencer marketing campaign. 

 

Does adding "link in bio" to Instagram post captions hurt engagement? To find out, Socialinsider analyzed 78,662,277 Instagram posts from 92,724 brand pages. In their post, with an infographic, that summarizes the research, the researchers found 32.4% of the Instagram posts examined used the "link in bio" phrase in their captions. Across all Instagram post types examined — image, video, and carousel — engagement was higher, on average, for posts without "link in bio" in their captions compared with those with "link in bio". However, the differences in average engagement were very small. You can find out more on this story, along with the infographic, with free registration at Marketing Profs.

 

According to Digital Commerce 360, consumers spent $871.03 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2021, up 14.2% year over year from $762.68 billion the prior year, according to early Digital Commerce 360 estimates. While that’s less than half of the record-breaking growth retailers experienced in a pandemic-fueled 2020, it’s noteworthy that the industry maintained gains — and even grew — compared with the earlier giant surge in ecommerce. Amazon accounts for more than 40% of U.S. online sales in 2021. 

 

And finally, TV Tech reports that audiences view ads as more relevant, valuable and trustworthy if they appear during newscasts. While advertisers have traditionally been concerned about associating their brands in news content that might prove upsetting, depressing or controversial to some viewers, Disney Ad Sales and Magna have partnered on a new study that found ads appearing in news are perceived by viewers as being more relevant (+8% versus a control group), more valuable (+6%) and more trustworthy (+4%). 

 

This week’s podcast is brought to you in part by Groove, an all-in-one marketing platform. In fact Groove is The World's Fastest Growing CRM and Marketing Automation Platform for Digital and e-Commerce Marketers. Groove helps more than 550,000 website owners to increase sales, engage visitors, collect leads, and more. Save time and money with ready-to-use solutions and grow your business faster! With your FREE lifetime Groove account – that’s right, NO credit card required – you’ll get access to 17 powerful apps so that you can quit spending money on ClickFunnels; Wix, SquareSpace or WordPress; Active Campaign; Infusionsoft; Kajabi or Thinkific; Vimeo or Wistia; Shopify or WooCommerce; and more! Think of the cost savings! Get your FREE Groove account at www.jimperson.com/groove. Sign up today and get rid of those thousands and thousands of dollars in expenses every year. Again, that’s www.jimperson.com/groove! 

 

And now for this week's featured TOOLS – First, Video Speed Controller. This is a Chrome extension that will speed up, slow down, advance and rewind HTML5 audio and video with shortcuts. I love this extension! It saves me so much time because I normally listen to videos and audios at 1.5 to 2 times speed. I think you’ll like this one if you don’t already have it.

 

Another tool to increase your productivity is Pomofocus. You’ve heard of the Pomodoro technique. It’s a time management system that encourages you to break your workday tasks into 25-minute chunks, separated by five-minute breaks after each interval. These intervals are called pomodoros. After four pomodoros, you take a 15-30 minute break. Well, Pomofocus is a free timer tool that can help you organize your day’s tasks and create countdowns for you as you work through them. 

 

That’s two of the four tips I shared in this week’s email newsletter. If you’d like to get all the tools every Friday afternoon, subscribe to the TNT report at jimperson.com/tnt.

 

If you’re a subscriber to the TNT Report, you know it’s more than just tips, news, and tools. Since the newsletter is published on Friday afternoons, I also include a “Friday Freebie.” And today’s “Friday Freebie” is from LeadDelta – a free eBook: “50 Proven LinkedIn Messages to Use In 2022.” These 50 LinkedIn messages are to inspire you and help you engage your connections in meaningful conversations. 

They also categorized messages based on different occasions and purposes. Check them out, tweak, adjust, personalize, and customize them to your own needs. Again it’s free from LeadDelta.

 

If you’re enjoying this podcast, please subscribe at jimperson.com/tnt-podcast. You can also find this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart and numerous other podcast apps. Be sure to leave a rating and review!

 

 

Now for some “bonus content” for you as a podcast listener. This is something not included in the weekly TNT Report newsletter.

 

Based on eMarketer's Insider Intelligence "U.S. Digital Grocery Features Benchmark 2022 Report," which evaluates 10 digital grocers based on an analysis of 30 different features on their websites, membership and account features are the most important features to consumers.  

Multiple ways to save via membership and account perks put this category on top. Free delivery, discounts, and rewards points were among the top 10 most in-demand features across all categories. While account features like live chat and multiple login options were not found to be very important among digital grocery buyers, the savings options here made it the No. 1 category.  

 

Key findings of the report show: 

 

You can get the full report from eMarketer; the link is in the show notes or you can search for it at www.emarketer.com. 

 

Now before I go, I came across this site today and just had to share it. It’s called “Nice One Dad” at nice one dad dot com, and it’s a repository of groan-worthy dad jokes. Check it out and work on that “dad joke” humor this weekend.

 

Alright. I think that's going to do it for this week's TNT Report Podcast, Thanks for listening. Until next week ... I'm Jim Person.