Poverty Happens When Women Plan Poorly a Healthy Retirement

Poverty Happens When Women Plan Poorly a Healthy Retirement

WOMEN SHOULD HAVE A RETIREMENT FOCUS TOO

Too many women do not have a retirement focus. Women are not saving enough because of 5 major reasons. In my opinion, the main reason is too much love:

1. Love for their husband
2. Love for their kids
3. Love of their parents
4. Love for their home
5. Love for their sanity (which is often threatened by overwork at home)

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with too much family love, but it can make you poor if it is not put in proper perspective. There should be a retirement focus that includes love for self. Also, know your retirement eligibility early, then you can work towards retiring. The good news is, there are always retirement solutions at any stage, but be prepared to work on them.

Most women get married at some time in their lives, many have kids. And now with modern medicine, many elderly people are living longer lives. What does this have to do with women, love, and poverty?

Women are taught to be at-home caregivers early on, and this takes away from a retirement focus.

There are retirement solutions, no matter when you start
-Lois

A RETIREMENT FOCUS SHOULD INCLUDE – HOW TO RETIRE WITH SOLID FUNDS

Women are taught to clean up the house, cook, and babysit much more than their brothers. This could be the reason, but most cultural issues are complex, so let’s just say this is one of the reasons. But, another big reason is that women are still the ones to get pregnant and have responsibility for the home and children.

Pregnancy alone can cause issues with extended health complications, job loss, or children who need extended care. What women are not taught is what a retirement focus is, and how to retire in a timely manner with enough to live off. This includes whether she ends up as widowed, divorced, or happily married.

Because of the caregiver background women are raised in conjunction with their responsibility to children, housekeeping, and cleaning. Women are more likely to take extended time off work. Some women never work at all – this can cause many problems in the “not so perfect” future.

LEARNING A RETIREMENT ELIGIBILITY EARLY WILL ALLOW A WOMAN TO RETIRE

If there is a divorce, which about 70% of Americans divorce or separate, women are usually left with no income. Sometimes with little income from a divorce settlement, or little income from an entry-level job. Therefore, in the struggle to just exist, women don’t save enough money for retirement.

Learn to calculate social security benefits or pension income whether a woman ends up in divorce, is a widow, or is still married. No one knows what the outcome will be in life. Most divorced women never thought they would end up that way. When retirement eligibility is calculated every two to four years a woman will know approximately what she will get at retirement.

The moral of the story is that girls should be taught to go to school, and women should do a significant amount of earned income work before they stay home to take care of the kids, home, or elderly parents. If they can’t do the work before, it should be done afterward, a lot of work, so they can save money for retirement. It is nice to think we can absolutely depend on others for our survival, but it doesn’t always happen that way.

THERE ARE MANY RETIREMENT SOLUTIONS

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women are 50% more likely to have no retirement than men. When women do work, they only collect about 50% of the retirement men do, according to the bureau. When women know their retirement eligibility, they can find retirement solutions if they fall short.

Some women divorce after raising kids and some only get separated. Either way, if they never worked or only worked part-time occasionally, the subsequent income is usually very low.

A woman who gets divorced in her elder years and does not negotiate a good divorce package can end up with no income or very low income. Social security has many different formulas, so make sure you check with social security for your eligibility at retirement. You could be eligible for a spouse’s social security even though it was not settled at divorce.

According to social security, the amount of money a woman will get at retirement should be supplemented with an additional income. That income can include an IRA or individual retirement account. Retirement solutions can include going back to school late, getting a higher-paying job, working two jobs, or aggressively funding a supplemental retirement account.

Unfortunately, some women are still being taught that working is not important as long as their husband makes good money and they have kids.

Every woman should have a retirement focus, to retire someday
-Lois

WORKING AND SAVING FOR RETIREMENT ARE CRUCIAL

Working early and saving for retirement early is the only guarantee that a mother will have retirement money in retirement. If not figure out retirement solutions that will give you a decent income. See if you qualify for part of a spouse’s pension or social security.

The rule of law in most states is that a woman gets half of a husband’s retirement at divorce if married for between 11 to 20 years. But, the woman must ask for it. If she gets it sometimes it will be enough to live off during divorce, sometimes it will not. The important issues are women should have a retirement focus as men do, they should always know their retirement eligibility and understand retirement solutions.

Another problem women have is not taking simple investing seriously. Men invest money more aggressively than women. This is another reason men end up with more money than women.

I have intentionally shared my years of investing experience with my readers. There are many simple mutual funds, that over time will make a big difference in your financial status. Look at these mutual funds for long-term growth and low risk. Any s&p 500 index fund, they are the same at every company. There are also other index funds. Figure out your retirement prospects here.

The post Poverty Happens When Women Plan Poorly for a Healthy Retirement appeared first on MsFinancialSavvy.com.

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Healthy Economies Should See Prices for Goods and Services Falling

Post By Stock

Today the Consumer Price Index was released. The report showed a 6.5% inflation rate. As I write these words, a variety of media pundits are hitting the airwaves either attacking or applauding the report. I always find this to be hugely entertaining.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was first developed in 1919 by the U.S. Department of Labor. It measures the average changes over time in prices for consumers to purchase a fixed market basket of goods and services typically consumed in urban areas and provides an economic indicator that has become widely used to determine the inflation rate of a given area by comparing current figures with their historical counterparts. The CPI is now regularly updated with new data each month and is used in many applications such as those measuring real wages, government benefits, pensions, capital gains taxes and cost-of-living adjustments tied to social security income. Additionally, CPI data can be collected for a variety of locations globally and complements GDP calculations used to compare countries based on their respective economic production levels over time.

The problem with the CPI report in my opinion is it’s a completely impractical and unrealistic metric. While this may sound harsh the mere fact that food prices and energy prices are removed from the calculation should give anyone who studies the release, reason to question its value and usefulness.

Why is the cost of energy and food not included in the CPI? Because the metric has become highly politicized, and every administration wants to demonstrate that they are not responsible for a deterioration in the standard of living.

Quick question: When you go shopping for anything related to your lifestyle, does a 6.5% increase year over year reasonably simulate your experience?

Whenever I go shopping my experience is that inflation is significantly higher.

Numerous private sector consultants have created flourishing businesses challenging the one-sided nature of government reporting of the Consumer Price Index.

The Chapwood Index is a cost-of-living calculator designed to more accurately reflect people’s real financial expenses in their respective cities. Developed by Ed Butowsky, the index is based off of recent pricing data from 500 goods and services purchased across major U.S. cities. With annual updated figures, the Chapwood Index strives to provide reliable numbers that can better inform people of the true costs of living in different places – something many other calculators seem to be unable to do with accuracy. With this index, people can get a clearer idea of how far money actually goes for them on things like rent and groceries in larger or even smaller metropolitan areas so they can be better informed when it comes to budgeting and planning for their own financial future. I would recommend you bookmark the site and visit it often as its estimates of the cost of living more accurately reflect what is happening in the real economy.

Another alternative to government reporting is Truflation. Truflation is an online service that keeps track of the true cost of living in any given area in the United States. This data is sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and incorporates things like housing prices and cost-of-living across different areas to keep an accurate census on inflation and its impact. The service was founded by Brad Zupp and Dave Olson, who wanted a more accurate way for people to gauge how their paycheck size would be affected by rising costs that weren’t accounted for in traditional cost of living indexes. By accurately listing the definitive price increases, Truflation can help businesses spread out their costs over time to adapt to truflation rates better than adjusting exclusively off CPI estimates.

Last is ShadowStats. ShadowStats provides economic data and analysis which challenges the status quo of government-sanctioned statistics. Founded by John Williams in 2004, ShadowStats shines a light on what they believe to be the true state of US economics and fiscal policy by providing updated versions of long discontinued economic indicators. This can include unemployment, inflation, and consumer confidence. By using publicly available data along with reports from various federal agencies and other institutions, ShadowStats allows their users to view a much different perspective on the economy than what is typically offered. These reporting methods provide invaluable insight into the actual economic and political state of the country which many people turn to in order to make more informed decisions about their finances.

Whenever the CPI is released, I think about the story of Robinson Crusoe and how far we have strayed from understanding that in a healthy economy the prices for all goods and services should consistently fall relative to a stable currency.

Do you remember the story about Robinson Crusoe? Robinson Crusoe is a classic novel by Daniel Defoe that tells the story of a brave and resourceful sailor who survives castaway on a deserted island. Marooned alone, he must find ways to rely on himself to survive the harsh environment and his own loneliness. During his time on the island, he works hard to create shelter and sustenance while still finding ways to enjoy aspects of life such as reading and taking walks to admire nature’s beauty. Through perseverance, Robinson Crusoe eventually rescues another man stranded on the island with him and with this newfound companion finds freedom by building their own boat. The lessons we can learn from Robinson Cruse are strength of will, self-reliance, appreciation of culture, purpose in difficult times, and companionship are powerful healing forces.

Pondering Robinson Crusoe can be an enlightening experience when it comes to understanding economics. When reading this story, readers can envision themselves in similar situations – deprived of the basics of their prior comfort and forced to fend for themselves. It can teach us fundamental lessons in economics such as seeking value for money spent, recognizing opportunity costs, budgeting resources more efficiently and investing wisely. By tracking Crusoe’s journey in accomplishing tasks without modern convenience, we are reminded of the importance of everyday economic decisions that are seen all around us.

But Robinson Crusoe primarily teaches readers about VALUE and Wealth. Any onlooker of the Crusoe economy could quickly understand whether Crusoe’s wealth and standard of living were increasing or decreasing based upon the actions he was undertaking. It is this aspect of the Robinson Crusoe story, specifically defining the improvement of standards of living, that is most memorable and instructive for me.

The compelling story of Robinson Crusoe provides students with an excellent opportunity to learn about economics. First, the concept of scarcity is very clear in the novel, as Crusoe learns that acquiring items essential for survival is not always easy. It emphasizes the idea that he must make smart decisions about his limited resources if he wants to survive and thrive on the island. Further, Crusoe must manage risk and be creative in order to make progress – from preserving food to creating tools from available resources. The novel also introduces students to concepts such as cost-benefit analysis in decision making; for example, should Crusoe prioritize creating shelter first or concentrate on growing food? All these reasons show why this story remains valuable today in teaching modern day concepts of economics.

What the story of Robinson Crusoe teaches us is that whenever technology is introduced to an economy or business the result is always greater productivity and output at a lesser cost. The end result in a healthy economic environment is falling prices for goods and services. Technology always revolutionizes the way we work and increases our efficiency and productivity. Intricate tasks which took days or weeks to complete, but nowadays they can often be accomplished in hours or minutes. Complex manual processes have been replaced with automated systems that allow us to get more done in less time, while cloud computing enables us to access information anytime, anywhere. The possibilities of technology are endless, making it an invaluable asset for increasing efficiency and productivity. But more importantly, is the reality that technology always results in falling costs and prices that consumers pay.

Falling prices should be the norm in a healthy economy.

Price increases in an economy are a common phenomenon that can be attributed to several causes. Often, the rise in prices is caused by an imbalance in supply and demand. When demand increases but supply fails to keep up, it pushes prices up since there is less availability of the goods or services being sought out by consumers. Another factor that can contribute to a price rise is inflation, which occurs when there is too much money chasing too few goods and services resulting in a general increase in prices. Additionally, huge increases in factory costs, such as raw materials and salaries, can lead to higher costs for manufacturers who then increase their prices to try and avoid significant losses. Furthermore, government taxation and levies on essential goods can further add to cost burdens of producers and lead to an overall increase in price levels across an economy.

When prices rise for goods and services in an economic environment that is rich in technology, chances are that the money is broken. In other words, the savings that are being created by technological efficiency are not being passed on in the general economy because the currency is being debased faster than technological advancement is occurring.

Simply study the chart below which represents the purchasing power of the U.S. Dollar relative to the Consumer Price Index. The Dollar is worth 3 cents today versus when the Index was started in 1919!

Historically, the natural tendency in an industrialized market economy with a stable commodity money such as gold has been for general prices to persistently decline as advances in industrial techniques lead to a continual expansion in the supplies of goods.

Stop and think about the implications of this.

When the CPI is reported and pundits are applauding a 6.5% increase in inflation, is that not an admission that as a nation our standard of living has declined by 6.5% year over year?

In a heavily industrialized economy that has been enriched through technology infrastructure over the last 100 years shouldn’t we expect falling prices?

When I purchased my first computer 40 years ago it cost me over $3200, and that computer didn’t even have a hard drive. Today thanks to technological advancement I can purchase a computer with a thousand times more speed and functionality for 10% of the price. Shouldn’t this be the way we define normal?

The primary benefit of the Robinson Crusoe story is that the changes to the standard of living are very black and white and easily understood. Factors that determine a healthy standard of living for people are things like productivity, a stable currency/unit of purchasing power, physical health, quality of the environment, housing availability, life expectancy, personal safety, and access to education, medical facilities, and social services.

But stop and think about what it means when the Consumer Price Index is released, and it is reported that General Prices increased 6.5% year over year?

The spin will tell you that this is a marked improvement from the 9.1% reading which occurred 6 months ago. But how is a decrease of 6.5% in the standard of living a good thing?

A 6.5% increase in inflation means you have to earn at least 6.5% more money just to break even.

Or you have to subtract 6.5% from the return your assets generate to get an accurate picture of your performance in real terms.

More importantly, looking at the CPI report gives every investor and trader the opportunity to question the efficacy of the Fed in managing the economy. The following graphic maintained by the St. Louis Fed shows how in 13 years they have piled $8 trillion on to their balance sheet.

What I find to be most troubling out of reports with the CPI is that numerous mainstream economists have commented that 4% to 6% annualized inflation should be the new Fed target for managing the economy! This is amplified by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s recent comments:

“Reducing inflation is likely to require a sustained period of below trend growth. This historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy. We will stay the course until the job is done.”

The biggest challenge for traders today is simply trying to make sense of it all so that effective trading decisions can be made. In the world of yesteryear, a 6.5% inflation would have been met with horror and stock market contractions. However today the spin doctors are out in full force and the markets have staged an impressive rally over the last few days.

Do I agree with it? Absolutely not.

But don’t let opinions get in the way of good statistically sound trading decisions. Look at the following chart of the $SPY over the last two weeks. The artificial intelligence caught the explosive up move 3 full days before the CPI announcement was made.

In today’s world, artificial intelligence (A.I.) has made amazing advancements that have helped to revolutionize the way we live. From its use in medical testing and diagnosis to providing a greater understanding of transportation and logistics data, A.I. has brought about a more efficient and effective way for people to interact with their environment. Through the development of natural language processing, robots are now able to understand spoken orders and execute them accordingly. Additionally, A.I. is becoming more widely used for facial recognition systems, helping to improve security measures around the world. Lastly, A.I. has allowed us to explore deep learning which can help machines recognize patterns in data and then make decisions based on those patterns. All these accomplishments demonstrate just how far AI has come in such a short period of time.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly revolutionizing the way humans think, interact, and even go about their daily lives. Over the past decade, A.I. has advanced to a point where it can easily digest and analyze large amounts of data at once; this means that A.I. can make well-informed decisions faster than any human being. As a result, many businesses and organizations have begun to take advantage of its potential for handling complex tasks with efficiency and accuracy. A.I. is being used in fields such as healthcare, finance, and robotics. In addition, autonomous vehicles powered by artificial intelligence can detect and avoid obstacles more quickly than people are able to do so manually. We are only beginning to see what A.I. can do – it has become abundantly apparent that it will be a key factor in our advancement into the future as a species.

Traders in the financial markets are constantly dealing with volumes of data to make decisions, and it can be overwhelming. Artificial Intelligence helps take that load off by not only collecting and analyzing data quickly but also predicting future trends and fluctuations. A.I. technology can process vast amounts of frequently updated data more accurately than a human trader ever could, therefore providing insights into trends faster and more reliably. Advanced A.I. algorithms will allow traders to act quickly on potential opportunities while also reducing risk, which is essential for successful trading. In short, traders need artificial intelligence to beat the competition, better predict possible outcomes and trends, as well as reach goals faster and more efficiently.

Keep in mind that artificial intelligence has beaten humans in games like Chess, Poker, Jeopardy and Go. Why should trading be any different?

As A.I.’s capabilities continue to grow, industry experts predict the technology will master ever-increasingly complex tasks that traditionally require human expertise. Therefore, it may only be a matter of time until A.I.’s are better than humans at any given task or game — no matter how challenging it may be for computers to learn and understand them.

What’s Your Best Chance to Make Money in The Financial Markets Today?

The Answer A.I. offers will surprise you.

Today Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Neural Networks are an absolute necessity in protecting your portfolio.

I have an extraordinarily strong opinion that stocks are going to go lower if the Fed follows through on their announcements. But my “NORTH STAR” will always be the trend highlighted by artificial intelligence.

A.I. combined with neural networks are exactly the types of analytical horsepower you need to stay on the right side of the right trend at the right time.

If survival of the fittest makes you uneasy, stay out of this zero-sum game.

Artificial intelligence is so powerful because it learns what doesn’t work, remembers it, and then focuses on other paths to find a solution. This is the Feedback Loop that is responsible for building the fortunes of every successful trader I know.

That should get you excited because it is a game changer!

While reporters, talking heads and analysts want to discuss esoteric economic ideas, my only loyalty as a trader is to the trend! This is how VantagePoint artificial intelligence simplifies and empowers traders daily!

I invite you to learn how to forecast the stock market at our Next Free Live Training.

It’s not magic. It’s machine learning.

Make it count.

THERE IS A SUBSTANTIAL RISK OF LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH TRADING. ONLY RISK CAPITAL SHOULD BE USED TO TRADE. TRADING STOCKS, FUTURES, OPTIONS, FOREX, AND ETFs IS NOT SUITABLE FOR EVERYONE.IMPORTANT NOTICE!

DISCLAIMER: STOCKS, FUTURES, OPTIONS, ETFs AND CURRENCY TRADING ALL HAVE LARGE POTENTIAL REWARDS, BUT THEY ALSO HAVE LARGE POTENTIAL RISK. YOU MUST BE AWARE OF THE RISKS AND BE WILLING TO ACCEPT THEM IN ORDER TO INVEST IN THESE MARKETS. DON’T TRADE WITH MONEY YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO LOSE. THIS ARTICLE AND WEBSITE IS NEITHER A SOLICITATION NOR AN OFFER TO BUY/SELL FUTURES, OPTIONS, STOCKS, OR CURRENCIES. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE DISCUSSED ON THIS ARTICLE OR WEBSITE. THE PAST PERFORMANCE OF ANY TRADING SYSTEM OR METHODOLOGY IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. CFTC RULE 4.41 – HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.

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Growth Marketing Report Special Feature: B2B

Post By Digital Marketing

Published: January 12, 2023

Author: 3Q/DEPT

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is often more complex and trickier than its B2C (business-to-consumer) counterpart. Not only are there longer sales cycles and smaller markets with fierce competition, but most B2B brands don’t have the same name recognition that B2C brands have, and often have to work harder to differentiate their products and services.

As the economic landscape continues to shift and become more competitive, B2B buyers’ expectations have also evolved radically. Now more than ever, B2B businesses must produce the same types of compelling content and engaging experiences that their buyers enjoy as B2C consumers in their personal lives.

Now that B2B marketers are reframing how they think about consumers, the big question is how to deepen their relationship and better meet their needs. One huge untapped market is helping companies advertise to small to medium-sized businesses (SMB). Many B2B brands need help selling to and serving small businesses due to their diverse customer base which requires unique positioning and messaging.

With these diverse customer bases, the approach to advertising also looks completely different when speaking to an individual or a smaller company versus a buyer group. With an enterprise company, there’s a larger group of decision-makers and typically three types of personas:

Practitioners who are going to use the tool.
Managers who want to ensure that the tool is going to make their job easier and more efficient.
The executive who wants to ensure the tool is a good investment.

Marketing and selling to an enterprise company (where all three personas are part of a buyer group) can sometimes take up to a year of education and convincing them that it’s the right purchasing decision. With SMBs, you typically only have one or two decision-makers, making it possible to educate, inform, and make the sale within a week or even within a single exposure to the brand.

Despite certain challenges, this is an opportunity for brands looking for differentiation in an unoccupied space to build a niche and help companies advertise to SMBs, address the challenges of marketing to different segments of audiences, and devise a strong strategy to drive growth. While budgets may look different between enterprises and SMBs, the end goal is the same: to create engaging marketing and achieve scalable, sustainable growth.

We’ve identified four key challenges that B2B marketers face that tie into this overarching conundrum:

Bridging the B2B creative gap.
Silos between sales and marketing teams.
Uncoordinated and disconnected marketing agency support.
Poor data collection, management, and activation.

The good news is that B2B brands can overcome these difficulties by embracing growth marketing, implementing strong strategies, and utilizing innovative solutions to outshine the competition. So how do you get started with growth marketing in a B2B company? Well, the first step is understanding what growth marketing is, how to strengthen your growth marketing efforts, and how to identify the current opportunities and hurdles.

What is Growth Marketing?

Growth marketing involves a full-funnel strategy to maximize lead generation and sales. In 2022, 3Q/DEPT surveyed 400 marketing leaders about their growth marketing practices and philosophies. Our 2022 Growth Marketing Report shows the results of that survey, which focused on four industries: technology, retail, financial services, and healthcare. A sample size of 100 respondents per vertical was collected, and we ensured that half of the 400 total respondents practiced a B2B selling model. Only 31% of B2B marketers indicated that they understand the meaning of growth marketing – lower than the average across all respondents – and only 25% have adopted growth marketing within their organization. Because most B2B marketers do not understand what growth marketing is, of course, they will have difficulties putting it into practice.

Going beyond the basic knowledge and understanding, we developed a custom measurement and ranking system to dig into how respondents self-assessed their growth marketing capabilities. It’s called the 3Q/DEPT Growth Marketing Maturity Index™ (GMMI), and it evaluates a brand on six distinct characteristics, or “pillars,” each of which contributes to a growth marketing approach. There are five levels in the GMMI that range from Laggard (least mature) to Disruptor (most mature), and a brand receives one of those rankings based on how well it scores across all six pillars.

Based on the responses to our survey, the B2B sector is made up primarily of Performers (62%) and Transformers (32%). Companies in the “Performer” category have already prioritized and proactively implemented a combination of middle- and lower-funnel performance marketing activities. While they have established this, they will experience diminishing returns on their marketing investment if they don’t make improvements. “Transformers” are a bit further along in their journey to growth marketing excellence, as they have implemented various measures like a framework for a full-funnel investment approach with goals and objectives clearly aligned with the overall business strategy.

Interestingly, our assessment also showed that 6% of our respondents in the B2B sector scored at the highest level as a “Disruptor” and have more disruptors in this space than any of the four industries.

B2B Marketers’ Path to Growth Marketing

Let’s dive deeper into the challenges mentioned earlier and how B2B marketers can tackle them to improve their growth marketing practices.

#1 – Show the value of creativity.

We found that while B2B marketers’ growth driver investments are well balanced in creative, brands are failing to create compelling and engaging advertising assets that have the potential to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

While many of our respondents said they invest in creative, we’re seeing that creative still needs to be done more effectively by B2B brands. It’s a problem when brands spend the money they do on creative, but they don’t see the value in it. It’s easy to throw money at anything, but it’s a waste when it isn’t well executed, and it doesn’t drive outcomes.

A common complaint from B2B companies is that they want their ads to look and feel more like B2C. From lackluster stock imagery to overly-professional and robotic-sounding brand voices devoid of personality, B2B marketers have realized that they must be creative to get noticed.

Let’s face it: a B2B buyer is still a consumer who craves an emotionally appealing, entertaining, and engaging experience that connects and resonates with them.

There is no room for snooze-worthy content on platforms like Tiktok and Snapchat, where a boring B2B ad is quickly scrolled past and forgotten. One way to combat this and create attention-grabbing content is by building creative that is native to those platforms and teaching B2B creative teams how to take a more strategic approach to storytelling and humanizing the brand. Tapping into your consumers’ emotions can build awareness and trust and create brand loyalty.

It’s also important to note that B2B products and services are commonly marketed to a specific type of company and to a distinct segment of customers to fill a specific need, so it’s critical to target those users rather than a broader, more general audience. When you narrow your target audience, it also allows you to provide the right message to the right audience for a more coordinated approach.

We expect creative to be a big theme in 2023 and recommend that B2B marketers prioritize investing more intelligently in it to foster more authentic relationships with buyers and stand out against the competition.

#2 – Rethink your strategic approach to smash silos and drive growth.

2022 B2B GMMI Pillar Results. 27% of respondents have a below average strategic approach. 39% of respondents have an average strategic approach. 34% of respondents have an above average strategic approach.

We found that 66% of B2B respondents scored average to below average for strategy and planning. This tells us that their current processes aren’t working and that B2B marketers need to:

Re-assess the level to which their marketing team has created a comprehensive, long-term game plan to achieve sustainable growth.
Build a cohesive marketing and sales strategy that ties back to broader company business goals and that everyone is aligned with.
Remove siloed responsibilities across the marketing and sales teams.

Strategic planning is the driving force behind a successful campaign and is a major factor in defining your brand. A weak strategy can lead to unintentional silos, poor decision-making, and inconsistent branding, not to mention spinning your wheels with no real destination or “north star” to drive toward.

Marketing teams need a carefully-crafted strategic approach that allows them to see the big picture, focus on what’s important, and make smarter decisions. Without a clearly outlined plan that aligns back to broader company objectives, they’ll also have a more challenging time prioritizing big-picture needs over short-term demands and knowing how to shift between the two.

It’s also important to bridge the divide between sales and marketing teams, which often live in silos. Silos can hinder a brand’s ability to execute strategy due to a lack of a unified vision. These organizational silos negatively impact your bottom line, waste valuable time and energy, and create an internal tug-of-war for information. Marketers can combat this by better aligning campaigns with sales efforts to not only drive more leads, but more effectively nurture those leads. Brands must align strategy, initiatives, and organizational structures to create a cohesive and connected environment where growth marketing can thrive.

To tackle organizational silos, marketing and sales teams must also figure out how to best work together to drive company goals and increase the bottom line. It requires marketing to emphasize quality over quantity of leads, and sales must give consistent feedback to marketing about what’s working and what isn’t. Find a good cadence and start regular touchpoint meetings for feedback to share insights between marketing and sales to optimize campaigns and processes. To improve in this pillar, B2B marketers must create a clearly outlined marketing action plan and establish priorities and goals for measurable growth that will positively impact the overall business’ bottom line.

#3 – Streamline and consolidate agency support.

The majority of B2B marketers (72%) scored their agency support as average or below average. To rank higher within this pillar, they may need to streamline their agency relationships or keep only one agency on retainer. Similar to the previously discussed silos between sales and marketing, this can drive better customer outcomes by ensuring data and strategic approach is better connected across all stakeholders involved.

Managing several different agencies across numerous different projects can lead to an uncoordinated strategy and execution. It also becomes more difficult to track metrics when they are scattered across different teams and multiple agencies. Not tracking and measuring your performance also makes it difficult to improve, since you don’t have a clear idea of what you should even be focusing on.

The solution? Consolidate agency support to improve data collection, tracking, and measurement success and ensure a coordinated, omnichannel media strategy. If multiple agencies are required, ensure all are working from one unified plan.

Brands need strategic and strong agency partnerships to stay competitive, remain relevant, and keep up with the rapidly evolving digital space. Like any relationship, it should be positive, collaborative, and sustainable.

#4 – Unlock customer insights with data management and activation and first-party data.

2022 B2B GMMI Pillar Results Data Management and Activation

68% of B2B marketers scored themselves at either average to below average in the data management and activation pillar. B2B customers have higher expectations than ever, and B2B brands need to take a more holistic and concerted approach to improve their marketing efforts and overall customer experience.

Since customer experiences happen across so many different touchpoints, brands must collect and segment their data and analyze it in real-time. This data helps shape customer interactions and enables a brand to optimize outcomes throughout the marketing funnel to create a singular view of the customer and drive more personalized and seamless experiences, no matter what channel they’re engaging and purchasing on.

Many B2B companies are sitting on a wealth of first-party data in their CRM that could be utilized to strengthen their advertising. The difficulty is that many B2B companies either don’t have the internal resources to track, monitor, and connect the data, or are simply unwilling to invest the necessary resources since they don’t see the value and don’t know how to get started.

High-quality first-party data is critical, as it helps forge stronger customer relationships and deliver more personalized campaigns. First-party data helps marketers understand how every single consumer activity impacts behavior and enables them to more effectively tailor marketing campaigns in response to that. This is even more important now as brands adapt to a post-cookieless landscape and evolving privacy laws.

B2B marketers can’t just sit back and remain idle to stay relevant and drive growth. Standing out in a highly-competitive market requires optimizing your marketing across every touchpoint, investing in creativity, harnessing the right data, and breaking down silos. It’s time for B2B marketers to embrace the full-funnel approach of growth marketing that will guide your brand to long-term success. Download the 2022 3Q/DEPT Growth Marketing Report for a deeper dive into our learnings and what these insights mean for your brand.

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Ukraine war: Soledar ‘fighting back’ and four other developments

Post By World donbas, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ukraine war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Wagner

1. Soledar still standing, Ukrainian military claims

Ukraine said on Thursday its troops were holding out despite heavy fighting on a battlefield littered with bodies around a salt mining town in eastern Ukraine, where Russian mercenaries have claimed Moscow’s first significant gain in half a year.

The ultra-nationalist contract militia Wagner, run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin outside the main chain of military command, claims to have taken Soledar after intense fighting that it said had left the town strewn with Ukrainian dead. But Moscow has held off officially proclaiming victory.

“At the moment, there are still some small pockets of resistance in Soledar,” Andrei Bayevsky, a Russian-installed local politician, said in an online broadcast.

Ukraine has acknowledged Russian advances, but Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said fighting was still fierce.

The Russians were “moving over their own corpses”, she said.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, told Ukrainian TV there was constant shelling in Soledar. “The enemy is trying to take the initiative and attack. But they are failing to break through our defences.”

A 24-year-old Ukrainian soldier, positioned outside the small town, said: “The situation is difficult but stable. We’re holding back the enemy … we’re fighting back.”

With fighting on Ukraine’s eastern front as attritional as ever, Kremlin watchers were poring over Russia’s latest switch of battlefield leadership a day after Valery Gerasimov, chief of the military’s general staff, was unexpectedly given direct command of the invasion.

The previous commander of three months’ standing, Army General Sergei Surovikin, was effectively demoted to become one of Gerasimov’s three deputies.

Moscow explained the decision — at least the third abrupt change of top commander in the 11-month conflict — as a response to the campaign’s growing importance.

Russian and Western commentators alike saw attempts to shift blame for setbacks in which Russia has lost around 40% of the territory it had seized since February.

2. Russia mulls expanding upper draft age limit from 27 to 30, Moscow lawmaker says

Russia could raise the upper age limit for citizens to be conscripted into the armed forces as soon as this spring, a senior lawmaker has said, as part of Moscow’s plans to boost the number of Russian troops by 30%.

President Vladimir Putin gave his backing in December to defence ministry proposals to raise the age range for mandatory military service to cover Russian citizens aged 21-30, rather than the current range of 18-27.

The chairman of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said in an interview with the official parliamentary newspaper that Russia could raise the upper age limit for conscription to 30 for this year’s spring draft.

But only after a one-to-three-year “transition period” would the lower limit be raised from 18 to 21 years, Kartapolov said.

Critics said the idea of a transition period was a transparent attempt by Russian authorities to increase the number of Russians eligible to be called up for military service to plug massive manpower shortages resulting from heavy losses in the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s armed forces are a mix of contracted soldiers and conscripts. Shoigu has outlined plans to increase the total number of combat personnel to 1.5 million from 1.15 million.

Asked about the possible changes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that President Vladimir Putin “conceptually supported” raising the conscription age, but the exact details were up to the defence ministry to work out.

The role of conscripts in Ukraine came under intense focus soon after Russia’s invasion last February, with the defence ministry acknowledging some had been sent to fight there despite statements from Putin that this would not happen.

In September, Russia announced its first mobilisation since World War II, calling up more than 300,000 former soldiers — including ex-conscripts — in an emergency draft to support the war in Ukraine.

Western governments say Russia has lost tens of thousands of soldiers in nearly 11 months of fighting.

3. Russia’s new deputy military commander visits troops in Belarus

A delegation headed by the commander of Russia’s ground forces, Oleg Salyukov, visited Belarus on Thursday to inspect the combat readiness of a joint force stationed there, the Belarusian defence ministry said.

The visit took place a day after Salyukov was named as one of the deputy commanders of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in the latest of a series of reshuffles.

Moscow and its close ally Minsk have beefed up their joint military grouping in Belarus and plan to hold joint aviation drills there from next Monday.

The exercises form part of a pattern of activity that has prompted Ukraine to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin may try to use Belarus to launch a new ground invasion of Ukraine from the north.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko allowed Putin to use his country as one of the launchpads to invade Ukraine last February, when Russian forces were beaten back in an attempt to take the capital Kyiv.

Military analysts say Russia has also used Belarusian facilities to train up newly mobilised soldiers who were called up last September to boost its forces in Ukraine.

However, Belarus has not sent its own troops into Ukraine in support of Russia’s war there.

4. Kyiv presses on with judiciary reform despite long road to EU membership

A congress of Ukrainian judges on Thursday appointed the last of eight new members to an important judicial oversight body, a move experts and officials have said is critical to Kyiv’s push to reform its judiciary.

The European Union made cleaning up the courts one of its main recommendations when it offered Ukraine the status of candidate member last June, four months after Russia’s invasion.

The selection of the new members to the High Council of Justice (HCJ) means the body can resume its work overseeing the appointment, dismissal and disciplining of judges.

“Looking forward to the reformed HCJ showcasing rule of law and integrity in practice,” the EU’s ambassador to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, wrote on Twitter.

Ukraine’s parliament had already passed all the legislation sought by the EU before the start of accession talks with Kyiv, the speaker of the assembly said last month.

But implementing those laws and achieving membership is widely expected to be a long road.

Some watchdogs have also warned that powerful interests are prepared to push back against reforms, especially in the judiciary.

In a statement on Thursday, the DEJURE Foundation, a non-governmental organisation which tracks judicial reform, expressed concern over the quality of the eight new selections.

“(Judges) demonstrated their unpreparedness for true agents of change in the judicial system,” it said. “We will evaluate the new team by their decisions, the new HCJ has a chance to dispel the doubts of society”.

Anti-corruption authorities in Kyiv have also doubled down in recent months on their battle against graft.

5. Russia accuses Sweden of having ‘something to hide’ in Nord Stream blasts inquest

Russia questioned on Thursday whether Sweden had “something to hide” over explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, as it slammed Stockholm for not sharing information in the ongoing investigations into the blasts.

Swedish and Danish authorities are investigating four holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines which link Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea and have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sweden’s refusal to engage with Russian prosecutors was “confusing” and said Moscow had a right to know the details of the probe into the explosions, which occurred last September.

Moscow proposed to Stockholm the establishment of a joint investigation into the blasts, which could see three of the four lines of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas projects put permanently out of use. But both Sweden and Denmark have rejected the idea of Russian participation.

At a briefing in Moscow on Thursday, Zakharova suggested there were reasons for that decision.

“Maybe Russian investigators, conducting an objective investigation, could come to an inconvenient conclusion… about who conducted this act of sabotage, terrorism. About who thought it up, and who carried it out,” she told reporters.

Zakharova said Sweden was “concealing” facts about what it had discovered in the investigation, suggesting that “the Swedish authorities have something to hide”.

Sweden and other European investigators say the attacks were carried out on purpose, but they have not said who they think was responsible. Moscow, without providing evidence, has blamed the explosions on Western sabotage.

Construction of Nord Stream 2, designed to carry Russian gas to Germany, was completed in September 2021, but was never put into operation after Berlin shelved certification just days before Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine in February.

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A year in brand: 2022 edition | Hallam

Post By Digital Marketing

2022 was a year of growth and renewed ambition for the brand industry. We jumped into a sea of changes in consumer attitudes – across both B2B and B2C markets – to produce some of the boldest identity work in a long time, but that wasn’t all without a few mishaps along the way.

A myriad of brands reacted to changes in consumer attitudes effectively and were met with lots of appeal from their target markets and beyond; on the other hand, lots of others did so less successfully and were met with criticism and backlash. A brand refresh can quite literally be your make or break – it’s essential to get it right by doing your research and always paying attention to the details.

Here’s our review of some of the best brand refreshes seen in 2022 so you can learn from their successes (or failures…)

January

The year started with a brand launch that would set the tone for the next 12 months, showing confidence, humanity, personality and awareness of their market trends.

Sproutl aim to supply the best house plants possible and arm people with the knowledge they need to not let them die so quickly. The brand uses achingly modern expressive typography combined with a human voice and a bold colour scheme to disrupt their usually conservative marketplace in a way to appeal to the now-biggest consumer groups of millennials and gen-z. Like the best modern brands, this oozes confidence.

February

February saw the first big mainstream brand refresh of the year with the long-awaited launch of the NFL’s Washington Commanders.

There’s two reasons to take note of this: if you’re outside of America, you might be unaware that Washington’s NFL team is the 8th most valuable team in all of sports – they’re worth $5.6Bn, (that’s more than Real Madrid!) – any sizeable brand change is worth paying attention to. Secondly, their previous name, ‘The Redskins’, was used all the way up until 2020 despite being regarded as a racial slur by Native Americans since before 1920. It was always going to be difficult to have a worse brand perception than they had currently.

Whilst they certainly got rid of any visual or verbal messaging that remained from the previous name, what they went for was so safe and unremarkable that fans felt it was very, well, uncommanding. Aside from the obvious irony about a team playing in America’s capital called the Commanders and playing in red, everything from the team’s stock-style logo to the addition of stars to the uniforms was met with an apathy that was deafening. washington commanders new branding - dark red and orange are the main colours with name in capitals on jerseys, cars and posters

March

One of the most viable tactics to follow when you have a brand with massive negative market perception is to change the name and from a blank page. However, when you then randomly doodle all over that blank page like Hermes did, you might not achieve the desired outcome.

In the UK, Hermes was the most notorious of delivery companies, with seemingly everyone having a story about how bad the service was.

A name change didn’t come unexpectedly, and the name they chose, Evri, was not the worst. However, one thing to consider when changing a brand’s name is how easy it is for it to be mocked or parodied, and this is something the Internet did with relish. Added to that, a typographic style that could politely be described as ‘brave’ made the launch as problematic as you might expect.

Will it work in changing people’s perception? Most likely. People’s memories are short and jokes about the name are finite. But as with all brands, the most you can do is try to influence your customers’ perception – ultimately, your service will be the deciding factor. hermes rebrand as evri - same blue and white colours but a different font for each letter of EVRI

April

April saw possibly the Brand industry’s favourite refresh of the year. To many nerds of a certain age (a few of ourselves), Jodrell Bank is an icon. It was Britain’s first large scale radio telescope, capable of searching for extraterrestrial life, and its iconic swivel design left a memorable impression.

Industry rock star Michael Johnson leaned into the iconic swivelling when producing this glorious refresh with a logo that was brutally simple and memorable, and a presentation that lends itself massively to motion design and the modern world. It’s a joyous triumph of building around the substance of the service. space themed rebrand for Jodrell Bank - black background with pops of blue, red and white with space imagery and space-related idioms

May

Sage is the lifeblood of many businesses as it keeps track of financial expenditure and incomes. It’s a very omnipresent business brand so they were keen on a brand refresh, which they introduced back in May.

When you become a market leader, your approach changes from hunter to staying ahead of the pack. Although visually safe compared to many examples on this list, their approach was nevertheless a solid update on the familiar. simplistic rebrand for Sage in colours green and black - bold text and messaging

June

Freetree was our pick for June’s best brand work. Clever, stylish, very modern and fun, this work brought a simple idea to life perfectly. freetree - lots of earthly colours like orange and green with fuzzy soft text and lots of smiley-faced trees on all assets

July

The fintech market saw a huge amount of seismic identity changes happen last year. There’s been so much change that we could’ve spent this whole article reviewing just that one sector, but Yubi’s brand refresh was definitely the most stand out, transforming branding expectations for the industry into playful yet still professional looking visuals. Yubi - 3 main simple block colours in orange, yellow and dull blue besides the background darker blue and a thin, rounded font in white used for clear CTAs

August

Wolff Ollins are one of the superstar agencies of the industry, but like with many similar instances, you wonder how much that reputation is justified, but their branding for Instacart reminded us exactly why they’re so highly respected.

A simple, clever update to the online grocery shopper’s existing identity really made this stand out. It’s engaging and makes you want to look further. Food itself is as much about pleasure as it is sustenance, and that’s accurately captured in this work. Instacart - simple green, orange and white colour scheme with a recognisable carrot logo

September

When you have a brand with a strongly established identity, renewal can be a tricky task. You don’t want to move too far away from what made your brand enticing in the first place, but at the same time you may recognise that change is needed. It’s a difficult balancing act, and that is why this refresh for Tabasco certainly deserves praise.

Often, change can be found by just developing the existing further. This work does a fantastic job of taking little touch points that people recognise – the label and the colours of the sauce range – and placing them front-and-centre while presenting them back in a new configuration, capturing attention and drawing life back into a staple of many people’s condiment shelf. Tabasco - the logo has been placed front and centre in the refresh upon a background of multi-coloured sauce bottles or backgrounds. An array of colours, but mostly warm tones.

October

October is often when online retailers start noticing their annual spike in traffic as people start to prepare for Christmas and Black Friday. It’s usually a prime time for retailers to launch their new campaigns or reintroduce themselves to their audience.

Not On The High Street’s refresh was puzzling. It was clear the brand presentation needed updating and their ‘hard-to-find-usually’ brand purpose needed doubling-down on, but everything else felt wide of the mark.

A big no-no of modern brand building is putting the unique part of your logo in the middle of the wordmark. Not On The High Street’s refresh is a prime example of why. The little string ball icon could’ve possibly worked as a logo in its own right, but they chose to position it as an ‘o’. This often means that when it’s shown in isolation (like in their LinkedIn profile picture) it disconnects from its meaning because the brand name starts with ‘N’, not an ‘o’, which is what the ball stands for. It’s so important to build around the first letter, or at least keep the logo and wordmark completely separate.

Again, it was clear that a more vibrant and modern colour palette could benefit engagement with key audiences, but the chosen one is curious, seeking more ‘neon granny’ than anything else.

It’s not obvious how strongly their audience has embraced this new appearance, so it will be interesting to see how it works out as we progress into 2023. Not on the high street branding - uses cooler colours like purple and blue and placed their yarn ball shaped logo as the 'o' in 'not'.

November

Often, brand and identity design can really help with acquisition-based business models.

Dropbox had been acquiring a lot of tech and support services over the years, initially keeping them independent through what’s known as a pluralistic brand architecture – a way of brand building that shows no visible public connection between the parent and child brands.

The time had come to move this into a monolithic brand architecture and use the parent brand for authority to increase its market acceptance. A series of naming conventions and sub-brand iconography were developed to get this family looking linked.

The output was simple but a nice expansion on Dropbox’s established visuals. Having your services all clearly connected can help with acceptance in a B2B market, and this is a prime example of how to make sure that doesn’t come across as boring. Dropbox - a list of their different services with different icons on the right and the corresponding relevant parent brands on the left

December

Creeping into our last spot of the year is British news broadcaster, ITN.

The brand has been around for nearly 70 years now, and this modern update that embraces motion design should help keep the brand around for another 70 years.

As digital out-of-home displays replace traditional billboards and video content becomes even more universally shareable on social media, the need to put motion at the heart of your brand has gone from ‘nice to have’ to being an essential. ITN is a great example of doing this in the right way. ITN - holographic type logo and lots of gifs on their site

What’s on the horizon?

There’s been a notable change in audience attitudes already in 2023, and it’s driving some of the most interesting work the industry has seen in a long time. To help you get a leg up in 2023, our latest article, 4 brand building trends for 2023, provides insights into what you can expect to change in the brand industry and how these trends might be relevant to your business.

Want a hand with your brand refresh? Get in touch with our Creative team.

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Why Arcane is The Perfect Brand Expansion | Weird Marketing

Post By Digital Marketing

You have probably heard of the popular video game, League of Legends. At a minimum, you’ve heard the distant screams of someone losing a match. It’s unavoidable because League It is an insanely popular game with a mountain of dedicated players willing to buy figurines and other merchandise.

But have you heard of Arcane? If you’ve been on Netflix recently, you’ve probably scrolled past the animated TV show. It’s gotten a lot of attention from League players and general TV viewers alike.

Arcane is a brilliant idea from a studio with some Heimerdinger-sized brains on staff. Basically, every video game adaptation into TV and film has failed. And yet League managed to pull off what just about no other studio could with Arcane – make a TV show based on a video game that people actually like.

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Why video game adaptations used to fail so badly

The video game market is one of the biggest and dominant forces in the entertainment industry. It’s expected to earn $268.8 billion annually in 2025, up from $178 billion in 2021.

But the companies that produce video games are gigantic, and they see opportunities in other industries as well. That’s why so many video games have been turned into TV shows or feature films. Making one of these is a great way for a company to expand beyond the video game market and pull in money from other industries as well.

Sadly for many years, the grubby hands of Hollywood have cursed most video game films. Sometimes, it’s possible to conceal a profit movie, but for video game movies and shows, they seem unable to present as anything other than cash grabs on marketable IPs.

This isn’t just me griping either. Check out this list of 48 video game movies on Rotten Tomatoes. Notice that only 4 of them are “certified fresh.”

However, recent films like Detective Pikachu and Angry Birds have succeeded because the directors and producers have cared about making good films. They are still cash grabs, to be sure, but the people involved in the making of the film understand the fans and try to please them. It doesn’t hurt that modern video game movies are pulling in grade-A celebrities.

There has also been a change in how people view video games and video gamers as a demographic. For a long time, video game films were made just for gamers. But now video games are being made for a global audience and directors are trying to make them into “four-quadrant films.”

All these changing forces, combined with a lot of care and attention has given Arcane a chance to really succeed. And that’s why it’s possible today for Arcane to proudly tout a 100% Rotten Tomato Rating.

Arcane is the show that League players actually wanted – and that counts for a lot

League of Legends has a massive 150 million users with 125 million of them playing a month. Considering that the game first came out in 2009, this is really impressive. These active players invest millions of hours into the game, resulting in the publisher, Riot Games making $1.75 billion in revenue in 2020. Not bad!

Over the years, Riot Games have improved their cinematics for their video game by employing Fortiche Production Studio. This bond between the studios made it feasible for Riot Games to eventually create a full-fledged TV show, something that many League players wanted.

Wonderfully, those seeds grew into Arcane with Fortiche Production doing the heavy lifting on visuals. Their history and ties with Riot Games made everyone sigh with relief as it reassured the fans that the League of Legends IP was not simply given to the lowest bidder who would draw up crude CGI stick figures and call it a day.

Good animation studio? Check.

Riot Games supervising the production to make sure it has all the qualities League players love?

Is it any wonder that the result was a visually stunning, well-produced TV show?

But Riot Games didn’t just make a good product (show) in the first place, they distributed it smartly too. Arcane was pitched to Netflix as a TV show instead of a film. That meant the show could be distributed to a wide audience without bearing the stigma of being “another video game-adapted movie.”

Picking Netflix was smart too. Even with intense competition, Netflix is still the number one streaming service in its category. Plus it saw a 100% increase in anime viewers during the pandemic of 2020.

Riot Games understands its audience and how to appeal beyond its target market as well

Riot Games understood that their target demographic was going to be League players, so they fully committed. Why not make the show for them first and foremost? They knew they had a large and loyal audience, and that they would be reaching them on a platform they already subscribe to.

The young adult crowd (18-34) makes up 75% of Netflix’s audience. But it’s also worth knowing that those ages 2-18 watch about 2 hours of streamable content per day as well. The average League player is around 13-17 years old. That’s also probably the age of the average Arcane viewer.

This alone would have been a solid enough strategy. Zero in on the target market. Make what they love. Make bank. It’s a fundamentally sound marketing plan.

What’s really interesting is that Riot Games was also able to make Arcane appealing to non-League players as well. They’ve been writing lore for all the champions in their game for 13 years. They know how to form a good story and it shows. They’re making the kind of show that young adults would want to see. (They’re also wisely keeping it TV-14 – not too childish, not too adult).

Riot Games used Twitch to great effect when the showed premiered

Before we get into the story of this great show, let’s talk about the way Riot Games chose to release it. They used Twitch really brilliantly for the global premiere, which was on November 6, 2021. They allowed Twitch streamers to co-stream the first three episodes.

Gamers love watching streamers play their favorite games. League players can get a whole lot of streamers on Twitch. As in, over 200 thousand. So you can imagine the amount of exposure a League-based show got when League players shared it on their channels.

Riot Games is already connected to Twitch pretty closely. When people watched their favorite content creators co-stream Arcane, they’d League loot for free just for watching via Twitch Prime.

The end result was a great arrangement for both companies. Twitch gained a bunch of new subscribers to Twitch Prime because people wanted to watch Arcane and get free loot. And, of course, because Twitch was profiting, they pushed the Arcane launch as much as possible. So the show made a massive splash upon its release. Everyone was a winner.

Riot Games then went on to patch another one of their popular games, Teamfight Tactics to have a theme that matched the ending of Arcane and to connect it to characters in the show.

So in the end, Arcane pulled people into League. League pulled people into Arcane. And even Teamfight Tactics got a little boost from it as well. Huge win!

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The story of Arcane is also great

Now all this wonderful promotion wouldn’t go very far if the story sucked. But fortunately, it doesn’t. In fact, it’s great.

The story of Arcane is the origin story of two well-known League of Legends characters: Vi and Jinx. League fans know what I’m talking about – they’re very familiar faces.

Heck, Jinx got a music video for her champion and it’s hella catchy. So suffice it to say, they started off on the right foot by focusing on popular characters.

(Also, it’s worth noting with the music video is from the same studio that made Arcane and you can see how far they’ve come since 2013.)

However, if you are unfamiliar with them, don’t worry. Even League players don’t read the lore for every champion in the game. Too time-consuming. The characters, after all, are easy to see as just vessels to be used to win the game at the end of the day.

Without giving away too much, the show hits all the right notes for something pitched to the teen demographic. There’s a history of conflict between Piltover and The Undercity in the game, and plenty of room to explore why that is. This conflict resembles the kind of modern dystopia that you would find in something like the Hunger Games. It’s a well-worn, well-loved angle.

Vi and Jinx fit right into this story, being charismatic and popular characters within the game who move around naturally in this dystopian society. I’ll just leave it at that because I’d hate to spoil the story.

And as if this compelling story were not enough, I mentioned above that the animation studio wanted to make a visually pleasing show. Well, they delivered a visual feast to the eyes that drew parallels to bombastic, outlandish, and jaw-dropping visuals of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

I mean, just check this video out and appreciate it. (But skip it if you’re in the middle of the show or you want to otherwise avoid spoilers.)

SPOILER ALERT FOR VIDEO BELOW

Arcane also delivers anime-style fights which are wonderfully realized magnum opuses of detailed animation. Fans of the game will finally get to see champions do things they do in the game but in much greater and more stylized detail.

How well did Arcane actually do?

Let’s talk numbers.

Saying Arcane did well is an understatement. That’s like saying the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy did alright.

Arcane managed to acquire 6 top 1 spots on Netflix and it acquired 72,590,000 hours viewed globally.

Very shortly after the initial release of *Arcane*.

The final three episodes sat around the number five, which was an incredible position to be in as it was against two mega-Marvel films Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

It also casually got a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating which is insane and it’s no surprise that it now has a second season in the works. (And thank goodness because after the ending of season one it would be a catastrophe to end it there.)

Final Thoughts

Riot Games pulled off something incredible. They not only released a good video game adaptation, but they shattered all expectations and elevated the animation film industry in the process. It’s not everyday that you see a piece of media becomes the standard that every other studio should now be trying to attain.

They understood that out of all the 13 years of League lore, that the story of Vi and Jinx was perfect for every demographic. They’re great action stars, but their story also pulls at your heartstrings, telling a deep and meaningful story of two sisters.

Finally, their marketing team blew it out of the water by tying their show together with Twitch co-streaming and then integrating the story of Arcane with their existing game Teamfight Tactics.

Arcane has made its mark on the industry as much as Jinx did on Piltover. I’m pretty sure this show will be taught in schools, and analyzed by animators because Arcane has become the legend of its league.

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Why the G-7 Cap on Russian Fuel Prices Will Be Harder Than it Looks – Energy News for the Canadian Oil & Gas Industry | EnergyNow.ca

Post By Oil and Gas

The Group of Seven industrialized nations is 24 days from imposing a cap on the prices at which Russia’s oil refineries are allowed to sell the fuels they make. It’s another historic moment for the global petroleum market.

If all goes to plan, buyers of Russian fuels will only be allowed to tap vital G-7 services including ships and tanker insurance for the cargoes if they pay below as-yet-unspecified price caps. Such measures began for crude oil on Dec. 5, setting an upper threshold of $60 a barrel.

The measures, in tandem with a ban on almost all refined fuel imports to the European Union from Russia, could cause havoc if the thresholds are set wrong for the markets they’re targeting. The move will force some tankers to sail thousands of miles further to get cargoes to buyers.

“We expect that most crude oil exports from Russia will continue to find buyers,” the Energy Information Administration said in a report Tuesday. “But we expect the sanctions on petroleum products will cause greater disruptions to Russia’s oil production and exports because finding alternative buyers as well as transportation and other services to reach those buyers is likely to be more challenging.”

The easy solution would be to set the cap at high enough levels to keep the fuels flowing, as they did with oil. The question is whether there’s the political will for such an approach, when some nations, especially EU member states, want to guarantee Moscow loses revenue.

Here are some of the things the G-7 will have to weigh up:

1. Many Products

The G-7 looks set to introduce two caps: One for those fuels have historically been cheaper than crude, and another, higher threshold for more expensive ones.

That approach has the beauty of simplicity but the markets being targeted are not simple.

There are numerous mainstream oil product categories to deal with, including better known ones like diesel and gasoline. There are others too — fuel oil, naphtha and something called vacuum gasoil — that help to keep global refining and petrochemicals systems functioning efficiently.

Even within those broad groupings, there are numerous subset products, each of which might have different qualities — be it their sulfur content, density or metals content — that make how they trade unique.

Some products hold hidden importance. Vacuum gasoil, for example, is what’s known as a feedstock that many non-Russian refineries process to make other fuels. Naphtha can be used in the production of gasoline or plastics.

So the impact of the caps on individual fuel markets will depend on where the thresholds are set. Diesel is presently trading far above gasoline, for example. If the upper cap is low enough to depress the price of gasoline, then it could be even more dramatic for diesel.

The same would apply to the lower cap. Target high-sulfur fuel oil, which trades well below naphtha, and naphtha could be hit harder. But target naphtha, and the impact on fuel oil would be relatively small.

To add to the complexity, some fuel prices will trade around the same level as crude. How will they be dealt with?

2. Crude Precedent

Since the December cap, Russian crude prices varied significantly based on the location the barrels are exported from. The nation’s flagship Russian grade Urals is trading far below the threshold.

That’s not really down to the cap. It’s because it’s exported from the country’s western ports and requires transportation thousands of miles to a handful of large buyer countries in Asia, particularly China and India.

At the same time, crude from Russia’s eastern terminals is holding well above the cap because it requires so much less transportation. That oil is likely moving outside of the price cap on so-called shadow-fleet tankers.

Surging Imports | Diesel shipments into Europe soar ahead of Russia sanctions

The lion’s share of the oil products that come out of Russia are from its west, likely facing the same dynamics as Urals. And it will have to go to buyers who often already have plentiful supply of those same fuels from existing suppliers. Some countries will make what they need for themselves and don’t need imports from Russia.

But given that some of the fuels are already discounted to crude, and given Urals is already cheap, and given potentially more complex freight dynamics, the price impact of Europe’s ban and the price cap is unknown.

Could fuel oil price at a level at which Russia’s refineries don’t wish to sell it? If so, it may not take long for some crude processing to be halted.

3. Shipping Complications

Once prices are capped, anything that disrupts access to shipping will affect a market that’s more complicated than crude oil transportation.

Last year, the nation accounted for 9.3% of the world’s seaborne, refined fuel exports while the comparable figure for crude was about 8.8%, according to data from Clarkson Research Services Ltd. compiled by Bloomberg.

When the ban starts, fuel oil — the residue from refining that often gets burned on ships or in power plants outside Russia — will also become subject to the cap. That moves on the same tankers as crude, although Clarkson categorizes it among refined petroleum products.

Oil products have further shipping complications, too. Unlike crude, a tanker that moves one kind of refined fuel can’t always switch to hauling another type straight away without causing cargo contamination. Its internal tanks may well need cleaning.

The trade in such fuels has also long been dominated by smaller vessels that are less suited to the long-distance deliveries that will become more common after Feb. 5.

Vacuum gasoil has a relatively unique status. If it is to move on a ship that previously transported crude, then the inside of that vessel’s tanks must first be cleaned. It could go on a vessel that previously transported, say, gasoline, but then the tanker would have to be re-cleaned before it could move gasoline again.

It will be challenging to run the fleet of refined fuel tankers as efficiently after Feb. 5.

4. Shipping Complication II: Ice

Much of Russia’s oil products exports trade has been carefully calibrated down the years to take relatively small consignments of fuel on relatively small tankers on short-hop voyages to Europe.

It has been organized in a way that recognizes that Russia needs tankers deal with Baltic Sea waters that can ice over in the coldest winter months. Specialist ice-class vessels exist for the trade, but are a relatively small part of the fleet’s overall capacity.

So it’s unlikely these ships can now shuttle thousands of miles further without creating fleet shortages.

“The lack of smaller tankers and different specifications for refined products by different regions may make it more challenging to divert refined products to other markets,” said Giovanni Staunovo, commodity analyst at UBS Group AG. “Also, the main buyers of Russian crude are not short refined products.”

It may depress the prices Russia gets if the cargoes have to get transfered onto other vessels for onward transportation. Higher freight costs have been a key contributor to Russian crude prices falling.

5. Fuel Surge

The greatest risk of all, ultimately, is the combination of a lost European export market and caps that are set at levels that prevent Russian supply moving to other regions.

An undesirable scenario for G-7 officials — especially the White House, which has emphasized risks to prices throughout this process — would be that there is a significant net loss of fuel supply.

Prices, especially in Europe, would most likely jump.

6. Arbitrages

The global seaborne market for oil products has long involved significant arbitrage trading. That’s to say, purchasing a cargo in one location and time, and selling it later at a higher price some place else.

Those arbitrages emerge because of the inherent nature of fuel markets: stockpiles become imbalanced if, say, a refinery halts and replenishments are needed. Extra cargoes move, and prices adjust until normality returns.

Europe’s imports ban will have a big impact on arbitrage trading. A finite pool of fuel buyers will be asked to purchase products they wouldn’t normally have taken in the past. What happens if their demand slumps and there just isn’t enough buying interest from elsewhere?

Might there be times when individual Russian prices go haywire because there simply aren’t enough buyers? Where would that leave the nation’s refineries?

7. Easy Fix

The crude price cap was set at a sufficiently high level to keep oil flowing.

Doing the same with fuels would allow non-European buyers to buy freely and allay concerns about access to shipping and services.

It would mean that all the tankers that can theoretically transport Russian fuels are able to do so in practice.

Top 26 Digital Marketing Podcasts

Post By Digital Marketing

Krista Neher

Jan 12 2023

Top 26 Digital Marketing Podcasts

As we probably know, podcasts are digital audio files made available on the internet for streaming or downloading, typically available as a series. Digital marketing podcasts are an entertaining way to polish our skills while listening to topics like SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and more, in the voices of different marketers and experts in the field.

The following 26 shows or digital marketing podcasts were selected to bring you quality, good content, and current updates to inspire you to get your internal marketer out for a walk.

_____________________________________________________________________

1. Marketing School

Hosts: Neil Patel & Eric Siu
Marketing School brings you 10 minutes of actionable marketing advice every single day. Get the right tips to take your business to the next level and get to work right away.

2. Online Marketing Made Easy

Host: Amy Porterfield
Amy Porterfield breaks down big ideas and strategies into actionable step-by-step processes designed to get you results with a whole lot less stress.

3. Marketing Made Simple

Host: DR. J Peterson
The Marketing Made Simple podcast will show you how to clarify your message and create an effective website, email campaign, and lead generator that will convert browsers into buyers.

4. Marketing Scoop Podcast by SEMrush

Hosts: David Bain & Judith Lewis
David Bain & Judith Lewis uncover the latest digital marketing news that impacts your business & marketing. The show picks apart the latest trends in digital with industry experts: from SEO & advertising to content marketing.

5. The Digital Marketing Podcast

Hosts: Daniel Rowles & Ciaran Rogers
An advert-free, weekly digital marketing podcast with listeners in over 180 countries worldwide, enjoying interviews with global experts, together with the latest news, tools, strategies, and techniques to give your digital marketing the edge.

6. Social Pros Podcast

Hosts: Anna Hrach, Daniel Lemin & Erika Lovegreen
Social Pros is one of the most popular marketing podcasts in the world and was recently named the best podcast at the Content Marketing Awards. Listen for real insight into the real people doing real work on social media.

7. Tube Talk

Host: Vyyyper
Tube Talk tackles the questions that real YouTubers are asking. Each week they discuss how to make money on YouTube, how to get your videos discovered, how to level up your gaming channel, or even how the latest YouTube update is going to impact you and your channel.

8. Social Media Marketing Talk Show by Social Media Examiner

Host: Jerry Potter
Get expert opinions on the latest social media marketing news, from Social Media Examiner. This show shares only the news you need to know.

9. Business Made Simple

Host: Donald Miller
The Business Made Simple Podcast where you get coached to build your business like an airplane. The cockpit is your leadership. The body is your overhead. The right engine is your marketing. The left engine is your sales. The wings are your products and the fuel tanks are your cash flow.

10. Search Engine Journal Show

Host: Loren Baker
This is the official podcast of Search Engine Journal. They talk about SEO, PPC, social media, content marketing, and digital marketing with the top industry experts and authorities.

11. Marketing O’Clock

Hosts: Greg, Shep & Jess
Marketing O’Clock is the premier digital marketing podcast, covering all things SEO, PPC, and social media marketing.

12. Edge of The Web

Host: Erin Sparks
EDGE of the Web is a weekly digital marketing podcast discussing all things in Digital Marketing: SEO, Social Media, Content Marketing, and more.

13. Digital Marketing Agency Builder

Host: Tyler Narducci
This podcast is for people looking to launch and scale their digital agency. Whether you are looking for your first client or are trying to hit your first 6-figures, this podcast is for you.

14. The Marketing Millennials

Host: Daniel Murray
If you’re looking for insights from some of the sharpest operators in the business, then The Marketing Millennials is the podcast for you. In this, no-BS, unfiltered marketing podcast, Daniel Murray unpacks the playbooks of marketers at the top of their game.

15. Today In Digital Marketing

Host: Tod Maffin
A fast-paced daily 10-minute marketing news podcast covering everything you missed in the world of digital marketing, e-commerce, and social media that day.

16. Caviar Online: Comunicación y Marketing Digital (Caviar Online: Communications & Digital Marketing) – Spanish Podcast

Hosts: Carles Fité & Joan Martín
Caviar online is a Marficom podcast with Carles Fité and Joan Martín. Every Friday they tell us a topic of marketing and digital communication in addition to reviewing all the news of the week in the world of social networks

17. Rocky Mountain Marketing

Host: Katie Brinkley
Discover the specific marketing systems & strategies that are working RIGHT NOW to help Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs, Solopreneurs, and coaches take the next step with social media, entrepreneurship, and marketing!

18. The BeanCast

Host: Bob Knorpp
The BeanCast is a weekly round table podcast, featuring notables from the marketing, advertising, interactive, and public relations community.

19. Social PR Secrets

Host: Lisa Buyer
Social PR Secrets podcast is your trusted source for actionable and relevant ways to combine the superpowers of public relations, social media, and SEO.

20. Marketing Over Coffee

Host: John Wall & Christopher Penn
Marketing over coffee is a weekly discussion of what’s new in marketing with John Wall and Christopher Penn.

21. Joseph Jaffe Is Not Famous

Host: Joseph Jaffe
Joseph Jaffe is Not Famous is Joseph Jaffe’s daily streaming show on all things business, marketing, creativity, culture, startups, and entrepreneurship.

22. Conquer Local

Host: George Leith
Get insider content geared toward helping you better serve local businesses, from interviews with sales & marketing experts to exciting new ideas that will improve your digital revenue dramatically.

23. Winfluence – The Influence Marketing Podcast

Host: Jason Falls
Winfluence – The Influence Marketing Podcast explores the world of influencer marketing from a strategic perspective to help your influence efforts align with driving business value.

24. Duct Tape Marketing

Host: John Jantsch
Interviews with authors, experts, and thought leaders sharing business marketing tips, tactics, and resources hosted by one of America’s leading small business marketing experts – John Jantsch

25. The Brainfluence

Host: Roger Dooley
Roger Dooley is the author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing, and has been studying the effects of psychology, behavior research, and neuroscience on persuasion and marketing in business, leadership, and everyday life.

26. Nice with Dave Delaney – Leadership, Communication, Retention, Culture.

Host: Dave Delaney
Dave Delaney, as he speaks with brilliant minds in business and life to discuss topics like the Great Resignation, employee retention, company culture, leadership growth, human capital, kindness and empathy, and much more.

Do you know other digital marketing podcasts that are not on the list? Share them in the comments!

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Inside Sales Manager

Post By Jobs

Job title: Inside Sales Manager

Company: Internet Brands

Job description: media, reputation management, video marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and advanced SEO solutions for chiropractors…

Expected salary:

Location: San Diego, CA

Job date: Wed, 08 Sep 2021 04:38:53 GMT

Apply for the job now!

13 ways to make and save money from your garden

Post By Money Making

Reading Time: 12 mins

No matter how small your garden may be, you can earn a sweet mint this summer with some of our clever outdoor money-making ideas. From using the soil for growing saleable produce to renting your garden for private functions, there are loads of ways to earn pretty pounds from those lovely petals. Here are a few tops tips on how to make money from your garden.

Organic is big business these days. Celebrity chefs, supermarkets and health food stores tell us the benefits of organic produce for us and the environment all the time, and with a return to thrifty ways thanks to the recession there’s never been a better time to go out there and grow your own. You could even cut out the middleman and sell directly to individual customers.

Grow edible flowers

Yes, really. Gourmet and health food stores do stock edible flowers, and at restaurants plenty of chefs include flowers in recipes as well as to garnish dishes. They might not be tasty on their own but with a few other key ingredients you could have a winning combination. The key is to work out what’s edible and what’s saleable.

The dandelion, for example, is actually a great salad ingredient, and makes a great wine! Remember that certain flowers can only be used for decoration, such as daffodils, azaleas and rhododendrons. They’re not safe to eat – so if in doubt, always check. Roses, violets, pansies and daylilies are all popular and saleable edible plants you could grow. The good news is you don’t need a huge garden to grow them.

all you’ll need is:

Some varieties of popular edible flowers

Organic pesticides and fungicides

A designated plot in your garden

Before you start planting, consult your local plant nursery to find the best way of using insect deterrents to protect your plants organically. A compost pile is ideal for providing naturally enriched soil to use. If you’re going to eat your produce, be aware that you can’t use normal chemical plant agents.

When it comes to harvesting your edible flowers make sure to do it whilst the temperature is cool: early in the day after the morning dew has evaporated is ideal. Remove all the pollen parts of the plant, and keep the long-stemmed flowers in water inside the fridge. Place short-stemmed flowers between moist paper towels or keep them loose inside a plastic bag – and that’s all it takes.

Your flowers will be good to eat fresh for about a week. Approaching local restaurants or food stores is a good way to sell your flowers, and you’ll need to put together some photos, pricing and growing information. In order to trade directly to households, consider creating a blog page, or place adverts on eBay, Gumtree or Craigslist.

Sell medicinal plants

A lot of the same edible plants can also be used and sold for medicinal purposes – you just need to add an extra step and dry your plants to increase their shelf life. Stick to perennials that don’t require annual planting or germination.

Medicinal herbs and plants are great because they can flourish in the shade or harsh sun, and require little water or attention. You’d be surprised at what already grows in your garden that’s medicinal. The roots and flower-tops of the dandelion can be dried and sold as a tea or a body tincture. They’re meant to aid liver and gastrointestinal detoxification, work as a digestive and as a diuretic, and they also contain plenty of antioxidants.

A common weed with a stock of medicinal qualities is the plantain – it’s great for killing bacteria and reducing swelling on wounds and insect bites. Another perennial, lemon balm, belongs to the mint family and treats viral infections, shingles and cold sores. Use it as a tea to bolster the immune system in overcoming cold and flu symptoms – it’s also good for helping you get a good night’s rest.

The market for selling medicinal herbs is more likely to be a domestic one. Your knowledge of their use is just as important in selling the plants as the plants themselves, so it’s vital to do your research beforehand into all the plants and herbs you’re interested in growing for sale and distribution. People are more likely to buy from you – and continue to buy from you – if you’re confident and secure in the information you can provide.

Remember: Even though these plants are generally considered safe to use as a natural homeopathic medicine, you should always evaluate their risks and benefits to certain people and their illnesses, especially when used in conjunction with other prescribed medicines. If in doubt, go without until you’ve got more information and advice.

Propagate seedlings

Many don’t have the skills to nurture seeds into life and choose to skip this stage and buy already-established seedlings. You can profit from this by doing the hard work for them. You’ll need:

Good-quality seed compost – normal soil won’t cut it as the physical structure won’t be up to scratch, and potting compost has too many nutrients, putting your seedlings at risk of fertiliser damage.

Somewhere for the seeds to grow – think somewhere warm and humid with seed trays. This could be a greenhouse, a conservatory or even just a propagator, which is a seed tray with a lid like a fish tank.

Make sure you do your research to get the best results Fresh seeds are key and will ensure that you grow the best-quality seedlings possible. A watering can is a must, but take a look at your seedling packet’s instructions to see if they have any specific needs.

Start an organic market garden

This’ll require a lot more time, knowledge and money so it’s probably not for you if you’re not especially green fingered. Be aware that larger garden farms will cost more money to establish and maintain. For small-scale growers, we’ve got an article on growing your own fruit and veg here. Staple and seasonal vegetables are a good entry point.

Remember to stick to the basics first before you start attempting to grow more exotic foods. Selecting produce that’s in season and can easily be grown in your local conditions will be easier and require far fewer resources to grow. Don’t worry about growing ‘perfect’ looking produce – buyers will know it’s the taste that matters.

Advertise locally, with flyers and business cards that you may put up in other local shops and eateries. It’s a good idea to hold weekly or monthly markets. You could even join forces with the neighbours and see if they’re willing to grow some produce in their gardens. If they are you could have a regular street market, cashing in on all your varying produce.

Running a market can require a lot of time investment (as will gardening all the produce), so be mindful of how large a market you can actually handle and how much time and money you have to invest. It’s probably worth buying small tools that you’ll be using regularly that you don’t already have, while larger machinery you’ll only be using occasionally should be borrowed or hired.

Local tool hire companies can be found in the Yellow Pages or on Gumtree. Because the ‘fruits of your labour’ will take several months to become available, you’ll need working capital to finance supplies, living expenses, wages and organic certification fees. For an idea about evaluating assets and setting targets for the market, see Scott Kelland’s advice on starting a market garden.

Hire out your garden as allotments

It’s not just seasoned gardeners and the hard-up who are growing their own fruit and veg – since the recession plenty of people have discovered a green tinge to their fingers. City dwellers are in on the act too, and if they haven’t got the space to get growing at home they’re looking for land elsewhere. Enter you and your garden. Waiting lists for council lots can be huge, and if you’ve got spare garden space you could make a bit of extra cash by renting it out to others.

If you live in London, waiting lists are exceptionally long which means you could charge more and still find keen tenants. You do need to have spare space, enough to feel comfortable giving a proportion of it away. Access is also an issue – if you don’t have a side gate to your garden (or can’t put one in), you might have tenants coming through your house to get to their plot.

You could also use Spareground; a website where you can advertise your unused land and find a tenant to take care of it.

host garden parties

If your garden’s big enough and you don’t mind the intrusion then why not hire it out for parties? Save yourself hassle from the start and stick to hiring your garden out exclusively for children’s parties. There’s no alcohol, no late-night noise pollution and less mess. You could even provide catering and children’s entertainers (or do it yourself if you’re feeling brave).

The whole party can come as a packaged deal in your own garden for a nice profit. You’ll need to provide a marquee or gazebo in case it rains. Tables and chairs, games, and a music and PA system are initial financial outlays. You should expect to be asking about £800–850 to cover your expenses, time and effort. This will make it worthwhile.

If this idea is for you, make sure you get adequate insurance and liability cover. Child-proof the garden and be mindful of health and safety considerations – make sure your first aid kit is well stocked.

Hire out your garden as a campsite

This is again likely to be better for bigger gardens, but letting campers into your garden is a fun way to make a bit of extra cash. If you’re near places of interest or areas of outstanding natural beauty you could be onto a winner.

The Garden Caravan Site in Norfolk has done just this and they charge £15–20 per pair per night. If you’re doing this occasionally for acquaintances it shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re looking at developing it into a more permanent project or have general questions, we suggest you get in touch with your local authority. Planning Portal has good guidance on whether you need special permission.

Hire out your garden to painting groups

If you have a truly lovely garden, with lots of space for sitting, you could offer it to local art schools or holiday painting groups to paint in. Offer an all-in package including refreshments, lunch and even a cool lounge to relax in and you could charge in the £100s. Of course, this is only useful for people with a special garden with lots of nooks and crannies, great views and fascinating plants, as well as an attractive home to visit.

However, if you have these and the leisure to look after people, then contact local colleges, adult education establishments and even the local tourist office to let them know you exist. Send photos and a list of charges for different packages (a price for using the garden only, a price for garden and refreshments etc). If you’re more entrepreneurial you could set up classes yourself. Bring in an art teacher and advertise one-day or hour-long classes for locals and visitors.

Host an open garden event

If you have a sizeable garden that you take good care of, then a way to make money is to show it off to the public by staging an open garden event. This is where you open your garden to the public, like artists do when they hold open studio days, and you can charge an entrance fee or offer drinks or cream teas to visitors to make some money.

Most open gardens are staged to raise money for charities or worthy causes, such as repairing the church roof. If this is why you’d like to open your garden then you can advertise online at The National Garden Society or Open Gardens so your chances of a good turnout are increased. You can also serve refreshments to raise more money, and if you wanted to you could take a cut of the money raised as payment for your hard work. A lot of open garden events are only staged annually, so you have a whole year to prepare your garden for the event and that way you don’t have to obtain a license from the council.

Start a beekeeping business

Did you know that it’s better for your immune system if you eat honey that’s made locally? It’s especially good if you suffer from seasonal allergies, like hay fever. Local bees will obviously collect nectar and pollen from local plants. Then, the honey they make contains a bit of pollen. Urban beekeeping is becoming more and more popular. Plus, you don’t need a lot of space to keep bees.

In New York, it’s become all the rage to keep bees on your roof! There are around 44,000 beekeepers in the UK, 95% of whom keep bees as a hobby. Looking after bees is surprisingly simple, you just need a couple of hours a week as they’re otherwise pretty self-sufficient. If you’re planning on keeping bees it’s probably a good idea to tell your immediate neighbours. Just in case there are any allergy sufferers around!

Bees aren’t as vicious as wasps, as they don’t sting for the sake of it. They are mainly interest in nectar and pollen, so there shouldn’t really be a problem. With one hive you can expect to harvest about 40lbs of honey, and what you don’t keep for yourself you can sell at local farmers’ markets and shops!

If you’re not interested in keeping bees, but don’t mind someone else using your garden for it, then why not host a beehive? You’ll no doubt get a lot of free honey from it! For more on urban beekeeping, try Urban Bees. You might need to be careful though. Many amateur beekeepers end up killing their bees by not giving them the right care and attention. Poor hive hygiene, overdosing and under-dosing with drug treatments and using illegal chemicals could kill off your bees.

Open your garden to the public

If you have a particularly nice garden, why not open it to the public? Some 4,000 gardens in England and Wales take part in the National Gardens Scheme. The money raised is donated to charity. Although you can’t really make money, it’s a great way to showcase the fruits of your labour. Plus, you’ll meet new people who share your passion. The size of your garden isn’t critical, and many NGS plots are typical back gardens.

You don’t have to have a huge grand garden to join. Most people are interested in a good range of plants and flowers. It is not necessarily about the size. It’s a great way to meet new people, have a cup of tea and chat about gardening. But remember, you can’t charge people for tea unless you go through hygiene and health and safety hoops. The NGS say that most people exhibit their gardens once or twice a year. This means you don’t have to worry about finding strangers in your garden all the time!

Get free gardening equipment

Gardening doesn’t come cheap. This is certainly the case if you’re just starting out. One of the best ways to try and cut your costs is by trying to get free gardening equipment. Community freebie sites such as Freegle, SnaffleUp, Gumtree or Freecycle are useful.

For whatever reason, people will always need to shift some of their stuff. People are giving unwanted goods away for free! You never know what you might find that could be useful in the garden and home. So, before you head down to buy your gardening must-haves, take a quick look. It’s also worth having a root around your local recycling centre – one person’s junk is another’s treasure. You might be surprised to discover what people throw away in order to make some space. Good-quality and rarely-used gardening tools often end up on the ‘junk’ pile.

Get free gardening seeds

Ask family and friends for cuttings or any spare seeds they might have to help your garden grow. You could arrange a swap so that you have a range of different plants and seeds. Many people buy seeds but end up storing them away never to be used. So, you may be surprised that plenty of people would be willing to donate them to a good home.

Lots of gardeners will also be happy to furnish you with free cuttings from plants they already grow. You might want to check out gardening swap sites like Garden Swap Shop. Most are free to use, and allow you to swap seeds and plants with other community members.

Ask your money-making questions

The Magpie community is full of savvy money savers and makers – and now’s your chance to ask your burning questions!

The new MoneyMagpie Messageboard brings together the Magpie community, MoneyMagpie team, and vetted experts to make sure your essential money-making questions get answered.

Take a look here and register to post a new thread or reply.

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