D Custom

Looking to better understand your current and potential customers so you can better market your products or services? Look no further than buyer personas, which are a semi-fictional representation of your audience(s). The most effective marketing strategies typically include the use of buyer personas because, well, it works! But if you’re part of a B2B organization, your buyer personas should look somewhat different than those for a consumer-facing brand.

Last year, mobile internet usage officially surpassed desktop usage for the first time in history. It’s not surprising: according to the latest data posted by Broadband Search in early 2024, the average person interacts with their phone more than 2,617 per day. And since 2014, experts have been claiming that “mobile is eating the world.” What is surprising is that, in 2009, mobile internet usage was just around 2%.

Whether you’re a marketer, journalist, painter, drummer, cobbler, comedian, puppeteer, fortune cookie writer ­— sometimes, the ideas just don’t flow. We fixate on our lack of inspiration and become even more stuck. Hey, maybe you’re an eccentric recluse novelist who writes on your own schedule and revels in writer’s block — but for many (us included), the job depends on our ability to come up with the good stuff, and fast.

On any given day, it’s our job to go through three or four personality changes. From a corporate CTO looking to make a software purchase to a grocery-shopping parent picking out produce, we’re constantly pinning down our clients’ audience personas and putting ourselves in their shoes so that we can tell the right stories to the right people. Related: Don’t waste marketing dollars on audience assumptions. Have an up-front strategy.

If you work in marketing, you know how often industry jargon gets thrown around. A/B testing, KPIs, retargeting… it can all become a bit overwhelming if you’re unfamiliar with these complex topics. Now consider how much highly technical language is used in industries like medicine, technology and business. At D Custom, many of our clients work in highly complex industries and are familiar with the business-specific concepts and lexicon they navigate daily.

In the years since their debut, machine learning platforms like ChatGPT and DALL-E have already made a demonstrable impact on several industries and are changing the way a variety of jobs are being performed, including the work of marketing copywriters, editors and creative directors.

You probably know improving SEO rankings is key to raising the visibility of your brand at all points of the buyer’s journey — particularly at the consideration stage, during which your customers are actively seeking solutions to a defined problem. And because 86 percent of consumers say they turn to the search engines for information — the majority of those consumers searching with Google — much of your SEO strategy should center on pleasing Google’s ever-changing search algorithm.

You know the basics of a brainstorming session — prepping attendees with relevant background information, taking notes, being open to all contributions, and so on. But what’s your company to do when you check all the boxes and still come away with stale ideas? The difference between brainstorms that feel like a sprinkle and brainstorms that feel like a hurricane often lies in the details: the location, the right mix of participants, and subtle cues that foster collaboration.

If you’re anything like us, you couldn’t survive without your planner. Although we vary in our methods — some of us prefer a classic paper planner while others live and die by our digital calendars — planners help us all keep track of everything in our busy lives. Client meetings, social events, important dates, birthdays, reminders, appointments, trips, grocery lists, brainstorm doodles — you name it, it’s in there. We love a good editorial calendar for the same reason.

Did you know email predates the World Wide Web by 23 years? We’ve been sending and receiving emails since 1971. Each morning we’re greeted with the same onslaught of promotions, sales, newsletters and spam from businesses desperate to grab our attention. Who is Mindy, and why does she think I’ll open this email when I’ve ignored the last five? According to the Data & Marketing Association, there is only a 15.1% chance that we’ll open a B2B marketing email.