Podcasts are one of the most accessible forms of media. People can listen anytime, anywhere. According to Medium, the majority of listeners tune in during their commute: 52% while driving and 37% while on public transportation. And 32% of listeners catch up while they’re working out. Essentially, podcasts have become a part of people’s daily routine.

Because of the instant reach podcasts offer, businesses have tapped into this format to promote their brand, stand out against competitors and reach new audiences. Here are four reasons your business should consider creating a podcast today. 

Audio-only storytelling isn’t a new phenomenon. From radio dramas like 1930’s War of the Worlds to FDR’s fireside chats, we’ve been tuning in for over a century. But podcasts changed the game for the 21^st century. With free content available on-demand, it’s no wonder this form has exploded in popularity over the past few years.

As technology evolves at a rapid pace, the nature of marketing evolves with it. One of the most crucial innovations in the marketing landscape is artificial intelligence (AI).

But what exactly is AI? Put simply, AI is a system that can learn, reason and solve problems. And marketers see the potential. Here’s a brief look at how this technology can change the way marketers reach their audience.

Retail. It’s always evolving. When an industry is affected by digital habits, the economy and customer changes, businesses need to evolve with the industry to get ahead. To help your retail business keep up, Total Retail published “Total Retail’s 50 Best Retail Tips of 2018.” These tips have been sourced from articles published on their website and in their e-newsletter throughout the year.

Data is at the core of everything Jacobs & Clevenger does. All campaigns, each piece of marketing collateral and every word the agency uses in its messaging is carefully crafted to promote consumer engagement that can be tied back to real business outcomes.

For years, the retail and financial services industries have put an emphasis on customer engagement and the relationship they have. For the insurance industry, it has been different. Insurance companies would work to acquire new customers and often their relationships would be limited to sending a renewal notice every six months or a year. As competition increases, companies in the insurance industry need to find a new way to keep their customers engaged and avoid churn. Here are four ways insurance companies can make sure they are engaging their customers in the right way.

Maintaining customer’s loyalty and engagement has never been more difficult for businesses in the financial industry. With emerging free, convenient apps and alternatives to make payments the space has become very competitive for many financial services companies. To remain competitive, financial services marketers need to find a way to differentiate themselves from new competitors and provide value to their customers. Many have started to create loyalty programs to do this. Loyalty programs have expanded into many industries, with over 3.8 billion total U.S members participating in loyalty programs in 2017, they are no longer primarily for grocery and retail. Financial services loyalty programs require different thinking then a standard loyalty program, so here 3 ideas to focus on to make your financial services loyalty program successful.

Loyalty programs and customer incentives have been around for hundreds of years. It started by rewarding customers with copper tokens that could be redeemed on future purchases. Then it moved to the less costly programs like Green Stamps.

The work we do at J&C is entirely driven by business outcomes. The way we approach crafting an effective marketing strategy is founded on the concept of picturing the end goal first, and then building the pathway that will get us there. We are always proud of the work we deliver, but since being included on Clutch, we’ve gotten a valuable opportunity to see how our agency ranks compared to others in our field. In fact, we are excited to announce that Clutch recently included J&C in their research segments for the best digital agencies and email marketing companies in Chicago in 2018!

In a noisy and busy digital world, engaging with customers, providing them with a positive experience and building upon the relationship has become more challenging for marketers, these are top priority for many. Consumer behavior has changed and customers now have a preference toward companies that understand them individually and can relate to them directly with relevant messages and offers. Years ago this would have been nearly an impossible ask for marketers, yet with the advancements in marketing technology, the time required to do this has diminished greatly today. With many of these technologies being relatively new, many marketers still see this as a big ask because they are unfamiliar with the use cases and ways technology can help to build the relationships. Since building relationships and engaging with customers is a top priority for marketers, we have outlined three different ways marketing technology can help improve customer relationships.