Now that we’re past Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the results are in. Once again, online shopping records have been SHATTERED.

According to Adobe, overall sales for 'Cyber Week' were up 5.4% from last year to $37.2 billion.

Online sales on Black Friday alone increased 7.5%.

There are many reasons. People are becoming more comfortable shopping online. The deals this year were better. And, of course, it’s easier than ever to shop online.

Here’s the rundown for today…

• YouTube Ad Blocker Crackdown - New Tactic

• What Happened At OpenAI - A Useful Summary

• Landing Page Trends - 16 Surprising Statistics

• AI For Holiday Marketing - 8 Ways To Use It

• 3 Social Media Hacks - Make Your Content Stand Out

Lurn Bytes: Your Daily News Download

YouTube Keeps Fighting Ad Blockers - YouTube is trying to maximize revenue by discouraging Ad Blockers. So far it’s been a losing battle. Now they’re resorting to dramatically reducing load times when they detect an ad blocker…

Drama At OpenAI (Summarized) - Last week OpenAI fired their CEO, he joined Microsoft, and then came back. Here’s a summary of how all of that went down.

16 Landing Page Statistics In 2023 - If you have a landing page, then you’re going to want to check out these statistics. They’ll help you understand industry trends AND get ideas on how to make your pages convert better.

8 Ways To Use AI For Holiday Marketing

For many marketers, the holiday season is an important time to generate sales. While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us, the 5-week stretch between now and the New Year is critical.

For the first time, there are mainstream AI tools that can help you create powerful holiday marketing.

TLDR - 8 Ways to Use AI for Holiday Marketing (+15 Prompts to Get Started!)

This article goes over some specific tools and PROMPTS to help you create high-quality holiday advertising.

Here are 8 different ways to use AI that the article talks about…

#1 - Tailor Holiday Ad Copy 

AI can help create different versions of holiday ads for different types of customers. It can also suggest products based on what customers have liked before.

#2 - Personalize Product Recommendations

AI can suggest holiday gifts for customers based on what they look at in your store. It's like how Amazon recommends products.

#3 - Optimize Cross-Channel Holiday Campaigns

AI can track how well holiday ads are doing and make changes QUICKLY. This helps reach customers better during the busy holiday season.

#4 - Improve Customer Support Routing

AI chatbots can guide customers to the right help during holidays. They can also recommend products and make the shopping experience fun.

#5 - Simpler Sales Forecasting 

AI can predict which products will sell well or run out during the holidays. This is done by looking at past sales and market trends.

#6 - Real-Time Ad Placement

AI can place holiday ads on websites where they will be MOST EFFECTIVE. This helps get the best return on investment for the ads.

#7 - Streamline Hashtags for Social

AI can suggest the best hashtags for holiday posts. This helps more people see your posts on social media.

#8 - Campaign Brainstorming

AI can help come up with ideas for holiday marketing. It can suggest topics for blogs, emails, and social media posts.

The article goes into more detail with each and gives you 15 prompts to implement them.

Check it out!

Daily Hack - 3 “Hacks” To Make Your Social Media Content Stand Out

Creating unique social media content that stands out from the crowd is a crucial part of any marketer’s job.

But with the number of posts made each day on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, it can be difficult to make your content that’s engaging and better than your competitors.

Here are 3 quick “hacks” to help you get your social media content noticed.

#1 - Avoid Posting at Peak Times

Posting at peak times may seem like a good idea, but it can actually be counterproductive.

When you post during peak hours, your content is more likely to get lost in the shuffle. Instead, try posting during off-peak hours. This can help your content stand out, as there will be fewer posts to compete with.

So when are these off-peak hours?

It varies depending on your audience and platform, but generally speaking, you'll want to avoid posting during the busiest times of the day.

For example, on Facebook, it's best to avoid posting between 1-4 pm on weekdays. On Instagram, it's best to avoid posting during the hours of 9 am - 12 pm and 3 pm - 4 pm on weekdays.

See when your competitors are usually posting and avoid those times!

#2 - Repurpose Your Best Content

Don't let your old content go to waste. Take your best-performing content and repurpose it with new captions and titles.

By doing this, you can breathe new life into your old content and reach a new audience.

Start by identifying your top-performing content. Look for posts that have high engagement rates or have been shared frequently. Once you've identified these posts, repurpose them with a new caption or title.

You can also create new graphics or add new information to the post to make it more relevant to your current audience.

#3 - Reply to Comments on Older Posts

Start by going through your older posts and responding to any comments. Make sure to reply with thoughtful and engaging responses to encourage further engagement.

When you reply to comments, it shows that you value your followers and are actively engaged with them. This can help build loyalty and encourage users to engage with your newer content as well.

But it serves another goal too.

When you reply, your most recent posts will show up in that user’s feed. That increases engagement rates incrementally. This can have a big snowball effect.

ICYMI - The Biggest Stories You May Have Missed

Maybe AI Won’t Outsmart Us After All - Google researchers have found that transformers, the technology behind large language models like ChatGPT, are not very good at generalizing beyond their training data. This discovery poses a challenge for achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is AI that can perform any task a human can…

YouTube Continues To Fight Ad Blockers - It’s stepping up its fight against ad blockers by slowing down website load times for users detected using these tools. The platform aims to discourage ad blocking by making the viewing experience slower and more frustrating, as part of its efforts to maintain its ad revenue…

How To Get Ahead Of Google Search Updates - Google is constantly changing its search algorithm, which makes it tough for businesses trying to optimize for SEO. It turns out that Google’s own Bard AI tool can help you stay ahead of the next updates…

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