Amazon held what amounted to an extra Prime Day in October, blanketing its site with deals. Best Buy rolled out Black Friday-level sales last month. And on Friday, Kohl’s entered the first 200 people to walk into each of its stores into a sweepstakes, with prizes including gift cards to Sephora and a family trip to a Legoland resort.

With the arrival of the all-important holiday shopping season, retailers are not just competing with one another to attract customers. They are also competing against the clock.

For now, Americans are spending, buoyed by pandemic-era savings and a red-hot labor market. But at the same time, prices are climbing at the fastest pace in decades and the Federal Reserve is attempting to rein them in by raising interest rates. That effort to curb demand by making borrowing more expensive is, in turn, making consumers pessimistic about the economy. And a recession is a distinct possibility.

Retailers, some of them sitting on a glut of inventory, want to sell as much as they can while consumers are still pulling out their wallets. So they are barraging customers with discounts, hoping to entice them to buy before an economic slowdown causes a change in behavior once more.

Whether retailers succeed will have profound implications. Billions of dollars are at stake, and companies will be watching the outcome closely as they make hiring and investment decisions for the new year.

“We’re going to spend a lot of time right now focused on executing our plan, getting through the holiday season and then assessing the consumer and the overall retail landscape as we look to 2023,” Brian Cornell, the chief executive of Target, said on a call with analysts this month.

More broadly, retail sales during the holiday shopping period could provide clues about the trajectory of the economy in the weeks and months to come.

“For the overall economy, I think that it’s going to be very important to look at what the consumer is doing because really that’s going to be your key indicator,” said Lydia Boussour, an economist at EY-Parthenon. “It’s the key engine of growth.”

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Forecasters generally believe that consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of total economic growth, will remain strong in the fourth quarter, in large part because of household savings. Collectively, Americans by the middle of this year were still sitting on about $1.7 trillion in extra savings accumulated during the pandemic, based on Fed estimates, thanks in part to government aid.

But in September, the most recent month for which calculations were available, Americans saved only 3.1 percent of their after-tax income, less than half the share before the pandemic. And poorer Americans are seeing their savings dwindle even faster than wealthier ones.

Meanwhile, credit card balances in the third quarter swelled 15 percent compared with a year earlier, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That was the largest increase in more than two decades, as consumers increasingly rely on credit even as borrowing costs are rising.

And a University of Michigan survey this month showed a sharp decline in “consumer sentiment” — a measurement of how people feel about the economy and their financial situation. Even as consumers continue to make purchases, Ms. Boussour said, “they’re feeling depressed about the overall economic situation, and they are going to grow increasingly reluctant to spend.”

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Retail sales grew 1.3 percent in October, more than expected, as shoppers snapped up earlier-than-usual holiday deals. Some major retailers including Walmart and Home Depot reported strong third-quarter earnings, bolstered by sales for less discretionary goods like groceries or items related to home renovation and do-it-yourself projects. “Households are still spending money because they can,” said Aneta Markowska, chief financial economist at the investment bank Jefferies. “I still think there’s a lot of uncertainty about next year because the Fed obviously has raised rates very aggressively this year and we haven’t really felt the effects yet.”

But several retailers said they saw demand for their products slow during the month, and when shoppers did buy, they seemed motivated by sales. Some companies have lowered their financial outlook or declined outright to provide forecasts for next year to avoid being caught flat-footed.

This was not how the end of this year was supposed to be. For two holiday shopping seasons, retailers strained against pandemic disruptions. Now that the virus restrictions and supply chain snarls that defined those periods have largely abated, retailers had been expecting something of a return to normal.

Instead, retailers find themselves trying to outrun a likely economic slowdown.

To entice bargain-hungry shoppers and move unwanted inventory, many companies are promoting “value,” offering steep discounts and low prices more so than last year even as labor costs remain high. Many started their holiday blitzes early in the hopes of jump starting sales. Target held Deal Days in October and Old Navy rolled out a “Sorry, Not Sorry” holiday campaign. “Value clearly matters to everyone,” Corie Barry, the chief executive of Best Buy, said on an earnings call last week.

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At J.C. Penney, stores returned to 5 a.m. doorbusters on Black Friday, promoting the “pre-inflation pricing” for items like Instant Pots, hair flat irons and coats.

Jeff Gennette, the chief executive of Macy’s, said that a feature on its website that allows users to peruse gifts priced from $15 to $100 seemed to be particularly tempting to shoppers.

“If you’ve got an item that’s competing with the competitor, and you’re a higher price, you’ve got to make those adjustments,” he said.

Retailers are trying to eliminate any obstacles between a shopper and a potential purchase. Jill Timm, the chief financial officer for Kohl’s, said the chain was providing more personalized offers to shoppers, as well as clearly laying out the discount amounts on certain items to prevent customers from being confused “because they had to do math.”

Kohl’s is “really making sure that the offers that we’re putting in are meaningful to the customer to drive their behavior,” Ms. Timm said.

Signaling value is part of the overall strategy for Primark, an international clothing retailer, as it looks to grow its presence in the United States.

In a recently opened store at a mall in Garden City, N.Y., Primark executives pointed out large signs that advertised $11 hoodies, $4 biker shorts and $20 for a baby-blue bag featuring Stitch from the Disney movie “Lilo and Stitch” — and noted that a candle, at 90 cents without any holiday discount, cost less than at Walmart.

“It needs to be a very clear moment when you walk in of that perception that there is amazing value throughout the whole store,” said Kevin Tulip, Primark’s U.S. president.

Shoppers seemed price conscious on Black Friday and throughout the weekend.

Retailers dropped online prices for merchandise like toys, electronics and computers, according to data released on Friday from Adobe Analytics. Discounts for sporting goods and TVs were far steeper this year than last year, according to Adobe data, and clothing prices were slightly lower this year. The average discount for Black Friday deals in the United States was 30 percent, according to Salesforce. In 2019, Salesforce said, the average discount rate for Black Friday was 33 percent.

In-store sales on Friday rose 12 percent from last year, and e-commerce sales increased 14 percent compared with 2021, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse data released on Saturday. Those sales included spending not just in retail stores but also at restaurants.

Still, not everyone was satisfied. On social media, people complained that Black Friday deals weren’t as sizable as they expected.

In San Francisco, Riz Gordon, 24, woke up at 6 a.m. on Friday to shop with her parents and younger sister. Going to the stores that day is “a long family tradition,” she said, and they had already picked out stocking stuffers and smaller presents. But inflation was on their minds.

“The prices are very much different than 10 years ago,” Ms. Gordon said.

On Sunday, at a Target in Springfield, Ill., D.J. Baggerly, 69, made a quick trip for one final Christmas gift: a white knitted throw blanket. She had spent the weekend mostly shopping online, working through her grandchildren’s wish list.

Ms. Baggerly lives on a fixed income, and the higher prices for gas and groceries, she said, have been “ridiculous.” Asked if she planned to cut back on spending in the coming weeks, she said, “Oh yeah. I’m done.”

Ben Casselman and Kalley Huang contributed reporting.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The U.S. Treasury on Saturday granted Chevron a license for a limited expansion of energy operations in Venezuela, signaling the possible beginning of the country’s re-entry into the international oil market. Foreign investment in the oil sector is something that Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, desperately needs to improve the economy.

The license was issued in response to the resumption of talks between representatives of Mr. Maduro’s government and the Venezuelan opposition in Mexico on Saturday, after a stalemate that stretched more than a year. The two sides agreed that billions in government funds frozen abroad should be transferred to a humanitarian fund administered by the United Nations.

A senior Biden administration official described Saturday’s announcements as “important steps in the right direction,” but added that there was “a long way” to go in resolving Venezuela’s complex economic, political and humanitarian crisis.

The deal is part of a shift in U.S. strategy on Venezuela that many analysts say has been accelerated by reduced global oil supplies as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Venezuela holds vast oil reserves, and its energy production potential has grown in global relevance amid the largest land war in Europe since World War II.

In a call with reporters on Saturday, the senior U.S. official rejected the notion that the license had been issued to Chevron as a result of an increase in energy prices, saying it was part of an effort by the Biden administration to restore democracy to Venezuela.

The multibillion-dollar humanitarian agreement — a verbal accord that has not yet been signed by the Maduro government or the opposition — amounts to a concession by Mr. Maduro, who has long denied the scope of the humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding in Venezuela under his watch.

The Chevron deal is limited in scope. It is good for six months, and must be renewed after that. The agreement leaves space for the United States to revoke it if Mr. Maduro does not follow through on the humanitarian or other commitments — or to offer him future concessions if he does.

The Biden Presidency

Here’s where the president stands after the midterm elections.

• Beating the Odds: President Biden had the best midterms of any president in 20 years, but he still faces the sobering reality of a Republican-controlled House.
• 2024 Questions: Mr. Biden feels buoyant after the better-than-expected midterms, but as he turns 80, he confronts a decision on whether to run again that has some Democrats uncomfortable.
• The ‘Trump Project’: With Donald J. Trump’s announcement that he is officially running for president again, Mr. Biden and his advisers are planning to go on the offensive.
• Legislative Agenda: The Times analyzed every detail of Mr. Biden’s major legislative victories and his foiled ambitions. Here’s what we found.

The Biden administration is also calling on Mr. Maduro to allow the United Nations to have unfettered access to Venezuela to write and publish assessments on the progress of the new humanitarian agreement.

In granting this license, the United States “is still holding on to plenty of leverage for future talks,” said Geoff Ramsey, director of the Venezuela program at the Washington Office on Latin America.

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The Chevron deal would allow the company to expand operations at a few projects it already runs with Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, and to import Venezuelan oil to the United States. It specifically states that the oil company is prohibited from paying any taxes or royalties to the government of Venezuela. Instead, according to the Biden administration official, profits earned will go toward the repayment of government debt to Chevron.

In an email, a Chevron spokesman, Ray Fohr, said that the company was “determined to remain a constructive presence in the country.”

Venezuela was once an affluent nation, its economy flush with oil money. But Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez — two leaders claiming socialist ideals — plunged the economy into disarray while destroying its democratic institutions.

The resulting humanitarian crisis has caused more than seven million Venezuelans, a quarter of the population, to flee to other nations. In recent months, a record number of Venezuelans have arrived at the U.S. border, seeking new lives.

During the Trump years, the administration tried to weaken Mr. Maduro through sanctions and isolation. The Biden administration has opted for more engagement.

Mr. Maduro’s larger goal is for Washington to lift all U.S. sanctions, allowing him to engage with the global economy, rebuild Venezuela’s dilapidated energy sector and restore its enfeebled economy.

Washington’s ultimate goal — and that of the otherwise often fractured Venezuelan opposition — is to push Mr. Maduro toward setting free and fair conditions for the 2024 presidential election. In the past, Mr. Maduro has controlled elections by barring many opposition leaders, jailing others and co-opting political parties.

Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin America Energy Program at Rice University, said the Chevron deal was not just symbolic. Within two years, the company could be producing more than 200,000 barrels a day in Venezuela, adding to the approximately 765,000 barrels now pumped daily, according to Argus, an industry monitor.

The issue to watch going forward, he added, is whether other companies will be able to use the Chevron deal to pressure Washington into lifting further sanctions against Venezuela.

Current U.S. rules prohibit both American and foreign companies from buying Venezuelan oil. But entities like Repsol in Spain and Reliance in India have lobbied Washington for sanctions relief for years, Mr. Monaldi said.

“It’s very hard to justify — for the U.S. to tell India not to buy Venezuelan oil when they are buying Venezuelan oil,” he said.

While the multibillion-dollar humanitarian aid deal still needs to be finalized, on Saturday the Venezuelan government and opposition signed an accord laying out the framework for monitoring that future program. Norway will facilitate that monitoring process.

In a presentation to the news media, Dag Nylander, the head of the Norwegian delegation at the meeting in Mexico, said that the aid program would work to improve the country’s public health system, its national electricity system and its public education system, and that it would address problems caused by torrential rains this year.

Julie Turkewitz reported from Bogotá, Colombia, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs from Nantucket, in Massachusetts. Isayen Herrera contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.

John Y. Brown Jr., a born salesman who became a multimillionaire by transforming Kentucky Fried Chicken into a global brand and then sold himself to voters in a six-week TV blitz to become Kentucky’s governor, serving one term, died on Tuesday in Lexington, Ky. He was 88.

His family said the death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of Covid-19.

Mr. Brown, a 30-year-old lawyer at the time, and a fellow investor bought Kentucky Fried Chicken from its founder, Harlan Sanders, for $2 million in 1964 (about $19.3 million today). Over the next seven years he transformed a national string of about 600 restaurants into one of the world largest fast-food chains, with some 3,000 red-and-white-striped takeout outlets.

He sold the business in 1971 to Heublein Inc., the distiller, for a personal profit estimated at more than $30 million (about $225 million today).

A prodigious Democratic fund-raiser, Mr. Brown, a son of a former Kentucky congressman and state legislator, initially flirted with a political career, considering a run for the United States Senate before deciding against it at the last minute and then gauging a bid for governor in 1975 before again declining to join the race.

In 1979, however, recently wed to Phyllis George, a pioneering sportscaster and former Miss America, Mr. Brown plunged into a six-week television campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and defeated several candidates by a plurality of just under 30 percent. He then easily defeated Louie B. Nunn, a former Republican governor, that November.

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Hobbled by a recession, Mr. Brown compiled a mixed record as the state’s chief executive Casting himself as “the maker of policy and manager of finances,” he sought to attract investment by promoting “Kentucky & Co.” as “the state that’s run like a business.” But to keep the state solvent, he had to shrink the government payroll by thousands of employees while trying to avoid major reductions in services.

“He was a sound steward of the commonwealth’s resources, but he was not a leader who proposed new programs in areas such as education or human resources,” Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau and Bruce L. McClure wrote in “Kentucky’s Governors” (1985).

After completing his term in December 1983, Mr. Brown entered Kentucky’s 1984 Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat but withdrew six weeks later, citing the lingering effects of life-threatening heart-bypass surgery he had undergone in his last year in office as governor. In 1987, he sought the gubernatorial nomination again but came in second in the Democratic primary. By then, his luster as a potential national candidate had faded.

His career as an investor had continued after his purchase of Kentucky Fried Chicken. In 1969, he bought a controlling interest in the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association. The team won the league championship in 1975 but folded when the A.B.A. merged with the National Basketball Association the next year. Mr. Brown then bought a half interest in the Buffalo Braves of the N.B.A., a former expansion team.

But when he was blocked from moving the Braves to Louisville, Ky., Mr. Brown and a partner made a deal with the Boston Celtics ownership to swap the teams. (The new owners soon moved the Braves to San Diego and later Los Angeles as the Clippers.) In Boston, Mr. Brown alienated loyalists by trading away popular players before selling the team in 1979.

He also founded a roasted-chicken restaurant chain with the country music star Kenny Rogers, calling it Kenny Rogers Roasters. It grew to 350 outlets, but competition from Kentucky Fried Chicken, by then known as KFC, and the Boston Chicken chain (later known as Boston Market) drove it into bankruptcy in 1998. (It was later bought by Nathan’s Famous.)

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John Young Brown Jr. was born in Lexington on Dec. 28, 1933. John Sr. was a trial lawyer who served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives in the mid-1930s and was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives for several decades. He lost perennial races for governor and the U.S. Senate — losses that haunted his son and which John Jr. later blamed on machine politicians whose support his father had spurned. His mother was Dorothy (Inman) Brown.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1957 and a law degree in 1960, both from the University of Kentucky, and served in the Army Reserve from 1959 to 1965.

Entrepreneurial by instinct, in high school Mr. Brown had made up to $1,000 a month in commissions in a summer job peddling vacuum cleaners, and as much as $25,000 a year selling the Encyclopaedia Britannica during law school.

He was also a high-stakes gambler, a habit that rivals would wield against him. He was investigated for failing to make a mandatory report of a $1.3 million cash withdrawal from one of his bank accounts, although he was never charged with wrongdoing.

Mr. Brown’s first marriage, to Eleanor Durall, who was known as Ellie, ended in divorce. In 1973, named chairwoman of the Kentucky Colonels after she bought a majority of the team’s stock, she became the first woman to head a major professional basketball team.

His marriage to Ms. George, in 1979, also ended in divorce, in 1998. She died of a rare blood cancer in 2020 at 70 after a long career as a CBS sportscaster, in which she shattered a barrier in 1975 by joining the all-male cast of the program “The NFL Today.”

His third marriage, to Jill Louise Roach, a former Mrs. Kentucky, ended in divorce in 2003.

Mr. Brown is survived by three children from his first marriage, Sissy Brown, Sandra Brown Steier and John Y. Brown III, who served as Kentucky’s secretary of state in the late 1990s and early 2000s; and two children from his marriage to Ms. George, Lincoln Tyler George Brown and Pamela Brown, a senior Washington correspondent and weekend anchor for CNN.

One of the largest shareholders in News Corp said on Friday that it had strong reservations about the plans of its chairman, Rupert Murdoch, to combine the two parts of his media business, News Corp and Fox — the biggest indicator yet that Mr. Murdoch could face significant opposition.

T. Rowe Price, which owns about 12 percent of News Corp — making it the company’s largest shareholder after the Murdoch family — said in an interview with The New York Times that a merger of the two companies would probably undervalue News Corp, which it believes is trading for less than the company is worth. It also said that because the Murdoch family owns a bigger share of Fox than News Corp, the family’s interests may lie more with Fox.

Both companies have appointed special committees of independent directors to review the proposal, which does not yet include a valuation for either company.

The deal, which could put Fox News under the same corporate umbrella as The Wall Street Journal, would reverse a decision made nearly a decade ago to divide the company’s film and TV holdings from its sprawling global portfolio of newspapers. Mr. Murdoch has said he sees cost-saving and moneymaking opportunities in joining the two companies, including ways to use the company’s assets for emerging business lines across the two companies, such as sports betting.

T. Rowe’s decision to raise its concerns publicly is a rarity for the asset manager, which generally prefers to resolve its issues behind the scenes. The most recent instance of T. Rowe raising public concerns about a deal was in 2019, when it came out against Occidental Petroleum’s merger with Anadarko Petroleum.

News Corp and Fox declined to comment.

The two companies disclosed in October that Mr. Murdoch had put forward a proposal to recombine them. The Murdoch Family Trust, which Rupert Murdoch controls with his eldest children, commands roughly 40 percent of the vote at both Fox and News Corp through its more powerful but less numerous Class B shares. Those numbers are different than their total ownership of the company.

But any deal requires the approval of a majority of investors who are not part of the Murdoch trust. Depending on how the deal is structured, both Class A and Class B shareholders in News Corp would have a vote.

The courts have recently applied more scrutiny to deals involving large shareholders like the Murdochs to make sure the deals are fair to all shareholders. If both News Corp and Fox win support from the majority of shareholders outside the Murdoch family, that could help fend off potential litigation, legal experts have said.

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T. Rowe Price wanted to make its concerns known to the boards — and the public — before the companies put forward any firm proposal, said Vincent DeAugustino, one of the portfolio managers who oversees T. Rowe’s investment in News Corp.

“It’s more constructive to help form the process than try to push back against any proposal once it’s been made,” Mr. DeAugustino said.

T. Rowe Price raised its concerns with News Corp’s special committee in recent weeks, Mr. DeAugustino said. Though the valuation of News Corp is the primary concern, T. Rowe has other concerns related to the deal. They include the value that Fox offers News Corp, given the decline of the traditional TV business and the potential financial consequences of litigation against Fox News by the voting machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic. The companies are each suing Fox News for damages exceeding $1 billion, arguing that Fox’s hosts promoted defamatory conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election. Fox has countered that the commentary is inherently newsworthy and protected under the First Amendment.

Mr. DeAugustino said he worried that the special committees appointed to review the deal were not sufficiently independent.

“It stands to reason, given the high degree of sensitivities here, that there would be a lot of external pressure by shareholders as the special committee performs its work,” Mr. DeAugustino said.

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Pressure from investors has been steadily building on the Murdochs in recent weeks. On Sunday, the activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which owns about 2 percent of News Corp’s Class B shares, sent a letter to News Corp’s special committee stating its concerns about a deal. Other investors have also expressed reservations.

That resistance creates a delicate balancing act for the Murdoch family, said Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School who specializes in corporate law and governance. The decision to raise concerns about the merger among News Corp investors may be aimed at securing a higher price for their shares. At the same time, Fox shareholders would probably object to an overly favorable deal for News Corp investors.

“There is a breaking point here, where the game becomes unworthy of the gamble,” Mr. Talley said.

Fox and News Corp have declined to make their executives available to discuss the merger on the record. But in November, Fox’s chief executive, Lachlan Murdoch, said on an earnings conference call that a series of recent mega-mergers in the media industry have underscored the importance of size.

“Scale is important,” Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s oldest son, said. “Scale lends flexibility in many ways.”

Robert Thomson, the News Corp chief executive, acknowledged the deal-making process in an October note to employees, adding that the company has had two consecutive years of record profits.

Like some other News Corp shareholders, Mr. DeAugustino said he thought that confusion among investors had led them to undervalue shares of News Corp, in part because it owns a varied collection of properties, including a stake in the real estate listings business REA Group worth roughly $5.7 billion. Irenic argues that shares of News Corp, now trading at $18 a share, could be worth $34.

Mr. DeAugustino said he agreed with other investors that there could be merit to spinning off its real estate or Dow Jones businesses. T. Rowe wants the special committee to consider all of its options.

But, he added, “For a patient investor willing to wait out temporary pressures, maybe doing nothing is the best option.”

Diplomats from the European Union failed to agree Friday on final details of a policy to help limit Russia’s revenue from oil, according to senior E.U. diplomats, the latest setback to an effort led by the United States and Ukraine’s allies to curb the flow of cash financing Russia’s war in Ukraine.

For most of the past week, ambassadors of the 27 E.U. members meeting in Brussels have been unable to settle on a top price that traders, shippers and other companies in the supply chain could pay for Russian oil sold outside the bloc. The policy must be in place before an E.U. embargo on Russian oil imports kicks in on Dec. 5. The talks are set to resume next week.The embargo applies only in the 27-nation bloc. So to further limit Russia’s financial gains, the group wants to cap how much buyers outside the region pay for Russian oil. That crude could only be sold outside Europe and would have to be below the agreed-upon price. Russia has repeatedly said it will ignore the policy and analysts have said it would be difficult to enforce.

The United States and Europe have imposed sanctions on Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, cutting the country off from financial markets, and making oil, its biggest export, essential to financing the war. At stake is a complex and fraught effort among Ukraine’s allies to limit the Kremlin’s revenues from oil exports while averting a shortage of the fuel, which would force prices up and compound a global cost-of-living crisis.

The E.U. ambassadors have been asked to set a price from $65 to $70 per barrel, and to be flexible about enforcing the limit.

The benchmark for the price of Russian oil, known as the Urals blend, has traded from $60 to $100 per barrel in the past three years. In the past three months, the price is trading from $65 to $75 per barrel.

The burden of carrying out and policing the price cap policy will be on the businesses that help sell the oil. Those global shipping and insurance companies are mostly based in Europe. Most tankers transporting Russian oil are Greek-owned, according to maritime data. And London is home to the world’s biggest maritime insurance companies.

Some E.U. ambassadors, especially those from Poland and other staunch Ukraine allies, said that the price range proposed by the G7 was too high and that the cap should be set much lower in order to hurt Russian revenues, according to several E.U. diplomats directly involved in or briefed on the talks. They asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Ambassadors from those holdout countries also want to see the oil price cap come hand-in-hand with clear and immediate plans for further sanctions against Russia — and are refusing to sign off on the cap without assurances that more sanctions are on the way.

Greece, Cyprus and Malta — which have serious stakes in the policy because of their large maritime industries — had been asking for a higher cap but by Friday had agreed on a cap around $65 per barrel, diplomats said.

France, Germany and Italy — the three E.U. nations that are members of the Group of 7 industrialized countries driving the Russian oil price cap — together with a number of other E.U. members, argued in favor of the U.S. position for a higher price cap and soft-touch enforcement, diplomats said.

The European Union embargo on Russian oil that kicks in on Dec. 5 also includes a ban on European services to ship, finance or insure Russian oil shipments to destinations outside the bloc, a measure that would disable the infrastructure that moves Russia’s oil to buyers around the world.

The price cap, though, would allow these European shipping providers to ignore the embargo as long as they ship the Russian crude outside the bloc at a price below the cap. Enforcing this would be left to the companies. Otherwise, they would be held legally liable for violating sanctions.

After two years of pandemic improvisation and in-store restrictions, this year’s Black Friday felt like a return to normalcy.

Shoppers who ventured out on Friday, and even those who didn’t, saw a deluge of deals that had been missing the past couple of years. Many retailers pushed lower prices both in stores and online in response to Americans having recently shown they were more than willing to wait for a discount before making a purchase.

“I think we’re going back to what we had before the pandemic with what we’re offering on Black Friday,” said Stephen Lebovitz, the chief executive officer of CBL Properties, which owns about 95 properties, including shopping centers and malls across the United States. “There are changes, but it’s going to feel a lot more like 2019 Black Friday than anything in the interim years.”

Still, near-record inflation and dwindling savings kept some shoppers home and left retailers unsure what the season would ultimately bring.

Many well-off consumers remain stable financially and appear ready to spend, but others face far more economic uncertainty. That isn’t expected to change anytime soon. Analysts, economists and retail executives are monitoring a potential economic slowdown in the first few months of 2023 that could worsen consumers’ wariness.

That makes the holiday season — always the most important time for retailers — even more crucial this year.

As the day began at Macy’s Herald Square, the department store’s flagship location in Manhattan, there was a steady flow of customers, and store employees clapped as people entered. Some said they were excited to shop but had concerns over prices.

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Tammy Freeman, 59, from New York, stood at the front of the line near the store’s main entrance, ready for her annual Black Friday excursion. She said that she was eager to buy various items, including a case for her daughter’s laptop, but noted that inflation was changing her general approach to spending.

“I have to budget more,” she said. “I have to catch the sales more.”

Eighty percent of holiday shoppers are likely to make a purchase from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, according to a survey from Bankrate. People pulled out their wallets on Thanksgiving Day as well, with sales up 2.9 percent compared with a year earlier, according to Adobe Analytics. Adobe estimated that spending for the holiday season would increase 2.5 percent from last year.

On Friday, bargain-hunting shoppers definitely seemed to have the power. Stores posted signs advertising 50 to 60 percent off items. At a Target in Springfield, Ill., shoppers walked around with 65-inch televisions in shopping carts, and some wore matching T-shirts that said “Gather, gobble and shop.”

In San Francisco’s Union Square, it was relatively quiet. By 7 a.m., when the line outside Macy’s had dissipated, it felt “more or less like a normal day,” said Clifford Cheng, a retail associate at the store.

At a nearby Neiman Marcus, only about a dozen shoppers waited outside ahead of the store’s 9 a.m. opening. Natali Carrasco, 20, and Batechaa Steele, 20, were first-time Black Friday shoppers at the luxury department store.

“We always come and shop here, but we always buy full price, so we wanted to see the sales,” Ms. Carrasco said.

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Even before the start of the season, some shoppers were already cutting back on discretionary purchases, leaving retailers with an unusually high level of inventory. They want to unload as much of that as possible before the start of the new year.

“The more sales merchandise that they move through now the better,” said Kristen Gall, president of the online platform Rakuten, which offers cash-back deals. “Because if you get caught holding a lot of inventory in January and February and consumers pull back because things feel significantly more recessionary, that’s where the worry comes in for retailers.”

Despite the economic unease shoppers have expressed, retailers said they were optimistic.

“Even in really tough years Black Friday is a very strong day for us,” Jeff Gennette, Macy’s chief executive, said in an interview.

And there were promising signs. Forty percent of consumers said they planned to shop in malls this holiday season, higher than the 35 percent of consumers who did during the 2019 Christmas season, before pandemic lockdowns, according to a survey from the consultancy KPMG. Last year, the number of shoppers who said they planned to venture inside a mall was 31 percent.

Americans were also still purchasing gifts online. Adobe said online sales for Black Friday were expected to total $9 billion, up 1 percent year-over-year.

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Retailers took different approaches to entice shoppers to spend. Macy’s did not bring back the opening doorbuster deals — which went away during the pandemic amid social distancing guidelines — and instead offered sales throughout the day. It also continued the pandemic-era tradition of having Santa take photos with children while seated behind a desk, a sign that Covid concerns remain.

J.C. Penney leaned back into doorbusters for the first time since 2019 because it said it wanted to motivate discount-focused shoppers to get out to stores. For its 5 a.m. doorbusters, the department store chain deliberately kept “pre-inflation pricing” on key items like Instant Pots, bath towels and boots. Signs in stores trumpeted 65 percent off discounts.

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“We think we’ll have a big volume of customers at the store, and to bring them in we know that value is very important to the consumer right now,” said Marc Rosen, J.C. Penney’s chief executive.

On its website, the mall owner CBL highlighted the discounts that stores like H&M and the children’s apparel retailer Carter’s were offering. Other retailers employed a similar strategy in the days leading up to Black Friday. J. Crew on Monday advertised 50 percent off purchases. On Gap’s website, a large black banner scrolled atop the page saying “HPY BLK FRI” and highlighting 50 percent off deals with an additional 10 percent markdown.

There are risks for retailers, however, in relying more heavily on deals. The practice erodes profit margins that buoyed them during the pandemic, when many Americans spent plenty on all sorts of goods and retailers did not feel the need to entice them with too many deals. There are also worries that shoppers will become so accustomed to sales that they will only buy when promised a lower price.

“Consumers understanding that they can wait out discounts, coupled with retailers’ drive to move goods, likely means that this Black Friday will be more important than Black Friday has been in a long time,” Simeon Siegel, a managing director at BMO Capital Markets, said. “Whether that’s good for the brands, whether that’s good for the consumer — that’s a separate conversation.”

Retailers are also competing more with entertainment options, like concerts and dining out at restaurants, than they have in the past couple of years. Consumers are expected to allocate a larger share of their holiday spending on experiences this year compared with last. The average amount that middle-income Americans, who make between $50,000 to $99,000 annually, spend on experiences is expected to increase 15 percent this year, according to a survey released in October from Deloitte.

Of course, not every retailer places so much importance on Black Friday.

The outdoor equipment retailer REI has remained closed on the day since 2015. This year, the company said it had decided to permanently give its workers a paid day off on Black Friday, encouraging them to spend time outside instead.

But that was the exception. Even while the total sales for Black Friday were still being tallied, many retailers were already looking to further entice shoppers by rolling out advertisements for more discounts on Monday.

“We believe that the consumer is quite aware of the fact that there’s plenty of inventory out there,” Richard Hayne, the chief executive of Urban Outfitters, said on a call with analysts this month. “And what they’re doing is waiting for big promotional events that normally occur on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in order to make their purchases.”

Retailers may need to offer more deals, he said, but “I don’t believe it will be a total blood bath.”

Isabella Simonetti and Kalley Huang contributed reporting.

Marketing is essential to your business.

You can call me Captain Obvious.

Marketing is not something you should do all the time. But what if there were a way to simplify things? You could automate repetitive tasks entirely.

You can automate your marketing campaigns with the best marketing automation software. Get a free trial of one my top choices to automate your marketing campaigns.

1. Constant Contact – The best all-around marketing automation tool
2. Sendinblue – Best for SMS, email and chat marketing automation
3. EngageBay is the best for customer service and sales automation
4. ActiveCampaign – Best for B2C Marketing Automation
5. Freshworks CRM – The Best Ecommerce Software
6. HubSpot – Centralizing your tech stack
7. Acoustic – Ideal for enterprise multi-channel marketing automation
8. Marketing agencies should use Act-On.
9. Pardot by Salesforce: Best for B2B Companies

This review covers all the strengths and weaknesses that I have found in my top picks. Marketing automation is an important part of my business. I have strong opinions on what automation works and when it should be used.

This post will list more than 20 marketing automation tools that I recommend. You can learn how it works by giving it a try.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation refers to the use of software and technology to create or implement automated tasks such as tracking, email marketing, and ad campaigns.

Brands could, for example, create an automated lead generation funnel that collects email addresses, sends a demo and invites prospects to schedule a demo.

Marketing automation isn't something you should ignore. It's the new standard.

Marketing automation is essential if you are to remain competitive.

The good news is: Marketing automation can help you save time and money as well as improve your marketing efficiency. These are just a few of the ways you can add it to your marketing strategy.

1. Constant Contact will deliver powerful emails quickly and easily

Constant Contact is a powerful email marketing automation tool with strong automation capabilities that can take your marketing beyond the basics.

Its autoresponder can be used in many ways. It can be used to build welcome sequences and drip campaigns as well as any other type of automated email campaign.

This applies to all aspects: timing, volume and subject matter. Targeting, targeting, triggering and even email content.

Constant Contact also allows you to embed custom forms quickly on landing pages. You can get email addresses and names, as well as any other information that you need.

You can send one welcome sequence for senior VP-level subscribers and another for sales people, or another for regular Joes. This is just for job titles. It doesn't matter where they live or what their favorite beer is, you could slice them.

You can make it as detailed and granular as you like. Constant Contact will manage the long-tail automated campaigns for each track, and you can let Constant Contact handle the rest over weeks or months. You can simply look at the reports to keep an eye on the pulse.

To really enjoy the benefits of Constant Contact's email automation, you will need Constant Contact's Plus Plan. This starts at $45/month and can be extended to 500 contacts. For every additional 2,500 contacts, the price will go up by $25-$30.

2. Sendinblue offers you the opportunity to purchase abandoned carts and after-purchase items

Marketing automation is an important tool in ecommerce. Sendinblue can help you close the gaps that let sales opportunities slip by your grasp.

It's easy to set up. Sendinblue has powerful automation features right out of the box. Although you can create your own automation workflows using the platform, eight pre-built options are available for ecommerce.

These two triggers are the best for me. They can be either completed orders on your website or abandoned carts.

Sendinblue will set up the first and final actions in a 3-step automation in either case. The trigger event is when a visitor completes checkout or leaves with items in their shopping cart. The action is to send them a message.

The delay between the trigger event, when the email should be sent and the message to be included in follow-up emails will be determined. This could include a coupon code for their next purchase, personalized reminders about their product, or satisfaction surveys.

Automated sales can be set up in minutes.

Sendinblue offers automations with every plan, even their free forever package. However, the Premium tiers will restrict you from targeting more than 2,000 contacts.

Sendinblue offers a free plan that will allow you to explore ecommerce opportunities via automation.

3. MobileMonkey makes it easy to engage and grow your Instagram following.

MobileMonkey, an Instagram automation tool, automates everything, from replies to comments to stories and direct messaging.

This is an enormous advantage for busy marketers who want to make more of their time through automation.

Don't overlook the power of automation for growing your audience, brand affinity, as well as your conversions via hot engagement channels such Instagram.

MobileMonkey Instagram marketing tools allow you to automate:

• Replies to DMs
• Story Mentions: DM responds
• DM replies to comments

If you want to really juice your Instagram marketing funnel, you can set up drip campaigns that send follow-up messages at specific times to everyone who initiates a message conversation with you.

InstaChamp's multi-channel MobileMonkey messaging automation suite includes the Instagram follow-ups function. This feature allows you to send promotions and offers to anyone who DMs you on Instagram.

These Instagram DM automations can be 100% approved by Instagram because MobileMonkey has been the official partner for both Instagram and Facebook marketing automation.

4. HubSpot Auto-Pilot allows you to generate leads, close seals and manage your pipeline.

HubSpot is an inbound market tool that aims to convert outbound leads into new inbound leads.

It is ideal for content marketing.

The Starter Package costs $45 per month and includes all the tools, plus conversation routing, task queues, simple automation, and email support.

The Professional Plan is $450 per month and includes everything in the Starter Package plus marketing automation, goal-based nurture, and custom workflows.

Salesforce integration, smart contents, attribution reporting and user roles are all included. You can also opt for A/B Testing for CTAs or A/B Testing for Emails.

Enterprise pricing starts at $1,200. It includes revenue reporting and custom-event reports, custom-event automation triggers and predictive-lead score. Contacts and company reporting and event-based segmentation are also included.

5. To automate timely emails, use Customer.io

Customer.io allows you to send targeted messages directly to your customers based on their interactions with your business.

This tool integrates seamlessly with your website or mobile app, so you can view data in real time and trigger actions by entering predefined rules.

It makes it easy to send personalized messages.

Other features include conversion tracking, A/B testing, customer profiles and in-context conversation.

Prices start at $150 per month and include unlimited email, SMS, tracking, technical support, and unlimited emails. The Premium plan is $995 per month and includes all basic features, plus a dedicated customer service rep, onboarding and compliance with HIPPPA and premium tech support.

6. Pardot – Automatically Increase Your Marketing Analytics

Pardot is a Salesforce company that offers a marketing automation suite that can help you increase your revenue.

Increase your engagement through CRM integration, email marketing and lead scoring.

This tool is ideal for sales teams to reduce sales cycles.

Their Growth Plan pricing starts at $1,250 per Month. Features include email marketing and in-depth prospect tracking. Lead nurturing and scoring are also available.

Additionally, you get standard CRM integration, forms, and ROI reporting.

Their Plus plan costs $2,500 per month and includes all the standard features, advanced email analytics, preview email rendering, and spam analysis.

All features include email and landing page A/B testing and advanced dynamic content.

API access, multiple scoring criteria, integrated marketing calendar and social profiles are all included.

Advanced pricing starts at $4,000 per month. It includes customer-user roles and custom-object integration. API access is also available for up to 100,000 calls per days.

It also comes with a dedicated IP address, as well as phone support.

7. AdRoll can automate your advertising campaigns

AdRoll can be used to retarget customers via re-engagement on Facebook and Twitter.

You can create customized experiences that significantly improve your marketing efficiency by using cross-device and platform retargeting capabilities.

Retargeting across platforms and devices, dynamic LiquidAds and flexible segmentation are key features.

AdRoll offers a limited-featured free plan, but you can also get their Growth plan at $19 per month.

9. Marketo allows you to automatically nurture leads

This software allows you to increase revenue through lead management, mobile marketing, or any combination thereof.

Marketo, an Adobe company is a cloud-based tool that helps companies small and large build customer relationships. It also helps them to sustain those relationships.

You don't need to pay any setup fees and you get a free trial so you can make sure you like it.

In 2006, their first product was Lead Management. However, the company has experienced tremendous growth and now offers a wider range of features.

9. Automate Inbound Call Analytics using Dialog Tech (Invoca).

Dialog Tech, now called Invoca, is great for voice-based automation. You can increase ROI with call automation or analytics.

Dialog Tech's tools can help you optimize voice interactions by measuring your success rate and adapting accordingly.

Keyword call-tracking, caller profile data, reverse lookup and conversation analytics are just some of the features.

Keyword call tracking can make a big difference in voice interactions.

You won't be able to track that data over the phone unless you are manually recording calls and replaying them later.

You would still need to track the reactions of customers after hearing specific keywords.

They don't release their pricing. To get a quote, you will need to contact them.

10. Oracle Eloqua enables you to deliver personalized campaigns across multiple channels.

Oracle's cross-channel marketing solution Oracle Eloqua allows marketers to plan automated campaigns and personalize them.

The company was founded in 1999 to increase lead generation.

The tool is now a powerful personalization tool across multiple channels, including email, video and mobile.

Oracle Eloqua gives you all the tools you need to manage leads and segment your audience to make them buy.

You can also track buyer's journeys with just a few clicks.

Although they no longer post pricing online, plans in the past started at $2,000 per month.

11. Track Marketing Interactions across All Channels with Bizible

Bizible bridges the gap between marketing and sales.

Multichannel tracking can be used to maximize AdWords ROI. This will give you a complete picture of both marketing and sales metrics.

The main features include AdWords keyword-level metrics, as well as metrics campaigns and ad content and UTM parameters.

Adobe purchased Bizable and it now exists under Marketo. For more information and a quote, please contact us.

12. Let's act-on seamlessly nurture outbound leads

Act-On's cloud-based platform allows you to connect with inbound and outside leads to manage your nurturing program. You will also find many other useful features, such as landing page design.

This tool will allow you to increase your revenue.

The company was established in 2008, and the first software it sold through Cisco exclusively.

The professional package costs $900 per month and includes 2,500 contacts, three marketing users, 50 sales users, and 3 marketing users. You will receive 30,000 API calls per day.

For 2,500 contacts and 6 marketing users, as well as 100 sales users, the enterprise pricing is $2,000/month. This feature also allows you to make 30,000 API calls per day.

13. LeadSquared automates the customer journey

LeadSquared was founded in 2012 to help small and medium businesses align their marketing efforts and sales efforts.

This tool allows you to capture leads from inbound emails, online campaigns, phone call, your website, chat and many other sources.

LeadSquared offers a free trial and pricing for automation plans starts at $400 per basic package (10000 contacts).

Standard packages cost $1200 (20,000 contacts) and enterprise packages $2500 (200,000 contacts).

14. Keap automates CRM, sales, and marketing tools together

Keap (formerly Infusion Soft), is the right tool for you if your goal is to organize, save time, and increase sales.

We don't all need to do this.

This tool is ideal for bloggers and small business owners.

Keap makes it easy to create and implement a new marketing or sales strategy. This will allow you to capture more sales and close more sales quickly.

Automate repetitive tasks such as follow-ups and billing, contact management and payments to save time.

Pricing starts at $79 with their Lite plan, $159 with their Pro plan, or $199 for their Maximum plan. Each package includes 500 contacts. Additional contacts and users will incur additional charges.

15. Genoo's WPMktgEngine helps you to grow, engage, and acquire customers

WPMktgEngine plugin for WordPress is designed to assist small businesses in marketing automation.

Create landing pages that drive fast results by capturing lead forms and profiling customers.

The key features include landing page design, CMS and lead activity tracking, as well as SEO analysis.

Conversion Pro starts at $166 per Month for up to 15,000 leads. Engage Pro starts at $83/month and includes 5,00 leads. Inbound Pro packages start at $44/month and allow for up to 2,500 leads.

16. Sugar Market Leads: Attract, Capture and Streamline

B2B companies can use Salesfusion (now known as Sugar Market) to link marketing and sales more closely.

70% of the buying process is completed before the customer even contacts sales.

Sugar Market assists businesses in creating revenue streams by creating digital conversations that sales and marketing representatives can use to convert customers.

These tools allow your team to say the right things to the right leads at just the right time. They also include all of the CRM features you could need.

Pricing is dependent on how many contacts you need, but the starting price for 10,000 contacts is $1,000 per month.

17. iContact allows you to segment and automate customer experiences.

iContact offers email marketing services and marketing-automation software so your team can achieve success every time.

To outsmart your competitors and reach more people, integrate landing pages, email marketing and social media management.

You'll also have access to strategic advisers who will help you "optimize the sending strategy and inbox delivery to maximize conversions."

If you want to grow your company and be a leader in your industry, this is the tool you need.

Pricing is based on the number of contacts you have, but you can easily choose the size of your list.

iContact charges a minimum $15 per month to 1500 contacts for the Basic Email Marketing Package, and $30 per monthly for 500 contacts for Pro.

The Pro package offers features that are not included in the basic Email Marketing Package, such as:

• Reporting via email, automation, or landing page
• Unlimited landing page creation
• Custom API
• Smart sending
• Automation followups
• Welcoming, birthday, and event eries
• Segmentation
• Behavioral targeting
• Social monitoring

18. BuzzBuilder Pro is a tool that automates cold email campaigns

BuzzBuilder Pro is a useful tool for marketers, sales teams, entrepreneurs and other professionals. You can find prospects, generate leads and nurture them easily with BuzzBuilder Pro.

The key features include advanced email marketing automation and a website builder. They also have tracking and analytics, lead nurturing and scoring, ranking, social media marketing and hot-lead notifications.

For more information on pricing, please call.

19. Automate your marketing workflows with Net-Results

Net-Results automates almost any type of marketing task.

They want to save you time and allow you to find more leads to increase your revenue quickly.

You can use the email builder and form builder as well as landing-page builders, campaign builders, campaign builders, and an A/B-tester builder. You can nurture leads and automate workflows.

Prices start at $800/month for 2,500 contacts, and then go up from there.

20. GreenRope simplifies and streamlines marketing automation

GreenRope can be described as "the ultimate dashboard" for your business.

This tool can be used to complete marketing automation and CRM in one place.

You can manage sales, marketing, and operations from one dashboard. This will allow you to visualize your performance and make key business decision.

These features include interaction tracking and event and project management, calendar book, SMS marketing, surveys and video tracking.

Automation, lead scoring and prediction can all be triggered.

Pricing starts at $99 for 500 contacts, and can go up to $799 for up to 50,00 contacts.

21. MailChimp allows you to send automated email campaigns

MailChimp is a smart email marketing tool that you will love.

This tool is ideal for reaching out to customers or prospects who are crucial to your success. This is a great email tool that you should check out if you are looking for an efficient one.

Email marketing automation, personalized email, automated welcome emails and behavioral targeting are just a few of the features available.

This tool allows you to trigger emails based upon actions such as sign-up date or website activity.

It is free up to 2000 contacts and costs upwards of $425 per month depending on how many subscribers you have.

22. Gliffy automates marketing processes

Gliffy makes it easy to create organizational charts, flowcharts of high quality, UML diagrams and network diagrams.

It works in your web browser and helps you visualize workflows to increase marketing productivity.

The key features include workflow organization, intuitive interface, collaboration with anyone who has access to a browser and many more.

The best thing? You get a free trial!

23. Jumplead is a tool that enables you to automate inbound marketing with Jumplead

Jumplead converts website visitors to leads, and nurtures them until their customers become paying customers.

Jumplead is the best source for lead tracking, CRM, analytics and automation.

These features include CRM, behavior-triggered actions and lead tracking. Email marketing, landing pages and analytics are also available.

For 200 visitors, the cost is waived and then it goes up for each additional visitor. For 20,000 visitors, the pro package costs $199 per month.

Bonus: Use DataForSEO to add new data to your marketing campaign

DataForSEO offers "comprehensive SEO data via API for a predictable cost."

Although they are primarily SEO providers, their data can be used to boost your marketing efforts.

Here is a list APIs DataForSEO offers:

• API for rank tracking
• SERP API
• Keywords data API
• API for Competitor
• OnPage API
• API for keyword finder

Marketing Automation FAQ

Marketing Automation Conclusion

Marketing can help you stand out from the competition.

It can be difficult to keep up with which marketing strategies work well and which don't.

It can be difficult to keep your eyes on everything at once, even if you have the time. It's not always possible to find the time or energy. You don't either.

Marketing automation tools are available to simplify marketing for you and your staff.

Automating means that you can focus your attention and time on tasks that will improve your company's performance.

These marketing automation tools can be tailored to your budget and needs.

Relax and let them streamline your processes.

Next, choose your favorites and stay with them.

Which marketing automation tools do you use?

————————————————————————————————————————————–

By: Neil Patel
Title: Marketing Automation: What is it, Examples & Tools [2022]
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/marketing-automation-tools/
Published Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2022 14:00:00 +0000

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———-

By: Peter
Title: Marketing Automation: Examples & Tools (2022]
Sourced From: internetlib.org/marketing-automation-examples-tools-2022/
Published Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2022 19:59:23 +0000

Marketing Insider Group published the post 10 Content Marketing Tips For Brands.

————————————————————————————————————————————–

By: Carter Grimm
Title: 10 Content Marketing Tips for Brands
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/10-content-marketing-tips-for-brands/
Published Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2022 10:00:23 +0000

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———-

By: Peter
Title: 10 Content Marketing Tips to Brands
Sourced From: internetlib.org/10-content-marketing-tips-to-brands/
Published Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2022 15:41:21 +0000

Did you miss our previous article…
https://wpmage6.com/o-que-so-influenciadores-tipos-exemplos-e-quanto-ganham/

Hoje todo mundo sabe o que e um "influenciador". Sao especialistas dentro de comunidades especificas que apoiam ou avaliam produtos, software, ou mesmo ideias dentro de suas especialidades. Outras pessoas naquelas comunidades consideram as opinioes deles na hora de tomar decisoes de compra.

Influenciadores tem muito poder. Se voce conseguir um influenciador para apoiar seu produto ou marca, podera explorar o mercado que esta a disposicao dele, que talvez seja muito maior do que o seu.

Assim, o marketing de influenciador e o campo do marketing em que influenciadores sao pagos (em dinheiro ou outros beneficios) para divulgar uma marca ou produto. Vamos explorar como voce pode criar este tipo de campanha.

Parte 1: O que e um influenciador?

Hoje, com as recomendacoes e criticas boca a boca se espalhando pelas midias sociais mais rapido do que fogo em tempo de seca, os influenciadores sao mais importantes do que nunca. Eles geralmente tem publicos enormes nas redes sociais e sao representantes de marcas e divulgadores de nichos.

A influencia real leva a acao, nao so ao reconhecimento.

Jay Baer

Mas encontrar um influenciador nao e suficiente. Se quiser fazer uma campanha de marketing de influenciador, voce tera que encontrar alguem que seja conhecido na sua industria. Se o influenciador nao for adequado ao seu contexto, o post ou tweet dele pode ser completamente ineficaz para direcionar leads.

Por que sua marca precisa de influenciadores?

Consumidores confiam mais em recomendacoes de terceiros do que nas proprias marcas.

Isso faz sentido quando voce considera um contexto mais pessoal: voce nao confia em alguem que vem ate voce em uma festa para se gabar e contar coisas divertidas sobre si mesmo porque quer te convencer a fazer amizade. Ao inves disso, voce geralmente acredita em um amigo em comum que fala bem daquela pessoa.

O influenciador e o amigo em comum que conecta a sua marca aos seus consumidores alvo.

Quando voce se alinha com um influenciador, ele nao so traz um publico, mas tambem a rede dele. Devido a lealdade do publico, um influenciador tem a capacidade de direcionar trafego para o seu site, aumentar sua exposicao nas midias sociais, e ate vender o seu produto diretamente, atraves de recomendacoes ou historias sobre a experiencia dele.

Com a queda do marketing externo tradicional, o marketing de influenciador esta se tornando uma das formas mais eficazes de atrair consumidores e clientes. O consumidor moderno ja nao enxerga os anuncios ou ouve os comerciais. Ele e auto-suficiente e quer pesquisar a marca sozinho, e ouvir alguem de confianca falar sobre ela.

Como influenciadores podem te ajudar com o marketing inbound? Eles criam conteudo sobre a sua marca, recomendam sua marca a seguidores fieis, e se inserem em dialogos em torno da sua marca. Atrai-los antes que o seu concorrente o faca pode fazer uma diferenca enorme para o sucesso (ou insucesso) da sua empresa ou produto.

Pense em seu publico

Como profissional do marketing, voce ja tem uma ideia solida do publico que deve segmentar para a sua marca. Para localizar o influenciador ideal, voce precisa ir um pouco alem e pensar nos tipos de temas, blogs, e perfis do Twitter que o seu publico seguiria.

Como eu comercializo uma ferramenta de outreach para blogueiros da minha empresa, os influenciadores que eu selecionei sao blogs de relacoes publicas e marketing que enfatizam o marketing de conteudo e de influenciador. Os seguidores destes blogs geralmente sao profissionais de RP e marketing que querem se manter atualizados sobre as tecnologias e tendencias nesta area.

Assim, eles provavelmente vao considerar a minha empresa relevante quando um blogueiro fizer uma recomendacao. Se eu tivesse optado por blogueiros que escrevem sobre o mercado financeiro, talvez algum deles ate gostasse do meu software, mas o publico dele provavelmente nao teria interesse.

Quem usa o marketing de influenciador?

Algumas empresas aparentemente nao querem desistir de suas praticas de marketing outbound, mas sites de ecommerce de moda estao segmentando influenciadores com frequencia. Muitos fazem contatos com blogueiros de moda com boas reputacoes e enviam roupas e acessorios para avaliacao. O blogueiro entao publica fotos e escreve sobre estes itens, muitas vezes incluindo links para os sites onde o publico pode compra-los.

O ModCloth, um site de moda estilo vintage, faz isso muito bem. Eles compartilham ativamente (nas midias sociais) imagens que seu publico produz vestindo roupas da ModCloth. Isso deixa o publico deles se sentindo especial, o que encoraja ainda mais posts sobre as roupas.

Eu ja vi muitos sites de moda enviarem seus produtos para influenciadores que promovem sorteios entre seu publico. Ou as vezes, o site envia creditos de compra para um usuario ativo nas redes sociais, um colunista de revista, ou um blogueiro, para que eles vao ao site, escolham algumas roupas, e ai avaliem a experiencia como um todo.

Como selecionar o influenciador certo para a sua marca

Contexto: Mais uma vez, influenciadores para cada marca variam porque, acima de tudo, eles precisam se encaixar naquele contexto. Essa e a caracteristica mais importante na hora de segmentar os influenciadores certos para a sua marca. Por exemplo: o Justin Bieber e um dos usuarios de redes sociais mais influentes, com mais de 37 milhoes de seguidores. Mas sera que um tweet dele sobre o seu software geraria vendas? Provavelmente nao, porque o publico de software de tecnologia e o publico alvo do Justin Bieber nao sao os mesmos. O apoio dele nao seria relevante.

Alcance: Alem de procurar um influenciador no seu nicho, voce precisa de alguem que tenha alcance. Porque assim ele vai compartilhar um conteudo incrivel ou uma recomendacao positiva do seu produto ou da sua marca de uma forma que realmente sera consumida. Se sua loja online vendesse roupas para pre-adolescentes, talvez uma mencao do Justin Bieber para 37 milhoes de garotas fosse uma boa ideia.

Capacidade de acao: A capacidade de um influenciador de levar seu publico a agir. Essa caracteristica ocorre naturalmente quando voce segmenta individuos alinhados com o contexto da sua marca e com alcance suficiente.

Os influenciadores nao podem ser forcados sobre um publico. Eles sao uma rede "opt-in". O publico escolhe seguir aquele blog ou perfil no Twitter. Assim, o publico de um influenciador e engajado e esta ali para ouvir sobre um determinado tema. E e por isso que o contexto precisa ser apropriado.

Quero adicionar aqui que ha muitas pesquisas de mercado sobre influenciadores medios no momento. Eles sao influenciadores com um alcance razoavel, mas nao tem um publico tao grande que seja impossivel nutrir relacionamentos com o publico e ganhar a fidelidade deles. Um publico fiel absorve recomendacoes como uma esponja!

De uma imagem ao seu influenciador

• Tipo de personalidade: Decida se voce precisa de um ativista, um educador, uma autoridade etc para melhor promover sua campanha ou produto.
• Genero: Selecione seu influenciador entre um ou dois generos. Exemplos incluem tecnologia, moda, turismo, marketing etc.
• Nicho: O influenciador que voce utiliza pode atuar em dois ou tres nichos. Para promover meu proprio produto, eu geralmente segmento influenciadores de RP e marketing, ja que meu genero e nichos sao empresas que escrevem sobre outreach de blogueiros e segmentacao de influenciadores.
• Temas: Selecione um tema que o seu influenciador ideal discute as vezes nas midias sociais ou em seu blog. Voce vai se referir a este tema na hora de fazer contato, explicando porque voce acredita que voces dois sao uma combinacao perfeita.
• Tipo de alcance: Voce deseja trafego para o site ou seguidores nas redes sociais? Seu influenciador e um blogueiro ativo? Voce tem uma campanha visual e precisa que seu influenciador use o Pinterest e o Instagram? Ou voce quer tweets? Qualquer que seja o melhor alcance para a sua marca, na sua visao, filtre os canais e o numero de seguidores em cada um deles.

Parte 2: Onde procurar o influenciador ideal

Agora que voce ja atribuiu uma imagem ao seu influenciador, ele nao e mais aquela figura difusa que mal enxergamos. Ele e uma figura tangivel, e conseguimos entende-lo e reconhece-lo.

Monitoramento de midias sociais

Defensores de marcas sao os influenciadores mais visiveis que a sua marca vai ter. Alem de o publico segui-los porque o que eles escrevem se alinha a sua marca, eles tambem falam ativamente e abertamente sobre o quanto gostam da sua empresa.

Monitorar as midias sociais tambem te permite encontrar influenciadores que defendem o genero ou nicho que voce selecionou no primeiro passo. Por exemplo, alguem pode publicar e twitar muito sobre equipamento para yoga, mas nao mencionar o seu site como um lugar incrivel para comprar equipamento para yoga. Voce precisa engajar essa pessoa e expor sua marca a ela.

Pesquise #hashtags

Identifique as hashtags que seus influenciadores segmentados estao utilizando. Para a minha empresa, eu sigo #bloggeroutreach e #influencemktg. Ao observar as conversas em torno dessas hashtags, eu identifiquei nao so usuarios ativos nestas categorias, mas tambem identifiquei temas para posts de blog que escrevi para atrair estes influenciadores.

Quando comecar a encontrar influenciadores que parecem uma boa opcao para a sua marca, eu sugiro que voce os adicione a uma lista do Twitter para organiza-los e segui-los com mais eficiencia. Eu uso o HootSuite para organizar meu canal do twitter. Veja como as minhas hashtags aparecem na plataforma:

Alertas do Google

Configure alertas para palavras-chave relacionadas a sua marca a fim de identificar pessoas que escrevem ativamente sobre temas no seu nicho. Voce tambem deve criar alternativas para o nome da sua marca, para encontrar posts e artigos com mencoes a voce e identificar os defensores que voce ja tem.

Mention

O Mention permite que voce insira o nome da sua empresa para encontrar mencoes em diferentes midias, como YouTube, Twitter, e Facebook, entre outras.

Outreach de blogueiros

Blogueiros geralmente sao o elemento mais forte dos circulos de influenciadores. Um dos beneficios extras de segmentar blogueiros e que eles quase sempre estao ativos em muitas plataformas de midias sociais.

Na hora de localizar blogueiros influentes para a sua marca, comece pesquisando blogs em seu genero e verifique os nichos, lendo as publicacoes para determinar se eles escrevem sobre temas relevantes. Apos fazer uma lista de blogueiros relevantes para o seu contexto, e hora de localizar os numeros de SEO e dados de midias sociais deles para definir aqueles que significam o melhor alcance para a sua marca.

Examinar os dados de blogs manualmente para encontrar todos os criterios que voce definiu com a imagem do seu influenciador pode levar muito tempo. Felizmente, existem muitas ferramentas de outreach excelentes para facilitar esse processo. Existe uma ferramenta para cobrir cada secao.

Marketplaces de influenciadores

Marketplaces de influenciadores como o AspireIQ e o Famebit conectam marcas e influenciadores nas mesmas industrias. Eles muitas vezes ajudam a monitorar o ROI de campanhas, gerir pagamentos e rastrear metricas de engajamento. Mas eles retem uma fracao do seu rendimento, e portanto, voce deve conferir se eles sao uma boa opcao para a sua campanha antes de investir.

Parte 3: Comece sua campanha de influenciador

Estimule a criacao de conteudo

Um influenciador de marca de verdade e apaixonado por seu produto ou servico, e essa paixao e visivel. Ela se espalha entre aqueles que leem as palavras ou assistem aos videos desse influenciador. E isso resulta em potenciais leads para a sua empresa.

A sua meta e conseguir o maximo possivel de conteudo com consumidores felizes, ao vivo, e frente ao maior publico possivel. Aqui estao algumas formas de obter conteudo gerado por usuarios de clientes que ja amam a sua marca:

• Peca aos seus clientes para publicarem fotos e videos usando seu produto: Se voce prometer que vai compartilhar o conteudo publicado, aposto que o narcisismo das midias sociais vai consumir os seus clientes e muitos deles vao ficar felizes em te ajudar.
• Incentive o conteudo gerado por usuarios com sorteios de produtos ou descontos em seu servico: Promover uma competicao e uma forma simples de encorajar engajamento e reconhecimento de marca.
• Peca a clientes satisfeitos para responderem perguntas de estudo de caso e assegure-os de que podem aprovar seu conteudo antes da publicacao. Eu tive taxas de resposta mais altas quando ofereci gift cards em troca disso, porque responder a essas perguntas toma bastante tempo.
• Participe em todos os tipos de forum de discussao: Ao participar de discussoes com o seu publico, voce pode usar os posts ou palavras deles como citacoes ou ate inspiracao para o seu blog. Voce pode tambem pedir que eles escrevam posts baseados em comentarios e publiquem. Eu prometo que quando eles virem suas palavras publicadas, vao compartilhar muito.
• Envie produtos gratuitos ou uma demonstracao gratuita do seu software sem compromisso para influenciadores: Se eles gostarem do produto, talvez te mencionem ou escrevam sobre voce, recomendando seu produto incrivel.
• Troque guest posts com eles: Os guest posts nao morreram. Lembre-se apenas de criar conteudo de qualidade.

Como compensar influenciadores

Se alguem vai dizer coisas boas sobre a sua marca, ele ou ela devem ser recompensados. Nao e preciso ter uma recompensa financeira, mas essa e uma das alternativas. O importante e que voce quer que o seu influenciador se sinta recompensado, reconhecido, amado, importante, ou uma combinacao disso. Aqui estao algumas formas de compensar os influenciadores da sua marca:

• Financeiramente: Lembre-se de seguir os padroes e melhores praticas da industria e as orientacoes do FTIC na hora de compensar influenciadores financeiramente.
• Referencias: Compartilhar um post que alguem escreveu sobre voce nas suas redes sociais vai direcionar mais trafego para o site deles e faze-lo se sentir importante. Alem disso, ate um tweet simples dizendo "Obrigado pela mencao incrivel, influenciador fantastico" ou algo assim, vai dar um resultado incrivel.
• Desconto em produtos ou sorteios: Oferecer um desconto em seu servico ou um produto da sua marca vai encorajar bastante um influenciador a continuar falando sobre voce.
• Comissao: Para influenciadores que estao se inserindo ativamente em dialogos sobre a sua marca e gerando grandes vendas, nao e ma ideia oferecer algum tipo de comissao pelos clientes atraidos

Perguntas frequentes sobre o uso de influenciadores no marketing

Sera que o marketing de influenciador vale o investimento? Para a maioria das marcas, a resposta e sim. Aqui esta o que voce precisa saber antes de mergulhar no marketing de influenciador.

Quanto custa contratar um influenciador?

O custo pode variar segundo a industria, a campanha e o alcance do influenciador. Influenciadores menores no Instagram ganham entre 100 e 300 dolares por post, enquanto grandes celebridades podem receber milhares ou centenas de milhares de dolares.

Onde posso encontrar o influenciador certo para a minha industria?

Considere usar marketplaces de engajamento de influenciadores ou pesquisar hashtags e marcas relevantes na plataforma da sua preferencia.

Como posso monitorar o ROI de campanhas de influenciador?

Combinar campanhas de influenciador e marketing de afiliados e a forma mais facil de monitorar ROI. Oferecer links unicos para cada influenciador facilita o rastreamento de vendas e engajamento.

Qual e a expectativa de sucesso do marketing de influenciador?

Como com qualquer campanha de marketing, o sucesso depende da estrategia e das metas. No entanto, 80% dos profissionais do marketing consideram o marketing de influenciador eficaz, e 89% declaram que ele e tao eficaz ou mais eficaz do que outros canais.

Conclusao

O marketing de influenciador tem evoluido desde que surgiu como uma estrategia de marketing digital, mas a tecnica continua trazendo sucesso para muitas marcas.

Se voce quiser ajuda para criar uma campanha de influenciador para a sua empresa, fale com a nossa agencia e podemos te conduzir neste processo.

Onde voce procura influenciadores para a sua marca? Vamos abrir uma discussao interessante nos comentarios abaixo!

————————————————————————————————————————————–

By: Neil Patel
Title: O Que São Influenciadores: Tipos, Exemplos e Quanto Ganham
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/o-que-sao-influenciadores/
Published Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2022 14:43:11 +0000

Get Your Free "No Credit Card Needed" Access to GrooveFunnels Here https://obboom.com/traffic

———-

By: Peter
Title: O Que São Influenciadores: Tipos, Exemplos e Quanto Ganham
Sourced From: internetlib.org/o-que-so-influenciadores-tipos-exemplos-e-quanto-ganham/
Published Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:07:34 +0000

Did you miss our previous article…
https://wpmage6.com/click-fraud-blocking-your-search-ads-secret-weapon/

PPC advertisers often overlook invalid traffic in their quest to increase conversions. This is also known as IVT, fake traffic or click fraud.

The IVT column is an option in Google Analytics. However, it is not displayed by default. You've probably also read the policies of Facebook and Google on invalid traffic if you've ever searched online for it.

IVT is very common. In fact, more than ten percent of all digital ad-traffic is invalid.

Marketers assume that tech giants control IVT. Are they? How much of the actual invalid traffic makes it to your paid ads?

Digital Advertising: The Challenges

Although pay-per click advertising is an important element of digital marketing, it has suffered a reputational blow in recent years.

Marketers have seen CPC rise, increased competition, and less-than-accurate tracking. They even realized that they are paying for traffic that does not drive results.

Consumer groups are also fighting for greater privacy and control of our personal data.

What does this mean for the average marketer?

Let's start with some statistics.

40% to 60% of all internet traffic comes from non-human sources. This includes bots, web crawlers and other automated scripts. Despite this wide range, it is reasonable to assume that approximately half of all web traffic comes from non-humans.

Bad bot traffic is estimated to outnumber good bots by 25%. Bad bots include spam bots and scalpers as well as data harvesters. They can also be used to hack into logins or commit ad fraud.

Marketers are also experiencing a change in their targeting and tracking capabilities as Google and Facebook adapt the data laws around the globe.

Marketers will be overwhelmed by the combination of increased fake traffic and reduced targeting and analytics.

However, Facebook and Google have put an end to this.

The Fight Against Fake Traffic

The cost of click fraud, ad fraud, and fraud in advertising was $42 billion by 2021.

Tech giants claim that their invalid traffic filters eliminate bad clicks and bots.

These IVT rates in Google Analytics may be encouraging.

Google Analytics is used by most marketers to see IVT rates in the single digits, between 2 and 8 percent.

ClickCease data shows that 14 percent of clicks for paid ads are from non-genuine sources. Click fraud is a term used to describe click fraud. Click fraud is a problem in some industries, where invalid clicks account for 60% of traffic.

Why is this discrepancy? The big ad platforms surely would not want to stop fake traffic.

It's complex, but it is true.

One hand, yes. Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Facebook do want to stop fake traffic and protect advertisers. Advertising revenue is the largest source of income for all these companies.

They are less strict than third party click fraud solutions, however, their methods of filtering invalid traffic are still considered to be more reliable.

Click fraudsters and ad fraud operatives often hide their location to avoid filters. Most ad platforms block traffic sources based on IP addresses. Bots and click-farms can use a VPN to cycle through multiple IP addresses in order to click repeatedly, without being blocked.

The click thresholds for ad platforms are believed to be higher than those used by third-party fraud blocksers.

The issue of money is another concern for the more pessimistic.

Fake clicks can still be a source for income for ad platforms. For many advertisers, the metric that they are looking for (beyond conversions) is a good Click Through Rate.

You would think that more clicks and impressions equals more reach and a better job.

The ad giants believe that as long as advertisers see what is being done then click fraud can be defeated.

Yes, that was my cynical view.

Click Fraud Blocking Helps You Protect Your Advertising Spend

A third-party solution can be used to block invalid traffic. This is the best way to stop bots, automated clicks and malicious traffic, such as brand haters or competitors.

Click fraud prevention is a powerful tool for search marketers.

Fake traffic can cost you more than lost budget.

Businesses with a small ad budget may find that their monthly or daily ad spend is exhausted before they need it. The missed opportunities that they missed will be lost if their ads are not in service.

Misattribution of success is a problem for those who have a larger advertising budget.

How do you know if clicks and impressions have resulted in conversions It's becoming more difficult.

ClickCease is more than a tool that blocks bad traffic and flags suspicious activity. ClickCease also provides additional analytics that marketers can use in order to analyze their audience, something which becomes more important as tracking changes are made.

Advertisers can adjust their targeting by analyzing which search terms bring in the most invalid traffic or how many VPN and out-of-geo visits your ads receive.

This applies to search ads and display ads on Google and Bing Ads as well as social media ads like Facebook and Instagram.

Marketers who want to stay ahead of the trends should look at how click fraud blocking can make a difference in their campaign results.

————————————————————————————————————————————–

By: Neil Patel
Title: Click Fraud Blocking: Your Search Ads Secret Weapon?
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/tools-for-click-fraud/
Published Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2022 22:04:00 +0000

Get Your Free "No Credit Card Needed" Access to GrooveFunnels Here https://obboom.com/traffic

———-

By: Peter
Title: Click Fraud Blocking: Your Search Ads Secret Weapon?
Sourced From: internetlib.org/click-fraud-blocking-your-search-ads-secret-weapon/
Published Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:14:23 +0000

Did you miss our previous article…
https://wpmage6.com/5-ways-b2b-businesses-can-build-trust-in-brands/