Real estate

One big thing

As you do when you’re traveling, I picked up a local real estate newspaper. To skim, to learn, to dream about what I could buy. Oh, two bedrooms, that big, good luck finding that in New York. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. I hunted and pecked my way through, and have picked it up several times during the day. Now as a piece of content, you might go, well he did finish it, or he got what he was looking for. So that’s success. It has educated me, it did bring me in, and maybe I won’t buy. But someone else will. And that’s the thing, that piece of content did its job.

MrBeast highlights with YouTube, you want to focus on retention, picking up the print and working your way through it. Are readers fully consuming? If not, why not? How can you change the format? Should it be shorter? Longer? Better use of images? Maybe sorted differently. At this point in time you would expect most real estate prints know how to do that.

But that’s not always the case when it comes to online comms. We change things because we can, because someone didn’t like something. But the whole goal, the only goal, is to get someone to read the thing. From start to finish. And as many people as possible. Maybe all those things that seem nice are getting in the way of doing the job you were trying to achieve. Which is why we all love newsletters right now, because they’re simple and to the point. If they’re not, we don’t open them and read them. We only remember those that actually deliver on that. Ironic huh.

But so, if there’s one thing to focus on, it is retention. Retention even down to each piece of content. Because if you can have a library of content with high retention. You have a top performing portfolio and obtaining results are be a lot easier. Alas, even with all that retention, my wife reassures me, that no we won’t be buying a property here. Cut off at the pass! Content can’t solve all conversion problems hey.

• On why retention rate within a video is so vital on YouTube.
• House of Highlight’s creator-led content triples revenue.
• Mark Zuckerberg announces new creator monetization tools for Facebook and Instagram.
• ConvertKit launches their sponsor network, creators can join to get partner deals from them.
• Your content business model.
• The Webpage, can it survive the relentless attack?
• Substack will let you add voiceovers to posts.
• Congrats to JMJ and WaPo!
• Interesting tid-bit on Twitter ads starting to work.
• On why this DTC brand stopped spending on Amazon ads.
• Malcolm Gladwell’s audio company signs a film and TV deal with A24.
• Can media companies weather a recession? Executives say they’re in stronger shape this time.

Deals/M&A

• Group Black is in talks to buy stake in Bustle parent and has been eyeing a deal for Vice Media.

Campaign of the Week

• eToro with Market Watch, How do we invest in an unknown future?

• “Across all of YouTube’s analytics, Donaldson said that he pays most attention to the retention rate, noting where viewers drop off and how that data can inform his future videos. He thinks that when it comes to audience engagement, the algorithm will prioritize something more difficult to accomplish — for example, it’s harder to get 70% retention on a 30 minute video than it is to get millions of views.” –MrBeast, YouTube Creator

Datapoints of note

• Participants gave native video ads a 59% favorable rating, compared to 50% for social.
• 50% of marketers impede ROI by underinvesting in media.
• Podcast ads, influencer marketing and branded content can deliver over 70% in brand recall, with influencer marketing ROI comparable to that of mainstream media.
• Substack generates 1 in 3 new subscriptions on the platform. 30% of all new free subscriptions and around 10% of paid subscriptions to Substacks come from within our network.
• Peacock soars to $1b in ad commitments.

That’s it for this week.