Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Business Blogs: Keep 'Em Clicking
The American Express OPEN program for small businesses has this great post about how to maximize the potential of a business' blog.
The part that caught my eye was a suggestion for how to keep visitors' eyes on your blog (and therefore on your website) for longer. Content marketing might pull a visitor to your site, but they might read one post and leave. This can be measured by the "bounce rate", the statistic that tells you if people are coming to your site to read one post and leave or if they’re viewing more than one page. Obviously the longer you keep visitors on your site, the more they can get to know your brand.
Erika Napoletano says:
In other words, if you have the content, consider referring / linking to it yourself, thereby increasing its lifetime value. And also make it easy for visitors to link to it, using social media plugins.
The part that caught my eye was a suggestion for how to keep visitors' eyes on your blog (and therefore on your website) for longer. Content marketing might pull a visitor to your site, but they might read one post and leave. This can be measured by the "bounce rate", the statistic that tells you if people are coming to your site to read one post and leave or if they’re viewing more than one page. Obviously the longer you keep visitors on your site, the more they can get to know your brand.
Erika Napoletano says:
First, does every blog post you create link to another blog post? In the paragraph above, I linked to a previous article I wrote about Google Analytics. It’s relevant and gives you the opportunity to click through and get started using that tool directly. By linking to your previous content, you’re both giving your reader the opportunity to stay on your site longer and refresh something you might have written a moon or two ago. A good rule is to always link to at least one previous blog post—just don’t get crazy with the links.
In other words, if you have the content, consider referring / linking to it yourself, thereby increasing its lifetime value. And also make it easy for visitors to link to it, using social media plugins.
StubHub Apologizes For Completing Screwing Over Kobe Bryant Fan - Sean O'Neill
Lakers fan says StubHub canceled his tickets to Kobe Bryant's last game when prices rose
Companies are now competing to give Jesse and his friends the best seats possible
A big Lakers fan with a serious hunch that Kobe Bryant's last game in Los Angeles would fall at the end of the 2016 season took a shot and purchased tickets to the team's final seasonal home match on April 13, per the Lead Sports. After all, they were being sold at a great price, and it seemed like a good shot in the dark just in case it ended up being the basketball superstar's last hurrah before retirement.
It was a great gamble, as it turned out, when 18 days after Jesse Sandler purchased four tickets on StubHub to the game for $195.89 a piece, the cost of similar tickets rose almost 1000 percent.
However, before Sandler could truly appreciate his good fortune and intuitive planning, the seller yanked the tickets away. The ticketing site soon sent Sandler an email informing him his tickets were voided, essentially because the price he paid for the four tickets was now too low.
"The Seller let us know that these tickets were listed incorrectly," the email read. "Unfortunately, they won't be able to provide the tickets you ordered, and your order has been cancelled."
The message went on to say that the ticket price was too small, and that similar tickets were now going for around $1,490.
Sports Illustrated reports that as StubHub's policy currently stands, the site charges ticket sellers a 20 percent ticket cost penalty when they cancel an order. That number, as many believe, isn't a high enough percentage to de-keep a person from canceling a sale to relist the ticket for a much bigger price. As Sandler was told, similar cases occurred when Derek Jeter announced his retirement.
However, as a StubHub representative told SFGATE, this mismanagement of Sandler's case never should have happened. The company's user agreement states clearly that "Under no circumstances may Sellers cancel orders at one price and repost the same tickets for a higher price."
Sandler, being a huge Lakers fan and an even bigger Bryant fan, refused to let that slide. After a flurry of emails, phone calls, and offers of website vouchers (which, as he noted, didn't even add up to the cost of one of the new, more expensive tickets), Sandler resorted to reaching out to the press.
After the story began catching media attention, StubHub found and offered Sandler tickets to the game, according to The Lead Sports. Budweiser, an official NBA sponsor, then swooped in with better tickets to Sandler, only to then be one upped by Tickets For Less. The StubHub competitor not only offered even closer seats, they also sent their company president to hand deliver them.
StubHub, meanwhile, has made it clear to SFGATE that they have learned from their mistake. "Our User Agreement is 100% accurate and should have been implemented in the case of Jesse Sandler," the rep stated. "The handling of this situation was an error that should have not occurred. We hold our sellers to a high standard and we absolutely do not condone market manipulation like this."
As the representative said, they reached out to Sandler "many times" to apologize and make amends. "We take our customer service very seriously," the company added. "This was a mistake that we will learn from and we will do everything in our power to make sure this doesn't happen to one of our customers again."
StubHub also gave SFGATE the following statement on Sandler's case:
This was a poor experience for Jesse and we will do everything we can to get him into this game. As a marketplace that oversees thousands of transactions a day, buyer and seller errors and discrepancies can occur. The reality is that these instances happen less than 1% of the time. When these instances do occur, buyers are protected by our Fan Protect Guarantee. Oftentimes, we are able to provide the buyer with comparable tickets. Frankly, this is what should have happened in this instance and the way this buyer was treated was a mistake.
Utilizing Digital Market Techniques Via The Cloud
http://cloudtweaks.com/2016/02/cloud-marketing-techniques/
Digital Marketing Trends
In the past, trends in the exceptionally fast-paced digital marketing arena have been quickly adopted or abandoned, keeping marketers and consumers on their toes. 2016 promises a similarly expeditious temperament, with a few new digital marketing offerings taking center stage. According to Gartner’s recent research into Digital Marketing Hubs, brands plan to increase digital commerce investment as they attempt to connect business revenue with digital marketing spend through “digitally led business models.” Thanks in part to the convergence of multimedia, superior machine learning, and the quest for more personalized marketing, this year’s trends and innovations promise even more excitement.
(Infographic Source: Gartner)
Custom-Made Advertising
A top-performing trend right now, advertising made to fit seamlessly into a website’s general content is more a necessity than novelty. The impact on user experience is significant, particularly when one brand purchases all of the advertising space in one area. But the concept often causes contention as ads often ‘trick’ readers into believing they’re part of the standard content. Furthermore, this type of advertising is often perceived negatively as paid endorsements. Objective media is likely to lose any credibility should their audience ever believe they are solely ‘in it for the money’, so the use of advertising that appears to be an extension of the publishing brand should always be executed prudently, if at all.
Personalization
(Image Source: Shutterstock)
When driven by data, personalization allows marketers to better communicate with their audiences through especially relevant content. This promises greater response rates from correctly targeted consumers and fewer marketing withdrawals thanks to a drop in SPAM-like communications hitting the wrong people. Video portals is a particular area in which increasingly personalized experiences are being created, with some marketers dynamically reconfiguring videos based on a user’s activity. 2016 is sure to see the continued personalization of content marketing, web marketing, and video marketing, with vendors amalgamating trends and offering refined content.
Video: Interactive & Live
The use of interactive video is gaining momentum, allowing marketers the opportunity to develop one on one communications with prospective customers. Viewers have the chance to tailor their experiences, choosing preferred content paths, all the time increasing marketers’ insight. And live video is providing more intimate experiences for customers and companies worlds apart. Customers are provided more engaging and positive experiences with the brands they use, thus heightening the sense of personalization.
The Cloud & Marketing
As evidenced in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, the top tools take into account today’s not-so-secret weapon: Cloud. Digital marketing in the cloud promises all of the essential digital marketing tools, but with the flexibility and speed to ensure to-the-minute solutions are always available and personally customizable. Though Adobe, Marketo, Oracle, and Salesforce dominate, competition in the sector is stiff, fortuitously guaranteeing today’s digital marketers user-friendly, cost-effective, and cutting-edge possibilities.
How Internet of Things Will Change Digital Marketing
http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/internet-things-will-change-digital-marketing-01441101
Internet of things pretty much dominated the digital space during last year and has now left everyone waiting to see its significant results across our homes, workplaces, streets as well as across the digital marketing platforms. The Internet of Things technology brings with it the power to change everything physical around us and people have now started to take the entire connectivity factor of IoT more seriously than ever. With billions of our devices connected over the same cloud network, it is needless to say that there is going to be an effect of IoT seen across all the digital marketing platforms as well. So how exactly do you think that the Internet of Things technology can benefit the field of digital marketing?
Turning products into interactive media
Products capable of shifting ecosystems
Internet of things pretty much dominated the digital space during last year and has now left everyone waiting to see its significant results across our homes, workplaces, streets as well as across the digital marketing platforms. The Internet of Things technology brings with it the power to change everything physical around us and people have now started to take the entire connectivity factor of IoT more seriously than ever. With billions of our devices connected over the same cloud network, it is needless to say that there is going to be an effect of IoT seen across all the digital marketing platforms as well. So how exactly do you think that the Internet of Things technology can benefit the field of digital marketing?
How exactly will Internet of Things transform Digital Marketing
Over the last few years, it was predicted that there is going to be a hike in the number of things that are going to be available online that will also be able to share information among one another in the real time, which of course we can see happening around us! This not only helps in cutting down the cost of connectivity; rather it also makes sure that there is ample conservation of resources, such as fuel and energy.
If you have already heard about Amazon tide buttons, then you can easily make out the difference in resources spent both during online as well as offline shopping. Using these Amazon tide buttons, users can simply press a button on their connected smart phone which will trigger an action of placing order for any commodity that is going out of stock in your home! This means that you not only were capable of making the optimum use of the Internet of Things technology, rather you were also able to save a lot of your time, energy as well as fuel which you would have spent otherwise.
Turning products into interactive media
Another advantage of Internet of Things in digital marketing is that once it comes into force, all products available on the internet will become a platform of direct relationship/ interaction with the respective customer base. This means that IoT will encourage the idea of digital marketing since all customers will be capable of forming a direct connection with the products that they are using without the intervention from any third-party vendor or merchant. There will also never arise the need for machine- generated bills as well as vouchers as the digital aspects of marketing will take charge over our traditional shopping means.
In the coming times, we will also be able to scan our products for procuring its ingredients and user manuals, which is nothing short of a boon for coming generations. In fact, there are already several new Internet of Things companies which are focusing on the creation of such 1:1 customer relationship by digitalizing products so that their information can be retrieved by its users.
Products capable of shifting ecosystems
Providing any particular product with the power to shift across ecosystems/ categories on its own is one of the most sought- after advantages of IoT meeting digital marketing. This will help isolated products in moving to data centres/ apps where there are higher scopes of getting accepted by the customers; hence creating more value and a better brand name for itself.
Presenting products as a service
All physical products, when combined with a digital layer, will help in developing a personalized as well as interactive bond with its consumers. These consumers can interact with the brand without any third- party intervention and hence get a chance to put their preferences in the front seat in an attempt to improve their experience with any particular product/ service.
The more interactive our products and digital marketing becomes, the more benefits of Internet of Things we can reap in the coming times.
Facebook is changing which posts you'll see first in the News Feed — again - Sean O'Neill
http://mashable.com/2016/02/01/facebook-news-feed-surveys/#qKX8mk_gBkqU
Facebook is once again tweaking its News Feed algorithm to help weed out posts you may not want to see.
The company said Monday that it is updating the News Feed based on feedback from user surveys; the changes will affect which updates will appear at the top of your feed.
Facebook has been surveying users about the content of their News Feeds for quite some time, making it easier to ignore viral posts and asking "tens of thousands" of users to rate stories in their feeds daily.
The newest change will take those ratings into account, using "qualitative feedback to show relevant stories," according to a blog post from the company.
The post continues:
As usual, you can still manually choose specific friends whose updates you want to see first.
It may sound like a small change, but it's a significant one, particularly to publishers and other Page owners — some of whom could see declines in referral traffic, the company warns. Facebook software engineers Cheng Zhang and Si Chen note that page owners should try to avoid asking users to take specific actions (like clicking) in posts to avoid negative changes to referral traffic.
Facebook is once again tweaking its News Feed algorithm to help weed out posts you may not want to see.
The company said Monday that it is updating the News Feed based on feedback from user surveys; the changes will affect which updates will appear at the top of your feed.
Facebook has been surveying users about the content of their News Feeds for quite some time, making it easier to ignore viral posts and asking "tens of thousands" of users to rate stories in their feeds daily.
The newest change will take those ratings into account, using "qualitative feedback to show relevant stories," according to a blog post from the company.
The post continues:
News Feed will begin to look at both the probability that you would want to see the story at the top of your feed and the probability that you will like, comment on, click or share a story. We will rank stories higher in feed which we think people might take action on, and which people might want to see near the top of their News Feed.In other words, the posts you see first will be determined by the likelihood you'll want to see a particular update, as well as how likely you are to engage with a post — via Liking, commenting or sharing.
As usual, you can still manually choose specific friends whose updates you want to see first.
It may sound like a small change, but it's a significant one, particularly to publishers and other Page owners — some of whom could see declines in referral traffic, the company warns. Facebook software engineers Cheng Zhang and Si Chen note that page owners should try to avoid asking users to take specific actions (like clicking) in posts to avoid negative changes to referral traffic.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Is Social Media Working for the Hotel Industry?
In late 2013, little known Sydney hotel 1888 was featured in news articles around the world for their latest promotional strategy: they would be the first hotel to give out free stays to guests with over 10,000 followers on Instagram. Everything about The 1888 - from the name (the year Kodak released its first box camera) to the decor (printed Instagram pictures) - reflected their photo-focus and their promotion quickly gained attention across Instagram's 150 million user base (as of September 2013). Their original post garnered a whopping 72% engagement and rocketed the small boutique hotel to the #1 Sydney hotel on TripAdvisor.
Over the subsequent years, hotels have continued to embrace increased opportunities to interact with guests via social media. Other boutique hotels have mimicked 1888's strategy, like the Sol Wave House in Spain that conducts nearly all its guest operations - from reservations to check-in to the concierge - over Twitter. The hotel itself is peppered with hashtags and their Twitter presence sees regular customer engagement.
And it's not just the little guys that are jumping on the social media bandwagon. Hilton Hotels launched an incredibly successful multi-platform campaign titled "Our Stage. Your Story." that integrated posts across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and awarded free stays to posters every week. I got to experience the impact of social media myself when staying at the Waldorf Astoria's Arizona Biltmore hotel. After tweeting about a trail map left next to my running shoes, The Biltmore staff responded by leaving an array of "post-run snacks" in my room.
The jury seems to still be out as to how much social media engagement has really delivered in terms of increased patronage. But it's clear that hotel chains can enrich their brand awareness by embracing new social channels and allowing their customers to interact with the company in new ways. Social media in the hotel industry seems to be most successful when positioned as a customer engagement tool that bridges across social platforms and across the virtual/physical space.
So how has social media strategy worked out for The 1888? They still embrace photography culture, and were acquired by Ovolo Hotels this year. It seems The 1888 - now known as the Ovolo 1888 Darling Harbour - still honors the offer of a free stay for high profile Instagramers, though it has been scaled back to only one free night. Yet the Ovolo 1888 Instagram account itself only garners 695 followers, not enough to buy a night at their own hotel, and the various hashtags associated with the hotel barely manage more than a couple posts a week. #1888hotel, which feeds directly to a screen behind the hotel's check-in desk, has only 2,745 posts.
Over the subsequent years, hotels have continued to embrace increased opportunities to interact with guests via social media. Other boutique hotels have mimicked 1888's strategy, like the Sol Wave House in Spain that conducts nearly all its guest operations - from reservations to check-in to the concierge - over Twitter. The hotel itself is peppered with hashtags and their Twitter presence sees regular customer engagement.
And it's not just the little guys that are jumping on the social media bandwagon. Hilton Hotels launched an incredibly successful multi-platform campaign titled "Our Stage. Your Story." that integrated posts across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and awarded free stays to posters every week. I got to experience the impact of social media myself when staying at the Waldorf Astoria's Arizona Biltmore hotel. After tweeting about a trail map left next to my running shoes, The Biltmore staff responded by leaving an array of "post-run snacks" in my room.
This is adorable. The @WaldorfAstoria @ArizonaBiltmore saw my running shoes and put a trail map with them in my room pic.twitter.com/EZn9EJ0mYD
— Carly Weil (@CarlyWeil) December 2, 2015
The jury seems to still be out as to how much social media engagement has really delivered in terms of increased patronage. But it's clear that hotel chains can enrich their brand awareness by embracing new social channels and allowing their customers to interact with the company in new ways. Social media in the hotel industry seems to be most successful when positioned as a customer engagement tool that bridges across social platforms and across the virtual/physical space.
So how has social media strategy worked out for The 1888? They still embrace photography culture, and were acquired by Ovolo Hotels this year. It seems The 1888 - now known as the Ovolo 1888 Darling Harbour - still honors the offer of a free stay for high profile Instagramers, though it has been scaled back to only one free night. Yet the Ovolo 1888 Instagram account itself only garners 695 followers, not enough to buy a night at their own hotel, and the various hashtags associated with the hotel barely manage more than a couple posts a week. #1888hotel, which feeds directly to a screen behind the hotel's check-in desk, has only 2,745 posts.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Digital Engagement Strategies: Mixing Social Media & Mobile Gifting Platforms
It’s not always easy for a company to enter an adjacent
market, but WeChat has successfully leveraged a mobile and social media
strategy to do so. WeChat is a messaging
and calling platform and app, similar to WhatsApp. In 2014, with a focus on the Chinese market, WeChat
allowed users to send their friends and family “virtual red envelopes.” In Chinese tradition, these are gifts of
money delivered in red envelopes on holidays and special occasions.
WeChat offered users the option to either send a specified
amount direct to a friend or to distribute a fixed amount randomly across
friends, lottery style. The response
from users was astounding, as billions of yuan were exchanged over the holiday
period. Users felt that even if the
envelopes only contained a few cents, it was still a great way to engage with
friends.
They went on to add a strategy last year that the user had
to shake their device to reveal their gift.
And for 2016, their campaign has a new feature. Users can upload a ‘secret’ photo that is
blurred. Friends will have the image
revealed once they send through a red envelope.
(A funny example cited is that a user posted a comment ‘Come to see my
secret honey,’ and it ended up being a photo of her cat).
We can learn from WeChat how a simple digital engagement
strategy can create sticky, repeat users.
Not only have they entered a new market with peer-to-peer payments, but
this drives further chat behavior between friends. Hundreds of millions of WeChat users have
since adopted the brand new payment system as a result, migrating from the
traditional chat platform.
Tenpay, the owner of WeChat and competitor to Alipay of
Alibaba, more than doubled its market share as a result of the red envelope
campaign. And Vouchr, a new player in
mobile gifting, is now mimicking WeChat’s strategy with mobile game sharing to
‘unwrap’ a payment. It will be
interesting to see what other companies might take advantage of a ‘red envelope’
type campaign, especially in the US market.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Navneet Kaushal, CEO of PageTraffic, Discusses Best Ways to Master SEO in 2016
AJ Agrawal: What do you see as the single most important emerging trend in SEO in 2016?
Navneet Kaushal: That’s easy. Clearly, mobile optimization will take front and center stage this year. Marketers who neglect to specifically target people using mobile devices will not only be limiting their reach, but they’ll also be effectively committing SEO suicide. We’re at the point now where mobile devices have surpassed desktop devices in terms of the number of users. It’s more important than ever to ensure that part of your marketing reach includes people on mobile devices. Further, there are more searches on mobile devices now than there are on desktop devices. That means search engine marketers are going to have to be certain that their sites are responsive. Otherwise, users will get frustrated with unprofessional or unusable output and visit another site – probably a competitor’s.
Agrawal: How do you see social media impacting SEO this year?
Kaushal: I think it’s going to be challenging for new sites to keep pace with social media. When people on the Internet can get their news in real time from Twitter Moments, they’re likely to prefer that channel than to a blog with popups and annoying banner ads. That could put pressure on news sites that optimize their stories for search engine results. It’s likely that people will just go to social media to get their news as opposed to browsing around the web as they did years ago. Also, social media influence will diminish the number of backlinks that some sites receive from one-man-shop blogs. That could hurt their rank in the search engine results pages.
Agrawal: How else do you think social media will impact SEO?
Kaushal: You’re going to see more social media updates in search results. Google is already working with Twitter to show relevant information in its search results. Right now, when you search for a keyword that’s getting buzz on Twitter, you’ll see relevant tweets towards the top of the first page. That first page, as any SEO professional knows, is prime digital real estate and could limit the reach of search results near the top, but below the tweets. Beyond that, though, you can expect to see updates from other social media channels in the search results. That will make things even more challenging for brands that are hoping to get traffic from search engine marketing efforts.
Agrawal: What kinds of technological innovations will have an impact on SEO?
Kaushal: There’s almost certainly going to be more of a focus on micro-local search. I say “micro-local” search because it really goes beyond local search. Local search involves a geographic region, such as a city or town. However, micro-local search takes it a step further to a particular place of business or even a street corner. Thanks to the emergence of wearable technology and advancements in the Google algorithm, expect to see people search for terms on mobile devices that return results promoting a retail outlet within walking distance. Digital marketers who ignore geo-targeting do so at their own risk.
Agrawal: What else is going to complicate things for digital marketers?
Kaushal: Simply put: competition. Blogs are being created every day. Businesses, recognizing the value of content marketing, are going to post more content and, probably, use longform content to give themselves a boost in the search results. All of that competition is more pressure for SEO professionals who are trying to rank content.
Agrawal: What can digital marketers do in the face of that competition?
Kaushal: There are a couple of things they can do. First, they can practice some micro-niche targeting. Instead of optimizing results for keywords that have broad appeal, they should employ keywords relevant to a very specific subset of people within their target market. Also, they should optimize for longtail keywords that don’t have as much competition. SEO, like every other type of technology, is constantly changing. If you just stick to “old school” methods, you’ll be throwing away some great opportunities to reach people based on emerging trends.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
SEO analytics tool - Botify raises Series A round
French startup Botify just
raised a $7.2 million Series A round from Indivest and Ventech. Botify uses a SaaS approach to make it as seamless as
possible to crawl websites and give users insights into their search engine
optimization strategy. Botify gives users data so that they can make
optimizations. Botify is an analytics tool to designed to support SEO assumptions
with tangible numbers. Currently, the company as more than 300 customers, including BlaBlaCar, eBay, Expedia and Farfetch.
Botify has three different components. First, it developed a server-based crawler. The company then gives users an overview of your website’s structure. Then, it also gives users more information about Google’s or Bing’s indexing crawlers. The company knows which page was crawled by search engines. Finally, Botify gives uses a complete dashboard with detailed reports about their SEO strategy.
There are two things that make Botify unique. Botify targets big companies that rely heavily on search engine traffic — e-commerce, transportation, media, etc. Bringing more traffic to these websites is a great way to create new customers. In other words, improving SEO isn’t just something nice to do, it’s a good way to generate purchases. Naturally, anything that can improve a company’s bottom line is a good thing. Also, there is the recurring pricing model. Botify costs between $569 and $999 per month. With 300 customers already, you can see that the startup has a healthy business model. New features should help Botify retain these customers by bringing them more value.
Botify has three different components. First, it developed a server-based crawler. The company then gives users an overview of your website’s structure. Then, it also gives users more information about Google’s or Bing’s indexing crawlers. The company knows which page was crawled by search engines. Finally, Botify gives uses a complete dashboard with detailed reports about their SEO strategy.
There are two things that make Botify unique. Botify targets big companies that rely heavily on search engine traffic — e-commerce, transportation, media, etc. Bringing more traffic to these websites is a great way to create new customers. In other words, improving SEO isn’t just something nice to do, it’s a good way to generate purchases. Naturally, anything that can improve a company’s bottom line is a good thing. Also, there is the recurring pricing model. Botify costs between $569 and $999 per month. With 300 customers already, you can see that the startup has a healthy business model. New features should help Botify retain these customers by bringing them more value.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Outdoor Ad Spending is on the Up
Outdoor ad spending continues to rise with growth starting to outpace total ad spending growth levels. In Q2, outdoor ad spending jumped 2.2% versus a 3.9% drop in total ad spend.
Interestingly, startups and tech companies are contributing more than ever to outdoor ad spending. NYC startups like Percolate and Jet.com have been spending increasing amounts on outdoor ads.
What's so great about outdoor ads versus digital branding? When advertising outdoors you ensure that real people see your ads! Simple and obvious, but a real consideration for advertisers with limited budgets. The WSJ explains why digital advertising is sometimes a bigger gamble than outdoor marketing: "Brands have been pouring dollars into online marketing, but are worried about ads that can be buried in corners of websites that aren't viewable, and about computerized "bots" that goose traffic results artificially without any humans seeing ads." Said differently, online marketers often end up paying for ads that were viewed by bots, not potential consumers. This results in lost advertising dollars that could have been used in a more effective way.
Obviously digital marketing spend isn't going anywhere. In fact, as mobile use grows and advertisers become more strategic with online marketing choices, we can expect ongoing growth in online digital spend. That said, outdoor advertising isn't going anywhere either. Most sophisticated advertisers will avoid just one advertising channel and instead focus on a diversified ad plan consisting of digital and outdoor, among others.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/05/outdoor-is-the-new-black/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/outdoor-ad-industrys-pitch-real-people-see-billboards-1443438000
Pinterest Acquires Hunt and Pext
As Pinterest is moving towards the e-commerce space, it has acquired Hunt and Pext to build out streamlined selling capabilities. The Hunt features a similar format to Pinterest, but lets consumers track down items they covet. On the Hunt, users can post a picture of an item they are looking for, and other users offer shopping suggestions in form of comments. Pext, on the other hand, allows users to turn text messages into memes by connecting them with relevant images as they communicate via text. Given that Pinterest is an image platform, Pext will serve as an interesting communication tool for Pinterest to take its user engagement to the next level. Pinterest is also testing its "buy button" that enables users to quickly purchase items they discover on Pinterest. The acquisition of Hunt and Pext is undoubtedly the next step to more monetization.
The merging of MarTech and AdTech
Previously MarTech (marketing technology) and AdTech (advertising technology) were very separate entities. MarTech refers to technology seeking to understand and ultimately predict consumers and their behavior. AdTech is the actual copy and strategies used to get clicks and conversions. These two technologies are quickly becoming one and the same according to this article.
I think this really refers to the futility of devising advertisements without know exactly how they should be used. I liken this to the end of Mad Men. A Don Draper, who has such insight into peoples' minds pales in comparison to what the aggregated data can tell us about those same minds.
The bottom line is great creative is good. Great creative with reasoned goals behind it is the future. It is one of those, "everybody is doing it" things now. Everyone else is going to get left behind.
MarTech + AdTech = ?
I think this really refers to the futility of devising advertisements without know exactly how they should be used. I liken this to the end of Mad Men. A Don Draper, who has such insight into peoples' minds pales in comparison to what the aggregated data can tell us about those same minds.
The bottom line is great creative is good. Great creative with reasoned goals behind it is the future. It is one of those, "everybody is doing it" things now. Everyone else is going to get left behind.
MarTech + AdTech = ?
Key Email Marketing Trends from 2015
This article talked about some of the key email marketing trends over the last year. The key highlights were as follows:
1) Email triggers on the rise
Email triggers were used more and were seen as more effective then in previous years - 7% of marketers said email triggers were very successful (up from 4%); 54% of marketers said email triggers were quite successful (up from 47%)
1) Making emails more mobile friendly
This has been one of the key changes - marketers focused not only on the design of the emails to make sure they display well on emails, but also on the content to ensure that it captures the attention of consumers in less space and less time (emails are read much quicker on mobile then desktop)
Key Email Marketing Trends
1) Email triggers on the rise
Email triggers were used more and were seen as more effective then in previous years - 7% of marketers said email triggers were very successful (up from 4%); 54% of marketers said email triggers were quite successful (up from 47%)
This has been one of the key changes - marketers focused not only on the design of the emails to make sure they display well on emails, but also on the content to ensure that it captures the attention of consumers in less space and less time (emails are read much quicker on mobile then desktop)
Will Super Bowl Ads be too expensive?
Super Bowl Ads have in the past been a great source of advertising for brands but as the slots for the super bowl get more and more expensive will social media and other avenues be used more. It will also be interesting to see what role snapchat plays in advertising during the super bowl.
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/cbs-holding-back-some-its-super-bowl-50-ad-inventory-168488
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/cbs-holding-back-some-its-super-bowl-50-ad-inventory-168488
Teens Think Facebook Uncool, but Still Use It
According to a recent study, American teens think Facebook has lost its 'cool factor', but still use it. 35% of respondents in the study said it wasn't cool anymore, but still use it.
My takeaways from this article are the following:
- it's hard to decouple how successful a business is / will be based upon what consumers say - in this case although teens say they aren't as attracted to Facebook it appears their usage is up and increasing
- Facebook has been on the verge of innovation in the social media space. We have seen this story play out with other social media sites (like My Space for example). Is this 'lack of coolness' perhaps a precursor to problems arising at Facebook?
Teens think Facebook uncool, but still use it
My takeaways from this article are the following:
- it's hard to decouple how successful a business is / will be based upon what consumers say - in this case although teens say they aren't as attracted to Facebook it appears their usage is up and increasing
- Facebook has been on the verge of innovation in the social media space. We have seen this story play out with other social media sites (like My Space for example). Is this 'lack of coolness' perhaps a precursor to problems arising at Facebook?
Teens think Facebook uncool, but still use it
Mobile is the remote control for our lives
This presentation repeated the idea that our mobile phones are becoming the remote controls for our lives. It is a really interesting concept. The justification is that we not only use it to communicate but to eat, sleep, meet other people, work, and do virtually any other task we need or want to do.
The application to digital marketing is how the value in integrating with mobile platforms and actually acquiring a customer is just rising. This presentation posited that the lifetime value of one customer on mobile is worth approximately 4$. As a result, companies and their marketers are going to great lengths to acquire those customers.
Ultimately, I think the best way to attract mobile users is to create a great mobile experience. This is easier said than done, but a few things would a long way. For one, there just shouldn't be any options to participate in anything (links, pictures etc) that are incompatible with the mobile platform. Furthermore, there shouldn't be any core functions of a particular business that its mobile app can't do. Those seem like basic requests, but I am baffled at how frequently they are violated.
Ultimately, we have a lot of options with how we want to spend our time on our phones. We are going to slowly congregate towards the best applications regardless of the marketing that encouraged us to do so.
Increasing value of mobile user
The application to digital marketing is how the value in integrating with mobile platforms and actually acquiring a customer is just rising. This presentation posited that the lifetime value of one customer on mobile is worth approximately 4$. As a result, companies and their marketers are going to great lengths to acquire those customers.
Ultimately, I think the best way to attract mobile users is to create a great mobile experience. This is easier said than done, but a few things would a long way. For one, there just shouldn't be any options to participate in anything (links, pictures etc) that are incompatible with the mobile platform. Furthermore, there shouldn't be any core functions of a particular business that its mobile app can't do. Those seem like basic requests, but I am baffled at how frequently they are violated.
Ultimately, we have a lot of options with how we want to spend our time on our phones. We are going to slowly congregate towards the best applications regardless of the marketing that encouraged us to do so.
Increasing value of mobile user
Future of Pinterest
In my view, Pinterest's main value proposition is the level of usefulness of its content. Users are able to find useful design inspiration for a specific room in their home, ideas of where to go on vacation, and hundreds of recipes for a specific type of peanut butter dessert.
According to Ad Age, Pinterest has recently acquired two companies: The Hunt and Pext. These acquisitions give us a little insight into the future plans for the platform. The Hunt is a shopping platform with a similar organization to Pinterest. Pext is a meme-generating application that allows users to add text to images.
I think both of these additional technologies will make Pinterest even more useful. One of people's main frustrations is they will click on the link in a pin and it is broken or old they can't actually find what they are looking for.
As far as the text, as long as it doesn't interfere with the beauty of the images and the user experience, I think this is OK. Ideally, it would be used for indexing only and not be really visible to users.
http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-acqui-hires-meme-pext-ecommerce-hunt/301650/
According to Ad Age, Pinterest has recently acquired two companies: The Hunt and Pext. These acquisitions give us a little insight into the future plans for the platform. The Hunt is a shopping platform with a similar organization to Pinterest. Pext is a meme-generating application that allows users to add text to images.
I think both of these additional technologies will make Pinterest even more useful. One of people's main frustrations is they will click on the link in a pin and it is broken or old they can't actually find what they are looking for.
As far as the text, as long as it doesn't interfere with the beauty of the images and the user experience, I think this is OK. Ideally, it would be used for indexing only and not be really visible to users.
http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-acqui-hires-meme-pext-ecommerce-hunt/301650/
Half of Southeast Asians Clicking on Mobile Ad Did It By Accident -
According to a recent study, half of people surveyed across 5 Southeast Asian countries who said they have clicked on or read a mobile ad said they did so bu mistake.
I think this ad is interesting because it highlights that there can be errors in data collection. While there is no doubt that mobile advertising is an increasingly important medium, it is important to understand that discrepancies may rise when judging the value of certain initiatives when we focus solely on quantitative metrics that may contain flaws (like click-through-rates for example).
A Simple Mistake?
I think this ad is interesting because it highlights that there can be errors in data collection. While there is no doubt that mobile advertising is an increasingly important medium, it is important to understand that discrepancies may rise when judging the value of certain initiatives when we focus solely on quantitative metrics that may contain flaws (like click-through-rates for example).
A Simple Mistake?
Predictions about Digital Marketing - Pay to Play
This article talks about big changes that are happening over the next 12 months in the digital marketing space. I wanted to highlight a couple that I thought were interesting:
"Pay to Play"
This has become more and more prominent in recent years, but recently it is become harder to get content across for free. Especially with Facebook Instant being launched it will be harder for those who don't pay to get their message across
"You can no longer count on Google as your top source of website traffic"
"Pay to Play"
This has become more and more prominent in recent years, but recently it is become harder to get content across for free. Especially with Facebook Instant being launched it will be harder for those who don't pay to get their message across
"You can no longer count on Google as your top source of website traffic"
SEO has become more difficult on Google, with the Company changing their algorithms several times in recent years. The article suggests focus shift to traffic acquisition from multiple, reliable sources that can be controlled
PRedictions about Digital Marketing
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