Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Trump Administration Contemplates State-Run 5G Network

The Trump administration is said to be planning on developing a secure 5G network that could be placed under federal control. The idea, which reportedly came about due to concerns about competitions and cybersecurity threats from China, was immediately met with backlash from the FCC and the wireless industry.

Axios reported over the weekend that National Security Council officials released a memo stating the United States requires a centralized 5G network system in the next three years. The memo further outlined that the best choice would be for the government to finance and build the infrastructure before renting to telecommunication companies like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Officials from the White House have told Axios and Recode that the memo Axios reported on was an old and out of date one. However, two anonymous administration officials claimed that discussions about the proposed 5G network were still in the early stages.

The current administration is known for being concerned about the security and economic threats posed by superpower China. The Asian giant has been aggressive in its development of 5G and it seems the Trump government is wary that China might spy on American citizens and businesses.

The idea of an administration controlling the country's next-generation wireless system is unheard of, and the pushback from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was equally surprising, considering its chairman was an appointee of the president.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai quickly issued a statement opposing the “proposal for the federal government to build and operate a nationwide 5G network.” He further described the proposed endeavor as “a costly and counterproductive distraction from the policies we need to help the United States win the 5G future.”

Pai also suggested that the government should instead “push spectrum” into the marketplace and put up regulations that would encourage private companies to develop and implement the next-gen system.

A group comprised of telecom industry's leaders like AT&T and Verizon also opposed the plan and said on Monday that a competitive marketplace is the way to ensure the country remains as a trailblazer in 5G technology.

5G technology is expected to provide even faster speeds and almost unlimited Internet capacity when compared to the previous iterations of the wireless technology. It's also essential for the further development of new technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), self-driving cars, and virtual reality. AT&T and Verizon already finalized plans to introduce 5G service in limited sectors in 2018.

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Google to Launch Cloud-Based Digital Store, Teams Up with Mobleiron

Google is trying its best to catch up to its competitors in the cloud computing industry, especially the current market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS). In a recent announcement, the search engine giant—and one of the top players in the cloud segment—revealed that it will launch a digital store offering a slew of white-label cloud-based software products for use by companies and organizations.

Google will launch the online store in a joint venture with MobileIron, a company that offers cybersecurity tools for cell phones. Google also plans to bring Orbitera’s commerce platform to the deal while MobileIron will capitalize on its expertise in app distribution, analytics, and security to make the project work.

With the new online store in place, a company will be able to purchase cloud services for eventual distribution to its employees while, at the same time, keep its corporate data secure. The platform, which is expected to roll out later this year, will be accessed through mobile telecom providers.

In its online post, Google promised a host of advantages that the online cloud store could bring to resellers, enterprises, OEMs, and ISVs. For instance, customers can customize bundles, customize branding for both the marketplace and its customers, offer one centralize bill for various services, enjoy a more secure cloud access as well as analyze usage data to see when apps are being used.

In 2016, Orbitera was acquired by Google in a deal estimated to be worth around $100 million, a move that could help Google compete against cloud rivals AWS and Microsoft Azure. Orbitera created a buying and selling platform for cloud-based software.

News on MobileIron’s partnership with Google was positively received by the market. MobileIron shares climbed as high as 14 percent or a high of $4.60 during Tuesday’s trading until it eventually settled $4.62 by afternoon’s close.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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5 Video Metrics to Measure Success

You’ve just shared your video with the world. The view count is coming in and looking at the numbers, you feel the investment was worth it. Should you be excited? Well, not just yet.

To be honest, the view count is the least important metric because it doesn’t really come close to the only metric driving your video strategy. In fact, what counts as a video view on many social platforms is 3 seconds or more, or just opening the video. Fortunately, there’s a list of other metrics that actually expose how viewers perceive your content, how much time they spend on a video, the percentage watched, their concerns, and more.

Before we delve into the what metrics you should be considering, be sure to outline the goals and objectives surrounding your video strategy. Savvy marketers always have objectives they hope to achieve with video. Goals should be tied to the specific metrics that relate to them. Obviously, you will want to pursue more than one metric to ensure you get a holistic view of how your video is performing.

In the blog, I have identified five of the most essential video metrics to measure the success of your campaigns and utilize to move the needle for future video strategy.

Remember: some video platforms may not present all the five metrics we will examine. In this case, go ahead and work with those you can access.

1. Play Rate

Play rate represents the percentage of people who clicked play and watched your video.

Here’s the formula:

Play Rate Formula

Play rate = % of people who clicked play/ total  number of visitors who access the video landing page

This metric is tied to how effective the position of your video was, its size, the video thumbnail, and whether the copy around the video convinced visitors to press play and watch your content.

For an optimal play rate, here’s what to keep in mind:

  • Your video has to be positioned in a sweet spot (above the fold in a landing page)
  • The size has to be moderate (Wistia encourages 401 pixels x 600 pixels)
  • Your video thumbnail must be eye-catching, engaging, and relevant
  • The copy around your video should be persuasive, accurate, and brief

2. Social Sharing

Social sharing reflects the number of people sharing your video across different social platforms.

Consider these three aspects:

  • If someone feels they should share your content with their friends and the world, it means they appreciate it
  • Shares add credibility to your content because it’s evidence that there are lots of people who believe in your content
  • Shares lead to the creation of a broader community that is brought together by your content

If your goal is to create brand awareness, more shares mean that your brand or business is recognized by a ton of people, not to mention that it presents an opportunity to access more leads and convert them into customers. It’s in your best interest to create video content that is worth being shared.  If you have, you may find viewers or influencers will happily share your content because they found it to be valuable. Be ready to do whatever it takes to create shareable content.

3. Engagement

Engagement metrics typically include the average view time and the percentage of your video that people actually watch.

Here’s the formula for average view time:

Average Play Time Formula

Average watch time = total watch time of your video / total number of video plays, including replays

Some platforms even display the different times where your video is being rewatched. Remember to note the drop-off times as this will help you figure out what your audience liked or disliked.

Your goal is, of course, for people to watch your video to completion, especially if there’s a call-to-action at the end.

For this to happen, you must:

  • Share information that is valuable to your audience
  • Make the information clear and interesting
  • Keep your videos short and to the point

Something else to note is that engagement also arises out of loyalty and familiarity with your brand, content, and chosen channels. Initially, the numbers will be low, but as your audience and following grow, you’ll see improvement. Great brands weren’t built in a day, just like Rome.

4. Comments/Feedback

Comments and feedback are a little different from the other metrics because they involve qualitative data as opposed to numbers and rates. Observe how your target audience is reacting.

Best Practices:

  • Listen to your audience’s thoughts and respond when appropriate
  • Find out if your content resonates with viewers
  • Interact with those who leave feedback, even negative feedback

All of the information you gather will help you to create content that is more customized to your target audience.

5. Bounce Rate

If you’ve placed your video on a landing page, this is another metric to watch out for. Bounce rate represents the number of visitors who access your site but then leave without checking out other pages.

Here’s the formula:

Bounce Rate Formula

Bounce rate = total number of visitors viewing one page only/ total number of visits

Assuming that your landing page consists of a video and includes links to pages or forms to fill out to complete the conversion process, the more significant responsibility lies with your video. It should convince the viewer to stick around and complete the conversion cycle. If the rate is high, it means your video landing page needs a makeover.

To correct this, optimize the following:

  • Page load time
  • Navigation
  • Video position, size, and quality
  • Landing page design

You will likely come across many other metrics across the web. After all, we all have different goals we hope to achieve with our videos. Nonetheless, what’s clear from the five we’ve looked at, is that they have the potential to leave a tremendous impact on a video strategy, and eventually, revenue.

Beyond quality metrics, those who create quality and well-thought-out videos stand a chance of experiencing better results. So, as you’re developing goals and tieing them to metrics, remember to dedicate just as much time and resources to the video creation process.

What metrics do you use to measure the success of your videos? Do your metrics differ from the ones I’ve described above? I’d love to hear about your process in the comments.

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Microsoft Edge Browser Will Soon be Available on Apple iPad

Edge, Microsoft’s latest browser that replaced the venerable Internet Explorer, could be coming to iPad soon. According to reports, an iPad version of the browser is in the works and a beta is likely to happen by February.

The Microsoft Edge browser was already available on Android devices and iPhones since last year. In fact, it is doing quite well on the iOS platform as one of its top 5 utility apps. However, what is notably missing, is the iPad support for the browser. But that gap is about to be remedied soon if reports are correct.

In a Twitter post, Microsoft Edge product manager Sean Lyndersay revealed that an iPad version of the browser is now in the product testing stage. What’s even more exciting for iPad users is that a beta testing of the app, which anyone with iPad can participate in, will likely happen by February.

“Shh, don't tell anyone, but the iPad version is in internal testing and looking great,” Lyndersay wrote. “It'll take a little longer to bake, so we're going to roll out it to our TestFlight users early next month and get feedback from them before making it widely available. Thanks for using Edge!”

Microsoft has been pretty aggressive in marketing the Edge browser. The company recently raised some eyebrows when it released ads early this year touting the superiority of the new browser over its rivals.

“Microsoft Edge is up to 48 percent faster than Google Chrome,” Microsoft said in a recent 30-second ad highlighting its superiority over the Google Chrome browser in terms of speed. The ad then concluded that it is “the faster way to get things done on the web.”

In another ad, Microsoft claimed superiority over Chrome in terms of browsing security. “Microsoft Edge blocks 18 percent more phishing sites than Google Chrome,” the ad claimed. It then concluded that using Edge is “the safer way to get things done on the web.”

It is understandable why Window would specifically target Chrome in its marketing. Google’s browser remains the most popular browser to this day, owning an enviable 50 percent of the market.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Microsoft Teams Gets a Big Update, Features New App Store

Microsoft is adding cool new features to its Teams collaboration tool. The update is touted to be the “biggest single release of new functionality” since it launched last year and will bring a new app store, new search, discovery, and integration features, as well as new Slack-like commands.

The update will also present users with new ways to find apps in the new app store. Users can now search apps by name, integration type, or simply browse the list of available apps by category.

Users familiar with Slack will note that the Microsoft Teams competitor has its own app directory that highlights tools applicable to team collaboration. Teams, however, highlights apps that users frequently access or that have been added by their organization.

The update also introduced a new personal app space; a place where you can view your apps as well as items and tasks assigned to you across Jira Cloud or Planner. In addition, you can now include information from apps to your messages with the use of interactive cards. According to Microsoft, "You can search for a specific task in Trello, a work item in Wrike, or a weather forecast, and include an interactive card with that information into a message."

Another Slack-like feature that the Microsoft Teams update introduced is the slash command. With slash command, you can perform tasks, navigate Teams, set your status to “Away,” call a co-worker and add team users.

Teams users also have “@” commands. By typing “@” in the command box, it displays a list of apps that you can either query or command.

Microsoft announced that the Teams update has started rolling out yesterday. However, it may take some time before every user gets the new features.

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Twitter Users are Buying Millions of Fake Followers, Black Market Exposed

Twitter is a platform that has always encouraged—perhaps unwittingly—competition in terms of user popularity. These days, fellow users of the social media platform will gauge your online status based on the number of likes your tweets generate, the number of times they are retweeted and, most importantly, the number of followers you have.

This explains why some Twitter users even go as far as to buy fake followers. However, it's not just regular users doing the deed. According to a report by Slate, well-known actors, models, businesspeople, athletes and adult entertainers are loading up their accounts with fake followers.

In a New York Times exposé, Devumi, a Florida-based firm, allegedly sells fake “Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online.” According to the report, the company has provided more than 200 million fake followers to its customers.

Devumi’s scheme has been likened to a large-scale social identity theft. The report revealed that at least 55 thousand of the fake Twitter accounts managed by the company actually contained pictures, names, and other personal details of real-life Twitter users, which include even minors.

Despite the well-research piece, Devumi still denied any wrongdoing and insisted that it has not sold fake followers and had no knowledge of any social identities being stolen. “The allegations are false, and we do not have knowledge of any such activity,” Devumi founder German Calas responded via email to NY Times in November.

Responding to the recent expose, business mogul Mark Cuban suggested that it is now the right time for social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to be more stringent in their screening process.

Meanwhile, the various celebrities and personalities dragged into the controversy reacted differently to the report. Some offered various excuses such as blaming their subordinates for buying fake followers while others totally ignored the report and posted tweets like nothing had happened.

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13 Ways to Grow Your Brand With Pinterest

Pinterest is not quite a social media behemoth like Facebook and Twitter, but with 200 million users a month, it can certainly hold its own. The platform's user base also covers a wide demographic, making it an ideal place for businesses of all kinds to find new customers. As a matter of fact, 50 percent of all millennials in the U.S. use Pinterest. Older people use the platform as well, with 68 percent of American women aged 25 to 54 happily pinning and creating boards. Men are getting into the action as well, with 40 percent of new users being males.

If you never considered using Pinterest as a marketing tool before, here are 13 ways you can use the platform to grow your brand in 2018:

How to Grow Your Brand With Pinterest

1. Integrate Save Buttons to Your Website

It's always a good idea to make it easy for people to take action, and adding a Pinterest Save button allows them to Pin your content. You can even choose between using automatic or hover buttons. The former appears on every image on your site while the latter appears when the mouse hovers over an image.

2. Concentrate on Amazing Visuals

Pinterest is a largely visual medium, so you have to make sure you're using well-crafted images. Use photos that are bright, have good composition and are in focus. You can also add some text to give people an idea about your content.

3. Pin Daily and Wisely

Consistency is critical when it comes to Pinterest. The best practice is to have a minimum of one Pin day. If you're planning on posting a lot of content for the week, divide them up so you'll have several posts per day. Meanwhile, post seasonal or themed Pins about 45 days ahead of the event.

4. Have Good Timing

When to Pin and post largely depends on your target demographic. You'll have to do some testing to identify which times are ideal. But generally, the optimal times to post are between 2-4PM EST and 8PM-1AM EST and on Saturday morning.

5. Utilize Rich Pins When Necessary

Rich Pins are upgraded Pins that utilize metadata from your website to give additional information on what Pinners will find when they click on the Pin. These Pins can be used for apps, articles, recipes, and products. More importantly, it highlights the link to the article and has a clear call-to-action button.

6. Optimize Pins

All Pins have a uniform width, although the length varies. Pins that are 800px by 1200px are considered the perfect size. Long pins are also good and are shared more.

7. Try Instructographics

A term coined by Pinterest, instructographics/infographics are very popular with users. Advertisers also love it because of the platform's length allotment. So if possible, try this style with your content.

8. Take Advantage of Analytics for Better Results

Pinterest analytics can provide you with crucial information, like the most popular Pins and content. From there you can tweak and enhance your strategy so that you'll target the right audience.

9. Re-Pin Regularly

You want to keep your brand in people's minds, and re-pinning content from other users can do that. It also keeps your own page populated with new content. But never re-pin posts from rivals.

10. Encourage Engagement

Never forget that Pinterest is a social platform so you have to be engaged and engaging. Follow relevant boards and engage with Pins in your niche. Encourage employees and influencers to join an share something on your group boards.

11. Try Out Promoted Pins

Also known as Pinterest Ads, Promoted Pins are another way to give your brand more exposure. These posts are clearly distinguished by the “Promoted” tag underneath the Pin and when clicked, shows your brand name. Data has shown that companies using these ads received a 20 percent boost in organic clicks.

12. Diversify Your Board

Don't limit yourself by focusing on Pins about a specific niche. Branch out to slightly different topics as they can draw in a different audience. If you're selling kitchen appliances, Pins about recipes can pave the way for other groups to become interested.

13. Include Pins in Your Newsletter

Help your customers find your Pins by sending it directly to them. Include the latest ones in your newsletter. It will also lead your direct subscribers to your account.

Pinterest is a very diverse platform, giving you the perfect opportunity to reach different demographics. Grow your brand and become a force to be reckoned with in the Pinterest community with relevant content and well-crafted images.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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Integrating Your Web CMS With Your Marketing Automation Platform

As a digital marketer, you have a myriad of tools you use to engage and attract customers. Your stack most likely includes a marketing automation platform, web content management system (CMS), analytics platform, and other tools. While it’s essential to use the best tool for the job, the goal should always be to present a seamless experience to your customers.

One of the best ways to align your digital experience is a tight integration between your marketing automation platform and web content management platform. These two solutions are core to successful marketing programs. Every company has a web CMS that enables you to create, manage, and publish content on your website and mobile apps. A marketing automation platform, or engagement platform, is used to control campaigns across email, website, social channels, and more.

While you can’t manage content in your marketing automation platform like you do in a CMS, and you can’t create and run campaigns in your CMS like you do in your engagement platform, there are some areas where these two systems offer similar capabilities, including landing pages, asset management, and personalization. Which system is the right one to use? It’s not a straightforward answer; there are benefits and challenges to each technology.

In this blog, we’ll explore the similarities between a marketing automation platform and web CMS. We’ll dive into how they work, what the differences are between the two, and the things you need to be aware of before you decide the right approach for your business.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are unique pages you use to promote events, content, products, or services separate from your website. They promote whitepapers, ebooks, webinars, and unique product deals by having the visitor complete a form with their personal information in return for the content or to register for the event.

You can create landing pages in both your engagement platform and your content management system. Both approaches work well, but each one offers different benefits.

Build Your Landing Page in Your Content Management System

If your CMS has a visual authoring tool, it’s easy to create landing page templates and use them to create all your landing pages. Like other web pages, you can enforce design standards and implement a workflow process to review and approve the page before you publish it. You can also set up publishing start and end dates if you want to create the page ahead of time and take it down after a specific period.

Having your landing page within your CMS also ensures you can track traffic coming into and out of your landing page—analyzing clickstream to understand better what a visitor is doing on your website.

The form you include on your landing page can come from your marketing automation platform, or you can build it in the CMS, submitting its completed data via an API to the solution. Embedding the form allows you to quickly change it and have it update automatically in the CMS. Form submissions from the landing page are sent directly to your marketing automation platform. If your website is multilingual, creating your form within your CMS allows you take advantage of built-in translation features.

Build Your Landing Page in Your Marketing Automation Platform

You can also build landing pages within your marketing automation platform and provide public URLs to include on your website using your CMS. Most marketing systems have visual design tools to create templates and quickly build landing pages with forms.

When you host your landing pages in your marketing automation platform, it automatically tracks traffic to that landing page giving you a clear view of visitors, what links they clicked on the page and the number of form submissions. If the visitor is known, you can easily see who it was and review what other content they may have looked at, giving you a better picture of that visitor’s engagement with your company.

Pro Tip: Improve Form Completion Through Progressive Profiling

Regardless of which option you choose, you can rely on the integration between your engagement platform and CMS to improve form submissions through progressive profiling. Progressive profiling is the process of slowly requesting more information as the visitor engages with your web experience.

For example, the first time a visitor comes to a landing page for your company, you display a basic form field requesting name and email. The next time they visit a landing page they are recognized through a cookie or other mechanism. This time you can prefill the basic information and request additional information such as company and job title. This process of slowing asking for more profile information ensures you are capturing the right amount of information about a visitor as they demonstrate a more significant interest in your content and company.

Digital Assets

Digital assets are content and multimedia you offer on your website, landing pages, and in emails. These include images, videos, webinar recordings, and a range of written content like ebooks, whitepapers, infographics, and datasheets.

You can store your assets within your CMS or your engagement platform. In some cases, we’ve seen copies of images and other content stored in both, resulting in multiple versions of each asset, a significant maintenance issue. To manage your assets correctly, you want to save them in one location and reference them in all your engagement channels. So where is the best place to store your assets?

Hosting Assets in your CMS

All CMS systems allow you to store images, documents, videos, and more. Some (not all) CMS systems provide built-in digital asset management that support capabilities such as renditions and metadata management. The benefit of storing your assets in your CMS is discoverability. If your CMS’s search engine includes the ability to index all types of content or features an SEO plugin that helps you with optimization, it’s easier to surface those assets in search results. This ability is becoming increasingly important because consumers are viewing multimedia content at growing rates and you want a way to provide the best content to your visitors when they search your site.

Hosting Assets in your Marketing Automation Platform

There are many benefits to hosting your assets in your marketing automation platform. You can provide public links to assets across all your channels and, depending on the asset and the system, track the usage of that asset. Engagement platforms offer both gated and non-gated URLs so you can choose how you want to share an asset. When you create your landing pages and emails in your marketing system, it’s straightforward to insert links to media assets with a single click.

Personalization

Great personalization is really about unifying all customer touchpoints. Your customers interact with email, on social channels, on your website, and directly with your company.

Your CRM should be the system of record for customer information. But a CRM is not a system of engagement. We recommend storing business information in your CRM, managing engagement information in your marketing automation system, and then leveraging that data in your web CMS to target content at crucial audiences and visitors.

Parameters that you may want to use in a web personalization strategy are both implicit (based on the customer’s online interactions), and explicit (based on the customer’s account or preferences). For instance, if a customer is in an email marketing campaign, you can set up your web CMS to recognize that visitor based the campaign referrer or UTM tags, and show content that connects the message from the campaign to the website experience.

Or, you could leverage the data within the marketing automation profile system to segment a visitor into an audience group for your website. With the insight based on a customer’s lead score or marketing stream, you may be able to deliver a more relevant message on your site that results in higher conversion or enhanced customer experience.

You Determine the Right Approach

The approach you take to integrate your marketing systems, especially your CMS and engagement platform will depend on your strategy and the specific tools you use. It’s important to understand the capabilities of each system, and the pros and cons of doing different activities in each one. Once you have that full picture, you can make the best decision for your company.

There’s no one right answer to which system you should use for landing pages, asset management, and personalization. There’s only the one that’s right for you and your customers.

How do you use your engagement platform and web CMS? Does it differ from the methods I’ve mentioned? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments. Let’s keep the conversation going.

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Monday, January 29, 2018

Facebook Reveals 'Privacy Principles' in Preparation for New Data Protection Laws

Facebook is taking more steps to improve privacy for its users. For the first time, the social media giant will publish its privacy principles or guidelines that reveal how user info is stored and shared. In addition, the company will introduce a new, more visible Privacy Center to make it easier for users to change their privacy settings.

As Facebook is preparing for the new data protection laws enacted in Europe, the tech company is now making it easier for users to control their privacy setting. Its new Privacy Center will be a single place that allows users to control the visibility of their personal data.

These new measures are Facebook’s response to feedback from policymakers, users, as well as data security experts. As Facebook’s chief privacy officer Erin Egan puts it, “Privacy controls are only powerful if you know how to find and use them.”

Aside from the more visible Privacy Center, Facebook has made its privacy principles public. The company’s announcement was done ahead of the General Data Protection Guidelines (GDPR) implementation in Europe.

“We recognize that people use Facebook to connect, but not everyone wants to share everything with everyone – including with us,” the company explained in its blog post. |It’s important that you have choices when it comes to how your data is used.”

There were seven privacy principles announced by Facebook. Among the seven, however, two principles seem to stand out and would likely impact how user privacy plays out in the future.

“You own and can delete your information,” says Facebook’s fifth principle. The company added that it would ultimately be its user’s decision on what to share and whom to share it with.

Also, its last principle simply says, “We are accountable.” However, it is unclear if the company is owning accountability for future data breaches, but it asserts that it will put “products through rigorous data security testing.”

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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Google Just Made it Easier to Mute Unwanted Ads

Google is finally listening to the countless complaints of its users regarding intrusive ads. The search giant now has a new and improved ad-muting feature to make those unwanted ads go away.

The “Mute This Ad” feature is not exactly new and has been around for quite a while now. Introduced in 2012, the feature allows users to remove ads from specific overly enthusiastic advertisers from YouTube, Gmail, Maps and Search as long as you are signed into your Google account. However, the search giant is about to make the feature more responsive to your wishes.

The “Mute This Ad” tool will now work with any device that is logged on to a Google account. For instance, if you decided to mute a particular ad via your laptop, it will stay muted even when you log onto your Google account using a different device such as a smartphone.

Furthermore, you’ll start to notice the “Mute This Ad” feature pop up in more places than before. The company announced that the option will appear in more apps and websites outside of Google.

Image result for google mute this ad

Of course, Google knows that we’ve been blocking or ignoring ads since ads were invented. In fact, a 2017 adblock report by PageFair revealed a not-so-surprising trend—people have been blocking ads more and more. In 2016, 11 percent of global internet users blocked ads, a 30 percent rise from the previous year. At the moment, there are 615 million devices worldwide that have installed various adblocking software.

Ads work if people care enough to watch them. Otherwise, it’s all pointless. And Google users have been particularly helpful in weaning out which ads work and which do not. In fact, the company received feedback from more than five billion users on why they decided to block specific ads.

[Featured image via Google]

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5 Ways to Boost eCommerce Sales with Product Recommendations

Businesses know that acquiring new customers is more difficult and costlier than selling new products to existing customers. This is why eCommerce businesses prefer to invest in a good loyalty program. And product recommendations is one of the best marketing tools that a retailer can have in its arsenal. After all, the right recommendation helps sell more products to existing customers.

Simply put, recommendations are suggestions made by the retailer on various things that the customer might also be interested in. But in order to do this, the company has to know its customers and what they want. This is to avoid scenarios like recommending red stilettos to a client who prefers white trainers.

The question now is how to successfully use recommendations to improve eCommerce sales. Here are five suggestions:

1. Generate Personalized Product Recommendations

Personalized recommendations are carefully calculated and chosen products that are offered with the customer's shopping behavior and history taken into consideration.

Image result for amazon personalized product recommendation

[Image via Amazon.com]

Amazon is a prime example of personalized recommendations. First-time site visitors will initially see some generic suggestions that are either crowdsourced bestsellers or what other visitors are checking. But once a purchase has been made, they'll see recommendations based on items they've bought or searched for recently. These suggestions are found in the product description of the item a customer is currently checking or on the homepage that they're logged into.

Have Well-Timed Customized Email Recommendations

Email marketing is still one of the most effective marketing strategies. It's affordable, practical, and can boost conversions. But to have a more robust customer engagement, personalized email recommendations are the way forward. After all, the more relevant the email's content is, the higher the rate of emails opened, website visits and sales.

Amazon is again a good example of this strategy. The company's AI sends well-timed emails that recommend products that the customer has just browsed on the site. The emails are also sent as soon as the customer leaves the site, thereby ensuring that they're still receptive to recommendations.

Make Product Pages More Appealing With Relevant Suggestions

The product page is one area where you can make more recommendations. However, it's important that you find the best way to showcase your items because at this stage, you'll either push your client towards the checkout process or drive them away altogether. Data-backed recommendations can provide shoppers with more choices at this key stage. By putting together selections based on the customer's interest, the odds of conversions can increase by as much as 411%.

Image result for customers who bought this item also bought amazon shoes

[Image via Shopify.com]

Brands can boost conversions by suggesting complementary items. For instance, if the shopper is looking for shoes, they can cross-sell by suggesting a shoe rack. Product recommendations can also be based on the shopping patterns of other shoppers. For example, if previous shoppers also bought a necklace after buying a blouse, then the product page would recommend what “people who bought this product also bought.”

Don't Stop at a Confirmed Order

A successful order confirmation doesn't mean you have to stop making recommendations. This stage of the shopping process can still be a good arena for recommending items that the customer could buy. Think of it as a last chance to add more products to the deal.

There are two good ways to make the most of order confirmations. One would be to have recommendation popups. Aside from thanking your customers for their latest purchase, include messages that suggest “you might be interested in this product.” The second way would be to integrate recommended products in the order confirmation email. Make your offer more compelling with the promise of freebies or discounts in their next purchase.

Making Friendly Referrals

As already mentioned, recommendations shouldn't stop just because a purchase has been made. Recommendations can be used as a referral tool, one that can push a brand further, generate traffic, and boost more sales.

Brands can do this by asking customers to share the news of their latest purchase with their friends via social media. Bear in mind that people are more likely to buy or use the same brand that a trusted friend has used and recommended. To make this easier for your customer, integrate a “Share This” button on the customer's order confirmation page.

There's no question that recommendations have positive results. It's a marketing strategy that eCommerce businesses can easily adopt. So this year, put more emphasis on recommendations and see your sales numbers grow.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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5 Simple Marketing Tips for New Business Growth

Now is the time of year people start thinking about what’s next in their careers. For some, there may be a next step up the ladder to consider, but for many others, the idea of starting a business is at the forefront of their minds. The new year is naturally a time to consider taking your hypothetical venture and testing it out to see whether there’s a viable business there.

Some people pool talents accumulated from their career to launch a niche business, while others simply have the entrepreneurial spirit to give anything a go. What we know for sure is, no new business will get off the ground without a structured and robust marketing plan, and the five tips in this article will help ensure your business starts off on the right foot.

No one should approach a new business thinking it will be a comfortable ride. Yes, your idea may be sound, and you may know it can work, but the legwork involved to get there shouldn’t be underestimated. There was a record 5.7 million private sector businesses in the UK and regions at the start of 2017, which marks a huge jump from less than four million in 2000. Small businesses make up approximately 99.3% of all those companies and it’s inspiring to see the resurgence in people taking their ideas to market and making them work.

The key to achieving success as a new business? Hard work, a structured go-to-market approach and a commitment to growing and efficiently promoting the business. Having the right marketing strategy, tools, and techniques are critical for succeeding in business. Some studies have shown up to 50% of all new companies and start-ups fail within 5 years.

Numbers like that certainly show entering the world of business isn’t easy, and you can’t just set up and expect to profit. You have to remain focused even when things are going well and keep the same level of enthusiasm you had on day one, when you’re on day 465.

Your marketing plan is absolutely essential to keeping your business afloat and ensuring your business idea is one that can stand the test of time.

Turning your idea into reality can be an exciting time, but remaining level-headed and practical about it is essential. From day one you need to have a long-term strategy. What do you want your business to achieve? From there you can pare it down into smaller, achievable goals to stay focused. Consider establishing three or four realistic, achievable goals to concentrate on so you don’t find yourself in a position of trying to wing it.

Here are five marketing tips that can help you centralize your vision to build your new business’ growth.

Tip One: Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

Much like was said above, you have to structure your approach to your ideal customer. “Who do you want to target?” is a question many businesspeople ask themselves when really, they should be more focused on questions such as:

  • What challenges does your service/product solve?
  • How do they make people’s lives better?
  • How do they benefit others? Do they add value?

With these questions in mind, you can get a clearer picture of your target audience, and really hone in on your ideal customer. Next, it’s time to ensure you know them inside out. Research and analysis of the market will help you draw a profile of your customer, allowing you to ensure both content and future products are created with them in mind.

Equally important is getting a full understanding of your competitors. A strategic approach to competitor analysis is vital. As stated in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, one of the greatest strategy texts there is: “Though the enemy is many, he can be prevented from doing battle. Therefore, know the enemy’s plans and calculate their strengths and weaknesses.”

Your competitors’ strengths can be something you build on. Their weaknesses are your opportunity to show how you can be a better prospect for their customers. Are they succeeding on social media? Do they have quality content which people engage with? Anywhere they are lacking is a chance for you to inform your strategy in that direction.

All of this analysis can become part of your strategy and execution plan.

Tip 2: Build Your Own Website

The volume of website tools, support, and guidance out there means start-ups don’t need to invest significantly in their first website. Yes, it is your shop window and your chance to get noticed, but the quality of the tools on the market means you can effectively create a landing page with ease.

All websites are constantly changing, so don’t expect perfection.  Simply having one will place you ahead of the crowed. According to Approved Index, nearly 2 million small businesses in the UK still do not have a website, costing the economy as much as £343bn a year. Creating a website for your business can result in a significant uplift in traffic. And in the current business climate, it should be one of the first things you do.

When it comes to designing your website, it’s important to be flexible. Your original vision may not be what you create. The main idea is to have a base for your brand that clearly states what you do and who you target. With so many ideas floating about for what direction to take your business in you need to be open-minded when it comes to your website.

There are some hard and fast rules that should be considered when designing your website. Elements such as SEO and branding should remain a focus throughout the design and content creation process.

Tip 3: Email Marketing—Build your List

Email marketing is a crucial part of any marketing plan, and it isn’t something that will go away anytime soon. It is one of the top three demand generation and awareness activities marketers use, and this is very unlikely to change. Building your list may seem like a difficult practice, especially if you’re starting from zero, but there are ways and means of getting people interested.

Using your social media channels, you can offer incentives and freebies to get people interested in your business. You can build landing pages on your website which provide premium content in exchange for email addresses. These are just some of the methods which help drum up interest and get people talking about your business.

Tip 4: Networking and Partnerships: The Sum is Greater Than its Parts

As well as pooling your own talents, there is nothing wrong with sharing the talents of others. Your network and connections from your career or working life may be perfectly positioned to help you in business.

What’s more, they may be able to offer insight and mentoring in a way you could never have imagined. You may find there are complementary elements of each of your businesses or practices, which allow for some collaboration. Partnerships can only serve to help boost your business.

Networking may seem like old hat, but it still works and can be hugely effective. By approaching people face-to-face in the right environment, you’re in the prime position to sell and promote your business. Breaking the ice with a couple of important contacts online can help in attending events and relationships only become stronger when they’re developed in the real world, as well as online.

The growth of social media means that you can position yourself ready for conferences, trade shows, and events, before you even arrive, warming up potential leads and arranging meetings to help give structure to your attendance.

Tip 5: Social Media—You May Be Surprised

It goes without saying that the modern business needs a social media presence to back up their website and other business activities. Social media is much more than those vanity metrics—likes and shares. It is something you can develop as a critical way to reach your audience and position your brand.

Social media is also one of the leading platforms for 21st-century customer service, and you can use it to develop further niche marketing strategies such as influencer marketing. Social media can also feed directly into the content and knowledge strategy of your business, as you can share your content with ease and set yourself up as an expert in your field, adding value and genuinely useful knowledge to the community and your followers.

There are 2.80 billion global social media users, and with this level of activity, there is scope for almost every kind of start-up to effectively find their audience and engage with them. As the new year unfolds, there is plenty of motivation to make this year the one your business gets off the ground. A measured and strategic approach sets you up most effectively for success. This goes for all elements of your business, but especially marketing, which can be the deciding factor as to how fast your business grows.

How will you grow your new business in 2018, and beyond? If you have an established company, what strategies and tactics have you used for growth? I’d love to hear about your path in the comments.

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Sunday, January 28, 2018

Facebook’s Relevancy Score: What You Need to Know

If you run paid advertisements on Facebook or are thinking about doing so, then you may have read about the various statistics that are measured, which show the performance of your campaigns. One particularly important statistic to note is the relevance score.

In this blog, paid search specialists Hallam Internet discuss what a Facebook relevance score is, how it works, and how you can improve yours.

What is a Facebook Relevancy Score?

Essentially, Facebook’s relevancy score is an assessment of the performance of your Facebook ad. It’s influenced by the positive and negative actions that viewers have carried out. Therefore, it’s a good indicator as to how your ad has been perceived by its target audience.


A higher relevancy score means it’s received a more significant number of positive reactions which in turn, will make your ads cheaper.


You want your score to be as high as possible.

Facebook Relevance Score

How Do Facebook Relevancy Scores Work?

A relevance score will only be calculated once it’s received at least 500 impressions. The maximum value is 10, and you’ll notice that this figure continually changes while your ad is live. The reason for this is that every time an interaction takes place—whether it’s positive or negative—the score will update to reflect that.

Why Does Your Relevance Score Matter?

Think of it as Facebook’s version of Google AdWords’ quality score. To quote Facebook:

“Put simply, the higher an ad’s relevance score is, the less it will cost to deliver.”

A lower cost is a definite benefit, but there are additional advantages to have a high relevance score.

It Reflects Your Content’s Engagement Levels


Engagement plays a huge part in whether or not your Facebook ads are determined a success.


Engagement for Facebook has a broad definition. It can be defined as a click on your ad, doing an action and ultimately, converting—how you define conversion, is up to you.

If viewers aren’t engaging with your ad, then Facebook will view your ad as poor quality, and mark your relevancy score down.

EngagementIt Enables You to Determine Your Ad’s Success

Once your live campaign has had over 500 impressions, you’ll be assigned a relevancy score. You can then see if your ad is successful. If it’s not deemed successful in your eyes, you can look further into it and either make changes to the audience targeted or the ad itself.

Monitor Your Message over Time

The fact that you can keep tabs on the success of your live advertisement is hugely beneficial, as it will allow you to make changes which you can continue to monitor.

See in real time whether the changes you made to your advert or audience have worked. If they have, your relevance score will increase. If not? Continue to refine your ad.

Reach More People with Your Budget

We’ve already established that if you have a high relevancy score, your ads will be cheaper. That means your budget can stretch further and you can reach more people than you would if you had a lower score. You always want to aim for as low a cost-per-click (CPC) as possible. CPC can vary drastically depending on your goals.

Get a Greater Insight Into Your Ads When Testing

If you have multiple ads running at any one time, then having individual relevancy scores can be a great way to see which of your ads has been best received by your target audience. It’s a quick and easy way to determine which of your ads should continue to run in the long term.

Positive and Negative Actions that Affect Your Relevance Score

Positive Actions

To increase your relevancy score, you need to increase the likelihood that your ad receives the action that you are looking for.

The campaign goals you initially set will determine which actions will be assessed. For instance, if you created a campaign to specifically generate conversions, then the most significant factor that will affect your relevancy score is the number of conversions your ad generated, and what the overall conversion rate is.

Alternatively, if you set up your ad with the aim of getting viewers to watch a video, then the score will be heavily influenced by how many times your video is played.

Negative Actions

One significant detrimental impact on your relevance score is the number of times your Facebook ad is hidden or reported by viewers. Regardless of what your campaign’s goal is, these two actions will always be classed as negative.

Another negative action that’s monitored is a lack of clicks. The influence of this will depend on how you set up your campaign goal. If your goal is impressions rather than clicks, then the damage will be less impactful.

What Is Classified as a “Good” Facebook Relevance Score?

A Good Facebook Relevancy Score

Facebook suggests that an advertiser should aim for a minimum relevancy score of 7/10—although an 8 or higher is preferable.

How to Improve Your Facebook Relevance Score

There are several ways in which you can increase your relevancy score, although ultimately, the more engaging your ads are, the higher your score will be. Here are four fundamental ways in which you can increase your score.

Define Your Target Audience

We know that for a high relevance score, your ad needs to be engaging. You can create a highly engaging ad by ensuring that you are reaching the audience that will engage with it—aka your target audience. The better you define and target your audience, the more specific your ads can be, which in theory will make them more engaging.

When you create your campaign, you can create and save multiple audiences to match your customer personas. As well as targeting age, gender, and location, you can drill down into the demographics and target users with specific interests.

Audience DefinitionDevelop Unique and Exciting Ad Content

Don’t just think you can hit the publish button on your ad, then sit back and relax. To improve your relevancy score, you need to continually monitor it (because it’s ever-changing) so you can drive higher results.

A diverse range of images and content on your ads makes them more relevant to the user; and the fresher your content, the better your results will be. That means you should test the copy and images—don’t be afraid to change it because ultimately, you’re trying to increase your relevancy score.

Determine Your Marketing Objective

Facebook will encourage you to choose a marketing objective when you create your ad. Objectives fall into three categories: awareness, consideration, and conversion.

Once you have decided on your marketing objective, you’re able to target your advertisement and insert suitable call-to-actions (CTA).

CTA

A great CTA is crucial to your advertisements’ success, as it will increase the chance of your goal being achieved. Remember—the higher your conversion rate, the higher your relevance score.

A/B Split Testing Your Ads

You should always test your copy and images when conducting Facebook ads. Pictures can play a more important role, just because they are what will initially catch a user’s attention and help to determine whether or not they engage.

Therefore, testing a variety of images can help to improve your relevancy score, as you can determine which one(s) your audience react to best.

Remember That Your Bids Are Still Important

Ultimately, your relevancy score is not the only factor that determines how well your advertisements are placed. Much like AdWords, your bid and daily budget are also important. If you have a high relevancy score and a very low bid, you won’t necessarily beat a competing advert if their relevancy score is just as high, but their budget is higher. The key to a high relevance score is user engagement. While developing and testing your ads can be time-consuming, it will be gratifying as you discover the cheapest, most efficient ads, which will benefit your brand in the long-run. User engagement is critical when it comes to gaining a high relevancy score for your Facebook ads. Developing and testing the best ads for your audience can be time-consuming, but also very rewarding.

Have you implemented Facebook’s relevancy score into your digital marketing plan yet? How has it changed your digital marketing ROI? I’d love to hear about what you’ve done in the comments!

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3 Ways SEO and Rankings are Changing in 2018

75% of people don’t scroll past the first page of search results.

Search engine leads have a whopping 14.6% close rate

And


70% to 80% of people skip straight to organic results, ignoring paid ads completely.


But you probably already know all of that. You already know how important landing within the first ten results of a Google search is. You know how that can help your business generate passive traffic, leads, and conversions. That’s why you’ve spent the last year trying to either climb your way through the rankings or maintain your current position. 2018, though, is going to be filled with some things you might not know. In particular, video is going to rule content creation, voice search will start to find its footing, and mobile results will take priority.

In this blog, you’ll learn about the most recent changes to SEO and how as a marketer you can implement strategies to get ahead in 2018.

1. Video is Going to Rule the Rankings

Currently, about 55% of all Google search results contain at least one video. In other words, over half of the page results you see when you search on Google have at least one video embedded within their pages. You could argue that’s because people are using video content more often. But, more accurately, I’d argue that Google is actually prioritizing pages with video content. And that’s not a huge surprise.

First of all, Google owns YouTube so it’s in their own interest to promote video content. That’s probably why, as you might have noticed, Google is slowly sneaking video results into the images search tab.

Cute Cats

(Image Source)

 

Second, 60% of people prefer video content over basic text.

Video vs Text

(Image Source)

Which directly contributes to why video content tends to rank better than regular blog posts. When people spend more time on a page and engage with the content rather than leaving immediately, Google ranks that page better. If video is encouraging engagement, that’s at least partly why it’s winning on the SERP.

How can marketers start to prepare for this video-loving trend? The best way is to start creating video, or in the least, use video. When writing a blog post, for instance, go to YouTube, find a video that accurately describes your topic, and embed it in the blog post you’re writing.

Kind of like I’m about to do.

2. Voice Search Will Start to Find its Footing

Every day, 40% of adults perform at least one voice search. With the rapid adoption of products like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, voice searches have increased by 35 times since 2008. According to Google one in five searches comes from a voice query.  Everything from cell phones to home assistants will have voice search technology incorporated, leading comScore to estimate that voice queries will account for 50% of searches by 2020.

Lest you think that all of that attention is just smoke and mirrors, consider that Google hinted in an interview they will soon be introducing better voice search reporting.

 Recently, a Google Analyst stated:

“I don’t know what the exact plans are there, but we have discussed something like that. To kind of make it easier to pull out what people have used to search on voice and what people are using by typing. Similar to how we have desktop and mobile set up separately.”

It’s difficult to predict when voice search will start to completely establish itself, but 2018 will surely be a year of voice search exploration. That trend will affect B2B marketers and B2C marketers alike. To prepare for that, target long-tail keyword phrases that sound more conversational. When people talk instead of type, they tend to use more words.

Text vs Voice Input

(Image Source)

 

Additionally, featured snippets will become even more critical as searchers use their voice instead of their thumbs. Voice search tools like the Alexa and Echo and even Siri tend to prioritize these position zero snippets when they respond. Which means that if you target those snippets, you’ll rank more regularly for voice searches in the coming year.

3. Mobile Results Will Take Priority

In 2018, mobile results will likely take SERP priority like they never have before. Over a year ago, Google announced their intention to prioritize mobile-friendly and responsive websites on mobile search. To do this, they are finally starting to roll out their mobile-first indexing to a handful of sites. But, as Search Engine Land predicts, that change probably won’t be in full swing until later this year.

It’s better to prepare for the change before it actually happens than it is to fall behind. Already, a massive portion of results rank differently on mobile than they do on desktop.

Brightedge

(Image Source)

Mobile-first indexing will exaggerate that trend. If you have a mobile-responsive website already, I wouldn’t worry too much about the change. In the words of a Google representative,

“If you have a responsive site, then you’re pretty much good to go. Because the content on your desktop site will be pretty much the same on your responsive site. The structured data on your desktop site will be the same. There is going to be slight differences in how you present the data, but we’re trying to be prepared.”

If you’ve fallen behind the already-common curve of mobile search, then the time to catch up is now. Make sure your website is responsive to different devices, and consider integrating with Google AMP to ensure you’re in line with Google standards of device flexible excellence.

Very few people scroll past the first page of Google results. And, naturally, even fewer people click on page two, three, four, or five. In other words, you need to be on page one.  But, getting there and staying there is easier said than done.

Unfortunately, 2018 is going to bring even more changes to the SEO environment. However, now that you know to use video content in your blog posts, target long-tail keywords for voice search, and create a website that’s mobile responsive, you’ll be prepared for the changes 2018 will bring.

What changes have you already prepared for this year? What SEO changes are still on your list to accomplish? Tell me about your plans in the comments. I’d love to hear about them.

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