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  • Content Marketing Over the Long Haul

    Content marketing is a cornerstone of many digital strategies. As we expand SEO and social, content marketing plans become essential in establishing a brand’s position with customers, prospects and their own employees.

    A study of content marketers in Australia saw in interesting change in the landscape ( I think this has implication in the U.S. as well.) While more companies were developing content marketing plans and felt confident that they are on the right path, with 46% having a documented content marketing plan vs 37% last year, those that felt they had an effective content strategy dropped from 29% to 28%.

    It appears that it is a case of the more you know the more you realize how far you have to go. Estimates for content marketing plans to be fully effective range up to a year and a half. As companies truly build out their plans, the reality sets in that, like anything worthwhile, this is not an easy fix. Content marketing takes work and time, with the effects being cumulative. Building up momentum requires persistence and a concerted effort to stay focused over time.

    Starting with a strong foundation means knowing what your value / solution is, which is the focus of the content plan. The Content Marketing Institute has a great piece on creating the content marketing plan; what you need to answer in the process. Like most business plans, the questions are thought provoking and, if you are honest with yourself, not necessarily easy to answer. Ultimately, you need to build a business case for content marketing that helps keep the plan focused.

    Content marketing can be fun, it must be creative, and absolutely needs to provide value over time to the intended audiences. It is not about an infographic, or a blog, or a video. It is about information and finding the best ways to share that information over diverse channels. Before you dive into content marketing ( I mean really dive into it) be ready to commit the time and resources for a 12+ month period before you expect to see tangible results.

  • Digital Analytics: Getting the Right Information

    How do you organize your actionable information from digital analytics?

    Good marketers are curious people and seek out information. This is a good trait, but too much of a good thing…

    Organizational Culture

    Information overload is a major challenge for many people and organizations. We have come to a place where we want information as it happens, 24/7. This is a bad model for managing a company, or even our daily activity. People tend to become overwhelmed and paralysis sets in, relegating them to rote activities that have little foundation in the data.

    When I work with clients, one line of conversation inevitably focuses on actionable information. To get there, organizations need to get better at aligning goals across employees, set these up in their analytics programs, providing access to digital analytics in a timely fashion (does not necessarily mean 24/7), and trust people to ‘do their job’. If your organizational culture allows you to get to this point, then there are a few things you can do with information to make it more consumable and actionable.


    Segment information into types

    Define information types in terms of their level a relevance to your objectives and the actions you can take. I like to look at information in three broad buckets: Actionable, Interesting and Alerts.

    Actionable information sounds easy on the surface, but truly defining it for individuals and giving them access to it, can be challenging.  Actionable information needs to meet certain criteria:

    1. Your actions directly impact the information you see. It is not just that you can take action based on what you see, but what you see is impacted by your actions.
    2. It has to be gathered over enough time for the results of your actions to manifest themselves in the information.
    3. You have to receive the information frequently enough that your next actions are still relevant.

    For any individual, the amount of information that fits that criteria is very small. As a general rule, the broader your authority the more time your actions take the become visible in the data. A manager of a paid search program can see their impact day over day. The director of digital strategy can take a month or more to see their results. Reports with truly actionable information should be concise. Big reports tend to include a lot of noise; small reports tend to be better.

    The next type of information is Interesting information, and is the most abundant. This is data that may be connected with your role, but which is not directly affected by your actions. Back to the paid search manager and director of digital strategy. The manager can’t take action against total site visitors, though the stats may be interesting to him. For the director, the price per click is not something she can affect (unless she is engaging in a role several levels below her pay grade), but she may be interested in it.  If we look through our in-boxes, we notice that they are flooded with interesting information that tends to distract from the actionable information.

    Alerts are just that, information that alerts us to the fact that something unexpected is happening. This can be good or bad, but it is related to the impact of our actions and are not (at least we hope) popping up on a regular basis.

    What do you do with this?

    1. Create reports or dashboard that are laser focused on the information your actions directly affect. Remove the superfluous data.
    2. Only receive reports as frequently as needed to take action. Getting reports everyday if you only take action weekly or monthly is a waste of your attention.
    3. Review company email distribution lists – the ones you send and the ones you are on. Cull these down to the absolute minimum. Receiving several emails each day with reports that are not actionable to you is a waste of your time, and the time of others.
    4. If you are in the right position, ensure that there is one source (one truth) of information and all people have appropriate access.

    As marketers we tend to be curious. So our day is not totally consumed with actionable information. We want to read interesting things about our company, our industry and our roles. Set time aside for this so that it does not interrupt your workflow, before or after you core work time. Stay curious, just in a structured way.

    One of the reasons I am given for why people look at reports that are not actionable is that they want to be sure nothing is going wrong; they want to spot problems before they have an impact. This stems for a fear that something will be missed. Rather than review non-actionable reports, this is what we use Alerts to handle. Set up your parameters and create alert emails when things fall outside them. Most analytics packages have these (we use Google Analytics).

    One of our best traits as marketers can also be our Achilles heel. Structure your information and organize your day to allow for your curiosity while not interrupting your workflow, and your productivity will increase.

    Related to this are the roles of “influencers” and stakeholders. These are people who affect our ability to hit our goals. Understanding their metrics, and what they do to achieve them is important to our results. But, that is another topic to tackle in a future post.

     

  • Cyber Friday?

    Yes.

    Black Friday overtakes Cyber Monday for online shopping this year, based on adults in two studies.

    According to the Deloitte study

    Black Friday surpassed Cyber Monday as the most popular online shopping day during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Two-thirds (66 percent) of those shopping over the holiday weekend plan to do so online on Black Friday, compared with 52 percent on Cyber Monday

    Criteo was seeing similar increase on cyber sales during black friday, with 32% of the sales coming from mobile devices.

    What we are seeing is the normal expansion of cyber shopping under the context of holiday shopping. The periods of purchasing are expanding as is the use of mobile and tablet devices.

  • Digital Analytics: Are you Measuring & Acting?

    Are you really ready for accountability? Individually, I hear people talk about wanting to measure their results, and then the fun begins.

    Digital analytics ebook

    What are your metrics?  “I Don’t really know.”

    Ok, what is your boss being held to?  “I Don’t really know.”

    How about your peers, do they have metrics? “I don’t think so.”

    I talk with people a lot about their online advertising and how they are tracking results. They often have some type of digital analytics package in place, but they don’t really know how to use it. So, that’s the reason they don’t have targets… (not really).

    The real reason is usually organizational or cultural. The tools can be implemented with a little effort, if you’re willing to invest the time and money. But, they often don’t know what they would measure. It is not just about holding someone accountable to a number. It is more often about providing them with insights into the results of their actions so they can improve the numbers, get things going in the right direction.

    Take a copy writer. Are you really going to hold the person accountable for actual revenue targets? No. But, if she is passionate about what she does, she will want to know if the readers are spending time on the content and taking certain actions / clicking. If she can see metrics, she can start to see what drives engagement and actions and incorporate this into future copy.

    There is not enough space in a single post to share all my thoughts on the topic, but I did put together an ebook (is on amazon, but hidden apparently as no one knows about it. 😉 ). If your are interested in a perspective on creating a culture of analytics, I think it can be helpful.

    Digital Analytics The Culture of Insights and Actions

  • Bing makes a profit

    Bing makes a profit

    Bing LogoBing is profitable (Fortune Bing story ) and the search engine broke the 20% search share threshold. So, are you still ignoring the search engine?

    Paid Search
    Google seems to get all the attention from many advertisers. But those who have taken advantage of Bing paid search have often seen their advertising dollars generate more efficient sales than on Google. We have developed Bing paid search programs for clients that proved more effective in generating profitable leads than google.

    With limited budgets it makes sense to explore the most efficient options. Google, as the default ppc option, usually gets first shot at ad dollars. However, for those with more limited budgets, it is possible that the entire budget can be absorbed efficiently on Bing. Better yet, find a blend with the two to get the best of both engines. For paid search, if you’ve only worked with Google, start testing into Bing.

    Yahoo is pulling in about 10% of the search share, making it a minor contender for attention. With the new Google deal, combined with Bing, advertisers will some of the Yahoo impressions with ads in either.

  • Google and Yahoo; Friends Again?

    Yahoo! announced an agreement to tap into Google Search and image ads as part of its ongoing quest to deliver results that ‘don’t suck’. Yahoo! will determine which queries to send to Bing (that agreement still stands) and which to send to Google. Each will then bump the query against their own algorithms to deliver the best ads. Essentially, Yahoo! gets the best of both worlds.

    I think this is an great agreement on Yahoo’s part. They’ll never beat Google, and Bing will be there to give them options. Meanwhile, Yahoo! will continue to work on its core content and mobile strategies, which is where it’s future lies.

    This past weekend, Yahoo streamed the Bills / Jaguars game ($17M for the right to do so), as it explores streaming pro sports and looks at more content across Yahoo properties.

    At the same time we are told that Yahoo is also looking to develop mobile search, which is much more influenced by localization. This may be another case of Yahoo! going head to head with Google only to end up falling back and leveraging someone else’s (Google’s) technology down the road. Not so long ago Yahoo! was hot into desktop search. Those of us in the game for a while remember when they came to us and sold us on the platform that was essentially a google me-to. It will be interesting to see how far Yahoo! can take it’s mobile play.

  • The Google Panda Smack Down

    Content is king. Google has always been clear in this. Too many SEOs have sought to trick google, Bing & Yahoo into thinking bad content was good content. Panda has been aggressively distinguishing between the two.

    Producing good content is not easy. In the short term, some have instead tried to trick the engines into ranking poor content. Those who played the long game were less affected by the Panda hits. This becomes almost amusing as we see the response from some SEOs to Google’s continued guidance that good content is key.

    One strategy for addressing a google panda smack down is to remove the poor content. Short term, this is easy, fast and a feel good action. But, it ultimately defeats the purpose. Google is not seeking the removal of content, but the improved quality of content.

    When you are addressing the issues related to Panda, ask yourself a simple question, “why did we put the content there in the first place?”

    If your answer is along the lines of “we’re trying to get rankings,” then remove it. It doesn’t help you, the users or the engines. Yes, rankings are part of the equation. But, the driver is end user benefit so your company has value and can enhance your relationship with customers or prospects.

    The more likely answer (I hope) is that you are trying to provide useful information to the user. Google’s point (correct or not) is that the content is too thin to be useful. It is something to keep, but improve upon, and that takes work. The process may start with keyword research, but more likely, you need to go back a bit further and ask some basic question about your customers.

    Knowing how they shop, your company’s role in the purchase process and how customers want to interact with you is important in content development. With this understanding, you can review the current content issues, determine their priority and then start to rebuild your pages with better, more complete information for the customers, keeping basic SEO development practices in mind.

    If you’ve been hit by Google Panda, take the long view, prioritize and thoughtfully address the core issues. Resist the temptation to ‘pull it down’ or create smoke-and-mirrors to try to get around doing the right thing. SEO is a long view game; treat it accordingly and there will be fewer surprises when Google updates come out.

    Feature panda image – tee shirt I thought was funny.

  • Facebook Emoji Rollout – Finally Some Nuance

    Providing Nuance to Sentiment Analysis

    For years companies have been doing sentiment analysis to try to figure out if they are loved, liked or despised. To do this well we would combine algorithms from tools with manual evaluations and adjustments. The truth is, the vast majority of comments and input are neutral.

    The emoji roll-out will provide a second line of sentiment measurement. However tempting it may be to start using Facebook emoji metrics as guides immediately, companies should lay the groundwork.

    1. Ignore emojis for a while. Use the first month or two to simply gather data. This will provide a baseline for your organization upon which to base decisions.

    2. Don’t write to elicit specific emoji reaction. Stay true to who you are. After you’ve gathered enough data, then evaluate the sentiment from emoji buttons to see if there are any surprises. If your brand is warm and fuzzy, but your facebook emoji metrics lean toward sad or angry, then evaluate the content. As an example, a brand that wants to be known for a positive / feel good attitude and social responsibility may post content related to issues in urban areas. These types of stories and elicit feelings ranging from motivating and uplift to very upsetting, often simply based on how it is presented. The emoji evaluation can help a company understand if the style of writing aligns to their image.

    3. Use the first month or two of “do nothing” data collection on facebook emoji response and compare this to the sentiment analysis that you’ve been doing for years. One of the challenges on the sentiment analysis is that it lacks nuance, an understanding of the dynamics in the middle where the majority of customers reside. The emoji analysis should provide you with the nuance that traditional sentiment analysis lacks.

    I’ve been in digital for a lot of years and a constant reaction to change is to jump in and start messing with it. I admit that doing so is a lot of fun. But it also hinders our true understanding of what the new tools or feature really mean. Take the time to let the data educate you, then start acting.

  • Growth Strategy Lessons From Facebook

    Sam Rosen, serial entrepreneur and founder of Desktimeapp.com, shared the article on growth strategy with lessons from Meenal Balar, who was a key part of facebooks international growth. It really struck a cord with me and I wanted to share it with you.

    This piece on First Round starts with some very basic elements of the three buckets for prospects, which is refreshing; it wasn’t full of nonsensical over elaborate descriptions of what is actually basic. The best part of the article was the very fundamental focus on sound strategies Facebook used in growing the international business.

    As facebook expanded markets, the team focused on three areas:
    Reduce friction for prospective customers. How often do you find yourself frustrated by the process of buying a product or service. Too often, companies rely on the buyer’s enthusiasm to power through the friction of purchasing, and enough buyers do so for many companies to make a go of it. But the really fast growth companies don’t rely on the enthusiasm of the buyers to push through friction, but focus on removing the friction.

    • Leverage resources / experts in the market. We see companies introduce products based on ideas from people who often don’t have to use it in the same context as the target marketing. Facebook had the resources to identify and leverage market experts.
    • Test constantly. The premise of testing constantly is actually very humbling. By committing to constant testing you admit you don’t know. This is the key focus on the testing even that which appears successful.
    • At its simplest, facebook’s international growth strategy was a classic crawl-walk-run approach. Introduce, learn, grow. Then keep learning and growing.

    The piece has more detail and is well written, worth the time.

    Hope you enjoy.
    http://firstround.com/review/heres-what-a-real-growth-strategy-looks-like-road-tested-by-facebook-and-remind/

  • Paid search ads directed to Facebook?

    A recent Media Post article proffered the question, should paid search be used to send users to a facebook page.

    The author didn’t actually answer the question, but posited a number of “issues”. The only upside that was suggested is that doing so is a way to marry the search and social channels.

    Don’t Force Social Media On Users

    This is a distraction for the user and the brand. Paid search users have a specific intent, and expectations that they will be brought to a page relevant to that intent. Basic optimization requires a level of tracking and control that is not available on FB. Search traffic should be directed to a landing page directly connected to the brand site, created for the intent. This allows the experience to be optimized to the expectations.

    Social media engagement should be in the context of a user’s social media experience. While cross channel engagement may be desirable, it is only so when the connection between the channels is natural to the user, not forced by the brand.

    Social Media Advertising

    In the area of social media, when it comes to advertising, we view brand interactions at three levels:

    1) Resident – The brand is actively engaged in the social landscape with ongoing interactions with users, involvement in topics related to but beyond the brand or brand’s products & services (charities or the arts as examples) and is generally “expected” to be seen.

    2) Visitor – The brand has a page and responds regularly to user initiated interactions such a product queries, help requests, or review responses. The brand is not expected by users, but in mild doses, it is accepted.

    3) Intruders – Dormant pages, poor response times or no natural connection to the users. Ads seemingly appear from nowhere and don’t serve a purpose in the user’s experience.

    Not all paid search users are on facebook. Even if they are, being there at that moment (when conducting a google search) is not what they wanted; if they did, they would start on facebook. By pushing search users to facebook, brands are creating an unnatural path for them. Regardless of what your standing is on facebook, the interaction you create by doing this is forced, unexpected and creates a tension that should not be there.

    Social media is a connection while paid search is a transaction. The two should not be confused.