In February of 2024, Google struck a $60 million partnership with Reddit to train AI models. Since then, Reddit posts are now ranking in Google’s top search results in as little as five minutes, according to recent research. With a significant boost in visibility and associated traffic, Reddit has become a new channel for many digital marketers, especially SEO professionals. While the opportunities are significant, there are dangers for brands rushing into marketing on Reddit.

Reddit is Real
According to Business of Apps, Reddit had 70 million daily active users and approximately 850 million users who use it once a month in Q4 of 2023, generating 199 billion yearly pageviews. That number has significantly increased since the Google partnership, no doubt. Regardless of the exact numbers, the sheer size and scope of the audience is unignorable and should be considered by marketers unfamiliar with the platform.

Reddit’s global popularity translates to immense potential reach for brands. An active, well-executed Reddit strategy enables companies to increase awareness, monitor consumer sentiment, gather insights, and even drive traffic back to their websites for an SEO boost thanks to the Google integration. But there are potential pitfalls worthy of consideration.

The Risks of Getting It Wrong
While the potential upsides are significant, brands that fail to respect Reddit’s unique dynamics open themselves up to intense criticism and backlash from the notoriously anti-marketing community. It is essential for all marketers planning to engage on Reddit to review the User Agreement first. Some common missteps that can anger the Reddit hivemind include:

• Aggressive self-promotion, advertising, or posting links without adding value
• Attempting to covertly market by using fake accounts or “sock puppets”
• Demonstrating a fundamental lack of understanding about specific subreddit cultures
• Heavy-handed moderation or censorship of critical feedback as a brand representative

Reddit’s vigilant community has burned even large, established brands. In 2013, a Reddit ad campaign by IKEA asked users to provide free labor by submitting sample instructions for furniture assembly. The tone-deaf request was widely mocked, with Reddit users defiantly submitting prank instructions involving tools like chainsaws or narwhals. More recently, EA was labeled the “worst company in America” on Reddit over microtransaction policies in their video games.

Engaging on Reddit: Best Practices
Despite challenges, even scorned brands have learned to get it right on Reddit, including IKEA. To tap Reddit’s full potential brands must approach the online community as real members helping each other, rather than marketers. Building a meaningful presence on Reddit takes time, thought and effort to understand the unique cultural norms of specific subreddit communities. The rewards can be significant and are worthy of consideration. Below are four best practices for brands to consider when investing in Reddit.

• Monitoring relevant subreddits to understand the prevalent topics, lingo, and unwritten rules before attempting to participate.
• Focusing on adding value through insightful comments, expert advice, and helpful resources – not overt promotion.
• Embracing transparency about your brand affiliation if posting as an official representative.
• Adopting a respectful, conversational tone and having a sense of humor when appropriate.

Take the trailer and automotive communities like r/CargoTrailers, r/CargoCamper, or r/Hookit as examples. Members are enthusiastic DIYers and professionals who appreciate in-depth discussions and expert knowledge sharing about trailers. A trailer company would find more success providing tips on maintenance or cool camper builds than constantly pushing sales. Sales and marketing team members have a higher probability of getting shut down by Reddit administrators or community moderators.

A better approach for trailer manufacturers and dealerships would be to encourage customers and non-marketing employees to post based on their expert experience. For example, mechanics at dealerships can offer tremendous value to Reddit users with specific questions about repairs. Customer service professionals are well-equipped to answer questions about a specific trailer model or manufacturer. Should employees post on more than 138,000 Subreddits, it is imperative that they are transparent about the affiliation with their employers.

It is all about Karma
A vast majority of platforms reward engagement and Reddit is no exception. Reddit developed karma as a currency to reward active members and allow active brands to build trust within Subreddit communities. At a minimum, karma is required to post on select Subreddits. Karma is earned based on platform participation and is rewarded by Reddit for the following activities: posting, commenting, upvoting, giving and receiving awards, and engaging with users who comment on your posts. This excellent post provides detailed steps on how to build Reddit karma.

There are additional benefits to building karma with Reddit users. Once you have reached a minimum threshold of karma, you can create your own subreddits. This is a powerful way to build community around your specific brand, products and services and is ideal for brands with Reddit-savvy customers. One way to maximize the value of your own Subreddit is to host an “Ask Me Anything” AMA session. This article outlines best practices for hosting a successful AMA session on Reddit.

Ad It Up
For brands more interested in maximizing reach on Reddit with minimal effort, advertising is always an option. Reddit offers targeted ads to engaged community members that generate awareness, drive traffic and other conversions, like other social media platforms. Reddit ad types vary in format and cost, including promoted posts and more expensive takeovers. While free-form, image, video and carousel ads are fairly standard, Reddit recently launched Shopping Ads, which are ideal for ecommerce brands. For examples, check out how brands have successfully utilized advertising to maximize reach and engagement on Reddit.

Conclusion
There is no doubt that Reddit presents an alluring opportunity for brands to increase their visibility, understand customers better, and even drive website traffic. However, the platform’s rabid community of users will mercilessly call out any attempts at clumsy marketing that disrespect Reddit’s principles.

The path forward requires careful strategy and resources dedicated to monitoring subreddit cultures, earning trust as a knowledgeable contributor, and engaging with an authentic, human voice. Get it right, and brands can reap the benefits of an enthusiastic base of loyal Reddit advocates. Get it wrong, and they may become the latest target of the internet’s ridicule.

The post Navigating the Reddit Rabbit Hole: SEO Opportunities and Pitfalls for Brands appeared first on SEMpdx.

The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving with innovative technologies, platforms, and strategies. As we enter 2024, I have taken the liberty to synthesize and simplify several key trends that will shape digital marketing over the next year and beyond. I do want to give credit to the esteemed marketing experts I had the honor of moderating at a recent SEMpdx future panel event for inspiration regarding a few of the trends. Here are eight notable digital marketing predictions and trends to help marketers prepare for the road ahead:

Thought Leadership Gains Traction with SEOs
With an increasing focus on optimizing for Google’s E-E-A-T, a component of Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (SQEG) recently, 2024 will see an explosion of interest and focus in brands partnering with thought leadership to create high-ranking content. Google’s SQEG focus on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness is best addressed by brands whom engage with subject matter experts that regularly speak, write and secure press mentions. This is particularly exciting for me, as a digital marketing thought leader for 28 years. For more information, check out the Moz SEO Content Predictions blog post for additional detail and validation.

Humans and Computers Swap Roles
Historically, humans have used MarTech to augment marketing content, search engine optimization and other disciplines. With AI evolving significantly in the past two years, the roles will reverse, where humans will increasingly augment marketing processes in 2024. AI will now take the lead on identifying topics, then creating and optimizing content while humans will play an essential role in providing uniquely human narrative that is also consistent with the brand message framework and ensuring both consistency with voice and integration with an overall omnichannel strategy. Additionally, humans will need to diligently verify and fact-check AI-generated content, to identify and eliminate any hallucinations that may create legal or ethical liability.

Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO) Will Gain Awareness and Credibility as a Marketing Discipline
Playing off the previous prediction of AI driving key marketing activities, humans will evolve into guides, editors, and advisors to AI. Enter AIO, a new and evolving discipline at the intersection of AI prompt engineering and marketing prowess, ranging from copywriting and search engine optimization (SEO) to email marketing, graphic design, advertising and landing page optimization. In a broad sense, successful copywriters, developers, and designers will evolve into AI-savvy editors who create something new, unique, and valuable upon a foundation created by machine learning tools. Marketers that embrace AIO in their digital strategy are blazing a trail in 2024, not just keeping up.

Marketers will Become Developers
With the increasing adoption of low-code platforms like Mendix, Appian, and Microsoft Power Apps, to rapidly develop applications, anyone can be a developer without knowing a line of code. Similarly, workflow automation platforms Zapier, Integrately, IFTTT and HubSpot Operations Hub make automating standardized, repetitive processes easier than ever. When it comes to AI, anyone can now create a custom chatbot using OpenAI’s GPT builder. Combining these robust platforms enables marketers to create a wide variety of tools to automate, streamline and improve marketing. With an ability to rapidly and affordably create tools that enhance the customer experience (CX), marketers will see improved conversion rates.

With Help from AI, Marketers Will Effectively Target User Intent to Increase ROI
While predictive analytics, personalization, localization, and semantic search focusing on user intent have been available to marketers for two decades, the rapid growth and evolution of AI created new opportunities by synthesizing these capabilities into affordable solutions. Since Google incorporated BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) in its search system in October 2019, marketers have seen the benefits of optimizing for context over keywords. AI takes that to a new level by analyzing mounds of data and provides the opportunity to recommend (if not display) personalized content to target audiences throughout the customer journey. AI will help copywriters, SEOs, advertisers, email marketers and web developers create highly curated user experiences based on intent, in real-time, dramatically impacting ROI.

Google Will Shift Focus to Ecommerce as SGE Evolves
As Google continues to roll out and refine its Search Generative Experience (SGE) to the public in 2024, there will be a natural reduction in traffic to high-ranking websites and ads currently displayed in search engine result pages (SERPs). To offset the projected revenue loss, Google will focus heavily on optimizing ecommerce functionality and further personalizing search results to better monetize the customer journey in search and better position against competitors like Amazon, which is the most popular starting point for product searches. Social platforms are also aiming to take away search market share and evolve their own ecommerce capabilities. Brands should look for new opportunities to target searchers with enriched product listings that streamline the shopping experience by integrating with shopping feeds, marketplaces and ecommerce websites.

Social Search Will Continue to Erode Google’s Search Market Share
Although Google will continue to hold a majority market share in terms of consumer search, alternate platforms will continue to erode market share. Amazon overtook Google as the most popular platform for product searches years ago, and the trend will continue. Increasingly, consumers have started informational searches on social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest and Reddit. This shift will force SEO professionals to look beyond Google to social media platforms and content optimization. Keep in mind social platform content optimization should include all form factors, from video (vertical and standard), images, audio and of course, text. A deep understanding of each platform’s algorithm will be required in 2024 and beyond.

Marketing Will Return to The Fundamentals
With AI proliferating all aspects of marketing, including lazy marketers’ focus on generating reams of low-quality content, consumers and search engines alike will become jaded and trust will be lost. To combat the deluge of unoriginal content, smart marketers will revisit the most effective (albeit old school) marketing techniques, leading with compelling storytelling via authentic voices. While ChatGPT can create logical stories on-the-fly, a competent marketer can craft a truly memorable and meaningful story that is unique, relevant, and actionable. Forward-thinking brands will focus on conversational content and marketing, leveraging not only remarkable stories but AI to help refine targeting and personalization (rather than the other way around).

Over the past two-plus decades, I have seen and experienced significant shifts in how humans seek information, communicate, and collaborate, thanks to the Internet. However, AI is a far more impactful evolution that will change human behavior in profound ways well beyond streamlining marketing. With tremendous power comes responsibility and I believe myself and my fellow marketers must be diligent in our monitoring and use of AI-generated content. Despite ethical, moral, and legal challenges we must navigate in the years to come, AI is by far the most exciting tool we have at our disposal, and it should be leveraged to create more effective marketing in 2024 and beyond.

The post 2024 Digital Marketing Predictions including SEO, SEM, and Social Media Trends appeared first on SEMpdx.

For the past twenty years, websites have provided a critical touch point for prospects and customers. Despite the increased popularity of social media platforms and more recently, ChatGPT, websites are still an important component of an online presence and marketing mix. As such, it’s essential that your website not only provides relevant information but also offers a seamless and engaging user experience. If you’re considering a website redesign, it’s a significant step that requires careful planning and execution. In this article, we’ll explore the key considerations and best practices to ensure a successful website redesign.

Define Your Goals and Objectives
Too many times in the past, I’ve discussed website redesigns with clients that had no clear vision or objective for the new site (other than I don’t like the current site, or it seems dated). Before you embark on a website redesign, it’s crucial to outline your goals and objectives. What do you aim to achieve with the redesign? Are you looking to enhance user experience, boost conversion rates, improve SEO, or align with current design trends? By clearly defining your objectives, you’ll have a solid foundation to guide the entire process. Bonus tip: make sure every page has a relevant call-to-action (CTA) to maximize conversions.

Set a Realistic Timeline
Allow plenty of time for the redesign – at least 2-3 months for a small business site. Building in time for planning, design iterations, development, testing, content migration, and launch is essential. Trying to redesign a site too quickly can result in key steps being skipped. While redesigns often move more quickly than new websites due to existing content and structure, a refresh provides an opportunity to leap ahead of competition, so pad timelines for adequate planning, inevitable delays and surprises.

Audit Your Existing Site and Create a New Sitemap
Thoroughly evaluate your current website before making changes. Look at site architecture, navigation, page load speeds, forms, product/service pages, and more. Identify what’s working well and what needs improvement. Create a new sitemap reflecting how you want users to navigate and find information on the redesigned site. Ensure the information architecture and navigation schemes make sense. Bonus tip: ensure you’ve built in email capture (via a popup window and/or include an email signup in the footer of your website template to build your email list). In the ‘cookieless’ age, this is particularly important.

Know Your Audience
Understanding your target audience is paramount. Conduct user research, gather feedback, and analyze user behavior on your current site. Knowing your audience’s preferences and pain points will help you tailor the new website to their needs, resulting in a more engaging and satisfying experience. I recommend developing customer personas (typically three to five for an optimal balance between accuracy and simplicity).

Revisit or Create a Content Strategy
Content is king, and a website redesign is an ideal time to review and enhance your content strategy. Identify which content is still relevant and which should be updated or removed. Ensure your content aligns with your brand and resonates with your audience. A well-structured content plan will contribute to a successful redesign. The content should be tailored to your goals. Add, revise, or remove copy to enhance SEO, user experience, and conversions. Create new page titles, meta descriptions, alt text, and calls to action. The highest performing SEO-friendly content includes FAQs and a blog. Ensure all new content is truly unique (both across the website and across the Internet). Bonus tip: create ‘linkable’ content (i.e., podcasts, webinars, white papers, calculators) to boost domain authority and credibility with Google.

Select a Content Management System
Depending on your industry, company size, budget and objectives, selecting a platform can be tricky. The more robust the CMS, the more limiting it in terms of customization and site speed. The slower the website is, the less Google favors the site as it creates a lackluster user experience. WordPress is one of the most popular, SEO-friendly and scalable platforms on the web today and is a great starting point for small and mid-sized businesses, although it is also used by global corporations.

Revise Information Architecture
Information architecture (IA) plays a vital role in the user experience. Organize content logically, create user-friendly navigation menus, and ensure that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for. A clear IA simplifies the user journey and minimizes frustration. Hire UX experts, benchmark against competitors and solicit input from heads of key departments to minimize revisions down the road.

Address User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX)
The website’s UI/UX should be a top priority. A well-designed user interface should be aesthetically pleasing, but it should also be intuitive and easy to navigate. UX considerations should focus on making the user’s journey as smooth and enjoyable as possible. A good user experience translates to better rankings in search as well. Bonus tip: consider incorporating a chatbot to streamline sales and customer service.

Enhance Visual Design
A visual refresh can modernize the look and feel of the site. Explore new color schemes, fonts, layouts, and branding elements. Balance aesthetics with usability. Research emerging colors, technology and messaging to ensure the visual language feels fresh, current and relevant.

Address Accessibility
Ensure that your website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Comply with web accessibility standards like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). This not only expands your audience but also ensures you meet legal requirements in some jurisdictions. An additional benefit: Google and other search engines are “disabled” because they are blind, so following best practices for compliance benefits organic search visibility.

Optimize for Mobile
In an era where mobile devices dominate web traffic, mobile responsiveness is non-negotiable. Most of the website traffic today originates from mobile devices. Your website must function seamlessly on various screen sizes and devices. A responsive design ensures that your site adapts to the user’s screen, providing a consistent and user-friendly experience. Mobile-optimized sites are also favored in Google rankings.

Optimize for Organic Search
Maintaining or improving your search engine ranking is essential. Carry out comprehensive keyword research, ensure that your site’s structure is SEO-friendly, and implement search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. This includes optimizing images, creating unique and valuable content, and improving page load times. Additional code-centric elements for improved SEO include robots text, XML sitemap and schema markup. Most importantly, ensure keywords are in each page title tag (to boost visibility in search results) and the meta description tags are compelling (to maximize clicks).

Optimize for Social Media
Due to the proliferation of social media, don’t forget to integrate social elements into the website. The best place to start is to incorporate links (that open in new tabs) to the big seven social platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok and X/Twitter). Ensure all pages of the site are sharable to the two to three most popular social platforms to maximize citations and traffic. Bonus tip: integrate a social media feed (typically Instagram or X/Twitter) into the footer of the website template (or select pages) to send Google a signal that the site is updated regularly.

Focus on Page Speed
A fast-loading website is essential for user satisfaction and SEO ranking. Compress images, utilize browser caching, and employ content delivery networks (CDNs) to optimize page load times. Test regularly and optimize images, scripts, caches, servers, and code to improve load times. Http/2 and a content delivery network can also boost speed. Bonus tip: use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to maximize site speed.

Develop a URL Migration Strategy
To retain traffic and search ranking, set up 301 redirects from old to new URLs for all top pages. Use a crawler to identify broken links or orphaned pages. Migrate content systematically. To capture any orphaned pages, ensure a custom 404 error page is within a branded template and directs humans (and search engine spiders) back into the new site structure. Bonus tip: develop a link reclamation strategy, to identify orphaned (404 error) links on third-party websites and reach out to suggest an updated link to minimize negative impact on domain authority.

Incorporate Testing and Quality Assurance
Thoroughly test your redesigned website before launch. Check for broken links, functionality issues, and inconsistencies. Perform usability testing with real users to identify any potential roadblocks and gather feedback for improvements.

Validate Security Measures
Website security is a paramount concern. Implement security protocols to protect against cyber threats, including SSL certificates, firewall protection, and regular updates to your content management system (CMS).

Create a Backup and Recovery Process
Regularly back up your website to prevent data loss in case of a mishap. Have a recovery plan in place so that you can quickly restore your website if necessary. Ideally, back up the existing site during development and maintain it for reference for as long as possible, as context is important, even long after launch.

Create a Launch Plan
Promote a redesign launch via social media, email, press releases, and other channels. Announce key features and be clear if there are changes to site navigation. Monitor analytics closely after launch. The most important aspect of a site launch includes thorough QA testing before launch, validating SEO elements are completed and the site can handle traffic spikes if marketing does its job too well.

Conclusion
Redesigning a website is a multifaceted process that involves strategic planning and execution. It’s an opportunity to improve user experience, align with modern design trends, and enhance your online presence. By considering the factors outlined in this article and adhering to best practices, you’ll be well-equipped to achieve a successful website redesign that meets your objectives and exceeds user expectations. If you have any questions about this article or would like help navigating your website design, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or visit my networking group, pdxMindShare.

The post Website Redesign Best Practices: The Ultimate Guide for 2024 appeared first on SEMpdx.

The digital marketing ecosystem has experienced dramatic changes, particularly in the last few years. For example, Web 3’s metaverse provided brand marketers to think in new dimensions during the pandemic. More recently, ChatGPT made artificial intelligence approachable and exponentially more impactful on virtually every aspect of marketing. In this article, we explore digital marketing strategies and tactics that haven’t worn well in the past decade, to ensure your 2024 marketing plan is both timeless and forward-looking.

Building a digital marketing department
Marketing should be agnostic to media type, and so should the strategist be developing and implementing marketing campaigns. As such, companies need to conduct a skills assessment of existing marketing teams to determine who may need training or who may need to be replaced with talent that natively understands both digital and analog worlds. This obsolete strategy is still an issue for most marketing teams that have not focused on integration and will continue to haunt slow adopters.

Designing a website via internal stakeholder committee
The primary reason for the lack of user-centered design is that most websites are built by a host of departmental managers who have far too much say on colors, fonts, images, and copy. The problem with committee-based design is that these representatives make decisions based on their personal tastes and preferences versus those of the site’s intended user. While this approach is increasingly uncommon, it is still a very real issue due to the group thinking inherent in corporations.

Creating content for content’s sake
With rampant adoption of ChatGPT and similar generative AI platforms, content is easier to create than ever before. This trend has exacerbated the desire to focus on quantity of content over quality, which is only hurting brands in the long term. Successful brands will spend the time to research, develop, optimize, and syndicate content that matters to their constituents and works well across device types and screen sizes. At the very least, invest in high quality editors if you plan to cut copywriting staff due to increased ChatGPT reliance.

Doing black-hat SEO
Google has developed a detailed set of guidelines for search-friendly website design. If you follow their rules, you will be much more likely to rank for desired search terms. Even Bing operates on very similar terms: no IP-spoofing, redirects, hidden or duplicate text, etc. To boil it down, do good marketing and Google will reward you with higher rankings. Google’s E-E-A-T updates identified and penalized a significant number of websites for violating best practices, yet companies still feel the pull of the quick wins that black- and grey-hat SEO can supposedly provide. Big mistake. Play for the long game with compelling content, clean code, and the kind of site credibility and authority that can only be earned, not bought.

Avoiding landing page testing
Unfortunately, not much has changed over the past decade, in terms of landing page testing and optimization adoption across the marketing landscape. The companies that “get it” continue to invest and evolve their efforts, resulting in ever-increasing conversion rates. Far too many marketers, however, are too busy, skeptical, or unlearned regarding the benefits of landing page optimization (LPO). I believe a significant percentage of these remaining marketers will finally commit to testing, if not diving full-bore into LPO in 2024, especially with help from ChatGPT and similar AI-powered tools.

Focusing on engagement in social media
In the first wave of social media marketing (1995-2009), marketers focused on gaining followers and fans. The second wave of social media (2010-2014) focused on conversations and engagement efforts. The third wave (2015 and beyond) focused on three primary areas: collaboration, conversions and brand narrative. Smaller companies, business-to-business organizations, and profit-driven corporations should now focus more on conversion-based strategies and tactics that drive revenue. Bigger consumer brands will shift focus towards developing a brand narrative that helps consumers identify with the company and fit it into the picture a person has of themselves (i.e., shared values like environmental or social issues). Brands will focus from being “Liked” to being “Attached” to the consumer.

Paying third-party vendors to represent your brand in social media
The most common excuses for outsourcing social media management include a lack of internal resources and a lack of proficiency with social platforms. The bottom line is that nobody knows your brand better than your employees, partners, and other advocates. Let them oversee spreading the good word, not a low-paid college graduate working from home. I wish this were less common than it is, but many brands still feel the need to outsource their voice in social media, rather than building the resources in-house (with guidance from experts like us, of course).

Underestimating the power of video (and audio) marketing
I speak regularly about social media and search marketing and am a huge champion of multimedia content, especially video for marketing. I’m still amazed that the marketers to whom I present so often lack cohesive video (and audio) organic and paid content strategies. YouTube is still the world’s second largest search engine, so what are you doing to get into that conversation with consistently compelling content? Brands of all sizes and shapes also need a coherent TikTok and vertical video marketing strategy to be relevant in 2024.

Renting email lists
With the understanding that building an email database in-house is still a highly effective sales and marketing strategy, companies continue to test new strategies to grow their list. Some of the more effective methods of building a house email list include SEO, PPC, direct (mail) marketing, co-registration (email) with partners, contests (via social media platforms like X/Twitter and Facebook) and most importantly, search marketing. This has not changed, and thankfully, fewer organizations are renting low-quality email lists that typically generate a high percentage of spam complaints.

Sending unsegmented or untargeted emails
Despite the evolution of email marketing platforms, a significant percentage of businesses (particularly smaller ones with limited budget and bandwidth) continue to send out unsegmented or targeted emails. Spending the time to understand your email list by digging deep into the analytics and contact profiles, even with help from AI, can reap huge rewards. From there, create and target content based on indicated preferences, as well as demographic and psychographic information. Leveraging the power of AI now available in many email/CRM/marketing automation platforms, watch the value of each subscriber increase exponentially, with incremental effort.

Gaming online reviews
Most brands understand the power of social proof in the form of customer reviews. Unfortunately, too many brands are quick to “buy” or influence positive reviews. The result is the risk of being penalized by search engines, directories, and other review sites. The greater danger is consumers seeing through the charade and taking their business elsewhere. The short answer: create compelling and memorable customer experiences that will make them want to create and share positive reviews. Many companies are focusing on customer delight in 2015 and will bubble to the top as a result.

For a business to succeed in this increasingly complicated and noisy digital world, marketers must let go of obsolete ideas and embrace the concept of continually testing evolving techniques and technologies. The outdated digital marketing techniques outlined above are best retired in 2023, to free up bandwidth and budget for greater success in the years to come.

The post Retire These Outdated Digital Marketing Strategies Today appeared first on SEMpdx.

On January 11th, I was honored to participate in a panel of esteemed digital marketing colleagues, hosted by SEMpdx. The title and theme of our panel was “The Future of Digital Marketing” (2022 Edition). My fellow panelists included: Tricia Davis-Payne with Webfor, Anna Madill with Avenue, Mike Rosenberg with Veracity and Shuree Jones with Rain the Growth Agency. The conversation was lively and insightful to the degree I felt obligated to share highlights and supporting articles. I hope you find these resources helpful in planning your 2022 digital marketing initiatives.

2021: What did we see and learn as search engine marketers?
• Influencer marketing is here to stay. All panelists agreed. If you don’t have a program in place, check out this article: Influencer Marketing Strategy Best Practices, Tips and Trends
• Voice search has yet to gain the traction we all expected, but it still has tremendous potential for knowledge-based industries. Learn more here: Best Practices for Voice Search and Position Zero Optimization Strategies
• Virtual and hybrid events are the new normal. If you haven’t built these events into your marketing, or haven’t marketed them effectively yet, check out this article: Leveraging Virtual Events to Engage Customers & Prospects
• NFTs, blockchain and cryptocurrency generated significant buzz last year, but how can brands and digital marketers take advantage of the emerging technology? This article sheds light: How Brands Can Use NFTs to Engage Consumers and Generate Revenue
• One theme that has only increased in intensity is the needs for brands to be socially and ethically responsible, or they risk losing customers. If you haven’t invested the time to understand this powerful buying behavior, this article may offer insights: How to market to the ethical consumer: 6 effective marketing strategies
• One of the more contemporary trends that impacts marketers and employers is The Great Resignation. It’s not a question IF you’ll be personally impacted, but WHEN. To learn more about what The Great Resignation means and how to mitigate employee exodus, check out this article: How to manage during The Great Resignation
• Another trend we’ve seen and will continue to see in 2022 is a renewed focus on the creation and optimization of multimedia content, including images and video. To learn more about video marketing optimization fundamentals, this timeless article is a good starting point: The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing on YouTube

2022: How can we help businesses be more successful in the year(s) to come?
• While SEMpdx is rooted in search engine optimization (SEO), a majority of the topics we covered in our session fell outside of that core discipline. The one exception, however, was the prediction that Google’s Multitask Unified Model (MUM) will be a major factor in search rankings in 2022 and beyond. To read more about Anvil’s thoughts on MUM and other digital marketing trends, check out this SEMpdx blog post: 2022 Digital Marketing Predictions
• The moderator asked me to kick off the conversation about 2022 predictions, so I opened with my favorite prediction about ‘metaverse’ being the buzzword of 2022. Virtual reality (VR) worlds may not be ready for prime time, but marketers need to have a POV and start planning today. For more insights, check out this post: Marketing in the Metaverse
• Another hot button of mine and that of the Anvil team in 2022 is a deeper integration between paid and organic keywords and supporting search marketing strategies. While I’ve extolled the virtues of SEO & PPC integration for over a decade in my PSU SEM Workshop, it was refreshing validation to hear it directly from an SEO guru in a recent Anvil Brown Bag with Wil Reynolds of Seer Interactive. This article sheds additional light on the peanut butter and chocolate of organic and paid search – Search incrementality: How paid and organic work together for better performance
• Due to the loss of third-party cookies thanks to Apple’s new OS, brands and advertisers are scrambling to produce alternative targeting options. One trend that has blossomed in late 2021 and will continue to bloom in the years to come is the idea of leveraging first-party data and reselling access to third parties. Big box retailers outside of Amazon, Target and Walmart are adding retail ad networks to their revenue streams. Learn what brands like Lowe’s, Macy’s and Kroger’s are doing from this article before you take the leap yourself: We Can Have Retail Media Networks And Privacy: 4 Principles
• One hot topic with the panelists is the growth of short-form video as a marketing tool in 2022 and beyond. TikTok is now a more popular domain than Google. Instagram and other short form video options on platforms like Facebook and YouTube validate that the format is here to stay (or return, if you remember Vine). To learn more about emerging short form video trends, read this article: 6 Short-Form Video Trends Online Marketers Should Watch in 2022
• On the other side of short-form video is live-streaming and its sister, live shopping. What began as a buzzword in 2021, live shopping has evolved into a viable ecommerce platform play in 2022. One part influencer, one part unboxing and one part ecommerce, live shopping provides brands new ways to reach consumers in a post-pandemic remote-shopping world. Evaluate your options by reading this article: Live Shopping Is Making A Comeback: Here’s What Your Business Needs To Know Now
• Due to the relative short panel duration, we weren’t able to cover all digital marketing trends or get too deep in any one prediction. As a result, I felt it would be prudent to share additional concepts and supporting articles for more context. These are just a sampling of the most topical trends to consider in 2022 that we didn’t get a chance to cover during the panel session:
o Five marketing experts share their 2022 trends
o Explore the top trends of 2021 according to Google Search
o Looking ahead: nine trends that will steer marketing in 2022
o Google’s Guide to User-Generated Content
o Ecommerce Trends: Social, BNPL & BOPIS
o Five Proven Ways to Pandemic-Proof Your Business

While we as panelists had less than an hour to share our thoughts and answer questions, the event was packed with insights. I recommend attending future SEMpdx events and joining as a member, if you agree with me that the ROI of membership is outrageous. Feel free to share your thoughts on 2022 marketing trends or react to our predictions in the comments section below.

The post SEMpdx Panel Event Recap: 2022 Digital Trends and Marketing Predictions appeared first on SEMpdx.

The Metaverse will evolve from distraction to (virtual) reality for brands
While many believe Facebook’s rebrand as Meta and focus on the metaverse is a strategic distraction from bad press fueled by the Facebook Papers, we believe at Anvil that its horsepower, deep investment in the metaverse, along with additional investment by other major players like Microsoft, will inspire many brands to dabble in the virtual world in 2022. While consumers maybe a few years from caring about the metaverse, early adopters will embrace the novelty and utility. We’re hoping that the 2022 iteration of the metaverse is more than just a glorified Second Life.

Web 3.0 will become ubiquitous
Consumers’ concern over data security and creating a safer online environment to share personal data will be driving forces that fuel the growth of Web 3.0 technology in 2022. The evolution of blockchain technology in particular will provide a safer user experience (UX) for consumers, where they will feel safe sharing first-party data and know exactly how third-party platforms are using personal data. Combined with improved AI functionality, semantic metadata and 3D graphics – Web 3.0 will deliver an improved and better UX for all users. As full data transparency is on the horizon, this will accelerate the transition and put control of data back to where it belongs – the user.

Video marketing will become a vital part of any online marketing strategy
Consumers rely increasingly on the video to make decisions about the products they are buying. Video platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok feature live streams, unboxing, and testimonial product videos, which are going to gain popularity in 2022. As a result, video optimization and advertising on TikTok and YouTube will be increasingly necessary. Google has also rolled out structured markup features like clip markup which help users find important individual parts of videos, increasing the need and value of optimization for commerce. Using new and emerging markups on a brand’s most popular videos will help to improve user experience and Google’s ability to digest and index the video content.

MUM will strengthen Google’s ability to understand more complex searches
Google is always working to get users quicker, more seamless access to information. MUM, or Multitask Unified Model, uses AI to formulate an understanding of the context behind searches and will have a greater influence on search results in 2022 and beyond. Google recently demonstrated how MUM works, showing that search results would attempt to fully answer a search query with text, imagery, maps, and more. With MUM, content strategies will need to provide unprecedented depth, in order to provide searchers with all the information in a single result. The days of providing only topical information on a given webs page in order to gain organic visibility in target searches are numbered.

OTT will gain traction as ad targeting options decrease
Security and privacy demands are creating problematic limitations with third-party cookies and data tracking. Facebook, Apple, and Google Chrome are limiting data collection capabilities. Social media and search engine platforms will become much more generalized, with decreased targeting capabilities. Ad platforms will eliminate audience targeting, limiting advertisers to first-party data collection. These changes will encourage more brands to explore connected TV, podcasts, and platforms like Spotify that have their own internal marketing platform where the user controls what content they want to see. Products like Google’s smart TV and the new Roku TV are allowing viewers to stream content and enjoy gaming, utilizing click-to-buy on-screen ad placements. Smart TVs will be getting smarter with shopping from your own home with enhanced OTT streaming advertising options.

More businesses will move to DTC eCommerce
Due to the pandemic, businesses ranging from psychiatrists to car dealerships have begun marketing and selling products and services direct-to-consumers (DTC) on their websites. Companies are tired of losing profit by selling wholesale to distributors and evolving technologies have made eCommerce approachable to even the smallest business. Even larger retail chains are starting to focus more on DTC eCommerce, limiting physical store locations, retail footprints, and headcount. Brands like Nike are limiting distribution of its footwear and apparel so they can sell more direct and other brands will follow suit in 2022. The additional margins gained by DTC eCommerce sales can be reinvested in digital marketing to further increase profitable revenue. We predict brands will sell on select marketplaces (like Amazon, Walmart.com, and Target.com) to augment reach and revenues, but will still rely primarily on DTC.

More companies will offer retail media networks leveraging first-party data
With the impending loss of third-party tracking cookies in 2023, companies and marketers alike will be exploring new opportunities to reach prospective customers. Companies such as Target, Walmart. Recently, Lowe’s launched its own media network, allowing advertisers to utilize its company’s first-party data and reach customers as they shop online. As the pandemic accelerated the adoption of online shopping, we expect retailers will offer additional advertising opportunities on digital storefronts in the coming year.

Third-party cookie data will begin to sunset itself
With the anticipation of platforms eliminating third-party cookie data, marketers are forced to produce workarounds. Even though Google has pushed out its third-party data sunset date to the end of 2023, users and businesses have been preparing for the loss of critical targeting data with various workarounds, including the increasing use of first-party data. With Google failing to find a viable solution that meets everyone’s needs thus far, we predict there will be some sort of industry compromise by mid-2022, resulting in third-party data naturally sunsetting by year’s end on most popular platforms.

Influencer marketing will fuel sCommerce
Influencer marketing has gained notoriety within the digital marketing ecosystem as an essential strategy in the past few years. At Anvil, we believe the next evolution for influencers is to become the foundation for successful social media eCommerce (aka sCommerce) in 2022. In addition to important metrics such as engagement rates, influencers will be commonly compensated based on a commission structure related to conversion rates (leads or sales). With a greater focus on performance metrics, influencers will achieve a higher level of credibility with brands. Micro-influencers will rise significantly in popularity due to their accessibility to small businesses and the appeal of being able to target nuanced audiences. Retail eCommerce brands invest in direct shopping formats on popular social platforms, including TikTok.

Multicultural representation in marketing will continue to increase in importance
The digital age, accelerated by COVID-19, has created a world that is more interconnected than ever before. The term “global village” carries increased weight as even extremely remote areas see mobile device use continuing to reach saturation point. The success of international content breaking into the US mainstream has also led to an acceleration in engagement and demand for global representation. South Korea’s Squid Game on Netflix is the latest example, following the Spanish global hit Casa de Papel (Money Heist). With content publishers leading the way, brand advertisers will follow suit, developing new strategies to maximize the relevance of multicultural inclusion within marketing messaging, including messaging from the US’s own backyard.

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While we all work with, interact with, and/or raise Millennials, we still struggle to understand the 25–40-year-old wired generation. As marketers, we tend to treat them as one homogenous group for targeting purposes and don’t take them as seriously as we do Gen X or Boomers. That’s a deadly mistake brands and agencies alike cannot afford to make.

Also known as Gen Y, the Millennial generation (currently 72 million strong in the U.S. alone) spent $1.4 trillion in 2020, according to Pew Research. As a significant portion of the global workforce who made up 35% of the working world in 2020, Millennials’ influence as consumers and business-to-business ‘buyers’ is unsurpassed. As such, marketers must build brands and campaigns that resonate, without alienating older generations.

Most marketers understand Gen Y to be early technology adopters and social media abusers. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, and there are many misconceptions that need addressing before we talk about how to effectively influence Gen Y. But even before we dive deeper into Gen Y, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge Gen Z as a growing and important generation of buyers and influencers, which I’ve covered in a previous article on LinkedIn. More on that later, however.

How Millennials differ from other generations
While a majority of Gen Y are heavy social media users that expect seamless interactions with businesses across a variety of channels, they do differ from other generations in a few notable ways:

It’s all about self-discovery. Don’t spoon-feed marketing messaging to Gen Y. Build a path and empower them to find their way and build their own authentic connections to your brand.

Don’t ‘sell’ at Gen Y. Educate and entertain them with compelling content that helps build trust and loyalty in exchange for value-added experiences.

Gen Y does like watching TV, despite the fact they may not have cable.

While Gen Y is primarily influenced by peer reviews by both friends and trusted influencers, they also rely heavily on online reviews, due primarily to their preference to do extensive research before purchasing.

Don’t discount the value of in-person marketing, just because they are natively wired for social media.

As a generation, Millennials can be just as brand loyal as others, especially if there is alignment between person and brand values or politics.

Not only does Gen Y appreciate advertising, but they’re also likely to share commercials they like with their friends, especially if the ads are free of sentiment, action-oriented, or informational in nature).

Gen Y consists of a variety of sub-segments, which YuMe synthesized into five major segments (per the chart below). Customize messaging to appeal to the discretely audiences for maximum resonance.

The strategies that really work
With the Gen Y marketing misconceptions out of the way, let’s get to the effective strategies. I’ve outlined six primary marketing strategies that will resonate with Gen Y, when implemented properly.

Start with mobile, but hit all (social) media channels
Research indicates that members of Gen Y spend over two and a half hours on social media per day. That validates that they are connected like no other generation. Gen Y tends to spend a majority of their screen time on social media, which typically consists of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and relatively new player in the social media game TikTok. Brands that are already active on these platforms have an advantage over those that do not. Remember to expand your reach across all channels, not just social or even digital. Think about multiple devices or screens and evaluate offline media opportunities (pop-up shops, interactive kiosks, etc.).

Increase social media engagement via shareable content
According to Forbes, over 60 percent of Gen Y say that any brand that engages them on social networks is significantly more likely to gain their loyalty. A major motivator for Gen Y content sharing is to gain insights from their network and to have the ability to share their own knowledge and opinions with others. The most shareable content tends to be informative, inspirational or entertaining multimedia nuggets (images, videos, audio).

This is the essence of the sharing economy and it is native to Gen Y. Gen Y appreciates content that makes them smarter, or at least feel smarter, as well as inspired, with the ability to inspire others. For maximum shareability, it’s essential that the language feel natural and not forced or inauthentic. Don’t forget to customize the content based on the platform and its users — originality counts. Last but not least, keep The Goldfish Rule top-of-mind: you have 8 seconds to capture their attention, which is 1 second less than that of a common goldfish. Brands that build around this motivator will see exponential engagement and loyalty.

Encourage user-generated content
Since authenticity is such an important aspect to Gen Y when selecting which brands to support, it is becoming more and more necessary to utilize user-generated content to encourage trust and brand loyalty. Gen Y relies on the reviews, testimonials and opinions of their trusted advisors (whether friends or influencers) so much so that they find user-generated content 35 percent more memorable than other media. To stay relevant and top-of-mind in a competitive marketplace, make your brand buzz-worthy by running contests, offering incentives and rewards for promoting your brand on social, and asking questions. In a generation where reviews and opinions of friends mean everything, promoting user-generated content will increase brand awareness, engagement, and brand loyalty.

Be exceedingly responsive
The most mind-blowing fact about Gen Y is that they have never known a world without the internet. As a result, they have high expectations when it comes to getting instant answers, acknowledgment, and satisfaction. The impact on brands is the expectation that response time will be lightning fast. Gen Y doesn’t care about the challenges brands face in creating an instant-response infrastructure and culture, they just need you to make it happen. This holds true across all digital media: social platforms, websites, email, and text. If you as a brand cannot address Gen Y requests in a timely fashion, they will move on to a competitor. Despite this daunting challenge, Gen Y values relationships and wants to connect with the people behind the brand. Ensure communications are as transparent and authentic as they are timely.

Tell a good story
I’ve mentioned the need for transparency and authenticity previously, yet I can’t stress it enough. Let all employees tell your story, not just corporate marketers. Be wary of brands or agencies that recommend all communications go through the PR, HR, or legal department for approval, if you want the message to be timely and to resonate. Gen Y sniffs out corporate-speak and will be turned off immediately. Brands that are fearless and diligent about transparent, authentic communications will be rewarded with loyalty from Gen Y (and other generations). Let your brand personality come through, especially in social media.

As with other generations, telling your story through the eyes of your customer is far more effective than telling the story yourself. Millennials need to see and feel the personality behind the brand, consistently over time. Utilizing evangelists and ambassadors (aka influencers), particularly on social, can be very effective in engaging with Gen Y. While a lack of interest in material items may pose a challenge to marketers, the answer is to help inspire Gen Y to feel good about what they are buying based on how it will positively impact their lives and the lives of others. Brands that have a social and environmental responsibility component are also favored, as Gen Y wants to be a part of something with a greater sense of purpose. Along the same lines, Gen Y is more likely to connect and resonate with brands that support and reflect their values of diversity and inclusion. Communicate how your brand expresses inclusivity as well as the good you are doing to make the world a better place across all channels and Gen Y will resonate with your values.

Create positive experiences
More than previous generations (and similar to the following Gen Z population), Millennials value the ability to create their own experiences, even more so than buying or owning products they may not need. Another way to create positive brand perception with Gen Y is to provide behind-the-scenes looks into your company, people, and products. You’ve heard about the importance of transparency but take it to the next level by using the authentic back story to create good will. Leveraging influencers they respect to engage with your brand is an effective way to create connection. For example, McDonald’s tapped LeBron James to unveil a new product. Other ways to create positive experiences include increased personalization and utilizing new technologies, including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), 360-degree video, and live streaming. Gen Y appreciates brands that embrace technology, especially to help tell their story and create immersive experiences.

Engender loyalty
The strategies outlined above will help any brand create a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Gen Y. That said, developing brand loyalty can be challenging. Gen Y has higher expectations than previous generations, particularly in relation to communications. For starters, Millennials don’t want to call you or you to call them. They prefer chat or text communication. Factor this into your marketing and customer service mix. When interacting, honesty and authenticity are by far the most important themes. This is a bit of a sea change for more traditional brands used to one-way communications. Loyalty can also be created via gamification (loyalty programs and apps) that encourage sharing, reviews, and usage. The prize at the end of the rainbow is a life-long loyalty from Gen Y that may surpass previous generations. This is a significant reward, as the largest generation of our time will have the greatest buying power and influence moving forward. Another component of loyalty is on the employment side of the equation. I’ve also covered management best practices for Gen Y employees as a business owner.

At the end of the day, any brand interested in investing in its future must start now by embracing Gen Y and the Millennial culture. Older generations may appreciate increased engagement via digital media, but Gen Y requires it. As mentioned previously, Gen Z shares many of the same values and beliefs, which should create additional motivation for marketers in 2021. Make sure your marketing strategies are more than COVID-safe, they are Gen Y-friendly.

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Most brands have a meaningful presence on social media, yet challenges remain. New and evolving social media platforms continually challenge marketers to stay relevant. Beyond the “Big 6” social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn), other platforms have gained relevance in recent years, including TikTok, Snapchat, Medium and WhatsApp. To further complicate matters, additional platforms are expected to gain notoriety in 2021: Twitch, Steemit, Reddit, Goodreads and Vero. Brands can feel overwhelmed by the dynamic social media landscape and look to outsource management responsibilities to agencies, which can create significant issues.

The recent Walmart tweet kerfuffle with Senator Hawley is a keen reminder of the impact a single Tweet can have on a brand. While the “mistake” was likely the result of an internal team member’s oversight, it could have just as easily been a third-party social media agency’s error. As valiant an effort as Walmart’s social team made, it did not dethrone the most famous example of outsourced social media ineptitude performed by NMS, Chrysler’s former social media marketing agency. On March 9th, 2011, an employee of NMS, Chrysler’s outsourced social media marketing agency, sent a highly offensive tweet that insulted Detroit drivers. For details, see the AdAge article, “What Lurks Behind Chrysler’s F-bomb? Social-Media Turf War.” Although it was deleted nearly instantly, the effects were lasting: the NMS employee was immediately fired, and shortly thereafter, Chrysler fired the agency. Both organizations received black eyes, which leaves many brands and agencies wondering if they are next. Not me.

As a career digital marketing veteran of 9 agencies, I’ve instilled in our collective corporate cultures the concept of transparency, honesty and integrity. At Anvil Media, client education and training is core to our values and purpose. As such, we’ve built our social media marketing practice around the concept of developing and implementing an overall social media strategy that empowers employees within the brand to manage its presence in social media. This approach addresses and alleviates many of the issues exemplified by the Chrysler and Walmart Twitter incidents.

While a vast majority of brands have developed a meaningful presence across social media platforms, many still struggle to consistently create compelling content and engage followers. In short, the challenge of determining the “who” and the “how” of a truly engaging social presence. While our approach of training and empowering in-house employees to manage social media is transparent, it does require an accepting corporate culture, discipline and a long-term commitment to be successful. For corporate marketers still considering outsourcing social media management, however, I’ve outlined 5 reasons not to outsource social media management.

Authenticity
I don’t think anyone can rightfully disagree that employees are in a much better position to truly represent a brand than an outside party (agency, consultant, etc.). The premise is simple but powerful: it is easier (and more transparent) to train existing employees how to represent a brand than train an agency on the nuances of a brand’s unique offerings, differentiators and culture. Due to relative transparency in social media, outsourced social marketers are often easy to spot, which can risk blow-back from brand enthusiasts.

Vested Interest
Nobody has a greater vested interest in the success of social media programs than employees of the brand itself. Essentially, an employee has one job and is committed to their success within the company. An outside agency, while motivated to please the client, employs account teams that typically have multiple clients. The difference may seem subtle, but if an agency loses a client, the account team may keep their jobs. As such, failure may be an option for some agency employees.

Control
If Chrysler had followed the best practices of other automakers (internal teams reviewing all outgoing messages), the offending tweet would have never gone out. While you could argue it was a process oversight, there is simply no replacement for the control when a brand manages a team in-house. Refer to Authenticity and Vested Interest for additional justification.

Empowerment
Keeping employees engaged and motivated can be challenging, particularly during tough economic conditions. Empowering employees to support social media initiatives can be a powerful alternative to financial challenging increases in benefits and compensation. Rewarding and recognizing socially-savvy employees who create success can also convince other naysayers to become believers.

Professional Development
Whether an employee is responsible for R&D, sales, customer service or marketing, training them to become socially savvy can reap dividends. As the employees build their expertise with social media, the likelihood they can identify opportunities and challenges increases dramatically. Since social media is the world’s largest focus group, where do you think the next big idea is most likely to originate, in house or online?

Getting Started
Regardless of who develops the initial social media strategy, it must incorporate essential elements to maximize success: detailed industry research, strategic planning, process, tools training and measurement. To minimize risk, programs should start small and iterate rapidly based on feedback and success metrics. Based on experience, brands often see tremendous benefit from looking for social media expertise outside the walls (yes, agencies and consultants) to both expedite the learning curve and implementation timeline. I’m biased, of course, in saying that Anvil is an excellent resources for social media training, but please make sure to incorporate internal talent into your long-term social media strategy in 2021 and beyond.

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Advertising: Amazon Will Eat Google and Facebook’s Lunch
You may be aware that many product searches start on Amazon. Amazon, smart agencies and brands are already well-aware (that includes Anvil of course). What we see changing most in 2020 is Amazon’s ability to improve its advertising options for brands and sellers alike, especially in the voice search realm (we’ve been wrong about this in the past, but we really feel it this year!). Amazon Advertising is one of the few high growth areas of its business lines and will make greater strides in 2020, taking more market share from Google and even Facebook. Make sure you have an Amazon marketing strategy for your product business in 2020 or get left in the dust.

Display Ads: Animated GIFs, Video and Interactivity will Replace Image Ads
Static image ads on social platforms will start to fall away and videos, animated GIFs and interactive ads will supplant the 25-year-old ad format on popular platforms like Google and Facebook. This trend is already starting to occur, with video becoming increasingly prevalent. The reason is obvious: interactive and motion-oriented ad formats are more engaging, memorable and tend to convert better. While static imagery is still a majority of ad format inventory, that will change by the end of 2020. Brands and agencies designing ads in animated, interactive and video formats will take a leadership role and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

SEO: Structured Data Strategy will be More Important than Ever Before
In 2019, “0” or ‘no-click’ searches surpassed regular clicks on organic and paid links in search results. As a result, brands will need to become intimate with structured data, most commonly powered by schema markup. As more searches move to mobile devices, users are not scrolling down the page, as they expect the first result they see to answer their query. Similarly, with voice search, users expect the first search result to be the best answer to their query. Marking up content with multiple types of structured data to secure the featured snippet real estate will be more important than ever. Sites who do not take advantage of structured data will see their site slip down the results page and will ultimately lose traffic to competitors with strong structured markup strategies. Google wants to be able to provide an answer to a user query as fast as possible, and with structured data on a page Google can more easily understand and compartmentalize the information on you site. With that better understanding, Google will be able and more likely to serve your content as a result when it is applicable to a query. Routinely making sure the structured data implemented on your site is error-free and up-to-date should be a required part of every ongoing SEO strategy.

SEO: Google Will Mandate That All Websites Be Voice Search Compliant
Anticipating the continued proliferation of smart speakers and digital voice assistants through 2020, Google will proactively mandate that all websites be voice search compliant by the end of 2020. Currently, over 40 percent of searches are voice-activated and that will continue to increase, likely becoming most searches by 2021. Website copy and content will have to be voice search friendly to rank well in Google searches. Brands will need to utilize structured data (aka schema markup or rich snippets) to power the ‘best answer’ on smart speakers or position 0 on screens. Site structure and content will also need to be altered to better answer questions commonly asked via voice assistants and smart speakers. Websites that lack structured data will be penalized by Google. This prediction expands on the previous structured data trend.

SEO: Augmented Reality Will Play a Bigger Role
Imagine virtually trying out clothes from your favorite brands without leaving your home. Augmented Reality (AR) can make this a reality. AR provides brands an opportunity to overlay information in video, text, or image format onto everyday surroundings, objects and real-world locations. Nearly 80 percent of the information the brain takes in is visual. By providing information in a visual medium, that also has the spatial nature of augmented reality, brands are giving the brain a very intuitive way of accessing and understanding information. ECommerce will benefit the most from AR implementation, as will destinations, automotive and other complex sales. Brands like adidas and Converse have already implemented AR, earning higher conversion rates with fewer product returns.

Email Marketing: The Flywheel Will Displace the Traditional Sales Funnel
More companies will be moving away from the traditional sales/marketing ‘funnel’ to the Flywheel model in 2020 in order to focus on creating experiences that engage and empower customers. Originally created in 1898, the AIDA (Awareness/Interest/Desire/Action) funnel model is a linear approach that focuses on attracting new customers and engaging them in a business or service to turn them into a quantifiable lead. The flywheel approach takes an innovative view of the buyer journey and uses all client-facing roles such as customer service, marketing, and sales to interact with customers at every stage. Attracting, engaging, and delighting customers even past the point of purchase – so companies continue to interact with customers instead of treating them as one-time-only prospects. The customer is the lynchpin, with the flywheel itself divided into three equal segments, each representing stages along the customer journey: attract, engage, and delight. Each area creates energy and passes it along to the next, with the delight phase feeding back into attract. Note: Anvil was not paid by HubSpot to endorse its model, we just agree with the methodology and hope for greater awareness and adoption.

Email Marketing: Push Notifications Will Replace Email
Email is going the way of the dinosaur, maybe not next year, but in the coming years. Starting in 2020, however, there will be a notable shift to push notifications and chatbots as viable replacements, especially for brands targeting Gen Y/Z, consumers and retail environments. Push notifications are alert style messages that can be sent to a user via desktop or mobile web, depending on context. At least twice as many people today sign up for web push notifications, compared to newsletter registrations. Only the top 10 percent of the email marketers can achieve a newsletter sign-up rate that matches the performance of push notifications. The average time that passes before the recipient opens a newsletter is 6.4 hours. With push notifications, the recipient will see the message immediately. The updates to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and stricter filters have dented the potency of email marketing, which will be further compromised by the CCPA legislation. As alluded to earlier, younger, digital-native audiences favor fewer touchpoints and other methods of communication than email, when engaging brands.

Social Media: Performance Metrics Will Replace ‘Likes’
Those following social media closely are likely familiar with Instagram’s recent decision to hide “Likes” from followers. With the proposed change, only account owners and select third-party platforms will have access to that data. While influencers and marketers alike have voiced concerns about the change, it does provide an opportunity for everyone to be smarter about social media strategies, especially evaluating influencer marketing programs. For example, influencers will need to up their game to become more professional about how they represent their potential impact, focusing on reach and engagement rates over Likes. This trend will also push brands to adopt performance models based on transactional goals. The social platforms, especially Instagram and Pinterest, are making buying product easier than ever, so the timing is ripe for change.

Social Media: Consumers will Drive Alignment and Transparency in Influencer Marketing
Moving forward, look for brands and influencers to create better alignment and transparency. According to research, 84 percent of consumers believe authenticity is important when choosing influencers to follow. More compelling: only 11 percent of influencers are CMA and FTC-compliant when disclosing relationships with sponsoring brands. Millennials are increasingly skeptical of businesses’ motives and impact on society, according to Deloitte. As a result, brands looking to target Gens X, Y and Z will need to be more intentional about how they select and engage influencers based on core values and fit vs reach. Another trend that will go together with transparency and alignment is a shift to “always-on” instead of project-based influencer campaigns. The writing is on the wall for brands and agencies, especially for brands targeting younger consumers, to plan accordingly.

Social Media: TikTok Will Lose Momentum – Relegating It to a Snapchat Knockoff
While we’ve seen a good deal of hype and momentum built around TikTok this year, marketers are still trying to figure out how they can use it to their advantage. It is true that TikTok saw incredible growth this year (over 500 million active users in Fall 2019), which earned it the title “social platform of 2019.” But’s also true that signups are coming to a near grinding halt. As a result, parallels can be made with Snapchat’s adoption history – incredible growth, everyone joins, signups slow, users leave/become less engaged. We believe TikTok will figure out how to utilize ads more effectively in 2020, but we don’t think user engagement will sustain and the platform will end up in the same purgatory as Snapchat. It will become an afterthought as brands evaluate platforms on which to target and invest. The one exception to this prediction, is if you’re looking to reach a very, very broad audience within a certain *cough* young demographic (and China as a growth marketplace).

We hope to get good grades when we review our 2020 digital marketing predictions at the end of the year. Let us know what you think of our 2020 digital marketing trends in the comments section or add your own predictions. May your 2020 be full of fulfilled predictions!

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Influencer Marketing Background
Influencer Marketing involves brands focused on engaging key industry leaders to drive brand message and awareness with specific target audiences. While the concept of influencer marketing is not new, the explosive growth of social media has led to a renaissance. Over the past 3 years, searches for “influencer marketing” on Google have increased 1,500 percent. The influencer marketing industry is now estimated to be between $6.5 and $10 billion, with plenty of room for growth.

There are a variety of reasons consumers follow and engage with influencers. First and foremost, consumers like to learn new things in general, but also like to learn more about the influencers themselves. Many consumers like to get inspiration for their own lives and want to stay updated on pop culture as well. From a brand perspective, a major growth driver for influencer marketing is the return-on-investment (ROI) companies are experiencing. According to NeoReach, the average earned media value (AEMV) per $1 spent on influencer marketing in 2018 was $5.20, while branding-focused influencer campaigns averaged an 8x ROI. I’ve seen studies with ROI as high as 10x as well.

Here are a few more compelling statistics for skeptics:
• 87 percent of shoppers are inspired by an influencer to make a purchase
• 80 percent of Instagram users follow a business
• 70 percent of consumers say they trust the opinions of influencers as much or more than their real-world friends, while 78 percent said they trust influencer opinions more than traditional ads, and more than half said they consider the influencers they follow to be an extension of their circle of friends (Sideqik)
• 61 percent of people interact with an influencer daily
• According to Digital Marketing Institute, teenagers trust influencers more than traditional celebrities
• Whalar recently found influencer ads to be 277 percent more “emotionally intense” than TV ads

As a result, brands are responding by making bigger investments in influencer marketing. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, Instascreener and Vamp Brands, 86 percent of marketers plan to invest in influencer marketing in 2019. Thirty nine percent of marketers increased influencer marketing budgets this year, with an average 83 percent year-over-year increase.

Influencer Marketing Challenges
Despite the rapid growth and adoption of influencer marketing by brands big and small, the relatively new channel has no shortage of shortcomings and controversy, ranging from transparency and fraud to declining engagement and measurement challenges. According to a research report by NeoReach, ViralNation and Influencer Marketing Hub, 64 percent of marketers deem influencer fraud as a big concern and only 11 percent of influencers were compliant with CMA and FTC regulatory guidelines.

One of the greatest challenges facing brands investing in influencer marketing is fraud. According to Arkose Labs, 53 percent of social media account logins are fraudulent. In Q23 of 2019, nearly 19 percent of a $314 million Instagram influencer marketing spend reached fake followers. Other common challenges include finding relevant and qualified influencers, managing contracts or campaign deadlines, bandwidth or time restraints and payments. The good news is that tools and platforms are improving rapidly, allowing brands to more easily identify, connect with and manage influencers. The chart from eMarketer below outlines additional challenges associated with fraud, measurement and rising costs.

While the industry (influencers, platforms, brands and regulators) evaluate solutions to these challenges, there is one near-term alternative to paying third party experts to endorse your brand: become an influencer yourself. In my article (How to Become an Industry Influencer) and related interview (5 Things You Should Do To Become a Thought Leader In Your Industry), I outline how you can do just that. In brief, start by educating yourself and others, then build a network and give back to your industry and local community.

Since many brands do not have the interest or ability to create influencers from within, they must look outside their walls. This means marketers must be aware of the challenges facing influencer marketing and address them head-on as they build or refine programs. Brands must ensure they select influencers that align with company values, are transparent with sponsored content, have legitimate (non-bot) followers and are able to set up and track key performance indicators (KPIs) that accurately value the impact of the investment in influencer programs.

KPIs are under scrutiny and Instagram is responding by threatening to remove the number of likes on posts. While many influencers are up-in-arms about the suggested change, sophisticated marketers appreciate the need to evolve to more meaningful metrics. ‘Likes’ are arbitrary and can be easily gamed by influencers. More powerful metrics, some of which can be expensive to measure, include: purchase intent, brand affinity or sentiment. Easier metrics to track include reach (brand awareness) and conversions (to lead or sale), but brands and influencers must agree on how to best track success. For example, a recent study by InfluencerDB indicated the average engagement rate for sponsored influencer posts in Q1 of 2019 fell to 2.4 percent from 4 percent in just three years. With declining engagement on Instagram, the platform, influencers and brands need to get creative with content and measurement.

Influencer Marketing Program Fundamentals
Not everyone can afford to utilize outside help from firms like Anvil to build out and/or manage an influencer marketing program. This article, in conjunction with our extensive insights section is designed for you. Regardless of your budgets or resources, consider the following framework when developing (or approving) an influencer marketing plan.

The first step in creating a successful influencer marketing program is to outline your overall objectives, whether they be brand awareness, brand perception, engagement or conversions. The second step is to map your core audiences against popular social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn). Keep in mind platforms perform differently by gender. Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are more likely to influence females’ buying decisions, whereas YouTube and Twitter are more likely to influence males’ decisions to make a purchase (The Manifest). Note in the chart below that Instagram is the 800-pound gorilla of the influencer marketing ecosystem.

With objectives, audiences and key platforms identified, you can utilize a host of free and paid tools to evaluate specific influencers on each platform. Beyond conducting topical searches on Google and related hashtag searches on social platforms, consider utilizing these free and low-cost social media and influencer marketing platforms for your research: BuzzStream, BuzzSumo, Discover.ly, FameBit, FollowerWonk, GroupHigh, HypeAuditor, NinjaOutreach, PeopleMap, Pitchbox, Social Crawlytics, Tell and Upfluence.

When evaluating possible influencers, it is important to understand current engagement rates by size and platform, as they do vary. Influencer follower size matters as well. Micro-influencers achieve an average of 7x more engagement than influencers with larger followings (celebrities and macro-influencers). The smaller the following, the more an influencer’s location may come into play. The chart below shows engagement rates by platform and influencer reach:

Interestingly, engagement rates vary by media type, not just platform. For example, Instagram engagement rates are significantly lower for video posts than images, and those rates are a fraction of the video engagement rates on YouTube (the most engaging social media platform of all). On Facebook and Twitter, engagement rates are nearly identical for images and video, which are 2-3 times higher than text. See the chart below for specifics:

Now that you’re armed with engagement rates, you can create leverage with your negotiations, particularly in discussions with influencers who have lower-than-average engagement rates. Cost is also a factor, and it’s important to be informed about current rates for influencers. The chart below shows the average cost-per-post range from $100 to $4,000 depending on follower-count.

Developing an influencer marketing budget is important, and many brands are being more reactive that proactive when it comes to financial planning. I recommend starting small and increasing investment as influencers generate return. Refine your program before you make large investments. For reference, Fashion Nova was the top spender on Instagram in Q2 2019, investing $5.5 million into social media influencers. Ciroc earned second place with $3.4 million in spend followed by Flat Tummy Co with a $2.9 million investment (Instascreener).

Now that you’ve identified target influencers, the real work begins. Start your outreach with well-crafted communications that clearly outline your company values, goals and understanding of the fit between your brand and the influencer. Demonstrate you understand who they are, how you are aligned and the additional value you can provide, in order to maximize leverage when negotiating costs. For example, many influencers appreciate creative freedom and flexibility, while others may appreciate swag or additional exposure and credibility they can gain through your network.

Once you’ve secured your first round of influencers, the next step is providing raw materials (product, images, logistical support or other assets) as well as guidance or training on the products or services they are being asked to promote. It is important to ensure you’ve clearly delineated who creates content and where it gets syndicated. Some brands recruit influencers to create content for their own brand feeds (UGC), while others only want to be featured or mentioned in influencer feeds. If you intend to leverage influencer content in your brand feed, ensure it is properly optimized, sourced and syndicated for maximum reach and engagement.

The last two, but most impactful elements of your influencer marketing program are management and measurement. As outlined earlier, managing influencer assets and relationships can be a challenge for marketers. While platforms continue to improve, building process and maintaining regular contact is essential. We suggest weekly check-in calls and monthly reports as a minimum threshold. To maximize the value and impact of your influencer relationships, remember to create supporting blog posts, share influencer posts with your network (adding comments for context, brand messaging and optimization) and syndicate across your social platforms.

In terms of metrics, the most common influencer marketing analytics include: engagement or clicks (according to 43 percent of marketers), views, reach or impressions (33 percent) and content type or category (24 percent). Additional metrics to consider when evaluating your programs include website traffic, and share-of-voice. At Anvil, we value reach, engagement and conversions most, depending on the client, objective and platform.

B2B Influencer Marketing
Most of the available research and press coverage on the topic of influencer marketing is focused on business-to-consumer brands. Here are a few best practices for business-to-business (B2B) brands looking to leverage influencer marketer to build brand awareness. Around 30 percent of influencer marketing campaigns currently originate from the B2B sector and nearly 65 percent of those programs are campaign-based (vs. ongoing). Look for both numbers to change moving forward, as I’ll touch on shortly.

Unlike consumer influencers, B2B influencers are typically professionals within your industry. That means they may work for a competitor or have other employment restrictions, making a partnership more challenging. There is hope, as the B2B marketplace is diverse and fragmented. To reach your target audience, consider looking outside popular industry thought leaders to niche experts. Also evaluate internal resources including seasoned employees, engaged customers and vendors or strategic partners.

Most B2B brands are looking to grow or maintain thought leadership and leverage expert content and networks. Consider leveraging your own company’s assets when structuring an influencer partnership, including access to data, tools or even other experts in your network your influencers can tap for content. It is also essential to provide your influencers access to shareable content like research reports, eBooks, webinars, white papers and infographics.

Unlike most B2C influencer engagements, B2B influencer marketing programs tend to be longer-term by necessity, due to longer sales cycles. This creates a longer runway and greater potential for return. Speaking of return, common KPIs for B2B influencer programs include growth in subscribers, downloads or demo requests. The key to success with any influencer marketing program, B2B or otherwise, is mapping metrics to your overall objectives and target audience.

Influencer Marketing Trends
When conducting research for this article, I identified a few trends worth sharing as you refine your influencer marketing program. Below are six influencer marketing trends worth considering as you start your planning for 2020:

Alignment and Transparency: Moving forward, look for brands and influencers to create better alignment and transparency. According to research, 84 percent of consumers believe authenticity is important when choosing influencers to follow. Millennials are increasingly skeptical of businesses’ motives and impact on society, according to Deloitte. The writing is on the wall, especially for brands targeting younger consumers. For more insights, check out this article: 3 Trends Driving Gen Z Brand Preference and Purchase Decisions.

Always-on Campaigns: Moving forward, B2B and B2C brands will become more strategic in how they approach relationships with influencers. Long-term thinking will benefit all parties involved, including consumers. With longer-term thinking, look for both more realistic goals and meaningful objectives from brands and greater alignment with influencers.

Getting Small: The latest trend for larger brands is moving from macro to micro-influencers. The next logical evolution for brands, due in-part to rising costs and declining engagement rates of macro-influencers, is to go even smaller to nano and niche-influencers. Essentially, brands will develop a higher volume of relationships with influencers with 250-10,000 followers to maximize engagement and authenticity. The chart below illustrates marketers’ perceived value of nano and niche-influencers.

Raw Realism: One of the most interesting trends I’ve seen recently is the movement by influencers to share more authentic images and videos that are less aspirational and more empathetic to followers. Brands that understand and leverage this trend may see remarkable results, but it will require trust and flexibility between parties.

B2B Growth: Perhaps the least sexy but profoundly important trend is significant growth of influencer marketing programs among B2B brands. Nearly 15 years ago, we helped build and market a blog for a B2B client that was written by an industry thought leader. It was well ahead of its time but demonstrated the power of a transparent partnership that provided real value for all parties involved. Look for more of these strategic partnerships moving forward.

Improved Integration: Since I come from the world of search engine marketing, I would be remiss if I didn’t include what I feel is an important trend for our industry. Influencers by default have high credibility with Google, especially if they maintain a blog or website. Brand mentions with links back to a brand website from an influencer blog post or article can have tremendous search engine optimization (SEO) value. Similarly, social posts with influencer-powered content can generate exponential reach and engagement when boosted in brand social feeds and can even be supported by display ads across the Google network. Improved integration among influencer and search marketing teams is a logical next step and we’ve seen success with Anvil clients on this front recently.

Conclusion
You don’t have to be a fashion brand like Revolve or Dior to see massive returns on your investment in influencer marketing, but you do need to be aware of challenges, build a solid plan and manage your influencers proactively. Above all else, a successful influencer marketing program of the future will be based on transparency and authenticity.

Resources
5 Key Components of a Successful Influencer Marketing Strategy
5 Things You Should Do To Become a Thought Leader In Your Industry
7 Influencer Marketing Tools to Boost Your Campaign
How to Build a B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy for 2020
Influencer Marketing 101
Where Influencer Marketing Goes Wrong (and How to Fix It)

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