Localized Marketing will go Global and Globalized Marketing will go Local
As evolving tools and technologies lower the barriers to remote work in a post-COVID world, businesses will no longer be constrained by geographic barriers, both in terms of recruiting talent and adding new customers. Marketers who understand that the New Normal is a decentralized, global village will have an advantage. That includes both localized targeting for messages to resonate at a community level, as well as global outreach based on interest, expertise, and need. This trend will bode well for Account Based Marketing (ABM) and Account Based Sales (ABS) strategies, where a named account approach drives targeting and messaging by business-to-business (B2B) organizations.

Zoomers will Replace Boomers
Generation Y (Millennials) is maturing, raising families, and buying homes. Meanwhile, Generation Z (Zoomers) is a growing audience for brands. The purchasing behavior for both is remarkably different than any prior generation, especially for Generation Z. In business, as Boomers retire, Millennials are rising in the ranks and are moving from influencers to decision-makers. Messaging will need to be revised to resonate with younger audiences that value aligned purposes, including sustainability, transparency, diversity, and inclusion. Additionally, brands that help simplify the overwhelming choices younger generations have when making decisions, will convert more new customers. In 2023, we expect to see a massive shift in targeting, market messaging, and channel mix.

Google Search Will Expand its Capabilities to Support Online Shopping
Over the past two years, Google has significantly improved its ability to support the needs of online shoppers. Google’s Shopping Graph was the first major update that centralized all of the components of a well-balanced shopping experience such as reviews, pricing, and sellers. As a result of the pandemic, Google also made it entirely free for businesses to sell products on their platform by eliminating their commission fees. Now, the latest update to Google search includes a buying guide that offers additional product details within a drop-down menu, giving users all of the information they’re looking for in one simple step. All of these advancements, combined with the horsepower of Google MUM, validates our expectation that Google will continue its online shopping evolution.

SEO will Expand to Social Media Platforms
As mentioned above, younger generations are becoming the new target audiences for brands. According to the New York Times, Gen Z is not adhering to the traditional method of using Google for research. In fact, about 40% of those who belong to the younger generations will go to TikTok or Instagram to conduct their research. Whether the search is for a new restaurant or a how-to video, Gen Z is leveraging social media platforms to find what they need. Social media algorithms are not only incredibly successful in providing tailored feeds to their users, but real people are providing the information. In order to connect with younger generations, traditional SEO is going to expand outside of standard search engines and into popular social platforms.

Google Ads will become more about Asset Management and less about Detailed Optimizations
Years ago, Google Ads users’ day-to-day work was surrounded by making minor changes to bids, keywords, and a number of other factors to outperform competitors. As time has gone on, Google has taken these tasks off of marketers’ plates and introduced things like smart bidding and performance max campaigns. This has shifted the focus of Google Ads professionals from these minor optimizations to fueling Google’s learning algorithms with information. Moving into 2023, we predict these features will be more critical than ever as Google moves to further promote its new Performance Max campaigns, broad match keywords, and new features to manage assets Google has to work with. This includes a better recording of conversion data, managing product feeds, and adjusting ad assets such as images and text. Google Ads professionals that can make this shift will be able to make the most of Google’s machine learning and optimization opportunities.

TikTok Will Emerge as a Prevalent Music Streaming Platform
In a recent article from TechCrunch, it was revealed that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is anticipating the release of a music streaming/sharing service. In recent years, TikTok has proven to be one of the most highly-downloaded social media applications and has increasingly closed the gap between itself and other powerhouse platforms like Facebook Messenger and Instagram, in terms of monthly average users. In fact, Millennials and Zoomers are particularly active on the platform. They’re using it to discover new ideas, share entertainment, short-form education, funky dance moves, and more. Trending memes, challenges, and audio clips are already commonplace in the lexicon of the platform. It is within the realm of possibility that this music service, leveraged alongside TikTok’s already-growing popularity, will be used to create everyone’s New Year’s playlists for 2024!

BeReal will Become Real for Marketers
An article from the Business of Apps identifies that BeReal is one of the fastest-growing social media apps today. Data analysis showed that with a staggering 7.67 million users, the app has increased by over 315% since the start of 2022. BeReal focuses on genuine, raw, and unedited content that users crave while using other highly-edited social media platforms. It even gives businesses the opportunity to showcase an authentic side of their company using this platform. Although BeReal does not offer advertising options at this time, companies like Chipotle have embraced the app by offering a free meal to the first 100 customers who used the coupon code posted on their BeReal account (source: Influencer Marketing Hub). BeReal also opens an entirely new market for influencers and user-generated content, so brands targeting younger audiences will jump on the opportunity to reach this fickle demographic in 2023. Yes, we know TikTok has nearly identical functionality, but that platform doesn’t encourage people to “be real,” and we feel that is what people are going to want and need in the years to come.

UGC will Evolve from Content to Commerce Channel
User-generated content (UGC) has been around since the advent of dictionaries and early 1990’s Internet user groups. In more recent years, UGC has grown in popularity with the explosive growth of social media usage. 2023 will be the year UGC pivots to mission-critical status with established brands. No longer a marketing gimmick or experiment, UGC will become an essential component of digital (and increasingly analog) content marketing programs. Marketers will formalize programs dedicated to identifying, harvesting, and curating quality content created by customers, employees, fans, and influencers. Beyond social media posts, look for content creators to co-create content for websites, email, traditional print, broadcast, and even product packaging. Nike’s new Swoosh web 3 experience is an early example of what is possible co-creating with fans. With advanced measurement, Web 3, and AI, brands will be more easily able to organize and measure the impact of UGC content, with the ideal outcome being a compensation program. Whether leveraging standard affiliate or loyalty programs or exploring a web 3 solution involving crypto or NFTs, content creators will evolve into a critical content marketing source.

Marketing will get Very Personal
It has been stated that efficiency, convenience, knowledgeable and friendly service, and easy payment options are what people value most in their customer experience, and we predict that a more personalized customer-based experience that is tailored to customer needs will become even more important. In 2023, platforms will automatically generate ads and highly curated content for each individual user, giving everyone a unique browsing experience. Google ads will be replaced by AI’s machine learning, transforming the concept of behavioristics and how people search by replacing active human involvement with their AI companion equivalent, directly feeding users the content that the AI brain created.

AR/VR Will Evolve into a Standardized Component of Remote Meetings
With the introduction of Meta Quest Pro, we expect a significant increase in conference calls utilizing virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). VR will allow attendees to interact as if everyone is in the same physical space, and using VR headsets will provide an opportunity to collaborate in the virtual realm without the cost and inconvenience of travel. Using VR will help you feel as if you are established in the environment; it allows for the ability to move and interact with people that you couldn’t with a web or phone conference call. For example, new VR meetings can have realistic faces of attendees and where you sit affects what you can hear or see, while the additional functionality of having a virtual computer at your fingertips provides additional interactivity and functionality that is not available in a traditional conference room.

AI Will Become One with Us
2023 will prove to be a breakout year for artificial intelligence (AI), for marketers and consumers alike. We’ve all seen what AI can do to improve searches on Google in the past few years, but the technology is now providing compelling learning, collaboration, and marketing experiences. For example, as consumers use the Google Lens app and phone camera to understand objects in their environment, Google’s technology will automatically create customer ads relating to the object and offer in-app purchase options for advertisers. AI is also beginning to show significant promise in areas we once designated as being uniquely human. For instance, AI-powered art has won awards, and AI writing tools like Jasper AI are regularly providing significant assistance to copywriters in both content creation and editing. Even if you’re not employing a designated tool, you can already see this technology moving into mainstream platforms like Gmail via writing suggestions. As organizations like OpenAI and others continue to invest in this space, we’re likely to see adoption increase substantially in 2023.

So there you have it… 11 predictions from across the marketing ecosystem that we believe will impact your business and customers in 2023. For more updates on digital marketing trends, visit our blog. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, both about our predictions as well as yours! Market safely!

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A recent global study by Asana of more than 10,000 office workers, reveals marketers waste nearly seven hours each week on pure duplication of work. Only 28 percent of marketers’ time is spent doing the job they were hired to do. Marketers also believe nearly two-thirds of the four and a half hours spent in weekly meetings are unnecessary. Over 60 percent of marketers’ time is spent on low-value or unnecessary tasks such as searching emails for information, managing shifting priorities, sitting in meetings and communicating about the status of projects. The following chart illustrates how I believe we spend time at work, based on my experience:

While meetings can be an essential and productive component of a marketer’s workday, far too often, they become a giant time-suck. I conducted an informal survey of my peers and they agreed meetings are often create obstacles to productivity:

The other major time-suck for marketers is email. Reading and responding to email can be a full-time job. I estimate I minimally spend 20% of my day in email. My peers appear to agree:

If I spend 80 percent of my day in meetings and the remaining 20 percent on email, then when do I get the work done? After hours, as Gina mentions above. I’m not alone, according to research. Nearly 9 in 10 marketers (89 percent) log in to work/work email outside of standard business hours during a typical work week. Here are a few additional compelling statistics about how marketers spend their day:

• 85% of marketers log in on weekends to keep up or catch up with work.
• The average marketer spends almost a third of their time completing repetitive tasks.
• Strategy and planning along with design/content takes up 87 percent of digital marketer’s time, when building campaigns.

The numbers are compelling, but don’t seem to add up. There is a reason for that. The 80/20 rule holds true for marketers (and most professionals): a majority of work is completed in a small amount of time, which frees up the rest of the day to sit in meetings, answer email or, as Chris mentions below, surf social media platforms.

Workfront conducted a comprehensive study and asked the question “what gets in the way of your work” and the answers were not surprising, but frustrating nonetheless:
1. Wasteful meetings
2. Excessive emails
3. Inefficient or non-existent processes

Across all research and disciplines, meetings appear to be the largest culprit of time-sucking. To address the necessary evil of regular meetings, one must be properly armed with a bag of tricks. Unfortunately, very few professionals are trained to host or participate in a meeting. As a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, I was introduced to Mastering the Rockefeller Habits years ago and have utilized its meeting methodologies, which have dramatically increased the efficiency and value of our meetings at Anvil.

Routine tasks can be a killer, both to creativity and quality. Repetition breeds boredom, which in turn breeds sloppy errors. HubSpot has identified the most common routine tasks for marketers, as outlined in the chart below:

Not surprisingly, chasing data is the primary culprit. Marketers are accountable for results, which requires measurement. Measurement requires collection and analysis of data. While various analytics tools aid this process tremendously, data still requires a good deal of time to collect, organize and analyze. As mentioned previously, email fills every marketer’s day. Outside of data and email, however, routine tasks, especially for digital marketers, involve landing page creation and optimization, social media and list management. This information may only be a surprise to senior executives or traditional marketers, who are not active in day-to-day execution of marketing activities.

According to MarketingCharts, even market researchers spend nearly 20 percent of their time on non-research-related activities:

When it comes to managing digital marketing campaigns, most professionals prefer to focus their time and effort on strategic planning or design. Unfortunately, only a very small percentage of marketers enjoy data collection, testing, optimizing or reporting. This isn’t surprising, but it is a powerful reminder that senior managers need to hire talent with a passion for data and reporting to round out the marketing team.

We’ve covered how marketers ARE spending their time at work, but now how they SHOULD BE spending their time each day. I’ve put together a few recommendations below that will improve marketer’s efficiency, productivity and all-around success during the workday:

Preparation
As the old saying goes, success is 90 percent preparation and 10 percent perspiration. As such, any successful marketer will spend a few minutes planning at the beginning of each day (bonus points for weekly, monthly and quarterly planning sessions). I typically start my work week on Sundays, reviewing my schedule and setting goals and timelines for various action items for the coming week. One of the best ways to prioritize activities and maximize your time is to use the Urgent vs. Important matrix. In essence, filter each of your activities for the day/week onto one of the four quadrants:

Honesty is key. You must be able to justify your placement on the grid: is this activity truly important AND urgent? Far too many of our daily activities fall within the Not Important or Not Urgent categories and should be ignored. Do you really need to update your Facebook status right this moment? Probably not. Utilize this matrix when planning your day or week and you will see your productivity increase dramatically.

Preparation goes beyond pencil to paper or pixel to Excel spreadsheet. Progressive marketers should consider meditation on a daily basis, even if for just a few minutes. In fact, two minutes seems to be the magic number. Take power posing for example. Just two minutes of posing like a superhero has proven to positively impact performance. Lastly, prepare for virtual meetings properly, as your credibility depends on it.

Professional Development
Far too many of my coworkers and managers over the years devalued professional development. I’m a big believer in the growth-minded philosophy; you can continually improve your personal and professional success via continuous learning. It can start with reading articles and books or watching webinars or YouTube videos. Serious marketers pursue additional training, certifications and formal education. The most overlooked aspect of professional development is building a network, which I’ve valued highly enough to create an organization around it: pdxMindShare.

Connection
While meditation may help you connect with your inner child, it may not facilitate external connections. As mentioned previously, I’m a big fan of networking, but not just to form new relationships. Most of the managers I’ve had over the years were not good about nurturing connections with their employees and other key constituents. I’ve addressed this concern at Anvil by instituting weekly, monthly and quarterly check-ins with employees and clients. Keep in mind, check-ins should be face-to-face if possible, phone if not. Emails do not count as a meaningful touchpoint. To help foster connections at Anvil, we use Insights, Kolbe and 16 Personalities as a framework to communicate internally (and externally with key client contacts).

Reflection
One area with which I struggle is the art of reflection. How can we set a course towards our ideal future as a marketer, without knowing where we’ve been and which direction we’re currently heading? I’m quite comfortable setting goals and measuring progress on a regular basis. I’ve written about this topic in relation to finding The Swing. That said, I could do a much better job evaluating the journey. One approach to reflecting on recent successes or failures, particularly for marketers, is ‘the debrief’. An industry standard protocol, debriefs or post mortems provide a powerful framework for marketers to evaluate campaigns or client relationships. I recommend expanding debriefs to all parts of your workday. The second tool vastly underutilized by marketers, is the practice of mindfulness. Spending just a few minutes a day meditating can provide perspective on past and future performance.

In the end, you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. Make sure you know you spend your time wisely, or you’ll end up living this pie chart:

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Introduction
Since 1996, I’ve helped clients generate awareness, clicks and conversions via search engines. Over the past decade or more, Amazon has transitioned from a major advertiser on Google to a real threat to Google’s future. According to a Kenshoo study, 56 percent of consumers start product searches on Amazon. That number increases to 2x in a similar BloomReach study. On the seller-side, 63 percent of Amazon Advertisers plan to increase budget next year (a larger percentage increase than Google and Facebook spend). In short, Amazon is the new Google in many respects. If you don’t have a solid Amazon marketing strategy in place, you’re at a disadvantage. This article explores best practices when creating an effective Amazon marketing strategy.

Strategic Planning
Whether you are a manufacturer, physical or online-only retailer, you need to evaluate a presence on Amazon. Many brands are already on Amazon and have been for years, but I regularly talk to small brands and boutique retailers that are not on Amazon and are hesitant to jump in with both feet. To assess the viability of a presence on Amazon, you must build a strategic plan.

Competitive Benchmarking
One of the first and best places to start is to evaluate the competitive landscape. If most of your competitors are on Amazon, that indicates the potential need to remain competitive by joining the fray. Conversely, if your competitors have yet to set up stores on Amazon, it may indicate an opportunity to gain a competitive edge. Manufacturers have a greater challenge, as they must consider the impact on the wholesale/retail channel relationships. They also may have to compete with resellers listing their products on Amazon. Some manufacturers create Amazon-only sub-brands or product lines to protect brand and channel perception. Retailers must also be aware that competitors may be creating ‘unbranded’ stores to protect brand equity, yet still leverage the channel.

Keyword Research
Regardless of the number of competitors, the next logical step is to conduct keyword research to understand which brands and products are most popular and competitive. Within the Amazon platform, sellers will see keywords ranked based on the Best Seller Ranking (BSR), which is determined primarily by sales volume, but includes other variables. While searching on Amazon is helpful, utilizing tools like Google Keyword Planner and MOZ are helping see the entire keyword universe, including search engine traffic. Developing and optimizing keywords specific to each product ASIN is critical to maximizing the visibility and overall SEO performance of your Amazon presence.

Pricing Strategy
Once you’ve identified your product selection, the next step is to develop a pricing strategy. Setting pricing is one of the single greatest influences on ranking factors in product searches. While lowest price is an obvious evaluation criteria, it is not the only factor. The goal on Amazon is to own the “Buy Box” or yellow purchase button associated with every product. Over 90% of Amazon’s $250 billion in sales are triggered by the Buy Box.

While there are a host of dynamic pricing tools available, Amazon provides an ‘Automate Pricing’ tool on Seller Central to help automate pricing decisions.

Buy Box
Amazon uses an algorithm to rank sellers of the same product against each other and rewards the seller with the highest overall ranking with ownership of the Buy Box. The Buy Box is often constantly rotating. Amazon no longer rewards a single seller with the Buy Box on a particular product listing, but instead assigns each seller a percentage of the Buy Box web traffic based on the seller’s ranking. It is still possible to achieve 100% Buy Box ownership, for example, if you are the sole manufacturer & seller of a product, but it has become increasingly more difficult as more sellers enter the Amazon Marketplace. Some sellers have adopted a strategy of purchasing inventory wholesale through other outlets and reselling products on Amazon. This can create frustrations for manufacturers who sell their products on Amazon with the assumption that no one else is listing their products for sale.

A seller’s ranking depends on many factors including seller history, price, shipping time, and fulfillment method, amongst others. The below chart offers a comprehensive list of all the major factors in determining what seller wins the Buy Box.

A common frustration for third-party Amazon sellers is failing to win the Buy Box on product listings where there is little to no competition. This can even happen to sellers who manufacture and sell their own products on Amazon. There are several factors that can prevent a seller from losing out on the Buy Box, despite no competition from other sellers. The most common issues plaguing sellers are their Amazon seller rating, and Amazon’s Buy Box algorithm identifying similar products being sold on and off for a lower price.

Amazon sellers should constantly be monitoring their seller ratings through Amazon’s Brand Health page within Amazon Seller Central and address any issues as soon as possible to get their seller account back in good standing. Amazon tracks its seller ratings on a 30-day period. Failing to meet benchmarks in Late Shipment Rate, Cancellation Rate, Order Defect Rate, etc. will often cause the seller to lose its Buy Box eligibility.

A less widely known issue many sellers experience in losing their Buy Box ranking is how Amazon’s Buy Box algorithm compares the seller’s pricing to identical and similar products both on and off Amazon. If Amazon’s algorithm determines a seller’s pricing to be too high, the seller may lose Buy Box ranking, even if there are no other sellers currently offering the same product on Amazon. To avoid this issue, sellers should avoid marking up their products sold on Amazon compared to any other online channels their products may be sold. Sellers should also research similar products offered both on and off Amazon to ensure their pricing is in-line with typical pricing often seen within the product category. Sellers on Amazon’s Seller Forums have even mentioned that lowering a product’s pricing by as little as $0.01 can have a significant impact on their Buy Box ranking.

Fulfillment
Before we delve into product page optimization and advertising, I want to touch briefly on a key business decision that will influence how you market your products or Amazon store. Before you sell any product on Amazon, you must decide where it will be warehoused, who will manage inventory and shipments and provide customer support. Amazon offers two options: Fulfillment by Seller and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). In short, FBA is generally a great way to get product onto Amazon, with potential to reach Prime customers and even achieve Buy Box status, although pricing is typically higher and thus less competitive. In this model, you ship your product to Amazon, and they manage fulfillment for your direct sales. This is ideal for smaller businesses that need to focus on product development and marketing instead of warehousing and logistics. Fulfillment by Seller provides more control over pricing and inventory, however.

Organic Product Page Optimization
There are two primary categories of Amazon ranking criteria: performance and relevance. Performance factors are primarily sales-related, while relevance factors are keyword-related.

Performance Factors
Since Amazon is a retail marketplace that monetizes transactions, product pricing and sales history are important performance factors. A complete list of performance ranking factors include: product pricing, product options (model, color, features, etc.), product availability, sales history, customer reviews and click-volume.

While product options, availability and sales history are straight-forward performance factors, pricing is its own complicated beast. Since pricing drives most purchases on Amazon, setting the right price is critical to generating ideal sales volume, product reviews and rankings. Achieving an optimal conversion rate requires data analysis. To view your current conversion rate, go to: Seller Central: Reports > Business Reports > Detailed Page Sales > Traffic > Unit Session Percentage.

Another key performance factor that is challenging but essential to manage effectively are customer reviews. In 2015, Amazon transitioned to a weighted system for measuring average star ratings. The algorithm for customer reviews is weighted with the following criteria: if a product is purchased at a discount, the age of the review and how helpful the review has been, based on visitor feedback. With a more sophisticated average formula, you can’t incentivize reviews. You can remind customers to write reviews, however. The ideal outreach frequency is twice: after the order has shipped to set the expectation and a few weeks after the product has arrived, to give the customer time to use the product.

Relevance Factors
Like Google’s ranking algorithm, relevance factors focus on keywords embedded in the product page. Amazon’s ranking algorithm is also like Google in that it does not appreciate keyword-stuffing or otherwise negatively impacting the user experience with poorly crafted copy and irrelevant keyword usage. The primary relevance-related ranking evaluation criteria are outlined below:

When it comes to helping Amazon rank your product pages above the competition, it is essential to incorporate relevant keywords across all relevant fields mentioned above. The current keyword character limit is 250 (not including spaces or punctuation). The length limit applies to the total content in all generic keyword fields, with a max of 5 attributes.
When optimizing product pages, Amazon provides guidelines for sellers:

While the algorithm weights brand name, product title and description heavily, sellers cannot underestimate the importance of optimized product images. Best practices for image optimization include: providing high resolution (1,000 x1,000 pixel images) that are zoomable; images of the product from a variety of angles; product label closeup; action shots of the product in-use; product comparison or contextual images of product relating to a human hand or other point of reference; images including informational charts, graphics or even text.

Amazon Advertising
Amazon has transitioned from online retailer to advertising juggernaut in the past decade. Total Amazon US ad revenue in 2020 was previously projected at almost $10 billion. 66% of all product specific searches across the web originate on Amazon. Advertising on Amazon is an effective way to drive traffic and ultimately sales of listed products. It also can be a great tool to boost brand/product awareness & visibility as Amazon sponsored brand and sponsored product ads often appear at the top of search result pages.

Campaign Types
Amazon currently offers three core cad products: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display.

Eligibility Criteria
Unfortunately, not everyone can take advantage of all of Amazon’s Advertising offerings. Amazon’s Seller Eligibility Criteria include two primary requirements: you must have an active professional seller account and enroll in Amazon Brand Registry to use Sponsored Brand ads. For more information about Amazon Advertising, check out the following links: How it works, Amazon Ads FAQ, Advertising specs and policies
and Amazon Sellers Education YouTube channel.

Bid Strategies
Amazon weighs many parameters to choose a winning bid across campaigns. The ad ranking system includes the following factors: daily budget, keyword relevance, ad rank, ad relevance and buy box eligibility. The advantage of an aggressive spending approach is that you’ll get data more quickly. The more insight you have into impressions, clicks and sales, the more effectively you can build high-performing campaigns and decrease spend as optimization strategies make an impact.

Measurement
Be sure to build ad campaigns to be profitable, which means understanding your break-even Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS). As a key performance indicator, the ACoS indicates the ratio of ad spend to targeted sales. The chart below from SELLICS outlines the basic ACoS math:

Additional Amplification
Beyond optimizing product pages for organic Amazon searches and mastering AMS offerings to increase reach and sales, there are other ways to increase traffic to your Amazon store, like social media and blog posts. Product posts and promotions can perform well on social media, but descriptive blog posts linking to product pages can perform even better, both in terms of organic search rankings and conversions, since shoppers are already engaged with your brand. Email marketing is another way to drive traffic to Amazon product pages, especially if you do not sell direct on your website. Don’t forget to create an affiliate link to maximize margins.

With more than half of all product searches beginning on Amazon, manufacturers and retailers can no longer afford to ignore the marketing juggernaut. A successful Amazon presence requires research, planning and a long-term commitment. After conducting competitive research, setting pricing and optimizing product pages, focus your efforts on advertising to maximize reach and conversions. As the old saying goes, ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’ If you need help with your Amazon marketing program, help is available.

The post Effective Amazon Marketing Strategies for 2021 appeared first on SEMpdx.

At Anvil we continue to be optimistic about the future, especially 2021. Each year since 2004, we’ve developed digital marketing predictions based on trends we see or believe will emerge in the following year. For reference, we advise you not to spend too much time reviewing our 2020 digital marketing trends especially since we evaluated the accuracy of our 2020 predictions in our annual year-end assessment on Anvil’s blog. We’re excited about the prospects 2021 holds, probably because it’s not 2020.

In case you’re not familiar with our predictions, we try to take a bold stance, and stay away from obvious or unavoidable trends. For example, digital advertising is rebounding from the pandemic and should have a strong year in 2021. Consumer behavior changes have also altered the advertising media mix and will continue to evolve in the following areas: audio (podcasting), (virtual) events, marketplaces outside of Amazon and esports, as well as app and gaming sponsorships. Pretty straight forward, right? That’s why it didn’t make the list below. So, let’s get started…

Post-pandemic behavior changes will take root and change marketing permanently
The pandemic’s impact has been significant and, likely, enduring. Consumer behavior has changed and reset, to a degree, permanently. We predict smart marketers will make short and long-term changes to messaging as well as products and services. Specifically, successful brands will focus on value-based pricing and messaging. We’ve shared our thoughts on the topic of consumer behavior change, both personally and professionally in these articles:
How the Pandemic Has Changed My Behavior
COVID-19 changed consumer behavior and marketing strategy
We’ve also outlined how brands can and should adjust marketing to address the impact COVID has had on consumers, from what they buy to how they shop:
Ten Marketing Communications Strategies to Navigate the COVID-19 Crisis
How to engage customers and market your retail business during a pandemic
While research from established firms like Ipsos and McKinsey provide valuable insights, we predict brands will conduct extensive research to better understand how the pandemic has impacted its employees, customers and industry. Smart marketers and brands will utilize those insights to inform both 2021 marketing strategies as well as long-term shifts in media and messaging.

Digital Transformation will evolve from catchphrase to reality
The pandemic has forced brands to adopt digital channels for product and service delivery as well as marketing. “Digital transformation” has become a popular buzzword since March 2020, and companies of all sizes are investing significant dollars in the migration to digital platforms, including ecommerce, chatbots, email, apps, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, omnichannel marketing, and augmented and virtual reality. Brands that embrace evolving technologies to create a more seamless customer experience will be in a leadership position post-pandemic. Related articles:
Omnichannel marketing in the new digital age
Podcasting strategies for quarantine life and beyond

Brands will turn to Conversational Marketing in a big way
2020 was a year of desired connection – any connection, including that of consumer and business, as many companies moved to digital communication and abided by health restrictions to limit in-person communication. With that desire came demand for a new kind of marketing: Conversational Marketing. Brands such as Dominos and Sephora have seen success in 2020 using this method, noting their consumers’ desire for direct, and easily accessible, answers to their questions. Conversational marketing is a personalized approach that moves buyers through marketing and sales funnels through real-time conversations. Some examples include, but aren’t limited to: AI, chat bots, email marketing, and voice search. In 2020, these methods saw increases in user engagement for all of these, especially voice search which recorded just under 50% of all adults in the US who use voice assistants via smartphones and other devices. It is expected by 2021 that 80% of businesses will have some form of chat bot automation instilled into their company marketing strategy. We predict that conversational marketing will rise to that 80% in 2021.

Social, environmental and ethically responsible brands will flourish
We’ve long championed authenticity and transparency in marketing with our clients. We also walk our own talk, with Anvil’s Charity of Choice and other community-centered initiatives. Racial inequality protests in 2020 inspired us to change our own behaviors and advise our clients on content strategy. We predict brands will make significant efforts to clean up business practices and adjust messaging to appeal to enlightened consumers that care deeply about a company’s purpose and commitment to social and environmental sustainability. Research has shown that ethical businesses will be more successful in the long-term, so we expect to see many businesses to join in the movement in 2021. We’ve provided a few relevant articles below, for context.
How You and Your Brand can make Positive Change in honor of George Floyd
How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy: Pure Purpose
6 Secrets to Marketing to Ethical Consumers

Targeted advertising will become more regulated, creating challenges for advertisers and forcing them to get creative or expand their audiences/targeting
Data privacy has been a big topic throughout 2020 as the government has been cracking down on advertising platforms like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Users are being tracked more now than ever on websites, apps, and even their location. At what point does it become a data privacy issue? With the release of the documentary The Social Dilemma, many people are finally understanding how these algorithms work and the way they target users in a very specific way. Many platforms like Instagram have made changes where users are now able to opt out of these targeting measures. Instagram has added a new setting which will enable users to choose whether they can be targeted with more personalized ads in the app via the usage of supplementary data sourced from third-party platforms and providers. As we move into 2021, we predict that these opt-out settings will become more popular and many targeting features will become more restricted as data privacy becomes a more well-known topic for all.

Amazon will experience unprecedented competition from online marketplaces
2020 saw the launch of multiple ecommerce marketplaces by American retail giants Target and Walmart. Both companies took a gamble in launching their ecommerce marketplaces to directly compete with Amazon and are offering incentives for vendors to enroll in their platforms by undercutting Amazon’s fulfillment and listing fees. While neither Walmart Marketplace or Target Plus currently offer the same one-stop ecommerce shopping solution for virtually every product imaginable, they have a head start on where Amazon initially began with a strong foundation of logistics, inventory management, and ecommerce experience. Both Walmart and Target also can leverage their brick and mortar locations with services like “buy online and pickup in store.” Expect the eCommerce marketplace wars to heat up considerably in 2021 as these 3 giants compete for market share and attract new vendors.

Google’s “Passage” structured data will gain wide acceptance
When Google First announced “Passage Indexing” there was some confusion from the SEO community on how the process would work. Would a whole webpage be indexed or just a passage, leaving the rest of my content to be disregarded? Google recently clarified “Passage Indexing is not the indexation of passages independent of the host page. Rather The entire pages will be indexed and passages from pages may be used as an additional ranking factor. The Anvil SEO team sees this change in the ranking process as an opportunity for a new type of structured data to take shape. We are theorizing that a new structured data and corresponding rich result will be released in 2021. This new markup will be aimed at selecting the specific passage which a webmaster feels best encapsulates the keyword or key phrase of the page. The new markup would be very similar in format to the existing FAQ markup, which may serve as a base which evolves into a Passage Indexing/Ranking markup.

2021 is (finally) the Year of Voice Search, seriously
SEO experts have been saying “this is the year of voice search” for years now…But we swear THIS is the year of voice search, 2021. Our team blogged about the Google updates that were announced during the Search On 2020 Live Stream. The Anvil SEO team believes that by expanding the BERT algorithm to 100% of English language searches Google will be able to gain and use the insights gained from these searches to further improve the context and understanding of voice searches. Just within English language there are different dialects, accents, and context of words. If BERT can master these intricacies in traditional typed searches Google has a much clearer roadmap to improving voice recognition algorithms to recognize them in voice searches. Additionally, the improved spelling algorithm may be useful in recognizing true search intent when our devices do not perfectly pick up our voices or use an incorrect homonym for the intended word. While the October updates should vastly improve all searches, the Anvil SEO team believes Google has taken massive steps toward making voice search a staple of search in 2021 and beyond.

Personalization will become an impactful ranking factor
Creating quality content and providing value takes time and effort, and as Google’s ability to understand language and conversation expands, it will be impossible to stand out from your competition unless your content aligns with how your customers talk. And doing so will ultimately help your website rank for voice searches. Research suggests that over 70 percent of searches will be voice-activated in 2021, and Amazon recently announced improvements in the works to provide better experience and more accurate results. Furthermore, reputation and representation are crucial components to SEO – particularly local SEO, so regularly updating your website, GMB, and social media platforms with personalized content will contribute to success. As we saw in the 2020 Local Search Ranking Factors which highlighted which variables have the biggest impact on rankings, personalization had about a 6% weight. However, COVID forced platforms, like Google, to expand the information included within the listing to provide consumers every answer they need about your business. Because of these additions, a complete and regularly updated GMB listing that is personalized to your company will have more impact in rankings compared to a weaker profile.

The Pandemic will create a permanent reliance on influencer marketing
Brands use social media influencers to present authentic unbiased advertising to a more loyal following group. As more people are using social media and for longer periods of time compared to before the pandemic there is an opportunity for brands to utilize social media influencers more now than ever. With the rise of the platform Tik Tok with the Gen Z and Millennial population and the continued popularity of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube brands should be looking at ways to use social media influencers on those platforms to advertise in a creative way. A recent study found that 40% of people reported that they purchased a product online after seeing it used by an influencer on YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter. Influencers can speak on a more personal level and give their honest opinion that resonates more with their followers compared to normal brand advertising. We expect influencers to gain even more popularity and followers and businesses to use influencers more in 2021 than ever before. If you are new to social media influencer marketing read our recent blog post and reach out if you have any questions.

We believe that 2021 will be full of optimism, with a focus on performance across channels, empowered by improved tracking. We’re also looking across the spectrum for expanded testing of platforms, creative and an evolution of search. Let us know what you think of our 2021 digital marketing trends in the comments section or add your own predictions. Here’s to a healthier and brighter 2021!

The post 2021 Digital Marketing Predictions (via Anvil) appeared first on SEMpdx.

2018 Digital Marketing Prediction: How Did We Do?

Voice Search will make massive strides in 2018
In 2018, digital assistants will dramatically affect the way consumers search. The 2017 holiday season will prime the pump with consumers purchasing large quantities of voice-assisted devices, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple iPhones with Siri and Microsoft Cortana devices. The Android, Windows and Apple device users will speak directly to their devices to conduct searches as well as manage their lives. How consumers verbally communicate significantly varies from how individuals type out search queries. Because of this variation in behavior, you will begin to see more long-tail keyword queries; this will allow brands to create much more accurate and intelligent keyword search optimization strategies, since more granular data will be available around consumer behavior. Voice search is also driving the need for brands to optimize for Position 0 on Google. Position 0 is a sentence, list, or table “answer” to common questions asked by Google users that appear above the organic search results. This coveted position will become increasingly competitive, even as Google heavily moderates results. Lastly, brands will increasingly invest in custom voice “skills” for Amazon, which is now estimated at 25,000, to better connect and engage consumers.
GRADE: B

Voice Search will fully embrace Paid Media
As we predicted in 2017, it’s only a matter of time before Google and Amazon figure out how to monetize voice assistants. As more phones and smart speakers flood the markets and consumers acclimate to utilizing these devices daily, Google, Amazon, Bing and Apple will increasingly explore ways to integrate paid media into their voice-based services. This process has already begun: as we outlined in March, Local Service Ads are in beta and will be rolling out to Google’s Home and Pixel devices soon. Select home service companies have been invited to participate in this paid, Adwords-based experience. More is sure to come. By Q4 2018, consumers everywhere will be asking their voice assistants for shopping help and that paid ads will be at the center of the interaction. You can bet on it.
GRADE: D

Amazon Search will continue to gain ground on Google
According to a Kenshoo study, 56 percent of consumers start product searches on Amazon. That means a minority of consumers are starting product searches on Google. While this behavior shift that has been in the works for the past decade, it will reach a tipping point in 2018.
With Amazon advertisers expected to increase investment by 63 percent in 2018, Google may find itself in a defensive position. In short, Amazon is the new Google in many respects, so brands will adjust marketing strategies appropriately in 2018. Those that take a more aggressive stance and invest bigger and smarter in Amazon organic and paid programs will outperform competitors that fail to do so, in 2018 and beyond.
GRADE: B+

eBay makes an Ad Play
As Amazon reaps massive financial success from its Sponsored Products promotion platform, expect other players to step up. One big online reseller that will be making a play in 2018: eBay Promoted Listings. Once known as the place to auction off that (hopefully valuable) junk from your attic, eBay has quietly started allowing “Buy Now” listings to become more pervasive, representing an opportunity for re-sellers to sell direct using the platform. eBay also allows a minimum bid for auction items to be considered “sold”, for those selling rarer and more valuable items they believe will fetch a premium. Along with new listing options, eBay is increasing ways to get more traffic to customer listings via its Promotions tool, expanding the program to new categories and sellers in 2017. Unlike Amazon and other promoted listings platforms that charge only for a click, eBay only charges for the promotion when an ad is clicked and the item is sold to the clicker within 30 days. This allows them to charge a premium for promotions, but the charge is always attached to an actual sale. Experts predict eBay Promoted Listings will represent a $1B+ market with over 70% margin, prompting a rise in eBay stock valuation in Q4 of 2017. Early adopters of this technology might see a blue ocean of opportunity in 2018.
GRADE: D

AMP Pages Will Blow Up & Become a Ranking Factor
As Google continues to roll out Mobile-First Indexing, more emphasis will be put on sites utilizing AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to improve mobile user experience. AMP pages load 4x faster than normal website pages on average, which can significantly improve user experience, CTR and site engagement. Currently, AMP pages do not have the widespread adoption that Google was hoping for. Only 900,000 of the 1.2 billion websites on the internet have implemented the AMP framework thus far. With Google’s continued focus on mobile, it is likely that they will soon factor the use of AMP pages into organic rankings to further increase adoption. Businesses that have yet to implement the AMP framework should consider creating AMP pages for their top performing content, especially if Google intends to make AMP a ranking factor.
GRADE: C-

Link Building will play a much more prominent role
We’ve already discussed the importance of ranking for Position 0 and owning voice search results, but it is worth mentioning that the old-school strategy of securing high quality inbound links to boost domain authority is not only important, it is more critical than ever. To achieve Position 0, ensure that other websites linking back to your website are the most “authoritative” around the query that the visitor is searching. 70 percent of voice search results are Featured Snippets, so capturing Position 0 in SERPs translates to you owning the voice result if someone talks to Siri, Bixby, Cortana, Alexa or another digital assistant.
GRADE: B-

Brands will focus on Fan-Generated Content
When it comes to showing products in natural settings, there are several brands who rely on celebrity photoshoots and repurposing paid influencer content. The influencer scene has become so overblown, that many influencers are pricing themselves out of the market.
Based on this trend, we think the bubble is about to burst, and many brands will switch to sharing user- generated content from fans instead of high-priced influencers. Vans Girls is already sharing fan-generated content for many of its Instagram posts. This works in Vans’ favor by allowing them to save money, while providing incentive to its fans. Fans are already posting great content on their meticulously-curated accounts and tag posts with Vans in the hope of being featured on one of their favorite brand’s social pages. The collaboration strengthens brand affinity with consumers and helps solve a common challenge among brands: content creation.
GRADE: B+

Micro-Influencers are going to become more useful to Consumer Brands Than Big Influencers
In the past few years, Influencer Marketing has become a proven tactic for driving awareness and leads. Seventy one percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference. People follow influencers they like and respect on social media, but an influencer doesn’t have to be a celebrity or have at least 100,000 followers to help your brand.
While brands have been pining after mega-influencers, micro-influencers have demonstrated significant value by making an impact with as few as 1,000 followers. They tend to be more authentic and trustworthy brand ambassadors. The smaller price tag, high engagement rates and steady results will raise eyebrows of previous skeptics. Look for 2018 to be the year of the micro-influencer.
GRADE: A+

Chatbots Will take Over Social Media Messaging
According to a study done by Facebook, 56 percent of consumers prefer to handle a customer service issue over chat vs. over the phone. As this trend continues to grow, the need for timely responses on social channels will grow with it. Every visitor to a website or Facebook business page presents an opportunity to enter a brand’s funnel and chatbots help secure that potential lead. Don’t wait and see for yourself: jump on the trend by creating a simple Chatbots that can answer questions and redirect social media visitors to your Customer Service department and/or Sales team. The secret behind chatbot’s is the ability to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to broaden its knowledge and ability to provide sales and service support in a seamless manner. As a result, look for greater chatbot adoption in 2018 than any previous year.
GRADE: A-

Augmented Reality Marketing will finally Take Off
Pokémon Go might have come and gone, but it’s effects on marketing might not be so ephemeral. The first attempts at augmented reality marketing seemed to be a bust. In 2009, a hidden feature named Monacle made Yelp the iPhone’s premiere AR application. Sadly, it never took off. In 2010, the MIT Technology Review even wrote an article detailing the failures of AR campaigns to draw in consumers. Pokémon Go, the fad of 2016, may have breathed new life into AR by introducing it to a mainstream audience and re-inspiring marketers. Ad Age claims that AR is “marketing’s trillion dollar opportunity.” In the Fall of 2017, Apple released the ARKit, which gives developers tools to create their own Augmented Reality iOS applications. An example of an app already created with ARKit is Ikea Place, which lets you visualize how Ikea furniture and décor will look in your home or office. AR marketing use varies from the real-estate and interior decorating spaces to virtual banners and Google My Business information for brick-and-mortar establishments. Apple CEO Tim Cook pronounced, “We are high on AR for the long run, we think there’s great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity.”
With tech giants behind AR and the “Pokémon Go generation” (millennials) starting to buy homes, advance in their careers, and spend more on entertainment, it seems AR marketing might finally go mainstream. Maybe Yelp will even put out Monocle 2.0.
GRADE: B-

SkyNet may become a Reality, thanks to the rapid evolution of AI
We don’t typically wear our tin foil hats in public, but there are already signs that AI has the potential to go very, very wrong. From the “highly aggressive” DeepMind AI to some of the worlds brightest minds warning us about the dangers ahead, 2018 has the potential to bring a Terminator-like problem front and center. It may not be as obvious as this guy running amok through the city streets with his army of buddies, but it will be very real. We are turning more aspects of our lives over to technology at an alarmingly fast rate. Self-driving cars, bank accounts, smart refrigerators and even medical procedures are being managed by AI, with little to no control or regulation. The rate at which machines can learn already far exceeds our ability as human beings – setting the stage for a potential showdown in the future. We predict there will be at least one major event in 2018 that will clearly demonstrate the threat.
GRADE: A-

2019 Digital Marketing Predictions

Without further ado, here are Anvil’s digital marketing predictions for 2019.

Brands Will Make Major Strides with In-Game and eSport Sponsorships and Related Advertising Opportunities
While online gaming, especially multiplayer, has been around since Doom in the early 90s, recent explosive growth, thanks in part to games like Fortnite, have changed the game for brands looking to target GenZ in particular. Online gaming enthusiasts range in age from 10 to 65, yet a whopping 73 percent of 14- to 21-year-olds in the US identify as a competitive gamer (including 56 percent of females in that same age group), according to a WaPo study. Anvil believes game makers will not be able to resist lucrative partnerships, sponsorships and advertising opportunities. Recent examples include Wreck-It Ralph Breaks the Internet and Fortnite including a brief cameo in the movie and an Easter Egg embedded in the popular game. Look for more cross-over partnerships in the future. There is another large audience relating to gaming and that is spectators and fans. Electronic sports (esports) are increasingly a spectator sport, drawing millions to global competitions (physically and virtually). While most gamers play for social reasons, 35 percent play to win prizes or acclaim. Look for brands to increase sponsorship budgets to get in front of gamers by associating brands with high profile players.

With Search Growing More Prevalent, Google Will Introduce Campaigns Specifically for Voice-Assisted Devices
With voice search becoming more prevalent, we believe the trend will affect Google search with a new campaign type. This campaign type would specifically be for voice search and would allow targeting with bid adjustments by the type of voice search device including mobile phone voice search as well as the specific voice-assisted devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home.

AEO and REO Will Replace the Outdated SEO Model
Search Engine Optimization will fall by the wayside in favor of Answer Engine and Research Engine optimization. SEO is becoming a broad term that is beginning to encapsulate digital marketing as search engines are more and more able to anticipate user intent. At the same time, SEO is becoming more siloed as websites are beginning to focus more on their own specialty. As a website’s optimization aligns more and more with where users are in their specific journey, websites will have to think about how to optimize to answer questions, allow for research, or convert from search engine results pages directly.

Voice Assistants Enter More Home–sand Businesses–Than Ever Before
Use of voice search will continue to increase. Facebook, Google, and Amazon have all doubled down on in-home voice assistants and Amazon have just stated that their biggest Cyber Monday saw the most sales of their Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. Voice search isn’t going anywhere, and these massive companies are attempting to make it easier and easier for users to utilize voice in their everyday lives. Not only that, but voice assistants are moving into the business sphere more and more.

Blockchain Is Going to Lie Low
After the crypto gains in 2017, many companies engaged in the marketing ploy of launching blockchain products, trying to ride the media coattails surrounding the emerging technology and buzzwords associated with it that most people don’t truly understand. A year later and crypto markets are in the middle of a tailspin. As mainstream attention cares only about the dollar signs associated with crypto, companies will keep quiet about their blockchain products until the next bear market. As for crypto, many projects will lose funding; the deadwood will burn. But the community is thriving as ever. Keep your ear to the ground for projects looking to go to market and take advantage of the opportunity to get into this industry on the ground-level by keeping your prices low and goals reasonable.

Video Trends Will Increase in Marketing, Messaging and Media
Live video content (streaming) encourages high-engagement and will be an even more valuable tool for brands in 2019. This type of video content will be more search friendly with more prevalent use of closed captioning and the power of artificial intelligence. AI can transcribe audio to make video more searchable. Video previews (silent) will auto-play on most platforms. With the ease of video production essentially being in everyone’s phone, video will also take on more of a 1:1 approach. Personalized video messages will start replacing chat, email, and phone calls as ways brands communicate with customers. Videos will be created to thank a customer, delivers support, or follow-up on customer questions.

Virtual Reality (VR) Will Finally Go Mainstream
2019 will see Virtual Reality move from a niche-gaming system or novelty experience to a much more accessible platform with higher use than we’ve ever seen before. While it won’t even come close to the usage of mobile, computers or television, the technology, cost and ease of use has taken many giant steps over the past year – which see a payoff this year. Look no further than the new Oculus Go. No longer is a high-powered computer needed to run VR. The Oculus Go is making VR more accessible due to its simple setup and relatively low cost. Facebook, the owner of Oculus is already betting heavily on the success of the Oculus Go by launching an entire multi-platform campaign that spans from social to television. Online radio advertising will see increased impressions and decreased performance as Virtual Reality hangouts become more popularized. The Oculus Go also allows users to play online radio stations while in hangout rooms and will increase the available ad space for online radio such as Pandora and Spotify. However, as these placements aren’t clickable, advertisers attempting to drive site traffic will see decreased performance.

Local SEO Will Get Sexier
Yes, voice search is trendy, but should optimization focus on voice search alone? No: rather voice search should be an integrated part of a larger focus. According to a 2018 BrightLocal study, smart speaker owners usually use their devices to perform local business-related search on a weekly basis. Over half of smart speaker owners perform this type of voice query every day! Voice search optimization shouldn’t live in a vacuum. It should be part of a holistic on-Page or on-SERP optimization plan or Local Search strategy. With an increasing amount of no-click searches and Google-owned content eating up more space (and often all above-the-fold real estate) for local SEO SERPs, on-SERP and voice search optimization is and will continue to become more paramount to Local SEO in 2019.

GenZ Will Call For Increased Brand Transparency & Purpose
Brand transparency and purpose will go beyond affecting ad targeting and be a critical component to developing successful marketing strategies & campaigns. As Generation Z ages and their buying power grows, it will be important for brands to think about their story and how to connect with this new consumer group. To effectively connect with GenZ, brands will not only have to authentically convey their values & purpose but actively live it and prove their commitment.

Amazon Will Create Its Own SEO Position 0
As Amazon gains a larger share of not only online shopping but consumer purchases in general, it will become more and more like its own search engine. We expect increased importance on SEO for product pages, and possibly even position 0 and “featured snippets” in the form of a promoted product that matches one’s search query.

So, there you have it. Feel free to leave comments regarding your 2019 predictions or provide feedback on our 2018 review and 2019 digital marketing predictions. Happy Holidays!

The post 2019 Digital Marketing Predictions (+ 2018 Year-in-Review) appeared first on SEMpdx.

Even if It’s Small… Offer Something

Christmas is the biggest retail time of the year for retailers and businesses of all industries. No matter how big or how small you are willing to go, offering a deal in any shape or form for the Holidays is better than nothing. It doesn’t matter what your business has to offer, people are going to spend their money regardless, “Shoppers around the country say they are planning to spend an average of $983 for gifts this holiday season, up from $929 last year according to the 33d annual survey on holiday spending from the American Research Group, Inc. Planned gift spending for 2017 is $54 above spending in 2016” (American Research Group).

No matter what your service or product is, there is a way to connect with your audience. Whether it’s 15% off your order, or a BOGO Christmas special, anything helps, get creative with it! If there’s an item or service that hasn’t been selling well, slash the price. Offer it as “the perfect stocking stuffer!” People live for the thrill of getting a good deal on their gifts.

It’s NEVER Too Early

If you haven’t seen Christmas deals or decorations advertised when it’s still hot and sunny out… you’re living under a rock. The idea is to prepare for your holiday sales early and put together a strategy so when the time is right, promoting those sales will be a seamless process.

“Retailers and ecommerce businesses experience their single biggest days of sales on the 22nd and 23rd of December” (WebsiteSetUp).

Schedule your content in advance; the last thing you want to worry about is being a few weeks into December with no content and no plan in place. Whether it’s a scheduled email or it’s through AdWords or Paid Social, it is worth your time and investment.

Invest in Holiday Creative

Content is everything. Try to put yourself in the place of the consumer, what would catch your eye and get you to remember a “to die for” deal as your next gift purchase? It’s worth it to invest your time and money into creating “Christmas-y” type advertisements or campaigns.

It’s One Month Out of the Year

When it’s all said and done, if you do not participate in the Holiday craze it’s not detrimental to the success of your business. However, it’s one month out of the year that can have a BIG payout if you properly invest your time and efforts into it.

Let the madness begin. Happy Holidays!

About Jake

Jake McGrady is a Digital Strategist at Intuitive Digital. Born and raised here, Jake is a true Portlandian at heart. He earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing and minor in new media communications at Oregon State University. You can catch him applying the phrase “Go Beavs” to all aspects of life. In college Jake was heavily involved with OSU’s student media network, anchoring the Beaver Sports TV Show and co-hosting his weekly sports talk radio show. With his passion for digital marketing and social media, he also worked as a digital media intern for the Portland Trail Blazers and a marketing intern for OSU athletics. When it comes to the digital marketing field, Jake loves to learn and adapt to any new and exciting trends within the industry. In his spare time, you can find Jake going on adventures with his friends, co-hosting his sports podcast, or talking Trail Blazers basketball with anyone…literally, anyone.

The post Digital Marketing Tips For The Holidays by Jake McGrady appeared first on SEMpdx.

BOSTON, MA – December 16, 2009 – WordStream, Inc., a provider of keyword tools for pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts involving large numbers of keywords, today launched a pair of tools designed to help businesses identify and optimize highly profitable keyword niches.

WordStream’s new tools, The Keyword Niche Finder and The Free Keyword Grouper, are designed to help businesses and marketers solve specific problems:

• The Keyword Niche Finder – Instantly identify and target the most profitable keyword niches
• The Keyword Grouper– Group and organize vast lists of keywords into actionable keyword groups to turn into ad groups or website content

Strong keyword organization is the foundation of successful search marketing, and WordStream’s Free Keyword Grouper lets marketers take massive lists of target keywords and instantly group these keywords into tightly-knit, relevant groups. This advanced level of keyword organization is critical for creating effective ad groups for PPC campaign advertising and for informing content creation and site navigation for SEO.

Beta user and independent search marketing consultant Ian Hughes said of the tools: “The great thing is that the two tools really complement each other: The Keyword Niche Finder lets me quickly identify not only single keyword ideas, but the most popular clusters of keywords, and The Keyword Grouper is great for making sense of a lot of data or a long list of keywords you’ve already created.”

With The Keyword Niche Finder, marketers can type in terms related to their business and receive a list of the most popular and relevant keywords for their websites, along with the most interesting keyword niches or clusters. Marketers and website owners can leverage the results from The Keyword Niche Finder to build and structure intelligent website information architectures or create new subsections of their existing sites to drive traffic and collect new business opportunities.

 “One of the biggest challenges for business owners is determining where to begin their keyword research and how to continually expand and refine their campaigns to get maximum returns,” says WordStream Founder and Vice President of Product Development Larry Kim. “With our two new free tools, we’ve armed marketers and business owners with the power to instantly receive well-organized, prioritized lists of the most profitable keyword opportunities in their niche.”

WordStream’s subscription-based service also announced a major upgrade recently, including integration with Google Analytics and sophisticated multi-source keyword analytics. It provides users with a tool-set to take those insights to the next level by continually monitoring the performance of their keywords and offering actionable keyword suggestions that helps them grow their campaigns and revenues, all for a very affordable monthly fee.

About WordStream
WordStream is a provider of SEO and PPC solutions for continuously optimizing and expanding search marketing efforts, involving large numbers of search engine keywords. WordStream provides a scalable, private, online keyword workbench—which includes a free keyword tool and an AdWords tool—for conducting keyword discovery, keyword research, keyword grouping, search marketing workflow and for turning research into action.

WordStream believes that an organization’s keywords are a valuable, proprietary asset, and that organizing, prioritizing, coordinating and executing of PPC and SEO efforts around a comprehensive, researched and up-to-date keyword taxonomy is the key to search marketing success. Keyword management improves search marketing productivity and enables greater relevance, which enhances the value of search marketing efforts.

WordStream Press Contact: 
Ken Lyons, Marketing Manager
617-963-0563, klyons@wordstream.com

The post WordStream Launches Two Free Niche Marketing Tools for SEO and PPC appeared first on SEMpdx.

Joanna Lord (88 searches #4 most searched query):  Many more people searched for Joanna on our site, based upon one e-interview, than me even though I’ve written the bulk of the content.  So, to let everyone know:

JOANNA LORD ISN’T AFFILIATED WITH SEMPDX (THOUGH SHE SPOKE AT OUR LAST SEARCHFEST EVENT AND WILL SPEAK AT THE NEXT ONE).  SHE RUNS HTTP://WWW.YOURJOBSTOP.COM .  SHE USED TO LIVE IN LOS ANGELES BUT SHE JUST MOVED TO SEATTLE, THAT SECOND CLASS NORTHWESTERN CITY JUST TO THE NORTH OF PORTLAND ON I-5.  (…stops to catch my breath…)

Nah, we cool :.)

Dollar Tree Complaints (74 searches) and Royal Caribbean Internet Access (47 searches) (plus a huge number of long tail searches for each).  This show the power of calling out a company on a “prominent” blog and the affect it can have.  In the case of Dollar Tree, extremely good publicity.  In the case of Royal Caribbean…I’m still waiting.

Portland Trucker Hat:  It’s always a good idea to keep this picture in front of the public…

John Andrews pantomime:  John Andrews will be speaking at SearchFest 2010…tickets are available now.  I do not know if pantomime will be part of John’s presentation.

Vanessa Fox + strippers, Six Pack Strippers:  Expect the unexpected at our SEMpdx Monthly events :.)

Art appreciation for kids Salvador Dali:  I’m a huge Dali fan but at best, most of his paintings would have to be rated PG-13…I’m not sure I’d use Dali to introduce kids to art.

Honey Bucket Portland Oregon Reviews (a win for Bing):  For those who don’t know, they provide “portable toilets” to construction sites, events, etc. in the Portland area…perhaps you’ve used one?

Glen Campbell’s Band-"todd":  Again, for those who don???t know, I’m not touring with Glen Campbell at the present time…

The Big Sexy Summit:  I wasn’t invited :.(

How Can I Type My Name Into The Google Toolbar:  With both hands, though if you’re using a portable device, I recommend the two finger approach.

Is It Weird To Go On A Caribbean Cruise With Just Guys:  Talking about changing the context of a post…

How To Be Perceived As Warm And Fuzzy:  Talking about changing the context of a post…

Old Viagra Meta Keywords Tag:  <meta name="keywords" content="Old Viagra">

Do It Yourself Viagra:  Google second page…could have made some $$$ on affiliate ads.

Toddmintz wife kids domains:  Glad you asked…they are https://www.danikamintz.com, https://www.hayleymintz.com, and https://www.cademintz.com

Hayley Abs:  I’ll be sure to tell my daughter about this…it will make her day.

Half+Shirt:  No, I didn’t pose thusly for our blog.

Sex+Small, Yahoo Small Business Web Sex:  No comment :.)    

Genesis Chapter 1:  Because we always end posts in an uplifting manner.

The post SEMpdx Web Analytics Review 2009 appeared first on SEMpdx.

1) Please give me your background and tell us what you do for a living.

The first program I wrote was on an IMSAI 8080 and my professional career in information technology started in 1985. I don’t feel as old as that makes me sound. From my earliest memory I have always had a passion for how data, calculation, and presentation help people. That hasn’t changed. I have had the pleasure of working with some incredible people over the years and I am thankful to each of them for what we have been able to accomplish together.

Over the last fifteen years, we have worked on software projects large and small. Over that time, our tools and skills have moved 100% online. We have developed and deployed over 500 internet, extranet, and intranet sites and our introduction to SEO was in 1995. Our first CMS project was in 1997. Currently, I am applying that experience and serving as President and CEO of Pixelsilk, Inc. (www.pixelsilk.com )

Pixelsilk is the creator of a CMS that provides full URL and HTML control with its roots in our teams’ collective experience. The development of Pixelsilk was started about three years ago on a whiteboard with the purpose of taking our ideas to the next level. We wanted to build a tool that not only solved our problems but, helped others like us as well. We started early discussions with our friends in the SEO community to make sure a variety of expert level optimizers had a voice in our new software specification. Over time, things started to really come together. After our official launch at SMX West in Santa Clara on February 9th, 2009, we have enjoyed both public and private endorsements from industry leaders like Bruce Clay (www.bruceclay.com ), Eric Ward ( www.ericward.com ), Adam Audette (www.audettemedia.com ), and many others. We are grateful for their kind words and appreciate the time and candor they have afforded us.

2) You’ve developed an SEO-Friendly CMS.  Why should we want to use your product as opposed to any of the other CMS platforms on the market?

We believe that question has several forms, depending on who’s asking it. Of course, Editors need a place to modify content easily. Sales and marketing needs to deploy strategy, drive traffic, and convert prospects. Site managers need to setup users, review analytics, and administer the site (or sites). Search optimizers need the ability to customize the HTML and know that their best practice recommendations can be implemented. Web Developers are innovating all the time and need a way to leverage their previous work. Software developers need to integrate with other systems and access the API to solve business problems. Each of these roles plays an important part in a successful site and Pixelsilk is designed for them to work well together. That is part of our unique value proposition.

3) WordPress is thought by many search marketers to be the most ideal SEO-friendly development platform.  How would you try to convince a WordPress die-hard that your solution is better for SEO?

I am not sure that we would try to do that. Pixelsilk is not the answer to every website ambition. We see WordPress as an excellent blogging platform; in fact, Pixelsilk works wonderfully with WordPress for client blogs. We have seen many plug-ins developed to extend WordPress beyond blogging and that’s great. There are times when folks need more. Pixelsilk is a CMS from the ground up, it’s not a blogging platform. It gets in the middle of the action and makes many forms of content easier to deliver with a level of control and collaboration that we haven’t seen elsewhere.

4) Can you give me some examples of how SEO Best Practices are incorporated into the platform?

Sure. First off, you have full HTML control. You can edit everything from the initial <DOC TYPE> tag to the </HTML> tag without having to know server-side languages. Implementing any SEO strategy or modifying code to adapt to new strategies through time is easy. Besides the fact that URLs default to a natural hierarchy that spiders understand, there’s an easy way to customize any URL to whatever you need it to and create 301 redirects to pages on the fly. Editing meta data information on each page is straightforward. XML and HTML sitemaps are built in and update as you add pages. There’s also a Robots.txt editor to help as well. For search optimizers, they have a place in the Pixelsilk Search Advice area to leave recommendations on pages for implementation by editors. These are a few of the SEO best practices in Pixelsilk, there are more.

5) Will you talk about the level of outreach you’ve done with the SEO Community during the development process of your product?

We’ve done a significant amount of outreach to the SEO community from the initial requirements stage through the multitude of demos throughout various stages of development. We’ve met with leading experts to review Pixelsilk along the way and incorporate their feedback into our development process. We have been able to work alongside experts in real world project settings for years and that experience helped us early in the architectural planning of Pixelsilk. What that means to you is strategic shifts will be easier and less expensive as we have traveled down several of the other less productive roads before.

I’d like to include a sidebar here. The gathering of experts that takes place at search marketing conferences and SEO events create wonderful opportunities for us to discuss our project with colleagues and industry experts. We think Pubcon (www.pubcon.com), SES (www.searchenginestrategies.com), SMX (www.searchmarketingexpo.com ), and SEMpdx (www.sempdx.com/events ) events have been a great way for us to meet with folks in person and we couldn’t have built Pixelsilk without them.

6) How much education is necessary for a web developer to feel comfortable developing a site on your platform?

Pixelsilk focuses on HTML, CSS, and Javascript skill sets. No server-side languages are needed and thus learning the architecture of the server-side code is also not necessary. Pixelsilk lets web developers get back to the skills that are more important to website creation. Some businesses prefer in depth, instructor led training. For them we offer a small spectrum of one and two day training classes to get them up to speed quickly. The web developer (whose role is named ‘Webster’ in our program) can attend our two day training to get in depth knowledge of Pixelsilk and the eCommerce system utilizing their HTML, CSS and JavaScript skill set.

7) During your Product Demo, I was shown a pre-published version of an example site where you did a very nifty, SEO-friendly integration of Flash.  Without giving away any secrets, can you describe how your CMS could pull this off?

We’ve worked through a simple technique to manage content through Pixelsilk and deliver the same content whether you’re a browser (with Flash) or spider (No Flash) on the same URL. This is a white-hat SEO-friendly way of rendering the content in the original HTML response and then using JavaScript and Flash calls (client-side only) to deliver the content in Flash or as text on the page. No server-side manipulation is being used, so Matt Cutts is welcome to look over our shoulder!

8) Can you hint at some upcoming developments you’re working on?

No. In the software business that isn’t usually a very good move. I will tell you that some of our customers are getting excited about this Summer. Does that help?

The post Threading The CMS Needle: An Interview With Pixelsilk’s Mark Knowles appeared first on SEMpdx.

Since I first attended SES in Boston, I’ve noticed the event has changed along with the industry. For starters, the overall energy level has waned as the SES appeals to a more broad and corporate audience. Back in the early days, you could sense the nervous energy and appreciated the “insider information” now outlawed by legal departments.

On the flip side, the content has evolved to a more strategic level, which I appreciate as a business owner. There are certainly more opportunities for hand-on training through SEMPO Institute and Search Engine Academy that take some of the burden off of SES. The parties continue to impress, however.

While they may not be quite as edgy and wild as in the past, the boys at Webmaster Radio surely know how to throw a SearchBash. The presenters are consistently better than in the past, yet I’m still surprised that some were truly rusty and tended to be overly self-promotional on occasion. But we search marketing professionals don’t attend SES for the parties or presenters as much as we do for the content and networking.

Unfortunately for me, I was so busy blogging and keeping things running at Anvil Media, that I wasn’t able to partake in much of the networking opportunities (lunches and some parties). That said, I was able to take away a few nuggets from the content, which I’ll summarize for those that don’t have the time to read my blog posts.

Based on a non-scientific analysis of session attendance and overheard conversations, I believe the hottest single topic was social media (including platforms, monitoring and measurement tools, optimization techniques, link development and reputation management strategies). Secondarily, I there was a bit of buzz about local and mobile search, but it’s still so early in the game that the following is still relatively small.

Perhaps the most inspirational session was Andrew Tomkins keynote this morning about the future of search. Essentially, the Chief Scientist at Yahoo! Research outlined a new abstract-based approach to search results that I found intuitive, powerful and inspiring. We’ll see if my judgment amounts to much, however. All-in-all, an educational event with a touch of inspiration.

The post Search Engine Strategy New York as Experienced by SEMpdx President Kent Lewis appeared first on SEMpdx.