Google Will End Behavioral Targeting – What’s The Impact

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We’re officially in full swing of 2021, and that has come with tighter privacy and data regulations across the board. Google, who is up against high pressure from regulators around antitrust and data privacy, announced that they will cease the permission of cross-site tracking and targeting of individuals outside its own properties. This would include properties such as in inventory they sell through video ad exchange and Google Ad display.

 David Temkin, director of product management and ads privacy wrote in a blog post, “Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”

Google’s move comes directly after the recent decision of Apple to give users the choice to block the IDFA identifier at the app level, which means apps will be required to ask users for permission to collect and share data.

“This is yet another confirmation the web is shifting to a consent-oriented framework,” said Nii Ahene, Chief Strategy Officer at Tinuiti. “It’s going to be all about opt-in, not opt-out initiatives.”

It is very evident that many of the behavioral targeting capabilities marketers have heavily depended on will fade out or disappear completely, however it is not yet confirmed the exact implications of how this will affect each of Google’s Ad products. The changes are slated to take place at the end of the year and only impact the open web, not mobile app ads purchased and sold using Google’s ad tech.

Important highlights from Google

At this exact stage, here is what we know for sure:

  • Google will be completely stopping to build user-level profiles within its ad systems. They will also not use such data to enable targeting on non-Google sites. That means Google’s AdX ad exchange and other services that target ads to web inventory outside Google properties will no longer support any cookie replacement identifiers.
  • Google’s ad targeting changes are focused solely on the open web. At this time, the changes will not apply to the mobile app ads bought and sold using Google’s ad tech.
  • Google’s targeting changes only will go into effect after the company officially stops recognizing third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. In January 2020, the company said it would do that within two years.
  • Advertisers will still be allowed to target their own databases of consumers through their own first-party data on Google properties, such as Google’s search results pages and YouTube.

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Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on all Google updates and other top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

 

5 Types of High-Performing Video Content to Enhance Your Marketing Strategy

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Video continues to be the king of content types as we work our way into 2021. All brands should be utilizing video, but certain types of videos appeal to some marketing objectives better than others. So, how can you know what type of video is right for your company? 

Here are 5 top performing types of marketing videos that almost any brand can take and customize to fit into their strategy. 

1. Explainer Videos 

This type of video is extremely simple. As the name suggests, they’re short and concise videos explaining a brand, product or service. These are best used at the awareness stage in the sales funnel and perform best on websites, social media, YouTube and in ads. 

They often involve animations to make the explanation easily digestible with voice overs to increase message retention. Some things to watch out for are making these videos too long, braggy, too salesy or get too technical. Be sure to tell a compelling story, have a simple message and include a clear CTA. 

2. Product Demo Videos 

Product demo videos aim to show the value of a product and how it can solve pain points. These videos are most beneficial at the decision stage of the sales funnel and perform best through email and on websites. The ideal length is generally around 2-3 minutes. You want to give clear insight into product usage, but you don’t want to make it so long that viewers lose interest. 

3. Testimonial Videos 

Testimonial or customer review videos show a real user of the product or service telling how it helped them solve a problem. These are also most beneficial at the decision stage of the sales funnel and perform best on websites and social media. 

A positive review from customers gives potential customers more confidence in trusting a business, making it easier to make an informed decision. In fact, customer reviews create a 74% increase in product conversion and 90% of consumers look at online reviews prior to trusting and visiting a business. 

When creating this type of video you want to make sure it’s authentic. You don’t want to ask customers to memorize a script, it should look as natural as possible. 

4. Behind-the-Scene Videos 

Behind-the-scene videos show potential customers how a brand produces its products and adds a more personal touch to its image. These can be good to use at both the awareness and decision stage of the sales funnel. They also perform best on websites, YouTube and when shared on social media. 

Behind-the-scene videos are important because they let potential customers understand what all goes into your business. It gives a “peak behind the curtain” and can make them feel more connected to your brand. You want to keep these videos casual, let your brand personality shine through and seem authentic as possible. 

5. Company Culture Videos 

The last type is company culture video. These are a short highlight reel from the perspective of an employee and show what it’s like to work at your company. These are most beneficial at the interest or action stages of the sales funnel and perform best on websites, social media, YouTube and through email. 

Company culture videos communicate brand purpose, values and insights from current employees. This can help customers get excited about doing business and starting a relationship with you. 

With these videos you want to make sure to show passionate employees, find ways to project your values and show off a good day at the office. Avoid relying heavily on a script, coming off too braggy or focusing too much on employee opinion. Again, these videos are best when they’re completely authentic and organic as possible. 

Final Thoughts 

If possible, it’s best to mix and match different styles and types of videos to find something that’s unique to your brand and helps you stand out among the competition. You should also utilize the videos you create on all relevant platforms. Even if they perform better on one than another, you still want to reach the biggest audience possible. 

More from Onimod Global 

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

How To Advertise On Clubhouse

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Have you heard of Clubhouse yet? It’s the newest social media app to take the world by storm. The invite-only drop-in audio platform currently has over 2 million people users interacting with the platform each week. The new platform is currently valued at over $1 billion US dollars.

After a tweet recently sent out by Elon Musk, the platform received a huge push after he tweeted that he would be hosting an event on Clubhouse. It just so happened that he was joined by the Robinhood CEO, Vlad Tenev, gaining even more traction.

To sum up the platform in a few words, Clubhouse offers people a loose collection of drop-in clubs and events, where you can not only listen to people discuss topics ranging from startups and technology through to philosophy and comedy, but also contribute your own questions and thoughts. It’s kind of like a spontaneous podcast that anyone can listen to live, and several hundred to several thousand attendees dropping in from all over the world.

The platform has completely exploded in popularity and is growing rapidly by the day (the app had just 600,000 weekly users in December of 2020). The caliber of users is increasing since the Elon Musk tweet, and all are at least experimenting with the new platform. The obvious question for creators, brands, and contributors, however, becomes ‘how do we monetize this?’.

Currently, Clubhouse does not offer any in-app advertising functionality, as the company doubles down on the growth and user experience of its platform. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t advertise on Clubhouse. Let’s take a look at both podcasts and meetups (during normal non-COVID times) to discover how marketers can jump ahead of the curve and make money advertising on Clubhouse.

1. Branded Events and Clubs

It can be as simple as a branded event. Brand events and clubs always have an extra flare by adding something to the effect of ‘Presented by Company X’ in the title of an event. This is no different to many a local tech or startup meetup that might be presented either online or an in-person type of event. Not only that, but larger more traditional organizations — think IBM, Microsoft, and financial services organizations — are always more than delighted to align themselves with the latest trends and up-and-coming segments.

2. Guest/Celebrity Appearances

Both brands and personalities might want to access the spotlight at high-quality events that draw a large crowd and place them alongside influential figures.

As such, you might be able to offer pay-to-play for speakers/moderators at your events. This gives them an opportunity to get in front of their audience, build their own Clubhouse following, and develop or further solidify their brand and association with a particular demographic.

3. Product Placement

If you’re running an event on, say, beauty, and you have a club that regularly draws thousands of people to its events, then you will no doubt find brands that will want to get in front of your audience. Common in podcasts and events alike, product placement can be huge for an app such as Clubhouse. For example, it could be a conversation centered entirely around reviewing a certain product live, or discussing the features with a trusted influencer.

It might be as simple as name-dropping products, and if you have any reservations about this, limit product placements to products that you’re personally using and give out affiliate links for certain products and/or services that you would personally vouch for.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Simple Link Building Techniques to Follow in 2021

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When it comes to SEO, both on-page and off-page efforts are equally important and need to be done appropriately. Link building is an off-page SEO technique that has become essential in enhancing a website’s rankings and its overall growth. 

Over the past few years, marketers have had to change the way they go about link building due to changes in Google’s algorithm. Google now ranks the quality of links above the total number of links a website has. With that, here are four effortless link building techniques you can utilize in 2021. 

1. Guest Posting 

A guest post is one of the most impactful link building techniques. This not only allows you to generate more backlinks, but helps you build relations with others in your industry as well. It’s fairly easy to identify blog sites that will allow others to write guests posts for them. Look for a medium that is appropriately related to your niche, but not a direct competitor. Doing this will not only allow you to build more backlinks, but can help you build good relations as well. 

When guest posting, you want to make sure your content is high quality and published in a good presentation. If the delivery is not good, your reputation could suffer and defeat the purpose. Make sure you generate informative content so you’re building links in the most effective way. 

2. Broadening Your Relations 

No matter the industry, relationships matter. The same goes for link building. Identify blogs, forums and pages that are related to your niche. Follow them on social media and try to get into contact with them. Connecting with more businesses similar to yours can help in a variety of ways. Not only are you building links but you’re also putting yourself more in the loop of what’s going on in your industry. This also helps you create more awareness for your brand, ultimately helping you and your site grow. 

3. Testimonials 

Writing testimonials is another simple and effective link building method. There are many companies that ask and enable people to write testimonials on the products or services they offer. When you leave a testimonial, you can get a backlink if the company publishes it. Ultimately this will engage more visitors and traffic to your website. 

4. Keep an Eye on Competitors  

Lastly, you should keep an eye on the links your competitors are building. Monitor the strong links they have and see the strategies they implement in going about building them. This can help you improve your own strategies and identify how you can go about getting the highest quality links. 

Final Thoughts 

Link building is an essential factor in an overall SEO strategy. While these are fairly simple tactics, there are many more. Sometimes it’s easier to seek help from the experts. At Onimod Global, SEO is our core attribute and a pillar of our marketing strategy. We develop organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic through an increase in natural rankings across all major search engines. If you’re interested in digital marketing assistance or want to learn more about what we do, contact us today. 

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here

3 SEA Tips To Win Business With Local Search

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The behavior of customers has completely changed making local search relevant and on the map. More and more consumers realize the ease and opportunity of online search and purchase due to restrictions on movement in the pandemic times. Individuals want a tailored search view with results that are relevant to where they are at that very moment. This is where search engine advertising, or SEA, comes into play.

To win over those customers and create conversion opportunities, your location-specific ads must be at the top of the search engine results page; it’s a competitive imperative.

Here are three SEA tips every marketer needs to win local marketing with paid search.

1) Don’t rely on just one search engine

Location targeting — through Google Ads, for example — marks a huge revolution for advertisers and marketers. It enables them to maximize their PPC by targeting ads to specific areas.

Despite this being a very helpful tool, there are still significant blindspots. The data provided by Google Ads and others isn’t as detailed as necessary when it comes to things such as monitor competitor strategies or uncover opportunities that may crop up. Advertisers and marketers need to keep this in mind when gathering data on all different kinds of search engines in order to make their strategies effective and dynamic. For advertisers to juggle national, state, and local demand is almost impossible to accomplish manually or without the right data. Which is why AI is crucial to success when it comes to succeeding in the local search market.

2) Customize your local SEA ads

Ad customization by location is becoming increasingly more popular, and makes you that much more relevant to the customer. For example, 72% of desktop or tablet users and 67% of smartphone users want ads customized to their location. Additionally, 82% of smartphone users search for businesses near them; 90% click on the first set of results they see.

One of the main parts to local search marketing is customizing the ad to each location with messaging and strategy. Follow these five steps from Search Engine Land to creating click-winning location-based ads:

  1. Be there: Know where your products and services are most needed.
  2. Be relevant: Is your ad creative relevant and specific? Are you appearing at the right time?
  3. Be useful: Don’t be generic in your copy and CTAs. Each work must express your services and answer your questions.
  4. Be quick: Any delay in response to market and competitor shifts will set you back, no matter your size.
  5. Be top: Target the most relevant search terms in location. The closer you are to number one the greater the likelihood of a click.

3) Stay relevant with the Google updates

Keeping track of the multitude of updates Google is no easy feat. Google makes every month across its Shopping, PPC and SEO offerings. Difficulty is not the only complication, there is also a real necessity to remain ‘in the know’ about these updates. This is because, as search engine markets continuously show, even one missed update can dramatically and quickly send you spiraling down from position one.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

7 Ways to Improve Your Online Presence in 2021

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All businesses are looking to attract more customers in their local area. Obviously, increasing local SEO efforts is going to be one of the best ways to accomplish this. 

Here are 7 local SEO ranking signals to concentrate on to improve your online presence in 2021. 

1. Google My Business 

Claiming your Google My Business page is one of the simplest and most effective ways to start improving your local SEO. Not to mention, it only takes a few minutes and is free. Once you’ve claimed your listing, you can optimize it further by choosing the most accurate categories for your business. You should also add photos of your location, products, staff etc. This helps add credibility to your business and serves as an additional local ranking signal. 

2. Increasing Reviews 

According to Google, high-quality reviews can improve your businesses’ visibility, especially positive ones. And similar to Google My Business, you should claim all listings on any review sites. Though it’s important to note that Google reviews carry the most weight when it comes to SEO. Location keywords being used in reviews are also valuable, as it sends signals to Google that you’re a trusted local business. 

3. Create Social Business Pages 

While Google still remains top for search engines, Facebook is also highly utilized. Which is why it’s essential to have a business page and keep it updated with accurate information and link back to your website. It’s also helpful to claim listings on other social platforms, like Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, as well. Even if you’re not frequently active on those sites, it’s still beneficial. 

4. Consistent NAP 

Make sure your name, address and phone number are consistent across all online listings including review sites, maps, social media, etc. Google wants to make sure they’re providing accurate information to users, and this can help ensure that. 

5. Mobile Responsiveness

Since Google’s mobile-first indexing has rolled out, they look at the responsiveness of your mobile site first, not desktop. Make sure your site is optimized as much as it possibly can be for mobile. If you haven’t done this already, Google has a mobile-friendly test that can help you get started.  

6. Local Keyword Optimization 

Be sure you’re consistently sharing content that organically includes localized keywords. This could be about local events, news, weather or whatever makes sense for your brand. Includes location keywords wherever possible but still make it natural. For example, you wouldn’t want to just say “air conditioning repair.” To optimize for local SEO you would add “air conditioning repair in Chicago.” Also be sure to also optimize your titles and meta descriptions.

7. High-Quality and Diverse Inbound Links 

Links from trusted Google sites are important for SEO and especially for local SEO. You want a range of inbound links that are relevant, authoritative and gained organically. Links from news sites, community blogs, etc prove that your site is trusted by others in your community. But the most effective inbound link is from a high authority site using both your city and a main key term. 

Final Thoughts

SEO is absolutely vital to achieve long term search engine visibility for your website.There are a number of ways to enhance your local SEO efforts but these 7 tips are a great place to get started. For additional and more advanced practices, it’s best to consult SEO experts. 

At Onimod Global, SEO is our core attribute and a pillar of our marketing strategy. We develop organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic through an increase in natural rankings across all major search engines. If you’re interested in digital marketing assistance or want to learn more about what we do, contact us today. 

The Clubhouse App: What Marketers Need to Know

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Clubhouse has been steadily gaining traction since it first launched in 2020. This app has an entirely different concept than any other social media platform, creating a brand new opportunity for marketers. Here’s what businesses need to know about Clubhouse and some ways it may be relevant for you and your customers. 

What is Clubhouse? 

Clubhouse is a free, voice-based social media app. Users can listen in to conversations, interviews and discussion between people on various topics. It has been described as listening to a live podcast with an added layer of exclusivity. Currently, Clubhouse is invite-only. Meaning not everyone can download it off the app store. 

For those that have been invited to join, you first select topics off of interest, like tech, books, business, health, etc. The more information you give the app about your interests, the more conversation rooms and individuals the app will recommend you to follow or join. The rooms resemble a conference room where some are talking and others are just listening in. Once the conversation is over, the room closes and disappears. 

How can you use Clubhouse for your business? 

The biggest benefit from Clubhouse is the ability to connect with prominent business leaders, entrepreneurs, others in your industry and potential customers. You can also position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. As more people join the app, it can have a large payoff to have spent time positioning yourself as an expert and start gaining followers early. 

The voice-note aspect of Clubhouse also allows a new way to humanize your business to others. It can help make interactions feel more personal, allowing you to convey more emotion and have real conversations with other users. 

There is also a new development of an influencer program. This program will only be open to 40 top users on Clubhouse and will allow business to tap into those with a large number of followers. 

How can you get an invite? 

To join, an existing Clubhouse user has to send an entire from their app, giving you access to set up the account. When you’re invited you’ll get a link through a text message. Users can’t invite anyone, though. They only get two available invitations at first. 

Final Thoughts 

As Clubhouse continues to scale, the number of audio creators is growing. Their impact on the broader influencer economy is just beginning. Some members of the pilot program have begun contemplating brand deals and cross-platform promotion. Others have begun to form creator collectives, like those started by prominent users on TikTok. Overall, this could be a good future opportunity for many businesses.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Why Ecommerce Personalization Is Important

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The most successful brands are ones that discover how to engage their customers and keep their attention so they come back, and one of the most effective ways to accomplish both is ecommerce personalization. Onimod Global experts are here to break down some of the best Ecommerce personalization tips to ensure your customer retention and conversion rates are optimized to the fullest potential.

1. Incorporate intelligent product-detail page recommendations

Product-detail page (PDP) recommendations show your customers similar or products that are complementary to the ones they’re already interested in. This simple yet complex feature increases the shopping cart values of customers in significant amounts. Here you can leverage dynamic up-selling by recommending items that are higher in price but similar in style or by brand. These products are the ones with higher margins and are also proven to have the best conversion rates.

2. Show continuous shopping for returning customers

POV: It’s a lazy Sunday, and your netflix has asked 3 times now if you’re still watching. This has been such a powerful tool in terms of customer retention and keeping customers on the Netflix app. The same type of tactic can also be applied to the Ecommerce experience. With Netflix, instead of manually searching and scanning through hundreds of shows and movies, you can pick up right where you left off with a simple shortcut on your screen.

Similarly, this approach remembers your visitor’s selected items and preferences through previous sessions and makes it easier for them to pick up right where they left off. Fair to admit that this isn’t a very complex algorithm, however it’s valuable because the buying process is made that much more simple for the customer encouraging conversion behavior.

3. Create customized bestseller lists to drive click-throughs

People are automatically drawn to popular products whether it be music, clothing, books, food trends, the list goes on. One of the best tools to take advantage of here is showing the bestsellers with a twist—by adding in the dimension of time. You can show the bestselling products over the last 24 hours, or dial in the past one hour, depending on how much traffic you have.

This is the best tip that definitely allows for you to get creative with this approach. For example, instead of ranking products by sales, try displaying the most reviewed or segment by location. Showing best sellers by location is particularly powerful if you sell fashion in multiple climates. It’s also a huge advantage if your store specializes in a specific type of niche product like prom dresses or sports gear. Your customers from Los Angeles probably aren’t shopping for the same clothing in winter as your shoppers from New York City are. It’s all about discovering what works best for your unique products and customers.

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Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full Ecommerce potential. Interested in growing your Ecommerce business? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Tips for Measuring LinkedIn Campaign Success

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If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. This is especially true when it comes to marketing campaigns. The extent to which we’re able to measure the impact of our campaigns determines the quality of our insights, the effectiveness of our optimization strategy and the clarity of our results. For this reason, LinkedIn offers a robust suite of measurement tools, and just released a 6-point checklist for getting the most out of these tools and our campaigns. 

1. Identify key metrics according to your marketing goal. 

To keep your campaign on track with your desired outcomes, LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager uses an objective-based framework where your ultimate goal stays on top. Then the specific metrics you measure will ladder back to your objective, no matter what it may be. 

2. Set up the Insight Tag. 

Conversion tracking is essential no matter what platform you run your campaign from. This allows you to gain a deep and comprehensive look at ad performance. When you pair this with the Insights Tag on LinkedIn, you’ll be able to see how many downloads, sign-ups, purchases or other conversions are being driven by your campaigns, even after the user clicks out of LinkedIn to your website. 

3. Set up Lead Generation Forms. 

Lead Gen Forms make everything easier from both a marketer and user perspective. These are pre-filled forms based on the user’s profile, which removes the need to complete a bunch of fields in order to access the content or register for an event. On the marketer’s side, we receive accurate and actionable lead data. We also have the ability to centrally track key lower-funnel campaign metrics such as cost per lead, lead form fill rate and the number of leads from a specific professional audience segment. 

4. Conduct weekly analytical assessments. 

It can be a mistake to measure ROI too soon in a campaign. It usually takes some time to see the full impact of a campaign, given the complexity of today’s buyer journey. That also doesn’t mean you shouldn’t begin measuring your campaign quickly and tracking results continuously. Best practices include conducting weekly analysis after the initial launch of the campaign, focusing on what can be tweaked and improved. 

5. Use Campaign Demographics to see which audiences respond best to your ads. 

The Campaign Demographics feature on LinkedIn helps marketers see exactly who is interacting with their ads, based on key professional identifiers. These include job title/function/seniority, company size, location and more. This feature is beneficial because, while it’s nice seeing your ads getting high impression numbers, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re coming from the right people. Once you identify who is seeing your ads, you can make any necessary adjustments. 

6. Use performance insights for recommendations to improve bigs and budget. 

Obviously, we don’t want to be spending money in the wrong places. On LinkedIn you can access campaign insights that give recommendations for how to improve bids and budgets. 

Final Thoughts 

According to recent research from LinkedIn, only 37% of digital marketers describe themselves as “very” confident in their ROI metrics. Improving your ability to measure, analyze and improve your campaigns offers a large opportunity for competitive advantage in today’s marketing space. At Onimod Global, we’re experts in both social media marketing and analytics. We make digital decisions driven by data and have advanced analytics and reporting capabilities. If you’re looking for assistance in LinkedIn marketing or on any platform, contact us today. 

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.