8 Fun & Noteworthy Digital Marketing Stats From This Week

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The last several days provided an array of digital marketing data points, with figures aplenty about consumers’ search habits, mobile habits, social platforms, bad ads, chat bots and more.

The following eight stats particularly got our attention.

1. Santa Claus = “totally a dog person”
SLI Systems studied more than 5.5 million consumer searches on ecommerce sites during the four weeks leading into the holiday seasons, and it found dogs are more than twice as likely to receive gifts from their owners than cats. Purr-ty surprising, huh?

2. Insta-success
On Thursday, Instagram revealed it now has 600 million users. The photo- and video-sharing app has been on a rapid growth trajectory, adding 100 million accounts in just the past six months. Check out this six-year timeline to see its quick ascent in the digital realm.

3. Publishing anarchy in the U.K.
KPMG’s recent survey of 2,000 Britons found that 49 percent of them expect to download ad blockers in the next six months. Forty. Nine. Percent.

4. Irrelevance sucks, AGAIN
Speaking of bad ads, Fiksu DSP released a study on Thursday, most notably reporting that 77 percent of consumers are likely to delete an app if they repeatedly receive an irrelevant ad. It’s the second week in a row we’ve highlighted such a stat about brands’ lack of relevance.

5. Yikes, Yahoo!
With its Verizon merger at risk, this had to be a painful admission: Yahoo said Wednesday that more than 1 billion user accounts were breached in August 2013. The hack appears to be separate from the 500 million account breach that Yahoo reported this September, and it follows a history of security problems for the digital company.

So, Yahoo has 1.5 billion accounts? While there are obviously individuals with multiple accounts, just for fun, let’s imagine every user only has one: That calculates to 20 percent of the world’s population.

6. The potential marriage, by the numbers
This year, according to new eMarketer numbers, Yahoo will get $2.98 billion in total digital ad revenue worldwide, or 1.5 percent of the global digital ad market. In 2017, Yahoo’s net worldwide digital ad revenue is expected to grow to $3 billion, per eMarketer, but its market share will drop to 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, the researcher estimated Verizon garnered $1.41 billion in digital ad revenue worldwide this year, or 0.7 percent of the global ad market.

7. Ever-expanding web of influence
Meanwhile, new research from Conductor concluded that 80 percent of marketers plan to ratchet up their investments in 2017 when it comes to online marketing, SEO and content. The study’s results suggest that digital’s years of growth will continue for at least one more.

8. Chatty folks
According to a [24]7 study, roughly 29 percent of consumers stated that chat is their preferred method to contact a retailer when shopping online, making it the most popular channel of customer service over phone and email.

Bonus stat: the smartphone era
Hey, we’re not done! A Forrester Research study commissioned by SteelHouse revealed that 3 out of 5 marketers said they would prefer a single platform for media buying.

Double-bonus stat: Hey Phelps, you rule
OK, we have one more. Adweek creative editor Tim Nudd has selected Under Armour’s “Rule Yourself” spot, starring Olympic swimming great Michael Phelps, as the Ad of the Year. It has been viewed on YouTube 11.6 million times. Check it out below.

H/T Adweek

8 Companies Doing Social Media Right and What Marketers Can Learn From Them

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Are you reaching your audience on social media the right way? Marketing Land Columnist Jordan Kasteler takes a look at 8 brands you can take a page from. Read more

Essential Steps to Implement Now for 2017

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As we approach the final month of 2016, it’s time to reconsider your ongoing SEO efforts and look at ways to step it up a gear for 2017. Read more

Is Your 2016 Holiday Digital Marketing Plan in Place?

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Yes, it sounds cliché – but the most critical factor to your online holiday success comes down to planning. Are you planning ahead – meaning, right now – for this holiday season? Read more

The 7 Best Ad and Landing Page Elements to Boost Online Conversions

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When it comes to success with paid search, it’s not just about ad copy. You have to pay attention to your ad extensions and your landing pages as well.

In this article, Mona Elesseily from Search Engine Land discusses the specific ad features and page elements that searchers/shoppers want when they’re shopping online. She also covers ways to also incorporate the elements using PPC/paid search.

1. Images

Seventy-eight percent of shoppers want images.

Shoppers respond well to images. It’s the reason Google has been and is continuing to increase the number of images we see on search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s also the reason good online retailers allow us to zoom in and view products from different angles.

An awesome way to increase the number of images in the SERPs is to use product listing ads (if applicable). We love how product ads allow us to take up space and show more than one product in the shopping pack. We like adding ad annotations like price drop alerts (in Bing), merchant badges and product ratings to make ads pop even more and grab buyer attention.

Focusing on feeds now will pay dividends in the future, as shopping feeds will likely appear in more places in the SERPs (Think image search and local ad units), and feed-based advertising will become much more commonplace. It’s a good idea to prep for opportunities that will come along in the not-too-distant future.

2. Product reviews

Sixty-nine percent of shoppers want product reviews.

It’s a great idea to have them on your site and also to incorporate them into PPC ads using review extensions. Review extensions are finicky, as there are lots of search engine policies related to posting “accurate and current” reviews. It’s not uncommon to have ads disapproved a few times before they get approved.

It’s worth noting that reviews can be no more than 12 months old to appear in Google Trusted Stores, and hence, review extensions. Consistently ask customers to review products, so that review extensions (and seller ratings, for that matter) will continue to appear in your account.

3. Side-by-side product comparisons

Forty-six percent of shoppers want side-by-side product comparisons.

These are effective ways to compare your company products or to compare your product against the products of competitors. Graph or table format tends to be the easiest to read and allows shoppers to better digest information.

Here’s an example from Phillips and some of their natural light wake-up lights:

http://searchengineland.com/figz/wp-content/seloads/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-02-at-11.34.27-PM-800x472.png

Personally, I like to highlight (or badge) the most popular product. Badging is very effective in improving online conversions, and I’ve seen increases of more than 20 percent when tables include a badge. In the example below, the pro version of the product is the most popular and is denoted using the color blue.

http://searchengineland.com/figz/wp-content/seloads/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-02-at-11.39.19-PM-800x378.png

This example would have been even better if the blue column were marked “best seller” (or similar wording).

4. Customer testimonials

Forty-two percent of shoppers want customer testimonials.

I find these very useful, especially if there’s a striking difference between you and your competitors.

I work with a company that manufactures a product that’s more expensive than their competitor’s product. Their testimonials highlight other benefits and do an effective job of making the extra cost negligible. The “negative” is offset by the awesome knowledge and customer service.

screen-shot-2016-10-03-at-12-07-27-am

Testimonials effectively encourage people to bite the bullet because they know their overall experience will be good and that they’ll be thrilled with their purchase.

5. Video product demos

Thirty percent of shoppers want video product demos.

This is especially true if the product is complicated or hard to understand. For example, let’s say you sell car replacement parts, and the parts are tricky to install. Here’s an example of videos from 1aauto.com.

screen-shot-2016-10-03-at-12-17-30-am

In PPC, video extensions are a good option to consider. At this point, these are only available in Bing.

6. Live chat with shopping assistant

Twenty-two percent of shoppers want live chat with a shopping assistant.

A good option for this is the ActionLink extension in Bing. We’ve seen higher ad engagement as a result of including this, especially in industries where people have a lot of questions, like home renovations.

7. Links to media coverage of company products

Nine percent of shoppers want links to media coverage of company products.

On sites, people often include “as seen on” and other such credibility indicators. Be sure to also include links to media coverage. I test short video clips of the media coverage on pages. Sometimes, having clips in addition to links to media coverage boosts conversions.

 

Top 3 Digital Marketing Tips to Earn More Traffic to Your Website

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We’ve all heard the statistics and reports on how search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical focus point for businesses on the internet. Setting a perfect stage for customers to come in and patronize your business in the form of a great website design is not just enough to make your business successful. You need several customer attraction points that can deliver not only the right quantity of referrals to your business but will also direct targeted, ready-to-buy customers to your business.

Social media may take the lead in website traffic referral for business on the internet, but what is undeniable is that search is still the leading source of the most targeted customers on the internet.

While this fact is known to most digital marketers, many are unable to recommend the right steps needed to attract qualified leads to their clients’ businesses.

This article will explore methods your business can use to make better gains through the search engine and improve sales.

Get on Google My Business

With Google’s increasing advancement in listing businesses along relevant search results, digital marketers and business owners are seeing better opportunities to get listed and be showcased directly to their customers.

Google My Business offers businesses with a brick-and-mortar presence the ability to get their business’ opening hour, phone number and location displayed to customers in search results and on Google Maps.

What’s more impressive is the “view office” feature that allows potential customers to take a virtual tour of your office without leaving Google or their seat. This will offer businesses several benefits which include increased trust and confidence in customers that have taken the virtual tour.

Use the instructions on Google My Business by Google to get started on setting your business up for the listing.

Encourage User Review

A lot of reports have shown that users who read reviews on your website, whether the customer reviews are negative or positive, will be highly likely to consider making a purchase from your website. Even leading digital marketing experts agree that using customer reviews on your website can enhance trust and transparency in your business.

The best performing businesses have customers leave reviews on their websites so that potential buyers understand that they are dealing with trusted entities.

There are several ways to encourage your customers to leave a review on your website. Being creative and open about the process will make them feel more comfortable to share their experience doing business with you and thus encourage others to come aboard.

Take Advantage of Off-Page Optimization

Off-page SEO is an important aspect of search optimization that businesses can take advantage of and get increased presence on top search results. While most businesses concentrate most of their resources on on-page efforts, signals like links, citations, and references on other websites are very credible ranking signals that Google considers.

In a comprehensive list that tries to share most of Google’s ranking factors, Brian Dean places the off-page optimizations efforts among the signals that Google’s algorithm considers when ranking a website.

Search engines have always been a very important aspect of digital marketing. This makes it critical for businesses to get search engine optimization right.

Onimod Global offers large agency services with boutique client interaction. Let us evaluate your companies digital efforts at no extra cost. Contact us today for a complimentary evaluation of your business.

Ref: Huffington Post. Google Business. Onimod Global.

9 Must-See Digital Marketing Stats From the Past Week

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It was an unusually good week in digital marketing stats, with some numbers proving to be surprising and others mind-boggling.

The following nine stats in particular caught our eye:

1. The pumpkin spice cometh
Starbucks’ pumpkin spice lattes have become a fall tradition in Instagram marketing, and this year appears to be no different. On the mobile app, per Spredfast, there have been more than 731,000 posts tagged with #pumpkin—already, two weeks before the autumnal equinox—related to the drink and another 468,000 are labeled with #PSL. Moreover, Starbucks’ pumpkin spice lattes receive 493 percent more likes per photo than shots tagged with #Starbucks.

2. Halfway to $1 trillion
Advertising will grow to $548.2 billion globally this year, up by $23 billion or 4.4 percent compared with 2015, according to Carat, the Dentsu Aegis-owned media agency.

The growth is primarily being pushed by digital, which will jump far higher than the rest of the marketplace, seeing a year-over-year lift of nearly 16 percent, per Carat’s forecast. The agency, which looked at 59 markets across continents, also predicted that digital advertising will see a year-over-year boost of 14 percent in 2017.

3. A cold, hard cash unicorn
Snapchat will be a big part of that digital explosion, as it will hit nearly $1 billion in ad revenue by the end of 2017, according to eMarketer. The Venice, Calif.,-based company has shown the ad-tech world that millennials and Gen Z consumers prefer vertical video, which will drive the gains eMarketer predicts.

4. Facebook copies Snapchat
And such Snapchat success is exactly why Facebook’s vertical video ads went live one week ago today. Laundry Service jumped on the format for its clients LG, Hennessy and a few others. The agency’s CEO, Jason Stein, said that the CPM rates were three times “more efficient for vertical video than square video so far.” 

5. Catching up with Spotify
This week’s annual Apple event brought few surprises for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch fans. Though it was interesting to learn that Apple Music had reached 17 million paid subscribers, an increase of 2 million from just a couple months ago. Comparatively, Spotify has roughly 39 million paying subscribers, so Apple still has some catching up to do.

6. Podvertising
Sixty-five percent of listeners said podcast ads increase purchase intent while another 45 percent said that they’re likely to visit an advertiser’s website after hearing an audio promo, per a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Edison Research.

7. AI startups gain traction
Artificial intelligence isn’t just about Microsoft, IBM, Google and Amazon anymore. Case in point: Strike Social. Launched in 2013, the Chicago-based shop expects revenue this year to jump by three times to $100 million compared to last year. It uses artificial intelligence to drive social advertising campaigns that generate bigger engagement and, in theory, greater return on investment.

8. Facebook shows it’s good to be king—but only most of the time
Industry sources estimate the platform’s right-hand-rail ads have a CPM of $1.08, with 95.8 billion desktop impressions each month. ReviveAds, an ad-block-prevention tool, calculates 15 billion ads were blocked in Q2, costing Facebook $32.4 million in lost inventory each month.

9. Foodies win @social
Food bloggers have four times the number of social media followers compared to other categories in the blogosphere.

Ref: Adweek

The 10+ biggest things to happen in PPC so far in 2016

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Big text ad changes, a revival of device bidding and LinkedIn possibilities are among the announcements that hold big implications for search marketers. Read more

Your Business Needs a Digital Marketing Agency

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Marketing your business on the internet is different than any other type of marketing. There are dozens of concepts, technologies, terminologies, and rules to learn before you even get started. What’s more, the types of advertisements available to you are new and foreign to some that hasn’t been in the business for a hundred years.

A digital marketing agency that offers a full suite of services is the best way to go if you want to make sure you get the results you expect from your online marketing efforts. And if you don’t believe me, just wait.

Product Knowledge

Many digital marketing agencies specialize in only one product: delivering results for businesses. The tools, metrics, technologies, and terminologies that are so perplexing to you are the life blood of our business. They work to help you identify and then meet your performance goals, including leads, sales, customer acquisition, traffic, and customers.

These are the elements that help you define success for your business and they have deep product knowledge about how to achieve them on behalf of your business.

Unique Business Structure

If you can find a company that offers customers the benefit of their own programmatic buying platform, you will be on your way to a success. This means that in addition to creating a strategy to help you achieve your goals, you will also enjoy the implementation of that strategy and the actual purchasing of advertisement views via our real time bidding platform.

In other words, a unique business structure will allow you to experience results oriented traffic generation, sales conversions, and more.

How Digital Marketing Helps Your Startup

The Internet is constantly evolving. That’s a great thing for businesses that operate on the cutting edge of these new technologies. When you use a platform for purchasing display advertising, you also have the ability to immediately change bids, adjust strategies, split test, and adjust ad buys on the go – in real time. This gives you the distinct advantage of seeing what is and isn’t working as you go and changing your ad buys to more effective advertisements that are reaching your target audience. It gives you a very real advantage of competitors who have not yet embraced this technology.

Simply put, a digital marketing agency helps you get bigger, better, and faster results from your advertising dollars. They do this by sharing the value of their expertise, the ease of their system, and the technology that brings these things together for even more effective marketing.

Who We Are

We are a Chicago based Digital Marketing & Consulting firm. Our digital marketing strategies increase your online reach, strengthen your brand equity, help achieve stronger business results and generate greater profitability.

Our approach is based around working with your company on an ongoing basis to adapt and stay ahead of your competition in an ever-changing digital marketplace. We combine experienced talent with world-class technologies to efficiently create digital marketing programs that truly perform.

Digital Marketing across multiple platforms allows us to create visibility for your company in the places your customers are searching, interacting and engaging on the internet.

Onimod Global is an official Google Partner. The Google Partner badge means that Google trusts our agency. It also shows our clients are happy and that we follow Google best practices.

What We Do

Digital Synergy is about having visibility in the places your consumer needs you. Every search request is an opportunity; each action on a social site is an opportunity. Having the correct brand, product or service positioning is essential.

Our cross-channel digital marketing expertise, data analysis, precise construction and execution of successful digital marketing campaigns make sure your brand meets the consumer when and where they need them.

Every company has a myriad of unique factors; yours included. Learning a company’s core attributes, processes and initiatives allows us to create dynamic data driven digital marketing solutions that offer marked returns. Contact us today to find out more.

SEO, SEM, Social, Email, Website, User Behavior, Analysis, Testing, Programming, Reporting. Synergy. Onimod Global.

Search Marketing Company

Ref: TechCo

 

Industry News: Apple Launches Swift Playgrounds for iPad to Teach Kids to Code

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Apple today announced Swift Playgrounds for the iPad, a new project that aims to teach kids to code in Swift.

When you first open it, Swift Playground presents you with a number of basic coding lessons, as well as challenges. The interface looks somewhat akin to Codecademy, but it’s far more graphical and playful, which makes sense, given that the target audience is kids. Most of the projects seem to involve games and fun little animations to keep kids motivated.

To make coding on the iPad a bit easier, Apple is using a special keyboard with a number of shortcuts and other features that will make it easier to enter code.

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With Swift, Apple introduced a new programming language (which is now open source) and hence needs to get people to learn it — and the earlier they get comfortable with Swift, the better for Apple. Swift Playground clearly isn’t meant for experienced programmers who want to learn Swift but instead is meant for kids who want to learn some of the basics of coding. In the end, these kind of lesson-based services can provide some useful introductions to a language, but in the end, a project-based approach typically works far better than working your way through lessons.

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Swift Playground, by the way, was a project that also aimed to teach kids to code. It was started by Stefan Mischook back in 2014 when Apple first announced Swift. As far as I can see, the two projects are not related, though, but it is interesting that Apple essentially used the same name as this project.

The developer preview of Swift Playgrounds is launching today and the final version will ship with iOS 10 in the Fall. The app will be available for free.

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H/T: Tech Crunch. Ref: SwiftPlayground.