Returning to Napier for round 2…
Hi, I’m Chloe Attwood, now a third year student at Southampton Solent University studying BA (Hons) Public Relations and Communication. During the very long summer break us PR students get, we are required to complete 2 two week industry placements. I knew I wanted to work at a B2B PR agency and when Mike Maynard, managing director of Napier, offered me a chance to work for them I was thrilled.
I first joined Napier back in May, which scarily seems not that long ago! I was at Napier for a total of six weeks doing everything from writing tip sheets to editing videos and using SEO tools to measure the successfulness of key words on client’s websites. I loved working in a B2B agency, it was everything I expected busy, a little stressful and a lot of work, but everything about that appealed to me.
When my six weeks came to an end at Napier, I completed two other PR internships over the long university summer break. It was really good for me to do internships, it kept me busy and I really would recommend other students do it, even if it’s just to clarify that you’re doing the right course and the industry is the one you want to spend the rest of your life in.
I was offered the chance to come back to Napier when my six weeks was up on a one day a week basis, which of course I accepted. Now I’m back just one day a week helping out doing things such as writing blog posts, organising events and writing material for the Napier insider. If you haven’t already guessed – I like to write.
So now instead of being at Napier full time, I’m here just one day a week. I really did miss the team and the working environment, it’s so different from being a student to say the least. One thing I haven’t missed though, are the dreaded trains!
Being at Napier has not only given me real PR experience but it’s also confirmed that working in a B2B environment is what I want to do.
So let’s bring on next month’s adventures…
Google introduces four new mobile-focused display ad formats: what advertisers need to know
Google has recently unveiled four new mobile-focused display ad formats, across the Google Display Network, AdMob Network and DoubleClick.
With multi-screen viewing growing rapidly, Google has introduced these newly-developed display formats in a bid to improve its mobile platforms for marketers, by providing brands and consumers with a better experience across different mobile devices.
In a recent blog post by the search engine giant, Jonathon Alferness, director of product management for mobile display ads commented, "A new generation of display ads is changing how advertisers engage with consumers on mobile devices.”
The following points will provide some insight into what exactly these new formats are, and how they can be leveraged as part of a mobile advertising campaign:
Mobile Lightbox Engagement ads
The first format will be the Mobile Lightbox Engagement ad, which will dynamically resize to fit any ad size across devices, with advertisers only paying when a user engages with the ads to expand them. Advertisers will also have the ability to turn their existing ads into rich, media centric HTML5 engagement ads, which will expand to an interactive full-screen ad, should a user click on it.
TrueView Video ads
Although not entirely relevant to the B2B landscape, TrueView video ads will soon roll out across more apps in AdMob, as opposed to having previously only run across gaming apps. Advertisers will only be required to pay when a user chooses not to skip your ad.
Anchor ads
Anchor ads will be locked to the bottom of the screen, even when the user swipes up and down a page, until they manually dismiss it.
Magazine Style Text ad
Finally, the magazine style text ad will aim to marry the glossiness of print magazine ads, with the ease and practicality of a text ads, in order to increase engagement and reduce user frustration. Google already offers magazine-style ads for mobile websites, but hasn’t made them readily available inside native ads until now.
Additional to these new formats, Google have introduced three new tools, which will enable easier conversion of existing ads into versions that will work across different screens and devices:
Automatic mobile sizes for image ads
A new auto-resizing tool will be available on the Google Display Network, and will automatically create new sizes of image ads, including mobile-specific ad sizes.
Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tools
Available to the Google Display Network and DoubleClick Campaign Manager, this tool will automatically create a HTML5 version of your flash ads, so that when the ads are served on either a device or browser that doesn’t support flash, the interactive HTML5 ad will be shown instead of a static image backup.
29 new HTML5 and in-app formats
Available in DoubleClick Studio Layouts, this tool will enable advertisers to upload existing creative assets, into a pre-built rich media ad template, to create rich ads that will work on smartphones and tablets in minutes.
These new display ad formats and tools are due to roll out over the next few months, enabling advertisers to have the confidence that all display ads will work, regardless of screen size or device. Should you require any help in implementing an effective mobile advertising campaign, get in touch on +44 (0)1243 531123, or alternatively send us over an email to mike@napierb2b.com.
Napier launches marketing apprenticeship programme
Napier continues to grow the team with their recent appointment of Freya Ward as the company’s first marketing apprentice. The apprenticeship programme will enable Freya to gain practical industry experience, whilst working towards a Level 2 NVQ certificate in Marketing at Chichester College. The decision to implement an apprenticeship scheme at Napier follows the continued success of the company’s internship programme.
Freya brings a range of consumer marketing experience to Napier, particularly in social media, and will support the team in a variety of areas including reporting, analysis, email marketing and social media amplification.
Welcome to the team Freya!
SciVisum Appoints Napier to Drive Brand Awareness
Website performance monitoring and app testing service provider SciVisum, has appointed Napier to drive the company’s brand awareness across the UK.
Napier will deliver a PR and content marketing campaign to raise awareness of the company’s solutions that enable leading websites, across a variety of different markets, to ensure that their systems operate reliably and are able to meet peaks in demand.
SciVisum is the company’s fifth client win this year, and joins Napier’s existing portfolio of B2B technology clients.
Use LinkedIn’s new enterprise sales tool for social selling
I’m sure that the vast majority of B2B marketers will, at the very least, acknowledge the value of LinkedIn for business, and with social selling having become an increasing focus within many organisations, LinkedIn have upped their game, and most likely their value to these B2B professionals, by launching a new version of enterprise sales tool, Sales Navigator.
Recently launched as a standalone product, Sales Navigator leverages LinkedIn’s network of over 316 million members, in order to identify relevant sales leads and companies, generate valuable insights to keep users informed of key updates and provide a platform for salespeople to connect with these prospects, build trust and pitch them on their products or services.
With Sales Navigator much more than just a repository of potential leads, it can be difficult to know where to get started, and with that in mind here are some tips that will provide guidance on how you can successfully leverage it for maximum effect.
Define your target demographics to create highly specific prospect lists
As obvious as it may seem, it’s incredibly important to make sure you fully understand the demographics of your target audience, i.e. location, size of organisation, industry, years of experience, seniority level and even interests. The more specific you get, the far easier it will be to create and save highly relevant prospect lists when using the Lead Builder feature, a database function that builds lists of leads based on different variables, and will update based on LinkedIn members individual profiles. Additionally, it is possible to narrow the list further by only including prospects with whom you have a mutual connection.
Utilise premium search
Using the advanced search tool, you are able to effectively prospect for sales leads, and track the activity of existing leads. LinkedIn’s recent acquisition of Newsle has conveniently provided the platform with this media tracking technology, providing real-time updates about what your leads are saying in the press, on social media as well as on other online channels.
Gather prospect intelligence
Arguably the most important feature of Sales Navigator, is in its ability to keep users informed with key insights on target leads and accounts. These insights are then pushed into a single stream, surfacing data such as role changes, press announcements, status updates, work anniversaries, leads connecting with someone in your network, shares highlighting what your leads care about, people or company news mentions, as well new potential contacts or decision makers when target company’s make new key hires. These insights can be a powerful tool when it comes to sales prospecting, and by receiving relevant and timely sales insights on your target accounts and leads, you’re in a far better position to tailor your pitches and approaches accordingly. It’s worth remembering that you can in fact narrow your search by filtering these updates.
Make the most of lead recommendations
Using LinkedIn’s sophisticated algorithm, Sales Navigator will provide you with relevant lead recommendations, based on both your preferences and historical saved leads. These will typically be other decision makers and influencers at the same, and similar companies.
Leverage CRM integration
Impressively, Sales Navigator is now able to sync account and contact information with Salesforces’ CRM platform, a feature that will be highly beneficial to Salesforce users. By integrating existing CRM database information, with profiles within the LinkedIn network, users are provided with a deeper picture of each prospect, making their sales prospecting far more effective. It is worth noting, however, that Sales Navigator does not currently integrate with marketing automation systems.
Familiarise yourself with TeamLink
Arguably one of the most effective ways to generate more sales is to score a personal introduction via TeamLink. While LinkedIn introductions have always been valuable to salespeople, a result of being solicited through a common, and usually trusted, connection, this TeamLink tool enables users to quickly identify how both colleagues and ex-colleagues, are connected to prospects, making it easier to decide on the best path to an introduction, while further increasing the number of these opportunities. When it comes to actually making these introductions, it is worth remembering to apply the same principles that you would in person. Requests for introductions should consist of a brief explanation of how you want to be introduced, why you want to be introduced and how exactly you can help the prospect, but do remember to save the sales pitch for after the connection has been made!
If you would like any help in implementing an effective social media strategy, get in touch with us on +44 (0)1243 531123, or send an email to mike@napierb2b.com.
The effect of Google’s Panda 4.0 on PR professionals
Top newswires lost between 60% to 85% of their SEO visibility overnight
With their recent series of search algorithm updates, Google have created quite a stir within the marketing environment, and it seems as though their latest update, Panda 4.0, will directly impact the way some PR professionals work when it comes to distributing news.
As indicated in our recent Google Panda 4.0 rollout post, this latest algorithm was implemented to help remove “thin” and low-quality content from its search rankings. More recently, however, an analysis of how Panda 4.0 has affected press release sites, was conducted by Barry Schwartz. His report found that sites including PRWeb, PR Newswire, BusinessWire and PRLog, lost between 60% and 85% of their SEO visibility overnight following this update. He further considered that it could be a result of many press releases consisting of “thin content”, something which is now considered “spammy” by Google.
This significant drop in visibility indicates just how important it is for PR professionals who rely on newswire sites, to take action in ensuring their press releases not only include quality content, but are also being distributed via the most effective channels.
The reality is that the majority of European journalists within the trade and technical press no longer subscribe to newswires (although journalists in some other regions still use them), and the most effective way in securing coverage from your press release is through tailored and targeted PR distribution. Developing and maintaining accurate and targeted media lists as part of an effective press office, is key to PR success.
It is important to remember that the channel is only as effective as the content it carries, and that press releases should include content that is of interest to both the journalist and the customer. To avoid creating low-quality press releases, you should clearly conveying the benefits and the most important features in a language that the editor understands.
The creation and distribution of press releases isn’t the only things PR professionals should be considering following the Panda 4.0 rollout. Content is the key driver in SEO success, and with this in mind, here are some tips that will help mitigate the potential effects of Panda 4.0 on your PR and marketing strategy and ensure you stay panda friendly:
Focus on the relevance and quality of content
Gone are the days where search engines solely focused on the presence of keywords - this focus has now shifted to the quality and relevance of the content. One way to avoid “thin content” is by using longer content, something which helps Google understand the context. Typically, longer form content ranks higher than shorter content, therefore try and aim for at least 600 words.
Avoid duplicate content
Sites with duplicate content experienced a significant decrease in traffic following the Panda 4.0 update. Many marketing communications professionals have been successful in re-purposing content from articles and press releases into infographics, blog posts, slideshare presentations etc., and while this is still highly effective, it has never been more important to ensure that headlines and text across these multiple pieces of content are different.
Avoid scraping content from third party sites
Just as it was at University, plagiarism has consequences, and in this case it faces both ethical and SEO-related issues. If you come across a brilliantly written piece of content, by all means quote it, reference it or re-word it, just avoid scraping it from other sites. Either that or you’ll be penalised by Google.
If you would like help in developing and maintaining accurate, targeted contact lists within your industry, get in touch with us on +44 (0)1243 531123, or email mike@napierb2b.com.
Napier Grows the Team with Two New Hires
Napier continues to expand its team by appointing Mike Flower as senior account manager and Chloe Attwood as a PR intern. Both Mike and Chloe join Napier at a time of growth for the company, which has won four new clients in the IT and Electronics industries since the beginning of the year.
Mike brings considerable technology PR and marketing experience to Napier, having held a number of positions in the industry, including working at global PR agency Edelman, running an international marcom business in Finland, and a variety of roles at B2B technology publishers. Mike will provide strategic direction and campaign execution for a range of technology accounts, as well as supporting the team with his technical writing skills.
Chloe, who is currently studying towards a Public Relations degree at Southampton Solent University, will work on a range of projects including content generation, business development and video production.
Welcome to the team Mike and Chloe!
Successful Start to 2014 for Napier with 3 New Client Wins
Napier continues to grow as a successful B2B PR & marketing agency, with 3 recent client wins – Testo Limited, Zybert Computing and DocCentrics.
Testo Limited has chosen Napier, following a completive pitch. The first campaign will drive awareness of the company’s food processing division. Napier will also provide the test equipment company with a full range of integrated marketing services, working closely with them to coordinate, develop and execute their integrated campaigns.
Napier has also been appointed by Birmingham-based Zybert, to promote the company’s range of in-premise private cloud solutions. Napier will develop a new website for the company, as well as helping them raise their profile through PR and product reviews.
The third new client, customer communications management technology provider DocCentrics, has appointed Napier to deliver a PR campaign that will raise awareness of their brand, product offering and expertise in the market.
Facebook competes for B2B marketing spending
In a move that will see them compete more directly with LinkedIn, Facebook has upped its game by allowing advertisers to target users through more advanced segmentation, including employer and job title.
By providing businesses with new options to target their one billion users worldwide, the social network giant is hoping to attract more B2B marketers and recruiting professionals. While changes to Facebook’s Ads APO program will focus on increased targeting of behaviours and interests, it is the ability to target users based on their employer and job title that will be of the greatest benefit to B2B marketers. Other additional options include; targeting specific types of education, changes to life events, specific interests and off-line activities such as website visits, purchases or device usage.
It is hoped that advanced targeting options will help advertisers narrow down their Facebook ad campaigns, and impose greater restrictions on exactly which users are seeing and engaging with their ads. The ability to merge multiple levels of segmentation with carefully chosen content can lead to extremely successful campaigns, and Facebook are hoping to capitalise on this advertising spend and win over LinkedIn’s advertisers.
Facebook’s ability to reach extremely large groups of people, combined with the vast amount of data it holds and the precision to which it can be targeted, allows for a potentially powerful and highly effective method of advertising, and while it has not typically been a favoured B2B marketing platform, only time will tell whether these updates will change the perception of Facebook in the B2B environment.
Gmail Adds Unsubscribe Button: Implications for Marketers
Google has rocked the marketing world once again by adding a more prominent “unsubscribe” feature to Gmail. The button will appear at the top of the email, directly beside the sender’s email address, in order to help email recipients remove themselves from unwanted promotional lists.
This modification will make it easier for users to find the unsubscribe link, and more conveniently opt-out of emails they do not wish to receive. Prior to this addition, users were faced with the “needle in a haystack” option of searching tediously for the unsubscribe link at the bottom of a promotional email, or failing that they were able to unsubscribe using the details dropdown. Not the easiest option, however with many recipients finding the link difficult to recognise, more and more end up reporting the email as spam. Not an ideal outcome for a legitimate sender.
While at first glance this change may seem like a sure-fire way to lose list subscribers, Google believes that by making the link more prominent, they are actually helping businesses to become more transparent, further helping prevent their promotional emails being marked as spam.
Gmail have recently rolled out various modifications to improve overall user experience, and even more specifically increased user control. Similar to the tabbed interface, the prominent unsubscribe button has been designed to help users customise and control their email experience, and it is these tools that have potentially positive implications for email marketing campaigns.
It is important to remember that any promotional email is at risk of receiving opt-outs, and as a marketer it is your job to add enough value to your email campaigns to limit this number as best you can. That being said, the harsh reality is that not every person will always care about your product/service offering, and if you do get the occasional opt-out, just thank your lucky stars, or Gmail, that you’re not being reported as spam.
Recent PR graduate joins Napier as marketing specialist
Napier continues to expand its team by appointing Diana Abu-Zuaiter as marketing specialist. Diana, a recent PR graduate from Southampton Solent University, will support the marketing team in a range of areas including email marketing, marketing automation & competitive research. Diana brings a wealth of international experience to Napier, having completed internships at leading PR agencies including GolinHarris Bucharest & Leepeck Group. Welcome to the team Diana!
Top 3 Marketing Trends of 2014
52% of executives view business related videos on YouTube every week
With 2014 drawing to a close, you can most definitely expect to see the usual predictions, expectations and even the occasional questionable opinion, into next year’s key marketing trends.
In this past year alone we have seen digital get even bigger, content get crowned king…again, and the accelerated success of the six-second video platform Vine. True mastery of video content may I add.
2014 is set to shake things up further in the marketing world, so they say, and with most marketers placing their bets on what’s to come, we figured if you can’t beat them, join them. So here are our top three insights into what we expect to be huge in the B2B environment, in 2014.
#1 Re-targeting will get bigger
Yes, something else predicted to get bigger, other than our waistlines over Christmas. In my honest opinion, re-targeting has always been a smart addition to any marketing mix, so along with the continued growth of digital marketing, it is a sure cert that it’s about to get a whole lot smarter.
As a B2B marketer, you will no doubt be well aware that the sales funnel can be, and often is, a long old process, and with this in mind, it is important that you are capitalising on re-targeting campaigns more so now than ever. How exactly a customer gets to your website in the first place is, quite frankly, a whole different ball game, but once you have made that first impression, it definitely shouldn’t be the only impression you make on them.
74% of tech B2B customers, who plan to make a purchase, tend to look at three or more companies. That is a significant number of potential customers, giving you a significant chance of gaining their business. If you play your cards right. And with 44% of customers choosing not to convert until at least 2 weeks after their first visit, you have to ask yourself whether you can afford not to use a re-targeting campaign as a way of remaining at the very front of their mind.
As a highly effective tactic for both lead gen and lead nurturing, consider demonstrating the quality of your products or services (90% care!) on your ad, and ensure you are answering any perceived questions that could hold back your customers from taking the next step. Demonstrating that you know your customers and can offer a solution to their questions, will give you a much better chance of swiftly moving them down the sales funnel.
#2 Video Marketing
Strictly speaking, a 30 second video is worth 900,000 words (a picture being worth 1000 words, and 30 frames per second). Now I’m sure you agree that is one heck of an impression. Even Vines are worth 180,000 words. Now try telling me that’s not worth exploiting.
The unsurprising reality is that video isn’t new, and the concept of creating how-to’s and behind the scenes footage is far from an untapped concept, however the increase in both the platforms and frequencies that users are viewing these videos, makes for an opportunity not to be missed.
When it comes to incorporating video into your marketing mix, the extent to which you choose to do so will depend on the size and nature of your company’s offering. Video can be used in a variety of different ways including; yes, behind the scenes footage, instructional & educational, as well as viral (with just the right blend of creativity and humour – I don’t quite see the Harlem Shake working in a B2B tech environment). If you doubt me check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7FIvfx5J10.
It should be remembered that YouTube is a highly effective channel to host videos, not only because it remains the second largest search engine, but also because you can effectively have your own TV channel. And with 52% of executives watching work-related videos on YouTube at least weekly, it is a channel you should be exploiting, in order to establish yourself as thought-leaders whilst remaining at the forefront of your customers’ minds.
For video newbies, we recommend you start small and grow gradually building a following as you go. That being said, if you don’t think big, you’re probably not going to be big. If you only take one thing from this (hopefully not), remember that when it comes to video, less really is more, so ensure you keep all videos under a minute in length, and always try to include a call to action and URL of a landing page that will allow viewers to learn more, sign up or register for something relevant.
#3 Social media marketing diversity
While Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn remain the key players in the social media landscape, don’t forget that Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ have seen a recent surge in popularity, even in the B2B environment. With more and more social media platforms made available, marketers are continually faced with a growing number of options to produce and distribute content, while building audiences across more channels than ever. It is for this reason companies should keep up to scratch with new social media platforms, while remaining diligent about which are worth experimenting with. And with 93% of marketers using social media for business, it is important to that you keep up to scratch with new opportunities in order to stay in contention for not only their attention, but ultimately their business.
That also means expecting the unexpected. I’ve talked a lot about Vine, but only because it is a pretty good example of how you can create just about anything in the social world, and it can work. Not only for out-there consumer brands, but even your B2B tech companies. Would we really have believed last year that some very large, and very prestigious brands (Philips, Cisco, HP, General Electric) would be using 6-second loop videos as part of their marketing mix? Probably not. But they have, and in doing so have demonstrated brand personality.
Using not only video, but social media in general, is a particularly effective way to humanise your brand. Showcasing the personality and culture of any company does work, and is a growing trend in the B2B world!
Google ad-placing service announces deal with Facebook
Facebook’s market share of ad-revenue anticipated to see three-fold increase
Facebook has well and truly taken a U-turn, with Google’s ad-placing service DoubleClick announcing that they will be working alongside the social network giant, allowing clients to buy advertising space; something that Facebook did not previously allow.
Up until this recent announcement, Facebook did not permit DoubleClick to sell ad space, and there is no apparent reason for their sudden change of heart. What is apparent though is that the deal comes at a time when the social networks market share of ad-revenue is expected to reach 15.8%, up from 5.35% in 2012.
The deal will allow for those on DoubleClick Bid Manager to buy inventory on Facebook Exchange (FBX), Facebook’s real-time bidding exchange, and it is set to give both companies a new stream of ad revenue and commission.
Despite these potentially lucrative benefits for the companies involved, the deal set to start in only a few months, won’t benefit B2B companies as much as their B2C counterparts. For many B2B companies, Facebook is not a particularly effective social media channel when it comes to marketing.
The move also sees us heading towards a situation where Google controls a large percentage of the advertising market. But what exactly will this mean for marketers? Only time will tell.
Understanding the B2B Buyers’ Journey: Infographic
72% of buyers will visit Google three times during their buyer journey
The “buyer’s journey” is something that is constantly being referred to within the marketing landscape. But even though it has become something of a buzz word, or two, up until now there has been limited data that defines exactly what this journey is.
While some CMOs have attempted to offer an explanation as to what this “journey” might entail, surely it can’t be denied that the most effective way to understand journey, is to step into the ‘buyer’s shoes; which is why I was glad when I came across some research findings from someone who - with the same mind set as me - had thought to survey the people that really matter; the B2B buyers.
Check out our infographic below which summarises the findings, and offers three simple steps on how to adapt your marketing strategy to successfully meet every stage of your buyer’s journey.
Improve Your ROI by Getting Creative with Geo-Targeting
Standard geo-targeting using city, state or Zip code declined from 64% to just 13% in 2012, but campaigns that leveraged precise geo-targeting increased to 55%*
Geo-targeting in PPC advertising is, and will continue to be, an effective way for a company to pinpoint the best leads. I don’t want to teach people to suck eggs, but for those of you who aren’t using geo-targeting; Google AdWords provides you with the ability to focus your campaign by specifying:
· City, Country, Region
· Designated Market Area (DMA)
· Post Code
· Radius around a point
· Location extension targeting
Even if your PPC campaigns are showing results, as a marketer aren’t you always looking for ways to improve your performance and ROI?
Here are some geo-targeting techniques you can use which promise to do just that;
1) Exclude Locations
Not all locations will be relevant to all companies, and AdWords allows advertisers to exclude these locations so ads won’t show there. You run a report to see which locations clicks are coming from, and limit activities in areas with poor lead generation.
2) Use Location Based Bid Adjustments
Optimise performance by increasing or decreasing bids in different locations. Depending on how effective different locations prove to be, bids can be increased or decreased accordingly.
3) Geo-Target an Area With Only Keywords
Some businesses, with a local presence, may find it more beneficial to limit targeting by keyword, as opposed to the location setting. Google AdWords enables companies to create separate campaigns in order to target people searching for a type of company in a specific area, in order to drive more traffic.
4) Have a Mobile Focus
On-the-move audiences are not hard to target thanks to Adwords. Many B2B companies are finding it particularly effective, for instance when targeting buyers at Trade Shows or Events.
5) Weather Permitting
Not as fast as it sounds for B2B companies, but it’s nice to know you can. Using Google scripts, bid adjustments can now be made depending on the weather, and is particularly useful when the weather could impact an audiences searching and purchasing decisions, i.e. business buying additional air-conditioning units in a heat wave.
Hopefully these techniques have given you some insight into how geo-targeting with AdWords can be used more effectively, and hopefully in turn boost your ROI on your marketing efforts.
*http://www.fiercecmo.com/story/mobile-location-targeting-use-increasing/2013-03-08
Google Launches New AdWords Feature: Paid & Organic Report
Organic Listing Improved Paid Click Rate by 64%
If you haven’t heard already, Google has introduced a new feature in the form of a paid and organic report in AdWords. The report provides advertisers, for the first time, with a combined dashboard of metrics for their performance of both paid and organic search for keywords.
As well as serving to analyse and optimise your search footprint, this report will also enable you to determine if there are keywords that can be supplemented with paid ads.
Until now AdWords had no optimization report and showed organic and paid performance separately, with no insight into user behaviour when they overlapped. This new paid & organic report will let you see and compare your performance for a given keyword/phrase either for an ad, an organic listing, or when both appear on the search results page.
The fact that in the sample screen shots in Google’s documentation show that an organic listing improved paid click rate by 64%, is exactly the reason paid and organic need to be integrated, and exactly why this report will be beneficial to your company.
Here are some ways you can use the new AdWords paid and organic report:
- Discover additional keywords where you might have impressions on an organic search, but without any related ads.
- Optimize your presence on high value keyword phrases, to see where you need to improve your presence.
- When testing website improvements, adjust your keywords, bids and budgets accordingly by comparing traffic across both AdWords and organic.
Remember that in order to take advantage of the report, you will need to link your AdWords account to a Webmaster Tools Account.
The rise of Flipboard as a marketing tactic
6 Billion Pages Flipped a Month on Flipboard
Prompted by the success of its user-created social magazines, Flipboard is no longer solely a mobile app and has been made available on the web.
Previously, only users of the Flipboard app were able to view these magazines, but now users are able to share them with readers who don’t necessarily use the app, for instance through social media or email.
Since the launch of Flipboard 2.0 in March 2013, more than 2 million magazines have been made, covering every topic imaginable, and users of the app are able to collect and share articles, images, facts, quotes and more from the internet, forming a magazine focused on personal interests.
Curated content has become an effective tactic within content marketing, and brands are already seeing the benefits of using others’ useful & informative content within their blogs and social media sites. Flipboard is essentially designed around curated content, and for this reason marketers should be adopting it as marketing tactic.
Why not create your own brand magazine, using content from your owned media? It will only increase exposure, however it should be noted that if you opt to do this, we strongly recommend using it within curated content, in order to gain credibility.
It is hoped that this web experience will increase Flipboards reader base across the internet, with these web magazines uniquely designed for desktop browsing, using the same look and feel as the traditional app. And with 6 billion pages flipped a month already, it’s a sure bet that Flipboard are starting to make their mark in the increasingly cluttered social world.
Check out our B2B Tech Marketing Magazine, for all the latest industry news!
LinkedIn Launches Sponsored Updates
60% of LinkedIn users have clicked on an ad on the site
LinkedIn is about business, business is promoted by marketing, and marketing is all about content. Among other things. With the somewhat annoying adage ‘content is king’ in mind, LinkedIn have stepped up its game and announced their launch of sponsored updates, a service that will enable any company to promote their updates, including video, images and presentations, to a much larger audience beyond their direct connections.
Marketers may see greater benefits in using sponsored updates as opposed to LinkedIn’s current advertising system, simply because the posts will be integrated into members’ newsfeeds. This is likely to lead to increased interaction, as opposed to appearing in a side bar. Like typical LinkedIn ads, promotional posts will be available to companies via a bid-based auction, based on either cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-metric (CPM).
Now bearing in mind that 60% of LinkedIn users have clicked on an ad on the site, with the potential increased interaction of sponsored updates, I’m definitely optimistic it is the way forward for B2B social media advertising.
Marketers can no longer neglect mobile advertising
Global Mobile Ad Revenue Up by 82.2%
Smartphone growth may well be slowing down in some developed markets, but the growth of mobile advertising is anything but.
According to recent figures from a global mobile advertising study, conducted by the IAB and IHS, the industry has seen an 82.8 per cent rise between 2011 and 2012, as revenues hit $8.9 billion.
A breakdown of the figures show the highest growth rate at 88.8% was search, followed by display (87.3%) and messaging (40.2%). These figures clearly indicate that search is the most popular advertising option, accounting for 52.8% of the total global mobile advertising revenue.
With Kimon Zorbas, CEO IAB Europe, describing it as a “monumental shift across communication platforms”, this report is proof that marketers can no longer bury their head in the sand, and wait until it’s passed. Mobile is global, and is growing at a rapid rate. Check out the report for further statistics!
If brands don’t self-regulate, the FTC will…
Native Ads are Growing 39% a Year*, But 57% of Consumers Consider Them to Be Misleading
Digital changed marketing. But you already knew that. Something else you will already recognise is that the power has shifted from the brand to the consumer, and it is this power that has resulted in marketers having to adapt with the consumer, and be, well, where the consumer is.
Although not an entirely new concept (search marketing has been going since 2003), advances in technology has made it a whole lot easier for marketers to get their content in front of their audience, more recently through content streams…native advertising.
While the principle of brands funding their content isn’t new (think years of newspaper and magazine advertorials), what is relatively new, however, is the scale in which native advertising has evolved, and it set to continue growing.
Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and more recently LinkedIn, have followed in Buzzfeed’s footsteps, by enabling brands to promote their content within users’ content streams (i.e. LinkedIn sponsored updates, Facebook sponsored stories and Twitter Promoted Tweets). Embraced by the social media giants’ and with a 39% yearly growth, it wouldn’t be unrealistic to presume native advertising is the way forward for digital marketing.
While this may indeed be good news for marketers, it cannot be ignored that up to 57% of consumers consider native advertising, such as Facebook Sponsored Stories, and Twitters Promoted Posts, to be misleading. It has to be questioned whether this statistic is set to increase with the rise in native ads.
Analysts are suggesting that if brands and publishers aren’t careful, regulatory repercussions could be triggered, and they will have to face the FTC stepping in. Misleading consumers stems from creating and promoting irrelevant and inconsistent ads, which lack quality and transparency.
Self-regulation from publishers and transparency from the brand is crucial, as without it both the publisher and brand face a slippery slope, and marketers won’t be looking at a return on investment, rather a return to interruption.
Now to avoid throwing you into utter despair, the following tips should provide you with some guidance of how you can remain transparent through your native advertising tactics, and hopefully keep the FTC at bay…
1. Do not just self-promote. In some situations, you might not even mention your company. Native ads are not a press release. Think value. Give your audience something that they want, not something they will perceive as intrusive and irritating.
2. Effectively target the right people by using advanced optimisation tactics. Sites like Twitter and LinkedIn enable brands to target specific demographics, in order to correctly pinpoint exactly who your content will be exposed too.
3. Consider your keywords. While it is great that different demographics can be targeted, it needs to be considered that certain keywords used for one, may not be relevant or appropriate to another.
4. Keep it short and engaging. Execute and repeat. People need to be exposed to you over and over again before you make an impact. And remember, valuable content will result in you making a positive impact as opposed to a negative impact.
5. Do not pay for ads unless your content justifies it. Paying to share poor content will only reduce your influence and authority.
Keywords for killer subject lines: infographic
“Alert” and “Breaking” will boost your open and click through rates by up to 77.6%
Words matter. More specifically, words in your email subject lines matter. The importance of keywords shouldn’t be limited to your content, calls-to-actions, even your SEO efforts. It is, in fact, crucial that you are using keywords effectively in your email subject lines, to optimise your chances of the email actually being opened. After all, you are one of a potentially large number of companies cluttering your prospects’ inboxes.
But what makes your email worth reading over any of the others? Three words…the subject line. Even I am guilty of occasionally neglecting the importance of the subject line, but when you really think about it, your prospects don’t always have time or patience, and they aren’t all going to open your emails. It’s all well and good spending hours creating, heck even perfecting your email marketing efforts, but the truth of the matter is, if your subject line isn’t selling it to them, you’ve wasted your time.
Now chances are I have probably spent the last two paragraphs telling you something that you already know. So based on Adestra’s Global Mobile Advertising Revenue report, I have created an infographic to enlighten you of the keywords you should be using and those that you should steer clear from. Enjoy.
