Category Archives: News

More Reasons to Make the Mobile Move

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According to a recent Q1 2016 Digital Marketing Report by Merkle, Google was a major driver of smartphone usage in the first quarter, driving 95 percent of US smartphone paid search clicks.

Most notable, however, is the fact that Google is far ahead of its search engine competition, Bing and Yahoo, when it comes to driving and converting mobile search traffic. Combine this with a recent article that explains how Google is making signifiant strides with in-store attribution, and you’ve got a real powerhouse to contend with.

2016 Merkle Search Engine Clicks and Shares by Device

Continued Growth for Mobile

According to Merkle, smartphone click shares rose to 39 percent in Q1 of 2016 compared to 33 percent in Q4 of 2015. It should also be no surprise that Google, once again, continues to dominate search. The one change that Google made to paid search in Q1 was the removal of text ads from the right sidebar. Additionally, Google seems to be showing more attention to Product Listing Ads (PLAs) as they are beginning to show up more.

The Importance of SOBO

Searches that Result in Offline Purchases (SOBO) are an important part of the mobile growth that is occurring – particularly where closing the online-offline marketing gap is concerned. Search Engine Land columnist, Mona Elesseily, points out a couple of reasons why we might want to pay attention to the importance of closing this gap:

#1 – SOBO conversions significantly outnumber online conversions.

Though many of us use our smartphones as a shopping companion (i.e. checking and comparing prices on items while in the store, researching products, etc.), most retail sales (95% to be exact) still happen at brick and mortar locations. Because this type of marketing data is difficult to capture, it cannot be factored into optimization efforts.

#2 – Offline tracking is labor-intensive.

Elesseily explains that current offline tracking methods require that the offline data be uploaded consistently to Google. The actual process is extremely time consuming and frustrating for companies, which often leads many companies to simply bypass tracking offline marketing initiatives altogether.

Evidence of Better In-Store Attribution

Elesseily sees three things that Google is doing, which is proving that we’re on the right path to closing the online-offline marketing gap:

#1 – Google Local Inventory Ads

  • Highlights how far the nearest store is from you
  • Shows specific store inventory

Implications:

  • Helps us understand in-store-attribution/understanding what audiences are more likely to convert in-store
  • Should improve as it’s able to get more granular and optimize in-store conversions

#2 – Google Now In-Store Cards

  • Appears when a shopper is near a store
  • Displays useful information such as sales, closing hours, loyalty card data and more

Implications:

  • Takes into consideration location history, internet activity (like clicks on ads) and actual visits to a store
  • Also considers data that’s stored in Google accounts

#3 – Google In-Store Conversions

  • Allows advertisers to measure the number of shoppers that visit a physical store after seeing a search ad.
  • Uses a combination of WiFi, GPS and specialized store maps to track visits (basically footsteps) to and within a store

Implications:

  • First step in Google attempting to tie specific purchases at checkout to people who have previously viewed ads

C0MPLÉX1 Teaching Elementary Business

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I had a great time on Friday teaching basic business principles to 2nd graders at Frank Porter Graham Bilingüe. I was happy to accept the invitation from staff to come share my knowledge about business to the students. They had been studying basic Economy the last section.

Making Business Relatable to Children

To break it down and make it relatable to something most of them were familiar with, I used the popular  game, Minecraft, as a basis. I then explained supply & demand using abundant resources like soil vs. scarce supply of resources like the coveted diamond ore as examples.

We talked about many aspects of Minecraft and how the game paralleled other, ‘real world,’ examples of economy and business, such as: Trade, Competition, Investment, and even International Trade (friends from other Biomes).

Thank you to all of the staff and students for hosting me Friday afternoon!

Every Marketer Should Know These Content Marketing Stats in 2016

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With 2016 just around the corner, one can’t help but reflect on just how much online marketing has evolved- especially as it relates to content marketing. Marketers alike would be wise to think about just what their online content marketing strategies will look like in the coming year.

Helping out with this thought, Forbes contributor, Jayson DeMers, put together an excellent list of the most recent content marketing stats. Some of these stats are re-posted here. However, we encourage you to view the original article.

B2B Content Marketing Stats

1. 88% of B2B marketers currently use content marketing as part of their marketing strategy, yet only 32% have a documented content marketing strategy. (source)

2. 61% of the most effective B2B content marketers meet with their content team daily or weekly. (source)

3. The most effective B2B content marketers allocate a larger portion of their budget to content marketing: 42% of their total budget, compared to 28% for less-effective marketers. (source)

image by frankieleon on flickr cc

B2C Content Marketing Stats

4. 76% of B2C marketers report using content marketing, yet only 37% say their strategy is effective. (source)

5. 37% of B2C marketers say they have a documented content marketing strategy. This is up from just 27% last year. (source)

6. B2C marketers use infographics more than any other content strategy. 62% report using infographics, and 63% from this group said they were effective. (source)

General Content Marketing Statistics

7. Self-employed individuals are more likely to use blogging than large businesses (those with 1,000+ employees). (source)

8. B2B businesses are more likely to use blogging than B2C businesses. (source)

9. 45% of marketers say blogging is their #1 most important content strategy. (source)

[*Information in this article was originally posted by Jayson DeMers via Forbes]