SEO
Top Channels & Trends To Grow Your Brand
The economic impact of the pandemic is still a significant factor in most marketing budgets.
And today’s competition for marketing dollars and space is fiercer than ever.
So what innovative, cost-effective ways can make your brand stand out?
Which new channels can you add to your marketing mix to maximize ROI?
On April 12, I moderated a webinar with Sreekant Lanka, SVP of Digital Solutions at iQuanti.
To maximize results, Lanka showed how to refresh your search strategies and connect with your target audience through high-impact marketing channels.
Here’s a summary of the webinar. To access the entire presentation, complete the form.
Key Takeaways
Align your media where your audience is.
Your content must cater to your potential visitor’s intent during each funnel stage, from building context at the top of the funnel to being more specific at the bottom of your funnel.
Top Of Funnel Strategies
- Tactic: Lead your top-funnel activations with videos to drive awareness & recall.
- KPIs: Aided and unaided recall lift and top-of-mind awareness.
[Get examples] Instantly access the on-demand webinar →
Middle Of Funnel Strategies
- Tactic: Nurture your mid-funnel with a mix of videos & statics by driving & traffic consistently.
- KPIs: Engagement rates, retention rates, quality visits to the website/app, branded search volumes, and CTR.
Bottom Of Funnel Strategies
- Tactic: Close the bottom funnel with search, retargeting, and other high-quality signal-based audiences.
- KPIs: CPA, ROAS, and LTV/CAC.
Measure Success Through:
- Different KPIs per funnel stage.
- A sense of overall CAC to help assess the overall health across marketing channels.
- Attribution challenges and privacy pave the way for increased adoption of incrementality testing.
Take Note Of The Evolving Search Landscape
To grow your brand, consider what is evolving and which channels are emerging. To begin with, note that users now search for different things than they used to.
Look For Changes In Search Queries
The search landscape is changing and moving away from a keyword-first approach.
You can see shifts:
- From keywords to conversations.
- Expanding into multiple sessions.
- Emerging as “Near me,” “best of,” etc.
- Moving beyond the lower funnel.
Notice Changes In Bidding Strategies
Bidding strategies are also changing, primarily driven by the Google ecosystem building capabilities beyond keywords.
[See how bidding is evolving] Instantly access the webinar →
Recognize The Changes In Search On Verticals
Marketplaces & social media sites are commanding a significant share of product searches.
Understand How AI Is Changing The Face Of Search
In this regard, the exact impact of AI on SERPs is still unclear. Still, you can see the potential in keyword targeting, search volume, and implementation.
Site optimizations will likely be key as tools evolve to include more relevant and up-to-date information.
Shift Your Strategy Around Newly Evolving Segments & Needs
Search, as a product, has been changing, especially with Gen Z on its way to becoming the most dominant customer segment.
As a segment with the lowest attention span, you should look at how verticals are evolving with the shift.
[Find out how this influences looking beyond search] Instantly access the webinar →
Additionally, social media has significantly influenced consumer journeys with behavior change.
With this, new platforms and short-form content are taking center stage to cater to the needs of the evolving customer base. Pivot to focus on:
- Social video.
- Short Form video.
- CTV.
- TikTok.
Which Media Channels Are Influencing Consumer Journey
Retail Media Networks are potentially the third big wave in digital advertising after Search & Social.
- 14.7% share of US digital ad spend in 2021 was on Retail Media networks.
- 19.1% share of US digital ad spend is expected from Retail Media Networks by 2024.
[Discover the advantages of Retail Media] Instantly access the webinar →
On the push side of things, retail push media shows media diversification, and CPG push media shows social channel growth.
Marketers can diversify away from some of the more expensive, highly competitive channels by figuring out where the right users are and how to spend.
[Slides] Think Beyond Search: Top Channels & Emerging Trends to Grow Your Brand
Here’s the presentation:
Join Us For Our Next Webinar!
3 Simple Google Ads Tweaks That Immediately Boost Sales
Join us as we dive into some profitable Google Ads strategies that can be applied to any business type.
Image Credits:
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
SEO
Executive Director Of WordPress Resigns
Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director of the WordPress Project, officially announced her resignation, ending a nine-year tenure. This comes just two weeks after Matt Mullenweg launched a controversial campaign against a managed WordPress host, which responded by filing a federal lawsuit against him and Automattic.
She posted an upbeat notice on her personal blog, reaffirming her belief in the open source community as positive economic force as well as the importance of strong opinions that are “loosely held.”
She wrote:
“This week marks my last as the Executive Director of the WordPress project. My time with WordPress has transformed me, both as a leader and an advocate. There’s still more to do in our shared quest to secure a self-sustaining future of the open source project that we all love, and my belief in our global community of contributors remains unchanged.
…I still believe that open source is an idea that can transform generations. I believe in the power of a good-hearted group of people. I believe in the importance of strong opinions, loosely held. And I believe the world will always need the more equitable opportunities that well-maintained open source can provide: access to knowledge and learning, easy-to-join peer and business networks, the amplification of unheard voices, and a chance to tap into economic opportunity for those who weren’t born into it.”
Turmoil At WordPress
The resignation comes amidst the backdrop of a conflict between WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and the managed WordPress web host WP Engine, which has brought unprecedented turmoil within the WordPress community, including a federal lawsuit filed by WP Engine accusing Mullenweg of attempted extortion.
Resignation News Was Leaked
The news about the resignation was leaked on October 2nd by the founder of the WordPress news site WP Tavern (now owned by Matt Mullenweg), who tweeted that he had spoken with Josepha that evening, who announced her resignation.
He posted:
“I spoke with Josepha tonight. I can confirm that she’s no longer at Automattic.
She’s working on a statement for the community. She’s in good spirits despite the turmoil.”
Screenshot Of Deleted Tweet
Josepha tweeted the following response the next day:
“Ok, this is not how I expected that news to come to y’all. I apologize that this is the first many of you heard of it. Please don’t speculate about anything.”
Rocky Period For WordPress
While her resignation was somewhat of an open secret it’s still a significant event because of recent events at WordPress, including the resignations of 8.4% of Automattic employees as a result of an offer of a generous severance package to all employees who no longer wished to work there.
Read the official announcement:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Wirestock Creators
SEO
8% Of Automattic Employees Choose To Resign
WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO announced today that he offered Automattic employees the chance to resign with a severance pay and a total of 8.4 percent. Mullenweg offered $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever one is higher, with a total of 159 people taking his offer.
Reactions Of Automattic Employees
Given the recent controversies created by Mullenweg, one might be tempted to view the walkout as a vote of no-confidence in Mullenweg. But that would be a mistake because some of the employees announcing their resignations either praised Mullenweg or simply announced their resignation while many others tweeted how happy they are to stay at Automattic.
One former employee tweeted that he was sad about recent developments but also praised Mullenweg and Automattic as an employer.
He shared:
“Today was my last day at Automattic. I spent the last 2 years building large scale ML and generative AI infra and products, and a lot of time on robotics at night and on weekends.
I’m going to spend the next month taking a break, getting married, and visiting family in Australia.
I have some really fun ideas of things to build that I’ve been storing up for a while. Now I get to build them. Get in touch if you’d like to build AI products together.”
Another former employee, Naoko Takano, is a 14 year employee, an organizer of WordCamp conferences in Asia, a full-time WordPress contributor and Open Source Project Manager at Automattic announced on X (formerly Twitter) that today was her last day at Automattic with no additional comment.
She tweeted:
“Today was my last day at Automattic.
I’m actively exploring new career opportunities. If you know of any positions that align with my skills and experience!”
Naoko’s role at at WordPress was working with the global WordPress community to improve contributor experiences through the Five for the Future and Mentorship programs. Five for the Future is an important WordPress program that encourages organizations to donate 5% of their resources back into WordPress. Five for the Future is one of the issues Mullenweg had against WP Engine, asserting that they didn’t donate enough back into the community.
Mullenweg himself was bittersweet to see those employees go, writing in a blog post:
“It was an emotional roller coaster of a week. The day you hire someone you aren’t expecting them to resign or be fired, you’re hoping for a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Every resignation stings a bit.
However now, I feel much lighter. I’m grateful and thankful for all the people who took the offer, and even more excited to work with those who turned down $126M to stay. As the kids say, LFG!”
Read the entire announcement on Mullenweg’s blog:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/sdx15
SEO
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