News – Page 2 – Editorial PR

06/Aug/2018

Content marketing will be a primary focus for brands during the next 12 months, as 60% expect to spend more on digital resources and ads during that time, according to a new report released by Dentsu Aegis Network.

Titled Brands Win in the Digital Economy: CMO Survey 2018, the report found that content marketing is now ubiquitous across the whole business spectrum but that larger organisations are really doubling down on these activities. Almost half said their budgets will increase by 5% or more, and only one in 20 said they envisage content spend falling during the next year.

Confidence is high among chief marketing officers (CMOs) in the financial, technology and automotive sectors, as all expect to drive great returns for marketing strategies. However, there remain a few key challenges as CMOs attempt to leverage new tech to identify opportunities and make sense of big data and the wider digital economy.

The main concern for CMOs is the lack of control they have over digital investments or new programs that their company is focusing on, as this can often make it more difficult to deliver successful marketing campaigns. Linking different channels and elements to aid the customer’s experience is another concern.

Data will be a prized asset for CMOs during the next two to three years, as 71% say it provides the biggest strategic opportunity, especially when attempting to reach and engage with real people. However, 68% claim extracting insights from growing data sets is harder.

“Content is king” is now a well-worn mantra, but it still rings true for marketers, as 72% of respondents said high-quality content will be a top priority during the next year.

A separate study by Havas has again highlighted the key role content plays in making a brand “meaningful” to consumers. The Meaningful Brands study found that 60% of the content that brands produce does not provide any added value to end users. Therefore, working with the right partner, such as an expert third-party agency, can make a difference to ROI and engagement.

Havas analytics officer Maria Garrido says brands that fail to step up and deliver the content consumers need risk disappearing entirely and claims that the number of brands that will do so will “be worse” year-on-year as customer expectations increase.

Therefore, brands must think about their dispensability and consider how to reboot content to create meaningful and lasting bonds with audiences. Garrido believes content needs varying by brand, category and consumer and that marketers must know how to serve up articles, blogs, videos and infographics that end users really want to engage with.

She adds: “If you take the healthcare sector, consumers have an expectation that first and foremost, the content should be about helping them. And the second thing is it should be about informing them.” Garrido concludes that content must reinforce and fulfil consumer expectations but urged brands to use a mix of entertaining, informative and educational resources to get the job done.”

Aimee

30/Jul/2018

Optimising content for search engines is a crucial process for B2B brands, as 87% of their audiences say they find relevant articles, blogs and news using Google, Bing and other leading search platforms.

That is the primary takeaway from a new study released by Clutch earlier this week. Content has long been seen a prime outlet for B2B enterprises to push thought leadership pieces and engaging prose, but the findings suggest SEO services are particularly important for amplifying the power of these messages and ensuring they are visible to the right people, at the right time.

The study noted that search engines can support a sort of snowball effect, as featuring on the first page of Google listings can then lead to more people clicking through to a corporate website and then making a purchase of a product or service or developing a lucrative relationship with a client.

“SEO remains an important way for B2B audiences to find content,” Content Marketing Institute, vice president, Kim Moustos said. “Don’t forget, though, that it involves optimizing content not just for search engines, but also for the people behind the queries.”

In 2018, optimising for search is very much centred around serving up content that provides value to the end user rather than merely checking boxes in the hope of it performing well in SERPs. However, search is just one aspect of the content mix, as 85% said they find business content via social media.

An additional 75% said they go to a company’s website for this content. How well a B2B brand can link these channels and put its content front and centre will play a major role in the success of digital marketing efforts.

“We produce a wide range of content, whether it be social media or content for our own website,” Digital Third Coast digital marketing manager, Mike Theodore said. “The goal is to drive organic traffic to our company and our service offerings, to be seen and heard as industry leaders, and to build a level of credibility with prospective employees, clients, and strategic partners.”

Blogs or articles are the most popular content formats for B2B audiences, but the study found that a broad, diverse content portfolio is best in today’s multi-device, multi-platform world. In terms of topics, tech leads the consumption stakes, ahead of small business and workplace/personnel.

Content consumption habits are also centred around the sale funnel and what an end user needs at a specific point in time. For example, during the awareness phase, almost half read blogs and articles, while product descriptions are more popular for those in the interest stage.

Theodore added: “We’re very conscious of the content we produce for our clients based on their different stages of purchasing. We’re always conscious to write to the best ‘persona.’” The good news continues for B2B brands, as audiences now engage with at least one piece of content every week, though Theodore believes the actual numbers could be even higher.

Aimee

23/Jul/2018

Four out of five brands are now confident that their digital marketing efforts are working, according to a new survey from B2B research enterprise Clutch. The belief is driven, in part, by the growing desire among consumers to read, watch and view content on their smartphones.

83% of businesses say they are effectively achieving their goals through digital marketing. The connected device revolution has been crucial in this growing confidence, as brands say it has given them more of a direct line of communication, making it easier to engage with audiences regularly compared to traditional marketing and ads.

“That number is high because digital marketing is where customers are,” said Flynn Zaiger, CEO of digital marketing agency Online Optimism. “Walking down the street, people aren’t looking at billboards or checking newspapers – they’re staring at their phones.”

It is no surprise that social media is the most popular form of digital marketing, as this allows brands to get in touch with millions of people across various platforms every day. Websites are the second most popular, ahead of email, which still takes a prominent role in the marketing mix.

More than half say content marketing will be a top channel in 2018, and a similar number said the same for mobile apps and display and banner ads. Respondents believe content and other digital channels are an excellent outlet for pushing evolving brand stories and messages, something other mediums struggle to support.

“People are responsive when you have the ability to tell your brand story, whether it’s on social media, your website, or email,” Jeremy Greenberg, founder of web design agency 97 Switch, said. “With other mediums, there’s not as much ability to tell your story.”

While content and social media reign supreme, SEO is falling out of favour among brands, as they believe it requires too much effort to get right. This appears to be a major blind spot for marketers, as a failure to invest in SEO can make it more difficult to drive maximum ROI from digital channels and corporate websites.

“Businesses have a harder time with SEO,” Jon Borg Breen, co-founder of B2B agency Symbiont Group said. “It’s not as immediately impactful as having a brand-new design on your website that people can say, ‘Wow, that looks cool.'” Experts still state that SEO is an essential component in the marketing mix and that while it may not deliver immediate returns, it will elevate channels in the long term.

Finally, when asked why they continue to invest in digital marketing, almost a third said it was primarily used to drive profits. Many brands still use digital content to push consumers along the sales cycle more effectively. However, the survey also found that small to medium-sized enterprises are leveraging digital marketing to improve brand awareness, while large organisations use it to stand out from competitors.

Online Optimism CEO Flynn Zaiger added: “Using your digital marketing to help differentiate yourself will get you more leads and increase your close rate, an essential growth strategy for larger companies.”

Aimee

09/Jul/2018

Cutting-edge tech will underpin digital marketing strategies at large retailers during the next 12 months. According to the latest CMO Performance Report published by QueryClick, two-thirds are planning to invest in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The content marketing landscape is becoming increasingly saturated, and brands believe they need to find new ways to cut through the noise. Making better use of data is seen as essential for gaining a competitive edge. This approach will enable brands to understand how customers are using different channels and platforms, so they can serve up relevant messages at the right time.

150 chief marketing officers at enterprises that have an e-commerce site, and revenues exceeding £150m, were surveyed for the 2018 report. 66% said machine learning and the use of software applications and algorithms to learn and predict outcomes would dominate their spend in 2018 and early 2019.

Voice-powered search has not truly taken off yet despite the popularity of personal assistants, such as Alexa, but three-quarters of CMOs said they will overhaul their SEO strategies soon to have a better chance of ranking on the first page of voice search rankings. About 43% said this will happen during the next 12 months, while 32% expect to wait a little longer before doing so.

Just 3% of the brands surveyed said they had already optimised SEO for voice search queries. This area is of growing importance, as consumers are now making 50 billion searches by voice every month. Those that trailblaze could reap huge benefits in terms of driving traffic.

Influencer marketing is now maturing after bursting onto the digital scene several years ago, and 63% of CMOs said they would continue to invest in high-profile individuals, celebrities and other people to promote services and products. A recent report found influencer marketing soared by 198% last year.

“Consumer attention is under an unprecedented assault from brand messaging and content across more channels than ever before, and retailers are fiercely competing for their share,” QueryClick founder and CEO, Chris Liversidge, said. “Amidst the challenges, however, lie opportunities for retailers able to rebuild their strategies using data science to truly understand what consumers want, and consistently engage with them.”

Content marketing trends in 2018 have been dominated by personalisation and engaging with consumers across a growing number of digital touchpoints, so it is no surprise that brands are looking to new technology to improve how they approach this more complex undertaking and better drive their return on investment from general digital endeavours.

Liversidge added: “An investment in digital, including machine learning technology, that allows retailers to track and unify the customer journey across all channels, and allows them to deliver timely, targeted messages to capture demand, is fundamental to their success.”

A separate report published by Qualtrics last week found a quarter of marketers still rely on “gut instincts” rather than data analytics to inform decision making and campaign strategies. Two-thirds said they don’t have the time perform “complex analysis”.

Aimee

02/Jul/2018

Google is set to roll out a new “Speed Update” feature to boost mobile-optimised content in search engine rankings. A new study from Searchmetrics shows that pages tailored for smartphones are already performing much better overall.

The new update will arrive next month as Google continues its focus on serving up super-fast content on mobile devices. Time is certainly of the essence for brands that are not mobile-ready, as the study indicates they are already falling behind. Their poorer ranking results are likely to be even more pronounced when the update goes live in July.

Searchmetrics analysed thousands of organic mobile searches to gather the data for its study, titled Mobile Speed Study 2018. The major takeaway is that the content ranking at the very top of SERPs loads significantly faster compared to pages farther down the page. In many cases, the faster-loading content loads in less than a second.

Google has been at the forefront of mobile-optimised content with its AMP initiative, and the study found that pages using this open standard feature on the first page for six out of ten searches. Google says AMP doesn’t provide a boost to rankings by default, but it does provide a better user experience, which is one of the reasons why these pages perform so well.

“The research suggests there is already some correlation between page speed and mobile rankings − and Google’s Speed Update is only going to make this stronger,” Searchmetrics Director for Marketing & Communication, Cliff Edwards said. “So webmasters need to be continually testing and finding ways to optimise their web pages for speed. Overall this is going to mean plenty of work for many sites as even in the top five positions 32% of search results took longer than three seconds to load.”

The media industry was one of the first to adopt AMP en masse, and the study shows that 87% of media-related searches deliver at least one of these optimised pages. This result puts media well ahead of other sectors, such as finance (67%), travel (56%) and e-commerce (59%).

Edwards added: “While AMP content most commonly appears in topical news and media related searches – for which it was originally intended − it is also now seen in over half of the first page results in finance, e-commerce and travel searches. So there is evidence that some non-media sites are starting to take advantage of the user experience and speed benefits of AMP.”

Content consumption on smartphones is soaring around the world, so it makes sense for brands to optimise their content and SEO strategies to account for mobile’s growing dominance. The new Speed Update feature will finally make page load speed a determining factor in SERPs, and Google is likely to continue its push to serve up faster and more relevant content for users. Moving forward, brands still need to do more to ensure they are at the top of the pack in terms of quick-loading content.

Aimee

18/Jun/2018

In 2017, agencies and brands alike began to see the importance of digital marketing in targeting and connecting with niche audiences, the IAB Digital Video Centre of Excellence says. This was particularly evident with video ads. The results of the March 2018 survey of 353 media buyers and brand marketers conducted by Advertiser Perceptions indicated that 23% of video advertising budgets in many businesses are set aside specifically for ads on social media sites. IAB revealed the results of the survey in April, with 50% of all respondents claiming they intend to spend even more money on video ads over the course of the next 12 months.

Social media advertising spending

Ads on social media often incorporate video content in the form of advertisements on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Professional guidance can help these video ads to increase their click-through, conversion and customer acquisition rates. A third-to-a-half of a company’s advertising spending should be spent initially on content that allows scaling, according to Chamber Media’s Travis Chambers. As the advertising spending grows, content will need refreshing every quarter for a couple of reasons.

One reason is that content will become less effective as the audience watches that content multiply over time, and another is that social algorithms are aware of this and that content’s reach will also begin to decrease if there is not enough new content being uploaded. However, evergreen content can be served to new audiences continually and still retain its effectiveness. For high-converting mobile video, the most effective format is to have a hook within the first couple of seconds that will keep the viewer interested. Make sure both the problem and its solution are referenced very early, and then use humour, strong calls to action to entice a purchase, with press references and testimonials included to enhance credibility.

Strategies

With social media videos, many advertisers have rather polarised strategies, either being of a more traditional mindset and expecting to get results with a focus on brand awareness or more focused on e-commerce and immediate sales, often at the brand’s expense. These mindsets are correct together but not independently. Both avenues are required to achieve success, with several brands making huge top-funnel video adverts for social media but lacking any plan to ensure the customer stays engaged afterwards. Once the high funnel video has been served, it should be followed up to the same consumers with mid-to-low-funnel content that gives credibility, offers reminders and creates a sense of urgency, such as offers, origin stories and product demonstrations.

Mistakes to avoid

One easily avoidable but common mistake in regard to social media buying is viewing numbers in a vacuum, with many marketers examining ad platforms individually rather than as a whole. This mistake can result in a misinterpretation of failure when the opposite is true. A holistic mindset is vital when judging the effectiveness of campaigns. Another common mistake is using lower-paid junior ad buyers with limited experience, which rarely works out. It is far better to invest more in elite advertising buying talent, which over time can end up being worth millions.

Aimee

11/Jun/2018

Matt Hancock, the UK culture secretary, thinks that children should not be allowed to have overnight access to mobile phones, and he does not allow his own children to have them at all. However, he does not agree that the nation should follow the lead of the French government by creating legislation on the issue. Digital issues are included in Hancock’s brief, but the culture secretary says that while it is everyone’s responsibility, including parents, to ensure that children remain safe online, the government can make certain that internet companies properly police terms and conditions on their sites.

Hancock draws the line at the idea of more direct intervention by the UK government to control the level of exposure that children can have to new technology in a manner like that employed by the French. A law enacted in 2010 in that country bans phones from classrooms. Emmanuel Macron, the nation’s President, has gone even further, with youngsters under the age of 15 not allowed to use them at school at all from September this year. Hancock does not believe it is appropriate for the law to go this far, saying that society needs to mature to get the most from the “amazing and brilliant” technology instead of using it badly. However, he acknowledges that it is difficult for parents when children often understand the new technology more than they do and there are no previously established social norms to help them with guidance.

Despite this, Hancock is more stringent when it comes to other ways of regulating the internet, reiterating his intention to enact legislation forcing social media companies to be responsible for the content that is available on their platforms. He says that the UK may choose to craft its own legislation on the issue if an international coalition could not support such regulation. He made these comments ahead of the start of London Tech Week, which is designed to promote the digital industry in the nation’s capital city.

The rules regulating children’s access to the internet on many high-profile social networks have been tightened with the advent of the European General Data Protection Regulation. The law sets the minimum age that children should be allowed to have a social media account at 13, with fines of up to €20m or 4% of annual worldwide turnover, depending on which is higher, for those firms breaking that law. The age at which users can consent to data processing has also been set at 16 by default unless countries enact specific legislation to lower it. This action has already taken place in the UK, with the age lowered to 13 because of the Data Protection Act 2018. Several social networks have already tightened their practices as a result, although the government has given few details as to the nature of any possible future legislation on the issue.

Aimee

30/Apr/2018

Brands would be willing to boost their spending on online video ads and other forms of content if they could access timely and consistent reporting systems with improved transparency that gave them a complete understanding of how their campaigns are performing.

That conclusion is the major takeaway from a new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council member study titled “Engage at Every Stage: An Investigation of Video Activation,” which found that one-fifth of marketers are now spending less on ads, as they are not satisfied with the transparency of metrics and insights. Seven in ten brand leaders also admit that recent negative stories and headlines about online safety and advertising metrics have had a detrimental impact on their budgets.

The study found that 95% of marketers believe that digital media platforms must finally deliver reliable advertising measurements. The fact that just 3% agree on the “viewability” standards set out by the Media Rating Council highlights the scale of the task.

The lack of transparency has been a hot topic in the industry for a while now, as social giants, such as Facebook, continue to shift the goal posts and admit to making major errors in their recording of metrics. The unhappiness also stems from the fact that even though digital marketing and advertising can potentially have a positive effect on an enterprise’s growth and revenue, unreliable metrics remain a limiting factor.

“The frustration across the marketing ecosystem is palpable, and new headlines that breach trust and showcase systemic carelessness have inflamed the issue,” CMO Council marketing vice president, Liz Miller, said. “The industry as a whole must align on transparency and reliability. If we don’t live up to these expectations, we will see more accounts up for review and more orders being pulled. That’s not to say all is lost; there is still excitement about the next evolution in digital engagement, especially through online video content.”

Marketers are eager to glean more from their content investments and want the industry to deliver total transparency for reporting metrics, such as engagement, viewers and traffic. Almost half also want real-time access to intelligence, analytics and customer data, while a similar number want to know exactly how much they must spend to achieve specific performance outcomes.

ViralGains CEO Tod Loofbourrow added: “This research indicates that the timing is right for a massive revolution in digital video. Marketers can’t continue to judge success through superficial metrics like impressions when they are increasingly held accountable for driving meaningful, bottom-line results. Unfortunately, current industry solutions and standards are failing to facilitate this change on a number of levels—from antiquated definitions and measurements to massive breaches of data privacy.”

While there are growing concerns about transparency, 95% of the 233 senior marketing leaders surveyed said they would increase their investments in online video advertising in 2018, with a quarter planning to boost budgets by up to 25%. Loofbourrow concluded by saying that advanced technology and high-quality storytelling would enable marketers to generate the insights they need to drive more related messaging and improved results in the long term.

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60% of brands to spend more on digital marketing

Almost 90% of B2B audiences use search engines to find content

80% of brands say digital marketing efforts are successful

Retail brands to focus investment on machine learning and voice search

Faster loading content to rank higher in Google search

Effective use of video ads on social media

No legislation for children and tech in UK, culture secretary says

Chief marketers demand transparency for digital content