Five Digital Strategies Run Off the Cliff in 2015

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." Howard Aiken

Apparently now is the time for prognosticating, so after a lot of contemplation and a three glasses of eggnog, here is what I see happening in 2015.

March. Mobile sites add more advertising inventory and drop content. By the time you read this the majority of web traffic will officially be mobile traffic. By March 6th, 2015, every one has frantically rebuilt their websites using responsive design, or at least they have added a mobile site to their digital mix in order to meet this change in consumer behavior. On March 7th, everyone realizes that while mobile site traffic is increasing exponentially, the average mobile site only has one 320x50 pixel ad per page. The average desktop site has 47 ad placements. So publishers immediately drop all content and replace it with advertisements in a frantic effort to make the 2015 sales budgets. "Thank goodness we caught this in time!", remarked one well known publisher.

Dateline May 10th... The Behavioral Targeting Riots start. Consumers have finally had enough of poorly executed behavioral targeting campaigns and take to the streets burning the buildings of the very companies implementing these campaigns. "At least the NSA follows me around in an unmarked van", cries one frustrated consumer. Fortunately each well designed splash page contains a Google Map making it easy to find these businesses. I still see targeted ads from a business I visited 1,056 days ago. And I only visited to get the address for a sales call. 

July. We run out of Hashtags. As everyone continues to invent new hashtags in a never dying effort to "keep cool" and build site traffic, on July 27th, 2015 we finally run out of hashtags. #OutOfHashtags, #ThankGodWeAreOutofHashtags Looks like we are going to have to invest in writing actual content to get noticed.

September. New Social Media Site Laws Take Effect. On Monday September 7th, in an effort to stop drunk and regrettable postings on all social media sites, Congress passes legislation forcing the deletion of all social media content within 7 seconds of posting, including any references involving congressmen since Fanne Fox and Wilbur Mills's 1974 misunderstanding in the Washington D.C Tidal Basin.

Christmas 2015. New Ad Tag guarantees you will get credit for sales attribution. Don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. On November 23rd, a new ad tracking tag goes live. Its sole purpose is to rewrite all existing ad tags with its own code as soon as you visit a web site, guaranteeing your campaign/website/program will get credit for the sale. 

Best wishes in the new year!

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” – Malala Yousafzai

How Beacons Send Ads To Your Phone

I could add some information and comments, but this article does a great job of explaining how beacons work in eight simple slides!

From Start To Finish, This Is How Beacons Send Ads To Your Phone While You're Shopping


Read more:  http://www.businessinsider.com/how-beacon-ad-campaigns-work-2014-12?op=1#ixzz3MGCHimu0

Mobile Traffic Reaches 50%. Does it Matter?

“The very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and inserting your message into their behavior.”

Recently I reviewed the Google analytics for 22 YMCA web sites to identify consumer traffic trends for 2014.  Research from eMarketer indicates that consumers continue to move their web access device of choice to mobile (smartphones and tablets).  “Combining online and mobile devices, however, eMarketer expects US adults to spend 5 hours 46 minutes with digital media daily this year, increasing digital’s lead over television to well over 1 hour per day.  That increase is almost exclusively attributable to mobile.”

I wanted to see the impact, if any, on the traffic to YMCA websites. Many businesses are now reporting that more than 50% of their site traffic is coming from mobile devices.  It makes sense, smartphones have outsold computers since the 4th quarter of 2011.  

These analytics covered 2.1 million web sessions from January 1st to November 23rd, 2014.  

We Are Going Mobile

• During the first six months of 2014, mobile traffic represented 46.2% of all traffic to these YMCA websites.
• From July 1st to November 23rd, mobile traffic represented 49.4% of all traffic, an increase of 7%.  Clearly consumers are increasing their use of mobile devices to access YMCA websites.
• Seven of the 22 web sites already generate more than 50% of their traffic from mobile devices.
• Based on current trends, it appears that mobile traffic will account for more than 50% of all YMCA traffic by the end of the first quarter of 2015.

Does It Matter?

What does this change in traffic mean to the “average” YMCA, if anything? This analysis includes a cross section of YMCA sites: 14 traditional web sites and 8 responsive design (mobile friendly) websites.

Mobile traffic for responsive design websites increasingly represents a larger portion of total site traffic.  Mobile traffic in responsive design sites is 46.7% of all traffic versus 45.8% of non-responsive sites. When consumers have a more engaging experience, they will visit more often and stay longer.

This may be a small difference, but the real difference comes from looking at the variances in bounce rates.

	Bounce Rates
January - June	Traditional	Responsive	Variance
Smartphones	53.40%	46.70%	14%
Tablets	44.70%	37.90%	18%
July - November 23rd	Traditional	Responsive
Smartphones	54.40%	47.68%	14%
Tablets	44.44%	39.57%	12%

Clearly the bounce rates are lower for responsive design sites. Responsive (mobile friendly) design leads visitors more easily to the content they are seeking.  

Your website is your digital storefront and for many member prospects it is their first impression of your organization.  Upgrading your website to responsive design (or at least offering a mobile site) is no longer an option. Consumer behavior now dictates it.

Turning Mirrors Into Windows

comScore reported in June that 60 percent of all online traffic now comes from mobile devices.

That is a 50 percent increase from the previous year.

Over the previous four weeks I have reviewed approximately 60 web sites for clients and prospective clients and none (zero) have a mobile friendly web site.  So I asked them what their plans were to make their websites mobile friendly for their clients and their sales prospects.  Here is a fairly typical response...

"Thanks so much for getting in touch.  We did redesign our website a few years back and are currently happy with it.  There are areas for improvement, but it isn't our priority this year or next year."

Ian Hartten is found of reminding me that we have "elected to join the fastest changing industry in history".  At times I admit that it is difficult to keep pace with all the changes.  But as digital marketers, it is our burden to keep pace.  And "the very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and inserting your message into their behavior".

Everyone I spoke to believed people were using mobile devices to access the web, but all were shocked at the accelerated pace at which this phenomenon had occurred.  Their decision to not have a mobile friendly website was not a conscious decision. It was a "sin of omission".  They simply did not realize how fast this change in consumer behavior had come about.

Mobile web traffic was measured at 20 minutes per day in 2010. By 2013 it rivals the amount of traffic generated by desktop devices, almost a full two hours per day more than in 2010.

This represents the fastest adoption of a media device in history. 

They didn't know because we hadn't told them.  A large part of working in the "fastest changing industry in history" is sharing knowledge.  Education.  Its all part of the job.

Be sure and share what you learn with others.  

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."  Sydney J. Harris

Facebook And The Malling of America

With the ongoing changes to Facebook, (Facebook Throttles Back Organic Reach...) I had a flashback to "The Malling of America".  In 1985 Charles Kuralt was quoted as saying "Twenty-five years ago, they weren’t here. Today they’re everywhere. What used to be farms or woods or country crossroads have become malls."

I had a front row seat to the "malling of America".  At the time I was working for Hickory Farms. Malls were falling over themselves to get Hickory Farms to open a retail store in their mall.  At the apex, we had 600 full time stores.  But as the developers filled their shopping centers, the power shifted. They still wanted national retail chains, only now they wanted them on their terms.  Rents escalated. Store design criteria changed - "We think your store should look like..." "Perhaps we can find room for you on the other side of the mall.  In the corridor leading to the petting zoo..."

And they could get away with it because they owned the real estate.  We were merely renters.

It occurred to me recently that this is the same struggle we have today with Facebook. "Come build you business with us! Everyone is welcome" said Facebook. 

But over the last 12 months, Facebook has changed its strategy.  In an effort to boost revenue, they started throttling back the number of followers who could see your postings. It used to be that your posts were shown to everyone who choose to follow you. Now if you post a message, only about 16% of your followers have a chance to see it.  Your options are to post the same message later and hope different viewers see it or you can boost your post by paying for additional feeds to your followers.

Now they are saying that News Feeds can longer look like or contain any elements of an advertisement.  "This is why we offer paid ads."

So we are back in the mall. Anytime you don't own the real estate, you are at the mercy of the landlord.  

While Facebook can still be a part of your marketing strategy (and there are a myriad of reasons to include it - reach, relatively low CPC and CPM, incredible targeting) I caution against allowing it to become your sole marketing program.

I still meet with business owners who are investing heavily in their Facebook presence while ignoring their own web site.  

Buyer (or lessee) beware.  

Interesting story came out after I posted this...

Forrester is advising marketers not to use Facebook if they want to build social relationships with their customers. 

"The internet is about to do to TV what it has already done to newspapers and radio."

According to an article in the Business Insider, "The death knell for the primacy of TV advertising has been ringing for some time, but we now know when to arrange the funeral: 2016."

Even though I am a diehard digital marketer, TV will not die in 2016.  The prediction says that marketers will spend more money on digital than TV starting in 2016, but much like the calls for the "death of radio" when TV came along, I think that TV will continue to be a very effective medium for reaching and influencing a large segment of the population long after this revenue transformation occurs.

Consumers switched their dominant media preference from TV to digital in the fourth quarter of 2013.  Now the evidence indicates that advertisers will follow suit.  Agreed.

But TV isn't going anywhere (unless the broadcast industry kills it).  According to the article - It's worth pointing out that this evidence doesn't point toward the death of TV networks and broadcasters (they sell a lot of digital ads too), but that marketers are increasingly pivoting their spend to focus far less around the 30-second digital spot. So it's the end of TV's dominance, rather than the end of TV.

In a lot of ways digital spending will follow the same path as TV.  For years one of the problems with TV marketing has been the decline in ratings among the broadcasters. Viewers simply have more choices (channels) to watch than they did 20 years ago.  The ratings decline did not happen over night.  There was no new "channel" that interrupted consumer's behavior.  It was the death by a thousand paper cuts.  Here is a chart showing the ratings of the highest rated show each season for the previous 50 years.  Do you see the trend?

Ironically, digital marketers are experiencing a similar problem. The proliferation of the shear number web sites and social media sites makes the "ratings" or audience penetration of a single site smaller every year.  Where do we put this new found money in a rapidly expanding universe and still see a return on investment for our clients?  This helps explain the rapidly rising interest in programmatic buying.  Chase the audience, not the web site.  But click fraud will help quell this trend until we find a way to deal with it.

I'll stop here and address this issue later.  For now, TV is still going to work with for a lot of advertisers.  Not as well as it may have 20 years ago, but what does?

US Hispanic Mobile Buyers More Inclined to Buy, Research on Device

eMarketer reports "US Hispanic mobile buyers also are more inclined to use their devices to research products with online product reviews as their most valued resource. While 53% of Hispanic mobile buyers looked for online product reviews on their smartphones and tablets, just 44% of non-Hispanics did the same." 

For the savvy marketer, this simply reminds us that the "very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and inserting your message into their behavior".

Digital marketing has evolved to the point that we are hunting consumers, rather than simply waiting for them to find us. Everyday, it becomes more difficult to simply launch a web site and employ SEO tactics and see site traffic and sales rise.  Part of your marketing plan has to include digital hunting.  

One of the reasons programmatic buying is so scary for publishers is that it undermines the value buyers see in their web site.  For years we have sold our web sites as an "audience of 'fill in the blank' and the best way to reach this audience is to buy our web site.

Programmatic buying starts with the buyer "observing consumer behavior" determining the audience they want to "insert their message into their behavior".  They are buying specific consumer behaviors, not web sites.  If your web site contains these consumers, great.  If not, we are chasing behavior not web sites.  Pass.  

And in today's market, programmatic buying yields a lower CPM to the average publisher than selling the web site brand.

We have to change with the times and the technology.  As Will Rogers reminds us, “Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.”   

Merry Christmas

Below is a link to one of my all time favorite advertisers and the history of their Christmas ads.  Storytelling at its finest.

Enjoy.

John Lewis' Christmas ads 2007 to 2013: from humble roots to national event

The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Daniel Pink is one of my favorite authors and his "To Sell Is Human" and "Drive" are two of my favorite books.

One of the most watched TED videos of all time is his discussion on the science of motivation.  If you don't want to spend the time reading his books, spend 20 minutes and watch the video.

Then you will want to read the books.

In essence he argues that the way modern management attempts to motivate employees is not supported by current science. If you have repetitive tasks that do not require creative problem solving, the standard incentive programs (i.e. money) work well.  But for today's problem solving business model, monetary incentive programs do not.  

Don't believe me.  Watch the video, read the books, examine the science yourself.

The Law of Leadership

In Al Ries & Jack Trout's 1993 marketing classic - The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Violate Them At Your Own Risk - the very first law is The Law of Leadership.  

"The basic issue in marketing is creating a category you can be first in."

Being first is a commanding position to occupy, especially as time goes on.  They go on to ask a fairly simply question, "What's the name of the first person to fly across the Atlantic Solo?"  

Charles Lindbergh.

Who was the second?  I sense silence.  

With every client, I spend time asking them what makes them different than the competition.  And I preface it by saying the answer is not "great employees, marvelous customer service, family owned, years in business, etc."  Everyone says these things, so no one can own this positioning.  It turns out that answering the question "what makes you better than the competition" is harder to answer than you think.  And for the record, few consumers really care how long you have been in business (it didn't help Montgomery Wards), they don't care that you are family owned, and they don't believe all of your employees are the very best.

What can you tell your clients and prospects about you and your business that makes you number one in their eyes?  

Frequently the answer stares you in face.  It can be a fact that everyone already knows, but nobody is claiming ownership of it.  In the pizza business it might be "We deliver rain or shine." Do all pizza companies deliver rain or shine?  Of course.  But if you are first to claim this position, you have the chance to own the position in the mind of the consumer.  When the other pizza chains start advertising that they also deliver rain or shine, are they leading or following?  In the pizza business today, you have to deliver.  Why not position yourself as the leader in delivery? 

What service do you provide that is important in the mind of your clients?

When you think of fast food and breakfast, who do you think of?  McDonald's.  They pioneered drive through breakfast.

If I say Pizza, Pizza, you think of Little Caesars.  At least around here.

The point is, find a relevant point about your business where you can be seen as a leader and claim it.  And keep in mind, if you don't tell the prospect/client, you will not receive credit.  

By the way, Bert Hinkler was the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Google 4 Wheel Drive Diversified

I was reading an article earlier today that talked about how you no longer needed to put a "Click Here" button in a display ad. "People know that you can click on an ad and it will take you to there advertiser's web site."  And it got me to thinking...

When I worked for the Local Fox Toledo station, I had a client who ran the most interesting TV campaign that I was ever involved with.  He bought short TV commercials - 5 seconds as I remember.  The message was easy to remember.  "Google 4 Wheel Drive Diversified".  

He knew he did not have a large budget and could not afford 30 second TV spots.  He could not pick and choose when his spots ran.  So he gave me a budget and said every time you can run one of my spots, do it.  Some months he had 100 spots.  Some he had 17.  And his web address was difficult to get out in 5 seconds and it certainly wasn't easy to remember - www.divtrk.com.

But he knew that Google would remember the address for him.

And the campaign drove a lot of traffic to his web site.

So I am going to try to use this approach in a digital format. For a client (to be named later) I am going to run a targeted display campaign that says "Need help with...  Google insert a client's name here".  To drive traffic to the client's web site.  

Bet it works.  I'll report back.

"Cruise it, use it or abuse it."

Spending on Digital Ads to Overtake TV in 2017

Magna Global said U.S. digital ad revenue would reach $72.0 billion in 2017, compared with TV ad spending of $70.5 billion. Last year, digital accounted for $43 billion, with Magna forecasting it will reach the $50 million mark this year. 

I think they meant $50 billion this year...

By comparison, digital media advertising is already bigger than total TV spending in such countries as the U.K., Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. The fact that digital isn't the biggest ad category in the U.S. "shows the strength and resilience of television in the U.S. compared to other advanced ad markets despite the current plateau in viewing," Magna said.

Nothing new here.  This trend has been apparent for several years now. Consumers already spend more time with their digital devices than their TV.  eMarketer reported in August 2013,  "The average adult will spend over 5 hours per day online, on non-voice mobile activities or with other digital media this year, eMarketer estimates, compared to 4 hours and 31 minutes watching television."

Advertisers (and the advertiser's money) are simply following the consumer's behavior.  

My surprise is that the flow of money has not moved to digital more quickly.  I am surprised that more marketers are not proactively taking advantage of this trend towards digital engagement.  This is a generational opportunity  to get in front of the largest change in consumer behavior since the launch of TV.  

You have to hand it to the broadcast and cable industry.  They have done an admirable job of hanging on to advertiser's budgets in the face of a dominating change in consumer behavior.  Of course over the long haul, I am convinced that this trend will reverse itself.  

As shown in the diagram below, the newspaper industry has not figured out how to successfully re-invent itself in the face of consumer change.

"At the American Enterprise Institute’s Carpe Diem blog, Mark J. Perry finds that print ad revenues are now the lowest they've been since 1950, when the Newspaper Association of America began tracking industry data."

Borrell Associates, in their 2014 Benchmarking Local TV Stations Online Revenue, talks about the importance of capturing digital in local markets to offset the impending loss of broadcast dollars.  

Much of the the good news in Broadcast TV comes from the relatively new (2008) explosion in retransmission fees.  These are fees that local broadcast stations now charge cable and satellite companies to rebroadcast their signal.  

The problem is that TV ratings continue to decline.  There are more programs and channels to watch than ever before.  But the net result of this fragmentation is that the audience watching an individual show continues to decline.  (Consumer behavior).  So the biggest hits of today (excluding special events like The Super Bowl) - NBC Sunday Night Football - generated a 12.8 rating last year.  In 1952, I Love Lucy generated a 67.3.  In the 1960's the highest rated show was Gunsmoke at a 40.3.  In the 1970's All In The Family topped the charts at a 34.0.  1980's - The Cosby Show was the only show that topped a 30 rating.  In the 1990's, ER generated a 22.0.  Notice a trend?  

Over the next few years, we are going to see an increased shift in advertising dollars into digital marketing.  And much of this shift will come at the expense of TV.  Look how the change in consumer behavior decimated the newspaper industry.  Most TV broadcasters have done an admirable job at trying to increase their expertise into the digital arena over the previous 5 years, but many are still saddled by a management team at the local market level that talks about the digital transition, but still lives and breathes TV, at the expense of digital revenue.  In many cases, digital, even their own products, is the competition.  

"The very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and insetting your message into their behavior."

Facebook - I Knew It Would Work!

Social Marketing 

Interesting article on eMarketer.com today.  Paid Social Ads Convert More Customers.  

It turns out that paid ads are out performing organic content on Facebook.  "Paid ads on social networks do have better conversion rates than organic content."

I believe this is happening for two reasons.  First, the targeting abilities for Facebook continue to improve. Any information that you voluntarily added to your Facebook account - single, married, divorced, engaged, work, education, birthdate, gender, interests, relationships...  You get the idea...  Allows marketers to target you with ads.

Facebook's abilities to target specific consumer segments continue to deliver to advertisers.  For example, we used Facebook to target ads for a client sponsoring a "Wedding Expo".  Facebook allowed us to target single, engaged, females, 21-45, within 50 miles of Toledo.  This audience targeting allowed us to reduce the Facebook distribution from 380,000 "individuals" to 5,200 women who fit the target defined above. 

The second and equally as important a reason - "Mutability is life's sole constant" - is the changes Facebook makes in its algorithm for posting to your news feed.  When Facebook launched, everything you posted to your timeline was viewable to everyone connected to you through fans/likes.  As Facebook evolved its revenue model, it found it profitable to throttle back the number of followers that could view your postings into their timeline.  Today it is estimated that your posts are only able to be viewed by 16% of your followers. This "select 16%" is controlled by a complicated algorithm that weighs a variety of factors, but they try to weight your followers and display only the most pertinent posts to the followers they feel are the most connected to your post.

If you want more of your followers to see your newsfeed posts, you will need to use Facebook's Boost program.  After posting your message, you can click on the Boost icon on the bottom right of your post.  If you want to see how this works, follow this link for Facebook Boost.  In addition to boosting distribution to your own followers, Boost allows you to target new audiences based on - you guessed it - the information you surrendered to Facebook as you set up and modified your Facebook account.

So now you know how it pays to be social.  If you want to learn more, shoot me an email....  Jeff@ThriveIM.com.  

P.S. Just saw a great article that talks more about Facebook targeting...  Here is the link... 


What Facebook's Evolving Social Graph Means for Content Marketers

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2014/25933/what-facebooks-evolving-social-graph-means-for-content-marketers#ixzz3D2CfrSTF  

Dark Side of the Moon

Marketing automation is all the rage...  Big data is the way...  Fill your pipeline with hundreds of qualified leads...


This too will change.

I have answered your call.  "Three Tips to Increase Your PPC ROI by 1500% in Three Minutes!"  Click here to download now....  

I know what is coming.  "First we are going to need your name.  And email address.  Company name.  Number of employees.  Title.    Marketing budget."

"Now please select the reason you are downloading this article."  

• Immediate Action!
• Acting in the Next 3 Months.
• 3 to 6 months.
• Planning for next year.

What is frequently missing is "I just wanted to read the article."

Now I am in your Marketing Automation System and the cogs start turning.

Don't get me wrong I am a big proponent of marketing automation (MA) when done right.  There is nothing wrong with automating monotonous, repetitive tasks.

But I am concerned about the sophistication (or lack of...) of some systems.  I am starting to think that MA systems are becoming a crutch, rather than a tool.  Are we (sales people) becoming lazy and a little too dependent on these systems?  

There is software to monitor everything we do today.  And somewhere along the line we have decided that simply being active is a good thing.  If you have enough in "your pipeline", sales will follow.

But what if the "leads" in your pipeline aren't really leads?  

I am inquisitive.  I enjoy reading about the latest trends in digital marketing, so when I see an article about the latest in PPC, I will take the time to "download the white paper".  (And as many of you know, if I do have an interest, I will hunt you down...)

But now I am in their MA system and I realize that I will receive their automated messages for the foreseeable future.  Today I received one of my favorites...

I saw you downloaded a whitepaper titled, "Performance Marketing 2.0", awhile ago. Awesome! I'm sure it's been valuable to you.

Actually it was not valuable to me.  I haven't even had time to read it. 

Followed by "Are you the person responsible for...."

Sorry.  I rarely "self prospect" by answering these automated emails (especially if I have no interest).  

If their marketing automation system offered the "No Thank You, Just Reading" option, my inbox would not be filling up with their messages that have zero chance of being read.  Hang on, my phone is ringing...  "Jeff - it's Justin from ABC Amazing Marketing and I noticed you downloaded our paper...."

Perhaps I would have received a single email.  "Jeff, I hope you enjoyed the article.  I see that you have no immediate needs, you are simply inquisitive.  If you ever have any questions about ABC Amazing Marketing, please don't hesitate to contact me.  In the meantime I will send you a Linked In invitation.  If you would like to stay in touch, please accept it..."

I have always believed that "people do business with people, not businesses".   

When you are online hunting for prospects and designing your questions for white papers - remember some of us are simply curious.  Allow us an out so you don't waste resources tracking a "prospect" that never existed.

I thank you.