This Week in Digital Marketing - February 4, 2022

The latest marketing trends and updates are here and ready for you! Are you ready for them? Don’t worry. If you’re not sure which of these impacts your business the most, that’s what we’re here for!

The Marketing Black Box: Why Radical Transparency is Key
Why does marketing not get the focus and support it truly requires? And how can we earn more respect for marketing as a function while delivering outstanding results at the same time?

Marketing is often treated as an ancillary activity of the organization when it should be the primary activity. The lack of proper emphasis on marketing—and the incorrect precedence placed upon it—leads to unreliable growth and shortened CMO tenure.

The key to solving this problem is transparency. Marketing teams must operate more transparently, both internally and externally, to realize their full potential.

It might seem like a buzzword or an HR initiative, but transparency is the missing link to sustainable growth.

WordPress Releases Version 5.9:Joséphine
WordPress, which continues to lead the CMS market by a wide margin, has announced its new release, WordPress 5.9. Consistent with an almost twenty year tradition of naming major releases after jazz musicians, 5.9 honors the jazz singer and civil rights activist Joséphine Baker. Among the enhancements announced with the new release are:

• Full site editing making it easier to edit WordPress themes without using code (only for themes that support the new feature).
• Ten new blocks for site editing listed under Themes (including next post, previous post, post comments, etc.).
• The opportunity to save theme changes for specific templates or globally across the whole site.
• A new default theme (named “Twenty Twenty-Two”).
• New ways to customize and configure blocks.

Podcast Advertising Spend Surged in 2021
According to data released by advertising intelligence platform MediaRadar, spending on podcast advertising was up over 20% YoY in 2021. Q4 ad spend alone was $160 million, making a total of $590 million for the year. It is estimated that more than a third of Americans now listen to podcasts regularly. Technology brands became the biggest spenders, pushing media into second place.

Why we care: We say yet again, channels are proliferating. This means fragmented audiences, of course, but also potentially highly engaged audiences. Podcasts create the opportunity for focused contextual advertising as well as for more general brand messaging.

3 Tactics to Improve CTAs for Increased Relevance and Conversions
CTAs shouldn’t be an afterthought. Including them in your on-page optimizations can help strengthen your user journey and signal relevance to search engines.

1. Ditch the generic CTAs
2. Use your CTAs to strengthen the user journey
3. Prioritize differently-abled users

Let Consumers Tell You How They Want to be Contacted
Consumers don’t like being reminded to buy something. But they will tolerate it if they have some say in how they are notified.

Preference centers are emerging as a way for digital marketers to stay in touch with their customers without displeasing them. Brands can set-up a front-end where consumers can choose how often they want to be notified, through which channel, as well as what kind of information they are interested in hearing about.

How to Personalize Your Brand on LinkedIn
LinkedIn remains one of the best platforms to expand your brand’s network. That’s why so many companies are investing in influencers to personalize their interactions within the platform. But, with so many brands vying for audience attention, it can be difficult to remain competitive. Here’s three ways marketers can take their organization to the next level on LinkedIn:

1. Identify your brand’s influencer
2. Become a brand storyteller
3. Grow your influencing network

Google Search Console Snapshot in Search Results Now Can Show Domain Properties
Back in 2018, Google began showing a snapshot of your Google Search Console data and analytics in the web search results for verified properties. Now, Google will also show this snapshot for domain property verification methods, not just the older verification methods.

Why we care: Having this snapshot come up can be useful for site owners who have Search Console access but might not check their Search Console data too often. This is a useful reminder to those site owners that there is a treasure trove of data and information in Search Console that they can look at or hire an SEO agency to look at on their behalf.

5 Tips for Successfully Switching Email Service Providers
Moving to a new vendor can be complex. But with some help, you can make a smoother migration.

1. Develop a custom migration plan
2. Have your C-level executives endorse your migration
3. Establish priority for the migration work
4. Establish your own migration priorities and get help
5. Audit your existing programs

Google Q4 Search Ad Revenue: $43.3 billion
Alphabet, parent company of Google, released its earnings report yesterday for its fourth quarter. In it, we learned Google search advertising revenue increased 35% compared to the same quarter in 2020.

Overall, Alphabet reported Q4 revenue of $75.3 billion, up 32% from $52.8 billion vs. Q4 2020. For fiscal year 2021, Alphabet revenue was $257.6 billion, an impressive 41% increase from $182.5 billion in FY 2020.

Total Google advertising up 32.5%. In Q4, total Google advertising brought in $61.2 billion in revenue. In Q4 2020, that figure was $46.2 billion. “Total Google advertising” includes Google search and other, YouTube advertising, and Google Network. 

3 Social Media Trends Impacting Marketing in 2022
Although brands have been leveraging social media to market their products and services for over two decades, there have been major shifts in marketing practices over the past few years. New trends — spurred on by the ongoing pandemic and emerging technologies — are forcing marketers to continuously update their strategies. To help with this, here are three of the most important social media trends to look out for in 2022:

1. Virtual and augmented reality technologies
2. Personalized marketing content
3. Marketing influencers and detractors

How Denny’s Connects with Customers Through Social Media, Sports Marketing, and Updated Digital Experiences
Restaurant chain Denny’s has taken the opportunity to feature student athletes in an effort to continue to make an impact with younger diners while keeping momentum in their robust sports marketing play.

As all eyes will soon turn to hoops in next month’s March Madness, Denny’s is partnering with Stanford junior forward Fran Belibi as part of its continued effort to showcase underrepresented athletes, as well as to celebrate the return of Denny’s Super Slam breakfast deal.

Denny’s began a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) program featuring student athletes last fall, when it included football’s “often-forgotten” offensive linemen in the brand’s cross-collegiate All-Pancaker Team promotion.

Digital Marketing Snippets

• Pinterest will now be offering AR for their shopping pins, allowing users to virtually place a furniture item in their space to see how it would look and fit.
• Apple search ads are now out-performing Facebook Ads on iOS devices.
• Tumblr is looking to create an ad platform, and a large amount of their users are not on Snapchat or TikTok.
• Facebook Ads do not allow before and after ads to create an idealized experience. One of the best ways to get around this is to use a user-generated testimonial for the ad.

Some of this information is relevant to your business, and some of it might not be. This is where we can help. We’re able to break down these updates and figure out which ones are most important for you and your business. Contact us for a consultation!