Why CMOs Need To Be Bullish On Programmatic Advertising

Before I get to my thoughts on why CMOs need to be bullish on programmatic advertising, let's first take a look at just what programmatic advertising is. 

We define it simply as “Automated advertising buying coupled with machine learning.” However, there are no shortages of definitions of the term programmatic advertising.

“Programmatic ad buying typically refers to the use of software to purchase digital advertising, as opposed to the traditional process that involves RFPs, human negotiations and manual insertion orders. It's using machines to buy ads, basically.” -Digiday

“Programmatic advertising helps automate the decision-making process of media buying by targeting specific audiences and demographics.” -Marketing Land

The first definition helps explain it in very simply terms whereas the second helps explain what it does. 

In terms of the different types of programmatic advertising, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)-which is an industry organization geared toward ensuring standards across the advertising ecosystem-there are two types of programmatic buying (the process in which you're buying advertising):

1. Programmatic Direct

Also known as Premium Programmatic Advertising, this is an automated technology-driven method used for buying, selling, or fulfilling advertising. It provides for an Automated Guarantee Systematic automation of sales process. No insertion order (IO) or master services agreement (MSA) covered within the partnership.

2. Programmatic Real Time Bidding (RTB)

Two types of RTBs are Open Auction (audience targeting) and Private Marketplace Deals-which require a private marketplace and allow for fixed pricing and data overlays. We are beginning to see more and more of this type of programmatic advertising being used every day. 

Why CMOs Need To Be Bullish On Programmatic Advertising 

The shift to programmatic tactics means a few things for marketers and the industry as a whole. In essence, it has validated and delivered against the need for data-driven, and accountable ROI-based media delivery. Additionally, it has enabled an efficient method for publishers to monetize core inventory. 

In a nutshell, programmatic advertising aligns media with brand lift metrics for real ROI and only spends money where it will be effective. 

And it would appear that many of your fellow CMOs are planning on being bullish as eMarketer predicts that in 2016 programmatic TV spending will climb 127.8% to $710 million and by 2018 will account for 6% of all TV ad spending.

The New Currency of Advertising

Digital delivery and content is the new currency of advertising. Brands must find a way to connect while measuring returns on more than recall or click through rate (CTR). Only programmatic platforms can deliver that value.

Download The Programmatic Guide for Modern Marketers, Publishers, and Media Planners to learn how to deliver advertising that enhances the customer experience and a lot more. 

The Poor Man's Marketing Stack: How to Hack Marketing Automation

There are over 2,000 marketing technology companies today.

Each one doing something a bit different, filling some unique yet critical need.

That means on a daily basis, marketers might choose from 100 different software programs to fulfill relatively basic tasks.

That inspired somebody, somewhere, to misappropriate the word 'stack' from the development world to describe how a particular company might be aligning all their pieces of a marketing and sales pie.

The result often becomes a head-bangingly frustrating process where you're piecing together several to deliver a single campaign.

Sure, you could opt for an all-in-one solution like HubSpot. But it's also F&*#@*G expensive.

What if you don't have that kind of loot?

Here's how you can use even the most basic, inexpensive or free pieces of software to replicate sophisticated marketing automation and business process hacks.

How to Eliminate Bottlenecks with App-Connecting Tools

Marketing automation, when implemented properly, has the power to increase leads by 451% and boost sales by 34%.

But… a shockingly high 85% of B2B marketers admit to not using it correctly.

The secret 'inbound marketing lie' that no-one wants to admit is how F-ing time consuming this stuff is.

Not to mention, if you don't have the right tool setup, it's nearly impossible to pull off.

HubSpot is amazing. I'm a super happy partner and advocate. It makes marketing automation relatively easy to implement at scale. But most can't (or won't) fork over the ~$10k a year. That's completely understandable.

When I started consulting, there was no way my clients or I could afford it either. (Although there is a compelling argument for making your money back relatively quickly if you're using any all-in-one, database driven tool properly.)

That led to an endless search for tools that played well natively. Existing integrations between key pieces of software, like hooking up Gravity Forms with MailChimp, can make your life 10X easier.

But it's difficult to construct an entire marketing funnel with only tools with native integrations. And it's not realistic, as other departments or teams within your organization will probably have their own tools that need to work seamlessly with yours.

Fortunately, tools like Zapier and IFTTT (If This Then That) began popping up to help solve this problem.

They're pretty basic once you get the hang of it. Simply connect two applications, create a 'trigger' (the thing that starts this process in motion) and an 'action' (what happens when the trigger is, well, triggered).

For example, Gravity Forms (an excellent WordPress plugin) can then automatically send new form submissions to your favorite CRM like Contactually – even though there's not native integration between these two applications.

Best of all, with a little ingenuity, you can use them to re-create a marketing stack and begin automating your marketing.

We're going to walk through examples in a minute, but first the theory.

Get Started by Outlining Your Marketing Funnel Steps

In an ideal world, strangers find out who you are and develop interest and trust in your brand before agreeing to become a customer.

Digital marketing 101 talks about creating a seamless customer experience by creating tactics that align with each stage of the buyer's journey:

• Awareness: A stranger becomes aware of some problem in their life.


• Information: They begin looking for ways to help solve said problem.


• Evaluation: Recognizing a need, they begin actively searching for a solution between different alternatives.


• Decision: They make the conscious decision to move forward with the alternative that best meets their criteria.

Sophisticated tools can help you hit all of these points without ever switching around. But that's gonna be tough with inexpensive software that typically specializes in one small area or another.

So instead, the goal is to recreate what these other platforms can do, moving people logically from one step to the next when they're ready. Ideally, in the most automated and simplistic fashion possible.

The goal is to recreate what HubSpot and other sophisticated (read: expensive) marketing automation software does, for a fraction of the price.

Sounds nice in theory, right?

But practically, how would that look?

• Awareness: A new lead converts on a landing page, getting added to your email marketing software.


• Information: As the lead begins searching for more information on your site and interacting with other resources, they should be added and removed from other automated marketing sequences to continue nurturing.


• Evaluation: Once the lead begins getting serious about considering you as a solution, they need to be updated in your CRM system as such and qualified (if appropriate).


• Purchase: If they decide to move forward with you, things need to be paid, they need to become a customer or client, and their project or account needs to be set-up immediately.

The important thing to note here isn't the tools themselves, but your process or workflow. Once that's defined, you can figure out which tools might be best to slot in each category. For example, even the free Google Contacts might be a good CRM choice (and it integrates easily with Zapier).

Enough small talk though.

Let's take a look at each stage of this funnel to see how you can use Zapier to recreate steps that typically only expensive marketing automation platforms deliver.

Awareness: Landing Page to Email Marketing

Rule #1 of Permission Marketing (which pre-dated Inbound Marketing by, oh, like a decade) is to get somebody to give you their info in exchange for something of value, allowing you to continue following up with that person over time.

This can be old school, like an email address. Or new school, like their Snapchat… um, err… I have no idea what these kids call it.

In any event, the process is the same.

We already spoke about Gravity Forms, which can be used to power basic eBook forms to collect submissions.

But how about something a little more complex, like a webinar?

Zapier integrates easily with GoToWebinar, allowing you to capture new registrations (and even new attendees).

This is perfect if you'd like to add these new registrations to an email list.

Even better, is if you create an automated workflow in for a specific email list for the upcoming webinar. That way, you can continually send out new messages to the contact to make sure that they attend the event (thereby boosting your Attendance Rate).

MailChimp is perfect for this. The pricing is very affordable, especially considering the beautiful templates, ease-of-use, and pretty decent automation options. Plus, that damn Chimp is so cute.

Simply select the upcoming webinar, add the new registration to a specific list in MailChimp, and you're done.

Easy peasy.

But… what happens if people DO (or DON'T) show up? What happens if they DO (or DON'T) take you up on that customary end-of-webinar call-to-action?

You gotta update their status.

Information: Email Marketing Updates

Let's say that you're getting clever now, and that you'd like to create two different sets of messages based on if people did or didn't attend your webinar.

Obviously, getting this right is important because if somebody receives the wrong email it could damage your credibility.

There are a few ways to do this, but the most straightforward is to simply create two additional lists in your email marketing service – one for those who do show up, and one for those who don't.

THEN, you'll want to unsubscribe people from the initial list (like the original webinar registration one) and add them to one of the new lists you created based on their actions.

Most basic email marketing services don't have this feature already. However you can create a simple Zap to take care of it for you.

Another example where this comes in handy is if you offer a free trial or demo.

In that case, you don't want a new lead (or even customer) to continue receiving promotional messages. Fortunately this same simple little hack, creating different lists for different segments of people, being unsubscribed automatically when they join a new list, can take care of a lot of the headache.

Evaluation: New Lead to CRM to Qualify (or Disqualify)

So far you've been nurturing this new lead with a few different campaigns or tactics. Everything's gone well so far and they're ready to get serious.

For product or software companies this is straightforward and easy: they download the discount or join the free trial and either purchase (or not).

However it's a little more complicated for service companies.

How do you know if the lead is any good? You can't just agree to speak with everyone nutjob who fills out your form (and there will be plenty, believe me).

You can start by filtering your results, setting up qualifying questions in your forms to make sure that you're tailoring your follow-up process accordingly.

For example, you can set-up different zaps between products based on how people answer a specific question.

Now you can begin segmenting the people who ARE interested in your services, with the tire kickers who are primarily interested in wasting your time.

But you still have no idea if they're even a good lead or not.

To be on the safe side, let's automatically send an email to someone in your company to qualify each new prospect who's interested in your services.

Simple! Just use Gmail based on the form filtered submission you just set-up. You can even pre-craft the message, pulling in form data, along with helpful links for the person who's helping you to know exactly how you want them to be qualified (delegation FTW!).

You can send this email to an assistant, employee, or whomever, and at the same time create a new project management task to make sure they'll see it immediately as it comes in (along with a due date to make sure each lead is followed up with ASAP).

With a few simple steps and some foresight, you've just set-up and delegated the first few steps of your sales process.

Congrats!

But you're still not quite done yet. What happens when those people decide to pay you money?

Decision: New Client to Point of Sale and Project Management

Again, product or software transactions are insanely straightforward.

When someone wants to become a customer, they whip out a credit card and it takes a few seconds. Then you can update your email or contact lists accordingly with the previous tips.

However what if this is a larger transaction?

First, you can automatically create a new Freshbooks invoice when someone fills out an appropriate form. You can even have someone fill this out internally while on the phone with a new client-in-waiting.

Freshbooks already integrates with both Stripe and PayPal (along with a few others), so you can even take this a step further by automating all of the tasks related to onboarding new clients too.

For example, let's create a new Dropbox folder for each client when a successful first payment is made.

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Pretty helpful. But let's keep going.

Let's also create a new TEMPLATED project in your favorite project management tool (like Asana in this case).

Just like we did earlier with the email message to qualify a new lead, you can select a pre-built template for the new client to get everything set-up in seconds (rather than hours).

Best of all, there's no shortage of tips or tricks here. If you take notes during your Kick-Off Call with Evernote, a task can immediately be created in your PM tool to make sure these notes are added to the client's project accordingly.

A Time-Saving Caveat

Tools like Zapier or IFTTT open up a brand new world of possibilities.

It's super interesting and you can geek out on this stuff for HOURS if you're not careful.

Just think about all of the possibilities you can accomplish if even the most basic software options like Gravity Forms and MailChimp can do this stuff.

But don't start with the tools.

Instead, start with the process. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? How should people move seamlessly through your own marketing funnel?

Begin by setting up the basic stuff and testing as you go. Once you've got the process down, it's easy to dive into the details and begin customizing each little aspect.

For example, just start by automating how each new lead is followed up with. Then you can get clever with implementing different marketing campaigns that funnel down to this step.

Not only with this approach save you tons of time on the front-end, but you'll drastically increase your odds of this system delivering better results too.

About the Author: Brad Smith is a founding partner at Codeless Interactive, a digital agency specializing in creating personalized customer experiences. Brad's blog also features more marketing thoughts, opinions and the occasional insight.

Report: TV time holds but digital channels dominate for 18 – 49 year olds

In a totally fragmented media environment marketers need to carefully test channels to determine which ones can effectively reach desired audiences.



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10 Tried and True SEO Tactics That Will Pull You out of a Traffic Slump

We've all faced disappointing traffic numbers and even heart-stopping dives.

It happened to me recently on this website. Two years ago, I was blogging along as usual, when wham, my traffic dropped!

As it turns out, it was a random algorithm update that killed things for a week or two. Several tweaks later, I was back up to even higher numbers than before.

I understand that algorithms can change, audiences can leave, and a website can suffer from penalties.

But I'm also convinced that there's no reason to settle for low traffic.

How can I be so confident? Because I faced it. I dealt with it. I recovered.

I've come up with 10 SEO tactics proven to boost traffic.

If you're feeling skeptical right about now, I understand. I am sure plenty of SEO snake oil salesmen have tried to convince you that [insert some random weird hack here] could boost your SEO.

I don't give advice that doesn't work or hasn't worked for me and my clients. These tactics actually work.

And here's a quick comment before you dive into the tactics. I've intentionally avoided all the obvious stuff because you'd already have already tried that.

These techniques are relatively advanced. However, with the right skillset and a bit of patience, I know that you can master each technique and enjoy the boost in traffic. 

1. Infiltrate Google's Knowledge Graph and the global knowledge base

Do you know where Google Knowledge Graph gets its content from?

Wikidata.

Wait, what the heck is Wikidata?

Wikidata is a community-driven initiative that belongs to the Wikimedia organization. They own a bunch of Wiki sites serving information content in a variety of languages.

It's easy to see that once you get into Wikidata, either as a company or as a reference, your business will benefit in terms of exposure and traffic. Plus, a link from any of the Wiki sites is worth its weight in gold.

Many organizations pull data from the Wiki sites. The most important of them all is Google.

The content that gets featured in the Google Knowledge Graph is from Wikidata.

Do you see now why it's important?

Getting inside Wikidata seems easy on paper, but it isn't. Here's how you can get a free pass:

• The first thing to do is to read and understand the guidelines.


• The next step is to write an authoritative piece based on a primary keyword, organization, or individual in your niche. It must be factual and non-promotional.


• Now create a website, page, or subdomain that defines the concept and contains comprehensive information, including all the pain points related to the keyword.  For example, if you are in the fashion industry, you can talk about fashion in general, the problems faced by manufacturers, the common pitfalls of using some equipment, the secret lives of fashion models, and so on.


• Next, jump into the Wikidata community, and socialize. Don't create a topic until you have contributed positively to the community and established your own personal vibe. If a new member jumps in and creates a topic, it could be flagged by the editors. You should try to create a topic that doesn't already exist in the community.

Here's an example:

Let's say you sell products related to the fashion industry, specifically industrial sewing machines. One of your top sellers is the Brother brand.

Here's what you should do:

• Use Google to check whether information on Brother sewing machines shows up in the knowledge graph. I checked. It doesn't. There's no knowledge graph for Brother sewing machines as of 8 June 2016.


• Write an exhaustive piece on Brother sewing machines on your subdomain or the website you have specifically created for sharing knowledge.


• Create a topic on Wikidata (for example: History, Evolution, Pros and Cons, and Current Status of Brother Sewing Machines) and choose a channel to publish your data on (any one of the Wiki properties; in my case, Wikipedia).


• Write your statements, and link to appropriate references. You must link keywords and brands to public documents (use the documents hosted on Wiki sites), and one of your links or references must be to the site you created.

Your page must be strong and backed by data. Fluffy or thin pages are deleted by the editors.

You can even add social media URLs to the reference pages. It would be a good idea to create a group discussion on LinkedIn related to the topic, and link it as a reference on your Wiki page.

In addition to this, you must go to each Wiki site and edit or contribute to topics that contain your keyword. Don't forget to write an authoritative piece on your subdomain or website and link to it as a reference. For the example above, the keywords would be fashion, sewing, clothing, models, etc.

2. Get into Google News

News articles get pulled by Google on two SERPs-the traditional SERP you're used to and the News section.

You may not have thought of Google News as a traffic source, but consider my point. It's a traffic wellspring!

Check out this screen shot:

To get into Google news requires perseverance, honest reporting, cutting-edge articles, and regular updates.

If you are up to it and want your website to show up on the Google News SERP, here's what you should do:

1. Start a “News” section on your blog/site.
   
   Update it regularly (1-2 newsy posts a day is a good practice).


2. Publish authoritative, unique, original, and newsworthy content. For research, set up a Google Alert for keywords in your niche.


3. Informational articles such as how-tos and guides do not qualify. Every post must be newsy.


4. Do not publish aggregated content.


5. Every news article you write must be authoritative.


6. The byline of each post must be linked to the author's profile, which should contain their contact information and links to their social media profiles.


7. Follow the Google quality guidelines before starting your news section.


8. You need to subscribe to a paid Google account to become a Google News Partner because you can't get in with a free account. The best thing is to sign up for a Google Apps email account, available for as low as $5 per month (https://apps.google.com/pricing.html).


9. Finally, start publishing, and enroll as a Google News Partner after building up sizeable content (at least 50 pages).

Yeah, it reads like a slow process, but it's worth millions!

3. Register with Google Posts

Heard of Google Posts?

Let me rephrase.

Have you ever seen a carousel on Google SERPs? Something like the image below. Notice the section outlined in red:

The posts contained in such carousels are Google Posts.

Google Posts isn't commercially launched yet. There's a waitlist, and you must get on the waitlist.

Google Posts allows verified and prominent individuals and organizations to create content (text, images, videos) on the fly and publish instantly. Once the posts are published, they will be visible on Google SERPs when a user searches for topics and keywords within that niche.

The hassle, of course, is that you can't start using Google Posts immediately. If you are an established organization or a prominent individual, you should sign up and reap the benefits when it goes live.

4. Use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) HTML/JS

AMP is a new coding standard, and the way it is shaping up, it seems that it will go on to become a global HTML coding best practice.

I highly recommend you research it and implement what you can.

Think of AMP HTML as regular HTML with some restrictions that reduce clunkiness and help generate reliability.

AMP HTML (and JS) increases the loading speed of your web pages, which is an extremely important factor. This protocol is on its way to become a huge ranking factor.

Google has already included it in its Search Console, and many web developers around the world are quickly adopting it.

Remember the time when Google made mobile-friendly design a ranking factor?

Developers were slow to pick up on it, and when their site rankings dropped, there was panic.

That's why I encourage you to get started on AMP right away and to keep your site AMP-ready. Moreover, AMP will make your pages load faster, which will help you rank higher and attract more traffic.

5. Use the Skyscraper Technique

Did you know it was Brian Dean of Backlinko who coined the term Skyscraper Technique?

Although it's simple when you think of it, it requires some pretty intense work.

Does it work? Yes, it does. Sites with traditionally low traffic or in traffic slumps have experienced an uptick in traffic after using the technique.

Here's how you should exploit it:

First, simply research the top-shared content in your niche. You can use BuzzSumo or EpicBeat.

Next, you should:

• Select 2-3 top posts in your niche. These will serve as the basis for your research.


• Write a better and more in-depth article (with a new title). You can do this by picking up the phone and interviewing appropriate experts, reading industry white papers, or checking out research reports. There are plenty of ways to improve upon what currently exists.


• Market your article. Try to market it on the same channels and groups as the original article. I have no doubt that your article will be picked up and talked about.

Result: Traffic, shares, and more traffic.

6. Create an FAQ page in your niche

There are three things you must be aware of:

1. Personal assistants, such as Siri, and voice search tools, such as Google Voice search, are getting smarter by the day. Google also recently unveiled the Google Assistant, an AI like Siri, at its I/O Conference.


2. The number of people using their personal assistants to help them with their online search or scheduling tasks as well as the number of voice searchers are growing each day.


3. Most voice searches or requests typically start with a question word (what, when, how, where, which, etc.).

One of the key takeaways from the Google I/O developer conference notes was that over 20% of the searches on the Google app on Android in the US were performed by voice.

I don't have the stats for Siri, but if you put two and two together, it's easy to infer that your SEO must be ready for voice search/voice assistants because its use will keep increasing over time.

How will you get your website ready for voice search?

By developing an FAQ page in your niche.

An FAQ page can easily leverage both the question word and the keyword/correlated keywords.

How will you collect data for your FAQ page? Here are some ideas:

• Learn about the pain points faced by consumers in your niche. You can learn about these online (forums or social media) and by conducting a customer survey.


• Visit government and non-profit websites where people complain about products and marketing tactics.


• Check out Amazon and eBay for product complaints/nasty reviews (in your niche).


• Buy an e-book that talks about the pros and cons of your niche.


• Make a list of the questions that a lot of customers have in common.

Finally, take all this research and create a giant FAQ page that is neatly divided into categories.

Make each question shareable, and write detailed and helpful answers. Do this, and you'll quickly get some traffic to your site.

7. Become an expert in your niche

Sounds like a tall order, right?

But it's not as difficult as you think.

You can increase your website's traffic by growing your personal brand. I spent about a decade cultivating my personal brand. I then used that personal brand to boost traffic and generate high-converting leads, creating several multi-million dollar businesses.

You can do the same. Here is how.

Start sharing your knowledge tactfully and helping others without giving away your business secrets.

First, register at Q&A sites such as Quora, Yahoo Answers, and WikiHow. Join LinkedIn groups, and reach out to other sites in your niche that could benefit from your guest authorship or input.

Start answering questions and helping users. Do not promote your business or link to your website.

If your answers are helpful, users will start requesting your help. When you see help requests coming in, it's time to strike (in a good way, of course).

From this point on, help people, but link back to your article or site when you do so.

Followers and browsers will follow your link, and your site traffic will multiply like crazy.

Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn, and Quora are liberal with links, but WikiHow has a tough backlinking policy, so be careful. Whatever you do, be polite, and write factual helpful information.

8. Don't spread yourself too thin

Many website owners do all the right things and still wonder why their traffic volume is static (or decreasing).

The answer could be that you may be doing too many of the right things.

There are tons of SEO and content marketing tips available on the web, and while reading as much as possible is a good thing, trying to do everything may prove to be counterproductive.

Content marketing is performed on social media and blogs, which are user-driven. Viewers expect the writer or poster to interact with them and follow up on their articles.

If you're into excessive content marketing, you won't have time to interact. You'll also feel burnt out doing too many things at the same time.

My advice is to stick to three or four social media channels (Facebook and YouTube are important). Once your traffic and sales increase, you can consider hiring someone to handle other social channels.

9. Influencing the influencers

You may have heard that influencer marketing is dead, but I can guarantee you that if any influencer links to your post, a swarm of traffic will follow.

Now, you cannot overtly approach an influencer and request that person to promote your content. Why? Because the minute the influencer reads your first line, they'll understand what you want. Honestly, it's a turnoff.

Influencers receive hundreds of content promotion requests every month. They can spot one from a distance.

Here's what you can do instead. Influence and motivate the influencer to share your content.

I'll show you how you can attempt that with an example.

Let's say I am targeting “men's fashion” as my keyword phrase. I Googled “top blogs on men's fashion.” There are plenty of meaty results:

I visited one top blog, Off The Cuff, and found it was founded and owned by Christopher Hogan.

Next, I visited Christopher Hogan's Twitter page. It looks like he tweets often, and some of his tweets are about formal fashion in different seasons (he has 3,300 followers. It's a bit low, but there's a twist in the tale).

That gave me an idea-a content strategy that can be endorsed by many influencers (with a gazillion followers).

Here's what I'd do next:

• Check around the other top blogs. Figure out which bloggers have thousands of followers on Twitter or Facebook.


• Read their posts/tweets. Search for their interviews online to figure out what motivates them.


• Create an article (or video or infographic) based on my research. If I wanted to influence Christopher Hogan, I would create an infographic or write an article based on formal fashion for men for summer. I would stock the items that feature my content in my online store. I could perhaps title it “Men's Formal Fashion for The Summer Inspired by Christopher Hogan Designs” (or some other designer).


• I would then tweet it to him or post on his FB page. If it appeals to him (and it should because I would have spent a whole lot of time and love making it), he will share it. That would get me targeted traffic that has the potential to convert.


• Even if he doesn't retweet, I know I'm sitting on killer content bound to get noticed by guys who strut around in formals during the summer.

What I have given you is just an example. And it's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential of this technique.

Use your creativity to devise even more advanced and informative content within your niche.

You can use other tools, such as Followerwonk or Buzzsumo, to find influencers and apply the same technique.

10. Research e-commerce keywords

There are so many articles floating around on keyword research that I wasn't sure whether I should include this tip.

I decided to include it.

E-commerce is a serious business. If you know what customers are exactly searching for, it could be rock-and-roll time for your sales and traffic.

Shoppers who have finished their research typically head to retail sites such as Amazon to buy stuff. As I'm sure you're aware, Amazon is the world's largest e-tailer.

Researching keywords on Amazon and including them in your content can be a rewarding SEO task.

To research keywords on Amazon, you need to subscribe to a paid keyword research service.

But I'll show you how to research for free. Here's the technique:

First, choose your product on Amazon.com (it's “men's fashion” in this example):

Next, select “men's fashion” in “All Departments.”

Then, now check the results page. Notice the filters and categories in the column on the far left.

Finally, expand each category, and copy the keywords that drop down.

These are the keywords that real shoppers with ready-to-swipe credit cards search for (on Amazon). Use these very keywords in your content.

Conclusion

If your traffic has dropped because of slow loading pages, lousy server, clunky coding, malware, unfriendly UI, etc., no amount of SEO, SMM, or PPC can help you. Plus, you'll end up wasting a ton of money.

Fix the basic issues first, and then move on to marketing and SEO.

The tactics I have recommended will help you attract traffic that has the potential to convert.

It's worked for me. I'm confident it will work for you too.

Tell me how it goes! And let me know about both your successes and your challenges. I want to help.

Marketing Day: What intent data means for marketers, Facebook ads & more

Here's our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.



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3 SEO-Changing RankBrain Tips Marketers Can't Ignore

The way that marketers think about, talk about and implement SEO is constantly evolving. Blackhat SEO tactics that once were incredibly successful, no longer garner the results that they once did. Both search engines and online audiences have become much more sophisticated, forcing marketers to ditch the slimy SEO tactics and focus instead on providing real value.

According to TNW News, 47% of digital marketers name SEO as one of their most effective tactics, but 39% also identify it as one of the most difficult.

To help ease the pain, I attended a presentation last week by WordStream's Larry Kim that shone a light on why the traditional workflow of which includes inserting keywords in the “right” places needs to change. The presentation included what Google's RankBrain actually is and why it matters, but the bulk of the talk dug into how to change focus in the face of algorithm changes like RankBrain and why exact term usage needs to be less of a focus moving forward. Read on to get 3 tips on where to focus your SEO efforts instead.

What is RankBrain?

Larry stated that “it doesn't matter if RankBrain is an addition to the algorithm or an alteration. What matters is whether the change effects what content ranks”. In the case of RankBrain, this change certainly does matter.

RankBrain enables the interpretation of meaning. The interpretation of the meaning behind keyword searches and the interpretation of the meaning behind language used in meta, on-page, and site-wide. Beyond this, RankBrain learns about what content (and what types of content) appeals to specific search audiences in order to provide more useful, relevant search results.

Why Does it Matter?

Google being able to interpret the meaning of language used online makes a big difference. It means it's easier to get your content indexed for relevant keywords, as long as that content is relevant to the search intent behind the keyword. It means inserting keywords isn't a priority anymore – exact keyword usage does not make it easier to become indexed.

So, if we're already indexed for the keywords we want to rank for, how do we rank? Here's 3 tips from Larry Kim on how to switch focus away from keyword usage and indexation, and toward tactics that take advantage of the sophisticated qualities of RankBrain and how it measures and scores content quality to determine rank position.

Tip #1: Stop Inserting Keywords into Your Meta Titles

There is a negative correlation between exact keyword inclusions and CTR. High performing meta titles (above the average click-through rate at the given position) actually tend to not include the exact keyword. This is because RankBrain enables interpretation of the meaning behind language: interpretation of both the language used in the keyword search, along with the language used on-page and in meta.

Don't Forget: align your meta message to speak to the intent of the search audience you're targeting in order to encourage searchers to click your result. Inserting keywords is not important, and can actually be a disadvantage.

Tip #2: Remember What Actually Impacts CTR

So, you might be wondering: if I'm not supposed to insert keywords into my meta title, what am I supposed to do what it? Great question, here is some:

Use Emotional Triggers

Write headlines to an emotional persona based on basic emotional triggers: anger, urgency, fear, sadness, etc. By appealing to the emotions of your audience in a unique, catchy way, you can encourage them to click on your meta title for more.

Test with Paid

The best way to test your meta click-ability is to use AdWords to test 10 different headlines for different emotional personas. It's a quick-and-easy 2 step process:

• Step 1: Use broad match keywords to represent the variety of exact keywords that relate to the search audience you wish to reach


• Step 2: Replace old headlines with the winner

Be Memorable, Become Familiar

Another important factor to consider is how “non-SEO” tactics actually make a huge impact on CTR from the SERP by creating a familiarity bias. Stated simply, this bias goes like this: if you're familiar with a brand before you search, you're more likely to click on their result. I'll break down his advice into 2 steps to create brand familiarity in order to dramatically improve organic CTR:

• Step 1: create familiarity with the brand by drawing people in with memorable, useful content that doesn't try to sell anything.


• Step 2: Ensure subsequent searches go your way by remarketing your most memorable content.

Tip #3: Focus on Engagement

Bounce Rate

Another highly impactful factor to rank is bounce rate. There are correlations that we see in nature that are non-causal, and there are correlations we see with algorithm inclusions. The correlation between bounce rate and rank looks very algorithmic. That being said, bounce rate is the #1 indicator that searchers aren't liking your content. Focusing on providing additional useful links to more content is a great way to reduce bounce rate and start sending positive signals to Google about the quality of your content.

Dwell Time (bounce + time spent)

The metrics Google uses to determine whether or not content is satisfying searchers are also important. Some of these metrics are not accessible to marketers with Google Analytics. An example of this is dwell time. This is the time between when searchers enter the page from the SERP and how long they dwell on the page before bouncing back to the SERP. The advice Larry gave for leveraging this information is to use the combination of time spent on page and bounce rate to determine how well the page is measuring up against Google's dwell time metric.

Conversion Rates

Conversion rate implies content appeal too, of course. Larry's tip: change your offer dramatically to increase conversion rate if you're not finding success. Honing your focus on conversion rate optimization isn't just great for appealing to your audience at the bottom of the funnel, it's great for attracting customers through search visibility across the entire funnel as well.

Poor Performing Content

If you can't fix it, delete it. If you have consistently poor performing content, you should “delete your bad neighborhoods”. This is because studies that look at the relevance of domain authority vs page authority for determining rank strong suggest a domain-level engagement “score”, as well as a page-level engagement “score”. If you have content that performs badly and doesn't provide value to users, this is content that will only negatively impact what your content quality looks like at the domain level.

Key Take-Away: New Rank Factors to Replace the Focus on Keyword Usage

Larry talked a lot about CTR from the SERP in his presentation. He brought up an important question: what came first, rank or CTR? The answer is they are reciprocal. Where top rank position impacts CTR, CTR also is measured and plays a part in determining rank position. But the reason he makes this point is to demonstrate that Google is measuring what implies searcher satisfaction. CTR is just one of these measurements. Once content is indexed, CTR is not the only thing that represents content quality. How searchers behave and engage with content after they enter a website from the SERP plays a huge role in the checks and balances of identifying truly useful content for searchers.

So if you're going to remember one thing about RankBrain: it's easy to get indexed, but make sure you're appealing to the search audience and their intent from SERP to site.

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3 Creative Highlights From Cannes Lions

For those of you not familiar, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in the creative communications, advertising and related fields. Based on feedback from two of the Oracle contingent who were attended the festival, one of the themes that emerged can be summed up in word: MadTech. 

“It was clearly evident at Cannes '16 that the days of 'madtech' (martech + adtech) have arrived," says Nick Bell, Senior Director of Corporate Marketing for Oracle Marketing Cloud. "Agencies realize data is the advantage to solidify brand relationships and add new value." 

"Vendors like Oracle Data Cloud and Oracle Marketing Cloud are quickly becoming as visible and expected as the vendors on the creative and media sides of the house," he adds. "Just ask any of the many people turned away at the Oracle rooftop party where supply couldn't meet demand.”

Meanwhile Angela Wells, Senior Director of Oracle Social Cloud - who was attending her first Cannes said that while it was cool to check out all the virtual reality (VR) stuff the real value for was in learning just how much marketers are leveraging data to make better decisions. "When I started in marketing it was a running joke that marketers didn't have to do math. Now we have to dive into numbers, understand what they mean, and adapt to target customers with the highest potential." 

Here's 3 highlights from Cannes that speak to this theme of the coming together of martech and adtech. 

1. Vogue in Vogue

Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who also oversees some of Conde Nast's other publications Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Glamour and GQ - said she's tired of hearing the same lament from advertisers and marketers "Everything is too fast, everything is too precarious, we have more access than ever to the people we are trying to reach thanks to social media and mobile technology, and more information than we know what to do with … How to address this, how to engage audiences while still keeping our work relevant and original is the part of the puzzle we are all trying to solve."

She went on to say all these questions have the same answer. "finding your way doesn't mean surviving, just as pleasing an audience doesn't mean twisting your editorial around search engine optimization and Facebook algorithms. For one thing, everybody is doing that, it's unimaginative, it's old hat. For us, creativity means thinking about the lives of our audience and how to connect with them.”

And clearly to do just that, engage with them means understanding and utilizing data... the right data. 

2. The Fresh Prince Says Keep It Real

Hollywood A-List actor Will Smith had a very direct and clear message to share: "Smoke and mirrors in marketing and sales is over." Smith, who considers himself a marketer, believes people are going to know really quickly and globally whether a product keeps its promises adding "the power has gone away from the marketers."

In other words, the consumer is in full control. 

The onus is clearly on marketers and advertisers to work together and listen - yes listen to what consumers are telling them both literally via social media for example and figuratively via their actions AKA their data. If they constantly click and buy one type of product chances are they like said product - so stop offering something they don't click on buy. 

3. Millennials Are People, Too

It seems as if far too many marketers have decided that the much sought-after millennial demographic fits into the proverbial one-size-fits-all and at least one Cannes attendee has had enough. His name is David “Shingy” Shing and he's AOL's digital prophet.

“The truth is that everyone is trying to captivate them in terms of their behaviours, and I get that,” he says in a video pitch to have the term removed from the pages of The Drum forever. “But they're young adults… so let's call them what they are.” 

He made these comments while filming the video below, which is part of a series in which marketers, agencies and media folk at Cannes Lions were asked nominate their top hated phrases, jargon and buzzwords that should be banished from The Drum forever. 

Translation: With data readily available on millennials - just as it is for every other demographic, there's absolutely no reason why marketers should be lumping them all together and ostensibly delivering the same content, same sales messages and so on. 

It's a New Age

Without sounding hyperbolic, it truly is a new age we're living and working in. The need for marketers and advertisers to work closely together has never been greater. It's why you need to download The Age of Brand, Agency & Customer Collaboration, a new eBook from Oracle Marketing Cloud and Forbes Insights.