When COVID-19 began spreading across the U.S., marketers scrambled to figure out how to respond. Sudden work-from-home mandates, cancelled business trips, postponed conferences and frozen budgets threw a wrench into usual expectations and plans. Users‘ needs and online behaviours have changed in tandem, forcing marketers to meet them on their new terms.

Search is more important than ever now because people are spending almost all of their time at home and online, consuming media, researching, browsing and shopping. According to Forbes, total internet hits have surged by 50% to 70% with people under lockdown, while 32% of people say they are spending longer on social media. Hours spent in non-gaming apps are up as people turn to TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter to keep entertained, connected and informed. To stay relevant in these turbulent times, it’s imperative that marketers maintain their paid search presence while adjusting to the needs of the moment.

Vary strategy by vertical

While no industry is immune from the impact of coronavirus, businesses are affected differently and should adapt their paid search strategies accordingly. Industries like B2B and ecommerce have seen improved performance, while industries like travel and healthcare have struggled with poor results.

The fact that healthcare is struggling may seem paradoxical, given the overwhelming need for healthcare services right now. While hospitals are busy with COVID-19 patients, people who don’t have the virus are avoiding medical centres, hospitals, and non-essential medical services like bariatric surgery and physical therapy.

Users are shifting their searches for their healthcare needs. Notably, people under shelter-in-place orders are seeking to receive care while staying in their homes. eMarketer published data from CivicScience which found that between February and March 2020, the number of U.S. adults who reported intent to use telemedicine rose from 18% to 30%. As a result, healthcare providers have to switch their offerings – along with their messaging – to emphasize virtual and telehealth services. The same is true for many restaurants as they pivot to pick up or delivery only.

The situation is different for B2B companies

The situation is different for B2B companies, which have longer sales cycles. While businesses like restaurants are worried about running out of money now, B2B companies are concerned about how they’ll fare months and, in some cases, years from now. The instinct may be to cut down on marketing budgets to save money, but extreme changes in paid search strategies can have long-lasting effects on performance. During this time, it’s important B2B companies continue filling the funnel and building brand awareness to alleviate large sales gaps that can occur later in the year.

Financial service-related searches are surging

Financial service-related searches are surging right now as people explore their options for economic relief like loans. Many companies in this space are smartly increasing their ad spending and shifting the bulk of it toward campaigns that push their best performing service lines. The same is true for ecommerce companies, especially those that sell household products and cleaning supplies, loungewear, cooking equipment, workout gear and entertainment items like board games and puzzles. Shares of Hasbro, for instance, have soared. For these companies, the adjustment is less about the offerings and more about the messaging.

Don’t stop advertising when times are tough

There are universal principles for how to optimize paid search strategies that apply to marketers in every industry. The first is not to neglect paid search, even during difficult times. The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) recently ran a survey which found 81% of large advertisers deferred planned ad campaigns and cutting budgets due to the coronavirus pandemic. Of those surveyed, 57% said they had decreased budgets greatly or somewhat due to the virus outbreak; however, cutting out advertising or marketing completely can make the road to recovery more challenging.

Experts advise not to stop advertising during a downturn. Evidence from recent economic downturns like the 2008 housing crash show that companies come out stronger in the end if they continue investing in brand awareness. According to Google, “Even in categories where consumers have pulled back spending right now, creating a branding impact now will have a halo and pay dividends when the market normalizes. Research and historical examples of economic downturn have shown this to work.” It’s important to keep investing in your brand and branded keywords, regardless of industry. The last thing an organization wants is competitors monetizing on branded search results.

Every cent counts these days. Not only is paid search cost-effective with a low barrier to entry, but it also enables companies to be extremely agile. A company can get a campaign up and running pretty quickly, run tests, collect data and easily alter the messaging as things change day-to-day. Marketers can also see the results of engagement, click-through rates and conversions in real time, so they know whether their investment is paying off. COVID-19 is an unprecedented situation, so testing and learning are critical during this volatile time in the market.

Best practices for paid search

For any marketer thinking about how to adjust during COVID-19, here are a few best practices for how to optimize paid search.

1. Pivot messaging

Messaging needs to be both accurate and appropriate for the current landscape. Confirm that messaging is updated with current business hours and offerings, and revise CTAs away from messages like “Visit in-store.”

2. Keep an eye on the tone of messaging

Is your copy appropriate or empathetic? An ad for booking a vacation package could feel out-of-touch. Customers will be turned off by companies that seem like they are trying to profit or gain from the pandemic, so craft communication to focus more on brand identity and values. Businesses can also use marketing to let customers know how they are responding to the pandemic. A construction firm or ecommerce company could talk about safety practices for workers, for example.

3. Adapt offerings to what your customers need

As mentioned above, healthcare companies are moving to telehealth, restaurants are moving to pick up, delivery and B2B companies are repurposing content planned for conferences into virtual webinars. Marketers should be connecting with customers virtually to let them know how you are supporting them.

4. Adapt your strategy to your customers‘ changing digital behaviour

During the quarantine, desktop usage has increased. Conversely, the rise of remote work conditions and people being less on-the-go has caused mobile search traffic to decline by nearly 25%. We’ve all become accustomed to a mobile-first world, but given the predominance of desktop, it’s especially important to ensure all search ads and landing pages are optimized for both mobile and desktop.

Move fast

This pandemic has caused so much of what used to be normal out of the window. Whereas before, marketers might have used a multiphase process for developing campaigns that involved planning and back-and-forth and feedback, now they have to act fast to keep up with the rapidly changing world. Marketers need to craft campaigns that are affordable, cost-effective and agile – and that means paid search.

As marketing and advertising professionals, we’re all trying to figure this out together as we go. There is no roadmap or rules, but there’s no doubt that staying flexible and using this time to connect with customers is a smart strategy.

Brianna Desmet is Media specialist at digital and demand gen agency, R2i.

The post COVID-19 has altered paid search: How marketers can adjust strategies appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Source:: searchenginewatch.com

What B2B Buyers Want From Tech Vendors Right Now
55 percent of B2B buyers say it’s appropriate for marketing efforts to continue during these challenging times, and 53 percent are presently in the market for B2B products and services, with most of those having recent new purchasing interests, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs

Programmatic Ad Spend Down 9% Since Beginning of 2020, Driven by Travel and Auto
Amidst an overall fall of 9 percent in April, ad spending for the technology vertical and the education and training segment were up 70 percent and 63 percent for the year, with streaming ad spend also up by some 18 percent, according to recently-released report data. Adweek

Exclusive: New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data
The New York Times has begun eliminating all third-party advertising targeting information, and by July the firm will instead use a fully-proprietary platform, the company recently announced. Axios

Google’s digital-ad dominance is harming marketers and publishers, says new study
Digital marketers and publishers have been hurt as a result of Google’s online advertising dominance, according to a new study, with display ads the primary focus of the Omidyar Network and Public Knowledge report. AdAge

Reddit Launches New, 12-Week Online Advertising School Program
Social news and discussion platform Reddit has launched a three-month online community-driven advertising school program, led by director-level-or-above instructors covering 12 marketing topics, the firm recently announced. Social Media Today

Polls Return to Messenger From Facebook. After a year’s absence Facebook Messenger polls have been brought back
Digital marketers lamenting the elimination of Facebook’s Messenger polls a year ago got good news recently, as the social media giant announced that it has brought the polling option back for group chats. Adweek

Pandemic hastens shift in ad buying to mobile, study says
During an overall drop in ad spending, mobile ad spend has fared the best, as its 15 percent decrease was less than the 25 percent seen for desktop ad buying, according to recently-released study data. Mobile Marketer

Facebook Launches New App Called ‚CatchUp‘ to Facilitate Group Phone Chats
Facebook recently released a tool to help bring online conversations to real-time phone communications, with the lanch of CatchUp, becomming Facebook’s sixth new app release in the past half year, the firm announced. Social Media Today

Enterprise Companies Struggle with Customer Experience Tasks
Real-time insights, personalization, and consistent data formatting are the top three customer experience (CX) challenges for enterprise firms, according to recently-released study data. MarketingCharts

LinkedIn Publishes New Guide to Key Content Trends Amid COVID-19
LinkedIn (client) has released new information about trending content on the Microsoft-owned platform, with top trending hashtags and other information of interest to digital marketers, the firm announced. Social Media Today

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at “the new normal” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Whoooaaa Duuuuude: Why We Stretch Words in Tweets and Texts — Wired

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — 20 Marketing Experts on Content that Helps Sales Reps Sell – Part 3 — Modus
• Nick Nelson — 10 Ways to Improve Your Business While Working Remotely — Small Business Trends
• Lee Odden — Klear interviews Lee Odden — John Gaylor
• Lee Odden — Stop the Sales Drop: Marketing Shifts For Stronger Growth — Marketing Insider Group
• Lee Odden — PIMtalk with Lee Odden: PIM, SEO, Content Marketing and B2B influencers [Video] — PIMTalk Podcast
• Lee Odden — 5 Smart Tips for Managing the WFH Transition in Marketing — monday.com (client)
• Ashley Zeckman — Ashley Zeckman: 5 Essential Questions to Guide Your B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy — Content Marketing World
• Lee Odden — “Stop the Sales Drop” Launches Sales and Marketing Peer Group — Business Wire
• Lee Odden — How to boost SEO flow like a pro during COVID-19 — PR Daily
• Lee Odden — Interview with Lee Odden – Breaking Free of Status Quo Marketing Tactics — Stop the Sales Drop
• Lee Odden — Marketing Through Uncertain Times – 15 Experts Share Insights — Insight Brief
• Lee Odden — Empathetic content marketing falls flat without authenticity [Video] — Search Engine Land
• Lee Odden — How to measure content KPIs during COVID [Video] — Search Engine Land
• Lee Odden — How to evaluate content marketing opportunities during COVID [Video] — Search Engine Land
• Lee Odden — What’s Trending: Fortify the Fundamentals — LinkedIn (client)

Have you come across your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thank you for joining us this week, and we hope that you will return again next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don’t miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

Source:: toprankblog.com

The retail ecommerce revenues are predicted to grow to $4.88 trillion in 2021. But many ecommerce stores struggle to boost conversions because 75% of people abandon the cart never to return.

Fortunately, there are techniques to reduce cart abandonment and increase conversion rates. Let’s have a look at five quick and lesser-known ways to speed up ecommerce conversions.

1. Understand and fill the need gap – Scarcity, urgency, and exclusivity

Understanding scarcity, urgency, and exclusivity can be one of the best ways to influence your potential customers to make a purchase.

While the three terms are related to one another, the way they are implemented is different.

In scarcity, you inform customers that there are a limited number of items of a certain product left in the stock. And that you’re not sure when the product will be available next.

In urgency, you simply add a timer that says “order within the time limit to avail the offer”. Once the deadline is over, the customer won’t get additional benefits, such as a discount or free shipping.

Here are four ways to work around scarcity and urgency

• Let customers know that the product is exclusive and is manufactured on small batches so they might miss a unique item by not buying it right away.
• Highlight that the offer ends in a few hours/days.
• Let shoppers know how much time is left before they miss same-day shipping.
• Indicate how many people have bought the product (and are viewing it in real-time) to indicate that the item is in demand. This will make buyers feel a greater urgency to purchase before it gets sold out.

In exclusivity, you reward the customer if they make a purchase within a set timeline. Sephora, for instance, promises a free exclusive gift to customers on their birthday month. When the customer purchases something either online or in-store, they are entitled to receive a birthday gift from the brand.

2. Reduce price shock

Most of the people abandon carts during checkout because the extra costs, such as shipping and tax, are too high. To reduce cart abandonment and improve conversions, reduce price shock.

Is the shipping free? No. How much will it cost? Is there any tax associated with the purchase? Yes. How much will the customer have to pay?

Let your customers know all the other prices associated with the product upfront. Don’t just add these at the time of checkout. You will need to calculate the volumetric weight for each product to display an accurate shipping price. If you ship your products internationally, you will also need to know import fees for each country you’re exporting your products to.

You can reduce price shock by a couple of ways

• Avoid increasing the product’s price at the last moment, that is, during checkout.
• Highlight shipping costs and taxes on the products page. If you can’t calculate taxes or shipping fees up front, add a disclaimer stating “shipping and tax will be calculated during checkout”.

3. Allow guest checkout

More than 26% of shoppers don’t complete their purchase because the checkout process was too long or complicated.

Having people register on your site is great, but it can negatively impact your conversion rate. Sometimes all a customer wants is to place the order as soon as possible.

You will have their name and email address when they complete the transaction anyway.

Major ecommerce sites offer guest checkouts to streamline their checkout process.

Apart from allowing customers to purchase without an account, they have also added the option to “create an account” on the checkout page.

If you are sceptical about completely eliminating the need for the registration to complete the purchase, you can test the option for a few days to see how guest checkout impacts your conversions.

4. Follow up on abandoned carts

It is essential to follow up with customers who browsed products, added it to their cart, and left without completing the transaction. That way, you will be able to understand the reason for cart abandonment.

One of the best ways to follow up with potential customers is by sending emails to remind them that they have left something in their cart.

Around 45% of people open cart abandonment emails, 21% of them click on the link, and 50% of people end up buying something.

ThemeIsle, a sister site of CodeinWP, sent a series of three emails to users who abandoned their cart over a period of five days.

They changed the subject line every time and saw a surge in email clicks.

• After 60 minutes: Subject line “Forgot something? It looks like you have items in your cart”.
  The result: 50% of emails were opened, out of which 21% received clicks.
• After 24 hours: Subject line “What’s that in your shopping cart?”
  The result: 41% of emails were opened, out of which 3% received clicks.
  
• After 5 days: Subject line “Are you sure? One last reminder about the items in your cart (including a 10% welcome discount).”
• The result: 39% of emails were opened, out of which 8% received clicks.

When sending emails to potential customers, follow the best copywriting practices to increase the chances of conversion. Also, add the images of the products and offer incentives, such as a discount coupon or free shipping, to entice users into taking action.

GoDaddy sent me an email when I saved a domain in my cart but didn’t purchase it. The email had a promo code offering 30% off on anything new for a limited time to tempt me into purchasing a domain immediately.

5. Highlight Your Return Policy

Many ecommerce stores don’t highlight their return and refund policy, but you should. More than 50% of customers read the return policy before buying from a website.

Customers want assurance from ecommerce stores that if the product isn’t as they expected, then they would get their money back. So, ensure that your return policy is clear and concise. It helps in building trust with your potential customers.

There are two ways to highlight your return policy:

• Adding it on the product’s page.
• By creating a separate landing page that contains everything you would like your customers to know about the return policy.

It would be great if you can leverage both ways. There is a limit to what you can include on the product’s page, so people who want to know more about the policy can visit the landing page.

Final thoughts

Speeding up your ecommerce conversions seems hard, but it isn’t. Using scarcity, urgency, and exclusivity to influence your potential customers into buying can significantly improve your conversions.

Allow prospects to checkout without having to create an account to streamline their buying process. Show all the price (shipping, tax, and others) right on the product’s page to reduce price shock. Follow up on abandoned carts through email and highlight your return policy to build trust and confidence with customers.

The post Five quick ways to speed up your ecommerce conversions appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Source:: searchenginewatch.com

I’m not here to lie to you: Sheltering in place is getting pretty old.

I do count my blessings, of course. My family and I are healthy. My wife and I both can work from home; our kids are pretty great; we actually enjoy each others‘ company.

Still. There are only so many loaves of bread you can bake, puzzles you can solve, board games you can play before the ennui sets in.

If you’re like me, you could use a laugh right now. And I need to exercise my comedy muscles before they atrophy.

And in a world where people are still writing articles called, “Should You Include Humor in Your B2B Content,” we need constant reminders that people like jokes. People like to laugh. Laughter brings you closer to your audience and creates a connection.

Not that any of these jokes will make you laugh, of course — but I’ve heard that a smile and a groan is almost as good for you.

20 More Jokes Only a Marketer Could Love

1:

Q: How many agile marketers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Three: A scrum master, a product owner, and a one-man development team. After a weeklong sprint, they deliver a candle, and then iterate from there.

2:

I named my dog “Organic Reach on Facebook.”
I don’t have a dog.

3:

We’re testing an influencer program where you can sponsor the cool kids in a high school to promote your product. We call it “pay per clique.”

4:

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Automated personalization!
Automated personalization, who?
%First_Name, we miss you! Hope things are good in %City.

5:

I hired an ex-marketer to remodel my bathroom. But he couldn’t get the shower dimensions right, because he was only interested in vanity measurements.

6:

I just consulted on a popular spice company’s website. My sage advice was that they needed to increase their thyme on page.

7:

Q: Why did the salmon make a great social media marketer?
A: He had years of experience in live streams.

8:

It’s not that I don’t have that many Twitter followers… I’m just practicing social media distancing.

9:

No matter where I am, Google Maps only recommends businesses from a single town in Alabama. I don’t think this is how Mobile-first indexing is supposed to work.

10:

Apparently there’s a new marketing band called SEO Speedwagon. I couldn’t find them on Google, but I heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another…

11:

Working from home is weird. I got so sick of sitting at my desk, I wrote my last blog from my kids‘ trampoline. The time-on-page was pretty good, but the bounce rate was really high.

12:

I’m not saying he’s a clueless marketer, but I asked for more evergreen content and he wrote a blog about Christmas trees.

13:

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Indies!
Indies, who?
Indies uncertain times, our brand wants you to know that we care…

14:

Did you hear that Instagram is finally being localized for the U.S. market? It’s rebranding as “Insta .035724 Ounces.”

15:

The CEO at my old job was so clueless about social media…
How clueless was he?
He thought you had to be looking off to one side for your profile picture!

16:

How many clickbait content writers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Only five, but number four will shock you!

17:

My kids hate hearing we’re having leftovers for dinner. So now I call it “Repurposed, snackable content.”

18:

Why did the marketer steal groceries from Whole Foods?
She knows you don’t pay for anything organic.

19:

My buddy recently lost his job doing marketing for one of those serial-killer podcasts. He probably shouldn’t have suggested user-generated content.

20:

Q: Why does the social media marketer keep getting off the elevator at the wrong floor?
A: He’s still trying to figure out Stories.

The Value of a Joke

Content marketers know that great content offers value to the reader. We tend to think of that value as something inspirational or educational. But let’s not overlook entertainment value. If your content provides a brief distraction from the everyday, that’s valuable. That’s something that people need… and Indies uncertain times, we need it more than ever.

And if you’re in the market for 60 more jokes about marketing, we’ve got you covered:

• 20 More Dumb Jokes for Smart Marketers
• 20 Jokes Only a B2B Marketer Will Get
• 20 Jokes Only a Marketer Could Love

Source:: toprankblog.com