SEO
Google may not like your website popups
Marketers pretend to like them, most users hate them.
Is Google taking users’ side?
What’s going on: Some website owners reported getting an email from Google, telling them to remove “intrusive interstitials,” or popups, to improve page experience.
A gentle nudge… or a warning? It’s too early to tell. However, it’s obvious that Google cares about website content being easy to read. And as we all know, poor page experiences equal lower rankings.
What you should do: If you use popups on your website, check your inbox.
And even if you haven’t received an email yet, be careful. If your popups are irritating your viewers, they could be annoying to Google crawlers as well.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Want better engagement? Don’t rely on hashtags
The data doesn’t lie.
According to this recent report by Socialinsider, your Instagram hashtags don’t impact engagement that much.
And increasing the number of hashtags in your posts can actually reduce the number of impressions they get.
Why we care: Social media marketers spend a lot of time looking for hashtags. But maybe that time is better spent on other things…
… Like creating awesome content and engaging with followers.
SPONSORED BY CLEARBIT
Struggle to attribute marketing success? Prove ROI and cut wasted spend with this
Imagine showing the C-suite exactly where prospects are converting—and how much revenue you’re getting from each channel.
Imagine being able to prove that all your ad spend and content creation were paying off.
You’d finally get the credit you deserve. Maybe even a bigger budget… or that promotion.
Marketing attribution is complicated for many marketers, but it doesn’t have to be.
This Marketing attribution content bundle from Clearbit is like a crash course in attribution—without the price tag.
It will help you prove your ROI, identify your most successful channels, and cut the ones that are burning budget.
This free Attribution Bundle unlocks:
- How to build a marketing attribution framework.
- A detailed analysis of Clearbit’s full marketing attribution model.
- Real-life lessons learned when building an attribution model.
- Access to the Data-Driven Marketing digital book, featuring a chapter on Modern Marketing Analytics.
Want to show your boss how your work impacts the bottom line with greater accuracy than ever before?
“Yes please…take me to this bundle.”
SEO
Capterra gets $4M worth of SEO traffic. Here’s how Saas companies can benefit from their success
Capterra gets 1.5M visits per month.
They dominate search engine results pages (SERPs) for high-value comparison keywords in more than 800 software categories.
Why the insane pull?
Capterra satisfies a strong need for prospects. Businesses want to know how software products compare, and, most importantly, what kind of reviews the products are getting.
Unfortunately, Capterra’s strategy isn’t one you can swipe. Most SaaS companies would need to spend $4M in paid ads just to get all that organic traffic.
But the good news is, Jessica Tee Orika analyzed Capterra’s SEO strategy.
And there are two ways you can use Capterra’s success to your own advantage:
- Use Capterra as an ally. Integrate Capterra reviews on your website. Since users trust them, their reviews will wield more influence over your customers’ buying decisions.
- Create your own comparison pages. This is a great SEO strategy for SaaS companies. It helps you control how prospects view your product during their decision process.
Plus, comparison pages offer you many SEO benefits, like:
- Improving your organic search visibility and traffic.
- Helping users better understand your product.
- Helping prospects make the best decisions.
So while you probably won’t beat Capterra at their SERP game, you can definitely use the platform to your advantage.
And you can always study their strategy for other marketing lessons, too.
SPONSORED BY INSIGHTS
“We should be on TikTok.” —your CEO
Don’t panic. You can actually drive incredible business results using TikTok… without lip syncing or learning a single dance move.
Our latest Deep Dive teaches you everything you need to know about how to leverage this platform for B2B, what products sell best, and more.
Preview it here. And if you like it, you can get this Deep Dive—and every Deep Dive we publish—for just $99/month.
“Help me rock TikTok and keep the CEO happy.”
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How Neil Gaiman’s idea-generation process is useful in marketing
Neil Gaiman is one of the most successful writers of our time.
Neverwhere. Coraline. The Graveyard Book. The Sandman. American Gods. Anansi Boys.
The guy’s got a list of bestsellers longer than a sales page for a $997 Facebook Ads course.
In a blog post, Neil wrote about where he gets his ideas from:
“You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.”
We’d argue that the same is true for marketers. Marketers, too, get ideas from everywhere: on walks, in the shower, while playing an instrument.
Once you get an idea, though, you need to question it. Neil Gaiman asks the following questions:
- What if?
- If only…
- I wonder…
Turns out these questions work just as well in marketing:
- What if I had an infinite budget? What would I do?
- If only I could reach out to X person to help amplify this campaign… Wait, maybe I can.
- I wonder if it’s possible to do X.
The same questions that help creative writers stay creative are helpful to marketers who want to come up with fresh ideas on a daily basis. And it makes sense because both are creative pursuits.
So, the next time you’re thinking of ideas for a new campaign, ad, or landing page… ask yourself the three questions above. Let your mind wander.
You may be surprised where you end up.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
COPYWRITING: Agencies use this secret partner to get more clients without growing their team! With Panda Copy, it’s easy to scale your writing power without having to manage a vetting or hiring process. Get unlimited copy from kick-butt copywriters.*
ADVERTISING: Hooray for “clean rooms.” Roku introduced a retargeting feature that doesn’t expose user data. Good news for both advertisers and connected TV (CTV) watchers, who can get relevant ads without feeling like their devices are listening to conversations.
PPC: Head’s up. Google Ads are bugging… again. If you set up Automated Rules recently, there’s a chance Google didn’t save them.
BUSINESS: Scraping data, content, or copy from the web? You’re busted! Just kidding, just kidding. Turns out that web scraping is perfectly legal, as long as it’s from a public website.
E-COMMERCE: Having trouble with your ecommerce website? Google released a video series that can help you troubleshoot technical issues and improve the effectiveness of your site on Google search. Nice.
ETSY: Etsy’s fee hike was enough to make sellers strike. So why did they increase fees? There are many reasons. Amazon is one of them.
ADVERTISING: Apple just fell behind Samsung in the smartphone market. Does this mean less tracking opt-outs? If the trend keeps up, maybe mobile ads will become slightly more effective… A long shot, we know.
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
Two girls have the same parents and were born at the same hour of the same day of the same month, but they are not twins.
How can this be possible?
You can find the answer here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Ketchup on pasta? No, no… assolutamente no.
Are you committing crimes against Italian food?
According to a YouGov international survey, if you:
- Eat ketchup with pasta.
- Put pasta in cold water and then boil it.
- Top pizza with pineapple.
… then you’re abusing Italian cuisine.
There are other “food crimes,” of course. So consider making yourself familiar with the list of grievances before you make or order Italian next time!