Believe it or not, this is the last issue of Stukent’s News You Can Use for 2017. Time really does fly when you’re having fun.
You don’t want to miss this issue:
- Find out why the price of Facebook ads is headed skyward
- Discover an SEO secret that can propel your site in search rankings
- Learn how to boost the one thing that matters to e-commerce even more than traffic
Those are just a few of the stories you’ll find highlighted below.
Do you want to grow your digital marketing skills?
Let’s do it. Keep reading. Then go shopping.
1. A MARKET YOU MAY NOT YET HAVE CONSIDERED
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Ecommerce[/highlight]
Key Point: More than 143 million Russians go online every month. That makes Russia the seventh largest online audience globally, and the #1 market in Europe. You thought the USA was tops? Think again.
Here’s the most current list of the online population we could find:
- China
Click to Enlarge
- India
- USA
- Brazil
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Russia
- Nigeria
- Mexico
- Bangladesh
Any surprises for you there? Where are Canada and the U.K.? The Chinese market is more than two and a half times larger than the United States, and the Russian market is close to half as large. I don’t know … just thinking … could it be the companies you work with are missing out on a huge number of prospects by not even trying to reach them?
Certainly, marketing outside the USA takes some learning and effort, but … doesn’t all education? Here’s our data source: Internet World Stats.
[line]2. HACKING THE BAIDU LINK SUBMISSION SCRIPT
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]SEO[/highlight]
Key Point: Speaking of marketing abroad, Baidu (China’s top search engine) has over two billion users. If you wanted to market to China (the largest internet audience on the planet), wouldn’t it be great to know how to up your chances of being found?
This Search Engine Land article tells you exactly how to do that: Hack Baidu. The improved Baidu Link Submission Script makes the native Baidu script more SEO-friendly, thereby giving you an instant boost in findability!
[line]3. GOOGLE INNOVATIONS – JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Online Advertising[/highlight]
Key Point: China, India, and Russia aside, there’s still plenty of business in the USA … and Google is still ranked #1 on the search engine popularity list. New innovations in the Merchant Center and AdWords are aimed at helping your holiday marketing efforts keep up with the demand. Here are just a few of those features:
- Use the Opportunities feature to prioritize product changes
- Take advantage of expanded Feed Rules and supplemental feeds
- Use Absolute Top Impression Share (ATIS) to identify more opportunities
To get the full scoop on Google’s holiday cheer, check this article: Reach More Shoppers.
4. TRAFFIC WITHOUT THIS IS WORTHLESS TO YOU
Topics: [highlight type=”dark”]Ecommerce[/highlight]
Key Point: “The money’s in the list.” We hear it all the time. Every e-commerce website wants more traffic … more, more, more. There’s something even more important than a huge mailing list or server-melting traffic, though. If you’re not getting conversions (aka “sales”), it doesn’t matter how much traffic you get … your kids are going to be skinny.
How do you get more conversions? A big part of that is user experience (UX). The easier it is for prospects to navigate your website and find what they’re looking for, the better your conversion rate is going to be. In technical terms: UX and CR vary directly.
Here’s an article about UX that can help you get up to speed fast: 3 Strategies for Maximizing Your Website UX. Like Jon MacDonald, CEO of The Good, is fond of saying, “Design may look nice but usability is key to conversions.”
5. FEATURED SNIPPETS RESULTS ARE GROWING STEADILY – OR ARE THEY?
Topics: [highlight type=”dark”]SEO[/highlight]
Key Point: Google search results show “steady and substantial growth,” says this article on Moz.com. Marketing scientist, Dr. Peter Meyers, says featured snippets turned up in 5.5 percent of queries in November 2015, but are now showing in sixteen percent of searches.
At the tail-end of October, though – for the first time ever – the snippet craze crashed. Why that happened and what might be causing it is as good an SEO mystery story as you’re likely to read this year. Here’s that link again: Featured Snippets.
[line]6. HOW TO RANK FOR FEATURED SNIPPETS
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]SEO[/highlight]
Key Point: While we’re talking about featured snippets and prominent placement on the search engines results page (SERP), wouldn’t it be nice to know how to win the featured snippet prize for your website?
SEMrush and their partner looked closely at 1.6 million featured snippets and 80 million keywords. Crunching that data gave them insight on how to leverage featured snippets into SEO gold. They probably kept that data secret, though … right?
Nope. If you read one article this month on SEO, make it this one: How to Rank for Featured Snippets in 2018.
7. GET RID OF YOUR DEADBEAT SUBSCRIBERS
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Email Marketing[/highlight]
Key Point: The quickest way to give your email marketing metrics a boost is to sanitize your list and purge the non-responders. I know, you’ve been working hard to build the list, why in the world would you want to prune it?
Here’s why: deadbeat subscribers hurt your metrics, cost you money, and can drive the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns down, down, down.
There’s something you should definitely do, though, before getting out the knife: run a reengagement campaign. Read more on the process in this AWeber report: Purge Your List. The process described will work with any email service provider you’re using.
[line]8. WHAT EXACTLY IS AN “OTT”? FIND OUT NOW
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Ecommerce | Online Advertising[/highlight]
Key Point: The OTT concept is drawing more attention every day, and some say it’ll be a primary player in online advertising by 2020. So, what is OTT? Let’s talk about it.
OTT = “Over the top” video. It’s media delivered directly to you, without the need for an intermediary like Warner Cable, Verizon, or any other telecommunications giant.
Could that have something to do with the Net Neutrality hullabaloo?
Hmmm… good question. First get up-to-date on what’s happening, then that potential relationship could become clearer. In this article, Vewed CEO, Aneesh Rajaram, says OTT is reshaping the playing field: OTT Q&A.
NEWSFLASH: Just in: ESPN is cutting 150 more employees – just in time for Christmas.
[line]BONUS STORY: FACEBOOK AD PRICES SOAR
Topic: [highlight type=”dark”]Online Advertising | Social Media Marketing[/highlight]
Key Point: Advertisers love Facebook’s ratchet-down targeting capabilities – so much so that ad space is getting tough to find. If users’ newsfeeds get too plugged up with ads, Facebook runs the risk of losing market share, so ad prices are now seeing the classic curve imposed by supply and demand.
Facebook Q3 ad prices were up 35 percent over Q3 2016, and there’s no sign that trend is going to slow down anytime soon. Writing for Martech, Tim Peterson did a good job of covering the situation here: Facebook: What Marketers Need to Know.
[line]Congratulations! You’re all caught up on your digital marketing news and updates for the month! Tweet your excitement!
Wishing you a very merry Christmas!
That’s it for 2017!
We wish you and your family the best holiday season ever.
Between now and next year, when you see an article or announcement you think should be covered in News You Can Use, let us know. Be a Stukent field reporter!
