Google Adwords for Amateurs

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

Getting your business to appear on the first page of Google is crucial to be top of mind and relevant in the eye of your consumers. You can only do so much to improve your SEO – organic search results. Search engine marketing (SEM) is a tactic that can also improve a company’s page rank through paid promotions on search and display networks. The largest SEM vendor out there is Google AdWords, a tool that I have had the enjoyment of exploring in my eMarketing class. I will take a look at the basics of AdWords and why it makes sense for your business as well as tips for running a successful campaign.

The modus operandi for AdWords is a sponsored ad will appear above or to the right of organic search results when someone types in a search query that matches keywords identified in the running campaign.

Why it makes sense for your business:

  • No Minimum Spend – You choose the maximum you’re willing to pay for each ad click and the total budget you want to spend each day. With that said, the more money you pay, the higher your ad will appear in the search rank.
  • Niche Targeting – Instead of releasing ads that target the masses as in traditional advertising (TV, Print, OOH etc.), Adwords enables you to choose specifically when and where you would like your campaign to come up.
  •  Measurable Analytics – Between AdWords analytics and Google analytics, you’ll never be in the dark on how your campaigns are performing.
  • The Marketer Has Complete Control – You’re sitting in the driver seat in every aspect of this campaign – the way the ad looks, who you want to target, what keywords you use, and how you want to allocate your budget. Additionally, you can stop, start, pause, and tweak the ad content at any given moment.

The key steps to execute a successful AdWords campaign are:

1)      Identify your target market

To be successful and reach the people that will bring in a sale at the end of the day, think about the way that your potential customers are searching for your goods/services on Google. What keywords are they using? The more targeted your keywords, the less money you need to spend for your ad to appear. Beyond that, if your company is geo-specific, AdWords allows you to limit ad targeting based on a specified region (ex. city, country etc.).

2)      Identify your budget

Budget wisely as money will fly if you don’t have daily budget caps. You can choose the maximum you want to pay for each click on your ad. Remember, there is no minimum spend and you are in complete control of this investment, therefore, feel free to change your daily budget to accommodate the needs of your company.

3)      Choose your landing page wisely

It is important to first identify the objective of your campaign. For example, if it is an awareness campaign, think about the page that will best explain what your company is about.

For more information visit https://adwords.google.com/.  To get started with your Google AdWords campaign check out this informative video: YouTube Preview Image

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Google Glass is Game-Changing Technology!

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things
YouTube Preview Image

I’ve been fascinated with Google Glass and the technology around augmented reality (AR) that I researched further into it.

Mashable describes AR as “a live, direct, or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data”.

According to Google, glass was created to “be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.” Google glass is essentially a wearable computer powered by Android technology built right into the glasses. Functions of the device include filming and photography capabilities as well as voice search and access to specialized apps.

Benefits to businesses

Companies are currently demoing apps to service the glass. For example, the New York Times are looking at developing an app which will enable news headlines to pop up. Additionally, JetBlue is exploring the option of showing how much time is left before boarding a flight as depicted in the video above. Businesses can also use this to increase efficiencies in their workplace.

Toronto-based creative agency, Playground has envisioned a not-so-far-off future for Google glass and technology like it. One idea is to transform the way customers are paying for goods which will definitely have an influence on retailers. This would be the future of mobile commerce, a topic I touched upon in my last blog entry. YouTube Preview Image

The specs:

Source: Gadget Tech

  • A rechargeable battery that lasts roughly a day.
  • 12 GB of user storage
  • Device sinks to google drive for video, photo, and file back-up
  • Bluetooth & WiFi built in
  • A disappointing point is there is no GPS.

Controversy

The controversies around this new technology stem around privacy concerns such as privately filming and recording of conversations. However, Google has emplaced barriers for users so they cannot get away with unconsented recording.

Competition

There have been rumours of competing products in the works from Apple and Microsoft but no statements from the company has been released. Sony has currently patent a similar technology that projects visual displays on either eye.

Price

Although the Glass is not being sold to the public yet, early adopters have signed up for an explorer program which is a developer’s addition listed at $1,500.

Release date

There is speculation that the commercial launch of Google Glass will be around early 2014 but could be as early as the end of the year!

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Mobile Marketing Trends of 2014

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

In the New Year, marketers will be smart to dedicate a good portion of their budgets on optimizing their presence on mobile.

5 of my predictions for top mobile marketing trends of 2014 include:

1. Image focused content.

People are deriving content & context from the images they scan through on their daily feeds. Buzzfeed in the last year has become hugely popular and have experienced viral effects on social media. Pictures can help illustrate a brand’s story better as demonstrated on visual platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest.

2. Mobile-optimization

There is a massive shift away from PC to tablets and mobile for search and social. Companies will be missing out big time if their websites aren’t optimized on mobile. 95% of mobile users use their devices for local and information search and 75% of mobile users use their mobile device for shopping – these stats are getting exponentially higher.

3. More videos

There will continue to be demand for videos! 200 million YouTube videos are seen on mobile devices every day. Mobile apps such as Snapchat, Vine and Instagram, have video features that are fairly new and are still being diffused worldwide. In my opinion, they haven’t yet reached their full potential and businesses are still exploring ways to best use these channels. I bet on seeing more viral videos and video creativity in 2014

4. Email marketing

74% of mobile users use their devices to check their email from their phone daily. From April to September of 2011, mobile email opens increased by 34% while webmail and PC opens decreased by 11% and 9.5% respectively. These stats support that email marketing will still be important for company’s getting their messages across to consumers.
5. Location based communication

Whether it’s a push notification for apps, direct text messages or mobile advertisements, companies are just at the beginning of driving personalized messages in real time. Further, the future is utilizing location and GPS services to more accurately tailor messages to reach targeted groups.

6. Mobile Commerce

Also known as the mobile wallet, applications such as Google Wallet and Apple Passbook have prompted organizations and retailers to explore this technology. Once adopting this new way of buying, consumers will find it much more convenient.

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Social Media Disasters

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

In the social media age there is a brilliant opportunity for brands to be in direct communication with their target consumer on a real-time basis. Social media allows consumers to be a part of this brand building journey. User generated content (UGC) is one of the brilliant ways that this can be done, however, without the company maintaining some sort of control of the content, negative sentiment can tarnish the brand’s reputation and have the reverse effect of what was originally intended. I would like to highlight two cases of brands that fell victim to losing control of their brand’s intended messaging:

  1. Molson Canada Cold Shots Campus Challenge

In 2007, when social media marketing (SMM) was still an unexplored medium for a lot of brands, Molson wanted to make sense of how to use Facebook to connect with the young adults (ages 18-21) that were populating the space.

 The Contest. In mid-October 2007, Molson Canada launched a campaign to increase brand awareness of Molson products utilizing Facebook. The campaign was to have a virtual “dorm room” where students could take photos of themselves in full party mode. The school with the most photos would be awarded the title of number-one party school in Canada. Best photo of the submission would be awarded an all-inclusive spring break trip.

 The Result. Students and administration across the country believed that the contest gave their universities a bad reputation and encouraged irresponsible behaviour such as abuse of alcohol and promiscuity. Joe Dean, dean of Student Affairs at St. Francis Xavier University dubbed the campaign as cheap marketing which was the majority consensus of stakeholders. This campaign was brand damaging as the contest ran against Molson’s values – encouraging responsible and safe drinking. Molson also overlooked the privacy implications as there were some students in posted photos that were unconsented. Molson responded by pulling the contest early.

Recommendations.The most important thing to address in this situation is the lack of control Molson had with the user generated contest posted publicly. Although we are aware that UGC is trusted, has persuasive power and is an immediate reward system, without a proper filtering system there is no way to measure what is on brand. Molson used Facebook prematurely without really concentrating on the objective. Instead, Molson could have sponsored campus events to reach this target demographic.

  1. McDonalds – #McDStories

    Source: sunwarrior.com

In early 2012, McDonalds promoted (paid) a tweet with the hashtag #McDStories that ended up having a backlashing effect.

The Campaign. The premise of the #McDStories campaign was to encourage people to share their positive and warming experiences that they had at McDonalds on Twitter to initiate a conversation with their consumers.

The Result. Instead of positive stories, brand detractors started complaining about the company. The tweet was essentially “hijacked”.

Recommendations. In this situation, the brand could do nothing but move on and try to spark another conversation. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough due diligence before this campaign was promoted and therefore they neglected to see the worst case scenario. McDonald’s brilliantly came back with their “Our Food, Your Questions” campaign that had an immensely positive response from McDonald’s customers.

 In these two scenarios, we see that user generated content and crowdsourcing can attract negative commentary without a proper filtering mechanism and if it does not stand true to your brand’s values.

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Ways in Which You Can Measure the ROI of Your Social Media Marketing

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

We live in a world of brand storytelling, emphasizing the importance of brand transparency and authenticity. This means that the return on social media investment isn’t necessarily measured in dollars. Some key performance indicators (KPIs) could be: number of page visits, time spent on application, valence and sentiment of comments, likes, or private endorsements of a brand (a tweet, RT, review, blog post etc.). The more interactivity and conversation between businesses and their consumers in the social media ecosystem, the greater the changes in levels of awareness and organic word-of-mouth marketing. The bottom line is that building meaningful relationships with consumers have long-term payoffs and therefore have to be executed.

When calculating ROI, companies have to first think about the overall marketing objectives and which set of tools with their corresponding metrics will achieve them. Only after that is established can one think about the social channels to utilize.

Below is a table by MIT Sloan Management that organizes relevant metrics for social media applications classified according to key social media applications:

 

 To start testing social media efforts start measuring! A simple dashboard that our professor showed us looks something like this:

Objective – What is the Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely goal

KPI – the measure of performance that evaluates overall effectiveness

Channel – Which social media platform(s) is/are used.

Insight – What was successful? What needs to be changed? How can we improve next time?

Recipient – Which person is responsible for this objective?

Action – What are the next steps?

Additionally, social media conversations should be tracked on a weekly or daily basis, depnding on how large the brand is and the status of the campaign.  Such things to track are total mentions, what channels mentions are most prevalent on, the sentiment and whether it is positive or negative, and other interesting observations such as most engaging posts. Furthermore, tracking earned media coverage is just as important because businesses will want to identify influencers, and how to reach their target market.

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Movember – a brilliant campaign that has diffused over social media and reached the world

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

What is Movember?

The idea of Movember was born in Melbourne, Australia in 2003 with the vision to change the way we see men’s health. More specifically, it brings awareness to prostate and testicular cancer that effect 1 in every 6 men. Mo Bros, the guys growing a moustache and Mo Sistas, the ladies who support their guys, can take an equal part in raising awareness. Participants register on Movember.com and get their own donation page called a “mo space page”.

Social Media’s Impact on the MOvement.

Through the month of Movember, registrants post updates on moustache growth and push it through E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social channels enrolling more people in the movement. Adam Garone, co-founder and CEO of Movember, talks about how in the pre-Facebook and Twitter era, Movember relied on one-on-one conversations. With the rise of social networks, conversations and engagement on the topic has spawned a snowball effect.

Beyond the social media integration component, Movember’s campaign strategy involves viral videos such as this one starring Nick Offerman:

YouTube Preview Image

and a mobile app to accommodate growing digital trends.

Mo Facts.

In 2004 (the first fundraising year) there were 450 men that raised $54,000.

       In 2012, Movember had 1,127,152 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas reaching 21 countries                           accumulating $146.4 million (2,703% increase over 8 years)!

        This year, Movember has more than 3 million participants.

       There are 26,927,373 visits to Movember.com

       Over the course of the month, the average participant has 11 status updates, sends 16                  emails, makes 7 phone calls, sends 10 tweets and has 36 face-to-face conversations.

       In total there are about 1.9 billion conversations about movember and men’s health,                   33,019 Movember editorial mentions.

Mo Impact.

       70% of participants talked about men’s health issues.

       20% went to a doctor

       67% recommended someone else see a doctor

       43% became more aware and educated about the health risks they face.

Picture taken with Movember Photo Booth, available on the App Store.

Take part in this month long campaign at movember.com. Join the Movement!

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Four Types of Media: Paid, Owned, Earned & Shared

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

One of the most important relationships to consider when putting together a content strategy is understanding the dynamics between your company’s paid owned, earned, and most recently, shared media channels. Contemporary marketing is an integrated approach that has just recently involved social media and user-generated content (Yelp, Google Reviews etc.). To better understand the effect these 4 types of media have on the other, I will first define them:

Paid – Also known as bought media to leverage a channel. Ex. Advertisements or sponsorships etc.

Owned– A channel that houses content that the brand controls. Ex. Website, mobile app, blog, social media accounts, etc.

Earned – “Free media” where customers organically advocate for your brand. Ex. Word of Mouth, Buzz, Viral, etc.

Shared – Fans and followers’ engagement on brand’s owned channels. Ex. Participation in contests, comments, ‘Likes’, etc.

Amazing synergies arise when all 4 media are used to leverage & support the others in an integrated marketing strategy.

Trend is less paid and more earned. People are paying less and less attention to traditional advertising. You can now spend less and gain more through digital and social marketing. It is also important to be an expert because this is where your customers are. The more value you are giving to your consumers the more earned media will be acquired

Important to have quality owned media. This channel the brand has all the control. You need to have contemporary, interesting and engaging content in order to drive earned and shared media. This medium is used to communicate your value proposition to your consumers. Owned channels are a great way to express your product/service offerings and for targeted messaging.

Leverage Shared & Earned Media. Consumers trust user generated content over a company’s owned content  because it is completely authentic and transparent. Listen and respond to shared and earned & find ways to link these mediums to your owned channels.

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Google Hummingbird’s Impact on Stakeholders

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

At the end of September, Google revealed the biggest update in their search algorithm since “Caffeine” in 2010. Hummingbird provides users with a more relevant and comprehensive search that is supposed to accommodate advanced queries such as questions. Google’s end goal is to deliver the fastest and most accurate (hence, the name Hummingbird) search results for their customer making it more “human friendly”.

Instead of keyword searches, Google’s emphasis is on the semantic meaning of the search. With this new equation, I take a look at how this new feature may affect different stakeholders:

User

  • Faster and more accurate search results.
  • Depending on where, and how you’re googling will affect results. For example, searching “pizza” on your desktop at home will likely bring up pizza recipes, versus searching “pizza” on your phone on the road, which likely means you are looking for the closest pizza place.
  • Better overall mobile search experience.

SEO

  • With the change in the way users are searching (asking questions/conversational searches), content creators need to be mindful to address these questions within their web content.
  • There is added pressure for link building and overall content to be high quality and to provide value to user.
  • More opportunity for smaller companies to get better placement
  • There is a greater need to tie owned content back to Google in someway. The more Google services that a company adopts such as embedding YouTube videos on websites, adding Google + links etc., will pay off in the PageRanks.

Google

  • More control on people’s search – will direct you  to other Google services if it makes sense.
  • Higher quality data collection on users.
  • Building trust and positive reputation with customer.

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Apps that I can’t live without

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

Apps have become a hot consumer trend within the last couple of years. It is hard to imagine life without interacting with these apps on a daily basis keep me balanced, organized, social, entertained, and educated. I have separated my favourite apps in 6 categories: 1) Health & Fitness; 2) Organization; 3) Social; 4) Music; 5) Photography; and 6) Reading.

1)   Health & Fitness

Yogify – I’m a yoga fanatic and believe Yogify is the perfect solution for when I can’t make my regular studio classes! Yogify has different levels and different programs (strength, balance & flexibility) to customize my practice just the way I want.

MapMyRun – When I train for running races I typically use this program to track my pace and distance.

FitStar with Tony Gonzalez – My digital personal trainer. I use this iPad app at home to get a quick sweat in. It customizes my workouts so I am constantly challenging myself.

Sleep Cycle – I was using this app to track my sleep patterns and overall sleep quality and how it affected my daily performance and mood.

2)   Organization

RBC Mobile – For paying bills and transferring funds – Fun stuff. J

Rogers My Account – Tracks my usage, balance and services such as My10 Canada-wide.

Evernote – I find the UI simple and easy to use. I like to create different notebooks to organize my notes & tag them for searching ease. I frequently use images to support content & have the capability to share these notes with friends.

Other: Dropbox, Google Drive, Passbook

3)   Social

I use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat on a daily basis for.

Other: Skype, Facetime, Pinterest

4)   Music

Shazam – I frequently shazam songs that I hear around me and want to know the titles of. Once the song is identified, it can track it down in the iTunes store and I usually instantly download it.

8tracks – My go-to music sharing site where I have saved my favourite playlists.

Other: iTunes

5)   Photography

Aviary – This is my favourite photo editing app because it makes my pictures look stellar & best of all…it’s free!

Moldiv – Another great app that edits multiple photos to make amazing collages with instant “share” features.

Other: YouTube, Hypemachine

6)   Reading

BBC – My favourite world news app

The Huffington Post – Covers all relevant local politics, business, and lifestyle conversations that matter to me.

Mashable – The best marketing app out there to keep me up-to-date on industry news.

Dictionary – Always good to have this on standby in the event there is a word I come across that I need to look up or if I’m looking for synonyms.Other: SethGodin, The Economist, National Geographic, Macleans, NYT, Women’s Health, Kindle, Goodreads, iBooks,

I have similarly categorized these apps on my iPhone by grouping them in folders. Are there any other apps that you can’t live without? Comment at the bottom!

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What I learned at EA

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Juice - not only my nickname, but my REFRESHING perspective on things

This past summer I interned for the leading global interactive software company, Electronic Arts Inc. I had the unique responsibility of defining the brand voice for an iOS app that was under the EA Sports umbrella called Yogify. As the Marketing & Community Specialist, a big part of the job was developing the editorial strategy ie. producing web-friendly & on-brand, content for Yogify’s owned channels. Additionally, I was responsible for identifying and engaging individuals I called community connectors – brand influencers if you will.

The most valuable lessons I learned on the job had a lot to do with the Social channels I was managing. My top 5 nuggets for powerful content strategy on social are:

1) Strategic Call to Actions (CTA)

CTA: “What time of day do you prefer to practice?”

Posts with the highest engagement rates didn’t necessarily have the most reach but they had a distinct CTA that resulted in the highest percentage of people who liked, commented and or shared. Making sure the CTAs were unique, intentional and meaningful to the audience’s interests, and simple enough to act on was imperative for success. An example of a CTA is: “like if…”

2) Images + Quotes

From @Yogify Instagram page

The posts with the most organic reach were images with inspiring messages on it or content that our audience thought was funny. This meant that we got a higher number of ‘likes’, comments and, shares.

3) Engaging Industry Influencers

Identify the thought leaders and active and connected participants on social media within your industry. You can find them through keyword searches on search engines or through services such as KLOUT. The most connected people will help expand your reach and may even be used to leverage

Talk and engage with them. Add value to them by posting interesting and timely content! These people will become brand advocates and loyalists that should be rewarded in some way.

4) Humanize the brand

The cover photo on our Facebook page is the yoga model as well as producer of the app. Having a face associated to an EA title gives Yogify a “friendly” appeal. Yogify also created videos that introduced the yoga guru who created the Yoga sequences and would occasionally post videos and photos of real people using the app. Behind the scenes shots as well as increasing the observability factor (seeing others engage with the app), has helped our rate of adoption.

5) Review & Review Again

Don’t forget to spell check! I can’t stress this enough…double and triple check content before it goes online to ensure professionalism and seamless communication with your audience.

These take-aways and online strategies are versatile and can be replicated across industries. Note, these 5 tips don’t encompass the entirety of a social content strategy. They are just pieces to a puzzle that creates a clearer big picture. Please feel free to leave a comment & join in the conversation.

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