Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) group announced enhancements to ads served in AMP. Specifically, the project has entered phase two of its three-phase plan for supporting comprehensive advertising functionality in AMP. [Source: Search Engine Land]
As part of their ongoing efforts to combat fake and misleading content on their platform, Facebook has announced the latest option to better inform users – the addition of publisher logos next to links in Trending and Search. [Source: Social Media Today]
The podcast has taken another step toward becoming just another marketing channel, with the release today of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)’s first buyer’s guide for podcast advertising. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
LinkedIn has now announced that all users will soon be able to post video to the platform, moving in-line with the broader video content shift. [Source: Social Media Today]
Facebook has been a big supporter of 360-degree photos and video, adding support for the immersive media formats early on Facebook itself. Now, the social tech company is adding support for capturing 360-degree photos right within the Facebook app itself. [Source: TechCrunch]
Google and Walmart have announced a partnership to bring Walmart voice shopping to the Google Assistant and Google Home. Free delivery will also be available through Google Express, which is changing its pricing structure. [Source: Search Engine Land]
Google has always been treated by the news industry as a kind of frenemy. Many news organizations have a tortured history with Google, including some who’ve successfully lobbied against Google in Europe. Yet for roughly a decade Google has been trying to help publishers make more money while continuing to try and serve users and its own commercial interests. [Source: Search Engine Land]
WhatsApp has announced the coloured text-based Status updates for its users. The feature is similar to how it works on Facebook, where users can add a coloured background when uploading a text based status update. [Source: Indian Express]
Google announced they have added video previews to the video carousel that shows up in the search results. Currently, this only occurs when you are using the Google app for Android or using Chrome on Android. [Source: Search Engine Land]
A trademark lawsuit before the Supreme Court alleges the word “Google” has become too generic, and is therefore no longer eligible for trademark protection. [Source: Search Engine Journal]
Expert Opinion:
- Data driven Personalization is the key to effective digital marketing campaigns
Personalization in marketing has been the most talked about topic recently and is quickly gaining popularity as an effective marketing tool for brands. Technology has enabled consumption of content at a personal level. The consumer preference is often revealed voluntarily and sometime with incentives. And the same technology has enabled recording & analyzing those preferences, quirks, behaviours, moods, mood swings, for most touch points. With new technologies and advances in the digital marketing field, the possibilities of personalizing marketing communication and campaigns are also expanding. According to a recent study conducted by PWC’s Digital Services group, 94% of senior-level executives believe delivering personalization is critical or important to reaching customers.
Amongst the clutter of each touch point, if we believe that personalized communication is the only way to gain that fleeting moment of attention, then data driven personalization is the only medium which can help achieve that objective and thereby make Marketing dollar more effective.
Personalization helps you understand your consumers well which enables you to assist them in providing a seamless customer journey, and helps you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Having said that Every data point recorded doesn’t and will never create a ‘conversion’ or a result that has a monetary value attached to it. But every data point is a building block in the path to the holy grail of personalization where we have true one to one communication and continuous optimization basis behaviour or preferences that are revealed
Some of the benefits you can reap from data driven personalized digital marketing campaigns are:
– Drive conversions and increase sales
– Build long-term and stronger relationships with customers
– Significant boost in customer engagement
– Improved customer experience
– Better customer retention
– Increased customer loyalty
Brands need to cautiously use customer data and understand their preferences. This will assist the brand in designing effective marketing strategies that can promote positive communication with their consumers. This, in turn, can help them with improved conversions.
In a landscape where customer touch points are competing with each other to get customer attention, it is imperative for a marketer to measure the success of each such points of contact Quantifying results of a marketing intervention & then connecting it to business levers is hence a necessity for the marketer to function effectively
With the rising popularity of digital media and the customers’ inclination towards using multiple devices, the scope of data driven personalization is not limited to selection of the Target Audience or the point of contact or the relevance of the communication – it has to cover the entire life-cycle of a marketing intervention to provide a flawless experience across multiple devices/ touch points.
Econsultancy’s Internet Statistics Compendium suggests that programmatic and personalization experiences which emphasize on customers could provide anywhere from 2x to 14x more incremental revenue per visitor (RPV) compared to traditional optimization efforts that focus mainly on cosmetic changes.
In the rapidly growing digital age, brands who thrive on user insights and data to drive customer engagement and sales for the businesses are sure to stand out in the future.
