🔊 What would it take for new search engines to succeed?

Plus, best practices for working with travel influencers. Dec 17, 2020 Good morning, Marketer, and has your outlook for 2021 just changed? We’ve been keeping our fingers on the pulse all year: when will marketers feel confident in attending in-person events again? Around the end of Q3, 60% hoped to attend in-person events in the second half of 2021, according to our [Event Participation Index](. This week, however, we’ve seen a COVID vaccine actually being administered to front-line health workers — it has become a reality at remarkable speed. Of course, it’s not going to reach the healthier among us for a few months, but is that changing your thinking? Let us know please by taking our latest short survey [right here](. Kim DavisEditorial Director Search engines What would it take for new search engines to succeed? This year, Neeva and You.com have made headlines as potential players in the search space. It seems like these two seek to cater to users in ways that Google may not, and they’ve already acquired some funding. But, will that be enough to attract an initial user base? Or, has Google moved out of reach for competitors…permanently? I wish I had the answers for you, but we do have some idea of how it may play out. We spoke to Rand Fishkin of SparkToro and Eric Enge of Perficient, who both have their doubts over whether any new entrant can catch up to the data that Google has amassed over the past 2+ decades about how users interact with search engines and search results. Success doesn’t necessarily mean surpassing Google in search market share, though: carving out a user base that Google has overlooked can make these businesses successful, similar to how Etsy and eBay don’t really attempt to challenge Amazon head on. [Read more here.]( Learn the benefits of using a customer data platform and compare top vendors MarTech Today’s “Customer Data Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide ” examines the market for customer data platforms and the considerations involved in implementation. This report answers the following questions — What features do CDPs provide? What trends are driving the adoption of CDPs? Does your company need a CDP? — It also includes profiles leading vendors, capabilities comparisons, and recommended steps for evaluating and purchasing. [Get it now! »]( MarTech Submit your session ideas for MarTech 2021 We’ve all experienced a large amount of change this year, both personally and professionally. That’s our focus as we begin to plan the first MarTech 2021 event, which will take place virtually on March 16-17. The sessions will take into account changing customer behaviors and what that entails for marketing technologists. If you’re interested in speaking, we’ll be reviewing proposals for the March event between now and February 1. If you haven’t yet submitted one, now’s the time. Here are a few areas to consider when submitting proposals: - The expanding capabilities and use of marketing automation; - How CDPs can enhance a data-driven culture and wider data strategy; - The use of attribution and predictive analytics technology to truly understand what’s drawing customers to your company or brand; - How the use of asset management, project management and workflow technology are critical to the efficiency of overall operations. [Find out how to submit here](. Unlock proven tactics to measure search marketing success Join us online, February 23, 2021 at SMX Report: a deep dive into everything you need to know about analytics for search marketing. Book now for just $99! [Register Now »]( Influencers Best practices for working with travel influencers Based on a selective survey of high-profile travel influencers with between 10,000 and 300,000 followers, the Abbi Agency has [compiled]( advice for destinations that expect to work with influencers in 2021. Highlights include: - Don’t be shy to reach out -— influencers are keen to visit new places; - Build out a sufficient budget for influencers to be able to reflect the full experience; - Don’t stop at Instagram, stay abreast of new platforms and channels to reach niche audiences; and - Identify the best message for the destination and share it with your influencer partners. A comprehensive guide to Crowd Marketing [Sponsored by Natural Links]( Crowd marketing is a methodology of promoting brands through direct contact with their target audience on forums and forum-like platforms. At Natural Links, we prefer working with industry-specific forums. One needs to participate in organic discussions on topics associated with the brand’s value proposition. When done properly, crowd marketing raises the clients’ brand awareness and creates thousands of safe, natural backlinks that grow organic traffic. Erik Ivanov, a Co-Founder of Natural Links, has worked in SEO in highly-competitive niches for 15 years — 7 of those in link building and 5 in crowd marketing. In that time, he’s seen plenty of praise for and prejudice against crowd marketing. For this article, Ivanov gathered all his practical experience and use cases and built a comprehensive guide on crowd marketing — with definitions, best practices and life examples. [Read more »]( Quote of the day “REMINDER: they’re paying you for the hours, weeks, months, years you spent learning your skills. Not the current project.” [Justin Jackson](, Partner Enablement Manager, Formstack. [Marketing Land] []( [Want to advertise?]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. 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