🛒 Shoppers’ problems.

How to promote your content, why customers can’t find your products, and more. April 8, 2022 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Hey, happy Friday. You put in a good week… how are you planning to celebrate? Two members of our Crew will be enjoying Madrid, while another one looks forward to filing his taxes. To each his own, we guess. GOOGLE Google is determined to help customers find the perfect products [article-image] Ever tried to find the words to describe what you’re looking for…and couldn’t? It’s a real problem for shoppers: According to Google’s just-released [Shopping Inspiration Insights](, almost 66% of shoppers said they’ve failed to find a product when trying to explain it using only words. And the search giant is ready with the solution. Use words… and photos: Google’s new [multisearch feature lets shoppers]( combine photo and text search to help them more easily describe—and find—the perfect product. But not all shoppers have a plan: Google’s Shopping Inspiration Insights reveals that almost 65% of people go shopping even if they’re not looking for anything specific. In fact, around the same percentage buy stuff even when they didn’t plan to. And 39% of shoppers get inspired by other people using or wearing a particular product—one reason why user generated content and influencer ads work so well. Why we care: We’re marketers! The fact that purchases can happen spontaneously shows the importance of having thoughtful and targeted marketing campaigns. Speaking of ad campaigns… ADVERTISING Nextdoor opens the door for local ads Looking for another channel to reach local customers? Try Nextdoor: The social platform is about to launch [a new and improved ad manager]( in the coming weeks. According to Kiran Prassad, Nextdoor’s head of product, this new version “provides small businesses with a simple solution to reach customers in their local area at scale.” Why we care: With nearly one out of three households on the app and the post-pandemic incentives to support small businesses, Nextdoor has immense potential for small and medium business marketers. Add the low barrier to entry, ease of use, and the chance to set and forget your campaigns, and you may have some good ad revenue opportunities. We wonder how it will compare to Facebook Ads… SPONSORED BY MOTION Get data-driven insights about what creatives are bringing you the best results [article-image]( Josh Yelle, Director of Paid Social at WPromote said “Motion solves for analysis paralysis by providing digestible insights which makes it easy to work with creative teams and streamline the creative iteration process.” Strong statement. But there’s more… Zac Fromson, Chief Creative at Lilo Social said “Motion has helped our creative team quickly visualize results to make educated and accurate optimization decisions across our portfolio.” Marketers are data-driven. Creative teams are visual. Their siloed workflows makes for difficult collaboration and wasted spend. [That’s where Motion comes into play.]( - Identifying key drivers of creative performance so you can quickly scale winners? Check! - Empowering your team with easy-to-digest visual reports so they don’t have to rely on spreadsheets? Check! - Real-time learnings shared with your creative teams to help their creative production process? Check and check! [“Tell me more about this ad tool.”]( CONTENT MARKETING How to get ROI from the content you worked so hard to produce [article-image] How much time do you spend creating content? And how long do you spend actually promoting and spreading that content? Many marketers make the mistake of spending hours on the creative part, but only a few minutes on the promotion. “I don’t want to seem too spammy.” “I don’t want to come off too promotional.” Thing is, you need to put that content in front of new eyes if you want to keep the lights on. So if you’re not spending as much time promoting content as you should be, Ross Simmond’s [Modern Distribution Playbook]( can help. It offers you a simple step-by-step formula for “getting the word out.” First thing you do is conduct an audit. Go through your content and look for the pieces that demonstrate a clear content-market fit. There are many ways to guage this. Look at the content that got more shares, more comments, and more referral traffic. The next step is running through the Distribution Playbook, which goes like this: Day One: Social amplification. Post on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook. Day Two: Native channel amplification. Publish the piece as a Medium article and LinkedIn article. Day Three: Community driven distribution. Drop your content in Slack, Facebook groups, industry forums, and Discord channels. Publish your content in your industry’s communities. Day Four: Newsletters and mixing things up. Share a link to your email list, reach out to your network, promote internally to your company. Day Six: Influencer outreach. Reach out to newsletters or influencers in your industry. Engage a TikToker to create content about the asset. Day Seven: Repurposing. Repurpose your piece for a YouTube video, Instagram carousel or Story, or to every other channel that makes sense for your niche. As you can see, the promotion opportunities are endless. The only way to get a higher ROI on your content effort is to [share your work everywhere](… so don’t skip this part. It’s too important. SPONSORED BY JUNI 1% cash back guaranteed. Like sunshine on a rainy campaign day. [article-image]( Meet the [Juni credit card](.* Rain or shine, get 1% cashback on all your ad spend! No matter how your campaigns perform. The Juni credit card is tailor made for running ads: 0% interest rate. High credit limits, up to £400k available*. And relaxed payment terms of 37 days, or up to 60 on request. [Take your ad spend to the next level.]( * For UK companies only, upon eligibility. T&Cs and fees apply. THE CREW'S INSIGHTS Many marketers value this SEO metric too much. Here’s why you can ignore it [article-image] Here’s an unfortunate truth: Many marketers treat one metric like it’s the Holy Grail of SEO. We’re talking about Domain Authority… or Domain Rank, or whatever your SEO tool calls it. We’ve been in enough meetings to know that many marketers consider domain authority the leading SEO metric for their brand. Here’s why it’s not: - It’s an arbitrary number, devised by whichever SEO platform you use. Objective domain authority does not exist—it’s up to whatever algorithm your SEO tool uses. - A higher domain authority doesn’t mean you’ll rank better. The algorithms involved are complicated, but bumping your domain rank by 5 points doesn’t have any guarantee that your content will jump, too. You know, correlation doesn’t mean causation… - It’s often used to fake success. If you have insight into the algorithms, domain authority can be easy to manipulate without generating any actual SEO success. As a result, it’s often pitched by snake-oil salesmen looking to fool you into thinking they did great work. What we’re saying is, nothing good comes from focusing solely on this domain-related metric. At best, it's a quick-look number to check how easy it might be for you to rank on a topic. Instead of focusing on vanity metrics, do real quality SEO work. Create great content. And focus on the metrics that matter… like your KPIs, revenue, and so on. That’s why your favorite SEO tools do have more than just Domain Authority or Domain Rank metrics… ROUNDING UP THE STACK [NEWSLETTERS:]( The Assist is a free 4x a week email newsletter that focuses on improving your life in manageable ways. Through actionable life tips that range the gamut from professional to personal, it provides the opportunity to [learn and grow through digestible, quick reads.](* [INSTAGRAM:]( Bye, in-stream. After phasing out IGTV last year, Instagram officially retired in-stream video ads as well. The platform is edging closer to its goal—a full-screen feed format containing videos, Reels, Stories, and images all together. [AMAZON:]( Turns out some Amazon sellers are buying and merging reviews from unrelated products to boost product ratings and sales. Amazon says they’ve taken action. [ANALYTICS:]( Double-check your data retention settings in Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 makes it sound like standard reports never expire, but that may be misleading. [ADVERTISING:]( In-game advertising is its own universe… or should we say, metaverse. The Interactive Advertising Bureau just released a report on the present and future of in-game ads. Our takeaway? Don’t rush into it if you don’t understand gaming beforehand. [SEO:]( Mortal enemies. Apparently, Google’s algorithm doesn’t like AI-generated content, and will automatically flag it as spam. SERPs are turning into a battle of the robots! [REDDIT:]( The platform’s new Conversation Placements are working. A Canadian Wealth Management company used it to tap into financial conversations, with 33% of the resulting installs becoming their clients! [GOOGLE:]( Mind your own business… hours. Google uses machine learning to determine if your hours are accurate, but it can make mistakes. So be sure to check it manually from time to time. *This is a sponsored post. BRAIN TEASER What goes up but never comes down? You can find the [answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT Real estate investors are coming for the metaverse [article-image] Can you imagine dropping millions of dollars on virtual property in the metaverse? [That’s what these investors are doing.]( They’re buying up real estate in Decentraland, a world created by Argentine developers. Believe it or not, Decentraland recently hosted a virtual fashion week, complete with a digital parade hosted by Dolce & Gabbana. But it’s mostly a ghost town, only getting about 25,000 visits per day. We hope the dividends are worth it! SHARING IS CARING “Too much info in such a small space.”—one reader who unsubscribed Hey, not everyone can handle staying up to date with marketing. It’s busy! But smart marketers and business people do. And there’s a chance you know at least one of them. So share our newsletter with someone who values getting the latest marketing news and insights in small, 5-minute segments. And we’ll send you free merch… the kind that looks good on your desk, laptop, or upper half. It’s easy. Just share your referral link below. [article-image]( [CLICK TO SHARE]( Or copy your referral link: [ [SUBSCRIBE]( | [INSIGHTS]( | [ADVERTISE]( You are receiving this email because you want to know what is going on in digital marketing. If you aren't thrilled about our emails, reply and let us know why. Or you can unsubscribe from all daily updates by clicking [here.]( Our postal address: Spectrum IT Solutions GmbH, Canettistrasse 1/Top 0107, 1100 Wien, Austria