🙊 International errors.

Microsoft’s April updates, the common mistakes SEOs are making, and more. April 5, 2023 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Good morning. We have an unusual announcement for you this morning… We bought something. And we’re excited about it. That’s all we can say here, but you’ll find more details near the top of our Rounding Up the Stack section below. Ooo the suspense… MICROSOFT Professional Service Ads just went global, plus more updates [article-image] We don’t know whether Microsoft has a green thumb or not. … But it’s sure good at growing [new features in April](… So professional: Professional Service Ads are now available across the world… good news for industries such as real estate, tax services, home services, and more. Pretty cool. These ads appear vertically at the right hand side of the search engine results page. Need-to-knows: Microsoft also announced two more updates to its Ads Suite, including… - Bulk management in Asset Library. You can now bulk delete and move assets and folders. Big time saver right there. - Target bid value. You can now view and edit current target bid value within the campaign grid when applying automated bidding. Seems helpful. Oh, don’t forget: Microsoft also wishes to remind you that all campaigns will be upgraded to Enhanced CPC, and that all broad match modifier keywords for Search Ads will serve as broad matches instead of phrase matches. You don’t need to do anything about this last update, though. Why we care: If you’re advertising a service business, the new vertical ad placements are yet another channel for meeting your target audience where they search. Sounds good to us. All the other updates sound like your Microsoft Ads management got a little bit easier… hooray for that. SEO Are you making these hreflang errors? Local SEOs can skip this one. But if you’re managing an international website, you should know that [31% of websites may contain hreflang errors](, according to Dan Taylor—and that can severely impact your rankings. Conflict resolution: A big problem is SEOs giving their sites conflicting hreflang directives. For example, more than one URL has been assigned to a single region or a language. This can make Google’s crawlers go dizzy – and can lead to duplicate content, cannibalization and ultimately bad rankings. … But that’s not all. Dan’s study revealed some other interesting findings: - 16% of hreflang clusters are missing self-referencing tags. - 48% of websites don’t use x-default. - 9% of hreflang clusters contain at least one instance of invalid language code. - 1.6% contain at least one instance of invalid region code. - 22.5% contain irregular or unusual language combinations. For example, you’d use x-default to tell search engines your page doesn’t target a specific language, which could be an important signal to include. You’d also want to avoid, for instance, hreflang’s Zambia to Chinese combination, as it makes no sense and will just make burden crawlers. You get the gist… Why we care: All of these signals are easy to miss or forget about. But with SEO, it’s usually the details that determine the rank – especially for big international pages. Keep it tidy out there! SPONSORED BY ITERABLE The Crew is going to Activate 2023. Are you? [article-image]( There's an event lovingly designed for marketers like you and us. It’s three days of expert tips and strategies for building lasting—and profitable—relationships with your customers. You'll learn exactly how to: - Launch, manage, and optimize epic SMS campaigns Jeff Mills (Director of Product Marketing at Iterable). - Effectively combine SMS with email, web, and other mobile channels Sebastian Cabrera, and Tasmin Singh from Iterable’s Customer Success team. - Build trust, reward loyalty, and drive engagement in a fractured landscape. - Boost the efficiency of your marketing and grow revenue. And that's just a sample of the [inspiring ideas and actionable insights you’ll learn at Activate 2023.]( Remember, if you're a remote team like us, you can attend virtually [between April 18–19 for free!]( If you're interested in reaching your customer on the channels they love, this event is simply unmissable. Bonus: if you register now, you’re automatically entered for a chance to win a $1000 Airbnb gift card. So… see you there? [Register for your chance to win]( MARKETING When it’s time to hire a fractional Marketing Director [article-image] Have you reached the stage where you need expert marketing skills, but money is tight and the growth has hit a plateau? Then it might be time to hire a fractional Marketing Director (fMD). [As Amanda Natividad points out](, hiring a hands-on executive in a part-time role could be the solution to helping you navigate transition phases—especially during cash-strapped times. What fMDs do: A fMD would be responsible for creating the mid-term strategy across your entire organization, while also executing a specific marketing function like content marketing, acquisition, or something similar. The major upside of fMD is that they’re high-level “doers” comfortable with being out in the trenches and doing the work – but with minimal oversight from senior management. When do you hire a fMD? Amanda lists a couple of situations where they could save you tons of money and stress: #1 – You’re an early-stage start up without a marketing team. Maybe you’ve hit your first 500 customers, but don’t know what to do next. A fMD can help you plan strategy, budget, and set up partnerships with agencies. … Or, help set up workflows, build funnels with product-led content, create a monthly newsletter, and more. After five to six months, you can see what’s working and what’s not. And maybe even offer a permanent role… #2 – You don’t know what to do with a particular marketing channel. Imagine your content manager leaves for an exciting new role. They leave behind a high quality blog that drives tens of thousands of users, but you don’t know what to do with it. You need a replacement… and maybe a new direction too. Do you hire a data storyteller to double down on your reports? A podcast host to expand on your content topics? An acquisition expert to turn visitors into customers? An fMD can decide for you. #3 – Your business has a seasonality factor. Seasonal businesses have peak periods only during a specific quarter, or half a year. And you only want to maximize that period. Since you can predict your busy season and you need top-notch execution, you can hire a fMD only for that time to set everything up and squeeze every dollar from your marketing efforts. “Why wouldn’t I just hire a fCMO?” Because while they are marketing experts, fCMOs are strategy-oriented. So if you can’t afford months of planning without someone in the trenches… you’ll probably be better off hiring a fMD. Good luck out there! SPONSORED BY STACKED MARKETER PRO Have you automated these marketing tasks yet? [article-image]( Believe it or not, AI can 10X any marketing process you can think of. Seriously. And in our report, [A Marketer’s Complete Dive Into AI - Part 2](, you’ll learn how to do things like: - Create an entire newsletter that’s practically ready to publish. - Generate an attention-grabbing quiz about your product in seconds. - Find objections about your product so you can address them. … And more. [Join Stacked Marketer Pro for $7 to read the report.]( THE CREW’S INSIGHTS Three steps to beating subscriber churn [article-image] You may think that acquiring the customer is the hard part. … But keeping them subscribed is even trickier. We’ve covered the reasons why your subscription program has a high churn rate before. Today, let’s talk about getting ahead of the curve and beating churn before it becomes a problem. Here are three valuable steps you can take to make sure your customers stay subscribed to your program: - Throw in small gifts regularly. This could be a product sample, a sitewide gift card, or even a full-size product. The point here is to keep the dopamine levels high when your customers think about your product. - Make it very easy for them to pause or change addresses. No one likes being locked into a contract, especially when they’re not going to be home to enjoy it. Make freezing the subscription easy and simple. That way, they don’t have to cancel when they go on vacation—and inevitably forget to re-subscribe. - Lean on loyalty. If your customers see their points increase every time they receive a product, redeemable for cash or gift cards on your website, they’re likely to want to keep seeing their balance go up. Offer them points for birthdays and special events too. The takeaway? Buying is an extremely emotional experience, so what might feel like “bending over backwards” for your customers could actually be exactly what makes them feel appreciated. Simple rule of reciprocity. Make them feel appreciated, and they’ll want to return the favor. ROUNDING UP THE STACK [SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT:]( No joke. You can save up to 80% of your time by writing AI-generated captions, scheduling and approving posts, and performing in-depth analytics from one platform. Cloud Campaign lets you do all this for multiple brands easily and quickly. [Try it for free.](* [NEWSLETTERS:]( Big news… Stacked Marketer just acquired the Psychology of Marketing newsletter from Abhishek Shah!! Don’t worry, Abhishek’s still writing the outstanding, “edutainment” content, and we’re confident we can help him grow. More details in our founder’s Twitter announcement… [AI MARKETING:]( In just three years, AI language models went from being 30% accurate to being over 75% accurate. And that’s just one stat from the latest Stanford’s State of the AI report. Pretty cool… and a little scary. [E-COMMERCE:]( How does a retail corporation like Target go viral on TikTok? By appealing to Gen Z of course. Apparently they’re attracted to Target’s qualities – unique, unlimited, and ethical retailers. There’s something to learn there… [STREAMING:]( Looks like live audio apps were truly one-hit wonders. Clubhouse downloads have fallen 52% in the US during the past year, while Spotify, Reddit, and Meta all shut down their live audio features. Guess people just prefer live videos. [TIKTOK:]( Fined! The UK’s data watchdog slapped a $12.7M penalty—one of the largest ever issued by the group—on TikTok for not preventing children under 13 from accessing its content and for tracking their data. Both are forbidden by law, of course. *This is a sponsored post BRAIN TEASER I’m as small as an ant, as big as a whale. I’ll approach like a breeze, but can come like a gale. By some I get hit, but all have shown fear. I’ll dance to the music, though I can’t hear. Of names I have many, of names I have one. I’m as slow as a snail, but from me you can’t run. What am I? You can find the [answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT Breathe in… the ROI [article-image] Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine a soothing voice whispering: “As you exhale, let go of the numbers, charts, metrics and dashboards for a moment. Instead, allow yourself to bask in the glow of a recent success…like a sunbather on a warm, sunny day.” Believe it or not – this really exists. It’s called [Meditation for Marketers.]( Each session has a name like: - “Unplugging from the Metrics Matrix.” - “Lead Gen Zen.” - “Breathe in the ROI.” We tried a few of the meditations ourselves, honestly, they’re strangely soothing. Seriously. Give them a try. Worst case scenario – you crush your next strategy meeting. Worst case scenario – the ASMR-like voice gets you into deep sleep. No losses there! SHARING IS CARING Know what’s easier than asking your boss for more vacation days? Sharing today’s newsletter with other people. It also makes you look insanely well-informed in front of other marketers... and might even help you build rapport with the right executives. Plus, you earn great rewards. Every time you share your custom link—and your friends and coworkers subscribe—you earn points toward exclusive content, merch, and more. Get started by hitting the link below! [article-image]( [CLICK TO SHARE]( Or copy your referral link: [ [SUBSCRIBE]( | [SM PRO]( | [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