“Podcasting is still a vast, open space that brands are smart to jump into,” says Lindsay Tiepkema, CEO of Casted, a podcast-centered marketing platform. “When you consider there are about 1 million podcasts, but more than 600 million blogs, you can see how much opportunity still exists for brands to own their own space.”

The truth is, over the past couple of years, many marketing teams made a jump into podcasts without thinking through strategy and objectives — after all, a podcast series can be cheap and quick to fire up. What they should have been thinking about is the purpose of the podcast, how to provide content which differentiates it, and who to invite as guests.

What’s more, the route to ROI isn’t via sales pitches. “As a marketer, don’t look to try to monetize your podcast, worry more about building a consistent high-quality content outflow and go from there,” says Karla Joe Helms, co-host of the If You Market They Will Come podcast. “People get tired of sales pitches.”

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We need to prepare and adapt for the 2020 holiday shopping season as data has shown consumers have been withholding on spending during the pandemic. But with shoppers more focused on purchasing online now, how can we make sure we are in front of these consumers at the right time and get ahead of our competition? Join this webinar and learn how to identify how different shopping trends are from 2019 and what to expect this year.

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Compared to other social media, Pinterest users are the top spenders on gifts and holiday shopping. That’s among the findings from StatSocial which looked at the purchases of millions of U.S.-based users of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat and Pinterest. It found that Pinterest users spend 39.2% more on gifts and holiday shopping than the average U.S. consumer.

Why we care. It may be intuitive that Pinterest users would over-index on holiday and gift shopping, but does your holiday marketing plan reflect this finding? If you don’t have a Pinterest strategy yet, this holiday season could be worth a thoughtful test.

Couldn’t attend live? Register now for free to watch all of the tactic-rich sessions, case studies, demos, and keynotes that you missed!

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Marketers are using more advertising channels as part of the digital transformation, but that does not equal higher conversion rates, said Eric Eden, chief marketing officer at Postclick at The MarTech Conference. For higher conversion rates take a comprehensive review of your campaign, beginning with in-depth analysis of what is being converted. 

“Achieving advertising conversions is more than getting lots of clicks,” he said. 

To further increase conversions, make sure images actually engage, inform and provide a call-to-action and don’t just serve as graphic placeholders. Content may need to be adjusted to predominantly feature benefit-oriented headlines and body copy that is easily skimmable and not in traditional text paragraph format. 

Finally, use the upcoming holiday season as an opportunity to try out new promotions and pricing incentives through advertising channels, from newsletters, email campaigns, social media platforms and text messages. 

Registered attendees can watch the session here. 

Why we care. The increase of omnichannel campaigns means the channels need to be separated and analyzed based on individual conversions. Don’t be afraid to abandon low-performing channels mid-campaign for ones that continue to show higher conversion rates. 

Google claims to update its search algorithm several thousand times per year. In the absolute majority of cases, Google algorithm updates are too small to notice. But, every once in a while, Google introduces a change so fundamental, that it disrupts the way we do SEO forever.

Whether it’s Panda or Penguin, Hummingbird or a Core Update, it’s critical to get a handle on how algorithm updates are affecting your site’s rankings. Then, once you know what’s happening, you can do something about it.  

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“Once you’ve narrowed down your potential influencers to connect with, it’s important to return to this question: If an influencer shared your message, would it resonate with their community?” Neil Schaffer, digital social media marketing author and consultant.