Digital Marketing News from March 2022

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Google aims to improve site engagement by launching new related content search ads

• Google will highlight relevant product reviews from online retailers

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Mobile World Congress 2022

• Android launches new features

• Pinterest: New ways to shop, depending on your tastes and preferences

3. Social Media Updates

• Twitter is reversing its decision to force you to use the timeline out of order

• TikTok launches 10-minute videos

• Instagram rolls out automatic subtitles for videos

4. The tech sector and French entrepreneurs have been mobilizing for several days to support the Ukrainians

• #TechforUkraine 

• French Tech: a start-up creates a project to house Ukrainian refugees

• #IstandwithUkraine

5. News from Frizbit

• Frizbit participated in the MWC 2022

• Frizbit graduated of the Activa incubation programe in Barcelona

• Frizbit will start organizing meetups again in April

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Google aims to improve site engagement by launching new related content search ads

Google wants to create a new model for eliminating cookies, one that is subject-based without using user data. Related content search is one of its first advertising solutions that does not require cookies.

This ad will work by making suggestions about the type of content on your website, and redirecting users to other pages related to the content they are viewing.

“Related content search is a contextual navigation unit that shows users search terms related to the page they are viewing on a publisher’s website.”

As explained by Google in its blog

This could increase site engagement because when a user clicks on a search term, they will be redirected to a results page with other topics on the publisher’s site.

This solution does not use any user data as it does not require cookies which will soon disappear. The ads are targeted to the search topic the user has clicked on, which preserves the user’s privacy and allows you to increase traffic to your site and keep visitors on your site longer.

• Google will highlight relevant product reviews from online retailers

Google will improve the quality of the reviews it displays in search results.

The best product reviews will be those that meet certain criteria, and the most relevant ones will be those that are detailed.

In order to provide searchers with better information, more specific information about an item, such as its advantages or disadvantages, details about performance, what it physically looks like or how it is used. This allows the consumer to have information in addition to that of the brand. People appreciate reviews that not only summarise different products, but also share in-depth research.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Mobile World Congress 2022

Barcelona was the center of the technology world. Here are some of the announcements and product launches we saw at MWC.  Samsung will re-launch computers on the French market with the Galaxy Book2.

Huawei’s former sub-brand, Honor, is back with its new high-end model, the Magic 4 Pro.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s : The first truly succesfull PC ARM

The device weighs only 1 kilograms and has a battery life of 28 hours, including built-in 5G connectivity

the Huawei MateStation has a design that reminds us of Apple’s desktop computer but has its own qualities and a clean design

Here are the main news in the mobile field announced by these big brands of the mobile phone industry.

• Android launches new features

• A new grammar correction feature on Gboard

• With Live Transcribe, you can have conversations even when you’re offline

• Google TV’s new “Highlights” tab offers a personalized feed of entertainment information

• You can pay for parking with Google Assistant

These new features make it easy to share new ideas, enjoy your favourite entertainment and explore the world around you. It’s another set of features that makes Android devices even more convenient.

• Pinterest: New ways to shop, depending on your tastes and preferences

Shopping on Pinterest is different from other platforms, Pinterest offers a very visual environment. Monthly spending by shoppers on Pinterest is 30% higher than shoppers on other platforms.

The creation of a Your Shop area will soon be available on the platform, this is a personalized shopping area, with brands and products selected according to their preferences. Each user will be able to buy items that match their personal taste.

Your Shop is currently available in beta in the US and will be available in other countries in the future.

3. Social Media Updates

• Twitter is reversing its decision to force you to use the timeline out of order

This month Twitter introduced a new service on its platform. However, not everyone was happy with this new feature. The service would display the home feed served algorithmically while the reverse chronological feed would be accessible in a separate tab.

This change caused a lot of criticism, making it more difficult to access the most recent tweets and the Latest feed is preferred to the Home feed for most users of the platform.

In light of the widespread criticism, Twitter reversed its decision shortly after its announcement and restored the original timeline.

“We heard you – some of you still want to see the latest Tweets first,” Twitter said in a tweet on its support account.

Twitter is still considering and working on further changes to the timeline.

• TikTok launches 10-minute videos

A Tiktok spokesperson said:

“Today we are excited to begin rolling out the ability to upload videos up to 10 minutes in length, which we hope will open up even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.”

The maximum length of a Tiktok video was one minute, then 3 minutes, this limit will increase to 10 minutes before long.

It’s amazing to see that Tiktok, which was known for its short video format, wants to introduce a new long video format.

With this decision, TikTok seeks to position itself against its main competitor YouTube. Longer videos open the door to more formats to grow the advertising business.

• Instagram rolls out automatic subtitles for videos

When creators shared videos, they had to manually add subtitles, from now on video subtitles will be automatic, announced Adam Mosseri, the boss of instagram.

Users will have the option to enable or disable them. This feature could allow the hearing impaired, or people who want to watch a video without sound, to have additional information.

4. The tech sector and French entrepreneurs have been mobilizing for several days to support the Ukrainians who have been displaced or who have stayed behind.

• #TechforUkraine 

The Tech to the rescue movement brings together companies that want to help NGOs in the field.

Through the #TechforUkraine movement, companies are invited to support charities on several levels. IT systems are often weak, upgrading old software, manipulating user interfaces, etc. The aim is to protect their IT infrastructure from the potential of cyber attacks. However, it also encourages donations and facilitates the delivery of relief supplies to Ukraine.

• French Tech: a start-up creates a project to house Ukrainian refugees

The founders of Jobgether, a job search website, have set up a platform that matches Ukrainian refugees with European host families. Called EU4UA, it already boasts several hundred registered users.

• #IstandwithUkraine

Grammarly, the unicorn, is donating $5 million to organizations and funds supporting people in Ukraine, where many employees still live.

Glovo, a Barcelona-based mobile app, is moving some of its employees out of Ukraine and donating $15 million to organizations and funds that support people in Ukraine.

5. News from Frizbit

Frizbit is delighted to have been able to participate in MWC 2022, one of the world’s largest high-tech trade fairs. We are delighted to have been able to discover the various announcements and launches of the major mobile phone industry.

Frizbit is very proud to be a graduate of the Activa incubation programe in Barcelona. Barcelona Activa has given us space and the opportunity to develop our startup during 3 years and we are now moving to our new office at Poblenou.

We’ll start organizing meetups again in April with live broadcasting. Follow us on social media.

Digital Marketing News from February 2022

1.Search Marketing Updates

• Google shopping creates a ranking of businesses that offer excellent customer service.

2.Marketing Tech Updates

• The first developer preview of Android 13

• Google is adopting the Privacy Sandbox on Android

• Amazon creates immersive shopping experiences using 3D substance

• Pinterest is introducing a trial feature for furniture items.

3.Social Media Updates

• TikTok impacts every stage of the purchase journey

• Instagram’s various changes

• LinkedIn makes it easier to find leads on Sales Navigator

1.Search Marketing Updates

• Google shopping creates a ranking of businesses that offer excellent customer service.

Google will now offer a reward to e-tailers who provide an excellent customer experience. There will now be a ranking in Google Shopping, so businesses that offer a good customer experience will have a higher ranking and therefore higher visibility in Google Shopping.
This ranking will be based on different criteria:

• Delivery time
• Shipping costs
• Cost of return
• Return window
• Delivery time

If you score well on these metrics, Google indicates that your ad may benefit from the following

• A ranking improvement
• A badge
• Other benefits that will give more visibility

Scores range from “Excellent”, “Comparable” or “Opportunity” for each indicator. All metrics are calculated daily and will help monitor the experience these stores offer to customers.

2.Marketing Tech Updates

• The first developer preview of Android 13

Today’s users want an operating system and applications they can trust, which respect their personal information and privacy.

That’s why Android 13 has focused primarily on building a responsible, high-quality platform with privacy and security at its core. Android 13 will offer a more secure environment on the device and more controls for the user.

There are new features regarding aesthetics, security, privacy and general usability.

• Google is adopting the Privacy Sandbox on Android

Android follow Apple to stop tracking :

Google has announced that it will create the Privacy Sandbox, to introduce more private advertising solutions. This multi-year announcement aims to limit the sharing of user data with third parties and will work without cross-application identifiers or advertising identifiers.

This change will have a huge impact on companies whose main revenue is based on advertising, such as Meta, the parent company of Facebook, whose main source of revenue is based on the database of user information it owns.

Google’s goal with this change is to develop privacy-friendly advertising solutions where users’ information is protected to improve privacy while giving developers and businesses the tools they need to succeed, so it’s about creating new digital advertising tools to find an alternative to third-party cookies.

For those who are not aware of, there is an alternative retargeting method without third party cookies, you can read more on this article “Web push notification retargeting”.

The privacy changes to Android, like Apple, “will limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers,” google said in its blog.

This change is expected to take effect in at least two years.

• Amazon creates immersive shopping experiences using 3D substance

You will be able to shop virtually and buy your furniture by comparing different tables from the site in your dining room thanks to augmented reality.

Amazon has set up 3D digital studios in the Amazon Development Center. This new feature would bring shoppers closer to the products as customers will be able to rotate a product 360 degrees to inspect it from all angles.

“They will also be able to use Amazon’s View in Your Room feature to see what furniture will look like in their home, or the Showroom feature to create virtual showrooms by mixing and matching products online.” says Amazon

“The future of shopping lies in 3D.” said adobe in its blog

• Pinterest is introducing a trial feature for furniture items.

Pinterest has launched an augmented reality app for home decor and furnishings called “Try On for Home Decor”, this new feature allows users to virtually place items to see what a piece of furniture looks like in their home before they buy it.

How does it works ?

Users simply select the different furniture or decorations they would like to see, to the right of the pins they select “try on enabled” and then “try on in your space” to view the furniture in their home.

3.Social Media Updates

• TikTok impacts every stage of the purchase journey

Tiktok is a platform that stimulates purchases enormously.

This platform does not use the traditional marketing funnel method. Consumers today tend to enter and exit a site at different stages of the purchase journey, they rarely go from the top to the bottom of the funnel to make a purchase.

Tiktok tracks and is inspired by the behaviour of its users based on their interests and preferences, allowing brands to create brand-loyal communities, leading to more purchases.

The tiktok community, through its various contents, creates not a funnel but an infinite loop and therefore encourages immediate purchase. Phases of the loop include Discovery, consideration, review and participation.

A study conducted by tiktok showed that “TikTok users are 1.5 times more likely to immediately buy a product they discovered on the platform than users of other platforms” as mentioned in their blog.

What are the reasons for this phenomenon:

• TikTok has an impact on every step of the buying journey

• TikTok’s influence continues after the purchase

• Millions of people visit the platform every day for different reasons: to find something new, to be entertained

• Instagram’s various changes

• Instagram limits the daily time limit option from 10 minutes to a minimum of 30 minutes per day.

•  Instagram is introducing a new way to interact with Instagram Stories: You can now send a “like” reply.

With the addition of likes, Instagram is not only giving users more ways to interact with stories, but also hopes to make the inbox of creators easier to manage.

The parent company of facebook and instagram saw its value fall by 20% in the fourth quarter which could be one reason why Meta’s growth teams are looking at what levers they can pull to boost user engagement.

Indeed, letting Instagram users choose a 30-minute limit on their usage would deliver far more advertising than a 10-minute minimum.

• LinkedIn makes it easier to find leads on Sales Navigator

You get a new, larger and more intuitive view that shows all available filters (company, role, staff…) and additional options (headquarters, team connections…).

You can also report directly in Sales Navigator with all contacts that have left open opportunities generated by your CRM data.

The goal is to help users more easily identify the right prospects and accounts.

As it has always been, digital marketing is constantly evolving, with new changes appearing every month, new trends, improvements, evolution of artificial intelligence and algorithms. A new year means new trends and updates. We propose you to discover digital marketing news took place in this first month of 2022: 

Digital Marketing News from January 2022

1.Search Marketing Updates

• Page Experience Will Become a Ranking Factor on Desktop

Starting in February 2022, and continuing through March, Google will add  page experience ranking signals to desktop search.

This ranking will be based on the same page experience signals already used for mobile last year.

They also plan to help site owners through a Search Console report to understand how their desktop pages are performing in terms of page experience.

google search central said through its twitter account that : 

“To support the upcoming rollout of page experience ranking to desktop, Search Console now has a dedicated desktop section in its Page Experience report to help site owners understand Google’s ‘good page experience’ criteria.”

• Google introduces its new system to stop advertising cookies

On 26 January, Google presented its future system for putting an end to advertising cookies, which are files that make it possible to track Internet users, analyse their behaviour and record their browsing history in order to send them targeted advertising.

An internal cookie is useful for operating the site you are visiting, and only that site, whereas the third-party cookie can be read on several sites at the same time, making it easy to track the Internet user, i.e. to follow his or her browsing on the Internet.

How does it work?

The new system, which is still in development, provides for the Internet user to have control over his advertising profile through the Chrome browser.

Internet users would therefore have control settings allowing them to see shared themes, delete those they don’t like and disable the feature completely

Google Chrome would identify themes that represent the user’s interests based on their browsing history. These themes would then be stored on the device used and not on Google’s servers to generate targeted advertising “for only three weeks before they are removed,” Google said. This system should be deployed by the end of 2022.

The advertising industry is concerned 

Google’s move to eliminate cookies may affect the advertising market and will disrupt the business model of the digital press. Read more on our previous blog post digital marketing without 3rd party cookies

• A new offer on GooglePlay to find great deals : 

Google will help you save money by highlighting promotions : 

Google Play Store is currently divided into four separate tabs: Games, Apps, Movies & TV and Books. It will now be divided into 5 parts with the inclusion of a promotional offers tab.

“This week we’re launching ‘Offers’ – a new tab in the Google Play Store to help you discover great deals on games and apps for travel, shopping, media and entertainment, sports and more,” Google  said in its blog.

You will find different forms of deals on the application :

• Sales on games and in-game items
• Rewards and bundled offers
• Discounts on movies and books
• Try something new

• 2.Marketing Tech Updates

• WordPress 5.9 Josephine is here: what’s new in the CMS

As you can see on our previous blog from December 2021 about WordPress 5.9, on 25 January, the world’s most popular open source CMS got a major update with the release of WordPress 5.9

This new version will bring advanced design tools to create custom layouts for your theme, and format them to your preferences.

• What has been improved in WorldPress 5.9?

By using one of these new themes like the new default theme The Twenty Twenty-Two, you will no longer need the customisation tool, you will be able to modify your site with ready-to-use tools and a fluid and dynamic interface.

New adjustments will make your editorial experience more effective :

• Better control tools for blocks : features new typography tools, flexible layout controls, and finer control of details 
• The power of compositions :  an almost full screen view that allows you to see every detail.
• A redesign of the list view : simple controls let you expand and collapse sections as you build your site
• A better Gallery block : Treat every image in a Gallery Block the same way you would treat it in the Image Block

Each new version of WordPress brings new features, performance improvements and interface enhancements.

• Your Android phone as your car key

With Android 12, Google will turn your smartphone into a car key :

As you can see on the google blog , It is now possible to use certain Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel phones to lock, unlock and start certain BMW vehicles from your phone using the digital car key.

You can even remotely share your digital car key with a friend.

Those who own car models with NFC technology will be able to unlock their car by pressing their phone on the door. 

By the end of the year these features will be available on even more Android phones and vehicles. It also claims that you will be able to unlock or lock your car without taking out your phone.

Many major car brands are equipping their cars with wireless Android Auto, with the Fast Pair system currently available on some BMW and Ford models.

The digital car key is currently available on nearly 150 million cars worldwide.

Following this announcement, Apple took the initiative last year to add a digital car key to their iPhone or Apple Watch.

• AI Builder allows you to extract sentiment from text

Ai Builder which is a Microsoft Power Platform, is an easy way for companies to aggregate customer feedback that can come from different sources, emails, forums, twitter etc. 

Intelligent automation can be used here, it can automatically extract sentiment from multiple sources and process customer feedback more easily.

The company can track in real time what its customers think about its products and brand. 

It can therefore:

• Set up focus groups with customers.
• Conduct user studies when the list of queries is well defined.
• If the negative feedback comes from a specific product, the company can improve it

3.Social Media Updates

• Instagram launches paid subscriptions for creators in the U.S. 

Good news for Instagram influencers, as it is mentioned on the business instagram blog the app is currently testing paid subscriptions in the US.

Creators will be able to offer exclusive content, including Lives and Stories, in exchange for a fee from their community. The price of the subscription can be freely set by each creator.

Subscriptions on Instagram will work in the same way as Super Follows on Twitter. 

Super Follows offers the possibility to charge subscribers a certain amount per month ranging from $2.99 to $9.99 in exchange for bonus content.

Instagram creators will also be able to charge their fans for exclusive content.

Concerning the prices, Instagram offers creators a choice of eight different price points, ranging from 0.99$ to 99.99$ per month.

Subscribers will have different offers according to their preferences :

• Subscriber Lives
• Subscriber Stories
• Subscriber Badges

Instagram says it will not take a commission from creators’ subscription revenue until at least 2023. The platform says its main goal here is to help creators earn a living.

• TikTok tests its own version of the Retweet with a new ‘Repost’ button 

TikTok is constantly trying to add new content and features. The latest : a video reposting feature that is currently being tested.

The purpose is to repost a video without adding your own contribution, like a retweet on Twitter. After you share it, all the likes and comments will go to the person who created the video, but contrary to a Retweet on Twitter, the republished video will not show up on your own TikTok profile, it only sends the video to your friends’ For You streams.

TikTok has confirmed that the button is currently being publicly tested with a small number of users.

• Are Facebook and Instagram about to create a marketplace for NFTs

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is reportedly about to enter the NFT market. This is a logical strategy for the group’s social networks and a further step towards the metaverse. 

According to the Financial Times, Mark Zuckerberg’s group intends to allow Facebook and Instagram users to create, buy and sell NFTs.

Instagram is reportedly testing a feature to display its NFT collections on the social network profile.

The NFT sector has grown so exponentially in 2021 that it has become certain that it will still be a very powerful sector in 2022 and this is why Meta should get its two main social networks, Facebook and Instagram, on board.

Indeed, more and more brands are launching NFT collections not only as digital art/assets, but also to create and develop vibrant brand communities.

2021 was for sure an eventful year and it went by really, really fast. We shared every step of the ways with you bringing you a sum up of the most important digital marketing news each month and here were are once more with the:

Digital Marketing News from December 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

• DuckDuck Go is Launching Desktop Version of Mobile App

The mobile search engine solution for a more private experience has announced the release of a desktop version. They claim their solution to be an “everyday browser that respects your privacy” and to be much faster than Google. 

This new release is not to be confused with their extension for Google Chrome. The DuckDuck Go private browsing app will be a standalone product. So far this is what we DuckDuck has said about it:

• Cleaner and simpler interface
• It will keep the “Fire” button from its mobile app
• Less clutter and offer more privacy than Chrome
• Faster than Google Chrome

This desktop version is currently being tested in a closed beta and the company hasn’t made it clear when it will be available for everyone. 

• Google Updates Local Search Results

An algorithm update began to roll out late November and Google has confirmed it concluded early December. Through their Google Search Central Twitter account they said:

Our November 2021 local search update has concluded. It began Nov 30 and ran through Dec 8. It involved a rebalancing of various factors we consider in generating local search results.

On Google’s support page you can find a list of the ranking factors and how to improve them:

• Relevance: how well a local Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.
• Distance: how far each potential search result is from the location term used in a search.
• Prominence: how well known a business is keeping in mind that some places are more prominent in the offline world. 

Even though Google has never been specific about how they rank search results, with these insights you can redirect your efforts towards the one that works best for you and your business. 

• Microsoft Bing’s Integration with Shopify is now Live

Back in October Microsoft Bing announced a new integration with Shopify to allow shoppers across Microsoft to get more diverse products, great prices, and improved discovery of deals.

That integration is now live!

If users head to Microsoft Bing right now and search for a product they have been looking for, they will receive results from millions of merchants thanks to the Shopify integration. After selecting a product and clicking on the “buy now” button, they will be instantly redirected to the shopping cart page to continue with their purchase. 

These products will also be available on Microsoft Start. We’re excited to launch our integration with Shopify to provide our shoppers a delightful experience with wider variety of products, better prices and convenience of “buy now”. – Microsoft Blog

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Adobe Announces Free Creative Cloud Express

Adobe is introducing a new suite of tools called Creative Cloud Express. It’s a web and mobile app created for anyone, from students to entrepreneurs, to create:

Creative Cloud Express draws on our decades of experience working with the creative community. It makes the core technology in our industry-leading products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro available with just a few clicks — and with no learning curve. And whether your goal is to make a flyer, edit an image, or produce marketing assets, you don’t have to start from scratch — Creative Cloud Express gives you access to thousands of beautiful templates, millions of images from Adobe Stock, thousands of fonts, and many more assets that you can personalize to tell your story. – Adobe Blog

This free tool is designed for everyone to use, even people with no previous experience with design software. This new suit of tools, Creative Cloud Express is available on the web, in Microsoft stores and on apps for iOS and Android.

It’s so easy to use thanks to many simple features called Quick Actions like removing an image background, trimming a video, or creating a GIF with just a few clicks. On top of that, the suite offers access to millions of resources like photos, fonts, templates, graphics and other. 

• WordPress delayed  5.9 version Release

WordPress has delayed the release of the 5.9 version to January 25th 2022. Originally, it was intended to be published in December 2021, but the project fell significantly behind schedule and core contributors raised their concerns about being able to meet deadlines. 

On their blog they informed that near the end of original alpha release cycle there were issues related to the new features planed for the 5.9 version:

• Full Site Editing (FSE), which is a collection of features, such as global styles interface, Navigation Block, block themes, template editors, and site editing flows.
• The Twenty Twenty-Two (TT2) theme, which depends on these FSE features.

The thing is that WordPress 5.9 version is a major one because of the full editing features it includes and they need to get it right. Adding up to that, the WordPress 6.0 version was scheduled to be released in April 2022 and they felt it was too long for the community to wait.

After revising the list of issues, the Core Editor team realized that these features could be included in the 5.9 version with the new schedule. They are focusing on a schedule that delivers full release and this is what they said:

5.9 is still in feature freeze. Work from here on is strictly to address the changes that get the release to a stable state. – WordPress Blog 

• Jotform adds 3 new Widgets

Jotform takes pride in the vast amount of (very specific) widgets they have to cover their users’ needs. This month they are introducing 3 new ones they feel are worth highlighting:

• Image Gallery
• WhatsApp Button
• OpenStreetMap

The Image Gallery widget allows users to add a photo gallery to their form. They feel this feature could be useful for order forms, for example, when a user needs to display a wide range of products. The widget it’s said to be very easy to use and customize with no coding required. 

The Whatsapp Button embed directly to the forms so anyone can access and message to Whatsapp. It’s a widget that allows users a seamless way to communicate. In Jotform’s blog they say: Use the WhatsApp Button to collect orders, receive feedback or contact information, or simply as a way for users to contact you with any urgent requests.

Last but not least, the OpenStreetMap widget allows users to display an interactive map on their form or app:

This can be especially useful for giving users a point of reference for specific destinations — whether it’s to show precisely where your business is located, how to find an event space, how to navigate to the nearest parking lot, or anything else. – Jotform Blog

3. Social Media Updates

• TikTok Users Can Make Money Through Tips & Gifts

Social media platform TikTok is introducing new ways for content creators to get paid with addition of tips and gifts. These new features are part of a suite of new monetization tools called Creator Next. 

• Tips: the new tipping feature allows users to send tips of $5, $10, $15, or custom tip amount to other users to show their appreciation for the content they create. When a user gets a tip, they receive 100% of it. These payments are facilitated by Stripe and users who are eligible to receive them will display a new icon on their profiles.

• Video Gifts: the new gifting feature allows users to send virtual gifts to other users on specific videos and the recipient can exchange them for money. You might have already seen a new gift box icon displayed on certain videos. 

To be eligible for receiving tips and gift a user must comply with the following:

• 18+ years of age
• At least 1,000 video views in past 30 days
• Have at least three posts in the past 30 days
• An account that’s in good standing with TikTok’s community guidelines
• Be based in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, or Spain
• Meet minimum follower requirements (which differs depending on region)

• Twitter Adds Auto Captions for All Video Uploads in Tweets

Twitter has announced a major new feature: all videos uploaded within tweets will have auto caption enabled. 

The new captions will be enabled for in-stream videos that are muted, on both iOS and Android, while desktop users will have the option to switch them on and off as they please. The captions are available in 37 languages and will show in the language of the device used to upload the video.

Translation and editing of the captions are still in development but this new feature allows Twitter users to access content in more formats. As this social media platform has always been text-focused the auto caption for videos opens the doors to give more prominence to videos. 

• Clubhouse Launches Saved Replays, Unveils New App Icon

Clubhouse, the popular social media platform that gave us so much to talk about early 2021, has announced one more update before the year ends. 

The new “Saved Replays” feature allows users to save the audio from a recorded Clubhouse chat to listen to later. Any user can access the option by clicking the three dots and then tapping the “Save Replay” button. 

This might be a feature users were expecting from the app since it seems to be very useful to be able to listen to audio chats later in time. 

The app also unveiled a new icon featuring streaming influencer Abraxas Higgins since they consider him a “quintessential Clubhouse success story”:

“A former Wall Street banker turned music marketing strategist turned audio influencer. In addition to being the host of Clubhouse’s beloved morning show 9AM in London, Abraxas is also the most followed person in the UK on Clubhouse and makes more money now from brand partners than he did as an investment strategist.” 

That ‘s for 2021!

2021 was for sure a year full of interesting events in all aspects. We hope you enjoyed our last digital marketing news article of the year and we will see you on the next ones! 

Happy 2022! 

Web push notifications are messages sent through browsers. Besides the text, they can also include images and action buttons. What’s great about web push notifications is that they work as a retargeting channel but with added values:

• No personal data from users required
• Can reach users on both desktop and mobile
• They have hyper-personalization capabilities

If you want to dive deeper on the functionality of this new channel, we recommend you check out our Complete Guide on Web Push Notifications. But in this blog post we are going to focus specifically on the types of web push notifications and how you can use and combine them to grow your online business, engage users and increase your revenue.

Types of Web Push Notifications

First of all, what you need to know is that there are two main categories of web push notifications: automated and time- based ones. This distinction is important because each of them have their own subcategories. So let’s get into it!

What are Automated Web Push Notifications?

Automated web push notifications are behaviour-based messages sent to users automatically after they perform a specific predefined action on the website. These notifications require the definition of a trigger event and exception event and a time frame to be sent.  

For example, if someone adds a product to their shopping cart and leaves the site without completing a purchase, after the time you define, they will receive a web push notification reminding them about their abandoned cart and inviting them to go back and complete the purchase. 

On the other hand, in the same scenario, if the user adds the product to their cart and completes the purchase, the notification won’t be sent. In simpler words:

• Triggering event: product added to cart
• Exception event: product purchased

Automated web push notifications campaigns only have to be configured one first time, then everything keeps running automatically. You just need to define the messages, for each one, the trigger and event scenarios and the timings. 

Just like with emails, cart abandonment web push notifications are the most popular and common ones. However, you can have more than one message for each campaigns you create and it is possible to define as many triggering and exception scenarios as you desire to match your typical user journey:

1. Types of Automated Web Push Notifications

1.1 Welcome Notification

In order to subscribe to a web push notifications channel, users need to click on Allow in the otp-in prompt shown to them when they visit a site that has web push notifications enabled. Once they do, after a few seconds (we recommend 10 seconds), you can send a notification welcoming them!

In this case the trigger event would be “subscription received”. Normally, the welcome notification doesn’t have an exception event because it is sent rather quickly after the action taken by the user and it is always a good idea to seize the opportunity to make that first contact through this new channel. 

You can express your gratitude to them for opting in and take the opportunity to redirect them to a specific page on your site like a new collection, a sales section or maybe the about page. 

Another option is to offer them a discount coupon for their first purchase or invite them to join your newsletter. The welcome notification is a great way to introduce the channel to your new subscribers and let them know what they can expect from it. 

1.2 Category Notification

In a very traditional user journey in an e-commerce site, the second step after landing in the home page would be to visit a category page. With automated web push notifications you can define a scenario accordingly.

If a user visits a category page and then leaves the site without taking any further action, a notification will be sent (after the time you decide) with a message related to the visited category.

In other words is doing category retargeting with a message that can include the complete name of the category, an image representing it and an appealing message that invites the user to come back and take another look. 

In this automated scenario the triggering event would be “category viewed” and the exception event “product viewed”, which takes us to the next type of notification.

1.3 Product Notification

The product retargeting notification is sent to users when they visit a product page and then leave the site without doing anything else. In this case the triggering event would be “product viewed” and the exception event would correspond to the obvious next step which is “product added to cart”.

Since product pages have much more detailed and specific information, the product notification can include it making it a lot richer for the user. You can include product image, product name, product brand, price, size and even color if the case. These are all dynamic parameters taken directly from the website so you don’t have to do any manual work. 

By making the notification as personalised as possible, you can highly increase the click through rate because it will be more relevant to the user that receives it.

1.4 Cart Abandonment Notification

The following stage in this journey would be to add the product to the shopping cart. The retargeting cart abandonment web push notification is sent to users that add a product to their carts and then leave the site without completing the purchase.

The triggering event would be “product added to cart” and the exception event “product purchased”. This means that the notification won’t be sent if the user goes through with the purchase. 

The same as with Product Notifications, you can also include dynamic parameters to make the message as personalised as possible. For cart abandonment web push notifications is also a good strategy to include messages that appeal to a sense of urgency such as “last units”, “get it before we run out”,  or “this is your last chance”. 

Normally, click-through rates of cart abandonment notifications are the highest because, when users reach this stage of the funnel they already show a higher purchase intent than in other stages. If you design an appealing message you will get amazing results for sure. 

1.5 Post-purchase Notification

You are probably already familiar with post-purchase emails. Well, there’s a web push notification version in which you can set an event that automatically sends a message to a customer some time after they made a purchase.

In this scenario, your imagination is the limit! You can send a notification asking for their opinion of the product they purchased and use it as a strategy to get more online reviews about your brand, for example. There’s also the option to announce a new collection, new arrival and invite them to come back and make a new purchase. 

Post-purchase web push notifications are great to stay in touch with your customers after they have already converted by sending updates and information that could interest them. The main objective here is to stay in their top of mind and try to make them recurring customers. 

1.6 Cross-sell Notification

Cross-sell campaigns are very popular and effective for e-commerce. These campaigns offer value to shoppers and can increase business’ revenue significantly. They consist of sending a message to a customer that finished a purchase, suggesting complementary products.

In this scenario the trigger would be “product purchased” and there wouldn’t be an exception event. To set up web push notification cross-sell campaigns you need to register and track information regarding the product the customer bought and time since the last purchase. 

Combining this data you can create a hyper-personalised notification suggesting a product that complements the previous purchase. For example, if the shopper got a moisturizing day cream, you can suggest a moisturizing night cream from the same brand. 

1.7 Back to Stock Notification

Back to stock announcements are very effective because they make reference to a very popular and on-demand product that customers are surely eager to get. If you run out of stock from a specific product, it’s safe to assume that there’s a lot of people waiting to buy it, so sending a notification letting them know that it’s available again is a great strategy.

You can send this message to all users that visited said product with a trigger event “back to stock” and an exception event “product purchased”. Keep in mind that, in order to be able to send back to stock web push notifications you need an additional integration process in your site through an API. 

1.8 Price Drop Notification

The same as with back to stock, price drop web push notifications also require an extra step with integration with an API to get the info of when a product experiences a price drop.

The trigger event here would be “price drop” so the notifications get sent to all subscribers that visited said product page. These types of notifications also show great results because they are extremely relevant for users. Not only do they show information about a product they have expressed interest in, but they have the added value of the price drop making it much more attractive for them. 

1.9 Lead Nurturing Notifications

Lead nurturing web push notification sequences are great for B2B. You can create a flow of messages that offer valuable information that helps prospects move down the funnel during their decision making process.

For example, you can send a first message sharing information about a special feature your product has 1 day after receiving the subscription. Then, 1 week later you can send a web push notification with a case study as an example of what you can do for your clients and 1 week later maybe a whitepaper with useful information about your product in different industries. 

2. Types of Time-based Notifications

2.1 Manual Web Push Notifications

Also called bulk web push notifications, they are the notifications equivalent to email newsletters. These notifications are not automated, which means you have to set them up manually and they are sent to all of your subscribers database unless you segment manually as well.

Manual web push notifications are used to share time sensitive information like sales, special promotions or contests. You can use them to communicate any time you launch a product, for example, and they are excellent for special dates like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

Keep in mind that bulk web push notifications are not behaviour based like the automated ones. This means that you need to be extra creative and careful with your copies and the images you add to make sure you park your audience’s interest with a great message. 

One of the great benefits of these types of campaigns is that, since you can send them to all of your subscribers at once, they are amazing traffic generators to your site. If you like to plan ahead, you have the option to schedule them for a specific time and date or, in any other case, to send them as soon as you create them. 

2.2 Recurring Web Push Notifications

Recurring web push notifications are great to ensure a permanent contact with your subscribers. You can set up 2 or 3 different generic messages to be sent automatically in a 30 day period inviting subscribers to visit your site again. 

Since you can design a couple of different versions, they will be sent randomly to all your subscribers varying each month. For example, you can have a monthly notification with a message related to new arrivals and another one inviting users to visit your social media pages. Each month 50% of your subscribers will receive one of them and the other 50% the other one. You can have as many versions as you want and use Frizbit’s A/B testing features to choose the percentage of subscribers you want to send each one to. 

Another option, if you sell a product that’s bought frequently like pet food for example, you can set up recurring web push notifications that work as a reminder for pet owners letting them know it’s time to buy again! Your subscribers will find it valuable because it would serve the purpose of a reminder of something that’s important to them and you’ll increase the chances of them purchasing from you again. It’s a win-win situation!

Recurring web push notifications correspond to the loyalty stage of the funnel. 

General Comments

As we mentioned before, you can create as many scenarios as you want for your web push notifications campaigns. However, for optimal results we strongly recommend to set up at least the 4 main ones:

• Welcome notifications
• Category retargeting notifications
• Product retargeting notifications
• Cart abandonment notifications

You can create a sequence of automated notifications for each of them with a different message that’s sent after certain periods of time. For example:

The important thing is that you try and find the combination that works best for your online business regarding timings and amount of notifications for each campaign. While for one brand it would make sense to send 5 product retargeting notifications in one week, for another it might be better to only have a couple notifications in a 3 day period. 

Web push notifications open a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to retargeting strategies and we would be delighted to show it to you. If you want to request a one trial month period with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch! 

Suggested readings:

• Best Email Marketing Campaigns: Types and Examples
• Digital Marketing Trends 2022
• “Don’t Use Web Push Notifications!” Demystifying the Biggest Prejudices About Web Push Notifications

Email marketing is the practice of sending emails to promote products or services and engage with customers. Through email marketing campaigns, businesses can share news, updates, inform about new products, special sales and much more. 

This channel has been the favourite for many businesses for a long time and with good reason. Here are some interesting stats:

• The global e-mail marketing market was valued at $7.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to increase to $17.9 billion by 2027. (Statista, 2021)
• There are 4 billion daily email users. This number is expected to climb to 4.6 billion by 2025. (Statista, 2021)
• Across all industries, the average email open rate is 19.8%, the click-through rate is 11.3%, and the bounce rate is 9.4%. (Constant Contact, 2021)

So, whether you are already using email marketing campaigns as part of your digital marketing mix or not, is a channel that, after many years, is still very much alive and has a lot to offer: 

Email Marketing Advantages

1. It helps you build long-term relationships with your audience
2. It drives traffic to your website
3. Cost-effective
4. Highly customisable
5. Provides value to your customers
6. Increases revenue
7. Any type of online business can use them (ecommerce, travel, B2B, SaaS)

As marketing professionals it’s our job to recognise the value of tools that help us connect with our audience and reach our business goals, leaving aside rumours and prejudices. Having said that here are: 

Types of Email Marketing Campaigns You Should be Sending

1. Welcome Emails – (All industries: ecommerce, travel, B2B, real estate)

Sites usually struggle and jump through hoops to get people to share their email addresses and become subscribers. So, once they do, make sure you show them your appreciation! The best way to do it is to send them a nice welcoming email introducing yourself and thanking them for joining your mailing list.

The welcome email is your opportunity to start creating a connection with your audience. Seize this opportunity to give a very good first impression about your business, share relevant information about what you do and (maybe) give them a small gift. 

This is not the moment to try and sell something or ask anything else from your audience. They already gave you their email address, which is something very valuable for most of us, and not everyone is always willing to share it.

The welcome email is where you set the foundation of the type of relationship you want to build with your audience. Here is where you let them know what to expect from you, so also make sure you design an eye-appealing email that pleasantly surprises your new subscribers and you can also give a discount as a thank you for subscribing. 

According to invesp, “subscribers who receive a Welcome email show 33% more engagement with the brand” and “have 14.4% click rate compared to just 2.7% in other types”.

2. Informational / Update Emails – (All industries: ecommerce, travel, B2B, real estate

Informational emails are used to share news and keep your subscribers database up to date with everything going on in your business that might be of their interest. You can use them to let them know about new arrivals, product launches, new features or invite them to read a new blog post!

There are different types of informational emails:

• New content announcements
• Product updates
• Newsletters

These types of emails are great to keep in touch with your subscribers and let them know you are constantly updating your products or services to please them and offer them a better experience.

Informational emails don’t tend to be very long since they might be the least interesting type to receive from the user’s end. If you are going to include a call to action (which you should always do), you can invite them to visit your site and check out the new feature/service/product you have. 

3. Cart Abandonment Emails – (Ecommerce, travel)

We are living in the era of digital marketing automation to simplify processes and make our lives much easier. That’s why automated email marketing campaigns are a must for any online business. 

Behavioural emails are automated campaigns delivered to users based on their individual behaviour and actions taken inside a website. The way they work is by website owners defining certain scenarios that trigger the event (email being sent) when a user completes a specific action.
The most popular type of automated email campaigns are the cart abandonment recovery emails. 98% of users leave sites without completing a purchase, leaving behind products in their virtual shopping carts. Abandoned cart emails are sent to those users some time (usually 30 mins to 2 hours) after they leave the site with a message inviting them to go back and finish the purchase.

Cart abandonment emails have proven to be a great strategy that offers wonderful results, we have seen it work for our clients with::

• 4% increase in sales

• 3.8x conversion rate

The good thing about cart abandonment emails is that they usually have higher open rates than any other type of campaigns because they present subscribers with personalised content. These emails have information regarding the product they like and are usually enriched with images, price and a custom message inciting them to go back and finish the purchase/booking.

These types of emails are most commonly used for ecommerce sites. However, the travel industry can greatly benefit from them by sending emails to users that didn’t complete a hotel reservation or didn’t finish booking a flight, for example.

Suggested read: Are cart abandonment emails GDPR compliant?

4. Post-purchase Emails – (Ecommerce, travel)

By now you should already know the value of repeating customers:

• The probability of selling to an existing customer is between 60% and 70%. (Semrush, 2021)
• Existing customers are 50% more likely to try your business’s new product. (Semrush, 2021)
• Existing customers are also 31% more likely to spend more on their average order value with your business. (Semrush, 2021)

So we have established the importance of taking care of your existing customers and building loyalty with them. One way to do so is by using post-purchase email campaigns. These are the emails you send to customers after they complete a purchase/reservation on your site. 

To build trust and loyalty, you can send an email with useful information related to their purchase. For example, if they bought an eyeshadow palette, you can send a post-purchase email with a tutorial on how to combine them, or if they booked a flight, an email with the details of their reservation information or maybe a few suggested activities they can enjoy at their travel destination.

If you apply this strategy, most likely your customers are going to really appreciate the gesture since they will find the information very useful. You will create loyalty because you keep showing interest even after having made a sale, thus increasing the chances they purchase from you again and decreasing the possibility of users unsubscribing from your mailing list. 

5. Cross-sell Emails –  (Ecommerce, travel)

Cross-sell emails are another type of post-purchase emails. They are sent to customers who already made a purchase with suggestions of other products that could complement the one they already got.

By suggesting other products from your catalog based on the consumer’s purchasing history, you can turn one-time shoppers into repeating customers. The objective is to create loyalty that ultimately generates you more sales. 

When sending cross-sell emails you should highlight the main product you want to make reference to and also add a couple more options. Since you are not 100% sure what your customer wants nexts, it’s a good idea to give alternatives and increase even more the chances of a new purchase. 

Cross-sell emails usually work so well because you are reaching out to a customer that has already engaged with your business before, and they also help make discovering new products so much easier. 

They are also valid for the travel industry. For example, if a customer booked a flight to Paris, you can send a cross-sell email suggesting accommodation, car rentals or tours.

6. Price Drop Emails – (Ecommerce, travel, real estate)

Price drop emails, as their name clearly explains, are emails sent to customers who expressed interest in a product or service, but didn’t complete a purchase, announcing to them that its price dropped below a certain threshold.

These types of emails work very similar to cart abandonment emails because they are behaviour based and triggered by the user actions. They let shoppers know that a product or service they wanted to purchase is now available at a much lower price, thus presenting them with a great opportunity they wouldn’t like to miss. 

Price drop emails are very effective because they are based on user behaviour and have the added value of presenting a sale or offer on that specific product the user liked. They offer relevant, personalised information with a great appeal of a lower price. 

Using price drop emails is a great tactic to bring users back to your site and also clear stock, finish filling a flight or finally rent that property you have been trying to get out there for a long time.

7. Back to Stock Emails – (Ecommerce)

Back to stock emails are probably the most neglected type of emails because usually everyone focuses on more traditional ones like welcome, cart abandonment and post-purchase emails.

However, back to stock emails represent a huge sales opportunity. Consider the fact that, if a product is sold out, it must mean that it’s popular, that people like it and it might sell out again. How many people might be expecting for it to go back to stock to purchase it?

That’s your opportunity to reach out to them with a fabulous back to stock email and let them know the product they want so badly is available again! 

8. Lead Nurturing Emails – (All industries: Ecommerce, B2B, travel, real estate)

Lead nurturing makes reference to the process of developing a relationship between brands and potential clients helping them with their decision making process and move down the funnel until they complete a purchase.

This process is so important because it keeps your product or service in people’s top of mind. Using lead nurturing emails showing more details and highlighting features of your product/service helps you tip the scales in your favor when the time comes to make a decision.

You can automate lead nurturing email campaigns by creating different sequences depending on the stage of the funnel the user is at the moment. These campaigns can be sent through a predefined period of time with personalised, specific messages. 

For example, if someone subscribes for a free demo period of your software, you can add that user to a sequence of emails that first show how to use the platform step by step, then highlights the features and ultimately invites the user to make the purchase with information about how many days are left of the free demo. 

General Tips to Make the Most Out of Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Whichever business you run and the campaigns you decide to implement, there are a few good practices you should follow to make the most of you email campaigns:

• Make sure you write an appealing and descriptive Subject line
• Include emojis in the subject
• Personalise them as much as possible
• Make them easy on the eyes taking care of the design
• Add a clear call to action inviting them respond
• Include links to your social media profiles
• Keep track of your data and analyse your campaigns to optimise them later

We hope you find this information useful and apply these strategies and tips to your email marketing campaigns. 

You can also check out: 

• How to Use Web Push Notifications for B2B
• 6 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your E-commerce Website
• How can Marketing Automation Help you Sell More

With just one month left to 2021 and a major holiday season right ahead, it’s imperative that we take our time to checkout the most important: 

Digital Marketing News and Updates from November 2021

1. Search Marketing News

• Google Launches New Tools and Features to Support Local News

Over the past five years Google has reported an increase in queries on search like “news near me”, reaching a special high during COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. In response to this demand, Google is launching new features for local search results and new tools for journalists:

“At Google, we’re dedicated to finding new ways to help readers better connect with publishers and helping publishers more efficiently and creatively produce quality journalism their readers want.” Google Blog

a) New Features for Local Search Results

• Local News Carousel: readers will see a carousel of local news stories when there’s local news relevant to their query.

• Top Stories: Google is improving their system to show authoritative local news sources more often alongside national publications.

• Topic Understandment: Google is refining its ability to have a better understanding of general topics like “sports” to more specific ones like “tennis” to help readers get more relevant search results paired with location signals. 

• Local Tweets: results are now showing tweets by local sources, authors authorities and organizations relevant to the search query. 

b) New Tools for Reporters

• Census Mapper Project: an embeddable map tool aimed to help reporters sort out and visualize data in a more easy and appealing way. It displays Census data at the national, state and county level, as well as census tracts.

• Common Knowledge Project: is a data explorer and visual journalism project and Google is making improvements to integrate journalist feedback and new features including geographic comparisons, new charts and visuals.

• Google Ads App Updated With 3 New Features

Google is making marketers life’s a little bit easier by updating the Google Ads App adding new 3 features that allow them to make changes and monitor campaigns performance directly from mobile devices. 

• Improved Performance Insights: the update will provide information about campaign performance with a real time notification when a significant change occurs, an explanation of why it happened and, in some cases, a recommendation on how to fix the issue. There will also be insights on positive changes in performance to help marketers understand what worked and how to replicate it in the future. 

• Real-time Search Trends: Google added search trends to the mobile app to make it accessible from everywhere.
  “Let’s say you’re a grocery retailer looking to reach more customers. With Search trends, you may notice a rising trend for “cookie decorating kits” and “bread & pastry dough”. You can then act on these trends by creating new campaigns for these products, and even update your in-store and online merchandising as well. 

• Campaign Creation on the go: with just a few taps is now possible to create campaigns directly from the Google Ads mobile app. By simply tapping the “plus” button you can select your campaign type, where you’d like your ads to appear and other campaign settings. 

• Google Makes Improvements in Search Results for “Deals” Query

During Holiday season searches for deals and discounts peak. That’s why Google is introducing new ways for people to connect with businesses and find the “right deal at the right moment throughout the season.”

• Helping People Find the Right Deal: products with a deals badge will appear in a new feed in the Shopping Tab. People can access it by selecting the “Deals” menu or by doing a search that triggers for queries like “deals” or “Black Friday.” Any product with a deals badge is eligible and will be highlighted depending on how attractive the offer is.

• Measure Deals Performance: merchants will be able to see which of their products are eligible for a deals badge in the products tab within the Merchant Center. The dashboard now shows a detailed performance report with data on impressions, clicks and click-through rate.

  

• WooCommerce and Shopify Integration: both platforms businesses will be able to showcase their existing deals across Google by synching existing and new promotions to their products listed on Google directly within their store dashboard.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• HubSpot Launches New Payments Solution

The CRM platform has announced the launch of HubSpot Payments to Help Customers Deliver a Better Buying Experience. HubSpot Payments is an end-to-end payment solution built natively as part of the platform and allows companies to accept payments seamlessly with fewer tools. 

“For too long, B2B companies have suffered through painful sales processes that leave customers frustrated and lost revenue on the table. That’s why we’ve built HubSpot Payments to enhance the customer experience rather than slow it down” – Brad Greene, VP of commerce and payments at HubSpot.

With HubSpot Payments companies will be able to accept digital payments without the need of any type of development, since it’s integrated directly into the CRM. It also allows a more secure buying experience for customers being able to pay in just a few clicks using the payment method they prefer.

• Mailchimp and Shopify Launch Direct Integration

Mailchimp announced a partnership with Shopify for new and existing users of both platforms to connect their Mailchimp account with their Shopify storefront through a direct integration without needing third-party tools or manual data transfer. 

Mailchimp shared the news saying that “By connecting Mailchimp and Shopify directly, merchants will be able to combine the power of purchase data with marketing data and use those insights to help drive conversions, increase revenue, and reach more customers at the right point of their buying journey.”

This integration comes in time to help small businesses make the most out of the holiday season by making it easier for merchants to reach their customers. 

“The combined power of Mailchimp’s suite of marketing tools and Shopify’s robust commerce infrastructure will level the playing field and unlock even more opportunity for independent businesses to grow and succeed into the future.” – Fatima Yusuf, Director of Commercial, App Ecosystem, Shopify.

Mailchimp also acquired the ShopSync app, which has helped Mailchimp users connect their accounts to Shopify stores.

• Slack Introduces New Platform

With the purpose of empowering organizations by understanding that each one of them works with different flows, structures and specific requirements Slack has completely rebuilt and re-engineered the Slack platform. 

They want Slack to be companies’ Digital HQ to make work more productive and pleasant. With this update they are offering businesses a tailored solution that adapts and responds to their unique business needs. On their blog they say:

“From everyday business users like sales representatives, administrators and marketers to seasoned engineers, everyone can customize their Slack experience and digital HQ to fit how they work, now and in the future.”

Here’s what’s new:

• Workflow Builder: a feature that allows non-developers to create workflows by dragging and dropping pieces of existing apps and then customizing how they work together. 

• Slack Links (coming soon): with just one click, users will be able to sign in to their work apps using their Slack accounts. 

• Subscribe in Slack (coming soon): users will be able to set up Slack notifications from their other tools integrated into their Slack workspace. 

3. Social Media Updates

• YouTube Removes Dislike Counts On All Videos

Videos on YouTube will no longer show a public dislike count, while the dislike button remains. Early 2021 YouTube experimented with the dislike button making invisible the dislike vote count to help protect content creators against harassment where people worked to increase the number of dislikes from a certain video.  

“We want to create an inclusive and respectful environment where creators have the opportunity to succeed and feel safe to express themselves. This is just one of many steps we are taking to continue to protect creators from harassment. Our work is not done, and we’ll continue to invest here”. – YouTube Blog

The results from this experiment showed that, because the count wasn’t visible, viewers were less likely to hit the button trying to drive up the number of dislikes. Apparently this is a practice that affects small and new channels the most. 

Based on these results, YouTube has decided to make the dislike count private across the entire platform. Viewers will still have the option to hit the dislike button if they want to and creators will still be able to find the exact amount of dislikes from a video on YouTube Studio along other metrics. 

This change is rolling out gradually since early November 2021. 

• Instagram Launches Live Test of Longer Videos in Stories

Instagram has launched a live test for 60 seconds videos in stories. This means that longer videos won’t be split into 15 seconds clips anymore. This is what Instagram had to say when inquired about the subject by socialmediatoday: 

“The ability to create longer Stories posts comes highly requested by our community. We’re excited to be testing 60-second Stories so that people can create and view Stories with fewer interruptions.” 

This initiative comes from the desire of Instagram to simplify and consolidate ideas, since they launched a lot of features in the last year. The decision has also been influenced by social media platform TikTok which has become most popular between younger crowds and thrives with simplicity. 

The new feature is currently being tested with only a small group of users, but soon it will reach more and more people. 

• TikTok Tests New Option to Tag Other Profiles in Your Video Clips

With the objective of boosting engagement, TikTok is rolling out a feature that allows users to tag other profiles in their clips. This option comes as an addition to the already available @mention option within the post captions. 

This means that users can still alert other profiles about their clips, but keeping the caption text free of mentions. Functionality wise it doesn’t represent a major change, however it does provide a new way to link creators content. 

The new option to tag other profiles, is still being tested and there are no plans to roll it out to all users at the moment. 

Digital Marketing News From November 2021

So here are the most important news and digital marketing trends from November 2021. As always Google is constantly providing with more and better tools for marketers to do their jobs the easiest way possible, marketing platforms are keeping up with teams’ requirements and social media competition never ends.

Which update caught your attention the most?

If you are interested in reading more about digital marketing make sure to visit some of our other blog post:

• Digital Marketing Trends 2022
• 2021 Christmas Marketing Ideas and Strategies To Boost Your E-commerce Sales
• The Future of Digital Marketing Without 3rd Party Cookies

Keeping up with digital marketing trends is already a very time consuming process by itself without adding the uncertainty and changes brought as a consequence of Covid-19 pandemic. 2021 was still a year of challenges and adjustments and it’s time to take it all in, review what we learned and prepare for the next chapter. 

Marketing trends continue to move towards offering users personalised experiences through innovative technology that, at the same time, reduces load work for marketing teams. It’s all about optimisation of processes that increase engagement and are cost effective. 

With that in mind here are the top:

Digital Marketing Trends 2022

1. Conversational Marketing

Conversational marketing is AI powered forms of conversation to talk to consumers. Is the use of interfaces such as live chats, chatbots or voice assistants to engage in conversations with customers in a more human manner. 

More and more, consumers are seeking connections and personalised treatment when evaluating shopping options. Brands need to respond to this need and apply strategies that give their customers what they want.

Adding a tool that allows engaging interactions it’s a great method to connect with consumers and offer personalised experiences that provide value for both parties:

• Brands will gain insights about their consumers
• Users will get response to their questions with super personalised conversations

Another important fact to keep in mind is that users are looking for almost immediate responses from brands when they have doubts about a product or service. Conversational marketing can provide instant connections between customers and brands, facilitating communication that gains their trust. 

Machine learning allows you, through conversational marketing tools, to create interactions tailor made for each user. Including it into your marketing strategy will help you assist them in selecting the right option for them and creating a relationship that ultimately leads to increasing your sales. 

As a trend within the trend, we can talk about WhatsApp Marketing. WhatsApp is the leading messaging platform in the world, followed by Facebook Messenger. For some years now, Facebook has been promoting WhatsApp as a tool for businesses, either through WhatsApp Business (focused on small businesses) or through WhatsApp Business API. You have a complete guide about WhatsApp Marketing in this link.

2. Gamification

Think about the features that make games so much fun and engaging. Now try and apply them to a website: that’s gamification put simply. Gamification marketing is the practice of including gaming elements in a non-gaming environment with the objective of increasing engagement and it’s a major digital marketing trend for 2022.

Gamification is a very creative way for any type of online business to get their message across and make it more memorable in an environment where it is very difficult to stand out and make an impact. 

Here are some examples on how you can include gamification in your digital marketing strategy:

• Countdowns: users are challenged to complete certain actions in a limited period of time
• Achievements: points, badges, or some kind of reward is given to users for reaching an accomplishment. 
• An actual game: you can create a game on your site for users to play and offer them a reward depending on how far they make it!

There are many advantages from gamification: increases user engagement, CTRs and conversions. You just need to find the best option that suits your business and try it out!

3. Marketing Automation

Marketing automation refers to software that allows you to set up campaigns (emails, SMS or web push notifications) that are “triggered” and sent by a specific action taken by the user. With these types of tools you can schedule messages for a certain date like Black Friday, for example, or define scenarios based on user behaviour that activate a specific message.

The great thing about marketing automation is all the time you can save. You only need to set up your campaigns one first time and then everything keeps working automatically. Plus, since the campaigns are usually behaviour-based, they offer users super personalised information that’s relevant to them, thus increasing their engagement with your brand. 

According to TheeDigital 77% of companies that have implemented some sort of marketing automation tool have seen an increase in conversions thanks to lead nurturing automated campaigns. 

Besides, marketing automation is within everyone’s reach. There are tons of tools  that offer a free subscription option out there for companies of all sizes and budgets to benefit from this strategy.

4. Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is the automation of the media buying process. Normally, marketers would have to manually search for advertising space, create proposals and negotiate terms. With programmatic advertising they can automatically bid for an ad space, getting rid of all the manual, time-consuming process and focus on campaign optimization.

According to Projector, “brands are now assigning up to 50% of their ad budgets to programmatic advertising, and the trend is expected to exceed $100 billion in 2022.” 

One of the reasons programmatic advertising is so effective is that it uses data insights to place and show the most relevant ad, to the right user at the right time. This ultimately results in better CTRs and improves ROI. 

5. Online Reviews

Reviews and customers’ opinions have always been important, but 2022 is the year to focus on expanding the online reviews of your business. Keep in mind that now, more than ever, people are taking time to evaluate their options before making a purchase decision, and what better source of information than previous shoppers telling their experiences?

Good online reviews have the power to attract new customers to your business because they offer other potential customers a level of credibility like no other message that comes directly from you as a brand.

Depending on your type of business some review platforms will work better and suit you best. For example, for a retailer or local shop, Google Business will be the main review platform. But if you are a B2B software company, your customers will look you up on sites like Gartner or Capterra.

You can encourage your clients to write reviews of your business by offering some kind of incentive or reward. E-commerce sites like Shein, give points they later exchange for discount coupons to users that give stars, write a review and add photos of the product they purchase.

6. Automated Web Push Notifications

If you are a digital marketer and aren’t aware by now of the definitive disappearance of third-party cookies next year, you have been living under a rock. But, yes, by the end of 2022 we are going to live in a 3rd party cookieless internet, so marketers need to find new, effective ways to do remarketing.

Luckily, web push notifications are here to save the day by offering a unique solution to do retargeting without ads, making them a must-have in your 2022 digital marketing strategy. 

Web push notifications are browser based messages that appear to users after accepting them and becoming subscribers. These messages are 100% customizable and respond to user behaviour and the actions they took when browsing your site. 

You can define as many scenarios you want and target users through every step of the funnel with engaging information that compels them to come back to your site and complete a transaction. Notifications can include product images, name, price, brand and pretty much any information you want. 

The two main advantages of web push notifications are:

• They reach users outside your site: even if users leave your website, they still receive a notification while they are browsing any other page, just like they would get an ad on another site if you put cookies on them. 

• They reach users on desktop and mobile devices: without needing to create an app, web push notifications reach subscribers on all devices. 

Their reach and hyper-personalisation capabilities make web push notifications a very nice solution to tackle a cookieless internet. 

7. Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing is the strategy of using several channels such as social media, email, web push notifications and blogs to reach more users with a cohesive message to reach business goals. 

According to ClickZ omnichannel marketing strategies bring excellent results:

• Engagement rate: 18.96% on omnichannel vs 5.4% on single-channel
• Purchase frequency: 250% higher on omnichannel vs single-channel
• Average order value: 13% more per order on omnichannel vs single-channel
• Customer retention rates: 90% higher for omnichannel vs single-channel

In order to have a well-structured omnichannel marketing strategy, you can use marketing software that provides multi-platform automation services. If you center all of your communications in one place, you can offer a much more consistent image across platforms without overlapping one message with another at the risk of oversaturating users.

Via automation you can combine message sequences in different channels to reach users through the platform of their preference. For example, you can create a sequence to recover abandoned carts with a first message delivered through email, a second one via web push and a third one via SMS. 

An omnichannel marketing strategy allows you to reach your customers where they are. Design messages that compliment one another and offer value during the entire customer journey and you’ll see amazing results. 

General Tips for you  2022 Digital Marketing Campaigns

Before we send off 2021, there are some marketing practices that will always be a cornerstone to make our strategies the best they can be:

• Optimize with A/B tests: remember that no matter how much insight you have about your target audience, there’s always room for improvement and A/B testing is your friend. When launching new campaigns, try different versions, analyze the results and optimize accordingly. 

• Content marketing is always a go: content marketing keeps gaining ground as a basis for any online business. A solid content marketing strategy that answers your target audience’s pain points for every stage of the funnel is key to create brand awareness, generate leads and increase conversions. 

• Hyper-personalisation is extremely important: paradoxically in a world that has gone global, people are eager for personalised experiences. That’s why (if you are not doing already) you give all of your communication a level of personalisation that makes users feel you are talking directly to them and that you cater to their needs specifically. This means including their names, the exact product they were interested in and any detail that makes the message as personal as possible. 

Final Thoughts on Digital Marketing Trends 2022

It seems digital marketing keeps moving in the direction of offering super personalised experiences via AI and machine learning, whilst alleviating workload for makerteres to focus on optimization. 

The imminent disappearance of third-party cookies will also require new solutions and strategies that allow brands to keep in touch and engage with their customers through time without diminishing their online experience. 

Surely 2022 will bring along lots of surprises, new marketing tech and even revolutionize the social media world like the Clubhouse app did during early 2021. As always we will be here gathering the most important digital marketing trends for you every month.

In the meantime, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The most joyful time of the year is fastly approaching: Christmas! Ho Ho, it’s time to put on our thinking hats and make our brands shine for the last major holiday of the year. And what better excuse to reach out to new and old customers than amazing Christmas offers, discounts and special products?

Businesses need a very strong online presence and a super effective digital marketing strategy to really stand out during these times when all brands are competing for customer’s attention. 

Why should you have a Christmas Marketing strategy?

If you are wondering if and why you should plan a specific Christmas digital marketing strategy for your ecommerce, here are some interesting insights:

• According to GlobeSt, in 2021, experts predict that online retail sales will make up 16.3% of total retail sales. It will hit 18.3% in 2023 and 19.9% by 2025. 
• A study from eMarketer states that by 2022, retail sales from e-commerce will comprise 16.3% of total retail sales.
• CNBC says that the number of shoppers that went to brick-and-mortar stores on the Saturday before Christmas 2020 dropped by 40.9% from a year ago.

Keep in mind that during, and after the Covid pandemic, a lot of customers changed the way they shop, getting used to purchasing online and less in physical stores. Brands and businesses need to adapt to the new shopping habits and offer customers what they are looking for. 

To help you prepare better for the upcoming holidays we would like to share with you: 

Christmas Marketing Ideas and Strategies to Boost your Ecommerce Sales 2021

With the purpose of making this guide as helpful as possible, we are going to divide it into two sections:

• Channels to use in your Christmas marketing campaigns

• Strategies and ideas for your Christmas marketing campaigns

This way, you’ll have ideas on actions to do and ideas on how to communicate those actions the most effective way. Let’s start with:

1. Strategies and Ideas for Your Christmas Marketing Campaigns

The first step in planning your Christmas digital marketing campaign for your e-commerce is to decide exactly what you are going to offer. Whether it is discounts, product bundles, or limited offers you must be very clear, for this is what will guide all the rest of the steps. 

In this section we will share some ideas for your ecommerce Christmas campaign!

1.1 Dress Up Your Website

When people go on Christmas shopping they want to be filled with excitement and holiday spirit: give it to them as soon as they enter your site! When people go to physical stores during Christmas time, they are surrounded by decorations, lights and music, try to give them that experience online as well.

You can do it by maybe changing the colors of your site a little bit, adding Christmas decorations to your logo, changing product images and descriptions to fit the season mood. Making your website festive by including some details can tilt the balance in your favor when it’s time for potential customers to shop!

If you don’t have time to design Christmas-themed assets for your site, many CMS like WordPress and Shopify have free plugins you can activate with just a few clicks! 

1.2 Christmas Products, Collections and Bundles

Whichever type of product you sell, there’s always a way you can give it a Christmas twist to make it more appealing to potential customers during the holiday season. You can:

• Create Christmas product bundles ready to gift
• Decorate your products with some sort of Christmas add-on like ribbons, stars, glitter or Christmas ornaments
• Offer gift wrapping service for the purchase, with customizable cards

An even more attractive strategy is to create a special Christmas Edition of some of your most popular products. It can be a new color, flavour, scent or design that’s only available for a short period of time in your online store. 

In addition to making the product something special for Christmas, you will be appealing to a sense of scarcity, enticing people to make their purchase before you run out of stock and the miss the chance to purchase a unique edition. 

1.3 Christmas Sales!

When it comes to seasonal marketing strategies, one of the most attractive things is to promote the fact that shoppers won’t get the same deals any other time of the year. 

That’s why offering unique Christmas promotions and discounts is a wonderful strategy to attract shoppers and increase sales. Flash sales work great because people are afraid they might lose the opportunity to purchase a product they want for a lower price. 

Keep in mind that during Christmas, people are spending a lot of money buying gifts for everyone and, for sure, they will appreciate a good bargain when doing their shopping. You can apply 2×1 discounts, big price reduction on selected products, free shippings and discounts for after Christmas shopping. 

2. Channels to Use During your Christmas Marketing Campaigns

Ok, so you already have amazing sales, discounts, gifts, offers and special product bundles to offer your clients for Christmas, now is the moment to think about how are you going to let them know about everything you have prepared for them.

In this section we are going to share different channels you can use to communicate and engage with your customers by offering information about your products and services, solve doubts and, overall, help them make a purchasing decision during the hectic Christmas shopping time. 

2.1 Manual Christmas Web Push Notifications Campaigns

Web push notifications are a great channel to communicate and truly engage with your customers. Their inherent qualities such as not requiring personal data, being able to reach users both on mobile and desktop outside of your website and their level of customization make them a very effective tool.

This the perfect channel to include in your Christmas marketing strategy since we have established the importance for your brand to stand out from the crowd. You can design christmasy manual web push campaigns to notify your customers about your special Christmas offers, discounts or bundles. 

Unlike automated web push notifications, manual campaigns reach your entire subscribers database. They are the browser-based communications channel equivalent to a newsletter, which means they are super versatile and useful for sharing time sensitive information. 

You can prepare a series of manual web push notifications to inform your customers about: 

• what’s special in your online store for the month 
• send reminders to do their shopping on time
• invite them to seize an offer of special sale
• inform them about new arrivals, Christmas collections and more

2.2 Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns

Emails are one of the most profitable digital marketing channels so it’s pretty obvious that you must include them in your Christmas marketing campaign. The works is very similar to that of manual web push notifications, except that in this case, you’ll be reaching out to customers that have shared their personal information with you and you can include more detailed information. 

Since you have more space and unlimited time for users to read, with email marketing campaigns you can be more explanatory about all you have to offer during Christmas. This is the ideal channel to include beautiful and large images, countdowns, social media links and everything you can imagine to enrich the content and make it irresistible!

Using a marketing automation tool you can design and schedule a sequence of emails to be sent through a period of time adjusting each message to the offer or discount you are running at the time and appealing to a sense of urgency as the final dates of Christmas sales approach. 

Keep in mind that emails are extremely customizable and you should use all the cards under your sleeve to make them as attractive as you can with festive visuals, christmasy-copies and an overall happy holidays spirit. 

2.3 Live Chat

It’s normal for people to be a little more on edge during a holiday season. Customers might have more questions and doubts about your products, services, delivery times and want to get faster replies to make decisions and complete their Christmas shopping in time. 

Integrating a live chat to your website is a great asset to connect with your customers in a very direct way and make them feel more comfortable and more cared for.

Consider that you can lose a lot of sales if customers don’t find a way to resolve their doubts quicker than usual. With a live chat you can create deeper relationships with visitors and convert them into customers. Specially during a time like Christmas when you are surely getting more traffic than usual to your site.

2.4 Create a Christmas Landing Page 

A specific Christmas landing page is a key element to increase conversions, since it is focused on one single objective and makes the decision-making process easier for customers.

Source: sminion.com

You can design a super christmas-theme landing page in which you display special products only available during the holidays for example. You can create different versions for different target audiences or sales and segment customers to redirect them to the one that fits them best depending on their interests. 

Seasonal landing pages can have a great impact on your sales. There are many options to create beautiful landing pages you can check out:

• Swipe Pages
• Unbounce
• Instapage

All in all…

These are some of many digital marketing strategies and ideas for your 2021 Christmas campaign. You can combine the channels with the strategies that best fit your brand to engage with your target audience and boost your revenue!

Before you go, check out:

• Tips for a Successful Holiday Email Marketing Campaign
• Web Push Notifications Done Right – 7 Mistakes To Avoid!
• The Future of Digital Marketing Without 3rd Party Cookies

We are excited to share that we have launched a new overview of campaigns analytics on the Frizbit Dashboard so that you can see detailed reports of all your campaigns in one place.

In this view of campaign reporting section, you can see information about the following actions for each push notification, email and SMS campaign depending on the case:

• Received
• Clicked
• CTR (Click through Rate)

You can also filter by specific time periods and the campaign type. You can also download reports as PNG, PDF or CSV by clicking on the button at the right-bottom.

To access this panel, you just have to log into your Frizbit account, go to the left menu and click on Campaigns > Overview.

At Frizbit we are constantly making improvements to the product, to offer you the best possible product and we hope that this new functionality will be very useful for you and that you can see the results of your campaigns whenever you want.

We are at your service for any questions or comments.

We wish you a great November from the entire Frizbit team.