2021 has gone by extremely fast, we are already in the last quarter of the year and the most important dates for marketers are upon us: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas. That is why it is more important than ever to be informed about what’s new in the digital marketing world and use all tools available to carry out the best campaigns.

Here are the most relevant:

Digital Marketing News and Updates from October 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Shopify & Microsoft Team Up To Help Merchants Reach More Shoppers

Microsoft is aware of the significant increase in online shopping and the acceleration of e-commerce sites, that’s why they are looking for ways to help brands connect with consumers. With that in mind, they recently announced a partnership with Shopify. 

Shopify merchants can now reach more shoppers using the updated Microsoft Channel app available in their Shopify store. They will have access to more customers through the Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network. 

Merchants can connect to the Microsoft Channel app using their Microsoft Advertising accounts or by signing up in a few steps. They can create new ad campaigns, access real-time reports in their Shopify store and all merchants’ products are automatically able to be shown on the Microsoft Bing Shopping tab and the Microsoft Start Shopping tab free as Product Listings.

This new feature is currently available just for Shopify merchants in the United States and Canada.

Microsoft states that soon they will be rolling out a checkout option via the Buy button “to help consumers quickly bridge the gap from discovery to purchase”. 

• Google Mobile Search Updated With Continuous Scrolling

Mid October, Google announced to their blog The Keyword that Continuous scrolling is coming to Google Search on mobile devices. 

Google is always working towards helping people find what they are looking for easily and quickly. Making Search results browsing a seamless experience is a priority, and that is why they are introducing continuous scrolling on mobile devices.

Now, when users conduct a search from their mobile device and reach the bottom of a results page, the next set of results will automatically load to offer more information. The reason behind this update is to save people from having to click on the “See more” button and make their browsing experience more pleasant.

“While you can often find what you’re looking for in the first few results, sometimes you want to keep looking. In fact, most people who want additional information tend to browse up to four pages of search results.” – Google Blog

The new Search experience is starting to gradually roll out today for most English searches on mobile in the U.S.

• Google Rolls Out New Eco-Friendly Search Filters

Google’s rolling out new Search filters to help people make more environmentally-conscious decisions when looking for flights, hotels, routes or products. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a series of green initiatives from the company, and this new Search filter is one of them.  

• Google Flights Updates: an update to Google Flights will showcase information about carbon emissions in SERP. The information will be displayed next to the price and duration of the flight. 

• Hotel results: when looking for a hotel, users will now see information regarding their sustainability efforts such as waste reduction and water conservation measures, and whether they’re Green Key or EarthCheck certified.

• Environmentally Friendly Appliances: a Google Shopping update will help shoppers find the most environmentally friendly options when looking to buy appliances by displaying the most sustainable products. 

• Eco-friendly Routing in Google Maps: from now on in the U.S and in Europe from 2022, Google Maps will show you the most fuel efficient route to choose from. Google estimates that by doing this, they could help save over one million tons of carbon emissions per year.

Google says that all these efforts are aimed towards being more sustainable and helping contribute against climate change:

In all these efforts, our goal is to make the sustainable choice an easier choice. At the individual level, these choices may seem small, but when people have the tools to make them at scale, they equal big improvements. We’ll need nothing less to avert the worst consequences of climate change, and we’ll continue to find ways our products can help.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Free AI Content Optimization Tool by MarketMuse

MarketMuse is a platform built to accelerate the content research, creation, and optimization process using AI and they recently launched a free version of their software.

This tool is designed to help content creators plan and optimize their writing with helpful insights powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. The new free version is very similar to the paid one and contains the primary features of MarketMuse, the only difference is that, with the paid version, you can focus on more queries. 

The new version is thought out to help small sites with up to 35 queries a month and it offers the following features: 

• Optimize
• Connect
• Compete
• Research
• Questions

Many MarketMuse users have reported the tool to be a complete game changer for their content marketing strategy:

In my opinion, MarketMuse is useful for every business that is doing content marketing. Using MarketMuse, you can create in-depth content that is valued by readers and considered authoritative. I used MarketMuse as an experiment on one of my sites, and my organic traffic grew by 400% in less than 6 months. – Israel Gaudette, Full-time affiliate marketer and founder of the Link Tracker Pro rank tracker.

• Google For Creators Is Here To Help Publishers Get Found & Make Money

Google is introducing Google for Creators to offer personalized guidance, product recommendations and inspiration for creators. 

In a recent blog post Google announced the launch of a new tool to help content creators learn, grow and get inspired. The objective is to bring audiences closer to the content the like and enjoy, at the same time it helps creators reach and connect with more people. 

Google for Creators shows how the web can become part of your content mix. A quick quiz on the homepage provides personalized recommendations with topics most relevant to you. So if you’re just getting started, the quiz might recommend that you check out guides for finding a niche or creating a content strategy. Or if you’re a more seasoned creator, you might see recommendations for learning how to grow your audience and make more money. – Google Blog

The tool is promised to be useful for all types of content creators, new ones or more experienced ones. The quiz will offer relevant insights and recommendations on how to find a niche, planning a content strategy and how to grow your audience. 

Google will release more features in the coming months. 

• WordPress Releases Gutenberg 11.6 

Early October WordPress released Gutenberg 11.6 fixing bugs and making important changes and improvements. Gutenberg is a WordPress site builder with drag and drop functionality to design interfaces. 

Gutenberg is rolling out in a four phase development process and it’s currently in the second one. This builder is aimed to “to revolutionize the entire publishing experience as much as Gutenberg did the printed word”, according to the description in its plugin page. 

The 11.6 version includes:

• Site Logo cropping and rotating within the editor: users are now able to adjust their websites’ logos directly within WordPress. Before this update the image used as a logo had to be edited before loading it in the site. With the Site Logo block’s toolbar that won’t be necessary anymore. 

• Locking control at block level: this new feature allows designers to lock individual blocks to prevent them from moving or accidentally removing them. 

• Query Pagination uses Flex Layout: the new Gutenberg version improves the Query Pagination block to support the flex layout.

There are other notable improvements and changes with Gutenberg 11.6 such as basic support for child themes, enhancements to the writing flow and much more that you can check out in detail here. 

3. Social Media Updates

• Facebook Has New Communication Tools For Businesses

Facebook is rolling out changes and improvements targeted to small businesses. These updates are coming just in time for important marketing dates such as Black Friday and the holiday season which reportedly counts for 20% of annual revenue for small businesses.

Let’s sum up the new features:

• Video and Audio Calling on Messenger: Facebook is testing business audio and video calling with some businesses using Business Inbox in Messenger. This feature allows them to connect directly with their customers right from the platform in order to facilitate transactions.

• Live Audio Rooms: earlier this year Facebook launched Live Audio Rooms as their own version of ClubHouse appa. They are now making it available for small businesses to host live conversations on topics they consider relevant for their target audiences. 

• Expanding Appointment Booking Globally: the appointments feature on Facebook is an easy way for customers to book appointments with local service providers, and for businesses to manage their bookings. From now, Facebook is gradually making Appointment books available to all small businesses, globally.

• Personalized Ads: Facebook wants to let people know they are supporting a small business when they come across a small business ad, so they are testing the display of an informational message in the feed that lets people know they liked or loved a small business ad. According to Facebook “The message explains how engaging with an ad from a small business can help the business continue to find new customers and grow.”

 

• Instagram Adds More Demographic Insights For Businesses

Instagram is introducing new audience insights as a way to give content creators and professionals the tools they need to make more money doing what they love on the social media platform. They are rolling out: accounts engaged, engaged audience, reached audience and new transparency for creators who partner with brands.

• Accounts Engaged and Engaged Audience: the “accounts engaged” feature shows the number of people that interacted with your content in a specific period of time. Instagram is also adding demographic insights to help professionals have a better understanding of their audience. 

• Reached Audience: Instagram is adding new information about reached audiences also adding important demographic insights such as top cities, top countries, top age ranges and gender. 

• Transparency for Creators: Instagram is going to give more visibility to creators who partner with brands to create collaborative content. “When a brand promotes a creator’s post with the paid partnership label or creates an ad without a pre-existing post, that creator will now be able to see the performance of that ad including reach, likes, comments, saves and shares.”

• Instagram Tests new “Add Yours” Sticker for Stories

If you hang out a lot on Instagram you might have already come across the new “Add Yours” sticker in someones’ story. 

Instagram rolled out this new sticker as a way to create chains of content in the app. It works like this: a user uploads a story and inserts the “Add Yours” sticker of a certain topic. Then when another user sees it, they can click on it and their own input to the topic, thus creating a chain of content. 

For example, someone can create a prompt about their favorite Italian restaurant, share it, and then other users can add their own favorites. This is a great way for brands to connect and reach new audiences. 

Even though the sticker is limited to users in Japan and Indonesia, once a prompt has been created, anyone can participate. 

This are the most relevant Digital Marketing News and Updates from October 2021

There were many updates in search, tech and social media marketing this past month and certainly many interesting features to try for next big dates like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas. 

Did you have a favorite? Let us know in the comments!

You can also find useful:

• Top 2021 Black Friday Digital Marketing Strategies for Your E-commerce
• “Don’t Use Web Push Notifications!” Demystifying the Biggest Prejudices About Web Push Notifications
• SMS Marketing: 7 Tips for a Winning Strategy

With Black Friday rapidly approaching and prices for ad space skyrocketing again, marketers are once more faced with this annually recurring, though nonetheless challenging question: How do you create the perfect Digital Marketing Black Friday campaign that reflects current shopping trends, has not been done before, and makes your own business stand out from the competition, especially if you don’t have the kind of Marketing budget e-commerce giants like Amazon have at their disposal? Sure, finding an answer can feel daunting, but no need to stress, because in this article, we will not only inform you about relevant shopping trends, we will also explain to you all you need to know about creating and optimizing your 2021 Black Friday Digital Marketing campaigns.

These are the topics we will cover today:

1. General Tips
2. Black Friday 2021 shopping trends 
3. Which channels should you use?
4. 7 Strategies for making your black Friday Digital Marketing campaign stands out
5. Conclusion

One thing I should make clear here is that, while technically SEO, referral traffic and onsite improvements are part of Digital Marketing as well, this article focuses on strategies related to paid digital marketing campaigns, so if you’re looking for information on improving your keyword strategy or generating referral traffic, this might not be the right place for you.

1. General Tips for you Black Friday Digital Marketing Strategy

Here’s a few basic things to keep in mind when working on a digital marketing plan for Black Friday 2021:

• Start early enough: Things like collecting subscribers for your email campaigns can take time.
• Do your research: Before you start working on this year’s campaigns, look into what worked in the past. Also inform yourself about current shopping trends that impact your Black Friday planning.
• When setting up campaigns, a comprehensive omnichannel strategy usually works best!

2. Black Friday 2021 shopping trends: 

Before we start talking about the actual campaigns, let’s look into some current shopping trends affecting Black Friday sales in 2021. 

Where do people buy? 

• The trend for more shopping to be done online is expected to continue in 2021, even now that the situation around Covid has settled some and most stores have reopened, so make sure to take this into account when choosing your channels and creating your content. 
• Another noteworthy development is that according to similarweb, 75% of last year’s Black Friday shoppers used mobile devices to research products and complete purchases, so a similarly high percentage of mobile shoppers can be expected this year.

And finally, with the pandemic, supporting local businesses has become important to many consumers, so use this to your advantage when targeting local shoppers.

When do people buy?

• According to similarweb, around a third of holiday shoppers are planning to do their holiday shopping in 2021 earlier than they did last year. Make sure to target these people with your Black Friday campaigns.
• Another very important trend that has started in recent years, is that Black Friday sales are not limited to the actual Black Friday anymore, instead they extend over several days, so make sure your business is prepared for that. In fact, the majority of businesses generates more revenue on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday itself.

What do consumers want?

• More than ever, consumers expect an effortless shopping experience from anywhere, not just from their home, with flexible payment terms, delivery options, and return policies. The more flexibility you offer, the better. Popular examples of this are “buy now, pay later” models or extended returns till after Christmas for unhappy gift recipients. 

A surprising trend that started with the pandemic is that people are checking out more new brands rather than sticking to their proven repertoires. This can be a chance to attract new customers, but makes it difficult to retain loyal customers.

3. Which Channels Should You Use?

To keep it brief, here’s a list of the most popular online channels that can be used for Digital Marketing purposes:

• Display Ads
• Email and SMS campaigns
• Social Media posts, videos and ads on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube,…
• Mobile/App Push notifications 
• Web Push notifications 

I’m sure everyone knows about Display Ads, but if you’re on a budget, alternatives such as web push notifications for which you pay a fixed price might be worth considering, since there’s no need to outbid the competition for ad space. 

Again, rather than putting all your efforts into one channel, set up a comprehensive omnichannel strategy to reach a wide range of users in a wide range of situations. Also make sure that your online campaigns reflect your general brand image, and that your digital campaign strategy fits in with your onsite efforts, your SEO, and offline Marketing channels such as TV, print, or outdoor ads.

4. Seven Strategies for making your black Friday Digital Marketing campaign stand out: 

a) Timing

b) Incentives

c) The element of surprise

d) Innovation

e) Social and environmental responsibility

f) Content and Design

g) Engagement

a) Timing: it doesn’t start and end with the actual event 

As you’re probably very aware of as a marketer, the competition for ad space around Black Friday is absolutely crazy. If you’re working for a smaller e-commerce with limited resources and you’re worried about not being able to compete with bigger bidders, don’t panic. If you strike at a less popular time, you can achieve amazing results at comparatively little cost. 

• Bid early: Rather than paying a lot for ad space during the actual Black Friday weekend, you could run Black Friday campaigns in the weeks or even months leading up to the event 

Example 1: Walmart 

Have you already considered preparing your consumers for Black Friday in advance, for example in the form of a countdown like in this campaign by Walmart? That way, there will be less competition for the attention of shoppers and ad space will be much cheaper.

Example 2: Frank and Oak

Maybe you can even get consumers to add your event to their calendar the way Frank and Oak did, so you don’t have to do the reminder on the actual day when everyone else does. 

Example 3: Kopari

Another company that managed a great build-up to Black Friday is Kopari with their social media campaign in which influencers presented their favorite holiday gifts featuring products from Kopari in the month leading up to Black Friday. Not only did this remind shoppers of the brand, it also gave them inspiration for specific products to buy making the choice easier for overwhelmed shoppers.

Example 4: Zippy

Zippy extended the event throughout the entire month of November with this Black Month campaign keeping shoppers interested in the brand by announcing surprise offers:

• Bid late: The opposite works as well: As the term “Black Friday” is very strongly associated with sales, you can still grab consumers’ attention with Post-Black Friday campaigns into December, for example through catchy headlines making reference to the event with messages such as “Black Friday’s over, but we’re bringing it back for you!” 

Example 1: Doggyloot

Here’s an example of such a Post-Black Friday campaign sent in December by Doggyloot:

b) Incentives: offer more than just your product

Everyone likes getting free gifts, so encourage customers to buy from your site by adding extras to your offer. Or instead of gifts, you could offer free shipping and returns or give access to exclusive benefits during future events. A great way to upsell is if you make gifts and extra benefits depend on the value spent in your shop.

Example 1: Shinesty 

Shinesty offered more gifts, the more you bought. Personally, I’m not sure if I would have appreciated receiving 8 gifts with my purchase, but it seems to have worked for them and at least most of your Christmas shopping is taken care of after purchasing something at Shinesty for 250$.

Example 2: KVD

This company offered an entire gift bundle and made it even more attractive by offering two designs for some sense of personalization.

 

c) The element of surprise: Catch your customers off-guard 

If you really want to stand out from the crowd, use shock value. There’s nothing better to pique someone’s curiosity than an email with the scandalous headline stating that Black Friday has been cancelled this year. If that’s too risky for you, no problem, you can still tease people with little snippets promising an amazing surprise without giving any further details, or make your headlines purposely obscure, ambiguous, or otherwise unexpected.

Example 1: Chubbies

Chubbies caused quite the stir with this email campaign announcing the cancellation of Black Friday. Also notice the email address in the subject line of the email! A message like that leaves people confused and eager for more information.

 

Example 2: Cards Against Humanity

Something that is becoming more and more popular are Anti-Black Friday campaigns, especially among companies with a sustainable mission. For an example check out Cards Against Humanity’s campaign from last year that didn’t just cancel Black Friday, but took it a step further and asked customers to pay more rather than offering discounts. It definitely got people talking about the brand!

Example 3: Death Wish Coffee

If you don’t want to take it quite that far, there are much simpler ways to appeal to shoppers’ curiosity, just take a look at what Death Wish Coffee did. They surprised shoppers by assigning them a random gift code that could be anywhere in between 1$ and 100$. A big part of the appeal lay in the fact that you didn’t know the value before checking out.

 

d) Innovation: Offer things not usually on offer

It’s always a good idea to come up with innovative ideas and features. That could be product features not usually available such as mix and match options, innovations related to the shopping experience such as shipping and return conditions, or the invention of an entirely new event like Black Thursday or Technicolor Friday.

Example 1: Bath and Body Works

Bath and Body Works offered a feature only available on Black Friday, a mix and match option for the entire store.

Example 2: Cartier

Cartier realized that many Black Friday shoppers are shopping holiday gifts for others which makes bad buys inevitable. That’s why they decided to extend returns until after Christmas.

Example 3: Community Forklift

Community Forklift came up with their own name for the event, one that is more in line with their brand image. Instead of Black Friday, they celebrated Green Friday and Small-business Saturday. I also really like the accompanying slogan and the idea to have people make their own gifts together!

 

e) Social and environmental responsibility: Stand out by standing up for your values 

More and more businesses are associating their Black Friday campaigns with social or environmental causes. There are a number of different ways to do this, some businesses promote conscious consumption by discouraging consumers from shopping that day, some use the revenue generated during Black Friday to support non-profit organizations, some plant trees for every purchase made on their site, and others simply offer educational material to make issues more transparent. Associating with a good cause is another great way to build long-term relationships with your customers.

Example 1: Deciem

Deciem used their Black Friday campaign to remind shoppers of conscious consumption. That’s why they didn’t offer a Black Friday sale, but an educational month and extended discounts. That reduced the sense of urgency and the feeling that you’re missing out on something if you don’t buy immediately.

Example 2: Birdsong

This company highlighted the downside of Black Friday and some of the injustices in the fashion industry with a Transparent Friday campaign. What’s really unique about it is that they let shoppers choose their discount value themselves after reading through the informational material.

 

f) Content and design: Make your campaigns unique and appealing

To make people want to continue reading, try using humour and wordplay for good headers and subject lines, tell captivating stories, create cute animations that appeal to people’s emotions, or come up with special design themes that capture attention, are easily recognizable and reflect what your business is about.

Example 1: Hermes 

Hermes did a great job with this winter wonderland video reel. It told a story, looked cute, appealed to people’s emotions and featured the company’s products.

Example 2: Asos

Asos chose to follow a very recognizable design theme with this comic book vibe campaign:

Example 3: Chubbies

Chubbies used humor and wordplay in their campaign. As this example shows, it can also be a good strategy to build campaigns around one particular product to avoid overwhelming shoppers with choice.

Example 4: Target

Target’s campaign was based on this catchy headline: “First we turkey, then we Target!”

 

g) Engagement: Work together with your shoppers to make your event special

Make your campaigns personal and interactive, maybe even celebrate Black Friday together with your customers by inviting them to live events or encouraging them to spend the day working towards a common cause with you. Allowing customers to interact with your brand usually has them talking about you for a long time, and as shoppers are not just buying a product, but become part of an experience, you leave them not only with positive memories of the event, but also with an emotional connection to your brand.

Example 1: Phoenix Productions 

Phoenix Productions organized a live fundraising raffle last year where shoppers could bid on gifts from their home.

Example 2: REIs #optoutside campaign

Another amazing campaign that encouraged customers to actively participate is the #optoutside campaign by outdoor company REI asking people to spend Black Friday outside rather than in the mall. The campaign was unique, promoted a good cause, and asked shoppers to join forces with the business, thus creating a sense of community and a long-lasting emotional bond.

Example 3: MeUndies 

Somewhat similar to Phoenix Productions, MeUndies invited shoppers to a live event. However, this time it took the form of an exclusive virtual party where MeUndies organized a live unveiling of their discounts. While the event was extremely successful in terms of returns, it also generated a lot of brand awareness.

Conclusion: 

As with most things, when planning and executing a Black Friday Digital Marketing campaign, there is no one size fits all ideal solution. Just remember that it is important to plan ahead, develop a comprehensive omnichannel strategy, be innovative and use your creativity to engage customers. If you can’t afford quantity, make it about quality and your sale can be just as memorable as that of leading e-commerce businesses. 

And most importantly, no matter which channels you use and which strategies you decide on, make sure that your campaign is aligned with your brand image, your brand values and your offline campaigns. It will probably serve you more to work on long-lasting strategies that bind customers to you even beyond Black Friday, rather than putting all your efforts into attracting them to your site for the weekend and getting them to buy from you right this minute.

Since you are already here, check out:

• “Don’t Use Web Push Notifications!” Demystifying the Biggest Prejudices About Web Push Notifications
• Remarketing: Everything You Need to Know
• Are Cart Abandonment Emails GDPR Compliant?

Is not rare to see frowns and hear negative comments when web push notifications are brought to the table as a new addition to a digital marketing strategy. Myths and strong-felt prejudices are common given the novelty of the channel and maybe a lack of understanding on how they work and the results they can provide for any digital business.

The truth is that web push notifications are one of the highest engaging digital marketing channels available for online businesses. Frizbit’s clients have achieved remarkable success with ROAS up to 36x and costs per session as low as 0,02€. 

Given the fact that there still are way too many misconceptions about this new retargeting channel, we believe is time to address the issue and demystify the

Biggest Prejudices About Web Push Notifications

1. “Users don’t Want to Receive Web Push Notifications”

The first comment you might hear when mentioning web push notifications is“how many users actually click on allow?” and  “users don’t accept them, nobody likes web push notifications” . 

Well, we are here to tell you that’s just not true at all. 
A study revealed that web push notifications have an overall acceptance rate of 16,7% globally. Even though there are many factors that can affect the willingness of a user to click on “allow” when asked to subscribe, there’s no other channel that offers such a high opt-in rate.

Web push notifications have a x3 higher opt-in rate than emails. Keep in mind that users are not requested to share any type of personal information to subscribe, which is a huge factor taken in consideration when it comes to deciding to opt-in to any marketing channel.

There are other variables that also affect opt-in rates to web push notifications such as:

• Device, whether mobile or desktop
• Country
• Business industry
• Engagement with the brand

Users do find web push notifications helpful and valuable as long as you offer them highly personalized and relevant content. People don’t have an innate hate for web push notifications, they just don’t like to receive useless information at all times of the day. You just need to make sure you always send the right message, to the right person at the right time.

Which brings us to web push notifications myth number two. 

2. “Web Push Notifications are Intrusive”

No, they are not. Nothing is intrusive by itself and the same goes for web push notifications. Of course a lot of people might be “scared” of this new channel because of bad practices some companies have pulled off in the past. 

However, with platforms like Frizbit you have many tools at your disposal to make sure you use them at their best, with careful consideration to never annoy your subscribers. 
Features like “frequency cap” are specially designed for this purpose. When creating new campaigns you can specify how many notifications you want your subscribers to receive within a day to make sure you don’t drown them with messages.

We usually recommend a frequency cap of two notifications per day. With Frizbit you have two levels of frequency cap: global and per campaign. This way you guarantee that, for example, a subscriber gets an automated message related to a product viewed or added to cart if they were browsing your site, and a manual notification regarding a special offer, if the case. 

Bottom line, making notifications intrusive or not is completely in your hands. You have full control over how many messages you send and how many messages a subscriber receives in a certain period of time. Make good use of it and you won’t have to worry about disturbing users, getting a bunch of opt-outs or giving bad reputation to web push notifications!

3. “Web Push Notifications are Difficult to Implement”

Many website owners get scared or intimidated when asked about the possibility of implementing web push notifications on their site with the misbelief of it being a cumbersome process. 

However, web push notifications are very easy to implement and configure when working with the right provider. First of all it’s important to know that web push notifications can be implemented in any website. 

Mainly, there are two ways to do it:

• Via Google Tag Manager: this is by far the easiest way to implement web push notifications and most websites use GTM. All you have to do in this case is add the snippet as a tag. Frizbit can do all the work by accessing your GTM as an editor an in just one day, you can be collecting subscribers. 

• Directly adding it to the site: if for any reason you don’t work with Google Tag Manager, you can add the JavaScript snippet by copying and pasting it inside the <head></head> section of your website.

That’s for implementation. When it comes to setting up the campaigns, Frizbit offers ready-to-use templates designed for five different scenarios that follow a typical customer shopping journey in an e-commerce.

Of course, these templates are completely customizable to fit the language and brand philosophy. You can also add or remove steps from the sequence as you see fit, and you only have to set up the campaigns one first time. From that moment forward, everything will run by itself and you just have to see the results and adjust accordingly, if necessary. 

4. “Web Push Notifications Have Low Conversion Rates”

Web push notifications affect the overall site’s conversion rate, globally, by having the power to bring back users that have already expressed interest in a product or service. 

Let’s put an example: imagine a user goes to your site, browses a bit, finds a product he likes and adds it to the cart, but leaves with the intent of finishing the purchase in another time. One hour later that user gets a cart abandonment web push notification, he clicks on it and goes back to finish the purchase. 

When the user starts the check-out process, it turns out that it is very complicated, confusing, the site asks for way too much personal information and the user ends up leaving without making the purchase. 

In this scenario, the web push notification got a click and fulfilled its purpose of bringing the user back to the site to complete a purchase and recover an abandoned cart. However, when the user found himself in such a complicated checkout process, he left without buying, thus not converting. The conversion didn’t occur due to a UX problem, not because of the notification. 

If you detect that your web push campaigns have low conversion rates, the problem might not be the notification at all. What’s important is that you contrast different variables to determine if there is a problem in any of the steps leading the user towards conversion. 

Contrast your web push notification click-through rate with your website’s conversion rate and time spent on page to understand how users are behaviouring to determine where you are losing them and hypothesize about why. 

5. “You Need to Develop an App to send Web Push Notifications”, “They Only Work on Desktop”

When people talk about push notifications, many automatically think of app push notifications. It is important to clarify that there are two different types of push notifications: web and app.

Web push notifications are sometimes also called browser-based. This is because they are sent to subscribers through their browsers when they go online and they are delivered to both desktop and mobile devices equally. App push notifications are sent to users through applications to their mobile devices only.

As we explained earlier, web push notifications are implemented on websites through a JavaScript snippet which makes them browser-based. This means that when users allow them and become subscribers, they will receive them the moment they open their browser, whether they navigate from desktop or mobile. There is no need to develop an app to be able to send web push notifications: all websites are eligible to do it. 

6. “Web Push Notifications Affect User Experience Negatively”

Because web push notifications are still a fairly new retargeting channel, there are a lot of misconceptions about what they are and how they work. And one of the most common ones is to confuse them with regular pop-ups we all know too well.

Web push notifications are not pop-ups. Pop-ups are messages that appear suddenly,without permission over the website’s content while the user is navigating it. They interrupt user experience by showing up unexpectedly, covering the content and are activated by an action, such as scrolling down or moving the cursor to a certain spot.

Unlike pop-ups, web push notifications only show if the user has allowed them by subscribing through an opt-in prompt that appears on the left top corner of the website when first visiting it. They also differ from pop-ups because they appear even when the user has left the site and don’t intrude over the site’s content. 

Because web push notifications are delivered outside the site that sent them, they don’t affect the user experience at all.  

These are the most common web push notifications myths out there

If you still have doubts about the workings of this new retargeting channel and what it can do for your online businesses, get in touch with us and we would be happy to offer you a free trial period of one month so you can see the results for yourself.

If you are looking for even more information about what are web push notifications and how they work, make sure you also read: 

• Web Push Notifications: A Complete Guide for all Levels
• 7 Tips to Increase Web Push Notifications Click Through Rate
• Web Push Notifications Campaigns VS. Retargeting Ads Campaigns

There wasn’t much digital marketing news to report during summertime. However, September has arrived in full strength with many updates to note that might help us marketers strategize better for the last few months of 2021. 

Digital Marketing News, Insights and Updates from September 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Google is Working on New Search Feature to Index Instagram and TikTok Videos

Google has been reported to be working on new deals with Instagram and TikTok’s parent companies, Facebook and ByteDance, to get the data they need in order to index and rank videos from the social media platform in Search results. 

Users often go to Google to search for TikTok and Instagram videos everyone is talking about and have no luck finding them. The best result they get is a preview with lower qualities. Well, Google is trying to fix that and show users the exact video they want to see in Search, just like they do with tweets. 

A few years ago tweets didn’t show in SERP like they do now. Since Google reached an agreement with Twitter back in 2015, they now show in results and the same thing might happen if these new negotiations go well. We might start getting used to seeing these short social media videos in SERP sooner than later. 

Google is always aiming to make content easily discoverable by users. However, when asked about the new feature a spokesperson stated that sites “can choose how or whether their content appears in Search.”

To this point is just a matter of time and wait to see how the negotiations pan out. 

• Google is Giving Users More Transparency Into their Google Ads Experience

Google has been innovating with different features to help users have a better understanding about ads they get in Search and Display in different formats. Features such as “About this ad” and the advertisers identity verification program, enhance user experience by offering transparency and credibility with the ads shown to them.

Not stopping there, Google has announced now they are rolling out Advertiser Pages to offer users more information about the ads they get. Users can access these disclosures in the new “About this Ad” menu and check the ads said advertiser has run over the last 30 days. 

“For example, imagine you’re seeing an ad for a coat you’re interested in, but you don’t recognize the brand. With advertiser pages, you can learn more about that advertiser before visiting their site or making a purchase.”  Google Blog

 

Users will also be able to report an ad they feel is violating Google’s policies and if they see fit, a Google team member will delete it. As always, Google is aiming to offer users the best online experience as possible and taking their feedback is key to achieving that objective. 

Advertiser pages will launch in the coming months in the United States, and will roll out in phases to more countries in 2022.

• Microsoft Advertising Launches Open Beta for Credit Card Ads 

Microsoft Advertising has announced that, from this week, Credit Card Ads will be available for advertisers targeting customers in the U.S and Canada.

Credit Card Ads are intent-triggered ads dynamically generated with no keywords or site crawling required. They appear on the right side of the Bing Search Results Page alongside text ads.

“Credit card ads trigger for queries such as brand name, card category, credit level, and more. Bank issuers, comparison sites and brands can all take advantage of Credit card ads.” Microsoft Blog

On its blog, Microsoft states that, so far, advertisers have seen great results using Credit Card Ads:

• Up to 46% more conversions
• 70% lower cost per acquisition

Early results are sure promising for advertisers.  This new feature is rolling out as an open beta and anyone wishing to participate has to contact their Microsoft Advertising representative or sign up here.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Shopify Launches Shopify Markets to help Internationalize Stores

Up until now, if an ecommerce wanted to sell internationally, they’d have to use a third party marketplace or retailer to do so. With the launch of Shopify Markets that won’t be necessary anymore, since it allows merchants to sell directly to a global market all from one place.

Shopify Markets is a centralized hub with all the tools ecommerce sites need to sell directly outside of their home country. On the announcement of the new solution, Shopify stated that “Complexities like currency conversion, language localization, providing local payment methods, and duty and import taxes can all act as barriers to effectively selling internationally”. All of this is solved with Shopify Markets. 

By entering, merchants can: 

• Enter new markets easily
• Increase buyer trust and conversion with tailored experiences for each market
• Optimize cross-border operations with actionable insights and smart settings
• Save time with a central global management platform

Shopify Markets is already available in early access globally. 

• HubSpot Partners with Envato 

The CRM platform and Evanto, the world-leading online community for creative assets have partnered to launch over 250 high-quality templates specifically designed for HubSpot. 

“Designed by Envato’s internationally recognized community of professional theme developers, the new templates offer a wide variety of ways for businesses to customize their online presence, whether they use a multi-purpose theme or something more niche to their industry.” – HubSpot.com

Since both platforms, HubSpot and Envato, are aimed towards building engaging web experiences faster, Envato’s Chief Content Officer, Cameron Gough, said the partnership was a natural connection between both companies. He also added that:

“With these themes, we have an opportunity to provide the global creative community with the assets they need, while HubSpot can bring their CMS Hub product to life with the help of our talented author base”.

The have reported that the initial reactions from the community have been very positive with the creation of a huge variety of template themes. You can see the collection of CMS Hub themes on ThemeForest here: https://themeforest.net/lp/hubspot-cms-hub-themes/.

• Intuit Confirms Deal to Acquire Mailchimp

A few weeks ago, global technology platform Intuit, confirmed rumors about the acquisition of the popular mailing automation platform, Mailchimp for $12 billion.

Intuit is better known for its financial softwares TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint and Credit Karma, but with this new acquisition they aim to “advance their mission to power prosperity around the world for consumers and small businesses”.

They described the objective saying that they “will work to deliver on the vision of an innovative, end-to-end customer growth platform for small and mid-market businesses, allowing them to get their business online, market their business, manage customer relationships, benefit from insights and analytics, get paid, access capital, pay employees, optimize cash flow, be organized and stay compliant, and have experts at their fingertips.”

3. Social Media Updates

• Twitter Makes Tips Available to Everyone and Adds Bitcoin & GoFundMe As Tipping Options

Back in May Twitter rolled out a feature called tip jar, that allowed users to tip others. This feature was only available for a select group of English-speaking content creators. Now, Twitter is rolling out Tips for everyone and adding new payment alternatives. 

Tips make the payment much easier by providing one spot right in the user’s profile where they can link to their Cash App, Patreon, Venmo and other platforms. Before, users had to manually share links to their payment profiles in their bios and in their tweets.

In addition to that, Twitter is also including new payment services: GoFundMe, an online fundraising platform, and Bitcoin through Strike, a payment application built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network that offers instant and free payments globally.

This is what Twitter had to say:

We want everyone on Twitter to have access to pathways to get paid. Digital currencies that encourage more people to participate in the economy and help people send each other money across borders and with as little friction as possible – help us get there.

• Facebook Launches New Tools for Businesses

In order to help businesses connect with more people and generate more leads, Facebook is launching a set of new free and paid tools:

• Start conversations with ads that click to message: businesses can use ads to invite people to message them through the messaging platform they prefer: Messenger, Instagram Direct or WhatsApp.

• Start a WhatsApp chat from an Instagram Profile: for many small businesses Instagram is the main platform through which people discover them, and Whatsapp the platform to engage in conversations. With that in mind, Facebook is making it possible to add a click-to-chat button to their Instagram profiles and a button that takes users to Whatsapp directly from Instagram ads.

• Quote Request on Messenger: with this feature businesses can elect 4-5 questions to ask consumers prior to starting a conversation. Then, consumers are able to request a quote from a business by completing a questionnaire on Messenger. This feature is only currently available for select advertisers for testing. 
• Lead Generation on Instagram: Facebook will start testing paid and organic tools to help businesses find qualified leads on the social media platform in a more personal way and reducing costs.

Regarding all updated and new features, Facebook stated that “Today is just a step towards the future we’re building for and with businesses in this next era of personalization and we’ll share more on this as it progresses.

• YouTube Adds 5 Features for Creators

YouTube content creators will have access to more insights and more control over ads and chapters thanks to these five new features:

• Evergreen video insights: evergreen videos are those that have been popular for a long period of time. YouTube is giving content creators access to insights for these types of videos as a way of helping them improve their monthly channel performance analysis. 

• Trending hashtags: YouTube launched the trending hashtag feature in the explore section to help viewers find popular content, and creators to identify topics for their future videos. This feature is only available for U.S mobile users. 

• AdSense Blocking Controls: YouTube is making available the Adsense Blocking Controls to multi-channel affiliate networks (MCNs). Previously this feature that allows content creators to control what type of ads run on their channels, was only available to channels in the YouTube Partner Program.

• Bulk Edit Video Chapters: YouTube launched automatic chapters for newly uploaded videos and creators are automatically opted into it. And for those who don’t want the feature enabled on their channel, YouTube is making it easier to edit the chapters in bulk. 

• Appeal Yellow Icons on YouTube Studio Mobile: a yellow icon means a video is receiving little to no monetization. From now on, content creators will be able to appeal them via the Studio Mobile app, instead of solely via desktop.

Digital Marketing News from September 2021

There was a lot to choose from to sum up the most important digital marketing news and updates from September 2021. We gathered the news we believe you’ll find more interesting and useful to strategize next month. 

If you want to keep reading…

• Remarketing: Everything You Need to Know
• Web Push Notifications Performance: Key Metrics to Track!
• How can Marketing Automation Help you Sell More

As a marketer, when you hear the term “Remarketing”, one of the first things to come to your mind are probably display ads. However, while ads are by far the most well-known and widely-used remarketing method, there is much more to remarketing if you know what you’re doing and have the right tech at your disposal! 

That’s why in today’s post, I will tell you all you need to know about remarketing – what it is, how to set it up, why to use it, and how to do it right.  While I will explain a bit about how web tracking and personalized ads work, I’ll also provide you with a few other strategies you can use and, last but not least, I will compare the different methods for you.

To begin, here’s a brief overview of what I’m covering is this article  in case you want to go straight to a specific section:

1. What is remarketing?
2. Is remarketing different from retargeting?
3. Why should you use remarketing?
4. What are the different remarketing methods and how do they work? 
   1. Display Ads
   2. Email and SMS Remarketing 
   3. Web Push Notifications
5. How Web Tracking works
   1. How does the tracking through cookies work?
   2. What is the difference between 1st party cookies and 3rd party cookies?
   3. What is going to happen once cookies are prohibited
6. Which remarketing method should you use?

1. What is remarketing?

To keep it brief, remarketing refers to all activities aimed at getting a customer who has interacted with your website in the past, to return to the site and, in the best-case scenario, convert. This can be done through a number of different channels such as personalized ads, email messages, or web push notifications, which we will look into in more detail in a bit.

2. Is remarketing the same as retargeting?

Even among experienced marketers there is some confusion regarding this question, so let me try to clear it up for you: 

Retargeting and remarketing are almost always used interchangeably, although according to some sources, there is a difference between the two:  

• Remarketing: includes all channels aimed at retaining customers including ads, emails and other methods
• Retargeting: originally only used when talking about retargeting ads

So, basically, Retargeting is one out of many ways of doing Remarketing. However, other sources claim the opposite, so don’t stress too much about this difference. 

It is more useful to know is that somehow it has established itself that Google uses the word remarketing, while most other competitors use the term retargeting to refer to all of their remarketing activities. For this article, though, we will keep it simple and only talk about “Remarketing”.

3. Why should you use remarketing?

Let’s face it, the vast majority of website visitors don’t make a purchase on their first visit. In fact, did you know that roughly 98% of these potential customers leave your website without having bought anything? The reason for this is not necessarily a sudden loss of interest in your products. Most of the time, people are simply reluctant to buy the first item they find. They need some time to consider your offer and compare the different options available to them. 

However, while shopping online, they are faced with A LOT of options, so you need to make sure that in the moment they are finally ready to make the purchase, your offer is fresh on their minds. And this is where remarketing activities come into play! They remind web visitors of products they previously showed an interest in and make it easy to complete the purchase with only a few clicks. 

But what makes remarketing so much more efficient than other marketing activities? 

• Precision: For one, you’re targeting customers who have already shown an intent to buy what you’re selling. Add to that that the messages can be highly personalized as you’ve already collected info on the user, and it doesn’t come as a surprise that with remarketing you can achieve an extremely high CTR and CVR compared to other methods.
• Cost: No matter which remarketing method you use, the CPC is low compared to other marketing activities.
• Effort: Most remarketing campaigns are easy to set up yourself. They can be automated so they don’t require too much upkeep.

The result of this is a much higher ROAS compared to other marketing methods!

What are the different remarketing methods, and how do they work?

a) Display Ads

As I already mentioned, this method is the oldest and most commonly-used remarketing channel. 

The way it works is pretty straightforward: A user visits your website and agrees to the storage of cookies on their device. Via these cookies you collect information about that user and their behavior. Once the user leaves your website, you can use the information you gathered in order to track them to other websites where you place tailored ads depending on what the user has shown an interest in.

How do you set up display ad campaigns yourself:

You can set up your own retargeting ads quite easily, all you need is access to your website’s code and an account on a remarketing platform. The most popular platform to use is Google Ads, but there are other providers such as: 

• Facebook
• Bing
• Youtube (video ads)
• Criteo
• Adroll
• Adform

Setting up a GoogleAds campaign only takes you a few minutes, but before you start, make sure you already have a general idea of what your campaign objectives are and which customer segments you want to target: 

• Do you want to drive conversions, increase your CTR, increase brand awareness, …?
• Do you want to reach all website users or only those who have bought on your site before, clicked on a certain category page, or fulfilled any other criteria?

Tip: If you are not sure yet, just take a look at the suggestions offered by Google

Strategies for targeting the right people

• Segment your customers into similar groups! Some examples for segmentation that work well are based on product pages viewed, based on the stage in the funnel, based on how often they visited over the last month,…

• Target visitors at an advanced stage in the funnel! These already showed the highest intent to buy and thus, are more likely to convert. E.g.: customers with abandoned shopping carts

• Cross-sell to existing customers! Customers who already bought from you are more likely to do it again.
• Schedule ads for times when the target audience is likely to see them! E.g. if your audience are teachers, you can assume that they have class in the mornings and can’t see your ads then,…
• Adjust where necessary! Try different things, with time, you will see on which sites your ads perform best.

Let’s look at the example of user A:

User A needs new running shoes which you are selling on your website. 

As soon as he opens your site, he is asked whether he agrees to the storage of cookies on his device. Impatient to get to the shoes, he clicks “yes” without giving it another thought.  

After some browsing, user A finds a pair of shoes he likes and puts it into his cart.

However, doubts start creeping in: Is it really a good idea to buy shoes online without trying them on first? And does he even need a new pair at all? And what if he can find a better pair elsewhere?… He just needs some time to think on it, so he leaves your site without finishing the purchase.

Anyways, over the next few days user A probably uses his computer for other things, be it to read the news, to buy a birthday gift for his sister, or to plan his next weekend trip. But surprise! When he opens the online newspaper, he sees an ad of the exact same shoes he looked at. And while he compares flights for his trip, the same thing happens! And again while he is ordering the gift for his sister! 

What happened here is that, since user A agreed to the use of cookies, you as the marketer knew exactly what he wanted and could follow him to other websites to show him highly personal ads.

b) E-Mail and SMS- Remarketing

This method is focused on customers who have already purchased something on your website in the past or subscribed to your newsletter. Once you have their consent to use their personal information you are able to contact them about specific offers relevant to them, such as promotions or offers similar to what they bought in the past.

If you don’t want to reach out to all your customers, but only to specific groups, just segment them. This way you can single out only those customers who meet the criteria you defined, e.g. 

• customers who bought a similar product in the past
• customers who abandoned their cart
• customers who looked at a product that wasn’t in stock at the time, but is now

Tip: There are ways to encourage more visitors to leave behind their contact information, e.g., by offering free gifts or discounts  in return.

Note: It is also considered email retargeting if you add your email subscribers to your ad network and configure targeted display ads specifically for that group.

To set up campaigns on your website, it is easiest to subscribe to an automation platform.

Let’s look at the example of User B:

In the past, User B bought a school bag from your site. You now have his email address. The summer holidays just ended, and you have a promotion for school supplies going on.

Because of his past purchase you know that user B probably has a kid who goes to school and conclude that he is likely to be interested in your promotion. That’s why his email address is added to a database of all customers who will receive this particular promotion. 

User B is feeling stressed since just the other day, his kid had come home from school with a list of materials for the next academic year, needed by next week. When he sees your personalized email about the promotion, he is relieved and heads to your site where he gets all his supplies.

 

c) Web Push Notifications

A relatively new remarketing method that is quickly gaining traction are push notifications. These messages exist for both mobile and desktop devices and can be sent either manually or automatically to contact website visitors whose personal information you don’t have access to. 

How it works is that first-time website visitors are asked whether they want to block or allow messages in a so-called Native Opt-In:

If someone who opted in now leaves the site, a message can be sent to his browser encouraging him to return to the site and finish the purchase. The great thing about it is that no matter what the user is doing on his computer, the message will appear on his screen until he either clicks it away or opens it, so there is no ignoring it.

Again, if you want to set this channel up for your website, it is best to get a subscription to a marketing automation platform which has the capabilities for web push-notifications such as Frizbit.

Let’s look at the example of User C:

User C opens your site to look for shoes. 

Since you are using web push notifications, she is asked whether she wants to block or allow messages in the Native Opt-In.

She clicks on “allow” and browses your site for a bit. Although there’s a pair of red shoes she likes, she ultimately leaves the site without buying it and without leaving her contact info. After all, the shoes will still be there tomorrow!

Later that day, she notices that she’s running out of dog food. When she opens her laptop to buy some, the following message is waiting for her on the screen: “Hey user C! Hurry! There’s only 2 of these red shoes left. Are you sure you want to miss out on them?”

User C is alarmed and doesn’t want to miss out, so she quickly decides to get the shoes before it’s too late.

5. How does Web Tracking work?

Since web tracking is the technology behind every remarketing activity, let’s take a closer look at how it works. I already mentioned that cookies make it possible for a site to track a user to other sites he later visits. But what is a cookie and how exactly  is it able to follow you across the web just like that? 

a) How does the tracking through cookies work? 

When you visit a website, your browser sends it a message called an HTTP request. The website then responds to this message – both with the content you ask for, and with small text files, the so-called cookies, that the site wants your browser to save. If your browser does indeed save them, every time you revisit the website a particular cookie was sent from, your browser attaches this cookie to the access request it sends to the website. In this way, the website can identify individual users by their respective cookies and learn about their behavior. 

b) What is the difference between 1st party cookies and 3rd party cookies? 

Usually, websites use external software to handle their cookies, and there are 2 types of providers for this: single website trackers via 1st party cookies  and multi-website trackers via 3rd party cookies. While 1st party cookies keep the info gathered by each of their client websites separate, 3rd party cookies make it possible to share user information collected by multiple individual website’s cookies among all of their client websites. This means that websites can not only track your activity on their own site, but follow you to other sites as well.

c) What is going to happen after cookies are prohibited?

Up until now, remarketing ad providers have been relying on 3rd party cookies. However, Google announced that Google Chrome, the most common browser in the world, will prohibit the use of 3rd party cookies in 2022. This means that the future of remarketing with display ads is in shades, at least until a new alternative is being developed. Other remarketing methods, on the other hand, such as email, SMS, and push notifications, rely on 1st party cookies, which means they won’t be affected by this dramatic change in regulations. Read more on The Future of Digital Marketing Without 3rd Party Cookies.

6. Which remarketing method should you use?

While you ultimately have to make that decision for yourself and it really depends on your goals and your budget, here you’ve got a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of each channel:

To summarize:

Remarketing activities are marketing activities aimed at getting customers to re-engage with a website they had already abandoned. 

Because you’re only targeting visitors who have already shown an interest in your site, this is much more efficient than most other marketing methods.

There are 3 main methods of doing remarketing:

1. Display Ads
2. Email and SMS Remarketing 
3. App and Web Push Notifications

Which one(s) you should choose for your site depends on your objectives and resources. While Display Ads is easiest to set up yourself, Push Notifications achieve the highest CTR and ROI.

No matter which channel you use, keep in mind that…

• … timing can make a huge difference. CTRs are generally highest in the afternoon

• … images and emojis make your messages more visually attractive and increase CTRs considerably

• … there is such a thing as too much! You don’t want to make your customers uncomfortable, so limit the number of messages you send. For web tracking, you have the option to put a cap on the number of times a visitor is shown your ad

If you found this article useful, make sure to also check out:

• Natura Reached a 16.8x ROAS Using Behavioural Emails and Web Push Notifications from Frizbit
• SMS Marketing: 7 Tips for a Winning Strategy
• Private Shopping Sites: Web Push Notifications Strategies

Natura is a miscellaneous product retailer with 221 stores open between Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra. They recently launched their e-commerce site with 5 languages and were looking for a solution to engage, bring back customers and increase their revenue with a hyper pesonalized experience that fits their brand.

They implemented automated web push notifications and emails from Frizbit. 

Natura Success Story by Frizbit

By using behavioural, hyper-personalised emails and web push notifications from Frizbit, Natura managed to bring customers back to finish their transactions with a ROAS of 16.8x, a 0,10€ cost per session and a 4,3% increase sales increase for the month of July.

We have put together a complete Success Story explaining the problem Natura was facing and how Frizbit offered an all-in-one solution. In this study you will find all the information, data and insights about this specific case and understand how Frizbit offers the possibility to retarget completely anonymous users without ads and 3rd party cookies when they have already left your site.

Get the Case Study and Request a demo for your site

If you are interested in learning more about Natura’s success with retargeting email and web push notifications, download the case study by clicking here: https://dmgh2x5m53bk.swipepages.net/natura-success-story-by-frizbit

You can get in touch with Frizbit to request a demo and see the benefits it can present for your online business as well.

More Success Stories!

• Bidcom reached a 37x ROAS with automated Emails and Web Push Notifications from Frizbit
• Primor Reached a 36x ROAS with Web Push Notifications from Frizbit

Summer is coming to an end and it has gone by so incredibly fast that it feels almost as if just yesterday we were discussing and sharing digital marketing trends from July. Without almost realizing it a whole month has passed and it is time to sum up again what has happened during these past 30 days.

Here are the most important:

Digital Marketing News, Updates and Trends from August 2021:

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Google Shares Insights on how they Generate Page Titles

The first thing people pay attention to decide if a website is worthy of their clic and relevant to their search is the title. Google puts extra effort into providing the best titles in Search results to connect people with the right content produced and offered by websites. 

In the past few weeks, Google has introduced a new system to generate titles for sites. With this new system titles are not going to change based on the query issued by the user, like they did before. Google states that “This is because we think our new system is producing titles that work better for documents overall, to describe what they are about, regardless of the particular query.”

The new system is going even more beyond the HTML to use text that people can see when they land on a web page. They are using the main visual title tagged with H1, other header tags and content that is prominent with the use of different styles. 

The reason behind this is that Google considers that HTML tags don’t always describe the content of the page so well for different reasons like being too long, having way too many keywords or an entirely lack of tags. 

This update is aimed to produce more accessible titles for pages, by even adding site names if considered relevant. In other cases, Google might select the most relevant part of a title when encountering extremely long ones, instead of showing it from the beginning and cutting what might be the most useful part. 

• Google Simplifies Page Experience Report in Search Console

Early 2021 Google launched the Page Experience report in Search Console to give site owners a way to understand how their websites do against the page experience signals. This August, Google rolled out a new version that simplifies the report by removing some elements and fixing others. 

a) Removal of Safe Browsing widget: Google recognized that Safe Browsing issues, like third-party hijacking of sites, are not always under the control of site owners. That’s why they are clarifying that Safe Browsing is not used as a ranking signal and won’t show anymore in the Page Experience report. These warnings will still be shown in Search Console, but outside of the Page Experience report. 

b) Removal of Ad Experience widget: the Ad Experience widget is algo removed with the purpose of avoiding the display of the same information on two different parts of Search Console. From now on the Ad Experience report will be available as a standalone tool to review the status of your site. The same as for Safe Browsing, Ad Experience was never used as a signal so the change will not affect the site’s status. 

c) Report improvements: Google is rolling out a few improvements to how the reports handle missing data:

1. Added a “no recent data” banner to the Core Web Vitals report and Page Experience report.
2. Fixed a bug that showed “Failing HTTPS” when Core Web Vitals data was missing.
3. Rephrased the empty state text in the Page Experience Report and Core Web Vitals Report

• New Google Safeguards for Minors

Google is making changes to ads, content and more with the intention of creating a safer space for children and teens on the internet. 

a) Advertising Changes: in order to prevent age-sensitive ads from being shown to minors, Google is expanding safeguards. From now on ads will be blocked based on age, gender and interests of people under 18 years old. 

b) Digital Footprint control for Minors: Google plans to introduce a policy that allows anyone under the age of 18 or their legal guardians to request their images to be removed from Google image results. 

c) YouTube Settings: one of the changes will make the most private option set by default in upload settings for teens on Youtube. Another change is that YouTube will begin to remove overly commercial content that encourages kids to spend money from YouTube Kids. 

d) Location History Updates: location history is off by default and supervised accounts (for children) don’t have the option to turn it on. This feature will be applied to all users under 18 years old. 

e) Google Play Updates: a new safety section that will let parents or guardians know which apps follow family policies will be launched soon. This means that apps will be required to inform about how they use the data they collect from users.

f) Google Workspace for Education Changes: since more and more children are using the internet for school, concerns have risen about safeguarding the experience. That is why Google is working to give administrators abilities to tailor their students experience suchs as restrincting activity on YouTube and activating Safe Search by default for all users. ¡

g) Safe Search: SafeSearch is a feature that leaves out explicit results when active and it is enabled by default for users under 13 who use accounts managed by Family Link. Google plans to extend it for users under 18 as well. 

h) Google Assistant Updates: Google is going to introduce new protection features to prevent mature content from surfacing for minors. 

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Salesforce Announces Integrations with Slack

At the end of last year, Salesforce acquired Slack for the big sum of almost 28 billion dollars. Recently, after all this time, they finally announced the first integrations to be made. 

“What we’re announcing are these new capabilities to support that Slack vision for sales, service, marketing and analytics. And for each of those areas what we’re doing is a combination of articulating, both in best practices and codifying, how you can and should model your sales, service and marketing organizations in this new world,” said Rob Seaman, SVP for Slack at Salesforce. 

The main objective with the integrations is to provide a faster and easier way to work and automate Salesforce tasks. For example, it would be possible to join all the parties involved in a sale in a dedicated deal room where they can come together through the entire process and have a seamless workflow. 

Service teams can get daily updates, personalized daily task lists, meetings and get together to help each other out with any problem they might have and solve doubts in rooms called a swarm. 

Rob Seaman stated that these are just a few of the first integrations and that much more will come in the future. The company also acquired Tableau in 2019 and Datorama in 2018 and there are more integrations planned for the future. 

• Google Ads Editor Rolls Out New Features

Google Ads Editor is a tool that allows you to make offline changes in bulk, saving time, making it easier to optimize campaigns. Google Ads Editor 1.7 is here and it includes several new interesting features:

a) Easier Downloads: from now on, advertisers can select the specific part of the campaign they want to work on and just download that. This translates into download speed improvements. 

b) Lead Form Extensions: Lead Form Extensions allow users to include a form in their ads so prospects can fill in the form without needing to leave the SERP. These forms were only accessible to create or edit through the IU. Now users can download, edit and create lead form extensions within Google Ads Editor. 

c) YouTube Audio Ads: YouTube Audio Ads were released in 2020 and could only be set up within the UI. Similarly to Lead Form Extensions, Audio Ads can now be set up through Google Ads Editor. 

d) Hotel Ads: until now, Hotel Ads were only accessible through the Google Ads IU. users can now use Google Ads Editor to manage them. 

• Microsoft Ads Updates Several Features

Microsoft announced several product updates and releases for the month of August and here is what you need to know:

a) Target Impression Share: Target Impression Share Strategy will automatically set the bids of your campaigns based upon where you want them to appear and your target impression share. 

b) New Automated Extensions: Microsoft is launching new automated extensions: Dynamic Location, Dynamic Multimedia, Syndication Decorations.

c) Account Labeling: Account Labeling allows advertisers to manage campaigns by tagging accounts, ads and keywords with labels. 

d) Conversion Goals: a new feature available for advertisers using Shopping Campaigns that allows them to create product conversion goals. 

e) Integral Ad Science now globally available: last September Microsoft announced a partnership with Integral Ad Science to offer more protection options in the Microsoft Audience Network and it is now available globally in the same markets. 

f) Unified Campaigns Changes: a few updates to unified campaigns were algo announced: 

1. Users can now post to Instagram from the social media section
2. Users can invite other Microsoft Advertising users to access and manage their accounts
3. Users can now use the same billing pages as Expert mode users
4. Improvements to the campaign management experience
5. Users can now manage multiple sub-accounts with a single parent account

3. Social Media Updates

• TikTok Introduces Shopify Shop Tab for Approved Merchant Profiles

The social media platform has announced a partnership with Shopify to test TikTok shopping with a small group of Shopify merchants in the US, UK and Canada. This new feature will provide Shopify store owners with tools to create content that engages with consumers and sends them directly to their e-commerce site for checkout.

TikTok Shopping aims to make it easier for people to explore, discover and buy products they find on the platform. Blake Chandlee, president of global business at TikTok said: 

“TikTok is uniquely placed at the center of content and commerce, and these new solutions make it even easier for businesses of all sizes to create engaging content that drives consumers directly to the digital point of purchase. We’re thrilled to be expanding our partnership with Shopify and making TikTok more accessible than ever for their merchants.”

• Facebook Messenger Adds 4 New Features

For its 10th anniversary, Facebook Messenger is rolling out 4 new interesting features to enhance user experience. 

a) Send and Receive Cash Gifts: for Facebook users in the US it is now possible to send and receive cash as gifts through the platform. The receiving user will be notified with a colorful message including virtual balloons and will be asked to confirm his Facebook Pay details and the money will be instantly deposited into his bank account. 

b) Group Chat Poll Games: Facebook is introducing poll games to Messenger as a way to keep people entertained in group chats. 

c) Birthday Expression Tools: Facebook Messenger will now offer users a variety of birthday-theme tools for the chat like birthday backgrounds, AR effects, songs and confetti message effects. 

d) New Way to Share Contacts: users can now share contacts directly to their friends. 

• YouTube Rolls Out 3 Updates for Creators 

With creators in mind, YouTube is launching three new features to help them access useful data in YouTube Studio:

a) Improved Realtime Cards: Realtime Cards display important information and channel metrics such as a subscriber count and views in real time. The improvement consists of adding reach and engagement data with dedicated tabs. 

b) Mentions Inbox: YouTube creators will now have access to a mentions inbox that will show all the places their channel has been mentioned on YouTube. 

c) Hashtag autocomplete Suggestions: in January 2021 YouTube launched searchable hashtags and people still have doubts about how to use them. That is why Youtube is now launching a hashtag autocomplete feature to recommend relevant ones based on popularity. 

August had many digital marketing updates…

So, there you have it! We have covered the most important and relevant news and updates in digital marketing for the month of August. Which one caught your attention more? Let us know in the comments! 

Make sure you also read: 

• How to Use Web Push Notifications for B2B
• Web Push Notifications Performance: Key Metrics to Track!
• 6 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your E-commerce Website

Web push notifications are short, immediate and highly personalised messages delivered to users through their browser after agreeing or subscribing to receive them. This channel is quickly gaining popularity amongst e-commerce sites due to its inherent characteristics and benefits:

• No 3rd party cookies required
• No personal data from users required
• They reach users from desktop and mobile devices
• Messages get delivered even when users leave the website

Additionally, platforms like Frizbit offer the possibility to reach users through their entire journey by creating automated sequences of messages for each step of the marketing funnel based on individual user behaviour. 

You can easily see why web push notifications are becoming the number one marketing tool preferred by online store owners and digital marketers to engage with their customers and bring them back to the site to finish a transaction. 

Despite being recognized as most effective and profitable for e-commerce, this new channel has applications for all types of websites including B2B. One of the things that make web push notifications so great is that they can be personalised to adapt to any business, from tailoring the message to adjusting timings, languages and sequences, this is the most versatile digital marketing channel you can get. 

How to Use Web Push Notifications for B2B

Digital marketing strategies for B2B don’t usually differ so much from B2C, the main difference is that B2B processes last longer than in B2C businesses. This presents a different challenge for marketers because they need to find ways to keep audiences interested during longer periods of time. 

The traditional way to do so has always been by sending emails with interesting and relevant content with the objective of finally achieving conversion. However, with the saturation of content on the Internet it is getting harder to cut through the noise of thousands of messages daily and actually make an impact. 

Bottom line, customer engagement is key for B2B businesses to succeed and increase their lead conversions and web push notifications are a great channel to interact with customers and create a hyper-personalised experience. 

• Reach Anonymous Users and Turn Them Into Leads

As we mentioned before, web push notifications don’t require any type of personal data to reach users after they leave the website. When a person visits your site for the first time, if they have enabled the channel, they will be shown a browser based prompt asking them if they wish to allow web push notifications.

If they leave without taking any further action, you can re-engage them via web push notifications after a certain period of time you decide is best. Since you can customise the notifications as much as you want, you can decide which page you want subscribers to go to when they click on the notification.

This is a great opportunity to redirect them to a page with super useful information you think will tilt the balance in your favor and also peak their interest. For example you can offer them a trial period or present them with a special discount for first time customers as an exchange for them filling in a form and leaving their contact details such as email address or phone number.

This is a great strategy to turnt anonymous visitors into leads so you can contact them later and give them your full pitch. This is not possible to do with any other channel. With retargeting ads you won’t know for sure if your message got delivered, maybe you have competitors who are paying more than you so your ad is never shown and you lose that visitor for good. 

• Re-engage Dormant Users

Through some stages of the marketing funnel, people are browsing around a lot of pages looking for information. They jump from one site to another investigating and searching around and this might go on for some time while they decide to move forward with the process. 

Web push notifications are a great channel to target people during these stages when they think and research and maybe lose the information from your site as they stumble into other similar solutions.

You can send manual web push notifications campaigns sharing information they might find valuable to bring them back to your site or, at least, maintain your solution on their top of mind so they keep it as a valid option. You can send notifications about:

• New features
• Updates about your solution
• New downloadables such as whitepapers

• Use Recurring Web Push Notifications

One of the most important stages of the marketing funnel is the “loyalty” and “advocacy” which, sadly, often gets overlooked. B2B businesses should invest time and effort in keeping their customers engaged even after they have converted. 

Since this implies “spending” resources after the goal was achieved and extending the work beyond the main objective, its importance is diminished. But businesses need to understand that the best customers are recurring customers and the way to keep them coming back is to offer them an engaging post-purchase experience. 

If you are a provider, you can do this by sending automated recurring web push notifications alerting them that it is time to repeat their order, for example. These types of messages keep customers engaged and offer the feeling that you care about them and appreciate their business.

 

• Sequences for Lead Nurturing

Once you have established the journey your customers go through when visiting your business site, you can create a sequence of automated web push notifications to keep in touch with them after they leave your site without converting. 

You can send them hyper-personalised messages that will show on the screen of their desktop or mobile devices to re-engage them and bring them back to your site. Segmentation and automation will allow you to reach specific audiences based on their individual behaviour, targeting their specific needs.

You can recommend them services or products that fit their requirements based on their most recently viewed category or products. Remember that the objective is to maintain a flow of communication with regular contact by providing useful information that ultimately leads to a conversion. 

To sum up…

We hope these tips allow you to understand the applications of web push notifications for B2B. This channel offers online businesses a world of opportunities, you just need to strategize and find the right mix that works best for you and your audience.

Sending web push notifications to prospects or customers will increase your return rate and help you grow your business. Remember that the important thing is to keep your solution present in their minds throughout time as a valid option to solve and fulfill their own business needs and requirements. 

If you found this information interesting, you will surely also like: 

• Web Push Notifications Performance: Key Metrics to Track!
• Real Estate Marketing: Boost your Business with Web Push Notifications
• 6 Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies for B2B

Defining objectives and KPI’s is essential for all digital marketing efforts, including web push notifications. How else are you going to measure the performance of your campaigns and make sure they are working towards the achievement of your marketing goals? 

Tracking certain metrics to subsequently analyse them, will give you insights on what’s working best with your target audience and to what are they being more responsive. You can later use this data to adjust your web push notifications campaigns and make them the best possible. 

That is why in this blog post we are going to share with you the most important metrics you should be tracking and how to understand your web push notifications campaigns performance.  

Web push notifications are still a fairly new digital marketing channel, which is why it is normal to have questions and doubts about their performance and how to track and measure results. We have summed up the most important metrics for you:

Web push notifications metrics you should be tracking:

1. Opt-in Rate

The opt-in rate makes reference to the number of people who visit the site and click on “Allow” when asked if they want to subscribe to web push notifications. In fewer words, is the number of people who subscribe, versus the total number of people who visit your website. In comparison, web push notifications have a 5 to 10% opt-in rate, while emails have a 1 to 3%.

The opt-in prompt is the first contact visitors have with this channel and how and where you place it can make a huge difference. There are two types of opt-in request you can use:

• Native opt-in: this is the browser’s default version of the prompt. It is standard for every website showing a short text asking visitors if they want to allow or block notifications from the site and it is a single-step request. 

• Custom opt-in: in this version, website owners have the option to completely customize the prompt. You can add your logo and write any text you want to ask users to allow notifications. However, if visitors click on “Allow” the native opt-in will be automatically triggered and for the subscription to be effective, they need to click on “allow” again. This type of prompt requires visitors to make two clicks to subscribe and this tends to decrease opt-in rate by 3x. 

You can also choose which page from your site you want the opt-in prompt to show. The most common practice (and the one we recommend from Frizbit) is to place it in the homepage and show it to visitors as soon as they enter the site for the first time. If they click allow, they will become subscribers, if they click on block you can’t ask them again unless they delete all the browser data, and if they just close it, the prompt will appear again when they come back or visit another page. 

2. Click-through Rate

Click through rate might be the most talked about metric in digital marketing. CTR is the number of clicks a web push notification campaign received, versus the number of total subscribers it was sent to. 

The reason this metric is so popular (and so important) is because it easily lets you know what type of message and notifications your subscribers are responding better to. If you run different campaigns for different events in your site, by analyzing their CTRs you can create hypotheses, test them and improve the performance of your notifications. 

If, additionally, you decide to run A/B tests, try out variations of the same message and track the CTRs of each one, you can have even deeper insights on the type of message that works best for your business goals. 

There are many factors that can directly affect the click through rate:

• Image: web push notifications that include an image have a 20% higher click through rate than the ones without one. So make sure every time you can, you add an image. 

• Required interaction: web push notifications are displayed on the user’s screen only for a few seconds unless you activate the “require interaction” feature that forces the user to click or close the notification. If this box is not checked, you run the risk of the user missing the notification for any reason, thus decreasing the click through rate. 

• Call to action: we can’t stress enough the importance of including a clear call to action in your notification and how much this can affect CTRs. Call to actions need to tell users what you expect them to do and is much better if you appeal to a certain sense of urgency. 

• Segmentation: relevancy is a very important factor when it comes to CTRs in web push notifications. That is why, especially with bulk or manual campaigns, the most segmented your audience is, the better. Automated web push notifications usually have very good click through rates because they are highly personalized with messages that click with the recipient. 

3. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the metric that indicates if you are reaching your business goals. They vary from industry and objectives, going from filled forms, completed purchases, demo requests or sign ups.

When it comes to web push notifications and conversion rates, this stat can help you determine if there’s some sort of issue with you landing page or check out process once the users go back to your site after clicking the notification.

Good CTRs are not a goal, reaching your desired conversion rate is. That is why you should always contrast the information you receive from both metrics so you can analyse it and dig in deeper if you are not getting the results you want. 

4. Time Spent on a Page

At first glance it might seem that this is not a metric directly related to your web push notifications. However, it is and it can provide you with significant insights about the relevancy of the messages you are sending. 

Every notification you send includes a link that redirects the user to a page on your site. It is your job to make sure that the copy from the notification matches what the user finds when he clicks on it and goes to the landing page. If it doesn’t, the time spent on the page will be very short because the user will leave disappointed and confused. 

This metric indicates the accuracy of the message and if it met the expectations you created for the user. For example, if the notification you sent makes reference to a 25% discount and when the user clicks on it, arrives to a regular category landing page with no discounted products, the user will be lost and leave without spending any time on your site. 

Understanding the metrics

Metrics, numbers and analysis might seem very boring and tedious. However, understanding these key metrics is the secret to conduct successful campaigns and reach your business goals. Yes, it takes time to sit down and interpret all the data to then create hypotheses, apply them and analyse again but it is the only way to eliminate the guesswork and and strategize with a plan and clear objectives.

With web push notifications, you can combine Google Analytics with Frizbit’s campaign analytics and the detailed reporting we personalise for each of our clients. By comparing and contrasting all this information, you have everything you need to optimize your web push notifications campaigns. 

Make sure you also read:

• Frizbit Product Updates of Q2 2021
• Cart Abandonment Recovery Strategies for E-commerce – Recover Lost Sales
• Real Estate Marketing: Boost your Business with Web Push Notifications

Here at Frizbit we are always looking for ways to innovate, make our platform better and fulfill our clients need with top notch technology. That’s why we keep improving as we grow so we can offer the best possible service and user experience.

We would like to share with you the latest

Frizbit Product Updates of Q2 2021

1. Launch of Campaign Analytics

Frizbit launched its campaign analytics so you can see all the performance metrics of each campaign. Based on the channel (email, sms or push notification) of the campaign, the relevant metrics vary.

2. Multi-product Cart Abandonment Emails

Frizbit now supports the use of dynamic parameters of multiple product in the same message. It’s very useful for cart abandonment emails or recommended products.

3. Flexibility of Trigger and Exception Events

Now you can select the same trigger and exception events for the same campaign. This allows marketers to decide if they would prefer to trigger based on the first event, or the last event. For example, you can retarget users either the first category or the last one.

4. API for Sending Messages

Frizbit now published its API to send messages via any channel and any content you choose. It’s an alternative method to sending messages via dashboard. Besides Frizbit’s marketing automation engine, if you would like to trigger messages through another system you can implement this API and do so.

5. Email Suppression List Management

Through Frizbit, now you can manage the list of email addresses in your blacklist. You can add email addresses manually or you can upload files with multiple email addresses to add them to your blacklist. Email Unsubscription can be done by users, but for special cases this gives marketers an option to  manage their lists manually.

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