Today in Digital Marketing - 120: Staying In Google When Your Business is Shut Down

Episode Date: March 27, 2020

How to change your Google Ad campaigns amidst COVID-19 Will there soon be TWO links in bio on Instagram? TikTok’s new daily show might provide inspiration for your OWN content program during the pandemic And, for the time, Apple allows free trials of one of their biggest software packages Can you help spread the word? Review this podcast at https://ratethispodcast.com/today AND/OR click https://ctt.ac/o713H to preview a tweet you can publish Today in Digital Marketing is brought to you by engageQ digital. Can we help you with YOUR brand’s digital marketing and social media? Let’s chat. http://www.engageQ.com or call 1-855-863-6233. TOD’S SOCIAL MEDIA: Tod’s web site: http://TodMaffin.com Tod’s agency: http://engageQ.com LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/todmaffin Twitter: http://twitter.com/todmaffin Instagram: http://instagram.com/todmaffin Facebook: http://facebook.com/tmaffin TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@todmaffin Mixer: https://mixer.com/HappyRadioGuy SOURCES: https://support.google.com/business/answer/9798848 https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/pause-online-business https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagrams-testing-a-new-option-to-promote-the-sale-of-gift-cards-via-your/574982/ https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-launches-celebrity-hosted-daily-live-streams-to-entertain-users-ami/574970/ https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/26/21196321/apple-final-cut-pro-logic-pro-x-90-day-free-trial-coronavirus?utm_content=buffer32b95&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/todayindigital/messageOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Friday, March 27th, 2020. I'm Todd Mathen. Today, how to change your Google ad campaigns amidst COVID-19. Will there soon be two links in bio on Instagram? TikTok's new daily show might provide inspiration for your own content program during the pandemic. And for the first time, Apple allows free trials of one of their biggest software packages. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. If you are one of the many businesses who are putting your operations on hold, you'll probably need to give some thought to what to do with your brand's website.

Specifically, how a pause might affect your Google ranking. For its part, Google has some recommendations. They say it's better to limit your site's functionality instead of taking it offline completely. might affect your Google ranking. For its part, Google has some recommendations. They say it's better to limit your site's functionality instead of taking it offline completely. In a blog post for developers posted today, Google wrote, quote, if you are unable to fill orders or many of your products are out of stock,

you may be considering temporarily closing your entire online business. If the situation is temporary, meaning you expect to be able to sell products in the upcoming weeks or months, we recommend that you take action And so, here is what Google says are the best ways to limit your site's functionality without causing damage to your search ranking. Disabling the cart functionality. Display displaying a banner or pop-up, updating your structured data, and checking your merchant center feed. Google says if you must disable your whole website, they warn you should only do it for a few days at the most.

Again, quoting the company, Google has also released some advice and there is no mechanism to speed that up. Google has also released some advice about running Google Ads during the COVID-19 crisis. Here's what they had to say. Consider your context and tone. Make sure you're sensitive to how certain words may make your audience feel. Be careful about the double meanings of words like protection, checkup, prevention, or virus. Just as an aside, we here at EngageQ had to take our marketing positioning statement off of all of our emails and our website. For 10 years, our tagline has been contagious engagement, measurable results.

So I guess we'll be finding a new tagline soon. Number two, consider if your message is helpful. For example, edit your ads as needed to let customers know if you offer services like delivery or in-store pickup. Review shipping settings and estimated delivery time to ensure you accurately reflect current capabilities. Three, review your ad assets thoroughly. For example, think about the appropriateness of images and videos that show large gatherings of people or human interaction. Consider the tone of your headlines, descriptions, and landing pages. And finally, proactively communicate business changes. If your hours

of operation have changed, edit your business profile on Google and update your ads so customers know if you're open, closed, or have modified hours. Reverse engineering of Instagram's code has found that they are working on a new links option within business profile settings that would let brands add a new quick link via a profile button or a sticker to let people purchase gift cards or make donations. Facebook, which owns Instagram, never comments on unreleased stuff, but this is pretty clearly something in response to the global pandemic. To be clear, this would be in addition to your main website link. So essentially, you'd get two links in bio.

Or maybe it would be a new button like the current follow and message buttons are. We will have to wait to see when they do eventually roll that out. TikTok is now doing a daily live variety show called Happy at Home. It streams on their app every day at 5 p.m. Pacific and features celebrities, musicians, comedians, and actors. And every day has a theme, which might be themes that you may want to consider for your organic content on your own brand's channel. And they are Motivation Monday. So inspirational talks, workouts, dance classes, and cooking tips. Kickback Tuesday. In TikTok's case, they will be having popular creators do things like game nights and makeup tutorials and chat sessions.

Show and Tell Wednesday, people like Dear Evan Hansen star Jordan Fisher, Magic Tricks with Zach King and more. EduTalk Thursday, featuring Bill Nye and, God help us all, Dr. Phil for, quote, thoughtful conversations, advice, and live tips. They'll also live stream Q&A sessions with the World Health Organization and Sound Check Friday with musicians lined up, everyone from Alicia Keys to Meghan Trainor. Certainly a smart approach, I think, and this daily themed content probably makes it a lot easier for content managers to plan forward during a time when planning forward seems impossible.

Okay, a few quick items here. Apple now has free 90-day trials for Logic Pro, their audio editing software, and Final Cut Pro, their video editing software. In the case of Logic Pro, this is the first time they've ever offered a free trial. Competitor Avid also has a deal in the form of a limited number of free 90-day licenses for Pro Tools. Heads up if you use Social Blue Book, the influencer marketing platform. Their database, with some 300,000 influencers, has been hacked.

It seems the breach occurred on their influencer database, so in theory, the accounts of agencies and clients aren't affected. Google has released a help guide for healthcare businesses who want to register with the Google My Business program. Walks people through managing information like hours of operation and contact info, adding health services offered and uploading photos to show patients what they'll see when they arrive. There is now a COVID-19 API. If you are on the developer side of digital marketing. The data is sourced several times a day. It comes directly from Johns Hopkins. It is completely free to use.

And if you've actually lost your job through all this or are looking for some additional work to help make ends meet, there's a good site out there called Modern Day Jobs that provides links to jobs that you can do while in self-isolation. Links for all of those in the description. Well, that wraps up a strange week. I hope you're well. I hope your family is well. I'll talk to you on Monday.