Today in Digital Marketing - Call Me Maybe

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Thursday, September 26th. Today, there's one place you want to be if you want to make lots of impulse sales, and it's where a lot of brands aren't. The hidden benefits of asking for reviews, and they're tolerant of ads and fiercely brand loyal. If Gen Z is the perfect consumer generation, why don't they trust marketers? I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:27 TikTok isn't just driving engagement. It's also fueling impulse purchases. A new report from Adobe details the impact short-form video platforms have on consumer behavior, and TikTok is leading the charge. Three out of eight consumers have made a purchase based on content they saw on a short-form video platform. 20% of consumers made these purchases within an hour of seeing the content. And more than half say TikTok is their primary video platform trigger for impulse purchases. Nearly one in four said TikTok influenced them to make a purchase within just three minutes of seeing it. More than 80% of consumers said these platforms sway

Starting point is 00:01:10 at least one buying decision each week. Adobe found the imbalance of video content is particularly strong among consumers, earning less than $30,000 annually. It diminishes for those making more than $80,000. In the U.S., respondents typically spent an average of $34 on impulse buys prompted by short-form content, with clothing, skincare, and makeup being the most popular categories. It's no real surprise that Gen Z respondents prefer TikTok over other platforms for short-form video. 60% choose it as their top platform. On average, Gen Z spends almost 22 days on TikTok each year. In comparison, more than half of baby boomers lead toward YouTube. Still, TikTok emerged as the top choice for short-form video content across all generations,

Starting point is 00:02:03 with one-third of users preferring it, closely followed by YouTube and Instagram. We have a link to Adobe's full report in today's email newsletter, which you can sign up to for free by tapping the link at the top of the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. Should you ask customers to write a Google review? The answer is yes, according to a new study from review software company GatherUp. The study says improving your review volume, net promoter score, and ratings requires a shift in how you approach reputation management. GatherUp said businesses that actively solicit reviews average 122 per location. Businesses that don't solicit reviews average only about 53. And the study found that about a third of customers will respond positively to a well-crafted review request.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Only 6% of surveyed businesses combine SMS and email to request reviews, missing a significant opportunity. While email is effective every 100 requests, while SMS-only requests generate 20 per 100. A combined approach results in 26 review per 100 requests. The study also said that businesses that use reputation management software have, on average, a 50% higher net promoter score than their industry counterparts. Your NPS measures how likely existing customers are to recommend your business to others. Quoting Search Engine Journal's coverage of this today,

Starting point is 00:03:51 quote, Your overall average Google star rating is widely believed to be a local search ranking factor, and any gains you can make in this regard should positively impact your visibility in Google's local packs, local finders, and maps. GatherUp's study highlights the importance of actively asking for reviews. If you're getting customer service right at your place of business, you'll get the most benefit from the ranking factors because the ratings and sentiments you receive will be largely positive. In addition to conceptualizing ratings and reviews as major aids to your local SEO

Starting point is 00:04:26 efforts, it turns out that user-generated content is some of your most valuable local search marketing material. Unquote. A new report has found that X suspends hateful users 98% less often than the company in its previous Twitter form did. And this report didn't come from some woke leftist think tank. It came from X itself. The platform releasing its first transparency report yesterday since rebranding from Twitter, which details enforcement actions taken in the first half of this year, including rule violations, content removals, and user suspensions. Between January and June of this year, X says it suspended more than 5 million accounts and removed almost 11 million posts. That actually surpasses the figures from Twitter's last report for the same period in 2022. But the data shows X is now far less likely to suspend users

Starting point is 00:05:27 for hate speech. Users reported 81 million abuse and harassment incidents and 66 million cases of hate speech. Of those, only 1.35% of abusing accounts were suspended and 0.004% of those posting hate speech were removed. This marks a drastic drop from 2020 to Twitter. Back then, the platform suspended 111,000 accounts because of hate speech. Now, in the same time period this year, X removed just 2,300 accounts. On the other hand, X has increased its suspensions related to child safety and deceptive accounts, but far fewer actions are being taken against content related to suicide and self-harm. Quoting social media today, quote, so overall, despite Elon Musk's claims of a more open and free speech aligned network, X is actually removing more

Starting point is 00:06:27 content, suspending more users, and actioning more legal requests than Twitter had been. Yet its policies now allow those promoting hate speech to remain active, while self-harm content is seemingly not being enforced as harshly. Forrester's latest report brings some good news for marketers. Gen Z and millennials are warming up to online advertising. But there's a catch. They still don't trust brands. Consumer tolerance of digital advertising is on the rise, with younger demographics showing higher acceptance of brand messages and ads across new channels.

Starting point is 00:07:07 More than one-third of surveyed Gen Z and millennials are open to seeing ads while streaming video on smartphones. Compare that to 20% of older consumers that think that's fine. They're also more accepting of ads in mobile apps and games. And sponsored content from influencers holds the attention of nearly half of younger consumers, compared to less than a fifth of older generations. Despite this growing acceptance, a lot of those dollars may be wasted. Nine out of ten consumers see ads on social media, but only four out of ten pay attention to the messages they receive. Younger consumers are also more willing to pay extra to avoid ads, with a third looking to

Starting point is 00:07:52 upgrade to ad-free streaming subscriptions versus less than a fifth of older generations. Forrester warns that trust in advertising remains a significant barrier, which remains low across all age groups. Only 20% of younger consumers and 10% of older consumers trust social media advertising. Even branded posts struggle to gain credibility, resonating with only a third of young adults and less than a fifth of older consumers. TikTok is closing down. Well, TikTok music, anyway. The company announcing this week it is pulling the plug on its music streaming service because of limited user engagement and operational challenges. The app will officially shut down on November 28th of this year. As for what the hell TikTok music even was? Well, it's an app originally

Starting point is 00:08:46 launched in India in 2019. Back then it was called Rezo. It gained a lot of attention amid TikTok's rapid growth in that country. And despite the main TikTok's ban in India in 2020, Rezo managed to continue operating. Last year, the app was rebranded as TikTok Music and expanded its reach to Brazil and Indonesia. They had started beta testing in Australia, Mexico, and Singapore. But despite the rebranding efforts, TikTok Music struggled with licensing disputes and in the end just couldn't compete with the bigger streaming platforms. It has now shifted focus back to the main TikTok app.

Starting point is 00:09:23 Users are encouraged to transfer their playlists before the October 28th deadline. The TikTok music website has posted a message informing users of the closure, stating that all account information will be deleted after November 28th. Refund requests will also be accepted until that date. It may be a monopoly, but Google wants you to know it's for your own protection. In court for its current antitrust case this week, Google defended its advertising practices against allegations of anti-competitive behavior. The tech giant argues that its closed ad ecosystem isn't anti-competitive, it's just safer. While the Department of Justice accuses Google of monopolizing the ad tech market for profit,

Starting point is 00:10:14 Google's executives assert that a more controlled environment protects consumers from harmful practices. Google's defense centers on the extensive measures it takes to combat fraud. The Director of Product management for ad traffic quality highlighted a rigorous process for tackling click fraud by shady websites. Every day, Google says between 15,000 and 20,000 publishers seek access to Google's tools, each undergoing a thorough vetting process. Advertisers are also screened, with millions of signups rejected because of suspicious activity. Google's executives told the court that their teams focus on protection, not revenue goals, ensuring that only trustworthy parties participate in the ad ecosystem.

Starting point is 00:10:56 We'll let The Verge have the last word. The underlying argument here is that when Google gains power and makes decisions for advertisers and publishers, it's good for everyone. Unquote. We had a great hangout with a bunch of premium members today. That is one of the benefits of being a premium member. Some of the bigger benefits is it comes with no ads at all. The audio quality is better. And there are these cool audio chapters that let you jump from story to story directly using this chapter feature in your podcast app. It comes with access to more than 25 deep dive interviews

Starting point is 00:11:33 with marketing scientists, my course on building a small agency, and yeah, that monthly premium only exclusive hangout. So if you want to check it out, just tap go premium in the show notes. All right, that's it for today. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Call Me Maybe

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