Today in Digital Marketing - Oh, What a Difference 0.1 Stars Makes

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019. I'm Todd Maffin. Happy Advertising Industry Workers Day, Russia. I don't make these up, by the way. Today, a clever YouTube series coming that Gen Xers and Boomers may identify with. Even more people are tuning into podcasts. Normal people now, not just the audio nerds. Snapchat is down but not out. All while a new clone of TikTok emerges, God help us all, and some helpful changes to MailChimp that will let you segment your audiences way easier.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. Are you paying attention to the ratings your brand is getting online? If not, maybe this new study will whip you into shape. A report released yesterday from Uberall says a review rating increase of just 0.1 stars, literally one-tenth of one stars, can boost a location's online conversion rates by 25%. It also says Google searches that include the phrase near me have exploded, especially among millennials. According to their research, nearly half of all consumers have left an online review, and 95% say that reviews influence their decision to buy. All that said, remember, the sources of these studies are important. Uberall is a location marketing firm. So I'm not saying there's anything shady with their numbers. The study looked pretty solid to me. It's not like they

Starting point is 00:01:30 don't have a dog in the race here. This morning, Microsoft launched the redesign of its ad center. Sorry, Bing ads. What? What the hell? Oh, Microsoft advertising. Whatever they're calling it this month, they have added a global menu bar, a new accounts tab. That's where you'll find billing moved to, by the way, if you're looking for it. And an updated drop down gear menu. Looks really sharp and worth getting used to if you buy Bing ads. Sorry, sorry, sorry microsoft advertising ads hands up if you remember choose your own adventure books millennials you can google that later but youtube is taking the concept to digital with its first choose your own adventure show the show is based around a real world gamer involved in a fictional museum heist there are 61 videos with

Starting point is 00:02:26 31 possible endings now stick to the plan and you'll be just fine but if you deviate from it for even a single moment i won't come back for you okay good luck it's called a date with mark applier that is the creator's name he actually did this on his own channel a couple of years ago and it looks like youtube loved the idea so much, they hired him to star in one. Also interesting, even though this is a so-called YouTube original, reports say that they are going to keep this outside the premium paywall. It launches one week from today. Podcasts. No surprise they are growing and turning into a really solid marketing channel for brands.

Starting point is 00:03:05 New research from Comscore says the number of people who use podcast mobile apps has jumped 60%, 6-0, since January of last year. And fully 25% of podcast listeners only started listening to podcasts in the last six months. A full quarter of listeners are new to podcasts. The Comscore numbers were quoted in a new study from Adobe, who also found that more than half of podcast listeners are listening either while they're commuting to work or while they are at work. And most people say they prefer podcasts to be shorter than an hour. God, yes, I'm looking at you, crime writers on.

Starting point is 00:03:46 But what of the digital marketing opportunities, you say? Well, 40% of those polled say they find podcast ads to be less intrusive than in other media. The data came from a survey of about 1,000 American adults and was taken in the early summer. With all this talk about TikTok, you might think Snapchat is down for the count. But yesterday they announced they added 7 million daily active users this quarter. So they're up to 210 million there. The company also picked up 446 million in revenue, which is actually a 50% year-over-year increase.

Starting point is 00:04:22 All that said, like many, many tech companies, Snapchat is still not profitable. Yes, their net loss in the last quarter improved, sure, but it's still losing money. Which, you know, for a newish company, I guess that makes sense in the world of venture capital. But let's not forget, Snapchat is eight years old now, which in tech terms is kind of middle-aged. And still, the most downloaded mobile app in September was TikTok. Snapchat was number five. Second and third place, Facebook and Instagram. Of course, you may be asking yourself, what is in fourth place then? Likey. That's L-I-K-E-E. What is Likey? It is a TikTok clone, essentially, owned by a Singapore company. The UI is almost identical. Like this is, you wouldn't be wrong to say it was a bit of a ripoff, you know, right down to the

Starting point is 00:05:21 position and the look of the like, comment, share of the music icons. It's pretty much identical looking. Not as many filters and special effects and the ones that they do have are more, you know, around beauty and makeup related. But maybe not the best place for kids. The third video it suggested to me was of Hindu women being violently whipped by, if you can believe the captions, a local cleric. Obviously, still work to do there. Okay, lightning round. Twitter has brought dark mode to their Android app. The Recording Industry Association of America says vinyl records will outsell CDs this year. And MailChimp has added some new thingies, behavior-based automations that are triggered by the actions people take in your emails.

Starting point is 00:06:11 You can now apply a tag to new contacts based on the landing page they came in through. That's a big one, of course. Frankly, they should have had that there a while ago. And here's a weird one for an email marketing platform. Social post scheduling. As the kids say, weird flex, but okay. That is what you missed today in digital marketing brought to you by engageq.com. If you have Alexa, you can add this to your flash briefing every day.

Starting point is 00:06:39 Just search for today in digital marketing on the skill store. Follow me on social. All my links are at the bottom of todayindigital.com. I'm Todd Maffin. I'll see you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Oh, What a Difference 0.1 Stars Makes

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