2013-10-11

Hi there. After his exceptionally long week, we are so glad to finally see your gorgeous faces again. The hope of talking to you guys is what helps us plod through this week. Emotional reunions aside, this week has been a little exciting for the internet bigwigs. PayPal introduces yet another online payment method which has us absolutely giddy with excitement, Pinterest suits up for business and Facebook has a little treat for their business pages.

NEWS

PayPal revolutionizes Online Payments…again

PayPal has always been a leader in the game when it comes to online marketing. This month, they unveiled their new technology named Payment Code which allows users to pay for items using a smartphone application which can generate a QR code. This code will be readable by existing scanners owned by merchants. The main motive behind this move is perhaps to catch some bigger fish as opposed to the small business owners that PayPal has conventionally catered to. Read more at Tech Crunch.

Pinterest Joins the Money Making Race

About a month ago, Pinterest revealed their idea of promoted pins to the world. Promoted pins will basically be paid advertisements that will feature on Pinner’s pages next to relevant content. Still in its testing phase, Pinterest has opened this opportunity up for certain companies who get to promote their products on Pinterest without the need to pay for their services. The concept will be fully implemented after the testing phase. The companies who will be the lucky few to begin this venture have not yet been named. This opportunity will bring companies nearer to a potentially untapped market. DIY moms however were not too happy to hear this news. More on Tech Crunch.

Worldwide Update for Facebook Page Insights

Facebook is currently rolling out an update for their insights feature on a global scale. Insights, which is already a great feature that is provided to Facebook page owners, will now see updates providing them with further, more relevant information was provided by SocialNewsDaily. Vague insights such as ‘People Talking about this’ have been replaced by more targeted metrics such as ‘Engagement rate’ based on click data. Similar to promoted pins, this is also in testing mode and a few exclusive admins of pages are privy to the feature. Although there is no current ETA on when the feature will be made available to the public, a global release is anticipated in the near future.

 

TIPS & TRICKS

Strategically Promote SlideShares

Every tutorial regarding content revolves around posting the content onto the blog, sharing it and tweeting about it. While these tools are excellent methods and the conventional methods used to stay afloat, SlideShare changes the game a little bit. Simply posting it to your blog does not magically bring users towards your page or drive links. Ginny Soskey at Hubspot provides some excellent insight into how SlideShares can be used to promote your blog. Some of her suggestions include letting the SlideShare do all the work with very little information in the blog post itself.

Yahoo!’s Sweet 16 and the Long Due Makeover

Yahoo! has probably sported the same look ever since its inception. The new themes are perhaps the ones that steal the show, based on the new Retina Display of Apple devices. Yahoo! has also started incorporating Flickr images into their mail feature by using them as backgrounds. This step was taken previously as well, with Yahoo’s weather App displaying background images relevant to the current weather. The main cause of the makeover however was attributed to the use of r however was attributed to the use of mobile technology. Now that Yahoo! is old enough to drive, we expect more exciting changes from them. Read more at Mashable.

Original Content Dethroned as the King of SEO

We’ve perhaps heard way too many times, how important it is to create original content which should be compelling and engaging. A recent Google Webmaster Hangout however revealed some shocking news worthy of gossip magazines. John Mueller of Google revealed that original content loses relevance when it comes to product descriptions. A product being sold in a local and global shop will have the same information at both places. Since the content at both locations will be similar, priority will be given to delivering location based or global results based on user preference rather than the presence of original content. This adds another element to the already messy concoction that is SEO. Read more at seroundtable.

Selecting SEO candidates for Agency Side

Jo Turnbull of State of Digital revealed the secrets and specifics of developing a career in SEO. The series of articles posed onto the website is currently in its last stages. Her latest post was a continuation of her ongoing interview where she asked various agency and non-agency workers about their experiences and what they look for when hiring SEO candidates for Agencies. Some required skills that were mentioned included Agency experience, the ability to handle multiple threads and the ability to work with last minute deadlines. Read more at State of Digital.

Are marketers wasting 25% of their Budget?

A recent study revealed that marketers were spending $1200 on PPC on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, it also showed that about 25% of this spending is wasted. This wastage was attributed to poor selection of keywords, clicks outside of target market and the lack of expertise for optimizing PPC. Danny Goodwin of Search Engine Watch suggested that this wastage could be minimized by spending up to 20 minutes per week for optimization, finding effective keywords and improving the relevancy of ads. The post is a must-read for marketers who are worried about PPC spending.

Integrat5ing SEO, PPC and Social

SEO, PPC and social are the three tools required for the survival of the online marketer. Most marketers however do not realize the importance of integrating these three tools effectively to generate the best results. The problem lies within the failure to discern eh difference between the three and how search queries differ between Google organic search and social networks such as Facebook. In order to have the best online marketing strategy, it’s best to rely much more on Social media and soften the pressure on the pedals of PPC and SEO. When it comes to social media, it’s time to start focusing much more on Google + which already appear in 30% of the organic search results. Read more at Econsultancy.

Ecommerce Web Design

When it comes to making the purchase decision on an ecommerce website, what is the force that drives you toward the decision to click on the ‘Buy Now’ button? Sometimes, the magic is within the environment surrounding the product. The manner in which a website is designed and the entire user experience, optimized to recreate the in-shop experience is what tempts you to make the purchase. Design Shack collected a gallery of some stunning Ecommerce sites which are simply irresistible. Make sure to freeze your credit card in an ice box of you’re not ready to make any purchases yet.

B2B sites and the Hummingbird algorithm

The newest addition to the internet menagerie is the Hummingbird update. The hummingbird algorithm is expected to revolutionize the manner in which B2B companies market to each other. The lack of competition in the B2B sphere when it comes to online marketing, has led to B2Bs investing much more in traditional forms of marketing. Since the language and conversation greatly differs in the B2B sphere, regular keywords will not operate n the same manner. Hummingbird would as a result focus on the user intent rather than the keyword itself. The main aspect taken into consideration will be the main motive of B2Bs. Read more at Search Engine Land.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Ecommerce Videos

Video has always been regarded as one of the main components of any ecommerce site. Since its presence is so important on a site, how do you discern the effectiveness of the content? The ultimate objective of all content is to generate a favorable ROI. The effectiveness of videos can be ascertained by assessing the purchase behaviors of users that viewed the videos and those that did not view the video. This use of control groups will allow you to compare and measure the effectiveness of the two. Econsultancy provides some relevant insight into how videos can be made more effective as ecommerce tools.

The Best Read-It-Later Apps

With the amount of data being bombarded at users throughout the day, users may not always have the time to sit and read content just as it is revealed to them. This has led to the rise of read-it-later applications which allow users to bookmark articles that they wish to view at a later hour. Mashable ranks the 5 best read-it-later apps. Some contenders for the top spot include Pocket, Instapaper and Evernote Clearly.

INFOGRAPHICS

Do Users Trust you enough?

Personal information is always required by marketers, retailers, banking institutions and healthcare organizations. Users are always wary of giving out their personal information online since it may fall into the wrong hand. The ominous unknown ends that the information will reach and how it will be used is something that users dread. The fear however is not ill founded. This however means that retailers have a difficult time getting information relevant to their needs. The stunning infographic at MarketingProfs shows which organizations users are more likely to share their personal information with. Results showed that users are still more comfortable with sharing information face to face whereas the trend is gradually changing as users become more aware of information exchange online.

The Effectiveness of Personalized Calls-to-Action

Customers have always loved receiving special treatment from retailers. In the real world, retailers would make the effort to get to know their customers and to speak to them on a personal level in order to generate loyalty and market products that they would prefer. This lengthy process however cannot really be translated into the virtual world. Or can it? Targeted calls-to-action are the new sheriffs in town and there’s no stopping them. As online marketing becomes smarter, they target relevant products to customers based on their internet usage and browsing habits. The infographic at Hubspot reveals that users are 42% more likely to purchase products with personal calls-to-action.

Layout Placement: Where your most important content should go

Websites generally have multiple elements on their pages. Users however are not likely to take the time to peruse through every element. How do you judge where to place an element so it attracts the most amount of attention? As per SocialMediaToday, Similar to a newspaper, the most importance is given to the headline area. For the stuff that is considered the most important, its best not to stray below the 500 px mark.  Extras that not everyone needs to view can be placed near the bottom of the page.

 

 

 

 

 

The post Friday Catch-Up: Pinterest Introduces Promoted Pins appeared first on - Promodo Blog.

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