13 time-saving Excel shortcuts & tips for marketers

Back in 2013 John Gagnon wrote a very popular post detailing some of his favourite Excel tips and tricks.

We thought we’d update the list of classic shortcuts with a few that reflect some new functionality in Excel 2016.

New Excel tips for 2016:

1. Navigate ‘The Ribbon’ with ALT

In Excel 2016 the ribbon refers to the menu of tabs (File, Home, etc.) at the top of your workbook. Simply hitting ALT will quickly highlight the related keys then used to jump to certain ribbon tabs.

For instance, ALT followed by M will take you to the ‘Formulas’ tab.

You can easily move between tabs by pressing ALT and using the left and right arrow keys, while CTRL + F1 toggles between hiding and showing the ribbon altogether.

2. Tell me what you want to do

Excel 2016 comes with a new helpful feature located in the ribbon, the ‘Tell me what you want to do’ search box.

Click the box, or if you are using Excel without a mouse hit ALT + Q to jump right to it. Whether it’s adding rows or using VLOOKUP, the box is very useful for new and old Excel users alike.

3. New Excel Tip: smart lookup

If you want information from beyond the realms of Excel, another new function for 2016 is the ‘Smart Lookup’ tool which allows you to make a Bing-powered internet search without leaving the Excel pane.

Smart Lookup is located in the ‘Review’ tab and can also be accessed by ALT + R + S.

Classic Excel tips:

Courtesy of John Gagnon. The following tips are accurate and still work as of September 2016.

4. Automatically SUM() with ALT + =

Quickly add an entire column or row by clicking in the first empty cell in the column. Then enter ALT + ‘=’ (equals key) to add up the numbers in every cell above.

5. Logic for number formatting keyboard shortcuts

At times keyboard shortcuts in Excel seem random, but there is logic behind them. Let’s break an example down. To format a number as a currency the shortcut is CRTL + SHIFT + 4.

Both the SHIFT and 4 keys seem random, but they’re intentionally used because SHIFT + 4 is the dollar sign ($). Therefore if we want to format as a currency, it’s simply: CTRL + ‘$’ (where the dollar sign is SHIFT + 4). The same is true for formatting a number as a percent.

6. Display formulas with CTRL + `

When you’re troubleshooting misbehaving numbers first look at the formulas. Display the formula used in a cell by hitting just two keys: Ctrl + ` (known as the acute accent key) – this key is furthest to the left on the row with the number keys. When shifted it is the tilde (~).

7. Jump to the start or end of a column keyboard shortcut

You are thousands of rows deep into your data set and need to get to the first or last cell. Scrolling is OK but the quickest way is to use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + ↑ to jump to the top cell, or CTRL + ↓ to drop to the last cell before an empty cell.

When you combine this shortcut with the SHIFT key, you’ll select a continuous block of cells from your original starting point.

8. Repeat a formula to multiple cells

Never type out the same formula over and over in new cells again. This trick populates all of the cells in a column with the same formula, but adjusts to use the data specific to each row.

Create the formula you need in the first cell. Then move your cursor to the lower right corner of that cell and, when it turns into a plus sign, double click to copy that formula into the rest of the cells in that column. Each cell in the column will show the results of the formula using the data in that row.

9. Add or delete columns keyboard shortcut

Managing columns and rows in your spreadsheet is an all-day task. Whether adding or deleting, you can save a little time when you use this keyboard shortcut. CTRL + ‘-‘ (minus key) will delete the column your cursor is in and CTRL + SHIFT + ‘=’ (equal key) will add a new column. From an earlier tip, think about CTRL + ‘+’ (plus sign).

10. Adjust width of one or multiple columns

It’s easy to adjust a column to the width of its content and get rid of those useless ##### entries. Click on the column’s header, move your cursor to the right side of the header and double click when it turns into a plus sign.

11. Copy a pattern of numbers or even dates

Another amazing feature built into Excel is its ability to recognize a pattern in your data, and allow you to automatically copy it to other cells.

Simply enter information in two rows which establish the pattern, highlight those rows and drag down for as many cells as you want to populate. This works with numbers, days of the week or months!

12. Tab between worksheets

Jumping from worksheet to worksheet doesn’t mean you have to move your hand off the keyboard with this cool shortcut. To change to the next worksheet to the right enter CTRL + PGDN. And conversely change to the worksheet to the left by entering CTRL + PGUP.

13. Double click format painter shortcut

Format Painter is a great tool which lets you duplicate a format in other cells with no more effort than a mouse click. Many Excel users (Outlook, Word and PowerPoint too) use this handy feature, but did you know you can double-click Format Painter to copy the format into multiple cells? It’s quite a time-saver.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/09/28/13-time-saving-excel-shortcuts-tips-for-marketers/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/151091198514

Five surprising benefits of high CTR across all marketing channels

Obviously, CTR is important in PPC marketing. A higher CTR means a higher Quality Score, which reduces your CPC and improves your ad rank.

But it goes much further than that.

A remarkable CTR is not only the most important thing in AdWords, but it is also extremely important for other marketing channels. These include organic search, CRO, social media, and email marketing.

Here are five surprising benefits of having a remarkable, unicorn-worthy CTR across all your marketing channels.

1. Much higher ad impression share

You get big discounts from having a high CTR. Namely, a lower cost per click, which really adds up as clicks accumulate.

This is true not just of vanilla search ads, but all Google properties, whether we’re talking about theGoogle Display Network or Gmail Ads.

But a remarkable CTR doesn’t just impact CPC. It also impacts your impression share – how often your ads show up in the first place.

On the Google Search Network, every increase (or decrease) of 1 point in Quality Score can make a huge positive impact on your impression share:

 

 

 

 

 

If you can increase your Quality Score by one point, your impression share on average will increase by about 6% on desktop.

This is even bigger deal on mobile, where impression share is twice as competitive.

 

 

Increasing your Quality Score by one point would increase your impression share by an average of 12%!

Data sources: Impression share data is based on an analysis of approximately 10,000 small and medium-size accounts (spending between $10,000 and $15,000 per month), based worldwide, advertising on the Search network in Q1 and Q2 of 2015.

2. Your organic search positions will get a boost

We recently conducted research to test whether achieving above-expected user engagement metrics results in better organic rankings. We observed an unmistakable pattern:

• The more your pages beat the expected organic CTR for a given position, the more likely you are to appear in prominent organic positions. So if you want to move up by one spot (e.g., Position 5 to Position 4) in Google’s SERP, you need to increase your CTR by 3%. If you want to move up again (e.g., Position 4 to Position 3), you’ll need to increase your CTR by another 3%.
• If your pages fall below the expected organic search CTR, then your pages will appear in lower organic SERP positions. Basically, if your page fails to beat the expected click-through rate for a given position, it’s unlikely your page will appear in positions 1–5.

You want your pages get as many organic search clicks as possible, right? Attracting more clicks means more traffic to your site, which also tells Google that your page is the best answer for users – it is relevant and awesome.

Another thing we discovered was that the weighting of click-through rate is in Google’s organic search ranking algorithms is becoming more important every month this year.

 

Here I was tracking a group of 1,000 keywords and URLs for the past 5 months. What I found was that the Google algorithm is shifting to increasingly higher CTRs for top-4 organic ranking status.

This is what you would expect to see if Google Search were employing a machine learning-based algorithm that reordered listings based on CTR – people would see more of what they were hoping to see at the top, reducing the need to scroll lower down into the SERPs.

3. Your conversion rates increase

Increasing your click-through rate will also increase your conversion rates. If you can increase your CTR by 2x then your conversion rate should increase by 50%.

That’s why click-through rate is the most important conversion metric (in my opinion).

For example, look at this data from one large client’s account:

This is just one example. We see this same conversion curve in many accounts. (It’s just difficult to combine multiple accounts into one graph because conversion rates vary depending on factors like the industry and offer.)

What’s happening here is that if you can get someone excited to click on your website (via email, ads, organic search listings, or whatever), the excitement carries through to sign-up and purchase.

4. Free clicks from social Ads

Facebook and Twitter don’t have a Quality Score. Well, they do, Facebook just calls it Relevance Score and Twitter calls it Quality Adjusted Bid.

Whatever they call their version of Quality Score, having a higher score results in a higher ad impression share for the same budget at a lower cost per engagement. A high engagement rate means your ads will be more visible and more cost effective, as shown here:

Notice how the cost per engagement on Twitter Ads falls dramatically as the engagement rate of the post you’re promoting rises.

One of the surprising benefits of having high engagement on Facebook and Twitter is that you’ll benefit from free clicks. How?

On Facebook, if someone shares one of your boosted posts, that will show up in another person’s news feed and you won’t get charged for any of the additional engagements that happen there.

On Twitter, if you do a Promoted Tweet, when one of your followers retweets or shares it, you’ll get more totally free organic impressions.

5. People will actually see your emails

Now let’s talk about email marketing. How many emails do you get each day? Dozens? Hundreds?

If you engage with the emails that brands and businesses regularly send to you, you’ll continue to see them. If not, it might get filed away in Outlook’s Clutter folder or it may be relegated to Gmail’s Promotions tab – or even worse, the Spam folder.

Microsoft Outlook’s clutter filter regularly filter emails I’ve opted into receiving – including internal emails from my own company! These emails are being filtered out based on machine learning.

What does this mean for your company?

If your emails have a higher CTR (though for emails the better equivalent is actually higher open rate), then it’s more likely that your emails will actually get seen, opened, and clicked on. If your click-through rates are terrible, your emails will be rounded up and thrown in the dark “clutter dungeon.”

One thing we did was to delete people from our email lists who were unresponsive. If you’re just accumulating emails over many years, why? Do you think someone who has been dormant and never engaged with your emails is going to magically turn into a sale 5 years later?

Deleting half your database is one way to instantly more than double your CTR. Email providers will notice that more people are engaging, making it less likely your emails will end up in the dungeon.

This is an abridged version of an article published on Larry’s WordStream blog: High CTR benefits. 

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/09/28/five-surprising-benefits-of-high-ctr-across-all-marketing-channels/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/151091198214

Penguin 4.0: what does it mean for SEO practitioners?

As you’re no doubt aware, Google finally rolled out its Google 4.0 algorithm update at the end of last week.

Penguin is now part of Google’s core algorithm, penalising websites that use various black-hat link schemes to manipulate search rankings.

Other important changes include:

• Penguin data is refreshed in real time, so any changes will be made as soon as the affected page has been recrawled and reindexed.
• Penguin now devalues spam by adjusting ranking of the offending page, rather than affecting the whole site.

So how do these changes affect actual SEO practitioners? I asked a panel of experts and SEW contributors their views on Penguin 4.0, including:

• Gerald Murphy, Client Service Manager at EMEA at BrightEdge
• Kevin Gibbons, Managing Director at Blue Glass
• Nikolay Stoyanov, freelance SEO consultant at niksto.com

Do you think the new version of Penguin is fairer? Do you think it’s an adequate deterrent when it comes to spammy link-building?

Kevin Gibbons: Yes, being realtime helps to set expectations as you won’t have to wait weeks or months for the next algorithm refresh to assess your link removals.

Of course Google’s algorithm is always a moving target – but it is becoming harder to be manipulated at scale. In some verticals it can even be a game of whoever doesn’t have the worst backlinks might win. Perhaps having a new domain with no link reputation isn’t a bad starting point any more!

Gerald Murphy: I think the algorithm is fairer. Think about it, you will be awarded for great content, instantly. I also think that, with the rise of AI, Google will soon be able to understand links more. A flower shop on Valentines Day, for example, will get away with more spam-like links but this won’t be the case in September. As links will be linked with behaviours.

Nikolay Stoyanov: Yes, I think that the real-time version of the Penguin algorithm will be fairer and will play a very positive role for the whole SEO community.

Google Penguin is now a part of the core algorithm and every change (either a negative or positive one) will happen very quickly (maybe not instantly but on a daily or weekly basis). After more than 700 days of waiting we can finally rest assured that whatever SEO mistakes we make we will be able to quickly fix afterwards.

This works both ways though. If we use some gray or black hat techniques Google will be able to catch us very quickly and punish us for not following its rules. So this is a double-edged sword.

Another great change with Penguin 4.0 is the fact that it became more “granular”. This means that whatever penalties hit our sites from now on they will impact separate pages on the site and not the whole domain in general.

I believe that this will be a positive thing as it will give us a better chance to fix those penalized pages and to learn from our mistakes without losing a huge amount of our organic traffic (like before).

Ideally, the latest Penguin update will benefit white hat SEO experts like myself and will help us take our SEO to the next level. Same goes with end users who will get better results to answer their search intent properly.

Conversely, black hat techniques (especially PBNs) will slowly become obsolete and will eventually stop working which is the ultimate goal.

Have you experienced any affect from the Penguin update?

Kevin Gibbons: None of our clients have seen any negative shifts in organic traffic.

However, in the past we have noticed trends of referral traffic dropping as a knock-on effect from blogs/forums/publishers that have been penalised and as a result of them having less traffic, there are fewer outbound link clicks.

The data we have so far is too early to highlight a trend, but it’s certainly one to keep a close eye on…

Nikolay Stoyanov: No, I haven’t seen any change on my site or my clients’ sites since Penguin 4.0 was launched. I guess it’s because I’m playing by the rules but also because it’s not been entirely rolled out yet. It’s way too soon to jump to conclusions.

How can webmasters best avoid the risk of being affected by Penguin?

Kevin Gibbons: Focus on building a brand, not links.

If your activity is just for link building, it will leave an SEO footprint. No-one wants that.

Aim to tell your story via content, data-driven analysis and knowledge – and amplify to a targeted audience via multiple channels; social media, paid search, digital PR etc…

Also monitor the links you have and audit these on a frequent basis. If you’re in a competitive industry, you may have to actively disavow negative links that have been built to your site that someone else has built!

Gerald Murphy: Data analysis is even more important to SEO. This most effecient way to analyse this update is to breakdown links by category, sub category, and page level, and then compare this with data, such as, visits, average blended rank, and revenue, for example.

Nikolay Stoyanov: Forget about shortcuts in SEO! There aren’t any. The only way to stay on the safe side and secure your brand, visitors and sales is if you do white hat SEO.

Write well researched and useful content and build quality links to it. That’s it! Nothing’s changed. Hopefully with the real-time Penguin that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Maybe not at once but eventually.

With Hummingbird and RankBrain we’re already seeing lots of positive changes in the SERPs from content perspective. Now’s the time to see the same when it comes to link building.

How, if at all, will this update change the way you work?

Kevin Gibbons: The update doesn’t change our process, the only thing it might do is re-affirm the message we have been on the right track by focusing on quality. We’re just hoping it catches some of our clients competitors out!

Nikolay Stoyanov: I wouldn’t say that Penguin 4.0 will change my work routine in any way. But I am pretty sure that there will be a much higher demand for quality link building services in the upcoming years due to this huge change in the SEO world.

Hopefully, more and more webmasters will start playing by the rules as they should be same for everyone. That’s fair!

Gerald Murphy: It won’t.

What future algorithm changes do you wish to see? Is there anything Google is ignoring?

Kevin Gibbons: There’s always been a gap between what Google says it’s algorithm does and what it actually does. Over recent years they’ve done a much better job at closing these, and most of the tactics that do work are often very short-term, which is enough to keep most brands away from them.

I would expect them to be looking at things such as:

• Spammy link building at high velocity, which can still rewarded by Google.
• Ecommerce site cloning can be a pain point, where Google starts to rank the phishing/fake site organically with the clients own content.
• Redirected domains into sites/pages/new domains – some can be for legitimate reasons (re-brands/acquisitions) – but others are purely for short-term SEO boosts.
• Mass content production, with many companies pumping out X amount of articles a day/week trying to show ‘freshness’ of content but not putting enough effort/resource into the quality of content. Long-term you’d expect panda to go against them, but short term it can work better than expected.

Gerald Murphy: AI integration with links to get a deeper analysis of behaviour, such as, seasonality and maybe even social media signals. Remember mobile is going to kill links because of our behaviour. Name me a user, sitting in the front room on their tablet or smartphone, reading another great blog who creates a HTML link. This is not in our behaviour.

Nikolay Stoyanov: I want to see all the black hat and grey hat methods dead. Starting with PBNs. I still see multiple sites ranking in top 5 or higher with low quality or PBN links that I can smell from a mile away. It’s high time that Google Penguin starts penalizing these websites like they deserve.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/09/28/penguin-4-0-what-does-it-mean-for-seo-practitioners/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/151091197739

20 Fascinating Topics That Every New Blog Should Tackle

When you know your stuff, writing a blog is easy, right?

Uh. Not necessarily.

I’d say that I’m pretty familiar with digital marketing. But when it comes to blogging, I still face challenges.

The challenge isn’t my lack of knowledge; it’s translating that knowledge into readable content—content helpful to you and other marketers.

Maybe you’ve faced the same challenge.

For some reason, conveying stuff you know inside and out is a lot trickier than it appears. Writing is difficult enough, but continually coming up with topics that would boost your online marketing efforts seems downright impossible.

In the old days, maintaining a business blog was more about appeasing search engine algorithms than appealing to actual humans. Back then, cramming posts full of keywords was the top priority.

Today, for a business blog to produce results, it has to appeal to humans first and search engines second. In fact, SEO and UX are basically one and the same.

Gone are the days of blathering on ad nauseam about anything your heart desires.

Content marketing via blogging is one of the best ways to increase the online visibility of a brand. These days, though, the posts you create must be engaging, informative, interesting, and generally high in quality to get you anywhere.

Contrary to what you may have heard, quantity does not exceed quality here. Even so, coming up with fascinating topics for a blog is often difficult for business owners. Here are 20 topics and ideas to get you off to a great start.

1. Write a long-form post

In the business world, getting straight to the point is generally the way to go. Quick, snappy blog posts have a time and a place, but your blog will suffer if that’s all you ever do.

Regardless of your niche, there are surely topics you could cover that require more than 400-500 words. Brainstorm topics that demand extensive, in-depth coverage, and then create long-form blog posts about them. The exhaustive nature of such posts will make them fascinating to anyone who is thirsty about the topic.

You may be aware that long-form blog posts—over 2,000-3,000 words—will rank higher, get more shares, and earn more links.

This is the kind of traction you need to gain with your blog.

2. Be a reporter

Even if journalism was never your forte, pretend otherwise by reporting back to your audience about important events in your industry. Ideally, these should be events you have attended yourself.

There are, of course, differences between journalistic writing and blog writing. However, in today’s content-driven world, there is also a lot of overlap.

For example, write a blog about your experience at a recent trade show. At the event, take notes about the things you see and the people with whom you interact. Take photos, and include them in your post. Include your own insights to make the piece more personal.

3. Comment about a popular post

Part of maintaining an interesting blog is staying in the loop about happenings in your niche and industry. You should already be keeping up with blogs in that sphere. When a particularly interesting one pops up, write a post about it.

Doing this accomplishes a few things. First, it lets you engage with the community while delivering your take on the original post. Second, it gives you the opportunity to link back to the original post, which might result in a link in return. You’ll gain exposure and, potentially, some backlinks!

4. Share your secrets

No, I’m not telling you to give away all your secrets. Rather, connect more deeply with your audience by giving them information about your business practices and processes “from the horse’s mouth.”

It’s all about transparency and authenticity, and it resonates strongly with readers. People enjoy feeling like they are privy to special knowledge.

I do this as often as possible, e.g., by updating my audience on the $100,000 challenge, showing all the relevant data, metrics, and revenue numbers, and sharing the lessons I’m learning from my experiment.

Maybe it’s time to pull back the curtain, and share your secrets in a blog post.

5. Round up industry experts

Establish relationships with key players within your industry through persistent social media activity. Once they’ve gotten to know you, invite thought leaders in your niche to share their views regarding a specific topic.

Compile all their contributions—with their permission, of course—and create a roundup blog post with them. Include links to each person’s blog because they might return the favor.

6. Make an infographic

You probably have plenty of facts and statistics about your niche and industry at your disposal. Put relevant ones together, and use them to create an eye-catching infographic to share on your blog.

If necessary, hire someone to create it for you. Include it in a new blog post, and then provide commentary about the facts and statistics within the body of the post. Encourage sharing by providing an easy link for people to use.

7. Look at both sides of an issue

Posts covering the pros and cons of a particular issue, product, or service tend to be received very well, and they are usually a breeze to put together. Brainstorm and write down issues that tend to have significant advantages and disadvantages.

During the course of researching this kind of piece, you will become even more knowledgeable about your niche. In the post itself, speak directly to your audience. Ask them for their take on the issue. Through their contributions, you can develop even more fascinating fodder for your blog.

8. Go behind the scenes

Blog posts about your actual business should be kept to a minimum as they tend to be pretty yawn-worthy. From time to time, though, go ahead and give readers a glimpse of what makes your company tick.

Reserve these posts for behind-the-scenes topics your audience will actually care about. For example, share what your company does to prepare for a big trade show, or introduce a new employee who you suspect will be a real game-changer for the company.

9. Explain how to do something

How-to articles and blogs tend to do well because people overwhelmingly turn to the Internet for advice and instructions on accomplishing various things. If you can incorporate one of your products into a how-to post, all the better.

For example, perhaps there’s a special way to use one of your products few people know about, or maybe there’s a process people should follow to make the most of it.

Be as thorough as possible in your post. Explain it as meticulously as you can. Include videos and photos to drive home your point and to ensure people bookmark and share your article.

10. Interview people

Yep, I’m asking you to be a journalist again. Remember those thought leaders and industry experts from a previous tip? Interview one of them to create a full-fledged blog post about your niche or industry.

Thankfully, you don’t have to be in the same room as your interviewee to talk to them. Come up with a list of questions your audience would be curious about, and email it instead. You could also post the questions via Twitter or another social media channel.

11. Make an FAQ post

Since you’re already actively engaged with your niche and industry on social media—you are, right?—you can easily keep your finger on the pulse of what people are saying. More importantly, you can quickly figure out what they are asking.

Scour social media for questions from everyday people regarding your niche. Compile a frequently asked questions post to address them. You might even include links to questions on sites like Twitter and Facebook to gain a little link juice too.

12. Give readers the hard truth

I don’t care what niche or industry you cover. There are sure to be at least a few elephants in the room or subjects that people are generally afraid to broach. As long as you have something useful to say, go ahead and have at it.

Controversial posts shouldn’t be the bread and butter of your blog, but they can certainly stir up interest under the right circumstances. Tell it like it is in your blog from time to time to really wow your audience.

13. Share a case study

Blogs that explain how everyday people make use of a company’s products or service can be pretty engaging. However, resist the temptation to make something up. Wait until you have something truly special to share, and then share it.

Ideally, you should get permission from the client or customer to feature them, and include their input in the case study too. While the piece will obviously be promotional to some extent, write it in a factual, journalistic way to avoid alienating your audience.

14. Start a series or a regular feature

Some topics are so extensive that they can’t be covered adequately in a single post—not even a long-form one. When you run across one of these, consider breaking it up into a series for your readers. Create cliffhangers at the end of each one to keep them coming back for more.

You could also come up with a weekly or monthly feature for your blog. For example, you could highlight happenings regarding your niche in social media every Monday, or you could feature a new product or service every month.

15. Make a really long listicle

By now, we’re all familiar with the standard listicle, which typically contains 5-10 related points. This has been done so much that people don’t get very excited about it anymore.

Improve on the concept by coming up with a really long listicle that pertains to your niche. But do so only if the topic at hand is deep enough to warrant it, or you will end up with a bunch of similar-sounding points.

16. Stir controversy

Think of some common views or beliefs regarding your niche. You are sure to disagree with at least a few of them, so write posts expressing your viewpoints, challenging the accepted opinions.

Doing this will likely invite controversy, so be sure to write these posts in a tactful way. Don’t attack others. Instead, explain why you think the status quo has it all wrong, and challenge readers to convince you otherwise.

17. Debunk some myths

What are some common misconceptions or myths regarding your industry or niche? Compile a list, and then use it to create a really fascinating post for your audience.

Make sure you back up your claims, though. Otherwise, readers will lose their interest when they realize they’re reading the rants of someone who really doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Approach writing such an article with the intention of providing as much useful and usable information as possible.

18. Share customer success stories

With any luck, satisfied customers will occasionally contact you to express their appreciation. When this happens, ask them if you can feature their comments in a blog post for your business.

In this type of post, begin by describing the problem the customer was facing. Describe the product or service they used, and then explain how they were able to solve their issue by using it. If possible, include additional comments from the actual client to make the post especially engaging.

19. Perform research to delve deeper

At a certain point, you will exhaust the resources regarding facts and statistics concerning your niche. Avoid becoming repetitive, and conduct your own research.

This could mean something as simple as posting an online survey for your existing readers and sharing the results. However, you might even want to hire a market research firm for assistance. If you can present brand-new facts and information to the world, your blog will be better, and you will have a lot more to go on.

In your post, include visual representations of data to help people make sense of it. A simple pie chart or bar graph can make a huge difference.

20. Share a link roundup

As you run across interesting posts, memes, and other content regarding your niche, save them. After accumulating 10 or 20, write a link-roundup post featuring each one.

This is great for a few reasons. First, it forces you to stay up-to-date on your industry news and helps you bring relevant information to your audience. Second, it lets you branch out and opine about all kinds of content. Finally, it may even enhance your link-building strategy, which never hurts.

Conclusion

In a perfect world, none of us would ever have to cope with writer’s block.

The ideas would flow freely and continuously. Since that’s not the case, use this list of topics and ideas to kick-start your new blog.

When readers visit your new blog and are presented with an array of fascinating posts, they’re likelier to engage with it, bookmark it, and keep coming back for more.

And that’s exactly what you want to happen.

Have you already covered one of the ideas listed above? Which new ones are you excited to try?

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Quicksprout/~3/HdTf3w4NjzQ/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/151065049244

How to take advantage of Facebook Video’s creative opportunities

We are living in a video-first world, where moving images are at the heart of all apps and services.

Facebook recorded an increase of 800% in video consumption from 2015 to 2016, jumping from 1 billion views to 8 billion views in just a year.

During Social Media Week, Ian Crocombe, Regional Head of Facebook’s Creative Shop presented all the opportunities that video content may offer, both for publishers and advertisers on Facebook.

Moving from TV to social media

Video ads on Facebook are different from the ones we knew on TV, and they also lead to a different behaviour from the audience.

Moreover, users have a shorter attention span when using their mobile devices, which also requires a different perspective when creating a video.

This creates the need for brands to adjust their content when they have to transfer their message from TV and traditional marketing to social media and Facebook in particular.

Adjusting content for Facebook videos

Facebook’s Creative Shop aims to help brands understand what makes an effective Facebook video and how they can make their message heard to an increased audience.

They are responsible for “feed proofing”, which means the process of taking the brands’ ideas and making them work on mobile.

It focuses on four main areas, all aiming to improve the success of the video – Capture, Design, Frame and Play…

1. Capture attention quickly

Facebook suggests you place the brand and the product at the centre of the video, keeping the message simple and clear from the very first seconds.

This informs the audience what the video is about, and if it’s creative enough to grab their attention quickly, it makes them watch more of it.

2. Design for sound off

According to Facebook, 80% of videos are currently played without sound, which means that you cannot ignore this when creating a new branded video.

Instead of making customers turn the sound on, how about delivering your message through text?

Subtitles are better than nothing, but text overlays offer the best way to increase comprehension without a sound.

3. Frame your visual story

Cut extra footage from existing ads to reinforce the key message. Crop the video in square, pick the right frames and experiment with the best format that could be more appealing on Facebook.

4. Play more

Ian Crocombe’s main tip is to “be really playful” with Facebook videos. Don’t stop experimenting with new content, take a creative idea and play with it.

For example, how about starting your video with a question to spark curiosity?

Feed proofing is good, but it’s quite defensive. There’s also the need for a new creative approach when starting with mobile-first content.

It’s time to work with new story arcs…

New creative approach 

A new creative approach needs its own tips to make sure that the audience is interested in the video content. Here’s what Facebook suggests for an increased engagement.

1. Heartbeat frequency = attention

There’s no need to have a theatrical narrative, following the traditional sequence of beginning, middle, end.

It may be more effective to deliver loops of the story every few seconds to keep your audience interested. A new vignette may start after a few seconds, creating multiple stories with a consistent message.

The duration of the content is not important, as long as you’re able to keep the audience interested.

2. Zigs & Zags = hook

It has been observed that 65% people who watch 0.03 secs of Facebook videos can watch up to 0.10 secs and 45% who watch 0.10 secs can watch up to 0.30secs.

Zigs and zags try to move people across by hooking them at the beginning while getting the product visible. Once the hook occurs in the introduction, users can watch more of the video, with short and repeated stories contributing to the promotion of a brand’s message.

3. Start with the end 

This tip is focused on “super logical people” with Facebook suggesting we start a video with the product shown in a visually appealing way, then end with the product’s benefits.

This can be a clever way to capture the audience’s attention by offering the emotional reward and the solution to the problem from the very first seconds while proceeding to the actual description of the problem through the rest of the video.

Takeaway

Ian Crocombe sums up his presentation by reminding us that “video on mobile is different”, and as we are heading into a more visually-focused world, it’s time to experiment with more creative approaches.

This is an edited version of an article originally published in on our sister website ClickZ: New creative opportunites on Facebook for a video first world. 

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/09/27/how-to-take-advantage-of-facebook-videos-creative-opportunities/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/151036499054

More online product searches start on Amazon than Google

Search traffic is of course vital for online retailers, but a new survey finds that more people use Amazon as the first port of call when looking for products.

The second annual State of Amazon study by BloomReach found that 55% of consumers start their online product searches on Amazon, compared to 28% who opt for a search engine.

The survey of 2,000 US consumers found that Amazon’s share of the action was up 11% year on year, and the figures down for search engines and other retailers.

The retailer’s reputation for price-competitiveness, (as well as the fact that it sells just about everything) means it’s the go-to destination for comparison shopping.

• 90% of consumers will check Amazon even if they’ve found their product elsewhere. 78% of these shoppers do this ‘often’ or ‘always’.
• It works both ways though, with 70% checking products they’ve found on Amazon on other ecommerce sites.  

Mobile shopping habits

The study also looked at shopping habits on mobile devices. Amazon still dominates here, but less so than overall.

• 50% of mobile shoppers try Amazon first, compared to search engines on 34% and other retailers on 16%.
• 76% of consumers shop on their smartphone, with 90% saying that they’ve made a purchase on a smartphone.
• Almost 50% shop on a smartphone weekly. 
• 92% say smartphone shopping can influence a purchase decision, while 52% say smartphone shopping often or always supports a purchase.
• 88% will use a smartphone to assist shopping in stores.
• 78% have a retailer mobile app, and 82% of those have a retailer app that isn’t Amazon’s.

These figures will of course be a major concern for competitors, as the risk is that many product searches begin and end on Amazon before they even have a chance to appeal to shoppers.

Jason Seeba, BloomReach head of marketing, says search still has a major part to play:

“While online retailers increasingly feel the pinch, search engines still play an integral part of commerce strategy. This study highlights that just because consumers start on Amazon, that doesn’t mean they ultimately buy from Amazon. Instead, they’re often comparing and researching products on search engines and other retailers.”

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/09/27/more-online-product-searches-start-on-amazon-than-google/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/151036498489

How PPC brand protection can increase clicks by 34%

Brand protection is changing. Are you keeping up?

If you have a brand worth protecting, competitors are already bidding on your brand name. Some bid directly on your name, while others will bid on obvious brand-plus derivatives, such as when GEICO bids on phrases like “Progressive insurance” (and vice versa).

As you can see for the keyword “geico insurance,” AIS, FreeQuotes365 and Mercury Insurance are aggressively buying that keyword, too.

If you have a trademark or brand name that drives search volume, it will be one of your more profitable campaigns. Unfortunately, it is one of the important PPC campaigns for your affiliates, resellers and competitors too.

Larry Kim, CTO of WordStream, discussed this topic in his article on how companies often make deals with each other to avoid bidding on each other’s terms. The article shows how a focus on protecting branded campaigns leads to less competition and lower costs.

I’m going to show you a process (with a case study) of how to protect your brand keywords, cut costs, and drive 34% more clicks.

While it’s a simple process to understand, it requires considerable skill to actually catch advertisers bidding on your brand, prove that it’s happening, and then deal with the brand bidders appropriately.

Your response to competitive brand bidding can take several forms, from fighting back with your own brand bidding, to getting the engines to remove the ad (if it breaks their rules), to legal action. More to come on these responses.

The goal of these actions is clear: prevent competing advertisers from bidding on your keywords and/or limit the number of affiliates and resellers who can buy these keywords. With fewer competitors, you’ll quickly see more clicks, lower CPCs, and lower overall campaign costs.

Let’s dive in to the brand protection process.

Identify brand keyword bidding violators using Google Auction Insights

Auction Insights is a great place to start evaluating your brand keywords and campaigns. For example, I can see who is buying these keywords, how often, and if they are showing up above me.

If I find a violator, I can contact them directly or show Google my trademark number and ask them to remove this advertiser.

Remember that Google allows other advertisers to bid on your trademarks and use it in their ad’s Display URL. But, they cannot use it in ad copy.

Search keywords without being logged into a Google account

When you are logged into any google property, your search results will be customized to your search history and behavior. It is best practice to evaluate these keywords anonymously, so don’t forget to logout before you check.

In the example below, you can see the manufacturer telling the consumers to buy the original product direct from the manufacturer.

The ad copy (“Buy the Original Product – From the Actual Manufacturer”) is a very smart approach to differentiate themselves from other people claiming to make this product.

Who has time to constantly monitor brand keywords?

Even if you are logged out and searching from different geo-locations, you will never catch all the violators by hand. I recommend using a 3^rd-party tool that will automatically report these violators to the search engines.

There are several companies offering tools that help you monitor trademark and brands in PPC, as you can see when you search Google.

By adding your trademark, brand and product keywords into these tools, you get the ad intelligence you need to take appropriate action.

Importantly, you receive a screen shot of the search result, along with the location, time and date of the search. This provides the necessary evidence to contact the violators to take down these ads, or to contact the engines themselves.

Yes, the engines have their own process for receiving violations from brand holders, and taking action. Some of these third-party tools also allow you to submit the violations, with all the proof, directly to the right contact at each engine. This has become the most popular way to deal with violations.

If successful in removing ads, your clicks and profitability will increase

It’s basic PPC economics 101 that with less competition, more people will click on your ads, or at least on your authorized reseller’s ads.

A recent case study showed how a brand holder received a 34% lift in clicks after removing violators from their branded campaigns. Yes please, may I have some more of that!

Case Study: Benefits of PPC brand protection

As promised, here is a detailed case study of how this strategy boosted overall campaign performance for Avery Office Supplies. After removing unwanted competitors from their brand terms, this office supply company quickly realized these gains:

• Brand CPCs decreased by 64%
• Clicks increased 34%
• Total campaign costs dropped by 51%

Can you image getting these results just from eliminating brand bidders?

How to evaluate the issues and laws in your industry

Lori Weiman, CEO of The Search Monitor, has written several articles educating the search marketing industry on the brand bidding problem and outlining the legal implications. Her company has a competitive intelligence and brand compliance tool that monitors ads and helps catch brand-bidding violators.

Their data shows the extent of the problem, that 55% of affiliates are brand bidding and 29% are URL hijackers.

DEFINITIONS:

Brand bidding occurs when an advertiser bids on a brand keyword, or uses your brand in ad copy. Competitors and Affiliates will use your brand plus keywords which include several long tail keywords you might not be monitoring. Some advertisers allow their affiliates to brand bid on their behalf.

URL hijacking occurs when an unauthorized advertiser uses your URL as the Display URL of the ad (and sometimes changes the ad copy too!), and then directs search traffic through links that you did not approve.

Note that URL Hijackers are also guilty of brand bidding, so they are counted in both the Bidders and Hijackers categories.

Enforcement options

What are your legal responses if you detect unwelcome competition or violators? To enforce compliance against competitors and affiliates, Weiman reports that you have three main options: 1) Search engine complaints; 2) Pacts or agreements; and 3) Lawsuits.

Search engine complaints 

Filing a complaint with Google or Bing is the recommended option because it’s cheap (free to file) and easy, especially if you use an ad monitoring platform to automatically detect and file the complaints on your behalf. Before you get super-excited, however, there are some limitations:

1. Protected items: Only registered trademarks are protected.
2. Allowed items: Generally, each engine deals with trademark infringement as follows:
   • Brand bidding:Anyone can bid on your name.
   • Ad copy use: Not allowed(with a few exceptions). Fair use rules allow resellers, affiliates, reviewers and news outlets to use your name in ad copy.
   • Destination URL use:Competitors can use your name as a sub-domain or sub-page. While the engines allow this, it does not mean that the law allows it. The more confusingly similar a URL is to the brand holder’s, the stronger the brand holder’s case becomes from a legal standpoint.

Pacts and agreements

Another method to enforce protection is with agreements. Agreements give you stronger and more reliable legal recourse than just complaining to the engines.

1. Competitive pacts:Some industries have gotten together, and competitors have formed written pacts where they have specifically agreed not to brand bid. These written agreements list in detail the allowed and prohibited activity, as well as enforcement proceedings should they be violated, which typically come with a financial price tag.
2. Affiliate agreements:If you have affiliates or partners, your affiliate agreement should detail the allowed and disallowed brand bidding activity, along with notice rules and financial ramifications for any violations. The swiftness and harshness of your action should match the conduct, which includes:
   • Direct linkers.This harmful advertising practice should be dealt with swiftly, since someone is hijacking your brand outright. Actions should include financial withholding and termination of the relationship.
   • Unauthorized affiliates.Affiliates who brand bid without authorization are mucking up your strategies. Actions should include notice with cure periods, financial ramifications and eventual termination if the behavior is repetitive and material.
   • Authorized affiliates.Super-affiliates should be handled more gently, with kinder notices that build upon themselves and provide cure periods. Financial repercussions and termination should only be used as last resorts.
3. Reseller agreements:If you are a manufacturer, you likely have strict rules regarding sensationalized copy, minimum advertised price (MAP) compliance and brand bidding. Your agreements should detail these rules and the ramifications for not following them.

Lawsuits

A lawsuit based on trademark infringement should be your last resort. Trademark lawsuits are expensive and challenging to win (as noted earlier). The caveat is if you have a pact or agreement that prohibits brand bidding, and you have proof of the advertising activity through date/time stamped screen shots, then you have a stronger chance for victory.

Final thoughts on brand protection

Your branded campaigns are typically your most profitable PPC campaigns and unfortunately your competitors and unscrupulous affiliates know this. They have a strong financial incentive to use them to steal your high-converting clicks and build their own brand.

If you’re not vigilant to their actions, aggressively protecting this valuable asset with the process and tools I’ve discussed above, you’re basically giving them the green light to continue. Don’t make it this easy for them.

If you’re already protecting your brand in paid search, please share your strategy, tools, or examples of how brand protection has helped drive PPC profits for you.

Jamie Smith is the CEO of Campaign Watch and a contributor to SEW. You can connect with Jamie on LinkedIn or Twitter.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/09/27/how-ppc-brand-protection-can-increase-clicks-by-34/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/151036497964