The Daily Carnage

The savvy marketer's hub for industry news, insights, resources, and culture.

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SEO: How Long Does it Take to See Results?

JULY 31, 2023

Short answer: It can take anywhere from several months up to a year to see measurable SEO results. Your mileage will vary, but it largely depends on three important factors:

Your actions. The specialists that you hire and the decks of recommendations that you collect don’t move the needle. Your ability to implement those programs do. Whatever is holding you up—internal buy-in or IT tickets—is delaying your results.
The website. A complicated site with technical issues, a manual action from Google due to previous SEO efforts, a negative consequence of a Google core update, or a new domain can set you back.
The competition. According to Search Engine Land, you want to beat the competition, not the algorithm. And that’s a tough game. Maybe you’re less resourced, or maybe you’re competing for million-dollar keywords, or maybe you’re in a tough industry.

This is why partnering with an SEO professional to audit your site is a critical part of the process. Check out Search Engine Land for a closer look.

How Marketers Can Prepare for SGE

JULY 31, 2023

The Search Generative Experience (SGE) is an ambitious initiative by Google to provide AI-generated experiences and personalized, conversational answers to user queries—effectively transforming the way we interact with search results.

Based on our experience with SGE so far, here’s what marketers can expect:

Users will spend more time on the search result pages.
There will be less website traffic from informational queries.
Action-based queries will drive higher quality traffic to websites.
Impact will vary by vertical.

So, how can marketers prepare and refine SEO strategies to align with this new environment?

Establish and build trust through an emphasis on real human experiences (E-E-A-T).
Create hyper-personalized content to match user intent and behavior.
Optimize for AI-generated answers, which will appear above other search results.
Align your brand with individual expertise.

Read the Carney blog to get actionable next steps.

Shopify vs. WordPress for Ecommerce

JULY 26, 2023

Looking for an ecommerce platform?

Shopify is an “out-of-the-box” option meant for users who don’t necessarily have the skills to build an ecommerce site from scratch.

Shopify:

…manages web hosting for you.
…provides you with a setup guide to get your shop up and running.
…has a dedicated support team you can reach through chat or by phone.
…allows you to build an attractive, mobile-friendly site without coding skills
…gives you the option to buy your domain directly through the platform.
…makes it easy to sell through Amazon and TikTok.

That said, if you’re looking for a more flexible platform that is robust enough to scale with you as you grow, you should consider WordPress.

WordPress:

…lets you customize your site with thousands of available plugins.
…gives you full control over your hosting provider and plugins.
…gives you more control over your searchability in SERPs.
…lets you translate your sites into unlimited languages and currencies.
…lets you set up multiple sites under one account.

Check out SEMRush for a full side-by-side comparison of Shopify and WordPress.

Optimize These 6 Emails Before Q4

JULY 25, 2023

Here’s how to fine-tune your email programs before the holidays hit:

Acquisition. Studies show that when an acquisition form is up at the top of your email, you get more registrations. If you’re hesitant to give up that real estate, try testing it out.
Welcome email. This one should represents your brand; look great on mobile; allow for images both enabled and blocked; and include brand statements, disclaimers, personalization—and “thank you,” of course.
Onboarding email series. Be discerning about whether or not your brand needs an onboarding program.
Transactional emails. Do your transactional emails take full advantage of cross-sell and upsell opportunities while customers have their wallets out? Dynamically insert the next logical purchase to boost revenue.
Marketing automations. Birthday emails, for example, are an opportunity to be authentic and have a little fun. How can you break through the noise?
Opt out / opt down. Building a healthy list is hard work. Keep your subscribers by allowing them to choose between opting down to a lower frequency and opting out altogether.

Get the full scoop at MarTech.

Boost Your Ad Recall on Pinterest

JULY 24, 2023

According to new research by Pinterest and System1, emotional digital ads drive brand lift and recall. Consider these tips following tips to develop ads that are more likely to engage audiences on Pinterest:

Brand Early. According to the report, most digital ads are viewed for < 2 seconds. Well-branded assets performed better overall.
Appeal to the Right Brain. Assets that featured a clear sense of place and characters resulted in a 90% increase in brand favorability on average.
Use Culture Moments. Reference holidays, events, and other shared cultural moments to tap into memory structures and increase emotional intensity and brand action intent.
Leverage Fluent Devices. These are recurring characters and scenarios that promote quick brand recognition, which is effective for lower-attention channels.
Tell a Good Story. No matter the Pin format, opt for a visually compelling design with good lighting, high-resolution, and stylized text to engage users.

Check out more research-based insights from MarketingTech.

When to Use Mass SMS Marketing

JULY 21, 2023

When done right, mass SMS marketing has higher response and read rates than email, allowing you to nurture your leads with personalized, two-way messaging at the right cadence. Here’s how to use them:

Follow-ups: Contacts ignoring your email? Leverage quick and scannable SMS messages for higher engagement.
Reminders: Life is busy. Schedule reminders about your event, meeting, or touch point in order to nurture your connections and get replies.
Post-event: Follow up with connections you made at a trade show immediately with relevant info in order to turn them into real leads.
Exclusive offers: Build your list by sending a special offer to those who sign up to receive SMS marketing a special.
Notifications: In practical circumstances when it’s necessary to send a mass alert or notification to your list, mass SMS marketing comes in handy.

Check out G2 to learn about short-code versus long-code SMS.

Google’s Tips for Building Trust

JULY 19, 2023

Google expects a certain level of trustworthiness before displaying your business offers to potential customers. Consider these four key areas of focus for building trust with customers:

Business Identity

Use one official business name across the web.
Share your unique story in an About Us page on your site.
Link customers to your social media channels.

Transparency

Provide clear, detailed policies regarding shipping, returns, and privacy.
Be transparent about your business model and operations.

Online reputation

Display reviews and testimonials about your products to help potential customers understand how to use your products or how other customers have used them.
Display any relevant badges or seals of approval from third-party sources.
Make sure customers know how to contact you or request product support.
Promote blog content and share third-party content your business has been featured in.

Professional design

Install an SSL certificate so customers know that their sensitive data is stored securely.
Ensure that your site is accessible, easy to navigate, and free of broken links or unnecessary redirects.
Avoid placeholders for text and images.

Check out Google’s full post for next steps.

What is customer journey orchestration?

JULY 18, 2023

Customer journey orchestration (CJO) is a type of software that allows marketers to connect real-time data points across channels and systems to better analyze the customer journey over time.

With consumers browsing an average of nine channels to find advice and make purchases, marketers are tasked with delivering a consistent, personalized experience at every touchpoint.

So what defines CJO?

A customer-centric approach. CJO prioritizes data-driven insights over preconceived notions of the customer journey, recognizing that customers utilize multiple channels and have autonomy in shaping their purchasing decisions.
Lifetime value. CJO emphasizes the cultivation of customer-brand relationships, fostering repeat purchases, and promoting brand advocacy.
Cross-channel data. CJO integrates data from various customer touchpoints, such as call centers, chatbots, in-store interactions, and more.
Real-time data. CJO practitioners provide contextually relevant experiences at their preferred touchpoints, necessitating real-time data gathering and response.
AI. AI and machine learning enables real-time development of insights, identification of the next best action for individual customers, and seamless execution of personalized experiences.

Take a closer look at customer journey orchestration at MarTech.

10 Alternatives to Google Analytics

JULY 17, 2023

Love it or hate it, GA reigns supreme. But if you’re looking for an alternative to Google Analytics—whether it be due to privacy concerns, ease of use, or other reasons—consider one of these web analytics tools.