ICYMI: Digital marketing news update for June 14, 2021

Welcome to another Monday, folks! Today, I’m excited to share with you that (finally!) I’m coming to you live from my new home office … 

… which is still mostly in boxes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Anyway, while you were busy growing your business, creating moneymaking content, and absolutely slaying your digital sales and marketing goals last week, here are the big digital marketing news stories and expert tidbits you may have missed:

Heads up, video marketers – 75% of people watch videos on mute: I’m going to guess this isn’t ground-breaking news, but data doesn’t lie. If you’re creating videos for sales and marketing, outstanding! Keep doing that! But do so with this data in mind.
LinkedIn has advice for brands trying to build a following: If you’ve got a company page and are trying to increase engagement and your following on the social platform that continues to post record numbers, LinkedIn has provided five tips for boosting followers and interactions.
Google announced new reporting features for Google Analytics: If you’re using Google Analytics 4, I’ve got some good news for you. Google has announced it’s rolling out new ways to dig into strategic data insights more deeply with new reporting features, along with a bit of platform streamlining for “usability.”
Google’s John Mueller also has feedback about link-building: In a recent office-hours hangout, John Mueller of Google shared how Google takes action on “artificial link-building” (spoiler alert, it’s not good) and much more.
Get ready for “The Big Quit” as workers make post-pandemic moves: As I mentioned last week, I’m obsessed with Digiday’s “Future of Work” series, and here’s another gem. According to new data, while employees opted to stay put for stability reasons last year during the pandemic, “rage-quitting” is making a huge comeback, and employers and team leaders (like you) need to be ready.

As for me, I spent more than three days last week unable to speak. Although I was crushed that I was unable to share my rambling, incoherent thoughts about why Mercedes-Benz is falling from grace in F1 and the underestimated brilliance of Joe Pesci’s career, I’m sure it was a blessing for the world.

OK, let’s get into it.

1. Fun fact, 75% of people watching online videos do so on mute (via Digiday)

Last night in bed (when I should have been sleeping, I know), I was watching recipe videos on Pinterest. By accident, I turned the sound on, and I found the whole experience extremely upsetting. I couldn’t mute the bizarrely chipper music fast enough. And, according to data, I’m not the only one who does that.

In fact, 75% of people (with a 85% Millennial/64% Gen X split) watch their videos online while muted. If you’re one of the smart cookie brands out there with a robust video sales and marketing strategy, this is very important news for you.

For example, if you’re creating videos without captions, you’ve got a huge problem. Because even if someone comes across a video from you on their feed, they’ll likely scroll on by if there are no captions, rather than turning the sound on.

Bottom line, it’s not enough to be creating the marketing videos that get results. You have to make them accessible and tailored to the consumption habits of your ideal buyers. 

🔎 Related resources:

IMPACT+ course: Video sales and marketing strategy for brands
IMPACT+ on-demand: How to feel genuinely confident, be likable and build trust on camera with Liz Moorehead
The Selling 7 sales and marketing videos that drive traffic, leads and sales

2. Here’s how you boost followership and engagement on LinkedIn (via LinkedIn)

I don’t know if this is an outdated analogy, but I’ve got to say it – LinkedIn continues to be the short, nerdy guy from high school who grew up to become very, very successful. Years ago, I looked at LinkedIn as a static, virtual resume space no one really used. Today, it’s one of the most dynamic social networks around for brands, especially in the B2B space.

As a result, brands like yours (and mine, let’s be honest) want to learn how to get more out of the platform and increase the results they’re seeing from it, right? And that’s where LinkedIn says they have our collective back:

“The world of business is more interconnected than ever before, and LinkedIn is proud to play a part. With nearly 740 million members across 200+ countries, the platform has evolved to become more than just a portal for job seekers. Today, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and an excellent destination for B2B marketing.“The LinkedIn Page is your organization’s hub within this global community: a place to share, connect, and grow. It’s an instrumental tool for building awareness, authority, and trust. Best of all, the potential reach and impact of your LinkedIn Page increases along with its number of followers.”

They then shared five ways to increase your brand’s following and engagement metrics on LinkedIn:

You have to nail the basics of completing your company page details first. Otherwise, your company profile will always look a bit like the future home of tomorrow no one wants to move into.
You can’t just publish any type of content on LinkedIn. The best kind of content for results is great thought leadership content. This is tough since, according to LinkedIn, only 17% of thought leadership content is rated as “very good” or “excellent.” Our advice? Create content with the backbone of a teacher.
Analyze your audience using their Page Analytics tools and then leverage those insights to grow your audience.
Bring your company’s brand into important, relevant conversations your ideal buyers are involved in with strategic hashtags and by hosting interest-based, educational events.
“Activate” your employees with resharing prompts, notifications, personalization, and fostering internal engagement.

🔎 Related resources:

IMPACT+ course: Getting started with B2B advertising on LinkedIn
Tell us the truth, are LinkedIn ads really worth the cost?

3. Google announces new reporting features for Google Analytics 4 (via Search Engine Journal)

Google is always updating its products in broad and focused ways to improve the value for its users, and this update is no exception, according to new reporting from Search Engine Journal:

“Marketers are receiving new reporting features in Google Analytics 4 to dig deeper into key insights. The platform is also being slightly reorganized for usability.“The goal of these new features is to help marketers fill the gaps of those who opt-out of being tracked and to help advertisers access the most data that they need more quickly while recognizing that those data points vary from business to business.”

The changes rolled out include:

A new lefthand navigation menu to make it easier to navigate between reports.
Expanded conversion modeling to fill gaps in reporting around those who opt-out of cookie tracking.
Flexible reporting in GA4 with a curated Analytics interface for those with admin access.
New advertising reporting options, including something called the “Advertising Snapshot,” which provides an overview of multichannel conversion points.

🎓 IMPACT+ course: On-page SEO and the user experience

4. Google’s John Mueller weighs in on link-building, artificial and authentic (via Search Engine Journal)

Link-building is a practice digital marketers and website owners use to increase domain authority with search engines, which (in turn) can drastically improve how well website content ranks in search engine results.

And, since not everyone likes to play by the rules, there are those who try to game the system. This is a topic Google’s John Mueller addressed in a recent office-hours hangout:

“… artificially building links, dropping links on other sites, buying links, all of that is against the webmaster guidelines.“And we take action on that algorithmically, we take action on that manually.“And the actions that we take include demoting the site that is buying the links, demoting the site that is selling the links.“Sometimes we also take more subtle action in that we just ignore all of those links.”

Mueller also noted that if you’re paying for links, that’s a big waste of time because the search engine completely ignores them. 

So, what’s the best route for link-building? He recommended a “non-Black Hat” route of creating valuable, relevant content for your target audience and then reaching out to websites who might have an interest in linking to it.

🔎 Related resources:

IMPACT+ course: Creating memorable, money-making content for dummies
What are the best business blogging topics every company should write?

5. Get ready for “The Big Quit” as folks abandon pursuit of pandemic job stability (via Digiday)

During the pandemic, those who were lucky enough to keep their jobs (as unemployment numbers soared to record heights) clung to them. Now, as the job market rebounds and workers part ways with their survival instincts, a new trend is emerging that, quite frankly, we should have seen coming:

“’There is a huge power shift where employees are now in the driver’s seat,’ [Bravely co-founder Sarah Sheehan] said. ‘They will tell you what they need — and if you can’t meet those needs, they’re going to go somewhere else.’

“… Despite employers touting the wellbeing of their employees as a top priority in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime health crisis, many workers continue to suffer. In a recent study, the HR platform BambooHR found that 78% of remote workers believe their career development has been negatively affected over the past year, while the average employee in the U.S. estimates they lost out on nearly $10,000 in raises and promotions.” 

Combined with a now-robust job market, where the demand for talent currently far outpaces supply, workers are now much more of a flight risk than they used to be. And employers need to take action now.

Every Monday, you can expect this little weekly dose of digital marketing news. If you have any tips or stories you think we should know about, hit me up at lmoorehead@impactplus.com.

Read more: impactplus.com