And this week on my podcast, we’re talking about fragmentation, consolidation, and advertising. Let’s get into the digital marketing news.

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Will super-apps of the East make it to the West?

Have you heard of super-apps? In China, everyone uses a super-app called WeChat that you may or may not have heard of. It’s called a “super-app” because people use it for everything: from talking to friends and family, to paying for items on the street, to ordering food and groceries, to paying rent. It’s the one app that does it all.

If an app works this well in the East, would a super-app that provides this level of consolidation work here in the West?

In the West, VCs invest in a variety of different apps. But the market is so fragmented that I don’t know if it would work for us.

On the other hand, Amazon Prime is already consolidated. With Prime, you not only get discounts on online shopping, but you also receive free music and video streaming. Additionally, Amazon has a cloud-based photo app that backs up your photos for free.

WeChat may work so well in China because in that country, most people’s first contact with the internet is through their mobile device.

Speaking of consolidation, Google and Facebook are the two biggest ad platforms. And, as a result of their stranglehold on the market, they’re getting hit with antitrust and privacy lawsuits. A lot of ad inventory belongs to them. So that’s why Facebook, Amazon, and Google also are always under scrutiny.

Pinterest’s annual revenue increases by 51%

Pinterest’s revenues hit $400 million for Q4 of 2019, growing 46 percent year-over-year.

While their U.S. monthly active users (MAUs) increased 8 percent to 88 million, Pinterest’s global MAUs increased 26 percent year-over-year to 335 million.

Pinterest went public in April 2019, their biggest year yet. They crossed the 1-billion-dollar revenue benchmark.

Does anyone use Pinterest? If so, please reply and let me know. I don’t use it personally. But if you’re a B2C industry, and you use imagery to sell your product, such as jewelry or home remodeling, I can see Pinterest as a viable platform.

Transcript:

– Hey y’all.

[00:00:01.01]

Welcome back to More Than Marketing.

[00:00:02.07]

It’s me, Arsham Mirshah.

[00:00:04.05]

And this week, we’re talking fragmentation

[00:00:06.06]

and consolidation.

[00:00:08.08]

And advertising.

[00:00:10.04]

Let’s get into it.

[00:00:11.03]

Have you heard of super apps?

[00:00:13.03]

So, apparently, in China,

there is a super app

[00:00:17.09]

called WeChat.

[00:00:18.08]

You may have heard of it, you may not.

[00:00:21.01]

It’s really popular in China.

[00:00:22.09]

It’s, you know, I would imagine

[00:00:25.08]

pretty much everyone uses it.

[00:00:27.09]

And it’s a super app

because, people use it from,

[00:00:32.02]

for everything from, you know, WeChat.

[00:00:35.06]

So obviously talking to your

families, friends and family.

[00:00:38.07]

But also to paying for

things, like on the street.

[00:00:41.05]

Ordering food and

groceries, plane tickets.

[00:00:44.07]

Paying your rent and things like that.

[00:00:47.03]

So, it’s.

[00:00:50.01]

It’s like a.

[00:00:51.05]

It’s like one app that does it all.

In today’s fresh episode of the More Than Marketing podcast, I discuss fresh social media themed news. Watch the episode to get more details on my reaction and tips.

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LinkedIn Pages adds tools to help businesses connect with users, including LinkedIn Live

LinkedIn has launched some exciting new features! You can now invite connections to follow a managed Page, stream LinkedIn Live from Pages, and you get access to new posting options.

Page admins can invite 50 connections a day. If you’re a user who doesn’t want to receive invites, you opt out.

LinkedIn Live, which was previously in beta, will be a game changer. People respond to live video, and now, professionals have a place to gather for live content. You can apply for LinkedIn Live here.

Facebook released their publisher list which lets you see all audience network, instant articles, and in-stream video placements that your ads can show on

What this means for you is that you can create a block list in case you want to avoid showing on certain sites and publications. You can now prevent your ads from showing on pages associated with certain industries, like porn, religion, or politics.

Spotify podcast ads can now track impressions, reach, and audience data.

Podcast platforms have always had limited analytics on listener data. But they also have some of the most engaged, high-income audiences of all media types, and thus some of the highest brand/message recall rates.

The issue with podcasts has always been about measurement. Spotify announced that it will address this problem with digital ad insertion. This data will help podcasters monetize and get sponsorships since they can provide more performance metrics to sponsors.

You may be tempted to go after popular true crime podcasts or Joe Rogan for sponsorships, but niche podcasts are better options. That’s because they have small but prized audiences that offer an affordable way of getting a high ROI.

If you want to grow a software company, you can look for tech- or software-themed podcasts. If you’re selling products to mothers, podcasts are a great fit since there are plenty of shows targeting moms. You get the idea—find podcasts that are relevant to your industry, and you may very well strike gold.

This update will roll out slowly, so keep it in mind for later in 2020.

France’s Macron pauses tech tax after U.S. pressure

France was considering a digital tax on all tech, which would impact the U.S. considerably since most of the largest tech companies are from the U.S. After the U.S. threatened to retaliate with a tax on French products, Macron decided to back off.

Since privacy is becoming an increasingly concern for users of tech products, governments are rolling out new data privacy laws to manage privacy more effectively.

I’m torn about whether data privacy laws are good. On one hand, privacy is important for all of us. But on the other hand, that data helps us deliver more intelligent and personalized marketing campaigns to our users. Ultimately, I’m okay with giving up some of my data because of the convenience it affords me in certain situations.

We’re continuing our momentum of delivering crisp digital marketing news with the More Than Marketing podcast. This week, I react to three new topics. Listen to the podcast episode below to learn more details about my reaction and tips.

LinkedIn reveals more about how its news feed algorithm ranks posts

LinkedIn’s algorithm uses artificial intelligence to find niche, occupation-specific conversations. Their team has seen more engagement around niche topics (e.g., #performancemanagement) than broad (#management) topics, so they’ll reward you more if you use niche hashtags.

Since the top 1% of users get most of the reach and engagement on the platform, LinkedIn wants to create a more evenly distributed network. The average user now has a better chance of getting their post shared, so it’s no longer a power struggle. Their first tests with this update do appear promising, so it’s worth keeping an eye on this change..

In any case, the key is to stay active, post engaging content, comment on others’ posts, and encourage conversations.

People see LinkedIn only as a lead generation platform, but it’s also a great recruiting platform. They have specific ads for recruiting that are worth testing out.

Facebook Ads updates

Speaking of social media, have you heard of the new Facebook advertising developments?

There’s now a new Page Transparency section on every Facebook page. This feature lets you see the ads that a page runs and who manages the page. Scroll down on any Facebook page, and you’ll see it on the bottom right. Under Page Transparency, click See More.

You can also set up automated rules for Facebook ads to make the most of your budget. For example, you can increase bids or shut down a campaign if it doesn’t get a set amount of conversions within a time period.

But be careful if you use Facebook ads for recruiting. You can get in trouble if you run recruiting ads and target by gender or age because of anti-discrimination laws.

Unsplash dominates the stock image industry

If you’re going to be advertising, you need stock images.

Unsplash’s mission is to make images open and usable to the world. The Unsplash library has grown to more than 1.5 million photos and has been used in more than one billion posts online.

The library gets used more than its competitors combined, including Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Adobe.

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Transcript:

[00:00:00.05]

– Hey, welcome to More Than Marketing.

[00:00:02.04]

I’m your host Arsham Mirshah.

[00:00:04.01]

Today we’re talking LinkedIn, Facebook

[00:00:06.09]

and you guessed it, stock photography.

[00:00:09.07]

Let’s get into it.

[00:00:11.00]

This week we’re talking LinkedIn,

[00:00:13.01]

some Facebook and Unsplash,

[00:00:15.06]

a free repository for stock images

[00:00:18.05]

should you need it, everyone does.

[00:00:20.08]

First and foremost, LinkedIn.

[00:00:22.07]

LinkedIn kind of unveiled

kinda under their hood

[00:00:27.07]

of how their newsfeed algorithm works,

[00:00:30.07]

and we got some tips from

one of their top execs,

[00:00:34.03]

and I wanna share those with you

[00:00:35.

Welcome back to “More Than Marketing.” I’m your host, Arsham Mirshah. In the past, I’ve brought on experts on various topics for growing an online business. Now, I’m switching up the podcast format.

The new format will deliver the latest and most impactful digital marketing news. The podcast will tell you my reaction, what the news means for you, and what you should do.

Today, I have four topics.

* Microsoft Advertising’s Similar Audiences now available

* BERT, Google’s latest search algorithm to better understand natural language

* The online ad world is murky. A group of companies wants to fix that

* Backlinko analyzed 5.2 million pages for page speed

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Transcript:

– Hey, everyone, welcome back to

[00:00:02.03]

“More Than Marketing”, I’m

your host, Arsham Mirshah.

[00:00:04.08]

And I’m switching up

the format a little bit.

[00:00:07.00]

I used to have guests with me,

[00:00:08.08]

now I’m gonna try a different format

[00:00:11.06]

where I give you the

latest and most impactful

[00:00:15.03]

digital marketing news

and tell you my opinion

[00:00:19.00]

on it, what it means for you,

what you can do about it,

[00:00:21.07]

and try that as an angle.

[00:00:24.00]

Might have guests come on, might not.

[00:00:25.08]

But for now, let’s get into it.

[00:00:27.07]

So today, I wanna talk

about four different topics.

[00:00:30.08]

The first of which being Microsoft,

[00:00:32.07]

Microsoft advertising, Microsoft controls

[00:00:35.05]

Bing and Yahoo search engines,

[00:00:38.02]

they have their own ad

network for display as well,

[00:00:42.08]

but Microsoft has just rolled out

[00:00:44.05]

product audiences and similar audiences.

[00:00:49.07]

And that’s now in open beta

as of September of 2019.

[00:00:54.04]

And it’s exciting because

it’s new technology,

[00:00:59.06]

it’s new features you can use.

[00:01:01.06]

It’s kind of about

time, that’s my opinion.

[00:01:05.07]

Facebook had look a like audiences

[00:01:09.07]

from I can’t even remember when,

[00:01:12.02]

’cause it was so long ago

I can’t even remember,

[00:01:13.09]

then Google came out

with similar audience,

[00:01:17.06]

to expand your audience,

then LinkedIn came out,

[00:01:20.01]

and now Microsoft has bought LinkedIn.

[00:01:23.08]

So now Bing and Yahoo has that as well.

[00:01:28.04]

So product audiences is similar

to like Google remarketing,

[00:01:34.03]

where you do a search for a product

[00:01:37.03]

and you don’t buy it and then you go

[00:01:40.02]

about your way on the merry web

[00:01:42.02]

and you see an ad for that product.

[00:01:44.09]

And you’re like, whoa

someone was following me.

Welcome back to the More Than Marketing podcast. This week, we have two of WebMechanix’s very own employees take over the podcast. Our hosts are Josh Waldman, a direct response copywriter, and Alex Swope, a search engine optimization expert. Alex discussed Google’s search algorithm and the EAT process in an earlier episode.

These two discuss misconceptions and tips about B2B copywriting. You’ll learn why copywriting doesn’t have to be boring in the B2B industry, how to improve your copywriting, how to elevate the user experience with your writing, and more.

If you want more, look out for our upcoming companion article that dives into more details on B2B copywriting tips.

Transcript:

– Hi, I am Josh Waldman and I am the Direct Response Copywriter here at WebMechanix.- Hey, I’m Alex Swope. I’m the SEO SME here at WebMechanix And we’ve snuck in!

– We are taking over Arsham’s podcast this week.

– [Arsham] If you can communicate more directly, get a, how will my product make you feel. Like, that’s gonna stick with somebody much longer and put you out ahead of the pack.

– All right, so here to talk about some B2B copywriting.

– We are, it’s exciting.

– Which is near and dear to my heart because we’ve got some B2B clients, and love pumping up their copy. So one thing that I’ve noticed is that B2C, we can all imagine ourselves as a C because we’re all, we’re all customers at some level in society. And so we have this feeling of, like, oh that could be fun and friendly and interesting and we kinda know what we want to see and read. But since B2B, it’s like–

– It’s so flat, it’s so boring. It’s like completely unaffected which is so bizarre because I mean, businesses are still, I don’t know, I think we should still have expectations for interesting communications from businesses to other businesses, or like even if it’s just an email drip. You should still have some sort of expectation of like, this will be pleasant to read. This isn’t going to be the most boring thing I see all day. And I think that’s where a lot of people kind of shut down when they have to like write copy for a B2B business is it’s always about just getting the message across and being super direct and there’s never any room for embellishment.

– Yeah, I feel like there’s like this big push to be super professional which there’s nothing wrong with but I feel like that often is translated into stick to the hard facts, which often translates into features.

– Exactly.

– Versus benefits.

– Exactly, and I think a lot of the time too when people try to go with that really professional, direct tone there’s still word choice decisions you can make even if that’s appropriate, even if it’s for like a legal client or something, it’s more along those lines. There’s still word choices you can partake in to make something feel more casual , or even more readable. ‘Cause sometimes I feel like people hinge on trying to sound smart or sound informed or something like that, but I think it makes a lot more sense most of the time to choose the easiest word for the situation you’re in.

– Yeah, and that’s a good point ’cause like there’s definitely instances where using specific jargon makes sense depending on the audience, right? It’s like if you’re talking to, you know, a lawyer or a law professional audience you can use,

On LinkedIn, the real opportunity is to bring your prospects into a conversation and by using LinkedIn as an engagement tool. Welcome back to the More Than Marketing podcast. I have Charlie Whyman with me from the UK.

Charlie saw a real gap in the market. There were lots of people teaching you how to generate leads on LinkedIn, but there weren’t many people showing the full process which includes how to close leads into sales. You’ll learn in this episode why building authority by setting yourself up as the go-to expert is important for B2B marketing these days. It doesn’t matter what role you have at your company; there’s a huge amount of power in building a personal brand on LinkedIn. We’re also going to be talking about B2B LinkedIn marketing and closing tips.

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Transcript:

– [Charlie] On LinkedIn, the real opportunity there is to bring your prospects, bring your customers into the conversation, and use it as an engagement tool to get them bought in to what it is that you’re offering.

– Hey, welcome back to another episode of More Than Marketing. I’m your host, Arsham Mirshah, and today I have Charlie Whyman with me from the UK. We’re gonna be talking about B2B, LinkedIn tips, for developing business using LinkedIn, I mean, who is in B2B and not on LinkedIn nowadays? Like, you have to be, doesn’t make sense not to be. Charlie’s also expecting in a couple weeks, so huge congrats Charlie. Thank you for, thanks for taking the time to be with me today, even though you’re a couple weeks or minutes possibly from the hospital and giving life. So thanks for your time and Charlie, I see that you’ve been, you have a very unique background, you were talking earlier, you know, engineering, and then into marketing and then business development, sales, and now you’ve created your own course for people to, it sounds like, learn how to most effectively use LinkedIn to generate business, is that, that’s right?

– Yeah, absolutely, ’cause what I saw a real gap in the market, there were lots of people teaching you how to generate leads on LinkedIn, but there weren’t very many people that were actually showing you the full process, which is, okay, once you’ve generated those leads, how do you then close them into sales?

– Really?

– [Charlie] Yeah, so.

– No, that’s great.

– I developed one which also focused on building your authority in your industry, in your niche, or your niche for your, if you’re listening. Because for me, it’s all about building authority and setting yourself up as the go-to expert.

– Okay.

– And I kind of, I developed an accidental personal brand, I didn’t know what a personal brand was. When I was working as a marketer, as a salesperson in business development, and then I realized oh wait, okay, there’s a huge amount of power in employees having their own personal brand as well as CEOs, as well as C-level executives for business development and also for sales and leadership too, so.

– Sure. Yeah, you don’t, I mean, if you’re a B2B service company, a lot of times what you see is that the owners or the C-level or whatever, they’ll have the authority, they’ll have the presence, and then they’ll be the main rainmaker in what it calls a business moment. But it sounds like you’re saying hey look, and it makes sense, I mean, if you’re in business development, if you’re in sales or business development, like you have to be using LinkedIn among other tools,

On LinkedIn, the real opportunity is to bring your prospects into a conversation and by using LinkedIn as an engagement tool. Welcome back to the More Than Marketing podcast. I have Charlie Whyman with me from the UK. Charlie saw a real gap in the market. There were lots of people teaching you how to […]