Marketing Midday - October 3, 2022
Welcome to Marketing Midday, an up-to-date report of the latest digital marketing headlines. In this post, we discuss five top headlines:
1. SEO could be the best marketing tool during inflation, helping your brand emerge when the economy rebounds.
2. Instagram stories under 60 seconds will no longer be broken up into clips. This is a welcome change for users and viewers.
3. Less than one-third of CEOs see marketing effectiveness metrics, hurting company-wide understanding of marketing value.
4. Only 1% of 850 million LinkedIn members share content weekly. How can you level up your content strategy to move into that 1%?
5. Could Google be using clickthrough rate, dwell time, and bounce rate as ranking factors, despite Google's denial?
SEO – A Great Marketing Tool During Inflation
Marketers are feeling the effects of the recession with marketing budgets being slashed left and right. With a smaller budget and fewer team members to accomplish the work, what strategy should marketers pursue for the best ROI? Search Engine Watch recommends investing in SEO. Paid search and paid social media prices are climbing steadily, but organic SEO is free to pursue. SEO is a long-term strategy, often without returns that can be measured right away. However, it is often best to invest in long-term initiatives that will help brands emerge when the economy rebounds.
Instagram Rolled Out Longer Stories
According to Tech Crunch, Instagram Stories rolled out the ability for users to upload longer, uninterrupted Stories. Additionally, if a user posts a story under 60 seconds, it won’t be broken up into segments. This announcement is a welcome change for viewers who will no longer have to continually tap to skip a long video.
While this is a welcome change, it does blur the line between Stories and Reels, as users now have two options for posting 60-second videos. Earlier this year, Instagram head Adam Mosseri laid out Instagram’s priorities for 2022, focusing primarily on video. This change to Stories seems to align with those priorities, but the confusion between Stories and Reels makes us wonder if we’ll see Stories go away completely in the future.
Less Than One-Third of CEOs See Marketing Effectiveness
According to a survey conducted by Marketing Week, less than one-third of CEOs see any analysis on the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Additionally, the survey found that only 20% of businesses share the effectiveness of marketing with board members.
Companies that do report effectiveness to their CEO and board members focus on ROI and revenue generated. Reporting meaningful data on the effectiveness of marketing efforts isn’t easy, which may be why many marketers aren’t reporting on this at all. However, according to the survey, marketers need to start sharing more widely if they want to engage the entire business in their endeavors.
Join 1% of Successful LinkedIn Members
Search Engine Journal collected the best (and most unusual) LinkedIn marketing hacks from LinkedIn pros.
- Adam Houlahan encouraged users to level up their content strategy by posting regularly, at least once a week, to put themselves in the top 1% of LinkedIn members.
- Virginie Cantin urged users to optimize their pages, especially in the experience section, highlighting the different hats you wear in your company. This helps profiles show up in more searches.
- Sandra Long discouraged automation. Instead, she said, "Engage, inspire, and motivate through valuable comments and original posts."
- Josh Steimle said, “Be human.” Too many people on LinkedIn are posting content, but they're not engaging. His key takeaway – be real in every interaction.
Is Clickthrough Rate Actually a Ranking Factor?
Google has stated that "clickthrough rate" does not affect search rankings, but many SEOs believe clickthrough rate IS a ranking factor. Search Engine Land reported several reasons to be suspicious. Google has long tracked clicks on links, and if they’re not using the data to improve search rankings, why are they collecting at all? Google disclosed in 2009 that clicks on search results affect rankings under personalized searches, and Bing uses click throughs and bounce rate as ranking factors.
Despite these reasons for suspicion, Google maintains that clicks and clickthrough rate are not used as ranking factors because of their potential for spam.
Keep Up With the Latest Digital Marketing Headlines
Those are our top 5 stories of the week! Follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram to stay up-to-date with our newest episodes.
Meet the Author
Matt Scroggs
Senior SEO Strategist
Hi, I'm Matt Scroggs, a digital marketing strategist. For two decades I served as the senior digital marketer for several global, iconic brands. Today, I'm the chief marketing officer at RivalMind, an agency 100% dedicated to helping companies thrive by driving transformational growth through innovative digital marketing. I'm also a lifelong Cubs fan, a faithful family man, and a web analytics junkie—relentlessly tracking conversions, loyalty, and advocacy, which are often as elusive as the pennant!
Specialties: Marketing Savant, Idea Guy
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