October is a wonderful month. As the leaves begin to change, we sit around with friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving. And when the month winds to a close, we have Halloween to look forward to — scary costumes, delicious candy, carving pumpkins and more.
With everything that’s going on, you might’ve missed a few things that happened in the world of online marketing. So once you’re done apple picking and exploring the corn maze, let’s get you caught up!
As always, we have five fascinating highlights to go over, including a new update from YouTube and a look into an exciting new branding direction for Mastercard. Read on to learn about everything that happened this month in marketing.
Introducing handles: A new way to identify your YouTube channel
Since it was launched almost 20 years ago, YouTube has become one of the most popular social media platforms around the world. With billions of active monthly users, YouTube is home to countless online communities and allows content creators a dedicated space to host long and short-form videos.
In order to make those communities more accessible and allow for users to more easily find their favourite YouTubers, this October, the video hosting platform announced a major new addition to its functionality; user handles.
Also commonly referred to as usernames, social media handles are unique names that make it easy to identify and refer to a specific user. Before now, YouTube was one of the few social platforms that didn’t offer handles or dedicated usernames. Instead, it was only possible to find a specific user through their channel name.
As every handle will have to be unique, YouTube stated that it plans to roll this option out gradually, getting in touch with content creators over the next month and providing them with the option to choose their new username.
To learn more about YouTube handles and what this will mean for the platform, click on the above link.
Inside Mastercard’s ‘10-layer’ sonic branding plan
When we think of branding, what comes to mind? Colours, logo designs, font? Visual elements are certainly one of the most obvious elements of branding, as they help make a brand instantly recognizable even without the brand name present.
Everyone can instantly recognize the Starbucks mermaid, and credit card company Mastercard has dropped its name from the logo, stating that the iconic red and yellow circles are recognizable enough on their own.
However, alongside this relatively recent change to the logo, Mastercard is taking its branding efforts to the next level and going beyond the visual. The next step? Sonic branding.
Brands like Tostitos and Panera have already gotten on the sonic train by creating sonic logos, setting their brands apart from competitors by introducing recognizable elements that users can hear instead of see.
For chief marketing and communications officer Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s sonic branding is about more than creating a short jingle or sound, it’s about creating a “comprehensive audio brand.” he said.
To learn more about Mastercard’s future sonic branding plans (and to hear their sounds for yourself), check out the article above.
Google Makes Ads More Distinguishable From Organic Results
When you input a query into Google, there are two types of results you’ll see: organic search results and paid search ads.
While marketers understand the vast differences between the two types of results, and the value they both hold, it’s likely many users haven’t given them much thought. They may not even have really noticed the difference.
Well, thanks to a new Google update that will be rolling out soon, the difference between paid search ads and organic results will now be a little bit easier to spot. This latest update will make a few changes to the way search ads are displayed on the Google search engine results page (SERP).
The first change is to the information displayed at the top of the ad. Where each search ad once displayed the page's title tag and URL, it will instead feature the name of the business. Alongside a more prominently displayed brand name, paid ads will also show the business logo.
Finally, search ads will no longer be displayed as ADS on the SERP. Instead, the word SPONSORED will appear alongside each add, in bold font, to make it clear to users that the result was paid for by the brand.
Interested in learning more about the latest from Google? Click on the link and read the article!
The Definitive Guide to Creating SEO SOPs to Scale Organic Traffic
As your business scales, it’s essential to have systems in place that will allow employees to take over new tasks with ease. Having standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place makes it easy for employees to train in new areas with ease. This is especially important for areas of your business that can be complex, such as search engine optimization.
There are so many different aspects of SEO to learn and master, and having dedicated SOPs for aspect will allow employees to understand what they need to do and what standards have been set.
Five essential SEO SOPs every business should have are:
- Keyword research
- On-page optimization & content creation
- Internal linking
- Email outreach to scale quality backlinks
- Tracking & reporting for continuous improvements
This article goes the importance of creating thorough, easy-to-follow SOPs and how doing so will have a positive impact on your business and the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
Read the above article to definitely learn why it’s so important to create SEO SOPs.
8 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Social Media Campaign Tips for Your Brand
If you run a retail or eCommerce business, it’s time to start thinking about Black Friday and Cyber Monday (if you haven’t already). These events are two of the biggest sale events of the year, alongside Boxing Day.
Whether your business is purely online or offers a brick-and-mortar location when planning your upcoming holiday promotions, social media should not be discounted. Social media marketing is an excellent way for brands to promote their business, offer promotions and keep customers up to date.
If you’re interested in learning more about how social media can help you with your Black Friday and Cyber Monday plans. Sendible has eight tips for brands to check out.
- Start your campaigns early
- Build urgency around offers
- Use hashtags to increase reach
- Plan your content and schedule it in advance
- State when your promotions will begin and end
- Allocate resources to reply to and engage with customers
- Make use of unique platform features
- Focus on retargeting ads
Check out the link above to read more of Sendible’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday advice.
Wrap Up
So that’s about the gist of what happened this month. Things are always changing online and we do our best each month to provide you with an overview of some interesting marketing news you may have missed.
Just to recap, this blog went over YouTube’s introduction of handles. This is a big deal for the world's most popular video hosting platform, as it will make it easier for users to search for and interact with each other and their community.
Next, we discussed the latest branding effort from Mastercard, which plans to continue to develop its 10-year sonic branding plan.
As the way users interact with technology changes, adopting wearable technology and relying on voice-activated AI assistants, it’s important to Mastercard that its brand strategy is evolving to include not just visual elements but auditory as well, for a more rounded approach.
Then we learned the details of a new update Google is making to the way search ads are displayed on its SERP. In the past, users have had a difficult time distinguishing organic results from paid ads.
With this new update, Google will be changing the way paid search ads are displayed so that users know better what to expect when clicking on the links.
After that, we went over the importance of creating SOPs for SEO, so that as your business grows employees will have an easier time understanding the process of SEO.
As search engine optimization is an integral part of marketing, it’s essential to have the best practices and standard methods detailed in a way that’s simple and accessible to employees.
Finally, we discussed some helpful tips and tricks for businesses to implement on social media ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
These sales events are two of the biggest shopping days of the year, so brands need to do everything they can to help their customers understand the promotions they’re offering and the benefits of visiting their store or online shop during the event.
Any questions, comments, or concerns? We’d love to hear your feedback!
We’ll be back next month with five new articles for you. In the meantime, if you’re looking to learn more, please check out our existing blogs that cover various digital marketing topics!
