The Metaverse will evolve from distraction to (virtual) reality for brands
While many believe Facebook’s rebrand as Meta and focus on the metaverse is a strategic distraction from bad press fueled by the Facebook Papers, we believe at Anvil that its horsepower, deep investment in the metaverse, along with additional investment by other major players like Microsoft, will inspire many brands to dabble in the virtual world in 2022. While consumers maybe a few years from caring about the metaverse, early adopters will embrace the novelty and utility. We’re hoping that the 2022 iteration of the metaverse is more than just a glorified Second Life.

Web 3.0 will become ubiquitous
Consumers’ concern over data security and creating a safer online environment to share personal data will be driving forces that fuel the growth of Web 3.0 technology in 2022. The evolution of blockchain technology in particular will provide a safer user experience (UX) for consumers, where they will feel safe sharing first-party data and know exactly how third-party platforms are using personal data. Combined with improved AI functionality, semantic metadata and 3D graphics – Web 3.0 will deliver an improved and better UX for all users. As full data transparency is on the horizon, this will accelerate the transition and put control of data back to where it belongs – the user.

Video marketing will become a vital part of any online marketing strategy
Consumers rely increasingly on the video to make decisions about the products they are buying. Video platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok feature live streams, unboxing, and testimonial product videos, which are going to gain popularity in 2022. As a result, video optimization and advertising on TikTok and YouTube will be increasingly necessary. Google has also rolled out structured markup features like clip markup which help users find important individual parts of videos, increasing the need and value of optimization for commerce. Using new and emerging markups on a brand’s most popular videos will help to improve user experience and Google’s ability to digest and index the video content.

MUM will strengthen Google’s ability to understand more complex searches
Google is always working to get users quicker, more seamless access to information. MUM, or Multitask Unified Model, uses AI to formulate an understanding of the context behind searches and will have a greater influence on search results in 2022 and beyond. Google recently demonstrated how MUM works, showing that search results would attempt to fully answer a search query with text, imagery, maps, and more. With MUM, content strategies will need to provide unprecedented depth, in order to provide searchers with all the information in a single result. The days of providing only topical information on a given webs page in order to gain organic visibility in target searches are numbered.

OTT will gain traction as ad targeting options decrease
Security and privacy demands are creating problematic limitations with third-party cookies and data tracking. Facebook, Apple, and Google Chrome are limiting data collection capabilities. Social media and search engine platforms will become much more generalized, with decreased targeting capabilities. Ad platforms will eliminate audience targeting, limiting advertisers to first-party data collection. These changes will encourage more brands to explore connected TV, podcasts, and platforms like Spotify that have their own internal marketing platform where the user controls what content they want to see. Products like Google’s smart TV and the new Roku TV are allowing viewers to stream content and enjoy gaming, utilizing click-to-buy on-screen ad placements. Smart TVs will be getting smarter with shopping from your own home with enhanced OTT streaming advertising options.

More businesses will move to DTC eCommerce
Due to the pandemic, businesses ranging from psychiatrists to car dealerships have begun marketing and selling products and services direct-to-consumers (DTC) on their websites. Companies are tired of losing profit by selling wholesale to distributors and evolving technologies have made eCommerce approachable to even the smallest business. Even larger retail chains are starting to focus more on DTC eCommerce, limiting physical store locations, retail footprints, and headcount. Brands like Nike are limiting distribution of its footwear and apparel so they can sell more direct and other brands will follow suit in 2022. The additional margins gained by DTC eCommerce sales can be reinvested in digital marketing to further increase profitable revenue. We predict brands will sell on select marketplaces (like Amazon, Walmart.com, and Target.com) to augment reach and revenues, but will still rely primarily on DTC.

More companies will offer retail media networks leveraging first-party data
With the impending loss of third-party tracking cookies in 2023, companies and marketers alike will be exploring new opportunities to reach prospective customers. Companies such as Target, Walmart. Recently, Lowe’s launched its own media network, allowing advertisers to utilize its company’s first-party data and reach customers as they shop online. As the pandemic accelerated the adoption of online shopping, we expect retailers will offer additional advertising opportunities on digital storefronts in the coming year.

Third-party cookie data will begin to sunset itself
With the anticipation of platforms eliminating third-party cookie data, marketers are forced to produce workarounds. Even though Google has pushed out its third-party data sunset date to the end of 2023, users and businesses have been preparing for the loss of critical targeting data with various workarounds, including the increasing use of first-party data. With Google failing to find a viable solution that meets everyone’s needs thus far, we predict there will be some sort of industry compromise by mid-2022, resulting in third-party data naturally sunsetting by year’s end on most popular platforms.

Influencer marketing will fuel sCommerce
Influencer marketing has gained notoriety within the digital marketing ecosystem as an essential strategy in the past few years. At Anvil, we believe the next evolution for influencers is to become the foundation for successful social media eCommerce (aka sCommerce) in 2022. In addition to important metrics such as engagement rates, influencers will be commonly compensated based on a commission structure related to conversion rates (leads or sales). With a greater focus on performance metrics, influencers will achieve a higher level of credibility with brands. Micro-influencers will rise significantly in popularity due to their accessibility to small businesses and the appeal of being able to target nuanced audiences. Retail eCommerce brands invest in direct shopping formats on popular social platforms, including TikTok.

Multicultural representation in marketing will continue to increase in importance
The digital age, accelerated by COVID-19, has created a world that is more interconnected than ever before. The term “global village” carries increased weight as even extremely remote areas see mobile device use continuing to reach saturation point. The success of international content breaking into the US mainstream has also led to an acceleration in engagement and demand for global representation. South Korea’s Squid Game on Netflix is the latest example, following the Spanish global hit Casa de Papel (Money Heist). With content publishers leading the way, brand advertisers will follow suit, developing new strategies to maximize the relevance of multicultural inclusion within marketing messaging, including messaging from the US’s own backyard.

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With Apple’s latest iOS update blocking cookies by default, consumers are more empowered than ever to control access to their personal information. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge for publishers, agencies and advertisers, ad blockers continue to gain momentum, particularly with mobile users. This article provides a comprehensive overview of ad blockers and how publishers and marketers are adapting marketing to address increasing challenges with ad targeting.

According to the 2021 PageFair Adblock Report, an estimated 40 percent of US adults block online ads on computers and phones. While the number of people using ad blockers has held steady at ~250 million for the past few years, adoption has doubled on mobile devices the past five years to nearly 600 million. The primary reasons for ad blockers, according to the survey, is to avoid interruption and annoyance. Other common motivations include protection against malware (62 percent) followed by privacy (58 percent). According to Statista, 27 percent of Internet users currently use some form of ad blocker.

Publisher Strategies to Address Ad Blockers
Publishers are increasingly threatened by the potential loss of revenue; while advertisers are concerned about reduced visibility and wasted spend. The problem has gotten so big that German publisher Axel Springer sued the creator of AdBlock Plus for lost revenues in 2016, a case that is still in court today. The courts have favored ad blocker Eyeo this far, but Axel Springer isn’t giving up easily. This trend may lead to a larger contingent of publishers, advertisers and brands forming a lobbyist group to eradicate the technology.

Some publishers are not outwardly worried about the impact of ad blockers and are conducting business as usual. Other publishers are uncertain of the future and are doubling-down on short-term revenue maximization by adding new inventory including auto-play videos, welcome ads, takeovers, pop-ups and page wraps. A few hold-outs are trying to take a stand against ad blockers and are finding that approach challenging. Below is a recap of the primary strategies’ publishers have taken to address ad blocker proliferation over the past decade.

Staying the course
While this is the most common approach currently, it is not a sustainable strategy. Some publishers are not outwardly worried about the impact of ad blockers and are conducting business as usual. A subset of those publishers is uncertain of the future and doubling-down on short-term revenue maximization by adding new inventory including auto-play videos, welcome ads, takeovers, pop-ups and page wraps. This is equivalent to fueling the ad blocking adoption fire. Long-term, publishers taking this approach will have to change course or risk going out-of-business.

Embracing adoption
A small minority currently, some publishers (typically with minimal advertising) see opportunity in the adoption of ad-blocking software. These publishers can offer unique native advertising or advertorial that is becoming a growing segment and appealing to brands stymied by ad blocking on larger ad-driven websites. Vendors have also sprung up to take advantage of the evolving ad blocker industry. PageFair measures how many people block ads on publisher sites and allows publishers to display discreet ads to ad block software users through the platform. Secret Media uses a “polymorphic encryption algorithm” to accomplish the same task. Companies like Sourcepoint provide a content compensation platform to address ad recovery for advertisers and publishers.

Buying into ad blockers
While taking a good deal of heat, big players like Microsoft and Google are taking a strategic approach by paying to get ads whitelisted by default within the Ad Block Plus software. Irony is abundant: advertising platforms are paying to avoid getting their ads blocked by third parties and the default blocking of ads also creates a moral dilemma. By definition, default ad blocking would violate the principle of network neutrality, which holds that internet providers should treat all types of traffic equally. The conversations are just getting started on this front and look for large publishers and advertisers to fuel the flames.

Developing reward or loyalty programs
When all else fails, some publishers are putting money where their mouths are. Conde Nast, Time and New York Magazine are now rewarding visitors to view ads by providing incentives like points redeemable at select retailers or game credits. The strategy is designed to drive more traffic, ad views and inventory. This is neither a new tactic (first used in the mid- to late-nineties) nor is it proven to be highly effective, as participants are typically only visiting to earn rewards rather than for the content or the ads. Regardless, look for more publishers to test this approach in the near future.

Improving the user experience
Since a majority of workarounds are not viable long-term, smart publishers are looking at alternatives. Undeniably, publishers will benefit from creating the best possible user experience by building in advertising options that are seamless and/or add value. Focusing on site speed, minimized but expandable ad formats and native advertising can create a win-win for all parties (publishers, advertisers and consumers). In the end, compelling content will drive readership and creative ad formats. Sponsorships or endorsements may be the best compromise to keep publishers in business, advertisers connected and consumers happy. This is the solution that will ultimately provide the greatest return for publishers.

Educating readers
An increasing number of publishers are taking a more direct, transparent and collaborative approach. These sites have chosen to educate ad blocker users regarding the impact of the lost revenue to the publishers and request they whitelist the website to enable the ads. Wired, Mixcloud and others have seen success with this approach. I predict this will become the de-facto starting point for a majority of publishers in 2016, as it has a relatively low cost and takes the high road. That being said, the efficacy of this approach is dubious at best, based on historical data (that readers prefer ad-free and cost-free news and information).

Going rogue
Some publishers are utilizing technology workarounds to subvert ad blockers, including tweaking URLs and using URL shorteners. This is of course a cat and mouse game that will be difficult for publishers or ad blockers to win. The Washington Post has taken to blocking the blockers, detecting when visitors are using an ad blocker and asking them to turn it off before they can view content. Due to the never-ending escalation of costs associated with this approach, I predict this will be one of the least popular strategies to combat ad blocking. Some companies are taking advantage of the conflict and are developing alternative solutions for consumers and publishers. Optimal.com is a “smart subscription service for all the content on the web, minus the ads. Time will tell if these options are appealing to readers, as they are not likely favorable to publishers or advertisers in their current format.

Lobbying and pursuing legal action
While publishers are increasingly threatened by the potential loss of revenue, advertisers are concerned about reduced visibility and wasted spend. The problem has gotten so big that German publishers sued, Eyeo, the creator of AdBlock Plus earlier this year for lost revenues. French publishers are considering doing the same. The courts have favored Eyeo this far, however. This trend may lead to a larger contingent of publishers, advertisers and brands forming a lobbyist group to eradicate the technology. The challenge with the legal approach is extremely high costs with long odds. The strong-arm approach also does little to engender trust or respect from readership.

Building a paywall
Another approach to thwarting ad-blocking is to create a paywall (a system that prevents Internet users from accessing web page content without a paid subscription) so that paying users are able to skip advertising all together. Paywalls are the flip-side of ad-blocking software, in that you pay the publisher for the ability to avoid ads, instead of ad blocking software. For example, The Guardian is inviting users who choose to block ads to support the paper by becoming paid-up members. YouTube and The Next Web are planning to take a similar approach. Alternately, a “premium content” strategy can be positioned as more consumer-friendly. Instead of penalizing visitors using ad-blockers by creating a paywall, publishers can reward visitors by offering them additional benefits or access when disabling ad-blockers.

Playing hardball
A fringe group of publishers are taking a hardline approach to prevent ad blocker users from accessing content. Video streaming and media sites like Hulu and UK’s ITV and Channel 4 have taken this angle. Forbes has developed a hybrid approach by both hiding content from ad blocker users and promising an “ad light” experience (no autoplay videos or animation) to those that turn off their ad blockers. GQ is a firm but practical approach. Site visitors interested in reading articles instead receive a popup asking to turn off their ad blocker or pay .25 cents.

The smartest approach, in my humble opinion, is to improve the user experience with smarter and more user-friendly layouts, ad formats (i.e. native advertising, video and cinemagraphs) and generally reducing the number of ad options. The idea is that attention will be divided among fewer ads and improve performance. The publisher can also charge more for each ad and the brands and agencies can spend more time developing compelling creative. Advertisers may migrate to other (social) platforms and solutions, including Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Brand Advertiser Strategies to Address Ad Blockers
The best way for brands and creatives to effectively mitigate the impact of ad blockers, is to understand the motivations behind usage. Once brand advertisers (and publishers) address consumer concerns about digital ads, lost revenues can be mitigated. According to Juniper Research, total revenue lost due to ad blocking technologies reached nearly $28 billion in 2020.

With so much to lose, brands must get serious about addressing consumer concerns. Let’s take a deeper look at key motivators for using ad blockers and associated mitigation strategies.

1. The ads are annoying. Bad creative can be downright irritating. Recommended fix: invest more time on development of compelling creative that resonates with the target audience. Spend more time and effort on market research, strategic planning and testing, to hone the creative.
2. The ads get in the way of what I’m trying to do. While intrusive ads (think pop-ups and expandable ads) can generate a higher number of clicks, it is not usually because people find the creative or product compelling. Similar to mobile devices, people tend to click accidentally on intrusive ads. This only infuriates the user and can result in a negative brand perception. Recommended fix: buy ad placements that are less-intrusive or completely non-intrusive. Examples might include sponsorships vs. display ads. According to recent research, one in three users was positive toward an ad-light experience with fewer advertisements shown in exchange for turning off their ad blockers.
3. The ad is irrelevant to me. As web surfers, we tend to ignore irrelevant ads, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a negative impact and inspire blocker usage. Recommended fix: invest more time in audience segmentation and targeting. Understand your audience motivators and preferred media outlets and have the discipline to actively manage digital campaigns for optimal ROI. Run-of-site or run-of-network ad buys are a lazy approach and key driver of ad blocking.
4. I find the ads too intrusive. If you’ve surfed the web for work or play in the past year, you’ve probably experienced intrusive ads, including pre-roll on YouTube or interstitials on large publishers. Overlay ads are popular because they demand the user’s attention and advertisers can guarantee impressions. Unfortunately, users find these ads frustrating. Recommended fix: See #3. Stay away from intrusive ad buys. Look for alternatives, per #2.
5. The pages tend to load faster when adverts are blocked. Any web developer will agree that fewer ads = faster download speeds = better user experience. In fact, Google has indicated site speed impacts rankings in search results. Unfortunately, this insight conflicts with a publisher’s need to generate revenue. Recommended fix: consider ad buys on websites with limited inventory, elegant user experience or perceived faster download times. Also consider creating ads that are small in file size that minimize impact on the user experience.
6. It leads to a saving of my mobile data. This is perhaps the most difficult to combat but is thankfully the least important of the top motivators. Recommended fix: not much you can do here, unless you plan to buy those viewing your ads additional data on their mobile plans. Perhaps suggest they view the website on wi-fi or at work. Yeah, right.

Parting Thoughts
Advertisers and creatives are in a tough spot due to growth of ad blocking (and a cookieless future). I’ve mentioned a few mitigation strategies above, based on the top six motivators. Here are a few additional thoughts from other industry influencers.

During a panel at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Randall Rothenberg, president-CEO of the IAB suggested that brands should “serve people and not impressions through better creative.” The panelists also suggested less intrusive ad formats with better targeting. In another panel at the same event, PepsiCo’s president Brad Jakeman said “Ad-blocking is the best thing that has happened to this industry” arguing it will drive the industry to act more like entertainment brands.

My fellow teammates at Anvil came up with additional workaround strategies for ad-blocker users. The first strategy is to get “white-listed” by following ad blocker best practices in order to advertise through ad blocker networks or related technology platforms like PageFair and Ghostery. The second is my foundational recommendation from previous articles: native advertising. Create your own content that is so compelling that nobody cares that it is technically considered advertising.

Additional workarounds include in-app advertising (which can still be considered intrusive) but users may be more tolerant depending on the application and creative. Increasing engagement levels can also decrease user frustration. Consider unique ad formats that incorporate multimedia. This is a riskier approach, as it can increase download times and be considered even more intrusive than static ads.

Conclusion
At its core, ad blocking software is a powerful response by consumers tired of poorly executed and placed creative. Brands and agencies that heed the call will invest more time on developing data-driven creative, further audience segmentation, improved targeting and thoughtful media placement. Publishers must also do their part to provide more options for advertisers that address many of the consumers’ biggest complaints. Consumers have voiced their concerns and the advertising industry is now starting to listen. The result should be a better experience for all parties involved. At least we hope that is the case.

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Advertising: Amazon Will Eat Google and Facebook’s Lunch
You may be aware that many product searches start on Amazon. Amazon, smart agencies and brands are already well-aware (that includes Anvil of course). What we see changing most in 2020 is Amazon’s ability to improve its advertising options for brands and sellers alike, especially in the voice search realm (we’ve been wrong about this in the past, but we really feel it this year!). Amazon Advertising is one of the few high growth areas of its business lines and will make greater strides in 2020, taking more market share from Google and even Facebook. Make sure you have an Amazon marketing strategy for your product business in 2020 or get left in the dust.

Display Ads: Animated GIFs, Video and Interactivity will Replace Image Ads
Static image ads on social platforms will start to fall away and videos, animated GIFs and interactive ads will supplant the 25-year-old ad format on popular platforms like Google and Facebook. This trend is already starting to occur, with video becoming increasingly prevalent. The reason is obvious: interactive and motion-oriented ad formats are more engaging, memorable and tend to convert better. While static imagery is still a majority of ad format inventory, that will change by the end of 2020. Brands and agencies designing ads in animated, interactive and video formats will take a leadership role and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

SEO: Structured Data Strategy will be More Important than Ever Before
In 2019, “0” or ‘no-click’ searches surpassed regular clicks on organic and paid links in search results. As a result, brands will need to become intimate with structured data, most commonly powered by schema markup. As more searches move to mobile devices, users are not scrolling down the page, as they expect the first result they see to answer their query. Similarly, with voice search, users expect the first search result to be the best answer to their query. Marking up content with multiple types of structured data to secure the featured snippet real estate will be more important than ever. Sites who do not take advantage of structured data will see their site slip down the results page and will ultimately lose traffic to competitors with strong structured markup strategies. Google wants to be able to provide an answer to a user query as fast as possible, and with structured data on a page Google can more easily understand and compartmentalize the information on you site. With that better understanding, Google will be able and more likely to serve your content as a result when it is applicable to a query. Routinely making sure the structured data implemented on your site is error-free and up-to-date should be a required part of every ongoing SEO strategy.

SEO: Google Will Mandate That All Websites Be Voice Search Compliant
Anticipating the continued proliferation of smart speakers and digital voice assistants through 2020, Google will proactively mandate that all websites be voice search compliant by the end of 2020. Currently, over 40 percent of searches are voice-activated and that will continue to increase, likely becoming most searches by 2021. Website copy and content will have to be voice search friendly to rank well in Google searches. Brands will need to utilize structured data (aka schema markup or rich snippets) to power the ‘best answer’ on smart speakers or position 0 on screens. Site structure and content will also need to be altered to better answer questions commonly asked via voice assistants and smart speakers. Websites that lack structured data will be penalized by Google. This prediction expands on the previous structured data trend.

SEO: Augmented Reality Will Play a Bigger Role
Imagine virtually trying out clothes from your favorite brands without leaving your home. Augmented Reality (AR) can make this a reality. AR provides brands an opportunity to overlay information in video, text, or image format onto everyday surroundings, objects and real-world locations. Nearly 80 percent of the information the brain takes in is visual. By providing information in a visual medium, that also has the spatial nature of augmented reality, brands are giving the brain a very intuitive way of accessing and understanding information. ECommerce will benefit the most from AR implementation, as will destinations, automotive and other complex sales. Brands like adidas and Converse have already implemented AR, earning higher conversion rates with fewer product returns.

Email Marketing: The Flywheel Will Displace the Traditional Sales Funnel
More companies will be moving away from the traditional sales/marketing ‘funnel’ to the Flywheel model in 2020 in order to focus on creating experiences that engage and empower customers. Originally created in 1898, the AIDA (Awareness/Interest/Desire/Action) funnel model is a linear approach that focuses on attracting new customers and engaging them in a business or service to turn them into a quantifiable lead. The flywheel approach takes an innovative view of the buyer journey and uses all client-facing roles such as customer service, marketing, and sales to interact with customers at every stage. Attracting, engaging, and delighting customers even past the point of purchase – so companies continue to interact with customers instead of treating them as one-time-only prospects. The customer is the lynchpin, with the flywheel itself divided into three equal segments, each representing stages along the customer journey: attract, engage, and delight. Each area creates energy and passes it along to the next, with the delight phase feeding back into attract. Note: Anvil was not paid by HubSpot to endorse its model, we just agree with the methodology and hope for greater awareness and adoption.

Email Marketing: Push Notifications Will Replace Email
Email is going the way of the dinosaur, maybe not next year, but in the coming years. Starting in 2020, however, there will be a notable shift to push notifications and chatbots as viable replacements, especially for brands targeting Gen Y/Z, consumers and retail environments. Push notifications are alert style messages that can be sent to a user via desktop or mobile web, depending on context. At least twice as many people today sign up for web push notifications, compared to newsletter registrations. Only the top 10 percent of the email marketers can achieve a newsletter sign-up rate that matches the performance of push notifications. The average time that passes before the recipient opens a newsletter is 6.4 hours. With push notifications, the recipient will see the message immediately. The updates to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and stricter filters have dented the potency of email marketing, which will be further compromised by the CCPA legislation. As alluded to earlier, younger, digital-native audiences favor fewer touchpoints and other methods of communication than email, when engaging brands.

Social Media: Performance Metrics Will Replace ‘Likes’
Those following social media closely are likely familiar with Instagram’s recent decision to hide “Likes” from followers. With the proposed change, only account owners and select third-party platforms will have access to that data. While influencers and marketers alike have voiced concerns about the change, it does provide an opportunity for everyone to be smarter about social media strategies, especially evaluating influencer marketing programs. For example, influencers will need to up their game to become more professional about how they represent their potential impact, focusing on reach and engagement rates over Likes. This trend will also push brands to adopt performance models based on transactional goals. The social platforms, especially Instagram and Pinterest, are making buying product easier than ever, so the timing is ripe for change.

Social Media: Consumers will Drive Alignment and Transparency in Influencer Marketing
Moving forward, look for brands and influencers to create better alignment and transparency. According to research, 84 percent of consumers believe authenticity is important when choosing influencers to follow. More compelling: only 11 percent of influencers are CMA and FTC-compliant when disclosing relationships with sponsoring brands. Millennials are increasingly skeptical of businesses’ motives and impact on society, according to Deloitte. As a result, brands looking to target Gens X, Y and Z will need to be more intentional about how they select and engage influencers based on core values and fit vs reach. Another trend that will go together with transparency and alignment is a shift to “always-on” instead of project-based influencer campaigns. The writing is on the wall for brands and agencies, especially for brands targeting younger consumers, to plan accordingly.

Social Media: TikTok Will Lose Momentum – Relegating It to a Snapchat Knockoff
While we’ve seen a good deal of hype and momentum built around TikTok this year, marketers are still trying to figure out how they can use it to their advantage. It is true that TikTok saw incredible growth this year (over 500 million active users in Fall 2019), which earned it the title “social platform of 2019.” But’s also true that signups are coming to a near grinding halt. As a result, parallels can be made with Snapchat’s adoption history – incredible growth, everyone joins, signups slow, users leave/become less engaged. We believe TikTok will figure out how to utilize ads more effectively in 2020, but we don’t think user engagement will sustain and the platform will end up in the same purgatory as Snapchat. It will become an afterthought as brands evaluate platforms on which to target and invest. The one exception to this prediction, is if you’re looking to reach a very, very broad audience within a certain *cough* young demographic (and China as a growth marketplace).

We hope to get good grades when we review our 2020 digital marketing predictions at the end of the year. Let us know what you think of our 2020 digital marketing trends in the comments section or add your own predictions. May your 2020 be full of fulfilled predictions!

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Advanced Facebook & Instagram Advertising in 2019 & Beyond
Taught by Tim Halloran of Aimclear fame, this all-day masterclass workshop provided a deep dive into the Facebook/Instagram adverting platform. Out of respect for those paying extra for these deep-dive workshops, I’m only going to share a few select nuggets. The first is to remember that audiences are discreetly different, but often overlap. To reduce duplication of efforts, consider merging audiences if the overlap is greater than 35%. Not being a Facebook advertising expert like my teammates at Anvil, I found this session to be very technical, but beneficial to those managing campaigns daily.

The Power of Purpose
Mike Dupree from Twitter talked about the needs and benefits of brand purpose in terms of connecting with customers. Social activism is on the rise, especially amongst younger generations. Another opportunity Dupree outlined is for brands to be an “island of safety” during turbulent times. Fun fact: 75 percent of consumers expect brands to take a stance on political or social issues and 30 percent are buying or boycotting based on that stance. He then outlined key steps for leveraging purpose: 1) brand permission (do we have a right to be here?) 2) take a stand without taking sides 3) demonstration > communication 4) organizational decision. He cited a few brands demonstrating purpose through advertising (Nike’s Just Do It), REI closing the stores for Black Friday with the #optoutside campaign, HBO with the Rock The Vote campaign and the Countrytime Lemonade Legal Ade campaign.

B2B Account-Based Marketing: Align Your Digital Marketing for Sales Success
Bob Tripathi talked about account-based marketing (ABM) best practices. He discussed the B2B Lifecycle, emphasizing the need for alignment across the organization (agreed). This is particularly important due to the complexity of the technology and need for integration across teams within the organization. Through a host of visuals, Tripathi outlined key steps in the planning process when building an ABM program. He emphasized the importance of partnership between sales and marketing, knowing that can be challenging. In his example, Tripathi illustrates a sales funnel with a 10% conversion rate from initial awareness of target account to closed deal. This is a very reasonable estimate, based on our experience, if implemented properly. Tip: ensure decision-makers, approvers and influencers are included in the contact database or target marketing efforts. Tripathi outlined key responsibilities by department. Marketing owns content, nurturing emails, lead capture and scoring. Sales owns meetings with marketing and/or sales qualified leads (MQL/SQL), building relationships and closing deals. Tripathi then went through the steps of building an ABM campaign in detail, starting with developing a target account list and contact database. This step requires close collaboration with the sales team, who should know exactly who they want to target. He recommends starting small, with 2 verticals and a handful of target accounts as proof of concept. With each target account having an average of 5 contacts, the database grows quickly. Get buy-in from senior management with early wins to provide more support for a broader rollout. The next step is mapping out content type by objective (product or service) and persona. Each persona should have a unique and relevant experience based on role and pain points. Once the content is mapped to each prospect journey, the next step is creating the content assets. Tripathi reminded the audience that print direct mail works. In terms of outreach via advertising, he mentioned Facebook Business, Twitter Business as well as standard players like Google and LinkedIn more commonly associated with B2B targeting. He gave a shout out to LinkedIn InMail at $.30 per send. Ensure your platform tracks all forms of activity and touchpoints along the journey. Lead scoring should be thought out carefully, to minimize false positives while generating a meaningful number of leads. Lastly, Tripathi recommends forecasting your lead funnel for planning purposes.

Three Keys to Mastering B2B Email Like a Jazz Musician
Cliff Seal from Salesforce compared famous jazz musicians with smart email marketing. He cited research, including one study where emails generated 5x higher unique open when personalizing subject line vs. just the first name. Cliff suggested running one statistically significant test every month, focusing more in generating data more than looking for a clear winner. He also cited a stat: 89 percent of B2B buyers expect companies to understand their business needs and expectations, which is very unrealistic, especially when lacking enough data. The workaround is by starting with available data, then segment, tailor and repeat. Cliff reminded the audience to customize emails in real-time based on behavior to maximize performance.

Website Migration: What to Do Pre, During and Post
Samantha Kermode discussed effective migration strategies. She opened with a pre-site migration audit, looking at tags, site speed, images and content freshness. Samantha highly recommends adding the current features, including schema markup, Twitter cards, Facebook Open Graph, Hreflang, plugins and Google AMP. I would add next gen image formats to that list. She also reminded the audience NOT to forget to use “noindex” in your robots.txt properly (hiding the new site before it’s live and removing the restriction when it is live. I’ve personally seen many larger brands lose rankings when failing to remove the “noindex” tag. Make sure to test the site (ScreamingFrog is good) to identify broken links, particularly 404s. Samantha also recommends capturing the inbound links with 301 redirects to maintain domain authority. She recommends the tool httpstatus. Additionally, a new XML site map will tell Google what pages matter and where to go to index them. During Launch mode, Samantha recommends monitoring XML sitemap, robots.txt, 301 redirects and rankings. With Post launch, continue with the previously mentioned activity, with additional efforts around reclaiming backlinks (especially with high domain authority) and optimizing conversion rates.

Extend Your Reach through Content & Influence Marketing
Juanika Cuthbertson of Ladypreneur Academy outlined best practices for content and influencer marketing. Juanika opened with the idea of creating consistency and intentionality around your brand. Specifically, she wanted the audience to think about brand voice, as that provides an essential foundation for content and influencer marketing. Juanika shared examples of brand voice in social and advertising, including Wendy’s, Pampers and jetBlue. She outlined which types of content work best for each stage of the customer journey, from awareness to purchase decision. Think about which platforms, media format and content types resonate for each stage and get it out there.

How to Become a Thought Leader on LinkedIn
Ty Heath from LinkedIn talked about my favorite topic: thought leadership. As a top B2B digital marketing influencer (according to BuzzSumo, not my Mother) with over 17,000 LinkedIn connections, I have a personal interest in this session. Ty talked about the importance of thought leadership across the spectrum, beyond traditional sales and marketing: employee and customer engagement as well as general inspiration. I disagree with Ty that sharing (other source) content on social is not thought leadership: I believe there is value in being a filter for others that don’t have the time to read every article and blog post on the Internet relating to your area of expertise. In a world of declining trust in corporations, thought leadership provides a unique opportunity to build trust with prospects and customers. According to recent research, social engagement by C-level executives increases reach and engagement by 5X. Ty outlined four steps for thought leadership on LinkedIn. 1. Create compelling content 2. Define your approach 3. Engage and nurture your audience 4. Measure and optimize. She briefly outlined a methodology LinkedIn uses for its own thought leadership: SCORE. S: Structure (content should follow a traditional story arc, yet maintain simplicity for better engagement and recall); C: Contrarian (makes it interesting and allows you to stand out); O: Ownable (make it distinctive and relevant to your brand); R: Replication (makes it valuable, like blockbuster model Disney utilizes); E: Expertise (making it profitable – as it appeals across the broadest spectrum of decision makers and influencers). Most of the session validated my thoughts on leveraging LinkedIn, outlined in this article: How to Ramp up Revenue in One Week or Less.

Digital Summit Charlotte was packed with insightful nuggets provided by expert speakers. I recommend attending a future event in a city near you. If you’re interested in learning more about podcasting, which was my topic, you can read my article on the topic: How to Extend Your Brand by Building a Podcast Strategy.

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Just like the title of this blog post, blurring the line between a recommendation and blatant advertising is obviously going to continue to as a popular tactic, but in my opinion, it should only happen with the permission and knowledge of the person whose face and name is being used. – Sorry Todd, but I figured you’d let me slide here

Also, what if the person decides they no longer want to promote that product? Can they opt out?

I mean, if Todd joined AA or the Mormon church, he may not want his face associated with that ad any longer, and in fact may find it offensive, right?

I guess the questions should be directed right to Todd, so I’m wondering…

1. Todd, do you know why your face is shown with Canadian Club ad?
2. Did you give your permission for this to happen?
3. Did you actively encourage it? – i.e. are you sharing in revenue for clicks?
4. Could you stop it if you want to?

And perhaps the most important question……
5. Do you really enjoy Canadian club better than either Jack Daniels or Wild Turkey?

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Social Media Marketing vs. Viral Marketing. Creating profiles on Web 2.0 sites vs. Linkerati – Targeted Content, Building friends & relationships in blogoshphers vs. Digg etc. SMM can rule the SERPS, control the brank, get link love, show the community you are a participant, traffic, influence traditional media.

Top Social Media Sites:
You Tube
Wikipedia
Yahoo Answers
Yelp
Linked-In
Flickr
Craigslist (Best of)
Facebook
Amazon
Myspace
Technorati
Judy’s Book
Newsvine
Twitter
City Search
Wikihow

Top Viral Marketing Sites
Digg
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Delicious
Netscape
Techcrunch
Newsvine
Boing Boing
Fark
Engaget
Techmeme
Lifehacker
Yahoo Picks

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