At the 10:30 a.m. session of the SLC|SEM Back to Digital Marketing Conference, Ted Waz brought his expertise as a Global Executive Adviser for leading Fortune 50 companies to the stage, addressing the complicated question of the Google algorithm. While this is a subject that stymies even experienced marketers, it's possible to read between the lines to gain better results for clients.
Ted began his session by giving an overview of what marketing is. He emphasized that while many marketers are stuck on sales statistics, marketing — most importantly — is about influence and position. The pieces you need for success surround you as online information is everywhere. In fact, Ted pointed out that people are so closely tethered to their phones in particular that people under 30 interact with them more than with their significant others, so knowing how to harness the power of the Google algorithm is critical to marketing success.
Ted introduced three consumer-driven forces that are impacting marketers and the way they interact with target demographics.
1. Expectations
There is a greater awareness of the right to privacy, and people are more concerned about how their daily internet use impacts privacy. Mr. Waz touched on the General Data Protection Regulation that will go into effect in the European Union on May 25, 2018, emphasizing that while this isn't an American law, U.S. marketers with European clientele will be required to comply with these privacy regulations as well.
2. Mobile Use
It's clear that pretty much everyone has access to information now, and artificial intelligence is playing a huge part in how people interact on the web. AI recognizes trends and anomalies from huge data sets and can now make inferences from this information. It's important to understand this as the mobile market grows at record rates.
3. Multi-use Devices
For this section, Ted delved into the Google algorithm and how it interacts across multi-use devices. Everyone uses algorithms every day, and Google's big data sets recognize that useful tools are more likely to be used, which is a win/win for everyone. All of Google's new tools connect to geo-learning, which is either really cool or really creepy. At the end of the day, it depends on what you do with those tools, so marketers must act responsibly with the information accessed. Machine learning makes it possible to look at trends over time to identify behaviors, giving you the ability to determine what someone might do so that you can target customers in a more friendly way.
Ted then provided three actionable tips on how to keep websites up to date with the many changes Google is making, including improving keyword relevance, increasing page load speeds, and optimizing sites for mobile. He also covered the use of negative AdWords as a way to more precisely target your market.
To tie together the main ideas of his presentation, Ted emphasized the importance of being different and having a smart plan in place. These tips combined all the main points of Ted's presentation into a logical and workable blueprint for marketing success.
- What's your data plan?
- Partner with vendors based on results.
- Collect the right information.
- Keep your data clean.
- Use good tools effectively.
- Pilot before you launch.
- Be vigilant in working and monitoring your plan.
Rosa Zerkle is a freelance content writer with eight years of experience specializing in SEO-optimized landing pages, articles, and blog posts. Considered the chameleon of content, she writes authoritatively on a wide variety of subjects. You can find Rosa on LinkedIn or at www.freelancerosa.com.