Give Better Answers By Rethinking Your Customers’ Questions

We are very excited to bring you season 2 of On the Fly. On the Fly is our video series with small bites (two mins or less) of marketing and customer experience advice from experts, given to you during the current disruption. 

Jay Baer kicks off season 2 from his home office with a very important reminder to rethink your customers’ questions. All customers have questions about your company and its offerings and a large percentage of them are researching online. But how has this changed in the post COVID-19 world? Well, they are still researching online, but the questions they are looking answers for might have dramatically changed, says Jay Baer. His advice for marketers is to reach out to your customer success team, your service team, your sales team, your ops team, and rethink your top 50 customer questions.

Visit OnTheFly.Experts to see all episodes. 

                                                                                            

Customers always have questions, but great content can help shed light on their concerns. Find out by viewing “Great Content Answers Questions.”

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4 Ways Marketing Teams Are Adjusting to These Times

Just before COVID-19 hit the US, my team at Oracle CX Marketing welcomed a new SVP of CX Marketing and added a few new members. In a pre-COVID world, we would have all met in person. Instead we met virtually to get to know each other. While a virtual meeting can’t completely replace face-to-face interactions, doing our planning sessions virtually did add one big benefit—we were able to invite many more people, from a variety of teams, and get more perspectives.

Working virtually is just one example of how marketing teams are adjusting how they work right now. Here are four insights I’ve gleaned from my team and I trying to adapt to this very fluid situation:

1. Understand this is not standard working from home

Allow for more flexibility.

Many of us are in a unique work situation right now, one way or another. I have always led a virtual team, so stay-at-home orders did not change things that much for me. However, working from home is different now, since my team needs the flexibility to homeschool their children or deal with other responsibilities at home.  

Make room to chitchat.

People are feeling more isolated and craving some type of normalcy right now—especially the longer our social distancing mandates continue—so I hold a virtual Monday Morning Coffee Chat for my team to join together, have some facetime, get to know each other, and share our quirks and hobbies. The only rule is not to discuss business.

Stop wasting time with too many meetings

Meetings are essential, but you shouldn’t schedule too many of them. I don’t know about anyone else, but during the second hour of consecutive meetings, my productivity drops. Every hour of unnecessary meetings on your team’s calendars steals time away they could have used to be more productive.

2. Get back to basics

Don’t veer from one extreme to the other.

Yes, events will not happen at the same scale as before COVID-19, at least not in the near future, but we don’t have to bombard our audiences with webinars to make up for it. Before creating a virtual event, we need to know our audience and remember why people came to our events in the first place.  Everyone consumes content differently. Before creating a webinar, ask yourself if a webinar is the best way to convey information right now? Is our audience ready to receive it? Or can it wait?

Put the why before the how

I challenge my team to think of “why” before the “how.” This helps us “stay on course” and keeps us from creating (what I like to call) random acts of marketing. Each piece of content we create right now goes through multiple rounds of review, and we are constantly rethinking when to send it or when to publish it and how frequently. These series of questions help us develop a holistic overview of where our content is going and why, and it just makes us more thoughtful marketers overall. Marketers might feel an ever-present need to be seen and heard, but you can dial it down—at least a little—right now. You don’t want to add to the noise. We don’t have to send multiple emails a day or publish too many blogs a week. It might be too much, and quality always trumps quantity. 

3. Maintain the business you have

Focus on being helpful.

Everyone agrees that marketers shouldn’t try to exploit the crisis (which Business 2 Community has as number three on its list here). Instead, we should concentrate on maintaining the business we already have. So, right now, focus on being helpful. Keep your website in order, be cognizant about the volume of emails you send out, and offer helpful information to your audience.

Self-improvement

This might be also be a great opportunity to do all the things you never have the time to do before, such as scrubbing your database and templates, training, or conducting research. It will make you a better marketer and better able to help your audience.

4. Prepare for an altered future

Lessons learned

Businesses will eventually open back up, but when that happens, the lessons we learn right now will continue. We’ll still maintain the same standards for creating and reviewing content, and we will try to put more thought into the “why” rather than the “how.” If you can do any training, you’ll put it to good use. If you cleaned up your database and templates, you’ll thank yourself for having done so.

Contingency plans

In the future, our planning meetings will likely be a hybrid of live events, in-person meetings, and virtual meetings. We’ll also move to a hybrid model for our events strategy. It’s a good idea to have a contingency plan that you can do a webinar or virtual conference if an in-person meeting or event falls through. Gartner actually recommends that CMOs put contingency plans into place.

What are some of the lessons you will carry on with after this crisis is over?

                                                                                                                                   

For more leadership insights, read “3 Leadership Takeaways from My First 30 Days at Oracle during the COVID-19 Crisis.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Oracle Named a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs

Gartner named Oracle a Leader in their 2020 Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs for the third time since the report’s inception three years ago. For the report, Gartner analyzed 19 vendors across 15 different Evaluation criteria based on Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. We believe this evaluation recognized the continued strength of our marketing stack and the new capabilities we’ve been developing to help marketers meet the ever-changing needs of their customers.

"Multichannel marketing builds relationships by responding to expressed and implied customer needs through relevant, connected engagements to targeted audiences. Success requires data-driven insights into customer behaviors and interests, goals, and needs. It also requires knowing how channels operate most effectively — in isolation and in unison — to deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time. To achieve organizational growth goals, marketing leaders require tools and talent to capitalize on the customer intelligence their teams gather."

– Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs   Data management stands out in multi-channel marketing

More and more, customers expect businesses to tailor their experiences to individual preferences – to meet on the right channel at the right time with the right content. Connected, actionable customer data plays an integral role in this. We recognized this early on and invested heavily in developing the right technology to help marketers manage, unify, enrich, and activate high volumes of data. These capabilities are what empowers marketers to really understand who their customers are and what their preferences are. Without that, it becomes difficult to personalize customer experiences.

But successful marketers do more than aggregate data. Meaningfully leveraging that data at scale is just as challenging. Per our view Gartner agrees and notes that standout MMH vendors are the ones developing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that surface key insights and next best steps for marketers. Vendors investing heavily in these capabilities help marketers quickly understand and optimize their reach and effectiveness. To that end, Oracle has and continues to develop best-in-class data-driven marketing capabilities, as the market drives toward increasingly personalized customer experiences. These trends ultimately drive customer-focused innovation; MMH vendors should help marketers stay ahead of the rapidly evolving curve.

Our greatest benefit is our partnership with customers

We’re honored that Gartner’s named us a Leader. Yet, we know our biggest advantage is due in large part to the footprints we have in different industries and different regions, with successful, high-growth SMBs and the largest and most sophisticated marketing organizations in the world. Tackling a wide variety of unique challenges energizes us and drives our leadership and innovation. If you’re a marketer looking for a partner to help you overcome marketing obstacles and elevate your customer experience, we’d love to hear from you!

Read the report.

                                                                                           

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs, Noah Elkin, Benjamin Bloom, Mike McGuire, Colin Reid, Joseph Enever, 12 May 2020

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from [insert client name or reprint URL].

Oracle as a Leader in Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs 2018 - 2020

 

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Oracle Named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Service Providers, Q2 2020

There is always a level of satisfaction in being identified a Leader by an unbiased industry expert.  We feel very honored to be named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Services Providers, Q2 2020. The pride associated with this leadership status as a leader is amplified because our customers were central to our success. 

According to the Forrester report, “Client references get more than what they pay for. They and their staff all seem excited by the vendor’s vision to ‘drive revenue growth by delivering a relevant, timely, and connected experience wherever and whenever a customer chooses.’”

Of the 13 email marketing service providers evaluated, Oracle Responsys was one of four vendors named a ‘Leader,’ and we received the highest possible scores in the artificial intelligence, analytics, vertical capabilities, and vision criteria.

Consistency of excellence matters to us, and it matters to marketers. Consumers continue to demand better and more consistent experiences from brands as their expectations for what rich and engaging interactions continue to rise. Oracle maintains a focus on building for these new marketing challenges, and helping marketers build the new competitive edge in delivering better experiences than their competition, supporting them, as they do more with fewer resources and staffing.

Creating a connected experience across all possible customer touchpoints is the expectation for all marketers. Organizations of all sizes are transforming their customer engagements to provide each consumer relevant information in the key moments of engagement. Failing to deliver relevance and meaning risks losing market share and revenues to those brands who focus on making this change. Oracle has a long history of leading brands through this transformation and helping them to create differentiation to grow their businesses.

Oracle’s solutions lead in the market with our unique abilities to provide marketers with:

• Access to real-time data signals on consumer behaviors

• The ability to connect data and insights to interactions beyond marketing

• Scalability to address marketing and data requirements

• Tools which are intuitive and user-friendly, allowing marketers to build the most advanced campaigns easily and efficiently

• Integrated AI and knowledge retention capability which can build upon the work of good marketers  to create the best experiences at scale

With Oracle Responsys, marketers can evaluate every tactic and strategy, to ensure they are being efficient with their approaches, and execute to deliver the business results they are held accountable to. We are honored to be recognized as a ‘Leader’ by Forrester, which we believe highlights our long-standing commitment to helping marketers build customer loyalty and drive the best business results.

                                                                                                              

Want to learn more? Click here to download the full report. You can also contact us to learn more about how the Oracle CX suite of solutions can help you reach your marketing goals with engaging, connected, customer experiences.

 

 

 

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Why Having an Email Marketing Strategy Is Important

“Email is dead” is a common line that we’ve all heard tossed around at least once. The truth is that email isn’t dead — far from it, in fact. And if you’ve somehow been convinced that it is, it’s probably time for a strategy shake-up to ensure that your email marketing strategy is being implemented correctly and effectively.

Successful email marketing entails so much more than just whipping up some content and pressing send. Having a comprehensive strategy is crucial for reaching your audience, reaching your conversion goals, and staying top of mind with leads and prospects. What it’s often not, however, is intuitive. Putting together an email marketing strategy takes real work, as well as an investment of time and resources. So what’s the use?

Keep reading to learn why having an email strategy isn’t an option if you want to make a real and lasting impact on your prospects and customers.

It Helps You Put a Personalization Plan Into Place

Whether you’re B2B or B2C, personalization is crucial for effective marketing. Among leading marketers, 90 percent say that personalization lends a significant boost to the profitability of their business, which speaks volumes to the importance of a personalized email marketing approach.

When you’re able to identify your audience better and segment them based on their on-site behavior, patterns, and where they are in the buyer’s journey, you’re able to build a stronger connection with your leads. You’re proving that you know a lot about them, that you have the right resources to answer their questions, and that you’re the resource they need for valuable information.

It Moves Leads Down the Funnel

Emails are meant to achieve a lot of things, but ultimately, their main purpose is to guide leads down the funnel and toward a purchase decision. Easier said than done, though, right?

When you take the time to strategize, you have the opportunity to really think about the route that your leads will (hopefully) take. Instead of guessing what steps need to happen, you’ll create drip campaigns filled with the right content and calls-to-action that move your leads closer and closer to a decision. Just be sure to loop sales into the conversation, since they have a unique perspective on the hurdles you need to overcome.

It Ensures Your Content is Distributed Correctly

Content fuels your email marketing. An email marketing strategy directly complements your content strategy by helping distribute your content to the right people at the right time. Each piece of content you create should be crafted with your audience in mind. Particularly, you should be thinking about what questions the content helps your audience answer and what stage of their journey it is most applicable to. Doing so will ensure your email marketing plays a key role in how, where, and to whom that content gets sent. It’s a much better way to approach content distribution than just throwing it all out there and seeing what sticks.

It’s Integral to Cohesive Campaigns

Email marketing campaigns help you build trust over time with your audience. To really work, though, there needs to be cohesion in terms of your message and your approach. That can be hard to achieve on the fly, which is where a thorough strategy comes in.

Plan out your email campaigns in advance, covering also other channels your content will go through (i.e., social media). This big picture view is part and parcel of a successful campaign, and pretty much only achievable if you strategize ahead of time.

It’s Helps Plan Out Promos

Email marketing is more than just offering nurture. Including promotional email marketing in your strategy is a must, as it can lead to more sales and other key conversions. When mapping out your email marketing strategy, you can carefully plan out these specific promos you’ll need to make room for, and how you’ll go about rolling them out. This can help you hone in on the areas that need targeted promotion, like a newly released whitepaper, discount pricing, or a special trial that is limited and won’t last long.

It Just Works

Your audience wants to hear from you, why else would they opt-in to your email outreach? More than 50 percent of consumers check their emails at least ten times a day, and it’s their preferred way to receive brand updates. Meanwhile, more than 59 percent of marketers say that emails are their number one source of ROI. However, it stands to reason that if you want the maximum return on your email efforts, you’re going to have to put in the maximum effort. An email marketing strategy is designed to help you capitalize on this opportunity to connect with your audience, avoid missteps, and get as many benefits as possible out of your digital outreach. Sounds like as good of a reason as any to make it a priority!

Need help putting together a great email marketing strategy? Our blog is the place to go. View our archive of past articles and check back regularly for more need-to-know info. Or, subscribe to our emails and receive the content you need to help you make better email marketing decisions. With the right advice and the right approach, you’ll have an email marketing strategy ready to go — and ready to convert — in no time.

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9 Tips for Creating an Effective Webinar

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, marketing organizations are having to find ways to engage with their customers and prospects without the use of in-person seminars, workshops, and conferences. 

Digital channels and technology have one answer: webinars. These online events only require Internet access, a device for viewing, and a video conferencing service provider. Because of this, many companies have already repurposed their physical conferences into a webinar format. 

But before you send out the invitations, here are nine best practices my team uses when we create webinars. As online and mobile digital channels grow as the preferred places to congregate, My hope is that you find these valuable as you look to further utilize webinars in your marketing efforts.

1.    Compile a webinar team

Although it’s become a key marketing tactic, not everyone in your marketing team should be involved in overseeing a given webinar. Otherwise, there are “too many chefs in the kitchen.” Only include those who have a specific role to play to ensure success. 

You will need a facilitator to develop content, find speakers, and promote the event. The webinar team should also consist of presenters or subject matter experts. Finally, the team should include “webinar assistants” who can handle the technical (audio/visual) aspects.  

2.    Pick a webinar format

There are many ways to design a webinar. The format you select should best match your content and purpose. For example, if you’re taking a conference or seminar from its physical format to a digital format, then you can try to mirror that structure in your webinar. This includes considering audience size, content scope, and number of speakers. 

There are many formats to consider, including a single speaker, moderated panel discussion, and interview style. Each format can include audience Q&A similar to how you would have designed it for an in-person event. 

3.    Develop content and visuals

Although your speakers can capture an audience’s attention with their personalities, stage presence, and thought leadership, more is needed during a webinar to hold onto an audience. That means deciding on the content and visuals to accompany the webinar presentation. 

And, by visuals, I don’t mean text-filled PowerPoint slides offered through screen sharing capability. Instead, consider vivid pictures that enhance your presentation along with relevant video clips. Consider embedding audience polling capabilities. Ask questions and share the results.

4.    Research and test available webinar service providers

Partnering with a webinar service provider can make the difference in how your viewers see and hear (and remember) your webinar. There are numerous solutions to take for a trial run to see what works for the size and scope of your webinar. Some examples include Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, and ClickMeeting.  

Factors to consider include the features offered. Do they match your format and purpose? Are they easy for you to use? Can they support the number of video participants and viewers you expect?  Of course, the cost is also a factor because any tool has to fit within your budget.  

5.    Plan for logistics and technical components

It’s important to find a suitable place to broadcast the webinar. Since you and your guests will be on camera (most likely joining from a variety of locations these days), the surroundings should be quiet and free of disruptions.

Prior to any live broadcast, you must conduct at least one trial run to make sure the audio, video, lighting, and visuals work. If you have speakers joining from different locations, do a test video conference to ensure each person can be seen and heard. 

Having technical issues during the webinar will cause viewers to disconnect. Run-throughs can help pinpoint anything that needs to be fixed prior to going live. And, if this is your team’s first webinar, do multiple trial runs to help everyone get comfortable with how it works. 

6.    Promote the webinar

To get the most out of moving these marketing tactics online, promote the webinar across all channels in a consistent way. Promotion ideas include a descriptive landing page, a banner ad on your website, social media posts and targeted social ads, leveraging your participants’ networks, and an email campaign. 

Your promotional content should focus on the benefits your audience will receive if they participate. The content should also contain links that lead the potential participant to the registration form and the webinar link. Making it as easy as possible can strengthen your promotion results. Reminder emails and calendar invites also come in handy to make sure participants remember when the webinar is. 

7.    Consider the audience when scheduling the event

Think about where your audience will be when you schedule the date and time. Attendees may be spread across the United States or globally. While you can’t accommodate everyone’s preferences, you can find a midway point that serves the largest segment of your audience. Use your existing data for your audience, including their location, to plan this aspect of your webinar. 

8.    Follow up with webinar attendees

One of the most neglected opportunities is the follow-up. This is an ideal time to continue engaging with attendees who might also be prospects and customers. 

My team sends out thank-you emails and solicits participants’ feedback with a link to a brief survey. This same email also contains a link to the webinar recording and additional resources. This includes subscribing to our blog, newsletter, and/or any additional related content that builds on what they learned during the webinar. We also offer the chance to join a mailing list so they can find out about upcoming webinar events or receive information that helps them with a specific pain point.    

9.    Assess and improve

Soliciting feedback from attendees is just one of the ways we assess our webinars. We also look at engagement in terms of the number of questions, dropped views, and no-shows. 

Our assessment also includes asking participants and speakers how they felt about the experience. This information helps us plan and execute even better webinars in the future. 

                                                                                                                       

Find out more about creating webinars by learning “How to Quickly and Easily Connect Oracle Eloqua to Zoom.”

 

 

 

 

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5 Brands Who Have Perfected Their Email Newsletter

Arguably one of the most fundamental pieces of any email marketing strategy is the humble email newsletter.

Whether it’s sent daily, weekly, monthly, or once in a blue moon, it’s a touchpoint that allows you to develop an authentic relationship with your readers. And it turns out customers have an appetite for them. According to Statista, 47% of people want weekly promotions from their favorite brands.

So if you haven’t yet got one up and running or are looking to revitalize an existing one, now is a perfect time to get it started. Whether you want to share company updates, popular blog posts, or compelling promotions — an email newsletter is a great addition to your marketing strategy.

With that in mind, here are five examples of brands that have totally nailed their email newsletters.

1. SkillShare — Be Empathetic

A newsletter that’s recently caught my attention is SkillShare.

As we all feel uncertainty in the current climate, SkillShare decided to use their voice to spread a little positivity and encouragement.

But they don’t just stop there. They’ve curated a list of blog posts and courses that can help their community thrive in their new living circumstances, from advice from teachers to fun creative courses that can be done from home.

At a time where people may feel a little tender and resistant to sales pitches, SkillShare makes a conscious effort to spread a little more joy to their readers. Skillshare’s newsletter feels highly topical and thoughtful to their audience, which can only develop a stronger bond with their customers.

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Key Lessons

• An important part of any successful newsletter is empathy. If you can understand your audience and consistently offer valuable content —  they’ll repay you with their attention and loyalty.

2. Foreign Policy Design Group — Be Different

As a team of talented designers and writers, it’s natural to think that Foreign Policy Design would have a great newsletter. But for me, they surpass all expectations.

The newsletter serves as a roundup of company news and their favorite blog posts. And everything from their eye-catching design to inviting copywriting really stands out and differentiates their brand. By sharing details about their new office or a conference they’ve been to, we get to know the people behind the brand.

Perhaps my favorite feature of their newsletter is the clever contents section at the beginning. Designed to imitate a to-do list, it clearly signposts the main topics of the email, allowing us to both anticipate and give our full attention to the contents.

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Key Lessons

• An attractively designed email is essential to high conversions. If it’s pleasing to look at, there’s a much higher chance they’ll be willing to put in the energy to read it.
• Although sharing company updates may seem trivial, it’s a great way to establish a connection with your audience. Just a few pieces of information can humanize your brand and develop trust with your readers.
• For long emails, it’s a good idea to clearly outline the topics discussed, and signposting can vastly improve the readability. Top tip: Adding a TL;DR (Too long, didn’t read) is a great way to accommodate readers that may not have the time to browse the whole email gleam the most important insights.

3. Story Matters  —  Be Personable

Often I think it’s easy to overcomplicate an email newsletter, trying to cram it with lots of CTA’s and various information. But sometimes less is more.

As Story Matters shows, sometimes, a stripped-back message can be really effective.

The simple letter format reads just like a conversation with a friend. It’s refreshing to read emails that feel like they’re written from one human to another.

They’re not trying to aggressively sell anything. They just focus on creating a connection with the reader. And after the letter, there’s a list of suggested articles that feels like a recommendation from a close friend.

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Key Lessons

• Email is a trust-based platform where people offer a key directly to their inbox. Therefore if you can talk to your readers in a relatable and authentic way, you’ll have a much better time building a relationship.
• Whether it’s a personal letter, company update, or a roundup of popular blog posts, always try to inject your own personality into your writing.

4. Fizzle — Don’t Pitch, Tell a Story

As a copywriter, I have a personal affinity with text-based emails. Captivating an audience simply through the written word is an exciting challenge. And Fizzle does it perfectly.

In their emails, Fizzle offers a service that helps aspiring entrepreneurs. But what makes the email so interesting is that instead of simply pitching their services, they tell a story.

By starting with a candid reflection on the writer’s own entrepreneurial journey, it establishes intimacy before effortlessly gliding into a humorously blatant sales pitch.

Key Lessons

• Email is a fantastic medium to share promotional offers and services, but the key is to always offer lots of value up front before you ask for a sale. If you can tell a story, it will always add to the engagement of your writing.
• Top tip: Fizzle’s email does a great job using the AIDA copywriting formula. It stands for: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. By guiding your readers through each step, they’ll be much more receptive to your sales pitch.

5. Emma  —  Get to the point 

The brand, Emma, does a great job creating a clean and professional newsletter while also coming across as friendly and personable.

It doesn’t overwhelm us with information. Instead, it gives us a concise roundup of blog posts. With their single blog post as their main call-to-action, it’s obvious where they’re directing our attention. And by using a big photo, it adds a little spark to the content (particularly if you’re a fan of Ann Handley’s writing).

But they don’t just end it there. Emma also includes three refined links updating us to the ‘state of marketing’ for more thorough readers.

The reason I think this newsletter is so great is that they’ve streamlined it and kept all the essential pieces of information. It can be digested in a few minutes and feels like they’ve carefully considered their recommendations and respect their audience’s time.

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Key Lessons

• Your audience’s time is valuable. And particularly in the B2B world, it can be tempting to flood your email with content. But by condensing your writing, it maximizes the chances of receiving your reader’s undivided attention.

Hopefully, this post has given you some great inspiration and got your brain whirring with ideas.

If you’re looking for an easy way to create a savvy email newsletter, check out Benchmark’s very own pre-built email
templates.

Author Bio

Nick Waghorn is a B2B copywriter and content strategist from Cornwall. In his spare time, he loves cooking and watching crime dramas. Connect with him at www.nickwaghorn.com.

 

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GDPR vs CCPA: Social Listening and Sentiment Learnings

The consumer privacy landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years. First, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in 2018, giving European Union citizens more privacy rights and limiting businesses’ ability to collect, share, and sell consumer data without permission. Then, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was passed that same year and was enacted on January 1, 2020. When the law goes into enforcement on July 1, 2020 it will affect all companies doing business with Californians.

We were curious about how businesses and consumers were adapting to these laws and how their attitudes about privacy laws in general might be changing, especially since more privacy laws are on the horizon. To get a partial picture of how people reacted to both GDPR and CCPA, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting’s Social Media Strategy & Analytics Services team used social listening to check the reaction on social media. We compared social media mentions of GDPR to that for CCPA during key time periods, looking for similarities and differences in what people were saying about the laws.

While some of our findings weren’t shocking, others were definitely a surprise:

Businesses dominated social media mentions during pre-enactment periods of GDPR and CCPA.

The months and final days leading up to the enactment of both GDPR and CCPA were dominated with news, speculation, and industry preparedness mentions related to businesses. Consumer chatter was almost nonexistent during the leadup and only picked up after enactment, which is when the law started to affect them directly. 

Social media activity was highest around the time of enactment.

Chatter about GDPR and CCPA reached its peak around the time of enactment. For example, the volume of mentions about GDPR one year after enactment was down from this peak by approximately 12x.

Consumer social media commentary spiked after enactment.

Our social listening found that consumers had very little to say on social media about GDPR until they started receiving a slew of email notifications on the subject. After enactment a large portion of the conversations came from people complaining about all the emails showing up in their inbox—particularly from brands they felt they hadn’t interacted with in a long time. Consumers were annoyed and didn’t understand or care that these notifications were legally mandated by GDPR.

Negative sentiment around GDPR was highest at the time of enactment.

While you might think it was because of businesses despairing on Twitter about how to become compliant, it was actually because those frustrated consumers were getting inundated with GDPR notification emails. Also, some consumers shared their frustration with GDPR updates causing apps to fail.

Those two issues caused negative sentiment to increase by 3x the day after GDPR’s enactment.

Privacy wasn’t the thing that consumers commented about most with GDPR.

One of the bigger questions we wanted to explore through social listening was if there were concerns about privacy laws. While we found that there were some, they appeared to take a back seat to other items, such as the annoyance with the GDPR email notifications. 

 In addition, some people tested sites and shared how much faster sites loaded after GDPR, since much of the web tracking that businesses did on their sites is now illegal. All of the tracking processes used had the effect of dramatically slowing down site load times. So, while GDPR was born out of privacy concerns, what consumers noticed and commented on was the vast improvement in the user experience and the decrease of intrusions.

Consumers wished that all countries would adopt GDPR.

In another sign that consumers viewed GDPR positively, the improvement in website load times and other changes had a lot of people hoping that other countries would follow suit and remove back-end tracking. Some hoped that GDPR would push the industry to adopt the guidelines globally instead of doing things one way for the EU and another way for everyone else. Then, consumers believe, everyone would be on the same playing field.

CCPA received a lot less attention on social media and lower negative sentiment, too.

GDPR was a huge, disruptive change that affected every company in Europe and every global company. Following two years later in the wake of GDPR, CCPA was clearly seen as far less disruptive. In fact, global companies based in the US needed to do very little to comply with CCPA.

Because of this, our social listening found that CCPA mention volume on the date it was enacted was approximately 73x lower than what was generated when GDPR was enacted on May 25, 2018. In addition to lower volume, CCPA captured lower negative sentiment than GDPR during that same time period.

Consumer reaction to CCPA on social media focused on how they could increase the privacy of their accounts.

When CCPA was enacted, consumers didn’t comment much on the privacy notification emails—likely a sign that businesses had tightened up their audiences after seeing how people were irritated to get GDPR notifications from brands they hadn’t interacted with in years. 

Instead, the social media conversation was largely around how to exercise their new privacy rights, with people frustrated with companies either not complying with CCPA or not making it easy for people to exercise their rights. For example, on day one of enactment, some consumers posted asking if others had found the “do not sell my data” buttons on businesses’ websites because none could be found. There were also complaints about error messages received when trying to use CCPA functionality.

Our social listening also found that people were discussing how CCPA would impact the rest of the US, as well as the steps that other states and the federal government are taking to improve privacy protections. People applauded some companies like Mozilla for providing CCPA protections to all Americans, not just those in California.

Fines don’t get much attention.

The first GDPR fine—which was a record £183 million fine against British Airways for a 2018 data breach that affected 500,000 customers—didn’t generate much social media activity. Compared to activity pre-enactment, at the time of enactment, and at the one-year anniversary, the first GDPR fine generated the lowest mention volume of all four time periods analyzed.

 

We anticipate that CCPA will follow the same pattern. The State of California has said that it won’t bring enforcements against companies until July 1, giving businesses extra time to get into compliance. However, the first class-action CCPA suit has been filed, with Salesforce and Hanna Andersson in the cross-hairs. So, the first CCPA fine may be on the horizon.

Based on our social listening, we think that consumers are increasingly expecting more control over their privacy and that businesses are having less anxiety about complying with new privacy regulations. That’s good news, because more states will undoubtedly be passing privacy legislation, which will ultimately result in new federal legislation to create a national standard to ease the burden of compliance.

 —————

Need help with social media listening and analytics? Oracle Marketing Cloud Consulting has more than 500 of the leading marketing minds ready to help you to achieve more with the leading marketing cloud, including a Social Media Analytics & Strategy Services practice.

Learn more or reach out to us at CXMconsulting_ww@oracle.com.

For more information about trends that impact social media marketing, check out the Modern Marketing Blog’s latest posts concerning social.

 

 

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Ubersuggest Chrome Extension

It’s been a long time coming. And now, it is finally here.

Today, I want to introduce you to the Ubersuggest Chrome Extension.

From being in the SEO industry for over 21 years now, I know that it would be more convenient to do your SEO research while you are browsing the web or searching Google than constantly having to come back to Ubersuggest.

That’s why I created this Chrome extension.

So, what’s inside the Chrome extension?

Well, the easiest way to know what’s included (it’s free), is to just go and install it and test it out.

But here’s what’s included…

Keyword overview

When you are searching Google, you’ll see an overview within the search bar.

You’ll see the monthly search volume and the cost per click for that keyword.

When you click the “view all” link, you’ll see a detailed overview for that keyword.

The graph breaks down the total monthly search volume. What’s cool about the chart is that it shows you both the monthly mobile searches and desktop searches.

And above the graph, you’ll get metrics on how hard that keyword is to rank for (SEO Difficulty) and how competitive that keyword is from a paid advertising (Paid Difficulty) standpoint.

Under the graph, you’ll also see 2 bar graphs. The first one breaks down whether or not people are clicking on the SEO results, paid results, or not clicking anywhere at all.

The second one shows data on the age range of all of the searchers.

Link overview

Above the organic results, you’ll see a speech bubble that breaks the average authority of the sites that are ranking (domain score) and the average number of referring domains the top 10 results have (backlinks).

If you want a more detailed overview, you’ll see a graph in the sidebar that breaks down how many referring links each of the top 10 listings have.

Keep in mind the link metrics are based on referring domains. So, if a website has 100 links from the same domain name, it will only count as 1. Because what really matters when it comes to SEO is how many unique, relevant sites you can get to link to you as opposed to having the same site linking to you over and over again.

Even more keyword data

In the sidebar, you’ll also find even more keyword data.

You’ll see a list of other popular keywords that are similar. You’ll also get metrics on each keyword… from how often it is searched (volume), to what it would cost to bid on that keyword (CPC), to how difficult the keyword is from an SEO standpoint (SD).

And if you scroll to the very bottom of the screen, you’ll see a list of related keywords that Google provides.

Again, you’ll be provided with data like search volume, cost per click, and SEO difficulty data.

URL metrics

Whenever you perform a search on Google, you, of course, see a list of websites that rank for that keyword.

As you can see, under URL you see the authority of the website (domain score), how many Pinterest and Facebook shares the URL has, and how many unique domains are linking to that result.

What’s cool is you can click on the “down arrow” next to the link count and see the exact list of sites linking as well as their domain score and anchor text they used for the link.

Pick your country and language

The last feature in the extension is that you can change your location and language.

All you have to do is click the “Settings” link in the sidebar.

You’ll see a long list of languages and countries that you can choose from.

No matter what version of Google you are using, such as Google.com.br or even Google.co.in, you’ll see SEO data whenever you perform a search.

Conclusion

I have some more big changes coming to the extension in the near future but I would love to hear what you think about it so far.

And if you have any feature requests, just leave a comment below. That way we can prioritize what we add to the extension next.

So go checkout the Ubersuggest extension and give it a try.

What do you think of the extension? What other features would you like me to add?

The post Ubersuggest Chrome Extension appeared first on Neil Patel.

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